I hope you had a Happy Thanksgiving, everybody!

Upon hearing the door open, Signas looked up from his work. When he saw who was at the door, he stood up and gave a warm smile. "Ian," he said, "please come in." He turned his gaze to the blue-haired boy next to Ian and said, "You must be Ryu. It's a pleasure meeting you." He held out his hand. Ryu took it and they shook hands.

"Likewise, sir. I heard you are the commander of the Maverick Hunters," Ryu said. "Is this true, sir?'

Signas laughed and patted Ryu on the back. "You can drop the formalities, son. Yes, I am the commander of the Maverick Hunters," he said. "Oh! Where are my manners? Please, sit down." The large reploid gave a sheepish grin and showed them their seats. He grew a little serious and looked at the green reploid. "Ian, I heard from Alia that you found Ryu," he gestured to the boy, "while you were out on patrol. I must say, sending the 5th unit out wasn't my best idea. However, I am glad that I did. You see, you've stumbled across a legendary hero from the past who stumbled across a portal to our time." He stopped, waiting for a reaction.

Both Ian and Ryu gaped at the young reploid. Ian, being the first to recover, stuttered, "What the- how the-," He shook his head a bit. "What the hell do you mean, 'legendary hero from the past'?"

Signas sighed. 'This is going to take longer than I anticipated,' he thought. "Just what I said," he replied, a hint of annoyance in his voice, "a hero from the past. The very distant past. Few actually know of anything before the end of The Cataclysm, and fewer still before it."

Ryu, having recovered from the shock somewhat, choked, "You mean… This is my future?" His face gained a sad look. "But… It seems so… Bleak."

Ian nodded. "It is pretty bleak, huh? There aren't that many humans anymore. Hell, there are ten reploids for every human out there. To make matters worse, more and more humans are dying, mainly because of the Mavericks."

Ryu nodded. "That's what you guys are here for, to protect the humans, right?" he asked.

"That's correct," Signas replied. "Alia, Dr. Cain, and I know of your endeavors to save the world from the Dark Dragon Tribe in the past. We also know that you can transform into extremely powerful dragons of different elements, such as an ice dragon."

Ian was dumbfounded. He knew the kid wasn't from this world, but from a different time? He was a savior of the world? Not only that, but he could turn into dragons? When he recovered, he saw Ryu cracking up and Signas snickering. He realized he had been opening and closing his mouth, much like a fish. Once Ryu calmed down, Ian asked, "Could you change right now? I need to see this for myself."

"Sure," was Ryu's response. He stood up and walked to the middle of the large room. He closed his eyes and started concentrating, focusing on the power of fire. With that, he started glowing white until his entire body was enveloped in the light. His figure soon became completely white, then red as he started to grow. He went down onto all fours as gigantic wings sprouted from his shoulder blades. His neck lengthened about five feet. His mouth was soon a snout sporting long, sharp teeth, and horns grew from his head. A tail extended from his behind and ended in a spiked barb. Spikes protruded from the top of his head down to the tip of his tail except for in between his wings, where it seemed a person could ride safely. His hands and feet turned into claws with long, sharp nails. As the red glow faded, Ian and Signas could see his scales were a beautiful ruby red, glistening in the light. Ryu was now as long as two school busses and his back was a story tall. Even though Signas' office was large, it wasn't large enough for Ryu to stand or extend as far as his body would allow, so he had to curl up. As he sighed, a puff of smoke was released from his nostrils.

The green-armored reploid walked cautiously up to Ryu's nose. He could feel the sheer strength emanating from the dragon. He looked into the human-turned-dragon's eyes. "May I touch you?" he asked.

"You may," Ryu said, surprising both Ian and Signas with the fact he could still speak. The voice was a deep, booming voice. A faint crackling of fire could also be heard. Ryu surprised them again when he said, Not only can I speak with my voice, I can also speak with my mind. You can speak to me through your mind The voice they heard in their heads was not of the powerful voice of the dragon, but the voice of the pre-teen. Ian put a hand on the boy's snout and immediately pulled away. It felt comfortably warm, so much so that Ian thought he would fall asleep if his hand had lingered much longer. "The problem is," Ryu said, "I can only stay in the form of a dragon for a certain amount of time. If I reach my limit before I revert back into my human form, I'll faint. The neat thing is, if I run out of time as one dragon, I can turn into another.

"I have also combined the elements and strengths of different dragons to become a more powerful dragon, such as my Wind Dragon and Lightning Dragon to become a Storm Dragon. This form I'm in is a basic form. My combinations are advanced forms, so they are more powerful. I won't last as a dragon long, but I'll do lots of damage. That's the basic rundown of my transformation skills. Now, if you don't mind, I'm going to change back now." With that, Ryu glowed red then white as he became a human again. He stretched out his arms and legs. "I am never doing that in a cramped space like this again," He said. They all laughed. Once they were all calm, they sat down again in their chairs. "Now, I keep hearing you guys talk about this Alia. When do I get to meet him?" Ryu asked.

Alia just so happened to walk in as Ryu said that. Signas saw her, but said nothing as she had heard the question, causing her to look quite ticked. Ian laughed. "He's actually a she, and if she heard you ask that, she'd kill you," he told Ryu. "I mean it."

"Ah, but I did hear him ask that," she said calmly. Ian whipped his head around, eyes wide. Ryu, on the other hand, went pale and turned slowly in his chair to look at the female reploid. As he saw the look on her face, he immediately cowered into his seat. She approached Ryu slowly, menacingly, with a face that could only be described as pure rage. Once she was right in front of him, he looked ready to pee himself. She put her hand on his head, looking like she was about to crush his skull. Instead, her face went from anger to kindness and she ruffled his hair. She saw he was utterly confused. "You're new to this time, so I didn't expect you to know that I was a female. Just don't screw up like that again or I will kill you," she explained. She turned to Signas. "Sir, may I suggest that if Ryu is to join us, we should begin training him?"

The Maverick Hunter commander looked at Ryu. "We're awfully sorry to seem so selfish," he said, "but we would like you to join the Maverick Hunters. If you do not wish to enlist and would rather find the portal back to your time, we will help." He folded his arms. "What will you do?"

Ryu stared at Signas. A chance to join the Maverick Hunters? "I've nothing left in my old home. Nothing to do, nothing to really live for. I have no need to be there anymore. I'll stay here instead. I actually have meaning here. I'll join and make the future a better place!"

Signas smiled. "Thank you, Ryu. We could use your power in our fight against the Mavericks. Ian, take him down to one of the training rooms. Alia, send X, Zero, and Axl down. We'll have to see which weapons he should use. Also, get Dr. Cain working on a flexible armor for Ryu."

With a "Yes, sir," Alia left. Ian and Ryu looked at each other and smiled. "Follow me," Ian commanded.

A few minutes later, Ian and Ryu were in a white-tiled room. "Wow…" Ryu marveled. Except the door and the wall it was part of, there seemed to be no end to the room. The floor extended as far as the eye could see. Ryu couldn't see any of the other walls or the ceiling, either. It was as if the room were an entire other world. "Does this room even have walls?" he asked Ian.

"This isn't even another room," Ian explained. "This is an entire computer-controlled dimension Dr. Cain created to use for training. You know what a mirage is, correct?"

"Yes. A hallucination."

"Well, we have things called holograms. They're basically mirages, but you aren't hallucinating when you see one. They aren't generally solid, but this place makes solid holograms. Have I lost you yet?"

"No. Please continue."

"Okay then. These solid holograms that the computer makes won't hurt you, just so you know."

"So I don't have to worry about dying in here?"

"Nope."

"Cool."

At that moment, the door opened and three Hunters stepped in with a box full of what looked like weapons. One was clad in blue armor, another in red and white armor with a blonde ponytail, and one clad in red and black armor with an x-shaped scar on his face and red hair peeking out of his helmet. They put the box down next to the door and walked toward Ian and Ryu. The red-haired reploid did a special handshake with Ian, ending up with them clapping each other on the back.

"Good to see you, Axl!" Ian exclaimed.

"Right back at ya!" Axl replied. He looked at Ryu. "He's the shrimp we're supposed to train, huh?"

"Did you just insult me?!" Ryu accused Axl, obviously pissed off.

Axl bent down in front of the new Hunter and smirked. "So what if I did?" Axl taunted.

"Axl, I wouldn't do that if I were you…" Ian warned.

He turned to Ian. "Oh, what's he gonna do? Cry?" Axl asked.

What Axl didn't know was that Ryu was already glowing behind his back. Ryu was once again the Fire Dragon from before, and smoke was coming out of his nose. The other Hunters looked up at Ryu, terrified. Axl didn't know what was scaring them, so of course he stood there stupidly, trying to figure out what was wrong. They just pointed at Ryu. Once Axl turned around he was swept up by Ryu's claw and brought tothe dragon'seyes.

In a very deadly sounding tone, Ryu said, "Do not insult or mock me. If you do, I will tear you limb from limb." With that, he put Axl down and reverted back to a human.

Axl went white as a sheet. In a very fast voice, Axl said, "Woah, dude, I'm sorry. I just assumed that you couldn't be a Hunter. You seemed too young. I mean, you're twelve years old!"

Ryu just glared at him. "'Assume makes an ass of you 'n me'. Well, actually, mainly you," he said. Everyone except Axl laughed. "Anyway, who are the other two, Ian?"

The blue-armored reploid stepped forward. "My name's X. I heard about what you did in our past," he introduced himself.

The reploid with the ponytail shook Ryu's hand. "I'm Zero. I heard that you're a swordsman," he said.

Ryu clapped his hands together and rubbed them back and forth. "Let's get cracking, then. I heard I'm supposed to be trained with weapons to see which one I'll be using." He looked at X. "X, you first. What are you training me with?"

X held up his arm. Ryu watched in awe at the sight of X's hand turning into a buster. "This is called a buster," he explained. "It doesn't have a better rate of fire than a gun, but it has more power. You can also charge it up to do more damage." X went over to the box and pulled out a buster. He threw it to Ryu. "Slip it on your arm." When the blue-haired boy did so, X yelled, "Computer! Activate obstacle course 1!"

All of a sudden, ten moving targets appeared. Ryu looked at them, then his buster. With a shrug, he fired at all of the targets, hitting them expertly. X nodded in approval. "Computer, activate obstacle course X!" he shouted.

All of a sudden, a bunch of turrets and reploids appeared in a circle, as well as some steel gates that seemed they would close as soon as he got close enough. Ryu looked around at all of them. He counted twenty-five turrets and fifty reploids. Walls soon surrounded the gates, which were arranged in a circle. The open area had become a gauntlet. He looked at X. "I guess I'm supposed to get to the other end, huh?" he asked.

"Yeah," X replied, "but you also have to destroy everything except the gates on your way." He raised his arm. "Ready… Get set…" He swung his arm down. "Go!"

Ryu started dashing, shooting everything in his way. As the turrets shot at him, he rolled out of the way and fired a blast of his own. He tackled the reploids and shot them in their heads. He slid through the gates before they hit the ground.

Five minutes later, he emerged from the gauntlet, panting and sweating. He had a few bruises on his face and arms, and they couldn't guess how many he had under his clothes. "I… I'm done…" he muttered. He limped towards the door and leaned against it. They just gaped at him.

"Uh… you just set a new course record, Ryu…" X managed to say.

Ryu looked at him. "I did, did I?" He took a deep breath. "Cool." He was exhausted, and sleep overcame him.

X nudged him with his foot. "He's out cold," he concluded.

Zero stood next to X. "He shows impressive potential. He finished much faster than you when you were at full power."

Ian nodded. "Let's take him to his room"

The first thing Ryu saw was his world rushing down. With a loud thud he hit the ground with a curse. "Ow… Damn, that hurt…." He muttered.

"Ah, you're awake," a voice said from his right.

Ryu turned his head towards the speaker. "Zero, what the hell are you doing here?" he asked the Hunter with the ponytail.

"Watching over you," he replied. "What did you think I was doing?" He helped the blue-haired pre-teen to his feet and gave him a cup of water.

Ryu uttered a thanks and gulped it down. "I really tired myself out, didn't I? How long was I out?"

Zero thought for a moment, then said, "A couple of hours."

Ryu nodded. "No wonder I feel so refreshed. Actually, I feel good as new, if not better!"

"Good, we have to get you down there for Axl's turn to train you." With that, they left the room.

"This is what we call a gun," Axl explained as he held one out. "You can shoot it faster than a buster, but a buster's stronger. With a good trigger finger, you can take a guy down faster than he can say 'Oh, crap'." He gave it to Ryu. "This is a practice gun. It shoots little pellets. Instead of getting you used to it, we're going to straight out…" he fumbled for a word. "…Spar, I guess you could say. Of course I'll use a practice gun too." They took a few steps away from each other. "First one hit five times loses, okay?"

Ryu nodded. "Bring it."

Ian raised his arm. "Ready?" He swung his arm down. "Go!"

Axl and Ryu fired a few rounds off at each other, then rolled away from the other's shots. Ryu, being the nimble youth he was, was able to spring from his roll into a midair flip and land with grace as he fired at Axl. Axl was hit in the face when he stood up by about five hundred pellets in a row. Needless to say, Axl was quite shocked, as was their audience. Ryu managed to fire five hundred rounds in the space of a second, which was four hundred more than Axl was capable of. He looked at Axl, then his gun, then Axl again. "Wow, I didn't know I was that fast."

Axl's mouth was opening and closing his mouth like a fish. "You are incredible…" he choked. X and Ian just nodded.

Zero, being the less emotional one, said what was on the Hunters' minds: "You could take Sigma down alone in about five seconds flat."

Ryu cocked his head in confusion. "Who's Sigma?" he asked.

"Maverick commander who's died more times than Zero."

"Hey! I'm touchy about that!"

"It's the truth!"

"Calm down!" Ryu exclaimed, exasperated. "Ian, you're next."

Ian pulled out a rocket launcher and a few small square things. He held them out to Ryu. "The big thing is called a rocket launcher," he explained.

"A what now?"

"When you pull the trigger, whatever you were aiming at goes boom."

"Ah, okay. And what are the little things?"

"Sticky grenades. Whatever you throw them at will have them stuck to it. It will have about three seconds before the grenade blows up."

Ryu took them. "Cool," he said.

"Computer, activate training program Ian 1!"

Ten fast moving targets appeared near the ground, surrounding them in a square. Ryu looked at his grenade count. Fifteen. More than enough to get them all. He watched their speed and rate of movement, then threw ten grenades. After three seconds, a square of explosions had encompassed them. "Done," Ryu said cockily after the noise died down.

"Not quite," Ian said, and he pointed up. Ryu looked up and saw five more targets up high. Once again he found their rate of movement. He threw his remaining sticky grenades up. They didn't quite reach and landed next to Axl. Ian, X, and Zero immediately ran away, but Axl was too shocked to move. Acting quickly, Ryu ran towards Axl and pushed him out of the way.

The grenades blew at the very moment Axl was out of the blast radius. Ryu was engulfed in the flames.