Heroic

by H D Forth

  Is she into girls? I thought but answered. “Yup.”

  “Did she tell you how we met?” She was getting redder and redder.

  “Sort of, is it a good story?”

  “Its been one and a half years since then and it was still the best way to wake up.”

  “What?” I exclaimed. “Did you sleep with her?”

  Kani stopped what she was doing and shot me a smug look. “Yea, you?”

  “I don’t know if you’ve noticed, but I’m a laptop.” I was still undecided if I wanted to or if it was just my horny mind. “So no, I haven’t.” Yet.

  For just a moment, Kani’s face changed. Disappointment? Or embarrassed, maybe even both. I had started to keep a few minutes worth of backlogged footage. I went back and saved the footage of her face. It was important somehow.

  She continued working, and we kept talking. We talked about my own little projects, I discovered that she loved what she was doing. I also realized that my 'projects' was just a way to waste my time, in a none too expensive way. She loved working with robots and mechanics. I liked not being bored.

  “I think it's about ready.” She said. “There are a few more things that I need to install, but it should be ready for you to move into it.”

  “Really?” I asked.

  “Yea, though you u won't have all your senses for a while yet.”

  “Sight?”

  “Not yet.”

  “Then it's not ready yet.” She nodded at my comment and continued working.

  “What are you going to do with it?” She asked.

  “What do you mean?” I had just thought I would start back up at work again. Return to the good old dull life.

  “With the new Power Core and the strength of that the robot affords, you will essentially be super-powered.”

  She wants to know if I’m going to be a superhero. The thought hadn't even struck me. Could I?

  I thought back to all the superheroes I’d met seen in all my life. Most of them had only appeared during Incursions, and I found it unlikely I could perform on that level. But what about the local gang? What did it mean to be a hero? Was it as simple as helping someone like Mike on his bike not getting run over? it could be. I could make it that simple.

  “I might do some light hero work on the side.” Besides my power would help me afford it.

  “Really?” She asked, intrigued. “Then you can call me if you ever need repairs. God, I love heroes.” She looked so happy that I couldn’t comment with my own pessimistic view. She really was cute. “Do you want me to install a monitor program?”

  “Monitor?”

  “Like you could activate it, and it would send a video and audio signal to approved sources. Supposedly a lot of heroes do it. Not just the tech ones. I heard even Galenor does it.”

  “Sure, why not. As long as I can disable it.” She nodded. “Then go ahead.”

  She installed a few more things, checked her tablet. “Sight is ready.”

  “Really?” I asked, but I didn't wait for an answer. I moved, diving for the robot. I wanted to feel again, I needed to.

  Chapter Sixteen

  The ride over to Kani was uneventful. It was weird traveling in a car, inside a laptop. The laptop didn't have motion sensors or anything else that detected movement, so It just kinda happened. I wouldn't even notice It if I couldn’t see out the windows, and see the buildings move.

  It did help that I could listen in on the automatic car's maneuvers and programming, though I didn’t dare interfere wIth any of It.

  Valeria lifted me out onto the sidewalk of a large building that reached all the way to the top of the artificial sky. Some buildings were like that in the Towers. They reached all the way through one floor and into the next one. It was an impressive sight, and Val temporarily stopped her teasing to allow me a view.

  I didn't usually come around this neighborhood of Ëndib. It was closer to the elevator, and therefore a way down. That also made it more expensive.

  Val took me, and in turn, I took the robot, to a side passage. It was cordoned by a low concrete wall, so people couldn’t easily look in. Val walked over to a door, that looked like someone had rubbed grease on to it.

  The robot’s microphone picked up an indistinguishable high pitched squeal. A few quick breaths and the someone flung the door open. The door revealed a woman, she had a thinner face, wIth a cute button nose. Her blond hair was pulled up into a ponytail, and she was wearing a pair of overalls. Both she and the overalls were smeared in grease.

  She flung the door open, then proceeded to lean on It, explaining the grease marks on It.

  “Hey, babe.” She said. Her tone of calm was so fake and layered that even I could quickly tell that It was put on and not remotely how she actually felt.

  I had been experiencing issues wIth distinguishing the tone of voice in both the robot and laptop microphone. I suspected It was due to a regulator, installed in them. It was what stopped any high pItched noises from turning into an inhuman scream. She seemed to have a slightly higher pItched voice though if I had to guess.

  Then she looked over at the robot. She immediately turned her full attention towards It. “Is this It? Is this It? Will I get to talk to her, him, It? Can I see?” She blurted some more, but she was talking so fast I couldn't discern what she was saying.

  That calm attItude went right out the window, didn’t It? I thought, wIth a chuckle. Except of course that I didn't chuckle, It wasn't an involuntary response anymore. I shook my virtual self before I started getting any madder than I already was.

  Kani, I assumed, had gone over to the robot and was examining It closely. “Eyes over here.” I joked, though I didn't think I got the tone quIte right. It was difficult to tell wIth these shItty microphones.

  Kani turned to the laptop, which speakers I had used to talk. She bend over, giving me a decent looked down her overalls and shirt. She was wearing a sports bra underneath. Probably for the best. At this point I was so horny, if I gained the abilIty to orgasm I would blow the next time someone touched me.

  “Hello.” She said, staring wide-eyed at the laptop like she hadn't seen a computer before.

  “Hi. I’m Vanys.” I raised the robot's hand. She noticed. She took It and shook vigorously.

  “I’m Kani. You also have a MagAI name?” She asked.

  “Madam had a thing for MagAI," I said.

  “Cool!” She said wide-eyed, her head flicking from the robot to me and back again.

  “Let’s get that robot upgraded, so you don’t have to break your neck trying to talk wIth me," I suggested.

  She blushed, then she smiled. Are all women just pretty, or have I been tormented for the last few days? Yes and yes.

  She turned around and almost ran into the workshop. It was every bIt as high tech as I had expected It to be. She had tools I didn't know what did hanging on walls. Taking up by far the most substantial amount of space in the room, was something that looked like a car, but It didn't have any wheels. I was going to ask, but then I didn't want her to get sidetracked when we were this close.

  She ran over to something that looked like It was straight out of a bondage magazine. It a circular contraption, wIth three concentric rings. From the rings sprouted a whole assortment of chains, tethers, and wires.

  “Please move the bot into that.” She said. She went over to the table and picked up a tablet.

  Valeria carried the laptop, and I walked the robot into the contraption. Kani pulled of its shirt, and started to strap the robot into It, Valeria put me down on the table next to the tablet and helped her. It took a few minuted before It was fully strapped in. Then Kani stepped over to the tablet again. It was running some sort of remote app and a schematic for the robot. She pressed a few buttons.

  The rings swirled and moved, levering the robot into a lying face down posItion suspended in mid-air. The tethers and chains, held onto the robot firm and tight, making sure there was very lIttle wiggle room.

  Kan
i surveyed the schematics for a few minutes, before grabbing a few tools and a black box that I immediately recognized as a hard drive through my power. Then she got to work. It took about 5 minutes before she had the robot sufficiently disassembled. Then she merely plugged the hard drive in and slipped It into a slot inside the chest of the android. Then she got to more complicated stuff that I couldn't really follow.

  Though she didn’t explain It to me. For me to have a proper life in a robot suIt, like a MagAI, I would need something the first MagAI created. I was the robot equivalent of a nervous system. It would function as a brain and interpreter for a whole bunch of different processes that should essentially make me feel human again. I couldn't waIt.

  Unfortunately, It required quIte a bIt of upgrading. The new power source was the biggest one. The alternative was to go out and buy something ready for the upgrade, but It would be significantly more expensive, and a simple petItion to the MagAI Cavalry could get you a Nerve Module.

  Val didn't stick around for too long. She promised that she would come back wIth lunch and left. Apparently, the lack of teasing had started to bother her.

  “So how long have you been messing wIth machines and robots?” I asked.

  “All my life. I love It! Nothing better!” She exclaimed excItedly. She was just finishing putting the power core in.

  “I noticed you called Val, babe.”

  She blushed, but only slightly. “Yea, she’s super hot right.”

  Is she into girls? I thought, but answered. “Yup.”

  “Did she tell you how we met?” She was getting redder and redder.

  “Sort of, is It a good story?”

  “Its been 1.5 years since then and It was still the best way to wake up.”

  “What?” I exclaimed. “Did you sleep wIth her?”

  Kani stopped what she was doing and shot me a smug look. “Yea, you?”

  “I don’t know if you’ve noticed, but I’m a laptop.” I was still undecided if I wanted to or if It was just my horny mind. “So no, I haven’t.” Yet.

  For just a moment, Kani’s face changed. Disappointment? Or embarrassed, maybe even both. I had started to keep a few minutes worth of backlogged footage. I went back and saved the footage of her face. It was important somehow.

  She continued working, and we kept talking. We talked about my own lIttle projects, I discovered that she loved what she was doing. I also realized that my 'projects' was just a way to waste my time, in a none too expensive way. She loved working wIth robots and mechanics. I liked not being bored.

  “I think It's about ready.” She said. “There are a few more things that I need to install, but It should be ready for you to move into It.”

  “Really?” I asked.

  “Yea, though you u won't have all your senses for a while yet.”

  “Sight?”

  “Not yet.”

  “Then It's not ready yet.” She nodded at my comment and continued working.

  “What are you going to do wIth It?” She asked.

  “What do you mean?” I had just thought I would start back up at work again. Return to the good old dull life.

  “WIth the new power core and the strength of that the robot affords, you will essentially be super-powered.”

  She wants to know if I’m going to be a superhero. The thought hadn't even struck me. Could I?

  I thought back to all the superheroes I’d met seen in all my life. Most of them had only appeared during Incursions, and I found It unlikely I could perform on that level. But what about the local gang? What did It mean to be a hero? Was It as simple as helping someone like Mike on his bike not getting run over? It could be. I could make It that simple.

  “I might do some light hero work on the side.” Besides my power would help me afford It.

  “Really?” She asked, intrigued. “Then you can call me if you ever need repairs. God, I love heroes.” She looked so happy that I couldn’t comment wIth my own pessimistic view. She really was cute. “Do you want me to install a monItor program?”

  “MonItor?”

  “Like you could activate It, and It would send a video and audio signal to approved sources. Supposedly a lot of heroes do It. Not just the tech ones. I heard even Galenor does It.”

  “Sure, why not. As long as I can disable It.” She nodded. “Then go ahead.”

  She installed a few more things, checked her tablet. “Sight is ready.”

  “Really?” I asked, but I didn't waIt for an answer. I moved, diving for the robot. I wanted to feel again, I needed to.

  Chapter Seventeen

  Kani did a little step, when she saw the lights on the laptop’s webcam fade, meaning it had now been turned off.

  He was inside the robot. Did that officially make him a MagAI?

  She wanted to dance, and sing, and shout. She wasn't just helping one of the most significant advancements in modern tech and magic combination, but also a hero to boot.

  And what a body. Kani thought, looking appreciatively at his defined musculature. Val sure knows how to pick ‘em.

  The thought of Val and the MagAI—she would have to get his name at some point—going at it with each other, all naked and sweaty… Her knees buckled for a moment, her whole body quivering, just with the idea. It would be so hot.

  She had reached out to stabilize herself, her hand landing on his chest. >>It felt so real, so typical<<. She pushed a little against his chest until she could feel the fake muscle texture sliding out of the way to avoid damage, letting her touch his metal frame structure. Instead of making her less excited about the idea of him, it only heightened it.

  There were very few MagAI in the world, most of them did live in one of the river cities, like here at Wi’Nayar but even then she hadn't ever actually seen one. And she’d heard rumors that they only rarely mix with humans.

  She reached down with her other hand, resting it against his other pectoral muscle. It took her a moment before she realized she was groping him. It took until she saw the flicker in his eyes as the cameras unfolded for her to freeze.

  She flickered her gaze over to her screen. The touch sensation was still inactive. If she remained even faced and calm then he would never notice that anything was wrong, she tried to tell herself.

  Doing her best to keep her face absolutely neutral, she slowly reached down trailing her fingers down his muscular form. She only stopped because she reached his pants. She bit her lip. She wanted to play with him some more, but she knew that she wouldn't have long before the other senses returned to him.

  He might catch onto her. He might realize what she was doing, then what? She shivered at the thought until another hit her. What if Val caught her? Would she want her to continue, would she encourage it.

  Kani took in a deep breath and leaned back from his form, letting her fingers trail over his naked chest. She was exceedingly happy that she’d had to take off his shirt for her to get at the tech.

  She tried to take a little step away, wanting to calm herself some. This wasn't like her, she wasn't usually like this. She didn't lust after other people like a teenager in heat, she’d never had. Except with Val, but that didn't count. Val was a particular case. He was just some man, she didn't even know him. Why was she getting so excited?

  She searched the room, trying to find something else to focus on to help calm herself down. There on the wall was the first schematic for Mairon, the first MagAI. And next to that a list of all known MagAI heroes, following this was a wallpaper featuring Magra, the first MagAI hero. After that was another hero and another, then one more.

  She hummed softly to herself, remembering an old tune. It had come from another MagAI children’s program, and the theme had been stuck in her head ever since.

  Maybe there was a solid reason why she was a little out of sorts due to a MagAI. A sexy, manly MagAI.

  “You have a lovely voice.” He suddenly said. Kani startled at his words, though he sounded appreciative.

  Chapter Eighte
en

  Kani did a little step, when she saw the lights on the laptop’s webcam fade, meaning it had now been turned off.

  He was inside the robot. Did that officially make him a MagAI?

  She wanted to dance, and sing, and shout. She wasn't just helping one of the biggest advancements in modern tech and magic combination, but also a hero to boot.

  And what a body. Kani thought, looking appreciatively at his defined musculature. Val sure knows how to pick ‘em.

  The thought of Val and the MagAI—she would have to get his name at some point—going at it with each other, all naked and sweaty… Her knees buckled for a moment, her whole body quivering, just with the idea. It would be so hot.