Author's Note: I'm about to embark on rather a daunting project. It is my
goal to novelize Yukito Kishiro's manga series: Battle Angel Alita. I may
quite possibly be insane. I know that if I'm not now, I WILL be by the end
of this project. In any case, I'd like to dedicate the work I'm about to
do to three people. The first of which is my friend Jessica, also known as
Indigo X. This is for you, Jess. I hope you enjoy it. The second is for
my soul mate Mel. Thank you for letting me raid your Battle Angel
collection and read this wonderful series. The final person is Andrew
Weinman aka Imp Mayhem. A Handful Of Rust is a good, if not small, site
and it made me aware of Battle Angel in the first place. Come back to us,
Dr. Mayhem. The 'net misses you. Thanks to all.
I started on this because I wanted a personal project to work on. I thought that this would keep me occupied and challenged for quite some time. In any case, before you continue, I want any reader who lays eyes on this to know that I think you should read the manga. I am going to do my best to novelize Kishiro's masterpiece, however I know that even at my best twenty years from now, my words would be only a pale shadow of the original work. There are some images that can't be done justice when translated into verse by even the most shining of silver tongues.
Okay, here's the happy disclaimer!
Battle Angel Alita (or Gunnm) does not belong to me! The characters, concept, etc. are property of Yukito Kishiro and Viz.
Prologue:
Ah, we've been expecting you.
Come in and welcome to Daisuke Ido's Kybernetik Reparaturwerkstatte. Quite a mouthful, eh? We repair cyborgs, androids and robots here.
The doctor? Oh, he's out at the moment, but he should return shortly. Please, come in! Mind the step.
Take a seat. So, this is your first time in the Scrapyard.
How did I know? The look in your eyes says it all, my friend. Impressive, isn't it? The city, I mean. I find it amazing that such a metropolis can be built from refuse. Can't beat the view of Tiphares from here, although some would argue against that being a good thing.
Tiphares? Oh, well...
Do your remember the enormous, disk-like, white structure hanging above the city when you came in? I bet you were wondering what that was. It's a city. Tiphares. Yes, people live there. Because of them the scrapyard exists. You see, we built our city from their waste. No, I've never been there. They have very strict laws about surface dwellers visiting.
In any case, the doctor is out collecting parts for the clinic. Shall we have some tea while we wait?
Wonderful! I'll put the kettle right on...
Rusty Angel Battle 1: Reclamation
"I'm getting too old for this."
Daisuke Ido straightened as he lifted an abandoned cyborg head and plucked its remaining eye from the socket with a pair of plyers. Tossing the empty artificial skull aside, Ido reflected, not the first time and most definately not the last, that being a cyber physician in the Scrapyard wasn't easy. Body parts of any kind were expensive to obtain in this metropolis built on waste and living in entropy. While cybernetic parts were simpler to get than flesh ones, they were still very expensive. Thus, most of the parts Daisuke used in his practice were ones he recovered from abandoned mechanical bodies that had been discarded into the enormous junk pile in the center of the city.
Carefully tucking the eye recovered from the skull into his side pouch, Ido smiled and found a tune on his lips. Whistling to himself, he glanced at the sinking sun and regarded the diminishing light as a sign that it was time to start back to the clinic.
Wait a moment...
Daisuke squinted against the glare of the sun, red and quavering as it set over a pile of scrap.
It couldn't be!
He took a few, halting steps toward the pile. As he began to draw closer, he became more sure of himself and picked up the pace. Scrambling up over rusty mounds of metal that threatened all the time to betray him and send him sprawling into jagged, iron refuse, the cyber physician fell finally to his knees before the object he had scarcely dared to think he'd glimpsed before.
"W-Wait a second," he huffed, trying to catch his breath while heaving aside garbage and useless mechanical parts. "I don't believe this!"
With a moment's struggle against embedded scrap, Daisuke jerked free his prize and held it aloft, a crescendo of laughter rising from him over this serendipitous find.
Framed by the sickly red light of the sun's smog-filtered rays, clutched firmly in the hands of a joyous Daisuke Ido were the remains of a cyborg girl.
* * *
All the remained of Ido's find was her head, her neck, parts of her collarbone and shoulders, and a very ragged part of one breast. Her hair was gone, probably long rotted, and her skin was peeling away at the edges of her face. But even in her death-like slumber, and horribly battered condition, the girl's face hinted at what was once a youthful beauty. Long, thick eyelashes which had somehow survived during torpor rested against her dirtied cheeks, and a little upturned nose sat above soft, very full lips. It was the sort of beauty one found in a well-loved but long abandoned china doll.
Ido adored her at once.
"Collecting scraps now, are you Daisuke?"
Offended, the doctor turned toward his assistant. Gonzu, a squat man with a soft, blobbish nose, squinty eyes and a metallic plate capping his head regarded the clinic's newest patient skeptically. Since bringing her in, his superior had hooked her up to life support and run several tests. But the recovered cyborg looked far beyond saving, and the cyber physician's assistant wondered whether or not Ido was suffering a temporary lapse of sanity.
"What are you calling 'scraps'?" Daisuke snapped. Turning back to the girl, his tone softened. "Can't you see, Gonzu? She's a genuine human being!" Ido shook his head and chuckled in disbelief, his voice full of quiet wonder. "Judging from the body parts, I'd say it was a two-or-three- hundred-year-old model. It's a miracle her brain's still intact... Sort of in hibernation."
"Sounds nice," Gonzu remarked.
Physician and aide froze as the cyborg's head suddenly twitched with a rattle of long-neglected joints.
"Hey, look--she's awake!" Gonzu murmured in an half-whisper tight with excitement.
Daisuke gazed down at the girl before him. "Hi! My name's Ido! What's your name?"
She gazed up at the pair through hazy, half-opened eyes. There was a long moment of silence in which the cyborg appeared to contemplate the question. "N-Name?" she finally croaked in a weak, reedy voice.
"Too bad, Ido. She's lost her memory," Gonzu said, his expression falling.
For a moment the girl felt as though she had somehow disappointed them, and her throat tightened. But the unwavering smile of the taller man with the long face and shock of blonde hair reassured her. "She'll remember--it's only a matter of time!" he declared, beaming proudly. Ido took the sides of her head gently between his hands and a warm feeling washed over her.
"You gonna raise her?"
The physician looked thoughtful, pushing his glasses up his nose. "Maybe," he said at length. "I'll have to restore her body... But first..." Looking to the ceiling for inspiration, Daisuke smiled and snapped. "Got it! Alita! Starting today, your name is Alita!"
"Wait a minute--wasn't that the name of your cat, the one that died last month?" Gonzu asked, making a face. "Wasn't it a boy?!"
His expression unshaken despite the other man's objections, Daisuke grinned and touched the side of the newly christened cyborg's head. "I don't care! It's just until she remembers her own name!"
Infectious. That's what Ido's smile was. "Alita" found herself returning it before closing her eyes and murmuring her new name. Rolling it around in her mouth and testing it upon her lips as though she was tasting it. "I am Alita."
* * *
The scent of rusting iron, oil and burning rubber permeated the vistas of refuse through which Daisuke climbed. To anyone else, it would have been a hideous urban blight. But to Alita, it was a new and exciting look at the world around her. This was her first time out of the clinic, and while she lacked any limbs, Ido had managed to piece together a torso for the girl. She was now securely strapped to his back on a make-shift back pack, wrapped snugly in a small blanket and capped with an old beanie. As they hiked through the piles of junk, Ido would point things out for her, gesturing with the crow bar he was using to help him dig for good mechanical parts.
"Our house," he said as he crunched over a pile of rusty iron, "is over that way. In the Scrapyard."
Alita's gaze followed his gesture toward the sprawl of the city, circling around the mountain of scrap on which they stood. Wreathed with smog, it looked quite dark and intimidating. It was as though it planned to close in from all around on them where they stood.
"Up there," Daisuke continued, "is Tiphares. The mid-air city. They look down on us."
Looking up at the gigantic disk hanging above them, Alita felt a cold breeze rush by, fluttering her blanket slightly. In stark comparison to the grim and gritty Scrapyard, Tiphares was gleamingly white and clean. Held in place by a column that extended so far skyward it simply seemed to fade out into the clouds, it was also anchored to the earth by long, thick cables all around. Squinting, she could see that the bottom of the disk was not flat. Instead it sloped down so it looked like a gigantic funnel, the end of which was ragged; as though something had been broken from it. During their hike she had watched as, periodically, junk was dumped onto the enormous scrap pile through the funnel.
"I want to know more about you, Alita," Daisuke said with a smile. Stopping he looked over his shoulder at her. "You must have a real name. A family. A hometown."
"My real name..." For a moment she closed her eyes, as though the answers she had been scouring her mind for had been waiting just behind her lids this whole time. Sighing, she opened her eyes again and gently shook her head with a sinking heart. "I don't know."
"Well, there's no rush!" Ido reassured her in a cheerful tone. "You can live with Alita for now, right?"
Alita felt herself brighten at his voice. "Yeah!"
Turning back toward his task, Ido pushed aside some scrap with his crowbar. "Hmm. I was hoping we'd find some things to use for your body..." he murmured. "...but it doesn't look that way..." With a heavy sigh, the cyber physician stamped the end of his crowbar against an abandoned artificial skull in frustration. "Damn! DAMN!"
Surprised by his sudden outburst the girl who he carried stiffened slightly.
"Look, Alita--it'll be some time before you're up and running, but I'll make it worth the wait. I promise you'll cherish these days. These memories," he declared, the determination behind his words palpable.
Alita relaxed again, and believed him.
* * *
"I'm taking my smoke break now."
"All right, Julianne. See you in a few."
A young cyborg woman worked her way around tables full of greasy, booze- smelling patrons, a few of which made grabs at her. She dodged their inhebriated gropes with practiced ease. It was a nightly...nay, almost hourly occurance. But that's what one got for working at the Love Zone.
The red light district in the Scrapyard was of considerable size. But that, Julianne reflected, was no big surprise. Living in a city like this, people crave a little escape now and then. Strip clubs that had full flesh women were much more popular than ones with cyborgs, but could be quite expensive to get into. And besides, most of the flesh and blood strippers would find themselves slowly replacing bits and pieces as this part here sagged or that part there wrinkled. More often than not, once age started to show they'd simply trade in their bodies for mechanical ones.
Julianne was slightly different in that respect.
At sixteen she'd been taken in by a man about twice her age. Her parents had kicked her out of the house a few months prior, and any alternative to living on the streets was certainly welcome.
Bradley.
He'd called her his diamond in the rough.
She always enjoyed that flattery.
The weeks that followed were a whirl of pain and ecstacy. It wasn't as though Julianne wasn't experienced in the physical demands he made on her, but she was still so small...so young. Much too fragile. If she wanted to stay under his roof, something would have to be done about it. So, to make him happy and continue eating, she underwent surgery and traded in the flesh that would not let her serve her purpose for steel and plastic that could.
At first, all went swimmingly. Her new body wasn't half as bad as she thought it would be. The thought of a perfect body for the rest of her life was definately an appealing one, and the model Bradley had purchased for her was a work of art. All up and down her limbs were beautiful etchings and paintings of vines and flowers. When she'd first gotten her new body, she would spend hours simply staring at the gleaming patterns running along her gracefully-shaped arms and legs. But her joy didn't last.
Boredom set in. Eventually there was nothing she could do to interest him anymore. At first he'd been thrilled with the aspect of making love to a cyborg, but the novelty for him soon wore off.
And she was discarded again. Tossed into the street. Julianne could still remember his words.
"I'm sorry, my darling, but I'm just too old to be playing with wind up dolls anymore."
The pain and anger she felt could not be expressed in words. Left on her own, she was unsure of what to do. She'd never held down a real job and didn't know any useful skills to keep her afloat in the sea of entropy that was the Scrapyard. So, she sought out places that peddled the one thing she was good at.
Which brought her to the present.
Escaping the din of the red light district's denizans for the time being, Julianne retreated to an out of the way alley. She came here often for her breaks so she could be alone for a while and forget for a moment what she floated in. Withdrawing and lighting her cigarette, she inhaled deeply and felt the warmth fill her lungs. It was a small comfort she indulged in, but she took her time to enjoy it. As she raised her hand to take another drag, she stopped.
There was a shuffle near the alleyway entrance. Frowning, Julianne looked up. Had someone found her secret space?
"Who's there?"
The next moment was an ugly blur of speed and a hideous noise. Julianne's eyes widened, but she never even had a chance to scream before the alleyway was bathed in a splash of crimson.
Her cigarette rolled into a nearby storm drain.
* * *
"That's it! Now, give them a try, Alita!"
Alita's heart fluttered in her chest with excitement. While Ido was able to patch up her flaking synthetic skin and give her an unruly mop of short, black hair, he could not give her arms and legs for the first few weeks of her new life. He had managed to cleverly rig up a short stand which supported her torso and ran about at her will on four wheels, but she still longed to walk on two legs. What really frustrated her, though, was the fact that Daisuke couldn't manage to find anything to substitute her arms. The girl felt terribly helpless having to ask Ido and Gonzu to pick things up for her or help her into bed at night. Being a burden was the last thing that she wanted and a strange guilt hung always in the back of her mind.
But that changed today.
With a moment of concentration, Alita felt her new arms twitch in response, and then move with an ease that most take for granted. Lifting them and marveling at their elegant shape, the cyborg caught her breath at the sight of glimmering flowers and vines etched and painted all up and down her new limbs. "They're beautiful," she breathed. Closing her eyes and touching her fingertips to her cheeks, she smiled. "Thank you, Daisuke. But weren't they expensive?"
The doctor shook his head with a smile. "Oh, I just found them at a used parts shop," he replied. "Next, we'll get your legs..."
* * *
Reet..kree...reet...
"I'll make you even prettier yet..."
Again.
Alita waited until she heard the front door click shut before looking out her window to watch Ido's dark shape move off into the nighttime streets. He wore a long trenchcoat and wide-brimmed hat, while at his side he rolled along a large suitcase. It's squeaky wheels woke her every night as he rolled it past her room.
Watching the doctor disappear into the dark, the girl quietly pondered what it was he could be up to. Did he have a patient he paid house calls to, perhaps? But if that was the case, why was he dressed like that? And what on earth was in that suitcase? Instruments used on the job, maybe?
She chewed on her lower lip for a while, attempting in vain to figure out what Daisuke's late-night departures could be about. Something about this made her very uneasy.
Sighing, she turned over in bed and fell back into a troubled sleep.
* * *
"Mr. Gonzu!"
Gonzu looked up from the noodles he was tending. When he wasn't working as Ido's assitant, he ran a ramen shop. Working two jobs wasn't uncommon for many people. As it was, Gonzu was scarcely scraping by. Pushing aside a few flyers hanging in front of him with a pair of chopsticks, the doctor's assistant glanced around, looking for the owner of the voice that called to him.
Beaming with joy, her fluffy mop of black hair bouncing in it's unruly manner, Alita came running toward him.
Running!
So, Ido had found her legs after all! Chuckling and shaking his head, Gonzu quietly wondered what good luck goddess looked after that man.
"Well! If it isn't Alita--up and running around," he called. "I almost didn't recognize you!"
"I know!" she giggled with a graceful twirl. "Isn't it great?"
Gonzu smiled at the child-like charm of the simple motion. Perhaps this innocence was what captured Daisuke's heart. It was such a rare quality to find in a citizen of the Scrapyard, and the young woman before him was little more than a child, really. Two-hundred-year-old model or not, her "rebirth" had left her as a clean slate. A pearl like that was something to be treasured and protected.
"You watch yourself at night, you hear?" he cautioned, raising a finger in a patronly manner that seemed almost comical.
Alita blinked at him inquisitively.
"There's another one of those crazies out there," he explained, "slitting the throats of cute young things--just like you..."
The girl before him paused for a moment, troubled eyes seeming to look through him as she nodded absently. "I...I'll be sure, Mr. Gonzu." Without another word, Alita turned and trotted away, back toward Daisuke's clinic.
A tiny grain of suspicion agitated her as she made her way toward Ido's office. Where had the doctor gotten ahold of these arms and legs? They'd been so difficult to find before, but suddenly what Daisuke needed was popping up in these used parts stores. It wasn't that she was ungrateful. Quite the contrary. She owed Ido her life, after all, and that wasn't something a person ought to take lightly. But this all seemed so terribly convenient...
Did it have something to do with those late-night outings of his?
She shook her head and tucked those thoughts away as she skipped up the stairs to the clinic's entrance.
Pushing her way through the door, she could hear the familiar grinding of metal against metal that Daisuke's tools made. He was currently working on the back of a cyborg's head, using a rather intimidating-looking tool. Cyborgs don't get nervous too often, Alita observed, but going to a doctor to get repaired was certainly one thing that sent chills up their spine. Not that it was terribly surprising. Being a cyberphysician was a job that not many undertook due to its delicate nature. It would be all too easy to make a small slip up and severely damage if not lose the patient altogether. Ido had treated more than a few people who had had just such accidents occur. The good doctor, however, never seemed to have that problem. He worked with his patients as an artist might work with a canvas and paint. A true master in his medium.
Alita herself was proof enough of that.
As he set down the tool he had just finished using, reaching for another, Daisuke glanced toward the door and caught sight of his fondest work just slipping off her shoes. He greeted her with a smile and lifted a small drill from his tool tray. "Those legs working out all right, Alita?"
"They're wonderful," she replied, setting her shoes down. As Ido moved to continue his work, Alita caught sight of his arm and her brow furrowed in worry. It was wrapped liberally with guaze and medical tape, but still stained from the blood soaking through from the other side. The injury behind the wrappings had to be severe. "Daisuke, what happened to your arm?"
"Oh, you mean this?" Ido said with a slightly nervous chuckle as he lifted his wounded limb.
Must've hurt himself when he went out last night...
"I got a little careless, I guess. No big deal!" he continued, hastily pulling down his lab coat sleeve.
Alita forced a small smile. "Are you sure you're all right?" The question came out scarcely above a whisper; easily lost in the din of the doctor's tools.
What is he hiding? What?
* * *
You must have a real name, a family, a hometown...
Klick!
Alita's opened her eyes as she heard, once again, the door click close. Rising noiselessly from her bed, she peered cautiously out the window and watched as Ido, clothed in his nightly long coat and wide-brimmed hat, started off into the city wheeling his enormous case beside him. She'd been toying with an idea all day, but had been undecided over the matter until now.
Sitting at the edge of her bed, the girl began to pull on her shoes and reflect quietly upon Ido's words. A real name, a family, a hometown...
Right now, Daisuke is all I have. And that's enough.
She got to her feet.
"I don't need a real name," she decided "I'll just be 'Alita.'"
The world seemed a haze around her as she started out of her room toward the front door.
"It'll be some time before you're up and running...But I'll make it worth the wait. I promise."
Into the street, breathing in the cold, rust-tasting night air.
"...Slitting the throats of cute young things..."
Her sneakered feet pounded against the pavement as she ran, her head lost in a whirl of thoughts and suspicions she hardly dared to touch on. Where had Daisuke gotten these arms and legs? Where did his nightly wanderings take him?
What's going on? I have to know!
It didn't take her very long to catch sight of Ido again. Streets in this sector were mostly deserted at night, and the squeak of his case's wheels easily gave away his location. The sound echoed almost eerily off the walls of the surrounding buildings. Tailing him wasn't easy, though and there were times when Alita, pressed against a wall with her heart pounding, was sure she'd be caught. But on he continued, seeming almost to wander aimlessly through the streets.
Then he stopped.
Alita nearly stumbled at his sudden halt, but caught her footing quickly and crouched in hiding, peering out at the man. He stood behind a wall near a staircase, looking carefully over his shoulder. As she watched, Alita became aware of another set of footsteps echoing closer and closer. Slowly, a figure began to descend the staircase.
It was a young woman, dressed in slightly ragged clothing with an enormous mane of shaggy, blonde hair.
Perspiration began to gather on Alita's forehead and her body tensed. "It can't be!" she whispered in disbelief, her suspicions confirmed and the pieces of the puzzle clicking into place. "Daisuke...lying in wait for that woman..."
She watched, horrified, as the doctor knelt and opened his case, revealing it's contents. What was inside resembled a sledge hammer, but this was somehow nastier. Instead of being blunt, at one end of its head was a wicked-looking spike, and at the other end was what appeared to be a kind of jet or thruster. It was broken into two pieces so it could fit into the wheeled case, but Daisuke lifted and joined them with a metallic clang that jarred Alita from her paralysis. This had to be stopped!
Her feet seemed to find their own way as she raced toward Ido. He was begining to straighten as the woman drew closer. Just as she reached the corner where Daisuke waited, he began to raise his weapon.
No...
He drew it back, his body tensing as he readied for the blow.
...Time!
As Ido began to swing, Alita hurled herself across the last few feet that seperated them and caught hold of the shaft of his weapon. "DON'T!"
Daisuke teetered slightly before regaining his balance. He snapped around, gaping in surprise at the girl. "Alita, you don't know what--"
"I know all about it, Daisuke!" Alita declared, cutting him off. Her eyes were pleading, begining to shine with unshed tears, and sweat trickled from her face. "These arms and legs," she said, her voice begining to quiver, "you killed people for them, didn't you?!"
Taken aback, Ido stared at the girl, stunned. "What did you say?"
"Don't--you can't make me a part of this!" Alita continued, yanking back desperately on his weapon.
Abruptly, Daisuke snatched his hammer away, sending Alita sprawling to the concrete. He pivoted quickly to look around the corner.
The woman from before was gone.
Alita began to pick herself up, rising to her feet as Daisuke turned to face her. His expression was unreadable as he cocked his hammer back, the streetlight glaring off of his round glasses and making him look vaguely demonic. "Alita!" To the cyborg's shock, he began to pull his hammer back, readying it for another blow.
"Daisuke..." she breathed, her eyes wide with horror.
As the hammer's cruel spike hurtled forward, Alita ducked and closed her eyes, bracing herself for the impact.
But it never came.
There was a jarring sound of the hammer colliding with something, though, and when Alita chanced opening her eyes, she could see that Ido struggling with his instrument against a gnarled, claw of a hand. One that had been poised to strike at the cyborg girl! There was a hideous screeching noise of the hand's curved claws grating against the metal of Daisuke's weapon, and looking up Alita could see that the appendage belonged to the woman she sought to protect.
With a grunt of effort, Ido managed to successfully force the woman away, gasping out, "Are you all right, Alita?! This woman is the killer!"
Letting out an inhuman screech, annoyed at being denied her prey, the woman leapt away from the pair, allowing Alita a better look at her. It was clear there was something very wrong with their attacker. She seemed more beast than human with her pale, shaggy hair and oversized hands and feet tipped with vicious-looking claws. Bounding off of a wall and launching herself forward, she revealed her face was no less horrific. Twisted into a visage that reminded one of the face of a vampire bat, a glance into her eyes revealed any human intelligence that might once have resided there had long since left. Baring sharp, foam-caked teeth, she hurtled closer for another attack.
There was no time for Ido to ready himself. All he could do was stagger backwards rather clumsily and narrowly miss the woman's first strike at his face. While the blow missed knocking his head clear off his shoulders, it still glanced off his hat and glasses. Disoriented, he was left open for the monstrous woman to tear his weapon from his hands, sending it clattering to the concrete. Daisuke's mind and heart raced as his assailant prepared to make her killing blow.
"NO!"
Ido felt his heart nearly stop as suddenly a tiny form leapt to his rescue, tackling the creature and knocking her off balance.
"ALITA!"
What was she doing?! She was going to get herself killed!
The physician's favorite patient was currently wrestling with all her weight to keep the woman away from the man. "You think...I'll let you...kill Daisuke?!" she cried, voice quaking with the effort she was exerting.
Snarling in irritation, the woman knocked Alita away, intent on continuing her assault upon Ido.
As the ground hurtled up to meet the little cyborg, something clicked in her mind. The moment stretched and her body began to move on it's own, commanded by a previously silent voice just now waking from it's sleepy, subconcious bed. Only one thought touched her. Protect Daisuke. Everyting else vanished from Alita as her arms snapped forward to catch her fall and used the momentum to spring upwards, launching herself even higher than the currently airborne wild woman. Turning a somersault in mid-air, the black-haired girl planted her feet firmly upon her opponent as they met, and she felt something inside, like a spring becoming tightly coiled in her curled body. She let the tension go and her body snapped straight, shoving with all its might against the object beneath her feet.
There was a sickeningly wet crunch as the beast woman's head was crushed between Alita's sneakers and a nearby wall, spraying the masonry with scarlet.
Ido gazed on in a mix of horror and awe as the girl made a neat, half- crouched landing. Straightening, she blinked rapidly as though coming out of a trance and turned with a mystified expression to examine her handiwork. "W-What in the..?"
"Alita," Daisuke breathed, pursing his lips as his brow furrowed in recognition. He'd seem that fighting style before. The Panzer Kunst*! Only one type of humanoid cyborg ever mastered that fighting technique! But how--?!
Looking uncertain, Alita turned slowly to Ido, blinking back tears of confusion and concern.
He was at her side in a moment, enfolding her in a warm and reassuring embrace. As her little arms found their way around his waist she could only sob out half-coherent sentences, but two guilt-laden words sounded clear from her throat. "I'm sorry!"
Daisuke rocked her gently, stroking her hair with one gloved hand. "Shhh...it's all right. Let's go home."
* * *
"So, the murderer was a mutant woman who suddenly went berserk, huh?"
Ido stood at the front counter of the Hunter Warrior headquarters. Currently he was facing a Deckman. It was a kind of cyborg employed by the Factories which ran the Scrapyard. Resembling a cybernetic cylinder with a hideous mockery of a human face, it had many arms which extended from it's base in the desk. Most of these were currently occupied with typing away at several keyboards, inputing information into the headquarter's database. Smirking, it turned to Daisuke. "Considering the looks of her, I can sort of understand why should would only go after women. You really went the distance for this one, eh, Ido?"
The cyber physician gave a curt nod as the Factory employee tapped out the last bit of neccessary information and then presented him with a small bag. It made a muffled clinking noise as it settled on the desk. "She's worth a full hundred-thousand chips, though."
Turning to depart for home, Ido could hear the Deckman call out to him. "You still need female body parts? Got a nice new shipment!"
* * *
"In the old days, before the Factories took over," Ido explained as he began to make small repairs on Alita's body, "there was something called a police force that dealt with criminals." The girl's head and neck were currently resting on a stand, watching while the doctor tinkered. Alita's body was a civilian model and it wasn't made for fighting. Even the small tussle the night before had resulted in a number of minor damages that needed to be taken care of immediately or run the risk of becoming more serious malfunctions. "That just wouldn't work in the Scrapyard," he said, examining a fractured chip, "so Factory 33 pays off big in chips for any of us stupid enough to take the chase."
Looking embarressed, Alita averted her gaze and bit her lower lip. "Sorry I jumped to conclusions, Daisuke," she apologized for the umpteenth time. She really did feel guilty. How could she have thought even for a moment that Ido had commited such horrible crimes? Big, warm, gentle Ido!
Instead of scolding her, the physician simply turned and gave her a smile. "Sorry?! I was trying to help you, and you ended up saving my life! Thank you, Alita. You're an angel."
Alita smiled and could feel herself blushing. "You think?" she murmured. You gave me life, Daisuke... If I'm an angel, what does that make you..?
"No more stunts, though--you hear?!" he declared in an admonishing tone. "Your body still needs lots of work!"
"Yes, sir!"
End Battle 1
*Panzer Kunst or the "Armored Arts": Said to be the most powerful of the various fighting techniques developed for humanoid cyborgs.
I started on this because I wanted a personal project to work on. I thought that this would keep me occupied and challenged for quite some time. In any case, before you continue, I want any reader who lays eyes on this to know that I think you should read the manga. I am going to do my best to novelize Kishiro's masterpiece, however I know that even at my best twenty years from now, my words would be only a pale shadow of the original work. There are some images that can't be done justice when translated into verse by even the most shining of silver tongues.
Okay, here's the happy disclaimer!
Battle Angel Alita (or Gunnm) does not belong to me! The characters, concept, etc. are property of Yukito Kishiro and Viz.
Prologue:
Ah, we've been expecting you.
Come in and welcome to Daisuke Ido's Kybernetik Reparaturwerkstatte. Quite a mouthful, eh? We repair cyborgs, androids and robots here.
The doctor? Oh, he's out at the moment, but he should return shortly. Please, come in! Mind the step.
Take a seat. So, this is your first time in the Scrapyard.
How did I know? The look in your eyes says it all, my friend. Impressive, isn't it? The city, I mean. I find it amazing that such a metropolis can be built from refuse. Can't beat the view of Tiphares from here, although some would argue against that being a good thing.
Tiphares? Oh, well...
Do your remember the enormous, disk-like, white structure hanging above the city when you came in? I bet you were wondering what that was. It's a city. Tiphares. Yes, people live there. Because of them the scrapyard exists. You see, we built our city from their waste. No, I've never been there. They have very strict laws about surface dwellers visiting.
In any case, the doctor is out collecting parts for the clinic. Shall we have some tea while we wait?
Wonderful! I'll put the kettle right on...
Rusty Angel Battle 1: Reclamation
"I'm getting too old for this."
Daisuke Ido straightened as he lifted an abandoned cyborg head and plucked its remaining eye from the socket with a pair of plyers. Tossing the empty artificial skull aside, Ido reflected, not the first time and most definately not the last, that being a cyber physician in the Scrapyard wasn't easy. Body parts of any kind were expensive to obtain in this metropolis built on waste and living in entropy. While cybernetic parts were simpler to get than flesh ones, they were still very expensive. Thus, most of the parts Daisuke used in his practice were ones he recovered from abandoned mechanical bodies that had been discarded into the enormous junk pile in the center of the city.
Carefully tucking the eye recovered from the skull into his side pouch, Ido smiled and found a tune on his lips. Whistling to himself, he glanced at the sinking sun and regarded the diminishing light as a sign that it was time to start back to the clinic.
Wait a moment...
Daisuke squinted against the glare of the sun, red and quavering as it set over a pile of scrap.
It couldn't be!
He took a few, halting steps toward the pile. As he began to draw closer, he became more sure of himself and picked up the pace. Scrambling up over rusty mounds of metal that threatened all the time to betray him and send him sprawling into jagged, iron refuse, the cyber physician fell finally to his knees before the object he had scarcely dared to think he'd glimpsed before.
"W-Wait a second," he huffed, trying to catch his breath while heaving aside garbage and useless mechanical parts. "I don't believe this!"
With a moment's struggle against embedded scrap, Daisuke jerked free his prize and held it aloft, a crescendo of laughter rising from him over this serendipitous find.
Framed by the sickly red light of the sun's smog-filtered rays, clutched firmly in the hands of a joyous Daisuke Ido were the remains of a cyborg girl.
* * *
All the remained of Ido's find was her head, her neck, parts of her collarbone and shoulders, and a very ragged part of one breast. Her hair was gone, probably long rotted, and her skin was peeling away at the edges of her face. But even in her death-like slumber, and horribly battered condition, the girl's face hinted at what was once a youthful beauty. Long, thick eyelashes which had somehow survived during torpor rested against her dirtied cheeks, and a little upturned nose sat above soft, very full lips. It was the sort of beauty one found in a well-loved but long abandoned china doll.
Ido adored her at once.
"Collecting scraps now, are you Daisuke?"
Offended, the doctor turned toward his assistant. Gonzu, a squat man with a soft, blobbish nose, squinty eyes and a metallic plate capping his head regarded the clinic's newest patient skeptically. Since bringing her in, his superior had hooked her up to life support and run several tests. But the recovered cyborg looked far beyond saving, and the cyber physician's assistant wondered whether or not Ido was suffering a temporary lapse of sanity.
"What are you calling 'scraps'?" Daisuke snapped. Turning back to the girl, his tone softened. "Can't you see, Gonzu? She's a genuine human being!" Ido shook his head and chuckled in disbelief, his voice full of quiet wonder. "Judging from the body parts, I'd say it was a two-or-three- hundred-year-old model. It's a miracle her brain's still intact... Sort of in hibernation."
"Sounds nice," Gonzu remarked.
Physician and aide froze as the cyborg's head suddenly twitched with a rattle of long-neglected joints.
"Hey, look--she's awake!" Gonzu murmured in an half-whisper tight with excitement.
Daisuke gazed down at the girl before him. "Hi! My name's Ido! What's your name?"
She gazed up at the pair through hazy, half-opened eyes. There was a long moment of silence in which the cyborg appeared to contemplate the question. "N-Name?" she finally croaked in a weak, reedy voice.
"Too bad, Ido. She's lost her memory," Gonzu said, his expression falling.
For a moment the girl felt as though she had somehow disappointed them, and her throat tightened. But the unwavering smile of the taller man with the long face and shock of blonde hair reassured her. "She'll remember--it's only a matter of time!" he declared, beaming proudly. Ido took the sides of her head gently between his hands and a warm feeling washed over her.
"You gonna raise her?"
The physician looked thoughtful, pushing his glasses up his nose. "Maybe," he said at length. "I'll have to restore her body... But first..." Looking to the ceiling for inspiration, Daisuke smiled and snapped. "Got it! Alita! Starting today, your name is Alita!"
"Wait a minute--wasn't that the name of your cat, the one that died last month?" Gonzu asked, making a face. "Wasn't it a boy?!"
His expression unshaken despite the other man's objections, Daisuke grinned and touched the side of the newly christened cyborg's head. "I don't care! It's just until she remembers her own name!"
Infectious. That's what Ido's smile was. "Alita" found herself returning it before closing her eyes and murmuring her new name. Rolling it around in her mouth and testing it upon her lips as though she was tasting it. "I am Alita."
* * *
The scent of rusting iron, oil and burning rubber permeated the vistas of refuse through which Daisuke climbed. To anyone else, it would have been a hideous urban blight. But to Alita, it was a new and exciting look at the world around her. This was her first time out of the clinic, and while she lacked any limbs, Ido had managed to piece together a torso for the girl. She was now securely strapped to his back on a make-shift back pack, wrapped snugly in a small blanket and capped with an old beanie. As they hiked through the piles of junk, Ido would point things out for her, gesturing with the crow bar he was using to help him dig for good mechanical parts.
"Our house," he said as he crunched over a pile of rusty iron, "is over that way. In the Scrapyard."
Alita's gaze followed his gesture toward the sprawl of the city, circling around the mountain of scrap on which they stood. Wreathed with smog, it looked quite dark and intimidating. It was as though it planned to close in from all around on them where they stood.
"Up there," Daisuke continued, "is Tiphares. The mid-air city. They look down on us."
Looking up at the gigantic disk hanging above them, Alita felt a cold breeze rush by, fluttering her blanket slightly. In stark comparison to the grim and gritty Scrapyard, Tiphares was gleamingly white and clean. Held in place by a column that extended so far skyward it simply seemed to fade out into the clouds, it was also anchored to the earth by long, thick cables all around. Squinting, she could see that the bottom of the disk was not flat. Instead it sloped down so it looked like a gigantic funnel, the end of which was ragged; as though something had been broken from it. During their hike she had watched as, periodically, junk was dumped onto the enormous scrap pile through the funnel.
"I want to know more about you, Alita," Daisuke said with a smile. Stopping he looked over his shoulder at her. "You must have a real name. A family. A hometown."
"My real name..." For a moment she closed her eyes, as though the answers she had been scouring her mind for had been waiting just behind her lids this whole time. Sighing, she opened her eyes again and gently shook her head with a sinking heart. "I don't know."
"Well, there's no rush!" Ido reassured her in a cheerful tone. "You can live with Alita for now, right?"
Alita felt herself brighten at his voice. "Yeah!"
Turning back toward his task, Ido pushed aside some scrap with his crowbar. "Hmm. I was hoping we'd find some things to use for your body..." he murmured. "...but it doesn't look that way..." With a heavy sigh, the cyber physician stamped the end of his crowbar against an abandoned artificial skull in frustration. "Damn! DAMN!"
Surprised by his sudden outburst the girl who he carried stiffened slightly.
"Look, Alita--it'll be some time before you're up and running, but I'll make it worth the wait. I promise you'll cherish these days. These memories," he declared, the determination behind his words palpable.
Alita relaxed again, and believed him.
* * *
"I'm taking my smoke break now."
"All right, Julianne. See you in a few."
A young cyborg woman worked her way around tables full of greasy, booze- smelling patrons, a few of which made grabs at her. She dodged their inhebriated gropes with practiced ease. It was a nightly...nay, almost hourly occurance. But that's what one got for working at the Love Zone.
The red light district in the Scrapyard was of considerable size. But that, Julianne reflected, was no big surprise. Living in a city like this, people crave a little escape now and then. Strip clubs that had full flesh women were much more popular than ones with cyborgs, but could be quite expensive to get into. And besides, most of the flesh and blood strippers would find themselves slowly replacing bits and pieces as this part here sagged or that part there wrinkled. More often than not, once age started to show they'd simply trade in their bodies for mechanical ones.
Julianne was slightly different in that respect.
At sixteen she'd been taken in by a man about twice her age. Her parents had kicked her out of the house a few months prior, and any alternative to living on the streets was certainly welcome.
Bradley.
He'd called her his diamond in the rough.
She always enjoyed that flattery.
The weeks that followed were a whirl of pain and ecstacy. It wasn't as though Julianne wasn't experienced in the physical demands he made on her, but she was still so small...so young. Much too fragile. If she wanted to stay under his roof, something would have to be done about it. So, to make him happy and continue eating, she underwent surgery and traded in the flesh that would not let her serve her purpose for steel and plastic that could.
At first, all went swimmingly. Her new body wasn't half as bad as she thought it would be. The thought of a perfect body for the rest of her life was definately an appealing one, and the model Bradley had purchased for her was a work of art. All up and down her limbs were beautiful etchings and paintings of vines and flowers. When she'd first gotten her new body, she would spend hours simply staring at the gleaming patterns running along her gracefully-shaped arms and legs. But her joy didn't last.
Boredom set in. Eventually there was nothing she could do to interest him anymore. At first he'd been thrilled with the aspect of making love to a cyborg, but the novelty for him soon wore off.
And she was discarded again. Tossed into the street. Julianne could still remember his words.
"I'm sorry, my darling, but I'm just too old to be playing with wind up dolls anymore."
The pain and anger she felt could not be expressed in words. Left on her own, she was unsure of what to do. She'd never held down a real job and didn't know any useful skills to keep her afloat in the sea of entropy that was the Scrapyard. So, she sought out places that peddled the one thing she was good at.
Which brought her to the present.
Escaping the din of the red light district's denizans for the time being, Julianne retreated to an out of the way alley. She came here often for her breaks so she could be alone for a while and forget for a moment what she floated in. Withdrawing and lighting her cigarette, she inhaled deeply and felt the warmth fill her lungs. It was a small comfort she indulged in, but she took her time to enjoy it. As she raised her hand to take another drag, she stopped.
There was a shuffle near the alleyway entrance. Frowning, Julianne looked up. Had someone found her secret space?
"Who's there?"
The next moment was an ugly blur of speed and a hideous noise. Julianne's eyes widened, but she never even had a chance to scream before the alleyway was bathed in a splash of crimson.
Her cigarette rolled into a nearby storm drain.
* * *
"That's it! Now, give them a try, Alita!"
Alita's heart fluttered in her chest with excitement. While Ido was able to patch up her flaking synthetic skin and give her an unruly mop of short, black hair, he could not give her arms and legs for the first few weeks of her new life. He had managed to cleverly rig up a short stand which supported her torso and ran about at her will on four wheels, but she still longed to walk on two legs. What really frustrated her, though, was the fact that Daisuke couldn't manage to find anything to substitute her arms. The girl felt terribly helpless having to ask Ido and Gonzu to pick things up for her or help her into bed at night. Being a burden was the last thing that she wanted and a strange guilt hung always in the back of her mind.
But that changed today.
With a moment of concentration, Alita felt her new arms twitch in response, and then move with an ease that most take for granted. Lifting them and marveling at their elegant shape, the cyborg caught her breath at the sight of glimmering flowers and vines etched and painted all up and down her new limbs. "They're beautiful," she breathed. Closing her eyes and touching her fingertips to her cheeks, she smiled. "Thank you, Daisuke. But weren't they expensive?"
The doctor shook his head with a smile. "Oh, I just found them at a used parts shop," he replied. "Next, we'll get your legs..."
* * *
Reet..kree...reet...
"I'll make you even prettier yet..."
Again.
Alita waited until she heard the front door click shut before looking out her window to watch Ido's dark shape move off into the nighttime streets. He wore a long trenchcoat and wide-brimmed hat, while at his side he rolled along a large suitcase. It's squeaky wheels woke her every night as he rolled it past her room.
Watching the doctor disappear into the dark, the girl quietly pondered what it was he could be up to. Did he have a patient he paid house calls to, perhaps? But if that was the case, why was he dressed like that? And what on earth was in that suitcase? Instruments used on the job, maybe?
She chewed on her lower lip for a while, attempting in vain to figure out what Daisuke's late-night departures could be about. Something about this made her very uneasy.
Sighing, she turned over in bed and fell back into a troubled sleep.
* * *
"Mr. Gonzu!"
Gonzu looked up from the noodles he was tending. When he wasn't working as Ido's assitant, he ran a ramen shop. Working two jobs wasn't uncommon for many people. As it was, Gonzu was scarcely scraping by. Pushing aside a few flyers hanging in front of him with a pair of chopsticks, the doctor's assistant glanced around, looking for the owner of the voice that called to him.
Beaming with joy, her fluffy mop of black hair bouncing in it's unruly manner, Alita came running toward him.
Running!
So, Ido had found her legs after all! Chuckling and shaking his head, Gonzu quietly wondered what good luck goddess looked after that man.
"Well! If it isn't Alita--up and running around," he called. "I almost didn't recognize you!"
"I know!" she giggled with a graceful twirl. "Isn't it great?"
Gonzu smiled at the child-like charm of the simple motion. Perhaps this innocence was what captured Daisuke's heart. It was such a rare quality to find in a citizen of the Scrapyard, and the young woman before him was little more than a child, really. Two-hundred-year-old model or not, her "rebirth" had left her as a clean slate. A pearl like that was something to be treasured and protected.
"You watch yourself at night, you hear?" he cautioned, raising a finger in a patronly manner that seemed almost comical.
Alita blinked at him inquisitively.
"There's another one of those crazies out there," he explained, "slitting the throats of cute young things--just like you..."
The girl before him paused for a moment, troubled eyes seeming to look through him as she nodded absently. "I...I'll be sure, Mr. Gonzu." Without another word, Alita turned and trotted away, back toward Daisuke's clinic.
A tiny grain of suspicion agitated her as she made her way toward Ido's office. Where had the doctor gotten ahold of these arms and legs? They'd been so difficult to find before, but suddenly what Daisuke needed was popping up in these used parts stores. It wasn't that she was ungrateful. Quite the contrary. She owed Ido her life, after all, and that wasn't something a person ought to take lightly. But this all seemed so terribly convenient...
Did it have something to do with those late-night outings of his?
She shook her head and tucked those thoughts away as she skipped up the stairs to the clinic's entrance.
Pushing her way through the door, she could hear the familiar grinding of metal against metal that Daisuke's tools made. He was currently working on the back of a cyborg's head, using a rather intimidating-looking tool. Cyborgs don't get nervous too often, Alita observed, but going to a doctor to get repaired was certainly one thing that sent chills up their spine. Not that it was terribly surprising. Being a cyberphysician was a job that not many undertook due to its delicate nature. It would be all too easy to make a small slip up and severely damage if not lose the patient altogether. Ido had treated more than a few people who had had just such accidents occur. The good doctor, however, never seemed to have that problem. He worked with his patients as an artist might work with a canvas and paint. A true master in his medium.
Alita herself was proof enough of that.
As he set down the tool he had just finished using, reaching for another, Daisuke glanced toward the door and caught sight of his fondest work just slipping off her shoes. He greeted her with a smile and lifted a small drill from his tool tray. "Those legs working out all right, Alita?"
"They're wonderful," she replied, setting her shoes down. As Ido moved to continue his work, Alita caught sight of his arm and her brow furrowed in worry. It was wrapped liberally with guaze and medical tape, but still stained from the blood soaking through from the other side. The injury behind the wrappings had to be severe. "Daisuke, what happened to your arm?"
"Oh, you mean this?" Ido said with a slightly nervous chuckle as he lifted his wounded limb.
Must've hurt himself when he went out last night...
"I got a little careless, I guess. No big deal!" he continued, hastily pulling down his lab coat sleeve.
Alita forced a small smile. "Are you sure you're all right?" The question came out scarcely above a whisper; easily lost in the din of the doctor's tools.
What is he hiding? What?
* * *
You must have a real name, a family, a hometown...
Klick!
Alita's opened her eyes as she heard, once again, the door click close. Rising noiselessly from her bed, she peered cautiously out the window and watched as Ido, clothed in his nightly long coat and wide-brimmed hat, started off into the city wheeling his enormous case beside him. She'd been toying with an idea all day, but had been undecided over the matter until now.
Sitting at the edge of her bed, the girl began to pull on her shoes and reflect quietly upon Ido's words. A real name, a family, a hometown...
Right now, Daisuke is all I have. And that's enough.
She got to her feet.
"I don't need a real name," she decided "I'll just be 'Alita.'"
The world seemed a haze around her as she started out of her room toward the front door.
"It'll be some time before you're up and running...But I'll make it worth the wait. I promise."
Into the street, breathing in the cold, rust-tasting night air.
"...Slitting the throats of cute young things..."
Her sneakered feet pounded against the pavement as she ran, her head lost in a whirl of thoughts and suspicions she hardly dared to touch on. Where had Daisuke gotten these arms and legs? Where did his nightly wanderings take him?
What's going on? I have to know!
It didn't take her very long to catch sight of Ido again. Streets in this sector were mostly deserted at night, and the squeak of his case's wheels easily gave away his location. The sound echoed almost eerily off the walls of the surrounding buildings. Tailing him wasn't easy, though and there were times when Alita, pressed against a wall with her heart pounding, was sure she'd be caught. But on he continued, seeming almost to wander aimlessly through the streets.
Then he stopped.
Alita nearly stumbled at his sudden halt, but caught her footing quickly and crouched in hiding, peering out at the man. He stood behind a wall near a staircase, looking carefully over his shoulder. As she watched, Alita became aware of another set of footsteps echoing closer and closer. Slowly, a figure began to descend the staircase.
It was a young woman, dressed in slightly ragged clothing with an enormous mane of shaggy, blonde hair.
Perspiration began to gather on Alita's forehead and her body tensed. "It can't be!" she whispered in disbelief, her suspicions confirmed and the pieces of the puzzle clicking into place. "Daisuke...lying in wait for that woman..."
She watched, horrified, as the doctor knelt and opened his case, revealing it's contents. What was inside resembled a sledge hammer, but this was somehow nastier. Instead of being blunt, at one end of its head was a wicked-looking spike, and at the other end was what appeared to be a kind of jet or thruster. It was broken into two pieces so it could fit into the wheeled case, but Daisuke lifted and joined them with a metallic clang that jarred Alita from her paralysis. This had to be stopped!
Her feet seemed to find their own way as she raced toward Ido. He was begining to straighten as the woman drew closer. Just as she reached the corner where Daisuke waited, he began to raise his weapon.
No...
He drew it back, his body tensing as he readied for the blow.
...Time!
As Ido began to swing, Alita hurled herself across the last few feet that seperated them and caught hold of the shaft of his weapon. "DON'T!"
Daisuke teetered slightly before regaining his balance. He snapped around, gaping in surprise at the girl. "Alita, you don't know what--"
"I know all about it, Daisuke!" Alita declared, cutting him off. Her eyes were pleading, begining to shine with unshed tears, and sweat trickled from her face. "These arms and legs," she said, her voice begining to quiver, "you killed people for them, didn't you?!"
Taken aback, Ido stared at the girl, stunned. "What did you say?"
"Don't--you can't make me a part of this!" Alita continued, yanking back desperately on his weapon.
Abruptly, Daisuke snatched his hammer away, sending Alita sprawling to the concrete. He pivoted quickly to look around the corner.
The woman from before was gone.
Alita began to pick herself up, rising to her feet as Daisuke turned to face her. His expression was unreadable as he cocked his hammer back, the streetlight glaring off of his round glasses and making him look vaguely demonic. "Alita!" To the cyborg's shock, he began to pull his hammer back, readying it for another blow.
"Daisuke..." she breathed, her eyes wide with horror.
As the hammer's cruel spike hurtled forward, Alita ducked and closed her eyes, bracing herself for the impact.
But it never came.
There was a jarring sound of the hammer colliding with something, though, and when Alita chanced opening her eyes, she could see that Ido struggling with his instrument against a gnarled, claw of a hand. One that had been poised to strike at the cyborg girl! There was a hideous screeching noise of the hand's curved claws grating against the metal of Daisuke's weapon, and looking up Alita could see that the appendage belonged to the woman she sought to protect.
With a grunt of effort, Ido managed to successfully force the woman away, gasping out, "Are you all right, Alita?! This woman is the killer!"
Letting out an inhuman screech, annoyed at being denied her prey, the woman leapt away from the pair, allowing Alita a better look at her. It was clear there was something very wrong with their attacker. She seemed more beast than human with her pale, shaggy hair and oversized hands and feet tipped with vicious-looking claws. Bounding off of a wall and launching herself forward, she revealed her face was no less horrific. Twisted into a visage that reminded one of the face of a vampire bat, a glance into her eyes revealed any human intelligence that might once have resided there had long since left. Baring sharp, foam-caked teeth, she hurtled closer for another attack.
There was no time for Ido to ready himself. All he could do was stagger backwards rather clumsily and narrowly miss the woman's first strike at his face. While the blow missed knocking his head clear off his shoulders, it still glanced off his hat and glasses. Disoriented, he was left open for the monstrous woman to tear his weapon from his hands, sending it clattering to the concrete. Daisuke's mind and heart raced as his assailant prepared to make her killing blow.
"NO!"
Ido felt his heart nearly stop as suddenly a tiny form leapt to his rescue, tackling the creature and knocking her off balance.
"ALITA!"
What was she doing?! She was going to get herself killed!
The physician's favorite patient was currently wrestling with all her weight to keep the woman away from the man. "You think...I'll let you...kill Daisuke?!" she cried, voice quaking with the effort she was exerting.
Snarling in irritation, the woman knocked Alita away, intent on continuing her assault upon Ido.
As the ground hurtled up to meet the little cyborg, something clicked in her mind. The moment stretched and her body began to move on it's own, commanded by a previously silent voice just now waking from it's sleepy, subconcious bed. Only one thought touched her. Protect Daisuke. Everyting else vanished from Alita as her arms snapped forward to catch her fall and used the momentum to spring upwards, launching herself even higher than the currently airborne wild woman. Turning a somersault in mid-air, the black-haired girl planted her feet firmly upon her opponent as they met, and she felt something inside, like a spring becoming tightly coiled in her curled body. She let the tension go and her body snapped straight, shoving with all its might against the object beneath her feet.
There was a sickeningly wet crunch as the beast woman's head was crushed between Alita's sneakers and a nearby wall, spraying the masonry with scarlet.
Ido gazed on in a mix of horror and awe as the girl made a neat, half- crouched landing. Straightening, she blinked rapidly as though coming out of a trance and turned with a mystified expression to examine her handiwork. "W-What in the..?"
"Alita," Daisuke breathed, pursing his lips as his brow furrowed in recognition. He'd seem that fighting style before. The Panzer Kunst*! Only one type of humanoid cyborg ever mastered that fighting technique! But how--?!
Looking uncertain, Alita turned slowly to Ido, blinking back tears of confusion and concern.
He was at her side in a moment, enfolding her in a warm and reassuring embrace. As her little arms found their way around his waist she could only sob out half-coherent sentences, but two guilt-laden words sounded clear from her throat. "I'm sorry!"
Daisuke rocked her gently, stroking her hair with one gloved hand. "Shhh...it's all right. Let's go home."
* * *
"So, the murderer was a mutant woman who suddenly went berserk, huh?"
Ido stood at the front counter of the Hunter Warrior headquarters. Currently he was facing a Deckman. It was a kind of cyborg employed by the Factories which ran the Scrapyard. Resembling a cybernetic cylinder with a hideous mockery of a human face, it had many arms which extended from it's base in the desk. Most of these were currently occupied with typing away at several keyboards, inputing information into the headquarter's database. Smirking, it turned to Daisuke. "Considering the looks of her, I can sort of understand why should would only go after women. You really went the distance for this one, eh, Ido?"
The cyber physician gave a curt nod as the Factory employee tapped out the last bit of neccessary information and then presented him with a small bag. It made a muffled clinking noise as it settled on the desk. "She's worth a full hundred-thousand chips, though."
Turning to depart for home, Ido could hear the Deckman call out to him. "You still need female body parts? Got a nice new shipment!"
* * *
"In the old days, before the Factories took over," Ido explained as he began to make small repairs on Alita's body, "there was something called a police force that dealt with criminals." The girl's head and neck were currently resting on a stand, watching while the doctor tinkered. Alita's body was a civilian model and it wasn't made for fighting. Even the small tussle the night before had resulted in a number of minor damages that needed to be taken care of immediately or run the risk of becoming more serious malfunctions. "That just wouldn't work in the Scrapyard," he said, examining a fractured chip, "so Factory 33 pays off big in chips for any of us stupid enough to take the chase."
Looking embarressed, Alita averted her gaze and bit her lower lip. "Sorry I jumped to conclusions, Daisuke," she apologized for the umpteenth time. She really did feel guilty. How could she have thought even for a moment that Ido had commited such horrible crimes? Big, warm, gentle Ido!
Instead of scolding her, the physician simply turned and gave her a smile. "Sorry?! I was trying to help you, and you ended up saving my life! Thank you, Alita. You're an angel."
Alita smiled and could feel herself blushing. "You think?" she murmured. You gave me life, Daisuke... If I'm an angel, what does that make you..?
"No more stunts, though--you hear?!" he declared in an admonishing tone. "Your body still needs lots of work!"
"Yes, sir!"
End Battle 1
*Panzer Kunst or the "Armored Arts": Said to be the most powerful of the various fighting techniques developed for humanoid cyborgs.