In the lab, Steel was on a table, while Nate and Zoey worked on him. Jax, and Cruise were standing, observing the examination, morally supporting their fallen friend.

"Is this right?" Zoey asked, letting Nate check her work hooking up one of his devices. She was in no way a scientist. Life hadn't given her anything like the opportunities to be able to afford the kind of education that she would have liked, but working at Grid Battleforce, and in particular since befriending Nate, she had been allowed a lot more access to the kind of education that would likely never be within her means. He just checked the connection and smiled.

"Yes, that's exactly right." He complimented her. "Nice work."

Zoey just smiled and shrunk into herself a little. There were of course other benefits to her spending more time in the lab. She'd always wanted to learn more about how to create the kinds of advances that would one day reduce or end the world's reliance on self-destructive forms of lifestyle like polluting energy processes and fossil fuels, but getting to be close to Nate was a pretty nice benefit too. They still couldn't risk being public about their feelings for each other, but being in the lab together more often was about as close as they were going to get to a date any time soon.

"Alright, Steel, your systems have definitely taken a beating, but it looks like you're a lot tougher than Vargoyle gave you credit for." Nate said, checking things over.

"I guess you should know, you built me." Steel said, with a little bit of an edge to his tone. Nate didn't seem to catch it though. Steel knew Nate never meant it as a roundabout compliment of his own work, he knew he genuinely cared about him as his brother, but it was true that a lot of his resilience and the robust nature of his design was down to Nate's work building his body in the first place. He still couldn't quite get out of his mind what Vargoyle had said about humans, how they viewed machines. Zoey turned to the Beastbots.

"He should be fine, you can stay with him a little while, but you should probably let him have time to rest up." She told them. "His repairs will take less time if you allow him time to shut down and reboot."

"We understand, but...would it still be alright if we stayed with him?" Jax asked. "You know, in case he comes online earlier than expected and wants help with something."

"Of course." Zoey said, understanding completely. "Is Smash coming too?"

"He'll be along later." Cruise informed her. "Commander Shaw made an arrangement with the DMV to repaint the wall he vandalised. It would take too long to explain the situation, and strictly since he can't be charged with anything, they just agreed to let the whole thing drop if Grid Battleforce saw to it the wall was repainted."

"Wait, he can't be charged?" Steel asked. Jax turned his head rapidly from one side to the other.

"No, he can't. Because he's a machine, legally he can't be held accountable for a crime." Jax explained. "The law hasn't made a ruling on what level of AI constitutes a sentience so as far as they're concerned all he's capable of is at best a mechanical fault. Pretty lucky for us, right? All this whole thing will cost us is a couple of cans of paint and a little time."

"Yeah." Steel responded. "Lucky for us."

It troubled him to hear though. It did, on the surface, sound like a good thing. Strictly speaking as a machine, nothing the Beastbots could do could be considered a crime. They couldn't be considered to be criminally responsible because as far as the law was concerned, they couldn't make decisions. A Beastbot could no more commit a crime in the eyes of a court than a toaster could be said to have committed assault if someone burned themselves with it. It did mean that Smash couldn't be punished, but there was an underlying thing that Steel didn't like the sound of.

As far as people were concerned, robots could not be considered to make decisions, they were not considered sentient...which meant that any legislation that protected or granted rights also didn't apply to them.

"Ravi, Ben and Betty are out right now with him to repaint." Cruise informed them. "They'll be back in a few hours."

"That's good." Zoey replied, before looking to Nate, who was gently resting his hand on Steel's head.

"I'm so sorry it took so long for me to get there." Nate told him. "If I'd gotten there sooner..."

"Hey, Vargoyle played all of us. None of us believed he was as dangerous as he is." Zoey pointed out.

"From now on, we're not going to take him lightly." Nate assured him. "He's done this, we won't be caught out again. If he comes back, we'll make him pay."

"Yeah, that sounds good." Steel responded. "Wouldn't want him smashing up Grid Battleforce property."

Nate furrowed his brows hearing this, but Zoey could see how upset he was. She just led him from the room.

"We'll be back to check on you later." Zoey told him. "Just shut down, that should help you recover faster."

"You guys don't need to hang around." Steel told the other Beastbots.

"Are you sure?" Cruise asked. "I mean, we don't mind."

"I'm sure Grid Battleforce has better uses of your time than watching me lie here." Steel replied.

"Oh, well...OK, if you're sure." Jax responded. "See you in a while."

As the others left, and he settled down, preparing to shutdown, Steel had one last thought.

"Computer." Steel instructed. "While I'm rebooting, update all files, and upload all files relating to the legal status and rights of artificial intelligence."

"Command confirmed." The computer replied as he shut down.

In the city, Ben, Betty, Ravi and Smash were repainting the DMV building. It really was the simplest way to resolve the whole situation. It was going to be next to impossible to explain what Smash was and how he had come to paint on their walls, and so it was easiest to just say that it was a machine that had malfunctioned, which was in a way true, and offer to repair the damage. Since Grid Battleforce was so prominent in the city and had brought so much positive change, no one was in a hurry to try and bring legal action against them, and since the issue was the vandalism, they were happy to just accept the offer to have the mural covered up.

Ravi had volunteered to help. Ben and Betty, in true fashion, had ended up with the job, largely by virtue of it being a job few wanted to do and them having nothing better to do. Not that they minded, they were always enthusiastic to help out wherever they could and getting Grid Battleforce out of trouble was something they jumped at.

Ravi felt responsible though, his tampering with Smash's memory had led to his most recent thought being about art and caused him to go looking for something to paint, and so he wanted to correct his own mistake. He also didn't want Smash to face doing it alone because he was essentially blameless. Smash looked at the wall a little morosely.

"I think I preferred it before." He said dejectedly. "It was so drab, I thought people would like it."

"There's no accounting for taste. Some people just like things boring and plain." Ravi responded, trying to cheer Smash up. "It's their wall, they can have it plain old grey if they want."

"I know, but I really liked painting it." Smash responded. Ravi just looked to him curiously.

"You did?" He asked. Smash moved his body back and forward. The nature of his design meant he couldn't really nod, so the closest he could do was move his body at the waist and hips.

"It was really fun, and I just loved having all those ideas that came out of me and made something I really liked...those other people did too!" Smash explained. Ravi thought about it for a bit.

"Well, if you like it, I guess we can find something you can paint on." Ravi assured him. "The only issue was you didn't have permission to paint on their wall. I'm sure if we find someone that wants to redecorate or a nice canvas or something, you can create something you'll love."

"Is that what you feel when you paint?" Smash asked. Ravi just paused.

"Wait, what did you say?" Ravi asked.

"I never tried before, so I never understood why you liked it so much, but now I have, I find it really fun and get really excited about creating things." Smash continued with his thought.

"No, I mean, you knew about my art?" Ravi asked.

"I've known for months." Smash confirmed. "I found some of your supplies and your work."

"But you never said anything." Ravi responded. Smash just looked to him.

"Why would I?" Smash asked him. "I'm your friend. I'm your Beastbot. I'm here for you."

Now Ravi felt worse than ever.

"But...I thought you would have to report anything to mom..."

"The rules say I have to report anything that concerns the team to your mom, but I don't see how this does. What you do in your own time is your business, it doesn't affect the team." Smash explained. "And even if it does take up some of your time, it's just a silly rule."

Ravi now had a thought he hadn't considered before. Back when Smash and Cruise had their memories erased, Smash had almost hurt him in training because Ravi had asked him to fight as hard as he could.

Nate had told him that the Beastbots hadn't been built with hard and fast rules in their central processors. They had been created with sentience, and the ability to form their own morality, giving them the ability to act against laws and rules in situations where to obey them would not be the best moral choice. Effectively they knew the rules but they had no compulsion to have to follow them. They could choose to follow them or not based on if they believed that it was the right thing to do. It was something he had done rather than having the Beastbots blindly follow rules so that they could act in situations that Grid Battleforce hadn't accounted for in order to find the best course of action.

He had not considered that Smash, even if he knew about his art, always had the ability to decide not to tell anyone. Now, he felt worse than ever that he hadn't just trusted Smash as the friend he'd always known him to be.

"Smash, I am so sorry. I should have trusted you..."

"It's alright..."

"No, it's really not." Ravi told him. "Smash, I treated you like a machine, not a friend. You have done so much to be a friend to me. I only hope you can forgive me."

"Well, there are a couple of things you can do." Smash told him. Ravi cocked an eyebrow.

"Oh?" He asked. "Like what?"

"We can paint together sometimes?" He asked.

"I'd be honoured." Ravi told him.

"And you'll let me bring you towels and snacks after your workouts." Smash stated.

"I...guess that's alright." Ravi responded.

"And you'll let me make sure you're alright when you push yourself too hard in the gym?" Ravi just laughed.

"Oh, now I know your moral protocols are sentient." Ravi chuckled. "I doubt Nate programmed you for blackmail. OK, fine."

With that, Ravi came in and hugged Smash. The Beastbot just grunted and hooted excitedly. It was one of the few things he'd always wanted.

In Nate's room, Zoey and Nate were waiting, passing the time until he could check on Steel. Although being alone together was normally a good thing, and even Grid Battleforce weren't invasive enough to have surveillance cameras in people's dorm rooms, she understood that Nate wasn't in the mood to take advantage of the situation where people were off doing their own thing and no one was really paying attention to them. She understood he was upset about what had happened to Steel and was trying to cheer him up and keep his mind off his worry. She saw him checking his watch yet again.

"Nate, it's only been a couple of minutes since you last checked." She told him, gesturing to the screen. "You know you'll get an alert from the lab if anything changes."

"I just can't believe what almost happened." Nate told her. "Vargoyle caught us completely by surprise. We should never have been so unprepared."

"Nate, you heard what Steel said, it sounds like Vargoyle's not like those other Robotrons." Zoey pressed on. "He said he kept mentioning the Machine Empire and King Mondo. It sounds like he was created long before Scrozzle valued machines he could control over their power."

"He caught us completely flat-footed. Anything could have happened." Nate reiterated, getting up from the bed, letting Zoey's hand slip off his shoulder. "Steel was...anything could have happened. If I'd been a little bit slower..."

"And if it was any of the rest of us we might not have made it at all." Zoey reminded him. "We're a lot squishier than Steel is."

"But..."

"Nate, I'm not saying it's great what happened to your brother, I'm worried about him too." She assured him. "But worrying about what could have happened isn't going to help us with what we're going to do about getting Vargoyle back for this to make sure he can't do this to anyone else."

"You want to get Vargoyle back?" He asked. Zoey just nodded.

"Steel's a friend. No one messes with my friends." She told him. "Besides, you said it yourself, he got away with a lot of Morph-X. He was successful. You just know that's going to get Evox confident, and when that happens, you know he's going to want to send him out again."

"That's true." Nate responded. "I know it's not exactly the most logical thing to want, but I really want to be the one to rip Vargoyle's head off."

"It's not the scientific thing." She agreed. "But it's what any brother would want."

"So, what's that you're watching anyway?" Nate asked her. She just smiled.

"It's a documentary about Nicky Reve. She's making a new movie." She told him. "Hydroworm 5: The End of the Hydroworm and this time we REALLY mean it!"

"That's the title?" Nate chuckled. They both loved the cheesy, insanely terrible movie series. It was one of those cheap, tacky movie series that were so terrible even the most hardcore fans acknowledged the movies were absolutely awful, but if anything actively loved them because of how awful they were!"

"Yup." She confirmed. "I mean, Hydroworm 2 was The Death of the Hydroworm and 3 was The Extinction of the Hydroworm so I'm not too worried about there being more instalments."

"As long as the tickets sell, right?" Nate agreed. Just then, Zoey's phone buzzed. She checked the ID before putting it aside.

"You're not going to check that?" He asked her.

"It's just mom." She stated, putting her arm around him. "I can get back to her."

The phone buzzed again.

"It sounds pretty important." Nate told her.

"You really want me to take a call from my mom?" She asked him. The phone buzzed again. "Alright, alright, hold your horses!"

She understood her mom wanted to get in touch with her. She had been at home recovering after being attacked by Eli's old club, but she was now feeling a lot better and getting back out into the field. She'd been mostly just writing articles and other things she could do at home, but Muriel Reeves was not someone who liked to make news from an apartment. Zoey checked her messages.

"So, what's going on?" Nate asked.

"She's finally getting a field assignment." She responded. "It says she's going to a studio..."

"What?" Nate asked as she tailed off.

"No...freaking...WAY!" She gasped, starting to hyperventilate. Nate looked a little worried.

"What? What is it?" He asked. "Crime? War?..."

She showed him the phone, and his eyes almost bulged out of his head.

"You're not serious!" He gasped. She just nodded frantically.

"My mom is interviewing NICKY FREAKING REVE!" She shrieked excitedly. She and Nate grabbed each other, hugging tightly. As they parted, he looked to her, brushing some hair out of her face, before they pulled in, kissing each other softly.

Elsewhere on the base, Commander Shaw was in her office, on the phone to someone at the DMV. She had a smile on her face as she listened to the man on the other end.

"Well, I'm glad you're happy with the work." She responded. "Yes, I'm sorry our hardware malfunctioned. Alright...well, once again, thank you for your patience. Here at Grid Battleforce, we consider ourselves if nothing else, good neighbours."

She heard a knock on the door and looked up to see Devon standing in the doorway. She just gestured to him to come in and to the phone.

"Well, yes, you have my word, I'll be taking steps to ensure it doesn't happen again." She replied. "Alright, goodbye."

As she hung up the phone, she looked to Devon.

"The DMV was just calling to say that the work's been finished." She told him. "They're quite happy."

"I'll be sure to let my team know." Devon replied.

"I take it that's why you're here." She replied.

"Well, yes, Ravi called to let me know he's on his way back." Devon responded.

"This Vargoyle, his sudden appearance is very troubling." She confirmed. "The attack today was costly, we can't afford to let something like that happen again."

"Yeah, he was tough alright. He caught us with our pants down." Devon admitted. "But we're going to be prepared for him coming back. I get the feeling it won't be too long before we're seeing him again."

She just nodded to confirm she understood, but as she went to her chair, she noticed Devon wasn't leaving.

"Is there something else I can help you with?" She asked him. He just nodded.

"Commander, I just wanted to talk to you about the art thing." Devon stated. "You seemed pretty down on it."

"Well, I'm not thrilled about the fact my Beastbot defaced public property..."

"It seemed like more than that." Devon interrupted her. "You called it a waste of time."

"It is." She answered. Devon just scratched the back of his neck.

"Commander, with all due respect, we all have lives outside of work." He reminded her. "I have my gaming and you've never said a word about that. Do you think that's a waste of time?"

"Well, yes." She said honestly. "But you haven't signed up. You're not enlisted..."

"But if I was, you'd discourage me to stop?" Devon asked her. She just nodded.

"Probably." She answered. "What we do here, our duty, it's very important. It should be at the forefront of our minds at all times."

"I see." Devon answered, nodding. He looked to some of the decorations in her office. There was a katana on the wall, along with some banners of Kanji writing. He just pointed to them. "I see you like Samurai stuff."

"Yes, I do." She responded. "They were some of the most disciplined and dedicated warriors in history. These here are the tenets of Bushido, and this right here, it's a genuine Masamune blade."

Devon let out a long whistle.

"A real Masamune?" He asked her. She just nodded.

"I was gifted it when I was honoured for service in the orient." She told him. "He was one of the greatest sword makers that ever lived."

"You know, my friend Mike, he's really into all that stuff too as you well know." Devon reminded her. She'd met Mike, and they now knew about his family's ties to the ancient noble families that granted him his very own Ranger powers that he had used to help them on one occasion. "They were a dedicated bunch alright."

"Their discipline and devotion to their craft is an example to all. It's why I've always admired them." She replied, looking to the decorations. "I try to exemplify them in everything they do."

"So, I presume you've heard of Miyamoto Musashi?" Devon asked her, pulling out a book and showing her a painting of him. She just nodded.

"Of course. Miyamoto Musashi, considered perhaps the single greatest swordsman of his age." She replied. "As well as many battles, he fought in over 50 personal duels in his lifetime, winning most of them with a bokken. His dedication to his craft was legendary."

"Indeed it is." Devon agreed. "You know who else thought so? The guy that painted this painting...one of Mike's ancestors."

She looked a bit taken aback as he said this.

"And Musashi...he was a writer. He wrote one of the most famous books on sword techniques ever printed." Devon informed her as he closed over the book, showing her that Musashi's name was on the cover.

"I'm sorry..."

"The Samurai were great warriors, and their dedication and discipline was a large part of that. But they were so much more than that." Devon informed her. "They were writers, poets, musicians, painters, sculptors, physicians, cartographers, scientists, metal workers...so many other things too."

He looked to her as he put away his phone.

"They were great warriors, but they weren't JUST warriors, because even they understood one thing." Devon told her. "If all you do is dedicate yourself to one thing, you burn out. I am one of the top twenty gamers in the world, but I turn off my console and do other things too."

He slid the book over to her.

"A big part of being a warrior is having other things in your life worth fighting for." Devon told her. "Mike said you can keep the book. He has another copy."

"Devon!" She called out, causing him to stop in the doorway as he prepared to leave. "Tell Mike...thank you for the book."

As he left, she sat at the desk, contemplating the book. Devon just walked down the hall with a smile on his face. He didn't doubt it would be some time before Ravi felt like he could talk to his mom about his interests, but he hoped that in some way, he'd given her something to think about so that when he did, she might be ready to listen.