Chapter Theme Song: N/A

"Regular Dialog"

"Thoughts"

'Hearing Another Characters Voice'

* * * - between paragraphs Indicates POV move

Cover picture by Sciamano240 on Deviantart

Human-Like Machine

No one is born good or evil, it's the influences and choices of others that make them decide.

Chapter 1: Project A.V.A-2

Name: A.V.A

Design: Artificial Vital Attacker

Model: 2

Connection To OverLooker: Disconnected

A.V.A 2 Status: Offline

Operating Systems: Off

Click On To See Each System's Status Individually:

Motor Cortex: Off

Aura Core: Off

Sat upon a screen along with endless lines of code with each having its own purpose. Endless clicking of the keyboard is the only thing heard throughout the dark room where a man sat behind the screen. His light blue eyes focused on what's in front of him as his robotic fingers pressed each key with precision. Empty Styrofoam cups and plates surrounded his laptop as if he hasn't left that seat for days. He soon stopped typing and moved his face closer towards the screen, moving his eyes over each line carefully with the reflection coming off his glasses, muttering out each thing he read.

The door behind him slowly crept open with light finding its way into the room, exposing the man. He stopped what he was doing and looked over his shoulder to see a young woman standing in the doorway. The light that flooded in showed her light brown hair with her light brown eyes focusing on him.

"Alex, you're still here? I thought you would be gone by now. Don't you have to get back here early tomorrow morning for the big event?"

"Yeah...I'm just fixing and going over some of the last code really quickly, this has to be perfect, has to be, I can't afford this one doing the same as the last, I-i can't have that again-" he looked back at the laptop, and wiped his face with his sweaty hands and then into his messy hair. The door closed lightly and something pressed down on his should, seeing it was the woman's hand as she looked over his shoulder and onto the screen in front of them.

"But it's not. You and your development team worked some hard on fixing this the past year, I know she's going to be perfect."

He took a small sigh as he smiled a little, "Thank you, I just don't want to disappoint Ironwood, he gave us a lot of funding to make the perfect fighting machine for the Atlas military."

"And you won't disappoint."

"You have a lot of faith in me, Molly." Molly, she was his longtime coworker and friend. They were in the same class and both got hired at the same time but in different departments. He started in the department for Artificial Intelligence before becoming promoted to help with Project A.V.A and soon becoming the head of it. While Molly worked and still works in the robotics department, where they maintain the brand new AK-200s, Paladin-290s, and other developments while updating their hardware and electronics, which she became one of the leads not too long ago.

"Hey, we are all on the same team, even though we aren't in the same department. I'd rather of been working on this than trying to figure out how to make the AK-200's reaction time go from .7 seconds to .6 seconds."

"Well, if anyone's going to do it, it'd be you."

"Oh, stop it you," she smiled, lightly pushing the back of his shoulder with the hand that laid on top. "Anyway I'm going, I've got to get back here early in the morning for a meeting, ugh, kill me." She began making her way back towards the door, "And you should probably go get some sleep for tomorrow so you're not falling asleep for your big day."

"I will, I'm pretty much done," he said, looking back at the screen.

"Good, maybe if my meeting ends early and I don't have anything important to do, I may stop by to meet Ava."

"You should, I know how much you like androids and robots...when you're not banging your head against a wall when something isn't working right."

"Hey, I've only done it three times in the past 7 years we've been here."

"I'm only joking," he laughed.

"I know, but in all seriousness, I really cannot wait, I bet she's going to be a doll," she said, interlocking her hands by her face, smiling.

"Shouldn't you be going right now?"

"Yeah," she giggled. "I don't know why, but sometimes I just find it hard leaving right after my shift ends."

Alex chuckled to himself, "well, good night."

"Yeah, good night, make sure you get some sleep," she yelled out to him as she left.

"Yup," he responded back, but she most likely didn't hear him. The room grew quiet again, with only the fans of the laptop to be heard. He then let out a long yawn as he stretched out his limbs and back before putting his full attention back onto the screen with no distractions. "Well, everything seems fine, maybe I should finally get some actual rest, especially for tomorrow." He hasn't gotten a good nights sleep in a really long time ever since becoming part of the project. He also hasn't taken too many days off thinking back now and the days he was home for the day he continued to work at home He quickly saved the changes he made before closing his laptop and placing in its holder. He threw away all the trash that was laying on the table before heading out of the room.

He walked through the well lit white halls, reaching large white twin doors with a touch screen on the wall next to it. He grabbed his lanyard from his pocket, pressing his ID card against the screen and placed his right hand on the screen. The screen became green and the rather heavy looking doors begin to open which continued the hallway and he took the first door on the right. As the door opened a person stood right in the way as if they are expecting him.

"Woah!" He jumped back, grabbing at his chest, but then gave out a small sigh while rubbing the back of his head, realizing it was just a guard.

"Sorry to make you jump like that."

"Heh, it's fine, I just wasn't expecting anyone being in here, that's all."

"Well, just making my rounds, wait, are you Alex Denim? Yeah, you are, you're the lead on project A.V.A."

He fixed his glasses with a small smile, "Yup, that's me, I'd love to talk but I have to get this hooked up so it's ready for tomorrow morning." he explained, patting the laptop case that hung by his hip.

"Oh, my apologies," the guard step to the side, allowing Alex through.

"Thank you."

"You're welcome, get some sleep, you look like you haven't in a couple of days, us night guards should be tired ones, not you guys," he joked as he walked out the door Alex came in through.

"Everyone is so concerned with my sleep all of a sudden, whatever, I just have to get this hooked up so everything is uploaded for tomorrow." There was another room in the room he entered which seemed to be some kind of observer room where a large computer tower sat with dual monitors next to it. He sat his laptop onto the table, hooking it up to the tower and clicked an icon on the main computer which read, "Project A.V.A," and hit, "Upload from..," where he searched for his laptop and the program instantly found the programs file and began uploading the last part needed.

"There..that should be done by tomorrow morning, hopefully." He looked up, seeing a large window span across the wall where the computer sat behind which was again, another room It resembled a bedroom where a young woman laid on her back on the bed, not moving at all with her arms to her sides and eye's closed. Alex leaned closer to the window, placing his hand onto the glass, "Can't wait to meet you, Ava."

Next Morning

Alex's feet dragged him through the halls, with each step feeling heavy while he held a cup of coffee in his hand. The halls are much more alive than last night with workers walking up and down like a colony of ants. For what felt like an eternity he finally made it to his department, going through the same white doors and back into the same room, finding a group of people waiting around. As he came in, he was greeted by everyone almost all at once.

"Good Morning everyone," he started, putting his empty laptop case on an empty chair and taking a sip from his cup. "Could I get everyone to gather around, I just want to say a few things before we start this," he said, motioning his hands for everyone to gather around. Within seconds everyone stopped what they were doing and huddled around him as if he was going to tell the best campfire story.

"I would just like to say, thank you to everyone, for all of your hard work on this project, it really means a lot and shows how we came together as a team an-" but he was stopped short as everyone began clapping and there being that one guy whistling.

"Thank you, thank you," once the cheering stopped he continued," And I would also like to thank the engineering and robotics department for helping us, because without them we wouldn't have a physical body to use, and they just hit it out of the park this time, so I just want to say thank you again to them even though they're not here and I'm going to start a little gift basket for them both and I wish for everyone to chip in and I'll send it over there to them." Everyone began clapping once more, but not for as long.

" And I know you're all eager to start this, but I would like to um," he then lifted his glasses, wiping his eye," remember those who've we lost during the first trial of this, they were amazing people and they will always be in our hearts and if they're looking down at us right now, they're probably so proud of us right now, so I would like to take a moment of silence for them."

Alex and everyone else closed their eyes with their heads down, in silence for a couple of seconds until Alex looked back up, "Thank you," and everyone lifted their heads back up. "Now, who wants to get this thing started? Into the overserving room," as soon as he gave the order, everyone rushed into the smaller room as he watched. He felt something poke him on the back, and he turned around, looking down to see one of his newer team members. She was holding both of her hands down, it seemed she was holding something but he couldn't tell.

"I just wanted to say that, you're one of the best bosses I've had and I couldn't help myself to get you something." She had an envelope in one of her hands and held it up to him.

He couldn't help himself but to just smile, "Thank you." He took it from her, "I'm going to put it somewhere safe," he then walked over to his laptop holder, placing it in one of the zip up pockets. "Come now, we have someone waiting for us," he placed a hand on her upper back, leading to the observing room.

Everyone was in position, two people are at the main computer, one by the windows control system, and another two are looking through the window with each one having a clipboard in hand while the rest just watched.

"Everything looks good, Alex, I'm going to be activating the voice-controlled room," said one of the guys by the computer.

"Good," Alex then looked at the person by the windows control system, "Activate one-way window."

"Yes, sir."

He then looked at the guy and girl with the clipboards," make sure to write everything down, and I mean every little thing."

"You don't have to worry boss," the guy said.

"Good."

"Alex, voice-controlled room is activated, all systems on A.V.A 2 are green on my screen, she's ready for activation when you're ready."

He took a deep breath before speaking, "Control room."

"Go ahead, Mr. Denim," the room's voice said.

"..Activate Ava 2."

"Activating Project A.V.A 2, Operating systems online, cooling systems online, motor cortex online, aura core online, systems green, Project A.V.A 2 is online."

Ava's eyes shot open, revealing her bright green crystal eyes with her chest lifting up and down as air quickly got sucked in through her mouth and nose

"Welcome home, Ava," the room said.

"A-va?" she softly asked.

A/N: If you made it this far, thank you for taking the time to read this. Next chapter will be posted once I finish writing the first arc which shouldn't take too long since I got most of it finished, I just have to finish the last two chapters for it and then edit all the chapters. If you found this story interesting let me know in the reviews or just hit the follow button to let me know you're interested in it if you don't feel like reviewing. Well thought out, and critical reviews are appreciated, hateful or aggressive reviews are not and will be ignored and permanently blocked. Also happy valentines day peeps.