--------------------------------

"And then Daphne turned into a beautiful laurel tree..."

"Teacher," Tomago raised his hand and then stood up from his desk, "if that's true then couldn't everyone turn into a tree anytime they wanted?"

Atom rolled his eyes and continued writing in his notebook.

"She didn't JUST turn into a laurel tree, Tomago," Teacher said, turning away from the blackboard, "she had help from Apollo."

"Yeah, but couldn't he have turned her into a sloth or something?" Kenichi said, butting into the conversation that would soon become a whole class discussion.

Tomago's eyes lit up, "Dude, that would be so cool!"

As all the class joined in, all Denkou could here was a slight background noise. She wasn't really paying attention, she was looking down at her mythology book, her mind elsewhere. All day she had been having a cramp in her stomach. No, not her stomach, it was kind of below that. She put her petite hand over the ache and realized that it was her naval. What was it? It had started right after she left the house this morning, right after her little tiff with Nooj. It's not like it hurt, but it was very uncomfortable. She raised her hand.

The teacher ceased the very interesting conversation with the class when she saw Denkou's hand in the air. The other kids now stopped talking, until all the students had their eyes directly on the little robot.

"Yes Denkou? What's wrong?"

"Can I... ummmm..." Her eyes darted back and forth around the classroom nervously, so many people were looking at her, "Can... can I please go to the nurse?"

Teacher immediately looked at Atom. Atom frowned and looked at Teacher, then back over at Denkou. Teacher's eyes fell off Atom's body and moved to the little green haired robot sitting by the window.

"Why do you need to go to the nurse, dear?"

"I just feel... kinda funny..."

"Well, are you sure you wouldn't rather go to the mechanics supervisor? Maybe something's wrong with one of your circuits?"

"No, it isn't like that."

Teacher crossed her arms and put them over her chest as a look of confusion spread across her face. She took one last look at Atom and then focused on Denkou once more.

"Well, alright then, I hope you feel better. Take the pass off my desk... Atom!"

Atom looked up at Teacher. "Yeah?"

"Walk Denkou to the nurse, Atom."

>>>>>>>>

"What do you feel like?"

"I don't know. It's hard to explain. Do you ever get cramps?" Denkou pointed to where it was bothering her.

Atom laughed, "Only if I eat too much ice cream! But it usually goes away after I empty my waste collector. Humans get them too. Stomach aches... I think..."

Denkou folded her arms and shook her head.

Atom looked down at her. "Not that, huh?"

"Not that."

"Well how can you tell?"

"Intuition."

"Pfft!" Atom rolled his eyes. "Intuition..."

Atom and Denkou continued down the hall to the nurses office, passing other seventh grade classrooms on the way. Denkou was in seventh grade now, and she liked moving up one grade each year with her friends. The new schedules and people were all well and good, but what she liked most was getting the new school uniform. This year, it was a checkered skirt and a plain white t-shirt. A blazer was included, but most kids didn't wear theirs. Denkou loved wearing the outfit though.

>>>>>>>>>>

"Lay down on the couch and we'll have a look see."

Denkou did as the nurse instructed her, with her back on the couch and her stomach facing the ceiling. The nurse pulled over a wheely chair next to the little robot and sat down on it. She pulled a thermometer out of her jacket pocket and began fiddling with it.

"What does it feel like?"

"Ummmm" Denkou looked down at her stomach, "it's not like it hurts or anything, it's just very uncomfortable. See, it's right around here..." Denkou pointed to where the aches were coming from.

The nurse put the thermometer in Denkou's mouth.

"Don't open until it beeps, hun."

"Ummm..." Atom stepped up from where he was standing in the corner, "begging your pardon, ma'am, but a robot's temperature is kept constant all the time."

"Oh dear, that's right..." She took the thermometer out of Denkou's mouth and began washing it in the sink. She looked disturbed.

"I'm sorry, hun," she said, her back still turned, "I was never given adequate training in handling robots." She turned around, a weak smile on her lips, "But go down to the third floor, there's a mechanic there that might be able to help."

>>>>>>>>

Denkou and Atom stood outside the mechanic's room, heads turned upward gaping at the big door.

"He won't be able to tell what's wrong..." Denkou sighed and looked towards the ground.

"We don't know that," Atom replied, his hand reaching up to the door knob, "it's worth a try."

The room was fairly big, and dimly lit. There were piles of old mechanical parts all over the floor and hanging from the walls, and a stale, oily smell emitting in the air. Denkou gulped and backed out of the room.

"Hello?" Atom called. "Anybody there?"

A man's head popped out from behind a junk pile. He had a white, fluffy beard and a pair of denim overalls on over a dirty, white t-shirt. He wiped the oil off his hands with a towel as he walked towards the two robots.

"Well now, what can I do for you?"

Atom put his hand on Denkou's back and pushed her forward.

"Um, hello." Denkou bowed her head but kept her eyes toward the ground as she talked. "I've been feeling weird today and I'm not sure what it is. The nurse sent me down here 'cause she couldn't figure it out. Do you think you could help me?"

"I can certainly try. Come over here and lay down on the couch." Denkou followed the mechanic over to the back of the room and laid down on the couch that he pointed at.

She lay on the couch, her stomach facing the ceiling, her back massaged by the cushions. The mechanic lifted her shirt up, Atom turned away. Her belly purely visible, Denkou turned her head to the side, obviously very embarrassed by the situation. Denkou was not showing many signs of maturity. She had gotten a little taller, but that was about it. Her chest was still rather flat, and her stomach protruded more so than most of the girls in her grade, who's stomachs were now becoming lean and flat. This, of course was due mostly to the fact that her hips were not developed yet, and had barely a curve to them.

"Okay, this'll probably tickle..." He began to prod and message her belly feeling around for something hidden on the inside, something that no one could see. Denkou giggled, Atom looked at drills that were hanging on the wall. The mechanic stopped abruptly, and pulled his hands away from Denkou.

"Take your shoes off for a minute..."

Denkou did as she was told. He lifted up her left foot, shook his head, and then lifted up her right.

"Ah, here we go. Just as I thought. You're a class GH34 aren't you?"

"Yes..."

All robots are branded somewhere on their bodies, like a plastic toy has the logo for the company somewhere on it. Denkou was branded on her foot before she was activated by the industry that built her.

"Give me a minute..." He walked over to a bookcase and began searching for a specific title. Denkou sat up and pulled her shirt down. Atom walked over.

The mechanic pulled out a book. Being one that he never looked at very often, he blew the dust off.

"Let's see here..." He flipped through the pages, his eyes scanning the text feverishly. Atom sat next to Denkou and looked at his hands. He turned them over again and again.

"Here we are!" The man paused, and then began reading silently in his head the text on the page. Denkou watched him eagerly. He had the answer for her, and she wanted to know. Atom, on the other hand, was obviously bored. He scanned the room looking for something interesting to stare at for a while

The mechanic looked over at Denkou, smiled, and then closed the book with a loud thud.

>>>>>>>>>

Denkou took her time walking home. The faster she walked, the more uncomfortable she felt. She remembered back to the conversation she had with the mechanic, after Atom was told to go back to class.

>>>>>>>

"Denkou," He began, "I believe I have the answer."

She waited.

"You were built for government use, correct?"

Denkou looked around the room. People weren't really supposed to know that.

"Anyway, a robot can't just be built, they must have a primary model first. Like an action figure. The body of a doll starts out the same, they are made different by adding accessories and possessions different from the others. You are still the same inside as all GH34 robots, just with different powers and physical appearance. Do you understand?"

Denkou thought she did.

"That should answer your question."

"But I..."

"Tell ya what," He walked over to his cluttered desk and picked up a small pad of paper. He wrote something on the top sheet, ripped it off, and gave it to Denkou.

"Take the day off today. You have my permission."

Denkou looked at the note.

Denkou has my permission to go home early...

-William H, The mech.

Denkou better give this to teacher.

>>>>>>

It had just rained. Luckily it stopped before she had to walk home. The ground was littered with dead worms. They crawled out of the ground to get water but ended up drowning. It was sad.

She walked throughan alley, crossed a street, turned a corner and headed down a bunch of stairs. This lead to an area of the city not quite as rural as the other places. She got to a large apartment complex, paused, and walked around it to the back. There was another street that lead to the criminal's hideout, Denkou's home, her sanctuary. They were hiding out in an abandon box factory. Well, actually, above an abandon box factory. There were living quarters on the third and fourth floors. No one lived or worked there, so no one would suspect a thing.

She entered the factory and walked up the rickety set of stairs to the apartments. Obviously heat and electricity had been shut off, but Nooj was a whizz at hacking into those sort of things. He was able to get the "family" heat and running water in a matter of hours. Denkou was glad too. It was a small little place, but it was warm and she felt safe there.

Well, sometimes.

Denkou approached number 34, their number. She turned the door knob but was surprised that it was locked. She got aggravated very quickly and leaned her head against it. She sighed, and then banged on it furiously.

"What?" Came an annoyed voice from inside.

"Open the door, Skunk!"

"It is open!"

"It is not!"

"Are you a cop?"

Denkou slammed her foot down on the floor. "You know I'm not!"

She heard an annoyed grunt, all of which she assumed was Skunk lazily lifting himself up off the couch. Socked feet trudged over to the door and opened it, exposing a hung over mess of a man. Denkou crossed her arms and quickly slid into the apartment. Skunk slammed the door shut and then resumed his place on the couch staring at a T.V. that wasn't turned on.

"Why was the door locked?"

"What time is it?"

Denkou's lip twitched. She was sick of Skunk always blocking her out.

"It's 10:30"

"Well then what the hell..."

"They sent me home early."

"Why?" He was looking at her now, but Denkou was looking at the counter.

"They said I needed rest. They didn't tell me anything else."

Skunk stared at her for a few more moments before shrugging it off and resuming to watch a blank screen. Denkou, on the other hand, scanned her eyes around the apartment, clearly realizing something that she failed to earlier.

"Where are they?"

Skunk sighed, "I dunno."

"Did they leave before you woke up?"

"That's how it went."

"Did they leave a note?"

"Nope."

"Yes they did. It's tapped to the fridge."

"What! Lemme see that!" Skunk jumped up and ran over to the fridge. Sure enough there was a slip of paper taped to the front. He ripped it off, scrutinized it, and then tossed it over his shoulder.

"Well? What does it say?" Denkou asked, her patience waning.

"I dunno. It's too long, you read it to me."

"Honestly..." Denkou picked the note up off the floor and silently read it in her head. She nodded, and put it down on the table.

Skunk turned around, "Well?"

"Nooj needed to go erase our file and phone number from some company. I guess we keep getting calls from them and he's getting worried. Raff must have gone with him."

"Oh. Okay." Skunk focused his attention once more on the blank screen.

"You think he can pull it off?"

"Nooj knows what he's doing. It's not like this is the first time it's happened."

Denkou was silent for a moment. She looked around the room.

"Skunk?"

"Yeah?"

"I'm going to bed for a while."

He looked at her, an unreadable expression on his face. He opened his mouth to say something, but nothing came out. She walked into the bedroom.

>>>>>>>>

Skunk and Denkou shared a room. Walking in, it was always a bipolar experience. Skunk's side of the room was messy, a disaster. Beer cans and cigarette wrappers littered the floor. The bed was never made. Denkou's side was the complete opposite. The floor was clean, the bed was made and the sheets freshly washed. Normally, she would lay down on her bed carefully, as to not disrupt the time and effort she spent making it look presentable. Now, however, it was not her top priority. She fell violently into the sheets, drifting into a deep slumber upon impact.

>>>>>>>>

Denkou heard laughter. Three voices.

Nooj, Raff, and Skunk.

She looked around, surprised to find that she was in the old car they took on robberies. She hadn't been in it for a while.

Raff was driving, Nooj up front with him, she and Skunk in the back. Denkou looked at Skunk and saw that he had his black suitcase. He opened it up to reveal a large amount of money. Denkou quickly turned her head and looked out the window. She didn't recognized where they were. Each mile took them further away from the city, and more so into a desert. Sand covered the ground, and prickly bushes littered the land. Her lip quivered.

Through the howling laughter she heard a ringtone, somebody's's phone go off. It was the tune the school band would play during graduation.

"Shh! Shh! Quite!" Skunk pulled his cell out of his pocket. "Yeah?"

Everyone breathed.

"Really? Yeah, I'll be right there..." He hung up. "Pull in here..." He pointed to a plaza on the right, a chain of stores that should not have been in the middle of the desert.

Nooj and Raff looked quizzically at each other. Raff sighed and pulled into the plaza. Nooj shook his head.

Denkou walked quickly to keep up with Skunk as she passed the rows and rows of shopping goods that littered the shelves. He was moving to the back of the store. She didn't know why.

Nooj and Raff had long since disappeared, and Denkou was busy just trying to keep Skunk within eye sight. He was moving so fast and there were so many people. She stopped in her tracks and looked over the many bodies. In the distance she could see Skunk, talking to... somebody. A pretty woman. She took his hand and lead him to a back room. Denkou threw up.

"Clean up in isle 12," she heard. "Clean up in isle 12."

>>>>>>>

Denkou woke with a shudder, a sour smell in her nose and a bitter taste in her mouth. She lifted her head off the pillow and wiped her face with her hand. When she looked down at it she saw the cakey remains of this morning's breakfast. She cringed, and shook her body, as if to rid herself of a curse. Vomit was a human quality. It had never happened to her.

Her body felt sticky, dirty, like she had been sleeping in mud. Instinct told her to feel between her legs. She did, and when she brought her hand up, it was covered in something. She didn't know what. She didn't want to know. She was confused and didn't know what to do, so she did what any kid does at a time like that.

She began to cry.

Skunk heard her, from his position on the couch. He had just been sitting there for the hour she had been asleep, thinking. He had opened the door after she went in, just incase she needed anything, he would be able to hear her. Now, she was crying. He knew he had to go in and say something. The only noise and movement she had made in the last hour was a leg twitch. To begin to cry was serious. But then again, he didn't know much. What could he say? What could he do?

He walked over to her door, which was agape only slightly, and opened it more. He opened it enough so that he could just barely see her, but the hinges were rickety and loose, and the door slowly creaked open all the way until it was stopped by the wall behind it. Denkou heard the creaking and looked up, her mouth becoming nothing more than a thin line across her face. She was always embarrassed to cry, but what was worse than being caught crying by anybody, was being caught crying by Skunk. To her, he was stone. Or so she used to believe. Now she wasn't that sure. She had admired him for many years when she was younger, but looking at him now, she suddenly became angry. She was angry because of how nervous he looked. He must have seen the vomit, because his mouth kept opening and closing, like a fish, with no words coming out. She scowled, and sniffed whatever was coming out of her nose back in. She looked down in her lap and saw her hands, just limp like something chewed them up. She turned them over again and again, then wiped the sticky substance off of them onto her bed sheets. Skunk turned the light on, and only then did she see the color. Where she had wiped her hand were little red blotches. She frowned, but then her face became stiff, as a thought came to mind. She didn't want to know, but her body was moving on it's own. She feverishly threw the comforter off the bed and exposed what was beneath. Just looking down at it, it looked like the outline of a pond from an airplane, and the very first thought that filled Denkou's mind was, that all came from me. How could all that come from me? She screamed and hoped from one foot to the other, keeping her hands cupped over her opening incase more should leak out, or for fear that it might be fatal. It certainly didn't seem like something normal. Skunk, on the other hand, all he could hear of Denkou's voice was a drone in the background. He had averted his eyes from the scene and was looking down at the floor boards. This was as real as it could get at the moment.

"What have you done?"

Skunk whipped his head around, taking in the sight of his much shorter friend standing in the hall. Nooj was breathing hard. Without a doubt, he had heard Denkou screaming while he was climbing up the stairs, and hurried quickly up and into the apartment. He was bug-eyed and confused by the situation.

All Skunk could do was point at Denkou, a little girl jumping and screaming, with his mouth open and only noises coming out.

"She didn't... I heard... she wasn't..."

"Noooooj..." Denkou held her arms out. Skunk saw this, and stepped forward only for a second, thinking it was him she was reaching out for. He stopped though, when he saw her face, and saw her not looking at him, but rather through him. To the man standing in the hallway. A body rushed past Skunk at a great speed, a speed he didn't think possible for his shorter and more stout friend. Nooj ran over to the hysterical robot and swung her over his shoulder. It happened so fast, Skunk didn't even realize him push his way past with her kicking and screaming on his shoulder and run into the bathroom. He locked the door and that was it. Skunk heard kicking and a palm slapping against tile, but all that was silenced by the rush of water that soon soared out of the bathtub faucet.

He moved his head around and looked down at both sides of the apartment, as if to find something that would explain it all. When he found nothing, he made his way back to the living room, the noise of the water washing over him like all of his thoughts and fears were doing at the moment. He heard feet shuffling by the door and looked over. Raff was calmly taking off his boots, but Skunk could tell it was taking all of his strength not to blurt out the laugh that was threatening to fall from his tightly sealed lips. He looked towards the ground, his mouth twitching every time he heard the water splash in the bathtub. Skunk crossed his arms and shook his head.

"Well I'm not laughing..."

"I'm sorry man... it's just... I can't believe I missed the show!"

>>>>>>>

Skunk awoke to the sound of laughter, though it was obviously just a reoccurring element of his dream. He sat up in bed, groaning and rubbing his eyes, trying to remember what it was. He waved his hand in front of his face but couldn't see it. Panic struck as he got a horrifying notion that he was suddenly blind, but reality soon sunk in and he realized that the lights were just off. It must have been two a.m.

He was about to go back to sleep when he heard someone cough from outside his room. He rolled over and looked at the door, in an instant realizing something that he failed to earlier. He saw a little bit of light shining through the cracks in the door, signaling that there was someone on the other side sitting at the table.

He violently pushed the covers off his body, annoyed that this little act would taunt him so. He swung the door open and opened his mouth to say something to the certain individual, but closed it when he realized who it was. He looked at Nooj, hunched over the table with a cup of coffee in his hand. His eyelids were heavy and he was busy scanning the text of a book in front of him.

"Hey," he said, not even looking up.

Skunk looked down at the book on the table. It was a huge manual on... something, he couldn't really tell what. It was hard to see from his position in the doorway of the bedroom.

"Did I wake you?"

"Mm. No." Skunk walked over to the sink and looked out the window. Very soft sounds of thunder purred in the sky, and he wondered when it had begun to rain again. When he turned back around, Nooj was looking at him, a drunken and goofy smile plastered on his face.

"What the hell'r you looking at?"

"Coffee?" Nooj held up the pitcher of black and now semi cold liquid that had been sitting on the table.

"Gross."

Nooj shrugged and poured some into his mug.

"Whatchya doing out here?"

"Last chance..."

"I don't want any!"

Nooj poured the rest of the contents of the pitcher into his mug and took a big gulp. He swallowed and put it down. "I'm reading."

"What are you reading?"

Nooj held up the book for Skunk to see, his other hand busy writing down something on a pad of paper.

A manual for GH34 robots.

Skunk grabbed the book.

"No!" Nooj snatched the book with his other hand and tried to pry it from Skunk's grasp.

"What the hell is wrong with you?"

"I saved my place with my hand and I don't wanna lose it again. This book is way too long now give it!" Nooj tugged and the book came lose from Skunk's hands. Skunk, deciding to be mature, sat down in the empty seat across from the smaller man, but not before picking up Nooj's discarded pencil shavings up off the table and blowing them in to the unsuspecting victim's face. Nooj blink twice, and then shook them out of his hair, as would a dog do to the snow or leaves caught in his fur. Skunk smiled, for no more than a second, before moving his fingers in weird and random patterns on the table.

"Does she know how much you do for her?"

Nooj just didn't look up. In fact, he continued writing notes on the pad of paper. Skunk waited a few more moments before lunging across the table and grabbing the book from under Nooj's hand.

"I'm..."

Skunk quickly flipped through the pages, turning the manual over and over in his hands. "You're what?"

Nooj breathed in, a little too loudly. "Just... I need to talk to you... about... well you know..."

The book lay limp in Skunk's hands, his foam colored eyes giving full attention to the man sitting in front of him. Nooj looked up, his gaze meeting the other man's. He swallowed loudly.

"Well?"

"Just about..." He looked away. "About Denkou."

Skunk looked relieved. He released the breath he was holding, "yeah..."

Nooj got up and walked over to him. He pointed to a section in the book with his finger. Skunk read quietly in his head. When he was finished, he looked back up at the man hovering over him.

"And?"

"Oh? Well, I think it's a pretty big deal, don't you?"

"If I can understand it..."

"Basically, all robots have a standard model that they stem from, Denkou's being the advanced GH34..."

"Pretend for a moment that I'm not smart like you."

"...you think I'm smart?"

Skunk growled, officially annoyed.

"Oh right, I guess it means that Denkou was built with certain... aspects that most other robots aren't equipped with..."

"Uh huh..." Skunk had put his feet up on the table and crossed his arms over his chest, the boredom washing over him like water. "...and what aspects would these be?"

"Well anyway, they just recently woke up and started working. That's why she's been acting strange lately..."

"What ARE they Nooj?"

"Oh Jeeze, this is embarrassing, ain't it?"

"You can tell me why she was bleeding today. I'd figure you'd know why..." Skunk chuckled suddenly as he picked up the salt shaker on the table and threw it up in the air, catching it as it came back down. "Robots don't bleed..." he said between laughs. "Robots don't bleed..."

"Oh, I see how it is..." Nooj caught the salt shaker in mid air. Skunk kept his eyes on the table, his hand still extended to catch something that wasn't in his pocession anymore.

"It isn't a matter of understanding it," Nooj continued, "but rather being able to admit something you already know."

"Aw, fuck you man..."

"It's okay." Nooj sat back down. He looked tired. Of many things. "It makes me sad too."

"I don't get sad."

Nooj breathed out heavy in a sigh. He opened his mouth to say something but was cut off as a door opened behind him. He turned around and saw Raff standing in the doorway to the bedroom they shared.

"If you ladies are done," he began, his voice heavy with sleep, "I'd appreciate it if you turn this light off and go back to bed."

Nooj cringed. "Did we wake you?"

Raff looked over at Skunk. "Somebody did."

Skunk scowled.

Raff looked back and forth from Nooj to Skunk until it appeared a light bulb went off in his head.

"Oh Jeez! Nooj, were you telling him?"

"Um, well, that is to say..."

"Oh, he told me alright." Skunk violently pushed himself from the table. "He told me the whole shabang story." He trudged into his room and slammed the door shut, waking up a poor robot in the process.

Nooj shook his head and rubbed his temples, pretty sure a headache was on the way.

"Aw, don't worry..." Raff wrapped his arms around the smaller man and kissed him.

"He'll get over it."