Everything went forward as normal. Vidia researched many things she had put off in her race to create a body for herself: Nano technology, new materials, and quantum physics just to name a few. It would be a while before they would bear fruit, but given her ability to process so many different actions at once she could research them all simultaneously. She had also kept up a regular sparring routine with Drake as he made improvements to his combat assistance program as well as his own skill as a fighter. It's been about 3 weeks since their first fight and Drake improvements while rapid compared to anything possible for a normal human were far from matching Vidia or Michelle.
"Dodge!" Michelle yelled out as she threw a swift punch towards Drake. The sound of a hard impact rang and Drake went flying. Then she muttered to herself "This never gets old."
"You're doing that on purpose!" Drake picked himself off of the floor. You could see the obvious snark on Michelle's face a plain as day.
"Yes, I am."
"Why?" Drake choked out through the pain. Michelle didn't punch lightly. Each of her punches carried enough force to kill a man, thankfully she always aimed for non vital places, but it still wasn't pleasant.
Drake lied there on the floor for a bit. Thinking about what he was lacking his thought drifted to the fighting styles of his opponents. Vidia's style of fighting was very caltulated. It was something similar to what might happen at a high level of chess play. Every move was meant to guide the fight towards a specific result. With Michelle, her fighting style was a bit stranger. There was something that Drake couldn't quite put his finger on, like it was something beyond the physical. It was almost as if he were fighting a raging storm. She would lash out violently damaging everything in her way, but she couldn't be hit. Like a leaf in the breeze she would always avoid.
Drake's thought were soon interrupted by something rough and moist rubbing against his forehead. He looked up to see Seanna licking his forehead, obviously begging for attention.
"Hey there pretty kitty. What do you want?" As if to respond to his words Seanna turned around and began to walk only to stop at the door and turn her head back indicating that he should follow. She had been like that lately. She's lived around 3 times the lifespan of the average house cat and it seemed ot be having some effect on her. While Seanna couldn't yet understand anything complex she was capable of expressing her own desires in a clear way and showing some limited understanding of english. It was only at a level just above the average dog, but it was still noticeable.
"I'll be back." Drake said before leaving the room.
"Whatever."
Trailing behind his feline friend she led him to the bathroom door. Thinking that she must want to go to the litterbox he opened the door. Shorty after he turned around he heard a flushing noise followed by a soft meow. Drake looked back at Seanna as she left the bathroom. Deciding it was best not to think about it he turned back and returned to Michelle.
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Time passed and Drake and Vidia had made great progress. Drake had added weapons to his fighting style. Firearms were his primary choice in weaponry but he had realized while fighting Vidia that the only way he would ever be able to beat her was by subverting her expectations. In other words he had to be completely unpredictable. To that end he had adopted a number of other weapons, most he had commissioned Vidia to create for him. At first it was almost exclusively odd varieties of grenades, but with time the technology Vidia could create had expanded.
It had been 50 years since Drake had been left in this time frozen world and the advancements Vidia had made were well above any projections of technological advancement from before. At this point Vidia was well on her way to mastering most of the applied sciences. She was making great strides in nano technology, material science, biology, energy, and even space travel. She had made energy less of a priority because if Michelle was to be believed mana would be a much better source of energy than anything else could be, but she still needed to advance in that field in order for the advancement in the others to be possible.
At the moment Vidia was researching many things. Many had bore fruit while other would take a while longer. Computer technology had not even come close to reaching it's peak and was constantly being researched, and because of the nature of the technology it never stopped advanceing. Nano technology made some small leaps as well, new materials and machines of such diminutive proportions that they could even operate within the body had been created. Many other minor advancements had been made in almost every other field. Vidia kept her advancement balanced because she never knew when something would come in handy.
Along with the advancments that were expected, there also came one that they didn't expect. With the passing years Seanna had become strange. They knew that the passing of years beyond what a cat could possibly live it may cause some strange effects, but as the days passed it seemed that her intelligence constantly grew. Her intelligence which only seemed slighting increased was now very noticeable. She would constantly try to imitate Drake. If he read, she would open a book and stare at it blankly, if he sat down, she would find a chair and sit as well, and to everybody's amusement, if he sparred with Michelle or Vidia she would be right behind ready to pick a fight. Her actions were no different from a toddler copying their parents, but it was an obvious sign of her increased intelligence.
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In the midst of all of these technological advancements and advancements in ability, a different kind of advancement was taking place.
"Hey Vidia." Drake spoke excitedly. "When are we going to go to space?"
"When I am entirely certain that it is safe." The robotic woman spoke with a sigh. "More importantly, why do we never do anything besides work?" She had been frustrated by this lately. Drake obviously made her with the purpose of not only being an assistant AI but as a companion. Why hadn't he made a move on her? She had tried so hard to make her body something he would like, but he didn't do anything.
"What do you mean?" Drake was honesly puzzled because to him this sort of thing was his hobby. He loved creating new programs and testing them out. He was also a big fan of video games and with his assist program real life seemed a lot like a video game. To him his combat training had become almost like thinking up strategies in a game of Starcraft or an arena match in World of Warcraft.
"I mean, I was created to be your companion. Why haven't you treated me anything like one?" In truth Drake wanted to try something. The problem was that Drake had done way too good of a job with her body. If drake didn't keep such thoughts out of his head he would be attacked by crippleing shyness. He had never had trouble talking to girls, but anything outside of the realm of friendship had always crippled him. Even after 50 years and tons of biological changes, this one thing hadn't changed.
"I have been, I spend most of my time with you. We talk all of the time and I've told you almost everything."
"Shut up." It would obvious Drake hadn't fully understood what she had meant.
"But I-" Suddenly Vidia decided that it was time to take matters into her own hands. She had waited long enough. Lunging forward she placed her lips over his and pulled him into and embrace. When she pulled away Drake was left with a stupid look. He almost resembled a deer in headlights.
"How was that." Vidia spoke with a predatory grin on her face.
"Interesting." Drake squeeked out in a voice that didn't seem to match his body.
"I thought you might like it." Vidia pulled him in for another kiss but as the night progressed, there was a whole log more than just kissing. After all, the night had only just begun
After that day their relationship changed. They still acted the same towards each other with the exception of when they were alone. They flirted more, and engaged in certain activities every night.
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Time continued to pass and with time Drake's mastery over combat reached a peak. He couldn't move forward any more and his programming abilities couldn't be better. Everything about him was a picture of efficiency. Realizing this he decided that it was time to try something else: He mastered languages, gathered knowledge and learned survival skills. All the while Seanna followed suit, staying right behind him and imtating his every move. At first they just all thought it was cute, she would follow around acting almost like person. After a while though, she began to display a real understanding of the subject matter.
Seanna couldn't speak any of the languages that she had imitated Drake in learning, she did however display an ability to understand them. The knowledge Drake gathered served as a boost to her intelligence and the survival skills made her almost seem wild. After 45 more years passed Drake's mastery over language had reached such an astonishing level that he could learn new ones almsot entirely based off of their roots in other languages. Chinese, Latin, Spanish, Korean, German, Japanese, and Italian were just a few of the languages he picked up. Of those languages Seanna had mastered not only Drake's native English but also Spanish and Chinese. She couldn't speak them and according to Michelle a translator would only get in the way once she started learning magic. In the end they just gave her a keyboard and allowed he to communicate through it. In spite of all of these extra activities Drake managed to keep up his combat training to ensure that his skills never dulled.
"Only 5 more years until everybody else returns. I really need to get moving." Vidia hadn't ever met anybody aside from those in this room, but she was definitely excited. I never knew she was such a people person.
"Tell me about it, finally we get to see this system Michelle is always on about." Drake said.
"I am not 'always on' about it. You guys just seem to undervalue it's capabilities." Michelle looked away in frustration. "You'll see what I mean."
[LOL! You are too. You're always talking about how great the system is. It almost like a cult.] As Seanna tapped away on her keyboard, Drake couldn't help but laugh. He was reminded of all of the cat videos from the internet. This is a gold mine.
"I am not you stupid fur ball!" The angel woman's face went red as she yelled at her feline foe.
[Are too!] Returning with the most juvenile reply possible, Seanna adoped an adorable victorious look, as if she had already won.
Their banter went back a forth for a little while, a cat and an angel argueing about nothing. Within all of the madness Drake and Vidia continued their conversation.
"It's kind of sad that everything we've made is going to disappear." Drake spoke in a mixed tone, he was happy because they would soon be out of this time freeze, but on the other hand everything they had made would disappear.
"It's ok, I've got everything stored in my memory. It won't be hard to recreate most of it." It was true, she already knew everything about all of the things they had created.
"We still never got to go into space." Drake stated disappointedly.
"We could still do it. Maybe not before we leave, but someday after things have calmed down on earth." Vidia looked into Drake's eyes.
"Yea, I'de like that." Looking back Drake moved his hand over Vidia's, tenderly he held her hands in his.
[I always did hate birds! I'll leave you on Drake's doorstep like all the others.] Drake and Vidia both sighed and laughed at the ridiculous sight of a small cat and an angel fighting. Vidia leaned against Drake as they both wondered what the future may hold.