As Becca was brushing her teeth that evening, Mikey came into the bathroom and began to brush hers. Becca was a little surprised at this - why would a robot need to do that? She rinsed and spat, and turned to Mikey. "Why're you doin' that?" she asked. The gynoid, looking a little sheepish, finished up and smiled. "They're still enamel," she said. "So when I eat with everybody else, it can still cause decay if I don't keep 'em clean. It wouldn't hurt or anything, but it's good to take care of 'em. Plus it's already a habit for me."
The teeth, she'd read, were likely enamel because ceramic would require high-temperature firing to produce if her repair systems had to replace them, and her mouth was definitely not built to kiln specs. They also looked noticeably more like human teeth because they weren't completely opaque. She wasn't sure that was purposeful, though - the debate over the extent to which robot-changed were designed to fit into human society was an ongoing one, and there were a sizable number of good counter-examples who were definitely on the non-human side of the Uncanny Valley (though proponents of the idea pointed to the fact that there didn't seem to be an evenly-distributed range of human likenesses both in and out of the valley as evidence that they were designed not to be off-putting to humans.)
As to the habit...well, she really didn't mind that at all. Like eating, it was something that was unnecessary and a little absurd if she stopped to think about it, but she liked her habits; they helped make her feel like her, a continuity of self between Mikey the human boy and Mikey the robot girl. Besides, it wasn't like it was a hassle or anything. It was still strange for her to think of what she was now compared to what she had been, and all the ways that she'd changed, but it helped to surround herself with all these little points of familiarity and focus on what hadn't changed. She was still mostly the same person, still surrounded by her family who loved her...
She trailed off on that line of thought as she thought about why she'd come here when she had. She wasn't sure she thought of Becca as family, but she knew she cared for the little girl. She'd been just as baffled and shocked as her fairies when they'd presented her with the transmission they'd gotten from Hiro's virus. Why on Earth would the thing be interested in Becca? She was just a little girl! The most unusual thing about her, aside from the fact that she'd once been a much bigger boy, was that she had blue hair!
It was at times like this that Mikey wished she had a larger array of sensory equipment, like some robots did; was there something she was missing by being confined to mostly the standard audiovisual spectrum? But that was pointless; even if Becca were emitting some kind of unusual radiation at a wavelength she couldn't pick up or something else similarly absurd, it wouldn't explain what anybody wanted with her. And who were these people, anyway? What was she number three of? So many questions, and her only real hope was that Becca would have some idea what she was talking about...
Mikey gently shut the bathroom door, and the younger girl looked at her curiously. "Wh-what is it?" she asked, a little nervously. Becca knew on some level that she didn't have any reason not to trust the robot-girl, but the situation called to mind times when grown-ups had told her "we need to talk" or "come with me" and taken her off to some private place to talk about things that she didn't really want to talk about, and that made her nervous, and from there her imagination started to chime in with possibilities of what might be going to happen...
Mikey responded with a disarmingly warm and genuine smile. "It's okay," she said, and Becca found herself a little reassured. Then the gynoid's face turned more serious, but in no way angry or upset. "I just had to ask you something, that's all." She sat down on the bathroom floor, gently lowering herself in a fashion that was a little too smooth to be really organic, but all the same wasn't uncomfortably mechanical. Becca sat as well, and stared across at her, wondering what this was all about. "...what?" she managed to ask, after a moment.
Mikey sighed - this was important, but all the same, if Becca didn't know what was going on, she'd hate to involve her...but no, this was important. "Um, Becca," she said, "the other day, one of the other robots at school was, um, attacked by a virus."
"...oh," said Becca. She more or less knew what that meant, but she couldn't figure out what that had to do with her. "Um, 're they okay?"
The young gynoid nodded. "He's fine...we caught it. But, um, it took him over 'cause it was looking for something. My, um...we found a message it was trying to send, and we figured out what it was." She took a deep breath, out of habit. "It was a picture of you, Becca," she said. "It didn't have your name, but it said you were 'number three...' Do you know what they were talkin' about, or why they want to find you?"
Becca bit her lip hard enough to startle herself. "Uh, um, n-no!" she said. "I-I d-dunno what that is..."
Mikey suppressed a smirk - she had caught the little girl off-guard, and she didn't need an array of advanced biometric sensors to tell that she knew more than she let on. She leaned forward and showed a more serious expression. "Becca," she said, "if these people tried to take over someone just to find you, they can't be good people. I know you know what's goin' on here, an' it's important that you tell the truth so we can figure out how to help you, 'kay?"
Becca winced, annoyed at getting caught, and feeling a little guilty - she really did believe that Mikey wanted to help her. She knew that Trident wanted to keep her secret from getting out too much, but surely she didn't intend for Becca to lie to people about it! She didn't know that Mikey or her parents could actually do anything to help, but...
"O-okay," she stammered. "I...I'll tell you."
Across the town, several angel-girls sighed in relief as they felt their sister Zara get out of the car coming home from her date. It had been a strange and somewhat intimidating new experience for all of them, but...surprisingly unremarkable, really. Good food, pleasant, jovial emotions emanating from Zara, and a few awkward moments as they went about their own business in somewhat more formal clothes than they were used to wearing, but that was about it. Really, the stranger part was...well, that she was on a date with a boy.
Nothing happened in "that way," not even close. Whatever it was they were doing, it was purely good-company stuff, hardly even a date at all, the way they were accustomed to thinking of it. But the possibility loomed large and ever-present in their minds throughout the evening. What if things took a turn in that direction? They hadn't really come to any kind of agreement on the issue, mainly because they could hardly even talk about it at length without all getting terribly embarassed; they'd mostly just agreed to let the issue lie until they felt more like discussing it. Even though they'd had that night of...getting intimately acquainted with their new bodies, and with the shared experience, that was a far different thing from the idea of...of doing it with another person...another non-them person, let alone a guy.
So it was a relief when they realized the evening was coming to a close and Zara was returning home. She didn't broadcast any kind of physical anticipation, and her emotional state seemed to be more pleasant but slightly nervous than worked-up, so it was a certainty that nothing like that was planned. She exited the car, and walked up the walkway toward her house. They could feel, through some part of her spatial perception that was shared, that her date was accompanying her. Step up onto the porch...pause for a moment...she was feeling a little nervous, but happy, and they found themselves reflecting that. The pause seemed to stretch on...
Then, as much to her surprise as theirs, they felt a pair of hands on her shoulders and then she was being kissed. Whoever he was, he was unsure of himself and pulled away quickly, leaving the startled angel-girl staring at him in surprise, and all of her sisters in a mild state of shock. There was a much more awkward pause, and the two bid a hasty goodnight. Zara's hand on the doorknob...opening the door...inside. Shut. She stood there, catching her breath, sorting out a sudden muddle of emotion...
She felt bemused, and she felt affectionate. She was a little charmed by his uncertainty. These feelings echoed across the chorus, giving way to a much greater confusion as the rest of them began to process the event for themselves and broadcast their own feelings on it. Still reeling, she could feel them feel her as she went up to her room to change.
David sat on her bed, trying to sort out the cacaphony of emotions washing over her. But as with their senses, she knew perfectly well which were her own feelings and which were the others'. When you kissed me...I liked that. She'd said that to...to Rachel. With this...the physical sensation...she did like it. She still didn't know what she thought of the idea of one of her sisters being with a man...the idea of her sharing in everything they would experience, but...she did like the kiss.
