As you racked your brain for a solution to your predicament, you went over everything you knew and came to a series of conclusions that should help formulate a plan. First off, your sixteen altered bodies were now type-2 copies, meaning they would last for up to three months. So, you needed a way top either keep them secret or make them seem normal to the rest of the world. Secondly, unless they were upgraded to type-1 permanent copies, you had to keep them close to you or risk losing connection with them. Who knew what would happen if you strayed to far from them? If you did upgrade again, you'd have to stay in proximity for about 12 hours. Additionally, while your parents are usually pretty relaxed and trust you, there was no question that bringing home a nine-headed hermaphrodite (let alone 16) wouldn't fly. At best, you could make up some excuse to let you stay out for a night or two, and it would be totally fine. Plus, it's a Friday night, so you wouldn't have to go to any classes tomorrow.
As you organized this info in your head, it seemed like the course of action mostly likely to succeed would be to call home saying you would be staying out tonight, then try using that time to perform the final upgrade and establish long range telepathic links with your bodies. In some respects, it was probably rash to try making something like this permanent, but it seemed like your best chance at keeping the whole thing secret for the immediate future. With resolve, you picked up your phone and dialed home. After a few rings, your mom answered the call.
"Hey honey," she said after picking up.
"Oh hey Mom," you started. "Say, I know this is kinda last minute, but after class I ended up hanging out at a friend's place and lost track of time. We wanted to keep going a while longer, and they offered to let me stay overnight. Any problem if I stay out tonight?"
"Sure thing, honey," she replied, "just be safe, and thanks for letting me know. Hope you have a fun time!"
"Alright, thanks Mom. I love you, bye!"
With that, you waited for her reply, then hung up. "Great, so far so good," you thought to yourself. With that out of the way, you had a few more things to take care of:
- lift the restrictions on your bodies so you could upgrade them again
- find a suitable place to sleep
- secure food
- meet back up with your girlfriend
The lab was pretty large, so you wouldn't be surprised if there were some living quarters somewhere inside. While you had little hope of finding any food that wasn't hopelessly past expiration, you did wonder if there might be an crazy inventions that could solve that problem. And if that failed, you did have your wallet and credit card, so ordering delivery was a valid option. You also hadn't heard from your girlfriend yet, so you assumed she was still busy with whatever her urgent business was.
You decided to...