Since I can't give teasers for Chapter 15, I've decided to mine my early, pre-Lisa drafts for cute scenes to share. This one was born out of a fragment of material in one of the later "Legion's Quest" BGC installments (there are two or three, depending on how you count), in which Minerva drops neutronium anvils on some boomers.
-- Bob
While the mystery vigilante was at best very difficult to trackwith most of her sensors, visual scanning usually had noproblems, and Minerva watched the encounter with great interest.A standard combat boomer had appeared on a typical rampagethrough Tinsel City while the Knight Sabers were engaged in acommissioned job on the other side of MegaTokyo. A few minuteslater, the vigilante's motorcycle roared out of an alleyway,startling the first few AD Police to respond, and gaining theboomer's full attention. To her surprise, he somersaulted off the moving cycle and engaged the cyberdroid while the bike parked itself a safe distance away.Only seconds into the fight it was clear to Minerva that the vigilante was easily holding his own, and actually wearing the boomer down, even without the use of his strange matter-energy powers. But when a second boomer appeared from the shadows of an abandoned building, it looked like the battle might turn against him. Minerva considered a moment, then grinned. It didn't matter whoever and whatever he was -- she liked the vigilante. A little aid from her wouldn't hurt. She sent the command. Miles below, in MegaTokyo, a combat boomer slowly stalked up tothe young man while he was engrossed in slowly dismembering thefirst cyberdroid. As the boomer shielded its eyes and preparedto strike, there was a haze of blue light and soft, almostmusical sound some meters above its head. Moments later, theboomer suddenly and unexpectedly terminated function with thesounds of overstressed metal and ruptured pseudo-organics. Ashort distance away, many of the best of AD Police stood stock-still, poleaxed looks upon their faces.At the sudden, loud noise, the vigilante almost seemed toflicker, blurring from his position facing the disabled boomer toa defensive posture facing the now-dead second. A moment laterhe relaxed and cautiously approached. Disbelieving, he ran hisfingers over the lettering that read "ACME" and then, laughinguproariously, collapsed over the anvil which had smashed theboomer utterly.The AD Police forces on the scene milled about uncomfortably. While it was a perfect opportunity to arrest the vigilante, each of them had had at least one encounter with MegaTokyo's previous metahuman inhabitants. They all knew the futility of trying to take one into custody; no one felt like risking the possibility of embarrassment or worse.Finally, he stood, raising his arms to the sky and lookingupward. "" he called out in English, stilllaughing, ""In orbit, Minerva blushed.
-- Bob
---------
Then the horns kicked in...
...and my shoes began to squeak.
-- Bob
While the mystery vigilante was at best very difficult to trackwith most of her sensors, visual scanning usually had noproblems, and Minerva watched the encounter with great interest.A standard combat boomer had appeared on a typical rampagethrough Tinsel City while the Knight Sabers were engaged in acommissioned job on the other side of MegaTokyo. A few minuteslater, the vigilante's motorcycle roared out of an alleyway,startling the first few AD Police to respond, and gaining theboomer's full attention. To her surprise, he somersaulted off the moving cycle and engaged the cyberdroid while the bike parked itself a safe distance away.Only seconds into the fight it was clear to Minerva that the vigilante was easily holding his own, and actually wearing the boomer down, even without the use of his strange matter-energy powers. But when a second boomer appeared from the shadows of an abandoned building, it looked like the battle might turn against him. Minerva considered a moment, then grinned. It didn't matter whoever and whatever he was -- she liked the vigilante. A little aid from her wouldn't hurt. She sent the command. Miles below, in MegaTokyo, a combat boomer slowly stalked up tothe young man while he was engrossed in slowly dismembering thefirst cyberdroid. As the boomer shielded its eyes and preparedto strike, there was a haze of blue light and soft, almostmusical sound some meters above its head. Moments later, theboomer suddenly and unexpectedly terminated function with thesounds of overstressed metal and ruptured pseudo-organics. Ashort distance away, many of the best of AD Police stood stock-still, poleaxed looks upon their faces.At the sudden, loud noise, the vigilante almost seemed toflicker, blurring from his position facing the disabled boomer toa defensive posture facing the now-dead second. A moment laterhe relaxed and cautiously approached. Disbelieving, he ran hisfingers over the lettering that read "ACME" and then, laughinguproariously, collapsed over the anvil which had smashed theboomer utterly.The AD Police forces on the scene milled about uncomfortably. While it was a perfect opportunity to arrest the vigilante, each of them had had at least one encounter with MegaTokyo's previous metahuman inhabitants. They all knew the futility of trying to take one into custody; no one felt like risking the possibility of embarrassment or worse.Finally, he stood, raising his arms to the sky and lookingupward. "" he called out in English, stilllaughing, ""In orbit, Minerva blushed.
-- Bob
---------
Then the horns kicked in...
...and my shoes began to squeak.
