Questions and Dinner

"So you're some kinda hero?" Mya asked, starting a conversation. She knew of course given the show in her memory but given how wound up Jenny was already it was a good idea to not mention that. "Most people don't build some robot like you just as eye candy."

"Yeah my mom's a scientist because of course she is." Jenny said with a wave of her hand as she leaned back down onto the sofa, "She was a part of something called Sky Patrol, a law enforcement group." her hand did that little reconfigure trick, changing from fingers to a screen display. It showed a bunch of stuffy and uptight looking police wearing some sort futurish outfight. Rather tight and had a pointy helmet.

"They did good but way too much paper work. Mom quit on them and went into research. She wanted to make a better defense system." the screen flickered and showed eleven figures in a row. The first nine grew from small and robotic to more and more human, though still clearly mechanic. The last three were a two copies of Jenny and Nora herself. She looked just like she did in the little hologram that had talked to her earlier.

The one Jenny on the side that was closer to the rest of the robots looked more mechancial and rigid. Few curves and no female parts. The one on the other side of Nora though was the Jenny she was talking to now. The confused look on Mya's face made Jenny laugh when she looked up.

"So those are my sisters, me, my mom and me." She explained, her other arm coming up and pointing out the figures, "You're confused about how there's two of me right?" A slow nod was all Mya could do.

"I think I explained this but my mom wasn't going to just let me be her final invention. She kept me around for sentimental reasons or due to my experience." Jenny said with a slight shrug, her mind coming back to her mom's letter. "Right so..., anyway," she took a breath before continuing, "Rather than make a new model, Mom made me a new 'shell'. So rather than a model ten here I am, model XJ9.10. Or 2.0 technically... whatever. Mom kept the old 'me' as a back up just in case anything happened to this body."

"Makes sense." Mya said with a nod. Keeping backups was always a good idea. "So..., what did you defend the world from?"

"Oh crikey what DIDN'T I?" Jenny semi cried and laughed at the same time.

The robot started to list of criminals, monsters, entities and other robots she had battled over the years. From rock monsters to a wind-up toy, alien bikers to her own synthetic skin. Mya sat patiently, posing a few extra questions about the ones that interested her. Like the bikers and robotic ones. Jenny seemed rather comfortable in talking about her past fights. The grin on her face growing bigger and her details more expressive with each story.

“And that’s when I got out my…, hey why do you have that look on your face?” Jenny asked as she stopped her current story. Her eyes focusing on the mechanic.

“Hmm?” Mya muttered as she realized her own face had a big grin on it, “Oh I dunno. I wasn’t expecting you to be this into your work. Given how you spoke about your mom I thought you’d resent being a hero.”

“Nah! …, okay maybe a little.” The robot said, moving her index finger and thumb close together. “But it was more resenting being thought of only a hero, only a robot, only a weapon. I had dreams and goals and…, my own life.” Jenny said, her words slowly paced out. She reached out for her drink and took a long sip from it.

“I mean don’t get me wrong, I like being a hero. The smiles of people I save, the knowledge I help the world be a better place; it’s all great and all but I kinda resent the fact I was made to be a hero. I kinda wanted to make that choice on my own.” She looked back at Mya with a shrug, “Does that make sense?”

“Hmm I can get that. All those expectations for defense and hero work weighing you down, can’t be easy to have to live up to that. But even with, I dunno, the programming to do it, you just don’t have the personality that just let injustice go.” Mya offed with a slight wave towards the window, “I mean you could have just left that station when you saw what was happening.”

“I could but I didn’t. I might not have, pardon the phrase, asked to be born like this but I have a responsibility.” Jenny replied with a bit more pep to her words and glow to her face, “What kinda person would I be if I didn’t help someone in need with what I can do?” A light chuckle escaped her lips. “At the very least, hero work isn’t boring.”

“Well, I’m not an expert here. But I think you’re a better person than me.” Mya said. She wasn’t sure what she’d do if she was in a similar situation. Heck, if she got powers in high school Mya was pretty sure she’d turn vigilante. Maybe villain depending on how bitter she was to some people at the time.

“Thanks. Coming from someone that just met me, that means a lot.” Jenny stretched out on the couch, giving out a cute ‘mmmm’ would as she flexed her legs. “Ah I admit I’m not perfect. But I try to do the best I can.”

“So what about you?” Jenny asked as she settled back into her place on the couch.

“Eh what?” Mya asked, having missed when the pace of the talk had shifted in Jenny’s favor. It was now her time to be grilled a bit.

“What did you do? I shared my hero stories share yours.” Jenny continued, moving a little closer to hear better. Or put pressure on the human. “You can’t just expect me to share part of my life without asking something in return.”

“Eh…, I mean that’s fair but…, agh...,” Mya muttered as she brought a hand up to rub the back of her neck, “My own stuff is just bland and boring though.”

“I mean if we’re just sharing stories now, I don’t mind.” The robot said with a bit of a grin, “Come on dish.”

“Well…,” Mya paused to get a drink from her own can, “I grew up in the inner city. Dad was a mechanic, had his own shop. I followed in his footsteps, granted kinda self-taught rather than trade school. Worked on cars, bikes, few boats; if you could roll it through the door, I’d work on it. Before I got yoinked here I was just working day to day. Trying to get money together for my own shop.”

“Talking about why I don’t ask my family for help is a bit…, rough okay so can we not talk about that?” Mya asked, her head tilted downward. She couldn’t bring herself to look at Jenny while some memories flowed into her.

“That…, is fine. Heh, sorry if that’s a rough area for you. Don’t need two emotional outbursts today, do we?” Jenny asked with a shrug. Mya just nodded as Jenny put her arms outward to her sides, “Well we have this WHOLE house that’s geared to fixing and tinkering. If you want, we could bring cars in to fix ‘em? Maybe get a business going.” Jen offered.

“Maybe. Wouldn’t be the worst thing. Maybe Cupid already gave us the paper work, given everything else they gave us. Agh I’d have to figure out how they work here though.” Mya said with a slight groan.

“I suppose you would but hey, should be fun. I’ll help out when I can but I’m more built for…, taking things apart than putting it together.” Jenny’s hands shifted, one turning into a small wrench, and the other a hammer the size of her head. She just shook her limbs like she was trying to get water off them and her hands were back.

“There’s a difference between having all the knowledge in your head or at your fingertips to FIX basically anything…, and actually having the drive or knowledge to pursue it. Sort of like the whole hero thing, git me?” Jenny offered with a smile.

“That does make a bit of sense I suppose.” The human said as she leaned back into her seat. She was about to say something else when a low noise erupted from her stomach.

“Heh…, sorry. Getting hungry.” Mya offered as she patted her stomach before getting up with a stretch.

“Pizza?” Jen asked as flipped through a few more channels now that their talk was starting to come to an end.

“Asked this before but can you, have food?” Mya asked as she walked over to the robot, blocking her view of the tv, “Do you even NEED to eat?”

“I can go with out it but my ‘stomach’ is able to process it into energy. I could pull up a diagram if youre interested.” Jenny said as she stood up, seeing as she wasn’t going to be able to do anything until it was settled. “I suppose you want to talk about toppings.”

“Eh yeah. Extra cheese and meat lovers sound good?” Mya offered as she started to head into the kitchen, “Unless you got a better idea. See what’s in that freezer.”

“OH, come on, I know we’re tight on money but can we at least get a pizza here? To see how it measures up? Please?” Jenny asked as she caught up, her hands gripped together as she gave them a light shake towards Mya.

“Eh…, I suppose. But if it’s bad, you’re in charge of making the replacement one.” Mya gave up with a huff. “Perhaps this would get some Jenny’s excitement of this new world out of her system. Just a little reward for her today too.” The mechanic thought.

“Awesome! Here lemme just do a quick…” Jenny’s eyes started displaying a bunch of different browsers and windows. She was quickly searching and cross-referencing results along with recommendations. A ‘ding’ was heard as she finally locked onto one.

“Got it. Laser Larry’s Pizzeria; looks pretty good, cheap and several people suggest it for a meal over studying or evening work.” Jenny held up a hand as a slit appeared in her palm and a small slip of paper came out, “OH LOOK Coupon!” the robot said with a grin.

“Okay that’s…., probably going to be pretty helpful in making our cash go further.” Mya said with a chuckle, “I just promise not to use you as some sort of coupon search bot okay? Only for groceries.”

“Maybe clothes too.” Jenny replied as she gave Mya a light jab, “Come on, let’s get this meat lovers ordered already.” She quickly bounced off to a nearby phone.

Mya just stood by and watched. Jenny was certainly doing better now which was good to see. Honestly if it wasn’t for the weird skin, hair and techy stuff she did; Jenny just did seem like a normal college aged girl. Mya didn’t really get time to enjoy her own… introduction to college so maybe this adventure wasn’t going to be too bad.

“Also the house has phone stations…, interesting. I figured everything would be high tech and digitial, linking to our mobiles.” Mya thought before a tap on her shoulder got her attention.

“Right okay so, they said 20-30 minutes.” Jenny announced as she bounced on her heels.

“Really, I would think they could do it faster.” Mya drily said. For all this tech, a slow cook pizza was quaint.

“I know that look and tone. Don’t worry, I got one that does it in the ‘old ways’,” Jenny said, making quotation mark motions with her fingers, “Meaning it’s cooked in an oven rather than air fried or laser cooked.”

“The hell does that even work?!?” Mya blurted out.

“Eh, too technical, and tastes pretty dry from what I understand. Cooks fast though.” Jenny gave a shrug before she kept going, “So one large Meat lovers; pepperoni, Italian sausage, ham, bacon, seasoned pork and beef. Extra cheese and a big bottle of coke.”

“The more things change huh…” Mya said with a small smile, “Alright, we can use the time to pick out a movie or something. They ARE delivering right?” Last thing Mya wanted to do was go driving around trying to find the place as evening wore on. Even if Jenny was a high-class walking talking GPS.

“Course. I kinda don’t feel like going out right now anyway. Maybe tomorrow.” Jenny said as she made a small wave of her hand to dismiss the idea.

“So, what movie do you want?” Mya asked as she walked back to the entertainment center, flipping through movie cases. They looked like CDs so some type of blue-ray, which was good. Mya liked having some physical form of her stuff.

“Maybe something actiony or funny after today.” Jenny offered as she took a seat on the couch again. A bit of a grin creeped onto her face as she looked at Mya, something shining in her eyes.

“Hey…, you wanna mess with the delivery guy a bit?”

Mya wasn’t sure what sort of idea was going on in Jenny’s head. She could think of a couple of them though, considering her whole personality now. Probably wouldn’t be a good idea but…, could it hurt?