A Circle of Fate and Pain

by Elliot Bowers

A girl genius rebuilt the replicate Sieben. Now Sieben lives with her just beyond the city limits of Scrap Iron City, coming to the city for money and fun once a week. Except this time, their lives may not be the same: not ever again, and again....

4. Chapter 4

-1A Circle of Fate and Pain

by Elliot Bowers

Chapter 4—Revelation of The Machinists

1.

Later that morning, the two females dressed themselves in city-style clothing. This was them again dressing up instead of just putting on what they usually wore around the house-building—when it was just themselves. Kyrie went with shorts and white top with jacket worn over, and put on more flexible footwear. Sieben went with a pair of black leggings and gray tank-top, putting on a jacket over the midriff-baring outfit. Flat-heeled shoes went onto her feet. Sieben had her little purse, and Kyrie went with her beige messenger bag.

Going to the city two days in a row… It felt a bit unusual. But Kyrie really wanted to take Sieben to the city for the sake of getting her something special. The girl said she wanted to buy Sieben some things thought about for quite some time. And it was this time, this trip, that Kyrie was going to buy it.

They later left the house-building to walk that sand-and-loam path over to that city across the way. Even if the path was somewhat long by some walking measures, the walk itself was enjoyable because the two had each other for company. The two were walking hand-in-hand along that long sandy path to the city. They went this way as that wind continued how-w-wling across the flat hard plain. This was known because the flying drone with the eyeball was watching them.

Upon stepping between those two big buildings and entering the border neighborhood of Tire-Wire Alley, Kyrie suddenly turned to grab Sieben's left hand--and began tugging impatiently. "Hurry o-o-on, Sieben!" The girl leaned backwards to put her weight into the tugging--not that she had much weight at all, though. "The surprise is th-i-i-is way!"

"Okay, okay! Like, I'm hurrying!" voiced Sieben, metal arm still being pulled by Kyrie. She could not also help but smiling at this: Kyrie's enthusiasm was catching. When those big eyes of Kyrie's became all sparkly and pretty with happiness and when those cheeks of hers flexed into a smile, a person could not help but to feel warm inside. "So like, are you gonna tell me what it is yet or what?"

Kyrie stopped her tugging just long enough to say, "You shall see upon arrival at the location. And then it shall be known. The worth of a surprise is diminished upon losing its secrecy. No do come along! My enthusiasm cannot be easily contained!" And then the girl resumed tugging.

"Yeah, same here," said Sieben. She then let herself be led by the hand towards one particular end of Tire-Wire Alley, going along this sidewalk. Kyrie walked in a leaned-forward sort of way, striding, with her left arm reached back and holding hands with Sieben—much as a young child would pull along a favorite oversized toy. They were now moving slightly faster than the rest of the crowd, walking past some mechanic and Motorball-looking people, big cyborgs and full-flesh people.

"The destination is near the end of this block!" cheered Kyrie, her long pale hair fluttering behind her as she continued pulling Sieben along like a big toy. "You shall also know the joy of what shall be! Oh, I cannot wait!"

Then came...the sound of something gigantic. It was a sound as big as the day, quaking the air, making everyone go numb in the loudness. What the Hell...? That growl was like an accursed sound from a long-extinct nuclear-powered wrecking machine. It was enough to make everybody around here stop and look.

When...the roaring stopped, everyone along the sidewalks and outdoors went quiet. Was it a ground-quake? Did a Factory-building blow up or have an accident? People looked around for the results of damage, looking for fallen buildings or smoke... Or something. There was instead a loud growl of anger that sounded somewhat like the roar. "Why are you still functional!"

Sieben looked across the street. Over there was someone--or something. It was a crazy haired figure dressed in a ridge-ribbed bodysuit of synthetic leather. The pants-legs of the ridged bodysuit were tucked into gigantic armored metal boots that went up to the knees. Since the strange body-suit was sleeveless, it left bare a gigantic pair of huge robotic arms. The figure's face had a pasty and damaged synthetic face that was scored and scarred with nicks and cuts in too many places. Butch-styled wild black hair spiked out in all directions from the scalp. And at the center of the figure's forehead was the numeral 6--pronounced Sechs.

Both arcs of Sieben's eyebrows went up as the thing identified as Sechs began to run in this direction. And by running, the Sechs replicate looked even more brutal. Clomp-clomp-clomp-clomp... Big armored boots stomped out a heavy beat as the wild-haired creature came running here with a loping stride more worthy of a beast than anything vaguely human--hunched over and with big robot-arms arms swinging. Because Sechs was striding down the middle of the street, vehicles had to s-w-w-werve and veer around it. Wha-a-mp! Two vehicles smacked right into each other… But Sechs only kept on moving.

And it scr-a-a-aped to a stop, armored boots digging furrows in the street. Being up close only made for the Sechs replicate looking even more brutally grotesque. The scuff-marks on the face, the twisted and mask-like sneering expression on it, it was a feral head atop a blocky body with arms that looked far too big. This nightmare-twisted replicate stood five long strides' length away from Sieben.

A replicate... Sieben was also a replicate, and at least some similarities were there. Sieben was actually the same height as the robotic creature, though Sieben now stood with back straight. They also had similar facial features if one ignored all the cuts and scrapes in Sechs' face--same lips, same eye-color. Both had dark hair...

Yet they were two contrasting flavors of the same model. As wonderfully beautiful and polite as Sieben looked, Sechs was a contrastingly brutal in appearance. The shape of Sieben's robotic body was more slender and slightly curvaceous, dressed in stylish clothing, and her new face was framed with silky dark hair radiating from the scalp. Sieben had a look of beauty and grace...

Sechs had the look of mighty strength and overpowering brutality, a strong-and-aggressive fighting machine. And Sechs' face had a look of physical combat experience, framed with that spiky dark hair. One of the huge arms cape up, a cable-thick robot-finger extending to point at Sieben.

"A-a-ach!" snarled the Sechs replicate. "You look weak and inferior! Even without the proper numeral carved into your forehead, I know of you! You are Sieben, and trying to replace your face cannot hide your inferiority to me."

Oh yeah, something was really happening here. And that something looks as if it is turning into a fight! The day was still young. So this should prove to be at least a little entertaining until time to get to the Motorball coliseums tonight. Fight-fight-fight-fight-fight...!

Oh yeah, this had all the makings of fine sidewalk drama. At the center of this sidewalk crowd were the three people involved: a very pretty cyborg-girl, well-dressed and with nice-looking dark hair around a very pleasant face. With her was a shorter and more delicate fleshie-girl in a cute outfit of shorts and shirt with jacket worn over, with pretty hair flowing from her scalp, and she had the biggest eyes they'd ever seen. Facing the pretty cyborg-girl and her little friend was a big-armed robot with the number 6 mysteriously carved into the skin of its forehead. People would normally pay to see this sort of thing.

"Go away!" yelled the cute young girl with big eyes, standing next to the pretty replicate. "I know of you as well! A terrible thing of dark intent, you want to destroy people! There are laws in Scrap Iron City. I shall call out for a Net-man and have a bounty placed on your head if you wish to hurt my Sieben again."

"Har-har-har-har-har-har...!" snarfled Sechs. "Your Sieben? Is that how things are between you two? Hmmph... Think again, little girl! The Netmen won't give a damn. Why? It is because 'your' Sieben is a replicate! She does not have an actual brain. And she does not have a real body." Sechs clenched mighty metal fists at the ends of long and powerful robotic arms. "There is no law to stop what I shall do."

"That interpretation of laws is correct," came a newcomer to this sidewalk drama, a tinny sort of voice coming from Kyrie's left. It was exactly what Kyrie would had called for: a Netman. The Netman was a robotic being, a big chubby rubber face on a cylindrical metal body--a keyboard on its chest, with the robot-body mounted on a platform with four motorized feet. This Netman explained the judgment. Saying, "The criteria for imposing a bounty is not met in this instance. Officially speaking, neither of the parties involved have human brains. The two parties are therefore at liberty to destroy each other as they see fit."

Kyrie turned to her left, facing the Net-man—her right hand still holding hands with Sieben. "How can you say that?" she asked, looking up at the Netman's rubbery face. "There must be a law to keep these two from fighting. Sechs and Seiben were originally made at the behest of Zalem. They were made with Factory technology. If one destroys the other, is that not destruction of Factory property?"

"You ask if they are Factory property. Officially speaking, the answer to that is no-o-o comment!" said the chubby faced robot. Similarly, a big hand appeared on a screen on its chest--the hand-gesture for stop. And for the sake of those who could read, the screen then flashed No comment appeared in multiple languages.

"Okay, Sechs..." said Sieben. She gently slipped her left hand out of Kyrie's hold and facing Sechs on the street, gently pushing Kyrie away. The replicate-girl then faced Sechs. "It's just between you and me. If you wanna fight me, then let's go. I'm not hiding from you for the rest of my life!"

"No Sieben!" wailed Kyrie, "I command you to not fight Sechs!" She leapt forward to hug Sieben tightly around the waist--feeling the slender alloy hardness of Sieben's electromechanical body beneath jacket. "Do not fight," she said, her right cheek pressed to Sieben's abdomen.

I'm sorry, thought SiebenShe gently patted Kyrie twice on the head—but looked over her to make eye-contact with some people in the crowd nearby. A nod from Sieben, and three people walked over here to pull Kyrie away to safety. This was going to be a brutal fight between two combatants with electromechanical strength, and such a delicate girl as Kyrie could be easily injured in such a confrontation--if not killed.

Kyrie was at first surprised by hands grabbing her, hands wrapping around slim arms and grabbing her wrists in pulling her away from her friend. Her shoes skidded along the sidewalk. "What is this? Unhand me, meddlers!" she shrieked. "Aid me, Sieben! Protect me!"

"Like, I'm going do that right now," said Sieben. Talking to the nightmarish replicate, she said, "Now Sechs, let's finish this." Then she took up a basic sort of fighting stance: standing sideways, legs apart, right arm bent to protect the midriff, both fists clenched. Her right arm was positioned like a shield. "Whatever way this ends up, it'll be over for good. No hiding, no running for the rest of my life!"

"You simpleton!" jeered the other replicate, the one that looked like a nightmare-twisted version of Sieben. "Look at that stance! You must have the silly idea that you could actually succeed in deflecting damage from any of my attacks! I could just slap your prissy self and put you down." This was when Sechs took into a sort of fighting stance: the upper body leaning forward, the construction machine-style arms at the sides. So standing, it was the look of a predator preparing to attack prey. Two steps, and Sech's gigantic-robotic left arm blurred for a second--ripping the air and making an arc...

Sieben could not react in time. Thwa-a-ack! The big robot-armed blow did not knock off her head, but it almost did—making her head go angled to a side and angling her neck. "Ahh," whimpered Sieben, staggering backwards.

She should have tried to duck that blow. Except she just wasn't fast enough to completely avoid being hit. The blow had instead sharply glanced off the side of her head at an angle. It still made for an awful sideward jerking of her neck.

Even with her damaged neck hurting, Sieben snapped back into her fighting stance. As Sechs repositioned arms to attack again, Sieben ducked to kick. Her strike managed to hit Sech's right ankle. Something had cracked. Radiating lines of damage showed in metal.

That something was an armored shin-guard. Yes, the weak and inferior replicate had actually split armor with a kick! Sechs couldn't believe it for a second. Then came anger. Both of Sech's machine-arms went up in a two-fisted hammer-blow. Those gigantic fists together looked like an articulated wrecking ball prepared to smash Sieben.

Now the fists were coming slamming down through the air... Shwa-m-m-m! Chunks of cracked street exploded out from the impact. Sech's fists had actually blasted through the foot-deep asphalt of the street and into the layer of packed and dry dirt. Smoke and dust cleared. The result was a crater the size of two heads put together, Sech's fists still in it. It was the obliteration of the street where Sieben was just standing two-point three seconds before.

Except Sieben had already jumped out of the way and then did a tumbling tuck-and-roll maneuver--leaping left and curling herself into a ball to tumble along the street. When she stopped her maneuver, she was kneeling with her right hand braced to the ground--and she was feeling the pain-signals in her neck that indicated damage. But her head was still okay: It was hard to damage a replicate's bio-chip brain as it was so deep within a human-sized head reinforced with metal skull. Sieben put her left hand to the back of her neck when a twinge of pain-signals burned there... It was beginning to hurt--a lot.

The Sechs replicate how-w-w-w-wled like the monster it was. There was a clunking sound as that monster-replicate then pulled both fists out of the crater. "Why cannot you stand still! Crushing you is like trying to smash a lowly gnat with a jackhammer! Be still, my pretty, and the pain shall end quickly. One excellent blow will be all. I promise you that..."

"N-no!" yelled Sieben, feeling her legs becoming a little unsteady as she resumed her fighting stance--which was a bit hard to do now. Though feeling unsteady on her legs, her legs were not the problem. It was her neck, which was damaged. The connections from head to body were damaged. Still... "I-I'm not gonna give up. You just want to kill people!"

"That is wrong," replied the walking nightmare in stepping over here. "I do not destroy people. You are not 'people.' You are not a person. You are just an inferior robotic replicate-version of the original." Sechs was now coming closer...and stopped. "I exist to smash weak and inferior replicates like you until I reach the original. It is because I deserve to be the original. This is how!"

Whack-k! Like before, Seiben launched a kicking attack, her right leg blurring. Except this time the kicking attack had arced straight up to hit at Sechs' upper body. Not that a person could see the actual kick, because Sieben's attack was so fast and crisp that it seemed as if her right leg seemed to temporarily disappear—to reappear straight up, with heel facing the sky.

Sechs staggered backwards as sparks flared from the resulting damage, a piece of machinery now missing from the gigantic left arm. It looked serious, and the arm twitched. But how? "You inferior thing! You should not be able to damage me!"

"Shut up!" screamed Seiben, lowering her right leg. As Sechs' big left arm twitched again, Sieben's left leg blurred into yet another machine-fast kick. Except this kick was straight out instead of blur-arcing upwards. The crowd wooed as Sechs went airborne and backwards, hurtling away to go crash-landing more than twenty long strides away.

But then that replicate used its gigantic metal arms to stand up again, a toothy smile with sharp ceramic teeth. Sechs was grinning, even though there was a chunk missing out of the left arm and with the back of the ridged suit with pieces of street in it. "You have good kicks," said the nightmare. "But I can see how your body is shaking. Your neck is damaged, and a lot of data transmission circuitry within your spine must be shorted out by now. Can you still dodge?" Then Sechs's undamaged arm blurred, catapulted a chunk of the street.

Shlink! "Ah!" Sieben couldn't dodge. That fist-sized chunk of street had been thrown faster than the speed of an old-style projectile; it hit her on the left thigh. Some electromechanical workings had been jarred... There was a blast of sparks flaring through the thin material of the leggings on that side.

Her left leg stopped working, forcing her to go to a kneeling position. Combined with the damage pain-signals in her neck, it was too much. More pain signals flared up through the cabled circuitry in her neck and filled her computer mind. Her left leg was beginning to smoke a little. And the back of her neck hurt so much...! As pain signals continued flaring, her vision...was beginning to turn a red warning-color

A guy in the crowd spoke up. "Hey Net-man! Did you see that? Aren't projectiles against the law? No guns allowed! And that was just like a gun!"

"That is incorrect for three reasons. One reason, the attack was not illegal as it was not delivered by way of a firearms," countered the chubby faced Netman. "A second reason, Sechs is classified as an agent of Zalem and is therefore allowed to use any means necessary towards the final goal. A third reason, neither party within the bounds of this conflict possesses a human brain."

"Huh? Whaddaya mean, talking about brains! And who cares about brains! It's still no fair! Still, why can't we use guns?" countered the loud man. The crowd hissed for him to shut up. "Okay, okay! But it's still not fair!"

Sechs had again walked back to where Sieben was. Except this time, there was no more risk of being kicked away. Sieben struggled to stand, fell back to a kneeling position. Her body just wasn't working right. Worst of all, her left leg was still damaged to the point where standing was not possible.

"Har-har-har! That is the way you should be, weakling--on your knees before me!" declared Sechs before placing a robotic hand atop Sieben's head. The robotic hand was large enough to completely cover the top of Sieben's head. "This is the end of you!" The grip tightened. Sechs smiled... A sharp big-arm movement to the left, and there was an awful sound of wrenched metal and snapped connections as a gush of sparks flared outward. The second yank did the job--a final horrible sound.

Sieben's headless body collapsed to lie down on the street. Sparks flared outward from the jagged metal neck-stump as the body twitched. There was another gush of sparks before the body went still. Sieben's head was in Sech's gigantic left hand and shutting down as there was no power supply...

Even this was not enough to satisfy the electromechanical beast. "You shall be destroyed!" yelled Sechs. The monstrous replicate jammed a thick robot-finger into an eye-socket. That metal finger prodded around until it felt the bio-chip. Another poke cracked that chip-brain. Then Sechs gave a final kick to Sieben's headless body.

By now, the crowd was in such open-mouthed awe that Kyrie was able to break free. She threw off her messenger bag, then began to run over to where Sechs stood over Sieben's headless body. In running, the girl also had something clutched in her hands... She swung it at Sechs, screaming "Killer!"

There was a flash of light and a blast of sparks where Kyrie's high-yield taser had struck Sechs' right-side machine-arm. But the intense electrical blast had only caused Sech's right arm to spasm upward--to hit Kyrie and knock her away, like a doll struck by an machine...

When Kyrie hit the street, she was left lying on her side--her long hair spread out like a fallen banner. One leg splayed out, arms spread, her body looking uncomfortably positioned, her hair was obscuring her face. The girl wasn't moving...

"And that is the end of the fight," said Sechs, both arms now marred with damage. Left hand still cradling the severed head, Sechs crouched down to wrap the right arm around the body. "This scrap shall be destroyed." Then the monster-replicate turned to walk away, the armored boots clomping...

Walking away with Seiben... Kyrie tried to sit up. The ribs on the lower left side of her chest filled her body...with pain. This pain was going right up to her head... Kyrie saw everything through a haze of dazzled pain and felt close to blacking out. Her own hair was also obscuring her vision, leaving her vaguely thinking that maybe a long braid-hairdo would have been better. But Sieben was killed... No, a person does not kill a robot. Sieben was broken, and now that Sechs replicate was taking her away.

Then something else started happening. "Give me that!" yelled another girl's voice in the crowd. Eyes looked at her because there was a lot to look at--especially for the boys. The source of the voice was a girl in her late teens or so. She had biker-boots on her feet with too-tight jeans, along with a white tee-shirt with dark leather jacket worn over, her fluffy auburn hair just beyond shoulder length. The too-tight jeans and tight-fitting top showed off a bit too much of her athletic and womanly figure, the jacket showing bosom whenever it move.

Her face had on a smirk--light brown eyes glinting with amusement. "You think you can fight me for it? Okay meat-bag, let's rumble!" Flick! Her left hand now had an open switchblade in it. "If you lose, I take your balls and leave you with a high-pitched voice."

Kyrie tried to turn herself around to see what all the noise was about this time. What happens over...there and...? And the pain increased. It was getting hard for her to breathe. Her chest was hurting. It was becoming…too much. There was the sound of blood rushing to her eardrums. It was the sort of sound a person "heard" when there was just too much physical suffering for the brain to take. Kyrie was no cyborg or replicate. She was just slender flesh and bone, her body hurting. The pain of hurt shoved her into unconsciousness...

2.

Kyrie was therefore not conscious when that girl in biker clothes flashed the switchblade a few more times. The boy stumbled backwards. And the same was true for the crowd. Nobody wanted to end up being sliced. They'd already seen one person slaughtered but did not want to be slaughtered in turn.

"Ya know," said the girl in biker-clothes. She waved the switchblade in the air a few feet from the boy. "I'd do the same thing in your position, taking easy money from weak people. But then my sister would bitch about it all day. You don't want to hear it when my sister starts bitching, and you don't want to be around me after putting up with her noise…especially after I've cut your balls off."

"Stop that, Vanessa!" shouted the girl's twin. Yes, the teenage girl with the switchblade actually had a twin sister--now crouching over in the middle of the street. Over there was a girl looked exactly the same: the same biker's outfit of jeans and tee shirt worn over a gymnast-fit body, outfit complete with the same boots, same kind of leather jacket and everything. "This girl could use some help, you know!"

"Alright already, Vicki! Jeez!" declared the girl standing here. Flick! Her switchblade disappeared. "Like, you're so-o-o lucky. I was r-r-re-e-ally thinking about what to do with your severed nuts, meat-bag." She deftly bent over to pick up the messenger bag. Then she gave a parting glare to the boy before turning to walk over to where her sister Vicki was tending to that young girl lying in the street.

"Yes, she's still breathing," said Vicki, glancing up to see Vanessa. "I think some of her ribs are maybe cracked. And maybe she's had some whiplash damage to her spine. Did you see how hard that robot hit her? We have to get her to a hospital..." But there were no hospitals, not anymore: just clinics, mainly for cyborgs, some for humans. "Get her to a clinic." Vicki then took off her synth-leather jacket and spread it out like a blanket next to Kyrie.

Someone in the crowd whistled appreciatively at Vicki taking off that one item of clothing. "Take off some more! I've got twenty creds for your tight pants!"

"Shut it, perv!" yelled back Vanessa. She lowered her voice and spoke to Vicki. "Okay, sis. Let's get this corny saint-stuff out of the way. There's gonna be a party tonight, and I don't want some big-eyed kid putting a cramp in my style... Hmmph, glad you took off your jacket for a mini-stretcher. Pervs..."

And that was what they were going to do--use Vicki's synthetic leather jacket for a mini-stretcher. Vicki saw the girl being hit by that...replicate--that metal-bodied robot. The blow had struck the torso to the left of the midsection. Vicki had carefully felt that part of the girl's torso and did not feel anything broken there. Since she also saw the girl's legs moving before fainting, there was probably not any spinal injury. But it was better safe than sorry.

More than a few centuries ago, the thing to do would have been to call for things like ambulance and police. Except there was no such thing as police--only Net-men and bounty hunters who did nothing but kill criminals. There was no such thing as real hospitals anymore, either: only clinics. And those clinics mainly existed to replace damaged human body parts with cyborg-ones. That, or if a person's body was injured to the point of severe bleeding, the thing to do was just remove the human brain and put it into a cyborg-body.

The first thing they had to do was move the injured and unconscious girl safely to where she could be helped. Tire-Wire Alley had plenty of brawls, some of them involving humans as well as cyborgs. So there was a decent medical clinic a few blocks away. Vicki first made sure that the girl was still breathing and had a heartbeat. Then the twins carefully rolled the girl onto this impromptu stretcher in such a way that the back and neck were aligned--and positioned her onto her back. With the injured girl on the open jacket, her legs and arms dangling off the sides, Vicki and Vanessa both lifted the jacket together—again, like a stretcher. It was especially easy to do since Kyrie was just so light. And Kyrie was lifted into another place...

Everything was dark and wrong. There was the vague feeling of laying atop a table in a dark place she had never been in before. Darkness above, there was…nothing but a darkness darker than the darkness between the stars at night. That, even though the girl knew that there were creatures nearby. This was some kind of place for doctors. Except the "doctors" here were not of the sort that cared for patients. These "doctors" were scientists. And she was a subject atop a laboratory table.

She could not move her legs or any other part of her body. It was a feeling of odd cold all over--that feeling of numbness mixed in with pins and needles from her feet to her head. This numbness made her mind spin with dizziness and confusion. She blacked out for a moment again. Was someone talking about food?

There was a spotlight glaring down on her from the darkness--like a glare from a stern angel of judgment. There was a spotlight, but there was no seeing the actual source of the light that glared down from the darkness. Where was the light really coming from? It was impossible to tell.

A blurry white figure approached to stand over her. It was just that, a figure, because it looked more or less human. The figure had four arms and a blurred head... The head looked as if it was on fire. What kind of creature was this!

A monster, that was it! The girl wanted to scre-e-eam, the scream of fear filling her mind but not coming out of her mouth. Two of those arms had automated surgical blades of the sort used to cut open skulls. In fact, there was still the dull red stain around the circumference of the blades. Those blades were going to cut open her skull…

Bwe-e-e-e-e-e…! The blades produced a Hellishly loud turned on as the arms lowered towards her forehead. I am still awake, she wanted to scream. Do not do this to me-e-e-e! Please, please do not! Do not hurt me! Ple-e-ea-ase…!

Even as that sound became louder and the blades approached the skin of her forehead, her mind screamed in fear. It was as if she was dead already, and the creature with the burning head was here to cut open her head and take whatever was inside. Though numb, the girl felt the sharp prick and the following vibrations as the screaming, spinning blades cut into her forehead. She could fee-e-el the vibration of the spinning blade as it began spin-cutting into her skull...

…

"A-a-a-ai-a-a-agh-h-h…!" screamed the girl…the scream ending in a slight choking sound. She sat up on the little mattress on this floor, the white blanket coming off in the process. The girl then put her right hand to the place on her body where the sick feeling was coming from--her midsection. Beneath her tee shirt, she had on her brassiere--of course--and something else. It seemed hard and a little numb. Did they…? The girl lifted her tee shirt just enough to bare her midriff.

There was a bandage there--a tight white cloth-bandage that went all around her midsection, just at that place where abdomen met sternum. Since her abdomen was flesh and not articulated metal, it meant that Kyrie was still human. They did not take her body and replace it with a robotic one. That was the way human medicine was these days: if the body was damaged, just replace what stopped working. If too damaged, don't bother with healing and replace the victim's body with a cyborg one.

They had not replaced her body with a cyborg one… But who were they? Where was she now? She looked looked around this bare and square room with hard and flat floor with square metal tiles of a dull color. It still hurt to breathe a little. The pain… Then Kyrie remembered.

"Sieben!" she gasped aloud, tugging down her top again. The girl then threw off the rest of the blanket and put her socks-covered feet to the tiled floor in trying to stand up, feeling sick and dizzy. Socks, shorts and tee shirt… Where were her shoes? And where was her jacket? Her shoes, they were right here.

It was an effort for her to kneel down on both knees to get them from the side of the bed on the floor. Kyrie put them on. Then she would get out of this place and go home to make plans and get money. Then she could come back to Tire-Wire Alley and hire some people to do something…

A possibly familiar girl's voice sounded out from out in the hallway. "Like, she's not whimpering in her sleep anymore. Must be awake by now."

The source of the voice stepped around the corner of the doorway and walked on in: a late-teenage sort of girl in biker boots and tight jeans worn with form-fitting white tee-shirt and black leather jacket, a round sort of face, darkish-brown hair fluffed out from the scalp, hair a little longer than shoulder-length.

Kyrie blinked when exactly the same kind of teenage-looking girl came in behind the first one--carrying Kyrie's messenger bag and jacket. Those two standing side by side, Kyrie could not tell the difference between the two. "Are you feeling okay enough to walk?" asked this second girl. "I brought your things. But I have to tell you ahead of time that the clinic doctors took half of your money. They had to be paid half the money for your treatment, drugs and stuff. Since your body chemistry is a little bit different than usual, they had to use some other kinds of painkillers."

"We wouldn't mind a little bit on the side for our own services," added the first girl, hooking her thumbs in her jeans and posing with one leg out. "People don't work for free, ya know. And we were on our way to do some work in a club, too. The other half of what you've got would do just fine. I was gonna just take it since you were unconscious to save you the trouble of digging around to hand it over."

"Vanessa!" complained the second girl, looking at her twin sister. She again turned her head to face Kyrie. "Oh… You have to forgive my sister. She's a little bit more concerned about money issues than I am. Here you go." This second girl gave Kyrie her jacket. When Kyrie put it on, the second girl then handed over Kyrie's messenger bag. "I'm sorry about her."

"Who's sorry? You're sorry, Vicki!" grumped the first teenage-looking girl, the one named Vanessa. This Vanessa then looked down at Kyrie. "Listen up, little girl. We've saved your life and your stuff. A little compensation would be nice. Even if you are one of the million or so meat-bags who cares and appreciates robots, a little monetary show of appreciation wouldn't hurt." Vicki, the other twin, shook her head. "Well, how about it?"

"Oh-h-h, umm... Give me a moment," sighed Kyrie. As she reached into her jacket, her head still swam with sickness. The feeling just wasn't from the drugs the clinic doctors used on her. It was a sickness and pain of loss. That monster had ripped off Sieben's head! After Kyrie rewarded these two, then would come…revenge…for… Tears dripped down from her cheeks. But she found some of the high-denomination credit-chips hidden within inner-pockets of her jacket. "I… I thank you for giving aid to me in a time…of need…" The sobs overtook her, made her sink to her knees and clutch her aching abdomen. Her ribs were hurting her even through the medication, and crying only made it worse--the pain reminding her of what happened even more, making her even more full of sadness. The anger would come later.