As it would happen, the government wasn't forced to give back everything. Just the stuff not related to McDowell. Despite Alex and Grant getting back their personal work, FutureTech now had very little in terms of viable working research. Entire studies had been stolen, a contract they had made with the government months before had been seized, including all FurtureTech's already completed work. This left them without any subject matter to present to anyone who could hire them.
Within three months Future Tech was being closed. They sold as much of the now useless equipment as they could, paying out a final check to the laid off employees. Alex seethed in a perpetual bad mood. No one had the right to destroy an entire company like that. Except the government.
"I'll prove the government was wrong to take everything." Alex assured. "I still have the Master Drive, which puts us back at stage one, but at least it's something. I'm sure there's another company we can work with on cybernetics. When we sell these designs, modified just enough to be unrecognizable as McDowell's ideas, we'll make a come back they won't expect."
It was three am the day after they had sent everyone home. Alex, Grant, and Rick had spent the last few hours in a bar. Penny was with a couple of the interns that Alex was keeping on payroll for a few more weeks.
"You'll show them." Grant agreed. "We're down but not out!" He yelled into the empty lab.
"Hey mind keepin' it down?" Rick suggested. He'd never been one to hold his liquor well, and his head was already aching.
"Sorry." Grant replied back. He stumbled to a couple metal chairs and sat down with a huff. "One last night before we say goodbye." He mumbled.
"To a dark and mysterious future." Alex whispered. She was staring at the wall where the computer bank once stood. Her eyes were glazed over and she seemed to be viewing an altogether different scene. "I remember when McDowell brought me in here. Gave me the grand tour. I fell in love with this place."
"Didn't we all?" Grant asked.
Rick was quiet. He had that strange sensation deep in the pit of his stomach. The display in his right eye was flashing some kind of warning, but he was too drunk to read it.
Alex finally looked at the two men. "I think we'd all better get to our rooms before we start embarrassing ourselves in front of each other."
Rick nodded in agreement. "I'm gone." He replied starting for the door.
"Goodnight my friends." Grant called as he remained in his chair. Alex gave him a questioning glance and he shrugged. Obviously he was going to stay there for a little while longer.
Rick made his way fumblingly to the dormitory. His mind was so fuzzy that he was having a hard time keeping his focus. His legs locked up a few times on the way. He got to his room and sighed. He opened the door and walked inside. His head was starting pound now and he was sure he was going to be seeing the contents of his stomach.
He sat down on the bed. As he waited for the inevitable to come the sick feeling in his stomach cleared up. He wondered if it was just the calm before the storm, but after nearly forty minutes he found himself feeling rather well.
He knew Alex had told him that certain weaknesses he had before would no longer be a problem for him. Obviously getting drunk wasn't as dangerous, or as painful as he was expecting. He wondered if it was a good thing or a bad thing. His low tolerance for liquor had kept him out of trouble in some ways. Now there wasn't a reason to turn an invite to go drinking down.
Rick had been handling everything pretty well. He'd agreed to the surgery, and to all the extras that came with it. While he wasn't sure what they had done to him was totally ethical, he was finding some good in it. He never would have been able to react to the terrorist attack at Penny's unveiling before. One perk was that his reflexes were faster, he found himself thinking faster, acting faster, and he liked it.
Not to mention he had an impressive arsenal always with him. From everyday standard police issue weapons to military level tools reserved for spying or extremely dangerous missions. And of course there were some everyday tools. Things he would use on a regular basis.
Rick took off his shirt and looked at his arms. They reacted to touch just like any man's, and they felt real, but they were completely synthetic. There were a few scars along his shoulders where the synthetic skin had been grafted to his original flesh. His hands were masterpieces in their own right.
His hand looked exactly as it should. Lines on the palm, finger prints(an exact copy of his original prints), and wrinkles on the knuckles. But they were built to house an array of weapons and tools. Aside from the laser in his index finger there were things like screw drivers, lock pick, flashlight, lighter, glass cutter, pen, toothbrush, corkscrew, 22 caliber gun barrel, and the like.
When Rick had told Alex it sounded like the Six Million Dollar man he had expected fewer extras. His eyes had been fitted with several different lenses: Optical zoom up to one mile, infrared vision, night vision, and a camera/video recorder. Anything he saw that he wanted to record he could with just a thought.
Some type of hearing enhancers had been implanted into his ears allowing him to pick sounds from a mile out. He could also pick up any radio channel within the area from a private military channel to a couple kids' walkie talkies.
His skin had somehow been bulletproofed, including the flesh on his neck and chest. Alex had warned that his original skin wasn't flawless, high power guns and certain types of bullets would still pierce through.
And then the weapons installed in his arms like the submachine gun, a larger 50 caliber, throwing stars, tranquilizer darts, a sleeping gas launcher, and a pair of twin blades that came out of his wrists. There were also tools like a grappling hook, lasso, extensions that allowed his arms to telescope to unbelievable lengths, an oil slick, and an extinguishing hose.
His legs were designed to extend to great lengths as well erasing the necessity of a ladder, they were equipped with high output spring shocks that gave him the ability to bounce back up after landing. His feet hid a pair of rocket launchers. Alex told him she had to redesign the shoes that he would need to wear. She promised him they would come not only equipped to work with the rocket launcher but with the ability to change their function. The shoes would be able to change into skates, skis, and have magnetic and suction cup features for daring adventures he was sure he would never do.
Everything was a little beyond him. He didn't quite understand how Alex had pulled it off. The prosthetics was one thing, but all the extras were just astounding. Not to mention he was alive. That was the most important thing to Rick, that he was still breathing.
He put a hand on his bare chest. He could feel the activity from within, the gentle beating of his heart(which was half mechanical), an unfamiliar constant vibration, and the expansion and retraction of his lungs(one of which was a cybernetic replacement).
Now that he was a cyborg, Grant had told him that was the scientific designation, he felt a lot more alone than he ever had. But he had no complaints, he'd agreed to it. And since the government had been denied the right to seize either Penny or himself by the judge he could relax.
That's why they'd gone drinking to celebrate Rick and Penny's freedom. To face a life locked up in a government owned lab would have been a true torture.
Now he had to prepare for something more daunting than waking up after two thirds of your body was replaced with mechanical replacements, becoming the guardian and sole provider of a child.
Rick remembered his parents. They had died when he was a teenager and he missed them terribly. He wondered if they would have approved of his choices. Would they be proud he was a cop or that he had agreed to let a scientist turn him into a cyborg? He couldn't say.
He tried to remember how they had been when he was young. Their gentle loving ways and their strong discipline. He hadn't always understood his parents, or agreed with their ideas, but they had done everything out of love. He wasn't sure he could care for Penny that way. He just didn't know if he could go it alone like that, a father figure to a child born in a lab, with no wife to help him along. Heck, he hadn't even had a girlfriend to visit him in the hospital.
Rick laid down on the bed and stared at the ceiling, he pushed out his thoughts, ignoring the perpetual dialogue box in his vision, and slowly gave into sleep.
Rick looked at the building in surprise. When Alex had said she had a family estate he, Penny, and Grant could come stay in until they found work, he had imagined an average two story house. Not the sprawling mansion before his eyes. His HUD analyzed the plants and the materials the mansion was made of. He ignored the screen and glanced back at Alex. "This is yours?" He asked. He was just a little surprised by the place.
"My family has always had it's share of success. When my father died he willed all his assets to me. My mother was already dead, so I got everything. I put a lot of money into FutureTech." She finished quietly.
"Are you sure?" Grant asked. "I mean this is your home."
"Relax Grant." Alex put a hand on his shoulder. "I have plenty of room here for all of us. Besides, I'm sure Rick will be finding his own place here pretty soon." She gave the other man an encouraging smile.
"Yea, I hope your pull with the local sheriff's office is good enough to get me a start. I don't like to owe anyone anything. And I already owe you my life." He replied. Alex shook her head. She didn't understand the man's dislike of being indebted to anyone. He'd simply explained 'I'm from the Midwest, we don't like owin' people anything.'
From Wichita Kansas, Rick had been moved to FutureTech in Chicago and now to Reno Nevada, Alex's hometown. The city was quite a sight, tucked in a valley guarded by mountains on all sides and filled with towering hotels. But it was also smaller than Chicago, something Rick thought was a bonus. He didn't much care for huge cities filled to the brim with people.
Rick stuck his head back into the black SUV. Penny was still in the car in her car seat. She was just waking up. He unhooked the basket from the base and lifted it out of the car. "You wanna see it too?" He asked turning her face towards the mansion.
Alex's friendship with the Sheriff paid off and Rick was soon a police officer again. His experience and the heroism he was known for helped greatly of course, but Alex was able to pull strings so that physicals and any other medical examinations weren't needed. And of course Alex had to play with Rick's new uniform. She took it and fitted it with secret openings.
Rick found his only struggle with returning to work was feeling like the new guy. He was somewhat treated like a rookie despite his five years experience. The guys were like any cops, already good friends, set in their ways, and known for giving the 'new guy' some trouble.
But he had been through it once and knew what mistakes to avoid, and who to avoid. Although he knew there was no way to be on everyone's good side. A man in particular seemed highly unlikely to ever respect Rick, Greg Tanner. At some point Rick knew he'd have to face the guy in a fight, but he wasn't worried about himself. He was worried about causing a commotion, and accidentally doing more damage than was morally permissible.
His mechanical hands could crush a windpipe in just a few heartbeats. That was his biggest fear, causing reckless harm. So he laid low for a while, took the heat, and made friends the best he could. Of course he knew at some point that they would learn his secret, but for now he kept it to himself. The Sheriff and the Department Chief had to know these things, but Alex had told them and provided enough details to keep their curiosity down.