Senshi Sabers

Chapter 42

Loni Lenai sighed in relief as the lightweight cast was cut away from her hand and arm. "Your arm muscles are going to have atrophied a bit," the doctor cautioned her, "you'll need to do some physical therapy."

"Yes sir," Loni answered, making a face at how visibly weak the muscles in her arm were. The hand looked... withered, almost.

"Here's the contact info for a physical therapist," the doc handed a business card as he added, "paid for by Mr Kou."

"Ah," Loni took it, "thanks." She applied the special wrist guard to protect her still tender hand, then headed to her next appointment.

"Welcome back," Seiya Kou smiled warmly as he gestured to a seat.

"I'm not back just yet," Loni admitted, waving her one hand in the arm guard. "Part time until my muscles fully recover."

They were meeting at the nightclub that Seiya owned, alongside his other business interests. He liked the casual feel of the place. Plus, Loni got injured defending the club... she had got a heroine's welcome when she arrived.

"Do you want the good news or bad news?" Seiya asked as he poured her a drink.

"Bad," Loni answered as she sipped her scotch.

"We've lost a lot of security in a bio-boomer attack, and we're going to have to reorganize the teams," Seiya told her.

"Shit," Loni sighed. She had heard about how bad the attempted moving of Madigan had gone, but hadn't realized it was THAT bad... "What's the good news?" she asked.

"You're getting promoted to squad leader," Seiya said, "assuming you don't just quit on us. And we're sourcing upgraded armor and weapons."

"As a squad leader, would we get imput on the gear we get?" Loni asked thoughtfully as she gave him a wary look.

"Some," Seiya said cautiously.

"We need something like the Sabers' armor," Loni noted. "Regular light vests are a joke, as is most of the ADP gear. And a Battle Mover is too slow and clumsy."

"Agreed," Seiya nodded. "We're in talks to get something better."

"Okay, assuming that happens, then yes I'm still in," Loni said as she finished her drink.

"Glad to hear it," Seiya beamed. "I'll send you a link about the new staffing, eyc eyc," he told her breezily.

"And NO, I won't go out with you. Again," Loni added.

"How did you know I was going to ask you that?" Seiya wondered aloud as he walked her over to the door.

"You ALWAYS ask," Loni teased and they both laughed.

"Start the therapy soon," Seiya added as she left, "we need you back asap."

0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0

"Hey! You got your cast off," Usagi smiled as they sat together in the Three Lights Club about a hour or so later

"Heard you were caught up in that mess around Madigan," Loni awkwardly hugged her, "glad you're okay."

"Yeah, you were lucky to miss that," Usagi agreed.

Naru was less happy to see Loni, but both women were still pleasant with each other. The tension between them existed for various reasons. Naru knew that Loni had used them to feed info to the cops for Starlight. On the other hand, she and Usagi had used Loni to send info to her bosses. So it was a wash, basically...

"How's the hand?" Naru asked curiously.

"Bones have set, but I have weeks of physio to do," Loni sighed.

"Beer me!" Naru called out as she waved a bartender down. She looked at Loni again, "Are you okay to drink?"

"Thankfully I'm no longer on pain meds," Loni smiled as she and Usagi each got mugs of beer. All three took a drink and sighed happily.

The three caught each other up, including details of Loni's promotion. "Congrats, squad leader," Usagi said cheerfully.

"Yeah, your life expectancy is worse than the ADP's," Naru noted wryly.

"Naru!" Usagi scolded.

"Not a lie," Loni conceded, "supposedly the bosses are getting us upgraded armor and gear. We'll see, obviously."

"We certainly need something better than battle movers," Usagi agreed.

"This idiot suggested to our bosses we put the Sabers on retainer," Naru teased.

Loni burst into laughter. "You have balls of steel," she told Usagi.

"Ovaries," Usagi corrected with a smirk.

Naru snickered.

Usagi poured them all a refill from the pitcher of beer. "I do wonder where the Sabers get their armor... maybe we could buy it?" she mused.

"Probably just some super secret US lab or something," Loni sighed.

0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0

Ami Mizuno sneezed suddenly.

"Someone talking about you?" Rei Hino teased as she watched Ami work on the new suit she was building for Haruka.

"Ha," Ami smiled faintly.

"Do you want some more tea?" Rei suggested mildly. "Could be that the dust is bothering you," she added.

"It's fine," Ami waved that off.

"So... you're serious about selling our armor to Starlight?" Rei had to ask.

"Yes and no," Ami answered as she bolted down a interior connector. She slid out from under the lift, "I'm selling them the prototype of the prototype."

"Huh?" Rei blinked.

As Ami wiped her hands on a damp cloth she noted, "When I first started designing these suits, I built a rough version from off the shelf components. Just to see what was possible."

"How was it?" Rei had to ask.

"It chaffed, and had a LOT of bugs," Ami deadpanned. She smiled wryly and continued, "However, after some tinkering I got it to work, and it was lighter weight and less expensive than a comparable military level mecha."

"And that's what you're selling Starlight," Rei nodded thoughtfully. "Why not Infinity, though?" she had to ask.

"Because I don't trust Hotaru Tomoe entirely," Ami admitted. "I also know Seiya Kou better, and as Starlight is a smaller company I can keep a closer eye on them."

"Makes sense," Rei conceded.

"Pass me the circuit boards," Ami moved back under the suit, "I want to get this finished before dinner, ideally."

"No breaks before dinner?" Rei asked teasingly.

Ami accidentally dropped a component, hitting herself in the forehead, "Ow!"

0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0

Hotaru Tomoe got the news from a well paid source in Starlight. Well, technically they were a corporate spy...

"Why not have us build the suits?" Kaori sounded actually offended.

Hotaru sighed as she put the papers on her desk, "I do sort of see the logic."

"Oh?" Kaori looked curious.

"We are a very big company with a huge internal network," Hotaru said, "it is incredibly difficult to keep information secure."

Kaori nodded to the papers on Hotaru's desk.

"Point," Hotaru laughed, "but this is just a briefing. I haven't got the actual plans, and I don't know if my source could get them."

"Still," Kaori sighed.

Hotaru looked sad, just a little, as she also admitted, "And honestly, I'm not sure Ami Mizuno even likes me that much."

Kaori literally had no idea how to respond to that...

Hotaru shook that off, getting back to business, "Starlight will be selling the light armor, probably after they get enough made for their internal security," she noted.

"We want to buy them, obviously," Kaori agreed.

"Us and we need to get the ADP equipped," Hotaru said. "We should enter into talks with Seiya over how to best supply the ADP, especially, and how quickly we can do it."

"You think Mistress Nine will attack soon," Kaori guessed.

"I'm almost certain of it," Hotaru said grimly.

To be continued...

Notes: Yes, I'm giving characters armor, but it's going to be sorta like early Iron Man armor, not the high tech suits around now. And there will be various issues.