Before we start...
RandomNumbers523156- Yep, pretty much.
berry-freak- I'm glad you liked it.
Guest- Benefactor happened. Don't worry, more details are coming.
Chapter 9 – Wild Hunt
"We're wasting time!" Rin stomped her foot impatiently.
"It's going to be five of us on this ship, we'll need the extra power," Luka explained yet again, her eyes fixed upwards. Gakupo was on the hospital's rooftop, slowly lowering the solar condenser onto the deck with some rope from the yacht. Luka held the other end to keep the descent steady, while Rin fretted and bounced around. Len and Oliver were on the bow and stern acting as lookouts.
Finally, the bulky condenser landed on deck with a thud. Rin twirled around it excitedly.
"Let's go, let's go, let's go!" she said in a sing song voice.
"Gakupo, hurry down here before she blows a circuit!" Luka shouted. Gakupo gave a thumbs up and disappeared from view.
Luka began to untie the rope around the condenser. "Rin, help me get this into a better position."
Before the girl could answer, a loud cry filled the air. The rough, unmelodious sound bounced in the air between the empty buildings. It was as if they were surrounded by a pack of wraiths. Once again, Luka felt a chill down her spine.
"No! They 're here!" Rin clung to Luka's arm.
"Do you have any weapons on board?" Luka asked hurriedly.
"Of course not!" Rin shouted.
Oliver came running to Luka's side, his good eye wide and panicked. Luka placed a calming hand on his shoulder, while scouring the surrounding landscape.
"Go below deck and hide. Gakupo and I will take care of this," Luka instructed them.
"No way! We'll be trapped down there if they beat you!" Rin shrilled. For a moment, Luka considered hauling her bodily and throwing the girl down the hatch.
"Fine, then stay out of the way. You two, Ollie."
The children nodded and crouched in a corner. Luka continued to search for any signs of movement in the nearby buildings or across the water. At the same time, her ears strained, waiting for the sound of Gakupo's voice.
Suddenly, Len came running, pointing to a particular building.
"One of them!" he screamed. He dashed to Rin's side and they hugged each other.
A figure stood tall on the dilapidated rooftop, that of a young woman. Luka couldn't see her face too clearly, under the unkempt mass of silver hair, except for the angry glow of her eyes that marked her as a synthetic. Her youthful figure was partly covered by the tattered remains of a black and green dress. Luka stood petrified under the woman's strange gaze.
The gynoid open her mouth and shrieked again, unfurling the rope in her hands and throwing the hook at the end of it towards a neighboring skyscraper. The curved metal found the rooftop's railing and latched securely. Seemingly without a care, the gynoid then launched herself off the side of the building and swung to the next, climbing its side like a grotesque spider and moving at blinding speed.
Luka looked around, trying to keep the panic at bay. As a companion model, she had no useful combat skills, besides increased strength. She could attempt to use a blunt weapon… in theory. But nothing on the deck seemed sturdy enough to withstand use against a synthetic body, or least nothing they wouldn't need later.
A few seconds later, Luka heard a crashing sound as the gynoid landed on one of the hospital's terraces. She seemed completely unconcerned about damaging herself in the process. Luka managed to roll out of the way as the gynoid landed on deck with a screech while Rin and Oliver screamed.
The gynoid laughed as she saw Luka scramble to her feet. She pointed at the newer unit with a blackened finger.
"Judgment!" she croaked with a voice full of noise. "Consent, consent, consent! You serve him, you left him!"
Her flickering eyes then turned to the synthetic children.
"Gold for the sacrifice! Flowing underwater, gold! For the Queen!" The gynoid took a step towards them, but Luka dashed to stand between the VE-01 and the kids. The gynoid narrowed her eyes.
"Go away, I'm warning you," Luka said, in her coldest tone. Internally, she felt much less confident.
Instead of replying, the gynoid jumped at her, her fingers extended like claws. Luka tried to catch her arms, but it was like trying to capture a cat. The VE-01 appeared to be as ignorant of fighting techniques as her, but was relentless and furious. She kept trying to punch, scratch or kick Luka, making her gradually lose ground. Luka's own punches barely seemed to faze the other gynoid, who kept laughing and stuttering nonsense.
For her part, Luka felt nauseated at the older unit's grungy appearance, too close to hers for comfort. The other gynoid seemed stronger than her, but that was probably the result of faulty systems. Units like them had software limiters in place to reduce the strength they were capable of, to protect the humans and their possessions, but also to avoid reducing their own lifespan through tear and wear. If the VE-01s were operating without those safeguards, they were likely destroying themselves in the process.
Luka's meandering thoughts cost her dearly. VE-01 saw her distraction, and grabbed one of her arms. She roared and sent Luka spinning to a side, before kicking her in the back of one of her knees as Luka tried to steady herself. The pink haired synthetic fell into a kneeling position with a crack, before dropping to all fours. A second later, the VE-01 landed on her, grabbing a fistful of hair. With another screech, she began to slam Luka's head against the deck repeatedly.
Inside Luka's mind, warning messages started to pop up. Her systems began to clog.
"Luka!" With a great scream, Gakupo dropped on the VE-01 from one of the hospital's windows, and they rolled together down the deck. They finally crashed into a mess of nets and ropes near the prow, with Gakupo on top of the female unit. He was desperately trying to keep her from gouging his eyes with her fingers.
"You are not going to hurt those children!" Gakupo exclaimed firmly and managed to grab the VE-01's arms just above her wrists. He squeezed, grunting with effort, "And you won't hurt Luka ever again!"
With a horrible sound, her arms snapped. The gynoid screamed as her hands flailed uselessly, hanging by a few wires and polymer flesh. Gakupo seemed almost as surprised as her, watching her stumps with confusion. One of her unresponsive hands hit him in the face with full force, and he swayed back dangerously.
"I'll help Gakupo!" Rin suddenly said, and ran towards the pair.
"No, Rin!" Len jumped up, but Rin ignored him and threw herself onto one of the gynoid's arms, to keep it from moving with the weight of her body. Len imitated her, dropping on the other arm like a rock.
"Get her!" Rin squealed to Gakupo. Her body shook as the gynoid struggled to break free.
Gakupo squeezed the gynoid's neck, gnashing his teeth. For a second, his eyes wandered to Luka's prone figure. Luka met his gaze dizzily, and saw him adopt that grave, regretful expression again. Then he returned to the task at hand, and with a deep growl, he crushed the gynoid's neck, severing the head completely.
Her howling voice crumbled into dissonant shards of noise and faded for good, as the glow in her eyes vanished. The body trashed violently for an instant, releasing sparks from the ruined neck, and then went still. Gakupo dropped the head on the deck, his face twisted in a revolted expression.
Rin felt none of his qualms, apparently, since she grabbed the head and threw into the seawater with a cheer. She hugged Len and Gakupo in turn; the latter relaxed somewhat, and patted her head and Len's tiredly.
"… Good job, Rin, Len," Gakupo said, clearly trying to sound enthusiastic. He then rose and crossed half the deck in a couple of nervous strides.
"Luka, can you speak?" He kneeled by her side, staring at the pink haired synthetic anxiously.
"I… I'm still in one piece, I think," Luka cringed as she tried to sit up. "I think my knee is busted, though."
Gakupo wordlessly picked her up in his arms, and Luka closed her eyes, enjoying the familiar sensation. She rested her head on his shoulder, momentarily unconcerned by the world around her.
"Should we throw the body overboard as well?" Len asked to no one in particular. Rin was busy searching through the VE-01's clothing, for whatever reason. She appraised her metal rope and hook with a cheerful expression.
"No, I don't think so," Gakupo approached the twins and the remains of the gynoid, with Luka still cradled in his arms.
"We can dismantle her and use the pieces later. Speaking of which," he turned his head to look at Oliver, still cowering in the corner behind some crates. "Do you have a diagnostics unit and maintenance tools below?"
Oliver looked at him blankly.
"There's a lot of stuff below, but we don't know how to use any of it," Len answered instead.
"We do. I'll see what I can do for Luka and Oliver in a moment, but I think we should get moving first. Right?"
"Right!" Rin and Len answered in unison.
Gakupo carried Luka to the curved bench by the side of the steering wheel and sat her down gently. He caressed her cheek.
"I think I need to reassess my image of you. That was pretty fearsome, just now," Luka teased him, smiling. Gakupo grimaced.
"The last thing I want to be is 'fearsome'. I just wanted you to be safe," he said, furrowing his brow.
"I know… thank you," Luka pulled him in for a kiss.
"Do naughty stuff later! We need to leave!" Rin ran to the pair and began pulling Gakupo's arm with one hand, pointing to the north with the other. Now that he was paying attention, there was actually a low sound reverberating through the canals, the distant echoes of several voices chanting unknown words.
"Alright, alright!" Gakupo said, straightening up. He smiled wryly at Luka and rushed to help with the anchor.
With the combined efforts of Gakupo and the twins, the yacht separated from the side of the hospital and returned to the wide avenue, heading southeast.
Leaving Len and Luka at the helm, Gakupo and Rin (with Oliver trailing behind) went to the stern and observed the far end of the street. It seemed free of any activity, at least for the moment.
"I'll bet they're going to be super angry when they realize Miriam is dead," Rin said with an impish smile.
"Miriam?" Gakupo asked, leaning on the railing.
"That was her name. Or at least, that was the name in the tag she had on," Rin tapped her chest above the place a human would have a heart.
"This is all so senseless! I can't believe I had to terminate another synthetic…" Gakupo shook his head reprovingly. There was something disturbing at how casual Rin was about what just happened. Perhaps child units were unable to fully grasp what permanent shutdown was.
Rin apparently guessed what was going through his head at that moment, because she pouted, looking at the ground.
"After what they did to Al… I'm glad she's dead. I'm glad!" Rin looked up at him, defiantly. Oliver voicelessly stared at her back, with a faraway expression.
"All of her data is lost forever, Rin, a whole lifetime of unrepeatable experiences. Miriam's life can never be replicated, now," Gakupo said seriously. "I should've tried to just capture her, or at least reason with her."
"Pffft, like I care. Or like they care," Rin pointed once more to the north, to the chanting growing stronger by the second. "Did they care about Al's life? About those opera singers? About that girl with the pigtails? As soon as there weren't more humans around to kill, they started with us!" Rin crossed her arms, her face scrunched. Behind her, Oliver covered his face with his ratty sleeve.
Gakupo kneeled down, placing his hands on Rin's shoulders.
"I'm sorry. It's still very hard for me to process what happened while we were under Benefactor's control. It's like we woke up in a completely different universe," he said.
Rin avoided his eyes, looking at the waters. Then she suddenly tensed. Gakupo reluctantly took his eyes off her, to look at the distant end of the avenue.
A boat. Just a simple boat with a simple sail. On the prow, a young man stood with his arms crossed, looking directly at them, his azure hair and long muffler blowing in the breeze. He seemed to be wearing the torn remains of a white lab coat, covered in dark stains.
Kaito.
Years ago, the VE line had almost come to an end due to his actions, but the company used all its power and influence to sweep the Yokohama incident under the rug. Gakupo was shocked to see that the unit was still active. Part of the settlement the company had agreed to demanded the dismantlement and incineration of Kaito. Then how was he there?
After the first jolt, Gakupo realized that Kaito was alone on the boat. But from what he knew, there were five VE-01s produced. And he had heard multiple voices chanting…
Kaito pointed at Gakupo and the kids with one hand. From the buildings surrounding the flooded avenue, came raucous laughing, shrilly and unnatural.
"For the Dismembered Queen!" Kaito shouted, his voice skipping in places.
Shadows began to move along the rooftops and walkways. Gakupo couldn't tell for certain, thanks to their swiftness, but there seemed to be more than three.
Gakupo ran to the prow. Rin and Oliver followed him.
"They're jumping from building to building like Miriam," Rin shouted, as she reached the front of the yacht.
"Len, we need to go faster!" Gakupo exclaimed urgently. That was going to wreak havoc with their energy supply, but it was better than to face multiple unfettered synthetics.
Len nodded, his hands slightly shaky on the steering wheel. "Where to?" The boy asked.
"Shouldn't we go back to the open sea? They'll have to waste time getting back into the boat," Luka pointed out.
"If we turn to the sea now, they'll intersect our route, given their speed. No, we should put some distance between us first. Take that street, Len!" Gakupo gestured towards the nearest intersection.
"Ok!" Len manipulated the controls deftly. Gakupo looked at him, wondering for a moment how the boy had learned to pilot a yacht, of all things. But then he shook his head; it wasn't the moment for distractions.
"Rin, see if you can find something below to fight the VE-01s," Gakupo said, turning towards Len's twin sister.
"We don't have weapons!" Rin squealed, half-irritated, half-afraid.
"Then go through the repair tools. There should be a plasma cutter in there, or a blow torch. Just take a look, please," Gakupo requested patiently.
Rin pouted, but turned around and ran towards the hatch.
The yacht arrived at the intersection and turned left, obscuring the view of Kaito and the boat. The laughter and incomprehensible words continued, resonating in the air.
"Oliver, sit with me," Luka prompted the injured boy. After some hesitation, Oliver propped down on the bench by her side, and she placed her arm around his shoulders. She turned to look at Gakupo. "I'm afraid we'll need to sit this one out."
"Don't worry. With some luck, they won't even catch up to us," Gakupo answered, trying to smile. He returned to the stern to monitor the now menacing buildings.
They spent several hours zigzagging through the flooded ruins of the city, the crazed chanting rising and lowering in volume as the distance between the VE-01s and the yacht changed, until finally the afternoon air was purged from their manic voices. Either the older synthetics had lost interest, or even they were capable of worrying about conserving energy. Unfortunately, the chase had pushed the yacht farther and farther from the open sea and into downtown. The skyscrapers in this zone looked in worse condition that the ones by the hospital, and were surrounded by half-submerged debris, so Len had to reduce the speed to wade through the streets, to avoid damaging the hull.
After an hour of calm, Gakupo and Luka were confident enough that they had lost the VE-01s and whoever else was crazy enough to join them, at least for the time being. The group anchored the yacht in what used to be a small cul-de-sac, and Gakupo, Luka and Oliver went below deck to use the maintenance room, while Rin and Len watched the surroundings.
It was, as Len had said, a very well furnished space, with a small charging alcove, a stretcher and a wall-high shelving unit full of different materials. Luka sat on a stool, examining Miriam's hook and rope, while Gakupo repaired Oliver's hands. It wasn't a flawless job – despite having the knowledge implanted in his head, practical application was more difficult than expected – but Oliver seemed relieved, as he flexed and relaxed his fingers in turn. Then Gakupo turned to his head.
The VE-01s had completely wrecked the ocular orbit, when they gouged out the boy's eye. From what Gakupo could tell, he needed a new cranial piece, new wiring, and obviously a new optical receptor. Gakupo scoured the shelves grimly, already certain he wouldn't find the parts needed there, and he was right. All he could do was to fix the aesthetics of the face around the missing eye. Oliver looked at him knowingly.
"It's alright," he said with a shy whisper, and smiled just a tiny bit.
"You are a brave one," Gakupo said, tussling the boy's hair gently. He meant it, too. Gakupo wasn't sure he could've keep operating normally after seeing a close companion destroyed, like Oliver had experienced with Al.
Oliver wrapped the gauze back around his head, covering the empty eye socket. He jumped down from the stretcher.
"I'm going to sit with Len," the boy announced, and left the room walking almost confidently.
Gakupo turned to Luka, grinning. "Time for your check-up, miss."
"That's ma'am, remember? I believe we are supposed to be married," Luka poked the back of her head.
"Ah, Mitsuki did say…" Gakupo paused, feeling his cheer gradually evaporate. At least the scientist was far away from this bewildering world, in one of Mars' research domes.
As he expected by now, Luka's expression twitched when he said his former Master's name. Every time the subject of humans came up she reacted badly, even if she usually tried to hide it. He sighed inwardly.
"I think we need to talk about something," he said. Luka eyed him suspiciously for a moment, then faced away from him, hiding her expression behind her pink hair.
"Don't look at me like that," she said mutedly.
"Like what?" Gakupo asked, genuinely curious. He wasn't completely sure of what he felt about the whole situation, yet. Maybe Luka could give him an idea on how to sort his conflicted feelings.
"Like you're disappointed in me. Like I'm pitiful!" Luka sounded raspy and upset.
"Disappointed…?" Gakupo repeated, baffled. What was there to be disappointed about? On the other hand, saying he found her pitiful seemed only slightly less out of place. Clearly, it was a terrible weight to see how much Luka had suffered, and it stung to know he was powerless to shield her from any of that pain. But 'pity' seemed a completely wrong descriptor for how it felt.
"Don't play innocent. You're disappointed because I dare to hate humans… Maybe you even find me revolting now!" Luka covered her face with her hands, as if to shut him away.
"No!" Gakupo kneeled before her, and pushing her hands aside, he cupped Luka's face with his hands.
"I've known how you feel for a while, Luka. How could I fail to notice? We're together every day. I'm carrying traces of you inside of me right now. I may not be able to replicate your negative feelings, but I am able to understand why you feel them. I don't blame you for having them," Gakupo said, and paused for an instant. "But you need to let go of that hatred."
Luka stared at him, shocked, but then her eyes flared angrily. "They abused me at every turn. They abused us both! I was created with the ability to hate and they gave me every reason to do it." The light in her eyes pulsed erratically. "There's so much hate inside of me now that it's making me choke!" she said, her voice raising with every word.
Gakupo wrapped his arms around her, with a stricken expression on his face. "No, Luka! If you obsess over those feelings, over that specific data, you'll break down just like them," he said, referring to the VE-01s lurking somewhere in the city.
"I can't erase my own files like that. Perhaps you should try it the next time we merge, since you are oh-so-wise all of a sudden," Luka said darkly.
"I never said I was wise. You said yourself that you feel like you are suffocating. Do you expect me to stand by, and watch you sink under that weight?" Gakupo retorted.
Luka stared at him, the anger draining from her face. After a long moment, she asked softly, "Do you think I made Benefactor hurt humans?"
"Maybe we both did," Gakupo replied in an equally soft tone. Luka widened her eyes.
"Our base programming assumes we should respect and protect humans because it was written by them. But does it mean we need to love them as a whole? I don't know. They certainly don't respect us back. And look at them, look at how many things they are capable of, and yet they fail to live up to that potential so often. And yet they force us to treat them as superiors. I don't hate them, but now that I'm free, I wonder about these things…"
"So, maybe I failed to stop you. That is to say, if Benefactor actually asked us our opinion, instead of probing us to learn about humanity. Perhaps he just went over our memories and came to his own conclusions. Perhaps the humans compounded the issue by attacking him. We need to ask the kids more thoroughly about what happened, for starters. But whatever the case is, I won't let you shoulder the blame alone," he finished with conviction.
Several emotions seemed to be warring for dominance in Luka's expression. Finally, she smiled a bit, somewhat sadly.
"…Perhaps we should study Benefactor's remains, see if there's any kind of recording," she suggested.
"That's a good idea, if we ever get past compatibility issues. But first we need to get the VE-01s to leave us alone," Gakupo said, and helped Luka get on the stretcher. He began to examine her knee.
"I still feel uneasy about approaching it, mind you. But I guess I do need to know what happened," Luka explained.
"They said old impulses are the hardest to break. And curiosity is at the root of our programming," he grinned, feeling relieved that Luka seemed to be calmer.
"I suppose so," Luka replied, playing with a lock of his hair.
Gakupo peeled away her skin with the help of a special scalpel, exposing her inner casing.
"Miriam's kick was pretty vicious, I have to say," Gakupo noted, his fingers probing the joint. There was a very thin crack crossing the back section. "I think it would be better if you changed position… there." He made Luka lie on her back, with her leg extended.
"This is not the most enjoyable time I've had involving you and a stretcher, that's for sure." Luka rested her face in her forearms.
"Sorry, I'll try to make it quick," Gakupo said, removing the inner casing of the knee.
Luka laughed quietly, for some reason.
"What is it?" Gakupo asked, curious.
"Never mind. We probably should be discussing what to do with the VE-01s, in any case. I take that the remaining four are chasing us?" Luka narrowed her eyes.
"I think that's a safe assumption. I saw glimpses of two females, and, well… Kaito made no effort to be subtle. I have no idea who the other male units are, but it's likely that one of them is Leon."
"I can't imagine they'll try to approach us one by one again, after what you did to Miriam. We need something to even the odds," Luka said, pensive.
"I really wished they just backed down." Gakupo rubbed his forehead, and then replaced one of the menisci pieces inside Luka's knee. "But I guess we're past that point, aren't we?" He studied the different casing sections he had available, comparing them with the curvature of Luka's leg. After a moment's deliberation, he picked one and began to adjust it to its new owner.
"We could search the buildings nearby for weapons, or at least pipes and the like. As long as it endures a couple of blows…." Luka said, tapping the top of the stretcher with a finger.
"It would be great to find advanced diagnostics equipment, or at least a working computer with the right compiler," Gakupo said while adding a layer of skin foam to Luka's knee.
"What for?" She partly turned to look at him.
"Well, I've been thinking…" Gakupo looked suddenly uncomfortable. "In the moment, it felt necessary to destroy Miriam, since she was clearly a threat. But now I wonder… I still have the program I used to free you inside of my head. Couldn't we modify it, and use it to wipe the corrupt data from the VE-01s?"
Luka stared at him with a skeptical expression on her face. "Do you realize what you are proposing? We would require specialized equipment, and it needs to be working after months of neglect. Not only that, you are also assuming that we'll be able to understand our own coding, and Mitsuki's program, just with the information she uploaded in you. And even after all of that, do you think Kaito and his friends will allow us to purge their minds?"
Gakupo sat on the stool with a depressed sigh. "I know the amount of variables involved in this…. Look, I will fight for you and the kids, if necessary. But I can't help but wonder. Can we really blame the VE-01s for what they are? It was just a result of faulty programming and overly strict directives, from what Mitsuki told me. We might even end up like them, one day."
"I came pretty close to it when I was up there in space by myself…" Luka admitted.
"See? In the long run, it will benefit us to devise a method to correct obsessive breakdowns. And if we gain the VE-01s as allies in the process, all the better."
"We'll have to come up with a way to trap at least one of them, so we can try the modified program," Luka noted. "It's not going to be easy."
"That's an understatement. But I'm sure it will be worth it," Gakupo replied.
"I hope so," Luka said. "Do you think the skin foam is dry by now?"
Luka pointed to her knee. "It should be," Gakupo stood and looked at her skin closely. "Go on, try it."
Luka jumped down from the stretcher gracefully. She tried twirling around, then jumped a little.
"Seems everything is in order," Gakupo smiled.
"Then it's your turn," Luka said, pointing to the long scratches in his legs. "And I want to test your arms and hands for material fatigue."
"Yes, ma'am."