Down on the 7th floor, inside Mark’s office…

Miss Calculated is finally able to enjoy some quality alone time with 23, as shortly after Mark brought them to the front room of his office suite, he grabbed the bag of spring rolls sitting on a table and excused himself.

Though, he did at least make sure she didn’t need anything before he bounced.

Upon noticing the ID readers mounted by each of the doors to the other rooms, Miss Calculated lost what little interest she had in exploring the area.

Thanks to her impatience in getting to know 23 intimately; before the door was even done swinging shut behind Mark, she had already begun stripping some of 23’s external plates off.

23 looks down at Miss Calculated while she is using her phone to shine some light into some of its component parts at the base of its lower rotating arm mount, then it carefully reaches over to set down the box of miscellaneous things she has accrued next to some of his plates leaning against a nearby wall.

“...Should I shut down so that you can safely disassemble some of my internal parts?” 23 hesitantly asks this while Miss Calculated is reaching inside its chassis, wielding her trusty mini-multitool.

“Hmm? There’s no need... unless you want to? The only parts that would really be necessary for are all things you should be able to detect issues with in a self-diagnosis, and you already said everything was in working order before Lucas even authorized your free will. I’ll certainly get to them eventually, but I imagine there are plenty of other things to consider upgrading first.” Miss Calculated had leaned back to look up at 23’s face when asking her question, but shortly after was reaching inside of it once again while she continued elaborating.

“...I prefer to be active whenever possible. Besides, that would delay the ongoing brute force attempts, anyway. I just… wanted to make sure, since I know you’ll be evaluating everything you possibly can. With how reckless Lucas seems to be, including with his money, I imagine you are going to have an exhaustive shopping list for him.” While 23 is finishing up its spoken analysis, Miss Calculated makes an amused snort.

“No kidding. Hmm… Oh! We’ll probably get most, if not all of it, for free when we deal with those scammers that have been milking Mark, anyway. Hrmm… Maybe we should even have Mark put in an order for some of the more uncommon parts before they know anything is amiss?” While Miss Calculated is saying this, her right arm is inside 23 all the way up to her elbow, and she subconsciously sticks her tongue out of the side of her mouth for a moment as she unscrews something deep inside of its chassis.

“Might as well, it would presumably make gathering all of the parts easier for you by making them do the legwork. I would assume they have connections that wouldn’t think twice of them ordering expensive parts out of nowhere.” When 23 makes this comment, Miss Calculated flinches and sighs.

“Right, exactly. I’d rather not advertise the fact that I have a wealthy investor now, that’s for sure. Everyone I work with knows I’d never spend that much money on top-of-the-line parts for personal use… Ah, but to keep up the ruse would mean letting that poor bot get its core swapped tomorrow, ugh…” Miss Calculated’s expression sinks when she has this realization, and she grumbles a bit before she continues speaking.

“I would have been opposed to letting that happen on principle alone, even before I knew there’s a chance of it having some degree of awareness… Ah, keep still for a moment, I’m disconnecting your lower starboard arm’s servo.” Upon Miss Calculated making her request, 23 stays perfectly still, even its parts that are completely unrelated to what she’s handling.

She pulls the disconnected servo out into the light of the room, careful not to pull too hard on the cable running out of it, which she left still connected to 23. Popping open the hard plastic cover with a flathead screwdriver bit from her multitool, she looks at some of the gears beneath, and then hisses when she sees how worn down they all are.

“Who in their right mind lets the teeth wear down that much before replacement!? Is this an original part from your initial manufacturing? Goodness!” After Miss Calculated’s exclamation, 23 looks down at it, quietly running some calculations for a few seconds.

“...Yes, I believe it is. All four arms’ servos should be. ...I suppose I will notice an increase in arm strength once they are upgraded.” After 23 answers, Miss Calculated sighs yet again.

“You most certainly will. Hmm, do you want to pose as Mark’s latest purchase? He could insist they work on you first, before worrying about a regular ol’ everyday bot. They might even directly connect you to the network... assuming they don’t throw a fit that he didn’t buy you from them. At the very least, they’ll happily order all of the most expensive parts for you. The question then is; how many of the things they buy are actually parts I’d consider using. Hold still again.” As Miss Calculated is asking this, she closes the servo’s cover and leans into 23’s chassis again, reaching in to reinstall the servo in its proper place.

“...To be completely honest, I would rather not let them anywhere near me. But, if you feel it is an optimal plan, I won’t protest. However, I imagine they will want to power me down before looking at anything at all, and for all I know they’ll break something as an excuse to replace even more parts, or to even go so far as to say I’m useless and insist on a whole new model…” Once 23 says this much, Miss Calculated hums thoughtfully.

After a slight pause, 23 continues.

“Even though I don’t experience physical pain, it would be terribly inconvenient. And, this is without accounting for the possibility of them tampering with my core. I… if anything that I experience counts as emotions, then fear is certainly one of them.” While 23 is saying this, Miss Calculated stops her tinkering and leans back, looking up directly at its face.

“...That’s certainly a legitimate reason to feel fear, I don’t see why it shouldn’t count. Don’t worry though, before I’d let them anywhere near your body, I would safely remove your core to protect you from them. But, that still would involve you needing to be shut off. And, any temporary core we’d mount would need to have enough experience to convincingly operate your body…” While Miss Calculated is saying this, she gently pats one of the external plates still left mounted on 23 in a comforting gesture.

She remains crouched in place for a few seconds longer with a thoughtful expression. Eventually, she resumes digging around inside 23 as she speaks up again.

“Hmm… No matter how we go about it, it would be unpleasant for you one way or another, as you’d need to temporarily inhabit a basic two-armed model and teach the temporary core, which we would be theoretically sending into harm’s way if the ‘maintenance’ person intentionally causes any problems. Which, perforce of wanting to protect you, is admitting that we believe it is a possibility…” Getting this far in her train of thought, Miss Calculated grumbles a bit while trying to twist something, then continues her musings aloud.

“Perhaps one of the bots in service here was recently swapped, so the core is young enough that it hasn’t had any chance to develop any degree of sapience yet? Bah, it still doesn’t feel right. That just feels like I’m sending off a child instead of an adult, not that it’s an unaware machine vs an advanced being. We’ll just get those parts and the password some other way, there’s no need to put you through any of that. Don’t worry. If we’re lucky, we can somehow get the tech to think about the password around Mikah.” Miss Calculated closes her eyes for a moment after saying this, blindly disconnecting a few cables while thinking for a few seconds.

23 is still staying motionless, quietly looking down at her.

-----

Lucas’s total kills: 7

Lucas’s total deaths: 11

Lucas’s total assists: 1

Lucas’s current GDV: 17.40

Lucas’s fame level: 6.0* (Local fame is completely maxed, he’s creeping up on minor celebrity status even on a global scale. Thanks, internet.)

Lucas's hero suspicion level: 2.0*

Jonathan’s total kills: 7

Jonathan’s total deaths: 2

Jonathan’s current GDV: 6.09

Jonathan's fame level: 4.0* (Local fame is near-max, but everyone thinks of him via his affiliation with Lucas, and not often just for him, alone.)

Jonathan's hero suspicion level: 2.5*

Willy's fame level: 4.75* (Recently increased thanks to a new wave of memes featuring him and Mr. Quacks.)

Mr. Quacks’s fame level: 5.25* (Recently increased thanks to a new wave of memes featuring him and Willy.)

Supervillain social circle size: 15

-----

Little character theater:

The sleepy bois are both busy napping as hard as they can.

Lucas and Miss Masher have finished divvying up the damaged mannequins, and are now prepping for their first pass, both of them grinning from ear to ear.

427, with greatly conflicting feelings: [I know you have confidence in your proprioception to ensure you do not inadvertently hit her directly, but I’m still surprised she’s being so trusting as well? Sure, the enhanced outfits will help a lot, but this really seems like such an unnecessary risk...]

Author, raising an eyebrow: Did you forget their introduction, 427? She was ready for an all-out fight, this is orders of magnitude safer in comparison!

Mr. Quacks, quietly recounting the highlights of his day to his new ladyfriend, particularly the founding of his, er, Lucas’s brand new supervillain organization: (softly) Quack.