Dr. Ryder took a moment to marvel at the METAL that he had recently recieved. Beginning from the shoulder and travelling into the left pec, his entire arm had been removed and enhanced. The crystal blue outer shell flexed and warped at his command as he listened for the near-inaudible whirr of the tech moving from within the miracle he now had.
Sitting at his desk, his focus point wandered into the atrium outside. Sunlight streamed in through the ceiling and the walls of the atrium looking out into the surrounding gardens. The new building was a feat to behold, yet was erected in what felt like no time; no doubt accelerated with the immeasurable growth of the company.
Ryder flicks through the instructional booklet on the limb and resumes the chapter on the recovery period. The skin and muscle around the join pulses and shudders frequently as it accommodates its new addition to the body. He understood the principles behind the integration period, the limbs knit themselves into the body of the host but it’s a process that takes time. The initial surgeries simply ensure the limb is anchored onto its newly made socket and the METAL does the rest.
Thinking about integration made the METAL shiver, he flexes his arm and clenches his new hand into a fist to calm it, watching the translucent surface thinge and move internally at his whim.
Feeling the itch to test the limb he stands sheepishly in his own office, watching through the glass to ensure colleagues weren’t watching. With the METAL arm, he places a hand around the edge of his desk and slides it across the floor with ease. The feeling of untapped potential felt incredible.
Letting out a small laugh at the little exertion he had used to move the desk, he eyes the nearby filing cabinet. Tilting the cabinet with his own natural hand, he slips the METAL hand under and slides the cabinet up the wall, lifting it clean off the floor. Seeing it held against the wall sent waves of confidence through him, washing over his ego, he felt it inflate to fill the room. In the same moment his skin split around the join, giving out with the strain and the filing cabinet dropped to the floor with a considerable boom.
Feeling the room shrink around him the panic stung his senses as he inspected the damage. The flesh between his own and the METAL had ripped apart, showing the intricate weaving between himself and the limb at work through a small lip of cramping skin, blood and a darker fluid trickled out in a horrid mess onto the carpet. The limb began to twitch and cramp, sending pain signals to the brain as Ryder fell back into his chair, sending it wheeling along the room, trailing fluids behind him.
The crystal blue began to bleed a crimson along the join down towards the hand, artificial circulatory system filling with internal cooling fluid, it was failing. He felt the hand weaken as he struggled to clench it into a fist and a subtle alarm could be heard as the SOS feature kicked in. Crimson veins crept down the arm and along his shoulder as the damage spread.
As Ryder fell into shock and seizure, dropping to the floor. The sound of his body collapsing caught the attention of a colleague in the hall who slammed an emergency button calling for urgent METicAL assistance. Within moments a commotion could be heard from below as the recovery team rumbled up the stairs to wheel Ryder to the intensive unit.
The fluid ran from his mouth as he choked on it. The arm’s condition deteriorating as the crimson faded to black and the arm spasmed hard, at times grabbing at his hip and thigh in agony, bruising his own natural body.
The team rushed into the office, swept Ryder up into a stretcher and they whisked him down to be treated and monitored.
Seven months passed, Ryder has yet to reappear.
The Next Chapter 