Bionic

Chapter 2

<Hello again. I know basically no one has seen or read this story yet but maybe I will get lucky at some point and have people read it. So this is the second chapter, the one I originally turned in for my ELA narrative. It has undergone quite a few changes so it fits the first chapter better but it's mostly the same. This goes for all chapters I have written and those yet to come: please excuse my punctuation, spelling, I think they are called something like time prefixes (ex. is vs. was), and grammar issues. I'm doing my best but I still make mistakes. I hope you like it!>

"Tylem, Tylem, Tylem," she repeated my name multiple times but not in that annoyed you're in trouble kind of way. I stared at the girl awkwardly. She glanced up from my hand to see my eyes fixed on her uncomfortably.

"Oh, sorry! I was just trying it on for size, I've never heard a name like that before." She paused for a moment then her eyes shot open wide. "Oh, goodness! How rude of me. Sorry, my name is Lillian Rald but you can just call me Lilly." She had long, light brown hair in pigtails, maybe dirty blond, unlike my dark pink and auburn pixie cut.

I was relieved to finally know her name but after she said it I stopped listening. I could tell she was still talking but I knew it wasn't that important. I examined the interior of the chemistry lab we were in. It had a lot of beakers and vials in it including the ones she had been working with. I would have asked about them but they weren't doing anything, no fizzing, bubbling, or combusting so it didn't really interest me. All of a sudden my mind snapped back to reality when my right leg jammed and I crumpled to the floor. With this came the booming sound of metal crashing into tile. Lilly shrieked as she watched it play out. As I lay on the floor I groaned wearily. 'It just had to happen now' was the main thought going through my head.

"Oh my goodness! Are you okay?" Lilly cried out to me. She quickly got on her knees to kneel beside me. "Do you need help?" she babbled franticly.

"Yeah, I'm fine and no." I rotated my body heavily and positioned myself so that I sat with my legs outstretched, carefully avoiding the tables. I reached for my right knee and cupped both hands around it with my thumbs over my knee cap. Then I jerked my hands upward forcing my knee to bend, sending another metal sound into the air. Unlike the first, this one was more of a pop. I sighed in relief as the strain dissipated. Lilly then got up, knowing I was fine.

"Oh, wow. I didn't know the gears could just buckle like that," she mused.

By then I was back on my feet too. "Yeah. It's really annoying and by the way, I'm not quite sure you can if you can even call them gears because there aren't actually any gears involved. It's a lot more complicated than that," I explained to her. She opened her mouth as if she were about to say something but promptly closed it, deciding it to be best not to.

Lilly then started up again. "So, how much of you is, like-", she paused, clearly trying to find the right word. I saw her glance at my right hand and then leg and realized where she was probably going with that question.

"Fake? Artificial? Mechanical?" I finished for her.

"Um, well, yeah. If you want to be blunt about it, yeah."

"My right eye, arm, and leg are all synthetic."

"Your eye?!" She gaped at me.

"Yes, my eye is made of a few materials actually. I think the main one is fiberglass," I told her this questioningly. It's strange that I did though because I knew for certain that the main component was fiberglass. "Though my eye is synthetic I can, in fact, see with it." She gave me an astonished look and I wiggled my right fingers in front of her for her to see. "Well, the technology exists so I can move my metal arm, hand, and fingers because it's attached to my nerves. The tech to make a micro camera attach to my nerves and brain exists as well." With this I pointed to my eye.

"It's incredible," she told me with wonder. She paused for a few moments before continuing on. "So, can I see your arm?" She asked me.

"Which one?" I mocked as I took my denim jacket off reveling my blue-and-white sailor striped T-shirt. I extended my arm partly out with my palm facing upward. She looked at the machinery in amazement. I reached down and pulled my right pant leg up to my knee. It revealed a shiny silvery colored surface with quite a few kinks and scratches, my leg.

"It's truly remarkable, but it's a lot more obvious then my, um, 'function," she stated hesitantly. I didn't think she was very fond of the word choice of function.

"Oh, I forgot to ask. What the heck is your quirk anyway?!" I exclaimed.

Lilly hesitated for a moment before replying "Yeah, compared to your limbs, this is just another category of weird entirely." Then she disappeared. Gone, just like that.

"Huh! Where did you go? Lilly?!"

She giggled a little. "I haven't gone anywhere, I'm still right here." She then reappeared the same way she disappeared.

"So, is it invisibility?" I was now the one in a state wonder and bewilderment.

"Um, no. It's not invisibility, not quite. My DNA was enhanced with the molecular structure of a number of animals. This is just one of the many traits I have attained." I watched her intently, hoping she would show more. "The disappearing thing is really just enhanced camouflage. The DNA for it was mostly from a chameleon."

"Huh. For camouflage you'd think the lab would make it more dramatic." She gave me a confused look like she had no idea what I meant. "You know that X-Men girl character that, like, changes forms-" She continued to stare at me absently so I gave it up. "Never mind." Lilly's face then loosened back up. Neither of us said anything and it quickly became an awkward silence. I thought for a moment, then decided to ask "What else can you do?"

"Well-" Just then we heard a crash come from the now shattered windows and broken down door of the science classroom we were standing in. Men in black official looking suits and others in lab coats came rushing in. "Eeek! It's the academy!" She cried out in terror.

"What are they doing here!?" I yelped in horror.

"They've come to get us!"

"Are you sure? They've never come after me like this!" She looked at me in surprise but then her expression straightened out.

"Of course I'm sure! Now we must fight!" She yelled.

"I think it would be better if we leave while we've got the chance" I told her barely over a whisper. She appeared to have actually heard me which was a relief. I supposed there was a pretty good chance she had some sort of 'super-hearing' as well. Somehow though, after that, things seemed to go at snail speed. I watched her nod loosely while thinking, appearing to calculate the odds of my idea being successful. Then I turned to the right as a burly man in a suit came at me in a running stance yet hardly moving any faster than a turtle. His right hand curled into a fist and he brought it back to his shoulder in order to punch me. With a swift move I lifted my arm up to block. Strangely I was still moving normally. Just as his fist was only a couple of inches from my arm he scrunched up his face, realizing his stupid error: using your bare hand to hit solid metal. For a moment I almost pitied him. In the past I've accidentally fist-bumped people and it clearly hurts. I've also used my normal limbs to hit my right leg and arm before and that never has gone very well. As his fist collided with my arm, sending vibrations down my spine, time released its standstill, reverting back to normal. Just in time to hear Lilly confirm my idea. I gave her a smile and she winked in return. Then we made a mad-dash towards the other door.