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Necessity is often cited as the mother of all invention, but need and desire often play a much greater role. Through need we seek to fill a void we see in the world that surrounds us. Through desire we seek to go beyond the limits of all those who have gone before us.

Chapter Four : The longest day.

Kato lay stretched out on his bed. His tail swaying back and forth, he sought to stave off boredom by watching the movement of the hands on his alarm clock. It wasn't even close to mid afternoon yet and Johnathan, claiming that he was too stressed out by the attempt on his life to be expected to study, had canceled the rest of his appointments for the day.

Since his tutors were paid whether he decided to show up for his lessons or not none of them had seen any reason to complain, and many of them had considered it to be a much needed break from his often aggravating antics. All of which meant that Kato had been dismissed from his duties as Johnathan's bodyguard hours early. A fact even he had been keen to take advantage of, rather then argue with.

Now, staring up at the posters of naked cat chicks that were hanging over his bed, Kato sighed. It would be some time yet until his appointment with Morishita, and he longed to claim at least one victory before his twenty-first birthday.

Jolting upright the moment he realized that if his Sensei were to find out that he had been sitting around doing nothing, then he would be chastised for remaining idle.

I guess there really is no helping it. He thought to himself as he swung his legs over the edge of the bed. I'm just going to have to find something to do. But what?

An idea taking root in his mind Kato began to organize some of the mess.

Located in a distant wing of the King family estate, his room was a sanctuary filled with all the things that he had managed to painstakingly collect during the ten years that he had worked as a bodyguard. And while much of it had been attained either by bribing the other members of the household staff to smuggle them into the house proper, or as was far more often the case, retrieving them whilst in the dead of night, Kato's collection of contraband ran the gamut from the mundane to the dangerous, and much of it had been altered to look like common everyday household objects.

Everything in his room held a secret inside of it. From the T.V. he had found abandoned by the side of the road, to the sea of holo-vids that were littering the floor; most of which held records of his experiments with anti-gravity hidden in secret data-files that he had embedded in the discs themselves, all of it was a carefully constructed illusion meant to make anyone who entered his room believe that he was nothing more than what they had expected him to be, an average, ordinary, everyday male. Albeit one with rather unusual tastes.

Removing the various pieces of an anti-gravity array he had managed to salvage from the wreck of an aircar that he kept in a hollowed out computer terminal, Kato began to wonder if his extravagant precautions had already served to render him well and truly paranoid, or if he simply enjoyed entertaining the idea of living a secret double life.

Deciding that there really wasn't much of a difference between the two, his mind became filled with all manner of fantastic dreams. There were thought's of the life that he would one day have, the accolades he would receive, and even the freedoms he might be able to enjoy, if he could prove that his life would be more valuable spent working as a scientist, rather then a slave.

Servant. He reminded himself. I'm not a slave. I'm a servant.

It was strange. Even though they were the same age, and had even been born on the same day, Johnathan had had the world handed to him on a silver platter, and all that he seemed to want to do with his time was waste it.

But that was the vital difference between them. Time. Where humans could live for any number of years, chimeras were lucky to live for thirty. Beyond that, they began to age at an almost exponential rate. Known as Werner Syndrome, it was a lingering side effect of the age acceleration treatments that allowed Exotica Geno-Works to create chimeras at a faster rate then even human clones.

So of course with half of his life already over, Kato knew he hadn't a moment to waste.

When he was sure that there was a sufficient amount of space in the center of his room to work with, He opened the door to his closet and pulled a datapad free from the pile of dirty socks that always managed to somehow accumulate in the far corner.

Calling up everything that he could find on the recent advances that had been made in the field of anti-gravity control, Kato began to make minor adjustments to some of the control circuits with his right hand while he scrolled through the lines of text with his left.

When the energy output reaches four thousand Keyrs, direct the flow of energy so that the curvature of the field surrounding the object allows for lift. Directional propulsion is then achieved by adjusting the energy output, so that the interaction between the two opposing gravity fields acts to attract or repel each other in varying degrees creating thrust.

Watching as the device began to lift itself off the ground Kato adjusted the energy output to match his own bioelectric field. With any luck, an independent gravity field would form around his body and he would begin to float as well.

Kato waited for something, anything to happen. When nothing did he became sullen.

Damn, what am I doing wrong? Understanding the theory behind gravity control is easy enough but . . . Argggh! This would be easier to figure out if I could just feed more power into the system!

With an exhausted sigh, Kato brushed aside one of the many dirty socks that had begun floating past his face. At this rate I'll never be able to . . . to . . . reaching out to grab a pair he scrunched it up into a ball and threw it as hard as he could.

Robbed of any and all force, Kato watched as it simply floated along, content to ignore the laws and restrictions of inertia.

“That . . . can't be good.”

A quick check of the energy readout on the array's power output display showed that it had started to register a power flow that was well over nine-thousand Keyrs.

Nine-thousand Keyrs. Kato did the math in his head. At that level, the field will start to spill out of the room and . . . He blinked as a curious sensation began to envelop him.

Starting at the tip of his tail, it spread throughout his entire body until an overwhelming sense of weightlessness overcame him.

Pushing himself off the floor Kato reveled in the sensation of being weightless.

“It works! It really works!” My gravity projector works. Now all I have to do is minimize the design and . . . With his face suddenly touching the ceiling a far more pressing thought entered into his mind. How am I supposed to get back down?

Next to him, the gravity array just dropped to the floor as the control circuits started to overheat. Kato's eyes widened as the realization of just how he was going to get down saw fit to dawn on him in its entirety.

Oh shit!

With just enough time to react as the all too familiar forces of gravity began to take hold of him once more, Kato pushed off of the ceiling with all of his might, twisting himself in the air in the hopes that he would at least be able to land on his feet.

Overestimating the amount of force necessary the room began to spin around him in a dizzying blur. “Shiiiiiit!” He cried out as the floor rushed up to greet him at an altogether unhealthy speed.

Landing on the flat of his ass with a 'thud' that was all too audible Kato yowled in pain as his tail, having done everything it could do to soften his fall, suddenly decided to protest its unpleasant and abusive treatment by making him aware of just how much it hurt to be landed on.

“Fuck. Shit. Fuck.” Jumping to his feet Kato began to half laugh half cry out in pain. “It worked. Ha ha ha. Ow! Fuck my tail hurts! It really worked.” Taking hold of his injured appendage he looked out the window and thought. Maybe I should try jumping off the roof next time or— The flashing light on his comm unit interrupted his train of thought, forcing any ideas of even attempting any death defying leaps into some distant corner of his mind. Maybe not.

Without even needing to look at the call display, Kato could already say for certain that he knew who it was from. Because there was only one person in the entire household who would bother to leave a message, without actually waiting for him to pick up the phone.

Pressing the play button on the comm unit, Johnathan's voice began to emanate from the machine. “I'm going out.” He said in a tone of voice that was as unpleasant to listen to as a recording as it was in real life. “Meet me by the car in fifteen minutes, or else I'm going to leave without you.”

Kato sighed as he erased the message. He will too. Lifting the mattress off his bed, he disabled the security field that was hiding a secret compartment. And I'll be the one who gets punished if I don't catch up with him.

Pushing aside a box of tissues, a clear plastic bag filled with catnip, and a stack of his favourite issues of Naughty Neko's Monthly, Kato opened a second secret compartment in which was hidden two of his most precious possessions. The Goban that had given to him by Morishita, and a well read copy of the Kama Sutra, chimera style.

Pulling out the Goban he began to set up the stones, recreating from memory the game that they had yet to finish. When he had finished putting everything in place he closed the hidden compartments once more, and restored his room to a state of organized chaos.

When he was satisfied that not even Johnathan would be able to find anything in all the mess He pulled a semi-clean shirt and a black leather jacket out of a pile on the floor and began to change.

Closing the door to his room behind him Kato heard a voice that sounded to him like the crack of a whip. “And just where do you think you're going dressed like that?”

Pivoting on his heel, he found himself coming face to face with the formidable figure of John King; his current owner.

Still dressed in a stiff cut business suit, his once pure brown hair was now streaked with flecks of gray, and a cold, calculating disapproval lay etched into every line of his face.

“I have to catch up with Johnathan.” Said Kato, remembering to lower his eyes. He had learned the hard way that the elder King hated it whenever a chimera dared to make eye contact with him. “Sir.”

“I see, well then, don't let me stop you.”

Remembering to bow before leaving, Kato felt a single sliver of doubt begin working its way into his mind. His room was located in the furthest wing of the house, as far from the day to day business as he could possibly get. And there was no way the elder King would go out of his way just to chastise him for being badly dressed. So that could only mean one thing. He had no choice but to press on, and expect that the axe would fall.

Holding up a hand to stop him from going anywhere, the elder King simply said. “Don't you think that you might be, forgetting something?” In his other hand he held up a loop of seamless silver metal.

Recognizing it instantly, Kato said. “My control collar. But I thought that . . .” Reaching almost instinctively to touch his throat, he bit back his anger as he realized that he wasn't in fact wearing the hated thing.

John merely cocked his head to the side, watching, waiting to see how he would react.

It was something of a test, and one that he thoroughly enjoyed administering. Would he show some spine, and strike the collar from his hand? It was the perfect opportunity after all, to finally exact revenge for the years of indifference and abuse that he had been forced to endure. Or would he simply submit, and prove himself to be a coward once more?

Taking the collar gingerly from his master's outstretched hand Kato said. “I'm sorry.” As he felt the cold unfeeling metal close around his throat with an audible click he added. “I guess that I must have forgotten to put it back on, after I finished cleaning the dojo.” And that was the truth. Morishita had always allowed him to remove his control collar during sword practice, lest it interfere in someway with his training, and it was that rare show of trust that had served to endear the older man to him in the first place.

On John King however, it had the opposite effect. Seeing his foster son willingly choose a life of servitude and slavery, he started to sneer. To say he was disappointed would be an understatement. He had hoped for some sign of defiance, some proof that the Companies and their investment had not been in vain. Instead, all he had gotten was more of the same simpering subservient behavior that served to mark chimeras the world over. The sight of it made him sick.

Letting some of the hatred he harbored inside his heart for the bastard half-breed that stood before him show on his face, the elder King's voice was a barely audible hiss when he said. “The what?”

Swallowing involuntarily as he realized that he had somehow made an error, Kato took a single step backwards and said. “The . . . the practice room. Sir?”

“Very good.” Placing a hand on Kato's shoulder as he stepped past him, the elder King whispered into his ear. “You'd do well to make sure you never forget it again.”

Kato began to shiver uncontrollably as he ran off to catch up with Johnathan. The words he'd heard had held an edge of finality in their tone.