Of Knights and Ghosts: A Bubblegum Crisis: Ghost in
the Shell crossover.
Part Four
"We have to break through to F level," Sylia
commanded, the silver armored Knight Saber leading the
charge down the elevator shaft. Twin wings extended
out from her back, thrusters flaring as they smoothly
descended down the shaft.
Linna leapt smoothly, using cutting blades mounted on
her green armor to slice through the doors to reveal
the hallway beyond. Waiting a moment she let Priss go
first, her blue armor's arm cannon ready to fire then
they followed her out onto the glossy floor. "Where is
their security?" Linna wondered aloud.
"Hopefully still on the far side with our
distraction," Nene said a bit crossly. "Are you really
looking forward to a fight?"
"Yes," Priss answered, sweeping the hall with her gun.
"Dumb question," Nene sighed.
"We're near our target," Sylia said to them firmly,
"let's move."
Together they moved down the hall, Linna and Priss
taking point. Nene stayed in the middle, the hacker
maintaining her link with Genom's security systems,
while Sylia took the rear, ready to deal with anyone
coming from behind.
Once they reached the next elevator Nene followed the
others down, running through the security protocols to
help make sure their entrance was going to be a
surprise. Using her knuckle-bomber Linna blasted the
doors off then Nene softly squeaked out, "Oh shit."
"Yes!" Priss cheered, taking in the assembled security
forces who looked almost as startled to see them
standing there as they were to see them.
Switching to internal radio communications Sylia
ordered, 'Break through, the labs we want are just
beyond this section."
Priss didn't need an order, her first shots blasting
guns out of their opponents hands even as she charged
forward. Linna followed her in, blades lashing out at
weapons even as she delivered precise blows to drop
her foes. Priss fought more wildly but both sought not
to hurt their enemies too badly, just to break
through.
"Looks like we get to fight, partner," Linna murmured
to Priss, a slight smile on her face as they battled
on, side by side.
"Just like always," Priss agreed.
The black haired officer ducked, scrambling forward
even as she slugged another Genom officer in the head.
Nene blinked, watching the woman hit another security
officer with a roundhouse as she wondered, 'What is
going on?'
Looking right at Sylia the woman cried, "Rook! Rook
rook rook, damn it!"
Just for a moment Sylia froze, taking in what the
woman said then she overrode the communications of all
the Knight Sabers. "Our original mission is canceled,"
she said as she grabbed the black haired woman, "this
just became an extraction operation."
"What?!" Priss and Linna blurted out together.
"We have to get this woman and what she's carrying out
of the tower," Sylia said coldly. Quietly she looked
at the woman, "And you and I are going to have a talk
later, Miss....?"
"Motoko," she answered crisply as they retreated back
towards the elevator. She dropped her voice, "I'm glad
I arranged that recognition phrase with you."
Sylia extended a blade to slap bullets out of the air,
moving with a deadly sort of grace. "Considering I
wasn't expecting you to be even here you're lucky you
weren't shot," she said. They reached the open doors,
"Up stairs or down?"
"Up," Motoko answered promptly, "they'll be expecting
us to go down." The slim officer leapt out into the
open shaft, grabbing at a ladder on the far side and
climbing up smoothly even as she asked, "Coming?"
Off in the distance they heard a roar, and on the air
there was the faintest trace of jet fuel. Genom
security officers sudden broke to run away, scrambling
wildly to get out of the area as fast as they possibly
could.
"Boomer," Nene murmured, then squealed in surprise as
she was bodily tossed into the shaft after Motoko.
"Follow her up to the roof," Sylia ordered as she
turned to look down the now empty hall, "Linna, Priss
and I will delay them then follow you both on up."
"We can handle a few boomers," Priss cut Nene's
protests off, "but I bet if that lady gets hurt or
killed we don't get paid."
Swearing under her breath Nene climbed up the shaft
even as the other three Knight Sabers turned to face
their foes. Two combat boomers, Doberman types, raced
down the corridor at them, artificial flesh burning
away to reveal bulky armor. The jaw slid downward,
laser canon moving forward, glowing as it readied to
fire.
Priss fired smoothly, one needle directly into the
first one's mouth, the explosion taking out most of
the head and in the process sending both of them
crashing into a wall. "Nice," Linna murmured, even as
two more came around a corner.
"We're just getting started," Sylia purred, blades at
the ready.
Priss smiled slightly, "You got a plan?"
"We kill the boomers then go join Nene," Sylia
answered, cutting down the first boomer that reached
her with a almost unearthly skill.
"Short, simple and to the point," Linna announced, "I
like it."
Nene winced as she heard more explosions coming from
down below, idly wondering how much property damage
her friends were doing, then shook her head as she
puffed her way to follow the other woman to the top.
'I think I'm gonna die,' she whimpered, 'climbing this
in a Hardsuit!' They reached the top of the shaft a
few minutes later, though to Nene they felt like
hours.
Motoko kicked out the panel with surprising strength
then slipped out, standing atop the Genom tower and
looking over the city of Megatokyo. She turned as Nene
squeezed her Hardsuit covered body through the whole
and smiled wryly, "You can tell your employer that I
consider the mission accomplished and I'll pay her in
a few days."
"Why do I have to tell her?" Nene blinked, standing up
and trying to brush off the long smears of grease and
oil on her suit.
Motoko silently pulled a small device out of her pack,
slipping the harness on smoothly. She pressed a switch
and there was a soft hiss as the eerily thin wings of
her glider pack deployed. Before Nene could react she
leapt, the breezes filling her wings and carrying her
up into the night sky.
Racing forward Nene activated her scanners then
gasped, Motoko shimmering faintly then simply
disappearing from sight as she activated some form of
cloak. "I should be able to scan through anything,"
she muttered, "how can she have better tech than the
best military issue?"
Before Nene had too much time to think about it the
top of the elevator shaft blew off, sending her
ducking for cover. Priss, Linna and Sylia swarmed out,
the battered and blackened Knight Sabers running
towards her even as the sound of weapon's fire grew
even closer. Running by her Priss bodily snatched Nene
up as they went right over the edge of the roof, leg
thrusters flaring to help slow their descent.
"I take it Motoko is already gone?" Sylia asked calmly
as they plummeted.
"Yes," Nene squealed, "she'll pay you in a few days."
Laser fire streamed by them as they zigged and zagged,
intentionally bouncing off of the side of the building
itself to help make their course even more erratic.
Priss tried to return fire as they fell, a few lucky
hits lighting up the darkness with boomer explosions
as she asked, "Think we'll be able to pull this off
again?"
They reached ground level with a thump, racing off at
high speed even as Linna commented, "They'll have to
upgrade security after this."
"Mason is arrogant enough he might think he
successfully drove us away," Sylia said, the group of
four racing along the road past the guard station they
had totaled getting in.
Around the bend and not that far from the Tower the
Silky Doll van waited, Mackie running the engine
nervously. "Is everyone all right?' the brown haired
young man asked worriedly, helping them in, slamming
the doors then taking off at a sedate pace.
"Yes," Nene pulled off her helm with a relieved sigh,
"why aren't you hurrying?!"
"Security is more likely to notice a hurrying vehicle
than one that's calmly obeying the traffic laws,"
Mackie pointed out calmly, though his knuckles were
white on the wheel.
"There were a couple of mistakes we'll discuss later,"
Sylia said as she efficiently began to strip off her
armor, "but overall good job."
"Praise from Sylia, who'd have thought?" Priss
muttered,, slumping after stowing away her suit, Linna
sitting beside her.
Linna hesitated, then let her hand come to rest on
Priss', squeezing gently. "Now comes the hard part,"
she said, "collecting payment."
Epilogue: Three days later.
The Knight Saber waited at the pre-arranged meeting
place, Sylia Stingray warily watching her
surroundings. The rooftop was in a bad part of town,
much of the buildings around it gone to rubble making
it much harder to arrange a ambush.
The door to the roof opened and Motoko emerged, this
time dressed in more casual street clothes. She was
bare handed, and the sleek dress she wore didn't
obviously have pockets. "Right on time," Sylia called,
"now where is the rest of our payment?"
Motoko walked over to Sylia, smiling slightly. "I have
it," she nodded, "if you're willing to take it in
trade." With that she snapped her fingers....
... and a gust of wind nearly knocked Sylia off her
feet even in the Hardsuit. From out of the clouds the
combat craft descended, massive rotors mounted in each
wing keeping it aloft, the alloy painted black to help
in night operations.
Sylia braced herself for an attack even as she
demanded, "What is this?" Looking it over she quickly
realized there wasn't a pilot, it had descended by
remote control.
"It started out as a military K-suit dropship," Motoko
said to her calmly, "before certain unofficial and
extra-governmental black projects got ahold of it.
It's seen a lot of action and was going to be retired
before I... diverted it to here." She gave Sylia a
smile, "Even used I think it covers the remainder of
what I owe?"
"I don't trust you," Sylia said flatly, "it's a
trick."
Motoko just shrugged, "I'm well aware that you'll take
it to a safe location and disassemble it. I couldn't
arm it for you, but I'm certain someone of your
resources can manage that." A smile, "Other than that,
I wish you well."
"Aren't you concerned what I'll do with this?' Sylia
asked as Motoko began to walk away, already plotting
how to get it out to Raven's garage.
"You'll use it to go after Genom," Motoko paused in
the doorway to the stairs, "and from what I've seen of
those double-dealing bastards I can only wish you good
hunting." And with that she was gone.
End
Notes: this started out as a idea on one of the
Bubblegum Crisis discussion threads, where we were
tossing around ideas about where Sylia Stingray got
the Knightwing aircraft that appears about halfway
through BGC. The idea of the 'wing being government
issue germinated in my head a bit, then it occurred to
me to tie it into Ghost in the Shell... I may or may
not do a sequel to this, we'll see.
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