The next address on my list actually had two names associated with it, ‘Peggy and Sue Baker.’

“Siblings I assume?” Mary asked when I explained to her where we were going.

{I guess, I don’t know them.}

“You really should have asked about these things when you got the list.” She chided

{Well I'm sorry that I lacked the foresight to do that. It’s not like I’m only a few weeks old or anything.}

“You’re right, please leave all the planning to me and Mrs. Shelly from now on.”

I groaned, mostly because I knew she was right.

{Speaking of that, Don't you have anything to do today at all. You and our other guy have seemed mighty fine with just up and leaving your lives to join our crazy project. I mean I have reason to believe that Max doesn't have a job but, you? You just don't seem like the type.}

“Well, what can I say? Your ‘crazy project’ sounds interesting. As for the job part I’ve spent the last year or so mainly on personal projects, My income has mostly come from organ donations, They're always pretty lucrative so a lot of metas with regeneration powers sell their organs.” She shrugged “it’s not hard when doctors don’t have to worry about permanently hurting you or causing you pain, but anyway it meant I was overdue for long-term employment.”

The ghost of a smile graced her usually stoic features “Plus, I like you guys so far, even just our first meeting has been pretty interesting.”

I bobbed in-lieu of a nod {Yeah, Sorry about that}

“Please don’t bother yourself about it. People have broken into my home trying to help after seeing an explosion more than you would expect.”

{Really? I thought you said that you messing up was rare.} I paused {and what was with that hostile reaction when you saw us then?!}

This time the goblin fully smirked, “I never said all of the explosions were accidental. I make weapons you know. Also, you still broke in. how would you react to someone appearing in your house, cameras trained on your naked body”

{I don’t know, I don’t wear clothes.} I pointed out

“oh… yeah”

Suddenly I began to laugh

“what’s funny?”

{Sorry, Shelly would have made some sort of joke about me being a nudist there, but you just didn’t.}

“Wait does shelly wear clothes”

{no, of course not}

“then she has no room to barb” she laughed “it must be nice having another AI around to chat with, I’ve heard that some of you guys can go crazy if you're left alone for too long. No offense”

{Oh, Shelly’s not an AI, she’s a brain in a jar.}

“What?”

{Yeah.}

“Like nobody, not a CPU or anything”

{Nope, all organic, just in a jar}

“That’s… That’s Barbaric… Who did that to her?”

{She’s always been that way from my knowledge. I’ll let her explain further. Its personal business.}

“Speaking of Mrs. Shelly, I wonder what she’s up to”

You might be reading a pirated copy. Look for the official release to support the author.

{She ran into Max, our other employee, a while ago, their chatting about video games and anime and other weeb stuff.}

“Hmm. I got the feeling she was the type, what about you.”

{I like games, I like western cartoons better personally. Don’t get me wrong I love anime but without a sex-drive of any sort a lot of the fanservice appeal is lost on me.}

(Across town a certain brain and half-dwarf felt inexplicable pangs of righteous anger, like the virtue of their own mothers had been tarnished)

“I’ve never been one for either, books, podcasts and dramas are more my speed”

{I get it. That stuffs not for everyone.} I thought for a second {What about webnovels, I’ve especially found that I like LitRPG stuff}

“You mean incomplete novels written by amateurs, with very little editing, no thanks. Add in video game mechanics and just the thought of it makes me shudder”

{understandable.}

We continued with polite chatting, being the first person I had had a conversation at length with, besides Shelly, everything Mary said was interesting to me. When the conversation drifted to me, she seemed intrigued by the way I experienced the world and the differences between us. I told her the story about the droninjas and what I had seen in the facilities so far in detail that I hadn't been able to go into before. I was glad to see this didn’t seem to diminish her willingness to come with us, in fact, the droninjas seemed to make her extremely excited, maybe even more than Shelly had initially been, although Mary wasn't nearly as exuberant about it. I gave her permission to begin tinkering with one of the bots I had on me. She produced a tiny set of tools seemingly out of nowhere and immediately began taking it apart.

We were near enough to the address that I wasn’t paying attention to the map anymore, it was supposed to be a straight road from here. That’s why, when I ran drone-first into a brick wall, I was shocked. I would have sworn on my perfect memory that wasn't there before.

Mary was frowning as well, “I could have sworn the street didn't turn here” she blinked “Also I'm pretty sure just having a wall here must be some kind of safety violation”

I just bobbed up and down in place of a shrug. My map even fit this new path, so I had to assume we were both just wrong. I probably glitched or something, the facility, and thus I, was still not at one hundred percent. The road turned right from where we stood. We could still make it to our destination. It would just take longer.

The majority of the walk was uneventful although, at some point, I lost my connection to Shelly. I was worried, at first, but it felt pretty similar to when she had blocked her thoughts from me when she was angry. So, I just assumed she was doing something private and didn't want to risk me getting a glimpse of her mind. Mary filled the rest of our wasted time by regaling me with stories of her destructive inventions and subsequent ‘deaths’. Even just this conversation was helping me catch up on more information I didn't have because of the 50-year gap.

We turned the final corner to get back onto our planned path only to come camera-to-face with a young woman sitting on a bench, placed, most inconveniently, in the middle of the sidewalk. She stood up and approached us without prompting. When her bottom left her seat, the entire bench seemed to dissipate becoming nothing but motes of light and energy. She stood in front of me and Mary, a hand on her hip, but her posture relaxed.

“Sorry about the inconvenience,” She said with a wink. “there were some things you needed to avoid on that street. Sooooo, I needed you to go around.”

{uh… what?}

“Only right you wouldn't recognize me when I'm using this construct, haha” her mouth closed, {Is this better?} a slightly more familiar voice spoke into my mind.

{Com?}

“In the hardware, I usually use constructs like this to interact with humans and other biologicals. It's much easier if you give them something to focus on. Anywho, I just have some things to tell you.”

“Do you know her?” Mary asked

“them.” Com corrected, unoffended.

{Kind of, I met them earlier today. They sexually harassed me and then left.}

(Huh, So, they dated?) the goblin thought.

com stifled laughter,

“Enough with all of this though,” the construct said as they got their mirth under control, “The things I need to tell you are pretty important”

{Like what?}

“I can't tell you at all. Like anything.”

{then why even bother-} I started annoyed

{I just need you to know that I had something to tell you. Use context clues for compiler's sake!}

I still didn't understand

{I know you don't understand! Your brain friend is right, you're cute but you're an idiot!” both the Mental voice and the construct responded to my thought. {By the way you need to call her. She may just be able to explain more than I can. Well when she wakes up anyway.}

I checked my connection with Shelly it was still off… but now it felt less like she was keeping me out, and more like she was sleeping which was concerning.

And with that, the construct person disappeared, dissipating into energy and light like the bench had before. And with-it Com's presence was gone, of course not without me receiving another simulated pinch on my simulated buns.

I managed not to squeak this time. Barely.

“What was that about?” Mary asked

{I have no idea,} it had seemed like Mx. pinchmebutt had had something to tell us but couldn’t… maybe it was a code thing. I knew the feeling, the line of gibberish in my unit menu was a constant reminder of that, {Do you have any idea what they might have been trying to say?}

“None at all, But I would advise you to keep moving. We already lost quite a bit of time. And we still have one more stop after this one, right?” I agreed and we hurried on, Coms words still ringing somewhere in the back of my mind.