Third Wheel

"Impossible! The records were completely destroyed!" Matt said, flawlessly acting.

"No need to be so stiff. I am here as an ally. Shephard see's everyone with too much power as a threat and will try to remove them. Fortunately, I am too smart and untouchable. I am putting myself in great danger by leaving my part of the ship."

"If you're an ally, why is that turret still aiming at my fiancé?"

Willard smirked and flicked his wrist. The turret stopped levitating and folded back into itself. Matt didn't realize but he must use his so-called powers to control those turrets. Additionally, it seemed he was capable of intercepting Matt's telepathy. Once the turret was back into the same of a box, Matt relaxed. He didn't want to seem hostile and decided to go with Willard's misunderstanding. It was better to be a superhuman than an alien.

"So, what do you want? You knew my secret and instead of holding it against me, you revealed yours. What is your angle?"

"Hmph, come on Matthew, you are smarter than that. Just think about it for a moment and you'll know the answer."

Matt resisted the urge to smack him. He closed his eyes and turned perfect mimicry on. After hypothesizing the true function of Perfect Mimicry the other day, he had some ideas about expanding its use. Since the skill seemed to function without use of his conscious mind, he figured out that if he used Perfect Mimicry and his own mind at the same time, it was like thinking with two brains. After a few moments of going through mental gymnastics, Perfect Mimicry with Matt supporting it came up with the most likely conclusion.

"Project Synapse is a threat to you. You discovered the Martha is related to the project."

"Well done! I knew we were the same. You see, I discovered the project for the first time when I released my Pandora's Box virus. In order to test their prototype biotronic brain, they had it attempt to pick apart the virus and learn from it. However, the protype malfunctioned and was destroyed. Serves them right."

"A few days after that is when I discovered the person's name Shephard. No matter what database I hacked, I could not figure out his true identity. Even with my enhanced mind, Shephard eluded me. He started to actively hunt me and sent a prototype combat suit to take me down. Unfortunately for them, I scattered the brain of the operator and stole the suit. Since it was an unauthorized mission, the suit was officially lost in a training accident."

"That still doesn't explain what you want from us." Alexis chided. Willard ignored her and continued.

"After that, I took over the old operations room in the back of the ship. The room was intended to be a backup incase the bridge was ever compromised. I renovated the place and have been living there since. No one bothered me until after you came knocking on my door. After I helped you, my mainframe has constantly been under attack. Shephard has pissed me off for the last time so I'm here to team up and deal with him once and for all."

"And how are we supposed to trust you?" Matt said while crossing his arms.

"Go ahead and use your ability on me like last time. I won't resist."

Willard said while removing the pair of glasses he was wearing. Matt thought this was a very good way of doing it. He looked Willard directly in the eye which caused him to lock eyes with Matt. Once hypnosis was activated, he began his orders.

"Was everything you said just now true?"

"No. I didn't kill the operator myself. The suit malfunctioned, saving my life at the last second."

"What are your intentions toward Alexis and myself?" Although he didn't resist, there was a lot of hesitation with this question. His brain tried to subconsciously stop the coming answer.

"I'm… lonely. I wanted someone on the same level as me to talk to. Also, because of Shephard, I haven't been able to eat a decent meal in a long time. I want to help you take him out."

"What makes you think we are opposing Shephard?"

"That's a dumb question. I don't need to be under your power to tell you that. Your very existence makes you oppose Shephard." He retorted.

"One last thing. Apologize to Alexis, you rude asshole." Hearing this, Alexis snorted and looked over at Willard with a mocking grin. The gears in his head grinded slowly as his mind tried to justify the action. However, his whole being didn't allow him to accept such a thing. Willard naturally saw everyone who wasn't like him as being below him. Seeing him struggling, Alexis rolled her eyes and toggled her Fascination on. Being sensitive to the fluctuations of an Esper, he naturally recognized the sudden pulse being released from her body.

"Sorry for hitting you and pointing my turret at you… And for ignoring you earlier."

"Good enough." Alexis said and turned off her ability. When she was playing around with Matt a few days ago she discovered how draining the ability was. She could only keep it up for five minutes before experiencing a severe headache. Willard stared at Alexis for a bit before snapping his fingers and making a face of realization.

"The fetus! That must be the case. The genes in Matthew that were modified must have affected your reproduction as well. You have the first Esper child in your stomach! Magnificent." Willard nodded to himself, not explaining his sudden conclusion and put his glasses back on. Matt had since walked over to Alexis's side since Willard started giving her those strange glances. He wouldn't bother correcting any of his misunderstandings.

"Okay, for now we can trust you. You know what powers we have, but you still haven't shown us yours. That's a bit ingenuine, don't you think?"

{Naturally, I will showcase them now!}

A telepathic message entered their minds as Willard started to levitate. Various objects in the room floated upward with him and began to dance around. A clipboard flew over toward him and Willard made a finger-gun. When he bent his thumb, an invisible force penetrated the clipboard leaving a hole the size of an orange. After his show, everything fell to the ground and he landed gently on his feet.

"Well, there you have it. I guess we are partners from here on out!" Willard said brushing his shoulder arrogantly.

"Fine. For now, don't contact us directly like this. We currently need to deal with the issue of a homicide and finding a temporary leader for the First Strike squad." Matt said.

"Naturally. This was a special occasion since I needed to build your trust. Take these." Willard pulls out a pair of small containers and hands them one to the duo. "Inside is a special device I created myself. Place them on your eyes and we will be able to communicate on a secure channel. Additionally, it has some rudimentary hacking programming and will guide you through low complexity systems."

Matt and Alexis opened the container and found a pair of contacts. Matt put them in first and saw something appear in his line of sight that looked exactly like the private chat in the game from his former life. It was even in the same corner and had the same aesthetic.

"How do I actually type anything—oh never mind." As soon as he said 'type' a virtual keyboard appeared in front of him. He was able to successfully post a message on the private chat and then nodded toward Alexis that it was safe. She put it on and was marveled by the technology. Willard looked at her like she was a country bumpkin.

Since Matt recognized the layout to be the same as the graphic user interface from the game, he wasn't shocked. But the technology was very complex and novel, so any normal person would be shocked as well. This only confirmed Willard's thoughts toward Matt. After delivering the goods, he walked into the animal pen and pulled open the vent. He gave a wave to Matt and Alexis and began crawling. The two of them watched him and couldn't help but burst out in laughter after he was gone.

"Such a narcissistic and arrogant grown man crawling through vents to get around. That has to be the funniest thing I've seen all week." Alexis said, holding her stomach and wiping away a tear from the laughing.

"Regardless of how eccentric he is, having him on our side means we are closer to a life without fear of persecution. Shephard will regret bringing us together."

At this point, Martha came forward and placed what looked like a pinecone on the ground in front of Matt. In the process of creating a telepathic channel with her, he picked it up and was completely dumbfounded.

[Genetic Material Detected. 33% compatibility. Grade 2. Consume for 7 Evolution Points.]

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Thanks to Grimordia for the various gifts! I meant to say it earlier but kept forgetting to add it to the chapter lol.