More Human Than Human

"Talking"

'thoughts'

"Recordings, talking on the phone or singing"

"Speaking another language besides Japanese"

:Talking through the comm. links:

Rated T for language, slash and anything else I might have missed.

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. This chapter refers to the episode "My Fairy".

Later

Shadowmaru stepped down from his maintenance cradle and rubbed his shoulder. One of the technicians, his name tag said his name was Kio but Shadowmaru didn't know him very well personally, lingered longer than the others and asked him "How does it feel?"

The Ninja Detective rolled his shoulder and slowly swung his arm-servo around to test his range of motion. "Better, thank you,"

Kio smiled up and him and said a quick "You're welcome" as he and the other technicians finished putting away the equipment they had used before they all left the maintenance bay for a quick break before the Brave Police inevitably got into trouble again and had to be fixed up all over again.

Shadowmaru waited until the technicians had left room and Chief Toudou went into his office just off the maintenance bay before turning to face the only other two maintenance cradles that were occupied. "All clear, you two awake?"

Artemis' blue optics lit up and looked at him while Goliath flexed his digits to show he was listening but otherwise stood like a statue.

Neither of them said anything so Shadowmaru reassured them. "Mr. Toudou is in his office, the door is closed and the blinds are down so we should be fine as long as we're not too loud. Other than that everyone else left,"

Goliath snorted and shifted into a more casual stance. "Like that will last long, so let's make this quick. What do you want?"

Shadowmaru didn't really care for the mech's tone and tried to play coy. "What makes you so sure I want something?"

Goliath shook his helm and said "Because usually when someone tries to wake someone up it's because they want something from them,"

Artemis shrugged helplessly. "It's true, the only time they tried to start us up back in the States was if they wanted us to do something for them. Otherwise they had no problems letting us hang on the wall like decorations,"

Shadowmaru frowned and looked at them both. "You're not there anymore and we will see to it you are treated better while you are here,"

Goliath looked at him. "'We'?"

Shadowmaru sighed. 'How am I going to word this without sounding like a jerk?' "Yes, 'we' because, let's face it, no matter what we do everyone will find out the truth about you two eventually but if we tell a few people now and get them on our side before that happens…"

Goliath cut in "What makes you so sure they'll be on our side if we do tell them?"

Shadowmaru tilted his chin upward slightly in indignation. "Because our little Boss kept Deckard a secret until he was ready to be indicted into the police force and Deckard can sympathize with your situation as he was hidden in an underground bunker beneath a supposedly abandoned factory much like you two were in that hanger back in California,"

He looked at them pleadingly. "I really do think you should at least tell the others. Even if we cannot keep your secret safe we will at the very least be able to keep you safe from anyone that would try to use it against you,"

The Ninja Detective looked between the two American bots. "What do you say?"

The two looked at each other for a moment, deliberating amongst themselves wordlessly, before looking at Shadowmaru with a determined look in their optics.

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For the second time that day, Deckard sat in the parking lot of the hospital. Only this time he knew for a fact that Yuuta would be out soon; he had picked up Azuki and Kirumi from school so they could check Yuuta out of the hospital and he could take the three siblings home on his way back to the precinct.

Inside the hospital, Kirumi leaned against the wall in Yuuta's room while he was in the bathroom changing into his clothes while Azuki signed some paper work. "Are you done yet?"

Inside the bathroom, Yuuta huffed and yelled back. "Not yet," he looked at the shirt he had been wearing the night before; he had already put his pants on but the surgeons had cut his shirt up to get it off of him for the surgery and it was the only one he had with him right then.

'How am I going to make this work?' he looked over the shirt and saw that it had been cut up the sides and around the sleeves.

Thinking on his feet, Yuuta put his shirt on and tied the sides together and the pieces of the sleeves back together so it would hold together. "There we go,"

He exited the bathroom and put the hospital gown he had been wearing in the laundry hamper next to the little sink in the room and grabbed the pudding cup he had saved from his lunch as he smiled at Kirumi. "Ready,"

Kirumi threw her hands in the air "Finally!"

The two siblings left the room and went down the hall to the elevator and rode it down to the ground floor.

It wasn't a long ride because Yuuta's room was on the second floor but as soon as the elevator opened they stepped off and walked over to the front desk where Azumi handed the papers she had just signed back to the nurse sitting behind the desk.

The nurse at the desk was a sweet old lady with gray hair pulled back in a bun wearing a white coat over a pink shirt who smiled at Yuuta as he came around the corner. "Well, Mr. Tomonaga, I hope you feel better. Just remember to take it easy for a while and get plenty of rest, alright?"

Yuuta smiled back at her. "Thank you,"

The nurse's smile grew until her eyes closed. "If you have any questions or concerns please give us a call,"

The three Tomonaga siblings left the hospital building stood outside, looking around for Deckard.

Azuki became concerned when she didn't see Deckard right away. "Oh, where did Deckard go?"

Kirumi looked around for the patrol car. "Huh, he was just here a minute ago,"

"Over here," they looked up and saw Deckard pulling up to the curb.

"Deckard!" Yuuta didn't waste any time rushing over to hug Deckard's hood.

Deckard chuckled at the boy's antics and shifted the scanners in his headlights towards Yuuta's sisters. "Sorry, I parked further away while you all were inside so I wasn't in the way of any ambulances that came through here,"

Azuki got in the back seat with Kirumi while Yuuta sat in his usual spot in the front passenger seat. "Were you waiting long?"

Deckard waited until his passengers were all buckled in before pulling away from the curb and driving out of the parking lot. "No, I just wanted to be out of the way just in case,"

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As Deckard walked the short corridor between the maintenance bay and the Decker room, he could hear the others talking amongst themselves.

"I still don't get why Madoh would come that close to the precinct when he must have known we were looking for him," Dumpson said.

Gunmax snorted "Because it was the last place we'd look," they all looked at him and he shrugged. "Think about it, chances are he knew we would assume he wouldn't dare come here while we were looking for him and did just that while we were out looking everywhere else,"

Power Joe jeered at him "You must know all about running from the cops, don't you?"

Gunmax started to say something sarcastic back but Deckard cut in as he walked into the room. "He does have a point though,"

McCrane looked at Deckard "How is Boss doing?"

Deckard pointed at the human door to the Decker Room. "Ask him when he comes in, he insisted on coming to work today,"

Gunmax frowned. "You could have told him 'no'," he slapped himself upside the helm like he just realized something. "Oh, that's right, you can't say 'no' to the kid, can you?"

Deckard sighed. "I tried. He said if I didn't bring him with me he was going to get on the next bus here as soon as I had left,"

Sure enough, a few minutes later Yuuta came into the room and sat at his desk, looking somewhat disheveled. "Hey guys,"

Everyone said "Hi Boss," and Dumpson asked "How do you feel?"

Yuuta shrugged "Better than last night," he remembered something and leaned over his desk. "By the way, Deckard told me you guys had a lead on Dr. Madoh but ran into trouble. Is everyone ok?"

Everyone else gave Deckard an "I can't believe you told him that" look while Gunmax shrugged. "The dog got shot but he's all better now,"

Yuuta's eyes widened "What? Shot?" he looked at Deckard. "You said it was a time bomb!"

Deckard held up his servos in a placating manner. "No, no, this was earlier today,"

"WHAT?"

"I'm fine, Little Boss," Shadowmaru walked in and casually leaned against the doorway. "Just had a couple of slugs wedged in my shoulder joint. I got them taken out now,"

Yuuta calmed down and smiled "Oh, ok,"

They spent several minutes trying to get Yuuta caught up on what had been going on until the Commissioner walked in. "Good afternoon everyone,"

The mechs all said "Good afternoon, Commissioner" while Yuuta said "Good afternoon, Mr. Saejima,"

The Commissioner stood next to Yuuta's desk and placed a plate of donuts he had brought in with him on it. "Alright, let's get this meeting started, shall we? Is everyone here?"

Deckard started to say they were but Drill Boy looked around as they all got up to gather in front of the human's platform. "Where did Shadowmaru go?"

Everyone else realized the Ninja Detective was no longer in the room. "He was just here a minute ago,"

Power Joe whistled and patted his leg like he was calling a dog. "Here, Shadowmaru, here boy,"

Shadowmaru then entered the room leading the femme by the arm-servo. "I swear, Power Joe, if I hear one more dog crack from you and I'm going to put a channel block on the 'Soap Network',"

The Kung Fu Detective gasped. "You wouldn't,"

Shadowmaru smirked at him. "You want to try me?"

Drill Boy, Yuuta and Gunmax all snickered at the fact that Power Joe, who mostly acts the macho Kung Fu master, not only watches soap operas but can be brought to his knees when someone threatens his access to them.

And they were somewhat laughing at his face too as he opened and closed his mouth like a fish before scowling as he crossed his arm-servos.

While this was going on, Commissioner Saejima—in addition to also laughing at the running argument between Shadowmaru and Power Joe—watched the femme that Shadowmaru was guiding into the room. "I see you got her up and about,"

Shadowmaru looked at the Commissioner then at Artemis, who subtly tightened her grip on his arm-servo, then back at the Commissioner. "To some extent yes, I figured we could let her sit in on the meeting with us. After all, they are here to help fully gain sentient consciousness by learning from us, aren't they?"

Deckard nodded his approval "Good idea, Shadowmaru,"

Drill Boy looked up innocently. "Are we going to bring the other one in here too?"

McCrane cut in flatly. "Even if we could get him moving it will be difficult getting him in here due to his size,"

They all saw that McCrane had a point; the new mech was almost as big as J-Decker or Build Tiger so, while possible, it would be tricky getting the mech in the Decker Room.

"Right, then, let us begin," the Commissioner looked at the mechs. "Have you managed to find any further leads on Dr. Madoh's whereabouts?"

Everyone shook their helms and Deckard said "Aside from the incident earlier where he tried to slip past us in a car and caused a traffic jam so we couldn't follow after we spotted him the only thing we have found were abandoned labs and the information Shadowmaru found on his computer,"

The Commissioner held his chin in thought. "Hmm, so that's why everyone was late coming back from their lunch breaks,"

He shook his head and looked at the other occupants of the room. "Speaking of that data, we were able to find everything Dr. Madoh has ever done and had planned to do at the time he entered it into the computer's data base,"

Yuuta looked up at the Commissioner. "What did it say he has been doing anyway, Mr. Saejima?"

The Commissioner looked down at the boy. "I was just getting to that. In addition to Gawan and Dragowan, he was able to make one other synthetic life form,"

Power Joe huffed "Great, so we got another monster to deal with as well as Dragowan?"

The Commissioner looked up at the mech. "No, no, it's nothing like that,"

Yuuta looked up at the Commissioner. "What did he make this time?"

The Commissioner smiled down at Yuuta and simply said "A fairy,"

Yuuta gasped. "A FAIRY? You mean like the ones in children's stories?"

Unnoticed by the others, Drill Boy was bored with all the talking going on—yeah, yeah, fairies and mythical creatures, big deal. Stranger things have happened—until he noticed the pudding cup Yuuta had brought in with him, sitting on the edge of his desk unattended.

Seeing everyone was engrossed in the conversation, a grin split Drill Boy's face plates. 'I wonder how long it would take for him to notice if someone hid it?'

Making sure neither of the humans was paying attention to him, the Soccer Detective snuck up to the platform and sat on the floor with his back plates against it.

He could hear the Commissioner telling them that experiments resulting in anything resembling a human are illegal so they would have to react accordingly.

'Yeah, yeah, bad guys doing illegal stuff… we need to deal with it… business as usual… keep talking!'

Deploying the tiny metal arm in his chest he used to pick up objects too small for his servos, Drill Boy reached up, grabbed the pudding cup, and put it in his subspace, grinning audio to audio the whole time.

His brothers, however, were less amused as Dumpson shook his helm disapprovingly while Power Joe "coughed" into his fist loudly to get everyone's attention since the rest of the mechs had been ignoring the youngest Build Team member in favor of paying attention to the meeting.

Yuuta and Commissioner both looked at the mechs, the former noticing something off about his desk. When he realized what it was he started searching frantically. "AH! My pudding is gone!"

The Commissioner watched the boy with exasperated amusement; he had a pretty good idea where the pudding cup went.

Realizing he was about to get caught but not wanting to end his fun yet, Drill Boy stood up and said. "Oh that? I saw the cleaning lady come and take it a while ago,"

It was an outright lie and everyone knew it—the janitorial staff only came through the Decker room at night, any messes made during the day are their own responsibility to clean up—but Yuuta hadn't stopped to think about that as he lamented the loss of his treat.

"WHAT? Oh man! I was saving that for later!"

'Oh, man, I can't believe he bought it…' Drill Boy tried to keep a straight face. "She's really mean, isn't she?"

Dumpson sighed. 'What is it with this guy and blaming things on cleaning staff?' "Drill Boy…"

Power Joe cut in, servos on his hips in a bemused manner. "Cut it out, will you?"

Drill Boy saw they were going to try to rat him out and waved his servos, trying to get them to stop talking. "Guys, shh!"

Unfortunately, Yuuta wasn't fooled or amused as everything started to click together for him. "Drill Boy…"

Drill Boy's optics widened. 'Oh, crap!' he turned to look at Yuuta who was narrowing his eyes at him suspiciously.

"You hid it somewhere, didn't you?"

"What? No, I…" Drill Boy attempted to play innocent but realized that whatever straws he had been grasping at were no longer there and looked at his teammates.

McCrane sighed exasperatedly. "Drill Boy, we are in the middle of an important meeting,"

Gunmax crossed his arm-servos across his chest. "Just give the kid his pudding back. We all know we won't get anywhere until he gets it back,"

Drill Boy huffed and grumbled "You guys are no fun,"

Power Joe mimicked an "eye roll" with his optics and said "And you are impossible,"

Drill Boy gawked them. "Ah, come on guys. It was just a prank… right Deckard?"

Drill Boy looked at the blue mech, since he had always been the voice of reason in the group and had broken up the little squabbles that had broken out between the Build Team in the past without putting anyone down.

However, he hadn't taken into account that after everything that happened the night before Deckard's patience had worn thin and Drill Boy had made the mistake of messing with Yuuta, which Deckard had little to no tolerance for as it was.

Deckard stepped closer to the younger orange mech and said in a no-nonsense tone. "Drill Boy…"

Drill Boy could tell he had made a huge mistake but he didn't think Deckard would be that angry. He looked at Shadowmaru but the mech just stared at the floor with his optics dimmed, not even paying attention to the conflict.

"Even Deckard and Shadowmaru are against me…" he muttered to himself in disbelief.

Power Joe scoffed. "Well, maybe if you weren't such a pain-in –the-butt kid all the time…"

'"Pain in the butt", huh?' Drill Boy clenched his fists and shouted "Fine, if that's the way it's going to be then I'm quitting the Brave Police!" he turned on his heel and ran out the door, ignoring how Yuuta tried to call him back.

Shadowmaru's helm snapped up, optics brightening as he looked around the room and at the door. "Where is he going?"

Gunmax shrugged. "Eh, he'll be back. Let's just finish the meeting,"

Deckard looked at the door, wondering whether or not he should go after Drill Boy; every time one of them left in a huff and someone said "Oh, they'll be back" they never do, they get into trouble instead.

The Commissioner rubbed the back of his head. "Actually, there really isn't much left to cover other than the fact that we need to find Dr. Madoh, his assistant and the fairy they have made as soon as possible,"

Everyone nearly fell over in exasperation. "That's all?"

The Commissioner nodded. "Yes, which was why I decided to humor Drill Boy when he took Yuuta's pudding; the actual meeting was almost over anyway, unless one of you had something to add, and I didn't see any harm in it since he would have given it back when he had his fun,"

Power Joe looked at the door. "So now we have to waste time finding him when we should be looking for Dr. Madoh, his assistant and their fairy,"

Dumpson held up his fist determinedly. "I'll find him," he had been the youngest of the Build team before Drill Boy came along so he tries to look out for his little brother.

Yuuta stood up behind his desk and looked at Power Joe. "You and Gunmax both have patrol so you will be searching anyway. One more person won't make that much of a difference,"

He looked at the rest of his team. "The rest of us will help look too. If anyone finds Drill Boy, send him back here or tell the rest of us where to find him and we will bring him back,"

The mechs all nodded and said "Roger, Boss," in unison.

The Commissioner nodded "I guess this meeting is adjourned. If you all would excuse me…" he left the room and everyone started filing out to get started on their tasks.

Shadowmaru hung back behind the rest of the group and grasped Deckard's shoulder before the blue mech could leave the room. "Deckard, Boss, might I have a word with you two before we go?"

He noticed the others leaning back through the doorway to listen in, comically "stacked" on top of each other; Dumpson crouched on his hands and knees with Power Joe leaning over him and McCrane leaning over Power Joe while Gunmax peered around the corner. "In private,"

Power Joe scowled "What could be so important that you need to tell Boss and Deckard right now but can't tell us?"

Deckard looked at Shadowmaru and guessed that whatever the Ninja Detective had to say must have been important given the mech's tone and behavior.

Yuuta came to the same conclusion and looked at the others and waved them off. "You guys go ahead, we'll catch up,"

McCrane ushered his brothers out the door and followed them while Gunmax pretended to be put out and "whined" as he stepped back into the room. "Ah, but we want to hear it too,"

Deckard looked at the Motorcycle Detective. "Gunmax…"

Gunmax held up his servos in a shrug and spun out the door.

Deckard and Yuuta looked at Shadowmaru and the former asked him "Now, what was it you wished to speak to us about, Shadowmaru?"

Shadowmaru opened his mouth to speak but was interrupted.

"That was kind of harsh, don't you think?"

Everyone jumped at the sound of a female voice chiding them gently and looked around for the source.

Shadowmaru looked at Artemis and saw, to his dismay, that she was looking at them expectantly. "Artemis…"

The other two stared at the femme and realized she was moving on her own. Deckard was at a loss for words while Yuuta's eyes widened as he asked "You can talk now?"

Artemis looked at the boy and nodded hesitantly "Yes,"

Deckard looked at Shadowmaru suspiciously. "Did you know about this?"

Shadowmaru sighed. "Not until yesterday, Artemis…" he pointed at the femme. "…had wandered off and I followed her. When I left Boss' house last night I came back to the precinct and got…"

Realization dawned on Deckard. "…The ambulance that brought Yuuta to the hospital…"

Artemis held up a digit. "Speaking of which, one moment please…" she transformed into vehicle mode and her holoform—the "woman" from the night before—climbed out and went to open the ambulance's back doors.

Artemis' holoform smiled at Yuuta. "Got something for you, kid," She climbed into the back of the ambulance and came out a moment later with a beat up old coffee can—or at least they all assumed it was coffee can, it had English writing on it.

She set the can down on the ground so she could pick it up again once she was back in her original form and picked it up like a sewing thimble to set it on Yuuta's desk.

"Since I didn't have a chance to give you one last night…" Artemis motioned for Yuuta to pull off the lid and when he did he saw that the can was full of lollipops. "Pick one,"

Yuuta smiled as he took a cherry flavored lollipop. "Wow, thanks," he put the lid back on and gave it back to Artemis, who put the can in a compartment in her leg while Yuuta unwrapped his new lollipop and stuck it in his mouth.

Deckard and Shadowmaru allowed themselves soft smiles at seeing the boy smiling again, which went away when Artemis looked at them like a babysitter trying to find out who had just made a huge mess for her to clean. "Speaking of sweets; is this… 'pudding' considered sacred here, or something?"

"Because you guys were pretty harsh on the mech when he took the boy's," they all looked down at the floor and saw a tiny version of Goliath standing there.

Yuuta looked at him with confusion. "Did you shrink or something?"

Goliath looked at Yuuta and then suddenly became transparent so they could see a small metal orb in his head that had small tendrils stemming from it and spreading throughout his body like veins. "Nope, this is my holoform. The rest of me is still in the maintenance bay,"

Yuuta flinched away from the holoform, which looked uncannily like a ghost, until it reverted back to normal. "Oh, that's cool… wait, how come hers looks like a person…" he pointed at Artemis. "But yours doesn't"

Artemis laughed and transformed again so that her holoform once again climbed out the driver's side. "Holoform's can be changed, kiddo," to prove her point, her holoform morphed into a smaller replica of her real body.

Deckard looked at the holoform, curious and intrigued. "How are you doing that?"

Artemis shrugged. "I made holoform projectors for myself and Goliath. As you saw last night they can come in handy,"

Deckard thought of all of the times something like a holoform would come in handy; all of the times he wished he could go into the dangerous situations instead of Yuuta but couldn't because of his size. He looked hopeful and asked shyly. "Got any more of those?"

The femme's holoform climbed back into her alt. mode which transformed into her robot form. "Shadowmaru already has dibs on the half finished one I've been working on… but if you want one and I can get the parts for another one you can have that one, ok?"

Yuuta squealed behind his hands, trying not to cheer out loud as he thought of all the things he and Deckard would be able to do together if the mech was able to become human-sized. "That would be so awesome!"

Deckard smiled at him the Artemis. "Thank you,"

Goliath looked at Deckard and Shadowmaru "Now that we got that out of the way, why the hell did you guys think it was necessary to run the kid off over a pudding cup?"

Yuuta looked up at the six-foot tall holoform defensively. "We didn't run him off, we told him to quit goofing around and he left,"

Deckard frowned "What I don't understand is why is it that we were the final straw that made him leave?"

Shadowmaru crossed his arm-servos. "Because his brothers always pick on him and Gunmax is a jerk to everyone. Since we have broken up their bickering in the past he looked to us for help and when we didn't give it he fled,"

Deckard looked at Shadowmaru. "I just wanted him to realize that he can't disrupt meetings like that… then again you didn't seem to being paying that much attention to the last bit anyway,"

Shadowmaru became defensive. "I was too! I was just trying to multitask by looking something up while listening to what the Commissioner was saying,"

Yuuta looked at the mech curiously. "What were you looking up?"

Shadowmaru turned away from them, not answering.

Thinking he was embarrassed by whatever it was, Artemis stepped into his line of sight and smiled reassuringly. "Oh come on, you can tell us," Shadowmaru hesitated so she added. "We promise we won't laugh,"

Shadowmaru shook his helm. "Something relating to my other case. There's something fishy about it, I have a theory as to what it might be but I don't want to say what until I'm certain,"

Goliath looked up at Shadowmaru. "'Other case'? Dude how many cases have you got?"

Shadowmaru held up two digits. "In addition to the Madoh case that we are all working on I have one other case I'm investigating,"

The holoform whistled under his breath. "Damn"

Shadowmaru smiled "Oh that's nothing, one time I had five cases going at once,"

Yuuta looked up at the Ninja Detective. "When was this?" he didn't remember assigning that many cases at one time to anyone, ever.

Shadowmaru shrugged like it was no big deal. "While you guys were dealing with the panda incident. I already had a couple of cases in progress when we got that S.O.S. and I had to figure out who created the thing and deal with the rest of the giant creatures they accidently created,"

Deckard looked at Shadowmaru "Just what were these other cases?"

All that any of the others knew was that the Ninja Detective had been in China while they were dealing with the giant panda that unwittingly destroyed half the city.

He came back injured and exhausted, refusing to tell anyone where he had been or how he got so beat up aside from that he had gone back to what he had been doing before when he received word that he had already missed the panda.

Shadowmaru frowned. "Sorry, classified, not supposed to talk about those unless a similar case comes up and we need to reference them.

Yuuta groaned "Ah, why not?"

The Ninja Detective smiled apologetically. "Sorry, Little Boss, Commissioner's orders,"

Deckard looked at the other mech suspiciously. "You didn't do anything illegal, did you?"

Shadowmaru held a servo to his mouth and gasped dramatically. "Deckard, I am insulted you would even ask that,"

Deckard pressed again. "I'm sorry but given your past record I feel obligated to ask,"

Shadowmaru snorted "Oh, like you're one to talk," he pointed at Deckard with mock accusation. "I know you and Gunmax did when you were handcuffed together and on the run,"

Deckard reset his vocalizer, which made a noise like a human clearing their throat, and turned away. "Moving on…"

Yuuta saw his friend was looking for a change of subject and, after giving Deckard a "We will discuss this later" look, got out his badge. "I'll try to call Drill Boy back. We were kind of hard on him,"

Yuuta opened his badge and pressed the call button. "Drill Boy, come in Drill Boy…"

It buzzed once and then beeped as a message appeared on the little screen. "He didn't answer but he sent a ping saying he's on his way back,"

He looked at the two newest additions. "I guess all that's left to do now is to tell everyone about you two,"

Both American Braves looked up at him and said in unison. "Please don't,"

Deckard and Yuuta looked at them in confusion and the latter asked "Why not?"

Artemis crossed her arm-servos and looked away. "We have our reasons," Goliath nodded his agreement.

Yuuta thought for a moment and asked "We still should tell the others at least. We can make them promise not to tell anyone but they are going to need to know since we're all going to work together,"

Artemis smiled hopefully. "Can't we just let them think that we're fast learners or that they're really good teachers when it comes to this 'robot heart' stuff?"

Yuuta, Deckard and Shadowmaru all shook their helms and Artemis slumped with a defeated sigh. "Yeah, didn't think so. Worth a shot though,"

Deckard put his servo on the femme's shoulder. "Unless it comes up, we can wait on official introductions until after we finish our current case, alright,"

Both American Braves looked up at him, like they were waiting for him to tell them he was joking, before smiling. "Thank you,"

Deckard stepped back only to step in something slippery. He looked down to see what it was and saw muddy footprints on the floor. "Ugh, Gunmax tracked mud in here again,"

Yuuta stood up to lean over his desk and saw the foot prints himself. "What makes you so sure they're Gunmax's?"

Shadowmaru knelt down to see how fresh the tracks were. "The pedes are too narrow to be anyone else's and they lead from the door to our shared desk…"

He snorted to himself and added "…they certainly aren't my tracks because I wipe my pedes before I come in, and then they come over here to where Gunmax was standing,"

"Oh"

Deckard left the room to get a mop and bucket from the closet where they kept the cleaning supplies that were specially sized for them. "I'll get something to clean that up,"

Artemis started to follow. "I'll help, got to earn my keep somehow,"

Goliath tilted his helm like he was listening for something. "Actually, Sis, Toudou is looking for you. He knows Shadowmaru brought you in here to sit in on the meeting but now that it's over he's wondering where you went,"

Artemis face palmed. "I have to go back on the wall again, don't I?"

Yuuta looked up at the femme. "We could always tell Mr. Toudou the truth…"

Goliath grabbed Yuuta by the shoulder and spun him around so he was looking at him. "Can we trust him? Or will he turn us in?"

Deckard stepped back into the room and looked at the mech, confused. "Turn you in?"

Artemis sighed and said ominously. "Like Shadowmaru said earlier, we are just here to learn how to be sentient from you guys. Once the truth is out they will just send us back to the States,"

Goliath leaned against the wall, bringing his foot up to slam it against it. "And in case you haven't noticed we're not exactly in a hurry to get back there,"

Yuuta started to ask why but Shadowmaru stepped up and looped his arm-servo through Artemis'. "Come on, I'll bring you back to the maintenance bay,"

The femme looked up at him and nodded. "Thank you," the two started to leave but Artemis stopped and looked at her brother's holoform. "I might be able to sneak you back in there too while we're at it,"

Goliath nodded and jumped off the platform as his holoform dissolved into a ball of silver light and slid into Artemis' servo to be concealed in her fist as Shadowmaru lead her away.

Once they were gone, Yuuta looked at Deckard. "Why would they want to lie to everyone so they don't get sent home?"

Deckard looked at the doors and then at Yuuta. "I don't know, Yuuta, but like I said we are going to formally introduce them to the others as soon as this case is solved. We can ask them then,"

He looked at the muddy footprints again. "I'm going to get something to clean those up before someone slips in them,"

Yuuta nodded and stood up. "I'll help," Both of them left the Decker Room in search of a mop and bucket in their size to clean up the floor.

A.N.: Quick shout out to the people that reviewed and/or added; RedOpticsDA, eleonard4, and one unnamed Guest review.