A Truce Between Drinks

By Mike S.

The name Bubblegum Crisis and characters here within are copyright of
Artimic & Youmex and are used without permission. Characters and
themes within specific to the BGC 2090 series are copyright of
Alexander Gray and are used with permission. Other characters and
themes are copyright of Mike S.

This story may be freely distributed as long as this header is quoted,
the author is referenced, and the contents are not altered without
permission of the author.

This work of fanfic borrows characters and themes from BGC 2090, but
is not otherwise associated with this series in any shape or form.

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Summary
-------

Set before the BGC 2090 series, Sam is visited by an old.....
Acquaintance, at a bar on an out of the way alternate Earth. What dose
this acquaintance want with Samantha, and what dose he bring to the
table that makes even Samantha De'Naime pause.

    *   *   *   *

Location: Fox's Trot. America, Earth (Alt.)
Time: April 27th 2002 AD. 11:58 PM


    Sam sat at the bar enjoying a wonderful fruit cocktail, when a man
sat down next to her and motioned to the bar-tender. Sam noticed the
man staring at her out of the corner of his eye, but paid no mind, she
was at a bar after all. When the bartender arrived, the man ordered a
pitcher of beer but no glasses.

    'Bah' she thought. 'Must have others at a table needing a refill
for their drinks.'

    But when the bartender brought the man's order, he didn't leave.
He just sat there. He slowly took a drink right out of the pitcher,
but then spat out a mouth-full into the face of the poor bartender who
was still waiting for payment.

    "What the bloody hell is this swill!?" He demanded.

    "It's what you ordered, you jerk!" the bartender said wiping of
her face with a towel.

    "The hell it is, I've drinking alcohol two-hundred years before
you were born, so don't tell me--"

    "All-right buddy I think you've had enough for tonight." A big
bouncer interrupted, pulling the man away from the bar. "Time to
leave."

    "No," the man said calmly. "I don't believe it is."  He calmly
waved his hand in one pass and smirked. "I'm not the droid you're
looking for." He said quietly.

    The bouncers face went slack a moment then straitened, looked
apologetically at the man. "I'm sorry sir, you're not the droid I'm
looking for..."He trailed off as he turned to leave.

    "Not a problem, my good man. Good luck in your search."

    Sam was not the only one thrown off by the exchange, so was the
bartender. "What the hell did you do to Joe!?" she yelled.

    The man swung around in his seat making the same motion with his
hand as he did. "Just a simple misunderstanding, that’s all, forget
about it." She too went slack a moment, and then recovered herself.
When her eyes focused on the man again, she simply smiled.

    "Hello, sir. How may I serve?" she asked sweetly, beer dripping
from her chin.

    The man looked at Sam's drink. "I'll have what she's having."
"Very good sir." she said, leaving.

    Sam finally collecting herself, turning to confront the man,
calling her Power to her she did a quick scan of the man as he
chuckled at the bartender as her co-worker asked why she was covered
in beer. The probe seemed to get his attention. He turned to face Sam.
He simply smiled and slowly shook his head.

    "Bars never seem able to find good help anymore, do they Sam?"

    Before Sam could say anything, the bartender returned. "Here you
are sir." The bartender said handing the man his drink. "Thank you,
miss." he replied, putting a few bills on the bar to pay for the
drink.

    "Who are you??!!" Sam spat.

    "Lesley." Said the taken aback bartender.

    "Not you!" Sam said. "Him!"

    "Oh..."

    "And no more games, I am no longer in the mood." she warned him as
Lesley left. The man, smiling again, turned to face Sam . "No more
Games?" he asked. "But when have you not played games Samkruagh-.."

    With in-Human strength, Sam lunged at the man's throat. "When I'm
angry." she hissed, enjoying the shade of red/blue his face was
turning. "Who are you?"

    After a moment of gagging he calmly reached up, took her wrist and
twisted it sharply, breaking her death grip on his windpipe. Sam
recoiled and cradled her injured wrist to her chest.

    "For me to answer, I must breath." he said.

    Sam could barely hold her anger in check. -How dare this vermin
provoke her...- she stopped. -Force her hand away with ease? A Noble
perhaps? If so...-

    She took a closer look at him, trying to identify this Nobles
family, his features looked vaguely familiar but she couldn't place
it. He seemed to notice her difficulty.

    "Let me give you a hint." he offered softly.

    He pulled out a cigarette and a lighter. Placing the cigarette
between his lips, he looked into Sam's green eyes, with his now
clouded over ones. Sam's eyes widened in surprise as the man flicked
the lighter to life and brought it up to the cigarette, as he did, his
eyes glowed as they reflected the light. He put the lighter away and
took a sip from his drink, then looked back at Sam. "Remember me now,
Sam?" he asked, his eyes flaring with their own light.

    "Stryker." Sam whispered in disbelief, feeling her anger and the
darkness slip back into dormancy.

    Stryker lifted his glass in salute, his eyes now returned to their
human appearance. "Been awhile."

    "Yes," Sam said quietly. "It’s been over..."

    "Three-hundred years." he finished.

    "How?"

    "People change Sam, you of all beings in the...anywhere...should
know that."

    "Yes..." she whispered. "But how? Are you...a....."

    "Noble?" he asked, taking another sip from his glass. "In
short.....no I'm not. However, as I understand it, you weren't the
only beings to survive the Prime Verse." Stryker noticed the
expression on Sam’s face. "I know that time was had for you so I'll
try to be quick." he said gently.

    Sam nodded her thanks and for him to continue, while suppressing
her memories of that..time.. of her life.

    "Do remember talking with me about destiny?"

    Sam simply nodded.

    "Well, it seems my destiny was to become a Supreme Being, by
absorbing one of the survivors into myself and to destroy the leader
of that group."

    Sam processed that a moment, while Stryker returned to his drink.
"That would mean that.. we're...cousins?" she asked.

    Stryker looked up from his drink. "Interesting...but as I
understand it.....yes, I suppose we could be at that." he said.

    "Half-cousin anyway." he amended, smiling.

    "So, what brings you to this alternate?" Sam asked, grinning.
"Cousin."

    Stryker swirled the contents of his glass before answering. "I
came," he began, still staring at the liquid. "To ask, to be left
alone."

    "You want me to leave you alone? You just got here." she teased.

    "Not just me Sam, my alternate and any alternate that has my
people on it, I want them free of any and all Games being Played." he
said, looking her in the eyes. "That is my request, I have made it a
request because due to my new abilities, I have.... seen things. I
know what you've done to people who've insulted you."

    "Yes. Bad things do happen to people who insult me." Samantha
warned, her eyes darkening.

    "Lady Samantha, how are you this fine night?"Stryker asked bowing
his head slightly.

    "Very well, as long as you don't push me any farther."

    "All right," he replied, looking at the crowd around them. "Lets
go some where more..... private, shall we?"

    In an instant they were in a field of grasses and wild flowers. A
gentle wind blowing threw Samantha's hair, while the sun warmed her
chilled skin. Sam would have loved this place, she would have picked
the flowers and laid on her back in the grass, enjoying the sun.
Samantha however was frozen in place unable to do anything other than
stare with black eyes of rage at Stryker, only a few feet away.

    "Release me vermin!!" Samantha hissed viscously. Stryker turned to
face her, his appearance no longer that of a Human, he now was as Sam
remembered him. His skin back to its tanned leather brown, his muzzle
like nose and the red painted mark over his left eye. His blond hair
and goatee was the only thing that stayed the same. "I know you don't
hear this at...well.... at all but, you were just the one I was
looking for, Samantha De'Naime."

    "Oh? Looking for an early death are we?"

    "Try it."

    With that, Samantha was free.

    With an evil giggle she unleashed her full Power on him. The grass
and flowers around her wilted and turned to ash under the assault.
Stryker simply smirked, suddenly changing again, into a being of pure
light and energy with identical mark on his right eye, this one black.
The Darkness twittered slightly as if confused, then continued it's
attack, consuming every thing in it's path. Stryker stood his ground.
When the twittering Darkness reached him, he simply waved his hand and
the Darkness veered off course, slamming into the ground just feet
away. Stryker held his hand out with his palm towards the ground, then
suddenly twisting it around and made a fist. As he did, Samantha's
Darkness seemed to collapse in on itself until it was compacted into a
ball the size of her fist.

    "Enough!" Stryker said calmly, but it had enough Power behind it,
that it brought Samantha out of her rage. "I did not bring you here as
a Challenge, Sam."

    "Then why?"

    "To prove a point, I would like to be left alone. But seeing as I
know what you are, I thought you could use a reason why to leave me
alone." he explained. "I've kept an eye on your behavior since our
last...meeting. Also, I provoked you Samantha, because I know you
enjoy Playing your games, so I went to you and not Sam."

    Samantha went over that a moment, he did have a point; she
wouldn't have taken him seriously if not for this...demonstration.
"Very well," she said finally, "my Family and I will accept your terms
in this.... Truce."

    "Including any Enforcers you may..... acquire in the future?" he
inquired.

    "An odd amendment."

    "I know you like to prepare for the future Samantha."

    "Indeed, very well, I accept. Any and all alternates with your
species on them shall stay untouched in my Games."

    Stryker nodded his thanks as he released his hold on Samantha and
the Darkness. "As an added bonus, Samantha, this...conversation was
shielded from Nobles and their Families." he commented. "So your Games
are unaffected, as if none of this happened."

    Samantha nodded her thanks. "For that, you will have a 'hands off'
order placed on you, so you may come to an alternate were I am and we
can...have a drink sometime."

    Stryker bowed. "I would enjoy that very much, Samantha."

    With that, Stryker brought them back to the club where they began.

    Stryker bowed, bid Sam a good night, and made his way to the exit.
Leaving Samantha to stare at the liquid in her glass, new plans
swimming in her mind.

    "Enforcers.."She giggled, rubbing her hands together. "What a
delicious idea."

    Yes...delicious in deed and she knew just how to do it too, this
was going to be fun!

                *   *   *   *

    Stryker stumbled out of the club's exit, barely making it across
the street to the car, which awaited him in a darkened ally. As he
approached, a man got out of the front drivers side door, and moved to
open the rear door on that side.

    "Seeing that you are alive, I trust that your plan was
successful." the man said in a light tone.

    "Yes, it seems it did at that, I just hope she doesn't think too
much about what happened." Stryker replied. "Otherwise we might be in
for some..... trouble."

    "What do you mean by that?" the man asked, pausing at the rear
door.

    "It depends, on how Samantha will see our little deception, if she
figures out how I did it anyway."Stryker started to explain. "She may
be impressed by my ingenuity, or worse case scenario, I pushed her too
far and she'll take out her rage on us."

    "Honestly, I would hope to god she goes with the first one, if you
ask Me." he commented, finally opening the door and allowing the
exhausted Stryker to enter the car.

    Stryker leaned back in his seat and smiled wearily at the man.
"That is the same hope you and I share Mr. Frost."

    Frost shut the door and quickly returned to the drivers seat,
nervously glancing over his shoulder, half expecting a pissed off god
to expel her rage at them.

            *    *   *   *

    As the car pulled out of the ally Stryker turned to the others in
the car with him, a young looking woman who appeared to be in her
twenties, was cradling the head of a young girl in her lap. Neither
the woman or the child, were human, they both came from rifts in
space-time. The woman, Ashlynn, had shoulder length black hair that
hid her face until she turned to face Stryker. Then the feature that
set her apart from looking totally human came into view, her eyes, her
iris was colored white and was surrounded in black. Giving her a very
unsettling look about her. The child Mya, on the other hand, looked
more like a blue elf with red eyes. Her hair was a shade darker than
her skin and cut short, except for her long bangs that framed her
face, which were dyed purple.

    "Are you and Mya all right?" he asked Ashlynn.

    She glanced down at Mya then back at him before answering. "I'm
still tired from keeping our link open while you were in that rift,
that distance, not to mention the time difference. It put a huge
strain on our bond."

    "I know, it was like having my head stuffed in a pillow,
especially when I powered up." he said, massaging his head.

    "Oh, by the way, I found an interesting problem Mya's teleporting
ability." she off handedly commented, softly stroking the sleeping
girl's hair.

    Stryker cocked an eyebrow. The ability to transport himself to
other places, he shared with Ashlynn. The problem with his or her
ability was that if you forced someone with you, that someone could
trace the destination. It was like following the wake of a boat. That
was why he needed Mya, if she made the doorway and he pulled someone
in, that someone wouldn't be able to trace the destination. In theory
anyway.

    "What kind of problem?" he asked carefully.

    "Well, it seems that if she doesn't pass through the doorway, it
drains her strength significantly. You almost didn't come back in
fact."

    Shit. That _would_ have been bad.

    "She _seems_ fine for now," she went on. "It appears she's in some
kind of healing sleep, or something close anyway."

    "But everything worked otherwise, correct?"

    Ashlynn smiled thinly. "You tell me. Did Samantha notice we sent
her to a Shard that was time dated in the Prime-Verse?"

    Stryker shook his head. "I don't think so, I had her so royally
pissed, I think she was tunnel visioned. Besides, when she unleashed
her darkness, it started destabilizing the rift." he said with a
shiver.

    Ashlynn shivered as well. "I had heard that that darkness was the
cause of the Prime-Verses' death in the first place, it seems that it
got another peace of it. Mya mentioned something about the rift
fragmenting as she brought you back, so Samantha couldn't 'go home'
even if she found out about it, that’s.... sad."

    Stryker nodded.

    It had worked then. Like an illusionist, he distracted his
audience with his left hand, so she wouldn't notice what the right
hand was doing. The most dangerous gambit he had ever played out was
over and done with, even _if_ they located another suitable rift, it
would never work a second time. And even though Samantha offered him a
friendly drink at some time in the future, Stryker made the conscious
decision to stay as far away from Samantha as he could for a while,
like maybe a thousand years or so.

    IF he could get away with it...


    -END for now....

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My character, Stryker, is from a time when gremlins, elves, and
assorted other mythical creatures were real and still around. He is
also not human, in fact he's half human, half ...well, I'll get into
that if people want to know more. :)    As a great person once said:
'Always leave them wanting more.'
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