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Something Artificial (Vahn Seele x LunarStar)

In contrast to Abumi, Echo was as cool as a cucumber, sitting on the chair hunched over in the middle of an office surrounded by a ruined building. Never once did Echo make any reactions to her back of the neck getting sliced open, only a very minor jolt when the cables were connected into her port, followed by another when the datapad came into play. Like with Abumi, her vision was flooded with information of the other while Abumi had to deal with navigating the extremely complex system that has been built into the android, quite possibly the most advanced any hacker has ever dealt with. As Abumi was learning from this, performing the simplest of ideas was a no go, putting the command to 'call home' lower on the priority immediately put itself back, the programming to made it so was impossible to budge it and outright cutting off the code that would make Echo follow through on the command would not do either. If anything, this could've put Echo in serious danger had this been attempted some more with varying methods.

As such, Echo was pleased to know that the best option was to temper with the communication system in such a way it would have her believe to be needed a maintenance check, a warning icon flashing at the very corner of her vision, and for the moment Abumi's, to indicate just that. This could be something Echo could ignore for now.

During the time this was happening, Echo was mat with the involuntary act of seeing the files and other hidden data of what she could only assume to be from the datapad that Abumi told her about would happen. She could see all of the filed and documents of information that did not exist on any public net. The formatting and coding, while solid, were not as high tech as the ones in herself and so, scrolling through some of it was fairly doable for Echo. She found out that Abumi was someone with a troubling past, the first she ever really got to see as the data she possessed about humans were lacking in the aspect of lives that likely placed people in difficult spots on an emotional level. Echo even got to see that there was a case of a missing person, none other than a younger sister to Abumi. Whether she may be alive still or not, Echo didn't know. How could she? She may be a super advance android, but that did not mean she knew everything. Not helping in the fact her company reboots her on a regular basis.

There were some other information that, shamefully, Echo couldn't help but look at before the vision returned to normal for her perspective, almost mimicing the sound of a gasp as the datapad was being unplucked from the back of her neck. In just a moments time, Echo had been flooded about a life of someone, granted only one human, that gave her something to mull over. Right now though, Echo was going to keep quiet about it for now, finding it unnecessary to tell Abumi about what she saw, as right now, they were running against the clock to have her tracker removed, and possibly get that communicator looked at as already she felt annoyed of the warning icon reminding her to see someone about that. With that, Echo stood up, running her gloved hand over her neck to reseal the small fold of skin to cover the ports and turned to look at Abumi "It appears to have been a success, we have about 48 hours at the most to find a viable person to remove the tracker. I must ask for you to lead me to this person for me. I do not know where to go, it is... odd to have no further commands needed to follow as this should have been the end of my day." Truth be told she was kind of scared if she could show it, having no other option but to follow Abumi, Echo too her katana she had set aside and awaited to be told to come along. Out into the depths of the night.
 
When Echo had come to stand, grabbing her katana, Abumi smiled. 48 hours. That would be enough time for them to get to her friend who could pull this off. With her datapad clipped to her wrist once more, her tools tucked away into her jacket, Abumi looked to Echo. She could see that Echo was not used to this level of "freedom" in her missions. She had a very strict protocol to do a job, go back, get a reboot, come back online. That was what she could tell, at least. Abumi almost equated it to the way someone could be taught for 12 years in a school, then dropped into the world and told "Go do the things." It was daunting, trying to figure out what you should or should not do in the world, with little to no guide along the way.

"E, here's your list of priorities. As you should have no other tasks to do, keep these in your mind. Stay with me, top priority. Keep us both safe from danger, second priority. Use your free will portion of your programming, whether this be to learn or question what may be happening around you, which should be your last priority. Some rules: Do not kill or hurt anyone, unless I give the command. Do not reveal to anyone that you are an android. Until we get you fixed, our mission is to get your tracker removed and work on freeing up some of that programming of yours." Abumi said, laying it all out as plainly as she could. It would be best that they outline some parameters to her newfound freedom. "Do you have any questions regarding this?" Abumi asked.

As she was talking to Echo, her fingers would be tapping at the pad on her wrist, reaching out to a board where she knew how to reach a friend who had done some work on androids in the past. While they had been less high-tech, he would be better equipped to be able to help remove the hardware and help to rehabilitate Echo into the world. Her life had been very structured in the past. Now that she was being let loose, Echo would need some training wheels.

Give me the coords, be there in 20. The message flashed across her screen and Abumi felt a bit of triumph rush into her mind. They only had to wait for her friend to show up.
 
To say that Echo was staying in attention might've been an understatement when seeing her look rather tense with how she would stand there straight as a soldier straight out of boot camp the moment that Abumi announced that she would lay out a couple commands to run her by some of the plans they would be executing. Letting her system check in all that was listed to her, Echo placed the priorities in order as she was given them using the 40% of her own commands to do so, placing them in a new folder within her data and marking them as 'FW Mark I'. Throughout this, Echo was like stone looking back at Abumi, not saying a word of protest as the list went on.

Staying with the mercenary should be no trouble anyway, as she had no reason to speak up about that. Keeping them safe, also a non-issue. Interestingly, Abumi had asked her to make use of that she can of her own commands, even going as far as to call it a free will like she was human enough to be considered that, also not a problem. It was part of her design to learn. Echo felt confident in her ability to make good of that. The rest of the rules came as a bit of a curve ball to the android, no killing, hmm, well, as far as Echo knew, she had no such thing programmed into her since she woke up from her latest reboot, only helping in killing what was trying to kill them while they were underground. And that was self-defense anyway. "Do not reveal I'm an android? Abumi... how does one go about doing that? Is it not facially correct of me to say what I am if asked?" Echo questioned, using that as her very first to ask for an answer of her own desire to learn something rather than by a premade list of commands for the day that has her picking up info as she went.

It was strange for her to think this way that she'd have to conceal what she is, it would be difficult from her calculations. Even now while she's sporting some clear wounds that would have a normal human still feel in pain, Echo might find herself having a hard time with that. Though she would do her best with it and see how it would play out.

Watching Abumi type on the datapad, it then occurred to Echo that they were still in the office of this ruined building, unable to read what messages were being send back and forth now that she was not connected to the pad anymore, Echo remained patiently standing where she is until she has a clear understanding when and where to go. Of course though, she'd also like to know about what she must do to not reveal her android nature to others.
 
With Abumi's attention now centering on Echo, Abumi thought on it a bit. Maybe concealing her status as an android was asking too much. Though she looked human, she was not really human enough yet to pass for human. Deciding to amend her statement, Abumi gestured for Echo to follow her out of the building. She still had a good idea of where they were, her datapad doing well to keep track of the entirety of their mission's pathways. "Let me rephrase that one. You cannot reveal that you have an AI in you. Most androids in the world don't have the level of freedom that you do. There's a certain stigma attached to what an AI could do if it were given free will, a lot of popular media thoeirzing on the ideas of AI overthrowing humans." Abumi said, trying to explain herself as they walked out of the nearly untouched office.

"If anyone asks what model you are, do not reveal that you were built at OmniCorp. Do not reveal your AI. As of now, since I've made some small changes to your code, consider yourself an android from AbumiSoft." She said, grinning a little. "Any other questions? About anything at all, your priorities, anything. I want to answer any o f your questions that I can." Abumi said, offering up Echo to ask further questions as a means of both filling the time and helping to fill in the gaps in the knowledge that OmniCorp had constantly taken from her. Perhaps, one day, they could get into OmniCorp and get all of those datastores, hooking Echo up so that she could reclaim the files that had been taken from her.

Then again, maybe there was a reason they kept a lot of those files. Who knew what kind of missions that Echo had been on prior to this one? Was she capable of killing? Surely, a simple protocol to kill was within her abilities. Abumi would be taking on quite the burden as Echo's caretaker for the time being. There was a lot for her to learn, and she couldn't hook her up to the Net to fill in the blanks. Too much info at once was something she'd have to avoid.

For now, they'd learn at a slow pace, testing to see how much that Echo could take in without hitting any stumbling blocks. Perhaps her friend had a recommendation for how to handle Echo's learning.
 
Getting to have her question answered about the notion of her being an android, Echo was mat with clarity that she was able to make sense of about her origin from OmniCorp, perhaps a little conflicting with her programming to always state as is. Unable to lie effectively. But she should manage to keep that info under wraps by request of Abumi. The same applied for her A.I. system that she was told wasn't favored by the masses. That she could also understand. Humans tend to panic about things they have no control over, which probably also served as one of the reasons she got made to be rebooted.

Though she couldn't be sure about the name of 'AbumiSoft' that made her brows furrow under her blindfold. Not sure why, it just sounded childish.

Doing nothing to hesitate on following Abumi, Echo got moving, staying close;y behind the mercenary as they left the office and headed back to where they had come in from, going through all the corridors and halls until they could get out of the main entrance to this broken and ruined facility. The cool night air filling at least one of their lungs, Echo wasn't effected by the any of this. The air, the temperature of the night time, just the wind moving her hair and dress. It would be awhile before Echo even spoke again since the slower processing power had made her take her time to take in the info given to her during their walk out here. when she was then faced with the prospect of asking any more questions, Echo... was at a loss. What else could she ask now? She got what she wanted to know. She understood what is requested of her. So what else was there?

"Abumi..." Echo piped up after about a minute of extra thinking, her katana tucked to her side as her other hand idly tugged at the side of her dress, like she was shy, unsure of how she could word it. Or rather, how she could even admit to something embarrassing as to then ask "How does one ask questions?"
 
With the two of them soon standing outside, Abumi looked over to Echo. There was a lot to take in with how things were going. Abumi was taking control of OmniCorp property, seeking to give an AI a freedom that could, if left unchecked, ruin humanity. All based on a feeling that she had of freedom and equality towards Echo's status. This was the biggest risk she could have ever taken, and part of her wondered if it was a risk that was worth undergoing. The more she thought on it, the more she wanted to kick herself for doubting herself and her confidence. They couldn't turn back now. There was no way to stop the wheels she had set in motion, and looking back would only make her hesitant about future steps.

At the question, Abumi could see the uncomfortable nature to what was being asked of her. How do you ask a question? Abumi had to stop and think about it for a moment. "You're used to doing queries for data in your system, or in a larger system. It is something like that, but you vocalize it. For example..." She said, looking toward the dark horizon a moment. After a spark of inspiration hit, she turned back to Echo. "What is your name?" Abumi asked. She waited a moment to let Echo answer. "That would be one way to ask a question. You have a lack of data and you reach out to me, or someone else, to get an answer. I'll try and find ways to get you controlled amounts of information that you can add to fill in any missing pieces to your files, things that OmniCorp may have left empty. I don't want to flood you with all the information the world has to offer, because you'd likely short out from the raw amount of data the Net has to offer." Abumi said, smiling a little.

That was close to an answer that she could get for Echo. The level of depth that she had to go to to make ti simple was difficult for Abumi to wrap her mind around. She had to view the world the way Echo might to even get a hope of providing the information in a way that would make sense to Echo. They were in for a very interesting few days, with Abumi practically babysitting Echo to try and fill in the blanks left by OmniCorp.

Looking at her datapad, they had less than ten minutes until the car would arrive. Hopefully, it would arrive fast enough that OmniCorp wouldn't be able to send someone to intercept their ride out of the technological deadzone.
 
Echo couldn't deny that about her having followed instructions based on her programming since her creation, likely no different than even before the reboots. The single fact that an Android of all things had to ask a question just as how to even ask of one was quite a stunning feat. Though perhaps now in an impressive manner. Echo, for all intense and purposes was not dumb so to speak, she could know anything and everything in a matter of moments if she deemed it to or someone pre-installs data into her about various topics. It was just that, because she effectively lived such a sheltered life that Echo had never gotten this much freedom before. Ever since her communicator function was sabotaged to come up with a warning icon, Echo had not gone for this long without another query.

"Echo. We were introduced late evening today." spoke the android almost instantaneous when asked for her name, kind of missing the point that it's more or less of a hypothetical question than a serious one to make a point about the means of asking questions. And given the rest of the information that followed, Echo payed close attention to the best of her abilities in spite of the damage she got underground, understanding quite well what Abumi was getting at. Echo had indeed tons of memory space left, a vast amount of it that has yet to be filled with any knowledge she sees fit, but, given her lack of experience to vocalize her questions without the use of a scanner, Echo was still at a loss to an extent as to who to ask and where. So, for now anyway, Echo recorded the explanation without Abumi's notice and saved the recording for replay value in case she needed to hear about it again.

The following minutes were passed in silence, long, drawn out, awkward silence. All thanks to Echo to be fair, the android had nothing else she wanted to ask for the time being. Her warning icon having occupied her senses for the most part as she fought to ignore it and therefore resulting in her just standing near Abumi like a literal statue. Hell, with how still she was being she could pass off as a mannequin. Easily.

It wasn't until another minute later when her head snapped to attention and looked towards the horizon where a set of headlamps could be seen approaching. Using her robotic vision, Echo was able to determine it was a hover vehicle not owned by OmniCorp and housed a single heat signature on board the vessel. A human. "Abumi. I detect incoming from the south. They are not OmniCorp. How shall be engage?" the android questioned, remaining patient until told how to act. Her katana left to her side and remaining sheaved that indicated no implication that she was asking for any combat orders. Her readings had already suggested it to be a non-thread.
 
With the flash of headlights in the distance drawing Abumi's attention, she turned her attention to Echo. "That should be our ride, then. No one comes out this far from the Net." Abumi said, looking to her datapad. There was a flashing indicator on it that showed a message. "I see you and some goth maid. Care to explain?" Abumi gave a little chuckle as she tapped out her message. What she was given in response made her chuckle even more. "You really need to get more specific in your messages for help. I don't care if I owe you a favor, this better not draw any heat down on me."

"Don't worry about the car. They are friendly. No need to draw weapons or put up any form of aggression towards them." Abumi said, realizing that she hadn't properly answer Echo's question. Within a minute, the car was coming to set down near them. It was a white hover car, a man with dark brown hair and a glowing stick caught between his lips gesturing to them to get in the back. From what could be seen of him, he was a small man that barely filled the seat he was in. His shirt was a white short sleeved dress shirt, the words "Delko Delivery" spelled out in a strange company logo.

"Did you really have to show up between jobs? Someone's going to know you went off grid at Delko." Abumi chastised, helping Echo to get into the back of the car before climbing in behind her. "You asked me to show up early in the morning. These are prime delivery hours. Besides, I used the dummy program you gave me to show I was parking in a neutral spot. If anyone figures it out, I'll just blame my shitty programming friend." He said, looking over to Echo. "Who is the girl again?" He asked, Abumi shaking her head. "The less you know about her, the better. Just know that she's an android, and I need you to get me to Berk's garage in downtown as soon as possible." Abumi said.

Without anymore words, the car would begin to start moving off away from the facility, taking them away from the desolate landscape and bringing them back to civilization. Unhooking her private datapad, she switched to her publicly known one, looking over to Echo and smiling. "Don't worry, E. Ike here is the best driver in the city, and he knows how to keep a secret." Abumi said. The man shouted as he heard his name being revealed. "Hey! You can't go giving out names like that! That's not your place, Abumi." Abumi gave a grin as she looked back to him. "I know your name, dummy. She couldn't care less. I'm just making conversation with my friend here."

Abumi was an odd one, less professional when the corporate suits and missions were far behind her.
 
As the car came closer into view, Echo's programming instinctively ran its scans of the vehicle being used that showed her that this particular driver seemed to be nothing more than a delivery service she knew to be 'Delko'. A definite green light that this is a friendly. No sooner had the driver pulled up on them that Echo was being gestured to go in first and obliged without hesitation or questioning the command of the mercenary.

Climbing into the hover car into the back seats, Echo shuffled on through to get to the far side of the seat to allow for Abumi to take her spot next to the android should she so choose. The driver, known to be Ike according to Abumi is a decent driver had almost gotten Echo to reveal quite a lot more than just being an android as the programming almost made her give the man a complete run down of herself. It was only fortunate that Abumi took care of most of the conversation so all that Echo revealed then, after also remembering the commands she had been given about her identity, simply stated to the driver "I am designated as 'Echo'." and pretty much saying nothing else while remaining seated with the katana leaning against her side and her hands both resting on her lap, looking straight ahead once she had given her side of the answer.

With the given instructions to the man on where to go, Echo could see they were going to get right back to the city where they had come from before the mission started, the city where the OmniCorp is fairly present in parts of the places most advanced. Hearing the location 'downtown' allowed for Echo to occupy herself looking through some of her files about it. The gist that she got out if it that in this day and age, 'Downtown' really sounded as such, parts of a town or city that were further down on the technology than the rest. Some were even left so far back they might seem like they barely moved with the times. But that should not mean that the people living there were clueless about how to work with the technology of today. There are even people among them smarter than some of the staff working in companies like the OmniCorp.

Aside from having spoken out about her name and nothing else, Echo had remained silent for a good while now, staying unresponsive for a large amount of the ride getting back to the old highway and towards the city that would be seen incredibly easily at night. As much as Abumi had encouraged Echo to ask questions at any given time with her limited free will, to seek any data Echo wanted to gain that she lacked, there wasn't much that Echo really wanted to know of just yet. The damage she received in the facility still effected her to a degree and the maintenance check required still took over most of her attention.
 
As the van hovered away from the derelict building, Abumi looked over at Echo, giving her a faint smile. Reaching out her hand, she gripped Echo's in hers, trying to offer that human reassurance. As the van slowly pulled into the edges of the city, Abumi took in the sights as they were brought further into the bustling civilization. Even though she could clearly see it was early in the morning, about 2:45 a.m., Abumi saw the same amount of traffic one might expect from a busy part of the day. The city never seemed to shut off, with only a few businesses adhering to a strict schedule of closing in certain districts.

The different districts of the city could clearly be seen as they flew from the nicer parts toward the more rundown portions of the city. Pristine office buildings and fancy restaurants gave way to broken glass, flickering electronic signs and a population that looked about as bad as the downtown portion felt. It held many of the amenities of the rest of the city, but there was an invisible grime that made it feel outdated, not as good as what you'd expect from the nicer districts. "Have you heard much from Berk lately? I heard he's looking at closing up shop. Too many people willing to do a crappy job for less pay are running him out of business." Abumi said, her hand still holding Echo's.

"Berk keeps himself plenty busy. He'd rather not argue the price of a job, which is why he wanted to stop working on cybernetics and machines. I think he'd go crazy if he wasn't working, though." Ike said, Abumi giving a faint nod. As the conversation came to an end, Abumi saw the two story garage coming into view on the passenger side of the van. "Thanks again. Consider us even, for now, until you need more programming done." Abumi said, grinning as she opened the door, gesturing for Echo to step out toward the garage. Looking at it from the outside, it was the nicer building of the neighboring ones. While this part of the city didn't have grand skyscrapers, it had a lot of niche shops, places to get hardware and software custom made, as well as with less regulation.

With the two stepping out of the van and letting Ike get back to his work, Abumi gestured vaguely at the building. A large electronic lettering showed "Berk's Garage" with no sign of jittering or defect in the electronics running it. It was mostly clean, with some graffiti tagged on the side, marring the solid gray steel finish of the metal building. Three large bay doors lined the front of the building, with a smaller door off to the side that they would be able to walk into. Leading the way, Abumi looked over at Echo. "Come on, E. Follow me and we'll get you fixed up." She said, walking up to the door and pressing her finger to a panel. With a light flicker, the panel read her as a trusted customer and unlocked it, Abumi guiding Echo inside to a dimly lit reception area.

A large man with mechanical arms could be seen in the back, the flicker of soldering visible as he worked. Calling out over his shoulder, his voice held a modulated buzz to it, signs of cybernetic enhancement. "Be with you in a sec, Abumi. Finishing up a project." He said. His hair was a mixture of black and blue, the back of his hair reaching down to his shoulder and his skin almost a perfect shade of tan. He wore a white coat, similar to a doctor's coat but with the arms cut off and various pockets added on to hold tools. Berk was a fairly tall man, reaching a height of six foot. "This is Berk. He does a lot of work for me, and he can be trusted." Abumi said, continuing to address Echo in that same familiar way one might another human.
 
During the ride back to the shining beacon that is the city if the future, Echo had remained as still as she had, never looking anywhere else but forward so long as she remained not spoken to or spoken about, which for anyone's sake, no one had. It was a relatively quiet trip and the driver that is one of Abumi's friend never really addressed her presence after she made herself known as 'Echo'. The damaged processing power from the encounter and the coms in her system preventing her to properly analyse the man had left the android to remain patient with the journey. Though as they were driving along one of the main roads towards the downtown section, Echo's sensors alerted her of pressure being applied to one of her hands that caused her to momentarily tilt her head won to look at it, discovering it to be Abumi holding her hand.

As per protocol that the mercenary gave her as a new priority, Echo is faced with line after line of information running across her vision trying determine the reason behind such physical contact, coming to the conclusion that she doesn't possess the data to know of this and, as such, will ask Abumi about it once the repairs have been made on her.

Once they arrived at the designation to get her fixed up, Echo followed Abumi's orders to exit the car and keep following her towards a building that undoubtedly was made to be a garage of some kind. A repair and customization shop perhaps. With the katana in hand, as she couldn't leave that behind, Echo was stood out on the side of the road for a good moment scanning through the building for anything out of the ordinary, only picking up one heat signature inside it. Still moving. Even at this time, there are still humans up and about despite this section of the town being not as up to date as it could be. She almost felt out of place here but didn't show it in her expression.

"Right away." Echo answered back at the command to come along, delayed by about a second because of her damage. Keeping close to Abumi, she entered the building right behind the mercenary and the two ventured through one from after another and leading up a floor that Echo figured would lead them to be above the line of garages. As this was a new place, the maid looking android lagged behind as she inspected the new surroundings. Many mechanics lay about, components for computers and other such devices littered the desks, but at the same time the place held a vibe of a normal house too. Images hanging on the wall of various things, from scenery to portraits, a pot of plants here and there, plants that Echo was able to scan telling here they were real. So by the time that Abumi had made herself known to the individual, Echo was a few steps behind and, as he would turn around to see the mercenary, Echo would round the corner and enter the room to stop right by where Abumi was standing.
 
As Berk turned to look at Abumi, flipping black lenses away from his eyes, something in him showed signs of confusion, then bubbling anger. Abumi had worked with Berk long enough to know when something wasn't right, and this was the epitome of not right. Before Berk had a chance to speak out, Abumi was standing in front of Echo, putting herself in the way as Berk was charging forward, reaching for one of his arms as the front of it shifted into a gun.. "Echo, do not attack, that's an order." Abumi said, remembering that she'd have to be Echo's guide through this situation. They'd have little time to deal with whatever past the two had, and Abumi knew that she couldn't trust another mechanic in the city. It had to be Berk.

"Get out of the way, Abumi. That thing isn't worth dying for today." Berk said, a hard expression on his face as Abumi stood between the two. There was practically a cannon pointed at her, and Abumi could recognize it to be an energy weapon that would shred her to bits. "Berk, if you think it is worth losing a friend, and a programmer who does good work, then go ahead. I'm not going to draw a gun against you, but I will give her every chance to get away." Abumi's words only seemed to encourage rage in his face as Berk was practically spitting at this point. "You know that's not a girl, so why are you defending that monster?! It's her fault my arms are gone!" Abumi had known about the attack that had come against Berk. He'd done some work for a rival company of OmniCorp, which had likely drawn some heat and a battle that had been kept quiet.

"What do you think she is, then? If she's not a girl, what is she?" Abumi asked, Berk gritting his teeth. "She's an android, just another machine that kills without thought. Why are you defending it, knowing it can't possibly care?" Berk asked, Abumi giving a little shrug. "Because, whatever she's done, she can't remember it, Berk." She said, glancing over her shoulder and stepping aside just enough so that Echo could see around her shoulder. "I can explain later, but I need you to do some work, for me. You owe her nothing, but you owe me a lot more." Abumi said, Berk looking between the purple haired programmer and the silver haired android.

It felt like an eternity, but Berk seemed to calm, his arm changing shape slowly as he stared intently at Echo. "Do I look familiar to you, android?" Berk asked, crossing his arms as he waited for a reply from Echo. Abumi never moved from Echo's side, reaching out to loop her arm around Echo's, both to keep her close by and to give that faint human comfort that, while unnecessary, made Abumi feel a bit better.
 
As soon as Echo had entered the room, her sensors weren't picking up any signs of hostility from the man before her as he turned around, yet even before he or Echo herself moved she was greeted by a face of Abumi covering most of her vision and with strict orders not to attack. Was she going to though? Her damaged processing hadn't even considered taking defensive measures until 3 whole seconds after the man pointed a gun at them. Or to be more accurate, he was pointing right at Echo, only Abumi was in the way of it. Only then did her sensors display warning signs of danger, with Abumi being most likely to come out injured or dead if the man fired the gun for an arm. Though because of this, Echo started receiving codes of her limited free will to chance positions with Abumi. Unsure if she should follow such codes, she remained still as per orders.

The whole situation somehow irked Echo in her hardware that she couldn't explain even if she was ordered to, it was odd, further aiding in her standing still to process what is happening, because as Abumi stepped aside to let Echo have another look at the man, this, Berk, she couldn't detect any deceit coming from his body language and his voice. He genuinely seemed to know her by the sounds of it, yet... nothing in her files has anything on him.

"I do not have any data on you. If we have met before, I have no recollection of this." Echo spoke out soon after being talked to, the venom in his voice when addressing her as 'android' doing nothing to provoke a reaction out of her, staying calm and as still as she could in spite of the damage she's still suffering from. However, the only reaction she did make came when she registered a shift on her right arm, the one holding her katana, causing her to turn her head and look at Abumi. Another human thing she calculated, going for physical contact is a trait of comfort as far as she knew, but nothing more on that. If Abumi did it for her, it wasn't needed, perhaps... "Abumi... My communication system is offline, a maintenance check is required. Please direct me to the nearest OmniCorp service. Other anomaly detected. Damage report needing to be addressed. Please direct me to the nearest OmniCorp service." she suddenly stated, her voice having gotten a little more metallic, a worrying sign that her condition was growing worse. Soon Echo might not be able to right her urge to seek OmniCorp to be repaired, with the 2 days having been merely an approximation.
 
Abumi looked over at Echo as she heard the request. It looked like the work she had done wasn't going to hold much longer. They didn't have time for Berk's complaints, or whatever past relation he had, to get in the way of getting Echo taken care of. "Berk, you know I'll owe you big tiem for helping with this. I need to cut any programming out of her that forces her to go back to OmniCorp. She has a ton of limitations placed on her, as well as some trackers that I have, temporarily, cut off. I don't trust myself enough to go in and start removing pieces, though, because she's more advanced than anything I've ever dealt with in the past." Abumi said, still holding onto Echo.

Berk gave a wary glance between the two, the silence in his expression making Abumi wonder if he'd actually do her the favor. After the silence had hung long enough, Berk spoke up. "You owe me. Don't let this get you thinking I've forgotten what you've done, android. If anything, I'm doing this because it's OmniCorp I'm sticking it to. I imagine an android as advanced as you has to be worth a few billion to make." Berk said. Abumi gave him a nod as Berk walked up, gesturing towards a room in the back. "We'll need to work on you in a clean room, since you have some very delicate circuitry." Berk said, escorting the two toward a room away in the back.

After a process to get the three of them "clean", Berk took Echo into a room that was solid white, with Berk wearing a solid white coat that left his mechanical arms free to move about. he also had on a ventilator that wrapped around his face, Abumi sitting in a room off to the side, looking in at Echo through glass. She gave a hesitant glance to Berk as he looked over Echo, still clad in the semi-torn dress and bloody marks from the earlier fight. "You better not mess up, Berk. If you do, you'll have to deal with me." Abumi said, a hand resting against the gun at her side. She'd been told the window was bullet-proof, but Abumi was always one to test the limits.

"Abumi, if you have that little faith in me, no matter my personal bias, then you'd have never brought this thing here." He said, setting to work. With a quick scan of her, Berk had a holographic image of what she looked like, all her wiring and schematics laid out for him to look over. "Time to take a nap." He said, finding the power circuit and powering Echo down with a bit of tinkering.
 
Just about able to read the tension in the room, Echo could seen in her readings the threat level rising with this man that Abumi took her to, but as per order from the mercenary herself as it was coded in her for the mission she's been on, she remained unchanged in her form and continued to stay as she was in spite of what's being said here. Even the words spoken to her directly were of no effect, her exposed facial features remained the same throughout, only speaking up about her cost of her form when this Berk talked about money "I am estimated to be worth 28,000,198,090 standard units. Reduced due to damages. The most expensive unit of my creator yet."

Though given the mood that was going around, Echo may not have done Abumi or anyone any favors of deflating it. It was strange in away. About how there was great levels of animosity towards her from this man. Who was he? He clearly had something against her and OmniCorp, he even spoke as though she personally had dome something to cause this behavior of his, but she couldn't figure it out why, nothing in her data bank showed anything at all about him or her past doings beyond her reboot. Whatever it was that happened, made Echo act as though she did nothing at all to warrant this and simply went about the set up as though she was in the clear. No expression of guilt or sadness of any kind.

She was led into this 'clean room' where Eche would be operated on. Operated by a man that has a serious sense of vengeance about him that kept making her alert icon pop up besides the maintenance check one. Laying herself down onto the operating table on her stomach, Echo was able to at least give the man a run down of the things that need doing, removing the tracker, where it's located and how to open up the pieces of her in order to access the necessary hardware. As well as fixing the maintenance of the software Abumi installed in her, plus, and only if Berk felt the need to, close up the cut on her back, apply bandages on her arm and fix any of the other damaged part of her that were inflicted onto her by the spider like thing. And then, just as she heard the words 'lights out' her vision went black and her body going limp as the work was beginning.

-

What was a blink of an eye for Echo, may have been hours the the rest of the world. One moment she was turned off and the she saw vision and programming some back to life as she was starting back up. This time she was laying on her back, the side of her head connected to wiring that kept some of her standby systems working for her start up procedure. Walls of text flashed through her vision as the boot up happened, letting her know of all the functioning systems that were online. Only now she wasn't getting anything about OmniCorp or the maintenance check up required. Even though it couldn't be seen if anyone was about because of her blindfold, Echo's eyes opened up as the boot up had started to finish. Slowly getting up into a sitting position, Echo was working on performing a self diagnosis to check her functions. All seem to be good. Her movements are back to normal. Her scanning and reading speed amplified and no damage was detected "All systems green."

Looking around, Echo realized she was still in this clean room, probably having been too heavy to really be moved. Not that it would've been advisable to do, this Berk needed the equipment to make this operation a success, and he seemed to have made it. Echo could no longer find anything connecting to OmniCorp. But she was still inder the command of Abumi. Ah... speaking of which. Unplugging herself now that she was fully operational and fully charged, Echo picked up a few heat signatures in this building. 3 of them. One of them was Abumi for sure, the other Berk and another that wasn't present yesterday. Still though, she should make herself known that she is working fine.

Upon getting up to walk towards the door in order to leave it and go see Abumi, she could pick up sounds of arguing going on on the other side, mostly from a voice she hadn't heard before. Likely the new presence. Pressing the button to open up the door, Echo made her way through the building, towards where the yelling was coming from until rounding a corner to see Abumi and... a different man across the table from her. He looked a fair bit younger than Berk and less bulk in his build. Quite average. Short black hair, an ear piercing on his left ear, he wore what looked to be standard work clothing for a mechanic, complete with oil stains and tears from how ever much he probably works around machines. Echo could also detect that he was also using a prosthetic right leg, judging by how she picked up his heat signature. And he looked to be very annoyed with Abumi right now "-and then you went and signed up for a company like OmniCorp to do a job? How often have I told you those guys are nothing but trouble, and you have the nerve to steal their property? Dude, they are going to hunt you down and kill you on the spot, you know that right? Why'd you even have to bring a hunk of lifeless junk here anyw- oh! Look what it is. The tool of a greedy work environment." the name gestured to her being in the room now before looking back at Abumi. As far as she could tell on his profile, his name is Darron "Now I ask again. What possessed you to bring something like that here. Don't you remember what happened to our friend?"
 
The next several hours filled Abumi with a lot of uncertainty. There were moments during the work that Berk was doing that led to a few alarms going off that, thankfully, the clean room filtered out. The room was isolated beyond more than being dust and germ-free. It was also separated from all electronic networks, with special material placed in the walls to filter out all outward and inward communications. It was truly cut off from the world, something Abumi had worked in quite a few times when she was doing work that she did not want to be tracked. Berk had always preferred that she work in that room, too, because he didn't like the idea of anyone getting access to any of her programming, since she had been the one to program most of his prosthetic and cybernetic enhancements.

As Berk came out of the room, he looked to Abumi with a weary look. "There were at least a hundred attempts by her systems to reach out to OmniCorp. They were very thorough in protecting every piece of her software to keep her from being tampered with. How you managed to hook up your datapad, as well as bypass that communication loop, proves you are either very talented, or you are one lucky bitch." He said, Abumi following behind him. "I know. She's really quite a marvel: an AI built into an android body. I'm surprised OmniCorp was given the go ahead to do something like this." Abumi said, Berk giving a faint shrug. "Going to crash, my mind is shot." He said, Berk taking a turn down a hallway and heading toward what was assumed to be his room. Abumi had never set foot in the room, but she could imagine a mechanics room as being both messy and neat all at the same time.

With Abumi alone in the shop, she began to work on her datapad, Borrowing a few tools from around the shop, she began to dismantle her datapad. Her public identity was no longer safe, and killing the tracking on her tech was the best she could do. She'd have to do some digging into getting a new identity, something that never was easy. With a few connections in the seedier parts of the web, reinventing one's identity was simple enough. The hard part was finding one at a price she could afford.

As she worked, Darron came in and began to rip into her about her choices. God, the guy had a way of finding a point and digging deep into it, deep enough to rip up the nerve he was trying to stress. "Do you think I didn't consider those things, Darron?" Abumi asked, sitting back in her chair and crossing her arms. Abumi looked over to Echo and gave her a little smile. "Echo, this is Darron. He's not happy with what I've done, but that's nothing against you, personally." Abumi said, turning her attention back to Darron. "I'm getting a new identity to configure my datapad with. With a bit of work, I can make myself invisible again. As for Echo, she's more than a lifeless bit of junk." Abumi said, gesturing toward Echo with an open hand.

"If we have her here, and we can keep her from doing work for OmniCorp, that's one less tool they have at their disposal. Besides, this is my project, anyways, and she's still bound to me. I made sure that Berk didn't remove that from her programming, at least for now." Abumi said, uncertain how Darron would feel. She did her best to avoid the topic of a lost friend, because even she still felt a wound deep at the memory.
 
Watching the two talk, Echo's systems were picking up quite the tension between them, one of them directed right at her as her readings indicated how the man, Darron, was expressing severe dislike towards her. Silently and still, the Android let the conversation play out as they conversed, with Abumi giving her a quick introduction of the man and that he took isn't pleased about her presence. Standard protocol indicated that a lesser act of communication would be appropriate, followed by stepping away if need be. But for now, and a little awkwardly, Echo was stood rigidly still where she was just by the table. Vaguely closer to Abumi than she was to Darron.

"Nothing against it?" Darron repeated her words, refusing to call Echo by any gender but also giving up reminding Abumi what the android had done that it seemingly can't even remember. His partnership with the mercenary was too precious to ruin by bringing up a subject time and time again. As anyone would know living in the downtown side of this high tech city, is that community is key here. "Whatever. At least you'd better make sure to stay invisible for some time. OmniCorp don't mess around with their shit you know." he stated, taking out a cigarette and a lighter to start smoking before continuing "'Sides how is it not a lifeless hunk of junk. It's a robot. An android. There's nothing human about it other than looking like some weird blind maid. Don't tell me you started changing your mind about those things now have you? I thought you were extremely against androids." Darron said, leaning back in his chair with his hands behind his head in an attempt to relax. Puffing smoke as he did.

Echo, who had remained mostly silent for the time being was able to confirm with herself that she was indeed still under the command of Abumi, binding her to the mercenary. As such, while that may mean that Abumi was the one in charge of her, Echo would have to ensure that she's in good condition as by her programming. That much hasn't changed.

"Abumi." Echo started, looking towards the mercenary "My internal time shows that 7 hours, 40 minutes and 19 seconds have passed since I was temporarily on shut down. And I also detect a mass of absence in my data that shows evidence of manual removal. I can no longer detect my registration code. Am I still of operational use to you?" Echo asked, since, without it, she somehow for the impression that with having her code taken off that OmniCorp placed on her, that we was deemed no longer eligible to function any more. And since she was under Abumi's command, it was up to her to give the final verdict on that as per protocol.
 
Abumi gave a wave of her hand as she showed her mild protest at the habit of smoking. "Darron, smoking those things, while it might be retro, is still quite a stupid habit. If it calms you down, though, I won't fault you for it." Abumi said. She was about to chime in her own opinions on her feelings toward Echo. Yes, her stance on most, if not all, android life was that AI was bad and humans were good. Automation was fine, as long as it was not done at the expense of the people. There had been a massive increase in the amount of automation that was occurring, most happening without a way to support the amount of unemployment that came with it. Abumi had found her way into a field that could not be properly automated, not yet. If she were to think hard on it, though, there was likely a chance that Echo's creators were seeking to do away with mercenaries like her, though, leaving Abumi as another relic to be discarded to the past.

When she looked over to Echo, Abumi took in the words that came out of her mouth, furrowing her brow. "Echo..." She said, feeling a tug at her heart. Yes, she was putting human emotions into this, but the words were cold when they came out of Echo's mouth. The question, when phrased so plainly, came out as simply as this: Am I useful to you? In short, the answer was yes. Abumi did not want to keep Echo as a tool, though. Remembering how she had felt back when she had heard about the way that Echo was constantly wiped and recalibrated on a weekly basis, Abumi tried to keep herself from tearing up a little. "Echo, you are still useful and in good operating condition. Treat the lack of data as a form of upgrade, with more priority placed on developing your free will, while still adhering to the structure of commands I will relay later." Abumi said, reaching out and taking Echo's hand in yet another human gesture.

Holding Echo's hand, Abumi looked up toward Echo's blindfolded eyes. Pressing the chair back, she stood up and used her other hand to draw the blindfold off of her eyes, a spark of curiosity filling her to know if she had no eyes. "We'll work on getting you some different clothes. We can have you walking around in this getup, as long as OmniCorp is going to be looking for you." Abumi said, setting the blindfold on the table. Looking over Echo's face and eyes, Even as she looked on at Echo's face, she spoke toward Darron without looking. "If you had seen in her what I did, Darron, you'd understand why I changed my position." She said, finally turning to face him.

"Think of it this way. Echo is similar to a child soldier. She knows nothing but what she is told. If I give her more to go on than what OmniCorp did, with their bindings and their restrictions, she'll no longer be a weapon. She'll be a living thing that can learn and change. Maybe, in time, she'll even be as human, if not more, than the rest of us." Echo said, smiling at the last word as she dropped her hand from Echo's and looked back to glance her way.
 
During most of the talk that Abumi was having with Echo, Darron just didn't pay them any mind by trying to ignore them for the moment. Mostly Echo. The Android however, had the full attention of the mercenary with attention returned just as much when she felt her sensors detect contact on her gloved hand where Abumi was holding her there, the only reaction that came from Echo being a slight tilt of her head down to look at it, streams of information added to her filed about this contact to be looked over later. Then, when she saw from the edge of her vision that Abumi, there was a sudden shift from the Android that made her look at the other hand going for her blindfold as if she were surprised or unsure about why Abumi was doing this, but, having no obligation to stop her from doing so, Echo remained completely still as the blindfolds were being pulled off over her head.

Underneath the fabric that his almost half her face, Abumi would find to see Echo indeed had eyes under there that were currently closed and that Echo likely 'sees' thing with an x-ray like technology built into her to function without hindrance, even with covered eyes. However, with the blindfolds off, Echo's eyes slowly started to open, blinking once or twice as she started to take in the world around here without the use of the tech she used to see through as. No longer was everything to her as if looking through a filter to see things, everything was so much more. There was a jolt as if to gasp as the sheer amount of data she was getting. And while Echo was without blindfold, her eyes were... strikingly human, complete with working pupils reacting to light, the color of which were a gleaming in a lovely silver.

"Affirmative." Echo responded when being told that she is still of use and that her lack of OmniCorp data was an upgrade. So long as her removed registration code didn't mean end of service, she was good to go. "Thank you for verifying my operation has not come to an end. I will await your next command at your leisure." she spoke, her eyes staring back at Abumi for a good moment before looking down at her blindfold on the table and herself when a change of clothing was mentioned. As far as she knew, she always had this look about her and yes, she saw the damage of it on her arm where she was bit and her sensors told her about the damage to her back. While the wounds would heal up nicely, her clothing wouldn't unless fixed. But in her data she could tell that Abumi might recommend a change of clothing all together. Which, while Echo wasn't too aware of it given she no longer had anything about OmniCorp, would be a good idea to do so as to not be recognized immediately by anyone associated with OmniCorp.

"What's there to see in that, Abumi?" Darron talked back, getting up from his chair to move on over to a nearby desk to start busing himself in preparation for work "It's made out of wires, bolts and some hardware. It's no more alive than a light-bulb. Ah, who am I kidding, you're always like this. Once you think of something, you just go and do the shit you want. I think you've gone onto one too many missions, maybe take a vacation or something."
 
Abumi gave a little scoff toward Darron at the comment. "It's that thinking that keeps you rooted in your profession. Everything is nuts and bolts, electricity and circuits. If you really dig into what makes us human, and the work it takes to get cybernetics working in our bodies, you'd realize that we're a more crude version of machine than you might be comfortable to admit." Abumi said, smiling toward Echo. "We're going to leave soon. We'll have to lay low in one of my hideouts for a while. My public identity is exposed, leaving most of my assets from that 'life' untouchable for the foreseeable future." Abumi said, giving a faint sigh as she picked up the blindfold.

Taking Echo's hand, Abumi laid the folded up black cloth in her open palm. "I want you to make the choice of wearing this or not. Think of it as the simplest bit of free will you will ever exert." Abumi said, taking note of the way that Echo seemed to take in all the new data. Had she been kept blindfolded to prevent her from seeing color, from interacting directly with the environment with her eyes? It was true that x-ray and cameras could do a lot of the same things that eyes could, but it seemed strange in design to give her eyes, then have her not use them. Maybe it was just to make her as human as possible, only to strip away her humanity with something as simple as a piece of cloth. There also came the thought that, maybe, the designers were just too weird to ever truly understand.

"Unless you have some more to talk about, Darron, I'm going to get my things and go. My public number is dead, so you'll have to work with Berk to get me in the future. That'll be the surefire way to find me." Abumi said, looking to Echo. "If you feel overwhelmed with questions, since you'll be handling free will in such a raw fashion, ask me for answers. I can't guarantee that I'll have all the answers for you, but I think I can get you on the right line of thinking." Abumi said, stepping away from Echo and starting to gather a few things from the shop. For the most part, they seemed to be innocuous things. A backpack off of a shelf, a few circuits here and there, a few optical wire bundles. With the bag slung over her shoulder, Abumi took out a piece of paper from a blank pad and scribbled down a few random numbers and letters, handing them to Darron.

"Give this to Berk. It's the key to locating my contact info." She said, the mixture of letters and numbers about as unintelligible as it could get. With all of her affairs in order, Abumi moved to draw her coat off of her shoulders and offered it out to Echo. "Wear this for the time being. A gothic maid strolling out of a mechanic shop is going to draw attention." Abumi said,. Removing the jacket put her upper curves on display as the tight gray tank top showed toned arms and pale skin up to her shoulders.
 
Watching Abumi carefully when her blindfold was given back to her so soon after just taking it off, Echo's system detected an emotional response in the mercenary that told her was related to the feeling of sadness when talking about how most of her was now mute thanks to having snatched the android away from OmniCorp, which strangely enough, while Echo no longer had any ties to that company, she retained at least her memories from her last reboot to now. It was still so strange to her, to be given something as precious as a free will, even allowing her to freely replay the conversation they shared in the underground facility about a human heart and a soul. Her self awareness level having also jumped up to a little over 50% since she was worked on here. All that extra space and Abumi's insistence to ask questions for answers having helped her out on that.

Looking down, down at her own hand that Abumi held along with the blindfold, she contemplated about whether she can keep it or not. Abumi did take it off of her, making her readings indicate that she should keep it off, but, at the same time this did serve as viable function even if just a piece of cloth. Something that she may have to explain another time. For now, Echo worked on putting it back on over her eyes while the mercenary and this Darron fella were having their talk, with the man telling her to be careful out there and around Echo, somehow he still appeared to not trust her presence as an android.

"Sure thing, I'll let Berk know you're going 'off the grid' again, though I really think you're pushing it now, last time you had to do that was just a couple of months ago. It's gonna get you killed one day or another." Darron said, taking the piece of paper off of Abumi to be passed onto Berk later. "Now you just get on going and take tincan with you already." he ordered, once again making Echo display no reaction to the words used against her in a negative manner. She just stood there and took it while she finished up putting the blindfold back on and having finished adjusting her hair for it.

"Affirmative. I will seek out any information that I see fit." Echo responded to the request to ask Abumi anything, though as of right now none came to mind right away that she would need to ask, anything else that she may lack knowledge in, is taken cared off via her scanning of the area and what snippets of info she had on her that would explain it to her. However, it seemed that Echo needn't take long to come to that point when being offered the coat that Abumi's been wearing the whole time and explained that it would be wise to cover up the android to avoid letting people see a goth maid walking about "Is my appearance not of satisfactory level to you, Abumi? I detect a clothing shop 2 blocks down to the south-west, on left, second address to the right. I may be able to escort you to there so I may change appearance that is less conspicuous. Would that be acceptable?"
 
Abumi gave a quirk of her brow at the mention of a clothing store. She didn't exactly have her new identity set up yet, but there were still shops that took non-digital currency. It was impossible, even in this day and age, to force everyone to a digital standard. They'd tried, but there were still valuables that could be traded, forcing a lot of people to return to the days of bartering. It was often a pain to do, but most of the shops in the area had a culture of bartering with those that wanted to keep their purchases off of the net. "That's not a bad idea. I have some things I could trade to get you some clothes of your own." Abumi said, smiling at the suggestion.

"We're leaving, Darron, both me and the 'tincan'." Abumi said, giving a little gesture to Echo to guide her to follow. As the two would step into the street, they would be met with sunlight, the sun high above and streaming over the streets of the downtown area. The two would draw a few looks from people as they walked, Echo and Abumi sticking out a bit between a few here and there. Abumi was one of the few "pure" humans among the crowd. Most had some form of cybernetic or mechanical replacement to a limb that was easily visible. Abumi had only her lenses, the modification so commonplace it was consider normal.

Walking a few blocks, Abumi did her best to keep Echo close by, her coat likely doing little to hide some of the dress that Echo had on. It, thankfully, would cover most of the marks to her flesh and the tears in the dress. As they walked, Abumi wondered about how she should approach teaching Echo what it was to be human. There were a lot of things that came with being human, qualities that she didn't know directly how to teach. Even as she wondered if she were making a mistake, the part of Abumi that spoke up in the back of her mind had their own opinion.

Reaching her hand back, Abumi took hold of Echo's hand and gave her a smile over her shoulder as they drew closer to the shop she had detected before. "When we are at my hideout, I want to talk to you, on a personal level. Make sure I don't forget to talk to you about contingencies." Abumi said, trying to give her order in as human a way as she could.
 
Exiting the garage where it turned out to also serve as Echo's operation room that allowed for Berk to remove the tracker, fix her up internally a little and even removing as much about OmniCorp as possible, the android was mat with the streets as she remembered in her data from arriving here the night before. Though it was without actually seeing the sky and where the sun was at thanks to the blindfold, only a detection system telling her that it was currently sunny, her internal clock also suggesting it was still before noon. Still she could see through her covers well enough and her little sat-nav system kept the route in place on where they should be going to reach the shop.

Sticking to Abumi's side and just a tad behind, Echo was enough covered from the coat that she was handed to, with only some of her goth style dress showing from the front. The injuries she sustained were hidden as they were at her back and her right arm only, the main reason people would give her looks for would be because of her blindfold yet zero difficulty walking as though she could see just fine, as well as the katana she carried with her. It isn't every day you'd see someone holding a blade around, much less out on a normal day in a part of town that doesn't require anyone doing so. But as expected from an android like Echo, none of those things mattered to her what the people thought, only that her data was gradually being filled with info as she scanned points of interest, her head turning to her side as they walked by a dog that barked at her, tied to a metal post outside a convenience store as the owner couldn't take the dog in.

When Abumi started to speak to her, Echo's entire attention reared right back at the mercenary.

"Affirmative. I shall make a note of that. Would you like me to remind you upon our arrival there?" Echo asked. Clearly... she didn't quite get the memo about how she talked and it further caused people that walked by and happen to hear her to look at Echo in a strange way. This was probably going to be quite a workout for the mercenary to teach a robot about being human. A tall order that almost everyone in the world considers to be impossible.

When arriving at the store, the first thing to happen as Echo walked past some scanners that were set off and causing the owner to be quite suspicious of them, especially when seeing what Echo was holding onto. As it turned out, weapons weren't allowed in the store and the agitated owner made it clear they can not shop here unless Echo lets her katana to be confiscated for the time being. Even a small search was carried out and the owner found the two motherboards hidden in the pockets of the coat. Thankfully for them, they could be excused as mere computer parts. So, after all that fiasco and Echo reluctantly giving up her blade for now under Abumi's order, the Android silently roamed around the shop, scanning row after row for anything that would fit her body type. Perhaps even some supplies that she could use to fix her dress up too. But... as she walked about, she was in a bit of a struggle about what to actually get from here. The best cause of action she could think off according to her data was to simply take anything that was just right on her size, which, fortunately for Abumi's wallet, wasn't going to be too much.
 
As the two came into the store, Abumi gave a little fuss at the metal detectors that went off. "Seriously, metal detectors?" Abumi said, giving a faint measure of annoyance as she let herself, and Echo, be searched. She made sure that Echo was told to stand down from the search. Once the two had been properly searched, with Echo's katana being taken from her for the time being, Abumi gave the shop owner a little glare. "Make sure you give us back the same weapon we came in with." Abumi said, thankful that her sidearm was not made of metal. The x-ray scanners in the bigger stores were more precise, and they could've picked out the weapon that she was holding. Rather than reveal it, though, Abumi kept herself quiet.

Once the two had been properly processed, Abumi walked in and followed quietly behind Echo. There was something interesting to the way that Echo moved around the area. She seemed to be less mechanical than she had remembered. maybe it was her imagination, but there was something akin to a thought process that was filtering through Echo's head. Something that, even Abumi could see. Perhaps it was just that "free will" indicator that she had been giving the number for earlier. 34%, wasn't it? It had some decimal points after it, but Abumi didn't care much to think on it. With all the work that OmniCorp had put into Echo, it was kind of exciting to see what it would be like to fully realize an AI within the body of a robot.

"Finding clothing that you like?" Abumi asked, curious to see Echo verbalize some of the thoughts that were probably going through her processors. The values of items were written plainly on the shelves, with some of the clothes have remnants of more high quality tags written into the fiber of their arms, if they had them. The fibers were mostly invisible, but the fibers were able to give details of what the current value of that line of clothing was, to those that had the proper lenses to be able to read them. High end designers often wove those electronic fibers into their clothes to prevent someone from selling knock offs, as well as keep the price consistent for all of their clothes. For shops that couldn't read them, it meant possibilities for making some great deals.

As Abumi followed behind Echo, she paid special attention to the front of the store where the owner was. Discreetly, Abumi tried to pay attention to his mannerisms. If he were making a call of any kind, the two of them would have to leave. While she had some currency she could leave behind, not wanting to steal from a shop so close to Berk's, there was a lot of risk in walking around with Echo. She'd have less than a day before OmniCorp would be putting out hits for her, as they could only assume that she'd run away once they investigated the ruins out in the countryside.
 
The inside of the show was relatively quiet to say the least, the only other sounds being made other than the two of them were the owner, a couple of other customers just browsing about and the small fan by the cashier that kept the owner cooled. It was somewhat of a warm morning. So when Echo heard the sounds of Abumi talking to her, the android turned to face her, her unreadable expression were again making this difficult to tell what sort of information was running through her data right now to try and answer that. But it was clear enough by the hesitation that Echo was trying to figure out on how to go about answering the question about liking the clothes. Obviously she could easily scan them to see if they fit, but liking them? Can androids like something? Anything?

"I can confirm that there are clothing that fit me. I..." she paused, looking down at the few things she picked off the racks, a couple of simply shirts, a jean, two skirts and other bits of fashionable clothing she deemed would fit a 'casual' environment. She still had to pick out a few other bits like underwear and shoes. Then she should be all set.

"I can not express about liking clothing however. How does one do that? And these... these look normal to me, I calculated them to be a fitting choice to my shape and their purpose. Nothing more." Echo spoke, the tone in her voice still sounding mechanical but has gained a certain smoothness to the words coming out of her that no longer sounded like a bad voice recording from the much more older models of robots still roaming the older sections of the city. The uncertainty she carried with as well showed Abumi she was still mostly running on what her programming was telling her than making as much use of her free will portion. A force of habit? Or that A.I. just have that much of a hard time getting to grips with making their own choices as the programming could just be that touch to fight against, perhaps showing the sheer amount of struggle Echo is faced with to learn more free will that even picking out clothing isn't all based on choice.
 
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