A Natural-Born Fighter

Alvin was glad that Stark had shown such caution in that moment. It made him feel that their past conversations had actually had an effect.

It was only a few minutes later, when Stark finally came out of his thoughts, that Alvin smiled and asked, "What's up, buddy? What did you figure out?"

Stark didn't answer Alvin's question. He looked at Dr. Eide and said, "Can you get this... Alita talking?

I'm curious about her. I want to try having a few words with her before deciding what to do."

Dr. Eide hurriedly nodded and nervously walked over to the cart. First, he gave little Ginny a grateful nod for being such a good sport. Then he took a smile-shaped chip out of his pocket, gently parted Alita's lips, and used a tweezer-like tool to put the tiny chip inside.

When he was done, Dr. Eide looked nervously at Stark and said, "I designed a taste-sensing unit for Alita. Her sensory chip malfunctioned yesterday, so I had a new one custom-made. That's why she couldn't speak just now."

Alvin stared at Dr. Eide in surprise and couldn't help saying, "Man, you want a robot to eat? Does taste mean anything to her? Aren't you getting a little carried away?"

Before Dr. Eide could explain, Stark nudged Alvin and said, "You idiot, didn't you hear what JARVIS just said?

Dr. Eide designed a biological energy-collection system for her. In other words, what we'd call a digestive system.

Clearly, our Dr. Eide doesn't think of her as a robot. He's trying to perfect her, make her just like a real person."

Alvin looked at Dr. Eide, whose expression was hard to read, and said, "What's the point of letting a robot eat, drink, and use the bathroom?"

Dr. Eide didn't get angry