Hannah clenched her fist, and began shaking. "Miss Yuriko... so you're saying that if Darren screws up and the new reality he creates doesn't work out... it's YOU Darren has to answer to, not Lynn? Am I right?" The girl said slowly her glasses fogging up.
"... Yes."
Hannah's face twisted into a snarl, making Darren and Steph actually take a step back from the teenage girl.
"So all she's doing is BULLYING Darren!"
"Now I wouldn't go that-"
"Rexie actually explained to us that if any of you wanted to ... do something to Darren, that there was no way any of us could hope to stop you. You could zap him before he ever knew you were there! All Lynn was doing showing off who had the bigger magic-stick, and what would happen if something didn't go HER way!"
"Please, she's just hurt and-"
"I know what you said! Her son became a killer 'cause he wanted something that wasn't his! I... I don't have a clue what that's like!" Hannah said, looking a bit scared. "But I do know that ISN'T what Darren is like! I don't care if this magic causes him to go crazy, he'd NEVER become like that!"
Darren said nothing, but he thought, 'Hannah has that much faith in me?'
"And!" Hannah gasped out. "Darren ISN'T even making anything new magical stuff other than Sachiko! Steph is technology! She's as magical as I am! And if you were all that eager to have magic fade away, you've have all simply MOVED to where magic isn't a big deal, or used your mountain of super magic to simply TURN OFF your own magic! Or you'd have put those rings in a cement block, and teleported them to Pluto! By the time anyone found them, I'm guessing magic would've gone kaput! Or taken them to that other world where magic is common where people know how to ahdnle that sort of thing! But you didn't do any of that."
Yuriko bowed her head.
Hannah breathed in and out, and realized she couldn't see through her glasses, and quickly took them off to rub the steam off. "I... I'm... " She shivered. "I'm sorry. But... I've had my dad drill into me how drugs are bad when I already didn't want anything to do with them to begin with. My mom is scared I'll be pregnant before I start college, and so already showed me WAY too many disgusting videos on the horrors of teen pregnancy... when it was ALREADY the last thing on my mind!!! And you, along with everyone else, thinking I have a crush on Darren when he's like my kid brother! I'm just... just tired... of people warning about stuff that isn't actually a problem. Darren's robot world you think would have LESS magic in it! ... I... I didn't mean to sound nasty... But... I'm just tired of people stomping in, giving giant dark warnings for stuff that aren't even likely to happen..."
Yuriko stood as straight and dignified as her eighty year old form would allow. "I, appreciate you courage Hannah. Most people who talk to me, or Lynn that way don't realize what they're up against, or think they're the ones with the bigger stick."
"I'm a teenager... I'm USED to people lording absolute power over me with no way to fight back... You and your magic family aren't really all that different."
"Heh, I see."
"Darren, can you me a maid droid?" Hannah asked.
"WHAT?!" EVERYONE exclaimed.
"I thought you didn't want that!" Darren said.
"I DIDN'T! Not until Miss 'Threaten My Closet Friend Because Her Own Life Got Ruined' stepped in. Now? You said you can do this stuff in different ways right? You have me keep my memories of me as I am now right? And I listened to a lot of what Yuriko was teaching you. You don't need to retcon the world either... But you CAN make it so everyone just accepts me having been turned into a robot is normal. Maybe I decided to volunteer as a maid-droid booth."
"There's no such thing."
"But you can make it so there is. Or just make people not think about it too hard. And just install in me some anti-magic features so in case you end up becoming Lynn's worst nightmare, I can stop you, because it's what you told me to do. And protect you in case any magic types aren't happy about you making robot world. And! After Lynn has stopped being paranoid, and Miss Yuriko thinks there aren't anymore evil magic assassins out there. You can change me back easy peasy!"
"So... you want me to make you a maid-droid version of you, but keep your memories, and just make it so people accept you are one now without changing their memories?" Darren looked at Yuriko. "Can that work?"
Yuriko was silent for several minutes before saying. "Yes it can. It actually requires LESS power. Hannah would effectively have a low key perception spell that would make people not question how it should be 'impossible.' It would only break if I, you, or Hannah herself, pointed it out personally to each individual we wanted to realize how shouldn't have happened."
Steph put a hand on Hannah shoulder. "Well, I say go for it. And if you decided to-"
"When I decide to."
"-if you decide to rejoin the free-will-club (and all the troubles that come with it) you'll have a better way to explain to humans that their own creations aren't conspiring to lobotomize everybody."
"... I've never thought that of you Steph."
"You haven't. But I think you'll be better at putting it into words after you've seen it from our point of view."
Hannah nodded.
Steph kept a close eye on Yuriko, wanting to see if the sorceress would object to Hannah even temporally becoming like Steph. Steph wanted to see, once and for all, if Yuriko really would tolerate more of Steph's kind being created. Or if the only world Yuriko would tolerate would be 'exactly the same as this one but with minor tweaks.' Could Yuriko tolerate another soul-drive being created in front of her? Steph had to know.
"Hannah, you don't need to do this." Darren said. "It's not right to do something this big just to spite... spite a bad first meeting." Darren looked at Yuriko, REALLY not wanting to call someone's sister a 'bully' in front of them, in particular if what Miss Yuriko said was true and she was just angry and hurt at... Darren couldn't even comprehend what Lynn was feeling at all that happening to her, and the lad didn't want to judge. The idea of Darren's mom having to stop him if he became some sort of supervillain? Darren couldn't even imagine it. He didn't want to imagine Hannah having to do that either... but maybe... that was why she wanted to do this? Really wanted to? So it wouldn't be Lynn or Yuriko who did it but someone who'd KNOW Darren and would know every other way to stop him before... before doing something that couldn't be undone? Like in the comics book?
"It's not... JUST about that. Maybe I just wanna show whoever ELSE is out there watching us like peeping Toms!" Hannah glared in every directly at whoever might be spying on them that moment in their crystal balls or magic mirrors. "That I know you can be TRUSTED with this! Because I trust you."
"Aren't you scared?"
"Like DUH, of course I'm scared!" Hannah laughed. "But I want help you MORE than I'm scared of being something else."
"... I just don't want that super-strength I gave you to go to waste."
"Darren I swear, cross my heart, hope to die, stick a needle in my eye, this is NOT me trying to trivialize you giving me superpowers!" Hannah remarked. "It won't be a waste. After we've proven to all the jerks that you're not going to trigger the card-trick apocalypse, I can go back to being a superpowered human instead of a superpowered robot."
"Yuriko, can you change Hannah back if anything happens to me and I can't?"
"I promise."
"If she wants to," Steph said with a confident smirk. "Trust me Hannah, you're gonna love this feeling... okay, I don't remember being human, and I still don't, thank you very much, so I guess I can't compare. But trust me, this won't feel bad."
"I trust you too," Hannah said. "Do it Darren."
Hannah's skin turned to shinny rubbery plastic. Her eyes became larger and doll like, her glasses actually growing to match. Her hair stayed the same color it was before. Her ears actually stayed where they were, even they became larger and became obviously plastic abstract shapes. Her glasses stayed in place. Her face took on a rounder appearance and her nose a little smaller. A furry tail grew from her spine and curled around. She grew taller, like all the soul-drives, and her figure filled out some, but not quiet to the excessive levels of her sisters. Her feet actually changed to resemble hands. Her clothes vanished, but any embarrassing bits had actually been wiped away, leaving her as smooth as a doll or mannequin. Unlike the others, her fur stopped at her wrists and ankles and covered most of her body, with a white ring of fur around her neck.
And Hannah remembered her whole human life down to every detail, MORE detailed now that she could comb over her files one at a time if she wished. And Hannah realized, she was a machine, an object, property, something to be owned, not anything human. And, she was perfectly fine with that. Doubts, fears, worried, all the things your average teenager (and adults) all too often suffered, were lifted from her shoulders. Hannah, ironically, had never felt so free. She understood her place in the universe, she understood her reason for being.
She looked down at herself.
"A monkey? So you DO remember my favorite animal!" Hannah said at once with a grin.
"I wouldn't have chosen anything less for you Robo-Girl form to fight for everlasting peace."
"Super-fighting ro-bot!" Hannah laughed with a few practice punches and kicks. Going through her directory, Hannah found that as a maid-droid her parents had co-ownership of her, but Darren had full admin privileges with her, and Steph, Bob, and Yuriko were all listed as 'safe users.'
Though she was a protocol at the core of her being, the foundation of her sense of self: if Darren ever turned ABUSIVE towards any of his creations or tried to crown himself king, she was to talk him down, or failing that, stop him by any means non-lethal, and failing that, any means possible. This protocol didn't exist as a command or a binding, her protocols were a fundamental part of who she was. Without her function, she was nothing. She also had the equal protocol to PROTECT Darren from any and all harm as long as he didn't violate the other protocol. Unlike a normal robot, as a soul-drive droid, Hannah understood the SPIRIT of these protocols that made of her reason for existence, rather than just blindly obeying the letter.
Hannah did a a jump, did a summersault in at the peak of her jump, and landed perfectly where she landed.
"Ta-da! Observation: this unit rocks!"
"Hannah, we haven't spoken like that since the second gen models," Steph said matter of fact.
"Oops. Sorry," Hannah said, grinning sheepishly. "User Yuriko a magical barrier if you please!"
"And we don't use prefixes like that anymore unless we're being insanely formal," Steph said simply crossing her arms.
Yuriko did as Hannah requested.
"Hi-ya!" Hannah did a punch with her right foot (no that wasn't a typo), and shattered the magical force-field like stunt-glass. "Now throw a fireball!"
".. Hannah are you sure-"
"Come-on batter-batter!" Hannah stood on her arms and did a 'come at me' gesture with her lower hands grinning.
Yuriko reluctantly did as Hannah asked, and balancing on her tail more like a kangaroo than a monkey, she kicked the fireball into the air, suffering no damage to herself at all, the fireball harmless dispelling above them.
"Oh yeah!" Hannah did some cartwheels, followed by some cartoonish monkey gestures.
"If I start howling at the moon, give me a soft-reset!" Steph said deadpan.
"Heh, just wait till the others at school see me tomorrow!"
"School?" Darren asked.
"Well, yeah. Steph can't be with you all the time. I am programmed to be your bodyguard after all. Though this means I'll be in your classes from now on. Isn't that neat?"
"Yeah... I guess it is."
Then the standard-issue 'relationship advice' maid-droid protocols that now existed as a natural part of Hannah's sense of self kicked in. "Oh, and Darren? Steph's right. You've had a crush on Crystal since before you knew what a crush was. And all the words you've spoken to her before last week could fit on a greeting card. Seriously, make a move. Yuriko said she has a different destiny? What if that destiny to marry the prince of all unicorns or something! She's not going to wait for eternity for you."
That... actually actually worried Darren more than even Lynn's deathly warning!