Hello Again! You're still here! Amazing! Thank you!
Okay, in this chapter, Mimi meets Alessandro for the first time. What do you think'll happen? Close your eyes, imagine it now. Yeah, you got it! Now let's read and see how close you got. Let me know how you did. Love you guys!
"Okay Mimi, close your eyes."
Elliot gently pulled Mimi through the hallway, and in doing so, re-lived a certain happiness from his younger, carefree days; when a manual laborer named Georges had shown up at the Center and brought his daughter Mimi to work with him. Despite a prosthetic leg, the young girl was filled with endless energy; bounding around, exploring nearly everything she saw at the Center -- geographic sets, micro and macro scopes, the history simulator -- the girl was enthralled with Anderson from the second she set her cyborg foot inside.
And talkative. Elliot had never met someone who could talk so much, and so fast. Immediately, Mimi approached him with questions -- what his name was, who he was, what he was learning. Elliot had assumed she was actually joining the program until later learning she was only there to have her robotics assessed. Instead, she was being raised by her father outside. Educated outside. Georges had taught her everything he could about the Outer World.
Amazing, Elliot thought.
Mimi was brave, undaunted by her life outside of Anderson. It was normal to her. In comparison, Elliot had grown up scared of the outside World. He had imagined monsters and otherworldly creatures. He had grown up spooked. But with Georges' and Mimi's help, he had become more exposed to the outside; more informed, less afraid. It had made him wish he'd had more of an upbringing like Mimi's -- with a father or mother. Maybe then, he thought, he could've ended up with a different outlook on life, maybe with a different endpoint as well.
Back in present time, Elliot found himself with Mimi at his side once again, traversing the hallways of Anderson. He remembered themselves as children, running through a maze of corridors and discreet passageways, having a trove of secret adventures. Walking the hallways again was like taking a trip down memory lane. Now, however, instead of an imaginary mission, Elliot had a real, true-to-life objective -- to introduce Mimi to a certain boy from Earth's past.
Thuddd!
"Ughh," Elliot exclaimed.
Memory lane apparently had its share of obstacles.
"What the -- ?" Elliot rubbed his temple, and stared at the corner of a wall.
"What happened?" Mimi asked, opening her eyes. "Are you okay?"
"I-I'm fine," Elliot said. "I could've sworn... "
Mimi scrutinized for a second.
"It was nothing, okay?" Elliot said, turning red. "Close your eyes again."
Mimi smiled. "Watch out for the wall, you nomnoid." She giggled and shut her eyes as requested.
Elliot smirked. It was nice to see Mimi smile, he thought. It was good to see her happy again.
Over a year ago, Mimi's father had passed away in a work accident, and for a time thereafter, Mimi had stayed in her shelter, eating and sleeping very little. She might have simply faded away had it not been for the love and support of the rest of her community. Elliot, too, had tried to keep Mimi engaged and involved. In fact, it was he who had suggested she join the Human Protection Unit in the first place. The work provided her a much needed focus away from her grieving.
"Okay, Memes, you can open your eyes now."
The pair had entered the isolation room in the pathology lab, and there, sitting on the top of a table, was a foreign teenager.
"Who is it?" Mimi asked. She let go of Elliot's hand and walked further into the room.
The stranger was sitting in a calm, tranquil kind of way; his eyes closed, legs crossed and his hands resting at his knees.
"You didn't say it was a man," Mimi said, her eyes widening.
"What? N-no," Elliot stammered. "Mimi, this is Aless," he introduced, fidgeting as he languished behind in the entryway.
"Hello," Mimi said.
The foreign youth neither responded nor opened his eyes.
"Alice, huh?" Mimi said curiously. "Is that right?" She turned back to Elliot.
"Uh, yes, Aless, short for Alessandro," Elliot explained.
"Oh," Mimi replied quaintly. "Hello, Aless."
There was no answer.
Mimi glanced at Elliot again. He gave a little shrug.
She turned back to the unknown teen.
"Where's he from?" Mimi asked.
"I, uh, I-I don't know," Elliot stuttered. "He must be from an unknown human colony, because, uh... no one knows where he's from." Elliot cringed.
"An unknown human colony? How?"
"H-he just showed up at the Center one day."
Mimi wrinkled her brow. "Well, what's wrong with him?"
"Uh, n-nothing. Nothing's wrong. He's still in decontamination, but everything's coming back negative."
"He's a little nom-nom..."
Alessandro's left eyebrow twitched.
"Oh, I think he's just adjusting to life here," Elliot emphasized oddly.
"What's he doing there, sitting like that? Doesn't he talk?"
"Uh, well, of course he talks," Elliot said, speaking up. "I think he's just, uh, bored? I've started taking him around to other parts of the Center and... "
"I thought you said he was in decontamination," Mimi contradicted.
Elliot was speechless for a second. "He is! I mean, he was! Ha-ha! Anyway, I was thinking he might actually enjoy talking with someone else, besides me and the Professor. That's why I called you!"
Mimi looked at Elliot blankly. "Well, thanks for thinking of me."
"You're the first new person to meet him!"
"You really know how to make a girl feel special," she muttered under her breath.
"Hey, maybe you could show Aless around sometime? Outside, like how to navigate the territories?"
At once, an intense feeling came over Mimi. She stopped in transit, as if she had been caught trespassing.
The strange boy had opened his eyes, and without moving his head, found Mimi's face right away.
Mimi placed a hand at her heart and touched her necklace.
Unaware, Elliot continued to babble from behind, "...maybe just around Anderson campus... "
Mimi took a deep breath and watched the unknown boy. She glanced back at Elliot, who finally noticed Alessandro's attention and now gave her an encouraging nod. She turned back to face the silent stranger.
Alessandro eyed Mimi with an extreme focus. His face was serious, with a furrowed brow and pursed lips. He purposely inhaled her presence.
"Something's not right," Mimi murmured. She reached down at her hip only to remember she'd checked-in her gun at the Center's entrance. She took a step backward.
The boy unfolded from his seating. With stealth-like quickness, he leapt off the table.
Mimi lost her balance and fell backward.
"Whoa, whoa!" Elliot yelled.
Before Elliot could move, Alessandro was upon the fallen girl.
The unexpected proximity startled Mimi. She pulled away and took a swing at the boy's head. Instead of landing a solid punch, she hit Alessandro's soft hand. She countered with yet another strike, this time from the opposite side. The boy calmly and deftly dodged the punch.
In time, Elliot stepped in to separate the two, while Alessandro stared at Mimi from beyond an outstretched arm.
The boy stranger broke from his infatuation and went back to sitting on the table, as if nothing had happened.
"Well," Elliot said, "that went well." He exhaled heavily.
"He's dangerous," Mimi whispered.
"No, Mimi," Elliot said. "Really, I don't think he's like that." He helped Mimi up off the floor and, at the same time, glared at Alessandro.
At the other end, Alessandro watched the proceedings through the corners of his eyes.
"I'm sorry, Mimi," Elliot apologized. "I don't know why he did that. That's the first time he's ever acted that way." He began to lead Mimi out of the lab, but then stopped to face her. "I'm sure he just finds you new and... "
Elliot noticed Mimi's warm brown eyes.
"... uh, interesting."
He looked away, avoiding her gaze.
"I've got to get him out of here," Elliot continued. "He's probably restless from the confinement."
There was a stretch of silence as they exited the lab together.
Halfway down the hall, Mimi stopped and turned back.
"Wait, where are you going?" Elliot asked. "What are you doing?"
The young female stormed her way back into the lab. She re-entered the isolation room and walked to the table where Alessandro still sat. With a stern expression, she placed herself centimeters from his face and stared into his eyes. She held her position, not saying a word, for several long seconds.
Elliot watched the drama from the doorway.
Something happened.
Alessandro moved in, face leaning, until the distance between he and Mimi became softly intimate.
At the last second, Aless pulled away. A subtle flash originated from Mimi's chest, from around her neck, something bright and blinding.
In the meantime, Mimi caught Alessandro's distraction.
"Hey!" she retorted. She held out her hand to slap the young man, but stopped short of taking a swing. Glowering, she stared at Alessandro's eyes -- and then at his lips -- before turning and marching out of the room. She passed Elliot as she went by.
"Wait!" Elliot called out. "What happened? What's going on?"
"Elliot, if you need me to show that freak around, fine, I'll do it," Mimi declared, "but only because you asked me to!"
Hey, hey! How'd you do? Ha-ha! Am I that predictable? Man, I have to change that!
Okay, what's next? Are you still wondering what the heck just happened? Ha-ha! Yeah, that happens a lot to me, too. Doesn't it just make you want to go on to the next chapter?