Hello everyone!

It's been a long time since I published the last chapter and I'm very sorry about that. I'm still a student and I haven't had much time to write lately.

As always, I want to thank all my readers. I love you guys and I'm very happy to see you here. I was really pleased with your nice messages and reviews. I really enjoy writing for you :)

I wish you a pleasant reading. Have a nice day!

Your artgirl657

10. The miracle happened

"Although the operation went well and everyone thought that nothing more could happen, Professor Von Slickstein still had one cause for concern.

John's body absorbed the metal very poorly. The first four days he had a high fever and the doctors had to give him very strong painkillers. For my mother, that meant many more sleepless nights. I visited my uncle regularly with her every day. I sat next to his bed and prayed that one day he would wake up. Until once..."

Suddenly Penny felt his fingers slowly grip her small hand. He opened his eyes slowly.

"Uncle John?" she said in surprise.

Sophie, who was sleeping exhausted in a chair nearby, woke up. She closed the book she had read before and ran to him immediately. "John, can you hear us?"

"So..phie ..." he said very weakly.

When they heard his voice, they couldn't keep the tears in their eyes. It was so emotional. It looked like a small miracle.

"What happened?" he asked in a hoarse voice.

"You had an accident. We were afraid you would never wake up again," Sophie replied. "How do you feel?"

"My head. My head hurts a lot," he said, touching his bandaged head. "Everything is so... heavy."

"It's okay, bro. Don't talk. You're too weak. Keep sleeping. We're here with you."

John smiled and slowly closed his eyes again. He was still in too much pain to stay awake long.

"Stay here with him, Penny. He has to rest now. I'm going to find Professor Von Slickstein."

Penny nodded. She was very glad that her uncle had already woken up.

Meanwhile at the police station...

"Here's the case file of the Metrocity bank robbery you requested," said one of the police officers, handing Chief Quimby a few sheets of paper.

"Give me a report," he said. "Do you know anything more about that limping man?"

"According to our information, it was Dr. Gordon," the young police officer replied. "Um ... Now he started calling himself Dr Claw. He lost his hand in the blast and looks like he wants revenge."

"Why do you think so?"

"Patrols near the military air base noticed the increased movement of MAD agents. It seems that now Dr. Gordon is mainly interested in weapons..."

"This situation is too dangerous for Metrocity," Quimby interrupted him. "Summon all reinforcements and inform Colonel Higgins!"

The young police officer saluted and was about to leave. But one more thing occurred to him at the door...

"Chief?"

"Yes?" Quimby said as he put the folder on the shelf.

"Do you know anything new about John?" the young policeman asked uncertainly.

Quimby stopped for a moment and looked at him. "You mean John Brown?"

He nodded.

"No, not yet. But they told me he was out of danger."

"Department guys... we'd like to thank him very much. We're so sorry about what happened. Here... this fell out of his uniform," he said, handing Quimby a small silver police whistle.

Quimby took the object carefully in his hands. It was a classic whistle that every policeman needs to control traffic at an intersection. As he examined it more closely, he found that it was highly charred on all sides.

"Thank you," Quimby said softly," I'll give it to one of his relatives."

*Phone rang*

"Hello? Metrocity Police Station, this is Chief Quimby speaking. Really!? And when ...?"

The young police officer decided not to disturb the chief anymore and returned to his work. When he left the office, he heard Quimby calling to him.

"Andrew, wait! You can give it to him yourself."

"What?" Andrew asked him incomprehensibly.

"I just got a call from his sister," Quimby continued. "John has already woken up."

Back at the hospital...

There was silence in the room. Penny sat there for about an hour, but Sophie still didn't come back. *Why does it take my mom so long?* she thought, looking at the clock. She got bored, so she decided to read some newspapers in the meantime. There was a pile of magazines on the bedside table. Penny wanted to take one of them. She held out her hand carefully, but hit her arm on the vase next to it. At that moment, a robotic arm emerged from her uncle's hat and grabbed the falling porcelain before it could break.

Penny shouted.

John woke up immediately. "Penny, why are you screaming?! What scared you?" he asked carefully.

"T... that thing. It came out of your hat."

"What!?" he said incomprehensibly and looked up.

"Aaaah."

As soon as he also started screaming, the robotic hand dropped the vase and returned to his hat.

The screams and the sound of shattering porcelain brought the attention of the hospital staff. Soon a doctor and a couple of hospital nurses burst into the room.

"What happened here?" said the man in the white doctor's coat.

When John looked up, he saw Sophie among them. She stood quietly in the doorway.

"Penny ..." she said in a trembling voice. "Could you please go see Dad for a moment? We need to be alone with your uncle for a while."

Penny obeyed. She looked back at John for a moment, then left quietly.

"That's true for all of you! Get back to your work," said Professor Von Slickstein, standing in the hallway, pointing his cane toward the other door. "We have a skull fracture in room number seven."

None of the nurses had a reason to disobey him. They all decided to give them some privacy and headed in the direction the professor had shown them.

With only Sophie and John left in the room, it was time to answer a lot of questions.

John frowned slightly at his sister. "Sophie talk! What the hell was that? Why did I have a robotic arm hidden in my hat? Tell me the truth!"

Sophie took a deep breath. She didn't know how to tell him. "In that accident ... Your spinal cord, your bones ... you suffered a lot of shattering fractures, lost a lot of blood and suffered a lot of severe burns. The doctors didn't give you any chance. You almost died! I had to do something."

"And what did you do?" he asked her incomprehensibly.

Sophie looked at him. "I used Project G."

"What did you do!?"

"I listened to them outside the door the whole time. They argued. It was ugly of John to be angry with his sister, who was trying so hard. But on the other hand, I understand my uncle. You know, honey... You also don't like it when someone does something instead of you and you don't know it. This was the same. Uncle John awoke to a completely different world than he knew. To a world where he was half a machine ..."

"So my body is half metal?"

"Yes," Sophie replied. "More precisely, 65 percent."

"So for the most part," John said sadly, looking at his brown-gloved hands. He had never worn gloves in his life. When he took one off, he saw cold metal instead of skin. "Am I... Am I a robot?"

Sophie was afraid of this question. "NO! No, you're not! Professor Von Slickstein and I have only replaced some of your parts, nothing more."

It didn't convince John at all. "What about the memory chip? How do you explain this?"

She sat down next to him. "It doesn't matter where your soul is, the main thing is where you carry your heart."

John smiled slightly at her. He put his arm around her waist and Sophie hugged him carefully.

"I will always love you the way you are," she said in a deep voice, resting her head on his chest. Nothing meant more to her at the moment than his heartbeat. The fragile sound she thought she would hear no more.