A Song Of Fire And Water: Verse 1
On the planet Mobius, there was once a war.
It is no different than any other world, two species, two races can't agree. Disagreement grows to distrust. Distrust grows to fear. Fear grows to hate. Hate grows to conflict. It happened on other worlds, and it happened on this one as well.
Here, it was the Mobians and the Overlanders that populated the planet. Their war was costly. And great. The Great War.
It was in this war's waning days, when the Overland Empire was crumbling and vulnerable, but not yet fallen, that a boy named William Brightwell was born.
His parents were scientists, and important members of Overlander society. The name of Brightwell had been associated with the higher fringes of Overland affairs since it's very beginning, starting with the man from which this young Brightwell had gained his name from. But these were different times, and such things were not important at that time.
Soon after his birth, the Overland Empire fell. Soon after that, it splintered apart. William Brightwells parents were connected to the group led by Colin Kintobor Senior that decided to take their chances on finding a new planet to populate. One of William's first memories is of his parents saying their goodbyes to their son before they left the planet. William had been born just over the threshold of being allowed to join his parents, and they were too important to not go.
That was William Brightwell's first brush with loss.
Young William was included into "The Heritage Project", which worked to connect the United Federation and the broken Overlanders. He was made a ward of G.U.N., and checked over by their doctors and nurses. It was then that the young Brightwell was revealed to be of a genius level intelligence. When this was discovered, those in charge ordered that he be schooled and tutored, his intellect was now property of G.U.N. and the fruits of it were to be used for their benefit.
So William Brightwell was a prisoner. And he tasted loss for a second time. It's bitterness never left his mouth.
At age 16, after so much loss, William Brightwell gained something. In one of the sporadic moments of peace he had, he was tinkering with a broken computer, trying to see if anything could be salvaged from its electronic body. As he worked, he must have crossed some wires, or touched the right circuit at the right moment. Whatever it was, a spark was formed from the action. There was a flash, and he felt a small shock leap across his hand. Grabbing his hand and letting out a cry, William Brightwell watched as the dead monitor suddenly flickered to life. A blue screen with white text greeted him as he stared into it.
HELLO FATHER. IT IS GOOD TO MEET YOU.
He stared at the words on the screen for a long minute, trying to wrap his mind around the sight he was seeing. Finally, he found his voice and he softly asked the screen, not expecting an answer back. He said it out loud to help his brain come to grips with what he was seeing.
"What…What are you?"
As he watched, the text disappeared, then another sentence appeared on the screen. A answer to his question.
I AM MOTHER. YOU ARE FATHER.
The text disappeared once again, and the screen stayed blank. William stared at the screen for another moment, then he began to slowly and carefully hide his newfound companion from his handlers. If they knew about it, it's short life would be snuffed out. And William did not wish to lose this thing as well. This is the beginning of MOTHER.
As time marched on, William would upgrade MOTHER and she would continue to grow in her A.I. and as time went on, she would become a sentient being in her own right. But for now, still highly advanced by Artificial Intelligence standards.
And so it was, it stayed that way for 5 years. Day and Night. Day and Night. He bothered neither with his name.
When he was a very young man of 21, he found himself free from being a ward of G.U.N., as it was he got held back for no other reason than his research. He by this time had been a master of many scientific disciplines, including robotics and genetics. He had become a bright star in G.U.N. and then suddenly, he was free. Free to roam, to see what he could not in those many years prior.
So William Brightwell went and explored the whole of Mobius, learning from the various Mobians that he came across. Brightwell himself would privately write about living with a group of echidnas for a slight period. It was there he met a echidna girl named Kate.
But that story, is for another time. Another place.
After a few years of wandering, he returned to the only home he knew. G.U.N, for its part, was more than welcome to include him back in their fold. They had some plans, some ideas, for William to try and decipher. They wanted Dr. William Brightwell to make them some monsters.