18

Awakening with a start, I look around blearily, unable to make out anything in the dark, aside from the dim glow of the alarm clock on the nightstand. Grabbing up my glasses off the nightstand, I put them on and read the clock. Four a.m. With a grunt, I roll back over and stare up at the ceiling, wondering why I'm up so early. I don't recall any nightmares this time, but I feel pretty rested, so maybe I just didn't need the sleep.

Heaving myself out of bed, I pull together some clean clothes, climb into my wheelchair and head for the bathroom. After shaving and brushing my teeth, I hop into the shower. As I'm quickly washing up, I'm brought up short by the feel of something strange on my residual left arm. Looking at it, I watch the tiny rivulets of water dance over the surface of the cybernetic mounting when it hits me that what I'm feeling is the sensation of warm water pouring over a part of my arm that extends down past the flesh. It's a feeling coming from the surface of the cybernetic itself.

My breath catches in my throat as I'm struck by the sudden realization that I can feel the same thing on the cybernetics on the ends of my residual legs. Light-headedness sets in as my heart begins pounding. Nearly flinging myself out of the shower, I skid across the floor towards the door and stop, sharply aware of my nakedness.

With adrenaline heightened excitement, I blurt out, "Shit!" and grab a towel, hurriedly drying myself off in haphazard fashion. Then I take a moment to get my glasses on and run my fingers over my arm implant and one of the leg's. The sensation of touch, though dulled, is unmistakable. It wasn't my imagination. I resume my rush toward the door.

A dull pain explodes on my left side as I ram into my wheelchair in my scramble to get past it. It barely slows me down. Getting to the door, I fumble with the doorknob in my excitement, only to smack myself in the face with it as I clumsily pull it open.

Crying out sharply in pain, I lean up against the doorjamb, covering myself with the towel and shout down the hallway, "Ido!"

The first door to open is Alita's, as she rushes into the hallway looking in my direction with an alarmed expression.

"Jason? What's wrong?" she asks, clearly expecting trouble.

The only answer I think to spare is, "I can feel them!" as I gesture at her with my residual left arm. Energized by the excitement of the moment, I shout louder, "DYSON!"

As Alita stands there staring at me in confusion, Ido's bedroom door finally opens and a haggard-looking doctor Ido appears. There's a twinge of guilt that I didn't wait till he was up to let him know about this.

Before he can say anything, I call out to him, "I can feel my implants!"

Alita's confusion instantly vanishes as does Ido's bleariness, and both of them rush over to me. Once they reach me, Alita steps aside to allow Ido room to crouch next to me. He gently takes hold of my arm implant and begins applying pressure to various points around it.

"Can you feel this?" he asks.

With an excited nod, I reply, "Yes!"

Ido makes a closer visual examination of the implant, then applies pressure to the surface of each leg implant with the tips of his fingers, checking for feeling with them as well.

Satisfied that I'm not imagining the sensations, he gestures to Alita and my wheelchair, "Get him downstairs." Then he rushes off towards the stairs.

As Alita unceremoniously puts her hands under my arms and lifts me up, I yelp and barely manage to keep my towel on as I cry out, "Hold on, lemme get my pants-!"

"They can wait," she interrupts with a rush, as she gently dumps me into my wheelchair and begins quickly pushing me towards the elevator.

"Alright," I say, throwing my hand up in resignation while also trying to make sure I stay covered by the now thoroughly-damp towel. I'm feeling suddenly embarrassed at my lack of clothing.

My spinning mind hits me with the odd vision of the young cyborg telling me, 'Come with me if you want to live,' with a vaguely Austrian accent as she races me away from some nebulous threat.

Getting us into the elevator, she elaborates, "This is kind of a big deal, so we might not want to wait."

Craning my neck to look up at her, I ask with some concern, "Do you think this might fade or something?"

She shrugs, "I don't know, but if nothing else, this could be the day you get out of that wheelchair." Looking down at me with an animated expression, she adds, "Isn't that worth the rush?"

"Yeah, guess you got a point," I answer back, suddenly unable to get my mind off the pants I left lying on the bathroom floor. 'I am really missing those pants right now...' Still, my concern over my modesty is eclipsed by the prospect of working limbs, and getting out of this damned wheelchair.

Once we arrive at the ground floor, Alita flings open the gate and rushes me out of the elevator at a pace a little faster than what the 'chair's electric motor could manage toward the waiting examination table that Ido has already started preparing. As soon as I'm in the pool of illumination cast by the overhead surgery lights, he does a double-take.

Looking slightly aghast at his adopted daughter, he says, "Alita! I didn't mean to drag him down here naked."

She replies firmly, "Well, I didn't think you wanted to waste any time. There's no one here to see him, anyway."

"There's you two," I comment dryly.

"You have a perfectly good towel," she retorts. "Besides, it's not as if we're strangers."

As she takes me under the arms again to lift me onto the table, I shoot back, "That doesn't mean I wanna be naked in front of you!"

Settling me on the table, she fires back, "You didn't seem all that worried about modesty when Gerhad helped you in the shower."

"She's a nurse!" I reply irately, the excitement and adrenaline ramping up my emotions. Gesturing with my amputated arm, I add somewhat indignantly, "She had to help me 'cause I've got all of one arm!" In the excitement of the moment, I come dangerously close to bopping her on the nose with the implant.

Her expression clouding with a trace of anger, Alita rolls her eyes at me in annoyance, no doubt about to verbally retaliate when Ido scolds us, "Will you two quiet down? I need to concentrate." Looking directly at me, he says sternly, "And you, stop moving."

"Sorry," Alita and I answer in unison. Looking her in the eyes, I can't help but crack a smile and chuckle at our synchronized response, Alita breaking into an amused grin as well.

While Ido continues to set everything up, Alita thoughtfully provides me with a blanket to better cover myself with, as well as setting the table up so that I'm in a more comfortable sitting position. Turning my attention to Ido's ministrations, I can't help but shake my head occasionally as I marvel at the sensation of feeling each of the little plugs being connected to the miniscule maintenance sockets within the implants.

"I can feel that," I say aloud in wonder. It's such a strange sensation, I can't even describe it. And that's on top of feeling additional limb beyond what I'd gotten accustomed to.

Ido nods, "That's good, very good."

With the recent matches of Motorball these last few days, as well as Gerhad being out sick, he'd been pretty busy with everything that needed to be done, and as a result hadn't kept up on monitoring my condition. Not that there seemed to be a whole lot to monitor anyway. So now, Ido goes through a full diagnostic setup with scan, which will take a bit. As he does so, my mind ends up wandering as I sit silently.

"What're you thinking about?" Alita asks, pulling me out of my reveries.

It takes me a moment to formulate an answer. "Uh, nothing, really." Another answer slips out, "Or, a lot of things." Staring blankly at the foot of the exam table, I slowly rub at my forehead, "I'm not sure. This is all starting to feel so surreal."

Ido grunts. "I hope you aren't still blaming yourself," he remarks.

Looking over at him, I ask, "For what?"

"For what happened with Alondra," he clarifies. There's a detectable note of concern in his voice, though his expression remains one of professional focus.

My mind stumbles as it tries to formulate an answer. "Ah. No, not really. I guess, I just… wish I could have done more."

Ido sighs, "I know. I wish I could have, as well."

"We all do," Alita chimes in. "All we can do now, is hope she's found some kind of peace." Putting a hand lightly on my blanket-draped shoulder, she gently chides me, "You can't keep beating yourself up for something beyond your control."

Touched by their concern, I smile sadly and nod, then lapse into silence again. My mind is starting to spin between hopefulness and depression. It's starting to look like life is about to take another unexpected turn into the truly unknown, and it's a little frightening. More than a little, actually. When I stop to think about it, it still surprises me that my current life has become so… normal. Mostly. It also surprises me how my feelings towards Alita have changed.

When I first met her, I was convinced she was a heartless, violent killer. Now, though? I've come to view her as something of a friend, and even trust her enough that my anxiety isn't blaring alarms at me whenever she's in the same room. What a difference a month (or almost a month) can make.

Soon, Ido has completed his diagnostics, and shares the results. The scans I was able to see while he was doing them, were obvious enough; all of my implants are now just as invisible to his scanners as I am. The image of my glasses has also faded, though they remain faintly visible.

"As for your diagnostics," Ido announces quietly, "those are non-existent. My equipment no longer gets any reading from your implants." He stares at the readings thoughtfully, rubbing his upper lip with one index finger. "If I were to hazard a guess, they've somehow become acclimated, or synchronized to you." He throws his hands up in a gesture of surrender, "Or something. Whatever the case, they're like you now." He swivels on his little stool to face me and gestures at my glasses, "And I suspect those will be following if you wear them long enough."

My gaze flickers across the readouts that I can't read, as well as the scan images, "Well, we did kinda figure that this was going to happen, the way the implants were fading from those images. But does this mean that my body can use cyberware-?"

"I think the results speak for themselves. If you can feel them, then they're already in use by your body's systems," Ido interjects. He stares at me, his gaze seeming to measure me, "If I had to theorize, I'd say the cyberware just needed to get into phase with you. Question is, how is this all working." His head snaps around to stare at one of the consoles, and he mutters loudly, "Twenty-eight days."

Alita tears her mystified gaze away from me to ask him, "What was that?"

Ido taps the readout, which I can now see is a time/date readout, that got his attention with one finger, "It's been almost exactly twenty-eight days since I installed his cyberware. Twenty-four hours a day, for twenty-eight days straight, it's been directly connected to his body." His voice grows a little more excited, "If this holds true for everything Jason remains in direct contact with, then his eye should start functioning in another six days."

My head starts spinning anew with this revelation. 'I'll have two working eyes again?' echoes in my mind. It doesn't seem like it's really happening. It feels like a dream, and I'm half-expecting to wake up.

Alita leans her hands on the exam table, looking just as excited as Ido, "So that's it? His cyberware is working? Well, that's great! Now you can get him all fixed up, right?"

"Wrong," I say suddenly, snapping out of my silence. The realization of what it likely all means marches inexorably through my head. "Any cybernetics he attaches to the mountings still won't be in whatever state I'm in, which means that the newly attached part of the limb still won't receive signals, and it still won't work." Hope starts dying a little as I look over at the images on Ido's screens again. "And that's assuming anything he attaches will actually acclimate, or synchronize, or whatever the hell this is to my current cyberware. It might be that anything not actually touching my flesh, won't get put into whatever state I'm in. Which means this will be all that I get for cyberware." My mood begins turning sullen, as my hopes are further dashed.

"We have yet to determine if that's the case," Ido softly admonishes me. "But this is a start. It means that living tissue in whatever this phase, or state that you're in, can spread the effect to inorganic matter that's in direct contact for twenty-eight days." He looks at me meaningfully. When I fail to react, he expounds, "I'm willing to bet that this applies to living plant matter as well."

Comprehension dawns on me. "So, what, the circle of trees?" Not really sure how that place figures into this.

Ido nods, "Exactly!" To both Alita and I, he announces, "I'm going to take the limbs I was going to use, and hire Koyomi to take me out there, where-"

Alita excitedly picks up on his line of thinking, "Where you'll put them in the circle, and the living plants will be able shift them into a state that Jason can use!" Beaming, she looks at me, declaring, "I told you he'd find a way."

A grin begins to turn the corners of my mouth up, only to disappear as doubt spreads through me. I look over at Ido, "Are you sure this can work?" It somehow seems too easy.

Confidently, Ido nods, "I am. Everything I've found points to it. Consider this; if the plants in that little piece of your home that came through with you couldn't alter inorganic matter in this way, I'd have been able to scan some of the things in there. One of the little pieces of your truck that came off in the crash, a sign, a utility pole, something would have lost this anomalous effect, in much the same way with a couple of the items you left undisturbed in your footlocker all year have become visible to my scanners. But everything in that little forest is just as undetectable as you, and I'm certain it's because of the living plants." He turns and begins shutting down his equipment. "Like you, they must be generating this same anomalous energy, or field. Whatever it is." He stops suddenly, looking as if something just occurred to him. "I'll need to take some of my spare equipment out there, as well."

Alita grasps the reason just before I do, "Right. You need equipment that's altered as well, in order to maintain his cyberware."

Ido nods, and finishes shutting everything down.

Despite the growing excitement at the possibilities this turn of events presents, as well as the almost surrealistic nature of this whole situation, a more immediate concern barges it's way into my awareness.

Holding up my hand, I ask, "Uh, can I get dressed now?"

"Oh, absolutely," Ido says jovially. "But when you finish, I'd like to run some other tests just to confirm some things, if that's alright."

Distracted by thoughts of a future in which I could very well walking again, I readily agree, "Sure. Whatever you need."

Alita helps me back into the wheelchair and I make my way back upstairs to finish getting ready for the day. As I do, I find myself humming happily, and unable to stop. Hell, I'm very nearly singing! It's like a flood of positive emotions are just bursting out of me, and life couldn't get any better. There have been precious few times in my life that I've felt like this, and I certainly never felt like that in this world. At least, not until now. It's as if this uncertain future has some kind of optimistic glow to it, that's hard to describe. I know I'm still living in a dystopian world where the last remnants of humanity are huddled in one city, but for now things seem a lot less hopeless. And this anomalous condition seems less like some kind of curse.

After shaving and getting dressed, I put my things away and am brought up short as a thought hits me. I look over at the little alarm clock on my nightstand. Rolling up next to the nightstand, I move the alarm clock a little further away from the bed. If it turns out that this anomalous field I generate goes beyond physical contact, I'd rather not have my alarm clock stop working because it got altered and can no longer accept electrical power from the house outlet. Glancing down at my wheelchair, I realize there's not much I can do about that at the moment, and if things play out the way Ido's theorized, I may not have to worry about it.

Satisfied with the precautions, I head downstairs where Ido has brought my truck's old alternator up from the basement and set it up on a little worktable, with some help from Alita. The alternator is clamped to the edge of the little table, with a small electric motor next to it, and a flexible belt of some kind connecting the two. My mood is dampened only a little at the realization that his experiments are likely to involve zapping me with electricity. After putting some finishing touches on the setup, Ido straightens up, stretching his back as he does.

He cheerfully announces, "All set. But first, breakfast. I don't know about you two, but I could do with some food."

Being in agreement, Alita and I join him in the kitchen where we (well, mostly Alita) help him prepare breakfast. As we're finishing up, Gerhad arrives. As she walks into the kitchen, Alita hops up from her chair to give the nurse a big hug.

"Welcome back," Alita tells Gerhad with a big grin. "We missed you around here."

Unable to contain myself, I say cheerfully, "Especially Ido. He's had to make do with me while you were gone." Then I roll my eyes in a 'what a disaster that was' sort of expression.

"Good to see you too, Jason," Gerhad returns happily. To Alita she adds, "Congratulations, by the way. I caught you're win against that other team. Nice takedown of that bastard, Fenrir."

Alita beams at her, "Thank you."

Ido offers Gerhad coffee, which she gratefully accepts. As she accepts a cup from him, she turns to me, "By the way, was I mistaken, or was Roman using that new HEAT weapon in the second Contest of that last game?"

With a shrug of equanimity, I reply, "Yeah, but it was Ido that made it an effective weapon."

"Maybe so," Gerhad tosses back, "but still, a little bit of you is now part of Motorball history."

With a second shrug, I go back to drinking my coffee to hide my suddenly unhappy expression.

Apparently unaware of the discomfort her words caused me, Gerhad takes the remaining seat at the table and asks Ido, "I take it we're opening late today?"

Alita preempts Ido excitedly answering, "Yep! It's a special occasion." She looks over at me, "Why don't you tell her?"

With everyone suddenly looking at me, I'm struck with a mischievous impulse. Setting my cup on the table, I straighten up in my seat and look over at Gerhad. Straight-faced, I announce to her, "I've decided to train for the Olympics."

Gerhad's expression goes from smiling to confused, "You what now?"

Alita smacks the tabletop with a rather loud 'crack!' (somehow avoiding damage to it's surface) and exclaims at me, "Can't you be serious? This is a big development!" Her expression is somewhere between amused and annoyed with me, though I suspect a little more annoyed.

Rather more amused than Alita, Ido steps in, "Jason has feeling in his cybernetics. It looks like they're finally connecting to his nervous system."

Gerhad's expression lights up, "That's wonderful!" She briefly gets up to give me a congratulatory hug. It makes me realize how much I've missed having her around.

With the attitude of someone who's just discovered some new breakthrough, which I suppose he probably has, Ido fills Gerhad in on what's transpired and what he plans to do with the circle of trees. Gerhad nods approvingly at the end of it.

Gesturing towards the main room, she asks, "So that's what that setup out there is for? More experiments?"

"Yes," Ido replies. "I'm hoping it'll give me enough data to narrow down some things." Looking over at me, he says, "Speaking of which, how about we get that out of the way?"

With only a small amount of trepidation, I answer, "Sure."

Quickly cleaning up what remains of breakfast, we head out to the main room. Ido plugs the electric motor into a wall outlet and gets the motor going, starting up the alternator. Ido then reaches under the table and takes out my truck's old regulator, with some obvious modifications made to it. Using jury-rigged connectors, all made from parts of my truck, Ido plugs the regulator into the alternator and adjusts a control attached to the regulator. He then plugs a small cable into another connector socket on the regulator, then other end of the cable having a set of bare prongs.

"Alright then," Ido says, holding up the prongs. "The current should be minimal, just enough to cause your muscles to twitch a bit. However, I've no intention of putting you through something I'm not willing to do myself, so I'll be trying it first."

Raising an eyebrow skeptically at the prongs, I nod understanding.

Ido has Gerhad hold the prongs, bare ends pointed towards him, then he carefully puts a finger on each one. Nothing happens. He shows no reaction, and pulls his fingers away from the prongs.

Turning to me, he explains, "Alright, now I want you to touch one of the leads with your bare hand, and touch the other with the outer casing of either your arm or leg implant."

With some concern, I ask, "Uh, what if that damages the implant?"

"Well, then we know the implant is defective," he says evenly. "A small charge like this shouldn't do anything to it, so if it does, then something's wrong. And if it is, that's something we need to know as well."

Gerhad holds the prongs out to me, and I touch my index finger to one and the outer surface of my arm implant to the other. Electricity jolts through me causing me to yelp as I snatch my hand away from the prongs. Not exactly painful, but surprising in how it causes my muscles to jump.

Shaking my hand out, I look over at Ido with some suspicion. "Okay, so, that happened."

"You okay?" Alita asks me.

Responding with a silent nod, I inspect my fingers, finding them predictably unharmed.

"Sorry if this seems excessive," Ido explains, "but I needed to verify that you would be affected by the electricity generated by the parts from your truck. And it does tell us that your implant now reacts to electrical energy in the same way you do. This does seem to prove that it's in the same state your organic body is in."

With a deep breath, I nod to him, "That's sorta what I figured. So, what's next?"

Ido quickly sets up another device that turns out to be a small step-down transformer, plugging it into the wall and equips it with a set of electrodes that aren't made from parts of my truck. Once again, he has Gerhad hold the prongs of the electrodes out toward him and he goes first. As soon as his fingers make contact with the prongs, he inhales sharply as he jerks his hands away from the electrodes. Giving his hands a little shake, he nods for me to take my turn.

Somewhat hesitantly, I do like I did with the last test, placing my finger on one of the electrodes while touching the other with my arm implant. Nothing. I leave them there. Still nothing. A slow smile comes over me as I'm hit with a sense of wonder at what this might mean. Gerhad and Alita both look at me with varying degrees of amazement.

Grinning broadly, I look over at Ido and ask with a slight laugh, "Am I immune to electricity?"

"Only electricity that's not in the same phase as you are." Getting up to collect a tray of various items from a nearby counter, he adds, "Conversely, we" he gestures to himself, Gerhad and Alita, "are unaffected by any electrical charge that's in phase with you. So far, at any rate." He then brings the tray of items over and sets them on the nearby operating bed.

Then he goes through the items, of which there are a couple dozen identical pairs, and has each pair placed as though they're meant to conduct the charge from the prongs to me. Everything from various types of plastic, all the way to gold-plated connectors of some kind, as well as a couple small items composed of metals that I can't really identify.

While he's doing that, I watch Alita play with the alternator set-up. She grabs the prongs, apparently trying to see if she's able to feel any electrical charge herself. At one point, Gerhad looks a bit worried as Alita cranks the setting on the regulator to maximum. However, nothing happens when Alita takes hold of the prongs. She looks down at the prongs in her hands with an intense curiosity, then over at me as Ido conducts this new test. Unsure of what to say, I merely shrug at her as the testing continues.

It doesn't actually take all that long before Ido's finished, and begins putting everything away, with Gerhad's help.

Curiosity quickly gets the better of me. "Okay, so. What exactly was that all about?" I ask a preoccupied Ido.

Shaken out of whatever thoughts he was lost in, Ido glances over at me. "I was hoping I might find something, some material of some kind, that would circumvent the need to wait twenty-eight days for cybernetics to attune to you." He pauses to look thoughtfully at one of the more unusual looking items he tested, "Something that might act as a kind of bridge between the state you seem to exist in and the state of everything around you."

Gerhad looks at Ido and I, "Well, at least there's that grove of trees. That'll allow extra parts to be attuned to Jason's state ahead of time."

Ido nods absently, "True, but I was hoping to find an alternative, to be honest."

"Is there a problem with it?" Gerhad asks him.

Anticipating his line of thinking, I interject, "He's probably worried that if he goes out there too often, Zalem and a certain mad scientist might start to wonder what's going on."

Gerhad nods, her expression revealing quiet alarm at the thought of what it might mean if someone like Nova decides to take an interest in the time-traveling stranger that fell into their lives.

Ido grunts agreement. "Exactly. Every time I go out there, I could be running the risk of drawing unwanted attention to the site of Jason's arrival. There's no telling what Nova might do to Jason if he connects it to him, and decides he's worth studying. However, I think that a few widely-spaced visits should keep us out of trouble, as well as get Jason back on his feet."

Vague terror passes through me at the thought of what someone like Nova could do to me with the technology at his disposal. Numerous horrifying fates flitter through my mind, drawn from all sorts of fictional sources. In this age, with the nano-technology and who knows what else available, those horrors might be all-too-real. I have exactly zero illusions that there are fates worse than death in this world, and if this Nova should decide I'm worth turning into a lab rat, no doubt he'll show me some of them.

In an almost-growl, Alita voices her own feelings on the matter, "If Nova does decide to try something, anyone he sends is going to quickly wish they'd found another line of work."

Though probably meant to reassure, her words are far from comforting.

Gerhad turns to me with a faintly worried expression, "Hey, try not to worry about it, alright?"

Breaking myself out of my pensive silence, I look over at her, "Oh, yeah, I know. I was just thinking, life was starting to feel so normal, as odd as that might sound. I guess I forgot about how badly things could get if all this business about how I got here were to get to the wrong people." My gaze wanders skyward, "I'm kinda wonderin' if my staying here is really such a good idea."

Ido steps over to me, giving me a reassuring pat on the shoulder. "You aren't putting us in any jeopardy. There's absolutely no indication that anyone outside of our little group has any idea about your unusual nature, and I intend to keep it that way."

Managing a faint smile, I reply, "Well, I appreciate that. Even so, I'm sure you'll be glad to finally get me out of your hair."

Ido finishes putting away the last of his equipment, then turns to me, "Actually, I'd been meaning to speak to you about that."

"About what, my leaving?"

"Yes. Ever since you brought it up some days back, I've been thinking." Ido glances at Alita, "When my family and I were first exiled here, we weren't entirely sure what we would be in for. Even so, knowing where you come from, we were still more familiar with this city than you are. In light of that, Alita and I talked it over and have decided that even after I've gotten you put back together, perhaps you should stay for a bit longer in order to learn how to more safely navigate this place."

That old impulse hits me again, the one that tells me that I'd just be in the way. Despite my desire to accept his offer, I say to them, "Well, thanks, but I think I've taken up space in your home long enough. I-"

"Now, hold on a moment," Gerhad says suddenly. "Before you just turn him down, give it some thought. Up until a month ago, you've only really seen what it's like outside the walls, and even with the positive impact Alita's had on this neighborhood, there's still plenty of dangers you'll need to be on the lookout for. Especially if you should ever leave this area. Other parts of the city are a lot more dangerous."

"Not sure that's really necessary," I say, cutting an uncertain look towards the main door and the city beyond. "I mean, Alita woke up with amnesia and she seems to have picked up how things work well enough." It's a laughably flawed argument, but one I seem compelled to make anyway. Some part of me still feels the need to give them a reason not to help me. Perhaps because I continue to feel they've done more than I deserve already?

Alita patiently points out the obvious, "I also had a lot of help learning about this new world I woke up in, which is what Ido and I are offering you."

Gerhad soundly comments, "You may also want to keep in mind, you lack Alita's fighting ability. Unless there's something about yourself you haven't told us."

Mentally sighing in resignation, I reply, "No. And you're right." Having relented, I now feel stupid for having argued against receiving their offered assistance. There is so much about this place I still don't know, and having nothing like Alita's (or even Ido's) combat capability, I'd better learn how to avoid danger since I can't fight my way out of it. I already know I'm no match for the kinds of augmented trouble-makers I'll likely run into around here, if I'm not careful.

Having settled the matter, the clinic is readied to receive patients and Ido opens for business. The day goes by in a bit of a blur, as I find my spirits buoyed by the renewed hope of walking again. The end of the day arrives, and I offer to take over cleaning for Gerhad so she can head home early, which she gratefully accepts. Just after Gerhad leaves, Koyomi shows up, having been called earlier about meeting with Ido.

"Hey, Old-Timer," she says to me with a wide grin. "I heard about the good news, that you may be gettin' new legs soon."

With a quick swipe of the cloth in my hand, I finish cleaning up the counter-top I was working on, then place it in my lap with the can of spray cleaner I was using. Turning to her with a half-smile I say, "That's the rumor." Turning my wheelchair towards her, I asks cheerfully, "So, how's the salvage business?"

"Pretty good, actually," she replies with that upbeat attitude that's so reminiscent of Loretta.

A pang of heartache hits me, as I realize I still miss her and Henry. And the farm. But, unless something changes to relax the security restrictions, I can't see pushing my luck by trying to sneak through the gate again, no matter how successful that first attempt was.

Quick greetings are exchanged as Alita gives her friend a quick embrace, then Ido fills her in on the specifics of our recent findings, as well as his plans for leaving items out in the circle of trees.

Koyomi gives me a sidelong look, eyes slightly narrowed, as if trying to figure out what I am. "So, are you like, operating on some otherworldly frequency, or something?"

An exaggerated shrug, along with an expression of 'I dunno', is my only response.

"We still don't have any idea what all of this is, exactly," Ido explains. "But, we are slowly uncovering some understanding of aspects of it."

"Like the fact that it seems to take twenty-eight days for any cybernetics connected to his body," Alita adds with a nod in my direction, "to be put in the same state that he's in, allowing the cyberware to communicate with his body's systems."

A sly, and mischievous look comes over Koyomi as she asks, "So, if Jason's not affected by electricity, could I try something?" When Ido and I give her questioning looks, she produces a small paralyzer. A device about the size of a small flashlight, very similar to a sort of taser.

Alita and Ido both voice protestations, with Ido telling her, "Oh, no, I don't think that's a good ide-"

Seized by what is perhaps, a masochistic impulse, I hold out my hand to Koyomi, "Gimme. If anyone's gonna zap me with that, it'll be me."

"I wasn't actually serious," she says with a slightly surprised look, none the less handing me the paralyzer.

Ido's eyebrows come down and together as he gives me a skeptical look, "Are you sure about that?"

After giving the little cylindrical object a once-over to figure out where the triggering button is, I glance up at him, "Nope." Then I trigger it and jam the end with the twin, pointed prongs into the flesh part of my thigh. Not hard enough to pierce skin, but definitely hard enough to feel them through the fabric of my pants.

The device emits a loud snapping crackle and a flash of actinic, blue light as a spark jumps between the prongs. The little display is enough to startle me, but otherwise, nothing happens. With an odd sense of satisfaction, I give it a quick second attempt before handing the little device back to Koyomi.

She looks at me, mouth slightly agape, and asks in disbelief, "You really didn't feel anything?"

I simply shrug and shake my head. I can't help but smile a bit as well at her reaction.

Still looking somewhat incredulous, Koyomi takes the device in her right hand and touches the prongs lightly to her left hand. The zap almost knocks her over, and she yelps loudly.

"What are you doing?" Alita asks, she and Ido both visibly shocked at her action.

Shaking out her whole left arm, Koyomi says sheepishly, "I was just checking. I thought maybe it wasn't fully charged, or something." She continues to shake out her arm, as if trying to awaken a sleeping limb, "Whew, forgot how much these things hurt. My whole arm's numb..."

Alita slowly shakes her head. "Idiot," she admonishes her young friend.

Flexing her left hand, Koyomi looks back over at me with an excited twinkle in her eyes, "Wow, it's like you've got some kind of super-power."

"Maybe," I respond evenly, "but if someone clocks me upside the head with a metal pipe, or stabs me, I can still get seriously hurt. Even killed." A faint shrug, "I ain't immune to sharp, pointy things or blunt force trauma. Besides, I still think of it as more of a curse. 'Cause, ya know, it's also what's kept me wheelchair-bound."

After that, we get down to the business of planning out another trip out to the place of my arrival. Or rather, Ido and Koyomi plan it out, while Alita and I sit by and listen in. Ido draws up a list of cyberware and spare diagnostic equipment that he'll leave out in weather-proof packaging, to hopefully get altered over the coming month to a state that they'll work on me. When the time comes to decide on a day to do it, Koyomi sees no reason to wait.

"Why not tomorrow?" she asks Ido.

Raising his eyebrows questioningly at her, he asks, "You'd really be willing to go that soon?"

With a little dismissive wave of her hand, "Sure. Things have been going pretty well, so I think a day off couldn't hurt. Tye'll be glad of the break."

Curious, I ask her, "Tye?"

"Yep. He's a friend, known 'im for a few years now." With a slight shrug, she adds, "We've been working together on this salvage gig, ever since-" her voice catches for an instant, her expression clouding over. It's so quick, I almost miss it. "Well, for a while now," she finishes, with an almost awkward smile.

"I can compensate you for your time," Ido tells her.

"Oh, you don't really need to do that," Koyomi protests.

Alita gently lays a reassuring hand on Koyomi's arm, and tells her with a soft smile, "Hey, it's alright. We've been doing pretty good ourselves. We can easily afford to give you something for helping us."

Koyomi accepts their terms and I sit back, listening as they talk some more. Mostly about the details of the trip, but a bit of side conversation as well. After several minutes, I decide to make myself useful and head for the kitchen to make tea for everyone, letting Ido know on my way out. After setting the kettle of water on to boil, I settle in to wait for it as I listen to the others talking. I can't really make out what their saying, nor am I really paying attention, as my mind is wandering down numerous possible futures and what my life is going to be like in this place.

It's moments like these, when I stop to really think about it, that it becomes so hard to believe that this is my life now. It's like a part of me still can't understand where my life went. Alita's voice interrupts my musings.

"Jason!" she calls out from the other room. "Come here."

Maneuvering out into the living room, I ask the group, "Yeah? What's up?"

Ido answers, "Koyomi just had an interesting thought." He looks at Koyomi expectantly.

With a slight shrug, Koyomi says to me, "You got here by time-traveling through some kind of temporal anomaly, right?" Her tone is more explanatory, than questioning.

A little uncertain as to what she's getting at, I glance around quickly at the three of them, "Uh, well, far as we've been able to tell, yeah."

"Well, we were thinking," she goes on eagerly. "If that anomaly could warp time and change you the way it did, maybe something else that interacts with the time stream could help to somehow correct the problem. Maybe provide the answer Ido's been looking for to get your cybernetics working without having to wait a month for them to adjust to you?"

It takes a moment for me to grasp what she's saying. Narrowing my eyes slightly, I ask Koyomi, "Are you thinking about that stasis field in the crashed warship?"

Koyomi nods. "The anomaly messed with the time stream. From what I've been told, a stasis field messes with the time stream as well. Maybe it can somehow provide help with all this."

"Well, that's an interesting idea, sure," I say slowly, with an acknowledging nod to Koyomi.

Alita gently bumps Koyomi's shoulder playfully, "She's being modest with that 'we', by the way. It was her and her interest in science fiction stories that came up with the idea." To which Koyomi responds with a bashful smile.

Numerous thoughts start spinning through my head. Chief among them, why is a highly advanced Martian warship lying out in the Badlands instead of having been salvaged for it's no-doubt valuable tech? Answer; probably because it'd be stupidly dangerous to screw with military hardware that could contain who-knows-what kind of fail-safes to prevent tampering. One of the things my time in the military taught me, is that if it's dangerous and it ain't blowin' up, don't poke it until it does.

With some uncertainty, I ask, "Are you sure that's a good idea? I mean, just because Alita was able to safely access it once, doesn't mean it's safe to go messing with it."

Ido clears his throat, "That's why precautions will be taken. Even if she's unaware of them, Alita's core contains access codes that allow her to get us into the ship. However, I'll need protective underwater gear, as the entry is completely submerged. Once inside, I can start slowly, and very carefully looking over the equipment. We have almost two weeks before the next game, so that's plenty of time to at least start looking at the device. I can set up a little camp and begin carefully studying it."

To my ears, Ido doesn't sound real confident about all this, something that I give voice to, "You don't sound entirely sure about this."

Ido shrugs dismissively, "I have some doubts, but I think Koyomi's idea merits at least looking into. One reason being, a trip out to that ship isn't going to risk drawing any attention that could cause us trouble, unlike a trip to that forest. If I can find something to help you at that wreck, it may prove to be a better answer than the circle of trees."

His words, 'something to help you', give me pause. The thought that he's going to very possibly risk his safety on my account doesn't sit well. Like somehow him and the others helping me in this way is going to draw unnecessary danger their way. The idea that it could all be on my account, fills me with a sense of dread that's difficult to define.

Driven by this vague sense of unease, I say, "Look, maybe this isn't such a good idea. Do you really need to be running a risk like this, messing with that thing? I mean, trying to smuggle me through the gate seemed dangerous enough, but this-"

"I think this is safer, actually," he interrupts, leveling a steady gaze at me. "People have been out to that wreck repeatedly over the years without incident. And even with the possibility of Nova keeping a close eye on Alita, her going out there isn't likely to draw any undue attention." He gestures toward Koyomi, "Our making a trip out to the Badlands without her, will in all likelihood go unnoticed. The vast majority of Zalem's monitoring is reserved for Iron City and the immediate area, and I don't see them sparing any for us. Especially with the recent Barjack attacks."

Running my hand through my hair, I still can't help feeling a vague sense of panic. The idea of them risking their safety on my behalf makes me feel faintly nauseous with anxiety. "Well, shit," I mutter helplessly.

"Hey, it'll be fine," Alita says confidently, even offering a faint smile of reassurance.

The impulse to laugh at her assurance hits me, as does the thought, 'Ha! Yeah, 'fine'. I'll just drive down to see the new house, it'll be fine. We'll just drive into Iron City and make some deliveries, it'll be fine.' I try to summon some kind of argument against this, but come up empty. So, I sigh and say, "Yeah, maybe."

It's about then that the shrill whistling of the kettle fills the air.

"I'll get it," Alita announces, already gracefully rising from the couch and heading for the kitchen.

While she's off, a list of supplies is put together and a schedule of visits between Alita's Motorball games is drawn up. By the time Alita comes back with a cup of tea for each of us, everything's pretty much been planned out.

Koyomi takes her tea with an appreciative smile at Alita, "Okay, so tomorrow, Ido and I will take the trip out to the circle of trees to lay out those cybernetics and other equipment."

Ido takes his cup with a nod of thanks to his adopted daughter, "And once I get the proper gear put together, the three of us will head out to the ship." He takes a tentative sip of the hot tea. "That shouldn't take more than a couple of days, I think."

Holding my cup carefully in my lap, I state, "So, Gerhad and I'll be running the clinic then, while you guys go off and poke at a centuries-old military wreck."

Ido nods, "We won't be gone long, maybe three or four days for this first trip to study the stasis field system. Gerhad's a talented cybernetic technician, so the two of you shouldn't have any trouble holding the clinic together."

"But first," Koyomi announces, "we head to the Temporal Forest."

Alita gives her friend a sidelong look, "You're calling it the 'Temporal Forest'?"

Koyomi merely smiles and shrugs, "Considering what it is, I thought it should have a cool name. How 'bout, 'Trees of Time'?"

Suppressing an amused smile, I shake my head at her, "How 'bout we just call it the circle of trees. After all, it's a big circle, with trees."

Shooting me a comically unimpressed look, Koyomi chides me, "You just have no imagination."

Despite being unable to shake this bad feeling, I can't help but chuckle. The remainder of the evening turns into a pleasant social visit, and my worries are eventually forgotten.