Chapter III

Back on the city's street level, Jack and Tetsuko were having breakfast in the only restaurant he considered suitable. It was a small noodle shop tucked away in a remote corner of the working-class district. Jack was instinctively drawn to it because the cuisine was comfortably familiar and there were hardly any people there to notice him. The business was family-owned, and although they were not natives of Earth they had lived on the planet long enough to master its cuisine.

For Jack, just being inside the small restaurant with its familiar smells and furnishings was a welcome relief from the overwhelming smoggy cityscape outside. However, Tetsuko was out of place right from the start. The homeless woman was more accustomed to eating from dumpsters behind restaurants than inside of them, and had no idea what she was supposed to do when sitting in a real chair at a real table. She fidgeted nervously across from Jack, hunched low and glancing all around from under her hood as if she expected someone to throw her out at any moment.

When a small alien waiter approached the table, Tetsuko instinctively reached for her cup, fully prepared to throw it at his head. To her surprise he politely offered her a menu and asked her what she would like to drink. Seeing her confusion, Jack told the waiter to bring water for both of them. As soon as the waiter left Tetsuko quickly hid her face behind the menu in an attempt to mask her embarrassment. Jack began to wonder if it had been a good idea to bring her here. Had he remembered how detached she was from polite society, he would certainly have offered to feed her some other way.

Suddenly Tetsuko interrupted his thoughts with a dramatic gasp of surprise. She had lowered the menu enough so that her face was visible again, revealing an expression of complete astonishment in her usual steely eyes. A moment later she had dropped the menu on the table and was pointing at it excitedly with her only good metal hand, as if she had just made an incredible discovery. "Six! They have six different kinds of noodles! Did you see that? Six!"

Jack looked back at her. He looked at his own menu. Sure enough, there were six different varieties of noodle listed there, just like in every other noodle shop he had ever visited. Before he had time to say so, Tetsuko was talking excitedly again.

"Incredible! I always heard that you could get whatever food you wanted from a restaurant, but I never thought it was actually true!" She paused and lowered her menu, looking at Jack with some uncertainty in her eyes. "Uh, I can order whatever I want, right?"

Jack smiled and nodded his head to reassure her. "Yes, I will pay for any food you wish to eat. And do not worry about the cost. I will take care of it."

Tetsuko went back to thoroughly studying the menu in silence, speaking only to ask Jack what certain foreign words like 'tofu' and 'soy' were. Seeing her happy made Jack feel much better. But as soon as the waiter returned to take their orders, she proceeded to list off one dish after another. "I'll have two yakisoba, a sukiyaki, three ramen … No, make that two ramen and three yakisoba … Wait, three sukiyaki … You know what? Just give me three of each."

The small alien waiter stared at her with very round, orange eyes. "Yes, ma'am." he said at last, quickly scribbling the order down on his notepad. "And for you, sir?"

It took a moment for Jack to reply. "Uh … green tea and shrimp ramen."

The waiter jotted down his order and smiled pleasantly at him. "Very good, sir. Your meals will be ready shortly. In the meantime, would you care for any appetizers?"

"Yes, we would!" Tetsuko said with great. "Bring us some steamed rice and the biggest plate of pot stickers you've got!"

"Right away, ma'am!" the waiter said cheerfully before disappearing into the kitchen. Jack could almost see all his funds vanishing with him.

Soon the waiter returned with their appetizers. No sooner did the dishes touch the table then Tetsuko began to make the food disappear. She made no attempt to use the chopsticks on the table. Instead she scooped her bowl up to her mouth and began noisily gulping the rice down as fast as humanly possible. Within seconds the bowl was completely empty and she had moved on to the pot stickers.

Jack let his own food grow cold in front of him as he watched the sight with a kind of disturbed fascination. Tetsuko was homeless and penniless, so it stood to reason that she had been hungry for a long time. In his mind he knew he should be glad that she was enjoying her food. But never in his life had Jack seen anyone, man or woman, devour anything with such ravenous gusto. The closest thing he could compare it to was watching a hyena tear the flesh from the bones of a fresh carcass.

This continued even when the main course arrived. As Tetsuko loudly slurped yakisoba noodles straight from the bowl, Jack began to notice he was not the only one staring at her. There were other customers in the restaurant with them, and all of them were looking at her with the same expressions of disgust. It was time for him to do something.

"Tetsuko." Jack said.

No response. More noisy slurping.

Jack cleared his throat and raised his voice a bit louder. "Tetsuko."

She paused and lowered her bowl, mouth full of half chewed vegetables and meat. Apparently she had forgotten the name she had accepted from him the night before, as it took a moment for her to realize that he was addressing her.

Tetsuko swallowed the food in her mouth in one gulp, plunked the bowl on the table and glared at Jack in annoyance. "What? Can't you see I'm eating here?"

Jack leaned over the table slightly and lowered his voice. "You are making a scene."

She looked around, noticing the numerous eyes on her for the first time. She looked back at him, licked broth from her lips and arched a cynical brow. "So?"

He suppressed an exasperated sigh. "It is dangerous. If you attract too much attention an enemy might discover us. Your body is damaged enough already, another fight could make it worse."

Tetsuko glanced briefly at her bionic right arm sitting limply in her lap. It had been nothing but dead weight for a good twenty-four hours. The clumsily applied tape did nothing to hide the ugly scorch marks and frayed wires. Perhaps Jack had a point. And naturally, she had to deny it.

"That damage was yourfault, pal." she said, pointing one accusing metal finger from her functional left hand at him. "I could've taken those drones myself if you hadn't shown up and made a mess of things."

Jack frowned. Tetsuko was remarkably good at getting on his nerves. None of the other women he had met ever argued with him like this. Actually, she reminded him more of his friend the Scotsman than a proper woman. They both threw insults around wherever they went and started fights as though they enjoyed it. Jack hated to think of what might happen if the two of them ever met.

Then he had an idea. His frown turned upward into a smirk. If treating Tetsuko like a woman would not work, maybe treating her like a man would. He sat back in his chair and spoke very calmly. "In that case, perhaps I should leave."

Tetsuko suddenly looked worried. "What?"

"I have places to go and things to do." Jack went on, calm as ever. "If you do not need my help, there is no reason for me to stay here and pay for all this food."

Tetsuko gaped back at him. He had struck her in the wallet, her weakest spot. With a low growl, she snatched up the chopsticks by her plate and began to eat with them. It was difficult for her to use them with her left hand, but it slowed her down enough to keep her quiet. The other customers, who had still been watching them, returned to their meals.

Relieved, Jack finally began to enjoy his shrimp ramen. As he ate, he began planning what to do afterward. They still had to find a proper mechanic, and there was no telling how long that would take. The repairs for Tetsuko's arm would be expensive, no doubt, but nothing his gold pieces couldn't pay for. Assuming he had any money left after the bill came, of course. They would have to do everything without being noticed by any police, bounty hunters or mercenaries that might be in the area. Then when they were finished he would have to leave Metro City as quickly as possible to resume his quest.

Leaving the city meant leaving Tetsuko behind. He felt an odd twinge of guilt at that thought. He had only met her a day ago and she was not the most pleasant company, but it did not seem right for him to just abandon the poor girl. She had no home or family, and would have to go on living in the underground junkyard, fend off police drones by herself, and survive on other people's scraps. On the other hand, he certainly could not take her with him on his quest. With bounty hunters and Aku's minions constantly chasing after him, it was simply too dangerous to have a travelling companion. Besides, he could not afford to get too attached to anyone in this time, because he would inevitably leave them behind once he found a way back to his own time.

A loud crash and a scream suddenly jolted him back to the present moment. Three teenage boys had broken down the front door of the restaurant. They all wore black masks that covered their faces except for their mouths and eyes. They were also carrying guns.

"Freeze!" one of the boys yelled. "This is a robbery!"

Another boy, the largest of the three, aimed his gun at the nearest waiter. "You. Get all the money out of the cash register. Now."

The third boy waved his gun to the rest of the room. "Everybody else, get under the tables and leave your valuables on top!"

All of the customers obeyed and crawled underneath the tables. All except for Jack. He remained seated bolt upright in his chair.

From the floor, Tetsuko tugged at the edge of his robe and hissed up at him. "Psst! Get down here, stupid!"

Jack did not reply. He stood up and placed one hand on the hilt of his sword. That was when the robbers noticed him.

The third robber pointed his gun at him. "Hey, you! I said get under the table!"

Tetsuko pulled on his robe again. "Do as he says, Jack! Don't make a scene! It's dangerous, remember?"

Jack continued to ignore her. He tightened his grip on the hilt of his sword, staring the robber down as if daring him to fire.

He did. However, the bullet never reached its intended target. In the blink of an eye, Jack's blade had sprung from its sheath and sliced through the air, splitting the bullet neatly in half. It clattered onto the floor in two pieces.

The robber gaped in shock at this, as did his companions and everyone else in the room. Tetsuko smacked her forehead and groaned.

All three of the robbers opened fire on Jack, intending to turn him into a human piece of Swiss cheese. Jack charged across the floor at them, waving his sword so swiftly that it was only a shiny metallic blur in front of him. The noise of gunfire and clashing steel filled the room. More bullets fell to the ground in segments and the air reeked of gun smoke.

Once Jack was within striking distance, he sliced the barrel clean from the nearest robber's gun and struck him in the face with the blunt end of his sword hilt. He did the same to the next robber, knocking him into a shelf and breaking several dishes.

That left only one robber, the largest of them, still standing. However, he proved to be smarter and quicker than his partners. While Jack had been busy with them, he had grabbed one of the small alien waiters by the shirt and lifted him in the air as a living shield. And as if that weren't enough, he pressed the end of his gun against his hostage's temple. "Don't move, or I blow his brains out!"

Jack froze. The alien trembled. The robber grinned. "That's better. Now, put the sword down and get on the floor with everyone else."

There was a long, tense silence. Jack looked from the smug face of the masked robber, to the terrified face of the small alien, to the worried faces of the other waiters and customers hiding under the tables. His mind raced for a solution to this dilemma. Perhaps he should have listened to Tetsuko and taken his own advice, but it was too late now. There had to be some way to stop these villains and protect the innocents, some option besides surrender. The two fallen robbers began to stir and made pained groaning sounds. Jack's mind raced faster.

Suddenly a metal object sailed over his head and crashed into the center of large robber's face. He dropped both his hostage and his weapon, and fell to the ground with a heavy thud. Jack blinked at the sight in surprise. His eyes grew wider when he saw what the metal object was. It was a dismembered cyborg arm.

He turned around. Somehow during the confusion, Tetsuko had come out of her hiding place under the table and climbed on top of it. She stood there with her hood off and a triumphant grin on her face. The stump of her right arm was clearly visible under her cloak. "Bull's eye!" she cheered, thrusting her left fist in the air triumphantly.

The other two teenage robbers, now fully alert and sitting up, did not see Tetsuko. All they could see was Jack brandishing his sword over them and their unconscious leader sprawled out on the ground. It was their turn to start trembling now. "P-please, mister!" said one, backing away from Jack. "We were just kidding! We weren't really gonna hurt anyone, honest!"

Jack glared menacingly at the man and pointed his sword at him. "Leave this place, and never come back."

The robbers were happy to oblige. Grabbing their leader by the legs they dragged him out the same way they had come.

Once they were out of sight, Jack slid his sword back into its sheath. Almost immediately he was surrounded by the grateful alien waiters who were all trying to express their gratitude at once. "Thank you, kind sir! You have saved our lives! We are in your debt!"

"Please, there is no need to thank me." Jack said humbly. "Besides, I am not the only one responsible for saving you."

He turned to Tetsuko, who was scooping up her dismembered metal arm from the floor and trying to tape it back into place again. He had not expected her to be of any help in the fight, but she had surprised him once again. As the waiters swarmed around her and began praising her for her bravery, her previous boldness suddenly vanished and she became flustered and embarrassed. Clearly she was not used to this sort of attention. "Oh, uh, it was nothing." she said, blushing slightly.

"Please, brave heroes," one of the waiters said. "Let us repay you for your courage. Is there anything at all we might do to show our thanks?"

Jack was about to politely decline, but changed his mind when he saw Tetsuko clutching her broken arm to her chest. "Now that you mention it," he said. "We have been searching since yesterday for a mechanic to help my friend. Do you know of someone who could help us?"

The small aliens huddled together, murmuring to each other in their native tongue. Tetsuko inched her way over to Jack's side, pulling her hood back on as if to hide from her new admirers.

Soon the alien murmuring stopped and they turned their attention back to the humans. One of them spoke. "We know of a very fine mechanic who works here in this city."

Another waiter chimed in. "He is a master of his craft, and cyborgs are his specialty. You will not be disappointed with his work."

Jack's spirits rose at this glimmer of hope. "Where can we find him?"

The aliens muttered in their own tongue a bit before answering. "His workshop is far from here. We will provide a map to show you the way."

A few of the aliens scurried to the counter, where they fished out a blank piece paper and a pen. After a few minutes of more strange gibberish, they returned with a small hand drawn map. "Here you are, sir." said one, giving it to Jack. "Good luck, and thank you once again."

Jack politely accepted the map and paid the aliens for breakfast, even though they insisted on giving it to him on the house. Tetsuko followed him out of the restaurant, still trying to hide her face under her hood.

"Boy, that was lucky." she remarked as she came up beside him. "So now all we have to do is find this mechanic they were talking about."

"Here, you read the map." Jack said, giving the piece of paper to her. "You are more familiar with this city than I am."

Tetsuko took the map in her left hand and studied it for a moment. "Hmm. Looks like the shop is near the other edge of town. That's a really long walk from here. Looks like we'll have to ride the bullet train again."

Jack stiffened. He remembered riding that horrible, screeching, overcrowded, mode of high-speed public transportation all too well. "Are you certain there is no other way to get there?" he asked.

Tetsuko nodded her hooded head.

Jack groaned. "Very well. The bullet train it is."

To be continued …