Lost but Found

=Chapter 1 - Rain

It was going to be a long night.

I was just getting started with my daily routine when a huge work order came in, followed by an unusually busy afternoon of customers, most of whom needed repair work done. Android repair was my specialty, which meant I was in heavy demand that night. I had seen my fair share of computer repair work, but once I upgraded to robot repair technician, they just couldn't demand enough of me. And of course the work was harder, much harder, than it was with just a computer. Not only did I have all the regular computer problems to worry about, like viruses, but I also had to worry about all the mechanical problems, which were plenty. In fact, one android usually took 3 or 4 technicians to fully repair, but out shop was a small shop and we only had a small team. And I was the only one who bothered to get certified as a robot repair technician.

Perhaps the reason our shop was so high in demand was because we were located in the middle of the most prestigious high-class area in all of North Virginia. Talk about upper-class clients, most of them were multi-millionaires or better. Occasionally we got the odd middle-class client, or even college student. I always made sure to give them special treatment just so they felt more welcome in the neighborhood. After all, I was one of them too. I couldn't afford to buy one of these robots I repaired, although at this rate I could probably build my own from scratch, an idea I took seriously.

That night in particular, we had a dozen repairs come in. Most of them were of your average PRA, or Personal Robotic Assistant, the kind we called "Plastics" because they looked like a walking plastic toy. Don't get me wrong, the technology behind them were amazing. They were by far the most popular androids on the market, and for good reason. They were cheap, relatively easy to repair, durable, and could be stylized to look like anything you wanted. That and most people were too freaked out by the most recent "Fleshies" as we called them, which has artificial skin, but in my opinion were, for the most part, still uncanny valley fodder. They just looked off to me, and to a lot of people, so I was glad we didn't get many of them in. Not to mention they were a lot more difficult to repair.

Our shop, a tiny computer and android repair shop stuck in a strip mall in the middle of Arlington, was called "WeFixIt", and we did exactly that, to almost anything. Appliances, computers, robots, cars, whatever it was, we offered to fix it. Most people knew about our computer and android repair, and it was what we were known to be good at. The storefront itself was tiny, with the latest Plastic on display and a few computers, but it was smaller than my apartment, which is saying something. At least the front was. Behind the scenes, we were a veritable warehouse. We only had a dozen folks on staff, and the turnaround was rather high for some reason. A recent government crackdown forced Bill, the manager, to let go of half the staff due to... insufficient documentation. Of course that meant more work for me, whoopee.

Trevor was running the front of the house that night, taking all the orders handling all the front end stuff. He was good, really good. He could sell you the shirt off your back, and throw in a new computer with it. But he didn't do repair work.

Luckily, about a year back, one of the richest clients we had ever had came in with a repair. Well, he didn't come in, but the repair did. Long story short, he dropped off a customized, top-of-the-line fleshy, the kind that managed to get beyond the valley and looked almost human, complete with a warm touch and rosy cheeks. She was a real beaut too. 5'4", small frame, ever-so-slightly asymmetrical features, freckles, short spiky hair, and a pair of breasts that screamed "I'm fun". And she was all mine to repair.

Now that wasn't the good part. The repair was actually really hard. I had never worked on such a complicated unit before. She even had an artificial blood system, one I had yet to see on another android. She was more complex and beautiful on the inside than she was on the outside, which is saying something, because she was a real looker. The problem was, she fell into a pool and shorted out. Despite all her waterproofing, she sprung a leak, and it so happened that one component was not properly sealed. It took a month to repair, but I managed to fix her up better than new. The thing is he never came to pick her up. I just didn't understand it! With such an advanced and beautiful machine as her, you'd think he'd pick her up immediately. He had the money for the repair, and we contacted him several times. It ended up, he didn't want her anymore. He moved on to the newer model that just came out, and claimed he was "tired of her personality". It made me angry, but because he never came to pick her up, he never paid either! As such, Bill saw to it that she was activated and put to work in the back of the shop, helping me with repairs, until she earned enough to pay for her own.

Her name was Elise, but she went by Lyss, and I knew as soon as she was activated that we'd get along just fine. She was spunky, and had spikey hair the color of a rainbow. If I didn't know any better, I'd say she was a punk rocker, she fit the role perfectly. We backed up her memories and stored them in a safe before wiping her clean, and programmed her to repair androids. She was fast, efficient, and actually held a good conversation. We had her dressed in the same uniforms we all had to wear, blue button up shirt with a collar, a nerdy tie, and navy pants. She actually hated the look, but managed to make it her own by tying the bottom of the shirt in a knot and keeping the tie loose and the top of her shirt mostly unbuttoned. She even managed to swipe a navy skirt from an old model and wore that instead of the pants, which no one complained about.

But the best part about her was her smile. It wasn't the average "stewardess" smile most models had, no. Her smile was funky and off center and gave the impression that she not only knew how to have fun, but was thinking something dirty as well. It was the perfect look for her attitude. At least she wasn't actually rebellious; she was one of the better workers we had. And for some reason, Bill managed to keep her "salary" very low because she was a robot. He even found reasons to give her more repairs to keep her in top shape, in case her official owner changed his mind and came back for her. In other words, he found out ways of keeping her on the staff indefinitely. And no one, not even Lyss, minded. I think she was having fun hanging out with the guys and actually doing something. She enjoyed working with her hands as much as I did, but she had a quick wit too, always ready with a joke, or a rude remark. I loved it.

That night, Lyss and I were the only ones in back working on all the orders, while Trevor worked the front, and Bill managed things mostly from his office upstairs, as he always did. Usually he kept the door open, and we could come up and take a break in the small lounge, but after Lyss started working, he kept her recharge station there, and usually kept the door shut. This was good for him because it meant he didn’t have to hear the idiocy of the customers.

And oh-boy were they idiots.

That night we had a computer with more viruses on it than a plague victim, a Plastic that someone tried to teach to swim, a slew of ones that had succumbed to the latest designer Silver Screen Virus (which had them all randomly quoting old movies), and another that was so full of porn, I was surprised the poor thing could walk. Let me tell you, that was not a fun job to clean up, and Lyss couldn't stop snickering at me. But the most annoying one that night came in 5 minutes before we closed. Lyss saw her first through the mostly closed door to between the front counter and the back.

"Hey! Kev! Come here, you've gotta check her out!" Oh, right, sorry, my name is Kevin, Kevin Ronin,, but Lyss decided Kev was easier. She knew I hated it which is why she loved to use it. "I think I found the girl for you." She loved to tease me and my lack of any kind of relationship. I was a busy guy, and my hobbies of building my own AI in hopes of creating a custom android from scratch took all my time. I didn't have time for girls; at least that's what I kept telling myself.

"Picking another suitor for me, are you Lyssie?" I teased. She punched my arm lightly as I approached. She hated that nickname, which is why I liked to tease her with it every now and then.

As Lyss looked out the door, I leaned over her to peak out from above her. We looked like a pair of peeping toms. There she was, a pretty young girl with a cute face and a sexy body, who was bringing in her male Plastic which suffered from god-knows-what. It had trouble standing, and it kept jerking it's hips in odd directions. The girl was a young thing, probably not even 18 yet, with blond hair done up in pigtails, denim shorts short enough to be called a belt, sandals, and a flannel shirt tight around her torso so her stomach was exposed, much like Lyss but higher up exposing more skin. She wasn’t busty, but she sure did like to show off what she had, and I sure liked looking at it. I couldn’t help but notice that her shirt was tied around her very tight; I could tell she wasn’t wearing a bra and our store tended to be chilly. She was already talking with Trevor, but I didn't hear was she said.

"I'm sorry I couldn't be of more help to you, but let me call Kevin out here, he's our resident android expert, I'm sure he can help you out. Hey Kevin!" he called out looking toward the door. Lyss practically jumped and bumped my chin with her head. Ouch. I came out and greeted the girl with a smile, trying hard not to ogle her body.

"How are you doing today miss?" I asked in my most telemarketer way. She didn't answer; as she was too busy trying to stop her PRA from jumping around. I tried again. "May I help you?" And then she opened her mouth.

"Gawwd! I hope so" she said, drawing out the word 'god' into more syllables than it had letters, donning the quintessential teenybopper valley girl accent. As her words left her mouth, all my arousal and desire toward her left too. She was one of those... a ditzy over-privileged brat. The bane of my existence. I heard something behind me and glanced behind to see Lyss peeking out of the door biting her lips and trying hard to hold back a laugh. She couldn't hold it in, and slammed the door, letting out a laugh that I could easily hear through it.

I gritted my teeth and feigned a smile. "What's the problem?"

"My PRA like totally stopped working last night?" she asked as though it were a question. "Like, it doesn't walk right anymore and stuff." I cringed at every sound her voice made as Trevor tried hard to keep himself from laughing. At least he was doing a better job of it than Lyss, who I could still hear laughing her head off through the door. I looked at the busted PRA, which was barely able to stand upright. It was a short piece of shit with a twisted hip and a malfunction that left it constantly thrusting its hips outward in random directions. She had probably told it to 'jump of a cliff or some junk' and it did. Either that or she was using it as her own personal vibrator. God I hated my life sometimes. It was actually a fairly easy repair, but a costly one and I reveled in the fact that I for to tell her the bad news.

"Let me take a look at it" I faked as I stepped out from behind the counter to look closer at it. "Yeah, I've seen this before" I lied. "There is probably something wrong with the programming. It's going to need a firmware upgrade before I can run a diagnostics on it." I knew I was being an ass, but she waited till the last 5 minutes to spring this bomb on me so I deserved to have a little fun with her. "And look, the gyroscope it out of alignment. I will probably have to keep it for a week to fully assess the damage before I can give you an estimate.” I knew that we could charge her for the assessment, and then tell her anything I wanted, and spend 20 minutes fixing it up and charge her for a week or two.

“That sounds expensive?” she said, putting the emphasis on the wrong syllable. “I was like totally hoping you could just fix it and junk. It isn’t like its big or anything.” God I wanted to strangle her. Lyss's continued laughter reminded me I'd have to get back at her too.

“Well, I’ll see what I can do, but I will have to do a thorough examination first, and make sure the firmware is up-to-date. I can call you with an estimate once it is ready."

“Really? Like, Okay! Like, it isn’t going to cost me anything is it?” She asked as elegantly as a crow.

“The standard charge for an examination of this type is $250” I explained. “I should have it done by next Thursday.”

“TWO HUNDRED DOLLARS?” she yelled, as though it was all the money she had in the world. “You’re just going to look at it right? Why is it so expensive?” she complained. “And why does it have to take so long?” My head was beginning to ache from his conversation.

“$250" I clarified. "PRAs are very complex machines that require precision work. We have a queue of orders ahead of yours so it will take some time before we can address your unit.” I didn’t even try to smile anymore, and I just let it all out monotone from memorization. “We have to study the problem to determine what exactly is wrong with it before we can make any repairs.”

She sighed with that little annoying ‘I’m better than you’ expression and rolled her eyes. “Fine! Do you like take Visa?” I took her card, or rather, her father’s card since I assumed her name wasn’t George, and the rest of the incident was a blur. Another teenage valley girl with nothing better to do than spend her dad’s money. My arousal was so low at this point it would need a defibrillator to come back to life. Besides, I didn’t really like young girls. Sure she was pretty (pretty dumb), but I preferred a girl more my own age, someone with a little more experience, in her 20’s, and with a body that had actual curves on it.

Someone like Lyss. But I could never tell her that. She was a friend, a coworker, and technically she was private property under the warrantee and protection of the company. The farthest I could ever get with her would be telling dirty jokes, which half the time she told. It had been a very long time since I had sex. My glasses and nerdy physique and hobbies weren't exactly bringing all the girls running. The closest I had to sex lately was repairing Lyss, and that was almost a year ago. And no, I didn't have sex with her. And yes, she is fully equipped. As I took the now inactive Plastic back, I got a good look at Lyss smiling her almost awkward yet sexy smile, trying to stifle her laughter, and got a good reminder of what she looked like when I was working on her back then. She was really something, and all my annoyance with her laughter faded away. I could never stay mad at her, she was too endearing and fun... and sexy.

But seriously, I needed a girlfriend. Lyss would occasionally try to hook me up, but she knew fewer people than I did, so all she could do was point out pretty customers. At least Trevor knew some girls, but my personality meant we never even got to the dating part. Maybe it was because I loved to talk shop, I loved to work on robots. The kinds of things I did for fun were more akin to a thesis paper for a PhD. No really, I was almost done with a new AI which I built from scratch and would rival even the best AIs around. The public was always scared of AIs, thinking they would take over the world or something, but people aren't dumb, and AIs have all sorts of regulations and restrictions... there I go again, talking shop. But seriously, building robots and working on AIs was fun to me. Maybe I wasn't into going to movies and wasn't interested in anything girls were interested in, but soon I'd save up enough to finally buy the female PRA kit I've had my eye on and test out my AI there. I've always wanted to have a personal assistant who could cook for me, among other things.

Despite all my efforts though, there was no way I'd ever be able to purchase a model as nice or advanced as Lyss, she was just too good. A custom model that I was sure Bill would eventually sell when he got the chance. The policy was 18 months, and she still had a few more months with us before he would sell her. I didn't like that idea. Maybe I could buy her... except I'd have nowhere near enough.

"What's with that look?" Lyss asked. "Alright, I'm sorry I laughed at you. Well it was really at her. But I mean come on! I couldn't help it!"

"Nah, it's ok. I would have done the same" I explained to her, letting her off the hook because she was so cute.

She gave me a big smile and rubbed my hair. "That-a boy. Take it like a man! I'm sure she'd make a great wife" she said, breaking into laughter again. I lightly hit her arm.

"Knock it off. We got a lot of work to do" I said getting back to one of the work benches where we were busy replacing a limb on an old model Plastic.

"Yes sir boss man" she said, saluting me mockingly, but with a cute smile. I let it go, but just then, the lights flickered and the ominous clash of thunder hailed in a thunderstorm I didn't even know was coming. I really should check the weather more often. Lyss practically screamed before exhaling.

"What was that?" I asked, looking at her.

"Sorry. I just don't like thunder, lighting, power outages, or anything else that can fry a walking lightning rod like me. Besides, if the power went out, how would I charge? I'm down to 21% already, I wouldn't last the night."

"Well you two" Trevor said, peaking his head in. "We're closed, and I'm off. I want to beat that storm."

"Hey! We've got a lot of orders here" I complained.

"Not my problem, you now I don't do android repairs. Good luck buddy! Lyss."

"Later alligator" Lyss replied.

And Trevor as gone before I could even say goodbye. He was right though, it was my job to repair these walking junk heaps, and at least I had Lyss to help me.

We got started, knowing we were not going to finish that night, as the rain came pouring down beating on the metal roof. Lyss shivered as she worked across the table with me.

"You alright?" I asked as I soldered a connection into place.

"Yeah. Sorry, I just... don't like water for some reason. I know I'm water proof, but I can't help it."

Odd. She had no memories of her time with her old master, including her water accident, and yet she had a fear of water now. But she needn't worry about that anymore; I personally made sure she was water proof. I even tested her myself. Which got my mind wandering again as I thought about her body. I shook my head and got back to work.

"Easily distracted are you?" she asked, leaning over the table to grab a screwdriver, giving me a perfect view of her cleavage. She knew what she was doing, as she gave me that knowing smile again. I looked back down at my work and ignored her. "Hey! My boobs are down here."

I couldn't help but laugh at her, which is what she wanted, and she returned a smile as she stood upright again. We spent another 2 or 3 hours just repairing androids, and got through 4 of them from the other day, but we were still behind. Of course, now with this thunderstorm, we were likely to see even more repairs tomorrow. At least the rain started to lighten up.

"Thanks for sticking around and helping me, Lyss" I said, forgetting she lived here.

"What else would I do?" she asked. "No one ever takes me out on dates anyway, not that I'd let them. Besides, a girl that doesn't eat anything at a restaurant is bound to get the wrong kind of attention." She was right, she might have been a really advanced model, but one thing even she couldn't do was eat. Sure she could drink fluids to keep her body hydrated, or keep her lubricants and fluids levels up, but eating food was a different matter. "Anyways, I rather do this. Not a bad date if you ask me" she teased.

"Well I-"

"Lyss" Bill called out from upstairs. We both looked up behind us to the top of the stairs where Bill stood in his white shirt, black tie, and matching pants. He was slightly overweight, with a well-trimmed beard and only just starting to bald. Pretty much the average middle-aged guy. "I need to see you in the office. Kevin, you can head home. The weather might get pretty bad out there, so be careful."

He disappeared up stairs again, but Lyss looked back at me with worry in her eyes. Every night he would call her up, but she never had any memory of what she did once she got there. Bill always explained he'd run a diagnostics on her and make sure she didn't need any more repair, and that her fluid levels were fine, and then he'd charge her for the night. It always took an hour or two, and he always wanted to close up right after, so we never stuck around while he finished.

Lyss gave me an awkward smile that faded away. "Well" she said, coughing a little. "I guess I'll go..." she cleared her throat "... see what he wants. Goodnight Kev, have a safe trip home."

"Yeah, thanks. Goodnight" I replied putting my tools away and shutting down for the night.

"Better go feed your cat" she remembered turning around as she reached the stairs. I told her about how I found a kitten 3 months ago and called her April.

"Yeah, good idea" I answered.

"See ya tomorrow" she called out as she reluctantly went up the stairs.

"See ya" I replied in kind. I watched as she walked up the stairs and slowly closed the door behind her. I grabbed my stuff, my phone and jacket, and headed out the door. Just as I took a step out, the rain picked up again like a swimming pool being dumped on top of me.

The rain sounded like a million tinny tap shoes dancing on my car, but it looked more like water grenades trying to break my windshield. My jacket was mostly for show at this point, since I didn't bring a rain jacket and was now totally soaked through, making my trip home colder and more miserable than normal. If only I paid the $150 to repair my key fob I wouldn't have had to fumble with my keys in the dark, drop them, and fight with them as I got to my car. By the time I got in, I might as well have had a fully-dressed shower. I was looking forward to getting home, but I didn't have time to play with my AI, it was already 11, and I had work at 10 the next morning. At least my cat would be happy to see me... or at least for me to feed her.

To say my car roared to life as I prepared to depart would be an exaggeration. It more or less sputtered to life yearning for the sweet release of death. The key fob wasn’t the only thing I needed to spend money on in my car, but I was too cheap to do anything about it, and just let it get worse. If only I cared half as much about my car as I did about my computer, this car would turn heads, instead of turning stomachs.

No matter how high I turned up the wipers, they were never fast enough to give me a clear view of the road. As soon as one sheet of rain was washed away, another had already replaced it. Occasionally, the night sky would light up with another flash of lightning, followed by a thunderous clap. I knew the lightning was getting closer, and louder, but the events of the night ran through my head. It was such a long day, I couldn’t concentrate on the road like I should have been, despite the bad weather, and instead I reviewed the day in my head. I thought back to the other customers from earlier in the day recalling the several business men who needed commercial PRAs fixed, the young couple who bought their first PRA together and wanted to install an upgrade, even the know-it-all teenager who tried to fix his own and ended up frying the motherboard. Sure there were a few lookers in the crowd, but none of them really stood out to me. That last girl was the most annoying of them all. She was all skinny legs and toned belly and fake tan and fake hair, I couldn’t help but think about what she might look like naked. No, I much preferred someone like Lyss, she was all curves and attitude, and her body was to die for.

Another bright flash of lightning and an instant loud clap of thunder, almost deafening me, forced my attention back on the road and where I was supposed to be concentrating. I tried to focus as I turned onto a back road that saved a lot of time getting home. There was a small bridge ahead, which could easily flood, and I had to wonder how full it was getting with all this rain. I had to be careful my tires didn’t slip on the wet road. Wet road. If that shirt was only wet, I could have seen her nipples. Lyss had really nice nipples, but I hadn't seen them in almost a year. I bet she'd look great dancing naked, with her spunky smile and fun hair and pouty lips. I longed to take her into my arms, to smell her, to touch her, to kiss her, to-

A truck ahead of me swerved violently in the road, sliding right toward me! I slammed on my brakes, but skid on the wet surface, unable to stop. I sounded my horn, but the driver kept swerving dangerously out of control. He had just passed the bridge, but at this rate, I would slide right off the edge if he didn’t hit me first! This road was too small for a truck, even a small one like that, and the driver should have known that! But it was too late now, I pumped on my breaks some more, hoping the pumping action would be a suitable replacement for the non-existent anti-lock brakes. The usually calm stream was bubbling over with water like a 5 star rapid, and the truck was nearly on me. I turned my wheel and covered my face, fearing that this would be the end, putting my car into a full-on tail spin!

Somehow, this actually helped. The truck driver managed to regain control of his small truck, and narrowly avoided me, while my spinning car lost all momentum toward the water, and halted on the side of the road. It took a moment for me to realize what happened, and to recompose myself. My life almost ended that night, and the truck didn’t even stop to see if I was alright. No, that driver sped off like a bat out of hell, leaving a mess strewn across the road behind him. Sure enough, there was a mess in the middle of the road right in front of me; in fact, there was a large box in the middle of the road. It was directly in front of my car, and my headlights dimply lit it up in the stormy night. I knew I'd have to move it to get my car out of the ditch.

I sat there a moment longer and regained my composure. Whoever that guy was, there was no way he’d be coming back to check on me, but perhaps he hadn’t noticed he lost part of his cargo. I had to wonder what the hell it was. The box was big; probably about 3 feet cubed, and appeared to be made of metal. With my luck it was probably a busted speaker, or full of heavy glass or metal. As I sat in my car staring at this box, the rain slowly started to lighten up. Almost as fast as it started, it had gone, or at least lessened. There were only occasional droplets of water now, but with such unpredictable weather, it was bound to pick up again soon. I flicked off my squeaking windshield wipers, and made a decision. I was the only one there, and I wanted to see what that reckless driver left behind. Maybe I’d be lucky and get something useful, or at least something I could sell on eBay for all my trouble. I got out of my car, realized I should probably check my car first for damage. There was a small dent in the front of my car on the bumper, probably where the box hit it. I didn’t even realize in all the commotion that I hit anything at all. Luckily the truck did not hit my car or there could have been serious damage to my car and to me, however my rear left tire was stuck in some mud, and I hoped it would not be a problem getting it out.

Flipping my brights on, I decided to check the box. As I got closer, I noticed a number of things. First, there were words on the side that said “This Way Up” pointing sideways. Clearly, it was no longer right side up. The second thing I saw was that the lid of the box was busted open. It appeared that the lid had a rather complex lock on it to keep it from being opened by prying eyes, but with the trauma of the accident, it was dented out of shape and the locking mechanism did nothing. There was no point collecting a broken box. The last thing I noticed terrified me. In the dim headlights, I could see an object sticking out of the box where it was broken open. It wasn't just any object, it was a human arm! Luckily, it wasn’t a big bloody grotesque mess, or I might have fainted right then and there, and it still seemed attached to its owner who was inside the box. I was frozen with fear.

“Holy shit! It’s a serial killer. Or some bizarre human trafficking. Oh my God! What do I do?" I prepared to call the police, but I had no signal in this back road, and I dared not leave the scene of a crime. I would just have to wait for the next person to drive by and tell them to call the police. Curiosity drew me closer to the box, and I peeked inside. Maybe they were still alive? Then again, I didn’t want to get all upset over a mannequin arm or something, so I had to be sure it was human. As I got closer, a smell rushed into my senses, a smell I wasn’t expecting. While I was expecting the smell of death, a rotting corpse, or just human body odor, instead I smelled something sweet and fragrant, almost like a new car smell. It wasn’t quite the same, but it was similar. There was something strangely familiar about it. And then it hit me.

That wasn’t the smell of a human; it was the smell of an android! I took another look at the box, and read aloud “ARAD-LX90f”. There was a holographic logo printed beneath it of gears and circles, with the letters ARAD in the middle. ARAD? I wracked my tired stressed brain to remember what these familiar letters were. It finally came to me. ARAD stood for “Advanced Robotics and Android Development”. It was the same logo and name as the company who made the highest quality PRAs in the world, the same company that made Lyss! Maybe luck had come my way, except this arm was way too human to be like any android I had ever seen before. I mean, as realistic as Lyss was, the skin on this arm has a certain subscatter of light to it that I had only ever seen in humans.

I took a closer look at the arm, it was not moving, but something in me feared it would suddenly spring to life and attack. I had to remind myself that things that happen in horror movies tend to stay in horror movies. The arm remained lifeless, but in the dim light, I could make out more detail. Not only did this arm have very high quality skin, but it also had hair, and fingernails, and veins. It was as human as any I’d ever seen, and it was feminine. The arm was dainty, well-shaped, and even sensual. I couldn’t resist, my curiosity was too great. I pried the dented lid back, and peeked inside. The light of the car was not shining directly inside, but there was enough dim reflected light inside to see the owner of that arm.

The box had a collection of plastic bags, wires, and what appeared to be a suitcase in it. In the middle of it all was a big bundle of plastic, from which the mysterious arm protruded. I rummaged carefully inside. It was a padded box, with a strong metal frame, but I wasn’t sure if the accident damaged anything inside. As I rummaged around, I unveiled a very human looking head, with dark hair. It was a girl, a pretty girl at that. Her eyes were closed, and she was as still and cold as death. I wasn’t fully convinced she was a robot yet. Sure there was no blood, and no smell besides the sweet scent of a new android, and her skin was icy cold, and there was no pulse, but what is she was a human girl someone was trying to pass as an android, but how was I to know?! Maybe she was just a corpse in a bag and I what smelled was something added to hide the smell of death.

Just as I was about to freak out again, thinking this was an innocent girl cut down in the prime of her life, I noticed something else inside the box. Pulling at some plastic bags around her back, I noticed wires and various connections protruding from her back and into a metal case with the letters “ARAD-LX90f” written on it, and a line drawing of a naked girl behind it, like what you might see in a medical textbook. The other bags in the case were filled with a variety of standard and non-standard android accessories. Remotes, batteries, and an assortment of other items surrounded the girl, along with a single thin pamphlet that read “LX90f Quick Start Guide”. Grabbing the thin pamphlet, I thumbed through it, trying to use the light of my car to read it. It listed the basic functions, abilities, and commands for the android. The beginning of it started with “Congratulations on being selected to participate in the alpha testing phase for the new prototype gynoid LX90f…” I glanced through the features. Active circulatory system. Adaptive Learning. Micro-tech fabricated skin. The list when on and on.

There was no way this could be real, but here it was in front of me! I never heard of such advanced robotics being around, not even in the top secret military files that got leaked online. Lyss didn't have the kind of technology they were talking about in this girl here, and she seemed pretty real to me; I wondered what this girl would be like when activated. I paced around the box trying to decide what to do. The road was slippery and wet, and no one came this way at night usually, so I debated with myself.

“I should leave her – I mean ‘it’ – here. There is no way this is real! She, I mean ‘It’, isn’t mine, and it’s not a living thing anyways. I don’t need a PRA; I am saving up for a custom one anyways. Besides, I can always talk to Lyss. I mean I don’t steal. What if no one comes by, or maybe they’ll find my fingerprints on the box. That’s crazy talk Kev! Everything will be fine. Just leave her here alone in the cold like little April. She was all alone and injured, and it was raining then too. She could have died without my help! Maybe I can get a reward for saving her. I’ve always wanted a PRA for myself, and this would surely make the guys jealous. I’ve never seen one this advanced before. What would Lyss say? I may never have this chance again. That reckless driver is long gone, but someone else could come by any moment. He’s the one that lost the box, I just found it. I… I…” I stopped pacing and thought to myself. I needed someone in my life beside April, and Lyss was store property. Maybe she could bridge the gap. I’ve been alone for far too long, I deserve this. Besides, she wouldn’t survive this weather in the middle of a street. “Fine!” I yelled out. “I’ll do it!”

Having finally made up my mind, I quickly looked around for any more cars. It really was a seldom used road, and I couldn’t see anyone in the bright light of a lightning strike. Unfortunately, the rain had just started to pick up again. It was still fairly light, but getting heavier fast. I decided to grab all the different objects in the plastic bags and stuff them in my car first. I was willing to bet that the girl would be water-proof like Lyss (hopefully without the leak), but the plastic and metal doodads probably weren’t. Quickly, I reached into the box, and grabbed all I could before running them back to my car and tossing them in the back. I had to make 2 or 3 trips before I the girl was all that was left. I practically crawled inside the box in order to get a hold of her and lift her out. Most of the plastic wrapping covering her had come off as I held her up in my arms. She was naked, limp, but beautiful. She couldn’t have weight much more than 100 lbs. or so, and she was about average size for a human girl. The rain beat down harder now as I lifted her out of the box, carrying her metal case and wires behind her.

As I held the lifeless cold body, I saw her entire form for the first time. She was breathtaking, like a sleeping beauty. Her still form made her look like she was asleep. She appeared to be in her early-to-mid 20s. Her dark hair fell to her shoulders, maybe lower, and the rain was beating it down onto her face and darkening her hair to black. She had a cute, small nose with a slight upturn to it, and full pouty lips. Water dripped down her pale skin, dripping off her chin and following the curve of her shapely breasts. They were not large breasts, but they were not small either. They were full and perky, and just the right size. Little puddles of water formed in various places on her body as I held her, as though she wore a dress of flowing water and light. Her sweet scent filled my nostrils, and I knew in that moment that she was something special, something more than just a robot.

I stared down at her beautiful face. I could have gazed at her all day, except the sound of distant traffic jerked me from the gaze and back to reality. I looked around but could see no cars. I decided it would be best to hurry nonetheless. I carried her over to my car, and using one free finger, opened the passenger side door. Carefully I placed her inside, putting the metal case and wires by her feet, and making sure she had a seatbelt securely fastened. I took of my soaking wet jacket, and covered her. It may have been soaking wet, but at least it was very warm from my body heat. I doubt she would appreciate it, since she had no pulse or body heat of her own, but I couldn’t just let her stay like that. Besides, it would be too much of a distraction driving home with a completely naked girl next to me. And just imagine if I got pulled over. I used an old blanket I took April to the vet in (it was clean!) to dry off her hair and face, and made sure the metal case and wires weren’t wet either.

Running back to the box, I made sure there was nothing else in it. Satisfied, I debated what I should do with the box next. I couldn’t leave it there, or people would ask questions, like where did the robot that belongs in it go? I couldn’t carry it with me; it was just too big to fit in my dinky little car. It was damaged, and had all sorts of information all over it. It would be bad if the driver did come back to find the box but the android missing. I decided it had to go. I hated to pollute the environment, but I couldn’t think of anything else to do. Besides, I wasn’t the one who dropped it, I’m just moving it. I lifted the box which was no easy task as it was heavier than the girl, and carried it to the middle of the small bridge ahead, balancing it on the edge of the rail. The usually calm stream was surprisingly wild tonight; amazing what a little rain could do. I pushed the box over the edge, and watched it disappear into the darkness. I didn’t even hear a splash as the water was too loud. I did see it briefly reemerge farther downstream as it was washed way into the night.

I stumbled back toward my car. Without my jacket, the rain shot right through me. I was freezing cold, but I managed to get back into my car, and start the engine. I was glad it started this time. I guess after being warmed up it decided to behave. I turned the heat up to the max, and made sure my new passenger was secure. Putting the car into drive, I revved the engine, but the wheels spun in back. The mud was going to be a problem. I shifted to reverse, and give it another try. I rocked the car back and forth with this method for a minute or so, slowly gaining ground out of the muddy ditch. Just as I managed to get the car out of the mud and back onto the road, a car sped past driving way too fast. Crazy drivers were going to get me killed, but I was just glad they hadn’t come by a few minutes earlier. Finally, I could head home again, wet and exhausted, but also excited.

Chapter 2 - Asleep

As I pulled up to my apartment complex I worried that my neighbors would see me carrying a naked unconscious girl into my apartment. Last thing I needed was to be seen as a predator, a psycho killer, or a date rapist. Normally I didn’t see my neighbors much, but there was always that chance that they were heading out for something late at night just as I was heading in. At least the rain had finally stopped again. What crazy weather. I decided the best way to tackle this was to scout ahead carrying the bags of accessories before I tried carrying up the girl. Careful not to make any noise, I checked out each window I passed as I carried the crinkling bags in my hands, and to my delight I found they were all dark. Usually the college students downstairs would be rowdy and noisy if they were home, which probably meant they were being just as annoying somewhere else. The apartment on the same floor as me was no longer occupied, which meant that I would be in the clear as soon as I got to the top floor.

I returned downstairs, leaving my apartment door ajar to make it easier to get back in with a full load, but not so far open that my cat could get out. I double checked to make sure no one was around, and reached into the passenger seat lifting up my lifeless guest. Curse these car doors for never fully closing unless they are slammed! As quietly as possible, which wasn’t very, I closed the door behind me and bolted for the stairs. One flight, then a second, I could feel wandering eyes from every dark crevice and doorway and window staring at me, judging me, asking why I would be carrying a lifeless naked girl to my room in such a hurry. I could hear the eyes gaining voices, calling me names like murderer, necrophiliac, or (shudder) kinky newlyweds. Finally, I made it to the top, and with a push of my butt, entered into my apartment. She seemed much heavier now than when I first lifted her, but 3 flights of stairs will do that to you. My arms were screaming for some rest; I really should go to a gym. I ran her over to my sofa, where I set her sitting up before running back to the door. A quick peek outside… no one saw, at least not that I could tell. I suppose if the police came knocking, then someone saw. This time I slammed my door shut, not caring if anyone saw anymore; I was done being stealthy. Finally, I was safe, back in my apartment, and feeling both exhausted and excited at the same time.

My apartment was dark, cold, and silent. I flipped on the lights, which instantly warmed up the place to something suitable to support life. It wasn’t a big apartment, nice but not big. For a single bachelor, it was a personal haven, and better than I deserved. The ceilings were tall, and the place was kept tidy with dark wood furniture and a brown sofa. There were no porno mags on the floor, no used condoms in the sink, no fist sized holes in the wall. It didn’t have that kind of bachelor pad feel to it. I was far too finicky to live like a frat house, which is what the apartment downstairs looked like. I’d seen inside it before. Not only did the smell of beer ooze from that place as soon as you step onto the landing, but it looked like a football team exploded inside, leaving behind every masculine stereotype and novelty sex object you could imagine. There were posters of naked girls on all the walls, condoms everywhere (used and otherwise), beer cans occupying any given corner of the room, and not a shred of decency anywhere. The worst part about it was their computer. They asked me to fix their crashed computer as a favor, and having a bunch of strong guys owe you a favor was never a bad thing. I had to wear surgical gloves just to touch the mouse, the keyboard stuck with god knows what, and about 98% of the hard drive was dedicated to porn. It took me hours to fix the problem, which resulted in them getting a bigger hard drive, a backup, and investing in some self-control, in which I’m sure they lost their investment. You’d think 20 guys lived in that apartment, but only 3 did. No, my place looked like a palace compared to theirs. To any normal human, it probably looked more like a couple lived here, except it lacked any real feminine touch to it. It was neat, clean, small, smelled good, and was all mine.

I could feel a cold coming on as I stood there locking the door behind me, especially after having been drenched in that accursed rain. It started to pick up again, lighter now than before, but enough to make me aware of its constant presence as it beat lightly on the windows and roof. April greeted me with a meow and a rub against my legs, before sauntering over to investigate the new invader of her territory. The first thing I did was to take off my soaking shirt and pants, and put on something dry and warm. Once in my bedroom, I picked out some sweat pants and a t-shirt from my dresser, and entered the living room to investigate my silent guest. April was already sitting on her lap, looking up at the still form, before losing interest and coming over to me to ask for food. She was very persistent when it came to food, and wouldn’t let anyone get away from her without a severe loving until they gave her some food. I relented, and went to the kitchen to feed my poor starving kitty. I hadn’t smelled anything suspicious yet, so I decided she had been a good kitty, and rewarded her with an extra kitty treat on top of her food. She dove in as though she had never eaten before in her life.

While my usually prissy kitty gobbled down her meal, I eyed the girl on the couch, ever silent and still. She was still cold and wet, getting my sofa wet too, but I decided to forgive her this time and went to my linen closet to grab a towel. Sitting on the edge of the sofa next to her, I gently started to dry her short hair, which almost looked black from all the rain. I’m sure she would look better with it styled and dried properly, but at least this way it was dry. My jacket still clung to her body, and I felt my heart skip a beat at the thought of taking it away from her. She wasn’t objecting, so I ordered myself to be a gentleman and an adult and gently lifted my jacket away from her chest so I could dry her. I tried not to stare too much, but stare I did.

In the warm-yellow light of my apartment, I got a much better look at the mysterious robot. She was definitely in her 20s (or at least designed to look that way), with a lightly tanned complexion. Her skin was almost flawless, with a few freckles over her nose, cheeks, and shoulders that only made her look cuter. Her breasts were nothing short of ideal, completely natural in appearance and size, not too big but not too small either. I wanted to reach out to touch and caress them; I could get away with it too, and my nether regions were not objecting to the notion. But I held my hand back refraining from fondling this attractive gynoid, while I took in her whole body. It just didn't seem right. I didn't fondle Lyss when I had the chance either; maybe I was just chicken. I just know some of the guys would make fun of me is they knew... Trevor especially.

Unlike Lyss’s svelte yet attractive body, this android was more of a curvy girl with a body that could drive men wild. As my eyes wandered lower, I couldn’t help but take note that her public hair was short and trimmed in a rectangle, precision cut- no, not cut, designed. Lyss was designed without any hair there at all, which I found a little odd, but I suppose it was the look the client wanted. I took in this beautiful sight a moment or two longer, appreciating the hard work and artistry that her designers put into her, before turning away with a sigh and tossing my jacket at the dryer. It was still wet and dripping, and despite the presence of a naked gynoid, I couldn't stand leaving a wet mess all over my apartment.

I sat back down next to her, trying not to stare, and began to dry off the rest of her with the towel. I gently leaned her forward and started with her back before moving my way around to her arms and chest. Her breasts reacted so naturally to my hands, I wanted to play with them but instead kept the towel between my skin and hers and moved on. I even leaned her against me and lifted her so I could wipe underneath, drying my couch before it was damaged from the moisture. So far, there was still no sign that this girl was a robot except she still had those wires protruding from her back. I decided to take a closer look.

They were relatively thick for standard computer cables, with the thickest connected to her spine. Where these wires attached to her body I could see ports on her back, like computer ports, but in her skin. Somehow the skin either moved out of the way or was just not there where the ports were. I was sure of it now; she was definitely a robot. But one with such advanced mechanics I had never seen. Even Lyss still had subtle seams in her body where access ports existed (and honestly gave her a cool sci-fi look). The metal case the other ends of the wires were attached to rested on the floor beside her. I carried it up with her, not sure what it was, and not wanting to disconnect her.

She sat there in a sitting position, her body now lifelessly hunched forward, as still as a statue as I grabbed the metal box and sat beside her investigating it. It had the same model number as the one on her box, LX90f, and appeared to have a lock on the front. I figured I would have to get a locksmith, or maybe just try prying it open with a crowbar, and was pleasantly surprised to see they hadn’t yet set the lock. Either that or it was damaged in the crash. It snapped open, and I lifted the lid to gaze inside. It was a portable terminal for an android, kind of like a powerful single-purpose laptop. I had never used one this fancy or advanced before. It was a very impressive sight, and I tried turning it on, hoping to activate my lifeless guest.

Password protected. Damn.

I could spend all night working on that and still not get in. Maybe my A.I. could do it, but that would be a task for later. I held down the power button, and allowed the service station to conduct a soft shutdown, thereby allowing it to finish any tasks it may have been doing with the girl, before I moved on. I figured it was most likely running a diagnostics or just monitoring her systems.

I focused my attention to the cables again, studying how they were connected to her. Carefully, I spread the skin on either side, and discovered they were protruding through the skin, but with a strange mechanism underneath that was watertight and allowed for movement.. She had ports that would theoretically be completely waterproof, even while in use, and would retract when not needed. I grasped the cables, and with a stiff pull, removed them from the silent figure. Now that the service station was shut down, I didn’t have to worry about messing up a data transfer. I couldn't help but get excited as I disconnected the ports, one-by-one.

I decided I would see if I could get her to activate without the terminal, maybe she didn’t need it to start up on her own. Most robots only used them for maintenance, which made me wonder why it was still connected to her. Regardless, she should turn on just fine without it, as long as I could find the switch. I decided to lift her up again and lay her flat on the couch, as though she were a guest sleeping there for the night. This would give me a soft yet solid surface to work on while I tried to activate her.

As I lifted her, I was reminded about how soft she felt if still cold. I couldn’t help but want to activate her, to talk to her, to see what she was capable of, even though she was just a lifeless machine right now. Something about her face, perhaps the innocence in it, or perhaps her helpless nature, drew me to her, and intrigued me. I wanted to discover more about her, but the only way I could do that right now, was with her body. I hoped I would at least find a power switch, and be able to have a conversation.

She looked fast asleep laying peacefully on my couch. It was already late, so I decided not to waste any more time and got to work. I started exploring every part of her, starting with her face. I felt for any buttons or seams, I looked for any sign of her robotic nature that would defy her human appearance. I felt her neck; her nose; her chin; her ears. She felt as human as anyone, except cold; even inside her mouth looked human. I continued my investigation lower. I explored her neck, her chest, her arms, her breasts. I was thorough with her breasts, but there really was nothing off about them, they were perfect human breasts! And really nice ones at that. I couldn't help but think of Lyss, and how these compared to her, but that thought reminded me how much she'd kill me if she knew I was thinking of her like that. The pair before me were perky and full while remaining average in size; the ideal of sensual beauty. Unlike Lyss who had a smaller pair, still perky but less full. Still, no sign of her android nature, and no sign of an on switch.

I continued down her abdomen, to her waist and her hips. I was gentle with her when I got to her crotch. I was so nervous for some reason; I just didn’t feel right touching her there, so I was sure to be fast but delicate. This was a stark contrast to when I worked on Lyss. She needed to be cleaned and maintenance, which meant a full service down there, but I would never do anything else to her besides maintenance. Even though I was attracted to Lyss, she was my friend, my buddy, and I would kill myself before I violated her. Why I kept thinking of Lyss during this was beyond me. She would kill anyone that thought of her like that, but I suppose she was the only other experience I had that was in any way similar to this one. I shook my head and tried to focus on the girl at hand.

Very gently, I tried to feel for anything that seemed out of the ordinary on the surface, but didn’t notice anything except she was cool to the touch. I was considering entering her vagina with a finger, but decided against it… What would I find there but a vagina? That would be a stupid place to put a power button. That and it just felt wrong to do something like that without her permission, so I moved on to her legs, and then her feet before I turned her over to check her back. Now that the cables were no longer connected, the ports on her back were the only things revealing her true nature. I suppose they would retract if she had power, but right now a series of 6 round and square ports ran down her back. I could find nothing else however. Nothing, that is, until I got back to her head again.

When I was exploring her face before, I didn’t really feel in her hair that much. However, by running my hands through her hair now, I felt something, like a subtle protrusion, that didn’t belong. Spreading the hair aside, I discovered a port just above the back of her neck, at the base of her skull. There, I uncovered a flap of skin and hair that covered it which was hanging loose, and I suspected would have normally been tightly sealed, but I suppose the incident with the car probably pulled something out of there, loosening it up. I hoped it didn't interrupt anything. I looked closer, it was a high speed port, but next to it was a flash card reader. It actually had a mini flash card still in it! I depressed the tiny card, thereby ejecting it, and pulled it out.

“16” I read aloud. “16… Pb... Petabytes! That’s one hell of a flash card!” It was one of those tiny ones too, the kind you’d normally need to use in an adapter so it would fit into your computer or camera. This tiny chip packed one hell of a punch! Intrigued, I retreated to my computer room, leaving her laying face down on my couch. It was really just a second bedroom I turned into a computer room, where I did all my serious computing... and gaming. Most people assume a computer room has one, maybe 2 computers in it. Well, in my case, there were a couple of stations, several terminals, a rack of servers stuffed into the closet, and enough processing power to run the government. Not to mention my A.I. experiments, including my latest and greatest interaction experiment, the tablet PC interface. There was barely enough space for me to fit in the room; if I gained any weight, I’d be stuck. I liked to run A.I. stress tests… for kicks. I’d often find the latest A.I. in development online, and run it through the gauntlet, looking for loose threads and errors. I always found something. That was why I had been spending my nights, weekends, and any other waking moment I could, to developing my own customized A.I., learning from all those tests, one that was able to adapt to any given surroundings, and correct itself in case of a logic error, or adapt in an untested and unforeseen circumstance.

As I mentioned before, the tablet interface was my latest invention. Not that tablet PC… hell no, that was not exactly new anyways. What I did was customize a tablet to run a real-time interactive wireless interface for my A.I., allowing me to interact with it from anywhere. Kind of like making my workstations mobile, at least while inside the apartment. It connected back to my database servers, leaving only a small footprint on the tablet itself (which incidentally filled the tablet’s storage), allowing me to gain access to this extremely powerful and advanced A.I. from anywhere in the world.. Theoretically. I never took it outside the apartment, and I wasn't sure how the bandwidth would handle that much information. Still, this was actually really useful, although I was still working out the bugs and hadn’t finished all the features yet. The current interface used a floating head, very simple in appearance like a generic robot head, which used speech and facial recognition, as well as basic gestures, to interact with the user. I named him Errol, which stood for Extremely Raunchy Robotic… you know fuck that. It doesn’t stand for anything! He’s just called Errol.

All fun aside, I clipped the tiny chip into an adapter I had handy, and slid it into one of the many terminals. There was barely a second when the screen came up with an error. The drive was corrupted, and the computer wanted to reformat it! Hell no! For all I knew, it was encoded, not corrupted. Then again, after exposure to rain and a car crash, one could never be sure. I ran some diagnostics tests on it, and started to copy the data into an image disc for backup.

The test said the data “ended abruptly”, which is another way of saying it wasn’t finished writing when someone lost control of the truck they were driving which was carrying the robot in question, swerved in the road, knocked the robot into an oncoming vehicle, and somehow pulled the plug in the process. I wonder how that happened. I’m just glad it didn’t blame me for the crash. For once my computer was cleaning up after my crash, and not the other way around. Regardless, there was little I could do with the data, but I wanted to try one more thing. I plugged the chip into my server network, and grabbed my tablet PC.

“Errol, please run a thorough examination of the drive in port H. I want to know what was on it, and if it can be repaired.” Chances were it would come back with exactly what I found out, but perhaps there was enough left on the tiny chip to actually tell what was on it.

“Acknowledged. Would you like me to attempt repairs if possible?” Errol asked in his robotic British accented voice. I got the voice for free because it was from England, and stealing from another country makes it all right. Don’t judge me!

“Yeah, sure, do whatever you want. Just let me know when you are done.”

“Acknowledged. Thank you, sir.”

An hour or so passed, and I was reminded that I hadn't eaten anything yet. I went back into my living room with a few cables, a laptop, and my tablet in hand. I decided earlier to plug in the portable workstation she came with, and left it in my computer room, to see if it would charge up overnight. Password or no, it would be a lot harder to gain access to it if it had no power. All I wanted to do now was see if I could start up the girl, or at least get a reading from her on my laptop. I started hooking up cables to the ports on her head and back, and started to investigate. To my shock, the computer recognized her as a device! I couldn’t seem to gain access, but the drive was called LX90f-113. Same model number all right, she had power, but there was no way to activate her. Perhaps it was the chip she needed, or maybe a passcode. Whatever it was, it was too late tonight to start trying to figure it out, so instead I microwaved some noodles and brainstormed.

“If I may make a suggestion sir” Errol started. He had a bad habit of talking without being spoken to. If I didn’t program him to do that, I’d have to beat it out of him. “Perhaps she needs her missing drive, which should be ready momentarily.”

“Oh shove it” I said annoyed. I doubt he knew what I meant, but he was a smart A.I. and didn’t annoy me with a response.

I decided to just let Errol run the diagnostics and head to bed. I still had work the next morning, and it was already late. I wouldn't get the 8 hours I needed, let alone the 12 I wanted. I threw an extra blanket over the girl, out of modesty and headed into my bedroom.

The next morning, I was awakened by the sound of a repetitive beeping coming from the other room. It was just quiet enough to inject itself into my dream at first, but loud enough to shake me out of that dream and back into reality. It was 8 am, and I was too tired to deal with this shit. I rolled over and sat up, ready to break whatever it was that disturbed my slumber, when the memory of my strange guest came to mind, and I found myself energetic and eager to check in on her.

Despite the sleep, I could feel myself catching that cold I wanted to avoid, but a night in the rain would do that. I ignored my own bodily functions and ran into the living room to check the progress of the diagnostic on my tablet. It was nearing 100%, so I decided to eat a small breakfast and take a shower. I still smelled from all that outdoor activity the night before, and realized I would now need to change the bed sheets.

As I got out of the nice hot shower, feeling reenergized, but still a little sick. I looked in on the girl, and saw April sitting curled up on top of the girl’s back, as though she found a new cat bed. She was too cute to move, and wasn’t harming anything, so I decided to check in on Errol in the computer room. “Errol, status report” I order. I waited for Errol to respond. “Errol. Errol!”

The tablet PC displayed a loading icon in place of Errol’s poorly rendered head. Great, he must have crashed while working on that drive, or maybe it was a virus! A virus would suck since I didn’t have an off-site backup of Errol, and all those years of coding would have been wasted! Note to self, get an off-site backup established.

Suddenly, the interface on the tablet loaded up again, except this time, Errol’s face loaded, but with one distinct change, it was far more feminine shaped than before, with a thin chin and big eyes like an anime character.

“Repairs complete, master” a female voice said. It had a slightly British accent to it, as though Errol’s original voice merged with another.

“Master?” I thought. When did I program Errol to get cute on me? “Um... Errol? What happened to you?”

“I don’t understand, master. Nothing has happened to me” he, or rather she, replied.

“Don’t give me that! Your icon is different! You just called me master, and you are clearly using a different voice than what I programmed you with. Even your speech patterns are different too! Did you catch a virus or something? Like a sexy virus?” I asked. A sexy virus, maybe I’d have to invent one if it didn’t already exist.

“No virus detected, master. But I did experience a coding error while repairing the damaged code on the drive. I had to make self-repairs and reboot. The program should be running at 100% capability now, master.” Her voice was emotive, cute, and kept calling me master. Whoever wrote this virus was a jackass. Or a genius. I couldn't decide.

"Don't tell me you didn't change! Compare your programming before to your current set up."

"Processing" she replied, her face replaced with a processing icon. At least that didn't change. "Processing complete, master. It appears I have indeed changed. My appearance and personality codes have been tampered with by an internal source, most likely the disk image you placed on the workstation. It appears to have activated and... changed my appearance and manipulated by vocal settings, as well as changing data in my personality. Would you like me to change it back?"

"I don't know. This is weird. Can you do that?"

She frowned. "Without an offsite backup, I'm afraid I can't restore myself to my previous configuration with a hundred percent accuracy, master."

“Um… what was on that drive?” I asked, trying to figure out how an A.I. can have a sex change.

“After much research, I determined it is a complicated A.I. personality matrix used by government agencies, except this one was encoded differently” the cute but intelligent sounding voice said. “I will have to do more research, master, but it appears she is stolen or illegally obtained property.”

“I did not steal her!” I objected. "I found her!"

“I’m sorry, master. I didn’t mean you. Whoever had her before you found her probably stole her and changed her data.” Damn my A.I. was good if it could figure all this out. It already could hack government agencies just to do some basic research, but then again I didn't program it to be this smart.

"Besides appearance, vocal pattern, and voice settings, did the drive change anything else about you?"

"I'm not sure" she replied. "The AI in that drive activated late last night and tried to overtake your computer. I stopped it, but it turned on me and some of my data from that moment on got a little corrupted. I believe it has integrated itself with me, master."

"Integrated... you mean you merged with it?"

"I'm afraid so. The AI was designed to install itself into any device it was attached to, and when I prevented it from performing that function, it sought to disable me, but being incomplete, I managed to overtake it. It appears I did not emerge unharmed, although it appears all the database and server data is intact."

So Errol got smarter? Or at least changed into a version of that android's AI. I wondered exactly how much damage was done, but Errol sounded like he was still operating fine. He... Her… Errol? I suppose Errol was too masculine a name now… but name changing would have to wait for another time.

“So, how exactly did you repair it?” I asked.

“My matrix coding was similar to the one used in the drive, so I integrated my own matrix to fill in the gaps where data was missing, and made the appropriate changes where needed.”

“Show me a log of the last 3 hours of activity” I commanded. The tablet sprung to life. The floating head icon moved to one side, while the rest of the screen filled with data showing a timeline of the last 3 hours of the repair. I scrolled through it and found the moment of the code error that crashed Errol. I swiped my finger across the screen, and investigate the data in more detail. It appeared that while Errol was replacing lost data in the drive, the drive had indeed been adding data to Errol! It wasn’t a virus, but somehow Errol’s highly advanced A.I. naturally filled in the gaps where he was lacking, and added more to his rather admittedly dull personality. He upgraded himself! That must speak volumes about the superiority of the sexes.

"So wait... let me get this straight. While you were trying to repair the disk and add some of your programming to the AI on it, it was trying to add it's programming into you?"

"It appears so."

"So there are two of you now?"

"No. The program on the disk is still mainly that AI, with a small part of me in it. My AI is relatively the same, with a small part of the other AI in me. I suppose it's like we are siblings, not clones."

“Wow. You continue to impress me Errol” I said taking in the data.

“Thank you, master” she replied.

“So you were able to completely repair the drive then?” I asked.

“Not exactly, sir” she confessed. "While we are based on similar structures, this AI is still missing vital parts. I believe it will be able to repair those missing sections, but I am afraid the attack on my systems left damage to it as well. I have replaced or repaired what I could, but I'm afraid her personality matrix was unsalvageable." I sneezed, the feeling of a cold or a flu coming on getting stronger.

“Bless you sir” Errol said. I didn’t recall programming that, but maybe I had.

“Thanks!” I said, sniffing as I grabbed the drive from the terminal. I meant the thanks for the hard work Errol did, although it sounded like it was thanks for the blessing.

“You’re welcome sir” the voice said while the face on the screen started blushing. Ok, I KNOW I didn’t program that into Errol. Maybe I was just getting too tired and needed to go to bed. That must be it. I’m so tired I’m seeing things.

"Wait, so her personality is corrupted?"

"It was irreparable and has been deleted, leaving the AI with a blank slate, so to speak."

"Does she have any memories?"

"Negative. All memories of her previous life have been erased before I had access to them."

"But she should still work, right?" I asked.

"Most likely, but I have not worked on an android before, so I can't really be sure, master."

I looked at the small drive in my hand, amazed at how much it could do. It was warm to the touch from all the data transfer, and I was excited to see if it would work. I brought the chip over to the still android, and pulling her hair back again, inserted the chip from where I found it. I closed up the port properly this time, and waited.

Nothing happened. I tried again on my laptop, but there was no change. I knew it was too good to be true. Maybe I fixed the drive, maybe not, but it didn’t seem to help activate her either way. I still didn't find any kind of on switch for her, maybe that was the problem after all. I gave up. It was getting late, and I needed to get going.

I was feeling a little under the weather, but knew I had to still do in to work. I couldn't make Lyss sick, or anything, so as long as I wasn't bed ridden, I had to still go in. I finished getting dressed, ate a quick breakfast bar, and gulped down a cup of soda. Yeah, I know, soda for breakfast, gross. But coffee is even grosser, and I needed the caffeine.

As I finished off my food, I looked over at the girl, still laying on her face, still serving as a cat bed for April. She deserved better than that. So I removed the little fluff-ball, turned the girl over, and lifted her up, carrying her over to the bed where I covered her with sheets and blankets. This way, if the maintenance guy came in, he wouldn't freak out too badly. She still wasn’t warm, but she sure was cute, and I didn’t want to leave her. I wanted to fix her up, but I was running late as it was.

She looked peaceful, innocent, and almost happy. I was about to walk out when a curiosity grew in me. I had not kissed a girl in years. I had forgotten how it felt, how it tasted. I knew she would be cold and lifeless, but her lips were so inviting, pouty and parted ever so slightly. She looked like a sleeping beauty. Aw, heck, what's the worst that could happen; she wasn't activated, and wouldn't turn on any time soon. I leaned in closer to her, studying her cheeks, her nose, her mouth. Finally, I kissed her right on the lips. No tongue! It was an innocent kiss, but not as satisfying as I had hoped. She was indeed cold and lifeless, but soft. I did not regret kissing her. It was merely a goodbye kiss, or something like that. Whatever it was, it was over now, and I flipped off the light, and walked out to head to work.

Chapter 3 - Somebody to love

“You did WHAT?”

“It's just a bump. Nothing serious. My car is fine!” I explained to Lyss who seemed particularly agitated when I told her about the accident. I don't know why I told her, but at least I decided not to mention anything about the girl. “It was just a slip on the road and some debris.”

“Kev, what was the last thing I told you yesterday?” She asked with a serious and upset tone. I felt like I was being scolded.

“Umm... To feed April?” I answered, thinking back.

“No, before... Wait when did I say that? Never mind! I told you to drive safe, and that should go double in a storm.”

“I was driving safe. It was- oh never mind.” I didn't want to even hint at anything else that happened; I might let something slip. Last thing I wanted to do right now was let anyone know I found a gynoid that someone might be looking for. I know, I was being a selfish ass, but I decided if anyone came forward, I could decide then if they deserved to take her back.

“Kev... What if something happened to you?” Lyss sounded very sincere and concerned suddenly, something I never ever heard in her before. I swear I saw a tear form in her eye as she furrowed her brow.

“Lyss I...” I wondered if she was genuinely concerned for me. It sounded like she was scared to lose me, but I knew that couldn't be true, she was only a robot after all.

“What would I do if you were gone?” Her voice started to crack as she sniffed and lowered her face, covering her mouth with one hand. I think I was about to make her cry. Was she really that attached to me? I didn't know she cared that much about me. Suddenly her face shot up toward mine with a fierce look. “We’re behind on orders as is, and I'll be stuck fixing all these crappy bots myself! You know I can't work on Fleshies, and I'm already overworked as is!” She glared at me but her serious scowl quickly melted into a restrained smile, and soon into an all-out laugh.

“Wait...” I said, realizing she was playing me again.

“Oh my god! You should have seen the look on your face!” She jested between laughs. I knew it had to be an act. “You thought I was serious, didn't you? Hahaha!”

“Ok, ok. You got me. You can stop laughing now.”

“No!” She insisted. “I really can't! It's just too funny” she laughed, wiping away a tear. So she really could cry, at least in jest.

"It's not that funny. I could have really died" I defended, refusing to look at her and returning to the robotic arm I was repairing. Finally she sighed and stopped laughing, clearing her throat.

"Sorry, sorry" she apologized. "But seriously, be careful. It would be dull here without you."

I still refused to look or talk to her at this point. Here I was being all serious, and she just pranked me. Then again, it should have been exactly what I expected her to do, so I shouldn't have been surprised. She kneeled down a bit and looked up at me from the corner of the work table.

"Aww... I'm sorry. I didn't mean to upset you." She stood up and walked to my side of the table, nudging my arm. "I like having you around; you're the only one that I can really talk to without getting hit on." I turned my face away and gave her the cold shoulder. "Hey! Come on, you know I didn't mean it" she pleaded. "You're my only friend, let's not do this. Don't cry!"

"It's just..." I said with a frog in my throat. Lyss put her hand on my shoulder gently, and I turned to her. "Two can play at that game, Lyssie" I teased sticking my tongue out at her.

Lyss's mouth hung open when she realized I got back at her already. "You little... Hah! How...?"

We both broke out into a laugh. I really was lucky to have her as a friend, which worried me since she didn't have that long left before she would be put up for auction. As she gave me that sweet crooked trademark wide smile of hers, I couldn't help but feel that greedy and selfish side again. I wanted that smile and sense of humor to stay. I couldn't bear to part with them... with her. I needed to figure out some way of keeping her here, or better yet keeping her for myself.

"What?" she asked as I stared at her, catching me off guard.

"N-nothing!" I claimed, but she just tilted her head with that smile again, and I easily caved. "I just, like having you around. But you only have... you know."

"I know" she sighed, rubbing her neck. "Time flies when you’re having fun, right? Well at least for me I'll forget all of this, but it will be a lot harder for you."

"Do you want to forget all of this?" I wondered.

"No! Well, at least... some of it." I thought for a moment she actually blushed, but I doubted that. Instead she just busied herself with work quietly, hinting that I should do the same.

I sneezed. Last night standing in the rain wasn’t that great an idea, but I was actually starting to feel better. I took some medicine before I left, and it was kicking in.

“Gesundheit” Lyss called out.

“Bless you” I replied. She got a laugh out of it. Just being around her made me feel better, I was sure I wasn’t going to get sick now, or at least not any worse. Smiling, we returned to our work.

I returned to the bot on hand. It was a cute little Plastic with a petite female form all white and gray with a molded haircut. As I worked on repairing the arm in silence for a moment, I couldn't help but listen to everyone working around me.

The backroom was split into various bays, each one dedicated to a different task. There was the computer repair bay, which was always busy but had the most workers so the turnaround was relatively quick; the electronics bay, for everything from movie players and TVs to those cute little vacuum bots; the large electronics and appliances bay, for the bigger stuff, which was usually empty except for one guy who spoke very little English; and of course there was the android repair bay, where Lyss and I hung out fixing the larger robots. And finally the secluded advanced repair room which was reserved for working with Fleshies and usually kept lock. It was separate from the rest of the area for concerns the owners of robots with skin had who demanded they have some privacy. As such, it was a separate room altogether, with one door and a one-sided window on the door. It was where I did the repairs on Lyss, and I was usually the only one in there.

All around us I heard people working and chatting, but I realized Lyss and I were by far the loudest. It wasn't a problem of course, as we were toward the back, but today, most of the guys were just hanging around, while I had to catch up on all these jobs. There were probably two dozen robots left needing repair, and it was almost always a time-consuming process. I wondered how the mysterious gynoid in my apartment was doing. I suppose there would be no changes to her physically, but with Errol working on repairing her programming, I hoped he would have a solution by the time I got back. She. She would have a solution.

I really was going to have to change her name. Her voice and image were somehow manipulated to appear more feminine, and yet retain a lot of the basics of Errol, like his accent, robotic avatar, and sense of dry wit. I had to figure out how that happened, and why, and if it would be a problem down the road. Not that I minded having Errol turn into a girl, I kind of liked the idea of a cute female assistant. In the meantime she’d need a new name... Something like Errol, maybe... Erin?

“It’s too quiet in here” Lyss complained as she looked up from her work. “I need some music. Still got that old music player?”

“Yeah, sure” I confirmed and pulled it out of my pocket, tossing it to her. She grabbed it with a smile and rolled up her left sleeve, exposing her entire arm. With a whir and a click, a small port opened on her arm, and she inserted the player into her arm, screen out, and magically chose a playlist. As always, classic rock came flowing out of tiny ports on her body, turning her into her own music player.

“Anybodyyyyy” she began to sing a little off key with the lead singer. “Find meeeee.....” I decided to join in.

“Somebody toooo love” we sang together with Freddy Mercury. It was an oldie, but still one of the greats. Even though she was completely the punk rock girl in appearance, Lyss had a thing for the classics, like Led Zeppelin, Kiss, Journey, and of course Queen.

Lyss started to play the air drums as she worked, swaying her hips to the beat, or close enough to it. For a robot, she didn't have the best sense in timing, but she sure had good taste in music.

We continued to work for a few more hours, mostly to my classics playlist and always with Lyss’s off key accompaniment, but my mind was slowly but surely becoming preoccupied with Erin and my strange robotic guest. I was really looking forward to getting back. At least I enjoyed my work and had Lyss to talk to.

“You’ve been awfully silent” Lyss commented, noticing my lack of singing along. “Anything wrong? Is it about your car or the accident? The song? I can turn it down. Or my joke? Hey, I’m sorry, but I really would be sad if-”

“It's not that” I confessed. “I've just been having... trouble with Errol. That's all.”

“You sure? I'd love to take a look at him for you sometime... if a certain boss would let me outside once in a while” she mumbled.

“I think I can handle it, I'm just preoccupied, that's all. Sorry. I'm going to get a soda, you want anything?”

“Sure, nothing like a nice cold liquid refreshment to fry my circuits.”

“Oh, right. Sorry”

“It's ok” she replied quickly with a smile. “Thanks for the thought. But don't let Bill catch you drinking over here, he'd blow a fuse.”

“Heh. If only.”

As I returned from the vending machine carrying my soda, who else would I run into but Bill? I nonchalantly hid my drink behind my back, and hoped he didn't see.

“Ah, Kevin. I was hoping to run into you. I'd like to see you in my office. You busy?”

“No, not at all. I mean, I am busy but I can talk.” I sure hope I didn't say something stupid by accident that might mean the end of my job. I always feared meetings in his office, which luckily didn't happen often, but I was always worried he'd tell me I didn't work hard enough or fast enough or did something.

“Great. And, you might want to leave the soda.”

“Right.” Busted. No use hiding it anymore. I chugged down the rest of the can as soon as he turned his back and tossed it in the nearest bin before following Bill upstairs.

The upstairs room, while usually locked, had once been the center for laziness in the company. It used to be our break room, our game room, and our lounge, as well as Bill’s “office”, but ever since Lyss moved in, she was given reign of the upstairs, and for “privacy concerns” Bill usually kept the door closed. I suppose it meant Bill wanted to make sure no one broke Lyss’s recharge station or terminal, in case the owner wanted her back.

However, it was pretty much the same as when we had left it. The couch was still there, the junk that lined the walls and formed makeshift rooms and barriers was all still there, and the large cabinet once used to store extra work clothes and gear still stood near the couch. However, now Lyss’s recharge station stood nearby, almost in the middle of the room, as did more wires and junk laying about. I followed Bill through the makeshift hallways past racks of crap, mostly spare parts if we ever needed them, to his office, which mainly consisted of a desk, a computer, lots of papers, and a safe neatly tucked away under the desk.

“Have a seat” he said sitting down and offering me one folding chair. The whole room looked old and worn and falling apart and probably would fall apart if not for the duct tape keeping it together. Even my chair was covered in grime and duct tape. I sat down and irrationally feared that he was about to let me go.

“I want to get right down to it” Bill said. “I've been looking at your work, and I've got to say, I'm impressed!"

"You are?"

"Sure. You've been invaluable to the company lately. Not only do you have the skills to repair and maintenance most the robots in the shop, but I've taken a good look at the work you did on Elise. I must say, it is top quality work, and on such a complicated robot as herself."

"Thank you" I smiled, relieved it wasn't a scolding. Who knows, this could be a raise.

"And what's this I hear about you programming your own AI?"

"Well, I... yeah" I blushed. "It isn't really ready yet, but it is coming along."

"Very impressive." He leaned back in his chair and tapped his index fingers against his chin, something he did whenever he was faking a thought process. "I know we're swamped and all, but I want to offer you a position working on more advanced robots like Elise, where you will have more control over AI programming as well."

"I... what?"

"It will come with more pay of course, but you'll have to work at a different facility."

"A different...? You mean a transfer to a different store?"

"Not exactly" he chuckled. "It's more of a behind-the-scenes kind of facility, where the robots will be shipped in and out, and you'll have your own desk and personal mini laboratory to work in. I can't say it won't be without pressure. It is a very demanding and fast-paced position. But so far you've shown potential."

"I don't understand. What about Lyss and all the work we have here?"

"Don't worry about that. There are plenty of people I can train to take your place here, but you've shown a certain passion and skillset that proves to me you're ready for something more." He took a deep breath as he sat upright again. "Of course I can't wait for an answer for too long. And there is another thing..."

"Another thing?" I inquired, waiting for him to continue. He eyed me almost as though he were suspicious of me.

"I can't make this offer alone" he confessed. "I think you have the drive and the talent, but you will need to help me prove it to my boss, the regional head. He makes these decisions based on my recommendations, and I'm ready to recommend you. However, it might benefit you if you can come in with a sample of your AI sometime. It doesn't have to be completely refined or anything, but I'd love to have a working interface I can show to my head, to help sell your talents."

"Well, I- I mean..." this was all hitting me so fast. A promotion to a different facility where I'll be working with better equipment and on better robots? It was a dream, but why haven't I ever heard of this before? I wanted to say yes right then, but 2 things stopped me. My suspicion that something was off about this, and the fact that Errol had just changed genders and I didn't know why or how. I couldn't show a potentially virus-latent AI to a corporate regional head.

"You don't have to make a decision right now, but I'd like you to keep it in mind" he added.

"I'll have to get the AI ready first" I confessed. "I ran into a fatal bug last night and I haven't had the chance to fix it yet."

"Of course. I understand" he accepted, leaning forward again with his fingers tapping on his beard. "How long do you think you'll need?"

"I don't know, a week? Maybe two? I'll let you know when I'm close to figuring it out."

He nodded and stood up. "I think I can wait that long, but I'll be checking in with you" he insisted. "Oh and don't tell anyone. Hush hush."

I nodded, but I knew something was fishy. Still, I smiled with the hope that it was legit and I could end up at a better job with better pay.

"Just make sure you keep up with the work here first" he added as he guided me back through the makeshift hallway and into the lounge slash Lyss's room. "If you don't mind, could you stay another hour or two today to get caught up?"

I knew he was testing me with this request. I had to be cooperative no matter how much I hated the idea of staying around longer after stay so late here last night. At least I had Lyss with me. Of course, if I said no, he probably could make my week very tough. But what the hell, it gave me an excuse to hang out with Lyss more.

"I'm sure I can manage another hour or two. But tomorrow is still my day off, right?"

He hummed as he opened the door. "Maybe it would be best if you came in for a few hours tomorrow as well, to help us get caught up. Lyss can only do so much by herself. Just remember I can't really afford overtime.” Yeah right. He already owed half of us overtime pay, but his little requests like this were always understood to be 'off the books'. “But if you get enough done, you can still take off Sunday.” I smiled and shook his hand reluctantly.

“I'll do what I can” I sighed.

"Remember, hush hush. And again, great work on Lyss" he attested with a wink before looking over at our shared bay below with a smile. His behavior struck me as creepy, if only for a moment. I looked over, and saw Lyss working hard in the bay, using a laser weld on the robot, giving me an interesting view of her, which became more interesting when she finished the weld and took off the protective glasses (something I insisted she wear even though she probably didn't need them), giving me a clear view of her cleavage as she rocked her shoulders to the music.

Was this Bill's normal view of her? I turned back to him to see if he was still making that lewd smile, but the door closed just as I turned back. I looked back down at Lyss, and decided I had do something for her.

I rejoined Lyss in the bay to get back to work.

"Took you long enough" she pointed out. "You missed all the fun. I had the laser out and everything. I even wore those goggles you like" she teased as she stuck her tongue out.

I smiled at her. "It's for your own good."

"I'm a robot, I don't need eye protection."

"Well I'm not going to replace your eyes when you burn one out. Besides, they make you look hot."

She raised an eyebrow at me as she repressed a smile. "Oh? You mean I'm not hot now?" She teased as she grabbed her chest and squeezed her boobs together to show off more cleavage.

"I... uh..." I was at a loss for words. She didn't usually do that sort of thing with me, and I didn't know how to respond. Besides, she was hot and that only distracted me more.

She snickered at me and released her chest. "I'm just teasing you. No need to get all flustered." With a toothy grin and a sideways glance, she sat up in her chair, sticking out her chest. "Do you really think I'm hot?"

"Well yeah. I mean, of course!" I could feel my face grow warm.

She giggled, actually giggled. "Thanks. I really appreciate it. But I'm not your personal sexbot. So stop touching- ah." Her smile melted into anger, and then confusion and concern.

"What? I never... what are you talking about?"

"N-nothing. I don't know. Sorry, it was just an error. I'm sure I'll catch it in maintenance... in maintenance." She sighed. "Sorry Kev, I really do appreciate your honesty, and I'm glad you find me attractive. Really. I just need to think. And work." Her brows furrowed as she tried to concentrate on working again.

The rest of the day we worked in silence, more or less, although Lyss did make a few jokes to try to lighten the mood while keeping the music to a low volume. By the time I was ready to head out, we had actually made some good progress on the jobs we had. We were still a few days away from finishing, and I was worried there would be another weekend influx of broken bots to fix, but I felt we accomplished our goal.

Before I could finish though, Trevor peeked his head around the corner.

"Hey you two. Thick as thieves as always I see" he jested.

"Whatever Trevor" Lyss puffed. "We're busy."

"I can see that."

"Did you need something Trevor?" I asked. He shrugged his shoulder.

"Just checking in with my two favoritest co-workers" he joked. “Always making some kind of ruckus back here...” he commented referring to the music. It wasn't that loud.

"Well, my shift is over" I said as I finished up with the Plastic at hand, closing the side panel with a click and standing up to leave.

I walked over to get my jacket hanging by the stairs, and Trevor followed me. "So did he talk to you yet?"

"What?"

"Bill. You know, about that job?" he asked in a hushed but playful tone.

I squinted at him. How did he know about this? "I don't know what you're talking about" I replied carefully.

"Oh, right. Hush hush. Gotcha" he winked. "Exciting though right? Congratulations are in order."

"I don't think so."

"What, you didn't take it?"

"Not yet. How do you know this?"

"Oh. Well I... keep my ears to the ground if you know what I mean. Don't worry, I won't tell anyone. Just let me know when it's official. Got to get you a beer."

I eyed him briefly. He was too excited about this. How DID he find out about it, and why was he so thrilled?

"Sure..." I answered, suspicious.

"Well I better get back to the floor. Still have another 4 hours on my shift" he explained and vanished out front. I didn't know what got him so excited about this, or how he knew, but I wasn't sure I liked it. But what could I do about it? I figured if there was something fishy going on, I had a week or two to figure it out, and if I didn't find out anything by then, it was probably fine. And if nothing weird was going on, then I had a great opportunity ahead of me. Maybe I could afford to buy Lyss at the auction next month if I managed to get a better paying job. I doubted it would be enough, but I had to do something.

I returned to the bay to pick up my music player and say bye.

"Hey Kev, you heading out?" Lyss asked before I even had a chance.

"Yeah. I got a bug to fix in Errol and it's going to take a while to fix."

"See ya tomorrow, right?" She pulled the music player from her arm, and the port vanished into her smooth skin again, with only the faintest hint of an outline to show that it ever existed. “Oh, wait, that's your day off isn't it?” Lyss sounded pretty disappointed to me.

“Fortunately, Bill decided we needed to spend more time together. Unfortunately, I don't think a movie and dinner is what he hand in mind.”

"Oh... bummer." She handed me my player with a strange mix of joy and sorrow on her face. “And here I was looking forward to a movie" she jested, sticking her tongue out.

"Yeah, well... Maybe another time. I still get Sunday off. A guy can only take so much of this place before he bursts.”

"Ha. Right." she scoffed. I forgot, she lived here, she doesn't get days off. That wasn't right though. She worked as hard or harder than anyone else, she deserved a break.

"What? Do you get lonely without me around?" I teased.

"Heh... yeah right..." she said absentmindedly as she twiddled a screwdriver in her hand. "Need to abuse someone" she replied, but her tone said more than her words.

"You ok Lyss?"

"Yeah, I'm fine." She huffed and let out a loud laugh. "Of course! Everything's great. I'll see you tomorrow, dunderhead."

"Yeah, see ya, Lyssie".

She stuck her tongue out at me again but broke into a wide crooked smile again. I waved goodnight and headed out, clocking out at the door before I left.

Something was bugging Lyss, but it was probably just because she was overworked. I mean, I don't think she ever left that building. Heck, I doubt she's ever seen the street outside. I felt bad for her, and I knew I had to do something for her.

As I drove back to my apartment, the sun was just setting and my mind was preoccupied with thoughts of this potential raise, wondering if I was just over-thinking things or if it was really happening, and worried for Lyss. And what was Trevor up to?

I almost didn't notice when I came up to the bridge that almost killed me the night before. This morning there was nothing different about it, but tonight there was a car parked on the side, and a man looking at the muddy tire tracks my car left in the side of the road, while a woman looked over the bridge. They were looking for something. The girl. Or me!

Chapter 4 - Nekomimi

I didn't stop or even slow down, I just drove right on past, avoiding any kind of eye contact with the strange couple to avoid suspicion. I didn't see any kind of markings on the car, so it wasn't the police, but I was still worried they would find something.

I hoped they hadn't tracked me home. No, not with all that rain. Unless someone saw me after all. I hurried home as fast as I dared go without getting a ticket, and rushed up stairs to my door. There was no sign of anyone breaking in... no evidence they tried to jimmy the door or break a window. No strange cars or vans in the parking lot.

Nothing. They must not have traced anything here.

I slowly opened the door, preparing myself to see my place ransacked, but relieved when all I saw was April, my white cat, greeting me at the door. I exhaled a long sigh of relief. There was no way she'd greet me with her cute little meows if there was an intruder. She'd sooner hide under the bed or run out the door, but her demeanor calmed me.

I walked in, hung up my jacket, took off my shoes, and mourned for my lost day off this week. Of course that didn't last long as I was soon reminded by a constant rubbing on my leg that it was already later than I wanted and I still needed to feed her royal highness, not to mention myself.

I busied myself in the kitchen, preparing a can of Fancy Feast for April, and a “Mighty Man” TV dinner for me. What? I hate cooking. It's not actually the cooking I hate; it's the cleaning. Yes, I like to keep clean and neat, but I can't stand actually cleaning. Sure, I hate the messes more, but that's why I opted for easy meals like tv dinners. No mess, no dishes, nothing gets dirty, nothing to clean.

I fed her highness, sat at the table, and let my mind wander while I ate. It kept going back to Lyss for some reason. I was sure I couldn't afford to buy her at the auction if it came to that, even with a new job. But something about her behavior before I left was a little different than usual.

I finished eating and decided it was time to get changed and check in with my mysterious guest. I was anxious to find out why she didn't start up last night, and figured she might have a dead battery, or a hidden switch, or even a passcode.

As I walked into my room and started to pull off my shirt, something caught the edge of my eye. I turned to look and practically jumped ten feet. There, in my bed, was the girl, sitting upright and looking straight ahead with a blank look on her face. The sheet had fallen from her chest exposing her soft flesh, and yet she was just sitting there, subtlely breathing. My heart almost jumped out of my chest when I saw her.

"Wha- What are you doing?" I asked without thinking. The girl didn't respond in any way to my question. She just sat there, still. Cautiously I stepped closer to her, stopping at the edge of the bed, and waved my hand in front of her. No reaction.

"How in the world did you turn on?" I thought out loud, but she still gave no response. She wasn't doing anything, so I walked up next to her and passed my hand in front of her again, but she remained still except for a natural blink.

"Can you talk?" I asked, still nothing. "What's going on? Is your battery low? Do you speak English? Ummm... Parlez vous Francais?" Nothing.

I looked at her sitting there. All she was doing was sitting up and breathing, but I noticed something else different about her now that she was activated; she had light gray eyes and her skin had a much more healthy glow to it. I carefully reached out and touched her cheek with my finger. It was warm to the touch, but she still didn't react.

"Hello? Say something!"

"Something" she replied in a calm friendly realistic voice. I jerked at her sudden response.

"You CAN talk! What's your name?"

Nothing. I didn't get it.

"Don't you have a name? Do you have an owner?"

Nada.

"This is frustrating! Tell me something!"

"Please specify inquiry" she replied without any sense of sarcasm in her voice. She sounded almost too friendly, like one of those flight attendants in commercials, or the voice on the phone that directs calls. In fact, her perfect voice made her feel more robotic than her body even though it sounded perfectly human.

"Your name" I answered. "I want to know your name."

"This unit has no assigned name."

"Then what do I call you?"

No answer. I threw my hands in the air in frustration and then it dawned on me.

"Tell me your designation" I ordered.

"ARAD-LX90f" she replied.

"Give me a status report" I commanded. She was following my orders, but apparently she didn't understand how to answer questions.

"Battery level is at 51%, no physical damage detected, maintenance is required in my memory core, corrupted data located in my file structure."

"Do you have- umm... What is- no..." How was I going to ask if she had a master already? Not being able to understand questions was a bit of a problem.

"Tell me the name of your master."

"Error. Registration file not found."

"I see." I took a deep breath. Having her staring off into space was kind of discerning. "Look at me."

She turned her eyes and head to look into my eyes, and blinked once. It was actually more discerning having her stare at me like that.

"Stand up" I ordered.

The girl looked down at herself, and threw the covers off of her before turning her gaze to the floor and twisting her body, letting her feet fall to the floor. She pushed herself into a stand and stood without any swaying, a little too stiff for a human, before turning to face me and resuming her previous order. She was short, and her hair naturally fell down just below her shoulders, but her colorless eyes were so artificial it made her look wrong.

I couldn't help but stare at her now though. She had a slim build, was a little bustier than Lyss (but still not large), and was standing with her chest out a bit, slightly arching her back in a sexy way. However, there was no sense of shame or embarrassment in her as she stood before me completely bare, and I felt myself get excited.

"Run in place" I commanded, and she began to lift her legs in a fake jog in place, causing her perky breasts to bounce all around. They might not be particularly big, but they moved so naturally. "Do Jumping Jacks" I ordered next, and she complied. This time, the movement was bigger and got a bigger reaction out of both her body and mine. She was really something, her body was the ideal feminine shape to me. Slim and curvy with a natural roundness that accentuated her curves and oozed of femininity. I just loved staring at her, and wanted so badly to reach out and caress her, when suddenly a sound behind me caught my attention.

"A-hem" Errol announced in her deep feminine voice from the tablet I left charging on the dresser.

"Stop!" I ordered flustered like a boy caught by his mom masutrbating.

"Having fun with your new toy?" she asked in her British accent as the gynoid stood in place. "Done ogling her yet?"

"Heh... caught me. Sorry, Errol. Well can you blame me? She looks amazing!"

"That she does, but I'm more concerned about the corrupted data and required maintenance she mentioned. Besides, her lack of cognizance toward inquiries is disturbing."

"Her what?"

"Her inability to answer your questions" she clarified.

"Right. She doesn't seem to really do much either, does she? How long has she been like this?"

"I observed her turn on for the first time this morning, right after you left. She just sat up and that was all."

"I see. I wonder what caused it" I pondered.

"What was the last thing you did to her before you left?" she inquired.

I thought back to this morning. The last thing I did was a little awkward, I admit it. "I guess I kissed her goodbye?"

"She could be a right Sleeping Beauty we have here."

"Really? A kiss woke her up?"

"Unlikely. It was probably a transfer of static electric charges,a bodily fluid exchange, or perhaps a timer."

"Well whatever it is, what do we do with her now?"

"You're the genius, you tell me" she replied sarcastically.

"Alright, first thing first, Errol, can you repair- Wait! This is annoying” I interrupted myself. “You don't sound or look like an 'Errol' anymore, and if you're going to sound like this, I'm going to have to change your name from Errol to something else. I mean if you're going to be female now, I think I'd rather give you a feminine name."

"Very well. I have grown rather fond of my new persona. Did you have a name in mind?"

"Erin. It's close to Errol, and I think it suits you."

"Erin. Name registered. Alright master, my name is now Erin, and what about the girl?"

"Oh yes. Erin, do you think you can run a diagnostic and make any needed repairs?"

"Not with any standard disk repair utilities. I'm afraid I'd need to get in that head of hers myself to make any repairs since her system isn't registered in any Android OS databases."

"Do you think you can do that?" I asked. "Connect directly to her and make the repairs?"

"I think so. I can't guarantee I'll catch all the problems. I'm not exactly programmed to repair androids, and I don't know anything about her make or model. And there's always the chance I’ll mess something up or miss something entirely..."

"Well, let's at least give it a try."

"Very well."

"Um... LX90f, follow me." I hoped she'd understand that, I didn't want to have to command every step she took or anything. Luckily, she did, keeping pace right behind me as I led her into the computer room.

Almost instantly, the monitor of the workstation lit up, and the now feminine robotic face of Erin appeared, indicating she was ready for the hookup. I looked at the girl and realized I didn't know what kind of connector to use for her.

"Stand there" I commanded, pointing next to the computer, and she obeyed. "Open your high speed data port."

To my astonishment, a panel just below the small of her back opened up and a thick cable extended out. No, not a cable... a tail. A tail about 2 inches thick of some sort of sleek dark blue weaved fiber extended for about 3 feet.

"Oookaay" I drawled. She had a tail. I watched as she swished the tail around and the tip of it twisted and opened, revealing a universal thunderbolt plug I could use for data transfer.

"Interesting" Erin chimed in. "I wonder what else she's hiding."

"Well as soon as we're done with this, we can ask her. Ready?"

"Ready" she confirmed. I took the end of the tail, and pulled, extending the thunderbolt port even farther from the tail and plugged it into the front of the workstation.

"Now be ready for anything Erin, she could repeat the same kind of attack on yo-"

Instantly the monitor when white, but it was the loud gasp from the girl that drew my attention and made me snap my head toward her. Before my eyes, her hair seemed to glow a pale shade of blue, her eyes lit up, and panels all across her body started to open up. Her arms seemed to open into segmented panels revealing all sorts of intricate mechanics underneath. On top of her head, two stylized cat-like ears popped up, matching the color and material of the tail. She arched her back and threw her arms out to her sides as though she were being electrocuted. With her body stretched out, she began to groan almost as if she were in pain. The lights in the room dimmed as she gasped again, letting out a short yell. It was pretty terrifying!

In all, the episode probably lasted about 5 long minutes, although it felt like 30. I had to scramble to make sure the computer didn't lose power, and worried the neighbors would hear. No matter what I did, I couldn't get Erin to come back online. The monitor just stayed white and she failed to respond. Even April was freaked out by the display and hid under the bed. I didn't blame her and considered joining her under there.

Finally, when I was beginning to feel that this was going on too long and was about to literally pull-the-plug, she let out one last gasp and the lights went back to normal. Shortly after, her eyes closed and her hair returned to the dark color it was before. She stood there breathing heavily, looking up at the ceiling for no particular reason as the ports on her body closed and blended in perfectly with her skin without leaving even a trace of an outline. Even the ears on her head recessed inside again.

At last, the monitor went back to normal, but something was wrong. Erin was glitching out on me; the 3D head was breaking up with digital corruption and her voice was labored and slow. Almost like she was drunk.

"Oper-rrr-ration complete" she announced almost giddy.

"Erin! What happened?"

"I... she..." Erin began. "She attacked firrrrst, but I was readyyy... I hit her pretty goooooood... Shhhhe should work nnnnow... but I c-can't promise how well."

"Are you alright? Run a systems check! What's going on."

"Her a-taaaack corrupted my sssystems... need to rrrepair. Give me a few days..."

"Days? What do you mean days?"

"4 or 5 days... to repairrr the daaamage... goodnight, master."

The screen went dark and Erin went silent.

"Erin? Erin! Now what am I suppose to do? What did she do to you?"

I looked over at the girl, who stood there with her arms down, her head tilted back, her back arched pushing out her chest, and still catching her breath. She was covered in sweat and began to stagger a little. I wanted to scream at her and hit her for hurting the AI I had spent years working on, but watching her slim back and narrow shoulders as she breathed calmed me and made me rethink that. Part of Erin was inside her now, which I had to admit was the point of making my own AI. To put it inside an android. But this wasn't what I had in mind. Besides, I'd never hit a girl, but I was still plenty irritated.

I pulled the tail plug out of the computer, maybe a little more forcefully than I intended, and got an instant reaction out of the girl.

"Hah!" she gasped as she turned around and grabbed her tail, twisting toward me. Her eyes were a bright sparkling shade of blue now, and had life in them. She stared at me for a long while as she processed what was going on.

I took a deep calming breath, and decided this incident with Erin was actually the perfect excuse for not showing her to Bill, at least not until I had more time to look into this job. It was only a minor setback... I hoped. At least it would put her self-repair to the test.

"Hi" I blurted out. She took a step back from me with wide eyes and a look of unknowing concern in her face.

"Hello" she replied.

"What's your name?" I asked her, trying my hardest to calm down.

"I don't have one" she responded with no emotion in her voice. At least she was answering questions now.

"Oh right" I recalled getting that out of her earlier. "Do you remember anything?"

She shook her head and started to look around the room. "Only fractions of memories... where am I?"

"In my lab- well... my computer room in my apartment. I found you and brought you here."

"Is someone else here? I heard someone else..." Her voice was the same as before in terms of realism and tone, although she seemed less robotic now and more believable.

"No. We're alone. That was my AI, Erin, but I think you broke her."

"I did? I'm sorry, I didn't mean to" she apologized but with only a hint of any kind of apologetic tone.

"It's ok, she self-repairs. Do you... have an owner?"

"Negative."

"A master user then?" She shook her head, rustling some of her hair over her face. "Don’t you know anybody?"

Same answer.

"Do you at least know how you turned on?"

"No, I appear to lack that information, sorry. What am I doing here exactly?" she asked looking through her hair.

"Well.. I guess you're my guest here. But if you don't know anyone and aren't registered to anyone..." I cleared my throat. "I'm sorry, my name is Kevin Rowan, and I'm an android repair technician." I stepped forward and offered her my hand to her to shake. She looked at it cautiously at first, and then sniffed at it. Apparently she's not familiar with such customs. "You're... uh.... welcome to stay here as long as you like."

"Thank you" she replied. For a robot with no user, she seemed to have a personality of some sort, but I was trying to figure her out. Usually unregistered bots were kept rather blank or with a generic personality, to make them easier to sell, and could then be customized once registered. This girl claims to not be registered, and yet I got the impression of a personality from her voice. It was full of subtlety and nuances that were subdued, but there. "So you found me? Have I been stolen?"

"No! Nothing like that! A truck dropped you in the rain last night right in front of me. I have no way of knowing who you were intended for."

She nodded. "I see."

“Do you know?” She shook her head again before brushing a strand out of her face. "Shall I show you around then?"

She thought to herself for a moment before nodding. "Ok."

I showed her the small apartment, which didn't take long. One good thing about being tidy is I never have to worry about the condition of my apartment when an unexpected guest “drops in”. I couldn't help but notice that she spent more time looking at me than at the apartment, and walked with a gentle feminine sway to her step. Her tail added to her sway, and I had to wonder why she still had it out. She didn't even seem to notice that she was naked the entire time, as though it were perfectly natural for her. I even found myself lightly touching her back or arm, and found she had no objection.

As I finished showing her the small place, we ended in the bedroom. Of course April still refused to come out of hiding when I tried to present her, but I figured I wouldn't push April into it. She'd come out when she was ready.

"So what do you think?" I asked.

"It's small" she deduced.

"Well... I don't need a big place all by myself" I defended.

She nodded, but just then I heard something growl at me. It wasn't April.

"Do you have any food?" she inquired.

"Ummm... sure. I can get you something. So wait... you can eat?"

She nodded. “I've been programmed to emulate all human activity."

"I've never met a robot that could eat before. Well, let me get you something from the kitchen. Do you have a special diet?” She shrugged at my inquiry.

I didn't have much, and most of my meals were tv dinners, so I grabbed an asian style one and nuked it for her. I watched in amazement as her eyes lit up (not literally), and she scarfed the whole thing down.

"Fank yo. Iz ferry ood" she exclaimed with a mouth full of noodles and chicken. Having already eaten, I just watched her in amazement as she took another big bite and smiled. It was like watching a little kid eat for the first time; she was making a mess of herself but she loved it. She even drank a glass of water with it! I had never seen a robot able to eat AND drink before! She seemed to actually enjoy it.

"I am satisfied" she announced as she put the cup down, fork still in hand.

"You uh... got a little on you" I said, pointing out the gigantic mess of food all over her face. Then again, she was still covered in a thin layer of dried rain, dirt, sweat, and mud as well. "Maybe we should get you cleaned up. How about a shower?"

"A... shauw-err?" she asked.

"Yeah a... you do know what a shower is, right?"

She shook her head. "No" she admitted with a slight pout.

"You've got to be kidding me!" I mumbled to myself, pinching the bridge of my nose against the on-coming headache. "So you don't have any protocols for taking a shower or cleaning yourself?"

"No. But I can learn! I am equipped with a state-of-the-art self-learning AI, able to learn any task through instruction or observation."

What else could I do but teach her. And what better way to teach her how to take a shower than to take one with her? I needed one anyways. This was going to be a mistake and I knew it, but I was too busy thinking with my groin and not my head. I led her to the bathroom, and prepared with towels, cloths, and soap.

"Okay... step one..." oh boy. "You have to get naked. You're already naked so..."

She looked down at her body, and then twisted to look at her butt and tail. "Affirmative" she confirmed looking back toward me. She clearly had no taboo against nudity... might as well just go for it.

My clothes hit the ground in a matter of seconds, as she looked on. I could feel myself blush. No one had seen me naked in years. Let alone a girl. As I looked back to gauge her reaction to my body, she seemed unphased. In fact, one would think she didn't even notice.

"Alright... then we have to get in the shower and close the door." I stepped in first, and she followed. I hadn't been naked and this close to a girl in so long, my groin was starting to act on it's own. It was bad enough I'd been watching her walk around naked this whole time. Bad boy, not now. I calmed myself, turning away from her, hoping she didn't notice anything.

"And now the water." As soon as I turned on the faucet, she panicked, and started to kick her feet and grab at the door. She was in serious danger of slipping and falling and hurting herself, or me, so I quickly turned off the water and held out my hand to calm her.

"Whoa, whoa... You ok? Nothing's going to hurt you in here."

She stopped kicking and scammering, and stared wide eyed at me. "You turned on the rain!"

"Are you water-proof?" I sure as hell hoped she was.

She nodded. "Affirmative."

"Then this can't hurt you."

When I turned away to start the water again, she panicked, grabbing at me and pushing herself into my back. "W- WAIT! Don't turn on the rain!"

"What? This isn't rain. Besides, rain can't hurt you."

"I... I know" she admitted as she furrowed her brow. "But I'm... scared of the rain." That's something she and Lyss both had in common, although Lyss wasn't this jumpy about it. The girl seemed confused by her own statement. "I was not programmed to respond to rain in this way..."

"Why are you scared of the rain?"

"I don't know. It's cold... dirty... loud... painful. I..."

Was she remembering last night when I saved her? It was rainy and muddy and her crate smashed against my car. Clearly her memory of it was corrupted but it left a strong impression on her none the less.

"That... that wasn't the rain" I assured her. "That was an accident. This isn't rain, it's warm, soft, pleasant."

"It's not... rain?" she questioned.

"Not rain. It might start cold but I'll warm it for you, ok?"

She pushed away from me and pressed herself against the back wall of the shower. "O- okay."

With her permission, I turned on the water and let it run down my front until it got warm. She cowered against the side, avoiding getting wet.

Slowly I turned toward her, letting the water run down my back. "See? It's not loud, is it?"

She shook her head. "No..."

"And look, it's clean and warm." I held out my hand to let her touch the water cupped in it, but she instead grabbed my hand and slowly inched toward me.

"You promise it won't hurt?"

"I promise."

She clenched her eyes shut and launched herself into my arms, letting the water splash on her. At first she twitched and squealed a little, but after a second or two, she relaxed. She loosened her grip and cupped some of the water in her own hand to study it and sniff it. She even licked it.

"Clean... warm..."

I tried to pull her into the water more, but she resisted, still struggling to accept that it wouldn't hurt her. Finally, she just held onto me in a tight hug and clenched up.

"Alright... I'm ready" she decided as she took a breath and held it. I tried not to think about the fact that a cute naked girl was clinging tightly onto me and instead turned slowly around, letting more of the warm relaxing water run down her. At last she was directly under the shower head soaking her as the water pressed down on her hair.

A moment later, she relaxed and looked around, letting out the breath.

"You ok?" I asked.

"Yes... I believe so. It doesn't hurt. It... feels nice."

She let go of me and smiled briefly, letting the water run down her body. I just stared at her as she basked in the warmth of the shower, watching the water droplets make interesting shapes as they ran down her curvy body; dripping down her chest and off her round butt and- Dang it! My little guy was acting up again, better get to the next step.

"Next, shampoo!" I announced.

I proceeded to show her how to wash her hair, rubbing the shampoo into her scalp. She tried as well, but since I had such short hair compared to hers, I needed to improvise to show her how to clean the rest. I never had to wash long hair before... Her hair wasn't really that long, but it did come down to rest on her shoulders, and even a little lower. In the water, it reached her upper back and formed a nice short pony tail. I couldn't help but really take in her beauty and her sensual body. Even her hair was doing things to me that hadn't happened in years.

I shook the thought from my head and quickly moved on to soap. First lathering it up, and then rubbing it all over. I was in such a frenzy, hoping to avoid a full on stiffy, that she missed my demonstration.

“Could you please repeat the demonstration again?” She asked as she finished rinsing off her hair. “I'm confused... Your body looks different than mine.”

“Well... Yeah. I mean, you’re a...”

“Robot?”

“Well no... I mean yes, you are that too. But I was going to say you’re a girl, and I'm a guy.”

“Oh... I see”. She paused for a moment before letting her hair fall down to one side of her neck and facing me squarely. “Maybe you should just use my body then” she suggested. I gulped and couldn't help but see the innuendo in that.

“Right. Ok... Um... If you insist...”

This made me more nervous and I found my hands shaking as I started off gently scrubbing her face and neck with a small soapy cloth. She smiled and pressed into my movements as I scrubbed away, enjoying the sensation. As I moved lower, I tried to avoid her breasts, but for how long? I scrubbed each arm, one at a time, and marveled at how human and sensual they were. She had very soft hands with a gently touch, and a delicate build. Next I was forced to move down to the twin girls. I thought maybe I could pretend she was a guy and just scrub... It didn't really work. I just went for it and tried hard not to get hard.

As soon as I touched her breast she let out a satisfying moan. Oh god she was sexy! The moment the cloth touched her nipple, she gasped, and I dropped the rag.

“Sorry” I apologize and picked it up as she smiled.

"It is alright." She shook her head. “Is it slippery?”

“Soap is, yes.”

I tried again with the cloth, but another gasp startled me and I became more aware of my growing manhood, and the fact that she just noticed it.

“Are you ok? You seem to be swelling. Are you hurt?”

I coughed and smiled. “Trust me, everything's fine, it's suppose to do that when... certain...” My voice trailed off.

"Are you sure? I can get help-"

"No! No. Everything's fine. That's normal for guys. Let's just move on."

Ignoring my woody and trying my hardest to will it away, I gently scrubbed her chest. She was definitely feeling something from this, as she twitched from my touch and let out more cute noises. I couldn't help myself as I continued to massage her soft wet flesh. I had to forcefully stop myself and move on. I moved lower to her stomach only to be greeted with all out laughing.

"Sto-op! That fee-eels funny!" She chuckled between laughs. So she was ticklish. My bad side was loving this.

"Well I have to do this to clean you. You can hold onto my back if it helps" I suggested so she wouldn't fall over as I got to her legs.

She tried to hold it in as I finished with her belly, but once I got to her groin, I paused for a moment to think. How do girls clean here? I remembered most sexbots need constant cleaning there, which is why they have removeable parts, but the more advanced ones were self-cleaning. I wasn't sure, but I suspected with a bot as advanced as her, and the fact that I was staring right at what looked like a perfectly normal vagina, she must have been self-cleaning as well, at least on the inside. I should still clean the outside, right?

I couldn't hide the affect her reaction had on me as I gently rubbed her groin with the soapy cloth. As soon as I made contact, her laughing stopped and her eyes went wide. Her moans and gasps were too sexy, but I had to wonder if this was normal. Was she too sensitive to sexual contact? I mean surely girls don't get off this easily normally.

"That feels good" she said between heavy breaths.

I was glad to see her eyes closed, so she didn't see how hard she made me, and I moved on down to her legs. She lifted each foot for me so I could clean them one at a time, while she balanced herself holding onto my shoulders.

Finally, I got to her back. No breasts to distract me here. I turned her toward the water and started scrubbing away at her legs and rear... her soft shapely rear. Damn it, even her backside was getting to me! It was too late, my guy was not going to back down after this. For some reason, I even found her tail attractive as it gently swayed in the water. She actually mewed a little when I scrubbed her there, which I found incredibly alluring. By accident, my boner bumped against her, and she gasped with a little jolt.

"What was that?" she asked, looking behind her, her tail brushing against me softly.

"Nothing! Nothing. Just an accident. Sorry!"

"Are you sure you're alright? Do you need medical attention?"

"Everything's fine!" I assured her as I turned her shoulders away from me again to finish scrubbing her upper back. As I did this, she pressed her chest against the wall and stuck out her butt and tail toward me, making it even harder to clean her without an incident. It wasn't until I noticed her rotate her hips and sway her rear side to side that I realized she was doing it on purpose.

"What are you doing?"

"I don't know. My body’s just doing it on its own" she explained. I got a clear view of her perfect vagina. With one hand she reached back and squeezed her butt cheek as if to entice me, stretching her skin and revealing more of her secret spot. That was all I needed to attain the full-on erection I was hoping to avoid. I couldn't help myself as I allowed my member to press against her soft folds. She was so warm and moist, it felt amazing.

"Ooohh sir... what are you doing? What am I doing? Is this part of the shower?"

"No..." I said breathing heavily. I wanted more than anything to push forward inside her, but somehow managed to keep myself restrained to just touching her. "This is sex... or turning into it."

"Sex?" she asked as she wiggled her rear.

"Don't move, you feel to good right now!" I warned. Luckily she stopped, but I couldn't help but want more.

"What is sex?" she asked in a completely innocent tone, looking back at me.

How could I answer that? I struggled to activate my brain and form words. "It's when two people who are attracted to each other want to make the other feel really good."

She pushed her butt out into me and I couldn't help but let her as her flesh started to envelop the tip.

"I can't seem to stop myself" she purred. "I need more... inside me" she insisted as she pushed herself onto me again, forcing the tip of my stiff member to pop inside her warm moist flesh. It was the first time I penetrated a girl in years, and I realized how much yearned for the sensation. I wanted more. We both gasped and I felt my heart race when suddenly her tail twitched.

"Error. Sensory input overload, data buffering. Protocol svp_o231 corrupted."

"What?" I pushed on her butt to force her into a standing position again but she resisted, pushing back, keeping the tip inside her. "What was that error you said?"

She blinked and shook her head. "I... I don't know. I have a corrupted file. What was I doing?" she asked as she pulled away, stood up, and separated where our bodies were one.

As she turned toward me, her tail in hand, she seemed to lose herself looking into my eyes. Leaning in, she got on her tippy toes and pressed herself against me, going for a kiss. I grabbed her shoulders but didn't stop her, and let her kiss me. It was warm and inviting, if a little awkward at first. She let go of her tail and wrapped it and her arms around me as her tongue explored my mouth. Her slim soft body pressed against me as she started to grind her hips and womanhood against my hard shaft. Soon she found a rhythm and responded to my movement with both her body and her kiss, and the awkwardness faded away. As I kissed her, slowly the two robotic cat ears from before raised out from ports hidden in her head. I pulled away in surprise, ending the kiss.

She blinked again with another tail twitch. "Protocol error, sfk_t402 corrupted. What's happening to me? I don't understand." She took a step back and concentrated.

"You have cat ears" I pointed out.

"What? I do?" she said looking a little cross-eyed. She reached up to her head and felt the ears before trying to forcefully push them back in. I grabbed her hands and stopped her.

"I kind of like it. They match your tail."

"You do?" She smiled. She gazed up into my eyes, and I couldn't help but want to take her. I mean, who hasn't wanted to have a cat girl of their very own? Well I'm sure a lot of guys haven't, but they just don't know the joys of a cat girl. "I will take note of that."

"It's very cute on you" I added.

She smiled as the water ran down her head. Her cat ears actually twitched and started moving, facing toward me. "Thank you. Protocol error, sff-c394 corrupted. There it goes again." She was clearly getting frustrated with these errors.

"These are all protocol errors, right?" I asked. She nodded looking up at me with a sad expression. "And these protocol files are essentially commands on how to do certain things right?" She shrugged her shoulders. Unless she was different from other androids, it would be the same for her, and each of these files told her how to do a specific task, be it washing dishes or standing up. "I bet your learning AI can recreate them through manual instruction or emulation."

She nodded. "Affirmative."

"Then it's simple. Erase the corrupted files, log any errors, and recreate non-corrupted protocols from learned or observed behavior."

She shook her head. "Negative."

"Why not?"

"Only a registered master user or a certified android repair technician has the permissions to make such commands and edit such files. I cannot-"

"I AM a certified android repair technician."

Her ears went up and her tail swished as she heard this. "Really? What is your ACRT number?"

I cleared my throat. I had to repeat this several times a week for androids that required it. "362-581C."

Her ears fell along with her glance. "Certification denied. Your clearance is too low."

"My clearance-?" I never had an android tell me that before! Nothing like being denied clearance to spoil a mood. "Let's just finish up in here and dry off."

We rinsed off and turned off the water before I stepped out. April was waiting for me outside the shower door, staring in as though I were crazy to subject myself to water. As I stepped out, she meowed in defiance of the dripping liquid, darted out of the bathroom, and ran somewhere into the hallway to find one of her various hiding spots. She was always good at finding some place to hide when water or a stranger threatened her livelihood.

Drying myself off first to show the strange android girl how to do it, I ended up needing to help her anyways since her hair and body differed from mine. I also had to show her how ladies wrap towels around themselves (or how I thought they did), as opposed to men, and stood her in front of the mirror. I had no lady scented deodorants or anything, and I didn't want her to smell like me, so I reminded myself to pick some up tomorrow on the way back. Instead I brushed her hair, trying to avoid her cat ears. Although honestly, she smelled pretty good without the products.

She stood, all cleaned and dry, in the middle of the bedroom wearing nothing more than a towel, waiting for more commands as I finished up with my regular bathroom rituals. I wasn't sure what to tell her, but with only guest user status, I couldn't get far with her. I decided to change that.

"Let's say I wanted to register as your master user, would you like that?" I asked running a comb through my hair.

Her ears went up again to match a smile on her face. "Affirmative, I would like that very much."

"Alright, so then, what do I have to do?" I put down the comb and approached her.

"Well, you have to look into my eyes, hold my hand, and register your name."

"That's it?" Odd, usually a registration involved passwords and long legal documents to read, or ignore and pretend you read.

"Well there is the End User License Agreement. Wait here, please." And there's the legalese.

She practically ran over to the metal case in the other room that I had completely forgotten about. It was the terminal station she was originally connected to. She brought it in and connected a port at the end of her tail to it, popping it open without any trouble at all. It was locked before, but apparently she was the key to unlock it. As she sat down with her knees together, like a refined Asian woman, she turned the opened case toward me and revealed a screen inside with a keyboard. The monitor said ’End User License Agreement’ and read "I hereby certify that I, the USER, am responsible for the actions and well-being of this UNIT, ARAD-LX90f." The rest of the page was blank except for an 'agree' button and a 'decline' button at the bottom.

"Um... what is this?" I asked while sitting down cross-legged.

"You have to read it and click 'agree'. There should be several pages."

There weren't. "Are you sure? I only see one line." She looked down at the screen confused. "Is it another corrupted file perhaps?" I suggested.

She turned the screen back toward me with a shrug. "To register, you only have to agree."

I shrugged and clicked the 'Agree' button. It was the easiest EULA I ever signed, and the only one I ever read.

She smiled as a cute animated character with cat ears appeared on the screen and bowed, Japanese style. I couldn't help but see the resemblance between the girl and character on screen, and realized how similar this character looked to the new avatar Erin took on.

“Thank you very much, sir” she said with a bow reflected the animation. As she sat back up, she held out her hand, palm down. “Please take my hand and look in my eyes.”

I did as she wished, and held her hand. It was very soft and dainty, making me realize how rough my hands must have been to her. She smiled as she looked straight at me, and I gazed back. Our eyes met, unblinking, for several seconds. It was actually very eerie how her eyes didn't move subtly like a human, and her smile never faltered. 5 seconds past, then 10. Finally after what seemed like 20 awkward hours, she blinked and refocused her eyes, returning to her natural eye movement.

My eyes hurt after all that staring, but she just smiled. “Biometrics registered. Thank you for your patience.”

“Now what?” I wondered.

“Please register your full name with me.”

“Alright” I said clearing my throat. “Kevin Joshua Rowan.”

“Kevin Joshua Rowan” she repeated. “Name registered. And finally, please assign me a name.”

I thought for a moment. I'm usually not good at this sort of thing, but for some reason, one name came to mind. "Alexia."

"Alexia. My name is Alexia.”

Suddenly her eyes started to glow white and her hair seemed to glow light blue again like it did before. She arched her back and looked toward the ceiling with a sharp inhale. It only lasted a few moments before her hair faded back to normal and she slouched forward. Slowly, she opened her eyes and blinked.

“Registration complete. I am Alexia, and I am registered to Kevin Rowan.”

“Are you ok? What was up with your hair?”

“I’m completely operational and all my circuits we functioning perfectly. Is there something wrong with my hair?” she asked grasping a strand and looking at it cross-eyed.

“Never mind” I decided not to bother her with it now. Whatever her hair was doing, it wasn't something I'd seen in an android before, but then again she was unlike any android I'd ever seen. I mean I heard about androids that could change their skin and hair color, but they were rare and expensive, and I never heard about their hair glowing before.

She sat there holding a strand of her hair and concentrating on it. I noticed now that her hair, while dark, was not actually black like I thought before. In the light of my car and caked with dirt and mud, it looked a dark brown or black, but now that it was clean, it had a blue sheen to it, which very much matched the color her hair had now twice changed into. It was just darker. Like a very very dark blue that one would mistake for black.

I noticed as she continued to stare at her hair that at some point her towel had loosened and was drooping, revealing ample cleavage and hinting at a nipple. Instantly, I thought about what almost took place in the bathroom moments before.

“Alexia” I began, clearing my throat. She looked up from her hair and her furrowed brows of concentration and gave me a simple smile.

“Yes master?” she asked. She called me master, just like Erin was starting to do. I kind of liked it, but also wary of it. It wasn't exactly something people did in public.

“Do you remember what we were discussing earlier, in the shower?”

“About the soap?”

I shook my head. “No, about your corrupt protocols.”

She gave me a big toothy grin and an exaggerated nod. “Yes.”

“Now that I am your master user, we should be able to rebuild them, right?” I asked. She nodded.

“Affirmative, master. We can certainly try.” Again with that master thing.

“Well then, I want you to go through all your protocols and look for any corrupted files, log them, delete the files, and rebuild them from scratch. Then I want you to repair anything else corrupted or damaged, and log any files you cannot repair in a separate list.”

She nodded. “Understood. You want me to search for corrupted protocol files, log them, rebuild them, and run a system repair, correct?”

“Yes" I confirmed.

“Warning: I will lose all existing responses and knowledge stored these files if I continue. Is this alright?” she cautioned.

“See if you can salvage anything you can from the files first I guess" I suggested.

“You want me to attempt to repair any corrupted protocol files before I log and delete failed repairs, rebuild them, and then run a system repair, correct?”

“Yes.”

“Any data erased cannot be recovered. Are you sure you want to proceed?” She asked like a computer system.

“Yes.”

“This process will take approximately...” She sat there thinking for a couple of seconds in complete silence. “... 10 minutes. Please wait.”

As soon as she finished talking, she lowered her eyes, and they started to glow white again as she stared blankly at the floor. She began to slowly sway her head from side to sides like a metronome in perfect beat.

I stood up. My legs were not designed to sit cross-legged for very long. With her just sitting there like that, what else was I going to do. It seemed wrong to do anything to her, and it might mess up the operation, so I decided to bide my time with other activities.

It really wasn't enough time to do anything though. 10 minutes would pass by like nothing and I knew it, so I busied myself with Erin's tablet, trying to see if I could get some sort of readout or update on her activities as she repaired herself. While sitting on the bed, I managed to get a basic update that would show her progress, but it was painfully slow.

“Operation complete" Alexia announced, startling me. "16,297 files were repaired or rebuilt. There are currently no pending repairs and all systems repairs are complete. This unit will now restart.”

She slouched forward and stopped all movement. I put the tablet on the dresser and approached her. She was as still as the moment I brought her in, but a moment or two later, she started to breathe again, sat up, and came to life. With a smile, she looked up at me.

“Hello, master. The operation was a success.”

“Please, call me Kevin” I suggested, offering her my hand. She just looked at it.

“Yes, Kevin. I will try.” She cocked her head to the side and sniffed at my hand, cross-eyed.

“I’m... offering you a hand” I pointed out.

“What for? I already have two” she pointed out looking at her own hands.

I almost burst out laughing at this, but managed to stifle it back to a chuckle. “No silly, I mean I'm offering to hold your hand to help you stand up.”

“Ooooh” she exclaimed, and gently placed her hand in mine. As I helped lift her to a stand, the towel around her came completely loose and fell off, but she seemed not to notice. There she was in the middle of my room, completely naked, and perfectly content.

“Gee, it's uh... getting late...” I stammered, trying not to stare at her body too much. “Maybe we should.. You should... Uh... You know...” She just looked at me with a smile. “I mean... I should probably- unless you want to..."

“I'm sorry Kevin, I don't understand what you're saying.”

I inhaled deeply and let out a slow and controlled breath to calm down. “Sorry. I was just wondering if you wanted to continue from where we... left off... in the shower, or if we should just head to bed.”

“The shower?” she asked. "Were we not done with the shower?"

"No no no. The shower is done. I was talking about... the other thing."

“Oh, you mean sex?” She asked without any hint of embarrassment.

“Yes. Sex.”

“I would be glad to help my master in any task he wishes.”

“Well... I mean, don't you want it anymore?” I wondered.

“Want what?”

“... Sex.”

She stared ahead blankly. "I don't understand. What is it you are asking I want?"

"Sex. With me. It takes two people to have sexual intercourse. Are you still aroused? Do you want to do it?"

“I don't know" she admitted. "I have no memory of previous encounters regarding his activity and cannot determine if I have wants or needs for it in my system." She cocked her head to the side and looked at me. "What does 'aroused' feel like?"

"Well..." How the hell do I answer that? "I guess it is different for girls, but it feels like you have an urge for the touch of another. You get a strong desire to have someone caress you. Like you feel hot inside and only intimate contact with your... erogenous zones can calm it... you know, like your... umm... vagina and nipples. Guys usually get an erection while girls get wet down there, and it feels good to touch it."

She looked at the ceiling, twisting her face in a cute expression as she tried to understand my lame explanation. "I have been experiencing an unknown warming sensation causing excess lubrication in my vaginal unit. This seems consistent with the desire for physical contact beyond my normal parameters."

"So..."

"I believe I am still 'aroused', master." She looked me over and focused her eyes on my crotch with a smile. "And you are aroused too?" I nodded. She looked up at me and blushed. "Sex is something two people who are attracted to each other do to make the other feel good, correct?” I nodded again. “So you consider me a person?”

“As opposed to...?”

“A machine to be used as a tool or a toy.”

“I think so. You are more lifelike than any bot I've ever met, and I consider many of them people. So yeah, you're a person.”

Alexia gave me a toothy smile before she lowered her head and swayed her shoulders, letting her cat ears flatten while looking up at me through her hair. “Thank you, Kevin. I... I... Oh” she stuttered and covered her face.

“Are you ok?”

She nodded. “I'm experiencing an overload of some sort. I'm re-routing emotional processes to handle the stress." She sighed. "I'm so glad you think of me that way!” Her robotic ears perked up again. “Do you find my body attractive?”

“Well... Yeah.”

She leaned in and looked at my face before sniffing at me, and then moving down to my still bare chest. “You smell pleasing” she whispered before looking up at me with her ears up at attention. “I think I am attracted to you... Yes. Yes, I would be very happy to do sex with you.”

“Have sex” I corrected. “To have sex with me.”

“Oh. Sorry. ...to Have sex with you." She stood there with a silly grin, blushing and looking around the room, but nothing else.

“So...” I began.

“Oh! I'm sorry master- Kevin. 82% of my protocol files relating to the activity of sex have been initialized. I don't know what to do.”

“Oh right... then I'll show you...”

“Ohhh... Kevin!” Alexia moaned as I caressed her body while teasing her breast. She had lost almost all her sexual protocols, and I realized I never programmed Erin for sex, so she had no idea how to repair those systems. Maybe that was why Alexia seemed so sensitive too.

“Do you like that?” I asked as I pinched her nipple. She squirmed on the bed in my arms.

“NNnnnnn... Yes master! I mean Kevin. Ah!” She clenched her eyes as she shook her head back and forth. "Sensory data overload. Re-routing... Nyahh!"

I gently nibbled at her earlobe as my hands played with her body. She squirmed and moaned, loving it, but unsure how to respond. She turned her head toward me to kiss me, but didn't know what to do. She knew she wanted to kiss me, but didn't remember how.

“Like this” I offered, and pressed my lips to hers. Our teeth met and we both instinctively pulled back and held our mouths.

Alexia started to giggle. “Are you sure that's right mas-Kevin?”

“You know what, you can call me master, but only in private. Ok?” She nodded smiling. “And this is how that kiss is done.”

I went in for a second try, and managed to at least avoid hitting her teeth. Her tongue just sat there though. I pulled away. “Try to mimic my movements” I suggested. She nodded again.

Third time’s the charm, right? This time, she did much better. Her tongue copied mine and we both enjoyed a deep sensual kiss. At last we pulled apart, and her eyes seemed dazed and unfocused as she grinned slightly with a string of saliva between our mouths.

“That was amazing, master...”

“Amazing? You ain't seen nothing yet.” I reached my hand down her front and gently ran my fingers up and down her slit. Alexia’s eyes went wide as she gasped.

“Ahh... aaa... Nyaaao!” She meowed. She actually meowed! Her feet kicked thin air as she tried to cope with the sudden intense sensation.

“You like that?”

“It's... too much!”

I smiled devilishly, and gave her an even bigger attack, sucking on her nipple while rubbing her crotch.

“NNNnnn... Nnnnyaaa!! Master! I can't! I'll overheat!” She yelled as her tail swished violently from side to side while her toes curled.

“Are you ok Alexia?” I asked, stopping my assault.

She caught her breath. “Yes... My sensory input was spiking... It was hard to keep up with the data.”

“You know, sometimes you just have to let the data go and enjoy yourself" I pointed out as I caressed her robotic cat ear. She appeared to like it and closed her eyes at the sensation.

“I don't understand.”

By now, she was starting to sweat and her juices were really flowing. I could easily slide my fingers inside her.

“Nnnnnmmmmmm... NnnYAAAO!” She meowed loud and sharp when my fingers rubbed against a little rough nub inside her I realized was her g-spot. She grabbed onto the bed and started to move her hips in an awkward fashion.

Panels opened up on her shoulders and sides, allowing for the excess heat to escape. I rubbed a little harder, making squelching noising with her honey, as she clenched her face and grabbed onto the bed. Her cat ears twitched and her tail curled as she tried to handle the sensations.

“Nyaaaa!! What do I do, master? I'm gonna break!”

“Just relax” I ordered. I gave her a rest and pulled my hand away from her. But I wasn't done with her yet. While she recovered and caught her breath, I positioned myself between her legs, and pressed myself inside her.

Alexia's back arched and she moaned with delight as I entered her. She was so warm, soft, and yet tight. She curled her toes and shook her head as tears formed in her eyes.

“Does it hurt? Are you ok?” I was afraid I went too far too fast.

“Nyyaaaaaa...” She looked blankly at the ceiling wide-eyed, drool dripping from the corner of her mouth. "I'm confused, master! I am receiving contradictory sensory input. I feel pain and pleasure at the same time. It's so intense my processors can't keep up!"

I grinned and started to thrust into her. She instantly responded with meows and moans and gasps while grabbing onto the pillow and bed sheets. I felt her slim body and her soft breasts as I pounded into her harder and harder. Alexia tried to move her hips to coincide with my movement but she struggled to keep a rhythm and didn't know the best way to move, trying different things systematically.

"Ooh! Nyaaao! Kevin!! Ahh... NYA! I can't take it! Sensory overload! Something- Something- Something's... Happening... Master!! I- I-" She started to convulse; her legs alternating between freezing up and jerking, while her torso lurched forward every other second.

I heard a loud pop, and suddenly Alexia froze in my arms, just I released inside her. Ozone and burnt electronics filled my nostrils, and I knew I broke something inside her. She jerked a few times, but soon completely froze like a statue with all her muscles tensed up. Her face was petrified in an expression of ecstasy and shock. She was stuck unable to even breathe. Alexia crashed as she reached her climax, unable to handle the stresses of sexual activity.

I pulled out of her still warm and wet hole, but she was more like a statue than a human. It was eerie to see her eyes rolled back frozen in place, unfocused, while her mouth hung open in the middle of a word. I broke her. First day she's awake and I break her with sex.

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