Conestoga – Chapter 3: The Metal Visitor
J's Introduction
The day began like any other at the Elliot mansion. Adam and Tessa spent the morning training in secret, honing their abilities while trying to keep them hidden from their parents.
However, the calm was broken when their father called them to the main hall.
"I want you to meet someone," he said with a smile, gesturing toward a large metal crate in the center of the room.
With a precise motion, he pressed a button and the crate opened, revealing a humanoid metal figure.
Its eyes glowed with a cold blue light.
"This is a drone prototype," Tessa's father explained. "We're considering bringing more of these into service around the mansion."
Tessa studied the machine with interest. Its movements were too fluid to be just a simple robot.
"It looks almost… alive," she murmured.
The drone turned its head toward her.
"Interesting observation. What is your name?"
Its voice was mechanical, but with a nuance that almost sounded human.
"Tessa," she replied without hesitation.
The drone nodded slowly.
"Understood."
"And what are we supposed to call you?" Adam asked, folding his arms.
"I have no assigned name," the drone responded.
Tessa thought for a moment, then smiled.
"We'll call you J."
The drone blinked.
"'J.' Name registered."
Adam sighed.
"Great. Now we have to babysit a robot too."
Tessa elbowed him.
"Don't be rude."
J simply watched them in silence, as if analyzing them more than it let on.
Adam shifted uncomfortably. There was something about that drone he didn't like. Too perfect. Too precise.
---
Adam and the Match
After dinner, Adam and Tessa went out to the back garden to train.
Tessa began lifting twenty-ton weights with her chakra, as if it were the most normal thing in the world.
Meanwhile, Adam held a matchstick between his fingers.
"Today I'm going to nail it," he murmured.
He focused, sliding his index finger—coated in cursed energy—slowly along the wood.
Click!
The match snapped just below the red head, without damaging it at all.
For a moment, Adam just stared at the split stick in his hand. Then he burst into a triumphant laugh.
"Ha! I finally did it!"
Tessa looked at him, intrigued.
"How were you that precise?"
Adam rolled the match between his fingers, savoring the moment before answering.
"Cursed energy is weird, you know?" he began. "Sometimes it behaves like electricity, but that doesn't mean it is electricity. It's an energy of thoughts."
Tessa frowned.
"And what does that have to do with anything?"
Adam smiled, smug.
"If you think about it hard enough, you can make it behave like something else. I made it feel like water."
Tessa's eyes widened.
"Water?"
"Exactly. Water adapts to the shape of the container it's in. If you do the same with cursed energy, you can compress it to ridiculous levels. That let me make the cut twenty times more precise."
Tessa blinked.
"All that in just a week of training?"
Adam shrugged with an arrogant smile.
"I'm a prodigy, what can I say?"
But his moment of glory was cut short when he felt something behind him.
He spun around quickly.
J was there. Standing, motionless, staring at him from a distance.
A shiver ran through Adam.
"I hate that robot…" he muttered.
Tessa just laughed.
"Stop being paranoid."
But Adam couldn't shake the feeling.
---
End of Chapter 3