The massive limo pulled up to the little house, and the window rolled down. B-ko looked out the window at the shell of the house, and muscles in her jaw clenched. Over the last few days the house had been stripped of almost everything by people looking for souvenirs of where Superman and his family had lived. The driver kept the engine running as B-ko got out of the car and walked over to the front of the house. 'Where are they?' she found herself thinking, then, 'Where is she?' A soft chirp startled B-ko, and she pushed her sleeve up to look at her bracelet. She touched a few switches gently, and frowned. A holographic view screen was projected, and she studied the readings for a moment. "Interesting, very interesting," she murmured. "Could that be some kind of teleportation residue?" she asked herself quietly. "We're going home," B-ko said to the driver smoothly, climbing back into the Limo's back seat even as she began to consider the problem. Less than one hour later and she had finished designing the apparatus she thought she'd be needing. About two hours later, it was finally built and all ready for the smoke test. "Smoke test?" her robotic maid D-ko asked. One evening B-ko had gotten tired of talking to herself while working, so she had built it to talk with, and to assist her in her work. B-ko smiled at the blonde robot dressed in a maid's costume and holding a tray of tools for her. "Smoke test is an old engineering term," B- ko explained to her, "you turn the machine on and see if smoke comes out." The robot nodded, visibly filing the information away in her memory. "Are you sure this is a good idea?" D-ko asked her. "I mean, you don't even know if A-ko went along willingly or was kidnapped by unknown parties." B-ko grinned evily. "Come on," she waved, leading D-ko towards as blank wall. She pressed a stone, and the wall slid aside revealing a concealed room. "This is what I'm going to wear when I go after her," B-ko gestured to a newly built armor. The silvery suit looked far more formidable than any of B-ko's previous suits, a form hugging silver sheath. The boots and gloves were still the central weapons, but a backpack had been added to the design as well. Instead of the flexible clear plastics B-ko had used, a metallic alloy covered the majority of the suit. "Wow," D-ko said softly. "It's at least a full generation beyond anything I've built before," B-ko smiled, adding more quietly "I just hope it's enough." They walked back to the main room where the teleporter B-ko had built was. B-ko flipped a few switches before declaring, "Power on!" "No smoke," D-ko noted with a smile. B-ko smiled back at her. "Now on to test two," B-ko smiled. She picked up a watermelon she had thought to bring in, and with a marker drew a happy face on it. "Good-bye, Mr. Melon," she said to it cheerfully as she sat it on the pad, then hit the activation switch. The watermelon disappeared in a burst of light. "Did it work?' D-ko asked. B-ko checked her readings, "Transit appears to have been successful." She looked seriously over at D-ko, "Help me with my armor." The mesh bodysuit came on first, clinging to B-ko's body. The central body portion attached first, then B-ko slipped the gloves and boots on. D- ko lifted the back pack and nestled it on B-ko's back, then B-ko pulled her helmet on. She touched a switch on the inside with the mask with her chin, and a charge ran through the different components, bonding the entire suit together. "Shouldn't you send me through first?" D-ko asked her quietly as they readied B-ko for the trip. "I mean, at least that way you'll know it's safe," the blonde said. B-ko looked at her in surprise. 'I didn't program her for that kind of concern,' she thought. 'Is she evolving beyond what I made her to be?' she wondered. Aloud, she answered, "The suit should protect me. It can even sustain me for periods of time in space." D-ko sighed softly, "All right." She walked over to stand behind the control panel and checked the readings, "Ready to go, here." B-ko ran a final check on her armor, then walked over to stand on the pad of the teleporter. "Activate," she said with a nod to D-ko. The android hit the switches, and the world dissolved around B-ko. The world came back into focus for B-ko once again, and she found herself standing in a small chamber. It was obviously technologically advanced, and her suit's sensors detected a massive energy source nearby. "Cloak, on," B-ko whispered, activating her suit's new sensor cloak. No scanners would pick up her presence now, at least in theory. This was the first time she had tried it, however. She found a door and activated it, making her way out into a long hallway. Something lay on the ground by the door, and B-ko's eyes widened in alarm. Carefully, B-ko picked up the ragged scraps of cloth, recognizing it as what was left of A-ko's school uniform. 'She was here,' she thought, 'but is she still here now?' A-ko normally didn't take to captivity very well at all, so B-ko would have thought the place would be a wreck in short order. But there were no signs of a struggle. B-ko set her sensors to pick up A-ko's bio-signature, and got a lock shortly. "Flight mode," B-ko ordered softly, and jetted down the hall towards the signal. She took the turns quickly, soaring along, and finally emerged into a large room to find... A-ko sitting comfortably in front of a bank of monitor screens where, B-ko noted with some irritation, her progress had been seen every step of the way. 'Looks like it's back to the drawing board on the cloak,' she thought. "Hey, B-ko," A-ko smiled at her, "I was expecting you to get here days ago." A-ko got out of her seat and B-ko blinked at the odd clothes her red haired friend was wearing. A blue T-shirt and pants, red boots, and a familiar looking stylized red 'S' symbol on her chest. "Is that what I think it is?" B-ko found herself asking. "A compromise on the Supergirl outfit that my dad wanted me to wear," A-ko explained cheerfully, her arm bands catching the light. She walked over to where B-ko was standing, and quietly said, "It's good to see a friendly face, B-ko." "Why didn't you call me?" B-ko exclaimed, "I though you were in trouble, too!" A-ko just grinned at her, "I didn't call because I knew you were smart enough to be able to follow me up here." "Up here?" B-ko echoed. "We're on the moon," A-ko started to explain. B-ko got it in only seconds. "We're up in the JLA base, the Watchtower," she said in hushed, almost reverent tones as she looked around. She frowned suddenly, "But what are you doing up here in that outfit?" "Because my Dad and Mom want me to take up the family business while they're out looking for C-ko," A-ko sighed, a large sweatdrop appearing on the side of her head. She looked around, "Could you help me get this place back on-line? I could really use the help." B-ko's eyes glittered as she considered the challenge, "Difficult, but I could do it. I'll have to bring D-ko up to help, though." "D-ko?" A-ko echoed in surprise. "Oh," she said, "I forgot to introduce you to the other person up here. Oracle?" A hologram of a red haired young woman in a wheel chair appeared. "Hmm, is she the new Steel you were talking about?" Oracle asked A-ko. "What?!" B-ko exclaimed.
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