In front of a small group of awed spectators, a little girl no older than the age of five displayed her 'talents.'
Her talents of psionic prowess.
A series of static shocks created by pure white lightning sporadically bursted out of her finger tips and palms, only travelling a centimetre or two before it dissipated. A short light buzzing static could be heard as the white lightning coiled around her finger tips.
While it was common knowledge that white lightning was the weakest type of lightning that could be conjured by a psionic, it was rare for one to manifest any form of lightning, including white lightning at such a young age.
This was especially true when the one who was conjuring said white lightning was only in her first year of primary school.
Soon, the girl grasped both of her hands into fists and the white lightning that once emanated out of her hands disappeared entirely.
It didn't take long for the small crowd of impressionable five year olds to start heaping praises onto the young psionic girl the moment she stopped.
"Wow that's so cool!"
"I wish I was born a psionic like you!"
"She's not just a psionic! She is also the daughter of a CEO of one of the megacorps!"
"Wait what?!"
"So she's super rich and a psionic too?! How lucky can you get!"
The girl smiled in a slightly abashed manner as she rubbed her own head with her right hand in response to the praises that she just received.
In truth, the girl's appearance could not be described as unique or even distinct. With her relatively fair complexion, silky black hair and warm smile, her appearance was neither beautiful nor ugly, nor was there anything particularly eye-catching about her appearance excluding one thing and one thing alone.
And that was her beautiful pair of emerald eyes.
From a glance she could only be described as a member of the middle-class of society, a well meaning and well intentioned, everyday normal girl. It would be no exaggeration to say that her appearance would be best suited as a side or even as a background character of a fictional piece of media.
In other words, her appearance could best be described as the splitting image of the word 'generic.'
And yet she was still the centre of everyone's attention.
Her name was Cynthia Starr; the daughter of Adam Starr; the CEO of Starcrop, one of the largest megacorporations in the industries of spacecraft and space travel, thus making her somewhat of a celebrity, albeit in the most loose form of the term.
As such, it caused a bit of a stir when rumours spread that she was going to be attending the Republican Institute of Education. Most of Cynthia's public information, from her appearance to her family background quickly spread throughout the school prior to the day of her attendance.
Although it wasn't rare for children of the top 1% of the Republic's citizenry to be attending the Institute, it wasn't common either. Most children like that are instead often privately tutored or sent to highly expensive private schools and institutions.
That was why whenever a new kid who belonged to said top 1% started to attend the institute, they would usually become the centre of attention, at least for the first few weeks before they got settled.
After all, who wouldn't want to be friends with people in high places?
Despite all of that, the crowd around Cynthia was surprised to discover that she was not just the daughter of a rich Ceo, but she was actually a gifted psionic as well.
With a faint smile, Cynthia finally responded to the crowd.
"Being a psionic is cool and all but can you guys make me a promise now that I showed you my 'secret'?"
A look of confusion quickly grew within the faces of those within the small crowd before they all proceeded to simultaneously ask a single, solitary question.
"What's that?"
A short moment of silence occurred before Cynthia hesitantly answered their questions in a reluctant manner.
"Can you guys promise me that you will tell no one about my psionic powers? P-please?"
The confusion that was already on the kids faces only doubled when they heard Cynthia's answer before they once again simultaneously asked a question.
"Why?"
Like before, Cynthia appeared to be slightly hesitant as she answered their one-worded question.
"It's because if people in the government knew that I was a psionic, they would take me away and I... I..."
As Cynthia continued speaking, her voice began to stutter and even break at some points.
"I don't... I don't want that."
Within moments, Cynthia's eyes started to become dewy as her voice broke apart.
"I d-don't want... I don't want them to take me away..."
And soon tears slowly started to fall out of her emerald eyes.
"So please... Please promise that you won't tell anyone..."
Another long moment of silence passed as Cynthia and the kids remained oblivious to everything happening around them. Soon, this moment of silence was broken not by the crowd nor Cynthia, but instead, as single boy who stepped forward.
Seemingly to speak for everyone else, the boy handed Cynthia a tissue to wipe away her tears as he gave her their answer.
"We promise."
Cynthia sniffed a couple times as she wiped the tears out of her eyes before she responded to him.
"Thank you."
...
"Warp to Zone A-15 has been opened! Please proceed to the warp zone if you reside in zone A-15!"
After a few moments passed since Cynthia's newfound friends made her their 'promise', the P.A. system sounded up again, informing everyone that the Warpgate's destiniation has changed zones. With that in mind, Cynthia suddenly spoke up.
"Oh! My zone is coming up soon! Sorry guys but I got to go!"
Quickly wiping away whatever tears were left, Cynthia waved the others goodbye before she made her way for the Warpgate. When she was sure that they were no longer nearby, her mouth curved upwards into a smile as everything appeared to be going according to plan.
As Cynthia walked, she could not help letting a remark out of lips.
"Child's play... In the metaphorical and literal sense of the term, that was all child's play..."
One of the kids will not uphold their promise.
Cynthia was sure of that.
There will always be one person who can't help but let it slip out of their mouth.
Whether it was on purpose or by accident, it will still happen anyway.
Such was merely how the universe worked, especially when considering how gullible and loose-lipped young children really were.
Whoever they will let this rather important information slip to, whether it be the ruling galactic government of this sector; the Euronic Republic or any other 'miscellaneous' groups and organisations, Cynthia could not care less.
All she cared about was the fact that no organisation with a respectable amount of power within this sector would give up a chance to include someone of her psionic potential into their ranks.
No matter which organisation approached Cynthia first, she would not mind 'cooperating' with them if it meant the ability to train her body and psionic capabilities as well as free access to information of the current diplomatic and economic status of the intergalactic community.
A lot can change in just five years and Cynthia knew that she could not afford to remain ignorant.
Of course, she once worked with the Euronic Republic in her previous life and in her honest opinion, out of all the intergalactic governments, she liked the Euronic Republic the most.
Or should it be said that she disliked the Euronic Republic the least?
While the latter description may seem a little harsh, that did not mean that it was false in any way, shape or form.
After all, even after everything she had done for the Eurons, they eventually betrayed her just like everyone else.
What was left after their betrayal was just another heap of once fond memories of joy and happiness that was tainted by the bad taste of betrayal.
But at that point, what else was new?
Although she was aware that she could simply openly submit herself to the Euronic Republic, she was also aware of how suspicious it would seem if a little girl suddenly approached the Republic and willing submitted herself to them, even if she said she was doing so out of a misplaced sense of loyalty.
It was simply too unbelievable for a 'five year old' child to do such a thing, no matter the child's circumstances or capabilities, thus rendering the aforementioned option as undesirable.
Instead, it would be far better if the Republic 'discovered' Cynthia's psionic potential and were the ones to approach her, or more specifically, for the Republic to approach her father; Adam Starr and discuss things with him.
From there, the most likely sequence of events would be that the Republic would force Adam to relinquish Cynthia to them as according to their law regarding psionics.
On top of the possibility of leaks from one of the kids, Cynthia was sure that there had to be at least a rudimentary surveillance system at the Institute that detected her display of psionic powers.
In truth, it was only a matter of time.
On the other hand, there was another particular type of organisation that could also approach Cynthia instead of the Republic.
And those types of organisations could be considered a little more 'illegitimate.'
The only problem with these organisations was that they were probably going to be a lot more 'hostile' when approaching Cynthia when compared to the Republic.
The nature of the universe made it so the intergalactic nations couldn't exercise control over all of their respective territories. Even the core worlds of the most powerful human intergalactic nations housed a substantial criminal element.
As such, there were multiple criminal organisations that were prevalent in the areas where the influence and power of intergalactic governments is waning.
And some of those criminal organisations are even powerful enough to pull off something like kidnapping a high profile person like a CEO's daughter as long as the rewards are worth the risk.
A reward like a powerful psionic for example.
While Cynthia knew that it was pretty much guaranteed that the Republic will eventually find out, she still made it possible for a third party to beat them to the punch.
And that was because she simply did not like to wait.
She has already waited for five years just so that she could be free from the confines of her 'house.'
Now that the shackles of her age were loosened, Cynthia did everything in her power to 'speed up' the process.
As of this moment, that short display of white lightning was the most her current body could handle without straining itself.
Honestly, it was pathetic.
But there was nothing she can do about it.
There was no doubt that her philanthropist and pacifist father would not agree with Cynthia cultivating her body so that she can wield more of her latent psionic power.
Her father was more likely to commit an act of treason than put his own 'daughter' in harms way.
As such, Cynthia had to rely on 'outside sources' if she wanted to cultivate her body.
"There she is!"
Soon, Cynthia's thoughts were broken by a familiar voice.
When she turned to the source of the voice, she saw Mary, the head maid of Eden waiting her.
Like an excited child, Cynthia ran towards Mary before embracing her legs in a hug.
With an amused chuckle, Mary questioned Cynthia.
"So how was school today?"
Cynthia made sure to make a cute smile when she responded to Mary.
"It was great!"