Fleshing out A Cyborg's Ultimatum-Part 3

"So, first." I begin pacing back and forth in front of Cyborg, and Reuben picks a parallel path but opposite direction. "The reason that Cyborg currently has only brain implants for control is because the human body itself is very efficient, and it can be hard to blend it with mechanics. You don't want to go lopping off limbs without good reason. But, what if Cyborg got damaged and needed prosthetic body parts anyway?"

I expect some recoil from that idea, but Reuben paces past me still thinking away, and Stella doesn't pipe up, so I figure I am safe.

"So... some sort of accident while working at the HQ?" Reuben asks.

"Maybe...." I muse over some options, looking for story potential. Reuben's idea doesn't intrigue me a whole lot, but the best way to test it for story potential is to look at scenes that will actually make it into the book; not the accident itself, but the aftermath. "So, assuming Cyborg did have extra implants, wouldn't they need to be updated on occasion to accommodate his growth?"

Stella nods, but Reuben's eyes have crossed. He's probably wondering why I jumped to a different problem. I would have thought he would know me better after living in my head for so long.

Time to use my author power again.

I turn the wall into a screen for the scene I'm visualizing right now. A man sits across a steel table from Cyborg, glaring at him.

"Cyborg 2128," the man tells him, "look at me."

Cyborg does and notes all the signs of the glare on the man's face.

"Tell me, Cyborg, how do you think I feel?"

Cyborg uses what the man has taught him to respond, "I think you are unhappy."

They further discuss emotion, with the man being angry at Cyborg's lack of humanity, and Cyborg staying strictly logical. Then the man pulls a mask off his face and reveals that he is scarred.

"Aha!" Reuben pitches in. "See those scars? He's obviously Cyborg's twin brother."

Reuben has the annoying habit of coming up with off-the-wall connections. "No, Reub."

"His twin half-brother, then."

I choose not to feed his logic deficiency and pretend I didn't hear him. "Whatever happened to Cyborg happened to some degree to this man, too. They have a shared story. A history."

Stella's eyes light up. "Ohhh! That's perfect. It makes an event that happened before the story began more concrete, because there are two witnesses to it."

"Precisely." This girl gets me.

I resume pacing, cranking my mental processes to a speed that makes the wall flicker with my racing thoughts. The burned man can be an antagonist. He is the face of the previously faceless group of people working behind the scenes to break Cyborg to their purposes.

Character expansion. One of the biggest areas of opportunity after genre exploitation.

"So, what's the story with this dude? Could we get to that already?" Reuben hides behind his hands. Come to think of it, my thoughts are creating a dizzying picture. I force myself to stay focused, which helps some.

"Well, let's think in terms of the third area of expansion."

"Which is?"

I smile at him. "Setting."

Stella whips a tiny notebook out of her shirt pocket and starts scratching on it with a dull pencil. "Genre, character, setting..."

Cyborg's voice draws me to where he is floating in the upright can opener machine. "Where will I be going, Author?"

I think through my options a bit. I've had in the back of my mind for a while that one of the Asian countries was involved in cyborg generation. I may change how they were originally involved, but no reason not to use them again. "How does Japan sound?"

"So, wait." Stella again, cocking one leg as she taps her chin with her finger. "Cyborg was generated in Japan? Then relocated?"

"Nope!" I mentally rip out the history I had previously created and start setting form-boards for a new foundation. Because reinvention is a hobby of mine. "Not generated. Born."

Reuben and Stella gasp. Cyborg doesn't react as strongly, but his eyes widen. "You mean to say I was a regular human at birth?" he asks.

I nod. "But if you weren't designed to be a cyborg, how did you end up that way? That's what we need to find out."

"Idea," Reuben says. "His family were founders and donated him to the cause."

Stella makes a face at me. I get the feeling she doesn't like that picture, and I admit I don't either.

"Eh... let's keep brainstorming, shall we? What are some other ideas we can try?"

"I don't think his parents would give him up, but maybe he was taken from them." Stella's boots scuff over the concrete floor as she sets to pacing.

Reuben's eyes swell white. "Or maybe they're murdered so he can be taken!"

"But why?" I rub my chin. "Why would the enemy care so much about a kid?"

Stella shrugs. "Because he's smart?"

"His parents were a threat and needed to be taken out anyway?" Reuben suggests.

"That's a good idea," Cyborg says from his floating chamber.

"I agree." My mind whirs through supporting details and pulls a scenario together. "Okay. Cyborg's family was involved in the cyborg program, which was originally used for medical purposes but then became an unethical method of controlling people for nefarious purposes. Cyborg's family is kept in the dark for a while, but when they find out how certain members of the group are collaborating with others for a takeover--"

"Wait, wait, wait." Reuben stops me. "What happened to World War III?"

I shrug. "I cut it. It's in my spare parts box, don't worry. I'll pull it out again if it fits with the new plan.

"Anyway, the family makes enemies and decides to flee. But someone is sent to assassinate them. Maybe he causes a car wreck, which kills the parents."

Cyborg's dark eyebrows wrinkle. "And then he rescues me?"

Stella crosses her arms and gives me a pointed look. "Again, why? Why would he do that?"

Ugh, there's always so much to explain. Possibly Cyborg could be retrieved and given implants simply because he survived, even if that wasn't the original plan. I mean, if the parents were killed, no one would be suspicious that the child was being used as a test subject.

That explanation didn't include the injury that would make so many implants a natural decision, though. And if the vehicle was hazardous, who would rescue?

I pull the original scene back onto the screen. There's the burned man, scowling at Cyborg. He is angry, volatile. Not the compassionate sort who would be driven to rescue an orphaned kid. Especially if the man were the assassin.

But then... an idea begins to take shape. The details click together. Delicious, vivid details. Story material.

A smile dawns on my face.

Reuben backs away like he expects me to explode. "What is it?"

I rub my palms together and cackle evilly. I can't cackle evilly in real life, but in my head, it sounds perfectly conniving. "Sorry, Reub, that secret will have to wait until later. A plot twist, you see. But don't worry, I have it all solved. The scarred man rescues Cyborg from the car, and that's how our hero ends up becoming Cyborg 2128 instead of.... whatever he was originally called."

Reuben offers his fist to Cyborg, who simply stares at it. "You get a real name, buddy!" He looks back at me. "Okay, Miss Cryptic. I'm glad you figured it out. What's next?"

"Now is when we decide what kinds of implants Cyborg gets. We need something with diverse, interesting uses. Something practical for his situation that can factor into action scenes. And we'll also have to figure out in what way he was injured. As always, we're restricted by the fact that he has to survive the event, but it needs to be traumatic--"

"Why?" Cyborg asks, looking somewhat alarmed.

I huff, much of my patience already expended on Reuben. "Because that gives us more story fodder. Don't worry, you have the Voice, so you'll be a normal, functioning cyborg... at least initially. Anyway, we need to achieve the need for implants without killing him. That is our end goal."

Stella leans over her notebook again. "End goal..."

"I don't know." Reuben rubs some wrinkles in his brow. "I'm not used to thinking this much. I'm kind of worn out."

"No worries," I say. "Because I have outside help." I pull a laptop out of thin air and conjure up a desk to go with it. "Plug in, guys." They get my cord set up as I pull up Facebook.

Reuben and Stella crowd behind me. Cyborg cranes to see while still suspended in his light shaft.

"What are you doing?" Stella asks.

"Getting help." I write a quick post and put an image with it to make it eye-catching. It's a request for brainstorming help, complete with a brief description of what I'm looking for. "The folks in this group are incredible. They may be young, but they're quite accomplished. I'm sure at least one of them will be willing to help. And now we wait."

**To be continued**