CROWDED ELEVATOR

He couldn't help but feel self-conscious. Suddenly everybody in the elevator had x-ray vision. The puppet-like joints in his knees and elbows were showing through the thick fabric of his dark grey jeans and red jacket; his eyes were glowing in circuits and green Matrix-numbers. He shifted uncomfortably, and re-adjusted his old baseball cap restlessly, eyes darting between the other thirteen bodies crowded around him, feeling their stares on him even though he couldn't see them doing it.

He bit his lip –it felt almost like flesh, but not quite- and stared pleadingly at the number display above the doors of the crowded elevator, wishing for it to go faster. With a lazy, mocking ding, it hit the twentieth floor and opened its doors, releasing three people and letting on four more. Tyson whined low in his throat.

He turned to the barest of touches on his left hand, to find Kai staring reassuringly down at him, a slight smile on his face.

He leaned closer and murmured lowly, "Only fourteen floors to go. Relax, Kinomiya."

But he didn't feel like a Kinomiya. He didn't feel like a Tyson. He felt like Project XG9 with a side of freakshow.

Kai's hand squeezing his, though. He could feel that, and it felt good.

As the elevator stopped on another floor, Tyson studied Kai from the corner of his eye. Kai looked so much older now. So much older than him, even though they were the same age. There were new lines on his face. His cheeks, now without the face-paint of yore, were more defined. He had small wrinkles around his mouth and between his eyebrows from scowling so much. He seemed taller, though Tyson was sure he was the same height he was when they had been separated almost five years prior. It was probably because Tyson himself was now in a body that looked like he had when they had first met almost fifteen years ago. Talk about weird. That damn Boris had some serious issues, and that was only half of it; he was as evil as they came.

The elevator finally stopped on their floor and they stepped off into an empty corridor. Kai moved swiftly and quietly next to him, but Tyson swore he could hear his prosthetic body clanking and whirring with every step like some bad eighties sci-fi movie, echoing loudly in the hallway.

Kai seemed to notice his hesitance and waited for him to catch up before taking off again at a slower, more sedate pace, one hand resting gently at the small of his back. It was more consideration than Tyson was used to from Kai and it made him feel even worse.

The conference room they entered had a large ceiling-to-floor window at the back overlooking the ever-growing New Tokyo. Light from the midday sun fought hard against the harsh fluorescent lighting. Sitting around the large circular conference table at the centre of the room were four people, only one of whom he definitely recognised, another he thought looked vaguely familiar.

"Tala!" Tyson exclaimed. "How ya doin', bud?"

"Tyson," Tala greeted, crossing his arms and legs and leaning back in his chair. "Kai."

Kai nodded at him, closing the door behind them and leading him to the two remaining chairs near the front of the room. The other three occupants stood and bowed politely at them as they took their seats; Tala stayed sitting where he was.

Tyson tensed in surprise as he suddenly felt two arms clamp tightly around him.

"Tyson! I'm so glad you're alright!" The man pulled away just as abruptly as he'd latched onto him and held him by the shoulders at arms length, eying him up and down. "You look exactly as I remember! …That's kinda weird, but that doesn't matter with people like us. Say, do you still blade?"

"D-do I know you?" Tyson asked.

"You don't remember me?" The man was crestfallen. He released Tyson's shoulders slowly; head down, his long bangs hiding the hurt in his wide green eyes, as he fiddled with the ends of his waist-length aquamarine coloured hair.

Tyson glanced over at Kai, distressed. Kai just rolled his eyes at the man.

"He just doesn't recognise you," he said. "Idiot." Tyson couldn't be sure who Kai was referring to then. "It's Zeo, Tyson."

Tyson's eyes widened. "Zeo!" No wonder the man looked so familiar! He now had a foot or two on Tyson's current form. His body was more built, his face was a little more mature and his voice was much deeper, but the eyes were the same as those of the little squirt that had been so excited to meet him all those years ago.

Tyson crushed him in a hug, recognition now setting in, and Zeo returned it with as much fervour. His friends were returning to him one by one. Next, they would probably spring The Chief or Hilary on him! And they'd all look older than him, too. Tyson somewhat resented that.

But Zeo was an android! How did he manage to age at all?

He asked him, with as little tact as ever.

"That's why we brought you here," said an older man Tyson was pretty sure he'd never seen before. The man was small in stature, with a rapidly receding hairline and a face like an ape. His grey eyes were sharp and calculating.

Tala smirked at him. "How would you like a new body?"

Tyson sat there in a few moments of shocked silence.

Zeo bounced excitedly beside him. "I've already started constructing the shell. It'll be awesome! It's a good thing Kai had some pictures of you from when you were already all grown up or else I'd have to make your face up!"

A dark haired middle-aged looking man with glasses spoke calmly over Zeo's babbling. "Believe it or not, he's our number one specialist in the construction of prosthetic bodies." He gestured to Tala. "This young man is a fine specimen of his work."

Tyson boggled. "You Tala?"

"Got a problem with it?" He uncrossed his arms and legs and leaned forward with his elbows on the table.

"N-no! It's just… I didn't even notice!"

Zeo beamed at that as Tala chuckled.

"It takes a bit of controlling, as I'm sure you've had to figure out," he said, gesturing to Tyson's own prosthetic body. But his looked absolutely primitive compared to Tala's! "You'll get used to it soon enough. I'll be there to help with your physical therapy."

Ape-face stood up. "We'll give you a few minutes to decide."

The room quickly emptied, leaving Tyson alone with Kai.

Kai was staring at him critically. "Are you okay?"

Tyson flung himself into Kai's arms. "It's all so much! First I'm trying to catch my plane in Germany, then Boris kidnaps me and takes my brain out and puts it in this oversized doll and then locks me up and makes you not love me anymore and…"

"Tyson," Kai said, calmly. "Shut up. Who says I don't love you?"

Tyson pulled away, twiddling his thumbs. "Well… y'see…"

Kai cupped his cheek and tilted his head up. "I love you, no matter what body you're in." And he leaned in and pecked him lightly on the lips. Tyson pouted and demanded a longer kiss than that as proof. Kai snorted. "Maybe when you're older."

"See you on the other side." Zeo's encouraging words and the light brush of Kai's lips against his forehead were the last things he remembered before he succumbed to the darkness.

Then suddenly he was jolted awake by a hard spank on the ass.

Tala's smirking face was the first thing he saw. "It lives," he said, as he detached some kind of cable from the back of his neck and peered into his eyes as if searching for something. "How's the vision going?" Without waiting for a reply, he attached the cable to the back of Tyson's neck, his eyes unfocussing for a moment, before he nodded in satisfaction and unplugged himself. "Everything looks good, doc."

Tyson could faintly hear Zeo in the background protesting that all his bodies were good as Tala asked how he was feeling.

"It's done?" he croaked. His voice sounded the same as ever, at least.

The doctor appeared behind Tala, making notes on his clipboard. "Everything's done. We just have to detach you from the machinery and you should be good to go." The doctor smiled reassuringly at him over the top of his clipboard, before disappearing behind Tyson's back to do just that.

It was an odd sensation, having a multitude of wires being pulled out of various ports along his spine, then to be stood up on limbs that he thought should feel foreign to him –as they had only been attached to him a few minutes ago- but strangely didn't. They felt as much a part of him as his old, flesh-and-blood body. He didn't know if he felt more or less disoriented by that.

The doctor was in front of him again, breaking him from his train of thought. He allowed himself to be led to an examination table and sat down.

"Now, can you make a fist for me?" he asked, demonstrating as if Tyson had never made a fist before. Tyson complied. "Good."

They went on like this for what seemed like hours, testing reflexes and muscle response and his sense receptors.

Finally the doctor stepped back, seemingly satisfied and left him to Tala and Zeo's care, promising to send Kai in after him.

"Speaking of Kai…" Tala leaned closer to him and nudged him on the side, grinning wickedly at him. "I had Zeo put in a little something extra for you." He threw a lecherous wink in his direction as Kai walked in. "Trust me. You'll thank me."

Somehow, that worried him more than anything else he could have thought of.

Kai stood in front of him, eyes flickering over every inch of his face, and Tyson bit his lip, starting to feel nervous. Then Kai gave a satisfied "Hn," and suddenly, Tyson felt better.

And then Kai leaned in and kissed him. Long, soft and sweet, and Tyson felt a lot better after that.