DARK ANGEL 2022: Manticore Aftermath: (HDCC 2)
By Shannon Hearn
The characters of Dark Angel are owned by Twentieth Century Fox Television and Cameron Eglee productions. All other characters are of my creation.
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Parental advisory: This chapter is rated "R" due to it containing mild sexual content and nudity.
Chapter 1: The former enemy's layer, Psychic Journey, and CJ Returns
***
The days after the event the press had come to call "The Battle of the Freaks" the residents of Terminal City had started had started to clean up the mess the Familiars had caused. Though the Sector Police and National Guard Troops surrounding Terminal City had started to assist in the efforts to clean up the mess. Many of them who the members of S1W and the Transgenics who had saved during the battle had started to start talking to members on both sides and a few friendships had taken hold. Though one of the National Guard guys who happened to be a lawyer had decided to take up Joshua and Mole's little driving accident case Pro Bono. Though after the case he had been able to put together with the video footage of the accident the judge had said that both the Human driver and Mole had to participate in a twelve Defensive driving course. Given that Mole was a little pissed at the concept of being hold up in an auditorium full of Ordinaries turned his guts. Though when he did have to take the course he would have to be stripped searched for any weapons. Though he did say that he would allow a strip search under the terms that he and the guy that he ran into had to be strip-searched at the same time. This visualization made Gigi a Polar Artic Albino X who had a serious crush on Mole decided to give as a parting gift to him the night before a little Strip dance to him and a highly provocative photo of her wearing nothing but a smile. Igloo the Albino X who Mole was in constant competition with freaked after she walked through Terminal City in a red Bikini.
It was those little things that give the outside world the feeling that the Transgenics were like anyone else and some of them were nice, some were arrogant assholes, and some were nymphomaniacs after Sketchy's little run in with the Transgenic girls slumber party got out. Though Cindy did chase Sketchy in front of a news crew screaming the words. "Sketchy you are going to DIE!!!! Those Female Transgenics were not part of your personal Harem to have wild ORGIED Sex with. They are my friends. Come back here so I can personally rip your kahones off with my bare hands." Many a male through Seattle had crossed their legs and covered their crotches in fear after that threat used Cindy as she decked her way through several Nomalies, X-Series, and the local News Crew to get to Sketchy before Max got in the line of fire to hold her down as Logan shot her in the ass with a Trank dart. Well the term of Hell have fury like a woman Scorned, was redefined to the term of Cross Original Cindy and you die became the new catch phrase throughout Seattle. But it was events occurring on the other side of town that was getting the real attention.
***
His superiors were grilling NSA agent Otto Ramirez after what had happened with the entire Ames White fiasco at the steam plant. The medical analysis of White's physiology showed a bone growth that had encased the pain center of his brain. But after study of the captured Familiars it was shown that White was not the only one with this abnormal growth in his head. But Otto was worried that he would loose his job over this that was until some people started to show up at the front door and Otto knew it was going to be bad news.
***
Cerberus and Reika had spent hours talking with the NSA computer system trying to figure out what was going on with the Transgenic Task Force. All information that they had on White's activities was that Agent Otto Ramirez knew just enough to put his ass in the hot seat. So if anyone had any chance of learning what White was up to with the Conclave other than what Eyes Only and the Act-I had found out about, then Otto Ramirez was the key to cracking into more information no matter how small. Though they would get a break via a more subtle and effective way of learning information. Good old-fashioned gossip.
It took Hannah visiting the T-Bloods church to help Shadow and the rescue team to start to moving the scrounged gear they had brought from both the late Bruno Anselmo's nightclub and the T-Bloods base to Terminal City. That was until Sharkey, one of the Aquatics revealed that he had stashed several of the guys who they had gotten the gear from and tied them up at the old nightclub.
Well it wasn't until Clemente and several officers were brought in to figure out how much the Transgenics knew at these other bases that Sharky had to take them into the back room and showed the cops the tied up foreign agents that the Transgenics had caught. Clemente just busted a gut laughing after he saw those guy wrapped up in duct tape and all of them were labeled in broad permeate marker on the duct tape on their mouth gags. South Africa, Korea, China, Northern Iraq, Southern Iraq, European Union, Australia, With all these government. Hannah just broke down laughing form the image, but Clemente wanted to know how they had been able to nail so many foreign personnel in so little time in the space of three days.
"Well we had some help from some friends known as Cerberus and Reika who have friends in high and low places who can get info and stuff no one thought existed." Was all Hannah would say to Clemente as the men were escorted from the structure. But that was when Cerberus came towards her in his tactical android body caring his tablet computer as the foreign agents were being booked for spying on American soil,
"Hey Hannah," Cerberus said bring up the tablet computer in his hands in front of her. "I heard that you had spent some time in White's former base of operations prior that the big capture several months ago. So I would like to know about what information you have on this guy." On the screen of the computer was an image of Otto Ramirez on one side of the screen followed by a ton of the guys classified operations record. Hannah just reacted in the "Oh My God" shock of familiarity of seeing someone of importance.
"Yes I know about him, he was White's second in command. He was very human in his behavior and had some idea of what I had been cooked up for." Hannah said in her native Nomalie tongue. Cerberus since he was a machine just accessed the section of his software that pertained to interpreting her words and symbols she spoke in.
"Okay Hannah, I think I will need your help in defending this guy's ass." Cerberus said in her own language which creped her out.
"Why?" Hannah said looking at the android.
"Because this might provide a lead of what White was up to with his Cult buddies and their plans." Cerberus said as he had to fluxgate between Nomalie and Traditional English to communicate across his thought across to Hannah. "That and from what I have overheard is that he going to get the blame even after he had no knowledge of what White was up to. He might have a snowballs chance in hell to help us locate where the other Transgenics White had caught and shipped off for study are at. Because I have tried every resource and I can't find where they have been sent." With those words being spoken to her nudged Hannah into assisting him.
"Okay, where do we have to be?" Hannah said as she caved in to Cerberus.
"The Steam plant that was White's former base." Cerberus said as he yelled out to the T-Blood named Hottie. "Hey Hottie can I barrow your bike? I need to get somewhere real quick with Hannah. Do you mind?" Cerberus said as he waited for her response.
"Yeah, you can. But if you scratch it I'll trash your cybernetic ass." She said as she tossed him the keys to her ride and he caught them in flight without even turning his head which really creped out Clemente as he got on the Motorcycle and rode off to save Otto Ramirez's ass as he contacted Max and several other Transgenics via him interfacing into the local cellular phone network.
Within an hour Otto had his job and his ass saved as Hannah gave her speech towards the Otto's superiors. But in exchange for getting access to what the Transgenics knew of White's activities there had to be information give about where the Transgenics that were captured and or killed by the retrieval teams that White and the other members of the government commanded. The deal was steep but given what happened, it was considered a good price for damage control to learn what was going on with each side.
***
Melfina had just gotten the weirdest phone call in her life. Mel had been sitting on the couch at Jam Pony as she and Aspen were sorting through the paperwork they had to file for Normal between filling out the forms for the orders she had to get done before she did her next set of runs.
"Urge!!!" Melfina yelled as she ran her fingers through her hair making it an extra messy foofy mess. The small amount of hair that covered her barcode was revealed as she flung he head down on the coffee table where he clipboard and multifunction cell phone lay. "Normal." Melfina said as he muffled voice came through her arms. "You have to make these forms a lot more user friendly to fill out because of the item description and size is murder."
"Well just be glad you don't have to fill out the forms that Quick Messenger has. Those are two page monsters that out have to fill out." Sky said as he moved over to pat Melfina on the shoulder. Cheyenne who was the new girl who was with Sky started to pat her on the head but she freaked when she saw the tattoo.
"Your one of them..." Cheyenne said as the very athletic mulatto girl started to move backwards away from Mel in fear. Mel just looked up and looked at Cheyenne and sighed.
"Yes I am." Mel said leaning back on the couch and gave a look of defeat. "I can't help the way I was born, nor can you but I'm just trying to do what the Oh' Niners tried to do "Get a Life." Will you just let me be for second so that I can finish this dang paperwork and finish my day in some peace?" Melfina said as her phone started ringing. "For crying out loud." Melfina said as she adjusted the phone's hands free earpiece and just waved her hand to where the phone was at and it picked up. "Hello Melfina here." Then she heard Cerberus's voice.
"Hey Melfina, its Cerberus. Listen I need your help here I've gotten access to White's old dominate and the government needs our help in cracking the system " Cerberus said over the phone as Mel started to chew through the last few pages of the paperwork.
"So why do you need me Cerberus, I know that a guy like you can crack those codes for the government guys in no time." Mel said as Herbal came in and cranked up the volume on the plasma screen Television.
"Well Mel, cracking the codes isn't the problem. It is what is in the files that I need your help with or shall I say your way of looking at things." Cerberus said as Mel started to look at the blaring Television and used her powers to jack into electronics to turn the volume down. Everyone in the room just looked at her as she just waved her free hand to sweep the volume bar down. Mel didn't care if everyone in the room knew about her powers; she just wanted to hear what Cerberus was talking about.
"So does this pertain to the two internal affairs guys at the door behind me?" Melfina said as she looked up at the ceiling as she heard the comm radios on the two duty cops come in the door.
"Yes, Melfina, Oh, if um, Derrian and Sketchy are with them. I suggest that you go with the cops, if not I would suggest that you get out of the way." Cerberus said as Mel started to sense the cold chill that would precede Derrian's appearance when he was in stealth mode.
"Cerberus let me guess the reason you sent Derrian along is that he would annoy me and that he could case the room." Melfina said as she reached over to where the coldness was the strongest and grabbed with all her might as she sensed where the guy's head was. With a sudden twist and pull Derrian dropped his camouflage cloak as he yelped n pain as she gave Derrian the most painful titty twister to his chest.
"Ouch that hurt Melfina." Derrian said as he rubbed his chest to get out the black and blue from his body.
"Derrian you know I hate when you do that stealth cloak thing." Melfina said as she pounded on his chest in rough disgust as she laughed lightly. Everyone in the room was looking at the two as Sketchy came into the room along with another woman about Mel's age.
"Hey you two I want to meet this Cerberus guy." Sketchy said as he moved over to where Melfina was sitting.
"Yeah Derrian stop jerking off we are here to pick up this Melfi-na..." the girl just stopped talking as she saw Melfina's face. "209..." then she ran over and just hugged the stuffing out of Mel.
"Hey there 526 what has been happening..." Melfina said as she looked into the eyes of her long lost friend.
"I've been okay 209 been traveling around with a few of our series and a couple of X7s and a single PsyOp that really got on my nerves." 526 said as she pulled away from Mel as the two girls started to examine each other.
"So what name go you go by now 526?" Mel said laughing at her looking at the short cut dyed red hair. "You look great."
"I go by the name Lauren Harriet now 209, Wow your one of he Jammers that has been hanging out with 452. And what name do you go by now?"
"I go by the name Melfina Nichel now Lauren." Melfina said as she looked at Lauren. "Wow I can see that you lost the cheesy curly golden locks and going to a straight style." With that Lauren slightly tugged at her hair.
"Yeah, I just got sick of the entire Goldie Locks reference so I just chopped them off and got some hair strengthener to get the curls out." Then Lauren looked at Mel's hair, "So I see that you added some volume to our hair to cover that barcode of yours. Hey your hair was always a little foofy even when your head was shaved." Lauren said as Mel started to blush in front of everyone. Then everybody started to look at Sketchy to act as a translator for what Mel and Lauren were saying.
"Sketchy, please translate for us. You have been in Terminal City for several days and know more about what they have been up to and what they are." Sky said slowly moving over to his friend.
"Well lets just say that Max and the rest of the X-Series that worked here mostly consisted of Army Infantry units, well Aspen and Mel and several others who were outside of Terminal City during the time of the Siege happened to be from different series groups developed for the various military and intelligence branches."
The answer from Sky and the rest of everyone into he room was "Oh." as Mel and Lauren carried on their little conversation as the Police officer started to move in while the girls were starting to talk about Sketchy getting fresh with several of Lauren's roommates in the space of a few hours and in the same room. Which got the entire room's attention about some of the more colorful details including Sketchy and the girls having so private time together with the words Yoga and page 45 being mentioned during the conversation. Cheyenne just looked at Lauren as she said "Your leg in that place and your arm on his chest and your ear touching the you know place as he touched your what with his what????" The image that was communicated across did not need to be imagined as everyone wondered how she knew that. All Cheyenne would say was that she had practiced Yoga since the age of five and was very limber from it. That was when the cops decided to step in and get Melfina out of the Bike Messenger firm and towards the base ASAP.
"Okay that was a little more that what I wanted to know about the Transgenic libido. Clemente wants to talk with you about who you know about Ames base of operations." One of the cops said as Mel and the others headed out of the door. Normal just looked things unfold with strangeness that he thought he would never see again outside of Terminal City. Now all he had to do now was to see what would happen politically before he gave Max and Alec their jobs back. Hell Cindy and Sketchy were getting their jobs back period because he needed someone who knew Transgenic Psychology and hormones. Boy did Normal need a drink of water after all of this though he would start eating more Black Liquorish from now on. Hello heterosexual single females.
***
Inside of Seattle Steam plant #5 Otto Ramirez was worried about meeting this delegation from the Transgenic community. It was strange seeing several of their kind at the gates outside, But having the news crews outside was sort of a strange thing times two. Though seeing the Gill Girl that they had captured several months ago and who was liberated by 452 being part of the delegation kinda worried him but as she walked through the door with Cerberus, an individual who he only heard second and third hand rumors about kinda worried him big time. Though when the six toot four white male came into the plants main entrance he saw the way that the way the Transgenic clung close to him like she knew something more about this guy than he did.
"Hello I am Agent Otto Ramirez." Otto said as the Gill Girl reached out her hand very timidly to him.
"Hannah." She said as she felt the grip of his hand in her's.
"You can speak English???" was all Otto could get out when she spoke.
"Um, yes. It's my second language but I'm expanding my Naaalla." Hannah said as she screeched out the last word.
"What???" Otto said as Cerberus looked at her and he talked to her in the same type of sequence of screeches and squeals then Cerberus looked back over to Otto to say something in fluid English.
"Oh, Hannah said to tell you she is sorry and that the word "Naaalla" translated means "vocabulary"" Cerberus said as he and several others entered into the former NSA field operations facility but one of them freaked as the guy decked behind several of his colleges the moment he got a look right at him. It took a moment for the guy's face to process in his head. It was the reporter from the New World Times who was pursuing the Transgenic community. But seeing the guy here and now was all he needed. Before he could call out to the personnel to remove the reporter from the premises, Cerberus raised his hand to him and walked over to the kid and talked with him. Which left Otto perplexed as he tried to figure out why a guy wit the reputation this guy did wanted to do with a tabloid reporter before Cerberus walked back over to him.
"So why did you want to talk with that guy?" Otto said to Cerberus as they walked with several of the Transgenics into the main command office where several agents were shocked at the entrance of several X-Series and Nomalie classes coming into the room.
"Well I have taken a page from Eyes Only's book and I have noticed I do get more information about what is actually going on than I get through official channels and he is one of those channels." Cerberus said as his blue trench coat flapped behind him as he walked. "He did walk right into two situations you guys were investigating." All Otto would say was "Okay..." as they move into the command center. "May I introduce the members of my team" Cerberus said introducing his team of Humans and Transgenics which consisted of Asha Barlow, Alec McGovern, Logan Cale, Melfina Nichel, Aspen Kilowa, Brock Centurion-478, Shane Shadows, Amiee Reika, Lauren Harriet aka X6-526, Hannah Gillgirl, Joshua Sandeman, Harry McDolgal, Max Guevara, Sam Affleck, Lieutenant Joe Clemente of the Seattle PD, Derrian, and Calvin "Sketchy" Theodore.
***
Inside of the Steam plant Melfina was looking over at Cerberus introduce them to the Feds and between the looks on both sides but given the way that Sam was looking at Otto well you didn't have to be a PsyOp to know what was going through her head.
"...And this is Melfina Nichel, she will be working with you to look over the records you have from Manticore." Cerberus said as Mel started to look at the line of agents starting to glance down at the thermal scanner before them. Mel decided to freak those guys out when she thought to restore the settings to it with her powers. So with a snap of her fingers the setting were restored to the scanners in the building and the two jerks doing a check on them and it the "Holy sheesh gee jus" being said as bottles of soda and bags of chips were exploding and being spilt all over the place. Cerberus just looked at her with a distasteful look on his face.
"Melfina..." Cerberus said moving over to the Transgenic that was now glowing on the scanner, "You could have done that before we came in with your powers." Mel just looked towards the ground as Cerberus moved over to her.
"Yeah I know, but I just wanted to see the look on those guys faces." Melfina said giving the jerks a taste of what she felt like everyday since they got those damned scanners.
"So Manticore developed a combat series that can interface into electronics?" Otto said moving over to Melfina.
"Yes..." was the entire reply from the delegation.
"So I'm kinda lucky that White was the only person of the organization that had his last name known to the public."
"Yeah, just be lucky I didn't get your last name because parking tickets would have been the least of your worries." Melfina said as she handed over her tweaked Cell phone to Cerberus.
"Mel... The main reasons you are here is to figure out what old Ames was up to and you have to deal with these guys and BE Nice..." Cerberus said as he moved over to Melfina and spoke directly to her face. "Okay."
"Okay Cerberus, I understand." Melfina said as she looked into his eyes then turned her gaze towards her friends.
"Melfina, Harry, Lauren." Cerberus said as he looked at the three Transgenics before him. "I want you to go through these files and find out where White shipped the Transgenics that he captured before Max did the Mass break out several weeks ago." He said as he turned towards Logan, Asha, Clemente and Max. "Logan you know what to look for in Ames old office, take Otto here with you due to him being around Ames since day one of this mess and start digging through whatever information you have in there, We need the big picture people. I'll be sorting through the communications station to see what I can dig up on the most recent communications activities with Shadow and Reika." Then Cerberus turned towards Aspen the rest of the remaining members of the team. I want you guys to go through the cells and the holding areas. I want to get a bean on what was down there, Human, Transgenic and Otherwise." Cerberus said, as the Federal guys knew who was running the show.
Within a space of several minutes Mel was sitting in front of one of the computers as several agents and IT guys were looking at her as she cracked through umpteen levels of NSA and Echelon grade firewalls in less than sixty seconds. That was when she hit the firewalls around the Manticore files the government had been able to recover from the weeks after the fire. But what had caught her off guard was she found that she and the other BioCybers as well several "in Field" Transgenics had their files wrapped around some serious security and it took several minutes for her to crack through them even with Lauren and Harry's help. It was all information pertaining to the Act-I and Cerberus and Mel was not the only one that knew about them and there was more than one Act-I that was cooked up by the Government and Civilian agencies and only a fraction survived the events of the Pulse. But what Mel and the other BioCybers found next turned them white as a sheet as they started to read through the reports of the Transgenics who had died as they attempted to escape from custody. But there was nothing on what had happened on the Transgenics that were shipped off to research facilities. Nothing... It was as if those files did not exist on this system or any system connected to it. That meant only one of two things. The Familiars had those Transgenics in their custody or this unit was not able to locate as many as they had though they did. Mel hoped that the others were having better luck than she did as she started to dig through the medical files that this group had recovered starting with X5-599's cybernetic modifications that were done at the other Manticore facilities.
***
Aspen was walking through the cells as she started to get several mental impressions of the Transgenics that had been captured and killed by White. Some of the images were pretty graphic as they attempted escape and evade tactics from the cells. One of the Nighteyes had been shot after he had put Otto into a chokehold so that he could use the guy as a human shield. Another Transgenic a Grunt class who looked like he had some mental decencies due to oxygen being cut off from him when he was born, but what caught her attention was that it was the same transgenic that was shot by the Sector Police. Though she wasn't expecting to see White cutting one of those strange snakes and dipping a knife into it and cutting the Transgenic with it. She could see the sickness take hold, as the Transgenic got weak then recovered from the poisons in his blood. The entire incident with the sector police was to deliver the body to White's Cult buddies so that they could get the test results without the government's knowledge. But it was when she touched the blood in the cell she got images of where the snakes blood had came from, the images of the Cult Priestess and of the rituals she performed kept showing up in her mind. Symbols of death and destruction appeared in her mind as the images of the priestess stabbing many kids with a ritualistic knife and some dying while others living. There was a sense that there was a faction that wanted to end this tradition and move forward to a new age because they knew it these traditions continued they would all die. Sandeman was one of them as she got a strong feeling for Charles Sandeman Junior and the birth of this movement as Sandeman started to speak with several individuals who from what she had been able to gather had left the Conclave and gone underground. That was when she flashed back to reality as she reached for her cell phone.
"Max, It's Aspen, I got a impression from one of the cells and I think White used one of the bodies to transport a biological agent out of here."
"Biological agent." Max said inside of White's old office as Logan's Exo whirred in the background. "What type of type of Biological agent Aspen?"
"I don't know but I believe that what ever it was it was, it was whatever you were stabbed with by White's cult buddies with when you went to Wendy Olson's kid away from them."
"You mean the Snake Blood virus." Max said as the phone was passed over to Otto as he started to speak on the phone.
"This is Agent Ramirez, Aspen Stay there I'll be there in a second." Otto said he handed the phone back to Max.
"I believe that I got Agent Ramirez's attention when I said Ames smuggled a Bio Weapon out of here, Max. So I get the feeling that I'll be the first PsyOp He is going to meet." Then Aspen decided to give Max the next part of the information she had gotten an impression off of from one of the Cells. "Max I believe that Sandeman wasn't the only Familiar that was going to break from the Conclave. Because of some of the symbols I got off the Cell that White was in showed some pretty nasty stuff coming down our way. I'm going to see what Joshua has gotten a reading off of to see where they Stashed CJ at in here, okay." Aspen said as she started to move to another one of the agents standing in the doorway. "Make sure that this room is secured and a Biohazard time gets here, I want to have that spot on the floor analyzed."
"Ma'am, I will inform Agent Ramirez about that." One of the security personnel said as Aspen started using her senses to track her way down to one of the cells and entered it where she got a feeling of where Max had been when White had captured her. But the images of CJ were clear in her mind as she entered the room then a rash of imagery hit Aspen but she wasn't alone when she used her powers. Someone had piggybacked with her on her psychic powers.
The moment she touched the wall where CJ was held in shifted reality to where she and Agent Ramirez were transported towards an asylum where CJ was being held.
"Where are we?" Agent Ramirez said looking around the room that they were at.
"We are where CJ is at and he is our lead to tracking down the people White was in cahoots with." Aspen said as she walked around the room that CJ was in. The room looked like it was in a dilapidated institution and there were bars on the window. CJ looked like he was in a straight jacket and drugged.
"Why do I feel like I am in an episode of the Dead Zone?" Agent Ramirez said in a very weak and feminine voice as he looked at Aspen with the look of someone that had officially stepped into something way over their head.
"What's your first name Agent Ramirez?" Aspen said as she started to look out the window to see if there were any landmarks she could make out place the building's location.
"Um, Otto Ramirez, so all I remember is that I came into the cell and touched your shoulder to tell you not to leave that cell where you found that biological weapon and now I find myself here." Otto said as Aspen looked at CJ tied up on the bed.
"Listen, you piggy backed on my astral projection Otto and I have to use all my powers to see if I can use them to break this guy out of here. Now will you help me?" Aspen said as she climbed right into the guy's body and started to work the guy's muscles so she could loosen his bonds.
"Um, are you possessing that guy?" Otto said as Aspen poked her head out of the guy's body.
"Um, Yes. If you want some serious leads on Ames buddies, you help me so keep an eye out so you put your head through the damn door and keep an eye out for anyone coming down the freaking hallway." Aspen said as she used her powers to control the eldest Sandeman child so that she could free him. Within a matter of minutes she had contorted CJ's limbs so that he was free of the straight jacket. Aspen quickly removed herself from CJ's body and moved over to where Otto was standing as he walked through the door.
"I said to stick your head through the door, not walk through it" Aspen said as CJ fell right onto the floor face first.
"So said keep a look out so I looked out." Otto said as he looked at CJ's Semi-disheveled body as the guy started to get up and remove the gag from his mouth.
"Where am I? Who are you?" CJ said as he got a good look at Aspen and Otto standing before him.
"I don't know but I believed that it is some Asylum somewhere around Seattle. But I think that it is named Clivesdale." Aspen said looking at the spray painted name of the institution on the side of the old straight jacket. But she looked at the other items in the room. "Well that is where the straight jacket is from, everything else in here looks like it has come from other institutions from Kubric Medical, to the Washington State Pen." CJ looked like the drugs in his system were still there as he moved around. "I'm Aspen and this is Otto." Aspen said to CJ as he started to come to some of his senses. "Listen I am projecting myself and Otto here into your head so that we can help you escape. We will be your eyes and ears but you will have to do all the leg work okay." Aspen paused as CJ chewed through what she was saying to him.
"Why should I trust you, you are not real." CJ said as he curled up on the bed in his cell.
"Because of this." Aspen said as she moved away from CJ and pulled back her hair to reveal her Barcode Tattoo, which calmed CJ down as he reached for her and his hand went through her neck. "You are a follower of her's right?" CJ asked as Aspen nodded up and down to confirm his suspicions as he slowly started to cry tears of joy. Someone had come to rescue him with that Aspen said for him to calm down and tell her everything he knew about the orderly's schedule so that they could break him out of here with that she started to work on a plan to get CJ out.
Within several minutes the tree of then waited for an orderly to come down the hall and with Aspen's help they lured the guy in and subdued him in a not so humane way after they broke the guys neck. Then with Otto's help they were moved CJ to the outside of the facility and got him through the many doorways and corridors and to the outside, even dogging a few surveillance cameras long the way. When they got CJ on the outside they were able to get him to a hole in the fence and guided him into the forest so that he could find his way back to Seattle. That was when CJ far enough out of danger that Otto and Aspen returned back to the holding cell he was held in.
"Okay what was that?" Otto said as Aspen moved away from one of the wall as Otto' hand fell away from her shoulder and brushed against one of her breasts.
"Oh, you piggy backed on my powers and what you experienced was me tracking down CJ." Aspen said as he looked around the cell as he poked at one of the walls.
"So, you have mental powers so what we just did together was not a figment of my imagination." Otto said looking at her as he slowly backed away from her.
"Otto, it was not a fragment of your imagination. It was real and we just got CJ back now all we have to do is wait for him to get back to Terminal City." Aspen said a she left the cell with Otto. "Lets fill in the others about what we found out." Otto just stood there as he looked around the cell for a moment or so before he left to go upstairs to the main command center. What had he just gotten himself into?
***
Melfina was working in the command center as the terminal she was working on started to lockup. After booting the machine up twice and nothing happening Melfina decided to take care of the problem the old fashioned way. She hit the machine on the side with a good swack and the system booted up just fine after wards. Tech was tech and sometimes it needed to have something knocked back into place ever so slightly to make it work. But now she was able to access more of the confidential files from the system mainly those about the medical research that was going on at Manticore and the information that many of the surrogates that were part of the project were still being monitored. What caught Mel off guard was that Rain's name had showed up on the list as she started to read the file it was attached to with enhanced speed.
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It is my opinion that the Surrogates that have been used as part of Project Phoenix should be tracked to the effects of the Transgenic gene therapy that has been done to them starting to appear in their offspring. Several children that have been born to these Surrogates show many of the enhanced genetic characteristics that have come out of Project Manticore. It is advised that any biological agent released upon these individuals is to be considered ineffective as well if knowledge of this project to leak out the ramifications will be sever both economically and political for the government.
Undersigned,
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The name was not mentioned but the information was clear the T-Bloods were Transgenics and despite what people had said about letting their kids mate with a Transgenic was out of the question. The problem was the Transgenic community was larger than even Manticore was wiling to open up to and this was going to be major. With that Melfina used her powers to transfer the files she had come across on this computer and dump it to the three gigabyte memory card in her Cell phone so that she could show it to Logan later. That was when Aspen walked up to her and tapped her on the shoulder.
"Mel, I need you to do a scan on the following face as well as on these names I want to know where old supplies and equipment to these places where bought, borrowed or traded with." Aspen said as she placed a sheet of paper down by her with the face of a middle aged woman in her mid forties as well as a list of names of various institutions which included a list of items by it.
"Hey Aspen this looks like a supply list for Terminal City. What are you looking for some kinky medical stuff?" Melfina said as she started to look through the stuff she was given.
"Listen I want you and Cerberus to search for that Image. I got the feeling that if anyone enters it through a terminal will not find her, but given you and Cerberus's skills you might find her." Aspen said as she went over to the coffee machine to get herself a cup of coffee. "Oh that shopping list I want you to run the same way I got the feeling that the Conclave rigged the system so that she wouldn't be located by these means." Mel just gave her the look of okay this is my intuition and I Used it to get this data and trust me it will be worth it. Within an hour Cerberus and Melfina had gotten enough on this woman that monitoring her would lead to some information about the Familiar's social structure and their plans. But to put all this information together, the agents here would have to be invited to Terminal City's command center so both sides would have all the full picture to be seen. That was when Agent Ramirez was invited to Terminal City. Seeing these guys in Bio-Hazard Suits would make the residents of TC on Edge but if anything would get these governments guys of their backs would be a blessing from the Blue Lady.
***
A day or so had passed as things in TC were prepared for Agent Ramirez's arrival there but given the guy's mood after he had spend some time with Aspen it was like he had realized some things about the Transgenic community were not all that bad, but you had to understand the rules they lived by in order to deal with some of the difficulties and issues they had with ordinary humans. Max just wanted to have some quite time by herself so she decided to go down to a cafe that was a few blocks down from TC. The place was like the one she had seen in the vision she had on that funky Halloween night over whether or not to take Joshua Trick and Treating.
But sitting in one of the booths she decided to curl up and relax. That was when Clemente came into the Cafe and saw her.
"Hey Max." Clemente said as he moved over to the booth to sit down with her as she was looking at a letter from her sister Jace. It took Clemente knocking on the table with his fist to get her attention. "Hi Max." With that Max turned her attention towards the police officer.
"Hey Clemente, sorry about not noticing you there." Max said as she put the letter and photos down. Clemente who was looking at her started to notice the picture of the Nubian girl and her baby in the photos.
"Someone you know?" Clemente said as he sat down in the seat across from her as he started to examine the photo.
"Yeah, she's my sister." Max said as she was looking over the letter and occasionally giggling to some of what was in the letter.
"Sister as in, Sister family or "Sister" being part of your people?" Clemente said as he looked through the various photos that included the girl and her child, several images of some mesa and the occasional image of a "Nomalie" class transgenic in the photo next to the girl.
"Sister as in member of unit Sister." Max said to Clemente as he sat down across from her. "But we were in the same unit that is the closest thing we had to immediate family." With that Clemente just nodded in approval.
"Family is where you can find it Max and I agree." Clemente said as he reached over across the table and patted her hand. Max reacted to Clemente's touch and just grinned back at him. "So what is her name?" Clemente said picking up the photo.
"Jace and her little girl is named Max in honor of me." Max said as she started to look over the letter and giggled. When Clemente started to take a look at the letter all he saw was a bunch of garblely goop as the random letters and numbers on the page made it difficult for him to understand what Max was blushing about.
"So you can understand this Max?" Clemente said as he started to realize that he had a lot to learn about Max's people.
"Yes... It is kinda of a custom code that me and the members of my unit cooked up when we were kids right after we took our advance coding and communications course when we were kids." Max said as she looked into Clemente's eyes as she started to read him. "So, before this mess started, you said that you were going to see your daughter's play. What's her name?" Max said as she started to search for something to break the ice between the two of them as they were allies now.
"Trisha..." Clemente said as Max started to look over as the waitress came over to the booth.
"Hi, what would you to like to order?" The waitress said as Max and Clemente ordered what had become known throughout Seattle as Clak, a type of hot thick herbal paste drink that become popular in the years after the Pulse. Moments later the Waitress returned with the drinks as Max and Clemente continued to talk about each other's families. Max told Clemente all about the members of her unit that she had known since she was a kid as well as some of the children that her siblings had over the years. Between learning that Max's sister Brin had given birth to fraternal twins named Ben and Eve, Her late sister Tinga and her family, her brother Zack and the brainwashing programming that she hoped Shadow and Melfina would be able to locate and fix so that she could get her brother back. Clemente was getting the feeling that Max was worried about something then Max up and said it.
"Clemente, you came to ask me if any of my kind were involved in some serious criminal activities." Max said as she sipped the hot thick creamy fluid.
"Not exactly, but It would be great to know if there are any other serial killers like 493 and 001 out there." Clemente said as he remembered back to seeing the files on the Transgenics inside of White's office. Some of the stuff he had seen in those files would definitely clear some names while on other cases it brought to light some serious things that he and the other Police officers would have to deal with in the years to come.
"Okay, listen before we go any further I have to tell you about something that not many people outside of the Eyes Only Informant Net know about. There is a Transgenic Known as Marrow and given what he is, I should give you the 411 on him because if he continues what I have heard that he as been doing, then both the Transgenic and Human communities will be in some serious Dodo." With that Max told Clemente about Marrow and his followers and the origins of the T-Bloods and about an hour later Clemente leaned back in his chair and exhaled for a long time as he digested the information he was given. He soon knew that his life was going to be interesting as he pulled out a picture of his daughter and looked at it.
"I thought my kid would grow up in interesting times." Clemente said as he looked across to Max. "Well it looks like the both of our people will have our hands full in the years to come." With that Max wondered about what would be her next move when it came to getting her job back at Jam Pony.
***
TBC
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