Note: Powell, Donovan, and Calvin are all character names borrowed from I Robot, by Isaac AsimovA great book, please pick it upI don't own the three laws of robotics, Isaac Asimov thought of themAnd SH22 doesn't belong to me. But Langer, Patel, Morris do.

Also, thanks to my faithful readersBack after FOREVER I've finally tried writing another chapterI hope that this is worth the wait!

It had seemed like it had taken forever, but they knew where they had to go. Watson allowed Langer to control the modified police hovercraft. Robotic prosthesis did not diminish the desire or drive for justice that seemed imprinted in her. Likewise, Watson's circuits hummed with the identical need to see a crime solved and the perpetrators punished.

Her shapely body was clad once again in a New Scotland Yard investigator's uniform. However, it was modified to accommodate her prosthesis. An ionizer pistol was slung around one leg, her badge gleaming with the reflected light of the console.

"The very thought that my kind could be programmed without any ethics, is extraordinary," Watson mused.

"I know. It would take a complete rewiring of a unit's brain, ne taka li," Langer agreed. "But I've heard rumors it was done. Remember the old industrial types before AI?"

"Ah yes the Baley resolution of 2135," Watson brightened up. "A resolution to establish the need for mandatory ethical programming and encoding in all service oriented droids and units. To countermand THAT is illegal… is it not?"

"For all government issued droids yes and any in jobs that require service directly with people you mean, Watson," Langer interrupted. "But every side has its dark secret. Industrial robots do not need such protocols. Especially if they're considered drones under the remote control of a central computer."

"Diabolical, but sadly true, my dear," Watson sighed, his system automatically.

"Doctor Morrison fought against that loophole. So did many of my mentors at robotics school, and the engineering program. Ehhh, Industrialists don't LIKE the government poking their nose where they don't' want it stuck," Langer pulled a face. Her nose wrinkled not with whimsicality but with anger that reflected in her dark eyes.

"By Jove, could that be why she vanished? It seems so simple and yet we've overlooked it," Watson exclaimed.

"But Morrison's only one scientist who had such views, schatze," Langer reminded him. "They can't go round snuffing out everyone who doesn't see eye to eye with em. I mean call them robot lovers, but not make 'em disappear."

"Or can they?" Watson frowned. "Whoever programmed the droids that did this unfortunate and ghastly deed didn't think much of regulations. And I have a horrible feeling that is what they wanted all along."

"You don't suppose this… Association could MAKE people disappear do you Watson?" Langer shuddered. "Brrr the thought of it… makes me sick…"

Seeing his companion squirm along with the trill of her high-pitched noise of her disgust, Watson felt his circuit's flair with something that his memory banks would only reference as disgust. Ever since digesting and inculcating the diaries of his namesake, he drew connections with his own circuitry responses to sensory inputs. Along with references to human behavior. He could not quantify all the reasons why he had such surges only call them emotions as if he were human himself. Most AI units of the highest end specification called for more sophisticated emotional response, but police droids only modulated their voices.

"It's such high handed barbarism associated with constructs like them that reflects very poorly on droids and others of my ilk," Watson announced grimly. "Someone's trying to force people to mistrust us. That's what all of the case sums up to. The promotion of rabid prejudice against droids…"

"And all of them employed in places where people are sore about losing jobs?" Langer completed his sentence. "Morrison was a 'robot lover', and she disappeared…"

"Would you not fall under the same category yourself, my dear?" Watson pointed out. He loathed voicing his revelation, but all the puzzle pieces seemed to fall into place.

"You mean to say that whoever was behind Morrison's vanishing act caused this," nodded Langer soberly, struggling to keep her brown eyes forward with the help of the guidance computer.

"Now you know why I so strongly insisted upon you remaining behind, my dear. I cannot abide the thought of you coming to further harm, but the emotional damage it might inflict upon you to leave you behind… and the fact that you can override my cautionary programming…"

"But droids can change the codes if they think it takes that length… I mean you're fitted with an ionizer, not anything truly damaging. However, those things were armed to kill. Security machines must also have fallen through the cracks. That damn central computer… but each has a separate AI component," Langer frowned.

"Causing a conflict of circuitry… for ones with my programming of ethics, but not for those who never had it in the first place," Watson half growled. "Of all the black hearted motivations… and all of them were supplied by Powell's robotics."

"Why is why we've got to find Morrison and stop them from doing this to any other robots… and finding out who engineered these little accidents? Something tells me she can help…"

"This Association would profit greatly backing a move to get around such laws," Watson reasoned, tapping his chin. "It must be them. And that's why Holmes is knocking on those doors all this time."

"He already knows, doesn't he?" Langer half chuckled. "And Lestrade's in the dark, as we are, eh?"

"It's how he always is, the old boy. One step ahead, bless him," Watson laughed. "But are you quite certain you wish to go on in this?"

"You betcha," Langer added grimly, engaging the brakes. With a hiss of compressed air, the craft glided to a stop, hovering over the section of pavement just outside Powell's Robotics Inc.

First to hit the ground were Watson's feet, which strode around to help Langer drop down with a hand clasping her prosthetic one. The surface of the hand was covered in a yardie glove, but the contact of sensory panels beneath was a unique touch. Langer seemed most at home with her new limbs by now, thanks to the careful work they had both done. Cloak swirling around his metallic body, Watson strode beside his female companion, both with ionizers at the ready. Eyes and optic sensors were attenuated to any minute change in the area.

A small smudge like a charred burn had melted part of the paver nearby the yellow parking lines. Only the flickering lights of overhead illuminators bathed them in a fluorescent glow. It gave Langer's white uniform a slightly purple tint, her dark hair in a mass of tight curls just brushing the base of her folded down collar.

Green light shimmered on the back of Watson's right hand, checking for thermal prints. To his surprise, he saw a similar glow illuminate Langer's graceful features as she peered into readout on her forearm.

"You're not the only one with an upgrade," Langer smirked cutely. "I twisted some arms for this arm's features. DNA scanner, thermo finders, the works."

"Most kind of them. And fortunate for us both," Watson agreed, enjoying the fact that they were indeed one-step closer to that strange kinship.

A whirring noise caused Watson to whirl about, ionizer poised. Langer felt odd vibrations through the souls of her feet, and a sensor trilled in her left ear. She blinked, feeling a tingling through her prosthetic arm and leg exoframes. Like Watson and other droids, the robotic limbs were equipped with motion sensors, and the small earpiece allowed her a slight boost in sensory optics and audics.

"Behind you!" Watson shouted. Motion carried him forwards, but Langer reacted by dropping and rolling to one side. A split second later and a green beam sizzled an inch wide cut in the paver.

"Not this time!" Langer vowed. Both of them jerked their gazes to two hover units, similar to those that had attacked before.

"It's not responding to override, just like before!"

"Powel's handiwork! Ach, this proves it! Now he's ours!" Langer laughed. A quick blast from an ionizer scrambled the circuits of the first while Watson's took care of the second.

"We've been expected," Watson said, feeling relief as Langer stood up unharmed on her legs again. That robotic response had saved her very much the same fate as before, and her attractive face turned up in a warm smile.

"So let's say hello, then," she giggled, light gleaming off the curve of her prosthetics. It echoed that same shimmer on Watson's extended arm protruding from beneath his cloak.