One year since Project Meta’s defection Beyond was assigned to the Special Reconnaissance department. While his age exempted him from active field duty, his technical and detective skills were continually exercised in place. Using the voice changer from the Las Vegas crisis, he relayed intelligence and guidance within Cadmus and occasionally other government operations.
In light of his exceptional skills, he was also given the task to overlook the Justice League’s activities around the world. Before Beyond’s creation, there was an incident that involved the Justice Lords, an alternate universe of the Justice League. From them, they realized what a threat the Justice League was to the world if their powers were not kept in check. If not for Lex Luthor’s pardon, there would have been no information of the Justice Lord’s reality. The creation of Beyond was one of the many projects initiated to attempt to keep the Justice League in check.
Every recording, every news piece done about the Justice League were archived for Beyond’s viewing. From his observations he took note of habits and weaknesses each Leaguer have to determine a possible counter measure against them. His findings were often requested by other departments in Cadmus in their attempt to pull the distance in power closer. With his archive on a separate system, not connected to any external ports, the information cannot be sent by the simple means of an email. Rather, Beyond was required to deliver these data in person.
One was to protect the location of the archive. Secondly, since he was personally delivering the information, there was no chance of interception without his knowledge. Of course, given he was a child no more than seven he was escorted by guards each holding a dummy briefcase in preparation. He carried the actual files in a child’s backpack; no one would expect him to hold anything important.
“Oh! Hello little one, here with your uncle again?” The security at the front desk gushed when Beyond walked in with his guard, disguised as a businessman, hand-in-hand.
Beyond placed up a bright smile and nodded. “Uncle said we’re going to eat afterwards! And we might even get to see a movie! It has pandas!”
The security guard laughed as he ruffled his hair into a mess. “Well, you have fun! Go ahead in.”
The guard nodded before leading Beyond in.
Once out of the halls and into the elevator, Beyond dropped his hand from the guard’s and quickly combed his hand through his hair to even out the mess. He flipped out a key and twisted it into what was normally the power switch for the elevator. Instead of going up, the floor below them opened and the elevator descended to the hidden facilities. From there, Beyond maneuvered through the maze-like facility until he reached the labs. He and his guard stepped through a sterilizing unit to cleanse themselves of contamination from the outer world. Inside were equipment laid about the area and a man in a lab coat standing in front of the tube-like tank.
“Professor Hamilton.” Beyond greeted as he walked up to the man.
Hamilton didn’t glance away from the readings on the machines next to the tank. “Project Beyond, you can just leave the files on the desk behind me.”
“Files on Justice Leaguer Supergirl, one would wonder why you need these.” He commented casually as he walked to the table and pulled out the files from his backpack.
“No need to speak with such sarcasm Beyond.” Hamilton continued to inspect his readings. “Did you find anything new on Superman and Supergirl?”
Beyond snorted as he strolled over to the tank and studied the small fist size of a figure floating within. “Personally, if Cadmus would just shoot the man with a kryptonite laced bullet and get it over with, it’ll save us a lot of grief. The man never dodges them and is even stupid enough to catch them in an attempt to use it as an intimidation tactic.”
Hamilton chuckled. “If only it was that easy. If we could do that, we would’ve done it ages ago and I won’t need to be here doing this project.”
“Only because Superman is a public figure head.” The seven-year-old project droned. “If we killed him, he’ll just become a martyr. The public will be outraged and he’ll be placed on an even higher pedestal.”
“Perceptive as usual, so there’s nothing new that I have to be aware of?”
“Unless you want the man dead, then no.” Beyond said dryly. “What should I be expecting from your project? Or what are you expecting to come out from this?”
“If the project is successful, Cadmus will be having their very own Supergirl in their ranks.”
“But you can’t call her Supergirl, that would be copyright infringement.” Beyond quipped wryly.
Hamilton laughed. “Been hitting the law books lately, haven’t you?”
“One can only watch Superman cause property damage so many times before it gets dull.” He said as he peered over the reading Hamilton was getting. “What is this project’s name?”
“Project Galatea, she’ll be accelerated into maturity and once that—”
“Excuse me.” The guard interrupted. “Beyond, you’re requested back at headquarters, immediately.”
“I’ll give you a more detailed report of her the next time I see you.” Hamilton added.
“See you again some other time then professor.” Beyond waved as he hurried out of the building with his guard. He kept his questions to himself until they’re reached his transport. It must be important if they requested his haste return. “What’s the emergency?”
“There was an interruption during the international peace conference.” The guard turned on the television in the vehicle.
Beyond raised a brow when he saw the contents. Whatever attacked were not your everyday terrorists. The ship floating above Washington DC looked out of this world, none of its designed seemed human made. And from how the ship easily repelled the Justice League, it was notably dangerous. However, before the ship managed any real damage to the capital, a beam of light shot it down, crashing it to the ground.
“How long ago did this happen?” He asked with a frown over his face, rewinding and watching the video again, these were unedited videos from various security cameras, half the images didn’t even manage to catch most of the ship’s image.
“Approximately an hour ago, they requested the world leaders’ audience.”
“Has the conference started yet?” He asked before pausing at the video with the image of numerous ships littering the sky.
“They will be starting soon; a live feed is prepared for you to watch the conference back at the headquarters.”
“Then we better hurry back.” Beyond turned off the video before pulling out his laptop and starting his report.
Twenty minutes later, Beyond was seated in front of his station of screens. One screen was a live feed of the conference hosted by the Thanagarians that took out the hazardous Gordanian ship. The other screens pulled up files and video archives of Hawkgirl. Like they mentioned, Hawkgirl appeared in Earth’s media roughly five years ago, doing what she could to assist the populace. It was revealed now that she was part of the Thanagarian reconnaissance.
“They seriously believe that cover story will work?” Beyond frowned as he rest his lips over his fist. Reconnaissance was created solely for the benefits for the people who employ them; their purpose was to retrieve information that benefits their own. “Don’t make me laugh.” He reached for his phone already installed with a voice changer. “Patch me through Amada Waller. It’s an emergency.”
He met little resistance, his work in the reconnaissance division was well known. “This is Waller.”
“Waller sir, the analysis of the Thanagarians is completed. Do not at any point agree to their demands!”
“On what grounds?” Waller asked. Her voice demanded no nonsense.
“If they truly wish to assist us, they would not need an undercover operative to study our technology and weapons for five years. It is highly suspicious that an entire fleet appeared at the same time to assist us when a signal ship of the Gordanian attacked. Furthermore, other than retaliating, the ship itself had not initiated any use of force during its first appearance.”
“That’s enough.” Waller interrupted his reasoning. “Your discoveries will be brought to notice. Continue your observations. If anything goes wrong, be prepared.”
“Yes sir.” Beyond responded before hanging up.
While Cadmus was fully aware of the hidden intent behind the Hawk people, the populace of the rest of the world did not. Hours after the conference came the unanimous acceptance of the Hawk people’s assistance. Beyond found himself fuming for the first time in his life. These world idiots were blindly accepting these outsiders with no solid proof. He attempted to call Waller again, but she has already informed the reconnaissance department that the United States representative was aware of the Hawk people’s intent, but brushed it off as paranoia and ridiculous.
“Idiots.” Beyond muttered as he watched the Justice League assist the Hawk people with the construction of the supposed force shield against the Gordanians.
Along side the feed, he had five years worth of information and video recordings of Hawkgirl for further studying. He searched for the Thanagarian fighting style and what possible countermeasures they could take if the Thanagarians were to attack. Despite his irritation, he noticed something odd about the Justice League. They were moving with complete ease, without the usual reservation and caution. Pausing briefly on his archive research, he checked over the Leaguers that were present. The corner of his lips twitched up when he noticed and realized who was missing.
Batman
There were no signs of the dark knight anywhere in the vicinity of the construction site. The man must have noticed the same things he had. He’s assumptions were not blindly made. The only person to elude him from his Justice League watch was Batman. He had long lists of weaknesses, possibly weaknesses and countermeasures to nearly all the leaguers.
For Superman his weakness against kryptonite was given. Cadmus had long realized this before his creation. Searching for another weakness was a waste of time when the one they already know could easily kill the man. Instead, he made a list of possible countermeasures against the Kryptonian. He deduced Green Lantern was powerless against the color yellow and if his ring was taken away he’d be utterly useless. He noted Flash’s speed caused an increase in metabolism. Without food he would be just as slow as the average human. All anyone needed to do was to bide their time until he ran out of energy.
Jon the Martian, while he doesn’t seem to have any weaknesses, he was susceptible to flames on occasion. In addition, a stasis field proved to be the most effective concerning the nullification of his Martian abilities. As for Wonder Woman, like Jon there aren’t any notable weaknesses from the archives. However, in theory if a man can subdue or get physically intimate with her, there was a chance she might lose her powers. Given she’s an Amazon and the laws of her people was quite similar to how the Goddess Artemis vow to keep her chastity from men.
He could list out an endless amount of information and theories, but that meant little when concerning Batman. The man was human, which meant he had plenty of physical weaknesses and could be just as easily killed. Yet, it wasn’t his prowess in combat that threatens Cadmus, it was the man’s mind. Everything about the man was shrouded in mystery. He seldom gets any footage of the man in action and any eyewitness accounts were often outlandish and exaggerated. His rogues’ gallery was little help to aid him in understanding the caped crusader. What was most upsetting was that with the Thanagarians attacking, he had even less time to unravel the mystery of Batman.
A blinking red light on his phone notified him the reconnaissance department wanted his attention. “GB1 speaking.”
“This is Waller.”
“Sir.” Beyond greeted formally, but a hint of curiosity still seeped through his voice. She had already relayed the message that the government ignored his advice, why would she contact him again?
“I’m patching you through to Checkmate operatives. Discuss with them about your concerns about the Thanagarians.” She continued. “While the government is not doing anything, Cadmus and Checkmate will do whatever it can.”
“Understood sir!” He was not certain what Checkmate was, but for now he would have to assume it was another project within Cadmus. A proper introduction would have to wait.
Much to his surprise, the operatives of Checkmate came to similar conclusions he has about the Thanagarians. Their plans, however, was lacking. Were it to be used on humans, no doubt it would work, but against these Hawk people it was asking for defeat. Beyond frowned as he tried to reason why they would think in such a manner. Have they never dealt with metas and aliens before?
“Excuse me.” He interrupted and silenced many of the voices on the other end. He wasn’t sure if the other end was a videoconference or a live conference, but he was not about to sit idly as a spectator. “I think it’s much more effective if we went about this with a different approach. You are treating the situation as if we’re dealing with humans. I think it would be better if we…” He promptly went into explaining in detail the various weak points and strengths of the Thanagarians from his research.
The information exchange and planning lasted for a week before the bugged representative went onto the Thanagarian ship. They were hoping to scope out the enemies’ territory, but unfortunately their plans were cut short. The representatives were held captive due to some sort of intrusion. Moments later, they found that the Thanagarians have disabled their weaponry and cut off any attempt in retaliation.
Beyond berated himself for being so naive. They had a spy in their world for over five years, not doubt she already figured a countermeasure against their weapons. He was a fool to think that they would be playing on even grounds. All his meticulous planning went to waste. There was nothing he could do.
He could only watch as the Justice League revolted at the construction area. One by one the Hawk people took down their so-called heroes. Superman by what seemed like a kryptonite beam, Green Lantern with a yellow shield, Flash with a gravity field, Jon the Martian with a stasis mace and of course, Wonder Woman and Batman were nowhere in sight. Beyond gritted his teeth as he realized the severity of the situation they were facing. They were outclassed and out maneuvered. What can they do?
Calls from all over Cadmus came to him asking if they should bring their projects into active duty. Most were incomplete projects, not even through with the testing phases yet. As much as he hates to rely on the Justice League, there was no other option he could turn to. Cadmus simply didn’t have the power or means to fight off an invasion on their own. When the Justice League was declared as fugitives and enemies, he had to activate Project Ultimen. Though incomplete, they have a better chance at staving off the Hawk people and buying some time for the Justice League.
His boundless source of information was stifled. No one could get into the territories the Hawk people had taken over. What little information he could gather were from the public stations and live feeds the Thanagarians allowed. Anything on them was merely propaganda supporting the invaders.
Checkmate already has all the information he could offer. Cadmus has sent out all their capable operatives. His hands were tied all he could do was wait and watch.
If only it was that easy to sit still. He tried passing the time going through Hawkgirl’s files again trying to see if he missed anything. His attention was only drawn away when he spotted a change on one of the live feeds. The shadow over the site grew larger and larger until the camera feed was destroyed. He had no clue what had happened until his sources returned.
Reports of the Hawk people leaving were cropping up slowly place-by-place, but that didn’t give him a moment of relief. It wasn’t until he heard news that the Watch Tower have crashed and destroyed the site the Thanagarian was building that he let out a sigh of relief. His body slumped against his seat as he rested his head on the backrest; he was exhausted. Throughout the whole ordeal, he slept no more than a few hours a day in order to oversee every detail.
Beyond was found snoring at his station by his caretakers when everything was over. He could care less about how Hawkgirl was being dealt with. He deserved his moment of reprieve.
o.o.o.o.o
The time Followed after the Thanagarian invasion, Beyond was once again reassigned. Due to his accomplishments, Cadmus found his skills were wasted in simple reconnaissance. He was now working as a shadow advisor for the government and the Cadmus projects in active duty. Duties overlooking the Justice League were suspended until the Watchtower was rebuilt. Until then, they needn’t worry about possible hostile take over from the heroes. Without the tower, they were limited to where they could operate.
Domestic affairs were considered mediocre chores to Beyond. They barely posed a challenge compared to what he dealt with in the past. His first assignment involved an embezzlement scandal that cost the government billions. The teams assigned to him were reluctant to trust him at first, why should they? He was no more than a strange voice giving them advice, but that didn’t mean he couldn’t be annoyed.
These people worked on a different level, one not up to the standards he was used to in Cadmus. These people were in inefficient. They lacked the skills and means to communicate and work together that most Cadmus operatives are capable. Instead of the few days he expected to complete the task, it took two weeks.
He had to learn and adjust to working with civilian white-collared workers. Threats and outright orders did little. They worked best when they believe it was their contribution that aided the completion of the assignment. Of course, this meant extra work for Beyond. Not only he needed to solve the problem, he needed to boost the egos of the imbeciles he worked with.
To keep the assignments interesting and easy to remember, he often renamed the case file at his leisure. The billion-dollar scandal became Ten Digits. Two weeks, Beyond and his teams of accountants managed to shuffle the digits into the form of various firms, stocks and banks. Later, it was publicly known as the City Construction Scandal. His involvement remained unaccredited. His involvement was supposed to leave no trace
Even so, Cadmus’ efforts to make Beyond into a silent and unseen advisor failed. Wherever he went, whatever he dealt with were noted memorably by each person he interacted with. That was when he earned his first name in the public.
The Voice.
That was all he was to these people. A voice of reason, a voice without a face and most importantly a voice that cannot be found. He only appears in the moment of need.
“I understand, but what about—” The president protested.
“There is no need to explain yourself to me sir. I’m merely an advisor, giving you choices and possible outcomes of the decisions you make. Whether or not you decide to use them is solely your choice.” Beyond operated with the impression that there was always choice, but in reality there was only one option.
“I see… very well, it’s best—” A knock at the door interrupted. “What is it?”
Beyond could hear the door opening and a woman spoke. “Sir, Superman is here to see you.”
“Superman?” The man said in bafflement. “I’m—”
“Please, by all means, greet him if you wish.” Beyond said evenly as he opened his archive files on the man of steel.
“Mr. President, I need to speak with you about that bill—”
“It will be passed.” The president interrupted.
“But sir!” Superman protested. “The city needs that funding.”
“And who is it to blame to why the city would need such funding to repair itself?” Beyond inserted casually. “The city would not even need half that amount yearly if you and the other so call heroes took the structural integrity of the cities you fight in, into consideration.”
“… And you are?” Superman asked warily.
“The Voice is a government advisor. His identity is kept secret for his own safety.” The president quipped.
“Advisor?” The man of steel sound startled. “Sir, I don’t think it’s wise to leave your decisions to an unknown voice.”
Beyond held back a snort as he flipped through the Kryptonian’s files and taking note of his name. He refused to call this alien Superman. “Well, Kal-El, this is an improvement. You have finally grown some common sense to not blindly trust the unknown. Pity, it would have been useful during the Thanagarian Crisis.”
There was an intake of breath before Superman hissed. “Brainiac!”
The child advisor paused stiffly before sitting upright and enunciating his words clearly. “Listen closely, Kal-El of Krypton, if you have even half a brain in that hard head of yours, you would have noticed I am human. Your Kryptonian name is not a secret to the public. If anyone with half a brain bothered to look they would have easily found it in an old Daily Planet issue. Your pseudonym Superman is merely a glorified title the media decided to dub you. Keep this in mind, if it is even possible for you to do so. Jumping to conclusions can be hazardous.” He sniped.
It was obvious he was still irritated over the Thanagarian Crisis. The man trusted so blindly and suffered no repercussions for his actions. If anything, he was commended for fixing his own mistakes. The media irritated the young advisor just as much, putting the man on a high pedestal, pretending he can’t don’t anything wrong. The rest of the world being gullible and foolish ate up whatever the media spewed.
“Sir, I’ll leave the decision to you as always. Whichever choice you choose, I hope it’s the proper one. Good day.” Beyond promptly cut off the connection, not letting Superman get another word in.
The child advisor took a deep breath as he closed his eyes and gathered himself. The man irritated him more than he originally thought. With a slight internal debate, he pulled his conversation history onto the screen and replayed his little exchange with the man of steel. He clicked his tongue at his own brashness.
“Should have left the connection open, would have gotten more information for the archives.” He muttered.
Hours later, he was scolded for his carelessness to have revealed his existence to the man of steel. Despite being reprimanded, he found a hint of amusement in the midst of stern words. He hadn’t known what was so amusing about the whole situation, but since no punishment came from this, he won’t complain.
“I’ll be more cautious of my own actions in the future.” He answered expectantly.
The next time any of the Justice League interrupted his advisement, he made certain to stay silent and observe. The months after the Ten Digits assignment was what he dubbed as the Spider down the Drain. Unlike the first assignment, this case tickled his interest. It was actually named the Black Widow Murderess. This woman was shuffling husbands and alibis instead of money. This case normally wouldn’t even be considered in his workload. However, a figure of importance took interest in this spider.
Beyond had little interest in the man he was supposed to save and protect especially when the woman was so much more interesting. She had the total of six husbands, each died in a few short years after their marriage. All their deaths were noted as accidents and the woman always had an alibi. The back records of the woman showed no previous misdemeanors. In fact, it showed an impressive array of accomplishments, which made it all the more interesting to prove otherwise.
What was there for him to find, when so many other detectives have failed? The other detectives have already found the woman’s humble background. She came from a middle class family; she went about school and other frivolities. There was nothing wrong with the woman, but that wasn’t what he was looking for. What he was interested in was the strange array of classes the woman took during her college years. At a casual glance, her records show her as a business and economics graduate, but a closer look at her choice of electives were classes of criminal psychology and law.
A grin touched Beyond’s lips. The woman was quite an actress, portraying herself as a respectable woman with many virtues and unfortunate circumstances. Albeit, the only virtue she really had was patience. She planned the deaths of her husbands’ months before they even married. Of course, she kept no records of these plans. It would have been too easy otherwise. No, she nearly had the perfect crime. Her only fault was her accomplice. In the midst of her business transactions, the previous detectives never noticed her lawyer.
The lawyer was the most crucial part of her plans. Using her company as a front, any visits or requests for a lawyer would not have been taken as something odd. The murder was executed by the lawyer while she had a safe alibi elsewhere. With her more than perfect record, no one would suspect her accomplice’s ruined records. Once the connection between the two was completed, it was the matter of a well-placed search warrant of the lawyer’s abode. The two were placed on trial and sentenced a week after Beyond had finished and allowed the state and court to finish the rest.
“What people do for money.” Beyond shook his head as he watched the news aftermath of the Spider down the Drain. He was going to Nuvo-Gen with his guards. Professor Hamilton wanted his opinion on Project Galatea progression.
Just as they neared the compound, another vehicle crashed into theirs. The car swerved dangerously before flipping onto its back. As quickly as it happened, it was over. Beyond grimaced as he placed a hand to his head. Fortunately, he was strapped in, but the whiplash was a pain. He glanced up wondering if his guards were injured, but to his surprised they were all gone and they weren’t the only ones the driver from the other car was missing as well.
He braced himself as he unbuckled his straps, landing on his head was not what he wanted to experience. Once he crashed onto the ceiling of the car, he lowered the window and crawled out the overturned vehicle. Immediately, he could smell smoke and hear the roar of flames. Outside was a long string of car accidents all were missing drivers. Just what the hell was going on?
He needed to get out of the open, but not without his documents. Beyond reached back into the overturned vehicle and hauled out his backpack before the sound of crying caught his attention. He crawled back out and searched for the source. A girl about his age was in one of the cars in the long lines of accident. She was strapped into a booster seat and was relatively unharmed from the accident. With her unending bawling, Beyond couldn’t catch her attention. Instead, he climbed onto the dashboard and kicked the broken glass until he could let himself in.
“Hey! Hey! Stop crying!” He snapped.
The girl stopped with a hiccup, still hyperventilating from her crying. “I-I want my mommy!”
“Just stop crying! What happened?” He asked as he got her out of her seat.
Her lower lips trembled before she started bawling again. “Mommy!”
Beyond sighed exasperatedly before dragging her out of the car. “Come on. Get out before the fumes kill us.”
“B-but!” She protested, but followed nonetheless.
He hadn’t known why he helped her, but he was regretted that he had. The girl cried each time he tried to question her. When he tried to leave her, she only clung to him further. Seeing how he couldn’t get rid of her, he had no choice but to bring her along. Nuvo-gen wasn’t too far from where they were. It’d be safer inside. They didn’t go far when a group of kids found them.
“Hey! The group consisted of two girls and two boys not much older than himself.
“Are you guys alone too?” The older boy asked.
The girl on his arm sniffled and nodded. They looked less likely to cry compared to his companion, so he decided to ask some questions. “What happened? Where are all the adults?”
The group shrugged and shook their heads. “I was with my dad in the store when he just disappeared!” One of the boys said.
“Same here! I was with my sister.” The dark skinned girl spoke.
“We were in the groceries with mom.” The other boy murmured and his little sister nodded next to him.
Beyond frowned. “Hey, how old was your sister?”
The girl tilted her head curiously. “She’s fourteen. We were supposed to meet our daddy.”
“So fourteen and over are gone.” He muttered under his breath.
“So… what do we do now?” The other boy asked.
“I say we need a leader! I’ll be it!” The brother appointed himself. He looked about ten or so, likely the eldest in the group.
“Do you even know what you’re doing?” Beyond asked dryly.
“I’m the oldest here! So I say I’m in charge!” He huffed.
“Yeah!” His sister hesitantly agreed.
“Do what you want, I’m leaving.” Beyond said before turning to leave for Nuvo-Gen. There were no other answers these children could give him.
The girl from before pulled him back and clung onto his arm. “I-I want him to be leader! He talks like a grown up!”
“But I’m oldest!” The boy protested.
“My big sister said the oldest is not always the smartest.” The other girl interrupted. “I pick this guy.”
“Uh… I guess… I’ll pick this guy too?” The other boy said in confusion.
“Hey, I didn’t say I want to lead you.” Beyond protested.
“Yeah! He said he doesn’t want it!” The brother argued again.
“But he knows what to do right?” His sister tugged on his arm quietly.
Beyond hadn’t bother staying to listen to their childish arguments. He gave an abrupt departure, but found the children following him to Nuvo-Gen. This was his first experience with normal children and they were far from what he expected. The lack of discipline was appalling. If he gave them no restrictions, they did as they pleased. He has never met such behavior. They were highly emotional, easily agitated and needed a whole lot of attention whether it was food, water, entertainment, bathroom breaks or authority. Lacking even one of them was disastrous.
Beyond learned the hard way when they managed fire with only water and a coffee maker. With some difficulty and a lot of shouting, he and the two other boys managed to use the fire extinguisher to put out the fire. It was then he took the forced role of leader seriously.
“Don’t touch anything.” He glared at the ground once the fire was out.
Feeding them turned out to be a hassle as well.
“Ew! I don’t want to eat this!” The group complained.
“Eat it or starve. Your choice. There’s nothing else here.” He said as he ate. The food was from the fridge in the break room they nearly burned down. The majority seemed like leftovers from conference meetings.
“I need to go potty.” The sister said with her legs together as she hopped.
Beyond felt a vein throbbing at the side of his head as he dared to ask. “…Who else needs to go to the bathroom?”
All hands raised into the air. Beyond was grateful that they at least know how to wipe themselves after they were done because by the time the entertainment came about, he was losing patience with the group of children.
“No, that’s stupid! I want to watch something else!” The boys argued.
“No! We wanna watch ponies!” The girls retorted.
“Decide on one thing or no one is watching anything!” Beyond snapped.
In the end, they decided to watch a boy with a pink hat and two talking goldfishes. He really didn’t see why the children liked these shows. They were nonsensical and even ridiculous for the most part. Nonetheless, he wasn’t one to look at a gift horse in the mouth for the next two hours of peace. In which, he had used to check on Hamilton’s precious Project Galatea.
It had grown some since he was last there. Instead of the fist size of a ball, Galatea was starting to resemble a human infant. Making a quick check through the system, he was certain that whatever happened to the adults won’t affect those who are physically young. Once he was certain nothing in these labs would destroy the building, he quickly went back to check on the children.
Fortunately, when he returned, the children were still captivated by the screen. Having nothing else left to do, he sat down and waited. He waited and studied the children around him. What exactly was so captivating about a sponge underwater? And why would they need baths anyhow?
“Hey.” The girl latched onto him earlier whispered as she tugged on his arm. “When do you think my mommy is coming back? I want to go home.”
“I don’t know.” Beyond replied bluntly.
“Don’t you miss your mommy and daddy?” She asked.
“… No.” He said truthfully. In Cadmus, he changed caretakers and teachers almost monthly. For as long as he remembered, he never had anyone he can call a parent.
“You don’t like them?” She asked, confused by his answer.
“...No.” He said again, but a question swam in his mind curiously. “Why do you miss your parents?”
“Um…” The girl pondered. “Because I love my mommy and daddy.”
“Love?” Beyond muttered cynically. By definition, love is something of affection, an attachment, something that can’t be measured or even judged logically. “Why do you love them?”
She gave a confused frown. “I just love them.”
“Why?”
“Just because!” She grounded out stubbornly.
She doesn’t know why she loves them either. “Then—” He paused when suddenly an adult appeared out of thin air.
Slowly, the building was coming to life again with noises. “The grownups are back!” The boy jumped up from his seat in joy.
“Hey! Maybe my sister is back too!” The other girl shouted.
“Then what are we waiting for? Let’s go look for them!” The brother shouted in excitement before dragging his sister with him.
The mini-semblance of order Beyond had over them was gone. They quickly approached the adults for help. He wasn’t bothered by their desertion. After all, he hadn’t wanted to help them in the first place. Even though they all left him, the girl he saved remained with him. He glanced back to her curiously.
“Aren’t you going to look for your mother?” He asked.
“Um… can you go with me?” She asked timidly.
He wasn’t sure why she didn’t just go ask an adult, but since his guards were probably in the vicinity looking for him, he might as well help her. When they left Nuvo-Gen, she grabbed onto his hand rather than clinging onto his arm as they backtracked to where they met. The city was in a state of confusion. People reappeared all around, disoriented from their return at first, and then stared in horror at the chaos that the city fell into while they were gone. It didn’t take long for the two to reach their destination.
“Cindy!” A woman shouted as she rushed over.
“Mommy!” The girl released Beyond’s hand before running into the woman’s arms.
“Oh! I was so worried! You must’ve been terrified! My poor baby!” She cried.
“Yeah I was a little scared, but he helped me, so it wasn’t too scary.” She said before breaking away from her mother.
“Who helped you sweety?” She asked before her daughter turned around to pull Beyond over. “You helped my little Cindy?” He nodded slowly not knowing what to expect, he hasn’t dealt with civilian women outside of business before. “Thank you.” She whispered as she gave him a hug.
His eyes widened in surprise, whatever he expected, it wasn’t this. He felt a flutter of warmth caressing his insides. He reasoned it was the woman’s higher body temperature, but he knew it wasn’t the reason. Sure it was just as invasive as Cindy’s touches, but this felt pleasant. It was… nice.
… Is this why she loves her parents? He wondered curiously.
“Where are your parents? They must be worried sick for you.” The woman fussed over him and Cindy until one of his guards approached.
“There you are! I was wondering where you ran off to.” The man said.
“You’re his father?” The woman asked.
“No, I’m his uncle.” The man continued. Beyond stopped listening to the cover story his guard was spouting. He heard it a million times with various variations to it.
“Do you live with your uncle? Is that why you don’t miss your mommy and daddy?” Cindy asked.
“…You can say that.” He said before he noticed some other kids finding their parents and reacting in a similar manner as Cindy and her mother had earlier.
“You have a wonderful boy, and thanks again for watching my Cindy.” The mother said as she knelt down to give him another hug. “You take care now!”
“You as well ma’am,” he replied in good manner.
“Um… bye!” Cindy gave him a quick peck to the cheek before leaving with her mother in a hurry.
He watched the mother and daughter pair for a moment longer before turning to his guards. He raised a brow at the grin on the man’s face. “What’s so amusing?”
The guard raised a hand and coughed, trying to hide his smile. “Nothing.” He said, but the grin remained.
“Let’s continue onto Nuvo-Gen then.” Beyond said before walking back to the building with his guards. Their transport and the streets were in no condition for a quick drive.
“Ah Beyond, I see you are well. That incident earlier didn’t trouble you much, did it?” Hamilton asked when he arrived.
“Not at all,” Beyond replied mechanically, but in truth, it had affected him. It made him wonder, did he have parents? He shook his head, he was a project born from a test tube how would he have parents? He glanced at Galatea’s floating form and pondered. Even if he was created in a tube, source material was needed… So who was his genetic donor?
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