Mother-Daughter Bonding

Melissa didn't care how smelly Alexis was right now and just flung herself to hug her beloved daughter. All her worries vanished the moment she saw her daughter alive and fine, apart from small bruises which will heal in no time. For a moment, Alexis also forgot about all the troubles that she went through in the Dead Zone when she felt the warmth of her mother.

After hugging her daughter for a good minute, Melissa finally broke the silence, "What happened to you Lexi? I was so worried about you." Once again, tears started to roll down her cheeks and her already sore eyes started to turn red.

Seeing her mother crying, tears started to fill in her eye rims as well. Alexis kept her head down and said, "I'm so sorry for constantly making you worry about me. I don't know why such things keep happening to me."

Although Melissa knew that her daughter had some kind of superpower, she never got to directly see her daughter in action. She had only speculated that her daughter had super strength and she could fly. In the video that was broadcasted in the news, she only recognized her daughter because of the blue aura around her. She remembered how her daughter's friend had said that Alexis "glowed blue".

However, Melissa never knew what actually happened to her daughter when she would be overpowered by her own power. So when she heard Alexis saying that something keeps happening to her, she was extremely curious to know what Alexis would actually go through so that she could help her. And she also wanted to know how long it has been since Alexis's powers had started to manifest. Melissa quickly held her daughter's hand and both of them sat on the couch, "What keeps happening to you? How long has it been since it started?"

Obviously, Alexis had no memory of what happened to her. There was a gap in her memory because of which, this question from her mother sounded very odd to her. Alexis gave her mother a dazed look of bewilderment and asked, "Er… how long since what started?"

This reply from Alexis made Melissa even more puzzled. She furrowed her brows and tilted her head to face Alexis, "You said…" She paused in between and bit her inner lips lightly and then resumed, "Didn't you say that some strange things are happening to you lately?"

Alexis started to complain about the series of bad lucks that she had been facing lately, "Yeah. I get beaten up without any reason. And I… Wait, I don't even know what day it is today. For how many days was I lost?"

"You did not return home since yesterday. You don't know how helpless I felt." Melissa caressed her daughter's cheek and looked at her very lovingly; glad that now her daughter was with her.

Alexis went on to explain what she faced during the day, "And yeah, I was lost in the Dead Zone for a whole night and a day, and I don't even remember what happened. Not a thing! I have no idea how I ended up there in the first place. I remember walking for home after taking the classes and I woke up there in the Dead Zone. Then all those scary dogs started chasing me, and I fell down a cliff, and then crawled through the tunnel. And finally, I escaped from the danger."

Melissa now understood everything. Her daughter had no memory whatsoever of how her powers manifested. Though she felt bad for her daughter, she was quite relieved that her daughter had no idea that she had any powers to begin with.

When she saw the video of Alexis flying through the city, Melissa thought that she owed explanations to her daughter regarding her powers. But after hearing Alexis, she thought it was best to keep quiet for now.

Melissa hugged her daughter again and steered the conversation in the direction she wanted to, "I can't believe my fragile daughter went through so many troubles in one single day. Don't pressure yourself to remember how you ended up there in the Dead Zone. I'm just glad that you found your way back before any further trouble happened."

She patted Alexis on her shoulder and then wiped her nose, "Alright! Enough of this sobbing for now. You need to take a warm bath first."

Alexis smelled her hair and laughed, "Yeah, I sure do."

"Do you need me to prepare the bath for you? You must have been exhausted", Melissa offered.

"No mom, I can do it myself. Will you prepare some food for me instead? I feel like I can eat a whole chicken or something." After using all her energy from flying to running to crawling, and not eating anything since yesterday, she sure was very hungry.

Finally Melissa smiled a little and said, "Sure honey. I'll prepare everything that you like." Then she immediately rushed off towards the kitchen.

Alexis looked at her mother with delight and then climbed up the stairs to her room.

"Welcome Alexis! Enjoyed your night out yesterday?" a robotic voice asked Alexis as soon as she stepped inside her room.

"You didn't ask me where I was PIA. You should ask that first and do the analysis yourself." Alexis almost felt like laughing at the innocence of her so-called "Intelligent Assistant".

"If you knew, you wouldn't be asking me that" Alexis mumbled and went straight to her bathroom.

PIA was wise enough to fill in the bathtub with perfect amount of soap water and set the right temperature for her master. Alexis took off all her dirty clothes with a disgusted expression on her face and then went in for a nice bath. "Ahh… feels so gooood", Alexis whispered in a satisfied tone and closed her eyes.

Her eyes were immediately wide open when PIA interrupted her with a message, "Alexis, I have synced-in both of your cell phones to my system. You have 71 missed calls and 14 text messages in total. 15 missed calls and 11 text messages from Vorian Zadoc, 35 missed calls and 2 text messages from Natalia Gonzales, and 21 missed calls and 1 text message from Mom. Would you like to check them now?"