Alia was rudely awakened when someone tumbled into bed on top of her. The first thing she noticed was the scent of alcohol. The second was the familiar voice saying her name.

"Alia…" Alia wanted to shove him off, but put her arms around X instead. He had tried hard to find Axl, but it had been three days and Axl hadn't really left a trail. X had many powers, but he couldn't access bank accounts, which was pretty much the only lead they had. So steadily, the blue hunter had been getting more stressed and depressed. Zero's pointed rejection was making things much worse.

X curled up beside her, and rested his head on her shoulder. She winced as she felt something wet there… he was crying.

"Alia, I screwed up so BAD. Axl's gone and Zero won't talk to me… I didn't mean for it to be this way…" X choked back a sob, clinging to her. Alia sighed softly, and cuddled him. The road to hell is paved with good intentions, X. There was no point in saying it, though. X was already depressed enough.

"Shh… it's alright. Shhh. You can talk to Juggler tomorrow," Alia soothed him. X sniffled, then raised his head to look at her.

"Juggler?" he asked questioningly. Alia hesitated, then nodded.

"Yes. I'm sure he'll help you." Actually, she wasn't sure of any such thing. But if the reclusive Reploid did decide to help X, Axl would be found in a day. If he did. There were some good reasons Juggler shouldn't help X.

But X was too drunk to really think of that. His expression was grateful.

"Thank you, Alia… I love you." He settled down beside her, and she smiled ruefully.

"I love you too, X."

The next day…

X rubbed his head with one hand. He had a box of doughnuts in the other. Really, what possessed him to do this?

In his drunken state last night, Alia's suggestion had made sense. But looked at in the cold light of sobriety, problems emerged.

The main problem was that what he was doing was completely, utterly illegal. Juggler was in charge of monitoring all the security cameras placed throughout the city. Because of potential privacy invasions, that was a very important position and was not supposed to be abused for private reasons. A request to find a civilian Reploid for personal reasons was abuse. The information on those cameras was only supposed to be used to find Mavericks and criminals.

Juggler's lair was deep within the Maverick Hunter HQ, for security reasons. Juggler himself rarely left the HQ. He had all the codes to access the cameras throughout numerous urban areas. That would make him a great asset to the Mavericks for a little while, if they ever got their hands on him. In fact, those codes would be briefly devastating before they were changed.

X took a deep breathe, and then opened the door. The room was very dark, but he could easily see Juggler by the light of several monitors.

Juggler was a tall, lanky Reploid. His armor was black, but with stripes of conflicting colors wound around it. Numerous plugs were hooking him directly to the monitors, and his head twitched in quick, birdlike motions. He turned around slightly to look at X.

"Can I help you?" His voice was surprisingly deep and resonate. His eyes lit up as he spotted the donuts. "Ah, a bribe! So what DO you want?" X blushed at the teasing tone, but couldn't refute what the other Reploid was saying. It was a bribe.

"It's… not a normal request." X hesitated, then drew in a deep breath. "I need you to find Axl for me." Juggler regarded him evenly, with an ominously blank expression.

"I hardly need to ask why," he finally said. "But you have no other options?" X winced.

"No… not outside of hiring a private eye, maybe. I don't know how to find people." He seemed to be spectacularly bad at it. Juggler considered that for a moment.

"If you don't mention it to anyone, and defend me if it comes up… yes. Word of honor?" X brightened, relieved.

"My word on it." X took Juggler's hand, sealing the deal with a handshake. Then Juggler grinned.

"Come back at the end of the day. I'll have him wrapped up with a bow on for you." Juggler turned back to his screens, and X beat a quick escape to go tell Zero the news.

Soon, they would have Axl back again.

Meanwhile, the object of the search was having a very peculiar night.

It had started when he woke up to find someone curled up around him. Someone who was sniffling quietly.

"Modesty?" Axl groggily turned his head to look at the tiny Reploid girl. She was crying in her sleep again, which wasn't surprising. But why was she clinging to him?

Axl managed to disengage himself from her, sliding out of bed. He looked around, trying to find Castus… then blinked. Castus bed was empty, but rumpled as if someone had been sleeping there. Maybe Modesty?

Axl suddenly blushed. He could hear sounds from the other room, though the thin walls…

"Oh." He sat down gingerly on Castus' bed, watching Modesty curl up around his pillow. Then he shrugged, and lay down. Hopefully, Modesty wouldn't migrate a second time.

He was actually rather glad Rocco and Castus had gotten together. Axl had decided days ago that they were perfect for each other. Castus was quiet and somber, while Rocco was open and cheerful. But they both shared numerous interests, and they were both extremely stable. Despite the superficial differences in their personalities, Axl thought they were kindred spirits.

However, the practical problems were pretty severe. He didn't really want to be stuck sharing a room with Modesty forever. She was a nice enough girl, but he was sure the crying could get very tedious in a hurry. So could the clinging to him, if she did that more than once. Of course, Rocco had been coping with it for weeks without a complaint, so maybe he could too…

Axl sighed, and tried to ignore the sounds from the other room and sleep. It wasn't easy, but he finally drifted off…

"Yeah, I have him." Juggler cocked an eyebrow at X. "But no more doughnuts?" X scowled, annoyed and impatient with the other Reploid.

"I'll bring you a box tomorrow… please, where is he?" X asked urgently. Juggler turned to one screen, which popped up an image of Axl leaving an apartment complex.

"That's where he lives." Juggler said calmly. "1238 Maple Avenue. Near the corner of Maple and Augustus." He twitched head head, and another screen showed a restaurant. "He's working at the Old Swiss Inn. I don't know if his shifts vary or not, but yesterday he went straight home after work." X nodded, relieved. "Oh, his apartment number is 122." X blinked.

"How do you know that?" He asked, honestly interested, and the picture zoomed up to show the code Axl was punching into the door lock.

"The last three digits are the door number. Fairly simple code," Juggler said calmly. "Would you like to go tell Zero? He's down questioning people on McMannus street. If you hurry, you might catch him."

"Ah… okay." X backed away. "Thank you, Juggler." He appreciated it deeply, although the way Juggler could find anyone with hardly any effort was a touch creepy. Still, that ability was why he was there.

Now, he had to find Zero and give him the news. Together, they could go hunt down Axl. Or maybe only Zero. X winced as he thought about Axl's message to him, earlier.

Maybe just Zero would be better.

A short time later, Zero pounded on a door as X watched unobtrusively. X stepped back one more step… then blinked as he felt something squish under his foot. He frowned, lifting his foot to find he'd stepped on a rotten tomato that must have fallen out of someone's shopping bag. "Ugh." He grimaced, trying to scrap his foot off. The apartment building wasn't that great, although it was hardly the worst he's seen either. But the maintenance crew was obviously lying down on the job.

Finally, a voice answered Zero's pounding. It sounded like the Repliforce lieutenant who had visited the Hunter HQ to get Axl's things. X couldn't remember his name offhand. The tone was an angry growl, probably because of Zero's vigorous knocking.

"If this is an aluminum siding salesman, I'm rearranging your face." The door was jerked open. "Who the hell are-" He stopped dead, blinking, as he took in the red hunter. "Uh…"

"I want to talk to Axl." Zero tried to shove past Castus, but he scowled and refused to move. The resulting battle of wills was interesting. Well, in a car crash sort of way.

"What do you want him for? He doesn't want to talk to you," Castus snapped at him. "Haven't you done enough?" Zero's glare could have seared the finish off furniture.

"You'll let me in to see him NOW or I'll-" Fortunately, what Zero would have done was cut off by a youthful voice.

"Castus, what's going on-ACK!" Zero shoved Castus far enough out of the way to give Axl a huge hug. "Z-Zero?"

"Axl, geez, I've MISSED you! Why didn't you come to me about this shit? I'd've shoved X's head in a toilet for you!" X winced, and tried hard to fade into the woodwork as Zero ruffled Axl's hair.

Axl, meanwhile, was in a state of shock. Then a tight knot of pain loosened in his chest. It had hurt, thinking that maybe Zero just didn't care what happened to him. And it was so… touching… Zero had actually gone to the trouble of finding him. Axl sniffed, then suddenly clung to him tightly.

"I've missed you too," he whispered, as the homesickness suddenly hit him. He wouldn't let himself feel it before, not when he was working so hard to get his life in order. But he really missed the Hunters, and everything about being one. He was hardly aware of Castus stepping back, his face expressionless.

"You can come back, Axl. I'll make them reinstate you. You'll be a Hunter for sure." Zero promised, and Axl believed him. No one wanted to stand against Zero in a bad mood, and X was in a corner, diffident, so he was sure Zero had been spreading misery around. But…

But.

"I can't leave my friends. They need me to help make the rent," he protested. Zero frowned, and looked over Castus carefully.

"You look like you know how to fight," Zero observed. "Would you like to join the Hunters, too?" Castus just stared at him blankly.

"I was a member of Repliforce." That should have made Zero's suggestion utterly impossible, but Zero wasn't one to worry about black marks. He waved that away.

"I'm sure we can arrange something," he said confidently. "If X helps. He WILL help, right?" Zero shot X a quick glance, and X grinned sheepishly.

"Uh, sure I will!" Right now, he would have been willing to promise the sun and the moon if it would get everything back to normal.

"So, who else?" Zero asked. Axl was wide-eyed, now, and so was Castus. Zero's energy was bowling them over them. It seemed like a force of nature, impossible to resist.

"Um, there's Modesty, she works as a cleaner. And Rocco's a freelance reporter." Axl said, bewildered by the sudden changes Zero was working in his life. Zero grinned.

"Perfect! The HQ always needs more cleaners, especially if she's not squeamish. And we do have a few imbedded reporters." That was true, although it was rare. But Rocco would probably be delighted with the opportunity. She was used to reporting from war zones, so the danger would be nothing unusual.

"Zero… you're nuts!" Axl suddenly laughed and hugged the startled red hunter. "Thank you so much."

"Aw, it's nothing," Zero laughed, disengaging himself. "Get everyone together so we can talk about it." Rocco and Modesty would have to agree, although Axl was sure they would. He grinned brightly, and went to get them… they were both taking a nap.

The future was looking bright again.