A Thief's Silver Medal (OC fic) (Patreon)

Alright folks, today's a special day - it's the day I'm posting up the first patreon commission I've gotten! The commissioner asked for an original fantasy setting and a future tech villain. I ended up writing a hell of a lot more than I thought I would with it.

Hope you enjoy:

(Contains drone conversion)

The Hotel De Glitz. If you could stand the gaudy name, it was one of the highest class establishments outside of the noble ward – which made it popular with all the young rich teens with a rebellious streak. Just far enough outside the well patrolled wealthy districts to be deemed ‘dangerous’, just close enough to be comfortable. The illusion of independence and defiance.

Rasha Alvera found it cute, if childish. She could certainly sympathize with the desire to remove one’s self from their parent’s control – she’d done the same at their age. She’d just done it properly, and left no room for any kind of return on her part, while they tended to slink home come sundown. Her folks hadn’t been rich though, so maybe she’d had it easy on that part.

And it was also the last place the good Lady Eliza had been sighted before her disappearance. Of course everyone had been quick to assume that the girl had been waylaid on the route home – some naredowell in an alleyway, or a wizard with a carriage and a sleeping spell lying in wait. Not impossible theories – there’d been three cases of the later option in the last year alone – but they didn’t bear up to investigation. Rasha knew these streets. She knew the people on them. And not a one had seen hide nor hair of the young noble.

And so Rasha had begun to wonder if, perhaps, the good Lady had never left the hotel at all. The reward money for leads on the missing noble was nothing to sneeze at, after all, and the quest was open to anyone with an adventurers license.

And thus she found herself here, taking advantage of the last quiet moment she expected to have tonight, sitting on the hotel roof looking out over the city. Once she crossed the threshold by slipping in through the unguarded and poorly warded window over there she’d be breaking in, and sitting still for any length of time after that would be asking to be clapped in irons. Up here, though… Well, if anyone even noticed her, she’d honestly be kind of impressed. Normal people didn’t notice rogues like her when they didn’t want to be noticed.

She checked her tools briefly, the act of well trained habit. Lockpicks, mufflers, wardstones, dispellers, everything was in order. Her club was showing its age, but it wasn’t due replacement just yet. All well and good, then. Next she pulled out a picture from her pocket – a wizard’s flash capture of the good Miss Eliza herself, smiling and full of sunshine. The blonde was cute, and her warm nature shone even through the still image in Rasha’s hands. This was the woman she had to find.

They were young, she noticed. The picture had apparently been taken recently, so save for some drastic change she’d be easily recognizable if and when she was found. The file the thief had gotten with the quest described her as a happy, trusting person, which might well explain how she’d come to be kidnapped in the first place. All good things to know – you could never be sure what scrap of information would lead you to your target in a quest like this. With any luck, she’d have the rich idiot back home before sunrise.

She spent a second more memorizing the photo once again, before sliding it away and getting to her feet, carefully balancing herself on rain-wet roof tiles that offered precious little purchase and all too much slip. With nimble grace she practically danced her way over to the window. It was time to start searching.

-

It was a disappointing hunt. There wasn’t a trace of the noble. Rasha had found her way, quietly, into the hotel records, located Lady Eliza’s room, and snuck her way inside. Then she’d snuck into the neighbor's rooms. And then she’d searched the entire damn floor. Nothing. Not a scrap. Not even a forgotten toothbrush! It seemed that the cleaning staff had been thorough. Good for them, but bad for a rogue seeking a lead.

Grumbling, she picked through the records she’d pilfered from the reception again. Eliza had stayed two days, with and amongst a small crowd of other nobles her age. Bills for the pool, bills for the mini bar, bills for the real bar… Hold on a sec.

She blinked, and read through the charges again. Eliza was, if anything, a creature of habit. She knew what she liked, no matter what the price tag attached to it was – or so Rasha assumed, based on her list of orders. The same set of meals and drinks, over and over. Except…

Except here, at the end. The last item on her last bill at the bar. It was something new. A drink the thief had never heard of before – an ‘Assimilator’, whatever one of those was. It didn’t necessarily mean anything, but it was worth investigating, wasn’t it?

That was what led Rasha to the hatch, buried in the back of the bar’s storage room, hidden by a few carefully placed crates. If she hadn’t been such an experienced rogue, her eyes sharp and always searching for things like scratches on the floor and walls, she probably never would have found it. But she did – a heavy looking metal thing with a single ring to lift or lower it. It actually looked like it had only been installed recently, too…

How suspicious. But not enough to go back to the guild with, not yet. She needed to investigate a little further first. With any luck, Eliza wasn’t far – the money for a lead on her location was good, the money for bringing her back safe and sound was amazing.

So the thief glanced left, glanced right, and then grabbed the ring and pulled. She’d expected it to take all of her strength to lift, but it came up surprisingly easily. And not because it was light, either – she could feel the weight behind this thing, it was solid metal – but there was some kind of system that assisted her. Maybe magic? But strange, her wardstone wasn’t detecting any magic here…

An odd mystery, but ultimately not an important one. She could work it out later. For now, she had a tunnel to explore. Putting one hand on the lip of the hole, she dropped down through the floor, and into the shadows.

-

What was this strange metal complex? There was more down here than she’d expected. Rasha had figured the trapdoor down led to, well, a tunnel, maybe a hidden cellar, a stockroom or something? Somewhere she’d find some thuggish ransom plot cooked up by a few unruly hotel employees, along with her missing princess. But instead…

There was practically a dungeon down here.

And not even the kind of dungeon she was used to, made of stone and dirt, or hollowed out crypts or the like. No, this was… corridors of polished steel lit by strange glowing rods that her wardstone continued to refuse to register as magic, and odd junctions filled with pipes and steam. Gleaming metal doors that slid open as soon as she approached, nearly frightening the life out of her multiple times. And the odd, odd sounds of distant thrumming, metal on metal and whistles…

What was this place?

She felt the hairs on the back of her neck stand on end, and in an instant she was pressed up against the ceiling, squeezed into the shadows of a series of pipes that ran along above the walkway, her hands and knees pressed out tight against the walls to keep her up. Any rogue worth her salt knew where the nearest shadow to hide in was, and Rasha figured herself to be worth several shipments of the stuff.

Her instincts served her well. A moment later a thunderous drumbeat of footsteps announced the arrival of a line of silver suited beauties, emerging in single file from one end of the hall and marching down to the other, directly beneath the concealed adventurer. She stared, eyes wide – she’d seen minions before, of course. Usually monsters or undead, but not uncommonly bandits or mercenaries or people of other sorts. But these women – and they were all women – were something else.

What were they wearing, for starters? Were it not for the silver coloration, the thief would have taken them all as naked! Their ‘suits’ were so skin tight she could literally see the outline of their nipples through them. They were practically going around naked! Well, aside from the odd metal bands which they wore on their heads, of course. What strange garb…

She held her breath, certain she was about to be discovered, but she needn’t have worried. Not a single one of the women looked up as they passed underneath her – all of them staring blankly ahead, their stiff, mechanical limbs swinging in lockstep.

Who were these people? Rasha suppressed a shudder. Something about their blank, uniform nature creeped her the hell out. And there were so many! It was like a small army had sprung up under the city. Not unheard of, of course, but never good news all the same.

This was clearly above her pay-grade. She had to get out of here and alert the guild, the guard, the authorities, or pretty much anyone who would listen. Thee was no way a place like this was officially sanctioned, and maybe there would be a reward for uncovering it. That was probably the best result she could hope to salvage from all of this – this quest had quickly turned into a disaster. Sorry, Eliza, she couldn’t wait around to- Wait.

The rogue paused in her fretting, doing a double take of the woman marching right beneath her. That was…. That was Eliza Val herself, Lady Eliza clear as day! Same blonde hair, same medium height, same charming face… Though this one was a lot blanker than the one she had in the picture in her pocket.

Maybe… Maybe there was a better result for her here. Maybe she could have her cake and eat it too. She could tell the city of a major threat brewing beneath it – and this was definitely a threat, no one built a dungeon under a hotel because they were bored – and she could get the reward for rescuing Eliza. Sure, she seemed… odd, at the moment. Probably because she was being held against her will. But if she got her out… Hoo, she could retire on that kind of money.

She wouldn’t, but she could. That was important.

But was it worth the risk?

Rasha didn’t hesitate long. She hadn’t become an adventurer to run away from excitement. There was a big payday here – and she was going to collect. As the last of the silver women passed underneath her, the rogue started to creep along the ceiling – she’d find where they were going, then plan out how to rescues the noble from there.

What could go wrong?

-

Surprisingly, not much. Rasha prided herself on her ability to stalk targets with them none the wiser, but these ladies didn’t even make it challenging. Nothing seemed to distract them from their march. Not one of them ever turned, or so much as looked back. Honestly, the thief was pretty sure she could have strolled up behind them and they would have been none the wiser. But she wasn’t about to try it.

She didn’t need to, anyway. After a few minutes the line hit a junction and split up, and each of the women went their own separate directions. Rasha, sensing an opportunity, hastened to follow Eliza through a door – and found herself in a strange room filled with odd looking contraptions that hissed, steamed, and flickered with blue blinking lights. There were tables of the things, spread out around the room, with even more lights and odd screens glowing on the metal walls. It reminded the rogue of the few times she’d visited a wizard’s lab…

But before she could examine that thought in a little more detail, she heard something new approaching – a voice. Panicking, she ducked under a desk, hoping it would hide her… Just as a pair of non-silver, and in fact slipper wearing feet emerged from the door across the room, the voice coming with them.

“-Marvelously. Even I never dreamed they’d take to it so quickly.” The voice was female. Taking a chance, Rasha poked her head up for a moment, and sighted a blonde woman in an odd white jacket with her back to her. She seemed to be talking to… herself? Or to something she was holding in her hands. She certainly wasn’t talking to the pair of silver women around her, who continued to stare blankly at nothing, never reacting to even a word.

“When I started, my goal was just resources, but now I’m starting to think that I set my sights way, way too low. The, the technology, the abilities the orb has entrusted to me are… I’m capable of so much more than just stealing a few chemicals. So much… I mean…”

The thief frowned. This sounded… ominous. Who was this woman talking to? No, she wasn’t talking to anyone – she wasn’t pausing for anyone to respond. It sounded like she was dictating, but her wardstone didn’t detect any scribe spells – ugh, it hadn’t detected anything since she’d gotten here. Maybe it was broken.

“No… No, I tell a lie. I’m already aiming higher. I already have a… a… Oh, I don’t want to call it a lair, that makes me sound like cheap adventurer fodder. A base, yes, a base in the city. It feels strange to be back, honestly, after how unpleasant my expulsion was, but that’s in the past now – and once I’m in charge, so is the magus guild. We’ll see who’s ‘low potential’ then, hahahaha!”

Oh yes. Ominous was definitely the word. Rasha licked her lips nervously, and then reached for a notebook. This woman was practically spelling out her backstory for some reason, and she wasn’t going to pass up the opportunity to record it – the guild would pay extra for this kind of info, she was certain.

“… I’ve been laughing a lot more recently. I think it’s a positive step for my mental development. It indicates I’m steadily overcoming my flirtation with depression, possibly due to continuing to complete life affirming goals and reinforcing my self-esteem. That said I do continue to worry that I’m falling into stereotypical so called ‘villainous’ behavior, so I’ll try to limit myself to only doing it in private.”

… Yeah. Yeeeah, this woman was an overlord in the making, no mistake there. Nipping this in the bud was a really good idea.

“At any rate… Hm, progress, progress…” Rasha’s ears perked up. Information on what this woman was up to? Yep, that would be worth something. “My new base is setting up nicely. The construction nanites didn’t have to do much, honestly – most of this area was already layers of basement and sewer tunnels. Carving the structure out only took a few days, and now look at it! I’ve got a five story lab here, minimum, set up right under the heart of the city! The perfect spot to conduct my… um. Operations.”

“Though…” The blonde sighed, pulling up a seat and swinging her legs up onto a desk. “I’m not having much luck there. The next phase of the… Well, I suppose you could call it the plan, the next phase of the plan depends on the drones. And they’re… Well, they’re the drones.”

Drones? What was she talking about? Sounded like some kind of monster thing. Like goblins or imps, maybe?

“People are already noticing… Which would be fine if I could get the programming right, but I’ve run into a wall. They just can’t act like… Well, anything other than a drone. Which is great, they’re great, but… Y’know.”
No. No she didn’t. Please explain in more detail.

But the woman didn’t seem ready to oblige. “I know the orb has an answer to this, but I can’t find it. There’s so much… knowledge in there, it’s hard to know where to look.” The orb again. She’d mentioned that before, hadn’t she? Some kind of power source, perhaps, or a magical tome. It sounded important, at least. Maybe Rasha could steal it. “I feel like it’s testing me. Like it’s not going to give me the answer until I find it on my own. Prove myself worthy of it. And I will! I will…”

“… Still. Until I can program the drones to act like their former selves…” The thief’s blood ran cold. Oh. “… Then there’s not much I can do. The hotel staff upstairs have been obliging, at least – it helps that I can just make gold to give to people now.” What?! “But I’ll definitely have to deal with them before too long. It all comes down to the drone issue. If I can just sort it, I’ll have the perfect agents to infiltrate… everywhere. But how. Hm. Maybe the problem isn’t the programming – maybe I need to upgrade the hardware… Oh, that might work. Hm. Hmmm…”

Rasha swallowed. It sounded like this woman was getting lost in thought. Would she be distracted? Her ‘guards’ didn’t seem that attentive. Could she… take her down? Solo? It seemed like an insane idea, but she had a chance, and it didn’t sound like this villain in the making really knew what she was d-

“That’s it!” A yell interrupted the thief’s thought process as the blonde leapt to her feet. “That could… Oh, I’ll need to check my notes! Ohhh, this could work… Ah, right, yes! This is Adelaide Medi, signing off! End journal entry.”

There was a click, and Rasha watched helplessly as the blonde’s slippered feet dashed out of the room. Opportunity lost.

Still. At least she had a name now. Adelaide, huh? She’d remember that.

Sliding her notebook away, the thief got ready to dash. She had more than enough now. It was time to get out while the going was good – her instincts were starting to scream at her again, and she was very, very sure she needed to get out of here soon, or else…

Well, or else she wasn’t sure what, but getting trapped in a dungeon was never a good thing. The exit wasn’t far away, and she knew the route. She just had to get to her feet, slide out the door, and sneak her way to the exit. The only question was if the ‘drones’ would try to stop her…

Then she blinked. Wait. Looking around, counting the feet – most of the drones in here had left after Adelaide. There was only one left, and it was looking the other way. Taking a risk, the thief poked her head up for a moment, and stared. Blonde hair… That was Eliza!

… If she could get her out as well, then… Jackpot!

It wasn’t a good idea. Rasha knew it wasn’t a good idea. But she was right there – the opportunity was just too good to pass up! She just had to grab the woman – and it wasn’t like she was doing anything. Whatever spell Adalade had her under could probably be deactivated with her dispeller, and if not, she’d just have to knock the woman out and carry her out over her shoulder. Not especially dignified, and maybe not the easiest escape she’d ever had, but she was more than capable of doing it.
What could go wrong?

-

Rasha felt the world swim back into focus as she wrestled herself free of sleep’s claws with a pained groan – only to find, to her horror, that the claws that bound her legs and arms were all too real, and made of much stronger stuff than dreams.

“Wha- no!” She struggled anyway, pulling against her metal restraints. She was being held in some kind of alcove, forced to stand with her limbs locked to her sides. Metal bands were wrapped around her waist, her chest, her wrists, her ankles – basically denying her any form of movement. She was well and truly trapped.

“Ah, so you finally woke up!” A familiar voice sent chills down the rogue’s spine. “Looks like EL1 hit you pretty hard. I was thinking I’d have to leave you to the drones to sort out. But I’m glad you’re awake! It’s much more personal this way.”

“… Glad to oblige,” the thief grumbled, giving her restraints one last tug. The last thing she remembered was creeping up behind Eliza with her dispeller. After that was… just a painful blur. Judging from her current surroundings, it hadn’t gone well. Rogues like her prided themselves on the ability to worm their way free of any jail cell, but this was something next level. For something like this she’d normally default to trying to charm the guards, but…

“So, do I get a name for the charming thief who’s broken into my la- my base and tried to ruin all my plans?” The blonde in the white jacket sauntered closer, and now that Rasha could see her face she could see she had brown eyes and wore black-rimmed eyeglasses of a make the rogue didn’t recognise. She was clearly confident in her control of the situation. Indeed, normally Rasha would have used such an opportunity to put a dagger in the villain’s heart, or at least slip the key  to her cell out of her pocket. But unfortunately on this occasion the villain’s confidence was well placed.

“Rasha,” she said, seeing no reason to lie. “And you’re Adelaide.”

Adelaide blinked. “Oh. You know me?”

Rasha tried to shrug. It turned into a sort of neck twitch. “Heard you doing your journal thing.”

“Oh.”

There was a moment of confused silence. Eventually, the pressure became too much for the thief. “I’m fully guild registered and investigating on official business, you know.” She gave her captor a tight smile. “They’re going to come looking for me, and the longer you try to hold me the worse it’s going to be for you. So let’s just get this done with quickly – I assume you’re familiar with the guild’s policies on ransoms?”

“Ransom?” The blonde’s look of confusion wasn’t going away. In fact it was just getting worse. “I can’t say that I am, no.”

“Our rates are quite reasonable,” Rasha started into the well-rehearsed sales pitch, even if her stomach was sinking. It this woman hadn’t even heard of the guild’s offer for safe return of its membership then she had other plans for her captive. “With bonuses offered for speedy release, and deductions for poor health or treatment on the part of the adventurer. As a member of good standing, the reward you’d receive for returning me would be quite substantial, no strings attached.”

Admittedly this offer was really for the more established villains who either didn’t mind the idea of losing a lair because they had many others, or they felt strong enough to withstand the adventurer’s guild knowing their location… But it was still worth a shot!

“Ah. Interesting! Yes, I’m afraid I don’t really do business with the adventurer’s guild very often. This, ah, may be the very first time, actually! So…” The blond paused, and then shook her head. “Well, I have something different in mind, anyway.”

Crap.

“You’re turning down a lot of money…” Rasha tried not to let her nerves show. “With a package like that any villain could easily-“

“I am not a villain!” Adelaide snapped. “I am a scientist! A visionary!”

“R-right, yeah…” The rogue shrank back, or would have if she could. If only she had a hand free…

The blonde blinked and shook her head. “Sorry,” she said, smiling nervously. “I don’t get out very often, and most people I talk to are… keen, keen to misunderstandings. But I assure you, whatever you may think of this setup, I am no villain! I’ve no desire to do anyone any harm, or burn the world, or whatever it is that those evil fools do out in the wilderness. I’m just trying to advance our society scientifically!”

“Does scientifically mean by kidnapping people?” … Oops. Rasha’s mouth had started speaking without any input from her brain.

“Y-yes, well, society keeps being resistant.” The ‘scientist’ glared, her cheeks red. “The problem is all the magic users! Do you have any idea how much influence the mage guild wields? And how much profit comes from their domination of the utilities market? The first time I tried to put a non-magical kettle up for sale they threw me in jail for fraud! What am I supposed to do against that?”

Rasha raised an eyebrow. “A non-magic kettle? Seriously?”

“See?!” Adelaide threw her arms up. “This is exactly what I’m talking about. I am trying to help people who refuse to admit they need helping! I despair, I really do.” She turned, picking something up from a nearby table. “But I don’t give up.”

It was a strange metal ring, connected to a wide glass band half way around, slightly wider than a melon in circumference. Rasha frowned as she recognized it – that was the same sort of device that she’d seen on many of the women around here, Lady Eliza included. “What is that thing anyway?”

“Oh, there’s no point in explaining the particulars. This stuff is advanced even for me – though I have some ideas about… No, never mind.” Adelaide shook her head. “Suffice to say it’s very good at getting people to help me – and the help of an experienced thief would be very good to have right now.”

Rasha’s eyes widened. “W-wait…”

“No, no.” The scientist shook her head with a rueful sigh. “I’ve already wasted enough time talking to you. I really should have left you to the drones, but… Well, it’s been a while since I last got to talk to anyone, you know?”

“Uh…”The thief redoubled her struggles, hoping to get at least a little progress. Unfortunately, doubling zero still got you zero.

“No, let’s get you prepared. First…” Adelaide grinned and reached up next to Rasha’s head. The thief gasped and tried to lean away, but the blonde wasn’t aiming for her. Instead, her finger pressed against something the captive couldn’t see – a button of some kind? There was a click, and then the alcove began to buzz, vibrations running through Rasha’s body.

“W-w-whhhaattt arrre yooooouuuuu d-d-dooooinnnng?” She managed to ask through chattering teeth. It felt like this thing was trying to shake her apart!

“Oh, don’t worry,” the blond scientist called, raising her voice over the din. “It’s just my sonic operated defabricator! It’ll quiet down in-“ The noise stopped. “-A seco-oh.”

There was a loud ‘ping’ sound, one so high-pitched that it almost hurt Rasha’s ears. She felt the alcove shudder, another vibration passing through her – and then she felt a strange release of tension on her skin. Immediately she tried to slip free of her restraints, of course, but it was still no good. Instead, all she was rewarded with was her clothing somehow sliding off of her, as though it had been turned from cloth to water. To her horror, leather, fabric, metal, all of it dropped away, leaving her completely naked, aside from her restraints.

“What the hell?!?” She yelped, struggling to move more than ever. “What did you just do?!”

“I used my defabricator!” Adelaide explained with proud, manic glee. “No magic involved, it just uses precise sound-waves to break any clothing down to its base components! It’s, ah, range still needs to be calibrated properly…” She looked at her white sleeves, which had unraveled down to the bottom of her wrists. “But all in all I’d call it a success! I mean I could have had the drones strip you while you were unconscious, but… Well, I’ve been needing a good test subject for this for a while and you do have a very nice… form…” Almost absently, her raised wrist drifted closer, her hand reaching out towards a now exposed chest.

“Hey!” Rasha snarled, bucking so hard the alcove itself shook. Though that may have just been it settling from the sound-waves.

Either way, the hand retreated, Adelaide looking rather shocked. “Well you do! But… clearly you feel otherwise. Still, that sets us up nicely for part 2.”

The thief frowned, her brow wrinkling with suspicion. “Part-?”

She was cut off as the alcove began to buzz again, this time accompanied by a strangely liquid ‘glug’ sound every few seconds. Suddenly Rasha’s naked skin felt cold, patches of chill spreading across her back and sides as some strange wet substance began to drip down her, emerging from small holes around her binds.

She couldn’t help but shiver. “W-what are you doing to me now? Giving me a shower?”

Adelaide just chuckled. “No need for that. The nanite bath you just had will have cleaned you up just fine. No, what you’re feeling now is the sensation of your new uniform bonding to your skin~”

“What?” This conversation was starting to feel incredibly repetitive to Rasha, but she couldn’t help but gasp as she felt the strange liquid pouring down the insides of her thighs. It felt weird – sticky any smooth at the same time, like she was being coated in honey and milk.

“Oh, don’t worry, I can remove it if I want to. I mean, it’s fifty times stronger than the best armor on the market, light as air, and an amazing insulator, an all-around protection – that still allows you to feel through it like it was your bare skin… But, you know, it’s not necessarily permanent. But why take it off? My nanosuits are far better than clothing!”

With a sinking feeling, the thief realized what she was talking about as she felt the liquid seep over and cover her belly, the last untouched part of her below the neck. “You mean like what your ‘drones’ are wearing?”

“Adelaide smiled and nodded, pleased that her conversation partner was keeping up. “Exactly! Here, I’ll show you.”

She pulled a small black square device out of her coat pocket and pointed it at the far wall. There was a whirling sound, and then the wall spun around, as through it were a carousel, and on the other side was a full-length mirror. Normally Rasha might have appreciated the extended view of the room that it offered, allowing her to see more of her surroundings despite not being able to move her head – but right now she couldn’t help but be distracted by her own ever building horror as she realized that, aside from her wide eyed expression and lack of a headpiece, she now looked exactly like all the stiff, blank faced women patrolling Adelaide’s metal complex.

And Adelaide was holding the missing headpiece in her hands.

The blonde seemed to sense that the time for talking had ended, despite her awful social skills. “Well, um.” She coughed. “This has been fun. You’re a lot smarter than most of the women I get down here. And you scream less. It’s a shame we only met now, you know, when you were breaking into my base and stealing my stuff.” She gave her captive a comforting smile as she raised the headpiece. “Don’t worry, once I get this right, I’ll restore your personality first. I mean, you know, loyal and devoted to me, obviously, but yeah.”

Rasha tried to lean her head away again, even though it was pointless. “I should warn you,” she said as quickly as she could, watching the incoming metal band with dread, “that attempted mental tampering will incur a ransom penalty – and that I’ve been trained to resist all forms of mind manipulation!”

The touch of cool metal settled on her temples. Transparent glass hung before her eyes. A finger pressed against her lips.

“You’ve been trained to resist magical manipulation.” Adelaide said, in the same tone of voice as one might use while speaking with a child. “I don’t do magic. Goodbye for now, Rasha.”

Then the blonde pointed her black box at her, and flipped a switch.

The thief felt a buzz in her temples and steeled herself as the glass in front of her somehow lit up, images flashing before her eyes at an incredible speed and with a blinding array of colors. Instinctively she tried to close her eyes, but a strange tingling feeling in her brows halted the motion each time. Bursts of sound, crashing like lightning bolts, filled her ears. She could feel something happening, a strange kind of energy gathering in her mind, and focused herself on resisting it.

“Sorry for the discomfort.” She heard Adelaide’s voice over the din, though it sounded so very far away. “It’s just stimulating your senses to get a proper neural map of your brain. In a second it will-“

There was a sudden pressure, like a flipping of a switch, or the snuffing of a candle’s flame, and Rasha Alvera’s consciousness winked out.

The thief’s head went completely silent. The lights ceased. The noise quieted. Her thoughts vanished. Gently, her expression slid into the same blank stare as the rest of Adelaide’s drones.

“-finish and you’ll- Oh!” Adelaide blinks, and then smiled as she saw the change. “There we go. Didn’t I tell you not to worry? All done now.”

The rogue, obviously, didn’t respond. In fairness the blonde only waited a few moments before remembering and giggling at her own mistake. “Oh right. Right. Let’s just get the rest of your programming done, shall we?”

She pointed the black box again and clicked. The visor lit up, and the speakers began to play once more. Information poured into the new drone’s head. Programs and routines, identifiers and protocols. In the few seconds that her headset was active she learned a stacked bookshelf’s worth of info for her new position.

Adelaide coughed, stepped back, and straightened herself out. “Alright… Drone!” She put as much command into her voice as she could, and released a breath of tense air from her lungs as she saw the drone’s eyes focus on her – without moving a muscle in any other way. “Identify Adelaide Medi. Designate as Prime Mistress. Confirm vocally when complete.”

The image of the small blonde woman in a white, scruffy lab coat imprinted itself on the drone’s mind – her owner and commander. “Adelaide Medi, designated as Prime Mistress. Operation complete.”

Her voice was dull and lifeless, and it send shivers down the scientist’s spine.

“Good. Ah- okay, what shall we…“ She pulled a notebook out of her pockets and flipped through it, scribbling on the last page hastily. “Right, I’ll go with… Drone, self designate: Unity R.A.5. Confirm.”

“Confirmed. Unit now register as Unit R.A.5.”

“Hm. Good good. Right. RA5! Access memory database and tell me – did you tell anyone else you were coming here?”

There was a brief pause as the drone searched the memories of her previous life. “Negative, Mistress. This unit was investigating alone, and did not want to share the reward money for her quest with anyone else.”

Adelaide sighed in relief. “Phew. Perfect. Well that’s a weight off my mind. Okay, so… Oh! Ah, continue to access memory databases – how did you find me down here? Better fix that…”

Again, the drone paused for a moment – and then her mouth began to move, speaking at a rapid pace to explain in detail what had led Rasha Alvera to the metal lair beneath the Hotel De Glitz, and her final fate as an unthinking silver drone.

Adelaide stared. “They seriously… Really? They billed for that? Gods, I need to put a stop to that right away. Thank you.”

The drone stared blankly at her.

“Oh. Right.” She sighed, and then paused. A thought occurred to her, and slowly it turned over in her head. “Uh. So…” She stopped, and looked up at the drone. A click of her remote released all restraints on the woman, and now the silver woman stood proudly before her, not a hint of shame at her revealing suit, or indeed a hint of mind at anything at all. The scientist wet her lips. She remembered the fire she’d seen in Rasha when she’d tried to touch her body – and she saw none of it in her newest drone.

Hesitantly, almost tenderly, she reached up and laid a hand on RA5’s breast. The drone didn’t even blink.

Adelaide smiled.

“R.A.5. confirm vocally – did you receive the sexual positions package with the rest of your programming?”

This time the drone didn’t even need to check. “Affirmative.”

“… Wonderful. Hm. Sorting out the staff upstairs can wait a few hours…” The blonde stepped up to the drone and slid an arm around her back, a bold hand sliding down to stroke her behind. “Let’s make sure the finer points of your programming took, shall we?”

“…”

“… And I’ll have to put something together for flirting later. Come with me now, drone. My bedroom is this way~”

The scientist, feeling bolder than ever before, guided her newest servant along, one hand on her behind, and grinned, a blush in her cheeks, as she thought about the future.

Marching stiffly beside her, R.A.5, the former Rasha Alvera, thought nothing at all.