Zero's heart had been set on joining one of the Hunter Units. A Unit that saw a lot of action and violence, such as the Regal Dragons or even the Spartans. Therefore, it's easy to understand why he gaped with disbelief as Skysheen ushered him into the large Medical Unit of MHHQ.

Disappointment weighed heavily on Zero's stomach as he stared at the rows of identical and immaculate beds before him. Most of them stood empty, but one did house a Hunter, a human male with an injured leg. The human slowly bounced a red rubber ball against the wall, caught it, and stonily bounced it again. Judging by the crazy look churning slowly in the young man's eyes, he had either had too much painkiller or was coming down with a severe case of cabin fever.

"Skyster..." Zero gulped, "are you saying that I'm gonna be working...HERE? The hell with that! I wanted to be a Hunter, not a frackin' nurse! I'm leaving!" Zero turned to exit, but Skysheen blocked his way. The draco was perfectly silent, but he fixed Zero with a look that was absolute poison.

Zero wilted. "Uh...okay...I guess I could stay...for a while...don't knock it 'till you've tried it...that's my motto..."

Sky's stern expression dissolved as he clapped Zero on the back. "Atta boy! We have plenty of Hunters, Zero, but we're severely short on medical staff. You'll like working in this branch! I promise! Now, I'll take you to meet da boss man!"

Boss 'MAN' was sort of misleading. When Sky directed Zero to his new boss, the first thing that he caught sight of was the backside of a short reploid that was equipped with a bushy, orange-red tail which was swishing back and forth. The reploid was busying itself at a desk with something or other.

"Hey, Genesis!" Skysheen called cheerfully. "I got some staff here to help you."

The reploid did not turn around, but the nervous twitching of his tail increased tenfold. "It's about bloody time ya did, Sky...when the Units get back from Hunting, this place turns into a madhouse! Especially when the Night Vipers come back. Oy, half the humans in THAT Unit get all banged up and end up in here!"

Skysheen actually drooped his majestic head a bit in shame. "I know. I'm sorry Genesis. I'll get you more help from now on, I promise."

"That's what I like to hear," Genesis stated prior to pivoting on his heel to face Zero and Sky. The phenotype of his new boss caused Zero to recoil a bit in surprise.

Genesis was a bipedal reploid fox donned in silver and maroon armour. A badge on his right shoulder that bore the traditional symbol of a hissing serpent coiled around a crucifix signified his position in the Medical Unit. Two canine-type ears jutted from Genesis' helmet. Most surprising, however, was the fact that his head gear had a black visor that rested on his pointed snout and covered his eyes completely.

Genesis frowned as he observed Zero who was staring at him with wide eyes. "What's with Mr. Big Eyes here?" the fox snorted contemptuously. "You'd think he'd never seen a fox wearing sunglasses or somethin'!"

Zero was getting ready to tell Genesis exactly where he could put his sunglasses when Skysheen suddenly pulled him aside.

"Play nice with Genesis, y'hear?" the dragon whispered into Zero's ear. "He's a nice guy, and he takes good care of the injured humans in here. Help him out and do as he says. If you don't, you'll have ME to answer to. And I can assure you, that won't be pleasant. Okely dokely?"

Zero nodded glumly.

Skysheen nodded, satisfied. "All three Units are going on a big mission today, so you'll have plenty of work when we get back. We're trying to re-claim some territory that the Mavericks took over. We're gonna have quite a time! See you soon!"

Skysheen exited the Medical Unit (not before getting his massive wings caught in the doorway), the badge of the Regal Dragons proudly displayed on his right arm. Zero watched him, distressed. Genesis' grating voice penetrated the crimson reploid's cloud of gloom.

"HEY! Wookiee - Man! Don't just stand there staring! I have lots of...ooooh...." Genesis stopped in his tracks. Zero whipped around in alarm. The reploid fox stood, swaying, staring in wonder at the nearly-forgotten yellow ribbon that Red Draco had tied around Zero's neck earlier.

"Oh man...that's so COOL!"

Zero blinked twice and pointed to the scrap of cloth encircled around his neck. "This lousy yellow ribbon? 'Cool'?"

Genesis nodded dumbly.

Zero shrugged. "Here, TAKE it!" he said, glad to have an excuse to get rid of the thing. He peeled it off of himself and handed it to his canine boss, who gripped the thick ribbon with shaking claws.

"You mean...you mean I can...HAVE this?" he whispered in disbelief. "Oh..oh MAN! Thanks, Rapunzel! You're the BOMB!"

"My name's Zero."

Genesis didn't seem to hear. He was too busy winding the ribbon around his neck. By the time he was done, Genesis looked like he was sporting a spiffy yellow scarf. He modeled for Zero. "So...how do I look?"

Probably nothing on earth was more bizarre looking than a reploid fox wearing shades AND a scarf. However, Zero remembered that Genesis was his new boss, so tried a lie.

"You look fabulous."

Genesis grinned ecstatically. "Thanks! I feel so...complete now!"

"I'm very happy for you," Zero said flatly.

"Well, time to get to work!" Genesis said cheerfully. "There's a big hunt today, and we're likely to get a LOT of injured folks, human and reploid alike. Mechanics will handle the reploids, but we'll be bandaging up the humans!"

Now Zero was going to be FIXING UP humans. Yay. This got better and better all the time.

"What I want you to do, Zero, is to go down to the Hunter-Dispatch area and see how many human Hunters are there. We need to have enough beds. You don't really need to include the reploid Hunters in your head-count. Although an injured reploid needs to be very still in order for its auto repairs to work, it doesn't need a cot for that need. Sitting still on the floor repair it just as effectively. Some injured reploids will try to unload some sob-story about how they NEED to lie in bed to get better. If that happens, and you need the bed for an injured human, just dump the reploid out of the bed and kick it out the door."

Zero grinned. "Got it!"

"Do you know where the Hunter-Dispatch area is?"

"Yes." Zero lied.

Genesis looked as if he didn't quite believe Zero. "First floor. Hang a right from the main entrance and keep going straight. Can't miss it unless you're a drooling idiot. Now hurry up and go; the Hunters will be leaving at any minute! And put this on." Genesis handed Zero a badge that was identical to his own with those last words. "Now go! Hurry hurry hurry!"

The Hunter-Dispatch area WAS quite easy to find, and Zero had an uneventful trip there. As a security measure, he had to stop and talk to some reploid guards before they could allow him into the bay.

"Okay son, what's your name?"

"Zero. And don't call me 'son'."

"Okay...why do you need to enter the Hunter-Dispatch area?"

"Oh, I have to take an estimate on how many humans are gonna get mangled in today's hunt. It's for the Medical Unit."

"I see. Pass."

The second guard opened the steel door in front of Zero and shooed the reploid in. Zero was met by a sprawling, massive room that looked much like a huge, rectangular garage. Cool air filtered in through the open hatch at the tail end of the room. Platoon upon platoon of Hunters, reploid and human, male and female, accompanied Zero in the area. Zero could see that they were more or less separated into three large groups. Everywhere, Hunters were checking their armour, tightening straps to sheaths that held wicked blades, talking nervously to one another or praying. The fresh breeze in the room did little to wash away the stale pre-battle tension that hung in the air. Zero had never felt so jealous in his whole life.

Zero's eyes swam through the crowd. He took a rough count of how many humans were in the room. His conclusion: a hell of a lot.

Zero picked out a familiar face in the masses: Red Draco. He hesitated for a second, then began to push through the sea of Hunters to meet her. Although the reploid dragon's feelings for HIM were pretty obvious, Zero still didn't have much of an idea about how he felt about Red. She was a puzzle to him.

Zero finally broke free and found himself a few meters away from Red. Unlike the other Unit leaders who had already begun to give a solemn pep talk to their Hunters, Red was pounding her chest and bellowing gothic war songs at the top of her lungs like a bloodthirsty demon from the Ninth Ring of Hell. "Join in!" She'd call out every so often to her Hunters, and the nervous Regal Dragons clustered in front of her would be forced to mumble through a verse or two of the chant. Fear was obviously one feeling that Red lacked in her emotions cache.

"Red!" Zero called out once there was a lull in the song.

"HONEYBUNNY!" Red squealed as she rushed to meet Zero. She bowled over a few Hunters as she did so. "Give us a hug for good luck!" She said as she scooped Zero up in her arms and gave him a 'hug' that nearly crushed all his ribs. "I'm glad you came to see me...oh! What happened to that ribbon I gave you? It went with your hair!"

"I...uh, lost it." Zero lied.

Red squeezed him again. "No matter! I've got other things for my precioussss...!"

Zero gulped involuntarily.

Red spied the badge on Zero's right shoulder. "Ah! My honeybunny is part of the Medical Unit, is he? That kicks ass!"

"No it doesn't," protested Zero. "I had really wanted to join the Hunters."

"Tsk! Poor you! Too bad...on a nice day like this, freshly spilled blood smells extra good!"

"Ah! Hello there, Zero!"

Zero spun around to see who had issued him this greeting. His eyes met with pale purple armour. Zero looked upwards and grinned. "Hey, Skysheen!+

Skysheen grinned back down at Zero. His black claws clacked on a silver, barrel-shaped cannon that was mounted on one of his shoulders. It was a truly formidable weapon and the beauty and originality of its structure burned into Zero's mind.

Skysheen pulled Zero out of his trance. "We'll be leaving soon, Zero...maybe you'd like to meet the leaders of the other Units before we take off."

"That's a good idea," Zero agreed. "Best of luck in the hunt, you two!"

Skysheen saluted while Red blew Zero a kiss.

At the far right of the Hunter-Dispatch area, the Night Vipers swarmed together in a nervous huddle. Their badges displayed a night-black viper that had its tail entwined around a silver dagger. A tall, young human male stood in front of the Unit, shouting out directions. Zero could tell at once that this man was the leader of the Night Vipers. He found it hard to believe that a human would actually be in charge of a Unit. "Hullo there."

The man looked around to see who had addressed him when his eyes locked onto Zero. "Oh...hello." He smiled nervously. As the man turned to face Zero, a long blonde ponytail crawled over his shoulder. Annoyed, he flipped it back over behind him.

"I'm new here, and I'm just getting better aquatinted with the leaders of the Hunter Units," Zero explained casually. "My name's Zero."

The human nodded. "Nice to meet you. I'm Paul Wells." He smiled modestly.

Zero nodded in his turn. "So...have you been a Hunter for long? It's my guess that you have been, since you're leading your own Unit."

"Yep! I was one of the first ones to sign up." He smiled. "I may be in my forties, but I'm going strong!"

"Whoa!" Zero was quite impressed.

"Yeah. And as long as there's Mavericks, I'll probably keep on going. Robots taking over the entire human race is a thought that I just can't stand. A robot took my dad from me, and that was enough."

"Uh...?"

"When I was little, some freaky black and gold robot actually knocked out my dad and took him," Paul explained, casting his eyes down. "I still don't know what that robot would have wanted him for, but I never DID see him again."

For the first time in his life, Zero actually felt sorry for a human. "Tough break."

"Yeah." Paul sighed. He then cocked his head. "You know something? You actually remind me a bit of him."

Zero g rinned. "Now THAT'S freaky! I'd better go now...good luck in the hunt today!"

"Be seeing you around, Zero!" Paul called cheerfully.

At the far left of the Hunter-Dispatch area, Zero found the Spartans. They were a small Unit compared to the Night Vipers and Regal Dragons, but one could see that they packed a lot of power. The emblem for the Unit was laconic, just as the Spartans themselves had been. All the badge consisted of was two spears crossed over one another.

However, the members of the Spartans Unit did not need fancy badge art to look forbidding. The blood-red cloak that each fighter in the Unit wore did that job very nicely. The leader of the Unit stood proudly with his back to his Hunters, facing the open hatch before him. He seemed to be picturing the fight that would ensue with the passage of about ten minutes. The leader wore a crimson cape rather than a full cloak. Red had told Zero about this fellow earlier; Zero was almost certain that he was staring at the leader of the Spartans and the Hunters overall: Sigma.

Zero pushed forward through the sea of red cloaks to reach the proud Hunter.

"Hey, watch it! No shovin'!" One of the Spartans yelped as Zero passed by it. Zero turned towards the voice and caught a glimpse of a reploid penguin's eyes and beak drowning in the shadows of its cloak.

"Watch the tail!" a green reploid chameleon hissed at Zero.

"Watch your step," warned a massive reploid Mandrill whose red cloak was oversized to fit his massive bulk.

"Hey hey hey, what's goin' on?" a reploid eagle demanded as Zero stumbled into him. There were two large humps beneath the eagle's cloak. Zero guessed that, if the bird of prey were to remove his cover, the humps would turn out to be massive wings.

"You know, there IS such a word as 'excuse me', a reploid mammoth huffed as Zero pushed by him.

Finally, Zero reached Sigma. The bald reploid did not turn around.

"Good day, sir." Zero panted. He had exerted a lot of strength by the time he reached the leader. "My name's Zero, and I just wanted to--"

Sigma suddenly whipped around and bellowed, "HUNTERS! The time has come. Night Vipers...DISPATCH!"

Paul motioned to his fellows, and the Night Vipers trooped out the huge door and into the open air in even lines.

Once they were gone, Sigma fired up again. "Regal Dragons...DISPATCH!"

Red Draco bellowed and her Hunters gave an answering cheer. Rather than dispatching neatly like the Night Vipers had done, the Regal Dragons simply surged out of the room in a tangled mess. Sigma shook his head as he watched them go. He turned to the Spartans behind him. "And lastly...is us. Chill, Sting, Spark, Flame, and Storm. Let's go!"

The Spartans all nodded in unison and followed Sigma into the outside world. The noise of the troops rapidly receded into the distance, leaving Zero very much alone in the now silent Hunter-Dispatch area.

"Yeah, nice to meet you too, Siggy." Zero muttered.