The shadows were the place Hidden Phantom would always be destined to crawl in whenever someone needed him to. Did he like it? Well, if he didn't, he sure didn't tell anyone. Only the Mother Elf could tell if he did enjoy what he was commanded to do, and she surely wasn't going to tell anyone about her thoughts any time soon.
The assignment that he was on at the moment involved him stashing away his Neo Arcadian armor for street clothes. It was going to help him blend in, he was told, but blend in from what?
Meeting him at the rendezvous point was a human man that Hidden Phantom quickly registered as Sir Theo Acutaneous the Third. The man noticed the Guardian approaching and straightened himself to be better presentable; a trait humans exercised when they believed that they were more superior than Reploids.
"Thank you for coming Hidden Phantom, and without your protection." Sir Acutaneous greeted, extending his arm to give the Reploid a handshake. "My daughter… she saw her mother die by the hands of Mavericks. She has a hard time trusting any Reploid as a precaution, which is why I have asked of you to come without your armor."
So that was why…
"May I ask what your daughter has to do with me coming here?" Phantom questioned, ignoring the man's gesture. In turn, the human put his hand down. The man reached into a pocket on his high collar formal coat and withdrew a folded sheet of paper to hand to Phantom.
"My daughter Bionka is being targeted by the Emerald Spears group." informed Sir Acutaneous as Hidden Phantom read over the note himself. "They would like us to step down from our position in Reploid dermatology -a threat we have been demanded of since the Maverick Wars."
"Why her?" Phantom asked, putting the note away for later in hammerspace.
A perplexed expression etched across Sir Acutaneous's features. "I'm not sure," he admitted. "She is the first female member born into our family for a long time. Per tradition, our branch may not continue if she is in charge due to the patriarchal system set years ago. I personally have plans of redacting this before she comes of age, but part of the Emerald Spear's plan is in regards to her termination as future president of the company."
Hidden Phantom looked over the human man with a fairly melancholy stare. "By having me here protecting your daughter, you and I both cause a serious breach in Neo Arcadia's safety." the Reploid simply put.
"How is my daughter's safety any different than that of the son of Dr Barlet Weil?" the man challenged in a cold voice. "Rumor has it that he regularly hires a Guardian to watch over his son while he goes off on some outward mission, or attends some meeting; then there are rumors of Weil himself receiving special care from the very ones designed to protect everyone! How could you deny me, an abiding citizen of Neo Arcadia, the same treatment that Dr Weil receives?"
"You, Sir Acutaneous, are no mere citizen of Neo Arcadia. You are one of the elite, and you have no right comparing yourself to someone with a lesser status. Like… the mailman. If the mailman's daughter were to be attacked by an… armed Maverick, by example, and I am tending to your daughter who is in no threat at the time, should I be held responsible for not acting to save the mailman's daughter due to babysitting yours?"
"Of course not! You should act on whatever scenario would save a life- it's in your programming!"
"Which would mean ignoring your daughter. Now, imagine the same situation but across town, and for your daughter's safety I choose to leave her. What do you feel about that? Do you still think that I should leave her alone with your enemy after her?"
"If you don't think that I can't see what you're doing…!"
"You'll find someone else to guard your daughter?" Phantom entertained with a tilt of his head. "Go ahead, I certainly won't stop you."
"If you can't watch her for twelve hours, then just tell me you ridiculous Reploid!" the man angrily thundered to Phantom, who remained where he was as if nothing was wrong. "If that's what you want so much, then I will hire someone else to do the job! Hitmen are cheaper and easier to deal with than you!"
"If a hitman is really your next line of defense for your daughter, then I will take the proposition." the Guardian decided. "Obviously, your daughter's safety means enough to you that you could jeopardize both her safety and that of those around her. You are more dangerous than anyone else who could harm her Sir Acutaneous."
The human's face flared a deep red color, but he said nothing further.
. . .
Bionka was waiting for them with a nanny inside a nearby cafe. The girl couldn't have been much older than eleven; she had fair skin, icy blue eyes that refused to look at him, hair so blonde that it almost seemed white, and her face overall was shaped like a heart, and held the promise of being a beautiful adult in fruition. She also seemed to be in an oblivion about the current situation, if she had been told of it at all.
"Bionka." Sir Acutaneous declared, surprising the child but she turned to acknowledge him. The child smiled at her father as he sat next to her. Phantom, walking behind, took a seat next to Bionka's nanny.
"I've brought someone who said that they will watch over you for a little bit." the man then said to his daughter, "This is-"
"Tulpa Hikari." Phantom cut before Sir Acutaneous could come up with a name himself. Bionka gave Phantom an odd look before taking a sip from her drink. She obviously found that it was an odd name, but said nothing against it.
"It's nice to meet you Tulpa." the child finally said in a small voice, not sure whether she wanted to trust him yet or not.
"The pleasure is all mine madam." Phantom greeted in turn. Bionka went silent again, not for once leaving her gaze on him as she took another sip of her drink.
. . .
Phantom glanced outside of the window for anyone coming. Bionka had no idea that she was being targeted, that much was obvious now. Humans, although with some variations, were still predictable. Bionka knew nothing because if she had, she would not have been peacefully sitting on her bed reading a science fiction book.
The Reploid ran several scans over the area to investigate any anomalies that may have popped up in the last minute. With the scan complete, he looked back out the window again- watching for any being that could be coming up to the Acutaneous home.
"You can sit you know." Bionka told Phantom, almost succeeding in surprising him. He had been concentrating hard enough on keeping her safe that he almost forgot she was with him. Regardless, the Guardian sat by her on her bed, as there was no other place for him to sit, and the two looked at each other for some time before saying anything. Phantom took the opportunity to conduct another quick scan.
"My father hired you to protect me." Bionka slowly said, breaking Phantom out of his process. The Guardian nodded.
"You have a weird name." the child then said.
Hidden Phantom tilted his head at her, wondering for a moment what she was thinking of. "My mother chose my given name. It's rather fitting, I think." The Guardian looked down at Bionka's book. "What are you reading?"
"Isaac Asimov."
"I, Robot is quite a classic, don't you think?"
"This one's part of the Foundation series; I've never actually read anything from the Robot series..."
"I can understand." Hidden Phantom decided. "The most interesting aspect of the Robot series at whole are the Three Laws of Robotics, as it is the only thing most folks know of."
Bionka nodded, ending the conversation there and went back to reading. A small ping on the back of Phantom's drives reminded him that Bionka's mother had died due to a Reploid not obeying the Laws of Robotics. In the silence, Hidden Phantom conducted another scan- to his horror, something came up.
"Bionka, I need you to hide somewhere." the Guardian told her coldly. Picking up on his change, Bionka looked at him.
"Why?"
"I need you to hide," Phantom snapped at her, "Now!"
Before Bionka could give another question, the doors to her room snapped open; a split second after a round of firearms shot toward Bionka's direction. The human girl let out a scream of horrified surprise before jumping out of her bed and under it- Phantom wasted no time rushing toward the assailants to disarm them. The drone leading wasn't too hard, the Guardian was able to swipe its weapon and pull out its cognitive circuit in one motion. The two behind that one aimed at Phantom and fired round after round of ammunition that he was just barely able to dodge. Hidden Phantom withdrew the Dark Cross, and aimed at the assailant's necks, cutting them clean off in a single swing. Whoever had sent this small group had decided on making them Mavericks- that was good to know.
Only three drones to get the girl? That was… disappointing. Once the Emerald Spears found out that the mission wasn't a success, they were sure to send more though. Phantom could find someone to stop them before that. For now, he needed to let Bionka know that everything was safe again; his scanner had registered that she had gone out the window to escape during the fight.
Going the conventional route, the Guardian found her outside hidden in a bush.
"It's safe now." he said to her, peeking into the bush. Bionka looked up at him awkwardly before standing up and getting out of the bush. Phantom helped her, taking note that she was holding onto her wrist tightly. He could tell that it wasn't from nerves or adrenaline- there was something else wrong.
"Are you alright?" Hidden Phantom asked. Bionka looked up at him as if she was confused on why he was asking her that, then looked down at her wrist in realization.
She nodded regardless. "Daddy taught me how to escape through the window, but I didn't stick the landing."
Hidden Phantom studied the area, then offered to look at it closer- the child obligated to allow Phantom to made a better analysis.
"It's sprained..." he thought out loud. "Even if you didn't 'stick the landing', you could have been hurt much greater."
The child looked up at Phantom, reclaiming her arm to hold again as she lulled over something in her mind. "You…" she slowly started to say after awhile, "You're a Reploid… aren't you?"
Hidden Phantom gave the girl a blank look, but he did give her a solemn nod. "I am actually Hidden Phantom, the fourth member of the Four Guardians of Neo Arcadia. It was your father's request that I keep my identity away from you, due to a past trauma."
"My mom..."
The Guardian nodded. "I'm sorry about your loss," he said again. "I can't imagine what it would be like to lose one of my own siblings like that- let alone my mother."
"I was really young when Mom died, I don't remember her much anymore, so don't feel sorry for me. I'm glad you helped me. Thank you… Hidden Phantom."
"Phantom would be fine enough." the Guardian insisted. Bionka looked at him and smiled.
"Thank you Phantom." she thanked gratefully. Her smile was infectious, so Phantom smiled back.
. . .
A few months later, the Acutaneous family was holding their annual auction and gala. For the first time, the Four Guardians were actually invited- made the guests of honor, in fact. Harpuia already had a previous engagement and could not come, Fefnir just didn't want to go (and no one felt like arguing with him at the moment), so only Leviathan and Phantom went.
It was one of the better parties that the two had ever been to; much more lively than the events Dr Weil came up with.
Phantom was not surprised to see Bionka bound up to him as if he was an old friend. The girl was dressed in a dainty, blue chiffon dress that fell to the ground like a curtain. She tripped on it a lot, but that didn't stop her from running toward him. When she approached Hidden Phantom, she took a moment to catch her breath then looked up at him with blushing cheeks.
"I… I have a gift for you..." Bionka sheepishly said to Phantom, bringing out a small package from behind her back. The Guardian raised an eyebrow before taking the small package from the child, then opened it up. Inside was an analog pocket watch with an engraved design, interlaid on the otherwise simple cover, over the actual face. To say that Phantom was surprised at the gift would have been an understatement. Handmade analog clocks were rare in Neo Arcadia, and this particular one seemed to have been passed down for several generations.
"It predates the Maverick Wars." Bionka offered, taking extra notice of the Guardian's shocked expression. "And that etch on the cover, that's my family's crest… or logo. Whichever one is more relevant I guess."
"I can't accept this." Hidden Phantom told the girl, attempting to give it back to her, but she pushed it back to him.
"It's been passed down from each male member until me, and I'm not a guy, and I don't want to have kids. So I want you to have it, because you'll take better care of it. I know you will."
"I have no use for it." the Guardian told the child, trying to hand it back to her with the same results as before.
"If you can't take care of it, give it to someone who will. Promise me!" Bionka demanded with eyes wide with a fierce passion. It was almost admirable. It was almost heartbreaking…
"I will give it to someone who can take care of it." the Guardian slowly said. "She'll take good care of it I think, she has many other knick-knacks in her collection but she could make use of this as well some day."
The corner of Bionka's lips curled into a smile before she took the Guardian around the middle for a tight hug. Out of response, Phantom flinched at the sudden embrace, but he did reciprocate it.
"Never change." Bionka whispered as she clung to Phantom tighter. Hidden Phantom did not answer, and instead questioned what he had done to present this kind of reaction.