Slice Backstory

The young woman collapsed into the alleyway, her mechanical arm pulling her down as she quickly crawled behind the trashcans. The footsteps were getting closer and she knew they were coming for her again, coming to drag her back to the dark room with the strange machines.

She huddled in the dark, her naked body shivering as she listened to them getting closer and closer with each footfall. She'd been running for hours, crossing the moors and mountains and down into the city as she listened to the helicopters and trucks tracking her, their radios speaking clearly inside her head as they hounded her through the dark night.

They were right on top of her now, she could see the elongated shadows cast by the florescent street lamps moving across the mouth of the alley as the raindrops shattered the puddles and chilled her body almost as much as the fear.

A laugh broke out as the figures crossed within feet of her, the young couple hugging each other under the broad brimmed umbrella as the woman giggled at some private joke. Slice stared at them as they moved away, their footsteps moving off as her fear subsided. Why were they happy, how could they be enjoying themselves when there were such dark people as her pursuers hiding in the shadows.

Still shivering, Slice realised she needed to find clothes to cover herself, if only for protection from the cold Scottish rain. Quickly scanning the alley, she found several flimsy boxes filled with scraps of clothing. Sorting through it she found all kinds of strange items, uniforms and costumes all with low cut tops and revealing bottoms.

Not understanding what these clothes were for, she ripped through the boxes, eventually finding several pieces made of tough, worn leather, somewhere in her shattered mind the information about combat protection and concealment potential arose, telling her this clothes would be suitable for her needs. All of them seemed to be of a suitable size for her body, if a little tight in places. Quickly pulling them on she fastened the numerous buckles as she struggled single-handed with her mechanical limb hanging by her side.

She knew that if she was to be able to fight she'd have to learn how to use her new appendage, but at the moment she could barely manage to carry the weight of it. She needed to find somewhere secluded to practice and she glanced upwards, wondering what the rooftops would be like. As she studied the wall for handholds her bionic arm suddenly came to life and she saw a targeting reticule appear, scanning the roof for anchor points before a grapple shot out and latched onto the brickwork near the top of the wall.

As the grapple started to retract automatically, Slice found herself being dragged towards the wall and she lifted her legs to brace herself against it, trying to stop herself. She found that but concentrating she could vary the speed of the grapple wince, but she still couldn't figure out how to stop it, instead she slowed it to a comfortable pace and started walking up the vertical surface.

When she reached the top, Slice gripped the rooftop with her biological arm, hooking her leg over as she pulled herself panting onto the asphalt, watching as the grapple retracted back into her wrist and the arm fell inert at her side again. She'd learnt her lesson; the arm was keyed to perform certain actions by thought command. Now she just had to learn what thoughts would command the arm to act.

Rising she moved across the roof, pulling her new cloak up over her head as the rain fell around her, turning slowly she saw an old, ramshackle shed, something like a bird coup or storage lockup. Staring at it she started running words through her head, trying to direct the arm to grapple the shed.

As she thought the word 'attack' the arm sprung to life, snapping up as the targeting reticule appeared again this time locking quickly onto the shed as her arm flipped over and a back of darts popped out just below her elbow.  
Before she could do anything to stop it, one of the darts launched out, streaking silently through the air before hitting the shed with a small explosion, igniting the wood with a bright conflagration.

Spinning around, Slice quickly jumped across to the opposite rooftop, desperate to get away from the fire lest her pursuers spotted it and found her before she could defend herself. Running relentlessly, she leaped from rooftop to rooftop as she hurried blindly across the city, terrified of being captured once again. Terrified of the dark room and the machines.

As she leapt across a large thoroughfare, the arm snapped up, shooting the grapple out and pulling her across the gap snapping back just as she landed on the opposite rooftop. Stopping for a moment, Slice realised that she'd been thinking about the arm the wrong way, it wasn't an alien device attached to her arm, it was her arm.

She closed her eyes and imagined flexing her arm and lifting her fist to her chest, when she opened them again she saw the metal fist clasped to her breast. She smiled, turning her hand over as the mechanical fingers slowly unfolded her fingers wiggling, but that was just the start, simple reflex actions would be easy to relearn, but all the special features that this thing, no this arm could have would take some figuring out.

She tried to imagine her arm falling to pieces and as she watched the metal peeled away, sections folding under others as the mechanisms unfolded, components sliding smoothly between each other as all the secrets of her 'improvement' were laid bare. Dropping slowly onto the wet rooftop, Slice began to examine her new self.