Elm sat in an alley with his arms crossed over his bony legs holding them close to his chest. In front of him, a set of bloody tattered work gloves, sat on the grimy tiles of the alley. The sun had already started to rise, slowly illuminating his surroundings. Aged posters hung partially peeled from the rusted metal walls of the building opposite him. A large blue trash bin separated Elm from the slowly populating street. He'd run here shortly after the... Incident. He held his body, like he had many times before and sobbed. However he couldn't feel anything. He felt no pain, as his body was wracked with phantom sobs. He felt no cold from the damp ground. He felt no warmth as he clasped his legs as close to his center as possible. He felt nothing. He couldn't stay like this. So with all his remaining concentration he felt for his connection. The tether to his true self.

Elm pushed on the connection back to his body. Not really noticing the disorientating perspective shifts, he simply lay there for an unknowable period of time releasing the pent-up guilt and stress. After what felt like hours, Elm felt truly empty, in more ways than one. He glided up off the couch, and into the kitchen. Making himself a bowl of cereal, he sat himself down and ate. The sugary food substitute tasted bland and flavorless as he mechanically gulped it down in moments. He stood up and stumbled up the stairs to his room. Falling face-first into his soft bed, he didn't bother getting under the sheets and simply waited for sleep.

No

First, he had something to do. 'Wishbone, I order you, never to hurt anyone ever again.'

His conscience momentarily sated, Elm drifted off into dreamless a sleep of pure exhaustion.

***

Wishbone sat in the alley that its master had just left it in some time ago. It did not understand why the master had reacted as he did to that situation with the hostile human. The threat was nearly eliminated, so it should have been a celebratory event. Like when Wishbone held the small uncooperative servant of the master back from escaping the "house", and was later vindicated when it had been given the order to continue the task. This lack of consistency was disturbing. Could the master have been incorrect? Impossible. Perhaps it would have to look further ahead when attempting to assess its masters wishes. Wishbone decided it would need to create a default set of orders falling back on should the master not give it a command but is still forced to act. This should help alleviate the distress it's master was feeling after retaking control of wishbone earlier. The sensation was not at all desirable. It very much disliked disappointing the master, Wishbone decided.

As wishbone was ruminating on a source code to follow, someone was looking down at it from the roof of the rusty metal warehouse opposite it. A woman dressed in a black leather coat, black yoga pants, and with a blue armband with, "Temporary Gifted Officer" Printed on it. The woman in her late twenties, past her gloved hand over here buzz cut scalp as her other hand she tapped onto a hot pink cellphone.

***

Data: yeah I told you I'd find the guy.

Dan: Damn it! The chief told you to stay with us!

Data: Naw, you guys are just too slow. If i stayed with you, we'd still be searching. Did you get the pic?

Lynda: WOW! Did we ever! SO COOL!! (´・O・`) Dan spit his coffee all over the dash when he saw we were dealin with a literal skeleton!

Data: HAHAHA! Really? Any pics?

Dan: WHAT! NO I DIDN't!

Lynda: Just sent (☞ﾟ∀ﾟ)☞

Data: HAHAHAHAHAHA!

Dan: Dammit, Just do your job! Or should I tell the Boss! Huh?! Miss probation!

Data: Hahaha cool it Dan, It's just a joke man. We still cool on a 60/40 split if you guys keeps this from the chief?

Lynda: Yup! (=w=)

Dan: Sigh~ alright, but be sure to be done playing with them before we get there.

***

Looking back up from her phone, Data found the skeleton still slumped unloving against the wall of the alley. If she hadn't followed it into this alley in the first place she might've thought it was simply a slightly early Halloween decoration. Easing her breathing, Data stood up from her perch. Now came the fun bit.

***

Wishbone had decided upon a basic list of commands it would use to compose its source code. The list would necessarily be subject to change as Wishbone discovered more about its masters wishes. So far it had, in order of importance:

-Protect the master (obviously)

-Don't let the small disobedient servant out of the house

-Guard the house

-Maintain functionality (or else it won't be able to serve)

-Hide its features (it's master seem'ed very focused on this task though it had yet to be given any commands related to it)

That was its list so far. It was quite proud of the amount of things it had been trusted with by the master. Wishbone had also decided to place any order given by the master above any it had deduced were implied by its masters actions. Well except for -Protect the master. That would always be the most important.

Wishbone then detected movement coming from above the alley it was in. Focusing in, it saw a small, thin, human. Very much unlike the larger human specimen from earlier today. It seemed to be covered in a mostly black substance, except for the large vulnerable skull substitute, and the also vulnerable lower torso. Wishbone had theorized that a human was a similar, if less advanced, device to it. But whereas a human had many vulnerable squishy bits, Wishbone, who was designed by the master, was obviously built without such unnecessary vulnerabilities. Obviously Wishbone was of superior workmanship.

"Ha, so you're the punk that kicked in the fat bastard face. If I wasn't told to bring you in, I might just buy you a drink. Since I have been ordered though, I'll give you one chance to surrender peacefully. Because I'm nice."

The Human simply stood there making sounds wile flapping its jaw bone alternative. Wishbone had seen it's master do this activity as well, usually it would receive an order shortly afterwards.

"No, answer? Are you going for the whole strong and silent type? I'll save you the trouble, no one likes those edge lord Capes. So take it from me, just act like a normal human being. Might be refreshing to actually have a few a those around the Cape scene."

Wishbone decide to wait for some form of useful communication from the human, before it acted. Besides, its master would likely disapprove of another violent interaction, especially if he were to drop in halfway though.

"Alright, you're starting to tick me off kid! Start talking, or I'm going to start hitting!"

Wishbone then noticed that it's hands were uncovered. Looking down the gloves it's master had given it were on the ground in front of it. That would likely be disruptive to its disguise, it decided. So Wishbone leaned forward and grabbed the gloves.

"AH, Holy shit! You do move!"

The sudden action seemed to have startled the human. Luckily this human didn't seem to be armed with a projectile device. Wishbone decided however it would be easier to react to unexpected actions if it stood up. It did so, wile pulling on its gloves.

"Ah, So there's some fight in you after all. Alright then Square up punk! I'm going to teach your mute ass how to sing."

After some more pointless noise making, the human suddenly lunged at Wishbone. The human accelerated at a rather ridiculous speed as she swung a fist at Wishbones hooded head. If it had to estimate, which it did, it would conclude that the woman was likely moving at a speed comparable to some of the fastest human transports it had seen while it's master was finding this alley. Unfortunately it was unable to match the human in speed, so wishbone decided to instead sacrifice it's left arm to block some of the incoming damage.

However the actual impact that Wishbone was expecting based on the humans velocity and expected mass, fell woefully short. The impact failed to even break the offered arm. The actual strength of the punch was actually considerably less then what one of Wishbones own punches could deliver, though not by much. It seemed this humans speed was deceptive in some way. Wishbone decided then it was probably best to remove this human. It didn't understand this human and could therefor not risk it becoming a threat to the master.

"Haha, you have more oomph in you then I gave you credit. This might actually be fun!"

Wishbone prepared a punch as the human momentarily moved back in preparation for another lunge. The human shot forward in similar way to last time, so Wishbone threw a punch at the area the human would occupy should they move at the same velocity as previously. However contrary to expectations the human dropped at the last moment and slid across the ground, ignoring friction, and swiping Wishbones feet out from under it as the human slid past.

Briefly airborne. Wishbone twisted it;s torso mid fall, keeping vision on the hostile human. Deciding more proactive tactics were required, Wishbone landed in a hand stand, absorbing the force of the fall by coiling its arms, then launching its self at still recovering human. The human had just stopped it's self against the wall of the alley. It's stood up whilst turning only to be met with a booted foot to the face.

"SHIT!"

Wishbones flying kick drove the human's skull like appendage back into the brick wall behind it. This seemed to have dazed it as it did not immediately rebound from the attack. Not one to miss opportunity like that Wishbone moved in to deliver a full force punch to the human.

However, something caused wishbone to divert its blow into the brick wall instead. Wishbones fist impacted the brick wall at full force, sending cascading fractures throughout its hand and arm bones. The brick hit and several of those around it exploded into chunks of rocky shrapnel peppering the surroundings. Wishbone then turned away from it's stunned opponent and ran.

It had just received a new cherished order from its master, one it's put at the top of the list.

'Wishbone, I order you, never hurt anyone ever again.'

Deciding that escape is the only way to avoid 'hurting' the human (likely what is meant by an 'anyone'), and therefore breaking one of its masters direct orders. Wishbone ran out of the alley and into the middle of the road. It's had found that both the large human transport devices, and the self-propelled humans avoided this area. It was even marked In a flashy yellow color, through Wishbone had yet to deduce a reason it was marked with such importance.

Transport devices sped past wishbone on both sides as it sprinted along the yellow line, it risked a peek over it's shoulder bone to see if the hostile human had decided to pursue. Not seeing any obvious pursuit, wishbone decided now was the best time to distance itself from the area. It grabbed onto the back of one of the larger transport devises that were moving past, making sure to use it's undamaged arm. The violent acceleration almost pulled the appendage it had used to grab on free. However it had held out, barely. The connection between the arm, and it's neighboring bones was noticeably weaker for a few seconds as the blue energy was redistributed to repair the connections. The other arm would take longer to fix, as the physical bone was what was damaged.

Wishbone pressed itself up against the flat back of the device as it was brought farther from its master, and instead closer to the smoke rising from the lowest parts of the city.