"Dad!"

The word lept from Paul's mouth as neatly and strongly as water gliding off a cliff. He was a small, helpless child again, watching his father's limp form being hauled away like a bulky sac of potatoes by a jet black robot with war-scars on its face. The robot shot Paul an almost sorrowful glance just before being swept away -- with its newly-aquired baggage -- by a translucent beam of light. In one gulp of air, Paul screamed for his father in a boyish cry. The scream rang on and on, becoming deeper and deeper until it became the desolate wail of a tormented adult. It still continued to pour forth as Paul was violently jerked out of his nightmare. His eyes flew open and his mouth clamped shut at the same time.

It was morning. Slabs of cheery sunlight cuddled up next to Paul in his dreary hospital bed. It wasn't the first time he'd had that dream, and chances were it wouldn't be the last.

Paul was getting ready to try to go back to sleep when Genesis bustled into the Night Viper's private room, chattering a string of nonsense without bothering to stop for air.

"Morning, Paul! How're you feeling? That's nice. Time to get ready to go."

Paul blinked while trying to register everything that had been blustered to him. "Go?" He finally managed.

Genesis nodded. "That's right. I think you're well enough to be discharged from the infirmary."

"How do you know...?"

Genesis flashed a sharp toothed grin. "Nothing personal, but the sight of your face is starting to piss me off. That's how I always tell if a patient is ready to go or not."

"Ah, the wonders of Medical Science," Paul muttered.

Zero slammed back the doors of the computer Mainframe room with no mercy. Sure enough Red was there, her serpentine head inclined just slightly, bathed in the muted green glow of the surrounding computer screens. She was obviously preoccupied as she did not flinch at the ringing crash of the metal gates being flung open. Unbidden, Zero jumped and slid on the flawless floor and came to a halt just behind the Mechadrake.

"Ladies and gentlemen," he announced in a sober yet playful voice, "let's put our paws together for Zero, the world's best Hunter and everyone's favourite sex god!"

The last thing Zero remembered seeing was a horrific slashing of dagger teeth and talons while being englufed by a whirlwind that was spawned of the frantic beating of leathery wings. The next moment, he was lying on his back, completely stunned. A worried looking Red Draco (a whole spinning roomfull of them, actually) towered above him, frantically waving a clawed paw a few feet from his bruised face.

"Holy Mother Tiamat! Zero! I didn't know it was you, buttercup! I'm REALLY sorry! Oh jeez...what have I done?"

As soon as there was only one Red in the room, Zero opened his mouth to speak and immediately choked on a mouthful of slick, coppery fluid. He coughed and some of it flecked his lips. Blood. No surprises there. "Did...did I do something wrong?" The Hunter finally managed to rasp around the blockage in his throat. "I'll bring roses next time...I swear..." Zero started to try to sit up, but the effort made him light headed. He would have collapsed again if Red had not been there to support him.

"Take it slow." She advised, still upset. "Sorry about that. You startled me, and attacking you was a reflex action."

"That's some reflexes."

A mysteriously wicked grin surfaced on Red's face. "We Mechadrakes are just full of surprises. See, I pounced on you because I was protecting my lunch..."

"Lunch?" Zero shook his head in an attempt to silence the bells chiming within it.

Wordlessly, Red brought her left paw level with Zero's bloodshot eyes. A tiny bundle of brown and offwhite fur squirmed uncomfortably in the clammy nest of gleaming claws and crimson scales.

The bells in Zero's head stopped chiming immediately. "It's a kitten...."

"Yep."

"Red, you sicko! You were gonna devour a helpless little KITTEN?"

"I've got a taste for young meat! What do you want from me?"

Zero's strength returned to him in one magnificent surge of energy as he scrambled to his feet. Although his emotions and attitudes had been undergoing vast changes over the past months, chances were good that he'd still grant a human a slow and painful death if Bass had been there to order him to do so. But never in his lifetime would he stand by and allow that trembling puff ball to be led by Red's hand into her cavernous chomper.

"How in the world did you get a kitten, Red?"

"It just wandered in here like it owned the place. That says a lot for MHHQ's security, doesn't it? I think it came from the refugee camps. Now can't I just snack in peace?"

"Sorry Red, that's a no no." Zero said firmly. "Give the kitten here."

Red pouted, but she obeyed.

The kitten snuggled in Zero's hand and rumbled contentedly. Zero took advantage of its calm state to study it a bit closer. "It's a six week old male," he concluded. "I'll ask around the refugee camps to see if anyone lost him. But for now, I've gained a pet! I'm naming him Matzah."

"Stupid name, but it sounds tasty," Red sulked as she wistfully eyed the feline.

Zero cautiously put the snoozing Matzah up on his shoulder. The kitten gave a soft 'mew' of confusion prior to finding his footing.

"Now that I've done my good deed for the day," Zero said, "I wanted to talk to you about placing Celeste in the Regal Dragons. I've only been working with her for a few days, but I can already see that she's going to be incredible!"

"Sounds tasty," Red repeated, her eyes still nailed to the kitten on Zero's shoulder.

Zero kicked Red in the shins. That brought her out of her trance, all right.

"Okay!" She snorted. "I'm over the kitten. And from what I've seen of her abilities, Celeste looks like she can live up to her dad's name. Bring her to my office this afternoon and we can sign her up if she accepts."

"Sounds tasty," Zero smiled in his turn. Red nailed him over the head.

Not surprisingly, Red's office was an untidy but cheerful nest of old papers, reports, and general clutter. The windows were all thrown open to allow the room to swallow the pleasantly warm May air wafting softly from the outdoors. What was most noticible about the office was the fact that large posters of old twentieth century movies were framed haphazardly on the walls. Celeste found her nervous gaze returning to them again and again as Red fired off one application question after another. In between the hasty inquries, Red would mutter incoherently to herself as she scribbled down Celeste's answers. Knowing the erratic Mechadrake, the mumbles could have been anything from little remarks about Celeste to lewd lyrics from some raunchy new CD. It was impossible to tell.

"Okay, last question!" Red began just before one of the movie posters behind her -- the one featuring a popular romance called The Titanic to be exact -- tore itself from the wall with the wind's assistance and rushed to meet its doom on the office floor with a loud, shattering report. The reploid, the human, and the Mechadrake all jumped as one. For half an instant, Zero's arm fell protecively across Celeste's shoulders, but it was hastily removed without so much as a glance from the crimson reploid. Red, in the meantime, was roaring with laughter.

"Wup! Looks like the Titanic sunk again," she commented as she went through the motions of attempting to clean the sparkling shards of glass scattered on the floor. Ultimately, however, she settled back into her chair and grumbled something that sounded like "Piss on it...DiCaprio sucked big in that movie. Anyway Celeste," she continued in a louder voice, "we're almost done with ya! As I was saying before, just one more question..."

Another interruption reared its annoying head. Red's phone rang impatiently from across the room. Red snorted with disgust. A faint streamer of smoke rose from one soot caked nostril, which was a definate sign that she was fed up. Red only seemed to produce fire and smoke when she was severely agitated. "Get that for me, would you Zero? I'd like to finish this while I'm young."

Zero obediently headed across the room and picked up the reciever. "Psycic Friends Hotline."

"Lady Draco...?" It was Siggy on the other end. Whoops!

"Hello, sir!" Zero quickly recovered his respectful tone. "No, this is Zero. Red's busy with a new applicant to the Regal Dragons."

"Indeed?" Sigma drawled in his usual bored voice. "Who's coming aboard?"

"Celeste McTreggor."

"Hmmm...oh yes, that girl who was injured in the last refugee evacuation. I remember her father. Well, once she's signed up, can you bring her down to the training room? I've heard that you've been training her. I'd like to see what she can do."

Zero's heart lept at these words. Would Celeste be able to flaunt her lightsabre skills in front of the Big Cheese as well as she had in front of him? A disturbing vision of Celeste screwing up massive before Sigma's critical eyes swam into Zero's mind. If she was nervous, Celeste could fumble and easily chop her good arm off with her sabre. Oh boy, THAT would be fun. Skysheen would go white, Red would most likely die laughing, and Zero himself would probably turned on by the blood, as usual. Nevertheless, he maintained an airy tone while saying to Sigma, "I think it can be arranged, sir."

"Excellent! I'll see you there in an hour."

"Don't be nervous when you see him, dear!" Red advised softly in Celeste's ear on their way down to the training room. Zero and Skysheen were in tow.

There was no need to worry about that: Celeste was already scared halfway out of her mind about meeting Sigma. Her right hand was wrapped tightly around her new sabre, its hilt already streaked with sweat. Her crippled left arm throbbed painfully under the stress the rest of her body was undergoing. Her new bone white lightweight titanium battle vest (soldered with the Regal Dragons Unit badge) clanked ridiculously as her body was hit with tremors. She was nervous all right.

The party walked into the vast chamber that was the training room. Sigma was not there.

"Guess we're early," Red huffed as a sweep of leathery wings took her to her favourite spot in the area: the rafters.

Skysheen's forked tounge flickered like red lightning over his yellowed teeth. "I TOLD you that your watch was fast, Red, but noooooo...."

Frowning, Red silently thrust her balled fists down at her irate sibling and began making twisting motions with them. Skysheen flicked his eyes up at his sister and then narrowed them suspiciously. "Red, what in the name of Silvara are you doing?"

"I'm wishing cancer upon you, Skysheen."

"Cancer?"

"Yes. In the head."

Zero and Celeste giggled. Skysheen, however, was not amused. "Why don't you come down HERE and wish Head Cancer upon me?!" The blue draco challenged. With one graceful creak of wings, he lept and latched onto Red's forked tail with onyx talons. Red gave an ear splitting screech as she was pulled from her post. Luckily, she managed to untangle herself in mid air. Her face twisted in a dangerous snarl, she locked onto Skysheen and raked her equally sharp claws across his neck, ending up with a fistful of the blue Mechadrake's mohawk. Skysheen's hand instantly shot up to his prized mane, a look of horror spreading slowly across his face as he felt its now marred surface. The horror was promptly exchanged for rage, and Skysheen launched himself in a frenzy at his sister.

Celeste's jaw simply dropped as she watched the brother and sister duke it out. Surely the two would end up dismembering each other. She had never seen such a ferocious battle between reploids. Zero regarded her uneasiness and laughed.

"Don't worry," he assured her. "It's just a little sibling squabble. Happens all the time between th ese two."

"Looks more like the start of World War IV."

"Nah, neither of them will come close to getting hurt." Zero paused and frowned. "Although I think I should try to stop them before Sigma comes. It wouldn't do to have him walk in and see the leaders of the Regal Dragons like this." The Hunter dashed off towards the squalling dust cloud situated across the mammoth room.

Celeste cocked her head slightly to one side as she watched Zero depart. The Crimson Wonder had basically stuck by her like glue since she had gotten shot last month. He was always making some reason to be with her. If Celeste didn't know any better, she'd say that the Hunter had a crush on her. Well, that was definately a compliment. Sort of. Celeste had never had much success with the males of her own species, yet she attracted a champion reploid. Go fig. Her mind plunged deep to search for any emotions that she in turn might harbour for him; it resurfaced with a simple answer.

"He's kinda cute," she muttered to herself.

"I thank you."

Celeste jumped and began to run like a bat out of hell. A booming laugh from behind stopped her. It was Sigma. Celeste sheepishly walked back to him, turning five different shades of red the whole way.

"I never knew that humans were capable of such colour change," Sigma rang out heartily. "I think Sting would envy you."

The Spartan's mood was unusually light. Celeste would never have guessed that diabolical thoughts were slowly turning the gears in his cunning mind, preparing to hatch the plans for the liquidation of the humans right at that moment...

"Where's Zero?" Sigma then asked.

Celeste listlessly pointed in the direction where Skysheen and Red were still tussleing. Zero ran alongside them, jumping up and down like an idiot and waving his hands in a futile attempt to get the drakes to calm down.

"The Mechadrake breed," Sigma snorted in a half - amused tone as he observed the unruly sight. "The Eighth Wonder of the World."

Celeste blinked. "Really?"

"Not really, but Mechadrakes ARE a puzzle," Sigma explained, sounding like a nature documentary. "They're basically bipedal reploid dragons, but their structures, their thinking patterns, their battle skills are far more advanced than any other breed of reploid. So advanced, in fact, that it would be nearly impossible to build a Mechadrake reploid outside of Mechadrake Assemblies Inc., and even repairing one in our most advanced Medical Units is hell. Mechadrakes are fiercely proud of their exclusive heritage..."

"Mechadrake Assemblies Inc.?" Celeste interrupted, then suddenly realized who she was talking to. "Sorry sir...didn't mean to interject."

"Quite all right. To answer your question, Mechadrake Assemblies Inc. is a reploid plant that assembles Mechadrakes, as you could probably tell by the name. The parent company is in Toronto, and a few smaller branches are scatt ered throughou t the rest of Canada. Mechadrakes were ordered and shipped to a few Hunter Bases down here in the States, and there was even talk of opening a US Mechadrake branch. However, when the Border War occoured between the two countries, the plans for the US factory were scrapped, and even the trickle of Mechadrake warriors stopped. The planning of the US assembly plant didn't resume when the peace treaty was finally signed, either: Canadians still aren't all that friendly with us."

"So when did Sky and Red arrive?" Celeste inquired. "Why did they leave?"

Sigma shrugged. "They won't tell, and we can't make them do so. They talk as little about Mechadrake Assemblies Inc. as they can...although Red never shuts up about how great Toronto is. She misses it terribly from what I understand."

Celeste gave silent sympathy to Red; she knew the feeling of having to leave your home.

Sigma shot a glance and the musing human. Unbridled hate bubbled within him, but he didn't let the emotion scar the features of his stony face. Today, with Celeste's help, step one of the human holocaust would begin. Manipulating a human mind would prove to be fun.

"Well, Celeste!" Sigma rang again. "Why don't you show me what you can do? Zero says you're quite good. I should think so. That's a Regal Dragons badge, isn't it? My my."

The room around Celeste lurched violently, and she felt as if she were going to throw up. Across from her, Zero had managed to break up Skysheen and Red. Celeste noticed with a touch of amusement that Zero had banished the mussed dragons to opposite corners of the room, where they both sulked. Zero kept his eyes nailed to them like a stern schoolteacher, shouting if one of them dared to make a move.

Sigma read her mind. "Don't bother calling Zero over here, Celeste; he's got his own issues to deal with."

"Okay," Celeste exhaled as she drew her lightsabre hilt.

Sigma sneered in disapproval. "A lightsabre? Oh no no no. Those things are so tacky. Why aren't you using a laser rifle?"

Celeste cast her eyes down at the polished wood floor. She hadn't even started, and already Sigma was finding fault. "They're too heavy for me, sir. My left arm is partially crippled."

"Nonsense." The Spartan drew his own trim rifle and handed it to the Huntress. "Try this. It's one handed, very light, and extremely powerful. You'll be able to handle it. Be careful, they're very expensive; the HQ only has three of them that I know of."

As Celeste examined the high - tech weapon, Sigma glanced again at Skysheen and Red. "Your father was a great Hunter," he commented out of nowhere.

A spear of ice jabbed at Celeste's throat. She swallowed it. "I know sir."

"He died an honourable death."

"Thank you sir."

"Skysheen and Red weren't the only Mechadrakes to come down from Toronto, you know. Torrent Leviathan is a Mechadrake, too."

The room had stopped lurching, but it now began to change colour and perspective as Celeste fixed her eyes on her scaly friends across the room. "....he is?"

"Indeed," Sigma said in a grave tone. Inwardly, however, he jumped and cheered as he saw a sickly light glint in Celeste's eyes. "In fact...." he continued, "I'm told that he looks something like Skysheen does."

"Skysheen...?" Echoed Celeste dully. She was in a trance, exactly as Sigma had planned. He lowered his voice.

"Yes...blue scales, cunning eyes. Can you imagine what the battle between them must have been like?" Sigma was careful to say 'them' rather than specifying Torrent Leviathan.

Celeste continued to stare stupidly at Skysheen across the room. Her active imagination recalled the image she had made up months ago of her father fighting for his life in the filthy depths of some stagnant sewer. She could see her dad's phenotype very well -- when he died, he had still been fairly young and had not quite yet exited the fleeting stage of wildflower beauty and spirit that all humans experience early in their life. Torrent Leviathan was there, of course: a nightmare of teeth and sea blue scales...blue like Skysheen's....

All of a sudden, Celeste was amid them as Torrent was about to pass his gnarled, bloodstained claws across her father's exposed throat. Feeling as if she were drowning in blue, Celeste raised the lightweight rifle and fired an intense bolt of white energy towards the threatening Mechadrake...

A terrible dragon's scream accompanied by the sickening smell of burned leather, metal and scales jerked Celeste violently out of her dream world and back into reality. She watched in disbelieving horror as a sapphire form writhed in pain on the floor across the training room. A cry of anguish lept from Red as she dashed towards her stricken brother.

Celeste had shot Skysheen.

All of a sudden, things were in a tizzy. Half of the reploids and humans present in the room ran to aid Skysheen, while the others dashed towards Celeste. From behind her, Sigma said nothing, but he issued a quiet laugh. The huntress became dimly aware of someone wrenching Sigma's rifle away from her while others grabbed her arms and shouted garbled commands in her ears. Thankfully, they all vanished as the ground rushed up to meet Celeste, bringing with it a merciful, silent void.