Chapter 18.2

"A.V.A?" Jason asked into his helmet. He speedily drove his four-wheeled bike through the streets, slowly making his way to the Loft.

"Alice is with Ms. Graves and there appears to be no danger to either of them," A.V.A answered mechanically. "However, it appears that Ms. Graves has realized that Alice is no ordinary child."

"Is she making any moves to test her?" Jason asked grimly.

"Only a DNA test," A.V.A confirmed after a moment. "She seems to have a stand of Alice's hair."

"You're plugged into her system, right? Forward me the results and mess around with the file before she gets it," Jason said almost immediately. He had an inkling as to what Alice really was, but he didn't want to raise any more suspicions.

"Understood," A.V.A said in an emotionless voice. "I'll compile the results to show that the testee is your daughter and is entirely human."

"Not funny, Ava," Jason muttered unamused.

"... That was not a joke."

"Oh, for crying out loud." Jason breathed quietly under his breath.

***

Alina entered the Loft after passing through several security systems. Not only did she have to go through the usual voice recognition, fingerprint access, and eye retina scan, she also had to be subject to a DNA verifier, a scanner that checked her DNA structure as she passed through it. Its ability to scan the user's DNA made it almost impossible to fool but it was also one of the reasons why Alina hated coming here; trying to enter this bunker was like waiting in line for a burger during rush hour.

As the elevator behind her sank in, Alina kicked off her boots and took her coat off. A little bot scurried forward and picked her shoes up before placing it carefully onto the shoe cabinet. It then picked up a small mop and began cleaning the puddles of water her shoes left on the floor.

"Thanks, little guy," Alina said while bending down to pat the little robot cleaner who hummed cheerfully in response to her actions before quickly wheeling away once it was done cleaning the floor.

Alina took a deep breath before walking forward, bracing herself for the inevitable as she entered the main room in the Loft. A woman was standing beside the large quantum computer. Her fair skin was unusually smooth with no blemish or beauty spot and her bright brown eyes, while expressive, had no emotions which were quite similar to Jason. Her wavy black hair blossomed perfectly as it cascaded down her head, the hair pulled to one side and resting snuggly on her left shoulder while her bangs covered a side of the face.

"Good day Ms. Sage, how was your drive here?" the woman asked, her voice also unnaturally calm and emotionless. Her voice was also not in sync with her mouth movement.

"It's Alina, Ava," Alina answered with a hint of exasperation. "And you know how the ride was, you were the one driving the car."

Indeed, this woman was, in fact, A.V.A, specifically a robot controlled by the AI that Jason had created. The latter had hoped that Ava would be able to emphasize with humans better if she were one herself. And while Alina had no issues with Ava, she was a bit uncomfortable with her.

"How's Emily and Alice?" Alina asked while pressing a button on the computer.

A section of the floor slid away and a reception lounge slowly rose up from it. It was complete with four sofas and holo-computer in the center. A holo-computer was a device that worked as a computer, television, and gaming system all at once. The sofas were designed with the ability to become recliners, allowing the seater to lay back and connect their holo-lens to the holo-computer, giving them the ability to watch and play anything immersively while relaxing their body.

"Alice is currently with Ms. Silvia Graves," Ava answered as Alina collapsed on a sofa. "Emily, however, has left."

"What?!" Alina shot back up and prepared to call Emily while Ava continued talking monotonously.

"She increased her Esper level, which allowed her to accelerate her healing," Ava said. "After she fully recovered, she left the mansion with Asami and Jared."

"Still, better to check up on her," Alina muttered as she called Emily. A few moments later, Emily picked the phone up and Alina immediately started talking. "Hey, Emily. Just wanted to check up on you. You ok?"

"Yeah, I'm alright. I'm hanging out with Asami at an arcade," Emily's voice came through the phone slightly muffled because of the background noise which was mostly music from arcade games.

"Seriously? You just got out of the hospital, you shouldn't be there!" Alina said. "... You should've called me if you were going to go there!"

"... Did you … are you ... jealous?" Emily asked between giggles, besides herself with amusement from how Alina was acting. She could even imagine Alina's pouty face as she continued giggling.

"No. Yes. … maybe?" Alina answered in a slightly meek voice. "Argh, I'm just bored. Jason ditched me and went on a date with Raphael leaving me all alone here!"

As Alina leaned back on the sofa, she began kicking her legs displaying her childish attitude to Emily for the first time.

"Wait, what? You- did you just say Jason's dating Raphael?! Isn't that Michelle's brother?!" Asami who was near Emily shouted in surprise after grabbing the phone.

"Uh, dude. I didn't mean that, like, literally," Alina winced and moved lowered the volume through a hologram before answering.

"Well, we're almost done here, maybe we can meet up in an hour or two?" Emily suggested after snatching the phone back.

"Really?" Alina turned to look at Ava who nodded back, indicating that Jason was alright with bringing them to the Loft.

"Really really," answered Emily with a laugh.

"Alright!" Alina answered as she texted to Michelle. Alina received a message from Jason, as she spoke, and she cheered after reading it. "Skip a meal before coming, Jason's cooking tonight! Oh, Michelle texted back too, she'll be coming too!"

"... Jason will be there?" Emily asked hesitatingly.

"Yeah … why?" Alina asked slowly.

"Nothing. We'll be there after a few hours. See you soon," Emily answered before hanging up.

Weird, Alina thought. Don't tell me she's planning to dress up before coming here...