Adapted into web novel format on Dec. 24, 2011 at 1:55 PM MST
Payback influence ahead.
Sniper stumbled back toward the primary mental inhibitor, with his kukri still in hand. Both the black triangular columns at the back of the inhibitor were bent outward from the explosion, much like one of inhibitor #2's columns. Sniper struck the inhibitor with his kukri once more, hoping that no further damage would come to it, especially from another explosion.
WHACK!
Kshzzzt!
With the inhibitor signal scramble, Danny was shown onscreen, sitting in his chair. He seemed to be addressing the just-defeated Soldier with his drunk statement. "I hope the next movie he's in," said Danny, "he gets blown up into a million pieces! Boom!" He slammed his arm against his chair's armrest.
Kshzzzt!
The vector form of superslinger2007 the persona reappeared on the viewscreen. "I don't have much time here," he said. "I've seen that even though the subject wears a headset all the time, she ends up using a separate microphone in her performances."
Zoey's visual alias appeared. "Are you kidding me?" she asked.
"No worries," assured Sniper. If superslinger2007 was referring to that one particular person, then Sniper didn't see a problem with that person using two microphones at the same time.
"Besides that," superslinger2007 continued, "those strange missiles will come in massive num--"
Kshzzzt!
The homeless man from earlier reappeared onscreen. "There's a really hot chick in it!" he repeated.
Danny looked to his right and yelled, "Shut up!"
Kshzzzt!
GLaDOS appeared onscreen, still in her human-like form. "With that in mind," she announced, "I have one final test, just for you." She pointed in front of her, seemingly at Sniper himself. However, she was addressing the mercenaries in general.
Louis appeared and noted, "This is not what I expected."
Francis also appeared. He shouted, "Bring it on!"
Sniper turned away from the damaged primary inhibitor. With a great "Yaaaagh!", he ran from the inhibitor room. Sniper's destination was, once again, the city where the missions had brought the other mercenaries.
The primary mental inhibitor remained active despite there being no one present.
superslinger2007 continued to speak. "Unfortunately, I have to leave. All I can say now is that at least one of these two videos, where things were blatant and not accident, became so popular that they have been, and still will be, mirrored and shared numerous times."
Suddenly, mental inhibitors #2 and #3 powered down with a loud mechanical whir.
GLaDOS reappeared on the primary inhibitor's viewscreen. With her arms crossed, she began to hover in midair while remaining upright. "But if you're going to pull stunts like this," she warned, "it doesn't have to be slow." She cleared her throat once more.
kAhemkk.
"Two minutes!" GLaDOS announced in her authoritative commanding voice.
Suddenly, in the city, a Japanese-accented female voice was heard.
"It's all a big mistake!"
The voice came from a tall woman who stood close to the stage's entrance ramp. The woman stood sideways and looked to her left. She put her hands playfully in front of her head and raised her left leg. She yelped with a smile as she regained her balance with a hop.
How the woman came up with that random pose was anybody's guess, but this woman was a close ally of the #SK09-HM10-07XX case file subject. Her name was Luka Megurine. She had long pink hair and blue eyes. She wore a gold headset with an intricate design, and a long black dress with what seemed like a French horn's coiled tubing on her chest, a light blue brooch above the coil, and two criss-crossing gold belts around her waist. Luka also wore black thigh-high stockings and gold knee-high boots with black laces. She also wore a gold covering with what seemed to be a synthesizer console on her right forearm. Luka's fingernails were in a shade of blue, and she had a red "03" marking on her left arm near her shoulder.
Just then, the woman who had randomly played the accordion during the "Remove Pootis" session spoke. "And of course she's paank!" she said, placing unusual emphasis on the word "pink".
"Ok, enough," Luka said. "Look, I know you all have good intentions, but... well... that thing you're all doing? It's making my friends look bad."
The mercenaries began to arrive on the field and in the stage area. Scout and Spy looked at each other as they passed by, while Soldier got up from the place where he had been knocked down.
The primary mental inhibitor viewscreen suddenly cut to the video of a convention where the homeless man got various cosplayers to act out a film. The man, continuing to mispronounce a character's name, said, "And 'Hermaphrodorf' was like?"
The screen suddenly cut to Rin herself, who stood at the main street. As if hearing the homeless man's cue, she spoke, but her Japanese accent was even more prominent than Luka's.
"I have to choose 'Team Potter' because his name-- Aaah!" Rin yelped in a sudden realization: she was saying that line involuntarily all because someone at that convention went as her, blonde hair, white bow, and all!
Just then, the yellow road roller she drove earlier roared past. Suddenly, the teenage boy with blonde spiky hair jumped in front of Rin with his arms spread wide. How he came up with that pose was, again, anyone's guess, but this boy and Rin were both also close allies of the #SK09 subject. The boy's name was Len Kagamine. Despite being unlikely friends with the cyberbully leader Neru, he was also close friends with Rin. Len was also present when Rin knocked out Sniper with her finger-gun gesture a week earlier.
Besides his blonde hair, Len had blue eyes and a white headset just like Rin. He wore a white shirt with a collar similar to Rin's, short sleeves, and a yellow necktie. The rest of Len's clothes were dark gray: his shorts that weren't as short as Rin's, detached sleeves on his forearms, and almost-knee-high coverings around his white shoes that resembled speaker systems.
In unison, Len leaned to his left and moved his arms down a bit while Rin leaned to her right and performed a finger-gun gesture with her hands. Len winked his right eye while Rin winked her left eye again.
Luka watched Rin's and Len's impromptu gesture-filled introduction, but she was desperate to get her message across. "Stop it, you two!" she called. She then continued her speech. "Anyway, like all of you, I have seen those strange missiles. I know they look like leeks. Uh... green onions. Whatever." Luka had used the common informal term for the items that the missiles seemed to take the form of.
"Whoo-ee!" Engineer cheered as he looked over. Heavy had returned to the field with a pink laptop with "EXE" marked onto its lid. It was the very laptop from Neru's apartment that Heavy saw when he and Scout defeated her five months ago.
"It was long trip," Heavy said breathlessly.
Luka looked at Heavy and waved happily at him with her right hand. It was, once again, anyone's guess as to why someone like Luka would wave to a mercenary like that.
"Just a moment, please." said Luka. Her speech was a little bit better than when Heavy heard the exact same phrase spoken by Tsumugi over two months ago.
Luka formed a heart shape with her fingers.
shing-BOOM! With a strange sound out of a magic trick, a gray metal box adorned with a pink heart on each side flung out of Luka's hands. The box was commonly known as a Weighted Companion Cube.
The cube slid to a stop near Heavy. He placed the laptop on top of the cube.
"Thank you," said Heavy.
"Sixty seconds!" GLaDOS announced in her commanding voice.
In the distance, a man in a dark blue suit and a suitcase, known as the G-Man, shook his head. He had done the same thing when he saw Heavy punching a crate with his Fists of Steel a week earlier.
"Got the ball back!" called Scout. G-Man then looked over at Scout as he ran over to Luka. "Oh, hey!" he greeted.
Luka nodded at Scout and resumed her speech. "I hope you're all aware by now that this is a tough job," she said as she looked over to the stage, "and it might have seemed impossible for any of us to get this far."
Kshzzzt!
"But we'll win anyway, because we're the heroes." Luka said. However, the signal scramble caused her to speak in a voice that wasn't really hers.
"What?" Scout reacted.
Tsumugi was standing with her bandmates on the stage. She had recognized Luka's other voice; it was from the same infamous 13th video game that also caused Mugi herself to speak in a different voice earlier.
"They don't seem to understand at all," Mugi lamented to herself.
"Mugi?" called Mio. She was holding Rick, the corrupted but motivational Adventure Sphere, in her hands in gratitude.
Meanwhile, Spy was behind the stage's concrete seating. Wheatley, still in his prototype shell, was on the ground in front of him.
"Come on, I don't have all day," Spy spoke sternly.
"All right. I wasn't going to mention this to you," replied Wheatley, "but I'm in pretty hot water here. And of course, nobody tells me anything. Nooo. Why should they tell me anything?"
"Thirty seconds!" GLaDOS announced.
"Man, that clock's moving fast," Rick noted as Mio looked at him.
"I know that only my friend can really stop those missiles," Luka continued. "And someone here has been very close to her since that September two years ago."
Sniper had just arrived on the stage beside the black touchscreen instrument that had been lying near the stage building entrance all day. He heard Luka's remark and gasped.
Wheatley had also heard Luka's remark. "Whoa. There we go," he said in satisfaction.
Luka continued to speak. "Well, I think it's about time you guys finally found what you're looking for."
"Ten seconds!" GLaDOS warned.
"Good luck, you guys!" Luka cheered. She then winked.
"So there's one mystery solved," noted Wheatley.
BOOM!
Unbeknownst to the people in the city, Luka's wink had caused another explosion on the primary inhibitor, damaging its remaining black triangular column.
