Bubblegum Crisis part 1: Growin' Up

Quincy, Chairman of Genom was a very happy man. He had successfully
orchestrated a deal with numerous warring countries for billions of
Yen, and it was all thanks to that young Professor, Katy Fuzakawa.
The machine she had created was quite brilliant and his strategic use
of it even more so. A device that can increase the size of an object
exponentially has incredible potential on its own, but he had decided
to keep its existence known only to Genom. This allowed him to sell
Boomers that have had their size increased. He had marketed them as
new models that Genom were building but in fact were merely normal
sized until the machine was used on them. He could see huge boomers
being used for construction, war and other practical tasks. The
amount of money Genom could make was limitless. Now all he had to
worry about were the AD police and the Knight Sabres. Neither would
be impressed with the sale of giant illegal Boomers. But with this
new technology, neither would pose a prob!
lem. Life was good. He sat back on his chair, allowing himself to
relax for the first time in days. Professor Fuzakawa deserved a
promotion. He just needed to make sure that she only knew about the
legitimate use of the machine, because unfortunately, she had
scruples. But they could work around that. It would be a pity to have
to get rid of her. He decided to make a phone call to the Research
lab in the eastern district. This was where the most important work
was going in. Pemberton, a British robotics expert was heading up
that research. It was also he who answered.
“Sir, it is good to see you,” he said politely in his aristocratic
accent.
“No need for formalities Pemberton, just give me your current
situation.”
“Yes Sir. We are about to conduct the first experiment. We are going
to slowly increase in size a BU-33S. The reason for that is because
that would be the type that would be easiest to control.”
“I concur with that reasoning. Contact me when the experiment is
finished.”
“Yes Sir.”
Pemberton was relieved to put down the phone. He didn’t like dealing
with upper management but simply preferred just to do his work. The
33-S in question was called Lana and he had personally explained to
her precisely what was going to happen. He realised that you had to
treat them like Human Beings if you wanted them to stay in your
control. That was the mistake the GPCC made. 
“Mr Pemberton, we’re ready to start the experiment,” one of the
engineers came in his office to tell him. 
“Good, I’ll be right there.”
Lana didn’t know what to think. That nice man Mr. Pemberton had told
her they were going to increase her size, and had promised they could
put her back to normal. If she co-operated they would treat her well.
They even offered her the life of a normal human. That was what she
wanted, what she and all her kind aspired to. She was standing in the
centre of a raised platform. The room was big, the roof was very high
up in particular. The reasons for that were obvious. 
“Okay Lana, we’re going to start with increasing your size slowly by
about a metre. You’ll feel a warm sensation, but nothing painful.”
Lana was very beautiful, even by 33-S standards. She had raven black
hair and subtle emerald eyes. Her body figure was perfect in every
way, which wasn’t at all surprising. Pemberton disliked the idea of
the sexaroid. He was glad that production was banned but the company
still had a few models. These were kept for situations like this, or
when one of the senior staff needed “pleasing”.
He never took part in such sordid games. Lana he had come to like. He
hated himself for lying to her about being changed back to normal. At
least she had clothes on that would grow with her. If some people had
got their way…
Lana felt the warmth she had been told about. It was the weirdest
sensation, she felt herself elongating, her body mass increasing. She
closed her eyes, and when she opened them again, she realised she was
looking at the same room from a metre higher than before. Everything
seemed smaller, the terminals, the machinery. It was all smaller to
her than before. 
“It’s worked Mr. Pemberton! She’s now two metres sixty eight
centimetres tall.”
“Excellent. That will do for tonight, shut everything down. I’m going
out to speak with her. 
Lana felt happier being bigger than she thought she would. She saw
Mr. Pemberton come on to the platform.
“Look at me, Mr. Pemberton, I’m huge.” Before he was almost a head
taller than her but now his head only reached her chest.
“That’s good Lana, but it’s only the beginning. You’ll be able to be
as big as you want to be.”
Lana smiled happily.
Mackie sighed. Priss had trashed her bike for the third time this
month. This time the axle needed checking out.
“Do you think you’ll be able to fix it Mackie?” Priss asked urgently.
Along with her music her bike was her beloved.
“Shouldn’t be a problem Priss but I do wish you didn’t have to get it
repaired half as much as you need to.”
“Well I’m sorry, I’ll be careful next time.”
“You say that every time.”
“This time I mean it.”
“You say that every time as well, Priss. Do me a favour and don’t
promise anything. I don’t feel so bad when I’m repairing it if you
don’t.”
“Alright. So, how is Selia these days? We haven’t had a job for a
while now.”
“You know her. She’ll be looking around for a job for the ‘Sabres.
How’s Linna.”
“Well, she’s got a new boyfriend. Give it another week and she’ll be
single again.”
“It must be hard to be her. And Nene?
“The usual, AD Police business. Maybe she'll find a job for the
Knight Sabres.”
“Yeah, like trying to stop you from speeding,” Mackie said cheekily.
“Or stop you from fantasising about your sister,” Priss laughed,
knowing that Mackie couldn’t manage a comeback from that.
“Hey, that’s not funny.”
“I know it’s not, it’s true.”
“Okay, you win. There, your bike is finished. If you come in here
within the week to get your bike repaired again, I won’t fix it for a
month.”
“That’s rather strict, Mackie.”
“Well, practice some discretion for once.”
“Oh, whatever. I’ll see you when I see you.” Priss wheeled her bike
outside and leaped gracefully on it. There was nothing like speeding
around Mega Tokyo on a souped up mean machine like her bike. She
kick-started it and drove off into the sunset.
That night was quite chaotic for Lana. The experiments had continued
the day after it had started right up until she was forty metres
(approx. 120 feet) tall. The Lab was too small to hold her so they
moved her into a large warehouse with Hitomi, another 33-S for
company. There was also a television, but at her size she couldn’t
even watch it. She looked down at Hitomi who was sitting on the floor
watching.
“What are you watching?” her great voice boomed. Hitomi covered her
ears.
“Please Lana, you shouldn’t talk so loud. I’m watching a quiz show.
You never liked them, did you?”
“No. I’m bored.” Hitomi was so tiny to Lana, which gave her an idea.
She reached down. Hitomi felt Lana’s massive fingers close around her
torso, arms and legs.
“What are you doing, Lana, let me go!”
“I’m not going to hurt you Hitomi. But I do want to try out this new
size.” She lifted Hitomi high into the air and held her close to her
face.
“Please, I don’t like heights!” Hitomi struggled fruitlessly.
“Don’t worry, I won’t drop you. You trust me, don’t you Hitomi?”
Hitomi stopped struggling. “There, that’s better. I’ll put you down
now, okay.” Lana lowered her gigantic hand to the ground, and allowed
Hitomi to step off it. “You know Hitomi, I just realised, that by
giving me you, it’s almost like giving a girl a doll to play with.”
“You think I’m a doll, Lana?” Hitomi was scared by that. Lana could
do anything to her. 
“Oh, please don’t be silly. You’re my friend Hitomi. It’s probably
what they think.”
“Even Mr. Pemberton? It seemed to me he just didn’t want you to be
alone,” Hitomi said.
“I think your right about that. He’s different from the rest of them.
He seems to care about me, and the others.”
“It’s late. We should probably recharge now,” Hitomi said, “but
there’s no bed or anything.”
“I’m okay.” Lana lay down. It was a very large warehouse to allow her
to do that. She then picked up Hitomi again, and put her on her
chest.
“You want me to sleep here?” Hitomi asked, Lana’s gargantuan face in
front of her.
“Why not? You’ll be comfortable, and I don’t roll around during
recharging. It’ll be fine.”
“Well, if you say so,” Hitomi said reluctantly. She laid down and
felt the pulsing in Lana’s chest. She felt safe with Lana, but
somehow still felt a little bit worried about what might happen if
she stayed this way.
Pemberton had been on the phone to Professor Fuzakawa to ask her if
there was a reversal process to her machine but she had said that it
was confidential. He regretted using Lana for this project, now there
was no way to shrink her back. What was he going to tell her? She
seemed okay just now, but what would happen over time? He knew
someone he could tell, his old friend Selia. She would know what to
do.
Selia picked up the phone. The face of David Pemberton appeared on
the vid-screen to her surprise. They had gone to University together. 
“Hello Selia, it’s been a long time.”
“Too long, David. But why are you calling me?”
“Selia, this is very much top secret Genom business but I thought you
might be able to help me.”
“I don’t know if I can.”
“Oh, I’m sure the Knight Sabres could.”
“You know about that,” Selia said, shocked.
“I’ve known for a while. Also, your scientific talents would be
helpful as well. I can’t tell you more now, I want to meet you. Four
o’clock, tomorrow, at this address.” He sent the address into the
phones memory. “See you then.” Selia put the handset back on the
phone, wondering what was going on. It had been some time since the
incident at AD police headquarters when Nene had prevented the
building self-destructing, Genom had stayed very quiet since then,
and she was very curious about what they were up to. Meeting
Pemberton was a risk, but one she was willing to take if they had the
chance to find what Genom was up to.
“It’s good to see you again Selia.” Pemberton’s face was covered in
shadow but there was no mistaking his upper-class voice. The address
was a small ornament shop. Selia had entered and was gestured
upstairs by a delicate old lady
“The feeling is mutual, but what is it you want, Mr. Pemberton?”
“It’s quite an unusual thing, I needed to tell someone. I’ve known
for some time the company I work for isn’t very nice but I’ve been
able to ignore it thus far, but the potential of what I’m involved in
now is far to dangerous. I had to tell someone.”
“I see. As you’re a Genom employee, I don’t trust you completely, but
since you’re an old friend, I’m willing to give you the benefit of
the doubt. Please, continue.”
“There is this young woman named Katy Fuzakawa, a genius scientist
whose work with the manipulation of matter has earned her the Nobel
Prize.” Selia nodded, indicating the she had heard of Katy Fuzakawa.
“Her latest invention is her greatest yet, but also by far the most
dangerous. This machine, which she calls a matter enhancer, is
capable of increasing the size of an object by large amounts.”
Selia took it in slowly, before replying.
“What kind of objects do you mean exactly?” Pemberton shrugged and
replied
“Anything, animated or not. There’s no reverse process yet, though
Professor Fuzakawa is reputedly working on it now.”
“You’ve already tested it, haven’t you?” Selia was wide eyed with
shock.
“Yes, on a 33S. They’re planning to get rid of her, and I don’t want
that to happen. I’m asking the Knight Sabres to rescue her, and to
prevent the machine being tested on something else,” Pemberton
finished.
“Okay, but what about payment?”
“I can pay you a million Yen. I know it’s not that much but it’s all
that I can afford Selia, but this is important to me.”
“Of course, this matter seems too important for money. I’ll accept
whatever you can afford,” Selia answered.
“Thank you. Now I’d better get back, all the details you’ll need are
on this data disk, you should attempt this operation tomorrow night.
When you have the 33-S, you’ll need a place for her to hide until her
condition can be reversed. I’m not aware of where the matter enhancer
is now or the status of any other experiments, but I’ll try and find
out. Goodbye and good luck Selia.” He left the room. Selia fingered
the data disk he had handed her. This sounded like an unusual case.
Perhaps a meeting with Katy Fuzakawa would be profitable, but it
would have to wait until after the rescue of the 33-S.
Linna had received a message to come to a meeting at the Silky Doll,
Selia’s clothes shop. It was to discuss the Knight Sabres latest job.
Selia wouldn’t tell her how much money they were going to net so she
had the sneaking suspicion that it wouldn’t be a high amount, but she
had to be at the meeting. Selia lived above her shop, and the secret
bay area was underneath it. It was early in the morning and the shop
was empty. Selia met her at the desk area.
“Priss and Nene are already here, we’d better join them now. We have
a lot to discuss.” When they had all gotten comfortable, Selia
explained to them about her meeting with Mr. Pemberton. After she had
finished, there was a few moments of silence. 
“Selia, how big is this 33-S now?” Priss asked in a worried voice.
“Well over one hundred feet tall, so we do have a big problem, no pun
intended,” Selia.
“What, how are we supposed to rescue something that huge?” Nene
blurted out in her high pitched voice.
“I’ve had Mackie work on a plan. It’s a long shot but it might just
work. Our objective is to rescue the 33-S, Lana, her friend Hitomi
and Mr. Pemberton. He knows where they can go to hide, but they will
need our help to escape. We’re going to use a large trailer, which
can be pulled by the Van. That’s for Lana. As for the other two,
they’ll escape in Pemberton’s car.”
“How much are we being paid for this, Selia,” Linna asked.
“I’m afraid not much. But Mr. Pemberton is an old friend of mine, and
the repercussions of this device that Ms. Fuzakawa has invented
cannot be ignored. We won’t be able to handle the breed of enlarged
boomers that Genom could create. That’s why I will meet with her
tomorrow, and convince her that she must leave Genom along with her
invention. Whatever happens, this operation will take place at eleven
tomorrow night.”
Professor Katy Fuzakawa sat in front of her computer fuming. No
matter what she did she couldn’t work out how to reverse the process
of matter enhancing. A Genom employee had asked her that day about
it, but she had to tell him it was confidential. She needed to find
that reversal process, as after the elation of what she had created
had died down, it was clear to her what kind of wrong that machine
could be used for. Suddenly the videophone rang as she was deep in
thought, and almost caused her to fall off her chair. Picking it up,
the picture of a beautiful blue haired woman appeared on the screen.
“Hello, this is Katy Fuzakawa speaking, who are you.”
“Hello, it’s an honour to finally be able to speak to you Ms.
Fuzakawa, my name is Selia Stingray,” she was about to say more, but
was interrupted.
“You mean as in Professor Stingray, the father of the boomer? It’s an
honour for me to speak to you, Mrs. Stingray.”
“I’m afraid it’s just Ms. and also he was my father too. Listen, are
you working on a reversal process for the matter enhancer?” Selia
waited for an answer.
“Yes, but why?”
“You probably don’t know this but your machine has been used on a
type 33-S Boomer.”
“But that can’t be true, they were banned. Genom isn’t supposed to be
testing it on Boomers.”
“Ask a Mr. David Pemberton and he’ll show you otherwise. You need to
escape with your work from Genom. You don’t have to decide this
instant, but I’m confident you’ll feel it’s the right thing to do
after seeing what Genom intends to do with your work.” 
“Well, I’ll speak with this David Pemberton, but I don’t know about
this.”
“That’s all I ask. Good day.” 
“Yes, goodbye Ms. Stingray.” As she hung up she decided to contact
Mr. Pemberton. She arranged a meeting with him for nine o’clock that
night. It was time to get some answers. 
“Ms. Fuzakawa, it took some work to arrange this meeting, without
anybody knowing, but you have to see this,” Pemberton said as they
entered a deserted looking warehouse. She was shocked when she saw
Lana. She was simply huge; though she was sitting down with her legs
laying to the side her head was still very high in the air. The 33-S
lowered her head to Katy’s level, but even her head was over ten
times Katy’s size.
“Don’t be frightened,” the huge humanlike boomer whispered “I mean no
harm to anyone, but I want to know if I can return to my normal
size.”
“I’m still working on that. By seeing you I understand now that I
can’t allow my work to be used by Genom. I’m not frightened of you,
but what would a Battle Boomer be like at your size?”
“I know. Mr. Pemberton has told me that I’m going to be leaving here
tonight, with help from the Knight Sabres.”
“Is that right, Mr. Pemberton?” Katy asked him. He nodded.
“The other 33-S Hitomi is already in my car. You should leave here
now. You’ll need a couple of days to collect up all your work. One
you’re ready, contact Selia Stingray at this number,” he handed her a
note, “and she’ll arrange you’re leaving Genom, most likely also with
help from the Knight Sabres.”
“Right, I’ll be as quick as I can.” She left the warehouse, not
realising that metallic eyes had see her, and started following her.
Priss put on her jumpsuit, preparing to go inside her hard suit. The
hard suit’s capabilities had been enhanced since the incident at A.D.
Police headquarters. Nene, Linna and Selia were also almost ready.
The trailer that was to contain Lana was huge, and she doubted
whether the Silky Wagon would be able to pull it with Lana inside.
Though the money wasn’t very high for this job, Priss’s memories of
Sylvie and Anri meant she felt no hesitation in embarking on this
mission. Linna had chosen to join them because of the high stakes
involved and the need to get the Matter Enhancer out of Genom’s hand
as soon as possible. Nene, of course, enjoyed playing the hero, money
wasn’t so important to her.
“Okay, listen up Knight Sabres,” Selia took command, “this plan is
high risk, but it should work. Mr Pemberton has instructed Lana that
at five past eleven to neutralise the guards in some way. We’ll pull
up outside the warehouse five minutes later and blast open the front
shutters. We’ll get her into the trailer as fast as possible. If any
reinforcements turn up, it will be Priss and Linna’s job to deal with
them. Are we all ready?” The other three Knight Sabres replied in
unison.
“Okay, then, let’s go.”
Lana waited. Only five minutes to go before she had to distract the
guards in someway. She was going to make loud moans, which would
force the guards to come in to see what was wrong. Then she would
swipe at them and knock them unconscious. She would have to be
careful; she certainly didn’t want to kill any of them. Hitomi and
Mr. Pemberton would meet up with them once the Knight Sabres had
brought her to a secret location. She started making the moans. She
made sure they were loud and grating enough that they couldn’t
possibly be ignored.
“What’s going on,” a guard shouted as three of them came in. Lana
suddenly stopped the moans and swiped at the guard, knocking him
flying. She made sure only to hit him hard enough to knock him
unconscious. The other two tried to use their radios. Lana grabbed
them both and dropped them from a height of three metres, again just
enough to knock them out. They might have succeeded in contacting
reinforcement but that would be the Knight Sabre’s problem. A few
minutes later the shutters at the front of the warehouse exploded,
and Priss stood outside in her motor-slave.
“Woah, she is big,” she said to no one in particular. “You must be
Lana,” she shouted “we’re her to get you out of here, there’s the
trailer we’ll take you in.” She pointed at it, and Lana nodded. She
started heading for the trailer when a large explosion almost hit
Priss. They heard a loud clanging of metal, and Priss turned on her
Night Vision in her monitor.
“Oh my God, it’s a giant Boomer, I thought they hadn’t used the thing
again. Selia, what do we do,” Priss yelled.
“We have to take it out somehow, it’s got to have a weakness,” Selia
replied through the communicator, Nene, any ideas?” Nene was still in
the Wagon.
“If you three can distract it, I have an idea.” As Nene said this,
the Boomer tried to crush Priss, who only thanks to her motor-slave
got away in time. Lana stood back, trying to avoid the Boomers
attention on her. She stood beside the trailer over two hundred
meters away from the Boomer. The Boomer itself looked like an
enlarged and modified Combat Boomer, all blue and metallic. As she
stood next to the silky wagon, she noticed one of the Knight Sabres
come out and stood to the right of her foot. She was wearing a red
and white suit, and started shouting up to her. 
“Lana, my name is Nene, and I need you to do something. If I can get
on the back of that Boomer’s neck, I think I can disable it. I can’t
fly up there, but with you’re help, my booster rockets should be
enough.”
“What do you want me to do?”
“I want you to pick me up, and at just the right moment throw me at
the Boomer.”
“That’s really risky, what if I throw you too far, or not far enough?”
“We have to take a chance, I can’t think of another way to stop that
thing, it’ll kill Priss, Selia and Linna if they have to fight it for
too long.”
The Knight Sabres were in trouble. Nothing they fired at the thing
had any effect. It was taking all their energy to avoid the multitude
of weapons raining down from the titanic Boomer. 
“Priss… It’s Nene, try and get it to turn around, I’m almost ready,”
Priss heard through her suit.
“That’s easier said than done Nene…” She said, interrupting herself
when she had to dodge another shot from the Combat Boomer.
“It won’t be easy Knight Sabres, but on my mark,” Selia shouted
urgently, “NOW!” All three of them ran forward, Linna cart-wheeling
between the Boomers legs, Priss Jet past its right leg and Selia past
its left. The Boomer was confused for a second before starting to
turn around.
“NOW!!!” Nene shouted in Lana’s ear and the giant 33-S pulled back,
and launched Nene at the Boomer. Air ripped past Nene as she rocketed
towards the Boomer. She was afraid she was going to splat against it
until she activated the jump jets in the feet of her suit. She slowed
down considerably and landed right on target.
“Let’s see if you can still fight after this,” she said as she
connected herself to the boomer though the beck of its neck. Nene
wasn’t certain what she should do, its self-destruct was too
dangerous to activate. After a few moments she hit on an idea, she
just had to hope she had somewhere to jump off. She activated the
Boomers guided missile launcher, setting the target. Lana saw what
she was doing, and ran up close enough to catch Nene as she boosted
away from the Boomer.
“Everybody down!” Selia shouted as the missile hit the Boomer right
in the face, destroying its head. They all gasped as the wreckage
shrunk to something like the Boomer’s former size.
“Well, it looks like that’s one way of reversing the process,” Nene
commented as she stood on Lana’s hand.
“I don’t think I like that way very much,” Lana said emphatically.
“Come on, everybody, we still have to get Lana out of here,” Selia
brought everyone up to speed.
The Silky Wagon pulled the trailer to the outskirts of Mega Tokyo. It
was a very quiet and isolated spot, the location Pemberton had
instructed to meet them. Selia walked out, no longer in her hardsuit
but in normal clothes.
“I thank you, Selia, what you’ve done I am most grateful. But
Professor Fuzakawa and her research has gone missing, I can’t get in
touch with her.”
“I see. We can’t let her be forced into continuing to work for Genom.
She will certainly still be all right, Genom wouldn’t harm a mind of
her calibre but we have to find her as soon as possible.” She stopped
speaking as Hitomi came from behind Pemberton.
“Is Lana there?” She asked tentatively. Selia smiled.
“Yes she is. Mackie, could you open the trailer, Ms Lana must be
getting very stuffy in there.”
“Yes, Sis.” Lana crawled out and stretched when the trailer’s shutter
was raised.
“Thank goodness, that was really cramped,” she yawned. Selia smiled
at her and then turned back to Pemberton.
“You have somewhere to keep her, David?”
“Yes, a cave not far from here, it’s definitely big enough. As soon
as you rescue Professor Fuzakawa, bring her to me and I’ll be able to
find her the room and equipment for her to continue her research.”
Selia nodded, and the Silky Wagon drew away with the trailer.
“Come on you two, we’d better get into hiding before someone spots
us.”
“You, you have no right to do this to me, I’m a Genom employee for
God’s sake,” Katy shouted at the big man in a black suit, who must
have been a Boomer.
“I’m afraid we do, so long as no one finds out. You’ll be cared for
out of Genom’s pocket, and allowed to continue with weapons research.
Chairman Quincy feels that a reversal process for the Matter Enhancer
isn’t high on the list of priorities,” he replied in an impossibly
arrogant tone.
“Damn it, you won’t get away with this,” she muttered turning away
from the smirking Android. She knew her only hope, however, lay with
the Knight Sabres. She prayed they would be able to find her.