Prologue:
Flashback
In the beginning of the 21st century, major advancements changed the faces of technology. In the year 2020, at Wiz Laboratory, Dr. Katsuhito Stingray created the first thinking robot. The 'Cyberdroid', as Stingray called it, was created to free humanity from menial labor. His vision for the cyberdroid was to help humanity create an utopia. A multi-national company called GENOM was interested in the Doctor's work. They supplied funding to further Stingray's advancements.
However, this dream was not meant to be. Dr. Stingray and most of his team were killed in a explosion at Wiz Laboratory two years later. GENOM continued with the Doctor's work. Dubbing the cyberdroids 'Boomers', they became the companies largest selling item. They where seen in restaurants to the battlefield.
Months later, Katsuhito's daughter Sylia received an unmarked data tape. The tape contained all of her father's cyberdroid research and projects that he had been working on at the time of his death. The tape also contained surveillance footage from the night her father died. On the tape it showed that GENOM had Katsuhito killed, then stole his work for their own. From the moment Sylia became overcome with hatred for GENOM. Her plans for revenge where sat into motion.
GENOM Research Facility - Kawasaki District,
Doctor Richard Itami was in his office working on his daily report for GENOM. His typing was fast, he could hardly keep with his thoughts. There were many breakthroughs on the cyberdroid project. Dr. Stingray was an absolute genius!
TO: Chairman Quincy
FROM: Dr. Richard Itami
SUBJECT: Report for 5/12/25 - Update
Updates show that the new boomer programming will allow the cyberdroid to have intelligent thought. The programs that Dr. Julianna Mason has been working on are incredible! I can understand why Dr. Stingray hired her in the first place. I can also understand why you personally hired her. Today, she showed me a sample of her programming, it goes further than what Dr. Stingray created before he died. It could possibly be what he hoped to design. Julianna is one of brightest programmers that I've ever had the opportunity to work with. We are hoping to start testing by the end of this week.
Chairman, I do have one request if possible. I know that your Secretary, Brian Meison, once worked for Dr. Stingray. Is it possible that he'd come around less? He really unnerves my employees. And quite frankly, I don't trust him. We only want the best for you and GENOM, sir.
Itami leaned back. That was all that he thought was necessary to report. By weeks end, the tests would show the results. And Meison was a constant presence at the labs. He seemed to hover over everyone, examining each and every detail of the project.
'Speak of the devil himself.' he thought, then
spoke.
Meison stepped closer to the desk.
Brian rolled his eyes. "All of you, scientist are alike. You always need a reason." Disgust flowed through his words.
Itami slammed a fist against the desk. "I've been working on this project since the beginning!"
From his pocket, Brian pulled out his cellular phone. Dialing, he waited for an audible click of a receiver. "I need a cleanup. Make it look like an suicide."
Sylia Stingray had awoke to the sound of her
video-clock. She dressed and headed into the living room to get the morning
paper. As it printed, the headline caught her eye.
Sylia started to read the article.
Dr. Richard Itami, 46 was found dead early this
morning in his office. Suicide was the apparent motive. The doctor worked for GENOM
Research and Development. He was continuing the
work of Katsuhito Stingray, creator of the boomer technology. Details will be released after notification
of next of kin have been notified.
She nodded slightly. "Yes."
"They won't be coming after us will they?"
" Nothing is going to happen to us. I'll
protect you." Sylia said. She had even intention to protect her brother. GENOM would
not take anyone else from her.
That afternoon, Sylia and Mackie went to visit their friend Michael. He was the son of one of her father's assistants at Wiz Labs. Mackie, Michael and Sylia used to play as children at Wiz Labs. They had been friends for the past seven years. Michael had come over a lot when their parents worked long hours.
" Sylia! Mackie" Michael had called out when they arrived. He'd been waiting for the arrival of his friends. Michael was sixteen year old, the same as Sylia.
Once they went inside, Sylia noticed that Julianna Mason, Michael's mother wasn't there. Sylia and Michael sat down on the sofa.
"Where's your mom, Michael?" she asked.
Michael frowned slightly, he had ready known about the incident last night. "She's giving a statement to the police." he said. "Early this morning the police where here. They where asking all kinds of questions about Mom, and Dr. Itami. Questions about Itami's personal life. Just like the questions that they ask on those TV police shows."
Mackie listened to their conversation. It bothered him that he'd lost his father to GENOM. He didn't want to see Michael's mother go the same way.
"I'm sure Ms. Mason is okay, Mackie. She's with the police right now." Sylia tried to quell his fears.
Michael noticed that something was bothering the younger Stingray. "Mackie, why don't you go and play some video games?"
Mackie nodded and took off towards Michael's room. Michael ran his fingers through his unruly raven colored hair.
Sylia watched her brother go. "He still have problems sleeping at night. He dreams that someone is going to come and take me away."
Michael listened to her. "Poor kid." he said softly. "Things will get better."
Sylia agreed at Michael's words. "How did you get over your dad?"
Michael looked over at her with his serene purple eyes. . "I don't know my dad." Michael started. "My mom never talks about him. After a while I stopped asking. My mom did say that he was a real jerk."
"Oh." she felt embarrassed asking him about it.
"It's okay." Michael said. "It's easy to get over someone you've never met."
Sylia looked over at him. "Michael..." she whispered.
Michael glanced over at her. "Yeah Syl?"
She leaned over and kissed him on the cheek. "Thank you for being here for Mackie and I."
Michael's face turned from white to red. "Ahhhh.." He cleared his throat. "My mom and I enjoy having you and Mackie over." He said softly.
"We've been friends for a long time." He decided to take a chance. Sylia was the only female his age that he really knew. Maybe that could become more than just friends. Michael brought his face closer to Sylia's.
Her face turned as red as his. She waited for him to make the move.
"Michael! Sis!!!" Mackie called out from the other room. Michael pulled back, as did Sylia.
"Mackie." Sylia and Michael said in unison. Both of them went to Mackie.
****************************************
May 17, 2025
"We are getting by just fine. How are you?" Sylia could tell she was upset. Things hadn't been right since Dr. Itami had died. Michael had emailed her about the way that his mother acted when she came home. She seemed a disturbed about the entire incident.
Julianna's first sight of him was fear which quickly was replaced with anger.
Can I have a moment of your time, Julianna?" he said softly. " After all, I am your boss."
Julianna resignedly gave into his demand. "Fine, but let's not talk in front of the kids."
Michael and Sylia took that as a sign, walked away from the adults. Sylia glanced over her shoulder at the unwelcome visitor and Michael's mother. The man's face was as clear as his image on the data tape. He was her father's killer.
Julianna and Brian walked a short distance from the mourners.
"I see that Michael is growing up fast." Brian glanced at the boy standing near the tombstone. "How old is he? 16?"
"You should know, Brian." Julianna crossed her arms. She was tired of this game he was playing. "Get to the point."
Meison smiled slightly, as went back to his humorless expression. "I want you to take over the project. Quincy has asked me personally to make the offer to you."
"I don't want it. Much blood has been spilled for this project." she replied, then smugly added. "Screw Quincy and his offer. Better yet screw you too."
Brian didn't reply. "That's no way to talk to your employers. Do you talk to our son like that?"
"He is not our son. He is MY son. Matter of fact, you didn't want anything to do with him."
Brian chuckled. "You wouldn't let me near him."
"I'll keep it that way too." Julianna stood her ground against Brian.
When he had seduced her sixteen years ago, Michael was the result of their relationship. She thought that Brian was a good person. He was smart, he'd was a great factor to Katsuhito's work. Meison and Stingray worked together, until GENOM started to fund the project. Brian had gotten a job with GENOM. The Chairman and founder, Quincy, was impressed with Meison's work. He hired Brian as an executive, and let him personally oversee Stingray's project.
"Shouldn't you ask the boy what he wants?" he said. "I'll go over and ask him myself."
Julianna slapped Meison across the face. "You leave my son out of this, you bastard!!!" She walked quickly away from him.
The GENOM executive stood there. He didn't feel the rain hitting him, or the stinging sensation on his face. His only felt the anger building up inside him. "I'd kill you too, but I need you for your knowledge." He slowly turned a walked towards the exit.
Dr. Mason went over to her son and his friend.
"We're leaving."
"Mom, what happened?" Michael asked. He looked to where the adults had been. Meison was already gone.
She didn't answer his question.
Both Sylia and Michael wondered what the adults talked about. They did know that whatever it was extremely bothered her.
Julianna offered to take Sylia home. The ride there was in silence.
When they arrived, Julianna walked Sylia to the door of her apartment. She left Michael in the car to wait for her return.
Before Sylia entered her apartment. Julianna spoke sadly. "Sylia, there is so much that I wish I could share with you about your father's work." A tear rolled down her cheek. "He would have been so proud you." She wanted to protect the young girl. Take her away from all of this. Julianna kissed her forehead. "Take care Sweetie."
"Ms. Mason?" Sylia asked."What did Meison tell you in the cemetery?"
Julianna cryptically spoke. "Sylia, whatever you do, stay away from him. Stay away from GENOM. They are responsible for so much." She added. "God help us all." Julianna turned and ran for the stairs. Sylia stood there in puzzlement over what the Doctor had just said.
When Julianna returned to her car, Michael was playing with the stereo and singing along. When she got back into the car, she took off like a bat out of hell. When they arrived back at their home, Julianna went into her room.
Michael stood there watching his mother run around like a lunatic.
She only stopped for a moment to tell him what to
do. "Michael, take whatever you want. We've got to go. We're going to Dr.
Geary's lab in Berlin."
She wanted to tell her son everything, but there wasn't enough time. "He threatened to kill us. Tonight we leave, and we're not coming back for awhile." Julianna packed everything that she could. Michael went to his room to pack, wanting to call Sylia and tell her what was going on. Julianna wouldn't let him. Within the next hour, they where on the plane out of Japan.
On the plane, Michael glanced down at the rapidly fading city that was his home. 'Goodbye Sylia.' Where the last thoughts that he had as the plane jetted away from Tokyo.
He walked around the stasis tank that held the Super-Boomer's body. It looked as if it where dreaming, as it floated there, suspended in the tank. The form that it had was misleading. It looked like a slender, fine featured twenty something male on the outside. Inside, was a system that could link to the military weapon satellites in orbit. Inside the cyberdroid's brain every memory that Meison had was there. Everything that he knew about GENOM was there also. He accomplished this with technology that he had developed while working with Dr. Stingray.
Brian felt like a god that had created his ultimate masterpiece.
The silence was broken by the ringing of Meison's cell phone.
"Yes?" he answered, annoyed at being disturbed.
"Mr. Meison, I'm sorry to disturb you at this hour sir.." a voice on the other end said. "This is Castillo with security. We've got a problem on our hands."
"Get to the point."
"It seems that GENOM tower is under attack, sir." the voice replied.
The executive could hear the sounds of alarms going off in the background. 'Must I make the decisions for everything?' he thought bitterly. "Send in the BU-55's."
"We did sir, they've been destroyed!"
"What?" he exclaimed then smiled. "Who is attacking the Tower?"
Castillo looked at the monitors that showed the progress of the attackers. "It appears to be four power armor units."
Meison was silent.
"What should I do?"
"Have a GENOM powered suit waiting for me at the main entrance. I'll be there in ten minutes." Meison shut his cell phone off. Anticipation filled his soul. He didn't want to keep her waiting.
The drive to the tower gave him time to think. He knew who was behind the attack on the tower. It was Sylia Stingray, Katsuhito's daughter. Once he saw the power armor that destroyed the superboomer at the Kawasaki plant, the designs echoed back to another project that Stingray was working on. It was Sylia.
Once he reached the tower, he got into the powered armor and headed towards the roof. "He was going to finish this once and for all.
On Top of GENOM tower.
Meison took both of her teammates down. Then he returned to attack Sylia. She realized that he had some kind of strategic computer combat system in his armor. "Shit! He knows what we're going to do before we do!" There had to be another way to get near him. "Nene?"
"Yes Sylia?"
"Is there anyway you can scramble his visual output?" Sylia was desperate for a chance to attack him.
"I can try." Nene started to run simulations at a rapid pace. "I can't scramble his output, but I can tamper with his scanners."
"Do it!" Sylia yelled.
"Okay! On the count of three, fake left and then go right at him! I can only do this for a few seconds!" Nene replied... "1,2,3!!"
Sylia faked to her left and threw herself to
the right, lunging straight at Meison. Sylia pushed him backwards, the both of them
sending sparks up into the air.
"Got him!"
Meison tried to counter Sylia, but he couldn't stop
her rapid fire attacks. Sylia released her vibro-blade and shoved it directly into the
area where his throat was .
Minutes later, the A.D. Police arrived. Leon McNichol stepped onto the roof and looked around. He noticed the red pool on the ground next to an armored figure. As he approached the downed figure, the face became clearer. It was no other than Brian J. Meison. Quincy's lackey. Next to the body, carved into the ground were two words: 'Knight Sabers'. "Nice, they just did Mega-Tokyo a huge favor." Leon smugly smiled.
Somewhere, A Superboomer opened its eyes......
Copyrighted by [email protected] This Work MAY NOT be copied, reproduced or edited without written consent from the author.