When Zest finally came to, it was to a beeping. A really annoying, repetitive beeping that seemed timed to the throbbing in his head. Zest groaned, slowly opening his eyes.

The repair bay… ha, I must be alive. Zest thought muzzily. No huge surprise, I feel too bad to be dead. He levered himself with one arm, sending dull pain through most of his body and looked down at his belly. He was out of his armor, and it looked like someone had been doing serious work on him. It was still only half completed, but he was certainly out of immediate danger… even if there was a monitor connected to his dataport. Zest grimaced, and reached up to yank it out-

"Hey!" Zest grimaced again as Lifesaver suddenly snapped at him. "Leave that alone! You're under observation."

"Hello to you too, doc," Zest said with a weak wave, and let himself collapse back onto the table with a sigh. He slowly glanced around the room, trying to figure out who was injured and how badly. There were several Hunters he didn't know, and the rest were rookies. Mordred was there, very badly injured. It looked like something had tried to tear his face off, and met with a lot of success. Chalene was there, but Arby wasn't, and Zest winced as he put Arby in the "probably dead" category. Zest couldn't see all the others without sitting up, and was considering doing that when Chip walked in.

"Zest!" Chip beamed as he saw his friend was awake, and jogged over to his side. "How are you feeling?"

"Like crap. Got any beer?" Zest asked wistfully, but Chip shook his head with a grin.

"Nuh uh, Lifesaver said you're not supposed to eat anything until tomorrow. Too much damage to your internals, eating would be a strain."

"Lifesaver can… nevermind." Zest pushed himself up with a grunt, and Chip gripped his shoulders, helping him. "Who's dead, who's alive and who's undead?" Chip looked puzzled, then decided that 'undead' was Zest's way of referring to the injured.

"The dead…" Chip hesitated, then started listing names. Zest grunted as if he had been punched in the stomach. They had lost a good quarter of their unit.

"Damn." Zest rubbed his face. The worst part of it was, it could have been worse… should have been worse. A bunch of half-trained rookies, against that group of Mavericks… 25 fatalities was good, but that didn't take the sting out of it. "What about the other units? The Hunters?" He wondered if they were technically Hunters now. Hazing had been outlawed since a vague incident involving chili peppers and balloons, so the Hunters had developed different rituals for acceptance. Rookies were accepted into a unit after graduation, but they were still newbies until they had been blooded in battle. Their class had done things so completely backwards, getting blooded before graduating, that he had no idea what the commanders would do with them.

"Pretty bad… the X unit got ambushed." Chip said softly, and Zest grimaced. "They think maybe we have a spy, or something… it was bad."

"Is X…?" Zest had to ask, even if it was probably a stupid question. If X hadn't been alright, the already grim mood in the repair bay would have been down ten notches. Chip shook his head quickly.

"Oh no, X is fine! Well, not fine but he's holding off repairs," Chip replied, and Zest nodded. That meant X was hurting but being gallant about it, letting the worse off go first. He had to be pretty sure there wouldn't be battles soon, to do that. "But a lot of his unit didn't make it. The 0'th pulled through better, and the 13'th, but the 15'th got mauled with X's unit."

"Axl?" The Hunter would have been with X, but… a cheerful voice answered.

"I'm fine!" Axl stepped up to Zest's table, smiling brightly at him. "I can't believe it… you killed Vile, and destroyed his ride armor? That cost Zero his life, the first time!" Zest couldn't help but smile at that.

"Yeah. Come to think of it, I did pretty much the same thing he did." The only difference was that instead of using a buster attached to his body, he'd used a hand held weapon. When it came to overload explosions, Zest's way was clearly superior. "Hey, Axl? Do you think we'll be plugged into a unit right away?" With all the casualties, Zest wouldn't have been surprised in the least if the commanders decided to just ignore the usual procedures and graduate them early. Axl sobered, his expression turning serious.

"Probably yes… things aren't good right now." Chip was looking a little googly-eyed at the thought. His amazement grew at Axl's next sentence. "Probably mostly into the X'th and the 15'th… I bet you two will get the X'th!" Zest smiled in pleasure at that thought. It would give him more time to be around X. And that was Axl's unit, as well.

"I'm going to have to replace the TP-340." Zest mused, then frowned as he thought of something. "The Mandarine…?" He pulled up one leg, searching for it, and sighed when he found the little gun.

"We found it and put it back in your leg. Is that what you killed Vile with?" Axl looked at the tiny weapon curiously. "It's so small." Zest grinned.

"Looks are deceiving. Yeah… Vile thought I was done for, and he got too close." Zest glanced at Chip. "It's like my dad said… if you have to be at someone's mercy, pray they're bad. Because bad people gloat, where a good guy will just shoot you."

"Well, not likely to be a problem with Mavericks!" Chip joked, and Zest frowned, shaking his head in faint disagreement.

"Life isn't that simple, Chip. People can be full of contradictions…" Zest blinked, realizing his voice was slurring slightly. Despite all the time he'd spent unconscious, his internal repairs were sapping his strength. And-

"Enough, you two." One of the nurses said briskly, purposefully shooing Chip and Axl away. "He needs some rest. Come back and bother him tomorrow." Chip and Axl let themselves get herded off, and Zest fell into an uncomfortable doze, filled with unpleasant dreams about explosions and dead friends…

A week later, Zest stood easily in line. What was left of his class was there, arranged in ranks. As Axl had foreseen, they were being graduated early… and unlike most classes, Hunters from all the units had turned out to watch. Usually, the only ones interested in graduating classes were the commanders and the graduates. But this class was different. They had fought, bled and proven themselves. Zest smiled faintly, almost touched. The presence of so many Hunters was a gesture of respect. Signas cleared his throat, and began to speak.

"As you all know, this is an unusual class. I don't think I need to explain why," Signas said, his dry humor bringing out some laughs. "But I will say this. You all did very well, better than we had any right to expect. Remember that." There was a brief pause, full of pride. "Now, you are all being graduated early. This won't be easy for you… you'll be taking on partial duties as Hunters, but continuing classes." Some wit in the back groaned, startling several other rookies into titters. Signas did them all a favor and ignored it. "I trust you will continue to do your best. Now, there are a few special assignments…" Zest listened attentively as Signas removed a few rookies from direct combat. Chalene was asked to accept the post of Navigator, which she did with dignity. Taj was placed with the medics. Zest wasn't sure how the kid had survived this mission at all, but he was glad Taj would be elsewhere. Then X stepped forward to call rookies into his unit.

"Zest." Zest stepped forward with a grin to accept his badge, and X gave it to him with a smile. "Welcome to the X'th."

"Thank you, X." X blushed faintly at his quiet reply, and the smile that went with it. Zest stepped back into the ranks, feeling proud and extremely pleased. His pleasure grew as Axl was called into the X'th… and Gilgamesh was not. He was given the 15'th, instead, and Zest could guess why… it had nothing to do with their personality conflict, only that Vosk had evaluated the three of them as the best rookies. They wanted to spread the talent around a bit.

Still, it would make his life a lot more pleasant. Zest grinned to himself. This was a good beginning.

"Why are you being so secretive all of a sudden?" Chip asked, annoyed, and Zest laughed. Axl just looked around curiously. The houses in this part of town were all made of grey stone, and had beautiful vines trailing up them, unfurling bright red flowers.

It was Halloween, and the three of them were going to get costumes. Axl already had a costume, as a matter of fact, but it was a costume dictated by laziness. A bedspread with a few holes cut for eyes made a serviceable ghost. Zest had insisted he had something better in mind, so they were going to see what it was. They had come a long way, too… they had teleported all the way to Montreal, a very old and respectable part of town with incredibly small roads. Zest always wondered how the traffic managed.

"I don't want to scare you off before… ah, we're here!" Zest knocked on a door, and was answered by a tall man with black hair and very bushy, expressive eyebrows. He was nearly a foot taller than Zest, so everyone was forced to look up a bit. His clothing was a very expensive suit and a blue silk tie with white snowflakes.

"Zest!" The two embraced, the man giving Zest a kiss on the cheek, to Chip's and Axl's surprise.

"Mario! It's been a long time," Zest said with a grin. Mario was not actually part of the family… he was part Italian, and flamboyantly acted it, where the McCoy family had definite Irish roots. But he was a good family friend. "How is the business?"

"Oh, it is slow! But do come in," Mario ushered them into his house. The house was as neat and clean as his appearance, and decorated with some truly lovely artwork. Chip was particularly taken with a nude, until Zest took him firmly by the arm. "So what can I do for you? This is for Halloween, yes?" Mario's usual métier was changes of appearance for those who needed a very good disguise. Anything short of actual surgery, he could do. But a group of Hunters would have no need for that skill, and since it was Halloween…

"Yes. Make us into women." Zest said, to his friend's amazement and horror. Mario beamed widely, rubbing his hands together.

"Ohhh A challenge! For this, 500 credits each," he said firmly, and Zest nodded, passing it over. It was steep for a Halloween costume, but cheap for Mario's services.

"Zest," Axl said, finally regaining his voice. "Are you crazy? You want us to go as girls?"

"Yep," Zest said with a smile. "It'll be he best Halloween costumes ever!" Chip slowly smiled, starting to get into it, and tugged on Axl's arm, whispering in his ear. Mario led them to his work room, and then the fun started.

"Armor?" Chip said dubiously, looking at what Mario proposed for them to wear. It was female Reploid armor, but not really authentic armor. No, it was lightweight plate that looked real but wouldn't stop an ordinary gun, let alone a buster shot. But it was easily adjustable and could make a human look like a Reploid, which was its real purpose. The ones Mario had for them were female types, all with skirts that would disguise their lack of hips. The one for Zest also had tremendous chest space…

"I see! That way no one will know the jugs are empty." Zest said brightly, making his friends blush. Mario frowned.

"Well, yes, unless you want to look like a woman with the armor removed…?"

"Oh gods, no!" Axl said, shaking his head. Mario shrugged.

"That makes things easier. Now, step in here so I can measure you…"

The session was both interesting and boring. Chip and Axl were fascinated by the effects Mario could get out of makeup, but bored by how long it took. They were pleased by how comfortable the costumes were, though. The lightweight armor had been carefully adjusted to each of them, so it didn't chafe at all, and the helmets Chip and Axl were given had hair attached to them, so they didn't need wigs. Although it took some work to hide Axl's normal hair under his helmet.

Zest looked in the mirror at the final result. He looked remarkably like a girl, although a very big, strapping one. The armor he was wearing was dark blue and lime green, and he appeared to be remarkably busty. Carefully applied makeup had completed the illusion, giving him a very feminine cast. Chip looked even more pretty, with his slighter build and dusty rose armor. Dark brown curls touched his shoulders, moving every time he turned his head. Axl was in black and white armor, with straight white hair hanging down to his buttocks. Mario hadn't been able to conceal the scars on his face, so he'd decided to play them up, using face paint to decorate them with vibrant colors. They looked like a particularly strange tattoo. Mario had even fitted them with voice disguisers, so they didn't have to work at sounding like girls. The end result was a very convincing illusion.

"So, what do you think Mario? Will we do?" Zest said brightly, modeling his outfit. Axl laughed, and tried to mimic him… the redheaded Hunter had slowly gotten into the idea. It was outrageous enough to be right up his alley, once he thought about it. Chip blushed, then followed suit. Mario regarded then keenly, then nodded with a smile.

"You are all most beautiful. Go, go knock their socks off!" Mario gently shooed them out. The three Hunters regarded each other for a moment, then Zest smiled.

"The party will be on soon. Let's teleport back."

Zero looked around, pleased. The auditorium had been heavily decorated with black and orange crepe streamers, false cobwebs, and large red lights had been hung from the ceiling, giving the room a strange, dark illumination. Robotic bats and ghosts slowly lazed around the ceiling, sometimes ducking down to buzz the crowd. A very large buffet table was set up along one wall, filled with monster themed food. Ribs in a sauce that looked disturbingly like blood, chicken wings that had been treated with a green crust, cookies shaped like bats… ladies fingers that looked disturbingly like the real thing…

"This is a great party, Alia," he said approvingly. Alia, Layer and Palette had organized the party, and dragooned a very large group of Hunters into helping them. That had resulted in a lot of whining, but a really great final product. And all the mechanics had gotten in… the little drones on the ceiling were the least of it. There were tiny robotic spiders and even a disembodied hand scrambling along the floor, on the walls and among the food. The hand seemed to have some kind of bizarre affinity to the ladies fingers. Zero wasn't sure what the deal was with that. "I love the music." Instead of the usual haunted house themes, it was classical stuff… but just a touch creepy. It definitely added to the ambience.

"Thank you," Alia said with a pleased smile, sipping her punch. The glasses had been bought specifically for the party, and had tiny witches on them.

"Hey, who is that?" Zero said, as he spotted a pretty girl in black and white armor. "I've never seen her before." She wasn't in a costume, either, which was odd. Zero had dressed up as a pirate, with the name of a well-known (and despised) company written across his chest. The joke wasn't particularly subtle.

"Oh, she's new here… a receptionist, I think," Alia said, completely deadpan. She'd recognized Axl immediately, despite the makeover. Several of the girls in HQ had, and a few of the guys… but they were all sending friends over to ask for dances and dates, just to see their reactions later. It couldn't last very long, but for now, Zest, Axl and Chip were the prime entertainment of the evening. Alia grinned to herself, feeling particularly wicked… she knew about Axl's crush on Zero, so this would be interesting indeed. "Why don't you introduce yourself? I think her name is Sibi." That was the alias Axl was using, for those who weren't in the know.

"Why not?" Zero said agreeably, tossing back his punch. Then he sauntered over to her. "Hi there, beautiful." She turned around, surprised, and Zero blinked at the tattoo between her eyes. It looked a little familiar.

"Ah… h-hi." She said in a soft soprano voice, and blushed charmingly. Zero was particularly captivated by her eyes… they were a very pretty green.

"Would you like to dance?" Zero asked, taking her hands with a smile. She looked awed… then blushed even more, and smiled hesitantly.

"I… I would like that." Oh, Axl, this is SUCH a bad idea what are you DOING… Axl wasn't listening to himself. Zero obviously had no clue, and it was just so tempting…

Nearby, Zest was chatting up X, who had already laughed himself sick at Zest's costume. He had recognized Zest immediately, despite the makeup. X was dressed as a vampire, with some fairly authentic looking fangs and lenses to make his eyes look red. X noticed what was going on, on the dance floor, and poked Zest.

"Look at that!" X polished off another glass of punch, as Zest looked over. Zest blinked as he saw Axl and Zero, slow dancing to the classical music. Axl was looking blissful, his chin resting on Zero's shoulder.

"Oh, that is not good. The kid is setting himself up for a world of hurt," Zest muttered, and X blinked, giving the situation a second look. He was a bit buzzed… the punch was a bit stronger than he had expected. But it was easy to see what Zest was talking about. Plenty of people knew about Axl's feelings for Zero, but now absolutely everyone would have at least a faint clue.

"You don't really think so?" X said, doubtful. "He really feels that way? I don't think Zero likes guys."

"Yeah… I hope they don't do something they'll both regret." Zest watched for a moment, then shrugged… it was Axl's business, really. He had only drank one cup of punch, so he wasn't drunk and would have to fend for himself.

"Mmm… this punch is good." X set about getting another glass. Zest suddenly grinned, a few plans of his own coming to mind.

"Isn't it?" Zest agreed. "Actually, you should try to blue punch, it's even better." It was also stronger. X smiled, taking a cup of that. Zest winced as he saw Zero giving Axl a slow, lingering kiss. Zero could tell that 'Sibi' was very attracted to him, and all the Hunters were watching, morbidly curious. Zest hesitated, then caught Chips' eye and made a slashing motion across his throat. Chip nodded grimly. They needed to do something about this before Axl ruined his friendship with Zero entirely. Dancing was one thing, but kissing… it was going too far. Things had the potential to get really messy.

Chip delicately cut in, distracting Zero long enough for Zest to get a grip on Axl's wrist and drag him away. Axl looked at him with betrayal in his face.

"Zest, I was-" He started whispering furiously, and Zest shook his head sharply.

"Getting yourself in a load of trouble," Zest said flatly. "He thinks you're a girl, Axl!" Axl tried to pull away, then stopped, a despairing look on his face.

"I know…" Zest snagged a cup of blue punch, and put it into his friend's hands.

"Here, drink up. You'll feel better." Then he noticed something. "If you'll excuse me… X just fell over. Chip's going to break the news to Zero, okay?" Axl nodded miserably, downing the punch in one long swallow as Zest went over to retrieve the blue Hunter. He had a few plans for X, and him being drunk wouldn't get in the way at all…