Linna grinned as she settled down at the counter beside Priss.
She looked up at the waitress' name tag, "Hey, Excel, can I get a
burger, fries and shake?"
"No problem," the blonde said cheerfully, and scampered off.
"So how's your week been going?" Priss asked her with a little
smile.
"They already know," Linna admitted.
"What, all four of them?" Priss blinked, wondering if they
were actually talking about the Angelic Layer champions.
"They saw me fighting with an Angel," Linna explained to her,
"and realized that I was the same person in the green KS armor."
Priss shook her head, "After fighting with Hikaru, I'm really
not surprised."
A dark haired girl appeared, dropping off the two fully loaded
plates for Priss and Linna. Her face went an odd shade of green, then
she just toppled over. As both women looked at her in alarm, the girl
began to snake- crawl her way across the crowded club floor.
"What the hell?" Linna blinked.
"I thought you two would be used to her by now," the tall,
orange haired woman noted. Both ladies looked at her blankly so she
smiled wryly, "Your first time here?"
"Yeah, I'm Priss, this is my friend Linna," she introduced
them both before looking up at the woman curiously.
"Arisugawa Juri," the tall woman nodded, "welcome to the
Locket." As she walked away they heard her mutter softly, "Three
different versions of them?"
Linna blinked a few times, then looked over at Priss, "Did
that seem odd to you?"
"Yep," Priss sighed before digging in to her food.
Linna bit into her own burger and sighed happily, "That's
good." She looked over at Priss and asked, "So how's your Aunt?"
"Not like any Aunt I ever met," Priss chuckled, "can you
believe that she went to one of my concerts the other night?"
"Now I have to meet her," Linna laughed softly.
As Priss happily munched on a French fry she looked
thoughtful, "Yeah, maybe now is the right time. At least we don't have
to worry about boomer trouble, with all our suits in repair." At
Linna's questioning glance she explained sheepishly, "I told them a
bit about all of us, and now they want to meet you."
"Sylia did say you could have them over at the Silky Doll one
night," Linna said with a smile. She frowned slightly, "That reminds
me, we're supposed to go over there to talk about the upgrades later
today, right?"
"That's the plan," Priss nodded. She looked at Linna curiously
and asked, "You need a ride over there or something?"
"Oh, no," Linna said quite quickly, "not the way you ride that
motorbike! Once was enough." She shuddered, remembering a quite
harrowing ride she had shared with her one night. The speed was bad
enough, not to mention the way she drove!
They paid for their meals, carefully making their way through
the crowd of young women. They passed the bouncer who gave them a
casual wave, and Priss collected her 'bike from where it was leaning
directly under the neon sign, 'Arisugawa's Locket.'
Priss snickered softly, "Wimp."
"Am not," Linna protested even as Priss drove away. She got
into her sporty compact car and was off, merging into the traffic
crowded streets of Mega-Tokyo.
In another part of the city, the hotel district in fact, up in
one of the highest priced penthouse suites. In the master bedroom,
laying atop a very large bed, two figures are rising quite late in the
day. The one woman is older, a bit of gray in her hair, while the
woman resting contentedly in her arms is only in her late twenties, at
best.
Akiko gently pushed Nene's hair away from her pretty face,
looking down at the girl tenderly. 'How did I get myself into this
mess?' she thought to herself sadly, 'There's no way she would ever
want to stay with me.'
Nene's eyes gradually opened, and she smiled a slow, sexy
little smile. "Good morning," she said happily. She stretched up
suddenly, and gently stole a kiss from the startled Akiko's lips. "Do
you feel as wonderful as I do?" she asked.
"It's afternoon," Akiko smiled back and a bit of a flush
appeared on her cheeks, "and most definitely yes." She paused,
"Nene..."
"Yes?" Nene asked her quietly.
"I don't want this to be just a one night thing," Akiko said
softly, looking away from her shyly. 'I shouldn't even ask her,' she
thought, 'she'll just say...'
"Neither do I," Nene said firmly. She took Akiko's hands in
hers, staring into her eyes, "I care for you a great deal." A wry
little smile, "I might even love you, though I hope you don't mind
that I'm too chicken to say that right now."
Akiko puffed out a breath of relief, "I'm glad."
Nene hugged her, then drew back. She was about to say
something more when she got a good look at the clock. "Oh my god," she
squeaked out, "I'm SO late!" She looked around wildly, then began to
scramble around trying to find her clothes.
Akiko tried not to laugh, and picked up a pair of lacy
panties, "Looking for these?"
"Thanks," Nene grabbed at them then hopped about the room
getting them on. She picked up her pink bra, struggling with it a bit
before turning it all the way backward, closing the clip, and then
turning it back around.
"What are you late for?" Akiko asked, adding, "You don't work
today, do you?"
"No work," Nene agreed, "but I promised my friends I'd meet
them after lunch today." She grinned at Akiko, "but other than that,
my day's free."
"I'm glad," Akiko smiled. She hesitated, then offered, "If you
want, I could give you a ride."
"Thanks," Nene smiled at her happily, "we're meeting over at
the Silky Doll."
They both finished getting dressed in just a few minutes, then
headed downstairs to the parkade where Akiko picked up her sports car.
Then they slipped out of the building and off into traffic, talking
together softly.
"I'm sort of glad Nuku-Nuku and Emi went out early this
morning," Akiko chuckled, "otherwise they'd want to come along."
"That wouldn't be so bad," Nene laughed, "I do like the two of
them."
"So what do you want to do today?" Akiko asked her curiously.
Nene blushed faintly, "To be honest, more of what we did last
night."
"That, I can promise you," Akiko gave her a naughty smile.
They pulled up to the Silky Doll and Nene got out, going around to
Akiko's side of the car. "I'll be back here in an hour or so, to pick
you up?" she asked Nene.
"I'll be waiting," and Nene leaned into the open window to
give Akiko a farewell kiss.
"Well, isn't that interesting," Sylia said to Tony softly as
they watched the goings on from an upper floor window. "Do you think
Akiko and Nene are still just friends?" she asked archly.
"I wouldn't bet on it," Tony snickered. She turned away from
the window to walk over to Linna, Priss and Mackie and reported,
"Looks like Nene has arrived."
"About time," Priss grumbled.
Linna jabbed her delicately in the ribs, "Give the girl a
break, she went out with Akiko last night." Softly, "And I've heard
she didn't go home to sleep!"
Priss raised her eyebrow and asked, "Does that mean we have to
send Akiko a toaster for converting her?"
Sylia laughed softly, while everyone else stared at Priss
blankly. "Old joke," Sylia explained.
The door slid open, Nene staggered into the living room and
gasped out, "I'm sorry!" She felt everyone's gazes on her and blinked,
"What?"
"Did you and Akiko have a nice time last night?" Priss asked
with a rakish little smile.
Nene went beet red.
"Now, now, no teasing poor Nene," Sylia said in her
business-like way as she activated a monitor screen. "Let's get the
meeting done with," she added with a little smile, "so that she can
get back to her girlfriend."
"Gee, thanks," the blushing Nene muttered.
"The reason we called this meeting," Sylia continued, "was to
give you all an idea of what to expect from the hard suit upgrades."
She brought up a basic schematic of a generic 'suit and said, "Most of
the changes have been small, but will have a great overall effect on
the suits functions."
Tony stepped up on cue, "One of the major changes we made was
in the armor. We're using a new material that is both lighter and
stronger than the previous alloy."
"Which means the suits will be tougher," Mackie jumped in
enthusiastically, "and even stronger because they won't be carrying so
much weight along with them."
Linna looked up at the roof casually, "Now if we could just
get Nene to lose some weight."
"Hey!" Nene protested.
Sylia smiled slightly at that, then she looked fondly at her
lover, "With Tony's assistance we've also boosted the flight
capabilities of the suits substantially. Most of the other
improvements are based around simply upgrading the existing systems."
The meeting began to wind down a bit, and Priss walked over to
ask Sylia nervously, "Could I ask you a question?"
"Yes?" Sylia tipped her head to the side curiously.
"Were you being serious when you said I could bring Natsumi
and her friends over to the 'Doll?" Priss asked.
"Of course," Sylia smiled, "I've been wanting to meet them
myself!"
"Thanks," Priss smiled, "I was thinking we could hold another
party, I'd like them to meet everybody if we could."
There was a general chorus of agreement from the others, then
Nene spoke up, "Would it be all right if I brought Akiko with me?"
"Yeah," Priss looked at Nene closely, "getting serious about
her, are we?"
Nene blushed fiercely, "Yes."
Far away from the friends, the Genom tower reached up towards
the sky. In a office in the heart of the facility, a very irritable
Quincy received his employees report.
"There's still been no sign of the Steel Angel?" Quincy
demanded.
Madigan nodded, "Not since the first reported sighting, sir."
She tentatively asked, "Is capturing it really that important?"
Quincy scowled fiercely, "It's reported power levels are far
beyond any boomer design we've created, including the so called
'super-boomers.' If we could disassemble it, study the technology..."
"We can't afford to increase the patrols any more," Madigan
sighed, "B-ko and Nuku-Nuku have destroyed too many of our boomers
already."
Quincy grit his teeth, "Then we'll sell some more of my
stock!"
Madigan looked at her boss worriedly and cautioned him, "That
means you and your allies will have less than fifty percent of the
stock."
Quincy dismissed that, "No one person owns the stock, I've
checked."
Madigan didn't look very reassured, "Yes sir." Silently she
resolved, 'Hope you don't mind if I go check that out myself?'
Author's Note: Yes, that was an appearance of my x-over series
Arisugawa's Locket. For those that don't read that series, it's a bar
for anime lesbians run by Arisugawa Juri from Revolutionary Girl
Utena. Excel and Hyatt, the two waitresses, are from Excel Saga.
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