THE CRYPTON CREW
By MargaritaDaemonelix
Chapter 1: To the Drawing Board
It was a beautiful summer afternoon. The skies were blue, the clouds were drifting across the sky lazily, and there was a cool breeze that countered the swelling heat of the sun.
Yet the afternoon wasn't perfect at all.
Why?
The Crypton City Hall was up in flames.
A school group hurried out of the building, led by a man with black hair and round glasses and a young woman with bright blue hair. "Twenty eight… Twenty nine… Where's Yuki? Kaai Yuki?" Panicked the teacher, Kiyoteru Hiyama. "She was talking to the mayor's assistant the last I saw her," said a young boy at the back of the class, raising his hand.
Kiyoteru scowled. Yuki was definitely a little too curious for her own good sometimes. "Lapis, watch them," he told his assistant. "Everyone, stay with Miss Aoki, alright?" He barked at the class. "Yes, sir!" Came the reply. Lapis grinned. "Everyone to the bus stop!"
As the class cleared away to the bus stop, Kiyoteru's confident grin melted off his face. Glaring at the burning building, he was about to make his way in when a red pickup truck screeched to a stop on the lawn. "The Crypton Crew!" Gasped Kiyoteru. The group of young adults was legendary in Crypton for saving lives everywhere. Their motto, somewhat ironically, was "When 911 can't, the Crypton Crew can."
The fire department and the police were so pissed.
The driver's door opened to reveal a man with short, dark blue hair, a white coat wrapped around him loosely and a blue scarf dangling off his neck and shoulders. He pulled a laptop out of his bag and began typing something furiously. "Meiko, can you save the building?" He asked the brunette next to him. She pulled on a pair of fingerless black gloves, glancing at the blueprint that the blue haired man had pulled up. "I'll see what I can do."
The back door opened to reveal a young woman with short, vivid green hair. "Megpoid reporting for duty," she told the others, strapping on a pair of white goggles with pink lenses. "Find out what caused the fire, Gumi," instructed the man still working on the computer, who was probably the leader of the group, hacking into a GPS satellite somewhere.
Meiko was climbing into the first story window when flames began licking at her bare knees. "Dammit," she yelled at the leader. "Kaito, flames have reached the first floor!"
A purple blur came running to her. "Gackpo, can you do anything about it?" Asked Meiko. The man next to her swung his long purple hair around and peered into the building. "Water balloons, maybe?" He offered. Meiko glared at him. "Whaaaat?"
Kiyoteru saw an opening and ran to the truck. "Please, can you save my student? She's trapped in there with the mayor's assistant!" He pleaded. A tall woman with pink hair walked out of the truck, placing a hand on his shoulder. "It's alright, she'll be fine," assured the woman softly. "C'mon, we're the freaking Crypton Crew! We can handle things."
Out of the trunk of the truck jumped a young woman, barely out of her teens, with incredibly long teal pigtails. "Luka's got that right," she said nonchalantly. "See? Even Miku says so, and Miku never agrees with me on anything," said Luka, quite amused.
A shriek of horror rose over the crackling flames. Gumi came running back to the group, her eyes wide. "Gumi?" Asked Kaito, uncertain of what had happened. "A girl just ran into the building," spluttered the green-haired woman, shaking the hair out of her face as she removed her goggles. "Around twenty, blonde hair, blue eyes, shorter than me."
Kaito scowled. "Dammit," he muttered, peering into the back of the truck. A few grappling hooks were not going to do anything to help the people now doubtlessly trapped inside the building. This was going to be a tight mission.
The one remaining closed door of the truck opened as a young man with icy blue eyes and blonde hair stepped out. "Len, we're in a little trouble," said Kaito. Len cracked his knuckles, the sunlight dancing off his hair turning it golden. "Leave it to me."
As he was about to make his way into the building, a young woman with equally blonde hair, wearing a tan trench coat, came flying out of the building, Kaai Yuki in her arms. Aoki Merli, the mayor's assistant and Lapis's older sister, climbed out after her, coughing.
Len groaned, turning back to the truck. He'd never been upstaged before, especially not by a citizen! "Vigilante," he muttered under his breath. Kaito grabbed his arm before he could get back into the truck. "I have the security tapes here. Like it or not, Len, we could use a team member who shows so much courage and potential," he scolded. "She just wants to be famous," growled Len. "Maybe get a boyfriend. Get into the news. Be awarded for saving two people. She isn't worth going after."
As if on cue, someone yelled "Hey! Where's that girl that saved Yuki and Merli?" off in the distance. Kaito turned to Len, his face reading See? Kaitooooo~ knows best! "Miku, can you track her down?" He asked the girl with the teal pigtails beside him. "Last known location?" She asked, exchanging the sandals on her feet for a pair of lightweight running shoes. "Signal and Cendrillion," called Luka after the disappearing Miku. "IT'S ADOLESCENCE THERE, NOT CENDRILLION!" She hollered as she ran, but no one really heard her.
Now all the Crew had to do was kill time. After the fire was put out completely, and those injured and harmed were taken to the hospital, the Crypton Crew waited patiently outside the ruined City Hall for Miku. Gackpo found a willow tree and, using his long purple hair, managed to climb to the top to be a lookout. Len went back into the truck, scrolling down the windows so he could get a cool breeze. Kaito ran to the nearest ice cream store to get a cone, and came back with a triple scoop-vanilla on top, strawberry in the middle and mint chocolate chip at the bottom.
The girls weren't as… Productive as the guys were, and ultimately sat in the grass to enjoy the sun. Meiko braided willow twigs, Luka braided clover flowers and Gumi braided Luka's hair. After about half an hour of this… Level of productivity, in which Kaito had finished his ice cream, Gackpo gave a shrill scream and jumped out of the tree, tripping over his belt as he landed and faceplanting in the grass. "Miku, incoming!" He yelled, peeling himself off the lawn.
Sure enough, Miku was coming back, with the blonde woman tied to a children's wagon that the teal haired girl had leeched off some unfortunate person's lawn. The sweat pouring off Miku's face said it all as she collapsed on the grass. "Never again," she declared before dropping her head on the grass and laying there, exhausted.
Meiko calmly undid the slightly unnecessary knots that Miku had done to tie the young woman to the seat. "Sorry Miku had to pull the grappling hooks on you," she whispered gently. "She usually isn't like this."
"HEY!" Came the indignantly angry reply. "I'LL HAVE YOU KNOW THAT I HAD NO OTHER CHOICE! SHE WAS RESISTING POTENTIAL ARREST!"
The blonde woman scowled. "I'm being arrested?!" She demanded, flexing her wrists. "I moved here today! Is this some kind of sick joke that happens to everyone moving to Crypton City? I went into a burning building to save two people. I think I've had enough drama for one day, don't you?"
The others glanced at each other wearily. She could out-rant Len easily if she tried.
Luka stepped forwards. "I'm sorry if we scared you," she said soothingly. "You're not being arrested. We-well, at least I do-we think you're very brave, and quite full of potential, and really, we could use someone like that on our team," she explained. "We're the Crypton Crew. We come into emergency situations when no one else can. And right now, we're still a small group. So we want to welcome you into the Crypton Crew. You can stay at my house too. We can try a three-month installment, with full pay, and if you want to stay afterwards, you can stay, and if you want to go, you can go. So whaddya say?"
Gumi snorted, having tied the end of Luka's braid with the grass braid Luka had made. "Lu-chan has a way with words. Long story short, you work with us three months, and at the end you decide what you want to do. You good?"
The blonde woman blushed. "I don't work well in these situations," she murmured. Luka slugged her in the shoulder. "You practically flew in there and saved Yuki and Merli," she chittered. "C'mon, help us out?"
Uncertainty lining her face, the young woman nodded. Luka beamed. "Great! I'm Megurine Luka. I work with calming down panicking people and stuff like that. What's your name, sweet?"
"My name is Kagamine Rin. I came here from Sapporo," said Rin. "I worked in a chemical factory there until recently."
Kaito pushed his way to the front of the circle to face Rin. "I'm Shion Kaito, leader of the team. I do the hacking and stuff, and annoying Len-Len," he said, earning a punch from the brunette standing next to him. "Sakine Meiko. I do the building plans and electrical stuff," she said, shaking Rin's hand eagerly as Kaito writhed on the ground next to her.
"Camui Gackpo. I do forensics!"
"Name's Megumi, but you can call me Gumi. I also go by Megpoid. My specialty is mechanics and weapons. Well, firearms, really. Blades are more up Gackpo's lane…"
"I'm Hatsune Miku. Disguise artist, sprinter, etc."
"…"
Everyone turned to the truck, where Len was now fast asleep, wearing a pair of massive sunglasses. "And that's Len," said Kaito, rather amused. "He calculates the timeframe the crime happens in. He also does whatever the rest of us don't-like jumping into burning buildings."
Rin froze. "What's his last name?" She asked cautiously, like she was afraid of the answer.
And she was. She already knew it.
"Kagamine. Same as yours. Why?"
Rin smiled gracefully, masking her fears. "Oh, just curious."
Yet there was something ever so unsettling about her smile, something that made one think that curiosity wasn't the only reason why she'd asked.
A/N: Yes, I named the streets in Crypton City after Vocaloid songs. Ones that are spin-offs of others, or are interconnected somehow, are in essence the same street. It'll come into play later on, just you wait and see.
First Vocaloid fic! I've had this one cluttering up in my folders for a while now. I'll draw a cover for it... Eventually. Until then, enjoy~!
-MargaritaDaemonelix