March 22, 2028 AD.

     Linna sat in the lotus position, pretending it wasn't making her legs
hurt, though it didn't hurt her legs as much as it used to.  I picked Tai
Chi because I thought I wouldn't have to do anything this stupid, she
thought.  

      Nearby, Linna's master, a old japanese woman named Hiromi, sat
quietly, breathing in and out, her eyes closed.  Linna's eyes were closed
too, but she wasn't exactly...meditating.  To be precise, she was
alternating between thinking about her new boyfriend and wondering what
the point of all this was.  Linna was sixteen, a beauty pageant queen, and
very much in love.  I have better things to be doing than trying to
meditate on the meaning of a blade of grass, she thought.  A blade of
grass is just a bunch of atoms stuck together by tiny subatomic glue and
stuff.

       Nearby, her master frowned.  "Linna.  Stop whining."

       Linna started.  "But master, I didn't say anything."

       "Yes, but you were whining inside."  Hiromi turned and stared at
Linna, unblinking.  Linna shivered slightly.  Hiromi rarely showed
emotion, but over the years, Linna had gotten to where she could sense
Hiromi's mood, even with almost no clues.  

       "You're angry with me."

       "I did not say that."

       Linna's voice went up in volume slightly.  "But I can tell."

       Hiromi smiled faintly.  "Perhaps there is hope for you yet, little
one.  Even to understand one other person can be a great deed.   So, tell
me, what is a blade of grass?"

       "A blade of grass is just an illusion like everything else."
There, that sounds wise, Linna thought.

      "I'm not asking you to tell me what someone in a Kung Fu movie might
say.  WHAT is a blade of grass?"

      "Uh, green?"  Linna really hated all the mystical stuff that her
master tried to teach her.  Tai Chi was fun, and years of practice had
given her a lot more self-confidence.  She was proud of her skills.  No
one pushed her around anymore, or her friends, because everyone knew she
could take any three of them at once.  Unfortunately, the upper level
stuff all seemed to require a bunch of goofy exercises that never worked.
Linna couldn't figure out what she was doing wrong.  I'm just not cut out
for this, she thought.  

       Hiromi sighed.  "At least you are not blind; we know that now."  

      Linna sighed.  "I can't think about grass when I've got a hot date
with Taiki tonight!"

       Hiromi smiled.  "All right, then meditate on Taiki for twenty
minutes and tell me what he is."

       Linna blinked.  "Uh, hai, sensei."  She closed her eyes and thought
about Taiki.  He was tall and handsome, with short brown hair and dreamy
green eyes.  He was the captain of the soccer team and as athletic as her.
She fixed his image in her mind, then began thinking about him.  How he
smelled, what he looked like, his soft voice, how he looked at Lisa
sometimes.  She paused.  She'd never really noticed that before, but he
did kinda look lustfully at Lisa sometimes.  Linna dismissed the thought.
I'm just imagining things.  She tried to focus, but now the idea that he
might be cheating on her began to haunt her mind.  

      She sighed.

      Hiromi turned to her.  "You just aren't satisfied with anything, are
you?"

      "I just..."

      "All things are transitory.  You may believe in your heart that the
love you feel will last forever, but it likely will not.  All things pass 
in time.  That is the first lesson."   

      "Hey, we're solid!  We'll last!"
  
      Hiromi simply smiled.  A week later, Taiki dumped Linna for Lisa.

******************************************************************************

Chapter 5:  The War begins.

******************************************************************************

     Linna sat quietly on a chair and meditated while Macky and Celia ran
about gabbling about computer stuff and fretting over why Nene and Priss
hadn't called them yet.  Linna had never been good at meditating.  A lot
of this came from the fact that she tended to have insights she didn't
want when she did succeed, but she kept trying.  It did bring her peace as
well, sometimes.  It was just another way that she hadn't been able to
live up to her potential, as her master usually reminded her when
irritated.  Linna tried one of the exercises her master had taught her.

     You must learn to see through the illusion of reality, her master had
said.  Pick something, and focus on it until you can see that it is but
illusion.  Pluck away all of its qualities, one by one, until it
dissolves.  Then you will see through it to the truth behind it.  It all
sounded like a bunch of mystic crap to Linna, but it did work...all the
techniques worked when Linna could actually SUCCEED in focusing enough to
do them.  Usually, Linna didn't even bother.

     Linna chose Priss' hardsuit for the exercise.  She stared at it,
imaging first that the color dissolved away, until it was a flat shining
metal shape.  Then she imagined the metal losing its opaqueness, so that
it slowly became transparent.  She could imagine Priss inside it.  She saw
Priss with her usual devil may care smile on her face, dressed in the
usual KS jumpsuit worn inside her hardsuit.  

     In her mind, she reached out and the jumpsuit faded to gray, then
dissolved away.  Priss hung in the air before her, naked as the day she
was born.  Linna tried to focus, locking out thoughts like how Leon
probably wished he could be seeing this.  This was the hardest part.  To
get below the skin without just thinking about what was literally
there...guts, blood, tissue...but what was truly behind the body...what
they pointed to.  Their true self behind the masks of illusion they
used to protect themselves.

      Dimly, Linna was aware that Celia was trying to say something to
her, but she locked Celia out of her mind.  She could feel it.  She was
about to truly see something.  Her master would be proud, she hoped.  The
image of Priss in her mind softened a bit.  Her face lost its harshness,
her body its defensiveness.  She was truly beautiful, Linna realized, when
she wasn't hiding behind her rage.  It was a part of her, a fire burning
inside her.  Sometimes she was consumed by it, but there was more to her
than fire.  Light rushed across the image of Priss in Linna's mind, the
light of her courage, her hope, her desire for justice that so often
manifested only in the desire for revenge.  She saw the child that Priss
had been and the woman she might one day be.  For the first time in her
life, Linna truly knew awe.  

      For a moment, she felt lowly and ashamed in her presence, forgetting
entirely that Priss wasn't even there.  For a moment, Linna achieved all
her master had strove for years to teach her.  She truly saw the world as
it was.  It couldn't last.  If she had been alone, she would have seen
more things.  However, she did suddenly sense one last thing...

      However, she lost her trance when Celia shook her.  "Linna?  Hello?"

      Linna blinked and felt horribly dissappointed.  "Priss..."    

      "What about Priss?"

      "I've got this feeling like she's in danger..."

      Macky frowned.  "Maybe that's why she's not answering her pager."

******************************************************************************

     Nene had left the table to answer her pager.  Ryu looked at his
step-mother hopefully.  "So what do you think of Nene, mother?"

     Aeka smiled.  "She seems like a very nice girl."  

     Ryoko said, "Never thought a child of mine would marry a cop."

     Tenchi laughed.  "I never thought a child of mine would have spikey
hair either."

     Youshou said, "She comes from a noble line.  I owed them my life."
He paused.  "I couldn't save them when their time came, except for only
one..."

     Manami blinked.  "I haven't heard this story."

     "It is a long story.  Suffice it to say that centuries ago, Mikhail
Romanov saved me from being burnt at the stake as a witch.  Since then I
have done my best to aid them in their times of greatest need.  I was only
able to save one of them during the revolution.  Nene is descended from
Anastasia Romanova, the youngest daughter of the Czar."  He turned to Ryu.
"Do you trust her?  Enough to let her into all our secrets?"

      Ryu paused.  "We have a lot, don't we?"

      Ryoko said, "I think she can handle it."

      Manami said, "Grandfather Azusa will pitch a fit."

      Ryoko shrugged.  "That's his natural state.  She's royalty.  What
can he say to that?"

      "Many things,"  Aeka said.  "What do you think she'll do if she
learns you aren't human, Ryu?"

      "Hey, I'm PART human!"  Ryu said.  And part Juraiian, and part
uh...part Washuu-obaachan's species...what is she, anyway?

      Ryoko smiled.  "Hey, it didn't bother Tenchi at all to learn I
wasn't human."

      Aeka wondered briefly when Ryoko had gone and had her memories
edited.  "Yes, but Tenchi was part alien himself."

      Tenchi frowned slightly, "Please don't talk of me in the past tense
as if I wasn't here."

      Manami said, "She might not believe you're an alien if you do tell
her."

      Ryu grinned and levitated in his seat.  "I think I can PERSUADE
her."

      Tenchi laughed.  "Ryoko and Aeka didn't exactly have any trouble
persuading me, either."

      Ryu turned to his father, hopefully.  "So what do you think of her,
Dad?"

      "I think she has secrets too."

      Youshou nodded.  Ryu blinked.  "I..secrets?  What kind of secrets?"

      Ryoko nodded.  "I got that feeling too, but it isn't necessarily
something bad."

      Ryu frowned.  "I..uh..."

      Tenchi smiled.  "You have my blessing, son, but think of the
consequences carefully before you decide."

      Ryu nodded.  This would take some thought, not always his
strongpoint.  

**************************************************************************

      Nene said into the phone, "What is it, Celia?  I'm with Ryu and his
parents right now."

      Celia frowned.  "Why didn't you answer your pager sooner?"

      "I kept getting 'All Circuits are busy' for the last twenty minutes.
I've been TRYING."  Maybe some phone lines went down, Nene thought.

     Nene's pager started beeping again.  

     Celia sighed.  "Get on over here as soon as you can.  We have to make
plans. Someone tried to have me killed, I think."

     "As soon as I take care of this second call, I'm on the way."

     She hung up and dialed the second number, which she recognized as one
of the phones at the ADPolice communications department.  "Hello?"

     "Nene.  You live over in Hanno Apartments, right?"  Andrea asked.

     "Yes.  Why?"

     "Bad news.  We're getting reports of an angry boomer taking your
neighborhood apart."

     Nene blinked.  "WHAT?"

     "You're not at home, right?"

     "No, I'm out with Ryu and his parents...His father is married to TWO
women!  I could hardly believe it."

     For a moment, there was silence on the other end of the line.  "At
the same time?"

     Nene nodded, then realized Andrea couldn't HEAR her nodding.  "Yeah.
I've got to run...my poor apartment."

     Andrea said, "Whoah, don't go anywhere NEAR your apartment. I'll page
you when the Sabres...uh, WE stop the boomer."

     They both laughed.

***************************************************************************

     Priss could see Leon's apartment building ahead.  I can't BELIEVE I'm
doing this, she thought.  Whatever exactly I am doing.  She saw a little
park next to the apartment building.  A young couple were sitting in the
swing set there, holding hands.  It was so sweetly romantic that Priss had
to resist the compulsion to gag.  They both looked to be in their mid
twenties.  The man had short, neat black hair and was nicely dressed in
slacks and a blue button-up shirt.  The woman wore a nice blue sundress
that came down to her knees.  She caught Priss's attention, for her hair
was...unique in Priss' experience.  Her blonde hair wouldn't have been so
unusual, except it was bound up in two buns on her head, one on each side,
with a huge pony-tail trailing from each one.  Priss slowed down her
motorcycle and stared.  She was getting an odd tingly sensation, and it
was making her nervous.  

      Not as nervous as the explosion off in the distance.  Plus, now she
was getting this weird vibration in her leg.  She parked her cycle at the
edge of the park and listened, as well as checking her leg.  She found her
pager, which had somehow gotten set on vibration mode instead of making a
noise.  She sighed.  Celia's probably telling me about oncoming boomers...
She heard another closer explosion.  The man and woman got up from the
swing set and stared off towards the explosions.  "Is nowhere in this city
safe?"  the man said, frowning.

     Priss turned to them.  "Not as long as Mega-Tokyo grovels at Genom's
feet."  She tried to turn to go, but found herself staring into the
woman's eyes.  She had the most compassionate face that Priss had ever
seen.

     "You've lost people you cared about because of them."  It was a
statement, not a question.  "And now you want revenge."  She stepped a
little closer to Priss.  "If you hold on to your anger, it will consume
you."

     The man frowned slightly, for no apparent reason, but said nothing.
Priss frowned.  Who the hell IS this?  For a moment, Priss felt like she
had seen this woman somewhere.  

     The woman stared at Priss.  How did I know that, she wondered.  I
feel like I know her...but why?  

     Priss backed up slightly, almost afraid, but not sure why.  "I have
to go answer this page...umm...nice meeting you."  She wheeled her bike
over to the apartment garage.  I'll use the payphone by the front door.

     Back in the park, the man said to the woman, "She looked dangerous,
dear."

     "So does a guard dog, but it's only dangerous to those who deserve to
be threatened...I don't think she was going to try anything."  I hope, she
thought.  

     "We'd best go inside if there's boomers out there."

     The woman nodded and they headed back indoors.

**************************************************************************

     Macky said, "Boomer attack, sis."

     Celia frowned.  "Great.  Page Nene and Priss AGAIN."

     The phone rang.  Celia got it.  

     Priss said, "Sorry, Celia.  My pager got set to vibration mode.  I
think there's boomers around here too."

     Celia said, "Right.  We're on the way.  Assuming Nene ever shows up."

     "To the batcave?"  Macky asked.

     Celia said to Priss, "Wait for us.  We're coming.  Where exactly are
you?"

     Priss said, "Close to where Nene lives.  53rd Street and Yama Road."

     "We're on the way."  She turned to Macky.  "The Batcave?"

     Linna laughed.  "So where is Priss?"

     "Near where the boomer attack is happening, over on 53rd and Yama."

     Linna frowned.  I was right.

****************************************************************************

     Nene came out and bowed to everyone.  "I have to go. There's a boomer
attack near my apartment and..."

     Tenchi glanced over at Ryoko, who nodded.  "Ahh, your bosses calling
you?"

     "Well, I'm not on duty, but it IS my home and..."

     Ryu got up.  "I'll drive you wherever you need to go, Nene."

     "I'll be fine.  A friend is coming to pick me up."  Nene bowed again.
"It was very nice to meet all of you!  How long will you be in town?"

     "A few weeks at least, so I'm sure we'll see you again."

     Ryoko said, "Do you work tomorrow, Nene-chan?  I'd like to talk to
you."

     "I have tomorrow off.  How about in the afternoon?"

    "That would be great."

     Nene bowed again, then went over and hugged Ryu.

     Ryoko said, "What, no goodbye kiss?  I'm dissappointed."

     Tenchi laughed faintly, while Aeka turned to Ryoko.  "It's not polite
to kiss in public."

     "Whoever said I was polite?"  Ryoko said, grabbing Aeka and kissing
her.  Aeka almost fainted, while Ryoko laughed.

     Ryu laughed faintly and kissed Nene.  "I'll walk you out."

     They got up and left together, though Nene stared back at Ryoko as
they left.  Aeka blushed tremendously and was silent.

     Ryoko smiled.  "I'm off.  Make sure Ryu doesn't do anything crazier
than I would before you see me again."

     "In other words, let him do whatever he wants?"  Manami asked.

     Ryoko laughed.  "That's just about right."  She vanished.

**************************************************************************

     Priss hung up the phone and headed for the door.  Suddenly, a hand
touched her shoulder.  "Hi there!"

     Priss spun around.  "Oh, it's you, Leon."

     Leon smiled.  "What brings you to my neck of the woods?"

     "I was going to come kick your ass for fun, but I just got a call, so
I have to go."

     Leon nodded.  "There's a boomer attack in the area." He sighed.  "Are
you SURE you don't want to join the ADPolice so I won't have to work with
Mihoshi anymore?"

     Priss started heading outside.  "Not even if you get down and beg."

     Leon dropped to his knees and mock-grovelled.  "PLEEEEAAASSE?"

     Priss laughed.  "Save it for your boss, Leon."  She got onto her
bike.  An apartment building two blocks away blew up.  

     "I don't think it's gonna be safe to go into this, Priss,"  Leon
said.  He didn't expect her to listen. He wasn't even entirely serious.
He was used to her going into danger by now, but he still had to try.

     "Save the white knight routine for the populace.  See ya later!"

     "Are we still going dancing next Friday?"

     "Sounds like a plan to me!"  Priss roared off away from the
explosions, then starts circling the area, looking for the Silky Doll
truck.  Meanwhile, Leon waited for either the approaching boomer or
Mihoshi to find him first.  He was hoping it would be the boomer.

***************************************************************************

      Nene suited up while Linna sat idly and Celia played with the
computer.  "Sorry for the trouble.  Ryu wanted to wait with me for my
friends to pick me up."

      Celia nodded.  "Boomer activity is up, lately.  Something funny is
going on.  And in residential neighborhoods, too."

      Linna said, "And there's this Queen of Swords character."

     "Whatever she is."  Nene said.  "Where's Priss?"

     "In the thick of things, again."

     "Didn't this happen last time?"

      Celia said, "Linna isn't drunk, this time.  After we deal with this,
we need to discuss the other matter."

      Nene nodded.

**************************************************************************

     Mihoshi roared up in her battered car, further battering it as she
lightly struck a fire hydrant.  Leon could see the Boomer busily blowing
up buildings one by one.  Mihoshi said, "They're sending billions of
people! They were right behind me, but they got caught at a light."

      Leon sighed, then heard the sirens.  "Let's hope it doesn't go after
my apartment building. I'd kinda like to keep my stuff."

     "Why don't coffee making boomers or something EASY to deal with ever
go on a rampage?"  Mihoshi asked.

     "Just our luck, I guess."

     At that moment, something opened fire on the boomers from a nearby
rooftop.  It was the Knight Sabres.  Mihoshi applauded.  "How do you get
to be one of them?"

     Leon sighed.  "Who knows."

     "Battlesuits are fun, but I always start itching when I wear them,"
Mihoshi observed.  

     Leon thought about Mihoshi in a battlesuit and was suddenly very glad
they weren't standard issue for his department.  "Yeah."

     Sabre-green leapt at the boomer, grabbing its legs and tossing it
down to the road level.  Sabre-white and Sabre-blue opened fire on the
Boomer, which started to stagger, then fired back.  They scattered.
Sabre-pink hung back and observed.  

     Mihoshi said, "Ano, isn't someone on the roof over there?"  She
pointed onto the roof of Leon's apartment building.  Leon looked up.  

     A woman in a kimono, holding a blue energy sword stood there.  "It's
the Queen of Swords."

     "Ano?  The what?"

     The Queen of Swords started to fly forward, then a green streak
grabbed her.  She vanished.  Leon blinked.  "What the..."

     Mihoshi said, "Neat!  Teleportation is cool!"

     The Sabres soon brought down the boomer, just before the ADPolice
arrived, late as usual.  Leon ran over to the nearest vehicle.  "Another
good practice run, eh?"

     The driver laughed.  "Just the way I like it."

     The radio crackled to life.  "Terrorist boomer attack at Twelve Oaks.
Six boomers on the loose.  Sakhalin Liberation Army claims responsibility,
etc, etc."

     Leon swore.  "A diversion.  DAMNIT."

     The Sabres took off at high speed.

     The driver said, "Looks like they just got the news, too."

     "Here we go again."

***********************************************************************

     Meylia started in surprise.  She stared at the odd woman who floated
in front of her.  She has powers like mine, Meylia thought.  Or is she a
boomer? 

     Ryoko said, "Well, not exactly what I EXPECTED to find.  But we've
been looking for you too.  You're Meylia Stingray, right?"

     Meylia said hesitantly, "Yes.  Who are you?"

     Ryoko smiled.  "I'm your...ah...er...niece-in-law.  I'm married to
Tenchi.  Funaho did tell you who Tenchi is, right?"

     Meylia nodded.  "Hai."

     "So why'd you run off and not tell anyone where you were going?"

     "I couldn't wait.  I had to get some revenge on the people who killed
my son."  Her voice was faint.  "He should have never created those damn
things."

     "Well, you need to come see everyone.  Your father is very eager to
see you."

     "Father..."  her voice was faint.

     "You had some kind of fight, right?"

     "I ran away from home because he didn't seem to care if I lived or
died."  She sighed.  "He's all I have left, now.  And my grandchildren,
but I don't know where they are."

     Ryoko moved forward and said, "Well, if blowing up a few boomers
would help put you in the mood for a family reunion..."

     Meylia laughed.  "No.  I should go see Father.  It's been decades.
It's been too long.  I don't want to be alone anymore."

     Ryoko nodded.  "Let's go."  She grabbed Meylia and teleported away.

*****************************************************************************

     When the Sabres and the ADPolice arrived at the scene of the second
boomer attack, the whole neighborhood was a nightmare.  Buildings were on
fire, people were fleeing everywhere, and some sort of really strange
battle was raging.  Anything that wasn't nailed down was flying into the
air and hurling itself at the boomers, who were pouring every inch of
firepower they had into one of the apartment buildings.  It looked like a
tornado was in the area, almost.  

     Celia said to Nene.  "Can you figure out what's flinging all those
cars and doors and other things around?"

     Nene said quietly, "Nothing that shows up on my sensors."

     Linna frowned.  Priss said, "Maybe there's a poltergeist who doesn't
like boomers.  Let's go kick some butt."

     Celia said, "Be careful.  All those flying objects are going to make
this VERY dangerous."

     They all nodded.  "Knight Sabres, GO!"

     The ADPolice, meanwhile, began forming up and opening fire on the
boomers.   Two of the boomers peeled off and attacked the ADPolice and
another two moved to deal with the Sabres.  

     Priss went after the one on the left, while Linna took on the one on
the right.  Nene began trying to jam all outward transmissions so the
boomers couldn't call for help and Celia headed for the building to try to
figure out what the Boomers were attacking.  

      To her surprise, what she found was that two old people were busily
holding off the boomers.  One of them was a woman in her mid-sixties, with
long gray hair, dressed in a suit-dress, who was busily blazing away at
the boomers with an automatic weapon, while the other was a man of about
the same age, who had an 'I am fiercely concentrating' look on his face,
but no weaponry.  As the boomers fired away at the two, the bullets all
simply stopped short of the pair and fell to the ground.  A few seconds
later, three people in their mid-twenties ran out from the rubble.  Two
were girls with long black hair, the other a boy with short brown hair.
All three had green eyes.  One of them stared up at Celia, watching her.
The other two turned and stared at one of the boomers, which began to fold
in half backwards.  

      Celia shuddered slightly.  What the HELL is going on here?  She
turned and went after the other boomer, which seemed almost relieved to be
dealing with a knight sabre instead of...whatever these people were.

      Outside, Priss and Linna discovered these boomers were tougher than
they expected.  Linna said, "These things look like old outdated 12-Bs,
but they're a damn sight faster and stronger!"  She leapt, grabbed one,
and tossed it into the ground.  It got back up and tried to blast her with
its mouth cannon, but she easily avoided the shot.  "Not very bright
though."  The other boomer got hit instead.  

     Priss laughed.  "You know any boomers that ARE bright?"  She fired at
her target, blasting it full of lead, but it kept coming.  

     Down the street, Leon and Mihoshi hid behind Mihoshi's car and
watched the fighting.  As a car flew up and struck the boomer that was in
the process of folding in half, Mihoshi said, "Telekinesis."

     Leon blinked.  "What, you mean all this stuff flying around?"

     Mihoshi nodded.  "Yeah.  Must be more than one.  Most telekinetics
aren't this strong."

     Leon said, "You SERIOUSLY think there's a bunch of psychics behind
this?"

     "Well, it could be ghosts..."

     Leon groaned.

     Lt. Shinohara and Lt. Takahito deployed their heavy weapons squads
and blazed away.  As was her wont, Lt. Shinohara went after one of the
boomers herself, mano a mano.  Meanwhile, the other boomer toasted about
half of Takahito's squad before someone got a lucky hit right into its
mouth cannon, which malfunctioned and blew its head off. 

     Back inside the building, Celia flipped onto the boomer's back and
stabbed down into its head with her electro-knife.  The boomer jolted a
few times and 'died'. Suddenly, all of the sensors on her hardsuit went
dead.  "Can anyone hear me?"  she said into her radio, but no one could
hear her. "I've lost my sensors.  There must be a problem with the
insulation in my knife."

     Two cars smacked into the folding over boomer near her, killing it.
Unfortunately, Celia's hardsuit now turned towards the group of people
near her and opened fire.

     Seconds later, she was flung across the street into an adjacent
building.  She felt the impact but couldn't tell what was going on, though
she suspected her suit had been shooting at something since she could feel
the recoil.  

     Priss said, "Celia, what the HELL are you doing?"

     Nene said, "There's some kind of weird electrical field in her
suit...I think the boomer did something to her before it died."

     Linna tossed her opponent into the air, where a combination of
ADPolice fire and two cars crashed into it, ripping it apart.  "Right.
You think I should try to subdue your suit, Celia?"

     There was no reply.  "I guess her radio is out,"  Nene said.

     Celia's suit opened fire on her friends.

     Mihoshi peeked up from behind the car again.  "Ano, why is the white
Sabre firing at the other ones?"

     Leon looked up.  "..."  Probably this is all your fault somehow, he
thought.  "It must be a fake."

     The green and the white sabre began to grapple.  It was rapidly clear
that the green one had the upper hand. 

      Meanwhile, Lt. Shinohara got flung into a building by the boomer she
was grappling with, and her squad began firing at it.  Mihoshi turned to
Leon again, "Ano, why are we here?"

     "It's going to be our job to find out what the hell is really going
on here once this is over."

     "So I shouldn't shoot at the boomer?"

     Leon shrugged.  "Do whatever you want."

     Mihoshi popped up, fired off a shot, and fell down.  The boomer
turned and charged towards her and Leon.  Leon groaned and fled.  The
boomer kept coming, with the ADPolice squads continuing to fire at it.
Mihoshi screamed and ran, following Leon.  Right as the boomer reached
Mihoshi's car, a stray shot hit the gas tank and her car exploded in
flames, catching the boomer in the explosion.  It staggered and fell down,
gradually burning to death.

      "WAAAAHHH!!!!!!"  Mihoshi shouted.  "My CAR!!!"

      Nearby, Priss finished off her opponent and came to Linna's aid.  
Nene circled around to try to see what Celia had encountered inside the
building.  She thought she saw people, but then there was a bright flash
of light and they were gone.

      Priss said, "Nene, see if you can get over here and overload Celia's
suit or something so we don't have to rip her apart to get her to stop."

      Nene flew over and did so, then they withdrew.  "I thought I saw
some people, but they released a flare or something and left."

     "We'll worry about that once we figure out what happened to Celia,"
Priss said.  

******************************************************************************

     Meylia and Ryoko appeared in the Masaki family's hotel room.  "Hey,
guess who I just found!"  Ryoko said.

     Everyone looked up from their conversation.  Youshou and Meylia
stared at each other for a long time without saying anything.  Finally,
Ryoko said, "Did everyone just die on me or what?"

     Meylia said quietly, "Father."

     Youshou smiled.  "I have not seen you for 65 years, my daughter."  He
paused.  "I am sorry for whatever I did that made you run away."

     She ran over to him and began to cry, laying her head on his
shoulder.  "I've lost everything...everything I cared about.  My husband.
My son.  My grandchildren.  I don't know where they are."

     Youshou quietly hugged his daughter.  Ryoko patted Meylia on the
shoulder.  "Don't worry.  We'll find them and avenge the death of your
husband and your son.  That's why we're here."

     "What are your grandchildren's names, great-aunt Meylia?"  Ryu asked.

     "Celia and Macky.  Celia and Macky Stingray."

     Ryu and Manami blinked in unison.  Ryu said, "Hey, they're friends of
Nene's!  In fact, we've all gotten drunk together before over at Linna's
place."

     Aeka looked at Manami who quickly said, "I wasn't there."  Aeka was
visibly relieved.

     Ryu said, "Lemme go call Linna and see if she has Celia's phone
number.  I'm sure she'll be eager to see you."

     No one was home to answer the phone.  "Well, we can keep trying. I
left a message on her answering machine."

     Tenchi said, "Quite a bit of luck that you've met her."

     Ryu nodded.  "Well, it might not even be the right person, but I
think your luck is looking up, great-aunt Meylia."

     Meylia paused and shifted out of her battle garb into a more normal
blue dress.  "I certainly hope so."

**************************************************************************

     Leon and Mihoshi combed through the wreckage of the apartment.  There
wasn't much left of what looked like the focus of the attack.  The place
barely looked lived in, except for a six pack of coke in the refrigerator
and some peanut butter, some shirts  and pants in the closet, a few
million ramen takeout boxes in the garbage can, and a now-destroyed stereo
with the remains of an old Ayukawa Madoka cd from the late 1990s, an even
older Steve Miller band cd, and a slightly less old SMAP cd.  "Waaah!
What a waste of good music!"  Mihoshi said.  "Gunning down helpless CDs.
Truly a tragedy."

      Leon continued counting the days to Daley's return in his head and
said, "Well, I'm going to guess that some guy was staying here, but it's
hard to be sure.  No corpses, no blood."

      "Maybe the boomers were working for some rival ramen vendor than the
one he was using,"  Mihoshi said, picking through the garbage.

      Leon wondered if Mihoshi had sent her brain to the cleaners.  "Maybe
the boomers just couldn't stand the music he was playing."

     "But he has such good taste in music!"

     Leon quietly banged his head against the wall.  

     "Ano, do you need some asprin for that?"

     Only Leon's machismo protected him from the need to cry.

**************************************************************************

     Celia was out of her now dissassembled hardsuit.  She quietly picked
away at components with Nene's help, while Priss and Linna sat and
half-watched, half-talked.  Macky was busy with some other stuff.  "Genom
really wanted whoever lived there DAMN dead,"  Priss said.

     "They had forcefields or something similar.  I'm not surprised,"
Celia said.

     "They WHAT?"

     "They had some kind of forcefield that was stopping the boomers from
shooting them to tiny bits.  What was moving all the cars and debris, I
can't even begin to imagine,"  Celia said, hooking up the suit's arm to a
computer.

      "I'm surprised the Queen of Swords didn't turn up either time,"
Linna said.  

      "We still don't know what she is, either,"  Priss said.  "Hey,
Nene-chan, so what were Manami and Ryu's folks like?"

      "They're going to be in town a while if you'd like to meet them."
Nene said.  "I could hardly believe it...TWO wives."

      "What?"  Linna said.

      Nene nodded.  "They're like salt and pepper.  I could hardly BELIEVE
it.  At least now I know why Ryu and Manami are so different.  They each
take after their respective mothers a lot."

      Priss laughed.  "So Manami's mom is a shy retrothrash singer?"

      Everyone laughed at that, even Celia a little.  "Oh, don't mention
that to Manami's mom...Apparently she would blow her top if she knew."

      "What does Ryu's mom think of it?"

      "If she knew, I think she'd want to join Manami's band."  

      Everyone laughed again.

****************************************************************************

      Deep in the depths of a Genom Research Facility, two figures toiled
in the Boomer Morgue.  There was a flash of light and a roll of thunder.
One of the figures cackled. "It's alive!  It's alive!"  The other figure
clonked the first one in the head with a spare boomer arm.

      "Calm down, will you!  We can't afford to attract attention."

      The first figure laughed.  "Don't worry, daughter.  They won't find
you such easy prey this time."  I didn't go to all the trouble of a
transtemporal tachyon scan to read your brain patterns from before your
death just to let you get killed again, she thought.  Although it doesn't
seem to have quite worked perfectly.  Perhaps hitting people in the head
was always part of her personality.  She sighed.  Too bad I can't reach
back thousands of years to...Well, if wishes were horses, beggars would
ride and all that.

      The second figure shuddered.  "Are you sure it worked?"

      "It worked for you, didn't it?"  If not perfectly, she thought.  Why
do I always have violent children?  

      The third figure, the one on the table, sat up.  "NOOO!!!!!!!!!"
She blinked.  "Hey, where am I?"

      "In the village,"  the first figure said.

      The second one promptly clonked her on the head again.

***************************************************************************

      Priss floated in a formless void, surrounded by a kaleidscope of
light and darkness, a seething sea of chaos.  She hated it instantly.  The
whole place was just wrong.  Priss didn't like chaos unless she was the
one making it.  Things kept appearing and vanishing in the corner of her
vision.  Gently mocking voices drifted through the void, just below the
threshold of sound where she might have understood them.  What's keeping
me from falling?  she wondered.  Then she fell.

      It is hard to tell you are falling when you can't see a real up or
down, but Priss felt herself moving, a high wind billowing around her.
The tank top she wore in bed kept trying to blow up and flap around her
face, and for a moment, she was embarrased, then frustration took over.  

      Finally, Priss managed to get her shirt to behave, then realized the
reason for this was that she wasn't falling anymore.  In fact, she was
standing on some kind of stone platform.  Gradually, as the chaos faded
away, she saw stone walls around her, and a open archway leading to a
garden.  Before her, a diamond floated in the air.  At least, she thought
it was a diamond.  It could just as well been glass cut to resemble a
diamond.  It was one of the largest diamonds she had ever seen if it was
one.  It shined with a bright white light, and she could almost hear
music, as if the light could be heard as well as seen.  The scent of
flowers in the air seemed to be coming from the light as well.  It felt
like it was calling her.  She stepped forward, experiencing a very rare
emotion for her, awe.  

       As she drew closer, she could make out a figure standing on the
other side of the gem.  She could feel warmth from the shining 'diamond',
soothing away her pains and aches from the battle of the day before.  As
she drew closer, the diamond became blurry inside the increasingly bright
light.  Its shape began to change.  She still couldn't see the woman on
the other side.  The woman had something on her forehead which also shone
with a blazing light.  

     The diamond finished its transformation, becoming a tiny diamond
sword.  Priss stopped near it hesitantly.  It terrified her and she didn't
know why, but at the same time, she felt it was hers, that she SHOULD take
it.  And who is this woman staring at me?  She looks so familiar.  She
could see the woman's deep blue eyes now, could make out the golden
crescent moon upon her brow.  Her hair was blonde and gathered into two
spheres on the top like...the woman I ran into by Leon's house the other
day...is this her? Priss wondered.  

     She stared at the sword.  It's so beautiful, she thought, but far too
small to be used as a weapon...She reached out her hand to take it,
fighting back her fear.

     "It is not the size of your weapon, but the size of your heart that
matters,"  the woman said.  "And the courage with which you wield it.  You
have much courage, Priscilla Samantha Asagiri.  It is your greatest
weapon." 

     Priss froze.  "How did you know my name?"

     "How could I not know my own daughter?  The crystal waits for you to
take it up and weild it in the cause of justice.  This is but a  dream,
but the crystal is real, is reality itself.  It waits for you in
subspace.  As do I."

     The light began to fade, the castle to dissolve away.  Priss
struggled to keep from crying and shouting and crumbling away at the same
time.  "But...my mother is DEAD!"

     "I never said I was alive, but I wait for you.  You must come and set
your sister free...Farewell, until we meet again."

     Priss tried to rush forward.  This had to be some kind of trick,
deception.  My mother is dead!  No...mommy, don't LEAVE ME!!!!!!!

     The world dissolved away into chaos, and Priss woke up in her bed,
hearing cats meowing outside her window.  She opened her window and tossed
an old beer can at them.  The two cats scampered away, dodging the can.
She frowned.  What an entirely screwed up dream.  

     She turned to go to bed, then realized all the aches and pains she
SHOULD have had from the previous night's battle were completely gone.
She wasn't able to sleep for the rest of the night.


****************************************************************************