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.
Meanwhile
Kikumaro ran up to where Masaki crouched next to a pit that the construction workers had dug to install plumbing for the building that was being built next to it.
Masaki looked up when the other boy when he approached, expecting an answer, but Kikumaro was too out of breath to say anything at first. "Well, did you call them or what?"
Kikumaro gasped for air one more time and said "Yeah… they're on their way,"
Masaki leaned over the edge and called down. "Hang on, Emily. Power Joe and the others are on their way,"
They heard a tiny voice snap back "Well, tell them to hurry up. I don't know how much longer I can hold on,"
Kikumaro sat down next to Masaki. "Just so you know, Power Joe isn't going to be happy when he gets here,"
Masaki looked at him incredulously. "How come?"
The other boy shrugged and fixed his glasses on his face. "Yuuta told him we're not supposed to be here and he sure didn't SOUND happy when I called,"
Masaki huffed "Just like Yuuta to rat us out like that,"
A few minutes later they heard sirens approaching.
"That must be them,"
"I'll get 'em" Masaki got up and ran to the entrance of the construction site to lead the Build Team to where Emily was.
Sure enough, a crane, a power shovel and a dump truck with police lights on their cabs drove up and transformed into McCrane, Power Joe and Dumpson and looked down at Masaki.
Power Joe didn't waste time in asking "Where are Emily and Kikumaro?"
Masaki waved his hand in a "follow me" gesture. "Come on I'll show you,"
They followed the boy to where Kikumaro was kneeling next to a hole in the ground that ran along the edge of an unfinished building.
Deducing that that had to be where Emily was, Power Joe fell to his knees and crawled to the edge of the hole and looked down into it, trying to see Emily. "Emily?"
He saw the girl clinging to a piece of underground piping poking out of the dirt about halfway down the hole.
"Hang on, I'll try to grab you," he reached down but he ended up knocking some loose dirt and rocks into the hole.
Power Joe flinched away when he heard Emily cry out when the dirt hit her. "Sorry, sorry," He tried reaching down again but someone pulled him away from the edge. "Hey, what the heck?"
He turned to see that McCrane was pulling him to his feet and away from the hole.
"Calm down, I know you're worried about her but if you keep that up you'll make the side of the hole cave in on her," he released Power Joe and knelt next to the pit, carefully leaning over to see into it without knocking more dirt and rocks down into it. "You alright down there, Emily?"
"Y-yes," Emily replied in a tiny voice.
McCrane then examined the hole. "Looks like they were trying to dig down to the city's underground pipe systems," he gauged how far down she was and the size of the hole and sighed. "Unfortunately, the sides are too unstable for us to reach down and grab Emily and it's too narrow for us to climb down after her,"
Then Dumpson came up with an idea. "Say, McCrane, would your crane winch work?"
McCrane nodded and reached over his shoulder to pull his crane arm forward so he could grab the cable and pull it out. "Alright, Emily, I'm going to lower a winch down to you,"
As he was saying this he got out a winch harness and attached it to the hook on the end of his cable. "As soon as it's within reach I want you to grab onto it and pull it around yourself so that it goes under your arms. Understand?"
"Ok,"
McCrane lowered the winch down into the hole and kept lowering it, slowly, until it got closer to where Emily could grab it.
Masaki and Kikumaro crept closer, wanting to see what was going on, but Power Joe held them back. "Whoa, careful kids,"
They looked at him with "Why not?" looks and he smiled at them reassuringly. "Don't want you guys falling down there too,"
"I got them," Dumpson lead the two boys off to the side, asking them "Now, whose idea was it to cut through a construction site on the way home from school?" as they walked away.
While this was going on, the winch apparently got within Emily's reach because she shouted "Got it!" up to McCrane.
McCrane looked down to see Emily was now hanging from the winch instead of the pipe she had been clinging too and tugged carefully on the tow cable to make sure it was secure.
Luckily, it was. "Alright, I'm going to pull you up now. Hang on,"
They heard a hiss of hydraulics and the sound of the cable being wound up as McCrane reeled Emily in slowly until she cleared the top of the hole.
Power Joe reached out to grab the girl as soon as she was in reach. "I gotcha," he looked his friend over to make sure she was alright; she was covered in dirt and had a few scratches on her hands, arms and face but other than that she was fine.
That didn't stop Emily from crying as she hugged Power Joe's wrist as soon as they got the winch off, though. "For a minute there…" she sniffled a bit and then continued "… I thought I was going to keep falling until I hit the bottom… and that looked really, really deep,"
McCrane finished reeling in the cable for his crane arm so that he could fold the arm against his back again. "That's why you children shouldn't be playing around here. Someone could get hurt,"
Masaki and Kikumaro looked down at the ground while Emily tried to hide behind Power Joe's thumb. "We're sorry,"
Power Joe looked at them with a frown on his face plates and Dumpson and McCrane waited for him to scoff and say "The Brave Police doesn't need APOLOGIES …" like he did with Drill Boy when Yuuta got captured because of the Soccer Detective's childish antics.
Instead the Kung Fu Detective just sighed and smiled tiredly at the children. "Well, I'd say we've all had a rough day today. Let's just get you guys home,"
Dumpson crossed his arm-servos and looked at the children sternly. "And we WILL be telling your parents about this,"
All three of them shouted "WHAT? WHY?" with looks of disbelief on their faces.
McCrane looked at them admonishingly "Because you're parents need to know what their children are up to, especially Emily's…" he gestured at how filthy and scuffed up the girl was, hinting that her parents were going to want to know how she got that way.
"…and I highly doubt you three are going to tell them yourselves,"
The children started to argue against this but Power Joe coughed into his free hand to get their attention and gave them a meaningful look which got them to be quiet; they all knew that he knew a handful of instances that would prove this theory.
Since it would have been too crowded for all three children to ride in Power Joe's cab, the Build Team decided to "Divide and Conquer" to get the three kids home; McCrane took Kikumaro home while Dumpson took Masaki home and Emily rode with Power Joe.
On the way to Emily's house, Power Joe asked. "Are you sure you're alright?"
Emily just hugged herself tighter. "I think so,"
Power Joe was at a loss; usually in cases like this they had the victim get checked over by a doctor afterward, or have an ambulance on the scene, just to be safe.
Ambulance? Power Joe grinned internally. "Hey, is it alright if we stop somewhere on the way to your house?"
Emily looked at the dashboard of Power Joe's console, wondering what the Kung Fu Detective was up to. "Why?"
Power Joe would have shrugged had his shoulders not been locked in place beneath his cab. "I just thought we'd get you checked over just in case,"
Emily shrank back against his seat. "I don't want to go to the doctor…"
Power Joe tried to calm the girl down. "Alright, alright, I won't take you to the doctor," he smiled to himself. "But I know someone who might be able to do just as good. Hang on!"
He whooped excitedly as he picked up speed and changed course to head back to the precinct.
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Meanwhile
Toudou went over to check on Shadowmaru and Artemis to see how the femme was doing with repairing his shoulder. He had just checked on Drill Boy's repairs and saw the Soccer Detective was in good hands so now he went to check on the other injured mech in the Maintenance bay.
His mind was still reeling that the two American Braves they had recently acquired were sentient this whole time and were choosing to hide it from the world for the time being; he made a mental note to find out why later.
Right then, however, Toudou was focused on climbing up on the scaffolding in front of Shadowmaru's cradle so he could get a look at the mech's shoulder.
He stood next to Kio, one of the technicians that usually dealt with Shadowmaru's repairs, and jokingly asked. "Making sure the new girl doesn't undo what you guys fixed earlier?"
One of Artemis' audio finials flicked towards the two men having a conversation a few feet away from her shoulder but didn't look up from her work on Shadowmaru's shoulder. "'New girl' has a name,"
Toudou looked at her "Well, what is it? You mentioned your brother's name was 'Goliath' but you never gave us yours,"
Artemis pulled the tool she was using to reattach a few wires in Shadowmaru's shoulder back so she wouldn't pull on them when she jerked in surprise. "Oh right, sorry, I'm Artemis,"
She looked at them "I can stop if you'd rather…"
Both men held up their hands and shook their heads saying "No, no," and Toudou added "Just seeing how you're doing,"
Shadowmaru craned his neck to try to see his own shoulder. "How are you doing over there, by the way?"
Artemis used her free servo to move his helm back to where it was before resuming repairs. "Almost done, hold still please," She traded the tool she was using for a different one, this one looked almost like the metal hooks that dentists use on teeth, and poked at something in Shadowmaru's shoulder, making him wince.
She pulled the tool back and glanced up at the Ninja Detective. "That hurt?"
Shadowmaru quickly shook his helm. "No,"
Artemis sighed and looked up at him with a knowing look. "Don't you dare lie to me, I was only asking to be polite," she lifted the yellow wire that connected Artemis' arm-servo to Shadowmaru's to illustrate her point.
Toudou noticed the yellow wire when the femme moved. "What is that wire for, anyway?"
Artemis paused in her work long enough to move the aforementioned wire so it wouldn't get caught on anything before resuming her task. "It's a diagnostic sync cable. It links my diagnostic systems with that of any robot or machine I attach it to, which makes repairs easier,"
Shadowmaru remembered that Artemis only gave Drill Boy a visual and tactile examination at the battle site. "Why didn't you use it when you fixed Drill Boy at the scene earlier?"
"Because I didn't need it then,"
Shadowmaru still had one more concern on his processors. "There wouldn't happen to be a chance you could hack me with that thing, is there?"
Artemis stopped what she was doing and looked up at him. "It's a one-way link; I can receive signals from your systems but I can't send them," she resumed her task and grumbled "If anyone should be worried about getting hacked it's me,"
Shadowmaru jumped in surprise. "Excuse me?"
"N-nothing!"
Shadowmaru noticed the femme answered a little too quickly and refused to meet his optics but before he could call her out on it his badge started beeping, signaling a call from one of the others. "Alright if I answer that?"
Artemis still didn't look at him. "Need for me to stop while you do that?"
Shadowmaru reached across with his other servo to grab his badge out of his holster. "Not really, but if you want to I won't stop you,"
He opened the badge with his thumb and hit the button to answer the call. Power Joe's face appeared on the little screen on it, he had Emily perched on his shoulder like a parrot and judging by the way the scenery in the back ground was moving the Kung Fu Detective was walking while he talked.
"Power Joe, to what do I owe this call?"
Artemis quickly jumped away from Shadowmaru and when he looked at her with a "What's wrong" look she mouthed "You never said there was a camera on that thing,"
At first Shadowmaru was confused but then he realized why such a thing would bother her and whispered "Sorry" back before returning his attention to his badge in time to hear Power Joe ask :Is the newbie there?:
"Newbie?" Shadowmaru suddenly felt cold inside; did Power Joe reveal the American Brave's secret while he was out?
'Shit, play dumb!' "What… 'newbie'?"
Power Joe wasn't amused :You know exactly who I'm talking about, your little ambulance friend. I know you went and got her when Boss needed an ambulance, I was wondering if she could take a quick look at Emily before we take her home.:
Shadowmaru glanced up at Artemis to see what she thought of all this. The blue femme looked ready to cry and her ear finials dropped, making her look like a kitten that had been left out in the rain.
Shadowmaru sighed and looked down at his badge, intent on telling Power Joe to bring her to a human doctor if he was that worried but then a servo grabbed his wrist. He looked up to see Artemis smiling at him sadly.
She raised a digit to her lip components and whispered "If she can keep a secret…" she pointed down at the floor, indicating to him what her answer was.
Shadowmaru paused for a moment, giving her a chance to change her mind, before sighing and saying "Alright, bring her over,"
:Alright! We're just down the street, be right there.:
He ended the call and Artemis put away the tools she was using to fix Shadowmaru's shoulder and then called over her own shoulder. "Goliath!"
"Wha-a-at?" Goliath drew out the word so it had as many syllables as his name in response to his sister calling his name.
"We've got incoming! PowerJerk told one of his friends they have an ambulance on the team now,"
Drill Boy muttered "Power Jerk, I'll have to remember that one," between giggles and Goliath growled and stomped into the maintenance bay.
"Where is he?"
Artemis sighed "On his way. I don't think he's told anyone about you and he's bringing a little girl here for a check-up so you better make yourself scarce before she sees you,"
Goliath crossed his arm-servos. "OH no, I am staying right here to give that Amarillo idiot a piece of my mind,"
Artemis looked up at him like she was intent on dragging him out if he didn't leave. "Goliath…"
The towering jet mech smiled down at her and clapped a servo over her helm playfully. "And I aint going anywhere without you either, sis,"
Artemis smiled and playfully head butted his servo off of her helm. "Reap what you sow, bro,"
Shadowmaru looked away from the shameless display of camaraderie; he used to have that a long time ago, with Kagero, but now that his brother was gone… Shadowmaru was alone. Even if he were placed in a room so crowded everyone stood shoulder to shoulder he would still be alone.
A few minutes later, Power Joe came in with Emily in his servo. He looked around for a certain someone. "Where is she?"
"Right here," he looked down and saw a woman in an EMT uniform walking up to him with a bag over her shoulder.
Power Joe looked at Artemis' cradle and saw that the femme was hooked up to it as though she had never been out of it. "What the…"
"Power Joe, Emily…" Shadowmaru got their attention before Power Joe could question why Artemis wasn't going to examine Emily herself instead of this strange woman; he obviously didn't recognize Artemis' holoform. "I would like you to meet my friend, Artemis,"
"Hello," Artemis smiled at them, the picture of friendly professionalism.
Emily looked at her uneasily. "Um, hello…" she looked at Power Joe, who looked at her then at Artemis's holoform.
"Uh…" 'What the hell is going on?' Power Joe looked at Shadowmaru, who gave him a look that said "Just go with it… or else", before kneeling down so he could hold Emily closer to the ground where Artemis could examine the girl.
Artemis' holoform set her bag down on the floor and took out a stethoscope "Alright, now could you please tell me what happened? You guys didn't really give Shadowmaru any specifics when you called him,"
Power Joe realized that both Shadowmaru and Drill Boy had been in the Maintenance bay when they got Kikumaro's call and no one told them what happened at the construction site and he really hadn't told Shadowmaru why he wanted Artemis to give Emily an examination.
"Oops," Power Joe lifted one of his servos to rub the back of his helm as he smiled apologetically. "Well, a while ago we got a call from Kikumaro saying that they had cut through an abandoned construction site and that Emily was in trouble,"
He looked down at Emily to let her tell her part of the story but Emily hung her head in embarrassment and only glanced up to watch Artemis' holoform warily as she held the stethoscope to the girl's chest so he continued.
"When we got there she was hanging onto a pipe to keep from falling to the bottom of a hole. I wanted to get her checked over, just in case, but she didn't want to go to a doctor so I thought…"
"That you could bring her here for an examination instead," Artemis finished his sentence in a bemused tone as she listened to Emily's breathing and heartbeat.
Power Joe shrugged, accidently jostling Emily. "Well, yeah," he realized Emily was now off balance and helped her settle herself before he noticed the tone Artemis had used. "Is that a problem?"
"Please don't shake the patient…" Artemis re-checked Emily's vitals to see if the jostling had affected them. "And, I'm sorry, but it did kind of put us on the spot when you called and said you were bringing someone over not even an hour after we specifically asked you not to say anything about us,"
Power Joe looked at her. "Well, I kind of figured it wouldn't hurt to ask a favor since we are doing you and your brother one by not saying anything about you,"
Goliath slid the sliding door to the sanctioned off part of the maintenance bay—where he had been hiding—open and looked at Power Joe. "So, let me get this straight, you told someone about us… because you thought we owed you for not telling anyone about us?"
Power Joe looked at him. "What are you getting at?"
Artemis didn't look at him as she whispered sadly. "Trust isn't something to be bartered for,"
Goliath crawled out of his hiding spot. "Actually, I was just hoping you would realize how stupid that sounded if someone said it out loud,"
While this was happening, Emily stared up at the new giant robot until she recognized him and blurted out. "Hey, you're one of the new robots, aren't you?"
Goliath looked down at her. "Who wants to know?"
Artemis' holoform leaned to the side so that she was blocking Emily's view of the jet-mech. "Sweetie, you can't tell anyone about the new robots yet, alright?"
Emily looked at her, seeming to not hear her. "Is the girl one awake too? I wanna meet her!"
Artemis put a hand on the girl's shoulder. "Emily, this is serious!" Emily looked confused so Artemis elaborated. "The Brave Police told me about how someone tried to steal Deckard when he was new because they made a big announcement about him so a lot of people wanted a robot like him.
"So they have been keeping new robots a secret until they are ready to be indicted," Artemis leaned forward with a reassuring smile. "So I need to promise that you won't tell anyone the big secret, ok?"
Emily nodded. "Ok…" she smiled mischievously "…if I can meet the girl robot,"
Artemis looked surprised by this and slumped in defeat with a sigh.
Power Joe nudged the holoform with his littlest digit, somewhat surprised when he could actually feel what felt like flesh and bone under the realistic projected fabric of her uniform. "Hey, she won't tell anyone, just tell her,"
Artemis sighed again and got up. "Okay," she walked a few steps away before running towards her maintenance cradle and turning into a ball of light that shot into her real body's chassis.
"Whoa, what was that?" Emily's eyes widened as Artemis came online and looked at her with sky blue optics.
"Hello, I am Artemis," she smiled at the girl as she disconnected herself from the cradle.
Emily clapped her hands excitedly. "Awesome! Oh, I wish I could tell my friends," she giggled. "Yuuta's going to be so jealous I got to meet you before he did,"
Shadowmaru looked at the girl. "Boss already knows, he just promised not to say anything until they have been indicted into the police force,"
Emily gasped indignantly and pouted. "No fair,"
Power Joe started to stand up since he didn't need to hold Emily at a human's level anymore, his knee joints were starting to stiffen anyway, but Artemis and stopped him.
"You're fine, just need to check a couple more things and we're done,"
Power Joe resumed crouching until Artemis looked at his servos and frowned. "On second thought, maybe you'd better sit down,"
Power Joe looked confused. "What?"
Artemis carefully took Emily out of his servos. "You're shaking, sit,"
Toudou looked at Power Joe with a condescending look he usually reserved for when Gunmax was up to his usual shenanigans. "Get in your maintenance cradle, Power Joe. You're overdue for a check-up yourself, anyway,"
Power Joe tried to act tough for Emily; not wanting to worry the girl, who was looking up at him worriedly. "I said I don't need a check-up,"
Artemis and Goliath looked at each other and nodded.
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Sometime later…
McCrane and Dumpson came back to the precinct to find Power Joe strapped into his maintenance cradle with enough duct tape on his face plates to cover his mouth.
McCrane looked at Shadowmaru, who looked like he was trying not to laugh, while Dumpson went to check on Drill Boy. "Do I even want to know what happened?"
Shadowmaru became serious and recounted the events of the last few minutes with utmost honesty. "Power Joe brought Emily back here to ask Artemis to give Emily a check-up, much to hers and Goliath's chagrin. Emily knows about them now but she promised to keep quiet until further notice,"
He looked over at Power Joe. "Mr. Toudou wanted to give Mr. Kung Fu a check-up as well but Power Joe refused. So, Goliath bodily forced him into his cradle and strapped him down.
"Power Joe cursed up a storm so Artemis put tape over his mouth and she and Toudou scolded him for using such language around children,"
He nodded towards where Emily was sitting, calmly sucking on a lollipop. "The girl is fine, although she'll probably need a ride home,"
McCrane looked at Shadowmaru; that was probably the longest speech he had ever heard from the Ninja Detective—since Kagero, at least—that wasn't a detailed debriefing of a case. "Right, well. I'll get right on that,"
He went over to the girl and knelt down. "Come on Emily, I'll give you a ride home,"
"Ok" Emily followed the Combat Detective outside.
"Remember, Emily…" Artemis called after her sweetly. "…it's our little secret,"
Emily looked back. "Can I at least tell Kikumaro and Masaki?"
"I'm sorry but no, you promised,"
"Fine," Emily huffed as she followed McCrane outside from where they could hear a transformation sequence a moment later followed by a vehicle driving away.
After they were gone, everyone let out a sigh of relief; that could have gone a lot worse but the secret they were all trying so hard to keep was safe for now Goliath looked at his comrades and said dismissively "I give her a few hours, tops,"
Artemis gave him a sidelong glance. "Goliath…"
The jet-mech shrugged and left the bay. "What? Most of us thought it, I just said it,"
Shadowmaru went over to Power Joe and carefully peeled back a corner so that he had something to grab onto. "If I take this off will you start shouting again?"
Power Joe grumbled through the tape and the Ninja Detective smiled. "I'll take that as a maybe…" he ripped the tape off with a swift yank…
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Meanwhile, in the Commissioner's office
Commissioner Saejima and Co-Commmissioner Azuma both heard screaming and jumped.
'Hmm, had it not been for the fact that we are on the top floor I could have sworn that was Power Joe's voice,"
Saejima mused to himself before looking at Azuma. "You were saying?"
Co-Commissioner Azuma stood in front of Commissioner Saejima's desk, glaring at the man as he calmly looked through the file in his hands.
"When was I to be told that you had more of those machines being built overseas, Commissioner?"
Saejima glanced up at him. "You were told that we were expanding the Brave Police to include global branches, they are part of that,"
Azuma clenched his fists "Then why are they here and not in the country they are to be stationed?"
Saejima lowered the file folder and fully looked at the Co-Commissioner. "Because the engineers that assembled them are having difficulties activating their Super A.I. and requested that we fix the problem that has continued to stump them,"
Azuma huffed and said "Why couldn't they just start from scratch? Or better yet, forget about the so-called 'Super A.I.' altogether.
Saejima set the file in his hands down on the desk with a frown. "Because Yuuta-kun and his team has proven, time and time again, how essential the Super A.I. is to the Brave Police unit's functionality,"
He smiled at the other man. "Why fix what isn't broken, Co-Commissioner Azuma?"
Azuma stalled for a moment, trying to come up with a response but couldn't so he asked if there was anything else that the Commissioner needed him for before excusing himself.
After he left, Saijima returned his attention to the file in his hands; it was the one that Yuuta had brought back from America containing information on the two American Braves.
'What surprises do you have in store for us?'