Private One terrible mischief with one unimaginable consequence

Symlink couldn't stop silently going "What's this?" and "What's that?" to himself, until Izumi came back with snacks. He neatly placed the book away, not understanding much of what was there since it was Neon's book on game development, and immediately taking seat for the snacks. "Yes, Miss Izumi!", and he took a taste of the crackers and of shrimps, going "So good!" at the taste.

"I'm home.", announced Neon, shortly after, carrying bags of groceries with both hands and a light bag on his tail, "My knuckles hurts.". As he set the bags down near the couch to stop for a moment to check his phonw, he listened to Izumi's message. "Hm...Izumi, what's it you needed to talk to me?"

The kid continued to have his snack and OJ like he never had anything like that before... Well, he never did have, this is his first meal after all. Meanwhile Neon was scouting his phones for any news, conveniently stopping on a comment about the computers that "came back from the apparent bricking they were into for a week".

As Izumi forewarned, Neon gave a slow nod and went to peek at Symlink, and when he went back to Izumi it was clear he lacked words, as he started to write words on the air rather than speak them, a thousand yards stare of shock on his face: "That is not a mischief of mine, and not yours either I assume."

Neon was a little reluctant on that, and whispered that in a tone of hesitation: "But how will I go about that?! I can't simply say "Hi boy, I'm Neon, also I may be your-" "DADDY!", another voice interrupted his, Neon's pupils narrowed into pen-thin slits and his eyes trailed off to the side from which he heard the voice... The boy... Has just come through the wall and pounced on him, latching to him like a baby bear.

For a moment, Neon seemed to crash, his fox-like features had shown. "Hangonhangonhangon. What?! When- How- Who- Why you think I'm your-", Neon froze again once he took a better look at the boy. His phosphorescent eyes, hair, the glowing tail. Not only that, but he just went through a wall like a ghost, and Neon was once a ghost... Well, a digital ghost, that is.

"But- Kaya never told me she could have a child, and NebulaR and I never went beyond friends.", Neon just noticed his slip, brought his hands up and covered his maw, his eyes searching for Izumi, expecting "the stare" from her.

"Ka... ya? Nebu... Nebli... Hm... NR?", Symlink asked, curiously tilting his head to the side, while Neon held him up in his arms and sat down on the couch, expecting a barrage of questions.

When Izumi left to smoke, Neon decided to talk with his... Son? It was still hard for him to believe himself, but oh well. "S-So... Where is she? You know, your m-mother.", Neon asked, still a little hesitant to believe that this was his son. "I... Don't know. Don't even know her name. All I got to go by is: Seven-five-six-D-three-nine-six-E-four-F-six-E.", he replied, sitting down on the couch as well.

Neon struggled to not even chuckle, but eventually realized what was happening, yet... "Let me check something... I need to access your code, okay?", Neon asked, but Symlink cocked his head to the side, puzzled, but eventually agreeing with him. Using his Digital Silk, Neon accessed Symlink's genetic data and the shock of what he saw in the projected screen made him almost shout an expletive, doing a last second save: "What the c-carp?!".

"No way... You truly are my son... You have bits and bytes of my genetic memory... Well, at least what I saw before the computer I used crashed.", as he spoke that, Symlink had a expression that screamed "Can't believe I found my dad on the first try!", even if he said nothing, "As for mom... Well... I'll wait until Izumi comes back in. Meanwhile, help me fill the pantry, please?"

"Aight, dad!", and so Symlink followed Neon, who carried once again the heavy bags, to the kitchen, to help him sort out the groceries and organize them on their place.

Neon could feel Izumi's eyes locked onto him, but thankfully her tone was... The usual? He was ready to respond, but Symlink responded faster than him: "Dad found out who mom is, but he wanted to wait for you." That evoked a content sigh from Neon, who reached and ruffled the boy's hair, adding up to his response and facing Izumi: "Symlink was right he is my son. He is comprised of a lot of my genetic code, but... In a digital form."

"That and the sequence 75:6D:39:6E:4F:6E helped me figure out who the mother is and... This is going to be kind of funny... His mother is the computer that started the temporary brick chain around a week ago when I tried to use the school's computer in an attempt to access my genetic memory and figure out my whole past.", Neon gave out a slightly nervous and ashamed laugh.

"Then mom is a computer?", Symlink seemed a little disappointed, but then... "But dad is real! And I'm just like dad, right?", his tone was back to the same cheerful tone as before., specially when Neon embraced him and brought him up. "Yes, but you are more adorable than I could even try to be!" Neon responded, clearly overjoyed to have his son here.