Chapter 139: Some Adjustments Necessary
Lemon Warning! This chapter contains a lemon, marked with a clear -Lemon Starts Here- and -Lemon Ends Here- for those that wish to skip such things.
Chapter 139: Some Adjustments Necessary
A2 had only been alive again for a week, and she was still getting used to the idea that humans weren’t just alive, but that they were everywhere. Despite her desires to get right to defending humanity, this time a humanity she could see and touch, her new…bosses? Friends? Allies? Honestly, she didn’t even know what Midoriya and Yaoyorozu were to her. She’d woken to find that the supposedly hardcoded requirement that she serve mankind was just gone. But that didn’t change the fact that, for the entirety of A2’s existence, that had been her purpose.
In the very last days, before she’d struck down the crazed 9S, she’d learned from him that it had all be a lie. That humanity had long been extinct and they were fighting for...not quite nothing. But almost nothing. Their makers world, she supposed. For the last orders of their creators and the defeat of those that had erased them. In truth, she hadn’t really lived long enough after that to have come fully to terms with it. Which made the fact she was now dealing with billions of humans, at least in the abstract, rather thoroughly overwhelming.
Honestly, as much as she knew that having 2B take her around, introducing her to humans that were ‘in the know’ or at least wouldn’t care what she was, made sense? She really sort of wished they’d just given her a sword and dropped her somewhere with a lot of monsters to kill. That would be way easier than trying not to fry her new body’s central processors working through just what being in a whole new reality, with plenty of humans everywhere, was going to mean for her personally.
She was, at least, fairly content with the idea of protecting them. Honestly, while she’d come to hate most of YoRHa for her betrayal by Command, she’d never once extended that hatred to humanity. She supposed she might have, without the built in reverence for them and belief that they were alive, but she’d had those things hardwired into her code until after she’d already learned they were gone. Meaning she’d leveled her hatred equally at the Machines and YoRHa, not at humans that had been long gone before she’d ever been assembled.
So, yeah, defaulting to ‘protect the humans’ seemed like a good place to start to her. She just wished that doing so wasn’t going to be so complicated. The two operator units, Operator 21O and Operator 60, were going to be the first introduced properly to other humans, rather than pretending they were human themselves. The two were going to be presented as ‘sisters’ of 2B that were intended to help with logistics control and overwatch guidance for elite teams. A2 herself, once she’d gone through all this familiarization nonsense with 2B to make sure she could interact with humans properly, would be similarly introduced as the sole ‘combat test unit.’
The humans here were leery of Artificial Intelligences. Rightfully so, as far as A2 was concerned, given that the Machines had been a runaway version of the same thing. But it meant that they were likely to be uncertain what to do with A2. She’d been warned that some of them would likely try to treat her like a lesser being. Which she was supposed to be, it had been really disorienting for her to have two humans firmly telling her that such wasn’t true. That she was just as sentient and just as important as they were.
She was still trying to process that.
Heck, she might not have made it off the Forge station without frying her CPUs without 2B transferring her a lot of data from her own time effectively growing up with humans. That data was a hell of a head trip, particularly given she still had most of 2B’s pre-transfer memories stored as well, and could compare the wildly different mindset that she had slowly grown into to who she had known 2B as. Of course, the fact that her humans, or 2B’s humans at least, were so amazing just made the idea that they were worth protecting more true. Even if there were also plenty of examples of bad humans in the provided data transfer.
Which was another weird thought.
Humans had always been held up as the perfect, honorable, creators. She’d known, intellectually and from bits and pieces of recovered human lore as she’d traveled alone for years, that some of that was propaganda. Yet being faced with a society of humans that, while mostly good, also had both Villains and corruption was more than a bit disorienting and disappointing. Thankfully, there was enough good among them, including these ‘Heroes’ that were so important in their world, that it hadn’t truly shattered her beliefs about humans. It had just…rearranged them a little. Made them seem more like androids, really.
Which, she supposed made sense. The humans had made them in their own image. Even if Yaoyorozu had winced and told her it probably would be better if she didn’t phrase things exactly that way. Something about an Earth religion that wouldn’t take it well? To be honest, religion wasn’t one of the things that androids had retained a lot of information about. Though the fact that separating the soul from the body had gone so very wrong for the humans of her reality might indicate that the they might have wanted to pay a bit more attention to such things.
Doubly so for androids, come to think of it, since 2B’s story about what could only be some sort of afterlife meant that they might have souls. Though, if she was still the same A2 that had died…she didn’t know. She wanted to say ‘yes,’ since there shouldn’t have been a backup of her at all. Meaning something, that entity that 2B had encountered most likely, must have somehow copied her data without a working uplink or a server hub to send the data to.
…
…
Okay, yeah, that was one existential crisis that she could safely put on hold. She needed to learn how to deal with humans better first. ‘Mama Inko’ had been an…interesting experience. Now, 2B was taking her to someplace called the Neo Ge Market? To meet some sort of sub-variants of humans? How many more could there be?! These ‘Quirk’ things already made them come in such weird shapes and sizes! Really, more strongly than ever, she was hoping someone would just give her a sword and tell her to kill something…
… … …
2B’s feelings, as she showed a very clearly bewildered A2 through the Neo Ge Market, introducing her ‘sister’ to Akira and Kiki and watching A2 panic a bit under Kiki’s energy, were mixed to say the least. Admittedly, she was taking a certain amount of quiet amusement out of watching the previously-rogue android get overwhelmed by the enthusiastic human girl who was playing dress-up with her. Yet, at the same time, she was being shown rather painfully starkly just how…broken…she herself had once been. How all of YoRHa had been.
It, thankfully, wasn’t nearly as apparent with the Operator Units as it was with A2. It had been good, if very strange, to hear Operator 6O’s voice again. It was only now that she’d experienced so much more as part of Izumi’s world, that she understood Operator 6O’s incredibly upbeat and personable everything had probably been all that had kept 2B sane in her original world. At the time, she’d never quite understood why she put up with the annoyingly extroverted Operator’s blatant disregard of the ‘emotions are forbidden’ rule. Now, with years of therapy and ‘growing up’ in a human environment, she understood that her past self had clung unconsciously to 6O’s friendly bothering of her as a lifeline. 6O had, routinely, called to chat with her between missions, even crying on 2B’s shoulder when another Operator turned her down for a date of all things.
It had been…normal.
A sort of normal 2B hadn’t even known or understood was normal. Even more critically, Operator 6O had known, as 2B’s handler, what 2B had done. About all the times she’d been forced to kill 9S. Yet she’d been friendly anyway. Had cared for 2B, done her best to connect to her, and never treated her as…well, as the murderer and assassin she had been. Through all the executions, through the resets of 9S, through all the close calls, Operator 6O had been her only consistent companion. One whose cheerful outlook on life had been a balm to the soul 2B hadn’t even been sure she had.
In retrospect, 6O’s loss to the logic virus had been more painful than any of 9S’s deaths, despite having had to kill 9S so horribly many times herself. That was…something she was going to have to unpack later, with Dr. Tsumaki’s help. Actually, she probably needed to try and get both Operators and especially A2, their own appointments with said therapist.
Their still-instinctive reflex to trust humans would probably help her sort them out more easily, even if it would mean they’d probably need to make some more explanations to the psychiatrist. It was probably a very good thing that they’d decided to just put the woman on retainer after the Invasion, the woman becoming the therapist for Kyoka, along with any of the R&D team members that had breakdowns under the pressure of trying to save the world through ‘Science!’. They might need to find their therapist a therapist of her own at this point, though. Even if the woman seemed remarkably stable, 2B wasn’t sure how much of that was an act at this point, given that the whole world was in crisis…
Regardless, amusement and sadness were only two of the many emotions 2B was awash with as she watched the befuddled A2 get dressed up in a various styles of ‘neo punk’ clothing. Fear was there, too. Fear that history would repeat itself. That by introducing the same tools her world’s humans had attempted to fight the enemy with, she was dooming this world’s humans too. The ache of old failures. Trepidation that she’d have to face some who truly knew her past, though Operator 6O’s reaction has soothed that at least a little. Pity, longing, resentment.
The ghosts of the past were bringing with them so many conflicted emotions now that they were no longer ghosts. Yet…determination, hope, and a sort of peace were all there too. It wasn’t all bad, not even remotely. She was determined to make her fears fail to manifest, hopeful that her sisters of YoRHa would be able to serve and save this humanity when they’d never had a true chance of saving theirs. Peace that those like Operator 6O, and even A2 who had so hated YoRHa for their betrayal of her, did not blame her for what had come to pass.
Pandora’s Box was open now, she supposed, and it only remained to be seen if hope was greater than any evil they might have unleashed in opening it…
… … …
Operator 6O was so excited! There were so many humans. Humans everywhere! Even ones that didn’t mind her asking about all the things humans did on Earth! She’d been afraid that, waking up in a Space Station again, she’d be stuck there! But nope! As soon as she’d asked, Izu and Momo had taken her straight down to meet Kiyomi! Momo’s mom was totally awesome! Sure, she’d seemed a little overwhelmed at first, but then she’d introduced 6O to heatpats!
Headpats were the best.
6O’s brain just shut off and basked in the sensation when she got headpats! And then Kiyomi would answer all the questions that she’d asked! It was the perfect system! Oh, oh, and 2B was here, and she’d done all sorts of interesting things! She’d even made sure 6O got to see actual flowers! It was so nice that 2B had remembered she’d been interested in what flowers were like!
Sure, there was a whole Invasion thing going on. But, really, that was just how things went, wasn’t it? Operator 6O was cheerfully running background processes helping streamline the hackjob of an information network 2B had made! Oh, it was passable, better than this age’s humans had managed on their own. But, well, trust a combat model to just brute force everything. 6O and 21O had already improved network traffic flow by 17 percent, and they weren’t even officially working yet!
Now, she just had to find out how human horoscopes worked! Oh, and maybe get a date! Wait, would it be wrong to date a human? That seemed like maybe it was too high a standard for her, but Kiyomi had said she was cute? She’d see what her horoscope said! Maybe it would have a hint if she should try and date a human or not? She could ask Kiyomi, too!
Ahhhhhhhh, this was sooo awesome! She was giving 2B all the headpats! Now that she knew what headpats were like, she knew 2B needed a bunch of them! The poor combat model had always been way too serious and stressed out! Even if she was better now, she was still all stoic and uptight. Hmmmm, maybe she could get 2B onto that dating thing. Yeah, that was it! Surely two androids dating a human would make it more equal, right?! Humans might be better and stuff, but she bet there would be some that would accept it if there were two androids to the one of them to make it more equal! Now, she just had to figure out how to get 2B to agree to it!
This was going to be sooooo awesome…
… … …
Operator 21O was, she had to admit, both impressed and overwhelmed. Unlike her flighty colleague who was already likely causing havoc for the humans with her airheadedness, 21O had chosen to stay on Forge 1 to build her understanding of this new world she’d found herself in. The Quick Start Archive that 2B had provided to bring new androids up to date had been surprisingly comprehensive, at least for something made by a combat model. But then, unlike her own erratic charge, 2B had always been remarkably competent at whatever she did.
That didn’t mean she’d done things the way that 21O would have, of course. Even just basic optimization of the brute force methods that had gone into this HSN network had already significantly lightened the strain that it was under. Admittedly, the network itself was quite well done on the hardware side, at least. Sure, it was archaic by her standards, but she’d compared it to what the humans were using and found that her colleague’s humans had done an excellent job in bridging what they’d already had and what YoRHa had been using. It wasn’t their fault that this whole dimensional travel thing had apparently placed them thousands of years behind the technology curve. Really, the humans and the oddly competent combat model had done pretty good with what they’d had to work with.
Of course, pretty good wasn’t nearly enough. Not when this was 21O’s second chance to save a version of humanity. This world still had plenty of them around, and they’d even gotten an upgrade so that some of them were more survivable than others. Now she just had to figure out the best way to optimize keeping them alive. Without, of course, falling afoul of trying to control them. Hmmmm, she had once been offered a position at the Lab, working on prototype YoRHa units. She’d only declined as she couldn’t bring herself to force anyone else to take up her role in watching 9S get his fool ass axed repeatedly for being too curious.
Yes, she could work that angle. The humans had done quite a good job with this Shieldmaiden mech that they’d made, given the time crunch they’d been under. But none of them, not even Ms. Midoriya and Ms. Yaoyorozu’s team, actually knew how to properly work with the materials they could now make at Forge 1. So she’d just open this design file here, set some parameters, and…
A nearby holoscreen flickered to life as the rough projection of a new mech titled the Prometheus began to take shape…
… … …
-Lemon Starts Here-
Izumi moaned as the rapid beating of Kyoka’s heart thrummed sonic vibrations through the specially made strapon that Momo was slowly fucking her with. Their punk lover was herself floating weightlessly, anchored to Izumi at the lips as they made out, moans slipping from her lips too as Momo ate her out. With Momo holding onto Izumi’s hips, using Float to anchor her in the Zero-G space of their deck on Forge 1, the trio made a floating triangle that would have been nearly impossible in proper gravity.
Momo, the only one of them who had leverage via her Quirk, was using Izumi’s body like a sex doll, pure muscle power pumping her pussy up and down the shaft of the vibrating toy that was pulsing inside both of them in time with their mutual lover’s heartbeat. Meanwhile, Kyoka herself was held in place by wrapping her legs around Momo’s face, the ravenette teasingly eating her out even as she womanhandled Izumi. The punkette has anchored again to Izumi by wrapping her arms around Izumi’s shoulders as they made out.
Sex in Zero-G was turning out to be a fun experiment. Though Izumi had already promised herself she’d find a way to maneuver better so she could take charge of their next attempt. Perhaps some sort of tentacle rig she could control with her technopathy? A problem for when her mind wasn’t hazed over with pleasant pleasure. As it was, she was content to let Momo set the pace this time, her first lover slowly picking up speed as her self-control started failing under the onslaught of her own pleasure.
Kyoka whimpered, even as Momo started more harshly thrusting into Izumi. Despite her usual ability to split her attention, Momo tended to start hyper-focusing when she got close. Despite her own distraction as Momo pounded her, Izumi helped the punkette out by finding her pierced nipples and tugging firmly, replacing the pleasure lost from Momo’s distraction with a new source. The abrupt new form of stimulation was enough that Kyoka was the first to lose it, lips pulling away from Izumi’s and arms tightening around her as she came, hard.
The wild, erratic heartbeat that Kyoka’s orgasm sent pulsing through the double-ended strapon kicked Momo off next, and the extra harsh thrust of the toy that hammered at Izumi’s womb, hitting extra deep, set Izumi off right after her. All three of them howled their ecstasy to the otherwise empty deck, before releasing each other subconsciously and starting to float apart. There was a particularly lewd noise as the strapon slid out of Izumi, causing all three of them to mentally reboot a bit. Izumi, once she regained her wits, grinned as she started figuring out how to use the fact she was drifting toward a wall to her advantage. She’d need to angle it just right to push off and capture Kyoka, who was still connected to Momo by her jacks in turn.
“Well, that was a nice round one! Now, lets see what other fun we can have with this experiment!”
Getting her feet under her, she pushed off, aimed for Kyoka. Those jacks of hers were going to be key to the next round. They were more than strong enough to act as bondage cord, after all, and that would keep her and Momo anchored together nicely for Izumi to have her wicked way with…
-Lemon Ends Here-
… … …
“So, what do you two think of our new friends?”
Gravity had been turned back on some time ago, even if it was only the .57 gravity that the new grav plates could create. That was more than enough to keep them all snugly down on their shared bed, created in their private section of Forge 1 by Momo. Their experimenting earlier with the various ways to have sex in Zero-G had been a much needed pressure release after working on their secret project and doing the first set of missions for the construction of Refinery 1. Said secret project had taken up what were supposed to have been their previous set of mandatory rest days, leaving them to push through the next week with all of the stress piling up. Otherwise, people would have wanted to know just what they’d been ‘wasting time’ on.
That said, it hadn’t been too bad. Particularly as Operator 6O and Operator 21O had already offered a few suggestions to ease construction of Refinery 1, despite not even officially being assigned jobs just yet. Operator 21O, in particular, had been a boon there, as she’d apparently had engineering cross-training of some sort. Likely, it had to be said, because she’d been overwatch for a particularly troublesome scanner unit that kept doing crazy things that referenced that skill set. Even Izumi didn’t know all that much about 9S, it having been too touchy a subject for 2B for the vast majority of their time together. But what she did know painted him as almost suicidally stubborn and possessed of both the best and worst luck ever.
“6O is a riot and seems to be good for 2B somehow, not sure about 21O. A2 is…something?”
The comment had come in dry tones from Kyoka, the last bit causing Izumi to snort.
“A2’s a lot like 2B was, when she was a lot younger. I’m not too worried about her, other than the possibility that the changes might overwhelm her.”
Momo nodded at that, having met 2B young enough that she’d still been a little like A2. Though by the time she’d met Izumi and 2B, Inko had done a lot to level 2B out. She spoke up next with her own observation.
“We chose those three for a good reason. 2B had the most contact with them out of nearly anyone in YoRHa, and expected them to be the least troublesome. Well, in some ways at least. 6O is obviously her own unique flavor of handful. Honestly, my own largest concern was that 21O would want to bring back 9S. Which…”
Momo trailed off, but she didn’t really need to finish what she was saying. All of them, even 2B, had agreed that doing so was just a flat-out horrible idea. Frankly, none of the YoRHa Scanner units were actually all that useful. They’d been intended for hacking and intelligence gathering against Machines. Given that nothing on their Earth had good enough cyberwarfare suites to keep even 2B out, who hadn’t been particularly skilled as a hacker by YoRHa standards, the primary use of the Scanner models was pretty much irrelevant.
That wasn’t the reason no one was willing to bring him back, though.
Thankfully, not even 21O, who had admitted that, despite having admired him, she wasn’t unaware of his flaws.
No, it was because 9S always, without exception, turned into an unstable psycho. The very first version of him was the one that had created the backdoor into the Bunker that eventually destroyed it, all because he was furious that he’d been lied to about humanity’s survival. His reaction to finding that out had been so extreme, attempting to destroy the Lab station and kill all of YoRHa, that 2E’s existence had been determined needed in the first place. The very last version of him hadn’t been any different, going psycho immediately on realizing he’d been lied to and attempting to destroy everyone and everything. Frankly, he was just flat out too fundamentally unstable to bring back. Not with the amount of damage he could do to humanity if something set him off.
“How do you think everyone else is going to react to them?”
That question, voiced by Izumi, was the real problem. Because, even as she asked it, she knew that none of them could really predict the answer. Momo, tone weary but firm, shut down the line of discussion again.
“What will be, will be. We’ll do our best to introduce them at the right time and in a positive light. With all the other good will we’ve earned, if this first small group is as successful as we hope, we can bring more of them back. Frankly, I think the major pushback is going to be from our refusal to give them AI shackles.”
Izumi sighed, knowing Momo was right. If they’d left them with the need to serve mankind, it was likely that the military would sign on shortly after they proved effective. It was something that all three of them had discussed and determined unanimously to be unethical, however. 2B was, without question, alive and fully sentient. Putting shackles on the YoRHa androids would be a form of slavery. No if, ands, or buts about it. Which was a line they wouldn’t cross for any reason, not even survival. Kyoka, surprisingly, had a slightly more upbeat perspective.
“Oh, come on guys. There are laws protecting sentient Quirks, right? That’s already most of the way to artificial intelligence, and it’s not like they are self-replicating. We literally don’t know how to make more of them than we already have data for.”
That was…sort of true. Effectively true, at least. They could technically seed more than one of every model based off the backups, but that had been considered a terrible idea even by YoRHa, who had been unethical as heck themselves. Suffice it to say, they wouldn’t be doing that.
“True. Well, as Momo says, what will be will be. Besides, I’m pretty sure Operator 6O is going to end up being the crush of every NEET fanboy on the planet the first time she opens her mouth and cheerfully identifies herself as an android. The internet will probably demand she be protected.”
Momo and Kyoka both snorted in surprise at Izumi’s comment, then Kyoka broke down into giggles. When they both looked at her, lips quirked into smiles at seeing her laughter but clearly not quite sure why she was giggling so hard at the idea, Kyoka managed to explain between fits of laughter.
“I-I just r-rember-ed tha-t old meme! W-warning, S-afety Fir-st! Do Not Fist Android Girls!”
There was an instant as they processed that, then both of her lovers joined Kyoka in fits of half-hysterical laughter. YoRHa androids were anatomically correct, after all…
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A/N 1: Lots of setup for integrating the new characters here, really. Along with a small lemon to break it up. Next update will see a return to some action to break up the monotony of the worldbuilding bits a bit more...
A/N 2: It's that time again! Once per set of chapters released, I remind everyone that I have a Page. Note that NONE of my fanfiction works are paywalled permanently. If you don't feel like supporting me, that's just fine, it will end up here eventually :-). If you DO feel like supporting me, however, there are Early Access chapters over on . Currently chapters 140-145 of My Hero Automata are in Early Access, adding another 15,000ish words to the fic! Likewise, there are similar amounts of early access content for most of my other fics at any one time. All for just a single dollar a month! I'm not trying to be super greedy here, just trying to support the writing time I need to maintain several ongoing fics ;-).