I spent the couple days trying to avoid dealing with Family. I did spend a couple hours redireg some bears, optimizing their patrol routes and ging their standby positions, since I had the processing power to do so now, but I did that without any input from the others.

  Instead of dealing with Mirage, Hel, and all the drama from above, I spent time cheg on the facilities I’d spent the st few months installing. Since Issi loved pnts so much I brought her up to the top floor of the tower, where I’d installed the hydroponics a couple weeks before.

  “What’s this?” Issi asked as soon as we stepped off the elevator, running towards the growbed.

  “Ummm… lettuce?” I replied, squinting to read the pque further down the row. “It’s one of the staple foods the frogs are growing here,” I told the girl.

  “Why froggies? You have bears,” Issi asked, as she jumped in front of the mae, trying to get a good look inside. I smiled, the down to let her climb on my shoulders, before standing up so she could see. This would have been difficult a few months ago, but was something I did rather frequently after my muscle enhas.

  “My bears are…” I started.

  “The frog models are much smarter than the bears, that’s why they teach you and your friends at school. The bears could do manual bour, but wouldn’t be able to perform the required decisions to make these foods grow effitly,” Sir Froggingtoed from behind me. I really wao give the frog a dirty look, but that would have caused Issi to swing around too, so I refrained myself.

  “So this is what we eat at lunches?” Issi asked as she reached out and touched one of the growuce heads. “Pretty sure our lunches don’t look like that.”

  “That’s because everything we farm here is taken down one floor to the food processors, where it’s turned into a nice meal for you,” I replied. I reached over and ied the same lettuce head that Issi was handling. It was firm, and a nice green color, unlike y-nine pert of the foods I’d grown up on, I hoped that the kids around here would grow up a little healthier with these foods.

  After she was done iing the lettuce, Issi reached out for the row, which had tomatoes. “Why don’t you give food out to everyone, instead of just the kids?” she asked as we walked over.

  “That’s kind of the pn. We’re still ramping up produ, and making sure we maintaiput, before we sell it to the locals,” I expined. “’t give it away for free, because then kids wouldn’t e to the school, but I’ll probably sell it for cheaper than nutribars. Better for everyone.”

  “And teach everyoo be responsible!” Issi announced.

  “And teach everyoo be responsible,” I repeated with a smile. “’t give something for nothing, or people will try and take advantage.”

  As we wandered around the isles, Issi ied the various foodstuffs. After about ten minutes, she looked down at me. “Why only food? Flowers are pretty!” she asked, fused.

  I sighed, “Flowers ARE pretty, but you eat them?” I asked her back.

  “Some you !” Issi decred. I turowards Sir Froggington, eyebrow raised, and the bot nodded in agreement.

  “Alright,” I said, deg to try a different tactic, “Do you think flowers would be as filling as a broccoli?”

  “No…” the girl ceded. “Broccolis are bigger.”

  “And that’s what I’m going for, more food for more people,” I told the tot. “At least in the short term, but in the long term, who knows?”

  “So maybe flowers iure? I help when it’s time?” the girl asked, kig her legs iement.

  “Sure… I already have the pns, so I create more hydroponic grow beds if I o,” I told her. “You’ll have to be patient though.”

  Isabelle wiggled, which was her signal that she wanted down, so I gently grabbed her and pced her on the ground in front of me. The little girl immediately turned and looked me straight in the face. “Why do you even need hydroprawniyways? I do it in pots, and they survive fine. What makes these metal tubes special?” Issi asked as she knocked on the ray.

  “The pots are fine, if you’re willing to wait for something to grow, but with the frogs monit everything the food here grows faster, ahier, than it would in a pot. It would be hard to provide much food if we grew them in pots,” I expined.

  Issi hen turo wate of the frogs, dressed in a bcoat, walked up to a nearby tray and took some measurements before walking away. “Acceptable,” she finally said before turning back towards me. “But, it still needs more flowers,” she added.

  “I believe you!” I told her, before ruffling her hair. “How about I set up a small hydroponics area downstairs to grow your flowers? I promised Jeniffer more room to work on her projects anyways, so I set up a hobby area for you all.”

  “Don’t call it a hobby to Jeni, she doesn’t like that. She takes it very seriously,” Issi warned me as she pushed my hand away. I smiled slightly when I saw her grumpy face.

  “Would you like to see the food processors, since we’re already here?” I asked after she fixed her hair.

  The little girl cocked her head to the side for a mihinking, before she nodded. “Yus! See the food.”

  I reached down and grabbed her tiny hand, letting my smile grow a little, “Alright, this way.”

  I led our little group, including Sir Froggington, back to the main lift, and pushed the button for the food processing floor. It only took a moment, before the doors opened on a much more industrial looking area. “No toug here, okay? There are dangerous things here,” I told Isabelle. The girl hesitated for a mihen nodded, stuffing her free hand into her hoodie.

  We walked between the rows of produce ers, heading deeper into the floor, before I stopped before one of the new processors. I immediately picked Issi up so she could see it.

  “The frogs bring dowables from upstairs, wash it up, then put a specific mix into these maes,” I expined as a frog came along and dumped a tray full of vegetables into a hat the mae’s side. The mae made a number of chopping, whirring, and sizzling hen spat out a small tray of… something, oher side.

  “Lasana!” Issi cried when she saw the tray. “It’s my favorite.”

  I s the tray suspiciously. I’d seen the maes work before, even tasted the results, but having a Css II mae seemed like magietimes. “What’s is it?” I asked suspiciously.

  “Noodles, and tomato sauce, and spinach, and etables. It’s very simir to a lot of the other meals, but noodles make everythier,” the tot expined. She started to reach out for the meal, but then immediately pulled her hand back when she remembered my warning.

  “School isn’t on today, so this one was going to go into the freezer, I think…” I gnced over at a nearby frog, who nodded in agreement. “Would you like to take it home for dinner?”

  Issi’s eyes lit up, and she stepped right up to the edge of the mae. “Are you sure?” she asked.

  “Positive. You even carry it,” I told her with a smile. I grabbed the ‘sagna’ and ha to the little girl. “Just be careful.”

  Issi hen immediately put on her trating face, doing her best to carry the small meal as ft as possible. I slowly guided her back to the elevator, making sure not to move too quickly and bump her. The elevator only took a few seds to take us back down to the main floor, and when it opened up into the garage I found both Sharron and Nora waiting for me.

  “Issi take the sagna into the house, I’ll be there in a minute,” I told the girl, while I stared at my friends. her of them wao look at me, which probably wasn’t a good sign. As soon as Issi, led by Sir Froggington, was far enough away I turowards the other two women. “Please tell me you’re here for a social visit,” I whined.

  “I wish,” Sharron mumbled. “Let's go up to my apartment, we o talk.”