The flight back to Moscow would take quite some time, but it beats having to drive a Bureau car all the way back from Eastern Europe. People have been murdered for much less, especially if they work for agencies that like to get their fingers into everyone's pies. Everyone was making more enemies by the day, and you never knew when someone might try to put a gun in your back. Yellow zone work often came in various shades of death sentence, making Peter happy that at least in a green zone city the crime was relatively white collar compared to bandits and raiders. Of course, he was going to have to get used to the city noise again.

Wheeling a suitcase behind him, Peter had cleared his baggage check and was off to grab a rental vehicle to finally drive home and see his family. Pushing through the people in the main atrium of the terminal building, he was surprised to see a sign being held above the crowd with a familiar name. "Fuck." Peter swore as he recognized his actual name on display for the world to see.

Racing towards the sign, Peter grumbled to himself as he wondered who in the world had the gall to do such a thing. A doll in a maid uniform was waiting for him, looking unamused to be pushed and knocked around by a crowd that didn't care for her. As he approached the doll, he reached up and pulled the sign out of her hands and stuffed it under his arm. "I don't know who you are," he tried to remain calm, "but we don't use that name while I'm working."

The doll stared at him with a cold and deadpan expression. "I needed to grab your attention." She stated.

"Well you have it," he groaned, "who are you?"

The doll grabbed Peter's travel bags, performing a maid's duties. "My name is Calico," she explained, "I was hired to assist you and your family."

Peter shook his head, not expecting to see a maid here for him. Had his wife heard him talking about the Brigade girls and figured a doll would help with the kids? Dolls could be incredibly expensive, he would have appreciated some sort of prior conversation for a purchase like this. Still, it was nice to have someone carry his suitcase for him. "As long as you're not a troublemaker." He tried to joke with her in order to break the ice.

Calico simply stared at him with her deadpan expression. Had they met before, or was she simply a popular model? "We can speak more about my technical details in the car." She pulled Peter's bags behind her as they made their way to the airport parking garage.

As a show of knowledge about her employer, she had chosen a location to park that allowed him to finally smoke a cigarette after having been in a cramped airplane for hours on end. Peter had to appreciate her enabling of his bad habit, but her demeanor seemed to suggest that his personal health was not her number one concern. Was she technically supposed to watch after the kids all day? If so, where was his wife all day? He had a million questions and more, but Calico kept her mouth shut until they were in the car. Driving for him, Peter thought it strange to be a passenger in his own personal vehicle while a stranger drove for him.

Calico was not a stranger for long, reaching into her maid uniform breast to pull out an identification card as soon as they were alone in the car. There were only a few slight differences between herself and the doll in the photograph. Of course, dolls change things about themselves all the time. Her hair color changing from green to black wasn't that off putting and even made her fit in better. "Calico M950A," she properly introduced herself, "I'm undercover as your maid to watch your family and aid your investigation."

Peter nodded his head slowly, trying to understand what was going on. "So you're a doll working for a different Griffin commander than the one I know?"

Calico kept her eyes glued to the road as she drove, following traffic laws to the exact limit. "I was told to not reveal the identity of who hired me," she did not break her monotonous speech, "nor can I specify who I specifically work for."

Peter raised an eyebrow at the doll, amused that she was keeping secrets from him. "You know I can find out what I need to."

Her eyes shifted his way for a moment, slightly amused at his comment. "Then you can use those skills to investigate Angel's murder."

Well, that certainly narrowed down who must have hired this doll. If she had worked for Kar98k or anyone they knew personally, that would have made any sort of investigation appear too obvious. Still, her tone seemed to suggest that she was still personally invested in this operation. Peter's curiosity had been peaked, but he knew better than to ask too many questions to a tight lipped doll. Judging by how little conversation she made, he doubted that she cared for much conversation beyond business. There was one thing he needed to know however. "Have you been around my family?" He asked, mildly concerned about his children being around a doll programmed to kill.

"Your wife believes that you purchased me through the bureau to help her with the children," Calico explained, "she knows that I am able to defend the family if the need arises."

"Remind me not to tell her about what MP40 could do with a broken bottle." Peter mumbled as he slumped into the passenger seat.

The shadow of a smile started to form on Calico's lips, fading away as she tried to maintain her normal composure. Did she know the captain, or was she only amused at what she saw as a joke. While it was possible that dolls within Griffin knew each other, it would be strange that she would be amused at what had happened to MP40. The more time Peter spent with this doll, the more he began to believe there was something he was not being told.


Sitting in her rooftop vigil, Sister Seraph finally spotted Agent Peter and his new doll friend. The State Sec agent knew the right questions to ask, but thankfully knew better than to overstep his bounds within the Bureau. His family made him weak and manipulable, which made him predictable. This maid doll, however, was an unknown factor. The timing of her employment was too close to Peter's return home to be a simple coincidence, but her identity was still a mystery. Seraph watched the doll through the scope of her sniper rifle, trying to analyze how the doll moved. "Do we have anything on that doll?" She asked her companion, a fellow black robe Nyto named Revenant.

"Her name is Calico," her sister shrugged, leaning against a rooftop ventilation system with her large hammer, "but that's all I could gather from a distance."

Sister Seraph sighed, realizing that they had very little to work with. Lilith was preoccupied with her pet project, receiving the deadline for her to complete her gift. That Nyto was much more skilled with electronic warfare than she was, being reveled as more of a support and command Nyto than a combat type. Seraph could only find answers using the barrel of her gun, and an anti-tank rifle could only do so much investigation without pulling the trigger. "We'll have to wait and see how the agent's meeting with his chief goes."

Sister Revenant walked over to stand beside Seraph. "If you'd like, I could go over and introduce myself."

Seraph spun towards her sister with a burning fury. "We've had enough of your unplanned direct confrontations."

Shaking her head, Revenant took a step back and held up her hands. "Fine," she pretended to let out an exasperated sigh, "I guess I'll keep being useless."

"You can make yourself useful by trying to track down where Calico actually came from." Seraph suggested, holding her rifle slung over her shoulder as she stepped away from the edge of the roof. "I will try to track down dinner for us."


While most people would assume that a modern Soviet Union apartment complex would appear as anything but that, times have changed significantly from the original communist design. Both the Collapse and the Third World War allowed for many nations to rebuild themselves from the ground up, starting with the pristine green zones. Having won the war, the Soviet Union found itself with a level of prosperity that allowed it to modernize many of its larger cities. The Moscow of today was so starkly different from the city it used to be before the twenty-first century that one would almost believe it to be a new place. No longer the bare concrete nightmare of the old city, post war Moscow rivaled the golden age of New York City.

Thanks to State Sec, Peter was able to keep his family within the safety of the city in one of the many family sized apartments. He was quite thankful to keep his family far from the random threats that faced them in the yellow zones, even though he originally lived in one of the more common safe regions. Still, the recent collapse of the Belgrade green zone reminded him just how fragile safety was. Even more so, it allowed everyone in the Bureau to remember just what lengths a group Paradeus would go to get what they wanted. Nobody was safe, hence why nobody ever used their real names anymore. At this point, Peter was sure that the only person that referred to him by anything other than Peter or Agent, was his own family.

He was still unsure of how he felt about keeping this Calico doll around his family unsupervised. Luckily his two children were behaved enough to not push her into anything more than a stern voice, but it was clear that childrearing was not her usual occupation. She was much better at cooking and cleaning, but in private she revealed how easy it was to imitate meal tutorials or sweep dirt. Still, Calico's exact skills were clearly focused more on electronic warfare and combat; the ease of which she moved furniture to clean, or operated any electronic device with a wireless connection told Peter as much. What had worried him was the ease of which she operated electronic systems remotely. Most dolls needed at least some down time to focus their processing power into hacking a system, especially the civilian model dolls that Griffin often employed. Calico, however, was seemingly unaffected by her ability to manage multiple remote devices at once. She was able to access a multitude of wireless connections across their apartment with no noticeable effects on her processing power, including systems that Peter was unaware of.

There was absolutely no way that Peter would be able to allow his wife to continue believing that this walking supercomputer was going to be a permanent fixture in their home. If he was going to let Calico poke around their home, he wasn't going to be the only one keeping an eye on her. "I don't know who she's working for," Peter explained as he lay in bed with his wife, "but so far I think it's one of the Brigade dolls."

His wife, reasonably worried, tried to put on a brave face. "Calico has been nothing but helpful so far," she explained, "so I'm sure she'll be helpful for this investigation too."

Peter sighed, remembering the real reason he was back in Moscow. He scratched the back of his head, thinking about what he would have to start tomorrow. "I know I can't take her with me," he sighed deeply, sinking deeper into the bed, "but I can at least try and see what I can bring to her to see what she can do."

His wife smiled warmly. "I'm sure you'll do the right thing for those girls."


Sitting in the kitchen of the large apartment in her maid uniform disguise, Scarecrow listened to the conversation between the State Sec agent and his wife. Calico's identity was easily borrowed, and would continue to serve her well as she did the job she was being paid to do. She had made sure to attach a bug to Peter's things for tomorrow, which should allow her to sneak inside of the Bureau headquarters undetected. People were too trusting of Griffin dolls, unwilling or unknowing to ask the proper questions that they should. The Doll Commander had taught her very well, even if she didn't intend to.

Sitting at the kitchen table with a wry smile on her face, Scarecrow heard one of the two children that the agent and his wife had spawned slowly stumble in the dark towards the kitchen. Still eavesdropping on the conversation, she realized she was going to have to continue her duties as a maid and deal with the child as well. The little boy was not used to seeing her sitting in the dark, almost jumping in surprise upon seeing her shadow move in the dark. "What keeps you awake at this hour," Scarecrow asked, folding her hands on the table as she remotely activated the lights in the kitchen.

"I saw a monster." The child rubbed the sleep in his eyes, probably recovering from a bad dream.

Scarecrow shook her head, knowing that the only monsters were the people his father worked for. "That just won't do," she stood to bring him back to bed, "perhaps I should investigate."

Taking the little human by the hand, she let him lead her back to his bedroom to investigate whatever beasts his wild imagination had conjured up. The cold night air was interestingly blowing in from the open window, despite Scarecrow knowing that it was closed when she first placed him in bed. She let the boy stand alone as she investigated, looking for any signs of foul play. A rooftop across the street allowed a perfect view of the boy's room, as well as windows from other rooms in the large state funded apartment. Scarecrow speculated that she would also use the other building to watch this family if she was trying to avoid detection.

Her curiosity piqued, Scarecrow did a quick scan for any surrounding electronic signals. Nothing that she wasn't already aware of was in her operable range, clearing the local city block of malicious systems. If she wanted to, she could take a moment and bounce her scan off of the computers in the city to cover most of downtown Moscow within an hour. Unfortunately, whatever might have spooked the child was either masking itself, or was disguised as a neutral signal. A more intrusive search was required, which might take her all night. With a sigh, Scarecrow realized she had her work cut out for her. If someone was watching them, it was entirely likely that they could be seen as a friendly face for the family.

"No monsters here," Scarecrow lied, well aware of how a human would perceive her own atrocities, "you must have frightened them off."

The child climbed back into bed and tucked himself in, pulling his blankets up to his chin as if the fabric would protect him from harm. It was an adorable action, but would prove ultimately fruitless should harm come to him. "What did this scary monster of yours look like?" Scarecrow asked, hoping the child's mind might have unknowingly picked up some clues.

"A skeleton." He clutched a toy bear as he remembered what was obviously a frightening experience for him.

"A skeleton is nothing to be afraid of," Scarecrow chuckled to herself, knowing just how easy it was to break human bones, "they're very important and keep you from being a puddle of meat."

In actuality, if Paradeus was involved in the incident that the State Sec agent was investigating, a Nyto fit the description of a skeleton almost perfectly to a child. Their thin and lithe bodies reminded Scarecrow of starving humans, living off of their electronic parts like the half dolls they were. They were probably scouting the apartment for weakness, maybe investigating whatever defenses were available to the family. If her disguise held up for long enough, she might be able to catch them by surprise when they try to make their move. She had also been analyzing this apartment, running multiple scenarios on how she would try to break into it. While the agent returned to State Sec tomorrow morning, Scarecrow would begin setting her trap.

As Scarecrow went to leave the boy, alone in his bed, he spoke up to her. "Do you know any stories?" He asked, innocent and scared.

Scarecrow stopped, struggling to find an excuse that would allow her to keep up the facade of a Griffin doll undercover as a maid. Unfortunately, she couldn't think of anything that wouldn't convince the family, and ultimately decided to humor the child. Rolling her eyes, she returned to sit down on the edge of the child's bed. She thought for a moment, considering what she should do to entertain the youth. While finding a story on the internet would be the easiest answer, Scarecrow decided that she would find some entertainment for herself as well. "Has your father told you anything about the dolls that he was working with for so long?" She finally asked.

The child meekly shook their head, still hoping for a story. Scarecrow smiled, knowing the perfect adventure to share with the youth. "This is the story of a king, who made a wicked deal with a witch to protect his people," she began, finding the proper vernaculars to interest the child, "and the adventurers who saved the people from the consequences of his actions."


The apartment that the Nytos were operating out of lay plunged in darkness, keeping up the illusion that the small family that called it home was still off on their week long vacation. Both Seraph and Revenant had exceptional vision in the dark, allowing them to enjoy their meal in peace. The apartment below them was vacant for the time being, with the rooftop above them. They were free to enjoy themselves without detection, a rare opportunity for the two of them to openly discuss whatever they pleased. For now, their conversation centered upon the contents of the current meal.

A pair of chopsticks shot towards an egg roll on a plate, only to be intercepted by another from the other side of the table. Two pairs of eyes glared at each other from across the table, two predators fighting over a prized meal. "I believe that I was the one that claimed the final roll, sister." Revenant said with a cold indignation.

Seraph simply smiled as she continued her advance on the fried egg roll. "The spoils should go to those whose reconnaissance was not blown by a child." She chuckled.

The two continued to glare at each other before laughing, splitting the egg roll in half to share. Revenant quickly finished her half before she spoke again, food still in her mouth. "Fortunately a child is too little to be a threat to our cover."

Seraph stopped slurping on her noodles to give an amused huff, putting her food back down and crossing her arms. "Children more observant than most adults," she responded, a hint of reminisce in her voice, "I remember how curious the young ones were before Father cut the spark out of them."

"I am still more concerned about this doll," Revenant reached for a small sauce for her food, "clearly she was undercover from Griffin."

"M950A Calico," Seraph returned to her noodles as she spoke, "Sister Lilith will pull the dolls service record for us so we know who we're dealing with."

The two Nytos continued their meals and their banter, blissfully unaware that they were no longer the hunters. The fact that their chosen base camp gave them a perfect line of sight to Agent Peter's family meant that it was only a matter of time before Scarecrow would deduce their hiding spot. While they could mask their own signals, the fact that the apartment they were using belonged to someone was what gave them away. The teenage boy that lived with his mother and step father had left his computer on while they were away, giving the nosy Scarecrow an opportunity to use its webcam to capture audio from the apartment. Listening intently, she was able to capture and record as much evidence as she needed.