Soft- Shelled Angel

WARNING: this is a lemon! So if you don't like to read about animated characters gettin' their freak on, are you are under 18, or if this isn't allowed where you live, press the back button and stay away from 'Lemon' sites in the future.

BATTLE ANGEL, Gally, and all other characters, with the exception of Hoshin, are property of Yukito Kishiro and Viz manga.

A NOTE ON THIS FIC: it starts out slow, but the later half is all good stuff. I write fics with plots, sorry. If you want to get right into it, the dirty stuff starts about page 13 or so.

A FURTHER NOTE ON CONTINUITY: I am using the plot from the manga; so don't look for that doctor Chiren, because she doesn't exist here. Also, I am using the names from the original Japanese wherever I can. So don't say you weren't warned!

Enjoy!

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Soft-Shelled Angel

1: To Prove Herself Wrong

Transmission Begins...

Something was wrong. Gally knew it and it had her very worried. Her rescuer, Daisuke Ido, was going out every night with that strange, heavy case rolling beside him on its little wheels. He never took that case with him when he went out during the day, and when he returned in the morning, he always had some new part for her body. The fact that he seemed to want to keep this midnight scavenging a secret wouldn't have bothered Gally normally, but something else was going on in the nighttime streets of Scrap Iron City.

'Be careful, Gally. There's a murderer on the loose. He's running around, slitting the throats of pretty young things like you.'

Maybe Daisuke was buying parts from the killer. Maybe he was just a cyber-vulture, salvaging corpses from murder scenes to keep his parts cost down.

Gally didn't care. Whatever his connection, it was going to get him into trouble. She had been helpless when she'd first heard him slip out in the middle of the night, being little more than a torso with arms, but now she would follow him.

She would put a stop to this.

There was a third possibility; one that Gally didn't like to think about. It was far worse than Ido being unscrupulous in his parts hunting. But that was a much more direct link to the killings than Gally would entertain without proof. That was why she was shadowing him. To prove herself wrong.

She followed his route a little way, then got ahead of him when he turned quickly into an alley. The alley was a simple stone walkway on the end Ido entered, but it widened about halfway to allow for dumpsters behind shops and stayed wide to the other end. Gally entered from the wide end. When she got to the place where the small path ended, she hid herself away behind some pipes. Shadows keeping the glint of her metal body from view, she waited for Daisuke to emerge.

Gally's breath caught as Daisuke "Doc" Ido's silhouette, marked by his round-crowned Quaker's hat, appeared from the narrow path into the wider area and flattened itself against the wall beside it. He appeared to be listening for sounds from the small stone lane.

There was something to hear, too. Although Daisuke had stopped moving, Gally still heard footsteps. Someone was coming down the alley's narrower path.

Daisuke, apparently aware of the approaching person, had already turned away from the steady sounds. He was bent over the heavy wheeled trunk, the one she had never seen inside of. He was busy working with something, but Gally couldn't see what.

The footsteps were much closer now; at least halfway to the wider path. She could just make out a dim figure, slim and tall, though not as tall as Ido. Gally could see something strange about its feet. They were too small and caused the person to walk with a swing to the hips.

High heels. A woman.

Daisuke!

She glanced back at Ido, and felt her stomach (or the place where it should have been in this cyborg body) roll lazily at what he had removed from the trunk and assembled. It was a staff. Over seven feet long. With a huge hammer or wedge shape on the end.

Daisuke! Please don't let it be true!

This was that third possibility. What she had hoped to disprove by coming here she was about to confirm with her own eyes. Gally felt a scream rise in her throat as Ido hefted the staff in both hands and she stepped from her hiding place, intending to run forward and catch her engineer/adoptive father's arm...

Break in Transmission...

Hi! Professor Desty Nova here! I'm sorry for stopping the story that you've been engrossed in, but I have to inform you that this story is not going to go the way you think!

I have recreated the original events thus far to set a control sequence for my karmic simulation experiments. My karmatronic theory was in part proven by the grand impact of Gally's decisions on the rest of the universe. As I can't alter past events (nor would I want to, given Gally's current state of affairs...Heehee!), I built this simulator to prove the converse: that a person of Gally's karmatronic potential can have just as much influence through inaction as through action.

Through careful study of Gally's memories, I have arrived at the conclusion that the decision and action that propelled her into her current circumstances was stopping Ido from killing this mutant woman. This action put Gally into a position to rediscover her Panzer Kunst as well setting her in the role of Ido's protector. If she hadn't had that opportunity to fight for Ido, I postulate that her intense ambition and ease with bloodletting might not have flowered in the same way, if at all.

Ah, but for me, this is as much entertainment as it is experimentation, so let's get back to the simulation! I'm eager to see how it plays out!

Transmission Resumes...

Gally came out of hiding, ready to run forward and stop Ido from swinging his hammer, and then...

She froze. She was gripped by an emotional paralysis as complete as a full-body shutdown. If she stopped Ido, then she would have to acknowledge that he was a murderer. If she admitted that, even to herself, then she would have to do something about it.

What would she do, if she stood up right now and screamed for him to stop? If she stayed his hand from its murderous business, what could she do? Could she defend herself against him, if his rage and madness was turned on her?

She stood there, out in the open, motionless with indecision, tears of frustration welling from synthetic ducts; she agonized over the choice.

Then the woman stepped from the stone path into Ido's reach, and the decision was no longer hers to make. He raised the hammer, at the same time pressing a button on the handle. A white-hot flame shot from the back of the weapon, propelling it down onto the head of the figure in the archway. The figure seemed to crumple and twitch before it fell. It never even turned its head.

Gally cringed, and that "phantom limb" feeling, like her stomach was curdling went through her again. Then Ido leaned over the body, and Gally suddenly turned and fled; her lithe cyber body as silent as when she had followed the murderer into this nightmare. She fled, not just to avoid discovery, but also to try and shake off the memories that were even now pressing in against her. Memories of violence she'd seen done before, where her hands were the ones covered in blood, her voice crying out in bloodthirsty rage, her mind going to white bliss as she slaughtered her way through strange locations.

These were memories, not phantasms or waking nightmares. She knew that; felt it. She'd done those things.

No!

Done those things and enjoyed them.

No, dammit!

She had been a soldier.

No, no, no!

A good little soldier.

Shut up!!

She ran on into the night; fighting the memories, not knowing where she was running to, just putting enough space between her and the nightmare of her sweet Daisuke pounding that woman to the floor as a nail into wood, of him removing the head, as if he was taking a killer's trophy.

She ran to escape her past and her present.

2: To Escape from Her Past

After a while, her mind went blank; the memories of her past (and Ido's night job) safely suppressed in some backwater of her brain. When she was able to come back to herself, she realized that it was dawn, and that she was in a marketplace. She noticed it wasn't the normal marketplace Ido had taken her to before her body was completed. That place had been an open bazaar, full of people from the Scrapyard (most of whom she knew) hawking their wares. Here, almost all the customers seemed better off than the shopkeepers. They probably worked for the factory.

The factory must run this marketplace. Gally thought as she wandered around, wondering at all the strange items and high-class goods.

"Excuse me, young lady!"

Gally jumped at the voice. She turned around to see one of the shopkeepers standing over her. He was a tall, tanned man in his early thirties, dressed in workpants and an undershirt, with some kind of fractal pattern tattooed on his neck. A metal section in his shaved head indicated that he'd had a hard drive and processor installed to allow for quick data access on the job. His grin showed perfect dental work. "Sorry if I scared you. I'm Hoshin! I work the cyber-synth booth!"

Gally looked up at the merchant, now more curious than shaken. She tried to smile back, and found it was easy when she looked at the merchant's calm, pleasant face.

"My name's Gally! Nice to meet you!"

Hoshin reaction surprised Gally. He threw back his head and laughed. The sound was as huge as he was and it rolled out through the marketplace like the sound of waves crashing onto shoreline cliffs. When he stopped, he grinned down at her again. "Well now! I can see that you're not one of the usual snobs who frequent this place. I'm pleased to make your acquaintance, Gally. Mind if I ask what a pretty lil' thing like you might be looking for?"

Gally looked down at her ankles, glinting in the morning light. "Actually, I've never been here before."

Hoshin reached down and ruffled her hair, making her giggle. "No problem, little one! I know this place like I know my own shop. I can tell you about the best place to get anything you might want, and I can tell you a few places to avoid at all costs."

She noticed a building between two tents selling organs, built out of red brick. She could see men coming and going through a red curtain that served as a door. She pointed at it and looked up at Hoshin.

"What's that place? It looks popular."

Hoshin's face darkened from the radiant grin to a slightly disgusted smile. "That, my dear, is one of those places you might want to give a wide berth. It is a flesh show and brothel."

"Flesh show?"

"A place where a girl takes off her clothes and wiggles around naked on stage. The customers throw more money to see more skin, and they'll pay extra to have a girl's warm flesh writhing on their own. Pray you never have to make chips that way."

Gally looked down at her body, her soldier's body, and felt the tears threaten again. "I couldn't do it anyway," she said to Hoshin, raising her shirt to expose her metal chassis. "No skin to show, see?"

"Damn shame..." Hoshin muttered. His carefree grin dropped off is face, replaced by a look of sorrow at her situation. He continued after a moment. "Your entire body?"

"Yup. I've been a cyborg as far back as I can remember." She lowered her shirt, a little embarrassed even with her metal body.

Hoshin's eyes narrowed. "Just how old are you?"

"I don't really know," Gally's own eyes lowered as she tried to ignore the memories that wanted to smother her. "My memory's gone, and although I've made new friends, no one from the Scrapyard seems to know me from before."

Hoshin's face was long with commiseration. He seemed to consider in that benevolent, yet self-centered way that is the sole province of good-natured shopkeepers. Finally, he opened his eyes again.

"Gally, I don't want to get your hopes up, but can I get a closer look at that body?"

"Um, why?" Gally said, a little guardedly. She wore the octopus-lipped pout she used whenever Gonz made fun of her for being given the cat's name. Hoshin could see her trepidation and raised a hand to reassure her.

"My intentions are merely business related, dear. I just think I might have an alternative to your current body, shiny and strong as it is."

Gally's eyes lit up. "Really? What do you mean? What alternative?"

"Hang on there, lil' lady." Hoshin now held up both hands in a stopping gesture. "I won't say anything until I get a look at the body you're currently wearing! Now, if you'll step into my office, I can show you my wares, and find out if you can afford them." Gally hesitated for a moment, but only a moment. Her dislike of her metal body; of its potential for violence, was very strong right then. She would not pass up a chance to be rid of it. So when Hoshin held up the curtain that served as his shop's door, Gally entered without a look back.

3: Without a Look Back

Gally stepped under the curtain, and into a room full of dolls. Headless dolls. Shiny, pink bodies hung from hooks under their arms; men and women, all headless and anatomically blank. If the room had been dark, she might've screamed, thinking they were corpses. As it was, she started when she saw them, before she saw the cybernetic hookups and lack of genitalia.

"Don't worry," said Hoshin. "They won't bite."

Gally reached out and took hold of the wrist of one of the female bodies. She saw the minute detail, the softness of the flesh, and the close resemblance to real skin. She pressed the hand to her face, the only place on her body where she could feel more than the pressure and location of a touch. It was soft, firm, like Daisuke's hand but smoother.

Hoshin watched her smiling. "That's the cyber-synth skin. Nice, isn't it?"

Gally nodded.

"Put it down and come in here for a moment, okay Gally?"

She nodded again, and walked over to where he sat by a computer and diagnostic table. She stopped in front of him, waiting patiently.

"Take off your clothes."

Gally's eyes widened. Hoshin chuckled, as if he had only said it to get a reaction. "Relax, Gally. Like you said, there's no skin to show. I just want to see what kind of body you're wearing and what condition it's in."

Gally stood for a moment, but she trusted this man's intentions, and the lure of a new body was too strong. She disrobed and stood shining and naked before him.

Hoshin examined her very thoroughly. His hands inspected and searched every inch of her metal body, but even when his hand ran between her legs or over her chest, she could see he was only examining a joint or testing the strength of her outer shell. All during this examination, he kept up a running critique of her body's design and workmanship.

"I don't believe it...put together from at least 3 different body types, but they're machined together so well that it could have come from the factory this way."

His eyes narrowed as he went over the spot where her brand new left leg joined her hip.

"I've seen a weld like this before," He looked up at her shrewdly. "You're that girl Doc Ido found, aren't you?"

Gally nearly jumped out of her shell. "You know Ido?"

"I know mister Gonz," Hoshin got up and sat down before the computer, wiping the oil from one of her joints off of his fingers. "He brought in an arm for my old girlfriend. Had a weld looked just like that one. I've never seen one even half as well done outside the factory techs."

"He is great with his hands." Gally replied as she sat on the table.

Hoshin grunted a laugh, which confused her, but he continued on before she could raise a question.

"Anyway," he said. "I think that body you have there is more than worth it as a trade in."

"Trade in?" she asked. "You mean for one of those?"

"Of course, that was the alternative I was referring to." He flipped a switch on the console to his right, and a female body about Gally's size with light peach skin buzzed toward them on its suspension coil. "These synthetic bodies were originally developed for cyborgs that were starting to go insane from not experiencing the sense of touch. It was a problem similar to what drove lepers mad in ancient times. The mind would attempt to compensate for the lack of tactile sensation by creating audio & visual hallucinations."

Hoshin clicked the keys to a computer on his left this time, and a green strip of light ran over her body from top to toes. He hit another key, and the synthetic body began to change proportions to match Gally's own.

"They got that problem under control within a few years, but there are still people who prefer to have a more human exterior, not to mention a full range of sensation beyond pressure."

Gally's eyes flicked up and down the synthetic body. "Umm...isn't it missing something?" she pointed to the undefined junction between the legs. Hoshin nodded.

"That's what you could call an 'optional feature' of the body," his fingers poised over the keyboard, waiting. "You want me to activate it?"

"Can you turn it off if I change my mind?"

"Sure!" he clacked the keys and motioned for Gally to take a closer look.

She walked closer to the body and leaned in to see. Hoshin clicked a few keys, and the blank mound split, and then blossomed into sweet, pink lips. Gally's eyes widened as the soft folds pulled back and the opening inside her new body went deeper. A small bump formed at the head of the cleft, and a little hood grew over it.

"It's pretty!" Gally said, entranced by the transformation, bending forward so far to examine the newly made clitoris that her nose slipped inside the open cleft. A strange musk wafted to her nostrils. She breathed it in. She heard Hoshin click a few more keys, and then her new pussy twitched shut, nipping her nose in the process. Gally yelped in surprise. Hoshin grinned.

"Sorry," he said, setting up another system on the monitor to his right. "They tend to tighten up when the process is complete."

Gally rubbed her nose and examined the body's new sex. Now that it was finished, it looked like a small, coral pink slash in the groin.

Hoshin looked up from his work for a minute. "Y'know, you'll get a much better view if you go around back."

Gally nodded, then went around the back of the body and looked between the legs. She saw what looked like a ripe peach with a split down its middle. She spread the cheeks to get a better look, and then noticed something else missing.

"Umm... Hoshin?"

Hoshin looked up from the screens, saw where she was looking and chuckled. "Oh, that! You sure you want one of those?"

Gally pouted. "Well, why wouldn't I want one?" Absently, she ran a hand down to where her own metal cheeks came together, wondering. Hoshin continued:

"There's no digestive system in these bodies. Food is converted molecularly. So there's really only one use for having an opening back there."

Gally blushed. "Oh! Ummm...I guess it couldn't hurt to have one."

Hoshin's grin widened. "Okay, kinky girl. You got it." A few more keystrokes, and an opening appeared, then snapped closed. Now a tiny puckered cavity rested between the spread cheeks. Hoshin got up and moved beside her, restraining her hand when she tried to put it between the legs.

"I know you want to touch it, but your metal hands are a bit much for that area. They might damage the synthetic nerves." Gally pouted, but then smiled as she got an idea. She spread the cheeks again and nestled her face in between them. Hoshin turned away, blushing like a furnace, and checked one of the monitors. "I guess that's one solution." He said.