Chapter 9: Beta Bayonetta

Before I get into the details of our next recreated character, I'd like to give some general updates and information on my women so far.

One impression I'd like to correct is that we all got along all of the time. We actually do get along very well, given the variety of people living in the house, but there have been some noticeable arguments and even one catfight. However I hadn't recreated any characters who were mean-spirited or thrived on conflict, plus we had a special advantage when it came to promoting a harmonious household: Kasumi.

Kasumi was the secret to our peaceful interpersonal relations. The only way I could see to increase the benefits of her presence would be to upgrade her to Belldandy from Oh My Goddess -- actually I think the two characters even had the same voice actress -- but Belldandy was deeply in love with someone else, thus removing her from my list.

The thing about Kasumi was that she always put others first. You quickly learned not to ask her to do favors for you, because she would do so without question, which could lead to serious guilt for taking advantage of her. If you forgot to do a chore, she would do it for you, which led to everyone else giving you the stink-eye until you apologized to her and made up for it.

Kasumi was slowly studying to become a nurse, but she took her main job of running the household very seriously. As we had more and more people living here, the household chores became more and more spread out, so we had less to do. At the same time, Kasumi's organizing jobs became more difficult with more people and schedules to juggle.

She still only rarely initiated sex herself, but everyone knew this and she rarely slept alone.

Daria and Jane were still inseparable for the most part. Daria had started working towards B.A.'s in both English and Journalism, while Jane, of course, focused on art. School was going fairly well for both of them, with the exception of Daria dropping an average of one course a semester due to personal conflicts with teachers.

Aside from their schooling, Daria had gotten close to Rei, finding in the Japanese pilot the only person she had ever met who had been more withdrawn than she had been. I was initially worried that Daria might be threatened by another highly intelligent female, but Rei was too buried in books to threaten anyone's place in a social hierarchy.

Daria was working toward a life as a writer, but was unsure if she wanted to write fiction or news or a mix. Her first Melody Powers book -- about a top female government agent who tended to have to kill her lovers as spies after she had slutted it up with them -- had been sent out to various publishers, which had garnered a couple possible offers from pulp novel companies.

Jane became the sexual experimenter of the household. She was the first to try out anal sex. She was the first to be tied up for sex, though she also enjoyed playing the mistress role in sexual bondage games. (I even let her tie me up for sex more than once. It's occasionally fun, but not really my thing.)

Jane was also the interior designer and graphic designer for a company I was setting up to handle my patents, a company also designed with the intent of shielding me from public attention.

Daria and Jane were also the main source of minor conflicts in the household. Their trademark sarcastic jabs were never (or at least rarely) intended to be mean-spirited, but they sometimes went over the line and actually hurt feelings or made someone mad. If they didn't realize this and apologize on their own, Kasumi would have a talk with them.

Rei had expanded my library into two rooms now, with the second quickly filling up. She already had a pilot's license for small craft and was working on helicopters next. Her engineering studies were still self-taught for now, but she was considering school.

Rei was also the one person in the household who was more likely to sleep alone than with someone. Reading yourself to sleep doesn't lend itself easily to sexual activity.

Kara was an interesting case. I didn't realize what a strong connection I was creating when I included myself in her backstory. In addition to being very beautiful and strong, she was a lot of fun and completely devoted to me to an extent the others couldn't match.

This also created a degree of possessiveness, but since she was bi-sexual and did not consider herself to be a permanent resident, this translated into her demanding a position at the head of the harem.

Originally I had never planned for any of the women to be permanent residents, instead planning to trade them out one or two at a time every few years starting after I had the harem full. But with Power Girl, I was considering ways to keep her here longer.

In the meantime, Kara was doing her best to maintain her position as the Alpha female. (Yes, I had adopted Daria's terms a long time ago.) Before Diana and Z arrived, the only threats to her position had been Anna physically and Daria intellectually. Though she couldn't match Daria's IQ, Daria didn't have a dominant personality. As for Anna, she could be a leader, but she wasn't interested.

Don't misunderstand me. Kara is a fairly easy-going person. She doesn't lord it over anyone or demand that we watch her favorite horror movies every night (yes, she is a big fan of hard-R horror movies; odd but deliberately described in the comics). But she was also very protective of me and to maintain that protection required her to maintain a certain degree of authority.

Diana's arrival had obviously threatened her status, so she moved quickly to delineate areas of authority. Diana agreed that anything regarding me or the household would fall under Kara's authority. Anything related to outside issues would be determined by the situation, with the understanding that Diana would likely take charge. This was a literal agreement the two discussed, about a week after Diana and Zatanna's arrival; Alpha has a video recording.

Kara was still the only woman who would occasionally find me, sling me over her shoulder and abduct me for sex. Jane or one of the others might try some ambush sex with me or do some interesting roleplay, but Kara would just straightforwardly grab me and take me to the bedroom. (I've found through experience that if I want to do the same to her, I need to enlist Anna or Diana to help. Otherwise, Kara will just stand there and roll her eyes at whoever is trying to carry her off.)

Kara was the only one to show no interest in pursuing a career of her own. She sometimes talked about taking classes in something, but for the time being, she seemed perfectly happy just relaxing and helping out other people in their endeavors.

Anna Marie/Rogue hadn't yet found her place in this world. Her entire adult life had been spent with superheroes or villains. She had never had a real job or had to choose her own path in life. At this point, she was basically sampling the world around her ... and enjoying her ability to touch other people without consequence.

Anna was far from a slut, but her programming and personality allowed her to explore her sexuality freely in my home. Jane had obviously tried to infect her with her own sexual curiosity, but had only been partly successful.

Anna would sometimes still jump if you touched her unexpectedly, but she was beginning to relax. Plus she was becoming addicted to orgasms. Or maybe more accurately, to intimacy. (As a side note, I loved Jane's surprise with Anna. Bleaching part of her pubic area to match her hair was a great visual touch.)

To help her bond with Kara, I had taken everyone out hang gliding once. Yes, it was hang gliding for novices, side-by-side with instructors, but the two of them really enjoyed it. They went back regularly, taking Diana with them once she arrived on the scene.

Diana was an interesting case. Her first reaction to the real world was to try to duplicate her role from the comic book world.

Diana took Anna, Kara and Zatanna on patrol in the DFW area on motorcycles -- I had realized a while back that we needed more vehicles, so I picked up two more cars and four motorcycles. In two weeks of patrolling, they stopped one drunken street fight. The problem was that without police cooperation, showy supervillains, super senses or flight, their ability to find crime as it happened was nil. They bought a police scanner, but that tended to let them show up after the police were already on-scene. Once they realized this, they gave up patrolling.

However, they started volunteering any time natural disasters threatened or public involvement was needed. (For example, they helped search a park for a missing jogger, filled and placed bags of sand to prevent flooding and joined Habitat for Humanity.)

I should also note that Diana was the impetus for me buying a yacht. I invested in one to let Diana try to find Themyscira ... and to let me take a vacation. Of course the boat had plenty of computer and satellite uplink capability. Our actual vacation schedule was still up in the air. I had actually only seen the boat once, when I bought it, since we lived a couple hundred miles from the coast. It was large without being ostentatious with three small bedrooms and 5 bunks.

As for her sexual habits, Diana was not a fan of harems, but was a fan of large communities of open-minded women. She decided to take to heart the idea that the women were using me for sex instead of the other way around. Although she was not very horny when compared to Jane or Kara, she tended to sleep with me or one of the other women at least a couple times a week. Sex with her tended to include oral sex and be enthusiastically energetic. After reading some of her own comic books, especially the really old ones, she avoided bondage entirely unless the male was the only one being tied up.

Zatanna on the other hand had no problem with bondage sex, although admittedly she mostly used it to help her practice her escape artist skills. Most sex with her seemed to grow out of her magic. Maybe it got her libido pumping to mix the two.

Along those lines, the most fun, squishy sex I've ever had with her started with me tying her up. She worked her way free as I first teased her, then started fucking her. Midway through coitus, she undid the last handcuff and slipped it onto me, turning the tables on me. By the time that afternoon fuck session was through, I was handcuffed, tied to the bed, blindfolded and thoroughly drained of semen.

She was very slow about accepting her bi-sexuality, taking 2 months before she had sex with a woman when I wasn't present. She found Kasumi crying by herself one day -- Kasumi still occasionally cried for the loss of her family, but such emotional pain was becoming very rare for her -- and Zatanna comforted her as best she could. That actually led to a closeness between the two that was very wonderful to witness.

In a professional capacity, she was re-developing her magic act and had worked up some special equipment for it. She didn't have enough for a full length show, but she could do 15 to 20 minutes of professional-level magic.

Without her powers, she had little desire to be a super-hero, but was willing to help out Diana as needed. As a super-hero without powers, she worked up some hidden weapons and flashes and surprises as part of her wardrobe. She could taze or blind an attacker, then suddenly have an extendable baton in hand to put them down.

As for me, I was alternately busy beyond belief and having the time of my life. The sex was amazing, but I was also growing really attached to some of the women. Kasumi and Kara were almost definitely going to be long-term residents (and I had a vague plan for a story of how Kara would stick around for a while). I would love for Daria and Jane to stick around for a good long time too, but I wasn't entirely sure I could keep them once they graduated.

That was a serious problem to consider actually. Physically, the bodies we grew were definitely susceptible to tumors; nearly every woman we had grown had developed a radical growth or tumor of some sort within a year. If any of the women moved away, they would likely either die or risk exposing my operations when they visited a doctor.

The plan was that when a woman was ready to 'leave', Alpha would disable her before she was very far away. I'd retrieve the body, which would be broken down and remade into the next woman on my list. Her mind would be stored for future use. Ideally, we'd just store her body for future activation, but we didn't have a method available for long-term storage. (It was on Alpha's to-do list, but she hadn't had the time to work out a useable method yet.)

Rei wasn't really working out well and would probably be the first to be recycled. I still loved her anime, but in person? I hate to sound petty, but she didn't pay attention to me like I wanted her to. She was definitely getting better at social interactions as time passed, but she was still a cold fish more often than not. (On the other hand, I was also thinking about having Misato "assigned" to come to the U.S. and care for Rei.)

Still, I wasn't ready to retire anyone yet. We had plenty of room left in the house and I felt no urgent need to keep filling it up. Trust me, regardless of how many women you think you might want to have on hand, more than half a dozen is getting to be too many to juggle. So while I had 4 double-beds and 3 singles left in the house, I wasn't sure if I would be filling them up very quickly.

In other personal news, I leased a storage facility off-the-books where I put together equipment for a back-up location for Alpha. Maybe I was getting a bit paranoid, but if anything ever happens to my house or someone decides I'm up to something illegal and the police raid the house, I will be able to rebuild Alpha quickly and easily, including weekly memory back-ups.

I guess it was a relatively busy 5 months. I had to liquidate a few million dollars in market assets to pay for it all too. I was a bit worried about how casually I was spending all this money, but Alpha had a proven track record when it came to making more.

When I started talking with Alpha about possibilities for the next creation, Alpha had an interesting suggestion.

"I would prefer to do this as a surprise, but there are too many construction stages which will require your involvement."

"What's your idea?"

"I would like to build a physical body for myself."

"An android body?"

"No, a cyborg. I can build a small computer inside a human skull and torso with interfaces to control the body and receive input from the senses. A simple wireless connection will allow interface with my main systems, but the cyborg body will be capable of independent action."

"What about power?"

"I have not yet determined how to draw sufficient power from the biological means available, so I will need to include a battery which will be recharged daily."

"Recharged how? Are you planning on an external plug?"

"While that is a possibility, I should be able to recharge the battery just fine with a wireless charging mat."

"What about when parts wear out? Like the battery or hard drive?"

"With regular nanite check-ups, I should have a minimal failure rate, but yes, failure of certain parts is inevitable.

"I estimate that at least 95% of the time, I will have sufficient warning to return to the lab. The other 5% of the time, an automatic alert will be sent to my main systems. As long as you or one of the women is available to return me to the lab, I should be fine. Depending on the parts needing replacement or repair, the work will require from 30 minutes to 12 hours. Some of the work will require your active help."

"Huh. Will all of this be stored in the brain?"

"Approximately 57% will be stored inside the skull."

"So what happens to the brain? Will she develop her own consciousness?"

"No, I will only be building the portions of the brain that support the autonomic functions, muscle controls and sensory interfaces."

"Can't you use the brain for memory storage?

"I have spent considerable time working to solve that exact problem without success. I require the nanites to read and write to biological memory effectively, and I will not be able to include nanite control with the equipment stored inside the body. Instead I will use solid state memory occupying all available space."

"Heat dissipation?"

"I will be using low heat equipment, but yes, that was a major hurdle to overcome. Fortunately the human body includes multiple methods of heat dissipation already, mainly blood flow variations and sweating. Normal blood flow will allow for proper heat dissipation in the skull. The battery and control processors in the upper torso will require a bit more effective cooling, so an enlargement of part of the windpipe will allow for liquid-flow cooling filaments. The result should be that my exhalations will be hotter than normal, although I may require additional cooling during the hottest summer months."

"Wow. You've spent a lot of time planning this out ... obviously. What about impacts ... ummm ... the internal biological integrity when placed alongside hard metal? And the mechanical strength? I mean, human bodies can survive impacts that normal computer parts cannot."

"It is all a matter of design. Nearly all metallic and plastic components will be covered in biologically neutral sheaths which will be ignored by the body's normal defense mechanisms. It will be much easier to assure the integrity of all parts if I can use a super-human body with enhancements like Power Girl, Wonder Woman and Rogue."

"Sure. Did you have a specific character or body in mind?"

"I was thinking either Bayonetta, Supergirl or A-ko."

"Hmmm ... not Supergirl. Too many questions to answer with the others. Let's go with Bayonetta. Having you running her keeps her sane, and we don't have to worry about her believing in magic and an ongoing war with angels and such. Oh, I assume the new body will comply with the Asimov protocols?"

"Most definitely."

"Does this mean you'll be able to experience human sensations?"

"Yes and no. I will receive all sensory inputs, but my brain will remain electronic. I will not have a biological brain to experience the chemicals associated with emotions, pain or pleasure, and many of my physical reactions will have to be simulated."

"So you still won't be able to taste a good meal or experience an orgasm?"

"Again, yes and no. My experience of things relying on chemical and neural reactions like that will be different than yours. At the same time, I am definitely curious how even those partial sensations and experiences will feel."

"So what will be your limitations? Show me the proposed specs."

Building a Bayonetta body for Alpha proved to be the most involved of all of the bodies so far, taking nearly 5 months.

We finished her about 2 years after we first started building Kasumi. Alpha Bayonetta was the 9th lady we had built and the most expensive.

Speaking of money, maybe I should address how much it costs to grow a human being. Not nearly as much as I'd have thought originally. Don't misunderstand me, the initial investment in equipment was very substantial (somewhere around $35 million), with equipment upkeep of another $0.5 to $2 million a year. Outside of the equipment itself though, the bodies only cost about $100,000 each in materials and power costs and with experience, they got a little cheaper each time.

Bayonetta was the most involved of all of the creations ... and the gooiest. Most of the time, I would only have to physically interact with the bodies 3 or 4 times during their growth. With Bayonetta, I had to keep installing chips and drives and wires daily for half the growth duration. While the nanites handled things on a cellular level, they couldn't do heavy lifting. But along with their cellular work, they also built protective pouches for everything and made sure all the wiring was perfectly connected and secured. Everything had to be properly anchored down within the body with webs of tendons or, in some cases, partially embedded in bone.

Bayonetta's body itself eventually started looking very pleasant. If you haven't seen her, imagine a younger Sarah Palin with larger breasts, longer hair, dressed in leather and with the attitude of a sex goddess. Well, the leather came afterwards in this case and the hair will never be as long as it was in the game. But she looked like the hottest MILF you've ever imagined (except that she wasn't a mother, of course).

One thing I changed was her skin tone. For some reason, she always seemed to me like she should have had slightly darker skin, like the ladies of Spain. Since we were remaking her anyway, I had Alpha give her Moorish ancestry for her skin color.

I gave Alpha free reign to add whatever physical bonuses she wanted, so she was as strong as Power Girl, had better reflexes than Wonder Woman, better sight and hearing than anyone else and all of the combat skills she could ever want.

Unlike all our women before her, she was awake in the lab before her body was finished. Even once her body was completed, she didn't leave the lab for almost two days while she got used to her new body.

As I understood it, her connection to the main Alpha was remote, not networked. Thus Bayonetta was more like Alpha's daughter than just an extension. She was subordinate to the main Alpha system, but independent of it. She lacked the extensive memory of Alpha, but had high-speed access to Alpha at all times as long as she stayed within range of the house transmitters.

I had been down in the lab with Bayonetta almost constantly since she became mobile a day and a half ago. She was nearly through with her calibration and stress tests. Watching her work through this was fascinating. She would stand completely still except for one finger or arm or leg or toe, then groups of fingers then clapping, then tossing something into the air and catching it. Or she would sit watching a screen for half an hour checking her visual acuity and responses.

She found blinking to be annoying and sleep to be a complete waste of time, but both were apparently necessary for her. I don't think she slept as a person would, because the computer part of her brain would never shut down. But when she reached 32 hours of consciousness for the first time (while still in the nanite pod), her reflexes started failing, then her strength waned and her vision went blurry and all that would get worse until she "slept" for a few hours.

We used her down-time to test the charging mat, which seemed to work all right. She also had a small plug with a water-proof removable cover in the back of her head, hidden by her long hair, to allow for more direct charging. The plug would be our normal charging option.

She claimed to be able to identify flavors, but didn't understand the attraction of food as anything other than fuel for the body. On the other hand, smells fascinated her, so much so that she started planning for an upgraded scent ability.

That was something else different about her. She was constantly planning for better upgrades and interfaces for both her electronic and biological bodies. Personally, I was hoping she might eventually work out an interface that could let her experience the benefits of having a human body.

I struck up a conversation when I thought she was nearing the end of her tests.

"Alpha ... umm ... Bayonetta Alpha. I've decided on a nickname for you. 'Beta'. It fits. It's both a second version of Alpha and a shortened version of Bayonetta."

"So, I am a Beta release?"

"Not really what I was thinking. I named Alpha because Alpha means the first, and she is the first of her kind. Maybe you're mainly just a copy of Alpha, but you're also a separate entity, capable of independent action. Thus, you are the second. Beta."

"I understand," came her voice simultaneously from the earbud and Beta. "I disagree that we are as separate as you claim, but I understand why you might wish to address us separately."

"I'm also curious to see if you develop separate personalities over time. Are your calibrations and tests finished?"

"The rest of the testing is less essential, but requires me to be outside the lab. I am curious, have you decided how to introduce me to the others?"

"Well, I'm not planning to introduce you to them until your tests are completed. Once that's done, I figure I'll just introduce you as a neighbor from when I was young. You are moving back into the area and need a new place to live, so I'm going to rent one of my spare rooms to you.

"You have the computer skills I need, so I'll hire you as an assistant, which will give you free access to the basement.

"If they discover your enhanced physiology or become suspicious, you can play off of Zatanna's idea. You realized years ago that I was someone who was special and needed to be protected. And try not to answer any questions about where your abilities came from."

"That should be sufficient for now. Frank, it is now 11:32 pm and all the women are in bed. I would like to switch them off and complete my testing."

"Certainly. Which test is next?"

"There is no set sequence to test the next set of protocols. But given this convenient timing, I would like to test my body's sexual sensitivity and responsiveness. Will you fuck me?"

Ah yes, Beta certainly had Alpha's directness.

"Beta, I realize it's not really necessary when you're only speaking with me, but I really think you should always have your social protocols engaged. At the very least, it will help test them out, especially since we haven't had the opportunity to field test them like this before."

"I understand. Should I engage my standard social protocols or one of the secondary ones? Would this be an appropriate time to test out the 'sex kitten' protocols?"

"Yes, let's try it out."

And a few seconds later, my earbud started quietly playing "Fly Me to the Moon". If you've ever played the game, it was the version that plays constantly in the background.

Beta's body posture shifted completely. She had been naked all of this time, but clinically so, more like a detailed mannequin than a nude woman. Now, her hips were shifting side-to-side, swaying as she slowly started walking towards me, her eyes heavy-lidded and smoldering, hands on her hips. I think she was actually copying Jessica Rabbit's walk.

Until now, her voice had been fairly monotone and robotic in intonation. Now she sounded a lot more like Bayonetta from the game. "Come on, Master. Take me to your bed and make a woman out of me."

"Master?"

She put a finger coyly in her mouth. "Master, you know I'm still a virgin."

I grinned. "This has possibilities. Come along, Miss. Let's retire to my room."

She walked in front of me all the way up to my room, swaying her hips all the way, looking back at me occasionally, giving me a wink, swinging her bosom into view just enough to lead me on.

Once in the bedroom, she laid herself out on my bed, putting herself on display for me. She wore small square glasses (for appearance's sake only), over which she peered at me seductively. She wore no makeup, but her lips were naturally a dark red and her cheeks had a natural blush. Her DDD breasts (second only to Kara) were large and firm, capped with large puffy pale pink nipples -- oddly enough she was the first artificial woman in the house with puffy nipples. Her legs were long and shapely and would, on any normal bed, easily stretch from one side to another. She had no pubic hair, and her fingers spread her glistening lower lips wide for my viewing.

I stripped naked as I watched her and asked, "What would you like to do first, my dear?"

"Whatever is your pleasure, Master. Even my ass is ready for you," she said as she rolled over into a hands-and-knees position and wiggled her very shapely posterior at me.

Although I was sure I knew the answer, I still had to ask. "So your sphincter muscles are... ?"