Bubblegum Crisis Tokyo 2040 Fan Fiction / Crossover Fan Fiction ❯ BGC 2055: Megatokyo Burning ❯ Chapter 16

Bubblegum Crisis 2055: Megatokyo Burning

Inferno: One

 

Nene Romanova took a steadying breath, the blonde officer looking over her troops then out past the barricade. Boomers writhed and staggered forward, bodies morphing wildly as they progressed along the street towards their position, seemingly oblivious to any possible danger.

 

"Fire!" Nene roared and they opened up, tossing out high density slugs that tore through boomer flesh like paper, ripping into artificial flesh and shattering bones. Finally they slowed, then stopped... but there were more behind them.

 

Lisa Valente raced up, the dusky skinned blonde puffing softly. "The evacuation is complete, we're clear," she gasped.

 

Nene smiled down at her, gently supporting the young woman as she looked around her at her half dozen troops. "All right," she said briskly, "fall back to the next barrier. The more time we buy, the more people can be saved."

 

"Yes, ma'am." the officers chorused as they moved out, laying suppression fire down on the coming Boomers as they did so.

 

Nene shivered faintly at that, unused to the new position she found herself in. The attack on AD Police headquarters had killed most of the higher ranking officers, the few left like Daley were out of town or otherwise unavailable. That put her firmly in the hotseat, commanding the surviving AD Police as they fought to protect citizens and beat back the Boomers.

 

'I'm just glad Mackie is out of danger,' Nene thought as she ran.

 

In a secured apartment within the Knight Saber's headquarters Mackie Stingray worked away, the young man's brow hair falling into his eyes. A human-boomer hybrid he had to concentrate to resist the siren call the rest of the Boomers had fallen prey to, but he was managing. Now his priority was hacking the data-nets of the criminal organizations.

 

"Let's see, the system designer was Alec Williams, he has a daughter Heather, a cat named Hikaru and a dog called Spot and a guppy..." Mackie murmured as he tried out each word as a possible password.

 

Designers often left in private backdoors to keep access in to systems they had created, and like most people they used names or words that were familiar and easy to remember to them for their passwords. The trick, of course, was deducing what word or grouping of words the designer used and in what combination.

 

*Bing!*

 

"I'm in," Mackie grinned, accessing the subdirectories. With a speed that would have made most hackers die of envy he raced through the files, searching for the hidden caches of data that he wanted. It helped that he had a rough idea of what he was looking for, due to Nene's people forwarding certain files to him.

 

After a few moments certain familiar names began to come up, as well as maps of Megatokyo. His eyes widened as he saw the scope of their initial moves, and soon realizing that the whole armed insurrection was primarily a distraction for their real plan.

 

"So what are they up to?" Mackie murmured as he dug deeper.

 

Mackie used up several more passwords as he went, finally reaching the company president's personal files which he opened without a moment's hesitation. He scanned the data then froze before re-reading it just to be sure. Mechanically he copied the information to disk, his expression distant as he tried to digest it all.

 

"NERV," Mackie muttered in disbelief, "they're after the technology left in NERV."

 

Once upon a time Megatokyo had been defense city Tokyo-3, part of a larger plan to protect Earth from a alien invasion. That war ended, finally, and Tokyo-3 was phased over to civilian use, and eventually the NERV facilities below it had been closed down and sealed off. Now few if any of the residents even remembered NERV or the alien threat, something that the powers that be were quite willing to let continue.

 

At the time NERV's bio-tech and computer designs had been bleeding-edge technology, and even now it was probably competitive with almost anything available. If someone could get ahold of even fragmentary data they could reverse engineer innovations out of it, then sell that technology to the highest bidder.

 

"Those greedy bastards," Mackie got up, the black haired man getting up, pocketing the data disk then grabbing the synthetic leather jacket Priss had given him. The jacket looked real, but in fact the armor cloth could stop bullets and high powered slugs, too.

 

It took nearly ten minutes in his jeep to reach the AD Police defense positions, ten harrowing minutes dodging Boomers and mercenaries as well as having to use his pistol and enhanced strength. He didn't like using either, really, it reminded him of his inhuman origins, but in a time like this there was no other choice.

 

"Incoming civilian." Officer Yukari yelled, the young man firing his rifle into a Boomer.

 

"Damn it," Nene started then did a double take as she saw who it was.

 

"What's wrong, ma'am?" Lisa asked her boss tentatively.

 

"That's not a civilian, that's my husband," Nene sighed as Mackie drove his jeep right over a Boomer, bouncing to a halt not far from their lines.

 

"Eh?" Lisa blurted, looking at the younger man in shock.

 

Mackie made his was forward and smiled as charmingly at Nene as he could. "I promise there's a really good explanation for me coming here," he said.

 

"There better be," Nene tried to sound stern then she folded him into a hug. Softly she added, "I'm so glad you're all right."

 

Lisa watched the display a bit uncomfortably a moment then said hesitantly, "Ma'am, I hate to interrupt but...."

 

"Sorry," Nene pulled back reluctantly. She smiled at Mackie, "So what was so important you had to break cover?"

 

Mackie pulled out the disk, "I know what they're after."

 

"What?" Lisa blurted.

 

"You know that hacker I had you include on the books, the one I wouldn't name?" Nene nodded towards Mackie, "That's him."

 

Lisa's eyes widened, "The mystery cracker?"

 

"Well, yes," Mackie blushed.

 

Cutting off the hero worship before it could start Nene asked, "What have you got, love?"

 

"They're after NERV," Mackie revealed, "they want the technology buried there, including details on the Evangelion and Magi."

 

"I thought Evangelion was a myth," Lisa breathed out.

 

"Government disinformation campaign," Nene said flatly, "they couldn't actually admit they'd been fighting aliens for nearly a decade without a real result, so they covered everything up."

 

"They're probably trying to break into the geofront now," Mackie said urgently, "we've got to get people organized to try and stop them."

 

"The AD Police are committed to civilian evacuation," Lisa said hesitantly.

 

Nene looked off into the distance, her expression grim. "Lisa, you're checked out on standard firearms, right?"

 

"Yes?" Lisa said tentatively.

 

"I can't leave here," Nene met Mackie's eyes, "though god I wish I could. You've got to get to the Locket, they're using it as a headquarters for now."

 

"Got it," Mackie nodded firmly, "and be careful, please."

 

"You too," Nene said softly. She looked at Lisa, "I'm putting Mackie in your hands, I want you to get him to Arisugawa's Locket in one piece. Understood?"

 

"Yes, ma'am," Lisa saluted.

 

"Nene..." Mackie started to protest.

 

"This is non-negotiable," Nene was firmly in command voice as she continued, "you take her, or you're not going at all."

 

Mackie blinked, then smiled wryly. "Yes ma'am," he saluted, too.

 

Nene rolled her eyes.

 

To be continued....