The current fashion in ladies fingernails was not particularly long. Nails were often creatively painted in hundreds of different colors, and sometimes taken out and completely replaced with artificial ones. Such artificial nails were usually programmed with dozens of settings, from businesslike pink to bright blue, or even holographic images. Reploid women, in particular, often upgraded their nails this way, tired of tedious nail polish. Such artificial nails were beautiful… and very, very hard. As a young male Reploid discovered, when his companion viciously pinched his arm.

"Ow!" He swore, jerking away, and favored her with a glare. "What was that for, Eiri?" She returned his glare with a venomous expression.

"Stop looking at that family like that, Constantine. You look like you want to kill them." There was a small human family nearby. The children were well behaved, and the adults were taking pictures of the Las Vegas strip.

"I do. Ow!"

"I don't care if you want to rip their heads off and play naked football with them in front of Sigma. If you don't stay socially acceptable, I'm going to sissy slap you into the next century." Eiri hissed at him. Constantine muttered something, but subsided, contenting himself with giving the occasional human a passing glower.

Constantine had been built by the Mavericks, for the Mavericks, and he was a very loyal Maverick. He hated humans with a burning passion, which Eiri considered a bit idiotic, since he'd never had anything to do with them. Physically, he was a tall, dark, handsome Reploid, much like the movie character he'd been named after. Although that character had been human… perhaps she would mention that to him someday, and watch his head explode.

Eiri, on the other hand, was a completely different matter. She was very old, and had been built long before Reploids had any rights. At first a sex toy, then an expensive whore, she had hair the color of burnished copper, a beautiful face, pouting lips and a body to die for. As many men had, since she had surrendered to the Maverick Virus. But despite the infection, her hatred for humans was more of a strong dislike. She was perfectly capable of blending in and acting civilly even during the most trying of circumstances.

Perhaps she found it so easy to associate with humans because she disliked Reploids almost as intensely. Her lips pursed in annoyance as she remembered all the things she had been required to do to get this vacation in Las Vegas. The Virus bound her in unbreakable chains of loyalty to Sigma, but there were some of his lieutenants she'd love to see at the end of X's buster. Or Zero's beam saber. Well, if it wouldn't ruin a plan of Sigma's, anyway.

Random bitching and moaning interrupted her train of thought.

"Why did we have to go to this human pesthole, Eiri? Why couldn't we have just gone to Drakken?" Eiri restrained herself from rolling her eyes, but it was hard.

Drakken was a 'city' deep within Maverick held territory. But calling it a city was a bit like taking a cluster of logs and calling them a forest. It had sprung up spontaneously, and was filled with low-level Reploids who were just too useless for Sigma to be bothered with. Some were infected, while others were runaways and uninfected Mavericks. It had become the unofficial watering hole and place for R and R for all the Mavericks. For the residents of Drakken, this was a mixed blessing. As long as their lords and masters paid, and stayed non-violent, it was good. But what were the poor things to do if someone decided to have fun with them on his leave?

Not that it always worked out in favor of the visiting Mavericks. Eiri smirked slightly as she remembered a recent incident. Sometimes the runaways had skills Sigma would treasure, if he could manage to infect them. No one had ever figured out who had disemboweled Bolt Unicorn and arranged his body so… artistically. Eiri had especially loved what the perpetrator had done with his horn.

But in the end, Drakken was nothing compared to Las Vegas. Just a Reploid pesthole, without any of the gleaming lights and wonderful sights the human city had to offer. But there was no point in explaining that to Constantine. He was really very nice for a Maverick, loyal, dependable, courageous and even kind. He didn't have a speck of sadism in his nature, which Eiri considered a major plus. Too many Mavericks tortured humans for fun. But Constantine was just too narrow a person, too focused on his ideals, to see the tarnish on the silver of Sigma's rule.

Fortunately, she had a practical reason.

"If we went to Drakken, Constantine, Flame Walrus would think you're on call. He'd summon you back before the vacation was half over and you know it. Such a whiner!" Constantine blinked, then grinned at the characterization of his superior. It was quite accurate.

"Okay, okay. I'll try to be polite. Where are we going first?" Eiri rummaged in her purse for a moment. It was a very large, very stylish leather handbag, and she suspected the makers had included a hyper spatial warp just to annoy her. Finally, she managed to locate a tourist flyer, which she leafed through.

"Hmm… we might as well go straight to the MGM Grand. We have tickets to the 8 o'clock show, and it's what? Six?"

"About that." Constantine agreed, taking her hand and tucking it in his arm in a courtly gesture. Eiri smiled happily at him… she really did love him despite his limitations. "This way?"

"Yes." They walked slowly down the sidewalk, enjoying the sights, and Constantine even managed to smile pleasantly when a young human girl tried to sell them roses. Of course, that was probably because they were nicely romantic. He bought one, and presented it to Eiri with a flourish, making her laugh.

Then they walked by the mouth of an alley, and Constantine tensed. Eiri blinked as she heard the crackling sound of a neural whip and a choked off cry-

"Constantine!" He pulled away from her and disappeared down the alley, as Eiri quietly swore. It could very well be a human being assaulted, and even if it wasn't, what business was it of theirs? She sighed, then followed him on silent feet. It was just like Constantine, to act instinctively to enforce order without thinking about whether he should. By the time she reached the trouble, it was all over. She grimaced at the two dead bodies, one headless, the other messily spread across the alley from his fusion generator detonating. Eiri breathed a small sigh of relief as the victim pulled himself off, wincing faintly in pain. He was definitely a Reploid, and he seemed uninjured, except for some surface damage and-

Eiri almost swallowed her tongue as she realized what he was wearing. Ratty jeans, a t-shirt… and the symbol of the 0'th unit on a patch on his shoulder! They had saved a Hunter? A Hunter with thick, blond hair… for one horrible moment, Eiri thought it was the red terror himself. But no. The hair was thick, but short, and Zero had never had freckles. Just a member of his unit, if that wasn't bad enough.

"Thank you so much. That was getting a touch difficult, I'm afraid." He took Constantine's hand with a friendly smile and the Maverick returned the handshake automatically, face blank with shock. Fortunately, the Hunter didn't seem to find that an odd reaction. A lot of civilians probably reacted that way, confronted by a Hunter unexpectedly. Eiri tilted her head to one side… the Hunter had a strange, sing-song accent that sounded very foreign.

"You're welcome," Eiri broke in smoothly, placing her hand on Constantine's arm and getting ready to administer an almighty pinch. "I'm Lana, and this is Monroe." Those were the names they had reserved their room under. "We were just passing by when we heard a whip?" The Hunter grimaced.

"That was me. Silly buggers dragged me off the street and started in on me before I could call my armor. Thank the lord they hadn't any real weapons!"

"I'm astonished they would dare attack a Hunter." It really wasn't characteristic of any mugger with an IQ higher than a goldfish. The Hunter shrugged, then ran a finger over his badge.

"I don't think they knew what I was until they got me down here and saw the badge. Then they freaked and tried to beat me unconscious. Probably thought I'd kill them… which I would have, if I could have just gotten away long enough to call in my armor. Your intervention was most timely!" The Hunter smiled up at Constantine, obviously expecting a reply, and Eiri administered her pinch. Constantine was startled out of his trance.

"Uh… you're welcome." He managed with a smile that looked just a touch sick around the edges to Eiri. But the light was dim, and the Hunter didn't seem to notice.

"Oh, I didn't tell you my name, did I? I'm Edward Alfred Delacroix the Third." Before either of them could react to that preposterous name, he gave them an impish grin. "But my friends just call me Ed."

"Thank god." Eiri muttered, shaking her head. Ed smiled, then touched his badge again.

"Maybe I ought to rethink wearing this. Zero said it'd be a good idea, since I'm fresh from overseas… recruited from the army, don't you know? Hopefully, scare off the muggers and whatnot. But I think it made the situation worse."

"Oh, you're from Britain?" Constantine suddenly said, abruptly recognizing the accent. He'd heard it before, mostly in movies. Sigma operated on all continents, but Constantine had never left North America.

"Indeed." Ed tilted his head, looking down at the bodies. "Hm… what should we do with these?"

"Ah… Monroe and I have tickets to an 8 o'clock show." Eiri said with a smile as Constantine tensed. She quietly prayed to herself that the Hunter would volunteer to take care of the bodies without them. They couldn't afford to be taken to a police station… they scanned automatically for the virus. If he insisted, they would have to kill him and cut their vacation very short. They might even end up on a wanted list, if someone had seen them duck into the alley!

"Oh, well! I won't keep you then," Ed said with an impish smile, to her immense relief. "I'll just tell the police a good Samaritan helped me out, and I didn't catch his name. Have fun at the show, and thanks again!"

"Oh, thank you." They beat a graceful retreat, and as soon as they were out of earshot…

"We saved a Maverick Hunter?" Constantine whispered hoarsely to her, and Eiri shrugged.

"I'm afraid so."

"We saved a Maverick Hunter." Constantine sounded like he was going into shock again. Eiri frowned.

"Constantine?"

"We saved a Maverick Hunter! OW!" Constantine tried to jerk away from her. "Keep those claws to yourself, woman!"

"Then stop being an idiot," she said tartly. "Yes, we saved a Hunter. And so what? No one will know… unless you go shouting it to the world." That settled Constantine a little. Although…

"We should have killed him." Constantine muttered, and winced as he received another pinch.

"We should not have. A dozen people must have seen us duck into that alley, especially the rose girl, and in case you haven't noticed half the bounty hunters in the US go here every weekend! I don't want my picture up in the post office, thank you very much." The good sense and logic of her argument soothed Constantine slightly. "Come on, let's hurry. I want to try the slots before we go to the show."

"You still want to go to the show after that?" Constantine asked, aghast. Eiri gave him an annoyed look.

"Of course I do. These tickets cost me a hundred dollars! If you think I'm wasting them, you're out of your mind. Come ON Constantine, time's wasting." She tugged him down the street.

She wasn't going to let a little thing like this ruin her vacation in Las Vegas.