Writer’s spot: Greetings friends! A last chapter before we go back to some more craziness!

SO, as you may expect, this is the last chapter of regular updates on Reinstall before going back to Insania, which means that tomorrow will be Insania’s 60th chapter with a bonus SS chapter about a certain portable doom.

BESIDES(II), last chapter, I ended up saying that Gaz saw a lot of things and so on. But what I meant with it was him seeing with his Presence sensor (The circular vision thingy), yet I didn’t do anything to mention this. My bad. Later I might rearrange some words from last chapter to better fit this.

Beep, and enjoy your story!

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After the ambush, the group sped up their schedule a bit, leaving the troll to also drive at night. Gaz worried for a moment that it would somehow end up badly, but it seemed that Volgoff doesn’t actually get tired that easily.

Since everyone was tired after the tense situation, the group went to sleep, leaving only Mirage and Red awake, as the robot didn’t really need to rest and the girl was mostly unhurt, if a little shaken. As the others rested, she gave Gaz a hand with reattaching his broken repair limb, holding it in place as he welded it back in place. It wasn’t a perfect attachment, but since it was provisional, it would work.

Afterwards he gave some fast repairs to his treads just so that he could move around with his solar motor. Mostly it was rearranging some misplaced gears, so it didn’t really fix it completely. The pistons, however, were mostly gone and had no way to even be used again.

Once his repairs were mostly done, he watched as Red sat down in front of one of the drones and started sketching down on her notebook, sometimes stealing a glance towards Gaz when she thought he wasn’t looking. After a few seconds, he saw as she started to dismantle the head of the drone she had taken the core out and take something from within.

Relying only on his presence sensor didn’t allow him to understand what exactly she took out until she approached him again, carrying two small things with her hands.

Although a bit reluctantly, he let her mess around with some cables within his body, as she plugged and unplugged some things around until even his presence sensor went off, leaving him blind again.

But before he even had the time to worry about that, another thing appeared for him, giving him a light headache for a moment before his body got used to the new vision. Trying to understand what happened, he quickly looked around, seeing that the drone’s camera were missing out.

[Did she install his camera on me? Feels strange…] He said to no one in particular. [Sharper too…]

He looked around, seeing as Red carried his old camera with her while looking at him worried for a moment. He let out a short beep to tell her that he was fine and she sighed in relief. He briefly used his repaired limbs to better position the camera back into the slot he was mostly used to, within his turret.

Red smiled a bit awkwardly before looking back at the broken camera in her hands, probably thinking what to do with it. Gaz extended his repairer limb and picked it up from her, surprising the girl slightly as he stored it within his turret, thinking that it might be a good idea to hold on to it so he could use the proximity sensor later.

Finishing the repairs that he could do with the tools at hand, Gaz slowly made his way back to Yllivia’s side where he could get a good view of the whole trailer. Red went back to analyzing the drones and mirage came next to him, curling above his motor.

But even then, he didn’t have much time of rest before some sounds came from above, as Yllivia quickly lifted herself from the bed and picked him up before laying the little robot on the bed besides her.

She once again laid herself back on her bed while embracing the small robot. Having been caught by surprise at this, the small robot stood still for some time as the Lynnian slowly went back to sleep.

Even if he was a robot now, he still had the mind of a man, and so that left him in a slightly uncomfortable position. After making sure that the cat-girl was sleeping calmly, he slowly tried to wiggle his way out of her grasp, but…

“Stop... No… More…” She lowly murmured with a pained voice, leaving Beepy a bit confused on how to react.

…

It was a restless sleep that the Lynnian had. While he laid next to her during the night, Gaz noticed as the Lynnian let out whimpers and lightly cringed at times. Even after the others woke up, they didn’t seem to notice this, as she barely made any sound at all.

Gaz made a long mental sigh for the Nth time as Yllivia seemed to have one last nightmare before waking up. Contrary to what he expected, she didn’t wake up in a hurry nor anything like that, simply opening her eyes and rubbing them lightly before getting up.

The others, who had long since wakened, turned to her and gave her a light greeting which she immediately responded. She gave a light confused look towards Gaz, as she didn’t seem to remember what happened after she firstly went to sleep last night.

Leaving that aside, she gave him a quick petting before looking surprised at his new camera focusing on her.

“So… Where are we?” She asked after a short yawn.

“Two hours from Moltair and stopping for supper. Not much time, though.” Ross answered as he took a bite from the meat he held in his hands. “Were thinking on what to do after the mission.” He said while pointing to the others who were outside of the trailer. “Came here to wake you up.”

Yllivia nodded lightly before helping Gaz down from her bed and walking away from the trailer and picking a plate with some stew on it. Gaz rolled besides her and sat quietly at her side hearing their conversation.

“Afternoon, Ylli.” Lunn said cheerfully to the girl. “Were just talking about what will happen after we deliver this cutie.” She said while pulling Red even closer to her, but Yllivia simply tilted her head to the side.

“Go back to our city?” She asked confused, but Sorius shook his head.

“The blacktriggers will probably be hounding for our heads after some research, so it might be better to lay low a bit.” He said while glaring at the indifferent dwarf. “We will get enough money for that with this mission, so we were thinking on where to stay for the time.” He said with a shrug, receiving an understanding nod from Yllivia.

The group quickly went on back with their conversation and this left Gaz a bit left out, since even some words weren’t getting translated. Probably cities and names he never heard before, so even if he wanted he wouldn’t understand a single thing they were talking about.

[Gooood morning Gaz!] He was suddenly startled with a cheerful shout on his mind.

[Seems like you are better already…] He said a bit wryly at her, and heard as she giggled cheerfully.

[Yup. Feeling really good right now! Even a little better than before!] She said as he felt her scanning him. [So, what did I miss here? Oh, is that a new camera?]

Gaz let out a long sigh before starting to explain what had happened after she went to rest or whatever else she did that she wasn’t around. She listened everything quietly, but he could feel as she got excited or worried about what he told her.

[Hmm… So Ross had a story like that? And Yllivia seems to have some story behind her too…] She said in wonder, and Gaz nodded in his mind.

[I would guess that Sorius, Lunn and Vol too…] He said with some thought. [But the biggest mistery is no doubt Red.]

[Why so?] Ekis asked confused.

[From the way she said it, it seems that she made or altered Mirage’s body. And from how the others reacted, it doesn’t really seem all that normal here.] He said while focusing his gaze on Red, who was squirming uncomfortably while Lunn hugged her closely from behind. [Even when compared to how she reacted to Ross story, the other’s reaction was even more intense when they saw Mirage…]

[Hmm…] Ekis murmured while seemingly stopping to think for a moment, but she gave up fairly easily. [I don’t know about complicated things like that, so let’s start working on your new body already!] She said cheerfully.

Gaz heaved a mental sigh while turning back to the drones, where he approached them and started scanning each one, taking in account their working and repairable pieces and so on. As he finished his scans, he and Ekis started to discuss what kind of body he would want to make.

Thinking back to what happened with the drone, he thought that a bit more of mobility wouldn’t hurt, as his lack of capacity of sidesteps and need to keep on the ground could have made for a serious lack of movement. Besides that, after some practical use, he noticed that his hidden knives weren’t as much of a practical weapon as he initially thought, so he decided to also add some other weapons he could use.

These changes would probably sacrifice a bit of his mobility, but luckily, the drone’s armor were surprising resistant to impact, so the loss wasn’t all that bad. But most importantly…

[We need to find a method to eject the core or something of the kind…] He said with a sigh.

[Why is it?] Ekis asked confused.

[Well, when my motors died, I was lucky to be close to the others, but if I weren’t I would be stuck there for the rest of eternity.] He said in an overly dramatic way. [That, and we could make some kind of universal socket that fits with the core, so I could keep a few different bodies around and just shuffle the core around, you know?]

[Hmm… I don’t think I can do something like that with these parts… But I will think about it.] She said after some though. Gaz nodded in his mind before going back to disassembling the drone’s parts. [So, what shape do you want?]

[What?] He asked confused.

[I mean, what kind of body do you want? We do have some more varied pieces here, so we could go with something a bit more animalistic if you want.] She said in a happy mood, getting his attention.

[Ooh… Shiny!] He said excited while stopping to think for a moment. [What exactly can we do here?]

[Well… We could go for a quadrupedal form, which would be easier, but a humanoid one might also work… But will probably be a lot more complex…] She said with some though before letting out a playful sigh. [Humanoid, then?]

[…Nah.] Gaz said after some thought.

[Okay, I’ll start working and… Wait, what?]

[I… Want to stay as closely to a simple strange robot for now.] He said after some thought. [I… heard the others saying that Yllivia feels more at ease with me than with other people…] He said with a sigh. [since last night, I’ve been having this feeling that she needs that more than she actually shows…]

[Okay then. A simpler quadrupedal then!] Ekis said with a shrug. [So, any requests?]

[Hmm… Maybe make it a bit more… Expressive than these drones?] He said with some thought. [Actually, besides those two-tailed wolves, I didn’t see any other kind of canine beasts around… Can you make something like that?]

[Hmm… I may need to check your memories for some reference. Is that a problem?] She asked slightly worried.

[You can do that?] Gaz asked surprised before shrugging it off. [Oh well, sure, do it. I have the feeling I wouldn’t be able to resist if you wanted to do it anyway.]

A dry laugh sounded on his mind as he felt Ekis fussing around his memories, checking around for what little he knew about wolves and other canine creatures. Meanwhile, he kept dismantling the drones, taking out their plating and seeing the insides while paying some more attention to it.

Different from the Leapers, who had steampunky bodies, this one looked more like the robots he saw in comics, manga and so on, with motors for joints, cables running around and some circuit boards laying around. Luckily for him, Ekis kept providing him with information on how to take out said pieces without damaging them too much.

But with some pieces, even his cable-tool was too brute of an instrument to allow him remove it without damaging them. Sighing mentally, his gaze turned back towards the girl sitting atop Lunn’s lap while trying to say something, but being unable to express herself.

Gaz approached the girl while trying to get her attention, and once he got there, the conversation reached his sensors.

“…far, and there is no way I’m leaving Berett without maintenance during this time.” Volgoff said with a sigh.

“But anywhere else they will probably check, so it’s not like we can be picky.” Ross said while shaking his head.

“Nuria? Close enough, but small. Not much chance to search.” Yllivia said with a thought.

“Nuria? Wazzat?” Ross asked confused.

“Small ghost village. One day north from our base.” Yllivia said briefly.

“Ghost village? How the hell do you even… Ah, whatever.” Ross sighed loudly. “But if it’s truly an abandoned village, we won’t have energy for our equipment. So no.” Ross said while shaking his head.

“Hmm… I really wouldn’t mind letting you stay at my house… You did save me…” Red said shyly, but Lunn simply smiled gently before hugging her tightly.

“We know, cutie.” She said gently. “But no matter how much I want to keep hugging you, we can’t keep causing trouble to you like that.” As the elf said that, the others nodded in agreement, making the Morfian pout a little.

“And I don’t think yer parents would like the idea of you sharing your house with mercs like us.” Ross said while chugging down a mug of beer.

“I… Live alone…” She said after some time, making the others look shocked. “I… Bought a house with some money… I earned from Arcon-tec.” She said shyly.

“...What?” Ross asked with his mouth hanging open.

“I… Sold some plans to them… And they gave me some… A lot of money.” She explained herself. “It’s close to Moltair. We could go there…”

“… No… We can’t do that.” Sorius said after some thought. “We could end up attracting attention to you or something worse…”

“Then I’ll hire you.” She said interrupting him, and before the elf could even process her words, she went on. “I can’t be sure that the blacktriggers will leave me alone after this, nor that no one else will come after me, so hiring trusty bodyguards is perfectly functional, right?” She said with a sudden burst of confidence while standing up, before blushing furiously and hiding behind Lunn.

“I’m… Still not sure…” Sorius said a bit worried. “I mean… We would need a new base of operations… and…”

“You could live at my house… I mean... It does have a brand new workshop…” Ross eyes shined at that word. “You could park the truck in the garage, since it’s fairly large…” Volgoff’s eyes shined. “There is a library with some documents that you could get access to…” Sorius eyebrows twitched. “And we could use the depot as an artistic atelier…” Yllivia’s ears twitched.

The group looked at each other for a moment, and Sorius cleared his throat slightly.

“I… Guess we could negotiate a bit…” He said while looking away. “Hey! Why don’t I get my bribe?” Lunn asked sullen.

“You will hug her regardless.” Yllivia said as a matter of fact, and Gaz couldn’t help but notice that Red had a slightly mischievous grin.

[…Wow. Such a good briber at this age...] Gaz said with wonder.

[I’m a bit scared on how she will be when she grows up…] Ekis said wryly.