X called everyone to the command room, standing before the crowd, he began, "Well, it looks like we fended off the attack but the base sustained heavy internal damage, so for now we'll be moving to the Infinity space station. So for now pack up your stuff and the hypershutle will deliver you to the station." After X finished, the hunters gabbed their things and boarded the ship, within the hour they were standing in the super station Infinity.
Over the comm they heard, "Welcome hunters, please make yourselves at home in our advanced facilities, our training room is open and the stores have supplies for you, the rooms will be assigned shortly, but if you need a nap the lounge has some couches for sleep. Please enjoy your stay."

Reaver looked around, looking for the other reploids who came to his aid earlier back on earth, but didn't see them anywhere. "Bah, I'll thank them later." Leaning heavily on the scythe, as they didn't gave him the change to search for medical attention yet, he sets of in search for a sickbay...

Jet breathes a sigh of relief as he thinks once more about the previous battle. Jet and his companion had cleared out the enterance breifly but the new mavericks were swarming in, with only a handfull of hunters, including one who had been lying on the floor gravely injured. It would have been hard to fight off that onslaught while protecting him at the same time.
"I'm just glad X and Zero arrived when they did," Jet thinks. He woundered where that hunter was now, and where the female hunter who had helped him outside was.
Jet sets off to find the training room of this new facility. "The scorcher is insanely powerful," thinks Jet, "but I'm not strong enough to use it. If I want to become more than a hinderance to the hunters, I need to train harder."

"There you go! Just keep the bandage clean and it'll be good as new very soon!" the Nurse said.
"Thanks!" Lixi replied as she walked out the door, holding her bandaged arm. She had a nasty cut down the side of her upper arm and hadn't realized until she felt the blood leaking down her arm. But, it was all bandaged now and she was feeling good. She wondered what the time was. The battle had seemed to go on forever, yet only a few minutes at the same time. She looked around the station, trying to find the rookie hunter that had helped her, but couldn't see him anywhere.
"Oh well. Guess introductions are going to be put off for even longer," she though to herself. "I wonder what's going to happen to us now?"

"There, that should do it, judging from your wounds, you have been quite reckless down there on earth. Just take it easy, you won't be the first rookie who gets destroyed because of overestimating himself..." the medic said. Feeling insulted by his words, Reaver left the sickbay without saying a word. He seemed to be completely recovered, those doctors really seemed to know what they were doing. Standing on the hallway, he isn't really certain where to go... He didn't really felt much for training, and he disliked large spaces like cafeteria's for reasons unknown, he decided to look for a library or a database of enemy's he would be allowed to access, as he still had much to learn about the world he lived in... considering it was only a few days ago he was awakened, with little to no knowledge programmed into him... But Reaver was unable a library.
"No one ever values knowledge anymore..." he grumbled. Feeling a bit angered about this, he headed to the training room to let go some aggression.

After a day passes, the hunters are all settled in, injuries are taken care of and everyone has their rooms. Over the intercom they hear, "Commander X requests the following hunters to report to the mission briefing room," the speaker reels of a list of names including Jet's, Lixi's and Reaver's. Within 5 minutes the hunters are standing in the room,
"Congratulations rookies on your first battle, no doubt many of you will do very well here, we had few casualties and not much damage was done to the surrounding areas, though Hunter HQ was fairly damaged," said X, standing in front of the mission briefing computer. "Now as it comes to my attention there are 2 missions which require your attention." X as he turned to the mission computer behind him and it flickered it on, displaying a write up of the missions and a graphical representation of the terrains of the area.
"There are 2 missions which require attention, please select which you want to take care of first."

On the screen the following is displayed
Mission - Investigate a mysterious signal in the Amazon jungle.
Briefing- A mysterious signal has been spoted eminating from the jungle, we suspect a rise in maverick activity, investigate and report findings.

Mission - Persue the maverick in New York city.
Briefing- In downtown new york a maverick general is leading a large band of minions though the streets tearing everything apart. Put a stop to the destruction before more people get hurt.

--------------------
Please choose which mission you want to go on.
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Jet thinks it over in his mind carefully. He is excited about his first real mission, and the unexpected choice Most missions were assigned not chosen. He wondered what the other reploids would choose, especially the 2 he had fought alongside at the hunter base. He looked at the screens again, one showing a lush quiet jungle, the other was New York on fire. Jet clenched his fists, the choice was no choice at all.
Jet speaks up "I'll take the New York mission X." He runs to his room quickly to grab up a few items. As he runs, Jet reflects and decides that he had made the right decision.
"Those people need help right now," Jet thinks. "I can let some other hunters run recon in the jungle, if they find anything I can head over but I think this mission is more serious right now." Jet returns to the command room and jumps in the teleporter.

X spoke to each of the groups by comm as they were transfered to their missions
"Ok, you are to act as a group, support each other by now you should be familiar with each others strengths and weaknesses. Cover for each other and the mission will succeed."
Then to the jungle group:
"Because you are in the jungle you'll have more cover from any enemies that may appear, use the trees and objects there for cover, try and stay out of sight as best you can, the signal is about a mile from your location. I'm sorry we couldn't warp you closer but there was a teleportation jamming field set up, X out."
To the New York group
"You are in an urban environment, try to avoid damage to the surrounding buildings, the more damage you do the more we have to cover, and our money supply is limited in lieu of the last weeks events. But as for the mission, the maverick general should be close by, confront and capture if possible, the smaller mavericks are also large in number so be careful. X out."

Jet is transported to the city.
"This is horrible," he thinks surveying the distruction and carnage. All the buildings in view were on fire.

Reaver looked around, amazed by all the mayhem and burning rubble. He didn't really fell horrible about the whole thing. In fact, he found it quite interesting. But when he thought about the Mavericks, the anger within him began to build up again.
"Easy now, we don't want to get heavily injured twice in a row now do we?" he thought to himself. He looked around the group, seeing a familiar face...

(Theme of Zero Z1)
Jet sees Reaver teleport in nearby and walks up to him.
"You were that reploid from the HQ. I don't think I ever told you at the time, my name's Jet." The two look at the destruction of the once proud city.
"Its terrible isn't it. Payback is going to be very painful for that maverick scum."

Lixi loved to snipe, and the trees provided excellent cover, but there wasn't a maverick in sight! She thought that maybe she was too impatient for these types of mission, and decided not to go on any like this in the future. Finally the group found a place that looked safe to rest at, everyone was weary after their long trek through the jungle. It was very quiet... which was strange for a jungle.
"This is going nowhere!" a hunter complained. Some others nodded while others muttered things about 'impatient bots'. Lixi silently agreed that it being boring.
"Fine. How 'bout we split up? We'll cover more ground and get this done quiker that way," she suggested. She joined with two other hunters who introduced themselves as Zo and Ace. Once more, they set out to find the source and purpose of the mysterious signal.

Reaver gritted his teeth, every time he thought of mavericks he was angered. Eventually, he closes his eyes and takes a deep breath.
"Let's go Jet," he tells his fellow hunter as he activates his weapon. "Oh by the way, my name's Reaver..." He moves swiftly from building to building with Jet at his side.

As medical reploids rush to the scene and carry humans from the burning buildings, Jet and Reaver continue on. Jet would have liked to help the humans but he reminded himself that he was on a mission to make sure more humans didn't end up hurt, and that those duties were better left to medical repliods. With every building burning, it was impossible to tell which area of the city the mavericks were currently at.
"I'll be back in a minute," mutters Jet, "I'm going to take a look around." With that he activates his boots and takes off into the blood red sky.

"Hey, he can fly? Facinating..."Reaver thinks while watching his flight from afar. He looks down to the street again, and noticices a small group of mavericks moving down the street. He looks up hoping to alert Jet, but he's too far to alert him without giving away his location to the Mavericks. He is about to wait when he sees a small group of humans fleeing from them. "Damn! Can't wait for Jet any longer," He thinks, "Hopefully he will notice it as soon as the fighting starts." He dashes off, off to aid the humans.

"Damn," thinks Jet. "This isn't good, the mavericks aren't in one place, they're scattered all around the city! And I don't see thier leader anywhere." Jet is about to fly back down but he sees two humans in the window of a burning building. The building is massive and so high up that the medical reploids wouldn't get there in time even if they were on scene. As the flames close in the humans decide to jump. Speeding towards them, Jet manages to catch them just before they hit the ground. Unfortunately, Jet was hit from behind. He had landed at the feet of the maverick general. The humans were frozen with terror and Reaver was blocks away. Gritting his teeth, Jet stagers to his feet.
"Get behind me," he orders the humans. "This is not going to be fun..."

Reaver watched from behind a wall, judging the small group of mavericks. "Cannon fodder... Only melee weapons," he thinks, "I did it once, I can manage some cannon fodder harvest again..." He grins and jumps out of the shades, standing in the middle of the road as the civilians run by. Some stop behind Reaver, probally feeling safe to be close to a hunter. The mavericks stop, hestitate for a moment... Reaver raises his weapon and dashes into the group, his hate for mavericks making him forget his earlier decision to gun them down at long range. But still he tries to supress his fury, as he fears he won't be so lucky next time when he will be heavily injured...

"How am I going to beat this general by myself?" Jet thinks "The one at hunter base was easy, he'd been killed before and was just recycled parts. No rookie is going to beat this without an edge of some kind." The maverick general raises his weapon and readies himself for an attack. Before he can, Jet reaches behind him, grabs the humans and flys away. The mavericks all fire and one of the humans goes limp. Jet flys in the direction he had seen the medical reploids. When they land the humans are immediately taken away for injuries. Jet turns away, tears burning in his eyes. The human that had been hit had no pulse. A sobbing Jet knew that he had failed them...

Reaver makes quick work of the little mavericks, impaling the last one. He chuckles, as he stands there, holding high in the air one of his opponents.
The maverick, while coughing and hacking, whispers its last words, "You, you, traitor!" Reaver slams his head in the ground. "Hypocrite," he replies to the lifeless body. He turns his head towards the civilians. He enjoyed the spectators, but he knew they really needed to get out of there. But as he walks back towards them, a nearby building the civilians explodes, flinging sharp or heavy objects towards the group. Reaver is shocked. His eyes are wide as he witnesses the group of humans get brutally mutilitated. A little boy holding a teddy bear also gets hit, the bear gently drops on the ground. Reaver, almost nervewrecked, slowly walks towards the pile of flesh.
Dropping to his knees he lowers his head and cries out loadly, "NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!"
Some mavericks walk out of the smoke of the ruined building, "Hehe oops... man that was explosive..." One of them jokes. "Hey look! A hunter! HAHAHA WHAT A CRYBABY!" Reaver can't take it anymore, the fury takes over again, he sees his scientist getting splattered all over the wall again. He lets out a loud battle cry, dashing off towards the mavericks, filled with hatred and bloodlust and fury again, even though it was easy to see these mavericks were far stronger than the last group...

Jet struggles to get ahold of himself.
"There will be time for this later," he tells himself, "For now you have to make sure you don't fail anybody else. They're all depending on you. Now get up. Its time to regroup with Reaver and end this fight."
Suddenly he hears a loud cry from several streets over. A long series of terrified screams followed by a long wailing "NOOOOOOOOO!" Jet flys over the buildings to see Reaver, completely enraged fighting a large group of mavericks. Jet flys over firing blasts from the elemental cannon. 2 mavericks down. Igniting the strange lance from the hunter HQ he swoops down and impales 3 mavericks.
Leaving the spear inside the mavericks, he lands next to Reaver and pulls out his twin swords. "Sorry, I wasn't back in exactly a minute, I ran into some people. Their general is on the other side of this residential district. Lets take care of the rest of these guys here and go clean up this mess."

A large explosion rocks the city, and another building begins to collapse. The maverick general is on a rampage. Another explosion is heard by the hunters and it is much closer. The ground explodes under their feet and the maverick pops up. He growled and observed the hunters, clearly enjoying the fight.

Reaver, calmed again when the Jet arrives at the scene, observes the newly arrived maverick. Apparently using explosives for weapons, thus extreme heat... Reaver's weakness. Then he looks at the group mavericks he was fighting with Jet, every single one of them still ready for battle, provoking the hunters to attack. Impossible odds for two rookie hunters...
Reaver whispers to Jet, "I think we are going to need some help..."

"There is no other help, I think we're the only hunters in the city," Jet exclaimed. Jet eyes the maverick general's arms, one had a drill on the end. "So he's been tunneling under the city this whole time planting bombs and knocking down buildings," Jet thinks, "No wonder I douldn't see him from the air, he was underground." Fortunately, the maverick general was confident that he could defeat the two rookie hunters. He growled at his troops who left to cause more destruction and death. "This overconfidence will be his end," Jet thought. He shouted at the maverick, "I owe you one for the humans you've murdered. I'll stop you if it costs me my life!"

"Who's brilliant idea was it to send only a couple of offensive hunters into a warzone anyway...?" he grumbles, "After this is over, if we live I'm going to complain personally!" Focusing on the Maverick again, he tries to look for a weakspot... There appears to be none, his armor is flawless and incredibly thick. He decides to play defensively and let the general make the first move.

Speaking quietly into his communicator Jet requests help from any who might be listening. All he hears is static.
"Enough talk," growls the maverick as he hurled a bomb, "Now you die!" Jet quickly grabs the lance from where it was still imbedded in the destroyed mavericks and hits the bomb back into the maverick general. Chunks of its armor are blown off revealing the machinery within. Enraged and still operational the maverick lunges at Jet and grabs him by the throat and starts crushing it.

Meanwhile Lixi continued her hike through the jungle. It was so frusterating that the Hunter HQ couldn't pinpoint the source of the maverick signal. The endless walking was so boring.
For the millionth time she asks herself, "Why the heck did I choose this mission?"

Jet could feel his systems shutting down.
"So this is how it ends," he thinks. Suddenly a hailstorm of buster shots came out of nowhere hitting the maverick in the back and causing him to drop Jet. Using the last of his strength, Jet heaved the lance into the hole made by the bomb. Sparks flew, the general cried out in pain. The last thing Jet saw before losing conscience was a figure behind the maverick general. "I know that armor, that looks like..."

Reaver stood paralyzed, watching the battle. Even when Jet got grabbed by his throat, he could only watch. Watching Jet die before his eyes was one death too many, his systems simply froze up. Then suddenly the shots came raining down on the maverick.
This sudden attack brought him back to his senses, "WHAT THE HELL I'M DOING?" he thought. Without further hestitation, he finished the job, slashing the stunned maverick through his head. He looks at Jet, and sees that he will probably be ok.
Reaver turns to the figure behind the dead maverick, "Who are you?"

The figure was silent as he approached Jet and examined him. "He'll be alright..." he muttered then turned to Reaver, "You there, get him back to the hunter base, your mission is over. If there are other mavericks around my gang will take care of them." With that he turned and walked away.

As the final sparks flew from the dead maverick general's body each active hunter heard a beep in their helmit and an automated voice stated "You got explosion crash!" Data was entered into each hunters armor and the knowledge of how to use the weapon was set, and the armor configured for use, the new weapon could be called upon at any time.
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Explosion Crash- powerful but slow attack, uses more energy to do more damage.
Uncharged- fires a wave of combustible energy
Charged- massive energy is discharged off the user devastating an area approx 15-20 feet around user.
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Over the comm came the voice of X. "Sorry new hunters, I forgot to tell you of one of your armors new abilities. Whenever you defeat a maverick the armor will automatically their weapon or power and spread it to every active hunter so no matter where you are if the others defeat a maverick general, you'll get the power they get too."

As the hunters finished mopping up the little mavericks in the city, they noticed more of the strange blue blood. Over the comm X intructed them to collect it, "Be sure to get a sample and bring it back to base, they are still analyzing the first sample but we could use another sample to compare it to."

Meanwhile, deep in the jungle, the group was proceeding slowly when a small quake rocked the ground. The rock that Lixi and the others had been standing on crumbled away and they fell into a nightmare. It was a maverick ambush and they were going to die.

END OF CHAPTER 2