Retribution

By jonty

 

Chapter 1

 

Max sighed and closed her eyes for a second, her head dropping down onto the desk. This was impossible. It just didn’t work. There were too many transgenics, and not enough supplies. It didn’t matter how many times she went over the figures, they just did not work. She sighed again, and started from the top. Again.

 

Mole walked casually into the room, and stopped dead. “Oh, come on,” he muttered, slowly backing up, not taking his eyes off her.

 

“Hey, Mole, did you get that part for the generator?” Dix called from across the room, then winced as he saw the expression on Mole’s face.

 

Mole went as white as it was possible for a green-skinned transgenic to go. He started to back away faster.

 

“Mole!” Max looked up from her table and gestured for him to join her.

 

“Oh, crap,” Mole commented, and walked over to her, really slowly. “So, what’s up?” he asked, in a falsely cheerful voice.

 

“What is with this requisition? What could you possibly need 250 lightbulbs for? And where do you think we’re supposed to track them down?”

 

“Um, well we were told to list what we needed, and I listed what Luke told me we needed. I don’t really know why we need 250 of them, but, there are a lot of things I don’t know. I just go along with them.”

 

“What is that supposed to mean?” Max stood up to glare at him. If that was some crack about her blindly following Alec’s order to keep Shay under guard, then…

 

“Yeah, fine. Yell at me. Make me your personal lizard-skinned punching bag.” Mole decided that he was sick of being pushed around by her.  He wasn’t sure that it was the most intelligent decision that he could have made, but it wasn’t like he was designed to be a major player in the brains category.

 

“What?” Max paused for a second.

 

“Look, fine. You’re pissed off at Alec for taking off. I get that. But you can’t take it out on everyone else, alright?” Mole looked around the room quickly, then pulled her into the office, shutting the door behind him. “Things aren’t going so well. Here, I mean. We need leadership.”

 

“Well, like you just said, Alec took off.” Max snapped back, angry.

 

Mole growled. “We don’t know how to do this, Max.” he gestured around him. “I mean, what the hell is this? War? Not a problem. We can beat anyone. Peace? Okay, so we don’t really know how to do peace, but we can figure it out. It’s like downtime on a mission, right? Only it lasts longer. But this? This waiting around for the humans to attack, or leave or whatever?”

 

Mole shrugged, and an expression of confusion crossed his face. “We don’t know this, Max. You do. You’ve been doing this since you escaped.” He stopped talking, and waited.

 

>>>>>

 

Alec shifted his leg slightly, the first movement he had made in three hours. Not counting moving his sore leg, which he was doing every few hours, he hadn’t moved in fifteen hours. He didn’t dare risk moving, and having someone notice that he was there. Someone, being one of the dozen familiars that were gathered in a room less than 20 metres from where he lay in the grass.

 

His leg continued hurting, and he moved his hand carefully down to rub it, not taking his eyes off what was happening in front of him. If they had been Manticore, he would have described it as a briefing. He guessed that the same principles would apply to familiars. The thing that was good about Manticore, was that everything was simple. Briefings simply involved who to kill, and what firepower to use. They were short and sweet. This particular briefing had been going on for about three days.

 

It might have been more interesting if he knew what the hell they were talking about, but they were using that stupid language. The language of the runes, or something similar. All he could do was listen to what they were saying, memorise it, and figure it out later.

 

Two hours later, he shifted his leg again, this time grimacing slightly. How much more talking did they need to do? He had never tried it, but he had a feeling that he could probably hatch a plan to take over the city in less than a day.

 

>>>>>

 

Storm sat in the vacant car park, staring into space.  He picked up a brick, and threw it across the lot. It hit the side of the building and shattered into a thousand pieces.

 

“Is, um, is everything okay?” a female voice penetrated his dazed mind, and he turned around.

 

“Huh?” His brain just seemed to be operating on a different time zone to the rest of him. “Uh, hi.”

 

“It’s just, every time I see you, you’re here, throwing things at the wall, or the car or something.”

 

“Well, I have this friend, when he gets pissed off he punches holes in his bedroom wall. That leads to the roof caving in, so I think my hobby is safer.”

 

She laughed, and Storm looked at her, shocked. Had his brain actually managed to say something that wasn’t completely moronic or monosyllabic? Things were looking up. He smiled shyly at her.

 

“So, are you alright?” she repeated, taking a seat next to him.

 

“I’m always alright,” he replied, trying to copy Alec’s way of talking.

 

She laughed again, and Storm blushed slightly, turning his head away from her. Okay, fine. He wasn’t Alec. He got that. But, what did he say now? Alec had said something about how honesty was good, sometimes. Could this be a good time to try a bit of honesty? Or to lie?

 

“Things are kind of weird.” He went for honesty. Heavily, majorly understated honesty, but it was still honesty. 

 

“Want to talk about it?” she asked.

 

“We don’t really do that,” he replied without thinking, and she laughed again. “I mean, I wouldn’t know how.”

 

“Just say what you’re thinking.” She reached out and took his hand in hers.

 

Storm grinned at her. Honesty was a pretty damn fantastic approach. He would have to tell Alec about that.

 

If Alec ever came back.

 

>>>>>                      

 

The Familiar gathering appeared to be breaking up. At least, Alec hoped that was what was going on. Otherwise the fact that they were all pulling off their robes could only lead to something that he really didn’t want to see.

 

They were leaving.

 

Alec allowed himself to smile briefly, before moving quietly into the treeline.

 

>>>>>

 

Alec had to wait for about ten minutes from the time he arrived at TC before it was safe for him to sneak into a tunnel. When it was safe, he moved through the passage, and nodded at the guards standing duty at the other end.

 

“Sir!” One of the younger Xs recognised him, snapping to attention. The other guard, a green-skinned relation of Mole’s just grinned at him. Freak transgenics did not salute, but they could still show their delight at having their leader back. “Welcome back.”

 

Alec glanced at them, then nodded. “Got a radio?” he asked the freak.

 

“Of course. You want me to get in touch with Max?”

 

“No,” Alec replied, no expression in his voice. “I want you to get Mole, and Neil. Tell them to get to my apartment ASAP.”

 

“Done.”

 

Alec started to walk off, then turned back. “Tell Mole to bring some paper. A lot of paper.”

 

>>>>>

 

“Alec?” Neil knocked on the door to Alec’s apartment, and walked in, followed by Mole. “Hey, man, when did you get back?”

 

Alec glanced at him, then turned to Mole. “Did you bring the paper?”

 

“As requested.” Mole handed over a couple of boxes of printer paper. “This do you?”

 

Alec grabbed the paper off him, and moved over to the desk in the corner of his living area. Neil looked at Mole as he saw Alec sit down, rip open the box and start writing.

 

Mole shrugged. “Love letter, maybe?”

 

Neil watched Alec for another couple of minutes. Alec kept writing, filling page after page, writing at a high speed.

 

“Alec?” When he got no response he walked across the room and looked down at what Alec was doing. Line after line was filled with random letters, that didn’t seem to form words.

 

“Alec,” Neil spoke louder.

 

Alec shook his head, raising one hand as if telling him not to talk. Neil nodded, and waited. About 15 minutes later, he looked up from what he was doing.

 

“Mole.”

 

“Alec.” Mole stepped forward.

 

“I want 12 people for surveillance and guard duty. Up the guards around TC. Also, get a full inventory of weaponry and personnel.”

 

“Anything else?” Mole asked sarcastically.

 

“Yeah. Get Dix. Find out exactly who and what he used to translate the runes, tell him I have another job for him, bigger. Get a list of equipment he’ll need, and get it.”

 

“Just like that, huh?” Mole grinned lightly. “Fine, consider it done.” He grinned, tossed off a mock salute, and left the apartment, whistling.

 

“And me?” Neil asked, waiting.

 

“My knee won’t stop hurting. It’s distracting,” Alec spoke with about as much emotion as if he was discussing the state of the weather.

 

“Well, I did tell you to stay off it,” Neil pointed out.

 

Alec turned to glare at him, for the first time choosing to drop the blank expression he had worn since returning to TC.

 

Neil knelt down beside him. “Alec, look at me.” He reached out and turned Alec’s head towards him.  

“When was the last time you slept?” Neil asked, dreading the answer.

Alec shrugged.

 

“Or eaten?” Neil looked closer into Alec’s eyes, the hazel colouring looking almost grey.

 

“I asked you to fix my knee. Everything else is fine.” The blank expression was back.

 

“Get some sleep.”

 

“I’m busy.” Alec turned his attention back to the paper, writing quickly.

 

Neil sighed. “Fine.”

 

Chapter 2

 

Mole took a deep breath as he entered HQ, and looked around cautiously. No Max. Good. That meant he was safe, for now.

 

“Dix, Luke,” he called out to the two transgenics and gestured for them to join him in the back room.

“Okay, we got some stuff to do.” He looked around at them. Luke was grinning, looking energised by the idea of assignments being handed out. Dix pulled out a note book, and a pen.

 

“First thing. I need two bodyguards. No, make that three. I want them big, and scary looking and totally dedicated to saving my lizardy behind.”

 

Luke, the exception to the rule that Manticore grads were brave and courageous, took several steps away from the door. “Save you from what?” he asked, his voice quivering slightly.

 

“Max.” Mole sighed. Max was going to kick his ass when she found out that he knew that Alec was back, and that he was following his orders, both without informing her.

 

“Uh oh.” Luke looked for somewhere to hide.

 

Dix shook his head.

 

“Listen, Mole. I like you, but, if you’ve pissed off Max, I think you’re on your own for this one. I mean, just how stupid are you?”

 

Mole thought for a second. “Look, here’s the thing. You don’t want to know what I know. If you knew what I knew, and Max found out that you knew, then you’ll be in as much trouble as I am, because I know.”

 

“Wow.” Luke looked at Dix and his notebook. “Did you get that down? ‘Cause I think I’m probably going to need to reread that a few times.”

 

Dix reread what he had written. “No. But I think I’m safe from Max, ‘cause I have no frigging idea what I know and don’t know.”

 

“Yeah, it’s called plausible deniability,” Mole told them. “Right, here’s what were going to do. Luke, I need a list of 12 Xs, top grade surveillance and guard qualifications.”

 

Luke grinned, simply happy to understand a sentence that came out of Mole’s mouth.

 

“Also, the perimeter around TC isn’t good enough. We need to improve it. And, I need a full inventory of weaponry we hold here.”

 

Luke nodded, leaving to get started.

 

“Dix, we have another translation job for you. It’s big, real big.” He had a vision of the stuff Alec was scribbling down onto paper. “Similar runes to before. Figure out what you need to do it as efficiently as possible, and we’ll get it for you.”

 

Dix nodded. “I’ll let you know.”

 

“Yeah.” Mole nodded, lighting a cigar. “I’ll be hiding in a hole somewhere.”

 

>>>>>

 

“So, Shay’s doing fine,” Neil commented as he drew his knife and cut up Alec’s trouser leg.

Alec continued writing, finishing a page, and dropping it on top of what was fast becoming a big stack.

“Alec?” Neil spoke slightly louder.

 

“Hmm?” Alec looked over at him.

 

“Shay. Is doing fine. Kind of.”

 

“Hm.” Alec went back to writing.

 

Neil shook his head, and turned his attention back to Alec’s leg. “It’s swollen,” he commented, running one hand lightly over the knee. “This hurt?” He looked up at Alec, and pressed his hand harder against his leg.

 

“Yes.” Alec’s face remained blank.

 

“It hurts?” Neil asked again, assuming that Alec was ignoring him, and just giving random answers when he thought Neil was asking him a question.

 

“Yeah. It hurts. That’s why I need you to fix it,” Alec spoke calmly.

 

“Okay, try bending it for me.”

 

“Huh?”

 

“Alec!” Neil tapped his leg, hard.

 

“What?” Finally, there was some expression in Alec’s voice. Boredom, coupled with annoyance.

 

“I need you to actually pay attention to me.”

 

“Hold on.” Alec kept writing for a minute, then put his pen down, and turned to Neil. “Okay.”

 

“Bend your leg for me.”

 

Alec did as he was told, slowly. Neil moved his hands over Alec’s leg, trying to feel the muscles as they moved.

 

“Look, Alec, you’ve torn something pretty good in here, and it’s just not healing. It’s getting worse.”

 

“So, you’re saying I have a design flaw.” Alec’s tone was almost curious.

 

Neil stared at him. What the hell? This was weird. Something was wrong here. “Alec, is everything okay?”

 

Alec looked down at his leg. “Apparently not,” he shrugged.

 

“Is there anything I can do?”

 

“Apparently not,” Alec repeated.

 

Neil stared at him. There was something really wrong with his friend. This was not the Alec he knew. This was, well, this wasn’t Alec. He remembered another guy, back at Manticore…

 

He stood quickly, backing away from Alec.

 

“Uhh, just stay off it for now. I’ll get some transgenic strength painkillers that should help while you finish what you’re doing, then we’ll talk surgery.”

 

“Fine.” Alec turned his attention back to his work. That was all he wanted. A simple solution.

>>>>>

 

Max walked into the hospital, and nodded at one of the guards. “Any problems?” she asked.

 

“No,” one of them replied. “I was in there with him about an hour ago. Same as yesterday. He just sits there, doesn’t say anything.”

 

“Thanks.” Max went inside, knocking lightly on the door as she entered one of the side rooms. “Hey,” she nodded to the nurse, then turned her attention to the boy sitting on the floor by the bed.

 

“Hey, Shay.” She sat down next to him. “What’s going on?”

 

Shay shrugged, and continued staring at the wall.

 

“Yeah, I’m not doing much either. Maybe I’ll just hang out here a while.”

 

>>>>>

 

Neil entered the main room of the hospital, and moved to his drug supply room.

 

Painkillers were something that he was rarely required to apply to his patients, for two reasons. First, most of them metabolised them too fast for them to do any good, and second, his patients being transgenics, they tended to refuse them. This basically boiled down to the fact that he didn’t have too many in stock. He made a mental note to ask Mole to try and get some more. Mole seemed to be the guy that organised that stuff these days.

 

He picked up two bottles of high strength painkiller, and grabbed some antibiotics. Again, Alec’s body would probably metabolise these too quickly, but better late than never. He contemplated some form of a sedative, but decided against it. Although it was obvious that Alec was in desperate need of some sleep, Neil knew that he would not take anything voluntarily, and medicating him against his will would lead to some rather, well, interesting consequences.

 

“Neil.”

 

Damnit. Neil grimaced, then forced a smile on his face. He turned around. “Hey, Max. Visiting Shay?”

 

“Yeah. He doesn’t seem to be getting any better. He still won’t talk.”

 

“I know.” Another failure, Neil thought to himself. “All we can do is give him time.”

 

“What are you up to?” Max glanced down at the bottles he was holding. “Painkillers and antibiotics?” she looked up at him. “Did someone get hurt? I didn’t even know we had anyone on a mission…”

Understanding dawned. “Alec. He’s back?”

 

“No?” Neil tried, before realising how stupid that sounded. “Fine. Yes. But, God, if he asks, you found out from someone else, okay?”

 

“He… he doesn’t want me to know he’s back?” Max bit her lip and looked down at the ground.

 

“Uhh…” Neil wanted out of this conversation, bad. Technically Alec hadn’t said that he didn’t want to see Max, but he hadn’t really told anyone to let her know he was back. “He’s kind of, well, busy.”

 

“Busy?” Hurt was replaced with anger. “He’s BUSY? We’re the ones that are trying to hold this place together, and find Tim and figure out what’s wrong with Shay, while he takes off God knows where doing God knows what, and he comes back and he’s too busy to even tell me where he is?”

 

Neil really wanted out of this conversation. “Max, I need to go.”

 

He left, quickly. Hopefully he could inject Alec with the medication and get the hell out before Max calmed down enough to figure out where Alec was and go to yell at him. Neil did not want to be around for that.

 

>>>>>

 

“Alec.” Neil entered the apartment, and moved over to the desk.

 

Alec didn’t look up from his writing, but moved his leg slightly.

 

“Okay, I’m going to give you a painkiller. It should last a couple of hours. Will that be enough for you to finish what you are doing?”

 

“Probably not. How much do you have in stock?” Alec looked up from his writing.

 

“This is basically it,” Neil admitted.

 

“Tell Mole. Ask him to add it to his shopping list.”

 

Neil frowned. That did not sound good. That sounded like Alec expected it to be a while before he would allow proper medical treatment. A long while. “Fine. There’s also some pills here. Antibiotics. Will you take them regularly?”

 

Alec shrugged, and Neil decided to take that as a yes. It was just easier. “Good.” Neil pulled the torn material away from Alec’s knee, and located a vein to inject the painkiller into. “Take the pills, okay?” he asked as he stood up.

 

“…yeah…”

 

Neil turned to leave when he saw Max standing in the doorway. “Oh, shit.” So much for getting in and out before this scene. He sighed.

 

Alec looked up as he heard Neil say something in a tone of voice that sounded annoyed. Looking past Neil, he saw Max glaring at him.

 

“Well?” she asked, walking into the room and glaring at him.

 

“I’m busy right now, Max. Can we do this later?” Without waiting for an answer, he turned back to his work.

 

Neil looked from Alec, to Max, and moved very quickly to the nearest exit.

 

Chapter 3

 

Silence ruled in the room. Max watched in disbelief as Alec turned away from her and went back to writing something.

 

She took a deep breath, and started yelling.

 

“No, we can’t do this later. We are going to do this now. You pull a gun on Shay, who is supposed to be your friend, then you disappear for two weeks without any word, and now you come back, and you’re TOO BUSY to talk to me? At least look at me when I’m talking to you.”

 

Alec sighed, putting his pen down. He turned the chair around to face her, placing his hands in his lap. He waited, his expression calm.

 

Max glared at him.

 

“Max, I’m busy,” he prompted her.

 

Surprise replaced anger. How dare he talk to her like that? She opened her mouth, ready to yell, again, but she caught sight of his face. Alec sat there calmly as if they were doing nothing more than discussing the weather.

 

“Forget it.” She turned and stormed out.

 

“Max,” Alec spoke quietly, but loudly enough that she should have been able to hear him.

 

He heard her continue to walk down the hall.

 

Alec stood up. Obviously there had been some misunderstanding, that he needed to clear up. He took about two steps, then turned to look back at his desk and the papers there. He looked again at the door, then sighed.

 

He returned to his desk and continued writing.

 

>>>>>

 

“What is his problem?” Max slammed the door to the hospital wing in anger.

 

“Oh, come on!” Neil groaned. So much for escaping. This was not fair. He hoped Alec was in pain. Serious pain. “So, I’m the new punching bag?” he asked, regretting it instantly.

 

“What?”

 

“Uh, nothing. So, What’s up?”

 

“What did you mean, you’re the punching bag?”

 

Neil shrugged. “Look, when you and Logan were fighting, or not fighting but being… whatever, you took it out on Alec. Now, you’re with Alec, and you guys are fighting, or not, so you need someone to yell at. I was just wondering if I’d gotten the job.”

 

Max opened her mouth to yell at him, but thought better of it. “Sorry,” she said quietly. “I’m just… noone knows what happened, and he takes off, and… then he comes back and he acts like…”

 

“A moron,” Neil supplied. “Yeah, I noticed.”

 

Max shook her head. “Do you know what he’s doing?”

 

“No idea.”

 

>>>>>

 

Alec finished writing another page, and closed his eyes for a second. He reached for another page, and knocked something off the table. There was the sound of several things hitting the floor. He reached down and ran his hand over the floor until his fingertips touched something. He picked it up. A pill bottle? He thought for a second, then remembered Neil saying something to him about taking them. What were they anyway? He couldn’t remember.

 

Oh, well. He kicked away the pills that had fallen out of the bottle, then tipped the bottle into his mouth and swallowed the remaining pills.

 

At least Neil would be happy.

 

He went back to writing.

 

>>>>>

 

“I gotta go.” Storm stood up slowly.

 

“Another mission?” The girl asked.

 

“Nah, I kind of have to go see someone. A friend. He’s hurt, and…” he shrugged. Technically, yeah, Shay was hurt. Or something.

 

“That’s a shame. Is it bad?” She stood up too.

 

“I don’t really know. I haven’t been to see him yet.” He smiled shyly. “Maybe we can talk again later?”

 

>>>

 

Storm walked slowly into the hospital wing. He had been putting this off for, well, over two weeks now. What did he say to Shay, the guy who had been his friend, his squadmate? Sorry I held a gun on you? And what the hell had been going on anyway? Why had he had to guard him in the first place? Something weird had happened, and he had no idea what it was.

 

Was Shay a nomaly?

 

He entered the main room, and nodded at the doctor on duty. He couldn’t remember his name, but he was a friend of Alec’s. Neil. That was it.

 

“Hey, Storm. Everything okay?” Neil turned to face him, smiling.

 

“Yeah, um…” Storm looked at the ground. “How’s Shay?” he asked quietly.

 

“I’m not sure.” Neil walked across and took a seat on the bed in front of where Storm was standing.

“He seems pretty confused.”

 

“He’s not the only one.” Storm smiled shaking his head. “Do you ever feel like you’re in a tv show or something? And everyone else knows what’s going on, and what they’re supposed to do, and all that, but you didn’t get the script?”

 

“Yeah, I guess, but I just remember one thing.”

 

“What’s that?” Storm hoped for deep wisdom.

 

“If this is a tv show, I’m not the lead character. I’m, at best, in a supporting role. I don’t have to understand the plot. I just have to go along with the lead actors, and hope they have the script.”

 

“Okay.” Storm thought for a moment, then grinned. It did kind of make sense. “So, Alec and Max are the lead characters, right? Because they seem to know what is going on?”

 

Neil laughed. “Sorry to break this to you, son, but they don’t know either. They’re making it up just like us.”

 

“Well, that’s reassuring. So, what we need to do, is find whoever is writing the script, and tell her to sort her shit out and tell us all what’s going on?”

 

“Yep.”

 

“That sounds like a job for the lead actors. So, um, should I go see Shay? I’m not sure if he’d want to see me or not.”

 

Neil nodded. “If you want to. If he starts getting agitated or anything, though, leave.”

 

Storm nodded, and walked towards the smaller room. He knocked lightly on the door, and opened it. Shay stood by the window, staring out at it like he was fascinated by something there.

 

Storm moved across the room until he could see what was so interesting. A brick wall.

 

“Uh, hi,” he muttered, considering leaving.

 

Shay turned around, and gave a half smile. “Hi,” he replied, just as quietly.

 

“So, umm…” Storm had no idea what to say. He hadn’t thought this far ahead.

 

“So, everyone is pissed at me, right?” Shay asked uncertainly.

 

“Uh, well, noone really knows what happened, so noone knows who to be pissed at, or…” Storm shrugged.

 

“Didn’t Alec…?”

 

“Alec took off. When he told me to, um, guard you. I haven’t seen him since.”

 

“Really?” Shay looked upset. “He didn’t leave because of me, did he? Because of what I did?”

 

“What did you do?”

 

Shay sighed. “I don’t really know.”

 

>>>>>

 

Max stood in the doorway to Alec’s apartment, watching him. There was something weird going on, and she wanted to know what it was. He was still writing whatever it was he had been working on for the last 10 hours, although there was something interesting. Earlier, he had been writing with his right hand. Now, he had switched over to his left hand, and was unconsciously rubbing his leg with his right.

 

She walked into the room, and pulled up a chair to sit beside him.

 

He slowly glanced over to her, then when he realised that she wasn’t going to yell again, he turned his attention back to his work.

 

Max reached out and touched his leg, near his hand. Alec moved his hand away, but didn’t otherwise object to her being there. Slowly she started to massage his leg.

 

“Can we talk?” she asked him softly.

 

Chapter 4

 

“Max, I need to concentrate. I have to get this done.”

 

She heard something in his voice, something that she might have called desperation in anyone else’s voice.

 

“What is it? What is so important?” Max leant forward to see what he was writing, jarring his knee in the process.

 

“Max!” he spoke angrily.

 

She stood quickly.

 

“Damnit,” he snarled, then turned to face her. “I have to do this. I have to get this done, before… Look. Can you do something for me?”

 

“What?”

 

Alec ran a hand through his hair and looked down. “Can you find Neil? He was going to get me some painkillers.”

 

Max’s glance strayed to his leg. She noticed that he was standing slightly lopsided, most of his weight on his left leg.

 

“Alec, you need to get that checked out properly. It should have healed by now.”

 

“Max.” His voice sounded tired. “Can you just go see Neil? And, can we fight about it later?”

 

“Okay, but we are going to yell about this later.”

 

“Okay.” Alec sat down and resumed writing.

 

>>>>>

 

“You don’t know what you did?” Storm looked surprised.

 

“Not really. I just remember things going wrong.” Shay stood up and walked towards the window. “I had this dream. And then, things got weird.”

 

“Another dream?” Storm asked, looking depressed. “If there’s one thing I’ve learned, it’s that dreams are never good in this place.”

 

“No kidding. At least you got stars. Mine just sucked.”

 

“What happened?”

 

“There was a white room,” Shay said, very quietly.

 

“A white room?” Storm thought for a second. Then, something clicked. “Uh, like the black room?”

 

“Yeah.” Shay turned around to look at him.

 

“Damn.” Storm had no idea what to say.

 

>>>>>

 

Alec finished the line he was writing, and triumphantly drew a line across the page.

 

“Oh, thank god,” he muttered.

 

Alec stood slowly, and turned in the direction of his bedroom. He felt his eyes start to close as he staggered towards his nice, warm bed. Okay, it probably wasn’t going to be that nice and warm, but it was softer than the ground he had been lying on for…

 

Thud.

 

Alec rebounded off the wall, landing on his back on the floor.

 

He stared at the ceiling for a few seconds, trying to figure out what had happened, and why his head hurt so badly. He raised a hand to rub his head.

 

“Well, that was… interesting.” He sat up slowly, looking to see what he had just walked into.

 

“The hell?” he stood up, and moved closer to the thing that had prevented his access to his bed. Disbelieving, he reached out a hand and touched the newly bricked up wall.

 

“I liked it better the other way.” He turned to find the real entrance to his bedroom, then stopped dead. “If they’ve fixed my damn skylight too, I’m gonna kill someone.”

 

He found his doorway, and walked through it, throwing himself onto his bed.

 

In less than 5 seconds, he was back on his feet.

 

“Too weird.”

 

He headed back to the lounge and moved the papers he had been working on to a safe location. Then he grabbed the chair he had been sitting on.

 

Sighing, he walked into his bedroom, and faced the offending wall.

 

With a slight grin on his face, he threw the chair at the wall. The newly fixed brickwork fell apart.

 

“Much better.”

 

He collapsed back onto his bed and closed his eyes.

 

“Is it too much to ask?” he groaned, moving his hand above his head. All he wanted was to sleep for a few hours. He reached his hand behind his head to move whatever it was that was so uncomfortable. Since when was his pillow… furry? And was that a… paw?

 

He pulled on the appendage, and stared in shock at the furry little bear attached to it. “Well, okay then.”

 

He touched its little face gently. It was kind of soft, and cute, in a bear kind of way. “Fine, you can stay.” He laid it gently on top of his chest and closed his eyes again.

 

“Anyone home?”

 

Alec opened his eyes slowly.

 

“Mole,” he explained to the two little black eyes that stared up at him. “Go away,” he called to Mole, sitting up in bed.

 

“You know, we went to all that trouble of fixing that damn wall, and you rip it down? If you don’t like it, just say so.”

 

Mole walked into the room, then stopped.

 

He stared in utter amazement at the sight in front of him. Alec, half sprawled on his bed, holding something small and…

 

He couldn’t finish that sentence. He just couldn’t.

 

“Someone’s been sleeping in my bed.”

 

Alec shrugged.

 

Chapter 5

 

Dix looked around the room, contemplating suicide.

 

Well, not really, not actually killing himself, but what he was about to do would amount to the same thing.

 

He was about to do something that, back at Manticore, would have resulted in him being sent to The Place. Capital letters. The place where freaks go to be punished and never come back. Back at Manticore, it was like an urban legend. Something handed down to scare them, but not really real. It’s not like any freak would actually disobey an order, or criticise an X, the two things that would get them sent there. But here? Sometimes he wondered if maybe he could get away with it.

 

If he could talk to Alec, it would be okay. Alec wouldn’t punish him, he would listen to him, at least. Alec was fair. Not like some of the others around here. Alec had pulled him into a mission, not seeming to care what Dix looked like, only caring that Dix was able to do what he needed doing.

 

But, Alec wasn’t available. He had come back, but he had closed himself off. He had made it clear that he was not available for personal stuff. He had handed out assignments, then noone had really seen him.

 

Who else could he go to?

 

Max? She never treated him like he was different, because of what he looked like, but the fact was, she didn’t carry a lot of weight in TC. Going to her would lead to a lot of noise and not a lot of action.

 

The only other Xs he felt close to were the ones that he had been on missions with. Shay, Storm and Tim. Storm was the only functional and available one, and the kid was too young.

 

“What’s going on?” Luke wandered over to join him.

 

“Did you hear about Twig?” Dix grimaced.

 

“Yeah, someone mentioned something about it. Is he…?”

 

“No.” 

 

“Oh, Man.”

 

“We need to talk to someone about this. Who could we go to?”

 

“You’re not including Alec, obviously?”

 

“No. He’s busy. Who else can we trust? Who might help us?”

 

Luke thought for a minute. “What about that doctor? Neil, or whatever? He’s fair. He might help.”

 

Dix nodded. “It could work. Do you know him? Do you think it’s safe to go to him with this?”

 

“You want MY opinion on this? Seriously? God, I wasn’t designed for this.”

 

“Me neither.”

 

“Okay.” Luke thought for a second, then grinned. “I know. We’ll ask Mole. Mole knows this Neil. Plus, Mole has this way of asking about stuff and pissing off Xs without getting killed.”

 

“That sounds good.” Dix relaxed slightly. “You know, that was quite intelligent. You sure you aren’t part X?”

 

“I helped you out. That doesn’t mean you get to insult me.”

 

>>>>>

 

Mole stared at Dix, who looked down at the ground. “You have got to be fucking kidding me.”

 

“Uh, no. I’m not.”

 

“How did I not know about this?” Mole left his cigar unlit in his anger.

 

“It just happened. Plus, you’ve been busy with…”

 

“Okay. We’re taking this to Alec.”           

 

“But isn’t he busy?”

 

“Alec is always busy. Who else do we go to on this? Max?” Mole’s expression mirrored the disgust that was evident in his voice. “He’ll want to know about this.” He reached for the nearest phone, and dialled the number to Alec’s apartment. After a few rings, the phone picked up. Noone spoke.

 

“Alec?” Mole asked finally.

 

“What do you need?”

 

“Well a ‘hello’ at some stage would be nice. A little small talk.”

 

“YOU wanted to talk to ME,” Alec pointed out.

 

“Yeah.” Mole looked over at Dix. “Um, Dix has something he wants to talk to you about.”

 

The sound of Alec sighing was noticeable. “Is it important? I’m really busy. Can you deal with it?”

 

“Yes, Alec, and I know just what you’re busy with.” Mole grinned widely as the image of the little teddy bear flashed before his eyes again. “But listen, man. You need to hear this. Seriously.”

 

“Okay. I’ll be right there.”

 

“Great. Just, leave your friend at home, okay?”

 

>>>>>

 

Alec made it to HQ in under 5 minutes. 4 of those minutes were spent trying to get out of his bed, which had suddenly gotten a lot more comfortable. Once he had managed to stagger to his feet, he moved a lot faster. If Mole said something was important, he was willing to take his word on it.

 

“Dix, what’s going on?” he asked as he entered the office and grabbed a seat.

 

Dix looked at him, then walked over to the door, shutting it firmly.

 

“What’s going on?” Alec asked again, this time more seriously. Dix looked really worried about something.

 

“Do you know a freak called Twig?” Dix asked slowly.

 

Alec shook his head. “Not sure. I don’t think so.”

 

“He’s kind of hard to miss. Designed for forest warfare. Brown skin, black eyes, long thin fingers.”

 

“I think…” Alec remembered seeing someone around who kind of looked like that. “Is he okay?” he prompted. Dix was taking a really long time to get to the point.

 

“No. He’s dead.”

 

Alec looked at him quickly, then at the closed door. “Tell me how he died.”

 

>>>>>

 

Alec looked down at the table for a long time. “Leave me alone,” he said finally.

 

Mole looked at Dix, and nodded towards the door.

 

How could this happen? Alec bit his lip hard. This was not good. They needed to be working together. They had enough enemies. Familiars, Humans, why the hell did they need to create more enemies for themselves?

 

He had to do something. He had to come up with a plan.

 

And he knew what it was. He had known since the end of that last mission.

 

He stood up and left the room, his expression returning to blank.

 

>>>>>

 

Alec strode into the hospital wing, slamming the door behind him.

 

“Alec, for god’s sake. Just because you don’t like doors and walls…” Neil looked over at his door in frustration, waiting to see if it was going to stay connected to its frame.

 

It did. Just.

 

Alec looked over to the two nurses that were working in the room. “Get out,” he told them calmly.

 

Neither of them hesitated, dropping what they were doing, and moving quickly to the door.

 

“What?” Neil asked, looking at him in confusion.

 

Alec walked over to the examining table, and jumped up onto it. “I need my leg working properly. Now.”

 

“You’ve finished writing whatever you were working on?” Neil looked relieved. “Good, we’ll get one of the nurses back, and operate. You’ll be up and about again in a few days.”

 

“No.” Alec shook his head. “Not good enough. I need it to work properly right now.”

 

Neil looked at him quickly. “What’s so important? Did you find Tim?”

 

“No. Its’ something else.”

 

Neil shook his head, but rolled up Alec’s trouser leg. “Going to tell me about it?” he asked as he reached for what looked like a very sharp knife. “Lie down.”

 

Alec complied, then sat up again.

 

“Alec?” Neil leant back and looked at him.

 

“We can’t fight others until we’re united ourselves,” he said softly.

 

“We aren’t united?”

 

“Remember that last group of transgenics that came into TC?”

 

Neil nodded. “Yeah. With the little girl. I remember you getting shot over it. Again.”

 

“One of the X5s that came in is stirring up stuff. Trying to create a power base.”

 

“Oh.” Neil did not like the sound of that. Usually the creation of a power base involved a lot of blood.

 

Alec misinterpreted Neil’s reaction. “He killed a freak.” Alec paused. “He killed another transgenic,” he rephrased. “Because he didn’t like what he looked like. We have enough to deal with without fighting amongst ourselves.”

 

Neil took a deep breath. “I didn’t know. This could be bad, right? This could be like a civil war.”

 

“Yeah. We escape Manticore just to kill each other off. Renfro would be so proud.”

 

Chapter 6

 

“I was going to shoot him,” Shay said hesitantly after a few minutes of silence.

 

“Alec?” Storm asked, trying to figure out what was going on.

 

“Yeah. He’s good, right? Alec?” He looked unsure.

 

“Are you serious? Alec? He’s incredible.” Storm looked kind of embarrassed. “He’s… my hero. Yours too.”

 

“Mine?” Shay nodded, then looked confused. “Yeah. But I had to kill him. He’s a traitor.”

 

Storm looked at the door. He wanted to leave. Badly. This was weird. He didn’t like Shay talking like this. He stood up. “Listen, man, I have to go.” He shook his head, backing away.

 

“I don’t know what’s real anymore.” Shay sounded completely lost.

 

Storm paused in the doorway. “You remember me, right?” he asked slowly, taking a step back into the room.

 

“Of course.” Shay laughed at him. “I’m not completely insane you know, just confused about some things.”

 

Storm smiled back. This was his friend. This was the guy he knew. “Are you confused about me?” he asked. “Do you trust me?”

 

“Yes. I trust you.” There was no hesitation in his reply.

 

“Okay. And you know that the familiars did something to your mind, right? Changed what you think of things?”

 

“Yeah. But, I don’t know what they changed. So I’m questioning everything I think.”

 

“But you trust me. So maybe if I tell you what’s real, you’ll start to remember on your own?”

 

“It’s worth a try.”

 

>>>>>

 

“So you have a plan?” Neil asked as he bandaged Alec’s leg tightly.

 

“Eliminate the problem.” The voice was calm, pure Manticore.

 

“Alec.” Neil had no idea what to say to that. “Do we still do that?” he asked unhappily.

 

Alec stretched his leg and bent it a couple of times. He nodded with satisfaction, then swung his legs over the side of the bed and tried to stand.

 

“Easy.” Neil put out his arm to steady him.

 

“We do what works,” Alec replied. Again, he tried to keep his voice neutral, but emotion crept into it. He clenched his fist. “What else is there?”

 

Neil had no answer.

 

>>>>>

 

Dix sat in the back room in HQ, flipping through the stack of papers that he had picked up from Alec’s apartment. He frowned at the sheer number of pages that Alec wanted translated.

 

“Oh well.” He turned to page one, and started scanning the symbols into a computer.

 

>>>>>

 

Alec took a deep breath, and entered the bar. He nodded at the barkeep, then looked around.

 

The guy he was looking for was standing at the end of the bar, drinking a beer and talking to a couple of really large looking friends. Alec grinned, and walked over.

 

“Evening, gents.” He smiled, tapping his target on the shoulder.

 

The guy spun around. “Don’t touch me.”

 

Alec laughed. He couldn’t help it. The guy was trying so hard to be tough. “Wow, that’s an impressive line. You must hear that a lot, right? From the ladies?”

 

“What do you want, 494?” he sneered.

 

“Oh, good, you know me. And I thought we were going to have to waste time on pleasantries. We can just move on then. Get outside.”

 

“Excuse me?” He looked over at his friends, and laughed.

 

Alec laughed too, shaking his head. “Well, we can talk in here, but I’m not sure you’d like getting your ass pounded in front of all these witnesses.”

 

The bar went silent. Most of the patrons turned to see what was going on.

 

“You think you can kick my ass?” the guy laughed again. “Heard you got all busted up on some pathetic mission. What was it, stealing a dozen roses for your girlfriend?”

 

The two guys he was with seemed to find this incredibly funny. Noone else in the bar did.

 

“It was a motorbike, actually,” Alec corrected, then looked around. “Yeah, I am hurt. In fact, I’ve spent most of the past month in the hospital wing.” Alec shrugged. “Not really a fair fight, huh?” he paused, looking around. “Okay, so you can have your two little friends here to help you out. That gives you a bit more of a chance. Who else do you want?”

 

It was a calculated insult. Actually, it was a very old, clichéd, calculated insult. But, chances were these guys hadn’t heard it before.

 

Laughter and derisive comments erupted from the watching crowd.

 

“You’re nothing but a freak, you know that?” came the angry reply.

 

“Yeah, and I know how much you and your buddies love taking on freaks.”

 

Silence. From the entire room.

 

“So, what do you say, want to take on someone who has actually been trained to fight back?”

 

Alec felt the punch coming, rather than saw it. He moved quickly to the side, striking out with the side of his hand, and feeling one of his opponent’s ribs give way.

 

One of the other guys stepped forward, and Alec spun into a kick, sending him flying. “Stay the fuck out of this.” He told him. “Outside,” he told his target, who was getting to his feet.

 

The guy shrugged. “Oh, let’s go.”

 

Alec walked outside, acting like he didn’t care if he was attacked from behind. He doubted it, not with this crowd watching, but if it happened, it happened.

 

Outside, he leant against a wall and waited.

 

“What’s your problem, anyway?”

 

“What’s your name?” Alec countered.

 

“421. What’s your problem?”

 

“You went after one of us. That’s not acceptable here.”

 

421 laughed. “He was a freak. Who cares. What are you, the sheriff or something?”

 

Alec stared at him. “What do you think this is? The OK Corrall?”

 

“So, we’re gonna fight because I beat up a freak?”

 

“No, we’re going to fight because you killed a transgenic. A bunch of you, trained killers, attacked a wilderness scout. What’d he do to you, give you the wrong directions?”

 

421 laughed, thinking Alec was making a joke. The jump side kick that flew into the side of his head told him that this was not, in fact, the case.

 

“Shit!” he yelled, snapping into a defensive position.

 

Alec spun in a circle, sweeping 421’s leg out from under him. “Doesn’t it suck to be forced to fight an opponent who so majorly outclasses you?”

 

421 tried to get to his feet, but his leg didn’t seem to be working properly. He moved back against a wall and pushed himself up against it, regaining his feet.

 

“Fuck you.”

 

“Yeah. I heard Twig said that to you, too.” Alec moved closer to him, standing mere inches from his face.

 

“You’re a fucking coward, you know that?” Alec stared at him until 421 dropped his gaze. “Look at me, you little shit.”

 

Slowly, 421 raised his eyes again.

 

“You think you’re better than he was?” Alec asked.

 

421 started to smile.

 

Alec moved his head slightly, and then head butted him. As he stepped back, 421 crumpled to the ground, blood pouring from his nose and mouth. “I don’t see any of your friends defending you,” he said slowly. Alec started to walk away, then turned back. “Do you have any idea how many transgenics are in TC at the moment? And how few of them are Xs?”

 

He walked back into the bar and sat down.

 

The barkeep was there instantly, bearing a bottle of whiskey. “This brand okay?”

 

“Thanks.”                

 

“I’m not sure that helped.” An albino transgenic leant against the bar beside Alec.

 

“Probably not,” Alec acknowledged, pouring a drink and offering the bottle to him.

 

“And, we probably could have done that ourselves.” He took the bottle, and poured himself a large drink.

 

“Probably.”

 

“So, since you didn’t actually do us a favour, we don’t actually owe you anything in return.” He pushed the bottle back to Alec.

 

“No, not at all,” Alec agreed.

 

“As long as we’re clear on that.” He swallowed his drink, and stood up.

 

“Crystal.”

 

The albino put his hand on Alec’s shoulder as he walked past. “Thanks,” he muttered.

 

Chapter 7

 

Storm was feeling slightly happier as he left the hospital wing. Shay was slowly starting to return to normal. At least, he thought so. At least Shay knew now that his mind had been manipulated, so he was one step closer to being able to throw off the effects of the telecoercion, or whatever it was the Familiars used.

 

It would be good to talk to Shay about stuff.

 

Storm grinned to himself. Yeah, he really wanted to talk to someone his own age about girls. He wouldn’t be so embarrassed talking to Shay as he was trying to explain to Alec, (Alec, for gods sake!) about how he felt like a total idiot around girls. Sure, Alec acted like he understood, but how could he? Like Alec had ever been nervous about approaching a girl.

 

He turned down the alley leading to the carpark, no real destination in mind. He just wanted to think, maybe go to the gym and train a bit. Yep, they had their priorities straight here in TC. No decent housing, no indoor plumbing or electricity, but they had immediately set up a headquarters, hospital wing and training facilities.

 

He turned a corner, and walked straight into someone.

 

“Sorry about that,” he muttered, stepping to the side to go around the person.

 

“You will be.” The X5 moved with him, preventing him from going past.

 

“Look, I didn’t see you. I’m sorry,” Storm repeated. What was this guy’s problem? “Fine,” he muttered, turning around to go back the way he had come.

 

Two X5s blocked his path. One of them had a very swollen face, and stood carefully, as if hurt.

 

“What’s going on?” Storm asked, his senses switching on. One guy behind him, two in front of him. He couldn’t fight them here in the alley, there wasn’t any room to move.

 

“Got a message for your boss,” one of them spoke.

 

“Okay.” Maybe he was wrong. Maybe this was going to be fine. Yeah, as if.

 

The two in front of him stepped forward, and Storm jumped, throwing himself against the wall beside him, and grabbing it. He pushed off, somersaulting on an angle so he landed behind the solo guy. He took off, running towards the carpark.

 

“Coward.” Came the call from behind him, but he had reached open space, and he stopped, and turned.

 

“No,” Storm said calmly, waiting. “Not scared. Just making sure there’s enough room so that you guys don’t trip over each other when you fall over your own feet.”

 

The X with the swollen face took a step forward.

 

“So, what’s the message?” Storm asked.

 

“What?”

 

“You said you had a message for my boss. Better tell me now, I don’t think you’ll be able to talk later.”

 

“Arrogant little…”

 

“Tell him that he’s not in charge around here, and he never will be. WE’RE the superior breed. We don’t intend to co-exist peacefully with humans, or freaks. And that includes that bitch nomaly he’s sleeping with.”

 

Storm laughed. He couldn’t help it.

 

“I’ll be sure to pass that on as soon as I see him. He’ll appreciate your point of view, I’m sure.”

 

The X blurred forward, his foot kicking out, sending Storm flying.

 

Storm flipped himself to his feet, annoyed with himself. How had he not seen that coming? He wasn’t going to make that mistake again. He moved in to engage the X5, leaping into a spin kick that landed hard against his opponent’s chest. The X5 staggered, but remained standing. Storm took advantage of the loss of balance to sweep the guy’s foot out from under him. The X5 hit the ground. Hard.

 

Storm allowed himself a quick grin, then focussed on the other two. They moved in together, and Storm knew that his luck had just about run out. Give him two humans, hell, four humans, and he could kick their asses without breaking a sweat. Two transgenics, though, two X5s, in fact, and he was outclassed. So be it. He could go down fighting at least.

 

He targeted the one who was already injured. He was the weaker one, and if Storm could take him out early, his odds of survival would improve.

 

Storm took a shot to the stomach, and as his body automatically bent forward, a heavily booted foot kicked him in the head, sending him flying some 15 metres backwards. He landed hard, shaking his head, trying to clear it.

 

Blood ran down his face, obscuring his vision, but even so, he could see three sets of feet approaching him. The first guy had obviously recovered.

 

“What’s going on?”

 

Storm heard a voice as he slowly lifted himself onto his knees.

 

“Hey. Stop.”

 

Storm stopped moving. He wasn’t sure the voice was talking to him, it wasn’t like he was really moving that much, but he stopped anyway. Just in case.

 

“What the hell is going on here?”

 

“Training exercise,” one of the X5s explained calmly.

 

“Three against one?” The voice asked, disbelievingly.

 

“You’re new here, right?”

 

“Yeah. Just got in now. Why?”

 

“You wouldn’t know the training syllabus, then. The kid’s fine. You should go to Headquarters and check in. It’s down that alley.”

 

“Okay.”

 

Shit. Storm forced himself to his feet.

 

“Looks like training is over.” The voice spoke with more certainty. “Surely, you wouldn’t keep training when he’s bleeding like that?”

 

The X5 had no answer to that.

 

“He’s right.” Storm tried to act young as he walked over to them. “It’s hard to see through the blood. Maybe I should go get fixed up.”

 

The X5 glared at him.

 

“Thank you for the fighting tips though.” He smiled.  “I really learnt a lot.”

 

“Come on.” The new guy spoke to Storm. “I’ll take you to the hospital wing. That head wound looks pretty bad.”

 

Storm grinned at his attackers, shaking his head slightly as he walked off.

 

“Training session, huh?”

 

“Complicated.” Storm shook his head, and winced. “Thanks for the assist though.”

 

“No problem. The hospital wing is through here, right?”

 

“Yep.” Storm headed for the door and walked inside.

 

“Oh, now what?” Neil groaned as he looked up to see Storm standing in the doorway, bleeding.

“I’m not your personal physician, you know. There are other transgenics in TC that might need my help occasionally. Get up on the bed.” Neil grabbed a very large looking needle. “What was it this time? Another training accident?”

 

“So he and his friends said.”

 

Neil turned around and looked at the guy standing in the door. “And you are?” he asked.

 

“Um, Aaron. I just got into town, heading for HQ, and I saw three X5s teaching this kid how to fight.”

 

“I bet.” Neil turned to look at Storm. “Did we learn anything?” he asked sarcastically.

 

“Hey, two of them were bleeding when I left,” Storm protested. “Also, they gave me a message to give to Alec.”

 

Neil closed his eyes and counted to ten. “And the message was…”

 

“Uh, he isn’t in charge, they’re superior, something like that.” Storm shrugged, grinning.

 

“I’ll tell him. Anything else?”

 

“Umm, that his girlfriend is a nomaly, and a bitch.”

 

Neil laughed. “I’m sure as hell not telling him that.” He turned his attention back to the cut on Storm’s face. “There, all done. You might even have a scar. Impress your little girlfriend.”

 

Storm glared at him, but said nothing.

 

“Right, go take Aaron to HQ. It might keep you out of trouble for a while.”

 

Storm rolled his eyes, but jumped down off the bed.

 

“Thanks for your help,” Neil spoke to Aaron. “This one, good kid, but hangs out with people who think they are invincible.”

 

>>>>>

 

Aaron followed Storm into headquarters, and looked around in surprise. He hadn’t expected a lot from the new transgenic base, a safe place to sleep, or something like that. Sure, he had seen the guards, who appeared to be organised, checking his barcode, directing him to the HQ for accommodation assignments, but he hadn’t expected the organisation to go much past that.

 

Yet, he walked into the building, and there were a whole bunch of transgenics, Xs and others, busily working at computer terminals, or fixing things, or just generally looking like they were doing something important.

 

A green, lizardy looking transgenic smoking a large cigar, looked up at them.

 

“What the hell happened to you?” he asked Storm, who just grinned and looked around.

 

“Come on,” Storm said, as he headed for the back of the room. Aaron followed, busily looking around, trying to get a handle on what was happening in the room.

 

Storm led him to a room at the back, and knocked on the door, entering without waiting for a reply. Aaron hung back behind the door, out of sight. He wanted to observe first.

 

“Hey,” Storm greeted.

 

An X5 was seated at a desk in the room. His elbow was on the table, his head resting on his hand. There was a stack of paperwork in front of him that he appeared to be reading. Slowly, he looked up at them, and Aaron got a glimpse of his face, pale and tired.

 

He watched as the man saw Storm, and stood up quickly.

 

“What happened to you?” the man asked, looking closely at the cut above Storm’s eye. Aaron could hear something in his voice, kind of like he already knew the answer.

 

“Ran into some friends of yours. They said to tell you, you’re no longer in charge.”

 

“Good.” The man sighed, moving back to his seat with an obvious limp. “I’m sick of being in charge.” He sat down and glared at the paperwork.

 

Aaron stepped into the room, wanting a closer look at the paperwork.

 

The man looked up. The expression on his face was calm, an expression of authority. He stood up, and Aaron could no longer detect any of the signs of tiredness or injury that he had seen just seconds before.

 

“Who’re you?” he asked in a voice that was strong and confident.

 

“X5-262, Sir.” Aaron felt himself move to attention. Whatever he had seen before, this guy was definitely in charge around here.

 

“Alec,” he corrected with a smile. “We’re not too much into calling people ‘sir’ around here. You got a name?”

 

“This is Aaron. He’s alright, he helped me out before,” Storm put in quickly.

 

“Okay. You got accommodation and stuff sorted yet?”

 

“No, sir. I mean…” Aaron shook his head.

 

“Fine. Go see Mole, he’ll assign you somewhere to sleep, get details off you about your skills and training. Everyone works here.”

 

“No problem.” Aaron smiled, trying to show that he was willing. “Um, who’s Mole?”

 

“You met him, out there,” Storm commented, noticing at once that Alec was testing him. New guys were usually sent to Stacey, an X5 with a flair for organisation, who had happily accepted the orientation assignment.

 

“The, uh, lizard guy with the cigar?” Aaron asked hesitantly.

 

“That’s right.” Alec looked at him. “You’ll probably be taking orders off him. Is that going to be a problem?”

 

Chapter 8

 

“Uh, why would it be?” Aaron stared at Alec. Was he missing something? He knew how to follow orders, and this was clearly an order.

 

“Fine, then.” Alec went back to his paperwork.

 

>>>>>

 

“Um, you’re Mole, right?”

 

Mole glanced up to see the X5 that had been with Storm.

 

“Yep.”

 

“Alec said to come see you.”

 

What? Mole looked up. “About?”

 

“Uh, he said that you’d assign me accommodation, then you’d give me my orders. What I’m going to be doing here.”

 

Mole grinned. “Is that right?” Good man, that Alec. Real good man. He made a mental note to thank him.

 

“So, what are my orders, sir?”

 

Mole laughed. “Want a cigar?”

 

>>>>>

 

Hours later, Alec climbed the stairs to his apartment, carrying a full bottle of scotch. He intended to drink a lot, and sleep a little, before he had to crawl back to HQ and find out where Dix was on translating the random words he had written down.

 

He shoved the door to his apartment open, and staggered inside.

 

He could immediately tell that someone else was in the room, and he looked around.

 

“Max,” he whispered.

 

She lay curled up on his couch, asleep.

 

He stared at her for a minute, allowing himself to smile at the way the moonlight reflected on her face.

She muttered something, and moved her head slightly on the arm of the couch.

 

That did not look comfortable.

 

He put his bottle down and crossed the room to the couch, kneeling in front of her. Slowly, he reached out and stroked her hair, pushing it back out of her face. She smiled in her sleep, and he bent over her, kissing her forehead lightly.

 

He turned to sit on the floor, leaning back against the couch and leaning his head back onto one of the cushions. It really wasn’t actually that uncomfortable. And being close to Max for the first time in several weeks was kind of nice, too. He closed his eyes. He would move in a second.

 

>>>>>

 

Max sighed, opening her eyes. Alec’s couch sucked. She shifted slightly, trying to find a spot on the couch that wasn’t lumpy, or didn’t attack her with its broken springs. She shifted her hand, and it brushed against something.

 

Looking down, she noticed Alec’s head, resting at what looked like a really uncomfortable angle against the couch. She slowly ran her hand through his hair, trying not to wake him, but wanting to touch him. It had been so long.

 

He groaned, moving his head slightly, then jerking awake. “What?” he asked quickly, sitting up.

 

“Sorry,” she spoke quietly. “I didn’t mean to…”

 

“Uh…” Alec shook his head, trying to clear it. “I meant to wake you. That couch…”

 

“Yeah. No kidding.” Max reached her hand out towards him. “Where were you?”

 

“Um.” Alec thought for a few moments. “When?”

 

Max laughed, her hand lightly running over his shoulder.

 

“Mmm,” Alec muttered as he leant back against the couch.

 

“Alec, you can’t sleep there. It’s not comfortable.”

 

“Feels great to me,” he muttered, closing his eyes. “Feels fantastic.”

 

“Alec!”

 

“Hm”

 

“Your bed is like ten metres away.”

 

“Too far…”

 

“Get up.” She stood up, and took his hands in hers, pulling him up.

 

“Max…” he protested, allowing himself to be pulled to his feet, then letting himself fall against her.

 

“Hey!” she complained, moving her arms around his waist to steady him.

 

“Sorry.” He pulled away from her and moved into the bedroom, collapsing onto the bed.

 

“You’re not much fun when you’re tired, huh? When was the last time you slept?” Max moved to sit beside him on the bed, her hand lightly running over his shoulder.

 

“Before the mission,” he muttered into a pillow.

 

“Alec.” Her hand tightened on his shoulder, and he moaned in protest. She shifted her hand away quickly, but continued to look at him in surprise. He hadn’t slept since the last mission? That had been over two weeks. SHE couldn’t go that long without sleep, even with her shark DNA, or whatever it was. Alec didn’t have that particular DNA strand.

 

He muttered something, but didn’t move.

 

She lay down beside him, trying to figure things out, trying to figure ALEC out.

 

A couple of hours later, Alec stirred, and opened his eyes.

 

Max watched him as he slowly raised his head and moved his hand up towards his head.

 

“What time is it?” he muttered, his words slurring together.

 

“About 6,” she answered.

 

“Ugh.” He moved slowly into a seated position, rubbing at his eyes. “I have to go.”

 

“Where? Alec, you need to sleep. Whatever it is can wait.”

 

Alec stared at her, then grinned. “Haven’t we had this discussion before?”

 

“Probably. Largely because you’re too much of an idiot to actually listen to your body when it asks for rest.” 

 

“Max.” Alec closed his eyes for a second, thinking. “We’re on the same side, right?”

 

“Of course.” She reached out and touched his knee. “You know that. What’s going on?”

 

Alec laughed slightly. “We have so many enemies. Humans, and familiars. But that’s not enough. We have to stir up trouble amongst ourselves.”

 

“What? What trouble? Alec, talk to me.”

 

He sighed. “This guy, a friend of Dix’s. A freak. He was walking down the street a couple of nights ago, not doing anything. These other guys, X5s, went after him.”

 

“Why?” Max heard something in his voice. She got the feeling that this did not have a happy ending.

 

“No reason. They liked the apartment he had been assigned, one of them wanted it. They didn’t see why he should get better accommodation than him, because he was a freak.” Alec spat the last word out, clenching his fist in anger.

 

“What?” Max’s face turned pale.

 

“They killed him. Because he was a freak. Because they thought they were better than him. Better than everyone, actually.”

 

“This is not happening. Have these guys learnt nothing? What is their problem?” She stood up, and started pacing. “What are we going to do? We can’t kick them out of TC, what options do we have?”

 

“Well, I ‘spoke’ to one of the guys involved.”

 

Max turned to look at him. “Spoke, as in kicked the crap out of?” she asked with the hint of a smile on her face.

 

“Well, yeah. And before you give me this big lecture about violence, can you think of any other method they would have understood?”

 

Max stared at him for a few moments. Taking her silence as disapproval, he turned towards the door.

 

“I can’t think of one,” she spoke quickly.

 

Alec stopped.

 

“Did it achieve anything?” she asked.

 

Alec started to shake his head, then stopped. “They went after Storm,” he admitted, looking down at the ground. “Kid faced down three of them, didn’t back down.” He allowed himself a smile. “But there haven’t been any further incidents. Yet.”

 

“We’re not going to be able to do it, are we?” she asked, sitting down on the bed. “We aren’t going to be able to just build a society. Either the humans or familiars destroy us, or we do it ourselves.”

 

Chapter 9

 

Max sighed as she walked through the streets. It was time to make a choice, and it was one that she had been putting off. A decision that would mean that she was accepting the fact that they would be in TC for a long time.

 

But hadn’t the decision already been made? To be fair, she had been thinking of TC as home. They all had.

 

And, in reality, it didn’t have to be a final decision.

 

Things just had to change.

 

Things already were changing, they had set up some work parties, and such, but it wasn’t enough. These were soldiers, no matter how much she wanted to think of them as people. They had been soldiers or workers their entire lives, their days completely regimented.

 

Freedom was a good thing. Too much free time, however, was dangerous.

 

This recent attack was a prime example. One of their own was dead. And more scary, the leader of the gang that had murdered him was stating a clear intention to take control of TC and everyone who lived there. There was no way that could be good.

 

She passed by the parking lot, and something caught her eye. She moved closer to get a better look.

There were a bunch of Xs, 6s and 7s, gathered there. At first she had thought it was a fight, or more correctly several fights, but that wasn’t it.

 

The kids weren’t fighting, but training. 4 different fights were going on at once, with several kids watching each fight.

 

After a few minutes, the fights stopped, and others stepped into the centre. Just like in Manticore.

 

As she looked around, she saw Storm standing off to the side, watching, and gestured him to join her.

“What’s going on here?” she asked him.

 

“There’s nothing to do here. We got bored.” Storm unknowingly mimicked her earlier thoughts.

“There are enough transgenics around to do what little work has assigned. We haven’t been trained to fix damaged buildings, or install plumbing, or anything like that. The X5s have organised guard rotations.” He shook his head. “We just aren’t needed for that stuff. But, we can train. If there’s going to be a war, then we’ll be needed too. We can at least get ready for it.”

 

“Sounds like you’ve given this a lot of thought.”

 

“Well, yeah. I mean, everyone’s saying that this isn’t Manticore anymore, and that we don’t have to follow orders… but there is still a rank structure going on. And then, we’re told that we shouldn’t kill anymore, but there’s a war coming. Everyone knows it. We’ll need to fight.” Storm shrugged.

“They just want to be doing something. We didn’t think anyone would care.”

 

“Kind of looks like you’re in charge.” She noted, nodding towards the kids, most of which had stopped fighting, and were watching the two talk.

 

“I have some power, I guess. They listen to me, anyway. Because, I did the missions with Alec. They think I have some sway with him.” Storm looked at the ground, embarrassed.

 

And, they were back to the other matter she had been considering. That other X5s’ assertion that was taking control. “So, they think of Alec as being in command?”

 

“For now. They’re not taking sides, if that’s what you mean. They aren’t powerful enough to have to back it up if someone else doesn’t like who they support.”

 

“And you?”

 

Storm rolled his eyes and shook his head at the stupidness of the question. “Alec and you. Neil. Mole. I have my chain of command.”

 

>>>>>

 

“Talk to me.” Alec grabbed a chair and reversed it, straddling it as he looked at Dix.

 

The transgenic shook his head. “This is hard. It’s more complicated than translating a few symbols that we were meant to figure out. Plus…” Dix shut up, unsure if he should continue.

 

“Plus?” Alec prompted.

 

“Well,” Dix looked unhappy at criticising his boss. “We have to take into account that maybe you didn’t hear correctly, or that you remembered wrong. Not that that’s likely,” he added quickly. “But that was a hell of a lot of information to remember.”

 

Alec shrugged, unconcerned. “That’s a very strong possibility. I was only remembering sounds. My spelling probably sucks, too.” He grinned. “Any time frame for me?”

 

“Maybe a couple of days. We’re on it 24 hours a day, but it takes time.”

 

Alec nodded.

 

“Tim is a tough kid,” Dix said slowly. “They took him with them, which suggests that they didn’t just intend to kill him.”

 

“Yeah.” This was nothing new. It was a thought that had been repeatedly going through his head since it happened. If you want someone dead, you kill them. The familiars had just left Alec to die. They took Shay, to brainwash him and send him back to kill. Was Tim the backup?

 

>>>>>

 

Alec wandered into the bar, nodding a greeting at some of the transgenics he knew. He grabbed a stool at the bar, and the bartender brought him a double scotch.

 

“Thanks.” He took a sip. “Place looks good,” he commented, looking around. There were a lot more people in there relaxing than usual.

 

“Yeah. Bribed some guys to do some maintenance work. The walls almost stand up by themselves now.”

 

Alec glanced to see where the nearest wall was to him, and the bartender laughed.

 

“X5s are gullible when they need sleep,” he commented, moving away to serve someone else.

 

Alec smiled weakly. It was kind of true.

 

“Mind if I join you?” A blonde X5 took a seat without waiting for his answer.

 

“Be my guest,” he replied, only partly sarcastically.

 

“So, been here long? I just got in today.” She gestured for a drink.

 

“What is that, the transgenic version of ‘do you come here often’?” he asked, turning slightly on his stool to look at her.

 

“Well, I could go with, haven’t we met before? But with Manticore’s love of creating twins, it’s kinda weird.”

 

“That could get kind of weird.” Alec acknowledged. “But, also a handy excuse if you meet up with someone you had a one-night stand with.” She laughed, and Alec found himself smiling back at her. “I’m Alec, by the way.”

 

“Leah.”

 

“Welcome to Terminal City.” He poured her another drink. “It’s actually not as bad as it looks.”

As he spoke, a chunk of stone from somewhere hit the ground. They both looked over at it, and Leah laughed.

 

“That happen a lot?” she asked.

 

“Apparently we have people fixing it.” He shrugged. “You should see my apartment. So much of the ceiling has fallen in that I now have a skylight.”

 

“I’d like that” she smiled. “To see your apartment, I mean.”

 

Alec shrugged, taking another drink.

 

“So, you must have a great view of the stars,” she continued.

 

Alec froze slightly.

 

“Did I say something wrong?” she asked, reaching out and touching his hand gently. He appeared lost in thought. “Alec?” she asked.

 

“Sorry.” He grinned at her. “Just zoned out for a second. What were you saying?”

 

“The view from your apartment, it must be nice.”

 

“Yeah, I guess,” Alec replied vaguely, pouring himself a glass of beer from the jug in front of her. He took a long drink, then yawned.

 

“Long day?” she asked, sympathetically, her hand still touching his.

 

“Long month,” he laughed. “I’d better head off though, early start tomorrow.” He glanced at his watch.

“Well, today,” he corrected.

 

“I’ll walk with you,” she suggested, finishing her drink. “I’m staying in an apartment block not far from HQ. You?”

 

“Yeah. Somewhere near there.” He nodded to the bartender, and they left.

 

As they walked down the almost deserted street, he stifled a yawn.

 

He really needed some sleep. Maybe if Dix was going to take a few days with the translation of what the Familiars he had observed were saying, he could spend it sleeping. That would be fun. But, there were all those other things he had to take care of.

 

“Something wrong?” Leah asked, nudging him slightly. She had noticed the serious expression return to his face.

 

“Huh?”

 

“We’re not at Manticore anymore. We are allowed to have fun, you know. You need to learn how to relax.”

 

Alec laughed. “I should introduce you to some friends of mine. They’ll tell you how they always used to complain that I never took anything seriously.” He smiled again.

 

Leah stared at him, noticing the way his smile lit up his face. How could anyone want this guy to stop smiling? She certainly didn’t.

 

“All work and no play…” she commented, slipping her hand around his waist.

 

Chapter 10

 

Alec looked at her quickly, then shrugged. “That used to be my motto.” His voice held a hint of regret.

 

“What happened?” she asked, putting pressure on his waist until he stopped walking. She moved so she was standing in front of him. “You don’t seem that happy about it.”

 

“Things change.” Like everything. “People expect things from me…”    

 

“Sometimes it’s important to do things for yourself.” She smiled up at him.

 

“Yeah.” Alec nodded. She was right. Doing things for himself was important.

 

“So,” she asked “Are you going to show me your skylight?”

 

He thought about it for a few seconds. “I can’t.” He shook his head. “I have to get back to work. Maybe another time, okay?” He pulled away from her with a sigh.

 

“Remember fun?” she asked.

 

“Yep.” He pulled away, and headed for HQ.

 

>>>>>

 

“Alec.” Dix looked up from his computer. “Um,  it’s not done yet. We’re working hard, day and night, as you can tell, but…”

 

“Huh?” He looked at Dix for a second. “Ah, no. I mean, that’s fine. I just wanted…” He took a deep breath. “Can you work in the main room?”

 

“Yes. Of course.” Dix shut his laptop, and stood up. “Room’s all yours.”

 

“Thanks. Um, are you going to be there a while?”

 

“All night. I sleep during the day.”

 

“Great. Can you make sure I’m not disturbed?”

 

“No problem.” Dix nodded as he left the room.

 

Alec watched him go, then made sure the door was firmly shut. He sat down on the floor, leaning his head back against the wall.

 

>>>>>

 

Neil knocked on the door and walked inside. “Alec?” he called loudly, looking around the apartment casually.

 

He heard some movement from the bedroom, and turned towards the sound. Max walked out of the bedroom, and leant against the wall.

 

“Hey, Neil,” she greeted.

 

“Max.” Neil turned towards her. “Alec asleep?” he asked hopefully.

 

“No, he didn’t come home last night. He must be working, or something. I was up all night waiting for him.”

 

Neil nodded. “Alec is an insensitive jerk most of the time, huh?”

 

Max laughed. “He just doesn’t always realise that a phone call would be nice. He’s not used to having anyone care where he is.”

 

Neil blinked, staring at her. “Umm, I thought you would be the first to kick his ass for something like that. I don’t remember you being this forgiving with Logan when he was being an anal…” Wisely, he stopped.

 

“Oh, I’m not thrilled about it,” she admitted, grabbing a jacket. “And, believe me, I would kick his ass if I thought I’d get a reaction out of him like before. But at the moment…” She shrugged.

 

“Yeah.” Neil nodded. Alec had enough on his mind at the moment with, you know, dealing with potential wars against the Familiars and Humans and with those stupid transgenics who beat up Storm, without having a girlfriend who went psycho at him because he didn’t ring when he was going to be late home. He just hadn’t realised that Max could figure that out. His opinion of her went up ten-fold.

“He’s probably at HQ, then.”

 

“We have a meeting anyway.” Max shrugged, gesturing towards the door.

 

Neil smiled, and followed her out the room.

 

>>>>>

 

“Uh, you can’t go in there,” Dix said bravely. He felt brave, too, considering that he was following Alec’s orders, and this was Alec’s friend, and, well… hmm. “Alec said,” he explained, looking down at the floor. 

 

Max smiled. “Don’t worry. I’ll tell him that you tried to keep us out.”

 

Neil laughed.

 

Max entered the room, and shut the door behind her. Alec sat on the floor, his legs stretched out in front of him. His eyes were closed, but she could tell that he wasn’t asleep. “Dix tried to keep me out,” she told him.

 

“So I heard.” Alec opened his eyes, and stood up. “What’s going on?” he asked.

 

“You slept here last night?” she asked, looking at his clothes.

 

Alec shrugged. “Yeah, I had some stuff to do. Sorry.” He ran a hand through his hair. “Am I in trouble?” He looked nervous.

 

Max laughed again. “No. I was just worried.”

 

Alec looked at her for a second, then grinned. He stepped towards her, pulling her into his arms. He sighed, resting his head against her shoulder.

 

“You okay?” she asked, running her hand down his back and pulling him closer to her.

 

“Yeah,” he replied. “Things are just weird, that’s all.”

 

“Anything I can do?” She asked, pulling away from him and taking a seat on the desk. She wanted him to realise that she was serious. For whatever reason, most of the problems that existed in TC and with the transgenics had somehow managed to fall into Alec’s lap.

 

“Sure.” Alec allowed his old smile to cross his face. “You can have: Familiar Threat, Human Threat, or civil war.”

 

Max thought for a second. “I’ll take the civil war.” It was the one that was most likely to be the first to blow up in their faces. It would at least give him a break.

 

“Enjoy.”

 

She smiled, reaching for his hands and pulling him towards her.

 

>>>>>

 

Two X5s sat in a darkened room, not saying anything. One of them had a bottle of beer, that he was drinking slowly. When he finished the beer, he threw it towards the corner of the room. “Where is he?”

 

“He’ll be here.”

 

“When?”

 

“You got something better to do?”

 

“Well, uh…” He had nothing to say about that, so he opened another beer.

 

“Don’t drink that.” A black haired guy walked into the room. “I need you sober.”

 

“It’s like 5% alcohol. I could bathe in this stuff and not be slightly intoxicated.”

 

The new guy simply stared at him, waiting.

 

A sigh, and a clink as the bottle was placed on the ground.

 

“Okay, so here’s the thing. A lot of people aren’t happy with the way things are going here. Did you know that two of His Lieutenants are Freaks? That stupid chain-smoking lizard, and some weird twitchy thing.”

 

Beer Drinker laughed. “I think we can take them.”

 

“YOU can take them? I don’t think so. You couldn’t even take care of that stupid little kid. Now he’s skiting that he took on the three of you and got nothing more than a small cut.”

 

“We’ll take care of it.”

 

“You better. I am not living in this city under that bastard and his freak friends. I’ve dealt with him before, and the guy cannot be trusted. I want him out of power, and me firmly in control.”

 

“We’ll take care of it,” the other guy, who had been silent up until now, spoke up.

 

“Do that. Kill the kid. Then figure out a way to kill him.”

 

“Consider it done.”

 

Chapter 11

 

Shay stood by the window, staring out, completely lost in thought.

 

Neil had been standing by the door for about a minute, just watching him. Finally, he coughed to let Shay know he was there.

 

“Hi,” he greeted him, smiling.

 

Shay bit his lip and looked at the ground.

 

“So, how’s it going?” Neil tried again.

 

Still nothing. Neil closed his eyes for a second, trying to remember what the female X5 he had spoken to last night had told him about psychology. He needed to get through to Shay, somehow. Manticore had never been into psychology, apart from the sort that involved mind manipulation, but this female had been trained in the area, probably so she could manipulate guys more effectively. She had had some good ideas, he thought, but the incredible blue-ness of her eyes had prevented him from listening as closely as he should have. Too late to worry about that now.

 

“Storm came in the other day, huh?”

 

“Yeah,” Shay spoke, looking up eagerly. “I thought he might come back. Have you seen him?” He really wanted to see his friend.

 

“Uh, no. Not today. I could find him for you?” That sounded like a plan. Psychology was stupid. A friend to talk to was much better.

 

“Thanks.” Shay went back to staring at the window.

 

>>>>>

 

“Alec.” Mole knocked on the door and entered the back room.

 

Alec looked up from the reports he had been reading with Max. “What do you need?”

 

“That new guy you sent me.”

 

“Yep.” Alec dropped the papers and gave Mole 100% of his attention. “How’s he doing?”

 

“Not bad.” Mole grinned as he shut the door. “It’s fun having a slave. My apartment has never been so clean. The walls shine with paint, the floor is polished…”

 

Alec looked at him steadily.

 

“And here’s the best part.” Mole offered Alec a cigar, then shrugged as Alec declined with a shake of his head.

 

“I sent the guy out to get supplies. Through about 7 different sewer tunnels.”

 

Alec grimaced in sympathy, then glanced at Max. He laughed at her confused expression.

 

“Okay. So, you’re happy? Fine, send him to me.”

 

Mole grinned and left.

 

“Transgenic hazing?” she asked, not exactly smiling.

 

“Well…” Alec shrugged.

 

“Have you finished?”

 

He nodded.

 

“This is Aaron? The guy that helped Storm out?”

 

Alec nodded.

 

“I want him.”

 

Alec looked at her, and she held his gaze.

 

“I want him,” she repeated.

 

“Really?” Alec smiled slightly. “Was it the sewer thing? The idea of guys crawling around in a sewer is attractive to you?”

 

Max laughed, hitting him on the shoulder, and he grinned at her, his eyebrows still raised, wanting an answer to his question. She hit him again, and he grabbed her hand, holding it in his. She glared at him, throwing a punch with her left hand. Alec smiled as he blocked it. He changed his grip so that he was holding both her hands by the wrists, and he moved her arms down to her sides.

 

“What now?” he asked her, smiling slightly. She glared at him.

 

Alec laughed, pulling her towards him and kissing her lightly.

 

There was a knock at the door.

 

“Damnit,” Alec swore, releasing Max’s wrists and turning around. “Come in,” Alec called.

 

Aaron opened the door and stepped into the room. “Sir, reporting as ordered.”

 

“Have a seat.” Alec kicked a chair over to him.

 

“Thank you, sir.” Aaron sat down, and waited for instructions.

 

Alec looked over at Max, and tried not to laugh.

 

She shrugged her shoulders, nodding to indicate that she still wanted this guy. Then she glared at him, a clear signal for him to keep his mouth shut and not make any more stupid comments. He tried for an innocent expression, but ended up grinning, and turned away slightly. Max tapped his shoulder, and raised an eyebrow. He sighed, nodded, and moved away, taking a seat on the desk.

 

Aaron was supposed to be sitting at attention, he assumed. But still, he couldn’t help but look at the two of them. Alec, the leader, and some woman who seemed familiar to him. Max. That was it, one of the ’09 escapees. He watched them out the corner of his eye as they communicated wordlessly. Alec did not seem too happy with what was going to happen. Max seemed to be trying to convince him otherwise. He wasn’t sure who had won that particular battle, but he thought perhaps Max, since Alec nodded, then moved away.

 

He waited.

 

“I’m Max,” she introduced herself.

 

“Aaron. Ma’am,” he answered.

 

“You don’t have to call me Ma’am,” she told him, smiling slightly. “You don’t have to call anyone Sir or Ma’am around here.”

 

“But, you did call Mole ‘Sir’, right?” Alec broke in.

 

“Of course.” Aaron paused. “Sir,” he added hesitantly.

 

Max turned and glared at Alec, who smiled innocently back. She really wanted him to get out, actually, she wanted to throw him bodily through the door. Aaron seemed like a nice guy. Then again, it was nice to see Alec joking around, even if it was at the new guy’s expense.

 

Aaron noticed what seemed to be a power play, again. There seemed to be a battle of wills going on, and it appeared that Max won. Alec raised his hands in a gesture of surrender, and jumped down off the desk.

 

“Fine,” he commented. He walked towards Aaron, and put his hand on his shoulder. “Hear you pulled sewer duty. I think we owe you a drink for that. Come down to the bar later.”

 

Aaron looked at him, then at Max, unsure of what answer was safe. Was this another attempt to seize power? Max looked uninterested, although she must have heard the comment. He guessed it must be okay to accept. He nodded at Alec, who smiled, and left.

 

“I have a job for you, if you’re interested?” she asked.

 

“Of course.”

 

“You’ve seen the amount of X6s and 7s around?”

 

He nodded.

 

“We need to start training them. In a lot of different things, but the most important right now is combat.”

 

Aaron looked worried. “Because of some power struggle that seems to be going on?” He waited to be punished for his comment, but he had to say it. He was not going to train a bunch of kids to fight for X5s who wanted to take control of TC.

 

“No,” Max was adamant. “There’s stuff going on. The humans, for one. It’s likely they will invade in some way.”

 

Aaron nodded.

 

“Plus, the Familiar threat,” she continued.

 

He looked confused.

 

“You’ll get a briefing,” she told him. “But the important thing is, the likelihood of an attack from outside is extreme. We all need to be ready.”

 

“Understood.” Aaron thought for a second. “How do they feel about it?”

 

Max laughed. “They’ve started training themselves. The ones that have been around here a while, they know what’s going on. Talk to Storm. He’ll help you arrange training times. They listen to him.”

 

“He seems like a nice kid.” He looked like he wanted to say something else. Max waited. “Um, who do I report to?” He shook his head. “I mean, I’m hearing a lot of stuff about a power struggle going on here. I just wasn’t sure…”

 

“Me or Alec. Or Mole, if you prefer?” She smiled as Aaron laughed out loud.

 

“Mole is… different, huh?” he asked.

 

“He’s a good friend. He just has a different sense of humour to most people.”

 

>>>>>

 

“Heard you were looking for me.” Storm wandered into the room without knocking.

 

Shay looked up. The first thing he saw was the bruising on Storm’s face, and the cut above his eye.

“What happened to you?” he asked.

 

Storm shrugged. “There are some idiots around, that’s all.”

 

“Meaning, you’re not supposed to talk about it with me?” He sounded depressed.

 

“What? No.” Storm walked over and grabbed a seat. “There’s some stuff going on.” He outlined to Shay what had been going on.

 

“Are you serious? Someone’s going up against Alec?”

 

“You pulled a gun on him,” Storm reminded, then laughed. “Sorry, man. But yeah, this guy wants control.”

 

“Does he hate me?” Shay’s voice went quiet.

 

“He hasn’t said anything to me. I can sound him out, if you want?”

 

“Tell him I’m sorry.”

 

Chapter 12

 

Shay tapped his fingers nervously as he walked out of the hospital and onto the street. He was allowed to leave any time he wanted, Neil had told him that, but he had never really wanted to before now. Truth was, he didn’t want to leave now, but he had to.

 

He walked into the alley, and sat on a wooden crate, thinking. He wanted to talk to Storm, and he knew that his friend usually went to the parking lot at this time of day to train.

 

After about 5 minutes, he heard the sound of footsteps approaching. He looked down the alley to see Storm, walking with a couple of other X6s, laughing.

 

This was a bad idea. He jumped off the crate, meaning to get back inside the hospital before any of them noticed. But, well, transgenic hearing.

 

“Hey,” one of the kids called out. “Where you been, man?” He quickened his pace. Shay had no option but to stand there. He couldn’t leave now, not without raising suspicions.

 

“Uh, around,” he said quietly, trying not to look at Storm.

 

“Hey, we’ll meet you there, okay?” Storm said quickly to his friends, and they nodded and kept walking. The kid who had spoken smiled at Shay as he went past.

 

“I’m sorry,” he said quickly to Storm. “I thought you’d be alone. I didn’t mean to…” embarrass you in front of your friends. He thought the final words, but didn’t say them.

 

Storm looked at him strangely. “Who cares about them. So, are you coming to train?”

 

“Uhh…” Shay looked towards the hospital.

 

“Come on, man. It’ll be cool. We’ve actually got an instructor now. Max set it up. Guy named Aaron. An X5. He’s pretty cool.”

 

Shay shrugged. “I don’t know.”

 

“What’s up?” Storm asked quietly, his voice turning serious. “You’re not worried about training? You could beat anyone there. Well, except me, of course.”

 

“Yeah, ‘cause they’ll be too busy staring at me, thinking that I pulled a gun on Alec,” Shay replied bitterly.

Storm shook his head. “Why would they think that? All anyone knows is that you were hurt on the mission. What happens on missions stays there, you know that.”

 

“Yeah, but…” Shay paused. “Didn’t Alec tell everyone not to trust me?”

 

“No.” Storm shook his head quickly. “Not that I know of, anyway. Of course, I don’t think he’ll be giving you a gun any time soon.”

 

Shay managed a weak smile, but still looked worried.

 

“Okay, stuff training. Let’s just go for a walk or something. Bet we can get a couple of beers from the bar?” Storm offered.

 

“Yeah. Okay.”

 

Storm made a mental note to talk to Alec. He was pretty sure that Alec didn’t hold it against Shay. If he had, he would have shot him in the barn. But, if he at least asked Alec, he would have something to say to Shay.

 

>>>>>

 

“Hey.”

 

Neil looked up from his microscope, and grinned. “Alec. My favourite customer. Don’t tell me you’re actually going to let me fix that knee of yours?” He reached for a particularly large sharp scalpel, and grinned broadly.

 

“Not just now.”

 

“You know, anyone would think that you don’t like needles, or something. Is that true, Alec? Are you scared?”

 

Alec glared at him.

 

“Fine.” Neil put the scalpel down carefully. “It can’t hurt you from over here.” He put a towel down over the top of it. “See, all safe.”

 

Alec sighed. “You finished?”

 

Neil thought for a second. “For now. What do you need?”

 

“A training partner.” Alec grinned. “Come on, I could use the exercise.”

 

“Yeah.” Neil grinned back. “Let’s do it.”

 

He wasn’t sure whether Alec actually wanted to train, or whether he just wanted someone to talk to. Alec was weird that way. Most guys were uncomfortable talking about their feelings, but they disguised it by heading down to the bar, and pretending that alcohol had gotten the best of them. Alec had problems even pretending to be that out of control. Yet, he would talk during a sparring round.

 

They wandered down to a vacant building. Aaron and the kids had taken over the parking lot, and there weren’t that many open spaces in TC that were actually open, meaning not filled with garbage. Yet another scut job to be delegated to someone.

 

>>>>>

 

Leah smiled as she watched the scene in front of her. There was something about watching grown men, shirtless grown men, beat each other up. All that raw power and complete aggression rolled into one, or two, perfectly built packages. She moved closer to get a better look.

 

The other guy, the one she didn’t know, caught sight of her, and his lapse in concentration cost him. He went spinning against the wall.

 

Alec laughed, and moved to grab a drink.

 

The bottle he wanted was near to Leah, and she picked it up, holding it out to him.

 

“Thanks,” he told her, taking a long drink, then pouring some of it over his head to cool himself down. “Neil,” he called, tossing the bottle in the direction of his friend, who had just managed to pick himself up off the floor.

 

“Thanks.” He grabbed it out of midair, then looked curiously at Leah. “Catch ya later,” he called, bailing out a side door. Alec clearly had business to discuss. He’d tell him about it if he thought he needed to know.

 

“What’s going on?” Alec asked Leah, breathing hard.

 

“I was just passing by, saw you two in here, thought I’d check you out.”

 

Alec noticed the interesting choice of words, and the fact that she was smiling at him in a way that was very friendly. But then, a lot of transgenics spoke like that to each other. A bit of harmless flirting. No big deal.

 

“So, how’d it look to you?” he asked, smiling.

 

“Great.” She picked up his shirt and handed it to him, her fingers brushing his.

 

“Thanks.” He grinned as he pulled the shirt over his head. “So, did you want something?”

 

She laughed. “Your hair is such a mess.” She reached up and combed his hair back with her fingers.

 

Alec looked at her, slightly confused.

 

“You promised to show me your skylight.”

 

“I did?” Alec frowned, then smiled. “Sure, why not.”

 

>>>>>

 

Shay stared in amazement at the jug of beer in front of him. “How’d we get away with that?”

 

Storm laughed. “Don’t tell me you’ve never gotten served here before.”

 

“Well, yeah, but with Alec. I figured they were just cutting me slack because I was with him.”

 

“Probably, but the bartender has a great memory. He’ll serve us any time now.”

 

Shay shrugged, and took a long drink.

 

“Oh, shit,” Storm commented, turning slightly in his chair.

 

“What?”

 

“There’s a guy behind us. Black hair, red shirt. With the redhaired girl. Check him out.”

 

Shay nodded, drained his drink, then walked up to the bar. He nodded at the bartender, and smiled with relief as the guy served him without comment. As he walked back to the table, he glanced casually at the guy Storm had described.

 

“Yep.”

 

“That’s one of the guys that tried to teach me a lesson.”

 

Shay raised his eyebrows. “So, where’s the blood? Where’re the broken bones?”  

 

“On the other two guys.”

 

“Okay. So what do we do?”

 

Storm thought for a second. “Let’s just leave.”

 

Shay nodded.

 

>>>>>

 

“Make yourself at home,” Alec offered as he opened the door to his apartment. “I’m just going to grab a fresh shirt.”

 

Leah looked around, taking in the hole in the wall, and the skylight that she could just see through it. She continued to look around. “A piano?” she muttered.

 

“What was that?” Alec asked, coming out of the bedroom, buttoning up his shirt.

 

“You play piano?” she asked.

 

Alec laughed. “A gift from some friends,” he explained, gesturing towards the couch. “Like a drink of something?” He headed towards the corner of the room he had designated as his kitchen. “I can’t guarantee that it’s cold, though.”

 

“Yeah, thanks. So will you play me something?”

 

“Hmm?” Alec looked up from opening a bottle of wine.

 

“On the piano. Will you play me something?”

 

“Ahh…”

 

“Please? I bet you’re incredible.” She smiled sweetly.

 

“Yeah. He is.” A voice came from the door.

 

Alec spun around to see Max standing in the door, an annoyed expression on her face.

 

“Hey. Want a drink?” he offered, holding the bottle out to her. Max looked from him to Leah and back again.

 

“I should leave,” Leah commented. “I’ll see you later, Alec.” She pushed past Max and left quickly.

 

“Who was that?” Max asked, a hint of sarcasm in her voice.

 

“Uh, her name’s Leah. She’s new.”

 

“And you were what, showing her around?”

 

“Yeah.” Alec stared at the bottle of wine, put it down, and walked over to sit on the couch.

 

“And, she needed to see you apartment?”

 

Alec looked confused. “What’s going on here?”

 

“You walk into my apartment. I’m there with another guy, opening a bottle of wine, my shirt half unbuttoned. You react how?”

 

“I kill him.”

 

“Yeah.” She looked pointedly at him.

 

Alec closed his eyes, thinking. “It wasn’t like that,” he muttered, then his eyes flew open in horror, and he stared at Max. “I didn’t mean that. I really didn’t.” God, the amount of times he had heard that particular phrase come out of Max’s mouth. It wasn’t the most believable line ever written. “Can I change that to: it seemed like a good idea at the time?”

 

“Don’t joke around, Alec.”

 

“No, I wasn’t,” he said quietly. “It really wasn’t…” He couldn’t think of another way to put it, and he wasn’t going to use those words again. “Man, I have a headache,” he concluded.

 

Chapter 13

 

Shay tried to act casual as he stood up and followed Storm to the door. “Wow,” he commented, when they were both safely outside. “You must really have done a job on his friends. That guy looked like he was totally going to get up from that table, leave the three hot chicks he was with, and come kick your ass.”

 

“Shut up.” Storm kept walking, looking behind him.

 

“You are so paranoid.” Shay started to smile.

 

“Shut up!” Storm spoke more urgently, turning completely around to face the bar.

 

“There’s no-one coming out.” Shay shook his head. “And I thought I was the crazy one.”

 

“Man.” Storm sighed, and kept walking. “Don’t you know anything? The more you keep talking about nothing going wrong, the more likely it is that something will go wrong.”

 

“Superstitious?” Shay smirked.

 

“It always happened like that at Manticore. Every time on a mission or whatever, any time someone commented that things were fine, something blew up in our faces.”

 

“Yeah, true,” Shay agreed. He started walking again, away from the bar. “But, only because the Manticore guards were listening in, and having a bit of fun with you. It doesn’t mean that it works that way in the real…” Shay stopped talking.

 

Storm turned. The other two X5s stood in front of Shay.

 

“You were saying?” he asked sarcastically, moving into a defensive position.

 

>>>>>

 

Alec stood up and moved to sit by his piano. He stared at the keys for a long time, then reached out and pressed one with his finger. The sound echoed throughout the apartment.

 

He pressed another key. It sounded wrong, like it was out of tune. He hit the key again. It sounded fine.

 

He closed the lid on the piano, and rested his head against it.

 

Max watched him.

 

Finally, he turned around. “You still talking to me?” he asked with a hopeful smile.

 

Max laughed. He had that cute-little-lost-boy look down perfectly. For a second, she wondered if he had learnt that at Manticore, or afterwards.

 

“That’s a yes?”

 

She nodded.

 

The smile dropped off Alec’s face, and he faced her, serious. “I need to borrow your bike. Mine didn’t survive the last mission. I’ll take good care of it.”

 

“Don’t you think we need to talk?” she asked him slowly, not happy.

 

“Yeah, but, I don’t know what I’d say. I need to think.”

 

Max sighed, and threw her keys at him.

 

>>>>>

 

“You were saying?” Storm asked sarcastically, moving into a defensive position.

 

“Oops,” Shay commented.

 

He made his decision to attack in about one second. Most of that second was spent deciding which of the guys to go for first. He jumped, spinning around in midair and catching the guy on the left in the face with his heel. He felt a crack as he connected, and grinned.

 

Storm moved up beside him, going for the other guy.

 

Two X5s against two X6s shouldn’t have been a fair fight, and the X5s knew that. They should also have known that the two X6s had been trained by Alec and Max, but they didn’t. Storm took out his guy with a scissor kick, throwing himself horizontally through the air, one leg connecting behind the X5s knees, the other slamming into his stomach. The X5 fell backwards, taking out his friend who was just regaining his feet.

 

“Well, that was…”

 

“Don’t say it,” Storm warned. 

 

“Yeah.” Shay might not be going to say it, but he was sure as hell thinking it. That was too damn easy. You don’t generally take out X5s with one strike. He scanned the area, looking for any signs that they were being set up, or something.

 

“Let’s just get the hell out of here.”

 

“Too late for that.” The X5 from the bar. With about three of his friends.

 

Shay pulled Storm backwards. In this case, retreat was a really good option.

 

Except for when another three X5s were now blocking that way too.

 

“I didn’t finish saying it. It shouldn’t count,” Shay complained, as he sighed, and readied himself for what was to come.

 

>>>>>

 

Neil lay on his bed, his eyes closed. He was trying to sleep. He wanted desperately to sleep, but it just wasn’t happening. Something was wrong. He had that feeling you get when you know something is off, but you can’t figure out exactly what it is.

 

Finally, he gave up and got dressed. He might as well head to HQ, and see what was going on there.

 

>>>>>

 

Max walked into HQ and headed over to one of the working computers. She flicked it on, and tried to figure out where to get the information she wanted.

 

She clicked on a file, and shook her head in frustration. Equipment lists. Not even close. This filing system made no sense.

 

“Looking for something?” Dix had seen her enter, and came over hesitantly. He didn’t want to interfere with what she was doing, but the computer system was not the easiest thing in the world to use.

 

Max looked over at him, then nodded. “Accommodation assignments?”

 

“I can find that.” Max stepped aside, and Dix took a seat, hitting a few keys. “Who are you looking for?”

 

“An X5. Leah. New to TC.”

 

“Um, it should be here somewhere… here!” Dix smiled a rare smile. “Ah, yeah, apartment block 5. It’s the one next to Alec’s. She’s in 3C.”

 

“Thanks.” She patted him on the arm and left.

 

It took her less than two minutes to get to the apartment.

 

“Leah.”

 

The X5 looked around, and saw Max standing in the doorway. “Can I help you?” she replied, as if she didn’t know who Max was.

 

“Yeah. We should talk.”

 

“Really?” Leah looked decidedly uninterested. “About what?”

 

“Alec.” Max walked in and took a seat. She waited.

 

“Alec?”

 

“Yeah. Stay away from him.”

 

Leah laughed. “What, you own him, or something?”

 

“No, but we are…” Even when it was Alec, she couldn’t say it. Not to a stranger. “Just in case you didn’t know.”

 

“I knew. I just didn’t really care.”

 

Max stood up. Anger surged through her. “Back off,” she warned.

 

Leah laughed. “He doesn’t seem that bothered. I didn’t see him objecting to anything I did.”

 

The anger was rising to the point where she would quite happily make this… person… hurt. She felt her fists clench. Then, she forced herself to react. That wasn’t the way to go about it. “I didn’t see him even giving you a second thought when I walked in the room.”

 

Leah glared at her.

 

Max smiled. “I’m done talking. You stay the hell away from Alec. Or else.”

 

Chapter 14

 

Shay grunted in pain as a punch connected with his chin. He went down, shaking his head and trying to clear away the dark spots that were interfering with his vision. After a few seconds he staggered back to his feet, taking a deep breath.

 

“What’s the point in this?” he asked, asking the question even though he knew the answer. Any chance to catch his breath for a minute.

 

His opponent answered with a side kick. Shay moved quickly to the side, out of the way, and fired a roundhouse kick into the back of his knee. The guy fell forward, into the wall. His head connected with the brickwork, and he went down.

 

He didn’t get back up.

 

“Two down.” Shay shrugged, moving back into position.

 

The only good thing about fighting in an alley was that there was limited room for bad guys to come at them. He stood back to back with Storm, so there was no opportunity for any of these idiots to come up behind them.

 

The next guy moved forward. This guy was huge. Shay stared at him, trying to figure out exactly what animal had been used to give this guy muscles that size.

 

“Oh, man.”

 

>>>>>

 

Alec gunned the engine, and Max’s bike reacted instantly. It raced through the night, taking corners perfectly. He bent low over the handlebars, wanting to go faster, aware that he was already pushing the bike to its limit. He kept it at its maximum speed for a few seconds longer, then eased back. Things were bad enough without destroying Max’s baby. He pulled over to the side of the road, and got off the bike.

 

There was no-one around. He had left the city, and the sector cops, behind a long time ago.

 

Alec bent down, and picked up a handful of stones from the side of the road. He threw one as high and as hard as he could, and watched it go spinning off into the night. It hit something, possibly a tree, and fell to the ground.

 

>>>>>

 

Storm was losing the fight, he could feel it. He was holding his own, so far, but he could feel his energy fading. He wasn’t attacking as crisply as he would have liked, and he was finding it harder and harder to block his opponent’s shocks. The X5 could see it too, firing a hard crescent kick that sent Storm flying into the wall.

 

Storm gasped, and tried to get to his feet, but a sharp pain shot through his chest. This was bad.

 

His opponent moved over him, and Storm saw something glinting in the fading light.

 

The pain became irrelevant. He threw himself to his feet, and moved out of the way. Now that he was standing, he could see a beer bottle, or part of one, anyway. The top part. The bottom part was probably scattered over the ground somewhere. The X5 lunged at him, and Storm jerked away. The bottle slashed through his shirt, but left the rest of him intact.

 

He set himself and spun around, aiming a crescent kick at the guy’s hand, trying to kick the bottle away. It was a pretty obvious move, apparently. The X5 saw it coming, and dodged the kick, stepping in and flashing out with the bottle.

 

Storm breathed a sigh of relief when the bottle missed him.

 

Then, he realised it hadn’t.

 

It didn’t hurt, but he saw the blood pouring out of his stomach, and gasped.

 

The X5 stood there and watched as Storm sank to the ground, eyes closing.

 

He smiled.

 

>>>>>

 

Alec threw his last stone, then stood, staring at where it had gone, trying to think. He had to get back to TC pretty soon. He didn’t like the idea of being away for too long. There was too much to do, and people seemed to constantly need his advice on various things. He still didn’t have any idea what he was going to say to Max, either.

 

Well, he had about 10 minutes to think about it.

 

>>>>>

 

Shay realised something was wrong when he moved to the side to block a strike, and couldn’t see Storm out of the corner of his eye.

 

Something inside his brain was screaming that this was bad, this was so very bad, but there was another voice too, quieter, but making more of an impression that was saying that he was the one that should be bleeding not Storm.

 

He hit his opponent hard, the fear for his friend giving him extra power, then he spun around to check on Storm.

 

“You’re dead,” he told the X5 who stood there holding the bottle.

 

The X5 laughed. “Right, like I should be scared of a kid.”

 

“You should be.” Shay’s voice was quiet, but there was a dangerous tone present. “Put the knife down and find out exactly how scared.”

 

“Look who’s scared, now. Want me to blindfold myself too?”

 

Shay smiled. “Want me to tell all of TC how you needed 6 X5s and weapons to beat up two X6s?”

 

There was a laugh from Storm that quickly turned into a cough.

 

The X5 turned his attention to Storm to make sure he was still out of commission, and Shay struck. He leapt forward with a jump side kick, that sent the X5 flying back several paces. Shay moved after him quickly, and leapt on top of him, keeping him on the ground.

 

“Next time, bring more guys,” he advised, slamming his fist into the X5s face, knocking him out.

 

>>>>>

 

Alec walked slowly up the steps to his apartment, trying to figure out what to say to Max. He had basically decided on truth. It was a strategy that tended to work with Max, even when the truth made absolutely no sense at all. Maybe it was  a female thing.

 

She wasn’t in the living room, so he walked softly to the bedroom.

 

Max sat on the edge of his bed, staring down at her lap, in which she was holding the small teddy bear. She looked up and saw him, then held the bear out in his direction.

 

“Oh, god.” Alec sighed, running a hand through his hair. “Add it to the list.”

 

“What list?”

 

“You know, the list of the things I need to explain to you, but can’t. Also known as the top ten reasons for you to kick my ass?”

 

Max smiled slightly and waited.

 

Alec took a deep breath. “Okay.”

 

He sat down on the bed beside Max, moving so that his leg was touching hers. His fingers tapped out a rhythm on his leg, as he tried to figure out what to say.

 

Max kept waiting.

 

>>>>>

 

“Storm?” Shay knelt beside his friend, touching his shoulder. He got a groan in response. “Get up, man. Now.”

 

Storm tried to move, but couldn’t stand up.

 

“Oh, god.” Shay looked around, frantically. “Okay. I’ll go get help. You’re not going to die or anything while I’m gone?”

 

Storm smiled faintly, but closed his eyes.

 

“I’ll be back. I promise.”

Shay touched him gently on the arm, then moved away. He ran down to the end of the alley, taking time to kick the X5 with the bottle as he leapt over him.

 

He looked around quickly, checking where he was, and turned towards the hospital. Neil had better be there.

 

>>>>>

 

“Since when did everything get so weird?” Alec asked, almost to himself. He lay back on the bed, staring at the ceiling. Max turned slightly to look at him.

 

“What do you mean?” she asked gently.

 

“Things were good. Things were working out. There was stuff going on, but we were dealing with it.”

Alec sighed. “Then, Jam Pony happened, and nothing has really worked since then. Do you know, before, I’d failed one mission in my life. One. Someone I cared about died, and that was because I got personally involved. Then, here, I fail again. Twice. Both times people that I care about are hurt, or maybe worse. Again, personal involvement. Are you seeing a pattern?” he asked bitterly.

 

Max reached out a hand to touch his arm, but he pulled away. He stood up.

 

“So, I figure, lose the personal stuff on missions. Go back to pure manticore. Be a soldier when I have to be, stop risking other people’s lives.”

 

Max shrugged. It kind of made sense. There was logic there. It was really sad logic, but it was there. She wanted to go to him, put her arms around him and hold him, but this was what she had been waiting to hear him say for a long time. And, she knew that he needed to say it.

 

“But,” he continued, “things don’t get better. People I care about are still getting hurt because of what I do.” He shook his head. “I don’t know what I’m doing. With anything.”

 

He stopped talking, and looked so unhappy that Max changed her mind. She moved to stand beside him, taking his hand in hers. “You’re doing a great job,” she told him.

 

Alec laughed. “The fact that Storm got beaten up suggests you might be wrong.”

 

“I’m not.” She stared at him, her free arm moving to the side of his face, turning him to look at her.

“You’re doing great.”

 

Alec shook his head again. “And then there’s Leah. I mean, I don’t…” He closed his eyes, trying to think. “I’m not interested in her. I don’t want her. But…”

 

“Don’t worry about it,” Max told him.

 

“Don’t WORRY about it?” Alec looked at her incredulously. “I’m ready to kill your guy in those circumstances, and you’re not worried?”

 

He started pacing in frustration. “This is what I’m talking about.” He walked over to the bed and picked up the teddy bear, talking to it. “Nothing makes sense. Max is being calm. Max should be kicking my ass right now. I should not only have a skylight, I should be living in one of those rooms that has an entire outer wall missing. I should be bleeding, or in pain. Yet, she’s calmly telling me not to worry about it.”

He stopped talking, and looked closer at the bear. “And, where the hell did you come from, anyway?”

 

Chapter 15

 

Shay threw open the door to the hospital, and ran inside. The nurse that was there looked up quickly.

“Is everything alright?” she asked, worried.

 

“Where’s Neil?” he asked, breathing hard.

 

“I think, Headquarters. Shay, what’s…” But he was gone, blurring back out the door. He ran the block to HQ, praying that Neil would actually be there.

 

Mole was the first person he saw.

 

“What’s wrong with you?” He asked, in a tone that was slightly more than bored.

 

“Where’s Neil? These guys, they jumped us. Storm’s hurt.”

 

Mole spat out his cigar. “You!” He pointed at a pale skinned freak with bright red eyes. “Get Neil. He’s at the mess hall. Now.” The freak ran off, and Mole turned his attention back to Shay. “Tell me.”

 

“These X5s, 6 of them, they came after us, outside the bar. I think they were the same ones that went after Storm before. One of them got Storm in the stomach. He went down.”

 

Mole growled. “Fuck,” he muttered.

 

Neil ran into the room, and Mole explained quickly. He sprinted out again, yelling for someone to get his emergency bag.

 

“I should go, too.” Shay turned towards the door, but Mole grabbed his shoulder.

 

“Not so fast, grasshopper. We’re going to tell Alec.”

 

“No, I…” Shay didn’t want to. He wanted to go check on Storm. Also, he wasn’t ready to see Alec.

 

“We’re going.” Mole pushed him towards the door.

 

>>>>>

 

“None of us know what’s going on,” Max told Alec, walking over to stand in front of him. “We’re all just doing the best we can. And you’re doing fine.” She took his hand, the one not holding the bear, and pulled him to his feet, and into her arms. “You’re not responsible for everything, Alec. I think you told me that, once.”

 

“Thanks,” Alec whispered, dropping the teddy and pulling her closer to him.  “Can we fight more often? This is kind of fun.”

 

Max laughed, pushing him away from her. Alec fell backwards onto the bed, shifting his legs as he fell so that she fell down with him. He moved his arms up around her back, holding her in place.

 

“Eww, human bonding.”

 

Max and Alec both jerked their heads around. Mole stood in the doorway, pretending to look away.

 

“What do you want?” Alec growled, then he noticed Shay standing slightly behind Mole, looking pale.

He sat up, shifting his hands to Max’s waist to support her. “What’s going on?” he asked again.

 

“There’s a problem.”

 

“It has been three hours,” Alec agreed. Things had been going well for long enough. It was time for things to go wrong again.

 

“Shay, what happened?” Max stood up quickly, and moved towards the boy, looking at him closely.

“You’re hurt.”

 

“There was a fight,” Shay said quietly.

 

Max put her arm around him, and pulled him towards the bed. Alec moved away, to give them room.

 

“Tell us.” Max sat down on the bed beside Shay, keeping her arm around him.

 

“Storm and I were at the bar, having a few drinks. He saw this guy, said that he was the guy that had attacked him before.” He looked down, but kept talking. “So, we bailed, only it must have been a trap.”

He kept talking, telling what had happened.

 

“Neil’s with Storm?” Alec asked Mole.

 

“Yep.”

 

“Is he alright?”

 

Mole shrugged. “Don’t know. We came straight here. Thought you should know.”

 

Max looked over at Alec, and saw a look of absolute fury on his face. She stood quickly, and pulled him aside. “I’ll deal with this. You go check on Storm, okay?”

 

“You sure?”

 

“I picked the civil war, right?” She touched his chest lightly. “I got this.”

 

Alec nodded. “I’ll be at the hospital then. If you need any help killing someone…?”

 

Max nodded, deciding to take what Alec said at face value. She gestured towards Mole, and the two of them left.

 

Alec turned to look at Shay.

 

“I’m sorry,” Shay muttered. “I tried.”

 

“Sorry for what?” Alec crossed the room, grabbing his jacket off the chair. He handed it to Shay. “Sounds like you taught them a lesson. 6 X5s against the two of you?” Alec shook his head. “You did a good job. Both of you. You’ve got nothing to be sorry for.”

 

>>>>>

 

Max looked around the alley in horror. There were signs of the fight everywhere. Broken glass, broken bricks and blood. A lot of blood.

 

She turned her attention to the 4 X5s that sat on the floor, their backs against the walls, and the three guys guarding them.

 

“What do we do with them?” one of the guys asked. He had been on guard duty when a pale transgenic had run up and told him that they were needed. It hadn’t surprised him that there had been a fight between the transgenics. It was bound to happen, X5s jostling for power and control. But a bunch of 5s going after a couple of 6s? That wasn’t right.

 

“Take them to HQ. The back room is secure,” Max told him. He nodded. “We really need a jail.” She thought out loud. He nodded again, then turned to the X5s.

 

“Get up,” he said slowly, pointing the gun at the one that had apparently gutted the kid. “Get up or die,” he added, when the X5 refused to move.

 

>>>>>

 

“Alec, wondered when you were going to get here.” Neil looked up as Alec and Shay hurried into the hospital.

 

“He going to be okay?” Alec asked, moving closer to the bed that Storm lay on.

 

“Well, we got to him in time.” Neil smiled. “Thanks to Shay’s quick actions.”

 

Shay shrugged, moving up beside Alec to check on Storm.

 

“The big problem is with infections. We used up most of the antibiotics we had, haven’t had time to get any more yet.”

 

Alec nodded. He knew exactly where those antibiotics had gone. “We’ll get more. Just tell me what you need.”

 

“The guys that did this? They were still lying in the alley when I left.”

 

“Max is on it.” 

 

Storm groaned, and moved slightly. He opened his eyes.

 

“Apparently, we need to get you a couple of bodyguards.” Alec put his hand on Storm’s shoulder.

 

“Mmm. Or, you could, you know train me to fight better.” Storm smiled slightly.

 

Alec scowled. “You know, I trained Shay, too. And he knows enough not to stand in front of a moving broken bottle.”

 

“You know what, Alec? The amount of injuries you’ve got, from being stupid? I don’t think you should be insulting Storm right now,” Neil offered.

 

Alec glared at Neil, then turned back to Storm. “We’ll get these guys, okay? They’ll pay for this.”

 

Storm nodded, then noticed Shay. “Thanks, man,” he muttered.

 

“No problem.” Shay smiled. “You tired him out for me.”

 

Storm smiled, and closed his eyes.

 

Chapter 16

 

Neil gestured to Alec to join him outside.

 

Alec nodded at him, then tapped Storm on the leg. “Few things you need to know. First, don’t pull anything with Neil. He’s a great guy, but he has this thing about you staying in bed. If you don’t, he finds passive-aggressive ways of making you hurt. Second, the nurses act like they’re on your side, but I think they’re all in love with Neil. They tell him everything.”

 

Storm thought for a second. “So, I need to think of creative ways to get around them?”

 

Alec shook his head. “I order you to stay in bed for a week. After that, do what you want.”

 

Storm sighed. “Did that work when Neil tried it on you?” he asked.

 

Alec laughed. “Neil never ordered me to stay in bed.”

 

“But, as a doctor, he would outrank you,” Shay pointed out. “He must have known that.”

 

“He knew.” Alec laughed as he went to join Neil. “What do you need?” he asked when the two of them were safely in an adjoining room.

 

“You tell me. Alec, this can’t go on.”

 

“I know.”

 

“You have to assert leadership, Alec. You have to stand up and say ‘TC is mine. Anyone who thinks otherwise has to deal with me.’”

 

“You want me to use those words?” Alec looked sceptical. “This isn’t the old west, you know.”

 

“We can’t keep doing this. You must know that. Now the younger kids are getting attacked over it? It’s not right.”

 

Alec nodded. “I know. But I was hoping there was a better way than being all Manticore about it.”

 

“You have to be Manticore. A fight for squad leader is all that they will understand.”

 

“A fight that right now, I’ll probably lose.” Alec pointed out, rubbing his knee.

 

“Whose fault is that?” Neil smiled slightly. “If you’d listened to me earlier…”

 

“Yeah.” Alec shook his head. He thought for a second, then nodded. “Yeah, okay.”

 

>>>>>

 

Max looked around HQ. It was so much more crowded now with the 14 security guards hanging out outside the back room.

 

“We need a jail,” she commented.

 

Aaron nodded. “Mole mentioned something about setting up a dungeon. I’m not sure if he was joking.”

 

“He wouldn’t have been.” Max smiled at the thought. “Mole doesn’t joke about things like that. He’s probably tracking down guillotines, and those long bench things…”

 

“Racks?” Aaron suggested. “Okay.”

 

Alec walked into the room, and moved across to join them. “Max.” He smiled at her, then turned to look at Aaron. He raised his eyebrows, then glanced back at Max. “Anyone I need to kill?” he asked pointedly.

 

Aaron took a step back, fast. Then another, just to be sure.

 

“Don’t be an idiot.” Max told him.

 

Aaron took another step back. He did not want to hear this. Surely there was no infighting going on with these two? They were supposed to be leading TC. If they started fighting among themselves…

 

“Going somewhere?” Alec asked, trying not to laugh as the distance between him and Aaron grew.

 

“I need to check on Mole’s dungeon. If that’s okay with you, sir?”

 

Alec looked at Max. “This is your thing?”

 

She nodded.

 

“I don’t care,” he said happily, taking a seat on a desk.

 

Aaron turned to walk away, and stopped. “I have a question.”

 

Alec looked over at him.

 

“How exactly would Mole get a guillotine into TC?”

 

Alec laughed. “Probably the same way he smuggled a piano in. Only, slightly more carefully.”

 

“Thank you, sir.” Aaron turned away. A piano? That sounded like a punch-line, only it wasn’t funny.

 

“So…” Alec turned his attention back to Max.

 

She smiled, stepping closer to him. “You know, I have an idea,” she suggested. “You promised me a piano lesson right? You, me, your apartment? I’ll bring the wine.” She smiled slowly, trying to convince him.

 

“Um, that sounds great.” It really did, particularly the way she was touching his chest right then.

“We’re in public,” he reminded her. He didn’t really care himself, but Max had this thing about doing stuff like this in public.

 

“We won’t be tonight” She reminded him.

 

“Yeah.” Alec looked down. “See, the thing is, Max…”

 

“You have plans.” She dropped her hands and stepped away.

 

“Max…” Alec moved towards her. “I’m sorry,” he spoke quietly. “I’d love to be with you tonight. But, Neil needs some antibiotics for Storm, and since most of our supply was used up by me, I have to replace it.”

 

“Send someone else,” she suggested, then shook her head. “Forget it.” She knew he wouldn’t do that. This was a personal mission for him. “Do something for me, though.”

 

“Yeah,” Alec replied, knowing that at that moment he would do pretty much anything for her.

 

“Take Shay with you,” she told him, taking his hand in hers and looking around to see if anyone was in earshot.

 

“Shay?” Alec looked confused. He shook his head. “Shay’s hurt. He needs time to recover.”

 

“No.” Max shook her head. “He needs to know that you don’t blame him.”

Alec stared at her. “Blame him for what?”

 

“For what happened on the last mission,” she told him slowly.

 

“But, that was…” He shook his head again. “Shay thinks I blame him for that?” he asked, surprised.

 

“Have you been to see him?” Max asked pointedly.

 

“Well, no. But, I just wanted to give him time to…”

 

“He thinks you don’t trust him.”                          

 

Alec sighed. “Neil wants me to stand up and give orders. He thinks we need a more Manticore-like structure here,” he commented, rubbing his face with his free hand. “It would make this stuff easier to deal with.”

 

Max nodded, but said nothing, waiting for him to agree to what she wanted him to do.

 

“Okay. I’ll take him. We’ll go get the medicine, and if all goes well, I’ll be back in time to share that wine with you.” Alec smiled, realising how much he really wanted to do just that. “My place or yours?”

 

“Yours.” Max smiled evilly. “If you don’t get back tonight, I’ll have Cuddles to keep me company.”

 

“I’m sorry, you’ll what?” Alec’s expression went from confused, to annoyed, and back again.

 

“Cuddles. Your teddy bear,” she explained with a smile.

 

Alec looked disturbed. “You… you named my teddy bear?” he asked, incredulous. Then, he laughed. “Seriously, Max. What is with this obsession of yours? Not everything has to have a name, you know.”

 

“No, not everything.” She agreed. “But, the bear does, now.”

 

“That could cause problems.” He nodded slowly, a thoughtful expression on his face. Then, he smiled. “Nah, it won’t. The fact that the bear is named Cuddles does not affect my ability to kill the thing.”

 

“What?”

 

“It gets to spend the night with you, alone, and it dies. As painfully as it is possible for a bear to die.”

 

“You’re jealous of a bear?”

 

Alec leant in close, his mouth moving to her ear. “Damn straight.” He pulled away, grinning. “I WILL be back tonight.” He touched her cheek, and turned to leave.

 

After walking about three paces, he stopped.

 

“By the way,” he commented. “Anyone names that damn thing, and it’s me.” Max smiled sweetly at him and he glared back at her. “It is not getting stuck with a name as stupid as that. It gets a real name. Something like… kamikaze. That’s a decent name.”

 

Chapter 17

 

“This… is nice.” Mole looked around the room in satisfaction. “It’s almost right.” He nodded at one of the X5s with him. “See how the iron rings hang on the walls, just so? And the way the sunlight glistens on them?” He shook his head in wonder. “It’s a thing of beauty. A piece of art. Don’t you agree?”

 

“It’s kind of surreal,” The X agreed, not even bothering to hide a smile. This guy was… well… interesting to be around.

 

“What?” Mole turned to stare at him. “I’m a freak, not an X series. When you guys were getting your fancy vocabulary lessons, I was hiding in the basement, chasing rats.”

 

The X laughed. “I meant, like something out of a painting.” He paused. “I think. Anyway, I heard it from Joshua, and he’s the original freak, right?”

 

Mole conceded the point. “It needs something, though.” He looked around the room.

 

“I know!” The X gestured to two guards, and motioned for them to stand on either side of the small window. “Symmetry,” he explained.

 

Mole laughed. “It’s ready.”

 

>>>>>

 

Alec walked back into the hospital and looked around. Storm was pretending to be asleep, probably so the nurse would leave him alone.

 

He turned to leave, when he saw Shay coming back in.

 

“Hey,” Shay greeted him, looking down.

 

Alec nodded at him, leaning against the wall as he thought about what he should say to him. That he didn’t blame him for pulling a gun on him? That he didn’t hate him? That he would trust him with his life?

 

He sighed. “Want to go get a beer?” he settled for.

 

Shay nodded, smiling.

 

>>>>>

 

They ended up back at Alec’s apartment. If they were going to plan a mission, doing it in public wasn’t the best idea. Especially now that he didn’t really know who he could trust.

 

“Have a seat,” Alec offered, grabbing a couple of bottles of beer. “Sorry, it’s warm.”

 

“That’s fine.” Shay took a bottle, and sat down on the couch. Alec picked up an envelope that was sitting on the table, and opened it.

 

“What’s that?” Shay asked hesitantly.

 

“Plans for the local hospital,”  Alec replied, looking at it and sighing. “The security used to be a lot more relaxed than this. This isn’t going to be easy.”

 

“The antibiotics for Storm?”

 

“Yeah, plus a whole bunch of other drugs we need. The problem is, getting in to do it.”

 

“Can we get in at night?”

 

“It doesn’t look like it.” Alec passed him a piece of paper. “List of guard rotations. The security more than quadruples at night, and all of it is centred around the drug cabinet.”

 

“So, we go in during the day, undercover?” Shay started to smile. “Yeah that could work. So, one of us plays injured and the other sneaks into the drug room?”

 

“Almost right.” Alec nodded. “Except, we’re doing it now, because it’s early evening, so less people around, and we’re taking someone else with us. You can be the hysterical younger brother that all the nurses need to fuss over.”

 

“Wow. Thanks.” Shay grinned. “So, uh, what’s your injury?”

 

“I’m thinking.”

 

“Knee is obvious.” Shay pointed out.

 

“Yeah, but it doesn’t look bad. I need something that will attract attention.” He shrugged. “You could always shoot me.”

 

Shay went pale. “Alec, I…”

 

Alec raised a hand to silence him. He gestured towards the door, then quickly folded up the plans, shoving them under a cushion.

 

He sat down, putting his feet up on the table, and sipping his beer. “So then, this one guy, he picks up this wooden bat thing, and he has to try and hit this ball, which a guy from the other squad throws,” he spoke casually.

 

“What happens when he hits it?” Shay asked, trying not to laugh.

 

“They bring the ball back, and they do it over and over again.”

 

“You’re making this up.” Shay noticed movement in the doorway. “Hello?” he called.

 

“Uh, hi. Should I come back later?” Leah stood in the doorway, staring unhappily at Shay.

 

“No…” Alec shook his head, trying to figure out what she was doing there, and how likely it was that Max would walk in in the next few minutes. “What do you need?”

 

“I wanted to talk to you about something.” She looked at Shay again.

 

Shay looked back at her. He didn’t know who this was, and he didn’t particularly like her attitude. He and Alec were in the middle of something, and she was interrupting. It’s not like she was Alec’s girlfriend or anything.

 

Or was she?

 

He thought quickly. He hadn’t seen Alec and Max together since Alec got back. And Alec had disappeared for two weeks without talking to her.

 

No. It was not possible. It was just plain wrong.

 

“I’m kind of busy,” Alec told her. Shay smiled.

 

“It’s important.”

 

Alec sighed. “What is it?”

 

She looked again at Shay.

 

Alec sighed again. “He’s one of my Lieutenants. You can speak in front of him.”

 

Shay wanted to scream for joy. He wanted to jump up and down and laugh. He settled for smiling.

 

“It’s personal.”

 

Alec looked over at Shay. “Can you go get Neil. Tell him he’s needed.”

 

“Of course.” Shay stood up. “Be back soon.”

 

When Shay had left, Leah took his spot on the couch. “We really need to talk.”

 

>>>>>

 

“So, you didn’t recognise her?” Neil asked as they walked towards Alec’s apartment.

 

Shay shook his head. “Never seen her before. But there was something weird about her.”

 

“Oh well. Alec knows what he’s doing.”

 

He rethought his statement as they entered Alec’s apartment.

 

Alec sat on the couch, talking to Leah. Leah had moved closer to him, and bent her head towards him, laughing at something he had said. It made no sense.

 

“Alec?” Neil knocked on the doorframe. Alec should have known they were there, but he hadn’t looked up.

 

Shay walked quickly into the room, and grabbed his beer off the table. Taking a long drink, he glared at Leah. “Alec, how’s the leg?” he asked.

 

Alec looked at him, then looked down at his leg. Leah’s hand rested on his knee.

 

He stood quickly. “Yeah. Fine.” He took a drink of his beer.

 

>>>>>

 

Max looked around the dungeon. “I expected something a bit more… violent. Whips. Torture devices. That kind of thing.”

 

“Next door.” Mole shrugged. “Torture chamber. Uh, I mean, interrogation room.”

 

“Right.” She nodded. “Bring them through to me. One at a time.”

 

“Are you going to interrogate, or torture?” Mole asked.

 

“Whatever it takes.” Max shrugged. “There’s something wrong here. These guys, from the way Shay described it, none of them seems to be in charge. The guy with the bottle, maybe, but I don’t get that vibe off him. I want to know who they’re working for.”

 

Chapter 18

 

The door opened, and three guards came into the room. Between them they manhandled an X5 with a swelling nose and a split lip that revealed several broken teeth. Max looked at him and smiled.

“Who did that? Shay, I’d say. He’s got one hell of a side kick.”

 

The X5 glowered at her, saying nothing.

 

“Got a name?” she asked, as the guards shoved him forward, and waited.

 

He said nothing.

 

Max took a couple of steps forward, so that she was about two inches from his face. “Stop acting like you’re tough. We all know you aren’t. You got your ass kicked by a couple of kids. Imagine what I could do to you.”

 

He shrugged.

 

Max sighed, and punched him in the stomach. Hard.

 

He gasped, and took two steps back from the force. Two of the guards grabbed him to stop him from falling over, then shoved him forward again.

 

“Let’s get something straight,” she spat the words out. “This may not be Manticore, but it isn’t the human’s world either. There is no-one to stop me causing you serious pain. There is no-one to stop me killing you. Do you understand?”

 

He laughed, but Max caught the flicker of fear in his eyes.

 

“And, I have all the time in the world,” she added, tracing a line down his chest, stopping at his waist. “Pass me that knife” she said to one of the guards, her eyes firmly locked on his.

 

The X5 shivered.

 

>>>>>

 

“Alec, I really need to check your knee. In there?” Neil gestured towards the bedroom.

 

Alec nodded, following him.

 

Neil pulled him into the corner of the room, where they could not be seen from the living room.

 

[what are you doing?] Neil used sign language to make sure he could not be overheard.

 

Alec shook his head.

 

[who is that chick?] Neil tried again.

 

[no-one] Alec signed quickly, turning around in the direction of the living room.

 

Neil grabbed Alec’s shoulder, spinning him back around.

 

[look at me] Neil signed frantically, staring at Alec.

 

[what?]

 

Neil looked closely at Alec. [how are you feeling?]

 

“I’m fine,” Alec spoke aloud, frustrated. “Look, we need to…” He stopped speaking, gesturing towards the living room.

 

>>>>>

 

“How’d it go in there?” one of the guards asked Max as she let herself out of the room.

 

She shrugged. “He’ll talk.” She kept walking until she came to an empty room. She walked inside, shutting the door behind her, and leaning against it.

 

A tear rolled down her face as she sank to the ground. 

 

She hated this. She had grown up in Manticore, under the constant threat of torture. When she had escaped, she thought that she was done with all that. That that was her past, not her future.

 

Yet here she was, blood on her hands that wasn’t hers.

 

She had become everything that she had ever hated, and she had done it willingly. The ends justified the means, right?

 

The tears fell from her face as she shoved her fist against her mouth. She couldn’t make a sound. She had to appear strong, when all she really wanted was to feel Alec’s arms around her, hear his voice whisper that everything was going to be fine.

 

>>>>>

 

Leah moved towards the bedroom, and Shay stepped in front of her, glaring. “Uh, no.”

 

“I just need to check on Alec.”

 

Shay didn’t move.

 

“Look,” Leah smiled at him. “We might have gotten off on the wrong foot. How about we start again?”  She held out her hand.

 

Shay took a step back, and grimaced. “You need to leave,” he told her.

 

“I’ll leave when Alec tells me to leave,” she replied.        

 

“Alec!” Shay called out.        

 

>>>>>

 

[you need to get rid of her] Neil gestured.

 

Alec closed his eyes for a second. “Okay.” He walked into the other room. “Leah, I’m sorry, but you need to leave now.”

 

Shay laughed.

 

“Why?” she asked.

 

Alec looked at her.

 

“Know what, Leah?” Neil asked, stepping forward. “We don’t explain orders around here. We follow them. Immediately.”

 

She glared at him, then looked at Alec, waiting for him to say something. Alec forced his face to remain emotionless.

 

“Alec?” she asked.

 

He said nothing. Leah sighed, and left.

 

Neil listened to her footsteps leaving the building, then counted to 50. He took a seat on the couch, and turned to Alec.

 

“Let’s hear this plan.”

 

>>>>>

 

Kathy sighed as she looked around. Early evening shift at the hospital was boring. She should be grateful that nothing was going on. At least it meant that no-one was dying. But, the reality was, it was boring. Time dragged.

 

The front door opened, and she looked over to see what was going on.

 

Two people staggered inside. The taller one had his arm around the smaller one’s shoulder, and was leaning heavily on him.

 

She moved quickly over to them, calling for help.

 

“What happened?” she asked as she put her arm around the injured guy’s waist to help support him.

 

“Please, help him,” the younger boy gasped.

 

“We will. What’s your name?” She led them over to a chair, and helped lower him into it.

 

The guy looked completely out of it. They managed to sit him down, but he wasn’t able to support himself. He fell slightly sideways, leaning against the other one, his head falling down onto his chest.

 

“Shane,” the boy replied quietly.

 

“And your friend?”

 

“My brother. Alex. Please, help him.”

 

She nodded, then knelt down in front of him. “Alex? Can you hear me?” She touched his shoulder to get his attention.

 

He raised his head slightly, then let it drop again.

 

“What happened?” she asked again, looking at Shay.

 

“He came off his bike.” The poor boy looked scared, like he was about to cry. “You’re going to help him, right?”

 

“We’ll do our best.” Kathy lifted Alec’s head. There was a cut above one eye, that was bleeding, and his face was pale. “Alex, open your eyes for me?”

 

He groaned, but his eyes flicked open.

 

“What have you got?” A doctor in a white coat walked across the room.

 

“Motor bike accident, head lac, possible concussion.”

 

“Okay, let’s bring him through.” The doctor pushed Shay aside, and helped Alec to stand. The nurse stood also and moved to Alec’s other side. “Can you walk?” he asked Alec, who nodded slowly.

 

They moved about five paces, then Alec stopped. He shook his head, like he was trying to clear it.

 

“Alex?” Kathy asked, concerned.

 

>>>>>

 

Neil stood outside, in the shadows, grinning at Alec’s display. He had that injured guy routine down perfectly. It was kind of impressive to watch.

 

The doctor and nurse helped Alec to stand up, and he sagged pathetically against the doctor.

 

“Careful,” Neil whispered to himself. “Don’t go overboard.”

 

Shay was sitting on the chairs, also looking pathetic. Without taking his eyes off his ‘brother’, he signalled to Neil.

 

Ten seconds to go. He was ready.

 

Alec’s head fell down onto his chest, and a second later, he let his legs collapse. The doctor grabbed him, yelling for help.

 

Neil grinned, sneaking into the hospital, and past the distracted staff. This undercover stuff was way more entertaining than standard operations.

 

Chapter 19

 

“Max?”

 

She stood quickly, wiping her eyes even though no-one could see her. She took a deep breath, and stepped out into the corridor to see who was calling her. “What is it?”

 

The guard saluted her automatically, then laughed. “Sorry. Um, the prisoner would like to talk to you.”

 

“Okay.” She steeled herself, and walked back into the torture chamber. She glared at the X5 and waited for him to speak.

 

He looked down.

 

“Who’s responsible?” she asked finally.

 

“He’ll kill me.” It was pretty much the first thing he had said, apart from screaming and laughing.

 

“I’ll kill you,” she reminded him, her face blank.  “Only, I’ll take longer.” 

 

He believed her, she could see that in his face.

 

“Think about it for a while,” she left, slamming the door behind her. “No-one goes in there tonight, no matter what. In the morning, he’ll be more ready to talk.”

 

The guard nodded.

 

>>>>>

 

“Alex?” Kathy asked again, concerned. Shay smiled as he saw her kneel down beside him. He quickly coughed, to hide his expression. He had to remind himself that he was playing a role here. He moved over to them quickly, throwing himself down onto the ground, and acting scared.

 

“What’s wrong with him?” he asked frantically. “He’ll be okay, right?”

 

The doctor ignored him, but Kathy smiled reassuringly. “We’ll do everything we can for him.”

 

“He’s all I’ve got,” Shay commented pathetically. Kathy put her arm around him.

 

“He’s lucky to have a brother that cares about him as much as you,” she told him.

 

Shay nodded sadly, looking down at the ground, but also around the room. He couldn’t see Neil, but the time frame they had given him must almost be up.

 

Alec must have thought so too, because he stirred, opening his eyes.

 

Immediately, Kathy’s attention returned to Alec.

 

Shay had time to admire his acting skills for a second, before he saw Neil moving quickly towards the exit.

 

Alec tried to sit up, but the doctor pushed him back down. “Stay there for a second, son.”

 

Neil grinned in satisfaction as he made it outside. He nodded as he saw Shay glance over to him, then left quickly. How the two of them got out of there was their problem.

 

>>>>>

 

Max sat in Alec’s darkened apartment, planning her next move. Once they had the name of the leader, they would have to act. The question was, exactly how to act. She could kill this leader. The image of the last man she had killed, or helped kill, flashed through her mind. She had vowed that she would never kill again, no matter what. But, that was back when she thought she could lead a normal life, blend in with the humans. Could she kill this guy, whoever he was? Could she kill to protect what they had here?

 

She lay back on Alec’s bed, holding his teddy bear. Yeah, she thought that she could.

 

But, was that the best way to deal with the situation? If she killed this guy, wouldn’t she then have to kill everyone who decided they wanted control? She didn’t want to be part of a group that ruled by force.

 

On the other hand, democracy wasn’t going to work too well here, either. She needed something in the middle.

 

>>>>>

 

Two hours later, Alec managed to escape from the hospital. It had been a good plan, but the one thing that he hadn’t factored in was the nurse not leaving him alone. It must have been a really slow night. Finally, she had left him alone for long enough to escape out the window.

 

“Took your time,” Shay commented, leaning against a street light.

 

“Thanks for the help,” Alec commented, moving quickly away from the hospital.

 

“Hey, everything went fine, didn’t it?” Shay jogged to keep up with Alec.

 

“Yeah, no thanks to you. ‘He’s all I’ve got?’ I almost blew the whole mission by laughing.”

 

“Your problem,” Shay pointed out.

 

Alec chose to ignore him. He wanted to get back to his place, and open that bottle of wine.

 

>>>>>

 

Aaron sat in the bar, drinking beer and listening in on the conversations around him. The main topic was, naturally, the human situation, but there was something else being discussed. The group of X5s that didn’t want to follow Alec and Max.

 

There was a group in one corner that seemed to be talking a lot about this, and Aaron grabbed a fresh jug of beer and went over to join them.

 

They seemed to have no objection to him joining them, but quickly found a way to ask him what his opinion was of the whole situation.

 

Aaron shrugged, and made some comment about being new in town, and not really knowing what was going on. They seemed to accept that, and one of them, a female, explained briefly what was going on. She seemed to be very careful about giving a very unbiased description of matter. When she had finished, she looked at him, waiting for his reaction.

 

Aaron had no clue what to say, so he figured he might as well go with the truth. “I’ve met Alec, and he seems like a good guy.” Also, weird, and scary, but in fairness that was probably because he didn’t know him that well.

 

The female nodded, and Aaron breathed a sigh of relief. “He is. Drake here has been on a mission with him since we’ve been here.”

 

“Really?”

 

A guy that had to be Drake nodded. “Yeah, just a basic supply run, but, you know, the guy is good.”

 

“So, you don’t have a problem with working with freaks then?” Aaron asked, passing his jug of beer over to him.

 

“Nah. I mean, they’re kind of creepy looking. Some of them are downright scary, but they’re mostly okay.”

 

“Yeah,” one of the others agreed, helping himself to the beer also. “I mean, we could have easily looked like that, too. Just an extra DNA strand or two, you know?”

 

Aaron nodded.

 

“Hey,” Drake hissed. “See that guy over there? Green jacket.”

 

Aaron looked around casually. “Yeah.”

 

“He’s in here a lot, talking shit about freaks. Trying to gain support, I think.”

 

The guy stood up to leave, and Aaron glanced at Drake. “Want to find out what he’s up to?”

 

Drake nodded, and they followed him out the bar.

 

>>>>>

 

Alec entered his bedroom, and laughed. Max lay on his bed, holding the teddy. He walked over, and gently took it from her.

 

Max sighed, and opened her eyes. “Alec?”

 

“I warned you that I’d torture the thing,” he told her.

 

Max sat up. “Alec, can you just…”

 

He turned, hearing something in her voice.

 

“What’s wrong?” he asked, sitting beside her on the bed, concerned. He handed the bear back to her.

“What happened?”

 

“Sometimes, I hate what we have to be.” She shrugged, pulling the bear close to her.

 

“Tell me.” Alec moved closer to her, putting his arm around her.

 

Max sighed. “Can we just not talk about it now?” she said resting her head on his shoulder, leaning against him.

 

“Yeah.” Alec laid back on the bed, pulling Max down with him. He tightened his arms around her, and felt her relax against him.

 

>>>>>

 

Aaron and Drake followed their target through TC to an old building. The X looked around, then entered.

 

Aaron nodded to Drake, and pointed to him, then to the left. Drake nodded, and moved off to the left, to circle around the building.

 

Aaron moved closer to the building, moving up against the side so he could look in the window.

He could see the guy inside, talking to someone that was standing in shadows.

 

Drake came around the other side of the building, having finished his quick scouting mission. He shook his head at Aaron. Nothing around that they needed to worry about. No guards, or anything.

 

Aaron nodded, gesturing towards the inside of the building, and raising two fingers, telling him there were two people inside.

 

[can’t see the second one] he signalled.

 

Drake nodded.

 

They remained there for a few minutes, waiting to see if anything was going to happen. Finally, the two people seemed to finish their discussion. Aaron signalled to Drake, and the two of them found cover around the side of the building.

 

The guy they had been following stepped out of the building and hurried away. He was followed by a female, with long hair.

 

Aaron looked closely at her. He was sure he had seen her somewhere before.

 

Chapter 20

 

Max woke slowly, feeling Alec’s arm loosely around her. She shifted slightly, and his arms tightened around her, pulling her closer. She grinned, then laughed as she felt him stir.

 

He muttered something, then opened his eyes. “Max?” he whispered.

 

“I have to go,” she whispered.

 

“Why?” he muttered. “What time is it?”

 

“Early. I just have a job to do.”

 

Alec groaned. “I remember a time when we didn’t have to get up at some stupid hour.”

 

“Yeah.” Max grinned as she rolled out of bed. “I miss Normal, too.”

 

“Hold on.” Alec sighed, running a hand through his hair. “I should go see Neil, check if he got what he needed last night.”

 

“You didn’t see him?” Max asked, as she watched Alec pull on a clean shirt.

 

“Nah, we got separated.” He grabbed a jacket, and followed Max out of the room.

 

>>>>>

 

“Good morning,” the guard greeted Max as she walked into the dungeon.

 

“My friend still in the torture chamber?”

 

The guard nodded, moving to open the door for her.

 

Max walked into the room. The X5 stood in the middle of the room, and Max blurred across the room, shoving him against the back wall, her forearm against his throat.

 

The guard smiled and closed the door, whistling softly.

 

Max pressed harder, until she could see that the X couldn’t breathe. Then, she counted to 80 in her head, and released him. He fell to the floor, gasping for breath. Max stood there staring at him, her expression cold.

 

“Talk,” she ordered. He shook his head.

 

Outside, the guards looked at each other as the door shook from the force of someone being thrown into it. They shrugged. Not their problem.

 

“Talk,” she repeated.

 

He gasped something, that she couldn’t understand. Max shook her head, waiting. After a few minutes of gasping, the X managed to roll onto his back, and gasped out a name.

 

“Jarrod?” Max repeated. He nodded.

 

“Good. Wasn’t that hard, now, was it?”

 

She slammed the door behind her, then looked at the guards. “Get a medic, keep him isolated.”

 

“Yes, Ma’am,” both responded in unison.

 

>>>>>

 

Aaron walked into the parking lot a few minutes before 8. He was scheduled to teach a combat class at nine, but he was planning on doing a bit of training himself before then. For a moment, he was surprised to see about 15 kids already there, but then he realised. These kids were trained to get up at 5am, and were used to having their days strictly scheduled. Now, they automatically woke at 5, and had nothing to do. He could see Shay talking to some of his friends, and nodded at him. As soon as the others saw him, they stopped talking and turned towards him, waiting. He grinned, and moved over towards them.

 

“Right, since you’re all so eager, basics. Form three lines.”

 

They were almost in position, and those that weren’t in the right place remedied that within about 3 seconds. They stared at him, ready for action.

 

>>>>>

 

Alec walked into the hospital, and nodded to Neil.

 

“Ahh, the actor.” Neil laughed.

 

Alec grimaced. “Next time, we just go in there with a full arsenal. Or, at least, with someone who isn’t trying to piss me off by making inane comments designed to make me laugh at inopportune… this is no longer a sentence, is it? It’s really early.”

 

“So, you’re okay?” Neil asked hesitantly.

 

“Well, I did spend three hours in a hospital last night that is better equipped than this one.” Alec shot back, sitting on the nearest empty bed.

 

“Not anymore.” Neil grinned, gesturing towards a table filled with medical supplies. “Seriously.”

 

Alec shrugged. “Everything’s fine.”

 

“Okay.” Neil dropped it, and gestured towards the table. “I grabbed this while I was there. I’m not too sure what it is, but it looks kind of cool, don’t you think?”

 

“Not really. That end looks kind of sharp. I’m sure you’ll find some way to use it on me.”

 

“Very likely.”

 

>>>>>

 

After an hour, Aaron called a break. The kids were a good bunch, eager to learn and improve their skills. As they relaxed, though, he heard their conversation drift to the potential civil war. He moved away from them, not wanting to be part of this. No matter what he thought of the situation, he would not influence them at all.

 

As he grabbed a drink, he looked around to see where Shay was, interested to see whether he was taking a part in the conversation, or staying neutral. Shay was looking off to the side of the parking lot, an expression of distaste on his face.

 

Aaron wandered over to join him.

 

“Everything okay?” he asked, taking a seat beside him.

 

Shay shrugged.

 

“What’s going on?” he tried again, looking in the direction that Shay had been looking in. He couldn’t see anything.

 

“She’s watching us.”

 

“Who?”

 

“Leah.”

 

Aaron thought for a second, then shrugged. “I don’t think I know her.”

 

“Some stupid woman who won’t leave Alec alone. She’s always around.”

 

“And you don’t like her because of that?”

 

This time, Shay glared at him. “I don’t like her. There’s something weird about her.”

 

Aaron looked at him for a long time, then nodded, and looked again. “Where is she?” he asked.

 

“Second window from the right.”

 

Aaron looked closer. He still couldn’t see anything, but then someone stepped back into view.

 

“Her?” he asked.

 

Shay looked over and nodded.

 

“And, she’s been hanging out with Alec?”

 

Shay grimaced. “Yeah. She must be stupid or something. She went after Alec, and I heard a rumour that Max told her where to go, but she never got the message.”

 

Aaron thought for a minute. “You’re sure that’s her?”

 

“Of course. Why?”

 

Aaron tapped his finger on the ground, thinking hard. “Okay. I have to go find Alec. I need you to do something for me.”

 

“What’s going on?” Shay asked, sensing something important was happening.

 

“Tell you later. Just, dismiss these guys, and go find an X5 named Drake, okay?”

 

“Alright.” Shay shrugged, standing up. “This better be good though.”

 

>>>>>

 

Aaron walked into HQ and looked around. “Seen Alec?” he asked a female X5 who was inputting something into a computer.

 

“Back room.” She nodded in the general direction, then went back to whatever she was doing.

 

Aaron moved to the back, and knocked on the door.

 

“Yeah?” Alec’s voice called out from inside.

 

Aaron entered the room, and saluted.

 

“Relax,” Alec told him. “Have a seat.”

 

“Thank you, sir.”

 

“Alec,” he reminded him.

 

“Yeah.” Aaron looked down at the ground. “Look, um, I might be way out of line here, but…”

 

Alec leaned back in his seat. “You’ve got my attention now.”

 

“That friend of yours, Leah?” Aaron saw a strange expression cross Alec’s face.

 

“Yeah?”

 

“I think she’s one of the group that are trying to gain control.”

 

Alec’s eyes snapped up to meet Aaron’s. He stood up, and went to the door. “Get Max. Now.” He ordered one of the guards. “Okay.” Alec went back to his seat. “Explain.”

 

“Shay pointed her out to me today, and I realised that I’d seen her before. Last night, I was at the bar, talking to these other Xs, and they pointed out this guy that they thought was part of the group going up against you. We followed him, and he ended up in a deserted building, talking to Leah.”

 

“Coincidence?”

 

“Maybe. But they really didn’t want to be seen.”

 

“Okay.” Alec stood and walked over to the window, staring out it. He stood there for several minutes, turning only when he heard the door open, and Max come inside.

 

“Tell her,” Alec told Aaron. He turned around to watch Max’s reaction. It was pretty much what he expected. First, her face went pale, then her eyes blazed with anger.

 

“Uh, give us a minute,” Alec spoke quickly to Aaron as he saw Max about to explode.

 

“Yeah.” Aaron bailed quickly, throwing Alec a grateful look over his shoulder.

 

“Max…” Alec spoke slowly.

 

Chapter 21

 

“Max.” Alec stepped towards her, keeping his hands in plain view, approaching her carefully.

 

“No. I’m serious,” she told him, her face a mask of pure fury. “I’ve known there was something weird about that … person from the start.”

 

“Okay, calm down.” Alec looked around worriedly. No matter what he had done, even when he had been at his most annoying and frustrating to Max, she had never looked at him like that. It was kind of interesting, and something to think about later.

 

“I am calm,” she spat out, glaring at him.

 

“Right.” Alec winced, and looked down. Then he realised that that might not be a good plan. Whilst looking down was a sign of subordination, right now, he probably needed to see her coming.

 

There was a knock at the door.

 

Alec glanced over. “You aren’t going to open that, are you?” he asked, sadly.

 

Max stepped closer to him. “We are together on this? Leah is one of them?” she asked quietly

 

“Max, I swear,” Alec whispered. “I don’t know what…” His voice trailed off, and Max nodded, touching his arm lightly.

 

“Come in,” she called as the knock came again.

 

The door opened slowly, and something white came through the gap. “Is it safe to?” Mole’s voice called.

Alec laughed. “Yeah… Uh, maybe not,” he added as Max turned on him.

 

“You go first,” Mole spoke to someone outside the door.

 

“Fine,” Neil commented, pushing open the door. “I’m not scared. Because I know one thing you don’t.”

 

“What?” Mole asked, following him into the room.

 

“I haven’t done anything wrong.”

 

“Mole.” Max turned to look at him.

 

“Doesn’t seem to matter where I’m concerned,” Mole told Neil. “Uh, yes, Max?” He smiled winningly.

 

“Joshua told me something once. He said that non-human transgenics were immune to telecoercion, is that right?”

 

“What kind of conversations do you guys have?” Mole asked.

 

Alec swore, and looked at Max. “Mia.”

 

She nodded.

 

Alec looked defeated. He stepped back until he felt his back touch the wall. “Twice,” he muttered. Max nodded in sympathy.

 

“Mole?” She asked.

 

“Yeah. We’re immune,” he confirmed.

 

“Find Leah, keep her the hell away from any X, and lock her up.”

 

“Sounds like fun.” Mole nodded, and left.

 

Alec sighed. “How is that possible? I mean, after Mia, I’d know. Right?”

 

Neil shook his head. “You knew what tele-coercion felt like at Manticore, yet you didn’t recognise it with Mia.”

 

Alec said nothing.

 

“Okay.” Max looked at them. “I spoke to one of the Xs that went after Storm and Shay. He helpfully gave me the name of their so-called leader.”

 

Alec looked up quickly, and moved across to stand beside her. That explained her attitude the night before. Whatever she had to do to get him to talk, it couldn’t have been pretty. He touched her arm gently. “What is his name?” he asked in a low voice.

 

“Jarrod.”

 

Alec shook his head, and looked at Neil. Neil shrugged. He didn’t know him, either.

 

“Where’s Aaron?” Alec asked.

 

“He was waiting outside, but he might have run off to hide by now,” Neil commented, dryly.

 

“Aaron!” Alec yelled loudly.

 

Within one second, the door opened, and Aaron stepped inside.

 

“Sir?”

 

Alec shook his head, but ignored it. “Do you know Jarrod?”

 

Aaron shook his head. “Who is he?”

 

“Leader of the resistance.”

 

Neil laughed. “Nice choice of words, Alec.”

 

Alec glared at him. “The guy who thinks he’s going to control TC,” Alec amended.

 

“Could be the guy I saw talking to Leah?” Aaron suggested.

 

Alec nodded. “Find him. Bring him to me.” Aaron nodded, and left quickly.

 

Alec looked at Max. “That’s as far as my plan goes,” he admitted. “What do we do now?”

 

Max shook her head. “It’s about as far as I got, too. We can’t just kill him. Them.”

 

“You fight.” Neil stepped forward. “It’s a power struggle. Two alpha’s, wanting control, fight for it. Only, you’re not fighting for a squad, you’re fighting for TC.”

 

“We’ve discussed this already.” Alec turned to him.      

 

“So, how about you let me fix that damn knee, already. Challenge him to a fight for, three days from now. You’ll be ready.”

 

Alec turned to look at Max. “This is your command,” he told her.

 

Max looked at him. Could she do this? Could she actually order Alec to fight in a situation when she knew he wasn’t 100% fit? A fight that he could lose? Somehow, she knew that losing the fight would mean death. Could she order him to risk his life? She looked at him, watching her expectantly, waiting for her to give the order.

 

She couldn’t do it. She looked away.

 

She heard a sigh, but she couldn’t tell whether it came from Alec or Neil.

 

There was no further noise. Finally, Max looked up again. She met Alec’s gaze, and shook her head.

 

“Yes or no, Max,” Alec whispered to her.

 

She stared at him, the messy brown hair that always made her want to run her hands through it, the hazel eyes that she could lose herself in. Eyes that were usually full of emotion, but were now blank.

 

“Make the call,” he spoke, his voice empty, like a soldier giving orders. “What is best for the squad. That’s the only issue. Make the call.”

 

She stared at him, then took a deep breath. “Yes,” she whispered.

 

Alec nodded, then spun to face Neil. The two of them began discussing details, leaving Max to stare at them. She walked quickly to the door and left, without them even noticing.

 

>>>>>

 

Max paced the length of Alec’s living room, walking backwards and forwards as if under the impression that if she did it often enough, she could erase everything that had happened that day.

 

“Don’t do it,” Alec’s voice came from behind her.

 

She spun around.

 

“Don’t second guess yourself, Max. You made a judgement call, you gave an order. For better or for worse, that order now stands. There’s no point worrying about it now.”

 

“I could recant it.”

 

“No,” Alec told her firmly, moving across the room to her, and pulling her into his arms. “You can’t. It’s done.” He stroked her hair with one hand. “And, thanks for having that much confidence in me, by the way. Thanks for acting like you feel you’ve condemned me to death. You know, I might just manage to win this fight.”

 

Max laughed, then shoved him away from her. “Why did you make me do that?” she asked.

 

Alec took a step towards her again. “I had to. YOU had to. This is what being in command is. Doing what is best for the team, not yourself.”

 

“If you lose…” she warned him.

 

“I won’t.” Alec pulled her towards him and lowered his mouth to hers.

 

Alternate Chapter 21 Ending

 

In the bedroom, a shape moved on the bed. A very small, very furry, head banged itself against the pillow it had been resting against.

 

“Absolutely no consideration, those two,” he growled in a deep voice.

 

A little paw grabbed a blanket and pulled it, so that it covered his head.

 

Chapter 22

 

Max felt his arms tighten around her, pulling her closer to him. She responded eagerly, moving her own arms around his back, and tilting her head up towards his.

 

Alec moaned, his hand moving to the back of her neck, kissing her deeply.

 

Max sighed as she pulled back, finally.

 

“So, what happens now?” she asked.

 

Alec laughed, a sound coming from deep in his throat as he leant forward and kissed her again, his hand reaching down to take hers.

 

“Seriously,” she said at last.

 

Alec bit his lip. “Well, we wait until Aaron tracks down that guy he saw. If it turns out to be our guy, I challenge him.” He shrugged. “It’s actually pretty simple.”

 

The phone rang.

 

Alec picked it up, and listened briefly, then hung up. “It’s happening.” He moved back towards Max, and kissed her again, briefly.

 

>>>>>

 

Alec walked down the street, mildly surprised at how many transgenics there were out and about at this time of night. Most of them seemed to be heading in the same direction he was, and he turned to grin at Max.

 

“Didn’t take long for the word to spread, huh?” he commented.

 

Max nodded, not looking particularly happy.

 

“Max! Alec!” Neil jogged up to them. “So, apparently, people have been noticing things tonight.”

 

“You think?” Alec asked. “What exactly did they notice?”

 

“Maybe the squad of 10 freaks that walked into the bar and grabbed Leah?”  Neil suggested, grinning.

 

“Did she resist?” Max asked, sounding a little too hopeful. Alec stared at her.

 

Neil just laughed. “Also, Jarrod was the guy Aaron thought. Now, he? Did not want to come quietly.”

 

“Did they hurt him?” Alec frowned. This would not work if the guy was injured. He had to go into the fight perfectly healthy. There could be no opportunity for later complaints that the fight wasn’t fair.

 

“No. I don’t think.” Neil smiled. “Aaron learnt from Mole, I think. Took in about 15 guys, all armed. Jarrod had no choice but to come.”

 

“Okay.” Alec looked off into the distance, getting ready for what he had to do.

 

He walked into the parking lot, where a crowd of transgenics were gathered, looking around in surprise. He had not realised that there were so many in TC. There were easily two hundred, probably more. He glanced at Max, then shrugged.

 

“Sir.”

 

He turned, and saw Aaron approaching him.

 

“Hey.” Alec shook his hand. “Thanks for finding our guy.”

 

“Of course.” Aaron shrugged. “Uh, this is Drake, he helped track down Jarrod.”

 

Alec nodded to him. “Appreciate that.”

 

Drake smiled. “There are a lot of people here that support you, you know. What you’re trying to do.”

 

Alec nodded. What he was trying to do was have an easy life. But, whatever.

 

 “Alec.” Shay moved up to stand beside him, with Storm just behind him.

 

“Didn’t I order you to stay in bed?” Alec asked him.

 

“Yeah, but that was when nothing was going on. I’m fine. I’m not missing this.”

 

Alec shrugged. Fine. He stepped forward, into the crowd.

 

The crowd parted for him, all stepping to the side. He would have laughed, but it wasn’t clear to him which side any of them were on. He could quite easily be walking into a mass of enemies. He could feel his friends walking behind him, and that gave him confidence.

 

By the time he reached the centre of the crowd, he had his usual sarcastic smile on his face.

 

Alec turned to face the man standing there. “Jarrod.”

 

“Alec.” Jarrod laughed at him. “You could have just asked me to come here, you didn’t have to send armed guards to fetch me. Do you think I’m scared of you or something?”

 

“I don’t know.” Alec shrugged. “Nor do I care.” He took a step forward. “You killed Twig.”

 

Jarrod laughed. “So?”

 

There were grumblings from the crowd.

 

“Not here,” Alec told him, stepping forward and raising his voice so everyone in the crowd could hear.

“This place. Right here, we have the chance to be free. At Manticore, there were guards to control us. Outside, there are humans, and familiars. This is our place, and it will be safe for us all.”

 

“Well, maybe you don’t speak for us all. Maybe we don’t want freaks here.”

 

Alec shook his head, then laughed. “Well, you aren’t in charge here, are you?” His voice was derisive.

“So, you don’t get a say.”

 

There were mutters of agreement from the crowd.

 

“Who put you in charge, anyway?” Jarrod asked loudly.

 

Alec grinned broadly. “I never said I was in charge. I just said, you aren’t going to be.”

 

“Care to back that up? Or are you all mouth? Because, that’s how I remember you at Manticore, 494, as a guy with a big mouth who wasn’t good enough to back it up.”

 

Some of the Xs in the crowd bristled at that comment. It wasn’t accurate. Sure, he had a big mouth, but they definitely knew him as someone who could back it up.

 

Alec shrugged. “Well, I don’t remember you at all. You obviously make no impression. By words, or by actions.”

 

Jarrod lunged towards him, but was quickly restrained by armed X5s.

 

“So this is how it’s going to be, is it? Freedom, as long as we obey you? What’s the difference, 494?”

 

“You can challenge me,” Alec commented. “You win, you don’t have me to worry about.”

 

“You think I’m worried about you?” Jarrod spat out.

 

Alec shrugged. “Yes.”

 

Chapter 23

 

Jarrod opened his mouth, then shut it again. “No chance,” he said finally. “You want a challenge, 494? You got one. Right here, right now.”

 

Alec looked at him, not saying anything. Then he laughed.

 

“I don’t think it works that way. You challenge, I set the time and place.” He shrugged. “How about, Friday? That’s three days from now. So, it gets dark three times, then, we fight. I can send a guard to escort you if you think you might forget?”

 

Jarrod lunged for him again, but this time there were 5 guards to hold him in place. Alec glanced at him, then walked away, deliberately turning his back on his opponent as a sign of contempt. He heard laughter as he walked away.

 

Alec walked into the hospital, and looked at Neil, who was right behind him. “You promised three days, right?”

 

Neil nodded. “Three, yeah. I guess. It’ll be two if I can use the really big knife?”

 

Alec glared at him. “You know, I could lose this fight on purpose. I’m sure that Jarrod has a good sense of humour. I’m sure he’ll put up with your crap.”

 

“You wouldn’t.” Neil walked across to the table, and started gathering the instruments he needed.

 

“Why not?” Alec lay back on the bed. “Maybe I could find a nice tropical beach somewhere, relax for a while, let someone else deal with the garbage.” He smiled.

 

“You know, Jarrod’s idea of winning probably doesn’t leave you with too many body parts to lie on that beach with.” Neil walked over towards him, holding the knife. “Now, we’re all out of anaesthetic, so if you feel the urge to scream really loudly, just go right ahead.”

 

Alec glared at him, again, then lay back on the bed, putting his hands behind his head, feigning relaxation. “Just fix the right leg, will ya?”

 

>>>>>

 

The crowd stayed around in the parking lot for a few minutes, then started to walk away, talking excitedly about what was to come. Max stayed where she was, searching the crowd. Mole casually wandered up to her.

 

“Looking for someone in particular?” he asked, grinning.

 

Max ignored him, her eyes moving quickly from left to right.

 

“Well, she’s over there.” Mole pointed, then walked away, laughing.

 

Max looked in the direction that he had pointed out. Sure enough, Leah stood there, talking to some rather battered looking guys. She nodded to herself, and walked over.

 

“What do you want?” One of the guys noticed her, and turned in her direction.

 

Max laughed. “Not you. Her.” She smiled at Leah.

 

Leah laughed, but it wasn’t all that convincing. “You got a problem with me?” she asked.

 

“Oh, yeah.” Max gestured towards the nearly empty parking lot. “A real problem.”

 

“Aren’t we taking care of that on Friday?” she asked, sarcastically.

 

“No. Friday is Alec taking care of some idiot who thinks he can lead. This is about you thinking you can hit on my…” she paused, thinking hard, “thinking you can hit on Alec and get away with it.”

 

“Well, he really didn’t seem to mind too much. In fact, he seemed to enjoy it.”

 

Max felt her fists clench, and she took a step forward. “At least I don’t need to hypnotise people to get them to touch me.”

 

“Humans don’t count.” Leah sneered at her. “At least I never had to lower my standards that much.”

 

Max shook her head. “I already want to kick your ass. You don’t need to say anything to encourage me.”

 

“Well, let’s go then.” Leah shoved past her, and walked out into the centre of the parking lot. She turned to face Max, her hands on her hips, definitely challenging her.

 

Max smiled slightly, and followed her, moving to within about 10 paces of her.

 

>>>>>

 

Neil was stitching up Alec’s leg when he heard a loud crashing sound. He turned in the direction he thought it came from, but couldn’t see anything out the window.

 

“Go check it out,” he told one of the nurses that was hanging around, doing nothing. “Might as well get some advanced notice of patients coming in.”

 

The nurse walked over to the window, then shrugged and wandered outside for a better look.

 

“Pressure here,” Neil indicated to the nurse that was assisting him. “Hey!” He spoke louder, as she ignored him. “Pay attention, please. Pressure. Right here. See where that blood is coming from? Can you try to stop it?”

 

“Sorry,” the nurse muttered, quickly putting pressure on it.

 

“Thank you,” Neil spoke harshly, then shook his head. “Sorry. I just, this has to be perfect, you know?” He turned his attention back to Alec’s leg.

 

The door slammed open.

 

“You’re not going to believe this,” the nurse that had been sent outside commented, grinning.

“Max and this other chick are really going at it. That crash was the sound of someone going through a wall of some building.”

 

“Who’s winning?” Alec muttered, keeping his eyes closed.

 

Neil glared at him. “Shut up, stop moving.” He turned to look at the nurse. “Who’s winning?”

 

She shrugged. “Hard to tell. But, that wall certainly isn’t.”

 

“Okay.” Neil turned back to what he was supposed to be doing. “Hey, pressure, remember?”

 

“I can do it,” Alec commented, sounding more awake. “I’m not exactly doing anything right now.”

 

“We may be out of anaesthetic, but I’ll have a nurse hit you really hard if you don’t shut up.”

 

Alec sighed. “I knew they were all on your side.” He closed his eyes.

 

>>>>>

 

Max slammed her fist into Leah’s jaw, and followed it up with a roundhouse kick to the head. Leah hit the ground, then threw herself back up to her feet. She grinned.

 

“Gotta try harder than that,” Leah commented

 

“I’m just warming up.” Max attacked again, her foot snapping out to sweep Leah’s foot out from under her.

 

Leah hit the ground, but didn’t get up as quickly as before.

 

Max moved closer, waiting for an opening. As Leah got back up to her feet, Max attacked, using her momentum to slam Leah up against the nearest wall, and through it.

 

“Damnit,” Neil yelled, turning to glare at the door.

 

“What?” Alec asked, opening his eyes again. “What the hell have you done to me now?”

 

“Huh?” Neil asked. “Not you, the idiots that broke the wall down. How could you not hear that?”

 

“My apartment? With the constantly falling down bits? I block noises like that out. You gonna tell me what’s going on, or do I have to move?”

 

“Don’t move.” Neil pressed down hard on Alec’s thigh, preventing him from moving his leg.

 

“You.” Neil looked at the nurse who had just come back in. “Go next door, see if anyone’s dead. If they’re both alive, try to stop them from destroying any more parts of the building.”

 

She nodded, and left, a lot slower this time.

 

“Who’s fighting?” Alec asked, sitting up slowly.

 

“Who do you think?” Neil frowned. “Okay. Leg fixed. Can you finish up, while I go see who’s dead next door? It’s pretty quiet.”

 

The nurse nodded.

 

“Who’s fighting?” Alec asked the nurse, sitting up slowly so that he didn’t move his leg.

 

She laughed. “Who do you think?”

 

“Max. And Leah.” Alec lay back down on the bed and sighed, closing his eyes. Then, he grinned.

 

Chapter 24

 

Max fought back a groan, and flipped back up to her feet. She moved back into an attack stance, and faced Leah. Leah glared back at her, firing off a side kick that had very little power behind it.

 

“Getting tired?” Max taunted, smiling slightly as she moved forward.

 

Leah took a step back, and smirked in reply. “Nah, just getting warmed up. You, on the other hand, look like hell.”

 

“Bite me,” Max replied, spinning into a crescent kick, sending Leah flying against yet another wall. This one remained intact, although some dust fell.

 

“Cut it out!” The harshness of the voice caused both of them to freeze. Leah paused in picking herself up from the ground, and Max stopped dead. Slowly, she turned around.

 

Neil stood there, his hands spotted with blood, glaring at them. Max took a step back. She had absolutely no problem at this time with picturing Neil casually tearing someone’s head off. And, smiling as he did so.

 

Leah had noticed Max’s reaction, and opened her mouth to make fun of her.

 

Neil got there first.

 

He took two steps towards her, and she quickly closed her mouth.

 

“I’ve had this! I’m absolutely sick of this. You want to kill each other, be my fucking guests. Just bear in mind two things. You get hurt, you need this damn hospital to be standing, and you need me to fix your ass.”

 

Max stared at him. Since when did Neil react like that? She didn’t think that she had even seen him look mad, now he was going completely nuclear, and the look on his face made her want to back up.

 

>>>

 

In the hospital room, the nurse looked from the wall between them and Neil to Alec. He was lying on his back, propped up on his elbows, staring at the ceiling. He was smirking, trying his hardest not to laugh, but when he caught her eye he laughed out loud. Quickly, he turned away from her, facing the wall, one hand tapping on the mattress as he tried to stop himself from laughing.

 

“You think this is funny?” the nurse asked, confused.

 

“Better than cable,” he replied, looking back over at her and smiling.

 

“You’re not worried that Max is losing?”

 

Alec shrugged. “No.” Then he laughed again. “Well, I wasn’t, but now that Neil has entered into it…maybe.”

 

The door slammed open, and Neil came back into the room. Alec looked at him calmly, all signs of laughter gone from his face.

 

“Everything okay there next door?” he asked innocently.

 

Neil stormed over to him, and Alec put his hand out quickly. “Remember, man. You’re pissed at them, not me. Okay?”

 

Neil looked at him. “Like you weren’t laughing.”

 

“Oh. Well, yeah,” Alec admitted.

 

Neil shook his head. “Right, you’re staying here overnight, then that leg should have healed enough for you to start building it up again. You’ll be all healed for Friday, when you can go and get yourself half killed again. Okay?”

 

“Sounds perfect.” Alec lay back and closed his eyes. “Wake me tomorrow then.”

 

Neil shook his head, but smiled as he walked across to the table to start cleaning. “Don’t you want to know who was winning?” he asked.

 

“Max. I know the sound of her throwing someone through a wall.”

 

>>>>>

 

“Man, that was cool!” Storm threw himself onto the ground, and grinned up at the other X6s who had gathered together.

 

“Yeah. When Jarrod leapt for him, and Alec just stood there, like he was bored? Awesome. Completely,” A blonde X6 commented.

 

“Yeah, it was like ‘you think I’m scared of you?,’ ‘yeah’,” another one mimicked.

 

The group laughed.

 

“You think Jarrod could win?” A small X7 asked quietly.

 

Storm laughed. “No.”

 

“Not a chance.” The blonde X6 laughed.

 

“Alec’ll win,” A girl commented, stepping forward and putting her arm around the X7. “Right, Storm?”

 

Storm felt himself blush lightly. “Of course.” He smiled at her. God, she was pretty. He didn’t even know her name, and they had had what? Three conversations? It wasn’t fair.

 

“Good.” The X7 smiled. “I’ve trained with him. Back at Manticore. He’s not nice.”

 

The rest of them nodded in agreement.

 

>>>>>

 

Max took a deep breath and entered the hospital room. “Can I come in?” she asked Neil softly.

 

“Just don’t break anything.”

 

“Sorry.” She crossed the room and looked down at Alec, who appeared to be sleeping.

 

“He’s fine,” Neil commented, walking over and checking the bandage on Alec’s leg. “He’ll be out of here tomorrow.”

 

“Yeah?” She reached out slowly, and ran her hand through his hair. “This whole thing is such a mess.”

 

“I think we’re doing pretty well.” Neil shrugged. “I mean, okay, humans, familiars, and all that. But mostly, we’re doing okay.” He looked at her. “You’re doing okay, Max.”

 

“Apart from beating up that bitch?” She smiled.

 

“Well, she had that coming,” Neil admitted. “But, you could have dealt with it without breaking half the walls in TC.”

 

“And you could have done it so we could watch,” Alec muttered, opening his eyes slightly.

 

“Sleep,” Neil commented.

 

“Shut up then.”

 

“You deal with him.” Neil shook his head and walked away.

 

“Max,” Alec spoke slowly.

 

“Sleep,” she reminded him, putting her hand on his chest.

 

“Why?” Alec sat up slowly. “All I did was lie here for an hour while Neil used a huge knife. You’re the one who was getting all the exercise.”

 

Max smiled.

 

“Was it fun?” he asked, grinning.

 

She nodded. “Jealous?”

 

The grin fell from Alec’s face. “Yes. Hurting her would have been fun. Listen, we have to make sure no-one touches him before Friday.”

 

“Yeah, Mole is on it.” Max took his hand in hers. “It’ll be fine.”

 

“No, listen. We can’t use Mole for this. He’ll get excited or something, and that’ll be bad. Try to get some new guys on it.”

 

>>>>>

 

Storm sat, listening but not saying anything. Although many of them kept asking his opinion, he was more interested in hearing what the others had to say. They all knew where he stood, they would have to be stupid not to know that.

 

It seemed that the majority of the kids were siding with Alec, but there were a few that didn’t have an opinion. These were the ones that interested him the most. Like many of them, they were newcomers, who didn’t know either Alec or Jarrod. But these ones, they weren’t taken in by Jarrod’s hatred or Alec’s charisma. They were the kind of kids that he wanted to get to know.

 

He looked at them, remembering their faces so he could approach them later, then stood up.

 

There had to be stuff to do, and if Alec was finally getting his leg seen to, they were one person down. He should be at HQ, seeing what he could do to help.

 

Chapter 25

 

Alec spun into a kick, pivoting on his injured leg. It felt okay, and he grinned.

 

“Good to see that the focus is all there,” Neil commented sarcastically. “No pain?”

 

“Nah.” Alec shrugged. “You know, you’re a pretty decent doctor.” He flexed his leg a couple of times. “Feel like going a few rounds?” He grinned. This was the best he had felt in ages.

 

“Actually, I’d rather watch you fight. That way I can see when you start to limp or something.”

 

“Don’t have much faith in your handiwork, do you?”

 

“Don’t have much faith in you knowing when to stop,” Neil countered. “Look, Aaron will have finished teaching the kids classes in a couple of hours. His reflexes should be sufficiently slowed to fight you.”

 

“Fine, keep insulting me.” Alec shrugged it off with a grin, and moved into position for another kick.

“Either way, you won’t be doing it after tonight.”

 

“Don’t count on that.”

 

>>>>>

 

Storm walked down the street, fascinated by the package he was carrying. He was so tempted to just open the box and see what was inside it.

 

“Hey, wait up!” An X6 jogged towards him, one of the group of newcomers he had seen two days before. “It’s Storm, right?” he asked.

 

“Yeah.” Storm nodded. “So what’s going on?” He kept walking, and the X6 fell into step beside him.

 

“Everyone’s talking about the fight tonight. And, I mean everyone. There’s even this lizard guy, he’s taking bets. Can you believe it?”

 

Storm laughed. “Why am I not surprised? So, um, have you placed any bets?” It seemed a good way to find out whose side this guy was on.

 

“Nah, I’m not really into gambling.”

 

Fine. The direct approach it was. “So, whose side are you on?” Storm asked. He got a shrug in response.

 

“Don’t know. I mean, I’ve heard a lot of stories, but how am I supposed to know what’s true and what isn’t? And what difference does it really make to us anyway?”

 

“A lot.” Storm stopped walking and turned to look at him. “You really want to have to take orders from a guy who rules by force? No, change that, a guy who has other guys do his dirty work?”

 

The kid shook his head. “Guess not.”

 

“Me neither.”

 

“So, what’s in the box?”

 

Storm laughed. “I have no idea. Mole told me to pick it up. That’s the lizard guy taking the bets. He told me not to look inside, so I’m not.”

 

“You’re not curious?”

 

“Hell yes, but Mole won’t be happy if I do, so…”

 

“So, you’re taking orders from a guy who rules by force?” The kid grinned.

 

Storm laughed, and nodded. “You should meet Mole. I think you’ll like him.”

 

>>>>>

 

“Max.” Alec walked up behind her in HQ, and touched her shoulder lightly. “Come on, let’s get out of here for a while.”

 

She turned to look at him, and smiled. “Don’t you need to train, or lift weights or something?”

 

Alec put his hands on her shoulders, and trailed them slowly down her arms, taking her hands in his. “I need to spend time with you,” he whispered, pulling her close to him.

 

Max smiled, kissing him quickly, then pulling away.

 

“Okay. Let’s get out of here.” She squeezed his hand and pulled him outside.

 

“So, where are we going?” he asked, putting an arm around her shoulder.

 

“Your place.” She shrugged, slipping her arm around his waist.

 

“How ‘bout we get out of here?” Alec’s face lit up. “Take the bikes, go somewhere just the two of us?” He raised his eyebrows.

 

“You know that if we leave TC, Jarrod will find a way to stop us coming back in.”

 

Alec laughed, shaking his head. “You really think he would do that?”

 

Max just stared at him.

 

“Okay, fine. My place it is.”

 

>>>>>

 

Alec tapped his finger on one of the piano keys, over and over again.

 

“Play something,” Max suggested, moving to stand beside him.

 

Alec shrugged. “Can’t think of anything.” He hit another key, then turned away.

 

“Alec?” she asked.

 

“I’m fine.” He turned back to face her, his expression carefully blanked out.

 

Max looked at him, and shook her head. Like she hadn’t seen that before. Did he honestly think that he could get away with it? She shrugged slightly and let it go. He was obviously worried about the fight that night, even if he didn’t realise it for himself.

 

She tried to think of a topic that wasn’t related to the fight, or anything else that was going on.

 

“So, I heard this story about Mole…”

 

Alec grinned. He took a seat on the couch, and looked up at her expectantly. “This should be good.”

 

Max sat down beside him, smiling too. “Well, I’m not really sure of the whole thing, but I’m hearing rumours of him sending young Xs on scavenging missions around TC.”

 

“For what?” Alec leant forward.

 

“Shampoo, for one. Pinecones, if you can believe it.”

 

“Shampoo and pinecones?” Alec thought for a minute. “Umm, okay.” He thought for a second. “I don’t… that’s just really… wow.” He shook his head. “Why did you have to tell me that? That’s gonna disturb me for the rest of the night. He doesn’t have hair. Does he?”

 

“No.” Max frowned. “You know, I was more concerned about the pinecones. He’s apparently really manic about getting them.”

 

“He’s probably eating them.” Alec ran a hand through his hair, then laughed and lay his head back on the couch, closing his eyes.

 

Max watched him, smiling. He still wasn’t completely relaxed, but he did look more peaceful than he had in a while. She ran her hand down his leg, resting it on his knee. As she did so, her eyes flicked up to his face, looking for any sign of pain.

 

“It’s fine, Max.” Alec kept his eyes closed, but moved his hand over the top of hers, keeping her hand on his knee. He pressed down hard. “See? Fine.”

 

>>>>>

 

Storm pushed his way through the crowd of people gathering in the parking lot towards Shay. “Lot of people here,” he commented.

 

“Lot of scared people,” Shay amended.

 

“Alec is going to win.”

 

“Yeah, of course. But it’s more what happens then. Do Jarrod and his friends accept it, or do something really bad?”

 

Storm shrugged. “Worry about one thing at a time. Alec will win, then we deal with whatever comes next.”

 

Shay nodded. “Tim would have really enjoyed this.”

 

“Yeah.” Storm sighed.

 

>>>>>

 

“Okay.” Alec looked over at Max and smiled slightly. “Time to play.”

 

Max nodded, and pulled him into a side alley. “Listen to me. Don’t take chances tonight.”

 

Alec laughed. “Don’t worry about it.”

 

“Alec, listen to me. If Jarrod can hurt you, it won’t matter if he loses. He’ll just get his next guy to challenge you, and win. Then, that guy will step down. Jarrod wins either way.”

 

Alec nodded. “I can’t do anything about that, Max. All I can do is win this one.”

 

She nodded.

 

“So,” he grinned, “aren’t you going to wish me luck?”

 

“No.” Max ran her hand down the side of his face. “You don’t need it.”

 

Alec smiled at her, a real smile, then kissed her quickly, and turned away. “See you after.”

 

>>>>>

 

Mole pushed through the crowd, trying to get a seat near the front. He spotted Storm and Shay through the crowd, and moved over to join them. Those transgenics that wouldn’t get out of his way at first, soon did when he smiled at them. The lizard was scary enough when he was angry, but when he smiled? Not good.

 

Finally, he made it through to the two X6s. Shay looked up and smiled, then grabbed a spare crate and pushed it over to him.

 

“Have a seat,” he invited.

 

“Yeah.” Mole took a seat, and passed the box he was carrying to Storm. “Try this.”

 

“What is it?” Storm opened the box, and looked at the contents in confusion. “It looks…”

 

“Weird,” Shay commented, looking inside.

 

“It’s called popcorn.” Mole reached over and took some. “It’s a human thing. They eat it at sporting events and stuff. It actually doesn’t taste that bad.”

 

Shay picked up a piece, and turned it over in his hand. It didn’t look dangerous, and Mole was eating it, so…

 

He put a piece in his mouth. Storm looked at him expectantly. “Well?’

 

“It’s kind of nice,” Shay admitted, taking another piece.

 

>>>>>

 

The noise from the crowd of several hundred transgenics dropped to nothing. Every eye there turned towards the roped off area in the centre of the parking lot. Jarrod stood there waiting.

 

“He’s afraid to face me,” he called out loudly. “He knows that I’m the only one with the ability to lead us at this time, and he doesn’t know what to do about it.”

 

“He’s sick of your crap.” Alec walked slowly through the crowd, vaulting over the ropes easily. “You talk too much. Everyone can see that.”

 

A ripple of laughter ran through the crowd.

 

“Well, let’s go then.” Jarrod pulled off his shirt and tossed it aside. He stood there waiting.

 

Alec rolled his eyes. “We’re doing this?” He took his own shirt off and dropped it. “We good to fight now, or do you want to fix your hair or something?”

 

A guy that Alec didn’t know stepped forward between them. “Here’s the deal,” he spoke loudly enough so that everyone could hear. “This fight determines the leadership of TC. No weapons, hand to hand combat only. Winner is the one left standing.”

 

Alec nodded. “We’ll send flowers,” he told Jarrod.

 

As he knew would happen, Jarrod let his anger get the better of him. He attacked, moving forward so fast that the other guy barely had the time to get out the way. Alec knew it was coming, so he had time to move out of the way and make it look casual.

 

Jarrod took a split second to regain his balance, but it was more than enough time for Alec. He lashed out with his foot, catching Jarrod in the knee, sending him to the ground.

 

Alec allowed himself a grin. He knew how much that had to have hurt.

 

>>

 

Storm grabbed another handful of popcorn, and grinned.

 

>>

 

Jarrod glared at Alec. “That’s the only shot you get.”

 

“I doubt that.” Alec faked a punch, and followed it up with a strong leg kick, catching Jarrod on the side of his face. Jarrod staggered, blood running down his face.

 

He fell to the ground, and as Alec moved forward to finish it, Jarrod struck out, his foot slamming into Alec’s chest. Alec felt something snap, and his body moved backwards due to the impact. As he felt himself fall back, he snapped his left foot at Jarrod’s already weakened knee. He didn’t connect with much power, but it was enough to prove something.

 

>>>>>

 

Neil looked over as Max walked across to join him. “He’s doing fine,” he told her.

 

“He’s bleeding.” It wasn’t always easy to follow every aspect of the fight, through the crowd moving and the sheer speed in which the fight was occurring, but she could see the results. Alec was obviously doing better, despite the cut on his cheek. He was also limping, but he seemed to have injured his other leg this time. Max couldn’t decide whether that was a good thing or not.

 

Jarrod looked much worse. Whereas Jarrod’s aim seemed to be just to kill Alec, Alec was going for incapacitation. Every opening he got, Alec attacked Jarrod’s legs. Although he could hardly walk, Jarrod was still putting up a good fight.

 

“Yeah, but so’s the other guy. And he’s bleeding more,” Neil pointed out.

 

“That doesn’t help,” Max pointed out, worried.

 

>>>>>

 

Alec hurt. It had been a long time since he had fought someone this good, for this amount of time. He evaded another punch, and countered, but he knew that there wasn’t as much strength behind it as there had been half an hour ago when the fight started.

 

He saw the kick coming towards his head, but didn’t have time to move out of the way.

 

Chapter 26

 

The best he could do was turn his head slightly, so that the blow merely glanced off him. Even that didn’t help too much. Dots clouded his vision and he sank to his knees, his hands moving up to his head.

 

He screamed at himself silently. He had to get up. He had to do it now. He had maybe 2 seconds before Jarrod finished him off.

 

He couldn’t move.

 

>>>>>

 

“Noo…” Max took a step forward, scared. “Alec, get up.” She had seen the head kick, and Alec collapse, and then things started to move in slow motion. She felt Neil move up beside her and put his hand on her arm.

 

“He’ll get up,” Neil spoke with confidence, nodding his head as a further gesture of how sure he was.

“He just needs a few seconds, and he’ll be back up.”

 

“He doesn’t have a few seconds,” Max replied, dully.

 

>>>>>

 

Get up, Alec told himself. His vision was clearing slightly, but as he turned his head to check for Jarrod’s position he felt a wave of dizziness hit him. He saw Jarrod move towards him, could just about make out the smug, satisfied look on the guy’s face.

 

Alec lashed out with his foot, not catching Jarrod squarely, but hard enough that Jarrod went down.

Alec shook his head one more time and his vision cleared a bit more. Good enough. The dizziness was still there, but he decided to ignore it for as long as he could. He threw himself to his feet. Jarrod was just regaining his feet, turned away, and Alec grabbed him in a head lock. Jarrod frantically grasped at Alec’s arms, trying to loosen the grip, but it was pointless. Once a headlock is properly applied, it is almost impossible to get out of. After a few seconds, Jarrod sagged to the ground, unconscious.

 

Alec went with him, keeping the lock on for a few more seconds, just to be sure, and more importantly, to give himself time to recover, then he stood up.

 

His face was blank as he faced the crowd, hands on hips. He turned towards the guy who had supposedly been acting as a referee, and raised his eyebrows in question.

 

The guy stepped across to Jarrod, and knelt beside him. He checked for a pulse, and Alec could see him sigh with relief when he found one.

 

“He’s out.” The ref stood up, and nodded towards Alec.

 

>>>>>

 

Max sighed in relief. A huge smile on her face, she turned to Neil and hugged him. “Thank God,” she muttered.

 

“Never doubted it,” Neil responded, and he could feel Max laugh against his chest. Probably the same way she could feel him shaking with relief.

 

>>>>>

 

“Hell, yeah!” Mole stood up, throwing his popcorn in the air in delight. “This calls for a celebration.” He lit a cigar, and puffed happily.

 

Beside him, Shay was standing still, staring at Alec with an expression that could only be described as absolute worship.

 

Storm was laughing, his fist raised in triumph.

 

>>>>>

 

In headquarters a group of transgenics had been sitting in silence, anxiously awaiting the outcome of the fight. Due to their non-X-like appearance, they had chosen not to go to the fight in case the unthinkable thing happened, and Alec lost. Should that happen, they had thought that the best thing to do was to get the hell out of TC, as fast as their little transgenic legs could carry them.

 

They heard the cheering, and looked at each other. This was it. They all looked at each other. None of them were bred to be leaders, and none of them really wanted the job. They looked towards Dix, for no other reason than he seemed to know what was going on most of the time.

 

Dix looked at the ground. “Uh, someone should go see what’s happening,” he said finally.

 

“I’ll do it,” an albino responded. He wasn’t volunteering, it was more that he considered even that weak statement to be an order, and he was closest to the door. He moved to the window, and looked out. “Lotta happy people,” he commented.

 

“Happy because they now have a good leader, or happy because it’s hunting season?” someone asked.

 

The albino shrugged. He moved towards the door, and stepped outside. After a few seconds, he was back, smiling. “Alec won.”

 

The group looked at each other and smiled in relief.

 

>>>>>

 

Aaron leant against a wall at the back of the crowd. He smiled, happy about the result, but his attention was not on Alec, but on the group of X5s that he knew to be Jarrod’s gang. He was waiting for any one of them to make any kind of act that could be interpreted as hostile.

 

>>>>>

 

Outside TC, the crowd of humans that were permanently gathered at the fence hoping to catch a glimpse of a freak looked at each other in shock at the loud noise that had come from out of nowhere. They shrugged at each other, then took a couple of steps back. Just in case.

 

>>>>>

 

Alec raised a hand in the air, and the noise level immediately dropped to nothing. He looked around the gathered transgenics.

 

“Who’s next?” he asked, as calmly as if he was asking what day it was.

 

No-one replied.

 

“We are not doing this every week,” he spoke in a loud voice, as he again looked around the crowd. “If you want to challenge me, do it now. If not, then deal with me being in charge.”

 

He waited, his gaze moving to the crowd of transgenics that had been following Jarrod’s orders. None of them volunteered.

 

“Fine.” He shrugged and turned away, grabbing his shirt off the ground. As he walked through the crowd, they moved aside for him, acknowledging his leadership.

 

>>>>>

 

Max watched him leave, and followed him, pushing her way through the crowd. He was clearly heading towards his place, and she broke into a jog to catch up to him.

 

“Hey,” she called out when she got within a few metres of him.

 

He nodded, but kept walking, not even looking at her. She followed him up to his apartment, and finally he turned to face her.

 

He grinned, and pulled her into his arms. Max slid her arms around his waist and rested her head against his chest.

 

“I almost lost,” he whispered, shaking slightly.

 

“Nah, no chance,” she responded, moving her hands up his back.

 

He pulled away. “That kick…” He shook his head, moving to the couch and sitting down.

 

“Are you okay?” she asked, moving to sit beside him. She touched his head lightly.

 

“I’m fine, now.” He smiled, removing her hand from his head, and holding it lightly in his. “But for a few seconds there…”

 

“Yeah.” It was easier to agree. She knew that Alec knew it didn’t really matter. It was winning the fight that was important. But she also knew that tendency to second guess every aspect of the fight.

 

“Hey.” Someone knocked on the door, and opened it.

 

“Quite a show,” Mole commented, wandering inside.

 

“You okay?” Neil followed him in, walking straight over to Alec. He sat on the table in front of Alec, and put his hand under Alec’s chin, lifting it up so that he could look into Alec’s eyes. “Look at me,” he ordered.

 

“I’m fine,” Alec replied, humouring him for a few seconds, then turning towards the door.

 

“You know, if I hadn’t blocked that kick, you’d be hassling me about it for days,” Storm commented, as he took a seat beside the piano. He grinned as he threw Alec a can of beer.

 

“Should have challenged me then,” Alec pointed out, opening the can. Normally, he didn’t really drink beer, but…

 

“Damn, I couldn’t have blocked it. I wouldn’t have even seen it. I’m just saying…”

 

Alec grinned at him, raising the can in a salute. “Are you finished yet?” he asked Neil in frustration. Neil was running his hand over Alec’s head, feeling for any sign of a bump.

 

“No.” Neil shrugged. “Deal with it.”

 

Alec glared at him, then looked around the room.

 

Finally, Neil sat back, happy for the time being.

 

“Okay, we’ve got work to do.” He glanced at Shay. “You’re pretty quiet. You’re with us, right?” He grinned at him.

 

“If you want me,” Shay spoke quietly. He still wasn’t sure where he stood with Alec.

 

The grin faded from Alec’s face. “Of course I want you. Why would you ever think otherwise. I can’t do this without you.” He held Shay’s gaze until the boy smiled, and looked down.

 

“That goes for all of you.” Alec continued as he looked around the room. “Tomorrow we have plans to make. Us, Dix and Aaron.”

 

“But not tonight, right?” Mole asked. “Tonight we can relax?”

 

“Give the lizard a beer,” Alec commented, leaning back.

 

Chapter 27

 

Alec stared out the window of his apartment, into the night. He could hear the others talking in the living room, laughing and joking, but he didn’t feel like joining them. He tapped his hand against the wall.

 

“Everything okay?” Max leaned in the doorway, watching him. “There’s warm beer and strange people to talk to in there?”

 

“Yeah.” Alec nodded, turning to look at her. “I was just thinking.”

 

“When did you get serious?” she asked, walking over and putting her arms around his waist. “What happened to the old Alec, always laughing and joking around?”

 

Alec sighed, leaning his head forward until it was resting against the brick work. “I don’t know.” He closed his eyes.

                                               

“So, relax. Have fun.” Max moved up to him and slipped her arms around his waist, resting her head on his back.

 

“Warm beer, huh?” Alec turned around and grinned at her. “I win a fight, and I don’t even get scotch?” His grin broadened, and he leant forward to kiss her quickly.

 

Max laughed, happy to see he was finally relaxing. “Well, you can go get some.”

 

“There must be perks to leadership.” Alec thought for a second. “Maybe I could order all of them to go, and we could be alone for a few minutes?”

 

Max smiled, hitting him on the arm.

 

“Not allowed to abuse my authority, huh?”

 

“Not for a couple of days, anyway.”

 

Alec sighed. “Okay. I’ll go pick up my own scotch. But, we’re kicking them all out soon, okay?” He kissed her again, smiling at the way her fingers pulled at his shirt, drawing him closer to her.

 

“Okay, guys.” Alec walked into the living room, smiling slightly. “I’m going out to get some real alcohol. Anyone want anything else?”

 

“I’ll come with you.” Storm stood up. “I could do with a walk.”

 

“Anyone else?”

 

“If you see any pinecones…” Mole commented.

 

Alec stared at him. “Are you deliberately trying to be weird, or do you actually want pinecones?”

 

“Bit of both,” Mole replied.

 

Alec shrugged. “Fine, no problem. One of my lieutenants is insane. Know your team, figure out how to use their skills to your advantage.” He parroted the Manticore lesson on leadership.

 

“You think Manticore had Mole in mind when they wrote that?” Shay asked.

 

“I never liked you,” Mole replied.

 

Alec shook his head, and left. Storm followed.

 

Alec glanced at Storm as they walked towards the bar. The kid obviously wanted to talk about something. He waited.

 

After about three blocks, Storm laughed quietly.

 

“What?” Alec asked.

 

Storm grinned self consciously, rubbing his face with embarrassment. “Remember when we first met? You threatened to kill me if I didn’t leave Logan alone?”

 

“Mmm.”

 

“I wanted so much to impress you, but I didn’t know how to go about it.”

 

“You did.” Alec looked at him. First Shay, now Storm. Did Manticore breed them to be insecure? Because, technically, he could also add himself to that list.

 

“Thanks.” Storm smiled, a real smile this time. “Now, I want to figure out how to ask your advice without coming off like a bigger idiot.”

 

Alec laughed. “The girl? Still?”

 

“Pathetic, huh?” Storm frowned. “I just can’t seem to impress her.”

 

Alec thought for a second. “You know the first time that Max was impressed with me?” he asked.

 

“The first time you met her?”

 

“Uh, well. No. Then, I walked into her cell and told her we were breeding partners.”

 

“Oh.” Storm laughed. “Second time, then.”

 

“No, she pretty much thought I was an idiot for a long time.”

 

Storm stopped walking. “So, you’re saying that I can look forward to a long time of feeling stupid around her?”

 

“I’m saying, don’t worry so much about impressing her.”

 

“Then, I got nothing to go on.”

 

“Well, you could…” Alec stopped walking. He held up his hand, demanding silence. Storm moved into an attack stance, waiting.

 

Up ahead, three guys stepped out of an alley, and waited.

 

Storm recognised one of them as one of the group that had attacked him and Shay. He took a step forward, moving in front of Alec. This was absolutely typical. Jarrod couldn’t win, so he hurt Alec as best he could, then sent in his goons to finish the job. Honourable. Well, he figured, they could go through him.

 

Alec grinned slightly as he saw Storm step forward. He tested his body slightly, moving his limbs. He felt okay. He would probably be completely stiff in the morning, but for now he felt fine. He moved up beside Storm.

 

“Together,” he commented.

 

One of the three stepped forward.

 

“Alec.” He called, then said nothing.

 

Alec sighed, and took another couple of paces forward. He forced himself to grin.

 

“Too scared to fight me in front of everyone, huh? Well, I guess I can take 5 seconds to kick your ass if that’s what you want.”

 

“It’s not.” The guy stepped forward again, his arms out in front of him.

 

“Don’t trust him,” Storm whispered. “That’s the one who beat me up.”

 

“Screw this. We can take them.” Alec was tired. He wanted to get his scotch, then find a nice seat on the couch beside Max, and forget everything for an hour or so. Why was that too much to ask?

He walked forward, and Storm followed him quickly.

 

“I just want to talk to you.”

 

“Like you talked to me and Shay?” Storm asked angrily.

 

“Storm,” Alec warned, then looked at him. “So, talk.”

 

“Uh.” The guy looked around. “Can I buy you a drink or something?”

 

“No.” Alec glared at him. What the hell was this guy planning?

 

“Please? It’s important.”

 

Chapter 28

 

Alec looked at the guy standing in front of him. “You have 30 seconds,” he informed him.

 

“Well, it’s… umm. You see…”

 

Alec sighed. He looked at Storm, shrugged, and pushed past the guy. He was too tired to be bothered with this.

 

“We were just following orders,” he called after Alec.

 

Alec stopped walking and waited, still facing away from him.

 

“He ordered us to do it.”

 

Alec bit his lip and turned around. “He ordered you to beat up a couple of kids.”

 

“He ordered me to go after one of your lieutenants,” the guy amended, looking down at the ground.

“It was an order.”

 

“So? We’re not in Manticore anymore. I think we can choose for ourselves which orders to follow!” Storm broke in angrily.

 

He laughed bitterly. “When Alec gives you an order, do you decide which ones you want to follow?”

 

“No, but… I chose to follow Alec.”

 

“Shit,” Alec muttered. He turned to look at Storm. “Go back to my place. Tell Max I’ll be a while.”

 

“You’re going to talk to this guy?” Storm couldn’t believe it.

 

“Yeah. I’ll catch up with you tomorrow, okay?”

 

Storm shrugged, not particularly happy, and walked off. As he passed the guy who had beaten him up, he shoulder-checked him, hard.

 

“Tell your friends to get lost and join me for a drink,”  Alec told him, and headed off towards the bar.

 

Alec grabbed a jug of beer and a couple of glasses and headed for a table. His hopes of drinking a few scotches that night were dwindling fast. He needed to stay alert.

 

“Sir?”

 

“Sit down.” Alec nodded to one of the empty chairs. He poured him a beer, and pushed it across the table to him. “So, talk.”

 

The X took a long drink, then looked down at the table for a second, thinking. “Jarrod was my squad leader back at Manticore. When the fire happened, several of us managed to escape together. We stayed together, and when we saw the rendezvous signal we headed to the point. Then, when we were maybe half a klick from the rendezvous point we saw the signal change to ‘scatter and go to ground’.” He took another drink.

 

“You’re welcome,” Alec muttered.

 

“Huh?”

 

“We changed the signal. Max and me.”

 

“Oh.” He looked surprised. “I didn’t know that. Well, yeah. Thanks.”

 

“So, you scattered?” Alec asked.

 

“No. Jarrod, he thought there was something wrong. He said the signal wasn’t logical, and that we should go to ground, but stay together. I think now that maybe he didn’t want to be alone, that he liked the idea of being squad leader too much, but at the time, we didn’t care, none of us really wanted to be alone either. Pathetic, huh?”

 

Alec shook his head. “So, he stayed as your leader.”

 

“Yeah. We continued to do what he told us. Then, we came here, and it was good, you know? I thought, here’s somewhere where we can live. But Jarrod wanted power. He told us a lot of stuff about you, that you were dangerous, that you’d been through psyops so many times that your brain had been fried, that you would sell us out…” He shrugged. “We never questioned him. We just followed orders.”

 

“So, what changed?” Alec nodded to the barkeep as his near empty jug of beer was replaced with a new one.

 

“Freedom, maybe? I started to question. And what others were saying, it didn’t fit in with what he said about you.”

 

“Okay.” Alec didn’t really have a lot to say. It made sense what this guy was saying. The bad thing was, there was going to be a lot of this going around.

 

“The thing is, sir, we need to know what’s going to happen to us. Are you going to kick us out because we followed Jarrod’s orders? My girlfriend is pregnant, and if we have to leave…”

 

Alec took another long drink, and pondered ways to get out of this conversation. He didn’t know the answer to that one. It didn’t seem right to kick people out of TC, especially when they were only doing what Manticore trained them to do, but on the other hand, the last thing they needed was to be fighting the same battles every week.

 

Then, he grinned. This was not his problem. Not really. Max had wanted to deal with civil matters, she could take this one too.

 

“There’s a lot to think about,” Alec commented, noncommittally. “And I don’t think you really want us to decide this straight after a fight with your boss, do you?”

 

“No, sir. Of course not. I just thought you might understand.”

 

“Yeah.” Alec stood up to leave. “Maybe.”

 

>>>>>

 

At least he had remembered to pick up his scotch from the bar as he left. Alec walked through the street, lost in thought. He managed to be alert enough to nod at a few passing transgenics who greeted him, but mostly the streets were empty. He could hear some music playing, what sounded like a party, and he grinned, wondering for a second what the humans outside the fence were thinking was going on. He would have to ask the duty guards in the morning.

 

His apartment was empty as he walked inside. Storm must have told them what was going on, and they must have decided to bail. That suited him.

 

“Max?” he called out.

 

“Hey,” Max walked out from the bedroom. “Didn’t expect to see you back tonight. Storm seemed to think you would be out all night.”

 

“Yeah. Want a drink?” Alec grabbed a couple of glasses off the table.

 

“Beer’s fine. So what was the drama?”

 

Alec sighed, falling onto the couch beside Max, and repeating what he had been told.

 

“Great,” Max commented.

 

“Yeah.” Alec finished his drink, and leant back on the couch, his eyes closing and his head falling to the side to rest on Max’s shoulder. “I don’t know what to do,” he muttered, his voice slurring slightly.

 

“Don’t go to sleep.” Max moved her shoulder slightly, trying to wake him up.

 

“Why?” He moved his head slightly so that Max’s shrugging did not annoy him as much.

 

“Because I’m not dragging your ass to bed. You’re too heavy.”

 

“You’re strong enough.”

 

“I never said I wasn’t strong enough, I said I wasn’t going to do it.”

 

“’kay, I’ll sleep here then.”

 

“Alec, your couch sucks.”

 

“Yeah.”

 

“Come on.” She stood up, pulling him to his feet. Alec allowed himself to be pulled up, then leaned against Max, keeping his eyes closed. She smiled, hugging him for a second, then pulling him by the hand.

 

“What are we going to do about that guy?” he muttered as he followed her into the bedroom and collapsed face down on the bed.

 

“Deal with it later?” she suggested. 

 

“Okay.” He reached over and pulled her down on top of him, circling his arms around her to hold her in place.

 

Max grinned, and shifted slightly to get comfortable. “Are you okay?” she whispered.

 

“Mmm.”

 

“I’m not hurting you?”

 

Alec’s only response was to tighten his arms around her.

 

>>>>>

 

It was maybe four hours later that Max heard the phone ring. She sat up quickly, trying to figure out where the noise was coming from before it woke Alec up. She didn’t succeed. Alec woke with a start, looking around the room to locate the sound. When he thought he had it, he threw a pillow at the sound.

 

The sound of the phone ringing was muffled, but still audible.

 

“I quit,” he muttered as he rolled out of bed and grabbed at the phone. He flipped it open, and collapsed back onto the bed. “Yeah?”

 

“Alec, it’s Logan.”

 

Chapter 29

 

Max rolled over in bed and watched Alec answer the phone. She saw him mouth a swear word at the phone, holding it away from him like it was evil. Finally, he put the phone back to his ear.

 

“Yes,” he spoke, his voice sounding strange to her. He listened for a moment, then sighed. “Maybe,” he said, snapping his phone shut. He remained standing facing the wall, away from Max, for several seconds.

 

“Alec?” Max asked. He turned to face her, smiling woodenly.

 

“Yeah.” He stared at her for another few seconds, then moved back over to the bed. He lay back down beside her.

 

“Everything okay?”

 

He reached out his hand and stroked her shoulder gently.

 

“Alec, what’s going on?” He shook his head, then leant forward and kissed her softly.

 

“I need to go for a walk.” He kissed her again, then drew back. He handed Max his phone. “I told Logan that you’d call him.” He smiled that same smile and left.

 

“Alec!” Max moved quickly after him. “I have no idea why he called me.”

 

Alec turned back to look at her, and smiled, this time more believably. “I know.” He shrugged. “Just call him.”

 

He walked out the door. Max looked down at her cellphone, glaring at it in much the same way Alec had.

 

Finally, she dialled Logan’s number.

 

“Logan. What’s going on.”

 

“Got something you should see. Can you get out of TC and come here?”

 

She sighed. Same old routine. “I’m not sure. There’s a lot going on at the moment. It won’t be easy.”

 

“Just try. I’ll be here all day.” the line disconnected, and Max sat down on the bed.

 

>>>>>

 

Alec walked into HQ, his expression dark. “Seen Dix?” he asked a transgenic he didn’t recognise.

 

“In the back room, sir. You need anything?”

 

“No.” He needed people to stop calling him sir. “Wait, yeah. Coffee.”

 

“Yes, sir.”

 

Alec shook his head, and headed for the back room. “Dix, I hear you’ve been working hard.”

 

“I hear you got your butt kicked pretty good last night.”

 

Alec blinked. “Uhh…” He looked closer. Yeah, this was Dix. It wasn’t a transgenic that looked like him.

 

Dix took a deep breath, and stood up quickly. “I didn’t mean that. I really didn’t. I just…”

 

“Channelled Mole for a second?”

 

“Yeah.”

 

“Well, can you not do that anymore? I kind of like having a friend that doesn’t insult me every 5 seconds.”

 

“Yeah.” Dix sat back down, shaking slightly.

 

“So, what have you got for me?”

 

“We’re getting close. They seem to be discussing the end of the world.”

 

“Again?”

 

Dix shrugged.

 

“Well, at least they’re persistent.”

 

>>>>>

 

Max walked into the hospital, and looked over at the nurse who was helping Neil with something.

“Can you give us a minute?” she asked her

 

“Well, we’re right in the middle of something,” the nurse protested.

 

“5 minutes.” Neil looked at her. The nurse sighed, and left the room, walking slowly to show how annoyed she was.

 

“What do you need?” Neil asked when the door shut.

 

“Got any plans this afternoon?”

 

Neil shook his head. “If you’re asking me out, I’m not sure Alec will approve.”

 

“Logan wants me to meet him. He may have something important and if you come with me…”

 

Neil grinned, then shook his head. “Sorry, much as I’d love to play chaperone, I have too much to do here. Take Aaron with you. I’m sure he could beat up Logan.”

 

Max laughed. “Not exactly what I was after, but I’ll ask him.”

 

>>>>>

 

Max walked casually down the street to Joshua’s house. Logan’s house now, but she still thought of it as Joshua’s. Aaron walked beside her, looking around with great interest.

 

“So this is a city,” he commented.

 

Max turned to look at him. “You never saw a city?”

 

“Nope.” Aaron smiled slightly. “Did a couple of away missions with Manticore, but mostly in countries where the inhabitants basically lived in huts. After Manticore, we hid out in the woods, thought it would be safer. Then, straight into TC by night. Never really saw the city.”

 

“Not that much to see.” Max shrugged. “Slums, lot of poor people. We call it home, but it isn’t really a tourist spot.”

 

“So, tell me about Logan?”

 

“I’d rather not.”

 

“Mole calls him the anti-christ. I’m not sure what that means, but it kind of sounds bad.”

 

“We’re here.” Max walked up to the door, and knocked. A few moments later, a tired looking Logan opened the door.

 

“Max. You made it. And, hello.” He looked at Aaron, who smiled sweetly back at him. “New friend of yours, Max?”

 

Max looked around to check if anyone was following them, then pushed past Logan. Aaron grinned wider as he followed.

 

“So, what did you find out?” Max asked as she took a seat in the lounge. Logan looked pointedly at Aaron. “He’s fine,” Max commented, frustrated. “I trust him.”

 

“Fine then. One of my informants mentioned seeing something in the sky that looked interesting. Check this out.” He walked over to his computer and hit a few buttons. An image of a night sky flashed up on the monitor. “See this?” He pointed to a bright object.

 

“That would be a satellite,” Aaron pointed out. He took a few steps closer. “That would be a satellite that shouldn’t be there.”

 

“Well, yeah.” Logan looked disappointed that he wasn’t the first to notice.

 

“You memorised satellite locations?” Max asked, moving closer.

 

“Sure, why not. Lot of things you can use satellites for. In fact, back in TC we have this plan…”

 

“Don’t want to know,” Logan cut in. “I’m trying to stop crime. If you’re planning something bad, keep it to yourself.”

 

Aaron grinned. “Sure. So, where’d this one come from?”

 

“Don’t know. But I’ve been tracking it for a couple of days, and it’s not acting like a standard satellite. It seems to be tracking above us, staying in sight.”

 

“So, what does it mean?” Max stared at the little glowing circle as if trying to force it to give up its secrets. “I’m not really up on satellite theory.”

 

“Well they have two main functions.” Logan turned to look at her. “To aid communication, and as a means of attack.”

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

As for my characters, I see the ages as being: X5- 21. X6-15. X7-10.

There were X7s in existence apart from the bat-boys, a couple appeared in Bag ‘em..

My stuff is slightly AU as no X8s were ever created. I forgot they were there in Bag’em.

Shay is blonde haired, blue eyed, short hair, but longish in front.

Storm I see as having short spiky black hair, and green eyes. He also has an earring.

Aaron I see as being very similar to Biggs in appearance, but taller. Mostly because I thought the guy that played Biggs was hot and deserved to stick around.

But, I’m not in charge of casting.