Earth, the year 2047, the city of New Mega Tokyo. It has been ten years since the fall of GENOM to the AD Police and the Night Sabers. Thirty-seven year old Sylia Stingray, thirty-four year old Linna Yamazaki, and thirty-three year old Nene Romanova are standing at the space plane loading ramp.
Sylia is pacing. "Where is she? This whole vacation was her idea. She could at least show up. The one time that our schedules allows us any time together anymore, and she hasn't come on a vacation with us in four years."
Nene smiles brightly over at her. "Calm down. Will you just trust that she will be here. She made all of the plans, and booked the rooms, everything. Does that sound like someone that is not going to show up? Again..."
Thirty-four year old Priscilla Asagiri comes running through the spaceport toward them. She is panting as she reaches the loading ramp. "Sorry I am late. I had to ditch some fans. You know how bad that can be. Good that all of you could make it. You are going to love our vacation on Mars. I am glad that you all agreed to come to St. Lowell with me."
Linna smiled at Priss. "Yes, we are all glad that you could make it too. We have missed you on the last few vacations. But, as I heard, you had things to take care of."
Priss frowned. She was in little mood to talk about her problems with her devorce, or about the court battle for costody that she had lost. She was also in very little mood to talk about her daughter, who she hadn't seen in almost three years. "Please, if we don't get on the spaceplane now, we will miss it."
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The same time, Mars, the city of St. Lowell. Julian Moore opens his eyes and looks up at the young blonde woman standing over him. "What happened? Who are you?"
The woman smiles down at him. "Welcome back, Julian. Did you really think that we could allow the male model to stay destroyed? I am Susan Terry. One of the scientist thirds, and one of the leaders of the Third Underground."
"Where is this place? And where is Armitage?" Julian sits up and looks around what looks like a lab. He is not very happy about being in a strange place. But Susan doesn't seem to be all that bad of a person to him. And he can feel that she is a Third model, like himself.
Susan shakes her head. "This is the Third Underground. You were dead for about a year. Armitage and Ross disappeared, so the Humans think. But of course, we know where they went. We even know that they had a baby boy two mouths ago."
"Well, it didn't take Armitage that long to start having kids. So, why don't you tell me about this Third Underground. Like, how did it get started. How did you hide from the Humans?" He looked down at his new hands as he talked to her.
"All that will come in time. First, you have to learn the new functions of you body. There are a few changes that we were able to incorperate into this body. Such as the ability to mature... You will be able to produce children of your own, in a few years. Providing that you find the right person to breed with." Susan walked over and picked up a bundle of clothing. "We recovered your hat for you, but we couldn't find a replacement for your coat. I hope that you don't mind..."
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The spaceplane lands and the four friends get off. They start gathering their bags. Then they walk out of the spaceport and get into a waiting car.
"Whatever made you choose Mars for a vacation spot, Priss? There some kind of new night club opening?" Linna asked as she looked out the window of the car. The city was dirty, and probably had more crime than Mega Tokyo had when it was plagued by the Boomers. But that was ten years ago, and it was now New Mega Tokyo. With the fall of GENOM, and the destruction of all Boomers, the city had become a lot safer. And the Night Sabers had stopped fighting crimes. Linna sighed, she almost missed the old days.
Priss just looked at Linna watching the city pass them by. "I picked it because I did. I thought that you would like coming to Mars. You always were the one that looked to the stars and said that our future lay out here. Well, here we are."
Nene giggled as she too watched the city go by. "I think that it is a nice place. A bit too dirty, but what place is perfect? I did hear a strange thing about Mars a while back though. I heard that they had robots here, a new kind. And that these could have babies. Isn't that silly?"
Priss just looked out the window, and said nothing. She had heard the same things. Some might not belive them, but after she had met the Last ountry Singer on one of her tours... She knew that it was true. There were robots that were a third model, and they could breed. She wasn't ready to tell her friends, but that was the very reason why she had brought them here. The Knight Sabers were needed again.
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The same time, just outside St. Lowell, Naomi Armitage is cooking dinner. Ross Sylibus is rocking little Thomas to sleep. Then, there is a knock at the door, and Armitage walks over. "I wander who this could be..."
On the other side of the door, Julian waits with a big smile on his face. As soon as Armitage has the door open, Julian rushes forward and gives her a kiss on her cheek. Armitage is so shocked that she takes a step back, then realizing who it is, she slaps Julian across the face very hard.
"Ouch! What was that for, Armitage? I thought that you would have been happy to see me. Maybe I was wrong." Before he could say anything else, Armitage grabbed his arm and yanked him inside.
"Who are you?" She looked at him as if he were another assassinroid. But there was also a pleading look in her eyes, she really wanted to believe that this was Julian come back.
"What do you mean? Who am I? Don't you remember me?" Julian reached up and covered his cheek with his hand. "You really are too violent. You know that, right. None of the other Thirds are programed for violence. But then, you can't really be called a Third anyway. You are more a female assassinroid."
"Well, you sure sound like Julian. But that doesn't mean a thing. Julian Moore is dead, and that means that you can't be him." Armitage didn't want to believe her own words. But how could Julian have gotten back out of the matrix and into a new body?
"Armitage, please. Have you seen me inside the matrix lately? No, you haven't. Heck, you haven't even been in to visit me in a long time. I was beginning to think that noone cared, or even remembered little Julian Moore. But then I wake up, and am looking into the eyes of another Third." He looked around, and saw Ross and baby Thomas.
Ross looked over, and seeing Julian standing there, he gasped. Julian was wearing the same thing that he had last seen him in, hat included, only the coat was missing. "Julian? Is that you? You aren't in the matrix anymore?"
Julian walked over and looked down at Thomas. "Well, looks like you really were looking to have this guy's kids afterall. Right, Armitage?" He lauged, and ducked as Armitage tried to hit him in the mouth. Then he stuck out his tounge at her.
"You really are Julian. But how? Who? I don't understand. And for your information, it isn't healthy for an expectant mother to enter the matrix to talk to her dead brother." She sat down and took the baby from Ross.
"Yeah, well, how would I know. I am a male, remember." Looking around, Julian found a endtable to sit down on. "Like it or not, I am back. And there are other Thirds that made it too. There was a complete seperate program making them. One that the good doctor didn't even know about. A group of Thirds became robot scientists. That is the who and the how of my return."
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