Rudo felt queasy. "I will never get used to that hinas technique," he moaned as he put a hand on the outer wall of Nido and leaned into it. "Maybe it's because I can't use techniques myself, but it always feels like I've been turned inside out then back again." Even though he knew he had made it out of Nido in one piece, he still patted himself down after catching his breath, the way he always did after being teleported. Whether science or technique, the mighty hunter never fully trusted teleportation. It seemed odd to him that people were so willing to be rearranged on the molecular level and reconstructed just to save travel time. He cast a glance at Rolf, who was calmly dialing his mobile unit for Central in Paseo to relay that the group had Darum's daughter, Teim, in their custody.
"Hinas never felt strange to me," Rolf said flippantly as he tapped out a message to the Commander. "As soon as I'm done with this message I'll take us back to Paseo, so get ready for some ryuka, too," he warned Rudo, looking at the hunter out of the corner of his eye as he continued to type.
Rudo merely shrugged. Ryuka, hinas, teleportation and the like were a part of life in Algol these days, so much so that vehicles were hard to come by and the mass transit systems lay in decay all over Motavia. He stared up at one of the dilapidated elevated train tracks that once brought hundreds of workers to Nido Tower every day. Now the building, which supported all of the nearby agridomes, was completely automated.
The terrorist group—unnamed, but its members simply referred to as "scoundrels" by those they terrorized—who had hacked into Nido's security system and reset the controls to cover their movements, were all but dead now. They could be counted among the ever-growing list of biomonster victims, yet in their case it was a sort of divine (or, more accurately, bioengineered) retribution, a justice dealt for their own heinous crimes. Had Rolf, Rudo and Nei not blasted their way into Nido to retrieve their last hostage, Teim, she too would surely have been another of the scoundrels' casualties, maybe not at their own hands, but because she was left for dead in the tower after the scoundrels had met their untimely deaths. No building, it seemed, was strong enough to keep out biomonsters without constant human intervention. Since no humans came to Nido anymore, it was only a matter of time before it, too, suffered the same fate as the other soulless, computer-run facilities across Motavia.
Teim had been able to hold her own against the biomonster infestation for nearly a week before her rescue. Rolf's group was impressed, but perhaps being the daughter of one of Motavia's most formidable hunters had its advantages. Her survival skills were well-tuned for someone in her early teens. Rudo watched as Nei was comforting the young woman. Though a half-breed of only about two years of age, Nei obviously had some inherent nurturing instincts; she had stayed close to Teim since the group located her and had ultimately been the one to convince Teim they were there to free her.
Rolf had decided not to show Teim the ransom note found on the body of a scoundrel in Shure, fearing for Teim's emotionally fragile state. Instead, Rolf planned to take Teim to Paseo where the Commander could decide how best to proceed with Darum's seizure of the north bridge. More than likely a video conference would be set up with Darum so that he could see that Teim was now safe, though there was more than a little skepticism between Rolf and Rudo that Darum would suddenly give himself up calmly even with Teim now rescued. Darum had reached the point of no return, really. His past problems with authority, ironically involving Nei, and now the north bridge situation meant that Darum would most likely be incarcerated for life. Teim would be a desperate last attempt at a peaceful surrender before Darum would be taken out with extreme force.
It was hard to see Teim's face through the veil she had been given by Rolf as a way to keep her safe once they arrived back in Paseo. Darum's and Teim's faces were all over the various media; it was hot news, and a momentary distraction from the biomonster problem. Even though Rudo couldn't see her expression, he sensed she had been thrown into an enormous shock. Nei had been distracting her with conversation, but Teim wasn't participating. Her head hung low and she rocked nervously, balled up on the ground and hugging her knees tightly. Rudo was about to walk over to her and say something as well, but she suddenly got up and moved towards Rudo and Rolf.
Rolf looked up from his messaging as Teim drew closer. Nei followed along, eventually clinging to Rolf's arm as she often did. She looked at Teim sweetly and asked her, "Is everything all right?"
There was dead silence among Teim's three rescuers as they waited for her to say something. Only a few seconds later she began bawling and mumbling something incomprehensible. The group hesitated, eyeballing each other and wondering how to handle the teenager.
"I'm sorry," Teim's tiny voice squeaked through her crying, barely audible to the other three.
Rudo glanced at Rolf, hoping he had been able to understand what Teim had said.
"What?" Rolf asked Teim, reaching for her. "Is there something we can do for..."
"I'm so sorry!" she uttered, this time quite plainly heard. "I'm so sorry I have to do this!"
Rolf, Rudo and Nei now looked on in bafflement, shaking their heads and shrugging.
"What do you mean by..." Rudo began, but was instantaneously crushed by a wave of technique power, one that knocked him out cold. Rolf and Nei were also hit by the same force. When he came to he glanced over to find Rolf and Nei almost buried in the ground from the force of what was probably the gravity technique commonly referred to as "gra." Thankfully he still had a couple of dimates on hand and quickly administered the medicine to his companions.
"That had to have been at the very least gigra," Rolf groaned as Rudo helped him to his feet. Nei was already standing again, adjusting her leotard and fiber vest and smoothing her hair. "I should have known! I'm so stupid! Of course, the daughter of a master technique user probably knows a few things about techniques herself. I shouldn't have wasted any time getting her back to Paseo!"
"I wouldn't beat yourself up about this, kid," Rudo reassured Rolf, flicking a piece of sod out of the agent's hair. "I have a feeling she would have done this whether we were still standing here or whether we had made it to Paseo already."
"True, but blast it all, where is she now?" Rolf looked around.
Rudo raised an eyebrow. "Where do you think she is?"
Rolf's jaw hung open. A quick glance at his mobile unit revealed they had been knocked out for almost two hours. "Oh, no. We'll never make it in time!" he uttered, not wasting another second hanging around Nido. Without warning, Rolf and his companions were engulfed in the white light of his ryuka technique, instantaneously teleporting the group back to Paseo. The group found themselves outside Paseo's data and records facility. Rudo, pale and in a sweat, looked on at Rolf in his rattled state.
"A little notice would have been nice," he complained as he panted, doubling over and turning a corner to the side of the building to retch. Nei grimaced.
"Rudo's sick! Should I use res?" she asked Rolf worriedly.
Rolf shook his head and turned to Nei in confidentiality. "I can't believe someone his size has trouble teleporting. He's built like a tank! No matter, I guess. As soon as the Darum situation is over he won't have to stick around with us anymore, anyway."
"Aw," Nei pouted, "but I was hoping he'd come with us to..."
"Nei! Not again, please! What did I tell you about this mission?" Rolf griped at Nei, this time making sure to cover her mouth in case she continued talking despite his orders.
Rudo reappeared, wiping his brow and straightening his posture. "Normally I'd be thanking the Light we can't teleport to the north bridge, but unfortunately that would come in handy about now. I think we better get leaving as soon as possible. You have a land rover?"
Rolf looked away sheepishly. "Um, well, no. The Commander thought it would compromise the low profile of this mission."
Rudo groaned in disbelief. "That's the stupidest thing I've ever... oh, who cares. This whole world is confusing. Let's just go. There's no time now to try and convince the Commander to lend us one back at Central." Rudo charged ahead, towards one of the city's main exits.
"Hey!" Rolf quickly followed behind; Nei also hot on his heels. "You're not in charge here!" He gave Rudo an evil eye as he marched past him. Rolf knew that he would never have been able to get through Shure and Nido without Rudo, but part of him was still smarting from Rudo inviting himself along to help with the mission. Nevertheless, Rolf had informed the Commander that he needed Rudo's assistance, and Rudo had been added to the payroll temporarily while they rescued Teim.
Rolf had not come to terms with the fact that he would need someone like Rudo even after the north bridge had been cleared. He was still trying to convince himself that he and Nei were perfectly capable of retrieving the Biosystems Lab's data recorder on their own. Even if he did need more personnel to help with Biosystems, he would rather have another agent along and not some drifter like Rudo, despite Rudo's experience and undeniable courage under fire. Though Rolf was appreciative of Rudo's eagerness to help—Rolf still didn't know the real reasons why—Rudo's banzai approach to everything clashed with Rolf's more meticulous and careful analysis of dangerous situations, which led to moments like this one: Rolf found himself pushed into taking action before he had time to think it out properly.
Perhaps that wasn't such a bad thing in this instance, now that Rolf's group was running out of daylight. It would take another hour at least to make it to the north bridge. Rolf and the others could only hope that they would make it there before Teim. Technique memory for the use of ryuka had to be updated regularly at specific data facilities, and the one in Arima had been out of service since the scoundrels' attack. That meant that it had probably been too long since Teim had last updated her use of ryuka in Paseo, so more than likely she was traveling to the north bridge on foot.
It became apparent about five minutes into their frantic pace outside the city that faster was not better. First they were ambushed by a group of fire ants, then a much stronger group of poison snakes. One of the snakes momentarily paralyzed Rolf, though its venom was weak. In the case of both attacks, it was Nei who had dealt the most blows. Her movements were always swift, and through her animal instincts she was able to easily dodge the biomonsters' many attempts to strike back. After she ripped apart the last of the snakes with her steel claws, she immediately turned to Rolf, retracted her claws and performed her res technique to heal his wounds. She always tended to him first, not that Rudo minded. He knew where her loyalties were and didn't expect special treatment. Besides, Rudo was used to doing things on his own. He applied a bit of monomate to a minor scratch and dismissed Nei politely with the wave of his hand as she made her way over to tend to him.
"New plan," Rolf addressed Nei and Rudo as he rubbed his freshly-healed forearm. "I've been saving this for an extreme emergency, and it looks like now's as good a time as ever to use it." He reached into his bag and pulled out a special, single-use ocarina called a "hidapipe." The expensive woodwind would hide their tracks and repel weaker creatures. It worked by releasing a pollen-like dust of highly concentrated biomonster aggregation pheromones that would surround the users. The high-pitched frequencies of the pipe's notes also caused confusion in the biomonsters' migratory patterns. Rolf quickly broke the seal covering the hidapipe's many holes and blew a small sequence of notes. Nei, Rolf and Rudo were now covered in the hidapipe's dust cloud. Nei noted that it "tingled," but otherwise she was human enough to be unaffected by the hidapipe.
"Now," Rolf said as he stuffed the used pipe into his bag, "we can run!" Rudo and Nei nodded in agreement and they soon found a jogging pace they were all comfortable with. It wasn't long before they had crossed the smaller canal bridge and had the north bridge in their sights. There was no sign of Teim or Darum, but the bridge was covered and had specific, controlled entry points that were at the moment completely closed.
Nei concentrated her senses on the surroundings as she ran. Suddenly her eyes grew wide and she audibly gasped. "She's already here!" she exclaimed as she nearly pushed Rolf down, sprinting ahead to the bridge's main entry.
"Nei!" Rolf shouted as he picked up his pace to meet hers. It was impossible to catch her, as he quickly discovered, and she was already reaching for the bridge's keypad when Rolf and Rudo finally caught up to her. "Don't touch, Nei! The wrong code could send a storm of enforcement androids our direction!" Rolf warned Nei, moving her out of the way and nervously dialing in an entry code. Just then a woman's scream came from inside the bridge, followed by cries of a man, presumably Darum. Rolf, Rudo and Nei traded shocked expressions as they waited for the heavy doors to open completely. Darum had knocked out much of the bridge's lighting, but the remaining daylight from the open doors illuminated two figures a short distance down the covered bridge, one of Teim lying motionless on the ground in a growing pool of blood, and the other of Darum kneeling over her and weeping uncontrollably. The group fixed their eyes on the two bodies, each of them coming to the same conclusion about what had just happened.
"I... I didn't know..." Darum stuttered, his voice broken and his eyes glazed over. "I didn't know! She didn't tell me!" He threw his sword down and scooped Teim awkwardly into his arms, cradling her and wailing deliriously.
Rudo began breathing heavily through his nose. Rolf and Nei watched as Rudo's entire demeanor turned to one of extreme rage as his face turned red, his teeth gnashed, his fists tightened and the veins on his neck nearly popped out. "You..." he panted as he pointed a finger at the veteran hunter, "You are the real monster!" he forcefully accused Darum through his clenched jaw. Rolf, worried that the entire situation was about to escalate to something worse than what was already a terrible outcome, tried talking Rudo into stepping aside while he called in the authorities. He put a hand on Rudo's shoulder, but Rudo immediately batted it away and shot Rolf an infuriated look. "How can you be calm right now? Do you realize what he's done? What we've done? Do you realize it's our fault that Teim..."
"No, it's not your fault," Darum interrupted, resting Teim on the ground and standing up. "I am a monster, and I must be exterminated like all monsters!" He unfastened his hunting vest to reveal the sticks of plastic explosives strapped around his midsection. Rolf and Rudo barely had time to react. Rolf shoved Nei out of the bridge, knowing she wouldn't have a clue what she was looking at, and Rudo took the rear, instinctively using himself as a shield for the rest of the group. They flattened themselves to the ground just before Darum blasted himself into oblivion. The percussive explosion sent a rush of heat, air and debris out the bridge's entrance and over the three comrades who were now one with the ground.
They waited. No one moved for several minutes for fear of another blast. Rolf stroked Nei's hair and reassured her that they had done everything they could. Rudo didn't share Rolf's sentiment, but there was no point in arguing. If it's what Nei needed to hear to feel better, then so be it, Rudo thought. He pivoted his head in the direction of the bridge, looking at the now partially burned-out structure.
How many more will it take, Mother Brain? Rudo angrily wondered.
Note: The story's not over! At least one more chapter to go!
Another note: I realize I've completely rewritten how the Darum/Teim situation plays out. That's because I really don't like the way it's presented in the game. It's my hope that I've re-imagined it in a way that stays true to the original story but presents it as much more believable. In the game, Rolf, Nei and Rudo basically hand-deliver Teim to Darum. They allow her to confront Darum alone (and veiled to disguise her identity), and they don't intervene-or they're not close enough to intervene-when Darum attacks and kills his own daughter.