The house they had been set up in was a nice one. A three story townhouse in a nice neighborhood, mostly populated by military families. The top floor held two bedrooms, one for Red which faced the street and one for Penny overlooking a small plain back yard and alleyway beyond. Blue's room was on the second floor, as was a computer simulator suite. The first floor housed the kitchen and a spacious den. The basement had been converted into a dojo and gym, and here is where Red and Blue found themselves side by side on treadmills that morning.
"So we go out," Red said, "shop around a bit, buy some pretty dresses, come back here, and get a start on combat training."
"That's the plan," Blue replied, shortly. Red had much better endurance than him and he didn't have much oxygen to waste on talking.
"Any wiggle room in that plan?"
"Maybe," Blue panted. "Why?"
"I thought we could stop by the bookstore."
Blue didn't really know what he expected to hear, but that wasn't it. "Bookstore?" he asked. "Really?"
"Well," Red started, "they sell more than books."
"Ah." That made sense.
"Plus they sell comics," Red continued.
Even more sense. Blue hit the power button on the treadmill and let it slowly wind down before taking a swig of water from a bottle and resting his elbows on the handrails. Red powered down his own treadmill, looking annoyingly composed for how long they'd been running.
"They're issuing reprints of old X-Ray and Vav volumes," Red said, seemingly unconcerned over Blue's distress. "They just rereleased The Death of Jack DeWolffe, first time it's been in stores in fifteen years, been looking forward to picking it up." He looked over at Blue, who was still leaning over breathing heavily. "Hey, you okay, man?" Red laughed, "Need to lie down for a minute?"
Blue pushed himself to standing and stepped off of the machine. "Bite me," he said breathlessly.
Red just laughed, "No need to be upset, we can't all be in the ninetieth percentile." He flexed flamboyantly.
Blue rolled his eyes. Red had been using that line ever since the first physical trials at the academy, and of course Blue had been using it right back ever since the results of the tactical exam came back.
"We're not going to a bookstore," Blue said, bringing the conversation back round "we have enough on our plate without piling on."
"That's fair, but we should get groceries unless we want to eat take out every meal."
Blue sighed in frustration. "Write up a list, we'll send out the troops. We're not changing the schedule."
"But-"
"We're not changing the schedule," Blue snapped, "I don't know what your problem with this is, but get it together. We have a job to do. Now get cleaned up and let's go wake the bot."
"Yes sir," Red said, sourly.
Blue was already dressed and waiting in Penny's room when Red came in. The room was sizable, for a city house, and was sparsely furnished. A small writing desk and chair sat in a corner under a pair of empty bookshelves, and a chest of drawers was in the opposite corner. A simple floor lamp completed the room's furnishings. Well, that and the pod. The pod was a six foot tall semi-tubular cylinder standing upright against a wall. Penny was currently housed within its closed doors, plugged in and waiting to be brought back online.
"Just a heads up," Red said, walking over to the pod, "we really need to buy PJs today."
Blue scrunched his face in confusion. "Why's that," he asked. "Her clothes don't get dirty in her sleep or anything."
"No, it's just..." Red hesitated. Blue narrowed his eyes. Was Red actually blushing? Red tried again. "Her jumpsuit zips up from the front, but all her plugs are in the back."
Blue scrunched up his face in confusion. Zips from the front, plugs in the back, what did that have to do with...
Oh.
"So I'm guessing it's anatomically correct then?" Blue asked, rubbing the bridge of his nose, trying to cut off the headache this day was already giving him.
"I didn't look," Red said adamantly, "averted my eyes and everything. She's correct enough to make it awkward though."
Blue sighed and turned his back on the pod. Making a robot that can pass for human made a sort of sense, infiltration was an important quality for an agent. But a fifteen year old girl? She was either built to infiltrate Huntsmen academies or... something much more disturbing.
Before Blue could dwell on the implications any longer, Red pressed a button and the pod doors slid open with a user-friendly electronic tone, revealing the girl inside, her jumpsuit bunched around her waist though Red steadfastly refused to look any lower than her neck. A second passed and before her eyes snapped open. "Good morning, Captain Red!" she exclaimed loudly, making Red jump. Red muttered a greeting back, and busied himself with checking Penny's vitals and reaching behind her to unplug the power umbilical. "Good morning Captain Blue!" she said, turning her head towards him. He waved a hello, back still turned towards her. She looked around the room briefly and spoke up again. "Is my father here?"
"Uh," Red stammered, caught off guard by the question. "No, Penny, I'm sorry, Dr. Polendina isn't here."
"Oh," Penny replied, despondently. "Will we be going to his lab then?"
"We'll talk about that after you're dressed," Blue said, still facing away from the girl. "Red, is she operational?"
"I'm combat ready!" Penny interjected, snapping off a salute.
"System checks out," Red agreed, returning the salute lackadaisically, making Penny giggle at the informalness.
"Alright," Blue said, starting for the door and waving for Red to follow. "There's an academy uniform in the dresser, put it on and meet us downstairs."
Penny watched the two soldiers leave before stepping out of her jumpsuit and walking over to the dresser, feeling the carpet under her feet. She spread and wiggled her toes in the shag, first individually and then altogether, relishing the feeling. The lab didn't have any carpets, and at the moment she couldn't understand why. It felt so much better than cold tile. Why wasn't everything carpeted? She hasn't felt concrete or asphalt, but that didn't look very comfortable. Grass looked pleasant, but how nice could it be if they planted it all outside? They would have planted some inside instead of carpets, surely. She wanted to lie on the floor and feel it all over, but stopped herself short. She needed to get dressed. Captains Red and Blue were waiting for her and they were going to talk about going to Father's lab.
Maybe they were going soon. Maybe as soon as she got dressed. She certainly hoped so. They had told her that she wasn't going to see Father and General Ironwood as much when she moved out, but it had been hours, even discounting the completely unnecessary recharge session. The techs at the lab would keep her charging far more often than necessary too, she mused, pulling the clothes one by one out of the dresser and spreading them out carefully on the floor. The techs seemed less uncomfortable with it than Captain Red did, however. Maybe he wasn't used to it? Maybe that meant she'd have to be powered down less. That would be most agreeable. But back to the matter at hand...
She stared at the clothes on the floor for a moment, working over in her mind how the pieces fit together. She found herself enjoying the exercise. While she missed her father and to a lesser extent General Ironwood and the rest of the techs in the lab, they were constantly telling her how to do things. Being left to figure out even something this simple was a pleasantly novel experience. Remembering the few uniformed women she had seen and making a few educated guess, Penny quickly set to work. Underwear, leggings, shoes, skirt (workable, but perhaps put the shoes on after next time), bra, blouse (might be faster to tuck in if put on before the skirt?), and then the tie...
She had never seen someone tie a Windsor before and couldn't quite work out how to make the knot. The specific knot was important, everyone wore it the same way, like shoelaces (which she was taught by her Father) but she grew increasingly frustrated trying to picture the mechanics of recreating it. Finally she gave up and instead tied a basic slip knot, figuring that doing it wrong was probably better than not doing it at all.
She then slipped on the vest and buttoned it carefully. She enjoyed the buttons. Slipping a button through a buttonhole was a satisfying tactile sensation. They weren't as practical or pleasant sounding as zippers of course, but she could certainly see the appeal. She looked over herself as best she could, wishing she had a mirror, and after a satisfactory self-appraisal hurried downstairs, ready to meet the day.