Two days of tinkering, observation and resting was all that Doctor Namco believed to be necessary for the rescued hunter. It was also all she could take of her patient named Jericho, who had proved especially difficult to keep in his bed for the last 48 hours. She gave Jericho his clean bill of health and discharged him early on the 3rd day after she caught him taking a stroll around the outside of the building along the window ledge that encircled their floor.

With a sigh and a shake of her little head, she watched him leave with a cheerful grin across his face and a backpack full of what few belongings he had arrived with. She was half pleased and half sorry to see him go.

Jericho had received an e-notepad during departure with all the details he needed on where to go to get settled in the city. He was hoping to sign up for missions again as soon a possible. He had to admit, the healthcare here was good. He hadn't felt this great in a long time. Though he had been warned about his unstable power cells and sub tanks possibly giving him some more problems in the future. Dr. Namco was quite the talented reploid engineer, but couldn't do anything to fix the fundamental flaw in his energy network for good. She called it a design flaw, which Jericho thought was rather cold. A flaw in his original design, possibly in all Dr. Jacoobs J100 series reploids. Although he could never remember a case where it had been an issue. Nevertheless, he was well again, with orders to return in the future when the pain in his chest would inevitably start to nag at him again. He silently wished that it wouldn't be for a long time.

For now though, Jericho was as fit and healthy as he could ever have hoped to be again as he left the hospital and stepped out into the busy street. He admired the scene that greeted him. The city looked so much busier from ground level he thought, as he walked into the morning sunshine. People were bustling all around him, going about their business as cars, motorbikes, buses, trucks and the odd military vehicle rushed about on the streets. It was a metropolis and Jericho had never seen anything like it. He felt small as he stared up at the tall buildings. He wondered if he could touch the clouds from up there, but before he could think too much about answering his question, he was snapped back into reality by a loud honking sound.

"GET OFF THE ROAD, JACKASS!"

Jericho blinked at the angry driver for a second and stepped hastily back onto the pavement. He had let his mind wonder and hadn't been looking where he was going. The fuming man in the pick-up truck didn't wait around for any kind of apology and rushed off.

Jericho fumbled the e-notepad out of his shirt pocket and tapped at it. Being a hunter meant that Jericho received all his essentials at no cost for as long as he wasn't retired. As he wasn't technically out of action, Jericho was informed that he still retained his privileges. He eyed the list, quite taken back by the variety of choices. Back at Malbro base, the choices were 'Concrete apartment' or 'Tent/vehicle in the desert'. At least here he got a choice of what kind of broom cupboard he wanted to hole up in. After a few minutes of thought, he decided on something close to HQ. Not that he was lazy, but it did seem conveniently close to everything, including the Neopolis labs. He hoped Commander Signas had remembered to put in his request to visit Prism. Hopefully before she was retired by some cold scientist.

It took far longer then the map seemed to suggest to get to his destination. It was still bewildering just how large this city was. Jericho could only wonder just how well protected so many people could be. But as he walked around the city, he noticed the content and happy looks on the citizens faces. Them seemed comfortable enough, despite the maverick threat just beyond their city boundaries.

He finally arrived at the steps of a tall apartment block. The lobby was well lit and smelt of pine. Pretty fancy, Jericho chuckled to himself, wondering what he had done to deserve it as the young lady behind the check-in desk typed his details onto a computer.

She handed him a set of keys and instructed him to go to the second floor, seemingly talking without ever letting her cute smile leave her face. Jericho thanked her and darted quickly up the stairs. He soon found his room. Number 42. He nearly had an outburst of glee when he saw how much stuff his room had. The living area was wide and spacious with couch and TV included. At the back of the room was a generous looking kitchen area with dining table and a big window over looking the park below. He also had his own bathroom and his bedroom had a large bouncy Queen size bed in it. Jericho dumped his bag of few belongings in the middle of the room and scratched his head, wondering how he could afford this on his Class C hunters license. He doubted any military could be this generous to a guy like him. Even in a place doing as well as this. He tapped the electronic note pad to look for mistakes. His profile was the first thing to come up on the screen. He scanned it a few times, realising quickly that something had been changed on it.

"Class B hunter?"

--------------

After settling in to his new found accommodation, which mostly involved throwing his kit into the bedroom seeing as most other things had been provided for, Jericho finally found time to sit down and think about everything that had happened to him recently. And everything quite literally felt like it had happened to him. His whole world had turned upside down and somehow he'd come crawling out of it. Again. Nothing remained of his life except a few personal belongings and a familiar reflection in the bathroom mirror. Again. All his peers, mentors and friends were gone. Again. And for the second time in his life, Jericho felt that same loneliness weigh on his heart just as it had done all those years ago when he lost his family to mavericks.

Perched on the window sill, legs dangling outside in the cool evening air, and watching the street lights come on, Jericho began to contemplate what to do next.

Those mavericks, he thought. Jericho considered himself an easy going guy for the most part, but when it came to work, he considered his will to fight them as more then business. It wasn't a part of himself that he ever liked, but he fought because it was personal. And the actions of the nameless individuals who had brought down his world of late had only made him all the more bitter.

He swung his feet round and back inside, making his way to the fridge and taking out a can of cola. He'd had a little time to watch TV, buy a newspaper and get some essentials down town. Like Cola. And Pie.

Jericho sat at the dinner table and fumble through his things. He clutched one of the letters he'd yanked from the crumbling wall of his room back at Malbro base before it caved in. An odd feeling came over his body as he silently read it to himself. It was like a letter from another world. A world he knew he could never go back to. The question now was, whether or not to go on fighting. Was it worth it? He had no one left to fight for. All the war had brought him so far was more questions and sorrow.

Was it time to give up? He'd never find out who was behind all the bad things that had gone wrong in his life if he did quit. After all, it could be argued that the mavericks didn't act under order and that no one person was responsible. He couldn't even be sure that the people behind the murders were even alive themselves. They could have been killed by other hunters years ago. At least when he was drafted to his home in the desert he had something to protect. But now, fighting seemed pointless, if the answers didn't exist.

He felt so different. He wasn't Jericho the hunter anymore. Not on the inside. The spark had all burned out and it was time to face the truth he'd been searching for, but never noticed before.

He sighed. "I can't change the past… I'll hand in my sabre tomorrow."

-----------------

Jericho was up at dawn the next day. A good night's rest hadn't changed his mind. Fighting didn't bring any results for him. He washed up and went out for food, taking his hunting gear with him to drop off at HQ.

It was hot in the city and a lot of dust was in the air. He found out from the man behind the counter of the little breakfast diner he dropped into that a sand storm was raging out in the desert and that the city was catching some of it. Apparently it happened quite often, though more so in the last decade, as the world dried up.

It was a big meal. Jericho had to admit. For a reploid, he did love his food. At least that was still the same. But he couldn't put off his trip to HQ much longer and was soon plodding along to the security gates. He was glum but determined he was making the right decision.

After getting through security, he made it to reception.

"Yo." he greeted the second of three blonde lady receptionist sitting behind the long desk in the lobby. He dumped his things on top and gave his name. But before he could ask to see Commander Signas, he was greeted by another reploid, clad in green armour on her lower body but was wearing her own clothes on her upper half. She had the shiniest light brown hair he'd ever seen.

"Your Jericho right?" she asked, coming up to the desk to stand by his side.

"Yeah. That's me." He answered, still rather grumpily.

"We've been expecting you. I'm Kat. Commander Signas sent me for you."

They shook hands.

"Is he still around?" Jericho asked, "I need to speak to him"

"It's ok." Kat exclaimed, waving a clipboard around, "It's all been sorted."

Jericho looked at her, confused. "How?"

"The commander told us all about you. You're back on the system. They've also organised a trip to the cyber elf labs so you can find your friend. I'm to take you there as I know my way around."

"Oh!" Jericho exclaimed. He felt a little silly. He had been so mixed up in what he wanted that he had let his mission to find Prism take a back seat, "I still need to speak to Signas though"

"Sorry Sir. He's not here right now." the receptionist piped up, fiddling with his helmet.

"Hey!" Jericho cried, "What are you up to?"

"I'm fitting a homing device and security pass to your helmet." she explained, "It'll less us follow you on missions and also serves as your ID card. You'll be able to gain access to anywhere in the city that you are entitled or assigned to do so. It's standard issue for all Neopolis hunters and fits on this little disk" She inserted it into a port in the side and closed up the helmet again.

"Only problem is you'll have to carry your head gear around everywhere" Kat chuckled, showing off her own helmet, strapped onto her belt. It was also grass green with hints of yellow. The little horns on the front were a nice touch, he thought.

"We'll come back here after the trip." Kat informed him, moving towards the door, "Grab your helmet. Don't worry about your stuff. You can leave it here and the girls will store it for you. We've got room for it" she nudged him with an elbow giving him a knowing smile. She must have been well informed to know that Malbro Base had had very little spare room to put belongings. Jericho took one last look at his armour and sabre before turning his back on them for what he hoped would be the last time.

"Yeah. I won't be needing them…" he muttered quietly.

---

"Lets see…"

They were standing in a random hallway that Jericho thought looked suspiciously familiar to every other corridor they had strolled down today.

"This place is a freaking maze!" he grumbled, voice echoing in the distance, "Didn't you say you knew your way around?"

Kat sighed, "Ok, maybe I don't know this place so well. I'm just a hunter at the end of the day. I don't know everything… incidentally, it's this way"

She opened a door a few feet in front of us and stepped in, only to turn full circle and step back out again.

"What's wrong?"

"That's a bathroom… it's the next door down …"

They wondered around for a while longer until they stumbled across something different. The hallway had widened and become brighter and noise could be heard coming down the hall. They followed the sound until they spotted a sign on the wall, pointing them towards the lab they wanted. They soon arrived in a big open room with chairs around the enclosed walls. It was claustrophobic, but well air conditioned and neither of them were bothered by the closeness.

"You wait here. I'll get us checked in" Kat said, making for the door.

"Sure ok" Jericho answered, turning to look back down the hallway.

No sooner had she opened the door when a flash of bright light and a huge force through Jericho across the room and to the ground. His ears rang as a roaring sound of explosions ripped into him, everything in the room getting flung along with him and crashing to the floor. He picked himself up off the cracked floor as alarm bells began to ring. The room was filled with smoke and debris. The origin of the almighty explosion seemed to have been from inside the laboratory, which now laid in ruin. Jericho stepped carefully towards the blown out entrance and found Kat sprawled across the floor. Jericho tried not to panic as he crouched over her body. He was relieved to find that she was only unconscious. He didn't have time to think about reviving her, as his eye caught site of something moving in the burnt out room. The lights were flickering, but Jericho soon made out the figure as it approached him. A tall grey haired reploid clad in red armour. He was clutching something in his arms. He looked like a hunter, but there was something about the look on his face that Jericho knew spelled trouble.

The reploid stopped in surprise when he emerged from the room and spied another person there.

"What? A hunter! You're not supposed to be here…" the stranger shouted, anxiety and anger clearly present in his tone.

"What the hell just happened here?" Jericho answered, raising his voice over the alarms.

Jericho heard a snarl and watched the reploid drop his item to the floor with a clink.

"You are not supposed to be here, hunter! Now I'm going to have to kill you!" A hunter's sabre lit up in the reploid's hand, creating a very intimidating red tint in the atmosphere of the dim waiting room. Jericho grabbed for his own sabre and gasped when he found it missing, remembering he left it back at HQ. A quick look over Kat showed she hadn't been carrying a weapon either. He took a step back, as the reploid entered the room.

"What's the matter hunter? I suppose you didn't think you'd need to be armed in a place like this, did you? You fool…" the crazed reploid thrusted his weapon at Jericho, who rolled to his right to avoid it. His buster formed on his arm and he swung to point it at his opponent, only to have to dive out of the way again. This guy was fast.

"Hold still!" the nameless individual bellowed, slashing the air as Jericho bounded round the room and back down the corridor. Jericho knew he was in trouble in an enclosed space and decided to help himself out. An orange visor activated on his helmet. His combat visor helped enhance his sensors and aiming skills. It would give him a chance at popping this guy off, if he could get a lock.

This was proving very hard, as the enemy continued to advance, slashing too close for Jericho's comfort. Jericho found the fighting style familiar. It had the mad furosity of a maverick but also hinted at a level of skill and thought going into the attack. Was this a hunter gone maverick?

He didn't have time to work it out as the madman charged. He decided to forget the lock-on and filled the hallway with shots. He wasn't sure if he hit or not, but the reploid was seemingly put off by the shots at least, crashing to the ground and skidding along the metal floor, allowing Jericho to make a break over him and back the way they came.

Jericho sprinted, hoping to get some distance between the two of them so he could let off a killer shot. No such luck, as the reploid had rolled back onto his feet from the skidding and was in hot pursuit. Jericho knew he was in trouble now as he dashed back into the waiting room and halted. He needed a plan.

"Mwah!" the triumphant voice of his pursuer cheered as he burst out of the hallway again. He seem a little worn out by the chase but knew he had Jericho cornered now. He spied his target leaning against the wall, seemingly trying to charge a buster shot.

"Just try it, sunshine!" he cackled, "You know you wont hit me"

Jericho smiled, "This one's not for you!"

Two seconds later, Jericho let the shot go, missing his enemies' right side by a mile, but hitting the fuse box on the wall will perfect accuracy, plunging the room into darkness as the lights lost all power.

"What!" the reploid exclaimed loudly as he lost all sight of anything but the smoke in the hallway, turned red by the light of his sabre. It was like being lost in thick fog. So it came as a shock to the reploid as he found himself flying through the air, dropkicked in the back.

Jericho knew exactly what was going on, for he had activated his thermal visor, allowing him to see things in the darkness. Anything that produced a heat signature was visible to him now. He shuddered at the heat coming from the room, gutted out by the explosion. How anyone had walked away from that, he couldn't guess. Unless they knew it was going to happen.

"Grrrr! You can't hide from me, hunter!" the reploid shouted, picking himself off the floor.

Jericho stayed quiet.

"You have no idea what you're facing here little man… bigger things then you have fallen at my hands. You can't hide from me!" he thrashed around, greatly frustrated, "What do you think you're facing anyway? A maverick? You fool…"

"I know what I see" Jericho spoke up at last, "And I know you couldn't have escaped that explosion without knowing about it. You did this." He ducked out of the way as the reploid charged at his voice, allowing him to dive into the concrete wall. "You took away life…" Jericho feel silent again, crouched in another part of the room.

Jericho observed the aggressor pick himself off the floor again, still blind but very much still full of hot air.

"Ha! We were fools to fight for these people! I've been a hunter for decades. Always believing that I was fighting for life. And what did they go on to do with the lives we helped save? They created more weapons to fight the war against those they don't understand. Prolonging the fighting and the suffering . Well now, I'm taking this infernal technology from them and I'm giving it to the enemies of mankind. We call the mavericks evil? Their fight is for an end to the destruction of our kind. And once I hand over this cyber elf technology to them, they'll end this war, quickly. With the destruction of these weak hearted humans…"

Jericho was shocked. He had heard such ramblings before from mavericks he had wasted in the past, but usually they didn't try to justify their actions. This guy was obviously well gone.

"You're wrong" he said, trying not to make it too obvious where he was, "They work for a better future for us all. Everyone has a right to existence. And everyone has a right to make mistakes. You mavericks strive for a perfect future that can not be achieved. You fail to understand that freedom and responsibility are one and the same."

The red reploid charged again, wailing with anger and hatred, but Jericho was ready for him this time and silenced him for good with a well placed buster shot. Jericho watched the nameless reploid sink to the floor and his heat disappear from his visor's sensors.

Jericho sat down on the splintered floor and breathed a sigh of relief amongst the devastation.

"JERICHO!" a high pitched voice, squealed in the dark. A startled Jericho looked up just in time to see a ball of heat heading for his forehead. Like instinct, he went to duck, but the ball matched his movement and landed right on his face. Jericho yelled as he felt the anomaly cling to his face, a tingling sensation coming over his head. He fell backwards.

"Jeri!" the object chirped, "It's me! You're alive and you killed the bad guy!

"Prism!" Jericho wailed, "Get off my face!"

The little cyber elf obeyed, "Hehe! Jericho! I'm so glad your safe. That nasty fellow tried to kidnap a bunch of us, but you saved the day!"

Jericho sat up, turning off his visor to look at the little cyber elf properly. She was grinning like crazy and bobbing around him like a yoyo, her own light brightening up their immediate vicinity.

"Are you ok?" he asked, trying to keep up with her as she whizzed around.

She stopped in front of him and nodded her little round head, "I'm fine. But no one would tell me if you were ok. They ignored me… and now they are all dead…" she turned around to look into the burnt out room, a look of sadness on her tiny features, "Such a loss."

"Ah!"

"What? What happened?" asked Prism spinning a full 360 degrees to look around.

"Kat! She fell.."

He was cut off as the lights suddenly came back on in the hallway and the sound of many people running came up behind him. He got up and turned to face the soldiers as they stormed into view. Prism didn't like it and floated behind Jericho.

"You! Get your hands in the air right now!" someone screamed from the pack of armed men who barged into the room, pointing their rifles at him. Jericho didn't even have a chance to speak as the soldiers began to shout and surround him. Jericho could barely make anything out in the noise and was shocked to find himself soon grabbed from both sides and forced to the floor. Seconds later, he was handcuffed and dragged away, prism protesting loudly at them before finally getting bagged herself.

"What the hell's going on!" Jericho shouted out as loud as he could, trying to make himself heard. One of his captors answered.

"Shut it, Maverick!"