55 Liam's Mansion
It was 6 AM in the morning and PIA rang the alarm to wake Alexis and Natalia. Natalia had stayed over at Alexis's home the day before because the girls thought that it would be easier for Liam to come pick them up at once if they went to the P-2 Street together.
Alexis swiftly got up from the bed as soon as she heard the alarm because she was very excited to start training with her new-found powers. She went to freshen up while Natalia just rolled over to the other side of the bed and fell asleep again.
Alexis came back to her room after 10 minutes and saw that Natalia was still sound asleep. "Natalia, get up. Don't you want to meet Liam first thing in the morning?"
Natalia tried to open her eyes but they fluttered and closed again. "I don't know any Liam. Just let me sleep please." Natalia whispered in her half-asleep state and then covered her face with the blanket to go back to sleep.
"Natalia, come on get up. We are going to be late." Alexis tried calling, poking, and pulling the blanket but Natalia did not budge from the bed.
Then Alexis had a wicked idea. She pretended that she was starting to get angry and she changed her voice to sound very stern, "Don't make me angry Natalia, get your ass off the bed. Now!"
Natalia's eyes were wide open now, hearing that weird voice from Alexis. Her grogginess had vanished. She jump right out of the bed and dashed off towards the bathroom without even looking at Alexis. All she knew was that she had to get far away from Alexis if she was angry.
Alexis puckered her lips seeing Natalia run away like that. "I must have scared her a little too much. But it did the trick so…"
Alexis shrugged off her shoulders and went to change her dress. She started to change into her Academy uniform for the practice. She could not think of anything better to wear because the uniform was designed for a battle as well, with easy mobility and breathable material.
After some time, Natalia slowly opened the bathroom door and peeked inside the room to see if Alexis was acting strange or not. After noticing that Alexis was neither glowing nor levitating in the air, she trotted inside the room.
Natalia grabbed her uniform from yesterday to slip into those but she pinched her nose as soon as she reached near to that uniform. "Blakhh…" She struggled to speak as she was still pinching her nose, "It looks disgusting with all the dirt from that tunnel."
Natalia faced towards Alexis and pointed at the t-shirt and trouser that she was wearing, "Do you mind if I wear these while we go to Liam's? We will drop by my house before we go to the Academy and I will get changed into a fresh set of uniform."
"Sure why not." But Alexis was skeptical because the outfit that Natalia was wearing looked quite old which was why she only wore it inside of her house. "Are you sure that you will be okay in that old outfit? Do you want me to lend you something nice?"
"No this is alright." Natalia glanced at her watch which was displaying that it was now 6:45. She hastily stuffed her uniform in her bag and chirped, "Let's go! We don't want to be late."
The girls hopped in a cab and then the cab took them to P-2 Street within the next 10 minutes. Natalia transferred 45 points to the cab driver and they got out of the cab.
Alexis and Natalia scanned the area that they were in with their keen eyes. They had not travelled this far to the East. The only time both of the girls had travelled far to the east was when they attended the hearing in P-5 Street. But that street was filled with government offices and there was nothing to be amazed about except few beautiful buildings.
But the P-2 Street was far different than what they had expected. They had expected to see tall and modern buildings with flashy neighborhood. But, on contrary to their expectation, this street was far more quiet and peaceful.
Almost all the mansions had equal compound, separated with medium-raised walls. They could see that inside the compound there were tall trees, some bearing fruits while some providing shade. The whole Street was a sight to behold.
"When did you two arrive? Did you wait for long?" A voice came from behind. Both Alexis and Natalia almost jumped because they were so lost in the mesmerizing view that they did not notice anyone coming from behind them.
Both of them turned around to see Liam all dressed in a nice suit. He ran his fingers through his blonde hair and smiled at the girls.
Natalia immediately regretted her decision to come wearing an old pair of Alexis's cloth. "Damn! I should have worn something nice when Alexis had offered me." Natalia cursed herself inwardly and was trying her best to avoid making eye contact with Liam.
"No, we just arrived." Alexis answered to Liam with a smile.
Liam started to walk ahead of the girls and asked them to follow him. After walking for about 5 minutes, they finally arrived in front of Liam's house. As soon as Liam stood in front of the huge gate, the gate opened automatically.
Alexis and Natalia stepped inside the gate and were spellbound by the beauty of Liam's mansion. They were immediately greeted by a droid, the housekeeper of the O'Brian Mansion. "Welcome Young Master and his friends. How have you been master?" The droid asked in a very calm voice.
Alexis and Natalia had imagined the droid to look more like a robot and have a robotic voice. But they were surprised by the appearance of the droid. It looked, talked and walked just like a human.
Liam smiled at him and greeted him back, "I have been good Rupert. I hope you are not feeling lonely in the mansion."
Liam and Rupert started to walk ahead while the girls followed them.
"I can't say that I am lonely. I have been busy with the household works." Rupert tried to be very polite as he spoke.
All of them walked through the green garden with tall trees and well-maintained bushes. The path was made up of marbles, and there was not a single leaf on the path. Rupert was very thorough with cleanliness and maintenance of the house. And he must have been very busy when Liam notified him that he would be visiting.
Alexis and Natalia's jaw almost dropped at the view of a huge mansion ahead of them. It was built in a classic Georgian architecture. The mansion was white in color with grey rooftop. It was supported by huge and strong pillars, and although the mansion was just two-story tall, the height of the building was massive. The girls felt as though they were suddenly transported several centuries back in time.
"People still have houses like this?" Alexis spoke under her breath as she looked around with amazement.
The droid led the three of them inside the mansion and Liam waved off the droid. The inside of the mansion was also equally impressive with huge wooden furniture and paintings on display. The chandeliers hanging from above were also equally eye-catching.
The three of them walked to one of the corner of the main living room. Liam entered a code on the device that was on the wall and suddenly a door opened in the middle of the living room's floor.
Alexis and Natalia were constantly gasping or widening their eyes because of all the impressive things they were seeing.
"Come on, the bunker is down there." Liam pointed at the secret door that had opened in the middle of the hall. He walked to the center and the girls followed him.
They walked down the stairs and after all of them were inside the large bunker Liam pressed the code again on the similar device on the wall. The door they entered through now closed. The whole bunker was dark grey in color and spanned as wide as the mansion itself.
Seeing the girls looking around with their jaws open, Liam started to explain, "This bunker was designed by keeping the war in mind. As it was made for war emergencies, that corner of the bunker has stacks of food and water pills. Of course, we keep changing them from time to time. And you can also see several models of laser guns on that side of the wall."
Natalia ran to check out the laser guns and asked Liam, "Do you know how to use one of these?"
"Yeah I do, pretty much. My father is an ex-military so he used to teach me several things here in this same bunker." Liam didn't want to brag so he tried to be very modest.
But Natalia was already very impressed with Liam. "Whoa! Will you teach me as well?"
"If you want to learn then, sure." Liam smiled shyly and tousled his hair to contain his nervousness.
"Okay. But let's watch Alexis first." Natalia was not sure if she could handle a gun so she glanced at Alexis and said, "Why don't you show us your magic then?"
