Mirror: Chapter 22

Pandemonium exploded on the starting zone, as the grudge matches all kicked off simultaneously. Alita had a perfect view of the entire thing from the final pole position.

The mock challenges issued in the main hall evolved into actual fighting. She realized there was no other way. If the racers intended to help Alita and Adem they had to fight convincingly and to fight convincingly it could only be real.

They were creating chaos and ripping each other apart to give them a chance.

"Thank you, everyone," Alita whispered.

"Don't hesitate!" Adem said, "Shadow me!"

Adem's wheels smoked as they spun up on the metal track, and she fell in behind him, synchronizing her kicks.

The reason their synchronization worked was total reliance on Alita's extraordinary reflexes, adapting on-the-fly to his movements. Confusion briefly caught her as he charged into the leadership role.

His perception was uncanny, and he moved like oil.

"Goddamn you, Adem," she cursed, through clenched teeth.

"There was no other way," his voice was resolute.

She wanted to retort, but his tone left no real room for her to reply.

Fine. I'll finish this quickly, just hold out.

Up ahead, Sarah was in the lead with the motorball, and Shark trailed behind for interference.

Adem reached back and found her hand without looking, gripping it tightly.

Suddenly, he braked, and she whipped by. The two of them locked in a spin-up vortex, reversing around each other.

Sometimes during Panzer Kunst training, or during an intense fight, everything aligns, like tumblers in a lock, and the memories unlock for Alita.

"Fly!"

No old memories returned this time, because Alita reminisced about recent ones. Adem, before he was a total replacement cyborg, studying under Ido. He was awkward and annoyingly shy, but she wouldn't admit she found his art to be flattering then.

Her rollers sparked from the maxed-out speed, and the incredible momentum kept her glued to the near horizontal wall as she took the high side of the tubular track, out of reach of the heavier and slower Shark down below.

Ironically, she could only see him for who he was after she couldn't see him anymore, after his tragedy. He implied it was the gang that burned him, but then he would have just said so. It was obvious who did it, now.

Alita's eyes shifted, glancing down and behind her. Shark had given up on trying to intercept Alita and turned to fight Adem. Everything in her heart screamed at her to turn around and fight Shark for him, but instead, she narrowed her eyes and set them back on Sarah.

It hurts, but it's the only way.

He asked me to do something important, and I will see it through.

That punch he hit her with the second time they raced flashed across her mind as she coated her Damascus Blade in plasma. What did the other racers say? Adem didn't kill. She had seen him do it only once in a game where it was expected, all the time, and only after I was threatened.

Then why hit me with all your might, knowing it would destroy you?

I will say this, that punch woke me up.

Alita coiled and jumped off the angled wall, descending at Sarah's back.

---

"So she's not going to save you?" Shark asked.

Adem refused to give a pointless reply. Instead, he readied himself and engaged the oscillator in his forearm. Ahead he could see Alita's electromagnetic profile, a lighthouse beacon in an ocean of candles and darkness.

"Going to fight your way through, then?"

"No," Adem said simply, lurching forward, "I'm just going to fight."

The two contestants charged at each other at full speed. At first glance, the conflict appeared unbalanced against Adem.

Then the true nature of the fight was revealed.

Adem's cybernetic body was re-geared towards the deployment of strength, rather than speed. As such, even the larger Shark moved faster than he did, but none of Shark's hits could land.

Adem dodged before any of the animalistic attacks started.

The EM-locator wasn't simply a three-dimensional imaging device Adem plugged into his mind, but a device of pseudo-prophecy. The channels running from the cyber core to the artificial body all engage as a cyborg's thoughts focus on parts of their body. But a cybersurgeon can pick up a quieter signal, watching the subconscious pre-open channels for use in an attempt to unify the body and conscious mind.

This trick was the reason Adem survived in motorball for so long.

The only thing keeping Adem from going straight for the kill was the ultra-tension spring, combined with a superdense counterweight, Shark was hiding in his body, presumably a secret trump card. It was clear Sarah demanded the installation, thinking the imitation would psychologically undermine Adem.

It just ensured Shark's defeat.

Shark could tell he was losing and ratcheted up the ultra-tension spring. Adem rushed forward and forced the arm against Shark's chest.
One misalignment results in self-destruction.

The superdense counterweight ripped through Shark's arm, rippling through the shoulder like a skipping rock on a lake, then exiting through his elbow with a crack. It ricocheted off the protective glass surrounding the track, shattering it with a gun-shot pop.

Adem's own arm wrenched off during the process. An irrelevant worry, everything was a matter of costs. To win, this sacrifice was necessary.

Shark watched in horror as Adem clambered over him, watching the reflection as Adem's palm set against his triangular teeth. Harmonic vibrations rattled them right out of his head.

The last thing Shark saw, in that impassive mirrored helmet, was Adem punching into his over-sized mouth and ripping out his brain.

---

"You didn't think it'd be that easy, did you?"

Sarah raised her hand, and red-hot plasma rolled from it.  Alita panicked because she made a rookie mistake, she left herself unguarded during a jump.

The flame engulfed her for an instant, as she shot through the burning cloud, then tumbled to the ground, disoriented. Breathing required effort, as Alita suppressed the urge to cough and choke.

Sarah's plasma igniter's clicked, and Alita instinctively combat rolled to safety.

During the exchange, Alita unintentionally repositioned ahead of Sarah, even though Sarah had possession of the motorball, and found herself chased. Bursts of plasma barely missed the evading Alita.

"Accept my passion!" Sarah laughed.

Alita's cyber core began to redistribute resources, drawing power from her physical power and increasing her plasma reserves. Her brakes screeched, and plasma completely coated her fist and arm.

No more running.

The two women collided like matter and antimatter, and the two fields of plasma, Sarah's boiling red wave against Alita's calmly flowing one, exploded out.

One of the women screamed out in agony, and the obscuring plasma cloud dispersed.

Alita, her hair singed and skin blackened by the flames, plunged her fist and arm through Sarah's chest. With a growl of disgust, Alita yanked her arm back, and Sarah fell limply to the ground.

Adem, wobbling, weakly pulled in close to Alita.

From the ground, Sarah extended a shaking hand to Adem before falling limp, "You promised to take care of me."

"I'm your brother," he said, "But I'm not your father."

---

Adem and Alita returned to the clinic after limping over the finish line. The two of them moved cautiously, avoiding any painful bumps with giddy laughter.

After stabilizing repairs, Adem underwent surgery. The EM-locator sat on the nearby medical tray, extracted moments ago. Adem's fingers wiggled in front of his face, with a perplexed expression.

Alita held her breath.

Ido lifted a light and examined the reaction of each eye, then tested their tracking.

"It seems to have worked. You're showing all the signs of retention, but we won't know the extent of the catastrophic interference until some time passes," Ido concluded.

"Oh, thank goodness," Alita gasped, remembering to breathe, "But he'll recover?"

"He's on track to, yes."

Before Ido could finish his statement, Alita clambered onto the medical table with Adem and desperately clung to him.
"I'll give you two some privacy."

With her face hidden in his chest, Alita nodded.

Neither spoke.

---

The season was officially over. Alita's points summed up to the minimum required for entry to the professional circuit.

They celebrated with a date.

"Bring her back safely before curfew," Ido said, smilingly warmly.

"I mean, is that really necessary?" Alita asked, "We're adults, and we're probably more dangerous than anyone we'll meet out there."
"As the good cybersurgeon said," Ido nodded to his rocket hammer leaning by the door, "That which I reassembled, I can disassemble."
"Home before curfew then," Adem agreed.

"Don't give up so easily!" she whined.

They said little on their date, but they felt no pressure to talk.

During their time together, Alita noticed a worrying trend. Adem would misjudge the distance of his steps occasionally, or have to reach twice for the same object. He didn't act concerned about it, so she forced herself not to, as well.

"Coach was ecstatic, said both of us made enough points for the pros."

Alita's eyes locked on Adem's face, and she waited patiently for him to glance at her. When they met eyes, he immediately looked away.
"That's good," she smiled, taking his hand, "And what did you say?"

He tracked a car, then blinked and refocused on it, "I said I'll have to take a look at the points myself, and we'll have to see."
Her hand suddenly gripped his, tightly, "Please don't make jokes about it."

"Sorry," he said quietly, against her stern voice, "I think I know my answer anyway, regardless of the prognosis."

"You're quitting?"

"As I said, I hate fighting. I've had my fill of motorball. I've had my fill of a lot of things, actually."

"It's a good number of games to retire on," she smiled, "You'll return to fulltime cybersurgery?"

He nodded, "Oh, and some good news. I found an apartment. Kind of cheap, but the motorball payout covers the rent for a while."

Alita smirked, "I'll come over. You're going to have to avoid getting hammered tomorrow."

---

The morning glare forced Adem, groggy from so little sleep, to squint.

Breakfast was the usual: coffee and a bit of chocolate, which they would steal from each other. Sometimes Alita compromised, and they had bacon and eggs instead.

As Adem stumbled sleepily into the kitchen, Coach's voice pinged, "Mr. 12?"

How long had it been?

"Not anymore. It's just Adem now."

"It's a good change. I hate to bug you, but have you heard from Alita? She hasn't answered my calls."

Adem glanced back at the pretend-sleeping woman on his bed and noticed her breathing change rate.

"Yeah, we're dating, so I can pass on a message."

"Congratulations, son. Would you remind Alita that there's a deadline for registration?"

"I will, Coach," Adem said, "and I'll guarantee she'll call you back."

He watched her mostly resist sinking her head into the pillow. He rolled his eyes.

Adem stood in the kitchen and ran the coffee grinder ceaselessly until Alita sat up with an overly exaggerated stretch and yawn.

"Oh? Did I wake you?" Adem asked sarcastically.

"Ha! Yeah, I had a great dream!"

"Was it about motorball?" Adem asked, turning off the grinder and setting the percolator.

"No," Alita said, dragging out the last syllable, "It was about us!"

"Breakfast?"

"Chocolate?" she asked fluttering her eyelashes.

Adem stared at her while he put the frying pan on the stove. She scrunched up her mouth. He continued staring until her eyes slid off to the side.

"I mean, bacon and eggs sound nice." She gave a defeated laugh.

"Alita, you won't believe who called while you were asleep."

Her voice was nonplussed, "Oh, gee, who could it be?"

"Coach. Can you believe it? He said some odd things about you avoiding him."

"I like it here," Alita said, suddenly sullen, and curling her knees up to her chest, "It's like something went right for once."

When she looked up, she saw a bit of chocolate hovering in front of her. She gave a tiny shake of her head, but he didn't pull it away. After a few more minutes she snickered and took it.

He sat down and bumped her shoulder with his. She leaned into him.

"Ido tells me there's a town advertising for a cybersurgeon."

Alita nodded, nibbling on the food. A few seconds later her hands rested on her legs.

This was the only way it could have happened.

"You're not the type to let a fight go unfinished. If you walk away from it now, you'll have that shadow hanging over you forever, and it'll poison everything you do."

She nodded again, before dropping the chocolate and hugging him.

---

"Hey, kid. Welcome back."

Alita locked the Damascus Blade on her forearm, then put the holocard of Adem away, safely tucked into her armor.

"Sign me up, Coach."