He awoke in the cold, dark place that was Manticore. Every fiber of his being told him that this was wrong. He shouldn't be here. He felt Max snap his neck, and yet, here he was. Unless, of course, this was his mind's version of the bad place. He wished one last time that the Blue Lady would take him away to the good place, before the guard noticed he was conscious.

A few minutes later he found himself staring at a slender, fearsome looking woman with white blonde hair who called herself Renfrow. She paced around him, circling, like a vulture, or a cat waiting to pounce. It was rather unsettling, but he made sure not to let it show. Suddenly, she stopped directly in front of him.

"Hello, Ben. That is what your unit called you, isn't it?"

"Yes." He tried desperately to control the fear and anger in his voice. Her sickeningly sweet one lingered in the room. She was not the kind of woman who the Blue Lady would like.

"You have been a very naughty boy, running out on us with them. Then, you decided to start killing people. We can't allow that. You've brought a lot of attention to yourself, 493." She began to circle again.

"What did you do to me?" Ben began to panic, straining at the metal holding him in place.

"We found you in the woods, and we brought you back. You see, 452 may have broken your neck, but you never really died. We fixed you."

"Would I have died?"

"What? If we left you?" She gave a slight chuckle. "Yes, you probably would have. But let's not dwell, shall we. We have a mission for you."

"What kind of mission?"

"In exchange for freedom, we would like you to bring us your sibilings. They are becoming really…irksome." She once again stopped, this time, on his side. She pulled a lever beneath the seat, releasing the metal bindings.

"Bring us as many as you can, and you can take their teeth."

"The Blue Lady will be pleased." Truthfully, he was just happy to be leaving.


One Year Later

"Hot Run! Sector five." Normal handed max an abnormally large box, to which she promptly scowled. "Bip, bip, bip, missy. That package isn't gonna deliver itself."

"Whatever." She exited the Jam Pony building, nearly knocking Alec down as he returned from his last run.

"Well if it isn't the prodigy child, back from the slums of sector ten." Normal gave the faintest smile at the reappearance of his favorite messenger, who he fancied a gift from the heavens. He was, after all, handsome and lots of fun to have around, even when the ladies fought over him. No other man was worth the trouble, but Alec was.

"Hey, Normal."

"I have something for you!" Normal stepped out from behind the dispatch desk to hand Alec a little piece of paper. He unfolded it with suspicion, and stared down in horror.

It read:

X5-494,

We need to meet. Come to Crash tonight. 8pm. I'll explain there.

"Normal, where did you get this?" His whispered words ran together as he tried to hide his fear.

"Sketchy got it from someone. He was gonna give it to you, but I wanted him to make a run instead." Now Normal was confused. He thought for sure it would just be a little note from whatever girl he had taken an interest in as of late.

"Well, Sketchy's back, if you want to ask him." Alec turned to see his friend in the door.

"Sketch, where did this come from?" He walked towards the man, who was now looking a bit freaked himself.

"A guy, he was dressed in black, and had a hood on. He told me that if I didn't give it to you, some 'Blue Lady' would know."

"Is that all you can remember?"

"Yeah, except…" he hesitated, but the look in Alec's eyes compelled him to continue. "The voice sounded kind of farmiliar. I couldn't quite place it, though." Alec stood in silence for several moments, making both Sketchy and Normal uneasy. Whatever this was, it sure wasn't a girlfriend.

"Let me know if you think of anything else, Sketchy." He didn't await a response before grabbing a package from the dispatch desk and heading out.