Professor Archer slouched as he crossed the hall pulling at all the files that'd been neatly piled in an envelope for him to review the latest agreements the board had just proposed. He hated paperwork especially when he'd have to do some filing himself and explain his proposition regarding the Knight 2000 more in-depth. He'd have to send emails, and memos and get that mysterious secretary of his — that personally gave him the creeps — a memoir to store for personal use later. Though he had to admit it was quite an honor having to foresee the Knight 2000. He only hoped restrictions on its interactions would be lifted and he'd get the honor to chat with it himself.

The last thing he expected while he contemplated these things and more was to see Charlie sitting in the hall in officer uniform with his leg lying across his lap humming an old classic. He was accompanied by no one else other than a small and worn cardboard box with a huge chunk of grey tape running across it.

"Charlie!" Archer shouted, relieved he'd been saved from filing useless paperwork right away rather than working in the lab where he personally believed he belonged. The nonsense at the board meeting could be so tedious at times, and frankly, he hated heavy decision-making.

"Archer!" Charlie greeted back, standing up and giving his old pal a smile. "It's been a while hasn't it?"

"Not at all," Archer chuckled, offering a warm hug. "It's only been two months but my does time fly." He grinned fondly as both older men embraced in a fond hug, when they'd finished Archer's gaze stayed glued on the box. " — And…" He eyed the cardboard box eagerly. "Is it a gift? For me? —" He placed his silver hand over his chest in appreciation.

Charlie bit down on his lip. 'Oh, right.' — Maybe he should have thought of that ahead of time…

"Uh, umm, not exactly but I will take you out for lunch as soon as you help me with this." Charlie beamed, hoping he'd just saved his hide.

Archer chuckled, before suppressing a cough.

"Knowing you, I should have known it was another job for me. Speaking of which! I have an update on a little favor I've determined is almost complete." Archer stood on his toes, his mechanical hand resting on his hip while he motioned to his "office".

Charlie's face lit up almost instantly, he nearly forgot why he'd come to see Archer, to begin with.

"Did they —!?"

"I did some digging and reached out to a few contacts scattered here and there. Yes! I DID get her that scholarship! The only thing is I would need her to sign a few papers, file a few things, and tada! Your girl is going to school!" Archer spun around in excitement, always content to help a friend. While Charlie stood in silence clasping his hands together in relief, Archer made an effort to step toward the small brown box and lift it from its spot. Hmm, it was light. So it couldn't be a bomb that Charlie wanted him to examine nor someone's old discarded zip-phone "So tell me —" He trailed off, letting Charlie get over his surprise. "What is the next favor? If I do say so myself?"


Charlie sat quietly on his stool, while Archer paced his lab up and down. He'd have to admit he always got nervous when Archer got down to business. He seemed so distant and alien to his normal and endearing self.

"I see…" He mumbled. "Your girl is rather too clever for her own good. If anything, I'm a little worried she's barked up the wrong tree." Archer offered Charlie ice water from his mini-fridge while he cradled the O.A. unit idling on standby in his metallic hand.

"Could you check if the Operative Assitant unit has any more photographs or evidence she might have picked up? Do you think maybe you could delete them?"

Archer winced.

"I'm afraid I can't do that without a proper access code, these things were designed with 'tough' in mind. If I tamper too much I could start its emergency lockdown procedure which would cause the unit to autoself destruct and upload any remaining data to the cloud which I'd STILL not be able to access without a proper access code. Not to mention we'd mess up the AI's matrix and probably lose it entirely. When Knight Industries builds something they build them long lasting and the O.A.'s are no expectation…It is a pitty the annoying Century Industries picked up the discarded project and claimed it as their own. I'm surprised we haven't gone completely bankrupt with all the ideas being torn from our labs these days." Archer went on while he paraded around his lab suddenly ecstatically. He rarely had visitors, and honestly, the best kind of visitors were always his dearest friends.

"Acadia was telling me about the latest missing people at the utility tunnels." Charlie gulped, watching Archer set the O.A. unit down over his lab-work bench. Gazing into Charlie's worried frown.

"Has she been keeping track of names?" Archer asked feeling a cold sweat coming down.

"Yes." Charlie coughed.

Archer shook his head biting down on his lower lip before wringing his hands together. He flinched promptly realizing he was digging his silver fingers into his other hand's soft palm.

"How far has she gone into the utility tunnels exactly? Do you know?" Archer asked, taking a serious tone. " — Be honest. I wouldn't hurt Acadia even if I wanted to." He reassured Charlie while he brushed his uniform feeling suddenly smaller.

" — Based on the photographs she showed me…even into the condemned zones."

Archer patted his chin.

"I'll talk with security. I'll think of something to keep her out." He turned to his idling UDP screen lightly tacked to the wall, pushing his tongue to the bridge of his mouth while he tried to figure out an effective way to keep the girl from knowing too much. He'd never met her before but Charlie spoke of her plenty that sometimes he felt like he'd had already. Sometimes he'd wished Charlie would have been less chicken when he'd been younger and asked the woman of his youth what he'd felt for her and nurtured his own family.

Instead —- he'd ended up nurturing a young broken-hearted teen, fatherless, wandering the streets for a place to belong. She wasn't the only case. Everyone wanted to belong but as all things are; some people aren't able to ever find that "belong". On occasions Archer wondered if he'd found that place given all he'd lived through…he swallowed hard. He was happy to be part of something special and despite the disputes with the board he indeed DID belong here. He could make a difference here even in old age and still belong. In a way, he felt Knight Industries would always be his home and he intended to fight for it.

"B/series?" The man asked out loud tenderly, watching as the colorful tides of static on the UDP screen directed its attention toward him.

"Yes?" The computer asked pleasantly surprised. He figured she'd been listening. He rolled his eyes in amusement.

"Any Idea if any extra steel plates are lying around somewhere?" He asked, watching from his peripheral vision as Charlie got up and approached the screen.

"Miss Knight has several pounds of discarded steel with a removal order set for next week. Would you be interested?" B/Series replied hastily as a quick outline of the building was shown and the steel plates marked.

Charlie let out a deep breath, watching as a complete inventory of the steel plates was made on screen in a blink of an eye. He felt like they'd dodged a bullet. His only hope was Archer could get the job done sooner.

"You'll board it up?"

"I intend to." Archer stared at the floor before staring back over Charlie's stoic expression. "Keep your girl out of trouble, not for my sake but for your own. What she know's could hurt her and you know that…"