Well, the game is over, and I lost my first (and probably only) game of football. Desirae can only chuckle to herself, as she never thought she would ever say those words. But, here she is: standing on an artificial turf field in a "too revealing" football uniform, moving as a well programmed robot like the rest of her "teammates", and being cheered on by a crowd of crime-lord friends. It is like some kinda crazy movie, Desirae thinks to herself, except that this is real.

As the other team celebrates, she finds herself being moved to an empty part of the field. She notices the other members of the Green Lightning are doing the same. Once she is in place, she makes a pose with her hands on her hips, her one leg bent slightly and pushed forward, her head turned slightly to one side, and a really big smile on her face. Once that pose is set, she freezes in that position. What is going on now? she wonders.

Lauren has been high-fived and hugged by every team member of the Blue Diamonds. Handing the ball off to the android referee, she begins to move to a designated location on the field. Once there, she finds herself being posed by her programming like every other football player. Once in position, she freezes in place. Ok, Lauren thinks, something is up and I don't just mean the way I feel now.

The stands are emptied, as each person comes onto the field for pictures. They stand and pose with their favorite player. The teams stand frozen with a permanent smile on their faces. Desirae and Lauren notice that there is plenty of groping, touching, and pinching that they could do without. However, there is literally nothing they can do about it. Each android keeps their pose no matter what, as the photo session goes on for many minutes. Eventually, Baron Customs comes down and does the same. He is much more reserved and still put together (he probably has not drank as much beer as the rest, Lauren reasons). He makes sure to talk to several people before disappearing.

Desirae and Lauren can see him leave, but they can do nothing about it. Once he is gone, they start moving towards the garage with all their teammates. They walk slowly now, as the fans still mill about. As they enter the garage, Lauren and Desirae would gasp (if they could), when they see two techs hovering over what looks like Lauren's body. How am I there, if I am here? Lauren thinks in confusion. Desirae fears the worst with, oh no, is she okay? She's not moving.

As the teams line up for cleaning and servicing, the two techs continue to work on Lauren's body. They are trying to 'snap' her head back into place. "Man, this is weird," the younger tech says, "It is like the ball socket is broken, but they are like indestructable." The older tech nods his agreement and adds, "Yeah, if she were a real person, it would make more sense. Guess we better call in a service, since it is not ours."

The younger tech keeps fiddling with her neck, hoping to fix it. The older tech taps his phone to make the call to their service agency. Before he can even put the phone up to his face, the man on the other side says, "Tech for Tech Services, Sam speaking. Do you have two bots that need servicing?"
The older tech pauses longer than normal and then replies, "Uh, no, we just have the one, but it is a rental so we need it fixed today."
"No problem, we guarantee she will be up and running once we get there." The older guy seems a little confused still, but then asks, "So when could you be at the Customs Courtyard? I need to know so I can buzz you through..."
"We are at the gate now," Sam replies quickly, "So, buzz away!"
Already here? The older tech is very suspicious now. Hmmm, something does not feel right.

Evidently, the younger tech picked up enough of the conversation to cause him to be concerned as well. He texted security to be on watch. As it turns out, Customs' security had been watching the Tech for Tech van all day, as it has been sitting outside the gate on the side of the road all day. The Customs Courtyard is on a dead end road, so there is no way you would just happen to come down this road by mistake. Security at the Courtyard is tight, and this van had been red flagged for various reasons. A legitimate business would have called the police long ago; however, an illegitimate businessman wants to keep things quiet, and more importantly, figure out who they are and what they want.

"When you get through the gate, you will need..." The older tech cannot finish before Sam says, "Yep, around the left to the garage...got it!" Now the younger tech is all over the situation. He has turned on the most secure firewall setting while closing all communication from the outside, effectively jamming any non-local signal. The older tech checks his concealed weapon and continues to hold the phone up to his face as they see the Tech for Tech van pull up to the garage door. They can see two younger men in jumpsuits in the front seats.

The older tech hangs up as both Tech for Tech guys jump out with tools in hand. The younger tech decides to take the lead here, "Glad you could make it so quickly, it is over here." The two Tech for Tech guys hardly even acknowledge them as they move to the table with "Lauren" on it. They are looking around the room like they were sight seeing, even though they seem to know exactly where they are going.

On the other side of the garage, two security guards quietly position themselves in line of sight to the intruders, but not visible to them. The younger tech wants one more piece of proof, "Any idea to the problem?" The two new guys say together, before even looking at the broken bot, "Busted network antenna." The older and younger tech look at each other, then nod towards the far wall. Two blasts from the security guards' guns quietly illuminate the room. Both of the new techs are hit in the chest, falling to the ground, unmoving.

The security guards come up quickly and remove the downed men's badges and wallets. The older tech reads the badge, "Samuel Cross." The younger tech pulls out the drivers license and reads, "Samuel Crease." The one security says, "What a bunch of amateurs...I mean, who uses their real name?" The Customs' employees laugh to themselves at the joke. "Seriously, how could they get through spy school behaving this way?" The younger tech says softly, "Well, we could ask them..." The security guards shake their heads and one replies, "Not likely, Mr Customs does not take kindly to intruders." The techs nod knowingly and keep searching the men and their equipment.

It does not take long for them to find all of the surveillance equipment that looked mobile and easy to install. They easily piece together their plan to plant this equipment all over the place while they were here. They find other badges, completing their thoughts, that these two were government agents. As they continue to laugh at the shear stupidity of these two, the older tech says, "Hey, does she look familiar?" Holding the dead spy's phone up, the younger tech nods at it. "Isn't that our broken bot?"

Desirae and Lauren continue to remain at attention, as they watch this whole ordeal unfold. How could it go so horribly wrong? Desirae wonders. How could they be so dumb? Lauren grumbles. They see the two techs go over and inspect the android on the work table. Desirae and Lauren would have jumped if they could have when the younger tech yells, "She's real!" All of the security come over and inspect the body. As the men cover the view of Lauren and Desirae in a type of huddle, the security says, "And real dead, too."

While some of them start to load the bodies into the service van for disposable later, the techs start checking for the droids for any other human pretenders. At a glance, it would be hard to tell, but Desirae knows she is in trouble. There are not many that look like her, so if they find her picture on Cam's phone, she is dead like the rest of her friends.  Lauren, who is still alive in an android's body, realizes she is safe, and starts to try and figure out how she got in the wrong body.

The techs don't get too far before they are interrupted by the security radios. It seems an android in the mansion went 'rogue' so it had to be put down. The techs smile figuring they caught the human pretender. The security guards run off, so they will not be cross referencing either. Desirae feels relieved knowing she is safe from that part, but now wondering how she gets out of here.

The female androids are stripped, but the face guard is left in place. The techs come to each of them to plug into the face guard to interface with the droid's databases ("easier than getting a multi-tool end adapter from the workshop"). When they get to Lauren, they notice she has two separate protocols. One is labeled Bang Away, and the other is Lauren. The techs figure the android has two personalities for maximum service to the owner. Keeping them as is, they improve the partition between them, completely separating the two personalities. Lauren can only watch helplessly as all her unclassified memories of today are deleted, especially the ones involving her friends and Baron Customs. And since they are sending the droid back tonight, they archive (but do not delete) the Lauren personality, since it was added after the factory settings were installed. Well, she thinks sadly but hopeful, at least I'm not being del---

Desirae is plugged in like all the others. They clean out files from the day that might have incriminating evidence. As she was thinking about her day, the name Baron Customs comes up as very important, but in a matter of moments, that name is completely erased from her memory. Since she witnessed her two fellow agents being shot, those memories are removed. Since she has a longer history than the other droids, it takes a split second longer, but her memories of her friends are gone. She was worried about her friend Lauren, until that was also deleted. Since she has no memory of them, she has no regret of losing them. To her, she was sent here solo to observe the activities of...of...well that is strange, I am not sure who I was supposed to be spying on, Desirae says to herself in confusion.

After there databases get scrubbed, the outside does as well with a soft-bristled, rotating brush. Once the soap has lathered them up, they are rinsed with a hose. They are placed in front of a large floor fan to be air dried. Once that is done, they are sprayed with wax and buffed to a shine by each tech. At some point in the cleaning, the face guards are removed. Lauren's personality had already been archived, so she did not notice a difference. Desirae knew instantly, as her body could now move if she wanted it to. It was very frustrating to be able to move, but still have to maintain a stiff posture while they finished cleaning her up.

It doesn't take long for the delivery vans to show up so they can begin returning the androids to the warehouses and distribution centers. Desirae is not sure what to do, but she knows she wants out of here. She is more than happy to let them pick her up and put her in a form fitting crate if it will get her out of here. She enjoys the ride back, knowing her freedom is almost here (and these things are actually quite comfortable, she laughs to herself, feeling more comfortable and less fretful). She does not mind the machines that move her, or the men that inspect her, or even the quick touch from the driver as she is placed on another truck. She recognizes her apartment when the delivery guy drops her off at the door. She holds her pose long enough until he is gone. Using her keypad entry, she lets herself in and collapses on the soft couch in a near-coma sleep.

She is not sure how long she slept, but it felt so good to be free. She dresses, since she was still naked, and has something quick to eat. The phone rings, and she recognizes the number as work related. "Hello?" she answers. A man on the other side says, "Desirae, where have you been? You need to report on what happened!" Desirae replies in a confused tone, "Uh, well, that is a good question." The man says back to her, "Where's Sam and Cam?" Desiare replies, "Who?" The voice takes a long pause and asks, "Lauren?" To which Desirae replies, "Who?" Another long pause and the voice asks, "Does Baron Customs ring a bell?" "Nope, but I do recall how to set-up a nickel defensive play." The voice pauses very little this time and says curtly, "You're benched, Desirae...we will be in touch." As he hangs up he says softly, "maybe."

Epilogue
- Sam and Cam are never heard from again. Their respective apartments look like they left in a real hurry. The agency figures they failed their mission and left town in embarrassment. No search will be mounted, and based on their track record, everyone knew this day was coming.

- Lauren is presumed dead (which explains Sam and Cam leaving town) and her affects are put in order by the Agency. Her stellar record earns her a full military burial. Lauren is actually still in her Asian android body.  Her personality is used often (daily, in fact), and she finds herself enjoying her new life as the household manager of a well-to-do, legitimate businessman. She remembers her old life, but she is so content as an android, she does not really miss it.

- Desirae is taken from field duty and placed in an administrative role. She cannot seem to remember many of the things that happened that day at Baron Customs' Courtyard. She now has a more stable schedule (8 hours a day, 5 days a week), so she volunteers her time at the community center. As you might expect, she is the first female little league football coach ever, and she has never been happier (especially since they just made the playoffs for the team's first time ever).