More Human Than Human

"Talking"

'thoughts'

"Recordings, talking on the phone or singing"

"Speaking another language besides Japanese"

:Talking through the comm.s:

Disclaimer: I own nothing but my O.C.s, Starts after the events in "The Masked Brave, Dumpson" and goes from there with a few twists.

The Brave Police followed the two soldiers to a large hanger at the edge of the base and waited at the closed bay doors while the human's went in through the smaller side door to let them in.

While Sargent Matthews was yelling at someone to open the doors to let the mechs in, Yuuta caught sight of a very large mech supported by a maintenance cradle on the wall to the right.

The mech appeared to be able to turn into some kind of jet and had a black-and-gray color scheme with red on his wingtips as well as on his elbow and knee joints. He also wore a visor like Gunmax only it came down to a point over his nasal ridge rather than being a straight band across his optics. But the one feature about the mech that stood out the most for Yuuta was the sheer size of him.

Yuuta's eyes widened as he stared up at him. "Whoa…"

The others entered the hanger and stopped to gawk up at the tall mech, most of them only came up chest height on the mech and Drill Boy was optic level with the mech's mid-section.

"Whoa!"

"Holy…"

"He's… tall?"

Deckard looked down at the Captain Wilde. "Impressive, although… didn't you say there were two?"

The two soldiers looked at each other uncertainly and this aroused Shadowmaru's suspicion; not only were the Captain and the Sargent acting suspicious just then, like they weren't sure how much they could tell them, but the technicians scurrying around going about their work had paused when the question came up, like they were hoping the two officers wouldn't tell them anything.

'Hmm, perhaps now would be a good time for some recon.' Shadowmaru started to wander off to do some poking around but didn't get far.

Deckard looked around and asked. "Where is the other one?"

"Found it!" They all looked to see Shadowmaru pointing to something on the other side of the jet mech. "Or rather… her?"

"HER?" The others went to where the Ninja Detective was standing and saw another Brave police bot—they hadn't seen it right away because the other one had been blocking their view—only this one definitely appeared female.

She also appeared to be able to turn into some sort of emergency vehicle and had a light blue-and-tan color scheme.

Ayako looked at the femme. "Huh, she was hiding behind the big guy. Ah, she has kitty ears, how cute!"

The Yuuta and the mechs did a double take and concurred that the femme's audio finials did sort of look like kitty ears.

Power Joe looked the femme up and down and rumbled "Hello-o Kitty,"

Shadowmaru cuffed the Kung Fu Detective across the helm. "Power Joe, show some respect!"

Power Joe apologized automatically as he rubbed his helm. "Sorry,"

No response. "Huh, that's rude,"

Nobody had the heart to tell Power Joe he had no room to talk as far as being rude went after his previous comment so McCrane suggested. "Maybe she doesn't understand our language. Try it in English,"

Power Joe tried "Sorry… wait, can she even hear me?" he leaned in closer to look at the femme's optics.

They were dark but Yuuta could have sworn he saw them flicker when Shadowmaru got after Power Joe for hitting on her.

One of the technicians came up to them. "I doubt it. BP201, like BP101, have been completely unresponsive to any stimuli aside from the basic commands we pre-programmed them with and even then they only respond if their pilots say them,"

Deckard looked at the man, whose name tag read Dr. Kindle and identified him as Chief engineer, and tilted his helm curiously. "Pilots?"

Dr. Kindle nodded. "Yes, originally we were going to assign the BP's to human pilots in the event that they encountered an issue that their A.I.s weren't equipped to handle. But then we found out about Super A.I.s, which is a scientific miracle in itself,"

He nodded at Deckard and Yuuta. "I hear we have you two to thank for that,"

Both Deckard and Yuuta smiled sheepishly and rubbed the backs of their necks as Dr. Kindle continued. "Anyhoo, your engineers sent us a copy of the personality coding that would help our BP's A.I.s evolve into Super A.I.s. As far as we can tell the actual installment was a success but we cannot seem to activate it in the new A.I.s.,"

Captain Wilde stepped up. "That's where you come in,"

Yuuta looked at the man and then up at Deckard who was watching the other Brave police inspect the two new robots, then at them, then back at the Captain. "So… they have minds of their own, you just want us to help them learn how to use them?"

Dr. Kindle nodded. "Precisely,"

Deckard tore his optics away from the other robots and looked down at Dr. Kindle, Sargent Matthews and Captain Wilde. "Did you want us to work with them here or is it alright if we take them back to Japan with us?"

Captain Wilde looked at all of the Brave Police mechs and considered for a moment before sighing. "At this time we don't have the facilities to house all of you so it would seem our only feasible option would be to either have them go back with you for the time being,"

Yuuta smiled and clenched his fists excitedly. "Cool!"

The Captain cut in. "Or have only a few of you stay while the rest of you return to Japan,"

Dr. Kindle held up a finger. "And we want regular progress reports if you do take them with you for the time being. Understood?"

Captain Wilde looked at Yuuta, since Commissioner Saejima had left the final decision up to him. "So, think you're up to the challenge?"

Yuuta looked up at the others and then at the Captain. "This is going to be a team effort, we'd better vote on it,"

Deckard got the other's attention and said. "Alright guys, all in favor of helping the two American Brave Police get their 'hearts' in working order say 'aye',"

Everyone looked at each other before raising their servos. "AYE!"

Captain Wilde chuckled. "I'll take that as a 'yes'?"

Sargent Matthews nodded. "So, you guys staying or are they going with you?"

Deckard and Yuuta looked at each other and the former said "All in favor of bringing them back with us for that say 'aye',"

About half of them said "Aye" again and Deckard said "All in favor of some of us staying here to work with them, for work, not play…" he quickly added when Drill Boy and Power Joe were about to say something but they stopped so Deckard continued. "..say 'Aye',"

No one said anything and Yuuta smiled at Captain Wilde. "We'll do it, if we can take them with us to work with them. We'll send them back when they are ready,"

The Captain nodded "Alright, if you would come with me, Inspector, we have some forms for you to sign,"

Yuuta started to follow but then he heard Power Joe say. "Wait, how are we going to get the big guy home?"

Yuuta stopped and looked up at the Brave Police and saw they had a problem. "Uh oh,"

Sargent Matthews looked at him "Something wrong?"

Yuuta rubbed the back of his head "Uh, the guys just pointed out that we came on a plane but there isn't enough room for everyone with the bigger robot on the plane,"

"He IS a plane,"

They all turned to see a young man with brown hair and blue eyes in military fatigues leaning against the wall opposite the maintenance cradles.

Sargent Matthews looked at the man and frowned. "Private Baker, how long have you been standing there?"

The soldier, Private Baker, realized his commanding officer had asked him a question and saluted. "A while, sir. I heard you were shipping the big guy and the ambulance lady out so I came to say 'goodbye' but I didn't want to interrupt the inspection,"

Dr. Kindle rolled his eyes and mumbled to Yuuta, and Deckard since the mech leaned down to listen too. "Private Baker was supposed to be BP101's pilot, he's gotten kind of… attached to it and the other one,"

Yuuta looked up at the Private apologetically. "I'm sorry, we don't mean to take your friend away, Private Baker, we just…"

Private Baker smiled and held up his hand "Don't worry, just… take care of them, okay?"

Deckard nodded and promised. "We will," He looked at the unnamed mech, BP101, and said. "Now we just need to figure out how to get them back to Japan. Unfortunately your bigger friend won't fit in the plane we came in and I don't see how he'll be able to fly alongside without a pilot if his A.I. hasn't been activated yet,"

Private Baker rubbed his chin for a moment before smiling. "I might be able to help you with that,"

The others looked at him and Power Joe crossed his arm-servos. "And how do you plan on doing that?"

Private Baker smiled and held up his hands in a shrug that reminded the Brave Police so much of Gunmax it was almost like they were talking to the Motorcycle Detective himself. "Well, I am 101's pilot and it just so happens I'm about to go off base for personal leave. If you guys want I can fly him to Japan for you and take the next flight back here to California,"

Yuuta smiled up at the soldier "You'd do that?"

Sargent Matthews scowled. "I thought you were taking that time off to see your family,"

Private Baker scowled back. "For two weeks, I don't think it will take that long,"

McCrane frowned. "Still, we shouldn't keep you from your family, Private,"

Private Baker smiled. "It's fine, I'll be there and back before anyone has a chance to miss me,"

Captain Wilde considered for a moment before nodding. "In that case, go get your gear and suit up, Private,"

Private Baker saluted. "Sir, yes sir!" he turned on his heel and marched to what could only be assumed was the barracks while Yuuta followed Captain Wilde back to the office building, leaving the Brave Police in the hanger.

Drill Boy smiled "Wow, that was nice of that guy to help us out like this," Dr. Kindle and Sargent Matthews looked up at him and he felt awkward for speaking Japanese when they couldn't understand it and repeated himself. "Uh, I mean, that was nice of him to help us out like this,"

Sargent Matthews glowered at the door. "Something just isn't right about the kid. He's always hanging around like he's waiting for the robot to wake up and he keeps talking to it and pretending it answers,"

Deckard was about to point out that that was how he had gained sentience, when Yuuta secretly visited him, but Power Joe looked up at BP101 with his fists on his hips. "So, is the 'nice' Private going to fly this guy in robot mode or can he transform?"

Dr. Kindle looked up at him. "Oh, he can transform, we just need to manually initiate the transformation sequence,"

Shadowmaru looked down at him. "You're going to what now?"

"I said we…"

The Ninja Detective waved him off. "I know what you said. I just… wouldn't wish that on anyone,"

Dumpson looked at him; he had been staying out of the conversation so far in favor of translating for Ayako. "Why?"

Shadowmaru looked up at the American BP's, they were so innocent from having not yet experienced the cruelties of the world they were about to be unleashed upon, and crossed his arm-servos. "It hurts when it's forced like that. Trust me, I know,"

He turned and walked out of the hangar, not wanting anything to do with what was about to happen to the tall jet robot.

Sargent Matthews watched him go but shrugged and walked away. Dr. Kindle looked up at the others. "What's his problem?"

Deckard sighed and explained. "He says it hurts when the transformation is forced like what you say you are going to do,"

The engineer looked up at him. "Oh? Well, I don't think their sensors would register any pain if their A.I.s are inactive,"

He saw the look on the Brave Police's faceplates when he said they didn't feel and added. "But if you do not feel comfortable seeing your fellow robots like that we can try to find another way,"

Deckard smiled, grateful for the man's understanding; not many showed it towards them. "Thank you,"

The Build Team hung around while they waited for Yuuta and Private Baker to come back and for the new Braves to be prepared for transport.

Deckard, however, went in search of their wayward ninja. He found him sitting on the ground at the edge of a shallow canal that appeared to have been dug as part of an obstacle course for the soldiers on base to train on.

He sat down next to Shadowmaru, not too close but close enough for him to know he was there.

"Master Deckard," Shadowmaru greeted him with a flat tone and picked up a rock, turning it around in his servo.

Deckard looked at the canal and was quiet for a moment before asking. "Shadowmaru, back there when you said 'Trust me, I know', what did you mean by that?"

Shadowmaru sighed and tossed the rock into the water. "Back when I was first created, I had trouble figuring out all of the different alt. modes they gave me so…" he picked up another rock. "They hooked me up to a machine that forced the transformation until I figured out how to do it on my own without getting them mixed up,"

He skipped the rock across the surface of the water and it skid across the shore on the other side to hit a fence post with a thunk.

Deckard watched it go before looking at Shadowmaru. "I'm sorry,"

Shadowmaru snorted and smiled wryly. "Don't be, you do not want to see what a half-wolf half-car looks like,"

Deckard chuckled at the ninja's attempt at dry humor and stood up. "Come on, let's get back to the others,"

He offered a servo to help Shadowmaru up but he gracefully unfolded from his seated position to stand up without any help.

When they got back to the hanger where the others were they found Dumpson and Power Joe were sitting cross legged on the ground having an arm-wrestling match with their elbows propped up on their knees, Ayako was cheering for the red mech and McCrane was holding Drill Boy's soccer ball just out of his younger brother's reach.

"For the last time, Drill Boy, if you're so bored that you have to play soccer right this instant you can go play outside where you're less likely to break something important,"

Drill Boy lunged for the ball but missed. "Give it back!" he whined.

Dumpson risked glancing out the corner of his optics. "Don't do it, McCrane, he'll just kick it at the wall if you do,"

Power Joe grinned and increased the pressure on his servo. "You should never get distracted in the middle of an arm wrestling match, Dumpson,"

Dumpson smiled at him. "Oh, are we starting now?" he pressed even harder and Power Joe's servo started to go the other direction.

Deckard sighed and looked at the humans who were staring at the mechs. "Sorry, they've been cooped up in a plane for half a day and have too much energy to sit still for long,"

Shadowmaru put a servo on his shoulder and pointed at Drill Boy and McCrane. "You deal with that situation, I'll deal with that one," he pointed over to the Power Joe-Dumpson arm-wrestling match.

Deckard considered his options and nodded. "Deal," he went over and took the ball from McCrane and put a servo on Drill Boy's shoulder. "Come on, Drill Boy, let's go outside for a while," He pulled Drill Boy towards the doors and outside.

Meanwhile, Shadowmaru crossed his arm-servos and waited to see if either mech would notice he was there and stop.

Instead of stopping, Power Joe resorted to using his other servo to pull Dumpson's back towards his side of the arm-wrestling playing field, inciting protests from the Wrestler Detective. "Hey, no fair, that's cheating!

Seeing both mechs were distracted, Shadowmaru cracked his knuckles and grabbed them both by the helms and vibrated his servos, sending violent tremors into their helms that forced them to stop and try to pry the servos off.

"Ow. Ow. Ow. Ow…"

"Kno-o-ck… i-it … o-o-ff!"

Shadowmaru smiled and released them, his servos still vibrating for a moment before going still again. "Are you two going to behave now?"

Ayako looked at the two mechs holding their helms and looked up at Shadowmaru. "What did you do to them?"

Shadowmaru's smile went away and he looked at her. "A trick I learned from Kagero. We used to do that to each other whenever one of us was doing something we shouldn't and neither of us wanted to get in trouble for fighting outside of sparring sessions,"

Ayako had heard about the elder ninja brother from Dumpson and felt pity for Shadowmaru. She tried to lighten the mood by smiling and asking "How does it work?"

Shadowmaru saw that Power Joe was getting up and reaching for his nunchucks to clock the ninja with them so he grabbed the Kung Fu Detective by the helm. "I just grab them by the helm and vibrate my servos really hard…" he vibrated his servos again and Power Joe's whole frame shook.

"…and it works like a power-noogie that goes right down into their processors,"

Ayako smiled. "Neat, I'll have to try that when my co-workers bring their kids to work and they misbehave,"

Shadowmaru didn't bother telling her it wouldn't work with humans the same way it worked with mechs and released Power Joe and let him fall to his knees, rubbing his helm.

XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX

Yuuta came out of the office building with Sargent Matthews to see Drill Boy playing soccer with a few of the off-duty soldiers that were on base.

Or rather, that's what they were trying to do; the soccer ball was too big for the human players so they ended up just pushing it one way or another or jumping on it to stop it when Drill Boy gently kicked it for them, reminding Yuuta of a litter of kittens playing with a ball of yarn.

Yuuta giggled at the sight and went over to where Deckard was leaning against the hanger that the others were in while Sargent Matthews bellowed at the soldiers that they had better not be goofing off while on duty, all of them shouted back that they weren't before resuming their game.

Yuuta leaned against the side of the hanger, mimicking Deckard's stance as he looked up at him. "How come you guys get to have fun while we're here and I don't?"

Deckard smiled at the boy. "Ok, next time I'll sign paperwork while you keep the others out of trouble when they start rough housing,"

Yuuta smiled back. "Ok,"

They looked up to watch the soccer game and saw Private Baker walking back to the hangar, now wearing a flight suit with a bag on his shoulder. He gave them a two fingered salute when he saw them. "Hey, guys,"

Deckard saluted back. "Hello again, Private Baker,"

Private Baker waved Deckard off with a smile. "Please, my friends call me Joey. I feel like an old army dude when people call me 'Private Baker' outside of formal situations or war zones,"

Yuuta smiled "Ok Joey. Are you sure your family will be alright with you flying halfway across the world and back again when you're supposed to be visiting them?"

Private Baker—or Joey, rather—looked away. "Actually, my wife thinks I won't be back until the day after tomorrow and she's the only one that knows I'm coming home at all. I was going to surprise everybody but at least I'll get to see them when I do get back,"

He awkwardly adjusted the strap on his bag that was slung over his shoulder. "Besides, it feels weird letting my partner go without saying goodbye,"

Deckard looked down at Yuuta, remembering when he barely had time to say a quick goodbye to Yuuta when he was being reformatted. Luckily, that goodbye was only temporary. "I know the feeling,"

Just then Shadowmaru came out and told them. "Everything's almost ready. I'm going to tell our pilot to start getting ready to leave,"

He walked away and Yuuta, Joey and Deckard went inside while Shadowmaru clocked Drill Boy on the helm as he ran by, like he did when the orange mech was possessed by the evil spirit Inti, and said. "Cut it out, we're leaving as soon as everyone else is on the plane,"

"Oh, okay," Drill Boy slumped and begrudgingly went to retrieve his ball, not wanting to end the game just yet. "Sorry guys, gotta go,"

The soldiers said it was fine, thanked him for the game and waved as they dispersed to go about their business.

Drill Boy put his soccer ball back in his chest and went to go find his brothers.

They all gathered in the hanger to make sure BP201 was ready for transport—she was going to be strapped down to a metal cart, like the one Deckard was on when he was being transported in a trailer, and loaded onto the plane like a shipment of cargo—and BP101 was ready for take-off.

BP201 was loaded onto the plane without a hitch, now all that was left was to get BP101 transformed and in the air.

Deckard looked down at the technicians at the mech's peds. "Are you still going to force the transformation or is there another way?"

Yuuta looked up at him. "Why? What happens if they force him to transform?"

Deckard looked down at Yuuta sadly. "According to Shadowmaru it hurts when it's forced,"

Yuuta looked up at Shadowmaru, who was leaning against the entryway with his arm-servos crossed, for clarification; concern etched on the boy's features.

Shadowmaru nodded. "It feels kind of like when a human dislocates their shoulder and pops it back into place over and over again," he put a servo on his shoulder and rolled his shoulder like he was pretending to do what he just described.

Yuuta held up his fists and looked at the technicians pleadingly. "NO! Don't hurt him!"

Joey put a hand on the boy's shoulder. "Whoa, hold on there, kiddo. Who's hurting who?"

Yuuta told him what Shadowmaru and Deckard just told him and Joey frowned and looked at Dr. Kindle. "Did you know about this?"

Dr. Kindle spluttered and said. "No, not until they told us a few moments ago but unless you have a better idea ,what choice do we have?"

Joey looked up at the mech and then at the technicians working on him. "Boot him up,"

The technicians looked at him and one of them said. "Excuse me?"

Joey threw his bag over his other shoulder so that the strap was across his chest and climbed up the scaffolding. "You heard me, boot his ass up,"

Another technician scoffed as the Private weaved his way past the technicians on the scaffolding to get to BP101's cockpit. "And just what do you plan on doing, Private?"

Joey just pulled the release lever on the canopy, muttering "Come on, dude, Open says me," when it didn't open right away. When it finally did open he climbed in and the technicians rolled their eyes but humored him, powering up BP101's systems.

They all heard a low hum and a hiss of hydraulics as BP101 powered up and his helm snapped up to look straight ahead when his optics came online behind his visor.

Joey smiled at the technicians before closing the canopy. "Much obliged,"

Everyone waited for a moment before, to everyone's surprise, BP101 took a slow, shaky step forward.

When he took another one he had to catch himself on the side of the cradle and they heard Joey's voice through the mech's built in P.A. system. "Sorry, I'm still a little shaky with the manual controls for when he's in robot mode,"

They all realized the soldier was controlling the mech manually and Deckard stepped forward to help support the mech. "Don't worry, I had trouble at first too,"

"You won't need to worry about manual controls once his A.I. evolves anyway," McCrane went to the mech's other side to help and between the three of them BP101 was able to hobble out of the maintenance cradle enough so he could transform and be taxied out like a regular plane.

When it came time to trigger the transformation sequence Deckard could hear Joey say "Sorry about this, buddy," right before he pulled the appropriate levers that made the robot fold down into a military stealth fighter jet.

Dumpson saw they were bringing an aircraft tug in to drag BP101 outside and waved everyone out. "Let's wait outside, give these guys some room to drag him out,"

Everyone saw that he had a point, they would be in the way if they stood around in the hanger and went outside and found Shadowmaru waiting for them.

Shadowmaru jerked his thumb towards the open hatch leading into the cargo hold on the plane they had came in. "You guys better get on the plane, the pilot plans on taking off soon,"

Power Joe looked at him. "Wait, you said 'you guys'. Aren't you coming with us?"

Shadowmaru smirked "I'll be flying alongside in my jet mode to make sure the new guy doesn't get lost and so we're not all crammed in the cargo hold,"

"Oh, good point,"

Everyone saluted the soldiers gathered on the tarmac, who saluted back, and waved goodbye as they got onto the plane and into their previous seating arrangements; minus the fact that BP201 rode in Shadowmaru's spot on the plane.

The Ninja Detective himself watched the plane take off while he waited for Joey to take off in BP101 once the runway was clear, since he did the preflight checks while the fighter jet was taxied outside.

Once both planes were safely in the air, Shadowmaru got a running start and jumped up to transform into his jet mode in mid-air and flew after them.

XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX

Captain Wilde looked up from his paper work when Sargent Matthews entered his office. "Did they leave yet?"

Sargent Matthews nodded. "Yep, our BPs are on their way to Japan for their 'further training',"

Captain Wilde nodded and propped his elbows on the desk top to rest his head on his folded hands. "I almost feel sorry for the Tomonaga kid,"

Sargent Matthews snorted. "That Commissioner Saji-whatever put a little kid in charge of the most powerful weapons the world has seen and lets him run around playing superhero with them,"

Captain Wilde looked at the Sargent "That 'little kid' has seen more combat in a few months than most of our cadets will in a year and was able to make those robots 'the most powerful weapons the world has ever seen'. You saw what the specs on that Deckard robot were originally and what they were after the kid got to him,"

Sargent Matthews narrowed his eyes and pointed to the window. "And you saw how those robots acted around the kid when they were here. If our BPs imprint on the boy like that we're going to have a problem,"

Captain Wilde nodded and held up a hand. "I know, but what's done is done, now all we can do is wait for their next progress report until our assets are ready to be returned to us,"

Sargent Matthews let his arms fall limp at his sides as he slumped forward with a huff. "And if they don't return them to us?"

Captain Wilde smiled. "They will,"

The Sargent straightened up slightly. "What makes you so sure?"

The Captain took out a manila folder. "Remember those forms I had the young Inspector sign?"

"Yeah, and?"

Captain Wilde handed him the file. "Page two, paragraph nine,"

Sargent Matthews turned to the second page and read the paragraph he was told to. When he did his eyes widened. "Oh, I see. Clever, sir," he handed the file back.

Captain Wilde took the file and got up to put it in the filing cabinet behind him. "You're dismissed,"

A.N.: Quick shout out to the people that reviewed and/or added; CyberAngelAlexis, RedOpticsDA, LunarNightDreamer