Vile bolted around the side of a condemned building. Cursing with every step.

"Ahwwwwwww man!!! How the hell am I gonna get out of this one?!?!"

Vile Peeked around the corner of the ally with his back to the wall, "There's gotta be 4 or 5 of those damn Hunters! Even I can't take em all!....Maybe I can pick them off one by one..."

The sound of a fully charged plasma shot rang through the air. Vile thought the titanium walls of the building would protect him from any oncoming fire the Maverick Hunters could throw at him. He was wrong. The blast penetrated all the way through the side of the structure creating a 3 foot hole and taking a small section of Vile's helmet off with it. That woke him up....

"SHIT!!!!"

Vile dashed down the alleyway and jumped a short chain link fence. The other side continued into a dead end which he hadn't noticed before. "Damn...Where to now?!?!" He looked to the top of one of the buildings, "...Ahwww, what the hell....Only way out..." With a blast of his jet pack, Vile was on the roof tops of Doppler Town in a matter of seconds. He began to jump from roof to roof, dodging shots from the Maverick Hunters on the streets below.

Vile was tiring quickly, using his jet pack took a lot of power. Not to mention he had been running, jumping, dodging and shooting for nearly 15 minuets now non-stop. He had also taken about 9 plasma shots from various police bots and the Hunters that were still in pursuit of him. The last thing he needed was a direct confrontation with one of the Hunters.

Vile sighed out of exhaustion when one of the Maverick Hunters jumped up in front of him from a ladder hanging off the side of the building. The Hunter shot a particle beam at the Maverick. It was an extremely bad shot for a reploid. So much for avoiding a battle... Vile quickly counter attacked, rushing his opponent and finishing him off with a knee to the stomach. The hit caused the Hunter to loose his balance and fall off the edge of the roof. Vile watched as the Hunter hit the ground exploding. Shrapnel flew everywhere injuring two of the other Maverick Hunters.

"One..."

Jumping down from the roof of the sky scraper, Vile intentionally landed on one of the injured Hunters, turning it into nothing more than scrap. Quickly hopping away from the crushed reploid, he fired a fully powered energy blast from his shoulder cannon at the other injured Hunter. The energy blast exploded on contact sending robot parts flying in every direction.

"There's numbers two and three..." Vile showed amusement in his normally dark voice, "This is pitiful...."

The two remaining Hunters were no where to be seen. "Must have ran away....Losers."

Vile never saw the shot coming from the shadows. A perfect hit. All he felt was his feet lifting off the asphalt from the extreme force. When he finally struck the ground he could barley manage to roll over on his back, "Repair systems working quickly.....But they've got more of that coming... and I can't move...I guess this is where it.....en..d...s..."

Insane laughter suddenly sounded in the distance from one of the rooftops. The voice of the mad chuckling soon spoke after thirty seconds of constant snickering, "The mighty Vile has fallen!! Ole' Siggie is gonna love this one!!"

Vile covered his eyes with his left hand and groaned, "Ohhhhhh no..... It's Agile...."

Agile continued,"Ooooooooo lookie, Friends!!!" He giggled a few times more and ignited his flame saber. Faster than the Hunters could react, Agile leaped down to the street, "Either of you care to dance??" One of the Hunters took a shot at Agile while the other attempted to attack the injured Vile. Agile side-stepped the first shot and batted the blast ment for Vile out of the way with his flame saber.

He giggled once again to himself, "Come on, lets dance....And If you don't mind, I like to lead!!!"

Agile had finished his attack on the Hunters before they even had a chance to scream. Pieces of jagged metal laid everywhere. The speedy reploid turned off his flame saber and hooked it to his belt.

Vile sat up, "Agile, what the hell are you doing here?" Agile walked over to Vile and looked down on him as the injured reploid struggled to his feet, "It is apparent to me that I'm here saving you're titanium-plated butt from certain doom."

"Whatever...", Vile growled.

"Sigma is going to be pissed when he hears how you were seen, chased and..." Agile paused and laughed, "Almost killed by the Maverick Hunters."

"Sigma is NOT going to hear about this"

"Sure he isn't...." Agile's smile was devilish.

Vile knew Agile would tell Sigma given half a chance. You see, Agile loved nothing more than to back-stab his way into power. He also loved to ruin and humiliate people in front of their peers. Mavericks all over had nick-named him "Speed-Demon" for his cruelty. The only people who trusted Agile were those who (Vile thought) were dumb enough to be his friends. In fact, he got along well with most other reploids but Vile wasn't, and had never been, one of them.

The conversation had also made Vile realize he had made a second mistake, he had forgotten to contact the K-2 fortress to give his bi-weekly status report. Also noticing the fact that he was over 3 days late, and how Sigma would lecture him for his forgetfulness, he walked over to a wall and hit his head against the metallic structure out of frustration.... Again.... And again....And again...

Agile was somewhat stunned by this sudden act of self-mutilation. "Vile, what the HELL are you doing!"

"Do you realize that I am three days late in contacting Sigma at the K-2 base!!!"

"Oh dear....Another mistake??? What will the boss say about this? You know how much Sigma hates it when his lackeys are irresponsible", Agile laughed evilly.

"You could have reminded me!!! After all, you ARE second in command here!!!"

"Yes....I COULD have reminded you.....But did I??? I just love to see losers like you hang yourselves."

That last little statement of Agile's was just enough to make Vile snap.

The angry Maverick span around and aimed his shoulder cannon at Agile, "DAMN YOU!!!"

The energy blast Vile shot was well aimed but Agile was simply too fast. Just as the ball of lightning exploded against the building across the street, Agile cleaved the end of Vile's shoulder cannon off with his flame saber.

The Speed-Demon placed his flame saber next to Vile's throat, "You see, Vile.....I know I can say what ever the hell I want about you, to anyone, at any time....And I don't have to be the least bit concerned about what you'll attempt to do about it......Because you, my friend, are too damn slow....And with you the incomprehensible slowness is more than a physical problem."

As he finished the last of his sentence, Agile tapped Vile on the head in a mocking gesture and turned off his flame saber. "Hear that empty ring inside your helmet, Vile?? You're head is hollower than a jack-o-lantern."

Visibly angry, Vile replied, "Everyone has to sleep sometime Agile....I suggest you start taking your naps with one eye open...."

Just this morning, Vile had been second in command to one of the most feared and respected reploids in the world. He had once thought he was as close to a god as a reploid could get.... The way humans and robots alike would run from him in terror.... The way he could walk into any store and take whatever he wanted....Total domination over others by fear. Vile had always loved the power his position in Sigma's empire gave him. Actually, former position as of 60 minuets ago. It was all gone now. And it was Agile's fault.

Earlier that day, Vile had contacted Sigma as soon as he and Agile had returned from their battle with the Hunters. Sigma was naturally mad at him for neglecting his duty as a Maverick spy to keep close contact with the home base. For this reason (and others), Sigma yelled at and lectured Vile for about half an hour. Finally, when the Maverick's esteemed ruler was finished rambling, he asked for the report to begin.

This is where Vile's nightmare started.

Before Vile could begin to speak, Agile pushed him out of the way and started feeding Sigma a bunch of BS about Vile's "lack of control over the Mavericks" and how "Vile was planning to overthrow Lord Sigma". And, of coarse, he didn't forget the incident with the Hunters. To top it all off, the back-stabbing speed-demon added, "In my personal opinion, Vile needs to be relieved of command immediately.....For the sake of the mission and the empire".

Sigma pondered a minute before making a response. All he said was- "I see". And continued with- "Vile, under these circumstances, I'm afraid I'm going to have to dismiss you from your post. Agile, remove the alleged traitor from the room before I give you your first assignment as Second Commander of the Maverick Empire."

Vile recalled the bewilderment he felt when the rebuilt Spark Mandrill and Wheel Gator dragged him into a back room of the abandoned building that was serving as one of the Mavericks' makeshift bases. He couldn't believe Sigma actually bought all of Agile's crap. Vile had been so shocked by Sigma's decision that he had forgotten to proclaim his innocents while being escorted to the room he now resided in.

He thought about making a break for it a couple times but he decided against it. Agile would have the room heavily guarded. That would be a suicide mission for a single reploid working at only 85% full capability. Vile hadn't fully recovered from the injuries he had obtained earlier that day.

Now, he flipped through the channels endlessly, too depressed and angry to really care what was on. He didn't even turn his head to see who was coming into the room when he heard the door electronically unlock and slide open.

"Knock, Knock!!", Agile said as he walked into the room.

Vile responded with total apathy, not looking up once from the holo-viewer, "What the hell do you want from me now, Agile??? You have my job and you've humiliated me in front of Sigma. What now??? Do you want my soul next??"

"I already own you're soul, Vile. Well, that is, if a reploid even has a soul to own. Let's put it this way, I own you." Agile walked over to the holo-viewer and turned it off, "Listen to me when I'm rubbing salt in your wounds...." He paused for effect and to make sure he had Vile's undivided attention. "As for stealing your job and humiliating you, it seemed like a good thing to do at the time. It was one of those 'spur of the moment' things. Besides, I was getting sick of taking orders from a ignoramus like you. Overthrowing you was about as hard as taking candy from a baby. Thanks to Sigma's unknowing help..."

Vile decided against retaliating to the Speed-Demon's last comment, "So.....What's your first assignment??"

"Sigma wants me and my men to recover what we can find of Dr. Doppler."

Vile laughed, "Damn......Sig is really, REALLY slipping these days. First, he buys all the crap you told him and then he wants to rebuild the only reploid capable of permanently killing him."

"Well, I totally agree with you for once." Agile sighed. "But I plan to follow orders....For now at least. No reason to defy Sigma's leadership yet." He paused, "As for you, my friend, I don't see you as a threat to me right now. Therefore, I plan to give you a fighting chance. I'm going to let you go. All Sigma will be told is that you escaped and we can't seem to locate you. You can do whatever you want once I let you free....You could go crawling to X and Zero for help... perhaps you could go crying back to Sigma....I really don't care. But be warned.....I'm going to give you one week to get as far away from me as you can......"

Vile cut in, "Then what...."

"Then I'm going on safari....Vile hunting, to be precise...." Agile cast a cold glance in his captive's direction, "Everyone needs a hobby....."

The soon-to-be-hunted reploid got up from the couch and walked towards the door, "I guess I'll be see ya in seven or so days, Agile......If I let you live that long."