"And now, we have to decide what we want to do with it."
"Hold up, Maugrim. Don't do anything rash. I think I've
almost got him activated. Saints
and Stars, how the hell DID this hunk of junk end up down
HERE? And how long has it been
here?"
"I say we kill it!"
"Naw. If it turns out to be one of those bloody Hunters,
we'll torture it. THEN we'll kill it!"
A clawed hand tugged on some exposed wires, and a flurry of
sparks flew angrily from
them. Zero was jerked with a start from the inky black
peace of his hibernation. His
eyelids snapped open effortlessly, despite the fact that
over 30 years of dust had built up on them.
"It lives." A bestial voice rumbled.
Sleep still misted Zero's mind and threw his optics out of
whack. He couldn't focus on the
figures grouped before him properly. When he tried to sit
up, he found, to his dismay, that his
years-long hibernation had stolen all the cunning out of his
joints. He could barely move. One of
the figures, who was barley more than a blur of watery
green, assisted Zero. "Up you go,
Goldilocks."
Zero thickly stammered his thanks as his vision came into
view. Three lupine robots
towered over him, their expressions stern. The one who had
helped Zero sit up was now
crouched beside him. The 'werewolf' in front of the rabble,
apparently in charge of the other
three, approached the crimson reploid. His fur was jet
black, which clashed savagely with his
gentle sky-blue armour. His sleek arms were folded across
his chest. He squinted his snout down
at Zero and slit his haunting yellow eyes at him.
"Howdy stranger." The wolf's suspicion of Zero was
apparent in his rasping, surly tone.
"Would it be any skin off of your behind to tell us what
you're doing here and who you are?"
Zero was forced to think hard. His hibernation had fuddled
up his memory. He fumbled
around with facts in his head for a bit until he finally
came up with what he was looking for.
"My name's Zero."
The black werewolf drew back his lupine head. "Very nice.
Now, how did you end up all
the way down here? And what were you doing just sleeping
here like a vagrant?"
The wolf's eyes were still nailed on to Zero's. Zero felt
a little overwhelmed as he vainly
tried to collect his thoughts that the sleep had scattered.
"I...I don't know what I'm doing down
here. All I know is that I've been sleeping for years, and
I can't remember much of anything for
now..."
The black wolf clacked a claw on his armour before grabbing
Zero roughly by the
shoulders. "Why do I get the feeling that you're witholding
info?"
Zero managed to emit a startled cry. He had never felt so
helpless before. His body was
too tired to respond to his desperate commands to attack.
"I want you to tell me everything, friend. Tell me
everything I want to know or - my word!
- you'll catch it."
"I've told you everything I can remember! My name's Zero.
I've been hibernating here
for a long time. I can't remember why. I might in a little
while, but for now I've told you everything
I know!"
The wolf gave Zero a shake that caused the reploid's armour
to clank together. "Are you
a Hunter...?"
Zero was already sadly confused by the wolf's
interrogation, and this latest question only
served to muddle him further. "Hunter? What do you mean?"
"Don't play dumb, or I'll rip out your lungs and play them
like bagpipes. I mean it!" He
slacked his grip and Zero went tumbling to the ground again.
"Hold it, Maugrim." The green - tinted wolf crouched
beside Zero said. "I think his story
has some truth to it. Look, he has a lot of dust built up
on him."
Sure enough, thick dust fuzzed Zero's armour like a coat of
wee feathers. The black wolf,
who's name was obviously Maugrim, grunted at his colleague.
"But this fellow is obviously a reploid
J.T.. Despite the fact that he appears to be a dimwit, he
has that look of intelligence in his eyes
that no normal robot possesses. And everyone knows that
reploids are a fairly new creation, yet
this guy says he's been sleeping here for 'years'. What's
going on?"
The green wolf, J.T., shrugged his shaggy shoulders. "I
don't know. I say we just lead
this guy back to the surface and leave him be. He doesn't
appear to be a Hunter."
Zero still didn't know what the wolves were talking about
when they referred to him as a
'Hunter', but he could have hugged J.T. for telling Maugrim
to back off. He wisely refrained from
doing so.
Maugrim finally gave in with a rumbling growl. "Okay
then...we'll let this guy off. Help him
up. He's a reploid, and as long as he's not a Hunter, I
have no problem with him."
Furry paws that were so like yet unlike human hands roughly
helped Zero to his feet.
Zero swayed like a fragile tree in strong wind, but he
managed to keep his balance. His mind
slowly became more lucid. He mumbled his thanks and looked
at Maugrim. The gaunt wolf was
flanked by two other wolf friends (fiends?). Other than the
fact that one was beige and the other
was aqua - blue, they were nondescript.
Memories of his past slowly began to trickle back into his
mind as he looked at his
surroundings. He vaguely remembered beginning his
hibernation in a subway tunnel. It appeared
he was still in one. The murky stone walls still frowned
down upon him, and the tiny shafts of
determined sunlight that filtered through the odd crack here
and there did little to drive back the
general depressing nature of the place. Weeds actually
flourished between the tracks at Zero's
feet, which told him that long years had gone by since a
train last rumbled down this path.
"All right, you've seen enough." Maugrim snarled as he
caught Zero harshly by the
shoulder. "Come this way. You're lucky J.T. talked me out
of letting you go. Few have stumbled
on a Maverick's hideout and lived to tell the tale."
'Maverick'? Zero mentally added this word to his
vocabulary. He yearned to ask Maugrim
all sorts of questions. Where was he? What time era was
this? What was a 'Hunter'? And for
that matter, what was a Maverick? Were there more reploids
in the world besides himself? He
looked up at Maugrim as the reploid werewolf led him through
the labyrinth, but the forbidding look
that was twisted on Maugrim's wolfish face immediately
bolted Zero's mouth shut again.
Finally, Maugrim and his pack showed Zero a rusty escalator
that looked as if it had not
seen life in years. The black wolf pointed a claw up the
stairs.
"Up there is your way out, Zero. My name's Maugrim. The
green wolf is J.T., the beige
wolf is Duskclaw, and the blue fellow is Sabre. Remember
our names, for we'll meet again! 'till
then, ta!"
There was a scurrying of clawed feet on the tiled floor
before all was silent. Zero drank in
the eerie stillness for a second before he ascended the
stairs.
Zero was hit by a massive recollection of memories as he
wandered aimlessly through the
city streets. Bass. Wily. Auto. Eddie. His lightsabre
(upon that thought, Zero hastily checked
his back and was greatly relieved to find it intact). And,
lastly, the destruction of Skull Castle
which had forced him to hibernate in the subway tunnel.
Zero didn't know exactly how long he
had been asleep. It appeared that those wolves he had met
had managed to re - activate him
when they found him. He also remembered his personal war
against the humans, but that wasn't
his prime concern at the moment.
Zero absorbed the changes the city had gone through as he
strolled though. The
looming buildings around him seemed to be pretty much the
same. The inhabitants, however,
were definitely different. Humans rushed by Zero, but
mingled amoung them were vast varieties
of reploids, like himself. Where had they come from? Zero
needed answers.
Minutes later, part of Zero's answer stumbled upon him and
slapped him in the face. A
towering billboard smiled down on him. Zero craned his neck
up to read the contents of the
board:
Do you crave action? Adventure? Or anything remotely
like it?
Are you sick of your rut? Of having tea with your
grandmother every Sunday?
If so, then the Maverick Hunters want YOU! Join the
growing ranks of human
and reploid warriors who let the Mavericks know who's
BOSS! Apply at Kapcom's
Maverick Hunter HeadQuarters, located at 413 Maplemain,
which is renowned to
be one of the best out there.
Our motto: "Maverick Hunters do it 12 months a year."
*****Mention this ad and receive a free
Cyber-Slurpee!*****
Zero frowned, rather puzzled by the somewhat unprofessional
ad before him. Usually, an
army that was seeking recruits used mind-bending propaganda,
not billboards slapped with some
crud that wasn't fit for an underwear commercial.
As sad as the billboard was, it provided some lethal
information: there was some kind of
war going on, something between the two confusing terms
Maugrim had used earlier...'Hunters'
and 'Mavericks'.
Zero stared up at the address again. He was certain he
could find some of the answers
he was looking for at the HQ that the ad spoke of. 413
Maplemain. If Zero's memory still served
him well, that wasn't too far from where he stood. He
swerved around in the right direction and
was on his way.
Maverick Hunter HQ! Huzzah!
"Sweet Dancin' Sisters..." Zero mumbled in awe as he
shaded his eyes from the blinding
sun to get a better view of the mammoth building that soared
in front of him. It seemed to span
block after block. Zero thought that perhaps he had the
wrong address, but, sure enough, a large
sign in the well - kept lawn beside him reported that he was
indeed at the right place.
Humans and reploids swarmed all around the building like
restless bees in a hive. Many
were heavily armed. Some, particularly the humans, threw
Zero worried glances as they hurried
by.
Taking a deep breath, Zero approached the regal gates that
marked the main entrance of
the HQ. They were closed, but Zero noticed a small boxlike
structure on his right that looked like
a doorbell and was meant to be treated accordingly. Zero
hesitated, however, when he spotted a
tiny sign that was positioned just below the bell:
PUSH TO FEEL GOOD.
Zero blinked, but the crazy words on the sign did not
change.
PUSH TO FEEL GOOD.
Zero tensed as he pushed the bell, expecting 1000 volts of
raw electricity to shoot through
him, or something equally as pleasant. To his surprise,
nothing happened and his summons were
answered almost immediately by a tall reploid donned in
brilliant platinum armour. The reploid
spied Zero and grinned like a mad monkey.
"Well? Do you feel good?"
"Yeah, I'm just orgasmic, buddy." Zero grunted as he tried
to push his way past the
platinum reploid and enter the building. The gatekeeper
held him back.
"Whoa, not so fast there! If you're an applicant, go
around to the east side of the
building."
Zero began to lose his temper. "Who ARE you!?"
"The porter of Hell's Gate! Bwa ha ha! Now smarten up,
Brighteyes."
Zero's head spun. So, it was coming down to insults now,
was it? Zero was tempted to
reach into his mind and pull out the most lewd and vile
put-downs that he possessed; however, he
didn't want to get started off on the wrong foot in this new
time era. So he attempted to push past
again. The good nature of the 'porter' vapourized like
water as he delivered a kick to Zero's shins.
Zero yowled and swung his fist, planting it in the reploid's
grinning face.
Pretty soon, Zero and the platinum reploid were locked in a
nasty fight like hammers and
nails. Curses flew thick. Some humans and reploids
gathered around the two, but no one tried to
break up the fight: rather, they were standing as fans do
at a football game, cheering their
favourite side.
"What in the name of Skie is going on here!?" Someone
shouted. "All of you, back to
training! If Cain gets word of this, there'll be hell to
pay!"
From afar, Zero could hear disappointed mumblings from the
ring of bloodthirsty
spectators as they broke up. Zero, however, was too busy
gleefully flailing at the platinum reploid
pinned below him to notice.
A cold, clammy hand came down on Zero's shoulder and pried
him from the bleeding
reploid below. "All right...that's enough. Calm down."
Zero was still flinging his limbs around and didn't stop
until he turned his head aside to
study the hand that retained the vicelike grip in his
shoulder. It was blue. Yes, blue. A nice,
deep ocean blue. And scaly. And clawed. Yes, every finger
that gripped Zero was tipped with
long, black claw. Zero tilted his nervous gaze upwards and
found himself in the shadow of a long,
reptilian snout with several yellowed fangs jutting out of
it. A breeze tickled past Zero. Averting
his view to behind him, Zero spied two massive, leathery
blue wings slowly fanning back and forth
like some sort of monstrous bird of prey keeping its balance
on a carcass. Beyond that, a lithe,
barbed blue tail lashed back and forth like a cat's.
Zero gulped as reality dawned on him. A reploid dragon.
He was being held in thrall by a
reploid dragon. Zero wisely slowed his struggle.
"Attaboy." The reploid draco cheered him. Although the
voice sounded like a cross
between a human and a cement mixer, it was friendly. "Now.
Answers. Get up, Forrest, and tell
me how this guy peeved you so much."
The platinum reploid, who obviously had the unfortunate
christening of 'Forrest',
scrambled to his feet. Black circulatory fluid trickled
down his face. He jabbed a finger at Zero
and snarled, "This big blonde Wookiee tried to kill me!"
"I did not."
"Now now." The dragon chuckled. "Let's not fight!" The
leviathan laxed his grip on Zero,
which allowed him to get a better view of the peacekeeper.
The dragon's triangular head was supported by a sinuous,
reptilian neck. A short, jet
black mohawk bristled from the dragon's forehead and worked
its way halfway down the neck,
where it ended in a small ponytail that was bound by a
blood-red band. Two black ivory horns
protruded from his skull. They looked capable of goring
through any material. Protective blue
scales covered the dragon's body, but full, pale purple
armour was present to augment his
defensive capabilities. The reploid was at least two feet
taller than Zero.
"Forrest, I think you should get back to training," the
behemoth suggested in a kind but
firm tone. "Forget about guarding the door."
Forrest pouted. "But I LIKE being the doorman!"
Seeing his new nemesis getting the boot made Zero break
into a broad smile. "Yeah,
well, life's a you-know-what, and then you marry one!" Zero
paused for a second, wondering how
he had known such a line. Had he picked it up from
somewhere?
"And that's enough out of you!" The draco said, giving
Zero a cheerful shake that still
rattled the crimson reploid's teeth. "We're going to have a
bit of a chat. What's your name,
please?"
"Zero."
"Pretty name." The mechanized dragon commented. "My name
is Lord Th'ckpa'sskyleth,
but my friends just call me Skysheen or Sky. Are you here
to enlist in the Hunters?"
"Uh...no. I don't even know what the Hunters are."
As soon as those words escaped him, Zero got an odd look
from Skysheen. He was
expecting a bombardment of questions, but fortunately, the
dragon wasn't nosy. He merely
shrugged and said, "No? Airhead, huh? Well, never mind.
I'll be more than happy to explain."
Skysheen walked slowly as he talked. Zero followed.
"Let's start from the beginning." Skysheen rumbled.
"About 30 years ago, a scientist and
geologist named Dr. Cain was digging around in some dirt
somewhere looking for prehistoric plant
life or some such nonsense. Anyway, he eventually came
across a neato capsule. Inside the
capsule was a robot, but not just any robot. This was a
member of a highly advanced race of
robot known as 'reploid'. The reploid said his name was
'X', but that was all he could remember
about his past."
Zero's heart fluttered. So, all those years ago, he hadn't
been the only reploid in
existence!
"So, anyhow," Skysheen droned, "Dr. Cain became extremely
interested in making more
of these 'reploid' things...so, with X's help, he did.
'Twas only a matter of time before reploids
were in mass production around the world.
"Reploids were immediately noted to be amazing creatures.
They had limitless strength,
yet each one had a unique personality and a large array of
emotions, making them very
humanlike, and thus good companions. Sadly, a handful of
reploids recently realized that they
were the superior species and humans were limiting their
growth. So they turned violent against
humankind. These renegades are known as 'Mavericks', and
their greatest desire is to wipe out
every last human. Fortunately, the ranks of the Mavericks
are currently very small. Hopefully,
they'll stay that way, and it'll be easy for us, the
Maverick Hunters, to neutralize 'em!"
"So," Zero thought, "There are other reploids who share my
hate for humans. How
peachy! But their forces are weak, and threatened to be
snuffed out. How un - peachy."
"I get it." Zero said thoughtfully. "The Maverick Hunters
destroy 'Mavericks' and protect
humans, right?"
"Aye. It's an organization that Cain set up, and it's
hugely successful. We have reploids
and humans fighting for a common cause. It's really neat. We're led by a
reploid named Sigma. He looks a bit like Mr. Clean, but that's between us!"
"Oh, humans fight with you, too? Are they strong enough?"
Skysheen gave a short laugh. "Oh, certainly! You'd be
surprised. If humans are fighting
for a cause they believe in, they can turn into nasty little
war machines. They can also overwhelm
in sheer numbers."
"Neat." Zero's respect for humans increased a wee bit. He
made a mental note not to
underestimate them.
"In fact," Skysheen went on, "let me show you something."
Skysheen led Zero around to
the back of the massive structure of MMHQ. Zero peered
around the corner and was met with an
awe - inducing sight.
A huge field yawned before the crimson reploid. Dozens of
makeshift cabins dotted the
trampled green. Hundreds of humans from every race and walk
of life moved about the camp. A
dull buzz rose from the crowd as the humans made themselves
busy doing nothing.
"Are these all Hunters...?"
"Well, not all of 'em." Skysheen admitted. "Most human
hunters live inside the dorms in
the HQ. Most of these folks are refugees. When Mavericks
attack and destroy their
neighbourhood, they find temporary shelter here while things
are rebuilt. The conditions are
crowded, but they're better than nothing. Some refugees
stay with us and become Hunters."
Zero cast one more glance at the refugee camp before
Skysheen led him away. "So,
Zero...are you gonna become a Hunter?"
Zero frowned. How was he supposed to tell a 8 ' 5 reploid
dragon that he was more
interested in destroying humans than he was in aiding them?
He began to search for words.
"Well, uh...you see..."
Skysheen clapped a scaly hand on Zero's back
good-naturedly. "That's the spirit! Glad
to have you aboard! I'll take you inside to look around a
bit, then we can fill out an application for
you! Then we'll find a suitable position for ya."
Zero sighed. It was hopeless. If he told Skysheen the
truth, he'd probably be mangled on
the spot. Zero hopelessly yearned for the days of his past
life when he could have easily destroyed
anyone he wanted. Okay, he would lay low with the Hunters
for a while, then take it from there...
Skysheen ushered Zero though the main gates where he and
Forrest had had their little
tiff earlier. Zero stepped into a cool, well-kept
building. The floor of the main hall was tiled
immaculately. It neatly and almost immediately branched
into smaller halls which seemed to lead
to room upon room. If not for Skysheen guiding him, Zero
would have become hoplessly lost in a
matter of minutes.
The traffic in the halls was heavy. Humans and reploid
hunters brushed by Zero every
second. Skysheen led Zero through some twists and turns
before he finally gave a cheerful: "Here
we are!"
Skysheen effortlessly pushed open a heavy door that was
marked MAINFRAME
COMPUTER. Inside, Zero found himself surrounded by
luminescent computer terminals. Their
persistant hum filled his ears and amplified in his head.
Besides Skysheen and himself, Zero spied one other figure
in the room. It was another
reploid dragon, a red one. She was female and there was no
mistaking it: her body build beyond
her ebony armour leaned a bit heavily towards the 'feminine'
side. It would be no lie to say that
she looked similar to Xena in a dragon costume.
The dragon spun herself in a swivel chair, obviously
forsaking whatever duty she was
supposed to be performing at the computer before her. As
she spun, a long, black ponytail
whirled madly with her. The dragon's massive, batlike wings
were fanned out a bit to keep herself
in balance.
The dragon stopped her game as the door clanged open. Her
guilty look was immediately
replaced with a dreamy dragon smile as she fixed her eyes on
Zero.
"Hey there, hun! What can Auntie Draco do fer ya?!"
This friendliness left Zero a little speechless.
Skysheen sighed. "Red...please behave yourself. Zero, I'd
like you to meet my sister,
Lady Dra'conia'mat."
The red reploid dragon tumbled out of the chair and drifted
towards Zero. She offered a
clawed hand and yet another mad grin. Zero rightly felt a
little nervous when he looked at the
maw filled with razor edged teeth. He diligently took the
hand and the dragon shook it vigourously.
"Yep, Lady Dra'conia'mat is the name...but you can just
call me Red Draco! It's glad to
know ya!"
Distressed, Zero could see that Red already had a bit of a
crush on him....
Hello, my little hatchlings! This is your friendly neighbourhood
narrator with a wee interruption. I just want to thank a fellow
dragon, Neon Tiger, for allowing me to use her character, Torrent
Leviathan, who is mentioned in this chapter and will be appearing in the
flesh further on in BNF. Thanx, Neon! :) And now, the beast--er, beat
goes on!
Skysheen hoisted his bulk up from the swivel chair he had seated
himself in and made his way to the door. Prior to exiting the room, he
looked over one of his winged shoulders and said "Well, Zero...I'll get
you that application for you to fill out. I'll be back in a sec. Until
then, you and Red can become better aquainted!"
Zero gulped as the metallic slam of the heavy doors echoed and
re-echoed in the small chamber. He and Red were alone now...and judging
by the way the mechanized dragon was observing Zero intently and
bemusidley with narrowed yellow eyes, that wasn't really a great thing.
Alarm shot though Zero as Red suddenly began to silently paddle her
swivel chair closer to Zero's own using a particularily nasty looking
lance - type weapon. Instinctively, Zero started up a conversation to
save himself for whatever Red had in mind for him.
"So, uh...that's a whole lotta humans you guys have in that refugee
camp."
Red stopped her stalking abruptly and shrugged her leathery wings. "So
Skysheen showed ya the camp, eh? Yeah, when a human's home is destroyed
by Mavericks, they're invited to stay with the refugees for a bit, and
maybe become a Hunter. It's all part of Dr. Cain's FTH program, which
stands for 'Free The Humans', although most of the Mavericks seem to
call it...uh...'Something-Else The Humans'."
"Ah." Zero got the hint.
Uneasy silence reigned again. Red began to propell her chair towards
Zero. Hastily, Zero's voice sprang up.
"Er...nice weapon you have there." Zero motioned towards the silver
lance that Red held.
Red grinned with pride. "Thanks! It's called the Deltawyrm Lance.
Care to have a closer look?" With that, the draco tossed the formidable
weapon into Zero's lap. Zero picked it up. It was suprisingly
lightweight. Its sleek shaft travelled upwards until it reached the
head where it seperated into two wicked looking prongs. Additional
spikes were lined up near the head, to assure that the strike would be
costly to the enemy.
"Pretty." Zero remarked as he handed the lance back to Red.
Red beamed as she slipped the lance into a sheath that was located on
her back. "Isn't it, though?" By the way, what Maverick Hunter Unit do
you hope to get in to?"
"Maverick Hunter Unit...?"
"Oh, I forgot! You're new here. Anyhoo, the Maverick Hunters are
split up into three units. There's the Night Vipers Unit, which
consists almost totally of humans and rookie reploid Hunters. There's
the Regal Dragons Unit, which is led by Yours Truly and Skysheen. It
consists mainly of experienced reploid Hunters and some of the more
vicious humans. Finally, there's the elite Spartan Unit, which is
composed entirely of the best reploid Hunters we posses. Siggy himself
heads that unit, and thus he heads all the Hunters."
"So there's no humans in the Spartan Unit?" Zero inquired
"Actually, there used to be one. Jake McTreggor. One of the earliest
Hunters. He was pretty damned good for a human. Too bad he came to
such a nasty end."
"Oh?"
"Yeah. You see, there's this one very nasty Maverick who skulks around
in the sewers below the city. His name is Torrent Leviathan, and he's
one of the few formidable fighters the Mavericks have. Jake got a
little over-confident about his skills, and he attempted to take on
Torrent by himself. Torrent got ahold of him, however, and--" at this
point, Red silently drew a finger across her long neck.
Zero grimaced. "You mean..."
"Jake got his throat slit." Red finished off Zero's sentance and
nodded. "Aye. With all due respect, it was dumb of him to go off and
try to assasinate Torrent single-handedly. I guess he was trying to
prove that humans could fight just as effectively as reploids. Very
noble, I suppose, but he should have thought of his family."
"He has a family?"
"Had." Red corrected Zero patiently. "And yes, he did. A wife, A
teenage girl and a wee male hatchling who would be about 5 or so by now.
Don't know where they all are right now, but I hope they're gettin' by
all right without Jake there."
"Block...block...parry....slash...."
These commands flashed madly through Celeste McTreggor's fevered mind
as she kept her eye fastened on her opponent's darting wooden blade.
"Block...TWIRL!"
Celeste swiftly veered to the right as the blade came crashing down
next to her, narrowly missing her shoulder. Seeing her chance, Celeste
automatically swung her own blade, driving it into her opponent's
exposed ribs. The enemy doubled over with a howl, dropping his weapon.
A cheer rose up from the spectators that surrounded the victor.
Oblivious to the praise of those who had been watching the match,
Celeste moved her shoulder-length brown hair away from the back of her
neck in an attempt to cool off a bit before she dropped her stick onto
the ground and walked over to her opponent, who was painfully moving his
hand along his side, checking for any broken ribs.
"Sorry, Josh. Didn't know my own strength."
Josh managed to offer his friend a half smile. "Don't worry about it.
That's what I get for trying to compete with someone who can fence like
a bloody Jedi Knight!"
Seeing that the display of fencing was over, the crowd of kids who had
been watching broke up and began to shuffle back home reluctantly. One
girl broke off from the rest of the mob and joined Celeste and Josh.
"Nice going, Cel!" She called. "Good work, considering that Josh is
nearly a foot taller than you."
"Oh, shut up Tess." Josh growled, clutching his bruised ribs as he did
so.
In unison, Celeste, Josh and Tess all hopped up and sat on the old
stone fence behind them that overlooked one of the many sidestreets that
wound its way through their crowded neighbourhood like a concrete river.
After the excitement of the match, things seemed rather subdued at that
point.
"What a boring day." Tess commented with a sigh. "Wish something
would happen."
Tess' last words promptly demonstrated the old saying, 'Be careful what
you wish for, or you just might get it!' Almost as soon as she had
spoken, the heavy clatter of many metal-plated boots marching rang
through the air as a platoon of nondescript military reploids peeked
over the horizon and came trooping down the street with a rythym that
was steady enough to sing to. Celeste's heart leapt into her throat.
"Mavericks?!" She whispered hoarsely around the block in her windpipe.
Josh patted Celeste's shoulder reassuringly. "Nope, no need to get all
worked up. They're Hunters."
And so they were. As the troop rang by the trio, Celeste could see
that each reploid wore a circular badge on their arm. Enclosed in the
circle was an emblem that bore two rampant Welsh Red dragons flanking a
silver shield that was stamped neatly with a gold crown.
Only Tess was excited to see the reploids. "Cool! Hunters from the
Regal Dragons Unit, right in our own neighbourhood!"
Josh frowned. He, like Celeste and Tess, had gotten used to seeing
Hunters patrolling the area. "That's not really a good thing, Tess.
There must be some heavy activity going on near here. Regal Dragons
usually don't handle the minor issues."
"I've heard rumours that Mavericks are going to attack this area," Tess
chimed in. "This neighbourhood is densly populated, which makes it a
prime target."
"Oh, lovely." Celeste muttered. Ever since her father had been killed
by Torrent Leviathan all those months back, she didn't like to hear
anything that had to do with reploids. In her opinon, their creation
was a huge mistake.
Tess flipped her black ponytail over her shoulder. "I'm not so hot on
the idea of Mavericks leveling our neighbourhood," she declared. "I
don't want to end up in that stuffy refugee camp."
Zero forced himself to stay calm as Red, who was directly behind him,
tickled a claw slowly down the side of his neck while emitting a
kitten-like purr. It was highly unnerving.
"Uh...Red? I...I, uh, just met you and all..." Zero gulped as he
observed Red's barbed tail entwine itself gently and playfully around
his left leg. Red's only response was a high-pitched giggle.
Relief washed over Zero when Skysheen entered the room again. The blue
reploid dragon was holding some documents in one claw. He rattled them.
"Hey Zero! Here's that application you need to fill out, and...Holy
Mother Tiamat! RED!"
Taken completely by surprise, Red jumped away from Zero. However, she
had forgotten about her tail, which was still in it's love-grip around
Zero's leg. As a result, Red went tumbling. Her sparse armour clanked
about as she made contact with the floor. Zero barely kept his balance.
Skysheen helped his sister up whilst he shook his head. "Red, Red,
Red...PLEASE pay attention to your work." He pleaded. "And leave Zero
alone. He may not be one of those 'touchy-feely' types, you know."
Red pouted as she was hauled to her feet. "I don't like my job! It's
boring."
"Why, what's your job?" Zero inquired curiously.
Red motioned a hand towards the computer behind her. "When I'm not
Hunting, I'm supposed to be keeping track of the human casualties and
birthrate in the city. It's important that one compliments the other.
Balance is a must here. If the casualties skyrocket and the birthrates
plummet, then we and the humans are pretty much screwed. But, my word,
it's a BORING job."
Sky then gripped Zero by one shoulder and guided him to a nearby table
in the room. The draco set the paper down and plunked a pen in front of
the crimson wonder. "There you go, Zero...that application shouldn't
take too long. While you fill that out, I'm going to have a wee talk
with Red about curbing her artificial hormones." With that, Skie left
Zero on his own.
Zero mumbled to himself and chewed on the end of his pen as he regarded
the application, which stared right back at him. The black type on the
milky surface of the paper jumped out at him. Zero frowned. The
application asked a lot of questions about his past. And, of course, he
wasn't going to tell anyone who he really was. Nevertheless, Zero DID
manage to fill out the application without giving anything away. The
paper looked a little something like this once Zero had finished with
it:
disembowel.
that Elvis is REALLY dead? Do you sometimes pretend that you're
an airplane? I do. I spread my arms and run in circles yelling
"ZOOOOOOM!" What movies do you like? Do you ever bake? Can you light
matches and eat them? Can you suck Jello up through your nose? I
always wished I could do that. Do you like Pez candy? I once had a Pez
dispenser that tried to kill me. You know, I've heard that Canada
doesn't sell Cherry Cola anymore. Do you think that Canadians should
have access to that drink? I do, even if it tastes like puke. Oh, and
speaking of Cherry Cola, AnytimeIneedtoseeyourfaceIju
stclosemyeyesandIamtakentoaplacewhereyourcrystalmindandmagentafeelingstakeupshelt
erinthebaseofmyspinesweetlikeachic-a-cherrycola! Can you say that three
times fast? I can.
Skysheen took the application from from Zero and swept over it with his
reptilian eyes. Zero expected Sky to object to the information he had
put down, but other than raised eyebrows, Sky remained silent.
"Uh....okay Zero. Thanks. I do believe we have a position for you."
Zero grinned. He could see himself blasting Mavericks all over the
city. He would have prefered to blast humans, but that time wasn't at
hand yet. Besides, violence was violence, and Zero had built up a
raging bloodlust that needed to be quenched.
Skysheen beckoned to Zero. "Come along."
"Wait!!" Red pleaded, jumping up from her chair. She gripped Zero
tightly by one arm and stared directly into Zero's eyes. The stare bore
into him painfully, and Zero nearly lost his nerve again. A grin
resurfaced on Red's face. "You're mine, my cute little crimson cookie!"
She hissed sweetly. "Hold on while I get something for you~!"
Leaving Zero for a second, Red began to paw around in a box that rested
beside her. She eventually fished out a thick, yellow ribbon which she
carefully tied in a bow around Zero's neck. "There! You look SOOOO
cute! Oh, for a camera!"
Skysheen managed to pry Red away from Zero as he dragged him out of the
room.
"I'll see you REAL soon, Zero!" Red gushed after the scarlet reploid.
"Next time I get a hold of you, I'm going to braid your hair!"
Zero could have sobbed. In his past life with Bass and the crew, he
had been considered a god. But ever since he had woken up from
hibernation, everything had botched up. There were other reploids that
were even more powerful than him. His plan to slaughter humans seemed
to be going down the john. Now he was tangled up in an operation that
actually PROTECTED humans. Besides that, he was now a plaything for a
nine-foot luststruck reploid dragon. Things were not going well.
Zero's heart had been set on joining one of the Hunter Units. A Unit that
saw a lot of
action and violence, such as the Regal Dragons or even the Spartans.
Therefore, it's easy to
understand why he gaped with disbelief as Skysheen ushered him into the large
Medical Unit of
MHHQ.
Disappointment weighed heavily on Zero's stomach as he stared at the rows of
identical
and immaculate beds before him. Most of them stood empty, but one did house
a Hunter, a
human male with an injured leg. The human slowly bounced a red rubber ball
against the wall,
caught it, and stonily bounced it again. Judging by the crazy look churning
slowly in the young
man's eyes, he had either had too much painkiller or was coming down with a
severe case of
cabin fever.
"Skyster..." Zero gulped, "are you saying that I'm gonna be working...HERE?
The hell
with that! I wanted to be a Hunter, not a frackin' nurse! I'm leaving!"
Zero turned to exit, but
Skysheen blocked his way. The draco was perfectly silent, but he fixed Zero
with a look that was
absolute poison.
Zero wilted. "Uh...okay...I guess I could stay...for a while...don't knock
it 'till you've tried
it...that's my motto..."
Sky's stern expression dissolved as he clapped Zero on the back. "Atta boy!
We have
plenty of Hunters, Zero, but we're severely short on medical staff. You'll
like working in this
branch! I promise! Now, I'll take you to meet da boss man!"
Boss 'MAN' was sort of misleading. When Sky directed Zero to his new boss,
the first
thing that he caught sight of was the backside of a short reploid that was
equipped with a bushy,
orange-red tail which was swishing back and forth. The reploid was busying
itself at a desk with
something or other.
"Hey, Genesis!" Skysheen called cheerfully. "I got some staff here to help
you."
The reploid did not turn around, but the nervous twitching of his tail
increased tenfold.
"It's about bloody time ya did, Sky...when the Units get back from Hunting,
this place turns into a
madhouse! Especially when the Night Vipers come back. Oy, half the humans
in THAT Unit get
all banged up and end up in here!"
Skysheen actually drooped his majestic head a bit in shame. "I know. I'm
sorry Genesis.
I'll get you more help from now on, I promise."
"That's what I like to hear," Genesis stated prior to pivoting on his heel
to face Zero and
Sky. The phenotype of his new boss caused Zero to recoil a bit in surprise.
Genesis was a bipedal reploid fox donned in silver and maroon armour. A
badge on his
right shoulder that bore the traditional symbol of a hissing serpent coiled
around a crucifix
signified his position in the Medical Unit. Two canine-type ears jutted from
Genesis' helmet.
Most surprising, however, was the fact that his head gear had a black visor
that rested on his
pointed snout and covered his eyes completely.
Genesis frowned as he observed Zero who was staring at him with wide eyes.
"What's
with Mr. Big Eyes here?" the fox snorted contemptuously. "You'd think he'd
never seen a fox
wearing sunglasses or somethin'!"
Zero was getting ready to tell Genesis exactly where he could put his
sunglasses when
Skysheen suddenly pulled him aside.
"Play nice with Genesis, y'hear?" the dragon whispered into Zero's ear.
"He's a nice
guy, and he takes good care of the injured humans in here. Help him out and
do as he says. If
you don't, you'll have ME to answer to. And I can assure you, that won't be
pleasant. Okely
dokely?"
Zero nodded glumly.
Skysheen nodded, satisfied. "All three Units are going on a big mission
today, so you'll
have plenty of work when we get back. We're trying to re-claim some
territory that the Mavericks
took over. We're gonna have quite a time! See you soon!"
Skysheen exited the Medical Unit (not before getting his massive wings
caught in the
doorway), the badge of the Regal Dragons proudly displayed on his right arm.
Zero watched him,
distressed. Genesis' grating voice penetrated the crimson reploid's cloud of
gloom.
"HEY! Wookiee - Man! Don't just stand there staring! I have lots
of...ooooh...."
Genesis stopped in his tracks. Zero whipped around in alarm. The reploid
fox stood, swaying,
staring in wonder at the nearly-forgotten yellow ribbon that Red Draco had
tied around Zero's
neck earlier.
"Oh man...that's so COOL!"
Zero blinked twice and pointed to the scrap of cloth encircled around his
neck. "This
lousy yellow ribbon? 'Cool'?"
Genesis nodded dumbly.
Zero shrugged. "Here, TAKE it!" he said, glad to have an excuse to get rid
of the thing.
He peeled it off of himself and handed it to his canine boss, who gripped the
thick ribbon with
shaking claws.
"You mean...you mean I can...HAVE this?" he whispered in disbelief.
"Oh..oh MAN!
Thanks, Rapunzel! You're the BOMB!"
"My name's Zero."
Genesis didn't seem to hear. He was too busy winding the ribbon around his
neck. By
the time he was done, Genesis looked like he was sporting a spiffy yellow
scarf. He modeled for
Zero. "So...how do I look?"
Probably nothing on earth was more bizarre looking than a reploid fox
wearing shades
AND a scarf. However, Zero remembered that Genesis was his new boss, so
tried a lie.
"You look fabulous."
Genesis grinned ecstatically. "Thanks! I feel so...complete now!"
"I'm very happy for you," Zero said flatly.
"Well, time to get to work!" Genesis said cheerfully. "There's a big hunt
today, and we're
likely to get a LOT of injured folks, human and reploid alike. Mechanics
will handle the reploids,
but we'll be bandaging up the humans!"
Now Zero was going to be FIXING UP humans. Yay. This got better and better
all the
time.
"What I want you to do, Zero, is to go down to the Hunter-Dispatch area and
see how
many human Hunters are there. We need to have enough beds. You don't really
need to include
the reploid Hunters in your head-count. Although an injured reploid needs to
be very still in order
for its auto repairs to work, it doesn't need a cot for that need. Sitting
still on the floor repair it
just as effectively. Some injured reploids will try to unload some sob-story
about how they NEED
to lie in bed to get better. If that happens, and you need the bed for an
injured human, just dump
the reploid out of the bed and kick it out the door."
Zero grinned. "Got it!"
"Do you know where the Hunter-Dispatch area is?"
"Yes." Zero lied.
Genesis looked as if he didn't quite believe Zero. "First floor. Hang a
right from the main
entrance and keep going straight. Can't miss it unless you're a drooling
idiot. Now hurry up and
go; the Hunters will be leaving at any minute! And put this on." Genesis
handed Zero a badge
that was identical to his own with those last words. "Now go! Hurry hurry
hurry!"
The Hunter-Dispatch area WAS quite easy to find, and Zero had an uneventful
trip there.
As a security measure, he had to stop and talk to some reploid guards before
they could allow
him into the bay.
"Okay son, what's your name?"
"Zero. And don't call me 'son'."
"Okay...why do you need to enter the Hunter-Dispatch area?"
"Oh, I have to take an estimate on how many humans are gonna get mangled in
today's
hunt. It's for the Medical Unit."
"I see. Pass."
The second guard opened the steel door in front of Zero and shooed the
reploid in. Zero
was met by a sprawling, massive room that looked much like a huge,
rectangular garage. Cool air
filtered in through the open hatch at the tail end of the room. Platoon upon
platoon of Hunters,
reploid and human, male and female, accompanied Zero in the area. Zero could
see that they
were more or less separated into three large groups. Everywhere, Hunters
were checking their
armour, tightening straps to sheaths that held wicked blades, talking
nervously to one another or
praying. The fresh breeze in the room did little to wash away the stale
pre-battle tension that
hung in the air. Zero had never felt so jealous in his whole life.
Zero's eyes swam through the crowd. He took a rough count of how many
humans were
in the room. His conclusion: a hell of a lot.
Zero picked out a familiar face in the masses: Red Draco. He hesitated for
a second,
then began to push through the sea of Hunters to meet her. Although the
reploid dragon's
feelings for HIM were pretty obvious, Zero still didn't have much of an idea
about how he felt about
Red. She was a puzzle to him.
Zero finally broke free and found himself a few meters away from Red.
Unlike the other
Unit leaders who had already begun to give a solemn pep talk to their
Hunters, Red was pounding
her chest and bellowing gothic war songs at the top of her lungs like a
bloodthirsty demon from
the Ninth Ring of Hell. "Join in!" She'd call out every so often to her
Hunters, and the nervous
Regal Dragons clustered in front of her would be forced to mumble through a
verse or two of the
chant. Fear was obviously one feeling that Red lacked in her emotions cache.
"Red!" Zero called out once there was a lull in the song.
"HONEYBUNNY!" Red squealed as she rushed to meet Zero. She bowled over a
few
Hunters as she did so. "Give us a hug for good luck!" She said as she
scooped Zero up in her
arms and gave him a 'hug' that nearly crushed all his ribs. "I'm glad you
came to see me...oh!
What happened to that ribbon I gave you? It went with your hair!"
"I...uh, lost it." Zero lied.
Red squeezed him again. "No matter! I've got other things for my
precioussss...!"
Zero gulped involuntarily.
Red spied the badge on Zero's right shoulder. "Ah! My honeybunny is part
of the
Medical Unit, is he? That kicks ass!"
"No it doesn't," protested Zero. "I had really wanted to join the Hunters."
"Tsk! Poor you! Too bad...on a nice day like this, freshly spilled blood
smells extra
good!"
"Ah! Hello there, Zero!"
Zero spun around to see who had issued him this greeting. His eyes met with
pale purple
armour. Zero looked upwards and grinned. "Hey, Skysheen!+
Skysheen grinned back down at Zero. His black claws clacked on a silver,
barrel-shaped
cannon that was mounted on one of his shoulders. It was a truly formidable
weapon and the
beauty and originality of its structure burned into Zero's mind.
Skysheen pulled Zero out of his trance. "We'll be leaving soon,
Zero...maybe you'd like to
meet the leaders of the other Units before we take off."
"That's a good idea," Zero agreed. "Best of luck in the hunt, you two!"
Skysheen saluted while Red blew Zero a kiss.
At the far right of the Hunter-Dispatch area, the Night Vipers swarmed
together in a
nervous huddle. Their badges displayed a night-black viper that had its tail
entwined around a
silver dagger. A tall, young human male stood in front of the Unit, shouting
out directions. Zero
could tell at once that this man was the leader of the Night Vipers. He
found it hard to believe that
a human would actually be in charge of a Unit. "Hullo there."
The man looked around to see who had addressed him when his eyes locked onto
Zero.
"Oh...hello." He smiled nervously. As the man turned to face Zero, a long
blonde ponytail crawled
over his shoulder. Annoyed, he flipped it back over behind him.
"I'm new here, and I'm just getting better aquatinted with the leaders of
the Hunter Units,"
Zero explained casually. "My name's Zero."
The human nodded. "Nice to meet you. I'm Paul Wells." He smiled modestly.
Zero nodded in his turn. "So...have you been a Hunter for long? It's my
guess that you
have been, since you're leading your own Unit."
"Yep! I was one of the first ones to sign up." He smiled. "I may be in my
forties, but
I'm going strong!"
"Whoa!" Zero was quite impressed.
"Yeah. And as long as there's Mavericks, I'll probably keep on going.
Robots taking over
the entire human race is a thought that I just can't stand. A robot took my
dad from me, and that
was enough."
"Uh...?"
"When I was little, some freaky black and gold robot actually knocked out my
dad and
took him," Paul explained, casting his eyes down. "I still don't know what
that robot would have
wanted him for, but I never DID see him again."
For the first time in his life, Zero actually felt sorry for a human.
"Tough break."
"Yeah." Paul sighed. He then cocked his head. "You know something? You
actually
remind me a bit of him."
Zero grinned. "Now THAT'S freaky! I'd better go now...good luck in the
hunt today!"
"Be seeing you around, Zero!" Paul called cheerfully.
At the far left of the Hunter-Dispatch area, Zero found the Spartans. They
were a small
Unit compared to the Night Vipers and Regal Dragons, but one could see that
they packed a lot of
power. The emblem for the Unit was laconic, just as the Spartans themselves
had been. All the
badge consisted of was two spears crossed over one another.
However, the members of the Spartans Unit did not need fancy badge art to
look
forbidding. The blood-red cloak that each fighter in the Unit wore did that
job very nicely. The
leader of the Unit stood proudly with his back to his Hunters, facing the
open hatch before him.
He seemed to be picturing the fight that would ensue with the passage of
about ten minutes. The
leader wore a crimson cape rather than a full cloak. Red had told Zero about
this fellow earlier;
Zero was almost certain that he was staring at the leader of the Spartans and
the Hunters overall:
Sigma.
Zero pushed forward through the sea of red cloaks to reach the proud Hunter.
"Hey, watch it! No shovin'!" One of the Spartans yelped as Zero passed by
it. Zero
turned towards the voice and caught a glimpse of a reploid penguin's eyes and
beak drowning in
the shadows of its cloak.
"Watch the tail!" a green reploid chameleon hissed at Zero.
"Watch your step," warned a massive reploid Mandrill whose red cloak was
oversized to fit his massive bulk.
"Hey hey hey, what's goin' on?" a reploid eagle demanded as Zero stumbled
into him.
There were two large humps beneath the eagle's cloak. Zero guessed that, if
the bird of prey
were to remove his cover, the humps would turn out to be massive wings.
"You know, there IS such a word as 'excuse me', a reploid mammoth huffed as
Zero
pushed by him.
Finally, Zero reached Sigma. The bald reploid did not turn around.
"Good day, sir." Zero panted. He had exerted a lot of strength by the time
he reached
the leader. "My name's Zero, and I just wanted to--"
Sigma suddenly whipped around and bellowed, "HUNTERS! The time has come.
Night
Vipers...DISPATCH!"
Paul motioned to his fellows, and the Night Vipers trooped out the huge door
and into the
open air in even lines.
Once they were gone, Sigma fired up again. "Regal Dragons...DISPATCH!"
Red Draco bellowed and her Hunters gave an answering cheer. Rather than
dispatching
neatly like the Night Vipers had done, the Regal Dragons simply surged out of
the room in a
tangled mess. Sigma shook his head as he watched them go. He turned to the
Spartans behind
him. "And lastly...is us. Chill, Sting, Spark, Flame, and Storm. Let's
go!"
The Spartans all nodded in unison and followed Sigma into the outside world.
The noise
of the troops rapidly receded into the distance, leaving Zero very much alone
in the now silent
Hunter-Dispatch area.
"Yeah, nice to meet you too, Siggy." Zero muttered.
"Ohhh, I know it's hard when you're fat and alone...no one's there to
see you. And on your birthday, no one calls you on the phone...'cept
for your mother and she says, "Ha-ha-happy birthday, Pumpkin! I won't
talk for long, 'cause I know you've probably got someone in your bed..."
Zero, under a burden of medical supplies, let his song wail through the
almost - empty infirmary. The shrill words wafted around the room,
bouncing back at him in a hollow but pleasing echo. A disgruntled,
bedridden human next to Zero winced as the desolate sound tore at his
eardrums.
"Zero...tone it down a bit, will you? The Mavericks tortured me enough
when they captured me."
In response to this plea from the injured Hunter, Zero cranked up his
voice a few notches and sang a verse to another one of the songs in his
infamous cache:
"Some TIMES these WOMEN are so EASY....SOMETIMES these women are sooo
COLD! SomeTIMES these woMEN seem to RIP YOU RIGHT IN TWO..."
"That's enough, Zero," Genesis drawled from across the room. "bring
me those supplies now. And watch your step. The floor may be slippery.
I just had it --"
A muffled 'clank' of dense metal hitting concrete accompanied by the
tinkling crash of medical glassware shattering cut Genesis off in mid -
sentence.
" -- waxed." The reploid fox finished lamely.
Zero cursed as he pulled himself up from the sea of glass shards that
lay scattered around him. "Sorry Gen. I'm not really much of a help to
the Medical Unit, am I?"
"You've really improved over the past couple of weeks, Zero." Genesis
smiled as he crossed his fingers behind his back. "And you'll continue
to improve."
Zero fetched a broom to clean up the spilled glass. "I guess I'd
better improve! I've botched up pretty badly lately. Man, remember the
time I gave that human Hunter the wrong antibiotics, and he went into
spasms? Hehe! Boy, that was golden!" Zero laughed hysterically at the
memory.
Genesis' grin did not fade as he pat Zero on the shoulder. "Okay,
buddy...here's a job that's nearly impossible to screw up. We need some
ice up here. Our daily shipment is late. Would you go down to the
cafeteria and fetch some?"
"Ice?" Zero echoed.
"Yes. Ice. Do you need a recipie?"
"Hardly!"
"On your way, then."
On his way down to the cafeteria, Zero noticed that the hallways of
MHHQ were almost deserted. Another large hunt involving all three Units
was underway at the time. Bitter jealousy poured acid into Zero's
heart, and not for the first time.
The Crimson Wonder made his way down to the mess hall. The large door
leading to the area swung open without complaint. The warm smell of
food cooking in the back kitchen greeted him. The cafeteria itself was
a mammoth room which occupied rows and rows of tables standing at
attention. The room's huge size was necessary: at meal times, the area
had to seat every human Hunter, as well as the refugees in the camp.
Yet, few were inside the cafe at this hour. Besides himself, Zero
spied two reploids who were shaking and abusing a candy machine,
obviously in an attempt to get some free treats. Across from them, two
maintenance reploids were busy trying to put up a shelf on the south
wall. Zero recognized them right away. They were A.G. and Hack.
Neither of them were very bright, but they were nice fellows. Finally,
a lone, blue - armoured reploid was anchored at a table, reading some
sort of book. Half the reploid's face was sunk into one hand, and his
green eyes were partway closed. He looked sleepy.
"Hey there Astro Boy," Zero remarked casually as he breezed by.
The azure reploid snapped to attention and his head perked up. "
'scuse me?"
"Oh, nothing."
The blue reploid cut his eyes at Zero. "You DID say something."
"I dinna say anythin'!" Zero grinned, turning around. He had found a
new victim to torment, and it pleased him greatly.
The reploid snorted disdainfully and said, "Well, just so you know, my
name's X."
"X?" Zero tasted the name, letting the single - constanant roll around
in his mouth. He liked the sound if it.
"Yes. X."
"As in X - Ray?"
"No..."
"As in X - Men?"
"No!"
"As in X - Rated?"
"NO!!!"
"As in --"
"AS IN MEGA MAN X, YOU IDJIT!!"
A bright red thread of alarm cut through Zero as he heard the name that
was tacked on to the 'X'. 'Mega Man'...was this the same Mega Man who
had killed Wily, his father, all those years back? Zero cleared his
throat.
"Er...uh...Mega Man...I've heard that name around before. Wasn't there
a famous robot from the past named Mega Man? Are you him?"
X shrugged helplessly. "To be honest, I don't know much about my past.
I haven't much of a clue who I am."
Zero snapped his fingers. "NOW I know where I remember your name from!
You're X, the first reploid ever created, right? The loser who knows
nothing about his past! Am I right?"
X's mouth was drawn in a tight line, but he managed a short "Yes."
The hatred and alarm that had stirred in Zero's mind subsided and went
back to its slumber. This obviously wasn't the same Mega Man he knew
and hated. The original Mega Man had been smaller, and had been a
robot, not a reploid...
X continued to stare at Zero with his head cocked to one side, as if he
expected another quip to fire from the Scarlet One. Zero gulped
nervously, searching for nasty words. He bought time by watching A.G.
and Hack put up the shelf they were struggling with.
"Okay A.G...hold the other end of that shelf up. I've gotta put the
nail in this side." Hack called to his friend at the other end of the
structure.
"Okay, Hack!" The other reploid returned cheerfully.
Hack nodded. He held his end of the shelf against the wall and began
tapping a nail into it.
"My arms are gettin' tired," A.G. complained after a minute went by.
"Well, keep on holding your end up! If you let go before I get this
nail in, the whole shelf will fall!" The tapping of Hack's hammer
ensued.
"Okay, I'll try to hold on..."
* tap tap tap *
"My arms are about to fall off!! Hurry up!"
* tap tap tap *
"I can't HOLD this thing any longer! I'm dropping my end, Hack!"
"NO!"
* BLAM *!
"SHIT!!"
"I'm sorry, Hack..." A.G. gulped apologetically, rubbing his sore
arms.
"YOU'RE sorry?!" Hack exploded.
Zero couldn't help but grin at the scenario. As it ended, Zero thought
of something to say to his new 'friend'.
"So X...how come you're not out a - huntin' like everyone else right
now?"
"I'm not a Hunter." X returned in a flat tone.
Zero nodded in understanding. "I know how you feel. I wanted to be a
Hunter SO badly, but nooo, they stuck me in the Medical Unit! I am SO
ticked off about that --"
X shook his head. "No, you misunderstood me. I'm not part of the
Hunters. I won't have anything to do with them."
"Wha --"
"I don't believe in violence."
"Uh?"
"You heard me."
Zero gaped in disbelief. "But violence is FUN!"
"Violence is terrible. Reploids and humans mangling each other...it's
insane."
Zero snickered. "Aw man, who programmed you? Raffi? Or was it Barney
the Dinosaur? Perhaps Big Bird or Mr. Snuffleupagus threw in a few
source codes of theirs. No, I've got it! Your creator was Dudley the
Dragon!! I just solved the great mystery of your past for you, X my
boy! You owe me a beer."
X slammed his book closed and scraped his chair back as he stood up and
drew himself up to full height. He tried to look Zero straight in the
eye, but he was a few hands shorter than the crimson reploid, so he
appeared a bit less threatening than he would have liked to look.
"I don't know you," X hissed, his tone low and dripping with venom,
"but I REALLY don't like you."
"Aw, poor baby." Zero snorted sarcastically. "Life just bites with a
capital 'B', don't it? Everyone around you is fighting for a cause they
believe in, and you just wanna go home to mommy. Boo hoo."
"And I'M just standing up for what I believe in!" X retorted
faithfully.
"I recommend that you don't whine like that, X." Zero warned.
"And why's that?"
"Because it makes my fist twitch like THIS." With that, Zero drew back
his fist and buried it in X's face. X staggered backwards in shock and
collapsed weakly into his chair again. It appeared that Zero's punch
had rattled a few of X's teeth.
"Aw, damn! There it goes again. See what I mean?" Zero chuckled as
he cracked his bloodied knuckles. His grin was poison.
X stood up, dazed. He shook his head once to clear it and stop the
bells from chiming in his ears. Then, narrowing his eyes, he threw a
fluttering and rather sad punch that missed Zero by a country mile."
"Hehe! You swing like a girl, X!" Zero taunted.
X did not answer, but his glazed eyes fell on a bowl of fruit on a
table nearby. He seized a bright red apple that was throned at the top
of the fruity pile. He brandished it, liking the feel of the weight in
his hand...
"See what happens when you don't believe in fighting and violence?"
Zero's voice touched X's ears and burned them. "You end up all soft and
sugary like a box of old Lucky Charms." Zero paused and beckoned
towards X, backing up against the wall. "Yeah, that's what you remind
me of, X! That little elf who's always trying to hide his cereal from
those kids. Well, come here, Lucky! I've got your cereal! Try to come
and get 'em from me! I'VE GOT YOUR LUCKY - FRICKIN' - CHARMS RIGHT
HERE!"
"SHUT UP, EWOK!" X screamed as he hurled his apple in Zero's
direction. Zero ducked the projectile as lithe and liquid as a cat.
The fruit made contact with the wall behind the scarlet reploid and
decorated it with its spattered pulp.
"Oh man! You throw like my grandma, X!"
A screech of utter rage escaped X as he threw himself on Zero, flailing
his fists wildly. Zero's grin of malice held strong as he confronted
his attacker and attempted to pin his wheeling arms. Punches, kicks and
curses were exchanged.
"You KILLED that nice apple, X!" Zero puffed as he and the rage -
swathed X both stepped backwards for a breather. "So much for your vow
of non - violence! I bet that apple had a wife and kids. I bet all the
little apples are crying for their dad right now, and they'll never SEE
him again because you just HAD to splatter his brains all over this
wall!" Zero jerked his thumb behind him. "You murderer! I hope you
burn in hell! I hope that you're tormented by the apple - demons until
the end of time! I hope --"
Zero was cut off as X shot towards him again like a blue bullet. The
fight began anew. However, Zero only got a few good kicks before he
felt strong hands prying him away from his target.
"Take it easy!" The voice behind Zero demanded. It was Hack. Zero
could see that A.G. was restraining a wildly struggling X, who appeared
to be foaming at the mouth. His eyes burned a baleful red.
"I'll KILL him! I'LL KILL HIM!" X screamed over and over, lunging in
Zero's direction and cursing at A.G.'s strong hold. Luckily, A.G. gave
X no slack. Zero had aroused the killer instinct in a once - peaceful
reploid. You can bet he felt extremely proud.
"I think Cain himself is gonna hafta handle this one," Hack declared,
nodding his head in X's direction. "Bring Zero with. Cain'll have a
talk with 'em."
A sharp - edged wind scurried aimlessly about the dank street,
mercilessly forcing dry leaves and discarded papers along in its wake.
It seized Sigma's blood red cloak with icy hands and spitefully made it
snap sharply. Sigma sighed.
"Hunters, fall in. Let's see how badly we screwed up THIS time."
As if on cue, hoards of pain - racked figures stumbled towards their
stern leader. A draconian form was amoung these. Red. One of the very
few unscathed. She sauntered over to Sigma and delivered him a
tremendous smack on the back that was intended to be affectionate.
"Hey, Siggy! Hooo man!" She laughed crazily. "You wanna see screw
ups? Just look around you!"
To underscore her point, Red scanned a gleaming claw over the pack of
Hunters before her. Ninety percent of them appeared to be in some stage
of hurt.
"And that's not even the tip of the iceberg!" Red giggled, which
improved Sigma's mood none. "Lookit over there."
Sigma turned towards where Red motioned. He blanched slightly at the
sight he was met with. "Oy vay." The Spartan sighed. "We've had
ourselves QUITE the time."
Sigma was looking directly at Paul Wells. The Night Viper was being
supported by two fellow unit members. The young leader appeared dazed
and was bleeding out of one ear.
Sigma did not allow any concern seep into his voice. "Will he be all
right?"
Red shrugged her leathery wings. "Sure, and I don't know. Just a very
nasty crack upside the head. He'll be fine with some rest, which is a
bit more than I can say for the rest of us. Skysheen and I are all
right, but do you have any idea how many of our Regal Dragons we lost in
today's hunt? Sky's going nuts tending to 'em. Paul also lost some
good fighters in his unit, too." Red lowered her guttural voice.
"Lately, the Mavericks have seemed to dramatically increase in number,
skill, and organization. It used to be so easy to take 'em down and
reclaim territory, but now we're fighting for our lives every time we
hunt. This ain't no good, Siggy!"
"Tell me about it. And next time you call me 'Siggy', I'll personally
rip your arm out of its socket and beat you over the head with it."
Sigma was lecturing empty air, however. Red had taken off as noisily
as a night shadow.
Red fanned her wings out to full length, allowing them to drink the
cold, dark air currents that suspend her lithe form in the chilly air.
She soared over building rooftops which no human eye could ever detect
in the ebony darkness, but she could see perfectly well with her gift of
nightvision. The reptilian huntress' speed did not falter: Red had a
certain destination in mind.
"Almost there!" she sang out to herself as her greenish filtered eyes
roved the familiar rooftops that guided her towards her goal. "Tra la
la. I love life. Whoops, here we are...!"
Red dropped herself onto the rooftop of a nondescript triplex as
silently as a feather. Expertly, she peeked over the edge of the roof
without being seen. As she did so, a wild hope flared up within her
like the persistent flame on a newly lit candle. She had found what she
was looking for!
Crammed in a fairly small alley below her were several of the Mavericks
the Hunters had taken out just moments ago. Although the Hunters had
suffered quite a few losses on their side, the Mavericks themselves
didn't exactly escape rent - free. They, too, had some severe damages.
They had obviously gathered in the alley to - literally - pull
themselves back together. Red's intention was to heard one of the
crippled fighters off to the side for some 'questioning'.
And her chance came very soon. One of the Mavericks, a male werewolf -
type reploid, made the mistake of limping out of the alley by his
lonesome self. As soon as Red was satisfied that he was far enough from
his comrades, she leapt on the wolf as silently as a cat, but with the
breakneck force of a wild lightning bolt. The werewolf didn't even have
time to yelp. Before he could grasp what was happening, the Maverick
found himself lying dazed on his back with the sharp end of a lethal
lance prodding ever so slightly on his exposed neck. However, due to
his akward position, he could see little beyond the trim silver cylinder
that held him in thrall.
"Hullo!" A cool yet familiar female voice chirped cheerfully from
above him. "No noise, otherwise...heh...'poke poke'!" The tapered end
of the lance dug into the wolf's neck just a tiny bit more with these
last words. He was at a loss.
"Who are you?" The Maverick snarled weakly.
"Jo' momma. Oooo, that was good! Chalk one up for me." The unseen
voice tittered. "Well, never you mind. I think the real question
is...WHO are YOU? And before you decide to mouth off, remember who's at
the business end of my happy little lance."
"All right. Fine. My name's Maugrim."
"Ooh. Scary name." the voice commented sarcastically with a snort.
"I have a few questions to ask ye, if you don't mind."
"You're a Hunter, aren't you?" Maugrim bristled.
"Kinda! But just tell me what I want to know. Where are the Mavericks
planning their next big attack?"
"Why should I tell YOU?"
"Well, just because the necks of Mavericks make the cutest little
'squish' noise when they're skewered with sharp objects..." the voice
commented casually as the poised lance nudged Maugrim's neck almost
playfully.
"All RIGHT." Maugrim hissed, summoning every ounce of his will to keep
his voice devoid of the nervousness that squeezed his heart. "Our next
attack is at Torrisham Crossings in two days."
"My. That's quite a big attack. That neighbourhood is densely
populated."
A grin crossed Maugrim's jet black snout. "That's right. It's a big
area, and the Mavericks want it for their own territory. So, Hunter, go
ahead and try to evacuate the humans that live there. We don't care one
way or another. But be warned: any human that remains in the
neighbourhood after we storm it gets killed. No questions asked."
"How friendly, not to mention neighbourly. Thanks to this little talk
we had, I'm afraid you won't get the satisfaction of offing any humans
during your invasion. I'll be going now. Thank you kindly for your
cooperation." The looming point of the lance receeded.
Maugrim squirmed and pulled himself into a sitting position. "Wait a
sec. Let me get a look at you."
Smiling sweetly, Red dropped down to one knee so that she was eye level
with Maugrim.
Maugrim flew into a rage. "NOW I know you! You're the leader of the
Regal Dragons! I just saw you tonight during the
fight!...Red...Red...somethin' or other..."
"Red Draco, reploid 72081 of the Mechadrake breed. It's glad to know
ya!" As she uttered this greeting, Red swung the sleek handle of her
lance and whacked Maugrim upside the head. Maugrim yelped shamelessly
as he clutched his sore skull and attempted to stagger to his feet and
retaliate. But Red had already disappeared with a whirr of crimson
wings.
Maugrim's ears rang insanely. His blood pounded in his head like a
sledgehammer.
"I know you can still hear me, Hunter!" he roared, temporarily
drowning out the high - pitched singing in his head. "Sure, go ahead
and run! Badmouth the Mavericks' skills all you please. But very soon,
you and the humans will have good reason to fear us. Why, you ask?
Torrent Leviathan. That's all I need to say!"
Seething, Maugrim stormed back to rejoin his injured cohorts.
"Hmmm....interesting." Zero mused as he stared at the office ceiling
above him.
X, seated in a chair next to Zero, threw a poisonous glance at his new
nemesis. "What?"
"Cain's ceiling. Weird structure." Zero pointed up towards the thick
wooden planks that had slowly aged until they were the colour of old
honey. "See, between each plank there's a crack. Watch this." Zero
snatched a handful of rubber bands off of Cain's perfectly organized
desk and, after propping his boots up on the desk as if he were lounging
at home rather than being in the office of the respected head of MHHQ,
he began to shoot the elastic bands at the ceiling, attempting to jam a
few in the cracks. This outlandish behaviour nearly threw X into
spasms.
"What're you doing?" he hissed ferociously. "Don't you know where you
ARE? Cain might walk in at any second."
"I don't see old man Cain anywhere," Zero drawled, flicking yet
another elastic band, "but when he comes in, I'll be sure to tell him
that his office ceiling is as weird as hell. Hey cool, I got one of the
elastics jammed! I'm so talented."
"Stop that!" X snarled.
"Okay, FINE," Zero sighed and began to fire the elastic bands at X
instead. It was at that precise moment that Cain happened to walk into
the room. He shook his head as he observed the two badly scratched - up
reploids before him. One he recognized as X, of course, but he had no
idea who the crimson reploid that was pelting X with elastic bands
was...
"Oh, I can't wait to hear THIS one explained," Cain sighed as he
hobbled over to the chair behind his desk and wearily seated himself in
it. He fixed the long - haired reploid before him with a glare. "If
you'll just give me back those elastic bands, please....thank you. Now,
I don't believe we've ever been formally introduced. Would you mind
telling me your name, please?"
"Zero," Zero said politely as he extended a hand. "I work with the
Medical Unit. It's nice to meet you."
A smile tugged at Cain's beard. "My, such nice manners. I'm Dr. Cain,
head of MHHQ."
"I know, sir." Zero said with proper awe. "I've heard all about you,
but up until now, I'd never had the honour of meeting you."
"'Zero'." X echoed, his voice saturated with contempt. "So THAT'S the
wishy - washy bastard's name."
Cain frowned at X disapprovingly. "Really, X! Please watch your
mouth. Anyway, you two, A.G. and Hack have told me that there has been
some...friction between you two. Obviously, we need to discuss things.
X, why don't you tell me what happened?"
X pointed an accusing finger at Zero. "I was just minding my own
business when 'Ponyboy' here starts up with me for no reason at all!"
"Uh...yes." Cain cleared his throat. "Zero? Why don't you tell me
your side?"
"X is a murderer, sir." Zero explained gravely. "No legume is safe
around him. I was quite shocked and appalled by his needless display of
violence towards veggies and fruits."
Cain blinked. "X? Violence? These two words just don't seem to go
together. I'm quite surprised that he even fought you."
"HE WAS BUGGING THE LIVING HELL OUT OF ME! 'BRAVEHEART' STARTED IT! I
JUST HIT BACK!" X shrieked defensively.
Zero pretended to look shocked at X's outburst, but deep down inside,
he was laughing hysterically. He hadn't had this much fun since Bass
pushed Slash Man down the stairs of Skull Castle all those years back.
Cain motioned for X calm down. "Cool it, X. I've never seen you this
angry."
A hollow metallic sound rang through the office's tense air as X
brought a fist down on Cain's desk, causing an empty coffee mug to
actually jump. "I'm just WARMING UP! When I get my hands on..."
"That's ENOUGH!" Cain boomed so loudly that X was actually startled
enough to stop his ranting. "Listen, X! It's hard enough to try
keeping the reploids and humans from bickering with each other in this
building. I DON'T need hassles with reploids fighting amoungst
themselves. Do I make myself clear?"
"Uh...yes, sir."
"Good. X, I don't know what you're so worked up about. Zero seems to
be a polite reploid with fine manners. I'm afraid I find it impossible
to believe he would start any trouble."
X made a small noise that was something between a laugh and a scream.
"In fact," Cain continued, "I'd like you to stick with him for the day.
Get to know him better. It would be nice if you picked up some of his
good habits."
This time, X really DID scream.
"Thank you, sir." Zero said sincerely to Cain. "By doing this for X,
I believe that you seized the wheel on his slow boat to complete
insanity. I'll look after him."
Cain's eyes suddenly flicked towards X, who had silently moved behind
Zero. "X, put down that hammer," Cain commanded sternly. "no blood on
the new carpet."
"Oh man. I can't believe the way you lied in there. I just CAN'T." X
pouted. "The things you said about me...and then Cain sticks me with
YOU...it's just not FAIR!"
"Poor X. It just isn't your day." Zero remarked as he continued down
the hall towards the Medical Unit. "I'll tell you this much, friend.
Stay near me and behave yourself or I'll tell Cain that you were acting
up. And then, my word! you'll catch it."
Zero's wrist commlink bleeped impatiently. Sighing, he switched it on.
"Yeah, what now?"
"Zero? March your ass back to the Medical Unit this instant. And I
mean NOW." Genesis' static drowned voice insisted.
"What's the rush?" Zero asked cautiously. "Are you gonna get me to
wash syringes again...? Because, by the Almighty Tuesday, I HATE doing
that..."
"No, Zero. This is much more important. Put it this way: the Hunters
came back, and not too many of 'em are in one piece."
"Oh. Happy happy joy joy. Well, I'm on my way. And I'm bringing a
friend!"
"Great," Genesis snapped. "a friend. I'll go bake some bleedin'
cookies and pour the frackin' milk. If you're not here in three
minutes, I'll shoot your dog...if ya got one, that is." With that,
Genesis cut the line.
"He thinks he's so damn big." Zero grunted as he shut off his
commlink. "Well, come on X. Medical Unit, ho!"
"Holy bloodbath, Batman!" Zero remarked, awed. Things were always a
bit bloody when the Hunters returned from a mission, but he hadn't quite
been prepared for gruesome sight that hit him in the face when he
entered the infirmary. Hunters everywhere. Bashed, dented, broken,
gashed...name any injury, and it was on at least one of the Hunters.
Screams and cries of pain riddled the area. The little help that Genesis
possessed in the Unit ran themselves almost to death, trying to tend to
those who needed it. Beside Zero, X's face had drained of all colour.
He looked ready to fall over at any minute. Zero, however, was not
sickened at all. Quite the opposite. Never had he been met with such
gore. The coppery smell of the wounded's blood filled his head and sang
sweetly...it was a great feeling...
"Hey! Candy Cane! Over here, sugar!" A voice beckoned from the
crowd. Zero snapped out of his trance in shock. What had just
happened? Was that feeling triggered by the sight and smell of all that
blood...?
"Hey, honeybunny...what's the matter?" That same voice inquired, now
next to Zero. It was Red, of course. "I called out to you, and you
looked sort of spaced out. You also had this kooky look on your face,
like you were...uh...REALLY enjoying something."
Zero shook his head to clear it. "I'm fine." He mumbled. "Are you
all right? It seems as if half your Unit is severely injured."
Red beamed with pride. "I'm jes' fine! Aren't you glad?"
"Er...yes." Zero smiled weakly and braced himself for Red to pounce on
him and hug him to pieces. Surprisingly, it never happened. Rather,
Red nodded towards X. "Howdy X. Nice to see you again."
X bobbed his head in acknowlagement. He was still too queasy to speak.
Red yawned (exposing rows of steel hard teeth), and leaned on her
lance, facing Zero. "Got some news for you, pudding. The Mavericks are
planning to attack Torrisham Crossings next. They wanna claim it for
their own."
"Really?"
"Uh huh. Remember how I told you about that human Hunter, Jake,
earlier? I think he lived there. But that's beside the point. The
humans need to be evacuated..."
Zero thought that Red was hinting that his help was needed in the
Hunter units after all. Wild hope flared in him. "So, you want me to
evacuate the humans?"
Red shook her head. "Nup, Cain already assigned A.G. and Hack to
evacuate 'em and bring them here."
Zero's jaw nearly hit the floor. "THOSE morons!? They'll probably
lead the humans off of a cliff or something. Hell, they couldn't even
put up a SHELF earlier."
Red giggled. "Well, that's all Cain could spare, really. Most of the
Hunters are out with injuries. Even Paul."
"Paul!?" Zero said in alarm. "Is he all right?"
"I think so..."
Zero's voice started to rise. "Are you sure...?"
"Sure, he's just fine." Red said, surprised. "Why are you so worried
'bout him?"
"I...don't know." Zero was forced to admit. And, truthfully, he
DIDN'T know why he was so worried about the Night Vipers' leader. When
Red had mentioned that Paul had been harmed, some deep down protective
instinct had fired up.
Red cocked her head at Zero. "Anyway, A.G. and Hack leave tonight to
preform the evacuation."
"That's it." Zero said flatly. "If A.G. and Hack is the best Cain can
do for a rescue mission, then I really belong with the Hunters. I'm
tired of Mickey Mousing around. I'm sneaking after those two in case
they need back up, which I'm SURE they will."
"Sounds like a plan!" Red smiled.
"Uh? You're coming with me?"
"Of course! Can't let my big boy hog all the glory and fun! Don't
worry, Skysheen will stay with Genesis and help out the injured here. I
think Genesis will be too busy to notice you've slipped away."
"Heh! Yeah, I'm not much help anyway."
X spoke up for the first time since Zero had entered the infirmary. "I
can't believe what you two are plotting! You're forsaking your assigned
duties to sneak out on a mission you weren't assigned to. I'm going to
report to Cain."
Zero threw his arm around X's shoulders. "Nah, you won't be doing
that. Cuz if you do, YOU'LL be reporting to THIS." Zero ignited his
lightsabre and waved the pulsing, lime coloured blade right under X's
nose. "Clear? You're coming with us."
X gulped an affirmative.
"Okay then, Red." Zero smiled. "I'm ready to go. I even have a
few...supplies on me in case any humans are injured during the
evacuation. I'm sooo practical!"
Red laughed and grabbed Zero's hand. "That you are, honeycake! Come
on Barbie, let's go party!"
"I wish...I wish...I WISH I brought my cigarettes with me," Celeste pined uselessly, "I could use one RIGHT now."
"You're hopeless when it comes to those things, you know that?" Josh remarked in a disgusted tone that would
have set Celeste off in a fit of retorting under normal circumstances. "But," Celeste thought as she timidly glanced
at the towering, muttering masses of nervous people around her, "these are hardly normal circumstances."
Tess skipped up beside her friends, undaunted by the uncanny stillness of the night. No fear penetrated her beaming
face.
"This is sooo cool," she cried excitedly, jumping up and down, "all of Torrisham Crossings will be evacuated in a few
minutes! The whole neighbourhood's here!" Tess gestured at the crowd surrounding the trio before she punched
Celeste in the shoulder. "Isn't this fun? We're having an adventure!"
"Right. And I'm having a bloody nervous breakdown. I can't believe Mavericks are going to be storming this
area." A hellish trick of illusions was acting out Celeste's worst nightmare before her eyes: to die the same brutal
death her father had at the hands of some bloodthirsty reploid.
Josh cleared his throat. "Uhmm...has anyone seen any of our parents? I mean, I think we lost 'em all in this huge
crowd."
"Aw man, that bites. Last I remember, my mom was right beside me as we walked to the meeting place...that is, to
say, the park that we're standing in." Tess remarked with a tremendous yawn. "Herded me out of bed...damn, it's
late and I'm bloody tired."
Alarmed, Celeste was about to break away from her friends to search for her mother and brother, when a
commanding voice froze her in her tracks.
"Okay people, settle...quiet, now...please be quiet....uh...WOULD EVERYONE SHUT THEIR FRIGGIN' MOUTHS
FOR A WEE SECOND?!"
Startled, the evacuees fell silent with no delay.
"Thank you." The burly voice belonged to a stocky reploid clad in blue armour with silver trimmings. "My name is
A.G. The fellow beside me is Hack. In case you're wondering, yes Mavericks have threatened to destroy your
neighbourhood in a matter of days, and yes, you're all going to die horrible, bloody, painful deaths if you stay here.
Doesn't that make you all feel warm and cozy inside? Now, here's the good news: A.G. and I have been assigned to
lead you to safety. MHHQ, to be exact. So, everyone stay calm...stay together...stay in sight of Hack and I...and let's
be on our way."
With those words, the tide of now homeless people slowly surged forward after their guides, leaving their lives
behind, riding on the faint hope that someday, things would be back to normal. Fat chance.
Now Celeste was hopelessly lost in the slow moving sludge of nervous evacuees. Josh and Tess were nowhere to be
seen, but Celeste had no choice but to go with the flow, so to speak.
Seconds dripped into minutes, and minutes seemed to drag on into hours. With all those strangers huddled around
her, blocking out the sky ("Damn, I HATE being short!"), time lost all meaning. However, after an infinite span of
time that consisted of nothing but keeping up an unwavering trot, Celeste dully noticed that the evacuees around her
seemed to be marching slower and slower, then finally grinding to a complete stop.
"What's goin' on?" She muttered sleepily to herself, her lack of slumber beginning to take its toll. Of course, most
of the humans were far too tied up in their own affairs and worries to pay much mind to her. However, Celeste DID
snag a few threads of conversation that was running through the restless crowd...something about 'lost', and
'Maverick occupied territory'. Even in her muddled state, Celeste could piece together some of what was
happening. As she did, a fearful emotion sent a shudder down her spine.
The refugees had been led into Maverick occupied territory.
Panicked, Celeste managed to claw her way up near the front of the tide, where she spied the two 'guides', A.G. and
Hack, holding a feverish conference between themselves.
"I TOLD you we took a wrong turn!" Celeste could hear A.G. hiss ferociously.
Hack looked downcast. "I guess I made a small mistake."
"SMALL!? Hack, this territory is occupied by Mavericks. If a batch of them just happen to see us here with a large
group of humans, what do you think they'd do? Invite us for tea and chit chat? I REALLY don't think so. And why
are we just standing here, arguing? Let's get the hell out of here! Get the herd moving again."
Hack obediently cleared his throat. "Ladies and Gentlemen, boys and girls..."
"...and werewolves of all ages!" A raspy voice suddenly sang from the cloaking shadows.
Every single refugee jumped simultaneously.
"Heee! That was funny," came an invisible, insane giggle that was just to the left of the last hail. "all of you jumping
at once like that. Do it again!"
"Tea and chit chat?" Another rough voice hurled from the darkness. "Sounds smashing! I say, how about that local
sports team? Do they suck or what?"
"I thought I detected the stench of humans coming from this direction," came a low growl/purr, "and it seems that I
wasn't mistaken after all. How does one greet a multitude of guests...? I guess we can start with introductions."
With those last words, an aqua green reploid werewolf drew itself out of the dancing alley shadows that circled the
terror - stricken humans like vicious, shapeless beasts. "I'm J.T."
A beige werewolf was the next to emerge from behind the refugees. "Howdy. Duskclaw here."
An ebony werewolf seemed to appear out of nowhere in front of the refugees. A towering nightmare of razor claws
and teeth whose forbidding bulk struck every human dumb with fear. "Maugrim at your service."
Finally, a slightly less formidable, dark blue reploid werewolf revealed itself. "And I'm Sabre, yup, that's right.
You'll notice that we have you surrounded, so it's in all your best interests to stay calm and tell us why two Hunters
are doing something as stupid as leading a pack of humans through Maverick occupied territory."
A.G and Hack, being the brilliant rocket scientists that they were, raised their arm cannons and aimed them at
Sabre. Chuckling, the lupine reploid simply bounded into the air and brought his bulk crashing down on poor, solid
Hack, who was promptly torn up by merciless metal claws. Before A.G. could even react, his fate was sealed by
Duskclaw's slashing teeth.
Of course, viewing this slaughter did little to boost the humans' morale and keep them calm. Panic rang through the
crowd like a raging virus, and Celeste, caught in her worst nightmare, was nearly trampled. Her mind screamed at
her to do something...anything! Propelled by a deadly mixture of fear and rage, she threw herself at Sabre and
bombarded the werewolf with a hail of punches, not stopping until at last fatigue forced her to fall back, panting. She
finally allowed herself to look up at the face of her victim to see what damage she had caused with her attack. To her
horror, Sabre was staring right back down at her, amusement twisted on his lupine face.
"Are you QUITE finished?" The Maverick rumbled.
Speechless, Celeste could do nothing but stare right back, silently.
In one fluid movement, like a hen picking up a worm, Celeste was scooped up into one of the wolf's brawny arms.
Crying out, Celeste pumped her legs uselessly. Sabre laughed in response to his prisoner's struggles.
"A human female. I'm sure we could find LOTS of uses for one of these....OW!"
Yelping, Sabre released his clutch on Celeste to nurse the arm that she had just sunk her teeth into. Celeste landed
on the ground with a jarring crash. Before she could make her escape by slipping into the panic-stirred crowd, she
heard a dull explosion prior to feeling a red line of pain sear through her left arm. Celeste screamed, more from
shock than pain. She could hear Sabre's demonic chuckle muffled by her own cries, and she knew exactly what had
happened. Sabre had shot her in the arm. The warmth flowing down her wounded arm accompanied by the coppery
smell of blood confirmed this.
A strange brew of confusion, shock and rage reigned in Celeste's mind. A ferocious adrenaline surge gave her the
false assumption that she had enough energy to get to her feet and run; but the amount of blood she had lost was the
reality. Celeste was forced to collapse again. No one came to her aid. Behind her, Sabre was still giggling.
"Boy, you look pretty screwed up right now, my dear! I can't believe you tried to tackle me. Typical human thought
process at work here. No matter...well, this is good night for you, then!"
It was the end all right, but not for Celeste, oddly enough. As soon as Sabre had finished gloating over his prey, he
was reduced to a bountiful shower of debris by a single well aimed plasma shot.
"Here I come to save the daaaaay...!"
"YEAH! Woo hoo! ONE shot and he's down! I was meant for this stuff. I'm the KING! THE KING I TELL YOU!
Red, tell me...WHO'S THE KING??"
"You of course, lambchop!" Red declared faithfully as she dropped to a perfect landing beside the exuberant Zero.
"Hey, lookit! The other wolves are running!"
In response to this, Zero tried to give chase, slicing through the cooling crowd like a knife through butter. He came
to a stop beside where Celeste was curled up. In one smooth motion, he stooped down and grabbed of Sabre's
shattered arms, which he chucked into the shadows after the other three rapidly darting wolves.
"Hey! Maugrim! YOU SUCK!" He spat.
"Isn't Maugrim a sweetie?" Red grinned, taking a spot next to Zero.
"I'll say. Hey, where did X go? I swear, I'm going to spike a metal bar through his head one of these days."
"Hmmm..." Red mused, "I think I saw him just a second ago. He's trying to calm down the crowd."
"Good. Keep him out of our hair. Whoops, what have we here...?" Zero cast his eyes down at the shaking, sobbing
human a short distance away from him. He took a step closer and dropped down to the human's level.
"It's her arm." Red remarked from behind. "Take a look."
Zero did as Red suggested, and he was sorry he did. A slick river of blood cascaded down the girl's arm, visible
even in the unreliable light. That 'feeling' tore through Zero's mind again, the unknown sweet crescendo of emotions
that was sometimes triggered by the sight of blood.
Silently, Red watched Zero fight an interesting inner struggle. Although she was quite scatterbrained at times, Red
was very far from stupid. Watching Zero's reaction to the blood, she decided that these emotions bore study, but
now was not the time. She poked Zero with her lance to haul him out of his dreamworld.
Getting shot in the arm could sometimes do things that fuddle up your mind, Celeste found out. In any case, she was
in quite a state. A red pain misted her eyes and clouded her judgment. When she noticed the equally red reploid
crouched beside her, she automatically took a wild swing at him with her good arm, missing by about a mile or so.
The reploid laughed a little, put a heavy hand on her hot forehead and gently told her to calm down. Celeste did
more than calm down: she lost consciousness.
"Well, she's out of it." Red observed. "Probably for the best: with the way she was thrashing about, she was losing
too much blood. Did you catch her name or anything?"
Zero shook his head. "Nup."
"She looks familiar." Red mused. "Well, no matter. We'll have to do something about her arm. I think Genesis can
probably patch it up pretty good. Let's take her to him. I guess the rest of the folks will be coming with us to the
refugee camps as well. Whee! A parade!" Red jumped up and down. "Ha ha, hee hee, clap my paws, squeal with
glee. I'm so excited I could just barf. Let's mosey."
"Sigma! Sir! Wait up, please!"
Rolling his eyes, Sigma stopped on a dime and swerved 180
degrees to
face Skysheen who was pounding down the empty hallway in an attempt to
catch up to the Spartan. "What is it, Lord Th'ckpa'sskyleth?"
Skysheen halted and saluted. "Requesting permission to talk
to you."
"Can you talk and walk at the same time?"
"Uh...I think so."
"Then you may accompany me as I walk back to my office." Sigma
resumed his march with Sky in tow. "What can I do for you?"
"Have you been made aware of the brave deeds of that member of
the
Medical Unit, Zero?"
"The one who forsook his duties to carry out orders that he
was not
given? Indeed I have. I'm going to see that he gets what he
deserves. Your sister, Lady Dra'conia'mat, was also reported to have
been going against orders." There was an edge to Sigma's voice with
these last words.
Skysheen blanched a bit. "Sir, that's what I wanted to talk
to you
about. I wanted to ask you to pardon them for their disobedience.
Zero and Red may have disobeyed, but they saved a lot of lives in the
process. Those refugees would have been killed if they had not've
shown up."
Sigma gave a neutral grunt. Skysheen wasn't sure if the
leader was
even listening to his pleas. Shakily, he drew a breath and prepared
for the kill. "Sir...I'd like your permission to promote Zero to the
Regal Dragons. Red told me that he's quite an awesome fighter, and we
need as many of those as we can get at this point. I will take
responsibility for any negative actions that may result from my desire."
Skysheen mentally braced himself for a bombardment of insults
and
nasty comments which were characteristic of Siggy. To his
astonishment, they never came. Rather, Sigma merely checked his watch
and mumbled, "Yeah, sure...do what you want...sounds good, party 'till
you barf, that's what I always say. Zero can be promoted, and Lady
Draco will be pardoned. Now if you'll excuse me..." Sigma turned the
handle to his office door, stepped in...and stopped short in utter
shock. Skysheen nearly crashed into his superior.
"What in GOD'S name...?" Sigma sputtered, scanning the room
with
disbelieving eyes. His office, normally reputed for its meticulously
orderly state, was overrun with hordes of toddlers armed with blocks,
books, and other assorted toys.
"What the hell is going on!?" He roared. "This is my OFFICE,
not a
bloody DAYCARE!"
A colourful block printed with a picture of an 'H' and a horse
flew
out of the crowd and smacked Sigma right between the eyes. Skysheen
wisely surpressed a wild urge to laugh. Scattered giggles rose from
the sea of children.
Skysheen cleared his throat. "Sir, allow me to explain.
Because
it's raining outside, some of the parents in the refugee camps were
concerned that the shelters didn't provide enough protection against
dank drafts. Ergo, some of them sent their children into Hunter HQ to
prevent them from catching cold."
"That's insane! I couldn't care less if they caught ebola!"
Sigma
seethed, his words not exactly reflecting very well on his role as a
protector of humans. "Let them go play in the kitchen or the
bathrooms, or something!" Sigma turned to face the children before
him. "GET THE HELL OUT OF MY OFFICE, YOU EGG SUCKING, WEASEALLY
LITTLE BASTARDS!" He reached for a kid who promptly bit him, while
others clamped onto the Spartan's legs, begging for a story. In all
the ruckus, Skysheen wisely slipped away from the 'babysitter' to
announce the good news of Zero's promotion to him.
"She'll be fine. She's just going through post-anesthetic shock
right now," Genesis announced to the anxious ring of Hunters around
him as he tossed another warmed blanket onto the unconscious,
trembling human in the bed before him. "during the surgery, we put
some metal fragments into that arm of hers. She'll still have use of
it, but it might be a very long time before full strength is
restored." Genesis turned and frowned at the Hunters who still loomed
over his shoulder like vultures. "That was a hint, my friends.
You're invading my personal space. Get lost. She'll be fine. Pip?"
That last word summoned a small, spry blonde haired medic
reploid to
Genesis' side. "Yes sir, Mr. Genesis sir?"
"You mentioned that this girl's mother was outside of the
recovery
room? You can bring her in in about thirty minutes. For now, just
update her on what's going on."
"Rightyo, Mr. Genesis sir!" Pip tottered off to carry out his
orders.
"Red, Zero...you two can stay and keep an eye on this girl. I
have a
lot of work to do. Try to get her name and all that when she snaps
out of the anesthetic. The rest of you are just taking up space by
hanging around here. Go play out in traffic or something."
Zero felt a tug on his ponytail. Startled, he turned around and
dropped his eyes to Pip, who had issued the physical summon. "Mr.
Zero sir?" The small robot voiced.
"Yes Pip, what is it?"
"Lord Skysheen is outside...he wishes to talk to you. It's
good news!"
"Okay then. Red, you stay with her."
"Sure thing, Sugarmuffinhoneybunny!!"
Slowly, Celeste ascended the dark staircase of unconsciousness.
Sleepily, she blinked her eyes and tried to draw in her surroundings
through her drugged mind. Not surprisingly, she was in a medical ward
of some sort. What WAS surprising was the large, female reploid
dragon sitting closeby with a comic book clutched in her claws,
chuckling softly to herself at regular intervals. One sharp - finned
ear twitched in Celeste's direction, and the dragon was suddenly
smiling at her. "Hello, dear. How are you feeling?"
Celeste's mind was too sluggish to even bother searcing for an
answer.
The dragon seemed to understand. "Here, I'll give you an easier
question; can you tell me your name?"
Celeste accepted that. "Celeste," she drawled. Then, almost
as an
afterthought she added, "McTreggor."
The draco froze. "McTreggor?" She breathed. "Do you happen
to be
Jake McTreggor's daughter?"
Celeste only blinked listlessly. The dragon shrugged. "We'll
talk
about it when you're more up to it. I'm Red Draco, by the way. You
just came out of surgery. You'll be fine. We managed to save your
arm."
For the first time since awakening, Celeste remembered the arm
that
Sabre had nearly blown clear off. She found it in its usual spot,
swathed tightly in adhesive bandages. The injured arm throbbed dully,
but other than that, Celeste didn't really notice any pain. What she
DID notice, however...
"Uh...Red...?"
"Yes?"
"Where did my clothes go...? Can I have them back?"
Red laughed. "Sorry 'bout that. You see, you go into surgery
with
nothing on. Something about sterilization and germs. But now that
you're out, I think we can fit you into something." Red snatched a
blue cotton robe from a hook beside her and helped Celeste into it.
"Watch your arm, dear...oh, and stop acting so embarrassed! We're all
girls!"
The next time Celeste snapped into life, she was much more
aware of
where she was and what was going on. She had obviously been moved
from the recovery room at some point into a more comforting semi -
private hospital room that didn't have such a stale air of urgency
hanging in it. "It's much more...homelike," Celeste decided...until
she noticed the crimson reploid sitting beside her.
The reploid was having a doze, his head cradled in his arms,
which
were laid on Celeste's bed. In the dim light, Celeste spied the
reptilian escorts of the Regal Dragons Unit badge newly soldered on
the reploid's shoulder. A gold ponytail of impressive length spilled
out from behind his gilded helmet. He awoke with a start when he
detected Celeste's movement. "Hey Celeste," he mumbled quietly with a
sleepy smile. "Are you all right? Can I get you anything?"
"I think I'm fine."
"That's good. So, you tackled a Maverick, huh? I can see
that you
have the 'never give up and never think things out logically' spirit
that your father had. You'd better be more careful."
Celeste paused. "You knew my dad?"
"No, but I heard about him. Jake, right? He was a Spartan."
"Yes. He went after Torrent Leviathan by himself, and I guess
you
could say he payed for it. I see where you're getting at."
Zero decided it would be best to change the subject. "I'm
Zero, by
the way."
Celeste wasn't really listening, but she was trembling slightly.
"Celeste, what's wrong?"
There were a lot of things wrong. Mostly, Celeste was lonely
and
scared. She had seen her mother a while back, but she had only been
able to stay for a little while before she had been politely hearded
out of the recovery room and back into the refugee camp.
"Nothing...my arm just hurts," Celeste made excuse.
Zero was already up and preparing a syringe of something.
"Well, I
can fix that!" He returned and eased a small needle into Celeste's
arm. "There you go. That should help. It'll also make you drowsy,
so if you feel sleepy, don't fight it."
Celeste sank back into her pillow wearily. All at once,
everything
caught up with her, causing tears to sting her eyes. She gave up and
began to sob. Zero regarded her with mild surprise. "There now," he
soothed, pushing back Celeste's bangs from her eyes. "You're going to
be fine. Just go to sleep."
Obediently, Celeste turned over, still shaking. Zero watched
her
until he was sure she had fallen asleep. Once he had confirmed it, he
extracted a small pencil and notebook. It had been such a memorable
day, Zero decided, that he wanted to record it. Start a journal, in
fact. "Who knows," Zero pondered mentally, "someday in the future,
someone might actually want to read this. Or use it for firestarter."
Zero shrugged, and the pencil began to scratch onto the notebook
paper, leaving a trail of words that recorded the day's events:
April 12 / 21XX
"Today marked an amazing turn of events for me. As a reward for
saving those refugees, Skysheen made me a member of the Regal Dragons!
Woo hoo! Now things'll get underway in earnest.
"I've been thinking a lot about how things have turned out.
At first
I thought that I wanted to rescue those refugees just for the sake of
a fight, but the more I think about it, the more I realize that I
actually WANTED to save them. Besides that, I also wanted to watch
over Celeste. Yick, I hope I'm not growing respect for humans. That
would go against my purpose in life.
"But anyway, to happier stuff! As soon as Skysheen made me a
member
of the Regal Dragons, he took me on a tour of the RD branch of MHHQ.
Quite interesting. I was assigned a computer lab along with some
other Unit members, where we were supposed to log in the number of
Maverick kills we had made that week. Instead, we downloaded the
'Barbie Girl' song from the ancient 'Aqua' website, printed out the
lyrics, and had a singalong before I came back down to keep and eye on
Celeste. Am I a hard worker or what?"
Zero closed the journal and yawned. Prior to exiting the
Medical
Unit, he threw one last concerned glance at Celeste to make sure she
was sleeping all right. With that confirmed, he went on his way.
Zero whistled cheerfully to himself as he tromped down the familiar
hallway leading to the Medical Unit. As he walked, he tossed his old
MU badge up and down carelessly like a kid with a new baseball. He
had torn the medallion right off as soon as he had gotten his fresh
Regal Dragons badge. Zero sauntered wordlessly into the stuffy room.
The stale, alcohol-tinged air reminded him of his old position, and,
frankly, he didn't want to recall it. Genesis was in the room, as
Zero had hoped. The reploid fox frowned at his old employee. Smiling
innocently at his grumpy boss, Zero threw down his tattered MU badge
on the table between them, gave Genesis the one - finger salute, and
waltzed out of the room, kicking his heels as he departed.
On the other side of MHHQ, Celeste wandered aimlessly down the
hallways, so deep in thought that she hardly noticed the heavy weight
of her bandaged arm in its sling. Her thoughts turned over painfully
again and again, troubling her with every movement they made. Did she
really want to go through with her plan? Did she want to be a
Hunter...?
Eventually, quite by accident, she ran full force into Skysheen,
nearly getting tangled in his leathery wings like an unwary fish in a
net. The huge Mechadrake laughed and helped her out.
"Hey there Cel. Whatchya doin' all the way over here. You should be
resting until that arm's fully healed."
Celeste shrugged. "Needed to get out and think." She hesitated.
"Look, Skysheen...I need advice. Can you help me with something?"
"Uh, well, I guess. I'm no Ann Landers, though. Er, are you
pregnant or something?"
"No!!"
"Good! Just making sure! What's on your mind?"
"It's about my future." Celeste said. "I was thinking of maybe
finding a position somewhere with the Hunters, once my arm was
healed." She looked up hopefully at the draco. "Is there any job
open that I could fill?"
Skysheen mused. "Well, we're in need of a table dancer for the HQ's
pub..."
"EXCUSE me?"
"Ha ha! I'm only kidding. I'm not very funny, am I? Well, we're
always in need of good fighters. And if you're anything like your dad
was, you'd be a very valuable addition. Of course, the question is
DID you inherit anything from him, or is this whole 'heredity' thing
amoung you humans a crock?"
Celeste was rendered somewhat speechless.
"Here's what I say." Skysheen continued. "When's that cast of yours
coming off?"
"Genesis said about one more week."
"Good, good. How about this: as soon as you're up to it, I'll take
you to the training room. We'll try you out, and you can see what
it's all about, and we'll go from there. Does that sound kosher?
Celeste agreed that it was quite kosher.
That night, bored and restless, Zero made another journal entry:
May 16th , 21XX
I found out something interesting today. Cain often uses real,
specially trained dogs to track down Mavericks. I thought that was
pretty nifty. There's about 50 purebred malamutes in a kennel located
near the refugee camps. His real prize is a female named Jessi. Cain
assigned two maintenance reploids named Terrence and Phillip to tend
to the dogs. If you ask me, that's as big a mistake as it was sending
A.G. and Hack to rescue those humans. Well, it's not my lookout!
Little Pip wrung his hands nervously as his head snapped back and
forth to take in the stressful problem before him. To his right stood
Sigma, silent with a very dark expression hung on his face. Across
from Siggy stood another Hunter, a human male. The human stared right
back at Sigma, just as hard. His feet were steadfastly nailed to the
ground and his arms were crossed over his brawny chest. Pip had been
around humans long enough to know that they communicated an awful lot
with body language, and as near as he could tell, there was a great
chance of a nasty fight erupting between the Spartan and the human.
The last thing Genesis would want, Pip knew, is for a brawl to blossom
in the Medical Unit.
"Mr. Sigma sir," Pip's heard his voice crack. "please, whatever it
comes to, don't fight here! In fact, don't fight at all."
Sigma whacked poor Pip upside the head for his pains. "I am NOT
leaving," he announced boomingly following his assault, "until this
human apologizes for his inconsiderate remark regarding my leadership
skills."
The human's face split into a humourless grin. "Face it, Sigma. The
Mavericks have become more and more powerful and you seem to be losing
a lot of men lately."
Luckily for the human, Sigma did not have time to respond before
Genesis appeared. Pip nearly collapsed like water and thanked his
lucky stars that his boss had appeared at the right time.
Genesis looked as cranky as ever. "What seems to be the dilly - hoo
- ha here?"
Sigma looked ready to kill. "This human has insulted my efforts, my
morals, my values!" He half roared.
"Wowie Zowie, Batman." Genesis snorted disdainfully. "I think I
just came. Pip, please direct Sigma, along with his values and
morals, towards the door. And you," Genesis tossed his head towards
the battle ready human, "will come with me."
Sigma's mouth unhinged with shock. "You can't speak to me like that,
Genesis!"
"Oh, can't I?"
Pip diligently ushered Sigma towards the door as he had been ordered
to do. Prior to exiting, he heard the human shout jeeringly: "Be
seeing you, O great leader! Whether or not in one piece remains to be
seen!"
"Your mother was a drunken trollop!" Sigma barely had time to spit
out before Pip gave him a final push out the door.
Outside in the nearly empty hallway, Sigma was left alone to his
slowly twisting thoughts. Sigma was deteriorating, and he knew it
although he revealed nothing of this sort to the world. He constantly
had his cold, stern mask on, no matter what mood he was in. But
lately, he found that beneath his mask, he was twisting and warping
like a bug infested piece of wood. Some kind of terrible hate towards
something was transforming him. But WHAT the hatred was directed
towards, the Spartan couldn't quite put a finger on at first. When
he had first become aware of it, the black emotion had been deeply
rooted, but it was still only a seedling. Over time, the dark plant
had flourished inside him, and the more it bloomed, the clearer the
image of what he hated came into view. Finally, a few weeks after the
animosity had been conceived, his mind presented the mysterious object
of his hatred as clear as a trumpet fanfare.
Sigma, leader of the Hunters, hated humans.
The argument in the Medical Unit had confirmed this warped
assumption. He suddenly realized that humans were the rival species
of reploids.
"Humans and reploids can't coexist on the same planet," Siggy thought
haughtily as he strode down the hallway to his office, "and if I feel
this way, surely other Hunters lean towards my argument, too. If I
were to very slowly and carefully - and I mean carefully - bestow
anti human propaganda on those reploids, they might just eventually
turn from Hunter to Maverick. And, if at the right time, I were to
emerge as their new leader..."
The raven thoughts beat in Sigma's head as he cracked a malicious
smile. "The beginning of the end of the humans' reign upon earth," he
thought, "and such a plan! As Iago would word it, 'Hell and night
must bring this monstrous birth into the world's light.'"
Suddenly, Sigma's left leg started to drag a little, surfacing him
from his mental strutting. Puzzled, he looked down and saw a small
human child clinging to it. The child's eyes shone blue with
admiration for Sigma. Completely disgusted, Sigma kicked the kid off
and chased it down the hall for a bit.
"Whoops! Sorry, Celeste. I think I punched you a bit too hard
there. I thought you would block it."
Collapsed on the Training Room floor, Celeste could feel her eyes
bugging as she panted desperately for breath. "It's okay, Skysheen."
She finally managed to rasp in a small voice. "I didn't need that
left kidney anyway."
"Skysheen plays too rough!" Red sang from the rafters of the
gargantuan gym that held a smattering of reploids and humans
vigorously training within it.
Skysheen frowned at his sister. "Red, for the fifteenth time, get
down from there, or I'm going to tell Cain that you've been goofing
off the entire day."
"Oh gee, there's a threat that scares me." Red snorted playfully. "I
hate to tell you this, Skysheen dear, but I've been 'goofing off'
since we left Mechadrake Assemblies Inc. Besides, when I went to Cain
earlier this morning to talk to him about some new Hunting strategies,
he smelled of cheap scotch and started telling me scary stories about
his ex wife."
Skysheen paid no attention to his sibling's prattling. He turned his
attention back to Celeste. "Okay, Celeste, next step in our first
training session. How good is your aim with a lightweight laser
rifle? It's the weapon of choice amoung a lot of human Hunters."
"I don't know. I've never tried one." Celeste admitted meekly.
"Well, now's a good time to start." Skysheen presented an oily black
pistol about a metre long from a holster on his hip, and handed it to
Celeste. Celeste accepted the weapon with proper awe....and nearly
let it clatter on the floor.
"Hold it up!" Skysheen hissed almost sharply.
"I can't lift it!"
"What do you mean?"
"My left arm just gives out under its weight," Celeste voiced, trying
her best to stay calm.
"Oooooh Mother...." Skysheen breathed, suddenly remembering what
Genesis had said to him about Celeste probably never having full use
of her left arm again. "She's partially crippled."
Zero silently watched his friends from a secluded corner of the gym.
They did not notice him; he was an expert at hiding in sparse patches
of shadow. Zero forced his attention to focus on Skysheen's shabby
method of training Celeste. He tried hard, very hard indeed, not to
focus on Celeste herself. Time and time again he had to tear his gaze
away from her gentle brown hair, her smile, her....
"Stop it," he thought viciously to himself, "I'm not in love. No,
not with a human. Anything but a human...."
"Hi!"
Zero nearly jumped out of his skin. When he recovered, there was X
smiling politely at him. "What do YOU want?" The Hunter seethed.
"I....just wanted to talk to you." X nervously seated himself beside
Zero. "Uh, listen, I'll put this bluntly. I've been a prick to you.
I only admitted it to myself recently that you have a lot of my
respect. You're an excellent fighter, really, and I've started to
realize that a little fighting HAS to be done to protect the humans.
I've accepted it." X stuck out a shaky hand towards Zero. "Friends?"
A glimmer of warm light dawned in Zero and surfaced as a smile.
Something told him that he had started on the road to a long lasting
friendship. It would prove to be a very bumpy road at times, but it
would always be a secure and steady one. "Sure. Friends."
The two lapsed into a comfortable silence. Zero started to watch
Celeste's training again.
"You love her, don't you?" X then asked out of the clear blue.
Shock and fear lanced through Zero. "What? Who? What do you mean?"
He asked too sharply.
"Celeste. You love her."
"What...what gives you that idea?" Zero stumbled lamely.
"Well, your pupils dilate every time you look at her body."
"Reploids don't need love." Zero half snarled, but his insides were
knotted with fear. Was it that obvious? That wasn't good. He was
supposed to be killing humans. His creator had told him so. Bass had
told him so. And Bass wouldn't lie.
Would he?
"Celeste." Zero heard himself call out.
Surprised, Celeste whipped around to the direction of the hail.
"Sweet Sugar Candyman!" Red singsonged automatically towards Zero
from above.
Zero quickly threw his gaze to the ground where Celeste had dropped
the laser rifle so that he wouldn't have to think about how blue the
human's eyes were. "Your arm will never be strong enough again to
wield the rifle, Celeste. Here." Zero unsheathed his precious
lightsabre from his back and tossed the cylindrical handle towards
her. Celeste caught it as gracefully as a cat. As Zero had assumed,
she had excellent reflexes burrowed away in her small form.
The Crimson Hunter produced a cheaper, clumsier sabre and ignited its
blade. "A lightsabre isn't a two handed weapon like the rifle." Zero
explained in a monotone voice. "You shouldn't have any problems with
it, especially since I'm going to be training you from now on. But
first..."
Zero fell silent as he raised the pulsating blade of his own sabre in
line between his eyes, a traditional gesture of respect and challenge
amoung the Hunters. "This is where heredity proves its worth, Cel.
Let's see what you can do with just your instincts."
"Dad!"
The word lept from Paul's mouth as neatly and strongly as water
gliding off a cliff. He was a small, helpless child again, watching
his father's limp form being hauled away like a bulky sac of potatoes
by a jet black robot with war-scars on its face. The robot shot Paul
an almost sorrowful glance just before being swept away -- with its
newly-aquired baggage -- by a translucent beam of light. In one gulp
of air, Paul screamed for his father in a boyish cry. The scream rang
on and on, becoming deeper and deeper until it became the desolate
wail of a tormented adult. It still continued to pour forth as Paul
was violently jerked out of his nightmare. His eyes flew open and his
mouth clamped shut at the same time.
It was morning. Slabs of cheery sunlight cuddled up next to
Paul in
his dreary hospital bed. It wasn't the first time he'd had that
dream, and chances were it wouldn't be the last.
Paul was getting ready to try to go back to sleep when Genesis
bustled into the Night Viper's private room, chattering a string of
nonsense without bothering to stop for air.
"Morning, Paul! How're you feeling? That's nice. Time to
get ready
to go."
Paul blinked while trying to register everything that had been
blustered to him. "Go?" He finally managed.
Genesis nodded. "That's right. I think you're well enough to
be
discharged from the infirmary."
"How do you know...?"
Genesis flashed a sharp toothed grin. "Nothing personal, but
the
sight of your face is starting to piss me off. That's how I always
tell if a patient is ready to go or not."
"Ah, the wonders of Medical Science," Paul muttered.
Zero slammed back the doors of the computer Mainframe room
with no
mercy. Sure enough Red was there, her serpentine head inclined just
slightly, bathed in the muted green glow of the surrounding computer
screens. She was obviously preoccupied as she did not flinch at the
ringing crash of the metal gates being flung open. Unbidden, Zero
jumped and slid on the flawless floor and came to a halt just behind
the Mechadrake.
"Ladies and gentlemen," he announced in a sober yet playful
voice,
"let's put our paws together for Zero, the world's best Hunter and
everyone's favourite sex god!"
The last thing Zero remembered seeing was a horrific slashing of
dagger teeth and talons while being englufed by a whirlwind that was
spawned of the frantic beating of leathery wings. The next moment, he
was lying on his back, completely stunned. A worried looking Red
Draco (a whole spinning roomfull of them, actually) towered above him,
frantically waving a clawed paw a few feet from his bruised face.
"Holy Mother Tiamat! Zero! I didn't know it was you,
buttercup!
I'm REALLY sorry! Oh jeez...what have I done?"
As soon as there was only one Red in the room, Zero opened his
mouth
to speak and immediately choked on a mouthful of slick, coppery fluid.
He coughed and some of it flecked his lips. Blood. No surprises
there. "Did...did I do something wrong?" The Hunter finally managed
to rasp around the blockage in his throat. "I'll bring roses next
time...I swear..." Zero started to try to sit up, but the effort made
him light headed. He would have collapsed again if Red had not been
there to support him.
"Take it slow." She advised, still upset. "Sorry about that.
You
startled me, and attacking you was a reflex action."
"That's some reflexes."
A mysteriously wicked grin surfaced on Red's face. "We
Mechadrakes
are just full of surprises. See, I pounced on you because I was
protecting my lunch..."
"Lunch?" Zero shook his head in an attempt to silence the bells
chiming within it.
Wordlessly, Red brought her left paw level with Zero's bloodshot
eyes. A tiny bundle of brown and offwhite fur squirmed uncomfortably
in the clammy nest of gleaming claws and crimson scales.
The bells in Zero's head stopped chiming immediately. "It's a
kitten...."
"Yep."
"Red, you sicko! You were gonna devour a helpless little
KITTEN?"
"I've got a taste for young meat! What do you want from me?"
Zero's strength returned to him in one magnificent surge of
energy as
he scrambled to his feet. Although his emotions and attitudes had
been undergoing vast changes over the past months, chances were good
that he'd still grant a human a slow and painful death if Bass had
been there to order him to do so. But never in his lifetime would he
stand by and allow that trembling puff ball to be led by Red's hand
into her cavernous chomper.
"How in the world did you get a kitten, Red?"
"It just wandered in here like it owned the place. That says
a lot
for MHHQ's security, doesn't it? I think it came from the refugee
camps. Now can't I just snack in peace?"
"Sorry Red, that's a no no." Zero said firmly. "Give the
kitten
here."
Red pouted, but she obeyed.
The kitten snuggled in Zero's hand and rumbled contentedly.
Zero
took advantage of its calm state to study it a bit closer. "It's a
six week old male," he concluded. "I'll ask around the refugee camps
to see if anyone lost him. But for now, I've gained a pet! I'm
naming him Matzah."
"Stupid name, but it sounds tasty," Red sulked as she
wistfully eyed
the feline.
Zero cautiously put the snoozing Matzah up on his shoulder. The
kitten gave a soft 'mew' of confusion prior to finding his footing.
"Now that I've done my good deed for the day," Zero said, "I
wanted
to talk to you about placing Celeste in the Regal Dragons. I've only
been working with her for a few days, but I can already see that she's
going to be incredible!"
"Sounds tasty," Red repeated, her eyes still nailed to the
kitten on
Zero's shoulder.
Zero kicked Red in the shins. That brought her out of her
trance,
all right.
"Okay!" She snorted. "I'm over the kitten. And from what
I've seen
of her abilities, Celeste looks like she can live up to her dad's
name. Bring her to my office this afternoon and we can sign her up if
she accepts."
"Sounds tasty," Zero smiled in his turn. Red nailed him over
the head.
Not surprisingly, Red's office was an untidy but cheerful nest
of old
papers, reports, and general clutter. The windows were all thrown
open to allow the room to swallow the pleasantly warm May air wafting
softly from the outdoors. What was most noticible about the office
was the fact that large posters of old twentieth century movies were
framed haphazardly on the walls. Celeste found her nervous gaze
returning to them again and again as Red fired off one application
question after another. In between the hasty inquries, Red would
mutter incoherently to herself as she scribbled down Celeste's
answers. Knowing the erratic Mechadrake, the mumbles could have been
anything from little remarks about Celeste to lewd lyrics from some
raunchy new CD. It was impossible to tell.
"Okay, last question!" Red began just before one of the movie
posters behind her -- the one featuring a popular romance called
The Titanic to be exact -- tore itself from the wall with the
wind's assistance and rushed to meet its doom on the office floor with
a loud, shattering report. The reploid, the human, and the Mechadrake
all jumped as one. For half an instant, Zero's arm fell protecively
across Celeste's shoulders, but it was hastily removed without so much
as a glance from the crimson reploid. Red, in the meantime, was
roaring with laughter.
"Wup! Looks like the Titanic sunk again," she commented as
she went
through the motions of attempting to clean the sparkling shards of
glass scattered on the floor. Ultimately, however, she settled back
into her chair and grumbled something that sounded like "Piss on
it...DiCaprio sucked big in that movie. Anyway Celeste," she
continued in a louder voice, "we're almost done with ya! As I was
saying before, just one more question..."
Another interruption reared its annoying head. Red's phone rang
impatiently from across the room. Red snorted with disgust. A faint
streamer of smoke rose from one soot caked nostril, which was a
definate sign that she was fed up. Red only seemed to produce fire
and smoke when she was severely agitated. "Get that for me, would you
Zero? I'd like to finish this while I'm young."
Zero obediently headed across the room and picked up the
reciever.
"Psycic Friends Hotline."
"Lady Draco...?" It was Siggy on the other end. Whoops!
"Hello, sir!" Zero quickly recovered his respectful tone.
"No, this
is Zero. Red's busy with a new applicant to the Regal Dragons."
"Indeed?" Sigma drawled in his usual bored voice. "Who's
coming
aboard?"
"Celeste McTreggor."
"Hmmm...oh yes, that girl who was injured in the last refugee
evacuation. I remember her father. Well, once she's signed up, can
you bring her down to the training room? I've heard that you've been
training her. I'd like to see what she can do."
Zero's heart lept at these words. Would Celeste be able to
flaunt
her lightsabre skills in front of the Big Cheese as well as she had in
front of him? A disturbing vision of Celeste screwing up massive
before Sigma's critical eyes swam into Zero's mind. If she was
nervous, Celeste could fumble and easily chop her good arm off with
her sabre. Oh boy, THAT would be fun. Skysheen would go white, Red
would most likely die laughing, and Zero himself would probably turned
on by the blood, as usual. Nevertheless, he maintained an airy tone
while saying to Sigma, "I think it can be arranged, sir."
"Excellent! I'll see you there in an hour."
"Don't be nervous when you see him, dear!" Red advised softly
in
Celeste's ear on their way down to the training room. Zero and
Skysheen were in tow.
There was no need to worry about that: Celeste was already
scared
halfway out of her mind about meeting Sigma. Her right hand was
wrapped tightly around her new sabre, its hilt already streaked with
sweat. Her crippled left arm throbbed painfully under the stress the
rest of her body was undergoing. Her new bone white lightweight
titanium battle vest (soldered with the Regal Dragons Unit badge)
clanked ridiculously as her body was hit with tremors. She was
nervous all right.
The party walked into the vast chamber that was the training
room.
Sigma was not there.
"Guess we're early," Red huffed as a sweep of leathery wings
took her
to her favourite spot in the area: the rafters.
Skysheen's forked tounge flickered like red lightning over his
yellowed teeth. "I TOLD you that your watch was fast, Red, but
noooooo...."
Frowning, Red silently thrust her balled fists down at her irate
sibling and began making twisting motions with them. Skysheen flicked
his eyes up at his sister and then narrowed them suspiciously. "Red,
what in the name of Silvara are you doing?"
"I'm wishing cancer upon you, Skysheen."
"Cancer?"
"Yes. In the head."
Zero and Celeste giggled. Skysheen, however, was not amused.
"Why
don't you come down HERE and wish Head Cancer upon me?!" The blue
draco challenged. With one graceful creak of wings, he lept and
latched onto Red's forked tail with onyx talons. Red gave an ear
splitting screech as she was pulled from her post. Luckily, she
managed to untangle herself in mid air. Her face twisted in a
dangerous snarl, she locked onto Skysheen and raked her equally sharp
claws across his neck, ending up with a fistful of the blue
Mechadrake's mohawk. Skysheen's hand instantly shot up to his prized
mane, a look of horror spreading slowly across his face as he felt its
now marred surface. The horror was promptly exchanged for rage, and
Skysheen launched himself in a frenzy at his sister.
Celeste's jaw simply dropped as she watched the brother and
sister
duke it out. Surely the two would end up dismembering each other.
She had never seen such a ferocious battle between reploids. Zero
regarded her uneasiness and laughed.
"Don't worry," he assured her. "It's just a little sibling
squabble.
Happens all the time between these two."
"Looks more like the start of World War IV."
"Nah, neither of them will come close to getting hurt." Zero
paused
and frowned. "Although I think I should try to stop them before Sigma
comes. It wouldn't do to have him walk in and see the leaders of the
Regal Dragons like this." The Hunter dashed off towards the squalling
dust cloud situated across the mammoth room.
Celeste cocked her head slightly to one side as she watched Zero
depart. The Crimson Wonder had basically stuck by her like glue since
she had gotten shot last month. He was always making some reason to
be with her. If Celeste didn't know any better, she'd say that the
Hunter had a crush on her. Well, that was definately a compliment.
Sort of. Celeste had never had much success with the males of her own
species, yet she attracted a champion reploid. Go fig. Her mind
plunged deep to search for any emotions that she in turn might harbour
for him; it resurfaced with a simple answer.
"He's kinda cute," she muttered to herself.
"I thank you."
Celeste jumped and began to run like a bat out of hell. A
booming
laugh from behind stopped her. It was Sigma. Celeste sheepishly
walked back to him, turning five different shades of red the whole way.
"I never knew that humans were capable of such colour change,"
Sigma
rang out heartily. "I think Sting would envy you."
The Spartan's mood was unusually light. Celeste would never
have
guessed that diabolical thoughts were slowly turning the gears in his
cunning mind, preparing to hatch the plans for the liquidation of the
humans right at that moment...
"Where's Zero?" Sigma then asked.
Celeste listlessly pointed in the direction where Skysheen and
Red
were still tussleing. Zero ran alongside them, jumping up and down
like an idiot and waving his hands in a futile attempt to get the
drakes to calm down.
"The Mechadrake breed," Sigma snorted in a half - amused tone
as he
observed the unruly sight. "The Eighth Wonder of the World."
Celeste blinked. "Really?"
"Not really, but Mechadrakes ARE a puzzle," Sigma explained,
sounding
like a nature documentary. "They're basically bipedal reploid
dragons, but their structures, their thinking patterns, their battle
skills are far more advanced than any other breed of reploid. So
advanced, in fact, that it would be nearly impossible to build a
Mechadrake reploid outside of Mechadrake Assemblies Inc., and even
repairing one in our most advanced Medical Units is hell. Mechadrakes
are fiercely proud of their exclusive heritage..."
"Mechadrake Assemblies Inc.?" Celeste interrupted, then
suddenly
realized who she was talking to. "Sorry sir...didn't mean to
interject."
"Quite all right. To answer your question, Mechadrake
Assemblies Inc.
is a reploid plant that assembles Mechadrakes, as you could probably
tell by the name. The parent company is in Toronto, and a few smaller
branches are scattered throughout the rest of Canada. Mechadrakes
were ordered and shipped to a few Hunter Bases down here in the
States, and there was even talk of opening a US Mechadrake branch.
However, when the Border War occoured between the two countries, the
plans for the US factory were scrapped, and even the trickle of
Mechadrake warriors stopped. The planning of the US assembly plant
didn't resume when the peace treaty was finally signed, either:
Canadians still aren't all that friendly with us."
"So when did Sky and Red arrive?" Celeste inquired. "Why did
they
leave?"
Sigma shrugged. "They won't tell, and we can't make them do
so.
They talk as little about Mechadrake Assemblies Inc. as they
can...although Red never shuts up about how great Toronto is. She
misses it terribly from what I understand."
Celeste gave silent sympathy to Red; she knew the feeling of
having
to leave your home.
Sigma shot a glance and the musing human. Unbridled hate
bubbled
within him, but he didn't let the emotion scar the features of his
stony face. Today, with Celeste's help, step one of the human
holocaust would begin. Manipulating a human mind would prove to be fun.
"Well, Celeste!" Sigma rang again. "Why don't you show me
what you
can do? Zero says you're quite good. I should think so. That's a
Regal Dragons badge, isn't it? My my."
The room around Celeste lurched violently, and she felt as if
she
were going to throw up. Across from her, Zero had managed to break up
Skysheen and Red. Celeste noticed with a touch of amusement that Zero
had banished the mussed dragons to opposite corners of the room, where
they both sulked. Zero kept his eyes nailed to them like a stern
schoolteacher, shouting if one of them dared to make a move.
Sigma read her mind. "Don't bother calling Zero over here,
Celeste;
he's got his own issues to deal with."
"Okay," Celeste exhaled as she drew her lightsabre hilt.
Sigma sneered in disapproval. "A lightsabre? Oh no no no.
Those
things are so tacky. Why aren't you using a laser rifle?"
Celeste cast her eyes down at the polished wood floor. She
hadn't
even started, and already Sigma was finding fault. "They're too heavy
for me, sir. My left arm is partially crippled."
"Nonsense." The Spartan drew his own trim rifle and handed it
to the
Huntress. "Try this. It's one handed, very light, and extremely
powerful. You'll be able to handle it. Be careful, they're very
expensive; the HQ only has three of them that I know of."
As Celeste examined the high - tech weapon, Sigma glanced
again at
Skysheen and Red. "Your father was a great Hunter," he commented
out
of nowhere.
A spear of ice jabbed at Celeste's throat. She swallowed it.
"I
know sir."
"He died an honourable death."
"Thank you sir."
"Skysheen and Red weren't the only Mechadrakes to come down from
Toronto, you know. Torrent Leviathan is a Mechadrake, too."
The room had stopped lurching, but it now began to change
colour and
perspective as Celeste fixed her eyes on her scaly friends across the
room. "....he is?"
"Indeed," Sigma said in a grave tone. Inwardly, however, he
jumped
and cheered as he saw a sickly light glint in Celeste's eyes. "In
fact...." he continued, "I'm told that he looks something like
Skysheen does."
"Skysheen...?" Echoed Celeste dully. She was in a trance,
exactly
as Sigma had planned. He lowered his voice.
"Yes...blue scales, cunning eyes. Can you imagine what the
battle
between them must have been like?" Sigma was careful to say 'them'
rather than specifying Torrent Leviathan.
Celeste continued to stare stupidly at Skysheen across the
room. Her
active imagination recalled the image she had made up months ago of
her father fighting for his life in the filthy depths of some stagnant
sewer. She could see her dad's phenotype very well -- when he died,
he had still been fairly young and had not quite yet exited the
fleeting stage of wildflower beauty and spirit that all humans
experience early in their life. Torrent Leviathan was there, of
course: a nightmare of teeth and sea blue scales...blue like
Skysheen's....
All of a sudden, Celeste was amid them as Torrent was about to
pass
his gnarled, bloodstained claws across her father's exposed throat.
Feeling as if she were drowning in blue, Celeste raised the
lightweight rifle and fired an intense bolt of white energy towards
the threatening Mechadrake...
A terrible dragon's scream accompanied by the sickening smell of
burned leather, metal and scales jerked Celeste violently out of her
dream world and back into reality. She watched in disbelieving horror
as a sapphire form writhed in pain on the floor across the training
room. A cry of anguish lept from Red as she dashed towards her
stricken brother.
Celeste had shot Skysheen.
All of a sudden, things were in a tizzy. Half of the reploids
and
humans present in the room ran to aid Skysheen, while the others
dashed towards Celeste. From behind her, Sigma said nothing, but he
issued a quiet laugh. The huntress became dimly aware of someone
wrenching Sigma's rifle away from her while others grabbed her arms
and shouted garbled commands in her ears. Thankfully, they all
vanished as the ground rushed up to meet Celeste, bringing with it a
merciful, silent void.
A brilliant light exploded painfully before Celeste. Wincing, she
tried to turn away from it, but it
followed persistently. A commanding voice then reached her.
"Open them! Open your damn eyes!"
Celeste didn't dare to disobey. The light grew more intense
for a
second, but it was then
averted, much to her relief. Once the spots cleared a bit, she could
make out the form of Zero
frowning down at her, holding a flashlight. He looked like a
thundercloud. Celeste recalled what
had happened, and she began to cry in spite of herself.
Zero did not soften. "Turn off the waterworks, Celeste. I
want to
know what happened.
Sigma insists that you were aiming for another target and misfired.
Luckily for you, almost
everyone believes him. But I don't. With a shot that intense, you
had a purpose. Why did you
shoot Skysheen?"
Celeste gulped back a sob. "Is...is Skysheen...dead?"
Some of the harshness faded from Zero's face. He sighed.
"No. You
were lucky there,
too. He's seriously mangled, though. Genesis is still working on
him, and Red's throwing a fit.
I'm still not sure if she blames you, although I don't think she does.
You've been unconscious for
well over five hours. I'm sorry I got so mad at you, but I really
need to know what happened. No
one else needs to know."
A bit calmer, Celeste tried to settle into the hard hospital
bed.
She closed her eyes
again. "It wasn't an accident....not completely. Sigma was talking
to me about my dad when you
were trying to break up Red and Skysheen. His tone of voice sort of
lulled me...it was really
strange. I can't remember exactly what happened, but he kept on
saying how much Skysheen
looked like Torrent Leviathan...next thing I knew, I saw Torrent right
in front of me. It was so real.
I shot him, and it was Skysheen instead...." Celeste trailed off.
Zero frowned. He didn't like the sound of that. "You're
saying that
Sigma sort of
controlled your mind?"
Celeste's eyes flew open again. "That's exactly what it was
like. I
know it sounds stupid,
but..."
"No Celeste. I believe you. I never did like Sigma much...he
can be
very hypnotizing.
And I definitely don't like the smell of this. I'll have to
investigate further."
Relief crossed Celeste's face. "Thanks."
Zero smiled fondly and toyed with a lock of her hair. "Don't
you
worry. Just rest. As far
as I know, you're still in the Regal Dragons, but I would lay low for
a while until this whole mess
gets straightened out...."
The doors to the darkened room swung open. An irritated and
thoroughly exhausted
Genesis stepped through them. "I HATE MECHADRAKES!!" The reploid fox
bellowed, following
up with a kick to the wall beside him.
Zero turned his attention from Celeste and rolled his eyes.
"Now
what, Genesis?"
"It's Skysheen," Genesis seethed. "He'll make it, all
right...but
he's bitchin' and moanin'
all over the place because I can't restore his Mechadrake form. I
CAN'T repair a Mechadrake as
banged up as he was! It's impossible! I had to rebuild him a
humanoid form. It's a very nice
one, too! I saved his bloody life, but noooo, THAT'S NOT GOOD ENOUGH!
He wants his
WINGS back! He wants his TAIL back! He wants...oh, to hell's gates
with him. I left Pip to
reason with the thankless bugger. I'm going to go slit my wrists in
the bathroom now. See ya."
Genesis stormed off.
"I hate it."
Pip had nearly lost all hope. "Lord Skysheen, it's the best we
can...."
"I SAID I HATE it!" Skysheen roared as he glared venomously
at his
reflection in the
mirror. Staring back at him was a lean, handsome humanoid face,
devoid of its former draconian
majesty. Locks of greasy black hair with mild curls in them hung down
past his ears, almost
touching his shoulders. A firery red pair of eyes were fixed above a
slightly upturned nose. His
sails of leather were gone: he was groundbound. The only thing that
remained was his shoulder
mounted cannon and his newly polished violet armour.
"Gah! Human faces are so UGLY!"
Pip was slightly offended. "Well now, sir...they're not so
bad..."
"Get out, Pip. I want to be alone for a little while."
Pip gladly obliged, but before he left he placed something
hollow on
the table beside
Skysheen. "If you're truly self conscious of your current form," he
explained softly, "here is an
option." With that, Pip exited.
As much as Skysheen loathed his new form, he couldn't take his
eyes
off of it. He was
now a normal humanoid reploid. He thudded his head against the mirror
softly. "Why did you have
to miss that target, Celeste?" He murmured to the empty air. His
human-like hand groped and
drew Pip's 'option' towards him. He turned it over and over, studying
it. It was a visored mask
that promised to completely cover his new face, if he chose to use it.
"Bless you Pip," Skysheen muttered. "God knows you're
annoying, but
you're sensitive
and understanding. No one's going to see me like this." The world
darkened slightly Skysheen
slid the tinted headgear on. He glanced again at his reflection.
This time, he almost liked what he
saw.
Purple armour with blue slashed unevenly across his boots. A
shoulder mounted cannon.
Red eyes peering menacingly from the black depths of the mask. It all
matched. Only the badge
of the Regal Dragons seemed to outcrop and clash. Heaving a sigh, he
wandered off to look for
Red Draco. The first person he walked into was Pip who looked like a
frightened rabbit in the
presence of a hawk.
"My my, Lord Skysheen!" he managed. "Allow me to say that
you look
most....um...scary!"
"Thank you, Pip. But I don't think my old name fits me
anymore.
Call me...." Skysheen
paused. "Call me Vile. Does that sound like a name that'll turn
Mavericks into Jello?"
"It's very fitting, Mr. Vile sir." Pip agreed solemnly.
