They were unaware that he watched them from a far. He wanted to go up to the door and knock but he couldn’t. They were enemies...or were they? He had learned the truth of his origins. Did that mean he and Pulseman were the same person? He was a clone, after all. But, then again, they both were different. So who was he? What was Pulseman to him? Veil wasn’t sure any more. All he knew was that this was Waruyama’s fault. If he was told about this whole thing from day one instead of being forced to live a lie, he wouldn’t be in this mess. He would be back at his home, spending time with Waruyama and helping him with his plans to take over the galaxy. He could have even taken Pulseman out while he was dealing with the death of his father. Veil looked at the window. He hadn’t seen Pulse for some time.

Spark was awoken by the sound of static. Surely, he hadn’t left his TV on. No, the last thing he was on was his computer which had been turned off by his parents to save energy. His half opened eyes fell upon the TV. At first he was confused as to what was on it however he soon identified what - no, who - it was after he rubbed his eyes. Veil. The boy shot up out of his seat, almost knocking his chair over as he did. He instantly started to move back, eyes fixed on the other as he slowly crawled out of the TV. It was quite like that from a horror film. Which one? Spark couldn’t remember the name.

“W-what do you want?” How he wished he had some back up. Last time, he had run into Pulse’s friends and they had helped him with this problem. Spark thought that Veil would have decided to leave him alone after that.

Veil rose and started to make his way over to the other, “what I wanted to do after this whole thing. To know where Pulseman is.”

“Wait, what?” Spark tried to keep his voice down, not wanting to wake his parents up.

“Where is Pulseman? I haven’t seen him around for some time.”

Spark stopped, cautiously trying to seem brave in front of Veil, “why do you want to see him? He doesn’t want to see you or your father. Not after what you both did.”

It didn’t take long for him to be in front of the other, hand around the other’s throat. He wasn’t going to hurt the other, just grab his attention. Make him give him the answer he wanted, “that was what my father did, not me. Now, where is Pulseman? I’ve been to his home and he doesn’t seem to be in. Did he run away knowing he failed at protecting the ones he cared about?”

Spark began to dig his fingers into the hand, trying to remove it. Each try just caused Veil to tighten his grip. He eventually stopped, not wanting the C-Life to cause any injuries to his neck. “H-how am I s-suppose to know? I’m a h-human, not C-Life; we live f-far away from each other.”

“Because your his friend. Now answer the question before I throw you out of the window.”

“I-I...he’s...” Veil released him, noting how he had closed his eyes and gone quiet. What had happened to Pulseman?

“Victor, what happened?”

He continued to remain quiet, heading over to his computer. Veil, believing he was ignoring him, prepared to attack. That was when he, after the computer was switched back on, pulled up a program. Of course the Yoshiyama family would have given him a program that allowed him to see into CG Space. He was their eyes and ears from the real world.

The electricity in his hand disappeared as he approached, glaring at the small screen in front of him, “just why are you showing me this? I’ve already been to their house and he wasn’t- wait, that’s Pulseman...what’s the- what happened to him?”

“Why don’t you go over to their house and ask? Oh, wait, you’re probably afraid because you and your father caused this to happen. You both caused the death of Syakuei and you caused Pulse to be in a-” Spark turned around to see that Veil was leaving. He tilted his head, “are you going to see them? I’d advise that you didn’t but that wouldn’t solve anything, would it?”

“No, me not seeing them would just cause things to get worse. I need to see them. Somehow.” He began to enter the TV screen, “perhaps we could talk again. Now that I finally know where you live and you’re not running away, I think we can actually have a good conversation. Oh, and the next time one of those,” he paused, trying to think about what Misite and Girgore was, “creatures are with you while I’m trying to talk to you, stop them from attacking me. Like I said, I only want to talk.” With that said, he vanished.

He rushed back to the new base, still trying to solve the puzzle. That wasn’t supposed to happen. Pulseman was supposed to sacrifice himself to keep the machine from destroying everything, not Yoshiyama. His father had said that Pulse had to be removed since he caused nothing but problems for them all. So why did he allow the doctor to do that? Why did he allow his own brother to do that? After everything that man had done for them. For every C-Life.

The teen slowed, looking at the doors. Behind them was Waruyama. Veil wasted no more time once he heard his father shouting from the other side. His new plan wasn’t correct. Wasn’t perfect. It would have been if Pulseman was no longer in the picture.

“Dad, I have a question. Is now a bad time?”

Doc Waruyama sighed as turned away from the computer screen, facing his son, “what’s on your mind, Veil?”

“Well, you see-” he tried think of the best way to say it, “I wanted to know...why did you let Syakuei die?” He noted the look his father gave him. Confusion. “I know it sounds weird but he was your brother. He helped you, me, and your wife. Just...why didn’t you stick to the plan? Making him witness what we wanted to happen so he could stop the next person who wanted to stand up against us?”

The doc turned, emotions drained from his face. Before his so could speak once more, he started to open up files which needed a password only the doc knew. He was finally going to show his son what was inside of those files. Or so he thought. Waruyama had stopped himself from opening up one of them. The doc faced his son, finger ready to press the button to open up whatever secret he had kept hidden. “I think it’s time, son. You see, Yoshiyama was a fool. He didn’t understand. He created everything in this place yet he didn’t give us freedom. You should know that.”

“I do, father. That was why you made the plan, after all. For you to rule over the humans so we C-Lives could be free,” his eyes shifted between his father and the folder. They only locked onto him when he continued to speak, keeping a calm voice.

“You also know about me discovering the device which my brother could have used at any moment. Specifically the moment we C-Lives start to demand freedom,” he pressed the folder. Veil held his breath. He soon let it go, seeing another password box popping up. “It made me give me when I discovered it. Then Pulseman was born. Seeing that boy enter the real world and CG Space without a machine gave me hope,” he entered the password.

Veil glared at the screen, watching as the documents opened up. “W-wait...that can’t be. D-dad?” His eyes begged his father for some kind of answer.

“I worked along side the creator. Being a C-Life meant I could do more than a human. I discovered how to change some things but not all of it.”

“B-but, I-” he backed away slowly, watching the last document fly onto the screen.

Waruyama’s arm returned to his side. He left the folder open, allowing his son to take it all in. After a moment, he finally spoke, voice slicing through the silence, “Veil. I know this is a lot to take in after what had happened but you must process this quickly. We have-”

“Process this quickly! Dad?! Have you seen what you just showed me?! You just showed me that my whole life is nothing but a lie! All of these memories I have are all just fake!...That I’m just fake...is that why me and Pulse-”

“Are alike? Yes. There was a problem though. The human DNA made it so you couldn’t be able to travel between worlds like he could. I thought that, if I could make a clone of the child, I could learn how that worked and uploaded it into every C-Life. That plan failed because of the human DNA. So I had to use another set of it, my own, to fully create you. You are my son-”

“No. I’m nothing but an experiment. You made me just to kill me. You made me just to learn how Pulseman can get into the real world,” he grabbed the door, ready to dash out into the hallway, “did you ever think about just using the DNA sample you had to find out how it worked? Or did you really want to kill something?” Veil didn’t get a reply. It was clear that Waruyama wanted to think about it before he spoke. His son interrupted this time by causing the door to sound as if it would have come off it’s hinges if it was closed a bit harder.

They knew the plan. They knew how dangerous it was going to be. So why did she have to tag along? Pulse wasn’t sure but, for some reason, his father wanted her to. That was another thing, Pulse wasn’t sure why his father had decided to go along with him on this mission. They all only knew that Galaxy Gang was hiding something that was bigger than what they could imagine yet that wasn’t something new. So what made it different? Just why was his father and Lumi, a mysterious girl who his father knew, with him? Pulse sighed, finally tuning into what his father whispered to them, “don’t worry dad, I’ve done this sort of stuff before. Just...you two be careful and stay behind me, okay?” Yoshiyama was the first to nod, Lumi seemed to want to know if she was supposed to by watching him.

It was quieter than they expected. Was this part of CG Space always like this? So silent, as if forgotten? The teenagers looked at each other then their eyes travelled towards the doctor, locking on to him. He was focused on the area they had entered. He looked...in pain?

“Doctor?” Lumi asked, giving Pulseman a quick glance before she continued, “doctor? What’s the matter?”

He jumped slightly, clearly being removed from his thoughts. His memories. “I-I’m fine, really. I just didn’t expect them to be in this place.”

Pulse came to a halt, Lumi copied him almost instantly. “Dad, what’s wrong with this place? Where are we?”

He sighed and fell silent. The two watched him, waiting for some kind of answer. As the seconds grew into minutes, they both wished for he to say something. Anything. But they got nothing but Syakuei walking ahead of them.

Since he had grown silent, the others had too. They remained as Yoshiyama’s shadows until he froze. Upon gazing at what was in front of them, the teenagers stood, star struck, at the machine. It was something that appeared to not be Galaxy Gang made. It was as if the machine had been there for years, collecting dust.

“You wanted to know what this place was and now you know,” his voice broke through the whirring and beeping of the machine. The two stared at the man, curious and waiting for him to continue. “This machine was something I built years ago. I...I had a feeling something was going to go wrong so I went ahead a built a way to delete every C-Life I created. Of course, it never gained enough power to do so,” but, in the hands of Galaxy Gang, he knew it was only a matter of time for it to gain that much power

“You built a way to delete-” She started only to be cut off by a voice. A voice that didn’t belong to any of them.

“What can I say, Yoshiyama is a careful man,” Veil spoke, standing up from teleporting into the room. The doctor threw a worried glance in his direction, “what’s the matter? You think me teleporting would set it off? My father has already sorted that out. He still is,” the C-Life smirked as his father walked around the platform above the machine.

“So it was true! You’re still alive!” Yoshiyama’s voice echoed through the room, circulating around the man he once called brother. What Veil had told him when they had ended up in another universe was true. That must mean Waruyama’s plan to remove his son from existence was also true.

Veil, without even keeping his eyes on him, dash towards Pulse when Waruyama nodded the signal for him to fight. Pulse pushed Lumi aside as he engaged in combat with the other. Lumi signalled for the doctor to move over to her where it was safe after noticing that Pulseman had taken the fight far from them and the machine. It was only a matter of time for Veil to bring it back towards them which meant they all could be in danger.

The doctor didn’t move though. He didn’t even acknowledge her. His attention remained on Doc Waruyama. “You know how much damage this machine could do! Without that programming, it take all of the power from Earth and wipe us all out!” Well, creatures living in the real world would be safe. Everything in CG Space would most likely be destroyed.

“Correction, Yoshiyama, there are two ways to deactivate this machine,” he pressed the button, “either the program is needed or someone like our sons.”

“Pulse!” The fight stopped before another punch was made. Even Veil had turned to look at the one calling Pulseman’s name. “The machine! You have to stop-” “Dad?! Dad, what are you doing?!” He began to head towards the machine, Lumi noticed and started to head over. She had been too occupied with stopping Doc Waruyama from leaving the room but, sadly, he had sent his men there to keep her busy. After noticing Yoshiyama, they had left to keep their boss safe.

“Veil. I know this is odd but,” he flipped a switch from the panel that he had opened once Waruyama had left the room, “keep them safe.”

“And you?!”

“I-I need to stay,” he continued, pulling out a miniature laptop, one that he had packed before they left, and plugged it into the machine. He was going to upload the program before the machine could kill everyone.

Veil tried to hold and push the others back towards the door, out of the way. Of course, Pulseman made it difficult for him. He constantly tried to reach for his father, screaming that Yoshiyama could leave and, with his speed, Pulse could shut the machine down and get out of there before it went off. Yoshiyama sounded like a broken record player, repeating the same thing. He was the only one who knew the program’s coding.

Came down with a brutal chest cold so I scuttled off to the grocery store and picked up ingredients for my cure-all: lemon chicken soup. Most of the time I make it with noodles and potatoes (has to be both) but this time I tried a simple dumpling recipe and it came out great.