~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Life is so perfect sometimes. It has to be, to make up for all of the really bad stuff. You have to learn to walk, you have to learn to talk...you have to wear that totally ridiculous hat that your grandmother bought you. And when you get older, even though you get to choose your hats, you don't get to choose what they put in those meatballs in the cafeteria, or...when all of that little stuff stops mattering.
Life goes on, and so do I, because you just have to learn to deal. Let's just think of the day that I came to TC as big, ugly hat day
-Luce
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
The squeal of tires and the sounds of government issue cars awake Lucy, a very beautiful, very tired-looking teenage girl from a light sleep. She bolts upright, gasping, knowing that they're coming for her. Again.
She grabs a black backpack from the floor and swings it on her back. She listens-they're getting closer. Grabbing a knife from beside her bed, she runs for the window. She takes a glance down the seven stories to the ground to make sure that all's clear, then jumps without a second thought, concentrating all of her energy on not falling, on slowing down. She feels the resistance of the air greaten and she opens her eyes, slowly floating down onto the darkened streets of Seattle.
Still in her thin, cherry print pajamas, she runs down the street, her life at stake, looking for signs of anything suspicious. ~Running, always running. Don't stop. Can't stop, they'll catch me. Don't want to be found, can't be found. Never stopping, always running. God, don't let them get me.~
The freezing winter air tears cruelly through her thin pajamas, biting at her skin. She can hear them running behind her. They're catching up, she can hear their ragged breathing. She turns down onto a sidestreet that looks relatively safe and runs to the back door of a club. She glances at the sign, barely able to make the word Crash out through the tears from the wind blowing in her eyes and the blinding pain of using her powers to that extent. She stumbles in and sits down at a table, trying to fit in. It looks like mostly younger people are here, people in their mid-twenties or so.
The bar's pretty empty, with two or three tables full and a few people sitting at the bar. The table next to hers is full, and she tries to relax, doing a horrible job of it. She slips the knife sheath by her side, hiding it.
~You can't keep running forever, Luce. They'll find you, and hurt you. Just like they did to everyone important to you. They'll keep looking, not stopping until they find you. Then they'll hurt you, kill you, just like they did to them.~ A lone tear slides down her cheek, and she wipes it away, trying to blink back the others that follow.
A very handsome man at the next table has been watching the young girl for a while. He knows that she's in trouble, was probably either chased out or ran away tonight. She's shivering, even in Crash's warm temperature, but who could blame her in that tiny cherry t-shirt and those flimsy pajama pants. She's beautiful, with long blond hair and bright blue eyes. But her eyes are haunted, and they look too old and hurt to belong to such a young girl, probably seventeen or eighteen, tops. He saw her hide the knife, and realizes that she must really be in trouble. She's scared, he realizes as she wipes a tear away.
"You ok Alec?" a brunette asks from beside him.
"Yeah, Max. I'll be back in a sec." he says, giving her a trademark smirk. She smiles back.
He walks over to the girls, who sees his shadow and tightens her grip on the knife, ready for a fight.
"Are you all right?" he asks gently, not wanting to scare her.
"Yeah, I'm fine." she says, her voice throaty, trying not to cry. He doesn't believe her, nobody ever does if you just say fine. She looks up at him, revealing a gash on her lip and cheek that's just started healing. ~uh oh, this might take a while.~
"Mind if I take a seat?" he asks, pulling up a chair.
"Aren't you here with friends?" she asks, trying to steer him away. ~You've gotten enough people into trouble, don't bring any more people into your messed up life.~ Alec looks over to Max, OC, and Sketchy. OC's feigning interest in some stupid story that Sketch's telling. Max is looking at him curiously. He smiles at her reassuringly, knowing that she's worried about the girl he's talking to.
"Yeah, but they can wait. You look like you've had it hard." he says. She looks down. "How old are you? 17? 18?"
"16." she says, not knowing why she's answering questions from a total stranger. She feels comfortable with Alec, and he wants to help her. ~That's so young to be all alone. I wonder why she ran away.~
"And your name is..?" he asks, not wanting to just start questioning someone without knowing their name.
"Lucy." she says, looking down again. "Lucy Witkopp."
"I'm Alec. Now, would you like to tell me how you got that gash on your cheek?"he says gently, asking casually, trying not to force her to say anything she doesn't want to.
"I can't...you won't believe me." she says, closing her eyes in frustration. "Nobody believes me, not until I show them what I can do." she says in an above-whisper, her eyes clouded with frustration and anger.
"I promise you, I'll believe you." he says, sincerity in his eyes. Lucy looks up.
"Promise?" she asks, and Alec nods. She sighs and starts her story, "Well, I'm not completely normal. In fact, I'm not even slightly normal. I'm...different." Alec tried to hide his shock that there's still x's outside the fence, even after a year of Terminal City being generally accepted.
"They're after me. They killed them, mutilating my family beyond recognition." she continues, her eyes filling up with tears. ~Oh, god...there were other units? I thought we'd tracked them all! What series is she? X7? X8? Oh, my god...how could we have not known?~ "They've been tracking me. I've been running, but they're getting better. They don't stop coming. They're..." Lucy stops mid-sentence, gasps and pales visibly.
"They're what, Lucy?" Alec asks urgently.
"They're here." she whispers, frozen to where she is, her eyes glued on the door, where about fifteen suits have walked into Crash.
"Don't worry, Lucy. Max and I've got your back. You take the ones near the bar, and we'll get the rest." he says, then runs across the room at a pace greater than humanly possible. He was joined by Max, and they immediately began to kick some ass.
Lucy ran over to the bar and took out the first suit she met with a kick to the groin and a punch in the temple. ~Wow, those kick boxing and Women's Defense classes paid off~ She jumps up to the bar, the knife at her side, to get a better view. The two other good guys are fighting off about six of the evil cronies-each. There are two more by the bar that need to be taken care of. Lucy kicks a man under the chin and watches him crumple to the floor. She looks around for the other man, but doesn't see him. Thinking that he went to go help his buddies by the door, who were getting their asses kicked, she jumps down, not seeing the man right behind her.
Alec sees the man standing behind Lucy and tries to warn her, but it's too late. The man grabs the knife from her unready hand and shoves it into her side. Lucy pales visible, and the man pulls out the bloodied weapon, grinning evilly until he's punched in the temple by Max.
Lucy leans against the wall behind her, clutching her wound. Her breath is coming in short, ragged gasps, and nausea overcomes her senses. Darkness tears at her mind, and she fights it off, just wanting to make sure that she gets her two saviors out of danger.
Alec and Max run to her side, and Max immediately starts to inspect the wound, needing to see how deep it is. She pries Lucy's hands away from the injury, which is bleeding a lot, and the girl grimaces in pain. Alec whispers words of encouragement to her.
"Lucy, you're doing great. Just hang in there, we'll get you help soon. We'll take you to our neighborhood. They won't ask questions." he says, trying to comfort her, but instead she looks panicked.
"No, don't... Just...go. Now...please. I'm fine... it's..just a ...little scrape.. No big." she says with obvious effort. Her lies didn't fool anyone. Max gives him a look that says that they needed to get the girl out of Crash, now.
"Lucy, don't worry about us. We can handle it, but you need to come with us to take care of that hole the knife left in your stomach, so let's go." he says, looking at her seriously.
"I can't...put you in...more danger...I've caused...too...much hurt." she says, her eyelids drooping. Alec looks down at her injury. The innocent looking cherry-covered shirt is now forever marred with the crimson tinge of blood. Lots of it... the girl needs a doctor, and fast. Her beautiful blue eyes are shadowed with pain, and her hair is matted with blood from a blow to the head. The transgenics know that even transgens need a doctor at this point-well, at least the younger ones.
"I said don't worry. They'll be back in about two minutes with backup, so I suggest we leave this place. Don't worry, you'll be safe with us." he says, acting like a protective big brother.
"Don't let them get me...please?" Lucy pleads, fear in her voice evident. ~What could scare a transgenic so bad? Poor girl~ thinks Alec. Tears roll down Lucy's face, and he wipes them off.
"I promise, Lucy." he assures her as he scoops her into his arms. Max grabs the girl's bag and opens the door for Alec. They head for the closest sewer entrance to TC, and Lucy fades into the nightmares of her former life that haunt her.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~A/N
Hello, my lovely readers. I just wanted to tell ya thanx for reading. This is just an intro, but I really want to know whatcha think. Hope it's not stupid or anything. I'm planning on posting again soon. So, happy reading, and oh! One more thing- please drop me a line, I don't care what it says (as long as there are no clowns mentioned and there is no TOTAL bashing of my story), and I'll luv ya forever!!!!!
Molly :D