Author's Note: Alright guys, I'm starting to recover from my writer's block a little bit but I'm still ironing out a few things! I think the story has reached a natural sort of intermission and that was why I was having hard time coming up with more, after all I've written a full novel's worth of material! So what I'm going to do is call this the conclusion of a "part" and move on from here! This is NOT the end, but I need to prepare new plot points and start mapping out "part 2" or "volume 2" or whatever I end up calling it. So this chapter will answer a couple of final questions as well as purposely leave a few things hanging, and then next chapter will be the last final chapter in this part but will be 100% fluff for funsies (and probably be largely NSFW), and then that will be the final chapter in this set before moving on! I'm sorry it's taking so long, but I'm starting to get it together now! Thanks for everyone's continued kind words!
There was something extremely satisfying as well as hypnotic about playing musical scales, running your fingers up and down your instrument and hitting just the right pitch and note you wanted. Haku frequently found herself lost in the rhythm of the simple play exercises her girlfriends would run her through as she worked on mastering the guitar. The technical points and how tos of actually working an instrument were easy enough to download and memorize for her cybernetic systems, but the art involved in creating music, in creating the harmonies and weaving the melodies, was something you couldn't simply install, and so she relished this. So often in recent past after discovering who and what she was had she been able to simply download information and go, it was a wonderful change of pace to be able to learn something the natural way for once. Well, natural to her biological side at any rate. Luka and Miku had surprised her the day after their altercation with Sarge by presenting her with a new electric guitar, black with a single white lightning bolt slashing across it, and had begun teaching her to use it. They'd had to force her away from the laptop and her pouring over her code changes after she'd had the error from the recent chip flash, but they'd all needed a break it turned out, a return to the normalcy of just being teenage idols and regular girls.
Today she was playing for Luka who had her eyes closed with that small private smile on her face as she sat on a stool with one leg crossed over the other, listening to the simple notes Haku was producing, while Miku painted not far away. The twintailed girl had declared the empty storeroom they'd done their dance in before to be their studio, and had gone about decorating it with all manner of artistic things, and she'd even already hung several paintings up and done a couple of sculptures from various materials. Haku had absolutely zero idea where she'd gotten the easel and stack of canvases and paint set she'd produced, probably while they'd been out buying the guitar. There were a few other simple instruments around as well; a flute, a keyboard on a stand, a simple drum set. And of course they'd put up a mirror for dancing. Every night they brought Ia and Meiko in and tutored them in the ways of the Odoru no Budo, the Vocaloid's Martial Art of Dance, and most afternoons they came in here for at least an hour or so to be their creative selves.
"You're doing very well." Luka said when Haku paused in her rhythms. "You're still rushing a bit which is normal when first learning, but your movement from note to note has improved dramatically."
Haku swelled at the praise, her insides turning to butter at the kind words from the pink haired beauty, and Miku looked around from her canvas. "I thought so too! I was painting to your music Haku-chin. Look!" She rotated the easel around so they could see. It was a skyward starscape with dozens of brightly twinkling stars on a black night sky with a few trees on the edges seeming to angle up into the air like they'd seen while laying in the grass in the park, but the stars seemed to all angle across the sky in a rising diagonal pattern up and down by turns but ever upward in general. The detail was so vividly done that some of the stars seemed to sparkle at different intensities and the ever rising incline definitely gave the impression of a musical scale. The green eyed girl could play every instrument under the sun and frequently took her turn practicing or instructing Haku, but today she'd wanted to paint and it had turned out very well. Unlike most days the three of them had been in the studio from sunup, and a sudden gnawing of hunger in her tummy reminded her that it was well past lunch time.
"That's really great Miku-chin." Luka told her in tones of wonder. "Truly exceptional."
"Absolutely brilliant." Haku agreed happy to see it. "It makes me so happy to see you painting again."
"What do you mean again?" Miku asked curiously. "I never stopped. Well i mean except for when I stopped because we were on run and all that whole deal."
"No I meant since…" Haku blinked then realized she'd never told them about this and Miku might be embarrassed. They weren't connected right that moment because Haku hadn't wanted their own musical experience to affect her learning so she didn't have to worry about her thoughts straying out to them, and she bent her head over her guitar like she was inspecting it and finished with a muttered "Since… before that."
Apparently not being linked wasn't enough to hide everything. They were girlfriends after all, had spent every waking moment possible together for months, had each seen the other two at their worst and best times, had made love together and supported each other. Their bond ran so deep that they could practically read each other without the cybernetic mind link by this point, so it was no wonder that they both caught her little deception because Miku immediately blurted a demanding "Since what?!"
Haku sighed and lifted her red eyes back up to meet green. "Since I saved that picture I caught you working on that first time that you tried to throw out."
All the color drained from Miku's cheeks, making the deep dark royal blue of her nanite blouse and black skirt seem all the darker by contrast. "You…" she licked her lips. "You… saved that…?" Haku nodded slowly with an apologetic look, wiping a hand nervously on her own black skirt just beneath her dark grey blouse. It really did feel like silk… "Why?" Miku asked morbidly.
"Well… I mean... It was of me, wasn't it?" She said. "Of all three of us?"
"Well I mean!" She blurted, fumbling with the words. "Yeah but! It wasn't very nice and I-!" She bit her lip cutting off the words.
"What painting of us? I don't remember seeing anything like that." Luka asked curiously, subconsciously adjusting her own black skirt that matched the others. Her deep crimson blouse was almost black too. Surprisingly it had been Luka that had suggested they dress alike today. It was the sort of thing that would usually have come from the shorter girl, but they'd all agreed.
Miku turned her head away, her cheeks on fire, and didn't seem to want to say. After a moment Haku opened her mouth to explain, starting slowly to give the twintailed girl a chance to stop it if she wanted to, but she didn't. "Remember the day of my surprise birthday party?" Luka noded that she did and Haku went on. "I found Miku-chin in the studio you suggested. She'd been painting, and she was working on a piece that… well I think she was trying to get her emotions out."
"It had us in it?" Luka asked curiously.
"Well… I mean kind of. It had three people in it, the painting wasn't done when I walked in, but one had blue hair, and one pink, and between them a white haired warrior with a giant sword… cleaving the other two apart." Haku was surprised at the emotion that bubbled up inside her, making her voice shake slightly.
Luka's eyes widened in surprise at the description and Miku finally spoke up vehemently. "It was just cuz I was feeling like all displaced and stuff! I didn't know what to do!" She wrung her hands and looked at Haku. "I begged you not to look! I can't believe you saved it from the trash!"
"It was something you created, and it had us in it. It had meaning, I couldn't let it go to waste." Haku objected softly.
"Did you… were you feeling like Haku-chin was coming between you and I, Miku-chin?"
"No!" Came the petite girl's immediate denial, but a moment later she dropped her eyes bashfully and blushed more deeply. "... yes… I just!" She seemed torn, like she wanted to admit this but was too mortified, but in the end she succumbed to her usual flood of words. "Luka-chin when you turned eighteen and we decided… for the sake of your career… to put things on hold… that was totally all your decision! You might have been right, that the wrong person in the wrong place at the wrong time could have seen something of us that could have spelled legal disaster for you but it wasn't what I wanted! I knew even then how much I loved you and you were right across the hall every single day and it took every ounce of self control I have not to fling myself at your bedroom door every night! It was agony and I was literally counting the days until my eighteenth birthday sooooooo eagerly and then…" she trailed off and bit her lip.
"And then Haku-chin came along." Luka said softly.
Miku nodded and buried her face shamefully in her hands, her tremulous voice coming muffled through her fingers. "I didn't know at the time I was going to fall in love with Haku-chin too. I didn't know we were going to end up a three person couple. I thought I was going to lose you and all I could feel was… was jealousy. I'd almost made it! I was only weeks away from throwing myself into your arms and this wonderful exotic elegant creature swoops in and captures your heart! All I could feel was jealousy and I hated myself for that because we were all such good friends! I wanted the best for you both above all else but it was killing me! I did my best not to let it show, to bottle it deep down and step on it, but I had to do something to get it out or I was going to have a friggin melt down and explode everywhere into little tiny pieces. I thought painting would help, and then Haku-chin saw it and I almost died on the spot."
Haku had heard most of this before but now that she thought about it she didn't think Luka had. The taller girl looked at the shorter for a moment before rising from her stool and stepped over to her. Luka lifted a hand to Miku's head, running her fingers over her hair tenderly to bring her face up, and when glistening green eyes met intent blue the pink haired beauty smiled down at her. "I love you Miku-chin." She said and pressed their lips together. Miku melted into the kiss, her arms wrapping around the taller girl's waist and tilting her face up and into it while Luka encircled the petite girl's shoulders and squeezed her to her. Haku watched her girlfriends kissing passionately, soft lips against soft lips, and began to softly hum "Aishiteru," the guitar forgotten in her hands.
When they finally pulled apart to gasp for air, both with their tongues slightly out and eyes half lidded from the heat, all Miku could do was pant back up at her, "I love you Luka-chin." They seemed to take notice of her humming at last and turned to her with smiles, which only made Haku hum a little louder.
"Come on." Luka said with a feigned sigh of suffering and moved over to take Haku's guitar out of her hands to place it on it's stand. "We'd better get going, everyone will be waiting on us." She turned back to offer her hand out to Haku who took it and lifted herself up toward the taller girl and, without ceasing her humming, pressed her lips to Luka's. The pink haired beauty was a little surprised but returned the sweet kiss readily enough, and what it lacked in the passion the other two had shown it made up for in tenderness. Once done she turned to give an eagerly waiting Miku the same kiss, still humming, and as they finally left the studio Luka let out a soft giggle at her. "You really like that song don't you?"
Finally letting the tune fade from her lips Haku smiled back. "It makes me think of us, that's all."
Miku squinted a bit and tilted her head in Haku's direction, "What did you do with it anyway? The painting I mean."
"I rolled it up and put it in the back of my wardrobe at the Compound." She replied, reaching back to adjust the black edged grey bow holding her snowy cascading hair back behind her head. She didn't have to, the nanites making it up weren't going anywhere, but it was a subconscious habit that hadn't gone away yet. "It's probably still there." Miku made a face.
As they proceeded down the hall through the Yowane Estate they let their cyberminds brush, connecting together so that their minds bloomed into the back each other's heads as usual, and when they reached the entry hall they found Meiko and Ia waiting, each studiously not looking in each other's direction. When she noticed them enter Ia held up a small bag. "I uhm. Noticed you didn't break for lunch. So I made some crepes for the car ride."
Miku let out a squee and dove for the bag but Luka caught the petite girl by the back of her shirt. "She said for the ride, Miku-chin." The twintailed girl let out a whine of protest. They made their way out to the garage and piled into the massive Karlmann, Luka taking the driver seat while Miku tugged Haku up into the front passenger spot with her as their guests took the back. The engine roared to life with a thought and the pink haired beauty pulled them out into the road. They hadn't made it more than ten or twenty meters down the street before Miku turned such a piteous big green eyed look in Luka's direction that the idol signed and nodded and Miku turned excitedly toward the back, craning around the big seat to do so. Ia laughed softly and passed a crepe up for each of them and once everyone had one the twintailed girl squirmed around so she was comfy in Haku's lap and ate happily making adorable little 'nyomp' sounds with every bite. Luka nibbled on hers as she guided the hulking vehicle along but Haku set hers up on the dashboard for later. She wasn't actually hungry right then and cuddling Miku in her lap seemed like far more fun. She wrapped her arms around the petite girl's middle and laid her cheek down on her back and squeezed, and Miku giggled and squiggled in Haku's lap but didn't stop eating.
The ride out of the city was long enough to chat a bit amongst themselves but not so long as to warrant in depth conversation. Ia sat close behind Haku's seat and talked a bit while Meiko did the same with Luka, the two girls in the backseat still not really interacting with each other. Haku tried to converse with Ia but Miku noticed she wasn't eating her crepe and began feeding her little bites of her own in a teasingly playful manner, putting it to Haku's lips and then pulling it back and giggling. She blushed a little bit at such attention where others could see but Miku just giggled and Ia covered her mouth with a hand to hide a light laugh too. Haku wished that the link hadn't conveyed to her girlfriends just how much happiness it gave her to be hand fed by them because they now seemed to enjoy making a game out of it more than ever. All in all it was a sublime form of torture and she most emphatically let that feeling flow down their connection to therm. Miku just giggled again and Luka aimed one of her small private smiles their way.
Director Hatsune's instructions had been to head south out of the city until they reached the lake and then head west around it for about twenty more minutes. Once they reached what seemed an arbitrary point in the middle of nowhere Luka turned the massive SUV off the road and they began bouncing along cross country. The ride wasn't as bumpy as it might have been in a smaller vehicle with less in the way of shocks and suspension but there was still some jostling about and Miku slid about in Haku's lap purposefully making an overly dramatic show about it. At one point she bounced too high right as the car dropped and she got more height than she intended and banged her head on the roof of the Karlmann. Miku let out a squeak of surprise and pain as she came back down and her narrow bottom dug painfully in to Haku's thigh. They both moaned in pain and clutched at each other and rode the rest of the way in stillness. Eventually they came around a gap in a stand of trees and found a clearing not far from a rock face, and several familiar faces looked up at them from beside two of the large black SUVs which used to reside in the Vocaloid Compound's garage. Luka pulled in beside the other large vehicles and the five of them piled out of the Behemoth.
"My girls!" Doctor Hatsune said warmly and Haku found herself sandwiched between her girlfriends wrapped in a motherly hug. Miku let out a little hurking sound as the squeeze compressed her chest and Luka lost her breath in a whoosh but they hugged their mother figure back, or as well as they could being squished together. The Director just stood there watching, his usual impassive countenance spoiled only a tiny bit by an ever so slight crinkling at the corners of his eyes behind his glasses as he looked at the women. When Mira released the three girls at last they turned only to be glommed on to by a flying green blur.
"Ohmygods I've missed you all so much!" Gumi positively gushed as Haku worked at extricating herself from the green haired girl. "I've been stuck in a bunker with only Teto-chin for company for WEEKS! Like it's fun sometimes being by ourselves and all but she's awful at carrying on a conversation for any length of time!"
The stoic redhead stood a few steps back behind her bubbling girlfriend and just sighed and rolled her eyes. "I can hold a conversation just fine, you mean to say I don't gossip very well."
Gumi let go of Haku and stuck her tongue out at her partner. "And you need to get better at it!"
"We missed you guys too!" Miku threw an arm up into the air. "Just you wait until you hear what Haku-chin did though! Pretty soon it won't matter how far away we are from each other!"
Haku flushed a little in embarrassment and shook her head. "I'm not the only one who did something incredible…"
"Before we get to all that however." Motsu's deep bass voice reverberated from behind them, and when they turned he gestured at the goliath of a vehicle they'd arrived in and the two ex government women standing before it uncomfortably. "Shall we first address the new arrivals?"
With all eyes now on them Ia wrung her hands nervously and Meiko narrowed her eyes. The Director moved forward to place himself before them, shifting slightly so that his lab coat fell open just enough to reveal the cast he still wore on his arm. "I don't need to tell you how much trouble you've caused us, nor those you were affiliated with." He began slowly as he considered them. "We would not return you to them, but we don't know for certain what your intentions are either. Perhaps you would care to elaborate for us?"
"You mean are we going to run back and rat you out?" Meiko asked with a glare for the broad shouldered man confronting her, apparently taking offense either with his tone or his implications, or maybe both. It wasn't an easy thing, accepting a former enemy as a friend, but Haku saw now that it seemed true from both sides as well. This might be the reason why Meiko had been so on edge of late, knowing this was coming. She glanced at Ia. Well… at least one cause of it.
"I simply wish to know what you intend to do with your newfound freedom." He said in that way he had that made him sound calm yet commanding.
Ia blinked up at him in surprise as though she hadn't been expecting to be given a choice in the matter. "You mean we can… do what we want?" She ventured hesitantly. "You're not going to make us… s… serve you?"
"What do you think we are, slave drivers?!" Gumi burst out. "We're a family! We care for each other, look out for one another!" Surprisingly Teto laid a comforting hand on the green haired girl's arm and Gumi bit her lower lip.
Ia flinched and shook her head apparently at a loss for words but Meiko picked it up. "We're just not used to being given a choice. We had literally everything taken from us, our very lives forfeit for some private crusade. We just wanted to get our lives back, but…" She glanced around at all the faces looking at her. "But we can never go back, can we? If we run, they could decide to come looking for us at any moment, and it would only be a matter of time before they found us no matter how far we got."
"We can't stay in Haku-chan's house forever either." Ia added quietly. "It's not like we're... I mean you didn't…" She trailed off uncomfortably but Meiko finished for her once more.
"We're not Vocaloids, and we know you have no reason to stick your necks out for us." The short haired girl said curtly.
Several pairs of eyes narrowed, several jaws set, several mouths opened, but it was Haku's silvery voice that cut through the moment first. "That's not exactly true, is it?" Every gaze turned her way and Haku took a few steps forward, reaching a hand up to point at Meiko's chest, causing the short haired girl to blink at her. "Your power core is different, that much is certain, and I want to get a chance to look over it some more, maybe with the doctor's help." She lifted her hand to point up at the other girl's head. "But you have a Vocaloid Chip running everything, and your other implants aren't all that different from the rest of ours either. You are like a Vocaloid in most ways, close enough to perhaps just be called a different version, or a new series model. As to my house…" she gave a small shrug. "You know I wouldn't kick you out."
"Are you saying they can be trusted, Haku-chin?" Luka asked quietly when no one said anything else to that right away.
"I'm saying that we don't have a reason not to." She replied coolly, shifting her gaze to meet the eyes of everyone present one after another. "All of us, regardless of who actually built us, came from the same source, were created based on the same hardware. Some have had the good fortune of being exactly where they were needed from the start, while others of us… had to struggle to get here." She leveled a look to punctuate that point, and judging by the expressions on everyone else's faces they understood what she meant. She herself had come to them from the other side of the fence, just like Meiko and Ia were doing now. She turned to look back to the two ex government women and tilted her head a bit. "But we all have the same goals now, ne? We all have the same enemies, and similar needs in life. If you both committed to our cause, one hundred percent without question, I would sponsor your entry to the Vocaloids." Eyes widened at her and she blinked a moment and turned back to the director. "Wait… do we still do that? Or was the sponsor thing part of the old cover?"
Director Hatsune moved up beside her and peered down at her a moment before turning his gaze on the other two girls. "I believe we simply need to be careful about such things as a general policy regarding how we go about it." He said slowly as he looked at them, and Haku wasn't exactly sure what that meant as an answer to her question, but he went on. "In terms of being inundated however, I cannot think of a better word spoken in your favor. Yowane… hm. Haku has proven herself, and if she is in favor of you then I see no reason to doubt. But do not take it lightly. Once you join us, there can be no turning back."
They looked at him for a long few moments, then they shifted their gazes to look at Haku. She wasn't exactly sure what their expressions meant but they were intent and full of whatever that meaning was, and the looks in their eyes were stares of the sort that seemed to bore into her soul. Each of their eyes seemed to swirl, Meiko's getting a darker brown and Ia's turning a shade of deep lilac as they gazed at her. Finally they spoke, and surprisingly it was Ia that made the request. "Can we be singers like you?"
"Like me?" She didn't squeak it out! She didn't! Haku heard a giggle behind her and whipped her head around to look but by the time she got sight of her girlfriends both of their beautiful faces were perfectly still. Their link betrayed the pretty light blue haired girl though as an ever so slight thread of orange guilt from Miku tinged the yellow ribbons of amusement coming from both of them along their connection.
"Yes like you!" Ia said as though it were obvious, and Haku turned back around to face the two ex government women once more. "You're elegant and beautiful and so exotic, I've been a total fan of yours since that first time I saw you in the mall." She blushed furiously at the admission but no more than did Haku for hearing it. She didn't do well with compliments like this and her discomfort was mounting but Ia plowed onwards with the tone of someone who had wanted to say something for so long that finally getting to was like a dam breaking. "You saved us, you set is free. We've lived in your house, we've watched the three of you interact, and I've seen you all on stage. I feel a… a kind of kinship with you, Haku-chan. I… I want… to be more like you…" By the end she trailed off into mutters one more and as the two of them stood there blushing at each other Meiko broke the awkward moment with her usual casually blase attitude.
"Well I don't know about all that, but I do know that Luka fairly soundly kicked the stuffing out of me each time we fought and I don't like that one bit." She turned her gaze on the pink haired idol and smirked in a challenging way. "I figure joining up and training in all the same things is the best way to go about showing you up to reclaim my pride, so if I have to take on these weird creatures all masked vigilante style while maintaining the facade of a pop star then that's what I'll do!"
An odd reason to declare a rivalry in Haku's opinion but Luka just inclined her head in acceptance. "If that's what you need to motivate yourself Meiko, then I will endeavor to set the bar for you at a height that will always encourage you to grow."
Meiko blinked at her then showed her teeth in a way that might have been meant for a smile. The ribbons of yellow amusement thickened in the back of Haku's mind and she had to work at trying to keep from breaking out into laughter, and she wasn't sure if it was her own urge she was fighting or that of the other two. Director Hatsune clapped his hands together once and every eye turned to him. "It's settled then. Welcome to the Vocaloids."
"Do we get a badge or something?" Meiko asked in a tone that was probably a joke.
"No." Motsu replied then gestured behind him at the SUV he and his wife had shown up in, the back hatch thrown up into the air already and the doctor herself working at threading out wires. "But if you'll step this way I'll be happy to show you to your consolation system scan prize."
Everyone rolled their eyes at that but then those present split up into two groups. Haku followed along with Meiko and Ia to the back of Doctor Hatsune's SUV to keep a comforting presence on matters while she scanned them while the director went with the other four girls to see to the real reason they had come out to the middle of nowhere today. She could just make out the Karlmann through the trees at the distance Luka drove it out, and while she could catch occasional flashes of pink or light blue through the foliage with her own eyes and hear nothing with her own ears of their speech at this distance she could of course see and hear through both of her girlfriend's eyes and ears. It was becoming practically second nature to the three of them for their minds to separate out and process three sets of sensory inputs at a time now instead of just their own, and it no longer seemed unusual at all as she stood there watching the doctor hook up Meiko to a layout with a connecting cable even while she watched in her mind's eye the preparations Luka, Miku, and Motsu were going through.
"A lot of your hardware is obviously of different design than ours Sakine-san, but it looks like it functions the same way." Mira tapped away on the keyboard as she ran the diagnostic scan, the screen running through a read only state since Meiko wasn't actually in a diagnostic mode.
"What does that mean?" Meiko asked curiously, reaching a hand up toward the back of her neck like she wanted to feel for the cord jacked into the base of her skull, but Ia reached out to push the short haired girl's arm back down and Meiko grimaced.
"It doesn't mean anything necessarily, just that your hardware looks different that's all." The doctor turned the laptop around for a minute so they could see, the diagnostic window with Meiko's code scrolling by visible beside a little blueprint outline of some of her sonic implants.
Haku let her eye wander over the code for a minute while watching out of the eyes of the bundles of presences of her girlfriends in the back of her mind as they went about readying the massive SUV. She could see each of them through the other's eyes occasionally as well as the director and their friends. They had activated The Behemoth's nanite armor that the three of them had been working on repairing since they'd replaced the core and found that it had the same deployment nodes that the hidden wall in the Yowane Estate used. Some time with the computer files in the gargantuan vehicle had shown the logs to contain error reports of them shorting out with the V-Core from a massive external explosion, probably when Haku had destroyed the lab around it. Fixing the nodes hadn't been a huge problem since they were apart of her father's notes she had, but calibrating them was the trick and that was what they were testing now. The already angular vehicle looked even more intimidating with the dark armor coating it and she watched them setting up for the test fire.
"If it's not a big deal that we're… designed… differently…" Ia asked slowly, tripping a bit over the words that made her sound like a machine. Haku understood her friend's discomfort; she and her girlfriends had had a hard time with the same thing, feeling like they were robots, or amalgamations of nature and technology. Well… sometimes it was still hard. "If that's not a problem… what are you looking for…?"
"It's just a scan to look you over and get an idea of your regular state." Doctor Hatsune smiled that matronly smile and patted Meiko's arm. "Normally I'd like to run you through a few extra tests to see all of your capabilities, but since we're still locked out of the Compound a scan will have to. Don't worry, we just want to look you over and make sure everything is alright."
With her own eyes Haku watched Ia and Meiko nod at that, and with Luka and Miku's eyes she watched in some surprise as Director Hatsune set up a little mobile ordinance stand and lifted up to attach…. "Is that a rocket launcher?!" she thought at them frantically.
Luka's emotions down the link were trepadicious but Miku's were excited as she thought back "Oh my God it totally issssss!"
Haku wanted to ask more but at that moment the director shouted "Fire in the hole!" She wasn't sure why, all four girls with him were well back by that point and the rest of them were too far away to even hear him… but an instant later she didn't need her girlfriend's senses to see or hear the explosion of the missile impacting the huge SUV. Getting that in stereo from three sets of ears and eyes wasn't fun, at least not for her and apparently not for Luka either as they both shielded their eyes with a wince, but Miku let out a whooping giggle and cheer and she wasn't the only one. Haku could see Teto shaking her head at an equally enthusiastic Gumi as the blooming dust cloud began to recede. Everyone's eyes widened at the completely unscathed vehicle before them.
"Woooooooow!" Miku exclaimed throwing a fist up in the air,and Haku could feel Luka's eyes narrowing as she watched the pretty light blue haired girl in the taller idol's view. "There's not even a scratch! How'd it do that?!"
"Well we already knew it could." Luka said, shifting her gaze to the armored vehicle. "It survived Haku-chin blowing up that lab afterall. The real question is why did it take so much damage then but not now?"
"Maybe that boom was bigger?!" Miku guessed.
"Either way that's so amazing!" Gumi exclaimed. "I need one of those!"
Teto narrowed her eyes at her bubbly companion. "What use could you possibly have for one of those?!"
The green haired girl stared at the redhead for a moment then in a deadpan voice said, "Straightening you out when you get uppity."
It seemed like such a weird thing to say that Haku could feel her confusion mirrored by her girlfriends, but then they were all shocked even more when the stoic girl blushed. She didn't think she'd ever actually seen Teto actually flushed before and they all stared at her as she turned her gaze away, but her voice was as neutral as ever when she responded with a curt, "You don't need a tank for that…" Gumi just giggled and Haku wasn't sure if it was her own cheeks burning or if she was feeling it from Miku or Luka. Maybe all three.
The boom of the rocket exploding hadn't been as loud from where Haku was actually standing and Ia and Meiko hadn't done more than glance in that direction before turning their eyes back to the doctor and her work. "That's… odd." Mira muttered as she was looking over the readouts.
"What is it?" The pale haired girl asked, worry tinting her tone slightly.
"I'm not… entirely certain." The doctor replied distractedly, leaning over the laptop screen. "It seems like your power core is operating on a completely different frequency range than our V-Cores do."
Meiko grimaced at that thought. "I know, we're weaker right?" Ia clicked her tongue and Meiko glowered up at her. "I heard them talking, and there's no denying that Luka took me apart in both the two fights I had with her, or that Miku didn't have much trouble with you, Ia-tan."
"That's… true…" Ia muttered dejectedly. "We were deluding ourselves. We were never a match for them… we're inferior models…" She cast her gaze downward sadly but a moment later a shake of the head from Doctor Hatsune brought her eyes back up.
"No, I don't think that's right." She said, and tilted the screen so they could see again, but even so Haku reached out with her cybermind to connect to the laptop. It was as effortless and thoughtless as looking through a computer monitor for her now, and by the time Mira had finished rotating the laptop and pointing at the screen Haku already had the windows up in her 3D visual overlay, the elements of the user interface floating in the air to her eye. "Right here, Haku dear look at this."
Haku scrolled her 3D vision to the point in the code the older woman was pointing at and saw it. "The cycles per minute are way higher than ours." She blinked at the code and tilted her head, knowing that to the others she just looked like she was squinting at the screen. Far off in the distance another huge boom sounded and there was more cheering ringing through the back of her mind from her girlfriend's sensory inputs. She did her best to ignore them, wishing she had found some way to at least mute or dim what came through sometimes. It seemed like it should be possible, but… "I don't… this doesn't make sense. How can their cycles be so high but their actual power output be so low?"
"I don't know." The doctor answered with a shake of her head. "We'd… Have to open them up to see and… well that could be dangerous."
"I don't like the sound of that at all." Meiko said with a shake of her head.
Abruptly Haku thought she saw something in the code, a little bit of what might at some level seem like a stray bit of data to some, but it stuck out to her. She moved over to the other two girls and and reached a hand up towards Ia, then hesitated when the other girl looked concerned. "I uhm… I think I have an idea. Can I…?" She trailed off but Ia swallowed and nodded.
"Like you said… no reason not to trust each other…" The pale haired girl said, sounding far less confident than the words themselves implied because of a tremulous tone in her voice. Moving carefully as though afraid of frightening a skittish animal Haku slowly rested her hand on Ia's arm. What she had done by instinct months and months ago she did by intent this time, though now as then she let need drive her. When she had cleansed Luka and Miku of the dark touch of Juon Kiku she hadn't known everything she knew now, hadn't been aware that she was a cyborg and was using her nanites to flow out of her body and into theirs. The knowledge now didn't change anything except that she had an idea of what was going on, and she let the purpose driving her need translate through her cybernetic systems by the Vocaloid Chip in her head. Or, well, the Viroid Chip. She couldn't actually sense Ia's thoughts or emotions, or feel or see or hear through her senses the way she could with her girlfriends, but a vague sort of awareness of the other girl did begin to filter into Haku's consciousness, a kind of sense of Ia's current status as it were. Her voice brought Haku's head up as she blinked. "I can… feel… something… Haku-chan what are you doing?"
"I'm… scanning you? KInd of?" She told the pale haired girl with a tilt of her head as she let the data coming in from her nanites build into a 3D rendering in her vision, the blueprint schematics from the laptop scan the doctor had been running combining with the information she was getting on her own, and she consolidated this into a visual form in her interface overlay. When it was done she blinked at it. "That's… what is that?"
"What's what?" Mira asked curiously, and Haku turned a head to gesture at the laptop, feeding the data she'd gathered to it to add to the more mundane data the doctor had in front of her. The older woman studied it wide eyed as Haku finished piecing together her 3D model and turned it in her vision to look at it, and Doctor Hatsune whistled a low note of surprise. "This looks… like a modern revamped version of a sort of Tesla coil!"
"What's a Tesla coil?" Meiko wanted to know.
"It's a sort of theoretically infinite self contained power source that's supposed to charge itself by drawing stray electrons straight out of the air. They were originally developed for use with small machines such as cars but this… this looks far more advanced."
"I think…" Haku said as she studied it, and data began to flood passed her sight as she looked at it. "I think it's… unfinished."
"Unfinished? How so?" Mira asked as she studied her screen.
"It looks like it wasn't properly calibrated before being brought online." Haku said and gestured at the laptop screen. "Look at lines three hundred forty-seven through three hundred sixty-two." She waited while the doctor got to that part of the screen then gestured again. "The cycles are so high the rate of recharge should be high but the coils aren't making use of it. I think something is out of alignment. There's a bit of coding to stop errors from being thrown but the problem is still there."
The doctor was nodding now and scratching at one arm idly as she poured over the data."I … think we could fix that but… it would require major surgery to get at the cores…"
"I don't think-" Ia started to say carefully but Haku squeezed her arm with the hand she still had there and their eyes met once more.
"I think… I think I can fix it. Right here, right now." She told her, and Ia's eyes went wide.
"Here and now?!" She squeaked. "But…! Surgery sounds…!"
Haku shook her head. "No, not surgery. It won't hurt."
Ia swallowed hard… and nodded. "Okay… if… if it won't hurt..." Haku was elated that her friend was willing to trust her that much. She closed her eyes, which plunged her regular sight into blackness but of course she could still see her 3D overlay. She let Ia's power coil fill her mind's eye, rotating it around in her virtual workspace. She didn't do anything to the other girl just yet, simply studied the information her nanties had retrieved, were continuing to send back. Need and instinct were key to working this, but some knowledge was necessary to know what to do. The calibration seemed simple enough to her, it literally was just a factory setting which limited the maximum number of cycles per minute that the coil could even use by way of a tiny non-conductive pin to hold things at a certain point. It seemed to her like it must have been like a safety pin that was supposed to be removed before major usage of the coil in the field, but… why would they have left it there? Or not changed it to allow…? Sarge must have been pushing for speed to get them out the door, that was the only explanation Haku could think of, and even that didn't seem right. Well… it didn't seem like too big a thing to fix. The nanites could adjust and alter basic things, why not…? Ia blinked with sudden surprised startelement registering on her face before power suddenly seemed to surge up within her. The doctor couldn't feel the sonic pulse around the pale haired girl, but Haku could, and Meiko could to, output far higher than she'd ever shown before. "W-Wow!"
Haku withdrew her nanites from Ia's body before releasing her arm and turning a questioning gaze on Meiko. The short haired girl nodded and Haku repeated what she'd done, laying a hand on the girl on the back of the SUV and within moments a similar expression bloomed on Meiko's face as a surge of sonics seemed to billow up within her. "So much power…" she muttered.
"Is this… is this what you always feel like, Haku-chan?" Ia asked in awe. "Just always so… charged…?"
"If what I'm reading here is right…" the doctor interjected as she was furiously scrolling through Meiko's data following what Haku had done. "It's not quite the same." She peered at the screen, then at Haku, then at the screen again. Haku felt a little embarrassed at the scrutiny but she was pleased with herself. She'd helped her friends, and it made her happy. "Your advanced Tesla coils… or whatever we should call them, they aren't exactly Tesla anymore… they draw electrons, they don't actually contain an element. Which means that in terms of raw power output the V-Cores are better. However, it also means you recharge quicker, your cycles per minute are higher. Literally all you need is to wait a few minutes. Even if you drained your capacity to nearly empty your recovery downtime would be much less than Miku or Luka."
"It also means that they could potentially put out more total power over longer periods of time." Haku pointed out, saving the data she'd collected from the other two in her internal storage and letting her 3D interface fade away. "Endurance over raw power. So you'd be very useful in a long drawn out fight."
"I can't believe how… charged I feel." Ia murmured then her cheeks colored faintly. "I know I said that but… I mean I feel like I could take on…" she trailed off in embarrassment as the connotations began to sink in.
"An army?" Doctor Hatsune finished for her wryly and Ia nodded sheepishly. "You could. The fact is, any of you girls are fully capable of that, or leveling skyscrapers, or forcing open virtually any known security system."
"We… we really are weapons…" Ia moaned, wringing her hands.
"Vocaloids weren't originally designed to be weapons." The doctor said gently. "But what one person imagines another can repurpose."
"What was our original purpose?" Meiko asked hesitantly. Her friends had the same worries and questions she'd had when it had been her in their shoes, but Haku saw with relief that Mira just put on her kindest matronly smile and patiently explained everything from the beginning. Meiko and Ia were getting the unabridged explanation that Haku hadn't had the benefit of, having lived through discovering it, but she was glad that her trials could ease the way for the other two.
"Please daddy?! I just wanna pull the trigger! Just once!" Came a high pitched plea Haku heard through ears not her own, and she could see Miku hopping in place from foot to foot in front of her father with a look of piteous entreaty.
"She's so good at that look…" Haku thought feeling her heart melt a bit at the sight of the adorable petite girl. She got a wordless feeling of agreement from Luka as she watched through the taller idol's eyes.
Owing either to years of experience dealing with it, or perhaps just to the fact of being her parent, Miku's father showed no signs of giving in to it. Haku envied his immunity; she and Luka both caved to that look every time. "This isn't a toy Miku, and we're not playing a game. This is a dangerous test with a destructive and deadly weapon."
"I saved you from a mortar shell! I think I can handle a rocket launcher!" The light blue haired girl whined.
"Haku saved me from it." Motsu corrected her. "Now please, that's enough. Stand aside, or go back."
Miku stared at her father for a long moment before letting out a huff, turning on her heel, and striding off. In her cybermind's eye through Luka's vision she could see Miku retreating back toward where she herself was with the doctor, followed a moment later by Gumi and Teto keeping a measured distance behind the fuming girl. "He thinks I'm still a child." came Miku's thoughts down their link with a feeling like she was muttering to herself, though she wasn't actually saying anything aloud as she all but stomped along. "He sees me like a helpless little girl. I'm not! I'm a world famous idol and a powerful futuristic cyborg! A cyborg he made me into! He did this to me and still he treats me like I'm five years old! It's not fair! It's stupid and I hate it!"
Haku excused herself quietly and politely from the discussion going on around her and went out to meet Miku as she ranted in her head while coming back. Well, ranted in all their heads really. Apparently the pretty light blue haired girl had been so wrapped up in her internal raving she hadn't realized Haku was approaching and she stopped dead in surprise when she reached her, blinking up at the taller snowy haired girl. "Ha-Haku-chin?" She blinked but when Haku wrapped her arms around her in a loving hug Miku reciprocated immediately, burying her face against Haku's neck. The golden glow of love pulsed between them along their cyber connection, and even though Luka wasn't right there they could feel her embrace too.
"At least you have parents who love you." Haku thought at her gently, and she felt Miku nod against her. A faint pulse of guilt in herself and tinge of sadness for Haku and Luka came from the bundle of thoughts and feelings that was Miku's presence in her head and she just squeezed her girlfriend tighter. They hugged a long time before finally the feeling of needing to probably get on with things pervaded the moment and they pulled away, then blinked in surprise when Gumi's bubbly voice reached their ears and they turned to her.
"Awwwww that was sweet." She giggled. The blush that sprang up on Miku's face was a mirror of Haku's own and that only made Gumi giggle more.
"Are you going to ask her or what?" Teto let out a long suffering sigh but smiled anyway. The stoic redhead was beginning to show her emotions a little more than she used to, opening up to those closest to her.
"Ask us what?" Miku wanted to know, assuming whatever it was included them both even though Teto had said 'her' not ' them' though in truth Haku would have assumed the same.
"I wanna come see your house Haku-chan!" Gumi threw an arm up in the air much as Miku was prone to doing. "I heard it's a huge mansion and I wanna see it!"
"Heard?" Haku asked curiously, wondering who could've told her, but Miku immediately agreed on their behalf.
"Of course! You're both welcome any time! Any time at all!" The petite girl let out a little giggle and Gumi echoed it. They were both so bubbly it was almost painful at times.
The four of them rejoined the other three women as a few more explosions sounded periodically in the distance. Haku watched through Luka's eyes as she and the director continued testing and calibrating the nanite armor on the Behemoth. She was most interested in the data the onboard computer was collecting from the rockets' impacts and how the nanites were responding. She was having ideas and wanted to see the raw data… Once back with the others they found the explanation concluded and Meiko had been disconnected from the laptop and the test spot was empty. The doctor gestured at it and smiled, "Would you have a seat for me, Haku dear?"
"Me?" She asked curiously, but moved over to sit down obligingly anyway.
"I'd like to dump your logs for later so I can study your hardware and the last error you threw." She explained as she reached for the back of Haku's neck with the jack. Haku nodded and reached up with a hand to pull her cascading snowy locks forward over her opposite shoulder so the doctor could reach unobstructed. With a thought she released her security protocols for access as she felt metal sliding against metal at the base of her skull, a little shiver going up her spine as the plug connected, and she reached out to take Miku's hand. Her girlfriend had stayed beside her as she'd sat down, and they traded little reassuring smiles now as Mira began to work the laptop keyboard.
"Do you have any idea what's wrong mom?" Miku asked curiously, concern for Haku's well being seeping down the link.
"Not specifically, but I have a general inkling." The doctor replied as she tapped at the keyboard. "When your father helped you finalize that loop check he hadn't seen the hardware specs of this Viroid Chip. If we get a look at it it's possible we can come up with a better solution more tailored to the hardware."
"You're saying you can fix it?" Miku asked hopefully.
"I'm not saying we can figure out what the Yowanes did overnight, but perhaps with Haku's help and some collaboration we can puzzle it out." She glanced away from the screen for a moment to spare her daughter a smile before turning back to the laptop. They sat in silence for a few moments, Haku's gaze drifting off toward the other side of the vehicle where Gumi and Teto had wandered off to talk quietly amongst themselves. Meiko and Ia stood not far off either but they were waiting quietly and very studiously not looking at one another. She couldn't help but wonder what was going on there… "Oh? What's this?" Mira's voice brought her head back around.
"What's what?" She asked.
"Your logs are full of new data changes. Have you been altering your code again?" The doctor asked suspiciously. The last time Haku had messed with her own code had been under duress in a crisis situation, but it had been dangerous and she'd promised she wouldn't do it again.
"Not directly, I've backed everything up in stages and Miku-chin and Luka-chin are always there to help. They're getting really good at programming, practicing more and more."
"I understand all of our base functions now!" Miku said triumphantly, then giggled at the wide eyed look her mother gave her.
"Is that so." The older woman said curiously, glancing back at the screen. "What's all this then? It looks like networking and wireless signal protocols…?"
"It's an adaptive communication bridge so our wireless transmitters can operate on the same frequencies as the satellite communication networks." Haku told her, and a look of wide eyed startlement came over Doctor Hatsune's face.
"Wireless…!" She gasped. "That would mean you could connect to cell towers and literally make phone calls with your heads!"
"Cell towers, satellites, network carriers… basically anything." Haku couldn't stop a small smile of pride from spreading on her lips. "We're walking computers after all, ne? Why shouldn't we be able to do anything any other piece of technology can?"
"It's… a genius idea, Haku dear but…" the doctor trailed off as she looked over the logs.
"What's the matter mom?" Miku asked, concerned at the sudden mood change.
"It's just… morally compromising." The doctor shook her head and leveled a stern look at the girls. "You were never designed for such a thing, It's a lot of power for one person to have. I hope you've given serious thought to the moral connotations of this."
"Moral…?" Miku blinked in confusion. "It's just communication access in our heads!"
"It's more than that." Mira objected in a stern voice. "With your cybernetic abilities to access technology, this is essentially free and unfettered access to every and all linked network in the world." Her stare took on a heavy kind of glare and she made her next point with unrestrained harshness in each word. "With this kind of power you could literally shut down the entire planet with no more than a thought."
Haku had already had this realization but apparently the concept was news to Miku, the petite girl's green eyes going round as saucers in shock. Her chime like voice was extra high pitched as she stammered an objection, "That's…! That's not…! I mean, we would never…!" Still having ahold of her girlfriend's hand Haku gave it a squeeze of reassurance and she felt Miku squeeze back.
"No dear, I don't think you would." She patted Miku's arm in a comforting way, and though she still looked stern Miku visibly relaxed. "Your father and I have done everything we can to make sure we instilled strong unyielding moral fiber in you since you were a child, and we've done our best to make sure the same sort of characteristics are present in those we… work with." Her eyes flickered first over Haku, then off toward the other nearby girls and back again. "But that doesn't change the fact that just because a thing can be done doesn't mean it should be, and it's important you understand that this is the sort of power that makes people fearful. If the government finds out they'll hunt you all the harder, redouble their efforts."
"You may not have intended to design a weapon when you made the first Vocaloids," Haku said slowly, careful to keep her tone even and respectful. "But my parents did. When they… killed me…" she stumbled on the word ever so slightly and got another squeeze of the hand from Miku.
"Haku-chin…" Her girlfriend said gently, but she pressed on.
"When my parents killed me to use me as a prototype, as an experiment… designing a new weapon was exactly the purpose they had in mind. If not for my chance encounter with Luka-chin that night on the subway I might never have gotten away from them and learned what I was, learned how to be my own person." She hadn't intended to get emotional about this but she'd thought about it a lot and the feelings were intense within her. "If they'd had their way, or if the government succeeds, I lose everything I've gained. I won't just lose my freedom, I'll lose my friends, my new family, and…" she choked back a sob, not able to make herself say 'and the women I love' but the look she gave Miku was so full of intent meaning there was no way anyone could have missed it. That golden glow of love surged along their linked cyberminds from both of the other two. Luka could hear all of this through their ears of course. "I will gladly accept any power, any tool, any shield, any weapon, to make myself more capable of protecting all of that." She finished in a hushed tone, her silvery voice almost sounded haunting. Miku leaned in to squeeze Haku tightly in a hug, and she let her face bury against the other girl's neck the way they had done in reverse earlier. Miku's skin was so soft, and she smelled so lovely…
"Of course, Haku dear." She felt a pat on her arm and the two girls pulled apart to look up at the doctor again. "That's the sort of moral character I was talking about. I just want to make sure you understand the implications, that's all."
They nodded in a foreboding silence and Doctor Hatsune finished her scan and disconnected Haku from the laptop, helping her replace her epidermal plug that hid the port in the back of her back. She stood up just as Luka was pulling their huge SUV back into the clearing, the taller Idol pulling over a bit and getting out as Haku gave a flick of a wrist and toss of her head to settle her hair back behind her. She caught a moment in her head as Luka watched her do that, and a slight sort of tugging at the corner of her awareness was all the indication she had, but… "Did… did you just record me tossing my hair back…?" She asked with a thought.
"It was extremely pretty, very elegant and feminine of you." Came the answer from the pink haired beauty, Outwardly Luka just gave her that small private smile of hers, but beside Haku Miku let out another little giggle.
"What? You surprise record us all the time. It's only fair." Haku just stared at the shorter girl. Well that was true enough… she didn't have to be so frustratingly right about it though. Miku's giggle turned into an outright laugh, either at the look on Haku's face or the feeling she got from their connection. Haku wouldn't actually stick her tongue out, but she could think it.
"I believe we've accomplished our goals for today." The Director announced as he came around from the passenger side of the great hulking vehicle. "I must say I'm surprised at the ingenuity of this armor system, when considering it's source, but no less so at you three for repairing it." He said to them, and Haku felt her insides warming at the compliment even as Miku and Luka smiled in response to the praise. "We'll take the data back to our safe house to analyze and let you know what we find. I suggest we all return to our hiding spots."
"We're going to go on a little patrol." Gumi said as everyone came in closer. "Sometimes driving around is nice, and maybe we'll catch a souldrinker or two."
Luka looked them over consideringly, and Gumi flushed a bit. She'd never entirely gotten over the fact that she was friends with the great idol Megurine Luka, nevermind that all five of them were idols now. "You've gotten stronger since we've been in hiding, I can tell! I'm so happy for you both."
Teto's head came up with a questioning look. "How can you tell? We haven't been tested recently."
Luka gave a little shrug. "It's just a feeling I get, you know how we do. You're easily A rank now, I'd bet on it."
Gumi positively beamed under the praise, and she opened her mouth to presumably let out a string of bubbly words but Teto just thanked Luka and took Gumi's hand to lead her away with a simple "We'll call you before we visit." Then led her off toward their own plain black SUV as everyone began breaking up.
Ia and Meiko approached them as they were preparing to depart, those preparations mostly involving hugs from Mira. "If you don't mind…" Meiko said tentatively, drawing everyone's eye. "We'd like to go back with Doctor and Director Hatsune, if it's alright? We have more questions we'd like to ask."
"How will you get back?" Miku asked concerned. "We only brought one car."
"We can catch a cab or something." Meiko said, not seeming overly concerned about it.
"We can issue them a car." The Director said. "If they're going to be partners they should have one anyway." There was an odd sort of tension in the air suddenly that persisted for a moment before Ia looked away. The Director hadn't meant partners like that, but…
"Do we have extra cars just around or…?" Haku asked curiously.
"We have a couple of garages." The Director answered, tilting his head curiously. "Why?"
"When they return to my house I could take them to a garage for you, if you'd like." She offered carefully, hoping that the fact that she was even volunteering would be enough to suggest a slightly delicate situation. She knew it hadn't been when he frowned though, but the doctor picked up on whatever it was and nodded for him.
"Very well Haku dear, we'll leave it to you to sort out. We'll send you an address later."
"Thank you." Haku said with a smile for her even as the director furrowed his brow at his wife. Still, he let her decision stand, perhaps sensing some feminine intuition at work beyond his understanding. Being the only man present in a group of women a large majority of the time must leave him wondering at it occasionally. At least, Haku thought he must. She knew she'd feel confounded a lot if she were surrounded by men all the time. Boys' minds just seemed to work differently, she could never tell what they were thinking. Even relatively reasonable men like Director Hatsune seemed to come completely out of left field with their thoughts or suggestions at times and it always left her baffled for a minute. "It's like they're totally aliens sometimes." came a thought from Miku accompanied by a physical sensation of pressure in her chest as though she were suppressing a giggle. Haku heaved a sigh internally. Her thoughts had wandered again and of course her girlfriends had been privy to it. Her annoyance at herself just earned her amusement back from them, which just annoyed her more. She didn't know what they were so amused by, she'd caught stray thoughts from both of them before that were less then happy about their bond conveying absolutely everything. That thought got their amusement to die down some! Ha!
All of this flashed through their minds with the speed of a few thoughts and none of them let any of it show on their faces while they finished saying their goodbyes and and everyone piled into their respective vehicles.