"It's good to finally meet you. Especially now that i hear you've bagged Party Poison" Silver jumps onto the worktop, sitting up there as she looks over at where i stand, nervously playing with a strand of my hair.

"You seem surprised" I note in a neutral tone. 

"Well yeah, he's never shown any sort of interest in a relationship before. He's always said it's a bad idea or that he's too busy, so you must be pretty darn special if you changed his mind that quickly" she shrugs, getting out various cups. 

"I'm not that special" i laugh coldly "i think it was more of a case of me saving his life than anything else." I try to keep my tone light as i don't really want her to think i was some self-loathing girl, or worse someone who wanted attention or reassurance. But at the same time i couldn't help but say it, it was the truth after all. 

"Well that's not true" She sasses "i'll have you know that i've saved his butt before, so have most of those killjoys, and yet he hasn't fallen for any of us, has he? It's you he likes, and although i don't know you that well i can see why." 

"You can?" 

"Sure" She places down the cups and gives me her full attention "you're beautiful and obviously pretty fearless when it comes to the dracs. You're not intimidated by his authority in the killjoy ranks either, plus you know how to aim a gun." 

"Thank you" I lean over and help her get out the various bottles of water that she's obviously got in especially for us "do you need any of this water too or is it just for us?" 

"Oh that's just for you guys, water would play havoc with my system" She hands me the bottles "You don't know much about the droids do you?" I shake my head, deciding i might as well admit that i was utterly clueless. Until Party had mentioned them i hadn't even been sure they were not just some sort of made up rumour. 

"No. I don't exactly hang around when i come to Battery City. Plus i presumed that you would all be brainwashed by BL/ind, maybe even more so than the people themselves seeing as you were created by their engineers." 

"I can see why you would think that, and it can be the case for most of my people, but not for me Neon and Bolt. We were from the original batch, the first prototypes i guess to be put out. They made us too intelligent though - we have emotions and intelligent thought processes that pose a threat from the inside. Nowadays they make the droids far less capable - much like zombies really." 

"Then why..." I pause, looking for the right words "why do they let you keep going if you're such a threat?" 

"Oh they don't" she shakes her head severely "there was a massive recall - the dracs went out looking for anyone made within that time space and destroyed every last one they could find." 

"Then how are you-" 

"Ahh" she raises her arm in the air and bends it back into the same unnatural pose i had seen earlier on when the drac had questioned Neon. There in clear blue print was her serial number, above it a battery sign which showed her energy to be on a thin sliver of red light. "See this number? Well it didn't use to be this code." 

"How did you change it?" i look closer, but it seems perfectly legit to me. There's no trace of someone going over a number or rubbing anything out. 

"When we heard about the recall we knew we had to act fast" she lowered her arm again "so we contacted the killjoys. Kobra managed to sculpt pieces of metal to mould over our original barcodes that would made us be identified as a newer make of droids. They came out here and welded them on just in time too. Unfortunately they couldn't help everyone, so we're the only three around that can still think for ourselves. We have to pretend we can't though - keep our heads down low and work as if we don't know anything else."

'what exactly do you mean by 'work'?" I ask, recalling the way party had looked so sad to hear that Silver had been out on the streets as she put it. I had an idea of course at to what the connotations of that could be, but i was hoping i was wrong. 

"If you're lucky you can get manual labour down at the skips, the garbage piles, that sort of thing. But most of us droids, the female ones at least, are forced into prostitution. The worst thing is we're programmed to not care or have any self respect, so when i do go out on the streets i can't show any sort of emotions afterwards." 

"That's sick and awful!" I cry as she just shrugs and pulls out a few bowls of food. If she hadn't just told me that i probably would have been busy staring at what for once wasn't power pup, but actual bread and chip like snacks, but instead i'm busy fuming with rage for BL/ind. "Surely there must be another way?" 

"Nope." 

"But you don't need food or water, maybe if we brought you anything else you needed-" she silences me by lifting up her arm and pointing at the dwindling amount of energy. She points right at the little red bar before speaking. 

"See this? This is why we need the carbons. Our batteries aren't made quite like the newer models - but those are the ones we're now forced to use. They don't last long and they're bad for us, but we don't have much choice. Kobra's been working for ages on trying to design a new battery for us, but it's so damn complicated. We need carbons for the little energy we can get, even if it only gives us a short boost."

"Could you steal them?" I try, desperately wanting there to be a way around someone as nice as Silver having to go out on the streets and get picked up by some BL corporate or some slimy drac that's looking for fun. 

"Sometimes if we're lucky, but normally not. The machines are pretty droid-proof, unless we're lucky and they're malfunctioning or one has dropped down into the bottom without anyone realising and taking it." She sighs down at the bowls of food and glasses of water. "Anyway, let's not keep going on about this life. We have other things to concentrate on. Help me carry these in?" 

"Of course" I pick up the bowls of food and give her a small, sympathetic smile before following her back into the main room, where everyone is gathered around the map. Of course all the guys are immediately distracted by the food that's set down in front of them. 

"Holy shit you got proper food!" Ghoul all but yells, picking up a handful of crisp "i fucking love you guys right now." 

"How did you get this?" Jet asks as he too takes a large handful of food. 

"When i was leaving a drac's house the other day i managed to exit through the kitchen. I remembered that you had radioed about coming out to us so i figured you might need some energy. It's no big deal." Silver shrugs, falling back into one of the chairs. I catch a slight wince cross her face for a split second when she does though, telling me her battery is slowly getting lower and lower. She's trying not to make a fuss though. 

"Well it's appreciated" Party says as he picks up a slice of the bread. 

"We were just talking about your bike" Neon informs me "we know you left it here" she points to the map, right where the warehouse use to be. "So if we're lucky it'll still be there and we can ride it back through the back alleys, to where you left your trans am here" she points to another point on the map, closer to where we are right now. 

"What do you mean by if we're lucky?" I frown. The others had reassured me countless time that my bike would still be thee in one piece, that nobody would even think to venture back to that spot, let alone notice the vehicle. 

"Don't worry, i'm sure your bike will still be there. I just hope that none of the dracs or even civilians see us. We really don't need that aggro thrown on top. Especially now that Silver isn't feeling so great." We both glance over at where she's slumped in her seat. If she were human her skin would probably have turned pale by this point, maybe she might have puked. But she's a droid, and all she can do is grow more and more lethargic. 

"Maybe we should try and steal some more batteries whilst we're at it?" I bite my lip. I've only known these people a day and yet i am forming attachments to them - i'm really changing as a person. Before i would have been polite, but that would have been it. I wouldn't have wanted to put myself on the line for them, but here i am. The killjoys are shaping me to open up to people, to care again. And it feels good for once. 

 "I think we're going to have to" Neon nods grimly, looking over at her friend with worry before lowering her voice "She may be tough, but she can't keep being this strong forever. And there's only so much i can do on my own to help her."  

"Surely it would be better to do this at night then? When there's less visibility?" Jet frowns, playing distractedly with the safety catch of his gun. 

"You'd think so, but they double the patrols at night. No, the best time is in the evening, around sunset. It's just when there's a big amount of shadows, but still few dracs on the actual streets. That's our window of opportunity." I look out the small crack of curtain that shows the outside world, seeing that sunset is a mere hour away at the most. We'll just about have enough time to get ready and armed before we have to leave. 

I cross my fingers under the table, hoping we can  do this cleanly and as easily as Neon hah hoped. I know the priority here has to be getting more batteries for Silver - the bike is more of an added bonus now. I know there's no way i can walk away from these two without helping at least a little bit with their crappy situation. It's risky for me to put their health and safety before my own, but i find myself happy to do so. 

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Another update! Woo! 

I'm excited as i've worked out how this story is going to play out with the plot/ending. And there's quite a lot left yet :D