Sooner Dead (Gamma World) - Mel Odom [77]
“These give you a deeper control over your body than most humans have.”
“Yes.” Hella hadn’t even heard of anyone else with nanobots inside their bodies who could morph their hands into guns or siphon raw materials through their bodies to make gunpowder propellant and bullets.
“Yet you only use it to make pistols of your hands.”
“That’s all I can do.”
Scatter smiled slightly then. “No. You can do much more. You simply have to learn how to master the nanobots. Can you sense what I’m doing?”
Hella concentrated on the feelings outside her temples and forehead as well as inside. Scatter had set up some kind of pattern, and the nanobots were reacting to it. Within seconds, the headache vanished.
“I must apologize, Hella. There was damage to your cerebral cortex that I did not know about.” Scatter removed his hand.
“I have brain damage?” The possibility scared Hella. She’d seen people who were brain damaged having seizures that eventually killed them. Most people didn’t tolerate brain-damaged individuals and left them for the wilderness to prey on. She decided then and there that she wouldn’t allow herself to become a threat to Stampede.
“You did have brain damage. Slight brain damage. But you have brain damage no more. You have healed yourself.”
“I did that?”
“Yes.”
“How?”
Scatter picked up one of her arms and indicated a long scratch that ran along her forearm. “You healed this.”
The previous night the cut had been deep, had maybe even needed stitches or glue. “I heal quickly. It’s just part of the nanobots.”
“You can do more with them.” Scatter traced his forefinger along her arm. As soon as his finger touched the scratch, creating a weird shock rhythm, and moved on, only unblemished skin was left behind. “You are limiting what the nanobots can do for you.” He turned her arm over to reveal another scratch. “Here. You try to fix this one.”
Hella concentrated, trying to recapture the rhythm Scatter had started with his touch. When she had the rhythm, she was astonished as the scratch instantly healed. “I didn’t know that I could do that.”
“That is because you have not totally embraced your nature at this point.” Scatter looked at her with kind eyes. “You have pushed your heritage away and denied it.”
“I don’t even know what my heritage is.” Hella looked at him hopefully.
“Nor do I.” Scatter cocked his head to the side again. “But I do find that I am immensely intrigued. I hope this does not discomfort you.”
At first, Hella didn’t know what to say. “I hear them sometimes.”
“Who?”
“The nanobots.”
“What do they say?”
Hella shook her head, and the reflex was miraculously without pain. “I don’t know. I can’t hear them.”
“Maybe you do not want to.”
“Maybe.”
“Do you fear them?”
“I don’t want to lose myself to them.”
“You do not have to.”
“You don’t know what it feels like when they take over.”
Scatter regarded her. “They cannot take over your mind, Hella.”
“They do. You just haven’t seen it when they’re strong inside me.”
“Fascinating.” Scatter smiled, and she could tell the effort was genuine. “Obviously this is a conundrum I would like to pursue at some point.”
Hella took back her arm. “Not this morning.” She didn’t know if she would ever be ready to deal with that. “Where are you from?”
Scatter reflowed himself so he was suddenly turned one hundred eighty degrees—without turning around. It appeared as if he pulled himself inside out. Hella stared at him.
Stampede laughed at her astonishment. “Being around him is going to take some getting used to.”
Glancing at Stampede, seeing how the bisonoid stood with his arms cross over his chest, Scatter stood and crossed his arms in an almost perfect imitation.
Scowling, Stampede unfolded his arms. His nostrils flared and his ears twitched. “Some things are going to take even more getting used to.”
“I perceive that I have done something wrong.” Scatter studied Stampede.
“It isn’t polite to mock someone. And it’s not very smart either.”
“To