A/N: I just wanted to thank UragiriNoTeme for the first review!

Now enjoy!

The Magician

"No, no, no! Not now!" The brunette resisted the urge to smash his precious laptop that was the source of his frustration at the moment, but he knew he couldn't go another day without it. "Come on! You can't freeze on me now! Not today…!" No matter how hard he concentrated, the current image on the screen wouldn't go away. He groaned in frustration.

This had never happened to him before. He had never felt so heartbroken.

If I can't find a new part, then I'm going to have to… buy a new laptop!

He pulled a USB cartridge out from the PC, disconnecting the link it had to his cellphone. The screen lit up, showing an icon of a black widow. A text box appeared as well as a polite salutation, but Beta didn't need to look at the screen to know what the A.I. had to say. A feminine voice filled his ears:

Hello, Beta.

"Hello, Charlie," Beta said to the phone.

I see my Echo chamber is malfunctioning. Perhaps is it time for a replacement.

Beta smirked. Charlie was very cynical for an A.I., which was part of the reason why he loved her. She was the first program that had ever talked back to him, but she was indubitably loyal to him despite her sometimes-crude remarks. She was easily transferrable to any mobile device, so his friends also had access to her if they needed her. But because he was the only one able to communicate with her verbally, it was less convenient for the others to use some of Charlie's applications.

"Echo's a part of the family, Charlie. And don't forget he's also the reason you exist. I just need to replace his hard drive and he'll be as good as new."

I was merely joking.

"Of course you were. But enough joking around. I need you to text Mu and reschedule our meeting for a later time so I can fix Echo."

I'll do that right away.

"Thanks a lot, Charlie. Where would I be without you?"

I assume you would be six feet under right about now.

"That was rhetorical."

After grabbing his porkpie hat, a light jacket, and his skateboard, Beta opened the door to the outside world and greeted the day with a smile. "I have a feeling today is going to be interesting."

The day started out normal.

To the local denizens in the shopping district, Beta was a faceless nobody. He had a morning routine like everyone else: he got up, had breakfast, went to work, and later in the evening he got together with friends outside his group of roommates. Compared to them, he was the most normal out of the bunch.

But despite his normal lifestyle, Beta was anything but.

"Hey, it's the brainiac!"

Beta stopped short when a group of kids ran up to him from a basketball court and scowled when he heard the nickname they gave him. They were just kids; they didn't know better, he told himself whenever he felt the need to slap them.

"Oi! Shouldn't you brats be in school?" He honestly had no idea what their names were. They told him several times, but he could retain them. But it was still easy to tell them apart. The tallest of the three, who looked about twelve years old, was the only one who called him "brainiac" which, now that he thought about it, was better than some of things the other two called him.

The boy smiled cheekily at him. "Off to work, brainiac?"

Beta sighed. "You know, I have a life outside of the store."

"Where you goin'?" asked the smallest of the three, a boy with a gap between his teeth.

"… To the store," Beta replied sheepishly.

"I knew it," the only girl murmured pompously.

He closed his eyes and took a deep breath as he tried not to get too irritated with the vexing little girl. She had always been his least favorite of the brats. "I'm not going in for work."

"Beta? Tsubasa?"

Relieved by the interruption, Beta turned to one of his normal friends and his fellow coworker. "Hiro! Perfect timing! Today's your shift, right? I'll come with you!"

Hiro nodded numbly, completely ignoring the brunette as he walked up to the oldest boy and put him in a headlock. "Skipping school again, Tsu-baka?"

Beta stared at them in amusement.

Beta had first met Hiro in the exact store they were currently employed, except they were both customers at the time. Beta happened to be looking for a piece of hardware for Echo when he heard one of the employees trying to swindle Hiro into buying a shitty malware program. Honestly, if it had been any other store, Beta would've completely ignored these people and went on his way, but not in this case. To Beta, technology could be a great asset to people if used for the right intents and purposes, so tricking some poor college student who didn't know any better and giving away crap you just needed to sell for a minimum wage paycheck was unforgivable to him. Beta stepped in and helped Hiro pick out the right program and assisted three more customers while he was at it. His performance grabbed the attention of the proprietor of the store, and he offered Beta an IT position. The lazy employee was fired on the spot. Shortly afterwards, Hiro began working there part-time with the witty brunette and the two quickly became great friends.

Tsubasa grunted as he tried to escape from his older brother's taut grip. "I don't need to go to school!" He finally squirmed out of his brother's arms and went to stand in front of his friends. "What's the point of going to school when I have two brainiacs who can teach me all I need to know?"

"I don't have time to teach you anything. Unlike you, I attend school regularly and have a job on the side. Now go to school right now."

"Whatever. If you won't help, the brainiac will! Won't you, brainiac?"

Hiro looked at his friends curiously. "'Brainiac'?"

Beta held up his hands in defense. "I'm not a part of this. You said you were going to work, right? Leave these delinquents to their mischief before you're late."

Before they left, Hiro gently slapped his brother in the back of his head. "Enjoy being with your friends today because tomorrow you're going to school, and this time I'm going to make sure of it." The preteen stuck his tongue out in reply. "Nice comeback, Tsu-baka."

"I'll see you guys later!" Beta said as he strolled away with his friend.

Hiro stared at him. "What the hell was that?"

The brunette just shrugged nonchalantly. "What do you mean?"

"Tsubasa… it's like he worships you."

He responded with another shrug. "Kids get easily impressed. I'm nothing special."

"Says the guy who graduated high school when he was Tsubasa's age. I don't understand why you're not in college."

"I already know everything people usually need to know to live a standard life. Plus, I already have a job—a job I happen to like a lot. What the hell would be the point in going back to school?"

His raven-haired companion shook his head. "You're just as bad as my brother; you're both so immature."

"Hey, I would be no fun if I was mature and you know it."

"Agree to disagree."

A few minutes of idle chatter, the two had finally arrived at the store, Hi-Fi House.

"Why the hell are you here, anyway?" Hiro asked. "Today's supposed to be your day off."

"I just need something from the back…" Before he could even get to the counter, the noirette stepped in front of him.

"I'm sorry, sir, but customers aren't allowed in the back."

Beta's eyebrow twitched. "Are you being serious right now?"

"Sorry, Beta, but since today's your day off, you're technically not a staff member for another twelve hours."

"Okay, first off, that's not even correct. In twelve hours, it will be midnight and the store doesn't open until ten o'clock."

"You know what I mean, brainiac."

"Second, that rule is dumb and it's not even real, so if you could just move a little to the left…" Hiro didn't move an inch. "Please, Hiro? I just need a new part for my laptop, and I know exactly which one it is so I'll be quick about it."

"Then just tell me what it is and I'll go get it for you."

Beta hesitated. "It's… you wouldn't know even if I told you. It's a really old piece; it's basically a fossil. It'd be much faster if I just got it myself. I have to meet up with someone soon, and I don't have much time."

As soon as he saw the smirk that slipped on his friend's lips, Beta regretted his words. "Another 'lady friend', huh? Or is it the same one from last time?" Hiro teased.

The brunette groaned. "I told you before it's not like that at all!"

"You know, it'd be a lot more fun if you'd just humor me a bit. I'd like to think that your life isn't just all about gadgets and gizmos. It makes that female android thing less fathomable."

"What—female android—what?" Beta stuttered. "What kind of sick-ass fantasies do you guys have? I may be eccentric at times, but I would never do something that… disgusting!"

Hiro just shrugged, not going into further detail about one of the many, many, many theories he and some of the other employees of Hi-Fi House had about Beta's off days. Inside the store, everybody knew Beta as the friendly, intellectual, quirky young man who had a supernatural knack for electronics, but despite his gregarious personality, Beta never talked about his personal life, so the rest of the members of Hi-Fi House would secretly toss around ideas about what he did during his free time.

"I didn't know you had limits when it came to technology," Hiro thought aloud.

Suddenly, a solemn look overcame Beta. "Everything has its limits."

Noticing how grave his friend had suddenly become, Hiro relented. "Fine, I'll let you go. I wish you'd let that big brain of yours take a break for once, but it's comforting to know you're not completely crazy." Beta punched the back of his head. "Ouch! Hey, don't hate! It's not my fault you insist on keeping your outings secret. I still don't believe you're just meeting up with a 'friend'. You're always so dressed up on your day off."

The quirky brunette looked down as his Dockers Acrylic vest and jacket as Hiro let him behind the counter. "What are you talking about? This is completely casual."

"I… guess so. If you're going to a jazz club or the library or something, and I know for a fact that you don't read books. And what's with the hat?"

Beta cautiously put a hand on top of his favorite pork pie before coolly adjusting it so it cast a slight shadow over his face. "Well sorry if I don't like to wear T-shirts and jeans that were designed with the holes in them like some douchebag. Unlike some people, I prefer to dress classy."

Hiro just rolled his eyes. "But seriously, are you ever going to tell me what you do on your days off?"

Beta put a hand on his shoulder, and the raven-haired young man nearly jumped. He'd never seen such a sagely expression on his friend's face before. "Maybe someday," was all he said.

As soon as the brunette was gone, Hiro shook his head and sighed. "I seriously doubt that."

Thirty minutes later, Beta was still in the back scanning every box for the hard drive he needed but with no such luck.

"Damn it… Damn it… Damn it! Where is it?"

I gather from the cursing you haven't found the part yet.

Beta had left Charlie on the shelf before him so he wouldn't have to keep taking her out of his pocket whenever she had something to say. He sorely regretted that decision.

As a circuit store, Hi-Fi House not only provided the everyday technological needs of average citizens, but they also provided a service. Whenever someone came in with something broken or needed replacement parts, Beta was the only one in the shop who could determine the problem without even having to thoroughly check the device. The spare parts that were needed were kept in the back, organized neatly by age, size, and category by yours truly, so it only took him a few seconds to fix whatever needed fixing. People thought it was like magic. To Beta, it was just natural.

At the moment, though, it was just frustrating, and Charlie was no help whatsoever.

Why did you not accept your friend's offer to help? This process would be more efficient if two people were searching for it instead of one.

"How am I supposed to explain to Hiro that I have a stolen government PC that's older than dirt in need of a new hard drive that's just as old but works just as new? He doesn't need to get involved."

If you say so… Is that what you really think, Beta?

"Is what what I really think, Charlie?" Beta impatiently skimmed through the third box. "No, that's not it…"

What you said about things having limits. Do you really believe that, and if so, why are you going out of your way to fix Echo?

"Because Echo's special—Damn it! Kenichi's been in here, I just know it!—Echo's the only one who can get the job done."

Yes, but as useful as Echo has been in the past, he has already "reached his limit", has he not?

Beta paused for a moment. His hands sifted through the box of spare parts more sluggishly as he contemplated Charlie's question. Sometimes, Beta forgot that Charlie wasn't human; she didn't understand feelings or concepts such as friendship and comradery. So whenever she got like this and asked all these questions, it was difficult to come up with a logical response because whenever someone felt such a potent attachment like he did to Charlie and Echo, words were not enough to express his feelings; it just made sense no matter what.

"It's… You wouldn't understand."

Care to enlighten me?

"Maybe later. Right now, I'd really appreciate it if you could do something to help make this process go faster."

I can scan the store's inventory if that will help.

Beta stared at the digital icon before face-palming, partially frustrated with Charlie for not mentioning that earlier, and mostly frustrated with himself for not thinking of it earlier. "Yes, that would be super helpful," he replied calmly, trying his very best not to lose his temper.

Very well. Now scanning complete store inventory.

Beta watched the screen of his phone closely as Echo loaded the most recent inventory check of the store and scanned the list of items currently available in the store. While his A.I. went to work, he glanced at the corner of the screen to check the time, his heart racing slightly at what he saw. "Hurry, Charlie. We don't have much time."

Do you want me to postpone your meeting?

"No. Just keep scanning." Mu would surely kill him if he rescheduled again, and he would rather face the consequences for being late than postpone his imminent demise for another day.

After a few seconds, his phone beeped. "Did you find it?" he asked hopefully.

Affirmative. It should be in the box labeled "Spare Parts/Junk".

One look at the labeled box in his hands, and Beta felt like banging his head against the wall. It only took a few more minutes before he finally found what he needed. He held it in his hand like a prized possession and, breaking into dramatics, kissed it over and over again. "I thought I'd never find you!"

After pocketing his prize, Beta stood and began reorganizing his workstation. "Mission complete, Charlie. And with only…" He glanced at the nonexistent watch on his wrist. "… ten minutes to spare! We might actually get there on time, maybe even early!"

If you leave now, you will be approximately three minutes and thirty-seven seconds early.

"Then we better get the hell out of here! Hey, Hiro, I'm gonna get out of your hair now—" Beta came back from behind the counter just in time as something round and shiny flew by his head. "Hey, what the hell—!"

"It's nice to see you again, Beta."

The brunette's head immediately snapped up as he identified that haughty voice. Though he couldn't recall his name, Beta recognized him as the douche who was fired for incompetence. The blonde had an intense look on his face, but that did not scare the boy genius one bit. "Where is Hiro?"

"I would be a little more concerned about yourself at the moment."

Behind him, Beta heard a crackle, like the sound of fireworks before they went off, and jumped away before he was blown to smithereens. He looked back at the wreckage in astonishment. This guy was a Minimum Holder. Realizing the extent of the danger, Beta looked around to find the whereabouts of his friend, who seemed to be missing.

"What the hell do you want, man?" Beta asked out of curiosity. He got up from his spot and dusted himself off casually like the explosion was nothing. This guy wasn't the first Minimum Holder he had ever encountered who wanted to kill him. "Are you here to get revenge because I got you fired? Aren't you overacting a bit? You weren't really cut out to be an IT guy."

The enraged blonde spat on something in his hand before throwing it at Beta, which he quickly dodged as soon as he realized what he was using to detonate his ammo. "Dude, that's disgusting! Powerful, I admit, but gross!"

"Shut up!" The blonde snapped. "I wasn't looking to pick a fight with you. You were just unfortunate enough to be here. And I'm glad I was fired; I didn't want to keep working in this dump anyway. That hole in the wall is an improvement if you ask me, and if you don't want a hole in your chest then I suggest you tell me where you're hiding that damn Minimum Holder."

Well, Mu wouldn't be too happy to see me with a hole in my chest. "I wish I could help you, but unfortunately, I have no idea who or what the hell you're talking about."

It was then Beta realized that this guy had no idea he was also a Minimum Holder. And the only other person who was with him before this sociopath showed up was Hiro…

Before the guy could throw another one of his spit-covered death balls, a giant CLUNK! was heard and he fell, his eyes rolling up in the back of his head. Hiro stood behind him with a crowbar, the object of their salvation. Beta walked up to his unconscious assailant and kicked his head lightly. "Thanks for the save."

"You're welcome," Hiro replied. "Are you okay?"

Beta looked up at his friend in disbelief. "I should be asking you that. What happened? Did he hurt you?"

"I'm okay, man. Calm down."

The brunette gave his friend a onceover. Seeing Hiro without a single scratch made him even more skeptical, but he let it go for now. "He said he was looking for something called a 'Minimum Holder'," he informed. "Do you have any idea who or what that might be?"

Hiro shrugged. "No clue."

"But he wouldn't have come back to Hi-Fi House unless—" Beta was cut off when he felt his phone vibrate. There was a curt text, but it wasn't from Charlie:

WHERE THE HELL ARE YOU?!

"OH SHIT!" Double checking his pocket, he sighed in relief when he felt that the hard drive for Echo was unharmed. "It's been fun man," Beta quipped, "but I'm gonna be late. Until next time!" With a pat on the back, the boy genius jetted off like the roadrunner to meet up with his mysterious friend.

Looking around the store, Hiro eyes widened at the sight of the hole in the wall before his head fell in dejection. "Beta, you owe me big for this…"

"He's going to be late. Again. Why do I even bother?"

"Should I look for him?"

"No, he still has twenty seconds. If he still hasn't arrived by then, I give you permission to bring him here yourself. Dead or alive."

"I'm sure you don't mean that."

"Ten seconds."

It seemed like time began to tick on slowly as a speeding figure came rolling down the street towards the couple. Whoever was coming towards them was going a little too fast, so they flew right past and tumbled into a trashcan. They were more breathless than injured from that sloppy entry. "I… made it!"

Walking up to the pathetic-looking young man, the smallest of the couple crossed her arms and scowled. "You're late."

"Like hell!" Once he had his bearings, the boy genius stood up, dwarfing the young girl by at least fifty centimeters. "I told you we'd meet at one, Mu! It's—!"

"Three seconds past one. You're three seconds late," she admonished. "And stop calling me that! You make me sound like a cow!"

"That's not fair and you know it! I told you I had an errand to run before I could get here! And you know I wouldn't have been late unless something happened. Don't you trust your big brother?"

Her lopsided pigtails swayed lithely as she glared at him. Even angry, she could never resist the sappy gleam that shone in his eyes. The same light green eyes they shared. "… Fine. You're off the hook since you actually showed up to the meeting place this time. I don't need to use Mighty to know you're always going to be late no matter what I say."

Much to her chagrin, Beta lifted her off the ground and gave her a giant kiss on the check. "You're the best, Mu!"

"Okay! Okay! Let me down!" Honey wiped her cheek once he set her down, and her lips twitched as she struggled to keep a smile off her face. "We have to meet our clients soon, so come on."

As Honey led the way, Beta decided to walk next to his sister's companion/bodyguard, Three. "It's good to see you again, big guy." The lion-esque man nodded to him in formal greeting. "I want to thank you again for watching out for Honey. It's nice to see she's found something she enjoys doing and a partner she enjoys doing it with."

"I will always watch out for her, Beta," Three said, "but even I cannot replace her big brother." Beta said nothing to this. He didn't see why Honey would need him when she had a behemoth like Three to watch out for her, but he would always be there for his little sister whenever she needed him.

"By the way," Three went on, "did something happen while you were on your errand? You seem a little disheveled."

"Oh, it was nothing," he said, waving his hand dismissively. "You know… today wasn't as interesting as I thought it would be."

A/N: I have little to no knowledge about computer science, if you couldn't tell by my ambiguous references.

A/N: Some of you probably noticed I didn't use any flashbacks for our new L.A.B. Rat member, Beta. I'm saving those for later. ;)

Fun fact: I thought it would be cool to use the NATO phonetic alphabet for naming Beta and his "friends". It turns out Beta comes from the Greek alphabet, not NATO, and that's also where I got "Mu" from, which coincidentally means "Honey". Small world, huh?