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                           Bubblegum Crisis
                                 ****
                      The Tempest Chronicles II
                                 ****
                        (c) Robin Smith 1995/6

                 Bubblegum Crisis is copyright Armtic,
                     Youmex and Toshimichi Suzuki.
          Other copyrights belong to their respective holders.
                              =========

Chapter 2.15
------------

[Monday morning]

Nene's exhausted body protested at the activity imposed on it.
She slowly rose from a sound sleep as the alarm rang at seven o'clock.
She slipped out of her night-dress and into the shower where she basked 
in the rain of warm water. Somewhat more refreshed she dried her hair 
as she wolfed down a couple of slices of toast before grabbing her bag 
and helmet and leaping onto her scooter for the ride to the ADP 
offices.

A relative rarity occurred that morning; although the traffic was quiet 
heavy she had made it to her desk on time. Nene was more than a little 
displeased when no one seemed to have noticed her 'early' arrival.
"They always notice when I'm late" she muttered.

On arriving at her desk she realised that her in-tray had a larger pile 
than normal and wondered what was happening. Mentally she swore at 
herself for forgetting that Tempest had no doubt had her schedules re-
arranged.
Her mood deepened further as she realised that with Tempest now gone; 
it was going to be very awkward to face her superior and bluff through 
the forthcoming tirade without any kind of backup. Taking a folder from 
the pile she opened it and began to read the first page.

Nene was suddenly aware of footsteps approaching from behind; she tried 
to appear to be absorbed in her work and ignorant of the figure 
approaching her.
"Any moment now."
She thought and steeled herself for the barrage of questions that was 
sure to come.

Nene thought her heart would have to be retrieved from orbit as a hand 
clapped on the back and a voice proclaimed.
"Nene-chan, what say you do a spot of digging for me, eh ?"

Nene was in no mood to be trifled with; she dropped the report on the 
desk and whirled round with a look on her face that could turn bread to 
toast at ten paces.
"Inspector McNichol !!
I think a little less frivolity and more discipline would be a good 
example to set the other members of this organisation."
Turning quickly back to her desk and she began busily shuffling the 
pile of reports in her in-tray.

Leon took a step back in surprise; he'd never seen Nene like this and 
then he noticed the rest of the office staring at him like some leper 
and he flushed bright red. He looked back to Nene and realised that for 
once his 'devil may care' approach had failed.

He reasoned his best source of illicit research was now unlikely to 
help him; unless he apologised.
"Uhh, I'm sorry Nen.. Officer Romanova.
I'll come back later with the correct paper work."

Nene said nothing, kept her head down and continued to her paperwork.
Inwardly she was trying not to snigger as Leon beat a hasty retreat 
back to his desk. For once she'd got the better of Leon; the incident 
having lightened her mood a bit.

The morning seemed to drag on; still there was no sign of being called 
into to face her superior; Nene wondered how much longer she would have 
to wait. She pushed another report into her out-tray and was about to 
reach for another when the late morning mail was dropped onto her a 
desk by one of the clerks. She pushed the post to one side; intending 
to deal with it later. Wearily Nene ploughed through several more 
reports before the morning break arrived. She was on the point of 
getting up when her phone rang; it was her superior who requested she 
come to a meeting after the break. Putting down the receiver, Nene 
sighed heavily and made her way down to the canteen.  
After picking something from the selection of cakes she noticed a fresh 
brand of coffee was now on offer and decided to try it despite her 
preference for tea. She ran her ID card through the till's reader and 
looked around for a quiet table to sit at; she didn't fancy making 
small talk at the moment.

Finding an empty table Nene sat down, selecting a seat in the corner.
In front of her was a black coffee and a cream topped cherry slice.
She sighed; if Naoko had come Nene would have been endlessly teased 
about it for the rest of the day. She reconciled the high calorie count 
in that she needed something to cheer herself up. Stretching back she 
placed her hands behind her head and just stifled a yawn as she did so. 
Nene finished her stretch just in time to see Leon leaving the service 
counter, cup in hand.

'Please not now.' she thought, whilst subconsciously trying to divert 
Leon to another table. Unfortunately Nene didn't possess the ability to 
control other people's minds; as a result, Leon who had spotted her 
earlier came over and sat down opposite. Inwardly she sighed in 
resignation; although she didn't feel like talking to Leon; Nene wasn't 
going to be rude and motion him away.  Nene noticed there was something 
different about Leon's demeanour; he was ... nervous ?

Leon looked up from his coffee straight into Nene's eyes; immediately 
she glanced away picking at her sweet; he decided to break the silence 
hanging over their table.
"I'm so...."
As he spoke Nene did too. He paused; thinking Nene would continue, but 
she stopped as well. There was a pause before they tried again; 
simultaneously. After a short pause Leon began again; this time Nene 
indicating that Leon should proceed.

"I'm sorry about surprising you earlier this morning, but normally you 
are a little more receptive ...."
Leon's voice trailed off and he took another sip from his cup.

Nene felt a twinge of guilt recalling how she'd yelled at Leon.
Finishing her mouthful she decided that she ought to apologise to Leon 
as well; he was someone for whom she had a deal of respect.
She mused that were like a pair of kindred spirits; they both shared a 
similar dedication to their work at ADP; unlike many others who seemed 
to be either clock watchers or political climbers.

"Perhaps I shouldn't have yelled at you either.
You just picked a bad time to startle me."

Leon contemplated this for a moment; his face reddening slightly.
"Err sorry. That time of the month again ?"

Nene spluttered in shock; thankfully she managed to swallow the cake 
down without spraying it across the table.
"Baka!"
She pronounced, and sipped some coffee to clear her throat.
"That's not it at all!
If you must know I didn't very well sleep last night and don't you dare 
make any suggestions about that either."
She paused and then added.
"Someone I knew told me he won't be coming back."

"Boy friend ?"
As soon as the words left his mouth, Leon regretted it.
"I'm sorry; I shouldn't be prying like that; force of habit."

Her head propped on one hand; Nene was gazing into the depths of the 
cup; idly stirring the coffee round; the spoon clinking gently against 
the sides. Strangely, she found talking to Leon was making the concept 
of grilling by her section leader seem less daunting.
"Not your fault Leon, comes with the job I suppose.
He shows up for two days after a very long absence, turns my world on 
its head and then calmly announces he's going away and unlikely to be 
back. I don't know how I'm going to explain to my supervisor."

"Anyone I know ?
The reason for asking is the some of that sounds like someone I know 
from way back."

Sighing slightly Nene replied.
"I guess you'll hear about it soon enough; Tempest."

"My commiserations. I know what he's like as well.
What do you mean by 'he won't be coming back' ?"
Leon explained he'd had to do an extra shift as a result of Tempest 
talking to the chief. He was carefully omitted the real reason why he'd 
got extra duty though.
"What did he get you doing ?"

"Well I found a whole load of extra reports to go through this morning, 
courtesy of Tempest no doubt and I have a meeting with my supervisor 
after the break.
I spoke to Tempest yesterday evening and said it was unlikely he'd be 
staying around here."

Finishing off his coffee, Leon pondered this snippet of information and 
wondered how Nene was involved with Tempest. If she was working with 
him then AD Police could easily lose one of their least well known 
expert gophers; Nene always excelled at obtaining information in 
difficult circumstances. He recalled hearing about some officers in 
another force that just disappeared from the duty rosters one day; 
however other people had claimed to have seen them afterwards.
When some of them began asking questions they were advised by their 
bosses to stop or leave the force.
Damn it, what was that woman's name ?

"Uhh, Leon are you listening ?"
Nene couldn't stay annoyed with Leon; it wasn't her nature to harbour a 
grudge over work related things.

"Oh, sorry I was thinking about something.
Hmm, I've heard that Tempest is like that when he's on a case."

Her curiosity aroused, Nene wondered if it was information about 
Tempest that Leon was digging for.
"What was it you wanted this morning ?"

"Well, you know that buma rampage that happened near the
246th Street shopping mall ?"

"Hmm, I heard about one; what of it ?"

"Daley and I were on duty."

Nene grinned,
"Oh, so it was *you* that upset Naomi."

"Naomi ?"

"The officer who received an earful of verbal abuse."

Leon looked rather sheepish,
"Guess I should go and apologise to her. I don't recall the name 
though. Is she new ?"

"No, she was filling in for someone who was off sick.
Her name's Naomi Tendo and she normally handles the night switchboard 
and information desk for public enquiries."

"I promise I'll look her up and apologise.
Now since you so generously asked about my query.
The Knight Sabers were present at that rampage; towards the end 'white' 
was clobbered by a buma and was looking certain to be killed. However, 
just before the buma fired, it was reduced to molten metal by a 
blinding white light that came down out of the sky. I'm fairly 
confident that it was a satellite laser. I've asked USSD but they've 
denied it was fired; not that that was any indication it wasn't.
Can you have a 'dig' around to see what you can turn up please ?"

"What's it worth ?"
Nene looked at Leon with a mischievous glint in her eye.

Leon had seen that look before and knew that he'd have a nigh on 
impossible job from getting any information from Nene without some form 
of 'sweetener'. He considered his options and played a long shot; 
something he'd heard as a whispered aside about Nene.
"Okay, what about an original catbus from 'My Neighbour Totoro' ?"

'How on earth did he found out about my plush toy collection ?'
Nene wondered.
'It would be a nice addition though.'
"Well that would depend on the size and condition."

"It's quite big", Leon held his hands apart to indicate the size, "and 
it's in the original wrapper."

She considered this for a moment, but the possibility of enlarging her 
already burgeoning toy collection brought out a certain mercenary 
streak in Nene.
'I wonder what else he's got ?'
"Those twenty centimetre ones are hardly worth bothering with and as 
for the ten centimetre version; however the forty centimetre ones are 
pretty nice ...."

His hope faded momentarily, there was no chance of getting the large 
one; then he remembered the other toy he'd seen.
"There's another different toy, but I don't where it comes from."

"Describe it please."

"It's about twenty centimetres high, looks like a rabbit but the face 
isn't right and the paws don't look quite right either."
Leon half imagined that he could see a spark beginning to glow in 
Nene's eyes as he described the odd looking rabbit toy.
"The ears are huge; they're bigger than the body."

"What colour is it ?"
Nene asked, doing her best not appear over interested.

"Grey I think; but the light wasn't too good.
Oh, the ears have lots of white hair; if that helps any."

Inwardly Nene cursed, 'Bother another of those sub-standard imports.  
Hmm, the two together though may be worth it.'
"I don't think that's much good.
Tell you what though, bring both and I think we may have a deal."

Leon sighed; this would work out about half the cost when he got her 
some tickets for Vision's retirement gig.
"Okay I guess.
You drive a hard bargain."

"Maybe so, but I do have a soft centre."
She glanced at her watch,
"Oh no!
Sorry Leon I have to go."
Hurriedly she got to her feet and clasping her bag in one hand headed 
for the door.

"Same old Nene", muttered Leon, "late as always."

                                ******

The meeting with her supervisor went much better than Nene had 
anticipated. There was a cancelling order that meant the extra work 
from Tempest was no longer a problem for Nene; unfortunately this meant 
that the pager was no longer required and she didn't get the use of a 
patrol bike. It did mean that was she was still free to be able to 
pursue all those interesting little excursions through other people's 
computer systems.

One such intrusion was into the USSD computers for Leon; she didn't 
expect to find anything, after all Marvin and Tempest had been the 
interlopers; still it would be an interesting diversion.
After the tedium of finishing off the pile of work from Tempest, Nene 
found herself with some thirty minutes spare before lunch break. She 
glanced around her and noted that everyone around her had their heads 
down working hard; she pulled out a folder she had purposefully saved; 
it would require a significant amount of computer access in order to 
complete.
For most of the other clerks it would take them a good two hours to 
collate the necessary information; Nene had several tricks that would 
cut that to about half an hour or so; this should leave her plenty of 
time to have a good poke around in the USSD computers.

Forty minutes slipped by without Nene really noticing; she was in her 
element, dodging security daemons, hiding her work by subverting other 
jobs for her own ends. She had one major advantage; knowing the precise 
time of the laser's discharge; this would mean she was looking for 
something out of place inside a two minute window of time at worst. If 
Tempest had taken more than five seconds to give the order to fire then 
Sylia would have been killed; she shook the thought away and continued 
her investigations.
There was a sudden cry of "Got it!"; not that there was anyone to 
notice; they'd all gone to lunch save for the supervisor and Naoko who 
was at the far end of office. Nene saved the information to disk; 
slipped it into her bag and made a hard copy for Leon; placing this on 
his desk with a slightly cryptic note, 'U O me 2, N :)' and headed for 
the canteen.

                                ******

[Monday Morning]

A high frequency whistling aroused me from the scenes of horror that 
had rampaged through my imagination during the night. Although normally 
a light sleeper I had slept heavily for once; this was in spite of my 
nightmarish dream.
"Okay, okay. You can stop it now, I *am* awake."
Sitting up and stretching; sleeping at the office never was very 
comfortable; I rubbed the sleep from my eyes.

My first sight was that of Kusanagi standing over me.
"Sorry chief, but you did say to wake you at seven."
She placed her right hand upon my brow and with her left hand dropped a 
pair of thick cables on my chest.
I'd had to tell Kusanagi about some things that had happened to me; her 
sensor network had told her about the charge I was carrying; so there 
was little point in trying to conceal it.
"You're down about twelve per-cent from last night.
Do you want AC or DC for breakfast ?"
She was perfectly aware of the double meaning; the edges of her mouth 
drawn upwards into a slight smile.

"Skip the jokes. Which ever is least damaging to the equipment."
After grasping the exposed ends I nodded to Kusanagi,
"Okay switch on and watch those readings carefully. If they get near 
the danger point switch off immediately. You know we can't afford to 
have you out of action as well."

"Whatever you say chief."
Again there was that slight twitch as she did her best to smile.
As she switched the power on there was a heavy surge that resulted in a 
low pitched whistle from Kusanagi.
"That's a heavy load you're drawing chief; slow it down if you can; 
it's only just inside the safety limit."

"I'll try, but get ready to hit the kill switch if it even touches the 
red zone."
Hardly had the words left my mouth when there was the unmistakable 
sound of Kusanagi's hand rapidly slapping the kill switch.

"No good chief, it hit red just as you spoke. You're going to have to 
find a heavier duty outlet than I have here. I still can't figure out 
why you need such a large charge or how you survive."

What she couldn't comprehend was how a human was able to survive; her 
knowledge base simply stated that it was impossible and she had 
concluded that I was not quite human but something special like 
herself.

                                ******

Kusanagi had been part of an experiment in 2027 when two mortally 
wounded police officers were given a second chance. She and Billy 
Fanword both had their brain cortexes transplanted into cybernetic 
bodies. Neither could be deemed a total success; Billy eventually went 
mad and suffered the ignominy of being killed by AD Police officers; 
Kusanagi almost destroyed herself in an attempt to locate the 'Puppet 
Master'.

There were more fingers on one hand than people who knew of her 
survival and subsequent transplant into another shell. Marvin had 
discovered her existence after I'd recruited Bateau to the WWLA in 
2029. The child shell she was using was deteriorating; she'd gone back 
to Bateau for help and he was struggling to keep her alive by 
purchasing parts on the black market.

After Marvin had alerted me to her presence, it wasn't long before she 
joined the WWLA and had a new shell that was more suited to her unique 
talents. When she was asked about her new shell's appearance Kusanagi 
she had mainly retained her original build.
The changes she made were; increasing her height to 180cm, changing her 
hair to almost jet black, a slightly more curvaceous figure and her 
cheekbones were more prominent on a thinner face.
The overall effect was stunning; had she not been working for the WWLA 
then a career as a topline model and film star would have been certain. 
There were several criminals who could attest to her beauty; she had 
used it with devastating effect on several occasions.

Her merging with the 'Puppet Master' consciousness that she had once 
been ordered to destroy, had had a calming effect on her doubts and 
near self-destructive tendencies - the sum was truly greater than the 
combined parts.

                                ******

"You're not alone in that thought; I wish I knew as well."

I left the guns, ammunition and pack with a request that they be 
returned to the AD Police; they would be more of a danger to myself and 
useless against the super-buma. Kusanagi acknowledged my instructions 
regarding the Knight Sabers with a smile; I think in way she was proud 
of what Sylia had achieved. I made it quite clear to her that she was 
not to interfere or try to assist unless I specifically requested her 
to do so. This was so any misguided loyalty would not bring her into 
contact with the super-buma should I fail to destroy it.

For Ishikawa I left a sealed envelope that had instructions and an 
encrypted disk that gave him access to the special files about 
Kusanagi. Hopefully they would not be needed, but it was not at all 
certain that I would return from my encounter with the super-buma.

Kusanagi put out a description of my current attire and that the person 
in question was not to be interfered with. Should he request assistance 
at any time then where possible it was to be given providing it did not 
interfere with other operational requirements.
I contemplated using an ADP motorcycle but chose to use my special that 
was currently parked in the garage alongside a recently returned tank. 
Donning the combined eyeshield and radio I fired up the bike and rode 
off.

The biggest problem I had was, where had the damn buma gone.
The last information was when Nene thought she heard a voice when my 
base blew up and that was twenty fours ago. It was a long shot but I 
decided to begin searching around my old base; even it had left the 
area, there was the slim chance of picking up a clue if it had been 
damaged in any way.
My call over the radio to Kusanagi was unsuccessful; at first I thought 
she wasn't responding, then I realised that I'd probably fried the 
circuitry.

Kusanagi wouldn't have been affected by my lethal charge; her body's 
artificial skin would have protected her; but the radio unit's 
circuitry was never designed to be in contact with a highly charged 
body. Inwardly I cursed myself for overlooking such an obvious problem; 
I parked the bike and left the visor on the bike's seat.

Outside the still smouldering pile of rubble that had once been my old 
base I saw that the road had been excavated. On checking the warning 
signs around the pit I found that it was the electricity company who 
was responsible. Peering down the hole I could see the power cables 
that once went into my old base had been cut, but not yet completely 
sealed; that would be most useful.

For the next four hours I carefully searched amongst the rubble looking 
for any clues as to the buma's whereabouts. I even tried all the old 
emergency exits but they too were all blocked by debris.
For all the careful examination of the site I'd come up empty handed in 
my search and was at a temporary loss as where to go next.

Whilst I was leaning on the safety railing that had been erected around 
the pit contemplating my next action, an ADP patrol pulled up and 
parked across the street. It was obvious they were observing me and 
after a quick chat with the two officers, who informed me that the 
building opposite was in a dangerous state and liable to collapse. 
After thanking them for the information, I returned to my activities 
and they drove off to resume their patrol.

As I leant against the railing it struck me that the pit that had been 
dug may be quite close to the line old tunnel that ran to one side of 
the underground rooms. Starting from the corner of the building's plot 
I paced out to where the tunnel's line ran; the pit was about three 
metres to one side.
The excavation equipment had been removed; presumably when the building 
opposite had been declared unsafe; however a few strategically placed 
blasts should enlarge the pit sufficiently. After clambering down the 
ladders to the bottom, I removed my gloves; tucked them into the waist 
pocket before loosing off several blasts that resulted in a hole in the 
pit's wall.

The marks on my wrists were now a light pink and it seemed a good time 
to recharge; carefully I peeled back the insulation from the partially 
sealed cables. They were live and I was just a bit wary of grabbing 
hold of one; the voltage being significantly higher than anything I had 
handled before; these were carrying five thousand volts apiece.

A sudden explosion from the road above caused me look up; straight into 
the gaze of the super-buma, who opened fire upon me right in the face. 
Half blinded, I stumbled and fell down my bare hands met the ground; 
this resulted in a large discharge that weakened me further.

In nearly all my recent skirmishes I had always enjoyed considerable 
advantage over any opponents; the outcome of this was not so certain; 
the super-buma was more than capable of out-thinking me and its 
reflexes were undoubtedly quicker than mine. It would have been useful 
if the high speed ability I once possessed had become a permanent 
effect, rather than melting away like ice in the noon day sun.

Struggling to my feet I pointed one hand towards the last known 
position of the super-buma to fire back at it, but it fired first and 
hit me square in the face again. My vision started to go cloudy; I was 
dizzy, weak and rapidly loosing consciousness; as I fell my hand 
touched something; there was another flash.
My final thought before a shroud of darkness descended over me was, 
"Damn! It's all over now."

A plume of black smoke curled slowly into the air marking the position 
of the one sided fight; a blue metallic figure walked calmly away from 
the scene heading towards the warehouse and docks.

                                ******

Nene returned from lunch to find a sealed note on her desk marked 
'private'. Recognising the handwriting she slit it open and read the 
note; fear creeping over her as she read the final sentence.
Glancing round to check that no-one was near her, she called Sylia.
"There's been some trouble; I think Tempest is dead."
<pause>
"Uh huh, yes Leon has gone to the scene; he left me a note."
<pause>
"No, there's no details yet."
<pause>
"Okay, I'll send her a message."
<pause>
"Mmm, yes, I'll see you tonight."

Nene rang off and composed a quick message for the Major; sending it to 
the address as suggested. She was rather surprised when a message 
window from the Major popped up on her terminal. Her heart sank when 
the Major confirmed that Tempest's life signs had ceased around twelve 
thirty.
A very badly charred body had been found near to his old base; the 
remains of Tempest's headset and a wrecked motorcycle were nearby; 
although positive identification could not be confirmed without a 
laboratory analysis on the remains. The motorcycle looked like it had 
been through several road accidents; there was the outline of a foot in 
the petrol tank where it had been stove in and some of the frame had 
crushed leaving a hand shaped impression.
Whatever had done this clearly had a great deal of strength and a buma 
was the most likely culprit.

                                ******

<End of Part 2.15>

TO BE CONTINUED ....
-----------------------------------------------------------------------
(c) Robin Smith 1995/96                    Tempest@ktsabers.demon.co.uk
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<--- cut here --->

-- Mink/Tempest   aka Robin Smith        Author: "BGC : The Tempest Chronicles"
http://www.geocities.com/Tokyo/2302    Lichfield, Staffordshire, United Kingdom
"I was committed once, but the fools let me out for good behaviour !"
IRC :  Mink  or  Tempest-    [ but "Mink" most of the time ^_^ ]