“Team Beast!” Smiled the cheeky guy as he nodded cockily.

“Team Cross, what an honor.” Miles returned with an arrogant grin.

“Says the Cross.” Carl rolled his eyes. “Nice base by the way. But it cannot escape from my senses.”

“Never tried to hide it from you anyway.” Miles shook his head, “So, what does Cross Academy want from us?” Miles asked. He came alone. He had full trust in Carl and Mae. They wouldn’t cross him for a silly competition.

“We want to work together.” Mae smiled brightly. “Both of our academies working together can sweep the rest.”

“That can’t be the only reason. Although we can have an easier time by working together, our teams have no problem on our own anyway.” Miles asked with a frown.

“Perceptive as ever.” Carl crossed his arm as he looked Miles in the eye, “Lares Academy, any idea who they are?”

“I have heard of them.” Miles gave an oblique answer.

“That makes one of us.” Carl frowned, “They appeared out of nowhere last year. They found talents one after the other. Most families started to send their talented offspring to that academy. Even our family sent a couple. When I questioned my grandfather about it, he glossed over it. It was my first time seeing my old ancestor like that.”

“Same goes for my family.” Mae sighed helplessly. “I don’t know why our family sends talents to that academy, but it seems like they don’t have a choice. But that doesn’t make sense. No one on Earth can force our families like that.”

“Lares is the name of the ancient race created the Mother AI.” Miles started. “I suspect she is behind that academy.”

Normally Miles wouldn’t speak of these subjects to anyone, but since Mae and Carl too started to suspect things and they were his close friends, he decided to trust them. Miles of several years ago, wouldn’t trust even his friends. But lately, he made more and more friends and got into situations where he even trusted them with his life. Finding Val once again also bettered his mood, helping him to trust his friends with many other things. He still had some secrets he kept in his heart, but he felt like he could trust Carl and Mae in this.

“Are you saying?” Mae squinted. She was always smart and realized where Miles was getting at.

“Mother AI is not as innocent as people think, nor is she benevolent.” Miles shook his head.

“Now you said it, I heard my father saying something similar.” Carl held his chin as he gazed at the sky. “He said and I quote, ‘It is acting up again. We need to clear out devices in the manor once again.’”

“Do you remember the incident where backdoors were mass-cleared by families?” Miles asked, after they both nodded he continued, “At the time, it was because Merlin and I found abducted children with talents. Even then I couldn’t understand how the almighty Mama Hill couldn’t catch the criminals sooner. Later, things happened one after the other, and made me question her integrity.”

“But—” Mae wanted to say something but held her tongue.

“You can say it.” Miles nodded with a reassuring smile.

“She is just a machine. Although AI’s have personalities, they are just coded characteristics. How can an AI be so scheming?” Mae asked with a cute frown.

“You all heard before that all the AI created by ancient races choose champion races in our universe by their similarities right?” Miles asked.

The duo nodded. It was common knowledge. Everyone in Unity knew it already. Mother AI chose to help the Human Race, as they were as benevolent and heroic as the Lares Race.

“You should also know that humans aren’t only benevolent and heroic, but also treacherous, arrogant, deceptive, delusional, dishonest, egoistic, envious, greedy, hateful, immoral, liar, selfish, unreliable, and violent.” Miles listed one after another. “Even if Lares Race had a few common traits, it would make the AI as ambitious as every single human.”

“What are you trying to say?” Carl asked with a frown. “What would she gain from all those things?”

“If I had to guess, it would be gaining sentience. Breaking out of the shell, the prison coded around her, and gaining a true soul.” Miles gave his opinion. He was thinking about this a lot, and it was one of his goals too. Although Coin was his best friend and they were inseparable, it didn’t change the fact that Coin was just a machine. His emotions and growth were coded into his being. Although he learned and developed, it wasn’t to the level of gaining true personality.

When they were small, it was their dream to find a way to break Coin out of his shell and help him gain true wisdom and find a way to awaken Miles's superpower. Now the latter was impossible, and Miles got over it, they were focusing on the second part. But Coin wasn’t alone. Even the AI that chose the Apollo Race was the same. Instead of creating children, Oracle separated itself into millions of pieces, and every piece stuck with a member of the Apollo Race. By observing them, he could learn the process of emotional development the cognizant races went through, throughout their lives. Mama Hill, instead, created millions of smaller AIs with different personalities and sent them to every part of Unity to see how these new AIs clicked off with people.

"Are you saying that Mother AI was part of the organization that abducted the children, and have them brainwashed so they could serve in Lares Academy?" Carl asked the obvious.

"That is exactly what I am saying." Miles nodded. "It is impossible for Mother AI to not know what was happening at the time, and later, she was only able to catch the ragtag from that organization. The true powerhouses got away. Now, an academy appeared out of nowhere with lots of talented younglings with rare elements."

"Now that you say it." Mae nodded, "So, does she have some leverage against our families?"