Tandy watched in fascination.  The screen reflected the amount of work Shyla put in on these two women, who were now more cybernetic model systems rather than humans.  Their brains had upgrades and loyalty enhancement programs to alter their consciousness from the time the interface was installed.

Right now, Shyla had connected their minds together, and worked simultaneously on their programs.  Her image flickered from mind to mind, and each time, she seemed to grow a bit taller, and more solid in form.  What had once been cries of horror, or resistance, now were murmurs and excited chirps.  She could feel the awe of the two women, and that wasn't from their conditioning.

Shyla had transformed into something else within their minds.  Something more than a doctor, or a scientist who did experiments.  Tandy frowned slightly.

"Do they worship my baby now?" she asked herself privately.  She remembered how they fought her mentally as she entered their minds, but as soon as she started to move within their minds, back and forth between them, their cries stopped.  She moved from memory to memory, catalogued it, and studied it.  She still remembered when she went in for the second time.

"Why are you reading our minds like this?  Is it to make us break?"  Aline asked her, crying in a corner of her own mind while Shyla rummaged through her memories without consideration.

"Break you?  No, I want to find out who hurt you.  See this one?"  Aline nodded and shivered.

"My brother."

"I see.  He's one of your targets in the future.  When I make you strong enough, you and Inez are going to hunt down all who hurt you, and either hurt them, castrate them, or kill them.  It will be your choice."  Shyla then frowned.  "Who are these guys?  Why are they in Inez's mind too?"

"A roving gang of rich kids."  Aline spit angrily at them.  "I should have bitten that fucker's dick off!"  Shyla pulled the images in front of her, and nodded.

"I see.  Do you want me to leave them for you to kill, or did you want the gang to do it?"  Aline tried to focus on Shyla's avatar, but the image of the people who hurt her had stirred up her fear.  She was shocked when Shyla knelt down beside her and lightly caressed her.

It shouldn't have been possible as this was Aline's mind, but she could feel Shyla's gentle touch.

"You are stronger now.  You can crush skulls with your bare hands.  You and Inez can punch through brick walls without hurting yourself.  These show who your enemies are, and who you were.  Soon, it will be time to show your enemies who you have become."  Aline felt her smile radiate warmth, then she stood up.

"Tandy, initiate mind to mind connection between Aline and Inez.  Begin uploading the chosen combat programs for them to practice inside the construct.  My girls are now hunters."  Inez appeared inside the construct near to Aline.  "Girls, it's time to learn how to fight, and destroy the ones who hurt you."

She knew that it was from that point onward that the girls stopped their resistance and let her roam at will.

"Tandy, monitor their feedback, and see if they feel any pain.  Both Aline and Inez have said that they get minor headaches from time to time."  Tandy went through the numbers, and started to smile. 

"Withdrawal, baby."  Tandy said quietly.

"Withdrawal?  Explain."

"They don't feel the pain when you are inside their minds, tinkering, or strengthening their processes with programs, or combat situational training.  Those times are clearly marked.  When you leave, there is a small period of adjustment, and they get a minor headache for about half an hour.  The headache is the price they pay to have you inside their minds, then leave."  Tandy smiled.  "I know how they feel, baby.  Your presence is powerful."  Shyla sighed softly.

"Then maybe we should work in a group dynamic at night time when the rest of the gang are not on duty.  Share the load, and not have the withdrawal of someone leaving their mind.  Hm.  A security simulation using everyone's subconscious mind, and dream realm.  Patrols.  Round table discussions.  Combat training.  As the network grows, the scope of their patrols would also grow.  And so would their monitoring abilities.  It will be in the dream realm, but their consciousness will travel in the real world, and watch their surroundings."  She said softly.  She focused on a connection.

"Aline.  Inez.  Would you like to connect to the others and go on patrol with them?"

"Are you going to be there, boss?"  They had picked up on the way the gang members called her boss, and now did the same.

"Not all the time, but the chances that I will are greater than me being in the labs.  I like to look in on them."  She heard them murmur softly.

"Okay.  When can we go out in the world, boss?"

"Not for another week, Inez.  Your shoulder had to be rebuilt.  There was a small defect in the joint, and it limited your range of motion.  Aline, you should wait with Inez, even though you are ready to be woken up.  I want you two to be a tandem pair.  A set of stalkers that make hunting more fun for you both."  Tandy smiled at Shyla's explanation.  Together, the two women were a formidable pair of hunters, and were now inseparable.  Once, they were two separate women, and didn't trust anyone.  Now, their minds relied on their connection as that is how Shyla wove them together.

"Baby, their systems have advanced quite a bit.  Will you upgrade yourself in the future?"

"Yes.  I based their interwoven musculature and actuator systems on minor and major muscle groups.  The major ones are more powerful actuators, while the minor muscle groups are enhanced with fiber optic relays and sensors.  A human can learn quick reflexes, but I can program it in.  Plus, they don't lose their ability to enjoy sex."  That was a primary part of the design.  The human muscles that adjusted the body, and responded to sexual stimulation, had to remain intact.  Their abdominal wall was intact, while inside that was a complex cage of titanium tendons that helped to augment and strengthen their bodies.  This way, their muscles wouldn't tear away when under extreme stress or strains from heavy weights.

Shyla built each skeleton in the real world before she installed it in their bodies.  To some, it would look familiar, but she designed it based on the human skeleton, armored it, and made it stronger.  In the future, she could install better systems when the technology advanced even further.

"You have the same systems, but their actuators were a little more advanced, correct?"

"Yes, Tandy.  Also, since the skeleton has practically been perfected, it's also ready.  For you.  Your muscles are almost finished, and so are the supporting structures.  Within the year, you'll be able to walk around."  Tandy looked down at her as she approached her vat.  Tandy had looked at the schematics, then Shyla's skeleton in x-ray mode.  Something seemed different, but she couldn't quite see what.

"Is that why you've worked so hard these last two years?  For me?"  She saw the loneliness in Shyla's eyes.

"You're always here."  Shyla tapped her temple.  "But I want you out here.  I need you out here."  Shyla then lowered her eyes.

"But you know that we'll be too busy to be together for the next few years." Tandy said softly. Shyla nodded.  "I understand, baby.  As long as I am still in your heart, that is all that matters to me."

"Do you think that I'm just doing this for mom and Corrie?"  She asked quietly.  "When I sit at my grandfather's desk, it won't be mom or Corrie who stand at my back."  Shyla looked up at her, and to Tandy's utter surprise, she saw her eyes glow.

"Baby, when did you install artificial eyes?"  She whispered internally.  Tandy already knew that answer.  She didn't.

"Doctor, is something wrong with the boss?" Aline asked.

"No.  I don't think so.  Something is different about the boss.  She's integrating."  Aline flashed, then both herself and Inez appeared inside Tandy's mental space.

"I don't understand."  Tandy pulled up the schematics.

"These are the boss's diagrams. She was the first iteration.  She advanced the technology since then, and updated your designs with them.  Do you see the schematics?"  Inez nodded.  "Now look at the transparency I just got from her."  Inez looked back and forth between the original schematics, and the current boss.  She then looked at her own designs.

"Why does it appear that her skeleton is updated already?  Not just updated, but more advanced too."  Aline said quietly.

"She's integrating with the technology.  Last week, she held a bar of high grade titanium, some carbon fiber, as well as a sheet of the new high tensile strength polysilicate.  It's an experimental material that she developed to be used in the new optical implants she put inside the both of you.  When she went to check on the gang, I noticed that the materials had reduced in quantity by at least fifty percent, although she doesn't really know how or why."  Aline looked at Inez, then back to Tandy.

"She absorbed it?"  Aline asked.  Tandy smiled and shrugged.

"I'm not sure, but it does appear to be so.  Even a piece of the stainless steel counter is missing."  She gestured to a corner of Shyla's desk and saw that a corner was missing, and shaped as though a hand had sheared it off with a downward strike.  "As she updates the systems, she's updating herself as well.  Subconsciously."  Aline murmured softly and looked at her sister, Inez.

"It's the boss.  What other explanation do I need?"  Inez said softly.  Tandy could feel the worship for their boss radiate from their minds.

In the twin stalkers' eyes, if she was once human, she wasn't any longer.  She was their creator.