Sara woke up as Reba walked into the room. The first thing Reba did was check on Sara’s injuries, and after clicking her tongue against her teeth, she cut the stitches and removed them from Sara’s body. Reba seemed to be inordinately impressed by the fact that Sara’s leg wound had totally disappeared, leaving only a small line that had a slight silver tinge. "Hey, keep the fingers away from the scar. It’s not that extraordinary."

Sara sat up in the bed, absently scratching at her shoulder until Reba noticed and slapped her hand. "Quit it. You’ll reopen that hole in your shoulder, and I don’t want to deal with having to go through even more stitches."

Sara grinned and shrugged, revealing that her shoulder wound had also sealed overnight. "Well, just wondering, but didja get some sleep? Last night you were pretty burned out when I fell asleep."

Reba smiled, nodding. "Now, to answer your question; yes I got some sleep, and I feel humanish once more."

Sara nodded, then waited until Reba finished her inspection of her now-nonexistent wounds. "Well, can I leave soon? I really want to go home, despite all the good food and such here." Sara trailed off as Reba burst out laughing, then grinned. "I guessed that you needed a laugh, and I try to deliver. So, can I disappear? Please?"

Reba wiped some tears from her eyes, then nodded. "Well, your injuries have healed well, and they are no longer considered more than scrapes. I have no reason to keep you hanging around any longer, unless you want to become a comedian here."

Sara declined the offer with an eloquently raised finger, then smiled. "Well, considering that I don’t want to be fired from my job as a teacher before I start, I’d better go. I’ll see you in a month, or when I get shot again."

Sara collected her clothes from the duty nurse, thankful that they had all been cleaned, changed, and called Lucas, who was at the High School. Soon, he arrived with his sedan and drove Sara to her house. On the way from the hospital, she noticed a large house set slightly back from the street, and asked Lucas who owned the place. "That’s Dr. Zack’s house. You may have need of his expertise in physics occasionally when you take over the bio classes, but be warned; he’s slightly eccentric. Rumour has it that he has a genetic laboratory in his basement, which has produced weird aberrations such as three-armed children."

Sara pointed out that he was about to drive onto the sidewalk, and after he swerved back to the street she noticed that she was within a block of her house. "Y’know what? I’d rather walk. You managed to gross me out with your story." Lucas laughed at that, then puzzled over a question Sara shot to him. "How do I keep a moron in suspense, Lucas?"

Lucas pulled into her driveway and parked the car before answering. "Dunno. How do you keep a moron in suspense?"

Sara grinned, got out of the car, and told him. "I’ll tell you tomorrow. See ya Lucas." She closed the door before he could comment, then went into her house.

"Ahh, finally. I am so damn happy for being back in my house right now, and that’s because I can finally feel comfortable. Now, tomorrow, I’m going to take over Lucas’ class, and, knowing my luck, I’ll probably have all the troublemakers. How should I take control of the place? I could become a hellbitch and crack down on the class, but I vowed that I’d never become like one of my teachers. Or I could be a nice teacher with a penchant for jokes, pranks, and actually allowing the students to have fun while learning. I think I’ll be nice, at least until someone tries my patience a bit too often." Sara walked into the living room and leaned over the couch, looking at the TV for several seconds before noticing that it was on.

Looking down, she saw her friend lounging there, one arm covering her eyes. Sara, deciding to surprise Six, grinned, leaned over, and whispered "Happy birthday, CyberSix." Sara moved back so that she wouldn’t get cracked in the jaw when Six sat up, and considering that’s exactly what happened, she was grateful for her speed. "Boo. Surprised?"

Six muttered to herself for a few seconds, then smiled. "Well, you managed to scare the socks off of me. How did you manage to get out of the hospital so soon?"

Sara grinned and flopped onto the couch, narrowly missing Six’s head with her boots. "I applied some ‘pressure’ to Reba. Basically, she decided to kick me out because my injuries have shrunk to nothingness. So, how have you been doing? You went hopping around last night, and had an interesting conversation with me, Reba, and Dr. Zack. What else didja do?"

Six swung her feet out from under Sara and ran her hand through her hair. "Well, I ambushed a Fixed Idea about half an hour after I left the hospital, met up with some of my friends a little later, and otherwise wreaked havoc upon the resident population of Technos and Ideas."

Sara shook her head, smiled, and then nodded. "Okay, I give up on trying to keep you from bouncing around. You’re free to go anytime you wish. Lemme see, today’s the Fifteenth, right?" Sara saw Six’s nod, and smiled. "Okay, on the Twentieth, I’ll be rather busy, so don’t try to visit. After all, you remember what I said on the first day here."

Six nodded, then pointed out that it was barely noon. Sara looked at the TV, noticed that Six was watching another show, this time detailing ancient literature. "So, what’s with the show? Proving that you have no social life whatsoever? C’mon, let’s go shopping. There’s a mall about fifteen blocks east of here, and I made an appointment with a jeweller’s there." Sara grabbed her pendant from where it had been lying on a small table and put it in her trenchcoat’s left pocket. After putting her coat on, she grabbed Six’s arm with an iron-like grip and simply yanked her into the garage.

Sara dug around in a cardboard box for several seconds before handing Six a pair of old sneakers, then wheeled her bike out onto her driveway and waited for Six to appear. Soon, Six walked out of the garage, closing the door, and balancing a helmet on her free hand. "Y’know, before we scoot along, we need to figure out a name for you to use. After all, I don’t think that ‘CyberSix’ will make you any friends, and I don’t want to deal with a firefight right after getting out of the hospital."

Six grimaced, then brightened up. "Hey, how about Cyb? It’s close enough to my name, and not many people would try to figure it out anyhow."

Sara nodded. "Good enough. Well, on the bike." Six got onto Sara’s bike, but had difficulty with the helmet until Sara thunked it into place with her left elbow. Sara then tied her hair back into a ponytail with a scrunchie, and pushed it down between her shirt and coat. She then got onto the bike, gunned the engine, and nearly had her waist crushed when Six wrapped her arms around Sara’s waist. "Ow. I don’t need to be any thinner Six. Could you please keep from squishing me?" Six apologised and relaxed her grip, seconds before Sara drove out of her driveway and powerslid around the closest intersection, heading towards the mall at record speed.

In less than ten minutes, Sara’s waist had been compressed by almost two inches, causing several painful muscular cramps as her waist returned to its normal size after she parked her bike. After getting off, Six removed the helmet, shook her hair out, and put it on the seat as Sara pushed a blue button beside the speedometer, then moved to about six feet away from the bike.

Six, curious about whatever Sara did, decided to speak up. "What’s the button for? ID scan?" Sara shook her head as she fished a remote out of one of her myriad coat pockets, pushing the single button on it. The bike honked at her, then produced a faint hum as Sara started to walk away.

Six followed, looking slightly sceptical about whether Sara’s bike would be in one piece when she got back to it. "So, how are you going to keep your bike from being collected by thieves?"

Sara grinned and waved the remote in her hand at Six. "This little toy controls a rather powerful generator in my bike’s engine, so if anyone decides to relieve me of my property, they’ll be knocked out for about ten minutes because they’ll be grabbing onto about ten thousand volts of electricity."

Six frowned, wondering if Sara was considered sane, but followed Sara as she entered the mall. "I now have proof, Sara. You’re nuttier than a granola bar."

Sara grinned and stopped. "The jury’s still out on that one. Anyhow, I’m going to wander over to the jeweller’s to get my pendant repaired, so you’re in the free and clear for about an hour." Sara gestured vaguely towards where she would be heading, then turned back to Six. "Lemme see, because I haven’t converted my money to the stuff around here, you’re getting a huge bonus because I’m giving you a thousand dollars in Canadian cash."

Six’s eyes nearly doubled in size as Sara handed over ten $100 bills, then walked into the jeweller’s modest shop. Six stood there for a few seconds, riffling through the bills, then put them in the pocket of her borrowed jeans and walked into a clothing store.

Meanwhile, Sara had finished apologising for the delay in bringing in the pendant, and was told that it would take about forty minutes to repair the back of the pendant while keeping the modifications Sara wanted. With a small invoice, to be paid when the job was finished, Sara then wandered over to a bookstore and browsed through all the interesting magazines on bio-research and computer games. She selected four magazines from the racks and a new book detailing the newest advances in molecular biology.

On a spur of the moment, she headed over to the fiction and fantasy section of the bookstore. Once there, she snagged the latest copy of a Dragonriders of Pern novel, allowing her to finally find out how the ongoing story ended. Sara also had her eyes attracted to a small section of books that she hadn’t seen for almost a decade. There, sitting neatly in order, was the entire collection of the Battle Angel series, a very good set of graphic novels that Sara had read once before. Instantly making the decision, Sara grabbed all nine books, deciding that the dark humour in the books accurately depicted her own life as well as those of the characters in the series.

Sara paid for her purchases, making the cashier’s eyes pop out when she simply muttered for her to keep the change. Sara went back to the jeweller’s and found out that the pendant had been finished, and the total cost was only a few hundred dollars. Looking at her watch after receiving the pendant, Sara noticed that Six should’ve reappeared about five minutes ago, then heard a relatively sizeable commotion from the clothing store where Six had wandered into a while ago. Feeling curious, Sara walked in there, and saw a rather obese woman trying to get her poodle’s teeth out of CyberSix’s right ankle.

Six, rather humanely, was trying to get the dog removed by turning the air around her purple with a rather inventive supply of long and very insulting statements, mainly calling the dog’s genetic heritage into question. Sara, after laughing hard enough to make her fall onto her butt, helped the woman pry the dog off of Six’s leg before somebody called security, allowed the woman to apologise about "Missy’s" behaviour, and let Six pay for her purchases.

They then left the mall and walked over to Sara’s bike, both trying to figure out why that happened, despite Sara’s occasional spate of hysterical giggling, which caused several people to look at her oddly. Sara noticed the human-sized scorch mark near her bike and pointed it out to Six as she turned off the charge generator.

"That person, judging from the size of the mark, is about twenty, and still smoking because he or she caught the brunt of the charge. I think that person will quit his current job and go into something less dangerous, such as crocodile wrestling."

Six giggled at that remark and collapsed into utter laughter when she heard Sara’s response. "Cyb, you are bubblier than a bottle of pop. Now, hang on a minute, and let me put my stuff into storage." Sara opened one of the twin leather bags near the back of the bike and put the bag of books in there, then grabbed Six’s bag of clothes and put that into the bag on the opposite side of the bike.

She then got on the bike, let Six climb on behind her after helping Six put her helmet on, then tore out of the parking lot at 120 kph. Soon, Sara had gotten back to her house after giving Six several grey hairs by powersliding through a crowded intersection before popping a wheelie over a construction pit three seconds later. As soon as Sara stopped the bike in her driveway, Six got off and let Sara calmly put her bike back in the garage before throwing the helmet at Sara. "Sara, you’re insane. The next time you do that I’ll be sure to escape at the earliest opportunity."

Sara had easily ducked the helmet and waved back at Six. Retrieving the helmet from where it had landed, Sara put it on a shelf, then collected the two shopping bags and went inside. Seeing that Six was waiting by the door for Sara to unlock it, she grinned, thumbed her nose at Six through the window, then unlocked the door. Six walked in, grabbed her purchases from Sara and disappeared after smiling mysteriously. Sara shrugged, scratched her arm where she had been shot, and walked into the living room after kicking off her boots and hanging up her coat. Lounging across the couch, Sara managed to waste three hours by reading the first four volumes of the Battle Angel series, then decided to see what Six was up to.

Sara walked up to the guest room, opened the door, and nearly had her nose cut off as Six slammed the door in her face. Sara knocked on the door, and decided to try and convince Six to appear before she had to break out the master key, which was in one of her coat pockets. "Hey Six, why don’t you open the door and show me what you’re trying to do? I could help you out, y’know." Sara heard Six chuckle from the other side of the door, and grinned. "Okay, so you won’t let me in. Fine then, I’ll just wait out here."

Sara, instead of waiting, went down to where she had put her coat, and collected the pendant. Putting it on, she let it settle into the hollow between her collarbones, then looked at herself in the mirror. *Nice. I’ll just keep wearing this for a few years, especially because it’s got that ruby in it.*

Sara then took off the pendant and looked at the back, noticing the small hole where the subvocal mike would be placed, and the small hinges allowing it to open up so she could insert the mike. Sara collected the mike from her basement room, inserted it in the pendant, and managed to test it out with no problems. Very quickly, Sara checked through her armour’s abilities, ranging from creating weapons out of its own mass to becoming the equivalent of tank armour. Later, Sara was back in the living room, wearing the pendant and a purplish belt, wrapped diagonally across her slim waist.

Sara then returned to Six’s door, and trying the knob, found that it was unlocked. She opened the door carefully, poked her head in, and quite neatly got nailed in the face with a pillow. "Six, why’d you do that? I only wanted to show you my stuff."

Sara got sick of hearing Six laughing at her, so she threw the pillow back to her, and sat down on the bed. Six looked at Sara, wearing her baseball cap, a black t-shirt, and cargo pants, opened her mouth to ask about the stuff Sara spoke of, and then noticed the gold pendant and belt. "Wow. How much did the necklace cost? Two thousand? Three?"

Sara smiled, shook her head, and replied, "Twenty Thousand."

Six nearly had a heart attack. "Twenty Thousand Dollars? Where did you buy it?"

Sara grinned and gestured for Six to sit down. "Canada. Here, that would cost almost Thirty Thousand."

Six’s eyes goggled for a second, then she calmed down and nodded towards the belt. "That belt looks good on you. What’s it made of?"

Sara passed a hand over her mouth, trying valiantly to keep from grinning, and failing badly. She then decided to reply truthfully. "It’s a titanium polymer, which I’ve implanted a program into, allowing me to turn it into a gym-style leotard when necessary. I swear, this may be expensive, but I think that the Hundred Thousand dollars I handed over for this is worth it." Sara smiled and let Six grumble about never having enough money to buy any of the really interesting stuff.

*What you’ll never know is that it was free, and was part of a past life. That, and it actually can do a lot more than just what I’ve told you. Thankfully, my subvocal mike works and is impossible to remove from the pendant now. The only thing that worries me right now is that I think I lost the knife that African shaman gave me two years ago. He said that it was called ‘Dudu Ya Poidini’ and the translation meant something like ‘Hunter of Souls’. I think it’s hiding in my closet, but I’m not sure.* Sara pulled herself out of her thoughts as Six snapped her fingers in front of her face, and wondered aloud what Six had got from the store.

Six smiled and showed Sara a dress, approximately thigh-length and dyed a deep wine red, then produced a pearl and crystal necklace that accented Six’s neck and face when she put it on. "Wow. Now that makes you look amazing. Y’know, if we ever went to a formal ball, we’d probably be able to triple the blood pressure of every male attendee just by showing up."

Six laughed at the mental image, then put the dress and necklace back in the shopping bag. "I have to agree that seeing a bunch of old men have heart attacks at the sight of us in dresses, wearing these pieces of jewellery, would be pretty funny. However, I don’t think that we’d do that anytime soon. Maybe when someone like Dr. Zack throws a party."

Sara snorted at that idea, mainly because she had mentally catalogued every visible defence at or around Zack’s house and had come to the conclusion that he was totally paranoid. "Sure, that’ll happen at the same time as me being kicked out of Hell for unnecessary roughness. Well, it’s almost Seven, so we’ve managed to miss the news, and I think I’ll need to pull out a pair of glasses soon if I want to do any reading within the next half hour. Now, knowing you, I’m going to have to cook supper unless we want to eat out. C’mon downstairs in about twenty minutes and I’ll see what I can whip up."

Six simply retorted with, "So long as you don’t produce those bioweapons that you call food, I’m game."

"Hey! Those bioweapons have saved my health more times than I can remember. Besides, if you put one on a plate outside of your door, it’ll keep anyone out of your room for at least two days."

Six laughed because Sara said it with a tone of intense relief. "I guess that you must have had a few harrowing moments in university."

Sara grinned and rubbed her arm. "Actually, I volunteered as an escort because I was known as the nastiest person to get into a fight into. After all, when someone had to pick his teeth out of the back of his throat after trying to harass me, I pretty much got the reputation of being a force of nature."

"I can see you being a force of nature, but do you have to be so descriptive? Even if the person deserved it, you managed to turn my stomach with that description, notwithstanding the fact that you were smiling when you said it." Six shuddered faintly, then shook it off and decided to walk downstairs. "Hey Sara, while you’re cooking, do you mind if I take a look at those books you bought? They may be interesting."

Sara grinned, got up from the bed, and challenged Six to a race downstairs. Taking up the challenge, Six slid down the bannister as Sara ran to about halfway down the steps before vaulting over the rail, landing on the floor just as Six landed on her feet and nearly skidded into the foyer before getting her balance back. "Sucker. Looks like you slipped up. Get over here and help me up."

Six, grumbling slightly about being caught in a tie, walked over to Sara, who had landed with her right leg curled underneath her in what was obviously a painful position, and helped her up. "What happened to you?"

Sara swore faintly before straightening her right leg, and Six heard the dull thump as the bones popped back into their normal place. "Ow. That is a minor side effect that I occasionally have to deal with. Simply, ligaments do not like being reconnected to bones, artificial or not. The most obvious effect is that I can now be considered totally double-jointed because I can dislocate just about every bone in my body, but only with a fair amount of pain."

Six stuck her tongue out, acting half her age once again. "Gross. Sometimes, I’m utterly amazed at your resilience, but I’m proven otherwise when something like this happens. Well, you decided to cook, but if you don’t want to move I’ll try."

Sara limped into the kitchen at a speed that surprised Six, then explained why. "I don’t need even more scorch marks in my house, and besides, knowing you, you’d probably try to sneak a way to get some takeout anyhow. So, sit down somewhere, and I’ll whip up something nasty or nice."

Six kept the fear of Sara’s cooking from showing on her face, and quietly sat down on the couch. Within twenty minutes, Sara had whipped up two of her deadly sandwiches, and, after putting one on a plate in front of Six, proceeded to polish her own off in less than five minutes, despite the massive size. By that time, Six had managed to gather enough courage to poke at the sandwich, and when her finger didn’t fall off, or the sandwich try to move and attack her, she tried it. "Wow! That is a hot sandwich! What did you do? Add jalapeño peppers to it?"

Sara grinned and nodded, then went back into the kitchen before Six could retaliate. Soon, Sara returned with two large glasses of juice to help cool off the feeling of having her tongue burned off, and gave one to Six. "Thanks. Just wondering, but what are you going to do tomorrow?"

Sara took a swig of her juice, then responded. "Well, I’m taking over Lucas’ biology class, and will probably be stuck in it for several hours afterwards, but I might be able to make some time at around Five PM. Why do you ask? Are you planning something?"

Six smiled and shook her head. "No, I’m not planning to wreak havoc on your life. One of my friends has heard a bit about you through a phone conversation I had with him yesterday, and he wants to meet you in a Café near the high school at around that time. Just so you know, his name’s Adrian Seidelman."

Sara raised an eyebrow, then nodded. "Well, considering what I heard from Lori, Lucas will probably be around as well. I think I’ll finalize the details with him. Y’know, I’m thinking of going to sleep early, just because I’m not totally recovered from the last few days."

Six looked at the clock, saw that it was getting close to Nine PM, and nodded. "Well, I’m planning on going to my own home, which is probably covered in dust by now, at around Ten. I may see you on Sunday."

Sara nodded, collected the dishes and put them in the dishwasher, then went upstairs to her room. After selecting her clothing for tomorrow, namely a pair of long silk pants, a long shirt, with her pendant and purple belt, Sara climbed into her bed, turned off the light, and fell asleep with a smile playing around her face for an unknown reason.

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