Chapter 2

Tomino University, Tomino Colony
24 Hours Later…

"That is all for today," says the professor as the bell rings and the class files out. The professor pockets his Palm Pilot and walks over to his desk, logging onto the Internet and checking his Emails. He then notices a young man walking over to him, a bit older than a few of his own students.

"Dr. Deng?" he asks. Boya looks up from the computer.

"Yes, and you are?" replies Boya. The man smiles, and takes off his sunglasses, putting it in his suit's left pocket.

"Aegis, I'm with Intelligence," he says.

"Oh, Republic sent you? What's happened now?" asks Boya, a bit annoyed.

"Nothing, Republic sent me to tell you that there is no new information," replies Aegis.

"What? Couldn't he just call me for that? He has my number," says Boya.

"Uh…he lost it," says Aegis, scratching the back of his head and putting on a goofy smile. Boya can barely hold back the laughter, Republic had sent some rookie agent to tell him he lost his number. It was just too hilarious!

"Its ok, I...under…stand…HAHAHAHAHAHA!!!" replies Boya, bursting out in laughter. Aegis only shrugs and laughs with him at Republic's little blunder.

"Well, I better get back. You never know what weird errands they'll make me do," says Aegis, heading for the door.

"Wait a sec, I'll come to. I've got to go over to the office anyway," replies Boya, turning off his PC, grabbing his briefcase and running after him.

_____

Katoki Colony

Preventer Agent and Agent Fire enter the large laboratory, now wearing black trenchcoats and walk over to a small room on the side, overlooking the entire room. From this point, they can see all of the equipment the Xeon engineers are working on.

"What is the status of the first clone?" asks Fire. One of the engineers in the room, turns to face the two.

"It is 98% complete, only one more minute to go," he says. Preventer walks up to the window and looks down at the large tube in the center, as large tubes are removed from the top by massive machines and it is lifted from the ground, revealing a person standing in its place. The naked duplicate looks up towards the window at Preventer and salutes.

"My liege, I will serve you until my death!" says the clone of Boya Deng.

"Excellent," says Fire, putting his hand on Preventer's shoulder, "He is our first successful human clone, he deserves special privileges."

"Indeed, let's make him our assistant," replies Preventer, as the scientists below get the clone a robe and escort him out of the lab. Agent Fire turns back to the engineer.

"Restart the process, begin cloning the next Moderator, ID number 08," he orders, then walks toward the door, "Preventer, you have leave until all of the Moderators are cloned." Preventer silently gives him a salute as Fire leaves the room, then leaves himself.

_____

GP Intelligence Bureau, Katoki Division

Bladed rubs his head as he throws another file across the conference room table. He'd been looking over reports from local agents for nearly four hours, and he hasn't had anything to eat yet.

"I'm fed up! There has GOT to be a better way to find the Xeon lab than this," he complains, staring at the stack of files bitterly.

"Lighten up, its not that bad," says Lord Maxwell, taking a sip of his cappuccino. Bladed shoots a glare at him.

"Its easy for you, you can read without even looking at the paper! You probably finished two hours ago!" yells Bladed.

"Three hours, actually," he replies.

"Arg!!" mutters Bladed, banging his head on the table. Maxwell smiles at his partner and puts down the Styrofoam cup.

"Come on, you're going to wear yourself out. Let's finish tomorrow, I'm meeting someone anyway," says Maxwell.

"Who?" asks Bladed, looking up at him. Lord Maxwell just smiles mischievously at him.

"I can't say, its a surprise," he replies playfully, quickly getting up and jogging out the door.

"Hey! Where are you going?! Come back here!" yells Bladed, chasing after him.

_____

Preventer whistles a bit as he waits for the elevator door to open up. He'd thought of a number of places he could go to around the colony, maybe he'd stop by the Golden Gundam. One of the many privileges of the government not revealing his identity, Preventer could go out into public and not be suspected by anyone, unless they were from Intelligence. As the door slides open, Preventer notices the elevator is not empty.

"Hi Preventer!" says Reg, in his usual cheery voice.

"Ugh, get out of my way," he replies, pushing Reg aside and pushing a button for the ground level. Preventer had always found Reg annoying, a useless reject clone that Agent Fire kept around out of pity instead of destroying.

"Come on, lighten up! You're always so serious," says Reg as the doors close. Preventer remains silent as the elevator slowly rises up through the sub-levels, trying to ignore him. Reg frowns slightly, but keeps up his cheery demeanor. It always mystified Preventer, how could that thing always be happy? He'd almost never seen Reg angry or upset, only a few times before has it shown any other emotion. Soon the elevator door opens and Preventer quickly walks out, leaving Reg behind in the elevator.

Why is it that stupid clone always manages to annoy me and no one else? he thinks, putting on his sunglasses as he walks out the skyscraper's main entrance and onto the city street.

_____

Tomino Colony

Boya throws his briefcase to the floor and jumps on the couch, exhausted. He only teaches for one semester each year because of his duties as a Moderator, but that one semester is always brutal. Not only is he the only professor running two jobs, he is also the youngest, only in his late twenties. Even though his face is buried in a pillow, Boya can smell food.

"What's for dinner?" he asks, his voice muffled by the pillow.

"Oh, hi! I didn't know you were home," replies Reg, coming out of the kitchen and looking goofy with an apron on, "I ordered some of that take-out Japanese food." Boya looks up at him.

"Why are you wearing an apron?" he asks, too tired to realize the goofiness of it.

"Oh…um, I was…uh, you see…" stutters Reg, quickly taking it off and hiding it behind his back.

"Then again, I don't want to know. Now let me at that sushi," says Boya, jumping off the couch and diving at the table where the food is.

"Hey! I thought you were tired!" yells Reg, chasing after him before he eats everything.

"I'm hungry now, and its all mine!" replies Boya, grabbing the bag and fleeing from Reg before he can give chase.