"Is there something I can do for you, officer Tsukino?" the
redhead asked, the two women standing there in the battered
administrator's office. The building was a shambles, damage throughout,
and etched into the floor was the name 'Senshi Sabers.' Kaori looked
irritable adding, "I certainly don't recall calling in the AD Police."
Usagi Tsukino looked over at her thoughtfully, her long blonde
hair flowing down her back in twin streams. "You know we're authorized
to look into any bio-boomer incidents," she said mildly, sliding down
her black sunglasses to look at the executive.
Kaori narrowed her eyes and visibly restrained herself. "You're
welcome to look around," she finally said, "though I suspect you'll get
a call from your superiors asking you to leave." With that she turned
and strode away, already talking on her cellphone.
"She's probably right you know," Naru commented, the brown
haired smaller officer looking around curiously. She smiled as she
looked up at Usagi, "Why do you so like to push your luck with the
Infinity Organization?"
Usagi smiled grimly, blue eyes flashing as she said, "You mean
beside the fact that they're hiding the real number of bio-boomer
rampages?"
"Other than that, yes," Naru said.
Usagi looked towards where Kaori had walked off, her gaze
thoughtful. "Something else stinks here," she finally said, "they're
hiding something, something bad."
Naru sighed, deciding not to press the issue. "So the Senshi
Sabers struck again last night," she said, looking around the facility.
"A manufacturing type bio-boomer went rogue," Usagi said grimly,
"killed a human worker and absorbed another person before the Senshi
arrived."
Naru winced visibly, "Did the person survive?"
Usagi shook her head, "They killed the bio-boomer without
hurting him directly, but his system had been too badly infiltrated by
the bio-boomer. He died on the way to hospital." Softly she added, "The
leader of the Senshi was the one that killed it."
"I don't envy her," Naru sighed.
Usagi nodded slightly. There were situations as AD Police where
people could be hurt, even killed by their actions, and she had to
accept that. Still, she didn't want to imagine facing those kind of
situations as some kind of lone wolf operative.
Naru saw Kaori striding towards them with a satisfied look on
her face even as Usagi's phone rang. "Want to bet that's our recall?"
Naru commented.
"I don't take fool' bets," Usagi said as she answered the phone.
She spoke softly with the Chief a few moments then slid the phone away.
"I take it you'll be leaving?" Kaori said with a smug little
smile on her face.
"For now," Usagi agreed. She slid her sunglasses back in place
as she continued, "But I'm going to be keeping an eye on you. no matter
what sort of strings you can pull." With that Usagi and Naru left the
gutted offices, leaving Kaori standing there in the rubble.
"Damn it," Kaori finally muttered to herself, walking out to
watch them leave in their AD Police squad car. She dialed her cellphone
once again, waiting a moment for it to pick up before saying, "Sir, we
may have as problem."
The Tower complex of the Infinity Organization gleamed in the
sun, looking like some monument to progress. The office was near the
very top of the structure, providing a view of much of the city of
Megatokyo.
Prof. Tomoe ignored the city, listening to Kaori and nodding
slightly. "Officer Tsukino," he murmured, "is an annoyance, at best. She
is regarded as a maverick by her fellows and can be dealt with if
needed." His voice sharpened, "Are you certain that the Senshi's arrival
at that facility was purely a coincidence?"
"The parts that the factory was creating for the Saturn project
shipped out weeks ago," Kaori said firmly, "they're no reason to believe
that the Senshi know anything."
Prof. Tomoe nodded, but he didn't look quite convinced.
"Sterilize the area," he instructed, "while the company deals with the
media."
"And what about the man who died?" Kaori asked. She paused,
"Should we use the standard industrial accident story?"
"See to it," and with that Prof. Tomoe disconnected.
The office was only lightly decorated, much like that of any
executive. A few images were up on the walls, a few statues were placed
around, but other than that the place was oddly bare. The desk, obsidian
black and polished smooth, carried only one personal decoration, a
photograph in a simple, old fashioned frame.
"Hotaru," Professor Tomoe sighed, picking up the frame sadly,
gazing at the image. The girl's hair was black as a raven's wing but
oddly tinged by a bit of purple, a shade similar to her dark eyes. She
had a pretty face, one slightly aged by pain, her skin unnaturally pale.
She was so delicate, so frail that it almost looked like she would
break.
Hotaru Tomoe had been born with an incurable illness, the damage
having been done to her very DNA. The accident that poisoned her mother
to death would kill Hotaru, too, unless he acted. A advanced biologist
before the illness he became a driven man, a leader in his field.
Gathering the best scientists in the world he sought a way to create an
artificial form for Hotaru, a body to replace the degrading form the
girl was born in. Painful, difficult treatments kept her alive while he
worked, but in the end it had all been in vain.
"Damn it," Tomoe muttered, putting the photo down. The
bio-boomer had debuted days before she finally died, the firs step to
her new form. Still, he had taken steps.
From a drawer in the desk he pulled out a clear vial filled with
blood, right beside it a high density data storage cube. On Hotaru's
deathbed he had taken those blood and tissue samples, then used surgical
probes to connect her brain to the computers. He mapped the data and
emotive responses, the lifetime's information and stored it, the sum
total of his daughter's self. She would live again, if only in an
artificial body.
Tomoe picked up the phone, dialing the number from memory.
"What's the status of the Saturn project?" he asked crisply.
"The body is fully grown," the technician who answered said
firmly, then somewhat more tentatively asked, "Are you certain that you
want to perform the data download? We can't be certain how the systems
will be effected."
"Good," Professor Tomoe said simply, ignoring the question.
It was only a few hours later that Tomoe stood in a private lab,
one that had been cleared of all other personnel. Powerful computers
lined one wall while a variety of bio-technological samples floated in
preservative fluid. Internal cybernetic structures of bio-boomers were
partially assembled or modified, changed for unknown purposes.
The woman lay on the table, cold and lifeless. Her skin was
healthy, the dark hair flowing around her face, eyes closed as if from
sleep. The flesh was full, the body developed like that of a teenager,
and if she was capable of modesty she might have covered herself.
Connections came from the scalp over to a modified computer, the data
module connected and ready.
Tomoe reached to a table nearby, picking up a crystalline module
that glowed slightly in the darkness. He brought his hand to her abdomen
and pressed, the crystal sinking into her skin and flesh. Hand buried he
felt around, the crystal sliding into place with a audible click. He
pulled his hand free, toweling away the greenish internal fluids as he
studied her, watching her chest begin to rise and fall with her
breathing.
"It's time," Tomoe finally said, activating the data module.
It took a second, no more, then Hotaru's form went rigid.
Beneath her eyelids her eyes jerked back and forth rapidly, information
streaming into the blank tissues of the artificially created brain. Then
as fast as it started it stopped, the girl's breaths coming faster as
she lay there almost unnaturally still. Suddenly, her eyes popped open!
"Hotaru?" Tomoe asked tentatively, gazing at his creation in
awe.
She sat up, Hotaru reaching up to feel the connections on her
head to the computers. "Father," she murmured, "you kept people from
knowing about my death, even made me your heir."
Tomoe blinked, "How...?"
"I'm still connected to the computers," Hotaru said as she
unplugged herself, "a data search was easy." She moved, gazing down at
her healthy form as she murmured, "Thank you."
"It's the least I can do," Tomoe blinked as she reached out to
put a hand on his cheek, "you're my beloved daughter."
Hotaru cupped his head in her hands, looking into his eyes. "I
hated you," she said simply, "you kept me alive in a diseased, dying
body for so long. Every day was filled with pain," her voice had dropped
to a whisper, "only to be relieved by death."
CRACK!
The body slid to the floor, the neck cleanly broken by a
strength that was clearly inhuman. Hotaru gazed at him silently a moment
then picked up his lab coat, sliding it around her shoulders as she
considered what she would do now.
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