Sailor Moon Fan Fiction / Bubblegum Crash Fan Fiction ❯ Senshi Sabers ❯ Chapter 5

Part Five

"Is there something I can do for you, officer Tsukino?" the redhead asked, the two women standing there in the battered administrator's office. The building was a shambles, damage throughout, and etched into the floor was the name 'Senshi Sabers.' Kaori looked irritable adding, "I certainly don't recall calling in the AD Police."

Usagi Tsukino looked over at her thoughtfully, her long blonde hair flowing down her back in twin streams. "You know we're authorized to look into any bio-boomer incidents," she said mildly, sliding down her black sunglasses to look at the executive.

Kaori narrowed her eyes and visibly restrained herself. "You're welcome to look around," she finally said, "though I suspect you'll get a call from your superiors asking you to leave." With that she turned and strode away, already talking on her cellphone.

"She's probably right you know," Naru commented, the brown haired smaller officer looking around curiously. She smiled as she looked up at Usagi, "Why do you so like to push your luck with the Infinity Organization?"

Usagi smiled grimly, blue eyes flashing as she said, "You mean beside the fact that they're hiding the real number of bio-boomer rampages?"

"Other than that, yes," Naru said.

Usagi looked towards where Kaori had walked off, her gaze thoughtful. "Something else stinks here," she finally said, "they're hiding something, something bad."

Naru sighed, deciding not to press the issue. "So the Senshi Sabers struck again last night," she said, looking around the facility.

"A manufacturing type bio-boomer went rogue," Usagi said grimly, "killed a human worker and absorbed another person before the Senshi arrived."

Naru winced visibly, "Did the person survive?"

Usagi shook her head, "They killed the bio-boomer without hurting him directly, but his system had been too badly infiltrated by the bio-boomer. He died on the way to hospital." Softly she added, "The leader of the Senshi was the one that killed it."

"I don't envy her," Naru sighed.

Usagi nodded slightly. There were situations as AD Police where people could be hurt, even killed by their actions, and she had to accept that. Still, she didn't want to imagine facing those kind of situations as some kind of lone wolf operative.

Naru saw Kaori striding towards them with a satisfied look on her face even as Usagi's phone rang. "Want to bet that's our recall?" Naru commented.

"I don't take fool' bets," Usagi said as she answered the phone. She spoke softly with the Chief a few moments then slid the phone away.

"I take it you'll be leaving?" Kaori said with a smug little smile on her face.

"For now," Usagi agreed. She slid her sunglasses back in place as she continued, "But I'm going to be keeping an eye on you. no matter what sort of strings you can pull." With that Usagi and Naru left the gutted offices, leaving Kaori standing there in the rubble.

"Damn it," Kaori finally muttered to herself, walking out to watch them leave in their AD Police squad car. She dialed her cellphone once again, waiting a moment for it to pick up before saying, "Sir, we may have as problem."

The Tower complex of the Infinity Organization gleamed in the sun, looking like some monument to progress. The office was near the very top of the structure, providing a view of much of the city of Megatokyo.

Prof. Tomoe ignored the city, listening to Kaori and nodding slightly. "Officer Tsukino," he murmured, "is an annoyance, at best. She is regarded as a maverick by her fellows and can be dealt with if needed." His voice sharpened, "Are you certain that the Senshi's arrival at that facility was purely a coincidence?"

"The parts that the factory was creating for the Saturn project shipped out weeks ago," Kaori said firmly, "they're no reason to believe that the Senshi know anything."

Prof. Tomoe nodded, but he didn't look quite convinced. "Sterilize the area," he instructed, "while the company deals with the media."

"And what about the man who died?" Kaori asked. She paused, "Should we use the standard industrial accident story?"

"See to it," and with that Prof. Tomoe disconnected.

The office was only lightly decorated, much like that of any executive. A few images were up on the walls, a few statues were placed around, but other than that the place was oddly bare. The desk, obsidian black and polished smooth, carried only one personal decoration, a photograph in a simple, old fashioned frame.

"Hotaru," Professor Tomoe sighed, picking up the frame sadly, gazing at the image. The girl's hair was black as a raven's wing but oddly tinged by a bit of purple, a shade similar to her dark eyes. She had a pretty face, one slightly aged by pain, her skin unnaturally pale. She was so delicate, so frail that it almost looked like she would break.

Hotaru Tomoe had been born with an incurable illness, the damage having been done to her very DNA. The accident that poisoned her mother to death would kill Hotaru, too, unless he acted. A advanced biologist before the illness he became a driven man, a leader in his field. Gathering the best scientists in the world he sought a way to create an artificial form for Hotaru, a body to replace the degrading form the girl was born in. Painful, difficult treatments kept her alive while he worked, but in the end it had all been in vain.

"Damn it," Tomoe muttered, putting the photo down. The bio-boomer had debuted days before she finally died, the firs step to her new form. Still, he had taken steps.

From a drawer in the desk he pulled out a clear vial filled with blood, right beside it a high density data storage cube. On Hotaru's deathbed he had taken those blood and tissue samples, then used surgical probes to connect her brain to the computers. He mapped the data and emotive responses, the lifetime's information and stored it, the sum total of his daughter's self. She would live again, if only in an artificial body.

Tomoe picked up the phone, dialing the number from memory. "What's the status of the Saturn project?" he asked crisply.

"The body is fully grown," the technician who answered said firmly, then somewhat more tentatively asked, "Are you certain that you want to perform the data download? We can't be certain how the systems will be effected."

"Good," Professor Tomoe said simply, ignoring the question.

It was only a few hours later that Tomoe stood in a private lab, one that had been cleared of all other personnel. Powerful computers lined one wall while a variety of bio-technological samples floated in preservative fluid. Internal cybernetic structures of bio-boomers were partially assembled or modified, changed for unknown purposes.

The woman lay on the table, cold and lifeless. Her skin was healthy, the dark hair flowing around her face, eyes closed as if from sleep. The flesh was full, the body developed like that of a teenager, and if she was capable of modesty she might have covered herself. Connections came from the scalp over to a modified computer, the data module connected and ready.

Tomoe reached to a table nearby, picking up a crystalline module that glowed slightly in the darkness. He brought his hand to her abdomen and pressed, the crystal sinking into her skin and flesh. Hand buried he felt around, the crystal sliding into place with a audible click. He pulled his hand free, toweling away the greenish internal fluids as he studied her, watching her chest begin to rise and fall with her breathing.

"It's time," Tomoe finally said, activating the data module.

It took a second, no more, then Hotaru's form went rigid. Beneath her eyelids her eyes jerked back and forth rapidly, information streaming into the blank tissues of the artificially created brain. Then as fast as it started it stopped, the girl's breaths coming faster as she lay there almost unnaturally still. Suddenly, her eyes popped open!

"Hotaru?" Tomoe asked tentatively, gazing at his creation in awe.

She sat up, Hotaru reaching up to feel the connections on her head to the computers. "Father," she murmured, "you kept people from knowing about my death, even made me your heir."

Tomoe blinked, "How...?"

"I'm still connected to the computers," Hotaru said as she unplugged herself, "a data search was easy." She moved, gazing down at her healthy form as she murmured, "Thank you."

"It's the least I can do," Tomoe blinked as she reached out to put a hand on his cheek, "you're my beloved daughter."

Hotaru cupped his head in her hands, looking into his eyes. "I hated you," she said simply, "you kept me alive in a diseased, dying body for so long. Every day was filled with pain," her voice had dropped to a whisper, "only to be relieved by death."

CRACK!

The body slid to the floor, the neck cleanly broken by a strength that was clearly inhuman. Hotaru gazed at him silently a moment then picked up his lab coat, sliding it around her shoulders as she considered what she would do now.

To be continued....