The House Part 34

Chapter Four in which Allison and the Master Computer have a conversation
“What happened?” Allison asked, sitting up from the ground and looking around, “Why did we all pass out?” She was laying in a snowy field. There were only two buildings on the horizon. One was a tall tower and the other was a giant stone castle.
“I am afraid that your passing out was my doing.” A man wearing a gray overcoat, a crisp black suit, glasses, a top hat and a silver tie said appearing out of nowhere and extending a hand to help Allison to her feet, “I had to knock you all out to put all of your consciousnesses into this little virtual reality program I came up with. I hope it wasn't too uncomfortable.
“No it was fine.” Allison said looking around, “Where is everyone?”
“They are in the watch tower.” The man said, brushing snow of his coat, “Getting ready to begin. Would you follow me please?”
“Sure,” Allison said.
“Thank you very much.” The man said and began to walk towards the Tower with Allison following close behind. Snow was falling gently and the man, who now that Allison thought about it was probably not a man at all but the Master Computer in some Avatar form, pulled an umbrella out of nowhere and held it over Allison.
“Thank you very much.” Allison shivered.
“No problem.” The Master Computer said, “Though I must say that I am resisting the urge to talk about how terrible the White Witch is.”
“What?” Allison said confused, What in the world was he talking about?
“Forget it.” That Master Computer said, smiling a little, “It was a bad joke.”
“You know,” Allison said, looking at the Master Computer, “You are really nothing like what I thought you would be like when I first heard about you.
“You mean other than the fact that I have arms and legs and, if I do say so myself, a stunningly handsome face?” The Master Computer asked grinning.
“No!” Allison said laughing.
“You expected something that was called the Master Computer to have arms and legs?” The Master asked with his eyebrows raised, “That seems to be very unlikely.”
“Of course I didn't expect you to have arms and legs and stuff.” Allison said laughing some more, “I know that the body that you are is just an avatar or something. But what I meant was that your personality wasn't what I expected it to be, if that makes any sense.”
“Actually this body is a recreation of Cameron Hawthorn's, so it's not exactly an Avatar ” The Master Computer said, “Cameron was Professor Lucious' grandson and his pride and joy. Cameron and his grandfather were almost inseparable. But then the young man decided to run for Congress. He was a moderate and reasonable voice in what was fast becoming a very nasty and partisan political atmosphere. Both the Diamonds and the Violets attacked him and attacked him and attacked him. The worst attack was that he, a married father of three, had been sleeping with his secretary, a married mother of two who also happened to be a lesbian. The fact that the attack was totally and completely false didn't stop Cameron's wife from leaving him or the public from voting against him. He was so distraught that he went to a bar one night with the intention of buying a drink and poisoning it, it was quite a popular way of killing oneself at the time, but just as he was about to drop the poison in the drink his cell phone rang and it was his grandfather. His grandfather, Prof. Lucious, wanted to talk to him about some class he was teaching, totally unaware of the fact that his grandson was about to commit suicide. Cameron began to weep and confessed everything to his grandfather and Prof Lucious talked him out of it. Some Violet was over by the bar and overheard that Cameron was talking to the famous leader of the Diamonds and walked over to him. The Violet grabbed Cameron and forced him outside. He then put the cell phone on speakerphone and began to beat Cameron up. Prof. Lucious was forced to listen, totally unable to do anything. Finally the Violet killed Cameron and carved a violet into his chest, forehead, and back with a steak knife.”
“That's sick!” Allison said, looking totally disgusted, “Is that why Prof. Lucious got so angry at the world?”
“Yep.” The Master Computer said, “But anyway, the reason my personality is different than what you would think it would be is that, unlike everyone believes, I am not Prof. Lucious or at least not completely. When his consciousness went into me he was thinking of Cameron very hard. So I am a mixture of Prof. Lucious and Cameron. I like to think that I have the best of both of them but that might just be Prof. Lucious' helium filled ego talking.” Allison laughed and the Master Computer smiled
“And that is Cameron's sense of humor talking.” The Master Computer said folding in the umbrella as they walked into the tower's doorway, “And now we have all arrived so it is time for me to explain why I have brought you all here.”