Bubblegum Chaos : Hurricane Season
by Mark Latus
Prologue
When people look back on it afterwards they ask how did it truly begin?
That question can never truly be answered as everything that happened hinged
on what had come before. Some say it began the day that Sylia Stingray and
Daniel Dumas had their showdown. But would that have happened if Priscilla
Asagiri hadn't taken events into her own hands? Could any of it have occurred
if Sylia hadn't secretly recorded her friends' memories. Yet she never truly
expected to use those recordings. They were a failsafe against a day that
seemed more and more unlikely.
Perhaps everything started the day Quincy told his protege to eliminate
the Knight Sabers. Yet would that have happened if it hadn't been for Largo's
comeback being foiled by them? You can trace events back for years to Dr.
Stingray's fateful decision. The day that he chose to create the process to
redesign the human brain by bioengineering. But that was not the beginning
for there were forces in his own past that shaped him to decide this. So
there cannot be a single true answer to that question. This is merely my
answer but it will have to serve.
What has gone before
2008 AD - Marriage of Katsuhito Stingray and Rumiko Kimua
2009 AD - Marriage of Jean Dumas and Tanya Toitovna
2010 AD - Birth of Daniel Dumas
- Birth of Sylia Stingray
2012 AD - Birth of Linna Yamazaki
2013 AD - Birth of Priscilla Asagiri
2014 AD - Birth of Nene Romanova
2017 AD - Birth of Mackie Stingray
2018 AD - Birth of Sonya Geary
2019 AD - Death of Rumiko Stingray
2020 AD - Beginning of Dr. Stingray's human enhancement project
2021 AD - First meeting of Daniel Dumas and Sylia Stingray
2022 AD - Final version of Enhancement process produced. Secretly implanted
in Sylia, Mackie and Daniel.
- Death of Katsuhito Stingray
2024 AD - Implanted enhancement bioengineering begins to affect Daniel and
Sylia. Mackie's implant remains dormant
2025 AD - Breakup of Daniel & Sylia
- Dumas taken to USA by his father
- Second Kanto Quake
- GENOM Corporatation pledges to rebuild the megalopolis
2026 AD - GENOM Corporation continues with reconstruction efforts becoming the
owner of the majority of property in Tokyo. PR campaign launches
the city's new name "MegaTokyo"
2027 AD - "Tinsel City" becomes street name for MegaTokyo
2029 AD - Mackie begins showing first signs of enhancement (Increased
intelligence and dexterity)
2030 AD - Sylia and Mackie Stingray begin first generation hardsuit
construction.
- Sylia begins recruitment for her as yet unnamed
mercenary group.
2031 AD - Recruitment concluded and hardsuits fitted to individual wearers.
- Public debut of the Knight Sabers
2032 AD - "Tinsel City"
- "Born to Kill"
- "Blow Up"
2033 AD - "Revenge Road"
- "Moonlight Rambler"
- "Red Eyes"
- "Double Vision"
- "Scoop Chase" - Introduction of second generation hardsuits
- "Tokyo Babylon" - Return of Daniel Dumas to MegaTokyo and final
integration of Mackie Stingray's enhancements.
2034 AD - Ceasation of all MegaTokyo Boomer rampages not caused by genuine
malfunctions
- Mackie moves to Berlin becoming researcher at BioCyb branch of
Phoenix Enterprises prior to inheriting company.
- First meeting of Mackie Stingray and Sonya Geary
- Construction of Knight Shadow armour
- GENOM sells licenses to nonsentient Boomer designs
- Increase in Boomer production worldwide
- Johann Staler begans underground expansion of GENOM Germany
- Debut of Knight Shadow
- Linna Yamazaki leaves areobics coaching to become stock consultant
- Priss Asagiri's music becomes more mainstream. Rumours of disc deal.
- Nene Romanova begins attending self assertion programs
- Increasing social contact between Sylia Stingray and Daniel Dumas
- Knight Sabers rarely in action apart from regular training
exercises
- Knight Shadow armour almost destroyed in Boomer ambush. Mackie
builds Mark 2 and decides to cease solo activity
2035 AD - Mackie Stingray turns 18. Inherits majority block of Phoenix stock
under the terms of his father's will.
- Recruitment of Ilsa Guenther & Frank Chambers to Knight Shadows
- Debut of Knight Shadows 2 & 3
- Sylia begins construction of third generation hardsuits
- "Illegal Army"
- "Geo Climbers"
- "Meltdown"
- "Knights' End" begins
Sept. 24 - Sylia arrives in Berlin
Sept. 25 - Chairman Quincy orders Dumas to eliminate the Knight
Sabers
Oct. 27 - Sylia and Mackie return to MegaTokyo
Oct. 30 - Red Tuesday
- Deaths of Nene Romanova, Linna Yamazaki, Priss Asagiri,
Chairman Quincy, Daley Wong and 5617 civilians.
- Knight Sabers deemed responsible
- Sylia Stingray listed as deceased
- Daniel Dumas assumes control of GENOM
Nov. 1 - Funeral of Nene Romanova
Nov. 2 - Funeral of Linna Yamazaki, only identified Knight Saber
Nov. 3 - Wake for Priss Asagiri
Nov. 4 - Funeral of Sylia Stingray
- First meeting of Leon MacNichol and Mackie Stingray
- Truce between Daniel and Mackie
Nov. 6 - Mackie Stingray declares economic warfare on GENOM Europe
Nov. 30 - Publication of "Babes in Arms : The Knight Sabers' story"
Dec. 1 - Marriage of Daniel Dumas and Kate Madigan
Dec. 4 - Publication of "Linna : Portrait of a Killer"
Dec. 5 - Publication of "The Knight Saber Beside Me"
Dec. 6 - "Resurrection" of Linna Yamazaki, Nene Romanova, Priss
Asagiri
Dec. 15 - Publication of "Armourgeddon : The short and bloody
history of the Knight Sabers"
Dec. 20 - Death of Reika Chang
2036 AD - Jan. 17 - Publication of "Kali : The Life of Linna Yamazaki"
Feb. - "Libel"
June 20 - It begins
Mackie Stingray's apartment, Berlin - 3 am Friday June 30 2036 AD
Mackie dreams:
He's stumbling through the blasted wasteland with painful slowness. His
shattered hardsuit barely functioning as it hampers his movements. The ruined
city stretches around him in all directions. There's no response to his
frantic calls, no sign of life. Charred skeletons with bits of seared flesh
hanging off them litter the ground. Under his feet burned bones crack. He
sees a glint of sunlight off unmelted metal and stumbles towards it. To find
the scattered remains of the Knight Sabers sprawled before him. Sylia's
face is still twisted in that all consuming rage he's glimpsed on the few
occasions her mask slipped. Nene seems resigned, as though death is an
inconvieniance rather than an ending. Linna looks confused at having to die
a second time. Priss's features show relief. Free at last.
There's a discrete cough behind him and he turns to see Dumas leaning
casually against a twisted girder. The GENOM boss wears his customary black
business suit. At his feet lie Frank and Ilsa's wrecked hardsuits. From the
blood that stains the ground it's obvious they were in them. Dumas shakes his
head as though addressing a child who's contradicted his elder and speaks.
"I did warn you Mackie." His tone is chiding, more in sorrow than anger.
Mackie wants to speak but cannot. Dumas continues, "I said we had peace as
long as you didn't seek revenge and look what you did. Concealed Sylia's
survival and brought back the Knight Sabers." His head shakes. "Mackie I
thought you were smarter than this. I warned you that it could happen in
Berlin as easily as it happened in MegaTokyo." He gestures at the surrounding
rubble and Mackie recognises a few landmarks. This is ... or was Berlin.
Behind him Dumas speaks on. "You brought this on the city. How many
thousands died because you didn't know when you were beaten?" Mackie whirls
to attack Dumas and kill him. There's no one there but he can still here
that mocking voice. "Phoenix is destroyed. No one is coming back this time.
They're all staying dead." There! Dumas is standing about 100 metres to the
west. He's cradling something in his arms. "By the way I've brought you a
little reminder of what you've sacrificed in this futile quest ..." Dumas's
chest explodes as Mackie hits him with a particle beam. Pieces of the
metallic superstructure spray outwards. Just a boomer double, he should have
known Daniel wouldn't come here in person.
The burden the replica carried hits the ground. It's a woman. Sick with
foreknowledge Mackie stumbles forward toward the sprawled body surrounded by
pieces of Boomer. He stares into the dead and bloody face and screams ...
Sonya snapped awake as she heard Mackie yell her name. He was sitting
upright and staring at her wildly. He wrapped his arms around her trying to
reassure himself that she was real. She felt him shake and held him knowing
that in a few minutes he'd have control of himself again. This was happening
with increasing frequency as Mackie's subconscious continued to send him vivid
dreams. As she held him she once again cursed Sylia for what her hatred was
doing to Mackie. This had to stop. Dumas was untouchable. She had to get
him to abandon this hopeless search for vengeance before his sanity broke. If
only she had the courage to confront Sylia.
Sylia Stingray's quarters, Lower level, BioCyb building, Berlin -
3 am Friday June 30 2036 AD
Sylia dreams:
She's stalking through the GENOM tower. It looks as though a war has
been fought within the archology. The walls are cracked open from explosions
and weaponfire. Smoke fills the corridor from numerous small fires and is
filtered by her hardsuit. Underfoot are bodies, human and boomer. Some of
the former wear security uniforms, others were just researchers, salarymen
and women and other civilians. She doesn't slow her pace. Ahead lie three
bodies she recognises. The mortal remains of the human Knight Sabers. Priss
has been almost cut in half by machinegun fire. Nene is identifiable only by
hair and size, she doesn't have a face. There's a coin sized hole through
the back of her skull where the bullet entered and a much larger one one
where it exited. Linna's armour lies in pieces oozing blood. Sylia steps
over them without hesitation.
Ahead lie three more armourclad bodies. Knight Shadow 2 lacks a head.
She lies by the slumped Knight Shadow 3, his chest armour punched full of
holes. The largest suit blocks the coridor and she has to walk over it. The
helmet has been cracked open and her brother's dead eyes stare accusingly.
She walks on and does not look back.
She hears movement and begins to sprint. The corridor opens up onto the
summit of the GENOM Tower. It is filled with destroyed boomers, several of
them Largo class Superboomers. There are four other figures, only one moves.
The Nene and Linna beta units are down and obviously won't be getting up
again. Each is surrounded by a circle of enemies. Ahead of her the Priss
unit hangs limply in the grip of a black military exoarmour. The operator
releases her throat and she crashes limply to the ground. She makes no other
movement. The suit's access panels hum open and Daniel Dumas emerges. He
shows no surprise at her presence.
"Sylia it's time to end this foolishness. You've sacrificed everyone
you cared about and what has it achieved?" He doesn't wait for an answer
"Nothing. GENOM will rebuild with ease. You've destroyed one tower. Largo
destroyed four and that was a mere inconvenience." He pauses. "I'd like to
spare you if I can. Together there's no limit to what we can accomplish."
He reaches out to her. "Come, take my hand."
In one fluid motion she reaches him. The blade flicks out of the arm
sheath and buries itself in his heart. Impaled he hangs from her hardsuited
arm and dies. His face shows no surprise, merely pain and a certain
resignation. She pulls the blade free and he drops like a stone. She kicks
the body over so it lies face up and opens her visor so she can spit on the
corpse. From behind her comes sarcastic applause.
She whirls to see the figure seated behind her. Largo! As he stands
his face shifts to become Daniel's. "You didn't really think it would be
that easy, did you?" Her pulse gun fires and the Superboomer falls. There
is motion to the left and she turns to confront two Daniel Superboomers.
Both are smiling. "I have dozens of backups". The other nods, "...And death
shall have no dominion!" She drops both of them and hears motion from all
around. The Daniel boomers close in from all sides. They don't fight back
merely walk towards her. For every one she destroys another two seem to
appear. She expends her firepower and still they move towards her. Blades
extended she charges them, slashing them down like wheat before the scythe.
More of them take the fallen Daniels' places. Her arms are seized and she
feels her armour being torn away. In one voice the army of Daniels say, "My
name is Legion!" She is held immobile and the hardsuit is gone! The chill
night air touches her as her undersuit shreds. All their identical faces
smile and she is naked in the center of the crowd as the hands begin to
claw ...
Sylia snapped awake choking off a cry. She shook for several minutes
then felt her mind ice up again. Evidently there were limits to emotional
control. Repressed anxieties built up and expressed themselves through
dreams. Annoying. Fortunately there was no one present to witness her
weakness. Unfortunate that her subconscious was so literal. Still she
couldn't deny the problem the dream raised. Killing Daniel was the easy part.
Ensuring he stayed dead was the real problem. Especially as their best weapon
was surprise. Once they killed him that would be gone and Phoenix would be
a prime target for attack. It was undeniable that they'd run out of spare
bodies before he did.
It was (rage bubbles under the calm facade and is supressed) unfortunate
that she still couldn't develop a viable attack plan. Nene claimed that even
with her new cyberspace intrusion capabilities it would be impossible to
simultaneously override the entire laser satellite grid. Doing so would mean
fighting both USSD's overt and GENOM's covert control of it. Which would lead
an easily tracked trail. Besides which Nene was refusing to participate in a
worldwide global strike on GENOMs holdings. Admittedly civilian casualties
would be horrendous but compared to letting Daniel maintain control they were
acceptable. Unfortunately they were only acceptable to her. Her control over
them was fast disappearing. Priss was unstable, Linna could no longer be
relied upon to the same extent and Nene was showing signs of rebellion.
Mackie was worrying more and more about the consequences of attacking GENOM.
Sonya was a bad influence on him. Frank and Ilsa would follow Mackie's lead
rather than hers. She was the only one left she could rely on but she
couldn't do it alone. No matter how much she wished she could.
She'd never expected nightmares to become a problem. But enhanced
emotional control didn't seem to operate consistently during sleep. Perhaps
she wouldn't dream this time. She closed her eyes and was asleep almost
immediately. This time the dream didn't find her.
Timezones vary widely across the world. There is an eight hour
difference between onetime war allies Germany and Japan. While the majority
of Germans slept it was already approaching noon in Tokyo. As ever the city
was a hive of activity.
Normally the storm season doesn't strike Japan until August, though
September tends to be the worst month. This year a different kind of storm
would strike MegaTokyo. Had the residents been given a choice they'd have
opted for the usual typhoons.
MegaTokyo International Airport - 11 am Friday June 20 2036 AD
"Thank you and welcome to MegaTokyo!"
The tourist nodded and tried to thank her in bad gutter Japanese. The
custom agent winced. Why didn't people ever check on their language teachers'
qualifications? Still she'd heard a lot worse in her time. Besides the job
description required her not let them know her opinion of their language
skills. Yohko Kikuchi moved off. German national from her passport despite
being pure Japanese. Parents had moved overseas before her birth so she'd
grown up probably speaking German and English. Now making her first trip to
her ancestral homeland. Seemed the cover story had held. Not surprising.
Little Miss Cyberpunk had created it. She could probably have convinced the
customs database that "Yohko" was a relative of the Emperor's. If she'd been
crazy enough to ask Nene to do something so blantantly obvious. Perhaps she'd
overdone it with her intentionally bad pronounciation.
Little Miss Cyberpunk ... Hell that name fit her just as well these days.
She gazed out over the bustling city. Overshadowing everything was the
monolith known as the GENOM tower. No sign of Red Tuesday damage from here.
Probably it'd all been cleared by now. She sighed and removed her sunglasses.
Red tinted eyes glinted as the light struck them.
Well here she was. MegaTokyo. The city she'd been born in, lived in ...
and ultimately died in. Or at least someone a lot like her had. No matter,
she was the first and last of her kind. There would never be another like
her. Not now. The Yohko identity wasn't hers but it was as suitable as any
other name. This wasn't the face she'd been "born" with either. Still it
beat looking identical to a dead woman. Both name and face were as
appropriate as any other.
Yet deep inside she'd always answer to another name. Despite the fact
she had no right to it.
Which was why she whispered, "Look out Tinsel City! Priss is back in
town!"
And that was how it began.
End of prologue.
(
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geocities.com/tokyo/temple) (
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