Chapter Sixteen
"Linky! Are you okay!" Leni cried, hugging Lincoln tightly as he woke up. He was clearly in the hospital. He wasn't hooked up to anything. But he was in a bed that wasn't his and wasn't anyone that he knew.
"Ouch! Y-yeah, I'm fine Leni." Lincoln said, hissing in pain as she hugged him tighter than she ever had in the past.
"How long have I been out?" Lincoln asked.
"Only an hour. You'll be okay. The doctors removed the bullets and I made sure that your organs and bones weren't unduly damaged. Your bones were cracked and chipped in multiple places. You're fortunate that the UDOM was as strong as I predicted that it would be. If my calculations had been off, you might have been dead, rather than just injured. What is the matter with you! I know you've been a bit reckless lately, but this is crazy even by Lynn's standards!" Lisa said angrily. Lincoln sighed.
"I know. Are Stella and Jordan alright?" Lincoln asked.
"Yes. The police gave Stella her bracelet back. Seriously? A bracelet? That's what you risked getting yourself killed for?" Lisa demanded.
"The bracelet was a family heirloom for Stella." Lincoln said, realizing how thin his logic really had been.
"Are you out of your mind!" Stella demanded, storming into the room, sitting down next to Lincoln.
"Lincoln… Did you really think my bracelet was worth risking your life? I appreciate it. I appreciate you putting yourself out there for me. But really? Yes, the bracelet was valuable.
"But not as valuable as your life." Stella said, kissing Lincoln. The white haired young man could tell Stella had been crying. Jordan walked in, holding Jordan's hand, looking reproachfully at Lincoln.
"You're nuts, Loud. But I do admire your bravery." Jordan said.
"How's your chest looking?" Jordan asked, pulling his shirt up. He had some scars on his chest, but they were healing over well. The bleeding had stopped. He was going to always have those scars. But he would be okay.
"Lil' Bro… How could you risk yourself like that? What would we do if you weren't at our wedding?" Luna asked. Lincoln hesitated.
"You're engaged now?" Lincoln asked. Luna showed Lincoln her ring.
"That's great! Ow… I can't wait to be at your wedding! I promise I'll be more careful in the future… I got a little carried away tonight." Lincoln said. Lisa nodded.
"Yes, I've noticed in the primates that I enhanced with bionics that trend as well." Lisa said.
Lincoln wasn't exactly thrilled that he was being compared to a primate.
"They often become more reckless. But I hoped for better from you. Still, learning experiences and all that." Lisa said. Lincoln nodded.
"I'll be okay, Lise." Lincoln said. Lisa scoffed.
"Of course you will. Bionics and nanomachines will heal you up nice and tight. When you get out of the hospital, come to my laboratory. I have some new bionics that I think will fit you nicely." Lisa said.
Lincoln could tell that he was becoming a guinea pig for Lisa's human experiments. It wasn't altogether ethical. But he knew that if something went wrong, she would be there to fix it as best she could.
"Fine. But what are they?" Lincoln asked cautiously.
"Well… I'm glad you asked. But I think it would be best if we had this conversation privately." Lisa said, looking at the rest of the siblings and their parents. Rita looked down at Lisa, who was still fairly short for her age.
"Be careful, Lisa. We know how brilliant you are, but we don't want you turning Lincoln into a guinea pig, especially if the experiments could hurt him." Rita said. Lisa chuckled.
"Nonsense, Mother. These bionics will only enhance his life, not harm it. I've only tested them on primates and other lower species. But so far, they're effective in about 98% of those I've used them on." Lisa said. She had a ready supply of animals to test on through contacts in the scientific community.
Some of them were less than reputable in terms of mainstream science, but Lisa trusted them because their reputation in the underworld was on the line if they cheated their clients. Lisa gifted the resulting primates and other animals to study groups, colleges and wildlife sanctuaries where they would be safe after she was done with them.
"Well… If you're sure he'll be alright." Rita said.
"I'm not just sure. I'm 95% sure." Lisa said jokingly.
"What about the other 5%?" Luna asked.
"Margin of error when transferring from primate subjects to human subjects." Lisa said. Lincoln took a deep breath. He knew Lisa would take care of him if it did somehow go wrong. But he was still nervous. But he was also curious about what all this would entail. He wanted to at least hear what Lisa was offering. He nodded at Rita, who took the rest of the family outside.
"These implants are… A bit riskier. They attach to your spine and go into your brain itself." Lisa said. Lincoln started in shock at the idea.
"Fear not, Elder Brother. While the implants are in… Fairly intimate places shall we say, their benefits are numerous. The implants connected to your spine will enhance your reflexes, dexterity, agility and other physical abilities by hyperactivating your Central Nervous System.
"The ones in your brain will be tiny, small injections of specialized nanotechnology that will activate your brain in ways that you couldn't even fathom right now. Your intelligence and perception will be drastically enhanced, your ability to process information, your ability to react mentally to stimuli. In short, low to medium levels of hypercognition may well begin to assert itself in you." Lisa said.
"So I'll be a genius like you?" Lincoln asked. Lisa chuckled.
"Probably not. No offense, you're easily the second smartest person in the family. But genius like mine isn't simply the result of my intelligence, but the way in which I process information, which, for you will be enhanced, but the basic nature of how I think will still be different from the basic nature of how you think." Lisa said.
"Still, if you come up with a world shaking invention with your new abilities, don't hesitate to tell me. I'll be happy to assist you in bringing said invention to fruition." Lisa said.
Lincoln laughed, nodding.
"Okay, are you going to cut my head open while we're here? Or wait until I get home to your laboratory?" Lincoln asked.
"My own laboratory. It will give me more control over the environment I'm in, which I like to have." Lisa said. Lincoln nodded, hugging Lisa.
"I'll take the implants when I get home then." Lincoln said.
"Very well. But I'll need your promise, if only verbally that you won't seek out further vigilante behavior. While I'm sure Stella and Jordan appreciated your assistance to them in getting Stella's necklace…"
"Bracelet."
"Whatever… Back, I wouldn't want you to risk further injury in a life as a vigilante." Lisa said.
"I promise." Lincoln said.
The rest of the family went in and they talked to Lincoln for almost an hour before they were told that visiting hours were over. They took Jordan and Stella home before heading home themselves.
-0-
A few days later, Lincoln went home, sighing. He felt fine after the first day, but because the hospital didn't know about what bionics and nanotech could really do, they insisted on keeping him for a few more days, though they did some scans on him and saw his bionics and the nanomachine organ, which he had to explain to them since it had no human organ parallel. They were fascinated and called Lisa to confer with her on his treatment since they had no experience with treating someone with bionic organs like the ones Lisa had made.
Sure, they had treated people with artificial hearts, but none with the level of bionics that Lincoln had. Lincoln went back up to his room. The first person who came to see him was Luna. She came over with Sam.
"Hey, Linc… Can I ask you a favor?" Luna asked.
"Yeah, sure." Lincoln said.
"Can you be my Best Man at the wedding?" Luna asked. Sam was going to have Estelle, her best friend from back in Columbus, Ohio beside her at the wedding as her Maid of Honor.
"It would be an honor to be your Best Man." Lincoln said.
"Cool. We're getting married in just two months. So don't do anything too crazy with Lisa that would keep you from being there." Luna said. Lincoln nodded.
"I won't." Lincoln said, hugging Luna.
Luna was just wearing a tank top today, so Lincoln could see a good amount of Luna's tattooing.
"Hey, your tattoos look really good." Lincoln said.
"Thanks, dude. Sammy's friend, Estelle did them. She works at a really great tattoo parlor. High quality tattooing. She's still just getting started there, but she wants to open up her own parlor eventually." Luna said. Luna had tattoos that had to do with the moon. Her back was the most complex and beautiful tattoo. Her back had an entire mural with Selene in the moon, shining down on the world.
There were silver wolves howling up at the moon with two women standing under the moonlight, holding hands and looking at each other. Few people got to see Luna's whole back, but Lincoln could see the tattooing on her arms, which were dedicated to other aspects of the moon while her hand had a tattoo of the moon itself, while Sam's had a tattoo of the sun, so when they held hands, they made an eclipse. It was corny, they both admitted, but they had written songs dedicated to their relationship, songs about the sun and the moon and their love for each other.
"We'll see you later, dude. You should rest for today. You can do Lisa's weird experiment tomorrow if you want." Luna said. Lincoln nodded as the two women left. He then sighed and went to Lisa's room. He'd promised that he'd go to her as soon as he got out of the hospital.
-0-
"Ah, Elder Brother. Come in. Let me just finish up a little work I have and then I'll be with you. I'll take you down to my laboratory and we can begin." Lisa said. Lincoln sat back and tried to calm himself down. He was nervous about this particular set of implants, partially because he was sure it wouldn't be the last and partially because it was affecting such integral parts of his body. His brain had gotten him a long way in life, and his spine was kind of irreplaceable.
"I can sense your accelerated heartbeat. Even your bionic heart is showing your anxiety. You needn't worry. I'm not going to be doing the surgery. Some androids that I've invented will be. They're far more able than I am to do complex surgery and they have the… Shall we say gentle touch that I sometimes lack." Lisa said, finishing up the work and taking Lincoln down to her laboratory, having him lie down.
"Fear not, I'll be putting you to sleep so that you won't experience anything to do with the surgery." Lisa said.
She injected him with a single nanomachine that sent a message to his organ to sedate their host. Lincoln felt himself falling into a deep sleep. Soon, he was completely under, deeper than any normal sleep, in a near hibernative state.
"Good." Lisa said.
"Surgery Droids 1 and 2, shave the subject's head." Lisa ordered. They obeyed, shaving his head completely.
"Perform surgical implants in the spine and brain." Lisa ordered.
"Projects Alpha-Delta 1258329." Lisa said. The androids immediately began opening Lincoln up. The surgery took about an hour, but when it was done, Lisa injected Lincoln with a regenerative serum that would speed up his healing and sprayed his skull with a spray that would accelerate the re-attachment of the two parts.
They didn't allow him to wake up until his skull was fully re-attached. When he did wake up, he felt groggy and strangely numb and heavy.
"You needn't worry. The side effects of the surgery will affect you for between 36 to 48 hours. You'll experience numbness, nausea, possibly vomiting, forgetfulness, feelings of disorientation and heaviness. I recommend staying seated as much as possible. I'll make sure that you have people who can care for you during the 48 hours." Lisa said.
"The family if possible, and if not, well… I do have plenty of androids that work for me. Your hair should grow back at an accelerated rate, likely within a week and a half to two weeks." Lisa said.
"Uhhahhy…" Lincoln slurred. Lisa nodded.
"I'll have an android carry you back up to your room." Lisa said.
"Work bot Delta 42-B. Bring Lincoln up to his room." Lisa ordered. The bot sprung to life and carried Lincoln up the two sets of stairs to his own bed.
"Hnggg oo…" Lincoln said. He was incredibly dizzy and his vision was blurry. He understood what Lisa had said, but it still felt weird and a bit scary that he was like this. He was afraid it wouldn't go away. He didn't want to be like this for the rest of his life. He was a little bit angry at Lisa that she would potentially take a risk like this. Still, he closed his eyes and tried to calm down. Getting worked up wouldn't fix anything right now.
Eventually, he fell asleep.