Many people think they know the 'truth'.

But what is truth really?

Do we accept what we learn from the history books as 'truth'?

What we are told by the ones in power as the 'truth'?

Or do we go and find it for ourselves?

In the future mankind will have 'perfected' a process to create babies with no defects... but that is a lie. A lie that has been covered up, twisted, contorted, and made 'truth' by the will of those who remain hidden in the shadows. Cowards who do not wish to reveal themselves and wish to strike from behind when they know it's a perfect time for a slaughter.

The massacre of 2543 had sad consequences for mutants in the future regardless if they had good or bad intent. However, mutants were not the only ones affected by this.

In the year 2692, a scientist named Nathaniel Hyperion developed the most sophisticated form of artificial intelligence ever. His dream was to create a race of machines that could work and live with humans as normal people. On March 11, 2700, his vision came one step closer as he gave birth to Rock, the first Replicant, a machine capable of acting like a human.

Over the next 100 years, Replicant technology was constantly updated and advanced, and soon Professor Hyperion's vision came to pass, even though he was not alive to see it. Humans and Replicants existed together even though mutants were still treated the same.

But on the 100th anniversary of the birth of the first Replicant, the peace was shattered. Replicants went berserk and started to kill their human masters and friends. These berserk Replicants were soon called Mavericks. No one ever learned the reason why this happened or who caused was never learned...nor did humanity care then. They just wanted the problem gone. A leader of the Mavericks appeared, calling himself Omega, and swore he would make the world a paradise for Replicants and only Replicants. He then infected Replicants with the M-Code Virus, which was what made Replicants into Mavericks.

To counter the Mavericks, humans created a new form of Replicants, ones immune to the M-Code Virus. These Replicants were called Hunters, for they were made to destroy Mavericks.

For forty long years, the Maverick Wars raged. When they finally ended in 2841, the Maverick menace had been taken care of. However, humanity turned on the Hunters and Replicants as they had turned on mutants. Many Replicants who were clean were destroyed on sight by people who had grown up in fear of the machines. The Hunters and remaining Replicants vanished from sight in 2853, marked down in history as a mistake rather than saviors.

However, over the last 150 years, Mavericks have reappeared. Sparingly and few in number. Where they appear, a Hunter or two have appeared and taken the Mavericks down and then vanished as quickly as they had arrived.

The year is now 3000 AD. Robots are being built once more, but they lack the AI's of Replicants because humanity fears a repeat of the past and would rather these new machines do not have the power to fight back. At least not as bad as the Mavericks did.

Mankind is totally unaware of what is about to happen.

They have no idea how Ransik, a mutant, has inspired a group of three dozen Mavericks to repeat what he did. What Time Force considers inconceivable and must be stopped.

Travel back in time...and change the future.

Two Time Force officers lay dead on the ground next to their car, their bodies scared beyond recognition by laser burns. From the shadows, a figure walked to their bodies and looked at them.

"It's them," the figure whispered. He reached down to put his hands over their faces and closed their eyes. "No one should have to see their own death or be left with eyes open when life has left their bodies. May your creator welcome you in peace in his paradise..." With that the figure left the scene. He had a job to do.

On the outskirts of the city, a supposedly abandoned warehouse was currently in use. Inside the building working on a large device were two robots, but not just any robots.

These were Mavericks. Both of them were animalistic in appearance yet walked on two legs like normal humans. One of them was an ape and the other one was a mantis.

"I can't wait to get the slag out of this world," the ape Maverick said to his colleague.

"Cut the chatter. The sooner we get done, the better. Time Force is going to be looking for this, if you recall. Glad they didn't disassemble all of the parts of Ransik's gateway. Saved us a lot of time. Took that mutant nearly a year to gather all of the parts." The mantis returned.

"Yeah well its going to be good for us to do what we are going to do when we get to the past." The ape started to laugh.

"Aaaaahh!"

"Huh?!" the two Mavericks turned around to see the head of a Elephant Maverick roll into the room.

"You Mavericks aren't going anywhere except the scrap heap."

The Mavericks saw an armor clad figure step out of the shadows. The armor was mostly blue with some white at his joints. Grey hair came out of his helmet. The face was that of a warrior but also a man who had seen and gone through much. It never lost its grim visage as he held an emerald green energy saber.

"I don't believe it! It's Blade!" the Ape cried.

"The first Hunter! I thought you'd be on the scrap heap now! What's it been, almost two hundred years since you were put online?" the Mantis Maverick shouted..

"I'm still good enough to take out Mavericks like you." Blade returned as he charged the mavericks faster than they expected. The Mantis ducked out of the way of the charge.

The ape, however, was not as fortunate. Blade had lobbed off his head with one strike. The mantis raised its hands as Blade pointed his Plasma Buster at the Maverick. "Please! Mercy!"

"I show none to Mavericks," Blade said emotionlessly as he blew a hole through the Mantis taking out his core. The Mantis lay lifeless on the ground. Blade put his saber away. "That's the last of them. Three Mavericks here plus the two I caught earlier that lead me this way. There aren't any more to worry about for this." He raised his Plasma Buster up, aiming for the time device. "Now to get rid of this mistake."

"Exactly what I was thinking."

Blade didn't even have time to turn around before he saw a violet colored energy saber through his body from behind. "Kuso..." he groaned as he fell down to his knees. He saw someone walk over and put in a piece that was missing, turn a switch and the gate suddenly flared to life.

"How does it feel Blade, the Legendary Hunter? How does it feel to defeated simply because of old age in world that shuns us?" Blade saw an unfamiliar Maverick emerge from the shadows. He looked as if he was a black knight straight out of medieval times. His armor was as dark as the night sky only it was definitely a futuristic look. "I know you don't know who I am. As Omega did, I have laid in wait for my time. You may call me Ares."

"Do you think yourself a God?" Blade asked.

"For now, yes, I am the God of War, for I lead my followers into battle," Ares replied as he gestured to the time gate. Blade's optics widened when he saw the largest group of Mavericks he had ever seen since the Maverick Wars going through the gate.

"No..." Blade rasped.

"I'll leave you to cease functioning here, alone to be found by Time Force, who will most likely dismantle you." Ares then walked toward the gate. "Knowing that I will be in the past and I will bring about Omega's vision. Replicants and Mavericks will never be forgotten, for we shall inherit the earth." He laughed maliciously as he then entered the gate and vanished.

"I won't... I won't let it end like this!" Blade cried, and knew what he had to do. Overriding his damaged circuits, he made his way through the portal before it finally closed, gambling that the temporal power would jump-start his own self-repair system.

Blade knew he would either cease functioning before emerging on the other end of the vortex or not long after he emerged.

So long as he had a chance to stick it the Mavericks one more time, he just didn't care anymore.

June 7, 2006

Cassidy Lawrence sighed as she looked at the time. Why do I always get such rotten luck? The eighteen-year-old teen ran her hand through her long fiery red hair and sighed again. If it wasn't for that accident downtown I would have gotten here sooner. Now I'm going to have to wait until tomorrow to get my course schedule straightened out.

Cassidy had lived her entire life in Silver Hills. She had done fairly well in school and when it came time for college she simply chose to stay in town and enroll into Silver Hills University. Overall she enjoyed her life here.

Crossing over South Street, she caught a glimpse of the building that was the head quarters of Darkstone International, run by Tony Armando. A man in his mid forties, he was one of Jeremy Collins' biggest, if not the biggest, competitor. He had set up shop in Silver Hills only a few years ago. He looked like a 'nice' guy, for a corporate CEO.

Cassidy on the other hand had her own feelings toward Tony Armando. One of the real estate businesses that he owned was buying up property on the east side of town, or what some people referred to as 'Shadowside Lane'. Crime was the highest there and that was before these new attacks that had brought the Time Rangers to the city and before Bio-Synth formed the Silver Guardians.

"If it wasn't for the fact that they do more for people who pay than for the good of the city, I might have been tempted to put in an application," Cassidy muttered. She was no slouch when it came to fighting. She had taken courses in self-defense with a friend during high school. Also, her father had put her through hand-to-hand combat and marksmanship ever since she was a child, telling her that she needed to be prepared for anything the world threw in her way. With all this training, she was more than capable of handling the occasional mugger.

Shaking her head, she decided to head on back to home.

However, underneath the city, Ares looked at his new base. He looked at a Maverick who looked like a human. In fact he looked like a normal scientist right down to his lab coat and bald head. "Impressive work, Borgan."

Borgan smiled evilly. "You sent me here two years prior in secret to help prepare for your arrival Ares. Don't tell me you thought I would disappoint you."

Ares glared at the doctor Maverick. "I leave nothing to chance, Borgan. Blade was an unexpected twist."

"The Maverick Hunter?"

"Ex-Maverick Hunter." Ares chuckled. "By now Time Force is taking Blade apart."

"...I am afraid to be the one to tell you this...but I think you are mistaken," Borgan said hesitantly.

"...What?!" Ares roared as he turned to face the scientist, his optics narrowed.

"I... I saw another temporal distortion shortly after your own my Lord," Borgan hurriedly said, moving away from his master. "At first I thought it nothing but..."

"Frell!" Ares snarled as he turned towards a computer terminal. His left hand had retracted into his body, replaced by wires that attached themselves to the computer, searching for temporal events. When Ares found what he was looking for, he slammed his right hand against the console. "By the Inferno, he's still functional! The slagging Hunter must have jumped through the vortex before it closed! If he alerts Time Force my plans will be compromised!" After tracking the quantum signature, Ares pinpointed Blade's point of arrival. "Perfect... Steel Ram!"

A black Maverick with the head of a ram entered into the room and bowed before Ares. "Yes Lord Ares?"

"Blade has survived. Find him and terminate him," Ares stated.

"By your command," Steel Ram said, rising to his feet and turned to walk away.

"And Steel Ram..." Ares added before his Maverick left, "... destroy anything and kill anyone that gets in your way."

The Maverick grinned sinisterly. "With pleasure." He entered the transport chamber. Borgan inputted the commands and teleported Steel Ram from their underground base to downtown Silver Hills.

"This time Blade... you are going to go off line. Permanently," Ares smirked.

Blade found himself appear somewhere in the center of downtown Silver Hills. Once he got up off the ground, he ran a quick diagnostic to see how much time he had left.

"Frak...only three hours before I go off-line. I don't have much time," Blade muttered as he held his chest. Ares's stab wound had done more damage than he thought. "I can't fight Ares at all like this...best thing I can do is find the Time Rangers in this time and tell them about Ares. They aren't Hunters, but they'll have to do."

An explosion rocked the area, causing Blade to stop. "What the frell!" He turned around to see a large building collapse and people either dead from the initial blast or dying because of the falling debris. He frowned as he saw the figure that was now coming out of the rubble. "A Maverick! How the slag could they have found me so quickly?!"

Steel Ram sneered, "Prepare for your end, old man. This time, you are the one going to go off line!"

Blade gripped his saber, preparing for battle. Even if he survived, he wouldn't have time to warn Time Force. So it will come down this...what I have tried to never do, and yet every Hunter I ever knew did when their time came, he thought.

"Time for termination Blade!" Steel Ram cried as he stopped his foot down. It caused the ground to split open, the effects of a seismic tremor. Blade barely remained standing but it didn't matter as Steel Ram charged at him with his head down. The running head butt sent Blade back in the air, his body sparking from the attack.

"Ahhh... I can't... let it end like this..." Blade muttered as he tried to get up.

"This is all the mighty Blade can do? Ha! I don't see why you managed to do as well as you did Hunter!" Steel Ram sneered as he advanced on Blade. "This is your end." Before he could move any further though he was hailed by an assault of bullets. "What is this?"

"That's all the destruction you will be doing today, freak," a voice spoke out.

Steel Ram turned around and saw a group of humans dressed in uniforms he didn't recognize, holding weapons at him. "Who the slag do you think you are?"

"We are the Silver Guardians, and you are finished," Commander Tom Porter said.

Steel Ram sneered. "Foolish humans! You have no idea what a Maverick can do!" His shoulder guards popped up and missiles were launched at the Guardians.

"No!" Blade cried as the missiles hit the ground, feeling the shockwave when they did. Some of the humans survived...and others were blown to pieces. Blood and body parts could be easily seen all over the ground.

"The price of resisting Mavericks will always be the same - Death!" Steel Ram laughed.

Blade knew that this was simply slaughter. The humans wouldn't be able to stop the Maverick and he knew he could trust none of them to be his successor. However, the Maverick was only interested him. Therefore he had to do something he hated.

Running as fast as he could, he went to one of SUVs that had remained intact.

"Hey what are you doing!" Porter shouted at Blade as he taking his car.

"Getting that Maverick out of here!" Blade snapped. "You can't stop it!" As he turned on the ignition switch to start the car, Blade looked at the control of the SUV and brought up what data he had on the vehicle, then sped away from the downtown area.

"What?! You aren't getting away, Blade!" Steel Ram cursed as he started running after the SUV. As he ran, his feet went through the road, turning it up. Any cars that came in his path, he simply went through or batted them aside.

And all the Silver Guardians could do was nothing with their weapons since they had no effect. Porter got on his cell. "This Porter. We got one hell of a hostile. Conventional weapons have zero effect. Target is heading south from downtown. Deploy units two and three and arm them with explosives and rocket launchers." He hung up and got in one of the remaining SUVs. "Coleson! Rogers! Stay with the injured until the medics arrive. Patterson, Kelso, Nicols you're with me." Porter started the car as soon as he got into the driver's seat. "Let's take that son of a bitch down."

"Shit!" Blade spat as he looked out the rear view mirror, and saw Steel Ram still behind him, causing massive destruction to property and people. "No matter where I go, he's going to keep on causing causalities. I am running out of options here!"

Blade ran through a red light, knowing he didn't have any time to stop. Unfortunately that's when several other cars hit the SUV. The collision caused Blade to go through the windshield and was sent flying a couple hundred feet.

Steel Ram sneered as he looked at the crash. "Yes! It's coming down to the conclusion!" he the then just ran right into the car pile up.

He didn't even care when the explosion occurred due to a gas tank that he ripped open.

Ares felt content as he looked at the carnage that was unfolding. His monitoring system was currently looking through the eyes of his Maverick follower. "Magnificent. How perfectly just this is. For everything the Maverick Race went through."

"Still do you believe it was necessary to have him cause this much destruction? I mean, what of Time Force?" Borgan asked.

"I already looked into that. Time Force agents in this time are currently engaged with another of prisoners that Ransik must have released," Ares said. "As long as Blade is dead, it will not matter if Time Force finds Steel Ram. He knows what he needs to do to ensure secrecy."

Ares returned his attention to the monitor. "For now, let's watch history unfold. The final destruction of Blade."

Cassidy was making good time on her way home now. She wished her bike wasn't in the shop at moment. Wouldn't have had to use public transportation. The buses are always crowded. She sighed. She finally reached the bus stop and was going to sit on the bench and wait.

However when a body then crashed through the bench, that derailed her plan. "What the hell!" She looked at the person that had gone through the bench. To her surprise, she saw the man who looked middle aged, to say the least, was not even really a man. He was a machine.

Blade cringed as he felt pain all over his structure. His exo-skeleton must have been damaged, and with his core systems starting to shut down, he knew his time was running out faster and faster.

But to make matters worse for him was that he saw an innocent girl looking up at him. "Who are you?" she asked him.

"Go! Get the slag out of here now!" Blade shouted. "Just go before..."

"Blade!"

Blade's head turned around as he saw Steel Ram running at them. His armor a little singed from the fire but he was angry and as he ran the road beneath him came up. He looked at the girl. "Run!" To Blade's surprise, the girl just put his arm around her neck and started to run with him. "What in the Pit do you think you are doing girl!"

"Well let's just say I have a critical flaw in my character. I don't like leaving people to be torn apart by a wild animal!" the girl replied. "And I have a feeling that's what that monster is going to do to you!"

"You will not escape me, Blade!" Steel Ram screamed as he continued to give chase. He watched them run into a warehouse and smiled as he planned on trapping them there. Even better, I'll prolong Blade's death by tearing that little human girl into pieces! He grinned evilly as he slowed down.

He was going to play cat and mouse and he was going to play with his mice for a while before he ate them up.

Cassidy took the robot, Blade she assumed, into the warehouse and up on the second floor.

"You should get out of here... this is not a place for a girl..." he muttered.

"Mister Robot, ya mind shutting up right now? I need to think of a way to slow down goat boy for a bit," Cassidy said as she looked at her surroundings. She had chosen this place because it was a condemned building. Looking down at the floor she smiled. "I got some ideas now."

"Get out..." Blade rasped. "Little girl..."

Cassidy stared at Blade, her eyes meeting his. "Look. My name is Cassidy. Not little girl, not kid, it's Cassidy. And right now I am probably the only thing that's going to keep you alive, so be quiet." She ran down the stairway and then started to pull something out from the corner.

Blade looked at Cassidy with interest in his eyes. He checked his internal clock. Not much time left... he mused as he looked back at Cassidy. She had picked up a lead pipe and then moved some cardboard over the center of the room. She moved and hid in a corner, her movements perplexing Blade. ...why not? Let's see what you are made of, kid.

Steel Ram pulled the door off its hinges and walked into the building. He looked up and saw Blade laying against the wall on the second floor. Perfect. His time is nearly up. He walked slowly towards his quarry as he started scanning for the girl. "Come on Blade. Time to end this little song and dance. Time to meet the Reaper. You and the human girl."

"I think not!" Cassidy screamed as she threw the lead pipe right into Steel Ram's face, breaking into his optics.

"What happened!" Ares shouted at Borgan. "What happened to Steel Ram!"

"His optic sensors must have been hit hard. He'll be able to see shortly but our visual link is lost to us until he comes back in for repairs." Borgan replied.

"Slag! Send out a Spy-Bat now! I want to know what's going on!" Ares commanded.

"By your command my liege." Borgan complied as he pressed a button and a black spherical bat was launched outside the base and homed in on Steel Ram's location.

"Grr..." Steel Ram growled as he had his hand over his optics. "That hurt, human!"

"Yeah, well, you will find we humans are more surprising than you give us credit," Cassidy smirked.

"You're going to die!" Steel Ram bellowed, and charged her.

"Not today goat boy," Cassidy snapped as she ran back to where the ladders were on the other end of the building. "Catch me if you can, stupid!" she taunted, jumping over the cardboard she had laid out on the floor. However she tripped on her landing and fell down.

"No!" Blade cried.

Steel Ram however laughed. "Foolish human! Do you really expect me to fall for that trick?" He went around the cardboard box and suddenly the ground gave way. "Aaaahhhh!" he screamed as he fell down for a long bit.

"Nope," Cassidy smirked as she pulled the cardboard aside to reveal there was no hole there at all. "The floor is unstable there, which is why when I came in I made sure I walked on the edge so I wouldn't fall through the floor."

I didn't even see that plan...hell that would have got me if I was hunting her... Blade mused as he saw the young girl walk back up to him and lifted him up.

"Come on. Let's get out of here." Cassidy said.

Blade shook his head. "No. We wouldn't be able to get far enough away. You've bought us some time. Just enough for what I need to do."

Cassidy stared at Blade. "What are you talking about?"

"Let's go into that room. Please. He'll make his way back up to the surface within minutes. If I am going to do this, then I need to do this now." Blade pleaded with her.

Cassidy just stared at Blade for a moment before nodding and walked with him into the room. "Alright? So what is it?"

"My name is Blade... and I don't have much time. I wish I could tell you everything but I don't have the time... you'll have to read about it... if you accept."

"Read about? Accept?" Cassidy repeated.

"I am Hunter, the first of my kind. I was created during the Maverick Wars on July fourth, twenty-eight oh-five."

"Woah! Wait a moment! You are from the future?!" Cassidy muttered.

"The year three thousand to be exact..." Blade said. "I was a Replicant, a machine that could act exactly like a human. No one knows why, but in the year twenty-eight hundred, Replicants went berserk. Infected with the M-Code Virus, they became Mavericks and started to kill human beings. We Hunters... were made to defeat the Mavericks... but when the war ended nothing was the same... Replicants were feared because they may become Mavericks... and so there are only so few of us now. Few Replicants, fewer Mavericks and even fewer Hunters..."

"But there are Mavericks here... I mean, if goat boy is one of them..."

"There's thirty-six of them...their leader is called Ares. You...you have to stop them. The humans of this world can't hope to stop the Mavericks...before they can carry out their plans...to make the future theirs." Blade rasped.

"Me?" Cassidy cried. "I'm flattered, but if humans of this time can't stop a Maverick, then what makes you think I can?"

Blade chuckled. "Tell me, ever hear of the Power Rangers?"

"Raaah!" Steel Ram screamed as he made his way to the surface again. He'd had to bust through the sewer system and was out on the street. "This time! I will kill them both! No more playing games!" Suddenly something hit him and knocked him to his knees. "Ragh!"

"Neither are we!"

Steel Ram looked back and saw the Silver Guardians. There were more humans than he had encountered previously, and they filled the streets armed with rocket launchers and grenades. "Don't you slagging humans know when to give up?!"

"Okibi! Foster! Open fire now! I want this monster blown to hell!"

"Yes sir!" Eric Okibi replied as he opened fire with his launcher.

Steel Ram growled. "That's it! I will kill you all!" he managed to say before the missiles hit him.

"... Matthew Corbett? You know the Silver Ranger?" Cassidy asked.

"Know of him?" Blade laughed. "With all that he is going to do in the future, it's not likely he will be easily forgotten any time soon. Still, his path will be hard one." With a wince, Blade shifted his position. "I knew the time would come when I would either retire or cease functioning. However I wanted to pass down a legacy. One connected to the people that I have been programmed and grown to enjoy protecting. Humans. Matthew Corbett was responsible for many things, or will be." He paused for a moment. "I found the plans for a device known as the V-Fire, something I highly suspect is Corbett's work from all indications, and worked on what I could consider my final act as a functioning Hunter."

"What?" Cassidy asked.

"To give one human a fighting chance against the Mavericks...by turning myself, my armor, my weapons, and systems...into a source of power." He sighed. "But I cannot leave it in just anyone's hands...and now I don't know if this any better...that I must ask you...to take my place as a Hunter."

"Blade... I ..."

"You can refuse if you wish," he continued. "Try to find someone else after I have become the power...but Cassidy..." Blade's eyes met hers as he spoke. "I believe...that you are the only one I could trust with my power..."

Cassidy looked at Blade somberly for moments. She thought of what he was asking her. To make a decision that would change her life forever. Once she accepted, there would be no turning back. And then again, if they win this war...I don't think humanity will have a future... She looked at Blade. "I accept." His body began to glow blue. "Blade?"

"It's my time...I can see it...the Matrix...it's so beautiful..." Blade said with a smile on his face. His body started to break apart.

"Blade! Blade don't go!" Cassidy shouted.

"Its my time. Don't worry...you will be fine...and I will be with you forever...a part of me at least..." Blade said as his body quickly faded and his matter changed into something floating above him. "...good bye...Hunter..."

Cassidy could only stare down in sorrow as Blade disappeared completely. What was left of him floated into her hands. It was a blue and silver colored rectangular device, which fit onto her wrist. A strange feeling went through her body and soul, as if she knew what she had to do.

Cassidy's eyes narrowed and her expression changed. "Goat boy, you are going down." She hit the largest of the four buttons on her transformation tool and called out what she knew was the command to transform.

"Quantum Power!"

"Holy shit!" one of the Silver Guardians cried out as they saw Steel Ram finally step out of the smoke from their missile barrage.

"Damn it! We couldn't even cause a sizeable amount of damage to that monster!" Porter shot.

"I don't believe this..." Eric muttered.

"Now you die!" Steel Ram shouted as he opened up his shoulder guards and then prepared to fire off his missiles once again. "Say hello to you god when you get to your afterlife! Ahahahahah-" His laughter was cut short by a blast from above that knocked him down. "That hurt... wait a klick! That was plasma energy!" He turned around expecting to see Blade.

What Steel Ram and the Silver Guardians saw was a woman wearing a streamlined version of Blade's armor. The blue was a deeper hue than Blade's, white joints now full armoring silver, and a black visor covered her upper face. Long red hair came out from the back of the helmet and was done in a ponytail.

"Who is that?" Eric muttered.

"I don't know," Porter replied.

Steel Ram growled. "Who are you?!"

A second shot fired, slamming Ram and forcing him to crash on the ground. The woman converted her cannon back into a hand, then took a step forward. "I was chosen," she stated. "I accept my mission, and I accept the duty I am charged with, Maverick! Two eras birthed me, and I am burdened with the protection of this time. I am the Quantum Hunter!"

"I don't care who you are!" Ram bellowed in anger. "You aren't Blade!" He rushed her, but Quantum Hunter had been waiting. In a flash, she leapt up and over the Maverick. Converting her left arm back into cannon mode, she charged up a blast before firing and blowing a massive hole right through Ram's chest.

"For someone of mechanical superiority," she said as she pulled out her green energy saber, "You sure fell to a human rather easy!" Faster than the eye could see, she shot forward and slashed first through the body, then at the head of the Replicant. The Hunter stood behind the Maverick as it exploded behind her.

The Silver Guardians stared at the Quantum Hunter and she looked back at them for a moment. Looking at the crowd of civilians on the streets, she had seen that she had gotten the attention of the media. Several reporters rushed at her. "I'm not up for this," she muttered as she activated her dash boots for a running start and jumped insanely high in the air before dashing in mid-air to get to the top of another building. She leapt from building to building, making her way across town and out of sight.

"Who was she?" Eric mused.

"Doesn't matter for now. Let's just deal with the clean up."

Yeah. Clean up detail. But Eric was still wondering about the woman. The Quantum Hunter, huh? Wonder if she'll pop up again?

"What the hell just happened out there?!" Ares shouted as he threw a monitor against the wall, the monitor shattering on impact. Borgan had clearly left the room to avoid Ares's wrath. He kept his emotions tight, but once angered no one was safe.

"Blade. Somehow I know you are behind the creation of this 'Quantum Hunter'. I know that's your armor," Ares growled. "You are gone forever, but even in termination you leave a legacy to vex me..." Clenching his fist, he slammed it through the wall. "So be it, Blade. I will not rest until I destroy everything that makes your memory remain alive. Your successor will be terminated. I swear it...by Omega, I swear!"

At the Clock Tower, the Rangers were taking a look at some files sent to them by Time Force when Circuit picked up something unusual on the TV. They saw what the media had covered of Steel Ram's attack, and then showed the armored woman who defeated him.

"So who is this person? Is she related to the Time Rangers? Witnesses claim she called herself the Quantum Hunter. But where did she come from is the question we are still asking."

Wes looked back at Yuuri as the others stared in shock. "What do you think?"

"I think," the woman replied with narrow eyes, "that Captain Logan needs to be informed of this."

Elsewhere Ransik had watched the news and looked very pale. A fact that didn't go unnoticed by Nadira. "...big brother?"

"I...I have to be alone for a while," was all he said before he locked himself in his quarters. It was then let out his emotions and felt sorrow. He knew the armor of Blade when he saw it. He knew there were Mavericks here. Worse of all, he knew Blade, the Hunter that had saved his life, a mutant's life, as a child, was now gone.

Blade may have been a machine, a Replicant and a Hunter, but he wasn't prejudiced against anyone. Blade judged people by their own individual actions, not what they were labeled as. He had only met Blade once and that was when he had saved Ransik's life from a Maverick, but Ransik never forgot Blade. And now the universe seemed a little darker now that he was gone.

He knew he would soon meet the Quantum Hunter, if only to pay his respects to the fallen Hunter once known as Blade.

It was night now. The Quantum Hunter stood before a gravestone, a very specific gravestone. Michael Lawrence Born April 11, 1960 Died January 15, 2005

The visor lifted to show Cassidy's face, her cheeks stained by where the tears had run down them. "Hey dad. Sorry for not coming back sooner... its just so hard for me sometimes to come here..." Tears started to go down her face again. "... I miss you so much."

She wiped her face and continued, taking a deep breath. "Well if you are looking down at me from heaven and I hope you are, dad, then I need you to listen. I'm kind of doing something really dangerous right now. Something that can get me killed and I know you said you wanted me to live a long life...but I made a promise to someone. He gave his life so others could live...and so what I am saying is that Dad if I am really going to start doing this, I'm going to need your blessing." She just looked up at the sky and whispered, "Dad, please give me a sign...tell me you understand."

She heard something and looked back. She saw nothing, and yet now she felt something. A sense of warmth. A calming in her heart, and she knew she had her answer.

"Thanks daddy." Cassidy smiled as the visor came down again. She walked out of cemetery, knowing she had his blessing.

For Cassidy Lawrence, her life as the Quantum Hunter was only beginning.