Life was good in Megatokyo.  The shadow of Genom had
been lifted, and the mad boomer rampages had come to an end. 
For the first time in some years, we knew true peace, and we
found ourselves looking to the future with hope.  It was a
pleasant change.
     None of us knew where to go.  We had been in the
vigilante business so long, that it had taken over much of
our lives.  Free of the burden, we began to dream again. 
While we agreed that the Knight Sabers would remain as a
deterrent against future activity by a revived Genom, none
of us expected any problems.  Most of the old Genom's
executives would be in prison for years to come.  The
megacorp was back to building cars.
     If any of us reveled in our new-found freedom, it was
Priss.  Always having to be paranoid had taken its toll on
her, and she was weary of it.  Shortly after our raid on
Genom's headquarters, she released an album, and it was
easily her best work ever.  It seemed that she might even
find her break this time.
     Indeed, it was a better world in which we lived.  We
had survived our most difficult trial, and passed through
our darkest hour.  Though not unscathed, we were unbroken,
and we truly believed it was all over.  We could not have
been more wrong.
     It was less than a month before the uprisings began.


***********************************************************

Stormwalker <stormwalker@airmail.net> presents . . . 

                  Bubblegum Collapse

  A Bubblegum Crisis fanfiction by Douglas A. Reeves

*********************************************************** 
 
Part One - Revolution!


     Priss throttled up her newly-boosted racing bike and
slipped neatly into traffic.  Scanning the highway for police
vehicles, she revved it up further, downshifted, and grinned
as the needle shot upward.
     "Dr. Raven outdid himself this time," she thought.  The
ride was smoother than ever, and combined with the
unmistakable power increase, it was the best-handling bike
she'd ever ridden.  Even Mackie's Highway Star couldn't beat
it in that category, though she had to admit it was faster.
     Seeing a light-bar atop a distant vehicle, she let off
the throttle a bit.  As she closed, she could see the AD
Police markings, and eventually she could read the car
number.  It was Leon.
     Laughing, she pushed the bike back up to speed and
blazed by him.  Looking back, she could see him gape as she
shot by, just like always... teasing him could be so fun.
     Fun.  There had been times when the word was almost
foreign to her, but of late life had been treating her well. 
Her album was soaring on the local charts, and it looked like
she might even make the big time... if she wanted to.  She
wasn't quite sure about that one, yet.

                       * * * * * * * * *

     Leon laughed as the familiar red-and-blue blur flashed
by his left window, and he shook his head.  "Show off."
     "You given up on her yet?" Daley asked, knowing the
answer already.
     "Never," Leon responded, grinning.
     Daley rolled his eyes.  "You and your delusions.  After
all, what has she got that I don't have?"
     Leon laughed long and hard.

                       * * * * * * * * *

     Back at AD Police headquarters, Nene was listening to
the usual dispatch communications for anything of importance. 
It was a habit she had formed back when boomer crimes were an
everyday occurrence, but of late she had not heard much at
all.  In truth, she wondered if there was even a point to AD
Police anymore.
     She was mentally chastising herself for that thought
when something grabbed her attention.
     "...small force of boomers... westbound near the
Airport... mixed types, all heavily armed."
     "Holy--" someone's surprised shout drowned out the rest
of the message.  "BOOMERS?!"
     Even Nene was admittedly surprised.  Nobody had seen nor
heard of a combat boomer in MegaTokyo in weeks, and it was
easy to forget that they might still be out there.  The
memory came back fast.
     "...looks like about 5 boomers... making a mess...
THEY'RE COMING THIS W--" the transmission was cut off by the
squeal of jamming.
     "All AD Police units respond.  5 boomers in vicinity of
International Airport.  Subjects are heavily armed, mixed
types.  Advise extreme caution!"  The dispatcher called out.

                       * * * * * * * * *

     "What the hell?" Christine looked up from the comm board
at the Sabers' headquarters.  "We've got trouble!"
     "I heard," Sylia answered.
     "Nene's on her way... she says she was working late
anyway," Christine added as more information came in on
another channel.
     "Call Priss and Linna.  We've got work to do."
     "Right."


                       * * * * * * * * *

     "Boomers, huh?" Priss cracked her knuckles as she walked
in to the hardsuit storage chamber.  "Bet we can get  em
before AD Police does."
     "Probably," Nene agreed.  "It sounded like it was going 
to take time for them to put a Mobile Force together."
     "It's just as well," Christine commented as she pulled
her suit down from the rack it was stored on.  "We're a lot
less likely to get ourselves killed."
     "Good thing we've kept in practice," Linna added
nervously.  "It's been a while."
     "We're ready, though," Priss grinned confidently.  As
long as it wasn't an everyday thing, she enjoyed a good
fight...

                       * * * * * * * * *

     "Looks like I was right," Priss appraised, looking out
the KnightWing's windows.  "AD Police ain't here yet."
     "What a mess!" Nene commented, glancing over Priss's
shoulder.  "I wonder why they're trashing the airport?"
     "Don't know, don't care," Priss answered.  "Airport
Security's not going to stop them, so we may as well. 
Ready?"
     "Ready!" Nene, Linna, and Christine responded in unison.
     "Ok.  Knight Sabers, sanjo!"  Priss cried as she opened
the aircraft's drop hatch and slipped through it.  The others
followed immediately, and they fell into the battle.
     "There's fuel all over the place around here... be
careful what you shoot," Nene cautioned.
     "Right," Christine responded, looking for a target.  At
that moment, a 34-CX peeked around a corner and launched a
surface-to-air missile at the KnightWing.  "Sylia!  Look--!"
she screamed as the missile rapidly closed.
     "Already on it," Nene interrupted with an unnerving
calm, tracking the missile with her arm cannon.  The suit's
computers fed her targeting data, and she fired the laser
only once.
     Once was quite enough.  The missile exploded in a
brilliant ball of yellow-orange flame well behind its
intended target.
     "Nice shot, Nene," Christine called as she charged the
offending boomer.  It ducked back around the corner,
expecting the building to shield it, but Christine simply
targeted the corner where it had hid... "Cheap hangar...
ought to work," she thought as she fired her pulse cannon.
     The edge of the building disintegrated under the force
of the blast, revealing the boomer standing behind it. 
Another burst of the blue-white energy beam struck the
boomer's missile pack, and the warheads detonated in a
spectacular fireball.
     "One down," Christine commented.

     "They're going to make us hunt them, it looks like,"
Linna assessed.
     "Looks like it," Priss agreed.  "Nene, this is your
specialty."
     "Right," the young hacker smiled as she powered up her
sensor pack.  Even she had missed the thrill of combat, and
this sort was her element.  "First one's over there," she
pointed to a group of aircraft parked by the main terminal. 
"There's lots of lifesigns on those planes, so be careful."
     "Great... he'll use them as a shield," Christine
growled.
     "Not if I can help it," Priss answered.  "I'll keep him
pinned down, and you try to get close."
     "Fair enough.  Nene, if any more of them pop up..."
     "I'll let you know," she completed the thought, already
scanning for more androids nearby.  "According to reports,
there should be three more of them."
     "All right," Christine responded.  "Let's do it."
     Priss fired her jump unit, leaping to the top of the
terminal building.  Running at a dead sprint, she tried to
make herself an appealing target.  It worked; the boomer
emerged from his hiding place to fire its machine gun at her,
and she got a good look at it as she dodged.
     "This one's a Bu-12!" she reported.
     "Thanks," Christine responded, sneaking around the back
of the planes.  She was almost in range..."
     "There's another one behind you, Chris!" Nene shouted.
     Spinning, she found the second boomer and brought her
pulse cannon to bear again.  Realizing it had been spotted,
the boomer ducked behind another parked aircraft... but this
one was empty.  Christine winced at the expense she was about
to incur, then aimed for the fuel tanks and fired.
     The resulting fireball was spectacular, claiming
aircraft, boomer, and part of the hangar, and raining burning
debris on the airfield.  "Good thing I've got money,"
Christine sighed.  "SoPac Air is not going to appreciate
that."
     Machine-gun fire sprayed all around her, drawing her
attention back to the first boomer.  Instinctively, she used
her jump unit to leap clear of the shooting, then looked for
the attacker.  Finding him under the wing of one of the
loaded jets, she brought her left arm up and fired an energy
web.  The translucent mesh enveloped the surprised boomer,
pinning it to the ground, and she dropped next to it.
     "Bastard machine," she grumbled, extending the short
blade from her left arm.  A backhanded slash beheaded the
boomer, and the acrid smell of burned-out circuitry
accompanied its demise.
     "Three down, two to go," she called.
     "We found the others," Linna reported.  "Over by the
control tower."
     "On our way," Priss responded, using her jump unit to
cover half the distance in a single leap.  Following suit,
Christine dropped in right behind her.  They touched down
just in time to see Linna's razor-whips sever the head of the
first boomer, trailing sparks as they tore through its vital
circuitry; scarcely a second later Nene's scrambler dropped
the second.  Walking up to the now-disabled android, she put
the laser to its head and blew out its computer brain.
     "Mission accomplished," Priss grinned, taking off her
helmet.
     "Hey, look, here come the AD Police now," Nene laughed. 
"They can be so comical sometimes."
     "Heh... you work for them, not me," Priss shook her
head.  "Let's go home before Leon sees me."

                       * * * * * * * * *

     At first, we thought that this short battle had been an
isolated incident.  We were wrong.  Over the next week, more
and more boomers of all types began to pop up all over the
city, and before we realized it the situation had escalated
seriously.

                       * * * * * * * * *

     Leon McNichol sighed as he looked out across the front
line.  His Third AD Police Mobile Force was being pounded
into the pavement by a ragtag but well-armed collection of
boomers, and he could see few options.
     "Prepare to fall back," he ordered.  Another city block
lost.  These uprisings were getting out of hand, fast.
     Suddenly, a familiar voice cut in on his radio.  "Get
your men down," it warned, "We're coming in!"
     Taking heart, Leon gave the order.  The AD Police
scrambled for cover, ducking behind their barricades, and
only seconds later the KnightWing blazed overhead with a
demonic howl.  A hail of missiles was released from her
wingracks, wreaking havoc among the exposed boomers, and on
its heels came the battlecry.
     "Knight Sabers, sanjo!" Priss yelled as four armored
figures dropped into the battle.  Acting as one, they
charged into the heart of the fray.
     "Nene, start jamming," Priss ordered.
     "Jamming active.  Burn-through in fifteen seconds."
     "Move quick!"
     Linna needed no encouragement.  Fifteen seconds of near
invisibility was a precious gift to her style of fighting,
and immediately she began to take advantage of it.  Leaping
forward, she deftly evaded the nearest boomers' blind fire
and landed softly behind it.  As soon as her feet hit the
ground, she spun quickly, letting the razor-whips trail out
from her body, and the boomer collapsed in pieces. 
     Christine smirked.  She had never quite understood the
way in which Linna's style more resembled dance than combat,
but she could not dispute the lethal nature of her art. 
Still, she herself preferred the direct approach.  Raising
her right arm, she fired her devastating pulse cannon at a
nearby boomer.  Blue-white waves of destructive force
pummeled the target and it crashed to the ground, armor
plates shattered and smoking.
     "Five seconds," Nene warned.
     "Right," Priss answered, firing another pair of
flechettes at a particularly agile CX-type.  It leapt out of
the way, and she cursed under her breath. "How can he dodge
what he can't see?" she muttered.
     "The jamming's not perfect," reminded Nene.  Hanging
back from the fight because of the power drain imposed by
the jamming systems, she prepared for action.  In just a
second, the boomers' sensors would adjust for the
interference . . . 
     "Burn-though," she cautioned, shutting off the
now-useless jammers.
     "Just in time!" Priss called out triumphantly as her
target's midsection exploded dramatically under the force of
one of her HEAP shells.  Once rare, the High Explosive Armor
Piercing rounds now comprised the bulk of her ammunition, and
she used them anything but sparingly.
     "Watch yourself, Priss," warned Sylia, far above in the
KnightWing.  "Two on your left."
     "I've got one of them," Nene called, activating her
synapse-scramblers.  The target boomer, a Bu-12B, froze,
then dropped to its knees.  Even then, it struggled to climb
back to its feet, but two quick bursts of laser fire
decapitated it. 
     "Thanks." Priss said, bringing her own cannon to bear
on the other. Firing another of her HEAP rounds, she smiled
with satisfaction as the target staggered backward, then was
consumed in a blaze of scarlet flame.
     Slowly, deliberately, they began to advance on the
boomers.  Still, Leon realized, they could not keep it up
indefinitely.  Priss would run out of ammunition eventually,
and without that striking power their assault would be
considerably weakened.  Still, the boomers were now on the
defensive...   "What are you waiting for?" he ordered his
men...  "attack!"
     With a resounding cheer, the AD Police rejoined the
battle.  Immediately, a barrage of heavy-weapons fire smashed
into the nearest boomers, creating a chain of explosions that
staggered even the artificial warriors and gave the Knight
Sabers yet another advantage to exploit.  Christine was the
first to take advantage, breaking through the enemy line to
their command unit.
     The boomers unleashed a potent barrage of their own...
all directed at her.  Finding herself surrounded, she took to
the air.  The boomers' weapons tracked her upwards...
     ... and found themselves firing straight into a web. 
The energy netting caught them off guard, pinning them to the
ground, and Chris finished them off with her knife.
     "They're on the run now!" Priss cried, physically
smashing a boomer with a strength-enhanced punch.  Hydraulic
fluid squirted from the android's crushed midsection, and she
tossed its limp form aside.
     And indeed they were fleeing.  Realizing they were
beaten, the boomers had broken into a hasty retreat.  Many
more would fall as they fled, and what was certain defeat had
become a stunning victory.

                  * * * * * * * * *

     Once the battlefield was clear, Mackie flew back in to
pick up the team.  On their way home, they found many things
to discuss.
     "Well, we kicked some ass out there today," Priss
grinned.
     Nene sighed.  "I suppose it's too much to hope that
they won't be back."
     Nodding solemnly, Sylia agreed.  "This was only one of
many flashpoints across the city today.  More and more
boomers are rising up in arms."
     "Almost like a revolution," Christine observed
ominously.
     "That's a frightening thought," said Linna.
     "Quite," agreed Sylia.   "And seemingly accurate."
     "But... why?" Nene asked.
     "They want their freedom..." Priss whispered, memories
flooding her mind, "remember Sylvie."  She hung her head,
"and Anri."
     "But Sylvie wasn't like that!" Nene protested.
     "Wasn't she?" Sylia asked softly, realizing how much the
subject hurt Priss.  "Though she hated herself for it, she
was willing to kill for her freedom."
     Priss bit her lip.  "Yes.  Besides, some of the
combat-type boomers are just killing machines anyway.  It's
all they know."
     "And with no masters..." Linna continued, her voice
trailing off with realization.  "This is partly our doing,
isn't it?"
     "Yes," Sylia sighed.  "It is indeed."

                  * * * * * * * * *

     "This is bad," Linna shook her head, looking at the
newspaper.  The headline told the whole story.  "CONTINUED
BOOMER UPRISINGS PLAGUE MEGATOKYO!  AD Police suffer heavy
losses."
     "AD Police can't handle it." Priss scowled.  "They
should call in the military."
     Linna shook her head, indicating another headline. 
"The military's got its own problems."
     "Damn... their boomers, too?" 
     "Boomers everywhere.  Megatokyo is going to be
our war."
     "We're not ready for this."
     Linna looked up, worry obvious on her face, "I know."

                  * * * * * * * * *

     Sylia looked apologetic as she addressed them.  "I
don't want to ask this of you, but events have given me no
choice.  The conflicts of the past few days are escalating
into a full-scale war, and only we have the firepower to
fight it.  This will be a dangerous time for you all."
     Priss sighed... she had been enjoying her escape from
constant fighting.  "So it's that bad."
     "I'm afraid so," Sylia responded sympathetically.  "We
cannot expect much help--the Army's own boomers are more than
a match for them."
     "No way around it, then... we have to fight."
     "Agreed," Christine said solemnly.  "Someone has to stop
this... and it sure won't be AD Police."
     Nene scowled, but she had to admit that Christine's
statement was true... the AD Police were overmatched.  A
return to the days of outright war was not a pleasant
prospect, though, and she had hoped it would not come to
this.  "I suppose that's true.  It's up to us."
     "We caused this, in part.  We need to end it," Linna
commented, with a sad, yet determined look in her eyes.
     "Very well," Sylia nodded, suddenly very proud of the
strength and courage of the team she had assembled.  "We will
go to war."

                  * * * * * * * * *

     Sylia stared at the image which rotated on the screen
in front of her -- that of Priss's hardsuit.  She sighed
deeply as she realized what was to come.  The Knight Sabers
were to face their greatest challenges yet, and they would
do it without her.  A pang of guilt stung her soul; she did
not want to endanger them... but she had no choice.
     Through their years together, she had come to regard
them as family.  Sometimes they were as daughters to her, at
other times sisters.  Other than Mackie, they were the only
family she had, and she treasured them.  To see them in
danger froze her heart, even when she had been in the midst
of it.  To be forced to watch from outside amplified the
pain.
     After a few moments, she wearily drew herself back to
the task at hand.  Over half the systems on the computer
model were overlaid in red, indicating that they were to be
redesigned.  With the new battles ahead, they would have to
be deadlier than they had ever dared, and the current suits
were simply not up to the task.  The new ones would be.
     "If I will send you to war," she whispered, "You will
be ready."
     Still... there was more to readiness than combat
capability.  War was a devastating thing, demanding an
ever-increasing part of the soul of the warrior.  They had
tasted freedom--freedom from fear, from pain, from
fighting--and now it had been taken from them.  So far, they
had handled it well... but the worst was yet to come.  She
feared for them, as always.

                  * * * * * * * * *

     "Here we go again... Knight Sabers, sanjo!" Priss
cried, throttling up her Typhoon III motoslave and charging
toward the battle.
     "Be careful," Sylia's voice warned, "They seem to have
appropriated some sort of superweapon."
     "Wonderful," Priss thought sarcastically, remembering
their experience with the D.D.  "This'll be fun."
     "This model lacks the nuclear self-destruct," Sylia
breathed a sigh of relief as she looked up its
specifications.
     "Good thing to know," Linna said dryly.  "Let's get
this over with." Leaping from her motoslave, she watched it
transform beneath her and press the attack.  Using her jump
unit to propel herself forward, she fell directly atop the
first group of boomers.  Unable to defend against both the
motoslave and Linna, they trained their weapons on the larger
target.  It was a critical mistake.  Electrified blades in
Linna's heels drove through the head of the first boomer,
filling the air with the acrid stench of burned-out
circuitry.
     The second tried to correct, turning to face her... but
she was already gone.  Disoriented, the boomer spun around
just in time to see the glint of the Knuckle Bomber's
emitters... only inches from its face.  A brilliant flash of
energy burst from the weapon, disintegrating the boomer's
head and leaving its body badly scorched.  It collapsed.
     Seeing the two smoking hulks at Linna's feet and the
battlemover occupied with Priss, Christine targeted a 55-C
with her energy web. Catching him off guard, she pressed the
attack with the blade in her gauntlet.  The boomer tried to
dodge, but was too thoroughly entangled and was struck
across the torso.  Sparks flew as the weapon neatly sliced
through critical circuitry, tearing a swath across the
android's armor.  Massive power surges wracked its body with
small explosions, and it fell at her feet.
     "Nene?" Priss prompted, looking for any advantage she
could find against the mammoth armor she faced.
     "Jamming's not going to be effective with that
battlemover here," Nene answered.
     "Great," was the muttered response.  Nene spotted an
older boomer that looked like it was giving orders and
powered up her scrambler.  It fell, but two women came to
its aid before she could finish it off.  Hesitating to fire,
Nene was at first confused until her sensors clarified the
situation for her.  "There are 33-S-type boomers here," she
warned as she fired her laser at the triad, "Don't let them
trick you."
     "Probably one in the battlemover," Priss scowled as it
dodged another of her attacks.  This was getting thornier and
thornier with each passing minute.
     "Almost certainly," Sylia affirmed.
     "Whatever it is, its doing things I didn't think armor
that heavy could," Priss muttered as the battlemover dodged
another of her attacks. "I'm going to have to fight it up
close."
     "Be careful!" Linna warned.
     "Always..." Priss answered dryly, her voice trailing off
as she jumped to the offensive.  Firing two flechettes at
point-blank range, she then ripped them out and dug her
fingers into the monstrosity's armor.  Slowly, she could feel
the plate coming loose, but the battlemover thrashed around,
trying to rid itself of her.
     All around them, the battle raged on.  A flare of
Linna's Knuckle Bomber marked the destruction of another
boomer, and Christine's pulse cannon felled still more. 
Priss was oblivious to all of this as she struggled to bring
down the beast.  Its arms flailed around, trying to grab her
and tear her free, but somehow she managed to avoid its
grasp.  Finally, her tenacity was rewarded.  With a metallic
shriek, the rear armor of the superweapon tore free, and
Priss fired a high-explosive shell into the exposed interior.
     The battlemover's insides exploded through its front,
spraying hydraulic fluid and shrapnel everywhere.   For a few
seconds more it thrashed about uncontrollably, then came
crashing down in a heap. When the smoke cleared, Priss could
see that the battle was over.  With their vanguard destroyed,
the boomers were fleeing.  Looking at the smashed armor, she
caught a glimpse of its dead operator.
     It was, indeed, a 33-S boomer.  One that looked a lot
like Sylvie.  Priss felt a little sick at her stomach, then
slumped down beside the hulk.
     "Damn," she whispered.

                  * * * * * * * * *

     "Damn," Priss muttered, smashing her armored fist into
a convenient bulkhead.
     Sylia sighed.  The KnightWing wasn't designed to take
that kind of punishment from the INSIDE.  "Priss, I know
you're upset..."
     "Of all the damn coincidences, why'd it have to look
like Sylvie? There must be hundreds of different-looking
33-S's."
     "I don't know... but looks don't mean anything,"
Linna pointed out. "It was trying to kill you, you know."
     "I know..." she shook her head, collapsing into a
chair.  Fighting with anything that looked that HUMAN left a
bad taste in her mouth... this had just brought it out a
little more.  "It's just bad memories... I'll get over
it."  Nagging doubts usually forced to the back of her mind
came to her again... did they have something to fight
for, after all?  And who was she to deny them?
     Then, the greater part of her spoke up.  She was human,
that was who she was... and as long as the boomers were
killing people, she would fight them, and she would fight to
win.  No matter how it made her feel when it was over.

**********
END PART ONE