After waking up, Mike stood on bed for a moment.
He tried to think what was happening.
-"Got beaten up by Louis, checked; Time is just barely evening, checked. I was out for some few hours... lucky me... except for the beating."-
He felt the pain in his body while getting out of bed.
Now what is left is to know where he was. So, he got out of the room just to see...
He was still in Louis' training grounds, a room for recovery.
He saw nobody in sight, just one single person in the distance, a common worker cleaning the tools and so.
-Excuse me, sir! Can you help me?! - Mike said loud enough to reach the other person but he didn't listen.
He got close and saw the person with earphones, so he tried to get in front of the person.
-ah! ... oh, it's you. - Said the middle-aged man and without taking out his earphones handed two notes to Mike.
The man kept doing his work without paying any more attention to Mike.
-"Weird people" - Mike went to the seating area and started reading the first note.
It was Louis' note. He laughed at how unlucky he was that his client who placed him in that situation didn't even want to take the unconscious Mike back.
The other was Rose's note. She congratulated Mike on his fight, despite he lost it; and said that Louis wanted to let him rest in the gym so they could not get him back despite insisting many times.
Who would he trust? The crazy one or the other crazy one? Hard decisions.
-"I will trust this crazy woman at 25%, maybe less, because she left a phone number here... at least"- Sadly he could not call for help since it was another country, his phone had no signal here.
Luckily it was a number from the country New Gaia's Islands, so he just needs to find someone who could lend him a phone.
He searched his phone and tried to see if there was Wi-Fi signal nearby, but it could not turn on.
-"Fuck this thing, it was a 30% just early, how is it already dead? I checked the time on the wall clock, it has not been that much"- He cursed the battery technology level of every phone in the world while getting close to the worker again.
-Excuse me, I need some help! - Said in loud to be heard.
The man took out his earphones with an unpleasant look in his eyes.
-What do you need man? - Asked in a displeasing tone.
-I need to call for my boss, I am not from here and...-
-Yes yes, I can tell by your looks that you are not from here. - Said the man while handing his phone to Mike, the man was not friendly towards him.
While Mike got the phone, he took the note to type the number, then he saw something that stunned him.
-"Can't be right... right?" - Mike's head was spinning, if the date on phone was one day after his combat.
-Sir, is the date on this phone... right? How much time I was in that room?-
-I don't know, you were already there when I arrived a few hours ago. Will you make the call or not? - Said the man somehow irritated.
He was not much of a friendly talker anyway, so Mike could not help but do his work quick.
When he called, the one attending was Kat, the female bodyguard always beside Rose.
She said to get ready to be picked up in 10 minutes and without further explanation, hung up.
He returned the phone to the man, said thanks and left to the locker area to see if his things were still there.
Luckily everything was there.
In less than 10 minutes he got in his working clothes.
While leaving the man working in cleaning cursed that he didn't know there were his clothes in the lockers,
He surely would have placed his hands on there if known to him.
But got stunned after seeing Mike's clothing and tools, especially the weapons.
-"Great God! I am lucky I didn't mess up things more with that man!"- The man was scared.
Not because the weapons, but the man was clearly a foreign and still could have his weapons in the open.
It was not normal for people even from his country to hold weapons so openly. Only if the circumstances allowed them.
Mike passed by and said his goodbye, not waiting nor wanting to get a response from the unfriendly man.
To his surprise, the man said his goodbye to Mike, but with education this time.
That just surprised Mike, but didn't stop moving, Kat was never a friendly one, and given the fact he got abandoned here before,
-"I must be ready and waiting faster before than ever"-
He won't trust too much that people.
Soon the car from before arrived, it was luckily just the male bodyguard, not the female one.
As long as he didn't need to talk with that woman, everything was fine.
He got in and they talked about trivial things and work while driving to the hotel where they stayed.
-So, there was another meeting today... I hope this doesn't reflect on my payment...-
-Don't worry, Rose almost ordered you to get in the sparring combat, I think you don't need to face consequences from the company.-
At least the man comforted him.
He never knew the real man of the two bodyguards, they used code names, Kat was a code name, and this man's code name was...
-Well, if Male is the one saying it...-
Yes, it was just Male.
He didn't want to ask where they got their names from.
Everything was easy after that, they just spent the rest of the day in the hotel since Rose was not in the mood to go out today,
It was the last day and would return tomorrow morning.
Kat was not in the mood to talk, as usual. And Male talked with him as well as Rose.
It was more like doing question after questions instead of normal talking,
They asked about his combat style, it was easy, mixed martial arts, he specialized in boxing but knew many other techniques.
But while being asked certain questions like why the blind combat or why not using his powers...
-That's more like a family training method- He said, or -It was just a friendly sparring to use powers-
But in really, to that last answer, he could not help but curse inside.
-"Like hell it was a friendly sparring! It was a fucking unilateral beating; I even USED MY POWERS to fight and still got beaten!!"-
The other would think the same, actually, each one thought something similar,
But nobody could say something different or against it.
He just wanted to get back and make Claire teach him more about fighting to not let him be beaten again.
After the next day, they were already on Aether again.
And after one thing and another, finally, in the evening, he was back home.
-Home sweet home. - He murmured while getting inside and saw Claire receiving him,
Somehow the sight of it made him forget the pain in his body.
-Even I missed your sarcastic words. - He said to Claire but he really meant it in his heart.
-I can see you are tired, I prepared dinner already, please take a seat, master.-
-And not being sarcastic at first sight? Who are you and what you did with my Claire?-
Even while saying those words, he still went to the dining table and dropped his luggage and other things beside.
-I hoped everything would go fine with your work, but I see you are under physical recovery, do you need any assistance with it?-
Clare served Mike his food and took the luggage and other things while speaking through the speakers.
Mike first answered with sarcasm but Claire didn't need to use sarcasm to answer in his scars.
-Yes, I got to combat the most powerful criminal in the story and won-
-Oh, so I guess you meet your cousin-
-Fuck! Oh fuck, those words are fucking right and still hurt, but how did you know?-
-I knew Louis Blood was invited to the meeting before you left, and got the news that he was in travel to New Gaia before you left.-
-And why you told me nothing, advanced artificial assistant? Is your master of so low importance that you won't tell me about a potential conflict with someone like him?-
-I tried, master, remember you told me you didn't want to know? - Mike then regretted not teaching this android what necessary bad news is.
-Claire, do you know you can sometimes insist a bit more right?-
-I know. -
-...-
-Don't make that look, master. Did I know it? No, I know already, yes. I understood that sometimes I need to act by myself to give you a satisfactory result. - Said Claire with confidence.
-That's right, but how is that... you said you didn't know, but that you know already, something happened? - Mike thought, suspiciously, that something happened.
-No, master. Just we androids evolve in mind like humans do, just a little faster than humans. - The android answered with no doubt.
So, since it had no doubts, Mike just decided to trust it.
-And one more new to master-
-The timing in this kind of scenario states that is bad news, right?-
-Yes, but that only applies on fiction and very rarely to real life, do you need me to teach you the difference between movies an reality, master?-
-Hah! Trying to teach sarcasm to the sarcastic one, I lost it, ok, tell me the bad news.-
-It's not bad news, so I cannot tell you if you ordered me that.-
-I don't believe it, but ok, just cut the sarcastic path and tell me. - He gave up.
-I want to ask permission to buy makeup with your money. My body is not the same as a human so I will need fewer things than normal wo...-
-Oh no! - Interrupted Mike - My android reached that age! Fuck! - Mike was stunned but his brain could only think of sarcastic words to express himself.
Somehow, the android understood his actions.
-Master, androids don't age up.-
-And now it is talking like is already wiser than me... tsk, puberty...- still with irony, he answered
-Master, is a 'she' not 'it'- those words finally made Mike really stunned.
-What? -
-You decided to make me look like a woman, so I am a 'she'. It was your decision, so you are the only one to blame. - answered the android to try make Mike shut up.
-Hmph, but I guess you are right, I am the one who decided to get the android after all, so I am the responsible father of this android in puberty...-
Even if his words were full of sarcasm and had doubts about how the android could evolve like that in so few days, he still had some truth in his words anyway.
He was the one responsible for constructing the android.
Or better said, for allowing the android to be built.