Chapter 4:  Welcoming (written by Michael Keens/Exodus)  

“Unnngh...” groaned Pixel as she awakened in a grey room on a hospital 
bed, “Where am I?...  Oh right, virtually captured, I should have left those 
Hunters to deal with Magnum while I escaped instead of getting shot by nails 
to take out that crazed android...”  
“Hey, she’s awake!” called Laser, scurrying in, “You feelin’ better Pixel?”  
“I guess so, what happened to my injuries? Even Chip couldn’t heal such large 
holes so quickly.”  
“That’s where I come in.” smiled the Hunter’s human medic and scientist Reed, 
with peaceful blue eyes and short pale blonde hair, “Your injuries were dealt 
with quite easily thanks to my methods, you’re fine now, but as for the 
time...”  
“You’ve been asleep for three days, it’s probably natural though seeing as 
what you went through lately.” commented Laser.  
“Yeah, and I haven’t had a good night’s sleep lately until now.” she added.  
“Ah Pixel, up at last.” said Jack, stepping into the sickbay, “Would you 
please come with me?”  
“Where are we going? Prison?” she questioned as she slowly got out of the bed 
and stood out.  
“Not if you don’t give us a reason to, but something tells me you won’t.  I 
just wanted to show you around our base, after getting in the middle of three 
renegade operations; I thought it’d be fair to explain ourselves to you.”  
“What do you mean fair?”  
“You’re not suggesting she’s possibly been infected due to all that proximity, 
are you Boss?”  
“Its fine Laser.” nodded Reed, “My research into what’s changing androids 
isn’t as far as I’d like it to be due to the damaged androids you keep 
bringing in, but I’ve come far enough to be able to detect the symptoms within 
androids, and Pixel’s clean.”  
“Cool, now we only have to worry about her blowing the place up.” chuckled 
Laser.  
“Excuse me?” she glared at him.  
“It was a joke... I hope.” Laser said defensively, the last part barely 
audible.  
“Hey! Where’s my blaster and armour and boots?!” ordered Pixel.  
“The armour’s kind of useless, but the rest are stored away, you’ll get them 
back after we talk, fair enough?” Jack answered.  
“Fine...”  
“Leave us alone for a little while please, you’ll get a chance to talk to her 
later Laser.” Jack ordered softly.  
“What’s that supposed to mean?...” questioned Laser nervously trying to hide 
his obvious feelings.  
Jack slowly led Pixel out of the sickbay and escorted her around the lounge 
and communications.  
“How about you start as far back as you remember that’s relevant to your 
case?” suggested Jack.  
Pixel sighed, “Well for one thing I’m an orphan, I’ve been raised for many 
years by my android parents, but a couple of years ago, something terrible 
happened.  Our local garbageman... Trash...  He changed all of a sudden.”  
“Changed like the others?”  
“Uh huh.  When my parents went to inspect him to see if he was all right, he 
suddenly attacked with actual weapons...  I panicked when I should have been 
helping them...” explained Pixel with some discomfort.  
“You can’t blame yourself, surely you must realise that androids seem to get 
stronger through this anomaly.” Jack said in an attempt to comfort her.  
“Well, anyway, he did away with my folks and then started attacking our area.  
Trick, the android we defeated a while back, was a victim in this too; we were 
some of the few survivors of the incident.  Trash simply left towards the 
local scrap yard as if what he’d done meant nothing, and he hasn’t been seen 
since.”  
“Two years...” pondered Jack, “Infected renegade androids were rarely reported 
back then and we didn’t have the resources to identify or track them down even 
if this agency was active back then, Trash must have been one of the very 
first...  Anyway, you and Trick were both equipped with dangerous weaponry, 
care to explain that?”  
“Trick and I made a pact to destroy Trash for what he’d done to us, for the 
last two years we’ve been living on the streets taking care of each other 
while stealing weapons, armour and leg parts, the best kinds, in order to 
stand a chance when we fought and killed Trash.”  
“Is that what the explosives were for?” questioned Jack.  
“Some.  A couple were meant for the armour museum...”  
“There’s a display there of old but effective android armour from years ago.” 
Jack pondered.  
“I meant to steal it, it can withstand virtually anything, including the force 
of all those explosives we had.  I swear I wouldn’t have hurt any innocent to 
get it, we were to blast our way in at night, and then get as close to Trash 
as necessary to decimate him with the explosives...”  
“... So those charger and boot parts, stolen?”  
“The Charge Blaster as I call it is, but the boots I designed myself with bits 
and pieces I picked up throughout the months, you’re not going to take them 
away from me, are you? I need them!” Pixel pleaded.  
“Your armour’s not very well developed is it? For all the skill and power 
you’ve shown, that’s something of a weakness, isn’t it?” Jack commented, 
without answering the question.  
“Well duh.  Why do you think I wanted to steal some better armour?”  
“Is that everything?” Jack asked fairly sternly, despite the calm and friendly 
conversation it was a serious matter and all had to be explained regarding 
Pixel’s activities.  
“Everything you need to know regarding the explosives.  Unless you want me to 
explain why I was involved with your silly renegades.” she replied, Jack’s 
look confirmed this was apparent so she sighed and continued, “With that 
psycho chef, I was pickpocketing in town, to buy that gun part from the black 
market that Trick ended up shooting me with, I was in the construction site 
hiding away until nightfall when I ended up getting involved to save those 
people... and I was with Trick cos she’s my oldest friend... well... Was...”  
“That’s about all I needed to hear, thank you.  But as for your friend, have 
some faith; we’ve got her sealed away until a cure to this infection can be 
found.”  
“But I blasted her in the head to save the town.” argued Pixel, a little 
unconvinced.  
“And Reed is an amazing doctor; both to human and android, but your friend’s 
currently in stasis de-equipped of her weapon based parts, and will be free to 
go after she’s no longer infected.”  
“Oh my...  Thank you...  Thank you so much!” said Pixel overjoyed with the 
possibility of her friend’s recovery when for the last few days she’d accepted 
her dead and buried.  
“Well I can safely say you won’t go to prison, but those explosives were 
confiscated I’m afraid.”  
“Great, and I guess I won’t stand a chance of getting that armour now that 
I’ve told you about it.” Pixel sulked.  
“Maybe not, but don’t count out the possibility of Us nullifying Trash as a 
threat, it’s our job after all.” Jack comforted, with little effect.  
“... You think I’ll be satisfied with you capturing him?! I want him dead!” 
Pixel spat.  
“That’s a bit harsh.  Especially after the business with your friend you 
should realise by now that the changes in these androids aren’t their fault 
nor can they control their actions.  Trash is as innocent as your friend.” 
Jack challenged.  
“No!” Pixel shouted, “Trick didn’t kill anyone!”  
“But she would have if we hadn’t stopped her.” Jack said sternly.  
“Trash revelled in the killing...” Pixel spoke sadly, turning away from him.  
“And you have no proof that Trick wouldn’t have done the same, you have to let 
go of this vendetta.”  
“Why? It’s all I have now; I have no family, no friends and no purpose...” 
Pixel said through tears.  
“I wouldn’t say that, besides, some of the guys here have come to trust you 
and like you even, so you’re not completely alone.”  
“What are you getting at?”  
“I’ll explain after I show you a couple more areas in our agency...”  
Pixel was shown around the lounge, where Laser and Cable had ended up, the 
armoury, where Pixel discovered a huge range of mechanical devices, weapons 
and armour attachments that the group was free to use, and finally Jack 
stopped at a large set of silver double doors.  
Inside was a tiny corridor linking the outside corridor to another set of 
doors, but several cabinets in the side walls were visible to Pixel.  
“Open C.4, B.5 and D.1.” Jack told her.  
In each of them she found the personal attachments that had been removed from 
her, her Charge Blaster arm part, her Gravity Boots, and in the third cabinet, 
a sparkling red, black and silver body suit/armour parts.  
“What’s this for?” Pixel inquired, knowing what it was but wondering why she 
was being given it.  
“It’s for you, I admit it’s not as defensive as the armour you planned on 
stealing, but it comes pretty near close.  Put it on.” Jack smiled lightly.  
Pixel gave him a suspicious look, and did so, “So now what?”  
“That suit is too small for any of the female Hunters we’ve ever worked with, 
so that’s yours to keep.”  
“Serious?” Pixel lit up.  
“If it’ll keep you from stealing that is, but there are other reasons, if 
you’re all equipped could you please step through the doors.  There’s just one 
last thing I need to know.” Jack said vaguely.  
Pixel did so, but then as she was inside, she realised that Jack had closed 
the doors behind her, stranger though was the fact the doors disappeared and 
Pixel was outside in a square between tall buildings, people were running in 
panic as soulless robots half her size flew through the air, lasers scattering 
the ground.  
“I don’t understand any of this, but...” moaned Pixel, before retracting her 
hand into her blaster and firing small shots upwards.  
The front of the swarm were easy to take down, and since Pixel had used her 
blaster so much, quick aim was second nature to her, she had to take a couple 
of steps back and retreat a little from the lasers before firing some more, 
the robots were now diving towards the fleeing citizens but Pixel took them 
down before they could touch them without harming any innocent in the 
process.  
Something swung a bulky arm from behind and she instinctively turned to meet 
it with her gun, but then suddenly aimed upwards, unable to stop her blaster 
from firing.  
She was rammed by the android behind her, strangely egg shaped with thin limbs 
but bulky attachments, and at the top of it, a see-through case with a human 
female child trapped inside.  
“Ugh! You monster!” shouted Pixel, rage building inside her but forced to be 
controlled for the sake of the child.  
‘Egg’ shifted back while rotating to face Pixel, missiles appearing from 
behind it and rising before swirling down at Pixel, she burst into a sprint, 
explosions shooting behind her as rockets hit the floor, except one which 
missed her but shot towards Egg.  
“This is so stupid, but it won’t be in vain if this armour’s as good as he 
says!”  
Pixel dived and activated her boot jets to rocket under the missile and rise 
to block Egg from it, she fired but as she had anticipated, the force of the 
explosion still packed a punch, she held her ground until the blinding light 
cleared, but was rammed again by Egg, who shook as if chuckling.  
“Who’s smiling now Egghead?” smirked Pixel, spinning in the air and having 
just fired a small shot at the opponent.  
The energy hit a subtle hinge Pixel had noticed when jetting so close to him, 
and the transparent dome opened downwards.  
Pixel dashed behind it and restrained its arms, “Get out Kid!”  
The child clambered out and ran to safety, while the robot shook violently, 
failing to get loose.  
“How should we do this...  I know.” smirked Pixel, clenching harder before 
spinning the robot around her by the arms, “Sunny side Up!”  
Egg went flying over her while Pixel charged another shot and fired.  
Egg was severely damaged and crashed down, too weak to get up on its own.  
The background, people and Egg suddenly disappeared and Pixel was in a wide, 
tall silver room, the doors behind her slid open and Jack walked in.  
“Just as I thought, behind all that power and skill, you’ve got compassion to 
protect the innocent and the restraint not to kill unless necessary.  It’d be 
a shame to see that go to waste if you were to kill Trash as an act of 
vengeance.”  
“So it was all an illusion, except that the missile attacks and ramming 
actually hurt, so what was that? Some kind of test?” Pixel questioned as she 
slowly figured out the extent of this room.  
“A training program we use here...  I’ve seen a pretty high extent of your 
abilities but I had to know once and for all how you deal with bystanders in a 
battle when there’s no one else available to save them.” Jack said proudly.  
“Can I go now? You should have known about those things after what happened at 
the construction site.” Pixel said impatiently.  
“After one last question.  Where’d you learn to fight and manoeuvre like 
that?” Jack asked, not any reason other than his curiosity in the matter.  
“I’ve had a rough life, we’ve grown up in horrid places, some with horrible 
people who just don’t like androids, so we learned how to fight back and well 
rather quickly, plus I used to train daily with Trick to prepare ourselves for 
our...  My battle with Trash.”  
“It’s just that you’ve really helped us out lately, and I admire how accurate 
you are with your skills and how careful you’ve been to deal with renegades 
while keeping the innocent unharmed.”  
“Yeah, so? I’m hardly going to hurt anyone as innocent as I used to be for 
revenge, even if it was the only way to defeat Trash I wouldn’t do it if it 
endangered anyone else.” Pixel explained honestly.  
“We’re quite similar you and me.” Jack commented.  
“So we don’t hurt innocent, that’s just one thing, unless you plan on 
revealing you’re a female android.”  
“There’s much more to it than that, I’ll let you know what else if you stick 
around here.  I think it’d be helpful for the both of us.”  
“What? As a ‘Hunter’? I don’t know if I’m suitable for that, regardless of how 
good I can battle, its hard enough keeping the innocent out of harm’s way 
without worrying about partners, working as a duo was hard for me to do.”  
“I don’t think you’ll have to worry about the rest of us, we’re all 
professionals, and working as a team has advantages once you get used to it.  
Pixel, your joining us would be good for us all.  You need purpose, and we 
need recruits like you on our team, especially with the growing number of 
androids going renegade, I’m sure you’d be a great asset in our mission to 
protect everyone from the infected androids and find a cure to end the virus.  
Finally I don’t think you’ll get very far in your hunt before you’re 
arrested.  Here you can get licensed to use even your weapons on infected 
androids, and you wouldn’t have to worry about running away all the time, 
you’d have a home and friends.  So how about it?”  
“... You’re really not leaving much choice are you?...” Pixel said with a half 
smile.  
“I wouldn’t say that, but the pros outweigh the cons.” Jack smirked.  
“Okay... I give up, I accept.  I’ll join your little group.  For now...” Pixel 
decided.  
“Good enough.” smiled Jack, grasping Pixel’s hand in his, “Welcome to the 
Hunters, Pixel.”  

End  

Chapter 3:  Targeted
Chapter 5:  Cohesion
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