02 December 20th, 2:15 AM

  I've done all kinds of gigs, for whoever. Hell, I've even been a hired gun myself once or twice! Anyways, I'm no stranger to being shot at.Guess Dr.Jue can't say the same. Which makes everything that is happening right now 100% her fault.

  That still should have been fine. Like I said, the bodyguard thing is totally in my wheelhouse. I totally could have handled it. I totally could have.

  Except Dr.Jue freaked out the second it happened. A gunshot wound sucks, but it's really not the end of the world. Hurts like hell, but I could still stand fine. Ish. But she starts screaming her head off. Told me to get behind her. Kinda sweet, right? Worried for little ol' me. But then she puts her hands up and keeps walking.

  Well. Turns out those giant armor piercing bullets also work pretty well on freaky robot arms. I see her left sleeve fp to her side and her arm falling to the ground, with a great big hole blow clean though the silicone. And I can sure smell the burning psctic. She looks back, face bnk, as bits of metal and silicone chunks start to blow away in the wind.

  I absolutely loose it. And the people shooting at us didn't appreciate that. We started getting a lot -more- shot at pretty damn quick.Anyways. That's how I found out I can do this *thing*. And the retelling is gonna get real fuzzy from here.

  It hurt like an absolute motherfucker, I can say that much. Like touching an exposed wire, but worse. All over. My mouth tastes like ozone- and something smells like it, too. There was a fsh, all over everything, and my eyes went out. I couldn't see shit.

  Dr. Jue screams.

  "NIKO, STOP IT!" It's a strangled, watery cry. I'm not doing anything though. I'm panicking and trying to feel around for her, cause that's all I can do. I feel something smooth and cold- fabric- that I assume is her and it turns out I'm dead on the money. Because she screams again.

  She swears, screams I'm hurting her. We're getting shot at again. The munies are yelling something- close enough to hear, but I don't understand.

  But Minna sounds mad and that brings me back to earth a little. I let go, but I have no frame of reference without her. I'm lost. So I reach out again. This time I feel synthetic skin through torn fabric. Her scream turns to a grunt.

  The world lights up. I get away from her as fast as I cam. Everything was so loud. Bullets. Yelling. The crackle of electricity. And then nothing.

  I smell clean air as the bullets and fried whos-know-what blow away. Dr Jue is ying next to me. I feel her body heat. Hear her breathing."Niko what did I fucking say?"

  She gives me a talking to about nearly getting us killed. I don't get how it's my fault. I still can't see. There was light- and that was it. Nothing. No depth perception, no details- not even shadows. It's honestly preferable to the other problems. My head feels clear for the first time in ages.

  We get around to the subject of my not being able to see shit, and she gets real quiet. I ask if she's okay, and she ignores me. She cusses under her breath. I start feelin woozy on top of the pain.

  "Alright Niko I need to fix up your augs, and mine" She must have noticed me reaching up towards my head cuz she swats my arm away. "Stop it Niko that'll fry your eyes *permanently."*

  "You can fix them though, right? Right Minna??"

  She tells me to shut up, and I do.

  We work together. Her augs are fucked, too, so she's my eyes and I'm her hands. I carry her, and she tells me where to go. I stumble a couple of times, and we make it back to the car in one piece. After a few tries to get the handle, I set her in the trunk so I don't lose track of her. She tell me she'll walk me through everything. She sounds scared. I hug the side of the car and scootch along the side til I get to the door. It takes me three tries to open. Minna helps as much as she can, guiding me with her voice.

  "Okay. Lean down- under the seat." She guides me til I hit something cold and rigid- a small metal box. I feel something else in there too-a little envelope with a small, ft package inside.. Something tells to pocket it, so I do. Once that's done I hold the box in what I'm pretty sure is her direction, and I'm feeling triumphant when she says something completely awful.

  "Now you're going to do a little self-surgery."

  I don't have the stomach to tell you what happens next, a part of me still feels like it wasn't worth it, and I shoulda stayed blind. I got sick- twice. Dr Jue stays calm the whole time. Tells me exactly what to do, cool as ice. Like she's done it before. She tells me I'm doing a good job and I hate it.

  But it works. Sorta. My augs turn back on, at least. And then the pain.

  They're awful. There's big green and bck lines all through my vision. All the colors burn, painfully bright, and none of them quite what it should be. Even worse than st time. My stabbing headache is back with a vengeance, the pain almost knocks me clean over.

  Still better than nothing- once I finally manage to catch my breath.

  Minna seems better too, after that. Less freaked out at least. I want to spend some time catching our breath but she tells me we have to go. She doesn't know what happened at Mika and Aja's after I fried those guards, but neither of us wants to stick around to find out. She has me take off all her augs at the base. Both legs, her full left arm, and her right hand. It's bizarre, rolling off her synthetic skin and feeling the metal underneath. Her repairs will be a hell of a lot less barf worthy, but it still manages to turn my stomach. And she needs more than we could do with the parts we had. I take everything apart until we're able to tuck them safely away in our bags.

  I drive. Man do I wish her driving had been an option. I took it at a snails pace and even that was too fast. My stomach churned almost as bad as it did during the surgery, and I white knuckle it the whole way back up the Cascade 99. I get why they want you to have good vision to do this. But Dr.Jue gives me panicked directions the whole time, and we work it out. I think we make a pretty good team.