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Chapter 1: Manticore 2
Grunt.
Moan.
Gasp.
Logan stared at the door, disbelieving. Just what the hell was Max doing in there? And who the hell was that with her?
"Alec!"
What the ? ALEC?
Struggling to control his raging temper Logan counted slowly to ten. Taking a deep breath, he reached a shaky hand and grabbed hold of the handle. In one swift move he opened the door.
And the first thing he saw was Alec sending a flying roundhouse kick to Max's head, which she quickly sidestepped causing him to stumble. She elbowed his stomach and flipped him to the ground. She was fast. But Alec, just that little bit faster, grabbed her, bringing her down beside him. Both burst into hysterical laughter.
Logan gaped at the two transgenics giggling and rolling around on the floor of Max's apartment at TC. They had been SPARRING? Sheesh! he thought, scoffing at his own idiocy. What else could they have been doing?
"Ahem"
Max and Alec looked up from the floor.
"Logan! Hey!" Max exclaimed jumping up. "What are you doing here?"
"What do you think I'm doing here, Max?" Logan questioned, unable to keep the irritation out of his voice. "I came to see you. You haven't been answering my pages."
A slight blush crept over Max's flawless skin, not going unnoticed by Logan. "I, uh, I've kinda been busy…" Max trailed off, unable to meet Logan's eyes.
"Yeah, I can see that…" he muttered casting Alec a look of distaste.
Alec's eyes narrowed and he opened his mouth to retaliate but Max beat him to it.
"What the hell is that supposed to mean Logan? I said I was busy!" she retorted, her dark eyes flashing. "Who d'you think you are anyway, to barge in here and question me like that?"
"Who am I?" Logan asked in a deathly quiet voice. "Who am I? I'll tell you who I am. I'm your boyfriend dammit!"
Max gasped in shock and took an involuntary step backward.
Alec on the other hand moved in front of her. Looking Logan straight in the eye he said, "Get out."
"No."
"Get out now, before you make me do something we'll both regret." He said in a controlled voice.
Seeing the anger flashing in the transgenics eyes, Logan wisely left the apartment, his thoughts and emotions stewing.
"You alright?" Alec asked Max once the annoying ordinary had left.
She smiled. "I'm always alright."
Alec grinned back. "You gotta start coming up with your own lines, Maxie!"
Max moved to hug him. "We've got to tell him sometime you know?"
"We don't."
Max looked up at him confusedly. "Huh?"
"You have to tell him."
"Keep that up and there might not be anything to tell him after all!" She threatened, poking him in the chest.
Gasping Alec clutched his heart dramatically. "You're not breaking up with me are you, Maxie?"
"I might be…Unless you do something to change my mind. Fast."
"Hmm…How's this?" He leant down slowly, touching his lips to hers.
"Perfect." She whispered before deepening the kiss.
"Hey Josh, what's up?" Max asked the next morning as she and Alec walked into command.
"Hi Max. Hi Alec. Joshua go get supplies with Joel. Be back in a couple hours."
"What supplies?" Alec asked in confusion. "I don't remember seeing anything on the list."
"Just some basic medical supplies," replied Alec's old unit member, Joel, walking up to the trio. "The morning sparring match got a little extreme…"
"Oh." Alec said rolling his eyes. "Let me guess. Hilary and Reese?"
"Who else?" Joel asked with a laugh.
"Where are they?" Max looked around Command for her injured friends.
"Common room, with most of the old unit." Joel replied running his hand through his hair, in the same lazy manner Alec usually did.
Once again Max was struck by how similar the two were. Although Joel was a good two inches taller than Alec's 6'1 and had jet black hair and piercing blue eyes, their mannerisms were almost identical. From their self-absorbed sarcastic speech to the annoying smirk that they had both perfected. It didn't surprise her that they had been best friends since they were back and Manticore.
"Anyways, we'd better get going." Joel commented, dragging Joshua along with him.
Alec and Max entered the crowded common room. They were greeted with a chorus of hi's. Sitting in the middle of the room, battered and bruised, were Hilary and Reese, the only twins Manticore had ever allowed to remain in the same unit. They were tiny, coming up to Max's nose, with chocolate eyes and dirty blonde hair. Hilary's was curly and long while Reese's was cut into a stylish, spiked bob.
Tending to their injuries was Kyla. She reminded Max of OC so much, from her funky hair to her don't-mess attitude.
To the left of the room stood Darren and Ty. They had been the mischief makers of the unit, never failing to get into trouble at least once a week.
The rest there were a few other's Max didn't know very well who were hanging around the room.
"So, what happened today?" Alec asked casually.
Kyla looked up at him with exasperation. "An arm fractured in two places for this one," she pointed at Hilary, "And a torn knee ligament and a mild concussion for Reese."
"Hmm. That's an improvement from the last time." Alec said. "Ouch!" he said when both Max and Kyla hit him on either side of his head.
"Stop encouraging them!" Max hissed.
"It's alright Max." Darren said with a grin. "No matter what we say these two won't stop trying to kill each other."
"They're right you know. It's been - " Hilary started.
"Oh thank god you're finally here!" Every one turned to look at Shari as she entered the room. She was the group's computer genius, and most believed her to be twice as good as Logan.
"What's up?" Max asked.
"We might have a Manticore 2."
The quiet chatter in the room dropped to absolute silence.
"What? How? Where?"
"Phoenix."
"Shit."
"Yeah, tell me about it." Shari sighed. Reaching into her shoulder bag she withdrew a thin folder. "Every thing we'll ever know about that place. Their security is tighter than anything ever. Took me six hours to hack into the system and twenty minutes later I was shut out again!"
Alec flipped through the file with Max looking over his shoulder.
"You've got to be kidding!" Max exclaimed in frustration. "5000 transgenics?"
"And 2500 guards? Crap! That works out to be around 1 guard per 2 transgenics…What the hell? That 3 times the security in the old Manticore!"
"That's the least of it," Shari sighed. "They've got a security camera per cell, fingerprint identification, voice confirmation, and if ever there's a jail-break they aren't bothering with Psy-Ops and reindoctrination anymore. For every transgenic that even attempts to escape 2 others get killed. Shot point-blank in the head."
Good grief, Max thought. Don't these people ever give up?
"So what do we do?" Darren asked.
"We get them out of there." Alec said coldly before stalking out of the room.
When Max finally found him, he was sitting at his desk staring at the ceiling.
"Wanna tell me what that was about?" She murmured softly, already knowing the answer. Sometimes just talking helped you feel so much better.
"It's hardly been two years Max," he whispered looking her dead in the eye. "And already they're back to torturing more of us. You wanna know why there's hardly anyone here at TC? Because those bastards caught them all and threw them all back into that hell hole!
Max cringed slightly at the tone of his voice. "We'll get them outta there. You said so yourself. We'll get them out." Her tone twice as confident as she really was.
"You think so, Maxie?" He asked, his voice hoarse.
"Of course I do" She moved to hug him.
TBC
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