Discovery 3.7

(Horror)

"-they're practically controlled by hormones during their teenage years. It's kind of hilarious to watch, them all running around and subtly trying to get into each other's pants. When 13 was first created, he was really freaked out by all of the hanky panky going on in closets and behind bleachers. You would not believe how many reports he filed to the various janitorial services about missing bras."

At Horror's confused head tilt, 17 clarified. "Um, 13 is the Education Administrator. He can't actually… do much, but he tries his best to report illegal activities and such to the police. He's a little… sad that he can't stop the decline that's going on right now, but he does his best." A softer smile stood out on her face, and Horror nodded. Horror never had a real family, but it understood the trust and importance.

But it shook its head. Horror wasn't asking about 13.

"What is…? Hanky Panky?"

17 was grinning.

It was no longer a nice grin.

"Ah, that's right; I haven't gotten there yet. It's a word that describes the actions that couples perform together that are considered… improper."

Horror tilted its head again.

"But! I'll explain that later. I still have to cover the biological purposes of sexual reproduction." Horror nodded in agreement. It was interesting to hear about what another species could do, largely because Horror itself can't do many things that a normal living thing could, but also…

It was wondering why humans were so crazy.

Why would they blow themselves up? Were they trying to kill something? But if it lead to the destruction of humans… wasn't that a futile action? ~Steroids didn't know why either, he just knew something was coming.~

Horror's thoughts were interrupted by the voice of the weird human, "You would not believe how thankful we all were that Mother decided not to put in a 'teenage' stage of our growth. It would have been… horrible." She shuddered, leaving Horror enough time to glance at the still dark eye of not-Robot.

Was not-Robot okay? Why did he go dark? Did something happen? 17 wasn't worried about him, so he must be fine?

"But anyway, the main purpose of sexual reproduction is to pass on traits from the parents to their children, creating a variance in their genes, that is, their, uhh, bodies' coding? I'll explain DNA later. The gametes, er… half cells… um." She peered at Horror's face. "Do you, uh, know anything about biology? Like cells and stuff?"

Horror shook his head, then stopped, tilting his head from side to side. "Little. Steroids tried, but cells were weirder back then, err, is that how you?"

"I know," she said stopping Horror "Time travel kills English. Let's move on then. So gametes are cells with half the amount of coding inside them, and there are normally two types. For humans, females produce ovum, or eggs, while the males produce sperm. These two fuse together in an event called fertilization, forming a zygote cell, which all humans grow from."

Horror nodded. So far, everything she's said made sense. It was all starting to fit together now, little by little.

"These zygotes are made of -handcuffs and rope are usually used to tie up the- coding from both parents, in most cases forming a mixture of both." What was that?

Horror turned just in time to see not-Robot turn himself off again. He returned his attention back towards the weird human, only to see her giggling as she continued to explain.

"Now the bodies of humans want sexual reproduction to occur in order to spread their coding on into the next generation, and they can do this in many, many ways. Most of the time, human males look for human females that can best take care of their potential children, completely subconsciously by the way, which can be anything from –leather tights that really show off the-" There she was again, making that weird voice with hints of laughter! Was he supposed to ignore those words? They didn't make sense at all…

"Umm, weird human?" Horror tentatively raised his voice.

"Oh, I'm not a human, Horror. I'm a robot!" Wait, what?

"But you are pinkish and stand on two legs? How are you not a human?" Horror was really confused. Is that why she pauses like Robot does?

"I'm a human drone, model 92312, class-17. This drone is designed to host my consciousness while I'm in public or in places with humans that don't know about the Administrators. All of the Administrators have at least one model, although some *cough* 86 *cough* have hundreds." She was glaring at the camera angrily now. Was the camera a robot too?

"So, you look like a human, and act like a human, but aren't human?"

"Nope! I can prove it too!" 17 leapt over the table where they were seated and stopped in front of Horror, quickly peeling back her face to reveal the metal behind it. "Boo!" Her true face revealed, Horror took its time admiring it. The wired that now stuck out a little didn't show up at all with her skin on, and Horror didn't know how it didn't notice how her eyes glowed like that. It truly was an amazing sight…

Wait… why was she staring at it?

The two of them were just sitting there now.

Was… was that supposed to do something? He poked her face confusedly. "Boop?" Did Horror do it right?

17 snickered at it, rubbing Horror's head while crooning at it "Aww, you're so adorable Horror. I can't believe we ever thought you were a threat. –rubbing like this is sometimes a sign of fore-"

"No! Bad mommy! You are not supposed to do that with guests!" Not-Robot screeched while lunging between them, interrupting Horror's head pats.

Head pats were bad? Horror knew living things went grey and black after touching him, but 17 was a robot, right? She would be fine?

At least Not-Robot was awake now.

"Finally staying with us, 1103?" 17 questioned coyly while crouching down. "You know it isn't polite to leave guests unattended, right?"

Not-Robot was doing everything in his power not to appear flustered, but Horror saw him shaking his legs.

Horror didn't know a lot of things in this world, but nervousness wasn't one of them.

Horror had been nervous before. Steroids and Robot had been too, once or twice.

It usually happened before a big fight, or after Steroids hadn't found food in a few days, or if Robot didn't get sunlight with his panels out every two sun cycles… days, they were called days.

But why was not-Robot nervous?

"Yes, you are correct, but so is describing… vulgar scenarios! You should not be doing that with anyone!" Not-Robot was now pointing one of his legs at the human-robot's face, shaking it like Steroids did to Horror after it did something stupid.

"Kid, do you know who I am?" 17 was staring at not-Robot with a face of utter confusion.

"My mommy, 17, Administrator of-"

"The internet. As in: all of it. I read everything, kid. If you think a bit of bondage and pet play is bad, I haven't even gotten started."

Not-Robot was looking down and shuddering. "Oh." not-Robot took a second to think "I had forgotten. That was rather… unintelligent of me." What was so bad about the internet? What was the internet? Was it like a fishing net? Why would 17 be on a fishing net?

"Now, I'm going to finish the PG description of sexual reproduction. Can I continue 1103? Or are you going to turn yourself off again?" 17 was doing the finger waggling thing at not-Robot now.

Horror cackled to himself quietly. She looked funny doing that without her face on.

"I- I am able to listen now." Not-Robot rubbed the back of his body, producing a faint screeching noise.

"Good, as I was saying before I was so rudely interrupted…"

"Apologies."

"Accepted. Now, where was I..? Ah, yes, human females also look for humans males in much the same as the males do for females. In the past, far before civilization began, females looked for males that could successfully hunt for food and protect them. This process has changed a lot since them, and now some females also look for a partner of the same gender, even before they could reproduce with the help of technology."

"Do human males also look for other males?" Horror asked.

17 quickly raised her hands to cover her face, not before Horror saw the ridges under her eyes turn red, but fast enough for it to miss her expression. When she lowered her hands, her skin was back on, but the red glow beneath her eyes were still present.

"Umm, right. Y-yes, that happens too. And it's really, really…" She looked at not-Robot "…interesting. Yes, I'll go with that. Those kinds of relationships take, uh, a lot of monitoring online, uh, and it's really important for me to watch it all. I-I swear!" 17 held up her hand, but instantly put it down once the door behind her slammed open, her face going a blazing red again.

"Yoohoo! You done with the talk yet, sis?" A human female ~Is this one a robot too? She said sister…~ rushed into the room glancing around the room before settling her vibrant green eyes on Horror.

It was most likely another human-robot, based on how the eyes glowed, but she was… different from the other humans Horror had seen before.

Lively green hair sprouted from her head, going in every direction but down, leaving the madly grinning face of the human robot uncovered. She was also adorably tiny. Barely reaching the lever that was attached to the door, the human robot's eyes were almost on level with Horror's own, as well as Ty ler.

Horror cocked his head to the side again as she ran towards him waving her arms. 17 and not-Robot didn't think she was a threat, so hopefully this wasn't an attack?

A solid thump stopped his thoughts, leaving him stunned as the previously running human robot was now attached to his face, wrapping her arms around him while rubbing his back.

What… What was she doing?

"Look at how FREAKING ADORABLE he is! He's like a giant dog! Ooooh, I'm getting tingles all over just from hugging him!" She peeled her face off of his body, leaving some skin behind as she turned to look at the madly grinning 17.

"I know right? I can't believe that Mother's jerky boyfriend ever thought he could be a bad guy. Have you heard him talk yet?"

Horror nervously glanced over at not-Robot, who was unhelpfully hiding in the corner. Horror tried to whisper at him in Trashtalk, but not-Robot just shook his head at Horror and turned himself off.

Traitor.

"Ehem." A voice came from the open door, and Horror sighed in relief at who it saw.

It was the human robot of the Mother who he had spoken to earlier. She was always willing to help him.

Unlike not-Robot. The traitor.

"Oh, Mother! Um, I meant, um, your… really, uh, smart? Boyfriend?" At Mother's judging face, 17 began to rub her shoulders "Um, is he not your boyfriend yet? Just friend? Uh… don't ground me?"

Mother sighed, "Just tell him what you found out, 46, and we can forget all about this. I'm sure Horror wishes to as well." She commented, nodding towards him.

Horror jerkily nodded at her, and hastily pulled away from the now pouting human robot. 46, was it?

She seemed nice, but maybe a little too… energetic? Not-Robot clearly agreed, as he had turned himself back on after the little human had run back towards Mother.

"Well I wasn't sure who to go with this data, but the source seemed like the best bet, especially with that time traveler in his head." 46 hopped up onto the table, swinging her legs and she rattled off some numbers that were too confusing for him to make any since of. Was he meant to? ~Wait, are those the coordinates from…~

"So, do you recognize them?" 46 asked, looking around the room at the other human robots before settling on Horror.

Mother spoke before he could. "Don't tell me. Those energy reading match Haywire's don't they? I recognize that pattern from 50's report earlier this month with the Aleph shipment." What was Aleph? And Haywire?

"Yep, you got it! Whatever that twisting inside our little friend is, it has to do with another dimension!"

~No. This is bad.~ Horror froze. ~They can't see it. It's bad if people see the spiral. Causes death. Causes bad stuff. Keep. Them. Away!~ Horror's mind shook in rage, and it lowered its head to the ground to try and contain the pain.

"And guess what else the data matches with?" 46 continued, oblivious along with the rest of the room to Horror's pain. "Remember 15's archeology subunit, Dr. Jones? He got these same reading from those ancient diamond pedestals found just outside of Cairo!"

~Those followed? Why would those follow us too? ~ Horror tried its best to calm other Horror down, and little by little, it worked.

Horror would listen to itself though.

Other Horror had never been wrong before.

No one would see its spiral unless Horror and other Horror trusted them, and Steroids and Robot weren't here.

"So… what? Is it some kind of dimensional hole or something? Are the things in Egypt holes too, then?" Mother asked.

"We think, but we won't know until we ask Horror here about what exactly is in his chest." ~No. You are not a friend, green human. Even if you wear the best color.~

17 spoke up cautiously "Are, are you saying it's some kind of… portal?"

"No, I'm not" 46 held up a hand before pointing right at Horror.

"I'm saying it's exactly like a portal." She continued. "The only question is…"

Mother whispered, almost too softly for Horror to hear.

"Where does it go?"