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", kind of.

About a minute after Yuuta ended the call with the Commissioner, Super Build Tiger started to fall apart as Drill Boy fell away from the rest of the combiner.

"Drill Boy!" McCrane, Dumpson and Power Joe managed to hold together so Build Tiger was able to catch Drill Boy in his servos before he hit the ground. "Drill Boy, are you okay?"

Drill Boy looked up at the combiner and "blinked" sleepily, too out of it to really hear what anyone was saying, until Fay flew up to him and hugged his face plates. "Boy!"

Drill Boy was surprised by the sudden glomping at first but brought his servos up to hold Fay, relieved that she was alright after everything that had happened. "Hey, Fay,"

Build Tiger was perplexed by this; Drill Boy didn't respond to them but he reassured the fairy that he was alright. Did he just not hear them or was he ignoring them?

They didn't have a chance to question Drill Boy about it as Artemis stepped up and took him from them.

"Here, let me take him while you guys do whatever you have to about him," she pointed at Dr. Madoh's escape pod and scooped Drill Boy up in her arm-servos bridal style and carried him off to the side while the others got Dr. Madoh out of the escape pod.

Neither Drill Boy nor Fay complained since neither of them wanting to be anywhere near that man.

After getting a safe distance away, Artemis set Drill Boy down at the base of the nearest tree and he leaned back against the trunk, the "adrenaline" that had spurred him on before having ebbed.

Fay looked up at him from where she sat in his servos and looked at his injuries. This was her fault; he got hurt, repeatedly, while protecting her. "Boy…"

No response, Drill Boy just stared off into space. Fearing the worst, Fay flew up to look him square in the optics. "Boy?"

Drill Boy jumped as he snapped out of his reverie and smiled apologetically. "Sorry, Fay, spaced out for a minute there," he saw she was staring at his wounds and held out a servo for her to land on. "I'm okay, just a little beat up… and tired,"

Fay landed on his servo, feeling weary herself; giving off that much light like she did to blind Madoh took a lot out of her.

Drill Boy held Fay to his chest plate and smiled down at her. "You silly little thing, giving off that light like that," He remembered how hungry Fay was after last time she did that. "I'll bet you're hungry after that huh? Maybe when we get back we can get you some more pudding. How's that?"

Fay perked up at the promise of more of the squishy yummy stuff.

Drill Boy smiled and let his head loll to the side slightly, babbling sleepily. "I'll get you one so big you won't be able to eat it all. Sound good?"

Fay curled up in his servo and drifted off to sleep, ready for a nap after everything that had happened that day.

Drill Boy watched her with a smile, considering following her lead but…

"Now don't you nod off on us too,"

Drill Boy instinctively pulled Fay closer to him, thinking someone had come to take her from him, as he looked up and saw Shadowmaru crouching a few feet away from him. "Sh-Shadowmaru…"

Fay woke up when Drill Boy jostled her and looked around sleepily before waking up completely when she saw a strange wolf-mech looking at them.

Shadowmaru saw he had startled the two and sat down, trying his best to look unthreatening. "Calm down, if I wanted to try anything I would have done it already,"

Drill Boy relaxed, realizing his fears were misplaced. "Right,"

Fay, however, was still nervous as she tried to hide behind Drill Boy's servo.

Shadowmaru noticed this and tried his best to smile while in wolf-mode as he tilted his helm curiously. "And who might this be?"

Fay peeked through Drill Boy's digit and he looked down at her and nudged her with his thumb. "It's alright, Fay, this is Shadowmaru," he looked at Shadowmaru. "Shadowmaru, this is Fay,"

Shadowmaru nodded "Nice to finally meet you, Fay,"

Fay slowly came out of hiding and looked up at Shadowmaru; he didn't seem scary like the mech from the soccer field, and if Drill Boy trusted him he couldn't be all bad.

Now about that name, she could remember it just fine but it was even harder to say than Drill Boy's, she would have to shorten it.

Unseen by them, Deckard left the rest of the group after they all separated from their combined modes and walked over to where they were and stood a few feet away. "Drill Boy,"

Drill Boy jumped and instinctively held Fay closer. "Deckard," he looked away, ashamed at how he acted earlier and worried that Deckard might take it out on Fay.

Deckard didn't miss how Drill Boy held the fairy, like a parent who feared their child would be taken from their arms, or how said fairy looked at him like he was a monster.

Shadowmaru lay down with his front legs folded in front of him and Artemis stood quietly while Deckard crossed the distance between them and put a servo on Drill Boy's shoulder.

Drill Boy looked at his servo then up at Deckard who was smiling at him like everything that happened in the Decker Room that day never happened and he was just glad everyone was okay.

"Come on, let's go home," Deckard jerked his thumb over his shoulder. "Everyone else is waiting,"

Drill Boy looked up at him, too worn out and dumbfounded to manage a response other than a nod "Okay," Then he remembered Fay. "What about Fay?"

Deckard smiled at Fay reassuringly. "Fay too," his smile became apologetic "I'm sorry about what happened in the park,"

Shadowmaru smiled internally as he said "Yeah, he was just cranky then,"

Deckard gave Shadowmaru a look before he helped Drill Boy up and the two of them walked on either side of the younger mech to where the others were while Artemis trailed behind them.

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The other Brave Police couldn't help but glance over at where Drill Boy sat, not knowing what to do until Deckard said he would talk to him while Madoh was loaded into the squad car that arrived on the scene to take him away.

This made the Build Team feel even worse; he was their brother and they couldn't think of a thing to say to him.

Dumpson looked at the others and whispered. "We should have a talk with him as soon as we get back,"

Power Joe crossed his arm-servos "About how he hid the fairy from us when we were combing the city for it along with Dr. Mad-man? Why wait?"

Yuuta looked up at them. "Come on, guys, Drill Boy didn't know we just wanted to put the fairy in protective custody, he thought we were going to kill her because she was someone's experiment,"

McCrane looked over at their youngest member sitting on the ground, looking worse for wear as he cradled the fairy to his chest. "Boss is right, we should make sure he's alright before scolding him for a simple misunderstanding,"

McCrane also made a silent promise to talk to Seia, either over the phone or in person; times like this reminded him how easy it is to lose the ones you care about and he wanted to make whatever time he had with her count.

When Drill Boy and Deckard reached the others they saw that their leader was supporting the Soccer Detective as he hobbled alongside him.

Artemis immediately took the injured mech from Deckard and made him sit down again. "Are you sure alright?"

Drill Boy rubbed his helm. "Yeah, I… I'll be okay,"

Deckard crossed his arm-servos and looked at the American Braves. "While we are on the subject of not telling anyone things, you three aren't off the hook either,"

This confused everyone; three? There were only two bots that pretended to not be sentient so why…

Then they realized he also looked at Shadowmaru.

"YOU KNEW!" Power Joe yelled. "You knew the whole time and didn't tell anyone?"

Shadowmaru started to protest but Artemis got out a wrench as she stood and hit Power Joe across the helm with it. "Because I asked him not to,"

Everyone gawked at the femme until Shadowmaru snorted and said. "Asked? What happened to 'I am technically literally begging on my knees when I say 'please, please don't tell anyone''?"

The others were confused at this so he added "I found her outside a church, she was kneeling to pray," while Artemis knelt next to Drill Boy to continue his repairs.

Power Joe looked at her as he rubbed his helm. "What were you doing at a church?"

The ambulance didn't look up from her work. "I'm a Christian, got a problem with that? If so that's your problem, not mine,"

Gunmax looked at the femme's work skeptically. "Shouldn't we take him back to the precinct for repairs?"

Artemis looked over her shoulder. "If you want to carry him I won't stop you," She turned back to Drill Boy. "If not, let me just do a quick field patch so he holds together that long,"

Drill Boy tried to stand. "I'm okay, really,"

Goliath snorted from somewhere off to the side. "Kid, don't test her. She will go 'Mama Bear' on your aft,"

"Goliath, language, there are children about," Artemis leaned in to examine the hole in Drill Boy's abdomen where Fay slipped through.

Gunmax pointed down at Yuuta. "Uh, there's only one kid here,"

Artemis pointed at Yuuta. "One…" she pointed at Drill Boy. "…Two…" she hesitated and looked Power Joe up and down before pointing nonchalantly at him as she turned back to Drill Boy. "Questionable…"

"HEY!" Power Joe clenched his fists indignantly. "I'm not a child!"

Goliath pressed his elbow down on top of Power Joe's helm as he leaned against him. "Then quit throwing tantrums like one,"

Yuuta stepped up and waved his hands in a "calm down" motion. "Alright, guys, stop fighting,"

Goliath released Power Joe and sauntered off, thumb-digits hooked on his hip plating like someone putting their hands in their pockets. "Not a fight until someone throws a punch,"

"Or a kick," Artemis piped up as she took a small—by Brave Police standards—blowtorch and welded a few holes in Drill Boy's armor closed.

After Artemis finished examining Drill Boy and making what repairs she could on site, they all transformed and left with Drill Boy riding with Gunmax on Gunbike.

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When they pulled up to the precinct, Toudou was waiting for them at the garage door, arms crossed and tapping his foot impatiently.

When they got closer he started walking up to them with a face like a storm cloud. Before anyone could say anything he pointed at all of them and said "All of you…" he pointed at the open garage door. "…inside, now,"

Gunmax parked Gunbike and helped Drill Boy off of it while everyone transformed and they all filed into the maintenance bay.

Toudou looked around to see if everyone was there and looked up at the Braves with a face that made one think he was going to say "Where have you kids been?" Instead, he simply said "Explain,"

Yuuta crossed his arms and looked at his team. "Who's first?"

Artemis stepped to the back of the group shyly, audio finials drooping. "Are you going to tell everyone about us?"

Toudou looked at the two newest recruits, somehow likening their behavior to that of two children that had run away from a bad home. "Why do you want to keep everything a secret?"

Goliath looked at him and said sternly "Because REASONS,"

Toudou was just about to tell the jet-mech he wasn't going to take any attitude from any of them when he heard a ruckus happening just outside the open garage doors. "What's going on out there?"

Deckard and Yuuta followed Toudou as he went to the bay doors leading out of the building and saw two officers trying to drag a young wheelchair bound boy away.

"Nice try, kid, now run along. This isn't a playground,"

The boy struggled as one of the officers held his hands so he couldn't stop his wheelchair as the other officer wheeled him away. "Let me go, please,"

Toudou shouted at the group. "What is going on out here?" The two officers stopped what they were doing to explain themselves but once they did he saw the boy they had been forcibly escorting away and recognized him immediately. "Tor, what are you doing here?"

Tor smiled up at the man, the sweat on his forehead and the fact that he was somewhat out of breath told them he had wheeled himself the whole way there. "Hi uncle, how are Fay and Drill Boy?"

Deckard stepped up and addressed the two officers. "We'll take it from here, officers. We asked this young man to come here since he had information on a case we were working on,"

The two men left almost reluctantly and Tor wheeled himself over to his uncle, smiling up at Deckard. "Thanks,"

Deckard smiled back and Toudou asked his nephew. "How do you know Fay and Drill Boy?"

Tor rubbed the back of his neck "I met Drill Boy at the soccer field earlier today and we both found Fay while we were there," he looked up with a concerned look. "Are they okay?"

Yuuta waved a hand towards the garage door. "Why don't you come and see for yourself?"

The four of them went inside and Tor looked around for Drill Boy and Fay. "Where are they?"

"Tor!" Fay flew up to her human friend and hugged his face.

Tor laughed and brought up a hand to hold onto her so she would let go. "Hey Fay, glad to see you too,"

"Hey Tor,"

Tor looked up and saw Drill Boy in his maintenance cradle and gasped "Whoa, what happened to you?"

Drill Boy tilted his helm like he was trying to shrug but couldn't move his shoulders because the fastening on his cradle pinned them down. "Got shot down, and then shot some more,"

Tor wheeled himself over to Drill Boy's cradle and parked himself in front of it. "Did you guys catch the guy?"

Yuuta nodded. "Yep," he looked at his team again. "Now, like we were saying, who's first? Drill Boy or you two?" he looked at the American Braves.

Shadowmaru curled up on the floor next to his maintenance cradle. "Why don't we have the explanation for the fairy first since our little cousin came all this way to help give it?"

"Cousin?"

Everyone looked at him and the wolf-mech shrugged. "He's Mr. Toudou's nephew and he built us all so wouldn't that technically make him our cousin?"

No one argued with that and Drill Boy and Tor told their story until they got to the part where Drill Boy panicked when he couldn't find Fay and Tor when he went back to the soccer field.

"… And then Drill Boy freaked out,"

Drill Boy looked at Tor indignantly. "Did not,"

Tor looked up at him "Did too,"

"Did not,"

Deckard stepped up "I'm guessing this was right before we confronted you about the fairy,"

The two stopped arguing and nodded and Deckard added "And then Yuuta got the call from the Commissioner and Drill Boy ran off with Fay and got shot down while we were calling the others,"

Drill Boy nodded. "Yeah, and when I wouldn't give him Fay he kept shooting until Fay used her light to blind him and then you guys showed up,"

Power Joe pumped his fist triumphantly. "and kicked his butt right into jail!"

Shadowmaru snorted "We got our butts kicked around a bit too, Mr. Kung Fu. If you're going to tell a story tell the whole story,"

Power Joe frowned and poked the Ninja Detective with his toe. "Look who's talking, Fido!"

Shadowmaru yelped and scooted away from Power Joe when he kicked his injured side. Mr. Toudou noticed this and asked. "Did you get yourself hurt again?"

Shadowmaru looked away. "Um… no?"

Toudou frowned and said "Prove it, transform so we can get a better look,"

Shadowmaru hesitated then braced himself as he transformed into robot mode, grunting through grit denta as the process pulled at his injury painfully.

The technicians in the room noticed this and one of them commented from somewhere in the back of the group. "That's the second time today,"

Shadowmaru hung his head; it wasn't his fault that the enemies they fought kept getting bigger and stronger to counter the larger combiner units on their team.

To everyone's surprise, though, Artemis stepped up in his defense.

"Well, if you guys don't want to fix him…" Artemis hooked her arm-servo through Shadowmaru's good arm-servo. "Alright if I have a look?"

Shadowmaru regarded the femme for a moment before nodding and Artemis steered him into his maintenance cradle and hooked him up to it.

Dumpson looked at the two of them. "What are you, a doctor or something?"

"Medic, actually," Artemis removed her arm guard before pulling a yellow jack wire out of her arm-servo. "May I?"

After realizing what the femme was trying to do, Shadowmaru hesitated—he never let anyone in his head like that before—and said "Let me adjust the firewalls, don't want you to fry your processors,"

After getting the "ok", Artemis plugged the wire into an outlet in Shadowmaru's neck, placing that arm's servo on his shoulder to calm him when he winced.

Yuuta tilted his head to the side. "Aren't doctors and medics the same thing?"

Artemis shook her helm, not looking up from her work. "No, there's a difference," she examined Shadowmaru's injuries while her systems ran a diagnostic of his.. "Alright, let's see what we've got here,"

Deckard looked up at Goliath; he was unsure on where he was actually looking since his optics were concealed by a visor otherwise he would have stepped into the taller mech's field of vison and looked him in the optics when he asked. "So… what's your story?"

Goliath shrugged and told them about himself and his sister like he thought someone had already told them and didn't really care if they were listening to him now. "We woke up in a military plane hangar to a bunch of grease monkeys and science nut jobs trying to make us into super weapon/super soldiers,"

His wings twitched as he shrugged again. "Since the little control freaks would have scrapped us and started from scratch if they found out things hadn't gone exactly as they planned, we pretty much played dead while Joey taught us about human stuff in secret until you guys showed up and brought us here,"

Shadowmaru looked at the jet-mech; that was somewhat similar to the story Artemis told him the night before but there were parts missing. "I think you missed some parts,"

Goliath looked at him and judging by the expression on his lower face plates he was glaring at him. "I thought I told you if you ratted us out…"

Shadowmaru brushed him off casually. "Yeah, yeah, '…they will need a magnifying glass to find what's left of you'…" he lip synced to a recording of Goliath's voice before switching back to his own. "…technically, I didn't rat anyone out, you two blew your own cover before I could say anything,"

Goliath growled and looked like he was going to go over and push Shadowmaru's maintenance cradle over with him in it but Artemis flicked one audio finial towards him and said "Goliath, please don't harass my patients while I'm giving them check-ups. Not only is it distracting but it interferes with the end results,"

Toudou remembered something at the word "check-up" and looked around. "Speaking of check-ups, where's Power Joe?"

Goliath looked at the Chief Engineer. "Yellow dude with the attitude? Already went inside," He pointed to the corridor leading into the Decker Room.

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As soon as Power Joe got to the Decker Room the phone rang. Everyone ran into the room to see what the call was but Power Joe got there first.

"Brave Police Decker Room, how can we help you?'

A worried voice blurted through the phone. "Power Joe, it's Kikumaro,"

Power Joe raised an optic ridge. "Kikumaro, you're not supposed to call this line unless it's an emergency,"

Then the boy yelled "EMILY FELL DOWN A HOLE, WE CAN'T GET HER OUT!"

Power Joe stood up and slammed his free servo down on the desk. "What do you mean she 'fell down a hole'? Where are you?"

Kikumaro hesitated and said "We were taking a shortcut through an abandoned construction site, Emily ran around a corner and she slipped and fell into a hole. She can't climb out and we can't reach her,"

The others started pestering Power Joe, wondering what was going on, so he told them what Kikumaro told him and Yuuta stood up. "We're not supposed to go anywhere near there, what were they thinking?"

Power Joe frowned and spoke into the phone. "Boss says you guys shouldn't be over there, so why did you take a shortcut through there?"

Kikumaro sounded near tears. "I'm sorry, we're really sorry,"

Power Joe sighed and waved his servo. "Calm down, we're on our way. Just sit tight until we get there,"

He hung up the phone and made a break for the door but Dumpson called after him. "Hey, wait for us!"

Power Joe skidded to a stop and grabbed the door frame to both kill his momentum and keep his balance as he turned around and snapped "Well, hurry up!"

Dumpson followed him out the door and McCrane started to do the same before turning to Deckard. "Are you coming as well?"

Deckard started to say something but Gunmax interrupted. "Why? It's not like we need the whole team to go get a little girl out of a hole,"

Deckard gave Gunmax a look before turning back to McCrane. "Actually, I was going to say there is an open patrol shift in a few minutes and since you three are going to help Emily and Drill Boy and Shadowmaru are being repaired and our new recruits haven't actually been officially indicted that just leaves us…"

He pointed to himself and Gunmax. "…to do it,"

Gunmax looked at the blue mech. "Say wha-a-t?"

Deckard crossed his arm-servos. "And since Yuuta will need to go home for dinner soon we'd better get going so I can drop him off and we can finish with just us…" he gave Gunmax another look to try to hint that they would be alone on their patrol once Yuuta was home.

Gunmax caught the hint and tried to hide the sound of his internal fans kicking on by grumbling "Whatever,"

Yuuta, however, was less than pleased. "Deckard, why are you sending me home? Dinnertime isn't for a while and you said it was okay if I came to work today,"

Gunmax snorted. "Under threat of 'bus pass'…"

Deckard looked at the Yuuta; he really didn't want to send the boy home early but Yuuta did just have surgery and a long day almost immediately after. "Just until after you have dinner, if you still feel up to coming back in I will pick you up and bring you back to the precinct,"

Yuuta pouted but knew his friend meant well. "Ok…"

McCrane nodded. "Alright, I had better catch up to Power Joe and Dumpson before they get too far,"

They all left the room after that; McCrane in pursuit of his brothers, Gunmax to get started on patrol and Deckard went to the front entrance of the precinct to pick up Yuuta after the boy got through the main building.

A.N.: Quick shout out to the people that reviewed and/or added; imjaysong, MyFix, Technomajor,