“Right now you’re my captive,” Hunter replied with an impassive look on his face, “You’re lucky I’m giving you a form at all, I could have this conversation with you simply as a voice. Now you are going to tell me everything you know about Paragon.”

“If you fail to comply my associate here will begin to systematically disable parts of you’re programming. If you continue to be uncooperative he will freeze your program and start dissecting you for your memory files. A process that I’m sure will leave you a completely different program. So if I were you I’d start talking.”

Crystal's picture pouted, rather comically for a 2-d image.

"Hmph. Well aren't you Mr. Personality, two-thousand seven," she grumbled, despite the threats. "You weren't loved very much as a child, were you?"

She blinked, storing a picture of the man addressing her in her memory; he seemed to fit the old saying, 'tall, dark and handsome'. That was, until you got to the eyes. Crystal couldn't judge character on looks alone, but she was inclined to believe that those silver eyes meant that he wasn't the friendliest of people. And, unless those were colored contacts, she was ready to bet he carried the Xgene within.

"And who's a Paragon? I was under the impression that perfect humans didn't exist anymore. Or was that a modern version of 'mirror mirror on the wall, who's the fairest of them all?'" Her image smirked. "'cause it sure ain't you, pal."

Hunter showed no emotion, but Chris began to disable some of her more basic programming. As the seemed particularly vain he partially disabled the AIs ability to manipulate its avatar. Now all its facial movements would be disjointed, and he made sure she would know that.

“I believe you call here Iris, or Rayne,” he said calmly, “I want you to tell me all of her abilities. You are a training program primarily, so you know here current limits and can predict her future ones. Tell me all now or I’ll let my associate begin dissecting you.”

”Oh, now that’s just cold.” Crystal frowned. One side of her mouth elongated and turned up in a smile, while the other side turned into a downward diagonal line. One of her eyes kept blinking open and closed, giving her the appearance of being lopsided, and twitching. Actually she found it amusing, and ran through all of her emotions, just to see what they would do, as the man continued talking.

“I believe you call her Iris, or Rayne.”

”Rayne?” That was name Crystal always address her by, so that was the one she picked out right away. ”How in the world did you get Paragon from Rayne? You can’t even pass that one off as dislexia. And let me tell you, that girl is far from perfect.” She tried an eye roll, which came across as her eyes crossing and uncrossing. ”Oooo... gotta keep that one in mind....” she remarked in amusement.

“I want you to tell me all of her abilities. You are a training program primarily, so you know her current limits and can predict her future ones. Tell me all now or I’ll let my associate begin dissecting you.”

”You’re all ‘demand and threaten’, aren’t ya friend? Ever heard of the word please? I hear it produces stellar results.” Hmm... smiles become slanting eyes with tongue sticking out, then disappearing. Crystal quickly dismissed that one; it looked too much like she was choking or gagging.

”I’d be happy to do a bit of ‘info-exchange. But it would be nice to know who I’m being threatened by. Proper manners you know.” She added a bad english accent to her voice for that last statement, then added in her normal, sarcastic voice ”You do know what those are, I assume.”

Hunter watched the AI blankly Chris had noted the AI liking the facile expression malfunction and turned it off, freezing her face instead. Hunter had decided that he would either need to comply with it or have Chris begin dissecting the thing. dissection would take longer, and he was short on time.

“Hunter Antonescu,” he said in the monotone he had been using so far, “Now please tell me everything you know about Rayne’s mutant abilities.” If this didn’t work he’d have Chris begin the dissection. he made a note that if he every found out who programmed this AI that he would make sure they suffered.

"Spoilsport," Crystal's voice grumbled as her fun was cut short.

“Hunter Antonescu."

"Well, well. Isn't this a lovely coincidence. Just the man I've been looking for. Or rather, the man I've been looking for information about. You know, you're a hard man to track down?"

“Now please tell me everything you know about Rayne’s mutant abilities.”

"See? Now was that really so hard to ask?"

There was a momentary pause as Crystal processed Hunter's request. As an AI program, she had developed a fairly strong sense of self-preservation; she wasn't keen on getting herself deleted just yet. But at the same time, she'd also managed to develop an odd, un-program-type attachment to her student. Perhaps it was the fact that she had seen the woman progress under her tutelage; she'd grown rather fond of Rayne. And given how little she knew about Antonescu, compared to how much he seemed interested in Rayne....

"Okay, before you have Dr. Frankenstein over there start probing, hear me out." Crystal realized she was pushing her limits, and decided that she didn't care.

"I understand that you can very easily delete me right now, and make those last moments very uncomfortable. Given what you've done already, I don't doubt you will do just that.

"However, I'm a bit... well, let's say protective of Rayne. She has potential to be very powerful, with a fair amount of work of course. That said, I'm reluctant to simply tell you her limitations and capabilities. She's already been kidnapped once and pushed over the edge, and is very fragile because of it. I would hate to see her used or, worse, pushed into a complete breakdown. Therefore, I'm offering a compromise.

"You tell me exactly why you're so interested in her, and I'll tell you what you want to know. Without question or sarcasm."

It really wasn't a compromise. And again, Crystal realized she'd just set herself up for a rather unpleasant next hour or so, but as she'd already accepted that fact, she figured it couldn't hurt anymore to try and learn a few more last minute facts. After all, analyzation was her primary function.

Hunter didn’t answer at first. He was trying to think of a downside of telling her the truth. The only one he could think of is that Chris would hear, but Chris had proven his loyalty and his ability to keep his mouth shut, so that wasn’t much of an issue.

“I want to know because she is my daughter,” he told the AI, “I was unaware that she was at the mansion. I had believed that I had successfully nullified her mutation, and given her a normal life. It seems that I failed. I want to know about her mutation, not so I can nullify it, it is a part of her now and I won’t take it away.”

“I want to know so I know what to expect when I meet her. Until recently I thought that she had been placed in an orphanage with no mutant abilities. I only found out that she was at the mansion after my donation to the facility.” He had been truthful, though he had omitted certain things.

The speakers were silent for a few moments. Then, "Hmm... Well, that explains a few things...."

There was another pause, then a media panel popped onto the screen, resembling the front of a TV screen with VCR controls.

"The footage is recorded in three-d. It will play in flatscreen, but you'll get better visual with a holo-projector."

Yet another moment of silence, the Crystal spoke again, her voice rather hard in tone.

"Consider this a friendly suggestion: Rayne may be fragile at the moment, but she's no pushover. I suggest you try to stay on her good side." The speakers went silent again, but Crystal continued to watch from her side of the screen.

Hunter nodded to Chris and he set up a holo-projector and replayed the footage from the start. He watched in silence, taking in everything that Paragon did. As he did Chris was making a copy and storing it. His features remained impassive as he watched.

What he saw correlated to his tests all those years ago. She could only utilise a gem for seventy one minutes before her body rejected it, and she would then require four minutes for her body to recover form the stress of the change. He knew the limits of each gem’s power as he had used them himself first.

She was nearing full potential with the ice and water gems, but had barely scratched the surface of the others. The project had been cancelled before any other gems had been made, so she only had the five, but he had captured the mutants he had intended to use. When the project was cancelled he had no further use for them and simply killed them.

He was also beginning to get a feel for her personality, which had had years to develop. That was the one variable for which he was unable to account for without meeting her. Though this AI had given him an idea, he could not be sure until he met her.

Having finally gotten the data he needed from the AI he now had a clear picture of the girls capabilities and could finalise his plans. With a nod Chris shut the AI down, but he didn’t delete it. It may prove useful later and he was free to delete it any time he felt like. With the interrogation complete he left Chris to get back to his usual work.