A bright light above my head stung my eyes as I tried to gather my senses.

“He’s awake!”

The unfamiliar voice returned, this time much louder, as though it was coming from right next to me. I looked to my right and saw a figure standing over me, their face being obscured by the light.

“Who… are you?” I asked weakly. “Where am I?”

The figure reached over me and pointed the light away from my face. My eyes, no longer being scorched by the light, were finally able to recalibrate and focus my eyes on the figure standing over me. A bob of blood-red hair surrounded the face of a woman, maybe a few years older than myself, with a scar under her bright blue right eye and a tired smile on her face. She looked me in the eyes and began to answer my question.

“My name is Lyra, and you’re in my basement,” she explained. “Not a good start, I know, but I saw you bleeding out in front of The Pit and figured you could probably use some help.”

I chuckled, which gave way to a wheezy cough.

“You were right about that,” I responded, a weak smile encroaching onto my lips.

I tried to sit up, but the weight of my beaten body was too much, and I flopped back down onto my back with a thud.

“Woah, I wouldn’t try to move much. I’ve got your vitals stabilized, but you’re still not in great condition.”

“Noted,” I sighed.

I looked around, trying not to move my head much. The bright light above my bed illuminated the room fairly well, allowing me to see some makeshift medical equipment surrounding the cot I was lying on. A heart monitor, surgical tools, bolts, and other objects were haphazardly placed on a metal table with wheels. The walls were covered in posters, mostly of bands and movies from the old world.

Another enjoyer of vintage things, I thought to myself, good to see there’s a few of us still left.

In the corner of a room, there was a metal cabinet, which had one door propped open. Inside were prosthetic limbs. A few legs, an arm, and a hand. I looked down at my own arms and realized there were still two, though one was entirely metallic.

“Oh yeah, about your arm. By the time I got to you, there wasn’t much I could do about your real arm, but I had the equipment and the know-how to give you a prosthetic. It’s not your real arm, but it’ll have to do,” she said, a hint of guilt in her eyes.

I slowly raised the metal arm over my face, bending and flexing my new metal fingers. It worked surprisingly well, given the look of it. Wires stuck out of the arm at odd angles, and the mechanical muscles whirred and buzzed as I moved.

“I haven’t plated your arm yet, but you should be able to do some basic movements with it. Just don’t get in any water before I have the chance to cover up the wiring,” she informed.

“I-,” I started, finding it difficult to talk with the overwhelm of emotion, “thank you so much, without you, I’d probably be dead.”

“Don’t mention it,” she responded quickly, “As payment, explain to me how the hell your arm got ripped off like that. That wasn’t a clean cut at all, it looked like someone tore it off with their bare hands.”

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I thought for a moment before responding. I barely knew what happened myself, and I knew how insane it sounded even when I explained what I did know.

“I barely know myself. One minute I had a bounty head in my sights, and the next he had disappeared and gotten behind me. He beat the shit out of me before tearing off my arm and leaving me to die.”

“What do you mean he disappeared,” she asked, looking at me as though I had sprouted another head.

“I… I don’t know, he just vanished completely. It was like he turned invisible or something,” I replied, unsure of my own response.

“Are you sure he didn’t just have some tech that made him super fast or something?” she asked, still confused. “They give you hunters files on the bounties, right?”

“Yeah, they do. I got a file saying that he might have some illegal mods, but it didn’t say anything about superspeed or invisibility. I don’t even think they’ve invented tech like that.”

She broke eye contact for a moment, appearing lost in thought. Then, without warning, she got up from the swivel chair she was sitting on and disappeared behind me.

Alright then, I thought to myself, perplexed.

Without her in the room, my mind began to wander. What had happened to me? What had Rodriguez done to himself to be able to do what he did? And another, more important set of questions, who wanted him dead, and why?

Something tells me whoever put me up to that job knew about what he was capable of, I thought. There’s no way it’s a coincidence that I get the job to kill this guy and he’s able to do something I’d never even thought was possible.

I could hear footsteps approaching as Lyra re-entered the room, her red hair flowing with each movement. In one hand, she held a glass of water, and in the other, a briefcase. She set the briefcase down on the table holding the medical equipment, then handed me the glass.

“I’m sure you’re thirsty. Here, drink.”

I took the glass in my right hand, the one made of flesh and bone, and took a sip. It had taken me a moment to notice, but I was parched. The cool liquid revitalized my throat, causing me to greedily down the entire glass. She took the glass from my hand and put it on the floor next to her feet, then sat back down in the chair.

“I was reading somewhere on the Gridlink that some tech company, I think it was Blackthorn, had just had a piece of tech stolen from them. It might be a coincidence, but that seems like a good place to start.”

She took the briefcase off of the table and opened it. She pressed a button on the side, and a bunch of holographic keys appeared, floating above one side of the case. On the other side, a screen lit up.

“Is that an old Cogger computer,” I asked with genuine interest.

“Yeah, I found it in one of the dumping yards while scavenging. It didn’t work at first, but I rewired it,” she said sheepishly, “I’m a bit of a tech nerd.”

“Hey, I’m not complaining,” I chuckled, “Your savviness saved my life and my arm.”

She smiled and looked back at the screen of the computer. Her fingers pressed the holographic keys rhythmically, and the light coming from the screen changed colors, illuminating her face. First a white light, then blue, and finally red.

“Yeah, it’s right here,” she announced, “ ‘Blackthorn Cybernetics insider tells media that a piece of experimental tech has been lost’. Looks like this happened four days ago. I found you about 36 hours ago so that timeline checks out.”

“Yeah, it might be related,” I responded. “If Blackthorn really is involved with this, then that makes things a lot more complicated.”

I sighed and laid my head back down on the pillow. The click of the computer shutting echoed slightly throughout the room. Lyra extended her finger and put it on my forehead.

“In any case, I wouldn’t worry about that right now. Not much you can do in your condition,” she stated matter-of-factly, “You should try to get some more sleep. I’ll see if I can scavenge for plating for your arm while you rest.”

“You’re probably right. Thank you Lyra,” I said, the weight of my eyelids pushing my exhausted mind deeper into the pillow.

“Again, don’t mention it. Have a good nap,” she responded, her kind voice flowing through my ears as I drifted off to sleep.