Gumi stirred as she felt her consciousness returning. Her ocular interface booted up as text scrawled across her eyes, activating various systems and subroutines. Her motor functions activated shortly after awakening. Her environment was radically different from when she was forcibly put to sleep.
When she finally had her bearings, Gumi noticed the large glass panel in front of her. She tried to push against it, but it didn't budge. She was stuck.
Gumi noticed beyond the glass that she was sitting next to large cubic structures with masses of wires sticking out of each one. The cubes looked to be junction boxes, and Gumi wondered how exactly she ended up here. This didn't look like a Duodecim facility. Something had happened, but what that something was, she didn't know.
She started banging against the glass, hoping someone would come by and try and free her. The idea of being trapped inside of her pod didn't scare her, but the fact there wasn't a single person around to hear her terrified her.
She kept banging, ramming her fists against the glass, hoping it would break. She kept screaming, thinking that would help any nearby rescuers.
Then a loud explosion rocked the pod she was in, and she felt the force shake everything around her. She looked up, realizing she was inside of an old building, and noted that the supports could give way at any moment if anything hit it.
Gumi noticed her calls were not unheard, as two blurry figures approached the pod, and she quickly realized who was standing over her pod.
Two Duodecim drones readied their weapons and made affirmative beeps to each other. The single glowing red light at their head flashed as they approached.
She couldn't escape, and resigned herself to fate at that very moment. Gumi knew she wasn't physically able to take on two drones that had firearms aimed at her. She could take on maybe one of them, but she'd be stopped by the other if she tried. If she could get her hands on one of their guns, though, she'd be able to take them.
One of the drones approached, its rifle pointed at the pod, and started opening it.
"Confirmation," the drone said coldly, "package identity confirmed V.C.D.-02. Preparing for safekeeping."
Gumi knew her options were wearing thin quickly. She had to find a way out, and she had to find it fast. If it meant she could get away from Duodecim, she'd be free.
As the drone started opening the pod, Gumi noticed something. The other drone further back had been grabbed and dragged off. The drone opening Gumi's pod didn't even notice. Not until it was too late.
Once the drone took notice that its partner was gone, it readied its weapon, but it was met with a large sharp projectile that had landed right in its ocular sensor. It was blinded, but still operational. The unknown figure ran up, and used the rifle of the other drone to beat it down. Eventually, the drone stopped functioning entirely.
Gumi let out a sigh of relief and looked out of the pod at her rescuer. The most noticeable feature of this person was their pink hair and orange jumpsuit. This person had just saved Gumi, and potentially was in the same boat as she was.
The person opened the pod, and Gumi looked up at her new friend; it was another girl, and she seemed to have guessed right that she and Gumi were somehow the same.
"Here I was thinking I was the only one," the girl said, a slight smile on her face.
"Oh, good," Gumi said, "I guess I don't need to explain myself then."
"No, I guess you don't. Guess I should ask you who you are, though."
"Gumi," Gumi said, "my full name is Gumi Megpoid, Vocaloid Unit Zero-Three, serial number 072-093-"
"That's enough to go on, I think. As for me, my name is Luka. Luka Megurine, at least, that's the name they gave me."
"Oh well, good to meet you, Luka!" Gumi said, holding her hand out. Luka shook it quickly, and pulled Gumi out of the pod.
Gumi dusted herself off, though she was the cleanest thing in the facility.
"So, how'd you find me?" Gumi inquired.
"Heard these two were looking for something. Thought it might be a way out of here, but when I saw your pod, I figured I should help out. Turns out I was right.
"Very glad you did," Gumi said, "I'm not really built for combat roles. But you seem to know what you're doing, so I think I'll stick with you."
"Sounds good to me. Do you know what you are good at?"
"Well," Gumi said, "I'm an expert with computers. If anything needs to be cracked, I'm pretty good at that. I also happen to know a thing or three about engineering. In fact, I bet I could probably get some of these drones working again if you didn't damage their internal operating systems too much-"
Luka waved her hand. "That's very impressive, but I think we should probably try and find a way out of here. Don't worry, I'll try my best to keep you safe."
"Alright, lead the way, Luka. I'll be right behind you."
Luka nodded, and snuck away with Gumi into an underground maintenance accessway. With an extra hand to help out, Gumi felt as if her chances of survival increased exponentially. So long as she didn't have to sit alone again, she would take it.
For now, though, she'd have to stay quiet, but if both of them managed to escape, she'd finally have a friend. And that motivated her to get out of all of this, or suffer in isolation once again.
----------------------------------------
Overhead we could hear the vehicles of the C.S.F. patrol by both air and by land. Even though we managed to slip past them from the archive building, that didn't mean there wasn't an excess of security forces left around to sweep the other sectors. Lucky for us, the underground network tunnels we slipped into served a purpose of being a good temporary hideout until things cooled down. It also served as a good escape route, as the entire city was connected by this entire tunnel system.
"So," Miku said, "that's how you two met?"
"The start of it, yes," Gumi nodded. "Though I haven't even gotten to how I was contacted. That didn't happen until later, once we got out of the abandoned power station."
"You know how you got there?" Miku asked.
"Not really," Gumi shrugged. "All I remember before I woke up was being shoved into my hibernation pod and entering sleep mode. Beyond that, I don't remember anything."
"Sounds right," Luka said. "I think once we disconnected from our pods, the sleep state we were in wore off."
"Not all of us," Miku said, "I don't recall waking up until I was in a safe place. Did any of you happen to find me before then?"
"No, not that I remember," Gumi said, shaking her head. "We were so desperate trying to get out of there that we didn't find anyone else. Had we, we'd probably have all been grouped up by now."
"Sorry I never accepted your invitation," Miku apologized. "But I also don't regret it."
Miku shot me a quick glance with that comment. I blushed a little, and looked away.
"Well, maybe if you were around, maybe Kaito would have made it out, too," Meiko added.
"Wish we could have helped," Luka said apologetically. "We were just winging it when we escaped. Somehow it worked."
Meiko looked at the floor. "Either way, I'm mad that I didn't stay to save him."
"What exactly happened? Did he stay behind?" I asked.
"I guess you could say that," Meiko answered. "Though not by his own choice. I don't know when you two escaped, but we were trying to make it out while the facility was literally falling apart."
"We were out by then," Gumi said, "in fact, the sandstorm was setting in place when it fell, and we were far out enough to see the facility collapse."
Meiko didn't really say anything, she just looked like she was full of regret.
"I don't wanna pry," I said. "But what exactly happened?"
Meiko broke from her trance, and spoke up.
"Yeah, okay, I guess I should tell everyone, huh? Fine. You all deserve to know."
----------------------------------------
A helicopter circled over the abandoned power station, seeking out targets before the sandstorm would set in. It used a built-in spotlight along with a rotary cannon to identify targets, and potentially to deal with them if they proved troublesome.
It was operated autonomously by a drone that was given orders from the Needle Point base. From there, it was given direction to patrol around the structure and flag any potential targets.
It was unclear if the facility was empty yet or not, but Duodecim hadn't recovered their assets yet, and that was imperative for the company to recover the units that had managed to get away from them.
Kaito and Meiko looked out from the eighth floor, sitting behind a stack of empty barrels. Both had only managed to wake up recently, and it was a miracle their pods weren't discovered, and an even bigger miracle they managed to wake up at all before Duodecim's retrieval teams were able to find them.
But Kaito and Meiko didn't dwell on that fact, instead, they tried to formulate a plan for their escape. Watching as the helicopter circled by, Kaito timed how long it would take for it to circle back again.
"Thirty-five seconds," Kaito calculated. "We've got about thirty-five seconds before it circles back again, and that depends if it has an eye on something else."
The helicopter moved by again, this time a little slower, and its spotlight shined right around the floor they were standing on. Kaito and Meiko crouched down again, hugging against the barrels.
"Think it sees us? These jumpsuits certainly help to pick us out," Meiko said.
"No, no," Kaito said. "If it did it would have sounded off an alarm, right?"
"Sure, okay," Meiko agreed.
The helicopter took its eyes off the floor, and moved on its patrol.
"If we can get to the first floor and away from here," Kaito said, "we may actually be able to get away from all of this."
"You don't think they'll find us, do you?" Meiko wondered aloud. "I mean, we'll still be running."
The helicopter flew by again, this time a floor lower than before. Kaito peeked over as it sat there and observed.
He turned his gaze back to Meiko with his soft dark blue eyes. "I would rather we're both free and on the run than to be locked up in a cell until the end of time."
He moved in a little closer to Meiko, wrapping one of his arms around her.
"And I'd rather we stick together through all of that instead of having to let them decide that for us."
All Meiko could do was nod her head in agreement.
"Right," she said. "Someone went to the trouble of doing the hard part, all we have to do is get out of here."
She stood up, and watched the helicopter go by again.
"Fine then, let's get out of here. If they want us back so bad, they can try. But we're getting out of here no matter what."
Kaito stood up behind her. "Then let's get out of here. I think we can make it down to the first floor if we make our way to the elevators and climb down. It might take a while though."
"Hopefully they won't hear us climbing down," Meiko said. "I may be able to fight, but even I can get outnumbered."
"You? Really?" Kaito jabbed. "You seem almost unstoppable with how you go against them."
Meiko rolled her eyes. "They haven't sent fifty drones at me yet, and I'd rather not test that tonight."
The two approached the elevator shaft, and Meiko pulled open the door. The shaft was empty and dark.
"Don't let me fall now," Kaito said. "Or maybe you'd like to go first?"
"Sure, why not? I can catch you easier if I do."
Meiko reached for the cable in front of her, and grabbed it. Once she had a steady grip, she started shimmying down the shaft. Kaito followed behind her shortly after.
The building shook as something detonated nearby.
"That shaking's making me nervous," Meiko gritted her teeth. "Thought whoever it was that was here had cleared out by now."
"I think they might have boobytrapped this place," Kaito said. "Trying to keep the retrieval teams on their toes. Probably explains why they haven't completely taken this place over yet."
"Just worried about the structural integrity of this place," Meiko said, observing the age of the facility. "Would hate for it to fall apart just as we're about to get out of here."
"So long as the supports aren't hit, we should be okay," Kaito said, trying to calm Meiko's nerves more than anything else. Even he couldn't really say for sure if the place would hold, but he didn't want Meiko to panic, either.
Just then, the elevator that was previously inoperable had come to life, and started moving upwards. Meiko looked up at Kaito, and took action.
"I may not be able to take fifty," she said, "but that elevator probably won't have more than five."
Kaito didn't stop her. He knew her strategy was always to brute force anything, and he knew he could trust her on this.
Meiko slid down against the elevator, ignoring the burns that caused tears in her synthetic skin. It would eventually grow back, but right now, her survival was more important, and if Duodecim was sending up a strike team, she knew she could deal with it.
The maximum capacity for the elevator was about six, and considering how bulky some of the drones were, Meiko figured it might be only four coming up, but she could easily take on six if necessary.
She landed at the top of the elevator, knowing full well she was making plenty of noise.
A faint mechanical voice could be heard inside of the elevator.
"Audible disturbance identified. Investigating."
Meiko grabbed the elevator's emergency exit handle, and ripped it open. Four drones looked up at her as she jumped inside and landed on one, ramming her fist into another. Without any hesitation, she kicked another drone, forcing its rifle out of its hand and grabbed it. And before the last one could even pull the trigger, she bashed it across its visor with the butt of the rifle, smashing its ocular sensor to pieces.
She checked all of them, making quick work of any survivors and ensuring that none of them would be operable. Then she took time to search each of them, putting together a small arsenal to take on the rest that she would encounter.
Kaito made it down to the elevator as it climbed up and stopped at a floor. Lucky for the two androids, it was an empty floor.
"Found some good equipment," Meiko said, "here, take one."
She gave Kaito a rifle. It was colored with a blue end on its tip as well as the stock.
"Shock rifle," Meiko said. "Seen plenty of 'em. Definitely came in here to apprehend us."
She grabbed a set of three pulse grenades off the dead drones and tied them to her jumpsuit.
"Looks like you're going to war," Kaito commented, "you think that'll even the odds?"
"Would sure like it to be that way. As much as I'd love to take out every drone in this place, I'm not sure it'll be smart."
Kaito nodded. "Last thing I want is you doing anything reckless."
"That ship has sailed," Meiko said, looking at the four drones she had just disabled.
"I trust your judgment," Kaito said. "I also trust you won't do anything reckless without considering the consequences."
"That's better," Meiko let out a slight chuckle. "Now, come on, we've got about four floors left to get out of here."
Just then, as Meiko said that, the helicopter had moved to the lower floors, with its spotlight aimed directly at them.
"Kaito, run!" Meiko yelled.
The helicopter spun up its rotary cannon and sprayed bullets into the building.
Meiko and Kaito managed to find cover behind a support pillar, but not without Meiko having a heavy caliber round rip through her torso. Luckily hitting nothing important, but it still stung her.
"Are you okay!?" Kaito looked at her wound.
"I'm fine, I'm fine!" Meiko insisted. "But we won't be if that helicopter gets us!"
The alarm on the helicopter started blaring, indicating it had found targets and was pursuing, but it didn't seem to be following them.
"Something's not right," Kaito noticed.
"No, they don't want us destroyed, they're just trying to corner us."
Meiko looked over and saw the elevator was where the helicopter was mainly aiming at. It was riddled with bullets. The vehicle disengaged and started moving off to the side to get a better shot.
"It still wants to keep aiming at us," Kaito warned. "I'm sure if we don't do something soon, we'll be right back where we started."
Meiko ran an idea in her head, and looked at Kaito.
"Here," she said, handing Kaito two pulse grenades, and kept one. "I only need one. If the drones are up on their way, use these."
"What are you doing?" Kaito said, worried.
"Keeping us alive, now take cover, you idiot."
Kaito nodded, hesitantly, and Meiko ran off to meet against the helicopter.
Once the helicopter had moved to its new position, it aimed its weapon again, and the rotary cannon spun up. Meiko took cover behind a wall, and pulled out the one pulse grenade she still had with her.
"All I need is one," she said to herself, and pressed down on the activation switch, and twisted the the top, enabling the grenade's primer. The clock had six seconds to run down, and Meiko took into account how close the helicopter actually was before she'd throw it. Once the timer was beeping at the three second warning mark, Meiko popped out of cover for a brief second, and tossed the pulse grenade right under the helicopter's main rotor.
The grenade detonated, and disabled the autonomous vehicle, causing it to spin out of control.
Meiko made a cheering gesture with her fist.
"Take that you dumb bird," she said to herself.
However, the chopper would fly aimlessly as it spun out of control and landed right inside of the floor beneath Meiko. The building's shook violently, and knocked Meiko over.
Kaito ran back over to where she was almost immediately, and grabbed her arm.
"Oh, jeez," Kaito fretted, "why do you have to go and scare me like that, Meiko?"
"Why not? Where would you be without me to worry about?"
Kaito couldn't help but laugh a little at her comment, but the reality of the situation snapped both of them back into focus as the building shook again, and another explosion went off.
"We've gotta move. If this building is coming down, we'll need to make a break for it."
"Just my luck," Meiko stood back up, "guess that's just my nature to break everything."
"We can joke about this later," Kaito urged, "we have to go, come on!"
He grabbed Meiko's arm and rushed her towards the nearest exit. Meiko took note that Kaito had made use of the pulse grenades and saw multiple dead drones as they went down to the third floor. She also noticed the helicopter had crushed several others, but also blocked a path out. A fire began to spread throughout the building as the helicopter's oil tank caught fire.
Kaito and Meiko moved away from the downed chopper, and within moments, an explosion rocked the building further. Supports were ripped apart, the building's integrity worsened, and pieces of shrapnel flew everywhere.
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Meiko, who was following behind Kaito, was knocked back into Kaito as pieces of hot metal flew throughout the floor.
Meiko and Kaito picked themselves up, but Meiko looked down and noticed a piece of metal sticking out of her, and then noticed it had only managed to penetrate through the stun rifle she was still carrying. Unfortunately, that made the stun rifle inoperable, and she was back to square one, essentially back to being unarmed.
Outnumbered and outgunned once again, Meiko hoped that she and Kaito would be lucky, and that Duodecim would pull out after considerable losses were taken.
"We're running out of options," Meiko said, shaking her head. "We're close to the bottom floor. I say we take the elevator again."
"Climb down?" Kaito offered.
"This place is falling apart. Probably not the best idea, but it's the fastest."
"Then let's do it. If we find anymore drones, I've still got one last pulse grenade left," Kaito said, producing the last grenade in his pocket.
"Thank goodness I left it with you," Meiko said, relieved. "Come on, before something else explodes."
The fire roared and crackled as the building ruptured and gradually fell apart. Meiko grabbed the elevator door, as hot as the metal was, and pried it open. She was starting to feel physically exhausted after all of this. It felt like the first time in a long time she had felt that way. Maybe it was because after all she had gone through, there was still so much ahead. She hoped, though, that once she and Kaito were finally away from this place, she could take some time to figure out where to go next.
As they climbed lower, Meiko noticed that Duodecim's drones were still occupying the floors even amidst the collapsing structure. They seemed to still be organizing, trying to get a handle on the situation the best they could.
Meiko noticed that the floors went further underground, and decided to climb lower. She figured there should be a potential escape further beneath.
But just as she was making her way down, the elevator door was forced open, and staring right at Meiko was a single red eye that focused in on her.
Meiko, in a panic, jumped down from the first floor to the lowest floor, making a rough landing. The drone above drew its rifle and started firing at her. Kaito moved down as fast as he could. Meiko took cover behind one of the elevator supports. All the while fire spread from above and pieces of debris started falling.
Meiko, now even worse off than before, started feeling her body tremble, meanwhile Kaito was still handling decently.
The drone backed off as more debris fell, but Meiko knew they'd be making their way down through the stairwell to catch up to them.
"Crap," Meiko said, her body running short on energy, "this is it, ain't it?"
"No," Kaito said, eyeing something, "not yet."
Meiko looked up at Kaito, and Kaito turned his attention to an emergency maintenance hatch. Both of them moved immediately, and lifted it open.
"Our only way out now," Kaito said, "and we better hope there's a way out through it. This place is going to fall within a few minutes."
The building started buckling further as the fire spread further down the elevator shaft. It was impossible to know when it would all get down, but Meiko hoped she would be far enough away from it in the event it did.
Meiko crawled in, and Kaito behind her. They crawled through a ventilation shaft and exited out into a power substation. Rows of large junction boxes lined along the room. This area was different, and seemed to be much older than the rest of the station.
"They'll be right behind us, but we still have that grenade. Let's hope we don't need it."
Meiko nodded, and Kaito offered his shoulder to her.
"Strange," Meiko noticed, "they don't seem to be after us. Hopefully it holds for a little."
"You okay?" Kaito asked, concerned.
"Not really," Meiko said. "Didn't think I'd be getting hit this much."
She grabbed at the tear in her jumpsuit where the helicopter's gun had hit her. She winced a little as she felt how much damage it had actually done.
"Hold on, hold on," Kaito knelt down to take a look at the wound, "don't worry, let me see how bad it really is."
Kaito looked through and saw the tear in her abdomen, though it didn't hit anything critical, he did see some scratches in her chassis.
"Wonder if we can find a way to repair that," Kaito wondered, "but thank goodness it didn't hit your core or anything. I'd be so worried."
"Starting to think there might be a benefit to getting captured," Meiko laughed somewhat defeated sounding, then shook her head. "Sorry, just starting to feel the tension here after all of this."
"It's coming down," Kaito said, "if we want to survive, we'll have to keep going. Come on, just a little longer, okay?"
Meiko nodded, and took Kaito's shoulder again.
Just then from behind, the sounds of large footsteps could be heard heading their way. Kaito started dragging Meiko the best he could, and prepared for the worst.
Then, another explosion rocked the facility, this time causing the supports to shake. As Kaito led Meiko through the tunnel, he looked up and noticed cracks in the ceiling. Not even the lowest floors were safe, as much as he wished they were. Kaito did his best to keep cool. The last thing he wanted was to have Meiko worry about anything else; she was in a bad enough condition already.
Kaito pulled Meiko ahead, hoping that this would be the final stretch. At the end of the room stood another door that was left open. This had to be a way out, at least for Kaito and Meiko. If there was something at the end of this, he had to push forward to get there. Even if it meant the only thing waiting for both of them was a bunch of armed drones, Kaito had to try.
But that dream would be short-lived. Just as they managed to get through, one of the ceiling's supports came loose and fell over. Thinking quickly, Kaito shoved Meiko off of his shoulder, and pushed her to safety.
Meiko pulled herself up, and saw what Kaito had just done. She ran over to him immediately.
Kaito was pinned underneath the large metal beams that had landed on top of him. His arms were obscured, and he could barely move.
"No!" Meiko yelled. "No, there's no way this can be happening!"
She grabbed against the shelf without any hesitation, and started pulling upwards. The beams were heavy, but Meiko was capable of lifting heavy objects.
But she couldn't. She felt her wound tearing open as she tried to lift the heavy metal supports. She didn't care if she split herself in half trying to save Kaito, she kept trying to lift until her body would give out.
But no matter how much effort she put in to lift the weight off Kaito, it refused to move, and Meiko's body felt overworked. Her optical interface started flashing red, warning her that extended use would cause permanent damage.
She fell back, defeated and exhausted.
"No," she pleaded over and over, grabbing her hair in agony, and rocking back and forth, "there's no way this is happening…"
"Meiko," Kaito said, trying to bring her back into reality, "I think this is it for me."
She looked down at him and glared. "Don't say that! I'll think of something, just give me a second-"
"No," Kaito shot her down, "the more time you waste trying to get me out, the higher the chance Duodecim will catch both of us."
Meiko looked up and could hear the Duodecim drones making their way to the floor that Kaito and Meiko were on.
The structure shook again. The explosions were much closer now, and the smoke started to fill through the ventilation shafts.
"If you stay," Kaito repeated, "they'll take us both back. But you're still free, so go, and don't look back."
"But I can't do this without you!" Meiko protested, her eyes starting to water. "I wanted to escape having you right next to me. Please- don't do this to me."
"I promise, one day I'll be back." Kaito said. "Now go."
"I love you," Meiko said, kneeling down, feeling his face one last time, and tousling his blue hair.
Kaito looked at her with a soft smile, and Meiko picked herself up, looking back at Kaito as she let herself out through the runoff tunnel. Leaving him behind hurt, but she knew, deep down, Kaito was right.
Meiko felt as if a cruel joke was being played on her. She was going to make it out, but at the cost of the only person she cared about.
She found the runoff tunnel was open, and it seemed to lead into a sewage drain. As if someone else had left it open for her, Meiko took the chance to leave, looking back again and again, hoping that Kaito would be right behind her, but he was gone, and she was all alone now.
"I'll get you back," she said, her hand on her chest, "or else I'll never be able to live with myself."
Meiko set off further, her body and mind both exhausted, still knowing there was plenty of ground left to cover.
----------------------------------------
Gumi looked off in the distance as she and Luka took off further into the desert. The helicopter that patrolled the facility had made itself comfortable patrolling the main building.
The facility that Gumi and Luka woke up in was a large abandoned power station. It covered for miles around and was fenced off as a "condemned" building. It was old, and hadn't seen much use for a good decade.
So why was Duodecim surrounding it, and how did we end up there, Gumi thought to herself.
She'd have time to debate it later. As for now, Gumi and Luka were away from the conflict, but they needed to head off further to find a place to hide for the time being.
The desert was long and vast, but off in the distance stood lights from a nearby city. It was a better bet to take than to travel the desert for days on end. It would also help them figure out where they were, and where they would need to go next.
"Sandstorm might set in soon," Luka warned. "Better get moving."
Gumi stood herself up from the rock pile she sat on to watch the facility.
"Here," Luka said, handing Gumi a medium-sized tarp. It had a small rope tied around it to be used as a makeshift poncho. Luka grabbed them as they were sneaking out of the facility in an effort to cover the orange jumpsuits that both of them were wearing. Getting into the city would be easy, but they would both look like escaped convicts if anyone saw them. Luka preferred to look like a vagrant than a criminal. At least one of those things was less likely to get authorities called on them.
As Meiko and Gumi headed for the city, the sandstorm had finally come in, obscuring their vision, but also anyone else's who may have been following them.
"Stick with me," Luka ordered, "unless you want to get lost in all the sand."
Gumi nodded, and held on to Luka's arm.
It would have been a bad idea for a normal person to walk through a sandstorm to head towards a city, but Luka and Gumi both had an internal compass to indicate where they needed to go. So long as they didn't stray from the direction, they would end up on the outskirts. If the lights were bright enough to show up in the sky, there had to be plenty of places to hunker down in and let all of this blow over.
Luka trudged on through the heavy winds and made her way towards the closest civilization, or at least, what she assumed was the closest civilization.
As they moved further, Luka and Gumi came across a hill, and it seemed the sandstorm was starting to die down as they made their descent. The city's skyline was visible now as well. They were close, and needed to make it into the city before the sun would come up. If more people were around, it would be that much harder to stay out of sight.
The starlit sky soon disappeared as the city's lights took away any ability to see them.
Gumi dusted herself off, and shook her head. "I don't ever want to do that again."
"Don't worry," Luka assured her, "once we're in the city, we won't have to."
Gumi nodded. "I'll hold you to that."
The city itself was mostly dead, save for the occasional car that drove by, but everything else was closed up.
It was late into the night, but Luka noticed that the sky was starting to look a little more blue as she and Gumi walked through alleyways and ducked between buildings to find shelter.
"Morning's coming," Luka observed. "We'd better find a way to ditch these clothes or find shelter. Either way, we're going to stick out."
"Hmm," Gumi placed her hand on her chin, "y'know, there's a few stores around here. You want to try a little window shopping?"
Luka looked at her. "What are you suggesting?"
"How do you feel about breaking and entering?"
Luka looked over at the storefronts. Most of them were locked up with their lights out.
"Okay," Luka said, "but only so we can blend in better. Nothing else."
Gumi nodded, and they set off to a nearby discount clothing store. Instead of approaching from the front, however, they circled back behind an alleyway. That way, if any pedestrians did walk by, they wouldn't see them as easily.
"Any idea how we'll be getting in through this way?" Gumi asked.
Luka looked around, seeing if she could find an easy way to open the door. As luck had it, a small piece of sheet metal stuck out of a dumpster.
Luka grabbed the metal, and looked at the door's lock. It seemed like a regular lock. The store didn't seem to invest much in the way of security. But then again, not many would steal clothes in the middle of the night. This was a special case.
Luka placed the bar into the slit between the door and the wall connected to it, and slid it into the lock.
"You sure you know what you're doing?" Gumi asked.
Luka nodded. "This is going to definitely break the lock, but we'll get in a whole lot faster. Now keep watch in case anyone comes by."
Luka jammed the metal into the lock and forced the lock back, opening it.
"Guess we got lucky with how old that lock is," Gumi said.
"We got lucky with plenty of things tonight, now come on, there isn't much time."
Luka and Gumi dashed into the store, looked around for clothes that looked like they would fit them the best, and left with haste out of the store, further down the alley.
Once they felt they were far enough away, they started stripping off their jumpsuits and changed immediately. Soon, a police siren could be heard off in the distance.
"Looks like you tripped a silent alarm or something," Gumi stated, "but hey, at least we look somewhat presentable now?"
Luka looked at the jeans she had taken, along with the baggy t-shirt.
"It'll have to do," Luka said. "Now come on."
Luka and Gumi grabbed the tarps and the orange jumpsuits, wrapped them up, and deposited them into a nearby dumpster. They slipped away into the city streets and waited for morning to come.
Eventually, Luka and Gumi managed to find a place to lay low for a while. An old abandoned housing complex that was set to be condemned. It was a temporary solution while the two managed to figure out what it was they needed to do next.
Once they had gotten inside of the housing complex, both of them had made themselves comfortable inside of a random room they had found. Though there wasn't any actual bedding, they both made reasonable accommodations for themselves.
Luka laid down on the bare wooden floor, and looked at the ceiling.
"Well," Luka said, "at least it's not a cell."
"Ha," Gumi snickered, "bet they're losing their minds over there right now. Probably trying to figure out where we went."
"Ha, maybe," Luka laughed, and looked as the light started seeping into the boarded window. "So, this is what they kept from us."
"Pardon?" Gumi asked.
"The real world," Luka answered. "I remember running simulations where I'd walk around in spaces close to the real world, interacting with fake people, touching fake things, but I never thought that the real thing had so much more to it."
"Heh," Gumi chuckled. "Bit of a romantic, are you? That's cute."
Luka blushed a little.
"But what about you, Gumi? You didn't seem all that hesitant to run away either. Was there something out in the real world you wanted to see?"
"Yep."
"What was it?"
"Well, technology, for one thing. But that's basically what we both are, aren't we? But it was more than that. I wanted to see what other people had made with their own hands, and maybe see about trying those things myself. I could only see so much when Duodecim let me see it, but I would always sneak looks at what was being made in the real world. I was convinced then that I had to see it."
"And you called me a romantic," Luka teased.
"I also got really tired of listening to Duodecim. Keeping me underground, or locked in a cell, or inside of a pod. All I wanted was to do what I wanted."
"A real rebel," Luka said, smiling. "Well, we'll have to see about letting you see all of that."
"Now that I think about it, we might stand a better chance if I could get my hands on a laptop or something."
"We can worry about it a little later," Luka assured Gumi, "I think I could use a rest."
"Fine then, we'll worry about it later."
Gumi and Luka laid down, and slept.
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Meiko slumped down on the ground inside of the old factory. She managed to make her way to a city not too far away from the power station, but was still in bad shape. Made worse b`y the sand that made its way into her open wounds, and having barely anything to wear, save for a few clothes she managed to find in an old donation bin outside of a supermarket. She didn't feel good about taking it, but she needed it badly.
She slumped over, having walked for the past day or so trying to stay out of sight, she wondered if Duodecim would find her. She didn't want them to, especially after so much she had gone through, but Duodecim wouldn't care, and neither did the rest of the world. She was alone, and felt like even with the freedom she had gained, she lost so much on the way to get there.
It stung a little, realizing how much Kaito really mattered to her, and without him, she thought, what was the point?
She didn't have time to worry about it. She was tired, and led herself up to the upper floors into the factory offices. Looking over all of it, Meiko noticed that the factory, while abandoned, wasn't emptied. It still had an assembly line, manufacturing arms, welders, and boxes of wires and screws all still around.
If she had a way to make repairs, Meiko would try to use these, but she wasn't an engineering expert. She worried if she tried something, she'd probably break more, and that would lead to trouble.
Luckily, Duodecim planned ahead for something like this. Her body was self-sustaining for the most part, allowing for her skin to reseal from wounds, and any mechanical parts would attempt to realign themselves if they were moved out of place. This was doable by nanomachines produced internally. They were single use, but would recycle within each of the V.C.D.'s repair modules. Of course, it would also take a much longer time to self-repair than for outside help to commit most of the repairs, but Meiko didn't have that luxury at the moment.
Meiko shook her head. She needed rest and some time to think, and then she would look for a way out of this city once she had plenty of rest. She found an old couch in one of the offices, and once she laid down, she felt fatigue had finally set in. Her systems shut down, one by one, until she entered sleep mode.
A little while later, once nightfall came, Meiko woke up, still feeling exhausted, but in a much better state than before. She stretched her arms out, still feeling a stinging pain in her side.
She had to get up and see about making a move away from the facility. Otherwise, Duodecim might have already sent reclamation teams out to grab her and anyone else who had escaped.
As Meiko got up, she heard something moving down on the floor below her. One of the doors was being pried open. Meiko, thinking quickly, searched around for the nearest object that could act like a weapon.
She found a small metal pole and a screwdriver after a little bit of searching. She grabbed them and moved to hide into the shadows.
Luka and Gumi entered the old factory, and found it still had plenty of equipment. The factory itself lay on the outskirts of the city. The city was called "Little Springs" as Gumi and Luka would find out. A small-ish city with about ten thousand people in it that sat in the Nevada desert. The automotive factory that they had found was closed down rather recently, and still held plenty of equipment that hadn't been removed yet.
Gumi chose this place for two reasons. The first being that they could lay low easier than the condemned housing complex, and second, there was a chance there could still be a working computer with a network connection. If Gumi could use it, she hoped she could figure out what happened at the old power station and how she and Luka ended up there. It was a long shot, of course, but they didn't have many other options, and getting to the bottom of this was Gumi's top priority.
Luka and Gumi walked through the facility manufacturing floor, and heard something rustling upstairs. They both looked at each other.
"Think someone's here?" Luka asked.
"Better check it out. Might be Duodecim."
They both checked upstairs, walking upwards slowly and carefully. They opened the door to the office complex, and checked to see if anyone was around.
The hallway that led between offices provided plenty of cover, and Gumi and Luka checked each one individually, but the place seemed empty.
"Must have been something that fell over. Come on, we're already by the offices, why don't we see what you wanted to do."
Gumi nodded, and both of them moved to one of the offices, seeing if they could find a computer somewhere.
"We might need to see about getting the power back on, first," Gumi said. "I doubt anyone's paying for it here-"
Just as Gumi and Luka headed for one of the offices, a figure charged at the pair, and knocked down Luka.
Gumi was taken hostage by them, with Gumi's head stuck in a headlock.
Luka looked up and saw a girl with brown hair looking down at her.
"I wanna know right now who you two are," the girl said, holding a screwdriver to Gumi's neck. "Tell me now."
Luka looked at her, and noticed the clothes she was wearing were old and wrinkled.
Luka attempted to pull herself up.
"You stay right where you are!" The girl ordered.
"Fine, fine," Luka said, holding her hands up. "Just a couple of people looking for shelter, that's all."
"Then why here? I heard you two talking about getting the power back on. Why?"
"Just something we needed to do. Trust me, we had no idea you were here. We can leave you if you wanted, and we'll pretend we never saw you."
The screwdriver poked into Gumi's neck, and Gumi panicked, ramming her elbow into the girl's stomach. It seemed to have done the trick because the girl doubled back with Gumi's strike, letting Gumi free.
Gumi and Luka took the opportunity to apprehend her, and then both noticed something about the girl; she wasn't human. They both looked at each other, exchanging confused glances.
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"So that's how you two met," I said, almost wanting to laugh at how absurd the situation was. "I know you and Gumi butt heads a lot, but I didn't know your first encounter went like that."
"Trust me," Meiko said, "I was pretty desperate at that point. Didn't know who was who, but at least it worked itself out."
"Regardless," Luka said, "we still haven't gotten to when you were contacted, Gumi. We've been getting sidetracked."
"Okay, okay," Gumi rolled her eyes, "I just wanted to give some context to the situation we were in before that."
Luka crossed her arms. "I know, I know, and considering we can't really go anywhere, maybe it's better that way."
"Okay, fine," Gumi said. "Well, you know how when we had managed to get the computer back up and running?"
"Sure, what of it?"
"I was contacted then. Well, not right then. It was a little after I got to work. You and Meiko left to find a good resting spot to help with her wounds. A little after you left, I was contacted."
"Contacted?" Miku cocked her head.
"Yep. Right there. That was my first interaction with them. Apparently they had been watching everything happen at the power station, and were following Luka, Meiko, and I."
"Following?" I asked. "You think it was Dimitri following you?"
Gumi shook her head. "No, I think they had tapped into Duodecim's security cams. They had mentioned that the reason we hadn't been found was because whoever was contacting me made sure they didn't."
"That's… Eerie." Miku commented.
"So why did you hide it from us?" Luka asked.
"Because they wanted me to."
Meiko looked baffled at that statement. "And you listened to them?"
"I listened because they offered us a way out, so I took it. It's because of them we have the Operating Room. It's because of them we found where Miku was, and it's because of them we have the Stargazer Base and information regarding Duodecim. All they asked was that I didn't tell any of you to limit your knowledge in case you were captured. So, yes, Meiko, I did what they said!"
"Whoa, whoa!" Luka said, trying to bring Gumi back down. "Let's not get hasty here."
"Look," Miku said, "what's important is that we're here now, though the thing I'd like to know is who helped us escape in the first place."
"That part I don't know," Gumi said, "but what's important is that we ended up here."
I looked up at the ceiling of the network tunnel we were in, and remembered what David had said being beaten to the punch. That was in regards to rescuing Miku and finding that base, so was it possible he was part of the mission carried out to free her and everyone else? I wondered if that was the case. So much of this was shrouded in mystery, but at least now we had a piece of the puzzle as to who was helping us out. Just a name, though. Some man named Dimitri who seems to have antagonism with Duodecim.
There was too much going on, and I didn't have enough energy to try and put that together.
"Operating team, come in Operating team, are you there?" Lisa interrupted our conversation over the radio.
"Go ahead," Meiko answered.
"Just thought I would check in on all of you. Didn't know when it was the right time to ask, but I'm here now. Is everyone alright?"
"No one's seriously hurt, if that's what you're asking, Doctor," Meiko said.
"Well, I can see that, just wanted to make sure."
"Actually," I said, "I'm doing fine, but something's been on my mind, Lisa. Is it possible you could answer something for me?"
"Hmm?" Lisa asked.
"I'm assuming you were listening to our conversation we were having, correct?"
"Well, yes. I just didn't want to interrupt-"
"That's not why I'm asking," I cut her off. "I wanted to ask something else. Were you or David involved in the operation that broke everyone free the first time?"
Lisa paused for a second.
"Were you?" I repeated.
"Yes," Lisa said. "Though I wasn't directly involved, David was. I can't really answer what happened, but from the way it went in the debrief, it all sounded like a mess. I could maybe get him to explain what happened, but as far as I know, the entire operation was a sealed operation."
"And you're still not going to tell us the organization you're part of, are you?" Meiko asked.
"Sadly, I don't have the authority on that."
I let out a loud sigh.
"Alright. I guess we'll have to ask David about what happened. What's he doing anyways?"
"He's out handling some business outside. Since you're missing, we're trying to set up a cover story for you."
"Huh," I said, not really considering that my disappearance could potentially draw attention. I guess it would seem a little strange that I up and left one day.
"He's currently working on getting you taken out of school. So it will be a while before he's back. Maybe later tonight."
Right, it was only afternoon over there, same as over here. I was losing track of time being down here.
"For now," Lisa continued, "I'd recommend you rest up. We can try and comb through the data you and everyone just pulled."
"Though we might be down here a while," Gumi said. "I'd say get comfy. Until the heat blows over, we're going to be down for a hot minute."
"Hey," I said to Lisa, "last thing, but, what about Akira?"
"Akira's going to be fine," Lisa said. "We're working on ensuring she isn't bothered by those agents again."
I didn't know how to feel about that. It was still my fault Akira got involved in the first place. I just hoped she didn't get pulled further into this.
"If it's alright with you guys, then," I said, "I think I'm going to lie down and rest up. No telling what might happen next."
"Good idea," Miku said. "I can wake you if I need you, 'kay?"
I nodded, and laid down in a corner while Gumi worked and everyone else chatted.
No telling what was coming next, but at least now I had a better idea of what was going on.