I guess this is a spin-off of sorts. This is me having fun with the Dark Angel world, throwing some characters of my own creation into the mix, even adding a new main character! Who are these characters of mine? And just what are they planning? Read on, readers! (Oh, and this also includes a rogue scientist from project Manticore. Those are mentioned in the TV show, but we only ever get to meet a couple. Is this particular one good or bad? Hmm...) Disclaimer: I do not own the television show Dark Angel or any of the characters from the show. This is purely a work of fanfiction. Disclaimer: All characters which appear in this work of fanfiction are fictitious. Any resemblance to real persons, living or dead, are purely coincidental.
The scientist was working alone, late into the night - not something he liked to do. He liked to work around others. He felt safer that way. As if they could somehow offer him protection from the government dogs on his tail. He poured some liquids together and scribbled something down in a notebook next to him, before typing the same information into the computer. Since the pulse, most records were handwritten, in addition to being stored in a computer system. America couldn't afford to lose everything again, after all.
The short-haired, black-haired, pale man about in his late 20's checked his watch. He sighed. It was nearing two in the morning. He rubbed his face and took a sip of what passed for "coffee" in Seattle nowadays. Shortly after he did so, he was ambushed from behind with a hand over his mouth. He gave a muffled yell and eyes widened in surprise. He instinctively put his hands up across the arm belonging to the hand, which was locked over his mouth, but did little more. He had a good idea of who it was, or more like what it was that had him in its grip. Resisting was pointless. They had finally found him, just like all the others.
He was shocked, however, when he was let go.
He stared in disbelief at the teenage girl in front of him. She just tilted her head and gave a big, cheerful smile at the man.
"Y-you... just let me go?" He spattered, not able to make sense of what was happening. The girl nodded rapidly. "Mhm." The cheeriness of her voice matched that of her expression. The scientist was as baffled as ever.
"You aren't going to kill me then?" He straightened up and adjusted his lab coat.
The girl looked up at the ceiling, finger under her chin, seemingly thinking. "I hadn't planned on it."
"Well, then what are you doing here?!" Anger crept into his voice. "I was in the middle of important work! And just who or what are you?!" He paused and folded his arms. "To overpower me so easily like that, you have to be one of... them."
The brunette, blue-eyed girl looked hurt. "It's rude to yell at someone like that, you know. Maybe I was wrong to come to you. Maybe I should just be on my way and let them get you, after all, Cade." The girl huffed and crossed her arms as well, looking down at the floor.
The man was only mildly surprised that she knew his name. He thought over his words. Perhaps, they had been excessively harsh and if he wanted answers, he obviously needed to try a gentler approach. "I'm sorry, miss. It's merely... I'm under a lot of stress lately and surprise visitors in the night don't help."
She looked at him again. This time, neither cheerful nor hurt, her tone was serious. "I imagine you have been under a lot of stress, given who wants you dead. That's why I'm here, at least partly, to save you."
"Save me?" Cade repeated, even more taken aback.
"Yes, that's right." The girl was back to smiling again.
He didn't believe it. He couldn't. "And why would you want to save me from them? You obviously know who I am - or who I've been, what I've done. Why would someone like you want to save my life?"
"Because I know you're different from the others. That's why you quit, right? Because you knew what you were doing, and what they are still doing, is wrong. I also require your help with something. In return, I offer my protection. I will protect your life to the best of my abilities, which you have an idea of."
Cade considered her proposal. His life depended on gaining her protection. She knew that. "What is it you want my help with?"
Her tone was even more serious than before, her look was grave. "Taking down your former employer, Manticore."
Cade's green eyes widened. He promptly shook his head. "No, I'm afraid I can't help you with that."
The girl persisted. "You want my protection, right? You do want to save your life?"
Cade retorted, "You're mad!" He remembered to be careful of his tone. He was playing with fire here. He knew how dangerous her kind was. "Taking down Manticore isn't easy. I'm not even sure it's possible. If it were doable, wouldn't someone have done it by now?"
The girl shook her head. "They haven't had me on their side. My abilities are greater than the average transgenic. Do you really want to spend your life running until they eventually succeed in killing you? Given their recent attempts, I'd say you have a month, if they take a two week break."
Cade couldn't deny that his time was drawing to a close, if things continued on the track they were on. He really didn't want to die this young. He looked her over, studying her. "So, you are a transgenic. One of the escapees from '09?" He turned his back on her as he spoke, gathering his papers into a briefcase and cleaning up the laboratory. Though he turned his back on her, she never left his sight. It was clear he was wary of the partly inhuman girl.
The girl shook her head. "Transgenic, yes. Escapee from '09, no."
Cade raised an eyebrow as he paused in what he was doing and turned around. He leaned back against the table and folded his arms. "Well, you can't still be apart of Manticore. No way would they'd allow you to make a personal visit."
"Can't we get into this later? I'd like to get home, please. I have school in the morning." The girl smiled and tilted her head again.
"School? ...You left Manticore to go to school?" Cade asked, surprise was his starring reaction that night.
The girl laughed loud at that. "I'm not that "mad." Now come on, silly!" She grabbed his hand and started to take off. He grabbed his briefcase just in time.
As they walked through the darken streets, snow began to fall. It was early winter. She saw the scientist shaking. "You're shivering?"
"Yes, well, you didn't exactly give me time to grab my coat." He noticed she, however, was fully coated.
The transgenic girl smiled and threw him his coat. "There you go!"
He pause in walking, caught it, and put it on. She continued walking, though, and he had to hurry to catch up with her. He gave her a small smile, even as he was clearly confused by her kindness. He idly wondered if the coat had a bomb in it somewhere.
She spoke, looking straight ahead while doing so. "I'm not going to hurt you, you know. You can relax, for once"
"I just don't understand why you're being nice to me. It doesn't make sense."
She shrugged. "Not everything has to."
"A lot of things don't make sense," she added, more darkly.
Cade, too, looked straight ahead and fell silent after that.
After 15 more minutes of walking, he spoke up again. "Did I hear you correctly? We're going to your house?"
The girl nodded. "And here we are!" She raced up to the door as soon as she saw her dad appear in the doorway, leaving Cade well behind. "Dad!" She cried as she crashed into him, hugging him tightly. He left out an "Oomph." and smiled, hugging her back. "It's good to see you too, sweetheart."
Cade had just reached the door a moment later. "I made a new friend today!" She announced, happily.
Her dad, a brown-haired man who was slightly taller and a little older than Cade, looked him over. "Yes, I see that. I take it this is Cade?" The girl nodded rapidly, still smiling. The gentleman extended his hand to the fellow scientist. "Welcome, Cade. Here, come in and get out of the cold." He moved aside, still holding the door. His daughter and the scientist entered the home.
Cade had not imagined much when the transgenic had spoken of her "home". In fact, he had imagined some small, dingy safe house somewhere which she had taken refuge in. But this house was straight from a Christmas movie! It was cozy but beautiful, nonetheless. Lights were strung across the fireplace. Cade marveled at the sight. Why, it looked like the pulse never happened. Staring, he could barely hang his coat. The girl gestured for him to sit on the plush, beige couch. "This... this is amazing."
She smiled at him. "You probably weren't expecting this."
Her guest slowly shook his head. Her dad emerged from the kitchen, bearing a tray with mugs of hot chocolate. They each took one as he joined them on the couch. Cade was surprised that the drink tasted like the hot chocolate he enjoyed as a kid. If he stayed here long enough, maybe he really could forget the pulse.
Her dad gave a small smile at the guest. "How rude of us. We know your name but have failed to introduce ourselves. I'm Andrew." He offered his hand to shake and Cade took it and nodded.
"And my name's Millicent, but you can just call me Milli, if you wish!" The girl offered, cheerfully, also extending her hand. "Milli it is, then." He nodded. He shook her hand as well, while mentally wondering where the transgenic got her name from. Not only was it an unusual name, but most of her kind didn't even have names; simply barcodes. She was far from the typical transgenic. She appeared as if she hadn't seen a day of war in her life, coming off more like a girl scout than an elite solider. It was all very curious, but the scientist was just more grateful than anything to be out of the cold – in more ways than one.
"You undoubtedly have questions. You can ask them, if you wish." Andrew offered, taking a drink from his own mug.
Cade nodded. "My most pressing one is how is this safe? How are you off the radar from Manticore?"
Andrew smiled. "As you could see walking in, this small house is in the middle of nowhere. We're on the outskirts of the city. Hardly anyone ever comes here, unless they live here. Plus, we're careful not to draw attention to our home. Much like yourself, no one really suspects anyone on the run from Manticore would settle down in a quaint little house such as this one. We also keep an eye on them. We'll see them coming, if they do catch on."
Cade processed all of this.
"Aren't you going to ask about me?" Milli popped up, smiling, inches from his face.
"Milli, remember your manners." Andrew chastise gently, his voice calm and eyes shut as he took another drink.
The transgenic looked back at her dad and gave their guest his personal space back.
Cade studied possibly one of the strangest creatures he'd ever met. She claimed to be a transgenic, and seemingly had the heightened abilities, but her life looked more like something out of a sitcom. Her personality was closer to that of a cheerleader than a genetically-engineered soldier.
He sat his mug down and looked at her. "I do have questions about you. In fact, I have so many, it's hard to know where to start."
She waited patiently for him to decide what to ask first.
"...For starters, how did you get all of this?" He looked around. "You have a house which almost makes me question if the pulse ever happened, you seem to have one of the most upbeat personalities I've ever encounter – human and transgenic alike, and you have a "dad". How? Transgenics never know their "parents", personalities aren't encouraged, and I doubt most humans have houses like this nowadays."
Milli sobered up and thought about how to answer those. "I know I'm not your "average" transgenic. My dad isn't my biological father, no. He took me in when I needed him. As for my personality, it's just the way I am. I didn't spend much time at all at Manticore, so they didn't have the time to take it from me. And as for how we have the house, maybe that's a question better suited for dad..." Milli smiled at the man to her right.
"We have more in common than you know, Cade." He began. "I'm a scientist as well. True, the pay isn't as good as before the pulse, but it keeps food on the table and this roof over our heads." He paused, as if to prepare himself to confess the next part. "And I used to be a scientist at Manticore too."
A/N: Welp, that's all for this chapter, everyone. :) Hope you liked it, if you did, please let me know in a review or by favoriting my story. It's encouraging to see that people actually read and enjoy my work. I'm excited for when our trio encounters some characters from the show! Milli (pronounced Mill-lee) better be careful. She might get more than she bargains for in America as she prepares to try to take down Manticore. Who will she meet along the way? Old friends? Old enemies? How can she tell who's who? Can she really trust her ex-Manticore "friend"? What about her "dad"? Why'd he ditch the Manticore thing and take Milli with him? One thing's for sure, it's a dangerous post-pulse world for our transgenic friend. Especially, when a certain colonel finds out she's in the states. Oh no! Will she be able to remain free and fulfill her plan to bring down Manticore? Stay tuned!