Chapter 1 second part


After what seemed like hours, but probably wasn't, her semi-aimless
wanderings took her to the entrance of what seemed to be a park, and
she headed for it thankfully. She wasn't at all happy with the
neighbourhood she had found herself in after leaving the alley; it
looked like the state of the alleyway was pretty consistent with the
streets surrounding it. Luckily she hadn't seen many people, and most
of them seemed to be skulking about as though they didn't want
anything to do with her either, but the predatory looks she had been
given by a few had made her nervous. Fortunately it didn't look like
any of them had taken more than a passing interest in her, but she
badly wanted somewhere she could sit and think things through, try and
work out where she was, and this park looked ideal. Besides, she
seemed to have been walking for miles, her feet hurt and she'd be glad
of the excuse to sit down; the constant changing of direction to avoid
attention of people she didn't like the look of had left her feeling
completely lost.

Looking around, she couldn't see anyone, so eased the gates apart. She
slipped through the opening, the gravel of the path making soft
*scrunching* noises underfoot. It was quieter in here, the trees and
vegetation sheltering her from the noise of the city. She shivered,
not so much from cold as from reaction; now she had a moment to think,
it was coming home to her that she was in a different universe again.
And one that didn't seem as nice as the last one, although she hoped
the state of the streets she'd seen so far was just the bad area of
town. Rubbing her temples she winced slightly, trying to ease her
slowly growing headache; she didn't want to think yet about what would
happen if that had been the _good_ area!

Looking around in the darkness, she scanned the park for people, just
in case. She was interested to note that Iczer-2's night vision was
somewhat better than her original body's had been; the handful of
globes illuminating the paths were more than adequate for her to see
that it did indeed appear to be deserted. She smiled, and turned her
attention to the surrounding area, then froze. Seeing the busy city
skyscrapers surrounding the area, and then, further away, what must
have been a truly huge building to be so easily visible above the
already towering skyscrapers, its brightly-lit truncated cone
thrusting up arrogantly.

* Oh shit... *
She only know of _one_ building that looked like that. The GENOM
tower. It must be, the rest of what she'd seen suddenly fitted in as
well. They were in a Bubblegum Crisis Universe...

She sighed, deeply, and sat down heavily on a nearby bench, trying to
think it all through, and trying to remember what she 'knew' about the
Bubblegum Crisis series, wishing she'd paid more attention to the
anime when she'd had the opportunity. Most of what information she
could recall was less than reassuring to someone with no ID, no
contacts, no money and no reasonable explanation of who she was and
what she was doing here.

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The sound that caught her attention was the soft crunch of a booted
foot on the gravel path. She looked up, startled. Iczer may have had
better hearing than she had been used to, but that didn't help if she
wasn't paying any attention to it.

Standing about 20 feet away was a group of six... well, punks sounded
about right. Or muggers, they didn't seem too friendly, standing there
in shabby clothing, all wearing the same type of leather or plastic
jacket with symbols inset and painted on. The grins plastered across
their faces weren't evocative of real humour, more the anticipation of
some sick fun. 

She regretted the carelessness that had made her choose the closest
bench to sit down on to reflect on her situation; it was reasonably
well lit by a nearby lamp. She should have found somewhere quiet and
dark where no-one would have noticed her. Trouble was, it was
difficult to break old habits; even though she 'knew' that if this was
a BGC Universe it was NOT safe to be out alone in some areas, she had
subconsciously assumed she'd be OK. Well, BGC or no she was obviously
not in a nice part of town, at least at night; the neatness of the
park was deceptive. She kicked herself again, another reminder to find
out about this world fast, and not make any more assumptions,
especially since it probably wasn't like the anime anyway. No, knowing
her luck it was a lot more dangerous. Hell, the two of them had been
given enough problems with a _safe_ Universe like Ah! Megamisama...!

Her musings were stopped abruptly by a nasty chuckle from the leader
of the gang.

"Well, and what's a lovely young girl like you doing out here all
alone? Waiting for someone to _play_ with her, maybe??"

Her mind went blank for a moment, trying to make sense of his words;
then with a rush it reminded her that she was in Iczer-2's body at the
moment, and the site of her lounging on a park bench in the dark was
liable to lead to rather different consequences than the sight of
his/her original form would! 

She looked up at the gang leader, her eyes narrowing as she glared at
him.

"Go away"

This led to nothing but a burst of laughter from the gang. Looking
around his cronies, the leader grinned, then walked forward. She
growled under her breath, standing up with a graceful agility she
still wasn't used to, a core of anger growing deep inside her. She did
_not_ need this right now! Especially since she really didn't have any
idea how to use Iczer-2's fighting skills, if indeed she could. Still,
they were only street punks, and she thought she could handle them.
She hesitated for a moment, wondering why she didn't run away, but
then she looked at the gang again and her anger rose to the surface.

"I said go away. Now leave me alone"

This statement proved less than effective. The gang leader stepped
forward, one hand reaching out to her, looking as if he meant to grab
her jacket. Behind him she could see his grinning cronies, as they
nudged each other, as the reaching hand seemed to go into slow motion
as it approached her. Narrowing her eyes, she reached up, grabbing the
slow-moving wrist in her right hand. In the back of her mind, she
realised that he hadn't slowed down, that this was the result of
Iczer- 2's alien reflexes showing their speed, but she wasn't going to
worry about it right now. She pushed the arm sideways, away from her,
and *squeezed* down on the wrist she was still holding, feeling the
bone flex as it bent and then broke under the pressure of her fingers.

The punk screamed, a loud and shrill sound that hurt her ears, as his
wrist bent in a movement she knew was impossible to a whole arm,
sagging to his knees with a look of sudden, wide-eyed fear and pain on
his face. She hesitated for a second, surprised at the casual ease
with which her grip had shattered his wrist; she hadn't expected this,
not realising just how strong Iczer-2's body was. Letting go, she
stepped back, allowing him to collapse fully.

"I told you to leave me alone"

The man looked up at her, his fear changing as she watched to anger
and hate. She realised belatedly that treating him like this, in front
of the other members of his gang, was about the least likely way of
making them go away and leave her alone. Well, that was their choice.

She stood in an easy, balanced crouch, waiting, as the punks gathered
themselves into a rough half circle before advancing on her. It looked
like they had no idea of how to fight as a team, which suited her. She
didn't have any combat skills, but was trusting to her strength and
speed; at least none of them had a gun out, although most of them had
knives. She didn't think her skin was knife-proof; anyway, she had no
desire to find out the hard way.

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**

Drill knelt on the path, holding his shattered wrist with his hand as
he watched the strange girl take his gang apart with her bare hands.
He'd never seen anything like it before. It wasn't even as if she was
good, he'd seen one of a rival gangs members fight once, an
ex-martial-artist, and that guy had been good, but also smooth, he'd
made the whole fight seem easy, always in control. This girl didn't
fight like that at all, she kept getting into positions where he was
about to hope one of his guys would at last get her, then she'd dance
or dodge out of the way with impossible speed. When she hit them, it
was with hammer-blows that smashed the gang members down or across the
ground with a casual ease. The couple of hits they did get in against
her didn't seem to worry her in the least.

He watched as the girl disposed of Chisel with that same awkward ease,
nearly rising to his feet as he saw Hammer charge her from behind as
she allowed herself to be distracted. Hammer was their biggest member,
nearly two metres tall and built in proportion, he didn't see how even
she could get away once he'd got his hands on her. Then his mouth
dropped open as the girl whipped around at the last moment, grabbed
Hammer by his jacket, then just picked him up off the ground and
tossed him away to land in a crumpled heap some distance away, the
sight even distracting him for a moment from the agony in his wrist
that his small movement caused. She hadn't used his momentum, or
anything, she'd just picked him up like a toy and tossed him away. It
wasn't possible, no human could do that. Unless... she wasn't human...
she must be some sort of Boomer, it was the only explanation. But why
the hell had a disguised Boomer been sitting in the park, looking like
an easy mark for his men? 

He winced as the final gang member standing was flattened by a 
backhanded swipe that was hard enough to lift him off his feet before
he sagged unconscious next to Drill, and glared up at the bitch. In
under a minute she'd turned his gang into a pile of broken and
groaning bodies, and she didn't even seem to be breathing hard!

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**

Iczer looked down at the gang leader, the only one still left in an
fit state to talk to her, grinning in relief as well as triumph. She
still felt incredibly hyped up after that fight, as she brushed her
hands off ostentatiously in front of him, the feeling making her
realise one of the reasons Iczer-2 liked fighting. She'd have to be
careful, she couldn't afford to let the intoxication get to her,
fights were something she'd be far better off without unless she truly
had no alternative.

"Give me your money."

He looked up, fear, anger and puzzlement mingling on his face.
"Money?"

She stepped forward, baring her teeth slightly.
"Your money. Now. Or shall I break your other arm as well?"
Not that she had any intention of doing so, of course, not with him
helpless in front of her. Of course, _he_ didn't know that. She could
almost taste his fear, and it sickened her slightly, bringing her down
fast from the high she'd experienced during the combat. He wasn't any
threat to her now, although she was sure he'd like to be, there was a
boiling, frustrated anger behind his fear.

He snarled at her, obviously hating the fact that he really didn't
have any choice, then dug out a battered wallet, tossing it at her
feet. She waited, then bent smoothly and grabbed it out of the air
before it could touch the ground, watching his eyes widen as she
rubbed in just how fast she was. 

Stepping back, and keeping one eye on the gang, she opened it. Some
notes, not many, and some sort of credit cards. She left them, not
knowing if they could be traced, or even the common usage of them,
stuffing the cash in one pocket. Still moving carefully, she searched
the fallen muggers, transferring their ready cash to herself. Finally,
she finished, standing and looking at their leader again.

He looked back up, hatred on his face.
"We'll get you for this, boomer-bitch!!"

She chuckled softly. Interesting that he thought she was a boomer,
though not really surprising. No need to disillusion him, let them
keep thinking that. "What, like you did this time? Dream on, punk.
Now, tell me how I get to a decent district of this city.

He glowered up at her.
"Why should I help you?

Her smile grew wider.
"Because if you don't I'll tell everyone how a gang of big tough men
like you was beaten up by a cute girl?"

His look convinced her that she'd read them correctly. Being beaten
was one thing, but for the gang to be beaten like this by her would
lose them all their credibility. Casually she wondered just how big a
group would have beaten them up when they'd finished sorting out their
story among themselves? Or maybe they'd say it was by a boomer.

"OK...I'll tell you. But we're still gonna get you!"

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**

Iczer sighed wearily, tossing her bag on the floor next to the bed as
she shrugged off her coat, letting it join the bag. A typical Japanese
hotel room. About enough room to swing a kitten, but it had a bed,
shower and TV/entertainment unit, all she needed right now. She sat
heavily on the side of the bed, brushing some strands of hair back
from her face, shoulders slumped with exhaustion. She didn't know why
she was so tired, but the gritty irritation in her eyes made it feel
like she hadn't slept for a week. And the headache she'd had since
before the trouble in the park wasn't getting any better; she hoped
this body wasn't allergic to something here, that _would_ be
helpful...

She bounced slightly, testing the bed, feeling the hardness of the
mattress. Then yelped as she caught her hair, which she'd managed to
sit on.

"Damn! I'm not USED to four-foot long hair!!"

She heard a mental *giggle* deep inside her.

"And you're a _great_ help!"

She grimaced as she realised she had unconsciously verbalised her
answer to the voice in her head. She was going to have to learn to
stop doing that, people would start thinking her odd. Then she
grinned; they'd be right, wouldn't they!

She really wanted to change back right now. She wasn't _used_ to being
this way, it felt - not right. Moving, walking, even breathing, all of
them felt odd; uncomfortable, unbalanced. It wasn't so bad when she
was busy, she tended to forget, but now... she kept twitching each
time something else felt - not like it should. It was all hitting her
again, very hard. But it was just so much effort, and she was so
tired, she didn't think she could face the pain of a transition right
now, not to mention that the hotel had let this room to a girl. She
wasn't sure what they'd do if for some reason they found a sick man in
here. Play it safe. Hah. Since she was dragged away from home, the
whole experience so far had been about as safe as juggling
nitro-glycerine on a unicycle.

She groaned, and eased off her boots, tossing them to the side with
more hope than aim, then slowly and tiredly pulled off her jeans as
she leant back, stretching out on the bed and trying not to catch her
long, flowing hair under her. While she had to admit that it looked
great on Iczer-2, she still couldn't work out how in hell to stop it
getting in the way. Hopefully she could get something tomorrow to help
keep it under control.

Frowning, she absently rubbed a spot on her arm where one of the gang
members had connected with a steel bar. It throbbed faintly, and she
suspected she'd have a bruise there tomorrow. Still, considering how
hard he'd hit her with it, she'd happily settle for that. She thought
fuzzily that she really ought to look at that TV, find out more about
where we were and how it related to the anime she was familiar with,
but at the moment all she wanted to do was sleep...


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