Tokyo - The Present

Titanite kept running over the activation sequence as she headed for the park. Despite her incredible feeling of anticipation school had passed faster than expected. Probably because she'd dozed a good part of the day. Which wasn't normal for her but staying up all night watching the complete set of Crisis and Crash discs had cut into her sleeping time. Followed by messing around on the internet once she had the series background. Still it had been time well spent. By now she should know more about MegaTokyo than the rest of the DKR even if they'd already spent a day there.

The others had departed through the gate yesterday evening. Which would have meant arrival in MegaTokyo well into night. As soon as they'd gone she'd headed for Toji Kimua's house. Toji was a painfully shy boy in Ti's class. While he possibly knew more and owned more anime than anyone else in the school his complete lack of social skills kept him from joining the local anime circle. Everyone tended to avoid him, they'd got used to it over the years. So he'd been very flustered when Ti approached him during lunch. She'd managed to get him talking anime which seemed to calm him down. As she'd hoped he had identified the series starring the Knight Sabers and owned laserdiscs of the OAVs. She'd arranged to drop by and borrow them that evening.

His mother had been surprised at anyone, particularly a girl, dropping by to visit her son. Surprised but happy. She seemed to think it meant he was overcoming his shyness. Ti had let Toji show off his collection and taken care to avoid commenting on the posters adorning his walls. She'd also made sure to miss spotting the large pile of hentai material spilling out from a halfopen closet. It seemed he was a big fan of the tentacle porn genre. Due to an unpleasant childhood incident she'd never be comfortable with that. Staying just long enough to be polite she'd borrowed the discs and headed home. She wondered if she was now figuring in some geek fantasy of his. The beautiful outsider who falls for the worst possible guy in the school. Having not been born on this planet she certainly qualified. Actually he might not be so bad if he learned the concepts of hygiene and personal grooming. Along with airing out his room every now and again.

So here she was, about to open the interdimensional gateway. Pyrite had given her the key and told her how to activate it. Her cousin had also made her promise not to use it unless there was a dire emergency. I.E. a youma hunt by the Senshi, Doomsday, massive earthquake ... that sort of thing. As she saw it possessing vital information about the world they were visiting certainly qualified.

There should have been weird noises and strange pulsing lights as she used the key. But Pyrite hadn't wanted anything noticeable so the gate's opening was silent and invisible. She could feel its presence but couldn't see a thing. No one around, time to go. "Tinsel city here I come!" She stepped forward and vanished.

MegaTokyo - October 2033 AD

Leon McNichol looked at the N police officer with the bandged head. "So this women dressed in an S&M version of a schoolgirl uniform comes out of that restaurant .. after it's been hit by an antipersonnel missile ... says her name is Sailor Arcturus, destroys both Boomers then heads back into a burning building with a guy in a tuxedo?"

Akira Ishikawa sighed. "Look I know I have a concussion but it happened the way I said."

"I believe you." McNichol didn't look happy about saying that. "We've got security vids that show her kicking boomer ass. The city is going totally nuts." He walked off without waiting for Ishikawa to reply.

Forensic techs were swarming over the fallen Boomers. They'd better get what they needed quickly before GENOM came to collect the biomechs. According to GENOM these were prototypes for a new export model. They'd been stolen from the testing lab by terrorists. Possibly the same ones who'd blown themselves up in the Shimizu Tunnel yesterday but had already preset the Boomers to attack tonight. Yeah right. Total bullshit but HQ would accept it. He sometimes wondered why GENOM even bothered covering up releasing the damn things. GENOM owned all the higher ups. If it told them to bend over and keep smiling they'd do it.

Daley was watching a monitor displaying the mystery woman making an impossible leap to land behind a Boomer. On the screen she proceeded to rip its arm loose. Daley froze the picture. "So what do you think?"

"If she had a hardsuit then I'd accept this. As it is ..."

"Well one thing's clear. She's not human."

"Amazing! Just from watching her dismember a Boomer with her bare hands you can conclude something like that. Holmes, your deductive powers never cease to amaze me."

Daley smiled at his partner. "Sarcasm aside, what do you think?"

"Christ knows." He studied the figure closer. "Killer bod though ... Is there such a thing as a combat sexaroid?"

"Good a theory as any." Daley stroked his chin. "Boomers in human form aren't new. Human form Boomers that can take out combat models are a different story."

"And she didn't have to bulk up either." leon was silent for a moment. "So where do we go from here?"

"Why ask me?"

"You're supposed to be the brains of this partnership. You do the thinking, I do the macho posturing."

"And you look very attractive doing it. Anyway I'd saw tomorrow morning we go and have a word with Jason Deite."

"Who?"

"GENOM's new hotshot Boomer designer. He's rumoured to be doing some radical stuff." He nodded at the screen. "That is definitely radical."

"Can't argue with that." Daley started the picture moving again. "Techs still can't agree on the weapon that guy used on the Boomer."

"Must be really compact to fit in that cane. Yet it burned clear through an armoured skull."

"So we've got a mystery boomer and some guy with a tux and an unknown weapon out there somewhere ..."

"Don't forget the Werewolf Vigilante."

"...not to mention something roaming the city leaving bits of scumbags all over the place. I tell you Daley things cannot get any weirder."

Daley looked pained. "I really wish you hadn't said that. Someone up there might take that as a challenge."

Meanwhile an unmarked van was sitting in a secluded spot of one of the slumzones. A few scavangers had moved in to strip it but had left quickly when guns popped out of the roof and tracked them. Word had spread and the inhabitants were giving it a wide berth. The van cameras had found and focused on the concealed boomers. The biomechs were clearly in standby mode, waiting for something to happen. The question was what?

Inside the van Sylia watched the screens patiently. Nene kept monitoring ADPolice channels and tried to avoid dozing off from boredom. She was doing a little systems penetration to keep her mind occupied. She'd hacked into the cab's videofeed to see what Mackie was watching. At which point Sylia saw her flush bright red and cut the signal quickly. She shook her head, Mackie, Mackie, Mackie ...

Linna was leafing through a financial magazine taking extreme care not to shred the pages with the hardsuit's fingers. Priss had popped out of her suit after the emergency ended. She was currently pacing up and down the truck massaging her wrist. "Look, the hell with waiting. Let's suit up and take them out!"

Nene blanched. "Priss there's a dozen heavy combat Boomers out there and we're back to the old suits."

"We've got the advantage of surprise."

"Priss I told you this is a reconnaisance mission. If the Boomers remain inactive a few hours longer we'll plant cameras and pull out." There had been no sign of activity on the Boomers part. Why did Deite place them here? They all seemed to be watching the same place. But why? Nothing there but the crumbled remains of a department store. Looted of everything years ago there wasn't even enough shelter for squatters. Then the monitors went crazy. All the scanners were displaying gibberish. Sylia and Nene tried to compensate for the interference.

As suddenly as it started it cleared. All systems were normal again. Linna was looking at the screen displaying the point the Boomers seemed to be watching as it resolved from a blur of color. "Where'd she come from?"

There was a girl in a brown and white school uniform standing there. She was leaning against a twisted old support girder. Evidently dizzy. She looked to be about 15 and far too neat and clean for this area. The pack on her back shifted as she straightened up. She was looking around with a frown as she brushed her brown hair back. "Sylia, three of the Boomers are moving. The camouflaged C-55's!"

"Priss, Nene suit up! We have to intercept before ..."

"Too late! They ... WHAT THE HELL!"

Titanite felt the disorientation pass. Interdimensional travel didn't seem to be as rough as teleportation. Now where exactly was she? Let's see ... big brother had mentioned landing in a slum and heading east. East was which way? She heard someone moving towards her and saw the three figures emerge. They looked a lot like those thugs in the "Revenge Road" episode. They must figure she was an easy target. They were about to be surprised. The disguised Boomers studied her. Young, female. Probable target.

Confirmation required before commitment of combat units. One of them drew a knife and charged her. She activated her shield and shifted her weight. As it came down in a downward arc she grabbed his wrist and used a judo throw to toss him into the ground. This guy was heavy, she had to use a lot more strength than expected. The Boomer impacted the ground backfirst. Confirmation. Target exerted superhuman strength. Initiating operation. In the surrounding rubble the concealed Boomers stirred.

Titanite saw the guy she'd thrown swell. His clothing and skin exploded away as he increased in size about 50%. His two friends, who'd been standing watching, underwent the same transformation. Titanite saw the blue metal revealed by the metamorphasis and realized she was in trouble. She was already moving as the Boomer sat up. The force sphere formed between her hands then slammed into the Boomer. Its' chest bent inwards and it slid back several feet. Then it flopped over. One down but the other two were tracking her and they both had glowing mouths. They were about to hit her with their laser cannons! One of them suddenly flew forwards as something impacted it. It smashed through a wall raising a cloud of dust. The other Boomer began turning towards the new threat then fell apart in two large pieces.

"Cal!"

Still holding the sword he'd created Calcite landed beside her. "You seem to have stirred up the locals." Before she could reply the Boomer he'd shockblasted heaved itself out of the rubble. A knife suddenly sprouted in its' forehead and pulsed energy into its brain. The Boomer hit the ground as a ton of dead metal.

Calcite was lowering his arm when the 12 combat boomers exploded out of the rubble. He blasted the nearest but it got back up. Bullets began chewing up the ground. Calcite's shield began taking multiple impacts. If he dropped the shield to teleport they were both dead. They were closing in. Several of the Boomers were exposing energy weapons. Not good. "Ti, get out of here." Before she could protest he grabbed her and tossed her away from Boomers. Then charged them with the sword swinging.

Ti somersaulted in the air and hit the ground feetfirst. The Boomers had defaulted into combat mode and prioritized Calcite as the primary threat. Two were down but he'd had to switch his shield to repel energy bursts. Which left him open to physical attack. He was close enough for a Boomer to strike him. She saw his head snap back and blood spray.

"CAL!" she started towards him and felt a hand close on her shoulder. In her state of distraction she hadn't noticed the armoured figures approach from behind. She looked back to see four armoured figures, each one a different color. The blue armoured one held her back. "The Knight Sabers!" Then she heard a cry and turned back see her brother go down and eight Boomers pile in for the kill. She screamed and started forward again. Priss was about to tell her to forget it, the guy was dead but she was too startled by power required to hold the girl back. Her heels dug into the ground for traction.

Then the Boomers exploded away, striking the ground hard. The figure in the shredded clothes stood up his face twisted in fury. His eyes glowed a solid purple and his hair had shifted from blond to light green. With a cry he flung himself on the nearest Boomer and ripped its head off. He snapped the head into another Boomer then jumped at a third. It washed laser energy over him but he didn't feel it. As he pulled its arms off another Boomer slammed a blow into his back. Armour formed to blunt the blow but Ti heard something crack. Cal winced momentarily but spun and proceeded to beat the Boomer to death with its' collegue's limbs. A fragment of shrapnel sliced across his face. Blood had barely begun to flow when the cut closed. While it was impossible to read expressions through their armour Ti was willing to bet the Knight Sabers were frozen in astonishment. Certainly they didn't move. Still how often do you see a man rip apart eight Boomers with his bare hands?

Ti was pretty sure she knew what had going on. She'd heard of this happening once before. Years ago when their mother had been killed and they'd been marked for death Cal had gone after the youma boss responsible. He'd gone alone. At the time they didn't know Azurite was a Renegade, she was five years old and Pyrite wasn't reliable enough in combat. Somehow during the

battle that followed he'd become a berserker. His healing ability boosted to incredible levels enabling him to survive wounds which should have killed him. His strength and energy shield had also boosted and he'd been consumed with rage. Anyone who challenged him that day died very quickly. It appeared to have triggered again.

Calcite dropped what was left of the last Boomer. His gaze shifted to the five watchers. Ti wriggled free of Priss's grasp and saw her brother stare at her. HIs face seemed to have shifted from blind anger to calculation as he decided if he faced a new threat. "Uh Cal you remember me right? Your lovable younger sister Ti?" The purple gaze swept on. He was ignoring her but he was studying the Knight Sabers. Ti had the nasty feeling that if they made any threatening move he'd attack. And wouldn't stop until they were dead or he was. She heard movement behind her. "Wait Priss!" She had to snap him out of this state somehow. Maybe ... yeah that might annoy him enough to work. She tapped her braclet and her clothing morphed.

On the Sabers' comm. link Sylia was saying. "Hold steady. We don't know what we're dealing with here but he may not be an enemy."

"Sylia she just called me by name WHAT THE FUCK!" The girl's clothing shifted and reformed. She was now wearing a very abbrieviated version of the traditional sailor fuku. Yellow miniskirt, green boots, white gloves and leotard. Her hair had shifted to a light green identical to the boomer destroyer's. She made some complicated hand motion and intoned, "Destroying all these Boomers before the heroines got a shot really ruins the screenplay. How dare you waste all Sonoda Kenichi's work by preempting them? On behalf of Youmex and fandom Sailor Polaris will punish you!"

The solid purple light in his eyes began to flicker and vanished. Now the only purple was in his irises. "Ti I've told you not to start a fight by giving those ridiculous speeches ..." His voice changed from exasperated to puzzled and he noticed the shredded Boomers surrounding him. He sat down heavily. "What the hell?"

The girl made an impossible leap to his side and hugged him. "You're allright! I was so scared you were going to ... " She stopped talking and buried her face in his shoulder.

"Easy Ti, I'm Ok. Just a bit weak and very confused." He looked over his sister's shoulder and tensed up. "Ti? Who are they and why are they wearing highheeled armour?"

Ti straightened up. "It's OK big brother. Those are the good guys, the Knight Sabers. The Blue one is Priss, next to her is Linna ... That's Sylia their leader ... and last but not least is Nene." The helmets concealed the shocked expressions on the Knight Sabers faces. Though it was a bit of a giveaway when Priss raised her railgun and shouted, "How the hell do you know that?"

Calcite bypassed the translator to switch to their native language. "Is this common knowledge?"

Ti answered in Japanese, "Uh no it's a big secret. Almost no one knows their real names."

"I think a fast exit is called for. Link to my teleport now!" Ti nodded and took his hand. She felt the power build and tried not to think about warp sickness. There was a flare of light and Nene's sensors went crazy for a moment. Then both figures were gone.

"They've stealthed! Everybody ready." Sylia hesitated a moment then raised her visor. If they were able to fool the helmet displays only visual observation remain. No one there. Sylia stalked over to the wrecked Boomers replaying the fight in her mind. Right about ... here. She'd found what she was looking for. "Nene! Get a sample of this stuff before it dries!" Quite a bit of blue blood stained the concrete.

Linna had also raised her visor. "Nothing. We've lost them."

"Not necessarily. I tagged the girl with a tracer." She switched frequencies, "Mackie!"

"Right here Sis."

"Get me the location of tracer alpha one."

"Hold on. I'm scanning the area ... Nothing in range. I'll patch into the main system and check the whole of MegaTokyo. Gonna take a few minutes to infiltrate the communication networks."

"Acknowledged." She took another look at the demolished boomers and shook her head. What had she just seen? "Nothing left to see here. Back to the van."

Watching for ambushers they withdrew back to the waiting truck. As they reached it Priss was saying, "He must have been a Superboomer. The girl too. Just like Largo."

Nene cut in sounding worried. "You don't suppose he is Largo do you?"

"No." Sylia's voice was firm. "I'd have recognised Largo no matter what he looked like."

"So what are we dealing with? Are they rogue boomers GENOM's hunting? And how'd they get past us twice?"

"For that matter how did the girl's clothing change?" Sylia sighed. "I don't have all the answers. If we find them maybe we can find out."

They entered the truck and popped their helmets. Mackie's voice came over the intercom. "Sis I've got her. About 3 1/2 kays northeast. I'm patching in the city maps ... seems to be in a commercial district ... zoned for hotels."

"Can you get sound?"

"I'm boosting the signal. Give me a minute."

"Good. Patch it through as soon as you've got an understandable signal. Then head back home." Sylia unhinged the top of her armour and climbed out. This mission had raised more questions than it answered.

"I've got it. Here we go."

There was a hiss then a women's voice saying, "...so you came through the gate to show us these?"

"Absolutely." It was the girl.

"What kind of a name is 'Bubblegum Crisis' anyway?"

"Well I saw a good explanation in the FAQ. The idea is society is at a crisis point. Like a bubblegum bubble it's either going to implode and collapse or explode. They don't actually use the term in the series. Look if you just watch them ..."

"Unfortunately we can't do that Ti." A thoughful sounding man's voice. "The entertainment center on the TV can't handle discs that size. Make's sense really. Laser discs that big have probably been obsolete for years."

"Oh ... I didn't think of that."

"Among other things." That was the mystery man. Sounding a lot calmer and quite a bit weaker.

"Easy Cal." The other man again. "Ok examinations done. Physically you're in fine shape. Old signs of massive trauma but they're fading rapidly. By morning you should be good as new."

"I feel like a wet dishrag."

"This hyper healing evidently takes a lot of power. Also from the sound of it you were using energy fairly recklessly."

"Cal ...", back to the woman, "What do you remember happening?"

"Nothing specific. I was hurt and losing a lot of blood. I suddenly felt this incredible anger at being beaten and failing everyone. Then the pain was gone and I felt strong enough to destroy everything." A few moments silence. "After that nothing is clear until I saw Ti doing Sailor Polaris. I don't think I was really thinking at all. Just reacting."

"It worked."

"Maybe that time, Ti. But fighting that way is a good way to get killed."

"If you could learn to harness it somehow. Fight at that powerlevel while retaining your intelligence ..." The woman again.

"It would be useful. But I have no idea how to induce that state short of sustaining major injuries that aren't instantly fatal."

The other man's voice broke in. "Anyway you're feeling weak because of the energy you used. A day or two and your reserves should be back to normal."

"Let's hope we have that long. Anyway Ti getting back to why you're here. The idea that there's any connection between this world and those discs ..."

"May not be totally crazy after all."

"What are you talking about Pyr?"

"I've been reading the notes on the back. They definitely mention Boomers and GENOM. You did say those armoured women you met matched the picture on these covers."

"OK I concede the point. Maybe all your information is accurate Ti. That still raises the question of why you came."

"I thought this information could be vital to you."

"Ti, this is your big brother you're talking to."

"Uhmmmm. Well I sort of wanted to see this place for myself. Do you have any idea what any BGC otaku would give to be here?" The girl continued. "After I had the background I went cruising on the internet for more info..."

The other woman muttered, "I said it was a mistake getting her that computer."

"Anyway I found the Bubblegum Crisis FAQ and a lot of fan speculation. Now I can write the ultimate FAQ and get answers to the questions that have bothered the fans for years."

"Like what exactly?', ther other man asked.

"Well like ...", there was the sound of paper being pulled out of a bag and unfolded. "Is Priss a lesbian/bisexual? Just what did happen between her and Sylvie?" Priss blanched. "Is there any truth to the rumours about Nene and leather bars?" Nene turned a bright red. "How many guys has Linna ..."

"Ti!" The green haired man's voice broke the flow of questions. Just in time, in Linna's opinion.

"Yes big brother?"

"I hate to sound like I'm interested but curiosity makes me ask this; if you eliminate all the questions about these people's sex lives, what is left?"

"Uh ... hold on." There was the sound of pages turning. "That seems to bring it down to 'Is Mackie adopted?' and 'Is Sylia a boomer?'"

The other male asked, "This Sylia is the one mixed up with this Priss?

"No that was Sylvie. See Sylia is the leader of the Knight Sabers. Her father was the guy who invented Boomers but GENOM killed him so it could take control of them. Anyway Sylia grew up looking for either revenge or justice and formed the Knight Sabers to keep GENOM under control."

"Four women in armour keep a worldwide multinational under control?"

"Well yeah. Lucky GENOM keeps running their most dangerous and illegal experiments in MegaTokyo."

"Next to their corporate headquarters?"

"Uhm yeah. Now that you mention it ..."

"It is a synchronistic zone Cal. You have to expect this sort of thing. As our own experiences demonstrate."

"True enough Pyr."

The girl continued, "Anyway Sylvie was this boomer Priss knew ..."

"Hold it." The other woman interupted. "Boomer as in those big, ugly machines? Even if those things were anatomically correct a human would have to be pretty hard up to ..."

"No Azure. See Sylvie was this special class of Boomer. They looked like women ... I think they were called the 33-S series. Anyway they were better known as sexaroids ... see they were designed to ... ah ..."

"I think we can figure it out Ti."

"Ok. Well there were several of them on this spacestation and they decided to escape ..." The girl's voice continued detailing things no one outside the Knight Sabers should know. Even a few things that no one except Priss should know. The same question was on all their minds. Who the hell are these people?

The girl's voice finished telling the tragic story of Sylvie and Anri. After a few moment's silence the berserker said, "Ok let's say, for the sake of argument, all your information is one hundred percent correct ..."

"It is. I even memorized the words to the songs. From the date on that paper all the Crisis stuff should have happened. Crash isn't until next year."

"Fine. Well, not to put to fine a point on it ... so what?"

"So what?"

"Ti you say these Saber Riders ..."

"KNIGHT SABERS!"

"...these Knight Sabers spend all their time fighting GENOM. Good for them but it's nothing to do with why we're here."

"But ..."

"We're not here to save the world. We're here to take out Jadeite before he does something worse to Tokyo."

"JADEITE!" She definitely sounded scared of that name.

"We just found out he's alive and well. Now we have to figure out our next move." A sigh. "Those must have been his Boomers left to guard the gate. Wonder why they didn't attack us."

"If they were put there to stop the Senshi then they were probably programmed to attack teenage girls. Ti fit the critera, we didn't."

"Makes sense cousin. Think it's riskier to send Ti back or keep her with us?"

"It's probably riskiest to open the gate again. If someone goes back and Jadeite senses it then sees you and Azure are still here he's going to know you lied to him about our numbers."

"Ok. Ti you're staying."

"Allright."

"But you're staying in this hotel until we sort this mess out."

"But ... OK big brother."

"Good. Now I need some rest. I'm the invalid so I'm keeping the bed. Ti you get the couch."

"Uhm the bed looks softer. And it's a double so there's plenty of room."

"The couch."

She sighed and acquiesed. The other pair announced they'd be heading back to their own room. There was the sound of a door closing. After a few moments the girl asked. "Can I watch TV?"

"Keep the volume down."

"Thanks ... Uhh Cal I'm sorry about triggering those Boomers but ... look coming here wasn't just for me. I thought it would help you."

"I believe you Ti." A pause. "By the way do these stories have happy endings?"

"Well the Knight Sabers always win. But sometimes the people around them get killed." Then quickly," It's not all grim stuff though. The one staring Nene is very cute."

"I see. Goodnight sister."

"Goodnight Cal." There was the soft whisper of channel surfing but no more conversation.

Mackie parked the truck and the Sabers disembarked.

"I say we hit them now. Drag them back here and find out what they know."

Linna looked at her friend. "Come on Priss. They're sitting in the middle of a crowded hotel. A lot of people could get hurt. Besides which can we beat them? If all four of them are as tough as that guy ..."

"We will not assault a civilian building without far more reason than we have. We haven't even determined if they are enemies." Is it possible that despite all they know about us we are irelevant to them? Or did they know we were listening and hope to confuse us. If that was their intention it succeeded brilliantly. "Mackie, you and Nene break into the Imperial Hotel's database and get us their names. Then find out if the name Sailor Polaris means anything. Priss and Linna, you'll keep monitoring the tracer. Take it in shifts." Sylia looked at the fluid filled tube she'd taken from Nene's hardsuit. "I'm going to test this stuff and hopefully get a few answers."

Tokyo - The Present.

The impound warehouse stank as the wrecked Boomers' biological components decayed. The police were still trying to pass the matter over to the defense ministry. No one had any experience in what to do in a situation like this. Various universities and corporations were petitioning to get a look at their hardware. Ufologists wanted to study them so they could proclaim mankind's first contact with extraterrestrials. They'd have been disappointed once they spotted the GENOM patent numbers.

Due to the stench all the guards were posted outside. So there was no one to see the woman wearing the sailor fuku materialize. Her hair was a darker shade of green than Calcite and Titanite's. Unlike them she was 100% human. Taking care not to bang her staff against the carcasses she moved to the center of the pile. A look around confirmed what the letter had told her. These things clearly did not belong in this place and time. No big surprise as the letter came from someone she trusted implicitly. Herself. Or rather a future version of herself. In any event premature access to this level of technology could radically change what was to follow.

She raised the key and felt the power build. Now! For a moment the gate between Earth and limbo flickered open. The Boomers tumbled in and began a fall that would never end. At least not this side of eternity. The first part of her orders were completed. Now she just had to wait until the moment came to obliterate the other anomaly. It wouldn't be long now.