Fortune
After a long and heart wrenching battle, Bruno generally wanted to lie low, maybe settle into some normal routine. That was the plan anyway, sucking your best friend on earth into a giant black hole does not go unnoticed or in the case of his former teammates, unpunished. The children begged him to bring him back. As if anything survived in the pitch black nothingness, not that he told them that, instead, Antimony assured them that they were safe and so was the world. Yes because he was still Antimony then, and as disappointed as he was that his friend had failed to find an alternate path, he had done his job. Crow and Sherry didn't want to believe that Yusei had fallen. The words' traitor and liar were spread around like butter. He ignored them and proceeded to return to Zone with the few precious minutes he had left. Aki, that wicked witch because that was what she was at that moment, threw him. Caring little about his precious future, she screamed, cried, and punched until each blow felt like a giant droplet drowning him in karmic retribution. Yusei was gone. It was his fault. She'd see to it that he joined him. And Jack, the one who most vocally distrusted him from the beginning, only walked away, bitter and disappointed.
If he could choose, Antimony would have chosen some other way. He'd counted on Yusei to find some other way. His death left him with little options and no allies, so, Bruno did the one thing he could think of. He challenged Zone. He'd laughed as if he'd told a particularly clever joke. He repeated the challenge. Zone hushed, and each stared at the other. All his creations, the remnants of his friends, were destroyed, except this one; he hesitated. Clarifying the risks as he was prone to do, Zone told him that he would not come out of the fight alive. Bruno accepted anyway. Being made of sophisticated metallic sinews and convincing fleshy material, he had calculated his chance of victory, point zero one percent, how he'd defied that, he didn't know.
Yet, he'd managed to do that and keep the Arc Cradle from demolishing the city. If Crow still indulged in wise cracks with him, he would have claimed that it was due to his robotic origins. But, no one talked to him much nowadays or looked him in the eye. Bruno could live with that. For the last six months, he had worked to recreate life, much like Zone had done before him. And when he finally completed momentum's heart, his dear comrades couldn't find enough to say.
"Bruno, how could you?" Jack shouted at him, and Bruno instinctively jerked away. He could break every bone in his body, but Jack hit hard was all that registered in that instant.
"I thought you two would appreciate it," He admitted because deep down he had wanted his friend back in some way and had assumed they would too. Crow scowled, glancing at the carbon copy who was simply walking around Momentum's core.
"That's not Yusei, and we don't appreciate you trying to pretend that you didn't do what you did," Crow said as they both cornered him.
"His name is Fortune," Bruno corrected him. He would not be accused of replacing their friend.
"You're tarnishing Yusei's memory with that empty shell," Jack exclaimed as he lifted Bruno off the ground.
"What is he, some novelty item you decided to make?" Crow demanded as Bruno struggled to get out of Jack's grip.
"No, he is connected to Momentum, and designed to keep it running smoothly," Bruno gasped, glad that Jack decided to drop him to the floor.
" Wait a second. He's not like you then? He can't feel?" Crow asked the recovering robot. Bruno shook his head.
"Not exactly, I didn't give him Yusei's memories, but he does have his personality to an extent. Except, he's ordered to forever guard Momentum and therefore, has no other purpose. His thoughts don't go beyond that," Bruno explained to the duo. They narrowed their eyes. How dare he mock them with a machine that couldn't even comprehend why they were upset at his existence.
"Is there something wrong Bruno? I sense a lot of ill intent in this area," Fortune asked, jumping across the railway easily. The replica showed no signs of recognizing them and waited patiently for Bruno's orders.
"No, just talking to a few friends," Bruno assured him. Fortune nodded, bumping into Jack upon his exit. The contact unsteadied him so he almost fell into Momentum's core. Fortune caught him and dusted him off like a shopkeeper would an antique.
"Be careful. There's a reason I oversee most of this. People cause accidents," The machine informed him politely. Jack curled his fingers into a fist. The damn robot had bumped into him. So, if the silly model couldn't comprehend what he was told beyond caring for the facility, he'd take advantage of that for all it was worth.
"You're not Yusei," Jack spat at the object of controversy. Fortune hung his head low as he retreated to his usual post.
"I know," Fortune replied leaving the entire group's mouths agape. Most of the time, he had little to do with how Momentum ran. The thing ran itself except for an occasional mishap that he would fix. Never mind that Bruno would console him by saying the entire human race depended on his existence, in truth, he ran the information desk.
So, he tended to sit in his wheelie chair until someone approached him whether it was a lost visitor or a tour group. As of late, he had been getting a special visitor which he valued more than all the smiling children and old grandpas' he saw on a regular basis combined. The lady, or Aki as she had told him on her last visit, slipped a rose on his desk. He took the offering and placed it in the special vase he had acquired for such occasions which Bruno hadn't quite given up searching for.
"Hello Yusei," Aki greeted him casually. Fortune fell from his chair. The lady tended to make him glitch. She helped him up. Staring at the motivational poster in front of him, he tried to set her straight again.
"I'm Fortune, is there any information you need miss Aki?" He said in a tone that he hoped would make his programming apparent. Miss Aki smiled.
"Upload, Fortune Cup's semi finals," She answered intently. Pretending to be busy with some papers on his desk, he refused.
"I'd rather not," Fortune insisted. She'd tricked him last time. He knew better now.
"You asked," She argued. Fortune fought the urge to comply. The lady would confuse him again, and Bruno would make him sit through another check up.
" I'm required to say that to all visitors. You're not special," he countered. Aki's eyes filled with tears, and she backed away.
"I see. He would never say that to me," she claimed, about to walk out. Unwilling to let her go in her current state, Fortune grabbed her shoulder, and she attempted to undo his hold only to come to grips with his steely fingers. He reached the conclusion that he could hold her infinitely, but that he was no closer from undoing the damage he did. He sighed and gave up. What did it matter what happened to him? Bruno could undo the side effects. He did last time.
"Uploading, Fortune Cup semi finals," He stated, and Aki latched onto him like a tapeworm. Most treated him like a museum piece and avoided touching him. The sensations she brought forth muddled his thoughts. Her actions strategic and calculated, she did everything in a series of steps. Fortune braced himself for the next part.
"Fortune, save file to your memory," Aki ordered, and immediately, his head swam with images of whips, cuts, and a much more vicious Aki. As he processed the information, his programming wanted to group the new file with his personal experiences. He tried redirecting it to short term memory.
"Yusei," She called him as she had persistently done for the last few days. This triggered the reaction she hoped for.
"Yes, Aki," he replied although he couldn't seem to remember anything else. Aki stroked his hair, and her actions didn't really fit with the lashings she had given him before.
"Are you all right?" he questioned her. Her expression wasn't one of a raging witch, but considering the last words he heard come out of her mouth were help me, he wanted to make sure. She nodded, and he noted that she wasn't even wearing the same clothes.
"How long was I out?" he asked which caused Aki to hold him tightly. This machine held the key to resurrecting the man she'd lost prematurely. Currently, every time she inserted Yusei's memories into this conduit. The results were flawless. He squirmed, not expecting such an open display of affection.
"Six months," she stated. He rose, completely out of sorts. She must have injured him and put him out of commission for a while. Maybe amnesia too, he could only remember that one duel and something about signers and the Arcadia movement that made no sense.
"I don't remember anything. Aki what happened?" Yusei asked, opting to take her word for it. Her temperament seemed to have improved at least.
"You will soon," Aki promised.
"Fortune, upload my second duel with Yusei," She directed, and Fortune snapped out of his contrived delusion. He realized that she had full control of the situation as he had indeed begun uploading that particular file.
"Aki, stop, I will never be Yusei," Fortune told the lady. Miss Aki didn't like that response. The way she shifted to a more feline countenance and maneuvered him to the floor attested to that.
"Save to memory and every other file under the category Yusei Fudo," She prompted forcing Fortune to overwhelm his system with memories. He'd made a mistake. Bruno couldn't possibly erase all of it now, not completely.
"Good, Yusei, come with me" Aki cooed as he awoke.
"I need to unlock the last planetary gear," Yusei insisted reiterating his last mission. She couldn't help but cradle him in her arms. He looked up and his eyes were unfocused, and she could see a few of Fortune's circuits like if she'd switched him to sleep mode.
"Bruno took care of that," She assured him, navigating the unfocused plethora of wires and code out of the building.
"Oh okay," He replied, and she was sure that she could get him to agree and say all sorts of things in his current state but that wasn't her objective. The doorway was in sight when Bruno ran to the lobby in a panic.
"Fortune, Momentum's exhibiting random spikes of energy. The last one nearly took out all the people on the third floor," Bruno cried, causing her captive's eyes to regain their lost awareness. Glaring at Aki, he pushed her away and walked into Momentum's central room. The sparks ceased as Fortune returned to his little information desk and straightened his name plate. Bruno scratched his head. Fortune had lost control.
"I think another check up is in order," Bruno decided, and Fortune slammed his head on the desk. Bruno patted his back sympathetically.
"Tell you what, we'll wait till tomorrow provided that nothing else goes wrong with Momentum," Bruno said, placating his creation. He wasn't that old and had already taken quite a few insults from Bruno's peers.
"Fine," Fortune stated, turning his back on his creator. Wanting to avoid another volatile reacion, he opted to give Fortune some space. Bruno frowned when he saw Aki. She couldn't have. He decided and moved out of the way when she didn't budge. Aki approached Fortune who held his head, experiencing the closest thing to a headache he could manage.
"Go away," Fortune said, tired of always being strung along.
"Fortune please, won't you pretend for me? I'm lonely," She begged. He scoffed, but at least, she had freedom. The minute he left the premises, he shut down completely.
"Do you honestly have anything better to do? " She asked. Fortune had endless time on his hands, and naturally, he tended to fill that time doing useful if tedious things: sorting through each particle for potential threats, supervising workers, and providing assistance to Bruno. Somehow, he managed to still spend hours at his little help desk, bored.
"Not right now, no, but Bruno will," Fortune admitted before starting to object. Barely a week old, Fortune wasn't left on his own much. Constant check ups, general observation, testing for logic errors, Bruno smothered Momentum's guardian.
"Don't tell him," She commanded as she wrapped her arms around his waist.
"He'll get mad," Fortune said with a sense of impending doom. The man would notice if his memory bank had Yusei's memories. Bruno would worry and when he worried, Fortune was reduced to staying in Momentum's central room where people rarely ventured.
" He won't find out. Besides, you like me," Aki said inching closer. Two contradicting responses represented themselves. He went with the one that he was familiar with.
"Miss Aki, under section eighty seven robots aren't allowed to sexually harras . . . " Fortune said, reciting the words directly from the manual. She kissed him, and he reacted to her touch similarly. The millions of files shoved into his brain told him to because Fortune has no other choice but to fulfill the purpose given to him.