Mirror: Chapter 11

"So, what will you do?"

The gentle clinking of silverware on ceramic stopped when Ido finally broke the silence. Alita's eyes kept flickering between the two men at the table.

Adem finally said, "I don't know."

"You could return to cybersurgery?" Alita suggested.

After putting his fork down, Adem stared at his palms. Other than the white tape on his fingertips, his smooth metal hands reflected the light from the lamp overhead.

"I've been looking at these hands a lot, and they don't seem like a cybersurgeon's hands. They don't look like a racer's hands, either. What kind of hands did you give me, doctor?"

Ido answered slowly, while glimpsing at his daughter, "I picked parts that were a middle ground between the two, so you could choose. It's not my place to make you do one or the other."

Alita's face softened.

"After dinner," Ido said, clearing his throat, "We'll check your synchronicity."

With his jacket and shirt pulled off, Adem handed them to Alita before sitting on the operating table. Doctor Ido adjusted the panel on the side and pressed a few keys to start up his surgical assemblage. Hovering arms twitched, then ran through diagnostics. Screens flickered on with medical readouts.

Ido watched Alita peeking at the barechested Adem, and raised an eyebrow at her.  When she noticed that he noticed, she fixated on dusting the perfectly clean jacket.

"Okay young man. Open up."

After grunting a few minutes, Adem glanced at his chest in concern. Then, with a few moments of experimentation, the panel over his heart popped back and slid out of the way.

"I'm not used to something this advanced. My body looks as human as the berserker, just with less techno-fiber."

"We felt that something as organic-looking as possible would be therapeutic," Ido explained, lifting his nose to see down his glasses. With a grunt, he attached a diagnostic cable inside of Adem's chest, "Ultimately, Alita picked out the body."

"Oh," Adem turned his eyes to Alita, and she was determined to look at anything but back at him, "Well it's working. Thank you."

She dropped the shirt and jacket to hide her now red ears, then picked them back up to say, "I'm going to go take care of the dishes."

"Alita," Ido pointed out, "He'll need those back."

Alita swiftly glided over, dropped his clothes on the table, and power-walked out of the room.

Adem was giving a half-smile at her retreating form, which fell completely off his face when he noticed Ido was staring at him.

"Don't tease my daughter."

"Yes, sir."

After a shake of the head, the doctor pushed a few buttons. On the center screen, a number revealed itself.

33%.

Both studied the screen a moment before the elder of the two spoke up, "You are making remarkable progress, as expected of an unlikely sportsman. But it will get worse before it gets better."

After unplugging the diagnostic cable, and returning his equipment to the proper place, Ido asked a follow-up question, "You didn't answer before, what are you going to do?"

"I think," Adem said, threading his fingers together, "I'm done with Motorball."

"That's good to hear," Ido nodded, "Now how will you pay for the treatment?"

"Uh..." realization dawned on Adem's face, "Let me guess..."

"Congratulations on your new job as a doctor's assistant," the doctor joked, "You already know the hours and the clinic, so I don't have to give you the tour."

"How ruthless," the young man muttered, his chest panel snapping shut.

---

The problem was each of the cyborgs were extremely strong on their own. The two of them together? They were invincible.

"Did you two idiots see Adem at all?" Arez griped.

Shark, a cyborg with a fin attached to the top of his bald head, and Razor, named so for the knives he had for fingers, shook their heads.

"Where is Bruno?"

"Still staking out the clinic, boss," Razor explained, "Figured you'd want that, right?"

"Yeah, good call," Arez sighed, "Doesn't mean shit if we don't find Adem, though."

"Who cares about him?" Sarah said, laying on the round satin bed with her feet in the air, "He's a burnout. Done. Let's just fu--"

Arez bellowed, "Do you have any idea how much money he can still make us?"

"Of course, baby," Sarah's voice softened as she rolled over, pouting, "There might not be anything we can do, though."

At that point, there was a knock on Arez's penthouse door. The occupants all looked at each other.

"What?" Arez snapped, after yanking open the door, "The hell do you want? Go back to guard duty!"

With a smirk, the guard strolled inside, "I have the solution you desire."

"What the fuck? I said go back to guard duty!"

Sarah shook her head, jerking it with fearful motions, at Arez, "Honey, that's telepresence. He's not the guard right now."

The guard stepped lightly to the foot of the bed, gently cupping Sarah's chin and she seemed to float up into his palm, "It is said that beauty is in the eye of the beholder, and I have many eyes."