Karyn and Jon stood on edge as the footsteps got louder and the door opened. They were both shocked to see Jon's 12 year-old little brother Mickey enter, carrying a 5000 gallon generator like it was an Easter basket.
"Hey guys. Mom said to drop this off so you don't discharge tonight," he said, completely oblivious to the wide-eyed stares that Jon and Karyn were giving him.
"How did you-" started the shocked duo.
"Oh come on. Ever since the accident, you were never able to sneak past mom without her noticing. The floor boards sound like they're gonna give every time you go downstairs," answered Mikey. "But I've seen you here before. It's not like this should be a shocker."
"No, shaddup a minute!" said Jon sternly, annoyed at being interrupted by his obnoxious, and now cyborg brother. "Since when were you a cyborg."
Mikey was taken aback. "Are you sure you're feeling okay? You didn't surf the net and get any memory erasing virus, did you?" he asked, dropping the generator with a thud that sounded like a small automobile had fallen on the floor of Karyn's room.
Jon just glared at his brother. "Just answer the question or we'll hog-tie you to the Roberts' oak tree." The Roberts were their longtime neighbors. However, everytime Jon and his little brother got into a fight, Mikey spent a day and a night tied to their 40-ft. oak tree in his underwear, while Jon said he slept over at his friend's house. Jon always ended up grounded afterwards, but you cant break tradition...
Mickey got an innocent look on his face and laughed weakly. "Uh, that's alright. After the car accident that you, Karyn, and I were in after you picked me up from school last year, we went into a coma for a month, while the doctors diagnosed several system failures for our bodies, dad had us secreted away to oe of his top secret government labs to use us as tests for some alien enhancement technology. So why did you need the recap?"
Before Jon could answer, Mikey pulled some cord out of his neck and plugged it into a socket in the back of Jon's neck. "Well," commented Mikey, staring into space, "I can't find any primative virus types. But somebody definately altered your memories after the accident."
Jon looked at Mikey with a wide-eyed expression. He felt as if somebody had forced him to recount his entire life in the last two seconds. Probably the result of Mikey's inquiry. Startled and frustrated, Jon grabbed his shirt and attempted to throw Mikey away. "Get outta there, you twerp!" However, Mikey's shirt, unable to move 750 lbs. of weight, ripped off his body instantly.
"Hey, asshole, that was a good shirt!" shouted Mikey. "What did you do that for? I'm just trying to see if anything is wrong with your settings."
Karyn watgched the two of them argue about this amused. From what she had gathered, she figured very few people even knew that they were cyborgs. The government would see to that. Their families would likely be the only ones other than the three of them to know about this 'secret'. In fact, she wouldn't be surprised if she found that their 'original' names had been changed, as well as their school and appearance. Grabbing a photo album, she leafed thru it and found old photos of when she was ten. But then she noticed that in all of these, with her enhanced vision, she could see the girl was not the original member of the picture. It was edited.
She also thought about the alien technology saving their lives. She would bet that even the government didn't know about all their capabilities. However, if they were given enough time, they might require tests and military service to find out. She cringed at being used as some 'new tank' to throw at the enimies. So, at the very least, she wanted to see what the three of them could handle before they were missle fodder.
Then, she noticed Jon had left the stone on her desk before the argument. 'Maybe I can use that to fix this,' she thought. Karyn grabbed the stone and said...
