Home Sweet Home

=Machine Base=

When the Hovercraft touched down on the airbase, not a single word came out of Artemis' mouth. He held the little girl with his hand as they walked out. He even ignored Caitlyn who was standing near the airstrip where they landed. She waved at them, hoping he'd notice her. Artemis only looked at her for a moment before walking out of view escorted by a new set of Androids.

They then escorted through the wormhole. As they entered, Alice was amazed all throughout. Shes on a huge space inside some metal box, hundreds or maybe even thousands of the same looking creatures walk in lines and in perfect order. Some carried strange boxes, some carried crates while others simply walked to wherever they were headed.

The place they walked through was surprisingly spacious albeit it was the center of tremendous traffic still. Wherever they went the Androids in front of them would stop and form a corridor just to let them pass through before continuing on with what they were doing.

The gates of the box opens and what Alice saw even amazes her.

She saw the towering buildings made of metal, she also saw civilians walking around doing their own business.

"Mister, is this your home?" Alice asked Artemis as she tightened her grip around his hand. Artemis looked at her and smiled.

"Yes, this is where my home and from now on, the people you see around you will be your allies." He said. He then returned his sights in front of him. For few minutes of driving in a transport vehicle until they made to the once New York Central Park.

Towering in front of them was their main building. The command center of the entire citadel. It was there that he would have Alice stay.

"Wah!" Alice was excited to see her new home that towered even beyond the clouds. The tower has since been renovated and expanded since Artemis left. With Caitlyn's architectural touches, the tower's lower half was similar to that of a pyramid to accommodate more space. The lower interior was refitted to be a more welcoming and lavish space for future visitors.

Caitlyn knew that Artemis did not plan on dominating the world through bloodshed alone. He must soon set himself up as the leader of this new country in both earth and that gigantic magical world and seek recognition from other states, or taken their nation by force and bloodshed if the leaders are bunch of greedy assholes. That was their new plan.

Artemis and Caitlyn entered through the main entrance accompanied by a parade of well-decorated Androids. The decorations did not mean anything, they did not reflect any real outstanding achievements done by the Drones. It was just set up to impress the little girl. Caitlyn already caught wind of what Artemis intended to bring out of the little girl he saved.

"He plans on turning the human girl into a future weapon? A weapon to control the humans while being able to display tremendous power to keep the rest in line?" Michael asked through the Machine Network. Caitlyn smiled and replied. "Yes, that's why I arranged this ceremony. The interior has been thoroughly decorated with decorations and symbols that reflected our might. Of course, she's a young human girl, easily manipulated and easily indoctrinated. We are helping Artemis to shape her."

And what she said was true. The further they got into the lower section of the tower, Alice was met with steady formations of powerful-looking soldiers that looked the same and wielded the same weird weapons. What she did not know that there were more surprises to come.

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"Uh," Alice jumped onto her bed. She was tired from everything that happened in the last few hours. She cried so hard while being embraced by Artemis, then she saw the world from above. And now she was inside her own room with her own bed in a city that was said to be Artemis' home.

"Too... many... surprises..." She said felt tired.

—Yawn! :3

Alice yawned and rolled a few times over the bed. Artemis had dropped her off in this room so she could rest. "Rest for a while," He told her. "We won't be going any time soon since I am preparing you. This room was specially made for you, I hope you like it."

"I like it very much." She said to herself. She rolled again and fell onto the floor. "Ouch," She said while she rubbed her forehead. She then stood and gave her room a closer look. The entire room was painted gray with a few variances in shading.

The walls were gray, the ceiling was shaded darker while the floor was shaded lighter. There were only a bed, a wooden wardrobe and a small table with a chair inside the room. The wooden table was placed to the right of the bed while the wooden table and the chair were placed to the left near the glass walls. The glass walls enabled her to see what was below her.

She stood and walked to the glass wall. She was first hesitant since she had a small fear of heights but Artemis assured her that nothing would break the glass. So, after a few seconds of thinking and hesitation, she went and placed her two small hands on the glass.

The glass was sparkly clean, the cleanest she had ever seen and the closest she has ever been to glass. Glass was considered a luxury item since it was hard to make. To see it in such a thick concentration and used so heavily as to form a wall like this meant that Artemis was extremely rich, or so she thought.

Forgetting her fears, she placed her forehead at the glass and looked down. The city below her was buzzing with activity and shining with lights. It was her first time seeing the skyline of the hub, the lights astounded her more than when she first walked through the hub.

"Amazing," Her eyes sparkled as she saw a squad of hovercrafts flyby. They were fast but just at the right speed so that Alice could see them. The towering buildings, the moving lights, the thousands of workers that streamed below. All amazed her.

She spent a good amount of time just watching the action through the glass. It was not until someone knocked on her door did she finally looked elsewhere.

"Who could that be?" She told herself as she walked away from the glass wall. She walked close to the door and then it opened abruptly, frightening her slightly.

"Hi there! 😊 " A beautiful woman with short golden hair greeted her.

"EEEK! 😨 " Alice let out a shallow cry and ran behind her bed.

"I told you not to scare her." Artemis entered the room. Caitlyn merely smirked and walked towards Alice.

"Alice, it's fine. This woman right here is my assistant, she will take care of you for the time being," Artemis said as Alice slowly stood from behind the bed. Caitlyn went and extended her right hand to formally greet the little girl. She looked at her with an awkward expression and extended her hands for her to see.

"She's shivering! Is it cold?" Caitlyn noticed the little girl's hands shake violently.

"She is not shivering you fool, she is trembling because you scared her." Artemis rebuked. Caitlyn gave Artemis a stern look before looking back at Alice. Her stern look was immediately replaced by a warm smile.

"I am Caitlyn." She said as she forced her smile further.

"I-I am Alice." Finally, Alice mustered enough courage to speak a word.

"You are literally terrifying and I thought you had credence when you called me monster-faced." Artemis was obviously mocking Caitlyn who retaliated by shooting a Primelium-energy bullet at him with her gun that flew fast at Mach 10, only for it to be easily caught by Artemis using two fingers with ease.

Alice then giggled after their small fight.

"Why is she giggling all of a sudden? Wasn't she terrified just a few seconds ago?" Caitlyn asked.

"You tell me, maybe she found your demeanor laughable and decided to let out her pity." Artemis retorted.

Mean! 😣

Caitlyn thought. Artemis was as cold as ever, she felt embarrassed for even having the slightest hope that upon Artemis' return that he would have changed even just a bit. But no, Artemis was the same as ever and Alice did not do anything but provide him with yet another pawn that he could use in his chessboard.

That chessboard of his was missing two pieces though.

"I will leave her now. I gotta go and try to find where our two friends are." Artemis said before leaving. Alice was no longer giggling but she was standing and looking at Caitlyn.

"Kid, we are going to have a lot of fun together!" Caitlyn said with excitement. Alice nodded slowly.

"First, we need to get you into shape, both physically and mentally! Starting tomorrow, you and I will train together. I will guide you through each of the challenges you will be presented with, train hard and work hard! For this is life and your enemy is the world. Your only allies are us and the only safe haven in this world is this place. This place shall now be your home, you abode, your life! And we shall be your guardians, your parents and your friends! So do not fret. Work hard....."

Caitlyn leaned closer to Alice and grabbed her chin with gentleness and tilted her head up.

"Because this world is yours," She whispered.

The words sent shivers down her spine. Something then peirced her heart, she took a closer look at Caitlyn. She looked oddly similar to someone she knew. Though it must be nothing, the similarity lingered in her mind.

"Hm!" She nodded repeatedly. She was eager to learn! She still remembered the tragedy that befell her and now that she was given a chance to straighten her life, she was willing to give it her all.

"That's the spirit!" Caitlyn said before grabbing Alice's hand.

"Eh?"

Caitlyn then proceeded to drag her out of the room.

"W-Where are we going?" Alice asked.

"Artemis would kill me if I forgot, you are young and need nutrition so I am taking you to eat!" Caitlyn answered.

"Food!"

Later that night, Caitlyn had a captive human cook work tirelessly through the night. Presented to Alice was a long table of food that even she did not think she would get. She spared no shame and went all out. She went through the entire meal with such enthusiasm that even Caitlyn was surprised of her appetite.

Secretly, Caitlyn contacted Artemis.

"Artemis." Caitlyn said as she walked into a corner of the room where they were in.

"What?" Artemis said through the other end. She could hear the sounds of marching at Artemis' end of the line.

"Are you leading a battalion right now?" Caitlyn asked.

"Yes, I am gonna go back to Zeticon City to Zannisir Island and finally bring down the Senadate Theocracy once and for all." Artemis confirmed.

"Anyways," Caitlyn said.

"You never told me that this girl has a big appetite! She has already consumed half of the food that was prepared!" Caitlyn said while the little girl continued her glutenous behavior.

"It's fine. As long as she does not gain any medical complications. She must have not been treated well in the past and so she is having a fit of hunger. Let her be. The more she eats, the stronger her body will become." Artemis knew about Alice's appetite the moment he fed her the apples. Even he knew that eating half a sack of apples was a task not so easily achieved by a little girl with such a small body.

"Artemis, you do know that eating so much will eventually get her fat?!" Caitlyn did not want Alice to get fat. She would if she continued to eat at a rate like this everyday.

"You're the one who told me that you'd get her mind and body into shape for her upcoming mission. You were the one who told me that you'd deliver, now don't disappoint me and deliver." Artemis was confident that simple exercise would do the trick and that Caitlyn was responsible if Alice got fat.

"S-Still! Look! She's almost consumed the entire meal!" She was not wrong. Alice's eyes gleamed as she was about to consume the last roasted chicken on the table.

"Well, have the chef cook another batch as if the human had a choice in the first place."

"Sigh... will do."

Caitlyn ended the connection.

She just watched as the little girl finished off the first batch.

—Burp!

Alice blushed after burping and tried to hide it.

"Sigh... I'll go tell the chef to cook one more?" Caitlyn asked.

"Sure!" She was still hungry for more! Luckily Caitlyn had prepared the ingredients necessary but there was only one problem. Will the chef last for long? He is already driven by fear of execution but if he was to be overworked repeated, then that was another problem all the way.

"HEY! ANOTHER ONE YOU LITTLE BASTARD, COME ON!!!" Caitlyn shouted at the chef on the other room in a tone that is several times scarier than Gordan Ramsay.

The chef she called was a skinny man wearing a makeshift apron over his rugged clothes. He gripped his spatula tightly.

"Y-Yes, ma'am! 😨" He said in a high pitched voice.

Caitlyn smiled and asked Alice to wait.

In a few minutes, the second batch was being served. Caitlyn watched as Alice devoured the second batch like a wild beast unleashed from its cage and given free reign to feast on its victims. She would use a variety of methods to consume the food. She would use her hands to grab hold on some of the food or use them to outright claw the food depending on what type it was. She would also regularly use the utensils that Caitlyn provided.

She would impale the food, cut the food, as long as it was able to fit inside her mouth.

Suddenly, when she was halfway through the second batch of food. She stopped.

"Eh? Are you done?" Caitlyn asked.

"W-Water!" Alice was choking! Caitlyn had forgotten to provide her water.

"Hey we need water!" Caitlyn shouted.

"S-Sorry, madame, but.... were run out of water on our water supplies," The chef replied.

"Then get one on the sink!"

"The water pipes were broken, the engineers will take 20 minutes to finally finish rebuilding it, madame"

Caitlyn: ಠ_ಠ

Chef: (°_°٥)

"YEET!"

In a haste, she went and ran out through and destroyed the glass wall, landed on the ground creating a huge crater, surprising the civilians nearby in fear, she then immediately ran to the once Central Park's pond in shockingly speed and took out an entire gallon before returning. It took her less than 2 minutes despite her best efforts.

When she returned, however, there was no need to rush.

Alice had already finished the second batch and was asking for a third.

"You've got to be kidding me!?"

(╯°□°）╯︵ ┻━┻

She screamed inside. It seemed like Alice was going to be more troublesome than expected. Just with her appetite, Caitlyn was under-equipped and unprepared! Next time she must take notes of every possibility and variable lest she once again falls short.

The night was long, in the end, the chef fainted after finishing the fourth batch. The skinny chef was sent to a hospital for treatment. Alice fell asleep a minute after finishing the fourth batch. She was sound asleep, prompting Caitlyn to carry her to her room.

Caitlyn grabbed her and carried her to her room. Upon tucking her in bed, Caitlyn watched her for a minute. she took a good look at her, then she realized that she had seen her before. Caitlyn's assumption when she first saw her was correct. She then displayed a blank expression. She then turned her back and went for the door.

Before shutting the door behind her, under her breath, she whispered.

"I'm sorry I killed your mother."

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"Hows that Demon prisoner we held there?"

"Well, we extracted his memory into the network and what we found is incredible, another dimension in this world, which it was called as the Dark Realm. We still looking at his memories for now, it could take some time. While we got most of the infos from his memories, we don't know the past before the forgotten era because he lives more than 400 years which it wasn't enough. We don't know exactly where is that dimension because they used some sort of magic that is similar to the Wormhole to travel there world to here,"

"Hm, how unfortunate, well that doesn't matter anyway, I got this letter in the city, some place called the International Arcane University, they say they need to teach her magic there once she's mature,"

"Really? Why didn't I heard about theres some kind of magic academy here in this world? Whatever, I agree, we don't know how to teach her some magic, we aren't magicians,"

"Yeah, without it, we couldn't expanding her magic further, she would be just a worthless tool in the future,"

"Agreed,"

"And also, that other little girl from the city, the one with no mana, we could also send her there,"

"You plan on sending her too?"

"Of course, they are both little girls. Both display abilities that we can exploit. Though the man from Bulhin gave me a letter that would get Alice accepted into the academy right away, I am not sure about the other girl,"

"She's been living with her mother for months, they've been integrated well into the City too. If we were to take the little girl from her mother, this might affect our plans of forming good relations with our captive humans."

"You got a point, well, according to Kein, the academy will officially start accepting new students in the age of 20."

"I will get them into top shape before then, we still have 15 years."

"Yeah, and also, I already found the exact location of Valentine and Liz, they were still okay, don't forget to finish our newest project once they get what they were task for, I want it done by then too."