The place was dark; dust covered much of the equipment that had remained all but dormant for the many years. A red light began to flash in the darkness, soon followed by the sounds of computers coming to life, dust flying from the computer consoles and into the air. Each computer ran it's check, and all signs showed green.

To the side of the equipment was a line of capsules, each covered with dust; however, there was only one capsule that began to open. The occupant inside laid still, slowly opening his eyes. The reploid slowly sat up, placing his hand on his head, letting the drowsiness pass before he climbed out. The crimson reploid looked himself over before he gave a satisfied smile. "Looks like it's completed."

"Final check are complete, all systems show green."

Zero looked at the screen before it blinked out. "It's been over a hundred years. I wonder how things are now? I wonder how I will fit into it?" Zero looked towards the open doorway and headed out.

----

Zero walked out into the late afternoon sun and looked around. The land around him looked how it did when he entered his slumber; much of it remained a desert, the rock showing no signs of life or growth. Zero had to wonder how the earth had changed over the century, hopefully for the better. He walked over towards a rock outcropping and looked down to the valley below him. All he could see was the same lifelessness below, but there was something else. There was a flash quickly followed by another. The sounds of blaster fire drifted through the air.

A battle was taking place down there.

Zero didn't know what was going on, but he decided it might be better to investigate, in case he could help out in anyway.

----

The two hunters ran from the large group of Mavericks that gave pursuit. The plan was to lure them away from the small convoy, but they never realized that this group of Mavericks would give a fierce pursuit.

"Are the still behind us?" asked a blue reploid. The red dragon reploid looked back to see the Mavericks still behind them. "Afraid so X. They don't give up so easily." X had to wonder, were they normal Mavericks, or were they part of the Limited Mavericks?

However, he had to keep looking ahead, but he and the dragon reploid found themselves at a dead-end. The two turned to see the Mavericks slowly making their way forward, seeing their prey was now cornered.

"This doesn't look good Dragoon," said X. Magma Dragoon nodded. "I'd say the time for running has ended, and I'm taking a few these Mavericks with me." The two reploids held out their buster cannons, humming with energy as the charged them. The Mavericks snickered; they easily out-number the hunters, even the two legendary hunters couldn't escape them.

"I hardly say the odds are even."

A voice came out of nowhere and the Mavericks and hunters looked up to the ledge of the canyon to see a shadowed figure, his long blonde hair flowing in the breeze and gleaming in the sunlight. He held a beam saber in his hand and looked down at the Mavericks. X and Dragoon looked on at the reploid with unbelieving eyes. "I…is that…?"

The red reploid leaped down from above and brought his saber down onto one of the Mavericks, slicing it into two before it exploded. The Mavericks realized that this reploid was not on their side and attacked, one sneaking up behind the reploid, but was sliced horizontially by the saber.

Zero looked around him and saw that this battle could be a lot tougher than he thought, seeing how the Mavericks had him surrounded already. One made a leap towards him, but was taken down by a charged buster blast. Through the quick explosion, the blue reploid dashed through to the red reploid.

"It's been a while Zero!"

Zero smiled. "That is has X!" He turned quickly to see another Maverick make an attack, only to be taken down much like his partner.

"I'm afraid that our pleasantries might have to be on hold for a while!" said Dragoon. Zero nodded and the three faced the remaining Mavericks.

----

X grasped Zero by the shoulders. "I can't believe it's really you Zero! Where have you been all this time?"

Zero nodded to X's greeting. "I'm afraid there was something that I had to do…"

"And it lasted for over a century?" asked Dragoon. Zero nodded again. "Afraid so." Zero smiled. "But, if it went well, I won't be going away for some time. So, how has the world changed since I've been gone?"

X and Dragoon looked at each other and then back to Zero. "Not as well as you may think," said X, "we'll explain on our way back to the Maverick Hunter HQ."

"During the time after the Gate incident, we worked hard to restore Earth, and we succeeded around the end of the 21XX era. The humans and civilians were finally able to come out from underground. The earth wasn't completely restored, but a lot of work was put into completing the restoration. Many of the people returned to the major cities to rebuild the cities and restart their lives while many went to the new areas that we've been able to restore. As you can imagine, a lot of the areas were regrowing, there are a lot more forests and plains and such.
Many of the facilities weren't damaged after the Eurasia incident, like the Nile Water Reserve, and we had a good supply to help in the restoration and now the desert is becoming fertile.
Many people began to work on space colonies and currently there are two in orbit, which is where a good number of people went to until the completion of the restoration.

However, we ran into a problem. For some reason, there was an amazing increase in Maverick activity, so the call for the Maverick Hunters went out. However, we encountered a small problem…"

The three reploids entered the MHHQ, and Zero was surprised to see the place upgraded over time. "Wow, you guess sure made some changes."

"Some were much needed changes," said Dragoon.

The group neared the Command Center when they ran into a familiar face, who was surprised to see the return of Zero.

Alia looked at him with surprised eyes. "Zero?! Is that really you?"

Zero smiled. "Yeah, I've finally returned."

Several other hunters began to realize that it was Zero and the crowded to return the legendary hunter. There was a rush and a dragon reploid appeared in front of Zero.

"Zero! It is you!" exclaimed Bolt. "Whoa, we thought we would never see you again. The #0 Unit hasn't been the same without you."

Zero smiled. "How has my replacement been doing?" Bolt returned the smile. "I've been doing my best, Zero, but it hasn't been too easy recently."

"So I've been hearing."

"Well, we better take him see him," said Alia.

"Him?" asked Zero.

Before they could answer, another dragon reploid approached the group. "Good to se you back Zero."

Zero raised his hand in greeting. "Hey Bahamut. Yeah, it's been almost too long. Been hearing that things aren't going too well though."

"I'm afraid it hasn't," Bahamut said. He turned, "Let's head into the Command Center."

The group walked into the command center, Alia walked to her station and began working. "Sir, I think I have the new data coming in." Bahamut walked up to her and looked at her screen. Zero looked at Bahamut with an odd look. "Sir?"

X nodded and Bahamut turned to him. "You mean he doesn't know yet?"

"I was about to tell him when we were going over what happened." X said, then he turned to Zero. "Signas went Maverick."

Zero was shocked. "What?!"

X nodded. "After the increase of Maverick activity, Signas began to act oddly, and a few days later, he went Maverick, starting his own battle with the Maverick Hunters. Bahamut was the last one to face him before he escaped."

Bahamut closed his eyes. "I was asked to take Signas' place as the Hunters' leader, and I accepted."

"We know are being attacked by two Maverick 'groups'. There are the 'normal' Mavericks, some calling them 'Sigma Mavericks', while the Mavericks who follows Signas are known as 'Limited Mavericks'. They seem to be faster and more powerful that most Mavericks, which causes more problems. The group we faced when you first showed up were believed to be some 'Limited Mavericks'. Many of the civilians went up to the space colonies to avoid the Mavericks, we have been doing our best trying to stop the Mavericks, with some support from other areas, including Repliforce."

Alia was working at her station and she brought the main screen on, showing a world map followed by several images. "We've able to determine that there are at least 16 main Mavericks, eight Mavericks and eight 'Limited' Mavericks."

One side of the screen displayed eight Mavericks, a few looking familiar from previous battles in the past who were able to avoid being destroyed. The other side showed the group who were under Signas, which surprised some of the hunters. They appeared to be Mavericks from the first three Maverick Wars, but only with what appeared to be upgrades.

"We are not sure where these 'Limited' Mavericks came from," said Alia, "but we have to act quickly."

"Right," said Bahamut and he turned towards Zero. "I know you just came back, and I hate to ask you this…"

"So don't," said Zero, "I would be happy to return to the Hunters and fight the Mavericks. The new Earth needs all the help it can get."

The surrounding group smiled. "Nice to have you back Zero."

Zero smiled, "Glad to be back. Now it's time to fight, for the new peace and world we have helped create!"

The new war has begun to brew, and once again the call for new Hunters has gone out.