I hefted the last piece of my portable charging station into the van and carefully dusted myself off. I was wearing clothes for once, a lavender overall dress that fit over my clunky legs and a straw sunhat, and I wanted them to stay nice. I didn't see myself making clothing a regular part of my day like the rest of my team did, but... I was trying to make an impression, so I wanted to look as 'human' as I could.
"You really think they're like you?" Mourner asked, walking up beside me "Like, actually awake?"
I shrugged, and checked off 'load van' on my over-layed checklist "I don't really know, to be honest. It sounds like there's a good chance, so... I have to be there for them if they are. Even with Ryllis helping me, it was... hard to adapt to life outside a workshop. If they actually are like me, I need to make sure they're ok."
"And... If they're not?" she asked, leaning against the van, her branches swaying in the afternoon breeze "If they're just a remote controlled drone or a mindless shell?"
I had thought of that, I had checklists for those things too; what to do if they're just an automated system, how to address the person that made them if they're a drone, how to deal with the emotions I'd feel if I found out I was still alone... "...I'll figure it out, Mourner, it'll be ok."
She tightened her top and shook her head "I still wish you'd let one of us come with you... Or at least put it off until next week, you'll be missing the party LA is throwing, and you don't even know anything about the person you're going to see, or- if they even are a person."
"I'm sad to miss the party, of course." I said "But you guys need to stay here. Who's going to cover my patrols if one of you comes with me? Seraphim? I doubt it. Look, I'll call you when I'm free, what time will you be up tomorrow?"
"...I got a late shift tonight, so... it'll be around two or three in the afternoon when I wake up. You'll be charging by then, I bet..." Mourner said "I just- you're the only other one on the team who really understands following the rules, and now that we're dealing with Chrissie and the tiny terror, it'll be that much harder to keep everyone in line."
"I'm sure you'll do great, now get inside! I have to get going if I want to get to Glade Village in time to set up my charger and get powered up by tomorrow night."
She looked at me hard, but nodded "Alright. I'd tell you to be safe, but... it's a tiny town in the middle of the woods, so I doubt you'll have any issues."
I laughed and shook my head "I'm sure I'll be fine. I'll call you tomorrow when I get out of the charging pod, now get! I gotta get going!"
She waved goodbye as I got into the driver's seat and plugged myself into the dash. It'd taken some work, and a couple kits meant to help people with disabilities drive, but I'd managed to get the entire van's control system linked up to my own systems. I could drive, play the music, control the windshield wipers, all from the comfort of my own head. I kicked back in the seat and turned the car on, turning on a new album from a pop artist I liked and the car lurched to life, pulling out and rolling down the street. I watched the familiar signs and streets of section 247 pass me by, looking different in a car versus just walking around.
I wondered how long it'd be before I got bored. If I really wanted to, I could probably find a way to change my program to remove my ability to get bored, but... I was afraid if I made too many changes like that I'd lose what made me me instead of just a pile of metal. I'd put up with it for now, there was no reason to do anything drastic right now anyway, boredom was natural, and I almost looked forward to getting to experience it for once! My life was a hectic mess these days, especially since a certain one of our new roommates started a 'prank war' with Kiri...
~~~
I had been fighting the urge to slam my head against the steering wheel for the past five hours, and fighting the urge to change my code for the past ten. I had listened to that new album over and over, then the rest of her works, then my playlist on shuffle, then the radio, then talk radio. Nothing soothed the struggle of driving almost twenty hours in a straight line, along barren highways, with nothing to do and nothing to see. I couldn't even speed to make it more interesting. Every time I tried, the warnings and pop-ups filled my vision, letting me know I was breaking the law, oh no!
Swear to the gods, if I ever did edit my own code, it'd be to remove the obnoxious pop-ups that blocked my sight and took up valuable space in my RAM. Every time it rained, every time me or my friends tried to download a movie, every time I didn't salute when a martyr was shown on the big screens in the city, warnings would pop up; 'your systems are subject to water damage!', 'you are breaking the law, would you like to report yourself?' and even 'you are violating a social norm, please salute to blend in!'. I hated whoever created me for adding all that junk... not Ryllis, of course she'd done her best to fix me up when she found me, but... the jackass who'd built me and abandoned me in the first place, him I'd like to get my hands on...
Not that I'd be able to do anything to him. I got the feeling there was a 'you shall not harm your creator' command floating around in the 387.44 billion lines of code that filled my software. Still, I'd like to try.
After almost twenty hours of driving, I pulled into a small hotel parking lot in the center of Glade Village and sighed in relief. Finally, I could charge up and get started on my mission, no more music, no more droning voices, no more driving, I was finally free.
...I was very pointedly ignoring the 'drive back home' item on my to do list for now. I was done, no more driving to be had, just the mission, absolutely.
The town itself was nice, lots of very tall trees, well maintained buildings, clean streets, and the hotel was a small, homey looking building with rooms that opened to the outside, connected by a walkway. I parked next to the front door, and headed inside. The interior looked... old, but well cared for. It had a funny smell, like cleaner and cigarettes, mixed with too much cherry room spray. Not that I could 'smell' it, of course, but my sensors did give me a read out with a little description of the makeup of the scents around me. I wondered if someone like Pendra with a stronger sense of smell would find this place uncomfortable...
I dinged the bell on the counter with my good arm, the prosthetic, and waited for the person to come check me in.
"Coming!" a voice called out from the back, and a shuffling noise sounded out.
I waited patiently as an old man, a gnome by the looks of him, with thick glasses stepped behind the counter, moving slowly. He squinted at me, giving me the up and down, and his eyes grew wide.
"Gods blast it, another one..." he muttered, shaking his head
"Another one?" I prompted him
He waved at me "Another one of you metal people, we already had one show up recently, before long you'll over-run the town, won't cha?"
I shook my head "Ah, no, sorry sir, I'm here to investigate the other 'metal person' in town. I'm a registered hero from Valley City, and I'm going to be making sure everything is all above board with the town's newest hero."
He looked at me appraisingly, and harrumphed "I suppose you won't be wanting the breakfast buffet?"
"I'm... afraid not, no." I apologized "I just need a room to keep my charging bay in while I'm here."
"Charging bay?... Sounds like it'd use a lot of electricity..." he said, rubbing his chin "I'll have to charge you double."
I tried not to wince, and pulled out my Unchosen company card "Of course, care to check me in?"
He grumbled, but punched it in on his old computer, handing me a key and jerking his head "Far door on the left, all the way down."
I thanked him and made my way back out to my van, backing it in right in front of the door in question. As I unloaded and assembled my charging pod, I checked in to the local Chosen Creeper site via my overlay. It was a gross violation of heroes privacy, yes, but in a small town like this? My mystery person would be all over it. It looked like they- she, if the clothing was any indication- had been seen all over town today, most recently in the industrial district. As much as I wanted to head right over there and find her, I was on less than thirty percent power, and if it turned ugly, I'd be limited in what I could do. I locked up the van and my hotel room, and climbed into my pod, sparing a few minutes before I powered off to check out the hero I'd come so far to find.
The Chosen Creeper profile of her had a lot clearer pictures and video than the news broadcast I'd seen back home, and I was able to make out more or less what she looked like. She was short, with a rounded cylindrical torso that had long, stretchy, metallic noodle-y limbs coming off it ending in white gloves and mary janes respectively, and her head was just a little too big for her body. Her 'hair' was golden springs styled like ringlets, and she had a big red fabric bow in her head that bounced when she moved. In the videos, her whole body moved up and down as she jaunted along, her legs and arms getting shorter and longer as she took slightly too long steps and swung her arms by her side in a way that made you think they'd hit the ground on the downswing, but they never did...
She had a bright yellow skirt on with bloomers visible under them, but her top was painted directly onto her torso, with ruffles and buttons made of metal stuck to her made to look like the top part of a sleeveless dress. Her face was... mostly human, but exaggerated, with a mouth beaming to show off rows of perfect teeth, and giant blue digital eyes over a small round nose. It... looked like she could change her expression from what I was seeing in the photos, but almost all of the shots of her featured that same wide grin. If I had to guess, her face was a kind of rubber with moving mechanical parts under it to simulate skin.
She was talking in a couple of the videos, her voice high and bubbly, but the sound quality was too low to understand her; the videos had been taken on the street off a phone, after all. I could set my systems to clean up the audio while I slept, but... that usually made whatever I was processing show up in my dreams, and I wanted to have normal dreams tonight, thank you very much.
I closed the site, cycled myself to shut down, and settled in. I should be fully charged by around six, and I'd head straight out to find her, assuming she was still on patrol. I went over my list of things to ask her as I drifted off, and wondered if I'd finally found a friend like me...
~~~
My pod hissed open and I stepped out, yawning and stretching. I didn't strictly need to stretch, and yawning was performative, but it just felt right, somehow. The sun was hanging low on the horizon outside my hotel room window, and I'd woken up a full twenty minutes before I expected. I wasn't sure of that was just due to power fluctuations, or if that blast I'd taken a couple weeks ago had damaged my batteries more than I'd realized, but I was happy to be up. I pulled up my contacts, and opened a call to Mourner.
"Hey Maud, got settled in?" she asked as soon as she answered
"Yup!" I said, re-sealing the pod and stepping out of my room "I got some new intel on our mystery person. I think they're a girl, and they look like... It's hard to describe, one of those old propaganda cartoons from just after the Great War? All lanky and moving all the time."
"Oh, hm..." Mourner said, thinking "Do you think they're an Anachronism?"
"I... can't be sure." I said, taking off "I'm not ruling it out, but I don't know of any super scientists from back then that focused on robots or androids, that didn't become popular until the mid century tech boom."
"Maybe whoever built them- or, her? was just a fan of old cartoons then..." Mourner said "I've been looking myself, and coverage is super vague so far. I can't even get a good look at her, how are you getting your info?"
"Uh, well...." I said "I'm kinda camping out on Chosen Creeper, if I'm being honest..."
"Oh, ew..." Mourner said, disgusted "Come on, Maud, you're better than that..."
"I know, I know..." I said as I flew over the main town area "I just wanted to see if I could find anything- Oh!"
I saw a familiar figure giving a small gnoll child a balloon, and I spoke quickly "I gotta go, target spotted!"
"Oop, ok!" Mourner said "Good luck!"
I ended the call and carefully made my way over to the small group of people surrounding the mystery person.
"Aw, no thanks necessary, little bean! I'm just doing my job to make people happy!" the metallic girl sang in a southeastern twang "Golly, I'd do the same for anyone who wants one, I got lots of spares! Balloons are a hobby of mine!"
"I appreciate your work, ma'am..." the child's mother said, looking mildly wary "It's been a while since this town had a hero."
"Well, you guys sure are swell, I betcha don't even need one!" she said with a salute "But heck, don't let that fool ya, I'm not going anywhere, needed or not!"
Her eyes caught me, and her head rotated towards me, and her wide grin twitched, then got even wider, and her legs snaked through the crowd before she snapped back on top of them, standing directly in front of me, ramrod straight, and she looked up at me with a frozen grin not moving for a moment. The top of her curls came up just below my chest, but she put one arm out straight and used the other to move it like a lever, 'cranking' herself up, extending her legs until she was eye to eye with me.
"Sweet sunshine, we could be cousins!" she said, looking me up and down "I'm Starflower, what's your moniker?"
"Ah, my name is Maud, I'm a registered hero from Valley City, I was wondering if I could-" I started to say
"Wow, all the way from there?" she said, slapping my shoulder with a gloved hand "What brings you out to my turf, little lady?"
I took a step back "I'm here for you, of course." I said plainly "You haven't registered with the GGDS, and they're considering sending out a team to contain you if you don't register, so I'm here to help you figure out the best option for you."
She frowned "Registered? Golly, I just thought I'd keep cheering people up and keeping them safe, who's the gee gee dee ess, and why do they want to 'contain' me?"
"They're the ones who monitor the relationships between gods and goddesses, chosen, and the general public." I said "They manage all the heroes in the world, more or less."
"Well..." she said, looking around at the people watching us "I'd just love to pick your circuits on this a bit, mind popping on over to my favorite food joint with me?"
"I... don't eat." I said, mildly embarrassed
"Aw gosh, neither do I sugar pea!" she said, pulling me out of the crowd "I just like the mood!"
~~~
A few minutes later we were sitting in a booth at a family restaurant, the kind with a 'live' band of robotic beastmen playing music and 'interacting' with the crowd. I looked around at the mostly empty setting, and back at Starflower, who was pretending to sip a malted milkshake the staff had given her.
"This is... not the kind of place I've ever done hero work in before, I have to admit." I told her
"It's the only place in town where I feel at home!" she said, grinning wide "And, don't spread it around, but..."
She leaned in close and jabbed a thumb at the ferret beastwoman animatronic "I've been putting the moves on her for over a week, I think she's sweet on me!"
I blinked, and pulled up my diagnostics, scanning the animatronic quickly... No, just a regular robot, no signs of life or complex code. Was Starflower joking? Or genuinely damaged? I did what I should have done when I first saw her and scanned her too. I looked at the readout and fought off a frown. There was a lot of complex code to be sure, but... also an artificial nervous system all through her body. Was she designed to feel pain? That was just cruel, I could 'feel' with sensors, but pain wasn't something I really 'experienced'. This nervous system looked like it'd flood her core with pain signals if she was ever damaged though, what reason could anyone have to add that?
I looked at her core more closely. That's where her code and CPU would be, it was massively shielded, but it had streams of data coming out and into the nervous system. It was wildly inefficient, and seemed to fluctuate and sputter like it was processing data at different rates... I sat back and thought, was she being sent biological data to her core and translating it into code? Why would anyone build a machine that caused them to feel pain while they were controlling it? Or was her core simply regulating and de-coding external inputs like a brain would? It would make sense if she was an Anachronism, they didn't understand artificial life forms, but they did know brains back then...
"Um, sweet pea, I just got done telling you I was interested in Miss Mustela over there..." she said, crossing her arms "Can you maybe not check out the goods so much?"
I realized with mild shock that I'd been staring at her flat, unaccented chest for the greater part of thirty seconds. "Oh! N-no, I'm so sorry, Starflower, I was scanning you, and I was trying to- I'm sorry, talking to you could have solved all these problems, I get so caught up in my tech I forget to just communicate..."
"Scanning me...?" she said, her smile locking into place "Well... golly, I sure don't know if I like that, I'm a rather modest gal..."
"I'm sorry, Starflower, I just- I wanted to be sure I was dealing with a real... artificial life form, not a drone. You're not a drone are you?" I said, making sure no one was watching
"I'm... sure as sassafras not being controlled, if that's what you mean." she said, her head rocking back and forth in a hypnotic bob "I made sure of that, no one pulls the strings on ol' Starflower!"
I bit my lip "So... You're really awake? I'm- I'm just trying to make sure I have all the information, you see. I'm- I'm awake, myself, and I've never met another awake artificial life form that looked so... anthropomorphic, I just want to be sure I'm not jumping to conclusions."
"Artificial?" she asked, her head spinning around slowly "Why, I'm as alive as I can be! Nothing fake about me, I assure you!"
"I can see your code..." I protested "I can tell you're... Well, I want to help you sort out all this mess, please, if you're like me, I'd like to help you. Even if you're not, I don't want to see you get locked up in a GGDS containment vault!"
Her head clicked to a stop in the default position, and her face grew serious for the first time since I'd seen her. "Miss Maud, I do rather feel you're trying to help in the only way you know how, but I don't know if it's the help I'm looking for...."
"If there's another way to help, I'd love to know about it..." I said, leaning into the mysterious girl and taking one of her hands in mine "Please, I just want to make sure I'm doing whatever I need to do to help you."
She flickered her eyes to my hand, then back to me, and her mouth slowly spread into the wide grin again "Well... I'd certainly love some help on my patrol tonight! I get the feeling it'll be a doozy of an evening!"
"That will help you?" I asked "That will- I just want to know more about you, so I can know what we need to do..."
"Oh boy howdy will it help!" she said, sliding out of the booth with a single movement "I reckon if you help me tonight, why, I'll be more in your debt than a desert fish is to a mud puddle!"
I watched as she slunk out of the restaurant, her body bouncing and her limbs flailing as she scooted out the door. I paid for her untouched drink, and followed her as she bounced and danced through the streets, singing a song I'd never heard before about balloons and dancing. If going on patrol would help me understand her more, I'd do it. I was a hero after all, it seemed patrols were almost all we did sometimes. I could only hope after this she'd be more willing to talk about what she was and where she'd come from...