Part 2: Leaving Home

Chapter 2: Leaving Home



A small boy was playing outside my house. I asked him where his parents were, and he told me that his dad just left him on his own to do what he liked.



Another kid had the same idea. What were parents teaching their kids these days? Didn't they feel any sense of duty to give something back to the Mother Brain who had given them so much? Mother Brain in her generosity gave people the right to choose not to work, but that didn't stop me from thinking less of anyone who made that choice.



A young woman saw my weapons and armour and mistook me for a hunter. When I told her I was actually an agent, she apologised profusely, even though I insisted I wasn't offended.

Hunters protected towns from Biomonsters, while agents handled more complex tasks, like finding out why there were Biomonsters around in the first place. That didn't make hunters any less important, though: they risked their lives every day to protect Mota, and I respected them immensely for it. Besides, if being mistaken for a hunter meant that attractive young women would flirt with me, I could live with that.

All this talk about weapons reminded me of something, though. I turned to Nei.

"Nei, if you're going to come along with me, you need weapons and armour. We'd better do some shopping."

"Ooh! Shopping!" Nei squealed in delight.

I looked her directly in the eyes. "This isn't a holiday we're going on, you know. It's going to be dangerous. Are you sure you want to come with me?"

Nei's expression suddenly turned serious. "Please, Rolf, trust me," she said quietly. "Like you said, I can look after myself now, right?"

I'd been hoping that she'd look after herself in situations not involving rampaging Biomonsters, but she still had a point. I conceded the point with a nod and led her to the commercial district of Paseo.



A boy was looking through the windows of the local supplies store in what he must have thought was a very sneaky way. Even if he hadn't obviously been casing the joint, bragging to me about his plans to shoplift ruined whatever element of surprise he may have had. I tried to explain to him that stealing wasn't as cool as he thought it was and would only get him into trouble, but I don't think he listened.

I hate thieves. I always have, and I always will. When Mother Brain already gives people everything they need, how can people be selfish enough to want more for themselves without working for it?



I entered the store and warned the cashier to keep an eye on the kid outside. While I was in there, I also bought a Monomate: a single-use medical spray that heals wounds instantaneously. Modern medical accomplishments under Mother Brain were truly amazing. With today's cloning technologies, people could even be brought back from death as long as enough of their brains were left to scan their memories and copy them over into a new body.



Our next stop was the armour store. Most of the equipment there was made of a carbon fibre composite, with some fibreglass equipment for high-end customers. Unfortunately, prices for anything better than what we already had were steep, and I needed to save some money for weapons.



My final stop was the weapon store. Since the Biomonsters around Paseo are relatively weak, the selection of weapons permitted to us by Mother Brain wasn't great, but they'd do for now.



Nei saw some claw-like weapons in stock. She immediately ran over to them, tried them on and took a couple of practice swings. The store clerk seemed impressed by her technique. My funds extended far enough to buy her two claws, one for each hand.



As we were walking out of the weapon shop, a woman saw Nei wearing her new claws and offered some words of encouragement. It was good to know that there were at least a few other people in Paseo who understood the need for all of us to know how to protect ourselves.


But if you don't keep your weapons in good shape, they are worth nothing."

We also got a little unwanted advice from a young man leaning back lazily against the town wall. It was hard to stomach that kind of condescension from a man who looked like he'd never been in a real fight in his life. I rolled my eyes and moved on. Maybe someone else in town actually had some useful information for me.


river. Many people have been killed there by a man named Darum."

A woman told me about a bandit on North Bridge and warned me to stay away. I thanked her for the warning, but I doubted I'd heed it: if there was a murderer targeting travellers near Paseo I had a duty to go there and do something about it.

Hmm. She said his name was Darum, didn't she? Where had I heard that name before?



An old man stared out wistfully at the dry lake bed surrounding Paseo. What was going on lately? The most severe drought since Climatrol was built happening at the same time as the appearance of the Biomonsters couldn't be a coincidence. Was somebody deliberately sabotaging Mother Brain's systems? Why would anybody do that?



I found one man who used to work at the Biosystems lab. Unfortunately, he'd quit a few years ago, before the Biomonsters started appearing, so he couldn't tell me what had gone wrong there.

With nobody else out in town having anything of much value to say to me, I headed for Central Tower's library to see if I could find out anything more.



"I understand that you are going to the Biosystems lab to get the recorder. If you want to find out about something here, please choose a file."

I skimmed through the list of files available: the ones that caught my attention dealt with Motavian history, the Biosystems lab, Climatrol, the dam system, and Mother Brain. I chose the History of Mota file to start with. A little general knowledge couldn't hurt.

Mota used to be a desert, but since Mother Brain was brought in, Mota has become a green planet. Development was made based on meticulous plans. Mother Brain created things like the Biosystems lab, Climatrol, etc.

Not very enlightening, but what was there was worrying enough. Did this drought mean that Climatrol was shutting down? If so, was Mota doomed to turn back into a desert? How could Mother Brain let that happen to her children?

With the drought still on my mind, I considered looking for more information about Climatrol and the dams, but it wasn't relevant to my mission and would probably just contain more bad news. Instead, I opened the file on the Biosystems lab.

The Biosystems lab is where creatures suitable to live on Mota are created through breed improvements. All DNA data of Algo are stored there. The reason why Mota was turned into the largest agricultural planet in Algo is owed to the work of this Biosystems lab.

However, two years ago, one accident which happened in the Biosystems lab brought about a creature that is dangerous to humans. Biosystems lab was shut down immediately, but no report on the cause or remedy has been made yet.

Well, I guess that's where I come in. I just wish I had a little more information to go on. Hopefully the recorder would contain useful data, if I could find it.

Before I left, I took a quick look at the file on Mother Brain.

Mother Brain is a huge computer with enough power to control everything in the world of Algo. Out life is monitored and is supported by Mother Brain. Mother Brain was brought into Palm in the year AW845, then the network spread to Mota and Dezo.

It is Mother Brain which controls the systems such as the Biosystems lab, Climatrol, dams and so on. Thus Mother Brain is essential to our life, but nobody knows who made Mother Brain or where it is.

I never really thought about how strange that was before. We all just accepted that Mother Brain had always been a part of our lives, but nobody even knew who built it. Surely anybody who achieved something so great would want to make sure their names were remembered forever... but then again, maybe they were so selfless that all they cared about was the welfare of the people of Algo. Though their identities were lost to history, I still felt a deep sense of gratitude to the nameless saints who built Mother Brain.

I thanked the librarian for her help, and Nei and I left town.



Paseo was built on an artificial island in the middle of a lake. With the lake all but completely dried up, the edges of the island looked out on a sheer drop of over a hundred feet. Even with safety fences around the edge, standing up here was a little dizzying. Nei, obviously feeling the same way, stood well back from the edge.

Once we were done admiring the view, we headed north, toward the only bridge connecting Paseo to the mainland.



Before we even reached the bridge, we were set upon by three Biomonsters, designation Mosquito. Like the small insects they were named after, they sucked blood to feed and strengthen themselves. On the whole, though, they were only a minor threat.



As an agent, I'd received basic training in psionic techniques for use in combat. The pyrokinetic Foi technique would take a little heat off me by putting a lot of heat on my opponent. I concentrated hard, visualising individual air molecules being compressed together until the air was hot enough to ignite flesh.



Fire streaked from the palm of my hand and burned a hole straight through the Biomonster's body; the Mosquito collapsed to the ground, a twitching, smoking wreck. With only two left alive, I felt confident in my ability to take the rest down in melee.



I took my knife in my hand and went through the motions that had been drilled into me for the past two years: one strike at an angle to lift off a plate of its carapace, then a second strike directly into the exposed area to inflict a lethal blow. The Mosquitoes fought back, of course, but I could handle a little pain.



One of the Mosquitoes had slipped past me during the battle and injured Nei. I offered her a Monomate, but she pushed it away, closed her eyes and placed a hand on her wound. When she pulled her hand away, the wound was gone.

I looked at her in astonishment. "Nei... when did you learn to use Res?"

Nei shrugged. "I'm part Biomonster, so my cells naturally regenerate faster than a normal human's. All I had to do was learn to control that ability."

Her explanation made enough sense, but I was still amazed by how casually she could call herself a Biomonster. It seemed like I was more upset by the way other people looked at her than she was.



We crossed the bridge and emerged on the mainland. To our west I could see the Green Dam, one of the four dams that controlled the flow of water from the lake into the ocean -- not that there was any water to hold in right now.



Soon after crossing the bridge we were attacked by another Mosquito, accompanied by a different species of Biomonster, designation Fire Ant. Fire Ants were slightly bigger and tougher than Mosquitoes, but I could kill them the same way. Even with no formal training, Nei was hitting easily as fast and hard as I was. To tell the truth, it made me feel a little inadequate.



To our northwest was North Bridge. It was time to confront this Darum.



When I saw him, I realised where I'd heard the name. Darum was the leader of the angry mob that was chasing Nei when I first met her, in the town of Arima. If I hadn't used my authority as an agent to order them to leave her alone, they would have killed her. Nei was putting on a brave face, but I could see the fear in her eyes. I decided to turn back until we were better prepared to face him.

Nei was just a child when I first met her, and in the space of a few months she'd grown into an adult. I'd be lying if I said I didn't understand why people feared her. Biomonsters had only recently started appearing around here at the time I met Nei, and everyone was terrified of any life that wasn't human. I only wished that they could see what I saw in her. Nei was the most harmless person I'd ever met: there was nothing but good in her.

With our path to the west blocked, we headed east to Arima. If Darum had turned to banditry, he had to be causing trouble for the townspeople. Maybe someone there could help me stop him.



On our way to Arima, more Biomonsters assaulted us: designations Poisoner and Bee. The Bees weren't too tough, but one of the Poisoners spat a stream of venom into my face and I fell to the ground, paralysed. Fortunately, the effects wore off quickly, but Nei had to defend me on her own until I could move again.



The next two Biomonsters we fought, both designation Froggy, were the worst we'd encountered so far. I remember being warned about them during my training. They weren't so bad if they were just trying to eat you, but if you got one angry enough it'd start shaking like a wet dog and release a deadly spray of acid from its skin. Fortunately, we killed them both before they had a chance to do that.



When we finally reached Arima, it came as a huge relief. Both of us were tired and wounded, and Nei's healing powers had reached their limit. A short stay in the town's hospital would fix us right up.



... what the hell happened to this place?