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It was chunky and uneven, the sound of the old pickup rattling to a start. Its busted headlights flickering, then refusing. Not that the drunken middle aged man in the front seat noticed, nearly soaked all the way through from a sudden down poor. Grumbling to himself about the weather in a slurred, unorganized tongue of English, the beer-bellied man slumped forward, his blurry eyes squinting over the dashboard.

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The group of Jam pony rider laughed chuckled and giggled at their usual table, another round of beer circulating through them.

 � And the best part was when Normal�s eyes bugged out when she threw the magazines at him!� Sketchy gasped out, hardly able to talk between fits of laughter and choking on a sip of beer. 

Half the gathering people were doing the same, including Max and Original Cindy. Another rider nearly falling out of his chair. Though it wasn�t that funny, just a simple mistake in Addresses� Which had brought a very large woman into the Jam Pony Xpress office wearing a tiny robe and hair curlers, a couple adult magazines in hand. Kind of Angry that her how to lose weight magazines had been mistakenly switched for a couple pre-pulse play boys. Actually, what had been the best part is when a couple riders had to pry the lady out of a chair in Normal�s office using a board and some petroleum jelly Normal kept behind the counter for god knows what. 

Slowly everyone�s laughter subsided and they were left to their conversations, about the weather, about normal, about anything, leaving Max to slowly fade out from the conversation between Sketchy, Original Cindy and Herbal. Sounds of the Crash sinking away from her ears, the sight of the half-empty glass in her hand blacking into a vision of 9 year old X5�s crowded around Ben�s bunk. Something had made the group giggle to them selves, something Ben had said. They froze after a moment, glancing at each other as the sound of rushed steps clicked along the hard tile in the hall, sending them to scatter back to their own beds before the door opened.

Max jumped, her fingers releasing their grip she had on the glass of beer in front of her, sending the liquid to spill over the table. The pager attached to her belt beeping itself into her consciousness. Her gaze washing over those that stared at her, droplets of beer rolling off the beaten table�s surface. 

� Um� Max... Your pager,� Original Cindy eyed Max for a moment while she reached for her pager, �You ok Boo?� 

� Yeah... I was just spacing for a minute�� Max answered, her eyes diverting to the number on the tiny screen of box made of plastic in her hand, dark locks falling from behind her ear, Logan�s number, Why did he have to page me now? Max wondered, her gaze moving back up to her Crew. Standing from her chair with small mutter, digits grasping for her jacket laid over its back. A girl�s work is never done, she smirked to herself, large brown eyes sweeping to her friends, �Gotta Blaze,� She shrugged looking over to Original Cindy, � Logan�

Turning away from the group she sighed, He always manages to page me when I�m trying to relax a little. Though the flash back to her childhood had basically killed all chances of her actually relaxing and chilling with her friends. Pushing through the crowd, Max slipped on her jacket knowing it was raining via her sharp hearing, even over the roar of Music and people, it was going to make for an interesting ride home on her motorcycle, though hardly any trouble for a genetically revved up killing machine like herself Max thought, slowly trailing back to her flash back as she threw a leg over her bike, her fingers digging out the sunglasses she only wore while riding at night. 

The rain splattered over her sunglasses, smearing her vision of the road ahead, she was already soaked, her Hair matted to her forehead, plastered to her face, the black tank top and blue jeans she wore sticking to her Skin annoyingly. Hardly noticing the small twitch in her hand as she leaned in to the left to make a turn, her mind she preoccupied with the flashback she had had earlier. 

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The man grunted as his foot slowly eased onto the gas again; he had run into the curb, the old pickup having stalled for a moment. �Aww. Coome on lil� trook.� The man slurred, swerving off into the empty street. His eyes squinting again with a sudden jerk to the right, and then back to the left, the damn road wouldn�t stop moving. 

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This time she did notice as the tremor slowly shook itself up her arm, Damn it� note to self, next time you see Lydecker kick him in the balls and then thank him for my �perfect genes�, happy for me that I carry my Tryptohane with everywhere. Sighing as the tremors subsided for a moment she pumped the gas a little, Reaching back for the drenched backpack strapped to the back of her motorcycle. 

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� Stoooopid.. Road� what the hell�?� The middle aged man blinked, trying to clear the blurry from his eyes. What was that? He moaned to himself, like a blurry, distorted light, dear god I�m dyeing! He thought to him self, Just don�t look into the light! 

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The chunky backed up sound of the old pickup backfiring is what brought Max�s attention to what was in front of her. Her quick, feline reflexes taken action, all she could do at this point was yank up on the handle Bars, using all the supped up Manticore strength she could gather trying to jump over the rusted and beat hood of the old, (way before) pre-pulse truck. 

The front wheel lifted, and for a moment that hung in time Max grabbed a shred of hope that she would Make it over the rust bucket she rapidly approached, No such luck. The front wheel hit the side panel, and Max had had just a few more feet she might have made it over the truck� 

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The Truck shook, and skidded its front end side ways as the bike smashed into the side panel, �Jesus Christ!� the man yelled, his hands reaching out to brace himself against the steering wheel, his wide eyes Catching the girl who tumbled over his hood� 

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Max fell forward, flipping over the handlebars with loud bang against the hood, a searing light flashing over her eyes as the back of her head made contact with the truck�s rusted hood, the momentum carrying her light body over the truck to land with a sickening crunch of her leg as it turned in an odd angel no joint should ever explore. Max�s mouth opened to scream out in pain but she couldn�t make out the sound in her mouth before she was carried forward as the truck skidded to its side, towards her. Giving the dazed and shocked body another nudge, leaving the already scraped and battered Max to role over the pavement. 

It had been the shock that had kept Her from correcting herself as she rolled over the hood, Max confirmed to herself as she laid there on the street, sprawled out in an odd position. Her eyes blurring out for a moment as her face pressed against the cool, wet surface of the street, staring at the tires of the truck she had just hit, now unable to move, unable to even think of moving as her mind drifted, A chain reaction, Max thought, When something bad happens to me its always followed but something worse, Like Life likes To kick me in the teeth every time it starts to go smoothly� And slowly, light and sound and all and little life around her faded from her existence after noticing, of all things, that it had stopped raining. 

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Oh Jesus, the man thought, Oh God� He whimpered to himself, his drunkenness faded from him, suddenly Very, very sober. �Oh Jesus,� the man said to himself, �Oh God�� echoing his thoughts, he slowly turned his wide eyed gaze over to the crumpled and battered women who just flew across his truck and landed, hard on the pavement� With a blink he slowly groped for the doorknob, letting himself out of the truck. No one else even came onto the sidewalks of the broken down part of town, no one else was going to help, The middle aged man locked his eyes on the girl laying the streets, he couldn�t just leave her there� Slowly the man made his way around the truck, swallowing hard trying to force the lump in his throat down to his stomach, his hand gripping the tail gate as he looked at the girl again, a soft, muffled groan that he hardly heard suddenly broke into his mind, his eyes going wide again, �Oh my god!� he shrieked, running over the girl. Her body was twisted and bleeding, her leg and an arm definitely broken, blood leaking onto the wet ground, staining it in the dark a washed out, watered down crimson. 

With nothing left to do the man bent down and tried to gently scoop Max up, even though a horrible pain should of racked her body she didn�t make a sound, her unconscious mind floating away from the horrible stabs and aches all over her body. The man made his way quickly to the truck, awkwardly pulling the passenger side door open and sitting her on the seat. 

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The entrance of the hospital was mad, the chaos of the city portraying itself in the numerous people that clutched gashes and scrapes, and others who had limp limbs dangling at their side, must have been a gang war or something. Not that the man really noticed, still half-drunk as he pushed his way through the crowded entrance, the mangled and bloodied girl starting to quiver and shake lightly in his hands, stopping just after a second. And Nor did the people loitering around notice him as he turned his back to the door to push it open with out awkwardly fumbling with the woman he held in his arms. 

�Help me,� The man screamed, �I need help over here!� the middle aged man turned, looking for a nurse or a doctor among the patients sitting in the waiting room. Her gaze landing on a doctor who was already making his way towards him, motioning for a male nurse to bring over a gurney, � I hit her, She was on a motorcycle and I hit her! I didn�t me-,� the babbled as the doctor and nurse reached out to help him lay her down. The thin, sterile sheets that covered the plastic-line, thin cot slowly staining red with the blood that slowly leaked from a couple gashes and cuts on her head, scrapes over her arms and legs and other various nicks. 

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A crowd of nurses now stood around Max, as she laid unconscious on the gurney. The doctor giving out orders, the group starting to roll the patient towards the ER. One nurse shooing the Truck�s driver away to the waiting room while another pulled an oxygen mask over Max�s head, about the time when she started to convulse and shake. 

�Eh! What the hell�, a blonde nurse muttered as she dropped a chart that some one had handed her and reached over to help another hold Max still. 

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Max�s eyes jerked open, her vision blurred and obscured by the lights she was looking into, shadowy figures of people working over her. �No!� Max choked, her good arm reaching up to swat and push away hands that looked to keep her from hurting herself during the seizer they could do nothing about. �No! I won�t go back! Never!� Max rolled, pushing away nurses with her arm, and landing on the gritty tile floor. She only had one good arm to push herself up, the other clutched to her body protectively, God it hurts, her mind screamed, almost falling again with the pressure applied to her broken leg. � No!� she yelled again her good arm thrown towards the nose of a male nurse that tried to grab her, � I�m not going back Lydecker! Not back to that place!� 

Max limped away, shoving past various people that stood, trying to calm her. I�m not going back. God Logan... Zack�help me! She whimpered as two nurses reached and grabbed her arms, the seizers and the accident having weakened her dramatically. Pulling back, she pulled her arms together, pulling the two rather large nurses into each other, while others watched in amassment and surprise. 

She had reached out for the door, just as another seizer had set in. The tremors racking her already beaten body and driving her to the floor again.