The little synthetic worms grew larger as they ate, when their little crystals had been absorbed, they moved to another piece, and another. They fed, until all of the glass was gone.

“Hzzt… gonna love this part… hzzzt,” this time Shesh heard the malfunked AI as though it whispered directly onto his eardrum.

Shesh watched in horror as the sated worms quickly slithered toward his new arm. He vomited again as he watched them fuse into the stuff making up the synthetic limb. Shesh’s feet found the ground and he rose from the grated floor in disgust.

He stared at his new arm. The dull looking plastic seemed to move where the worms had joined with it. It crawled and swelled like grey and green magma. When he poked the substance with his flesh fingertips there was no give. It was as hard as steel, but as light as Styrofoam. The new hand was intricate. Spines and savage edges slipped from contour to contour in a subtle but clear mechanical construct. He watched in stunned amazement as the grey-green mass slowly changed color. It darkened into a black and red iridescence like the cockroaches he and his friends were constantly killing in the Mahi Durg.

When he looked around the room, Shesh saw faint glowing green circles mark all of the objects. The circles moved and adjusted as his eyes did. When he focused on a large monitor beside him the circle transformed and expanded. Lines of text and code began to arrange around it. He couldn’t read all of the words, but like all the kids on the street he had learned to speak English.

“What is this? What has happened?” Shesh asked in the awkward tongue. His voice quavered with a cocktail of awe and terror. His accent was thick with Hindi.

“ChiraliTech R&D Protocol 4 installation ninety-three percent complete. Nanite recombination…nano-structure…hzzt…hzt…reheat this burrito…Hzzt… complete.” crackled the voice somewhere in Shesh’s head.

“Burrito?” Shesh said.

“Prepare… hzzt… hzt… buckle up, tiger,” the voice said. “…hzzt… ticket out…”

“What has happened to me. What are you?” Shesh insisted.

“Terminal function countdown set: Event minus, twenty three days, hzzzt… six hours, eleven minutes, forty eight seconds. N-HiveMind AI version: one point zero seven point zero one. Patent pending. WARNING: N-Hivemind AI malfuction… hzzt… I wear a size zero obviously… hzzt.” the voice finished with a giggle.

“Countdown!? To what?” Shesh demanded.

In reply Shesh heard a buzzing thrum. Servos whirred and a skittering echoed in the chamber around him. He whipped his head around eye wide, trying to track where the sound had emanated. The green text in his vision started computing the sound, strange diagrams were popping up. Then suddenly flashing began in the right of his vision. He jerked his head in that direction.

Through the green tank, where his arm had been replaced, he could see the many glowing red eyes of the Rust Dog. Shesh felt terror course through him like an electric shock. In his vision the scarab colored circles targeted the Dog and the heads up display behind his eyes flashed from green to bright crimson.

“Tango. Contact,” stated the voice in his head. Then in a low hiss, “Hzzt… kill iiiiit.”

“I… I…” Shesh stammered.

The Rust Dog hunkered and blasted a hole through the green glass belly of Shesh’s techno Shiva. The monstrous machine rocketed through the opening before all of the emerald liquid had emptied. The green fluid flew everywhere. Where it landed it shattered in solid crystalline pops.

Before Shesh could draw a breath, the Rust Dog was on him again. The robotic beast pinned him to the ground and the menacing sets of crab mandibles scrabbled for his face.

Shesh’s tear-filled eye darted and the red circles in his vision marked points all over the machined hide of the monster that was crushing him. He tried to scramble away but one of the carbon fiber and plastic legs slammed into his chest. Pinned down, Shesh gasped for air. He cried out as he felt ribs shatter under the weight of the attacking drone.

Shesh in his horror thought again of brave Sana, Pratik, Basir Big Ears, and Azizul the Map. He thought of his mother. He gritted his teeth in terror. This was how he was going to die.

Then he felt something inside. A rush of chilly electricity seemed to dart through his body. It was like drinking cool coconut water on a hot day. That almost erotic feeling of the chilled milk sliding down his throat.

Suddenly there was something layered over his fear. Something greater than rage. It was greater than hate. He did not recognize it, but he sipped from its power.

Shesh screamed and punched and clawed at the machine. He struck again and again at the red circles his vision had plotted on the surface of the Rust Dog. His left hand, still flesh, smashed against metal and plastic. He felt sizzling jolts of pain shoot to his elbow as protruding parts of the robot found the meat between his knuckles.

But his other hand.

His new hand.

It had changed shape. The hand had become a vicious looking claw. With it Shesh slammed gaping holes into the undercarriage of the Dog. He changed direction with the taloned fist and slashed at the exposed components of the robot. The hunter drone squealed and scrambled to escape the boy’s assault.

Once again, Shesh slowly rose. This time he wore a grimace of mad hatred. His eye was wide and his tongue lolled from between his teeth like the goddess Kali incarnate. He screeched his rage at the retreating Dog. Shesh took a step and realized that a hunk of the Rust Dogs remained in his new robotic hand. The green and grey worms that had gathered into his arm now crawled forward to consume the metal, plastic, and shredded wires.

They imbibed its mass and Shesh’s arm grew new spines and ports. Sharp armored shapes formed around the skinny nano-structured limb. He felt his broken ribs crack and adjust as the nanites inside him reshaped and reinforced the bone. The sudden rush of nano-fueled synthetically-augmented adrenaline coursed through him. Shesh vibrated with potential energy. He felt the hair on his body stand on end.

The Rust Dog crouched in a defensive position. The hateful AI glared at the boy-nanostructure that now stood before it. It sprayed sparks from it’s open wounds as small repair bots inside it’s casing rushed to fix the damage Shesh had caused.

“Hzzt… Destroy?” hissed the voice purring in Shesh’s head.

“Destroy,” commanded Shesh.

“Hzztmmmn. Taste its bones… hzzzzt.”

Shesh glanced down when he felt a tug on his new arm. A large portion of the synthetic arm had come apart like a bundle of fiber optic cables. It disconnected just above his bicep and the writhing mass fell to the floor. It recombined itself into something that loosely resembled a three kilogram deadly sea cucumber. It reared and looked up at Shesh. It jostled evil looking quills that rose from its back. It had six bright emerald slits that seemed to act as eyes. They appeared to blink at him.

It slowly rotated it’s head mass, and directed its attention back to the Rust Dog.

The drone seemed to recoil in fear.