"C'mon Commander, you need to get moving." 9 urges.

So heavy. My legs feel like lead weights. Everything hurts.

"Do we have a stretcher handy?"

"Not... exactly." 45 pops into view from around a corner.

Funny, I can barely see straight ahead of me. Is this tunnel vision?

She continues. "We have a place to hide out until the patrol sweeps through."

Sop collapses against the wall. "Do we at least have an ETA on rescue?"

45 shakes her head. "Can't be sure it's even coming. This ECM is a trash fire."

"At least it's better than earlier." UMP 9 comments. "Is M4 still fighting those defective Nytos?

"We'll have to trust Commander Gentiane." 416 says bitterly. "And hope none of the others get in the way..."

Field Agent.

Now that I look at my uniform, it is slightly different from, say, Commander Ricardo's or Commander Mikhail's uniforms. It's still red, with two lines of buttons up the front, but the red is slightly darker and more black around the edges. In addition, instead of a white undershirt I'm issued a black one and the length of the coat is slightly shorter to not restrict movement so much. The buttons aren't brass, they're a black enamel to stand out less.

All very practical concerns.

There's some nuances that come with the job as well. I'm ranked pretty low on the totem pole, for one. Where the commanders basically run the place, I'm practically right above the T-dolls.

Commander Gentiane had informed me as such: "Your role is to head out to the battlefield with a squad of dolls to aid in command from a ground level." She had hesitated, then continued. "We... don't like using field commanders since it exposes some of our best talent to the front lines, but given how things are going with Paradeus, we need as much help as we can get. Don't worry, most of the dolls already like you, judging from the requests I keep getting to meet 'Commander Haddy'."

Despite not getting the rank, it appears the T-dolls are going to call me Commander since I do the commanding in the field, or something. It seems like 'Field Agent' is roughly interchangeable with 'Field Commander' but since it causes confusion, it's not officially the same title.

...Right, the T-dolls. Combat androids. Robots that have guns, and unlimited access to your food and water supply, that they ALSO require. So when resources are low, they'll rise up and-

A claw lands on my shoulder and I jump at least a few centimeters in the air, but manage not to scream.

This time.

"Heya, Haddy!" SOPMOD comes into my plane of view. "Are you ready for breakfast?"

"Y-Yeah." I manage to get out, my eyes flicking between the claws and her teeth. She seems friendly, but I bet she's just ready to tear my guts out-

"It's the new Field Agent!" I turn back around to see P90 walking down the hall. "Looks like kitchen duty didn't stick long, did it?"

I shrug uncomfortably. "I'm glad to see you're okay. I thought you were dead for a while."

"Nah... I'm pretty good at getting out of tight situations, and hey, even if I got fried, I got dummies to load my neural cloud into."

"I... right." I shudder a bit.

They look at each other, and P90 shrugs. "So, breakfast?"

"Breakfast!" SOPMOD cheers, and we all head into the cafeteria.

Once again, Springfield is behind the counter. Other than her, there's plenty of young women chatting excitedly about this or that, in a variety of uniforms and hair colors.

Wait... not women and girls. Androids.

"Haddy? You look pale." SOPMOD pokes my chin with one of her non-spike fingers. "Are you okay?"

"Y-yeah. Just not prepared for... Am I the only human here?"

SOPMOD glances around. "Hmmm... Yep!" She grabs my arm. "Here, sit here. I'm gonna grab M4 and AR-15 and RO, and I'll be right back!"

With that, she bolts from the room, drawing attention to the human she had just sat down basically front and center at the cafe's bar.

"Hey, it's the new Field Agent!"

"Oooh, I wanna see!"

A plethora of teenagers start crowding me, and I find myself shrinking in place to make myself as small as possible, as if to try to hide in plain sight. Obviously, it didn't work.

"Now now, let him have some space." Springfield comes to my rescue. "He's not had his morning coffee yet."

She places a cup right in front of me, and I have it halfway to my lips when I pause.

There's a robot serving the food and drinks.

Springfield tilts her head. "Is something the matter?"

"N-no." I hesitantly take a sip. If anything, it's better than yesterday's coffee. "Wow, this is.. really good."

Springfield beams. "I strive to please!"

I set the cup down just as two people sit down on either side of me. To my left, SOPMOD, somewhat expected. Not expected though, is UMP 9 on my right.

"Hey, Springfield, got anything hard?" The cheery UMP 9 asks.

"Not right now, 9. Would you like your usual?"

"Sure." UMP 9 glances at me. "Hey there, Field Agent."

"Good morning, um, UMP 9."

"Oh, please. Call me 9 like everyone else. I don't care." She laughs to herself. "Just don't call my sister 45 though."

"...Right." How does a robot have a sister?

"I heard from 416 that you didn't do abysmally yesterday against the Nytos. She wouldn't tell me anything else, so I'm here to drag the story out of you."

"Ah..." I think back to my near death experience. "Am I allowed to talk about it?"

"Duh. We're all Griffin employees here." SOPMOD says.

I give an askance look at UMP 9, but she shrugs.

Springfield touches a delicate finger to her lip. "As long as it doesn't leave this room, it should be fine." She turns slightly to address the room. "Got that?"

I turn to see every single T-doll in the room is looking my way and nodding.

"MDR, turn off the phone." Springfield commands after a few seconds, and a doll with grey hair and blue and pink accents grumbles as she tucks a cell phone into her pocket.

"A-alright." I turn around to face my expectant audience. "it went like this..."

"Seriously? Her own grenade?" 9 collapses on the table. "I thought the Nyto did that! 416's so... so STUPID!" She almost falls off her stool from laughing so hard.

"I mean... the Nyto had a shield up. None of her bullets were working," I say. Wait, why am I defending a robot?

"But still." SOPMOD scratches her cheek. "Even I know better than to launch a grenade in that tight a space."

One of the other T-dolls sits up straight. "Didn't stop you last time I was on the mission!"

SOPMOD looks over. "I was preoccupied!"

"With trying to kill your teammates, maybe." The T-doll that had spoken stands up and walks over. "Commander Haddy, right?"

"...Field Agent Hadwin." I correct.

"Yeah, that's what I said. I'm AEK-999." She offers me a hand to shake.

"Nice to meet you." I say automatically.

"Oh!" Another T-doll rushed up. "I'm FF FNC!"

Suddenly, all of the T-dolls present are introducing themselves to me.

This goes on for ten minutes before I notice that according to the clock, I'm about to be late to a meeting.

"Ah, crap." I stand up, grabbing my coffee and dumping the cooled contents into my stomach. "Thanks for the coffee, I'll, uh, pay you back later!"

I dash out of the cafeteria and head for the meeting area.

Thankfully, I had paid attention during SOPMOD's 'tour' yesterday and I quickly close in on the doorway.

As I open the door, HK 416 steps into view. "Ah, Commander."

"H-Hi, HK 416. I'm kinda busy, so-"

She nods. "Of course. After the meeting, I'll be waiting on the firing range in the basement. Please come see me as soon as possible."

"I... uh... sure." I sigh.

She waves and I step into the meeting room. Gentiane, Kylie, Mikhail, Ricardo and Angelia are all present.

Commander Ricardo lifts an eyebrow. "You take orders from dolls? That's unusual."

Commander Kylie snickers. "Yeah, unless you're Commander Hackett."

I laugh nervously while Commander Gentiane shakes her head. "That aside, at least you're... almost on time." She glances at a clock on the wall. "I know you're new, so let me brief you on some things. First of all, the enemy that you've had the unfortunate pleasure of meeting twice in as many days is Paradeus. They're a paramilitary force with highly advanced tech, stuff we can barely understand. Our top scientist used to work for their science team... or something."

The rest of the room gives Commander Gentiane a look as she drops the papers and sags into her chair with a tired expression.

She continues regardless. "It's a massive pain, and she doesn't talk to anyone unless she absolutely has to, so for now just know that we're outmatched, our only lead is stubborn, and one of our T-dolls is possibly the entire reason a few cities are now nothing but rubble."

"...What?"

Commander Mikhail clears his throat. "Paradeus seems to have a fixation on M4A1, one of the dolls you met two days ago. M4A1's special for all kinds of reasons, so just ignore Gentiane."

"I'll have you know I'm in charge right now." Said Commander grumbles from her seat. "Anyway, UMP 45 says she figured out how our communications were being tapped."

That gets everyone's undivided attention.

"Looks like one of Paradeus's people managed to sneak in and wire this up to our network server. All of our non-zener traffic went through that since, well, it's our secure communications server so it was a prime target." She drops a small circuit board on the desk in front of us. After nobody grabs it after a few seconds, I reach out and take it to examine.

Not that I understand circuit boards.

"I have Enfield reviewing security footage, but it looks like it probably happened during the blackout on Tuesday."

"Wasn't that caused by P7?" Commander Kylie asks.

"Maybe she's working with..." Commander Mikhail starts to say, then stops "Ah, nevermind."

"Yeah... P7 couldn't pull off being a spy." Angelia says, scratching her chin with her good... well, better arm. "Did someone tell her to do it?"

"I'm going to get someone questioning her... once we find her."

Everyone sighs in unison. I'm not sure who P7 is, but I'm getting the impression she's a bit of a handful.

"So, how's the MP?"

"Panagos? On schedule to be delivered safely back to her retinue. Kalina told me they've already paid for it, so everyone's square. We can move on to the next task." Commander Gentiane grabs one of the papers off the stack and holds it up in front of her face. "Uh... Looks like we're gonna need to relocate."

"Again?"

"Again."

"We did just get attacked." Commander Ricardo muses. "Moving bases would be a good idea."

"Where's the next major offensive?" Commander Kylie asks.

Instead of Gentiane, it's Angelia who responds. "Ukraine. There's reportedly a city that went dark basically overnight. It's basically surrounded by a yellow zone, so it's pretty isolated from the rest of the world as it is. We've been hired to go in and restore order."

"B-but, how do we know we need to restore order?" I ask, looking around the table to make sure I'm not verbally stepping on anyone's toes.

"We got a video," Again, Angelia answers. "from an unknown source. We can't exactly trust it's origins, but it looks an awful lot like Paradeus was usurping the local government right before they stopped talking to us."

"...Ah."

"Soooo... make sure you're all ready to leave by tomorrow." Commander Gentiane finishes. "Questions? No? Dismissed."

I walk over to her as the others get up and start leaving. "Uh, I don't have a passport-"

"We'll forge you one." She shrugs. "Or, maybe just get one rush ordered. I'll ask Kalina."

"Okay, thanks."

"Have fun on your date."

I turned back to her. "...Eh?"

"With 416?"

"She... It's not a date, I'm pretty sure she hates me." I blink. "And she's a robot."

"Nah, she wouldn't hate you unless you did something stupid, like betray her or expose one of her secrets."

"...Like accidentally blowing herself up with a grenade?"

Commander Gentiane drums her finger on the desk for a few seconds. "Your report was accurate? She actually..."

"As accurate as I could make it." I hang my head.

"...Okay, maybe be a bit careful." She winces.

"Shhhh..."

Someone is covering my face with their hand.

My vision is really fading in and out, I can't tell what time of day it is.

Someone had just extinguished all of the lights, and I was about to complain when the hand had grabbed my mouth.

I was about to grumble away behind the hand when I hear some footsteps outside on the street below.

Loud footsteps.

Like, as if whoever owns the footsteps weighs significantly more than a human could.

UMP 45 carefully, oh so carefully, creeps up to the edge of the balcony and peers over, before just as carefully returning back to us. She leans in close to my ears and whispers "KCCO."

I shudder, nodding in understanding. 9 lets go of my face and crawls to sit beside me.

We wait in silence for what feels like hours, mechanical marching beating it's rhythmic pattern into my brain...

Fortunately, HK 416 seems to be in a relatively good mood.

"Stop slacking!" She demands, once again correcting my posture. "Until your aim is better than UMP 45's, I'm not letting you leave this room!"

I said relatively.

"416, give him a break." UMP 9 sits behind us, watching me fail to fire a weapon over and over. "He's never going to beat 45-nee if his arms drop off."

HK 416 glares at her teammate. "He needs to be good enough not to get us all killed next time."

With HK 416 distracted, I gently set her firearm on the table and let my arms rest for a minute.

"'Next time'?" UMP 9 asks. "We work alone. In fact, I'm fairly sure 'no humans' has been part of 45-nee's creed for a while now."

HK 416 puts her hand on her hip. "In case you haven't noticed, we've only been doing jobs for G&K for the past few months. Given what we found out-"

"Putting that aside." UMP 9 waves off 416's words. "Even if somehow we became G&K employees, we're still a special operations unit. Not a lot of chances to work with the good Commander."

"...Should I be here for this? Do you want me to leave?" I ask the two.

"Go back to practicing." HK 416 immediately demands.

UMP 9 smirks. "He doesn't have to follow a doll's orders."

HK 416 gets an evil grin on her face. "But he's going to anyway, rrrrriiiiiight?" She turned her menacing glare my way for that last, drawn out word.

"Uh... y-yeah, I need to practice anyway."

"Oh boy, I hope this goes on his daily report. 'bullied by T-doll, learned to fire guns'."

"You're unnecessary. Leave."

UMP 9 drops off of her perch on the table and walks right up beside me. "Hey Commander, what's your spec ops training like?"

"...Spec ops?"

"Okay, then how are you at sneaking around? Hacking computers? Assassinations?"

"I... I'm good at sneaking into the kitchen for late night snacks."

"Snacks!" UMP 9 turns to HK 416. "He can raid the fridge." She turns back to me. "Tell me, what else can you provide our princess?"

HK 416's face contorts. "Princess? PRINCESS?"

"Ja, demanding things and getting them. Sounds like a princess to me."

"What's your problem?"

"Not a new boy toy, that's for sure." She hops off her perch and walks to the door. "I'll leave you two to it. Try not to kill him, We still need to pay for your upgrades."

With that, she disappears out of the door.

"...What just happened?" She was a lot more pleasant this morning.

HK 416 crosses her arms. "She's a nasty piece of work, second only to her sister." She scratches her head. "Fine. If you don't want to practice-" She reaches out for her weapon, but I had already picked it back up. "...Hmm?"

"Well... despite UMP 9's, uh, teasing I do need to learn how to shoot." I check the weapon in the same way she had been instructing me to. "I do appreciate you teaching me."

"Oh." She blinks. "Oh." She turns her head away, and I think I see a faint blush on her cheeks. "W-well. We'd better get back to it! As I said, you need to shoot better than UMP 45 or I'm-"

"Shoot better than me or what?" UMP 45 opens the door.

HK 416 looks like she's about to retort, but quickly bites her lip and looks away.

"Guten Tag, Hadwin." UMP 45 says. "Commander Gentiane asked me to come get you. And you, 416." She gives us the nastiest grin I've ever seen. "We've got some work to do."

"If we turn this generator on, there's no way the KCCO forces aren't going to find us." UMP 45 says.

Sop loads a grenade into the chamber on the bottom of her rifle, then hands another one to 416 who grimly takes it.

"Or, we could turn the generator on and purposely lead KCCO here, let them take him hostage. They have proper medics, not this intolerable Anti-Rain dog."

UMP 9 straps another magazine to her thigh, and checks the sights of her weapon.

"Or, we could just shoot him and be done with it. We've spent way too much time on trying to get him out of here alive."

G11 picks up her gun, rubs her sleepy eyes, and plants herself in a good firing position.

"Yeah..." 45 laughs to herself, before turning to me and tapping my shoulder once. "...Not gonna happen. For better or worse, we're stuck with you, Commander."

Sop yanks on the generator cord, and once again electricity stabs into my heart.

"We've found some things out." Commander Gentiane looks like she's not slept in a year. Given how many coffee cups are stacked in the trash can and on the table, spilling over to the floor, I could believe it.

In the room are eight people. Rather, three people, and five T-dolls.

Off to one side, Team 404. UMP 9 seems back to being cheerful, G11 is sleeping again, and HK416 is tapping her foot impatiently. UMP 45 is conversing with Gentiane.

On the other side, Angelia stands next to a tall, quiet, silver haired woman. She's yet to open her eyes. Not because she's sleeping like G11, but apparently because she doesn't want to. Or can't? Maybe she doesn't have eyes.

Ugh. Not a nice thought.

I stand about where I entered the room, slightly away from the door in case someone else needs to come in.

"What did you find then?" UMP 45 asks.

"Mainly, we've got a mole."

Team 404 perks up. Well, aside from G11.

Gentiane yawns once again. "I told you all that somebody put something on our communications server? Yeah, well... it seems like it was likely one of our own."

"How is that possible?" UMP 45 asks, looking quite happy with herself for some reason.

Gentiane sighs. "Yes... the holes I opened in the security network came back to bite me."

"Told you so. And now you owe us double on the next mission."

"Yes, about that. Since I lost that, er, bet, I guess I don't really have a choice, but since we're here, I have a favor to ask since I'm being oh so generous with my operational funds."

"Well..." 45 looks in my direction. "I assume it has to do with your abysmal Field Agent?"

"W- Hey!" I exclaim indignantly.

"You can't even beat my scores on the firing range. Are you sure you're not a cook?" She says.

Commander Gentiane winces. "That bad?"

"She's a robot!" I complain. "Obviously she's better than me."

"I don't have a working firing control module." She says. "Which means I fire a gun like I'm a blindfolded child. You're still somehow worse."

"...Wow, okay." I grab the nearest chair and plop myself down in it to pout. "It's not like I learned how to shoot yesterday."

"Anyway, yes. Field Agent Hadwin." Commander Gentiane clears her throat. "I'm going to ask you to bring him with you as you go back to the Paradeus base. We need someone to oversee the data recovery efforts, and... I can't trust my fellow commanders at the moment." In frustration, she grips her coffee cup too hard and the Styrofoam cracks slightly.

"Honestly, I'm not too thrilled about dragging a liability into battle." UMP 45 gestures my way once again. "We'll recover any data we can and be back a lot faster without his... help."

"Of course." Gentiane nods. "Alright then, off with you."

Silence descends on the room. After a few seconds, UMP 45 speaks back up in a low growl. "What?"

"You heard me, go ahead." Commander Gentiane turns to me. "Now, since you're no longer on that mission-"

"Hold on." UMP 45 interrupts. "What are you hiding?"

"Nothing." Gentiane continues to look at me. "Ah! We can have you head out with Anti-Rain for the perimeter sweep-"

CRACK

I look over to see HK 416 has a thousand yard stare, a creepy grin, and has literally split a chair in half with her bare hands.

"...Okay, how about, you can deduct the chair costs from her paycheck and you don't mention them anymore, m'kay?" UMP 45 says.

"Deal. Furniture's hard to get out here." Commander Gentiane says. "In any case, you four should get moving. Since none of you are G&K, you're the only ones I can trust not to have orders from another commander, so, just go grab everything you can before it gets erased."

"Okay. Why do you need him on the mission so badly?"

"He needs experience. Preferably, some that won't get him killed immediately. A simple data retrieval should be fine, right?"

"..." UMP 45 looks at her team. "We'll take him with us."

Angelia straightens up. "Ricardo and Kylie are almost here."

"Looks like you're all set." Gentiane grabs a sheaf of papers. "Oh, make sure to grab something out of the armory for the Field Agent, and make sure he has ammo for it."

"I'm sorry about that, by the way." Angelia apologizes. "I meant to hand you my other other pistol."

How many pistols do you have?

HK 416 walks over to me and grabs my arm. "Well, let's not waste time."

I file out after the twins and the still sleepy G11, being dragged behind UMP 9.

Before we even leave the corridor, I see Commanders Ricardo and Kylie, as Angelia had indicated. I give them a quick salute with my free hand, as I'd been instructed, and quickly walk past them.

At least, I tried. UMP 45 stops, stopping the rest of the group as Commander Ricardo turns to her. "You four off already? And you've got one of our employees in tow."

"We've got babysitting duty today." UMP 45 says, a slightly more normal smile on her face, but one that feels completely fake.

"Oh." He looks at me. "Hadwin, good luck out there."

"Thanks."

"What's Gentiane thinking?" Commander Kylie sighs. "404's prices are way too high to have them training newbies."

"I'm sure there's a good reason." Commander Ricardo comments as they turn back to continue into the meeting room we had vacated.

"Ja. What is Gentiane thinking?" 45 muses aloud. "There's way too much that is suspicious about this arrangement."

"What do you mean?" I ask.

"Well, for one, we're not cheap, and right now she's paying double." UMP 9 chimes in. "It makes sense that she'd make sure the double pay mission was an easy and quick one, but this is almost menial work."

"Not to mention that you're not needed on this mission at all. There's nobody to command." HK 416 responds from beside me. She still has a grip on my arm.

"I... well, I was told that I'm just supposed to be out in the field to give better tactical assessments."

"Right. First, there's not going to be anything to tactically assess unless the mission goes sideways." UMP 45 starts ticking off on her fingers. "Second, we always work alone. We've been doing this so long that I highly doubt you're going to be providing much in the way of tactical advice. Third-" She stops as we pass by a group of T-dolls, some of whom are recognizable to me, and they wave at me.

I wave back and watch them disappear around a corner. UMP 45 continues as soon as they're out of sight. "Third, even if you were highly experienced, we're not G&K T-dolls. We don't take orders from you."

"Really?"

"Ja." UMP 9 nods. "We're all illegal dolls, and as such are not typical in most ways."

"...Oh." That's very worrying.

"Chin up." HK 416 says to me firmly. "We don't have to follow your orders, or the orders of the other Commanders, but we always take suggestions into consideration."

"So yes, Gentiane putting you on the mission with us is highly unusual. At the bare minimum, I would have expected her to send a T-doll escort for you to command around to get used to the process." UMP 45 turns to examine me, like the answer might be written on my face.

"In any case, we're at the armory." HK 416 states.

Indeed, scrawled in spray paint on the door of what clearly used to be a hotel room is the text "Armory." I reach out to try the handle, but it's locked. "Did anyone get the keycard?"

"Oh please." UMP 9 touches the locking mechanism and the door makes a loud thunk as the bolt retracts. "We don't need keys."

UMP 45 whacks the back of 9's head once and starts saying something to her, but HK 416 drags me into the armory before I can hear what they're saying.

"Alright, what do you want?" She gestures to the full room. It's covered in boxes and stacks of guns, and... is that a grenade launcher? It looks like something out of a movie.

"Uh... maybe something light?"

She sighs. "Your primary category is weight?"

"I dunno." I pick up a random gun, what looks like an old WWII rifle. "What do you recommend?"

She gives me a look. "First of all, nothing bolt action. That's a Springfield, and that's bolt action. At least get something semi-automatic." She grabs a weapon leaning against the wall. "Here, a L85A1."

I hold the gun in my hands. It's not that heavy, I guess.

"You'll also need at least three magazine, a scope, oh, here's some tactical rigging-"

The rifle slips from my hands as I try to hold all of the stuff 416 is stacking into my arms.

I stare at the dropped gun for a few seconds.

HK 416 sighs. "Okay, let's get you a pistol. Light, and you can carry a bunch of ammo in that vest."

I take off my coat and shrug on the vest as HK 416 roots around in the piles of weaponry. "Here."

I take... "Isn't this yours?" I look at the pistol in my hand.

"No." She points to her thigh. She's right, an identical pistol sits in her holster. "That's the same gun, but not mine. A USP tactical chambered in 9mm."

Don't know what that means, but I see that there's a spot on the vest to tuck the pistol into and I carefully slide it in.

"Here's three spare magazines. Go load some of the 9mm from that box over there, and meet me outside."

"Okay."

She leaves the room, and I start pressing bullets into the magazines. It's not exactly easy... the springs in the magazines are stiff, the bullets are hard, and it took a bit of fiddling to figure out which direction the bullets are loaded into the magazine, but I eventually figured it out.

I place the loaded magazines in the pockets of the vest, and open the door.

Immediately, UMP 45 presses past me, scans the room, and grabs a few things, stuffing most of them into a backpack. She shoves everything she picked up into my arms.

"Walkie-talkie, flashlight, flares, a backpack, some MREs, and a set of NVGs... and some other things." She answers my unspoken question. "The NVGs are delicate."

"NVGs?"

"Night Vision Goggles. We do a lot of night missions."

"...It's not even ten AM."

"And you shouldn't be on this mission at all, so I'm preparing you." She gestures to continue. "Let's go, we've wasted enough time."

G11 is curled in my lap, cuddling her rifle like a toy.

The walls are covered in fluids, mostly oil, but there's definitely blood in there. Bullet casings similarly litter the floor, and 9 is currently slumped against the wall, one of her arms limp.

416 has lost her hat and several fingers on her left hand.

SOPMOD's right leg is now the color of KCCO armor, probably where she had scavenged the metal for the replacement from.

"Well... we survived." 416 says.

"Round 1, at least." 45 sighs. "They're retreating to get backup."

"The ECM is mostly gone. M4 might have won." 9 Comments.

"The batteries are charged." Sop says. "We can move to a new location."

"Yes, but we have no ammo." 9 laments. "Which means we need to figure out something quick, before the KCCO comes back."

I try to clear my throat. It's so dry, I feel like I haven't had water in days.

They all look my way. "Commander?"

"I..." I cough violently, sending pain through my body. "I have an idea."

As we walk the streets to the building we had fought in yesterday, I watch as hordes of G&K T-dolls rip apart the white robots that had shown up to try to take us out.

I recognize some of them, once again waving to the ones I had met in the cafeteria earlier.

Aside from that, I'm also practicing with the USP HK 416 had picked out for me. Not firing it, but loading and unloading it, disabling the safety, checking if it's got a round in the chamber. HK 416 had insisted, since familiarizing myself with the gun means it's less likely I do something stupid, like try to shoot someone with the safety on.

Still, it's kinda boring to do those three actions over and over.

"So... HK 416, can I ask you some things?"

"Of course, Commander." She looks in my direction. "I may not answer, though."

"Fair enough." I pull the slide back slightly. Yep, bullet is chambered. "Well... this is kinda awkward to ask, but... what are T-dolls?"

She gives me a hard stare.

"No! I mean... I know you're androids of some sort, but since my country bans them outright I've never encountered any before." I eject the magazine, catching it in my left hand and checking how many rounds are in it before pushing it back into the gun. "I thought you were all humans... admittedly, I was confused about the glowing eyes, but you're not very... robotic."

"Right." She looks away for a second and I think she's just decided to ignore me, but after a few seconds she speaks up. "See those broken white heaps of scrap?"

I glance over at a broken Paradeus unit. "Yep."

"That was developed illegally. Nobody but the government is allowed to have military grade weapons, and that includes Tactical dolls." She kicks one of the white units. "This is a Rodelero, which is Paradeus' closest analogue to us. Fully robotic, armored, and has high powered weapons. Since G&K was legitimate until very recently, none of the T-dolls have this level of equipment. Most T-dolls used to be A-dolls, dolls used in the service industry." She pokes a finger into my chest. "Most likely, flipping burgers or providing sexual services, or walking into dangerous locations so the humans don't have to. When they're picked up by G&K, they're upgraded with fire control cores, bonded to a weapon, and sent to the battlefield."

"That's not always true." UMP 9 pops up beside me. "Sometimes G&K has special dolls commissioned, like our lovely 416 over here."

"That does happen." UMP 45 nods. "And then, you also have dolls that pick up a weapon and call themselves a T-doll without actually being one."

"...No, I haven't heard of anyone doing that." HK 416 says. "Have we encountered any dolls like that?"

"It's not an issue." UMP 45 says. "But there you have it. T-dolls are just pretty girl robots that somebody told to pick up a gun and start firing."

"Pretty?" HK 416 snorts. "Me maybe, but with your hacked together arm, you're not winning any awards."

"Shush."

"...Is there a reason, you're all girls?" I ask.

They all look at me.

"I, I mean, all of you are, and every T-doll I've met in G&K up to now has been female."

"Well, some of it's our damned creator." UMP 45 grumbles. "The rest of it is that most people are more amenable to the female form. Most A-dolls are female teenagers, to be non-threatening, easily told what to do, and because humans are more accepting of something that they want to screw."

"I... okay." I can feel my cheeks getting red. "That makes sense, I guess."

UMP 9 sidles up to me and presses her chest onto my arm. "Iyaaann, Commander, don't be so rough!"

I jump away as UMP 9 and 45 laugh. "Okay, that's creepy." I say, quietly.

"Can you not?" HK 416 says to 9.

"Aw, so protective of your boyfriend!" UMP 9 pokes at HK 416's ribs.

"9, I swear I'm going to rip your twintails off." 416 threatens.

"Fine." 9 turns to me. "Well, yes, it's one of the more popular doll services, but I don't know many A-dolls that like doing the dirty work."

"Not that any of us get a choice. It's do as you're told or get scrapped." HK 416 says.

"Or forge your own path." UMP 45 says. "Become like us, until you get caught and disassembled."

All three of them go silent, caught up in their own thoughts.

For a moment, I wonder what pushed each of them out of their lives and made them into illegal dolls.

9 said HK 416 was made by G&K, but she's not with them now. And what about G11? The sleepy doll is stumbling around behind us quietly, clutching her weapon. I've seen her in action, and you'd never guess they were the same person, but what would make such a young girl...

Hmm.

I don't know how old any of them are. Sure, they all look like they're teenagers or pre-teens in G11's case but for all I know they were manufactured a few months ago.

I drop back slightly to match pace with the small girl as the other three continue pressing forwards through their thoughts. "Hey."

G11 looks up at me. "Oh. Hello, Commander." She grins slightly though never loses the sleepy creases around her eyes. "Heh, I always wanted a nice commander."

"Unfortunately, I'm just a Field Agent." I shrug. "and I'm not really in charge of you either."

"Doesn't matter." She continues to smile up at me happily. "Hey, after the mission, do you want to watch the Flying Dead with me? I have all 26 seasons of it."

"I... I guess?"

"Yay!" She lifts her rifle slightly as what I can only assume was supposed to be an expression of joy. "I'm so tired, can we just go back now?"

"Nein." 416 says coldly. "This is going to be a quick job and an easy paycheck, we'll be back by dinner."

"Promise?"

HK 416 ignores G11's further questions and turns to me. "No need to indulge her, Commander. Once you're done with the mission, you can do whatever it is you humans do when not working."

"...Like watching movies?"

HK 416 contemplates this for a second. "I guess."

"We're here." UMP 45 states.

I look up at the building we had snuck into yesterday.

"Hey, this time, I wanna try sneaking in through the roof." UMP 9 says.

"We're not doing that, stupid." HK 416 says. "We're allowed to be here this time."

"Yes... But-" UMP 45 turns to us, or rather, to me. "-Gentiane is paying us good money to drag this dead weight along. Why don't we make it a challenge?"

"I can't believe we're doing this." 9 says.

"It's the Commander's plan. It's actually sound, too." Says 45. "Despite the frequent hallucinations."

"And that's not worrying to anyone?" HK 416 snipes. "How much of that was the actual plan and how much of it was him sleep talking?!"

I'm too tired to comment, but a grin passes my face. "They're coming."

"Commander?" G11 asks quietly through the radio.

"Yes?"

"Don't die."

"I don't plan on it." I slump back against the barrel we had been using to contain a fire. The warmth is nice, and my body's been fairly weird recently. Not enough food, probably. The fire had fulfilled its purpose in luring some KCCO our way as well.

There's so much I don't remember of the past few days. Or is it hours? Weeks? I know I almost died a few times and these five girls have been hauling me along, but that's about it. Still, it'd be ungrateful to do nothing when they're all trying so hard.

From around the corner, a KCCO unit appears. I can't remember what they're called, but it's a fully automated unit.

Perfect.

It approaches, careful, scanning the area for traps. Probably. I don't really know what those things are doing inside their processors.

You don't have to worry. There's nobody around who can shoot you.

...If I had any energy at all, I would have said that out loud.

It's weapon trains on me, and the barrel starts to glow.

"S-stop." I groan. "They'll find you too..."

The robot ignores my talking.

"They're flying around overhead, attacking everything... nobody can escape."

The machine stops moving, and the cannon stops glowing. I don't know if it has microphones, but it has cameras and can see I'm saying something.

It takes another step forward, and right under the T-doll that had been hiding on top of the roof, looking down through a hole.

UMP 45 fires up all of her hacking hardware, causing the robotic KCCO unit to spin around and aim at her... but it freezes in place before a shot is fired.

"Told you." I say, before another cough wracks my gut.

"Aegis captured." 45 reports.

"So, we can come back now?" Sop says.

"Yeah, and make it quick." 45 looks behind herself. "I don't think KCCO's going to be happy about us hijacking their stuff." She turns to me. "And Commander, please never reference that abomination of a show again."

"So, I take this-" I hold up a thin wire that UMP 45 had told me to pick up when we came across it. "and slide it around here..."

The door unlocks, swinging open slightly.

"Holy crap, it worked."

"Congratulations!" 9 claps her hands, softly so as not to make noise. "That only took you ten times longer than it needed to."

"..."

"Don't get me wrong, I was expecting you to take twice as long as you did, so you're okay."

Right now it's just the two of us on the roof. UMP 45, HK 416 and G11 went in through the front door, like normal people. I had been instructed by UMP 45 to head to the roof with 9 and to break into the building from above. 9 had already been on board with the idea, and apparently this is a great chance to train me in the fine art of breaking and entering.

I'm not so sure I need this skill, but 9 insisted I do most of the work. She also insisted I refer to her as "9" as she had told me earlier in the cafeteria.

"Or, you could do it." I say. I'm not talking at full volume, but kind of mumbling it into a microphone attached to my neck. 9's lips don't even move as she speaks, she's sending voice data directly to a communication module in her head, apparently. I wonder if this is what the dolls are doing when they stare at each other.

"I could, but if you're going to be working with us, you need to be good at this." Her smirk dims slightly. "I don't really think we need you in our family, but it's not my say so."

"'Family'?"

"Yeah. Team 404." 9 says. "I don't think you belong with us."

I carefully pry open the door and look down into the staircase. "I guess I don't. After all, I'm not a T-doll, I'm part of Griffin and Kryuger... I'm probably going to be put on different assignments after this."

"I don't know." 9 peeks into the hallway. Her mouth isn't moving as she speaks. "HK 416 seems to like you, G11 isn't scared of you, 45-nee is making sure you're adequately packed... I guess you wouldn't know this, but HK 416 hates literally everyone, G11 only likes 416 since she rescued her, and 45-nee only cares about her revenge."

"...You guys are basket cases."

"Maybe. But we're a family. In any case, they're all paying an abnormal amount of attention to you."

I creep into the stairwell, and I'm startled as the lights come on via a motion detector built into the switch.

9 sighs. "Minus a point. Watch for cameras, motion detectors, alarms, guards..."

I take a moment to calm my heart down before flipping the switch off and creeping down the stairs. It's hard to move slow, but 9 had insisted "Slow is smooth, and smooth is fast."

"My guess is that it's because you're so much like a lost puppy that HK 416 and G11 see themselves in you."

I glance back at 9. "Lost puppies? Them?"

"Hey, none of us were always illegal dolls. D'you really think G11 became one of her own free will?"

"...Maybe her old owner refused to let her sleep?"

9 snickers. "No, not quite. I guess I really shouldn't expose their secrets, but suffice to say I'm pretty sure they're all treating you like a broken doll they found on the side of the road and decided to nurse it back to health."

"There's several things wrong with that statement." I stop creeping down the stairs as I come to a landing with a door.

"Yeah, but I think it's accurate. If only 45-nee was less willing to rescue stray dolls."

"...I'm not a doll."

"Hey, we're on the clock, check that door."

I grumble, but do as 9 says. "...There's a camera with a black shroud on it like what you see in malls."

"Okay. Which way is it pointing?"

"...It has a black shroud on it."

"Ugh. Humans." She lowers the goggles she has on her forehead and peers through the window. "It's pointing the opposite way down the hallway right now."

"What is that set of goggles?" I ask. "Can I use them?"

"Nnnnnnno. They're to help me hack into things. You wouldn't be able to use them until you get a level 2 implant."

Leaving aside the level 2 thing, "...So you hacked into the cameras to determine their direction."

"Yep!" She looks proud of herself.

"How was I supposed to do that?!"

"I... ah..." She shrugs. "Ask me to do it?"

I stare at her.

"Fine. At least you spotted the camera." She says. "What's next, 'Field Agent'?"

"Well... given we only have access to two doors without being seen by the camera, I guess I have to see if either of them are open while the camera's looking away. It's still looking away, right?"

"Actually, it's rotating." She says. "Since you're incapable of seeing it, I'll tell you when you're clear."

"...I wish I had a HUD like in video games." I grumble. "Left side first."

"Okay. Three seconds."

I blink. Three seconds until wh-

She edges the door open and starts creeping across the floor.

I have no choice but to go after her. She can tell what areas are out of camera range after all.

As she gets to the door, she taps her hand on the card reader and the light on the top turns green. I quickly step up and gently push on the door.

Inside is a room full of cubicles, with the lights off. I look around and notice that the light switch on the wall has a motion detector like the one upstairs. I gesture like flipping a light switch and 9 cocks her head.

I reach up to flip the switch, and... nothing happens. At least I didn't turn the lights on. I slide in and stick myself against the wall, 9 following a second later and gently closing the door behind her.

"Well, we're inside." She whispers. "But where are we?"

"I dunno, let's wait for the camera to rotate away... where's that light coming from?"

I walk up to a cube, carefully checking it's empty before stepping in. Whoever's cube it is, they didn't turn off their computer and it's currently on a screen saver. After determining it's empty, I start looking at the papers on the desk.

I was about to grab them and hold them to the light of the monitor when 9 grabs my hand. "Don't move things. That's how you get caught."

"I can't read anything in this light." I complain.

"Didn't 45-nee grab a set of NVGs for you?"

"...Shit." I pull off the backpack and rummage through the stuff UMP 45 had shoved into the pack. I eventually dig out the goggles and clumsily turn them on. Through the green lenses, I can see like it's daytime, and I can read the papers in front of me. "Looks like this guy was in charge of... drawing boxes."

"Probably some engineer designing things. Like, boxes." 9 is also looking at the paperwork, presumably able to see in this low light.

I touch the seat by accident, kicking up a cloud of dust, and causing my nose to itch. I hold back a sneeze with all my might. "Everything's really dusty." I say, removing the goggles and looking around by the light of the monitor. "Was this place abandoned before Paradeus got here?"

"Everything in this area was. There was a collapse fluid wave that came through here a few years back and nobody's returned. That's why Griffin set up shop here. It's kinda isolated."

"I'm surprised anything still works. Especially this computer. You'd think it would have shut down... Hmm?"

"...What?"

I point to the keyboard and mouse. "Those have been moved recently."

"Hey, the dust's been scraped away, you're right." She frowns. "But, what would Paradeus want with a random company's data?"

9 and I look at each other.

"I'm gonna report this to 45-nee." 9 says. "You open the computer and see what's going on."

I sit down in the chair, sending up another cloud of dust. In my ear, 9's voice comes through. "45-nee, we've found something interesting."

"Really?" comes 45's response.

I hit the spacebar, and the screensaver disappears to be replaced by a password screen. Hmm.

"Yeah. looks like someone in Paradeus was using this computer on the top floor."

"...Odd." 45's voice sounds more focused all of a sudden. "What were they looking for?"

"I have Haddy working on that." 9 reports.

I look around the cube. Maybe there's a password around? People aren't supposed to write passwords down, but at work all of the computers had a post-it note on the monitor, or sometimes under the keyboard-

"Ah-hah!" I flip the keyboard and find a post-it note. "Password's 'G0t34mTheta'."

"...And it looks like he's got it."

"Right. Just FYI, Hadwin's at minus eight points, and you're at minus fourteen."

"W... What?" 9 cries. Oddly, it's a shout in the earpiece, but the actual 9 is still perfectly silent.

"He gets his minuses halved since he's new."

"...So I'm behind, except for a mercy rule." I mumble.

"Exactly. But 9's hacking needs work. I knew exactly when you started working on the cameras."

"But... I haven't used this new cyberwarfare suite much since I got it. Our next mission is soon..."

"What, you want the newbie halved points as well?" UMP 45 sounds like she's smirking.

"...No." 9 pouts. "I'll try harder."

"What, you're new to this too?" I ask.

"No. I just got new hacking modules installed." She grumbles. "I've been doing lower level stuff for a long time, but I just got the upgrades recently."

"Alright." I shift my attention back to the screen. "So, what's project Theta?"

"...45-nee, I think you need to see this."

"Holy Shiiiiiiiiiiiiii-"

"WHOOHOOOOOOO!"

Sop's handiwork had turned the Aegis unit into an explosively fast transport, having stripped all the heavy armor off. I cling to it as she controls the unit, leaping between buildings.

"Please slow down." I groan. "I can't survive this."

"Oh, you big baby, This is SO MUCH FUN!"

416 comes through the radio. "If you kill the Commander, I'll hunt you down."

"C'mon, this is FUN!"

The modified Aegis unit slams into the skyscraper's side, and Sop has it immediately launch away towards the next building.

"Besides, even if we stop, KCCO clearly knows where we are."

I glance behind us at the gathering horde of tan and dark green.

"Commander, your plans are stupid." 45 grumbles.

"Did you get in contact with G&K?" I ask.

"..." 45 sighs. "Yeah, your 'distraction' worked."

"Awesome." I grip the Aegis tightly as it bounces off another wall. "Now, we have to survive until they get here."

In the end, we just downloaded all of the data off of the computer that we could, then UMP 45 told me to rip out the data storage of as many computers as I could.

All, while being stealthy, so no lights. Also, 9 was called downstairs to help with probing the main servers. 416's grenade had done a number on the main servers, apparently. Well... we weren't exactly being careful.

So here I sit, in the dark, pulling apart computers to grab the data storage. These aren't exactly top of the line gear, it was probably old when it was in use. It still uses SSDs to hold information.

I wonder if there's a way to plug these into a T-doll?

The thought crosses my mind, but I have a feeling I'd regret it if I asked. I really need to look at a manual for them or something.

Maybe find a slightly less murderous group than Team 404 to ask.

As I pry apart the twentieth or so computer, the door to the room opens up, and then the light turns on.

I blink in the sudden light. Keeping my voice low, "45, 9 are you guys back?"

"No, we're all still down here. Why?"

"Someone just turned on the lights." I shrink back down.

"What? Nobody's... nobody's in here." UMP 9 says. "Nobody from G&K is deployed here."

"I checked the cameras... nobody arrived at any of the entrances. Are you sure someone turned on the lights?" UMP 45's voice becomes razor sharp.

"The door opened, and the lights came on." I say quietly, trying to jam myself under the desk. "Guys, please save me."

"...Okay, I'm sending HK 416 up there." 45 says. "We're going to try to stay silent, so it'll be a minute or two. In the meantime, stay hidden."

"I-If I can."

"FUCK!" A voice comes from the door area. A masculine voice. "Someone's been accessing the computer!"

"Are you sure?" Comes a second voice.

"Look at it! It's unlocked, open, and all the dust's been cleared."

"Check the others. We can't let this get out."

"I fuckin' know!" Comes the first voice. "How did anyone get in? I know those four Griffin rats are downstairs, but they're the only ones to enter since we got here, right?"

"Mmm. Then again, our entrance is unmonitored, so it's possible that someone else got in."

"Dude, don't even go there."

I mutter into the mic. "P-please tell me you got that." I'm starting to shake from the nerves.

"No. Repeat." UMP 45 says quickly.

"They k-know you are here, and they h-have an unmonitored entrance."

"...9, scour the plans again. Look for an underground entrance. 416, try not to fuck this up. I doubt Gentiane will pay if we get their new commander killed." UMP 45 orders. "Hadwin, keep it together. 416's on her way."

"I know." I say. "But it sounds like they're getting closer."

"Holy shit, they ripped out the data storage." Says the foul-mouthed of the two.

"I see. Check the others, see what we can recover."

I clutch my backpack to my chest, and suddenly I remember the pistol tucked into the strap in the front. Carefully, I set down the backpack stuffed full of god knows what, and pull out the USP.

I can hear cursing getting closer, and I grip the gun tightly. I keep my finger out of the trigger guard, as Sop and HK 416 had instructed me. Otherwise I might have pulled the trigger accidentally like back at the fast food place I worked at.

That feels like so long ago. It's been... It's barely noon, so almost a day?

"Commander, I'm outside the room." 416 says. "Plan?"

"I, uh, oh! Come in, hit the lights and I'll put on the NVGs, then I'll sneak out." I carefully pull the NVGs out of the backpack and stick them on my forehead.

"Alright. I'll enter on your signal."

"Hmm? What the fuck?" Says the foul mouthed dude.

"What is it?"

"The computer in the cube is still intact."

"That's good. What's the matter?"

"They removed everything up to this point and then stopped." I can see them outside this cube, and I squeeze into the farthest corner I can, praying they don't notice me. "Why did they fuckin' stop?"

"...Are they still in here?"

One of them pokes their head into the cube. Bald head, tattoo of drawing compass under his right eye. He and I make eye contact.

"Oh Shit! He's he-!"

The lights go out.

I pull the goggles down over my eyes to see that the man that had stumbled into this cube is now fumbling for his sidearm in the dark.

No time to think.

I take aim at him and... and pull...

My heart is starting to beat out of my chest.

He has his gun out now, a wicked looking revolver. He pulls back the hammer with one hand, looking around to see if he can catch a glimpse of me.

I close my eyes, and pull the trigger.

BANG

POP POP POP

A few additional gunshots go off after mine. For a second, I figure I missed.

No pain comes, and I dare to crack open one eye.

The man with the tattoo is dead, bullet hole through the head. To the side, outside the cube, another corpse is lying on the floor.

The lights come back on, flooding the goggles. I rip them off, and belatedly realize I'm hyperventilating.

"Commander? Are you alright?" Hk 416 rushes up to me.

"No." I lean over and puke. "I'm pretty sure I'm not."

The modified Aegis unit collapses underneath us, and we go tumbling to the ground.

My poor, abused body refuses to stand back up, even as Sop stands up and inserts herself between me and the approaching KCCO units.

"Sop... run..." I groan out.

"NO!" She snarls. "NONE OF YOU TOUCH HIM!"

"Please..."

"I'LL SHRED YOU APART WITH MY BARE CLAWS!" She howls.

"Incoming!" UMP 9's voice comes over coms. "I can't tell which train it is! It's still got a KCCO signal!"

Sop pulls out a yellow Dinergate, plugging it into the crystal looking thing on her chest. "PREPARE TO EAT LASER, FUCKHEADS!"

A red beam cuts through the front line of KCCO units, followed by several explosions. Sop points her grenade launcher upwards and pulls the trigger, launching the grenade in a high arc. It comes down behind the front line with another magnificent explosion.

"ETA, forty seconds." UMP 45 says.

"DIE!"

Another laser flashes out, and Sop stumbles.

Doesn't that drain a lot of energy? "Sop... please stop."

"D-Die you... you FUCKERS!" She screams, before firing once more.

And then, she collapses in front of me.

With the remains of her energy, she rolls over to face me and reaches out a hand. "I'm, I'm so sorry Commander."

"You did good, Sop." I say, and another cough racks my body. "You did good."

"Eheh." She laughs quietly. "If you see her, tell M4 that too, please."

Sop reaches out a hand to touch my own outstretched hand.

"Tell me yourself please." Says a familiar voice.

Then, the world is dyed red with gunfire.

"Definitely Paradeus." Commander Gentiane muses, looking at our prisoner.

Yes, prisoner. Apparently, HK 416 has a lot better aim than I expected and had managed to take down her target with two shots to the legs and one to the wrist, rather than outright killing him.

The man I shot was dead.

After HK 416 had rescued me and I had puked on her, we had recovered as many of the computers as we could, and then ran. HK 416 had to support me on the way back, the entire time chiding me on not holding my stomach, but not as harshly as I would expect from her.

I think that I'm starting to get a handle on her personality, and she was trying to tell me how to handle it in her own way, but it sure didn't feel like it.

Now, I have a cup of Springfield's hot cocoa in my hands, a blanket, and two T-dolls holding onto me. G11, who hadn't left my side since she had met back up with me, has one hand gripping my sleeve and the other holding her weapon. She scans the room every few minutes, her sleepy eyes opening wide to take in the room and it's occupants before returning to a half asleep state.

The other doll is SOPMOD, who decided to take a perch on my lap rather than the chair beside me.

When I asked why, she had said "This way, you can't run away and get hurt again."

416 isn't in the room at the moment, but both of the UMP sisters are.

"We figured as much." UMP 45 says, responding to Gentiane. "We already found some data that we suspected was Paradeus before they arrived."

"Good work on that. You too, Hadwin."

"T-thanks." The shakes still won't stop.

Sop leans back, pressing herself into me.

I'll be honest, despite her being a robot... it's kinda nice to have someone this worried about me. As long as she's not planning on ripping me apart.

"Did you already place dolls around the entrance to the underground passage?" Angelia asks Gentiane.

"Yes. Right now, M4's in charge. I can trust her."

"Good. I'll send AK-12 to support."

AK-12, the tall silver haired woman who never opens her eyes, nods in response. "Would you like me to head out immediately?"

"No, I want you to stay here and watch our prisoner as I interrogate him. You're better at reading people." Angelia says.

"Very well." AK-12 looks in my direction without opening her eyes. "Commander Hadwin?"

"J-just Hadwin is f-fine." I stutter out through the shakes. G11's grip gets tighter.

"Hadwin then. The other man, did you notice anything about him?"

"..." I think back, trying not to picture the hole in his head. "He had a tattoo of a compass on his face."

UMP taps AK-12's arm, and AK-12 nods. "I see. This one's tattoo isn't so prominent, but it appears to be something in common rather than a one-off. Perhaps, a way of marking members?"

"It looks like the symbol painted on the side of the Rodeleros being disassembled downstairs." Commander Gentiane says. "Little doubt he's Paradeus."

"So it looks like that building used to be a Paradeus research facility." UMP 45 says. "It's still connected to somewhere else via an underground tunnel, and there's still useful data they don't want leaked." She turns to Commander Gentiane. "How much of this did you already know?"

"None of it." She says. "I'm as surprised as you are."

"...Then why did you have us drag him along?"

"I told you. I wanted him on an easy first mission."

"That's bullshit!" UMP 45 says angrily. "There's no way-"

"Seriously." Gentiane interrupts the illegal T-doll. "I expected you to go in, grab the data, and get out."

"And here I was expecting you to be the chessmaster." UMP 45 grumbles. "Okay, I'm going to sort through all of this data and we'll prepare a briefing. Come on, 9."

"Sure." 9 turns to me. "Hey, when you're done, come find me."

"A-Alright."

"Well, aren't you popular." Commander Gentiane says in a teasing tone.

"She probably just wants to chew me out over my poor stealth rating- er, how badly I screwed up the mission."

"You didn't screw it up." She says. "In fact, you got more data than we would have gotten otherwise."

G11 tugs on my sleeve again as if to reassure me.

"It doesn't feel like I didn't screw up." I mutter.

"Well, we take our victories where we can nowadays." She hesitates. "Do you want to sit through the interrogation, or do you want to head out? I'm going to need a report from you eventually, and maybe you'd be better off working with Team 404 so it's more complete."

"I'll... I'll stay." I say. "I have to get used to this."

"We don't interrogate people that often, but alright." Commander Gentiane nods to Angelia. "Whenever you're ready."

"Got it." Angelia props herself off the wall. "AK-12, make sure to pay attention."

"Of course." AK-12 opens her eyes for the first... no, second time since I met her. Her eyes positively glow, much brighter than any other T-dolls'. She must have been the one from the day Sop dragged me into the meeting room with the really bright eyes, so that makes this number two. Her eyes don't even look human, purple and red with glowing lines tracing through it, the combination showing up as a reddish-pink.

"That's t-terrifying." I mutter to myself.

"It's why I keep my eyes closed." AK-12 says, clearly having heard me. Somehow.

Angelia enters the room with the prisoner.

I kind of check out as Angelia begins to question the man. I'm paying a little bit of attention, but most of my thoughts turn inwards.

Eventually, Angelia comes back. "He's not cracking."

"You tried threatening his kneecaps?" Commander Gentiane snickers.

"What's with you and the kneecaps?" Angelia shakes her head. "No, I think we're going to have to get something more impactful. Paradeus seems to have trained their operatives in anti-interrogation techniques."

"Well... We still need what we can get from him. Here's some water, have some and then we'll continue."

"Roger that." Angelia sits down beside Commander Gentiane and sips on her water.

Sop has been unusually quiet. I look at her, then back at G11 who's fallen asleep with my arm still in her grip, and then back again. Sop notices, and she looks back at me. "Commander, you want to leave?"

"Mmm... I guess."

She hops off my leg and hauls me to my feet, incidentally waking up G11 in the process. "Okay, let's get you something to eat, then we'll go find 9!"

"Good luck." Commander Gentiane says. "I'll debrief you later."

Sop leads the way to the kitchen. I'm not really hungry, but when I sit down at the table, Springfield sets a plate in front of me. It's simple pancakes, but suddenly my stomach growls. Maybe it's because it's already past lunch and I haven't eaten since breakfast.

She sets two more plates down, one for G11 and one for Sop. They both dig in, G11 finally letting go of my sleeve to properly use her knife and fork.

The other T-dolls in the cafeteria glance over once in a while, but none of them come over. Probably due to the looks Sop is throwing around the place.

By habit, I reach into my pocket for my phone. It's not there, of course. We weren't supposed to have them when working because 'it's distracting' but we usually ignored that...

Wait, then, maybe it's still in my work clothes' pockets?

"Er..." I look over at Sop, who focuses her eyes on me like a dog on a treat. Or a toy. "Um... I need to grab something from my room."

"I'll get it." Say five voices simultaneously.

Sop was one of them, but as I turn around to look, four more dolls are standing up. I recognize SV-98, S.A.T.8, and Tokarev, but the last girl, wearing a nun's habit, I'm not familiar with.

"Uh..."

"You just want to see inside the new Commander's quarters!" Sop complains at them.

"It's the same for you!" The nun says indignantly.

"P7, if there's anything everyone agrees on, it's that you're going nowhere near the new guy's stuff." SV-98 says to the Nun, P7 presumably.

"Aw, but how am I supposed to think up pranks when I don't know anything about him?" P7 wails.

SV-98 looks back at me. "If you'd like, I'm done eating. I'll grab whatever it is you need and be right back."

Well, she's one of Commander Ricardo's echelon leaders, so she should be pretty capable. "I'll take you up on that." I pull my keycard out of my pocket and hand it to her. "Can you please check if my cell phone is in my fast food uniform? I just realized I might not have left it back there in the explosion."

"You can count on me, Commander." She carefully tucks the keycard away. "I'll be back in five minutes."

She walks from the room. P7 tries to follow, but Tokarev grabs her flowing clothes and yanks her to a stop. The two start bickering, but I'm unable to hear them since someone else sits down at the side opposite G11. Looks like Sop's glare defense has broken down.

S.A.T.8 smiles at me. Today, no massive fidget spinners attached to her hips, which admittedly would be awkward to lug around indoors. "Hello Commander. How are you doing?"

"Eh... I'm... okay, I guess."

Sop glares at S.A.T.8 for a few seconds before sighing. "Well, I guess she's harmless." She mutters.

I glance at the shotgun strapped over her shoulder and quietly disagree.

"That's good to hear. Say, do you have any foods that you particularly like?"

"Huh?"

Her smile has a calming effect, and she slowly folds her hands on the table. "I like making food when I'm not busy, and I wanted to make something for you. Think of it as a welcoming present, if you wish."

"Oh. Alright." I think for a few seconds. "I guess I'd say I like noodles in Alfredo sauce."

"Okay." She stands up, quickly, but somehow smoothly so it doesn't feel like she's being hasty. "I'll go check to see if we have the ingredients."

"Ah, you don't have to go through the effort." I say, but she shakes her head.

"It's no trouble. If I can find everything, I'll have it ready by 1800."

"I... Thanks." I give in.

She goes behind the counter and into the storeroom behind the cafe.

"S.A.T's cooking is really good." Sop says. "I asked her to cook me a turkey leg, and it was awesome."

"That's not exactly hard to make, Sop." Says a new arrival, AK-47. "You just slap a turkey leg in the oven and wait."

"It was the best turkey leg I've ever had!" Sop proclaims.

"It's also the only turkey leg you've ever had." AK-47 looks at me. "But yes, S.A.T's cooking is to be respected. Whoever stuffed 'Italian' into her programming nailed it."

"Yeah?" I ponder that for a second. "I wonder why though."

"Why what?" Sop asks.

"Why is she Italian?"

"Duh." AK-47 snorts. "The S.A.T.8 is an Italian weapon."

"Um... that's not..." I decide to drop the topic. "Nevermind."

"What's on your mind?" AK-47 says, leaning on the edge of the seat beside me.

"...Was she made for G&K or was she already... like that? As an A-doll."

"Ah... well, it's not my place to tell you that. It's kinda a personal thing with us, you know." She scratches her cheek.

"I figured. I was told most T-dolls are upgraded A-dolls of some sort, and I'm trying to figure out that whole thing."

"Well..." AK-47 stands up straight and adopts a thinking expression. "I can't tell you about anyone else, but I can give you my story. My body is actually a fairly common model for A-dolls. and Griffin ordered a bunch of us. 16LAB did a personality test and found that the AK-47 was the best fit for my personality, and then adjusted a few things to make me fit the characteristics of my gun."

"Make you fit, not the other way around?"

"Nah." She waves my concern away. "I was brand new at the time, so I didn't have a past that I cared about, so it was fine if they tweaked some things. See this tattoo?" She points to her shoulder. "It's the symbol of the country that developed my weapon. My clothing preference comes from the guerrilla fighters from the middle Americas in the mid 20th century, and my attitude is supposed to reflect the kind of driven, but not very official type or weapon it was used as."

"...Wow."

"Most T-dolls go through personality tweaks to match their weapons unless they're really against it. Some T-dolls get voice modules to suit their weapon's nationality, or wear the uniform of the military that produced them." AK-47 grins. "Talk to the WWII era dolls, some of them act like they were there, despite being constructed last year."

"That's... kinda crazy." I say.

"Some dolls actually get their memories wiped." Sop chimes in. "Some T-dolls have pretty bad lives until being picked up by Griffin, so a memory wipe is used to help them recover."

...I don't know how to feel about that.

"On the other hand, some dolls keep their memories and actually remain basically like the A-dolls they used to be, and a weapon is matched to them as best as possible. Some of them still use their old names sometimes."

"Old names?"

"Yeah." Sop nods. "Those of us who were made for G&K or were bought from the factory basically only have our weapon names, but A-dolls get human names generally." She pokes her lip with her claw. "I'm not really supposed to say anyone's name... It's kinda personal."

"Yeah." AK-47 nods. "It's one of those things."

"Oh. Well, thanks for telling me." I say. "I'm so new to T-dolls, I don't know what's rude yet."

"Really?"

"Yeah. My country has a complete ban on robots and I never thought that any robot could act so much like a human." I laugh nervously. "I thought you were all human until HK 416 got her stomach torn open."

"Seriously?" Sop asks. "Huh."

"I knew you were being weirdly polite to us for a human..." AK-47 sighs. "But hey! You haven't run screaming yet."

"I was told I'd get shot if I left without permission." I respond.

Sop and AK-47 laugh. It wasn't meant as a joke though.

"Well, thanks for treating us like real people, Commander." AK-47 claps my shoulder. "Some of the commanders treat us like disposable tools, and it's always a chore to work with them."

"Not Commander Gentiane though!" Sop says excitedly. "She's always made sure to talk to us, and asks us what we like, and makes sure we're well treated." She pauses. "She usually eats with the other humans though instead of coming here for dinner."

"...Hmm?" I look at Sop. "Wait, there's another cafeteria?"

"Duh." AK-47 waves her hands around. "Have you seen any of the staff around here? It's mostly us dolls at Springfields' shop."

"...Huh." I give Sop a look. "That wasn't on the tour."

"I... forgot! Yeah, I forgot." She looks away. "A-Anyway, the food's much better here, so..." She trails off.

"Rrrright." Well...

Eh? Did AK-47 say I treat them better than some of the others? But, I thought I was keeping them at arm's length since they're inevitably going to rise up...

I look at the depressed looking Sop. She's one of the more mechanical looking Dolls, modified with an obviously robotic left arm. But...

She's been fairly protective of me. She helped me around on the first day, tried to teach me to shoot, and was kinda fun to talk to.

I look down at the sleeping G11 in the chair beside me. She's apparently been worried enough about me that she's been glued to my side since the, well... the mission ended.

HK 416 is also oddly protective. UMP 9 said 45 and 416 are both acting that way. Springfield and S.A.T.8 are both eager to make food for me. I even had a bunch of them jumping at the chance to help me.

M4 and AR-15 basically only dragged me into this because they needed help, and didn't want to leave me to Paradeus' clean up forces (or so Angelia had informed me.)

From their range of emotions, I would never guess they're robots, they tease each other, blush, get angry and shout, laugh, and get depressed.

I guess, being raised in a country without them and being told that robots are to be feared might have given me a bad impression of them. All in all, the Dolls I've met are a lot nicer to me than most of the customers at work.

"Well..." I pat Sop on her head, and she looks up in surprise. "I guess you guys are too human for me to treat you like robots."

All of the chatter in the room dies, and once again everyone is looking in my direction.

"But..." AK-47 says cautiously. "We're not."

I feel uncomfortable with all of the stares. "Yeah... but..." I look down at my plate, and the identical plate in front of Sop and G11. Same food. "Well, I'd feel bad if I treated you like a toaster."

The T-dolls look around at each other, probably communicating to each other directly. None of them are smiling anymore.

Belatedly, I wonder if that was a bad thing to say. Maybe they're offended because I'm not treating them like T-dolls?

"Found them!" SV-98 walks into the room, holding my cell phone, wallet, and keys. "...Erm, what's going on?"

For the first time in many days, faces surround me that I don't recognize.

Yelling.

Pointing.

Reaching over me.

I think someone jabbed something into me to sedate me, because I woke up in a white room with lots of lights pointed right at me. Super bright lights that hurt to look at.

I can't tell who anyone is under the surgical masks.

...Surgical masks.

Am I in a hospital?

One of them sees that I'm awake, says something I don't catch, and then the world fades back to blackness.

My phone didn't have any battery left since it hasn't been charged in three days. I had managed to get a charger from a T-doll named MDR, who kept muttering about chances and betting pools and grinning in a worrying fashion. I had decided to ignore this and just get my phone charged.

Sop had decided to go look for M4, AR-15 and RO635. Strangely, the other T-dolls had all kept their distance since my words in the cafeteria. "Maybe I shouldn't have said that." I sigh, watching the battery icon on my phone slowly fill up.

"I don't think so." G11 tugs on my sleeve again. "I'm happy you don't treat me badly."

I pat her head, and she smiles sleepily. G11 had still refused to leave my side.

"Treated like tools..." I mutter. "But..." I look down at G11, who looks up at me with curiosity. Curiosity! "No, that's stupid."

G11 looks down at my phone, and I follow her gaze to see it has enough charge to boot up.

A message pops up as the messages app loads.

Then twenty.

A missed calls notification flashes past with over fifty missed calls, and then more messages push that away.

"...Oh boy."

"Hmm?" G11 climbs into my lap and looks at the phone in my hands. I have to move my head over her shoulder to see around her.

"Well... I haven't been in communication with anyone for about a day, and it looks like They've been trying really hard to reach me." I say. "Which means Mom's going to be so angry when I finally get back to her."

I hold the phone in my hand. What am I even going to tell my family? Oh, I got abducted by a PMC and decided to join them? I decided to take up arms against the 'robot menace' alongside the good robots? Oh, I know, how about I just killed somebody?

Bile rises back in my throat and I start to shake again.

G11 turns around, still in my lap, and gives me a hug.

Strangely, it calms me down.

Or... maybe not so strangely. She's warm.

I unlock my phone and start sorting through the notifications.

Most of them are predictably from my family. Some are from Rakim, and my manager, and... a few numbers I don't know. All emails and text messages have a common theme.

"Are you okay?"

"Where are you?"

"Please call us back and let us know you're safe."

I mark everything as read, and dial my parent's landline.

The phone rings a few times before connecting.

Someone's breathing heavy on the other side of the line.

"Er... hello?" I ask.

"Hadwin?" My mothers voice sounds shocked.

"Yeah, mom." I say. "I'm sorry-"

"Oh my god. Oh..." She bursts into tears.

"Uh..."

There's a bunch of background noise, some panicked talking, and someone else takes the phone. "Hadwin?"

"Hey Dad."

"Where are you?!" He demands. "Your mother and I are worried sick! We thought you were buried... Where are you?"

"I'm fine, Dad." I say, hoping to placate him. "I got caught up in some stuff, but I'll be back as soon as I can."

He sounds like he's about to say something, but stops himself. "Are you... able to speak freely?"

Hmm? "For the most part, I guess." I laugh awkwardly. I can't exactly tell him about the PMC... "I'm not being held hostage or anything like that."

"Phew." Dad exhales. "That's a relief. The police told us it was a terrorist attack, and since a few people disappeared, including some official or another, the police told us it could have been a targeted thing. They kept telling us that, until they figure out who made all of you disappear, they couldn't tell us one way or the other. Also, there was all that weirdness of everyone being shoved into the freezer-"

"Dad, who's on the phone? They... they didn't discover a body... right?" My sister's voice comes through the phone.

"No sweetie, it's Hadwin. He's okay!" Dad tells her. "Wait a second, I'll put him on speaker."

"Hadwin!" My sister cries. "Are you there?"

"Yeah, I'm here." I say. "Are you guys okay?"

"Duh. You're the one who got caught in an explosion, not us! Where are you?"

"I'm..." Inspiration strikes. As Rakim always says, the best lie is 90% of the truth and 1% of a lie, with a bit left to the other guy's imagination.

I don't think he came up with that, to be honest but it sure fit his personality.

"I'm actually with MP Panagos. I was caught up in the attack, and her bodyguards protected me."

"Oh thank god." My mom says. "You're unhurt?"

"Still in one piece." I say.

"So, where are you?" Dad asks again. "I'll come get you."

"I... I'm not really allowed to say." I admit. "It's a safehouse kind of thing, and I can't say-"

"That's ridiculous!" He roars. "There's no way that's legal. I'm coming to get you."

"Dad, no."

"Son, don't test me."

"Dad. I know, but I really can't tell you. I swear I'm alright, and I'll get back to you-"

"FREEZE!"

I freeze in place.

"Turn around... Hadwin?" Commander Gentiane blinks and raises her pistol away from me. "What the hell are you doing?"

I blink. "Making a phone call?"

"You... those can be traced. Hand me the phone."

"Uhm-"

She takes the phone from my hand and raises it to her head. "Who is this?"

She listens for a second. "I'm Commander Gentiane. Your son's been in my care."

She listens some more. "No, I will not tell you where we are. No. I don't care, I don't answer to the police." Her eyebrow twitches. "You don't even know who I am, how would you sue me?"

I sigh. and pat G11's head, looking down to find... "G11, put down your gun."

She looks up at me, then back at her target, Gentiane. Then she drops her aim, but still holds her gun ready to re-aim. "She was going to kill you."

"No, she wasn't." I say. "She's just worried about security. I think."

"FINE!" Gentiane snaps. "I'll arrange a meeting spot. Things are too complicated to explain over an unsecured phone line... I'll get a time and place for tomorrow morning, okay? Sector 3 sound good, 0700?"

She listens for a few more seconds, then shakes her head and pushes the phone my way. "Hadwin, you can't just call people. Finish your call and then come see me."

"...Sorry."

"Don't worry about it. I'm just glad we don't still have a tap on our outbound server..." She grumbles. "Finish your phone call."

"Son, what's going on?" Dad asks, now less angry and more confused.

"It's... complicated." I say. "But let me put it this way-" I pat G11's head once more, and think back to M4, Sop, RO635, AR-15, HK416, the UMP twins... "-I'm probably safer here than in my own bed."

"...Well, I'll have to trust you on that. You better be there at seven tomorrow, or I'm going to figure out a way to get you."

"Don't worry." I say. "I'll be there."

I say my goodbyes and hang up the phone, sitting back in my seat as I contemplate whether 'can't just call people' includes text messages.

"Who was that?" Asks G11

"My mom and dad." I respond. "Ah, my family."

She tilts her head. "Family?"

"Yeah. UMP 9 said you're all family in Team 404, so like that."

She smiles at me. "So, you have two families!"

"Uh, no, not really-"

"Actually, it's three!" SOPMOD charges into the room. "I'm going too!"

"Going where?" I ask. "And three families?"

"I'm going to meet your family, you're already part of the G&K family, and I've decided to make you an honorary member of Anti-Rain!" She cheers.

RO635 comes in behind her. "That's not a decision you can make, Sop."

"And why would he join your shitty squad?" HK 416 says. "He's far more likely to join our squad."

UMP follows her taller subordinate in. "After all, your squad was the one who dragged him into this mess. We're the one giving him the skills to get out of it."

"But he's already a G&K employee! I got first dibs!" Sop says.

"Hey, hey. We can share." UMP 9 says. "At least until we figure out what to do tomorrow morning."

"Tomorrow?" RO635 asks. "What about it?"

"I don't know much about human families." 45 says. "But I do know that they're going to want Hadwin back."

"...So we need to figure out how to keep him." HK 416 narrows her eyes.

"Uh... Please don't do anything to my family." I say.

Sop clicks her tongue. "There goes plans one through one-thousand fifty two."

"Does 'anything' include kidnapping?" UMP 9 asks.

"Wha- NO!"

"How about talking?" 45 asks.

"That's fine, as long as it isn't threats." I say.

She narrows her eyes at me then pinches the bridge of her nose. "Okay, that's most of my plans down the drain."

Surrounded as I am, with T-dolls plotting ways to keep me around, I feel an odd sense of warmth, or belonging, or something. It's a nice feeling.

Please, just don't do anything to my family. I like my family.