July 4, 1995

      Captain Goto stared at the wreckage around the school.  Total
devastation.  The building was a burnt out wreck.  Several blocks around
the school were heavily devastated at best, leveled at worst.  He turned
to Lt. Taiko.  "They're claiming this was the result of an electrical
fire?"

       "Combined with some unauthorized experiments that one of the
chemistry teachers was apparently conducting.  The only known survivor of
the disaster is Professor Tomoe."

       Goto frowned.  "Wasn't he involved in some lab experiment a few
years back that resulted in the death of everyone except himself and his
daughter?"

      Taiko, a tall woman with long greenish-black hair, nodded.  "He's in
custody.  He seems to have snapped from the shock of it all.  Babbling
about demons and whatnot."

      "And he's the only witness?"

      "The only SURVIVOR.  We've got statements from some few people who
were in the general area and able to witness some of the events.  They
claim..."

      "Don't trail off dramatically like that.  They claim what?"  Goto
started to walk forward into the devastated area.  Something horrible had
happened here.  

      "They claim armies of demons and the Sailor Soldiers were duking it
out here, sir.  We also have reports of an exploding helicopter,
forcefields, and..."

       That day was only the beginning of a trip into a world far weirder
than he had ever imagined.

March 31, 1996

     "Still no ransom note?"  Captain Goto asked Lt. Karino.  Karino, a
tall, strong, amiable looking man with rumbled black hair replied, "Nope.
Not a whisper of a ransom note.  I'd think they'd eloped if three of them
weren't male, and just one female."

     Goto nodded.  "Well, to make matters worse, now the artifacts from
the dig site are missing."  

     "Out of the VAULT?"

     Goto nodded.  "This is going to be one of THOSE cases, I think."
More interference from above, he thought.  They don't REALLY want us to
solve this one.  Shinonome High School's not going to be happy...They were
counting on those artifacts to arouse more interest in their school.  Goto
frowned.  At least this isn't as bad as that Mugen Gakuen disaster.  That
was a nightmare.  

      Karino sighed.  "It'd be nice if just once we could actually DO our
job."

      This became yet another unsolved case for U division.  The
missing students and teacher reappeared a few days later and suddenly 
everyone was acting as if nothing had ever happened...The missing
artifacts reappeared and no one outside of U division seemed to
remember them having ever been gone.  Three years later, their superiors
bumped Captain Goto upstairs to command one of the units of SV2...They
thought he could do less damage there...They were wrong.

December 31, 2000 AD
      
      Chief Goto sat quietly in his office, listening to the radio.  Chief
Shinobu perched on a chair nearby.  "Well, I'm off to celebrate the new
year,"  Shinobu said.

      Goto looked up her, his face carefully blank.   "So where did you
get the weighted coin?"

      She laughed.  "It was YOUR coin."

      "Well, something usually happens on New Years.  We won't be bored at
least."

      "Maybe you'll get to play with another Griffin."


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

Chapter 9:  The Art of Conversation

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

     Linna sat, bored out of her skull, at the bar in 'Beers', one of her
favorite hang-outs.  Absolutely NOTHING was happening tonight.  There
wasn't even anything on TV.  She had tried calling Rachel and Ursula,
but they had run off somewhere.  The last three bars she had been in, like
this one, had all been showing the 'Nick Hatchett, Robot Fighter'
Anniversary special because it was the least boring thing on TV...and it
was a rerun.  Damn Nick Hatchett and his damn perky girlfriend, she
thought.  I wish I had my hardsuit so I could blow him away.

      She sighed.  I'm starting to sound like Priss, she thought.  She
looked around.  Everyone else, all four of them, looked as bored as her.
Maybe more so.  She looked over at the bartender.  "This city is DEAD
tonight!"

      He nodded.  "I like it that way.  Could use a little more business,
though."

      Linna got another beer, and chugged it.  I wish Andrea had been
home.  At least we could have been bored together.  The doors of the bar
opened, and a handsome tall man with curly blond hair walked in.  He was
hard to see with his olive skin in the dim light of the bar, but Linna
liked what she saw.  Then he walked over to her and things began to look
up...

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

     Priss roared through the streets, driving aimlessly.  Now what?, she
thought.  Hmmm.  Maybe I should go practice with this new energy
sword...The thought of carving up something appealed to her strongly.  She
turned and headed towards an abandoned building development she knew of.
There should be plenty of junk lying around I can carve up.  

     As she headed down highway 20, she spotted a rapidly approaching
cycle in her rearview mirror.  A blue bike was zooming foward.  It had two
people riding on it, a tall thin blond guy with long bangs and a shorter
woman with shoulder-length wavy green hair.  She sped up, but to her
surprise, the duo caught up with her.  The man, who she guessed was maybe
five or so years older than herself, gestured at her, then pulled ahead.

     Priss smiled.  A challenge, eh?  Let's show you what I've got.

     They raced down the mostly empty highway, passing what few cars got
in their way.  Both the guy and his cycle were damn good, Priss thought.
I don't want to use my boost for just this...damn fuel for it is
expensive.  

     They raced past the site where Priss had intended to stop, then
switched highways to circle around the north side of the city.  Finally,
the man made another gesture and headed for an exit.  Priss followed him
down to a parking lot of a Colonel Chicken by the exit.  The man smiled at
Priss.  "Damn, you're good.  You on the racing circuit?"

     Priss took off her helment.  "Nope.  I sing.  You're a pro racer?"  

     The man laughed.  "Yes.  Ten'ou Hikaru.  Dad was a racer too."  There
was an odd note in the man's voice, as if he was joking about something,
though he hadn't said anything funny.  "Cars and cycles, though I prefer
cycles."

     The woman smiled.  "I'm Ten'ou Miki.  Nice to meet you."  She turned
to the man and said with her musical voice, "I suppose you forgot that you
were taking me to my rehearsal?"

     The man blushed.  "..."

     "You act?"  Priss paused.  "Oh, I'm Priss.  Priss S. Asagiri.  Nice
to meet you."

     "I'm a violinist in the Tokyo Chamber Orchestra.  I also do
recordings.  Right now, I'm supposed to be at a rehearsal for our next
concert."

      Priss cocked her head and looked at Hikaru.  Something familiar
about this guy...She shook her head.  "Well, nice to meet you.  Next time
I won't go easy on you."

      The man laughed.  "Neither will I."  He put his helmet back on and
got on the cycle, as did the woman.  "Maybe I'll see you at the next race,
eh?"

     Priss smiled.  "Maybe you will."  She drove off, feeling much cheered
up.

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

     Professor Hiyama sighed.  Her husband's flight had been hijacked to
Afghanistan, so he was going to be a few days late coming home...this
happens all the time, she thought.  And he wonders why I won't go on these
trips with him during the school year...My students would never see me
again.  It gets lonely, sometimes, though.

     She looked around the house, a wonderland of ancient artifacts,
hand-carved furniture, but almost devoid of human life.  With Johnny and
Hikaru grown up and moved away, it seems so empty whenever Dear has to
go.  She put an old CD from the 2000s on, 'Baka Baka Baka' by a band named
DoCo.  The rather silly opening song soon lightened up the house.

     Settling into a reverie, she was startled when there was a knock on
the door.  She opened the door and found two old friends.  "Kyosuke-kun!
Madoka-san!"  She hugged them both tightly.  "Decided to come out of
hiding long enough to visit me?"  she teased.

      They stepped in and closed the door.  "We've found another one,
Hikaru-chan,"  Kyosuke said.

      "Another what?"

      They all went and sat down in the living room.  Hikaru turned down
the stereo.  

      "Remember Y?"

      Hikaru shuddered.  "There's MORE of those things?"  She remembered
it all too well.  She had spent fifty years trying to forget what that
thing had done to her, what it had made her do.  She had accepted what
came from that, the power she now had, but to remember being
posssessed...she could never forget it, but she frequently wished she
could.  

      "We think it's running Genom...or at least influencing it.  After
talking to someone you need to meet, we learned more about what that was."

     "What was it?"

     "It's from outer space like our ancestor was.  A long time ago,
someone had a serious feud with our ancestors and created a series of
'banes' to try and destroy them.  Some of those came to earth somehow.
That's why Y wanted to destroy all of the Kasugas."

      "How many of those things are there?"

      Madoka sighed.  "We don't know.  Could be only a few...could be
hundreds.  Apparently, the guy who created these things claimed he would
unleash them for centuries to come."

      Hikaru stood up.  "Genom...Are there enough of us to fight Genom?  A
few dozen Kasugas plus me against dozens, maybe hundreds of boomers...This
isn't going to be easy.  Unless we..."  She looked at Kyousuke.

      He shook his head.  "Time travel is too dangerous...We could make a
really huge mess and still not get what we want.  We can't risk it.
Almost every time I've time travelled, things simply ended up worse.  We
still don't know for sure who our target is..."

      Hikaru frowned.  "Get me close enough and I can tell.  I'll KNOW."
She paused.  "If we can find people we can trust, I could..."

      "Well, we do have some help..."  Kyosuke got up.  "Come with us.
There are some people you need to meet."  He paused.  "Thank you,
Hikaru-chan, for being willing to help."

      She smiled.  "Anything for you and Madoka-san.  You're my oldest and
dearest friends."  She reached out and took their hands.  "I take it we're
going to go the fast way, ne?"

      Kasuga laughed.  "Beam us up, Scotty."

      The trio vanished with an audible pop.

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

      Priss pulled into the parking space and parked her bike.  Time to
weasel out of Leon whatever he told his bosses about today's incident, she
thought.  

      Loud music greeted her when she reached Leon's floor.  People were
milling about in the hallway, in and out of various apartments.  Must be
a hall party, Priss thought.  She spotted Leon talking to an old man.
"Well, back in my day, the police all stomped around in giant robots and
smashed everything, but they got the job done."  The man continued
ranting, while Leon kept trying unsuccessfully to get away.  

      Priss smiled faintly.  She walked forward and grabbed Leon.  "There
you are!"  

      Leon smiled as he was dragged off.  "Thanks."

      "Don't mention it.  I hear you got kidnapped?"

      Leon sighed.  "Oy, what a mess.  My partner...was a plant.  So was
another ADPolice member.  Three, in fact.  One of them was working for
Genom...at least they'll get in trouble for this."

      Priss nodded.  "What, he admitted it?"

      "The boss of one of the agents will likely walk, but we busted
Fujitsu, at least, and he's singing like a bird.  If he stays alive to
trial, Genom's going to have to toss a few executives over the side to
stay afloat."  He lead Priss into one of the apartments and got beer for
both of them.  "I won't cry too hard at losing my partner, but...Andrea
was a good cop.  Finding out she was a spy...Now, I'm not sure who else
might be a spy as well."

      "Well, my band could use a roadie if you want to get out of the cop
business."  Priss tried to keep a straight face, but started laughing.  

      Leon laughed too.  "After this...I might take you up on it.
Apparently the Knight Sabres are all tangled up in this too."

      She nodded.  "Maybe they're hiring."  She laughed again.

      He sighed.  "I wish."  

      Priss looked at him.  "You sound really down."

      "I am really down.  This whole business depresses me.  At least
Daley will be back in action in two days."

      A woman's voice spoke from nearby.  "Your partner, right, Mr.
McNichol?"

      Priss turned and looked.  It was that blonde with the weird hairdo
she had met a while back.  

      Leon nodded.  "Please, call me Leon.  Yeah, Daley Wong is my
partner.  Oh, I suppose you two haven't met.  Priss, this is Usagi Chiba.
Usagi, this is Priscilla S. Asagiri."

      Usagi nodded.  "We've met, briefly."

      Priss nodded in unison with Usagi.  "I think I scared her husband."

      Usagi laughed.  "Mamo-chan is very protective. "  She looked at
Priss.  "You sing, right?"

      Priss nodded.  "Yeah.  How did you know?"

      "Leon talks about you a lot."  She smiled faintly as Leon and Priss
both blushed slightly.  "All of it good, of course."

      Priss looked over at Leon.  "And what exactly HAVE you been telling
her?"

      "How good looking his girlfriend is and..."

      "LEON!!!!!"  

      Leon was about to experience much pain.

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

      Noa climbed out of the labor.  Breaking in a new labor was a pain in
the butt, but Asuma was right, moving Alphonse would attract too much
attention.  Psychics..she shivered faintly.  Okay, I've had dealings with
supernatural people before, she thought, but....

                                   ***********

December 31, 2000 AD

      The labor carriers deployed at the edge of the park where the battle
was taking place.  Three labors were beating each other up in the park.
Preliminary reports had identified this as the usual holiday problem of
labor operators getting drunk and using their labors to clobber each
other.  Since none of the three labors had any sort of armnaments, this
would be fairly easy to settle with the Ingrams.  

      The park itself was Mugen Gakuen Memorial park.  After the tragic
destruction of Mugen Gakuen in 1995 in a combined fire and chemical
explosion, the wreckage had been cleared and bought by the city,
then converted into a rather nice park.  

      At first, things went fairly well.  One of the operators was sober
enough to stop with just a warning.  The other two continued to grapple
with each other.  Noa and Ohta moved in and grappled them, pulling them
apart.  They had almost subdued the two idiots when four more labors
charged into the park.  Noa sighed.  Great.  More drunken idiots who want
to join the fun.

      Asuma's voice broke in over the radio.  "Oh my god..."

      "What, what's wrong?"  Noa asked.

      "There's thirty more coming."

      "WHAT?"  Noa froze up for a moment.

      Asuma's voice sounded more fearful by the second.  "There's rioting
at the JSDF base.  We're getting a lot of confused reports.  And Juuban-ku
is on fire."

      "The whole district?"

      "They're calling out the Riot Police.  All sorts of crazy reports."

      Noa turned and saw several dozen labors heading for the park, a mere
fraction of the thousands in the city.  These were different.  No one was
operating them.  "This must be something like that HOS disaster...Has
Unit 1 been called out?"

      He paused, and radioed for more information.  He didn't like what he
heard.  "Unit 1 was called in and is now under attack from its own
labors."

      "WHAT?"

      "Military labors are out of control at the base...the chief says
we're getting out of here now!"

      Noa tossed aside the person she was grappling with and tried to run
for the carrier.  The controls refused to respond.  Alphonse twitched
about as if he was drunk.  Noa swore.  "Alphonse, what are you doing?"

      She struggled with the controls.  It was like trying to walk through
marshmellows.  They weren't responding.  In fact, it felt like something
else was trying to issue contrary commands.  Noa felt a growing sense of
unease.  No, I won't let something do this to my ALPHONSE!  She growled
and concentrated.  The resistance increased, then suddenly popped.
Alphonse took off at a run for the carrier...too late.  Four labors had
grabbed it and flipped it over.  

      Then she saw Ohta draw his gun and level it at the Unit 2 carrier.
"What the hell are you doing?"

      Ohta radioed back, almost crying.  "It's out of control! I can't
stop it!"

      Noa charged with Alphonse and tackled Unit 2.  The gun went flying.
Unit 2 clumsily tried to fight back, but she managed to grapple it from
behind and pin its arms.  "Get out, Ohta.  I don't know what's wrong or
how to fix it."

      Kumigami's voice cut in.  "She's right.  Get out."

      "But my labor!!!!!"

      "Will be your grave if you don't listen to her."

      Ohta tried to get out but the seatbelt wouldn't unfasten.  He
shouted in frustration.

      Noa looked around and saw a dozen labors closing in on her.  "Stop
screaming and hurry!"

      "I can't get the damn seatbelt off!"

      By the time Ohta got out and scrambled over onto Alphonse, it was
too late to run.  Noa was surrounded and one of them had Unit 2's gun.
She stared down the barrel and prepared to try and yank the now empty Unit
2 around to absorb the blow.  

      She didn't have to.  To her shock, a thin projectile struck the
barrel of the gun, which fell apart.  It looked remarkably like an
ordinary cut red rose.  

      The battlefield fell silent for a few seconds and everyone looked up
to see where that came from.  

      Fifteen figures out of urban myth stood upon one of the rooftops
overlooking the park.  Two men and thirteen women.  One of the men wore a
masquerade mask on his face and a matching tuxedo.  In his hands he held a
second rose and a long cane.  By his side stood the leader of this group,
a blond woman who had become known in urban legend as Sailor Moon, and her
companions, the Sailor Soldiers.  "Labors were created to serve humanity,
not to destroy it!  Using our very tools of construction as weapons of
destruction is an abomination!  I am the lovely sailor-suited warrior,
Sailor Moon!  I fight for love and justice, and in the name of the Moon, I
WILL PUNISH YOU!"  Those watching closely could see several of the Sailor
Soldiers mouthing the last two sentences in unison with Sailor Moon and
giggling a bit.  

      Noa stared.  My god, they're real, she thought.  As more labors
poured into the park, the men and women of SV2 became the last mortals to
witness the Sailor Soldiers in action for over thirty years...

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

     With effort, Noa willed the memory out of her mind.  She looked
around at her team.  Five teenagers and young adults as pilots.  A bunch
of middle aged psychics as their 'forwards', mostly their parents.  The
only other person with any actual training in this was Kasuga Akira, who
was acting as the forward for Unit 3.  He had in fact served in SV2 during
the 2010s and 2020s before it became the ADPolice.  Noa and Asuma went
over to him.  "What do you think?"

      "If they didn't have the Power, we'd be dead...As it is...they'll be
fine."  Kasuga Akira was tall with dark black hair cut short like his
father and his mother's deep green eyes.  He was a lot stronger than his
father had ever been, though he was now almost forty.  Noa shivered a bit
whenever she looked at him now.  I worked with a psychic for ten years and
never knew, she thought.

       "Is it reliable enough for us to count on it?"  Asuma asked.  "Is
there anything that can stop you from using it?"

       "Eventually, we get too tired from prolonged usage and need to eat.
As long as they don't lean too heavily on it..."

       Noa sighed.  "I can't believe we're doing this."

       A female voice cut in from nearby.  "You think YOU can't believe
this?"

      Akira, Noa, and Asuma turned around and saw two familiar figures.
One was a mountain of a man, still strong and huge, his build belying his
gray hair.  The other was a much shorter woman with gray hair only
marginally longer than her husband and a somewhat masculine appearance.
Noa ran over to them.  "Hiromi-kun!  Taeki-kun!"  It was Yamazaki Hiromi
and his wife Taeki.  They had been part of SV2 with Noa for three decades.  

       Hiromi blushed slightly.  "It's good to see you, Noa-chan."

       "We'll be joining you tomorrow.  We meant to get here earlier, but
Hiromi had to finish recording his last session for this season."  

       "Did they approve another season of Tales of the Past?" Noa hoped
so.  The last three years, Hiromi had been the nararrator for a children's
anime that recounted various traditional Japanese legends after a chance
encounter with an anime director he had greatly amused.  Since retiring
from the police, Hiromi hadn't had a lot to do and he had jumped at the
chance.  

       "Yes.  I'm very happy about it too."

       Taeki looked at the various labor pilots, who were milling about
moaning about being tired.  "This is going to be far too interesting."

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

     Linna made sure not to drink more since she had just met the guy.
"So what is your name, anyway?"

     "My name is...Robert.  Robert Bruce.  Shall we dance?"

     "Sure!  I know a good place!  Let's go!"

     "Is it close enough to walk?"

     "Yeah, come on!"

     They headed off to go dancing.  She watched him in the moonlight.  He
looks a lot like Mihoshi, she thought. Part of her mind wondered if he was
an alien too, but she dismissed the thought.  Alcohol is getting to me.  

     He smiled to himself. I need to get out like this more often. I'd
almost forgotten what this was like...

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

     The Party was winding down at Leon's building.  For the last hour, it
had just been her, Leon, and the Chibas in a room, rattling on about a
variety of crazy experiences they had all had, or at least were able to
imagine they'd had.  "So then I come home and the roof of the kitchen is
on fire and Usako is screaming about the water burning.  It turned out she
tossed a thing of cooking oil on the fire.  We nearly had burnt odangoes
for dinner,"  Mamoru said.  

      Priss laughed so hard she fell off the couch.  Even Usagi was
laughing.  "Remind me not to invite you to cook for us anytime soon..."

      Mamoru got up.  "We really need to be turning in.  Nice to meet you
properly, Miss Asagiri."

      "Call me Priss. I kill people who call me Miss."

      Usagi blearily hugged Priss.  "Okay, Priss."  Priss blinked.

      Usagi staggered out the door with her husband.  Leon said, "You
taking off too, Priss?"

      Priss thought for a moment.  "Leon, what would you do if you
suddenly found out that...that...you weren't what you thought you were?"

      Leon blinked, this being something he completely did NOT anticipate.
"Like...uh...you mean like maybe finding out that my parents had actually
adopted me or something?"

      "Yeah."

      Leon came back over from the door, closing it, and sat down on the
couch.  "Did you just find something like that out?"

      Priss twitched.  I shouldn't tell him, but I have to talk to someone
and he's the only normal person I know who isn't part of this...  Priss
hated feeling vulnerable. She hated it with a burning passion.  Exposing
herself in any form was difficult and risky.  If Leon took this wrong,
she'd just be making her own life more of a hell than it already was.  How
do I tell him that one of my best friends is an alien, another one is
dating an alien, and I was born 25,000 years ago?  I can hardly believe
any of it...I can't tell him everything, but...  She got out the sword
hilt.  "Doesn't look like much, eh?"

      Leon examined the carving.  "What is it?"

      "A sword hilt.  My sword hilt.  You see..."  She stood up.  "I..."
The words came more easily from her lips.  "Let me show you.  BURNING
HEART POWER!" 

      Leon fainted.

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


        Far away in the void, a being became aware.  If it had been even
remotely humanoid, it could have been said that it "sat up and took
notice".

        But that was not the case.  Its mind stirred to greater
activity.  Perhaps the one who has eluded me for so long has returned...I
must alert my servants, SHIVA thought.  Perhaps she will lead me to what
eluded me that winter day 34 years ago...I must have it and I will.  And I
must find that dreamwalker as well....

      X, Z.  I HAVE NEED OF YOUR SERVICES.

      They responded as they always did.

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

     It was a dark and stormy night.  Suddenly a shot rang out.  It being
Mega-Tokyo, no one noticed or cared.  A long ways away, Macky, Celia,
Aeka, Meylia, and Youshou were experiencing extreme frustration. Nene had
left with Tenchi, Ryu, Manami, Ryoko and Sasami earlier.   "Still 
nothing," Celia said quietly.

     Youshou shrugged.  "A tree does not grow from acorn to full flower in
a day.  It may take weeks to awaken your abilities, given the
circumstances."

      Meylia nodded.  "I never had a clue of any special abilities until I
was three times your age...If it wasn't for...Hmmm, there's an idea."

     Aeka said, "What?"

     "Maybe Funaho could help.  I think my abilities awakened because she
put some kind of trigger on them..."

     Youshou nodded.  "I hoped to save time, but I think it would be the
best measure."

     "Maybe Tsunami can help too,"  Aeka suggested.

     Macky said, "I think my brain will explode if I try to visualize one
more thing in my head.  That's all I have to say."  Especially since I
keep visualizing the wrong things, like Priss, Mackie thought.

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

     Leon woke up on the couch.  He heard movement nearby.  "That you,
Priss?"

     "Yeah.  Done playing sleeping beauty?"

     He sat up.  "I had the strangest..."  It wasn't a dream.  Priss was
standing before him, holding something that looked like a wooden
lightsaber, dressed in an outfit that evoked her stage garb, but wasn't
quite the same.

     "Getting fragile in your old age, eh?  At least you didn't nosebleed
all over the floor."  Priss laughed.  "Of all the things I thought you
might do..."

     Leon sighed.  Living this down would be too much fun.  "Did you kill
that haircut boomer the other day?"

     "Yep."  She waved her sword about.  "Most of my life has been
sucking, but I really like this sword.  It's almost worth all the
aggravation just to have it."

     "Just be careful, okay?  I only have one head.  I'd like to keep it.
So...how did this happen?"  He paused.  "Wait...Is the Queen of Swords
your mother or something?"

     Priss laughed.  "I almost wouldn't be surprised if she was.  You
see..."  She paused.  "Damn.  The more I think about this, the more
lunatic it sounds."

     He paused.  "Is Mihoshi really from outer space?"

     Priss blinked.  "How did you find that out?"

     Leon sighed.  "Tell me everything.  Trust me, it won't be any weirder
than the rest of my day."

     Leon was wrong of course, as he found out.

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

     Wasyuu puttered about her lab.  She always found it best to relax
from a hard day of work by going home to her lab and doing some REAL work.
She turned to her youngest daughter, "How's that search coming along?"

     Her youngest daughter had shoulder length brown hair and was dressed
in a nice white labcoat over a t-shirt and jeans.  She was seated at a
computer terminal, one of Wasyuu's specialty machines.  "Well, I've
located that power source.  It is indeed inside the subspace equivalent of
Genom Tower.  It appears to be a major ley line nexus connected to ten
lesser nexi in the city."

     Her slightly older sister was nearby, working with some odd equipment
that looked like something made by the child of MC Escher and HR Giger, if
one of them was actually female to make that possible.  She was shorter
than her younger sister, with short green hair.  She was dressed similarly
to her sister.  The machine made a sort of growling ping.  "We have
visitors, Wasyuu-obachan."

     "Don't call me obachan!  Just call me Wasyuu-chan!"

     "Yes, Wasyuu-obachan."

     Wasyuu banged her head against the keyboard and accidentally
destroyed two of her storage rooms.  Luckily, nothing sentient was in
them.  

     The doorbell rang.  "Shall I get it, oba...Wasyuu-chan?"  the
younger daughter asked.  

     "Sure."  She returned to typing away.  

     Her daughter teleported across the room to the door.  "Hello...oh,
hello sister Ryoko!"

     Ryoko blinked.  Sister Ryoko?  Who is this?  The others with her,
Tenchi, Manami, Ryu, Nene, and Sasami, blinked.  Sister?  "Uh...sister?
Do I know you?"

     "Wasyuu-obachan!  Ryoko has come to see us!"

     Wasyuu got up.  "Come on in!  I need some guineapigs for this
experiment anyway!"

     The mob came in.  Nene carefully followed Ryu's instructions, staying
right next to him and touching NOTHING.  That one girl looks familiar, she
thought.  

      Ryoko stormed over to Wasyuu, "Why is this person claiming to be my
sister?"

      Wasyuu shrugged.  "Because she is.  I decided to adopt these poor
waifs.  Their lives had been cut cruely short so I rebuilt them as my
first work project at my new job."

      The younger one walked over to Ryoko.  "Nice to meet you, sister.
My name is Sylvie, and this is Anri." She pointed to the other girl.

      Nene choked.  "SYLVIE?"  She didn't mean to shout it out, but it
happened anyway.  Nene couldn't believe it.  Sylvie was DEAD!  Dead!

      Sylvie turned around and her face brightened.  "Nene-chan?"

      Nene stumbled over her words.  "You blew up!  I saw you die...I..."

      Sylvie teleported over to Nene.  "I can hardly believe it myself."

      "Ahh, you've met?"  Wasyuu asked.

      Sylvie nodded.  "Hai."  She paused, then asked, "Is Priss...still
alive?"

      "Yeah!  She's going to be so happy, she'll probably throw Leon
through a window to celebrate,"  Nene said.  Nene could hardly believe it.
Sylvie ALIVE?  I saw Priss kill her, she thought.  Then again, she is a
boomer, so it's not quite the same as if I died, but still...I didn't
think a sexaroid could be revived like this.  

      Wasyuu walked over to Nene.  "So you're the one my grandson is going
to marry?"

      "Uh...something like that, yeah."  Nene wondered if they hadn't
invented dating in space yet.  Thoughts of Sylvie fled her mind in the
face of a woman that everyone had been trying to induce a healthy fear of
in her for the last few days.  It had worked rather well.

      Wasyuu got out an odd box with protuding rods and started scanning
Nene with it, making various hmmming and hawing noises.

      Ryoko teleported over.  "Don't try anything funny, Mom."

      Manami said, "Don't worry, Nene.  She usually tricks you into doing
something foolish so that it's your fault, instead of hers when she wants
to experiment on you."

      Wasyuu frowned.  "Oh ye of little faith, I was just taking some
readings for my records.  I always ask for permission before doing
anything permanent.  So what do you do for a living, Nene-chan?"

      "I'm a cop and one of the Knight Sabres."

      "She also is very good with computers,"  Ryu said.  

      "Really?  Let's see your stuff."  Wasyuu conjured up a terminal for
Nene.  "Hack into something for me."

      Nene smiled.  "Let's see...maybe I'll divert some of Quincy's bank
account to the Boomer Liberation Army today."  She sat down and went to
work.  Ryu had never seen Nene hacking before.  She looked disturbingly
like Wasyuu in the middle of an experiment...

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

     Hot Legs was nearby.  It was a kind of rough place, but one of the
best dance places Linna knew of.  After an hour or so of dancing, she was
starting to get tired, so she and Robert sat down.  "Isn't this a lot like
what you do all day?"  he asked.

     She laughed.  "You're cuter than most of my customers.  On the other
hand, I bet this is nothing like what you do all day."

     "You'd be surprised.  There's about as much shouting and rushing
around in commodities exchange, but the music isn't half as good."  They
bothed laughed at that.  

     "I've thought about going into that, but I never went to college.
I'm not too old, but the idea of more school repulses me."  She sighed.
"I can't do this forever, though."

      He nodded.  "You're not that old, but you're right, there isn't much
of a market for old aerobics instructors.  If you save up now, though, you
should be able to afford a good school.  You make pretty good money, don't
you?"

      She laughed.  "You'd be amazed."

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

     Leon sat quietly, trying to get the entire story straight in his
mind.  If he hadn't seen Priss transform, he would have thought this was
all a joke.  "Why do I have this feeling that Daley is going to come back
and tell me he's marrying the Chief or something..."

     Priss laughed.  "Or that he married Mihoshi?"

     Leon sighed.  "She was a spy and I was too stupid to figure it out.
I can't BELIEVE it.  I feel like a complete idiot."

     "You are."  Priss said, then regretted having let old instincts kick
in.  "I mean..."

     "No, I am an idiot.  What kind of detective am I?  Maybe I will quit
this job and be one of your roadies...I could handle that, maybe."  Leon
sat on the couch, staring at the floor.  "My boss exploded when I tried to
report on this last case to him...The higherups are having a total fit of
paranoia.  Security checks for everyone.  VERY thorough checks."

      I'd better warn Nene, Priss thought.  "I have a job opening for a
helpless sidekick for my superhero business.  I guess you'd qualify."  She
laughed, hoping he would too.

      He did.  "Better watch out for fanboys, Magical Princess
Priscilla."

      She turned off her sword and hung it from her belt, then sat down.
"So you believe me?"

      "I trust you, Priss.  Besides, why would you tell me such a crazy
story if it wasn't true?  And I'm pretty sure I didn't hallucinate what I 
saw."

      Priss yawned.  "I'd better head home."  She transformed back to
normal.  "This was fun, but I don't want to fall asleep on my cycle."

      Leon got the door for her.  "Thanks for talking to me."

      "You too.  Lemme know if you need a job."

      He laughed.  "I'll call you first."

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

      Nene finished typing.  Wasyuu and her daughters were arguing about
something in the background as she came out of her trance, while Ryu was
standing nearby, watching.  Tenchi and Manami stood nearby, talking
quietly, making sure they didn't touch anything.  "What if they realize
what you did, Mom?", Ryoko said.

      Wasyuu laughed.  "Oooh, they might fire me.  I'm so scared."  She
faked being terrified.  Anri giggled quietly, while Sylvie laughed loudly.

      Anri said, "Don't worry, oneechan.  Mom's a genius."

      "Too much for her own good.  You haven't been trying to survive
being related to her for thousands of years like me."  Ryoko frowned.  I'd
better get Nene out of her soon before Wasyuu tries anything...

      Nene said, "I'm done."

      "So what did you do?"  Wasyuu asked.

      "Swapped Quincy's salary with that of one of the janitors, using one
of the vice presidents' account so he will be blamed."  Nene said.  

      Wasyuu laughed.  "I think I'm going to like you, girl.  Want to be a
guineapig for one of my experiments?"

      In unison, almost everyone in the room but Wasyuu, Sylvie, and Anri
said, "NO!"

      Wasyuu frowned.  "You people are no fun anymore."

*****************************************************************************
     
      Linna slumped happily into bed.  She always felt better after
getting a new boyfriend.  It made her feel alive, wanted, and attractive.
He was cute, nice, and rich, these being the three things she most wanted
out of a boyfriend, not necessarily in that order.  

      I'll try and call Master Hiromi again in the morning...She drifted
off to a peaceful, dreamless sleep, not aware she had begun a process of
getting herself into even MORE trouble.

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

     Nene settled into bed, remembering her final conversation with Sylvie
and Anri.

          "Don't tell Priss yet we're alive.  We want to come tell 
          her everything ourselves,"  Sylvie had asked Nene.

          "But why?  She's going to be really suspicious if you just 
          show up out of the blue."

          Anri sighed.  "We're not sure if we're ready to face her
          ourselves, that's why."

          Nene nodded.  "Okay.  I'll keep your secret."

      Her last thoughts as she drifted into unconsciousness was to hope
she hadn't made a mistake with that promise.


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

      Z sat in a room, high in Genom Tower and looked out upon the city.
When he closed his body's eyes, he could see the skeins of power running
out from the tower.  X chose wisely when he had this built here, he
thought.  From here, we can make the city dance to our every whim.  He
extended himself into the lines of power and tugged them gently, sending
tiny extensions of his will running down them to gather power.  Seek out
the one, he thought...the one who can lead us to the crystal...

      Once we have the crystal, this world will shake, and we will finally
be free of this hunk of rock.

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

     X was awake too, elsewhere in the tower.  He frowned.  As usual, Z is
running off half-cocked without even thinking about what he is doing.
That idiot will probably bring every supernatural in the city down on our
heads.  Idiot.  He'll ruin everything I've been working towards for the
last hundred years.  

     For a moment, X wondered why Z was still so reckless and crazed while
he himself had mellowed over the years.  We were almost identical once, he
thought.  Maybe I absorbed too much from this human...no, I've benefited.
After years of flailing aimlessly, I'm finally accomplishing our master's
goals, but now I'm saddled with this idiot...I'm so glad he tends to clonk
out so often from using too much power...or I'd never get anything done.
I'd swear Largo was his fault too, somehow, but I can't prove it.  

     He reached over and picked up the phone.  Time to make a few calls.

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