With his visit to his former home done and dusted, Con found himself feeling quite alone for the rest of the afternoon. Xavier had asked him to sort out whatever was bothering him, and he had thought this was that thing. Janette and her family had been a distant matter at the back of his mind, and he had addressed that today, so he should be at peace right? No. he wasn't. Almost like the world was trying to show him how gravely mistaken he was, Con heard his phone beep and he picked it up. Aubrey was on the line and the message she had sent him made his heart palpitate a bit. "You're leaving?" Aubrey was on the other end of the line and the sound of her voice made Con feel like his heart was shattering. "I'm not leaving Con, I'm just moving somewhere else." "Why?" Con found the word slipping out of his mouth without him even knowing it did. The way this matter seemed to have taken a turn was surprising to him. Why was she leaving? Was it because of what they did? Aubrey on t
"So this thing is connected to your mind now dad?" Xavier nodded and looked at the intricate pattern on his cane. "It's now directly linked to my brain and programmed to carry out whatever task I want it to." Lisa looked incredulous and a bit stunned at the same time. They were still in his office and they had spent a good amount of time in here by now, but Lisa didn't seem satisfied with her thirst for knowledge yet and he had to indulge her. She still wanted to know what the box had been made of, and what he had done to make it unfold and merge onto his cane like that. He was also sure that she would want to know what the design meant, but all of this would be better explained outside. He had a lot running through his mind. Lisa on the other hand too had something else running through her mind. The pattern looked so pretty, like flowers in full bloom. "Let's go outside Lisa. I'm tired of standing in here." Lisa nodded and watched as the pattern pulsed with each clack he
"Lisa?" Xavier found himself standing to the side and looking at his daughter as Con tried to call out to her again. He had met the both of them in the courtyard, Lisa had passed out a few minutes earlier and he had stood there, frozen and unable to think of what to do. Luckily Con came around, but he still couldn't tell if that would be considered lucky or not. Con had come to meet them in the courtyard and the ice core in him had flared and reacted so strongly that it had covered half the floor in solid ice. Jane and Aubrey were still shooting him wary glances and Con straight up looked amused, but this wasn't amusing, none of this was. "I don't think we're in the real world guys." Con turned to look at Xavier and he frowned. What did he mean by that? "I think you might want to calm down a bit Xavier. Lisa will be okay, there's no need to panic." "I'm not panicking. I'm being serious here." Jane and Aubrey both released sighs at the same time and Con simply watched him with
Jake woke up again and this time he was ready for the onslaught of light that assailed his optical lens. His eyes burned with the intensity of the light he was staring into but it only lasted for a moment. His vision adjusted to the lighting of the room the next moment and his surroundings came into better focus. He was still in the room, with the whitewashed walls and the sterilized surroundings. He already knew something had been done to him, some sort of surgery or something. He also had illegal organ harvesting cots scattered around the whole of Glover city so the fear of that being what had happened to him was well rooted in his mind. He didn't want to believe that he had fallen prey to organ harvesters himself, they usually didn't keep their victims alive after the extractions and he didn't want to believe they would keep him alive. It would be better if they killed him off, he would do it himself if he found out what happened to him was indeed an organ harvesting. He had
"I'm not signing these papers. We can work things out." Con read the message Janette Argon had scribbled onto the divorce papers and he chuckled to himself. He didn't even want to know what to say or do at the moment, he just knew that he would not be taking this to heart for now. Xavier still had to be watched, and not in the sense that he would have to watch Xavier or trail him around, what he really meant was that Xavier still needed support right now. Lisa was still out cold and Xavier was not taking it well. Apart from that there was also the issue of the AI Xavier had mentioned before. He had pulled him aside to ask about the AI and what Xavier had described to him had made his heart tingle a bit in recollection. It was strange, an AI dissolving into a cane and then manifesting itself in the form of a flower. To be sincere it should not be possible. All artificial intelligence needed a core. It needed a set of programs and it had to have an anchor. AI did not just come up
Con looked up, nodded his head, and went back to what he was doing. "You're not listening to me Con. I want to leave." Con sighed and stopped trying to break through the firewall. There was still too much for him to do in terms of cracking the codes, and Aubrey sounded pissed and annoyed. He didn't want her to feel like he wasn't listening to her, he was, but he wished he wasn't. She was saying something he did not like and honestly he did not want to hear it right now. "Xavier is going through a tough time now Aubrey. I don't think this is the time for this." Aubrey could feel her whole world outlook crashing right in front of her. Did she just hear that well? '"I'm not saying it because I don't care about Xavier, I'm saying it so we can clear this out together. I can't stay here if it'll affect you and Jane." Con could feel the need to tell her that he and Jane didn't really have anything serious going on right now, but he was more gentlemanly than that Aubrey VanDamne and
Lisa opened her eyes and looked around the room she was in. It was not one of the rooms in her father's home. This place was different. "Hello?" The room remained silent and her voice bounced off the walls. "Is anyone there? Can you hear me?" The white bleakness of the room felt like a statement to her and Lisa found herself standing up from the bed. Something had been attached to her hand and she pulled it off, feeling light headed not a moment after, but being fine overall. Lisa could feel her heart racing in anticipation and maybe fear. It wasn't really fear, it was just curiosity and she really wanted to know what this place was. The floors were white, so were the tiles and the walls, and even the bed she had slept in. She felt like the only thing that had any color in this vast place and it was not a good feeling to have. "Is anyone there?! Can you hear me!" No answer came back and Lisa sat on the floor and sighed to herself. Con watched all this from the monitor of hi
"If she can get that, then....." Clay didn't have to finish his words for Xavier to begin nodding his head. "That's right. If Lisa is to gain mastery over her digital construct, then she can go there any minute she is in fatal danger. Her memories and mannerisms can be downloaded into a robot or something, as long as the technology is available. It's almost like she has a backup for her brain now." Xavier could hear the excitement in his own voice and he had to remind himself to calm down. What he was explaining to them was something that no one would expect them to digest easily. If he was the one, he would have also not been able to digest it that easily too. But this was his daughter they were talking about. Lisa was his little treasure, the fact she was the one experiencing this made it a whole lot easier to explain to others. To get to the point that he was now able to explain this situation to others meant he had analyzed it thoroughly himself and he knew the inner working