Okay, I feel a bit better about this one.  It seems to flow a lot 
better than the last two chapters did.  HOWEVER, that doesn't excuse 
anyone from C&Cing on it, or on any of the other chapters.  8)

Funnily enough, I didn't think it'd take me this long to get to this 
point in the story.  I can say, though, that it's not even halfway 
over with.  Get ready for some serious character development.  *grin*

Let me know what you think.

----------

BGC/WHO:  Slipt, part 8.

	No sooner had the boomer's remains settled, still smoldering, to
the floor, when Nene's comlink crackled hesitantly.  "Linna!  Linna,
what's your status?"  Sylia's voice was nervous and strained.  Something
must have gone wrong, Nene thought grimly.  She answered, "Sylia, 
Linna's unconscious.  We've taken care of the boomers guarding the 
lab, and we're ready to destroy it before any more get here."
	"Nene, have everyone return immediately.  Forget about the lab.
The Garage is being attacked, and we'll need you here."  Sylia's voice had
gone completely flat, taut with anxiety.  "Uh, alright, we're coming," she
stuttered in return.
	The comlink went dead, leaving Nene more alone than she had ever
been in her life.

	Sylia slumped away from the communications panel, exhausted
already.  The Doctor and Ace stood nearby, ready to offer a hand if it
became necessary.
	"Sylia," the Doctor murmured, "the Garage can't be as important as
a human life.  Now, before it's too late...let's get out of here."
	She looked away, refusing to meet his innocent, yet strangely
penetrating gaze.  "Perhaps.  But I'm not leaving the hardsuit."  Without
turning, she beckoned.  "Come.  There's no point in not trusting you now."
"Fine for you to say, " Ace retorted, but followed.
	They meandered down a winding corridor, past a door labeled
"Testing Area" and into the underground garage where the van was parked.
The explosions had gone ominously silent.  Mackie was tinkering with a
heavily modified motorbike, but dropped his tools and rushed over when
they entered.  "Sylia, are you okay?  I didn't think--"  "I'm fine," she
managed over his persistence.  "Is the van ready?"  He nodded quickly.
	"I see what you mean about not trusting us," Ace said flatly.
"This isn't the way we came in, is it?"  Sylia ignored her and walked over
to a blank section of wall, pressing a set of invisible studs in quick
succession.  A portion of the wall slid aside to reveal three empty racks,
and one hardsuit.  She began tugging at it.
	The Doctor moved to help her.  "Are you sure you're ready?"  She
shook her head wearily.  "I don't have a choice."  She glanced at the
Doctor and Ace, then threw a slightly harder look at Mackie.  "If you
wouldn't mind turning around?"  Ace glowered back, but complied, as did
the Doctor and Mackie.  A moment later, they heard a sharp click, and
looked again to see Sylia donning her helmet.  The metallic creature was
whole once again, after a fashion.

	Sylia waved her new "arm" back and forth, testing its balance.
"Excellent," she murmured silently to herself.  It was only slightly
heavier than her real arm, and the satisfying low hum of power from the
fletchette loading mechanism which now filled the void below her left
shoulder sent a cool tingle of reassurance down her spine.  Largo, she
thought coldly, you haven't beaten us yet.
	Mackie was loading his bike into the van.  Ace jumped into the
driver's seat, and the Doctor took the passenger's seat.  Sylia followed
Mackie into the rear as Ace gunned the engine to life.

	Over the speaker in the back, Mackie said, "Press the green 
button on the dash next to the big lever.  That'll raise the platform 
and get us out of here."  "Got it," Ace barked back.
	The platform rumbled upward, and a large section of the ceiling
slid back to admit the rising van.  Dr. Raven was nowhere in sight.  
Instead, there were three figures:  a diminutive man dressed in an 
evening suit, and two larger bodyguards in steel blue and grey.
	Largo, and his retinue.  Largo, back from the dead.
	The two upgraded boomers stood to either side of him, glaring 
down at them menacingly.  The deceptively small cyborg blinked once, 
and smiled.  "So it ends," he said.
	Ace slammed her foot on the accelerator, and the van shot 
forward past the boomers and into the street.  Immediately, they heard 
the answering rumble of the boomers' jetpacks, and Largo's calmly 
echoing laughter.  "Run," he said, "for all the good it will do you.  
You belong to me now, Sylia."
	Ace ignored him and concentrated on keeping the powerful 
vehicle on the road.  It raced down the main avenue at a respectable 
70 kilometer-an-hour clip, prompting several cars to swerve out of the 
way, their horns screeching in protest.  "Which way?" she shouted into 
the wind, hoping that Mackie could hear her from the rear compartment.
	"Head for the highway entrance!" he shouted back.  "Next 
left!"
	A truck was backing out of a parking lot in front of her, and 
she hit the brakes, swerving onto the sidewalk and squeaking past it 
with inches to spare.  She looked in the mirror, and saw that the 
boomers were still coming.  They had simply boosted over it.
	The highway onramp loomed ahead.  Moments later, they were on 
the highway itself.  And the boomers were still following.
	"The research center!"  Mackie shouted again.  "We'll meet up 
with the rest of the Knight Sabers!"

	Nene felt the loose pebbles roll under her feet for the sixth 
time, and for the sixth time she crashed to the ground under the 
combined weight of Linna's suited body and her motoroid.  Priss was 
having enough trouble handling Linna's and her own motoroid.  
Unfortunately, they hadn't been designed with remote operation in 
mind, or else they could have flown back to the Garage.  Nene would 
have to endure the long trek back, with Linna slumped over the seat of 
her motoroid.  She climbed wearily to her feet once more, and pushed 
Linna back onto the motoroid.
	Priss had refused to leave her, regardless of the fight 
underway.  "You think if they find you alone you won't end up six feet 
under?  You think you're indestructible or something?" she'd said.  
"Like hell you are!"  Then she'd refused to say anything further on 
the matter.
	At some point however, they would be forced to split up, or 
leave Linna behind.  The highway was the quickest and safest route 
back to Tinsel City, and they couldn't well walk the distance back 
without being flattened by the heavy evening traffic.
	She shuddered.  It was also the only route back, unless one 
was crazy enough to jump headlong into the Fault itself.
	Nene glanced down at Linna's prone form.  She was sleeping, as 
far as Nene could tell, although her badly burned shoulder would make 
her rest anything but pleasant.  At least she was blissfully ignorant 
of the coming danger.
	A reddish glow on the horizon, quickly followed by the sound 
of laser fire, attracted her attention.  Seconds later, the glow 
flared again, nearer this time.
	They were coming.

	Sylia fired her fletchette cannon again, and twisted away as 
the boomers returned fire.  Boosting higher into the air on her 
motoslave, she somersaulted over the boomers and shot several more 
fletchettes at the closer one.  Almost instantly, it swerved to one 
side and the fletchettes exploded on the highway's surface, leaving 
shallow craters.
	They were simply too fast for her.  She could only distract 
them away from the van until they reached the research center.
	As if answering her somber thoughts, the van screeched down an 
off ramp, burying itself in the city traffic below.  The boomers 
quickly moved to follow, but she fired a precise series of shots at 
the highway in front of them, slowing them again momentarily.  
Gathering herself, she leaped over the guard rail into the night, the 
boomers close behind.
	Sylia landed on a cross street below, prompting an oncoming 
car to swerve sharply to one side.  Before the boomers landed, she was 
in the air again, twisting sideways to avoid a rapid volley of laser 
fire.  She ducked behind a cement pillar supporting the highway, 
pausing for a moment to catch her breath.
	Suddenly, the pillar shook with the force of a heavy blow, 
buckling inward, towards her.  She fired her motoslave's rockets, 
shooting to safety moments before a rain of cement and debris crashed 
down from above.  A section of the highway crumbled inward, sending a 
cloud of chalk and dust billowing upwards, enveloping her.
	And then she could see nothing, and hear nothing, save for the 
quiet drone of traffic far away, and the melancholy cry of sirens 
fading into the lonely night.  She clambered shakily to her feet, 
peering through the haze in a vain attempt to determine what had 
become of the boomers.
	Forty meters away, slightly to her left, a pair of red, 
glowing eyes snapped open.  A few meters behind, another pair 
appeared.
	The boomers began to inch forward, apparently savouring their 
victory.  There was nowhere left to hide.  She could run no further.
	Out of the inky blackness of the night shot a sudden glimmer 
of light, striking one of the boomers across its midsection.  It 
howled in pain and hot anger, whirling to track the source of the 
steel spikes embedded in its chest.
	A metallic figure sprung out from behind a parked car, eating 
up the ground between it and the stricken boomer in less than a 
second.  Its hand shot out, ripping deep into the boomer's torso.  
With a hoarse cry of agony, its chest exploded into flames, and the 
figure staggered back.
	A hint of metallic blue shimmered in the flickering glow of a 
nearby street light.  Priss.
	The remaining boomer backhanded her, sending her flying.  She 
crashed heavily to the ground, the hardsuit squealing as it scraped 
against the pavement.  But as the boomer advanced on her, a second 
figure darted from the shadows towards it.  It turned.
	Sylia took advantage of the distraction, and rammed home a 
hail of exploding fletchettes.  Most of them struck its neck and head, 
tearing them from its body with a harsh crackle of electricity.
	The torso took another ponderous, unsteady step, then slowly 
toppled to the ground, unmoving.
	The second figure slowed to a halt, trembling slightly, and 
looked up from the smoldering remains, flipping up its visor.  Nene 
smiled at her warmly.  "We won, Sylia," she managed to gasp between 
ragged breaths.  "We won."
	Sylia nodded somberly.  "But at a terrible price," she 
murmured, and looked back in the direction whence they had ran.  
"Where's Linna?"

	As if in answer to her question, the street light flickered 
off, and they turned in unison at the sound of a deep, echoing laugh.  
Slowly, yet another figure emerged from the gloom.
	The figure paused briefly, allowing the faint glow of the 
distant city to play across its features.
	Largo. 
	He hefted Linna's body a bit higher over his shoulder.  "The 
end finally comes, Sylia," he said.  "You are beaten.  Surrender 
yourself, or see this one go the way of all flesh."
	Sylia froze, shaking inwardly with icy fear.  Please, she 
begged silently.  Please let it not happen this way...
	More than she had ever realized, she loved the Knight Sabers.  
She needed them.  They were the only family she had left.  They were 
the only ones she could ever be close to.
	"What do you want with me," she whispered.
	Largo smiled cruelly.  "You need not know.  Not yet.  But I 
shall spare this one's life, on one condition."
	A squeal of tires attracted their attention, and they looked 
down the street to see the van roll into view, and suddenly come to a 
halt.
	Largo gestured.  "Bring me the Time Lord's time capsule."

Damon Casale, damoo@carmelnet.com
Spam, spam!  WONDERFUL spam!  ^_^