Beginning

Colonel sighs under his breath as he crosses what looks to be the remains of an old factory, which is now nothing more than piles of rubble inside a building with dozens of large holes that were left by the blasters blazing in the battle between a Maverick Hunter troop and a small group of Mavericks. He has no idea why he was called here. The place seems secured and the Mavericks that ambushed the troop were eliminated, so why was he being called out here?

“Colonel,” The named turns his attention to the voice calling to him, finding his Army Captain, Slash Beast, approaching him. “I apologize for any inconvenience this has been to you but I thought it would be better if you saw this yourself.”

“Saw what?” Colonel asks.

Slash Beast gestures for the other to follow him and guides him out of the building, speaking as they make their way to a small group of soldiers. “While we were shifting through the fallen reploids, we found something that we can barely understand ourselves.” He explains.

“What are you talking about?”

“You’ll see.”

The two make their way through the wall of soldiers and Colonel discovers what the men were gathered around: a strange, young woman. Her snow white hair fans out behind her head and looks to fall no further than her shoulders and her bangs are messily brushed to the side to cover her right eye. Her clothes, a forest green, long-sleeved shirt and black jeans with a checkerboard pattern on the left calf and a chain hanging out of the right pocket, are tattered, scorched, and stained in red oil in some places. Her boots, looking to be military issues, are caked with a dirt-oil mixture. She was obviously shot at during the fight judging by the distinct burns but she did not remain still during most of the battle. Colonel kneels beside the girl and brushes the bangs covering the right side of her face, revealing her nearly flawless features as well as signs that she was involved in the battle: a large cut on her cheek and a large bruise above her right eye along with several bruises on her face and neck and abrasions prominent on her neck and any place that had been exposed through the tattered shirt.

“We found her like this, along with some of the equipment she was carrying.”

Colonel turns to inquire about the latter part of the statement when he is presented with two objects by the Captain: a set of saber daggers and a pistol blaster. Both look brand new and both were obviously from the Maverick Hunters as the symbol of the Maverick Hunters one both weapons. He takes one of the daggers and examines it. The color scheme matches the girl, dark green and white, and the weapon has red stains on it as well. He looks at the girl and notices her hands and the bottom halves of her sleeves are heavily stained with red oil.

“We also found these on her.”

Colonel glances to his side, finding a strange armor module of some kind and a Maverick Hunter communicator in Slash Beast’s hand. The officer sets the dagger down and takes the two items, one in each hand, and looks closely at the armor module. It is in a shape similar to a butterfly, is green, white, and black in color, and the bit in the middle that looks to resemble a head of some kind looks to be shaped like a demon head with long bits shaped like horns and a sharp, triangular face. He then looks at the communicator, a small black and green device with the Maverick Hunter logo on it, recognizing it from the many others he has seen carried by various Maverick Hunters in varying color schemes.

“So she’s a member of the Maverick Hunters?” Colonel inquires. “What’s so strange about that? You reported saying a troop of Hunters was ambushed by some Mavericks, so why call me down here for one in specific?”

“Because she’s not your typical Maverick Hunter,” Slash Beast explains. “Not only is she the sole survivor of this attack…she isn’t exactly a reploid.” Colonel shoots the Captain a confused glance as the other continues. “We scanned her for her vitals shortly after we found her. She’s very much alive and equally so organic. She’s a human, a very tough one to remain in one piece after such a destructive battle where even the reploid Hunters were left in pieces.”

“A human Maverick Hunter?” Colonel murmurs as he returns his gaze to the girl then looks at the communicator again. “Do you know who she is?”

“Without any numbers or any form of identification, we can’t search the database for her.” Slash Beast states. “That’s why I called you down here.”

“You want me to decide what to do with her?” Colonel inquires, looking up at Slash Beast, who merely nods in response. He sighs and returns his attention to the girl, wondering himself what to do with her. She obviously is a Hunter with all this equipment and the fact she was at this abandoned factory where a group of patrolling Hunters was ambushed by a group of Mavericks and participated in the said ambush with a blaster blazing and dual daggers on hand. What else would make sense other than the fact she was a Hunter herself? He sighs heavily then, after handing the items back to Slash Beast, carefully picks the girl up. She shifts in his arms until she curls up against him, murmuring softly under her breath as she nuzzles against him.

“Sir…”

“We’re taking her back to the base.” Colonel states as he turns to his Captain. “We’ll contact the Hunters and let them know we have one of their own in our care.”

“Yes sir,”

Colonel turns and makes his way back through the factory to the waiting ship he arrived in, Slash Beast following. He glances at the girl in his arms once more and allows himself a soft smile. Something about this girl was indeed different but in a way that could not be seen or scanned for. She was special but in what way even Colonel did not understand. All he knew was that he wanted to bring her back to the Repliforce base, if only to keep her close, to find out who she is, and to figure out why she is conjuring this fuzzy warmth in him that seems so foreign but...so right.

It was hard for Colonel to concentrate over the next few hours after returning to the Repliforce base. He would constantly check on the girl and ask for her recovery status and even stayed at her bedside through the night to ensure she would not wake without someone nearby. One night became three days with no signs of waking from the girl or any way to identify her. The Hunters had been contacted once the girl was settled in the infirmary but the earliest a high-ranked member could arrive to the base to bring her back was a week. Colonel did not mind though, it would give him enough time to figure out who the girl was himself and find a way to identify her.

On the fourth night of the girl’s recovery, Colonel finds himself at her bedside again, examining the armor module found on the girl. He is not familiar with this bit of technology and could only assume it is an experimental device made for the human recruit as a means of carrying a portable version of the armor built into the systems of the reploid Hunters. After much examination of the device, he finds something earlier hidden from him the first time he looked at the small bit of metal. On the back of one of the wing-like appendages, he finds a series of numbers engraved near the crevice where the wing melds with the pentagonal base of the module. It looks to be an identification number, like the ones the Hunter reploids had embedded into their systems to help in identifying their remains. Curious, he walks to one of the computers in the infirmary and puts the number in the database. He is surprised by the profile that comes up, a full body hologram of the girl along with a bit of text displaying next to her. The piece of information that catches Colonel’s eye first is the name.

“Demon,” He murmurs under his breath as he reads the name aloud. “So you are a Maverick Hunter.” He quietly chuckles. “Wonder when they started recruiting humans?”

He takes a seat at the station and begins to read over the profile, slowly unraveling what little of this woman’s past the Hunters knew before her arrival at their base. Between the vague history given in her profile and the varying bits hidden away in the Maverick Hunters’ data banks, Colonel could only conclude a few things.

Demon was not a human at all and was defined on her profile as a “demonic humanoid” which was further explained by the notes hidden in her file. She was a supernatural being from some unknown part of hell that was given a second chance at life but ended up in the cross hairs of some Mavericks due to a “wrong place, wrong time” situation which is how she met the Maverick Hunters. She has an alternate form she calls her “true form”, the demonic body which holds all of her demonic powers and her thirst for human blood. Despite this, she posed no other threat to the human populace because she could control her hunger and was left to roam free. A few months later, she was recruited into the cadet program and has since been serving the Hunters alongside another human cadet, a girl named Haley Wily. She has been a cadet for a few months at the time, almost a year if her enlistment date was correct. Her current rank was Cadet-Private First Class and her skills included dual wielding saber daggers, blaster pistols, and something described vaugely as “spy disposal”.

“Impatient one, aren’t you?” Colonel is spooked by the voice and turns, surprised by the bright green eye staring at him from the bed halfway across the infirmary with a smug, fanged grin below it. “But I suppose your bulb isn’t completely dim since you found my ID number on my armor module, so you have that going for you.” Demon states as she pushes herself out of bed and gimps over to the reploid, ruffling her hair then brushing her wild bangs over her right eye. “Who exactly are you to be snooping through my files? You look like a high-ranked officer but looks can be deceiving. I know that better than anyone else.”

“You certainly are sharper than I thought you would be.” Colonel chuckles as he stands and turns to the young girl then salutes her. “I’m Colonel of the Repliforce, ma’am.”

“Repliforce? You mean that second reploid army Dr. Cain developed as a fail-safe because of Sigma? That Repliforce?” Demon asks then smirks. “Well, I guess that explains quite a bit. This place doesn’t exactly smell familiar to me, so I assumed I was taken by a surviving Maverick but this changes everything.” She crosses her arms as she looks Colonel in the eye, only then realizing the large reploid before her was well over twice her size. “And I’m going to assume that since you were thumbing through my files, you know who I am already but we might as well make things official.” She lazily salutes Colonel in return. “Private First Class Demon, sir. Now mind explaining to me what the hell happened after I got knocked out in battle. My memory is a bit fuzzy from the right hook the last Maverick I took out gave me. I blasted his head components all over the factory floor in return, so I think we’re even.”

“Maybe you should lie back down for now.” Colonel suggests. “I can explain everything tomorrow once you get some rest.”

“Well, judging by the date on the computer you’re using, I’ve been ‘resting’ for almost four days now.” Demon argues. “I would rather know what happened between me blacking out and me waking up here before I try to settle in even if I'm at an ally base.”

“I guess I can't blame you there.” Colonel sighs. “I'm not sure about the battle itself but one of our troops patrolling the sector near the ambush site found the ruined factory and the remains of the Mavericks and what I assume was your patrol troop. You were the only survivor and my men didn't know how to identify you, so they called on me to decided what to do with you. We brought you back here to recover until someone from the Hunter base can come get you.”

“And they haven't sent someone yet?” Demon gasps, more to herself than to the reploid. “Guess Haley's busy on another mission with her dad or they would've sent her.”

“You mean your partner?” Colonel asks.

“I wouldn't call her that.” Demon chuckles. “We are partnered up, yes, but she prefers to go on missions with her father despite her still being a cadet. She usually fills in for her father's original partner and I'm assuming that's the case since she wasn't sent to get me.” She crosses her arms as her gaze falls to the floor. “She only deals with me because no one else will.”

“What is that supposed to mean?”

“I'd rather not talk about it.” Demon quietly murmurs, turning and shuffling back to the bed she rose from.

Colonel, more worried than curious, quickly follows the snow-haired girl to her bed. “It can't be that bad. According to the reports I've read, you're quite the exceptional Hunter.”

“Yeah, that's only when I'm out and about on Hunter business.” Demon huffs as she sits on the bed of the bed. “It's when I'm off-duty that people can't stand to be around me.”

“And why would that be?” Colonel asks, sitting on the bed beside Demon.

Demon lightly glares at the other from the corner of her eye. “Don't try to pretend like you care or something. I don't fall for the sympathy trick like that. I'm not a complete sucker.”

“I know you're not.” Colonel states. “According to what I've read, you're one of the more bull-headed cadets they've had. Highly opinionated, a class clown, and a mischievous spirit like any demonic human would be.” The snow-haired girl turns to Colonel, seeming surprised by something he said. “What? Did I say something to offend you?”

“No, it's just...” Demon glances away, mumbling under her breath before looking back at the reploid. “No one's ever called me what I truly am before. They hear demonic and they assume calling me a demon is alright, or a ghoul, I've even been called a beast of hell. Nobody's ever called me by what I am. It just...surprised me that you did.”

“Well, I read about all the other things you've been described as but I honestly can't say I believe them until I've gotten to know you myself.” Colonel explains. “To read about somebody is one thing but to actually talk to them and learn about them through that is entirely different.”

Demon, thoroughly amazed by the response, simply smiles as she runs her fingers through her bangs. “Glad to see not everyone is so easy to judge character from rumors but I doubt you really wanna know about me. I'm nothing special.”

“Considering you're one of two of the only non-reploid members of the Maverick Hunters, are a species I never knew existed until now, and survived a Maverick ambush when all the other reploid members of your troop were decimated, you are special, more than you realize.” Colonel states, wrapping an arm around Demon. “And I wanna try and know exactly how you managed to pull all that off without losing something in the process.”

Demon chuckles loudly and looks up at Colonel with a proud, mischievous glint in her eye. “Well...allow me to start from the beginning.”