Hey everyone! finally back after my excessively long hiatus! This chapter has been almost complete for some time now but i decided to finally finish it and bring it to you guys. This chapter actually DOES move the plot along so I hope you all enjoy reading it as much as I did writing it!
Disclaimer: I dont own the 'loids. At all.
.
.
.
CH.4-Trouble in Paradise
One week after the events at the hospital
It was a hot, sunny day, and a certain Ms. Megpoid Gumi was having a relaxing tanning session in the backyard of the Vocaloid Mansion by the in-ground pool. She had everything she could need; sunglasses, a cheap magazine, her favorite bathing suit, and a well-mixed margarita.
It had been an exhausting first part of the day. First she had a few new tracks to record at the INTERNET Co. recording studio, and then she had a fight with her brother Gakupo over the color of the men's suits at his wedding. He wanted purple but Gumi thought that "pimpin" was not a good theme to pitch to his fiancé, Luka. Finally, she had a fan signing at a local music shop followed by bi-yearly cybernetics maintenance down at the local hospital.
The signing and maintenance had taken her into the mid-afternoon; it was already 2:30pm. "Plenty of time to catch some rays," she thought, "and a fresh margarita to boot!"
As she reached for her drink, she didn't realize that Kaito had left his drink on the same table. Gumi accidentally nudged it, and a neon green liquid splashed onto the poolside concrete.
"Aw, darn it!" Gumi was about to get the hose to spray the liquid away. Before she could, Kaito came out to get his drink.
"Gumi, you knock this over?" As obvious as it was, Kaito was always 'that guy' who had to ask stupid questions like that.
"No, it was the mystical fairy that goes around knocking people's cups over." Sarcasm filled Gumi's voice. "I was about to clean it up-"
Kaito stopped her short. "No! Leave it! Look!" He pointed to a small housefly that had landed on the green liquid. It suddenly started flying around at incredible speed for a bug that size, then burst into flames.
"What the hell? What IS that stuff!?" Gumi backed away quickly, almost tripping over the Chaise lounge she was lying on.
"Progress!" Kaito loudly stated. "It's a new drink combination that Gakupo and I made!"
"What on earth did you put in there, crack and kerosene!?" Gumi exclaimed.
"Well, we thought about putting meth in there for those really long days and-" Gumi hit him over the head with a water ski that laid conveniently close by.
"You two are the biggest morons I have ever encountered…"
Kaito felt a little hurt by that, disregarding how true it actually was. "I was just kidding! And ya know, you could maybe TRY it before judging it. I call it Radioactive Horse Piss."
Gumi gave a disgusted look. "There aren't enough carrots in Japan to get me to drink that shit." She picked up her margarita and the lounge she was sitting in. "I'm gonna move down a little so my stuff doesn't get that toxic waste on it. I'd bet its already mutating into some bizarre abomination."
Kaito frowned. He knew it didn't really look all that appealing, and maybe Gumi was right, but it was still partially his creation and he was going to stand up for it!
"Gumi I insist you try it so that you can at least properly hate it!" Kaito huffed. It was actually kind of sad to see a grown man act that way, Gumi thought. But then she realized Kaito was anything but a grown man.
"Ugh, fine, but if I die, I'm haunting you. That's not a threat, that's a promise." With that she had Kaito bring out another glassful of the green liquid. She picked up the cup, gave one last look at him (mouthing the words "haunted" silently to him) and took a sip. I was a few moments before the reality of Gumi's current situation became apparent to her. Her vision blurred a bit, and everything seemingly slowed down around her. Even Kaito looked to be almost frozen in place. She sat up from her lawn chair, looked around, and noticed that indeed everything was standing still, or moving much, MUCH slower than usual. She walked over to the house and peered inside through one of the kitchen windows. Miku and Rin were sitting at the kitchen table, Meiko and Gakupo were chatting while washing the dishes from earlier in the afternoon, and Dell was smoking a cigarette in the living room while Neru was bugging him to stop. At least, that's what it all looked like seeing as none of them were moving either. Even the smoke of Dell's cigarette sat suspended in the air.
"Ok, what the hell is going on!?" Gumi screamed. Suddenly she felt violently ill. As she dropped to her knees on the grass, her entire world began to spin as everything seemed to come back up to reality in a sudden whirring motion. Then she puked.
Kaito had come running as soon as he realized where Gumi had somehow disappeared to. He picked her up off the ground and brought her inside. She wasn't very with it, just moaning and groaning a lot. He set her down in one of the armchairs next to Dell.
"Kaito, what the hell happened to her!?" Gakupo came running over, accidentally dropping a heavy pan on Meiko's foot. Needless to say Rin learned a few fun new curse words after her little outburst.
"I had her try a sip of that drink we came up with and then-" Gakupo cut him off by hitting him upside the head with yet another conveniently placed water ski.
"You idiot! You were never supposed to actually DRINK it! It was just a fun experiment to watch flies explode!" Gakupo exclaimed.
"Wait… oh crap you were actually serious when you said that?" Kaito looked completely blown away by the revelation he just had.
"No shit, now look at her! She's a damn vegetable!"
"I… um… but did you see how fast she was moving? It was like greased lightning or something!"
Meiko walked over to the two. "Kaito I swear to god… you are the dumbest mad scientist I've ever met. This really isn't a hard fix, she's just all tweaked out from a caffeine and sugar hyper-rush. I saw you two making it earlier, and trust me she'll be fine. However Gumi isn't gonna be too happy with you, Kaito, when she finally does come around." She warned. She turned toward Dell. "Dell, you mind making up another batch of 'the stuff'? She's gonna need it." Dell nodded in response.
"Yeah… probably not too pleased…" Kaito began to slink away, but as he turned around to make his escape, something grabbed the end of his ever-present blue scarf.
Miku looked over her shoulder, shook her head, and went back to chatting with Rin.
"You…did this to me… gonna kill you… no mercy…" Gumi managed to groan her vengeful promise, and then passed out.
THE NEXT DAY
Gumi awoke to find Luka asleep sitting up next to her in her room. It seemed as though she had fallen asleep too on her turn to watch Gumi during the night. It had become routine practice in the household where if one got sick or hurt, the others would take shifts watching them in 1-hour shifts. Gumi looked over at her green digital clock. 4:37 a.m. Poor Luka had drawn the short straw and was stuck with the dreaded 4am to 5am shift.
"Oh wow, The sun's not even up yet. This is a first, me waking up before everyone else and not the other way around…" She drifted off into her own thoughts as Luka sat there quietly snoring, slumping over a little in her chair. Gumi noticed a small snot bubble had formed and…
"no, no, no, too gross. Not gonna think about it anymore." Gumi tried to remember what happened, but all she could recall was the moment right before she passed out, and the face of the blue-haired baka that had done this to her.
4:58 a.m.
Gumi hadn't realized she had spent the last 20 minutes off in la-la land dreaming up revenge plots against Kaito. One of the others, probably one of the two twins because they happened to be morning people, would come to relieve the sleeping Luka any minute now. They were sure to scold her too for drifting off, so Gumi decided to quietly wake her up before then.
She nudged Luka's shoulder gently, trying to rouse her before Rin or Len decided to make a public example of her.
"Hey, Luka, wake up, your shift is over." No response. She nudged her again, this time a little harder. "Come on, you pink moron, I'd rather not have you butchered on my floor here."
Luka mumbled a little. "Oh… Gakupo, you're never satisfied… oh I'd be happy to…"
Gumi practically pushed her chair over at that point. How dare she have dirty dreams about her fiancé while she was sitting NEXT to her! The nerve!
Luka toppled over onto the carpet, then sat up shocked and confused as to what just happened. "oh, good morning Gumi, how are you feeling?" She said innocently.
"Disgusted and appalled, but thanks for looking after me."
"Oh, it was no problem!"
"Riiight. Go change your underwear, you perv." Gumi said with a mischievous grin.
Luka's face went blood red. "I-I… I'll be going…"
Luka opened the door to find Rin standing there waiting for 5:00a.m. to come. "Oh, morning Rin, she's awake just so you know." With that Luka walked off back to her room.
"Yay!" Rin squeaked, excited her friend was awake with her. "How ya feelin'? Any better? We had Dell fix you up an IV of some weird anti-tox stuff he put together for when Haku has her reeeally bad drinking days. Who knew his dad was a doctor? Anyways the thing ran out a few hours ago so we took it out. Hopefully we didn't wake you up?" Rin looke a little too happy for 5a.m., even for the most hardcore morning person.
"No, I'm fine. And you said you guys put an IV in me!?" Gumi exclaimed as the information finished processing through her groggy brain.
"Yeah, like I said Dell did it. He used to work in a hospital for a while until he decided to go with Haku to the Academy, and then, well, you remember." She was referring to the accident that nearly killed everyone who currently lived in the house two years ago when a dam broke and caused the bus they were all on to get washed away, nearly killing everyone onboard.
"Yeah, let's not talk about that, I still have nightmares. So, am I ok? Like, do I look alright?" Gumi asked.
"Well a little green around the gills but other than that, no, you look fine. Well, except for the bedhead, of course." Gumi panicked for a moment, and then remembered her boyfriend Ted was out on business for the rest of the month. So, luckily, he didn't have to see her in such a messy state. Hopefully none of the others had called him, especially his sister Teto. She had a tendency to blow things slightly out of proportion…
Gumi sat up, still slightly out of it but definitely awake now. "Well, I doubt I'm gonna get any more sleep, may as well go have my morning carrot and coffee. Rin, you should probably go back to sleep. I'll be fine."
Rin nodded and skipped off down the hall to her room. Now that Rin was gone, the plotting could begin. A wicked smile spread across Gumi's face as all the horrific ideas came flooding into her mind all at once.
Several hours later, around 8 o'clock, Kaito came walking down the stairs to get ready for his early morning recording session. No one else had woken up yet, as today was Saturday and no one but Kaito had any early-morning business. He stepped into the kitchen and flicked the lightswitch. However, no lights came on. Instead all of the automatic blinds on the windows suddenly snapped shut. It was pitch black except for a few small rays shining in through the cracks around some of the windows across the room.
"Aw, dammit, looks like the electrical is going haywire again. I gotta remember to call somebody to take care of that when I get home." He tried flipping the switch a few more times, but to no avail. Suddenly he heard someone laughing. It was quiet at first, but it steadily grew louder and louder. Kaito couldn't see very well in the dark, so who it was was a mystery to him. It seemed to come from everywhere at once!
"Um… hello? Who's t-there?" Kaito started shuddering, wondering what on earth was going on. He felt a presence come up behind him, but he dared not turn around. "Oh… oh God…" Kaito turned his head slowly.
A match was lit, and a figure wearing a white hockey mask appeared before him. It whispered, "No. No God. Just ME."
Kaito screamed at the top of his lungs and dove out the nearest window, through the automatic blinds, shattering the window and the entire unit. Still screaming, he ran as fast as his legs could carry him all the way into the next neighborhood.
Gumi flicked the lights on. "Well that was fun!" she thought to herself.
Everyone in the house came running down the stairs, only to find Gumi standing there with her handiwork laid out right in front of her.
Meiko was the first to speak. "What the hell… ok, a couple of questions. Who was screaming, why is the window smashed, and why does it look like there's a substantial puddle of what I hope isn't urine on the floor there?"
"Not to worry, justice has been done. You can all go back to bed." Gumi smiled innocently.
Meiko just stared blankly, very confused as to what she was seeing. "Um, ok… glad to see you're feeling better, Gumi." She and the rest of the house all went back to their rooms, no one uttering even a single additional question.
Gumi took a deep breath, "Time to clean up I suppose. Now where did Miku put that broom…"
ONE WEEK LATER
Gumi sat in her comfy armchair, staring blankly at the television show in front of her. It wasn't even very interesting, but she had done all of the items on her to-do list and there wasn't much else she could think of, except, of course, to waste away in her chair.
Luka walked into the living room where she sat. "Gumi, you look… very bored." Gumi sank even deeper into the cushions.
"Yeah, kinda. There's nothing to do around here!" Gumi pointlessly flicked through other channels, breezing past reruns of Jersey Shore. "I swear, that show is so stupid. And Americans wonder why they catch so much flak internationally, they've got morons like that running rampant!"
Luka giggled quietly. "True, but I'm not here to discuss that stuff. I found something you might want to see…" She handed Gumi a manila folder.
"What is this, missile codes or something?" Gumi smirked. "Because I have a few people in mind-"
Luka wasn't amused; she pushed the envelope into Gumi's hands a bit harder. "Just open the damn thing."
"Jeeze, alright already, no need to get all flustered." She opened the envelope and glanced over the contents. "Oh… wow this explains SO much. I KNEW he had something to do with this. How did you get this information?"
Luka brushed past the question. "I don't know why Dr. Ayatoba would give Kaito stuff that powerful, especially without telling him what it was. He was either very bored or it points to something quite a bit larger… something that might be worth checking out further."
Gumi set the envelope and its contents down on the coffee table in front of her. "I'm not sure whether to confront him on this or to wait and see if it was just an accident or something."
"Gumi, that's a very serious chemical mixture that you drank. You're lucky that your VOCALOID system didn't burn out. You could've died." It was true; if their systems failed the damage to their bodies could be irreparable.
"Wait, do you remember what Gakupo said? How we were 'never supposed to drink it'? He knew it was dangerous!"
It took a moment for the implications to hit Luka, but when it did, she gasped out loud. "Ayatoba knew what he was doing… he knew exactly what he gave those two. And I'll bet he knew someone in this house full of morons would wind up drinking it!"
"Were… were we experimented on? Were we just test subjects?" Gumi paused for a long time before saying that. Something was very wrong here. The doctor had always been good to them, but this was a serious breach of their trust. Sure, the initial implantation of their VOCALOID systems was experimental at best and their survival a mere fluke, but this was something the doctor had never tried before. She looked to Luka, her expression as flabbergasted and confused as hers.
Luka took a deep breath, "So what should we do? We can't just let this go." For a moment Luka wished she hadn't said that. She didn't want to have to deal with this, not so close to her wedding day. There was still too much to do, too much to think about, too many worries left un-worried...
"Yo, Luka, snap out of it!" Gumi waved her hand in front of Luka's face. "You still with me girl? Ok, I think we should just talk to the two boys about this, especially Gakupo. He probably knows what the stuff was actually called. Maybe if we can get a product name we can trace it back to Ayatoba's lab. Ya know, for definitive proof."
Luka nodded again. "Good idea, we'll do that then. No need to jump to conclusions until we have facts I suppose."
Meanwhile, at the Hospital
IA picked up her cell phone that lay on the pillow next to her. It was only a few more hours until all the paperwork was done and they could all finally leave, but it felt like it may as well have been another month. As she was flipping through her phone, she noticed something out of the corner of her eye. It was Dr. Ayatoba teetering on the line between awake and asleep. His hair was a disaster, his coat wrinkled, and the bags under his eyes could carry a family of four's luggage for a week-long getaway. He was sitting in an adjacent office just holding his head in his hands while he filled out endless mounds of paperwork, most of which pertained to the "New VOCALOID 3 recipients" being released from the hospital. But there was something else on the table, she noticed. Careful not to alert the Doctor, she crept up behind him and read the title of the file. Unfortunately there was no title, but there was something even more intriguing; a large stamp that read "CLASSIFIED TIER 1." It also had Ayatoba's personal seal in the top right corner, and from the looks of it the government's security administration's seal as well. Not wanting to get caught, she crept back to her cot and lay back down, pretending as if nothing happened.
She thought long and hard on what that could mean, staying up long past "lights out" at ten o'clock.
"What could Ayatoba be working on for the government? A weapon maybe? A new kind of medicine?" She couldn't sleep well that night, just thinking and thinking. Eventually she merely made a mental note of it and when morning came she took her shower, grabbed her travel bag, and stepped onto the bus that would take her and the rest of her new friends to the newest wing of the Vocaloid mansion; their new home.
