Chapter 2

Hiro woke up in a bedroom. He was laying on a nicely made bed. He sat up and looked around. There was a pile of clothes neatly folded on a chair in the corner of the room. Hiro stood up, and felt a little dizzy as he did. He shut his eyes, and then opened them again. His head felt better, and he moved towards the clothes. His eyes had played tricks on him. The pile of clothes was a pair of sweatpants. He pulled the pants over his freezing legs.

He looked around the room. There were two others things. A lamp and a door. No windows. He walked towards the door. He tried the handle, and to his surprise, it opened. He stuck his head out. The hallway, floor, and ceiling were coated in metal. There were emergency lights on the ceiling. He was underground.

He had two options. Go left, or go right. Both, one, or none of those options could lead him out. He didn't know anything about this compound or his captor(s), so there was no way to know what way could lead out. He looked around, and took a wild guess, turning right, towards his dominant side.

He walked down the bare hallways, not running into anyone or anything. He made the only turn he could, and right around the corner was a huge open room. There was a glass window on the ceiling, twenty feet up. There was no way he could get up there to get out. That also meant that they were somewhere remote, where no one would see the giant glass panel letting sunlight into the underground room.

He looked around the large room. On one side, there was a large workshop with various inventions of different sizes and in different stages of completion. On the other was a table with two mechanical arms above it. That was the only thing that seemed to be completely finished, so he walked towards that. There was another table on the other side of the bigger table. On it, was a metal armband with a laser shooter in it. There was also a metal chestplate, with something that looked like a power source in the center of it. The glass around the power course was a red. Connected to the chestplate by a few wires, was a metal left glove. The chestplate was also connected to the laser armband. The glove had a hole in the center of the palm, which Hiro assumed was a energy blaster. There was a full metal left leg, and a metal right foot.

What concerned Hiro the most though, was the eyeball. It looked like a normal eyeball, but when he picked it up, and looked at it, he saw a small camera inside, along with lots of other wires. It looked like whoever was here, was building a cyborg. And he didn't want to be here when they did.

"Do you like it?" Hiro dropped the mechanical eyeball, and turned around. Standing not ten feet away from him, was Allister Krei. Hiro looked back at the cyborg stuff, then at Krei once again.

"You?" Hiro asked.

"I had a feeling it was you from the beginning," Krei said, "but I didn't want to do anything to an innocent kid, so I waited for solid evidence. And you did a lovely thing and gave it right to me,"

"I can't believe it," Hiro said, "we saved you. I guess Callahan was right when he said that you only care about yourself,"

"He probably was. I've been waiting," Krei smiled. Hiro looked back at the cyborg parts. There was a light layer of dust on a few of the pieces. They had been there for some time. He ran. He thought because he was younger, and more agile, he could outrun Krei. He was wrong. He was tackled to the ground, and he felt a needle being inserted into his neck. He started seeing spots before he went under.

Hiro woke up back in the bedroom he was in to begin with. He tried sitting up, but his chest felt heavier than usual. He lifted his arms; they were also heavier. He lifted his legs; both were heavier, his left significantly more than his right. It was when he opened his eyes that he realized what had happened.

Hiro could only see out of his left eye. He brought his right hand up to his right eyes, and touched it. It was still there, but Hiro felt nothing. Then he noticed his body. He realized what was going on. He was the cyborg.

"Beautiful, isn't it?" Allister Krei stood in the corner of the room.

"What the hell did you do to me?!" Hiro shouted.

"I considered doing it piece by piece, but that would take too long. You came later than expected,"

"You turned me into a cyborg!" Hiro yelled, struggling to stand, "why?!"

"I need someone to do my dirty work," he said.

"And why the hell would I do that?"

"I could easily take control of your mind, via your new eye, but no. Hiro, I believe in freedom. I believe in choice. So Hiro you have the choice. Do what I say or I will kill your brother,"

Hiro laughed, "nice try, but my brother's been dead for five years,"

"Really," Krei pressed a button on a remote. Something in Hiro's right eye flickered. A video of Tadashi in a cell appeared. He was bouncing a ball methodically against the wall. He looked exactly as he did the day that he died, except he didn't have his hat.

"How do I know that's real?" Hiro asked, "he did that all the time,"

"Come with me," Krei left the room, leaving the door opened for Hiro. Hiro struggled to get the rhythm of his metal leg to his metal foot down. He stumbled a bit before being able to follow Krei from the room. He turned left, and followed Krei down the hallway. It was hard for him to focus on walking with the video of Tadashi in one eye, and reality in the other. They arrived at a sealed door.

"Listen," Krei said. Hiro pressed his ear against the door. He heard something bouncing in the room. These bounces matched up perfectly with the bounces of the ball in Hiro's video feed.

"How do I know you're not playing the same video in there?" Hiro asked.

"If you don't say anything," Krei said, "I'll let you slide this under the door.

He handed Hiro a bag of food from Wawa. Hiro held his breath. He bent down, and slid the food in the slit at the bottom of the door. In his right eye he saw Tadashi stop bouncing the ball, and go after the food that had been slid under the door. In his left eye, he saw a grown man on his hands and knees, hungrily grabbing at the bag of food. Hiro let the flap close in shock. It was true. His brother wasn't dead. Tadashi Hamada was alive.

"So Hiro," Krei said, "do we have a deal?"

"Will I get to talk to my brother?" Hiro asked.

"Maybe someday," Krei said, extending a hand to Hiro. Hiro thought for a moment, then shook the hand of Allister Krei.