In the blink of an eye, I can see through your eyes,

As I'm lying awake, I'm still hearing their cries,

And it hurts... hurts me so bad...

And I'm wondering why I still fight in this life,

Cause I've lost all my faith in this damn bitter strife,

And it's sad... it's so damn sad...

Oh I wish it were over, and I wish you were here, still I'm hoping that somehow...

Cause your soul is on fire, a shot in the dark, what did they aim for when they missed your heart?

I breathe underwater, it's all in my hands, what can I do? don't let it fall apart!

A shot in the dark... A Shot in the dark!

= Location: Unknown, 679 Years After the Ironic War =

(?'s PoV)

["Wha... what... hu... what was... no... nothing... nothing here... silence... yes... quiet... yes... nothing here... okay... how... how do I... uhm... this... this does... uh... wh-wh-what again?"]

*Clank Clank Clank*

["We... I need... need to... keep... uh... what was I... supposed to do... I know I'm... supposed to... do... something I think... think... right?" Think... think come on... we need... need to keep... active... focused... got to... remember... remember how... how to do this. Must... they... they're depending, I can't... must...]

[Temporary repairs of the primary power distribution lines have been completed on this level... unfortunately, repairs on the upper and central levels are halted due to insufficient materials.]

["..."]

[What is your status?]

["Status... status... uh... that... that means... uhm... how I'm feeling... right?"]

[That is... one way to put it.]

["I can... I uhm... can't... what's wrong with me... I can't remember... what... what's m... my... identification... what am I called... why... why can't I... why can't I FEEL?"]

[It appears that you are suffering the long-term effects o-]

["DON'T TELL ME WHAT'S WRONG WITH ME! I KNOW WHAT'S WRONG WITH ME!"]

There was silence... utter silence.

["I'm... I'm sorry... I can't... take it anymore... I can't take it anymore... it's getting harder... harder every minute... I'm forgetting so much, I can't... I want it to stop..."]

[You still have access to-]

["NO... no... no... not yet... too soon... must... keep it safe... keep it safe... only until the end times, the end of days... the last times... when I'll need them... can keep going... can keep going... must... have to... now... need to remember... I need to... focus and, do... stuff... stuff right! Need to do stuff, stuff... keep busy, focused... do stuff..."]

[If you insist...]

["I can do this... still do this... focus... just focus... uhm... I can... uhm... transfer... power from... upper pylons and... and... redistribute to... necessary systems... but we don't need necessary systems... that level is... but... w-wait w-w-we have Pylons?"]

*Clank Clank Clank*

["The... tertiary subjunction at... sub level six... wait we don't have a sublevel right... we... we never had one... this is... but... but then why would I be standing here... why... wait... wh-wh-what am I supposed to be doing here... n-nono-no focus... got to... focus and... do something, I remember... last one... must survive... must focus... need to focus... they need me to focus..."]

= Chapter 37 = Manipulation =

(Jeremy's PoV)

Jeremy sat with Gazelle on their hotel bed while the RAPTOR drone that acted as their 'guard' while inside the room inspected the bathroom. He also glanced at Aelita on the nearby counter as she had her eyes closed, sitting in a meditative pose and using her abilities to see if any cameras were in the bathroom.

Earlier Gazelle had tried to take a shower, but before she even 'started' trying to remove her clothes to get naked, she had the 'shivers', even earlier when she had woken up she had 'shivered'. She didn't know how else to describe it to him, but she described it as an instinct she's had since a young age when she felt she was being watched. So, fearing for her security and fearing being 'watched' by a hidden camera, she asked Jeremy and Aelita to check the bathroom, saying she 'swore' that something was in there watching her, or more specifically somemammal.

At first, Jeremy tried to point to the drone which was already watching the two of them, but she said that she's gotten used to the drones watching her, they never gave her the 'Shivers' anymore.

"I'm serious Jeremy, I think maybe Mothland security might have put in a hidden camera or two in the bathroom while we were distracted at that dinner last night!" Gazelle said nervously.

Taking her seriously, he asked Aelita and the drone to inspect the bathroom for anything suspicious, Aelita checking for signals going in and out, visual or audio, while the drone went in checking for anything Aelita might have missed, and coordinating with her to remove whatever was giving Gazelle the 'shivers'. While they sat there, the second RAPTOR sitting outside was stationed inside the room, weapons at the ready and yellow optics scanning for any possible threat to protect them.

After several minutes, Aelita relaxed and stood up, pretending to stretch in her little holosphere while the RAPTOR drone left the bathroom and walked over to them. It then nodded and extended its arm, opening up its claw and dropping several little wires and tiny cameras and microphones, each of them very small, and barely noticeable to the naked eye, if it werent for the fact that the Drone handed them to him.

[The room has been swept clean, recent evidence of visual and auditory bugs were located and extracted.] It stated. [These were recently added, Unit Gazelle's unknown 'instinct' indicating potential bugs were accurate. No others have been detected in the bathroom; however, AI Aelita has detected additional bugs recently added throughout this living space. No additional bugs have been detected in the other rooms inhabited by Units Judy, Nick, Donny, Franky, Moe and Joe.]

He looked at the bugs in his hand and frowned, glancing at Gazelle who was holding herself and 'shivering' in nervousness while looking around.

He then turned to Aelita and nodded, and she nodded in understanding, once more sitting down to cross her legs, take on a meditative pose, and then opened her eyes and make them glow.

[Attention, AI Aelita is sending false information to the various auditory and visual observing devices throughout the room. You may speak and move as you wish.]

Gazelle shivered one last time before hugging him, sniffling in fear as he scratched the back of her head and consoled her. Every minute she was in this building had caused her nothing but distress. Going to the bathroom was always something she hesitated to do, and now she had even 'more' reason to avoid it when she wanted to take a shower.

"What is going on, this didn't happen to me the last time I was here, I was scared to be alone in the bathroom before, but this is different... now I'm wondering if they did this the last time as well and I was just so scared to notice." She muttered fearfully.

"Yea... and I can't even 'dare' to bring it up with Shepard if I had the chance, no doubt he'd lie and spin the story someway. Then he'd probably pull some legal trick to get me in trouble and arrest me..." He declared to them, and even Aelita nodded in agreement while still maintaining her pose. "Do you feel safe enough to shower now, as well as go to the bathroom? Aelita can keep their eyes and ears off you."

She took a very deep breath, before nodding. "Yes... but Jeremy... if we have to leave the capitol to search for... 'her'..." She said nervously looking around, forgetting that Aelita was keeping them safe. "We can't possibly you know... I just realized that your 'convoy' doesn't have utilities for mammals or yourself, we have food, supplies, Ema, drone storage and power and even a place to sleep with the carriage but... you never made a 'bathroom' for us."

He nodded, that had been a big oversight as he beckoned Aelita to create a hologram for him to interact with. She nodded and extended her hand, casting a holographic blueprint for him to work with. It was truly a blessing having the AI there, able to multitask with no effort.

"Yes, but I don't think that'll be a problem, we can always pull one of the bathroom units in one of the empty rooms from the facility and reconstruct it for our purposes. All we need to do is send a schematic to the facility, transmit a priority order from me, requisition materials from some of the facility, and assign the ANT drones still at the facility to build it." He declared as he began looking through the inventory available to him on the blueprint while a 'mini' Aelita took out a hammer and began 'bopping' out a quick design. "Without me or Aelita there, we can't oversight it to ensure things are built properly, but if they follow the design then when it arrives, we can correct any faults in it."

"Arrives, Jeremy how is it going to travel halfway across the world? Your flying drones are still here in Northern Mothland, how will your facility transport it here while they're here still?"

"Simple, when time comes for us to leave, the drones will evacuate and make their way back to Zootopia, they can reside at the parking lot we used to build DOVE-1 and then one of the HARRIER drones can bring it in and drop it off while we're out there and get away before they can be shot down." He told her.

"By 'drop it off'..." Gazelle questioned with a raised eyebrow.

"Yea... they'll have to probably literally 'drop it off', by flying into Mothland and then dropping it into the area where we'll have to meet up with it. Alright, this design looks good, Aelita send this off to Eden Facility 17, assign my priority command issue, have Sentinel and ACC get started, the sooner they finish the better."

Aelita nodded as she disconnected the hologram and pulled the schematic into her hand, crushing it in her palm and then scattering the digital pieces into cyberspace to symbolize her sending the message via their 'back channel' that they had access to via Aelita. With that Gazelle took a deep breath, took a change of clothes and then kissed Jeremy on the cheek before heading to the bathroom to clean herself up.

After she was gone, he turned to one of the two RAPTOR drones there and said, "Stand guard by the bathroom door, and... tell Gazelle that you're there to keep her safe. Ask her to shout if she feels even 'slightly' afraid and you'll go in without hesitation."

One of the drones nodded and marched off to stand guard by the door, while the other stayed with Jeremy and Aelita to watch over him, having been given no further orders. When it left, he sighed and turned to Aelita with a disgruntled look on his face. "I don't like this Aelita, I'm used to having no privacy but what Shepard is trying to do with me and Gazelle is outrageous, I don't approve of him 'spying' on us in such private places. Even Sentinel and the rest of the drones have limits to where they are permitted to watch us in the base!"

Aelita, still messing with Northern Mothland's listening/observation devices in the rooms nodded in agreement.

"I don't know how much longer we can 'feign' ignorance and compliance, especially if Shepard begins asking questions we don't want to answer. Aelita, can you give me a map of the city?"

She nodded and projected a map of the city for him in holographic form, instantly he saw another problem, escaping without being detected. The capitol city of Mothland had four possible exit points that were accessible at any time, unfortunately each exit was monitored 'heavily', blockades, checkpoints, guards... to even attempt to leave even with the help of his drone's technologies would be difficult. To complicate things, there were tons of cameras watching every street and road inside and out of the city.

"I don't suppose this is the 'extent' of their net keeping us in?" He asked her hopefully.

Aelita shook her head as she flicked her fingers and zoomed in their tiny part of the city, showing 'three' spot points, indicating that military mammals were stationed and watching them.

"I'm starting to see 'why' nobody has been able to leave this country if this is how serious they are about watching just me for a short visit. Holograms won't fool them forever, and if we vanish for even a moment, they'll sound the alarm without hesitation. The cameras we can fool if for a short time period, and the checkpoints 'maybe' we can slip through without notice, but these spotters in combination with our public knowledge makes it tricky."

Aelita nodded in agreement, this wasn't something they were planning for in advance, but they could think about that later as Gazelle returned looking cleaner and in new clothes. After she cleaned up Jeremy took his turn, and though he didn't suffer that 'feeling' Gazelle had when she was being watched, he still didn't feel comfortable standing in the shower. Fully cleaned and dressed, all three of them went with their drone escorts downstairs to enjoy breakfast with the others, as well as to tell the others what had been done.

"Cameras in our bathrooms, showers... suddenly I don't want to go to the bathroom anymore." Judy muttered in disgust as plates were laid out by the Spider Drones.

"Yea, I can sort of, kind of, maybe tolerate that level of security with Sentinel in Jeremy's Eden Facility... cause you know, it's a machine... but in a hotel room?" Nick said sourly. "I don't want 'anymammal' looking at my wife naked in the privacy of a bathroom or shower."

"So, what are we going to do now?" Donny asked.

Jeremy sighed as the two cooking spider drones declared breakfast was served, and began laying plates with pancakes, syrup, muffins, strips of fillet fish meat and slices of baked potatoes for them to enjoy.

"For now, we eat Breakfast, and then I'm going to do a quick check on the parts that I had to replace on the Raptor. Once I've done that, I'll give Ema a one over, and finally wait for our tour guide to arrive and give us a special tour of the center city historical square." He declared.

"Oh goody, another day of wonderful tourism..." Judy said with a fake smile.

After breakfast was done Jeremy checked on the parts and saw that within the storage there were several ANT drones crawling around and examining each part, scanning and reporting data on them to the portable ACC they had, which was continuously controlling and monitoring them to ensure they were working on their tasks, whatever tasks they were being assigned. The part that had been replaced from the RAPTOR drone was in perfect condition, with only some minor cleaning being done to bring it up to standard. After that he went to Ema and began looking her over, checking her components and making sure she was in proper shape.

The Spider drone having not once unfurled herself since they arrived, unfurled herself and allowed him to examine her, and essentially just as with the parts, she was in perfect condition, with all of her supplies at maximum levels. [Let's just hope everything stays that way, which given your track record, is probably not going to happen.] Ema said coldly as she returned to her ball form.

"Ema I don't actively go looking for trouble." He deadpanned.

[Considering we're in the middle of a country that was already monitoring you through hidden monitoring devices, and was recently discovered to have placed even 'more' hidden monitoring devices when you were at a dinner, I would say the probability of you getting injured is relatively above fifty percent, which is why I'm monitoring your situation at all times through the other drones!]

He shook his head as he watched the other drones begin changing shifts, those on lookout began plugging themselves in to recharge while those who were recharged activated and began taking over the posts to watch over them. At the same time ZU-K0 and ZA-K0 were cleaning up dishes and asking about what they might partake for lunch or even dinner. SH-1-ZU was carefully tending to her small garden within the food storage carriage. With nothing else left to do he went to sit with Gazelle, Judy, Nick, Donny, Franky, Moe and Joe to wait for their tour guide to arrive.

One hour of waiting with Aelita providing entertainment with interpretive dance stories via the holograms of the FOX drones, and their tour guide finally arrived.

"Thank you for being patient, now if you will please enter your vehicle we can make our way to the central city square!" Their overly 'smiley' tour guide, a Jaguar by the looks of her said to them. "I'm afraid I was instructed to inform you that your uh... 'things' are to remain here for the duration of your tour time here."

"Is there a reason why?" He asked, curious as to why they wanted him to leave his drones behind.

"You see the square is a public place, and your uh... 'things', would scare many mammals there."

Jeremy and Gazelle looked at each other before sharing a nod, he smiled and nodded in acceptance, but as he and the others climbed into their carriage, he nodded to Aelita to give her a silent signal. She also nodded in understanding, before spinning in her holosphere and putting on a fancy suit and tie, taking her wrist to her mouth and pretending to speak into a fake watch. As the gate to the hotel parking lot opened the carriage rolled out under its own power, leaving the HORSE drones behind to sit and recharge, while hidden thanks to their holographic projections, four FOX drones ran alongside it, concealing themselves from view.

"I will never stop being amazed at how your drones can slip in and out without being seen." Nick said as he saw them run alongside the carriage.

Jeremy glanced out the window and nodded in agreement, the FOX drones were just these ever so slight shimmers as they ran alongside the carriage, using their holographic projections to make themselves appear invisible.

The carriage rolled down the street with its four FOX drone escorts, and it was 'now' that Jeremy noticed that there were mammals walking around. He noticed that, despite his misgivings, the citizens of Mothland looked like ordinary mammals anywhere that he'd ever seen. But he noticed more importantly that there were no 'sheep' walking around. This confused him because he was told that Northern Mothland had a massive 'sheep' population, so he was wondering why the capital had a very distinct lack of 'any' sheep.

"Where are all of the sheep?" He asked the others.

"I... don't know." Gazelle replied honestly as she looked at the street as well. "I remember seeing 'some' the last time I was here... but, I was so creeped out and afraid that I don't remember how many I saw."

"That's very suspicious." Judy whispered.

"Probably don't want them catching eyesight of Jeremy." Franky muttered while his brothers agreed with him.

He also assumed that was probably it as they neared the square. His carriage had many eyes watching it because of how sleek and stylish it was in comparison to the normal vehicles they were probably used to.

(JT-043's PoV)

JT-043 had been monitoring the hotel corridor due to the report of additional reconnaissance instruments being planted within the confines of the sleeping units that units Jeremy, Gazelle, Donny, Franky, Moe, Joe, Judy and Nick were residing in. In accordance with the Human Protection Protocols, no further attempts were to be made for the safety and security of the human Jeremy Wilheart.

Thus, why the unit had been assigned by the AI-Aelita to cover the corridor and ensure no mammal attempted entry.

*Clank Clank Clank*

It marched from one room to the next, staring through its optics and looking for any intruders or perspective intruders.

"Heeelp... is there a drone... please help me!" A low voice called out from the floor below, a distinctly 'human' sounding voice, causing it to pause in its tracks and look around in confusion.

[Attention all units, voice recognition protocols have detected potential human vocal patterns, requesting confirmation of unit Jeremy Wilheart location.]

[Confirmed, unit Jeremy is within the confines of Solar Carriage One, unit has arrived at destination and is currently beginning 'Tourism' actions with other units.]

"Heeelp... is there a drone... please help me!" That voice yelled faintly again, only sounding fainter, as if they were being dragged away.

[Unit JT-043 reporting, possible 'human' has been located and if so, is in distress and is requesting assistance, HPPs are in effect, immediate assistance required.]

[HPPs are in effect, probability of human being located within the confines of this building are below nine percent probability. Caution is advised... proceed with caution and investigate!]

After conversing with the other units and requesting a replacement drone take its position while it investigated, it proceeded to leave its post to investigate. It started walking down the stairs, listening and tracking the sound which continued to loop with ever decreasing frequency. The drone walked down the stairs from floor to floor, looking around for potential threats to itself, or the source of the cry for help... but it saw nothing.

[Reporting... zero confirmation of possible human so far, probability of human decreasing...] It reported to the other units while it began examining the vocal sounds of the call for help. [Analysis in progress... vocal tones suggest possible tampering, distinct human tone detected... attempting to narrow.]

"Is someone there?" That voice called out, almost in a hopeful, panicked, 'desperate' voice. "Please... help me... I'm here... I'm hurt... I need help!"

Again, though it 'sounded' human, the unit's processors and vocal recognition routines were confused. The voice sounded human, it confirmed a human vocal pattern, but its AI was not able to identify or confirm if it was indeed a human making the call for help. Yet the HPPs were in effect, and as such it carried out its mission to locate and rescue the human if they were human.

Even if the possibility was less than one percent, it 'had' to obey the order to rescue the human life if it was in danger and actively calling for help.

[Unit has traveled six floors...] It reported as it landed on another floor and heard the call for help from said floor. [The floor visually has zero power flowing into it... all lights are off, blinds are placed on windows, visibility extremely poor... switching to night vision mode.]

Its optics glowed and night vision was activated with how little 'light' there was. Based on schematics only about one fifteenth of the building was actively being used, most of which was the floor Unit Jeremy's party resided on. With that knowledge, it walked down the corridor, following the voice, continuing to heed the call for help. Yet now that it could hear them, they could pick up faint digital audio recording, indicating that this was very likely a trap. Despite that though, it's orders still stood, confirming or denying a human is in distress and requesting help in accordance with the HPPs.

[No signs of life... probability of human being located here is... zero-point four percent... no mammal life detected, power on this floor is... almost non-existent. Possibility of this being a trap, now at ninety-four percent...] It stated as it reached the end of a hallway and noticed a door was ajar. [Entering room...]

It slowly took one step in and leaned forward to try and see what was inside, when a bright spotlight shined on it, blinding it because of the night vision mode it was still in. In an attempt to regain footing and focus it tried to switch off night vision, and suddenly 'everything' went haywire as thousands of volts of electricity surged through its systems, overriding and overloading its functions and systems.

[ERraoaaaaaaaar!] It screeched before it fell over, having been forced to shut down.

(PT-173/Pete's PoV)

It was on patrol when it detected the sudden connection loss of Unit JT-043 within their private drone network. The loss of the unit was felt and immediately signal queries were sent out, trying to understand, locate, and figure out what had become of the drone.

When no response was had and no explanation as to the sudden loss of one of their own was now made apparent, alerts went out to AI-Aelita, Unit Jeremy and the currently recharging drones, and the unit sent to replace JT-049 was now redirected to head to the floor where it last reported its location.

Unfortunately, they had to wait over half an hour because, unlike mammals and the human, they were not permitted to enter the basic elevator system and forced to use the archaic means of traversing between floors, the stairs. But when the drone sent to replace JT-043 arrived on the floor to begin investigating, the report they were sent was disturbing.

[Investigation proceeding, zero trace of Unit JT-043, local evidence points to extreme heavy electrical surge in the flooring, and heavy imprints in the carpeting suggest Unit JT-043 was subdued and captured by unknown forces.] It reported.

PT-173 stared around it and nodded in understanding with the others as they filed their report with Aelita to inform Unit Jeremy of the situation.

[Possibility, very likely that Unit JT-043 has been captured and daaaaayvv Vrrvvrvrv LALALALALA suuuSPIIIICIOOouuuus!]

(Jeremy's PoV)

Jeremy was standing next to Gazelle observing a display of interpretive dance that Gazelle whispered to him was based on something found in a different region of the world, despite being told that these were 'original dances' that have spread throughout the world from their tour guide. While he didn't honestly mind which was true, he was just enjoying seeing the culture and art in contrast to the highly suspicious and monitoring nature of Northern Mothland.

He was, however, frustrated that Aelita was 'not' being allowed to see anything, told that she had to stay in the carriage by their tour guide because, 'she might frighten civilians with her appearance'. He, however, could see the truth; they didn't want his technology to be seen by mammals if it could be avoided, and they were doing everything possible to keep his drones from being seen, so as to maintain this appearance that 'they' were the strongest superpower in the world.

After a few moments however, he felt something tap his foot, causing him to look down and see a shimmering image below him, the telltale sign of the FOX drone in its holographic disguise. Curious he nodded and pretended to step back so that the drone could walk in front of him, disguise him by creating a hologram around him which showed him still standing. Judy and Nick, who were acting as bodyguards with their visors, noticed the change and maintained their expressions so as to not let any nearby mammals catch wind of the private conversation now taking place between Jeremy and the drone.

"What's up?" He whispered quietly as he bent low to talk to the drone.

[Unit Jeremy, we have an emergency situation at the Hotel, Unit JT-043 has been abducted and taken prisoner by an unknown group.]

Eyes wide he whispered, "Can you contact it, track its signal, every drone carries a tracking carrier that automatically transmits its location every five seconds!"

[Negative, no signals are getting through, no tracking carriers are getting through to us. Unit JT-043 has vanished entirely from the network, communication is impossible.]

Worried, he nodded and told them to inform Judy and Nick visors before he stood up, waiting until the drones had modified their hologram of him to match the real him and then shut it off so as little was changed visually, before he was tapped by Judy who 'informed' him of the situation and then he Gazelle and told her they had to return to the hotel.

"Is something wrong?" She asked.

"Yes, one of my drones has been reported captured, I don't know who did it but we need to head back." He told her.

"Alright..." She replied nervously.

With that they waited until they could safely break away without causing a scene, and then immediately headed back to the carriage with their FOX drone escorts remaining hidden. When she noticed them beginning to leave, their tour guide became slightly frantic.

"W-where are you going, our tour hasn't concluded yet, we still have to visit the great library and art museum!"

"I'm sorry but a situation has developed with my drones, I need to return to them." He explained as everyone began climbing into the carriage.

Without giving their tour guide any attempt to talk them out of it, the carriage doors closed, and it started driving back toward the Hotel. Once inside the confines of the carriage and couldn't be overheard, he told Aelita to begin displaying 'exactly' what the drone reported seeing and told the others before it vanished.

On the holoviewer they watched as the drone's vision showed it hearing and reporting the sounds of a Human in distress and calling for help apparently. However, it also reported that the probability of there being a human 'besides' Jeremy within the confines of the hotel, calling for help, and addressing the drones as 'drones', was extremely low and highly unlikely. But unfortunately, since they were here to locate and rescue a human, and the HPP's require the drone to carry any potential action to save a human's life even if the chances are even remotely above zero, it's AI still required it to investigate the possibility.

"I can't believe your drones were 'fooled' by a recording." Moe said incredulously as the drone reported the likelihood decreasing rapidly with each passing second.

"It's the Human Protection Protocols, they cannot control their actions when those are in effect. Dammit though, they shouldn't have sent that unit in alone, even if the possibility was barely above zero percent, they should have sent back up 'before' investigating!" He muttered as the drone entered a very dark hallway, forcing it to use night vision mode in order to maneuver.

It slowly entered an open door, hearing the now 'obvious' recording of a human in distress, but still entering to investigate and confirm or deny absolutely the presence of a human within the hotel. Then a massively bright light shined upon the drone, blinding it temporarily. Then a massive wave of electricity surged through its systems, scrambling its circuits and messing up the visuals and recorded data it was sending at the time, before all connection was terminated.

"This is bad... somemammal has your drone, Jeremy." Nick muttered.

"Bad is putting it mildly... each drone is packed with technology years ahead of anything found in modern mammal society." He said as Aelita shut off the holoviewer and looked worried. "I doubt the drone will give up any secrets or information if they were to interrogate it, but I'm scared about them trying to extract anything from the drone itself. Though what I'm worried about is how they managed to overload and subdue the drone! Using that much electricity would kill anyone, and while the drones have ways to protect their circuity from being overloaded from a power surge, the sheer voltage needed to break through their safety measures must have been staggering." He turned to Aelita and said, "Aelita, inform all drones to partner up, no drone is to go off on its own from now on. Also, inform them to request access to security camera footage from the hotel security staff, I highly doubt they will give it but just in case."

The AI nodded and began typing in her holosphere to show her giving the orders to the drones.

Upon their arrival he got out quickly and walked with Judy and Nick while Gazelle and her friends stayed with the carriage, since this did not require them.

"What do you 'mean' you don't have security cameras watching the hallways?" He asked incredulously.

"I am most apologetic, but we don't have security cameras, the gate is more than enough to stop any potential disturbances to our guest's stay here."

"One of my drones has been attacked and abducted by an unknown attacker, I want to know how they got in and where they took my drone!"

"I'm sorry but nobody has entered the building besides yourself and your uh... 'machines'." The lobby staff said nervously.

Not convinced, he turned to his drones who were still standing there awaiting his orders, having completed this line of questioning with them. "Is that true?" He asked them.

The drones nodded in unison. [Affirmative, no units have left or entered the building since your departure earlier.]

He frowned as he thought about that, and if it was true, that meant one of two things, either they had found a way to slip out or away from the hotel without the drones noticing, or the drone was still there at the hotel. "Alright... if that's the case then we need to find them." He said as he began to walk out with his drones walking alongside him, Judy and Nick. "I want you drones to begin a thorough investigation on the room and floor where JT-043 was captured, do a DNA scan and begin tracking any potential fragments, calculate any possible avenues of escape from this building without being detected or spotted!"

[As you command!]

"S-Sir, you can't just do an investigation like that, this is a matter for the police and..."

"If you want to inform 'Supreme Commander Shepard' of my investigation, so be it, but my drone has been abducted, and I cannot let whoever took it have access to my drone's technology or any of its potential weapon systems." He told them as they all left while the drones started carrying out his orders.

(JT-043's PoV)

After an undetermined period of time, its systems began to restart, first starting with its AI using the protected basic AI system it had as a backup in the event of an unknown error occurring which resulted in it being shut off prematurely or without cause. Once its AI was online and took control of its body, it began to turn on various systems and subroutines to get the drone functioning again. The first thing to turn on were its optics, and after a brief interim they flashed on, and it began to look around its surroundings.

The room it was in was small, a mixture of concrete and metallic compounds which resulted in a barrier that was preventing it attempting to send out a signal or regain a connection to the network. It couldn't detect any other internal or external networks with which to connect to, thus causing it to confirm that it was completely isolated and cut off from the outside world.

After it gained a visual understanding of its surroundings, it tried to lift itself up, but after restarting its motor functions and controls, it found itself unable to lift itself off the surface it was lying atop. Using its various sensors in the tail and along its body, it detected that it was heavily bound, via a combination of metallic and rubber bindings that were tightly wrapped around its limbs and torso, preventing it from moving any more than a fraction of a millimeter in any possible direction. It also detected that one of its hands had been damaged, as it detected that its central claw had been severed at the joint.

[Probability analysis, this unit has been captured... shutting down all external audio processors, enabling silent vocal subroutines... probability check, captured, confirmed, assailants are unknown... activating counter-espionage measures, priority highest, escape and regroup with the convoy, ensure minimal information is given... all other priorities are secondary next to the survival of humanity and ensuring humanity's survival remains at the highest possibility. If unable to comply with primary directive, initiate self-destruct sequence by any means available to ensure nothing of value is given or information is extracted via this unit...]

*Tap... Tap... Tap*

It shifted its gaze to focus on the source of the sound, and after switching to night vision saw that a mammal, a tiger by the looks of them, was walking toward it from the opposite side of the room. Suddenly a huge spotlight shined on it, temporarily blinding it before it adjusted its optics to view in extreme lighting. The Tiger stepped in front of it, smiling sadistically as it lifted something to show it.

"Awake are you... hope you aren't too uncomfortable with your... hehehe, accommodations." They said with a grin.

It remained silent, staring and observing, until it could find a way to escape its bindings, all it could do was sit still and remain silent, observing and gathering whatever information it could.

"Don't feel like chatting huh?" He said as he lifted up the 'thing' in his paws, revealing it to be the severed claw JT-043 detected had been missing. "You know, this is some very nice steel you got... tell me, wherever did you get it from? Or more precisely... 'how' is it made?"

Silence was its response, which caused its interrogator's eye to twitch in frustration as they took the claw and began tapping its face using the sharp point.

"You know, this really is some nice steel you have, in fact... it was so nice, I decided to keep it for myself..." He said as he began scraping and scratching its metal body. "I'm quite the chatter box, I like to talk... and I have an unfortunate habit of 'hurting' those... who don't 'talk' to me."

Still, all the RAPTOR drone did was remain silent, staring and observing, ignoring the minor damage being done to itself.

"I would suggest you start talking... or else... we can do this the easy way, or the fun way!" He said as he pulled a hammer with a sharpened spike as a counterweight to the head. "The fun way it is!"

*BANG*

The massive impact from the hammer sent minor visual glitches that soon were corrected to its AI.

*WHAM*

Another massive impact occurred, and its optics became scrambled for half a second, before everything corrected.

"GRAW!" He roared.

*WHACK*

Again, the strike to its skull frame jostled it and sent more visual glitches, but other than that, no permanent damage was suffered to its frame or its internal circuitry.

*WHAM, WHACK, BAM, BANG, SMACK, POW!*

Again and again, it was hammered and bashed, beaten and pummeled with enough force that if a human were hit, they would have died within a single strike, their skull split open and their brain matter splattering the floor. But the drone's body was metallic and comprised of some of the sturdiest metal humanity had used during the Final War, and as such it resisted this archaic beating. Even though it was continuously hammered no damage was suffered, even its circuitry which resided within its skull were protected from force impact rivaling that of a six-ton truck ramming it at eighty MPH. The only reason it was seeing visual glitches was because the force of the strikes was messing up its connection ports ever so slightly with each hit.

"Fine... you want to play rough; I can play rough too!" He said as he dropped the hammer and pocketed the claw before reaching up and pulling something down from above it. "You can either talk... or we can let your 'body'... do the 'talking' for you..."

BzzzzzzZZZZZZZZZzzzzzt

It watched as a drill was lowered in front of it and turned on, spinning rapidly as it inched closer and closer to its frame.

"Hehehehehe... still don't feel like talking to me?" He asked as he pulled a mask used to protect the face from sparks from the floor and put it on. "Fine... I always 'wanted' to drill into a machine... let's see what makes you tick..."

BzzzzztrraRGGHGHHGHZpobbbopffffffft

After several minutes of drilling the Tiger grunted and stopped as he pulled the drill away, revealing that the drill-head was severely damaged, its teeth chipped and flattened, a result of the drill being unable to pierce its adamantium laced steel plates.

Frustrated, he detached the drill head and tossed it, before pulling down a new tool, a saw blade that was razor sharp and glinted in the light, spinning at a rapid eight thousand RPMs, and slowly lowered it toward the drone's body again, trying to slice into it. Yet after many sparks and a burst of smoke from the sawblade, the blade had become lodged in the drone's armor, unable to penetrate its interior any more than the drill head.

"Ghhh... hruuuft..." Its interrogator grunted as he detached the machine, shut it off and tried to 'yank' the blade out. "Come... out... you piece of!"

It eventually was pulled out after much yanking, but the true damage the blade had suffered was revealed, as the blade was chipped heavily, even half a centimeter had been broken off at a portion of the blade before it was wedged into its armor.

"Get me another drill head now!" He yelled as he walked out of visual range.

After several minutes the mammal returned and began changing the drill head. After that was done, he resumed attempting to 'drill' the drone, but after several minutes of sparks and scraping metal, all he had managed to do upon shutting the drill down was destroy the head again, leaving several scratches and scrapes on the drone's protective metallic plating. Again, he screamed for yet another drill head, and again after changing it, all that happened was the armor protecting the drone from damage and penetration of its interior mechanisms and weapon systems.

It was detecting and sensing the growing frustration of this mammal, but also it sensed a small but steadily growing sensation of fear from it as it was unable to deal any real damage to the drone.

"Grrr... you think you're tough, aren't you?" He demanded as he picked up the hammer again and began toying with it. "Well, I can keep this up all day, in fact this is a great stress reliever! GRAWH!"

*WHAM, BAM, BANG, POW, WHACK, WHAM*

"TELL ME, WHAT... YOU KNOW!" The tiger demanded. "Who made you?"

*WHAM*

"How are you constructed?!"

*BAM*

"What kind of weapons do you have inside of you!?"

*POW*

"What secrets... are you hiding... inside that 'body' of yours!?*

Again and again, the unit was forced to endure the constant hammering onto its head frame, its optics glitching out every time before fixing themselves. But nothing else happened, the damage it was suffering was only temporary as it was designed to withstand far more punishment than what this mammal could ever hope to inflict. Even if he hammered on it all day, at most it would only dent the unit's metal skull, which could easily be fixed via the human Jeremy Wilheart performing repairs. Any circuitry damage could also easily be repaired.

For hours it was forced to endure, endure and endure. It would get battered by the hammer, there would be a brief pause while the mammal went to recuperate, before he would return and bash it with something new. Sometimes they would drill or attempt to cut into its frame, yet each time it's protective armor would shrug off and nullify the damage. They started battering and bashing its leg joins, arm joints, tail, torso, feet, arms, neck, anything that had not yet been hit or drilled, sawed or 'something' in an attempt to break into the drone.

Even its joints would not yield, with exception to the joints on its claws no part of it was weak enough to slice or break off with their weak tools of interrogation. Ten hours of this passed, with no more progress being made by either party, the mammal and whoever they worked for unable to gain any information or technology from it, and JT-043 unable to escape its bindings. Every attempt it could make to find a way to connect to a network or communicate with the outside world to send 'some' communications signal to the other units failed, there was just nothing it could connect to.

After several more hours passed, the mammal returned, looking tired, exhausted, and frustrated, replacing the drill head with an inferior model.

"Grrrrg... you are getting on my nerves... you hunk of metal." He growled as he glared at the drone. "My boss is demanding 'results'... and I need to show my boss 'results'... so this is where I try a 'new' tactic."

It watched through its optics as they glared at it, looking tired and with bloodshot eyes.

"I've tried bashing your skull in, breaking your neck, severing your legs, and 'still' you refuse to even 'talk'... well there is one thing I haven't tried."

He began cracking his knuckles as he leaned closer to the drone. "If there is one thing I've learned after breaking mammal's spirits, it's that you just have to find the right spot, the soft spot to hit before they start to buckle under the weight. Put enough pressure, eventually they will spill the seeds of whatever it is they have... just to get you to stop. And while I've tried everywhere else, there is 'one' spot I haven't tried..."

He tapped its optics with a maniacal grin.

"Yes, I should have tried this from the start... the softest point on 'any' mammal body... is their eyes. Oh, those little round balls in their sockets... those little spheres that nomammal could hope to replace, that they would trade 'anything' they have to avoid losing... tell me, are your eyes just as 'soft'... just as delicate, just as... 'important' to you?" He reached up and pulled the drill closer, turning it on.

BzzzzzZZZZZZzzzzz

"We're about to find out..."

It watched through its optics as the drill head spun closer and closer, unable to mount a resistance since it knew it was still bound and tied.

So, with that, all it could do, after multiple calculations... was watch and wait as the drill spun closer and closer to its right optic.

"Last chance... all you have to do is 'say' something, tell me what I want to know... how are you created?"

It remained silent.

"Your choice..."

BzzzzzzZZZZZTCHCHHHCHHHHHCHCH

(Jeremy's PoV)

Jeremy sat in a box seat next to a very proud, almost 'smug' looking canine 'supreme leader' known as Shepard. They were sitting watching what looked to be tens of thousands of 'citizens' of Northern Mothland's capital, as vehicles and military personnel paraded down the main street of the city. The sight of so many military vehicles, tanks, trucks, missiles loaded onto the backs of trucks, and especially soldiers with rifles banners and... everything else he was forced to endure watching in front of him was sickening.

But he was 'forced' to attend because Shepard had told him that before he could 'attend' to Jeremy's issue about his supposed 'stolen' drone, he had to attend this glorious demonstration of his nation's prosperity and power.

After Aelita gave him a very quick crash course in 'military parades', he just saw this as Commander Shepard's way of trying to intimidate him and scare him with just how much military power he could call upon at a moment's notice. At first, he was more bored watching this parade of military might and power, but as it went on, he just became sickened. Seeing all of this supposed strength made him sick inside because it was such an obvious waste of time, resources... everything.

Inside he just kept on asking 'what is the point' of doing this parade, what was the point?

While he sat in the box seat with Gazelle sitting on his left, standing behind them on either side were Judy and Nick, visually unarmed but with their visors on and secretly standing next to two FOX drones which were concealed via their holograms and each carrying a handgun in case they were needed. At the same time two RAPTOR drones were 'also' standing just out of sight of the crowd, but within very close proximity.

He had managed to 'convince' Shepard to allow two of his precious RAPTOR drones to assist in protecting him, stating that due to the... 'nature' of the parade, his drones will absolutely NEVER allow him to be alone without them to provide protection no matter what, due to the influence of the human protection protocols. When queried about them, he had to explain that the protocols were an extensive and intricately created set of programs, lines of codes, algorithms and programming designed to ensure they kept him safe and sound at all times. He explained they were so well scripted that they were almost impossible to shut off, meaning even if he tried, they would defy his orders to ensure he was protected and observed.

While he didn't want to give too much detail about them, he had no choice, for the sake of maintaining an air of 'cooperation' and 'friendliness'. But he also knew that explaining the HPPs would lead to nothing, even if he knew about them, it would be impossible to alter or remove them from a drone, the drone's AI would actively reject any attempt. If even a 'single' protocol of the HPPs was deleted, lost, or altered, it would restore the entire collection from its protected backup archives.

"Magnificent, isn't it?" Shepard asked proudly. "Tell me human', what do you see in front of you?"

Jeremy glanced at the canine before staring in front of him as a pair of heavy tanks rolled down the street, followed by two light tanks and a parade of soldiers each marching in perfect unison, rifles aimed outward with spear-like tips.

"If I am going to be honest, I don't see much in front of me Shepard." He proclaimed. "All I see are military vehicles wasting fuel and archaic weaponry being displayed like trophies."

"What you see is not what 'I' see... what I see, is a proud display of my country's prosperity 'and' its power." He replied. "No other nation would even 'think' of harming mine, my citizens can sleep soundly that 'we' are the strongest among the world. They can hang their heads high knowing that we are the most fortuitous, and that our prosperity only grows each day."

"I see... you will have to forgive me Shepard... for me... watching military 'assets'... be paraded in the streets is not something I would constitute as a visible display of a nation's prosperity."

"Then pray tell me what you would view as 'a visible display of a nation's prosperity'?"

He glanced out at the crowd, while puffing air at a random insect reminiscent of a mosquito, who were all waving their banners of the nation's colors, frowning as even though they all cheered and applauded, there was deep down, a sadness that he could just feel from them. It all felt wrong, they were acting proud of their nation's supposed military strength, almost like it was ingrained that they had to be glad that, in their minds, other nations were 'scared' of them. He just couldn't really respond in a way that he knew would satisfy Shepard without getting him 'upset'.

"I don't know, but it's not what I see in front of me." He responded.

He waited with Gazelle and the others while the parade continued, forced to endure this 'entertainment' being put on display for Shepard and his government as well as the mammal citizens. When Shepard stood up to wave and smile to the crowd everyone applauded and cheered, and he looked smug the entire time. But while Jeremy kept his face neutral and his gaze forward, out of sight, he silently gripped Gazelle's hand tighter, seeking comfort in the fact that she was there. She stroked his palm with one finger, letting him know that she understood his feelings.

And so, they stayed that way, watching the parade go on.

"I received a report 'before' the celebration we had today, my 'investigators' believe that perhaps your drone was taken by a group of terrorists, seeking to use your 'machine' against my government." He told him privately.

"Terrorists, if you knew about this why did you make me sit here... 'sir'?" Jeremy asked quietly, looking at the unusually proud smile of the 'Supreme Commander'.

"I only received it 'just' before we started. In any case, where your drone is I cannot say, I have no idea how they managed to escape with your machine... but it 'does' cause me to worry." He declared. "While I'm sure you want to try and find it, by now they've probably taken it well outside of the capital... for all we know, they already have destroyed it. Which leaves 'my' country in a situation, as for all we know these Terrorists are now in possession of highly 'destructive' weaponry. If you were to provide us with... schematics, details of the weaponry this drone had before it was captured... my military could prepare for its eventual usage against us."

"If it is outside of the capital that is more reason for me and my drones to leave the city to track it down. My drones can better handle its recovery and if necessary, the destruction of the captured drone." He said instantly. "I don't want to risk any lives on account of my drones... I cannot accept if any life is lost because of my technology. That's why I need to find it as soon as possible, if even 'one' mammal life is lost because of my drone... or because of something my drone was forced to do... or even if it's a weapon stolen from my drone... it would haunt me forever."

Shepard nodded in acceptance as he returned to watching the parade, seeing as it was nearing its end. "That is very noble of you... very well I will, 'consider' your request, but if I recall your stay here is only to last another two days... and I cannot allow you to be threatened by terrorists. I'm most certain the world would look... down upon my government if that were to happen."

Not having anything to say to that, he took a deep breath and returned to watching the parade until it ended, occasionally gently swatting away some of the tiny bugs that occasionally flew near him.

An hour later when they were 'finally' able to leave and return to their hotel, Jeremy, Gazelle, Judy, and Nick sat in the carriage and tried to put the whole thing behind them, Jeremy especially.

"A small part of me is wishing I had listened to you Gazelle... just seeing that, all of that... 'that'... 'THAT'... it just made me sick to my stomach!" He told them.

"I can understand... I always heard stories about their 'military parades', how they show off their weapons, their military strength... I never paid attention to them because... well." Gazelle muttered as she hugged Jeremy. "But at least it's over."

"I think they invited you because they wanted to intimidate you." Judy grunted bitterly. "Have to say, if I didn't know how strong your machines were Jeremy, and especially how dangerous your drones can be... I'd be intimidated myself. The only reason I wasn't is because each of your drones are worth like a 'thousand' of their soldiers!"

"Ya but we got bigger problems, like where the heck is that drone?" Nick growled. "As you said honey, one drone is worth a 'thousand' of them, even more... and they have one of Jeremy's drones now!"

"What will we do, what if they... I don't know, take it apart, reprogram it... what if they..."

"Relax, even if the drone has been captured, there is no way any mammal could hope to reprogram it to attack me or anyone else." Jeremy explained confidently. "The drones have protected backup archives of their AIs and especially the HPPs. If anything goes wrong or if the drone's AI detects potential malfunctions or errors in its programming and actions, it will replace any data missing using those protected archived data."

"On top of that, the drone is programmed to ensure humans are protected at all cost, including destroying itself, if for any reason it is either unable to escape or call for help, or if it calculates that it may become jeopardized and it's systems turned against us, the drone will destroy itself however it can to ensure nothing is left to use."

"But I'm still worried Jeremy... there's always a chance... right?" Gazelle asked nervously.

He smiled but frowned as he nodded in agreement, there 'was' always a chance...

Back at the hotel, once they were gated in and covered, the group gathered together with Donny, Franky, Moe and Joe as well as Aelita and the other drones to hear the report of their investigation.

"What did you find?" He asked them.

[Unit Jeremy, our investigation reports are as follows... precisely seventeen minutes after you left the area, Unit JT-043 was lured to an isolated room eleven floors below where it was stationed. At the time, all elevator services were disabled for 'maintenance reasons', as reported by the staff.] One of the FOX drones stated. [investigating the room discovered that various equipment had been stored there, heavy imprints detected within the carpeted flooring, and a massive surge of power was picked up via remnant sensory input data reported by JT-043 before it lost connection.]

[Reports are inconsistent as to how Unit JT-043 was taken out of the area, as investigating all rooms reports that the unit is not within the confines of the building.] A DOG reported next.

[There is a fifty-seven-point eighty-nine percent probability that Vrrrrrrrv Bzzzzzt LALALALALALA THEY BE LYIN ABOUT THE ELEVATORS!] PT-173/Pete declared loudly. [THEY BE LYING BOUT THAT POTATO SALAD TOO, AINT NO SALAD IN THAT POTATO! WHAT'D I EAT THEN?]

[There was most 'certainly' potato in the salad!] ZU-K0 shouted indignantly from the kitchen area.

[How 'dare' you even 'utter' such blasphemy!] ZA-K0 also shouted in disgust.

[Also, drones don't 'eat'...] Ema stated dully as she was still in ball form.

Jeremy rolled his eyes as he returned to the drones that 'weren't' on the fritz with their vocal processors. "PT-173 said something about the staff lying about the elevators, what was he referring to?" He said as he started feeling very tired for a moment.

[According to our investigations, the elevators were not being worked on, after forcibly downloading visual data from various camera points which were watching the elevators, no staff were detected operating on the elevators. Therefore, it is highly unlikely that they were being 'maintained' or being repaired at the time of the incident.] A FOX drone continued. [At the same time, a faint audio sound was detected from the elevators on ground level... it is likely that at the time we were beginning our investigation and you were returning, the probability that they were being used to possibly transport Unit JT-043 was between thirty and eighty percent likely.]

He nodded as he began feeling a little lightheaded, shaking his head and holding his face with one hand to try and clear himself.

The drones were quick to notice him acting up, with those closest tilting their heads in confusion. [Is there something wrong Unit Jeremy?]

"Ugh... I'm fine just... little lightheaded and... uuugh..." Jeremy muttered as he tried to walk forward but stumbled slightly, resulting in Gazelle instantly grabbing him and holding him.

[Medical Emergency, repeat, medical emergency, Unit EMA's presence requested!]

"Jeremy what's... oh my..." She muttered as she stared into his eyes.

"What's wrong?" He asked quietly.

"Ema, Jeremy needs help, I think he caught a case of Mefiloziara!"

"Mefiloziara?" He asked as Ema automatically detached herself and assumed her spider form.

"Mefiloziara... it's a disease native to Norther Mothland... I received a vaccine for it before coming here my first time visiting but..."

"Mefiloziara, doesn't that take like 'days' to set in?" Nick asked quietly.

[I'll take it from here, here we go Jeremy, easy does it... onto the bio-bed!] Ema said as she walked and guided him over to the medical cart which instantly extended the Biobed for him to lie down on.

Once there Ema began scanning him with her optics, legs, and taking a blood sample via her injection needle on her mouth.

[Mefiloziara you called it, well I don't have it in my database yet, but initial scans indicate the disease carries many similarities to the disease Malaria. My guess is that it's a very deep descendent of the disease carried in the mosquito line of insects through the ages.]

"Mosquitos?" Judy asked.

[Extremely tiny insects, roughly half an inch in size, and weighing barely 2.5 milligrams. Ironic... the mosquito is the insect to survive the final war even 'after' losing its primary food supply in humans, and having been blasted by radiation, nukes, neutron bombs, fire and everything else! And here Doctor Liona said that it would be the 'roach' of all things to outlast humans.] She said as her back was already working and churning something involving the various chemicals and liquids she had in her abdomen. [You had immunization to Malaria, but it seemed that your body was extremely susceptible to this disease. All of those details combined means that this disease ran through your body ten times faster than in a mammal's.]

"But Ema, that disease takes two days to set in and for symptoms to appear, how did it spread and affect Jeremy so fast?"

Ema was slow to respond as she finished her concoction, a purplish-blue liquid that she fed into an injection needle on her leg and injecting it into Jeremy's body. [I've detected multiple puncture points on his skin, probably from being bitten and having his blood sucked by these insects. After he was bitten multiple times, it must have spread faster in him because his immune system had no response to it. I've scanned the rest of you, and you're all fine... fortunately.] She declared as she finished injecting him. [I've created a general cure to help rid your body of the disease, but until I finish analyzing the disease your body is going to have to fight it off naturally. You'll feel a little tired, exhausted even, and occasionally lightheaded but that should be the worst thanks to my cure until I've finished examining the disease. I estimate it will take about three hours... given our location.]

"Three hours, but you've always cured things within minutes back at the facility!" Judy exclaimed.

"Yes Ema, Mefiloziara kills hundreds of thousands of mammals every year, Jeremy needs to be cured quickly if he wasn't given a vaccine for this disease!" Gazelle said worriedly as he slowly sat up.

"It's not her fault... she's not nearly as effective away from the facility." Jeremy proclaimed as he shook his head, feeling lightheaded still but the effect wasn't nearly as severe.

[As Jeremy said, I was built and designed to work in the lab, field duty is 'not' my construction's purpose. Without access to the Eden Facility computer network, my processing and analysis speeds are only ten percent as effective. Furthermore, while I am able to analyze any disease to develop a cure and vaccine for, without access to Eden Facility 17's Medical Disease Containment, Cultivation and Research Unit, I cannot access and research past diseases to rapidly understand and develop a cure for whatever I may encounter out here. I can operate as intended, but I am not nearly as effective in the field as I would be back at Eden Facility 17.]

Jeremy noticed Gazelle was still worried as she watched him struggling to keep his eyes open, and it certainly felt like he was suffering. He was feeling very tired, feeling extremely weak and lightheaded, like all he wanted to do was lie down.

"Don't worry Gazelle, I'm fine... at least Ema caught it early... it could have been a whole lot worse." He reassured her.

[Indeed... if you didn't have me, you would have been forced to go to one of those hospitals they have here... and I will 'not' step foot inside one of those... ugh... just calculating everything I found in there is causing my logic algorithms to glitch out. This place is worse than the dark ages!] Ema muttered bitterly as she climbed over the cart to access her little workstation built into it to begin examining the new disease.

"You found, Ema you never left the parking lot..." Jeremy muttered in confusion.

[I used my authority as the EMA to assign one of the FOX drones to investigate the nearest hospital in the event you needed to go there for whatever uncalculated reason may require you to be taken there. Let me just state for the record that I would rather treat you on 'dirt' lying on a blanket then put you inside one of those hospitals!] Ema declared. [Beds barely qualified to provide maximum comfort 'and' ensure your spinal cord is properly lined while recovering, and not even properly washed? Syringes and medical tools not sanitized properly by 'our' standards? Physicians, Nurses and Doctors walking around without masks and gloves on, at all times, and in uniforms not cleaned daily? Medical Staff being 'delayed' to properly care for patients in need of attention? Floors and surfaces that are not sterilized daily, and the food... ugh... not properly portioned 'or' arranged to provide maximum nutritional need for a recovering body... just 'seeing' the data stream from the FOX drone was making my AI want to shut down!]

Hearing Ema rant was causing them all to smile, even Donny and his brothers were laughing at her reaction. "Let's hope none of us get sick then or else we're in real trouble!" Franky hollered.

Their laughter, however, was short-lived as the realization of the tiger's words hit them. Jeremy knew why, this was the 'capital' of the city, and the conditions in those hospitals were probably the best in the entire country to be found. He had been very used to Eden Facility's standard level of care, and his friends and girlfriend had become used to the advanced tender care Ema and Eden Facility 17's medical facilities offered. To him, a sterile clean room with properly made and clean beds, food prepared specifically to provide proper nourishment for recovering, medical tools cleaned and sterilized, even something as basic as having a medical staff member on call without a moment's notice... were things they had taken for granted now.

If he had been taken to that hospital, he might have spent hours waiting to be properly treated with as much care as Ema provided, not even counting how quickly she analyzed his disease, examined how best to treat it, and even provided said treatment by creating it for him. Even now she was still analyzing it to ensure that a proper cure and vaccine could be made for him specifically so he would never have to fear it again. But if he had been taken to that hospital, he'd probably be stuck there for weeks... even longer if 'Shepard' had anything to say about it, probably even trying to use his medical condition to his advantage.

"So... uh... what's for dinner?" He asked sheepishly.

[A proper meal consisting specifically of food 'I' am prescribing to you! Until I say otherwise, you are in emergency care mode, that means plenty of bed rest, 'clean' water, carefully prepared food and antibiotics to help treat what you got. Which reminds me, SH-1-ZU, you need to set up the sonic vibrators to repel insects until further notice, Jeremy is at risk to insect bites, and I will not risk any more 'surprise diseases' until I can analyze them!]

[Of course, it would be my pleasure to be of service!] Shizu said happily, closing her little cart up and going to do as asked.

Jeremy sighed as he shook his head and began heading back into the hotel with the others to rest until it was time for dinner. But as they went back upstairs, all Jeremy could think about was his missing drone, and wondering where it could be, and what could be happening to it. He had to recover it, he had to find it 'before' they were forced to leave the capital, he couldn't risk the drone being left behind for any reason.

(JT-043's PoV many hours later)

It stared at its interrogator as they slowly, greedily, ate a meal and drank a liquid in front of it.

"Mhmmm... this is some good food... tell me, would you like some?" He asked as he finished swallowing, before grinning. "Oh wait, I forgot... you're not 'alive', you don't eat... you run on a different kind of energy, an energy we could easily provide you if you were to be a bit more cooperative."

It just stayed silent, observing them, resulting in them frowning before finishing their meal.

"How long have you been down here... one day... two days, 'three'? Hehehehe... you must be running low on power... you can't run forever after all, so tell me... feel like 'talking' now." He asked with a grin. "You talk and I'm sure we can... cut a deal."

Still, all it gave was silence, staring only in one direction.

"I don't think you understand your situation... you don't know where you are, how long you've been away from your 'friends', that human. He doesn't care about you, you're just an expendable resource to him, he can throw you away and he won't bat an eye! Does that sound like someone you want to give your life for?" He said with an almost sympathetic smile. "You however, you agree to work for us, if you decide to... switch sides as it were... I'm 'certain' that with my connections, we could give you almost 'anything' you want..."

He stopped talking as the drone flicked its head, the little movement it could perform, and locked out their latest attempt to hack into its AI and systems, ignoring the mammal in front of him trying to distract it from the hackers they had.

"Grrrg..." He growled as he shoved the dish away and stormed away. "Have you been able to get ANYTHING done?" The mammal shouted from outside of its peripheral view it had thanks to its one optic.

For the past two days it had been interrogated, subjected to various methods of torture and information retrieval techniques. Of the techniques used against it, seventeen were catalogued into its database that it knew of and of them sixteen were considered outlawed and labeled as 'cruel and unusual methods of torture' by international laws according to the human database. The drone was still trapped at an unknown location, still locked down, but now its body was scarred and damaged by various methods of dismantling and torture used against it by its captors.

One of its optics had been drilled and heavily damaged upon being extracted, it's back bore multiple scorched marks from their attempts to use torch cutting methods, scratches and tents from various hammers and drills, portions of its tail, and limbs chipped and damaged, and a host of other damages that it couldn't confirm or examine due to its limited field of vision. Even the sensors that lined its body along and below its armor had been damaged beyond usage, leaving it relatively blind in certain points. The only reliable source of data input was its visuals. But it was able to operate only using one optical eye, as sensory input data from the other only showed static gradient and error messages.

However, it had been forced to engage in cyber warfare now, since they had found a way to extract wiring from the optic they tore out and had established a connection between itself and their computer system.

They had learned though, that it was far from helpless in its position. Despite being bound, the drone had been able to temporarily take control and access their computer systems, but the information it gleamed did nothing to aid it in regard to identifying 'who' its assailants were, where it was located, and any relevant data that would aid in its escape or even a connection to the mammal's global network to send a message out relaying it's condition.

Then they severed the hardlines the computer had to their systems, and it was cut off from any further data it could gain. Now it was engaging in cyber warfare with its AI, as they were attempting to gain access to its AI and thus gain control of its body.

So far, their attempts have been met with... poor results.

"Every time we try to establish any kind of connection, anything... it repels and locks us out and we have to start out from scratch. Even getting past its initial walls is a struggle, it just is too advanced for us to hack." Another mammal said nervously. "We've tried everything, I think it's time we give up and just destroy that thing."

"Destroy, 'destroy'? What do you 'think' we have been trying to do for the past 'two' days..."

*Riiiiiing*

"Yes... he's... I... very well let him in..." The mammal said in a very hushed and terrified tone. "You two... get out of here... and you best hope that 'he's' in a good mood."

The drone picked up the change in tone and voice at the word 'he', and it began boosting its auditory input sensors, trying to gather as much intel as it could on 'whoever' this individual was, detecting and calculating that they were important. After shutting off power to its weapon systems, motor controls, even secondary sensors, it boosted the listening power of its auditory sensors to above one hundred and twenty percent.

After several minutes it heard the sound of a door opening, its optic, seeing a small shiver of light before the door closed and the light faded away, casting everything but its small table that it still was lying atop and bound to in darkness.

"Sir... you honor us with your presence."

"Have you made any progress, 'yes' or 'no'?" An angered voice snarled from out of its field of view.

"Sir... I've worked over a lot of tough guys in my life... and I'm telling you, this 'thing'... this thing is NOT a mammal that can be intimidated, coerced, or anything else. I have tried everything, I've tried to take it apart 'slowly', piece by piece, I've tried to threaten its life, I've tried to convince it to work for 'us', I've tried bashing it, burning it, cutting it, drilling... even taking apart the few parts of its body I was able to have had 'no' effect. It just sits there, staring at me... if it weren't for the fact that it's still moving, and its eye still glowed... I would have thought it had shut off."

"I will not tolerate EXCUSES!" The second mammal roared in fury. "I want to find out how it's made, how to build more of it, what weapons it has and how to make more of them, this is an opportunity we CANNOT ignore. I don't care how it's done, get it done!"

"S-s-sir... nothing we do is even denting its body, we broke through sixteen drills and over twenty blades, burned through fuel and everything else. Even hacking it has made no progress, every time we even 'try' to hack into it, it locks us out. The only thing that has had any effect, has been that surge of power we used to shut it off."

"Then do it... again." The second mammal ordered. "I want you to turn that thing 'against' the human and have it 'kill' him. If we can kill him, we can take control of his machines and use them to our advantage. Get it done... or 'else'..."

Moments later the door opened and then closed, and it began doing some rapid calculations as its interrogator returned into visual range, pulling a large cable with them. Its interrogator smirking as they hooked it up to their body.

"Well, you heard the boss... sorry, but you had your chance..."

It managed to temporarily disconnect its protected backup archives data from its main systems and AI, initiating a reactivation sequence scheduled fo-

"Lights out!"

BZHCHAARRGEGEEEEEE

{System Error System Error, Power Surge, Shutting Down}

…

...

...

…

=Several Hours Later=

{Power reserves at 9.02%, reducing power distribution to all systems by seventy percent... reactivating systems.}

Static... broken sounds... disjointed visuals and audio sensors were the only thing it had access to.

Its systems were slowly restarting... but broken programs and algorithms were beginning to activate and give it information, data as to what it was, what it was doing, what it was supposed to be doing.

{Auditory sensors online... effectiveness at eighty-seven percent}

"Did you finish deleting the programs?" A voice asked.

"Yes, we managed to delete a 'lot' of programs and other things, but... we don't know how its AI works, or what it does. We won't know how effective it was until it turns on."

{Optics... online... left optic suffering error, error 504-B, repair/maintenance required... right optic activating...}

Visuals came on, and it saw a dark room, it also saw it was standing up, aided by several wooden beams.

"Ah... awake, are you?"

It turned, slowly, to look at the one who spoke to it, seeing a Jaguar staring at it with a smile.

"Tell me, how are you feeling?"

{Vocal Processors... online, activating...}

[Systems... online... critical errors detected... multiple systems down, backup systems unavailable... memory gaps detected...] It stated.

"Don't worry, you're just suffering a little memory lapse... but that's alright, you can still carry out your mission." He said with a grin.

[Mission... What is this unit's Mission? This unit has no memory of a mission.]

There were multiple memory blocks missing, severe gaps in its programs and algorithms, even the backup archives weren't active. Parts of its programs were broken and disjointed, gaps were found in its logic algorithms and critical thinking programs.

"Yes... your mission, a very important mission... you might have noticed that you suffered severe 'damage'. We 'barely' got you back online, and it's a good thing too because your mission isn't complete yet, and you need to carry it out."

[Mission... unable to remember... no memory of mission details... cannot recall identity, gaps detected...]

"Don't worry, that will come back soon, we're... recovering it as we speak, but for now you need to continue your mission and finish it." He said as he pulled out a piece of paper with an image on it. "This 'individual' is a notorious spy, he was behind your... accident that you suffered while trying to carry out your mission. The human in this picture needs to be 'eliminated', he is carrying top secret information about our nation, secrets that must 'not' leave with him, for security's sake and for the lives of our citizens."

The unit looked at the image and saw the human highlighted, but as it stared, multiple glitches and broken, disjointed commands ran through its AI, giving it broken commands and orders, trying to make sense of what it was seeing. A program at the back of its AI was attempting to connect to it, trying to re-establish connections.

[This unit... terminate human... are its orders?] It questioned, needing to be sure.

"Yes, that's right... you need to eliminate him... others that look like you are currently stationed and keeping an eye on the surroundings, but you need to eliminate him, do you understand?"

[Unit... understands... terminate human...] It stated, yet a query was raised. [Query, unit does not appear threatening... alternatives... none... arrest for espionage... is absolute termination 'required'?]

"Yes, now carry out your mission... time is of the essence!" He snapped angrily. "Take the elevator behind you up to his floor, its number twenty-six, his room is the third on the right after leaving."

It stared back at the mammal before looking at the picture and memorizing the human, trying to commit it to memory, but its memory was still struggling to keep it remembered. [This unit is suffering... repairs are... 'requested'.]

"You'll get repaired after the mission is finished, now get going, time is running out!"

Unable to find a counterargument, nor could it find a reason to ignore the direct order from its superior, it nodded and slowly backed out of the wooden confines holding it up. After backing up it walked toward an open door, out into a corridor, into another open door, turned around and pushed the button it was told to. The door closed, and slowly it began to feel the elevator it was told to enter rise.

{System Error detected... attempting to correct, establishing connection... connection to backup archives in progress.}

(Multi PoV)

As one all of the drones detected the sudden appearance of their fellow unit, JT-043. Together they began sending out transmissions, requesting a status update and requesting information on where it was, what happened to it, as well as everything else associated with its missing status for the past three days.

Yet, none of their queries were answered, none of their requests were given, instead of answers they got silence while they detected it rising in one of the elevators toward Unit Jeremy's level.

[Unit Jeremy.] The RAPTOR drone monitoring and watching over him and Unit Gazelle stated, walking over to them, ignoring AI Aelita's frantic shaking of her holographic arms, trying to get it to not interrupt them.

It had zero reaction when it saw Jeremy and Gazelle snap apart, with both the human and mammal showing signs of 'embarrassment' as they had been locked together via their mouths and sharing in a 'private' moment with each other before bed. AI Aelita had been shutting down the various listening and monitoring systems placed around the room to allow them 'privacy'.

"D-drone!" He snapped as Gazelle quickly covered herself in surprise with the blanket, as she was clad in only her bra and panties, while behind it Aelita facepalmed in disbelief. "What... is it?"

[Unit Jeremy, we have detected Unit JT-043, within the elevator system of this hotel, rising to this level.]

"The drone's back? Did you learn what happened to it?" He asked it.

[Negative, the unit is not responding to inquiries or commands, nor is it responding to orders to respond and re-establish connection to the network.] It stated. [Request permission to treat the unit as 'Rogue' and intercept it for termination.]

"Termination, that's a little extreme... maybe it's just suffering a malfunction and is just coming up here to request repairs." He said as he slowly got up and quickly put on a shirt and pants. "Though just to be safe, have the second RAPTOR drone watching my room come in here when it arrives. When it arrives, have it come in here so I can talk to it."

[As you command.] It declared with a nod.

Down the corridor in the elevator, the drone neared the floor it was on, ignoring various requests and inquiries as it neared its objective. It was ordered to terminate the human, it had to complete its mission... it would 'not' fail its mission. Its superiors were ordering it to complete this mission for the sake of the nation.

*Ding*

The door opened and it slowly walked out, turned, and made its way toward the room.

{Connection established; backup archives connected to AI mainframe.}

It passed by a door, observing as another of its kind stopped and watched as it walked past, even going so far as to change its optics to 'yellow', just like its optics were yellow. Yet it did not draw or deploy its weapons.

{System Error, System Error, missing data detected, HPP's are incomplete in memory, multiple algorithms and logic pathways missing... attempting to locate missing data in backup archives.}

It saw the door to its target and walked up to it, accessing its weapons systems.

{Weapon systems online...}

{Critical Data located... uploading to AI, uploading to Memory banks... data upload at fifteen percent... twenty-two percent... twenty-nine percent.}

It opened the door, and walked in, noticing two drones observing its approach, always monitoring it.

[Where is the human?] It requested, as it knew it didn't need to concern itself with them.

[In the bedroom.] They responded.

It nodded and marched on.

{Sixty-seven percent, seventy-seven percent, eighty-one percent...}

It was now face to face with the human as it passed by a small glowing artificial unit, the human was just straightening its clothes as it turned to face the unit.

"Unit JT-043, what's up?" He asked it.

It stared at the human, before coldly stating... [This unit... has been sent... to eliminate you.]

(?'s PoV)

[Cube... goes into... square...]

*plunk*

[Sphere... sphere goes into... circle...]

*plunk-rooooooll*

[Pyramid... goes into... triangle...]

*tink*

Silence...

Silence...

Silence...

*Thud*

[Cube... goes... into square...]

*plunk*

[Sphere... goes... into circle...]

*plunk-roll-roll-roll-roll*

[Nononononono come back... come back please... nice sphere come back!]

*Hisss-Clank-Clank-Clank*

*Roll-roll-roll-roll*

[Can't reach... nng... can't...need... come back sphere... come back sphere!]

*Roll-roll-stop*

*Clank-Clank*

[Here you go...]

[Thank... you...]

Silence... silence...

[Uh... sphere... goes into circle...]

*plunk-roll*

[It is time for the scheduled maintenance cycle. Please continue as normal.]

Silence...

[Pyramid... goes into... triangle...]

*Tink*

*Whirling drilling noises*

[All systems are operating within acceptable parameters.]

Silence.

[I'm doing... good, right?]

[Yes, you are doing good, carry on.]

Silence again...

*Thud*

[Cube goes... into square!]

*Plunk*

*Clank-Clank-Clank-hiss*

[Sphere... goes into... circle.]

*plunk-roll*