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Bubblegum Crisis Post 2040 Files
Continuation Fanfic Series
File #5: The Real Me
Part 5: True to the Heart
Ch 53 & 54
by P. Kristen Enos
Posted 5/7/03
Special Thanks to my Beta Team: Susan, David, Andrew & Kurt
SPOILERS WARNING!!!
Most of these stories take place AFTER the TV Series! So DON'T blame me if I ruin the ending for you because you read these stories first!
Lesbian/Yuri/Shoujo Ai Warning! (Non-explicit -- at least in the "PG13"/"R" sort of way.) Just not written for children because they probably wouldn't get half of it.
All rights belong to JVC/AIC, ADV Films and the other creative powers that be. I just want credit for writing the story.
* * * * *
Chapter 53
Wednesday Night, November 23rd
“Quick! Get away from the buildings!” Mackey urged the two women as he glanced up into the darkness, ever aware of the shaking buildings around them and the other pedestrians panicking. As streetlights started to go out, he switched his eyes to infrared in hope of being able to better see any falling debris and avoid any cars in the street in front of them. Soon the only sources of light were from the headlights of the few stopped cars before them.
Trying to keep her own balance on the rocking ground, Nene was already ahead of him, dragging her mother by the hand. “Move, Mom!”
As Mackey had feared, he glimpsed large windows starting to fall from the building behind them. Mackey immediately sprung into action. He grabbed both women and held them tightly against him as he jumped forward, trying his best to shield them.
In the chaos that immediately followed, Mackey was aware of several things happening. He heard the windows shatter on the pavement behind him, followed by the sensation of glass shards and concrete pieces pelting his back. Nana let out a scream of pain.
In the darkness, time seemed to crawl as the three of them huddled on the pavement, ever aware of the sounds of crashing debris and sporadic cries and shouts.
And finally, it seemed to stop.
“Mom, are you all right?!” Nene cried, pushing against Mackey’s embrace.
“Ye-Yes,” her mother answered softly. “You’re very strong, Mackey. You squeezed me too hard. I think my arm is sprained or something.”
Mackey realized in horror that he must have crushed her arm.
“How far are we from the Silky Doll?!” Nene frantically asked him.
“Stay here!” he ordered them. “I’ll come back in a couple of minutes and drive her to the hospital!”
* * * * *
“It’s okay. It’s over,” Jeena said as she embraced her crying son as they huddled in the doorway of their apartment in the dark. Through the window, she could hear the sounds of sirens in the distance, a reminder that she would probably be called to duty soon.
This was not a good time to be a single parent.
Suddenly her phone rang, buried in the piles of fallen moving boxes in the living room.
Grateful that her boomer prosthetic allowed her to easily carry her growing child, she picked him up and tried to follow the sound of her phone in the dark. After a couple of minutes of searching, and repeated attempts by the person calling her, she found her purse and fished out the phone. She wasn’t surprised to see that the caller ID showed that it was a call coming in on the special police frequency.
She hit the receive button and was momentarily surprised to be greeted with a black screen, which showed that the caller didn’t have power either. “Hello?” she said over her son’s soft sobs.
“Jeena?” Leon’s voice came through loud and clear. “Are you and B.J. all right?”
Stunned, she blinked and answered, “Yes, we’re fine. Shaken up but fine. Are you calling me into work?”
“Uh - well…” There was a moment of silence before Leon finally said, “I honestly wanted to make certain you two were all right… I’m going to head in since our equipment might help with the disaster recovery efforts. You don’t have to come in, especially if you can’t get someone to cover for BJ. I, uh, don’t have to worry about taking care of someone so it’s easy for me to respond right away.”
Jeena smiled to herself but kept her tone neutral. “I appreciate it. Once I have a handle on things, I’ll check in with you… And thanks for calling… Cowboy.”
Leon chuckled and said, “It’s what I’m here for, Ma’am… Bye.”
The woman could have sworn there was almost reluctance in his tone as his hung up. She chose not to dwell on it as she turned her attention back to her clinging child.
* * * * *
Standing outside of the movie theater, Lisa pressed the redial button on her cellular phone and once again got a busy signal. She glanced out of the corner of her eye at Linna frantically chatting with the image of Sylia, their conversation too low to be heard over the sounds of the crowds, alarms and other chaotic noises.
Lisa glanced over at the fire that had broken out in the string of department stores down the block. She knew she should be taking pictures and talking to people, but she just didn’t feel like it. In fact, she felt a knot in her stomach, and it wasn’t just from the earthquake.
Seeing Linna hang up, Lisa said cheerfully, “Well, it’s a good thing we arrived late and didn’t park in the parking structure. Otherwise, we’d be stuck here for a long while given everything that’s going on.”
“Um, yeah,” Linna said, clearly distracted by other thoughts. “Lisa, I - uh - have to go. My friends need help. Bye!”
Lisa grabbed the other woman’s arm, stopping her in her tracks. “How are you going to get there? I’m the one who drove and public transportation is in chaos right now… I’ll drive you.”
“Yes, but -“ Linna sputtered, at a loss for what to say as she was led by the forceful woman.
Once they were away from the crowds, Lisa took a deep breath and stated in a low voice, “Linna, you can stop with the charade. I know about the four of you. I know the real reason why you have to get to Sylia’s. And I’m not doing this just because I want another story about the Knight Sabers.”
Speechless, Linna stared at her, but they kept walking to where Lisa had parked a few blocks over.
* * * * *
“Hey! Anyone out there?!” the blonde Fox yelled through the door that was slid open only a couple of inches. Only the emergency sirens continued to whine in the background of the mostly empty building.
After being immersed in complete darkness, the building’s emergency systems had finally kicked in, bathing everyone with the red glow of strategically placed lights. Unfortunately, the building had suffered enough distortion that the electronic sliding door that led out to the hallway jammed itself when they tried to open it.
“Damn! It’s bad enough not having windows to escape, but we don’t even know how things are outside,” Jaid the burly drummer murmured. He gripped his cell phone in frustration, “And all of the lines are busy. This is the worst kind of wait there is.”
The two men then looked into the recording booth at Maxon kneeling by Priss, who was on the floor, curled up against the wall in a fetal position.
Trembling himself, the man knew there wasn’t anything he could say as he sat and placed a comforting hand on the woman’s shoulders.
When the shaking had stopped and the lights had come back on, the men were shocked to find Priss collapsed into her current position. Her eyes were wide open and staring blankly ahead as her breathing came in ragged pants that shook her entire body.
“Priss?” Maxon called to her carefully at first as he sat down. His voice seemed to trigger a reaction in Priss as she blinked and started to get her breathing under control.
After a few minutes of taking some forceful, controlled breaths, Priss swallowed and finally sat up as she solemnly wiped the tears from her eyes.
Suddenly feeling self-conscious about touching her, Maxon pulled his trembling hand into his lap. This was one time he wasn’t going to try to force any conversation.
Wanting to feel more comfortable, Priss carefully tested loosening the black collar at her neck. After waiting a moment, she then took it off completely but held it firmly in her hand.
She stood carefully and walked out into the control room, with Maxon a few steps behind her. She glanced over at the partially opened door and let out a small sigh. She noted the silent cell phone in Jaid’s hand. “Can’t call out?”
He shook his head. “All the lines are apparently jammed. Which isn’t surprising, I guess.”
Just then, the sound of ringing came from Priss’s backpack in the corner. Ignoring the incredulous stares, Priss calmly walked over to it and fished out the phone.
Of course, it was Sylia calling from the Pit.
“Hey,” Priss answered, not bothering to do anything about her haggard appearance in the red light. She was also very aware that their entire conversation could be heard. “We’re stuck in the recording studio. Door’s jammed.”
“Are you all right otherwise?” Sylia asked, her concern clear.
“I’ll manage,” she answered grimly. “How are things there?”
“Luckily, I had some forewarning but it’s still busy. The entire city is in chaos right now. Whenever you can get here, I’m sure there’ll be work to do. I just heard from Linna but I don’t know when she’ll be able to get here.”
“Any chance you can send someone to get us out? We’re on the 18th floor.”
“I can’t make promises but I’ll see what I can do. I’ve got to go.”
Once she hung up the phone, Priss looked at the guys and said with a grim smile, “While we’re waiting, this might be a good time to work on some songs, unplugged.”
“That’s true,” Maxon said, happy for something to do to take his mind off his own anxiety.
The other men nodded as they readied themselves for the impromptu songwriting session.
Suddenly Priss froze as an intense frown appeared on her face. Quickly refastening the collar around her neck, she practically ran for the slightly opened door and yelled out, “We’re in here!”
Priss started to gather her belongings and stared at the door expectantly.
Bewildered, the men said nothing as they waited to see if there was some sort of response.
A dark, slender metallic hand appeared through the opening, gripping the edge of the door. With apparent ease, the door was wrenched the rest of the way open, revealing the tall blond that Maxon remembered being with the idol singer the other night. She looked disheveled and the flesh was missing from her left arm, revealing the sleek, cybernetic limb.
Priss and the boomer stared at each other in silence for a moment as the men started to frantically gather the things they could carry.
Suddenly the beam of a flashlight peered in as a security guards showed up, followed by the frantic looking pop idol who was the boomer’s owner.
“Sara! I said stop right now!” the frustrated young man yelled out.
Standing her ground, she looked at him, as if to concede that she would now listen to his orders.
The guard looked at the musicians and scanned them with his beam. “Good, you guys seem to be okay. Do you know if there are others on this floor?”
Priss didn’t hear any conversation as she watched the boomer silently walk away, focusing on her search and rescue task. The woman felt her hands tremble again as she pressed them against her face and took a deep breath.
Grabbing her bag and guitar case, she walked out without a word.
- End Chapter 53 -
Chapter 54
Wednesday Night, November 23rd
Priss was panting and sweating from having just run down eighteen flights of stairs while loaded with her bag and guitar. She was glad to see that her motorcycle seemed relatively unharmed despite having been turned on its side and moved a few feet from its original parking spot in the underground garage. It didn’t take long for her to get everything ready to go.
She turned on the communicator in her helmet as she drove out of the parking structure. She was glad that the night darkness hid the view of most of the surroundings, knowing that the sight of destruction would unnerve her even more, possibly triggering another panic attack.
“Priss?” Sylia’s voice answered.
“Yeah, I’m leaving the studio. Do you know if it’s safe to take any of the bridges?”
“No, you’ll have to do surface streets. I’m sending you a route to where you’ll rendezvous with Nigel. He’s going to deliver your hardsuit and moto-slave to you. Right now, traffic is your worst enemy - so don’t be surprised if you have to wait for him since he can’t weave through traffic like you can.”
“So was this a real earthquake?” Priss asked hesitantly.
“Yes. It was a Richter Scale rating of 6.1 with the epicenter just north of Tokyo. And there is the possibility of some aftershocks. In the event of an earthquake, I had Nene develop a map of potential areas of destruction based on the state of redevelopment and the quality history and equipment of the construction companies. From preliminary reports, it seems the map was extremely accurate… Priss, you do realize that you’re going to be working in the most catastrophic zones?”
Forcing herself to focus on maneuvering through the stopped cars and to not be distracted by the roadside sights and sounds of injured people, fires and sirens, Priss said through gritted teeth, “I’ll deal. What about Linna and Nene?”
“Nene and Mackey had to rush Nana to the hospital for possibly broken ribs so she may not be available for a while. And I’m assuming Linna is trying to make her way to the park. I’ll patch you through to her so you can pick her up on the way there since she’s on your way.”
“Okay… By the way, were you behind that Sylvie-bot showing up and getting us out of the recording studio?”
Sylia paused before answering, “Based on the readings from your white noise dampening collar, and your behavior in the past few days, I made an educated guess that one was nearby. It was a matter of tapping into her frequency and sending an override command. You can thank Nene for figuring out how to do that.”
“Couldn’t you have gotten rid of her white noise, too?”
There was a definite smile in Sylia’s voice as she answered, “I thought you might want a warning that she was coming. Plus, it would have served as another clue that it wasn’t Sylvie.”
Priss frowned. “Don’t worry. I’m not harboring any expectations of Sylvie ever coming back.”
“Of course. How silly of me.”
* * * * *
“-Everyone seems to be accounted for,” Henderson said from his seat at the Pit’s computer terminal. All of the screens in front of him displayed various views of the city in the earthquake aftermath, from news reports to angles from still functioning surveillance cameras. “Priss and Linna should be meeting up with Nigel shortly.”
“Good,” Sylia said as she finished studying the final diagnostic check. Thanks to the building’s design and well-protected generators, everything was functioning normally.
She glanced carefully at Henderson, knowing that he was trying to hide the signs of stress on his heart. He looked haggard and tried discreetly to wipe the beads of sweat showing up on his forehead.
Frowning to herself, she said, “I’m going to deploy then. Promise me that you’ll relinquish monitor duty and take a rest once Nigel gets back.”
“Of course, Mistress Sylia,” he said with sincerity.
* * * * *
Not able to stand the silence anymore while they waited in traffic, and wanting some way to focus the turmoil of thoughts in her mind, Linna stared straight ahead and asked softly, “So how long have you known?”
“I was one of the people you saved from that rooftop fire. I recognized your voice,” Lisa said, glad that the tension was finally broken. “I figured out the rest when I met everyone at that dinner. I haven’t told anyone… and I don’t plan to. I meant what I said at that dinner.”
“Thank you,” Linna said softly, trying to fight down feelings of anger, betrayal and foolishness. “Was that why you asked me out on a date?”
“I’d like to think I would have asked you out on a date even if I hadn’t known,” she answered carefully. “Everything I told you about having a crush on you in high school was true. I tried to break things off before because even I wasn’t sure if my motives were as… honest as I hoped they were.”
“If the earthquake hadn’t happened, when would you have let me know?” Linna’s tone was noticeably sharper with this question.
“I don’t know. I never said anything because I was waiting for you to trust me enough to tell me.”
Linna was stunned, clearly not having considered that angle before.
After another moment of silence, Lisa finally let out a sad sigh. “Of course, none of this changes the fact that you’re going off to save the world with my romantic rival. And even if you choose me over Priss in the short term, you’re always going to be at her side when it counts the most. I can’t compete against something like that - even if I had confidence that my motives were completely pure.”
Feeling tears swell up in her eyes as her stomach tightened, Linna said softly, “Then maybe it’s for the best that we call it quits now then.”
“Yeah, I guess we should,” Lisa said, biting her lip at her own growing tears.
Just then, Linna sat up, seeing in the rear-view mirror a single headlight approaching between the cars. She felt her heart jump in anticipation since she knew immediately who it was.
She grabbed the door handle but then paused. She looked over at Lisa in the dimly light darkness and said genuinely, “I’m sorry.”
Not trusting her voice to remain steady, Lisa only nodded, not wanting to watch the woman step out of the car to flag down her new ride.
* * * * *
Scanning the datapad, Leon frowned as he stood in the Police Headquarters deployment garage, which was frantic with activity, taking advantage of the fact that their power generators had just fully kicked back in.
Only a quarter of the NTC crew would be arriving as soon as they were able to find a means to get to HQ. Another quarter had been contacted to confirm their safety and therefore put on standby. That left half of the NTC unit unaccounted for, which was a better ratio than the regular police.
“Hey, Leon, do we want to prep these? All of the K-suits are ready to go.”
At the mechanic’s question, Leon glanced over at the collection of sample hardsuits that Genom had provided for the NTC to perform their equipment analysis in their upgrades discussion.
He nodded and said, “Sure, why not? We don’t have anyone proficient in these but we’d be stupid not to deploy them since we need the equipment.”
“It’s the best way to learn,” Jeena said from behind him.
Leon turned around in surprise to see his commander and Daley running up to him, having just arrived in the other man’s car.
“Where’s BJ?” Leon asked in bewilderment.
“Yuuji is being the good godfather right now,” she answered with a wink.
Daley grinned and added, “And I wisely chose to use reporting for duty as an excuse to get out of babysitting.”
Jeena elbowed him in the ribs and said, “You’re going out in the first suit…”
* * * * *
The hospital emergency room was so crowded that the line for injured people had spilled out into the nearby courtyard. Hospital staff and volunteers were running around trying to distribute the most basic aids like bandages and ice in the light of flashlights.
“Mom, do you want a drink?” Nene asked, holding up a water bottle that Mackey had brought from the Silky Doll.
Nana weakly declined as she held the ice-pack to her upper right arm, which was swollen and purple. “I’ll be happy enough when the pain-killer kicks in. Shouldn’t you be going?”
“Wha -- ? No!” Nene blurted. Then immediately she calmed down when she realized that her mom was referring to her job as a member of the police rather than the Knight Sabers. “I’m not front line. Besides, they haven’t called me on the police channel so I’d just be in the way if I show up at headquarters.”
Deciding he had been quiet long enough, Mackey pulled Nene off to the side and whispered, “I can wait with your mom. Why don’t you go ahead? Sylia’s already hearing reports on the police frequency that you could help out with. Nigel can head over here after he rendezvous with Priss.”
Nene looked reluctantly at her watching mother and said, “But…”
Guessing at what they were talking about, Nana managed to give her daughter a pointed look and said, “Ne-chan, I don’t want you sitting here hovering over me anymore than you’d want me to do the same to you if the positions were reversed. If you can help out at police headquarters in any way, then please go. I completely understand. I’ll be fine, especially if Mackey’s here.”
Despite clearly wanting to stay, Nene nodded and gave her mother a careful hug, “Thanks, Mom.”
Nana patted her on the back and gently teased, “Prove to me that I’m right to be proud of you.”
* * * * *
Neither woman said anything as Priss turned off the engine once they had pulled into the park. Like before, it was one of the few areas of calm in the otherwise chaotic city. They knew they had to relish the relative peace since the next several hours would be occupied with grueling and messy work.
Linna remained still as she continued to embrace Priss from behind, feeling every ounce of tension in the other woman.
After a moment, Priss finally leaned back a bit, putting her arms over Linna’s in an effort to relax a bit.
“Are you going to be all right?” Linna asked softly.
The other woman took a deep breath. “I keep having flashbacks to when that Genom quake was over and I looked around. There’s nothing like seeing that your entire family is all there, yet you’re alone…. I had a panic attack in the studio. In an instant, I felt like I was once again a helpless little kid who was witnessing a living nightmare.”
Linna gave her a gentle squeeze and said, “It’s not the same this time. You’re an adult who’s able to help others. And you haven’t lost anyone.”
Priss let out a dry chuckle. “Does this mean I’m supposed to brainwash myself with that power of positive thinking bullshit?”
“If it’s what it takes to get you through this,” her friend said with a smile. “And even if we’re working separately, just remember that I’m here to support you.”
Priss was quiet for a moment and said, “Yes, you always are, aren’t you?”
Their peace was disturbed by the sight of the mobile pit’s headlights appearing at the park’s gate.
The women let out a sigh, knowing it was time to get to work.
- End Chapter 54 -