Wait, down? This is the ground flo-! Liam thought.
"WHOA!" both Liam and Lisa exclaimed as the elevator shuddered.
"S-sir?" Liam asked with growing dread, "What's happening?"
Daniel turned his head a little and replied:
"We're going to talk of course."
At that moment, a pleasant voice rang out in the elevator.
"Welcome back, Master D."
"Why thank you, GAIA."
The next moment, the elevator shuddered again.
Then they got dropped into a free fall.
"GAAAAAAAAAAHHHHH!" Lisa screamed as they plummeted downwards.
Liam grit his teeth and bit his lip to stay calm, even as his heart screamed the opposite
What's wrong with the elevator?! Liam stared at the floor in shock. Then he looked up at Daniel's back.
That Gaia person, she must have done this, meaning he's behind this!
Before he could say anything however, Lisa screeched:
"WHOA-EEEEEK!"
And she had good reason to. The two students had begun rising from the floor, as if gravity was filing for temporary leave.
"GAH!" Liam exclaimed as he grabbed the bar attached to the side of the elevator, and when he checked, Lisa was doing the same whilst holding her skirt down. He then turned to Daniel, then gaped.
Their Economics teacher was perfectly fine, standing with his feet still on the floor, back straight, and hands clasped behind his back.
Liam's brain went into overdrive.
He's standing normally. Why is he standing normally?
There isn't enough friction—no, forget that, why are we going this fast?! To float we'd have to travel at the speed of gravity!
Gaia called him Master D. Who is Gaia? Why'd she call him that? Is that an alias?
Why is there something underneath the ground floor? How did things escalate so quickly?
WHY IS HE STILL STANDING NORMALLY?!
Suddenly, both Lisa and Liam slammed into the floor as the elevator decelerated.
Lisa hissed and grabbed her ankle, and Liam groaned and grabbed his knee.
"We have arrived. ETA: twenty seconds. Again, welcome back, Master D."
Daniel, or rather, D nodded as the doors opened. Then he turned to the other two.
"Well? It's best you step out quickly, or GAIA will send you back up even faster than before," their Economics teacher said with a reassuring smile.
Neither Liam nor Lisa felt remotely reassured.
Nevertheless, they managed to get out of the elevator, and it shut the moment they did.
"Commencing Deep Cleaning, ah please hold still," GAIA's voice reverberated through the small square room they had stumbled into.
"Wait-" Lisa tried to speak, before a cylindrical tube rose up from the ground and trapped her.
"Lisa-!" Liam turned, right before getting the same treatment.
"Alright you two," D smiled before turning and walking away, a door suddenly opening up to a corridor, "We'll see each other soon."
As the door closed behind him, GAIA's voice came back.
"Lisa, Liam, I recommend you hold your breath and close your eyes."
Almost immediately, right below their feet, a small hole opened up and spewed out orange gas. Both immediately obeyed GAIA's instruction, not wanting to know the consequences of disobeying.
The orange gas filled either tube completely, and it stuck to their skin, hair, and clothes.
Then it suddenly congealed into a shell around them.
Liam panicked, but forced his racing heart to calm down.
I can't just consume oxygen quickly. Under normal circumstances I can hold my breath for two minutes. At the rate things are going, I don't think I can last thirtyseconds...
Wait, what about Lisa?!
Liam's heart beat wildly in his chest until his head was freed all of a sudden by a powerful blast of liquid.
"Calm down you two, I'm not trying to kill you. Also, don;t open your mouths as the liquid I'm washing you down with isn't safe for consumption. Take shallow breaths. I know it's hard, but bear with it for a few more moments."
Liam gave up on thinking as he was completely drenched in the strange liquid. Soon, the spray stopped.
"This is the time to catch your breath. You have one minute as the liquid soaks, then I'll continue with two different variants before cleansing you with water and blow drying you."
Liam gasped, keeping his hands from his face and his eyes firmly closed. He had no way of checking on Lisa due to the risks, but his worry eventually won out, and he cracked an eye open momentarily, enough to see that Lisa was doing the same thing.
They both gave each other a thumbs up, then closed their eyes again.
"How sweet. Now, I will continue the Deep Cleaning. Don't forget, shallow breaths."
****
Liam and Lisa were sparkling after GAIA was done.
"Well, how do you feel?"
"My skin is glowing!" Lisa exclaimed excitedly, "And it feels so soft, and smells great!"
Liam was staring at his hands.
"I...I'm completely clean... and I d-don't smell like myself, which means..."
Liam looked up at the ceiling in awe. "I don't smell like blood anymore."
Liam fell to his knees and bowed deeply. "My lady GAIA, I will do anything you wish. Except suicide. And killing Lisa. Though you can have her if you want."
"Hey! You have no rights to me! And stop acting weird... wait. So you don't smell like Mo bait anymore?"
"The effects are temporary."
Liam, head still bowed, fell silent.
Then he looked, up, his colorful eyes bright and slightly moist.
"How temporary?"
Lisa sighed, then smacked him upside the head. "I get that it's important to you, but you don't need to act like losing your Mo attracting BO for a short amount of time to what basically counts as a carwash is a super big deal."
Liam stood, then gave her a disappointed look and folded his arms. "I'm pretty sure it took that same carwash to get your skin soft and glowing."
Lisa fell silent for a moment.
"That's different."
"How?" Liam rose an eyebrow.
"It just is."
"You were excited."
"I was just... pleasantly surprised."
"You exclaimed that your skin was glowing."
"I DIDN'T GET ON MY KNEES!"
"Because you lack gratitude."
"YOU DON'T GET TO JUDGE ME! YOU OFFERED ME TO THE DAMN CARWASH!"
Liam shrugged. "To be fair, you'd make a great gift. Anyone would be lucky to have you."
Lisa paused, slowly reddening. "Th-that's... um..."
Is that a compliment or an insult?! she asked herself.
"I do not need a human gift. And I find it quite rude that you would call a lady an object, albeit of desire."
Liam put a hand to his chest. "Of course my lady. You wouldn't want someone as unsightly as her-"
"You just called me an object you jerk!" Lisa yelled into his ear, fuming.
Liam simply patted his ear like nothing had happened. "My point exactly."
"HEY!"
"Pft-Hahaha! You two are quite the duo!"
The door D had exited through opened, and a beautiful woman wearing a green Oriental dress stepped through.
"Hello," the woman smiled with a little bow, "I am Master D's Personal AI assistant, GAIA.
As the two teenagers stared at her, she smiled.
"Now, if you would please follow me."
****
"ORGANOMETALLICS?!" Liam exclaimed.
"Indeed. This entire bunker is made out of organometallics, and both it and I were designed by Master D. This body is an avatar I created out of organometallics. I am quite fond of the design."
Liam's eyes sparkled as he stared at GAIA. "D is a genius! Organometallics are projected to take at least sixty more years to create even a semblance of the goal, and he CREATED them?! Wait, you're the AI that manages this ENTIRE bunker? How?!"
"Naturally, I am Superintelligent."
Liam's gaped even wider, and he lowered his head to GAIA.
"S-s-su-"
"Liam. Stop being a drama queen. Superintelligence, big whoop," Lisa grumbled. She had asked GAIA about her origins, and all of a sudden the AI and Liam had begun to nerd out together.
"Hmph. As expected of PaxWiki. You-"
"Oh be quiet you pleb," Liam sighed, as if severely disappointed in her, "Superintelligent AI are like gods to regular ones. The being before you is one of the most powerful beings alive. Stop whining and show some respect."
GAIA covered her mouth, letting out a small laugh. "Oh, I wouldn't go as far as to call myself a god. I'm merely an assistant."
Lisa smirked, "Yeah chuunibyou, stop making the pretty lady uncomfortable. Sonnani oosawagi shinai de. Marude higeki no hiroin da ne," she laughed. [Japanese: Don't make such a big fuss. You're just like a tragic heroine.]
"You-!" Liam sneered as his ears reddened.
Lisa laughed and skipped along, "Come on GAIA, you said we're going to meet D right? We should hurry. Leave that cringe little boy alone."
GAIA chuckled, as if the two's antics were genuinely entertaining. She then continued to lead the way.
"By the way, I like your dress," Lisa smiled, "Where'd you get it?"
"Oh this? I made it along with this body."
Lisa stared at the voluptuous, stunningly beautiful woman before her, then looked down at her uniform.
"Any chance I could get an organometallic dress?"
"No. Master D would reject that."
"Aww..."
"But I can give you the shampoo equivalent on what I used for your Deep Cleaning."
"You're the best GAIA!" Lisa squealed as she hugged the avatar.
Liam rolled his eyes, "Are we there yet?"
GAIA turned around, and Liam flinched at the familiar look in her eyes.
The eyes Lisa had when planning mischief.
How did she-? No wait, can an AI mimic emotion so easily?...Superintelligence is scary. Am I seeing things?
"Hey, GAIA," Lisa spoke up, "Since this is an avatar, doesn't that mean you could become whatever you want?"
Lisa was by no means unintelligent. She was simply intelligent in other ways.
She understood relationships more readily than Liam, and was also quicker to realize certain aesthetic possibilities than him.
"Yes, actually. I could become dark haired-"
She proceeded to change her hair colour, then varied its length.
"Different colors-"
She changed colours as quickly as a professional dealer shuffled cards.
"Or, with enough data, someone else."
GAIA then transformed completely into a mirror image of Lisa, down to her mischievous grin.
As the real Lisa gaped, the copy winked at her, then turned to Liam with a different kind of smile as she leaned in close...
"Hey Li-"
And got her face shoved away.
In Liam's mental landscape:
GAIA just turned into Lisa.
Approaches me with a smile.
Absolutely not.
Lisa's mental landscape:
Did she just... try to flirt with him?! With my face?!
Wait, he rejected her immediately...
Why'd he just shove my face away like that?!
Lisa turned her head to him, irritation clear in her eyes.
"Did you just shove my face?"
Liam shook his head. "Wasn't you."
"But it had my face!"
Liam folded his arms and shrugged. "Felt weird, and looked disturbing."
Lisa narrowed her eyes at him. "Are you saying... my face is disturbing?"
Liam took a step back and rose his hands, "That is not what I said."
Then a voice spoke up:
"Interesting, per your biochemical responses, you rejected me in point four seconds."
Liam frowned as GAIA rose in her normal self. "Why did you measure it?"
"Curiosity."
Lisa, who was still facing Liam, lowered her head. "Why did you use me?!"
"Because his expression would be more informative."
Lisa grit her teeth and spun around, "That is not o...kay?"
Lisa froze as she looked up into the eyes of another Liam, whose hand was on his chin, as if in deep thought.
Eh?
It was the same multicolored eyes, same face, same voice, same little expression he made whenever he was observing something or in deep thought.
Then he took a step closer, and Lisa instinctively took a step back, then completely froze as he rose a hand and brushed a strand of hair behind her ear, then tapped her hair clip before smiling warmly.
"You know, I meant what I said earlier. Anyone would be lucky to have you."
Lisa's face went completely red.
Huh?! Whuh? Eh?....um... no wait! Th-that's G-GAIA, right?!
Everything else told her otherwise.
NONONONONO!...what do I do?...What would I do if this is the real Liam?
Lisa slowly grabbed his wrist...
"Ah-"
And immediately executed a perfect judo flip.