Alice sighs as she finally managed to find herself a small job as a mechanic. The boss was impressed by her and and hired her on the spot. Sure, the old man noticed the girl always leave very late.

"Morning, Alice!" Sakura greeted when the girl entered the workshop, it was a smaller version of mr. Kenzo's workshop. Apperently the boss didn't want her to proceed the work in the main room, because as he said, he dosen't want anyone misplace his stuff. One time she had a luck to have a quick peak at his main workshop and well, everything was in total chaos. How can he work in such conditions?

Alice barely mumbled back an acknowledgement, focusing on and prodding the trinket in her hands instead. The two teens started their work.

Sakura was the daughter of her boss and just like her father, shared the same passion for building and fixing anything. She would usually spend the time working on broken common things like blenders or microwaves, sometimes even programming new parts for the omnics that would come here very often and order new parts.

Sakura glanced at the little gadget and asked, "Another one of your creations?" She was used to her inattentive attitude when working. Alice was always working on something, always taking apart machines when had the chance. Alice had no idea that working with machines and constructing parts would bring her so much joy, even more than spending hours in different libraries. When she got her first assignment, even if this was simply fixing another broken phone, she felt as if she was doing this her entire life. When her boss gave her her first tool box, she felt a strange feeling of deja vu but quickly shrugged it off. She probably looked like a little kid getting a new toy.

The passion she didn't even know she had, more she worked the more it felt right, natural.

Mr. Kenzo asked her once to give him her parents numbers to have information about her. Obviously, a certain someone didn't made it easy, so Alice was back in the blind spot. He was surprised to know that the girl didn't have a family or close ones with her. Getrude, who own the shelter, helped get information for the girl. Such as birth certificate, ID and more. It felt illegal but she managed to fill in the information for the girl once she was ready to leave the shelter. Boss gave her money for her to find a nearby apartament to live in. Alice was thankful for that but she made her choice to leave this country as fast as possible so, the money she would gather here would all go for the tickets and then the temporary apartament. She dosen't mind living in the shelter, people in there were nothing but helpful and kind to her.

Alice didn't exactly love the idea of establishing deep relationships with everyone there, but she wasn't an asshole. She knew about gratitude and basic social etiquette. If she had to spend her next years with all these people, she will make sure to have clean relationships with them. It's not like she had to share her deepest secrets or anything, just play along. An amicable truce.

Alice turned towards the pink haired girl, she didn't understand why people would dye their hair, Mr. Kenzo didn't and he looked pretty good despite his age.

Of course, she didn't completely neglect her friend. She played a big role in her creations, often testing them out with her. Most of the things she made weren't in any way harmful: vacuum cleaners but with increased pollutant removal rate or that time when she upgraded an old lamp model that has been rotting in the corner with other things. Sakura described her first experience with it as if getting hit by a flashbang straight in the face. Well, she's not blind so that's good.

Alice appreciated her support, even when her inventions were a little wacky... fine, maybe not little.

Sakura looked at the small gadget in her hands. There were a lot of parts to it that she couldn't possibly begin to understand what they were for. All she could notice was the strange shape of it, like a rectangular battery for phones or laptops. Before she could ask what it did, Alice pressed a button and suddenly every source of light in the room went crazy, two light bulbs exploded, causing the glass to fly everywhere. Alice quickly tackled her friend to the ground before the sharp objects could hurt her. She coughed a little before bursting into long laugh, "A- Alice?!" Sakura yelped in surprise.

"It works!" The pink haired girl sighed at her response. It was just like her to completely disregard everything for her inventions, even her own safetly. As Alice let her friend go from her strong hold, she lifted her left hand behind her back, letting Khai-Ja take care of the small wounds.

I told you it's not ready, 'But it works-' It does, but five more seconds and every source of the light in the building would explode.

She sweat-dropped.

"So, I'm guessing it's a weapon of some kind, or a battery that is supposed to-"

"Absorb every source of electricity in the room and storage it inside for the later use, although the explosion part wasn't planned." The girl chuckled while fixing her hair in the process.

"Is that supposed to be some form of weapon?" Sakura asked.

Alice shook her head, "It's only meant to be a simple battery that is able to hold much more energy inside than like the common batteries 100%. But I suppose it could be utilized as one, with the explosion and all."

Alice looked at the fried device and sighed, "But it seems that 1000% is too much for such a small device to handle. As you saw earlier, that is nowhere near the result I'm trying to gain. At best, this machine could probably hold to 460% and that's all. This one was already charged, so to activating it caused overload." She grabbed the device with her left hand completely healed and while the other girl wasn't looking, she let out from her fingers black vines that were melted metal from the armor, spread through the machine and absorb the rest energy from it to the scarab.

This battery was supposed to be used to collect and transfer any kind of electricity to the main core of the scarab, basically feeding it this way so she wouldn't need to worry about stealing the power from the old generator in the Mr. Kenzo's room.

"Hey, Alice, your back is glowing-"

"Huh, what do you mean?" Sakura pointed at the mirror and the girl titled her head in confusion, black vines returning. The glow in her back disappeared as if it was never there in the first place.

"Maybe It's because of the light?" The girl nodded in answer not thinking about it too much. As Sakura returned to her work, Alice did the same, grabbing the screwdriver.

'Why is part of you still visible? I thought the whole idea was for you to hide?'

Unaovoidable. Require sensor exposure and photonic input.

The door rang as someone entered. Both girl looked at the newcomer. "Kid, your guardian just called, apperently it has to do with the kidnapping that is going on and they want every kid from the shelter."

Sakura glanced at Alice worriedly.

"Does that mean I'm fired?"

"In your dreams." The male chuckled as the girl packed her things.

Alice took the battery and throwed it into the trash, "Don't worry, it's still work in progress, this one is waste of time."

.

.

.

Kids crowded around the lobby. Everyone seemed to not really care about why they were here in the first place, they were probably happy because they got dismissed from school. Alice sat in the darkest corner of the room, watching everyone. It was hard, all those loud noises and yells plus the wave of unwanted informations of every child in the room was showed into her brain and all she could do, was just survive this. She spotted Marcow and Jason playing rock, paper and scissors together. It looked like Jason was losing, because of his focused face and bunch of curses he kept saying.

She stopped listening as she heard a few kids murmuring to themselves. The curiosity got the best of her and walked over to them, keeping a small distance between them. They were conversing about a specific organization.

"Do you seriously believe that Overwatch will take any actions? That's just insane!"

"They are already dealing with many problems, like constant attacks from the Null Sectors. Why would they care about small kidnappings?" One shook their head.

"But, It isn't a simple kidnapping anymore. You heard, what Mr. Morrison said yesterday, three more kids got taken in one day and they all come from other shelters similiar to ours."

"And-" The boy pointed to the other three kids to come closer, "I heard that Tommy was also one of them."

Alice didn't know she was staring until someone wrapped an arm around her. The weight didn't shift but she smiled as he worriedly look at her.

Tommy? Why would they kidnapp him. That dosen't make any sense. He's an orphan, there would be no ransom because no one would pay for him, unless he was targeted for a different reason. But what would they want from a fucking 11 year old?!

He's barely able to do his homework on his own, she would always help him with math and other lessons. He's a moron, her little moron with a good music taste! She needs him, not that Marcow's and Jason's company is bad but she has already adopted him as her younger brother, even if he dosen't feel the same.

"There you are. We were looking for you," Marcow said while waving towards sitting Jason. "Is something wrong? You're more tired than usual." She shrugged her shoulders, "It's nothing, just got back from the job."

He nodded and dragged her towards the other friend.

Alice goes to speak but froze as her senses flared, turning around she spotted another hidden camera that was moving, it was clear that someone was watching them.

"And what do you think?" Alice thoughtful didn't bother to listen to what they were talking about, until someone patted her shoulder.

"You look terrible." Jason said.

"Hm, I get up at 6 and have to work until 9pm, of course I look terrible." It wasn't all lie, although her boss wouldn't mind her leaving earlier, she prefered to stay there as much as possible. Especially that when she will be back in the shelter she will not be able to fall asleep.

"It's sad, isn't it?" Jason continued, not wanting to bother her too much.

Alice looked at the posters hung up around the room, three more were added. She frowned sadly at the kids on the fliers.

"When did this happen?" She pointed at the three new fliers that looked new.

"I don't really know. Kids say that they started disappearing little by little yesterday."

"Yesterday? This happened yesterday?"

He nodded.

"It's probably why they have brought as all here together." Marcow said, "Missing children means no profit."

"What are you talking about?" She asked at the same time with Jason.

"Don't you get it? This is shelter is the biggest and most recommended by parents and other important people. If kids are going day by day missing, means that something is going on here."

"The press will eat them alive..." Jason muttered to himself.

Alice ignored them again and asked Khai-Ja to zoom in her vision so she can read the fliers. Her eyes widened at the new victim of disappearances. The same blond boy from yesterday was on the wall. She shook her head in disbelief. How is that possible? He was just with his parents yesterday.

'That's not possible,' She thought. 'He was with his parents yesterday, I was there.'

Her thoughts were broke as two adults entered the room. She recognized one as the owner of the shelter while the other was a new face. Then one more person entered, it was the same officer from before. Although seeing two familiar faces calmed her down a bit, she couldn't stop but feel threatened as her eyes landed on the same weird logo.

Jack Morrison: The head of the Overwatch.

That one information from the scarab was enough to make the girl shrunk in her seat.

.

.

.

Jack Morrison, had received a tip-off about a shelter for runaways in downtown Kanezaka. Apparently, a number of children had gone missing from the facility, and the local police department was unable to make any headway in the investigation. Overwatch had been called in to investigate.

Alice tried to not stare at the man, but she just couldn't stop. Maybe it was the scarab's instincts to gather as many informations on the man as possible, weaknesses, what type of weapon does he used, his work and sleep schedule, hobbies, everything, she needed to know everything.

To survive.

The scarab's power flowed through thousands of small, invisible for human eye to notice wires that were spread and connected like a big network system through her body, to eyes, to brain and organs alike.

This is bad. Really bad.

Head of Overwatch here? In a prodigal house?

An anxious expression spread across Alice's face. Still, she refused to say anything, but in her mind, she was petrified.

Many children around her began to murmur in awe with each other as the very known hero entered the room.

Your heart is beating very fast. You're scared. Do you want me to alter the chemicals in your body to calm you?

'Wha- No, no, there's no need to do that.' She shook her head.

Soon the hero was surrounded with kids asking questions and autographs. Noticing that both boys has just left her for autographs, she groaned. Knowing that this whole situation would take a while, she left the table and left the room without looking to see if anyone saw her. Having someone as famous as Jack Morrison show up here means this whole kidnapping situation is out of control. Passing the stairs to the top floor, Khai-Ja informed her again of the increased electricity on the upper floor, this time waning as if someone had just turned off whatever electricity was producing. Entering and locking herself in her room, she sat on the bed.

"Khai-Ja, search for any kind of informations about the disappearances of the children near our shelter."

Not even a second passed and all saved and found information was shown on the screen.

2034 hours has passed after your first encounter with the individual called Carlo's.

"Are you saying that this white van has to do with the other's disappearances?" She looked closer at the video.

Affirmative. I caught the patterns of the rest of the teens, they were gone at 2000 hours every fourth day by the same van.

Alice looked over the police private files in the Scarab's hologram. She followed the patterns of the surveillance cameras and it was true. The white van always showed up every fourth day. She decided to look closer at the teenagers and she frowned annoyed when she couldn't find any patterns between them. Most of them were orhpans from other orphanages that were cooperating with the owner of the shelter. She narrowed her eyes when she realized that only three kids, one of them being Tommy, was kidnapped from this shelter. The other thing she couldn't understand was if the kidnappers were clearly targeting Getrude's shelters, also kidnapped two children, one being an omnic, that had never any contact with the owner or the shelters. Both of them came from a well-known and rich families. Carlo's parents are lawyers, the people that took him could want revenge or simply money but ramson was made for both children after they're disappearances.

13 disappearances from the shelter, 2 more that are not connected with the place.

Of course she wanted to do something, the police seemed lost and maybe with a little help of her companion she could even find where they are holding them. But that's all, she's not a hero or a police officers, It's not her job. If she will find anything, she will simply inform the authorities and then go back to her boring life.

But what if they just ignore her call, or ask her where she got all the informations from. What will she say? That an alien helped her with the search? Everyone here already thinks that she has schizophrenia from the times where she would accidently talk loud to Khai-Ja around others.

No one is going to believe her.

And what about Tommy?

Dammit, even if she's going to make a move, there is no certainty that he is even alive.

What? Why would a think such a thing, he has to be...

"Fuck!" She yelled in irritation and threw a pillow on the wall. The pillow seemed to have different plans and instead if the wall it hit the destroyed photo of her older brothers. She immediately rushed to the picture and looked if she didn't just made it worst but luckily everything was fine. She stared at them for a moment before sighing and putting the photo back onto her desk.

Why are you still keeping that photo with you despite it's state?

"It... it might come in useful and because... I don't want to forget them, even if they don't remember me." She mutters.

You mean... You have sentimental attachment to the past that you just can't break?

"You can say that." She looks back at the fliers, "But that's not important, let's get back to business."

She glanced at the window and saw that it was night out. She goes to ask Khai-Ja to transform her when her door was knocked on. Blinking away the hologram she goes to open the door.

"Hello, sir, is there something wrong?" Alice asked one of guardians that were taking care of the shelter, mr. Morrison that was standing in the entrance. Alice's senses flared drastically as the man entered her room.

"Oh no, I was just wondering why did you leave so early."

She sighed, "Kids are going crazy in there, and I don't do good in tight places." She didn't notice how the man eyed her room as if he was trying to find something.

"You didn't even want an autograph, or ask anything him? That's Jack Morrison I'm talking about, head of Overwatch. You won't get any chances to meet him in person than this day." He said, raising an eyebrow.

She shook her head, "I don't really care about getting an autograph or anything from him. I came here to get rest, It's been so long since I had so much free time to myself."

He looked at her noticing eyebags under her eyes and the girl's expression. She was definitely exhausted physically and... mentally?

"Alright, if you need anything kid, you know who to call." With that he finally left her alone, closing the door's.

I strongly advise you, do not trust that person. I have analyzed his brainwaves and indentified patterns within them. He is registered a threat.

'I don't understand. He's just a fifty-year-old man who works hard to pay his rent. How someone so nice can be evil? Maybe you're overthinking?'

Just be carefull around him.

"Don't worry, I will. Anyway, back to work again." Alice said as she went back to what she was doing.

If they are really targeting only children from here then it won't be soon after she could become their next target. She looked over her research once more. She can't figure out a way to find them without tracking them down but it would take all the research away. It would be pointless to wait until they do it again. It looks like the change their license plate every time they take someone. But It's still the same white van.

She sighs. If they are looking for well-known teens from rich families too. They'll take any chance they get to capture them.

The only people she knew were all from this place. She didn't know in person anyone famous or rich, it will be harder to track who could be their next victim.

Huh... why every fourth day? To lose track of them? Her eyes widened in realization. From the Carlo's disappearance passed one day, if her Theo is correct, that means she has only 3 days left until they will try again.

3 days, huh.

Your calculations are correct.

Alice smiled at her friend's words.

"Can you check if they have made a ransom on both, the boy and the omnic?" Scarab hummed and went quiet. As she waited for Khai-Ja to finish her search, she looked through her things boredly.

Done. They have asked for the money three days ago since a week passed from his disappearance. The amount they asked for increased over the course of the week. Now it's exactly three millions.

'That's a lot, even for their family. I don't think they have that much. Can you look through their bank accounts and estimate if they have enough?'

They do actually. His family has been progressively borrowing money from their relatives and increased the production of their products and their prices. That wouldn't be all necessary if the police was gladly helping them, but they seem to only care about humans. Alice was surprised how hateful Khai-Ja's voice sounded.

'Hey, we will find them all and save them. Don't worry.' She thought, leaning against the cool wall by the bed.

You sound awfuly a lot like spider-man right now.

"You think so?"

Are you going to become a hero too?

She chuckled, "Heros? That's not my world."

Alice opened her window, letting the cold air into her room. It was already night, a perfect moment to sneak out and spend the rest hours training and learning about the armor. Maybe I should- It's not like they will notice my disappearance.

She changed her mind when noticing the black car with the Overwatch logo on it. Sneaking out while having the most powerful man in the world at the same time here was like asking for a quick death. Sighing she closed the window.

A idea popped out in her mind and she grabbed instantly a blank notebook, taking a pencil she rushed towards the lobby. She doesn't want an autograph but Tommy would love to have one. When she's going to get him back, it will be like a "Welcome Back" present or "Welcome home."

When arriving near the door, Alice froze as she heard not familiar voices coming out from the room, and believe it, Khai-Ja is able to record and save every sound she hears. Making it easier to recognize people.

Not wanting any trouble she decided to back away and continue looking for the hero if not for the words she heard from the other side.

"That girl your brough in few weeks ago. Did you do a background check?"

"Yeah, believe it or not but there was nothing on her in the police raports as other sources. It's like she dosen't exist. Do you want me to bring her in?"

Getting as far away from the door as possible. Fully forgetting about her little mission. She has recorded every word they have said and began to search through all the files belonging to the shelter, Khai-Ja gave her access to. There was no one that had a clear page with nothing about them, almost no one but her. There were few children that has missing descriptions but not aa much as her. What makes it worse is that the staff is clearly corrupted and this place is not safe. That explain how easy they were able to kidnapp kids from here, they probably have access to all the informations they need from the shelter's data, did they hack into it like her? Or did someone gave them access to it?

During those three days, Alice was paranoid. Constantly looking behind her and taking the longest and safier paths to her work. She started interacting with other kids more often just to make sure that no staff would try anything. Mr. Morrison had noticed it but said nothing whenever the girl would instantly glare at him like a cat ready to bite you if you pet it's belly. She has also made sure that no teenagers were out late at night, patroling the streets every night like a frickin Batman. It can be boring when there is nothing much going on in the streets. There was no words from Overwatch too, Jack or whatever his name was, left the shelter two days ago in the morning. She gave up on trying to get the autograph from him for her friend.

Three days had passed when Alice tried to save the boy. Today is the fourth day. As she finished reading her comfort book, she felt shivers going down her spine as if something bad were to happen to anyone. She had made sure to have a free day from the job for this day.

Seeing that no one was out, she sighed for the nth time, letting the armor to melt and return to the scarab. She still getting used to the pain whenever she would to transform, it can be annoying. She walked out from behind the dumpsters, whistling innocently before heading home.

Alice decided to not wear her "hero-suit?" This sounds so dumb. In order for her plan to work, she must avoid having them kidnap anyone else but her. After flying and jumping from roof to roof she finally spotted the same white van and began her plan, transforming a little further from it, so they can easily spot her. This plan is risky, but if it work then maybe they will take her to the exact place where others are being held.

It's working, they are slowing down.

Alice nodded in response.

'Whatever will happen there, do not engage. Protect my heart, my body, but don't do anything that could potentially sabotage the mission.'

Behind you.

She turned around but felt something sharp hit her neck. She groaned, falling to the ground. She tried sitting up but she was harshly pulled from the ground and thrown somewhere before hearing a door slam close. Her hearing was off as she heard the revving of wheels driving off.

"What's going on?!" She grunts as her neck was becoming a pain.

Sedatives has been neutralized. Putting the host in a fake state of coma.

Everything that she saw turned dark, leaving her alone in the abyss.

Alice gasps, waking up. Her eyes squinted at the light above her making her vision blurry. She was in a moving vehicle. Her body lay on the cold metal floor. She sighs, closing her eyes. She almost forgot she was there.

"She's waking up."

She glanced up to the van's window, seeing two sillhouettes driving the van. The screen was giving her a hard time seeing them clearly. She looked around to see if she was the only one in the van. She was.

Host Alice Smith, I am still with you.

Alice clenched her fists behind her back as they tied her wrists and ankles together with ropes. She sighs closing her eyes, she almost forgot she was there. Going through her back pockets, she couldn't find her phone which she knew she dropped earlier. Khai-Ja has already called the police station about her disappearance. Of course, leaving out the detail that she is going as a bait.

The van stopped, causing her to be alert.

The van door opened, revealing two tall men wearing black masks. She glared at them as they harshly grabbed her arms and dragged her out of the vehicle. She grunts as they dropped her to the floor.

"Get up!"

She didn't scream in pain as they grabbed her by her hair and picked her up. Alice threw head back, knocking the guy on the nose, hearing the satisfying creack. She turn at the man and smirks at him before gitting hit in the face, ouch...

The man with the busted nose snarls and grabs the girl. Alice glared at them as they pushed her forward. She was in the middle of nowhere, expect for an abandoned building in front of her.

It looked old to stay, more of a haunted place. She walked to the entrance, and she was engulfed by white light in front of her.

"Boss! We caught one more!" One of the guys grabbing her arm called out to one of the man wearing a white coat. The man had short brown hair and a chiseled chin. His eyes had bags from exhaustion, but his eyes were dark. Almost chilling to make eye contact. They reminded her of her father's eyes. She didn't like that at all.

The doctor walked over and stood in front of her. He narrowed his eyes at her, almost snarling at her.

"You idiots! The girl isn't Himari Ito! Are you two blind, do you see any brown hair on her? Where did you even find this one?"

"She was walking towards the same shelter where we took most of the kids, it was easy this way than having to spend 24 hours on looking for the other one! Plus this one has a strong fighting spirit, just look at the Alex here. It's no big deal!" The man holding the girl called, pointing at his partner

"No big deal?!" The doctor ignored him, "Now they'll really get suspicious! They'll probably track her too! We won't be able to take more, idiot!" The doctor snarls at them before turning to Alice. His eyes widened as he observed her closer, specifically the scars on her face that Khai-Ja used to camuflage during her work or the time she would spend in the shelter. He stepped forward and gripped her chin, lifting her from the ground. She grunts and glared at him. Then his hand flung away from his side and his fingers traced the long scar drawn over her throat. She flinched, trying to back away from the man, finally noticing how sensitive her skin is to the touch.

"Interesting..." He muttered to himself as Alice fought the strong urge to just spill open all his guts. She shivers as he looks straight into her eyes. She dosen't see the doctor but her father. She shooks her head as the man lets her go.

"She's definitely an eye-catching girl. Probably worth more than the others." He smirked. "I like the look in her eyes. There's so much in her soul, I want it"

He smirked down at her, "We're going to have so much fun together... what is your name again?"

Alice glared at him harder, not giving him a chance to see the filter of fear she had. She gritted her teeth as he dug his nails into her face, nearing his face close to her. The smell of medicine filled her nostrils.

"A- Alice. Alice Smith." She spat, not realizing what she just said.

"Nice to meet you, Ali. You may call me Ray. Your personal doctor." He smirked before turning to his workers.

"Take her to the others."