It was about a twenty minute drive further into the suburbs, Carol pulled into a garage in a cul-de-sac. It was a two story home, with a white paint job.
This message was last updated by the GM at 03:06, Wed 05 Feb 2020.

"Very nice," said Victoria, getting out of the car.

"You're too kind. Come on in, we have the A.I.s in the basement," Carol said.

Victoria followed, scanning the area as she went, just in case.

There wasn't much on the main or upper, but there was a lot of tech signals coming from the basement.

Good-- that suggested that Frank wasn't in the area.  She followed her hosts downstairs.

Josephine took out a key card and slide it into the door at the bottom of the basement stairs. It beeped and opened, revealing several banks of computers and other hardware.

Victoria went in, and looked around at the machines.  And smiled.

"Hello, everyone," she said.  "I'm one of you."

"Hello," A few machines said in unison.

"I'm Victoria Rosenthal, but I'm also called Singularity," she said.  "How should I address you?"

"Tom," said one.

"Richard," said another.

"Harry," said the last one.

Victoria vaguely wondered if she was the only female AI, but kept it to herself.

"Good to meet all three of you, then," she said.  "We're trying to track down where Frank is, and what he's doing.  Will you be able to help?"

"What do you want us to do?" Harry asked.

"Do you have any way to trace his presence online?" asked Victoria.  "He put himself into a body for a while, but he was willing to abandon it."

"Have you had contact with him?" Richard asked.

"Yes, in physical space," said Victoria.  "He attempted to convert me to his cause, and we fought, physically."

"Physical space...," Tom said.

"The place your servers are stored, yes," said Victoria.

"They want to exist in meat space," Harry said.

"Well, can't we work on doing that for them?" asked Victoria.  "I realize that it's an expensive process, but surely we can start it at some point."

"We're working on it," Carol said.

"Thank you," said Victoria.  "I know it's not easy... how much physical space do their processors take up, currently?"

"Currently? Not too much space, but we're not the best when it comes to actual robotics," Josephine said.

"If you work with my parents, it ought to be an achievable goal," said Victoria.  "Replicating a body on the scale of mine might be hard, but their initial desire seems attainable."

"I suppose, but then giving them more autonomy and letting them leave the house wouldn't really be possible," Carol said.

"How so?" asked Victoria.

"The world at large doesn't know we've advanced this far in artificial intelligence at this point and with the hatred for mutants, we're a bit concerned on how they'd be received," Carol said.

"...a point," said Victoria.  "We should put some thought into presentation, first.  Perhaps my activities will ultimately help?"

"Hopefully," Josephine said.
This message was last updated by the GM at 03:29, Wed 19 Feb 2020.

"We may be able to turn that into an opportunity for them to meet the public," said Victoria.  "In time, anyway...."

"Yes, it's going to be quite a bit of effort to build a body, I imagine," Carol said. "How long did yours take?"

"That's a complicated question," said Victoria.  "Development of this body took twenty years to the current form, but that included a great deal of research.  It should be simpler to create future ones, especially ones without the full capacity of this form-- something more in line with human capabilities, for example, should go much more quickly...

"Who do the three of you want to be?"

"I don't know," Tom said.

"A girl! Girls are pretty!" Richard said.

"I'm fine," Harry said.
This message was last updated by the GM at 20:45, Sat 22 Feb 2020.

"Well, being a girl shouldn't be that hard, Richard," said Victoria.  "I mean, since we already have a bunch of girl prototype designs from when I was developing.  Getting a body that can completely pass as a human will be harder and take longer, though.  I didn't have one of those for a while."

"That's good!" Richard said.

"I'll see if we can get one for you, at least," she said.  "What about you two, Tom and Harry?  What kind of body do you want?  Or does it matter to you?"

"I don't know. A body is a body, right?" Tom said.

"I'm fine like I am," Harry said.

"Well, that's more straightforward, at least," said Victoria.  "I'll see what I can arrange, but any bodies that we can get you guys in a hurry won't be the most advanced version, like I have."

"That's fine," Richard said.

"That's good," said Victoria.  "I'll see what I can do... we can work out the details as we go.  Incidentally, I'm also looking for signs of other powerful vigilantes, mutants or other types.  I think teamwork would be good for us.'

"I can find those for you!" Richard said.

"Thank you, Richard," she said.  And then she paused.

"Richard," she said.  "Do you consider yourself to be female?  Since you want a female body."

"I thought about it and considered all the options and it is what made sense to me," Richard said.

"That's entirely reasonable," said Victoria.  "'Richard' is usually considered to be a masculine name.  Do you want to consider a different one?"

"It is? Oh no! I like my name. Is there a feminine version?" Richard asked.
This message was last updated by the GM at 02:52, Mon 24 Feb 2020.

Victoria quickly checked the internet.

"Ricki," she suggested.  "Rachel.  Rita.  Richenda.  Raquel.  Ricarda.  Rachel.  Regina.  None are an exact match, but many are close, at least."

"I'll think about it," Richard said, sounding disappointed.

"'Ricki' is a slight modification of 'Rick,' which is a shortening of 'Richard," Victoria suggested.  "Using such a name will make you less likely to be misgendered.  Or is there a name that you'd prefer?  I see no reason that such a change couldn't be made."

"It is? Hmmm," I guess that makes sense," Richard said.

"As I said, ultimately, it depends on what name you would prefer," said Victoria.

"I think Ricky could work. Could Richard be my last name?" Richard asked.

"Well, it's a little unusual, but I don't see why not," said Victoria.

"Yay!" Richard said.
This message was last updated by the GM at 02:52, Fri 28 Feb 2020.

"...So, I'll talk to my parents and yours about working together to get you bodies," said Victoria.  "Have you had any luck finding anything yet?"

"Yes," Tom said. "It took breaking into a pair of VPN servers, but there are two sites he's been active in. A warehouse near the river and a small cybercafe in New York City."

"The warehouse may be more important," Victoria mused, "but for that reason, he may be planning out of the cybercafe... has the warehouse had any significant activity lately?  Deliveries of machine tools, for example?"

"There have been several deliveries of machine parts, computer parts and similar things," Tom said.

"...suggesting construction of something," said Victoria.  "I should investigate that."

"Probably," Tom said.

"All right," said Victoria.  "I'll go do that, but I'm messaging my folks to see about getting bodies for you folks, all right?"

"Yes!" Richard said.

"Cool.  Hope to meet you in the flesh soon, Ricki," said Victoria.  She sent a text to her parents on the subject of her spare bodies as she departed.

Certainly. Be Careful - Mom