Four years went by in a flash. Not just Alpha but Marin has grown up to become a lively teenager. While the former showed less of a rebellious side of his, Marin was causing headaches for her mother almost weekly. The problem was that she was required to attend high school on the surface of the Moon, yet she refused to be enrolled in it. The main reason was simple; She would meet less with Alpha because of it. She could only visit him only on the weekends. While working with Alpha, she was uninterested in making any other friends from her age group, which caused Lizzy to constantly grumble.

In the end, the boy persuaded her to at least 'try out' school life instead of being homeschooled by the scientists. It did not work out for multiple reasons this time. After the first week, when she came to visit, she ranted and rambled for numerous hours. The subjects were boring, she already knew most of it, the teachers were boring, and it was nothing but a drag. Her classmates were also, by her words, complete idiots. None of them were interested in the old holo-movies and shows she loved. They thought it was… stupid. Marin's favorite books? Childish. Favorite games? Those were extra childish. She quickly came to the conclusion that all of those girls were completely delusional idiots. The boys? Even worse, they were also fueled by their hormones. Alpha managed to calm her down and at least make her continue to attend school. For now.

"And it would go on for four years…." Marin moaned, wearing nothing but a Warrior Princess t-shirt and a short, leaning on the table in Alpha's room. By now, it had much more furniture than before. He had not just a couch, a proper TV screen, but an expanded bookshelf for movies, video, and board games, and his own table they could play on or simply let Marin watch him draw in a more comfortable posture than kneeling on the carpet.

"It's fine!" Alpha chuckled, watching her with surprise in his eyes. It stemmed from a simple reason; It seemed nature was overriding human intervention. Marin was growing up much more blessed than her mother, which was already visible on the outside. It initially perplexed him, but he was interested to see how it would deviate more in the future than her mother's body shape. Of course, he never told her as she may take it… the wrong way… as she was already fed up with the boys in her class.

"What?" Marin asked, blowing air out of her nose and looking at him. "You are staring at me. Again." She grinned. "You know… there ARE some cute boys in class…."

"Hm?" He tilted his head. "And?"

"And I am considered a beauty~" She answered provocatively, puffing out her chest. "If I keep growing as I do now, in two more years, I will outgrow mom! Hah!"

"Mh." Alpha nodded. "You are approximately 74.8% of her size right now." He answered, looking at her breasts.

"..." Marin suddenly felt extremely embarrassed, covering herself subconsciously. She hated to admit it, but her attempted teasing completely backfired… He was still such a blockhead when it came to this. "Haaah! Pervert! I will stop talking to you if you say things like this!"

"Huh? I… But…” He blinked his eyes rapidly, shrugging in the end. "You are so unreasonable!"

"Hmf!" She scoffed, but after a few seconds of silence, she just returned to normal. "How're the tests?"

"The usual. After the top figureheads learned about my apparent extra ability, they asked for rigorous tests to confirm it. Luckily, we had years to find the perfect way to do it and knew their results beforehand. So I am just playing along, producing the same results I did two years ago." He shrugged, referring to the psi-tests he was taking every second day.

"Hmmm… I am still doubting that you can read minds!" She said, eyeing him with a slight blush on her face. "Because if you would…."

"Hm?" He looked at her, tilting his head. "I don't get it."

"See?" She groaned. "That is what I mean!"

"Well… I am not actively reading minds!" He tried to explain it. Again. "I just know others' feelings… It's like… a better version of reading body language!"

"Well, you suck at that too!" She said, suddenly standing up.

"Wha… what?" He asked, surprised at the edge in her voice.

"I'm going home!" She turned around and just left without saying another word.

"What is her problem now…?" Alpha asked, just as Fizzy did at the same time. He and Lizzy were in the central control room, looking at the screens and watching the two teens. Mostly because Lizzy was afraid that her daughter would try something inappropriate.

Lizzy knew that her daughter fell for Alpha initially, yet the boy was too thick-headed or inept at perceiving it. Or he just did not want to. Or didn't know what to do with it. All were an option when it came to him.

"Haaah…" Lizzy sighed, shaking her head. "She inherited my awkwardness, it seems. I was in love… once." She smiled softly. "And I could barely string a few words together or give the correct signals… I fumbled every time. Then I got angry… at him. Hah…”

"Heh. So what?" Fizzy chuckled. "I was done with love when I was 19! It was such a tangled mess! So I quickly decided that it was not for me!"

"Well, I don't think Marin will be done with it, but she will start annoying Alfy, sooner or later, with her antics…."

…
….
…..

It was already nine days later, and she hadn't visited him since then. It was the first time since they met that they had been apart for this long. It was a… weird experience. If someone asked, he wouldn't be able to explain why he felt frustrated. He was flabbergasted by the unease he felt, which he was unfamiliar with. When the 10th day came, he felt that something was very wrong. It was not just that Marin was not coming to visit, but he didn't meet with Lizzy either. None of his usual tests were conducted by her, and he couldn't feel her presence.

After the 16th day, he did something that perplexed the scientists. He simply refused to do anything. Tests? He wasn't cooperating. Medical examinations? Any device they tried to use on him malfunctioned. Almost 60% of their equipment went up in smoke in a single day. It was getting worse and worse. By the second day, they found that years of data were getting corrupted and deleted, seemingly out of nowhere. Some of the backups were also gone. Luckily, a place like this had many layers of security, so they still managed to save them, but they would be in trouble if this kept up. There was no question that this was something that Alpha was doing, throwing a never before seen tantrum. They didn't know how he was doing it, but nobody had a doubt it was him. It was a silent fit of a child but a very dangerous one. In the end, it was Fizzy who visited him.

"Hey…" He walked in, nervous as Alpha was usually only conversing with Lizzy. The most he talked with the others was when he answered their questions.

"I want to talk with Liz." He said, without waiting for him to continue.

"She can't come." He answered, gulping loudly, standing close to the door, ready to escape if he must.

"Why?" Alpha asked, standing up, which made Fizzy flinch.

"He is with…."

"What happened to Marin?" He asked, his voice a pitch higher, his pupils growing twice their sizes. He was already deducting Fizzy's thoughts from the fluctuations of the strings in his body.

"How… I…” He stuttered, now twitching more than he ever did before.

Alpha was not waiting for him to collect his thoughts, and for the first time in many years, he moved his finger, tapping on one of the strings connected to him. He was immediately assaulted by flashing images, sounds, and voices but was expecting it this time. He narrowed it down to what he was looking for, hearing a short exchange between Fizzy and Lizzy.

"She is not good…." Lizzy's voice said. She was tired and heartbroken. "The doctors say that parts of her DNA strings are simply… failing! She is falling apart, Fizzy… right before our eyes! I am barred from checking the details because of my connection to her, but… DAMN IT! I AM THE BEST DNA ENGINEER IN THE HEGEMONY!" She cried out loudly. "AND THEY DON'T LET ME DO MY JOB!"

"Liz…"

"Don't Liz at me! For fucks sake, my daughter is DYING!" She sobbed. "They say it is because she was artificially conceived but… I… I didn't screw it up! That… It can't be! I WAS CAREFUL!"

"..."

Alpha didn't hear more as he couldn't bear it. He quickly let it go, faltering backward and falling to his butt. Fizzy came closer, saying something, looking at him, but at that moment, he heard nothing. He could only see his lips moving but could not make anything out of it. His ears were ringing, and he lost all colors from the world, going completely numb in seconds. In the end, he just left after Fizzy didn't get any response from him. He didn't know what to do but to make a report to Lizzy. She really should come and speak with him. This was getting out of hand really fast. And he was yet to realize how quickly it would spiral out of control…

…
….
…..

It was a few hours later when Alpha's body twitched. In the past hour, he was doing nothing but trying to locate Marin's position on the Moon. He knew that all of the strings he saw were connected, one way or another. The moment they touched, they resonated ever so slightly. Like two vibrating strings on a guitar, trying to get in sync with each other. If she was on the Moon, he could find her. He had memorized how hers felt a long time ago.

"Find you…" He started to blink his eyes, finally watering them as they were bloodshot beyond recognition.

He didn't hesitate and stood up, walking to his door. It never opened up for him, but he had no inclination to leave without the scientists escorting him. Not until now. With a wave of his hand, he cut apart the many strings inside of it as the door crumbled into its raw materials that made it up originally. It was like a kicked-over puzzle set at that brief moment. The alarms remained silent as he walked out of his room. He already disabled those before anything. Reaching the elevator on the long, white corridor connected to his room, he repeated the same thing, demolishing its doors. He looked into the dark shaft, simply stepping into it without hesitation. Turning his head upwards, he couldn't see the end or the bottom of the elevator, which was somewhere up there, at a different level.

"No matter." He said, breathing out, and for the first time, he grabbed onto multiple strings, pulling on them as hard as he could. What happened next surprised even him.

Every color left his sight, turning the world into a black-and-white mixture. As he was holding them, he realized that, when he concentrated, those thin lines retained their colors. All of them he was holding changed into the same color to his touch. In this case, into a deep crimson color. He could feel that somewhere else, where all of them were leading towards and intersecting with another cluster, also changed its natural color into crimson. Alpha clearly felt that THAT exact point in space was only a step away. When he took that step, he was no longer in the research complex, under the Moon's surface, but standing in the lobby of a luxurious hotel.

The dozens of people who were around him were flabbergasted. A teenage boy, wearing nothing but a white shirt and trousers, appeared from nowhere. It was the first time he saw so many other humans and even some alien species. There were tall, wolf-like creatures standing in line to check-in. Blobs of slimes, similar to those he knew from the Warrior Princess movies, came out from the elevators… but he had no time to look around and inspect them. Marin needed him and time was of the essence. He just stepped onto another string, focusing the same way, and he was gone as if he was never there before.

Nobody knew in the lobby what to make out of it before a quick announcement rang out that the hotel's AI projector malfunctioned and projected itself wrongly. It was a simple explanation but logical enough to ease their immediate thoughts. But not for the secret service agents who were in full panic mode and raised red alert on the entirety of the Moon.