Phase 3

Phase 3
Volume:	1
Chapter	3
Japanese title	ロボットじゃない
Romanized title	Robotto Janai
English title	I Am Not a Robot
Total pages	32
Released	2001
Story Arc	Tiphares Arc
Chapter Navigation
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What Happened? (ロボットじゃない, Robotto Janai^?) is the third chapter of Battle Angel Alita: Last Order.

Cover

Alita suspended by wire.

Summary

Alita sends the MIB drone flying towards the surface

Alita reflects on the nature of Tiphares while she hangs by the wiring of the MIB drone that attacked her before somersaulting back to kick it into space. Nola Lafargue then tells Alita to come with them, addressing her as "cyborg"; Alita however responds that she has a name and is no one's to command. When she mentions that she is human just like them, Nola remarks to David Frank that she has an ego while he questions Alita's humanity. When Nola demands that she prove she is human, she declares that the belief that she is proof enough. As Alita is about to leave, her attention is drawn by David and Nola's concern over Pam Mahan, who has succumbed to altitude sickness. Reminding her of when she was a young girl with Erica during the Terraforming Wars, Alita picks up Pam and the group heads out.

In the rest of the city they come across dead Tiphareans and wrecked killer robots, which Nola explains is the reason why Alita's help is needed. They go to Dome Park, where a makeshift camp has been constructed; here, Alita notices that all the people in the camp are children and teenagers. She meets their leader, Jim Roscoe, who tells the children who are watching that Alita is a cyborg, but that she has a brain, making her one of them. When she rebuffs his handshake, saying that she never said she would join the group, Jim reveals that he saw her being regenerated in Desty Nova's lab and saw that she has a brain, unlike the Tipharean adults. Alita then finds out that the secret of Tiphares has become public.

Alita departs from the camp to find Lou

That night while they have dinner, Jim reveals that Nova had hacked the Tipharean broadcast network a week ago. He then sawed open the heads of several adults, including Dr. Russell, while broadcasting live. This revelation of the truth behind the initiation that all Tiphareans had to undergo to become citizens threw the city into chaos, provoking suicides and riots, while the Medical Inspection Bureau (M.I.B.) killer robots programmed to protect the now-public secret going on a rampage. To see for himself, Jim killed Nova with an axe, recovering both his primary brain bio-chip and the backup that was in his stomach. David reveals that 4,000 sane adults survive on the other side of Tiphares, while there are 235 children in the camp. Although Jim was able to hack into the M.I.B. computer to shut down most of the killer robots, a lot are still wandering around offline. Alita also learns that a "family" on Tiphares consists of a child assigned by the M.I.B. to a selected couple, forming a Child Care Unit or C.C.U., while the parents are known as Child Care Managers or C.C.M.'s. Alita gets up to leave in order to find Lou Collins, who had saved her life a year ago. In response to Jim's question as to what she thinks it means to be human, she responds that they will have to answer this out for themselves.

Jim Roscoe plans to storm the MIB

As Alita leaves, Pam and Nola come after her; even though Alita tells them not to follow her, Nola informs Alita that Jim had told her to be Alita's guide, and Pam decided to also go along. Back at the camp, David asks Jim if he should have gone as well to protect Pam. Jim responds that the more danger there is, the better, as Alita will be bound by her sense of duty to protect Pam and will not join the adults. He even sees Pam's death as working out to the children's advantage, and tells David to get ready for their trip to the M.I.B. Core, where his "precious monster" is about to be born.