Ch.2: New Life

Previously on Inspector Gadget: Reboot

"This is security officer David Harder. Surrender or I will be forced to fire."

"Congratulations are in order officer," the man said. "No one has lasted that long before when I've used the oil slick. The accidents that follow are usually fatal. However, I have backup plans should the oil slick fail to dispose of my pursuers. Care for a demonstration?" he asked as he brought out a small remote and used it.

The lights in my interceptor went out and the message 'Electronic Systems Failure' flashed on the computer monitor in the car.

"This is only step one, step two will prove to be the fatal step," the man in the limo smiled as he took an explosive out of the limo and tossed it towards my interceptor. It stuck to the hood as I started the reboot of the electronic systems.

I looked up again and saw the man smile as he produced another remote and pressed the button.

"Feel free to stick around officer, although I'm sure it won't be for much longer. Meanwhile, I really must be going," he stated and got back in the limo which drove off.

The electronic systems finally rebooted and I got out of the car as fast as I could. I had only run a few steps when the bomb exploded. I felt a searing burning pain run through my body followed by nothing.

Lloyd Xavier watched in the back of the departing limo as the bomb went off and engulfed me in flames. He smiled and flexed his mechanical hand.

"Success to the mission, and to the project. Let's get of here Hammer before the cops turn up. I've got a date with destiny."

Hours later I was in the ICU ward of a hospital and a doctor was talking to Taylor Ramirez about my condition as they watched me through the window.

"He's got thirty six fractures, major extensive tissue damage, and several concussions along with severe internal trauma. It's an absolute miracle he's even still alive but the chances of him lasting another day are practically nil."

"Isn't there anything else we can do for him?" Taylor inquired.

"As of right now we've done all we can for him. If he was a pet and I was a vet I'd advise putting him down."

"Well that's not an option!" she snapped. "This man put his life on the line to recover the data that was stolen. That research has been mine and my brother's main focus for the last six and a half years! There's still more we can do."

Taylor turned around and pulled her cell phone out of here purse and called a number. "Mr. King? It's Doctor Ramirez. We've got a candidate for the Cyber Cop Project. We can go to prototype within the next sixty days. Do I have the green light?"

At the time that Dr. Ramirez was making the call Shelby had reached the hospital and was frantically trying to find my room. She turned the corner to get to my room only to find the way blocked by technicians wearing lab coats with the UniTech logo on the sleeves. The head technician appeared to be a Hispanic woman with shoulder length light brown hair that had a few blonde streaks in it.

"We need to move him to UniTech now if we're going to save him," she said.

"He's flat lining!" a doctor yelled.

"We need a defibrillator in here now!

"Clear!"

"Still flat."

"Clear!"

"No change."

"One more time and then I'm calling it. Clear!"

"Nothing."

"All right, we've done what we can. What's the time?"

"9:17 pm."

"Do you still want the body Dr. Ramirez?"

"Yes, if what I have planned works he might still survive."

"Well he's legally dead now and he signed the waiver when he joined the security force, we could care less what you do with the body."

"Then we're taking him. He has an excellent psychological profile."

Shelby couldn't process this information. I was dead and UniTech wanted my body? What for? What were they going to do? And what was it for? She was about to confront Dr. Ramirez when she was stopped by guard.

"I'm sorry ma'am. I can't let you go back there right now."

"But that's my boyfriend they're taking!"

"I'm sorry but civilians aren't allowed past this point until further notice. I'm going to have to ask you to leave."

Shelby saw the technicians taking my body and renewed her struggle to get past the guard but failed. Seeing the technicians depart through the doors, she turned around and ran for her car. She managed to get her jeep around to the side of the hospital where they were loading my body into the back of a UniTech truck. She tailed the truck until it reached the UniTech building. She parked her car across the street and crept up to the chain link fence so she could hear what the technicians were saying.

"Dr. Ramirez! We have excellent news! Whoever took the proof of concept technology for the Cyber Cop Project didn't get the Neural Wave Amplifier!"

"Thank heavens! That's the heart of the entire project! The Cyber Cop Project has been given the green light by the CEO. As long as we hurry I think we might have enough time to save him. Get the equipment for the operation ready. We have to start immediately!"

Shelby heard all of this and it only piqued her curiosity further than it already had been. What the hell was going on? And what the heck was the Cyber Cop Project?

START UP

POWER ON

SYSTEM INITIALIZING

CONFIGURE SYSTEMS

COMMAND SYSTEMS

SET PARAMETERS

MEMORY SET

BIO SUSPENSION ONLINE

SYSTEM BUFFERS ONLINE

PERFORMING SYSTEM DIAGNOSTIC...

SYSTEM EFFICIENCY: 100%

SYSTEM ACTIVATED

I felt as though I was in a rather heavy fog with a considerable headache. My eyes felt heavy and I struggled to open them. When I did I thought I was having a nightmare. I didn't have my normal vision. In its place I had what looked like a heads up display like you might see in a fancy helmet or for robot or cyborg POV shots in movies. I shot up straight in the bed I was in and looked at my hands. They appeared to be normal enough but I wasn't so sure. I flexed my right hand and it responded normally. After getting out of the bed I walked towards the mirror at the far end of the room but fell over after the first step. I was like a baby just learning to walk. I finally made it to the mirror and looked at my reflection. I still looked normal. I was wearing a pair of grey pants and a white shirt and my hair was untidy. Then I noticed a faint blue light in my chest. I unbuttoned my shirt and found a what looked like a futuristic type of computer circuit. It was shaped like a circle, had a fancy script 'G' on the surface and was the source of the blue glow. Other than that I was fine. The Tony Stark like arc reactor in my chest did unnerve me a bit though. And I still had that HUD vision that was relaying information about my surroundings. I looked at the room I was in for the first time. It was colored with light grays and whites and smelled of disinfectant. Computer equipment lined the walls. I reached for the door handle only to have it crushed in my grip. I opted pushed on the door instead and it fell out into the hallway with a loud crash. I cringed slightly and peeked out the door. There was no one in sight. I walked out and turned a corner only to run into two security officers.

"Hey, what are you doing here?"

I didn't stick around to give an answer.

"Come back here!"

Boy was that a stupid thing to say. The guy running away never listens. The guards gave chase and I put on an extra burst of speed. That 'extra' burst of speed was more than I had anticipated and it drove me right through a wall. The even odder thing was that I had felt nothing at all and I didn't have a scratch. I stumbled through and found myself in another lab. The doctors and technicians looked at me and then dove for cover while one of them tripped the alarm. I would have gone back out the way I had come but the two guards had cut me off so I went for the main doors instead. I burst out and made it to an elevator which took me to the ground floor. The doors slid open and I ran out straight into a trap. There were ten security officers waiting for me with raised guns.

"Uh… I surrender?" I managed to say.

"You're coming with us," the lieutenant said.

As he said it my vision became highlighted in red and the HUD prioritized the targets. Before I knew what was happening I had become a blur of motion. My hand lashed out and knocked the machine gun out of the lieutenant's hand and crushed the barrel like it was tin foil. I then slammed him in the chest with the palm of my hand. I kicked another guard in the gut as he attempted to rush me and then dodged out of the way as another guard opened fire on me. A slide of my legs in his direction landed him on his back and then I knocked him out with a roundhouse punch when he got back up. The rest of the guards were shocked by the ease and speed with which I had taken out their comrades and backed up a bit before priming their weapons. It's a bit hard to explain what happened next. All I know is that I managed to catapult myself over their heads just as they fired and then knocked them all out with one long punch to their jaws. Here's the thing though: my arm extended away at the wrist to punch the guards. I stood for a minute in a daze until Dr. Ramirez came in with a dozen more security officers who leveled their weapons at me.

"Dr. Ramirez, what's going on here? What's happened to me? The things I can do aren't human! My vision is like a heads up display, I can run like a cheetah, ram through walls without getting a scratch, I just knocked out ten guards and I don't remember a thing!"

"You may not remember much, you suffered several severe concussions in the explosion," she answered hesitantly.

"What?"

"Mr. Harder, will you come back with me to my office?"

"Well, alright. But could the guards put their guns down? I don't want what happened to those guards to happen to them."

A few minutes later we were in Taylor's office and I wanted some answers.

"I still have a lot of questions," I said as I paced. "What exactly happened to me?"

"You've just come out of a very long recovery."

"What did I have to recover from? And why do I have super human abilities all of a sudden?"

"You were caught in an explosion thirty two days ago. You suffered severe injuries but you were miraculously still alive. You flat lined in the hospital and we did the only thing we could to save you."

"And what exactly was that?"

"You were chosen as the candidate for the Cyber Cop Project. You are the world's first prototype cyber police officer designed for the Detroit police force. You'll be stationed at Metro South."

"I think I understand what you're saying but could you repeat that in English?"

"David, you're a cyborg."

A/N: There you go, another chapter. How was this one? Sorry if you found it a bit boring. I promise that things will be more exciting in the next chapter. Gadget will finally be unleashed on the crime in Detroit. Ha ha ha. R&R. One review= another chapter.