Kaleb was laid back on a cold metal table. His shirt was off, making his scales scrape against the metal. A mechanical whirring echoed in his ears and the smell of lubricant pervaded the air. His left shoulder was strapped down near his neck to keep it steady. He let out a raspy sigh as he tried not to stare at the bright, shining lights. One was aimed down at him, illuminating his torso and upper body. While another one was aimed straight into his shoulder socket. Two white-clad people, one tall and the other very short, were peering into his socket and making sounds of derision.

"To be fair, you did a great job with limited resources," said Daivor.

"But this is also a ridiculous hack job. I mean, come on! The form factor of the socket is at least eight years out of date. Not to mention the wires aren't even labeled or color coded in any way." Clara added, sounding annoyed.

Kaleb blinked his eyes at the harsh light and sighed through his nose. "Can you two hurry it up? This is turning uncomfortable."

A small chittering to his right told Kaleb that Milly was still having a fun time bouncing between his new and old arm. Both were sitting at another table nearby, waiting to be installed and scrapped, respectively. Immediately upon entering Clara's clean room, Kaleb had begun the process of detaching his cybernetic arm. Once they had it detached, the two wannabe doctors started poking and prodding the socket, trying to find the best way to attach their new one.

The new arm they built used a pretty standard connector port. One made for universal attachment. The one the game provided seemed to be something different. For some reason, Kaleb's connector port was outdated and fairly baroque. But the bigger problem was, after making that discovery, both Clara and Daivor decided to document "his" shoddy workmanship for some reason. Morbid curiosity was Kaleb's current opinion.

"Professor, it is crucial that we document this process in detail so that there are no problems."

"Yeah, boss. You wouldn't want us to get everything attached and then find out your arm controls are inverted. That would be hell, right?"

"That can't happen…" Kaleb grumbled. "Can it?"

"Not if we take our time," Clara singsonged.

Kaleb sighed again and laid his head back against the table. At least the large lamp up above warmed his scaly underbelly. Even if the thing was trying to blind him. Kaleb wagered he'd being seeing spots for hours after they finished.

An icy feeling entered his shoulder socket and Kaleb tensed up. He was about to ask what that feeling was when it jammed its way further into his body. A slight mechanical whine was overshadowed by Kaleb's own cry of pain.

"OW! What the fuck!?"

"Oops! Sorry. The instrument slipped slightly past the socket housing." Daivor coughed.

"I noticed! What the hell are you sticking me with?"

Clara interrupted before Daivor got a word in. "What did it feel like?"

"A red-hot poker dipped in electricity!"

"Uh-huh and on the pain scale, would you rate a one or a ten?"

"Wha? I don't know? Maybe an eight. Is that crucial information?"

"Not really. But it is noteworthy that the flesh beneath your prosthetic is still in fine working order. Although a pen feeling like a hot poker is a bit much. But I'm accounting for hyperbole."

Kaleb pulled his head up again to glare at Daivor and Clara. "You jabbed a pen into my arm socket?!"

"To be fair, I was only trying to move some of these loose wires out of the way. Your cable management was shit." Daivor said, his face still down near Kaleb's shoulder.

"Oh hush, you barely felt a thing."

"How about I jam a pen in your-"

"OKAY! I think we can work with what we have here. Thankfully, we already machined the receiving connector. We just have to reshape the housing in your shoulder and rewire everything on that end. Once that's done we can attach the CNS and PNS wires. You'll need to be out for the CNS one's cause those attach directly to your brain."

Kaleb huffed as he glared at Clara as she was the only one he could see at the moment. "Great."

"We have everything we'll need for the job here somewhere, Master Gnome. Why don't you start working in the port while I search the cabinets for the proper sedative?"

Kaleb blew out a breath and laid back down as the sound of Daivor working filled the clean room. He wasn't sure what the gnome was using, but he guessed it was some form of Dremel or something. The sound of Daivor's magic whisking the metal shavings away was a big clue that he was right.

"Remember to sand down the edges." Kaleb grumbled idly.

"Yeah, yeah, I know. This will be the quickest part of the job. You'll be knocked out for the long bit."

"So long as I wake up again."

"It'll be fine, boss."

Kaleb said nothing as the enormity of what he was getting into hit him. He was about to undergo cybernetic replacement with only two NPCs overlooking everything. While his brain told him that was probably the best way to do things, Kaleb still wondered if he should've grabbed one of the others before doing this.

The tale has been stolen; if detected on Amazon, report the violation.

"Too late now." Kaleb thought.

He sighed again and tried to take his mind off things as Daivor worked away. Occasionally, an odd pull on his shoulder would jerk him back to reality. But for the most part, Kaleb kept his mind occupied by reading the forums. He stayed away from the guild and news-based sections and focused mostly on the hear-say and rumors surrounding the game. He found several posts about how the game was going and what players expected to get in the next few patches. The devs had released a few fixes here and there, but nothing was substantial.

Most players were screaming for some balancing between the different power sets. But the game's creators defended the imbalances by saying it was only fair. In a world of the super powered, some people were going to have 'better' powers. It was up to the player to figure out how to level the playing field. Some of the post were along these lines. Invulnerable didn't mean unbeatable. Super fast didn't mean untouchable. The forums were full of Players finding ways to circumvent some of the trickiest of powers. Although the time manipulation ones were pissing people off. Both their users and their victims.

Kaleb let his mind ponder how he would stop a time-stopping villain in the future. But aside from catching the person unaware. He was drawing a blank. The thought experiments let the time slip by, even as Daivor and Clara continued their work. Kaleb was thinking about building a time machine when Clara's beaked face appeared over his.

"Professor? Still awake?" Seeing that he was, the bird-lady nodded. "Good. Well, that's about to change. Master Daivor has inserted the receiving connector port and we are ready for the wire connection. So I'm just gonna slip this over your face."

A breath mask was placed over Kaleb's lizard beak and nostrils and he crossed his eyes to get a better look at it. But it was a tricky angle. Once the mask was in place, Clara walked over to a nearby canister and double-checked all the connection were in place. As she did, Daivor appeared over Kaleb's stomach. The gnome looked tired, but happy, as he waved at Kaleb.

"Things are going good, boss. We'll have you up and about in no time. Just a few wires and some power cycling and you'll be ready for action, I promise."

Not wanting to talk with the mask over his face, Kaleb simply gave a thumbs up. Daivor saw the gesture and grinned before sinking back down to the table and sticking his gnomish face and beard in Kaleb's shoulder. The sound of the gas canister filled Kaleb's ears. But before he had a chance to look at Clara, his eyelids grew heavy. Before he knew it, Kaleb was unconscious. The next thing he knew, his eyes were cracking open to a greatly diminished overhead light. Someone had turned the thing down, thankfully.

A headache pulsed in between Kaleb's eyes, and his mouth felt like it was filled with cotton balls. His eyes blinked sluggishly, and for a moment Kaleb forgot what he had been doing. It was only the sound of a low hum coming from his left side that prompted a memory to flash before his eyes. With shocking speed, Kaleb brought his left arm up in front of his face. He felt and heard something metal snap at his shoulder, but he ignored it as a shiny black metal arm appeared on his face.

His new arm was attached and powered on. The repulsor in his palm glowed with an eerie blue light, and Kaleb marveled at how light the whole thing felt. He waggled his new metal fingers and grinned at the hint of silver beneath the metal plating. His wrist and forearm were slim and sleek looking. But at the elbow, the increased synth-muscle bulged out into a behemoth of an arm. The corded metallic muscle clenched and unclenched as his brain sent signals down into his arm.

Kaleb brought the arm up and curled it at the elbow to see just how his new muscles bulged around the plating they had installed. The metal tubing ran the length of his arm and delivered the Weikacol solution to all the components that needed it. With a thought, he could feel each gadget installed in his arm, and Kaleb practically laughed out loud. Everything was running smoothly and his arm felt better than every.

As he was mentally running a diagnostic test, Kaleb felt Milly settled within his new arm and humming contentedly. She wasn't asleep, just enjoying the hum of his new arm. Kaleb sat up to get the full range of motion from his arm and that's when he spotted Clara and Daivor seated at a nearby table. Well, Clara was seated at the table. Daivor was ON the table. Both of his friends were asleep, which made Kaleb question what time it was. The rewiring shouldn't have taken that long.

Getting up to see a clock is what stirred Daivor awake, and the gnome was quick to wipe his eyes and smile at Kaleb.

"How's it feel?"

"Like a new pair of underwear." Kaleb joked.

Daivor grimaced, but Kaleb could see a twinkle of a smile behind the surly gnome's beard.

"No feedback? What about latency in communication?"

"Nope. Wires are operational, and there is no latency. I think about it and my arm does it. We'll have to plug in the diagnostic machine for a full readout. But I think everything is nominal."

Daivor waved a short arm at a nearby machine on wheels. "Clara said you'd say that. Me and her ran some test of your connections while you were out. She said she would love to get them while you're active as well. Y'know, kind of a before and after thing."

Kaleb snorted at the always curious bird professor. But he didn't really see the harm. With a grunt, he swung his legs off the table and sighed as he pushed himself to his feet. He had to adjust to the weight of the new arm for a second. But his body was acclimating quickly. Even with the enchantments, the arm was still heavy. But not something Kaleb would mind. As he stood, the synth-muscle in his shoulder shifted lower into his forearm. The bulging muscles flattened out into a more normal looking configuration and Kaleb raised an eyebrow at Daivor. The gnome coughed awkwardly.

"Ahem! It seems I didn't secure the muscle correctly. We only noticed when the wires were done. But don't worry, we can get the secured and in place when we get back."

"Damn!" Kaleb smirked. "I kinda liked the bulging biceps/triceps look. Made me look like a bodybuilder."

"Well, if you want to look like that, you'll need to find more synth-muscle and add it to the arm. With the amount of power you're outputting, you could handle double the amount of synth-muscle."

"Good to know. But first, let's get this thing checked and sorted. Then when that's done, I want to take this baby for a spin."

Kaleb clenched the fingers on his metal hand and smiled at the blue glow slipping through his fingers. The repulsor whirred with life, but he was sure it wouldn't go off without his say so. Remaining shirtless, he walked around the operating table and started hooking himself up to the diagnostic station. Daivor quickly swung over and joined in as Clara silently snored at her table.

Together, they set about getting the readings of Kaleb's new arm as it whirred with life. He could feel the power resonating from the new appendage, and Kaleb was very excited to try it out. The Spike Launcher, Shocky, the new repulsor weapon. Each was a new tool he was ready and willing to test out in the field. All he needed now was a target.

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