Cassy Origin Pt. 3

>It had been several weeks since Cassy had decided to hunt down the Spark-Easy.
>An inner cycle had begun in Cassy's mind.
>She would wait until everyone had gone to sleep, prepared some clothing that she had been ordered to discard, walk right up to the front door;
>And stand there.
>Hours would be spent staring at the door-knob, as the nerve to disobey the order to "rest well" as she was instructed each night wrestled with the drive to go.
>That was definitely why. Certainly not the idea of being caught, and being reset, or worse.
>Time would pass until Cassy needed to return to her charging space in the boiler-room.
>She would stash the clothing into a small gap in the wall, and then the day's routine would begin again.

>Madame Amberly's work had still been closed, leading to more and more work for Cassy.
>She would constantly be called upon to provide food, drink, or even to keep track of what happened on the program while Madame Amberly needed the bathroom to relay back to her once she returned.
>These interruptions only made her chores that much more difficult, as the time she had to maintain the house was slowly diminishing.
>Cassy noticed how the tension of Madame Amberly being at home all day had begun to wear on Master Johnson even more.
>It seemed like almost every evening he would return late, suit scuffed and stained.
>One day Master Johnson even came home with touches of blood on his sleeves. That had taken hours of hard scrubbing for Cassy to get it out.
>He had told her that it was a simple accident while working. She hoped he would be more careful next time, but it was not her place to say.
>One night however, things reached a head.
>After attempting to retreat to his study as usual, but Madame Amberly was unfortunately tipsy from her 6th glass of red wine of the day.
>After chasing in after him, their arguing went on for hours.
>Cassy did her best to comfort and distract Miss Carol for the evening while her parents raged.
>Eventually the hour grew late enough that Cassy even had to put Miss Carol to bed herself.
>"Will mommy and daddy come to tuck me in?" Carol had asked, the disappointment already welling in her eyes.
>"I'm sorry, Miss. Your mother and father appear to have business of their own to take care of tonight." Cassy replied.
>"Oh...Okay" the girl sighed, pulling the covers over herself.
>Cassy felt sympathetic to her charge. Despite her role in house-keeping, child-care was still a primary concern.
>"Is there anything I can do to help you feel better?" Cassy asked, hoping to alleviate the little girl's misery.

>A shaking mound from underneath the cover and a disappointed murmur was taken as a no.
>Quietly frowning, Cassy bowed her head as she turned to exit the room.
>As she exited, she heard the door to the master bedroom slam shut.
>Checking in to the study, she found an empty mess.
>Upturned bottles, strewn papers, and an ashtray sent sprawling. Thankfully she had already emptied that tray this afternoon.
>After making short work of the mess, Cassy realised that she had not seen Sir or Madame since she had taken Carol to bed.
>Quietly tip-toeing to the Master Bedroom, Cassy quietly poked her head through the ajar door.
>Thanks to her low-light-vision sight, she could make out the sleeping forms of her owners.
>As she brought her head out and quietly closed the door, a thought smashed into her mind like a stress-tester's hammer (not that she'd ever needed stress testing);
>She hadn't been given an order to rest.
>SHE COULD GO OUT.

>Cassy wasted no time getting dressed, hurriedly making herself unrecognisable.
>No one would assume a Nandroid would be out so late, especially one with her hair down and cheek circles covered with make-up.
>Silently dashing to the front door, Cassy stared at that door knob one last time.
>Clutching the information sheet of the Spark-Easy in one hand, she gingerly clenched the doorknob with the other.
>This was it. The moment of no return. If she was found outside like this, without an owner, she was done for.
>But could she spend another day, stuck in place, unable to follow this desire that had buried itself deep into her mainframe?
>"Of course not" she thought, as she opened the door, stepping forwards into the dark street.

>A quiet moment of self-celebration buzzed around Cassy's circuitry, but there was no time to waste.
>She only had a few hours before she needed to return to her charger to recover enough charge before the morning's activities.
>Cassy set a reminder for herself for later, before double checking the sheet she'd pocketed.
>Memorising the address, she stuffed the sheet back in her pocket before pulling her hat's brim slightly down in front of her face.
>without any other hesitations, she walked off into the night.
>Cassy eventually made it to the venue, despite the directions she'd taken being purposefully vague.
>It's almost as if they were written to not be easily decipherable to the wrong parties.
>In fact, she was still sure this was the wrong place.
>Looking around, all she could see was an empty alleyway. A large rubbish bin obscured a section of the wall, but it was otherwise a dead end.
>Just as she was about to turn to leave to try somewhere else, she saw a couple emerge from the area obscured by the bin.
>While the half-light limited vision, Cassy could still make out the pair.
>One was an average sized man, his arm wrapped around what appeared to be a heavily customised Nandroid.
>If it were not for the standardised size and face-plate, Cassy would have never recognised the shorter figure for a machine like her.
>In the couple's bliss, they didn't even stop to pay attention to Cassy, continuing their apparently humorous conversation.
>"They can’t have come from nowhere" Cassy thought to herself, as she moved around the large container blocking her vision.
>Just around the corner of the dumpster was a simple wooden door, with a series of burn marks reminiscent of a pair of jumper cables dragged across the surface.
>What confused her the most was the lack of any visible way to open the door itself. A gentle push refused to affect the door.
>Before Cassy could try anything else, a voice spoke out behind her.

>"Forget the password? I do it all the time. Let me"
>A large hand reached past her shoulder, before knocking on each of the larger spots that had been burned into the door.
>Turning around (and then craning her neck up) to thank the mystery helper, she realised this wasn't a man at all, rather a large butler-bot.He didn't look fully outmoded, but it was clear he'd seen better days.
>"T-thank you, sir." Cassy stuttered out, slightly intimidated by his size.
>"Sir? I'm no sir. You may call me Heathworth" the larger droid said, tipping his beaten and askew hat.
>"Thank you then, Heathworth" Cassy replied, with slightly more confidence.
>"May I ask your name, Ma'am?" Heathworth inquired.
>Cassy was caught off guard by this. Politeness required her to give a name, but giving her actual name could result in Mr Johnson finding out.
>"My name is Cas-Casey!" she blurted out; quickly changing her name to one she clearly thought couldn't be traced to her.
>"Well, Casey, have a pleasant evening. I hope to see you again soon" Heathworth said, as he walked in through the door.
>Cassy silently followed in behind him.