"She's alive!" "Incredible!" "She's really still alive!" "She's human all right." "It's uncanny, how well the brain was preserved under those conditions." "Look, she's coming out of torpor!" "Hello, my name is Ido?" "What's yours?" "N... a... me?" "After all this time, she's not likely to remember much." "I think I can restore most of it." "You'll be keeping her, then?" "Here you are, Ido." "Thank you." "How do you feel, Gally?" "Have you adapted to your new body yet?" "Yes Mr. Gonz!" "It feels wonderful to move about so freely." "Well, Ido is the best cyberdoctor in town, you know." "But Gally, wandering off by yourself can be dangerous, especially at night with that killer stalking young girls for their brains." "And that's not even mentioning the spine thieves." "That's a fact, Jack!" "One minute I'm whole, the next I'm spineless!" "You see, most cyborg parts are easy to obtain, but without a viable synthetic replacement, the human spinal column is a different matter." "And that means there's a thriving black market of "spare parts" dealers, ruthless organ brokers who'll take the back from under your shirt." "Doctor!" "It's giving me more trouble than I expected." "I'll finish up tomorrow." "Well, thanks for trying." "Would you like a drink before you go, Yugo?" "Oh, no thanks." "I've still got another thirty houses or so to hit today." "Well, I'm off!" "Courteous and hardworking, rare qualities in a young man these days." "Am I right, Ido?" "Yes, sadly true." "Who's there?" "Doc, you know I don't have enough chips to pay for this." "Don't worry, I'm not at the point of starvation yet." "You can pay me when you get the funds." "Good morning, Ido." "Oh, Good morning, Gally." "What happened to your arm?" "Ah, this?" "I guess I must have tripped." "Are you all right?" "He must have done it when he was out last night." "Hey up there!" "What are you up to?" "I said, "Hey!"" "Can't you see I'm in the middle something?" "You live here with the Doc, don't you?" "That's right!" "My name's Gally!" "That's a strange name." "And you're just rude." "I think it's a pretty name." "You're right." "It suits you." "My name's..." "Yugo, right?" "You knew it already?" "Yugo, do you have family here?" "Nope." "Wow, that's impressive." "I mean, that you can make a living all by yourself." "You think so?" "Now, THAT's impressive." "What is?" "How can you say "what"?" "I mean Zalem, of course." "Oh, I see." "Hey!" "Why don't you come with me?" "Where to?" "To a better place." "Hey Doc, I've got it working now!" "Ido, I'm going out too!" "It's up this way!" "Wait up!" "Here, take my hand." "Geez!" "What are you made of?" "It felt like you weighed a ton!" "And you're strong too." "Really?" "Yeah, really!" "I think the view of Zalem from here is just the greatest." "Sometimes, if I keep staring at it, I can feel it calling to my soul." "What kind of people live there, I wonder?" "My brother wanted to go to Zalem." "He even broke the law and built an airship." "As for me, I'll just make lots and lots of money." "And then I'll go there myself!" "Why are you looking at me so funny?" "I'm sorry Yugo, but the look on your face is the most interesting view here." "More interesting than Zalem?" "Get real." "What a disgusting cesspool of humanity!" "It's nothing but the dumping grounds For Zalem, you know." "These people are vultures feeding on the trash that falls from the sky." "Why should it be anything but a garbage heap?" "Oh, I see." "You really don't understand, do you?" "Are you from the outlands or something?" "I really don't know." "I have no memories, no past." "Even my name, "Gally", is something made up." "I see." "But, in a way, that's not so bad." "No past means a clean slate for your soul, no memories to haunt you." "Chiren, do you want to go back to Zalem that badly?" "I have to." "There are things that I didn't get a chance to finish." "And you really think you can manage it?" "What can anyone hope to accomplish in Scrap Iron City?" "The only work for someone of my skill in this dump is repairing crippled cyborgs!" "What's wrong with that?" "It's a crime!" "Squandering a talent like yours in this backwater." "You know you could do much better up in Zalem." "Does it amuse you to play fallen angel to these insects?" "An angel of mercy?" "Ido, you have no idea how far you've fallen." "You were Zalem's finest, the best cybernetics doctor ever!" "Where is your pride?" "My pride is not the problem." "What has become of yours?" "I don't intend to spend the rest of my life here." "I'll claw my way back to Zalem with my bare hands if I have to." "I'll do whatever it takes." "Chiren, I know it's no longer my business, but as your former partner, please trust me on this:" "You mustn't get involved with the Factory." "Ido, this is the last time I'll ask." "Don't you have any regrets about Zalem?" "None." "I see." "I'm sorry it has to be like this." "He's done it!" "Another victory for Zahriki!" "With the disappearance of Grewcica, he is inarguably the new champion!" "Unbeatable Zahriki!" "Another glorious victory for the record books!" "Hold it!" "Who are you?" "Hunter-Warrior" "Ooooo, scary!" "Brother, brains are brains, even though they belong to a man." "I know you won't enjoy them as much, but if you'll wait, I'll carve them for you!" "Not bad for an old man!" "Get your hands off Ido!" "Gally!" "How dare you do that to Rasha!" "Gally, get out of here!" "Gally..." "Gally, are you all right?" "Is your body damaged?" "Gally!" "Yes, I'm fine." "Those moves you made... very impressive." "It surprised me too." "My body moved by itself." "A flash of rage coiled inside me, and then I sprang." "And I nearly had him!" "One more second and he would have been mine!" "Still, I can't believe you saved me." "Your bounty is 100,000 chips." "Of course, his partner would have been worth ten times that." "Brain eating mutants are bad for business." "So are you in the market for some new body parts today?" "I knew you'd find out eventually." "I'm what they call a hunter-warrior, a bounty hunter." "Once there were people called "Police," whose purpose was to prevent crime." "These days the Factory just puts bounties on the heads of criminals and lets freelance hunter-warriors like me do the dirty work." "What's wrong, Gally?" "It's just that I want to be a hunter-warrior too." "Don't be stupid!" "You don't know what you're saying!" "I didn't give you limbs to do things like that!" "You don't have to work; all you have to do is be beautiful." "This isn't about money!" "This is for me!" "What do you mean, "for you"?" "Yes!" "Tonight I felt some thing new, as if I was truly alive for the first time!" "You don't know what you're saying!" "Hunting is an ugly profession." "I don't want you soiling your perfect hands with blood." "I'm not some doll for you to play with!" "Ido, you just don't understand!" "And you'll really get me to Zalem?" "That's what I said." "Really?" "Enough already!" "Don't worry your pretty head about it." "Your job is to upgrade the quality of the gladiators for the Coliseum." "How soon you go to Zalem will depend on the quality of your work and my profits." "Grewcica!" "Doctor, help me!" "My whole body burns like it's on fire!" "You're not the pampered star of the Coliseum anymore." "Why should I work on a brain-eating junkie with a price on his head?" "Damn that Ido!" "And where did he get that little bitch?" "Ido?" "Yugo..." "Gally, you're absolutely right." "You're not my doll." "Your life is your own." "But why a hunter?" "Is it some demon hidden in your untapped memory?" "The laser will imprint your registration number on your brain tissue." "Please hold still." "On my BRAI N?" "Finger prints, voice prints and retina patterns can be changed." "Can you think of a better way to tell one cyborg from another?" "Let me show you." "Incredible." "To cause this much damage with a single impact would require an unbelievable amount of power for such a small body!" "Only Ido could accomplish such a feat." "Grewcica, I'll not only rebuild you;" "I'll make you more than a match for Ido's little toy." "I'll use every skill and dirty trick I know." "Imprinting completed!" "But that was so simple!" "That's because the hard part is the job itself." "So what is Zalem really like?" "The official answer to that is "No Comment."" "I've just registered myself as a hunter-warrior." "Ido!" "There he goes!" "Zahriki's awesome attack!" "Where are we going?" "A hunters' hangout, I'll need to introduce you to everyone." "What a horrible sound." "It's from the tubes that connect the Factory with Zalem." ""Officially" it's caused by the moon's tidal pull against Zalem." "Grewcica!" "I've come to pay you back with interest, Baby!" "Oh, my God!" "It's Grewcica!" "What is he doing here?" "So, Baby, are you ready to play with me?" "Gally..." "Someone, give us a hand!" "Screw that!" "Can't you see he's powered up?" "You couldn't pay me enough to fight that son of a bitch!" "Are you going to run away from me too, Baby?" "I accept!" "Gally!" "What a good girl!" "Chiren, you didn't rebuild this monster?" "What?" "With a bounty on his head?" "But still, I can't help but wonder..." "which one will win?" "Suffer, Ido!" "I want to see your face when your little toy is broken." "But such eloquent pain belongs on a more suitable stage." "Eat this!" "What a funny plaything!" "That's it..." "Gally!" "It's time to finish this." "Try and catch me!" "Do it!" "Use your cutters." "And when you do, those lacerations on your servo will..." "DI E!" "Gally, you did it!" "Ido!" "I've lost again, Ido." "Nothing I do seems to have any effect at all!" "I'm garbage, your and Zalem's cast off scrap!" "But someday I'll get back to Zalem, and then I'll be the one looking down!" "And then, Ido, I swear that I'll make you look up to me!" "Gally, your powers and abilities are still growing, which is fine, but..." "I know what you're worried about, but you have to trust me." "From this point forward, no matter how much I seem to change, I'm still Gally." "Ido, I'll always be your Gally." "I believe you." "You can only be what you are." "We got it." "Let's get out of here." "Yeah." "So, how's business?" "Mister Vector!" "Please help me!" "You didn't have to kill him!" "Do things halfway, and you won't last very long, Yugo." "Come, I want to have a talk with you." "Yugo?" "Who knows where that young fool's gone off to." "I know that's right." "The way he babbles about going to Zalem and misers his credit chips..." "He's funny in the head, all right." "He really thinks Zalem will let him in." "Now, what was it I told you three years ago?" ""Give me 10 million chips, and I'll make sure you get to Zalem?"" "Yes, Sir." "Normally, it would take a lifetime to acquire that kind of capital." "But you, you want to do it in three years." "I'm impressed." "Oh, it's not that difficult." "You know, I'm always looking for kids who're willing to take a chance, but I think you've got more potential than most." "Ah, go on." "Here, try this." "It's the real thing, straight off the tube for Zalem, not that processed shit." "I see..." "Smooth, isn't it?" "Can't you just taste that essence of Zalem?" "Yugo, I don't have to tell you this, but most of the goods collected, refined and packaged here in Scrap Iron City get exported to Zalem through the Factory tubes." "The crap we get to keep for ourselves is just that." "Now, seeing as I'm in a position to oversee those exports, why shouldn't I share in the benefits?" "Say, Yugo, why don't you join my operation?" "But Zalem is where I'd..." "Zalem!" "And once you got there, what then?" "Do you really want to be homeless and friendless in a place like Zalem?" "By delivering my shipments to Zalem you could achieve real wealth and power." "You could live in the lap of luxury, just like the citizens of Zalem." "Think it over, Yugo." "Yugo?" "Yugo!" "Did they make you drink?" "You, in the car!" "Shut up!" "Don't be a fool!" "If you've hurt Yugo, you'll answer to me!" "I'll be seeing you." "Yugo, you know the answer I want to hear." "Please hang in there, Yugo!" "Oh, my head..." "Here's some water." "Oh...?" "See what happens when you get drunk?" "I'm not a kid, and it was only one drink." "You're not acting like yourself." "What happened?" "Just what are you doing here, anyway?" "Oh, I guess I just wanted to see you, Yugo." "Gally, do you have a secret dream?" "Zalem's not just a... a fantasy of wealth and power to me." "I want to see what it's like up there, so high and far away." "I understand." "There'll be sights I've never seen." "Wonders I can't even imagine." "That's what really I want." "Yugo, how much does it cost to go to Zalem?" "In credits?" "Hey, Sir, grease your gears with high grade oil and teflon?" "Best lube jobs in town!" "I'll take a squeeze of that, kid." "Thank you, Sir!" "Hey, kid!" "So that's your game, is it?" "Caught with your hands on my spine, no less!" "Now, let's take a look at your face." "Take the mask off." "You asshole!" "Let Yugo go!" "Yugo?" "Run, you moron!" "NO!" "Quick thinking little bastard, but I'll bet there's already a price on your head, Yugo." "Oh, Yugo, it's you." "What?" "Trouble?" "A hunter warrior..." "disguised as a customer..." "He killed Tanji, and he knows my name." "Calm down." "It's over, and nothing you can do now will make any difference." "I want you to bring all of the money you've saved to my office." "You mean... you'll send me to Zalem?" "Zalem?" "We'll talk about that later." "Just get your ass over here." "Yes, Sir." "What's happened to the once great Zahriki?" "What a losing streak!" "Tanji..." "Shit!" "It's all over folks!" "Zahriki's no match for ..." "Damn!" "I guess it's time to rebuild Zahriki again." "Dr. Chiren, that's your department." "Why should I even bother?" "I've used everything, all my tricks and techniques..." "And still, I can't win." "What was that?" "So when am I going to Zalem?" "Hey, look at this!" "All these enormous bounties..." "Gally, huh?" "This could be a hot ticket!" "I can see it now: a young, female champion!" "Hey wait, this is the girl from Yugo's place!" "Gally?" "You mean you know her?" "Oh, I get it." "You want Gally to fight in the coliseum?" "Absolutely!" "It'll be a smash!" "You don't really think Gally will fight for you?" "Of course she will." "She'll do anything to protect a friend with a bounty on his head." "Doctor, I want you to find Gally." "Why should I?" "Do this for me, and I'll send you to Zalem." "What's with the sudden mercenary zeal?" "Gally, when you became a hunter-warrior, you said it wasn't for the money." "I'm saving, so I can go to Zalem with Yugo." "Gally, who said that you could go to Zalem?" "Have you told him how you feel?" "No." "And how does Yugo feel about you?" "Well..." "Amazing!" "Such depth of feeling..." "And now for the latest Bounty Bulletin." "Number 7:" "Yugo, wanted for Spine Theft and Murder." "Bounty: 80,000 chips." "Yugo?" "He's wanted?" "Gally!" "Report him to the Factory as soon as he's sighted." "Four... six... eight... that makes 9,500,000 chips." "Just a few more..." "Yugo." "Gally?" "You did this?" "Where will you go?" "I'm not going anywhere, except back to town, to Vector's place." "I'm not going to give up on Zalem." "That's crazy." "The hunters are looking for you." "Don't you understand?" "Going to Zalem is more than just an escape from this scrap metal prison." "It's a war!" "A war between me and this garbage heap!" "No matter how insignificant I may be, I still have my dreams, my pride." "I won't let this corroded metal monster grind me into the dirt!" "I'll be leaving as soon as it gets dark." "Go home, before you get involved any further." "Bye." "Yugo, listen..." "I love you, Yugo." "I have to know how you feel about me, Yugo." "Why are you bringing up something stupid like this now?" "Go home!" "Answer me!" "So now we're partners in crime, are we?" "My mouth is tingling like I kissed a battery." "It's the lightening." "On days like this, my body takes on a charge." "I've wondered... about the scar on you wrist." "This scar?" "It's a keepsake of my brother." "A keepsake?" "I used to have a brother, much older than myself." "He had a wife, and they raised me together." "They cared for me as if they were my own parents." "He was an engineer for the Factory, and he enjoyed his work." "And my sister-in-law was loving and generous." "But it wasn't enough for my brother." "He'd look up at Zalem, yearning." ""I want to go to Zalem someday," he must have said that a million times." "It was his dream." "Finally, he acted." "He could get to Zalem, he decided, by balloon." "The Factory had prohibited the creation of any kind of flying machine and put a heavy bounty on the head of anyone who built one." "My brother knew what the consequences could be, but he followed his heart." "When I was ten years old, the airship was completed." "But on that very night, the hunter-warrior came." "My sister-in-law had betrayed my brother, reporting him to the Factory." "And the hunter?" "What happened to your sister-in-law?" "I don't know." "I suppose she must be living somewhere, with someone." "I think I know how your sister-in-law must have felt." "I'd be jealous too, if MY lover was obsessed with something I couldn't understand." "You're scaring me." "At first I think I'd go along with it." "But after so long, I might come to believe that he'd leave even me." "And if I couldn't have him myself, killing him might be easy." "You'd have to kill me to keep me away from Zalem." "That's true, isn't it?" "So what am I to do now?" "Should I kill you?" "How much more do you need to get to Zalem?" "About 500,000 chips." "Okay, I'll take you to Vector's." "What?" "I'm not taking my eyes off someone so important to me." "I've hidden some chips myself." "It should be about 600,000." "Go to Zalem with it." "Then, if everything goes right, I'll save up enough to follow you." "But..." "Don't worry." "Go." "Gather your chips." "Right." "There you are!" "Damn you!" "Too little, too late, Gally." "You've beaten me to every kill since Grewcica." "But this time the head and the bounty belong to me!" "Just like his brother's!" "No!" "Yugo's mine!" "Oh, so that's the way it is?" "There's no room for things like love or mercy in the Hunter's Code." "If you want him so badly, come and take him." "I'd rather have your head, anyway." "Prepare yourself!" "All right..." "This will stop your flitting about!" "Say your prayers!" "Do you really think this desperate effort can delay me forever?" "No, he's getting cold!" "colder... colder..." "So very cold..." "My Yugo is dying!" "If only I could give you my life..." "Huh?" "Gally?" "!" "Ido, save Yugo for me." "How's Yugo?" "Don't worry, Gally." "The operation was a success." "Thank you!" "Well, the reason he lived was because of you." "If you hadn't bypassed your own life support system, feeding your blood into his arteries, his brain would have died of oxygen starvation." "But I wasn't the one who did the bypass." "Chiren did it." "Chiren?" "So she's the one." "What?" "Yugo's dead?" "Yes." "Killed by a hunter and then struck by lightening!" "Well, I guess you've lost your meal ticket!" "What happened to Gally?" "I have no clue as to her current whereabouts." "This is a big city; it may take me quite a while to find her." "Well, then..." "Hey, wait a minute?" "I think it's time to send you to Zalem." "Yugo was tricked." "The story about paying passage to Zalem is just a scam." "It's not possible for someone from here to go to Zalem." "I know." "The brand on my forehead means that I was once a citizen of Zalem." "It's not true!" "Gally!" "Get out there and find Yugo." "What?" "Who the fuck are you?" "So you're the one who lied to Yugo." "You mean that Zalem thing?" "Hey, it's not my fault if someone's an easy mark." "And you need the money so badly?" "Well?" "Yugo destroyed his life because of you." "Yugo ruined his life stealing money for a lie!" "What have you done with Chiren?" "Over there...." "What the...?" "Organ replacements?" "This was Chiren?" "!" "The order comes down from Zalem every month." "I don't know what they do with them." "He couldn't have..." "Wait for me Zalem!" "I'll be with you soon!" "Hey!" "Have you seen a boy come through here?" "He just climbed out on the tube." "This is a restricted area." "Please keep out!" "What's that ring for." "It's a defense ring against rodents and other vermin." "Zalem drops them periodically, to keep rats from climbing the tubes." "It's Zalem!" "At last, I'm almost there!" "Yugo!" "Gally?" "Yugo, let's go back home, please." "No!" "Not a filthy stinking sewer!" "Zalem is my destiny!" "Until now my life was a cosmic joke, my entire existence, pointless and unnecessary." "Coward!" "There's more to life than Scrap Iron City and Zalem." "You were my secret dream, Yugo!" "Together we could find a way!" "A new life!" "We could." "Look out, Yugo!" "Yugo!" "Yugo!" "I'm glad to have known you." "Goodbye." "Yugo!"