Girl's Frontline: Field Agent

by Johnny Wycliffe

Sometimes, life comes at you like an explosion through the storefront. A young man, Hadwin Galanis, finds this out the hard way as his life is turned upside-down by a PMC and Paradeus, forced to pick up a gun and fight in a war fought by machines.

13. Chapter 13: Award Ceremony

As my brain slowly rises from sleep, the first thing I can recall is the sound of a heart monitor beeping steadily in the background.

"Urgh."

I open my eyes, but it's so bright, my brain instantly tells me to shut them again. My arms feel super heavy and so does my one leg.

I carefully pry one eye open, then the other, and when I finally start registering the sights around me, I realize I'm in a hospital of some kind. There's nobody else in the room, but I can see surgical stuff lined up.

Wait, wouldn't that mean I'm in a surgery, not a patient room? If that's true… this isn't a hospital, but a trauma ward, or something similar. Lucas had me tour a hospital with him once and I had to ask all sorts of dumb questions so I think I would understand the difference.

After glancing at my arms, I trace a bunch of the tubes sticking out of my veins to bags suspended on a rack. One of them reads "Saline", another is clearly blood, and I can't see what the third one is.

Hmm?

I can't remember why I'm in a hospital.

Last I remember, I was in a helicopter heading to G&K's new temp base.

Sure, I had a home-made shotgun blow up in my face… and I fell off a roof… and I went AWOL for two days…

Okay, maybe there's a good reason for a normal check up, but this is overkill, yeah?

I try to move, but my arms aren't properly responding.

"Rrrgh." I growl, but they still refuse to move. It's not that they're restrained, but just.. Not responding.

"-as you can see-" The nurse who just walked in blinks at me before turning and shouting down the hallway. "Hey, the Field Agent's awake!" He stands in the doorway until a familiar face shows up.

Commander Gentiane.

If it's possible, she looks worse than usual. Her eye bags are deep and the datapad she's holding is upside down. Her jacket is buttoned improperly and there's still some drool on the side of her mouth, which she tries to scrub away with her sleeve.

"Hadwin."

"Com-" I cough, my throat exceedingly dry. "Commander Gentiane."

She sits on a chair facing the bed, specifically set up for visitors. "Where do I even start?" She mutters, before glancing down at the datapad and turning it over.

"Hold on." A new face enters. "Ma'am, we need to give him a brief examination before you talk to him."

Gentiane sighs. "Alright, wake me up when you're done." She tilts her head back and zones out completely.

The doctor and the nurse from before start poking and prodding around, but I can't tell what they're actually looking for. Nevertheless, they are satisfied after about five minutes of poking and prodding. They inform me not to move around too much before the nurse shakes Gentiane awake before they both leave.

Commander Gentiane snaps awake and seems to remember where we are after a second or two of confusion. "Ah, done with the exam?"

"Yeah… Er, where are we?"

"G&K's new temporary base, hospital ward." She gives me a tired half smile and puts on a sarcastic tone. "You're the first person to need it. Congrats."

"...Thanks." I frown. "Why did I need it? I don't remember needing serious medical attention."

"Well… when the helo arrived and we came to get you, you were so tired that three adrenaline shots failed to wake you up." She starts ticking items on her fingers. "When we took a blood sample, we found some fairly crazy chemicals in your system, and then we noticed that you had several lumps in your body. A quick MRI finds out that you had somehow spontaneously healed your legs and arm, and developed over ten tumors in various places."

"...Holy shit."

"Thankfully, we've seen this before and know how to fix it. I'm guessing you came into contact with Paradeus at some point?"

I nod.

"I thought so. I got into a situation I shouldn't have really survived and they miraculously cured me as well, leaving behind a few fun surprises of my own." She grimaces. "We decided to keep you under and remove all of them. You'll be out for the rest of the day, but we got out everything we found."

I glance down at my legs. I can't really tell for sure with the blanket on top, but I don't think the lump is still there. That's… comforting. "Thank you."

"Thank the doctors." She looks back down at her datapad. "So, I'd like to establish a timeline. Can you tell me what happened, just the basic framework and times, and we'll go from there."

"Sure, but can I get a glass of water?"

Gentiane looks back at the nurse, who's still standing around in the doorway, and he steps out without saying a word.

I start recounting everything that happened after the three buggies left Sector 3. Me getting out of the 404 buggy, getting captured, hauled back to Sangvis' base (Commander's eyes went wide, but she didn't interrupt), the raid on the Paradeus lab and the encounter with Anisim, the KCCO attack, and finally 404's rescue.

I left out the details like pretending to date M16, teaching her to sew, running from the Hydra… well, I kept it short like she wanted. Actually, now that I think about it, I didn't mention M16 at all did I? Just said, "Got captured by Sangvis."

"...Okay, I think I can use this as a framework for a report." Commander Gentiane sets the datapad she was taking notes on down. "So, I want to talk about why you decided to get out of the buggy in unclaimed territory."

"..." I look away.

"Answer me, Field Agent."

"I got into an argument with UMP 45." I grumble. "I couldn't stand her attitude and I just got out. Clearly, I wasn't thinking."

"Clearly. Thankfully, I have two separate reports detailing the argument and while I can also say it was stupid, at least it wasn't entirely unreasonable of you." She picks the pad back up and prepares to type once more. "So now, this time with some detail-"

"Commander?"

Gentiane and I both turn our heads to see SOPMOD poking her head in through the door. When she realizes I'm awake, her eyes light up.

"Sop, NO! He's recovering-"

"HADDYYYYYY!" Sop leaps forwards, only to stop in midair as a yellow blur grabs onto her coat.

Sop crashes to the floor and RO steps into view. "Uh… hi?"

"Hi." I respond to RO. "I'm back."

Sop recovers quickly and runs over to the bed. "Haddy! I missed you! Man, you caused quite a stir around here. We had squads out searching- OW!"

Gentiane bonks Sop's head. "Calm down, we'll tell him in due time. For now, I need to get a report from him-"

More faces poke in through the door frame.

"The Commander's awake?" P90's form walks in, followed by Tokarev.

"He is." Tokarev looks around the room. "Not as nice as the repair bay."

"Gee, thanks." I grin at the new arrivals. "Are you two doing okay?"

"Yeah." P90 grins. "I mean, you looked pretty rough off the helo, so that was worrying, but since you're good I'm good."

Tokarev and RO nod in agreement.

"Excuse me, but I'm trying to debrief-"

Commander Gentiane is cut off once again as more T-dolls poke their heads in. Most of them I recognize from hanging with them before, like M500, SAA, NTW-20, and P7, but some of them are new faces to me.

Commander Gentaine quickly gives up and leans back in her chair. "Okay, I'm gonna leave for now. Ask a nurse to get me when you're done with the dolls." She tells me, before getting up and leaving the room.

More and more dolls enter the room.

15 steps right up to the side of the bed and grabs my hand briefly before stepping back. She doesn't say anything, but she doesn't really have to.

S.A.T. turns up, good as new. Apparently, her core was undamaged and she remembers up to and including the shot that took off her head. Creepy, but her smiles' still cheery like how it was before, so I'm fine with it if she is.

M200 shows up too, with a guitar. It seems like she was intending on playing it, but when she saw how many people were here, she gave up and instead joined the crowd around me.

416 enters the room, but remains against the wall next to the door, apparently satisfied to watch.

Eventually, as time wears on a bit, I start to get feeling back into my arms. Once I can lift them over my head without issue, an idea strikes me.

"Hey… uh, 15?"

"Yes?" She steps right up next to the bed once more.

I test my hands once more to confirm and then look up at her. "Can you get my backpack and summon everyone present during... er… Operation Icy Hot?"

P90 bursts out laughing, but 15 nods. "I'll get everyone." She looks around. "We're missing M4, NZ75, SV-98, Type 92…"

"Don't forget 404." I say.

15 gives me a look. "...I'll see if I can locate any of them."

I make eye contact with 416, who shakes her head.

"Well… don't stress over it." I tell 15.

The dolls continue to ask questions of me until 15 returns with Type 92, NZ75, and M4 in tow.

UMP 9 and G11 had shown up by themselves a minute earlier, and since we're only missing UMP 45 and SV-98… Might as well start.

15 hands me the pack. "I couldn't find SV anywhere. The roster says she's off duty, but…"

"No worries, I'll give it to her later."

15's face freezes. "Give… what… to her?"

I rummage in the backpack and pull out the patches I made. "Hey, P90."

"Hm?" She stops her conversation with NTW mid word. "What's up?"

"Since you came up with the name, you get the first one. Come here for a second."

She steps up and I pull her patch out of the pile.

"I bestow unto you the dubious honor of being part of operation Icy Hot. Here is your patch that shows you participated. Wear it with honor… or something."

She holds the patch up so everyone can see after staring at it for a few seconds.

Each of the patches has the tube of ointment on it, along with the T-doll's name and an embellishment to try to make it more personal. The embellishments are simple, usually one color with a black outline since I was operating from memory, without a pattern and under less than ideal conditions.

P90's has a stick figure in light blue thread, from the way her holograms flare blue when they first fire up

"..." P90 is still staring at the patch after a minute.

"I had some time and I made the patches like I promised." I frown. "...You don't like it?"

"Like it?" She barks a laugh. "I love it!" A massive grin splits her face. "This is AWESOME!" She leans down and gives me an awkward half hug over the side of the bed.

"Oh OH!" Sop jumps up and down in place. "Do I get one?"

I shuffle through the pile. "Yeah, I made one for everyone who participated." Which reminds me, the DEFY girls aren't here, and I made patches for Angie and Gentiane… and Ricardo…

I'll have to do a second ceremony later.

I pull Sop's out, hers adorned with a simplified wheel and the front track of the Uhlan, with the track separating. Technically, I feel like it's more a blob of grey, but Sop seems to like it. She immediately tucks it into her pocket, being very careful about using her claw hand.

I start handing them out whatever order I have the patches in while also giving a little description when needed.

Type 92 gets a purple beret on hers, to match the one she wears. She accepted it quietly, placing it next to her other medals on her chest and pinning it in place with one of them.

M4 gets a map with red, green, pink and yellow sectors which was meant to indicate planning for Anti-Rain. She holds it in one hand, contemplating it.

15 gets a bolt of electricity, from when she made the connection to the Uhlan and fried the shields. She places it inside her armor quickly.

M200 and NTW-20 both get a broken and smoking Uhlan, facing different directions so it's not just the same patch. NTW puts it on her shoulder to check for fit, before tucking it away. M200 puts it in her guitar case.

NZ75 gets her black and gold guns crossed over each other, the gold one done in a yellow thread. She nods and accepts the patch solemnly.

P7's just has the additional text "Last Hit Bonus." She seems inordinately proud of this and starts swinging around with the patch in her hands. It's also not that bad quality despite my earlier grumblings.

G11 gets a bunch of Z's sewn into the background. She smiles sleepily and tucks it into her bandana after staring at it for a while.

Tokarev's is a knife with red slashes, indicating her frightening dance. She smiles gently and holds it next to her heart.

RO gets a map like M4, but hers has dashed lines and x's and o's like a sports announcer would draw to indicate a play. She also contemplates it like M4, but snaps out of it and tucks it carefully away.

S.A.T.'s is a stick figure in an action pose with a crunched truck hood, from her awesome drop kick. She tucks it into a jacket pocket.

UMP 9's is a bunch of 1s and 0s, since she was hacking the paradeus units at the end. She seems not to know what to do with it. Maybe she didn't participate...? I'll have to ask her later.

416's patch has her star or clover or whatever ornament she has in her hair. She didn't do much that I know of during the battle, so I had to improvise. She traces the text with her eyes a few times before carefully tucking it into a pocket.

And… that's it for the moment. Nobody else is here-

"W-wait!" SV-98 rounds the corner, skidding on the tile. "Don't forget me!"

A few of the dolls present chuckle as she steps up.

"For being the one who brought down the electrical pole that allowed us to take out the Uhlan, I bestow upon you this medal." I say grandly.

SV-98's has an electrical pole and a blue lightning bolt next to it. She holds it up next to the other awards on her jacket. "Thank you, Commander!"

"And with that." Commander Gentiane claps her hands to get everyone's attention, having just returned. "Clear out. I have some urgent business with our Field Agent. Oh, but 404 stays."

The dolls that received a patch thank me again, those that didn't wonder if I'll make more for future ops, they generally wish me well and then they file out.

When the crowd around the bed is cut down to four, UMP 9, G11, 416, and Commander Gentiane. The latter turns to me.

"Hadwin, I was going to ask you about what happened in detail, for the report."

"Yes." I sigh. Well, the patch thing was fun while it lasted.

"So, start with what happened that made you leave the buggy."

"Well…"

---

By the end of my detailed explanation, the light from the windows had faded so it's late in the evening.

Even with this new retelling I left out the inconsequential bits like the date with M16 (416 is right there), but I did mention everyone who was there.

Commander Gentiane took special note of a few things:

First, Sangvis has a fairly significant presence in the area. Apparently, seeing more than one specialized unit is rare. Gager, Architect, Beak, and technically M16 all qualify as ringleaders, and that means there's four in one place.

That's not normal AT ALL.

Also, apparently we have Architect locked up somewhere. Commander Gentaine marked down that she must have made a copy of herself at some point and managed to leave despite her isolation server. That's a major security breach.

They're not here for M4 either, but for KCCO movement data. That's unusual apparently.

Second, the KCCO. They're apparently chasing something and Gentaine wanted to confirm they weren't ahead of G&K. She didn't tell me what though. The KCCO movement data was actually pretty helpful in the end.

Third, Paradeus' base and especially my encounter with Anisim. Not the chemicals as much, since I didn't know anything they couldn't pull from my blood.

Lastly, she asked for my version of the forest escape, which I provided.

Once satisfied, she has the three dolls from 404 corroborate my story where they can. She then dismisses them and they all give me a brief goodbye before leaving the two of us alone again.

Once the door closes, Gentiane sags into her seat. "Well, that's over with."

"Yep." I remember I have a patch for her in my bag and start rifling around in it.

"Alright, since we're here, I think I'll give you our current plans."

"Okay." I pull the patches out and start looking at them one by one.

"Today's Wednesday. Tomorrow, Thursday, you and 404 are going to be training together for your next mission, which is Friday. I hope you can move past what happened on Saturday, since we don't exactly have time."

"Ah, right." I sigh. "The mysterious mission." Wait a second- "today's Wednesday? Not Tuesday?"

"Nope. You were out all of yesterday and today." She glances at her watch. "It's 2000 on Wednesday."

"Holy crap." I sag back into my pillow. "Well… mysterious mission then."

She smiles slightly. "Don't worry, I'm going to tell you about it. You're going to be infiltrating a fancy dress party. You're going to have two echelons under you, as well as 404 working alongside you. One of your teams is going to go in as waitresses and another group as guests. You'll be with the guests." She sighs. "G&K officials have been invited to attend since we're 'power players' or whatever."

I listen carefully, not wanting to miss anything important.

"The objective is to…" She gives a disgusted look. "'Liberate' a diamond for a client. Preferably quietly."

"...A heist?"

She grimaces even as she nods. "Yeah… see, this diamond is kinda tied to some idiot's political influence and some petty man wants that influence, so he wants the diamond instead. He's paying us more than the diamond is worth in cash, up front. With our current finances, we can't afford to not at least try."

"I see." I frown. "I guess G&K is a PMC."

She smirks. "Don't forget it. Kryuger used to keep us on the straight and narrow, but he's been indisposed recently."

"...Alright." I'll learn about that later, hopefully.

"In any case, 404's skills are going to be needed to get past automated security and get the diamond out. You're going to need to run interference for them in all likelihood and that's what you're going to be training for tomorrow. Also keep in mind you'll need ten dolls who are willing and able to do stealth operations. I'm going to need Anti-Rain for another task, so they're out of the question."

"Okay." I frown down at my backpack, already thinking over the dolls I know. "Stealth operation, huh? Anti-Rain doesn't really seem the type in any case. Especially Sop."

"Yeah..." Her phone beeps. "Agh, I have a meeting soon." She stands up. "Well, the doctor's gotta check you over again later, and then they should let you out tomorrow morning."

"Great." Suddenly, I remember the patch. "Oh, hold on a second." I rifle through the patches again and grab the one with a vault door on it. "Here, for your participation in Icy Hot."

She picks up the patch. "...You made these?"

"Yes. Er, it was at P90's request." I laugh awkwardly. "I made one for everyone involved… so."

"...Thank you." She tucks it into her pocket. "And Field Agent?"

"Hmm?"

"Welcome home."

I sit there for a second, processing her words. Unexpectedly, I feel tears going down my face. "Eh?"

She smiles a bit softer. "You're home now. Get some rest. You're safe right now, just relax and unwind a bit. You've almost managed to have a worse first week than I did."

"H-Heh, you'll have to tell me about it." I wipe the tears of... relief? Exhaustion? I wipe them off my cheeks.

"...Maybe." She snaps her fingers as she leaves. "Oh, and call your parents, okay? They've been hounding me about you not answering your phone."

"...Got it."

She gives me a thumbs up as she disappears around the door.

I had seen my phone on the end table earlier, but I didn't have a chance to look at it until now…

I pick it up to see a new flood of messages and texts, though they're not coming in at the moment. They're all from the last three days, with the most recent being an hour ago.

I dial the home phone and wait.

"Hadwin?"

"Hey Dad."

"Hey, V! Hadwin's just called!" Dad shouts

After a few seconds, mom's voice also comes over the phone with an anxious feel to it. "Staying safe, Hadwin?"

"Yeah." I lie. "The dolls are keeping me safe."

"That's good to hear." Dad comments. "So, things have been weird here."

"Yeah?"

"Yeah. There's a bunch of people, including your friend Lucas who are campaigning to let dolls into the city on a broader scale. There's a lot of pushback, since this was supposed to be a robot free zone, but with everything that happened at the conclave…"

"Huh. Tell Lucas not to get in over his head." I scratch my cheek and realize that, after four days of not shaving, my face is in dire need of some care. "Then again, he's probably got a perfect handle on it."

Dad laughs. "Probably."

"Hadwin, make sure you can contact us again, or tell us before you lose contact." Mom asks. "We were worried."

"I'll try. This last time I lost connection in a spot we were driving through and I got sidetracked."

"Okay." She pauses briefly. "...Please don't make any mistakes." She asks.

"I don't plan on it." I bark out a laugh. "Not like I plan to make mistakes though."

"Just... with all of those women around you…"

Ah. That kind of mistake. "Mom. Androids. They're not capable of having kids."

"Really? That's not what Sop said." Dad muses. "She was talking about how she was modifying her body and mentioned she was thinking of adding-"

"OKAY!" I say loudly to cover him up. "I'll be very careful. I'll carry a taser or something."

"That's a little much." Mom sighs. "Well, like I said, be careful."

"I will."

"We love you, Hadwin." Dad says. "Keep us in the loop, okay?"

"Yeah, when I can. Love you both."

"Goodbye."

"Bye."

I hang up and start combing through messages. I answer some from people I know, though I ignore the rather… interesting one from Eva.

Might need to block her.

"What'cha doing?"

I immediately turn off the screen on instinct, looking up to find Sop leaning over to look at the screen. Still coming in is the rest of Anti-Rain. M4 looks particularly grim.

"Oh, just answering texts." I say. "What's up?"

"M4 and RO wanted to talk to you." She says, frowning. "Heyyyy… that Eva person sent you some weird stuff."

"...Stop hacking into my phone." I say. I forgot she could do that.

"Okay." She stands up straight.

RO sits down on one of the guest chairs, 15 walks up and sits down on the side of the bed, Sop sits on the opposite chair from RO, and M4 remains standing. She doesn't look happy.

"So…" M4 eventually says, slowly. "UMP 45 told me you encountered M16-nee."

"...Yeah."

Sop's eyes widen. "Really? Is she coming back to us?"

"Sorry, Sop." I glance at the girl as she visibly deflates. "I wasn't really in a position to try to convince her to come back. I didn't even have the chance to think about it."

"Hmm." M4's face remains hard. "So, tell me what happened."

"She grabbed me when I got pissed at UMP 45 and got out of my buggy."

RO and M4 nod, showing they know what I'm talking about.

"She told me she wanted information out of me. Mostly about how you four are getting along." I lick my lips nervously. "So, I ended up having to tell her what I knew about you four. Which isn't much, I just met you all eight days ago."

"I see." M4 says in a monotone.

"A-and I made sure not to tell her anything strategic, like, what weapons you're using. Though she did insist on knowing if you were liking her present." I turn to M4, who scowls.

"Alright. You didn't know anything of any value, so that's not too concerning." RO summarizes. "What can you tell us about her?"

"...Let's see… She's in command of other Sangvis units-"

"Already knew that."

"-she's working for someone called Elisa-"

"Same."

"-and they're after whatever the KCCO is after. Whatever it is, it's gotta be important, they have a bunch of people in this area."

"...Alright, we already knew they wanted the Pike Node." RO sighs.

"Oh!" I scramble to bring them actually useful information. "Remember the signals you found in Sector 3? It turns out M16 was watching you guys. She said she likes to keep a close eye on you."

An uncomfortable silence falls over the room.

"She's spying on us." 15 grumbles. "Great."

"I'm not exactly surprised." RO shakes her head. "Though, not sure how much we can actually learn from that aside from watching our backs."

"Which we already do." M4 covers her face with her hand.

"I'm sorry." I shrink back into myself. "I don't know if anything I learned would be useful to you at all."

"It's not your fault." 15 lays her hand on my shoulder. "You're not really in the know. Just write down what you know in the report and we'll look through it later."

"Um." Sop raises her hand tentatively after being quiet for a while. "Are we done being scary now?"

I bink. "Eh?"

RO sighs. "You can talk to him, sure."

"Yay!" Sop turns back to me. "So, did you like her?"

"Uh… for certain values of like, sure. Sociable, but she was keeping me prisoner." I scratch my face. "She did try to kill me a few times And, I did return with 404 rather than stay with her."

"Ah." Sop's face falls again. "I wanted you two to be friends."

"Sorry."

"...When we get her back." M4 says suddenly. "I'm sure you'll get along."

"If." RO corrects.

"When."

"In any case, I'm glad you're back safe." 15 says, still holding her hand on my shoulder. "I was worried."

"We all were." RO picks up the conversation. "I can't believe 404 would ditch you like that."

"I- er- had a disagreement with 45. Decided I didn't want to deal with her and got out of the buggy. So it's not really their fault entirely."

"...Haddy," Sop says, an apologetic look forming on her face. "Even I know when to stop arguing with people for the sake of the mission."

"No you don't." 15 retorts.

"No, she doesn't." RO turns to me. "But I thought better of you, Hadwin."

"Believe me, I did too." I look down at my sheets to avoid their gazes. "So… sorry."

"At least it wasn't a total waste." 15 points to my previously shattered leg. "Now you don't have to limp around in a cast for a few days."

"But, broken bones take months to heal." I give her a confused look.

"We have slightly less extreme healing methods we got from the Russian Government when we were a legitimate PMC." 15 looks back at the doorway leading out. "So, it would have been a few days. It's the only reason you're going to be okay for a new mission… when is it?"

RO cuts in before I can answer. "G&K is still a legitimate PMC. We're just… kinda on the run from a rogue faction, but also from the legitimate forces due to weapons we needed to defend ourselves with. And because Commanders Gentiane, Kylie, Ricardo, and Mikhail gave their watchdogs the slip." She takes a breath. "15, you know you can't ask about other people's operations."

15's cheek puffs out in frustration. "I'm just trying to look out for him."

"I know you are, but try not to cause any other problems for him. Imagine if Commander Gentiane knew he was sharing information about missions to just anyone."

I wanted to argue against RO that I wouldn't tell just anyone, but… I've never really gotten mission details before, there's always been something happening that I had to go out and handle. Maybe I would've just barfed the mission details up. I know I was about to tell 15. "Er, Thank you RO. I hadn't really thought about it."

"Man, how green are you?" Sop flops sideways in her chair. "I knew that stuff on day one!"

"...I've been doing this for only eight days and I wasn't programmed with knowledge on how to do military stuff?"

"Oh, yeah." She remains in her frankly uncomfortable looking position.

"While we're talking about military protocol," M4 straightens up. "Just remember that if you're planning on doing something unexpected, like leaving your buggy on a long drive or leaving the base for patrol, you need to go through someone higher than you first. No going lone wolf."

For some reason, 15 huffs and rolls her eyes.

RO nods. "Generally, it's a good idea to ask permission for things. The most common reason for a T-doll getting penalized is because they decided to do something like tidy up a crime scene or decide to play a prank on someone."

"That's usually P7." 15 contributes. "I think she has half of last month's citations to herself."

"OH! Don't chew on anyone of higher rank. You can get written up for that." Sop adds helpfully. At least, I'm sure she thought it was helpful.

"Sop, only two dolls ever got written up for that and you're one of them."

"Uh." The four sisters turn to me. "There's another doll that bites?"

15's eye twitches. "There's several. Only two of them got written up for excessive biting."

"...So, who was it?"

"G41."

I think back. "No, I don't think I've met her."

"She's around here somewhere." RO sighs. "Just don't do anything weird to her and you'll be fine. She's more animal than a lot of dolls."

"Got it."

M4 suddenly turns to RO. "Commander Gentaine wants us. Time to go."

"Aw, but I wanted to talk for longer!" Sop whines.

"Not now, Sop." RO stands up. "Hadwin, we'll be back soon. Stay safe out there."

"You too." I look at each of them in turn. "Please be careful."

"Of course." 15 stands up.

As they turn to go, Sop flopping off the chair onto the floor unceremoniously, I notice that each of them has my patch stuck to their ersatz uniforms. M4's got it on her metal pauldron thing, Sop's got hers on the front of her coat, 15's got it pinned to the collar of her jacket, and RO's got it tucked into her lanyard.

I wave goodbye and prepare to go back to my long, boring list of messages to respond to. Or, since I know that the patches were well received...

---

"Heya, Haddy!"

I look up to find P90 and S.A.T.8 walking into the room, followed by SV-98 and Tokarev. They flick on the overhead light, filling the room.

"Hey P90, S.A.T., SV, Tokarev." I smile at them, glancing at the clock in the corner. It's almost 2200.

"What are you doing?" SV-98 asks, seeing the pile of stuff strewn around me on the bed.

"Ah, just working on the design for…" I give P90 a look. "Operation 'Scrambush'."

"Oh!" S.A.T.s eyes light up and she moves her hip satchel into view. "I put the first one on my bag already."

"I see. Glad you like it."

"Hey, presents from humans are rare." P90 shrugs. "Much less ones that can't just be bought off a shelf."

"...Ah."

"I'm really happy for this gift, Commander." Tokarev says quietly. She holds the small cloth patch in her hands.

"Me too!" SV states cheerfully. "Glad I didn't miss my chance earlier."

"Maybe if you weren't so busy with your calculations." P90 looks at her teammate with amusement.

"Hey, if you didn't get it earlier, I would've given it to you… well, now, I guess." I shrug. "I still have a few I need to give out anyway."

"Oh?"

I drop the sewing materials in my hands and start counting on my fingers. "Let's see, AK-12 and AN-94, Ricardo and Angelia. I already gave Gentiane hers…" Technically I have one for 45 too, but I'm still deciding on that one. "But yeah, I gave out most of them."

"Man, you must have been busy as a prisoner." P90 looks down at the gas mask dangling at her hip and I realize one of the eyeholes has my patch behind the glass. "You made, what, twenty patches?"

I do some mental arithmetic. "Twenty three." I sigh. "I had nothing to do all of Monday aside from sew. We spent all the previous night blowing up a Pardeus installation, then blowing up a KCCO camp. We were back at the temporary base by 0900 and I was rescued almost a full day later.."

Tokarev sits down on the bed and lies down beside me, facing the ceiling. I pat her head as she starts speaking. "How did it go?"

"The fighting?"

She nods.

"For the most part, I was running around like a chicken with its head chopped off." I snort. "Something I didn't realize initially was that half of Sangvis is made of idiots."

"...Yeah. Idiots with heavy weaponry." P90 grumbles.

I nod to P90's point as I continue. "So, I followed two of them to a Paradeus base under the pretense of getting my broken legs fixed, but in reality one of them just wanted to cause some explosions by raiding an armory."

"Architect?" S.A.T.'s eyes narrow. "That sounds like our prisoner."

"...Yeah, Architect. She got it into her head that I caused explosions wherever I went after I told them about my adventures with G&K and wanted me along to attract a few more."

"Well…"

"Too be fair…"

I ignore SV-98's and S.A.T.'s comments in favor of plunging ahead. "So that happened, and I encountered Anisim there by chance. He pumped me full of the healing drug they use and something else to combat it, as some kind of experiment. He seemed… annoyed with the results?" My eye twitches. "He did say he expected me to die."

"Huh." SV's face is blank, staring off into the distance.

"In any case, Sangvis then tried to blow up the palace with me inside it and Anisim got away. Then… eh, the leaders showed up and chewed us out for going on a mission without consulting them. Then we went out and blew up a KCCO base so they could get some data."

"So, you were pretty busy then?" P90 grins.

"Yep."

SV sits up taller all of a sudden. "Um, Commander? Who is the twenty-third patch for?"

"Hmm?"

She starts counting. "Echelon 11 got four, Anti-Rain got four, I saw you gave three to 404 so I assume four for them, which is twelve. Echelon 2 is an additional 5, then DEFY which is two for a total of nineteen."

"Yep."

"So if you have one for Commander's Gentiane, Ricardo and Angelia, that's only twenty-two."

"I made one for myself as well." I scratch my still unshaven face. "It's the first one, since I needed a pattern to work off of."

"I wanna see!" P90's eyes sparkle.

I shrug and pull out the patch, handing it to the excitable doll. S.A.T. and SV step in to look at it, but Tokarev is content to lay beside me, apparently. It's got some weird stitches and one of the black outlines is in the wrong spot, but overall, it looks about the same as the others.

"Are you serious?" P90 laughs after a second. "A broken bone?"

Ah. I had outlined a cartoon bone on mine when describing to M16 how to do that, hadn't I?

"Are you saying your achievement during that was a broken bone?" S.A.T. asks. "All of ours are things we did during the mission."

"Eh. I didn't really do much aside from hobbling around like a crazy person." I shrug.

"Huh." S.A.T. looks like she wants to say more, but holds her tongue.

I get the feeling from the stares that they don't agree with my assessment, but none of them say anything about it.

"In any case, let me see the new design." P90 hands me my patch back. "I wanna see if it lives up to expectations."

"I have more time to design this one, so it's a bit more elaborate." I pull up what I've been working on. "This one has shading!"

"Cool." SV gently brushes the patch with her fingertips. "The building collapsing, right?"

"Yeah." I nod. "Have to add some more features. Originally I was going to have the blockade, but piles of scrap aren't as easy to sew, and this is probably more interesting anyway."

"Hmm." S.A.T. seems lost in thought for a second. "Are you going to have the Doppelsöldner being crushed under it?"

"...If I can get a good reference image maybe." I say. "I remember what it looked like for the most part, but I wouldn't want to trace it out."

"I can show you my view." SV says. "I had a good overhead view of it."

"Really?"

"Yeah, once you get your Linker, I can share what I saw." She points to her eyes. "Don't forget, these are cameras."

"Not that we store everything." S.A.T. turns to SV-98. "This girl just happens to enjoy reviewing combat obsessively. I tend to have more recordings of working with people."

"I record the pranks I play on people!" P90 grins.

...Er, maybe I should ask around about that. I mean, she can't be as bad as P7's legendary status, surely?

"It's kinda like memories." SV continues. "I asked Ricardo once and he told me that humans only remember important things and the rest becomes a general mush of experiences. We do that to save on storage capacity, but humans just do it naturally."

"That seems right." I shrug again. "Okay, I might add a Doppelsöldner once I see SV's recording. Depends on if I get a good angle."

"Awesome." P90 stands up and stretches. "I have patrol duty tonight, so I'll see you later. Get some good sleep."

"We really should be going too." S.A.T. says. "SV, maybe we can see about getting a linker for the Commander?"

"Good idea! We can have it ready by tomorrow morning." SV turns back to me. "See you tomorrow!"

They flick off the main light as they leave, meaning the only illumination left is from the desk lamp beside me. I had forgotten to turn it off once Echelon 11 walked in.

I wave to the three dolls as they depart and then glance down at the blue ribboned doll beside me. "Just gonna sleep here, are you?"

"No." She says. "I will be leaving once visiting hours end in ten minutes."

I glance at the clock to see it's 2205. "Alright."

I continue sewing for the next ten minutes, quietly working while Tokarev hums some tune quietly beside me. Once her time is up, she gets to her feet without a word, curtseys once she's at the door and leaves, blue eyes glowing in the dark.

Odd how those eyes went from disturbing to comforting.

And I really should go to sleep myself.

I tuck all of my work away and settle down for the night. With any luck, I might actually get a full night's sleep.

---

"Hadwin, if you don't wake up, I'm going to see if this fits up your nose."

My bleary eyes opened up to find my surroundings still dark, though someone had turned my lamp back on. Annoyingly, they had aimed it so the light blinds me when I tried to look at the speaker.

After a few seconds of confusion, during which time I noticed that my clock reads 0037, I finally placed the voice. "Oh, UMP 45."

"Nice to see the doctors didn't remove your brain entirely." She pivots the light out of my face, revealing one glowing eye in the dark. "Miss me?"

"Like I miss my broken leg."

"Oh come on." She says in a wheedling tone. "Here, have a bite of this apple."

Sure enough, she has an apple in her hands and is peeling it with the blade she used on the barn door yesterday… er, Tuesday morning. I seriously lost almost two whole days. She stabs one chunk with the knife and thrusts it towards my mouth.

Wary of her finger over the button of the knife, I gently take the apple with my teeth before considering that this is UMP 45 we're talking about. It's probably poisoned.

"...You can eat it." UMP 45 sighs. "It's not poisoned, or sour, or coated in shellac, or anything else you're thinking about, so stop lying there with it hanging out of your mouth."

I guess I could spit it out… I bite down instead and start chewing. "Thanks."

"You're welcome."

Silence falls. As soon as I swallow the first piece, she immediately shoves the knife into my face once more, an apple slice speared on the tip. Since I don't particularly want to talk with a knife in my mouth, I decide to save my questions for later.

Once she had finished feeding me bits of apple, she finally wiped the knife on my sheets and tucked it into her bag. I can't say how much better that made me feel about my chances of surviving this conversation.

"So, what's with the knife?" I say from around the last bit of fruit.

"Oh, I pulled it off a Paradeus goon." She draws the knife once more and I realize that was a bad topic. "It's nice, has a plasma field that can be toggled on for a short time, and even when it's out of power or cutting things like fruit, you can use the metal blade instead."

She presses the button and glowing purple and red plasma engulfs the metal blade, adding about a centimeter to each side of the blade and illuminating the area with a creepy glow that shifts like fire.

"...Great, nice knife."

"Thanks." She doesn't put the knife away immediately, instead giving it a further appraisal before disabling the plasma field and setting it on the bed stand.

Silence falls again. I watch as the clock ticks from 0041 to 0042, then 0043.

"Uh, if it's all the same to you, I'd like to go to bed."

"You're already in bed." She says casually. "Right now, we have some things to talk about that preclude sleep."

"I need sleep."

"You just slept for over a full day straight. You'll survive." She leans forwards into the light and I realise she has the most disturbing look on her face. Like, the face someone would make if they were being forced to smile, but currently had needles being poked into their eardrums. "So, I wanted to ask-"

"No, before that, drop the creepy expression." I cut her off. "I'm gonna have nightmares about that."

She blinks at me, yellow light winking out twice, face relaxing into a neutral frown. "It wasn't that creepy."

"Go do it again in front of a mirror then."

Her frown deepens, then she shrugs and continues. "Okay, no smiling. I have a few questions for you." She repeats.

"Yeah, yeah." I grumble, sitting up so she's not towering over my prone form. "What?"

"Well, first of all… I wanted to know what my sister said to you."

"Hmm?"

Her eyes narrow. "When 416 and I were checking out the barn, you two were talking. I want to know what it was about."

"Oh… nothing important." I shrug. "Sunrises, mostly."

"Sunrises."

"Yep."

"...Okay." She sighs. "Onto the next topic."

"Alright." The faster I get these over with, the sooner I can go back to sleep.

"What was with the stunt you pulled on the roof of the farmhouse?" She looks like she wants to snarl at me, but is keeping her features neutral.

"You mean falling off the roof?"

"No, dummkopf, I mean throwing me off the roof." Her eye narrows. "Why did you do that?"

"Because you were out of ammo." I point out. "The ELIDs would've killed you."

"I'm not a human. I. Can't. Die." She punctuates her points by poking my ribs with a metal finger. "And since getting you out alive was the entire goal-"

"I thought I was worth more dead?" I inject as much sarcasm as I can bring to bear into my voice.

"I was trying to get you out of Sangvis' clutches before you got moved back to sector oh-nine." She hisses, her expression souring to something approaching UMP 45's normal state. "M16 could've made it impossible to negotiate for your release. I can only assume she has a future use for you." Her mechanical fingertips land on my chest over my heart, pointy metal nails poking downwards. "Now answer my question."

I don't think her fingers are as sharp as Sop's, but they're still not comfortable to have stabbed into my chest.

"Fine!" I grumble, and she removes some of the pressure behind her claw, but doesn't remove it entirely. "...Look, you and I both know I'm not that valuable of a team asset. I figured it was either me or you, and… you're more valuable."

"Really."

"Yeah. You're the one with experience in combat, you're the one who's been doing this for a long time, and you're the one with a team depending on you. I'm some idiot that Commander Gentiane hired. She told me Field agents die easily, so that's what's expected of me. You'd get the critical information out and everyone would go on with their lives."

"..." UMP 45 leans back and I can't see her face anymore. Just the glow of her eye.

"So yeah, I decided to save you." I look away after finishing lamely.

"Alright, I have sub questions. One, do you really think anyone would have come after you if you were that disposable, and two, what about if it was 9 on that roof? G11, 416, someone from anti-rain or Echelon 11? Or, how about P7?"

"...I guess I shouldn't have expected anyone to come after me." I frown. "I figured you wouldn't be able to find the Sangvis hideout and they'd take me away before that."

"You were right. We only found you because there was an explosion that lit up the early morning sky like the sun, and when we went to investigate, we found a KCCO patrol to follow."

"...Ah."

"So, answer the second question."

"Well…" I drum my fingers on my bed. "Yeah, none of them deserve to die for my sake."

"...Okay. So, in a mission to rescue person A, person A thinks his life is worth less than those around him, despite risking all of those assets to get him back." UMP 45's tone is completely flat.

"I guess."

"Even P7?"

"I mean, she's gotta be somewhat useful or she wouldn't be around."

UMP 45 covers her face with her hand. "Alright, fine, you're worth absolutely nothing and I should just send you back there to get crushed to death by ELIDs."

"I didn't say that." I frown.

"Then what are you doing here?!" She snaps at me, leaping out of her chair, grabbing me by my shirt and leaning in, her lips in a snarl. "If you don't have value, then why would G&K send squads after you? Why would we, with our exorbitant prices, be sent after you?!"

I wait for her to stop shouting at me. "Because I'm making your lives a little easier, I think."

UMP 45 freezes in place, eye perfectly still in the darkness.

"I mean, maybe not all the time, but I like to think I saved some of you from dying a few times." I scratch my cheek, the fuzz starting to really irritate me. "I figure whatever G&K pays me is less than it would cost to buy more T-dolls. I know that several of the dolls also seem to have taken an interest in me in… various ways, so maybe I'm more like a therapy dog."

"..."

"A-and, I've proven that I can get the dolls out of sticky situations occasionally, so I might be of more use in the future. Also, Commander Gentiane needs me for that job in two days-"

"Shut up..." She mutters.

"Eh?"

"Shut up!" She growls louder. "You're clearly more valuable than a doll, we don't get rescued, we don't get someone charging out into the night to find us when we throw a temper tantrum! Nobody reaches a hand out to us, we get shot and abandoned like trash!"

"..."

"I died several times over to get to where I am now and no human ever lent me a hand! Gentiane pretended to once, so we could become part of her crew! Humans consider other humans way too important to risk sending after something that can just be replaced on whim!"

"So..." I say quietly.

She's breathing heavily, and I can feel hot, dry air coming out. Must've gotten really worked up there.

"So nobody would throw you off the roof first?"

"...No." She glares at me. "Nobody would. Not anyone sane, at least."

"Call me crazy then." I yawn. "Look, I'm tired-"

"One last thing." She jumps on top of me, staring me right in my eyes.

"Fine." I'd cross my arms, but she's too close for me to do that without touching her on the way across.

"What do you want from me?"

The question is so far from left field that I'm not able to process it. "Come again?"

"What. Do. You. Want. From. Me?" Her face contorts. "Tell me what you want from me so I can pay it back. I hate owing people things and I REFUSE to owe you anything."

"...You mean for getting you off the roof?"

"Yes, I mean for getting me off the roof. Tell me what you want and then we'll call it even."

I give it a whole half a second before realizing what I want. "I want to go to sleep."

"Oh, for the love of-"

"Okay then, I want you to leave, so I can sleep."

She stares at me. "You'd trade your life for some sleep."

"At this point, yes."

"You could ask for a future favor, or to borrow my gun, or to promise to save you once or something. I half expected you to ask to have sex with me."

I suddenly realize the position we're in, staring at each other's faces, her sitting on my stomach in a skirt-

I turn my face away as I feel my cheeks grow hot. "N-no, I'm good. I just want some sleep."

"Are you sure? If you ask me to leave you alone so you can get some sleep, that's the end of that."

"Yeah, I'm good. Also, please get off."

"Oh, I will." Her usual, evil smile returns. "When I want to."

"Huh?" Warning bells go off in my head. "I thought I asked you to get off as my favor?"

"Eh, I'll let you save that favor for another day. Right now-" She leans in so close that I go cross eyed looking at her one glowing eye, the only light I can see with her head in the way. "-I think I want to have a little fun."

"Bleh." I stick out my tongue, then realize just how close I was to licking her nose-

She bites my tongue. Not hard enough to bite off anything, but hard enough that I can't withdraw it. Confusion, followed by embarrassment. "'eth go." I try to speak around my tongue.

"Nein." She speaks without problems for having my tongue in her teeth. "You stuck it out, so I grabbed it." She leans in even closer, and I swear our faces are almost touching. "Going to stick anything else out?"

"...Nho?"

"Shame." She releases my tongue and sits back. Now that she's back further, the light from the lamp hits her. She seems almost… disappointed?

Something has flipped, and she's suddenly fidgeting about a lot more, her body moving fluidly to make her look more human, her eye flicking around as if nervous. In the small amount of light creeping around from the desk lamp, her cheeks are colored slightly.

Terrifying. I can't help but shudder. This isn't actually UMP 45… did she get hacked? Why else would she be doing this? She's acting more like 9...

Regardless of my internal panic, she continues on. "Hey, Hadwin. Remember when you asked me, back at your house, about the relationship module?"

"...Yes, I was in the shower at the time."

"Well, I never did tell you, but I never disabled it for myself. I figured that becoming attached to something was a good indicator that I should dump that thing by the side of the road, so I kept the program." She leans back in, a manic smile on her face. "But it seems that I made a mistake, because now I'm just a little bit attached to you. I might need you to take responsibility."

"Responsibility for WHAT?!"

"Being way too nice to evil T-dolls." Her terrifying grin grows larger. "Though, you do have a few others after you, I might need to stake my claim."

"...Please don't." I don't know HOW she plans to do it, but I don't want to find out.

"I'm sorry." She shrugs, not looking sorry at all. "But as I said, it's all your fault. Maybe if you did more things I didn't like?"

"You mean like shooting you, or kicking you out of my house?"

"Sure. But you wouldn't have survived if you tried those. Maybe you could've just ignored me?"

"Don't say it like it's a question!" I plead. "What do I do to reverse it? I know you don't want this!"

Her face goes back to her normal frown. "Who said I didn't?"

"You said it yourself! It's a program you know how to get rid of, so how about you go and do other things and pretend I don't exist! Or, tell me how to behave to get you to dislike me again." I look away, at the base of the lamp. "You're weird when you're not yelling at me."

"I don't think I want to." She says coldly, ignoring my last sentence. "You've proven to be pretty nice for a human, and with how well you get along with the team you're probably someone we should keep close."

"Then… let 416 have me." I come up with a viable if awkward solution. "She likes me, I think, so I'll go out with her or whatever, and you can go back to being normal."

"...Hmm," She mutters. "But then 416 would win and I can't have that."

I grab her shoulders, and she freezes up, staring straight ahead. "UMP 45-"

"Please, just call me 45."

"NO! What happened to you? Did someone put you up to this? 9 play a prank on you? Did your core overheat?"

"...Oh." She leans back so I lose my grip on her arms. "So, there's no way I could like you unless I was being manipulated, huh?" For the first time, she's the one to break eye contact, staring at the blanket over my chest, the only thing separating me from her.

"Well, I guess it's not impossible. Just really, really weird, and you don't seem like… you." I breathe out heavily. "This feels like you're trying to be 9, or that someone got in your head and twisted your brain around!"

"I am one of the most advanced cyber warfare dolls." She bites out from between clenched teeth. "Nobody gets the better of me. I am me, and after you showed me that you might be the one person in this hellish world to actually give a crap about us, about me, maybe I decided to try opening myself up to you."

"Oh, give me a break." I snarl.

"You just told me you saved me because I was more important to you than yourself. I know of maybe three humans who'd willingly save a doll and all three of them are in this building. You're the only one who'd value a doll over yourself. Especially me."

"Then most people are stupid!" I yell. "But still, you're not the kind of person who'd fall in love with someone just like that, or whatever attachment you dolls feel towards humans! Sure, 416 and AR-15 might be the more romantic sort, but you're the one doll I'd expect to act rationally at all times."

"...So, I'm not allowed to be attracted to, or to like or love someone who saved me." Her tone is dangerously cold. "It's fine for my teammates, my sister, any random dolls on base, and random humans back at your city, but not me."

"No! Yes!" I give up and throw my hands in the air. "I don't know!" My throat is starting to get hoarse from the shouting, so I tone it down a notch. "Look, if this is some weird revenge for not apologizing to you back in Sector three, I apologise. I really do! I was working on a way to do it. I get it, you're better at the game of emotional manipulation."

"Better… at the game of emotional manipulation?" Her face turns into a snarl. "So, was everything earlier a JOKE?!" She rears a hand back and slams it into my gut, knocking the air out of my lungs. "Was this all a game? See how far you can twist things to make the evil doll from 404 look like an idiot? Confuse her into thinking you cared?!"

I try in vain to defend myself from someone much, much stronger than me swinging her arms at me, all while trying to get my breath back. "N-No! Not a g-ga-"

"I HATE YOU!" She screams, throwing more punches. "Stop messing with my head! Stop saving me if you're not going to continue saving me! Don't talk to me like you're my friend, or treat me like I'm worth something to you, then just throw me aside!"

I feel one of my ribs give way under her fist. "AAAHHHOUCH!" I tuck my arms in to try to protect my vitals. "Okay, I'm sorry, I'm sorry! Just stop hitting me!"

She freezes in place, one fist still raised, her eye wide and brighter than I've ever seen it before.

"I'll- I'll- I'll stop treating you like a person, or… whatever, okay? I'm sorry, I didn't mean to set off the attachment thing. I'll treat you like some random stranger, and you can save yourself." I keep my hands in place to block the still imminent blow. "I'm sorry I triggered it, so please stop beating me up."

"...You're an idiot." Her voice is perfectly flat, or maybe incredulous. "I told you, that's not what I want. I wanted you to be the one I could count on. I see now that was a mistake." She hops up in one smooth motion, glaring down at me. "Fine then, I'm leaving. There's your favor. Don't talk to me again."

She stalks out without another word and I'm left alone with my thoughts, the room dark aside from the light of the desk lamp and a glowing clock in the corner.

I try to take a breath, but my rib hurts like hell when I do, and I worry it's broken.

And how the hell will I explain that? 'Oh, UMP 45 showed up in the night, started acting like… I don't know, and it creeped me out and then she punched me and broke my ribs?

"Field Agent?"

My eyes snap to the doorway, my right hand clutching at the pistol on my tac rig which OF COURSE isn't there-

The night nurse peeks in at me. "Why are you still up?" She frowns. "And, do you know which doll that was just now?"

"I'm sorr-erk." I choke up as the pain in my rib grows worse. "I… I think you may need to call the doctor."

---

I didn't sleep much that night.

Fortunately, after a quick X-ray, the doctor determined that it was a hairline fracture that I could safely ignore. He gave me a dose of something to 'heal you up and dull the pain' and told me to go to bed.

Two T-dolls were posted on either side of the door, not ones I know, to keep out whoever had attacked me.

I didn't tell them it was UMP 45. I almost did, but in the end I told the doctors and a very grumpy Gentiane I wasn't able to see who attacked me. They had me theorize why I was attacked and I just sat there and shrugged painfully.

When the lights finally went out, I was able to stare at the ceiling and think about what had just happened, the dull throbbing in my chest from the cracked rib refusing to let me rest fully.

Something I realized very quickly was that I had hurt UMP 45. Not as I would have expected, by accidently hindering her operations, but by assisting her.

...I didn't really want to do that. Sure, she did try to get me killed, kinda, so maybe I should want some revenge, but she was absolutely livid. Not because I had shot at her, or killed one of her subordinates or interrupted her mission, but because… I didn't live up to her expectations.

But her expectations… did she expect me to just suddenly return her feelings the second she says them? Did she think that's why I saved her?

No.

No, she expected me to be there, she said that straight up. Be someone she could count on.

It sounds like she doesn't have many people like that in her life, from conversations with her and the rest of 404.

And… I failed. When she decided to place trust in me, however weird it was presented, I freaked out. What's worse, I implied I wasn't taking it seriously, which is why the punching started.

How could I have handled that better, aside from not panicking? This thought runs through my brain until the first light breaks through the window blinds.

I barely pay any attention as a few doctors and nurses come in and out, checking this or that. I only pay enough attention to hear them commanding me to sit up or lie back down. I think I saw Commander Gentiane's face at one point, but I couldn't recall talking to her or even acknowledging her, so it's a moot point.

It's only once the crowd of medical professionals leave that I see a flash of black and yellow in the doorway leading in. I snap out of my stupor and, in a panic, pull the blanket over my head.

"Um… Haddy?" UMP 9's voice comes from the other side of the blanket. "Are you okay?"

I peek out over the top of the blanket to see three out of four members of team 404. 9, 416, and G11.

"Y-yeah." I swallow nervously, glad the doctors and nurses had left already. "Sorry, I thought you were… well, someone else."

9's eye twitches. "Yyyyeah, 45-nee."

G11 climbs onto the bed and passes out face down next to my legs.

"45's been acting weirdly." 416 rolls her eyes. "9 said you might have something to do with it. Somehow."

I hesitate. I lied about UMP 45 being here earlier…

"45-nee told me she was going to visit you last night." 9 continues. "She wouldn't tell me why and when she got back she wouldn't talk to any of us."

"Oh."

"She was particularly evasive about it." 416's eyes narrow. "So, what was it about?"

"I…" I start fiddling with my hands. "I don't think I can say."

"Tell me." 416 demands.

"It's… it's not for me to divulge." I shrink down on myself. "It's personal to her."

"Really." 9's expression is dark, the first time since day two at G&K when she was trying to keep me from getting too close to 404.

"Yeah, it's important." I give her a look and mouth 'Reina'.

9's frown deepens, but she backs off.

416 however- "We're supposed to start our training for the mission soon. We only have two days and you're woefully unprepared for a stealth mission!" She snaps at me. "You need to fix whatever you did to her."

"I didn't do any… thing…" I trail off, remembering the last six or seven hours of mental circles.

"Doesn't sound like nothing." 9 comments.

G11's head lifts up to glance at me. "If you don't, does that mean we don't have to go on the mission?"

"No, I think we have to try it, UMP 45 or not." I grimace. "So it would be a good idea to get her back to normal."

"And how do we do that?" 9 asks, hands on her hips.

"I don't know." I look down at the sheets. "I don't know what even happened, it was so sudden-"

"Did she attack you?" 416's eyes grow wide as she bares her teeth. "I'll kill her."

"No! Not really!" I try to calm her down in a panic. "She only cracked a rib and that was because I accidentally pissed her off."

"She cracked a rib?" 9 looks at me incredulously. "Why hasn't she been detained then?"

"I told the doctors that I didn't recognize who it was." I say. "I didn't want to cause her any more problems than I already have."

"Four days ago, you limped off a buggy in the middle of nowhere because you couldn't stand her anymore." 416 stares at me, her brow knit in confusion. "Why the change of heart?"

"I… I can't say." I look at the two still standing with a pleading expression. "It's not my place-"

"She punched you hard enough to break your rib." 9 says flatly. "What could you say that made her hit you that hard?" She blinks. "You didn't call her flat, did you?"

"Huh?" I turn to the twin. "Flat?"

"Nevermind. It would've been a broken nose anyway. Just answer the first question."

I think for a second, editing the story mentally. "I, um, w-well I implied I saved her on the roof of the farmhouse as a joke. Or, that's how it got interpreted. I thought she was treating it like a game, and when I said it, I guess she thought I was treating it like a game, or something."

"'It'? What's 'it'?" 416 throws her arms open. "You're dodging around the point!"

"Hmm?" 9's eyes narrow. "Hey Haddy, why was she upset at you not being serious about saving her?"

"Uh…"

"Because the only reason I can think of is she thought you were serious about it."

"Well, yeah." I allow. "That's obvious."

"Why would 45-nee care if you were serious about saving… oh." 9's expression grows complicated.

"9, what are you talking about?" 416 asks. "Don't stop there."

"Ah, d-don't worry about it!" 9's face turns back to it's usual cheery grin, but it's slightly strained. "It would explain why she was practicing smiling in a mirror…"

"Seriously?" I mutter to myself, but 9's head bobs in confirmation.

"She was pretty bad at it too."

"I know."

"Hey! Don't have a conversation without me!" 416 demands. "What happened?"

G11 sits up and glares at 416. "The old hag decided she likes the Commander." She grumbles.

416 freezes up. "N-no, that's crazy."

"Do you have a better explanation?" G11 challenges her keeper.

"No, but that's completely crazy! She and the Commander HATE each other!"

"Not really." 9 says thoughtfully. "45-nee has always taken decent care of Haddy and he did save her recently."

"That's just too sudden!"

"You fell for him after one day." G11 groans, before burying her face in the sheets, pulling the slack out to cover her head. "And you're really loud."

"But…!"

9 turns to me. "So, you turned her down?"

"...No." I guess there's no use pretending they're off track at this point. "I told her to stop pretending to like me, to stop messing around, and she didn't like that."

"...Wow, you're a dick." 9's expression sours again. "I think you might've been able to make it worse if maybe you sneezed in her face, or told her you only like women with big tits or something."

"I-"

"Yeah, no." 9 interupts me. "You need to apologize."

"It's UMP 45!" I yell. "Don't tell me she wouldn't pretend to be attracted to someone for a mission! I figured she was playing it up for some reason!"

9 hesitates. "Well maybe, but why would she? Especially now?"

"I don't know!" I throw my hands in the air and my rib tweaks. "I wasn't thinking, she just woke me up in the middle of the night and started talking to me. At first, I thought she was going to kill me!"

9 and 416 stare at each other for a few seconds, their expressions shifting gradually as they communicate silently.

"What are you doing?"

My blood runs cold.

The three dolls from 404 look up and turn around as their leader enters the room.

For UMP 45's part, she looks completely normal, like nothing's happened. "We're supposed to be getting on with training today. Time's short."

"Right…" 9 trails off as she stares at her sister. "Er, but-"

"We only have two days, tomorrow night's the event. Let's go."

"Are you okay?" 416 asks, a strange begrudging worry in her voice.

"What are you talking about?" UMP 45 turns back to us and gives her signature grin. "I'm perfectly fine."

The rest of 404 looks at me and I shrug helplessly.

"We have a schedule to keep." UMP 45 announces. "G11, 9, 416, you're with me. We'll pick up the Commander later. He needs to do his human things first."

They leave, G11 picked up like luggage by 416, only 9 shooting me a look.

...UMP 45's never called me anything but Hadwin before, and somehow, I don't think it's out of 'respect' like some of the other dolls.

Speaking of human things… I carefully get up out of the bed. I need to pee.

"Ah, Field Agent."

I look up to see an unfamiliar face. He's dressed in a nice vest and has small reading glasses perched on his nose. In his hand is a normal black briefcase.

"Er…" I blink at him.

"You… are Field Agent Hadwin Galanis, yes?"

"That's me." I turn to him, one hand moving to the visitor chair to stabilize myself. "And you are…?"

"Ah, I'm Matvei Alexeev. I'm Griffin and Kryuger's resident psychiatrist."

...Ah. "Nice to meet you." I shake his hand.

"I'm here because Commander Gentiane wanted me to make sure you're still fit for duty."

"Yay, psych evaluations." I grumble.

"Don't worry, it's routine. I just want to know a few things about you."

"Sure… I guess." I scratch my face. "Can I go to the bathroom first?"

"By all means." He chuckles.

Once I've finished and returned, he's opened his briefcase and started pulling paperwork and pens out of the box, setting them on the end of the bed in lieu of a table.

I sit on the side of the bed facing him.

"Alright." He straightens up. "Now, I would just like to make a few things clear to you. Everything you say here is confidential, I have no recording devices on me, and I can most effectively do my job if you are as open as you can be. Does that make sense?"

"Yes."

He ticks a box on the form in front of him. "You are allowed to refuse to answer questions if you so choose, but keep in mind that withholding information is also an answer unto itself."

"...Okay."

"Do you agree to speak with me under these conditions?"

"Yeah."

"Excellent." He checks one last box. "Alright, FIeld Agent Galanis, would you like to tell me about anything?"

"...Not really?" I hesitate. "Like… what?"

"Anything." He shrugs. "How you feel about G&K, your recent missions, how the hospital food tastes, or about your home if you'd like."

I lick my lips. "Actually, I don't really think this is a good time. I just accidentally got into a fight with a doll and I don't think I'm gonna be able to think about anything else."

"That's fine." Matvei shrugs. "Why don't we talk about that?"

"Eh…" I wonder if that's a good idea, but having someone outside of 404 might help me get some perspective...

---

Two hours later, I have some hospital breakfast in my stomach, a shower, and a clean uniform on.

Unlike the ruined hotel we had been set up in before, this is a legitimate base. Signs indicating what everything is and a receptionist in most buildings to point me where I needed to go. I found my way to my room easily enough and there were a few spare uniforms. Not sure how this is supposed to be a temporary base, I'll have to ask someone later.

Also, there on my bed was a weird headset with a note taped to it saying 'We weren't allowed into the medical ward, so here you go! - SV'

I spent a few seconds staring at it before I realized it was a Linker. The device that would allow me to access the T-doll networks.

I grab it and sit down on my own bed, which is actually nicer than my one back in Sector three somehow, and stare at the weird goggles.

In addition to being about as big as ski goggles in the front, there's a large box on the back and a trailing cable that needs to be plugged into a power source. The box in the back has a worrying bundle of cables poking out of it and I start to wish I had an instruction manual.

After examining it, I set it on my desk next to a laptop that's apparently mine. I'll look at it later.

Then, I dump out my backpack onto the desk and start sorting. My sewing stuff is tucked into a corner, clean civilian clothes thrown onto the bed, and gun crap set on the floor. The rest I sort out individually.

I only have the two ration sets left, I have three empty USP magazines, though I dropped my USP into a crowd of ELIDs previously, and no ammo for the M16. My flashlight needs recharging, so I plug it in. I also plug in my phone, finally not needing to borrow a charger from a nurse.

The night vision goggles are fucked, the lenses shattered. I think I landed on them when I fell off the roof of the farmhouse. I even went through the effort of saving them from Architect…

The room has a small attached bathroom with a shower and I dump the water in the canteen down the sink. I'll probably need more water purification tablets too.

Still, most of these things are probably not needed for tomorrow's mission. I doubt I'll be allowed to bring a large bag into the event anyways.

Speaking of, there's a nice dress suit and pants laid out, with some matching accessories like a tie and cufflinks. I'll have to spend some time getting myself cleaned up, or the suit is going to wear me because it's so nice.

I eye my shaver as I pick up my toothbrush and other toiletries. I could just cut all of this fuzz off of my face-

A knock on my door. Of course.

"Come in." I call, dumping all of my toiletries on the sink counter in the bathroom. When I return to the main room, I find a familiar face. "Hi Springfield."

"Good morning, Commander. I was sent to the hospital to guide you around, but I see you made it here on your own."

"Yeah… it's not that confusing of a layout." I shrug.

"Would you like me to guide you around anywhere in particular?"

I give her a look. "Don't you have a cafe to run?"

She smiles softly. "It's currently being set up. As I'm sure you can imagine, there's more important items to work on at the moment, and Papushka doesn't appreciate my help."

I decide I don't particularly need the details. "Alright, can you take me to the armory? I need a new handgun."

"This way." She starts leading me down the hall and I fall into step behind her. "If I may ask, what happened to your previous weapon?"

"ELIDs were chasing me and I dropped it." I say flatly.

"That's not good. You need to keep a good grip on your firearms." She chides me. "Losing your gun could mean the difference between life and death."

"Trust me, I didn't want to drop it." I rub my forehead.

"I see. Keep a better grasp on it in the future, some guns can be hard to find." She nods sagely.

"Yeah…" We step outside and I glance around the bustling field.

Off to the right side, there's a runway and an air traffic control tower. There's not much activity over there, but I can see three helicopters sitting on the tarmac ready to go, people running around and from a nearby hangar.

Ahead of us are various buildings like the medical building, a building for holding meetings, the command center, and the mess hall. Those areas are fairly busy, as you would expect. I had passed most of these on my way to the barracks.

Springfield guides me to the left, pointing out things as we pass. The T-doll barracks, T-doll repair bay, vehicle repair bay, firing range, her currently under construction cafe, and finally the armory. I noticed that she took the long way around to give me more of a tour, but I figure it's useful information to have in any case.

"Well, Commander." She stops in front of the door. "I've just been notified I'm needed elsewhere. If you need more assistance, please flag down a doll."

"Thank you, Springfield." I nod to her and enter the armory.

"Oh, great timing commander-" An orange haired doll turns to me as I open the door. Large bags under blue eyes, red ribbon in her hair and tied loosely around her neck as if to emphasize her cleavage. She holds a datapad out to me for a fraction of a second before pulling it back. "You're not the commander."

"Had-, er, Field Agent Galanis." I introduce myself. "Sorry to interrupt."

"Ahaha, no issue." She waves my concern away. "There's just some discrepancies in the manifest, and I need to go over it with Commander Mikhail…" She sighs. "Everyone's so busy right now."

"Well then, I'll get out of your hair." I step aside to let her pass, but she suddenly squints at me.

"Hey, you said Field Agent, right? You're the new guy that keeps costing us tons of money." She claps a hand on my shoulder and her tired eyes look predatory all of a sudden. "Come with me for a second."

I try to protest, but she pulls me along after her.

"So, I need you to help me search for some things." She says as we enter the armory proper, racks of weapons all around us with shelves in the center forming aisles. "I noticed that we lost a bunch of ammo cases recently and I want you to help me sort them."

"...Okay?" Slightly confused, I follow her over to a shelf containing nothing but boxes and boxes of ammo. "What exactly do you need me to do?"

"Oh, just grab each box, note the type of ammo, weigh it on that-" she points to a scale. "-and mark it down on this." She hands me a datapad.

"Sure." I grab one of the metal containers off the shelf, almost dropping it with how heavy it is.

The doll also grabs a box off the shelf, almost thrown off balance herself.

We set our loads onto the scale separately and after a few cases, we fall into a rhythm. I estimate that it took us half an hour to get all the boxes weighed and written on the datapad.

"Phew!" The orange haired doll collapses to the floor once she's done. "This is hard work."

My arms are on fire from the exertion and I'm still getting my breath back as I agree with her. "No kidding." I stretch my arms upwards. "Alright, now I need to get myself a handgun."

"Oh?" She glances at me.

"Yeah, I dropped my old one when some ELIDs were chasing me."

"Yikes." She frowns. "Sounds like you've had an interesting time."

"Yeah." I turn to where I had seen the pistols earlier. "Now I need to get a replacement."

The doll dashes in front of me, suddenly energetic again. "What model was it? I'll see if we have a replacement and make sure we're signing it out."

"Alright." I blink. "It was, uh, a USP tactical."

"Which cartridge?"

"Eh?"

She gives me a look. "What size bullet?"

"Oh. 9mm."

She rummages around a bit before turning back to me. "We're out."

"...crap." I stare at the wall of pistols. "I need to pick something else then."

"Oh yeah, Commander Gentiane told me we're putting you on the Tytarenko job." She ponders for a second. "You should take this."

She hands me a gun and I hold it up in the light to get a good look at it.

"It's a Walther PPQ. It uses .45 auto, but it's small enough for you to conceal it inside a suit. I figure that'll be useful for the mission."

"...Sure? Sounds good to me." I shrug.

She also hands me a few empty magazines. "Each of these holds eight bullets. Go ahead and take 40 rounds from one of the .45 auto containers and make sure to tell me which one for my records."

"Got it." I pause and she raises an eyebrow. "Er, what's your name?"

She blinks. "I'm Kalina. Head of Logistics for Commander Gentiane."

"I see. Nice to meet you."

"Likewise." She starts tapping on her datapad.

I wander back over to the cans of ammo. "Hmm?"

Kalina pokes her head over. "What?"

"Was that ammo container open earlier?"

Kalina moves closer. "...No." She examines the side of the container. "5.45x39…"

I peek into the box and see that the rounds are larger rifle type rounds. "Who uses these?"

"Mostly Russian assault rifles." She frowns. "And this box was full earlier."

I lick my lips. "So you're telling me there's someone in here with us?"

Kalina shivers. "You don't have to make it seem like a horror movie."

"Sorry." I sigh.

I scan the shelves, looking for movement. The room is lit by some LEDs sparsely laid around the room. It's enough to walk around and read the labels, but they leave long shadows all around.

Shadows someone could be hiding in.

I brandish my new pistol, painfully aware I don't have any ammo in it, and I don't know how to use it in any case. Maybe whoever it is didn't hear us discussing it?

Two bright red dots appear out of nowhere and I twist to aim as the dots move upwards, the eyes blinking once-

"AK-12?" I ask cautiously.

"That's me." The reddish pink dots disappear and she steps forwards casually. "Hello Field Agent, Miss Kalina."

"Oh, it's just you." Kalina heaves a sigh of relief. "I'm pretty sure I asked you to request ammo the normal way."

"You did." AK-12 nods. "I also remember telling you that I need to ensure my skills stay sharp."

Kalina put her head in her hands. "You're going to give me a migraine."

For some reason, AK-12 has a small smile on her face, but she drops it as she turns to me. If her eyes were open, I'd expect she was examining me. As it is, it's just kinda weird.

Oh, yeah. I rummage around in my pockets for the items I pocketed before leaving after Springfield.

"Er, I made you this." I offer the patch to the tall white haired doll. "I made one for everyone who participated in…" I trail off as she continues to stare at me with her eyes closed. "W-well, if you don't want it…"

"Thank you, Field Agent." She takes the patch and holds it in the nearest light, before opening her eyes briefly, the glow still mildly unsettling in its intensity. She carefully tucks it away and turns her head to me. "Curious."

Kalina's eye twitches. "So… how much ammo did you take?"

AK-12 pulls some ammo out of her tactical rig and hands it to Kalina. "I was only able to take twenty rounds this time."

"...This time?" Kalina looks like she's on the verge of tears. "Come on…"

AK-12 turns back to me. "I hear you're looking for a team of dolls for your mission."

"...Yeah, I am." I cock my head. "I wasn't actually looking yet."

"If you need assistance forming a full team, talk with Angelia. She may be willing to loan us out to you temporarily."

"Okay." I blink. "Thanks?"

"Think nothing of it." She turns and starts walking towards the door.

"Hey!" Kalina shouts at the retreating doll. "Next time, ask me for ammo properly!"

"Goodbye, Field Agent." AK-12 ignores Kalina.

"HEY!"

The grey and purple T-doll walks out without another word.

Kalina sighs again. "Hey, Field Agent, can you go ask Angelia to tell her dolls to stop stealing ammo?"

"Sure." I scratch my head. "But I'm going to get myself some ammo first."

"Yeah, and you might want to be careful around AK-12." Kalina mutters. "She's… weird."

"I can see that." I shrug, moving over to the .45 auto.

As I load the bullets into the magazines, I turn to Kalina. "So… what kind of ammo do you use?"

"Hmm? Oh, I like using an AK-74U, which uses 7.62."

"I see." I continue loading rounds into the last magazine. "W-wait, then why aren't you AK-74U?"

"Huh?"

We stare at each other for a second.

"Hey…" her eye twitches. "You didn't think I was a T-doll, did you?"

"N-no!" I hold my hands up in defense, almost dropping the magazine and the rounds I was attempting to load. Well, that explains the eye bags, and the difficulty hauling the ammo cans around like me.

"Oh, so you just assumed anyone who's a woman and under 25 is a T-doll, did you?" She places a hand on her hip and leans forwards angrily.

"No! That would be stupid!" I defend myself. "I mean, Commander Gentaine's-"

"Uh huh." She jabs a finger into my chest. "I'm a human, thank you very much. Don't forget it."

"...Sorry."

"As long as you don't make the mistake again." She turns around and picks her datapad up. "Now if you'll excuse me, I have real work to do."

"Right." I hang my head. "Um, thank you for the help."

"No problem." Her shoulders lose their tension and she glances back at me with a small smile. "Welcome to G&K, Galanis."

---

When I left the armory, I find AK-12 standing near the door, watching it. She stepped up to me as I left the building. "Field Agent."

"AK-12." I nod to her.

"Would you like to talk to Angelia?" She asks, planting a hand on my shoulder. It stops me in my tracks.

"...I was going to head to the equipment storage first." I say.

"That can wait." AK-12 informs me, steering me towards the building with the meeting rooms. "First you should talk with Angelia."

"I… I guess?" I frown, but It's not like I can refuse. I can't even plant my heels as she pushes me forwards. I don't see why she's so eager-

"AK-12?" I turn my head to see AN-94, blue eyes scanning me intensely. Still not as intimidating as AK-12's, but…

"Ah, AN. I'm taking the Field Agent to see Angelia."

"I see." She continues to stare at me. "Well, let's go then."

We continue our 'forced' march for a moment until I remember that I have a patch for AN-94 as well. I fish it out of my pocket as we move, trusting AK-12 not to slam me into a pole. "Here." I hold out the patch without stopping.

AN-94 takes the patch curiously, turning it around and looking at the back before looking back at me. "Thank you?"

"It's a patch for participating in battle in Sector 3." I elaborate for her. "P90 dubbed it 'Operation Icy Hot', which is why that's on there, and you two used the smoke grenades so I tried to make smoke billowing from a grenade on both of your patches."

"AK-12 got one too?" AN-94 asks.

"Yeah." I nod.

"Then, I will take this." She nods to herself.

I glance back at AK-12, who is looking at her teammate with a complicated expression, or at least doing that eye's closed stare at her teammate.

"Um." I raise my voice only to have both of them immediately snap their attention to my face. "You don't have to answer, but why are your eyes like that, AK-12?"

"Like what?"

"Er…" I scratch my face. "So bright?"

"I have highly advanced visual processing." She states. "My eyes are a product of that."

"Oh, I see."

"AK-12 can also see with her eyes shut." AN-94 says quietly.

I glance at the taller T-doll who's looking right at me with her eyes closed. "Huh."

"Field Agent?" I look back forward to see Angelia stepping out of the meeting building.

"Angelia." AK-12 gestures to me with the arm not forcing me to stand in place. "He would like to talk to you about something."

"Really? She turns from AK-12 back to me. "What did you want to talk about?"

"Kalina wanted you to make sure AK-12 would stop stealing ammo from the armory." I state.

I could swear I saw the red-pink glow staring at me for a second, but by the time I turned around slightly, AK-12 only has a small frown on her face.

Angelia sighs. "AK-12, requisition your ammo like every other T-doll."

"Of course, Commander." She shakes my shoulder. "That's not what you wanted to talk about though."

"What are you talking about?" I ask the taller doll.

"Your mission." She elaborates.

"Oh." I turn to Angelia. "Uh… I have a mission tomorrow night and… AK-12 told me that she might be able to help if you're okay with it?" I say it as a question since I'm trying to interpret AK-12's words.

"Right, the G&K Commanders were just talking with me about it." She looks at her team. "You're volunteering?"

AK-12 shrugs. "It could be interesting."

"If AK-12 goes, I'll go." AN-94 nods.

Angelia looks back at me. "Are you fine with having these two on your team?"

"...I guess." I scratch my stubble. "I'm not really familiar with their skill set though…"

"Well!" AK-12 steps in front of me and claps a hand on both of my shoulders. I feel like I'm sinking into the ground under the pressure. "Let's just see how well we do."

"We won't let you down." AN-94 stands up straight, her assault rifle held at the ready.

Why do I feel like I've just made a massive mistake?