It was the sudden stillness, nature's rebound from disaster, that caught 
her off her guard. A board fell somewhere, wind whipped through the grass for 
a moment, and then the settling dust began to enforce a sense of calm. It fell 
from the boards on the ceiling, through the sun-splattered atmosphere, onto her 
eyes.
	"Ahh, the clouds are so pretty," Alita murmured. Clouds...where was this 
again? Her hand relaxed, deciding that it wasn't worth the effort to touch the 
dull ache coming from the back of her head. Her wrist settled on her forehead, 
casting an irregular shadow, and giving her the chance to contemplate the sun 
hidden somewhere in the hazy heights and cumulus foothills. "And me--how did 
I come to be lying here, in a place like this?" A butterfly joined her, alighting on 
her nose. It ignored the twitch underfoot as she smiled and began to regard her 
out of its compound eyes.
	Although it couldn't comprehend what it was looking at, the butterfly 
sensed that it wasn't a living object, and was probably safe. For the moment. 
This object that it was resting on had light, smooth skin and brown eyes, and a 
head of straight black hair. The butterfly couldn't sense any true breathing or 
endothermy, though in a manner of speaking they were present. Its mind would 
have boggled at the conscious thought that was going on less than 10 
centimeters away, in a collection of centuries-old neurons encased in a protective 
shell. All the insect cared about was food, and it was beginning to suspect that 
this object would not be a good source of nectar.
	Suddenly, its antennae began to register a multifrequency vibration in the 
air. Though the source was still a few meters away, its sudden appearance and its 
amplitude were exceptional. In accordance with millions of years of inbred 
instinct, the insect took to the air in a flutter, seeking a more suitable 
environment to rest or feed.
	Dazed, Alita sat up and looked in the direction of the laughter. "...Who?" 
she slurred.
	As the contrast of her view changed, she began to make out shapes. A 
young man, wearing a bandanna and work clothes, formed out of the fog. He 
had his chin on his arms; they, in turn, were akimbo on the railing of a walkway. 
"What are you doing down there?" he asked.
	Alita struggled to a more upright position, woozy for some reason she 
couldn't quite remember. Her pain...lying on the ground...heat stroke? "You 
know, I was just wondering the same thing myself." she replied. She struggled to 
her feet as the boy's laughter died down. "Stop laughing and give me a hand up!"
	"No problem, lady." The boy offered an arm with a disproportionately 
large hand attached to it. Alita said nothing; Ido had talked to her before about 
birth deformities. She merely extended her hand and pulled.
	"Hey!" The boy wasn't prepared for the weight of the girl, and the force 
dragged the him right through the wooden railing. The two fell into a heap on 
the grass. He grabbed his shoulder, and let out a yelp of pain. "How much do 
you weigh, anyhow?"
	Alita opened her mouth to speak, but then suddenly found herself unable 
to say anything. She looked at her companion, and found herself wanting 
something. She didn't really understand it, but she felt too rushed to bother to 
identify just what it was yet. Alita snapped out of her reverie to discover that he 
was staring at her hands. Impulsively, she hid them out of sight behind her back. 
Then, she began to feel that she had acted too quickly, and maybe she should 
show them to the young man. The more she thought, the more color began to 
rise in her cheeks. Should she do this? Should she do that? Why should she do 
anything?
	Either the boy was completely oblivious or simply ambivalent. He 
shrugged, then threw himself onto the grass, gazing off into the same skies Alita 
had been gazing into a moment before. "I could really get used to this!" he 
chuckled. He closed his eyes, and began basking in the glow of the sun. A 
moment later, he leaned over and looked at her. "Hey! Let's go up to the roof! 
You can see for days from up there!"
	"Sure." She  got up and dusted herself off, then followed him up towards 
the catwalk.
	"I'm Hugo. What's your name?"
	"I'm Alita."
	"Alita, huh? Sounds like a wildflower or something."
	"Well, I like that name. A friend gave it to me."
	"It's a good name. I'll bet you have a lot of friends."
	Once again, Alita couldn't think of a thing to say. Fortunately, before her 
silence became awkward, they reached a ladder leading into a skylight. They 
scrambled up it and stumbled into the sunlight again.
	"Check it out! Zalem, the Midair City!"
	The Floating City hung above them like a part of the sky, a prosthetic 
attachment to a cloud. A tarnished sort of a silver underneath, the buildings of 
the residents almost peeping over the edge. Great gray tubes dangled from 
underneath, each connected to various Factory Warehouses all over the 
Scrapyard. Tiny Hugo, lying prone on top of an abandoned factory on a small lot 
on the very edge of the Scrapyard, gave it his full attention.
	"I come here a lot--just sit and watch. It's my favorite. I've been running 
wild in this old factory since I was just a kid." He pulled himself into a sitting 
position. "Sometimes I just sit here and stare...and if I do it long enough, I start to 
almost believe I could float up there, you know?" He received a giggle in reply. 
"What?"
	"Just looking at you...at your face." Alita leaned back and tried to continue 
the thought, but Hugo quickly warned her to watch out. "That area's weak," he 
said, pointing to a large hole right behind her, "so be careful, OK?"
	Alita looked into the hole, and she began to remember why she had been 
lying on the floor a few minutes earlier...

	There was a "thud" at the door, a bit to strong for a knock. This was 
followed a second later by a lighter, sharper "thud". There was a brief pause, then 
another decapitated body hit the door, this time causing a break in the wood. Its 
head followed it inside a moment later. The three occupants of the room--two 
cyborgs and a rather unkempt-looking old man--gave their undivided attention 
to the body suit-clad death machine that had single-handedly fought her way 
through a drug-crazed security crew.
	"Megil the Pharmacist! Cornered you at last!" said Alita, walking through 
the humanoid-shaped hole in the doorway. Her face wore a contemptuous snarl. 
"Your dope slinging has done so much damage...I think it's time you got your 
share." She began to advance on her last three targets.
	"B-boss..." stammered Touru. He and Gremm turned and looked at their 
employer, the paranoia side effects of their drug abuse showing themselves. 
Suddenly, getting outside meant a great deal more than who would provide 
their next high...
	"Hmph...any experiment requires guinea pigs...here!" He smiled a rather 
toothless smile at Alita, and began shaking a red and white striped container, 
about the size of his thumb, with a quick back-and-forth action. "Let me show 
you the result of my research," he said. Satisfied that it was well-mixed, he 
plunged the container into an interface on his temple.
	What happened next was not pleasant. Even before he had removed his 
hand, the veins on the side of his skull had grown to be three millimeters across 
and were bulging from his head. His muscles, first along his jaw and neck, then 
all up and down his body, began to grow in size. Like spray riding a wave, his 
body hair began to grow and thicken. As the wave reached his fingers, his nails 
exploded off his body, and claws began to form in the bloody pools on his 
fingertips. He screamed. As his mouth opened for the effort, it expanded without 
thickening. His teeth fell out of his face, and new ones began to sprout through 
his jaw in their place. Long, curved, pointed teeth, the kind for the kill.
	Touru dropped his katanas, and gaped at the beast his boss had become. 
Gremm had the presence of mind to scream--"LYCANTHROPAZINE!!!!!"--before 
the demon tore their plated bodies to shreds with great swipes of his arms.
	Alita was momentarily taken aback. "It's a werewolf..."she thought. 
Seizing the opportunity to flee, the beast leaped 6 meters into the air, landing on 
a convenient spot on the second level of the factory. It was all the impetus Alita 
needed to move into action. "You think you can get away?"
	She ran, at 40 kilometers per hour, up the stairs and out into the dazzling 
sunlight, following the sounds of her quarry's footfalls. As she emerged onto the 
roof, the beast leaped towards her, howling in mindless rage. It attempted a 
great bear hug, but Alita had sufficient time to react. Too fast for the human eye 
to follow she slapped the beast's arm above the elbow, deflecting the arm out of 
her path. Her other hand gouged into the pulpy flesh of the creature. By twisting 
her arms around one another Alita shattered the bone with ease. The change in 
her momentum caused her to spin, and she managed to catch a knee under the 
monster's arm. After two blows to its opposite flank it began to spin head over 
heel, splattering blood and gore as it careened down the roof.
	"Some werewolf," thought Alita, as she stuck out a foot to land, "...that 
was an easy victory." But she was so focused on her opponent's demise that she 
neglected to notice how she landed. The balls of her foot touched the roof with 
ease; but the force from the throw was still carrying her, and she twisted 
backwards, placing her heel where there was no surface to support it. She had 
enough time to think "Oops!" before she fell into the factory, clipping an ill-placed 
drainpipe with her head and slipping from the conscious world.

	Alita fumed. "That was really careless...I wonder if I'm in a slump." She 
roused herself as Hugo started shouting to her. "Hey, Alita! Come check this 
out." He was beckoning to her from one of the roof exits. Alita followed him 
down a flight of stairs, stepping over various body parts as she did so.
	The room they entered showed every sign of recent combat. Dead 
cyborgs were strewn piecemeal all over the floor. Several large chemical tanks 
were lying to one side where they had been abandoned. Glassware was 
shattered. Looking through the half-open doorway out towards the loading 
ramp, Hugo could see at least two trucks with more of the same. "This...this is 
incredible," he said. "It's like a dinosaur went wild down here. You got any 
ideas?"
	"They...these were probably bad guys. Killed by a hunter-warrior. You 
know it's illegal to traffic in chemicals." Alita didn't feel like mentioning who the 
hunter-warrior was, for some reason.
	"_A_ hunter warrior? They don't hunt in packs, but just _one_ couldn't do 
this much damage. Maybe a gang hit?" Hugo kicked a head around for a few 
seconds, then lost interest. He walked over to one of the tanks. "But then, why 
wouldn't they take the chemicals with them?" He knocked a couple of times on 
the tank's outside.
	"Be careful! It hasn't been disposed of!" Alita cried. Seeing Hugo's look of 
shock, she went on. "I mean, someone should go tell the Factory. Make sure that 
the chemicals get taken away. And it's dangerous to be around those big tanks, 
they could fall over."
	"Yeah. You're right. Thanks, Alita." He smiled, and she blushed. "By the 
way, do you see a crowbar around here?" He walked over to the nearest more-
or-less intact corpse and kneeled down beside it.
	"No, I don't. Why?"
	"I just want to pry out the backbone."
	"Backbone?"
	"That's right. It'll bring in a good price at the parts market...hm, this one 
looks kind of tight." He straightened up and went on. "You see, in the Scrapyard 
there are plenty of cyborg parts, and if you're not too picky, you can get them 
cheap. But the one thing in short supply is backbones...you know, spinal 
columns. Guess they can't make artificial spinal columns." Hugo began to 
wander around the room, ostensibly to find his tools.
	"You can't do that!" Alita shouted. "It's like stealing!" She hoped that she 
had more respect for the dead than this.
	"Wh-what do you mean, can't? Look! That guy is dead, he's not using it 
any more. Same as one that's been thrown away, no sin." Hugo straightened. 
"Well, I can't find it anyway. Maybe I can come back."
	"L-look, Hugo. This guy was clearly a junkie." Alita pointed to the tanks, 
canisters, bottles and vats that lay around the room. "You'd be getting damaged 
merchandise."
	"Well, maybe. I'd have to run it by the buyer, to find out." He was quiet 
for a moment, then said "I was just thinking...suppose we're right, it was some 
other gang. I can't help wondering, what were they after? C'mon, maybe there's 
a clue outside!" He pushed open the door to the ramp and walked out. He didn't 
notice how close an eye Alita was keeping on him. She was fairly sure the gang 
members were all dead, but she had to keep Hugo safe.
	Hugo wandered down the ramp, picking his way through body parts. He 
approached the trucks (he could now see three) with some trepidation. After a 
minute of careful listening, he approached the first. It was a fair-sized shipping 
van, white in color, with a roll-down rear door, wide open. Hugo grabbed the 
edge and hoisted himself up, Alita behind him.
	As he started to walk inside, Hugo was almost overcome by a powerful 
odor. Clearly, at least one tank had broken. He fished in his pocket and drew out 
a pair of thick gloves and a vapor mask. He slipped them on, made an "OK" sign 
to Alita, then continued walking inside. There were two or three rather irregular 
rows of tanks leading towards the cab. At first, Hugo thought that would be all. 
However, as he approached the cab, he realized that there was a small space in 
the front of the truck's trailer where something had fallen over. Thinking it 
might be the spilled chemicals, he approached cautiously; but he ceased to take 
care when he saw that it was a safe. The door to it was unlocked
	"Hey, Alita, take a look!" Alita looked up from the row of tanks she had 
been examining. Ido hadn't told her that much about organic chemistry, but she 
knew enough about anesthetics to know that barbituric acid [1] was best kept 
away from psychopathic criminals. She followed Hugo's shout down towards 
the cab. "Give me a hand with this, will you?"
	"Sure." Alita pulled on the safe's handle as Hugo pushed up on the door's 
edge, and in a moment the door clanged wide open. Hugo peered into the dark. 
"I think it's empty."
	"No, wait. There's something in the corner." Alita reached in and pulled 
out a clear plastic vial, the size and shape of a canister of photographic film. It 
had no markings other than a piece of masking tape. Holding it up to the light, 
Alita could see three strange marks scratched on it in pen; she had no idea of 
their meaning. What captured her attention was the vial's contents--a deep 
yellow-colored crystal with a highly symmetric lattice.
	"Whoa, what is that?"
	"Some kind of jewel, I guess."
	"It's beautiful." Hugo reflected for a moment. "You know, I could 
probably work that into a pendant, if I could find some decent wire."
	"Oh?" Alita handed him the container. "Are you an artist?"
	"Uh...no, I just know a thing or two about metal work. I've got a factory 
job, like everyone else."
	"Oh. I-I just wondered." Alita suddenly became aware of her 
surroundings. "Hugo, can we get outside?"
	"Y-yeah, what is it?"
	"I don't know, I just don't feel good being inside with these chemicals. I'm 
afraid there's a leak. I can hear something..." dripping...
	Alita looked towards the entry way. Sure enough, there were drops 
falling from the roof of the van. Red drops. Blood red drops.
	The beast swung down into the truck as well as it could using its one still 
functional arm. There is something inherently repulsive when even the vaguely 
familiar becomes mutilated to the point of only slight recognition. The werewolf 
in the door was hunched over to accommodate its bulk. Its outline showed one 
muscular arm, one...area, partly flesh, partly bone, partly tendon, partly 
marrow. This area was further distorted by the dried blood that matted the hair, 
pointing it at all angles. The thing tried to howl with rage, but the bones in its jaw 
had been broken at some point, and all it could manage was a tenor squeal with 
a faint gurgle.
	To his credit, Hugo did not flinch much. His hand fell on a bottle, and 
instinctively he grasped it. "Take this, ya furball!" he shouted, and hurled the 
makeshift weapon as the creature began to stagger foreword. Instinctively, it 
tried to bat the bottle out of the air, but only succeeded in shattering the 
glassware and soaking itself in the contents. By itself, ethanol wouldn't have 
harmed the beast; but, too fast for Hugo to follow, a blast of high-temperature 
plasma ignited the fuel, and the wretched thing caught fire. Hugo was 
dumbstruck by the sight of the creature, flailing in vain self-defense against the 
parasitic flames.
	Alita grabbed ahold of him. "Hugo!" she wailed, in her best helpless-little-
girl voice, "let's get out of here!" They made a mad dash outside, stumbling over 
one another as the chemical fumes in the van grew hotter and hotter. After a few 
seconds, deciding that the danger was growing great enough, Alita pretended to 
trip. She pushed Hugo into a ditch just as the van exploded, sending a monstrous 
shock wave out through the Scrapyard and releasing large amounts of 
dangerous chemicals into the atmosphere. The fire began to spread to the trash 
that littered the area. Flames engulfed the other two vans.
	"Hugo, you're all right!"
	"Y-y-y-yeah. Uh-huh."

	"OK, honey, I want to go over this one more time." Alita didn't like to 
have to talk to Cylinder 12. Not that the cylinder was rude or demeaning, it was 
the fact that when you had to talk to it at all it meant that something was going 
wrong. "You went into the factory in pursuit of the criminals here..." It pointed to 
a bunch of heads, stacked in a neat pyramid.
	"Yes..."
	"In the course of which, you encountered someone who responded to 
'Megil', a known wanted criminal. Going all right so far?"
	"Yes..."
	"You pursued this person, who was on some kind of drug, right?"
	"Yes, I think it was called 'lycanthropazine'."
	"Gotcha. In the course of pursuit you set fire to this person, in an enclosed 
space hereafter referred to as 'the back of a truck', where there was a variety of 
chemical fumes present. Owing to the sudden change in temperature and the 
resulting variation in the kinetic energy, they blew up." Cylinder 12 turned on its 
base and looked at her. "So THAT is why we had to evacuate all those 
apartments?"
	"Yes." Alita was getting frustrated with herself. In the future, she'd have to 
be more cautious with that plasma...what would Hugo think if he found out she 
could burn a hole in almost any material using only two fingers?
	"Your statement has been duly noted and transcribed. We'll just wait 
4.7523 seconds for Cylinder 10...Ah!" Cylinder 10 popped out of its base and fixed 
Alita with its stare. "Weww, I've got some good news."
	"The test results show a match."
	"Indeed. Nasty wowk, though. Wet me show you." A double helix 
appeared on a monitor behind the two cylinders. Periodically, lights flashed on 
the helices. "Appawentwy, the DNA of the deceased had been awtewed due to 
intewfewence fwom howmonaw activity, owiginating in the hypothawamus 
gwand, hewe." A model of a brain appeared where the helices had been, with 
one particular area colored red. "Fwankwy, unwess massive DNA twanscwiption 
is going on at the same time, it's not obvious how that could occuw."
	"Huh." Alita was struggling to follow what Cylinder 10 was saying. 
"Anyway, you were able to match the DNA fingerprint?"
	"Within weason. Aww we had to do, basicawwy, was ignowe the 
abnowmaw nucweotides and extwapawate the owiginaw sequence."
	"Fine. This match verifies your story, more or less. Trouble is, we'll have 
to deduct the cost of the evacuation from your bounty. Mind if we hold it for a 
day or two? We'll contact you when we have an estimate."
	"Yeah." Alita had other things on her mind, more important than money. 
She stared off into space while Cylinder 10 went on and on about the power of 
autosuggestion and the unconscious mind, coming back to reality only as she 
was dismissed. She left the building at 70 kilometers per hour as 10 and 12 sank 
back into their base.