Chapter 13.2 - Undisputed Victor

Undisputed Victor
Black walked through the blue-rimmed portal into the front entrance of the Westminster Palace. As the portal closed behind, she looked around. The entire area was completely silent. Black sighed, making her way out the front gateway, knowing the entire Black Squad had been stationed in the United States of America. The once golden rule of having at least one member at Westminster had corroded away, a sign that Yamaha was not in a good condition. It was the dead of night, the curfew still in effect. Crossing the lamp-lit road, Black pushed open the entrance to Crypton Studios and continued ahead to a security door. By habit, Black pulled out her Black Squad Identity Card out of her pocket, passed the card over the card scanner by the right side of the door and pushed it open. She paused in midstep. The room was pitch black. No Yamaha administration building ever had their lights turned off. Something else was wrong. Black stepped back to look at the card scanner and passed her card over it again. There was no sound to acknowledge granted access. If the card scanner malfunctions, the door should not open.

She frowned, igniting her eye flame to illuminate the room. Walking into the room, she noted the door did not automatically close behind her, another sign the door was likely forced open. Black paced ahead, towards the far door across the room and pushed it open, not bothering to scan her card this time. As expected, the door swung open willingly, but unexpectedly, something collided with the wall right next to her.

The first thing she saw was Victor von Doom and Magneto facing Black, in front of her, by Miku's throne. Looking at what collided with the wall, she saw Miku sprawled on the floor. She was making grinding and clicking sounds, internal ventilation fans whirling loudly, all signs of computer damage.

"Miku!" cried Black, kneeling next her. Black took Miku's arms but immediately let go, unable to cope with Miku's body intense overheating. Slimy pink skin pigment came off on Black's gloves. Miku slowly lifted her head to face Black, her neck motors jerking erratically with loud grinding. Her mouth was moving but no sound came out, her expression frozen with fear. She spotted the ID card in Black's hand and snatched it, her elbow turning in an unnatural direction.

"No!" shouted Magneto, pointing a hand at Miku. She was suddenly pulled towards him, dropping the card, now with pink streaks across it. Black was too slow to grab her. Miku scrambled at the ground attempting to find a handhold to stop her movement towards the manipulator of magnetism. But this amount of magnetic interference was too much for her body to bear. As she slid to a halt at Magneto's and Doom's feet, she movement had ceased, the whirling quietening very slowly, indicating hard drive failure.

The three stared at each other in silence as the whirling faded away into nothing.

"...What... did you... do?" asked Black, still knelt down, shocked at what she had just witnessed, none of it having sunk in yet.

Doctor Doom took a step forward, avoiding Miku's motionless body, "We wanted to make an agreement with Miku."

Black stood up, her expression showing bewildered fury, "Aren't you going to fix her?" The sarcasm was obvious.

Doom took a brief glance at Miku before taking another step forward, "We can fix her with no trouble. Overheating is a easy problem to solve and hard drives are easy to recover." He took another step forward.

Black summoned her arm cannon and slammed it, barrel-down, on top of the ID card on the floor. Doom stopped in place. "And her personality?" she demanded. She could feel something pulling at her belt buckle and her pistol by her side.

"We can recreate it."

Black smirked, "I'm not stupid, Doom. I know when an android powers down, they die. She won't be back. Magneto, don't bother. My cannon's not magnetic. Oh, by the way, you just broke The Unwritten Law." It was clear that Black wanted to deny Miku's end, her mouth twitching.

Magneto stepped forward in protest, "We are famed for our time travel," he declared, "We can recover Miku from before she malfunctioned."

"Give up your reasons," argued Black, "I know you Marvel people need the Limbo dimension to time travel. Otherwise, you'd already have the world in your hands."

"We do hav-" began Doom, stepping forward once more.

"Take that damn step back!" shouted a furious Black. Doom stopped once more. "Tell me," she continued, more calmly, "What did you want with Miku?"

Magneto began to explain, "I'm sure you know Yamaha is suffering from a sheer amount of organised revolting from the United States of America, unable to contain the inflated population and power of the people. I have gathered a reputation in the US during my time in Gensokyo. Dr. Doom is famed for his leadership and guaranteed prosperity. We approached Miku to gain her support and cooperation so we can ensure a safe and unruly absorption of the US into Yamaha."

Black looked at Miku pitiful position on the floor and just giggled uncontrollably, tears rolling down her cheeks, "W-Was... there something else you needed?"

Magneto and Doom looked at each other, realising they were in dangerous territory. "We just need your cooperation," repeated Magneto.

"Define 'cooperation'," requested Black, using a finger to wipe one eye.

"Just your presence."

Black chuckled again, "You know, as a human, I too had my concerns about the methods of Yamaha's Administration. A forced militaristic territory, enforcement by example, punishment by force, policy of no privacy, complete and absolute control."

"Then we-" started Magneto.

"I had so many concerns," continued Black, ignoring him, "I ended up doubting people that I once called friends. Miku, Rin, Teto and the others. I doubted them. Doubted them all. I lost confidence. Vocaloids, UTAU, I believed supremacy was all they wanted."

"Well, we-"

"But they protected us from North High and Gensokyo as we requested. It might not be exactly how we wanted but it is want we asked for. But now I see they were also protecting us from ourselves."

"Now, you're misu-" Doom took a fourth step forward.

"Take that damn step back!" screamed Black, grabbing an outer trigger on her cannon, tears refusing to stop. The events over the past few minutes were finally sinking in. This time, Doom properly stepped back. Black sniffed, "You want my presence?" she smiled, "You want to use my position on the Black Squad for something? Do you need my ACCESS CARD for something?" Her emphasis on 'access card' was jarring.

"No, no... You're the highest ranked human in Yamaha, Black," declared Doom, in a calm tone, "You have authority. You're a symbol to the people."

Black smirked, "A symbol? I'm sure everyone hates me. But I don't mind being a symbol... And I know where to start." She pulled the trigger, blue flames burning the floor next to her.

"No!" shouted Doom, jumping forward, arm outstretched.

Black pointed her cannon at the two men, the floor dented and the identity card completely disintegrated. "Yahama may be yours!" she yelled, her flame turning purple, "But the Arctic stays closed!" as Doom and Magneto lunged towards her.

Statistics
Count
 * Words: 1008
 * Characters: 4960