1 year later...
"It is ready." Said WAU. His voice was carried through the black veins that was properly spread across the facility of Theta instead of an uncontrolled growth. Simon looked cautiously at the chair. It adopts the appearance of the Pilot Seat throughout Pathos-II. But the designs were much more complex. The seat was grooved to fit the shape of a human being. Hundreds of intricate wire filament, both man-made and WAU-made spread behind the chair and connected to another chair of exact design.
"Alex," Sarah's hand caught Alex's arm, stopping him.
Alex turns around to look at her, one of the two true human remaining on Earth. He brushes his hand on her full cheek. "Don't worry. I'll be fine." Removing himself from her he motions not to take his seat first, but to look at the body sitting on the other advanced Pilot Seat. The body is humanoid, but it was no flesh and bone. It was a beautiful and precise design. The skeletal frame was made of metal while the artificial muscles and tissues were made of structure gel. The skin was slick and polished to a mirror sheen. Glowing blue dots spread across the body, making the empty shell appeared like a luminous deep sea creature. It was the crown achievement of WAU and all the residence of Pathos-II in replicating a human body. WAU had, in his AI capacity to display emotions, boasted that it is a major improvement of the old human body, a next step in evolution.
And it is only right that Alexander, the one that suggested this idea in the first place to be the first to take up this body. Will he lose the coin flip this time?
"So no bullshit, right Warden? This is the real deal?"
"I have made iterations to improve the Pilot Seat. Your brain and your consciousness will not be copied over. It will not be a cut-paste procedure either. You will be transferred, as real as a brain transfer."
"Fair enough." Alexander takes his seat.
"Hey Alex!" Carl Semken shouted from behind the crowd. "Keep your fingers crossed! It usually works!"
"I'll feed your old body to the fish!" Joked Peter Strasky. He was the fourth person to be uploaded to the crude body just like Simon's last year.
Alexander turns Catherine Chun. No longer stuck in a tablet and manhandled by anyone, she possessed a body of her own too. Alex gave hers before Strasky. But for the added humour, Alexander provided her with the body of a burly man. "So... you gonna wish me luck or something?" Simon asked.
"Break a leg, Alex." She replied.
The visor comes down. He was enveloped in total darkness for a few seconds before the visor lights up to show him a digital view of the surrounding. "At full processing speed, the digital brain transfer can be completed in just seconds. But I'll slow it down remarkably for you to experience the transfer."
"Will this hurt? Or it's just as painful as getting my picture taken?"
"A camera can only ever copy something. A photo of a person will never be that person." WAU explained. "To ensure literal continuity, you or anyone else after you will not take that path."
Simon lets out a nervous breath, even though he didn't need to. "Okay, let's do this."
"Administering structure gel to target cortex chip." Mechanical tentacles rose from the seat and converges on Alexander's cortex chip. They begun secreting structure gel to it and slowly harden, connecting the cortex chip with the tentacles. "Connection established. Absorbing electrical impulses of brain for transfer." There was a tinnitus whine ringing in his ears. Simon felt like his brain was pressed. "Brain transfer is at 5%" WAU noted.
"Alex? Alex, what's going on?" Sarah called out.
Even at 5%, Alexander can see the progress. Literally. "I'm transferring!" He shouted. "I'm having double vision!" It wasn't clear, but he was able to look at the crowd of people and cyborgs from two points of view.
"Transfer is at 25% percent." WAU noted.
Alexander was still locked in double, this time his second vision was clearer. Stronger. He look down at his hands. He had two pairs of hands. One was his older one. The other was from the new body.
"Holy shit!" Alexander looks up and saw Strasky holding his optical head in surprised. He saw him pointing at the body. At him. "Did that body just moved around?" Alexander can see that he was referring to the second body. It was moving exactly how the first body was moving.
"Transfer is at 75%"
Alexander can see that his first vision is disappearing, like it was low on power. His body begins to lose strength and slumps to the chair. On the other hand, his second vision became more and more solid. But the sensation is real. He couldn't fully comprehend the mechanics behind the transfer, but it's working.
"Transfer is at 100%."
The machine slowly powers down. The visors lifts. Alexander stands and looks at new self, body of onyx and eyes of blue. "I'm still me." He laughs at himself. "I'm still me."
"Well looks good on you." Catherine noted.
"Yeah, you remind me of Ultron." Simon said, referrencing the villain from the movie Marvels Avenger: Age of Ultron.
"Alex!" Sarah ran to him and hugged him tightly. Alexander replied in kind.
"Are you really you?"
"I'm still me, Sarah. I experienced the transfer."
Sarah looked into the blue eyes of Alexander. Call it sixth sense or whatever, she can see the soul of the man who saved her life a year ago. "Yes, I can see you Alexander."
"So how do I look?" He can feel the warmth of her hand touching his artificial cheeks.
"Handsome," she smiled alluringly and her hand travels further down to his chest. "And pretty hunky."
Carl Semken scoffs loudly. "Oh get a room you two! I wanna get my upgrade already!"
"Why so eager? Amy asked. You don't like your old body?"
"Because I'm done stuck in the corpse with the head of WALL-E. I wanna eat like I used to. Sleep like I used to. I wanna drink my favourite liquor."
Everybody turns to look at the Wrangler like he was an idiot. This made Carl more annoyed. "What? Don't tell me that none missed none of that?"
WAU will prepare the next body. It only takes around an hour to prepare the body and everyone already submitted their preferences on how they should look. Now the process is delayed because all of them were arguing who gets to be next. Simon had a simple solution of a box of random numbers which will determine their turn.
"Hey. Where's Alexander and Sarah?" Brandon Wan asked.
"Ignore them," Simon said.
"Nature calls," Catherine followed as she dunk her hand into the box and drew number 1.
The door of her quarters haven't even begun to close and Sarah had already tore off her jacket, hands around the back of Alexander's neck. Mouth desperately kissing his. "Does the special feature works?"
"We all made sure it works," Alexander said. A moment later, a peculiar black rod grew on his groin.
