It took him a few minutes, and he collapsed to his knees at the sheer shock of the change, still running through, parts of him awake for the first time in literally years. He'd been so used to the nanovirus that he'd relied on it like a drug, the ability to do anything and everything all at once, he'd clung to that. It allowed him to be aware, to see and touch more than he should have been able to with one lifetime of experience. He planted his hands to the ground, heaving, a twitch, another heave. His body was trying to revert itself back to the original genetic coding. Bypass, bypass, he didn't have time for that.

The nanites would work later, once he was out of here. He needed to make it to saftey first, and this place was going to be the furthest thing from safe when they discovered he wasn't attached to the device that had culled his brain.

He watched from space, though, already mapping, planning. He pinpointed the signatures, already firing up an old data network that rumbled to life at the first indication of life. He hacked others, falling into old habits, the codes were more sophisticated, he was better.

"Give me a moment," he managed through this somehow, trying to shake the hoarseness of his voice, make it sound normal, and not weak. Strained. It was like going from being a couch potato to a marathon runner in a scant few moments.