The Learning Curve
Chapter 3
Juunanagou
Well, here I am. Locker 1030, like she said. But she's not here yet...
Wonder where she could be.
Then I saw her run, faint of breath, up a flight of stairs.
"Sorry, kid. Important phone call."
"From whom?"
"My mentor, Bulma Briefs. Of Capsule Corporation. She just called to check on how the project's going."
Bulma...Briefs? Project? What was going on with this Cipu girl?
"Umm... what project?"
"Let me show you... but first, if you'll excuse me, I need to get my homework out of my locker." She marched toward the spot I was standing. "Excuse me, please...", she growled.
I moved. She opened her locker, got a couple of books off the top shelf, and an unusual-looking roll of paper from the tall bottom compartment.
Near us, or, rather, below us, I could hear the sound of a portable phone ringing.
"Oh, crap, gotta run. Bulma said she'd call me back..."
She gathered up all of her books, except for the mysterious roll of paper, and ran down the stairs in a huff.
"Hey, wait... You forgot these!"
But it was too late. She was gone.
Cipu
It was Bulma again, on the phone.
"Hey, Cipu, how's the project coming..."
"Good. I can't thank you enough for the plans for Artificial Human #17 you gave me. They were a big help!"
"Thanks. How are your mice testing out with their new modified eternal energy reactors?"
"Good, good. Their maze-running times have increased by an average of two seconds! And the control mice can't even begin to catch up!"
"Do they remember the outline of the maze, or what other mice look like?"
"Yes. That was one of the big flaws with Dr. Gero's old model- long-term memory loss. The long-term memory system could be reconstructed from the point of reactor insertion into the organism, but everything before that was lost."
"Very good. I hope you win... Oops, gotta go, Trunks is getting into mischief again..."
"He always does."
"Are you available to baby-sit next weekend? Dad and I have to go to a conference."
"Maybe, it depends on how far I make it. Semifinals are that weekend."
"Oh. Bye!"
"Bye, Bulma."
I hung up.
Now, to get down to business.
Okay, Mouse 001. Easy does it, don't bite me little fella...
Into the maze you go!
I started my stopwatch.
Wow! 5.3 seconds!
The cybernetic mice keep on getting faster and faster.
Now for Mouse 002. Control.
Again, I started my stopwatch.
The mouse kind of got lost in the nooks and crannies of the maze. I had to re-route him with my hand, like so many times before. After 20.2 seconds, he finally got to the end of the maze.
When I was putting him back in his cage, a voice startled me from the doorway.
"Excuse me, Cipu?"
"Yes?" It was "What's-his-name", with the plans for #17 in his hand.
"You dropped this."
Juunanagou
Cipu walked toward me.
"Thank you! Thank you! I was wondering where these got to..."
"Hey, what's with the mice? And all these machines?"
"This is my laboratory. The principal had the science department build it for me. I was picked to represent Green Meadows in the International High School Science Colloquium. My project is on the effects of a modified eternal energy reactor and accompanying circuitry on mice- physically and mentally."
I was speechless.
Mice in the same damned situation as I am? A girl in high school, designing cyborgs?
Finally, I got up the nerve to ask a question.
"Why did you pick this project? You could have done chemistry or physics or something."
"I've been obsessed with computers and cybernetics since I was a young girl. When all the other kids were playing in the sandbox, I was experimenting with other silicon products, like integrated circuits and chips of one sort or another. My mother, a doctor, introduced me to the wonders of biology and physiology, and the beauty of the body. I guess you could say my twin interests culminated in these mice..."
If I had told her who I was, and who Juuhachi was, it'd be "twin interests" indeed.
"...That and Bulma. Thank God she found those plans, or else I never would have gotten started. I kept staring at them, for three months straight, late into the night. Dr. Gero was a genius, but he was no scientist. A scientist would use his or her knowledge to help humanity, not harm it. Especially those poor kids Dr. Briefs told me about... why in God's name would someone take a pair of teenagers, like you or me, erase everything they knew and loved, and turn them into cyborgs? Just to fight for a dead military coup? God, it makes me sick!"
"Me too," I mumbled. She had no idea of the scars that old bastard left in me... hell, she had no idea who I was...
She slowly unrolled the paper.
I couldn't believe what I read at the top in bold print...
Jinzouningen Juunanagou. Artificial Human #17.
The plans for me.
Cipu
"What's-his-name" just sat there and stared off into space, like he'd just seen a ghost.
"What's wrong?" I asked.
"Can you keep a secret?"
"How do you mean, secret?"
"A really important one that you can't tell the rest of the school. Or else." He smirked.
My stomach twisted in knots. "G-g-go ahead..."
"You know those blueprints you got from Capsule Corporation?"
"Yeah..."
"Those are mine."
"How do you mean, yours?"
"As in my name is Jinzouningen Juunanagou, #17. I was one of the kids Gero's scheming for world domination ruined... The blond girl you see hanging around me sometimes in the hall is my twin sister, also one of Gero's pawns, Jinzouningen Juuhachigou, #18."
My jaw dropped, and all the blood ran from my face. "I-I don't believe you. You look so...normal. So...human."
"Did you see me beat you at chess four times in study hall?"
"Yeah."
"Did you see me move instantly in phys. Ed. to get the ball into the goal?"
"Yeah."
"Did you see my sister punch one of the popular girls to kingdom come?"
"Yes."
"So why don't you believe me?" His brows furrowed.
"You were nice to me. The cyborgs Bulma told me about were soulless killing machines."
"I guess I took pity on you. You are in a similar situation as we are. Someone always wants to control you, beat you up, thrash you around. You are alone here, as are my sister and I. Alone, with no one to understand you... alone, that is, until I found you. You didn't stick me into a hole and define who I am. Only I can do that. When I wanted to play chess, you let me."
"I-I believe you now." I was almost on the verge of tears. Damn Dr. Gero!
Calm down, Cipu. Scientists don't cry. They analyze.
And analyze this cyborg, #17, I shall.
"Do you want to come back to the lab tonight? We can play more chess, maybe help each other with some homework... What do you say?"
"How are you going to get in?"
"The principal gave me a key, silly!"
"Oh. See you tonight, then."
He was right where I wanted him.
Sucker.
