"Mmm… rise and shine, my bǎo bèi."
A voice as smooth as honey drifted into Michael's ears, his eyes fluttering almost immediately.
Michael opened his eyes, the beautiful woman in front of him.
"Good morning, doll. Are you ready for that wonderful night I promised?" He smiled sheepishly, the memories of their last time still fresh, which could only mean, this wasn't Michael.
For some reason, Ironbeard still retained control — and not the Ironbeard of the present, but that of the past.
"Why not? Let's get going." The lady gestured with her fingers, Michael's perverted gaze locked on her.
He tried to rise, his body heavy.
"What's going on?"
He looked down at his body, cybernetic sutures on his thighs and legs.
He could feel them fine, but not as he was used to.
They felt strange — usable, but not as a natural limb felt.
"Do you like them?" The lady caressed Michael's legs, the warmth of her touch racing up his body, his body shivering slightly from the contact.
This was high-end cyberware, its nerves almost no different from actual nerves.
"Wow, the higher-ups really went all in for my upgrade," he thought to himself, now more impressed by his new upgrade than the lady before him.
Still unaware he was in the wrong body at the wrong time.
Truly impressed by the cyberware, he decided to check the rest of his body.
If his legs were this fine, what of the rest?
He struggled to his feet, still foreign to the sensation of cyberware.
It wasn't all that difficult to move in — just that it felt different.
He got up to his feet, admiring his legs as he walked towards the blue neon-outlined mirror of the repair shop.
His body in full view.
Cybernetic sutures ran down his left eye — geometric lines that traced from his forehead through his left eye, like a scar drawn by a math teacher.
"Did he change my face too?" His gaze stopped on the reflection of his face.
A face that felt familiar, but he was sure wasn't his own.
The face seemed to glitch, a ringing headache shooting through his head.
He grabbed his head, teeth gritted as he groaned in pain.
Micheal's face seemed to have triggered a breakdown.
The lady, who had been ignored all this while, quickly rushed to his side.
"Doc, what's going on?" she turned to the doc.
"I don't know. I worked on the exterior... I don't know of the madness in his head." The doc shrugged, relaxing in his chair.
He couldn't care less what happened now.
He had done his part, and that was enough.
"Argh!" Iornbeard couldn't help but let out a pained screech, the splitting headache intensifying, his brain seemingly trying to implode on itself.
Then...
Silence.
The ringing stopped, the headache vanished, a sense of clarity in his gaze, cold sweat beading on his brow.
"Are you alright?" the lady inquired worriedly, rubbing Michael's back.
"Yes, just a small headache." Ironbeard rose to his feet, his gaze different from earlier.
This change didn't go unnoticed by the lady; his new gaze seemed more mature.
This was Ironbeard — the man who had awoken in Michael's body a few days ago.
Seeing Michael's reflection seemed to have brought him out — but for some reason, not Michael himself.
The latter still asleep, probably still exhausted from the turn of events.
"Who are you?" Ironbeard stared at the lady curiously, his curiosity overriding his lust.
He knew who he was, a consciousness in a foreign body.
But who was this girl.
"Sorry, I haven't introduced myself." She smiled playfully.
"I am Li Xiang."
"Not your name... who are you?" The paranoid Ironbeard asked, his tone chilling to the bone.
"Now he's ordering me around. Maybe I thought wrong about him." Li Xiang frowned.
She hated such overbearing men, Ironbeard's paranoid self giving her that feeling.
"You don't need to know that," she snickered.
"Okay, then I'm off." Ironbeard couldn't be bothered with her.
He had to find the CC.
Considering he had woken in a repair shop, he believed maybe she had taken him in — either an enemy cyberpunk the CC, or the government.
Whatever it was, she was his enemy.
He had to get out of here quickly.
He completely oblivious to what had transpired the day before, not even aware Michael had control over the body as well.
Guard up, he headed towards the door, expecting an attack.
Li Xiang only looked at his retreating back, her eyes narrowed.
"Is he psychotic?" she thought, as Michael's actions weren't coherent and the feel he gave off had changed three times now.
Slam!!
The door closed behind Michael.
"There is no refund..." The doc's voice broke the silence.
He could tell Li Xiang had been dumped by the guy he'd spent tens of thousands of units on.
"Keep it." Li Xiang clicked her tongue in annoyance as she followed after Michael.
She had never been wrong with her gut feeling and she didn't believe today would be the first.
---
The streets buzzed with life as neon lights lit the roads, showing directions.
Some people stood straight, moving by the locomotive boots they wore, the energy used for walking saved for other purposes.
Holo ads displayed their products, some pedestrians stopping to admire, while most passed by.
Ironbeard, the latter as he walked along the neon-lit pavement, hoodie up, hands in his pockets.
For some reason, he could access the cameras on the street.
He had wanted to check his perimeter, maybe he was still being followed by the police or, worse, other cyberpunks...
And an idea, no, more like a realization popped in his head.
He felt he could just use the cameras, and just as easily as the thought came, he bypassed the security protocols of the cameras, his vision filled with the feeds from the them.
He could now see few meters Li Xiang who was a few metres behind him— and another group, one he believed was with her.
"This has to be his skill. No wonder he created the CC," he admired Michael's ease in hacking.
"I need to shake them off my tail." Focusing on the camera feed, he decided to change direction, quickly rushing into a nearby clothing store.
He wanted to do as he usually did, change clothes and blend in.
No, more like steal clothing and blend in, but he wavered.
Before he knew it, the notification sounded in his mind:
⫷----------⫸
Payment of 50 units has been made to Alita Ventures.
Thank you for your patronage.
⫷----------⫸
He had paid without realizing it — seemingly out of force of habit, yet he had no such habit.
He paused, confused — then it clicked.
"Is this guy still alive in my head?"