No title, just an introductory post I wrote for an RPG that died before I had a chance to use the character. Who is originally Speed's. In case you hadn't guessed that. Asher's in it. :D

"Check up the hallway. Where have our targets gotten to?"

"Maybe someone tipped them off."

"Who?" His companion snorted. "Unless it was you, old friend."

"Hardly possible." He smiled, hand dropping down to touch Jinx's head. The large canine glanced up at the gesture, eyes flashing briefly in the darkness of the room. With a soft word, Speed sent him up the hallway, nodding to Asher. "Five minutes, then?"

"Five minutes."

As the green-armored Reploid turned to follow his dog up the hallway, a soft, keening bark travelled back to him. He could see the wolf-robot, cast silver in the moonlight, gazing intently at a stairway. Slowly, Speed knelt beside the dog and smiled almost affectionately. "Found them already?" he murmured. "Fenrir won't be pleased." At his reference to Asher's canine companion, the dog, armored dark green like himself, flicked a dimissive ear, then gazed at his master inquiringly.

"No, I'll go first." He rose again, taking the hilt of his beam saber in hand. Would they be waiting for him, ready to launch a desperate attack? Or would they, perhaps, be cowering in a corner like rabbits, shivering against the cold wind? The wind that would be their death. This man would not cower, he decided, taking one easy, careful step after another until the void of the basement swallowed him completely.

He paused. There. And there. He took a step forward, igniting the beam saber and swinging it lazily to the left in one smooth motion. The red blade illuminated an expression of anger and desperation in the split second before it severed the man's life from his body, killing him before he could utter a sound.

Which was not to say his death was silent. From across the room came a howl of grief, and the cowering rabbit lunged at him. He side-stepped the crowbar silently, watching her expression return to hopeless fear in the wash of red-white light as he struck her down. "Targets eliminated," he reported, walking back to the stairway, and Jinx gave a short bark.

"Ah, you've outdone me again, old friend," Asher's voice floated down from the top of the stairway, eliciting a smile from his ally below. "I suppose we'd best be off, then."

"Yes." Speed permitted himself one last glance over the room, surveying his work. A clean job, aside from the woman. Pity she hadn't been quieter. He froze suddenly, gaze arrested by a most peculiar sight.

"There was a child, you know," came Asher's voice. "I wonder if they had him moved somewhere safe -- if they knew we were coming."

His gaze and the boy's locked, hazel and blue. The pistol in his hands trembled once, twice. Not a rabbit, this one, but not a wolf. "He wasn't one of our targets."

"Not a target, no," Asher replied lazily, "but a loose end. Can't have any of those, after all."

"Of course not." The slightest sound meant his death, he had to know that. A sob or even a hiccup would spell his doom.

"Are you getting soft on me, old friend? I'd hate to think that ..."

"I haven't seen him." He disengaged the beam saber and tucked it away, turning his back to start up the staircase.

"Ahh.." It was more a sigh than a statement. "Then we'll be off."

He knew. Speed's eyes snapped open to see wintry sunlight filter heedlessly through the falling leaves of the trees, the power of that simple thought immediately propelling him to figure out who this mystical "he" was, and what exactly he knew that sent such a powerful surge of fear through his systems. I don't remember. He could barely remember the dream (dream?), in fact. Sand running through his fingers.

Worry about the dream later.

"What happened to the battle?" He could remember being in a battle.

Our side lost. Get up.

He did so obediently, scooping his helmet up from where it lay next to him and settling it on his head, after brushing his hair free of leaves and twigs. "But how did I get here?"

I got you here.

"Of course. So where are we?" It looked much like any other patch of forest he'd seen, sans the dismembered Reploid bits and random splashes of blood. But he was deep enough into the forest he could see no landmarks.

Do you have to ask stupid questions every time this happens? Start walking. West. We're going to see Patch.

Stifling a sigh, Speed did as he was told. For the most part, he could trust Jinx's judgement in situations like this. It was difficult for a subsystem to betray its host, whatever the situation.

Right, then. Let's establish some facts. You're part of the 325th Maverick Infantry Squad, the Polecats.

"Polecats? That's unsavory."

They were running out of good names.

"I liked my old squad better."

You don't remember your old squad, idiot.

"... All the same."

We launched a small offensive against a resistance group here, and to our surprise, we were thoroughly squashed. They called in reinforcements that aren't supposed to exist anymore.

Speed picked his way delicately along a drop-off, processing the information as it was given to him. Temporary memory loss came with Jinx's reactivation cycle, especially when it kicked in late, as it apparently had this time. "Aren't supposed to exist anymore," he murmured. "The Maverick Hunters?"

Got it in one. Nice to see your neural systems are at least semi-functional.

"Har har. So what are we going to do?"

Go see Patch. I told you that already.

"About the Hunters."

That's your call, isn't it?

Speed paused, leaning against a nearby tree. "My call." He was puzzled by that, since to his memory -- which wasn't much good, admittedly -- he had never been a part of the Hunters. "Why is it an issue?"

You made it one.

"By asking?" Jinx didn't answer immediately, leaving him to ponder the situation on his own. He'd found himself lacking, lately, in several strengths most of his comrades seemed to possess. He didn't care much about humans one way or the other, where most of them exhibited what could be classified as rabid hatred. He wasn't confident in their domination of this small planet, where so much could change so quickly -- or so slowly. "I don't really understand."

Jinx remained silent for a few more moments, waiting until Speed began walking to speak again.

I really did prefer it when we were on the side of the angels.

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