Chapter One

Commander's Log - Zero Omega, 21 April 21XX, 0920 hours
It has been six months since I have been obligated to
record a log of any kind. The time of my recall to action
seems all too soon. My friend X and I defeated our
greatest enemy, the computer virus Sigma, nearly four
months ago. Since that time, several of my colleagues and
I have been on vacation leave, allowing some of the junior
officers to take the reins back at base and gain some
experience while we were gone.
The others returning from sabbatical are technical
engineer and advisor Chakra, top-notch pilot Skyler,
intermediary officers Hybric and Khizarr, mechanical
engineer Dragonness, and medical officer Lomae.
I have been informed, via the Maverick Hunters' neural
network, that the Hunters have accepted a number of new
recruits since the senior officers took their respective
leaves, increasing our numbers by a respectable margin. I
have arranged for a meeting with a few of the more
promising "newbies" later this afternoon, once I arrive
back at base. Shortly after that, I will be briefed on
any pressing bit of news that happened, by fault or fate,
to fall through the cracks of the Hunter Intranet by Dr.
Cain himself, then try to get to sleep early before I
formulate any kind of plan for tomorrow.
I have decided to take the train back to Hunter Base
this time. Granted, I possess the wherewithal to
transport myself directly from my vacationing spot
(shortly out of Kelley Harbor City, very good this time of
year) back to my home; however, for the purpose of
nostalgia (and the prolonging of my vacation), I sit in
car 7B of Velosity Train 930, entering my thoughts into
this journal record as I chew absentmindedly on a bit of
peanut that had gotten itself wedged between my teeth.
I was dressed in plain clothes; while I was on
vacation, I didn't want to have to be a Reploid, with my
clunky, heavy armor weighing me down. Instead, I had
asked Dr. Cain to create skin coverings for me, something
that would convince people I was nothing more than another
tourist. So I sit here now in a pair of tan slacks, a
solid black polo shirt, and a pair of sneakers, drawing a
pair of thin sunglasses down over my eyes. My long blonde
hair is drawn into a loose ponytail by a red band, tied in
the back.
Hmm...I think the girl in the seat across the aisle
from mine likes me. The young lady behind me, I can see
through the reflection in my sunglass lens, is craning her
neck trying to see what I'm typing. Well, I might as well
let her see...there's nothing here that concerns her.
She's scanned past the Maverick Hunters' logo at the top
of the log screen...and now she's reading my words. Hello
there, miss...are you reading to find anything in
particular?
Ha...I shared a moment of conversation with her after
she shrank back, somewhat embarrassed after realizing she
was reading my screen. She said that she wouldn't have
known me from any other person. "That's comforting," I
say. "I guess Reploids are beginning to blend in
easier."
She says, "You're a Reploid? I thought you were some
male model or something!" We share a good laugh over
that, and we discuss what happened just those few months
ago with Sigma.
"Are you ever afraid you'll die?" she asks. "Are
you afraid that nothing may lay beyond death for your
people?"
How many times have I asked myself that? Technically,
I don't suppose we Reploids are born with souls...and if
one is not born with a soul, how does one go about
obtaining one?
Well...we are created things, created by our human
friends to battle what is too strong for them alone. That
is our place in life, and I feel that perhaps that part of
our life is so great...perhaps we don't need a part in
whatever lies after it.
But I'm getting too far off my point...where was I? I
scan back upward to check. Ah yes, I was about to discuss
X, my true best friend.
I have not heard from him since my vacation began, and
all he offered me before I left was a quiet "See ya
'round, Zero," then he went dashing off back toward the
hangar, I believe... It's not like him to be so short with
anyone, especially me.
Before I left, we had been discussing the departure of
our girlfriend Iris and Roll, and whether we would lead
any kind of search to find them. (They had gone out into
the world to look for a scientist that could do his best
to destroy the Sigma virus and all its power.) What they
had set themselves out to do was honorable, but it was a
cause X and I both thought, at the time, to be something
of a tall order for just the two of them to accomplish.
They themselves had been slaves to the Maverick virus
immediately before, as I had been many years ago. X had
been possessed by the very entity of Sigma himself just a
week before they left, and Iris and I had managed to
exorcise him from X's body. We had all been dealt a cruel
blow by the virus: Iris and Roll's companion Enker had
been struck down, as well as Lujon, one of our more recent
recruits; Netrix and Gilley were both destroyed in an
attempt to escape from Sigma's secret outpost; our top
pilot, Argyle, was a Reploid who entered our ranks and was
later found to be housing a second strain of the Sigma
virus from the past. In fact, Sigma, at one time, was the
name of a top-ranking Maverick Hunter. Once he was
infected by the nameless Maverick virus, it adopted his
personality and his features, and he turned against his
Reploid brothers.
For so long, we, the Maverick Hunters have worked to
free the Reploid Sigma from the hell that he undergoes
every day; for whatever a Reploid has that constitutes the
closest essence of an earnest soul, Sigma has had stolen
away from him. His very name, face, and the virus's acts
of cruelty will all be displayed together in any history
book. In short, when the virus took away Sigma's "soul",
he doomed the Hunter's name to be scorned forever by
humans and Reploids who didn't know any better.
The Maverick virus instills in a Reploid the desire to
overthrow anyone or anything that gets in its way of
becoming the dominant race on Earth. The Sigma virus
convinces the Reploids it infects that they are superior
to their human creators, and to exterminate the humans
means to rule the world.
My friends and I of the Hunters have defeated the
virus's attempts at superiority five times by banding
together. I had heard that another, different virus had
popped up this time, and that was why my leave had been
cut short. At present, I have no knowledge of much about
the virus, other than what's been broadcast on the news
reports: its name. It, like Sigma, has developed its own
personality after infesting a test Reploid with an
artificial intelligence-based brain. The new virus calls
itself "Wraith". The creator is still mysterious to the
public, as well as the virus's origin.
The human scientists who are studying, dissecting, and
investigating the virus as best they can have settled to
still call its victims Mavericks. The priorities of the
recipients of the virus are still somewhat similar to
Sigma: destroy the humans, and if anyone gets in your way,
destroy them first. All these new Mavericks are still
subservient to their overlord, but would still kill each
other to win favor from their master.
They're still textbook Mavericks, to be sure...and
perhaps not as far off from the original Mavericks as the
humans think. Yes, my roots of sigmae mavericus, the
Sigma virus, ache...I can feel already that there's
something wrong with this situation, something
deeper...but then, there always is with Sigma. What bit
of Sigma still lives within my body and mind is telling me
that he's not as dead as we thought...
We knew, of course, that the last time we had
encountered him he had not been gone for good. As with
the three times before we had faced him, he hid behind a
battle body, and escaped, just as easily. He was
weakened, however...that fact was reassuring. He had used
up a lot of his energy manipulating so many bodies last
time we had a scrape--the low-level Reploid body he had
made for himself, a cheap Reploid imitation of Mega Man,
X's body, and Argyle's as well, not to mention the
countless ties he had to drone Mavericks and to his three
protectors: Pi, Delta, and Epsilon. I would suppose also
that controlling the cortex of the two different battle
bodies he had Dr. Wily build for him also had taken a bite
out of his power supply, especially since he had cut Wily
off in perfecting the energy distributors of the smaller
one...
In any event, I would like to meet with this Wraith
character. If he is as much like Sigma as I've heard,
then it could be a friendly chat, at least until he
figures I'm a threat.
Heh...I have a call. Rolling up my sleeve to check my
arm unit, I find it's from Hunter Base. A debriefing
before I even get back? Oh, Doc Cain, you shouldn't
have...you really shouldn't have...
I'll sign off for now. I still have interests brewing
deeply within my mind as to this new virus's true intents
and goals, however...I'll let my subconscious stew over
that while I take this call. Goodbye for now!

- Cmdr. Zero Omega, Unit 0 Maverick Hunters
Entry logged and posted to the Maverick Hunter Intranet -
21 April 21XX, 0934 hours


"Zero here. What's happening, HQ?"
"Good to hear your voice again, Zero," came the voice of Crysto, senior
communications officer.
"And yours, Crysto," I said, "but it seems like it's been way too soon for
another attack to pop up like this."
"I wish we could be calling you back here on better circumstances, my
friend," he said, "but...que sera, sera, I suppose."
"Indeed. Well, at least it's not Sigma this time, I hear."
"No but Wraith is making himself known pretty well. Unlike Sigs, he's
taken to issuing statements to the press."
"Interesting...almost as if he wanted the public to know his exact thoughts..."
I heard a chuckle from the other end. "Zero, don't start forming theories
about your enemy just yet. You;re not even back at Hunter Base yet."
"My vacation was over as soon as you guys told me something new was
happening," I said. "I'm working right now, as far as I'm concerned."
"Well, don't be surprised if you don't see today on your paycheck, is all I
have to say," he said with a laugh.
"Was Dr. Cain planning to give me the briefing now, or wait for me to
return?"
"He's waiting," he said. "Supposedly, only a handful of the higher-ranking
officers are to know the details right now."
"Ah," I said knowingly. "Cain's afraid more will get out to the humans than
should."
"There are reporters that'd tap into communication lines here at base, I'm
sure," he said. "I'd bet my life on it."
"Anyway, why the call?"
"Oh," he said, returning to the original subject, "Dr. Cain has asked me to tell
you that he wishes to speak with you in private once you return. After that, he
wants you to get a good night's recharge, then meet with a few of the newbies
tomorrow morning."
"I'm beat from the train ride," I said. "I'll have no trouble getting to sleep
tonight."
"And also," he said, barely acknowledging my statement, "I have been
informed that X was allowed to leave for a bit."
"Good," I said. "Last time I saw him, he has seemed a little tense."
"He's not on vacation, sir."
"What do you mean?"
"He's out looking for your girls, Iris and Roll, sir. I thought you knew."
"He didn't tell me he was leaving the base! How was I supposed to know
about this?"
"Then you didn't..."
"No, I didn't," I said indignantly. "Why would he have left without telling
me?"
"I don't know, sir...maybe he was afraid you'd talk him out of it."
I bowed my head and took that theory in with silence. "Maybe he wouldn't
have been wrong about that, Crysto. I certainly wouldn't have approved."
"...But you wouldn't have stopped him, just the same."
I sighed. "You're right."
"...Because you want Iris back too."
I lowered my head. "Yeah." After a second thought, I was curious of
something else: "Has Hunter Base been able to make contact with him?"
"We've been trying, and we've gotten bits of scrambled messages back from
him...so we at least know he's still alive."
"Comforting," I muttered.
"I'll have Dr. Cain informed of your plans," he said, "and I'll make sure to
see if we can get in touch with X again."
"Thanks, Crysto," I said. "That helps."
"Right, Zero. See you a little later."
"The train should arrive at Velosity Station 3 in about two hours," I said.
"I'll see you about three hours form now, then."
"Noted. Crysto out. Enjoy the rest of the ride, Zero."
"Thank you, Crysto. Zero out."