Bubblegum Crisis Fan Fiction ❯ Bubblegum Avatar #1 -- "Tin-Sell City" ❯ Chapter 1 - "Avatars Placed, Action Begun" ( Chapter 1 )

[ T - Teen: Not suitable for readers under 13 ]
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ShadowKnight Productions Presents:
A SI Fanfiction, not associated with SkyKnight Productions

Presents:

Still Another Story of Knight Sabers 2031

Bubblegum Avatar :

Book 1 - "Tin-sell City"

By C. A. Reed, Jr.
(trboturtle@aol.com)

Disclaimers:

B ubble Gum Crisis and it's characters are copyrighted by Artmic Inc. and Youmex, Inc. I am borrowing the characters for a while, with no intent of making money off of this.

SkyKnight is...I guess the correct term is a copyright.... of Bert Van Vliet - At least it's his character....And this version of Largo is also from his creation......Much of his C&C is in this too....did I mention he pre-read this?

The first scene of the prologue is directly from The Bubblegum Zone #3, by Bert Van Vliet, used by his permission. If you're familiar with his work, you will recognize where my inspiration for this series came from. If you haven't read his series, why are you hanging around here? Go read that, then come back here. His series is located at and be ready to read A LOT.....

This is a Self-Insertion fic, which means that my Ego has over-ridden my common sense and has forced my Muse to come up with this at gunpoint. I'm still working on my other BGC fics, but this one sort of forced itself on me. Any other character, including me, appearing in this story that don't fit into either above category is from me. I can be contacted at the Email address above. C&C will be accepted, out and out flames will result in a Boomer or two being sent after you, as soon as they get around to developing them.

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"MegaTokyo - the city of the future!"

GENOM Marketing slogan

"Hm, a company-owned town, rampaging boomers, and a wacked-out cyborg with delusions of
godhood. If this is the city of the future, I want the past...."

C.A. Reed, Jr. December 20th, 2031

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Chapter 1 - "Avatars Placed, Action Begun"

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Time line: C03-R03-A02- I37-G
Location In timeline: GENOM Tower, MegaTokyo,
Time: Winter, 2031AD

Brian J. Mason glared cooly at the team leader. "Are there ANY identifying marks on the wreckage?"

While waiting for an answer, Manson looked past the man at the crater that had appeared in the center of the secondary helicopter pad. A full team, both human and boomer, was swarming around what had made the crater. Then was a light flurry of snow that made the top of GENOM Tower a cold, wet place to be.

The Team Leader was several years younger, a full head taller and ten kilograms heavier then Mason, but there was no doubt about who was in command. "No sir. We're have no luck in trying to identify the model. It isn't a C-class, despite the remnants of skin we found on the main chassis. And it even more sophisticated then the 33Cs."

Mason mood was grim, matching the cold winter night. Somebody would pay for this, and if he could help it, that someone wouldn't be him A boomer or boomeriod had somehow managed to slip through GENOM Tower's sensor net and landed on the tower's roof, if somewhat harder then intended. From what he could see, it looked like the Boomer had been too badly damaged to move from where it had landed.

"Then who?" he asked in a low voice, his eyes not leaving the somewhat humanoid figure resting at the bottom of the crater. He had a strange sense of Deja vu, but didn't know from what.

"We don't know right now sir."

Mason glared at him. "Then, what DO you know?"

"I don't think it was an normal boomer."

"What makes you say that?"

"Well, it was in a battle of some sort. The damage is consistent with that. From the amount and type of scoring, it must had been struck, or partially struck, by a particle beam."

"A particle beam?" A cold shiver went through him.

"Yes sir. Once more, the damage was done to it before it landed."

"What are you saying?"

The team leader looked worried. "This boomer was damaged in a battle before it struck the helicopter pad. A battle that involved at least one firing of a particle beam."

Mason glanced up into the night sky. "One of the USSD satellites?" There were over two hundred of them up there in orbit, a prize just beyond his -- and GENOM's -- reach..

"Without us noticing it? It's not possible sir."

"I want the remains taken to a secured lab and our best analysis team put on it right now. I want to know what it is, where it came from, and who built it. I will take personal charge of this incident. Understood?"

"Yes Sir!"

Mason turned and stalked away, intent of finding some warmth from the cold. But for some reason, he didn't think his chill was from the night air....

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Time line: C03-R03-A02-I37-G
Location In timeline: Near the Silky Doll lingerie store, MegaTokyo
Time: Winter, 2031AD

It was after midnight on a cold snowy night. The traffic, both car and pedestrian, was light, as the snow was continuing to fall steadily.

One of the few cars out in this weather was a red, 1954 Mercedes-Benz 300SL. Actually, it was a reproduction of the classic car - with all the regulations and technical advancements, it would have been expensive, not to mention unwise, to drive the real thing. Never the less, it was an elegant car at a time when cars were anything but.

The elegance extended to the driver. She was young, but with the poise of a woman twice her age. She look like a successful businesswoman, which she was. What she didn't look like was a brilliant scientist and leader of a mercenary team known as the Knight Sabers. It was because of this last item that she was out in this weather at all.

If Sylia Stingray had her choice, she would have stayed in tonight. However, the message from Fargo changed those plans. While her contact thought of himself as a romantic, he knew her well enough then to set up a meet for any other reason then business, especially on a night like this.

But his information had been important, important enough to arrange the meeting. Something had happen on top of GENOM Tower a couple of nights ago, something that sending the huge multinational corporations scrambling around for answers. From what Fargo had been able to gleam, a boomer of unknown design had slipped past the Tower's sensor net and crashed onto the roof. Now, Brian Mason was heading up the investigation into trying to find where the Boomer had come from and why it crashed onto GENOM Tower.

She turned onto a side street, using it as a shortcut back to the Lady633 building. As she drove, she started analyzing this new data. The report of an unknown Boomer design was disturbing. Her contacts inside GENOM told her that the newest Boomer designs, the C-class, were in the final design phase, with production scheduled to start within six months. The designs were armored, with strong offensive capability that could spell trouble for the ADP should they have to face one that goes rogue. And knowing GENOM, she expected the first one to go rogue before the end of winter.

Yet, the Boomer that landed on the tower's roof was suppose to be an superior design in every way to the C-class. Its remains were being kept under tight security, but what little leaked out worried Sylia. The design and materials indicated someone who had a lot of time and money, someone that GENOM didn't know about. According to Fargo, Rumor had it that Quincy was worried, and it took something serious to fluster the Chairman of GENOM.

Unconscious that her mind was drifting, she didn't see the figure staggered out of the alleyway and into the street until it was too late. She hit her brakes hard, but the frozen slush threw the car into a skid to the right. The left rear clipped the figure, flipping him over the trunk and onto the roadway. The car slid for another ten meters before it struck a snow-covered curb with enough force to make Sylia wince, but it stopped.

Even as she sorted through the sequence of events, she got out of the car and made her way slowly over to the person she'd hit. The snow and the distance from the main roads meant that there wouldn't be much traffic along this route tonight, let alone in the next couple of minutes. The buildings that lined this street were business and office buildings, deserted and dark at this time of night.

As she walked over to him, mindful of the slick surface she was walking on, she berated herself for allow her attention to wander from getting home safely. The man was lying face-down on the frozen slush, and for a second, Sylia thought he was dead. But, he groaned and started moving slowly.

She reached him and knelt beside him. "Are you all right?" she asked him.

He looked up at her, a dazed expression on his face. "What did you said?" he asked in English, his voiced slurred and somewhat distance. She didn't smell any alcohol on him, but it was still possible he had been drinking. She pegged his age at about twenty-three, though it wasn't the best place to make estimates.

"Are you all right?" she asked again, this time in English. He was shorter then she was, but clearly heavier, with short dark hair, brown eyes, a high forehead, a small nose and narrow chin. He was dressed in a heavy overcoat, blue jeans, and boots. A grey-and-red backpack laid on the ground next to him, one strap broken in the accident.

"I...don't know," he said slowly, using his arms to push himself up. "What...happened?"

"You walked out in front of me," Sylia said slowly.

The man blinked and looked around. "Where am I?" he asked. "This isn't Florida."

"You are an American?"

Before he could answer, the man's eyes closed and he slumped to the ground again, muttering softly. Sylia stood. And turned towards her car. She'd have to call an ambulance for him, and answer a lot of unwanted questions, but she didn't have a choice. As she took a step, her foot hit the backpack, sending several books skittering across the frozen slush. She glanced down, and her eyes focused on one of the books. As she did so, a coldness went through her.

She reached down and pick it up, her mind not believing what she was seeing. The book itself was large, but not very thick, with flexible covers. The cover was a picture of her in some sort of model pose with both hands holding a pistol. Behind her, was a close up of her hardsuit, with 'KNIGHT SABERS' written on the side of the helmet in English. At the top, the title read 'BUBBLEGUM CRISIS - BEFORE AND AFTER', also in English.

She turned the book over, scanning the pictures and words there, then opened the book and skimmed the contents. She stopped at a certain page and gazed at the hardsuit drawing, captioned 'Hardsuit Sylia Version-3'. She felt her heart race as she continued on through the book. She stooped to pick up another book, this one called 'BUBBLEGUM CRISIS: MEGATOKYO 2033'. This one had Priss on the cover, in her hardsuit, her visor raised, draped over a motorcycle, with a Boomer behind her. Sylia quickly skimmed through this one, and she felt herself grow even colder.

There was no way she could call the ambulance now. The man had enough information on her and the other Knight Sabers to destroy their cover. She thought briefly of killing him, but she rejected the idea. She needed to know what he knew. Besides, killing a person in cold blood without a clear reason didn't set well with her.

She looked up, her face troubled. Making a decision, she picked up the back pack and picked up everything that had spilled out of it. She walked back to her car and put the backpack in it. She got in and started the engine. It caught cleanly.

She let the engine rev for several seconds before she slowly put the car into gear and drove the car towards the unknown victim. She stopped next to him, got out and went over to him. After turning him over, she quickly checked him over for obvious signs of injury. Just them the man stirred. "What happened?" he muttered, again in English.

"Are you hurt?" she asked, also in English, as he didn't seem to be able to speak Japanese.

Before she could stop him, he sat up, holding his head in his hands, his face a mask of pain. "I hurt," he said through gritted teeth, "everywhere."

"Can you stand?"

It took him about half a minute to stand unsteadily on his feet, with Sylia's help. He was still too dazed to do more then keep himself from being a dead weight, but She wasn't about to take any chances. She quickly checked him for weapons with a palm-sized scanner. The scanner bleeped a negative to either weapons or cyberware. Nodding to herself, she helped the man to the car.

Time seemed to stretch, minutes feeling like hours. She continued looking up and down the street for any late-night travelers, her unease growing at ever second. She helped him to the car and into the passenger seat, where he promptly passed out again. She closed the door, took one last look around for anything she might have missed, then got into the car herself. She waited until she put the car in gear before she dial a number on her car phone.

Mackie answered on the second ring. "Yes?"

"Meet me in the garage with a gurney and the first aid kit," she said.

"Are you all right?"

"I am, but hit someone with the car and I'm brining him back."

"But why not call the -"

"It's a bit involved. I'll explain when I get there."

Mackie expelled a deep breath. "I sure hope you know what you're doing."

"Just meet me, all right? I should be there in about five minutes."

"Five minutes." Mackie hung up.

Sylia glanced over at her unwanted passenger, then concentrated on driving. For once, she was thankful for the poor conditions. It meant she didn't have to answer the multiple questions that screamed for attention. She would have her answers soon enough, but she was sure she wasn't going to like the answers....

******

Time line: UNKNOWN
Location In timeline: UNKNOWN
Time: UNKNOWN


[Wasn't that a bit extreme?] the first intelligence asked.

*What did you expect? Did you want him to knock on Sylia Stingray's door and said, 'I want to join the Knight Sabers?'*

[She could have killed him. In fact, she still may.]

*She will not kill him - for now.*

[She isn't going to trust him.]

*True. But I plan to take care of that.*

[How?]

*I'm going to ask the Knight Sabers to allow him to join them.*

[You're going to do WHAT?]

*You did not misunderstand me.*

[It is not a matter of misunderstanding you. It is a matter of not believing you.]

*Our opponent has taken certain liberties with the wording of the laws. I am doing the same thing.*

[But we are suppose to follow the laws!]

*So are they.*

[How are you going to convince the Knight Sabers to this plan of yours?]

*Leave that to me.*