--Beta Test-- oneshot story

Large windows stretched out across the room, displaying the pitch blackness of outer space and all of its magnificent stars. Despite the vastness of the empty space and the large ship it contained, there was a chilling silence. Not even the air filters in the room made a sound. The ship was quiet, bleak, and colored in shades of black. The ship was for business, and nothing else.

In front of the windows sat two beings, discussing their business matter at each end of a long table. These beings were clearly not human but they had a few similarities. Just like the beings from the planet Earth, they had the same limbs and facial features. However, these creatures were much taller. Their lanky legs were crossed and their arms rested gracefully on them, despite being monstrously large. Even though their limbs stretched out like spider legs, all of their movements were fluid. Their expressions were much more sharp than a typical humans' face; more animal-like, like a wolf.

"Our product will be the new sensation... Every home---no, even kings will have it in their possession!" the alien on the left said enthusiastically as he gestured with his long, claw-like hands.

"Do not get too ahead of yourself, Ryon. We need to test it properly first. We want it to protect our clients, not be the weapon of their destruction," the alien across from him replied.

Ryon raised his hand and a screen appeared on the window closest to him. The screen showed video clips of various planets. Each clip showed families doing day-by-day tasks on their home planet. The alien then cleared his throat to speak again.

"Fine, Cutter. Which lucky planet should we choose to have the first go with our
product?"

Cutter raised his hand and the screen vanished.

"Put that away, those planets will not do."

"Why not? They have served us well before."

Cutter brought his finger tips together and raised his hands to his face. He appeared to be thinking deeply.

"We cannot have our idea getting out. I cannot stand another company stealing our idea and copying our product! This product will earn us untold riches, but if someone beats us to it, we will have nothing!" After he spoke, his pointed teeth dug into his bottom lip. He stood up and approached the window with his hands linked behind his back.

"Sir?" Ryon questioned.

The other alien raised his hand again and images of Earth appeared on the window. A worker waving for a taxi in a large city, a mother kissing her child on the cheek as he left for school, and other typical family life situations flashed by on the screen.

"Wait... is that Earth?"

"Yes. One of the few planets that we have not tested on." Cutter said as he smiled at the screen.

"For a reason! It is a preserve.. it is against the rules to interfere with life there!" Ryon exclaimed as he stood up and slammed his hands on the table. The other alien turned to face him.

"No one will suspect that our product will be there. No one will be able to steal our idea."

"But our ship... our company! If we are caught---"

"It is a risk I am willing to take." Cutter interrupted before the other could finish. The other sighed and sat back down.

"I will select our candidates then."

The window filled with thousands of faces in individual boxes. As they flashed by, a few were lit up with a green light. As the boxes scattered away, the green ones remained.

"Random selection again?" Ryon snickered. Cutter responded with a smirk and looked at the image of the first chosen. It was a young man, most likely a high schooler, who had scruffy black hair and an oversized hoodie. The alien clicked the image with his spindly pointer finger.

"It is more fun that way."

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The sky was bright blue with only a few scattered clouds. A young man admired the sky through the openings in his scruffy black hair. A gust of wind blew his hair, revealing his blue eyes from underneath, which matched the sky.

"Are you even listening to me?" his friend beside him asked. He was a short boy and child-like, but he was around the same age. His hands were on his hips angrily, making him look even more feminine.

"Sorry, I was zoning out...." the scruffy boy apologized. The shorter boy adjusted his large glasses and grumbled to himself.

"Typical, Gideon, just typical," he complained, "this is probably why your grades suck so much."

Gideon looked upwards at the sky again.

"Nagging again, no wonder I was blocking him out," he thought. The other boy jumped in front of him to get his attention, but being so short, it was not successful. Gideon walked around him and continued walking home from school.

"People talk, you know. The student with the best grades hanging out with the student with the lowest? It gives me a weird image," the shorter boy continued to complain as he caught up with his friend.

"Montaro, since when did you care about what other people think?" Gideon asked and shot a glare at the boy through his thick hair.

"Especially since everyone just sees him as an over-achieving squirrelly runt," Gideon thought. Before Montaro could answer, Gideon came to a halt in front of a convenience store, causing the shorty to crash into his back.

"Wait here, I want to go buy something," the tall boy said as he quickly walked through the parking lot to the double sliding doors. In only  few minutes, he had returned with a lottery ticket in his hand.

"You're kidding, right? See this is what I was talking about! You don't care about your school work... you don't care about anything! You just want the Universe to dump stuff on your lap so you can get by in life without moving your lazy ass!" Montaro yelled as his arms gestured around wildly. Realizing his friend had a point, Gideon slid the ticket into the pocket of his hoodie with a bashful expression. He continued walking, his back facing Montaro.

"Why does it matter to you, anyways? We'll be graduating soon, and you'll be going to one of the top universities while I'm doing whatever. Who cares about your lame image? Just put up with it for a few more weeks."

"That's IF you even graduate, Gideon," Montaro pointed out, "I'm serious man, if you keep half-assing everything you do, you'll get nowhere in life. At least get a tutor so you don't fail the mandatory classes."

Gideon didn't like where the conversation was leading, so he quickly decided to change the topic.

"I can't be ruining your image that much, Montaro. Let me guess, the reason you're being so persnickety is because you met a girl, huh?" Gideon questioned with a hint of tease in his voice. Even though he was still facing away from Montaro, he knew that his friend's face had become instantly flushed.

"Whaa-- No!!" Montaro denied, although the truth was painfully obvious. Gideon laughed as he continued walking, even though his friend had froze in place. Fortunately for Gideon, he had finally reached the corner where the two of them usually part ways. He quickly pulled out his lottery ticket and waved good-bye to his friend with the paper pinched between his fingers.

"Wait and see, buddy, wait and see!"
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"A tutor, huh?" Gideon mused out loud as his eyes followed a slowly drifting cloud. The thought of being stuck in a room with a stranger constantly hovering over his shoulder caused Gideon to shiver.

"What if I make too many mistakes? Then they'll get mad at me for wasting their time," Gideon thought as the scenario appeared in his head. The image made him sick to his stomach.

"There's no way I'll resort to that. I hate dealing with people... isn't having to put up with social interaction for seven hours a day enough?" He scratched his head in frustration, causing his messy hair to shake around. He peaked through his hair and finally spotted his apartment building.

"Home at last," he thought, "I finally have some alone time."

Unfortunately for him, as soon as he walked through the entrance of his apartment, he was tackled so roughly that he nearly fell over. As it happened, all he could see was a flash of long, pink hair.

"You nearly..." Gideon growled as he tried to push the pink monster off of himself, "...gave me a heart attack!"

Even though he was pushing with all his might against the creature's frail shoulders, it would not budge.

"Just saying 'welcome home'!" the creature spoke. She beamed at him, revealing the face of a junior high school girl through the long strands of pink wig. Gideon picked a strand up between his fingers.

"Another new wig? How many do you have now?"

"I lost count. But I needed this one!" She replied and finally let go of her brother. She spun around so that she could show off the entire wig in all of its pink sparkily glory. Gideon stared and tried his best to appear unamused, but he secretly loved the bright colors that his sister always wore.

"What's the occasion? Is another convention coming up?"

"I wish. I'm just going to Anne's house for a sleep-over tonight. Just thought I'd wear it for fun," she answered as she continued to spin around, her long pink hair moving gracefully with her.

"M'kay. Have fun," Gideon mumbled, acting as if he even remembered who this Anne was on the long list of his little sister's friends. He headed towards his bedroom while letting out a huge yawn.

"Wait, I'm not going until later! Play with me some!" she called after him, but he didn't respond. His bedroom door closed shut before she could reach him.

Gideon sat down at his computer desk and placed the lottery ticket in front of him. With a nearby penny, he scratched out each square. The ticket was a failure, so he sighed and tossed the paper like a frisby to a trash bin. The ticket, of course, didn't make it in the bin, but Gideon didn't bother to stand up again just to throw it away. Moping, he decided to pass the time admiring his banzai tree. He used a pre-opened water bottle to gently pour water into the tiny rectangular pot. The sad teen then rested his head on his arms as he watched the soil take in the water.

"I wish I could have been born a tree," Gideon thought, "My life would be so simple. I would be completely dependent on someone else; but all they would need to do was provide water and a bit of sunlight. And then I could just sit around all day and peacefully live my life, just admiring the world. A tree doesn't have to do anything it doesn't want to do, a tree just has to be a tree."

Gideon sat in silence and rethought his words.

"Man, that makes me sound so much like a lazy ass! Montaro was right..."

The teen walked away from his desk before the banzai tree could plant more crazy ideas into his head. He sat down on his bed and began to remove his shoes.

"And if I did start living like a tree, that would mean that I would become a shut-in who lives with his parents his whole life, and is completely dependent on them for food..." Gideon tossed his shoes aside, "or worse, I could become a homeless person. Those are two options that I do NOT want to happen."

He flopped backwards onto his bed and stared up at the blue ceiling above him.

"I don't want to be lazy... but lazy is who I am. Couldn't the Universe just cut me a
break?" With that last thought, Gideon quickly drifted to sleep.

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Despite going to bed at an amazingly early hour, Gideon didn't wake up once and even slept in late. His night was full of dreams, but of course, the only dream he remembered was the worst one of them all. It was a recurring nightmare, one that Gideon has at least once a week. The nightmare starts off with him soaring through the air. He flies past clouds with his thick hair blown backwards and tears escaping his eyes. To any other person, it sounds like a nice dream, but Gideon is terrified the whole time. Throughout the dream, he constantly glances downwards and prays that his flight isn't cut short. After the unpleasant nightmare, Gideon finally wakes up to his bright Saturday morning.

"Typical," Gideon thought as he continued to lay in bed. He forced himself to calm down, but he soon realized he wasn't alone. With his sleepy, blurry eyes, he looked beside him at the rest of his bedroom. He didn't panic, because he thought his eyes were just playing tricks on him.

"That's not a person," he thought, "that's just the things in my room, aligned in a way that just looks like a person."

As his eyes became more focused, his fear increased. There really was someone standing in his room, looking down on him. Gideon shot straight up in his bed and backed up against the wall. The person was only a boy, around his little sister's age. With bright neon green hair and a tight, fitted latex suit, he seemed to be wearing a costume. Gideon's fear quickly became anger.

"My sister's room is to the left, not the right," he grumbled and gestured towards the door.
The boy didn't budge.

"Very funny, sis," Gideon called out in the direction of his sister's room across the hall.

"Wait," he thought, "she went to a sleep-over last night."

He stared at the boy through his crazy bed-hair, who stared back with a blank expression.

"What are you doing here?"

The boy responded in a monotone voice.

"Gideon Muir has been chosen to participate in project 1A00214CC7833---"

Judging by the quick pace as he listed the code, it was clear that he wasn't going to finish any time soon. Gideon quickly decided to cut him off and ignore the nonsense.

"You must have got the location wrong. The sleep-over was at, um... Anne's house, I think. My sister isn't here," As Gideon spoke, he stood up from his bed and headed to his little sister's room. He was still not convinced that this wasn't one of her elaborate pranks. After peeking into her room, he realized that she was indeed gone.

"There's no way that she could be hiding in here without having a giggling fit," Gideon thought. As he turned away from the room, he flinched dramatically because the boy was standing directly behind him the whole time.

"Like I said, she's not here!" Gideon grumbled as his anger returned, "Just call your mom and tell her to come pick you up, or walk or something."

"Impossible," the boy answered.

"Well, how did you get here in the first place?"

"I landed at Gideon Muir's house at 6.43 hours from the current time."

The teenager was now fully tired of this joke, mostly because he didn't want to believe that this stranger had been at his house since four in the morning without him knowing. Finally giving up with trying to communicate with the unwanted guest, Gideon decided to start his day with breakfast. As he grabbed a pop-tart, a glass of juice, and made his way to the couch, the strange boy followed him closely the whole time. Gideon sat down and watched the boy decide whether or not he should sit down. His uncertainty was the only emotion he had shown all morning. Once he finally decided to take a seat, he sat stiff and proper as if he were in a strict classroom. Besides the quiet sounds of Gideon eating his pastry, they sat in silence. He tried his best to forget that the costumed boy was there, but he was not successful.

"I shouldn't have to socialize with this kid," Gideon thought, "Since he showed up unannounced, I'm not obligated to talk with him. I'm not going to let this crazy morning ruin my long, relaxing day of solitude."

Gideon told himself not to look, but he still glanced at the boy beside him. He was still retaining his perfect posture. His magenta eyes stared straight ahead and blinked occasionally.

"If this were any other person, such as some old creeper, I'd be terrified  right now. I'd be running out of the house and calling the cops. But he's just a kid," Gideon thought.

The black haired teenaged sighed and decided to communicate with the boy after all. The boy had to break out of character at some point.

"What's your name?" he asked casually.

"One."

"As in, the number?" Gideon questioned, his voice hinting that he didn't believe him.

"Yes, in your native language, English. One is the number in which I was made, so it is also my name," the latex-wearing boy answered. Gideon chuckled.

"He's good at keeping a straight face while lying, I'll give him that," he thought, "but if he spouts one more line of this nonsense, I'm done."

"Alright, One," Gideon stressed the name with strong hints of sarcasm, "would you like some chocolate?" Gideon removed the second pastry from the foil wrapper and handed it to the boy. His conflicted expression returned to his magenta eyes as he stared at the pop-tart.

"My body does not require any---"

"Okay, that's it," Gideon interrupted angrily as he dropped the pastry on the couch and stood up in frustration, "I'm done with this game." He stored out of the apartment, feeling grateful that he fell asleep in his clothes last night so he didn't have to change out of his pajamas before leaving. While looking at the late morning sky, he pulled his hood over his messy bed hair.

"Damn it. I wanted to spend all day in my room on the internet," the teenager thought, "but I can't put up with that kid anymore."

A nearby park was the second best place for Gideon, because barely anyone visited. At least here he would be able to be alone.

"Maybe I shouldn't have left that kid there alone," he thought, "he might he a shady person after all." Gideon had already reached his destination, but he froze in place as he contemplated whether or not he should go back. The dead silent park before him was tempting and a nice, shady tree was beckoning him forward, but he thought it was best to return home before he could enjoy himself. Luckily for him, as he turned around, the boy was standing directly behind him again. The teenager gasped in surprise and fell over onto the grass beneath him.

"Stop following me!" Gideon yelled. He was losing his temper after the embarrassment of being startled by a child.

"I cannot leave your side," One responded and stared down at him with his typical unchanging expression. Gideon gulped and his chest began to pang with feelings of unease. He finally began to fear the odd boy.

"What's---What's with you?" Gideon stuttered.

"I contain a document that explains everything," One raised his hand to chest height. In his hand was a white envelope. It didn't look like a common letter. It looked fancy and important, like the sender had put a lot of money into it for some unknown reason.

"How long has he been holding that?" Gideon thought as he stared in amazement at the parcel that seemed to have appeared out of nowhere, "Surely I would have noticed it sooner. Was he holding it behind his back? He clearly couldn't have been hiding it in that outfit."

Before Gideon could figure out the mystery of the envelope, One had disappeared in a flash in front of him. His light blue eyes grew wide and darted to his left in the direction of a loud crash. One had just collided with a tree and fell to the ground. A soft tap brought Gideon's startled eyes back in front of him, where One was previously standing just a second ago. The noise came from the fancy letter landing on the grass before him. A few inches away was a pare of  barefoot feet. Gideon's eyes trailed up the legs until he reached the face of who they belonged to.

It was only a young girl, probably the same age as One. However, that wasn't the only similarity. She seemed to be wearing a costume just like the boy, with only slight differences. Her hair was also an unnatural color; bright blue instead of neon green. She glared menacingly with her golden eyes at One, who was just starting to recover himself. Gideon continued to stare at her in disbelief, but the girl seemed to not even notice his presence. She then lunged at One at an incredible speed and the two began to roll around in the grass, punching and kicking each other.

"Shit!" Gideon panicked, but was too stunned to stand up. He wanted to break them up, but he couldn't stop staring. The fight was like nothing he had ever seen.

"There's no way..." Gideon murmured as he watched One fly through the air a second time, "how can they move like that?"

Before One could stand back up, the girl appeared on top of him. She had moved so quickly that it was like she had teleported. One glared up at the girl, who responded with a malicious smile. The girl appeared to be very animal-like as she showed her teeth, especially with the bruises and grass stains that now covered her body. She then clenched her fist and punched him in the jaw, causing blood to splatter onto the grass. Gideon finally snapped out of his trance.

"One!" Gideon hollered as he awkwardly ran forward with his shaky legs.

"Don't interfere!" the girl yelled. Gideon froze in place in surprise of the girl's voice. Never had he heard such a dark, aggressive tone of voice come from a little girl. She looked back at One beneath her, who had blood stains circling his mouth.

"It's either him or me. All according to plan." She raised her arm again to aim her next punch.

"No!" Gideon demanded as he continued to run forward despite knowing that he wouldn't make it in time.

"Stop!"

A girl's scream echoed through the park, causing the blue-haired girl to freeze. Without hesitation, she backed away from One. Gideon frantically looked around to see where the voice was coming from. With the trees, playground equipment, and the public bathroom, it was impossible to tell where it had come from.

"That's enough, Bluebell!" the unknown voice screamed again, sounding just as terrified as before. Without hesitation, the girl began to walk away. She didn't say anything, she simply left with a blank expression on her face, like a mindless robot. As soon as she was far enough away, Gideon dashed over to One. To his relief, the boy had already begun to sit up by the time he had gotten to him.

"Oh my God, what was that about?" Gideon gasped as he dropped to his knees beside One. He tried his best to hold back tears. The boy spat out blood before he could speak, but Gideon decided that the questions needed to be saved for later.

"I'm taking you back home," he said, and scooped the boy into his arms. To his surprise, One felt like a normal human boy in his arms. He seemed to be the proper weight and he didn't feel cold like a machine like Gideon had imagined.

As he carried One back to his apartment, he begged the Universe to not have someone see him like this right now. How could he explain what had happened? How could explain why he was carrying around a bleeding child?

"I am a failure," One finally spoke once they were nearly home.

"Huh?" Gideon said and looked down at the boy. Blood had stained down his chin down to the front of his tightly fitted costume.

"She's better than me. I will have to be terminated," One mumbled again with a hint of fear in his voice.

"Calm down. What are you talking about?"

"I was supposed to protect you, but you were protecting me. I am no good."

"You're only a kid and I'm nearly out of high school. Of course I'd be the one protecting you."

One raised his scarred hands to his face.

"You still don't understand. Please, read the letter and you will see."

Gideon gulped and looked away from One to hide his sheepish expression.

"Maybe now is not the best time to tell him I left it at the park....." he thought. They had reached Gideon's apartment and he took the boy straight to the bathroom to clean him up. One sat on the edge of the bathtub while Gideon sat on his knees beside the boy. He dabbed the blood away with a wet wash cloth.

"We will see her again," One warned, "it is her duty."

"The girl? Bluebell, was it? And her duty? What are you talking about?" Gideon lowered the wash cloth to his lap and stared at One with concerned eyes.

"Her real name is Two. It is our duty to compete with each other. The best product will be determined by whoever the last survivor is."

"Compete? You mean... to the death?" Gideon couldn't believe his ears.

"Yes. Our job is to protect our assigned human from any danger and to also fight with the other Guards."

Gideon angrily clenched the wash cloth in his fist. He had no clue what was going on, but he didn't like it one bit. He grabbed One's shoulders, causing the boy's magenta eyes to become wide in surprise.

"Listen, you're not a product or Guard or whatever! You're just a kid!"

One blinked repeatedly in shock.

"Whatever it is you're forced to do, it is wrong."

"But, I was trained to---" One began, his voice coming out like a small squeak.

"I'm your 'assigned human', aren't I? You're supposed to do as I say?" Gideon interrupted. One slowly nodded.

"Then I order you act like a normal kid! This whole emotionless robot thing you have going on is really creepy!"

Despite maintaining his regular blank expression, small tears leaked down from his eyes.

"I don't know how...."

Gideon smiled sadly.

"Well that's a start," he said. He couldn't resist bringing the crying boy into his arms.

"You're also not a number. I need to call you a proper name," Gideon said as he patted the boy's neon green hair. The previous name, One, appeared in Gideon's head. His first thought was to pick a name that sounded like it, but he couldn't think of a good one. He then decided to simply rearrange the letters.

"How about Neo?" Gideon asked, somewhat bashfully.

The boy looked up at Gideon as he continued to cling to him.

"Okay..." Neo's blank expression formed into small, subtle smile; the first smile Gideon saw him make.