"Hurray for X and Zero!" Proto yelled to the 17th Squad. "Hurray!"

"Hey guys, this isn´t necessary." X replied modestly. "Uh, where... where´s Zero?" X asked to himself. X began looking all around the room for Zero, finally, he found him looking through the window. "Hi Zero, what´s it you´re thinking?" X asked to the crimson reploid. Zero looked at X with a worried look in his face.

"X... When we left Sigma´s fortress, I had a strange feeling." Zero continued, X listened carefully. "Somehow, I know this has not finished yet."

"But... Zero, what are you talking about?" X asked his partner even more confused than before. "We destroyed Sigma. Who could probably take his place?"

In the abandoned warehouse, at the limits of Earth Saver 1, a strange being was beginning to upgrade some old robots, too short for reploids, but with a deadly appearance. The robots were, appartently, about 40 to 60 years old, but were in good conditions. "Now, awake my creations." A voice with a remarked german accent said as the robots began awaking. "Soon, zee world out there shall know my power!"

Back at HQ. "Oh, come on Zero!" X said to his friend. "You´ve got to relax, take a good rest." X suggested Zero, who was smiling for the first time since they got back from Sigma´s fortress. "You´ve had a lot of pressure. It´s late now, let´s go to our quarters and rest, OK?"

"OK, X" Zero responded. "Maybe it´s nothing, maybe it´s just my imagination." Zero, X, and the rest of the Hunters went to their respective rooms to sleep. But not all of them could sleep very well... Zero began having strange nightmares. He imagined an old man, with a lab coat, making some arrangements to him and saying: "You, my last creation, will rule the whole world. Nothing shall interfere, and if someone does, you´ll destroy him." The old man laughed, as he locked him in a strange capsule, and then, everything went black.

"What was that?" Zero asked to himself as sit on his bed, sweating (yes, sweating, by that time, reploid could sweat). "It doesn´t matter, got to get some sleep." And so, Zero went to sleep.

A month after that, a new rookie group graduated. There were two female reploids who had the highest averages. "Wow!" A female reploid with long blod hair exclaimed to her friend as the group was divided and assigned to different squadrons. Her name was Diane.

"Uh... What´s in your mind Diane?" Another female Hunter asked curiously to her partner. She was fair skinned, and had long black hair grabbed into a pony tail. "No, let me guess. You´re day-dreaming again about the Hunter Squadron you want to be in, right?" Liz asked.

"Well, not exactly." Diane answered in a very happy voice tone. "Commander Spade just gave me the squadron we are going to be in."

"All right, all right. Which is our new squadron?" Liz asked without any emotion. She had always dreamed to be in the 17th squadron, but she knew that it was just for the best Hunters in Earth Saver.

"You will not believe this. Bet ya´ won´t!" Diane was getting really excited. "OK, Spade assigned us to the... 17th Hunter Squadron!"

"What??!!" Liz was astonished, she was almost crying of joy. Both Huntresses began jumping in happiness.

"Tomorrow, Spade is going to introduce us to the members of the 17th." Diane told Liz as she walked to her quarters.

Next day, at the 17th Unit´s Room, Coordinator Spade was going to introduce Diane and Liz to the 17th Unit, but someone was missing. "Proto, where´s your unit commander?" Spade asked in his usual, but still fearful, voice.

"Who is the unit commander of the 17th Unit?" Diane asked Spade curiously. "We enlisted to the Hunter Training, but we don´t know anything about the Hunters in HQ."

"So, it will be a surprise." Spade answered her as he looked for X. Finally, the main door opened. But it wasn´t X, it was Zero.

"Is he the commander?" Liz asked excited. "He´s so handsome."

"Not of the 17th Unit. His name is Zero, and he´s the commander of the Zero Class Special Unit." Spade was beginning to get mad.

"Don´t worry sir." Zero said. "He´ll be here at any minute, he´s just finishing up some Mavericks he found outside HQ." The main door opened once again, revealing a known figure to everybody, except the new Huntresses.

"Did you missed me?" X said in his cool, joking voice. "Sorry, but I hadn´t fought a Maverick in a month, and I was going crazy. Who are these girls Spade?" X asked confused.

"Who is he?" It was Diane´s turn to get excited. She looked at him quite well. "He´s X. He´s your new commander." Spade answered to Diane´s question. And then, answered X´s one. "X, they are two new members of the 17th Unit. She," Spade refered to the black haired Huntress, "is Liz. And she´s Diane." Now refering to the blond haired female reploid.

"He doesn´t look strong enough to be commander." Liz said as she examined X carefully. "In fact, he looks weak and fragile."

"Liz..." Spade said nodding his head in disagreement. "Have you ever heard about Sigma? Well, X defeated Sigma alone for four times! Sigma´s first and last mistake was to underestimate him. But he can give you a simulator proof." Spade turned to X. X nodded his head in agreement. The simulation went right on. There were about 50 Maverick holograms. They all attacked X at the same time, with their arm-cannons shooting. X dodged the plasma beams easily, and used his X-Saber and slashed 10 or so. He charged his X-Buster at level 9 and fired. He destroyed all the mavericks in no time. The Huntresses were astonished.

"Zero..." X was talking to Zero that afternoon. "How did you liked the new girls? In my opinion, I think Diane´s beautiful. What do you think?"

"Well, I loved Liz." Zero answered grinning. "She is lovely!"