Predictably, Kaytyn had the same sort of reaction to the new food cubes as Jackie had, though she realized a lot of the textures were bizarre and sometimes uncomfortable. Where for me, this marked the beginning of the end of lousy, horrible food options, and for Jackie, it was probably the first time he was tasting "real" food, Kaytlyn had a bit more experience in the world and had had more opportunities to try some higher quality grub. She had been a successful bodyguard and mercenary for a while, meaning her pockets were quite a bit deeper than what Jackie was used to as well.

"Are these actually healthy?" She asked, slapping Jackie's hand away as he tried to snag one of the darker cubes, beef, I think.

"They are made of the same elements that the original organic material is," Frank explained. "We are still working on the structuring, but with more time, we hope to create food that is closer to the original, maybe even some that can react to cooking in the same way that normal food does."

"What would happen if we tried to cook some of this stuff?" Jackie asked. "Would it melt or something?"

"We don't know," Frank admitted. "I could hypothesize that the sweeter fruits might caramelize partially from the contained 'natural' sugars, but beyond that, I do not know. I do not believe the meat is capable of undergoing the Maillard reaction, but my experience is biology, not cooking."

"...I can find out," Jackie suggested with a shrug. "I've learned a bit of cooking from my mom… I could spend some time working with you guys to figure out the best way to make stuff. Maybe come up with recipes using the cubes."

"They do not have to be cubes," Frank corrected but nodded in understanding. "Then you may be my assistant in this project. The technical aspect of it is more or less complete, so Samwise can continue working on his own projects."

"Thank you, Frank," Samwise said, nodding toward his AI peer. "I enjoyed working on this with you, but my other work is important as well."

"This is pretty important too, Samwise," I pointed out, gesturing to the empty metal plates.

Before he could respond, Kaytyn started to laugh, shaking her head and rubbing her face. After a few seconds, she seemed to recover, leaning back in her chair.

"What is it?" I asked, a bit confused.

"I'm just imagining how Sable is going to react to this," She explained. "You guys explained how she reacted to learning you created the nomad water gatherers, imagine learning that you cracked cheap, delicious food, enough to bankrupt just about every food provider on the planet. I mean, biotechnica alone would be done within a few weeks!"

"Don't they make CHOOH2?" I asked with a frown.

"They have their hands in a lot of stuff, and food is a big one," she explained. "They would probably survive, but it would not be pretty. Assuming you release this to everyone like you did with the water stuff."

"I can't," I responded, shaking my head with a wince. "The tech that's used to make it is so advanced, it would really shake things up. They might be able to reverse engineer a molly maker from it, which would be a big problem."

"Damn…"

"Trust me, I would love to release this to everyone," I said truthfully, shaking my head.

"I understand," Kaytlyn said. "Just sucks to have the solution for something and not be able to release it."

"If I may," Frank said, stepping forward a bit. "I was not aware this was intended as a solution to this world's food crisis."

"It wasn't," I assure him. "I asked you to do this because I was sick and tired of eating crap. It just so happens to have worked really, really, really well."

"I understand that. What I meant was that if you wish for me to work on something like that, I can," Frank explained. "I cannot promise miracles, so it may depend on what sort of… inspiration you next gain, but it is something I could work on."

"That would be a good idea," I said after a moment of thinking. "As a sort of a background project, sifting through what I create and trying to apply it to making cheap, easy food that could be produced without tipping the whole world into chaos would be an amazing achievement, Frank."

"I will work on it as I can then, Sir."

"I'll have Noah bump up and renovation of the second floor on the list," I said. "Still gonna need to focus on defense and the next batch of specters, but after that, we could have time to work on a proper lab. Though we might have my next inspiration to focus on, depending on its scale."

"That would certainly help move things along," Frank agreed, before taking the metal plates, which I realized had been repurposed from medical equipment of some kind, and returning to his office. Before he disappeared, I called out to him.

"Thank you, Frank," I said before looking at Samwise. "Both of you. I was going crazy with the crappy food and… well, this could be the start of helping a lot of people eat better and more healthy, and I'm sure I don't need to tell you how important that is."

"You're welcome, sir," Frank responded with a nod before focusing on Jackie. "Stop by later today, and we can discuss… dinner."

"Will do choomba," Jackie said before the AI doctor disappeared into his workshop and office.

All of us, including Riggs, energetically discussed just what sort of things we could make with the food cubes. I pointed out that with a few more fruits, the easiest thing we could have was a fruit salad. When Jackie asked what a fruit salad was, I explained that it was a mix of sweet fruits in a bowl, lightly mixed and served cold as a side to lighter breakfasts or as just a snack.

I then used my keyphone to transfer forty thousand credits to him.

"Orale! Puta Madre amigo, what the hell is that for?" He asked after his eyes glowed orange.

"That is for you to visit your friend Armando and buy up everything you can. Fruits, vegetables, starches, one of everything," I explained, patting his shoulder and holding it, looking him in the eye. "Then you ask him if he has anything else interesting. So help me god, Jackie… if you find a way for me to have a real plate of spaghetti and meatballs again, I will make you the fucking king of Night City."

He looked at me for a moment before laughing and nodding.

"Aye, choom, ya spoiled brat, I'll get you some real food, just leave it to me."

I slapped him in the stomach, rolling my eyes. He wasn't exactly wrong, after all, when it came to food, I was incredibly spoiled. In fact, my pallet was probably as refined, if not more so than someone like Sables.

"I'll leave it to you," I said with a nod. "Okay, guys, breakfast is over. We all have work to do. Kaytlyn, how are you doing, how's your leg?"

"It's fine. Frank has got me some sort of mechanical brace, it's helping me walk," she explained, knocking on the side of her leg, revealing there was something solid under her pants. "Why, what's up?"

"I wanted to talk to you about working on some cars," I responded, walking out of the Shack and making my way to the parking lot across from the garage, where the MRVNs had dragged or pushed all of the Wraith cars. "Here's the deal, I want a personal car, and I want some company cars. But I've got the tech to replace almost a hundred percent of these cars with something better, and I don't doubt that will keep happening as I get more inspiration."

"What do you mean?" She asked with a frown, looking at the cars as we approached them. "Replace what?"

"I could replace the armor and frame with better metal alloys, the electronics with more compact and more efficient versions, and improve their sensors, engines, brakes, and tires," I said, listing off the potential modifications I had come up with, just on the spot. "I could do most of these cars better and more efficiently. But in order to apply all of that, I would basically need to start from scratch. So, my question is: do I take these cars and upgrade them into something pretty good, or do I go all out, scrap them, and make something real special and completely custom."

For a moment, she was quiet as she contemplated my question. She walked around one of the cars, considering her response before she eventually shook her head.

"... Neither," She responded, looking back up at me. "Just upgrading what already exists would be a waste of what you could do. But making something new from the ground up would stand out like a sore thumb. Being able to blend in is just as important as being able to drive faster or turn sharper."

"So…."

"So, we scan these cars, disassemble them, throw them into that crushy grindy thing you got spitting out scrap," She explained. "Then build them again, but this time upgraded to hell and back. That way you can use all your fancy alloys and parts, but they will still blend in."

"Huh…. okay," I nodded in agreement. "I'll have Samwise have the MRVN unit come out here and start running some scans and measurements. Actually, it might be better to disassemble it piece by piece and scan everything that way… Do you mind sitting around under the CHOOH2 hood and watching over them? I want your help on this project, so feel free to take notes on any ideas you have. Assuming that's something you would like to be involved in...?"

"Working with a smart pants engineer to completely rebuild some cars with tech far beyond what most people get access to?" She asked, looking at me with a raised eyebrow. "Sure, why not? It could be fun."

"Glad you agree. While we work on this, we could finally get around to doing some upgrades to your car as well," I pointed out, a fire lighting in her eyes. "Plus, get all that damage cleaned up."

I walked back to the garage, and Samwise agreed to have a pair of MRVNs start disassembling the cars, recording and scanning as they went. My hope was to have two trucks and two cars for the company and then make my own personal vehicle. Samwise also got a third MRVN to clean and repaint three of the still functional Wraith vehicles after thoroughly checking their programming and internals. They would serve as backup cars for now, and the rest would be scrapped immediately.

I sat down at my computer, considering what project I would be working on next, when Riggs knocked on the side of the garage door, stepping into the workshop.

"Jackson, do you have a moment?" He asked, in a tone that caught my attention immediately.

"Sure, Riggs, what's up?" I asked, spinning around to face him as he walked into my side of the garage. "Everything alright?"

"Well… Not long ago, you made us an offer," He responded. "You offered to help us change our exteriors so that we could blend in better with humans."

"I remember, and the offer stands," I said seriously. "I want you guys to feel comfortable in your shells, and if that means blending in with humans better, then so be it. What sort of change are you thinking?"

"I… believe I would like to have the liquid skin system in place on my body," He explained. "I have been talking to Samwise about its specifications, and I believe I would prefer that over Realskinn or any other options."

"Hmm… okay…" I said with a wince. "Well, in order for me to do that, I would likely have to reduce your external armor by a not insignificant amount, maybe by a good thirty percent. The liquid skin system requires the entirety of your shell to be covered by a specific type of paneling."

"I understand, sir," He said, bowing his head slightly. "If that is not an option-"

"Oh, woah, it's absolutely an option, Riggs. This is your body, how we change it is one hundred percent up to you," I assured him. "We will have to rethink how we come at certain problems while on gigs, but that's fine."

"I… thank you, sir."

"Can I ask what changed?" I asked gently. "If I remember correctly, you out of everyone seemed to see the idea as silly."

"Well… I almost died," He rightly pointed out. "A single inch is what saved me. I never considered what dying would be like, and now that I have…"

He trailed off, the usually brief AI running out of words to describe what he was feeling. He seemed self-conscious but still certain in what he wanted.

"That's more than enough, Riggs," I assured him, reaching out to pat his shoulder. "I'll get to work on it right away, with any luck we can start applying the changes tonight or tomorrow morning. In the meantime, start thinking about what you want to look like, if you want to have control over that at all. A lot of that is tied to what I learned building the base models, so I'll have to be the one who sits down and creates your look, but there's no reason why you can't give me a few points to start with."

"Thank you," He said. "I'll keep that in mind."

He nodded and turned away, clearly not exactly sure how to feel about the situation. He eventually left, heading back out into the town while I turned back to the computer, quickly getting to work. The process of converting an ALEO into a liquid skin-capable unit shouldn't be that difficult, considering that almost a hundred percent of his body was covered in plating of some kind.

You could be reading stolen content. Head to the original site for the genuine story.

About ten minutes into the process, I realized I was missing something rather important. The liquid skin system that the Become Human universe used was very interesting and, honestly, a stroke of genius, but it was still built with tech from around 2030. I had a whole range of knowledge that I could use to improve the system, including how thick the control plating was.

I spent an hour redesigning the control system and plating for the liquid skin, as well as updating some of the materials in the skin replica itself. No miraculous changes to the skin, just a small boost in wear and tear resistance. The control system, however, was vastly improved, taking what was a quarter-inch platting down to something only slightly thicker than three layers of duct tape. I would still need to thin down a lot of Riggs' armor since the skin itself had a certain thickness as well, but now it was significantly less than before.

With the designs complete, I began to work with the improved designs, shaving off the outer layer of all the replacement plates before adding them to the appropriate reservoir and control system. Luckily, there was plenty of room for the new parts inside my version of the ALEO unit since I removed all of the batteries and power cells and replaced them with Elerium nodes.

The hardest part of the redesign was his head, as while the ALEO unit did have some emotive abilities, it did not have nearly the articulation required of a human skull. I had to redesign the whole thing to give it more flexibility and, most importantly, an anatomically correct mouth. Within three hours of Riggs telling me what he wanted, half of which was spent on the head alone, both the small and medium garage molly makers were working on printing out his new parts.

I considered updating the fake borgs with the new liquid skin system but ultimately decided that I would only update the advanced Connor model. The basic models were basically disposable, but the advanced one would be an actual AI, so it deserved the best I could give them. I spent an hour updating the design, using the extra space to add a layer of flexible armor under the android's skin, as well as improving a few other systems. The frame was actually turning into something rather impressive, especially considering it still had a ton of empty space along its spine and head.

When I finally finished the updates, I took a minute to leave the garage and walk around. Jackie had left at some point to visit Armando, his food connection, returning after some time to drop off another batch of samples for Frank. Both Jackie and I watched the process of him printing out food, nothing new as the samples would need to be analyzed and converted into a slurry, but some of the samples we had already tried. Frank printed out several "cuts" of meat and some vegetables, which Jackie carried into the meeting room. There, he used a large pan and a portable cooktop to make some hot meals. They were basically just simple stir fries, with salt and other simple ingredients added, but just the fact that it was hot and spiced made it delicious.

"I think we might be in trouble," the amateur chef admitted, sitting back and in his chair, all of our plates clean. "I might not be able to go back to normal food after this."

"Hear that Frank? You ruined the poor man, he will never enjoy Kibble again!" I said with a smirk, catching a balled-up napkin and throwing it back at him. "Hey, would you rather never get the opportunity to know what real food tastes like? I mean, you had fish occasionally, but real, actual stir fry? Strawberries? Peaches?"

"Yeah, yeah, fair enough," he said, waving me off as Kaytlyn laughed. "Seriously though, thank you."

"I am happy to help," The AI responded. "In fact, this is not far off from my duty as a doctor. The food sold here at Night City is abominable at best and terrible for your health. Now you can eat proper food with proper nutritional value and no damaging chemicals."

After we finished eating, I headed back to the garage. At the moment, while I had several irons in the fire, I was waiting for most of them to warm up. Frank needed to design a fake brain and cyberware implants for the fake borgs, Kaytlyn was watching over the deconstruction and scanning of the Wraith vehicles, and Noah was working on the town's defenses. My designs were done and either waiting for final parts or already being printed out.

Since I was basically just waiting, I figured I would get to work on finishing something I had started before and take it up to the next level. If the fight with the Wraiths had shown me anything, it was that Duke was an incredibly potent resource in a fight and that getting my friends something equivalent was now a high priority. Jackie's Ram design was almost complete, I just needed to finish the programming and make a few tweaks to the design. Once it was done, I borrowed a few molly makers and got them working, assigning a MRVN unit to assemble them together.

With Jackie's companion on the way, it only made sense to get to work on everyone else's. Picking Samwise's companion was easy, and I quickly put together the plans for a raven. Because there was no I would be able to get a solid metal Robot to fly by Flapping, I instead turned its metal feather into electropulse thruster like GREMLINs or the stealth surveillance drones I made. I pulled heavily on the animal design info I got from building the animal drone replicas from Become Human, creating a metal-plated raven that should be able to fly quite fast. It was smaller than SPOT, but would contain the same sort of programming and hacking software, as well as a life-like raven "personality."

By the time the raven design was done, the parts for Riggs' update were complete, so I called him on the radio. Samwise took a break from his work to assist me, slowly removing the armored plates and replacing them with the liquid flesh versions.

While he worked On that, I worked with Riggs to design his new look. Luckily, I had already recreated the program required to do so when I built the first BH androids.

Unsurprisingly, Riggs did not have any grand, avant-garde requests when it came to his looks. Instead, he requested that he have black hair and brown eyes, with rugged features. While I was basically painting his new body, he brought up a valid point.

"Shouldn't I have a fake brain, like the fake borgs?" He asked, watching as I designed his hair, trimming it a bit to match his skull better.

With a frown, I turned to look at him, his face plates already having been replaced. His expression was curious, though I could also see he was very much dreading the answer.

"Honestly? Probably," I admitted with a shrug. "But you don't have to. I can see how that would not sit well. I don't know if AIs can have body dysmorphia, but an unwanted hunk of fake brain sounds like a good way to cause it."

"What about the advanced model?" He asked. "won't he have a fake brain?

"I… Dammit, that hadn't occurred to me….", I admitted, chewing my lip before nodding. "Okay, new plan. We can initialize him on a specter or MRVN frame. That way, we can ask him for his opinion face to face."

Once I was done designing Riggs's new look, I helped Samwise install the liquid skin reservoir and related attachments, including the control chips. Once it was all hooked up, we finished the plating replacement.

While his body was basically the same shape, the coloring was vastly different, as was the texture. His plating was now primarily blue and white, like many of the BH androids, and he looked more… textured than just a metal plate. I gave him another quick look over before patting his shoulder and nodding.

"Okay, Riggs. You should have access to the proper control interface. Can you find it?" I asked, standing next to him, watching him carefully.

"I've found it." He responded after a long moment.

"Okay, so the first step is to initialize the skin. This will spread the liquid from the reservoir to your entire body," I explained. "Go ahead and do that now."

A slight hiss was audible from Riggs' body, the sound of the liquid skin spreading through his outer frame. While visually, there was no change, we could hear it slowly spreading out over his entire body. After a full two minutes, the sound stopped, and Riggs spoke up and said that it was complete. I told him to perform a systems check to make sure, which he quickly did and received confirmation he was ready.

"Okay. Then the final step is to activate the control system and select the look we designed," I explained. "It should be intuitive and-"

Before I could finish, the liquid skin began to spread out along his body, emerging from his plating before shifting and settling into place. The liquid seemed to spread across his body in several waves, all of them spreading across his plating. It was actually a relatively slow process that eventually filled out across his skin in seven or eight seconds. When it was complete, he looked completely indistinguishable from a human…. Save for the fact that he looked like a Ken Doll below the waist.

"Okay, Riggs, I want you to stand and slowly spin around for me, then you can put on some clothes," I said, watching as the android stood up with his arms out and spun in a circle.

I closely examined his skin, checking out what I knew could be problem areas to confirm it was seamless and looked good. His body was muscular, with a thickness that made him look like a tank. He was muscular but less of a gym bro and more construction worker.

He looked like a middle-aged Josh Brolin, with a short, military-style haircut, combed back like it was styled. His eyes were brown, with a hint of circuitry to make them look like implants to explain his improved vision. He even had several scars and blemishes marking his body, including some facial marks indicative of living a rough and tumble life.

"Damn," Kaytlyn said from behind me. I whirled around to see that she and Jackie had both shown up at some point to watch.

"Yeah… we do good work, buddy," I said, slapping his shoulder, his skin feeling almost a hundred percent real. It felt a bit sturdier than natural skin, but that could easily be explained by a strong skin weave.

Samwise handed him a simple shirt and a pair of shorts, both printed out from synthetic fibers on molly makers. After the newly skinned AI was dressed, he finally spoke.

"I… thank you, Jackson," He said, looking down at his hands, touching and exploring his new look. "I feel… good. Thank you."

"Sure thing buddy. Go take a look in a mirror and get used to your new look," I said with a smile. "Then come back and we can run some diagnostics, just to make sure everything is running right."

He agreed and stepped out, Kaytlyn following after him. I heard her comment about him needing a whole wardrobe when I sat down on a crate.

"I… I think I understand why you were so paranoid about that stuff," Jackie admitted, sitting down on a separate crate. "Watching that in progress… that would set off a lot of alarm bells."

"Mhmm. Well, with any luck, by the time anyone finds out, it won't matter anymore," I responded, rubbing my forehead. "Alright, I need to set up some scanners for when he gets back. Do you need anything?"

"No, though, I am going to head back home for tonight," He responded. "I haven't seen Mom in a bit, and she is getting worried. Plus Misty feels a bit neglected."

"You know, she is more than welcome to stay out here with you," I pointed out.

"Yeah… maybe after we are fully set up out here," He said. "I don't exactly feel happy after the wraiths."

"Yeah, me either," I admitted. "It's gonna be a bit before I can trust our defense fully again. Or sleep through the whole night."

Jackie nodded in understanding before reaching out with his fist. I tapped it with mine before returning to work. There were three full days left before my specialty switched over to a new universe, and there was quite a bit I wanted to get done before that happened. Some of it was happening without my input, like the new specters replacing the old, for example, or our general defenses. The rest would most likely need me to finish them, though honestly, I was sure Samwise could handle the new cars.

Still, I had a lot of work I wanted to finish and only a certain amount of time to get it done. It would be tight, but I was confident I could make it.

Or at least make do if I couldn't.