It was in the dead of night that a figure vaulted expertly over the tall fences of Terminal City. He'd been slumming it until then, barhopping and bedhopping, keeping under the radar. But once he saw that broadcast on the news, some young suit outing their secret to the world and calling them dangerous, he knew it wasn't safe.
His hair was still military short, and so far most of his nights had depended on getting naked. Sure, it wasn't normal to sneak a peek at the back of your bed partner's necks, but a few girls had noticed before and asked if he was a steelhead or something like that, and who knew what drunken mishap could occur to get him in trouble. Better to check out Terminal City to see if the rumors he overheard were true and not some big trap to capture and finish the job of getting rid of them.
He wandered the abandoned streets for about ten minutes, going deeper and deeper into the city, until he heard a familiar click.
Found them.
Guns surrounded him, mostly from the rooftops, wielded by people who didn't really look like people. Green ones, wrinkly ones, short ones, hairy ones. He grinned, dropping his defensive stance, and lowered the back of his collar to show his barcode.
"Heard this was where the freaks were gathering."
A lizard type with a cigar in his mouth smirked. Well, more like he bared his teeth at him from the top of a one story building. "Something like that. Come on, pretty boy, time for debrief before we let you loose."
Pretty organized for someplace that used to be nothing but crackheads wandering around for a fix on their deathbeds.
There were about half a dozen people gathered in the room they had set up as their base of operations. Storage crates were scattered around, good to hide behind in a pinch, and a bunch of computer monitors were gathered in a small part of the room. One of the transhumans with a glass eye piece covering almost half of his face sat amongst the technology, fiddling with something with a screwdriver.
A pair of X5's were amongst the transhumans, a girl and a guy he never would have expected to be shacked up in a place called Terminal City. He thought he'd be living it large by now.
He had been on a few missions with the male X5, both of them trained for solo ops but had the occasional group mission because of their high rank. The X5 had always been one of the best at Manticore despite his frequent trips to psy-ops, and he had always attributed it to some rebellious quality that had led the X5 to expand his influence not only in rank but behind the scenes with the guards and staff as well. He had first noticed it when the X5 had cracked one of his ribs while they were training and had slipped him a candy bar the next day, and afterwards had noticed how he seemed to know all of the guards on a more personal level than the other X series.
Now, though, he could barely see the soldier in the other X5 at all.
The girl was perched on one of the storage crates, heavy feline in her DNA affecting her posture probably, and the boy was leaning against a stack. The male X5 was all lazy grins and relaxed posture, while the girl was poised, ready to leap at any moment, the only emotion on her face being attitude. If attitude was an emotion, of course.
The X5 said some closing remark to the girl and turned to look at him, breaking out into a wide grin as soon as they made eye contact.
"Hey!" He stood up and crossed the room quickly, clapping him on the shoulder, "Long time no see!"
Satisfied that he was a familiar face, the transgenics around them dispersed and went about their business.
He nodded and resisted the urge to salute him, "Same. Everything good on your end, 494?"
"Always, 511. Going by Alec now."
"Or Dick." The girl he was talking to followed after 494 quickly, bumping his shoulder with hers as she stood beside him.
"453." He acknowledged, finally placing her. He only worked with her once before she went deep undercover, but X series never forgot a face and a rank.
"Wrong twin. I go by Max." She reached out her hand for him to shake, "You got a name you go by?"
"Better to think of one quick, or Max will not hesitate to name you herself." Alec warned.
"That how you got yours?" From her smirk, he didn't need an answer, "No worries. I got a name figured out the first week Manticore burned down. Biggs."
Max raised an eyebrow and Biggs sent her the same flirtatious grin that worked on all the girls he had met on the outside.
"I'll let you guess why."
Alec laughed and Max rolled her eyes.
"To overcompensate?" She asked innocently, tilting her head to the side.
"Only one way to find out." The flirtatious grin wasn't working that well, from the unimpressed look that Max was giving him. He didn't know if it was an X5 thing or a sober thing, but she wasn't taking the bait.
"Oh you don't wanna go barking up that tree, Biggs." Alec warned, giving him a 'believe me, I've tried' look, "Max here's got a stick shoved up her-"
"Hey!" Max punched Alec's shoulder.
"-that doesn't leave space for much else." Alec was going to have a permanent bruise for all the times that she had hit him.
"You need a place to crash, Biggs?" She asked, and he thought she was changing the subject before her sweet smile threw him off, "Alec won't need his apartment when I'm done killing him."
Alec replied with some wounded remark, giving Max puppy eyes that looked strange and foreign on his face.
He couldn't tell if it was unresolved sexual tension or just plain hostility, but whatever it was with these two it sure as hell was entertaining.
Stick up Max's ass or no, he was going to have fun in Seattle.