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Futuristic Beeping Heart

“So there may be others like me out there?” Tae questioned rhetorically, knowing that Phoenix did not have an answer for him but it was worth mentioning it aloud. “But if there were others out there that are also human in design, and they had the ability to guard someone, wouldn't someone have seen it before?" Perhaps the other robots looked like Tae too, same hair and same face, if so then it could be fairly easy to find them assuming they had ever been on camera before. If each humanoid 'guard' looked different however, then there was likely no easy way to find others of Tae's kind.

It made more sense for there to be more human PETs though since it would have been a miracle for Tae to have been the first of his kind. He was perfect after all. His technological and physical capabilities outdid all other PETs out there by far, not to mention a lot of the materials he was made from were expensive and hard to work with, meaning that someone had to have had experience with them before being able to shape them into human legs and arms. It was impossible that there had not been some manner of trial and error in his creation. Phoenix saying that his maker must have been important made sense too.

“Assuming that there are others out there like me…” Tae started, running a hand through his hair, suddenly aware of how messy it looked after dancing for all of that time. Apparently thinking about his creation made him aware of his appearance too. “Would I be the latest model or an earlier one?” It did not matter but Tae was curious because if he were old, then maybe his old master purposely tried to get rid of him, but if he was new, that meant that surely his master was out there looking for him. If new, he was an investment.

At the mention that he may have skills outside of the dance floor Tae shook his head no, “Most pets are outfitted not to be able to harm humans, it is one of the core programming done to them and it is illegal to remove this programming from your PET.” It was what made bot fighting so dangerous because in order to take part in that ‘sport’ you had to take away that anti-violence regulation so deeply embedded into every PET programming chip. Sure most PETs could only nibble or poke at a person, but for those that had tiger PETs and the like, it was clearly too much of a risk not to have some sort of protection installed into them. But still, Tae was no average PET so perhaps he could harm a human? “It’s no matter, even if I did have the capability to harm another human, it is my duty to serve, so I would rather not-”

The arrival of another person in the alleyway cut Tae’s pacifist sentence short mainly because he had to quickly turn off the hologram. Tae may have lacked a lot of social skills but he understood that he was supposed to be a secret. Naturally, if the man had seen the hologram projecting out of his eyes, Tae’s cover would have been blown right then and there. Thankfully though, the man seemed too drunk to notice, or at least drunk enough not to say anything about it.

At the comment of ‘hey, it’s you!’ Tae looked at Phoenix as if he could have gotten context from her expression. Tae had no idea who this man was and honestly, did not want to find out. Drunk men should be at home or in controlled locations like the club, it was wrong that people had to deal with them outside of such locations too. Leaning over to Phoenix, Tae attempted to understand what was going on outside of the fact that this was an argument. “I don’t know who this man is to you but he seems rather agitated.” Then, whispering now, Tae continued, “Would you like me to call the police? Public intoxication is illegal in this country, is it not?” That was the most logical reaction to have when faced with a drunk man who was shouting before introducing himself. Shouting was not how civilized society interacted, Tae knew that much.

Tae could do little to interfere but he did take initiative to call the cops as the man approached, both the stranger and Phoenix seemingly getting more upset over time. Tae only got more confused though since there was a lot of conflicting information on how to properly handle an argument when the third party. What was he supposed to do in this situation? What did ‘blowing’ had to do with this? When a few banters later, the stranger suddenly charged at Phoenix and tackled her to the ground, Tae could only crease his brows.

By rule, Tae had decent reaction times since his hands eye coordination was literally inhuman due to the wide frame camera he used to see, but this time Tae barely flinched. Instead, he just looked down confused as the man raised his arm up as if to hit Phoenix. What was the protocol for the master being attacked?

Just as Tae questioned this thought, something unlocked, not unlike how when he was trying to hack into the computers before. It was a hidden program so far encoded under description and passwords that even Tae could not access it… but it still could be activated by being in the proper situation.

Within that second between the drunk man raising his hand to his master and the fist flying down, Tae moved on impulse. One moment Phoenix was about to be punched and the next, all of the weight on top of her was missing. Tae instinctual rushed forward, sending his leg forward in a large sweeping, metallic kick that made contact with the man's gut and sent him flying across the alleyway and into the brick wall. There was a loud crunch at the same time, likely bones breaking either due to the metal foot or the brick wall the man was hit with.

Tae did not speak and his face was blank as usual, but as he stood slightly above Phoenix, his leg still hovering up in the air from the kick, his atmosphere was different. He looked at the drunk man like someone would look at a complex math problem, completely focused and a touch annoyed at its very existence. From the way he stopped pretending to blink and breath, standing completely still with perfect balance even if on one foot, he was clearly not trying to look human anymore. The only thing that could have made him look less innocent and human was if his eyes were glowing blue again.

Tae stayed in this balanced position until the drunk man managed to get to his feet again, coughing and gagging, but upright. Tae sprung over Phoenixes body towards the man then, not even slowing his movement as he spun, letting his foot hit the side of the man's face in a fluid motion. Blood squirted out from the man's nose or lip when contact was made, things moving too quickly to determine which one was bleeding. The stranger would have fell to the ground once again if Tae did not catch him by the back of his shirt, which was just enough for Tae to get the man in the right position for Tae to repeatedly slam his knee into the man's gut over, and over, and over again. This was a one way fight, clearly, Tae’s increased strength and metal body making every one of his kicks feel like a truck hit him.

One thing worth noting was that the bulk of Tae’s attacks were centered not only around speed and flexibility, but his legs. Apparently, the reason his legs were so unnaturally long was not for the sake of appearances, but for an extended range and power. He was designed to fight with his legs, jumping and spinning included.

This would have been fascinating realization were it not for the fact that Tae was not stopping his assault. Tae kept kicking the man down only to pick him back up, bloody and broken in a few too many places to be healthy. And unlike dancing, Tae did not look happy while doing this. The human PET was more like a statue, the the blood from the drunk man splattered across his face only making his skin look even more white.

He only had two thoughts as he pummeled the man with far too much efficiency. One, this man had attacked his master. Two, he was still breathing. If the man was breathing, then nothing was wrong. If the man was breathing, he was therefore still alive, and if he was alive then that meant Tae had not done anything wrong. A PET should not to kill without command, only to incapacitate. And by the time Tae was done with this stranger, he would not be able to attack his mistress again.
 
As Tae was aware, Phoenix did not know any more than he did. But he certainly raised some good points. "Since no one's seen anyone like you, maybe you and the rest are new." It seemed to make sense, but really there was no way for her to say for sure. After all, she was just a simple civilian of no significance. She didn't even know much about the world of PETs and technology, aside from what she had to learn to work at various jobs. All she could do was speculate, and try to think of ways they could potentially confirm their suspicions - or contact people who might know more. Rhys, for example, might have more information that could help them. He worked at a couple of PET Vets part-time, so he saw quite a large number of customers and also had some contacts within the industry, in addition to knowing people outside of work.

Tae went on to explain that it was part of their core programming not to harm humans. Phoenix was aware of his, having had a few customers in the past pull her aside and ask her to tamper with anti-violence programming. Like Tae said, it was nothing she could legally do, let alone know how to do. Although it wasn't to say that nobody did. In fact, according to Rhys, apparently it was common knowledge among a lot of underground PET technicians, thanks to the growing number of bot fighting rings. She didn't know much about any of it beyond all of that, which she had only heard about after someone first asked her to remove the regulations. But all that aside, she had to wonder if Tae was somehow different. It sounded like the men were afraid of him, and the others like him. Why would they fear a robot that couldn't hurt them? In any case, the woman did not have time to think any more about the subject as they were joined by the disgruntled customer she had gotten kicked out.

Unsurprisingly, pure and naive Tae was a bit confused by the sudden confrontation. When he asked about calling the police in a whisper, Phoenix gave a minuscule shake of her head but said nothing aloud. She didn't think it was necessary to get the authorities involved, but she also didn't want to mention anything aloud either - at least not unless she had to in order to get him out of their hair. But by the time she decided this, it was a bit too late to use the cops as a threat. The man came at her clumsily but still fast enough to beat her own reflexes as she was caught off-guard by his sudden attack. The sky passed over her vision in a blur before her view was covered by the man's face, red and twisted with rage. Phoenix squirmed underneath him, her eyes narrowed into a sharp glare as she attempted to wrestle her arms out from beneath his knees. As her arms scraped fruitlessly against the rough cement of the alley floor, she began to kick her knees into his back. But none of her efforts changed a thing. While she struggled, she saw the man's fist rise above her face, preparing to strike down at her. She closed her eyes and turned her head to the side, her mind only able to think of one last thing: "Tae!"

Phoenix knew he couldn't hurt the man, but perhaps he could at least pull him off of her. Still, she braced herself for the impact of the man's fist. But nothing came. Instead, all of the weight was removed from her body almost as if by magic. She felt the movement of air above her, and heard a sickeningly loud crunch accompanied by the man's grunt shortly thereafter. Instantly, her eyes popped open. Looking forward again, she saw Tae standing a bit above her, with his leg frozen in the finished stance of a kick. She stared at him in disbelief, her eyes wide and face even paler than normal. Had he not just spoke of how he could not harm humans? Did he really just karate kick that man off of her? Her eyes were fixed on the android's form, which was suddenly as still as stone. "T-Tae?" Phoenix's voice was unexpectedly weak, especially against the way her heartbeat pounded in her ears. However, it seemed her word fell on deaf ears as the robot leapt over her and dashed away.

Tae's rapid shift from complete immobility to abrupt movement broke through the numbness of Phoenix's shocked mind. Quickly, she picked herself up off the ground in time to see Tae rushing towards the man who was just getting back on his feet himself. Strangely, she found herself doubting the fact that Tae seemingly kicked the man right across the alley. Then, as if to assure her that she had not been imagining things, the dark-haired android went up to the man and promptly met his face with his foot, sending a distinct squirt of blood through the air. Phoenix made a noise halfway between a gasp and a shriek, her hands jumping to her mouth as her eyes flew wide open. "No, don't--" But her voice was caught in her throat, strangled by horror as Tae grabbed the man by the shirt and began to knee him repeatedly in the stomach. Every time the stranger would crumble and begin to fall, he would be picked right back up and beat some more, like some kind of dirty rug.

She wasn't sure exactly how long she was frozen there, stunned by Tae's completely and unexpectedly violent reaction. She wasn't sure how long she actually watched the man get pummeled like a punching bag, or how long she listened to the dull, almost rhythmic thuds of metal against flesh. And she wasn't sure just how many times the man gurgled and cried and pleaded for Tae to stop. But it felt like an eternity before the haze of disbelief and terror finally dissipated enough for her to snap back to her senses.

There was no sign of Tae stopping his assault, which meant that the man's fragile human body would soon lose to the metallic frame of his aggressor. As soon as this thought arose in her head, Phoenix darted towards the two. "Stop! That's enough, Tae, no more! You're going to kill him!" Instinctively, she grabbed his shoulder and tried to pry him away from the man. Now that she was close, the smell of the blood and sound of Tae's attacks made her stomach churn. His expression was weak and defeated beneath swelling and bruising - a shadow of the fury she had seen just minutes ago, and a pitiful sight to say the least. Her heart beat madly in her ears, even outdoing the pounding bass coming from inside the club, and her body was hot with fear and panic that coursed through her veins like fire. She had to do something. She had to say something.

"Stop right now, Tae - that's an order!"
 
It hard to make out the man's whimpers over the crushing and beatings Tae was inflicting upon him, but he could hear them. The problem was born not from being deaf to his cires, but his protests were not being comprehended so he may as well have been silent the entire beating. Every syllable went into one ear and directly out the other. This certainly made it easier for Tae to continue his assault, however as he filtered out the man's screams he also was ignoring Phoenix just as easily. His master's voice was indeed a touch more clear to his mind, he was built to be more sensitive his master voice above all others even among a crowd, but when it came to attacking he found her words filtered out like any random bystander.

Although he was focused on defending and avenging his mistress, in the back of his mind Tae was concerned about his clothing. He was wearing gloves due to the skin on his hands being mostly removed due to injuries, so even though he was mostly kicking the man, any time he punched him his gloves started to get damp. I hope none of his blood soaks through my gloves and into the seams of my hand plates, he thought as one solid kick to the man's stomach caused him to cough up blood from some unseen wound, blood splattering onto Tae’s shoes and shirt. Naturally, this concerned Tae more than the man did since these were newly bought clothing and it was not like Phoenix had the money to spare for new clothing. He was going to have to spend a lot of time washing the stains out now. Thankfully, he was wearing dark colors so that would make it easier.

Then, without warning, Tae heard one of his key phrases that literally froze him in place. His leg hovered in the air, inches from making another blow to the drunk man's ribs who at that moment was laying on the ground trying to get into a fetal position. Although his actions were halted, it still seemed like Tae’s mind was not. His blue, glaring eyes bore into the crumbled mans body, and Tae had yet to start pretending to be humans again. He wanted to continue. The man had attacked his mistress so he deserved to die-

No. Correction. Not die, be harmed and harmed greatly. Killing was not allowed. Killing was a crime in this country and was far harder to get away with than acts like hacking. Killing could hurt the reputation of the master as well as make them lose their greatest tool and weapon, the weapon being Tae to be specific. This man, whimpering on the ground, did not deserve to die unless the master said he did. He deserved to suffer, to cry, to feel the bones breaking more every time his heart pusled. That was what the rival of the master deserved for daring to attack the one who held claim over his existence.

But the order kept him at bay, frozen, processing, buffering, attempting desperately to close out of the program that was refusing to return to the background of his hard drive. This took almost a full minute where Tae was absolutely still, glaring lasers at the man who was trying to crawl (unsuccessfully) away. If you opened his mouth it would not have been too unexpected to hear the harsh dial tone emit from the PET battling two programs who were directly opposing each other. The protect and attack one versus the order one.

Once that minute was over however, Tae finally lowered his foot to the ground in a slow manner and unattached his gaze from the man who hurt to move another inch. Like a switch, albeit a sticky one, now that it was turned off he no longer felt the need to fight. “Are you alright, mistress?” Tae asked, his tone monotone as normal, no show of regret or rage within it. As his eyes returned to Phoenix, who he now noticed standing directly next to him, he started to look for any injuries on her. As far as he was aware he had saved her in time before serious harm could befall her, yet that tackle may have caused her head injury. “Did he hurt you anywhere? Should I call for an ambulance?”

The fact that he was asking about his mistress rather than the bleeding man a few feet away was telling, but should have been expected. He had explained in the past that his mistress came before the entire world. She came before the drunk man and before Tae himself, it was his nature to do this. And apparently, it was apart of his nature to fight too. Barely glancing at the man, Tae motioned a long arm towards him, “Should I call for the cops to come fetch this man now? He attempted assault you which is a punishable offence.” He notably did not mention calling for an ambulance, only the cops. The man was beaten to a pulp and Tae was still thinking that he deserved punishment rather than healing.

“Also, it looks like you were right. Apparently I am a ‘force to be reckoned with off the dance floor’. I can’t access it now, it is password protected once again, but from what the records show it seems like there is a program within me that holds improv fighting data.” Considering that Tae could not even dance without a set choreography, the idea that there was an improv fighting program within him was odd. It must have been a large and extremely complex file if it could give a robot with amnesia and far too much logic the ability to react quickly to unforeseen circumstances like the ones that happen in a fight. “Perhaps it was indeed my purpose to guard before….” Tae offered, not sure how to feel about this new information, reaching a hand to his face to wipe at a drop of blood rolling down his face but only managing to smear it across his previously pale cheek.

As his hand became even more damp, Tae scrunched his face, his eyes looking to his hands to the wall and then to the man. “So sorry about the mess. Are you going to get in trouble for this? Although you are the victim in this self defense case, I imagine some would try to blame you for this. I’m happy to clean it for you while you return to work if that would fix the problem. Surely your break is almost over, yes?” Once again, his priorities were wrong. Mess over morals.
 
The moment after the words left her lips somehow felt like a century. If explicitly ordering Tae to stop didn't work, then Phoenix wasn't sure what she would - or even could - do. But thankfully, the century passed in the moment it truly was, and Tae immediately ceased all movement. She stared at him with wide eyes and bated breath as he stood with statuesque stillness, his leg just about to land another strike to the man's fragile body. On the ground, the man lay in a pitiful heap, but she did not dare to take her eyes off Tae for a second. With his superhuman reflexes, it was literally a case of blink and you'll miss it: something she couldn't afford to happen anymore.

So Phoenix held her attention steady on Tae, who was frozen in place for longer than she had expected. If the moment after she spoke felt like a hundred years had passed, then the time Tae merely stood still was an eternity. "Tae... are you all right?" Phoenix spoke slowly and carefully, as if the wrong word could set him off again. She took a small step closer to him, angling herself so she could better look at his face. His features were emotionless as always and his eyes were fixed on the man, just as her's were on him. But despite looking just the way they always did, the way Tae's glowing blue gaze was locked on his target sent a shiver up her spine. Although she knew there was no hatred or anger behind the android's stare, something about the way he leered at the man made it seem as though there might be.

And for the first time since she saw his face in the dumpster, she felt afraid.

Just as the unease started to bubble up within her gut, Tae brought his foot back to the ground in a slow, steady fashion. Phoenix took a small step back from him, retrieving her hand from where it had been on his shoulder. As he turned to her, she met his eyes with apprehension in her own. Some small part of her illogically expected him to turn on her now and beat her just as he had done to the man. But when he asked her if she was injured, it was evident that the Tae she had known up until now had returned.

In that moment of realization, the floodgates in her mind flew open. The fearful suspense he had left her in was washed away by a sudden, overwhelming sense of panic and incredulity. Phoenix placed a hand on her hip and the other on her brow. Shaking her head slowly, she groaned and turned away from the android, pacing around irregularly. "Jesus Christ, I'm fine, but that guy isn't." She spoke in a harsh but hushed tone, her voice strained against the desire to yell and knowing that was the last thing the situation needed right now. As Tae continued on speaking, she cursed feverishly under her breath in Cantonese. The calm, easy confidence Phoenix always had was swiftly crumbling against the tsunami of frantic disbelief that was washing through her thoughts.

"Fuck no, don't call anyone right now! I'm serious - nobody." Phoenix paused in her pacing to turn to Tae, the hand pressed on her forehead held out, palms towards him, before it returned to its spot again. The cops were the last thing they needed. Cops would ask questions, and questions would lead to troublesome answers whether they lied or told the truth. No, the only solution was to try and clean this up and tell that sorry asshole not to say a word to anyone, ever. If he could do that, they would call an ambulance for him - after all, anything she did would be for naught if they ended up with a dead man on their hands.

As she decided on this course of action, Tae remarked on how he was indeed a danger off the dance floor, too. Shaking her head, Phoenix let out a short, exasperated laugh. That's all he had to say about it, after all that? She supposed it was only to be expected with him being a robot and all, but the fact that he was so nonchalant while she was just about shitting her pants was so ridiculously absurd she couldn't help but laugh at it. However, despite this, she promptly snapped at him. "Keep that shit to yourself right now, okay? I need to think and that's the last thing I need to hear about." Letting out a frustrated huff of a sigh, she glanced over at the man. He had managed to crawl about a foot or so, but seemed to have given up on trying to get away. Perhaps the only upside was that he was still alive, as made evident by his incoherent mumbling and groaning where he lay.

While she assessed him from afar, Tae spoke up again. The woman squeezed her eyes shut, his voice like nails on a chalkboard as her panic began to give way to simple anger. Phoenix knew it wasn't Tae's fault - she couldn't expect a robot to feel the same way she did, after all - but holy hell were his skewed priorities annoying as all else. The woman opened her mouth, ready to order him to shut up unless spoken to, but he suddenly brought up a good point. Her eyes snapped open and she glanced at her watch. "Fuck, you're right." Groaning, she placed both her hands on her face and dragged them downwards over her neck, rubbing the sides of it as she sighed heavily once again.

She had to think fast. If she was late for her break, someone would undoubtedly come looking for her. And while she liked her coworkers immensely, she didn't trust any of them enough to keep their mouths shut about a scene like this. With that thought, Phoenix took in a long, slow breath, focusing herself as much as she could manage with the chaos raging in her mind. Her gaze darted between examining the alleyway, to Tae, to the man, the security camera, and back. She then walked over to the man and bent down in front of him. He was lying in the fetal position, his face and body turned towards the dirty ground. Gazing upon his sorry state, she took in a deep breath before speaking.

"Hey, listen. Listen to me, asshole." Despite all he had gone through, Phoenix showed no sympathy. "We'll call you some help but only on one condition." She paused, allowing him an opportunity to speak. When he merely continued whimpering she grabbed him by a relatively clean part of his shirt and pushed him forward, turning him enough to meet his gaze. "Do you hear me? Answer me, or I'll order him to hurt you again." This was a lie. Not that he needed to know.

Finally, the man managed to nod and sputter a reply through swollen lips. "Y-yesh, yesh, okay, okay. I hear you, pleash don't hurt me anymore!" He sniffled, tears welling up beneath the welts forming around his eyes.

"Here's the story." Phoenix continued to speak harshly, her words sharp and short. "You got held up, but you didn't have anything worth robbing so they beat you instead. They were wearing a balaclava, were about 5'7", and average build. That's all you know. You never met us here, you never met my friend before, and you've only seen me inside. Understand?" The man nodded frantically, but it wasn't enough. "Then repeat it."

With a trembling voice, he managed to sputter, "I-I got robbed, I got nothin', so I got beat up. Guy wash 5'7", average, b-balaclava. Never met you outside, never shaw h-him."

Phoenix stared at him in silence for a second before she reached into his pocket. "Shut the fuck up and relax," she muttered as he began to whimper and plead for his safety. She retrieved his wallet and opened it up, leafing through the pockets. He indeed had only about twenty dollars, and nothing else of value. After confirming that part of the story checked out, she extracted his driver's licence and read it out loud to Tae. "Robert Alan Davidson. 145 Birkland Avenue. Remember that." Carefully, she slid it back into the slip she had found it and replaced the wallet in his pocket. "If you tell anyone the truth and it comes back to us, we'll come for you. We'll find you, wherever you are, and my friend will finish what he started. Is that clear?"

The man began to nod so quickly she nearly feared for the integrity of his neck. "Y-Yesh, yesh it's clear. I won't tell anyone anything, I jusht-- I'm shorry, pleash don't hurt me anymore, pleash, pleash, pleash..." Robert's pleas dissolved into sobbing, cueing Phoenix to stand up and walk away from him. Somewhere beneath her storm of emotions, she felt the weight of guilt form in his chest. In all honesty it felt bad to threaten a man in such a sorry state, but she really had no other choice. She couldn't take any chances, especially not ones based on pity.

With that done, she stood in front of Tae and stared at him warily. Phoenix wasn't sure what to think or feel about him, but she didn't really have the time to figure it out. "All right, I'm going to go back inside, so here's what you need to do as quickly as possible. First, you need to hack the security camera." She glanced over her shoulder at it before looking to Tae again, choosing her words carefully. "You can leave the first few minutes of us coming out, but erase everything else, including me going inside. Unless your robot logic thinks something else is better, whatever. If you can somehow corrupt it so it doesn't film for an hour or two after this, that might be good too." Truthfully, she wasn't too sure how any of that would work or what was possible, let alone what was best. But that seemed good enough for the time being at least.

"After that, call an ambulance for Mr. Davidson and leave him to go clean yourself up. If anyone asks what the blood's from" -- Phoenix shrugged and shook her head -- "I don't fucking know, someone had a nosebleed on you? Or something? Just try to be discreet when you go in. When you're done all this, just wait in a corner somewhere inside until I'm done." She sighed again, rubbing the bridge of her nose with two fingers. "If you see anything else that might be incriminating out there, take care of it before you go in, too. We don't want any trace of us being involved with him. Got it?" She glanced at her watch before cursing loudly in her native tongue for the umpteenth time. Phoenix wasn't completely sure that she covered all the bases, but her current instructions would have to do for now. She hoped that Tae would be able to exercise some of that artificial intelligence and catch anything she missed.

"I have to go back now, so just do all of that. Don't mention it to anyone, not even the people you've met. Don't come asking me any questions right now, either. I'll come find you when I'm done in a few hours, and we can talk then." Phoenix gave Tae a single nod and left him on that word. She walked to the club's backdoor as calmly as possible before she opened it and disappeared back into the noisy darkness within.
 
“Very well. I won’t call anyone.” Tae confirmed, making sure she understood that her request was clear. Since Tae could understand other languages, he understood Phoenix's curses, which was the main tip off that she was upset. Why she was in that state however was unclear, was it directed at him, the man, or did she simply not like to see violence? Whatever the problem was he wanted to help relieve that chaos. Perhaps that's why, even after she encouraged him to stay silent, Tae continued to speak. He had good intentions, he wanted to help, and to his relief even if she did not like hearing his words she was registering them.

There was one other things registering as well… familiarity. Watching her talk to the man, threaten him being more accurate, Tae did not flinch. His own violence did not bother him, but seeing his otherwise kind mistress act this way should have…. And yet it did not. Why? Why didn't Tae falter at the sight of his master threatening another and instead felt an overwhelming wave of nostalgia. This was normal, not just accepted, normal. It was like when a humans childhood memories were buried under years of adult ones, there, but never in focus.

Shaking off these far too human emotions, Tae focused back on what mattered, his mistress. “Robert Alan Davidson. 145 Birkland Avenue. I’ll remember that.” That was all Tae could say before Phoenix had turned to him and started giving a long list of orders that could be summarized as ‘cover this up’. Once again, a wave of familiarity washed over Tae but he could do nothing but nod in affirmation. She was thorough in her description of what she wanted done at least which would make completing that, and more, easy. A robot always performed better with clear directions even if they were capable of independent thought. “It will be done, don’t concern yourself with anything from here on out.” He was confident, perhaps too much so, but considering how sure of himself he normally was this bravado was not too far from the norm.

Tae kept his eye on Phoenix up until the point that she rounded the corner, heading back to the club that was so close to them but could barely be heard due to the brick walls surrounding them at every side. It was not a comfort to Tae, only a reminder that people could come this way any moment and see the scene he had made in defense of his mistress. Speaking of… Tae flashed a gaze at his vict-criminal. He was back to being neutral in all aspects but Tae still knew that the man deserved his fate.

Without another look, Tae went to work, stepping over the man when necessary, aware of the man's flinching but not acknowledging it. He started with the camera, placing a hand on the wall just like before and focusing on the footage. That was easier than before which was saying a lot because it was easy in the first place too, but making the decision over what to do was the hard part. Phoenix had mentioned keeping the footage of them entering but erasing the rest, something that would imply that they were there in the first place which would not be wise. Second option was to corrupt the entire footage which was far more efficient and reliable. Ruining the entire days data would erase their entire presence within the alley, meaning there would be no way to connect them to this act. As Tae got to work on that another thought came to mind… should he destroy the footage from the other night as well? When he was thrown away and found? That was certainly not information he wanted getting out, his existence was a secret for a reason, and if they were checking for footage of this night they may end up looking at the rest of the week too. This possibility was too great of a risk so in the end, Tae wiped out the entire weeks worth of footage, corrupting it and deleting it both just to be on the safe side. No mistakes were aloud.

If there were more time for experimentation, Tae would have dabbled with altering the footage rather than just deleting and corrupting it. He did not know if he had the ability to do so since he was quickly learning that there were many things that he did not know about himself, locked away behind pass codes he could not break which he was not a fan of yet could not do anything about. Either way, there was no time to experiment with what may not even be possible.

Next up, helping the drunk crying man. This direction was far less preferred than the previous one, but Tae dare not refuse. After all, he was no murderer, and there was a slim chance the man could die if left alone in this state. So even though thoughts of ripping out the man's rib cage from his skeleton were a perfectly reasonable response at this point, orders were orders, and Tae quickly made a call to the nearest ambulance. It was simple really, a small voice changer and a bit of rerouting of his phone number, and walla, no one would be able to track the ‘woman’ who made the emergency call. The task could not be easier or more second nature to Tae than that.

After picking up Phoenix's cigarette and tossing it into the incinerator, the less simple task was up next…. Getting back inside the club without raising suspicion. If he were caught he would have to socialize, not his greatest skill in the world due to the unpredictability of human minds that only got worse when drunk. Still, it’s not like there was another option. If Tae could actually breath, he would have sighed, but since he could not, it was now Taes turn to head back to the club. No one was in the alleyway and Tae had made it to the bathroom without being noticed, luck still on the pairs side, but that luck ran out the second Tae thought he was safe.

He had found a way to wedge a mop that was stored in the bathroom into the handle, making sure that no one could enter, however Tae had failed to account for the fact that someone may have been using one of the stalls. Now in the light, Tae must have looked like a mess considering the expression that passed on the man's face when he saw Tae in the mirror. “Holy shit, dude!” He exclaimed, fear and concern combined. “Is that blood? Are you alright, man? Do you need an ambulance?”

Tae was tempted to tell the man that one was already on the way, but that was off topic and may inspire the man to go into the alley to check out what had happened. Plus, an ambulance would want to check Tae’s heartbeat and would only find the whirring of a machine instead. Both were unacceptable. So, in order to keep secrets secret, this man needed to be dealt with. Not through violence though. Unlike with the drunk man, Tae felt no desire to hurt this man whatsoever, in fact Tae felt the opposite. Like the proper PET he was, Tae would rather protect than harm even with free will within him. “No, absolutely do not call an ambulance. I’m more than healthy…. Look.” In order to reassure the man, Tae reached down and lifted up his shirt, showing his flawless pale stomach that had all of it’s skin still attached. “I just got a nosebleed.” It’s not like Tae thought that saying he was in a fight was a wise option so he went with Phoenix’s lie, trusting her judgment.

It turned out that he could not have don't that though because the man, unfortunately sober, was not buying it. “Yeah right. You got blood all over you and none on your nose! Do you need a cop... or should I be calling a cop on you?”

“No cops.” Tae quickly responded, walking slowly over to the sink and looking at the stranger through the mirror. He wanted to take his shirt and gloves off in order to clean them more accurately but with the human here, that was not an option due to how much exposed metal was on Tae’s arms and hands. So instead he ran the water and simply splashed it onto any area with blood and scrubbed at what he could. Everything from his hands to his arms, to chest, and to his face were getting a solid cleaning. As he revealed the smooth, undamaged skin underneath it became clear that this was not his blood.

Although the stranger could make this conclusion, he did not immediately call the cops thankfully. It’s not like drunken fights were rare even at places with bouncers present for that very reason. “Did the bastard at least deserve it?”

Smart enough to know that trying to hide that a fight happened was futile at this point, Tae immediately answered the question even though it may have been wiser to remain silent. “Yes, he did.” He did not need to clarify further, but Tae being the factual minded PET that he was, did so unprompted. “He attacked first, I simply responded more efficiently than he was capable. It was in defense.”

“Okay….” The stranger responded, looking towards the locked door, likely debating his own safety. “So you good then? I should probably be heading back to my friends before they leave without me... Designated driver here!”

Tae nodded, finally some of the blood vanishing from his dark clothing but he was soaked at this point. “I am, as you say, 'good'. Your concern is appreciated and thank you for not driving drunk." A pause as Tae attempted to comprehend the next best course of action. “ If I may ask one more thing? I request that you not tell anyone I was here. I wish not to worry anyone.” Tae did not get an answer as the man left the restroom but Tae was hopeful that his request would be met by whoever that man was. If not, then there was nothing he could do now.

“I have no more time..” Tae said aloud to himself, his confrontation with the sober man leaving him wary and a touch worried about drawing suspicion. His pants still had blood stains on them but those could easily be explained away, especially in the dark lighting of the club. Humans after all were nor normally equipped with the ability to see in the dark... which Tae normally was but that function was too expensive of one to get repaired. Holograms over heat vision, a logical choice. What was clean would have to do.

After letting himself dry just enough not to drip since causing someone to slip was not his goal, Tae quickly left the restroom and made a beeline to the same seats he was in earlier. The plan was to sit there the whole night, that was what Phoenix had told him to do, but it was harder to follow orders this time especially since people continued to approach Tae, recognizing him, and then asking him to dance. It was hard to say no since he wanted to join those people on the dance floor but could not. Besides, not that he regretted a thing, it was safe to guess that his dance ability was born from his skill for combat. That’s why when dancing he used more leg work than necessary, because kicks were apparently his specialty. It was better not to help inspire people to come to the same revelation if possible.

Shaking off the thoughts both of dance and of fighting, Tae closed his eyes and leaned back in his seat, planning on waiting there unmoving but 'breathing' until Phoenix came to fetch him.
 
Unsurprisingly, Tae made no fuss when given directions. Phoenix supposed she was grateful for that much, at least. Had he been an emotion-fuelled human, surely the process would not have gone so smoothly. He was even able to offer some words of comfort, and encouraged her not to worry. Hearing this, she couldn't help but scoff to herself as she entered the club. While she didn't doubt his ability to clean up the mess they had gotten themselves into, things could still go wrong. If someone else happened to wander through the alleyway or - even worse - if one of her coworkers went back there... Coming up with a believable explanation would be a challenge, to say the least. But there was no time to worry about what-ifs. She still had a job to do, and she couldn't give any sign that anything had gone wrong.

As she stepped back into the warm, strobe-lit innards of the Velvet Crush, the thudding bass and flashing lights she had grown accustomed to were suddenly overwhelming, a sensory assault that crashed into her like a tidal wave. Phoenix paused next to the door, squinting her eyes as they adjusted to the noise and frantic activity. She had gone from the dark stillness of the alleyway to the chaotic insides of the club countless times before without issue, but for some reason the transition was jarring. Gulping, she put a hand to her forehead and ran it through her hair, her fingers gently pressing down on her skull. If she were to make an educated guess, she supposed she was probably in some kind of shock. In between the beats of the music she could hear the thumping of Tae's legs against the man's flesh; after every other pulse of the light she could see red-tinged saliva flying from Robert's face; and despite the dense musk of sweat and sweet perfume, the stench of blood coated the walls of her nostrils. The room began to spin, forcing her to close her eyes and put a hand to her brow.

Over the years Phoenix had done many odd and occasionally seedy jobs, but none of them exposed her to the visceral sight of a man getting beaten half to death. Nothing even came close. Although she had always seen herself as a strong person, she was apparently not steely enough to face such a scene unaffected. However, she still had enough sense to try and pull herself together. She took a small step backwards until she felt the wall against her and leaned against it. Her chest rose and fell gently as she took slow, deep breaths. Now that her eyes were closed, all she could picture was the image of Tae slamming his leg into the man over, and over, and over again. Undoubtedly, the scene wouldn't be fading from her memory any time soon. Deciding that it was worse to keep her eyes closed, her lids slowly lifted as she lowered her hand from her face. Just as she did so, she saw Ross walking towards her through speckles of people. Ah shit, she thought, exhaling quickly as she straightened up from the wall. Judging by her friend's furrowed brow and frowning mouth, it seemed as though she had failed in pretending that everything was all right.

Phoenix cleared her throat as Ross stopped in front of her and tilted his head. "Hey, you okay? You don't look so good..." He squinted at her through the darkness, as if trying to decipher a hidden message in her features.

Brushing her bangs aside, she nodded a little too quickly. "Yeah, yeah, I-- I'm fine." She flexed her hands at her sides, her palms moist with sweat. "I've come down with something, I think, so... it's just catching up with me, I guess." The dark-haired woman met his gaze and smiled weakly. "I don't get sick much but when I do, it hits me like a truck."

"Aw shit, no way?" Ross folded his arms, his head slowly bobbing up and down. "Are you gonna be okay? Maybe you should go home early..." He glanced down at his watch, which lit up as he angled his wrist. "It's getting to the point where people are starting to clear out... so prolly will be fine if you do." The bouncer met Phoenix's gaze again, concern still written on his face. For once, she found herself cursing her relationship with her colleagues. In some ways, life was easier when no one gave a rat's ass about her or what happened to her. But of course, this was merely a fleeting sentiment that she provided no allusion to.

"I'm fine... really." She waved her hand in the air and straightened her back. "I might not be able to close... but I can make it until last call." Phoenix glanced at Wendy, who had caught sight of them from the bar. Looking back to Ross, she smiled and reached up to pat him on the shoulder. "Thanks for worrying about me, though. Get back to work too, slacker!" Grinning still, she hurried off towards her female colleague before he could say anything more. As she walked she didn't feel as dizzy or shaken as before, but somehow the lights and sounds seemed unreal, as if she were wading through a dream.

Naturally, when she made it back to the bar, Wendy came over to her once she had a moment. Unfortunately, it seemed she still didn't seem herself. "Hey, girl - you all right? What was that with Ross over there...?" The redhead leaned on one arm propped up on the counter, her eyes studying Phoenix closely. Frankly, it made her a bit nervous. From what she had seen, men rarely had the same intuition that women did: she would need to be totally convincing if she were to sufficiently quell the older woman's worries.

As Phoenix mixed a drink she waved a hand dismissively. "I'm just feeling under the weather." Her voice was stronger and held more confidence like it typically did, but she made sure no customers were listening. "You know how it is when I get sick." It had not been a lie she had told Ross - she was rarely ill, but it was not a pretty sight when she did. "I can make it to last call, but I'll probably need to go home afterwards, if that's all right with you." She frowned and sent an apologetic glance Wendy's way as she placed the finished drink on the counter and collected the payment for it.

Thankfully, it seemed as though Wendy was easily convinced. "Oh of course, honey!" She gave Phoenix a hug from the side before taking another order. As she prepared the ingredients, she added, "If you need to go home early though, just say the word."

From there, the rest of her shift seemed to pass by in a blur. It still felt as though her mind was only half seated in reality, so it was surprising to her that she was still able to fulfill every order without issue. A result of pure habit, she supposed. Even as Wendy left for the rest of her break, Phoenix worked like normal and no one raised any further questions. At some point, when there was a break in the orders, she scanned the gradually thinning crowd and found Tae waiting obediently to the side, as she had desired. While she hadn't doubted his ability or willingness to follow orders, she felt compelled to reassure herself now and then that he was still there, not beating anyone else up anymore.

Finally, once last call was announced and completed, Phoenix cleaned up her workstation and said good-bye to Wendy before making her way into the staff room. After she had gathered her things, she made her way through the remnants of the crowd and stopped in front of Tae. "Come. Let's go," she said quietly before promptly heading towards the door. She waved to a few people on the way out and offered a short explanation for her early absence, but did not delay in her departure. Once she exited the club, she was greeted with the refreshingly cool night air. Breathing in deeply, Phoenix sighed heavily. She finally felt like she was back to reality; and in a way, leaving the building felt like waking up from a strange dream. While she wouldn't go so far as to say she was back to normal, the shock had definitely subsided.

Phoenix led Tae to the bus stop in silence, and barely looked at him until they got there. As they waited, she examined him wordlessly. She could see some traces of blood still on him, but his dark clothes made it so one would have to look closely to notice. She wondered how he had done in the clean up, but refrained from asking out in public. Instead, she pondered over her feelings about the robotic man as they got on the bus back home. In the heat of the moment, Phoenix's mind had been cluttered with panic and fear. To say she had been - or was - angry with Tae wouldn't be accurate... but, despite his apparently good intentions, she certainly hadn't been happy with him. And truthfully, she still wasn't particularly pleased. But, she definitely appreciated his key role in preventing her face from getting punched in. However, the extreme lengths he had gone to were obviously the major problem. Now that she thought about it, she wasn't sure if Tae would have actually killed the man - or, more specifically, if he would have been able to. But then again, neither of them thought he would have been able to hurt him at all. With that in mind, was it possible that Tae might even turn on her some day?

Since he had gone to great lengths to protect her, his mistress, Phoenix had to doubt it. But there was no way she could be completely sure, now was there? After all, Tae had claimed he could not be violent only mere minutes before he proceeded to beat the hell out of that guy. While she did not understand the technical reasons for this discrepancy, she knew she couldn't discount the possibility of others. However, she couldn't be upset: Tae was not a human who acted out of malice. He was simply following some programming, albeit of the apparently rogue variety. It was comparable to a vicious animal - he was acting out of a type of instinct, not because he was "bad". Nevertheless, she couldn't help but bear a newfound caution around Tae: suddenly the trusty dancing robot was not as innocent and harmless as she had assumed.

As these thoughts filled her head, her silence persisted as they left the bus and made the journey back up to her apartment. Once they were inside, Phoenix shed her bag and her coat with a sigh and a groan. She collapsed on the couch and laid her head back with her eyes closed. With everything said and done, she was grateful that they at least did not have a visit from the cops. Hopefully nothing would come up in the future, either.

Now that they were in the safety of her apartment, Phoenix finally spoke. "So... tell me what happened. And I mean from the top. How do you go from claiming you can't hurt anyone, to beating that guy like crazy? What the hell was that?" She opened her eyes at his point and looked to Tae. Her voice was steady and calm, though with little trace of emotion. "When you're done explaining that, tell me everything you did after I went back inside."
 
Tae was a fool when it came to this kind of matter. It should have been obvious that Phoenix was still not okay and that she was more or less ignoring him until they returned home. He could learn communication but it took a long time. After all, why should he be concerned? She had been silent with him before such as when they were shopping or doing laundry, and it wasn't like he expected conversation from her to begin with. Even Tae had taken notice that she was quieter than usual, he would have more likely guessed that it was because she was tired from working all night. As he understood, most humans tended to become more docile when needing rest.

The silence was broken though when they returned home, Phoenix immediately starting to ask questions which Tae was more than happy to answer for her. He was still standing by the door as the interrogation started but as he responded he slowly moved from the entrance until he was standing in the middle of the room in front of Phoenix. Hands behind his back and a head held high, at attention.

“Correction. I did not say that I could not hurt anyone. I said that most pets are programmed not to be able to do harm to humans and it is illegal to remove that restriction from them, which I then followed that even if I could do it, I would not want to. I was an honest as I could have been.” Tae was clearly more than willing to pull up a transcript of their entire conversation in order to refute her claim that he had lied. Thankfully, he did not do that and instead went ahead to explain why he did what he did. “But to answer your question as to why I ‘beat that guy like crazy’.... As your PET, it is my duty to serve you no matter the task. He attacked, I responded.” That was it. It was that simple.

Tae stood silent for a moment, feeling that his explanation no matter how brief was acceptable. “Did my actions displease you? The man deserved his fate, don’t you think?” He innocently asked, cocking his head to the side like a confused pup. At most, he was a touch more efficient than necessary, otherwise there was no problem. “Or is it because I did not stop when you initially said so?” That certainly made more sense because not even Tae knew why he did not stop his assault when she initially made the request. He had heard her but until afterwards, it was nothing more than background noise. “I apologize for that, my intention was not to ignore you. I simply found your protests difficult to comprehend in the moment, possibly due to them mixing in with Davidsons protests.... My second hypothesis for why I did not register your words was because of all of the background programs that were triggered upon witnessing your assault. Even I have a limit to how many things I can do at once and since the most difficult programs to activate are those that are newly accessed, the combat data must have overridden all my other mental functions.”

It was a habit for Tae to pause after making a statement, either to process new information or attempt to work out the complicated and contradictory signals that came from conversation. Truly, the more he did it the more he was finding it both easier and more frustrating. He was not consistent enough to notice when people were serious or joking, wanting more or wanting silence, but as was his nature, Tae rejected the idea of silence in the attempt to perform his duty of fully and properly answering questions. Knowledge before silence, but silence before dialogue. Besides, Tae had kept silent before in matters that could be considered important, only answering questions that were directly asked to him, but it was likely time after the night they had just had that he point out a few things that had not come into his mistresses head yet.

“Perhaps I should inform you, officially, that I have a combat program within me. As you know, certain parts of me are blackened out such as the owner registrar, but I do not believe that we have discussed the other blackened parts of my core mainframe.” Of course Tae knew that they had not done that, but it was nothing more than just a segway into his next, main point. “The combat program as well as the hacking program that I got a glimpse of is not accessible to me at all nor does anything more than it’s file name appear in my history. I do not consciously activate them nor do I know what it did before tonight…. In fact, there are many such things that I have stumbled upon while diving into my own memory. All of those programs and files are locked behind passwords and voice checkers that no matter how hard I try to get past them, I seem to fail. It could just be that I cannot hack myself but that is an unknown… Many things within me are unknown to me.”

It was almost remarkable how much Tae did not know and although that fact frustrated him, he trusted his maker not ot have done such things by accident. There is also the fact that these programs were clearly on the bottom of the list for what things were to be deleted during a mainframe wipe. Combat, hacking, and whatever else he had inside of him just waiting to be triggered was for a good reason that could help, Tae was sure of that. “My old master likely knows the codes… He made me after all.” Tae muttered to himself, as if saying the words aloud would offer up ways to contact the man… the man that Tae clearly knew was male.

~~~~~~~~
As this conversation died down, Tae continued on just as Phoenix had originally requested. Tae went on to explain that he had removed all traces of cigarettes from the scene, called the ambulance using a voice adjustor and a fake number, and he also completely corrupted the entire weeks footage in order to hide the fact that they had been there at all. It was not wise to let strangers look at the footage of Tae being pulled from the dumpster after all. Once he started talking about what happened inside, Tae finally put an expression of shame on his face for the first time in the night. “I also regret to inform you that while in the restroom trying to clean myself up from the blood Robert Alan Davidson got on me, I did run into a man. He questioned me a bit, sadly not believing that I had a nosebleed, and was aware that I got in a fight. After a bit more of that, I requested that he not tell anyone that he saw me and thanked him for driving responsibly by being his friends designated driver.” To put it simply, Tae was caught by a very sober man.

If Tae could breathe, all of that would have been said in one gasp, however since he could not he had to settle with just counting the events on his fingers as if he was reading off of a list instead of memory. “And that was all. The rest of the night I was in my seat waiting for you, just as you had requested.”
 
Tae moved like a guard, steady and obedient, as he corrected her apparent misunderstanding. As she listened, her eyes slowly narrowed as her lips fell into a frown. "Ugh, you know what I--" But Phoenix cut her self off just as quickly as she started to speak, and slowly shook her head with a sigh instead. If a person had said that to her, she would have reamed him out for being so facetious. Of course, that wasn't the case here - Tae was merely stating the cold, hard facts. Which was actually just as annoying as if he was being flippant. "You can say all that shit, but any normal person would take it to mean that you can't hurt a human, and you wouldn't want to."

She rubbed the bridge of her nose with her thumb and forefinger, a crease forming between her brows as she closed her eyes once more. The disconnect between Tae's perfect, inflexible logic and her own was more apparent and more frustrating than it ever had been up until now. Phoenix wanted nothing more than to shout and curse at him as if he were any other person, but he wasn't. Getting angry and blowing up at Tae would feel like lashing out at a kid who didn't know any better, and it would accomplish just as little. So, she supposed she had to explain her perspective so he could understand. "It's just. I expect you to act in ways I can anticipate. When you say one thing and then do the complete opposite, it's unexpected. And that alone is upsetting, but it's even more so when it involves so much violence." Each word was spoken gingerly and deliberately, hand-picked from her vocabulary as she suppressed her natural desire to start up an angry rant.

As Tae went on to inquire about the impact of his actions and whether his victim had deserved what he got, Phoenix let out another deep sigh as she laid her hands across her stomach. But she said nothing, instead letting him offer his own hypotheses and provide insight on the finer mechanisms of his operating system. With her fatigued mind, exhausted by stress, she could only process some of his explanation. But despite her partial attention, the woman got the gist of the message: even a state-of-the-art android had a limit to their multi-tasking. Another way he wasn't quite so different from a human. That aside, once he had finished with his spiel, she opened her eyes once more and sat up on the couch. "I'm grateful that you were there to keep me safe - really, I am. If it weren't for you, I'd probably be spending the night in the emergency room instead of him." She spoke more naturally, her frustration and irritation fading. She then paused, her eyes falling to her lap in the moment of hesitation. "But I don't think he deserved that. Sure, he was an asshole and a scumbag... and I don't think I actually would've minded if he was roughed up a little. But what you did was... excessive. The punishment didn't match the crime."

Phoenix met Tae's vivid blue gaze with weary eyes. The sight, sound, and smell of the man getting beat was still fresh in her memory, where she was sure it would stay for a long time. "If you're looking for a straight answer... I'm not displeased that you saved me, but with how you went about it." Silence followed her words once more as she studied the being standing perfectly straight and unwavering before her. In this quiet moment, she realized that she had been misled by his human likeness and lost sense of what he really was: an amalgamation of metal and computer engineering inside a man-shaped shell. Even if his imperfections were to be fixed, he could never be a human. He could never understand what it felt like to see someone ruthlessly beat around, or know the sickening stench of blood. He could never know pain, or the innate reaction to witnessing brutality. Obviously this was nothing he needed to do anything about - if he even could. No, the onus was on her to adjust her mindset. While she didn't think she needed to treat him any differently, she certainly had to keep herself in check. I can't forget what he is.

With a deep breath, she gave a tired shrug of her shoulders and lazily swatted a hand at the air. "Let's not talk about that anymore. What's done is done, so all we can do is move on." There was no way Tae could really understand how she felt, so there was no point in wasting what little energy she had left in trying to explain it. From there, Tae went on to formally inform her of his combat program, which spurred a short chuckle from Phoenix. The feeling of laughter as refreshing as cold water on a parched throat. "Wow, thanks for the timely information," she said with dry sarcasm, as he continued onto another mini-lecture about his inner workings. She folded her arms across her chest and sunk into the soft cushions behind her, only digesting a portion of the information he was serving. "You might have to explain that one again sometime... but not today."

Thankfully, the next topic Tae addressed was much easier to follow. Phoenix occasionally nodded her head as she listened to his account of the night after they parted ways in the alley. When he mentioned that he had been seen and questioned by someone, she pursed her lips in thought. "Hmm. Well, it's probably fine," she decided after a moment before the robot concluded his summary of events. Satisfied with how things had gone, she sat up and rose to her feet. "Sounds like everything went well. All we can do is keep going and hope that no loose ends come undone." She rubbed the back of her neck, her muscles beginning to ache now that she finally had a moment of rest. "Anyway, thanks for your help today, Tae. I'm going to go to bed so as usual, feel free to recharge or clean your clothes so more. Or whatever you want - well, I mean, except for beating someone else up." With a wry chuckle, she headed to the bathroom to wash up and promptly headed to her bed once she emerged.


Phoenix awoke at about 10:30 in the morning to gentle rays of sunshine over her face. Groaning quietly, she rolled away from the light and curled up under the covers. Her body was well rested, but somehow her mind still felt tired. She lay in bed for a few minutes before she finally dragged herself out from under the covers and headed to the bathroom, greeting Tae as she passed him. After going through the regular steps of her morning ritual, she gave her robotic roommate instructions to prepare her breakfast just as he did previously. While it still felt strange to order him to do something she was more than capable of accomplishing herself, she figured he would likely end up offering anyway. Once her directions were given, she sat down on the couch with her phone and saw that she had received a message from her mother. "Oh, great." The message preview as enough to make her heart slip into her stomach. Rarely did her parents contact her with good news these days.

Her lips tightened as she unlocked her phone and tapped the message. As she read the text, the corners of her mouth sank. Surprise, surprise, her dad had only added to his debt yet again and they needed a little extra money in the next transfer. "Idiot," she muttered, lazily tossing her phone onto the cushion next to her. Phoenix often asked herself why her mother didn't just up and leave, but it was a question she knew the answer to. Her mom was hopelessly devoted to her father and had convinced herself that one day he would ditch his gambling habits forever. Admirable, but incredibly frustrating. But what could she do about it? She loved her parents and they had given her a good life, so it wasn't like she could simply leave them drowning in debt. Still, it would be tricky to send them a bit extra this time, since she had been set back somewhat by the cost of Tae's parts. But she would figure it out. There was always a way, always something she could cut back on for a while - she just had to find it.

Later, of course. Slashing her budget was definitely an after breakfast ordeal. Phoenix put the issue on the back burner as she sat down to eat her meal, at which point her mind wandered to other matters. There were no chores or errands she needed to urgently do, but there was something that had been nagging her from the back of her mind. Even though she wanted to move on from yesterday's events, it didn't feel right to simply sweep everything under the rug. It was evident that his combat program had been activated by the fact she was in danger. Obviously the assault had been a more extreme scenario, but how could she know for sure that he wouldn't react violently in a less severe situation? She could ask Tae, sure, but he even admitted that there was a lot he didn't know about himself. And on that note, what about the other programs barricaded away in his programming? Neither she nor Tae had no idea what any of them could do, let alone what might activate it. What if she had another surprise like yesterday, but out in public in the daytime?

The questions gathered in her mind like storm clouds in the sky. She had a lot of concerns and not enough knowledge to quell her worries. But she knew someone who did. Once she was finished eating, she thanked Tae for the meal and went back to her phone. After making a few selections, she put it to her ear. "Hey, it's Phoenix. Do you have time to come over today? There's something I want to talk about with you in person... Oh, really? All right. See you soon then." Putting down her phone, she turned to Tae. "Hey, Rhys is coming over shortly. I'm going to ask him if he might know anything about these programs you have locked away inside of you. Until he comes, do whatever you feel like. I have nothing I need help with, really."

Seeing as she had time to kill herself, Phoenix decided to sit down and look at her finances. It would be a little tough, but if she picked up some extra shifts and sold a couple things she didn't use, she could probably send her parents a little extra and still keep herself afloat. Tae's prior suggestion of him taking up work wandered back into her head, but she quickly dismissed the notion. After yesterday's mishap, he definitely didn't want him wandering about on his own - not unless they could unveil all the secrets lurking in his programming. Which she highly doubted they could do, even with Rhys' help.

Speaking of, her friend arrived in about an hour and a half from when she called. Once he settled down on her couch, Phoenix relayed yesterday's events starting from when Tae was able to hack the security camera. By the time she had finished recapping all pertinent information, Rhys' head was bobbing slowly, eyes alight with intrigue as he stroked his chin. "Hmm, interesting, interesting... I mean. Tae's not your average bear - or PET, I should say. So... it makes sense that he's got some exceptional functions. Or, well, I guess a lot of them. And I mean, it also kinda makes sense he could beat the tamales out of someone if he was supposedly some kind of guard, right?" His eyes fell upon Tae as he studied him curiously. "Yeah... whoever made you and whoever was using you are no small timers."

Phoenix folded her arms across her chest. "Yeah, I know. So do you think there's anything you could do to get inside Tae's system? To find out what else is there, and to see if you can change anything so he doesn't wail on someone like that again? At least until we can find his real owner. Then they can fix him, and do whatever else they want."

"I mean... if there's so much security that even Tae can't pass it, I'm not sure I really can. I can try though. I could maybe manage to change the protocols around his combat program, if they're anything like the anti-violence regulations in normal PETs..." Rhys drummed his fingers on the side of his face as he trailed off in a moment of thought. "But Phoenix... are you sure you want me to? Maybe this is a blessing in disguise."

She raised an eyebrow at him. "And what does that mean?" Phoenix had a feeling she knew what her friend was hinting at but she wanted to see if he really had the audacity to suggest what she had in mind.

"Well, like..." He looked sheepishly at her and she bore his gaze into him, but he still went on. "Bot-fighting is really booming lately. And since it's more popular, more money's going into it, and the winners are making boatloads. There are even some high class bot-fighting rings for rich people and their humanoid PETs. So what I mean is, I think you and Tae could really make a killing. And, well, I know you always could use a little extra money." Rhys smiled weakly as Phoenix's glare grew colder.

"Rhys. No. Don't be stupid; you know how I feel about making dirty money." She tapped her finger rapidly against her bicep, her pointed gaze not leaving Rhys even as he looked away from her. But after a moment, she closed her eyes and looked out the window instead. There was quite a bit she wouldn't mind saying to Rhys, but he was here to help her so she decided to leave the haranguing for another day. "Anyway..." Her voice softened back to normal. "If you wouldn't mind seeing what you can do, I'd really appreciate it."

"R-Right, okay. Sorry, Phoenix. I'm just sayin', I just worry about you sometimes, and... uh, nevermind." Rhys scratched the back of his head, his cheeks a bit reddened as he stood up and approached Tae. "Tae, do you mind if I, er... root around in your head a little?"
 
“I will…. Strive to be more transparent in the future about what I am ‘thinking’” Taw promised, hoping to appease his mistress. He did however refrain from saying anything about holding back his violence. It was a promise he could not keep considering that if she was in danger he would act to protect her even if it was not exactly what she wanted from him. Her life was more important than her happiness. “And I truly am sorry to have caused this much trouble… It is the opposite of what I am here to do.” Tae admitted honestly, talking about everything from (arguably) hurting the man too much to not understanding every detail about himself. Being a tool that was failing in its purpose was the worst outcome possible.

They continued speaking for a while but in the end, Phoenix headed off to bed while Tae was left more or less alone to perform his personal daily upkeep needs. Tae cleaned himself and his clothing in the restroom until both were as clean as possible. Thankfully, the blood had not caused any noticeable stains by the time Tae was done relentlessly scrubbing at the material. Considering his lack of personal boundaries, Tae kept himself in the nude during this process and while the clothing air dried. Should Phoenix have woken up, she would have seen a too pale man walking around her apartment cleaning, but thankfully she did not so Tae’s unusual lack of boundaries did not become a problem. And since her apartment did not have that many windows and they were off the ground, there was no danger of someone seeing his metal limbs that were normally so well hidden under the clothes.
~~~~~~~~~~

When the late morning came, Tae was back to wearing clothing and hiding the parts of him that lacked skin. By now, his hair and outfit had dried, but he was still leaning up against the wall in a random corner, wirelessly re- charging and increasing her electric bill by significant amounts. He may be a high level piece of tech who could survive at least a week without charge, but in order to keep all of his functions activated he kept himself as fully charged as possible. The price of the electricity was worth the gains he could offer, or at least that was what he and many others would have thought on the matter.

Still, when given orders to wake up, Tae jumped at the chance to make up for yesterday's failures by making her morning routine as perfect as possible. With no complaints about the food and receiving a thank you in return, by the end of breakfast Tae was feeling a touch pleased with how things were going.

“Rhys?” Tae questioned, the topic change a reminder of his past failures and was therefore unwelcome. He did not wanting to seem rude or uncooperative, but the idea of Rhys trying to hack into him was not a pleasant thought. Was that man qualified to do more than basic repairs? If he wasn't , he could theoretically scramble Tae’s ‘brains’. Even if Rhys could break through the passcodes, there was no guarantee that Tae would be the same afterwards or that what they learn would be positive. But still…. Knowledge was always something that should be strove for, and when it came down to it, Tae was not willing to refuse Phoenix. “Yes, very well then. I will make sure that I am fully charged when he arrives then.”

And sure enough, when Rhys did get here, Tae was in the best condition that he could have hoped to be in. As Phoenix recapped the previous days events Tae still did not feel much regret for his actions against the drunk man, and when eyes turned to him with curiosity, he did not squirm under them. Tae only showed signs of not being comfortable when the topic shifted to breaking into his files. He only showed this in small ways such as blinking even though he did not need to, eyes flinching away from making eye contact and down towards the ground, and fixing his hair was another way that Tae displayed how wrong this felt.

Why did it feel so wrong though? Tae did fear that his programming would be scrambled and may leave him unable to speak or move, but there was more than that. What if Rhys got rid of the protection, combat program? How could Tae keep Phoenix safe should someone try to jump her again? Tae needed to be able to react efficiently and appropriately just like he had last night.

Just as this passed through Tae’s mind, Rhys seemed to have the same idea that getting rid of his combat abilities was not a good idea. Furthermore, Rhys brought up bot-fighting. “Participating in bot fighting a crime.” Tae immediately spouted without thinking. Once he gave himself a few seconds to think though, Tae changed his tune, “Although… weighing the costs and benefits of it, bot fighting seems like the best option economically. Very few of the bot rings have ever been found and shut down, so getting arrested is a low percentage. Also, looking at your bank account details, and not including what was spent on my repairs, things have taken a downward turn suddenly.” Without permission, Tae had keep keeping himself informed of Phoenix’s finances, her economic well being apart of his job as her PET. Tae did, after all, have the same ability as most PET’s which was to act as a credit card and perform transactions. “If you ask it of me, I would be more than happy to participate for you. As long as my combative functions are not removed then I should be capable of winning fights against lesser PETs.”

The conversation was quickly pushed to the side however when Phoenix completely rejected the idea. Although the law did matter in most cases, there were exceptions. Those of a higher status did not have to follow all laws and, to Tae, Phoenix was included into that special group sp she did not either. And Rhys, being one of the most intelligent of humans Tae had met so far, was also included. But to be honest, that didn't mean much since Tae considered all humans overall stupid… some were just less stupid than others. It was not a fair judgment however because unlike him, they did not have the entire internet inside of their head frame.

Tae hesitated but not for long. Phoenix had made the decision for him, after all. “Yes, you may.” Tae agreed, sitting down on the couch so that Rhys had a full access to either his mainframe at the base of his neck as well as his projection. Hacking could include both physical manipulation or just working with code and programming and since Tae did not know what Rhys was capable of, it was best to offer both.

Having someone ‘rooting around in his head’ as Rhys had put it was odd because it was not the same sensation as being repaired. And to make it worse, it was taking a long time. It was fairly easy to access the files that were readily available with just basic searches, some of them normal such as a cookbook he had on file, while others were a touch more illegal such as Tae’s ability to learn people's information just by standing around one of their PETs or with a small amount of information. The problem came when he tried to go deeper. Firewalls were everywhere, nothing wanted to break or bend, and when it started to look like they had gotten through one of the voice confirmation prompts or the fingerprint ID, it faked them out and took them to a seemingly random other file within Tae’s ever expanding hard drive.

Finally, after nearly three hours of constant effort and false positives, a password finally clicked. With a satisfying bloop noise, several minimized pop ups appeared, all displaying blueprints. A few of them were of PETs, some animal and others looked more human, but there were others that were something else entirely. Buildings, vehicles, and in the smallest window, something that looked like weapons. So much information had been destroyed when Tae was broken, and yet these blueprints were so important that they remained untouched by the damages. This was valuable information… and possibly very, very illegal information to have.

“Wait-” Tae started to say just as an attempt was made to zoom in on the images but it was too late. The blueprint did expand, the file was unlocked, but a domino effect had been triggered too. One click and the moment of hope that they would learn something valuable was shattered as Tae’s eyes flickers rapidly, making the projection vanish. In fact, he was twitching at every joint, even in places where normal human should not have been able to move naturally. Something was being triggered, and not in the way it was supposed to, which was causing Tae to short circuit and glitch. What was likely supposed to be a quiet countermeasure against someone trying to hack into Tae instead was turned into chaos.

With a voice far from human, Tae opened his mouth and read out commands ranging from numbers to sentences. “Identification confirmed,” “Security breached,” and “Tracking chip activated. Tracking chip cannot be found.” were some of the phrases Tae announced to the room even as he convulsed. “Proceeding with backup proximity tracker.” Was the last thing he said before his mouth flopped open and a high pitched noise came out of his mouth, sounding part like a scream and the other part like metal rubbing against metal.
~~~~~~~~~

“Master?” Questioned a male voice standing in the doorway of a private workshop, refusing to enter until given permission. This figure was looking across the room at the impressive man standing in the center of the workshop, surrounded by bolts and wires, bent over a table with magnifying glasses over his eyes, gloves on his hands, and an apron over his person in order to keep any greece from staining the white dress shirt he wore underneath.

Any common man would refrain from wearing such clothing while doing mechanical work, but this one did not. He had the world at his fingertips and money spilling from his many bank accounts across the globe. He could buy a new shirt… but what he could not buy was another PET. “What do you want, Kyu? If it’s not about Tae then I don’t care.” The man snapped, not looking up from the project he was working on.

Kyu was still in the doorway, but in response to the dim lit room his eyes were giving off an orange hue that made the man, no, PET seem almost monstrous. This PET had black hair like Tae’s but it was far more messy and curled, not to mention that Kyu was tan where Tae was pale. “It is.” The robot nodded sharply, his motions not at all as fluid as Tae’s and were more like what was expected from a robot.

“Found it’s scraps yet?” The man questioned, talking about Tae but refraining from using any sort of gendered pronouns and only referring to Tae as a thing rather than a true being.

“No. The tracking chip is still missing, likely long since destroyed, however there was am alert on the servers just minutes ago. I had been monitoring the servers for any activity that could not be traced back to your remaining PETs however there was a notification about the activation of a proximity alert. There is a high chance that it was Tae. This may not help find him, but I thought you would like to know that he is functioning and active as soon as possible."

It was only as this point was brought up that the master looked up from his task and removed the magnifying glass from his eyes. He was a 29 year old man, with brown hair and light brown eyes, he had a sharp face and hands that were dirty and scratched due to his business. His business? He was the CEO and lead inventor of the very first and leading PET production agency in the world. Dorian Douglas was his name, the youngest man to ever change history and technology in one fell swoop through the invention and perfection of PETs and AI. He was also the wealthiest person under 40 in the world. People always want to know what he is going to do next, but unknown to the media, he had already taken another step forward by creating human PETs that are capable of entertainment, intelligence, and war. The best part was that they were at the every beck and call of their masters… and him.

Dorian had created Tae, Kyu, and two others, but Tae was the most recent model. Sp hearing the news that his most recent production was not out of his reach just yet, the young man was more pleased. He did not show it though, pleasantries were saved for the cameras and actual humans. “Well, why in the hell has it not returned to me then?” Dorian mused on the thought for a moment before accepting that more must be wrong with Tae than just a missing tracking chip. “No matter, if it is functioning it will not stay secret for long. Kyu, keep an eye on the news and other media. If a single hair of Tae enters into frame I want you to find it and where the footage was located. Tae will pop up in time, I’m sure, and once it does, I am going to punish who dared to steal my property away from me.”

Kyu nodded, "Yes master."
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

With a snap that could have broken teeth if he were human, Tae shut his mouth and in turn, thankfully the high pitched screech came to an end. His eyes were still flashing rapidly, however he was silent… and confused. If Tae were to be asked what just happened, he would not have had an answer to give. One minute Rhys was poking around in his files and the next, nothing, just a two minutes of lost time where Tae did not know where he was or what he was doing. It was a downside to not being human, there were times when his mental functions and memory could be turned off… although to be fair, humans also suffered amnesia at times so perhaps it was not a downside to being human, but a downside to this event specifically.

"I seemed to have blacked out there. Apologizes, I must have been loading something." It was not the correct answer, but from where Tae was sitting, it was the only one he knew was even possible. Blacking out due to too much information was not common, but it was practically the same thing that had happened with the drunk man when Tae ignored Phoenix, so it was possible.

Quickly moving on, Tae turned to Rhys and Phoenix and presented his blue tinted projector once again. “It looks like some of the files opened.” Tae informed them as if nothing was wrong and nothing had happened. “I suspect that it was a linked password, so by breaking open the file with the blueprints, others that were locked with the same password has been opened up too. Shall I pull those open now, or wait?”
 
Naturally, Tae had no protests towards her decision to invite Rhys over. Or at least, nothing he said out loud. Phoenix wondered briefly whether or not he kept some of his robotic thoughts to himself, or if he was always transparent. It seemed as though he was, but truthfully? After yesterday, she felt as though she really knew nothing at all about how her android companion functioned. But as long as she was able to keep some kind of handle on how he acted from here on out, she supposed that it didn't matter how much or how little she knew. It wasn't like anyone else who had a PET needed to know how it worked before they owned one.

Besides, she had someone who was smarter about these things and could help her understand. Once Phoenix had brought Rhys up to speed, she noticed that Tae was acting a little bit differently after she proposed the idea of looking through his programming. She looked at him for a moment with a small wrinkle on her brow. He seemed a touch twitchy - his usually calm, empty gaze was directed to the floor and he was fiddling with his hair almost like a human would. Seeing Tae act this way - with all his human likeness as well - was actually a bit startling. Where had he learned such mannerisms? From people at the club? Or was emulating such mannerisms simply part of his pre-existing intelligence?

As always, Phoenix had no answers to the curiosities that cropped up in her head. She wasn't able to think about it any longer either as the topic shifted onto bot fighting. At first, Tae reinforced that it was a crime. Then, just as she began to nod in agreement, he added that it was their best economic option and that he would have no issues jumping in the ring for her.

"Not you, too..." She sighed and closed her eyes, rubbing the bridge of her nose with her thumb and forefinger. After a second, her eyelids popped open again. Phoenix's gaze shot over to Tae as a frown came upon her face. "And who said you could look at my bank account, anyway?" Despite her sharp tone, she wasn't really mad. It was no secret that she was on the poorer end of the spectrum. But it was a bit of a surprise to know he had gone through some of her personal business. What else has he rooted through? the dark-haired woman thought, her mind coming up with more than a few things she didn't exactly want to be known by anyone else.

But she mentally tossed the matter aside, seeing as there was a bigger topic at hand. "You know what? Nevermind, it's fine. I appreciate your willingness to fight, Tae, but I don't condone illegal money-making, let alone participate in it." Phoenix sighed again, shooting Rhys a quick glare for bringing up the subject in the first place. "When I became desperate for money, there were a lot of things I could have turned to - illicit things. But my dignity and self-respect are worth more than any amount of money made from crime. So there will be no bot-fighting for either of us."

The subject was dropped without further discussion, as she intended with her stern refusal. Instead, the three of them finally go around to addressing the main issue at hand: checking out Tae's mainframe. Again, he did not protest to the matter. As the android took a seat on the couch, Phoenix sat down next to him while Rhys retrieved a small toolbox he had brought with him. The man positioned himself comfortably to access his system and took a deep breath. "Okay, Tae. Thanks for letting me do this. I guess this must take a lot of trust; it's kinda like doing brain surgery on a human, isn't it?" He let out a small chuckle. "Uh, anyway, I'll be careful. Real careful. I'm the last person who wants to mess anything up, really. But, uh, right. I'll get going now. Here goes."

The man opened up his toolbox and retrieved a compact keyboard, in addition to a few adapters. Phoenix crossed her legs and leaned back against the couch as she silently watched Rhys hook them up to Tae at the base of his neck. She noticed a few screwdrivers, pliers, and other tools as well - probably in case he needed to do any physical work. Although she didn't think he would do such a thing unless absolutely necessary. Not when the hardware inside of Tae was so advanced and unusual.

After setting things up, Rhys' fingers began to clatter away on the keyboard. A tiny, holographic screen appeared just above it, which slowly began to fill up with lines upon lines of code. Phoenix stayed in her spot for a while, glancing between Rhys - who quickly fell into a deep state of focus - and Tae, who didn't do much of anything while her friend worked. After some time she grew bored and went off to check on her finances again. As she tended to her own business, the room as silent save for the clacking of keys and the occasional mumbling Rhys did under his breath. Once Phoenix identified a couple of cuts she could make to her budget, she wandered back over and sat next to Rhys. Her eyes followed the lines that continued to appear on his miniature screen, but none of it really made sense to her. She had a very basic understanding of PET programming - thanks again to the PET Vet - but everything Rhys was dealing with might as well be hieroglyphics. It was all alien to her.

Deciding to make herself useful, she brought her friend some water and took a look in her fridge. She didn't have the makings for anything exquisite, but she could at least make Rhys as sandwich. So, while the two were preoccupied on the couch she scrambled up some eggs and put them in between a few slices of bread. Phoenix cut it diagonally and placed it neatly on the plate before leaving it next to him. "If you're hungry," she said quietly, to which he gave a small grunt and nod of acknowledgement. In the zone, she thought with a tiny smile before she went off to grab a book to read. When she had selected something from her minimal collection, she sat back down next to Tae and opened it up to the first page.

As time ticked by, Rhys began to sigh, groan, and mutter more and more. Phoenix looked up from her book now and then to assess the progress, but concluded each time that it seemed to be going nowhere. At the ninety-minute mark, she finally spoke again. "Rhys, it's okay if you can't do it. I don't want to take up too much of your time today."

"Huh? Wha?" He looked over at her, his eyes wide as if he had been snapped out of a trance. She opened her mouth to repeat her words, but Rhys was already shaking his head and waving a hand in the air. "No, no, I'm invested now. I need to see this through, and get some results. I'm determined now, eh?" He grinned. "Don't worry. I know it looks like I'm real annoyed, but this is actually totally fascinating. I'm learning a lot and having a good time, so just do your thing." With that, he picked up the last of his sandwich and stuffed it in his face before continuing on.

Phoenix shook her head and laughed. "All right then," she said, picking up his dishes and washing them in the sink. After refilling his glass with more water, she sat back down and continued reading. She glanced up occasionally to check the time, and was shocked when she realized that almost three hours had passed since Rhys had started. I should make dinner for him too. Even if Rhys was having as much fun as he said he was, he was really going the extra mile. When she had asked him to come over, she had thought he would try for perhaps an hour tops before calling it quits. Shows how well she knew him, she supposed.

While Phoenix began to think about dinner plans, a strange noise came from Tae. It was followed by an excited and exasperated shout from her friend. "Yes! Something!" Surprised by his exclamation, she put down her book and turned to see a number of blueprints appear as holograms. She tried to study each image, but as soon as she saw what one thing was, a new one came up almost immediately. While she tried to figure out just what exactly they were looking at, Rhys attempted to examine one more closely in particular. As the image grew in the air, she heard Tae suddenly call out.

But it was too late. Before either of them could react, the steadily appearing images dissipated as Tae's eyes began to flicker wildly. The malfunctioning of his eyes was followed by the rest of his body as he twitched erratically, every individual component of his body seeming to jerk in a different direction. With a loud curse, Phoenix jumped off the couch and stood back to observe what was going on from farther away. Rhys had scrambled to his feet as well, staring at the robot in horror. Needless to say, neither of them had seen anything like this before and had no idea what to do. The pair walked around the couch to see Tae's face, in case it was acting strangely as well.

Phoenix's lips parted to speak, but before any words could form on her tongue, a cold, electronic voice came from Tae. He went through a series of short, commanding phrases that only generated more anxiety as they went on and on. "Rhys, what did you do..." she said uneasily as his jaw went slack. But before Rhys could respond, a horrifying noise started coming out of the robot before them.

It sounded like someone being murdered in a meat grinder. Part scream, part grinding of metal on metal. Phoenix and Rhys threw their hands over their ears as their faces cringed and contorted. It was probably the worse sound she had ever heard - but thankfully, it didn't last very long. The cacophony came to an abrupt close with a brisk snap as Tae's mouth shut once more. Phoenix let her hands fall to her sides. There was still a high-pitched ringing in her ears, but it was nothing compared to what she had just heard. She just hoped that none of her neighbours caught the noise and came over to investigate.

As Rhys lowered his hands as well, Phoenix looked to him in bewilderment. Her heartbeat had ramped up from the shock, but sent waves of relief throughout her body as it gradually slowed to normal. "Holy shit, what the fuck was that." Less of a question and more of a statement, since she knew he probably hadn't experienced such a thing before either.

"Uh... good question." Rhys rubbed the back of his neck as he watched Tae come back to normal as well. The tall man let out a short laugh at the android's casual resumption of normal conversation. "Man, that's some blackout there... That was absolutely crazy." He shook his head slowly, fatigue slowly becoming evident on his face.

Phoenix breathed a small sigh as Tae continued speaking normally. She was pretty sure that both she and Rhys were afraid they had completely bricked Tae. What insanity that would be - instead of returning him to his rightful owner, she completely ruined their state-of-the-art PET instead. Still, she couldn't quite rest easy just yet. Tae offered to open up the files they now had access to without any concern for his blackout. A normal reaction for him, she supposed, but it didn't mean they could just ignore the creepy way his voice suddenly changed. "Hold up, Tae." She put a hand up in the air. "Just now, when we tried to look closer at one of these files, you started spazzing out all over the place. You looked like you were having a seizure, then you said something about a backup... proximity tracker? And in a voice that wasn't yours." She glanced at Rhys to check if she had remembered correctly.

The man took a seat on one of the dining room chairs, clearly exhausted, and nodded. "Yeah... seems like I tripped some security protocol that should've activated a tracking device. But I guess those guys took it out of you, too. So you just did this crazy screeching noise instead. Like a homing signal. Which means... whoever owns you - or was supposed to keep track of you - has some idea where you are now? Or at least, that you're still in functioning order."

The Chinese woman frowned a little. "So do you think they could come here?" The last thing she needed was a bunch of men in suits knocking down her door and banishing her from her completely affordable apartment.

Rhys shrugged. "I can't say no for sure. I'm guessing it's unlikely, though. Since Tae's missing his tracking device, they shouldn't have his exact location." He rubbed a bit of stubble on his chin. "Anyway, as for your these files... I'd like to see them. We got this far, so to quit without looking at it would be like finding a treasure chest and leaving it unopened." When he caught Phoenix purse her lips in apparent disapproval, he waved his hand in the air and chuckled a bit. "If Tae makes the same noise, it'll be over in a sec. Just like last time. And we'll be prepared this time, right?"

"Pff... fine, okay." Phoenix leaned against the back of the couch next to where Tae was. "You worked hard, so I can't deny you the fruits of your labour. Okay, Tae - let's see what you got."
 
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“No one said I could look at your bank account. However, if I did not I would not be able to make purchases in your steed and produce shopping lists that suit your budget.” Tae agreed, not apologizing, only acknowledging. “Besides, finances are part all PET's responsibilities so of course I gave myself access to that information. If it helps, know that I will not make any changes or purchases without confirmation from you and/or the host of whichever account I am looking into. At most, I find coupons for your needs and will do your taxes without asking. ” He may or may not do more when it came to other peoples accounts, but there would have to be a reason to do so.

Tae did not have the will or right to argue with Phoenix on the subject of survival over ethics. He could have told her dozens of events where people, in the spirit of helping others or upholding their morals, had lost their lives or well being to the point that there was no recovery. If she could not buy food then she would die. If she could not afford electricity, then he would die. The latter was less important than the former however. He could be repaired or replaced, theoretically, she was a fragile human so in order to keep her alive and well, he would go against orders if it was necessary. Keeping this overprotective thought to himself, Tae simple looked at Rhys as if the man's logic would spread to Phoenix through will power alone.

Unfortunately, the topic was dropped in favor of risking the capabilities of the best piece of technology in the world. “Your concern for my comfort is appreciated but unnecessary. I have my orders to follow and no matter the cost, I am happy to perform them.” Tae assured Rhys has the man got ready to start working on him, partially lying to the man. “Also, the virtue of my mind not being a human muscle is that if it breaks, it can be repaired again.” Hopefully, Tae added in silently. “Do what you must to accomplish our goal.”

Tae did not talk while he was being worked on. There was no need to consume more energy or run more programs than necessary, both likely would have disturbed Rhy’s work. Although Tae made this choice himself in order to be considerate and helpful, as the minutes ticked by he still felt like he was wasting time. A creation such as him should never sit still, he must work whenever he was not charging, that was his purpose. He was a never ending source of labor and information. Ch alleging as it was to be wasting time, Tae did so without complaint.

~~~~~~

The information that Rhys found should have been a cause for joy, but instead it was horror. Tae mental identity shut off however his body was more than activated. The way Tae's body moved was erratic, but it was better than what was supposed to happen. In perfect condition, Tae's response to a hacking attempt would have been to activate his tracker before violently attacking and apprehending the hacker, but due to unseen code being scrambled, that thankfully did not happen. Instead, it was just twitches and flailing in his body, while his face was a blank slate. That face, which was so inhuman in it’s complexion, was stone in comparison to the rest of his body. When he spoke the command phrases, not even his lips moved, the robotic tone coming from the speakers within his mouth without the slightest attempt to maintain the human ruse Tae normally tried to uphold. Even with the metallic screech he made, the only thing physically that changed was that his mouth opened more like a shutter than a true scream.

When this moment passed, Tae’s body switched mannerisms. His arms and legs grew still while his face became animated… or at least as animated as was normal for Tae. His lips moved when he talked, his eyes flicked towards those speaking, and occasionally he would pretend to breath. Tae was none the wiser of the dramatic switch his body, and mind, had just went through. All he knew was that his eyes were flashing for an odd reason, but even that calmed within the next minute or two.

It took Phoenix forcing a pause in conversation for Tae to realize that things had went wrong, and when she did, Tae gave her the pleasure of a true expression. His eyebrows creased down dramatically as he looked up to the ceiling, running a quick mental scan of his system to see if there were abnormalities or a record of a ‘blackout’ occurring. There was not. “I have no record of a security tracker being activated nor can I find any prompts regarding an emergency shutdown of my mental consciousness… That is unusual."

It was not surprising that he used to have a tracker within him, he was an expensive, secret piece of technology after all. However the homing signal was news, so was the chance that his old master now knew that he was still activated. Although the sound he made unconsciously did not seem pleasant based on the expressions on Phoenix’ and Rhys’ faces, in the long term it may not be a bad sign. Although it was not Tae’s personal wish because he was content with his current master, Phoenix still planned on returning him to the person who used to own him and a tracker of any kind would be helpful to that goal. As long as it could not be activated manually and at a distance, things would be fine. Tae making that kind of sound randomly, such as walking down a street, would be detrimental to everyone including himself.

Tae opened his mouth to share his train of thought, his thoughts not too far from what the others were saying. “At this point, I figure that it is only a matter of time before he managed to zero in on my location. He likely has a lot of resources at his disposal considering what we know far. Perhaps he will find us first… Which would be preferable, yes? That way Phoenix can still accomplish her goal to return me while continuing to work as necessary without the extra burden. ”

But that did not mean that they had to refrain from digging deeper into the information at their disposal. The hard part was over with so as long as no more hacking occurred today, Tae was more than willing to help stimulate intellectual growth... especially when it came to himself. Just in case his past master could not find them, delving into the files was necessary. “Of course, here is what we have unlocked…. I’ll perform a deep check on the files before we open them in order to avoid future incidents.”

Projecting to the room, there were about three new files highlighted, each of them large in content. The first was the collection of blueprints that started this mess, but thankfully that response from before was a one time deal for at least this file. Looking at the blueprints freely now, it was apparent that nearly all of them were scanned from a physical paper. These appeared to be hand drawn, every number, label, and description had the same handwriting, further showing that Tae and all connection inventions were born from one person, not a team. These were secrets, or at least not public plans that were meant to be seen by a wide range of people. As seen before, there were a range of what kind of blueprints there were, some were innocent such as more animal PET designs, others were expected like other human PETs, and then some were outright illegal such as weapons designed for both humans, PETs, and other machines.

These weapon designs were nothing more than doodles in comparison to the rest, but even these had enough information that it was a realistic possibility to make them. One was a gun, but not of the average sort. It was small for one, and for two, it was meant to be hidden within a pair of glasses or goggles. A small, one shot bullet would be in the frame , and by pressing a button on the side, the bullet would shoot at whatever the wearer was looking at. Second most important blueprint was a weapon that was dedicated to PET’s. This too was designed to be subtle and secret, the gun would be located in a semi large, semi flat location such as the palm of a hand or upper chest, just below the neck. A slot would slide out of the way, the barrel would extend, and bang, someone would be shot.

There was no date on these so there was no way of knowing if these designs were still in the doodle stage or if they were reality, but there was one thing that Tae could say. “I do not have any of those inside of me.” Tae assured the room, confident of that fact. They all had saw how broken he was before, if there were guns within his body they would have been found during the repairing process. However, that did not mean that the other PETs did not have weapons within their form or that Tae would never have weapons himself.

The next discovery was seemingly plain at first, a list of names and/or alias’, but upon further inspection these names belonged to people of great significance. There were mayors, the president, other influential figures from all walks of life, and some names that at first glance did not have an impact but likely were to the person who had collected this list. The list spanned across countries and lifestyles. Each name and/or alias had a few sentences to describe them as well. For example, one of the politicians who led Phoenix's city was on the list, “Kathy Collar. Watched. Unaware. Makes policies regarding property rights and has influence over private lots, especially those that are unresponsive to bills and taxes. An alcoholic, will bend to any request as long as she has alcohol (whiskey) in her system. Sold me #235 warehouse on date 10/24/25.”. There were dozens of other descriptions that told about who the person was, what they did, if they knew about the human PETs, and what their status was. The status’ ranged from if they were considered enemies and should be gotten rid of, if they should just be watched for now, or if they were actual allies.

To be optimistic about it, it was just a list to organize this person relationships with others. Realistically however, it was a hit list. There were names with 'Enemy' as the descriptor and then a date to follow it with no further updates. Those people were either dead or out of the picture, either way, the person who wrote this list did not consider them worth noting after that date. Tae had no memory of these people, although for the people that had full names and not alias’, he could figure out who they were through a simple internet search. Had Tae gotten rid of these people? Did he kill or ruin them by his own two metallic hands? It was possible for certain, especially after watching him beat that drunk man in the alley, but to Tae this seemed a bit shocking.

“Murder is a crime.” Tae stated, as if this was not obvious, “I know that killing is not allowed and should be avoided at all costs. Even last night I purposely refrained from killing that man, I know that it is forbidden without orders specifically telling me to do so. If these people are dead due to unnatural causes, then I find it unlikely that I was apart of it.” But Tae would not rule out the possibility that there was more than just human blood on his hands, but human lives.

There was one final file unlocked by the password Rhy's found, and it was a very large one that through installation could change Tae completely. It was called, “Lai.Pro”. Pro in this case likely stood for prototype. Lai apparently meant emotions in this case considering that this huge file was designed for emotional simulation. Meaning, with the installation of this file, Tae would be capable of actually feeling more or less like a human and he could grow a stronger personality. He would feel anger, sadness, guilt, and even possibly love … or at least he would simulate these emotions as if they were real. In additions to emotions he could grow a personality, meaning that he would develop pet peeves, hobbies, and general preferences. He would adapt to humanity faster than ever, although due to the size of the file, it would be at the cost of some mental and physical capabilities. The one thing that would not change would be his loyalty to his master, that was unflinching, and if anything it would become stronger because now he would feel like he wanted to help and serve, rather than just ‘instinctively’ knowing that serving was the right choice. Tae, or any PET with this program, would only feel happy if they were making you happy which would keep them in check. Tae had a minor form of this already, but it was nothing in comparison to the emotional capacity that this file offered. However it was a prototype. It was possible that there are risks and bugs within this system, although it may be worth it depending on what Phoenix considered a priority.

Downloading emotion packages for PETs was not uncommon, the most popular was a recent 'Humorous' package which taught PETs how and when to make jokes as well as to respond to them. Most PETs could only have one or two emotions before their hard drive was overwhelmed and full, Tae would be able to handle most if not all of them. The difference between the Lai.Pro file and those that were on the market was that this one was designed for human mimicry. Human PETs should act and feel different than the more common animal PETs after all.

“Would you like me to make room for this installation?” Tae asked, not sure if adding emotions to his logic was what he wanted to do, but knowing that if Rhys, and more importantly, Phoenix wanted him to truly learn how to feel, he would do so. It seemed unwise to sacrifice some of his logic for the sake of pretending to feel, but considering how upset Phoenix was in response to the attack, but was likely that she would approve of this installation which included guilt and empathy in it's boundaries. “I will do whatever you wish of me, of course. I am here to serve and if you think that this highly developed emotional program will help, I will download this prototype immediately… although it will likely not finish until the morning.”
 
The moments in which Tae malfunctioned served as a sudden and stark reminder that he was, despite his very human appearance, just a machine. As his body moved in ways she had never imagined it could, Phoenix had a slight fear that he might simply explode right in the middle of her living room. That was a worst case scenario, of course. Probably the best case would have been if he completely shut down, leaving her with a very expensive pile of scrap. Fortunately though, none of these things proved to be the case as the android gradually came back to normal - or at least, what was normal by his standards. Phoenix never thought she would be so glad to see his pseudo-respirations or the way his vivid blue eyes shifted towards whatever currently had his attention. While she noticed the unusual flickering of his irises, her mind was frankly too overwhelmed by what had happened to really process it. Next to her, Rhys seemed to be going through a similar experience.

Thankfully, as Tae resumed his typical interaction with them - as if nothing had happened, no less - it seemed as though his basic functions were still intact. Or so she thought. Phoenix watched intently as his brow came together, forming a crease on his pale, immaculate skin. "Unusual indeed," she murmured after he reported that there was no record of any such events occurring. The woman cast a sidelong glance at her friend, who had a somewhat puzzled frown on his face.

"Well... if Tae didn't know all that happened, it does make sense that there wouldn't be any data about it for him to find. His awareness comes from the information stored in his database, right?" Rhys met Phoenix's eyes and gave her a small shrug. "I don't think there's anything we can really do about it then." Such words didn't exactly fill her with confidence, but what he was saying made sense at any rate. If there was nothing to do about it, then that was that.

Tae then made a good point about it being easier for her if his true owner eventually tracked him down after all. "Hm... I guess it would be." It did make sense - her goal was still to return him to his rightful master, and if that person could figure out where Tae was then it would make her life much simpler. Yet she couldn't help but feel a bit uneasy about the prospect. From all of the minor clues they had gathered so far, it seemed as though Tae might belong to someone potentially dangerous. Even if they weren't, they definitely had more power and resources than she did. And so if they knew how to get to her before she could find them, then she was basically a sitting duck at their mercy. Which of course was not a position she ever wanted to be in.

Perhaps there was nothing she could do about that, either. To be honest, Phoenix wasn't sure. There seemed to be a myriad of things she was uncertain about which, frankly, was frustrating. She was the type of woman to take and maintain control of her life as much as possible. So to be in a situation like this, suddenly bombarded with what-ifs and in a helpless freefall was utterly vexing.

No. Phoenix shook the doubts off. There was always a solution, always a way forward. Sometimes it just took a little closer inspection to find it. With a little time to think and reflect upon the facts, she was sure that she would be able to figure things out.

Stowing her concerns away for the time being, Phoenix focused as the trio proceeded to investigate the files that had been uncovered. Folding her arms across her chest, she repositioned herself so she could lean against the back of her couch. The woman watched with tightened lips and a furrowed brow as a variety of information was projected into the air before them. It was surprising how much Rhys had been able to uncover, and actually a bit overwhelming to see everything presented all at once. She decided to start by examining the blueprints that seemed to set off Tae's unexpected reaction just a short while ago. Rhys quickly rose from his chair and stood closer to the blueprints, apparently having the same thought she did. While her friend studied the images with intense curiosity, Phoenix only leaned over a bit more to get a better look.

"Oh my god... look at all these." Rhys moved from one image to the next, his eyes gradually widening as he came across the designs of what were obviously weapons. "I'm gonna go out on a limb and say these are from the same person who made you, Tae... which is probably also your master, right?" He looked from one image to the next with increasing excitement that was almost akin to a child in a toy store. After a few moments he stopped to focus in on a couple of the weapons.

The more nefarious-looking designs seemed to only be in the concept stage. However, from what Phoenix could tell, the notes and ideas were quite detailed and fleshed out nonetheless. "So these are kinda like... covert things. Spy weapons, even?" Rhys remarked, glancing from Tae to Phoenix and back at the doodles. "Like, these are tiny guns you can hide in... I guess glasses or on a small part of a PET like Tae." He absently laid a finger on the dip between his collar bones as he peered a bit closer at a small note in the corner of one of the images. "It seems like the bullets could be replaced with blades of some kind too... or at least, they were toying with the idea."

Phoenix felt the unease grow at the pit of her stomach. None of this was exactly making her feel better about potentially being tracked down by Tae's owner. But she did her best to ignore the thought. When her robotic companion informed them that he had none of these weapons inside of him, she gave a short laugh. "Thank god for that. I'd hate to think what would've happened yesterday if you did." It certainly wouldn't have been so easy to clean up, that was for sure.

"But maybe... maybe Tae's one of the older models, and he's got a successor that does?" Rhys chimed in, stroking his chin thoughtfully. Phoenix frowned at her friend, not exactly comforted by that thought, but said nothing. After being friends with him for this long, she could tell when he was mostly thinking out loud.

"Anyway, it'd be good to familiarize ourselves a bit with some of these things." Phoenix looked over to Tae as she spoke. "In case we run into any of them in real life. The weapons in particular." She cast a wary glance at the image of the gun hidden in the eyewear. If this person was able to create Tae, she was sure they would be able to bring their other ideas to life as well. And it was possible that they had even more dangerous designs out there, too.

Deciding it best to move onto something less worrying, Phoenix turned to the next chunk of data that she hadn't seen before. At this point she stood up from the couch and walked a bit closer so she could better read through the lines of text. This file seemed somewhat innocuous at first glance, but once Phoenix started to recognize a great number of high profile people she knew it was something more. Mayors, senators, CEOs, even a good handful of celebrities all showed up with various notes beside their names. "Jesus," she breathed. "Even the president is on here..." After the words left her lips, Rhys' attention shifted away from the blueprints and he joined her in observing the list.

"God, the mayor, too! She's an... alcoholic? Well, I mean, I guess I'm not surprised -- but whiskey? And she can be manipulated as long as she's drunk?" Rhys shook his head. "How... how does someone get this kind of information? And about so many different types of people..."

Phoenix had no answer. Instead she wordlessly continued down the list, noting how several names were merely labelled with 'Enemy', a date - most of them already past - and nothing else. The majority of names were unfamiliar to her and those she did recognize were from the news - that is, until she saw one in particular. "Oh... holy shit." She felt her blood run cold and a lump form in her throat. Slowly, she raised a finger and pointed to a name near the bottom of the list: 'Easton Tsai: Enemy. 06/13/21.'

"I knew this guy. I was friends with his sister. He... Well, he had tried to get me into some shady work when I first immigrated here. He was in the business of smuggling goods... and people, I'm pretty sure. Last I heard from my friend, he had died in a car crash - around this date, actually. Does that mean..." Phoenix trailed off, leaving her conclusion to echo within her mind. She had to assume this list also belonged to Tae's owner - so did that mean they were involved in his death?

She looked from Easton's name to Rhys, who was looking at her with an uncharacteristically serious expression on his face. Phoenix, who was only growing more anxious the more she learned, turned her face to Tae as he spoke up again. "But doesn't that mean if someone specifically ordered you to cause someone's death, you would?" She took a deep breath, trying to keep her mind straight. "Even if you couldn't, maybe there are others like you who can. Others that were made by your real master."

Thoughts seemed to pour into her head at a steadily accelerating rate, one starting before the other one could finish. Phoenix looked to the floor and shook her head slowly, trying to process even a fraction of what was coming into her mind. What had she gotten herself into? How far down did this rabbit hole go, and where would it lead her? She could feel her heart beat quicken, her blood burning hot with panic. But then, the feeling of a large, warm hand on her back brought her to lift her head once more. When she did, she saw Rhys giving her a small, weak smile. "Hey, Phoenix... just breathe. It's okay." He moved his hand and gently squeezed her shoulder. "I know what you're thinking... and maybe it's true. But it might not be, either. We don't really know anything for sure right now, so... try not to get too lost in speculation. Right now, we just need to find more information. And until then, you're safe. You've got your own personal bodyguard, remember?"

He gave her shoulder a pat before withdrawing his hand. Slowly, Phoenix nodded. "... Yeah. Yeah, you're right." She looked up and smiled gently, her head firmly bobbing a few times as she regained her composure, her pulse steadying as her worries faded to the back of her mind. "Thanks, Rhys." She turned to Tae and found herself smiling at him, too. Rhys had a point: Tae was more than capable of protecting her. With all this new information that had come to light, she supposed that she had to revisit her original idea of trying to limit his combat capabilities. Although she still didn't want him to react with excessive violence - especially to people who hadn't done anything that bad - she obviously still needed to make sure he could still defend her if she were seriously attacked.

But there was still one more major piece of information they still had to look at before she said anything about changing her mind. "Well then, let's see what this is now," she said, her tone and expression a bit brighter as she took a step to the side to examine the last file that was projected. It was a bit less straightforward than the previous two, as it had a bit more jargon, but Phoenix was able to understand it clearly enough. It was relatively simple, but definitely a huge finding: essentially, with Lai.Pro, Tae would be able to truly act more human. He would feel some equivalent of emotions and, with it, the some degree of 'empathy' that would undoubtedly help him to better understand humans.

"Dang, so Tae could seem like a human on the outside and the inside..." Rhys turned his eyes to the android in question and nodded slowly. "That's huge... Phoenix, I think maybe this is the solution you might be looking for? We wouldn't have to mess with any of Tae's combat protocols, and if you install his Lai.Pro, I don't think he'll go overboard on punishing some poor soul again. Or at least, I don't think it'd be very likely. Uh, probably."

Phoenix touched a hand to her chin, meeting Tae's gaze as he offered to make room for the installation. The corners of her lips curled into a small frown as she studied him silently, mulling over her decision. It was a bit of a drawback to lose his unfailing logic - after all, she did value his cold, calculating robot brain even if it had been frustrating to deal with at times. Moreover, there was probably a small degree of risk in installing something that was still a prototype. However, it was a risk she was willing to take. Other than those things, giving Tae some emotions seemed to provide more benefits than anything else - at least in her mind. It would be easier for him to blend in for the time being, and - most importantly - she wouldn't worry so much about him going nuts on some random person after a tiny slight. Even though some of his functions would be lessened, she was sure they could still make do with whatever drawbacks they ended up with. Also, to be perfectly honest, she was extremely curious as to what kind of personality Tae would develop, and how true to life his 'emotions' would be. She had never imagined that artificial intelligence had already reached such a point, and to be able to witness it first hand - even through a prototype - was, well... tempting.

After the silence passed she took a deep breath and nodded. "Okay. I think we should do it, Tae. Get set up to charge, take your time, do whatever you need." With her decision made and Tae set up to make the preparations, Phoenix turned to Rhys. "Hey... thanks for everything." She rubbed the back of her neck, suddenly feeling a little embarrassed that her friend had seen her moment of weakness, however brief it may have been. "Sorry it took so long - I didn't really think it would take this much time out of your day."

Rhys, who had packed up this things, waved his hand dismissively. "Ah, shush! Don't say another word. Like I said, I love this kind of stuff, y'know? So it's kind of like you're doing me a favour by letting me help you. I mean, where else could I get to tinker with something even close to Tae?" Smiling, he put on his shoes and coat and laid a hand on the doorknob. "I'm just glad we found... well, something of a... possible solution. Tae's a tough cookie to crack, and even then I didn't really get down to the nitty gritty. His programming is wild, man." He cleared his throat and opened the door to leave. "Anyway, let me know how things go - just text me tomorrow, that'd be good. Have a good night, Phoenix." With a wave, he walked through, leaving Phoenix to close and lock it behind him.

When she turned around she breathed a deep, heavy sigh. It had been an eventful few hours and, despite having done very little, she felt exhausted. Still, she had a lot to to think about and consider. Not to mention dinner to eat. And so, with her mind still full of thoughts and worries, Phoenix went about her evening as usual, glancing over at Tae fairly frequently as he worked. After having some time to herself she was able to process everything she had learned at least to the point where she wasn't as uneasy or anxious. The unknown and uncontrollable factors in her situation still weighed at the back of her mind, but she had begun to find solace in accepting whatever her fate would be. While she hoped that she would be able to get back to living her life somewhat normally, she was not so naive as to ignore the possibility that her name would end up on that hit list, as well. And if that were to happen? As much as she wished she could get out of such a situation on her own, she knew Tae would be her only hope. So she hoped Tae would be able to help and protect her somehow if push came to shove. But failing all that... perhaps that was just her fate. As long as she didn't give up and kept making her own choices right to the end, Phoenix would have no regrets.

With these thoughts cementing themselves in her mind, she eventually went to bed, ready to meet the 'new' Tae when she opened her eyes again.
 
There was not much to say about the weapons that were discovered that Tae did not already mention. The most important part was that he was not fitted with any of these, although it did bring up one question. Why did Tae not have these weapons? He clearly was designed to be able to fight and hurt, yet he did not have these guns, so did that mean that he was an old model like Rhys suggested or were these simply designed after his original creation? “Old or newer model, I doubt that it matters. Theoretically, these weapons do not need to be implanted during the initial building process, they could be added later on. It is possible that older models do have these weapons inside of them now and the only reason I do not is because I am here and not with my creator.”

Even for Tae, with his lack of social skills, could make the logical jump between what Phoenix was saying about Easton Tsai and what had happened. He was killed, and not in a regular accident, but a more purposeful car crash that was only staged to look like chance. “Well, yes.” Tae admitted when Phoenix called him out on being capable and willing to kill, “ If I am ordered to do something, I will as long as the order does not put my master into physical harm. I must do what my master tells me even if it harms another human in the process. I possess the leeway to interpret the order and perform it however I wish, but the overall message will stay the same.” It was what happened the other night when Wendy ordered Tae to have fun at the club. She may not have told him to go dancing specifically, but by telling him to have fun Tae found a way to make it happen. He filled in the blanks that short orders did not offer, but since he could also follow long and complex orders, it was possible that all of his freedom could be taken away. It was the same for if Tae was told to kill someone and make it look like an accident. Tae had options ranging from a car crash, to staging a hanging, a fall down the stairs, or an overdose.

Unaware of Phoenix's unraveling state, Tae continued to muse aloud, “Yes, the other humanoid PETs likely have the same ordering function as I do, so they likely are capable of killing when given an order, even if it is not what they would prefer to do the majority of the time. I would rather not kill, but if you asked it of me, I would serve as I am designed to. The orders are made to take away our free will because at the end of the day, the others and I are tools that need to be controlled at times.” Even when talking about himself in relation to murder, Tae still did not think of himself as a person, more like a wrench that just so happened to be able to talk and walk.

“I will also point out that-” Tae stopped mid sentence when he glanced over and Phoenix and Rhys and saw his mistress being comforted. Why was he telling her to breathe? Did she have asthma? It did not seem so considering that she calmed after being spoken to after a minute, something that did not often help asthma attacks… Perhaps he said something that caused her anxiety? Tae was about to apologize for something that he wasn't even sure that he did when Phosix smiled at him, making Tae throw out that hypothesis as well.

As manners dictated, Tae returned the smile even if his was so small that it seemed like just the corners of his lips turned up for a second. Tae may have been capable of showing teeth when smiling, but did not seem to be his natural or default smile. Nodding his head, Tae tried to pick up on what Rhys was saying. “He is correct. I will protect you, and those close to you, no matter what.” That included destroying himself past repair, or destroying someone else past recovery. Whatever it took, it would be done. Tae didn't know if his additional reassurance would help calm her further, but he hoped it would.

Getting back to work seemed to help, thankfully, and soon enough the trio were looking at the final file. Lai.Pro, the title of the file, was oddly familiar to Tae. He did not mention it to the others since he could not explain the sensation that could only be compared to human deja vu, but that did not change the fact that Tae knew that Lai.Pro was important outside of just how it could change his own personality and mannerisms. How important and in what way was a mystery, but one that they would find out since, in the end, Phoenix decided that installing the program would be for the best.

“Very well, I estimate the installation will take about eight hours, give or take any fluctuations in the wi-fi.” This was a long time for even normal PET installations, but that only further highlighted the fact that Lai.Pro was incredibly large. Tae immediately started the program, knowing that he would have all night to make room for the entire thing. He was in no rush however he did take a seat near the wall in the same spot as he always did, it was as if he had claimed that area of the floor as his designated charging location.

From this location Tae quietly watched the pair exchange goodbyes. He did not say anything to Rhys as he left, nor did Tae immediately begin speaking once he was gone. In fact, Phoenix did not seem like talking so after nearly a half hour of doing nothing besides watch Lai.Pro go from 0% to 3%, Tae decided that he had to do something, even if it was not a necessity as of yet. He needed to make room inside of his hard drive, and once that was done he could put himself into his resting state so that he would not be conscious while Lai.Pro downloaded.

There was no need to make a projection of what Tae was doing, however as the robot accessed his own programming his eyes lit up, emitting a blue light into the room. Thankfully, nothing had to be deleted, however many things would need to be deactivated and then put into a zipped up file, something that compressed all of the data so that it was smaller but accessible if someone wanted to reverse what they had done. Scanning over what could be sacrificed Tae was overwhelmed. All of what he could do now was necessary, his ability to hack into things, his ability to fight, to research, to store any and all information gathered. He did not think that emotions were worth any sacrifice, if anything having emotions was going to be more troublesome. But what must be done, must be done, and thankfully at the end of the day the Lai.Pro could be uninstalled and Tae could return to his normal self if needed. So with great hesitation and what could only be called regret, Tae started compressing his programs.

First to go was his range, which normally was large enough that he could hack into places or PETs from across the street but from here on out any hacking would require him to be only a few arms lengths away from the target. Second, Tae had to dedicate one of his backup hard drives to Lai.Pro completely, meaning that the amount of information and data he could share would be lessened from now on. Third, and this was more of a by product rather than something Tae was purposefully locking away, his mental capacities would be a bit slower now simply because the Lai.Pro was something passive that was always activated. It would constantly be taking a lot of bandwidth and energy that normally could be put towards search speed. There were a handful of other talents that had to be locked away for possible future use, but those were the major ones that were worth noting.

By the time that Tae had finished picking what was best to compress and what was truly needed, Phoenix had went off to bed early. Tae also followed her lead, putting himself into a rest state that was not exactly being turned off but he was inactive in body, and his mind was only performing the necessities. Tae did not know how he would be when he awoke, his timer set for the moment before the installation was completed. How would he ‘feel’? Would he think different and/or prioritize things different than he would now? Tae certainly hoped not, but with this prototype there was no telling now Tae would react when the morning came.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Like a switch, Tae’s eyes snapped open mere seconds before the Lai.Pro came into effect. At the other end of the apartment, Phoenix was resting soundly as far as Tae could see, which meant that she was fully unaware of the change that was just about to happen. Not that he was capable of doing so emotionally, but Tae wanted to prepare himself somehow. So in the last few moments of raw logic, Tae created a word document that held simple instructions and rules that Tae had lived by up until now to act as an instruction guide for his future self who, like most humans, may have trouble making logical decisions. Most of them simply highlighted the importance of putting Phoenix’s safety and goals above his own, however there were a handful that offered advice when it came to how to deal with choices that were a bit more rare. Always choose saving the majority over the minority, even if said minority was considered ‘innocent’ in the eyes of humans. Keep his true identity as a PET a secret if at all possible unless Phoenix told him otherwise. Learn as much as possible about the people around Phoenix no matter the means, such as hacking or invading their private information because it is for her own safety. There were a handful of more, but in the end, Tae’s thought process took a halt as Lai.Pro activated completely.

Tae let out a sharp gasp, not needing air but the shock of what was going through him causing him to react despite that. “What is…” Tae whispered into the dark room, his mind trying to make sense of everything that was suddenly rushing through him like an electric shock. Fear, rage, sorrow, joy, in a single second what was once nothing more than a passing emotion that was so dulled it may have not been there was now raging inside him without any barriers or way to truly process it. Tae had never felt before, but now he was feeling everything, which left Tae sitting at his spot against the wall, blinking his eyes rapidly as if he were fighting back the tears that were impossible for him to produce but he was also clenching his fists that shook from the pressure and desire to hit something.

“Sadness and rage.” Tae muttered, able to identity what he was feeling clearly and without more than a moment's thought. His body and mind simply understood it, but it did not yet know how to control it. All Tae knew was that he did not want to sit still anymore, he wanted to do something even if it was small.

With that in mind, Tae got to his feet and forced his hands to unclench as he looked around the room. Something quiet would be necessary since Phoenix was still resting, and that sadly did not leave many options. As Tae trailed around the room, he looked at things with a new light. The kitchen was not just where meals were prepared, but where friends could gather. The bedroom was not just a place where humans rested their heads, but where people could find comfort and security. But best of all, the books on the shelf were not just places where information or fiction were collected, but within the pages there was the chance for entertainment and growth. Thinking like this, and knowing that books were at least quiet, Tae glanced over the titles before picking out a handful of those that looked to be the most worn down. If Phoenix liked them, then Tae wanted to know what they were about outside of just the online summaries he could find.

By the time that morning came his emotions had stabilized and Tae was back in his normal spot on the floor with a stack of books beside him and one in his hand. The robot did not need light, his eyes produced all that he needed, so even without turning on the lamp or waiting for the sun to rise Tae had been able to read all night. Furthermore, Tae’s brain worked faster than a humans did, so he could read through the pages at a greater speed. His hands could barely keep up with his eyes which rather than trailing over each word individually took a glance at the entire page and comprehended it a second later. Tae had gotten through three books over the night, all of which Tae guessed were Phoenix’s favorite, and he was about half way through the book he was breezing through at the moment.

Tae likely would have continued through his pile if it were not for the fact that he just so happened to look up from the book just as Phoenix lifted her head from the pillow. Once again, Tae felt a shock go threw his body, his eyes flashing blue as he saw her face as if for the first time. Shock likely showed on his face in this moment but it was replaced with a small smile after a moment. It was still not a full on grin, but the corners of his mouth were turned up and it stayed that way for more than a second, which was progress.

Master, Tae thought, triggering a feeling personal joy at the sight of her as well as an overwhelming desire to make her happy and safe. Although he had never truly done so before, this morning Tae actually looked at Phoenix as more than just a female human who did not share that many traits with his own appearance. She was fragile looking, at least at first glance due to her heart shaped face and small build, however the piercings, dyed hair, and her wardrobe that was majorly black contrasted that first image enough that she ended up looking less like a damsel and more like a rebel. But she was pretty, Tae could see that now, and he understood why that worthless drunk man from the alley was so interested in her. She needed to be protected from men like that, and more than that, she needed to be taken care of with the same intensity as she put into her hair and skin.

Tae was staring as he admired his mistress’s appearance for the first time, but once he managed to shake that off Tae climbed to his feet in order to greet her. “Ah, good morning Phoenix! I hope you slept well.” Tae called out, that same small smile still on his face and it seemingly was not going away. The expression of contentment was plastered onto his face without flinching downward for a moment.

“I did not get any messages for you while you slept, however, and I hope you do not mind, but I took the liberty of informing Rhys that Lai.Pro had been successfully installed. I also took the liberty of reading a few of the books on the shelf as I waited for you to wake up.” Tae motioned towards the stack of books that he had read and the much smaller stack next to them of what he was going to read. “These looked to be your favorite and I wanted to learn more about your interests. If you wish to describe them to me, I would be happy to listen.” Tae wished to understand his mistress better when it came to what was not physical, something he had for some reason not looked into very much over the last few days with her. And although these books were not necessarily to Tae’s taste, he could value them because Phoenix valued them. Tae was not sure what his tastes were exactly, but anything fictional seemed to repel him more than the rest.

Walking into the kitchen, Tae immediately started to prepare Phoenix's normal egg breakfast and coffee, just as he had seen Phoenix do and what he had done once before. He did not need to be asked to do this, nor did he feel the need to wait to address the elephant in the room, “I should inform you,” Tae continued once he was sure that Phoenix was fully awake or at least out of bed. “Lai.Pro has been installed and I can detect no problems as a result of the installation. As for as I can tell, everything is working as it should and my emotions are fully functional. ”

“But I would rather not talk about myself, and you just woke up so I would rather not overwhelm your mind speaking about technology. Shall I update you on the news instead or is there something you would like to discuss over breakfast?” Apparently, Lai.Pro made people more talkative... or at least more capable of carrying on a conversation. It was unclear if Tae would always be talkative or if it was simply because of the newness of the program, it was possible that it would simply take Tae some time to adjust to Lai.Pro and develop his own personality in greater detail. At the very least it was worth noting that the old Tae’s personality was not completely gone, as seen by the formal way Tae spoke even when being friendly.

Lai.Pro also did one more interesting thing that was immediately apparent. As Tae was cooking the eggs, at least when he was not talking, he was humming so softly it could barely be heard over the frying of the eggs. It was the same song that he had found choreography and danced to at the club, the one playing on nearly every radio and would soon be overdone to death. Tae had not lost his memory after all so he knew this song well enough to hum to it, and if challenged to do so, he likely could have danced to it again as well. And with Lai.Pro in his system, Tae would have been happy to do just that.

Tae took the seat across from Phoenix after handing her the food and drink, this being the first time he did not just hover around her or immediately go clean up the dishes. With his long arms and metallic exposed hand, Tae folded his hands in front of him and crossed his legs, his back straight and chin held high. This was also the first time he had sat in such a human, although still very proper, position. Where he learned his mannerism was unclear, but Tae suddenly sat less like a statue and more like a lady in an important business meeting. “How does it taste?” Tae asked, wanting to know how he did and if it was better than the last time he had done it. “Perhaps I can try and make you pancakes next time? It does not look too hard, and based on the pictures I saw online, it seems to be a popular breakfast item in this country. I can also likely find a way to fit fruits and other such toppings into our budget.”
 
Tae sort of debunked Rhys' theorizing on why there were no weapons presently installed within him now. While it was nice to have the robot's thoughts on the matter, Phoenix had to admit that the new perspective and information - while useful - wasn't exactly comforting. It sounded like he and other robots like him could be modded out to have lethal arms if their maker so desired. And from the sound of it, he typically did. Regardless, there was nothing more to really do with the intel seeing as Tae had no hidden weaponry and he was not with anyone who could give him any.

The woman went on to learn more about the robot's inner workings as he elaborated on how he processed orders. Phoenix had more or less knew what he told her, but it was helpful to hear it spelled out explicitly for them. "Right. I could see your real master using that to all sorts of advantages." She nodded a little, still feeling uneasy as she thought about the newly implicated foul play in Easton's death. While he had obviously been into some shady business, he still wasn't a big league player by any stretch of the imagination. It was perhaps this that made her the most frightened: if Tae's original master went to the trouble of murdering a small fry like him, did that mean he'd have no issue 'taking care' of a nobody like her, too?

Oblivious to her growing anxiety, the android went on to describe how the other PETs like him were probably the same, and just as capable of killing someone. Had Phoenix not been in a state of distress she probably would have found some fascination in hearing that Tae didn't really 'want' to kill anyone, but would have to do it anyway. But of course it was lost among the slew of other thoughts that tumbled into her brain, pulling her into an uncharacteristic state of mild panic. After some point Phoenix became inattentive to the goings-on around her, and lost track of whatever Tae had been going on about. However, her distress did not have a chance to grow too much, as Rhys' comfort came at just the right time. His voice and his touch pulled her out of her worries in a remarkably quick way. When he instructed her to breathe she did as she was told, her chest gradually inflating with each deep inhalation. As she did, she focused her mind, consciously clearing out her thoughts so that she could regain her typical calm, confident composure.

Phoenix became conscious of Tae again when she smiled at him, to which he sort of grinned back. She was unsure whether or not the PET had picked up on what happened, but he reassured her of his protection in any case. Laughing lightly, she nodded at the dark-haired robot. "Thanks to you too, Tae. I'm sure you will."

As the three of them went over the remaining information, discussing them as they went along, she was eventually brought to the decision of installing Lai.Pro. After she gave the order to Tae, he informed her that it would take about eight hours. So basically, she wouldn't be able to see the program in action until tomorrow. This was of no issue, and was more or less expected. In fact, it would have been more surprising if such a large program only took a few hours to put into place. Phoenix made her acknowledgement and agreement known with a simple nod towards Tae, who went and took a seat in his usual spot. Meanwhile, she said good-bye to her friend, who she found herself increasingly grateful towards. Not only for his technical expertise, but for his kindness and caring as well. Had she been alone with Tae, she probably would have broken down much, much more than she did. Even though machines and robots had gradually replaced a lot of human roles out there in the world, there was still nothing that could replace a real person in terms of friendship.

Although she supposed that, come morning, there might be some chance that she could be proven wrong. Maybe Tae would be that much more indistinguishable from a human with the addition of Lai.Pro's emotions. And if this technology was the real deal, maybe even all PETs would be soon.

------
​
In the hours leading up to when she slept, Phoenix left Tae alone. At some point his eyes came on, blasting blue light quite brightly throughout her tiny apartment, but she paid it no mind and was able to quickly fall asleep. As sleep took hold of her consciousness, her brain continued its frantic activity and produced some strange, erratic dreams. They were fleeting and fragmented, short scenes that played out briefly before dissolving into the abyss. People she saw on a daily basis passed through alongside faces she could no longer remember the names of. Events played out that felt as real as the waking world, and then instantly gave way into something that barely made sense on its own. It was a rollercoaster that ended abruptly as she found her body rousing herself back to reality. Phoenix slowly blinked the sleep out of her eyes as the familiar images of her apartment came into her fuzzy view. Groaning quietly, she rolled onto her back and gave a long, slow sigh. She could remember bits and pieces of what had just transpired, but everything else seemed just out of grasp.

Still, despite the oddities that ran through her mind overnight, she felt well rested. Yawning, Phoenix sat herself up and stretched her arms high into the air as she gazed out at the window where sunlight gently trickled in. She then turned her head to take a look at where Tae had been sitting, only to catch him standing to his feet. When he greeted her brightly, she found herself simply staring at him, eyes wide with surprise. After a moment passed, she was over her shock enough to respond. "Oh, uh... morning, Tae." The woman nodded at him before she made her way out of bed, her eyes wandering over to the two piles of books that had formed near him. When her gaze made its way back to him, she noticed that he was still smiling.

The update he gave her was unrequested and uncharacteristically chipper, but not unwelcome. Phoenix tucked a strand of hair behind her ear as she stood before him, slowly nodding in acknowledgement of his news. "Yeah, I can see that..." she said, glancing at the towers of novels he had put together. When he offered to listen to her descriptions of her favourite books, Phoenix looked back at Tae and finally broke out of her surprise with a laugh. "Sure, if you're really interested then I guess I could. Maybe a little later on, then." The smile lingered over her lips as she watched him stroll into her kitchen to start preparing her breakfast, as usual. She followed him in and leaned against the counter, watching him with subdued awe as he began cooking as he always did.

Phoenix let out another laugh as Tae informed her that Lai.Pro had been installed without any issues. "I can see that, too. I'm glad that everything went smoothly and you're working just fine." It was like they had gone from zero to a hundred... and, well, she supposed they had. Suddenly meeting a Tae who exuded brightness, energy, and smiles definitely took her aback, seeing as just yesterday he was telling her matter-of-factly how he would kill someone if he was ordered to. But to be honest, she found herself quickly growing accustomed and fond of this new Tae. Last night, she had gone through a few moments of doubt where she considered 'waking' the PET and telling him to cancel the installation. Hopefully as he showcased more of his emotions she wouldn't find herself wishing she had followed her hesitations.

"Hearing the news is probably a good idea. But maybe just the headlines; we can talk about something a little less depressing over breakfast." She gave Tae a little grin, folding her arms and using them to rest her weight on as she leaned. It was interesting that his speech patterns seemed relatively unchanged, what with his somewhat formal choice in vocabulary. For a moment she simply watched him, noting any subtle shifts in his mannerisms and generally processing the fact that she was witnessing a groundbreaking facet of artificial intelligence. Now that he seemed to be acting more human, the only things that really set him apart from a true person were the handful of damages that they were still not able to repair. But had Tae been in perfect condition with Lai.Pro installed, Phoenix wasn't sure she'd be able to tell him apart from a real man.

After a short time spent observing Tae, she excused herself to go to the bathroom and quickly change out of her pajamas. When she returned, he just about finished up her breakfast and was setting it up. It was then that she noticed an unusual melodic noise in the apartment. Frowning, Phoenix briefly wondered if she had left something on before she realized that it was actually coming from Tae. "Wait, are you actually... humming? An actual song?" She arched her brows and smiled, genuinely amazed at what she was witnessing. Not only was he doing a stupid, useless human thing, but he had chosen one of the songs from the club - a piece of information that really had no use for a robot. Or at least, the one she had known yesterday.

In any case, Phoenix sat down at the table and took the food from Tae. "Thanks for the breakfast," she said, feeling pretty cheerful herself, before she started to dig in. As she chewed she looked up at Tae who sat primly on the other side of the table from her, with his hands folded on the wooden surface. When he inquired about the taste, she nodded and gave him a thumbs up. "It's good, as always. You make it perfectly every time, just as I'd expect." She took another bite, chewing thoughtfully as he offered to make her pancakes next time. When she swallowed, she shrugged her shoulders a bit, but was unable to keep the smile off her face. Somehow, she felt like a child whose mother had just offered to make her favourite breakfast. "Well, I mean - I guess if you want to, I won't stop you. Pancakes are hard one to turn down. Anyway, you could give me the headlines now." She paused, and then added, "Please." It felt strange - it wasn't like she was previously ordering him around like a servant, but now that he seemed so different - so much less like an emotionless machine - she felt compelled to mind her manners when she asked him for things.

Once she had heard enough of the news, she held up her hand to signal him to stop as she finished her last bite of food. "That's good, thanks," Phoenix said once her mouth was clear. Taking her coffee mug in her hand, she raised it to her lips and took a small sip. When she set it back down on the table, her thin fingers still laced through the handle and around the side, she met Tae's eyes. "So... how do you feel? What does it feel like to suddenly have these feelings after not having any? If it even feels any different at all." She leaned forward in her seat, her dark eyes glimmering with interest. "I don't know if it's something you can really explain, but I have to admit that I'm really curious. Obviously I've never known what it's like to not have emotions, so I can't help but wonder what both states of being feel like."
 
At the mention of talking about the books at a later date, Tae nodded with pleasure. “Wonderful, thank you.” Learning about your maste-mistress was key towards being able to make them happy and to be able to provide them with a companion whose interests matched theirs. And Tae wanted to be that companion that Phoenix could come to no matter the thought or desire.

“Is it that obvious?” Tea asked over his shoulder when Phoenix commented on how she could see that Lai.Pro was installed. It didn't feel like it should have been obvious, in fact, Tae could not really tell the difference between yesterday and today. He knew that he used to have slightly different priorities and would focus on different things, but when it came to emotions, Tae could not clearly identify the line between his now and his then. “I am glad that everything went smoothly as well. It’s too nice of a day to spend inside working on repairs after all.”

As their conversation lulled, Phoenix eventually went to change which left Tae alone to his work. When she returned however, she greeted Tae with shocked amusement. “Yes I am! It is the first song that I ever danced to so it is important to me. Besides, humming is something that people do when they are happy, is it so strange that I may do so as well? I am, after all, happy to be here and helping you start your morning.” As if to prove that he was happy and that humming was not strange, Tae even sung a few lines of the song with a voice that was so perfectly pitched that there was no doubt he used autotune when he sung… and likely when he spoke as well.

“You are more than welcome.” Tae responded while he watched her eat with an attentive gaze, making sure her coffee never became cold or empty the entire time no matter how many times he had to get up and down. “Then I will pick up the ingredients as soon as I can!” Realizing his mistake, Tae stopped speaking for a moment before apologizing.“Oh, right, you do not want me going out on my own nor have you given me permission to make purchases on your behalf. Forgive me for my impudence.” Tae was not exactly asking for permission to be on his own, however he clearly wanted the freedom, or at least that was what the underlying message was within Tae’s next sentence was, “I shall simply have to wait until you are free and willing to go shopping with me then!”

With Phoenix's prompting, Tae immediately looked up the headlines from both national and local news. “Well, first off, the weather calls for sunny skies until dusk upon which time there is a 54% chance at their being rain, but personally I would estimate it closer to 71% so I would recommend you bring an umbrella to work tonight.” That was the first piece of news-esce material Tae mentioned since the weather was always important information to have, especially when Phoenix had to go to work without her own personal vehicle. After that however, Tae went into more proper newsworthy sections. Some of it were financial updates such as the rise and fall of stocks, something which Tae assumed Phoenix would find interesting for some reason, but there were also some less technical news.

Unfortunately, none of it was positive. Tae made a grimace as he read over the headlines, but he shared them anyways since that is what Phoenix had asked. “The political climate is taking a turn for the worse ever since the President’s failed negotiations with enemy units overseas. Although technically the war has not changed due to the failed peace talks, support for our President has decreased which in turn will likely result in less funding towards continuing the war and/or helping those injured by it. There is also a case of a fire starting in the national medieval museum, which is suspected to be sabotage, and has resulting in a few hundred thousand dollars worth of property being destroyed or stolen. The cameras were disabled during that time so the police are making inquiries about it possibly being an inside job. The next headline is from the local news and-”

Tae paused as he realized what the article was about. With a quick, soft sigh, Tae quickly rambled off the news as if like a bandaid, doing it quickly would lessen the sting.“On thursday night a man was robbed and attacked in an alley between 3rd and 4th street. He was nearly beaten to death but fortunately is in a stable condition at this time. The attacker is described as a 5’7”, average weight man wearing a balaclava. Unfortunately, the culprit has not been apprehended, and if we have any information regarding the events of thursday night then we are asked to call the local news tip line.” This was, of course, the man that Tae had defended Phoenix against the other night, the one who he had almost killed.

This was not the happy morning that Tae had wanted, but he knew that there was no avoiding a discussion regarding the drunk man from before. Phoenix would eventually learn that the attack was mentioned in the news so better to discuss it now rather than later after Phosix heard it from Wendy or someone else at the club.

“I don’t believe I ever properly apologized for my actions towards that man…. but I do regret how far I went.” Tae had only apologized for going against Phoenix’s orders and causing her trouble. This time though, Tae was actually apologizing for hurting the man. And although Tae kept his eyes on the coffee Phoenix was drinking, the avoidance of eye contact was just another way that Tae was revealing just how human, and how bad, he felt about the situation. “I cannot describe how I felt during that time-” Mainly because at that time Tae barely had emotions, “-however thinking on it now, I must have been eminently angry at him for trying to harm you. I am aware that rage does not justify actions, but even now I cannot imagine letting someone hurt you even a little bit. Still, it is my job to defend, not to seek revenge.” Without permission, of course.

Finally, Tae looked Phoenix in the eye and gave her the same enthused smile from when he saw her wake up not too long ago. He was sincere as he spoke, hope and trust reflecting on his once stoic face, “I hope you accept my apology on this matter, and we can move on without that weighing our relationship or our mental state down.”

“But let’s not talk about unpleasantness anymore! You have a busy day and it is not wise to start the day off negatively!” Tae was obviously desperate to chance the topic. Thankfully, Phoenix took initiative and asked a hard, but still much more pleasant question.

Tae pondered her question for a moment. Did he feel different? “No, I would not say that I feel any different. I always had emotions, to some extent, only now I am a bit more in tune with them and can identify what I feel more clearly.” Due to this, Tae was able to think back and pick up on things that in the moment meant nothing, which was the core cause as to why he could not identify a clear line between who he was then and who he was now. The ability to rhetrospect let Tae fill in emotional gaps with whatever emotion the current Tae imagined that he felt at the time. This was not a conscious effort though, Tae had no idea he was putting in feelings when there once was nothing but logic, however that was how Lai.Pro was designed. Whatever robot received this program would never know that they were once a husk, they would project emotions into memories and never fully be aware that they were once not there.

That did not mean the transition was seamless however. There were still actions that he did in the past that new Tae did not understand, or at least did not make sense to what he now felt was the most logical option available. “The only difference that I can describe is that I simply feel a touch more confused about who I once was. There are questions that I ask myself, such as why I had never asked about your personal or family life before- Which is something I am now highly interested in and would like to know about when you have the chance- but I also am curious about why I did not laugh at jokes some of your friends made. They were not subtle quips, yet I remember not having a reaction to them, which is strange to me. I suppose I just did not find them funny at the time…..” Tae furrowed his brows as he tried to figure out why he did not laugh at jokes in the past, the look on his face making it seem like much more of a problem than it was.

Suddenly however, the grin returned to his face, his concern gone within an instant. “Oh, yes, there is one more difference that just occurred to me! I am in a much better mood today than I ever was in the past however!” This was not the type of difference that Phoenix was asking about, but Tae and his nearly never un-smiling face felt the need to point it out that today was the best day of his remembered creation. Why? Tae had no reason, it just was a good day to be with his mistress and, hopefully, it would only get better as he continued to serve her well.

“I hope those answers sated your curiosity at least a bit. I’m sure that in time I will be able to put what I am thinking and feeling into words far better than I am at the moment. Time always brings answers, after all.” Although Tae could not identify it, Lai.Pro was still new in his system and it would take time to figure out the entire spectrum of what it was capable of and then put it into words that could be understood. Nevermind the fact that emotions were not easy to talk about even for humans and Lai.Pro was actively working to avoid there being a clear difference between who he was now and who he once was.

There was one question that Tae had though, something that he originally planned on waiting to ask but seeing the opportunity, he figured that he may as well breach the topic now. “So, if you do not mind, would you tell me how you feel? Or more specifically, how you feel about me now? I cannot identify the differences within myself as clearly as you do, so I wonder if this ‘change’ pleases you?” Tae wanted approval, that was clear, and unlike before, now he was willing to directly ask for it.
 
Phoenix couldn’t help but laugh. Was it obvious? Was the sky blue? “Yeah, you’d have to be dumb as a doorknob not to notice.” A smile lingered over her lips as she glanced out the window, admiring the blue sky and bright sunshine that streamed in. Tae was right – it was definitely too nice of a day to spend cooped up. And there was another small but very significant change. The old Tae would have never made such a subjective observation. With this thought, her gaze wandered back over to the robot in question. So far his new personality was quite bright and friendly. Definitely nothing she had any complaints about. But she couldn’t help but wonder if it might change over time as this ‘new’ Tae went through new experiences. Would he be weathered by the world, soured by the cruelty of humanity? Or would this chipper, upbeat persona hold steady?

Really, only time would tell, but she couldn’t help but linger on the thought for a few moments nonetheless. As Tae went on to address his humming, cheerfully confirming her suspicions and explaining that it was out of happiness, Phoenix chuckled a bit again. She hoped this pure, happy Tae was here to stay. It was definitely a breath of fresh air in the midst of her otherwise mundane, boring life. Hell, she was even getting a free little concert with her breakfast. Never before did she think she’d be sitting here in a situation like this.

When he was finished singing, she gently clapped. “Nice job, Tae. Thank you for the show. I’m glad you’re happy to be here.” With traces of a grin still on her lips, she turned back to her breakfast until her robotic companion brought up the topic of grocery shopping. “Hm, you’re probably better with Lai.Pro installed, but I think we should still go together for now. But don’t worry about it, no impudence perceived.” The woman waved a hand dismissively, letting the subject drop from there. It seemed his innate subservience was still intact, although she wasn’t surprised. Even though they had added emotions to his programming, at his core he was still built to serve.

From there, he followed through with her latest request regarding the news. Phoenix listened attentively, finishing meal in the midst of his reporting. As she silently sipped on the remainder of her coffee, her eyes narrowed slightly as the somewhat negative headlines reached her ears. There was never anything positive in the world news; and if there ever was, it was almost instantly drowned out by the heaps of other awful events that occurred every second. Speaking of which, she was mildly surprised to already hear about the bit of news she and Tae unfortunately had a hand in. Frowning, Phoenix set down her still three-quarters-full cup and sighed quietly. Guilt crawled back into her chest, wrapping itself around her heart. It was good that he was stable, and in a way it was his fault for starting things in the first place… but she still couldn’t shake the remorse. After all, what if he had died? And they just got away scot-free?

Phoenix’s gaze had fallen into her lap as her thoughts circled around in her head, but was redirected upward as Tae offered a direct, sincere apology for his actions. Looking at his expression and his avoidance of eye contact, she felt her eyes soften and her body slightly relax. It didn’t really change her own sense guilt, but it was a relief to see that he was indeed capable of not only remorse, but self-awareness. So when he looked to her with a smile once more, she gave a soft, somewhat tired grin back. “Don’t worry about it. I know you had my best interests in mind, and it wasn’t really anything you could control. I’m just glad to hear you feel that way about it now. Hopefully there’s not a ‘next time’, but if there ever is, I’m sure you’ll use a bit more discretion now.” Phoenix wrapped her hands around her coffee mug and swirled the remainder of the drink idly around. “Anyway, this won’t affect anything between us. And the guy’s fine apparently, so there’s nothing more to worry about, so long as we don’t draw any suspicion to ourselves.” She wondered if there would be any officers coming around work tonight. It was certainly within the realm of possibility, so she made a mental note to prepare herself for some damn good lying.

Regardless, the pair agreed to put the rather unpleasant conversation behind them and move onto a more positive topic. Phoenix picked up her coffee and drank the rest of it as Tae offered an answer after a bit of careful consideration of the question. Her head bobbed slowly as she listened, a minuscule wrinkle forming on her brow. Discussing emotions and self-conception was naturally abstract, and even moreso with the added complication that Tae was, you know, a robot. But everything he was saying was pretty clear once she wrapped her head around it. Although she didn’t necessarily have the answers to his small self-identity dilemma, she felt that she could mostly understand where he was coming from. "I wouldn't worry too much about the jokes. But I guess you didn't react to it all because... well, you weren't programmed to?" She shrugged a bit. "Humans are similar, in some way. We're hardwired to do certain things in certain situations, and not in others." It wasn't much of a good explanation, but it was more or less the only idea she could offer.

Once he finished off his answer on a high note - complete with his apparently neverending smile - Phoenix found herself smiling back. "Well, I'm glad you're in a good mood! Makes it hard for me not to feel the same." And it was true. Tae's cheeriness this morning was frankly contagious, even despite the worries that lay dormant deep within her psyche. "Anyway, that certainly satisfied my curiosity for now. Feel free to share any other thoughts if they come to you; I'd be interested in hearing them." With a small nod for emphasis, she placed her empty cup on top of her plate and neatly arranged the cutlery next to it as Tae posed a question of his own. Sitting back in her chair, she folded her arms comfortably across her chest and pursed her lips, taking her own turn to ponder over an answer.

"I'd say that I liked you before we installed Lai.Pro." Phoenix stared thoughtfully at the crumbs on her plate before she met Tae's eyes again. "But so far, I'm liking this post-Lai.Pro you quite a bit. You're more cheerful and animated, I guess, which is nice." A brief silence rolled over her before she let out a chuckle again, this time in spite of herself. "If I'm being totally honest with you, I never noticed how lonely this shitty apartment was until now. Up until yesterday I guess you were still a companion to me, but today it feels more like I actually have company. So, I'm enjoying it." Ever since she moved from China, she'd never held down a steady boyfriend, let alone had someone move in with her. When guys came over they'd usually leave in the morning, or they would spend the day together doing something outside the house. Even past roommates were really just people she shared space and rent with. But waking up with Tae greeting her, making her breakfast, chatting with her... it felt like she actually was living with a friend. Which was nice... even though it was a bit embarrassing to admit.

Clearing her throat, Phoenix rose from her chair and picked up her dishes. "Anyway, thanks Tae. I'm going to wash up. You can leave the dishes if you want to read or something, I don't mind doing them when I come out. Really." She walked over to the sink and placed them inside. After setting them down with a gentle clink she disappeared into the bathroom where she began to go through her morning routine. Once she was freshened and made up she emerged from within and habitually made her way over to her phone. The small light at the top pulsed green and blue in turns, signifying she had missed a call and also had messages. Frowning, she picked it up and brought the screen to life with her fingerprint.

5 missed calls and 10 messages, all from her mother. Phoenix made her way over to her bed and sat down on top of it, where she opened up her messaging app. She hadn't heard a thing, probably because her phone was still on 'Do Not Disturb' mode from the night time. Normally this number of messages wouldn't concern her, but she knew that her mother never called unless there was something important they needed to talk about. And she certainly never called so many times when it was so late at night back home.

She felt her heartbeat quicken in her chest as she scrolled through the messages. 'Please call it's an emergency. Are you okay? Please pick up. Where are you? Did something happen?' Calls were placed in between these messages before her mother apparently decided to just explain things through text. 'Your father is in the hospital. Needs to be transported to Hong Kong for surgery. His debt was more than he told me, and the collectors..... got very mad. They want his debt and extra for apology money. And I'm not sure if we'll have enough for the surgery.' Phoenix took a deep breath, tightly gripping the sides of her phone to try and anchor her shaking hand. The final message was a bit hopeful, but it still did nothing to calm her nerves. 'I think we have barely enough for hospital. But I don't know. Please call me as soon as you can.' It was sent about fifteen minutes ago, so she was sure her mother was still waiting for her to get back.

Inhaling deeply again, she slowly rose to her feet and glanced over at Tae. To be honest, she wasn't sure if he was aware of all of these messages... but she supposed it didn't matter whether he did or not. What was most important was speaking with her mother and getting the full story. "I'm just going to step downstairs for a quick smoke." Phoenix spoke steadily and cautiously, masking the unease in her voice. "No need to come with me, I'll be back in a few minutes." Quickly, she walked over to her jacket and pulled out her pack. After extracting a single cigarette she replaced the box, pulled out her lighter and hurried out the door. It wasn't exactly subtle or suspicion-free, but at this point there was too much on her mind to care.

Too anxious to wait for the elevator, Phoenix made her way down the stairs, her footsteps matching her thudding pulse. Once she was outdoors she went around to the side of the building and placed the cigarette between her lips. After lighting it she dialed her mother's number and held the phone to her ear, tapping her foot impatiently on the concrete. Unsurprisingly, after a few rings her mother's frantic voice came up on the other side. "Hei-Jin! Where have you been? Why did you not pick up?"

Phoenix winced. "It's-- my phone was-- nevermind. What's happened? Is dad all right?" She felt her heart sink, almost afraid to hear what the debt collecting thugs had done to her father. Nowadays most Chinese hospitals were pretty competent at handling most surgeries, but it was not unheard of for people to be transferred to the bigger facilities in Hong Kong, especially in their city that was so close to the border. But people either went there by choice - i.e., to pay for the more advanced, Westernized treatment - or because their condition was simply too critical. And she knew her parents were in no position to be choosing luxuries.

Sobs came through the earpiece, reaching right into her heart. "He's-- he's hanging on, but he's still in surgery right now... The doctors said they'll talk about payment after, because if they didn't t-take him in, he'd--" Tears crashed into her words, a small crying fit derailing her sentence. Phoenix sighed heavily, squeezing her eyes together tightly. She had heard her cry too many times to count, but never before had she heard such pain and agony in each syllable she spoke. Right now, there was nothing more she wanted to do than hold her mother. But they were hours and oceans away. For the time being, what she needed to do was keep focused on the issue at hand. It wouldn't help anyone if she started breaking down and panicking, too.

"Mom." Smoke accompanied the word out from her lips. "How much do you need for the surgery? And what is the total they want us to pay?" Unfortunately the numbers were all she really needed to know. Although Phoenix wanted to understand what had happened - even though it was undoubtedly gruesome - and how her parents got in this awful situation, the details would do her no good. What her mother and father needed from her was money. And she needed to know how much.

It took a few moments for her mother to conquer her tears, but she was able to answer amongst sniffles. "Hard to say but estimate for surgery and hospital stay was 5,000. But maybe more. And they... Hei-Jin, they want 50,000."

Her heart sunk into her stomach. 5,000 yuan was not terrible - it was under a thousand dollars, so she could probably get an advance on her paychecks to cover that and herself. But 50,000? Phoenix did a quick estimate in her head and swore audibly into the phone. It was just about $7,500. She didn't have that kind of money, especially not after everything she had spent on Tae. "50,000? Jesus, mom, what did he do..." Shaking her head, she dropped her half-smoked cigarette and crushed it under her shoe. Her mind was overcome by a tsunami of thoughts. She didn't have that money, and there was obviously no way her family did either. Getting an advance on that much was impossible, too. Which left her with what options? Taking out a loan? Borrowing from friends? Phoenix swore again, shaking her head at herself. There was no way she was going to crawl to her friends, begging for charity. But she wasn't sure she would be eligible for a loan either, with her meager finances and employment.

"Hei-Jin..." Her mother's voice, weak from unimaginable exhaustion, broke through the sea of worries. "... do you have the money?"

'No.' The answer was stuck in her throat. It was the truth, but she couldn't say it. The situation was stressful and disastrous enough for her mother, and Phoenix knew that asking her only daughter for money was just another added source of pain. How could she tell her mother she didn't have enough money to help them? And she, of course, couldn't lie. This was no laughing matter - if these loansharks were willing to beat her father that badly, there was no telling what they would do to the rest of her family if they didn't get their money. Her mother especially. So, finally, she managed to croak out her response. "I will get the money to you. Give me a week, and I'll do it. If they can't agree to that... call me right away. I'll have my phone on all the time."

Another sob. "Okay... okay. Hei-Jin, I'm so sorry. We have failed you as parents, having to ask you of these things all the time, I'm so, so sorry--" Her hand balled into a fist at her side. Phoenix squeezed her eyes shut, feeling a hot tear roll down her cheek.

"Mom, stop. Don't say such nonsense. Just stay strong and tell me when dad is out of surgery, okay? Please." Phoenix gulped hard, fighting back the shuddering that threatened to inject itself in her voice. "I gotta go. I love you." As soon as she heard her mother return the sentiment she hung up and placed a hand over her face. Honestly, she had no real plan to get all that money in a week. She had spoken without thinking it through, desperate to comfort her lonely, distressed mother. But what if she couldn't come through? Or even worse, what if her father didn't make it through the surgery? "Fuck, fuck, fuck..." More curses came into being at the thought. A few more tears emerged from her eyes, one after the other until a sob of her own rose up from her throat. She felt dizzy and her head felt numb, as if all of her worries and doubts had formed a paralyzing cloud around her head. All the while her entire body felt hot and as if her flesh were being scraped away from the inside by the fear and sorrow that had accumulated within it.

Her legs, suddenly as weak as noodles, gently buckled until she was squatting on the ground with her arms draped over her knees. Phoenix rested her head on her forearms, letting herself cry for what felt like the first time in years. Fortunately no one came by the somewhat secluded area she had chosen and, after a few minutes of allowing the tears to flow, she felt them stop. Slowly, she lifted her head and wiped her eyes with the backs of her hands. Although the sensation of anguish and anxiety hadn't left her body, she did feel a bit lighter now that she had let a bit of her sorrow out. It felt a bit shameful to let herself go through a moment of weakness, but for once she let herself off the hook. It was a shitty situation in every way, so she supposed she was allowed a little cry at the very least.

Sniffing, Phoenix dried the rest of her face with her sleeve and made her way back up to her apartment, opting for the elevator this time. A couple of people passed by and joined her in the ascent up the building, but thankfully chose to ignore her red, puffy eyes. When it came to her floor she got off the elevator and walked through her door. There was no point in trying to avoid Tae and pretend she hadn't been crying. If anything, she figured acting suspiciously or waiting until her face went back to normal would create unnecessary alarm in her robotic companion. As such she entered her apartment quietly and closed the door behind her, quietly greeting Tae with a wave. "Hey. I'm back."

Deciding to let Tae inquire on his own - if he so desired, anyway - Phoenix said nothing more and instead made a beeline for her laptop. Sitting down at the table, she opened it up and logged on. Once everything was connected she started her browser and fired off her first search: 'same-day loans 7500'.
 
“Making you happy is all I wish.” Tae responded when Phoenix talked about how his cheeriness made her happy in return. As she continued to share though, Tae reached out and placed his hand over Phoenix’s with the hand that still had skin on it, giving her a small smile as he made a promise he fully planned on keeping, “I’ll be here as long as I am able to so that this apartment is never again lonely for you.”

His hand was cold, the skin not able to produce enough heat to counteract all of the metal that had been chilled by the cool apartment over the hours. If he touched someone unaware of what he was, at least without gloves on, then they would surely think that he had just walked out of a freezer. He was sick or dying, that is what they would think. As if that was not enough, Tae’s hand was unnaturally heavy due to all of the metal used in his creation. But it was not entirely unpleasant or unrealistic feeling, it was smooth to the touch and his long fingers covered Phoenix's hand almost completely.

Tae casually pulled his hand away as Phoenix raised to put the dishes away. “Absolutely not! Household upkeep is part of my job and it is something that I want to do! And besides, better you spend time reading than me… It does take you longer than I, after all.” Tae teased, letting out a chuckle as he stood up. Without wasting time Tae walked over to the sink and immediately started to let the water run so that it would be as hot as possible while he did the dishes. He had to make these plates as sanitary as possible, without a single piece of food left!

Tae’s back was turned so he did not see the light of the phone go off, and although Tae was semi-synced to Phoenix's old fashioned device, her cell phone was so old that it took him longer to get notifications about messages, and now with Lai.Pro, this process was taking even longer. In time, he would get a notification for the calls and texts, and later he would get the actual texts too, but the calls were always out of reach for Tae. Normally he would serve all of the functions of a true cell phone, meaning that he could hear and even record conversations, but Phoenix still used her old phone so Tae could not do that. So for now, it was far easier to send messages out than it was to receive texts or calls.

So when Phoenix exited the bathroom and immediately headed out of the room, all Tae could do was stare with his hands still wrist deep into the soapy water that was so hot it would have burned human hands with extended exposure. Tae of course was fine, but with the way she rushed out of the apartment he became concerned, “Okay, Phoenix. I’ll be here when you get back.” He assured her, his brows furrowing but he did not stop her.

Meanwhile, Tae finished up the dishes which did not take long. Right as he was drying his hands, making sure there were not any droplets between his metal plates, Tae received a notification of a call from Phoenix's mother. There was a voicemail, but that was saved to Phoenix's actual cell phone so Tae could not listen in. Thankfully, or perhaps unfortunately, soon came more notifications of calls and texts that actually shed some light upon the matter. ‘Please call it's an emergency. Are you okay? Please pick up. Where are you? Did something happen?’
‘Your father is in the hospital. Needs to be transported to Hong Kong for surgery. His debt was more than he told me, and the collectors..... got very mad. They want his debt and extra for apology money. And I'm not sure if we'll have enough for the surgery.’ and ‘I think we have barely enough for hospital. But I don't know. Please call me as soon as you can.’

“Ah, I see.” Tae whispered to himself within the empty apartment, now understanding why his lady walked out of the apartment in such a rush. “What a terrible situation…. This explains why her bank savings are so low… She has been tending to her family all this time. I wish there was something I could do to ease her burden.” Just as Tae thought this, two dynamic ideas came to mind.

The first was work. He was qualified to work nearly any job, whether physical or intellectual, as long as no one knew what he really was. Even without a degree he was confident that he could find a salary that would make money no longer be an issue… however that took time and Tae had no way to know how quickly the family needed the money.

The second idea was one that Tae quickly stifled away, but it was an idea. Getting rid of the family would solve all money and emotional baggage that they were forcing upon their daughter. This could mean simply removing them from Phoenix's life, blocking their number and removing all legal connections to them, or it would be as serious as removing them from life entirely. But Tae did not want to kill them since they had not really done anything wrong and clearly Phoenix cared for them enough that she was willing to work herself to the bone just to help pay their bills. Murder or removal was not an option when it came to family, she loved them, and that was enough to make Tae ashamed to have even thought of such a bloody option. Love was pure, even when it came at a cost.

So that meant a job, preferably one that would grant Tae a loan and/or pay him his paychecks ahead of time. But there was a problem with that too, Phoenix did not want him to work when she would not even let him go shopping on his own yet. “Perhaps she will simply have to let me work one or two temporary jobs despite her feelings.”

Just as Tae was mentioning this to himself, Phoenix returned. “Welcome back, Phoenix.” Tae greeted instinctively, but he cocked his head to the side and frowned when he took notice of her expression, and more importantly, her puffy and red face. The way she avoided further interaction only proved that the phone conversation made a bad situation worse.

Tae grabbed another steaming cut of coffee before he followed Phoenix over to the computer and looked at the screen, setting the mug next to her just in case she wanted something to relax her. It was true that coffee was caffine, which basically made it the opposite of relaxing most of the time, but it was warm and familiar, so there was a chance it would help.

From behind the chair, Tae placed his hands over Phoenix's shoulders, gently rubbing his thumbs in a light massage like fashion. If she were standing, Tae may have hugged her, but since she was not this was the only physical comfort that he could even attempt to offer. The old Tae never would have touched Phoenix, and if he did it certainly would have have been in this matter, but the new Tae performed these motions without hesitation, as if it were normal. And to him, it was, he had performed this motion dozens of times before.

“7,500? Is that how much your father owes?” Tae asked before explaining how he knew this information, “I’m partially synced up to your phone so after your cell receives it, in time I too will get notifications of calls and can receive full text messages. I could not help but read what your mother sent you…” But that was not important, privacy was less vital than was the health and safety of Phoenix's parents. “I feel sorry for you and your mother that this is happening, but he is alive, and that is what matters. ”

Tae wanted to offer comfort in a way that he never would have been able to before, but things were not sunshine and rainbows, and Tae did not want to lie about it. “I’m not confident that your credit score is good enough to get a loan immediately. How long do we have to make payment? And what is the minimum amount that we have to get? The more information that I have the more accurate I can be searching for things that we may qualify for.”

Phoenix and Tae were a ‘we’, or at least they were in Tae’s mind. Her problems were his, and his problems were hers. That is what a partnership was all about, and more importantly, helping Phoenix was what he was built for. “I know that things look bad now, but they will improve. You and I will work together to find a solution to this and all of your problems.” Removing his hands from her shoulders, Tae knelt down so that he was more at eye level with Phoenix. “It may not seem like it, but you have many options available besides loans…"

"After all, if we run out of options I do not mind if you sell me to the highest bidder! I’m sure that even broken you could get more than enough money off me!”

This was not what Tae wanted, but he said it with a large smile and a happy tone. For once, this was not just failing to mention something, it was a blatant lie that he pulled off flawlessly. Leaving his lady was a horrible thought since he felt connected to her in a way deeper than a contract, but sacrifices sometimes had to happen for the betterment of one of them. And between his happiness and hers, he would choose Phoenix every time.

However, that was a last resort and Tae quickly stood up as he prepared to get to work, “But before we try that, let's go over our other options, yes?” Tae created a projection on the wall of a list of what they could do to rectify the situation, some realistic, some less so, and others criminal in nature.

  1. Get multiple, low level loans. Con- Interest rates high and will likely not work out long term, especially if any other issues arise.
  2. High level loan. Con- Do not qualify for many of them, and those that we do will take awhile to receive.
  3. Tae can get a job, a temporary job, or the like in order to bring in more money.
  4. Personal loans from friends, distant family, or professional relationships.
  5. Ask friends and acquaintances for jobs that they will pay you to do for them.
  6. Hack into banks and transfer money from strangers accounts into your own. Con- Highly illegal, slight risk in an arrest occurring, and morally wrong.
  7. Hack into hospital records and airlines so that ‘Mom’ and ‘Dad’ can get transferred to a local hospital and therefore out of bounty hunters range. Con- Will take time we may not have and there is no way to know if the loaners will chase ‘Dad’ across borders.
  8. Participate in bot fighting. Con- Illegal and will draw notoriety to Tae not being human.
  9. Offer and sell Tae to wealthy parties.
Tae continued talking as he kept the neat list he had just came up with, “These are the options I see being available to us at this time. I attempted to highlight some of the negatives involved with each option but I imagine that there are a plethora of pros and cons for each that I did not write up yet.” Tae was speaking with a gentle tone, but the word choice and way he was formatting the conversation was reminiscent of how he used to act, all business and with a focus superior to any humans. Emotions or not, he was still a super intelligence with the entire internet packed into his brain.

If Tae was being honest, although he listed everything that came to mind, there was only a handful of them where the gain would be equal to the risks and costs. And that was selling Tae or bot fighting. Getting and job or loans was too slow and would not guarantee enough money, even if it came from friends. And hacking international data basis or banks was risky, especially so soon after Tae hacked into the alleyway cameras. And since Tae did not want to leave Phoenix, although it was a true option, the only one that appealed to Tae was bot fighting.

It was a crime, yes, but not a serious one. It would be a few years in jail at most for every person who was there, but some would get off free or with a warning. Phoeix may be one of those few who got a warning in the rare case of police swarming a bot fighting ring. The money however was quick since anyone could step in and challenge the current bot ‘champion’ as long as you had some money to put down as a bet. If you win, you get your money back as well as the champions bet… then there was the audiences bets which you got a portion of too. You could make a good amount of money just with one fight, and if you won multiple? Then collecting $7500 was more than possible considering Tae's skills and unknown limit of abilities.

This could work long term as well if need be, especially since there were rumors that once you won enough battles then you would be invited to a special bot fighting ring that was far more legit than some random parking structure or warehouse.

Sure, Tae’s secret was vital, but if he were ordered to or asked to by his lady, then he would happily reveal his true identity. It was worth it if it meant helping out the people Phoenix cared for. There was a plan B though, where he pretended to not be fully thinking and would only follow orders as if he were a normal PET, which would semi keep his identity a secret.

“So… what are you thinking?” Tae asked after a moment of silence. He was really hoping that he was not going to have to push Phoenix towards bot fighting which, to him, was the only option guaranteed to work long or short term. Sure, she was admittmently opposed to it before, but things had changed, hadn't they? Lives, or at least the wellbeing, of her family was at risk now! Tae knew that family mattered, and if people important to him were in danger then he would do literally anything to help them no matter the cost. And that included now, because if Phoenix insisted on any of the other options then he would enroll himself into the bot fighting behind her back. Better to ask forgiveness than lose the life or well being of her parents, after all.

“I’m still willing.” Tae said, letting her fill in the blanks for the moment about what it was he was exactly willing to do. “Money in what matters here, and although it is not optimal, I would argue that it is necessary. If it makes it easier for you, I can take care of it all, start to finish, or we can ask Rhys to assist me. That way you can keep your hands and conscious clean”. If Phoenix did not yet know what Tae was talking about, mentioning Rhys should have been enough to help her realize that this was about bot fighting.

And really, Rhys was only for sure needed once since he was the only way that Tae knew of to get them inside of a bot ring. Sure, Tae could find the websites detailing where and when the fights were taking place, and he could hack into their site in order to learn who was set for fighting that night, but that did not mean he could get an invite. The only way to get inside of one of these places was to know someone already involved, or spend the time trying to make connections online. Bot fighting was popular but when it came to local fights the bouncers knew the faces of who was allowed in or not, and it wasn't like Tae could hack into brains, so he could not fake his way inside without a bit of help.

“I’ll respect whatever it is that you choose to do.” Tae promised, not confident that he would be able to keep that promise as well as protect her and her family.
 
There was a surprising tenderness in the way that Tae laid his hand on hers, so much that Phoenix almost physically recoiled. It wasn’t unpleasant, but his warm words in conjunction with the odd sensation of his ice-cold pseudo-skin against her own was definitely not something she’d been anticipating. “Thanks, Tae,” was all she could manage in response as she felt a slight heat creep up into her ears. It was a bit embarrassing to admit this, but she realized now that it’d been a long time since anyone held her hand and had spoken such kind words. Although the weight and temperature of Tae’s hand was as far as human as it could be, there was something a bit comforting in the way its heaviness rested gently over her own.

The moment was fleeting, though – perhaps fortunately so – as she moved to do the dishes. Tae protested in response, insisting that it was not only but his desire to do so. Instead he encouraged her to read more, seeing as she would take longer than he did. Not only was there a bit of jest in his tone, but he actually let out a little chuckle. Phoenix’s eyes widened for a moment before she found herself laughing as well. “Wow, geeze, okay – sorry I’m not a robot, I guess!” She held up her hands and smiled before she continued on to the bathroom.

When she had finished and emerged to her panicked messages, Tae gave no indication of concern or knowledge of what was going on. Whether he was pretending or not was something the woman could not discern, but at the time she didn’t care. There were bigger issues in her mind that eclipsed any worries about that. Even as Phoenix returned from outside he welcomed her back to the apartment with no apparent change in tone. Perhaps it was just an automatic response at this point, something hardwired into his programming – but again, it was a smaller issue that barely occurred to the woman. Again, if Tae decided to ask about things she wouldn't bother hiding it. But right now she couldn't worry about how much he knew or cared.

After she sat herself down at her computer, Tae appeared at her side with a fresh cup of coffee. Phoenix barely glanced at the mug as he set it down next to her before her gaze flew right back onto the screen. Her eyes were narrowed beneath a furrowed brow, and her lips pulled back in a deep frown. It felt like there were a million thoughts and feelings racing through her body all at once, crashing into the walls of her veins and tearing her insides apart. But then, as she felt Tae’s cold but strong hands begin to gingerly massage her shoulders, she was abruptly yanked out of her spiralling emotions. “What the f--” Phoenix gasped, sitting up a bit before she finally turned a bit to look up at Tae. The woman’s eyes popped open with surprise and confusion at the android’s second unexpected gesture of affection. Again, it wasn’t unpleasant, but it definitely came out of the blue.

However, her shock was quickly overcome by her worry and sorrow as Tae asked about how much her father owed. Initially, Phoenix felt a bit of confusion around just how he already knew. But when she explained it, she felt a bit silly – she should’ve guessed that were the case. Chock it up to being panicked, she supposed. Swallowing hard against a lump that formed in her throat, the woman nodded a bit. “It is,” was all she could quietly offer in confirmation.

He offered his sympathy for her plight, but also a rather optimistic notion of comfort. It was true… in some way, paying off a debt was better than having to pay for a funeral. “Hm, I guess you’re right.” Phoenix nodded a bit in agreement. If she was being completely honest, there had been times in the past – dark, angry ones - where she wondered if it would’ve been better for her father to have just dropped dead. No debts had to be paid if there was no one to accumulate it. But that was a terrible thing to think, and she regretted it dearly. Thankfully, Tae shifted the conversation away to more practical matters, remarking that her credit score was not good enough for an immediate loan.

Phoenix grimaced a bit. The truth hurt, but he was right about that too. “I told my mother I’d get it in a week.” Saying the words aloud made her realize that perhaps she had spoken too rashly. But it was too late to back down on that now. “I don’t know if-- I mean, with these types of people it’s better to just have everything all at once. Giving them bits at a time won’t do anyone any favours, and at this point I really don’t want to take any more chances.” She turned away from Tae a bit so that she was sitting sideways in her seat, leaving the mug of coffee where it sat on the table. “To be honest, I don’t know a lot about how these debt collectors really work… I mean, aside from rumours and movies. But if they were willing to go as far as they did, I really just want to give them the full amount and get them off our backs forever.”

The dark-haired woman folded her hands in her lap, casting a hopeless glance at her computer screen. 7,500 was a lot of money to get in just a week – it would be more than a thousand dollars a day. Pursing her lips, Phoenix inhaled deeply as Tae offered some more words of support and encouragement. The android’s hands left her shoulders as he came around to kneel before her so that they could make eye contact. She frowned again as he mentioned other options she had, before extravagantly presenting the idea of selling him off to someone. A sound halfway between a scoff and an incredulous chuckle somehow made its way out of her mouth as she instinctively gave Tae a light, scolding tap on the shoulder. “Don’t even joke about that, okay?” Phoenix shook her head at him, appreciating his attempt at lightening her mood but wholly disagreeing with the notion. She was committed to getting him back to his true owner, and not selling him off like some used electronic she didn’t need anymore.

Fortunately it seemed Tae at least agreed that would be something of a last resort – if anything – as he stood up and projected a list onto the nearby wall. Phoenix, with her eyes still sore and her face still damp with tears, looked over to it and slowly rose to her feet. The woman took a few steps towards it until she stood next to Tae with her arms folded across her chest. Her eyes followed the lines of text displayed on the wall and mentally crossed off each one she knew wouldn’t work or simply couldn’t agree to on principle. “I think you got the main pros and cons,” she remarked in response, her head bobbing once in agreement.

By the time she got to the last option, Phoenix pretty much immediately went back to the top to revisit each one. Although there were a lot of different routes they could take, none of them seemed like anything truly viable. Getting a high level loan was out of the picture; and getting lower-level loans would just put herself in debt on top of everything else. She was willing to do it if need be, but to be honest she wasn’t thrilled about the prospect of potentially going bankrupt and ending up on the street. With regards to Tae getting a job, it was a possibility she didn’t mind as much now that she had seen the massive change Lai.Pro had made in his functional abilities. But they had a short time frame to work with – it might even take a week for Tae to get a job at all. Similarly, doing jobs for people on her own would be unlikely to rack up enough money in just a week, either. They'd have to be some nefarious business if that were the case.

Phoenix lingered on the fourth option for a moment, chewing it over in her head. Asking her friends for help was not something she wanted to do. The only thing she hated more than coming across as a charity case was actually explaining all the nonsense that her family dealt with. But when she thought about it, she figured she could swallow her pride and go to one or two people she truly trusted… However, there was no way she could get nearly enough to pay things off. Still, desperate times called for desperate measures – so she had to at least keep the notion in consideration.

As for hacking into banks and hospital records, Phoenix shut those ideas down almost instantly. Even hacking into the club’s shitty little CCTV system had been worrisome enough. They didn’t need to go international with this. The woman shook her head a bit and moved on to bot fighting.

Just yesterday she had refused the idea completely – and when she first read the list, she still did. But upon revisiting it, Phoenix had to give it a bit more thought. It was admittedly less illegal than the last two options, and there was probably the potential that they could actually make all (or most) of the money in a week. Rhys was likely still willing to assist in getting them in… but it was still illegal. Biting her lower lip, she folded her arms and lightly tapped her bicep with a finger from the opposite hand. Sticking to her principles had always been important to her, especially when it came to how she made her money and kept herself afloat. Living an honest, hard-working life was rewarding, even if it was difficult. But once again, desperate times and desperate measures, right? Would it be better than crawling on her hands and knees, begging her friends and putting herself in debt to them? Phoenix looked to the ground, weighing the two ideas and attempting to decide which was the lesser of two evils. Truthfully she couldn’t quite decide in the moment, but she felt a bit more receptive to the idea of bot fighting. More than yesterday, at least; however, she couldn’t quite agree just yet. Still, it was at least a better option than the very last one.

After some time of silence contemplation, Tae spoke up. Phoenix looked to him with fatigue and uncertainty written over her entire face. “Well… honestly? I don’t know.” With a heavy sigh she plopped back into the chair and took the coffee cup, holding it in her hands for the warmth alone. She briefly stared into the brown beverage until the PET spoke again, reporting that he was still willing. It took a second for her to realize what he meant, and he soon confirmed her thoughts by mentioning her friend.

Closing her eyes, she leaned an elbow on the table and rested her head in her hand. "I don't know..." Phoenix repeated, groaning a bit. "I don't think I want to take out any little loans. And I definitely don't want to hack into anything or sell you off to anyone. I'd love to get the money just from working, but even if you get a job today and I start on odd jobs for people I know, I don't think we'd get quite enough in time. Even if I do ask for an advance from my existing employers." At the most, she'd probably be able to get a couple thousand, tops. In any case, there were essentially two options left. "So really, it's kind of between asking my friends and bot fighting, isn't it?" She sighed deeply, opening her eyes once more. "There are only a couple of people I'd feel comfortable asking for money... and even then, I'd hate every moment of it. Though, I'm not sure I'd be able to get enough from them, either." If she was going to beg friends for money, she sure as hell wasn't going to ask them for anything more than a few hundred each. No one she knew as particularly well off, and they probably wouldn't be able to expend more than that either.

Essentially, in the best case scenario she could scrounge up maybe 3,000 or so, tops. Maybe an extra 500 from her meager, quickly diminished savings. Which still left more than double the amount left to get from... where? Bot fighting, she thought miserably, wondering if it really was the only answer. But was it actually? Could they make that much from it, and in the amount of time that they had? Phoenix turned to look at her computer screen once more, finally coming to terms with what seemed like the only viable option. For a few moments she glared at the pixels, unhappy to have to compromise her values, but realizing that her own pride and folly were really all that was holding her back from an otherwise solid possible solution.

Her shoulders rose slowly, her chest ballooning as she took inhaled slowly and deeply before exhaling in a heavy sigh. Phoenix set the coffee down before she rose to her feet again, closing her computer simultaneously. "Well... I'd like to think about it more, but thanks to my big mouth we don't really have the luxury of time." She paused for a moment, a bit surprised at herself for including Tae in her predicament. Although he had spoken about tackling her issue as a team, she had more or less been thinking as an individual - at least until now, it seemed. Nevertheless, the continued on. "So I guess we'll have to look into bot fighting as the main solution. I could supplement the money through other ways if need be, but if we're going into it in the first place, might as well treat it as the main source of cash until things get dire." The woman rubbed the back of her neck and sighed again as she went to retrieve her cell phone again. After waking it up she dialed Rhys' number and held it to her ear.

After a few rings, he picked up. "Hey, Rhys... I'm really sorry to keep bugging you." Phoenix paused. "Do you have time to come over again today?"

*~*~*~*
​
About an hour later, Rhys was back at the apartment. Prior to his arrival, Phoenix had called in sick for work, in case they needed to get going as soon as possible. Once he came in she brought him a glass of water and sat him down on her couch, getting him up to speed with the situation. While it was painful to have to air out her family's dirty laundry, she was glad that it was at least Rhys she had to tell it all to for now. They had always been pretty good friends, and after all of this business with Tae, she truly felt her trust in him solidify itself in her heart.

After he had gotten the main points of the story, he sat back in the couch and shook his head slowly. "Shit, Phoenix... I'm so sorry. That's absolutely terrible." He ran a hand through his hair and frowned. "I don't have that much money to give you, but if you're sure you guys are okay with bot fighting" - he looked from the woman to Tae and back - "then I can help you guys get started. I know some people and some places you guys can start out. Tonight, even, if you're ready." Rhys readjusted himself in his seat and leaned forward, resting his arms on his knees. "I think that the high-end fighting rings will be your best bet, but they're so freakin' exclusive. It's crazy hard to get in. But it's all rich folk who toss around crazy amounts of money, and I hear they use PETs in humanoid shapes, so Tae might actually blend in a little better."

Phoenix, who had pulled up a chair opposite the couch, rubbed the back of her neck. "I think even with Tae we won't be able to get in right away. So does that mean we need to start in the little leagues?"

"Well, unfortunately, yeah..." Rhys frowned. "I mean, I have a place that's not, uh... too sketchy. You should be able to make a fair bit of money, at least a thousand. But I mean, you know, we're all assuming Tae's gonna win here. And I don't doubt that you're way more advanced than most." The man turned his attention to Tae. "I just... they're pretty much free-for-falls, and a lot of people tend to play dirty. I think they'll resort to some real nasty stuff when they see how different - and better - you are from most PETs." His hands came together and he began to fiddle idly with his fingernails, an air of anxiety suddenly creeping over him. "People will probably film you too, since you look the way you do. And once that's online, that's that. Are you guys prepared for that? Kinda defeats the whole purpose of, uh... going incognito, keeping on the down-low, and whatnot."

Across from him, Phoenix pressed her lips together and looked to Tae. This whole situation did kind of throw everything she was hoping to do out the window, didn't it? Keeping Tae unnoticed, and trying not to get killed by whoever might or might not be tracking them. Still, it wasn't too late to try and make all of the other options work, but if these were risks she - and Tae - were willing to make... then it was still possibly the best option to get the money. It felt terrible to think of it that way - just boiling it all down to money, that is - but it was more than that. It was about her family's safety. And she had to keep telling herself that.

Still, Tae was at the heart of it all. "Are you sure you're okay with all of this?" she asked him, worry etched on her brow. "You don't have to if you really don't want to, you know. I'm not the one putting myself out there in direct danger, and I'm not the one having to fight. I don't want to selfishly force you into anything, or make you feel like you have to put yourself in harm's way for my sake." Phoenix felt a knot twist itself tighter in her stomach. As much as she wanted to help her parents, she didn't want Tae to get damaged or hurt if there were still other directions they could take. "We can figure things out if you've changed your mind."

Rhys nodded a bit, but added after a short moment of thought. "Although... if you're out there and seen, maybe that's the best way to get Tae back to his owner?" He shrugged sheepishly. "I mean, it'd be like... those 'lost dog' posters, kinda. Sorta."

Being found by Tae's potentially dangerous owner was another issue that worried and frightened Phoenix, but she was beginning to realize that any route they took would have risks and dangers, or humiliation, or some other downfall. There was no perfect solution, and no perfect option. As she came to terms with this, she was beginning to grow a bit more confident in her willingness to go along with bot fighting... but it depending on Tae. He was not the same being he was yesterday - he had thoughts, feelings, his own convictions, everything. For all intents and purposes, he was truly more human. Not just a mass of metal and computer chips, or a tool to be ordered around.

"You can be honest, Tae. I won't be upset... like you said, we'll find a solution together, right?" Phoenix offered a smile, the first one that felt genuine since the morning.
 
Tae was now more sensitive to human emotions and the physical reactions that followed them now, so he more or less notice the way that Phoenix flinched away from his touch both when he held her hand and when he touched her shoulders. However, physical contact was kind and intimate, a reflection of how comfortable a pair were with each other. With that in mind, and the fact that all Tae wanted was for her to find joy with him at her side, Tae kept his hands on her shoulders. Eventually she relaxed under the touch, or maybe she simply was too distracted to care? Either way, even as Tae’s new fondness for physical affection became more apparent, the conversation continued.

A week was the time limit, so Phoenix said to Tae’s dismay. That was… not much time to get all of the money. It was possible, Tae knew that for a fact and could produce charts in order to prove it, but it would not be easy no matter how they decided to accomplish their task. “I don’t know much about debt collectors either unfortunately.” Meaning Tae could not produce more information than what Phoenix already knew. Although he hated not to be able to shed light onto matters concerning Phoenix, all Tae could do was nod in agreement when his lady suggested that they pay off the collectors all at once. “I agree with you. Like weeds, problems such as this are best cut down before they have time to flourish further.”

“Thank you.” Was all Tae said in response to Phoenix’s refusal to sell him. It meant something to him that she wanted to keep him… or at least not pawn him off like an old microwave or something. He may have been more human now, but Tae was under no illusions. He was not human, he never could be and did not, at least at that moment, want to be despite the countless virtues human beings possessed. He was a PET, a robot whose life was eternal and dedicated to whoever he was bonded to. Although he cared for Phoenix and wished to stay with her, if he were sold and given to another he would not have a choice but to comply. Still, being wanted was always nice, even for a PET, and the soft smile that curled onto Tae's perfect face reflected the warm feeling that her words brought to him.

Tae raised his head higher when Phoenix said that he got the main pros and cons, proud due to the praise that he was offered. It gave him a high, or at least the closest thing that a robot could get which was a surge of energy throughout his body that gave him an extra burst of energy necessary to continue to do what brought him the praise in the first place.

As Phoenix took her time figuring out what she wanted to do though, the small smile faded and his head returned back to its normal orientation. Tae could think faster than a human, just like how he could read faster than human eyes, so waiting for Phoenix to debate her choices was painful. Immortal or not, Tae seemed to lack patience although he understood why she was taking longer than he did. But understanding why did little to sooth Tae's impatience or concern over wasting the little bit of time that they had.

As Phoenix verbalized her thoughts, Tae nodded. He had looked briefly into Phoenix’s friends backgrounds in the past which included their overall economic values. It was not a surprise that those that worked at the club were in a similar situation to Phoenix, although they did have a bit more money stored up on average. Considering they were not paying their fathers debts though, that too was expected to some extent.

“As far as I have been able to learn, they are not rolling in money either. Taking even a portion of their money could result in them facing financial trouble instead of just us. Also, borrowing so much from friends is statistically shown to result in the relationship deteriorating if money is not returned within the same month of borrowing. ” Tae would be lying if he said he wanted them to suffer from such a problem, but on the other hand, Tae valued Phoenix's happiness over their collective joy.

But that was wrong thinking, all of their happiness mattered… especially Rhys, who was the closest person Tae could call a friend and who he trusted the most after Phoenix. In addition, Rhys was the only way Tae could get to the bot fighting rings, meaning he was the key to getting money for Phoenix.

Tae let out a sigh of relief when Phoenix came to the right, and only, decision. “That sounds like a plan. It’s quick money, and if we do it nearly every night for the rest of the week, attempting to get into more lucrative rings each night, then we will have plenty of money to spare.” Tae opened his mouth to ask if he could call Rhys but Phoenix was already on it, resulting in a happy smirk from Tae. Thankfully, no more waiting.

Or at least that is what Tae thought, because next thing he knew Tae was back at his spot on the floor and charging for at least an hour as they waited for Rhys to arrive at the apartment. Tae was wirelessly charging, wanting to be full of energy for whatever went down tonight, but he continued to keep his eyes flashing through the books resting on his lap during that time. Although he was reading, there was no missing the way that every five minutes on the dot Tae would glance up, look at Phoenix to check her emotional and physical state, and then at the door to check for Rhys or intruders. Tae would always flash a smile if he made eye contact with Phoenix, but otherwise he kept a content expression on his face, unflinching like the metal doll that he was.

The moment that Rhys arrived Tae jumped to his feet and greeted the man with a nearly identical smile that Phoenix had woken up to. “Hello again, Rhys! Thank you for coming on such short notice” After that though, Tae took a protective and supportive stance behind Phoenix while she explained her situation. If needed, he filled in the blanks or at least the statistical numbers behind some of what was going on. If not then he simply stood, breathing and blinking without thought, even shifting his feet like any regular human would need to do.

“Thank you Rhys. We really appreciate this.” Tae said the moment that Rhys agreed to get them an invite. “A few nights at different locations is all we need, so little leagues will work fine. I’m a unique phenomenon, after all. Once the word gets out that I exist I’m sure that the high end rings will be sending us personalized invites” Some would likely even invite Phoenix on social calls just to talk to her and ask how she made Tae. Although there were humanoid PETs, none were as human in appearance as Tae was, so they would be interested without a doubt. Maybe people would pay just to study him which would make fighting in the high rings unnecessary!

This optimism was carried over to Tae’s mannerisms and outlook even when the questions were directed at him and the threat posed to him. “I am willing to do anything for you Phoenix, for you and for those you care about.” Tae immediately responded, no thought needed but plenty of emotion stirred. Keeping his stance behind Phoenix, Tae once again put his hand on her shoulder only this time there was no massage, just weight and a light grip as if to prove that he was there and he was not fragile. He returned her smile as he continued, “I don’t care if I get damaged. I’m not human after all, if I break you can just repair me and it will be like nothing happened!” That is of course unless someone damages Tae’s mainframe again, but people had to know that was there in order to target it, so as long as that was avoided there was little chance of Tae ‘losing’ himself.

“As for our secret…” Tae started, turning towards Rhys but keeping his hand in place. “It’s not that big of a deal, is it? Keeping my true identity a secret is all for Phoenix’s benefit, and if it helps her more to reveal myself, then it’s worth it. Besides, it’s not like I’m showing everyone my true identity. It’s just a bunch of criminals who can’t really tell anyone of importance without getting themselves into trouble as well. My secret will just be one more secret that any bot fighting regulars are used to hiding.”

That was what Tae said but there was a nagging buzzer going on in the back of his head that had been going off ever since the topic of revealing himself came up directly. It was a warning, one easy enough to ignore with everything else going on, but it was clearly there. Core programming dictated that Tae was to keep himself under disguise at all times… unless his lady said otherwise. So technically this warning was pointless since Phoenix was saying that it was okay, but still it soundlessly beeped on in Tae’s head as if conditions were not met to justify even considering telling the truth in such an open way. It was annoying, mainly because it did not make sense based on everything that Tae knew about himself and how he worked.

Keeping his eyes on Rhys, Tae channeled a bit of his annoyance at the mental warning into his voice, “And what do you mean, ‘assuming that I win’? Of course I will. Most PETs are mindless and are not built to fight, so they will be relying on verbal cues, remotes, or similar things to know what to do and when. Human error and human reaction times will slow them down. I on the other hand can think and move freely… Don’t forget, this is low level fighting rings so most of these people are just dabblers in the craft, not professional builders. If one of their PETs falls apart mid fight there is nothing that can be done, if I am damaged I can just do emergency repairs enough to keep me going.” Tae was not actually upset, perhaps a bit insulted that Rhys had so little faith was more accurate. He was built to serve and, apparently, to fight. He could do this because he needed to, because Phoenix wanted him to. That was all he needed.

As if to prove that he was not truly angry and to apologize for his tone, Tae chuckled and scratched his face in an almost cartoonish display of embarrassment, “Although to be fair, my programming is not designed for fighting non-humanoids. I will have to be improvising most of the fights until we get to the high level rings, but i doubt it will be hard to kick a few sharp jawed dogs or the like. Please don't be worried about me or my skills."

“But never mind all that!” Tae exclaimed, stepping away from Phoenix and placing himself into a more triangle like position with the human pair. Suddenly he was full of energy again, optimistic and determined to serve his purpose. “This is a matter of life and death so I want to do this, no matter the risks to my body! And it’s just one night! If I can’t handle myself against dogs, snakes, or whatever non-living creation the others come up with, we can find a new plan. For now this is the best bet to saving our family, Phoenix. We have to do this.”

Like a cliche high school sport movie, Tae extended his hand into the middle of the trio, seemingly waiting for them to also put their hands in the center. "Shall we get ready, then?"

~~~~~~~~~~~~

After the conversation there was a few more hours until dark, and after that there was a few more hours until the bot fighting ring would start to let people inside. This was an illegal activity, after all, so it was rare for them to open their doors to people until after midnight. And it wasn't like Rhys and Phoenix wanted to be the first people there either, so they waited… and waited… and waited.

Finally, 2:30 am hit and Rhys, Phoenix, and Tae were parked on some random side road near the part of town were all of the factories tended to be placed. During the day this place was hell, loud, smelly and crowded as far too many low level workers bustled about performing jobs that they hated. At night though, it was empty and silent, like a horror movie, and the only thing that clung to this part of the city after dusk was the stench of chemicals and the occasional, uninterested security guard.

But if you knew where to go like Rhys did, then within this metal wasteland you would find one warehouse that looked just as black and empty as the rest of the buildings, however this one let out the constant hum of clinking metal and music which gave away it’s true purpose. It was a needle among haystacks, the one active warehouse in a sea of empty husks. As if that there not enough, there were people going in and out of the building in semi-steady bursts. Some were dressed well, as if this was just one more stop on a night of clubbing, while others wore nothing but sweats stained with oil and what may have been blood. Then at the front was a security guard of the factory they were trespassing on, keeping people out… or at least keeping people out that did not have permission to enter. There was little doubt that any guard normally assigned to this area had either been bribed or had ‘coincidentally’ been put on a different route for the night.

The trio walked towards this place slowly and ended up semi-following a group of girls towards the warehouse. Two out of the five had rolling suitcases dragging behind them in the cement, the weight of whatever was in there threatening to break the wheels of the cheap carryer. They were babbling to each other in rapid, excited, but hushed tones. They were combatants, clearly. No one would bring a suitcase to a place like this unless there was something within it that they did not want anyone to see until the ‘big moment’.

Sadly, any big moment they wanted to have was going to be overshadowed by Tae who was without a doubt going to steal the attention during his first fight, if not the moment he tried to convince the ‘Ringmaster’ to set him up with a fight. In this place you could challenge someone and the Ringmaster would organize a location within the warehouse for you to duke it out, or you could simply ask for a fight and he would set you up with the next open spot on his list. He was the organizer, the planner, and generally the one you had to get through if you wanted a chance at fighting. Thankfully, he did not manage the bets as well, instead there was a different person for each individual ring designated to take, hand out, and keep track of competitors down payments.

There was a short line in front of the warehouse that the security guard was sorting through, to some peoples dismay. The security wasn't tight here since this was a low level ring so all the guard did was make sure that no one was bringing in actual guns or non-PET weapons, and that at least one of them had been here before. Since Rhys had been here before, and the only thing that the trio had brought with them phones and enough money to buy their place into the rings, they got in quickly without a problem. Since there was no metal detector either, Tae went right in with nothing more than a smile and nod towards the guard demoted to bouncer.

Inside was ear numbing. It was so loud that it was a miracle that the walls of this place could even partially muffle the sounds, let alone almost completely hide them. But that's blessing was part of why the fights were taking place here in the first place. Inside there were bright lights from over head, most of them the warehouses fluorescent white ones, but people had brought in colorful lights on tripods in order to add a bit of flare to the dust and dirt coated air that made this place look like there was a fog machine running.

Through this dirt coated fog people could be seen everywhere, some wandering, some rushing around, but most of the people were crammed into circles with a range of size and tightness. Some large rings only had a handful of audience members, the large PETs not interesting enough to draw a crowd, while some rings no larger than a work desk had dozens trying to get a peak at the action. All in all, with the booming crash of metal and baseline as well as the constant talking and shouting, this place was chaos incarnate.

Not liking it, Tae moved closer to Phoenix. Choas was dangerous, chaos was risky, and for a being made out of knowledge and numbers, he leaned more towards order than he did this kind of scene. In addition, Tae did not want to get separated from Phoenix, for his own good as well as for her safety. One little push and she could end up in the middle of a ring, directly in the line of bladed wings attached to a once innocent parrot that now could pierce metal with just a flap of its wings. This bird was a popular attraction it seemed even despite it's small size.

Unlike the bird which was colorful besides the metal blades, Tae was not. Since he only had a handful of clothing, the options were limited and just like Phoenix he dressed mainly in dark toned outfits. Today he was wearing dark jeans and a no sleeve but high neckline shirt that showed his arms but covered the plate leading to his mainframe. Sure the mainframe was covered, but it was weaker than it used to be, so the less obvious that part of him was the better. As for his arms, they had chosen a sleeveless shirt for one reason, when Tae removed his long gloves, people would be able to see at first glance at he was not fully human, and if they looked closer, they would see that he was not human at all. This was important because they had to convince not just the Ringmaster that Tae was the real deal, but the audience as well, otherwise there was no chance at raising money or being invited to higher betting bot rings.

This was part of the plan that the crew had come up in the many hours before they arrived at the warehouse. But there was one more deciding factor vital to the trio. How was Tae to act? Would he act normal, or at least his new Lai.Pro normal? Cheerful and an independent thinker who could speak, and more importantly, fight on his own? Or would it be better for Tae to pretend to be a soulless puppet that could only respond to direct verbal commands and had no free will or thought himself?

The latter was certainly more subtle and less attention grabbing since he would blend in more with the crowd of animal or box shaped PETs who were incapable of action without orders. This would rely on Phoenix acting as well though since she would have to constantly be shouting orders or motioning Tae into action despite the fact that he would likely be ignoring her the entire time during the fights and moving on his own.

The former however was bound to get attention faster, both within this place and outside of it. It gave Tae full freedom though. He could fight without pretending to be paying attention to Phoenix, and he could interact with others on his own, whether kindly or as enemies. It would give them more wiggle room as well as less of a headache when it came to making this plan go through, that is of course unless Tae's freedom made people nervous and it set them more on edge than they would have been if he was controlled by orders.

No matter which Phoenix and Rhys decided was best, Tae pretending to be a puppet or being fully open about how free he was, Tae was going to take a backseat role when it came to dealing with the Ringmaster and other bot builders, or whatever they called themselves. Independent thought or not, Tae was still the robot and needed to make Phoenix look mostly in control.
 
Interestingly, a sigh of relief came out of Tae as Phoenix came to terms with bot-fighting. Naturally, he agreed with her decision and added that if they attended the fights every night this week and aimed for bigger, better rings each night, they’d even end up with extra cash. She let out a short laugh, amused at the rather optimistic idea in spite of the situation. Having a little bit left over for herself was the last thing on her mind, although now that the notion was brought up, it was hard not to hope for such an outcome. Still, this whole situation was quite risky – probably riskier than the rewards were worth. But again, it all came down to one simple, hard fact: she didn’t have much choice at the moment.

However, he did remind her that she would probably have to take the rest of the week off from work to focus on bot fighting, if this is what she was going to commit herself to. Phoenix frowned for a moment, wondering just what she would be able to tell her boss. Although she would greatly prefer not to, she quickly came to realize that she would have to mention her family emergency in some capacity to be able to get the rest of her shifts off without penalty. Yet another aspect of this situation that she was not pleased with, but again – what else could she do?

The answer: nothing. Phoenix was a sailboat lost in a stormy sea, completely and utterly at the mercy of the raging waves. There really wasn’t anything she could do so change the situation, which was frustrating to say the least. She prided herself on being able to be in control of herself and her life, despite the somewhat crappy hand it had dealt her. In recent years she’d felt as though she’d been able to get a good handle on her circumstances, balancing her own needs with that of her family’s. But it seemed as though life – or whatever asshole of a divine power was out there – was not done throwing curveballs at her.

Well, so be it, she thought once she had ended her call with Rhys. Settling down into a comfortable spot, she closed her eyes and took a slow, deep breath. As Phoenix began to come to terms with the plan she had selected, she gradually felt her regain her determination and drive. There was nothing she could do but adapt and press on. It was uncomfortable to have to compromise the values and principles she had so carefully built her adult life upon… but this was bigger than her pride and her ego now. There was too much on the line to put her sense of self first. Her conscience and her psyche could bounce back from having to do a couple of unsavoury things; however, Phoenix was sure she’d never recover if she didn’t go to any means necessary to help her family.

Even though she knew these things, it didn’t mean it was that easy. Although these sentiments circled around constantly in her mind, they alternated with thoughts about her other options. Was she absolutely sure that she couldn’t just work more? Was she truly okay with putting Tae out there like this? What about the consequences for her own safety? Of course, when she came back to the heart of the matter – keeping her parents alive and well – she shot down these doubts easily and quickly. But she had to process them somehow, she supposed.

As Phoenix waited for Rhys in contemplative silence, she glanced over occasionally at Tae. He seemed to be charging so she left him alone, but did catch a smile from him now and again. To be completely truthful, it did feel a touch unusual – seeing as the Tae of yesterday would never have done such a thing – but it was comforting nonetheless. And in that comfort, the woman realized that she was intensely grateful for her robotic companion more than ever. Not only was he the key to solving this mess, but with him, she didn’t feel alone. Even if he wasn’t a living, breathing human, his presence felt close enough to one, especially in a dire time such as this.

Briefly, she wondered how she could possibly repay him for his help. Surely Tae didn’t want anything in particular, being a machine and all. And deep down, Phoenix knew that he was probably just happy being able to serve someone he identified as his master. But it still felt wrong. Like a one-sided relationship where she was just take, take, taking and giving nothing back. She knew this all stemmed from his humanoid appearance and his newly gained emotions, but her logic was simply unable to win out against the feelings in her own heart.

But perhaps fortunately for her, Phoenix didn’t have much time to think too much about this, as Rhys soon arrived at her door. As her friend came in for what seemed like the umpteenth time that week, Tae thanked him for arriving on such little notification. The woman nodded as he chimed in with some hard numbers and data, interspersing it throughout her qualitative explanation. As her friend agreed to help, Phoenix felt a wave of relief. She didn’t really expect him to act otherwise, but it felt good to at least have a few things start to go right.

Tae was evidently on board with the situation as well, and made a good point about the higher-end rings sending out invitations once word got out about him. The dark-haired woman nodded thoughtfully in agreement, despite the nervous uneasiness the notion sparked in her gut. It was all necessary to accomplishing her goals, but she was hardly excited about attracting so much attention to themselves. It seemed as though with every bit of good publicity, there could be just as much – if not more – of the bad. But, yet again, it was all part of the risks they needed to take.

As Phoenix expressed her concern about Tae’s well-being, he answer without a second of hesitation. She smiled, her eyes gentle but bearing a glimmer of sadness, as he placed a hand on her shoulder. He was right about being able to just repair him, but it felt kind of bad to hear him speak of sacrificing himself for her so nonchalantly. However, she placed a hand on top of his and gave it a soft squeeze. “Well, all right. If you’re sure. We might have to work for your repair money on top of it all, though,” she said, half-joking.

Tae then went on to address the issue of keeping himself hidden and secret. Of course, he had another pretty good point yet again. Not a perfect point, but it did make sense. Bot-fighting was illegal, so it wasn’t like anyone there would be blabbering about it from the rooftops. “Still, people will talk within the rings, and I’m sure some information will leak beyond them still, as well,” Phoenix added quietly. “To the right people.” Like Tae’s creator, perhaps? “But… we can’t stop people from talking. Even if we try to disguise Tae, he’s so advanced that he’ll stick out no matter what we do.” Across from her, Rhys nodded slowly in agreement.

When the topic of Tae’s ability to win came up, Phoenix could sense a touch of annoyance within the newly-emotional robot. Evidently, Rhys did as well, as he sat back a bit and offered a sheepish, apologetic grin. “Ah, okay, okay! Sorry, sorry. I was just kinda, uh, speaking without thinking. Sorry, Tae. You’re right.” A hint of pink rose to the man’s face as he spoke, but faded was Tae added his addendum with a light-hearted laugh. Embarrassment quickly switched to amusement as the PET suddenly perked up to rally them both to action.

“Our family, huh?” Phoenix said quietly, a small smile spreading over her lips as she watched Tae put his hand out and wait for them to follow suit. “Well, how can I say no after a pep talk like that?” Standing up, she placed her hand over his and looked to Rhys expectantly.

Laughing, he also rose to his feet and added his own palm to the stack. Grinning gleefully, he clenched a fist with his other hand and pumped it into the air. “Same here! Let’s go kick some primitive PET ass!”

*~*~*~*​

Unsurprisingly, they had a little while to wait until the bot-fighting rings actually opened up for business, so to speak. To a certain extent this was a blessing in disguise, allowing for Phoenix to mentally and physically prepare herself for her endeavor into illegal activities. And of course, she had to get some of her affairs in order as well, mainly dealing with work. She ended up informing her manager and some of her select coworkers that her father was in the hospital and required her to embark on an emergency trip to China. Although she wasn’t thrilled about having to let some of the truth out, it gave her a good reason to skip out on work and social commitments for the time being.

But another preparation that Phoenix made was preparing a bit of a disguise for herself. If they couldn’t cover up Tae’s identity much, she could at least alter her own. Tae would undoubtedly make quite a splash at these rings, and as his mistress and commander, she would probably share just as much as the spotlight. So for her own safety – and for the sake of her alibi – she didn’t want to be easily recognized. After digging around in her closet, she came up with a blonde bobbed wig, a set of blue contact lenses, and a pair of thick-rimmed glasses. Once she put these on her face still somewhat recognizable to a keen eye, prompting her to add a bit of extra contour to her features. After putting on the most nondescript clothes she had in her wardrobe, Phoenix was ready. But for good measure, she asked her companions to refer to her as Nyx once they were at the ring. Could never be too careful, after all.

As the hours passed by and night fell, they sat in Rhys’ car in the industrial sector of town. It was utterly deserted and eerily silent, giving no clue to the activity that was about to go on. Eventually, once it was well past midnight, the three ventured out to their destination. Every muscle in Phoenix’ body felt tensed as they walked, navigating through alleyways and around empty warehouses. If it hadn’t been a trusted friend leading them, she would have been sure they were about to get mugged. But eventually Rhys brought them to a building where the muffled sound of metal on metal set to murmuring music could be heard from outside. Phoenix gazed at the patrons as they came in and out, noting the wide variety of people that seemed to come here.

Her lips sealed shut by tension, Rhys took the lead and soon they fell in line with a cluster of girls that were heading in before them. Her eyes shifted from the suitcases that rolled behind them, and then to Tae at her side, wondering what sort of PETs were in there and if he might have to fight them. But Phoenix supposed it didn’t matter – there was surely nothing in this building that he couldn’t take down. And so she looked ahead again, silently following Rhys as they approached the security guard and passed through with ease.

Once they entered the warehouse, Phoenix’s senses were instantly assaulted. She winced behind her glasses as strobe and spotlights shone in her eyes, while the cacophony of music, shouting, and PET fighting clashed in her ears. “Jesus, this is worse than work,” she mumbled, frowning as they walked through a cloud of illuminated dust. Rhys, despite not hearing her, turned around and presented the chaotic scene with a smooth and graceful wave of his arm.

“Welcome to bot-fighting, Nyx!” He chuckled, a glimmer of excitement twinkling in his eyes before he turned once more and continued to lead them forward. Phoenix shook her head a little, but felt a small grin pull at her mouth. Rhys was never the type to go to a club, so it was almost surreal to see him in a settling that was so much like one – and already having so much fun, no less. This was his preferred type of club scene, she supposed.

But the smile soon faded as they traveled through the crowds and around the rings. The battles they passed by caught her gaze, the shapes of battling PETs and shouting onlookers capturing her attention until they were no longer in sight. Strangely, now that she was actually here, she felt no anxiety. The hot, queasy feeling that had plagued her just earlier today was nowhere to be found. Instead, everything just felt surreal: like walking through a grungy dream. In her disguise, Phoenix didn’t even feel like herself – she felt more like an actor in a night-long play. It was a strange sensation, though not entirely unwelcome. In her detached serenity, there was at least calm amongst this storm.

And so Phoenix walked along, almost floating through the crowds with Tae at her side and Rhys in front of them. Eventually they came to a small alcove where a middle-aged man sat behind a desk with a bulldog-type PET. In front of him was a long line up of hopeful contestants, eagerly awaiting their placement. One look and it was obvious that it was the Ringmaster. Rhys led them to the back of the queue, where he then turned to the pair and clasped his hands together. “So, have you decided?” he asked, leaning in close to Phoenix to speak in a hushed voice despite the deafening atmopshere. “On how Tae should act.”

The woman glanced from Rhys to Tae. They had made all the preparations, except for one: deciding how Tae should act. For whatever reason, she couldn’t quite decide on this prior to arriving at the ring. She had wanted to see the environment and the other fighters for herself before she put her thoughts in. Tae himself seemed fine with it either way, thought Rhys seemed to suggest letting him go hog wild on his own accord. By his logic, they’d grab more attention and probably be invited into bigger rings much quicker. But although there would be quite a few ambitious fighters who’d be hungry to try and beat Tae, there’d be just as many people wanted to shy away and not risk the big potential for loss. However, for those up for the challenge, they could likely get some high stakes going.

Phoenix had weighed the choices back and forth for some time, and now felt ready to answer. “I think you should mainly just do your thing, Tae.” She folded her arms over her chest and nodded. “Even though Rhys gave me some pointers, I don’t think I’d be too good at giving you a stream of orders off the bat. So you fight on your own – but don’t be too loud or anything. Let’s make it clear that I’m not controlling you, but let’s not make it obvious that you have all the emotions and free thought that you do.”

They shuffled up the line a bit. “Just give them a taste, is what I mean. Maybe now and then I can throw in an order if it seems right, but mainly I’ll just stand and watch you.” Phoenix glanced between her companions. Truthfully, she wasn’t 100% confident about her decision. But she had to decide, and this is what felt right when she considered the main factors: Rhys’ advice, how everything seemed to look and work here, and her desire to get as much money in as little time as possible.

“Sure, I think that’s fine. I think the end result will be more or less the same anyway,” Rhys replied with a nod. “Anyway, Nyx, don’t worry ‘bout it.” He gave her a light pat on the shoulder. “Just trust in Tae and me; we’re here with you, and we’re here to help. Right, Tae?”

With that said, the pair fell into a brief silence until they finally reached the front of the line. The man looked between the three of them with a lit cigarette between his teeth. His gaze lingered on Tae for a moment, but quickly moved on. “A’right. Who’s entering here? All three o’ ya’s?” The amber tip of the cigarette bobbed as he spoke until he took a long drag and set it down.

“I am.” Phoenix stepped forward a bit, the words coming out of her mouth easier than she thought they would. “I’m Nyx, and I’m entering my PET, Tae.” She nodded her head towards Tae. Rhys stood back, watching the interaction as a friend who was simply tagging along, but ready to interject and assist if necessary.

The Ringmaster looked to Tae once more and narrowed his eyes. “This’s your PET? C’mon, lady. I know people’re gettin’ all kindsa weird mods to themselves these days but don’t mean they’re PETs. Don’t count if ya still mostly human.” He took another long drag and made a point to blow the puff of smoke in Phoenix’s direction before squashing it out in the ashtray next to him. The man glanced at Rhys and shook his head disapprovingly. “I’ve seen ya ‘round before, man, ain’t you tell yer friend here that? It’s bot-fighting 101, bud – machines only.” With his eyes fixed into a glare, he turned to Phoenix and waved his hand. “See ya. Thanks fer wastin’ m’time.”

But she didn’t move. Instead, she placed a hand on Tae’s shoulder and pushed him gently so he would walk forward in front of the Ringmaster. Evidently, the man needed a closer look. Deciding it would be best to act as Tae’s master for the moment, she pulled off his gloves and gave him a simple command to project today’s headlines for the Ringmaster to see. Holding out Tae’s hand, she looked at the man with a blank expression once her order had been carried out. “Would you like more proof that Tae is a PET, or are you gonna let us give you the best fights your ring has ever seen? Now set us up with the next open fight you got.”

Had the situation been less dire, Phoenix would have been amused by the sudden shift in the Ringmaster’s expression. All doubt and annoyance slipped away and was replaced by dumbfounded astonishment. “I-- uh, fine.” He cleared his throat, gathering his composure again and quickly brought up a spreadsheet on his own PET. Scrolling through it, he stopped at the bottom of the list where one contestant’s name was entered next to an empty cell. “A’right. Ya fighting Jezebelle in Ring 10-B in thirty minutes, lady.” The Ringmaster punched in Tae’s name before looking up at them again. “Ya boyfriend knows where t’go. Now go. An’ if I find out yer just playin’ tricks with some human, ya gonna see some consequences, got it?”

“Uh-huh. Got it. Let’s go, Tae.” Not saying anything more than necessary, Phoenix turned and walked out of line, motioning for Tae to follow her.

As Rhys led them along, he smiled a bit. “Well, uh, I guess that wasn’t too bad. And Jezebelle is actually not a bad PET to start with – it’s kind of a newcomer here, but it’s kind of an ‘up and coming’ contestant. It shouldn’t be a complete snoozefest but it’ll be a good warm-up.” He walked a bit more, leading them through twists and turns among the crowds and fights until the came up to a small sign posted on a chair: Ring 10-B. A chalk circle was drawn around an area in front of the chair, denoting the arena itself. A respectable little crowd was beginning to gather, though nothing like some of the bigger fights they had passed. On one side of the ring was a brown-haired woman, perhaps in her thirties, working on a large boa constrictor coiled into a pile on top of a hefty suitcase.

“That’s her – Jezebelle and I think, uh, Yarrow is what that girl goes by,” Rhys explained. “Anyway, let’s go get your payments in and get you ready.” He led them past the crowd towards a man counting bills off to the side of the ring. “This is Nyx and Tae, the competitors.”

“Ah, ‘kay. The payment’s $150,” he said, without looking up. Phoenix, who had come next to Rhys, pulled out a small wad of money – all the had, really – and took out three fifty-dollar bills. She handed it to the man wordlessly, before she returned back to Tae.

Glancing over at their opponent, who seemed too absorbed in their own preparation at the moment, Phoenix looked to Tae with a small furrow on her brow. “So… how are you feeling? Confident? Maybe I should pretend to fix something up on you…?” The woman frowned a bit, personally feeling quite out of her element herself.
 
All the times that Tae had smiled today meant nothing in comparison to the smile that formed on his face when Phoenix returned his physical contact. Her hand on top of his brought a beaming smile to his face, all of his perfectly straight, perfectly white teeth ready for the world to see. Why did he feel such joy at her touch? It was a feeling that he could not put into words, at least not yet, but it was overwhelmingly powerful.

“I’ll do my best not to get hurt then!” He said, stating the obvious fact. He was not the type of fighter, at least as far as he could tell, who would just stand still and take hit after hit. Oh, he could do it, but his programming had a preference for speed and dodging. He was built to move and strike, not to act as the shield or tank of the team. “I’m sure we will earn enough that a few repairs will not take away our chance at meeting our goal. As it is with business, you must put in a bit of money to get money out in the end.”

Tae laughed along with the group, personally finding the phrase primitive PETs amusing and far too true. Unknowingly to all, Lai.Pro was working overtime as Tae’s default eccentric, cheerful personality fought against the seriousness of the situation. It was risky and dangerous for all in involved and for himself, but Lai.Pro kept Tae happy and bright, his role as supporter being met and soon enough his role as fighter would be met too.

~~~~~~~~~~

Tae was aware of the sudden increase in volume, but without eardrums it wasn't like he was in danger was being over stimulated. He did not even blink at the change, although he did adjust his audio receptors to tune in and isolate Phoenix's and Rhys’ voices over the rest of the background noise. It seemed like Rhys also followed in Tae’s steps, or at least he did not seem impacted by the noise in the same way that Phoenix was. In fact, he seemed excited suddenly.

This was contagious and Tae gave his partner a smile, showing that he too was excited to be here. He did lose the grin though as he got into his ‘role’ as a fighter. Smiles were not exactly intimidating after all, and if they wanted to make money, then they needed to convince the onlookers that he was worth their attention… Although just showing up would be enough to do that but a bit more security never hurt.

“Right, I’m free to act as I want but I should play down my personality a bit.” Although Tae did not say it outloud, the basic message that he was going to act the same as he did 24 hours ago. All brain and brawn, no heart.

“Absolutely! Oh, wait, I mean-” Tae chirped before realizing what he just did. Like a switch Tae’s smile was replaced with the blank slate that old Tae used to wear. His emotive voice dropped pitch and became nearly monotone, an auto tuned tone becoming mixed in. “Yes, my duties include assisting Mistress Nyx in all her endeavors.” It may have been an act, but it was a good one. Tae even changed his physicality, albeit slightly. He never lost his posture in the first place, but today he had been keeping his head low so that he did not look down his nose to see his shorter companions. With this persona he was trying to play, he raised his head high and stared down his nose at anyone shorter than him… which was a lot of people. In addition to that his hands became locked behind his back like a bodyguard or soldier awaiting orders.

Once at the ringmaster Tae made sure that he followed orders as they were given. When told to move forward, he did, when told to show his hand, he did. With his hand removed he twisted his hand into fist a few times so that the ringmaster would get at least a little look at the wires and bars that moved under his metal plates. You couldn't get a great look at them since most of his plates were properly originated but something was better than nothing. Following this Tae was told to project the headlines, and without a second thought Tae blinked his eyes. Normally his irises were just a slightly brighter than average blue but when he activated his eyes the entire eyeball was covered with an electric blue although the irises glowed the brightest still. A second after this ocular shift a projection just as bright as his eyes appeared between the group. Pictures moved and points of interest were highlighted.

The man was impressed which gave Tae a sense of pride, even if all he showed one of the most basic PET talents that nearly all possessed. He dared not show this pride though, his glee could come later when he was with his lady back home, safe and successful. He made a point to look at the ringmaster as they walked away, not liking the rude way that the smoking man spoke to Phoenix. He held his tongue though and simply followed Phoenix just as he was told to. Pointless fights were… well pointless, especially when there was a vital job that needed to be accomplished this night.

Upon reaching their ring Tae focused his attention on his opponent, a boa named Jezebel. In fact, Tae was like the rest of the humans in the area, paying the creator little mind and focusing mainly on the PET itself. Snakes were popular PETs since they were easy to carry around and wear like a watch but obviously boa’s were not as commonly used since their large size made it a challenge to take around. Still, they were impressive PETs because they still possessed a lot of the strength that their breathing counterparts had. The fangs naturally were going to be there still, and there was a high chance that the beast had more fangs added to make it more dangerous than it naturally was. But one jaw snap and that would not be a problem.

The real question was about what Tae could not see. First of all, how would she control the boa? Controller or verbal commands? Unlike most PET’s, snakes did not just move in a basic four point plane, they could twist wildly in all directions and so would be a challenge to use a controller with… that left verbal commands which were slow since it required her to recognize the problem, verbalize it, and then for the PET to internalize it, and only then could it act. This may have been a semi slow process but snakes were fast so once it started it’s command it would likely be hard, if not impossible, to match the speed of. One virtue was that Tae was able to research the best ways to escape a boa’s grip, which he was confident would be a problem in this fight. Just like him, a weak point was at the base of their head by design, and their tails were vital to their movements so breaking that would help slow it down.

Once he got a closer look he could look for the serial number and adjust his fighting based on the blueprints of that model, but for now he had to base his plan on real boa knowledge and snake PETs in general. Hopefully, Jezebelle did not have any major secrets hidden behind her scale like shell.

Tae had been staring that the boa without blinking, partially because he did not need to blink and at a place like this he did not have to pretend, but also because he was completely focused on his enemy and his internal research. It took him a second to exit out of his searching and return to the real world.

Although he was supposed to pretend not to have emotions he did give Phoenix a quick flash of a smile before his blank mask returned. He spoke quietly so that others could not hear them speaking, creating an odd contrast between his face and his cocky voice. Quickly, Tae muttered out some comforting words in the hopes of putting her mind at ease.“Don’t worry, I’ve done this before, and after doing some some research it should be no problem to beat Jezebel. If I break it’s jaw or tail then the fight will be mine. So if you feel the need to shout orders at me to keep up the act then say something about the jaw or tail… I am going to put on a bit of a show before I end the fight however so don’t say anything too soon.”

“If you would like, you may pretend to be working on something.” But the question was what. Tae was in fine condition after all. “Want to fix my hair? We are about to go out on stage and it is not unheard of that you would want your PET to look his best during his first fight. ” It was silly but it was something, and it was something that he knew Phoenix could do. All it would take was a few fingers being combed through the far too black strands of hair, but despite this Tae knelt down as if he were proposing or bowing to a queen… neither of which were out of the realm of reality. “Or you can just look at my programming and pretend to be double checking something if you think that my first idea was foolish.”

~~~~~~~~~

Not long after this exchange, the money handler took a stance at the center of the marked ‘arena’. He was apparently the announcer as well, or he was at least roped in it.

“Alright! Tonight ladies and gents we got a fight between Yarrow and her PET Jezebelle, the rising stars of this here ring! Her records range 10 to 2, with ten wins in the past three months! And her challenger are some first timers, Phoenix and her PET Tae!” He was speaking with a loud voice that carried just loud enough to be heard by those in the first few rows of this ring, but it was a fair bet that this is the routine that every ring went through so it wasn't like they were missing out on much besides Yarrow’s win records.

As the money handler turned announcer continued to talk about what a ‘raw and destructive display of robotic monstrosity’ this was going to be, Tae leaned down to Phoenix and whispered in her ear. “We were supposed to step into the ring when he called our names.” How Tae knew this, no one could guess, but Tae knew he was right and based on the evidence before them, Phoenix could probably figure out that he was right too.

Yarrow was already in the ring, her boa Jezebel wrapped a few times around her feet with it’s head held up to its creators waist. It was swaying side to side in only semi stiff motions that were actually some of the best normal PETs could offer. The boa had a fairly average pattern, most of it were shades of brown, but this creature had red eyes installed and upon it’s scales it had the occasional red spots that were likely just decoration but it gave the already intimidating PET a more devilish appearance. No matter what it looked like though, it was still an empty husk with only the most bare minimum of personality and independence. Yarrow on the other hand looked to be full of personality and independence. She seemed to be looking around in the attempt to find her opponent, but her expression did not look worried, she simply looked focused... and fairly confident.

With a gentle push, Tae encouraged Phoenix to step into the center of the ring so that all could see her and her engineering ability. But when they stepped out a momentary hush flickered in this area of the warehouse but before long there was laughter and a few voices shouting about them being suicidal or cons. Surprisingly, before Phoenix could step in and defend herself, and defend Tae’s species, another voice chimed in.

“He’s on the list so he fights.” The money handler said, double checking his list which did specify that Jezebel the boa was to fight Tae the humanoid. “As long as we get our fight then I don’t care what, or who, gets broken.”

“I’m not supposed to fight a human! ” Yarrow shouted above the crowd, not backing down but looking curiously at Tae’s hand which was still uncovered to show the wiring and metal shell that served as his bones and blood. “He could get seriously hurt.”

“You heard me Yarrow, if your on the list, you fight. And if you got a problem with that you know the drill. Forfeit so that we can get actual fighters in here. No money back and your opponent will immediately win the fight by default.” The money handler was having none of this shit, and from the annoyed expression on his face and the bulging pocket of money he had, it was clear that his priorities were on profits and that was it. A bit of broken parts, blood or metal, didn't matter in the grand scheme of things.

Yarrow hesitated but in the end she made a sharp tsk, before angry snapping, “Shit, fine. I’m in if they are, but don't say I didn't warn you that this was a bad idea.”

Tae looked to Phoenix for confirmation since in these environments he was not supposed to have a say in anything. Mentally he was ready to fight, and although his combat programs were not activated yet, he was sure that once he fell under attack they would flare up. Besides, even if they did not activate and Tae simply had to rely on his basic knowledge regarding fighting boa’s, he was sure that it would be fine. He was just as new to this as Phoenix was, more or less.

“Cool great, now that that’s settled… The rules.” Returning to his loud announcer voice, he began listing this rings rules, something that could change based on where you were and what level you are fighting in. “It’s your first time fighting so i’ll be clear and since we had to deal with your human, robot or whatever drama, we are behind schedule. So real quick… Rule one, no attacks to or interactions with human are allowed under any circumstances. No making people into shields or projectile weapons or any of that shit. Do that and your not just losing the fight, your out of this rings forever. Second, step out of the ring and you lose. It’s for our safety and keeping order, so watch it. A few centimeters is fine, but that brings me to the next rule. Number three is that I have the right to put a fight to a stop at any time I fucking want. If I don’t say the fight is over, then it isn't over. Keeping fighting, even you think you saw someone go a bit out of the ring or whatever. Don’t like it? Leave your money and go to a different ring. Rule four, you can forfeit at any time, but it’s an automatic loss with no payout. Oh… and PETs can’t forfeit themselves so human boy here, Tae as he called himself, can’t clock out the minute he gets an owie, you are gonna have to do it.” Sharply he pointed at Phoenix. “And we are not responsible for this by the way. If he gets a limb cut off, it is not our problem. We will help you get him far away from this warehouse and then help you call the hospital, but that’s it.”

It was a cold way of putting it, but it made sense. Humans were not supposed to fight so any injuries were accidents such as a flying hunk of metal cutting someone, and they could not risk getting arrested so they waited to call for help until they were a ways off. Not that this man mentioned it, but they had first aid kits around and even someone with some medical knowledge on property just to deal with cases like these. This was after all not the worst of Bot fighting rings, so having a nurse on staff was not a ridiculous idea.

“Now that we got that settled! Anything else is game. Saws, shots, fangs, secret PETs hidden inside a bigger PETs, whatever your programming, engineering minds can think of is fair game. So go wild and let’s break some metal. Yarrow and Phoenix, back out of the ring and don’t move your PETs until I say fight.”

Yarrow was used to this so she took a few steps back without her eyes flinching away from Tae for a second. Her feet ended up inches away from the chalk line, but she was out, so as soon as Phoenix stepped out too, the money handler threw his hand in the air as if to get everyone's attention. “One…. Two…. Three…. FIGHT!” He swung his hand down, and just like that, chaos erupted.

“Strike!” Yarrow shouted mere milliseconds after the man said the key word. The snake followed this example, immediately thrusting out its long neck and snapping it’s many, many teeth where Tae was standing… or at least where he used to be standing.

Upon hearing the not so subtle key phrase, Tae already knew what was coming and jumped a few feet to the side to avoid the snap. As he did so though he felt a fair bit of pride because, what he saw when the boa snapped were far more fangs than a normal boa normally had... which was just what he hypothesized would be the case. That meant that everything else he guessed was likely to be true too.

Acting the part, Tae kept his face a blank slate, and even his stance was relaxed, or at least as relaxed as a robot could look with perfect, straight posture and hair that barely swayed despite the fast way he just moved. Tae got a few surprised cheers for this move, these surprised cheers turned more sincere as the snake continued to strike at Tae repeatedly, movements that he dodged each time. At one point he didn't even move away, but he simply crouched down and rolled forward to avoid the fangs, getting mere inches away from the main mass of the boa. However, it seemed like dodging was all he was doing. His combat program was not activated yet, nor was it something Tae could manually control, so acting on the defensive was all he could, and thought of, doing.... For now at least. The bomb was ticking down and there was no way to tell when it was going to go off.
 
Tae’s adaptability was pretty impeccable, although Phoenix didn’t expect any less. When she said to tone things down, he did. Although it wasn’t instantaneous – for a moment he got kind of caught up in his newfound enthusiasm – he switched gears with ease. Aside from changing his tone, there were subtle adjustments made to his body language. He stood straighter and taller, as if looking down on everyone around him. It was convincing for sure, and definitely made him seem less human. A bit ironic, she realized. She’d only just decided to have him be more humane so that he wouldn’t hurt anyone so badly again; but now, she wanted him to be more robotic so that he would wail on some other machines.

Phoenix was mildly amused by this realization, but only briefly. There was too much going on and too much on the line to be caught up in the minutia, after all. Once they got through the ringmaster and made it to their first stage, she felt a fleeting sense of relief beneath her stoic front. The fewer bumps in the road, the better. While she wasn’t freaking out about bot fighting anymore, she wasn’t about to get comfy in any part of the illegal realm. Nothing would make her happier than for them to make their money and bail out as soon as possible. Preferably unidentified and unscathed.

Once the group made it to their ring and got their payment in, Phoenix took a moment to take in the scene. As the seconds ticked by, more and more people seemed to gather. But their opponent seemed unfazed, and diligently worked away at her preparations. Naturally, her eyes wandered over to the impressive-looking PET, taking in the boa’s form behind her glasses. The real life version of the animal seemed dangerous and menacing enough, at least from her own impressions of it. She idly wondered what tricks and added features a robotic version of the beast had in store. If Jezebelle was something of an up-and-coming, it had to have quite a few.

Her gut reaction was to be a bit worried, but when Tae spoke, she found herself questioning her emotions. She had the most advanced piece of technology on her side, serving her with all the fealty of a fairy tale knight. There was nothing to fret about, and – as if reading her thoughts – the android even reassured her of the same. As he spoke, Phoenix nodded a little, his words comforting her so easily she was actually a bit surprised. Maybe because she knew that, despite Tae’s newfound emotions, he still really only spoke the truth and innately operated more logically than she did. “Right. Got it,” she said, taking in his advice. Beside him, Rhys’ head bobbed once in agreement with this plan.

Tae then suggested that she fix his hair, something that managed to elicit a short chuckle from the woman. “I guess I could do both,” she said, traces of a grin on her lips as she reached out to comb her fingers through his locks. As she did, she felt a strange sense of serenity. There was something… zen about it, she supposed. Just focusing on a single, simple task. Feeling the uncanny softness of Tae’s hair in between her fingers. Doing something familiar and normal in a place that was anything but.

“I think he looks pretty good, Nyx,” Rhys chimed in with a smile, snapping her out of her state of semi-meditation. Phoenix blinked, laughing a bit sheepishly as she let her hands fall from Tae’s head. It looked a bit neater than before, but not drastically different. With that done, she called up a screen displaying some of his programming and scrolled through it, doing nothing in particular except looking busy. Next to her, Rhys looked over her shoulder, occasionally pointing out one or two things to add to the authenticity of their act.

Within a short time, the man collecting the money stepped into the middle of the ring. Phoenix and Rhys stood at attention, the man falling back to the edge of the crowd as everyone’s attention was pulled to the announcer. The woman stood still, her body tensing slightly as their names were said for everyone to hear. When Tae leaned in and whispered, she took a few small steps forward, hoping she didn’t look to frantic or panicked in her motion. But she supposed it didn’t matter much. Eyes were undoubtedly focused on either Tae or his opponent, who moved with the typical semi-stiffness most PETs did. Jezebelle was an intimidating creature for sure, with its crimson eyes and matching patches of scales. And of course, the confidence that Yarrow sported was not to be forgotten either. In spite of the situation, Phoenix off-handedly wondered how she and Tae looked to the onlookers and what sort of impression they gave off.

She wasn’t left wondering long, though. As Tae gently nudged her a bit further forward, the crowd’s attention was drawn to them in an instant. A mixture of laughter and incredulity seemed to be thrown at them from the voices around them, but it was quickly silenced by the money handler. Phoenix turned her gaze towards him, attempting to keep her expression neutral throughout. Inside, though, she was thankful for the man’s ruling. However, their opponent did not hesitate in voicing her opinion from across the crowd. Admittedly, her apparent concern for Tae’s well being was kind of nice to see. At least there was some concern for the well-being of humans around here. It made all this illegal stuff feel ever so slightly less immoral, at least.

But Phoenix continued to remain silent, opting to instead focus on keeping her breathing steady and her steely facade strong. Calmly, she turned her head back towards the announcer as he iterated the rules once again. He was a pretty greedy bastard. But in this case, that kind of person with that kind of attitude was really working in their favour. I hear you, she thought. I wanna make my money and go, just like you do.

Yarrow yielded, thought not happily. Phoenix glanced at Tae from the corner of her eye, meeting his gaze but saying nothing in an effort to maintain the fact that he was just a machine. “It’s fine. We’re in,” she called out, her words short but sure. With that decided, the man carried on by announcing the rules. As he spoke she found herself folding her arms over her chest, her eyes studying Jezebelle as she listened. Rhys had walked her through all of it, but hearing it laid out so bluntly was a good refresher. Not that she had to do much thinking, though. Really, when she thought about it, she just had to look a part and play along while Tae took care of it all. While a part of her deep down inside felt a bit uncomfortable with having to rely so wholly and completely on someone else… mostly, she was glad to have the help and support she did. She was a proud woman, but not so foolish that she couldn’t realize she’d be in way over her head without Tae and Rhys.

When the man suddenly pointed a finger at her, she felt her heart skip a beat, surprised. She wasn’t really used to being called out like that in front of so many people. But somehow, she managed to keep her shock off her face. “Yeah, I got it. Don’t worry about it,” she answered in the same steady voice. Phoenix resisted the urge to glance at Tae and see what his expression was. For one, she trusted him to keep up his own act. But she also had to maintain her own. “Let’s not waste any more time.”

And they didn’t. Everything was said and done, leaving Phoenix to step back when prompted to. She did take the moment to briefly meet Tae’s eyes before she stood behind him, hoping he might be able to interpret the simple message behind her gaze: good luck out there.

Regardless of whether he did or not, the fight started the second her feet were outside the line. In what felt like the very next second, she heard Yarrow’s command ring out among the noise of the warehouse. Phoenix pressed her lips together, a fleeting fear passing through her heart until she saw that Tae was already one step ahead. He dodged the boa’s fangs with ease, then did it again. And again, and again. Steady cheers began to grow from the crowd, filling her ears amidst the sound of the rapid snapping of the boa’s jaws. Behind her, she could hear Rhys in the cloud of voices, which grew louder in a steady crescendo with every move. It was a bit of sensory overload, watching Tae dance with the snake while dozens of people shouted around her. But despite it all, Phoenix felt a rush of adrenaline. And in that instant, she understood why people got into this. Things had already just started, but it was exciting.

But, determined as ever, she kept herself reined in. With her arms still crossed, she followed the PETs in their fight, her head moving back and forth as they did across the ring. Occasionally she looked across the ring at Yarrow. The other woman’s expression was mostly unchanged, showing her already growing experience in bot fighting. However, she could see the tiniest traces of annoyance in her features: a twitch of an eyebrow there, the flash of a frown there. Perhaps there was some merit in wearing down the PET’s master, too.

Keeping this in mind, Phoenix moved her attention back onto Tae. Part of her was curious to see how Lai.Pro would affect his combat protocols, if at all. In the back of her mind, she had been hoping that it wouldn’t. After all, what would be more disastrous than Tae turning into a completely pacifist, and only realizing in the middle of a freaking fight? As she watched him dip and weave, this thought resurfaced momentarily. The hoped to god that wouldn’t be the case… then they’d really be in deep shit. Either way, there was nothing she could do about it now. They were more than committed at this point.

By this point, it became apparent to Yarrow that their current approach wasn't working. "Constrict!" came her next command, cutting through the clamor of the crowd. There was a split-second delay in which the boa stopped, evidently processing the new command before resuming their action. It took no longer than the blink of an eye, however, before Jezebelle made for Tae's legs, attempting to wrap its thick, powerful body around them.
 
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“Constrict!” Yarrow shouted, perhaps out of frustration. Quickly she added in one more detail, “Region two!” Constrict made sense, but it was a mystery what region two meant. Many talented bot-makers programmed secret codes or ‘triggers’ into their PETs so that they could give orders but not give away exactly what the order meant. In this case, region two was apparently Tae’s legs.

Tae just barely got out of the way of this first attack once again, showing stamina that no average human had and reaction times that rivaled humans as well. He would have kept going like this had it it not been for a voice shouting from the crowd a simple command, “FIGHT BACK!”. It was unclear who shouted, Phoenix, Rhys, or some random onlooker, but apparently it struck a nerve.

Although unfortunately, it was a very sensitive nerve. Tae snapped his head towards the source of the voice and froze. No breath, no blinks, no twitches, just his neutral expression and eyes that completely glowed a vibrant blue and flickered frantically without a consistent pattern. Tae had done this light show before but unfortunately, it had to happen now when the boa was lunging for his legs once again. And since Tae was still frozen in a mechanical trance, the boa got a hold of him for the first time since the fight started and quickly wrapped itself tight around Tae’s left leg. It was prepped to crush, and would, any moment.

The crowd was freaking out, likely because of the firework going on in Tae’s eyes as well as the implication that this was not a con but a real human PET. Tae’s back was facing Yarrow though so she so seemed to think that the crowd was reacting in fear and excitement at the chance of Jezebel snapping Tae’s ‘human’ leg.

“You may be able to dodge but now that I got you, this fight is over. Tap out before Jezebelle shatters your arm!” Yarrow shouted, giving him a last chance to back out because she was still working with the assumption that Tae was mostly human. “Tell him to tap out!” She then shouted at Phoenix, her voice barely making it above the crowd. She wasn't begging, it was more like a highly advised warning.

It was true that she may have accepted that she must fight in order to not lose her money, but it still seemed like she did not want to actually hurt Tae too badly. They were way too low on the hierarchy of bot fighting rings to have to deal with heartless monsters that were only in this for the destruction. Bot fighting, and bot making, was normally just hobby for these people, a way to get spare cash or spend the weekend, and as far as one could see about Yarrow, this was the case for her too.

Unfortunately though, her passion was about to become nothing but scrap. Tae’s eyes suddenly stopped flashing and settled back into it’s natural, humanoid color. Similarly, Tae’s body settled back into its natural state as well. His mind, however, was shifted.

“I truly did not want to do this, but you forced my hand.” Tae muttered in a voice not exactly his own, and it was far too soft to be directed at anyone but Jezebel. Over the crowd, it is likely that no one heard at all, only saw his lips move and a small, sad smile twitch onto his face before his blank ruse returned just in time for the carnage to start.

Jezebel started to constrict. It was slow and Tae’s leg started to be crushed under the pressure the audible grind of metal on metal screeched within the area. Tae did not react, not in pain or fear, but without another moment of hesitation, Tae dropped. He did not jump, but he simply let himself go lax and fall to the ground perfectly in the direction of Jezebels head. The boa moved in time to avoid Tae falling directly on her skull, but he did get a solid part of her body trapped underneath his much greater weight. Phoenix knew from experience that he weighed far more than he looked, his full body would be more than capable of pinning a boa.

He tightened a fist and began slamming it in various parts of the boas body, mainly focusing on the red scales which stood out and the head, which likely held much of the programming. Destroy that, and the whole fight would be over. Metal slammed against metal with enough force that, if Tae had been human, his boney hand would have shattered by now. It was like punching a wall.

If it were not for his position on the ground on top of Jezebel, there was no doubt in his robotic brain that Jezebel would have been trying to get her head far away from Tae’s long arms. She was unable to escape even if she wanted to… and she wanted to. A snakes greatest asset was its ability to move, to strike fast then get out of danger just as quickly, but that option was gone now.

Yarow seemed to notice now that Tae was more than she had expected, and with one move he had severely limited her PETs movements and was on the way to destroying her. Yarrow ordered her Boa to release Tae’s leg, she then commanded it to strike region 6, the head area.

Laying in the dust and dirt, Tae estimated that it would take four seconds to stand up, and in that time Jezebel would have a hold of him. So he had two choices, take the bite which would not actually hurt and likely would not damage anything serious besides his facial skin which was undamaged at this point. Or, he could hurt his arm instead, risking a few damages, but nothing long term or highly visible.

After Jezebel uncoiled herself, and got as much distance as she could with part of her body pinned, her mouth snapped open revealing several rows of teeth that could do more than just pierce, but could rotate. Each tooth was a mini drill it seemed, capable of stabbing into metal and then making holes in the body.

Tae, even with his great perception skill, had little time to comprehend this and come up with a third plan of attack. So, he had to stick with one of his first two ideas. Twisting himself in an odd, uncomfortable position that a human would have found a bit of a struggle, Tae took his arm that was already mostly without skin and thrust it directly towards the open jaws of his enemy.

PETs naturally did not have actual throats, just a solid plate in the back of the mouth that was often turned into a speaker of some sort. Therefore, when Tae did this his hand had nowhere to go and came to a quick stop, but in doing so, Jezebel could not get too far up Tae’s arm and instead of her goal she unexpectedly ended up biting down on Tae’s mid-forearm region. The drills started immediately with an audible hum, and Tae could feel them start to break through his metal plates and skin.

With Jezebels fangs practically embedded into his body, he took his entire arm and raised it with the boa still attached. Once his arm was as high up as he could make reach without sacrificing his position on top of Jezebel, with all the power he could, slammed them both down into the cemented dirty floor. The sound that was produced was a deafening crunch. Jezebel slammed into the cement underneath with such force that a part of her skull formation was visibly dented with just one slam. Not that Tae was done though, he did it again, and again, and again, until Yarrow ordered Jezebel to retract her fangs just to stop the destruction.

Tae had a good number of holes in his arm now, no serious damage done more so than cosmetics and the possibility of getting a lot more water into sensitive areas, but they could be fixed with cheap, common materials. To put it simply, he had nothing to worry about. Yarrow however, did. Jezebels skull was severely misshapen now. Her head was crushed down with enough intensity that the top of the head was now concaved into where the eyes normally were. Jezebel could not see at all now, and it was a safe bet that a good number of her interior workings were fried as well.

“Jezebel!” Yarrow started, seemingly testing to see if her PET could still get audio cues. She could. “Roll then retreat!” The boa immediately did as it was told, trying it’s best to shift its body in a circular motion. Tae weighed a lot so the motion was clearly a struggle, but this motion, unlike the struggling from earlier, was enough to shift his balance enough to give Jezebel a change to escape and dart closer to her master.

Yarrow looked confused, and a touch concerned at this point. Tae on the other hand casually climbed onto his feet, brushed some of the dirt from his butt and back, and fixed his now completely messy hair. Once done with apperances, he rubbed a quick hand over the holes in his forearm before shaking his left leg curiously. He tried putting weight on it with success, more or less. He definitely would be limping a bit until they had time to put a few support beams in his leg and hammer out the kinks, but it was just fine otherwise.

He did not waste anymore time, he rushed towards Jezebel. “Retreat, 10 feet righ-” By the time that Yarrow had almost finished her sentence, Tae had already run the few short feet between him and his opponent. This was the flaw of audio commands, they took time, and Tae was not giving her time. Jezebel was blind to his attacks as well so she could not react on her own, instead Tae lifted his slightly crushed leg straight into the air and slammed it down onto the skull once again. He saw the weak point and was targeting it without mercy. Jezebels head hit the ground and did not move, her red eyes no longer glowing as her head was damaged from both the top and bottom now.

As soon as Yarrow saw the lights go out she yelled out that she forfeited. However, Tae did not stop. He continued to bring his leg back up into the air and slam it down repeatedly. He was in battle mode, not unlike the time with drunk man in the alleyway, and until his enemy was just a pile of pieces it did not seem like he was going to stop. The rules stated that the fight was not over until the man said it was over, after all, and Tae was not about to break the rules… or at least that was part of the reason his foot kept crushing the already broken PET.

The money handler seemed to realize this and raised his hand up into the air a few seconds after the merciless massacre started. Yelling above the crowd, he shouted with excitement, “Stop the fight, we have our winner!” The moment that phrase was uttered Tae once again froze in place, leg mid air, and his eyes flashed blue. Thankfully, this time it was just one quick flash and Tae, the real Tae, was back. He slowly put his foot back on the ground now and stepped away from the wreckage that was once Jezebels head.

Finally, for the first time since the fight had started, Tae looked away from Jezebel and towards Phoenix. He did not smile, but he wanted to. Instead of breaking his cover though, he simply gave her a nod. He had done it. He did what she wanted him to do, and other than a few dents and holes, he did it well. How could Tae wait to be home to show his elation at being able to truly help Phoenix? All he wanted to do was hug her in victory, but as already said, he held back all of this in favor of a neural mask. Hugs would come later, Tae promised himself.

The crowd roared, and so did the money handler, who at this point was grinning as he rushed over to Tae and took his hand, aggressively raising it in the air as if Tae had just won some sort of boxing match and not a bot fight. Tae did not resist this, but he did look down at the man in confusion over why he was being touched so suddenly. It took a few seconds of research online to see where this raising hands above the air motion came from, but once he did, Tae pulled his arm up a bit further to help show his victory to the crowd.

“First time competitors, Tae and Phoenix have defeated Jezebel and Yarrow! Get over here Phoenix and get your money!” For the first time the announcer actually seemed happy, not just in general, but to be handing out money rather than taking it in. He waved Phoenix over to the center of the ring.

Victors got a base winners fee, and then on top of that they got a small portion of the betting proceeds. Most people had bet on Yarrow since they thought Tae was human, and that meant that by beating Yarrow, Phoenix was getting a fairly large sum of cash. Sure, most of the onlookers had lost money on this fight, but none of them seemed to care. They were too excited at seeing a real human PET. Phoenix had put in $150 into this low level, introductory fight, and already she had gotten $500 back plus her entrance fee, making this a $650 return. To put it simply, she had quadruple her money after one fight.

“Damn, what a fight!” The announcer said, and in agreement, those standing around cheered loudly. The crowd was much larger now than it was when the fight started, the constant rise in cheers and shock having had drawn in passerbys to watch the exciting spectacle. “Phoenix, where in the hell have you been? Cooking up a PET like this, you must have plans! We gonna see some more fights from you two?!” He was excited… everyone was excited, and all eyes were on Tae and Phoenix now, just as planned.

The only exception was Yarrow who was crouched next to Jezebels remains, trying to see what was salvageable. She did not look happy, which was not surprising, but it was unclear if it was anger or sorrow expressed in her creased brows.
 
It only took a few simple words to change the rhythm of the fight. As Yarrow’s voice pierced through the cries of the crowd, Phoenix felt her breath catch in her throat. Despite her general faith in Tae’s abilities, she couldn’t help but feel a split-second of worry as Jezebelle took in her new command. This nervousness was born primarily out of her sheer inexperience. Simply put, she just didn’t know enough about bot fighting and, as such, didn’t know what to expect. While obviously she could anticipate that the mechanical snake would wrap itself around Tae, she didn’t know how fast it would happen, how hard, or how Tae would get out of it if he were to be trapped. Pondering these things, she fought the urge to look over at Rhys and gauge his expression. Although she’d be able to get a sense of how serious things were now, it might impact the persona she’d developed. She was supposed to be cool and collected; unwavering. So she kept her gaze forward, her face blank, and her tongue held. The only thing she could do was watch and wait.

Luckily, this unease quickly disappeared as Tae adeptly dodged the attack, though it was a touch too close for comfort. Nevertheless, Phoenix sighed through her nose and felt her shoulders relax ever so slightly. But still, she wondered when, how – and really, if – the android’s combat protocols would kick in. Although she did not doubt that he could duck and weave until the sun came up, surely at some point Jezebelle could get a sliver of opportunity for an attack. And then what?

But it seemed as though Phoenix’s mind was getting well ahead of itself, worrying excessively, perhaps as a result of her personal predicament. Just as she circled back on her thoughts, a voice erupted from the clamor of the crowd: ‘FIGHT BACK!’

Eyes slightly widened, she looked into the cluster of spectators, instinctively trying to see who had shouted. Not that it mattered, though. What was more important was the fact that this random exclamation appeared to have an impact on Tae. When Phoenix looked back at her fighter, he was frozen in place, head turned towards what she could only assume was the source of the voice. Gulping, she pressed her lips together and fought to keep her poker face solid. His eyes were inexplicably going wild. The vivid blue light that normally illuminated them was flashing haphazardly, without rhythm or reason. And, critically, he wasn’t moving at all, which gave Jezebelle the very opportunity she’d feared.

Her hand curled into a fist at her side as the machinated snake curled around Tae’s left leg. She almost felt dizzy, overwhelmed by the chaotic energy encircling them and by her very own mind. What should she do? Was it time to say something, and put out an order? Or would Tae just need another second to snap out of it? But would it be too late if she waited another moment more? Clenching her jaw, Phoenix’s gaze flickered from Tae to Yarrow as the other woman called out to her from across the ring. Her words were almost completely swallowed by the screams and excitement from the crowd, but the message was clear: she was giving them one last chance to back down.

Phoenix’s lips parted, the beginning of a syllable on her breath. There was no way she’d throw in the towel just yet. Too much was at stake and she still had faith in Tae’s capabilities. But—perhaps it was time to intervene. If he was damaged more than necessary as a result of her hesitance and indecision, she couldn’t live with herself. The main issue now was what she would say, exactly. After attempting for a few seconds to think of a command, she gave up and settled on the simplest thing: “Tae!”

Whether Tae’s eyes stopped as a result of her voice or on his own accord, she couldn’t tell. But either way he seemed to snap out of his statuesque state. Although his body did not relax in the same way a person’s would, it still seemed to melt out of its frozen stance. Phoenix watched as his lips moved, wondering what he had said – and to whom. On top of that, she wondered just how many people in the crowd caught the sight of him speaking, or the tiny smile that briefly flit over his face. However, following in trend with her previous thoughts, it didn’t matter much. The sight and sound of metal compressing metal undoubtedly held the crowd's attention in a steely grasp. Phoenix winced slightly, her heart racing as Tae went limp and fell to one side. She didn’t believe he was succumbing to the attack – it looked too deliberate to be the case – but the suspense still had her on the edge of her proverbial seat. Cries and gasps burst out from the fanatical mob as Jezebelle dodged a direct hit on the head, but still got caught on part of his form. It had taken a whole group of them to lift Tae when she’d found them – but would it be easier for another robot?

Even if it was, it would’ve been extremely difficult for Jezebelle, what with Tae slamming his fist down on it over, and over, and over again. The scraping and smashing rang out like the beat of a metronome. And finally, Phoenix felt herself relax a bit more. The corner of her mouth even twitched, a grin itching to make its way onto her face. It wasn’t a pretty sight, and part of her felt bad for Yarrow, who’d seemed to show a surprising degree of civility and kindness in this dirty underground world. But she supposed this is what she signed up for, and she knew the rules of the game – so it was no fault of theirs.

Still, the other bot fighter wasn’t ready to give up either. The other woman barked out another command, prompting the boa to straighten its serpentine body and reveal a mouthful of sharp, spinning teeth. An attack from that probably had the potential to wreak quite a bit of havoc on a PET – and Tae too, surely. And so it was to her surprise that, instead of trying to escape or dodge, he met the snake’s mouth full-on with his arm. Phoenix suppressed a gasp. It looked like something out of a movie or video game. His appendage only went so far, though, before it apparently hit an end point within the boa’s throat. When it did, his opponent bit down, those vicious teeth promptly working their way through Tae’s artificial skin and into his metal body.

In turn, he raised his whole arm and slammed the other PET down into the cement. The noise of crunching metal was visceral and the damage – just from the one strike – was immediate. Phoenix caught a glimpse of the boa’s warped head just before Tae repeated the motion several times over. The sight gave her a flashback to the night where he’d slammed his leg into that man over and over, too. While the sounds she’d heard then had been much different, somehow the noises in the here and now still made her feel slightly sick. But quickly it came to an end when Yarrow commanded her PET to release her grip on Tae’s arm.

With the two somewhat separated, the damage was even more apparent. Jezebelle was in rough shape: eyes caved in, body dented and bent, and probably damaged internally as well. But their opponent was still functional, as showcased by its continued demonstration of its master’s orders. The snake retreated towards the other side of the ring, a pause in the action as both parties regrouped. Phoenix was mildly amused as Yarrow curiously watched Tae dust himself off and test out his damaged extremities. After all that was said and done so far, he was in very good shape still. Not only that, but it was his turn to strike: he rushed towards Jezebelle and hammered his foot into her before any new orders could be given.

The lights in the snake’s eyes died, her body growing still. A forfeit was called out from the other side of the circle, but it had no effect on the android. He repeated the motion, just as he had moments ago and just as he had the other day. “Tae, it’s done,” Phoenix shouted, but her voice was either lost or without impact, as he continued on, stopping only when the money handler stepped in and spoke. As the man’s voice called an end to the event, Tae eased into a neutral position and turned to look at her. Although she felt a touch uneasy about the fact he still seemed to get stuck in a loop of merciless attacks, she was mostly relieved. Sighing quietly, she returned Tae’s nod, grateful for the subtle gesture. Squaring her shoulders, she took a step into the ring as the handler hurried to Tae and took his hand, thrusting it into the air. It seemed they’d made quite a splash just as they’d anticipated. The mediator spoke with a new fervor and excitement as he beckoned her further into the ring. Still doing her best to maintain a cool expression, she stood by Tae and the man and looked around her. It was a bit of sensory overload, being surrounded by so many strange, ecstatic faces and being in the middle of a storm of cries and shouts. And of course there was all the money the man suddenly began to count out in front of her.

As Phoenix took her $650, she felt as though she were in a dream. The lights, the smells, the sounds; everything was a bit surreal, as if she could blink any moment now and wake up to find herself lying in the quiet comfort of her bed. But this was just a feeling; an illusion. All of this was reality, and the announcer’s impromptu post-fight mini-interview pulled her back into it. Focusing intently, she let a smile come across her face for the first time tonight. “Of course you can expect more fights from us. We’re only just getting started.” She tossed the hair of her wig gently over her shoulder and let her gaze drift over the crowd. Her legs felt weak and her pulse was probably going off the charts, but somehow she managed to muster enough energy and willpower to keep her voice steady and confident.

She noticed a few onlookers recording with their PETs, and continued on without missing a beat. “And if there’s anyone who wants to take on Tae, then bring it on.” The crowd exploded with cheers, at which point Phoenix decided it was a good time to wrap things up. With a small nod, she stowed her winnings away and walked away from the money handler, motioning for Tae to follow. In her wake, the man went on to announce the next fight to a quickly dispersing crowd.

After a few paces, she paused and looked over at Yarrow. The woman was hunched next to the battered Jezebelle, her brows furrowed and her expression tense. Her gaze lingered on her for a moment before she turned and approached her, quietly asking Tae to stay and wait a moment where he was. Although it was not Phoenix’s intention to make buddies in the bot fighting world, she figured it would be better to minimize the number of enemies she made.

“Hey.” Phoenix greeted, voice a touch softer, as she stopped a few feet away from Jezebelle. Yarrow looked up at her, eyes slightly narrowed and mouth shut tight. It was hard to tell whether the woman was angry or simply sad, or maybe both. She tried to ignore the ambiguity of her expression and held out a hand. “That was a good fight.” There were a few things she wanted to say to her, not all of which might be appropriate to share. She decided to just see how the conversation went before she said too much.

The older woman looked at the outstretched hand for a moment before she slowly shook it, letting go as she rose to her feet. “Yeah. It was.” She glanced down at Jezebelle, studying the PET’s body before sighing and meeting Phoenix’s gaze again. “Your PET is pretty incredible. I wasn’t expecting that at all, to be honest.” The frustration was evident in her voice, and she supposed it was only natural. Not only was she out money on the initial fee, but it’d cost a pretty penny to get Jezebelle back in working order, too. And of course, surely her pride was a bit hurt too. Still, there was a bit of admiration in her tone as she went on. “How’d you come up with a PET so advanced, anyway?”

“I’ve got certain friends and resources.” They’d planned for such questions, and opted to just leave things vague. Thankfully, Yarrow didn’t seem to be in an inquisitive mood and accepted the answer with a nod. “Anyway,” Phoenix went on, “just wanted to thank you for minding Tae. Didn’t expect someone decent enough to treat him like he might be human after things got started.” She smiled a bit.

Surprisingly, Yarrow let out a short laugh. “Hah. Well, guess we both had our expectations defied.” A short silence fell in between them, though the woman’s chuckle dissipated most of the tension it would’ve otherwise brought. After a moment, she sighed and looked down at the boa again. “I’m not pleased that Jez is in such shit shape now, but I guess that’s just the way it goes.” Placing a hand on her hip, she nodded at Phoenix. “Well, Nyx – thanks for being a decent person, too. My night’s over now, but good luck with the rest of yours.”

“Yeah. See you around then.” Taking the cue to leave, Phoenix turned and headed back towards Tae and Rhys, at least feeling better about having completely totaled the woman’s bot. When she joined her human companion, he looked up from inspecting Tae’s damages.

“Hey, Nyx. What was that all about?” Rhys stood from where he was crouched at Tae’s feet, glancing over Phoenix’s shoulder at Yarrow.

Phoenix frowned, avoiding his gaze by studying Tae’s arm. “I just… felt kinda bad,” she mumbled. “Anyway, what do you think? How much time and money do you think we’ll need to spend on fixing Tae up?” She tilted her head a little. The holes didn’t seem like a huge deal to her, but they did look kind of gnarly. Comparatively, his leg was the bigger problem. Tae’s gait was more unsteady after the attack, although he was still pretty mobile considering.

“Eh… maybe… $50, tops?” Rhys nodded, solidifying his confidence in his estimate. “And that’s if we get everything back the way it was. If we cut a couple corners we can spend less. But… it’d probably be ideal to get him in tip-top shape. The higher end rings want good-looking PETs, from what I hear. No busted up ones allowed.” The man folded his arms over his chest and added, somewhat sheepishly: “Actually I was thinking that I could spot you on any repairs costs... You can pay me back whenever things settle down for you.”

Blinking, Phoenix frowned. “What? No, I couldn’t do that – we can just take it out of the winnings and bet more.” To be honest, she refused instinctively. She already felt indebted enough to Rhys without having to actually owe him money. But from the way he shook his head and held up his hands, it seemed he was determined to stand by his offer.

“No, really – I… I really enjoyed that fight, and I want to see more, so, uh...” He laughed a bit. “Think of it as me investing in you? Or me just being selfish and trying to indulge myself? Please?”

Following a short moment of thought, she sighed and nodded, conceding. “Fine. That would be a big help for us, so I appreciate it.” With that decided, Phoenix turned to Tae. “How are you doing? I mean, how do you feel?” As she spoke, she couldn’t help but smile at him, though she did her best to keep it relatively low-key. “You did amazingly out there. So far, everything seems to be going according to our plan. Do you think you can do another fight tonight or should we call it a day and go home?” With that she turned to Rhys as well, silently asking for his opinion, too.

“There is an area where fighters can do minor repairs and last minute adjustments before fights. While the materials they have for purchase are suuuper limited, I think we might be able to do some makeshift fixes. I mean, if you want to keep going today.” Rhys folded his arms across his chest. “If not, I think we have some time. If we come back tomorrow and drum up more hype around ourselves, I think we could probably get into a more expensive ring the day after. We can wager more money and get greater returns at higher levels… so we’ll have time. Just depends on you, Tae.”

“What do you think?” Phoenix looked back to him, concern etched on her brow. “We made way more than I really expected, so I don’t mind if you think it’s best to go home for today. I don’t want you to push yourself past your limits.”
 
Tae was much happier once Phoenix joined him in the ring. After all, this was not really his battle. Sure, he was the weapon, but this fight was for Phoenix alone which meant that she deserved the glory. And of course, she also deserved the money. The win amount was over what he had calculated, which likely had to do with the fact that people were rushing to bet on Jezebel since they were so sure that she would win against a human. Thankfully from Tae’s position looking over the crowd he did not see anyone too upset with losing their money. They were happy, and that was a good sign.

What was not a good sign was the cameras that Tae saw out in the crowd when he followed Phoenix’s gaze. Cameras were bad, at least when he was showing his true self. He had to keep reminding himself that spreading his true nature was part of the plan. The problem was that being secretive was embedded into his core, so fighting against it was odd and made him feel a bit conflicted. Naturally, for Phoenix it was worth it, but the contradiction was still there inside Tae.

Once the fight was over Tae was left with Rhys as Phoenix went to go talk to Yarrow. The enemy. However, he was told to stay with Rhys so Tae did not follow like his impulses told him to. Instead all he did was watch his lady from afar, his unblinking eyes keeping a lookout for any sort of trouble. Thankfully, nothing happened and Tae was able to relax mentally again.

As the conversation continued all Tae wanted to do was express that he was fine. Sure, his arm looked horrible now but it was nothing that long sleeves would not hide. And his leg was… well his legs were a bit weak to begin with and now one of them was caved in a fair amount which did admittedly make Tae limp a bit out of caution. He did not want to put his full weight on his leg until he had the chance to reinforce the area a bit. Could he put weight on it? Most likely, but there was a limited amount of times until the metal simply gave out just like any broken leg would do.

“I feel just fine.” Tae assured his lady, partially lying but his robotic voice making that undetectable. “I think we should continue today. There is no time to waste and if I can help speed up the process of reaching higher ranks then I will do so. Still, a handful of basic repairs would be wise. At the very least I need time to reshape my leg again.” Just like Tae did back at the dumpster the first time he met Phoenix. It was a temporary but easy fix.

Glancing at Phoenix now, with her brows creased for his sake alone, Tae could not imagine refusing her anything. He would fight until he was nothing but a pile of metal slivers if it meant wiping the concern from her face. Momentarily not thinking about the implications of this action, Tae reached out and lightly brushed his finger over Phoenix's eyebrow and forehead area, trying to physically smooth out her worries. “Please do not look so concerned,” He requested, a small smile on his flawless face as he looked at her. “I am happy to do this for you, you know that. My body can handle far more than this.” Tae did not seem to care about this intimate action, or the fact that Rhys was right there to witness the scene.

With a light jolt, Tae pulled his hand away. “Oops. I can’t do that here…” Tae said quietly, implying that he could do it elsewhere as long as people like Rhy's were not there to witness it. “Shall we go? Lead the way” Tae suggested, making a point to return control to the humans among him.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

The night lasted a couple more hours after Tae went to the repair center and got an interior split for his leg. It was cheap metal, far worse than every part he was made out of, but it was enough to get him through the rest of the fights of the night. After Jezebel there was a canine that was nothing special among the low ranking bot fighting community; there was a flying creature who ended up being less than scraps by the time Tae was done ripping it apart by hand; and the final opponent was not even an animal shaped PET but a mismatched metal contraction more like the old ideas of robots. In the end, they came out with a fairly large wad of cash and Tae was visibly limping even if he wanted to or not. Furthermore, his arm still had the holes in it, his knuckles were heavily dented considering how many times he punched other metal that day, and his lower back got a blade deep through it. It was lucky that none of his core was located at his lower back, but either way, he would need a new plate there for certain.

His leg though was the largest concern and would need to be repaired before he got back into combat. Tae seemed to rely on kicking, jumping, and stomping to combat his opponents. Despite the frequency of these attacks, his feet themselves were not dented at all (unlike his knuckles). He was made to fight with his legs, that much was clear, and the programming mostly followed that logic. He was not useless without his legs, but he was weaker . It seemed like this was the only “injury” of his that was actually impacting his functionality though.

More concerning than that, however, was Tae’s brain. After the first fight there were no light shows or unexpected stalling moments, but his eyes did flash blue now and again. Every fight he seemed to go through a stage where he would mainly dodge until someone flicked a switch in his brain and he became a killing machine. That trigger was unclear, but there was little doubt that it was there. Unlike the alley fight, Tae did not take first initiative. But like the alley fight, Tae put himself in loops where he would repeat the same motion over and over again until he was called off by the ringleader or Phoenix. He would find the most efficient attack method, whatever did the most damage, and repeat it. Tae had style simply because of his fighting method and combat logic, but he certainly did not go out of his way to put on a show when he saw a way to literally crush his opponent to bits. It was brutal but efficient.

Besides the moment Tae ran a finger over Phoenix's face, he did well at appearing emotionless like he used to be. But the moment that they were in the car and driving back to Phoenix's apartment, Tae let himself smile fully. No teeth, but he could not have curled his lips up any further if he wanted to.

“You did it, Phoenix!” Tae said as soon as he could get it out, notably not giving himself credit and not even including Rhys who at that time was driving. Tae had offered to drive so that they both could sleep on the way back home, but Tae’s offer was rejected. Leaning closer to Phoenix, but not touching her, Tae was visibly excited as he spoke, “I didn't get a chance to see how much money you earned but it seemed like a decent amount! May I look and add it to my calculations, please? I would like to see if my projected profit for this night was accurate.” No one should appear as happy as Tae did when talking about math and projected estimates, but not many people were walking computers either so his sense of what was fun was understandably a bit warped.

What also was warped was the way he continued to move despite his damages. A human hand could not move with knuckles concaved inward, and frankly, a human could not move with half a foot sized gash in their lower back either. But of course Tae had no problem and didn't even seem to pay attention to the damages or the fact that his new shirt was half hanging off his body due to the countless rips. At most, Tae was trying his best not to get dirt all over the backseat. He was so covered in dirt and splashes of oil though that it was impossible to completely leave the car unstained. After all, Tae looked like he had just finished working underneath a car.

Although he did not say it allowed, for most of the car ride home Tae was trying to calculate how much his repairs would cost and how long they would take. At the very least he needed a new leg support of medium quality. But with the money they had and the fact that fights would only be harder from here on out, Tae felt that he needed an upgrade… or at least in comparison to the materials Phoenix and Rhys had originally used. There was no way that they could afford to use the proper materials used in Tae’s original construction, but that did not mean that they could not get a bit closer towards perfection. Tae needed to be at his peak and although money was important, Tae figured that it would be a wise investment. The fact that they earned more than he estimated made the robot convinced that they could afford to spend more just this once. But for now he would keep his calculations to himself unless they brought the topic up themselves. Repairs of this magnitude were a bit selfish, after all.

Tae trailed the pair back to Phoenix’s apartment, his damaged leg slowing him down a fair bit. The only reason he was able to keep up with the pair was because of his long limbs. Since they were far from the bot fighting ring now, Tae made no attempt to hide his true ‘emotions’ and the overly joyful persona that he had developed.

Immediately after entering the apartment, Tae limped towards the kitchen and looked in the fridge. “So are you two hungry? The human body should eat at least three meals a day, although it is recommended that a small meal every three to four hours will help maintain an active metabolism. With that in mind, you two must be starving!” It had, after all, been over eight hours since their last full meal. “If you both are willing to wait, we have the materials needed to create a pasta dish that should fill you up. Or, if you are in a hurry to get to bed, I could also make you a simple wrap to hold you both over until the morning. Which shall I do?” Even though he was a mess, Tae was concerned with their physical condition. And interestingly, his power was still very high. Either fighting took little energy, or the Lai.pro required less energy to function than Tae's original program did.

“Oh, and are you staying for the night, Rhys? I obviously don’t sleep so the couch is completely free for your use. I imagine that you are exhausted after such an exciting, busy night. With Phoenix's permission, I will happily fetch you a blanket or two as soon I get the food cooking."
 
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