There are many stories about the Red Hood.

Well acclaimed is her viciousness in battle, her cleverness in developing the W.O.L.F. virus that can hack any behemoth in minutes, her fearlessness as she rides her stolen vehicles into battle.

But few tell the story of when she was a girl, living on the outskirts, scraping by as many of us do.

She was working for the rebellion even then, so they say, taking supply runs and ferrying information back and forth across the wastes, even braving the ruined cities of glass and metal that stand as warnings to all.

And it was on one of these trips that she met a man.

Who he was is hard to say, the name he gave long lost, never spoken. He was well dressed, clean, despite the twisted rebar and shattered windows that rose around him; and when he spoke, he was kind. He asked what was in her basket with such innocent curiosity that she hesitated to lie.

Inside, among stale bread and roots, were carefully hidden blueprints detailing the security on the colonised moon of Briar. One of the most valuable assets the revolution would ever come to possess. She had been tasked with delivering it with the supplies, to cross the ruined city and speak to no-one, stop for nothing.

But the man leaned in close, whispering that he was part of the rebellion too - a spy on the inside. He was there to help her, so he said, the ruined cities no safe place for a young girl. Who knows what beasts or even Crown forces could be roaming the streets, picking clean the carcasses or hunting fresher meat?

He spoke with such conviction that only when he reached for the basket did her senses return, and she struck him away with a hidden knife. He howled and fled, wounded but alive, while she hurried onward.

Crossing the city was hard, baking by day and freezing by night, looming towers shifting and threatening to fall, rubble below disguising unstable ground. She pushed herself as hard as she could, making the journey in a matter of days, barely resting as she carried out her mission.

But when she arrived at the compound…

“Hello?”

“Well hello, my dear. Do come in.”

The voice that answered her was none other than the cunning stranger she had met in the city.

Immediately she was on guard, hiding the blueprints in her clothes as she held the basket in one hand, a sharp knife in the other.

And not a moment too soon—

The door kicked outwards and for a moment she saw who he truly was. The ends of his coat sleeves were tattered beyond repair, revealing sharp, black metal where bioaugmentation had replaced his hands. There was a fresh scar over his face, knitted closed with inhuman ability. He was covered in blood.

Then he was on her like an animal, metal striking metal, scuffling in the dust and debris. She fought him off with all she had, kicking and slicing for every blow she received. As his teeth closed around her throat, she did the only thing she could, throwing the basket of supplies away.

The man chased it with a single-minded focus, abandoning the fight. She took the chance to flee.

Over cracked asphalt and shattered tiles she ran, tripping and stumbling to the very edge of the city, where she happened upon the Huntsman.

The Huntsman, not quite swayed to the rebellion at the time, took one look at the girl in floods of tears and gave her shelter. As she recounted her tale he took up an axe for clearing away the scavengers in the wastes, and when she declared she would return to kill the man, he promised to accompany her.

When the two of them arrived at the compound, they quickly noticed the blood in the air.

The rebels inside had been slaughtered like chattel, not a single one left alive. Standing at the centre of it all was the man, waiting for her, but he had been counting on her being alone. When he lunged for the Red Hood, the Huntsman lurched forwards with a hard swing of the axe, taking his head clean off.

They salvaged what they could from the compound, counted their dead, then took off into the wastes to search for another rebel outcamp.

… Rumours say the two have fought alongside each other ever since.