If there was anything Beck hated more in the entire world, it was wearing human clothes. They itched, they rode up in very uncomfortable places, and this red tie that Dr White insisted he wear had been tied too tight.
Of all consideration, this was Mighty Number Nine's first black tie event. So a bit of uncomfortable arrangements were to be expected. He didn't leave Dr. White's side, however, not that anyone expected him to be social immediately any way.
"This is the worse part of these kind of things," the professor idly told Beck at some point, "Standing around, looking pretty, and shaking hands with morons you have to keep business with to have a respectable name behind you."
Beck had nodded, unsure of what to say.
Eventually, someone called out, "William! William White!" drawing both Beck and the professor's attention to the source. Coming up to them was a man with black -but graying- hair with a single strip of white across the side. At his arm was a little girl, no more than thirteen or twelve, who refused to look up at anyone.
"Ah! Bernard Blaise!" Dr. White greeted the older looking man with a firm handshake. "It's been awhile!"
"It has. I see you're doing quite well." Mr. Blaise greeted as well before taking notice of Beck. "Finally built yourself a proper son, then?"
"Aha, no." Dr. White smiled, "This is Mighty Number Nine, Beck. My finest work if I do say so myself. And who do you have with you?"
"This is my daughter." Mr. Blaise then said, motioning to the young girl next to him. She didn't look up and only gave a stiff nod.
"She looks a lot like Leliana." Dr. White observed with some degree of approval before becoming more somber. "I'm… sorry that she was a casualty during the Trinity epidemic. Leliana had so much to live for, it was a shame that it ended so shortly."
"Yes..." Mr. Blaise sadly agreed. "I wasn't there when it happened, but Leilai… she still has nightmares about it."
With this thought, the girl shyed away from the professor and her father and went elsewhere. There was something about their tones, and the way Lei had left, alerted Beck to the idea that he was missing some part of the conversation.
"How was Sanda doing with his little project?" Mr. Blaise then asked, steering the conversation in another direction, "What was it? Callista? Was that what he was going to dub it?"
"Oh, it's just Call now -though quite a few of her design notes still refer to her as Callista- and she's completely operational. In fact, she even helped Beck during the Trinity epidemic. I was pretty impressed with Sanda's work on her in all honesty, didn't think he had it in him to create a bot that powerful."
"But she's Navigator class, right?"
"Yes, yes, but an incredibly smart one."
"Oh?"
This was when Beck decided to leave, casually alerting Dr. White that he was going away. Upon getting (a rather offhanded) approval, he left to find Lei. She couldn't have gone too far, right?
As the youngest Mighty Number went along, he found a few of his siblings in passing. Dyna and Cryo were having a rather light conversation about something; Dynatron was wearing a rather pretty, embroidered Mexican poncho over black dress pants, while Cryosphere had refused to dress up- she had compromised, however, in taking her helmet off for the occasion, revealing a vivid blue bob cut with seashell-like bangs. Beck liked seeing Cryo's real face, but he wouldn't dare call it cute in front of her (although it really was) in fear of being doused unmercifully with water.
Beck was able to locate Countershade and Brandish -both dressed in rather dapper suits- while they quietly made their predictions on Aviator's flirting with a robotic woman. Avi, nervously adjusting his bow tie, tried his hardest to seem suave to the twin-drill haired woman (who looked as if she wanted to be anywhere else but there) but Avi was coming to nothing less than flat.
"So, ah, Tremus," Avi nervously stuttered, "Since Mic isn't here, how about we, um, go somewhere else? Like, somewhere alone?"
"I'd rather you fly to the edge of the earth and fall off." came the rather bitter reply. "Maybe you can fill the empty vacuum of space with your obnoxious infatuations for me there, as seeing they are getting nowhere here."
Beck flinched, and quickly made his leave. Just barely he could hear Shade snicker at Brand- "Told you, now pay up."
. . .
Eventually, Beck was able to find Mr. Blaise's daughter again. She had found a spot to be alone and seemed to be thinking of something far off.
"Hey..." Beck spoke up when he was a bit closer to you. "You… um, want to walk around together?"
Surprised, the girl looked up at him before drawing an expression that looked very displeased. "And why would I do that?" she questioned, her tone no less friendlier.
Beck shrugged. "Seems better than being alone all the time." he offered. "Maybe you could show me around? This is the first time I've ever been to a thing like this..."
"You do seem a bit lost." the girl agreed warily. "I guess you could be a good escort."
Beck smiled brightly, offering his hand to her. "My lady," he offered. Still a bit distrusting, Lei took his hand and hook his arm in hers. She was a bit taller than he was, but they were still able to walk together rather easily.
The two walked around without much to say to each other until Beck spoke up; "Look over there, that's my brother Mighty Number One, Pyrogen, with his friend Troilus. I don't know Troilus very well, but he seems like a pretty nice guy." he told Lei as he waved over at the older Mighty Number. Pyrogen noticed them and waved back. This caused Troilus to look up to notice Lei, and his single eye slightly light up to show joy and humor.
"Hey pretty girl!" Troilus whooped at the human, "Come play with us big kids for a bit!"
Lei started to blush and gave a shake of her head, meanwhile Pyrogen turned to his friend to say, "Don't flirt with humans, it's rude."
"Ain't rude when they're cute." was Troilus's answer before he went into a barrel roll laugh. Pyrogen wasn't amused.
"Let's go somewhere else." Beck suggested, his face lightly flushing with embarrassment that shouldn't have been his. The girl seemed to agree to this and they continued on.
"So..." Beck eventually started to say later on, "The professor mentioned that your mom was caught in with the stuff about Trinity?"
At the mention of Trinity, Lei's body clenched and didn't respond to Beck. He had a faint itch to ask again before she finally said,
"He keeps referring to it as an 'epidemic' but if you ask anyone that was in crossfire, they'll tell you that it was nothing short of a disaster." Her tone was so dark and unfeeling that Mighty Number Nine suddenly got a chill down his spine. "Epidemics can be ignored after they are over, but disasters? I have yet to meet someone who says that they received complete oblivion after a disaster."
Lei grimaced as she took a step away from Beck. "I need to go." she informed him before quickly left him. Confused, Beck wasn't ready for her to leave so suddenly.
"Leilai, wait up!" he called out after her as he began to follow her.
"Only my dad calls me that." the girl snapped from over her shoulder.
"S-sorry!" Beck immediately apologized, "I just assumed that was-"
Without warning, the girl stopped in her tracks and turned to face Beck with a rather dark look. He froze too, because a heavy rush of fear washed over him in seeing her. She looked at him with such a disgusted look that Beck forgot she was human.
"You're going to assume a lot of things," the tiny creature hissed at him, "Since you were built by a Blackwell."
This caused a moment of confusion in the youngest Mighty Number, but the human girl didn't clarify before she spun on her heel to run away from him again.
"H-hey!" the Mighty Number called out again as he tried to follow her again, "Wait up!"
"Beck!" Dr. White suddenly called from behind Beck, causing the robot to flinch a bit in surprise. His creator came a bit closer and gave Beck a rather confused expression.
"They're about to offer a toast to the Mighty Numbers soon," the professor explained to Number Nine, "I need you to come with me and the others."
Conflicted on what to do, Beck gave a nervous glance at where he had seen Lei last with little luck- wherever she went, she was gone now. He turned back to Dr. White and gave a small nod. "I'll follow you professor." he said quietly. Dr. White nodded and led Number Nine away.
Beck took one last look behind him. Although he didn't completely understand her sudden shift when mentioning Trinity, the sympathetic robot mumbled under his breath, "I'm sorry I couldn't save her for you..."