Chapter 4
Date: July 17, 20xx
Entry: I have begun to isolate the issue, but the explanation of what it could be does not make any sense to me. However, I have investigated every possibility of what it could be, and on all accounts I have been proven wrong.
There is one avenue that I must look into first before I finalize my theory. Dr. Sanda will not like it, but I must go to Cherry Dynamics. I must speak to Trinity.
Ending log
Signature: Call
Call stepped out of her room early in the day, hopefully before anyone woke up or activated. She didn't want to have to explain to anyone where she was going, especially since lying wasn't in her programming.
But you did lie, remember?
When she reached the living room area, she noticed someone lying on the couch. She didn't recognize the woman lying there, but scans indicated that this person was a robot. They were pretty much naked, except for a few pieces of white fur covering her body, and she looked like a neko.
Who's that?
"Mmm…" the cat girl sat up rubbing her eyes in a cat like fashion, "Nya, that was a good nap," she looked at Call in surprise, and then gave her an almost sensual smile, "Hello cutie pie. You're Dr. Sanda's robot, Call right?"
"Affirmative," Call said stepping back for some reason, "Who are you?"
"I'm Lynx," the cat robot said straightening her glasses, "Dr. Valentine's latest robot and the leader of Team Blitz. We're staying here for a bit while our creator gets reacquainted with your creator."
"You are the leader?" Call asked, "How? Dr. White made Pyrogen the leader of the Mighty Numbers because he was the oldest."
"That's how the Mighty Numbers do it, but not Team Blitz," Lynx said lying on her back sensually, "In Team Blitz, power rules everything. Whoever is the strongest is the leader," she looked at Call, "Where are you going so early?"
"I have something to take care of out of town," Call said, "I will be back in around noon," Call made her way to the door, but Lynx did a backwards flip off the couch and sauntered over to the door, elegantly using her arm to block Call's path, "Please get out of my way."
"Or what?" Lynx taunted, "Are you going to fuss at me? Scream? Shove me? Oh wait, you can't do any of those things, can you? Those would require the ability to feel frustration, anger, and you're not built in that way, are you?"
"Please get out of my way," Call repeated, "I wish to be out of here before the others wake up and start their day."
"Mm, maybe I don't wanna," Lynx said, "Maybe, I want to stay in your way. Maybe I want to stall until Dr. Sanda wakes up. What would you do then, Call?"
"Please get out of my way," Call repeated, "If you do not, then I will remove you."
Lynx laughed, "Oh, I'm so scared, Call! But seriously, you're not going to "remove me". You can't, because unlike you, I'm built for combat. All you have is a measly energy shield and a bow."
Call started to experience something. An odd sensation within her chest. Like before, it was becoming hard to think, her teeth clenched, and her entire body was beginning to feel hot.
"Are you getting upset, Call?" Lynx asked, "Are you angry, frustrated?"
"I… do not have emotions…" Call said, feeling a little strained for some reason, "I cannot-"
"Right! You can't feel anything, can you?" Lynx said, "You're just a cold, empty, soulless machine, right?"
"No," Call said, more forcefully than she planned, "I am not a soulless, empty machine."
"But you don't have emotions, right? Without emotions, you don't have a personality, and without that, you don't have a soul. You can't even feel love, can you?"
"I…" she remembered when Dr. Sanda said he loved her last night. She didn't feel anything in response to it. She couldn't say that she loved him back. But she did have thoughts. She did have her own opinions. She did have the ability to choose her own path, just like Beck, Trinity, and the other Mighty Numbers. That was enough, right?
She's wrong! You have a soul! You're just like Beck!
But… I can't feel anything…
Beck says you're alive, so you're alive! That's all the proof you need!
"The way I see it, you only have two choices," Lynx said leaning in really close to Call, "Either you get angry and shove me out of the way, or you turn around and walk right back into your room like a good little tool. Mighty no. 9 isn't here to help you this time."
"Someone call my name?" Beck asked walking into the living room. Immediately Lynx scowled for a second and then turned to Beck wrapping her arms around Call.
"Hi Beck!" Lynx said, "Call and I were just getting better acquainted with each other, isn't that right, Call?"
"Affirmative," Call said, experiencing an odd discomfort, "She and I were just getting to know each other better."
"I see," Beck said, raising an eyebrow.
"Well, I need to go see my sisters for training," Lynx said patting Call on the shoulders, "I'll see you again soon, Call," she walked over to Beck swishing her tail back and forth, and then kissed him on the cheek, "Take care, Mighty no. 9."
As she walked away, the sensation Call experienced faded away. She took a deep breath, and actually leaned against the wall. Beck looked at Call with a frown and ran over to her.
"Hey, hey, are you okay?" Beck asked, "Call, are you trembling?"
"Beck…" Call said looking into Beck's eyes. The sensation started to fade away even more, and it was replaced with another sensation. Unable to process it, she lightly pushed Beck out of the way and began making her way to the door.
"Call, wait!" Beck called out, stopping Call, "What's wrong? Lately you seem a little, I don't know how to describe it, but it worries me. That outburst at the factory, the way you were trembling during the battle against Phoenix and Unicorn, and now this."
Call slowly turned to Beck, "You remembered all of that?"
"Of course I did," Beck said, "You're my partner, Call. No matter what, you're safety matters more to me than anything."
Call took that in, but found that she couldn't disregard it. Instead, the information seemed to increase in importance. From there, she was able to come to a conclusion about Beck.
He cares about me…
Call quickly turned her back to Beck, "I am going to Cherry Dynamics. I tell you this in the hopes that you will keep my destination a secret."
"CherryDyn…? Call, why are you-"
"Do not ask me that," Call requested, shocking Beck, "Just know that something is happening to me, and I must speak to Trinity in order to understand it."
Beck looked at Call intently, and then nodded with a smile, "Got it. I won't tell anyone. Not even Professor White or Dr. Sanda."
Call closed her eyes, and a familiar beating sensation in her core started up again, "Thank you… Beck…" with that she ran out of the living room and outside. Once alone, she started to experience the anomaly again, but this time there wasn't a focus. She could tell something was going to happen, but she couldn't stop it, no matter what she did.
Instead, she held her head and moaned in pain. A second later, Call screamed, falling to her knees. She couldn't stop screaming, and was thankful that she was so far away from the building and that Beck probably wouldn't have questioned her.
After a second, she noticed moisture falling from her eyes. She touched her cheek and examined the water, and was wide eyed. Were these… tears?
"I am… crying…?" Call asked. Immediately she rose to her feet and ran to Cherry Dynamics. She needed to talk to Trinity now.
The Cherry Dynamics building was huge! As well as it should have been, as it was the biggest robotics business in the world next to SANDA Tech. It was where Dr. White had originally worked, back when his name was Bill Blackwell.
Call walked to the front desk, where she saw a basic secretary robot sitting.
"How may I help you, Miss?" the secretary robot asked, her smile almost too pleasant.
"I request to speak to Gregory Graham's personal secretary, Trinity," Call said. The secretary robot tilted her head in confusion.
"You need to speak to Trinity? That's an odd request. Are you sure there isn't anything that I can't-"
"Negative," Call said suddenly, "The only one who is able to assist me is Trinity. Please contact her, and tell her to meet with me. It is urgent."
The secretary robot shrugged and picked up her phone, "May I inquire what the urgent business is?"
"No, you may not," Call said. The secretary looked taken aback by how quickly she was shot down, but she shrugged and continued dialing the number.
"Mr. Graham, a robot lady is here asking to speak to Trinity. She has blond hair and is wearing a pink and red dress. Yes sir. Thank you," the secretary robot hung up, "Trinity will be sent down shortly."
"Thank you," Call said bowing. She then walked over to the waiting area and had a seat. She didn't have to wait too long, as the elevator door opened and a familiar gothic lolita looking robot stepped out and smiled.
"Call!" she cried happily running to Call as she stood up. She ran into her arms and embrace Call tightly, "It's been so long! How are you!"
"I… do not know how to answer that," Call said, "That is why I am here today. Is there a place where we can have some privacy?"
Trinity looked at Call confused, but then nodded, "The courtyard doesn't have a lot of people there right now. Is that okay?"
"That is acceptable," Call said. As she followed Trinity to the courtyard, she suddenly felt a need to fill the silence, "How are you enjoying working with Cherry Dynamics?"
"It's fun actually," Trinity said, "Mr. Graham is thankfully behaving himself, so that's good," she turned to Call, "I'm not used to trying to make small talk."
"Am I doing something wrong?" Call asked.
"No, no, it's just… different," Trinity said smiling, "Is everything okay?"
Geez, Call was beginning to wish people would stop asking her that. Not because she was fine, but because it was beginning really hard to answer that question.
"That is what I came to you for," Call said, stopping when they made it outside, "I need you to examine my xels."
"Examine your xels? Couldn't you ask Professor White or Dr. Sanda to do that?" Trinity asked.
"Negative. I do not wish for them to know," Call said, "Also, I need you to see if there are any fragments of your xels within my xel make up. Understand that I am not accusing you, but I need to exhaust all options before coming to a full conclusion."
"That's fine," Trinity said pursing her lips, "Just… can you tell me what's wrong? I need to know what I'm looking for."
Call looked down seriously, "I am… experiencing odd anomalies. Sensations that I do not recognize, and moments of irrationality. I must know whether or not I have a virus that is difficult to trace, and you are the only one I know who would be able to check me for that."
Trinity nodded, "I see. Alright, I'll check your xels. This is going to be a little painful, Call, but this is the only way I can absorb and scan them, okay."
"Understood," Call said. For some reason, she started trembling.
Trinity held out her hand, which started glowing purple. She then thrust her hand into Call's chest, actually going through her body, and then pulling her hand out quickly, her hand now glowing with pink xels. Call fell to her knees holding her chest as her body began to repair itself.
"Odd…" Trinity said looking at Call's xels.
"Do you… see the virus…?" Call asked.
"That's the thing, there isn't a virus," Trinity said. Call's eyes went wide and she shot up.
"That is not possible," Call said, "There was no error in my programming, nor did I see a malfunction in my core. The issue must be within my xels."
"Well, it isn't," Trinity said, her hand losing the glow, "I don't know what's wrong, but this isn't a problem with your xels."
But… that didn't make any sense. If the issue wasn't in her CPU, her core wasn't faulty, and her xels hadn't been contaminated, what was left? Where could the problem be?
"Oh my God," Trinity said looking Call over, "Honey, are you… scared?"
"Scared?" Call asked, "That is an emotion I do not possess, Trinity."
"But you're trembling," Trinity said, "And the way you looked just now. Call, are you sure you don't have emotions?"
"I was not designed with an emotional circuit," Call explained, "I have seen my blueprints, and examined my CPU."
"This is odd…" Trinity said, "Okay, I'll use the resources in CherryDyn to investigate this. In the meantime, talk to someone over at SANDA Tech. I don't care if it's Dr. Sanda, Professor White, hell, it could be one of my siblings for all I care, just tell someone."
"I will," Call said, "But I must request that this conversation remain between you and I."
"I won't tell anyone," Trinity said, "I promise," Trinity hugged Call tightly, "We'll figure this out, Call."
"Thank you Trinity," Call said. Trinity walked back into the Cherry Dynamic's building, and Call sat down on a bench taking all of what happened in. Trinity told her to talk to someone, but most of the people who could have helped her with this were people who she didn't want knowing about this.
But there was one person she knew she could trust with anything.
As the day went on, Beck tried to put his focus on other things, but he was just so worried about Call. He hadn't ever seen a look like that before on her. Over the last few days he's begun seeing different looks on her, and she was acting oddly.
He wanted to press her, but he didn't know how she felt about him. What did he mean by that? She didn't feel anything. Sometimes he even wondered why she stayed so close to him all the time.
The other Mighty Numbers and Team Blitz seemed to get along pretty well. Mostly it was the guys though. Cryosphere and Dynatron seemed a little out of the loop, which told Beck that it was the fact that they were all women.
The one who seemed the most distant though was Lynx. Even though she was the leader, she spent most of her time with Dr. Valentine than with her sisters. Something told Beck that there was more to her meeting with Call than she let on. Still, every so often she would flirt with Beck. Cryosphere and Dynatron had gotten into the habit of standing guard of Beck.
Hence why the three of them were sitting in SANDA Tech's cafeteria together.
"Geez, boys are pathetic," Cryosphere said.
"Tell me about it," Dynatron said, "It'zzz like they've never zzzeen a woman before."
Beck just sighed, catching Cryophere and Dynatron's attention.
"What'zzz wrong, little brother?" Dynatron asked.
"Yeah, you're looking a little blue in the face," Cryosphere said.
"Cryo, Dyna, how do I talk to girls?" Beck asked. His two older sisters looked taken aback and then looked at each other.
"Does someone have a crush?" Cryosphere asked, "It's not Lynx, is it?"
"Pleazzze don't let it be Lynx," Dynatron begged.
"No no! It's not Lynx, it's-" Beck caught himself, "It's not even a crush. It's just… I want to be able to understand Call better."
"Beck, you have to underzzztand, she's not like uzzz," Dynatron said comfortingly.
"She doesn't mean to give you the cold shoulder, she's just built to be little chilly," Cryosphere said.
"So, you two think she sees me as a friend?" Beck asked.
"Well yeah," Cryosphere said, "Just because she doesn't have emotions doesn't mean you two aren't friends."
"The bezzzt advizzze I can give you, just be yourzzzelf, Beck. That'zzz alwayzzz worked for you before."
Before Beck could say anything, the intercom came on.
"Beck, could you please report to my room?" Call asked, "I require your assistance with something."
"Looks like the Ice Queen is calling her knight," Cryosphere said, "Good luck, Tiger."
"Don't do anything I wouldn't do," Dynatron said with a toothy grin.
"That list isn't too small," Beck said rising up. As his sisters laughed, he walked out of the cafeteria over to Call's room. Actually, he had never even entered this room before. She didn't let anyone in her room except for Dr. Sanda.
He slowly knocked on the door.
"It is open, Beck. You may enter."
Beck took a deep breath and opened the door walking inside. Her room was different than what Beck expected. The walls were pink, and her bed was surprisingly frilly. On the left side of the room, Beck saw a bookshelf full of mystery books, mostly Sherlock Holmes novels. Naturally in the center of the room was a large complicated computer, which was where Call was sitting at the moment.
"Please close the door, Beck," Call requested. Beck's face turned red.
"Um… sure," Beck said closing the door behind him, "So… what's up?"
"Do you remember earlier today, when you mentioned my behavior as of late?" Call asked.
"Yeah, I remember," Beck said.
"If you desire to get comfortable, you may sit on my bed," Call said, "I do not mind."
"O-okay," Beck said, slowly walking to her bed and sitting down. He was surprised by how soft it was.
"The truth is, for the last few days I have experienced a number of odd anomalies in my functionality," Call explained, "The first one being at the factory."
"What happened there?" Beck asked.
"I was trying to figure that out for a while, and as such I examined all of my internal systems," Call said, pulling up her information, "My CPU, my core, even my xels, I have examined all of them."
"Um, Call? I'm sorry, but I don't know anything about those things," Beck admitted, "I'm just a combat robot."
"That is fine," Call said, "I have already come up with a theory of what is happening to me, but that theory does not make any sense."
"W-what's your theory?" Beck asked. Call slowly turned her chair around to face Beck.
"At the factory, I witnessed you getting hurt. Witnessing that caused a reactionary increase in adrenaline, an inability to think critically, and a sudden increase in irrational behavior."
"Um… translation?" Beck asked.
"Simply put, I was angry," Call said. It took a second, but Beck looked at Call in shock.
"Hold on!" Beck said, "You felt an emotion?!"
"Affirmative," Call said getting up and pacing around the room, "That was not the only instance either. Shortly after, during our fight in the Colosseum, I experiences a series of sensations that are synonymous with fear, and earlier today an altercation brought out sensations similar to anger, but with a bit of fear mixed in as well."
That confirmed something Beck was thinking earlier. He'd have to have a word with Lynx later.
"Do you know where these emotions are coming from?" Beck asked leaning forward.
"Negative," Call said, "This is concerning. I cannot isolate the cause of these anomalies, nor do they happen on command."
"Why are you telling me this?" Beck asked, "There isn't much I can do to help, is there?"
"Simple," Call said stopping and looking at Beck, "You are my best friend, Beck."
"I'm… your what?" Beck asked, eyes wide in shock.
"Though I do not have emotions," she caught herself and averted her eyes, "Rather, though I normally do not possess emotions, I have always valued your input and presence. You have proven early to be someone worthy of trust, and therefore I consider you someone important to me. Does that not match the definition of a best friend?"
"It does! It does!" Beck said getting up, "It's just, I'm shocked. I… well, I've wanted to be friends with you for the longest."
Call actually looked surprised, "You have?"
"Yes! Literally, I just got finished talking to Cryo and Dyna about how to approach you about this. I didn't know that, well, you already considered me a friend."
"Really? I thought I made that obvious," Call said, "Hm… it seems emotions are truly important in terms of relaying intentions. Either way, the truth is I do need your help with this."
"Sure, anything," Beck said, "How can I help?"
"I wish to trigger it," Call said, "In order to finalize my theory, I must experience emotion again. You are the only one I trust with this, Beck," she looked down, "Please Beck, help me."
Beck walked over to Call and took her hands, "You don't even have to ask. Of course I'll help. Hey, maybe we could recreate the factory mission."
"Recreate it? How would that help?" Call asked.
"Professor White says that sometimes experiencing a past event can trigger the emotions as if they're happening again," Beck explained.
"So by reliving the incident, I can experience the emotion again," Call said, "Affirmative. Let us try that."
"Great! I know how to work the VR Room, so we don't even have to tell Professor White about it," Beck said. He was about to walk out, but Call grabbed his hand, "C-Call?"
Call did something sort of odd. She pulled Beck back and embraced him from behind.
"Thank you Beck," Call said, "I was correct in trusting you with this."
"Y-you're welcome," Beck said, blushing from the contact. Was she feeling anything right now, or was she just being nice, doing a gesture that she knew a friend would do? Beck decided it didn't matter in the scheme of things.
He and Call were friends. Apparently, they were best friends. Beck didn't remember the last time he was this happy.
