#the life of... puns...

“The odds are literally 50/50 Cryo.” Pyrogen told her as she paced outside the professor's door, waiting for him to come out with the blueprint for the new Mighty Number. “You need to relax a little.”

“I'm so perfectly 'chill'-ed that I'm getting goosebumps!” Cryo replied with an ecstatic giggle. “Don't tell me to 'cool' off when you're the hot head!”

Mighty Number One let out a small chuckle. “Just don't get too excited this time, you nearly blew one of your cooling regulators last time.”

But Cryo chose to ignore him, deterring the subject by asking, “'Water' you want Pyro?”

“Doesn't matter to me, I'm just glad our family is growing.” Pyrogen decided. “Besides, with current trends, at least one of us at some point will be nonbinary, so it shouldn't matter what the gender OS is.”

“Why do you have to be such a 'wet' blanket?” Cryosphere whined, making the sound of sticking her tongue out at him, despite him not being able to see it from under her helmet.

“Just trying to keep you from 'burning' out.” Number One mused with a smirk. Despite being a pun appreciator, Cryosphere let out a groan of disgust just as Doctor White came out from his private lab.

“What's the news, Professor?” Pyrogen asked his creator, smiling a little. Cyrosphere turned around and gave Doctor White a rather unexpected hug.

“So Professor,” Cyro immediately -and very sweetly- inquired, “Boy or a girl?”

It took the human a moment to realize what Number Two was asking, and with a sigh, he told her.

. . .

There was no other way to describe it: Cryosphere was pissed. And boy, she really didn't want anyone to leave her vacancy without them knowing too. After learning about the situation, Bat and Mic did their best to stay out of her way but Dyna and Pyro remained to try to soothe her.

“It isn't fair!” Cryosphere complained for the umpteenth time. “Why does the Professor have to make only boy Mighty Numbers? What's wrong with girl Numbers, huh?!”

“What izzz that one zzzaying?” Dyna teased. “You get what you get, and you do not throw a fit?”

“Shut up!” she snapped.

“Cryosphere!” Pyrogen snapped back.

“Pyrogen!” replied the irritable second Mighty Number. The two then gave each other a heated glare before Pyro finally said,

“We need to talk. Alone.”

Cryo huffed, but said nothing against it so the two bid Dyna farewell and went to find a place where they could be alone. Number Two huffed the entire way there with her arms folded in annoyance. Pyrogen wasn't falling for it in the slightest.

“Cryosphere, you have no reason to be acting like this.” Pyrogen then proceeded to chastise. “It's fine to be upset, but when are you going to realize that the Professor will design whatever he wants for us Mighty Numbers? Our genders are, for the most part, cosmetic extensions to our main purpose. We're lucky that the Professor is even able to create more of us- isn't that the most important part for you?”

Cryo looked away from her brother before letting out a defiant mumble of, “No...”

“Cryosphere,” Pyro eventually sigh in defeat, “Just… Just grow up.”

Hearing this, the second oldest Mighty Number almost broke down in tears. Of course Pyrogen would never understand he wants and desires- he never asked for anything because he was just so boring in trying to be the perfect role model for all the Mighty Numbers. He didn't know, he wouldn't understand, and knowing that made Cryosphere even more angry. After some time of trying to hold back her frustration and bitterness, Cryosphere looked at Pyrogen to darkly say,

“Now I know why my nickname's Cryo, it's because I Cryo-lot!”

Mighty Number One's expression softened. “Cryosphere, you know that's not true.”

“It is! It is!” the robot insisted before fleeing.

“Cryo!” Pyrogen called after her, but the name fell on deaf ears and Cryosphere ran as far as she could away from her family.

She wasn't even sure how she did it, but Cryo had found herself in the middle of a festival in Darlington, Maryland. It was apparently an annual thing and they made a big deal about apples, or something? Cryo didn't care, she was away from the rest of her family to even worry about whatever autumn rituals humans had. At least she wasn't far from the Susquehanna here, she could go ice skating later. Creating ice flows in active water ways always made Crysosphere feel better.

She then figured, if she was going to be near humans, then she had to remove her helmet, water tank, and replace her nozzles for actual hands before going further in. So that was what she did; her helmet and tank were tossed on the ground and she retracted her nozzles to reform into thin, but still robotic looking, hands with five little fingers. Unfamiliar to the mere idea of fingers, Cryosphere had some humor with hers by wiggling them for awhile before moving onward.

It didn't take much for Cyrosphere to move with the wave of humans. Just like a tide, she moved with them as they pushed and pulled against each other as they moved across the cleared street to gather at various vendor tents. Here and there Cyro would see a fellow robot, but most of them weren't as sophisticated as she was, or the other bots she knew at the Battle Colosseum. They were simple machines, designed to make a disabled human's life easier than anything else- and those were the bots that she disliked the most. If you didn't give them a personality, then why bother making a robot?

Letting out an annoyed huff, Cyrosphere happened to look up as she walked by a vendor tent with vintage Barbies and American Girl dolls on display. She only gave it a quick glance at first, but then she looked again at a doll that didn't look like the others. The little doll was fair skinned, with rooted brown yarn for hair. The vinyl head was slightly squished near the left eye- the paint on the eyes themselves were slightly scratched and worn from many playtimes in the past. There was no denying that the eyes were colored a dark blue though, and that was what Cryosphere found that she was so drawn to. Carefully, Mighty Number 2 picked the doll up off the table and sat down on the ground to look at it further. The doll's body was made of some kind of fabric and stuffed with something super soft and squishy. After a few test pokes, Cryo found herself giving the doll a small hug.

It was nothing like Mic's hugs, but it seemed just as comforting.

That was were Cryosphere remained for a good hour after, up until her family was able to track her down again. The festival goers didn't pay much attention to her as she cooed at the doll, telling it her life story, as many thought that she was the vendor's daughter or something. The vender themselves thought that Cryo was just a lost child waiting for their parents to come back around, so they allowed her to stay there. It's not like she was doing any harm anyway. No one seemed to recognize her as a Mighty Number though. Weird; they must not have cable.

Cryo has been so enraptured by the doll that she didn't even flinch when Dr. White suddenly shouted “Cryosphere!” when he saw her, and instead scaring a few people that happened to be next to him at the time. When he was closer, Dr. White once more snapped, “Mighty Number Two!”

This succeeded in startling Cryo, making her quickly scramble to her feet and declare in shock, “Dr. White!” Her surprise was short lived when she saw that Pyrogen had joined Dr. White, and her sour attitude returned at the reminder of a broken promise that never was.

“What?” Cryosphere snapped. “No Bat?”

“I assure you that he is nearby.” Dr. White affirmed, “He can't be near this large of a concentration of humans. I'm sure you're aware of how easily he'll cause a public panic?”

“Sure, sure.” Number Two huffed before turning her attention back to the doll.

“Crysophere, stop sassing the professor!” Pyrogen snapped. To Dr. White he apologized, “I'm sorry professor, this is all my fault.”

Beyond exasperated at this point, Dr. White rubbed the bridge of his nose before saying, “This isn't your fault Number One. However, I do not see why she expects there to be more female Numbers when she's more trouble than she's worth! Even Number Three wouldn't act like this.”

Cryo flinched at this, absently tracing her fingers through the doll's hair. That was when she had remembered she was holding the old doll and making the quick decision to change the subject by presenting it to her brother and creator.

“This is my little sister.” Cryosphere told them in a matter-of-fact tone. “If you're not going to build any more female Numbers, then let me have this dollie as my sister instead. I won't go back until you say yes professor!”

For a rather long amount of time, Dr. White looked at his creation as if she had suddenly decided to speak a different language.

“How much for the doll?” Dr. White then asked the vendor as he started to get out his wallet.

“Dunno,” the vendor teased, “That Cabbage Patch Kid has been in my family for two generations- it might be worth quite a bit if you ask me.”

Dr. White raised a very unamused eyebrow.

“20 bucks.” the vendor told him.

“Thank you.” the professor agreed, getting out the cash needed. Knowing that she was going to keep the doll, Cryosphere let out an ecstatic squeal as she hugged the doll once more.

“You're all mine now!” she happily said to the doll. “Oh…! I love you so much, my new little sister! I do! I do! I do!”

“Are you happy now?” Pyrogen asked her with his arms crossed. He still wasn't amused with her, but there was little he could do about it now.