Note too sure about this. It might be a little too cut down... or creepy. Just an idea I had, considering what the VOOMER core is.
--m(^0^)m-- Wot, no sig?
Quote: Ford sheaved through the papers.________________________________
"Hey Jet"
"Yeah"
"Where did this come from?"
"Where did what come from?"
"Drawings. A load of attractive women in some pretty fancy lingerie."
Some of home she even recognised.
"Mackie probaby printed them off, you know what he's like."
"No. These're done in pencils."
There was no answer.
"Jet?" Ford turned around, papers still in hand. "Jet?"
There was no sign she'd ever been in the room.
------------------
The engine shuddered as it died.
"It's fine at low RPM, but it starts getting choppy at high speeds," Daryl explained
"I thought you hated bikes," said Ford, giving it a quick glance to make sure there was nothing obviously wrong with it.
"I didn't, that's the funny part. But then with the motoroids and once I started it was just...." She stopped, giving an embarrased smile. "It sort of felt right."
Something was wrong, and Ford just couldn' put her finger on it.
"It might be.... leave it with me and I'll take a look when I get the chance."
Daryl dismounted from the machine, stretching in her jacket. "Thanks. I own you one."
"No problem."
The firecracker-red Ninja tink-tinked to itself as it cooled.
----------------------
"Oh this?" Kotono pointed at her new headband 'It helps keep the hair out of my eyes when I'm...." hs was interrupted by her chirping wrist-com. She glanced at it, a gleeful smile illuminating her face. "Gotta run. Later Ford."
"Later."
Ford sighed. Back to work.
-----------------------
"It arrived, it arrived It ARRIVED!"
Anika was in full-blown Frankenstein mode.
"What did?
"My new uniform of course. I thought since I did such an important job." She unfurled it from its packing. Pink braids fell on the floor.
"It looks like the police one from Bubblegum Crisis," said Ford. "Did you copy it or something?"
She pouted "I designed it myself from scratch." Anika glanced at it. "Now that you think of it, it does sort of look the same. Funny that."
------------------------
The lights in the hardsuit bay punched on, illuminating the equipment inside. The motoroid were parked up in their bike forms beneath tarpaulins to keep the dust off. The computer terminal all the wall showed only a blank screen.
Her footsteps echoed on the tiled floor.
In the back of the room, the Four hardsuits stood. Meticulously maintained and polished to a deep shine. Ford held one of the pencile drawings up to the Blue hardsuit.... comparing them by sight. That confirmed the first part of her theory....
The same hand had drawn them. They both showed the same eye for the female form with the way they seemed to flow with the body's natural curves. It began to make her slightly uneasy, a bubbling nausea rising in the pit of her stomach.
She stepped over to the hardsuit checking it over but not really expecting an answer. The metal was cold and dead to the touch. She took the helmet in her hands, heavy and smelling faintly of that coconut shampoo Daryl insisted of importing. Inside, the metal spots that formed the neural induction gear.
Maybe...
She checked the backpack of the hardsuit. Printed on a label on a small access flap beside the computer interface ports: VOOMER core Image "Priss".
"Hey Ford, what's up?"
She nearly jumped out of her skin. Mackie was standing in the doorway with a shit-eating I-just-saw-sister's-puppet-naked grin on his face.
"Just checking something is all."
"Well, just letting you know I finished the Falcon. It's running pretty good now."
"We'll make a real mechanic out of you yet. Now clean the shop before I get back and you can test drive it."
"Can I? Sweet!" He almost made a sonic boom as he left.
Ford sat herself back on the workbench behind the hardsuits. It creaked under her weight. She turned the helmet over in her hands, as she turned the possibilities over in her mind. It might just be a consequence of playing the part... that wouldn't be too unusual would it?
Then again...
Mackie Stingray to Mackie 'Jaguar'
"It can't be that. Can it?"
Alone in the SilkyDoll Ford hoped above all else that it really was just a case of actors internalising the role.
--m(^0^)m-- Wot, no sig?