[XOVER][Fanfic] Twisted-Path - Part 3

[Twister]

Whee! Sending out the third, and FINAL!, part of TP3!
<And there was much retyping!>
Heh, heh, heh. Enjoy!

Oh yes, many thanks to those who have helped me correct some obvious
errors and helped with plot! Your names I leave out because YOU know who
you are! ;) (And less people will bug you ;)

On with the show!
Twisted Path 3 - Another Bubble Started.
Part 3
A Story Inspired by Rumiko Takahashi's Ranma 1/2
and the Bubblegum Crisis
by Darren Steffler

Chapter Thirty
--------------

After the elf incident, Darlene made the fastest recovery she had made
yet, for she had been absolutely correct in her assumption that Priss would
tease her mercilessly about that...encounter with Malkon in Kirin's castle.
This kept on for over a week until, as Twister, he joined one of the Knight
Sabers' meetings.
"Priss, I think you can STOP doing that," he said firmly, finally fed up
with the amused singer's comments. Priss smirked from her chair.
"Why? I thought brides ENJOYED weddings," she said, grinning as he
narrowed his eyes angrily. He started to say something, but Sylia interrupted
him.
"I have to agree with Twister, Priss. However entertaining," she smiled
at his long-suffering expression, "it's about time you stopped."
"Oh, alright," Priss griped.
"Thank you," Sylia said, sighing at the grateful, and overdone, bows
Twister was giving her, much to the others' amusement. "Now then, shall we
start the meeting?" She paused. "And Twister, sit in a couch or chair, not
air."
Grinning, Twister unfolded from the crosslegged sitting position he had
been levitating in, repressing the impulse to say 'om om om', and plunked
down beside Linna on the couch. "Sorry," he said, unrepentant. "All my
repressed good humor is arising today."
"'Good' humor? From whose point of view?" Priss sniped, but Twister just
looked up innocently at the ceiling.
"Ahem! Shall we begin?" Sylia repeated with a trace of annoyance, and
the two quieted down. Nene, Linna, and Mackie, who had been watching Twister
and Priss, smothered laughter and focused their attention on Sylia. "While we
have not been hired by anyone, yet, I noticed yesterday that an odd thing has
been occurring recently." The others exchanged puzzled looks. "Nene has told
me that many personal 55-C Boomers, here and there, started disappearing over
a week ago but the disappearances stopped as of the day before yesterday."
Nene piped up. "I told Sylia about this on the third day. What's
puzzling ADPolice is the manner of their disappearance and how it's being
done over such a large area. Almost every sector has reported theft and
that's making it impossible to narrow down where they've been taken."
"Yes," Sylia agreed, "but another thing started up a day after the
Boomer thefts stopped. I've been told that quite a few homeless have also
begun disappearing, with no sign of a struggle taking place. The most notable
fact is that they all had semi-violent to outright hostile tendencies."
"That's weird," Linna observed.
"Sylia," Twister said, "how many 55-C's were stolen?"
"Nene tells me that over 28 were reported stolen." Priss whistled at the
number. "That number may be inaccurate given that some people might not want
it known that they had a Boomer and not reported to ADPolice."
"That's practically a small army," Twister observed.
"Yes, an accurate assumption given that those homeless might also be
used as solders, if the right drugs are given," Sylia said darkly. Everyone
turned grim when she mentioned that.
Mackie stood up, consternation on his face. "Oh, sis, I forgot to bring
the data you wanted. It's still in my room so it'll be a few minutes to find
it," he said apologetically and Sylia nodded.
"Mind if I join you? I've been wanting to ask you about your Highway
Star for a while," Twister asked with a smile.
"Sure," Mackie said, pleased to have a chance to talk about his
creation, and they both left the room.
Four pairs of eyes watched them go. "He seems fully recovered," Sylia
observed. Priss' snort agreed with her.
"I still have a hard time believing all that he can do," Linna sighed,
slumping back into the couch.
"Darlene's still Darlene," Nene said, frowning at Linna. "She's the same
person that we've known for almost two years."
"Why do you keep calling Twister, Darlene? That's his female name,"
Linna asked curiously.
Nene huffed, a little red-faced. "She was Darlene when we met, and I'll
always think of her as Darlene when she's not in front of me," she said
primly.
"That's one way of avoiding confusion," Priss said, grinning. "Besides,
while he can be a pain, he's been DAMN useful at times. But don't tell him I
said that," she warned after a quick glance to the door. "By the way, have
you heard him singing while he's Darlene?"
"No. Why?" Linna asked.
"First time she did my jaw almost hit the floor," Priss confessed, and
everyone stared at her. That Priss had admitted THAT meant Darlene must have
impressed the hell out of the singer. "Took everything I had not to show it.
SHE thought nothing was different, but MAN, she was singing in a completely
different way!"
"How so?" Sylia asked curiously.
"Well, when he sings as Twister he's totally precise about the WAY you
sing a song, but he can't seem to put much emotion into it. I admit he
learned damned quick but he was missing something." Then Priss exhaled
heavily. "However, as DARLENE she wasn't as precise but..." she struggled to
express what she knew in words the others would understand, "...the...the
FEELING was there, and STRONG. And that's what the more popular singers do;
pour what they're feeling into their songs. Like I do," Priss said
offhandedly, and no one objected knowing she spoke truth. "It's spooky. After
hearing that, I waited until Darlene became Twister again and asked him to
sing. And the feeling just wasn't there anymore. He doesn't even REALIZE a
damn thing!" she said, frustrated.
"As Darlene he DOES feel things more intensely, Priss," Sylia told the
singer. "That must be the reason."
"It's just plain bizarre," Priss complained.
"Sylia!" Twister shouted, catching their attention for he sounded
slightly angry. "Could you get everyone down to Mackie's room?"
Surprised and puzzled, the four women looked at each other then headed
for Mackie's room. When they arrived, they found Twister frowning at one of
Mackie's very large posters. Sylia's brother was smiling nervously at his
sister and looking like he wanted to be far away from where he was. Sylia
walked a little ways into the room while the others looked on from the
hallway. "What's the matter, Twister?"
"Oh, nothing really," he said in a tone that meant exactly the opposite.
"It's just that when I walked in and saw this poster I noticed something odd
about the picture."
Sylia looked at the poster. It was an image of an old Mandelbrot fractal
in full color, but other than that nothing seemed odd about it and she told
Twister so.
"My senses are slightly more acute, including sight," he explained. "The
thing seemed off-color somehow, as if something was interfering with it. I
can't explain it better than that. I touched it, and when I removed my finger
there appeared to be another image underneath."
"Another image?" Sylia wondered, glancing at her brother, suspicion
beginning to form. "Of what?" she asked.
Twister didn't say a word, he just placed his hand on the poster. After
fifteen seconds, a ripple beginning at the hand cascaded outwards and removed
what was the image of the fractal, replacing it with another one.
The Knight Sabers stared at what was shown.
It was Darlene. WITHOUT any clothes on.
"I figure this was when you gave me those tests, Sylia. The background
was altered, I've NEVER been in THAT bedroom," he said, rather forcefully and
not surprising given the room pictured. Then the fractal image came back,
obscuring the true picture underneath. All female eyes swivelled to the
sweating Mackie.
"Mackie," Sylia said ominously, and her brother swallowed. "How did you
do this?"
"Ah... I have a friend who has access to temperature sensitive plastics.
Y'know, like the ones billboards use to change advertisements according to
outside weather?"
"You better not have done US," Priss said, the glint in her eye shining
in Linna and Nene's eyes as well.
"Ahem," Twister said, catching their attention. And the three posters he
had managed to touch while all eyes were on Mackie revealed the images
underneath, backgrounds similarly altered. Nene, Linna, and Priss all flushed
at the sight of themselves au naturale, then three pairs of menace-filled
eyes swivelled in unison to Mackie, who was backing away nervously. "And,
Sylia, there's another one of these posters behind the door," Twister added,
smiling grimly as Sylia's icy gaze joined her fellow Knight Sabers. Her
brother gulped, fearing what was to come.
Roasting time.
Mackie marshmallows tonight.

AN HOUR LATER...

"Can you BELIEVE that Mackie?" Darlene growled as she, Linna, and Nene
walked downtown after the meeting. "I mean... REALLY!"
Linna and Nene exchanged surprised and amused looks. The contrast
between Twister's initial chilly anger and Darlene's current exasperated
state was almost hilarious. They had all opted to wait a few days before
doling out Mackie's punishment. Anticipation torture. Sylia's younger brother
had paled when Twister offered to help any of the others with their ideas;
the young scientist-mechanic knew all about the powers the
half-psionist/half-mage had at his command and, even worse, Twister's sense
of humor.
"Actually, we should have expected something like that," Linna sighed.
Darlene snorted, then smiled an evil smile. "But what to do about it?
That's the problem; too many choices," she mock-sighed.
"You won't do anything... permanent, will you?" Nene said, hesitantly.
"You mean like turning him into a pillar of salt?" Darlene inquired,
then waved her hands frantically in denial when they turned appalled looks at
her. "I'm kidding! Kidding! Jeez! I'm more the non-lasting type of punishment
person." She chuckled at their relieved expressions. "What are you two going
to do?"
"I don't know," Nene admitted. "I need a little time."
Linna wasn't as unsure. "I'm thinking of giving him a few free aerobics
lessons..."
"THAT'S punishment?" Nene and Darlene chorused incredulously
"...in one of my one-hour long ADVANCED aerobics classes," Linna
finished. "He'll be SO sore by the end of the third day..." They all laughed
at the image that produced.
Then they were interrupted.
"R-Ranma?" a voice stammered directly ahead of the three. Darlene froze
when she heard, and saw, the person who had spoken. The trio had reached a
corner of an intersection, but the person who had spoken had almost reached
their side of the crosswalk before halting. Linna and Nene had walked a step
or two forwards before realizing that their friend had stopped and was
staring at the stranger on the street.
The young man looked like he had been travelling for he looked dusty and
was carrying a backpack on his back, an old style umbrella attached on top.
Both women noticed he was attractively good-looking, and the bandanna wrapped
around his black hair only helped this image. He appeared very surprised, and
angry.
Darlene was not just surprised, she was shocked beyond belief.
"R-Ryouga?!?!" she said as she backed up towards the corner of the building
behind her. "H-How did...?"
Indeed it was Ryouga, impossible as it was, and in a very frustrated
mood, not helped by mistakenly thinking he saw his rival. "Raaaaannnmmmaaa!
Prepare to die!" he shouted, whipping out his umbrella as he prepared to
strike. Pedestrians gathering around him looked on with mixed disbelief and
amusement seeing the ridiculous-seeming weapon. Linna and Nene were wondering
how Darlene knew this guy, until they remembered that Darlene had mentioned
the name Ryouga before, but that was someone who was supposed to be in
another universe entirely.
"Wait!" Darlene cried frantically, waving her hands in denial. "I'm
not..."
She wasn't able to finish as Ryouga leaped towards his foe, making her
dodge so as to not get hit with the umbrella that was extended. The
innocent-looking weapon smashed into the corner of the building that Darlene
had been standing in front of, leaving a sizable crater in the concrete and
drastically changing people's minds about its effectiveness.
"Ryouga, stop!" Darlene did a very dumb thing and stepped close to the
angry martial artist. "I'm not Ranma!" she said.
"Shut up!" Ryouga bellowed and launched a fist at the red-head.
Who didn't dodge, as Ranma would've. Instead, she used both hands to
block the incoming blow, digging into and ruining the cement sidewalk as she
was forced backwards, wincing at the pain in her wrists. Darlene took
advantage of Ryouga's confusion while keeping a grip on the other's fist.
"I'm NOT Ranma, Ryouga!" she said again. "Who ELSE looks like Ranma?
Remember?" she stressed the last word.
The bandanna-wearing martial artist blinked, and finally noticed the
lack of a ponytail in the young woman's hair. There was only one other he
knew personally that had Ranma's cursed form and that was... "Twister?" he
said, confused.
"Shh! Use Darlene," Darlene hissed, shushing him quickly. "Yes, you
idiot! Can't you TALK first before attacking someone?" Ryouga flushed with
embarrassment. "Now I've got to get you out of here, c'mon!" she said,
grabbing his arm and dragging him along. When she reached a confused Linna
and Nene, she muttered a quick "Let's go." before walking by them, Ryouga in
tow.
Confused, Linna and Nene looked at each other, then hurried after the
other two.

Darlene refused to say a word until they all got to her store and went
upstairs. After using warm water, which made Ryouga relax, Twister sighed.
"You, Ryouga, are the only person I know who could do this. How long have you
been here?"
"Where IS here?" the eternally lost boy demanded as Linna and Nene
decided to take sit down, curious as to what was going on.
"Mega-Tokyo. And no, I don't mean Tokyo." Twister paused. "Ryouga,
you're in another UNIVERSE."
It took a moment to sink in. "Another... universe?" Ryouga said faintly.
"Yes, I've been here almost two years now, but I don't think you have.
When did you last see Akane? Or Akari for that matter."
"A few weeks ago. What do you mean by 'another universe'??"
"As in a different Earth is what I mean. THIS Japan isn't the Japan we
left, and time can act oddly between two universes. Like I said, I've been
here almost two years, but somehow you managed to follow me by entering this
universe sometime after leaving the dojo, maybe almost the same time I left
you did but arrived later." Twister ran a hand through his hair, frustrated.
"That's my best guess anyhow."
"Can you send us back?" the bandanna-wearing martial artist asked
plaintively.
"I've been working on it off and on. If I increase my efforts I think I
can in around a month." He didn't miss Ryouga's look of dismay. "I'm sorry,
but that's as soon as I can make it, I hope, but while you're here...
Ladies?" Twister inquired, Linna and Nene perked up as Ryouga registered
their presence at last. "Ryouga Hibiki, meet Linna Yamasaki and Nene
Romanova, two good friends of mine who know a lot about me."
"Hello!" "Welcome to Mega-Tokyo."
"Ah... Hi," the bandanna wearing young man said, slightly red-faced and
bashful at the two women's curious examination of himself.
Twister frowned at another thought. "Now, where should you stay while
you're here?" he murmured.
"Say," Linna asked intently, staring at Ryouga intently. "You're a
pretty good martial artist, aren't you?"
"Ah... Sorta," he replied, laughing a little and scratching his head.
She smiled, and both Nene and Twister recognized the particular smile
the black-haired aerobics teacher wore, one that appeared too often when
faced with a member of human males. Standing up briskly, Linna came within a
foot of the suddenly nervous and flushed Ryouga.
"I'll gladly volunteer to show you around," she purred as Nene watched
behind her, annoyed. Twister put a hand on his face, resigned at Linna's
predictable behaviour. She fingered her own headband, and said, "Maybe I
should change this to match..."
Ryouga eyes brightened, and he also started sweating a lot more from an
internal conflict.
She's cute, he thought dreamily, but Akane... Akari...
Resigned to watching this, Twister observed Ryouga's predictable
indecision and shook his head sadly.

Chapter Thirty-One
==================

TWO WEEKS LATER...

A laboratory, secretly prepared and set up with some of the most
advanced equipment on the planet, started the next upheaval in the lives of
the Knight Sabers and Twister. And it began with a familiar voice, one they
knew well, even if they had only heard it for one night.
"Our preparations are complete. Let the first move be made."
The two in front of him nodded, then walked away.
"Soon..." he murmured.
And started to laugh.

"AAAAAAARRRRRRGGGGGHHHHHH!!!!"
Linna and Ryouga stopped practicing at the scream of frustration that
came from the red-headed, cross-legged figure a short distance away from
their mat. Linna was the one practicing really, Ryouga was teaching her as a
means to pass the time and out of a growing friendship between the two. That
friendship was a constant source of amazement for Linna's closest friends who
knew her boyfriends never lasted more than two weeks. Of course, Ryouga never
really fell into that category, even after two weeks of Linna helping him
around Mega-Tokyo, she keeping close tabs on the eternal lost boy after
losing him one day in a shopping mall and taking three hours to track him
down. Linna had tried to take things a little further, but Ryouga was so
indecisive she withdrew, finally fed up, and instead asked him to teach her
some of his moves, and that calmed the fanged young man's nervousness down.
Darlene was puzzled and a little hurt that her friend hadn't asked her first,
until Linna confessed that she had thought their long friendship might affect
training.
So now Ryouga had settled into being Linna's sensei while Darlene worked
on getting a trans-universal spell working.
The mage's scream didn't exactly indicate positive progress.
"Trouble?" Linna asked, a slight grin hovering on her lips.
The red-head didn't turn around, but her hands were thrown up furiously.
"No! I always yell out at the top of my lungs just for the hell of it!" she
shouted angrily, not bothering to loom at them. Linna shook her head, amused.
Nene walked in from the entrance to the large cavern, annoyed. She had
been working on the cavern's large computer when she had heard the scream.
"Darlene again?" she asked disgustedly.
"Who else?" Linna sighed.
Nene pursed her lips and a determined look appeared on her face as she
strode towards the now-muttering mage. Walking around the seated figure and
glaring down at her friend, Nene loudly said, "Hey!"
Startled, Darlene jerked her head up to stare at her strangely resolute
friend. "Nene? What..." The ADPolice officer interrupted her.
"Darlene, for the last WEEK you've been getting more and more moody ever
since you started running into problems with that stupid spell of yours." The
other tried to speak up, but Nene pointed an accusing finger at the red-head,
making Darlene's eyes cross as she tried to focus on the digit. "Oh, no! No
excuses! Everybody's had enough of your bad temper! YOU are going to forget
about that spell until you get back to normal and WE will make sure you do
so! Am I getting through that hard head?"
"Hard head?" Darlene protested, but Nene was unwavering in her stare and
she soon gave in. "Okay, okay! I'll stop. Enough with the laser look
already."
"Good!" Nene grinned impishly as she watched her friend stiffly stand
up. "Come on, let's get going."
"Going? Going where?"
"A party, silly."
"Party?" Linna thought she remembered something mentioned a long time
ago, and then it hit her. "Nene, you don't mean THAT..."
"...party? Of course!" Nene quickly finished. "Priss got the invitations
ready a long time ago and today's the date it's on."
"I see I'm outnumbered again," Darlene sighed, giving the two of them a
small glower. "Just a moment, I have to do something before we leave." She
left normally through the hangar's only entrance.
Linna came up to Nene and whispered, "You're not going to get her drunk
like we had planned, are you?"
"Of course not!" Nene indignantly protested. "Not now. Well, maybe a
little bit if she won't loosen up," she mused thoughtfully.
"How about not at all, idiot," Linna whispered firmly. To Nene's
startled look she replied, "Do you WANT a drunk mage who isn't experienced at
being bombed?"
That reminder made the red-head pale a little. "Oh, yeah. I guess not
then," she said sheepishly.
Ryouga, who had stayed in the background, hesitantly said, "Ah... Should
we continue, Linna?"
"Sure, no problem," she said brightly, turning away from Nene. "Did you
want to start with that shishi houkoudan you mentioned?" Ryouga balked a bit
but reluctantly nodded. "Great!" she said, and meant it.
But Ryouga had to add one important point, forgetting his nervousness as
he shifted into full-sensei mode again. "However, the Shishi Houkoudan uses
heavy emotions like depression to fuel it. You're not that type of person,
but Ranma found a different way that uses confidence and that would be more
your style." He shrugged. "There's only a very small difference so if you
know one you can figure out the other."
"Confidence?" Linna mused aloud as she thought about it, then smiled. "I
like the sound of it."
That figures, Nene impishly thought to herself, and hid her grin behind
a hand.

That evening, after parking their transportation and following Priss to
the party's location, they arrived at the entrance. A set of stairs led up to
a large and expensive-looking club's door where a line of flashily-dressed
people stood. Darlene gaped up at the club's entrance. "YOU know this guy,
Priss?" she demanded incredulously for she couldn't believe someone PRISS
knew could afford renting a place like THIS for the night. Behind her,
Ryouga, who was nervously escorting Linna, silently agreed.
"Hey, I know the guy's friend." She grinned down at the slightly stunned
red-head. "Close enough."
"How close would that be?" Darlene innocently asked the singer, smiling
impishly. Beside Priss, Nene giggled at the incoherent growl her brown-haired
friend made in reply. Sadly, Sylvie and Anri had declined to come, fearing
that their sexaroid bodies might attract undue attention.
"Come on," the singer said irritably, striding ahead. Nene and Darlene
followed, both grinning, with Ryouga and Linna behind them. The two Boomers
who were acting as bouncers stopped Priss' momentum momentarily until she
identified herself and the others. There was a bit of trouble with getting
Ryouga in, which might have turned bad(for him or the Boomers was
debateable), but Linna proclaimed that he was her escort and they grudgingly
let the group inside.
It was almost wall-to-wall people and the five made slow progress inside
the rented nightclub. Suddenly, a tall, thin, white-haired male about Priss'
age with a blue streak of color in his long mane appeared in front of Priss
and smiled energetically when he recognized the brown-haired singer.
"Hey, Priss! Long time no see!" he cried out, slapping a hand on one of
her shoulders. "Nice set-up my buddy got together, hey?"
"Hey, White." Priss smiled back and looked around at the crowd. "Yeah,
it sure is. Thanks for getting us in."
"No sweat," he said dismissively, then White saw who had come in with
her and whistled. "I should've figured your friends would be nice but I
didn't think they'd be THIS nice." The three females reddened while Ryouga
frowned. "And TWO red-heads yet! I'd better check to make sure all the fire
extinguishers are working." Nene and Darlene blushed even harder. "You've got
to introduce me, Priss, I'm dying here," the man mock-griped.
Priss grinned. "That's no surprise. Everybody, this is White-N-Blue,
call him White, and if he has another name I haven't heard it. White, these
are my friends Linna, Nene, Darlene, and, Linna's date for the night,
Ryouga."
White opened his arms wide with a grin. "Welcome to the party. Hey, cool
headband and getup," he commented approvingly to Ryouga. "Unfortunately, I
gotta go. I'll be back later but have a real time till I get back, then we'll
really get swinging!" After a sly look at the two red-heads, he added, "Try
out the punch, it's great!" That said, he disappeared into the crowd.
"Hentai," Priss muttered softly; White obviously knew it was spiked.
"I'm hungry. Where's the food?" Nene whined.
Darlene hopped slightly and spied the refreshments along one wall.
"Found it! It's on the far side of the room."
"Well, c'mon then! I'm starved!" Nene almost dragged Darlene along as
they set out for their objective and quickly vanished into the throng.
Priss sighed, disgusted. "That's Nene for you." Now she in her turn
looked around for something else entirely. "Where's the dance floor?"
Linna craned her neck and pointed in a seemingly random direction. "Over
there, I think." Smiling she tugged on Ryouga's arm. "Shall we?"
"Bu-bu-but I don't know how to dance!" he protested, face paling.
"Who dances?" said Priss with a grin. "You just rock. Let's go!" And
together they brought the nervous martial artist along with them.

"Oh, wow!" Wide-eyed, Nene scanned the deserts and dainties that covered
most of a table. "This is great! What should I get? It all looks so good."
She glanced at Darlene inquiringly, then did a double take.
"Mmm... Try a little of each?" Darlene said with a grin as she casually
held a plate that almost overflowed with cake and sweets.
Nene was stunned. "Wha...? When did you...?" She gathered herself and
glared at Darlene who stepped beside her, popping a round sweet into her
mouth. "You did that just to annoy me," she accused.
"Hey, you're the one who complains about her waist," Darlene pointed
out. "Just reminding you, that's all."
"I have control!" Nene protested, then weakened a bit as Darlene
knowingly looked at the table then her. "I do," she said more feebly.
Darlene sighed. "Losing battle," she remarked, then stiffened. Nene's
eyes widened in shock as she too felt something grip her behind.
"Hey, girls," a male, confident sounding voice came from behind them.
"Do you want to party with me for a while?"
Darlene's reply was in a normal volume, but with a tone of you-are-
about-to-become-charcoal-and-I-don't-mean-my-dragon very much present, "Lose
the hand, asshole, or else."
The voice grew amused, "Or else what? My hands feel VERY comfortable
where they are." He squeezed making Nene squeak indignantly.
Darlene's eyes narrowed in anger.

Ryouga paused in the middle of a step.
Exhilarated from the dancing, Linna panted, "What is it?"
"I thought I heard something."
"In THIS?" she said incredulously.
He listened, then shook his head. "Must be imagining it."
"Do some more of those martial arts flips!" she demanded with a smile.
Ryouga blushed, embarrassed, as the crowd around him echoed her loudly.

The area around the refreshments was stunned into silence as people
stared at the overturned table and the pair of feet that protruded from
behind it. Slowly, Nene turned her wide-eyed stare from the display to
Darlene, who was straightening from the position her throw had placed her in.
Miraculously, she still held her undisturbed plate in one hand.
"I did warn him," she said, piqued.
"But did you have to toss him into the FOOD?!" Nene demanded, recovering
from the shock. Darlene shrugged her shoulders sheepishly. "Honestly!" she
huffed.
"Um... Well, I still have this," Darlene said, displaying the plate she
still held. "Let's go get something to drink."
Eyeing the tempting plate, Nene decided. "Oh, all right." She made a
face at the destroyed table "Bleah!" before they both walked away.
There was a groan from behind the table in reply, and one foot twitched.
The table with all the non-alcoholic beverages was only a little ways
off and had two attendants giving people what they requested. The pair, one
male and one female, welcomed the red-heads. The blonde female attendant was
grinning after another look at where the unfortunate table had been
overturned.
"Couldn't have happened to anyone better. Nice job," she congratulated
Darlene, who reddened. The woman chuckled. "Oh, don't be embarrassed. He's
been doing that all night, and with this assorted crowd it was bound to
happen sooner or later."
The black-haired male chortled. "Yeah, but what a waste of good food."
After giving her partner a grin, the blonde said, "What would you like
to drink? Punch? Tossing perverts around is thirsty work."
Knowing that the punch was spiked, Nene began, "Um... we'd..."
"Sure," Darlene said, not seeing Nene's suddenly panicked expression
behind her.
Before Nene could say nay, the smiling blonde held out two glasses
filled with pink-yellow liquid from the extremely large punch bowl on the
table. "Here you go!" Darlene accepted one with a smile, Nene with a sickly
expression.
Darlene sipped from the cup, and her eyes widened a few seconds later.
"Whoa!"
The two attendants exchanged nervous looks, and the woman inquired,
"Anything wrong?"
The red-head shook her head. "No, no. I... This punch just has a wicked
aftertaste, that's all." Darlene considered the flavor. "Not bad actually."
"Aftertaste?" Nene said curiously and took a large sip from her own
glass. She blinked in confusion. "I don't taste anything odd."
Darlene drank a larger amount to better judge the taste. "It's sort of
an intense pepperminty-cherry flavor. You sure you can't taste it?" Nene
shook her head. The two behind the table withdrew a little.
"That's what the alcohol taste-nullifier is supposed to be like," the
blonde whispered.
"But only in concentrated form! How can she taste it when it's diluted
as much as it is?!" her companion in mischief objected.
"I guess she has really good taste buds." She shrugged. "It happens."
Meanwhile, Darlene had emptied her glass trying to isolate the elusive
tang. She held out her glass with a smile. "Strange taste, but I like it.
Kinda grows on you."
The blonde blinked, but accepted the glass automatically. Strange, she
thought, the punch is so spiked this girl should be feeling it by now. Must
have a high tolerance for alcohol. The blonde smiled back as she filled the
glass again. I wonder how high? she mused curiously.
From her position behind Darlene, Nene's face was flushed, having
finished her own glass. Her own tolerance wasn't nearly as high as her
friend's.
Good punch, she thought a little blearily, I guess one more shouldn't
hurt.
"I'll have one too," she said a little unsteadily, but firmly holding
out her own glass.
Seeing her state, the black-haired male merely smiled and re-filled it
without a word.

"Quite the gathering," Daley shouted to his partner as they weaved their
way through the crowd. The two had been ordered to stop by this club and do
some things before their shift ended.
Leon grinned back at him, then sighed. "Yeah, too bad we're on duty." He
stopped and looked around as his red-haired partner caught up to him. "Where
do you think they have it? Nevermind, I see it. Come on." The pair started
pushing through the crowd again. But as they neared their goal, Leon saw two
familiar women standing by the table the officers were heading for and
immediately stopped. Daley looked back, startled.
"What's up?" he asked. Leon stared at two red-headed figures by the
table.
"Isn't that Nene and Darlene?" the brown-haired ADPoliceman said, a
feeling of dread beginning to make itself known in his stomach as Daley
whipped his head around to check. Leon's partner frowned thoughtfully.
"Looks like them alright. They seem to be leaving though," he commented.
With some concern in his voice, he said, "You think they drank a lot?"
"Darlene's the one to worry about, but fortunately she has a high
tolerance to alcohol," Leon replied, more to reassure himself than Daley.
"We'd better make sure. Let's go."
When the two officers reached the table, they flipped out their ID's to
the much-surprised punch servers. Leon said, "ADPolice. I'm sorry but the
substance you're using is not on the approved list of safe chemical additives
yet so I'm afraid you'll have to stop serving your spiked punch."
"Oh, damn," the blonde said disgustedly. "I had a feeling this would
happen."
"Say," Daley asked the attendants, "how much punch did the two red-
haired girls who just left have? It's important." The woman blinked,
surprised.
"Really? Well, the green-eyed one had two glasses and was starting to
look pretty tipsy."
Leon leaned forward anxiously. "And the other?"
The blonde shook her head in remembered disbelief. "TEN, if you can
believe that! I was wondering WHEN she would start acting drunk and that was
at number five. She's a head shorter than me and I would've been on the floor
by then," she said admiringly. "The punch is pretty heavily spiked to test
the secret ingredient you know." She took a look at their somewhat-panicked
expressions. "What's wrong with that?" she asked.
Leon laughed a little, hiding his concern. "Nothing! Nothing at all. We
just thought we knew those two, that's all. Just stop serving punch; someone
else will come for it later. Come on, Daley," he said, leaving the slightly
confused attendant behind.
"This is Not Good, Leon," Daley said as they plunged into the crowd
again, rapidly scanning the mob for the two girls. "We'd better find them
fast before anything happens."
"No shit," Leon replied. "The last thing I want is another Elf-like
incident." Suddenly, Leon smacked a fist into a palm in realization. "Wait a
minute! Why would those two be here alone? This party is more Priss' style.
She MUST have come with them. AND I have a better idea of where to find HER,
then she can help us find THEM. Let's go!" Leon started ahead once more,
forcing Daley to hurry to stay behind him.
"Go where, Leon?"
Leon turned his head, showing his grin.
"Just follow the music!"

Chapter Thirty-Two
==================

Darlene heaved a sigh.
"Are you dooonne yet, Nene?" she asked for what seemed the quintillionth
time.
"Almost," was the reply from the stall.
The red-head sighed again; even being in female form and her current
drunken state, she was still uncomfortable in the ladies room. But Nene had
had to go, and, as she had been unable to walk very far at the time, had
needed the mage's support.
Darlene wasn't feeling very steady herself, and not just a little giddy.
The closest thing to what she felt like now was drunk, but that was
impossible; she hadn't even had one alcoholic beverage tonight. She giggled
a little for no reason.
Finally, Nene's stall opened and the silly grin the ADPolice officer
wore did nothing to alleviate the giggle fit. "Sorry, had trouble with my
skirt," she apologized, giggling.
"Why? What was the trouble?"
Nene broke out laughing. "It was on the floor!"
Darlene joined in when she heard the joke. Two other women over by the
mirrors who were checking their make-up looked at each other and struggled
not to break out laughing themselves. Not because of the drunken joke but
rather the sight of the two diminutive red-heads laughing over something only
drunks could find funny. Both of the cute-looking girls seemed at a point
somewhere in the middle of being buzzed or unconscious. They were hilarious.
"Aren't you gonna go in?" Nene asked Darlene, but the other shook her
head.
"Nope!" she declared proudly. "Don't need to. Takes a looong while for
me now." She snickered at the dirty look her friend gave her. Then Darlene
lowered her voice, and whispered to Nene conspiratorially, "Tell you
something else though."
The red-head leaned forward, eyes bright with curiosity. "What's that?"
Darlene didn't say anything, but smiled mysteriously and unbuttoned her
blouse a little to open it up.
Nene gasped in surprise. "A BRA?!" The two women who were leaving rolled
their eyes, exasperated by the ongoing clothing humour, not knowing the real
reason for Nene's shock. The owner of the fantasy store never wore a bra, her
breasts were pretty firm and didn't move much unless the red-head moved too
quickly, also wearing thick blouses, but the real reason was because of her
transformations between sexes. "Why?" Nene asked curiously, fascinated by
this oddity.
"Well heck! If you go to a party you dance, and dancing would bounce
these things around too much," Darlene complained. "Sometimes I wish Ranma's
female form hadn't been so well-endowed."
Me too, Nene thought enviously.
"If I do change, it becomes a muscle shirt, and vice-versa. Neat, huh?"
She hopped and considered. "The support IS nice," she mused, if a little
guiltily.
Nene ignored it completely, caught up as she was in a sudden vision of
being a princess in a magical land. She sighed sorrowfully. "I wish I was a
princess," she said wistfully. If their friends had been in the washroom they
would have felt a sudden sinking sensation at those words as Darlene perked
up on hearing them.
"Let's pretend!" the mage exclaimed, and Nene blinked at her friend.
"What?"
"You be the princess, and I'll be your faithful court wizard," Darlene
bubbled in her excitement. "It'll be easy!"
"Really?" Nene said, getting excited as well, then frowned. "But what
about a court?" To that, Darlene smiled impishly.
"Let's work on us first, then we go to the party, I mean court,
OUTSIDE."
Nene's eyes widened in realization at all the people outside the
washroom and her excitement welled up once more. "Do we do it?" she said,
bouncing on her toes in front of a grinning Darlene.
"YES!!" they chorused, and broke up giggling.

Leon and Daley had found Priss shouting criticisms at the band, and
after explaining their appearance and concerned looks, went off to find
Linna. They found her and Ryouga on the dance floor. Ryouga having lost his
embarrassment at last, though it still surfaced from time to time.
Linna was surprised at the three's arrival, her bandanna-wearing escort
stopped as well and came up beside her. "Priss, what's wrong?" she asked,
noting the singer's expression.
"Nene goofed up, that's what," the singer replied, agitated. Leon spoke
up.
"Daley and I saw them leaving the table with the spiked punch. We asked
and apparently Darlene had drank TEN glasses of the stuff." Linna paled.
"Oh no! Do you know where they went?" she asked, but the question soon
became irrelevant for gasps and intermittent shrieks from one side of the
crowded room advertised the fact that something was up.
Then what seemed to be a visual shiver passed over the five on the dance
floor, leaving them, and everyone else in the club, with an apparently
radically altered set of clothing; the reason for the previous startlement of
the far side of the crowd as they had been the first to be hit.
Linna looked down and saw a beautiful green dress, cut in a medieval
style and with a slightly below average neckline. If she had possessed a
mirror she would have seen her hair was longer and held by an ornate tiara
embedded with emeralds. Beside her, Ryouga stared at the changes made to her
attire and quickly looked down at himself, but found to his relief that his
normal clothes hadn't been altered.
Priss stared at her fellow Knight Saber as well before jerking her eyes
down to herself, and didn't like what she saw one bit. Feet to fingertips,
the singer was dressed in deep red leather. Hugging skin close to her body,
the leather pants she saw appeared laced up the sides while her 'shirt' was
something that covered her back completely but laced up the front, showing a
bit too much cleavage for her liking. Leather gloves protected her hands and
arms up to just beyond her elbows, tall boots on her feet did the same for
her legs. As with Linna, Priss' hair had changed but tied into a short
ponytail. Normally, Priss LIKED leather, her biking outfit was made of
leather, but not THIS way. For God's sake, there was even a belt with a
frigging SWORD to complete the damn outfit!
The two detectives saw the two women, then looked at themselves. Daley
had on a loose, silk shirt with billowy sleeves along with a pair of matching
pants that fit rather close. Along with delicate-seeming shoes, white gloves,
and a circular, purple-colored cloth hat, the red-haired officer was dressed
like a classic court fop, with a rapier buckled casually around the waist.
Leon was dressed in similar style to Priss, but in a masculine way and
a little more armoured. Black leather, along with thicker bucklers of the
same material reenforced by metal, was what his outfit was made of. His sword
was more massive in its sheath and his gloves were gauntlets.
Their clothing hadn't actually changed, Darlene hadn't had enough
concentration to alter a room's worth of clothing, but the mass visual
illusion she HAD done was impressive in its results and extended to the
entire party, creating a excited murmur that covered the stunned five's
conversation.
"Wha-What's this?!" Linna stammered as she finally spoke up, snapping
out of her stunned state. "How come I can still feel my old clothes when I'm
wearing THIS?!" Priss checked patted her arms and legs and sighed in relief
when she too felt her clothes were unchanged.
"A hallucination?" Daley queried Leon as he admired the getup he found
himself apparently wearing.
"More like illusion if Darlene's involved," Leon said absently. Daley
wondered why until he saw his partner hungrily examining Priss' revealing
getup.
So did she. "Leoooon...." she started threateningly, holding up a fist
and advancing. The officer backed away quickly, holding up his gauntleted
hands in surrender, and feeling very glad that the sword at her side was an
illusion.
"Ha ha ha! Right!" he declared, turning resolutely and hoping she
wouldn't punch him. "We've got to find those two before they do anything
else." Priss eyed him sceptically, but reluctantly turned away to look for
the missing duo.
"THERE you guys are!" exclaimed Nene's excited voice. "Finally found
you!" she said as she glided through the crowd into view. Literally: she was
floating an inch above the floor. The ADPolice red-head wore an outrageously
fanciful, fairy-tale princess-style dress. The wide bell-shape of her gown
was so white it hurt the eyes, making detail was impossible to see. Luminous
white silk gloves covered her hands and an extravagantly expensive necklace
was around her graceful neck. "Told you, Darlene. Ah!" she exclaimed and
corrected herself. "I mean, court wizard, we have found them!"
"Certainly, your highness," Darlene said with a giggle as she stepped
around the grinning Nene. Her outfit was the most disturbing of all; she
appeared to be wearing a dress of some kind, purple of course, but everything
was obscured by a long cloak that concealed whatever she wore underneath and
had a high collar that framed the mage's face and hair. The disturbing part
was the color of the cloak: there was none. That is, the cloak kept shifting
into one eye-wrenching pattern before moving on to another just as wrenching.
She held two glasses of punch in her hand and was sipping out of one of them.
Ever so subtle, Priss shouted at them. "What the hell are you two
doing?!?! Get rid of this stupid spell! For crying out loud, do you WANT to
get caught??"
"Aw, Priss, don't be a spoilsport," Darlene said, pouting. Then she
brightened and held out the glass she hadn't touched yet. "Here, have some
punch." Frowning, the singer took the offered drink as she tried to frame a
reply, but the magic-user had already turned to Nene. "What else do we need,
your Highness?" she said with a giggle. Nene furrowed her brow in
concentration, then smiled.
"We need a prince!" she exclaimed.
"One in an enchanted sleep?"
Nene looked dubious. "I dunno. Isn't that a princess' duty?"
"Eh, equal rights," Darlene said, waving her hand dismissively. "Let the
prince do it for a change." Nene smiled and nodded approvingly.
"Okay!"
"Soooo...." Darlene drawled out, then whirled around to smile merrily at
Leon and Daley, startling them. "I guess we've got two volunteers right
HERE!"
Leon backed up a step at the look in her eyes. "Ah... hey now, Darlene,
don't do anything hasty now. Just..."
"DEEP SLEEP!" Darlene cried gleefully, pointing at the two ADPolice
officers. The two word rhyme was sufficient to cast a sleep spell which
washed over the two hapless officers.
"Don't...." Daley began but lost the battle with his eyes and fell
asleep, Leon a moment later. Priss, fumbling with her drink, caught the
brown-haired officer while Ryouga grabbed Daley. They laid the luckless
officers gently on the ground while Nene clapped heartily.
"Neat!" she chirped.
"Nene!" Linna protested, and the red-head became downcast at the angry
look on her friend's face. "This isn't funny! Stop it! You too, Darlene!" she
said, turning to the grinning mage who then mirrored Nene's crestfallen look
when she saw how angry Linna was. "You're both drunk and behaving like
children! Darlene, get rid of all these spells, now!" she demanded but the
red-haired mage scowled.
"Am NOT drunk! Only had punch! See?" she declared and drank the rest of
her glass in a gulp. "I'm just..." Darlene started weaving unsteadily,
"...finnnnneeee...." Her eyes rolled up and Linna had to catch her before she
hit the floor.
"Too much, too fast, and it finally caught up to her," Priss said with
a resigned sigh, looking over the three unconscious bodies. "NOW what do we
do?"
"I..." Linna began to say, but stopped, startled, when Nene's princess
illusion vanished and her regular clothes revealed themselves. The red-head
was disappointed, but the others were relieved. "Looks like the illusions
won't last long, thank goodness." She plucked at her own illusionary dress.
"Though I may ask her for a real one sometime." Priss snorted.
"Thanks, but I'll pass." She looked around at the excited crowd around
her, the court getup was being greeted as a harmless, hi-tech prank and most
people were taking the whole thing in stride, enjoying the masquerade while
it lasted. Figures. "We'd better leave." She looked wryly down at the
blissfully oblivious Leon. "And take the 'sleeping beauties' along."
"What will we do? We all came in my van. They won't fit," Linna said
worriedly. Priss dismissed the worry and waved at the ADPolice officers on
the ground.
"They must've brought their car. I'll drop Darlene off, then dump them
at their place and take a bus home."
"Awww...." Nene whined. "Can't we stay longer?" She hiccupped.
"No," Linna said firmly, grabbing her red-headed friend's hand firmly.
"Let's go home, Nene. Ryouga, could you pick up Leon and Daley?" He nodded
and bent to gather up the two fallen men. "Thanks. Priss should be able to
manage Darlene." She sighed as they started to leave.
What a night!

Priss parked the police car by Darlene's place, she had just gotten the
unconscious Darlene in by the first story door when she realized a flaw in
her plan.
"Oh, man!" she exclaimed out loud to no one as she realized something.
"How am I going to get the other two into their place? It's hard enough with
Darlene." She sighed, tired, as she managed to open the door for the
staircase to Darlene's second story home. "Guess I'll manage," she grunted.
When she reached the top, still holding the out of it red-head, she was
rewarded with a shock.
Outstretched on the floor were Daley and Leon.
"HUH?!?!?!?"
A chirp to the side attracted her attention, and she nearly cried aloud
again. It was Darlene's dragon Charcoal in it's miniature form, sitting on
one of the couches with its wings outstretched. It chirped again before
vanishing in a small puff of flame.
"The damn dragon heard me," Priss said incredulously. "But it got the
WRONG place! Argh! Now what do I do?!" she demanded. Holding Darlene wasn't
easy so she took the unconscious mage to the mage's bedroom and put her on
the bed. The singer stretched her arms, grateful to be rid of the weight.
Putting a hand on her head, Priss wondered what to do. There was no way she
was going to drag the two officers back down the stairs, so she supposed they
might as well stay here. She started to turn away, but then an idea struck.
A good idea.
No.
This was an EVIL idea.
A full-blown grin grew on Priss' face as she looked at Darlene's still
form. Oh, this was just too good, she thought. Should she do it? A chuckle
escaped her. You BET! But first... Priss quickly left the room and headed
down the hall again.
She needed one little thing which she knew the red-head had.

Chapter Thirty-Three
====================

The first thing Leon discovered upon slowly gaining awareness of his
surroundings was that most of his clothes were off and that he was in a bed.
Unfortunately, by the feel of the silky-soft covers on his skin, it was not
HIS bed. This was not necessarily a bad thing. Nevertheless, he carefully
opened his eyes, wondering where he was as his last memory ended at the party
last night.
And saw Darlene's peacefully sleeping face right beside him.
His immediate first thought was: Did we?? Considering who slept beside
him, in what was most likely her bed, his next thought was: How is SHE going
to react? The answer to both was: leave and find out LATER.
Leon tried ease himself out of the bed, but saw that it would be
difficult as he was positioned on the side of the bed against the wall and
would have to crawl over the dozing mage to escape. Shifting his legs under
the covers, he brushed Darlene with one of his knees and discovered with a
bit of nervousness that she was wearing even less than he was. Nothing.
Wait...
Something...sticky?...was on his leg from the brush with Darlene? He
slid his hand under the covers to feel what was on his leg. Yes, something
sticky all right...no, impossible. Cautiously, he lifted his hand and
examined the clear substance in the morning light. It didn't quite look like
what he hoped it wasn't. He sniffed cautiously, then more deeply to make sure
and blinked in surprise.
HONEY????
What the Hell...? he thought in astonishment. Then he began to get
suspicious; he and Darlene in bed together, which was probably impossible for
them to have done so by themselves considering what happened last night;
Darlene having a sticky substance in an embarrassing position; and Priss had
been present last night at the party. NOW things were beginning to make
sense. All TOO much sense as he knew something about Priss and Darlene's
jokes on each other. Now more than ever he had better get out of...
Darlene's eyelids twitched.
Leon's stomach sank as he watched her eyes slowly open, then snap all
the way up in shock when she focused on the now-sickly smiling Leon.
"AH!!! WHAT?!?!" she screamed aloud, recoiling from him, then blinked
again in shock when she noticed that she wasn't wearing anything underneath
the sheets, and instinctively covered herself more fully with the bedsheets.
Before Leon could say anything she discovered the third and greatest shock,
and turned pale. She shifted her legs underneath the covers a little,
confirmed it, and went from pale to sheet white. Leon tried to reassure her.
"Ah... Darlene... It's not what you think..."
His voice died as she focused on him once more, after a moment her face
started to return to a normal color and her eyes relaxed. So did he.
"Leon..." she began conversationally, considering the ADPoliceman in her
bed. He, in turn, was getting nervous again; she was taking this far too
well, he realized.
"Ah, yes?" She smiled at him.
"PREPARE TO DIE!!!!!" she roared furiously, eyes blazing, and a fist,
glowing brightly with ki but Leon didn't know about that part of her fighting
skills, rocketed towards his head. Leon missed being hit by half a centimetre
as his reflexes threw him out of the bed, years of dodging Boomers paying
off. The wall where the fist landed wasn't so lucky and with a loud explosion
a new hole was created in it.
From the floor, Leon stared at where the fist had struck until Darlene
slowly turned her enraged gaze in his direction again. He leaped up,
adrenaline flowing, and sprinted for the doorway, mentally cursing Priss for
trying to kill him; the only time he'd seen the red-headed mage madder was
the Elf episode, and not by much.
Somehow, he didn't think staying and talking was a wise idea.

Priss, who had stayed, and Daley, whom she had placed on the couch, woke
up because of Darlene's enraged shout and even more alertly when the
explosion happened. Priss leaped up in a half-asleep combat-mode and rushed
to the hallway just in time to see Leon slam the bedroom door shut and lean
on it heavily as he collected his wits. The singer then remembered her little
prank and grinned broadly.
"Sleeping arrangements not to your liking, Leon?" she said with a smirk,
Daley walked up to stand behind Priss, wondering what was going on.
"For God's sake, Priss!" Leon said in an angry and panicked way as he
glared at her, wearing only his boxers. "This is NOT funny!"
"It sure looks like..."
CRACK!
Leon's gaze shot down and he paled as he saw the sharp sword thrusting
out from the door just below him, positioned between his spread legs, Priss
and Daley gaped. He moved frantically out of the way before the blade shot
cruelly up, carving a path through the door where Leon's neither region had
been.
"Clothes!" Leon demanded, and raced for the pile Priss numbly pointed
to. Daley was about to ask him what was going on when the bedroom door
exploded outwards and tumbled to the floor in tiny pieces.
The red-head felt running away and letting Priss cool the obviously very
angry Darlene down was the better part of valor. After grabbing the car keys
when Priss hurriedly offered them, he quickly followed a semi-clothed Leon
out of the apartment.
Priss stared in shock at her friend when the red-head come out from her
room. A bedcover was wrapped around her body, concealing it, but the now-
flaming sword she held in her hand and the murderous expression on her face
told the singer that the mage was definitely NOT happy. Darlene stepped
forward down the hallway to grimly follow the fled males but Priss, feeling
very stupid for doing so, intercepted the furious girl's path.
"Wait!" the singer cried. Not wanting to run over her friend Darlene
reluctantly did so, but her eyes were almost glowing with fury.
"HE DIES A SLOW AND PAINFUL DEATH!!!" Darlene savagely shouted at her,
punctuating the remark by waving the flaming sword and started advancing
again.
"It was a joke! A JOKE, Darlene!" Priss cried out. It took a second, but
Darlene finally heard what her friend said and blankly looked at her. "You
two didn't do anything! I put you both in bed together and used some honey to
make it look like you had done something."
"Honey?" Darlene blinked several times in confusion, then realization.
"A...joke?" She lowered the sword, flames vanishing from the blade.
Priss sighed in relief, seeing that the mage wasn't going to chop Leon
up into little pieces anymore. She nodded affirmatively. "Yeah, just a joke."

A minute later, the singer got painfully off the floor, desperately
sucking in air that had been knocked out by Darlene's lightning-fast fist.
"Fuck, I really did it this time," she groaned, holding a hand to her sore
midsection. "Damn, she hits hard. At least she didn't go for the face."
Wincing a little, Priss headed for the mage's bedroom. She gave a hesitant
glance at the blasted pieces of door on the floor before stepping through the
doorway.
"Any OTHER surprises today?" Darlene said bitterly. She sat on the edge
of her bed, still holding her sword and hugging herself as if needing
comfort, not bothering to look up at Priss, who sighed.
"No."
"Great. Then here's one for YOU!" And, to the singer's utter horror,
Darlene threw the sword straight at her! The blade slid through clothes and
flesh effortlessly, shock and the mage's quickness had prevented Priss from
moving out of the way. The hilt impacted her already sore midsection severely
and she staggered backwards in pain and shock. She'd just been impaled with
a frigging sword! Priss thought, terrified. She was dead! Heedless of the
consequences, she frantically gripped the hilt and pulled. The sword came out
like nothing held it at all and for a brief moment she held the weapon high,
staring at it. What the?!? She'd felt nothing?! Quickly looking down she saw
a hole in her shirt, but no blood from a wound. With her free hand, Priss
hesitantly checked and confirmed it.
Nothing.
"My sword doesn't harm human flesh. I forgot about that when I was angry
at Leon. Now you know how I felt, and still feel," Darlene said bitterly,
having watched Priss' reaction and then turned her gaze back to the floor.
Heart still hammering, Priss couldn't say anything in response for the
moment. Instead she walked over and sat on the bed beside Darlene, carefully
putting the sword on the bed as soon as she could. "Guess it wasn't such a
good idea, huh?" she said finally.
"You KNOW my past!" Darlene angrily retorted, whirling to face the
singer, tears in her eyes. "AND that I still don't know things about myself!
Like when I lost control of my anger, and you know what happened THEN! It
almost happened again when I thought I had..." She trailed off and shivered.
"In my male form I'm in control, almost to a fault at times, but in my female
form I'm NOT, I don't have the experience! Who knows what might happen if I
did... that?"
"You might find out some day," Priss said, realizing that the red-head
still hadn't come to terms with some of the more exotic alterations to
herself. It was easy to think otherwise as her friend tended to bury worries
and show a more pleasant face.
"Maybe, but I'm scared to death of the possibilities," Darlene
whispered, and didn't object when Priss put a reassuring arm around her
shoulders, deriving a little comfort from it. After a few minutes she sighed
and looked up at Priss with something akin to amusement on her face. "You
realize we're both going to have to apologize to Leon, don't you?" The singer
looked less than pleased with that, but couldn't argue the point.
"I suppose so..."
"And let's not do any more practical jokes for a while, please?" Darlene
pleaded. "This one frazzled my nerves a little too much."
"What about impaling me with that fucking sword?!?" Priss protested
indignantly. Darlene looked at her with a fake expression of innocent
confusion.
"But I thought would be appropriate for a vamp."
"VAMP?!?!?" Priss exclaimed indignantly. "Why you!!!" Priss' friendly
hug turned into something more appropriate for pro-wresting as she attacked.
Darlene screeched in protest as it was unexpected.
"HEY!! No fair!! I've just got a cover on!!" she protested.
"I'll take any advantage I can get!" Priss pressed her attack, and
started tickling her friend mercilessly.
"No, no, not there! Ah! Ah-haha! Hahahahahahaha!"
It degenerated from there.

Nene's awakening was much less of a surprise, Linna hadn't bothered to
take off the red-head's clothes and simply laid her friend on her bed.
However, the hangover she had was a painful reminder of what had happened
last night. She was still blurry on certain details and so she decided to
give Darlene a call.
She had showered as she had felt dirty and the pounding in her head was
a little less intense but otherwise she thought she was presentable enough
for the vid-phone. It took quite a few rings before Darlene answered.
"H-hello? Oh, Nene! Hi!"
Nene stared. Darlene's face was flushed, her hair was in disarray, and
there was a bedsheet wrapped around her, loosely. Her response to Nene's call
had been a breathless response as well. It looked like... No. Not Darlene,
Nene thought disbelievingly. Then Priss, with a smirk on her face, appeared
behind the mage and waved casually at the ADPolicewoman.
"Hey, Nene. Recovered from last night yet?" the singer asked with a
grin, reminding the red-head about her headache and making her wince.
"No, I'm not," she replied petulantly.
"Good!" And before the sputtering Nene could frame an indignant reply to
that, Priss continued, "That's what you SHOULD get for getting drunk when you
KNEW that punch was spiked. What happened is all YOUR fault!"
"Okay, okay! Owwww...." Nene had to cover her ears to stop the pounding.
Meanwhile, Darlene naturally heard all this. "SPIKED punch??" she
growled the question out, looking alternately at the friend on the vid-screen
and the friend beside her. Both looked a little nervous. "No wonder I can't
remember parts of last night's party...yet," she amended, when became male
she would remember it all. "I won't bother to ask how, just tell me I didn't
do anything bad."
"Not really," Priss conceded, Nene just continued to look guilty.
"Nothing people will think actually happened, or at least connect to you."
Darlene sighed with relief.
"Why are you at Darlene's anyway, Priss? I thought...." Nene trailed off
with a blush. "Nevermind." Darlene blinked.
"Thought what?"
Priss fought back a laugh. "And I thought I had the dirty mind." When
Darlene turned to her with a frown, she said, "Well, you DO look like you had
some male...company over." She ducked the angry swing Darlene aimed at her.
"You were tickling me! And you certainly have a mind filled with IT
after doing what you did this morning!"
"So I'm sorry already! It's not like anything really happened with you
and Leon."
"Could we not mention THAT again?"
Nene blinked in astonishment. "LEON?!?!" she gasped, eyes wide. Darlene
looked pained while Priss grinned.
"Just...forget it," the red-headed mage groaned. "Nothing happened.
Priss was being funny and I STILL fail to see the humour," she directed at
the singer. "Look, I'll phone you later, Nene. I have to clean up, and maybe
practice some spells on a HANDY volunteer." She smiled at Priss with a glint
in her eye. "Bye." The image vanished with a fading image of a worried Priss
inching away from a nastily-smiling Darlene.
Now I wonder what THAT was all about, Nene wondered.

"Get outta here, ya bum!"
A humanoid figure flew through the air into a pile of trash bags, the
door it had come from slamming shut behind it. There was a groan from the
form as it rose from the trash, then a snarl as a metallic arm shredded the
bags it had landed in.
"My, my. Rough night?" someone commented mockingly.
The form whirled around when he heard the female voice, stopping in
momentary amazement to the beauty standing in the alley with him. Then anger
rose up. "Who the Hell are you, bitch?" he snarled. The female smiled.
"My name is Yanda and yours is Steelfist. Or at least...it used to be?"
she reflected, looking pointedly at his false arms.
Steelfist grit his teeth at the painful memories that remark triggered.
He was a far cry from the leader of the Steelriders he had used to be, and it
had all started with an encounter with a trio of girls. Two were trying to
wake up their red-haired companion when his pack had found them. Easy lays.
The three would've been a lot of fun, or so they had thought. Even when the
black-haired one had shown some martial arts knowledge he had her beat with
his expensive bio-metallic arms.
Then that red-haired BITCH decided to wake up.
Apparently not drunk at all, she had fought him. Incredibly, impossibly,
he had lost when she had SEVERED one of his fucking arms at the joint! After
that defeat things had slowly gone downhill for him since. He didn't have
enough money to fix his old limb and had to get a cheap, plain metal one that
wasn't nearly as powerful. His pack, his FORMER pack, drove him off because
of the weaker limb and his defeat. He had had nowhere to go except visit old
so-called friends who eventually threw him out every time.
Bastards.
Now he had been thrown out of a bar into trash and run into this weird
bitch who somehow knew his name. "So what the fuck you want? I got better
things to do," he sneered.
"So I see," she said, looking at him standing in garbage. "Very well, I
offer you something simple."
"What's that? A freebie?" He leered lewdly.
"Power." And she held up a glass cylinder that glowed a faint crimson
the color of blood from within.
"You crazy, bitch?"
"Who isn't? Catch!"
Startled, Steelfist grabbed the vial before it hit his face.
Unfortunately, it was with his cheapshit fake arm and his indelicate grip
crushed the glass, releasing the liquid inside and splashing it all over his
arm and himself. "Fuck!" he shouted, franticly trying to wipe the glowing
stuff off and failing. "This better not be some poisonous crap or something,
bitch." Yanda smiled.
"I would say 'or something.' You might even say it'll make you a
new...man."
Steelfist's eyes suddenly widened in panic; the stuff on his clothes had
begun to MOVE. He looked at his metal arm and saw it beginning to melt. "What
the hell?" he whimpered, unable to comprehend what was happening. Then the
places on his skin where the liquid had hit felt like they were starting to
burn. He tried to say something in his panic but Steelfist had swallowed some
of the strange stuff and his larynx no longer worked.
The pain came quickly as something unexpectedly immobilized him.
Yanda smiled like an expectant mother.
Another pawn to play.

Chapter Thirty-Four
===================

ONE WEEK LATER....

In Hot Legs, a red-headed young woman seated at a table was occasionally
looking from side to side, searching the crown around her. Her posture
indicated a tenseness for some unknown reason.
"Hi there."
Darlene quickly looked around and saw Leon smiling behind her. She
relaxed at last and indicated the empty chair on the opposite side of the
table. "Hi, Leon. Have a seat," she offered.
"Thanks." He sat down and looked quizzically at her. "Why so tense?
Seems to me I'M the one who should be wound up." Leon couldn't help but be
amused when the red-head blushed a little.
"I'm here to apologize for last week. I was a little upset by Priss'
little joke and I should've realized that was all it was before trying to
kill you," she finished in a small voice.
Leon sighed and leaned back in his chair, scratching the back of his
neck. "I guess I can understand it from your perspective, and it's not like
I've not been in slightly different but similar circumstances."
"'Different' meaning 'guilty?'" said Darlene with a hint of a smile.
Leon didn't comment but his big grin said it all. "As for being tense, just
think about it." She waved at the crowded bar. "Single female, empty chair,
raging testosterone levels. Need I say more?" She paused in consideration.
"They did stop coming for a while after I threw one persistent idiot who
wouldn't take a hint into a table." Her expression turned slightly nervous as
she looked from side to side. "It's the two women who whispered in my ear
that really got me wound up."
Leon leaned forward with a broad grin. "Hey, you gotta admit you're not
a bad looking gal."
"But 'light my leather with your flaming passion'?? Come on!"
Not able to prevent it, Leon howled his laughter and she looked on with
a disgusted expression at his reaction. The brown-haired man got hold of
himself, still wearing his wide grin. "Sorry. Just the look on your face..."
He shook his head. "I guess I should apologize too for making it hard for you
to set up this meeting." That was a mind way of putting it, Leon had
religiously avoided any contact with the mage until she had used Nene to
deliver the message that she was very sorry about the misunderstanding.
"No, don't. I WAS a little pissed off. Well, WAY more than a little,"
Darlene amended guiltily. She looked at her watch as a diversion away from
the uncomfortable topic. "Priss should be on stage soon." She saw the light
of interest ignite in Leon's eyes and smirked knowingly.
"Say... You don't happen to make love potions, do you?" he asked.
"Sure." Leon did a double take at the quick response. "First I'll need
the penis of the man you want her to fall in love with, then slice it up
before pounding it into a fine mush and..." She stopped when Leon's eyes
threatened to bulge out. It was her turn to laugh at his horrified, pale
face. "I'm kidding!"
"I should hope so!" He shook his head slowly. "Your sense of humour
needs work, Darlene."
"Sorry, I'm in a bad state of mind right now regarding the 'S' topic."
She frowned at her watch; it was time for Priss to go on.
"I wonder what's keeping her," she murmured.

"No goddamn way! Not this time, miss do-whatever-the-hell-I-want-to-do!
I have had it with you leaving just before the act! You either play, or else
I circulate to every place in Mega-Tokyo that you're too unreliable to hire!"
the club manager shouted at Priss' face, which plainly showed her anger and
hesitation.
Why did Sylia have to call NOW?? Priss fumed to herself. The leader of
the Knight Sabers seemed to have an uncanny knack of doing this just before
a performance and now the singer was facing the result. She had gotten out of
her singing costume and into her biking leathers before exiting the dressing
room, but the manager of Hot Legs had been waiting outside the door. He, of
course, had immediately figured out what she was doing and threw a fit.
But he'd never threatened her with this particular threat before. If he
did she and her band would never get a gig again, no matter how good she
sang. He waited with his big arms crossed for her response, and she hadn't a
clue what to do, Sylia needed her or she wouldn't have called. Perform, or
pummel Boomer butt and perish musically. And she had to think of the band
too.
Then she got a desperate idea.
"What if I get someone else to sing?" Priss asked quickly.
"What?!?" he shouted incredulously, and almost said more but she threw
up her hands reassuringly.
"She's good, she's good! I taught her myself."
The manager frowned, but kept his peace. Knowing singers as he did, he
knew they didn't often complement rivals on their abilities. Granted, this
one was in a tight spot, but she seemed to be telling him the truth. Also,
the crowd outside tonight wasn't too particular as long as there was good
music, even if Priss' fan-boys would be disappointed. "Where has she
performed?"
"Ah...nowhere, but she really is good!" she quickly added to forestall
his blowing up again. "She just owns a business so singing is just a hobby
with her. I happen to know she's in the club tonight too."
Looking down the hallway, the manager signalled one of the bouncers to
come over. Priss almost sighed in relief, but checked herself as only half
the battle was won.
"Okay, what does she look like?" the manager asked.

"You want me to WHAT?!?!?" Darlene demanded incredulously. Priss pressed
her hands together and gave her a pleading expression. The rest of the band
had found out and was gathered behind her. They just watched, having had to
do the exact same thing Priss was doing right now at some point in their
careers.
"Just sub for me tonight, please? I REALLY need to go."
The exasperated red-head put a hand on her forehead, knowing what Priss
meant by that statement and knew she didn't have much choice in the matter.
Bloody hell. She hadn't known this would happen when the bouncer had told her
Priss requested her presence. Polite fellow. Leon had said he'd wait, but
given what she knew she was going to do, she wished he had left. Gods, why
me?
"All right," she sighed in capitulation.
"Great! I owe you! Bye!" Priss turned to leave.
"WAIT!!" the manager bellowed, making Priss pause. He pointed at
Darlene. "Sing something," he demanded.
She shrugged, took a deep breath, and started singing one of her most
favourite lines in Priss' songs. "Kon'ya wa Hurricane. Anata wa
Hurricane...." Darlene stopped, puzzled, when she saw the manager and the
rest of the band staring at her. What was with them? she wondered.
Priss smirked, and said, "Told ya! Bye!" And then she was out the door,
hoping she wouldn't be late.
Noriko, a slim, black-haired woman and recent replacement for drums when
the old drummer had quit, stepped up to a still-confused Darlene and gave her
the once over before grabbing one of the red-head's wrists. "C'mon, girl. If
you're gonna sing in this dump, you better look the part."
"What?" Darlene said, wondering what she meant. Then looked at the getup
the drummer wore and her heart sank when realization hit.
Oh. No.

Sylia was mildly relieved to see Priss come roaring into Raven's garage
just in the nick of time.
"Finally!" Linna remarked. "What took you?"
"Oh, lay off," the singer disgustedly replied, tearing off her helmet as
she quickly got off her bike. "It's not my fault you always call just before
a performance, and this time the manager at Hot Legs had a bigger fit than
usual." She hurried past them to get to the change rooms.
"Was there any problem?" Sylia asked as Priss ran past Nene, who had
just finished changing herself.
"Nah, I got Darlene to take my place," was the casual reply she got
before the brown-haired singer closed the door.
Linna and Nene blinked at each other, and in unison both said,
"DARLENE?!?!"
"I wonder how that will turn out," Sylia thought aloud.
Imagining how Darlene had reacted, Linna snickered. "Too bad we won't be
there to see."

Leon was beginning to become seriously bored when the members of Priss'
band started onto the stage, prompting the crowd milling on the dance floor
to start cheering, screaming, and making other less definable noises. He
wondered if Darlene had decided to remain backstage; whatever Priss had
wanted had seemed to be as much a mystery to the red-head as to Leon.
Speaking of his most favourite singer, she hadn't come out with her
band, which wasn't Priss' style; she was usually the first. As the mob below
started murmuring, a half puzzled, half impatient sound, the new drummer for
the Replicants stepped up to the mike at the front of the stage.
"Guess you all are wondering where Priss is, huh?" she asked the crowd,
getting a questioning roar from the audience. "Well, our main lady did one of
her famous disappearing acts again so she won't be singing tonight." Noriko
stood there smiling as a wall of groans and boos cascaded over her,
unaffected by the crowd's disappointed response. Personally, she thought a
small part of Priss' popularity came from those absences. Before things got
ugly, she talked into the mike again. "But aren't you wondering why we came
up on stage?" she said, a note of inquiry in her voice.
As the crowd's noise died when that comment registered, Leon raised his
eyes, impressed at the way she handled the large group of music-hungry
people. Should've gone into politics, he thought as the crowd re-focused
their attention on the drummer, who smiled again.
"A friend of Priss, who happened to be here tonight, volunteered to take
her place and sing for us. I heard a little demonstration earlier and she's
great. She also knows all of Priss' songs so she'll be giving us a taste of
her talent tonight."
"No, she can't mean..." Leon half mumbled, incredulous at the suspicion
he knew whom the drummer was talking about.
"So let's introduce..." Noriko turned around and faced backstage,
"...Darlene!" She paused as the crowd waited. Leon slapped a hand to his face
when he heard the name.
Silence.
A vexed look appeared on the black-haired woman's face when she realized
no one was coming onstage, there were a few chuckles from the crowd when they
saw this. She spoke impatiently into the mike. "Darlene, come on! I said you
don't look that bad."
"That's what YOU think!" demanded a nervous and female voice from the
shadows, more people in the crowd laughed and the rest were beginning to
wonder what the new singer looked like.
"You said you'd do it," Noriko reminded her, and waited. Apparently,
that did it for slowly, and carefully, Darlene walked out into the light,
looking anxiously from side to side. Leon's jaw dropped, then he had to
stifle his laughter so the red-head wouldn't somehow hear and strangle him
later.
She wore a wig the same bright color as her own red hair, but longer and
in curls. A loosely cut, black tank top covered her upper torso but left her
middle bare. On her legs were what had to be the tightest set of shiny black
pants Leon had ever seen, likely made from some kind of plastic, that ended
between the knee and ankles. A pair of black shoes with high heels were on
her feet, which was the reason for her careful walk as she'd never worn them
before. Some large bracelets and makeup finished her quickly assembled stage
costume. The black clothes contrasted with her whiter-than-normal skin's
complexion.
The crowd whooped when the gathered people saw her; while she was an
unknown, she certainly young, good looking and sexy in her getup. Certainly
a point in her favor with this gathering.
Meanwhile, Darlene couldn't recall ever being more embarrassed and
uncomfortable. The wig made her scalp itch, the heels on the damn shoes were
murder, the makeup felt caked on her face, Noriko had said it was LIGHT but
she had her doubts about that, and the damn pants made her feel like she was
presenting her rear to the world! Priss owed her big time for this, she swore
to herself. BIG time.
Her smaller height was only emphasized when she reached a grinning
Noriko, to whom she gave a brief glare as if this were all the drummer's
fault. "Glad you could make it," she said blithely before abandoning Darlene
to get back to her drums.
Darlene looked down at the floor of the stage, red-faced at the whistles
she was getting. I hate crowds, I hate crowds, I hate crowds, I HATE crowds!
she cursed before reluctantly turning to the mass of people watching her. "H-
hi there," she shakily said into the mike, trying to keep her eyes on the
audience, "I g-guess I'm the entertainment for tonight."
The crowd seemed a little disappointed for some reason, then an
aggrieved voice spoke up near the stage, "Hey! You're the bitch who flipped
me into the table!"
Anger flared as she looked down, and, sure enough, it was the asshole
who wouldn't give up earlier. "Since you seemed to have a HEARING problem,"
she said, using the mike and making her voice boom loudly in the club, "I
hoped the impact would make an impression into your deadwood HEAD! Would you
like another message?" And she held up a fist in his direction. He shut up.
"That's telling him, Darlene!" shouted a voice from the second level.
"Thank you VERY much, Leon!" was her sarcastic and heated reply. "I'm
bloody well nervous enough already!"
"Then shut up and sing!" cried an unknown voice from the crowd.
"Fine!" she shouted back furiously. Her anger made her forget her
nervousness as she turned around to Priss' band, and said, "Hurricane!" More
of a demand than a request really, but used to a temperamental singer's
moods, namely Priss, the band ignored the tone and started playing. Darlene
glared at the audience after taking the mike out of its stand, and waited for
the time to start. When it came, she was beginning to lose her anger, but
started anyway without hesitation.
At first the crowd didn't react when she started out, but as she went on
the crowd roared their approval and began to dance. Leon felt his jaw drop
again for the second time that night, Darlene was GOOD! When the hell did she
learn to do this?! He knew she knew magic, and she also ran her store, but
this sort of thing took time and he'd never heard a hint of anything like
this before. He shook his head at the oddities the girl showed sometimes. As
he listened, he could tell her style was similar to Priss', probably who
taught her since she was her friend, yet oddly different. More...compelling,
he decided, than Priss' singing, which always revealed the burning passionate
emotions of his singer. Darlene's was more for the music than herself. Two
different ways, yet both beautiful to hear. With a smile he readied himself
to listen for the rest of the night, and seeing Darlene's current pseudo-
blissful expression knew it would be a long one.
Concentrating on her singing at first, Darlene hadn't realized what
effect her voice had on everyone else. Mostly because of what was happening
inside; she had only sang by herself, or with Priss, and only briefly in
female form when the singer had asked her. Now she was singing a full song
with music filling the air around her, the audience was incidental. At first
she had been angry, but as she went on she lost that emotion, beginning to
feel her heart pounding to the pattern of the beat and relaxed into it. The
feeling was both soothing and energetic. She felt almost a part of it, and
then...more than just a part.
Time lost meaning as she willingly lost herself in the music.
The world was song.

Chapter Thirty-Five
===================

"So, what did you mean when you said Darlene was covering for you,
Priss?" Linna asked, sitting in one of the mobile command van's chairs made
to accommodate her in her hardsuit.
Priss sighed in a disgusted way. "The manager of Hot Legs basically
threatened to blacklist me and the band from even dumps like his place." She
shrugged and fiddled with her helmet. "I DO like to sing so I didn't have
much of a choice asking Darlene to fill in, and I told you guys she's good;
she can handle it."
"Singing, yes, but while a crowd is watching her?" Nene asked dubiously.
"She'll be fine, all right?" Priss growled, not appreciating the doubt
that comment placed in her. "So what are we doing tonight anyway?"
"I finally got a lead on those mysterious disappearances of Boomers and
homeless several weeks ago and we're going in to check it out."
"Why? I mean, isn't that ADPolice's job? Not that they would be much
help." Priss ignored Nene's suddenly indignant posture. Sylia went on.
"I'm concerned about this and we need act on this information quickly.
Whomever arranged the vanishing of those Boomers and people without detection
is powerful and most likely working for something that would not be
beneficial to this city. I would like to prevent a mass release of Boomers
and drugged humans into Mega-Tokyo. The damages would be inconvenient to say
the least, more so if they are equipped with sophisticated gear."
The others swallowed nervously at the image Sylia gave them.
"Okay, I guess I can see why you'd want to cut that sort of thing off
ahead of time," Priss said.
"I'm glad you agree," was Sylia's dry reply.
Priss remembered something. "Hey, Linna. Where'd you leave bandanna
boy?"
"Ryouga's in my apartment," then she added as an afterthought, "and I
made sure to tell him not to leave."
"Is his sense of direction really that bad?" Nene inquired curiously.
Linna shuddered though the others couldn't notice it. "Yes, you can't
let him out of your sight or else he wanders off somehow. I just hope leaving
him in the apartment alone tonight is safe."
"How do you manage to watch him all the time?"
Linna chuckled. "Oh, some of the girls in and around my apartment
complex love to help me with that. Especially when he trains. They love to
see a muscular young man sweat." Nene and Priss laughed.
"Linna, really," Sylia reproached, though they could all hear her smile.
"I shoulda known," Priss commented.
"Do you need more help?"
"NENE!" shouted everyone save the red-head.
"Whaaaaat?"

ELSEWHERE...

Ryouga paused in confusion. How did all these people get in Linna's
living room? he wondered.
Above the lost boy's head was a sign.
It read: "WELCOME TO MEGA-TOKYO MALL - CENTRAL PLAZA"

OUTSIDE KS MOBILE COMMAND CENTER...

Mackie watched from the inside of the van as Sylia conferred with the
members of the team. They were hidden in a back alley several blocks from
their target, a wise precaution to take in case something went wrong.
"All right, we'll enter the building on three sides to reduce the
chances of someone slipping out the back door. Priss, take the north side,
Linna, there's an alley on the east so you come through on that side, Nene
and I will take the front. The west is wide open so that should not be an
option for those inside if they try to escape, and if they do we'll not have
much trouble tracking them. If you find the main computer wait for Nene and
she'll download anything of value. And in the case of personnel, if they look
important knock them out and leave them for ADPolice"
"Yeah, they're great for clean up," Priss quipped.
"Hey! Stop that!" Nene told her, angry over the insult to her police
organization.
"Why? It's true enough."
"Enough you two," Sylia said, stopping Nene's retort. "Let's get to
work."
"You got it, Sylia. See you inside!" Priss jumped away, her air jets and
powered hardsuit giving her extra bounce as she leaped away into the night.
More silently, but after a friendly wave to the others, Linna followed.
"Ready, Nene?" Sylia asked the power-suited red-head, who nodded
affirmatively despite still being angry with Priss. Together they jumped into
the darkness.
Mackie stood up and closed the van door so no one would notice anything
suspicious. He wished his sister and the others luck even though the mission
sounded simple. They shouldn't have any trouble tonight, he thought.
The shadows outside the van loomed ominous in the night.

Priss landed softly with only noise around her the quiet hiss of her air
jets. The building's few windows and single door on her side of the building
were shown clearly on her suit's screen.
"Sylia," she said as she opened a channel to her leader. "Looks quiet on
my side. Can I go in?"
"No, Priss, stay outside and come in if there's any trouble."
"Aw, man..." Priss groaned, she knew how likely that was.
"Nothing in the alley, Sylia," Linna reported.
"Good. Stay outside, just in case. Nene and I are going in."
"Okay, Sylia. Be careful."
"We will. Out."
Priss sighed, resigned to play sentry post for the rest of the mission.

Sylia waited as Nene rapidly disabled the electronic security on the
front door, studying the structure they were breaking into. There was no
outward sign of activity, or security for that matter, which wasn't unusual
if someone was trying to keep something well hidden from prying eyes; the
absence of obvious and elaborate security system was almost as good as having
one. She had been told a couple of kids had wandered into the building, and
had never come out again or seen from again. There had been a third person
with the group but he had stayed outside. After a while, several large and
mean looking men had discretely searched the area but the boy had escaped
notice and got away to tell his tale, which eventually reached Sylia. This,
and the other information she had gathered, made her decide that this was
most likely one of the hideouts of whoever masterminded the Boomer thefts.
Nene, finished with her task, stood up and opened the door.
Not a sound. Perfect.
Silently, the two entered the large hall which was the building's main
entrance. After careful scanning, Nene told Sylia there was a lot of
electrical activity deeper in the structure. The leader of the Knight Sabers
nodded and they cautiously proceeded in that direction.

Priss had started to argue with herself whether or not it had been a
good idea to get Darlene to substitute for her when she saw the door she was
watching open. She tensed.
And waited.
And waited some more.
"What the Hell?" she muttered. The door was wide open but no one was
coming out and she couldn't scan anything through the doorway. Priss began to
feel uneasy. "Sylia?" No response. "Nene?"
"What's up, Priss?" Linna asked over the encrypted communications
channel they all shared.
"Something weird is going on, that's what, and now I can't reach Sylia
or Nene," Priss answered her, becoming more anxious by the second. She heard
Linna try contacting the others but she got no results either. "Dammit, I
think something's really wrong here."
"Do you think we should go in?"
Priss didn't need much time to think that over. "Hell, yes!" she said,
leaping out from her hiding spot and quickly coming to the open door. There
was nobody she could see inside so she cautiously started in. "I'll keep
talking along the way."
"Wait, Priss! Let's go in to..." Linna's voice died when Priss got
several feet inside the room. The singer realized that there was some kind of
jamming going on, relieving her somewhat as this was probably the reason she
couldn't contact Sylia or Nene. Still...worry gnawed at her as she walked
deeper in.
Who had opened the door? And why?

"Priss? Do you hear me? Priss!" When Linna got no response she cursed a
little at her friend's headstrong approach, more annoyed Priss had gone in
without backup than her methods. By now Linna had a strong feeling some kind
of jamming was going on inside the building, otherwise she would had heard
SOMETHING from Priss, at least she hoped that was it.
She had just about decided to follow Priss in when the door to the long
alley opened and she hugged closer to the dumpster she hid behind. Two large
men exited into the alley, looking from side to side.
Linna's scanners confirmed her guess: Boomers. She decided to wait a few
minutes more before springing a surprise attack on them and getting inside.
She was coming to the conclusion there was more here than met the eye and had
a bad feeling about this mission.
The former dancer was quite shocked when the dumpster she was hiding
behind had its contents practically explode from the bin when two previously
hidden forms leaped high into the night air.
Boomers!
"What?!?!" was her startled cry before she jumped from her old spot, one
of the Boomers made a small crater with its fist as it missed her narrowly.
The other started shooting at her as she weaved and dodged the sudden hail of
firepower.
She had figured she could take these two on but then the two Boomers
that had exited the building a little earlier arrived, their disguises shed
and ready for battle.
One Boomer was behind her now, blocking the way out while the two from
the building blocked the other way, and the fourth was rising into a crouch
from where it had tried to hit her. Linna's heart pounded frantically as the
four began to advance.
This was bad. Real, REAL bad.

Sylia nodded to Nene, who nodded back, a little nervously but otherwise
all right. The white-suited Saber burst through the door with Nene following
close behind.
The room was filled with blinking panels and screens, but was empty save
for a large chair at the end of the room with someone visibly sitting in it
and making unknown adjustments on the panels.
"Freeze!" Sylia ordered, aiming her palm blaster at the unknown
controller, who immediately stopped. And turned the chair around to reveal
herself to be a very attractive blonde woman, with a distinct lack of fear
and/or startlement that took Sylia slightly aback.
"So," the woman said, smiling at the armoured invaders to her domain.
"Knight Sabers."
Nene gave a startled exclamation and pointed at two screens. "Look!"
Sylia did and found herself biting off her own reaction; each screen
showed Linna and Priss fighting. Linna with a bunch of Boomers in her alley
and looking overwhelmed, and Priss fighting some monster Boomer in a large
room that was likely somewhere in the same building they were in.
"Call them off," Sylia ordered the woman in an icy tone that showed she
meant business.
"Really?" The woman smiled again and swivelled her chair around so that
she was mostly hidden from sight again. "And you'll kill me if I don't? That
would be too bad seeing as we were waiting such a long time for you to come."
"What?!" Sylia and Nene exclaimed.
"And we DO want you to stay."
Then the floor beneath Sylia and Nene erupted with a powerful electrical
discharge, freezing their systems and making them scream, before exploding.
The two Sabers lost consciousness in fire and pain. They landed hard on the
floor after hitting a transparent shield that they hadn't seen, which had
safely protected the other occupant of the room.
Yanda stood and walked over to the stronger-than-steel plastic that
separated her from the two Sabers. She looked the two forms over carefully as
if thinking of something else.
And smiled as she approvingly patted the transparent shield.

Priss cursed venomously before dodging a swing that would have taken her
head off. What the FUCK was this...this goddamned THING?!?!? She had entered
this darkened room and had immediately known it was a trap when the door
slammed shut behind her. She had whirled around when she saw something rise
out of the darkness, and rise, and rise.
The Boomer was twelve feet tall, if not taller, massive as hell, and had
not spoken a word or growl since its initial attack. She could see openings
for laser lens on its chest, particle cannons on the arms, and even a few
missile holders at the waist. It hadn't fired any of that armament though.
The reason for this became painfully obvious: to demonstrate it didn't NEED
them to beat the crap out of her.
And the maddening thing about it was that it didn't. She hadn't
hesitated using her own weapons, but its thick armour was too strong to
penetrate and it was fast despite the bulky appearance; her hardsuit was
dented and she was bruised underneath. The Knight Saber's main strength was
teamwork, but she was alone against this monster.
"Goddamn Boomer!" she shouted in frustration. She almost got hit again
when hidden speakers came to life.
"Ha hah hah hah hah!" cackled a male voice, "Do you like my little
creation, Knight Saber?"
"Who the fuck are you? Argh!!" Priss finished with a cry of pain as the
Boomer connected and launched her across the room to painfully land ten feet
away.
"Someone who you have faced before, or at least my beautiful creations,"
and the voice turned ugly, "before you destroyed them!! I am Doctor Miriam!"
the voice declared arrogantly.
"Yeah? Go to hell!" Priss groaned out as she managed to stand again.
Unfortunately, she did remember the name from the incident at ADPolice and
knew things were Not Good at the moment.
There was an incoherent growl over the speakers but when he spoke again
the doctor had calmed down. "As much as I would like to send you there first,
I regretfully cannot right now. However..."
Faster than it had moved before, the Boomer leaped forwards and grabbed
the blue Knight Saber by the neck and raised her slightly off the ground. The
suit afforded some protection against the strangulation, but not much.
Breathing was hard to do at the moment.
"...that does not mean I can't have some measure of enjoyment."
The last thing Priss saw was the Boomer's fist coming towards her head,
after that same fist had pummled her stomach a few times of course.
Then blackness swallowed her whole to the tune of Miriam's laughter.

Linna was starting towards the fading edge of unconsciousness rapidly as
she was continually punched by the Boomer in front of her. She had taken one
of her opponents out with her charged mono-ribbons, but one had gotten a grip
on one of her arms long enough for another of its kind to grab her other arm.
Then the third had started pounding on her before she could retaliate, but
not as hard as it could have, oddly.
Why don't they finish me off? Linna thought, somewhat dazed. Then an
extra hard punch doubled her over and the two androids holding her dropped
her unceremoniously to the ground. The green Saber tried standing up, but
stopped when she noticed the Boomers weren't attacking anymore and were even
backing away. Something was up and she found out what when a familiar voice
cut through the ringing in her ears.
"Knight Saber."
Linna jerked her head up to find the owner of the voice. Her eyes
widened behind her helmet and she gasped aloud in shock. It COULDN'T be!! He
was DESTROYED!!
"I have a...present for you to deliver."
And the one known as Largo laughed.

Chapter Thirty-Six
==================

He'd been told his objective was here.
The information given him was correct, the bitch was in the club. What
he hadn't expected was for her to be singing onstage. He never had much of an
ear for music, but even he could tell she wasn't doing badly; which probably
translated to excellent for people who cared. Doing what he came to do in
front of everyone in this shit club probably wasn't wise, but who gave a
fuck; he'd love an audience for when he confronted the bitch.
No. Not bitch.
Darlene. At last he finally had a name for the slut.
It would make killing her far more satisfying.

"Would you like another drink?"
Leon looked up at the waitress with a smile and shook his head before
turning back to watch the stage. I wonder how much longer she'll go, he
wondered, she's almost gone through all of Priss' songs, not that it looks
like she's going to be able to continue for much longer.
True enough, however euphoric the music was to Darlene, it was loosing
its hold on the tired red-head as she finished another song. The groans
behind her when the band stopped playing echoed her own feelings. She
couldn't believe she had sung for, she checked a large digital clock on one
wall, two and a half bloody HOURS?!? She would have shivered but lacked the
energy. Getting lost in the music had been freaky, she forcibly ignored the
yearning feeling the recollection of her trance-like state caused. One more
song, then that's it for me, she decided.
She picked up the mike, and with a slightly hoarse voice said, "I think
one more and then I gotta quit folks." She coughed. "My throat ain't used to
this despite the fun." And I'm pooped to boot, she added to herself, hearing
the band behind her sigh in relief. There were groans in the crowd at her
words but after the longer than usual session they had little to complain
about.
Except for one person.
"Awwww... Is the little bitch tired?" a voice called out. Most of the
crowd swivelled to look for the source of the comment. A big man with a sneer
on his face below dark shades was walking towards the stage, people moving
aside for him when they saw his size.
"Pardon me??" Darlene demanded over the mike, not a little disturbed for
she felt she knew this person coming closer to the stage. "Who are you?"
"Oh no, you've forgotten me. Well, I certainly haven't forgotten you,
slut!" He held up an arm, making the jacket he wore slide down and expose the
metallic limb underneath.
The mage's blood, which had started to boil, cooled when she saw the
arm. "Steelfist," she said flatly, the shades had confused her but the arm
and the manner was a dead giveaway.
"Bingo," was his snarled response.
Uh oh, Leon thought warily as he watched events unfolding below him.
What did Darlene do to this asshole? I think I'd better get closer. And the
ADPoliceman left his seat, heading for the stairs to the lower level.
"Yeah, well, I wasn't particularly concerned with your welfare after
what you and your gang tried to do to me and my friends," Darlene told
Steelfist, who had reached the area below the stage. She wasn't surprised
when he vaulted up onto the stage with one of his hands; the asshole wouldn't
care for him talking up to her.
"You ruined my fucking arm, bitch!" he shouted.
She took a breath to calm herself; any more remarks like that and she'd
probably hate herself in the morning for breaking every bone in his body.
"Not hard for someone trained in martial arts style I've trained in. Now get
of the bloody stage! I don't want to have to do more to you." Her mood wasn't
improved by his scornful laughter.
"More!" Steelfist laughed again. "Oh, it's way too late for that,
bitch."
"Stop. Calling. Me. That," Darlene grated out.
"Got to show you my big surprise first."
"What??"
"Yeah," Steelfist said, smiling for the first time. He reached up and
took off his glasses.
His eyes were the red eyes of a Boomer.
Skin shredded and flew away with clothing as internal bio-technical
systems expanded the former human into a Boomer's battlemode. He looked
somewhat like a 55-C Boomer, but instead of a factory-made precision look his
exterior was like sun-heated plastic, it was slightly deformed in appearance.
More organic.
Taking advantage of Darlene's wide-eyed shock, Steelfist moved with
beyond human speed and caught the red-head by the throat with one of his huge
metal hands. He lifted the choking Darlene with one hand, making her dangle
in the air. "Like I said: surprise." The voice was now the only indication
that one could tell Steelfist was amused.
When the crowd had seen the transformation, people immediately started
running away from the scene; Mega-Tokyo residents knew very well what a
Boomer could do. Leon was hard pressed as he tried to force his way in the
opposite direction. When he was through, he took in the sight of Darlene
being held by the throat by an unusual-looking Boomer, swore, and pulled out
his gun. "ADPolice! Let the girl go!" he ordered the machine.
Steelfist laughed and aimed his free arm at the detective, who ducked
behind a concrete support pillar; just in time too, as the android began
firing the machine gun built into its arm.
Darlene, who was starting to see spots of light, took advantage of the
distraction and summoned her sword. With its usual purple flash, it appeared
in her right hand and she thrust it forward. The blade plunged into
Steelfist's lower torso and causing him considerable pain when she jerked the
ultra-sharp blade out roughly, spilling Boomer fluids from the wound.
"You fucking bitch!" he snarled, halting fire on Leon so he could cover
the wound until it sealed. In furious anger, the once-human Steelfist threw
the blacking-out red-head at another large concrete pillar with beyond-human
strength. Darlene flew almost in a straight line at the column, until she
hit. Her eyes jerked open in shocked pain as concrete slammed into her from
behind with piledriver force. For a moment she hung there, the stone wall
showing cracks around her slightly embedded form, then her eyes rolled up
into her head and she slowly fell forward onto the ground.
"Darlene!!" Leon shouted, shocked and stunned. Hearing the Boomer's
malicious laugh the brown-haired officer's eyes narrowed and his face became
grim. Stepping out from behind his cover, he aimed his gun and fired several
rounds at the killer machine. All he managed to do was catch its attention.
"If you wanted to play, asshole, why didn't you just say so?" the Boomer
commented evilly, standing straight as it no longer leaked fluids and curled
an arm so that a fist was pointed in a 45 degree angle from the floor. A
foot-long blade snicked out from a sheath and gleamed evilly in the club
lights.
Oh fuck, Leon thought as the Boomer jumped off the stage and started
walking confidently in his direction, now what the hell do I do now?
Stall, he decided. Stall a LOT.
"So what's your problem anyway, you damn Boomer?" he called out, keeping
the solid pillar between him and the android. He had no illusions he would
last very long against the thing with just his gun. Hell, it would likely be
the shortest fight he'd ever have for the rest of his brief life.
"I lost my gang because of that bitch. Now she's dead and you'll be
next," Steelfist replied, smoothly circling the column that Leon was trying
to keep between the two with a predator's ease.
"Gang?? Since when do Boomers have gangs??" Leon was beginning to
believe this thing was seriously demented.
"Boomers don't, but then I only became one recently."
"WHAT?!" Leon couldn't believe his ears. "Are you saying you used to be
human?!" He stopped when the Boomer paused.
"Yeah, cop. And loving being a Boomer." Steelfist posed his newly
robotic body mockingly. "The latest secret technology: little, tiny machines
that can do some amazing shit on a person. I'm not really a true Boomer
because I was human but I'm close enough to make the difference not worth
crap." The thing clenched a fist from remembered anger. "My own gang threw me
out and my life was becoming one that was being thrown into a dumpster. Until
someone...helped me." The android chuckled. "Now I'm getting my revenge."
"Is revenge worth losing your humanity?" Leon demanded.
"Why should I care? Humans are fucking nothing." Steelfist moved
ominously closer and scraped the armblade chillingly along the concrete
column's surface. "Just like you're gonna be."
Leon was about to reply to that when a flying chair smashed into the
Boomer's head, staggering it forward a bit from sheer surprise but otherwise
leaving it unharmed. Steelfist whirled around angrily, and snarled at what he
saw. Leon's expression was one of relieved surprise and renewed concern.
Darlene glared from across the room, her thinking was a little fuzzy but
her anger was certainly not. Her throat had been hurt by the Boomer's tight
fist and she couldn't talk at the moment. The chair she had thrown had gotten
her opponent's attention so she clenched her fists and charged headlong
towards the blue android, a glow starting to form around her right fist.
Steelfist roared his own fury, the bitch was tougher than he had thought
but he had more tricks up his sleeve. His chest panels opened, revealing an
array of lens for his heat weapon. His prey responded by dramatically
increasing her momentum and headed straight for him! Stupid bitch! he thought
scornfully as the array started to glow. Time to FRY!
What happened next was too fast for Leon to see. Just as Steelfist
started to fire, Darlene leaped ahead, glowing fist first. She connected
microseconds after Steelfist's weapon went off and the mage started to burn.
However, the ki force she had collected around her fist exploded outwards.
She had experimented with the directionless energies she had aimed at Leon in
her past fury at finding him in her bed. It was a new technique, fairly
simple to build up, but hard to sustain until the strike. Dubbed the
'Concussion Fist' it lived up to its name as the blast it created shattered
the lens in Steelfist's chest and causing massive energy feedback from the
disrupted firing. The two fighters flew apart from the blast and the
android's misfire. Darlene landed hard on a table, shattering it, while
Steelfist slammed hard into the column Leon had been using for cover and was
still.
"Damn it!" Leon swore as he ran to kneel beside the slightly smoking
mage. "What the HELL were you thinking of??" he demanded of the semi-
conscious Darlene.
She managed a sheepish, if painful, shrug as she struggled to get up.
Her skin was blistered in some places, and reddish on the rest. The wig was
still smoking as she weakly took it off and let it drop to the floor. When
Darlene noticed Leon waiting for a reply she pointed at her throat and made
a croaking sound. He understood what that meant.
"Can't talk?" The red-head nodded, then put on an expression of surprise
when the ADPolice officer slid arms beneath her and picked her up. She would
have protested but her throat wouldn't allow that. "Yeah, I know; you don't
need my help, right?" Leon said, and chuckled at the sheepish look she gave
him knowing that was what she would have said if she had been able too.
"Frankly, you look like hell, Darlene."
"And that's where you'll both be going, you shitheads!"
Even burdened by Darlene's weight, Leon instinctively ducked forwards
just enough to miss being sliced in half by a blue particle beam. He knew the
open area was suicide for them to be running around so he ran for backstage.
"You don't get away THAT easily, bastards!" Steelfist snarled. He
started forward to pursue but then he was hit by a literal shower of bullets
from above. ADPolice had finally arrived. Several of them were on the second
story while the rest were on the first. All firing at the once human
Steelfist.
The android couldn't afford being hit in a vital spot now; his internal
circuits in his chest region were burnt out in a major way from the blast,
limiting his mobility severely. He computed possibilities and almost laughed
at the obvious solution. "Check THIS out, cops!" he cried out, and, in an
apparently suicidal manouver, jumped closer to the officers on the level he
was on. Now he could do what he wanted; which was to cut a huge semi-circle
out of the upper floor with his mouth cannon. The loss of support caused the
second story, and the cops above with it, to collapse onto those beneath.
Steelfist had jumped safely back and gazed at his handiwork. "Don't mess with
a Boomer when he's got a job to do, assholes," he said mockingly before
turning away.
He still had prey to kill.

Leon sighed with relief as they exited into the night air via the back
door. He'd heard the commotion as they had left and knew that ADPolice had
finally arrived. The loud crash and following silence hadn't sounded good
though.
"How are you doing?" he asked Darlene, who was looking more alert than
she had been a few minutes ago.
"Beh...tah," she croaked out. "Fah heela." It was true; her skin looked
a little better already.
"Why didn't you blast him with a spell?" Leon finally asked as he tried
to decide what to do next. Darlene's annoyed pointing to her throat clued him
in on why she hadn't. "You need to talk for that?" The Look she gave him was
answer enough, and he wondered how women were able to communicate that 'gee,
I'm glad you finally figured it out, Einstein' message with just a facial
expression. Leon decided to let her stand on her own then if she felt that
good and gently placed her on her feet. She wobbled a bit on the first step,
but steadied herself on the next and sighed in relief at being able to stand
again.
"Wih wai?" she croaked.
The wall belonging to Hot Legs exploded and they both ducked for cover.
When they looked up, the blue form of the transformed Steelfist stood in the
hole that he had made, light from inside shadowing him ominously before he
stepped into the alley.
"Here we go again," Leon muttered.
"You've cost me a lot of pain, losers," Steelfist announced. Leon and
Darlene had to duck behind a trash bin when the android fired some bullets in
their direction. "I'm REALLY gonna enjoy ripping your guts out."
"Ah...excuse me?" a voice asked. The shooting stopped. "Can you tell me
where I am?" Startled, Leon and Darlene looked at each other then peeked
around the dumpster and saw a familiar, thoroughly misplaced person.
Ryouga?!?!
Steelfist was too angry to note the unusual attire of the bandanna-
wearing young man. "Do you think I give a shit, asshole? I'm busy!" He shot
a few bullets at the eternally lost boy, but with his lightning fast reflexes
Ryouga managed to dodge.
"Why did you attack me?!" he demanded, then noticed the two further down
the alley. "Darlene? Leon?" Steelfist was surprised at this.
"So, you know them? Then I guess I have one more piece of shit to kill."
If he knew Ryouga better he would have known not to say something like
that, Darlene reflected to herself as she saw the fanged boy almost visibly
swell with anger. "Ooo... Ba' 'ove." Leon looked at her in puzzlement but she
just smirked at him.
Ryouga had been suppressing his anger and despair ever since he had
found out he had somehow wandered into another universe. Now this metal thing
was threatening to kill him AND the only person who could send him back home.
No!!!
He grabbed several bandannas from his head and started spinning them
with a furious expression.
"What the fuck are you doing? Waving surrender?" Steelfist laughed, not
noticing Darlene pull Leon behind the dumpster for cover.
The furious martial artist loosed slightly over ten of his ki-charged
bandannas at Steelfist, who was just beginning to wonder where the young man
had got all the bandannas from but just stood there amused. He wasn't amused
for long; several sheered through sections of his legs, severing many
supporting biotech muscles and moving joints. He started to fall as others
went through his arms, torso, and one partly through his head. If he had
moved, less would have hit but, unknowing of the deadliness of the bandanna
in a Hibiki's hands, instead stood still and presented a prefect target for
Ryouga.
Steelfist collapsed to the ground, feeling the pain and major systems
failures that his body told him about. Hearing an external noise, Steelfist
looked up and saw a descending fist with his one good optic.
Then he saw no more.

Leon stared as Ryouga, with an expression of disgust at the greasy
fluids on his hand, pulled his fist out of the crushed skull of the Boomer
who used to be Steelfist. "How...?"
Darlene coughed. "'Ouga berry 'ood fighter," she managed and was pleased
with the results; her voice was improving.
"I wonder if he's interested in joining ADPolice," he mused as the
destroyer of the android came over to them after a puzzled glance at the
fallen machine. Darlene snickered, knowing there wasn't much chance of that,
and headed for the door. "Hey, where are you going?" Leon called out,
surprised.
The red-head turned around with an annoyed look and used her hands to
call attention to the rest of her body. The top she was wearing was slightly
charred, but the plastic pants must be painful when they were melted like the
way they looked now. She was also barefoot, having lost those high heels
somewhere along the way. In short, she was a mess; a fact not truly noticed
by Leon until she called his attention to it. And upon seeing his sheepish
look she stomped back into the building to change back into her normal
clothes.
"Um...Leon?" Ryouga's puzzled voice turned Leon's attention back to the
young man. "What was that thing I took out doing here?"
The ADPoliceman sighed and started explaining.

Chapter Thirty-Seven
====================

"Oh man, I hurt," Darlene croaked as she sank into the passenger seat of
Leon's car. At least she could talk semi-normally now but bruises were
beginning to show on her neck where the transformed Steelfist had gripped
her, she touched them briefly before flinching from the pain. Another person
sitting in the back made her turn around. "By the way, Ryouga, thanks for the
rescue." Her smile made the normally shy young man turn slightly red at the
praise.
"It was no trouble," he said, but hopeful eyes focused on her. "How long
before we can go back?"
"Probably another day or two." She saw joy flare in his eyes and warned,
"I had a breakthrough a few days ago but I need to test it first." The
driver's door opened then.
"Test what?" Leon asked as he got behind the driver's seat.
"The spell to take me and Ryouga back to the universe we came from,"
Darlene said, seeing no reason not to tell him. He turned to look at her in
shock in the middle of starting the car.
"You're leaving?" Darlene nodded reluctantly. "Have you told Priss and
the others?"
"I was tonight, but she left," she said crossly, still mildly annoyed at
what the singer had gotten her into.
Leon started the car and began the drive to Darlene's place without a
word. The mage noticed this and asked, "Sorry to see me go?"
"Well, yeah," he admitted, "I may not have been as close as the others
to you but I consider you a friend. You talk like it'll be a long time before
you come back and I hate those kind of good-byes."
"Oh, I see." Darlene smiled mischievously. "Guess I haven't told you
about the funny things crossing universes does to travellers." Leon glanced
at her, puzzled.
"Pardon?"
"I could spend fifty years outside this universe and come back at almost
the exact time I left. It will be a long time for me, but considering I have
a longer than usual lifetime ahead of me I doubt you'll notice."
"Really??" Leon pondered this. "I always wanted to have a year's
vacation in a day," he mused, making Darlene laugh.
"Maybe next time."

When Leon dropped the two off at the store, Darlene certainly didn't
expect Sylvie, Anri, Linna, and Mackie anxiously waiting for her.
"Darlene! Thank god you're back! I... What happened to you?!" Linna
exclaimed in disbelief, finally seeing the red-head's injuries.
"Somebody Borged that Steelfist guy we fought when I first arrived."
Uncomprehending eyes stared at her so she sighed and tried again. "Somebody,
somehow, turned him into a Boomer and he attacked me at Hot Legs." She
winced. "Took me by surprise but Ryouga finally wandered by and destroyed
him."
"But I left him at..." Linna stopped trying to understand Ryouga's
presence and shook her head angrily. "We don't have TIME for this! Mackie,
show her." The black-haired, younger brother of Sylia nodded and picked up
some kind of remote video viewer, giving it to Darlene after pushing a button
on a small keypad. The face that appeared on the monitor jolted Darlene so
much she almost dropped the machine.
Largo!
"Good evening to those who watch this little recording of mine," the
image of the long-thought-dead hyperboomer spoke, "and most of all to the
Crystal Knight, to whom I truly hope sees this before sunrise tonight. Sadly,
you were not with the Knight Sabers as I had hoped but I let one go in the
hopes that she would be able to contact you." Largo's face smiled. "We have
a score to settle, you and I, and with three of the Knight Sabers as hostages
I feel you will find my invitation most compelling." He chuckled evilly.
Darlene's gaze could've burned holes in the screen.
"This should be amusing. Here is what I have planned: Priss, oh yes I
know all their names, will be located here," and an image of Mega-Tokyo
sprang up to dominate most of the screen, a flashing green dot supposedly the
place Largo mentioned as he went on. "You, Crystal Knight, will go to a
second location," and a red dot appeared on the other side of the city, near
the edge of Mega-Tokyo ended. "Alone. And enter through the gates. If you do
not, all three hostages will die and I will release all the Boomers I have
into the city. If you do not come before sunrise tonight I will do this
anyway.
"Do come soon," he finished jovially.
The image of Largo disappeared, leaving the map and the two flashing
blips on the screen.
"Have you located both places, Mackie?" Darlene asked in a tight voice.
"Yes."
The red-head nodded, then proceeded to crush the viewer between her two
hands. As the pieces fell to the floor, she commented, "That felt good." The
sonofabitch! she mentally growled to herself. "I guess I don't need to figure
out who was behind the attack on me at Hot Legs. But it sounded like he
didn't know the relationship between the Crystal Knight and I. That's
something the bastard would've definitely mentioned if he knew."
"So what do we do?" Linna worried.
"About the part with the Crystal Knight? Not much choice there, but for
Priss he didn't mention anything so he likely expects a rescue attempt, and
doesn't care if someone attempts it. How's your hardsuit?" she asked Linna.
"Not in good shape," the raven-haired Saber worried.
"That's okay, I'll fix it before you go."
"Is there anything we can do?" Sylvie said. "Priss is our friend too."
Darlene hesitated. "There WAS something I...fixed, but... No," she shook
her head. "No, you can't."
"Fix? Darlene, if you have something I can use to save Priss then tell
me!" Sylvie demanded.
"Even the D.D.?" sighed Darlene.
Sylvie paled and looked shaken, Anri looked at her with concern. For
good reason; the D.D. Battlemover had been the weapon Sylvie had used to get
the data disk containing the information to make her and Anri no longer
dependant on human blood. But the battle computer's AI had taken control when
Sylvie had been wounded during a battle with two security Boomers, and had
initiated a timer to detonate a micro-neutron bomb that would've destroyed
Mega-Tokyo. Priss had had to wound her fatally to deactivate the D.D. and it
was only Twister's intervention that had saved her.
Priss...
The sexaroid cast off her fear and with renewed determination told
Darlene, "Even that!" Darlene nodded; it was her choice.
"You don't need to worry much about it, actually.. I altered a lot of
the hardware and DEFINITELY rewrote certain parts of the software. It won't
take over like last time. I thought of giving it to you as a joke but when I
finished I realized that wouldn't be such a good idea and left it in
mothballs."
"So it'll be just me and Sylvie?" Linna said.
"I'll help," Mackie and Ryouga offered at the same time.
"No way, Mackie! You don't have the combat experience," Linna told him
firmly. "I don't want to tell Sylia that I let you get killed." The teenager
looked rebellious, but knew the truth when he heard it. "We'll need you in
the van again."
"Not you either, Ryouga," Darlene added. "You were lucky today that it
was Steelfist you fought and not a true combat Boomer. They play for keeps
and I don't want to tell Akane and Ranma you were killed by some crazy
androids in another dimension." That got to him, and the lost boy's anger
deflated. Which was good; while he was an excellent martial artist, he wasn't
trained to fight hordes of Boomers. She frowned. "Two isn't enough though.
Even with the modified D.D. you'll need help..."
Then she got an idea.

"Leon!" An officer shouted. "Phone for you!"
"Got it," Leon replied as he picked up the receiver and pushed a button
on his phone. What appeared on his vid-screen made him sit bolt-upright in
shocked surprise.
"Long time no see, officer McNichol," the Blue Bullet said, face
obscured as usual by his blue helmet. "I suppose this is a bit of a shock."
"Given that you are supposed to be dead, that's an understatement!" was
all Leon could come up with as a retort. The Bullet chuckled.
"I'd love to chat longer but I have little time. I've heard that two of
your officers have acquired some...unusual abilities."
"You hear some funny rumours..." Leon replied neutrally.
"Well, here's another: apparently, the Knight Sabers ran into some
trouble with an old enemy and were caught." Leon's stomach muscles tightened.
"One was released to inform certain parties. That party will be going
somewhere while another place was set up to occupy any help he might call.
The bait's the blue suited Saber."
Priss. Damn it! "So why are you calling me?" he demanded.
"The enemy is the mastermind behind all those Boomer thefts weeks ago.
Isn't that ADPolice's department, or rather, YOUR department, Inspector?"
"That's right."
"To ensure the survival of the Saber I've convinced the remaining Saber
and...another to accept you, your partner, and those two unique officers I
mentioned. I suspect they'll need the help. Do you wish to accept?" Leon
frowned at the screen.
"I suspect you know the answer or else you wouldn't have bothered to
call." He sighed, knowing he didn't really have a choice. "All right, where?"
"Meeting point being transmitted. They'll meet you there." The Bullet
paused. "Thank you, Leon." The image blipped out, leaving the information
that had been received behind.
Leon sighed again and sat back wearily in his chair. This was going to
be one of those long, long nights.

"WHAT is THAT??" Linna exclaimed in disgusted fascination at the gooey
concoction Darlene was scarfing down like there was no tomorrow. She had come
up to tell the red-head they were ready only to find her eating...something.
Darlene paused.
"Honey, some sugar, chocolate sundae syrup, more sugar, peanut butter,
yet more sugar, molasses, milk... Did I forget to mention sugar?"
Despite her hurry to get moving, Linna turned almost as green as her
suit. "My God! How can you EAT that?!?!"
"I have to. I want to make sure I have enough energy for this trap." The
rest of the stuff oozed out when she quickly put the drinking glass to her
lips and drank. When she finished, she looked at Linna. "Don't worry, I'm
almost done," she added, pointing to an extremely large cooking pot where
Linna realized Darlene had mixed everything together.
The aerobics instructor fled downstairs.
Darlene finally relaxed and grimaced, revealing her disgust; the stuff
WAS terrible, but she felt she had to have this extra energy. Still... She
shuddered as she refilled the glass.
She stuck her tongue out.
"Yuck!"

"Do you have any idea why Leon called US in particular, and to meet
HERE?"
Bochinski sighed at looked at his partner, definitely not an
unattractive view since the changes they had both been through. Of course,
Wadderson's change was more obvious than his own, which had been a constant
reminder to his poor friend. Leon had managed to give them a few week's leave
to come to terms with what had happened, but Wadderson hadn't contacted
his...HER partner at all during those weeks. He didn't mind; he understood
the change from muscular macho officer to Mega-Tokyo locker room pinup
must've been a hell of a shock.
She seemed to be coping though, he noticed, and hadn't requested another
partner. The long blonde hair that had grown was tied in tight braids;
possibly a bad idea to keep hair that long, but after that session in the gym
he knew GRABBING those locks was a bad idea. Wadderson had jerked her head
violently and he had went flying; her strength was unbelievable. At least she
wore a uniform that fit her now. He mentally smiled; some criminals would
probably beg to be arrested by his partner.
For himself, there wasn't much to do, other than mailing his sister out
the silverware set of his she had always admired. Bad luck; he had liked that
set, but it had just driven him up the wall to have it in his house. His
sense of smell had improved phenomenally, it was good that he was a bachelor
who liked a clean apartment. But while he knew about the healing ability, the
silver, and his sense of smell, he didn't have a clue on how to transform
into a werewolf. The elf had said he had full control, but that was not
necessarily a good thing if you had no idea on how to change and wanted to.
I'll just have to stumble onto it, somehow, Bochinski mused.
"Hey! Did you hear what I said?" Wadderson said, annoyed, braking into
Bochinski's reverie. He shook his head to clear it.
"Sorry, bud. Just thinking about some stuff," he apologized. "And no, I
don't have a clue."
"Damn."
"So what DID you do all that time when you didn't bother calling me?" he
asked curiously. "And what happened with your girlfriend?"
Wadderson didn't reply immediately, which surprised her partner
considerably as she hadn't taken being transformed into a woman very well.
When she did, she spoke hesitantly. "Lynn couldn't believe it at first, but
I still acted like myself and after being together for a year she knows me
pretty well. We...talked." Wadderson looked away from her partner. "She still
loves me, can you believe that?" She shook her head in disbelief. "Christ,
you know what a looker she is, Bochinski, but I really never appreciated HER
until now. Lynn's helping me cope," she turned back to look at Bochinski and
her voice firmed as she smiled, "and I'm not quitting ADPolice either. It's
the one thing that's stayed constant." She snorted. "Do you know how many
people I had to shout at to keep on? I had to demonstrate that I could still
do my job, fairly spectacularly too."
"How many other 'offers' did you get?" Bochinski asked with a small
grin, his partner looked at him with annoyance.
"Frankly, I lost count." Her head turned as she spotted something
approaching. Bochinski looked as well and saw it was Leon and Daley.
"Finally!" Wadderson said, relieved to get off the topic they had wondered
into.
"Hey, you two. Sorry to call you so late," Leon said with a smile as he
and Daley got out of the car. With a more serious tone, he asked, "How is
everything with you guys?"
"Dealing, sir. What did you expect?" Wadderson told him.
"Ah, too bad we couldn't switch places," Daley sighed.
"You would say that," Leon snorted, interrupting the blonde's response.
"Alright, we've got weapons in the trunk so we'd better get them ready while
we're waiting."
Wadderson and Bochinski looked at each other in surprise, then Leon.
"Who are we expecting, sir? And what's happening?" Bochinski asked.
A hissing of air behind the altered pair caught everyone's attention.
When all turned to see what had made the sound they saw a green armoured
figure land gracefully on the ground. The ribbons attached to her helmet
fluttered momentarily behind her before settling down. "I see you're all
here. Great," the green Knight Saber said in a distorted, yet feminine, voice
that sounded quite anxious.
Leon scratched his head and gave a half-smile at his fellow officers'
staring startlement. "I guess I should explain."
"I'm glad I don't have a dull partner," Daley sighed.
Leon frowned, noticing something. "I was told there'd be someone else
with you."
There was a heavy THUD of something landing behind them and everyone
whirled again. And looked up in shock at the dark, metallic giant that had
somehow arrived unseen by them. Leon recognized it despite the altered
appearance and swallowed hard.
"You just HAD to say that, didn't you, Leon?" a stunned Daley commented.

Chapter Thirty-Eight
====================

"I still can't believe I'm doing this," Wadderson muttered as the group
crept down a large and dark passageway.
"Shh!" the Knight Saber hissed.
The blonde woman gave the green hardsuit a glare, but quieted. She had
the feeling that she had fallen into one of those weird sci-fi/action films
she had used to watch as a kid. Here she was, a woman who used to be a man
following a high technological combat hardsuit, and her partner beside her
was now supposedly a werewolf. Probably the only normal person in the group
was her boss, Inspector McNichol, who was following behind them as the
group's rear guard. Their 'ally' was supposedly doing that somewhere, but he
was being cautious. His partner Daley didn't count; she knew HIS reputation.
Wadderson reassured herself by gripping the gun she had chosen from what Leon
had brought.
Leon knew about her strength so he had brought a GSB Cannon; where he
had got it she didn't know and figured she didn't WANT to know. The reason
for this was the raw firepower each shot the ultimate weapon unleashed. It
was supposed to be a mounted weapon and each round could take out a Boomer,
aimed properly or not; if it hit even NEAR a vital spot an android would be
toast. No normal human could hold it up, much less carry it around.
She held it like an unwieldy rifle.
And that mysterious second arrival... She shivered at the memory and
glanced around, but it wasn't anywhere to be seen in the large factory
passageway.
The factory had been shut down by Genom after some nutball scientist who
had worked here had tried to blow up ADPolice headquarters. Stupid to close
down the building, but she supposed it would've been bad press for someone in
Genom's monolithic corporate structure so they had shut it down.
Now it was being used to hold a Knight Saber, and by the same people who
stole a whole bunch of Boomers weeks ago. Whoever was masterminding this was
seriously cracked, or else holding one heck of a grudge. She had been told
the Saber was still alive. Why? One conclusion that Leon had mentioned, and
that the green Saber had agreed with, disturbed Wadderson.
Bait.
Give me a break! And of course we're going in like dumb fish about to
swallow the hook with the worm on it.
She spotted movement ahead, and stopped. Everyone else saw it too.
Well, whomever these guys are, Wadderson thought as she gripped her
mammoth weapon tighter, these fishies have some humungous teeth. They crept
out into a large production room.
Then the lights came on.

The scene was shown on a viewscreen deeper in the factory.
"Looks like someone showed up after all."
"Waste of effort if you ask me."
"True. But humans can be so sentimental."
"Hmm. You may have a point."
"YOU GODDAMN MACHINES! WHEN I GET OUT OF THESE I'LL RIP YOUR FUCKING
HEADS OFF!!" Priss screamed at her two Boomer captors, enraged. She was still
in her hardsuit, but after her ill-fated battle it served better as a
straightjacket than armour. The emergency eject was disabled so she couldn't
get out. Strapped to a Boomer holding slab, she was helpless to anything but
talk or watch. Her smashed helmet visor was pushed up to enable her to see
what was happening to her rescuers in the factory.
She recognized Linna in her hardsuit, but what were Leon, Daley, and
those two other ADPolice officers doing with her? Her unwelcome 'companions'
had told her upon waking up that Nene and Sylia had been captured too, but
were not in the factory. She'd demanded why and the answer had given her
chills.
Lures. That's what they all were being used as. Sylia and Nene to draw
out the Crystal Knight, and herself for everyone else. But she had gotten the
impression she was being used more for the case if Darlene came to help.
Whomever had caught her knew the red-head had some strange abilities and
wanted the mage busy. IF she survived a planned attack that should have
occurred at Hot Legs hours ago. Priss had turned cold at that information,
but shrugged it off; she knew Darlene could handle herself quite well.
I wonder what they would think if they found out Darlene and the Crystal
Knight were the same person? she thought sardonically.
Suddenly, her rescuers were shown to be under attack on the screen.
Priss cursed her inability to move and tried not to dwell on the other thing
her captors had told her.
"BASTARDS!!" she screamed, and the androids ignored her.
If her friends succeeded in getting far enough into the factory...
...the Boomers would kill her.

Another beam went over Leon's head and he grimaced at the closeness of
the near-miss. Things were not going well at all; he and Daley had gotten
separated from his people and the Saber when they had all dived for cover
during the initial ambush. Leon had seen a fleeting glimpse of them hurriedly
retreating into another passage with several Boomers in hot pursuit; one of
whom had been subsequently blown out of same passage with the accompanying
roar of Wadderson's newest toy. He himself had been too pressed to find cover
to smile.
"And here I felt mildly disappointed that I missed the action you saw
earlier tonight," Daley commented wryly, wincing as a burst of fire shot over
the their cover.
"Be careful what you wish for."
"Ain't that the truth." Daley took a quick peek over the steel test
plates that served as their protection. And ducked back down before another
volley punched holes through his head. "These guys must be programmed to keep
us from advancing past a certain point, otherwise we'd be dead already."
"How many you figure?" Leon asked as he checked his gun, then the larger
Boomer-Killer he had brought, much smaller then the weapon he had given
Wadderson, but at least he could carry this. Daley carried one as well.
"About five, maybe one or two more. Hard to tell."
Leon sighed, he hoped the others were dealing better than they were.
Suddenly, there was silence. The two ADPolice officers looked at each
other with trepidation; something was up. Cautiously peering over their
protection, they found that the Boomers had emerged from cover and were
arrogantly advancing on the weaker humans' position.
"Damn," Leon cursed quietly. "Guess they figured they'd had enough fun."
"Then we're not going to die laughing; what a relief," Daley said with
gallows humor. Despite the situation, Leon cracked a grin and got ready for
the onslaught, short as it would be.
***CHA-TOOM!!***
At the booming sound, a glowing projectile flew over the detectives'
heads and impacted directly onto a Boomer's chest. There was a split-second
stunned pause, then the Boomer that was hit exploded spectacularly, showering
everything with fragments of itself. Leon and Daley protected themselves from
the shrapnel as they turned to see where the powerful shot had come from.
They recognized it as the Knight Saber's ally, but Leon still experienced a
pang of dread.
The upgraded D.D. Battlemover Mark II had arrived.
The overall design was still relatively intact, Twister had only tried
to improve the machine for it had originally been a prototype and still had
some flaws; in the psionist's mind the neutron bomb had definitely been one.
(He still wondered just WHY the designers had done that, but oh well) The
most obvious change was the 'hips' of the D.D. which were wider now and
allowed for a smoother walk and/or run. The armour and most parts were
enhanced by molecular re-alignment by an application of Twister's
telekinesis, this allowed for greater strength and speed. It was painted a
deep blue, a contrast to the previous reddish hue it had originally been.
Oddly, there were several crystalline diamond shapes placed in certain areas
on the armour. Their function was unknown to the officers, but the diamonds
served as power collectors for the few magical features Twister had
incorporated into the war machine.
As for weapons...
The missiles and mini-cannon were gone; Twister had just altered the war
machine as something to occupy his time and test the technical knowledge he
had gained. A weapons system that would've required making physical bullets
and missiles had been considered pointless, as well as a waste of time.
Instead, two large cylinders with openings on the forward ends were mounted
on the D.D.'s shoulders instead of the machine guns. These were weapons that
shot intense excited particle 'balls' as a substitute for missiles, and were
aimable to a limited degree. They were powerful and needed a lot of energy,
but the big D.D. could handle it. For more firepower and flexible aiming,
single laser cannons were placed on each arm. The weapons he made for the
large machine of destruction had given Twister ideas for his current suit
after his old one was destroyed.
But the main problem had been the D.D.'s main battle computer, the J-1,
which had overridden Sylvie's control in its last fight. Not wanting a hybrid
HAL9000/Terminator in control, Twister did a real number on the re-
programming of the machine; he was a programmer, and having combat computers
go out of control on the user was not a Good Thing to his way of thinking.
With things like Microsoft Windows, fine, it only crashed your system, not
you. It took some time, despite his acquired knowledge of AI systems during
his stay in Mega-Tokyo; the combat skills were jumbled in with the decision-
making processes and keeping the former intact while changing the latter
hadn't been easy.

Driving the altered battlemover, Sylvie had quickly found out the
differences, and had experienced shaking relief at the changes when Twister
had told her about them. The interface now had HER in full control, as it
should have been. She had been late coming to the battle for she had lagged
behind to make sure there would not be an attack from behind. Also, her
improved scanners were helping the much more mobile Linna find Priss, but she
had to reveal herself to save Leon and Daley. The D.D. II was performing
wonderfully.
+Computer, fully charge PBCs. How many more hostiles are there?+ she
thought, and on a screen in front of her she found targeting vectors for each
Boomer. Who had not been idle with the termination of one of their fellows,
they had aimed at the formidable-looking D.D. seconds after the explosion.
Surprisingly, Sylvie smiled.
Crackling energy in the form of two Boomer particle beams from mouth
cannons, a heat wave from another, and machine gun fire from the rest rushed
towards the powerful Battlemover. And passed right through it, without a
scratch. The Boomers, and the two momentarily forgotten ADPolice officers,
gaped at what had happened.
Sylvie didn't let them recover, picking the two androids that had fired
the mouth cannon, she mentally ordered, +Fire!+ Two white balls of energy
were shot out of her shoulder-mounted weapons and hit their targets,
destroying two more of her attackers. With her less-powerful lasers, she
focused both on the closest Boomer and punched smoking holes in head and
middle torso. Linked to the combat computer as she was, and in full control,
she commanded the D.D. with deadly efficiency. It frightened her a little,
but she knew it was mostly the altered J-1 that killed so well, not her. The
alterations made direct control possible, and only if she was unconscious
would the D.D. fully take over. Even then, it had a modified 'idea' of what
an enemy was, which did not include humans. Twister had been very sure about
that.
She ordered the D.D. to rush the Boomers and the war machine complied,
breaking into a smooth gait that ate up the distance between her and the 55-
Cs. They continued to fire at her, but that was futile. How were they to know
that the D.D. they were shooting at wasn't her, but rather her displaced
image? It was one of the few things of magic that Darlene had put on the
machine to make it harder to hit; the purpose of the diamond embedded onto
the outside of the D.D. The computer had offered it to her as a tactical
selection. Surprised, she had selected it, and the image displacement was
working beautifully.
One of the Boomers was facing another way entirely when she grabbed its
head with a large metal hand and, after picking the startled android off the
ground, squeezed. It frantically tried tearing off the crushing force, but
lost the race and the hand closed all the way. Boomer armour and fluids oozed
out from the victorious D.D.'s fingers.
The J-1 signalled a warning and, before Sylvie could react, the D.D.
jumped away from a particle burst. Staying in motion, Sylvie was fervently
thankful Twister had left some control for the J-1 when it came to defense.
The remaining 55-Cs had figured out her displacement trick when she had
physically attacked the Boomer. Too little, too late, she thought grimly,
seeing that only three Boomers remained. Even with them aware of it, it took
little extra time destroying them. The modified D.D. was an unfamiliar
opponent and even before Twister's modifications it had been a powerful
machine.
Sylvie hoped Linna was having as easy a time as she watched the two
detectives uncertainly rise from their cover on her screens.

"DIE, YOU STINKING BOOMERS!!!" Wadderson yelled, blasting away with her
mammoth cannon at the pursuing killer machines coming down the passageway.
Linna didn't dare try fighting them head-on right now; the blonde woman
was blowing large holes in Boomers and walls alike, aim being impossible for
the inexperienced user of the weapon. At least it was keeping them safe while
the Saber collected her thoughts. "Sylvie? Have you found Priss yet?" she
called on their personal encrypted radio link.
"Linna!" Sylvie's relieved voice came back. She had started to become
worried but her friend's call had alleviated some of it. Another of the
D.D.'s mystical additions was a kind of probe which Sylvie had sent into the
factory in search of Priss. And with success. "Yes, I have, but I can't get
the D.D. farther into the factory. You'll have to get her yourself and
there's two Boomers guarding her."
"They won't be a problem," Linna assured her. "What are the
coordinates?" Sylvie relayed them to her and the green Saber signalled her
thanks. Unfortunately, the weapon holding off the Boomers finally ran out of
ammo at that time.
"Shit!" Wadderson swore, seeing the Boomers realize that the weapon was
useless now and beginning to advance.
"Not a good time to hang around here," Bochinski called out as he got up
and started heading further down the hallway. "Come on!"
"No, wait!" Linna cried out, too late, as she saw shadows moving in the
darkness where he was headed.
The officer turned at her cry just as one of the hidden Boomers started
firing. Blood sprayed out in a stream as he was hit many, many times at close
range. His chest virtually exploded as the bullets imparted some of their
energy and kept him turning until he fell to the ground in a bloody heap.
Three Boomers came out of the darkness and stepped over the body, ignoring it
completely.
"Bochinski!" his partner screamed in horror, Linna felt sick over the
pointless death.

"That's the first one," one of Priss' jailers affirmed. The monitor kept
watch over the party in the passage as they were closer to their location
than the pinned-down Leon and Daley.
"I was beginning to wonder when it would happen," the second commented.
"That weapon hindered things a little. The ADPolicewoman must be
stronger than she looks. Think she's a 33-S?"
"Maybe, she looks the type. I doubt it though."
"True, ADPolice would have found out if she was. Pity. She'll die slowly
now, the Boomers are programmed to do that to females. For our guest's
enjoyment, I suppose."
"CUT THE FUCKING COMMENTARY, YOU TIN CANS!!" Priss shouted.

"Get out of here," Wadderson muttered quietly to the armoured woman who
was standing back-to-back with her. The Boomers began advancing from either
side.
"What?!" Linna responded incredulously. "I can't..."
"You're the one who stands the better chance at getting away," the
blonde woman's voice turned ugly, "and I have a score to settle with these
bastards."
"I..." Linna didn't like it, but the woman was right. "I'm sorry."
"Go!" Wadderson shouted, and ran at the two Boomers who were coming from
the direction they had entered the hallway from. She came faster than
expected and surprised them by actually punching one hard enough to send it
flying.
The green Saber took advantage of the unexpected development and ran
towards the three on the other side, gathered herself, and leaped over the
trio. She touched down behind them and ran without a backwards glance, not
wanting to see that would happen to the woman she had left behind. She didn't
look at the fallen officer and vanished into the shadows, her helmet hid her
tears.
If she had, she would have seen the body move.

The trio of Boomers didn't pursue her; they knew what would happen when
she found her fellow Saber. But the other woman...
Incredibly, she was actually holding her own against the two Boomers,
who were wondering how this human was strong enough to battle them physically
without aid. But when the other Boomers joined in, the furious Wadderson was
soon pinned down. Not without effort; the human was both angry at the Boomers
that had killed her partner and fearful of what these machines had planned.
"So," one of the Boomers rumbled at last, "are you a 33-S? You are
obviously not a normal human."
"Figure it out yourself, bastards!" Wadderson shouted.
She regretted those words immediately when another Boomer extended an
arm over her held form and let its armblade slide out. "We intend to.
Slowly," the Boomer said with an evil chuckle that sent stabs of fear through
her heart. With a quick slash, it cut through her pants on one of her held
legs, and a little ways into the skin as a line of red immediately sprang up.
It stung greatly and Wadderson clenched her teeth at the pain. Then the
Boomer drove the blade into the front, fleshy upper part of her leg and
twisted it around roughly. Blood flowed from the wound.
This time she screamed loudly.
A third Boomer considered her response. "Not quite like a 33-S."
"Rip open her chest then to make sure," the first one offered.
"If she IS human, that's too quick," the fourth objected.
"Better if you take it slow," the fifth agreed.
Wadderson moaned as the second Boomer slowly moved the blade around, and
screamed again when it jerked the blade out. It paused momentarily, deciding
where to strike next with its bloody blade.
"Let...my...partner...go!!" growled an angry voice. Quickly, the Boomers
looked for the owner, and drew back a bit in mechanical disbelief. Wadderson
lifted her head up despite the pain in her leg.
And stared.
Standing in the shredded and bloody remains of his uniform, and looking
mighty pissed off, was the presumedly dead Bochinski. The holes in the front
of his shirt showed his blood-covered, but intact, skin. He glared at the
Boomers holding his partner down.
The androids registered this fact with much difficulty. Humans, or even
Boomers for that matter, do NOT just stand up without out a scratch after
being mortally wounded a few minutes earlier. Two stood up from the amazed
Wadderson and faced the ADPoliceman. "Human, however you survived, you won't
do so again," one declared.
Bochinski's response was a snarl, and it didn't sound remotely human as
his eyes, once blue, turned yellow. Before the astounded Boomers' eyes he
started to change. His face, taut with the strain, began to sprout fur. This
was occurring all over his body from what could be seen on the visible
portions of his skin. Nails grew on fingers attached to what became a
powerful mixture of paws and hands. The legs changed, becoming strong hind
legs that could stand upright or on all fours with equal ease, his shoes were
destroyed by expanding and clawed feet. The man's face stretched forwards,
mouth becoming a muzzle with razor-sharp teeth and sporting a keen black
nose. The ears moved position and became a wolf's ears higher on the
transformed officer's head. During the change, Bochinski's form had become
taller and showed lean, vigorous muscles on his new nine-foot height. The
change was now complete, lupin eyes glowing yellow in the darkness.
The fully transformed werewolf howled.
Knowing a threat when they saw one, both Boomers immediately attacked by
opening both their chests and firing their heat weapons. With a supernatural
predator's speed, the wolfman sprang away from the blast of heat and headed
for his prey. The first Boomer he attacked had little time to respond to the
howling fury upon it. Bochinski gripped both of its blue arms and yanked with
savage force, ripping the limbs free with a spray of nutrient fluids and
tossed them away. The second Boomer leapt in and connected hard on the
muscled stomach with a blue fist. It made the officer stagger backwards, but
not without making a swipe of his claws, ripping apart the midsection of his
foe.
Bochinski steadied himself and readied for another attack, but then a
blue beam slashed hungrily for the wolfman and cut him in two. With a gurgle,
the two separate sections of the officer fell to the ground. One of the
Boomers holding the female down had decided to help its fellows with its
mouth cannon.
"NO!!" Wadderson shouted, and began struggling. A Boomer punched her on
the side of the head to stop her squirming, staggering her. Picking her up,
the Boomers twisted both her arms so she couldn't escape and cruelly made her
painfully hobble to the fallen werewolf. The Boomer with the torn front
wasn't getting off the ground and the one without its arms was having a hard
time as well. The three holding her examined the corpse cautiously. But for
some reason Wadderson had quieted, for she strongly suspected something now
that the shock had lessened.
"Bio-genetics experiment?" one wondered.
"Is that right, human?" another Boomer asked Wadderson roughly, applying
pressure on her arms.
"Why don't....you ask him...." she painfully gritted out, "yourself?!!"
"What?!"
The Boomers hadn't noticed the sluggish movements of the two halves of
the body until it was too late. Then the two pieces, like a pair of magnets,
jerked together; flesh, bone, and muscle reattaching both halves in a frenzy.
A howl filled the air again as the resurrected Bochinski leapt up and tore
the head off the Boomer holding his partner, yanking her roughly out of the
way when its arms spasmed.
Once she was out of the danger zone... things got REAL ugly.
By the time Wadderson got up from where she had fallen and limped over
to her partner, Bochinski was covered with Boomer fluids and standing amid a
pile of shredded Boomer parts ready for the scrap heap. "You okay, partner?"
she asked cautiously.
Eyes dimmer now that the fighting was done, Bochinski regarded his
friend and partner. "You know, I could really go for a Milk-Bone now," he
said with a deeper voice than normal, a little breathlessly. He winced a
little when she angrily punched him.
"Damn it, Bochinski! I was worried about you! I thought you were dead!
Twice! And then you make jokes about the whole damn thing!" She would have
continued but her wounded leg made her stumble. The half-man half-wolf caught
her before she fell.
"Well, there's another joke." Wadderson looked up at him, face scrunched
up in pain, but with the question in her eyes. "I'm... uh... not sure how to
change back."
After incredulously staring at him for a few long seconds, the blonde
woman found that funny. She started laughing and crying at the same time,
releasing the stress she had been under.
Bochinski sighed, recognizing the reasons behind his partner's laughter
and the need for it. Then he wrinkled his muzzle in distaste.
Boomers did NOT taste good.

"It's been quiet for a long time," Daley observed, warily watching the
big blue mech that had saved their lives and then hadn't moved an inch since.
"Do you think we should find the others?"
Leon sighed. "Where do you suggest we start?" he asked his red-headed
partner, who shrugged helplessly. "Besides, I have a feeling whoever's in
this thing has contact with that Saber." He tiredly rubbed his eyes; it had
been a long night and he wasn't really sure if he'd be able to stay awake
much longer after all these adrenaline rushes. "Hopefully, it'll tell us if
we're needed."
Inside the D.D., all of Sylvie's attention was on a monitor, praying
Linna would hurry. The remote unit only transmitted visual and not sound, but
from what she was saw on the screen things for Priss were turning critical.
One of the Boomers was watching a monitor that had Linna's hardsuited figure
displayed, the other Boomer was standing in front of Priss and was
occasionally pointing one of its arms at the brown-haired woman's head; from
Priss' tight expression, that was not a good thing.
My God, Sylvie realized, stunned. I think they're going to kill Priss
just before Linna gets there! Deliberately! She immediately flicked a switch,
opening communications with the green Saber. "Linna, stop!!" she shouted
frantically.
"What?!" came her friend's puzzled response. "Okay, but why? What's
wrong?"
"They know you're coming, and I think they plan on killing Priss just
before you make it there," she explained quickly and got stunned silence for
a long moment.
"What can we do then??" Linna said, frustrated and afraid.
"I don't know! Maybe....what?" Sylvie stared at what had come up on one
of her screens. It showed:

-RECOMMENDED COURSE OF ACTION: HOMLAS-

"Sylvie? What is it?"
The sexaroid didn't respond, her thoughts racing. The J-1 was still
linked to her and knew that she needed help. Sylvie didn't know what the
battle computer meant, but whatever the abbreviation was, the J-1 wouldn't
have recommended the unknown option on the screen if it didn't think it would
work.
Cautiously, she looked at the two Boomers with Priss, and thought,
+Target Boomers.+
+Targets acquired. Initiate recommended course of action?+
+Will this injure anyone else?+ she thought, hope building.
+Negative. Initiate recommended course of action?+
"Do I have a choice?" Sylvie growled, then swallowed nervously. +Yes.+
+Acknowledged.+ The D.D. started humming as the J-1 started whatever
action it was about to apply. +Power up sequence: started. Computing energy
requirements.+
Sylvie was startled when the D.D. raised its arms into a forward firing
position and turned to face an empty passageway. Looking at the equipment
indicators, she saw with no little puzzlement that the lasers were beginning
to power up with no indication of firing anytime soon. Alarmed, she noticed
that the normal level of energy the lasers used had just been exceeded and
quickly approaching maximum safety limits. What was the J-1 planning to do??
That was a thought shared by Leon and Daley as they wondered at the
position the Battlemover had placed itself in.
"NOW what is it doing?" Leon said.
"I don't know," Daley commented as his eyes widened, "but I think we'd
better get some distance between us and it. Now." He started backing away
from the mech.
"What?" Leon said, puzzled by his partner's comments, then noticed what
had precipitated the advice and started backing away himself. For the
crystals embedded into the D.D. had begun to glow, and trails of energy were
streaming from all of the crystals to the forearms of the D.D. where the
lasers were mounted.
Inside the D.D., the officers' panic was doubly echoed by Sylvie. The
lasers had passed well beyond their maximum operating levels by a good margin
and now the indicators were no longer able to measure the amount of energy
the lasers were being fed. The lasers should have blown up by now! Sylvie
wondered nervously, unwilling to stop the J-1's plan at this point. She saw
that Priss wasn't dead yet and heard that Linna was frantically trying to
contact her, but all her attention was focused on the D.D.'s arms. They were
glowing blue with some kind of energy for some mysterious reason. Which was
likely the reason the lasers weren't exploding, she realized, but for how
long?
+Energy levels at required parameters for target elimination. Beginning
firing sequence.+
Sylvie was about to reply, but stopped when she saw what appeared on her
monitor, and her eyes widened in shock. It read:

=======================
= HOMING LASER FIRING =
=======================

"That's ridiculous! It can't..." Sylvie incredulously started to say,
but it was now too late to do anything. The D.D. diverted almost all its
power to the lasers, and even the forces preventing the overtaxed weapons
from blowing up were strained. The crystals on the D.D.'s surface shattered,
releasing the rest of their force into the operation by thin, fiery blue
lines of energy that wrapped around the forearms. Finally, with an explosion
that sent the D.D. rocking violently backwards, the lasers vomited two
blinding beams of crimson light, surrounded by swirls of blue energy and
roared down the passageway the D.D. had been facing. Sylvie was slammed
painfully into her seat straps by the blast, generating a startled cry from
the sexaroid.
Faster than the eye could track, the twin beams of destruction sliced
down the hallway. Blue energy mixed with crimson light, becoming a hybrid
purple lance that TURNED at a junction. Then they went up a stairway, burned
through a sealed door, crossed a spacious room, burned through the opposite
door, and continued down another hallway. Finally, the beams stopped and
lanced straight down through the floor in two different places.
They hit the Boomers guarding Priss on the top of the head, and
continued down into the Boomers' bodies until exiting where their 'groins'
were. The vaporized portions of the androids, having become plasma, burst
outwards and destroyed the rest of the machines. A shocked Priss was not
injured by the minor explosions of her captors' destruction.
From firing to the targets took less time than it took to blink.

"Uhhh..." Sylvie groaned, shaking her head groggily. The D.D. was on its
back and from what she could see the arms were smoking, discharges of
electricity sparking around the damaged areas. Nevertheless, the sexaroid
tried getting her machine on its feet.
"Sylvie! For God's sake tell me what you did!!" Linna's voice demanded,
registering on the brown-haired woman's consciousness at last.
"I think...you can get Priss now," the sexaroid numbly said, staring at
the screen showing the singer and the smoking remains of what was left of the
Boomers.
"What did you do??"
"I'm not sure; you'll have to ask Darlene that. Just get Priss and let's
get out of here." And after toggling off the communicator, to herself she
muttered, "Next time, I will ask that friend of mine everything she did to
this thing. I really should throttle her for not telling me about this." She
sighed as the D.D. finally got on its legs and checked the damage. Power
levels were low, but the only real abuse was on the arms where the lasers,
now hardware history, had been; the arms were about 20% operational.
All in all, things could've been worse, she thought as she saw Linna
arrive at Priss' room and free the relieved singer.

That was approximately what Leon was thinking when he saw the forms of
Wadderson, and...was THAT Bochinski??? returning. "Is that YOU,
Bochinski?!?!" Daley, standing beside him, was wide-eyed as well. They both
knew about what had happened to the ADPoliceman, but the actual sight of his
lupin other self was daunting.
"Yes, sir!" the werewolf growled in good humor, saluting. "We ran into
trouble with some Boomers until I figured out how to change into my werewolf
form." His tongue hung in a wolfish grin.
"How were the Boomers then?"
The were grimaced. "Awful; next time I bring mouthwash." His blond
partner punched him hard in the diaphragm, turning the fiercesome image
Bochinski was projecting into a hilarious one as he doubled over, gasping for
breath.
"He didn't change back because the idiot hasn't figured THAT part out
yet," Wadderson told her grinning superiors with an exasperated air. "They
couldn't do anything to him, sirs. No silver."
"Hurt like hell though," the werewolf sighed, absently rubbing his
middle.
"Hmm," Leon mused, looking up at his furred subordinate and thinking of
all the advantages that must have with Boomers. "You'd better figure out how
to change back quickly; we don't have uniforms this size," he joked, then he
saw Wadderson's bloody leg and became concerned. "Are YOU all right,
Wadderson?" The blonde woman gingerly touched her leg and winced.
"I guess this does need looking at."
"We'd better take you to a hospital after the Sabers get here," Leon
said.
"Sir, shouldn't we bring them in?" the injured woman asked him.
"No. I don't think we could anyways." Leon tiredly shook his head.
"Frankly, I just want to go to bed right now, YOU need medical help, and your
partner needs to change back or he'll be in big trouble. Let's just wait for
five more minutes and then go." The rest sighed, but complied.
It was four and a half minutes before the green Saber, carrying the
rescued blue Saber, came back and said that they were done here.

Chapter Thirty-Nine
===================

Sylia regained consciousness quietly, not opening her eyes. Her body
felt like it was upright, arms stretched out to either side and legs pointed
downwards. She was still in her hardsuit, minus her helmet, but by minutely
moving her limbs found that it was either immobilized or nonfunctional.
Sadly, she was noticed.
"Ah. I see you have finally awakened, Sylia. Good."
That voice! Sylia thought, shocked, and immediately opened her eyes to
see a familiar figure standing and smiling in front of her. "Largo," she
acknowledged him neutrally. "So you were not fully destroyed."
The silver-haired man smiled mockingly and shook his head. "Sylia,
Sylia, Sylia... How can mortals like yourself truly kill a god?"
The corners of her lips twitched upwards. "By deleting all his backups?"
Largo angrily narrowed his eyes. Sylia finally looked around and wondered
what was going on.
Her helmet was positioned near her feet at the base of the metal cross
she was attached to. Crucified? she sighed mentally in disgust at the
melodrama. She saw Nene, still unconscious, in a similar position to her own
on another cross beside her. The crosses were on a raised platform on one end
of a large room. There was a huge metal door on her right. Two other figures
working behind a bank of machines by the left wall caught her attention for
she recognized both. One was Dr. Miriam, the mad scientist who had attacked
ADPolice HQ with his Boomers but had escaped police hands;she had wondered
where he had gone. The other was the beautiful woman who had identified
herself as 'Yanda' before Nene and Sylia had been knocked unconscious.
Largo noticed her interest. "My vassals," he said, waving at the busy
duo. "The man was quite useful once he realized the beauty of my grand
design."
"And the woman?"
"She was originally an experiment; I had little resources to start with
so it was time to activate her." Largo smiled thinly. "Yanda is...most
efficient, and she recruited the good doctor for me."
"Where are my other friends, Largo? What are you up to?" Sylia demanded.
Largo laughed in true amusement.
"Priss, she who loathes feeling helpless, has become the bait for an
amusing diversion. Your other...friend I let go to deliver a message for me."
"Diversion? Message?"
"All part of the game. You see....I have a score to settle with the one
who destroyed my last incarnation." He turned to her and smiled a cruel smile
that did not reach his eyes.
"With the Crystal Knight."

Twister's armoured form became visible when he turned off the cloaking
option in his suit. He stood in front of the gate to what appeared to be some
kind of old Genom testing facility for Boomers. Likely shut down when further
Boomer development was banned, at least for the public's benefit. Secret ones
likely existed elsewhere; that was like Genom.
The first Boomers were even more unstable than the modern ones of today,
Twister thought, which means the place is probably heavily armoured. His
musing was disrupted when the gate opened with a grating sound.
"Great. Upgraded haunted house. Just perfect," he sighed. Despite his
misgivings, he entered the building. There wasn't much choice until he found
out more about the place. Speaking of which...
Normally Twister wouldn't scan with his telekinesis over a wide area if
he could help it, but anything he found would be useful.
He started probing.

Dr. Miriam grinned evilly. "I'm getting a reading!" he crowed.
"He's being cautious, but we will get more out of what he does than he,"
Yanda commented by his side.
Sylia overheard this and was puzzled by their remarks.
Largo smiled up at her. "Our guest has arrived, and the trap is
prepared. Now the play begins!"
"You're mad," Sylia said. Largo raised an eyebrow.
"Wait and see, my dear Sylia. Wait and see."

What the heck?!?
There were LARGE sections of the building he could not 'see' with his
telekinesis. Somehow, something was interfering with his scans. It didn't
feel like much, but it was just enough to 'blind' him like a cloth over the
eyes. Largo had done his homework this time, and he obviously knew that the
Crystal Knight was psionic. But where did he get the technology?
Another door opened ahead of him and he had to move on.

Miriam frowned in annoyance. "He's stopped."
"Likely discovered the 'blind spots' we've created. They won't interfere
with his abilities much; he just can't sense anything beyond a few feet."
"I haven't had nearly enough time to isolate what we need," Miriam
complained.
"You'll get plenty of opportunity in a few more minutes."
Dr. Miriam furrowed his brow. "What?"
"You haven't heard this part of what's planned." Yanda smiled at him.
"It's a surprise."
Miriam frowned, but turned back to his instruments. If the woman wanted
to play games that was fine with him, but she'd better be right.

Twister was finally led into a spacious staging area that had been used
to pit Boomer against Boomer in order to test their effectiveness. The way in
had been through a huge and thickly armoured door, slamming shut behind him.
Each wall had one of the immense doors, but it was the far wall that caught
his attention. Beyond the far wall was where one of the 'dead' zones was, so
did the walls on either side, but there was a large vid-screen newly
installed high on that wall. He walked towards it, and when he reached the
middle of the testing area the screen flashed into life, displaying the
architect of all this.
Largo.
The incarnation of Brian Mason smiled. "Welcome, Crystal Knight. It's a
pleasure to see you again, despite our last encounter."
"Too bad it wasn't that. Last, I mean."
"Oh no," Largo disagreed. "I planned too far ahead for that."
"That's obvious. All right, Largo," Twister called out as he raised his
voice, "if you wanted to fight me again, why did you capture the Knight
Sabers? Let them go."
"Oh, I do want to fight you, Crystal Knight. That is a certainty."
Largo's smile was not something Twister was pleased to see. "I've deduced you
have some protective feelings towards my first foes and to ensure your coming
I brought them here." The screen split in two, one with Largo and the other
showing Sylia and Nene hanging helplessly in their hardsuits, but without
their helmets to make them plainly identifiable. Sylia was awake but Nene was
still out. "But," Largo went on, "I want to test you first."
"Test me?" Twister didn't like the sound of that. He saw Largo glance
off-screen, likely signalling someone else unseen. A second later, he heard
the sound of large doors opening to either side of him, and what was behind
them....
Boomers.
A LOT of Boomers.
Oh. Boy.
He stopped counting at thirty and that was just with the 55-C's he saw.
There were older models as well, probably from here and reactivated, but also
BU-12 combat Boomers with their bazooka arms and dual rockets. Organic-
looking Boomers were included as well; humans, like the way Steelfist had
been converted, except they didn't ACT like humans, they looked Boomer to the
core. Twister frowned; Boomers could have their memories erased, and Largo
seemed to have done just that. They weren't remotely human any longer.
"You call this a test?" he said, anger at what Largo had done making his
tone icy. "The numbers are a little uneven." Largo looked mock-thoughtful.
"Then perhaps I should provide incentive." He walked up to the helpless
Knight Sabers and the dual screen became one again. "Defeat my Boomers, get
though the door in front of you, and then you can fight me to save your
friends." Nene choose that moment to groggily regain consciousness, she
became wide awake when she saw Largo. "Ah, my other caged bird has finally
awakened," he commented with a cruel smile.
"S-Sylia, what's going on?" the hacker nervously whispered.
"Stay calm, Nene, everything will be all right," Sylia said calmly.
"Will they?" Largo replied, and without any warning whatsoever, lifted
his hand towards the helpless red-head. Nene had just enough time to widen
her eyes before a wave of force left his hand....
...and punched a hole through her forehead.
"NENE!!" Sylia screamed in disbelief and horror as her friend's head
jerked backwards, then slowly rolled forward, lifeless.
Unconcerned with her reaction, Largo turned back to address the Crystal
Knight, who had seen it all. "As you see, you had best hurry before I tire of
Sylia. Shall we begin?"
Twister was absolutely silent, his helmet fixed on the image of Nene.
The Boomers had surrounded him and were waiting for their master's command,
but Crystal Knight appeared to care less about them now.
Largo peered from at the Knight from the screen. "Oh? Did you like that
one? That's a disappointment; I would have chosen Sylia instead if I had
known. Oh, well. That's life."
Twister turned from looking at the lifeless Nene, to Largo. The black
crystal visor on the Knight's helmet slowly revealed two glowing blue orbs
for eyes. And the Knight finally spoke.
"Largo..."
The power-mad, silver haired android had to pause when he heard the
Knight say his name, so did Miriam and Yanda, and even Sylia lifted her
impassive face as she tried to mentally compose herself. The voice that had
spoken was distorted as usual, but this time there was ... SOMETHING behind
it that suggested a coldness beyond even what an emotionless computer was
capable of, and far more deadly. Even in her private grief, Sylia knew Largo
had crossed a line that he probably shouldn't have. She knew fairly well what
Twister could do when angered, and she wasn't sure what she should feel about
now considering what had provoked such a reaction. The Crystal Knight spoke
again in that same unnerving manner.
"You will die." It was a statement of a fact that WOULD happen.
Largo wasted no more words. "Begin!" he ordered his Boomers.
One 55-C started the attack first and leaped straight for the
crystalline figure. The armour made no move to avoid the devastating punch
the Boomer was about to unleash.
And the android stopped in mid-air a few feet in front of its target.
The other Boomers hesitated for a moment while the Boomer found it
couldn't move, and the Knight was still as immobile as a statue. Therefore,
the Boomer opened its mouth to reveal the hidden particle cannon and...never
got the chance to fire. For the Knight's glowing eyes had flared and the
Boomer was flung helplessly towards the large vid-screen. It began to melt
from the sheer telekinetic force Twister had flung at the android, its
molecules given enough energy to flow freely. By the time it impacted on the
screen, it was little more than a flaming fireball. The monitor shattered and
exploded along with the hapless Boomer that had been decimated by the Knight.

Yanda saw the destruction of the Boomer and screen and turned to Dr.
Miriam, who was gaping at the sight. "I suggest you pay attention to your
instruments so we can safely proceed with the plan," she advised.
He stared at her for a moment, then turned to his panel and frantically
continued the task he was striving to accomplish.
And from what he had seen, he had better succeed damn fast.

It was total war in the Boomer testing set.
Seeing the demise of the first Boomer, the others attacked the
crystalline armoured form en masse, and thus did the carnage began for
Twister blurred into action. He was in constant motion, for with all the
firepower being aimed at him to stand still would have been suicide. All the
while his eyes glowed a cold blue.
The first wave met glowing diamond swords created from the carbon in the
air, and the preternaturally sharp blades cut deep with psi-enhanced strength
backing their deadly arcs. And the machines found they couldn't swarm him; he
just jumped up out of the onrush and came back down before the others could
fire on him, carving more lessons into Boomer armour. When the Boomers drew
back, he stood unharmed and surrounded by the corpses of twelve or so
androids.
Then the cybernetic AI's played smarter, seeing pure brute force would
not work; Boomers could be persistent in the attack, but even they knew
something needed to be changed when they were losing this badly. So they
spread out and began firing from a distance, moving constantly and staying
away from those swords.
They needn't have worried about that; Twister knew that without massed
targets the swords weren't worth draining energy from himself. Besides, he
needed his hands free to help dodge the barrage of incoming fire from the
masses of Boomers. Bullets were an annoyance, the occasional heat blast was
helpfully absorbed into his armour, but the shells from the BU-12's and the
particle beams licking close to where he had been split seconds before were
the real threats. There were simply too many Boomers to dodge forever, and
indeed, a bazooka blast finally caught him, jarring and slowing him enough to
get hit in the foot with a particle blast. The armour was tough, and had a
minor force field to add to its durability, but the beam was strong enough to
shatter the front part with a sound of breaking ice and cracking the area
where the heel was. Shards bit into the reddened foot revealed and blood
flowed.
Normally, Twister would have flinched, and that would have been fatal at
this time. But with icy rage he ignored the pain, sparing enough
concentration on ejecting the diamond shards from his foot, even though they
were slowly becoming carbon dust. He cooly decided it was time to strike
back.
On his next leap, wary of the damaged but slowly regenerating boot, he
spun and began his offensive. "Double C-Sphere," he ordered. His armour
reacted to the command and in each cupped hand shining orbs appeared. Which
he tossed with calculated accuracy at his inhuman opponents, damaging a
combat Boomer with one and tossing back two converted humans with the other.
Twister bounded off a partially destroyed wall of one of the mock-up
buildings, directly towards a pair of Boomers still trying to machine gun
him. Hands pointed at the heads of the cyberdroids, he attacked again,
mentally commanding his suit this time. On each hand, five red beams of light
were emitted from the fingers and were concentrated into a single intense
beam of coherent light. The ruby shafts lanced through the Boomers' heads
after a half-second of burning armour, insulation, and digital brain matter.
He stopped firing immediately when they punched through; the lasers drained
the armour a considerable degree.
Then he was slammed to the floor by a force from above. Three Boomers
had hidden on the roofs of the buildings and had leaped on him while he was
focused on lasering the now-destroyed Boomers. His precedence always warned
him in life-threatening instances, but these had not attacked with lethal
force. Two gripped his arms in arm locks, making sure they were immobile and
unable to aim weapons or use swords. The one on his legs wrapped its arms
around his limbs to prevent struggling. The other Boomers stopped firing,
thinking he was caught, and took a step forwards.
Foolish, he thought clinically, I don't NEED to move.
An intense fireball, pyrokinetic in origin, exploded outwards with the
Crystal Knight and the three startled Boomers in the center, blowing back the
others who had started to advance.

"Impressive," Largo observed as he watched the monitor, "for a human. He
certainly displays a great deal more skill and power when properly
motivated," he told Sylia, smiling cruelly. The elder Stingray was not
amused.
"I'd destroy you myself if I could," Sylia said in a tone almost as
chilly as Twister's had been. The heavy sorrow over Nene's death was pushed
aside for the moment, leaving behind a burning resolution to obliterate the
silver-haired evil fixed in her sights. "But I think the Knight will do that
long before I get the chance. He's easily tearing through that army of
Boomers you've gathered against him because you've enraged him to the point
where he's fighting without moral restraint. WHY?!" she demanded.
"My dear, he still has a formidable force left against him; it still
remains to be seen whether or not he will succeed. And if he does..." Largo
smiled as he turned back to the carnage unfolding on the screen, "all the
better."
Sylia stared at him in disbelief; was he mad??
Over by the control panels, Yanda watched the monitor with an odd and
unreadable expression on her face. To Miriam, she asked, "Is it done?"
"Almost!" he replied with eagerness in his voice. "He is using his
abilities at a low level to increase his physical attributes, but when he
uses them to a greater degree, like that fireball, I have considerable
progress finding the key we need. One more use of that sort and we'll be
ready!" he crowed.
"Excellent," she replied absently, absorbed on the display.

Twister rushed out of the smoky crater, determined to finish this fight
quickly so he could confront Largo. As with the lasers, he again commanded
his armour to activate one of the two weapons he had not used yet since its
creation. The raised portions of his armour with the openings were there for
a reason, and a Boomer found out why when they unleashed a massive volley of
what was best described as energy bullets, hitting it in mid-torso.
They did no damage for a second, at least until the energy density
building in the Boomer's armour and internal workings passed their ability to
contain the destructive forces and imploded violently. The Boomer became a
tightly compacted ball and swallowed a fellow Boomer's arm in the bargain. It
was weapon developed so that if a human were to be hit by a few of the
'bullets' then no harm would come to them as the energy dissipated rapidly in
matter. However, past a certain point... Again, it was another energy
intensive weapon and as a result Twister's armour started to gain weight.
***DANGER!!!***
Time slowed down as perceptions accelerated in response to the
precognitive warning. Four Boomers had coordinated together were firing their
mouth-mounted particle cannons in such a manner as to entrap the Crystal
Knight in a cage of blue annihilation. To be closed with lethal results. The
beams were rushing towards him and there was not enough time for a leap.
Despite the situation, Twister still did not wish to teleport, it was an ace
to be played only in a dire emergency when there were no other options
available.
And there was one for this assault.
Matter is energy, energy is matter. Manipulate one, and you can do the
same with the other. Focusing on the incoming beams, Twister concentrated
intensely as they came closer... closer... come ON... closer... MOVE!!! And
slowly, the beams began to curve.
In normal time, one saw the blue shafts stab towards the black and
silver figure, certainly about to strike dead on. Then they crazily angled
away a half meter's distance from him, missing him completely and incidently
destroying another Boomer. That was an accident, however beneficial to
Twister, who had not aimed the beams. With all the Boomers in the area there
had been a good chance an android would be hit.
The effort had been very tiring, but there was no time to rest.

"That's it! I've got the frequency!" Miriam shouted triumphantly. He
reached out to push a button on the panel, but a slim, yet strong, female
hand stopped him. Somewhat angrily, the scientist glared at Yanda. "What...?"
"Patience, Doctor," she chided him. "We have to wait for the right
moment. Which is not yet. You ARE sure it will work?"
"It worked perfectly on the other one," he replied, yanking back his
hand and rubbing it; the woman had a strong grip. "And it will work again."
"Very well." Turning to face Largo she called out, "It is ready."
Largo turned from the monitor at this, and considered the news. "Good,
then I should speed things up." He did not touch a control, but when he spoke
his voice was echoed in the Boomer test chamber.
"Enough delay! Finish him!"

The still-numerous Boomers in the chamber paused as they digested the
new command. Twister, on the other hand, felt renewed wrath upon hearing the
once dead, and soon to be dead again, man's voice.
"Finish...or BE finished?" he stated coldly to his enemies. "This ends
now. FROST!!!!!" he bellowed as loud as he could. And as the Boomers began to
advance, something peculiar began to transpire. One was that the temperature
in the spacious room started to drop for no visible reason, nothing major,
but it steadily continued. The second was that frost WAS beginning to form on
the Crystal Knight armour.
As the mass of firing Boomers rushed him, Twister cut loose with his
suit's weapons; the process had begun so he could afford to, wasting energy
would only minorly slow it. Lasers scythed across the Boomers, melting
armour, punctuated by exploding spheres and implosions.
The temperature passed -10 Celsius and continued to plummet.
Twister retreated towards the only door that hadn't opened, where Largo
awaited no doubt. What he was about to do would be devastating and he had to
face away from that door. His frosty armour, normally black, was starting to
lose that light-absorbing color and was becoming a riot of multi-faceted hues
that glittered luminously. When he moved, he sparkled.
Temperature -40 and dropping.
His lasers were going full time, along with his energy bullets, but it
couldn't stop the fact that his suit was slowly becoming brighter. Now the
frost was starting to melt from the radiant energy of the suit. Around him,
Boomers were starting to notice the temperature drop at last; the surrounding
area was turning white from precipitating moisture. His shattered boot had
long regenerated from the excess energy that was quickly making the armor too
bright to watch.
Now!
With a great leap, he arced high over the ground and landed right in
front of his enemy's door, then turned to face the mass of Boomers following
him. Placing arms and legs into an X formation, he roared, "FIRE!!!"
Twister's second diamond-based suit was essentially a magical heat sink.
Normally, it limited its normal passive energy storage because if lasers
should hit it extra room was needed to absorb and store the excess energy.
The FrostFire attack changed that in two ways: in that mode the armour
ACTIVELY gathered heat energy, and had no limits on gathering it. The only
way to stop it was to release ALL the armour's energy, save a little to
sustain the armour's integrity, and throw it at the enemy.
The armour could hold a lot of power.
Upon his command, energy streamed from all of the armour's plates,
gathering in a globe of writhing malestromic hunger and eager to burn all in
its way. Still drawing life from that which had created it, the four foot
plasma ball rocketed towards its prey, trailing tendrils of energy behind in
its wake. The alarmed Boomers dodged out of its way, but not far enough. Not
nearly far enough.
A small portion of hell erupted in their midst.

The flare of light burned out the camera's optics, but what had happened
was clear.
"I suppose we should prepare for my guest," Largo commented in the
stunned silence.

Twister studied the destruction he had caused. Quite a few of the
structures in the chamber had either collapsed or been blown away. Most of
the Boomers caught near the blast had melted into unrecognizable shapes,
those further away had been hit so badly they had become non-functional.
There had been one or two that had survived semi-intact, but he had dealt
with them.
Doing that had turned part of his arm armour into diamond dust. His
protective suit had not escaped the strains of firing his weapon of last
resort and was wavering between reconstitution and collapse. Turning, feeling
parts of his brittle armour creak, and even rip or crack, he faced the door
that stood between him and Largo. It was the same as the others he had seen
open to the chamber; large, massive, and very, very thick. Little chance
using his suit at the moment to open it.
He tried his psi-senses, but there was that field blocking them again
and it JUST protected the door. He was unsure he could just rip it open with
TK. He tried melting a portion, but the time it took to get it just to
cherry-red was too long. He even tried Mindfire and...metal flowed.
What??
Once more with Mindfire, and again metal parted like liquid mercury. In
more normal circumstances Twister would have been very surprised, but now,
seeing a way to get in, he merely gathered a large ball of Mindfire and threw
it into the depression. It tunnelled through the thick door, waves of blue
fire radiating outwards and taking away layers of armour with them. It would
soon break through.
Soon....
Then Largo would die.

The glow on the door was the first indication of the Knight's arrival.
Then the light brightened and an opening appeared in the barrier. Like
melting wax the metal flowed open, eventually making a passageway large
enough to stride through. And someone with glowing blue eyes did just that.
"Ah, my armour-clad foe, welcome at last," Largo said, standing by
Sylia's helpless form. "I hope you weren't too disappointed with your
opponents."
The Knight said nothing, only lifted a hand where a sharp-looking sword
appeared, burning with a wintry blue fire that flickered along the diamond
blade. Fortunately, his armour was in slightly better shape now so nothing
shattered on his arm.
"No words? Pity. I've grown to love those speeches before fights blood
enemies seem to thrive on. However..." He snapped his fingers.
Dr. Miriam, unnoticed by the Knight, pressed the button he had been
waiting to push. He felt quite satisfied with the results; the Knight's blade
was extinguished and then disintegrated.
"A fight is more interesting if the playing field is evened in my
favor," Largo finished with an evil smirk.
Twister lifted his armoured hand and regarded it. He tried to use his
psionics, but found that he couldn't get them to stir. "Damping field," he
concluded flatly.
"Very good." Largo applauded politely. "While you were fighting, the
good doctor and my assistant searched for your particular psi-frequency. You
cannot use psionics while the inhibiter field is attuned to you."
Flexing a hand, Twister felt the armour was almost back in shape, but
Largo noticed the action.
"And I have not gone to all this trouble just to see you try to blast me
with that unusual armour you wear. Take it off," Largo pointed a hand in
Sylia's direction, "or there will be another Saber to die." The Knight was
still for a moment, then nodded slowly and darkness surrounded him. When it
faded, a figure in a motorcycle outfit and helmet stood before the power-mad
android. "Unusual method for removing a hardsuit," Largo commented, raising
an eyebrow.
"A friend helped me make it," Twister's normal voice shot back coldly.
Both silver-haired android's eyebrows shot up this time. "Indeed? I
suspect I know who... But no matter. Take off your helmet. I wish to see your
face."
"What does that matter to a dead Boomer?"
Largo sighed dramatically. "Very well, perhaps if I offer some hope?
Yanda?" he queried. The blonde woman nodded and pushed a button. A large
section of wall behind Sylia lifted into the ceiling and a second later the
biggest Boomer Twister had ever seen stepped out holding something, no,
someONE...
"NENE!?!" Twister shouted disbelievingly. And it did look like the red-
head in her softsuit, struggling helplessly in the big Boomer's two handed
grip.
She saw him and hope flared in her eyes, "Twister! What are you doing
here?!" The use of his name extinguished the coldness in his chest; it was
Nene all right.
"How touching. You DO know each other," Largo remarked as the Boomer
stepped around the crucifixes allowing Nene a full view.
"Sylia! You're all right! I..." Her next sentence died in her throat
when she saw what looked like herself in her hardsuit, but with a hole in the
forehead! "W-what's going on?" she asked shakily.
"I wanted the Crystal Knight," he paused, "sorry, Twister here to be in
a fighting mood so I switched you with an android double that I had handy and
pretended to kill you." Largo smiled at the horrified Nene. "And it worked
satisfyingly well."
"That's HORRIBLE!!"
"Thank you." He turned to Twister. "Your helmet?"
Twister shrugged; it wouldn't matter much to show his face, and he was
relieved Nene was alive. He lifted the helmet off his head and placed it on
the ground. "Satisfied?" he asked.
Largo was surprised. "A teenager?? A TEENAGER?!?" he demanded.
"What, is that a problem?" The brown haired young man smiled wryly. "Ah
well, 'tis sad to disappoint ye." Largo narrowed his eyes angrily. "If I
defeat you, as you've apparently been itching to fight me all night, the
Sabers and I get to go. Fair?"
Largo's answer was to point his hand in the psionist's direction and
fired one of his force bolts, but Twister was already in the air, arcing
towards the reincarnated android. Dropping down near his opponent, Twister
rushed the hyperboomer, knowing that hesitating would prove fatal with this
adversary. He had fought and beaten Largo before, but he had the element of
surprise then, and with Sylia and Nene captured he couldn't afford to pull
his punches. Even without psi-boosting he was quicker than an ordinary human
being, a fact that likely allowed him to be able to get a free punch in.
Focusing his ki in his fist as much as he could, the strike streaked towards
a surprised Largo's head, and connected.
The results were surprising.
Metal crumpled as false flesh gave way to the irresistible force of his
fist. It continued inward halfway, crushing the manufactured brain inside the
braincase, before the momentum of Twister's hand finally transferred itself
to the stricken android's body. The head shot off the hand that had crushed
it, dragging the body below it for a distance for a few feet before the whole
lifeless mess fell to the ground. Twister stood in shock, withdrawing his
hand back as it dripped Boomer fluids.
"What?" he said numbly. "How...? My punch should've only knocked him
back at best the way he was built last time, not destroy him!"
"That is correct," a female voice said.
Everyone focused their attention on Yanda, who had spoken, she in turn
was intently looking at Twister.
"What do you mean?" the psionist asked.
Yanda smiled. "That was not the true Largo, only a duplicate installed
with a weaker form of force projector to make it look like he was. No, that
imitation was not him." Her next words were the biggest surprise yet.
"_I_ am Largo."

Chapter Forty
=============

The room was silent as Twister stood above the destroyed android they
had all thought was Largo. Sylia cursed mentally for not realizing it; the
fake had acted less superior than the previous Largo, a fact she had
attributed to the shock of being defeated once. But neither had she suspected
the female Yanda to be Largo's next incarnation. Something strange was going
on here.
Yanda came around the equipment she had been standing behind as Dr.
Miriam gaped stupidly at her; this was news to him too.
"I am Largo," she repeated, then reconsidered her words. "Or at least I
am the newest reincarnation of Brian Mason." She eyed the surprised Twister
as she came closer. "Admittedly, you are younger than I had thought, but
nevertheless, I am pleased."
"Pardon?" Twister wondered if he had heard that right.
"You've passed my test."
"Test?!?" Nene demanded incredulously in the huge Boomer's grip, still
unnerved at seeing herself, admittedly a fake in her hardsuit, with a hole in
her forehead. "This has all been a TEST??"
"Yes," Yanda said, confirming it. "Perhaps I should elaborate. You see,
when Largo was destroyed his death activated a revival procedure. But this
had been ill-prepared, for Largo had begun to think himself invulnerable and
started other plans before building another body for himself. He was a God,
why should he bother? But he left several test androids of himself and they
had no choice but to resurrect Largo, no matter what form he wore.
"You see, my current body WAS an experiment. Designed to be a 'mate' for
him and Sylia to be the mind engraved into it." Sylia looked like she didn't
appreciate the honour. "The androids first loaded Mason's brain engrams, but
I woke up before they could download Largo's memories.
"I was enraged. They tried to explain, but I had them wipe their
programming and not being fully sentient they complied. So then I was left
with three android look-alikes of what I had expected to look like, and HAD,
but stuck in this female form...and its hardware-burned imperatives.
"The most compelling was to find a worthy mate, and obey him."
Twister's eyes widened as he started to realize what she was driving at.
"You don't mean..." he began, but trailed off. Yanda tossed her hair back
with a sigh.
"The parameters Largo placed in my body demanded my mate be a superior
life form, and that it possessed certain strengths and qualities. Supposedly,
that life form was to have been Largo, who was destroyed." Yanda smiled at
the irony. "However, I watched Largo's memory tapes to understand what had
happened, and drew a conclusion: he had been mentally unfit to be my mate,
and by his own standards yet!
"I now faced the same dilemma the androids which had activated me had
faced. I needed a mate, so I decided to create one."
"Understand this, I knew what happened to Mason, and saw what Largo did.
A serious self-examination showed I needed to change or else face the same
insanity Largo fell into. That meant accepting this form, which I have. And
now, as you have seen, I am quite different from either of my predecessors,
if I have to obey my mate then I will. But if my mate is of my design and of
a similar will then I will be happy for we will desire the same things.
"So Dr. Miriam and I created nanomachines, based on Dr. Stingray's
work."
She took out a vial from a coat pocket and tossed it to Twister, who
cautiously grabbed it. He was starting to get a bad feeling about all this.
"The vial you hold contains an improved version of the nanites used to
change humans to Boomers. It will preserve your mental abilities while
changing you into a hyperboomer similar to what Largo had been. Then you will
be my perfect mate and I will have to obey you, but you will also be devoted
to me."
"And if I don't?" Twister asked her, dubiously holding the vial.
"Then it would be a pity to lose such talented humans as your friends."
"... I guess I don't have much choice." Before Sylia or Nene could
shout, his fist tightened and the vial shattered, slicing his palm and
releasing the nanites into his system.

Across town, a pair of scaly-lidded eyes blinked open...
...and glowed.

Yanda smiled when she saw the brown-haired young man wince seconds after
the vial was broken. Sylia kept a neutral expression, but Nene looked on with
horror. "The nanites have begun their work," she observed, pleased that her
plans were coming to fruitation at last. It was pity the process needed to go
much slower than the ordinary conversion process, she thought, but a
hyperboomer needed precision work.
Twister ground his teeth together; his hand felt like it was on fire!
Dr. Miriam frowned as he observed what his scanners were telling him.
"The nanites are slowing down," he told the woman, who was the person he was
actually working for all this time. He'd jumped at the opportunity to
experiment with the nanites; the lure of becoming a powerful Boomer and
gaining near-immortality had been too great to resist. Miriam would be his
own best creation!
Surprised, Yanda whirled to face him. "What? Why?" she demanded. Behind
her, Twister gasped in relief as the pain lessened to more manageable levels.
Blinking, Miriam studied his readings more carefully. "His physiology is
different than what the nanites were programmed to deal with. A normal scan
doesn't show it, but when I try more detailed readings I find abnormalities.
Stronger skeletal structure, differently constructed muscles, more efficient
immune system..." Miriam looked up, surprise in his eyes. "I don't think he's
human."
"Oh, you really want to make me feel better, don't you?" Twister said,
grimacing at the pain. "So I had an accident a while ago that changed my
body. Normal occurrence, absolutely bloody normal."
"What sort of 'accident' was this?" Yanda said neutrally, turning back
to him.
"The sort that alters your body and gives you psionic powers." He
shrugged. "At the time I didn't have much choice in the matter."
"When did this..." Yanda began, but her attention was drawn by something
that zipped into the room using the hole Twister had made earlier. It
fluttered to a stop and perched onto the startled psionist's shoulder.
"Char?!?" Twister exclaimed in surprise. "How did you get here??" The
miniature red dragon chirped happily and settled down more securely.
"What is that?" the blonde pseudo-sexaroid/hyperboomer demanded.
Feeling better with Charcoal's arrival, Twister grinned. "A pet of
another red-headed friend of mine who might be nearby." And closer than you
think, he thought with rising humour.
Yanda frowned. "That store owner? I'd received some disturbing reports
about her. She should've been disabled, at least for one night," she
muttered, pondering this new development.
With his psi-powers nullified, Twister had been wondering how to free
Sylia and Nene, but now the dragon provided a solution. "If you find her
disturbing, this ought to be downright distressing. Char!" The mini-wyrm
looked at him curiously. "Free Nene and Sylia and destroy that Boomer!!" He
nodded his head to indicate the trapped Sabers.
Miriam scoffed at that announcement. "How can that thing...?" The
scientist's mouth dropped open when, after launching from the psionist's
shoulder, Charcoal enlarged enormously in mid-flight. The gigantic Boomer
Miriam had created dropped Nene so it could use its arms to defend itself as
the red dragon ploughed into it with a deafening roar. The freed red-head
scrambled frantically out of the way away from the two behemoths, heading for
Sylia. Yanda began to lift an arm her way.
"I don't think so!" Twister shouted, leaping forwards at his true foe.
She blocked his kick with both arms, but fell back as she hadn't been fully
ready to defend.
"The nanites are in your system now. There is no point in resisting me!"
Yanda shouted, responding with a barrage of punches aimed more at knocking
him out than killing him.
"Lady, you don't know me very well, do you?" Twister smiled grimly as he
brought his hands up in front of him. Fighting the pain, he summoned his ki.
His nanite-infected hand throbbed intensely, but he continued gathering power
and a globe of energy appeared between his hands. "MOUKO TAKABISHA!!" he
shouted, throwing his ki at the startled Yanda.
The blue beam hit her with stunning force and she flew back towards
Miriam, who quickly ducked to avoid being hit, crashing into panels hard
enough to leave an impression in the metal. She fell to the floor before
rising to shake her head; while she was much stronger than a sexaroid, she
was not built nearly as well as her former self. Her chosen mate obviously
had more than psionic power at his command, and whatever he had used had
jarred and/or damaged a few of her systems. The setting was too uncertain
now, she decided, best to retreat now and try again later.
Yanda got up and ran out a small door that had been well hidden and
unnoticed, Miriam following at her heels.
"Sonofa..." Quickly, Twister looked to see how the others were doing
before pursuing. Nene had found a release mechanism for the holds on Sylia
and had freed her. The white hardsuit was opened on the ground while Sylia
was quickly trying to reconnect the power supply. Nene, looking slightly
nauseous, was taking her double out of her red suit. The battle between Char
and the giant Boomer continued, more of a wrestling match actually, but it
looked like the red wyrm was gaining the advantage. Personally, Twister was
amazed the Boomer was standing up to his creation and wondered if Char was
playing with the thing. He started to go after the two criminals who had
fled, but Sylia's voice made him pause.
"Are you well enough to go after them?"
Twister held up his hand to check it. It looked different, paler than it
should have been, and the pain was starting to travel up his arm. Still
manageable, but barely. "I'm fine," he replied to answer her, and it actually
wasn't too far from the truth. "I have to stop them or else they'll get away
and do even more damage sometime later."
Sylia nodded. "I'll try to find that damper keeping you from using your
powers."
Twister nodded, and then ran out of the room.
"And be careful," Sylia added quietly.

He ran down a hallway and came across an area that looked like the two's
main working area from all the equipment strewn about. A sound that came from
a certain direction gave him a clue as to where his prey had fled and the
psionist sprinted down the hallway from which it had come. He came across an
open door and rushed inside, only to stop dead in his tracks at the sight
that greeted him. It wasn't the fact that Miriam and Yanda were in the room;
it was the struggling, purple-haired person gagged and strapped naked to a
metal table that shocked him.
Madagan!
Of course, he thought grimly, they would have needed a test subject for
whatever they had used to nullify his power, and the purple-haired Genom
executive would have been perfect. How they had found out about her powers
was unknown, but he wouldn't wish being a test subject for Miriam on anyone.
>From the burning look she gave the doctor, Twister felt that she had plenty
to pay back for what he had done to her.
On hearing him enter, Yanda fled out the room's second door. Miriam
tried to follow, but the door slammed shut and would not open again. Madagan
stopped her struggling on seeing Twister's arrival, but didn't know him and
warily watched from her helpless position. From a pocket, Miriam pulled out
some kind of device and whirled to face the male psionist.
"Stop right there, Crystal Knight, or I'll kill this woman!" the
scientist shouted, sweat forming on his brow.
Twister could visibly see the shock and amazement on Madagan's face when
she realized who had come after her tormentors; this was the first time she
had seen his male face. "And how would ye do that?" he asked the doctor.
"There is a device implanted in her brain. One push of this button and
it will activate. It is located by the pain center and once on it will
produce unending agony." Twister digested this, taking note of the rage in
Madagan's eyes, indicating the man had likely used it at least once before.
"You seem to like inflicting pain," Twister observed, holding up his
hand that was obviously different so that Madagan could see. "Torturing
women, changing humans to Boomers, or at least trying to in my case." The
Genom exec's eyes widened again as she realized what the hand meant.
"Kidnapping Madagan to test the psi-damper, or whatever you call it, before
you used it on me? How are you damping us both?" He put emphasis on the 'how'
and 'both'.
"We used a smaller prototype," Miriam gloated, completely missing the
direction Madagan jerked her head, towards a blocky machine with a few
glowing lights. "A larger one was made for you, being more powerful than
she."
"READY, weren't we?" Twister said offhandedly as Miriam slid across the
far wall. Madagan tensed.
"We were, and everything would have gone perfectly if that blasted
creature hadn't shown up!"
"You mean the one on the floor you're about to bump into?"
"What?!" Panicked, the doctor looked down.
A fatal mistake. Twister had been gathering himself and didn't waste the
chance. He forgo the shouting of his ki move, and blasted the machine he knew
to be the psi-damper for Madagan to bits. Miriam was momentarily shocked, but
still managed to press the dreaded button, expecting his captive to start
screaming.
Instead, she began to glow.
"I imagine she managed to burn out your little device," Twister said
quietly.
Horrified, Miriam tried to run, but was slammed into the wall by an
unseen hand. The bonds trapping the purple-haired woman snapped open and the
gag flew apart. Freed and glowing an angry yellow, Madagan slipped off the
table and stood like a vengeful spirit.
"So." She regarded her rescuer neutrally. "I finally see your face,
Crystal Knight."
"Aye, and this is the second time you've wound up without thy garments
as well." He said that more to confirm his identity than for humor's sake; he
wasn't feeling very funny right then. She covered herself with her hands,
more out of reflex than modesty as she was too angry at Miriam to care much
about dignity at the moment.
"You turned away last time."
"I'm in a hurry," he replied tersely. "The door?"
She considered it, then nodded. The door opened at her silent command
and Twister started for it.
"No! You can't leave me here with her! She'll kill me!" Miriam pleaded.
The brown-haired young man paused before leaving, looked Madagan in the
eye and saw the burning fury directed at the doctor in them. He turned to
regard the scientist with a frosty gaze.
"Turnabout is fair play."
He passed through the door's opening and it slid shut behind him.
Madagan smiled thinly as she looked at the pale and heavily sweating
doctor.
The room was soundproofed, a fortunate fact.

Running down the passageway, Twister sighed at what he had done. He
couldn't have stopped Madagan anyway without psi, not that he had any desire
to guessing what had happened between her and Miriam. And the doctor knew the
faces, if not the identities, of the Knight Sabers.
It was extremely doubtful he would get the chance to reveal that
knowledge now.
He was heading into a more run-down section of tunnel and knew he was on
the right trail when he saw footprints made when Yanda had stepped in a
puddle caused by a leaky pipe.
Wait.
A puddle of... water?

"Going somewhere?"
Yanda stopped dead when she heard the angry female voice behind her.
Turning, she fired a force bolt from a hand, but the smaller figure behind
her dodged the blast. When she landed, Yanda saw it was the red-headed store
owner that she had sent that former Outrider leader against. And the young
woman looked seriously irritated. The blonde frowned; she was almost to her
planned exit and now this person had to find her. She kept her arm raised,
backing away as the other person slowly advanced.
"I hadn't hoped to meet you," she said.
"Oh, but _I_ did," Darlene bared her teeth in a small snarl. "Sending
Steelfist after me, kidnapping the Sabers, playing cat-and-mouse with
Twister, and other things like converting helpless humans into Boomers." She
took another step. Twister's change to Darlene had seriously confused the
nanites and a spell had destroyed them before they could do more damage. Her
hand was still messed up, and HURT, but as Twister she'd be able to fix that
later. Right now, she wasn't in a pleasant mood. "You're NOT getting away,
Yanda."
"I beg to differ with you, I am!" Yanda fired another, stronger bolt.
"Shield Field!" Darlene snapped out, and the blast impacted harmlessly
on the protecting spell, wavering the air around a circular area of calmness
centred on the mage. The blond pseudo-sexaroid stared in disbelief, backing
away slightly.
"This isn't going to be a grand battle, Yanda," Darlene proclaimed.
"You've pissed me off BIG time. I can't afford to destroy you, but neither
can I let you go." She frowned, then pointed a finger at her foe, who tensed.
"Kind Bind."
Threads shot out from the mage's finger in a wide pattern and whipped
around the startled blonde, who had jumped forwards only to be caught in the
onrush of the tough material. She snapped some of the threads, but more
entwined themselves around her. Arms, legs, eyes, mouth; all were being
wrapped with the whitish substance. Darlene stopped the flow when she saw
Yanda was too busy struggling to hinder her next spell.
The mage intoned:

"Thy limbs grow stiff,
Freedom has fled,
No buts or if,
Akin to the dead.

You can not stir,
Nor try to flee,
Like the chained cur,
Stay where you be."

"NO!" Yanda shouted as her struggles weakened; she found herself
stiffening! There was no reason for it, but she was finding it increasingly
difficult to move her body below the neck. She tried valiantly, but it was no
use; she found herself immobile in the threads that had critically detained
her.
Darlene walked over and stood above the helpless female, regarding her
catch of the day. "I'm tempted to go into clothing sales and use you as a
mannikin. You'd make a lovely one." She dispelled the threads and Yanda was
rid of the white bindings that were unnecessary now; the second spell was far
stronger.
"Let me go!" Yanda demanded.
"Not bloody likely," was the response. Darlene flipped the helpless
blonde over to prevent her from seeing what happened next; she wasn't above
some mischievousness. "All right, Knight, send her off," Darlene said before
activating the armour. When, as Twister, he was in the suit, he checked and
with some relief discovered Sylia had finally found the damper and turned it
off. His hand was immediately fixed as he Healed it, undoing the damage the
nanites had done to him.
"See you later, Yanda," his modulated voice said, and teleported her
away to his underground lair before he himself teleported to where the fake
Largo had been.
Sylia wasn't in the room, but Nene was at the controls that Yanda and
Miriam had been standing behind. She had suited up again and had her helmet
on. Still, he could almost see the antenna on her helmet perk up visibly when
she noticed his arrival.
"Twister!" Nene exclaimed, and rushed around the panel to give the
crystalline armoured figure a relieved hug. "You're okay!"
"Not for long," Twister wheezed, she had forgotten her suit's strength
augmentation and was hugging a little too firmly.
"Oh! Sorry," she said, abashed. "I was so worried! Sylia said you'd be
okay, but still..."
"I know." He looked at where he had last seen Char fighting the giant
Boomer. There were scraps and pieces but nothing more of either party. "How
did Charcoal do with that Boomer?"
"Ah... He...ate it," Nene answered, not without a little hesitation.
"Then disappeared." Twister snorted with amusement.
"Figures."
"Sylia took the...damaged android," the red-headed hacker understandably
didn't give the double of her any personal reference, "to dispose of it while
looking for the machine that was damping your powers. I traced all the
information in the system here and deleted everything, except other possible
locations where more data and/or materials could have been stored and copied
it before trashing that too."
"Great." The Crystal Knight took a last look around at the place, then
shook his head; so pointless. "We'd better go. Madagan is here, so tell Sylia
to hurry."
"Madagan?! Why??"
"They needed a test subject." Nene digested that information, and he
imagined her eyes widening. "Now she's free and is probably going to trash
the place. I know she's usually a calm thinker, but I have a bad feeling she
will make an exception in this case." He paused. "After she finishes with
Miriam."
Nene swallowed, and contacted Sylia who came back swiftly. Twister
teleported them out of there immediately.
Then he checked on the others.

"You mean you actually USED the homing lasers???" Twister said
disbelievingly after teleporting the group he'd met to his underground
cavern.
He'd found Linna, Priss, and Sylvie in the damaged D.D. near the
location they had set up to meet later. They had to; the D.D. was not
something easily carried around or left behind. Especially when the cloak he
had made for it was gone! Which was the reason for his amazed question after
Sylvie explained what had happened.
"I was just trying something I saw on an anime once!" he exclaimed. "I'm
not surprised you blew up the emitters. I never even set the computer to use
it, that's why I didn't mention it."
"How did the J-1 fire it then?" Sylvie demanded.
Twister ran a hand through his hair, and sighed with a bewildered shrug.
"I haven't a clue. Maybe the magic affected it somehow."
"Great," Priss said. "Remind me never to ride something YOU make." She
snickered at the warning fist he aimed in her direction.
"Watch it, Priss," he advised. "I'd get you tomorrow for that crack, but
I'll be busy getting ready so you're lucky."
The others paused, then looked at each other. "Ready for what?" Linna
asked curiously. Twister's face turned a little melancholy.
"I'm leaving this universe in two days," he explained quietly.
To say the others were stunned would be an understatement.

Quincy calmly regarded the remains on his office floor of what had once
been a very sophisticated android duplicate of Madagan, that was now so much
scrap after the surprising arrival of the real one. Even now, the slightly
haggard woman was glowing a little as she glared down at the burning remains.
Her use of telekinesis was a very convincing evidence that this was indeed
the original. The CEO of Genom looked up mildly.
"I trust this can be explained, Miss Madagan?"

Chapter Forty-One
=================

"So you're really going?"
Darlene stopped her packing of what little she was going to take in a
large backpack and looked up at Nene, who appeared to be near tears. Her face
softened and she stood up to embrace Nene in a hug that the other red-head
reciprocated. "Hey, don't cry," she chastened. "I'll be back, pretty soon
thanks to the quirks of the way I'm travelling."
"I know," Nene sniffled as they separated. "I'm just worried that you'll
never come back."
"I'll be back. Count on it." The mage winked. "Then we'll REALLY turn
this city upside down." She smiled roguishly as Nene giggled. "Come on, the
others are waiting in the cave."
The rest of the minor packing was finished in a more lighthearted mood.

As Twister, he teleported them both to the huge underground hangar he
had accidently made two years ago. The rest of the Knight Sabers, Mackie, and
a seriously anxious Ryouga turned to them when they arrived. He'd given his
sad good-byes to Sylvie and Anri at the store and asked them to keep running
it in his absence. He had also told Charcoal to stay to protect the two
sexaroids, hoping the dragon would obey.
"You ready?" he directed to the bandanna wearing martial artist.
"Can we hurry?" Ryouga demanded. Linna elbowed him, frowning.
"We need to say good-bye, you big goof!" Ryouga sighed in annoyance and
stepped away from the rest of the group to let them do so.
"I doubt he'd be in as big a hurry if he had an idea of what's going to
happen," Twister said with a grin. "The method I figured out is a little
spectacular."
"I can't wait," Priss quipped, grinning, then turned serious. "I hate to
see a friend leave, so you better come back soon or I'll come after you,
another universe or not!"
"With you still owing me for subbing for you at Hot Legs? Oh, definitely
not; I REALLY hate crowds, you know."
"That's not what Leon told me from what he saw." She grinned as he gave
her an irritated frown, then he chuckled.
"You two getting together at last? Yipe!" Twister cried, avoiding the
annoyed singer's swipe.
She glared at him for a second, then sighed disgustedly before stepping
forward to hug him. "Just come back soon."
"I will."
She let go to let Linna hug him as well. "Same goes for me," the black-
haired woman said with a cheerful, yet sad, smile.
"Thanks, Linna."
When she released him, Twister turned to Mackie. "I know we haven't
really talked too much to each other, but I'd just like to say thanks to you
too, Mackie." He held out a hand, which Mackie accepted with a sheepish
smile.
"Yeah, I'm sorry we haven't talked much either," the younger Stingray
said.
"Maybe next time," Twister offered before releasing Mackie's hand, then
frowned as he remembered something. "You know... I never did do anything for
that photo you took..." Mackie suddenly started sweating.
Sylia took mercy on him. "Have you prepared the 'package' yet?" she
inquired, taking the psionist's attention off a relieved Mackie.
"Yes, I'll get her." He closed his eyes to concentrate and suddenly a
new arrival was teleported in. "Good evening, Yanda," he said pleasantly. The
glare he got back was definitely not friendly.
She was still in the dirty and stained clothes that he, as Darlene, had
caught her in during that last battle. But she couldn't move, or make any
action to initiate any contingency plans she may have made in case of
capture. He and Sylia had agreed that destroying her, or even stasis, might
not be wise until the senior Stingray could make sure it was safe. The others
hung back, finding it hard to believe this gorgeous woman was Largo. Priss
smirked at the idea of Mason/Largo becoming female, if a Boomer one.
Yanda could still talk though.
"Teleportation, telekinesis, levitation; all that and you waste it!" she
cried out at Twister. "You and I could rule this planet and make it a better
place."
"I won't, because one; I have no desire to play king, two; your methods
leave something to be desired, and three; there are still things about myself
I need to learn about before I settle anywhere."
"What are you talking about??" she demanded.
For a reply, Twister took a small bottle of cold water from a pocket and
splashed his face with the contents. Yanda was absolutely shocked at the
transformation. Darlene smirked at her expression, and said, "Here's a hint.
You would've needed a large amount of imagination to guess my two forms were
the same person, hmm?"
"You... you were the owner of that store?!? The one with the unknown
power?!"
"And that you tried to kill because I was an uncertainty? Oh, yes, I've
been switching from psionics to magic for a while now."
"Magic?! Don't tell me nonsense!"
"Then how did I change? What keeps you still? There is nothing physical,
no detectable energy, no change in your programming, nothing but the spell
that I cast to keep you immobile." Darlene stepped away from the confused
Yanda. "Maybe in a couple of centuries I'd even be able to turn you human.
Now THAT would be ironic." She turned to Sylia. "You can take her out with
the disks I made." Darlene had created small disks that allowed the Sabers to
travel to the underground facility freely by means of a teleportation spell.
It could come in handy for them, the mage figured.
"Thank you, Darlene. And I wish you well too." Sylia smiled and gently
hugged the red-head before letting her go.
"Good-bye then," Darlene said, and smiled sadly at them all. She needed
to get back, but didn't like having to leave friends behind. The mage sighed
and turned to the one who was waiting for her. "Ready, Ryouga?" The lost boy
started and picked up his pack, adjusting it into place.
"Yes, let's hurry!"
"Alright then, let's get a distance away first." They walked until they
were ten feet away from the group watching. Then Darlene stopped, turned and
waved one last time before taking a deep breath.
And began her spell.

"Powers of magic shall heed my call,
Now's the time to pierce the wall,
Of time and space, with driving force,
Open the gate that starts our course!"

A glowing circle seven feet in diameter on the floor surrounded the two
travellers when Darlene finished. Energy discharges crackled along the edge
as something began to happen to the floor enclosed within the circle.
It looked like it was being pulled in a bell shape into the ground, but
Darlene and a suddenly terrified Ryouga stayed standing in empty space where
the floor used to be. Looking down briefly, the lost boy saw the floor
becoming a tunnel, not a dark tunnel, but one that swirled images along its
walls. He looked away quickly. Those watching were amazed, and a not little
awed at what was happening.
"Almost like a black hole was forming," Sylia observed quietly. "Time
and space are curving below them, but not using gravity. And she's waiting
for it to open fully..."
Darlene started again, this time in a shout.

"The gate is open, our path is set,
Through the Void the goal is met,
The link is made, so safely start,
From this universe we now depart.

Let us travel, without delay,
Protection unending throughout the way,
Magic shall gather, roil, and foam,
For now begins the voyage HOME!"

The energy crackling at the edges intensified, and spread a little ways
from the circle, making the observers step back save Yanda, who could not.
One of the bolts lanced straight for Darlene, who expected it and was ready.
It was akin to plugging in a light socket when it hit; light flared from the
circle. Darlene and Ryouga glowed slightly, then dropped into the tunnel
below and began their journey home.
But Darlene was new to this form of travel and there was some leftover
magical energy where they had left that was uncontrolled. Most of it kept the
gate open longer than it should have, the rest was attracted to the spells
keeping Yanda paralysed. Like a neon snake, a curved line of purple energy
lashed out from the circle and discharged into the android. The startled
Sabers leaped backwards at the display. The meta-sexaroid jerked, but it did
no harm to her systems.
But now she could move.
Yanda assessed options. She couldn't activate any defensive mechanisms
and some lingering remnants of the spell still slowed her to normal human
levels. The humans behind her could damage, or destroy, her if they had
weapons, which was likely in at least two cases. Not very good conditions.
And she had never made preparations for her demise. This was her third
time alive, and Yanda had figured that if she failed again then there was no
point in resurrecting yet another incarnation of Mason. If she had succeeded
with Twister, she would have made some. Her plan had depended on finding a
mate, and she still settled on Twister as the best logical choice by far,
even with the startling revelations she had seen. But Yanda was free now and
her mate was escaping to another universe by a means she could not hope to
duplicate.
There was little choice, really.
She ran for the circle.
Sylia and the others were too slow to react to Yanda's sudden freedom
because of the spectacle they had just witnessed. Priss shouted angrily, but
it was too late. Yanda jumped high, fell into the gate, and was immediately
out of sight.
Priss gaped. "Fuck me! She's crazy!"
There was a sudden crackle of energy, another flash, and when the light
was gone, there was no gateway and no trace of what had happened.
All four Knight Sabers were stunned.
"Do you think she made it?" Linna asked no one in particular.
"Can we do a damn thing if she did??" Priss said in frustration.
Sylia looked at where the three had vanished, and sighed. She pulled out
the disk Darlene had given each of them for easy access to the cavern. "We'd
better go." When the others looked at her, startled, she shook her head.
"There is nothing we can do. Darlene should be able to handle her if Yanda
survived and arrives in her universe. There's no point in worrying about what
we can't help."
"I guess you're right," Nene said slowly, reluctantly. Sylia smiled at
her and despite what had happened the red-head cheered.
"Let's go home," Sylia said. Unevenly, the four disappeared from the
cavern.
Leaving it empty and quiet, as if nothing had ever happened.

"You can open your eyes now, Ryouga."
Blinking, the frightened young man opened his eyes and viewed...nothing.
Absolutely nothing. "W-where...?" he stammered out, registering the fact that
he and Darlene hung unsupported in a white nothingness. The red-head chuckled
at his question, but Ryouga noticed she looked tired; the effort to get them
here must've taken more out of her than he had assumed.
"This is the Void," Darlene explained. She took a look around,
interested; it was her third time here, but the second time she had been
unconscious. "For a blank slate it certainly is impressive."
Daunting was more the word Ryouga labelled it. It was just too much...
too much Void for him. "How long will it take? Are we even moving?"
"How can you tell in this place?" she said exasperated. "I suppose we
are; I can still feel the link. I suggest we close our eyes."
"Why?"
"The first time here I was told perception had something to do with Time
in this timeless place. If we both close our eyes, we might get there
faster."
Ryouga immediately closed his eyes.
Darlene rolled hers before following suit.

Yanda's fall had been a mixture of terror and fascination. The Well had
shown some sights some astronomers would kill for. The fact that her survival
was uncertain left the experience rather flat.
Then she had exited the Well and into the Void.
The whiteness was an illusion; her optics registered no light, yet she
could see herself. Obviously impossible, yet it was happening. When she
looked back, she saw the mouth of the Well rapidly receding into what passed
as the distance in this place.
The only thing she COULD label this place was the Void.
First I find out the mate I chose can become female, now this, she
thought. Yanda knew of the infinite universe theory, but never expected it to
be proven to her in this manner. As a test, she closed her eyes and ran a
self-diagnostic. Everything was in perfect order. When she opened her eyes,
she received yet another shock. There were two beings in the distance ahead
of her where there had been no one before and one of them was...
Twister!
He was in that female form with the young man whose name she knew to be
Ryouga. They floated as she did in the Void, but they were much closer to the
Well she now saw ahead. Yanda kept quiet, to keep her element of surprise. As
they approached the Well, Yanda wondered at the mate she had chosen. What
would have happened if the nanites had transformed him completely? That was
the question know that she knew about this transformation ability. If they
could have. He had shown unusual resistance to the change even in the short
time he had been exposed to them.
She saw the two enter the Well and smiled as she herself came closer to
it.
Wait!
"No!!" she screamed as she MISSED the opening. Horrified, she realized
that she had not been meant to be included in whatever Twister had done and
somehow her course had not followed the their's exactly. That exclusion had
made her drift off course.
And given the nature of the Void that meant she could quite possibly be
here forever. Horror began filling her mental processes.
"MORTAL."
Yanda whirled at the sound of the booming voice that seemed to echo
massively despite the Void. Her eyes widened and jaw dropped at what she saw.
"YOU NEED TO BE ELSEWHERE."
An incredible force suddenly deflected Yanda from her current course and
she screamed as she was buffeted by it.
She was gone in an instant.
The owner of the voice might have smiled if the being had been human.
"ALL IS AS IT SHOULD BE."

===========================================================================

--END OF TP3--

===========================================================================

--TO BE RENEWED IN TP4--

===========================================================================

=================
Twister(aka Darren Steffler) e-mail at:
twi...@tendo-dojo.ranma.net | fmw...@freenet.mb.ca
Homepage at: http://www.winnipeg.freenet.mb.ca/~fmw675/
Anime Fan!!! Must watch BGC and Ranma 1/2 to the infinite!