Chapter Theme Song: N/A
"Regular Dialog"
"Thoughts"
'Hearing Another Characters Voice'
Cover picture by Sciamano240 on Deviantart
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Kamina44: Yes I am alive school has just taken a lot of my time but now that it's over I have a little more time to write and I've been good.
Chapter 3: Testing, Testing
Alex and Ava made their way down the halls of the laboratory with two of Alex's co-workers shadowing behind them, one of them holding a laptop and the other with a clipboard where they are making their way to the testing room. Ava was wearing a white jumpsuit with black shoes which were given to her earlier that morning.
"So, how was yesterday with Molly, hope you didn't have too much fun as you promise me," Alex joked.
Ava shook her head, "No, just hung out, she brought me more puzzles to do."
Alex smiled, "that sounds like fun, wish I was there." The halls are quite busy for how early it was in the morning. Each person that walked past took a glance at Ava, knowing that they haven't seen her around here before. "So what kind of puzzl-"
"Why is everyone looking at me?" She asked, looking back each person who glanced at her.
"No need to worry, they just haven't seen you before so they're curious so don't stress over it," Alex explained.
Ava loosened up her shoulders while taking a breathe, "Alright, but I still find it weird."
"Just don't pay any mind to it, so are you nervous about these tests?"
She shook her head, "No, you told me I would have no problem with them and you know me best, so why would I be nervous if you know I'll get through it with no problems?"
Alex chuckled, "How did you get so smart so quick?"
"I guess reading those books have helped a lot, I was able to get through a couple more yesterday along with the puzzles, so what kind of tests are these going to be?"
"Just your basic ones, nothing too fancy." The four of them soon reach the testing room, it is a wide open room with white walls and along the floor there sat various types of physical training equipment. There is a slight echo in the room with each footstep they took and the room is brightly lit from the blinding white lights above them.
"We'll start on the endurance test first, " Alex explained. Ava was brought to a treadmill that has sensors which are then connected to her chest, stomach, arms and upper thighs once she got up on the belt by the two other guys. The co-worker with the laptop opened it up to a monitoring program and plugged the treadmill to the computer.
"Good to go here," the man with the laptop said along with the other guy nodding with clipboard and pen in hand.
"Ok, we're going to start slow, " Alex said before pressing the up arrow a few times which put the treadmill at 3mph(4.8kph). The belt that was under Ava began moving, she was able to keep up with it easily with no problems. She does this for about a minute before Alex ups the speed, putting it at 5 mph(8kph) which wasn't too much more with her being able to still keep up with it. Alex keeps raising the speed little by little after a minute or two until reaching 17 mph(24.1 kph). Ava's breathing increased to suck air into her system while coolant rushed throughout her body.
"How's she looking?"
"Perfect, her arms and body haven't even hit 70 degrees with her legs being the hottest being around 83 degrees. Her coolant pump seems to be fully working along with her breathing."
"How much longer?" she huffed.
"I think that's enough," Alex stopped the treadmill and disconnected her. Ava hopped off the treadmill, regaining her breath back in a matter of seconds. "How do you feel?"
She nodded, "Warm, but good.
"Good, onto the next test."
Ava soon found herself in front of a bar with weights on it and saw other bars in a row which increased in weight as it went down. "All you have to do is lift it above your head, first one is 50 pounds." She bent down, grabbing the bar by both sides and lifting it right over her head and back down with no trouble.
"Like that?"
"Perfect, next one, 100 pounds." She moved down to the next bar and did the same thing as the 50-pound bar, picking it right up over her head.
She set it down back onto the floor, "When are these going to start getting heavy?"
Alex chuckled, "Alright tough girl, I think we can skip 150 and go straight for 200." She moved down, grabbing the 200-pound bar. She struggled a tiny bit at first but was still able to get it above her head with not much trouble.
Alex nodded his head, "Alright, you want to continue to the 300, or skip right to the 500-pound bar?"
"I think I can handle 500," she stretched her arms out before making her way over to the last bar. She gripped both ends and began to lift it up, the two ends began to bend from all the weight. She got the bar to her stomach before dropping it to the ground with a loud echoing boom following it. She stumbled a few steps back before Alex placed a hand on her back, stopping her.
"You ok?"
She wiped her hand across her face, "yeah I'm fine."
Alex looked at his two co-workers, "let's say 400 is her ma-"
"No, I want to try it again," she steps forward, grabbing the bar once more. She began lifting it getting it back to her stomach. Her arms began to shake as her teeth clenched, the bar slowly got to her chest as she used all her might. The two co-workers could just watch as this girl half their size lift something twice as much as they are together. She let out a loud groan as she got the bar over her head before dropping it again, making another echoing boom.
"So, what's next?" she asked.
Alex laughed, "Love the eagerness, well monkey bars," he said gesturing over to the structure.
"Why are they called monkey bars?"
"You're going to be swinging like one."
"Oh," they made their way to the monkey bars and Ava looked up at the first bar and jumped up to grab it. She dangled there for a few seconds before slowly going forward and hopped off once she reached the end.
"17.71 seconds," one of the aids said, looking at a stopwatch.
"I can do better," she then hopped right back on without Alex even telling her and made her way back quicker.
"..13.13 seconds."
"I can do better," she said getting back up on the bars.
"That's enough, I know you can do better, but you already passed it and we still have a lot to get through."
She looked down at Alex as she dangled, "Just one more?"
He sighed to himself, "one more." She let off a small smile before going at it again. Alex caught that smile from her, it was the first time she ever smiled and even though it was just a small one it still counted.
"11.78 seconds."
Alex ran her through a dozen more tests such as sprints, agility, balance, and more where she would do some of them as much as four times with her being able to improve each run. The testing ate up most of the day with them taking a small break for lunch. After the long rigorous training session, Alex brought Ava to his office where he can do his reports and paperwork. Ava changed back into the normal clothes that Molly picked out for her the other day.
They entered an open office area where several desks with movable walls separating them, and in one corner there's a small break area where a table with a coffee machine and microwave sat. As they walked to Alex's desk, Ava saw some of the other office spaces where some are decorated with little nicknacks, picture frames of people, and animals while some just had nothing but a desk, chair, and filing cabinet. Once they reached his space Alex went and grabbed an extra chair for Ava to sit on and placed it next to his. There was no one else in the room with them making it dead quiet.
"Where's my drawing things you promised me?" Ava asked as soon as they sat down.
"I didn't forget, don't worry I'll always keep my promise." Alex went through his desk and pulled out a nice shiny sketchbook and placed it in front of her. "I also got you some drawing pencils, " he placed the box of pencils on top of the book. Ava placed the box of pencils to the side and opened the book to the first blank page. Alex watched before he looked at the pile of paperwork he had to do sooner or later and began to crack at it.
Ava stared at the blank page, she wasn't sure what to draw before a light bulb lit up in her head and took out a pencil from the box and began drawing the picture in her mind onto the paper.
"Alex?"
"Yeah?"
"What's it like to be a human?"
"I don't know, you tell me."
"How can I tell you if I'm not one?"
Alex stopped what he was doing and turned his head to Ava, "You look pretty human to me."
"But I'm not."
"Not with that way of thinking, you may not be made from the same issue as me, but you're just as capable of emotion, self-awareness, self-thought as me which is where it counts the most, it doesn't matter what you're made out of, but who you're made of."
"I asked OverLooker and Molly this, but why don't I feel emotion? Molly just told me human just don't feel anything at times."
"Which is true, but today I witnessed you having emotion
Ava stopped drawing and looked at Alex, "I did?"
Alex nodded, "While you were on the monkey bars, you gave a little smile when I let you do it once more, you were happy that I let you."
"Oh…I didn't even notice"
Alex chuckled to himself, "You showed emotion without even realizing it, but that's ok humans sometimes have or show emotion while not noticing it like right now by thinking about it, I'm happy."
"What's making you happy? Nothing good has happened that I know of."
He nodded, "Because it's happening right now, I'm getting to spend time with well, basically my daughter at the moment."
"Daughter?"
"Yeah," he grabbed a photo frame that sat on his desk. In the picture there are five people posing in it, "That's me in the middle with my two sisters beside to me and our parents behind us. My sisters are the daughters of my parents and I'm the son, so by me saying you're like my daughter I'm saying I'm like your dad if that makes sense."
"Oh...so your parents are the ones that made you and your sisters so by you making me you're like my parent such as my dad and by me being made by you makes me like your daughter."
"..Correct."
"So if I'm an android and different than humans in a way, how are humans made?"
Alex gains a little shade of red while laughing to himself, "That's a different story which you won't hear from me anytime soon."
"Oh, ok."
"And you're not different from a human, physically mostly, but mentally I say no."
"If I'm mentally like a human, then why do I act differently from humans?"
"Well, think about it like this, even humans are different from humans."
"What do you mean?"
"Even though we are made from the same things, we all do things differently from each other, even if it's a small difference, someone may take longer strides than others while walking, or someone may talk differently from someone else, everyone is different so it's ok to be different Don't ever think that because you are different from everyone else makes you any less human, it just makes you different."
"Oh, so I am human too you?"
"You always will be." A small smile appeared on her face from his reassurance, "There's that smile again, now I love the questions but I have to get this done, plus I want to see the picture you're going to draw."
"Oh, sorry," she continued to her picture while Alex was finishing up his paperwork. After an hour has passed, Alex placed the last paper in the complete pile he has made and bangs the pile of papers on the desk to make them neat and aligned with each other.
"How's that picture coming?"
She made a few more additions before setting her writing utensil down, lifting the picture for Alex to see. It seemed to be a picture of the Grimm Reaper standing on a cliff like the cover on the book but there was a Wyvern behind the reaper. It wasn't the greatest picture ever drawn, but the right shapes were used, which made it easier to tell what it was from.
"Oh, that's really nice."
"It's the Grimm Reaper and the Wyvern she fought at the end, I didn't have red for the eyes."
"That's fine, it's perfect the way it is, want me to put it on my wall?"
"Sure," she ripped the page out, making sure to be gentle so the actual page doesn't rip and hands it over to Alex. He took a piece of tape and hung the picture up on the wall.
"There, so whenever I come in here I can see it," he smiled, looking at the picture. "You know what, let's make this a daily thing, every day after we are done with the tasks for the day we can come in here and you can draw me a picture I can hang up here sound good?"
She smiled a bit while nodding her head. He kept his smile on his face, "Good." They grabbed all of their belongings and headed out to Ava's room. Once they got in, they were greeted by OverLooker.
"Welcome back, Ava," said the flying sphere.
"Hello OverLooker, miss me?" Ava asked, placing the sketchbook on the table.
"Of course, I miss you every time we part ways," Overlooker answered.
"Good to hear." Ava turned her attention to Alex, "Is it bedtime already?"
He nodded his head, "I'm afraid so, I'll tuck you in again." Ava slowly made her way up onto the bed where Alex placed the blanket over her.
"Wait, can I read a book before going to bed?"
"Half a book," he offered, with her nodding. Alex walked over to the bookcase and quickly skimmed through it before grabbing one and bringing it back to her. "You should enjoy this one."
"A father, Mother, and Son," she said reading the title. The cover picture was three misty faces, the two faces looking away from each other with their eyebrows scrunched and mouths frowning, these two seemed to be the mother and father. The third face was in between the two other faces and has a tear running down his cheek with his eyes closed in defeat.
"It's about a father and mother who loved each other at one point, but their different beliefs drew them apart, which brought upon an endless war with the son left to try and stop them from killing each other with the help of his friends, "Alex explained. "Make sure to not stay up too late, we have some fun stuff tomorrow which you might actually like."
"Like?"
"It's a surprise, I promise you, you'll enjoy it. Just let OverLooker know when you're ready for bed and he'll turn the lights off."
"Ok."
"Good night, Ava."
"Good Night, Alex." He smiled at her before walking out and Ava opened the book up, beginning to read. The night lingers on as she goes through page after page before her eyes begin to get heavier on her, but she fights it.
"Sleep mode is required so that systems can rest to prevent long-term problems in the internals," OverLooker stated.
"Just..one..more..pag-" she muttered out before her eyes closed shut, entering sleep mode.
"Good night, Ava. Turning off lights," soon the room turned dark.
And here it is, I've decided to post this one earlier since I've been gone for a while, I know these past chapters are light on action but I promise that the next chapters are going to be more action based. If you enjoyed please leave a review, well thought out reviews such as what I can approve upon, etc are appreciated, but hateful or aggressive reviews will be ignored and permanently blocked.