NOVEL NEXT Book 3 Start - Chapter 134
Trace groggily came back to himself, a small groan coming out of his mouth. "Where am I?" He mumbled out.
A hard finger flicked his forehead, shocking his eyes open. Sitting to the side, leaning over him, was Ko. She helped him sit up, bracing his neck while she did so.
"How are you feeling? You've been out of it for three days now." Her hand moved away from his neck. "This is looking better though."
He was feeling a little weak and hungry, but his neck and lower spine had been healed while he was unconscious. Despite knowing it had been healed, the memory of the pain was still fresh in his mind, and it took several seconds for him to hesitantly move his neck. Finding that there was indeed no pain, he sighed in relief and moved it some more.
"How come I'm in your apartment, and not at my place or the clinic?" He wondered, looking around at their surroundings.
She stood and folded her arms, glaring at him. "You were taken from your place for one thing, and we decided it was better to not bring trouble to the clinic if it wasn't necessary."
He winced at that. "Yeah, that did happen, though to be fair, it was by a couple of gangsters and not anyone actually affiliated with G1gl3Myte or his corporations. Speaking of, has there been any word from him?"
Ko shook her head, a few creases lining her forehead. "Atraxia sent me a message shortly after Monroe called, telling me that they had managed to get you. She wanted to let me know that she had gotten in touch with G1gl3Myte and was handling the matter. I haven't heard from her since, but the bounty does seem to have disappeared."
"That's something, at least." He muttered. "I won't need to worry about wearing that stupid mask everywhere." Trace swung his feet over the side of the bed and carefully cracked his neck, taking it slowly. "Apparently, that is how I got caught. Those gangsters saw me leaving the clinic without it and then followed me back to the warehouse."
She groaned and palmed her face. "Ugh, I didn't even think about that. We were so busy with other things when we got back with Hannah."
Trace nodded. "Pretty much. How is she doing?"
"Honestly? I'm not sure. When she first woke up, it was bad… Sevorah had to pump her full of tranquilizers just so she would calm down enough to listen to us. Her screams actually scared a few patients from the clinic. They left and haven't returned. If we hadn't strapped her arms and legs down, I'm sure she would have attempted to tear something off."
"You said that was when she first woke up. How about now?"
"Now, well, I've got her using the mental courses in the system. I was finally able to explain to her how to use it last night, along with the need to keep quiet about the entire thing." Ko ran a hand through her hair, a look of disgust appearing as her fingers came away greasier than she would have liked. "Ugh, I need to take a quick shower. The last few days have been busy, and I haven't had time to even do that much."
He pushed her towards the bathroom. "Go, take care of yourself. Don't stop doing that simply because I'm injured. You knew the nanites would take care of me."
"Maybe, but there is a difference between what they can do and helping heal you myself." With that, she grabbed a change of clothes and hurried to the bathroom.
Alone at last, Trace finally paid attention to the notification he had been ignoring since he first woke up.
- Muscular Strand Integration (Percent Completed): 02.42%
- Skeletal System Integration (Percent Completed): 04.232%
- Energy Diverted (Percent of Nanite Destruction): 07%
- Targeting healing of specific locations has increased their specific properties
- Current resources are insufficient, introduce more resources to reenable the healing functions
There were a few oddities in that particular message. For one, the percentage of nanite destroyed had gone down, when he would have expected it to go up. That might have been because he was unconscious and even more so because he hadn't been actively using the enhanced teaching modules. Those were the primary reason his brain had been increasingly out of control. Perhaps this break had been good for it.
The other thing he noticed was something he needed to read several times before he believed he understood what it meant. It was the reference to targeted healing and increasing those locations' specific properties. It was only through the clues of the previous lines that he understood what had happened.
The muscles in his neck, and the bones in his spine and been strengthened as part of the healing process. This would have happened at some point as part of the integration; however, the targeted healing had forced it to happen faster.
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His stomach gurgled unhappily as it twisted uncomfortably. He needed to eat something soon, along with some titanium and all the other various ingredients the nanites needed to work properly.
Before that though, well, Ko wasn't the only one who needed to take a shower.
Laying in bed for days on end, also left one getting rather grungy.
***
Trace was sitting on the edge of the warehouse roof, watching the clouds move overhead. The sun was sinking behind the mountains to the side of the city, while placed in between him and Ko was a bag of steaming burritos and a collection of metal balls. He might have been unconscious, but she had kept the original small 3D printer well-supplied with the collection of items he had set aside for it.
By that point, they had put together a decent collection of different metals. It was just a matter of swallowing enough of the marbles to make it all worthwhile.
As for the freshly made burritos, that was something Anna had discovered the other day. A couple of different restaurants had begun to appear near the area where the Midway Gang had been eliminated by Trace and the locals a month or so earlier.
The building they had previously occupied was still vacant, and Ko, along with Sevorah, were going to visit it the next day. Ko's clinic wouldn't need all that room, especially in the beginning. However, it was better to have more and not need it than too little and need more.
One floor would be dedicated to regular operations, the second her cyberware mending operations, while the third would become Ko's new apartment. The remaining floors of the seven-floor building could be used for storage. Or the layout might change. Perhaps, one would be dedicated solely to surgery instead of using a single room, which is how Sevorah managed due to limited room.
"So, after I originally messaged Monroe, he contacted you, and you, in turn, contacted Atraxia?" He asked, before taking a bite of the burrito.
She nodded and pointed her food at him. "And don't think I'm not mad at you for not contacting me, either of those times."
He growled. "I did that on purpose! I didn't want to get you involved in that matter. Everything about G1gl3Myte was and is dangerous. You're a healer, Ko, not a fighter. Yes, I know you can take care of yourself, but I don't want to put you in danger on purpose."
She sighed, and leaned back, her own eyes moving towards the clouds above. "Yeah, I figured that out after I took a moment to think about it. I'm still mad about it though, but it's why I only called her instead of going with them."
"I'm guessing she did something, since he never showed up after our first meeting together. He could have easily made everything harder, or even impossible." Trace threw an arm over his face. "Strictly speaking, my escape, while it was something I had to work for… was still handed to me on a corpo-made platter."
"What now then? Are you going to go after him?"
He snorted and shook his head before lifting his arm and taking a quick, small bite of his burrito. "No, not yet at least. For now, things go back to normal. I'll keep working jobs, working on my projects, and helping you and Deckard move forward with your own tasks and items."
"You honestly think it's going to be that easy?"
He sighed and sat up, looking down at the road and the old containers in front of the warehouse. "It's hard to say. A lot depends on what Atraxia actually did. Without her intervention… not a chance. G1gl3Myte or his people will come after me. Depending on what she did, that might not happen. If that isn't the case though," Trace shrugged. "I might have to leave or do something truly drastic."
She squeezed his hand. "Let's hope it doesn't come to that, then."
"Same, I don't mind going to other places for a visit, at least in theory, but I'd rather not move at this point."
They relaxed next to each other as they ate, just talking about whatever came to mind and looking out over the city and the clouds above.
"Do you want me to come with you and Sevorah tomorrow when you check out the building?" He asked as they climbed down the ladder back into the warehouse.
Ko laughed and shook her head. "I think you've done enough damage to that poor place for the moment. Besides, even if we decide it is a good spot, it will be a while yet before I move into it. The place needs to be cleaned and fixed up. Then I need to have a few items modified, not to mention all the equipment that still needs to be bought or moved over." She gripped the sides of her head. "I know Sevorah has been preparing a lot of that for me already, but I still need to pay for the building and everything else myself."
"Has she scheduled your test yet?" He wondered. The girl's mentor had agreed to put it off for a while, but hadn't wanted to do so for too long.
"No, I mentioned that I was looking after you, and she agreed to postpone even thinking about it a while longer. When I told her that you had woken up earlier and she scheduled this meeting at the building, her mind might have changed."
"Do you have to go somewhere to take the test? Or is it merely the six months that are making you so apprehensive about taking the test?" He opened the passenger side door of his car for her and then gently closed it as she sat down.
"Take me to the clinic, please." She requested as he got in. "And I have to take the test at the mender's headquarters in downtown Denver, but that is all. The time limit is definitely part of it. There is a lot that needs to be done to put a proper clinic together. But I admit that there is a lot more to it than that. I hate taking tests for one, and I also need to find someone to help me run the place." Her shoulders sagged. "I like being a mender, but running a clinic is taking on a lot of responsibility."
The warehouse doors closed behind them as he pulled carefully onto the road. "How old are menders typically when they undergo their graduation tests?"
"Between twenty-seven and thirty-three years old is the average." She replied softly. The ages she mentioned were much older than her own nineteen. "Of course, it does depend on when they start their apprenticeships, but having someone graduate at my age is incredibly rare."
Trace was only two years older than her at twenty-one and couldn't even imagine running a dual-sided business on his own. "I'm sure Sevorah knows a few people who can help you, but I can mention your situation to Stick-Point as well. He might know a few managers looking for work. Someone who can help you manage the clinic and mender side of the business."
"Yes please," She agreed readily. "Sevorah's contacts have been hesitant due to my age. If he knows anyone, then I would definitely appreciate it."