It Started with a Mission
By Catrina
A/N: This is my first Dark Angel fic and I am just now starting to venture my writing out of the Anime realm. So please everyone let me know what you think. Also, while this chapter doesn't show it as much, this will be a Max Alec story, it just needs to work it's way there…
For those who have never read my work before, I don't really have a beta- so I take credit for all the errors in my fic.
THESE CHARACTERS ARE NOT MINE!
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They knew it was a trap. There was no way that it couldn't be a trap.
It was the six month anniversary of the Jam Pony accident and White was still after them all. But the man was smart…he knew how to lure two transgenics into his evil clutches. He caught two of their own on their way into TC.
An X5 by the name of Rose and an X6 by the name Amaya had contacted Eyes Only and he sent them to Luke. And once Rose and Amaya hit Seattle White had them cornered. Of course they made a show out of it, so that Alec and Max knew that they had Rose and Amaya and well now it was down to this.
"This is stupid, one day White will kill you both and I'll have to run TC." Mole spoke around his cigar letting his opinion on the topic known. He received a glare from Max, but Alec just smiled and hit him on the shoulder.
"You know you can't wait. Finally able to run the place like you want." Alec voice was light and sarcastic but both Max and Alec knew that if push came to shove that is what would happen.
"We know that it's a trap, your concern is noted. But we are big kids… we can take care of our selves." Max stated as she finished looking over the map and the plans. She stood up brown eyes meeting Mole as she spoke. "We will make it out fine. Last time there were only 4 Familiars there."
"Yeah…only 4 total, piece of cake for the two of us." Alec piped in again sarcastically. Ten super-breed fighters was just what Alec wanted to have on his agenda for tonight, especially when he could be home, watching DVDs or music videos. Why not? But it was something that he had gotten used to. The first couple months of living in TC had been strained and though most people saw Max as their leader, she depended on him a lot for his connections. Through necessity he had become her SIC, but now it was a job title he was more the proud to have. While he had relished the original freedom that he had gained when he first left Manticore, now he appreciated the structure that they had set up here. And he knew that he wasn't the only transgenic living here that thought so. After all, after so long of being a soldier…it just didn't go away over night.
"Hey Luke!" Pull up their barcodes again for me." Alec asked climbing the stairs to the computer where Luke often sat keeping watch. About three months ago, when Max had learned that Alec was pretty good at hacking, they went to the old Manticore base. Luckily the site was being treated as a VA even though everyone knew differently, they had found a computer and with Luke, Alec, and Logan, they had got the files open. They now knew every transgenic ever made by Manticore, and their files, though no one really delved to deep into those.
But the files allowed for them to know when a genuine transgenic was calling for help. Alec looked one more time at the bar codes and then clapped the man on the shoulder.
"If you are done with your procrastinating, can we go now?" Alec looked over to the leader of TC. She glared at him, brown eyes burning, and mouth set in a tense line. Come to notice her whole body was tense, her shoulders straight, and even though she had a hip jutted out to the side and a hand placed and that him, he could tell that she was nervous.
"You just can't wait to ride off into the night with me." Alec stated a smirk gracing his features, making his eyes sparkle.
"Come on smart ass, we don't have all day…"
"Night." Alec retorted coming down the stairs to walk out the building with her.
"Whatever." Was her reply with a slap to the back of his head.
"Hey…I didn't deserve that."
"You're you…of course you did." But she smiled a little and that made it worth it.
They walked to the building that had been converted to a garage. Inside were almost all the vehicles that were inside the TC boundaries. The garage linked to an old subway tunnel, and then they had built an exit for it, creating their own secret bat cave. It worked but it was also well guarded but X5s. TC population continued to grow and grow and even Alec had been surprised by how many transgenics had been created.
The walk was silent as was the trip through the tunnels. The two of them drove on separate bikes and if the plan went smooth they would each have a partner riding back with them. They stopped about half a mile south of the warehouse that Eyes Only had found and covered the bikes.
Max was surprised that when she looked at Alec they could actually have a conversation with out saying anything. She had never really met anyone that she could do that with before. After she had come clean about Ben, it was like a new door had opened between them. While they still loved to fight and bicker, it wasn't nearly as hurtful as before, and while Alec still told her to tell Logan the truth, the cyber journalist still thought the two of them were involved.
But in Max's eyes it was for the best, and since then Alec had made a point to do as little as possible with Logan. Not that she minded, she did feel bad for making Alec into a bad guy, but everyone in TC knew the truth about Alec and she thought that was much more important.
She looked at Alec and saw him raise his eye brow, a question in those hazel eyes.
You ready?
She raised her shoulders and nodded before raising both of her eyebrows at him asking the question right back.
He nodded and the started the trek though the ware house district. It didn't take them long to figure out which one. It was. Alec turned a startled look back to her.
"There is a lot more then 4 here now." He whispered and if it wasn't for her transgenic hearing she wouldn't have had any idea what he had said.
"One at a time." She stated, trying to keep calm but realizing that White was indeed very ready for them.
He rolled his eyes and she watched as he literally melted into the shadows and she did the same.
Max walked slow towards the building doing just what Alec had done, and melt into the shadows. And when she actually ran into the first person, she was surprised when it wasn't a familiar.
It looks like there were special agents here as well.
That made things easier. It was easy just to throw a punch and have him crumbling at her feet. She knew that it wouldn't be the same when she ran into her first familiar. She stashed the body behind some crates and proceeded on cat's feet to the next man. Coming up behind him, she wrapped an arm around his neck and pulled him back using her other hand to cover his mouth. She counted 8 seconds and his body went slack. He was stashed as well and she moved on, hitting the entrance. There was one guard there, but the other had the feel of something else.
She knew that this would not be easy…but... looking down at the clock she saw that 15 minutes had already progressed…that meant…
She didn't even have time to finish the thought process before the explosion rocked the building. She heard the distance sound of glass shattering and she could see the dust rising in the building.
The guard and familiar exchanged looks and the familiar nodded, the guard ran heading towards the back of the building.
Damn, she wished that it would have been the other way around. Knowing now that there wasn't much more that she could do, she simply walked up to the front door.
"Is the password pretty please?" She asked, the false sweetness in her voice almost giving her cavities.
"Not for you, 452." Once she got a better look at him, she realized that this would be a nice little battle. His eyes were a cold blue, like White's but his hair was blond, he was at least 6 foot and the way he looked at her made her want to claw his eyes out.
He drew the gun from his side holster and fired. She blurred moving out of the way and forward grabbing the gun, she pulled from his grasp while stabbing the heel of her show into his knee cap. His grip barely faulted but enough for her to grab the gun and pull the clip out, throwing it one direction and pulled back the hammer to release the bullet from the chamber. Then she threw the gun behind her.
"I don't like guns."
"To bad, that was the only chance you had to kill me." His fist flew up in an upper cut catching her in stomach but Max pulled away before he could grab her head. She struck out with a punch, aiming for his face and missed, but he let down his guard when he blocked it and she got a quick punching into his stomach hoping to hit where his kidney was. He gasped a little as he slumped over and she raised her leg bringing an ax kick down onto his back. Falling to the ground she quickly placed her knee on his spine and pushed down while placing and arm around his neck. She could feel him trying to hold his breath so she pushed harder with her knee, causing him to gasp enough that the headlock forced him into unconsciousness.
Max stood up and dusted off her clothes and looked down at him.
"I'm a little disappointed." She stated looking down at him frowning, but moved forward heading into the warehouse.
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Alec only ran into one person before setting the explosive, and he was taken care of quickly enough, but when he saw all the people flooding out of the building he knew that there still had to be more inside. Max was going in the north entrance, he set the explosive at the south entrance and now he was climbing up the west wall to get to the second story window. He pushed open the window and climbed in the small space. Falling into the office he stood stealthy and moved to the door.
"The prisoners are still on the first level."
"Get them ready for transport. They did their duty getting those two here, but if the escape there will be hell to pay."
"Yes sir."
Alec absorbed the information, knowing that his time was limited. Waiting until the voices had completely faded; he slowly opened the door. He moved into the hall and headed toward where he knew the stairs to be. He stopped when he felt a gun to his back.
"Turn around nice and slow." The voice was young, he could tell, and the shake in the voice meant that whoever this person was had never been in a position like this before. Not like Alec had… for a while, he had been in this position almost daily. Alec started the turn, but within the motion he grabbed the barrel of the gun and brought gun down on the kid's temple.
"Sorry kid." The boy couldn't have been more the 20. He picked the kid up and hid him in the office. He couldn't just leave a trail of bodies now could he?
He moved on again and proceeded down the stairs and to the east. It didn't take long to find the cell and when he did he was surprised that the two transgenics were still inside. He walked onto the outer chamber of the cell then proceeded to the cell. The X5 looked up. Her long blond hair fell in dirty chunks around her face, and large brown eyes looked at him surprised.
"494?" She asked in a whisper.
"I go by Alec now." After saying that he held a finger to his lips and motioned for silence, using the hand signals that they had all learned he told her the plan. She shook her head, commutating that they were getting ready to be transported.
Behind him, Alec heard gun fire and when he looked back, Max was rounding the corner at a dead run. She stopped for a moment to slam the out cell door shut, and the sound of gunfire hitting the door was a loud unwelcoming sound in the room.
"Plan B." She stated coming to a halt in front of him. He nodded and looked at the two transgenics.
"Come closer." He stated no longer worried about being detected with half an army on the other side of the door. Pulling the remote detonator out of his pocket he looked at the little girl.
"Amaya, cover your ears." Right after she did, he hit the button and the cell wall behind them blasted open. Max watched and covered her face as did the others.
"Run half a mile south, there are two bikes under a tarp. You take the green one." Max completely ignored the glare that Alec sent her. "Take the bike, there are directions to TC under the seat. Follow them." Rose's eyes communicated her gratitude as she grabbed Amaya's hand and ran through the hole in the wall. They heard the sound of flesh hitting flesh and then the sound of running footsteps; at least they were in the clear.
"We never really discussed plan B." Alec stated looking over to Max as she watched the door receive dent after dent. She wasn't sure what they were using as a battering ram, but it was doing a good job.
"Pick the lock to the cell; we'll leave the same way that they did."
"Oh I don't think so." Max and Alec turned as a unit and saw that a red-headed familiar and a small army of men stood there as well.
Finally the other door gave way and there stood White in all his self issued glory.
"Well, 452 and 494 it is nice to see both of you again. Please come this way." With guns in front and guns in the back, they looked at each other.
"Shit." Alec groaned and Max couldn't agree more.
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They were both handcuffed behind their backs and stood each with a gun to their back. Orders were being issued around them, but still White felt the need to gloat.
"Did you really think that you would never get caught?" He asked looking from one to the other.
"Well it wasn't in the plan." Alec replied and caught a back hand across the cheek; he tasted blood in his mouth.
"You didn't plan very well then did you? But how could you really, filthy lab rats…that's all you are, you don't even deserve the air you breath."
"We deserve it more then you." Max replied back, the handcuffs digging into her wrist as she tried to slip her wrist through the cuff. But there was no way. She couldn't get loose. Looking over to Alec she knew that he had the same problem.
"Sir, the other two got away."
"No!" Both Max and Alec were surprised by the force of the yell. "Go and find them, this is unacceptable. Check the highway north and south. They wouldn't have headed into the ocean." The number of people in the warehouse went down as he barked out those orders. "Get the transport vehicle ready. I want these two out with in 10 minutes." White's phone rang and he glared at both Max and Alec before turning his back on them to take the call.
Two men by the door.
White on the phone.
Two men with guns pointed at each of their backs.
One Familiar leading the search north and one was going south. The other Familiar was still out cold. That left only one. Max looked over to Alec and saw that he was indeed doing the same thing she was. When he finished his tally, his eyes met hers. He nodded and the corner of her mouth twitched and then chaos started.
Both jumped up, their limber bodies allowing them to jump over their cuffed wrist. Max turned quickly aiming a crescent kick at his head then turning and landing a side kick in his stomach. But that had been unnecessary, he was already out cold.
Alec turned and grabbed the gun and using the trick from before brought it down on the man's temple. He looked over to Max and she held her hands above her head. Knowing what she wanted, Alec took aim and shot the chain, unbinding her. He patted down the guard and found the keys to the cuffs and freed himself.
While Max went after White, Alec blurred ahead, taking the two guards down by the door. One actually seemed to be a decent fighter, after putting the first one down again using the butt of the gun why mess with perfection anyway? The second drew a knife with a serrated edge and smiled at Alec, it was not a comforting smile. Alec put the gun in the back of his pants knowing it would do no good in this battle. The two parried back and forth, the man striking forward with the blade, while Alec moved avoiding him. The man caught him once across the chest and again across his left arm. Alec gauged his opponent noticing when he started to get frustrated. The man rushed forward to stab at him and Alec moved quickly but not quite quickly enough. He caught the man's wrist and but got a nasty gash on the palm of his left hand.
There is no pain.
He tightened his grip on the man's wrist and felt the bone crush in his hand. The man's mouth opened in a silent scream and Alec to the opportunity to punch his face, from the blood the splattered Alec assumed that he broke his nose.
Alec was looking around for Max when he head gun fire he turned his sensitive ears finding the source of the sound. His eyes caught a glimpse of the sniper he had had missed on his count. He had aimed for Max, but she had blurred forward and was already exchanging blows with White. She was an open target like that fighting with White, so he grabbed the gun out of the waist band of his pants, took aim, and fired. Max may be pissed that he killed someone, but at least she was alive. A red blossom bloomed on the man's chest and he went down. With the gun fire though he had drawn attention he really didn't want to have. His hazel eyes jumping back and forth, he watched as the men started coming back. He started to take them out, one by one.
"Max!"
There was one thing that Max always hated when fighting White. The man was smart and he knew it. He studied her, he knew her moves, almost how she though, and she knew that he had something up his sleeve. He always did. Max hated how when she hit him he barely even 'umped' in pain.
His face…
His arrogance…
His conceit for her and her kind…
Plainly…White pissed her off.
Every punch he threw she blocked, and each punch she threw was blocked. Her knew came up aiming for his stomach but he blocked with his thigh. He pivoted, spinning a kick but she ducked and she came up with a punch but he was ready, catching her fist and punching her stomach.
With the one blow she was knocked back, but she was distracted when she heard the gun fire and a bullet barely missed her head. It was so close that it moved her hair, the feeling of that bullet sent chills down her spin.
She heard Alec call for her and she looked over to see that all the other men had been taken down and it was only her and White. Alec had his gun trained on White and the man held up his hands taking a step back in submission.
Max tilted her head, to where she had her bike stashed. Alec nodded and she walked slowly backwards towards the exit, while Alec followed her walking back keeping his gun trained on White.
"This isn't over." White stated looking at them both; looking way to superior for just losing, or what they thought was losing.
"No, it's not." Max agreed looking back. One day, she hoped that the opportunity would arise where she could actually kill White. The man was pure evil…him and his damn cult; she would see them go down.
The sound of the gunshot surprised her as much as it did Alec. The Familiar that she had first knocked unconscious had come to and dragged himself into the fight. He was holding a gun aimed at them, ready to shoot again. For a minute she thought that he had missed, but she noticed Alec bringing up the hand that was holding the gun.
It took Max a second to realize that Alec had been shot. She watched as the blood darkened the left shoulder of his black shirt. He looked down and pressed down on the wound, then to his back. The bullet hadn't come out. Alec was starting to think that he had some pretty shitty karma.
And whoever said that lightning didn't strike twice… liar.
He had been shot in the same damn shoulder three times now.
He looked over to Max not wanting to waste time, this was going to be a rough escape. "I'm fine." He stated though it came out more as a grunt.
Max took his lead and started to run, followed by Alec. She paced herself to the reassuring sounds of his footsteps and she knew that if those footsteps stopped there was no way she was getting both of them out of here alive. She heard him fire and fire and she counted, and then heard a click when he was out of ammo.
"Son of a bitch." She ignored the curse, but when the she heard the next gun shot, she stopped in her tracks.
It was a strange feeling, to actually feel metal tearing though your skin, to feel it moving though your body and then pushing out. Before she even had time to realize that she had been shot that she was bleeding, she was in Alec's arms and he was blurring so fast she couldn't focus on anything around her. He had an arm under her knees and one around her back and as she looked over her shoulder she could see that he was leaving them in the dust. She raised her arms and placed them limply over his shoulders. She could feel his wound and the blood that was soaking his clothes and now her clothes as well.
"Max?" She tried to speak but nothing came out.
"Max? Come on…remember. There is no pain, there is no pain, there is no pain." He repeated the mantra to her until she was repeating it in her head. She had a feeling that it was the only thing that was really keeping him going.
"There is no pain…" It barely came out as a whimper but it gave Alec what he needed… that she was still with him.
He got to the Ninja and sat Max down on the seat. He placed a hand over her wound and grimaced when he realized that it was the hand that had been sliced open. He really had focused his mind to go past the pain. It was different with Max thought, her wound was much more brutal compared to the three or four that he had.
"Max… I need the keys." He lifted both hands to her face, not caring that she would be covered in his blood, from his hand wound. She looked him in the eye and then looked down at her left pocket. He reached inside grabbed the keys. She was starting to lose consciousness, he could tell. "There is no pain." He repeated to her. That saying had been what had got him through months of Py Ops, and any other time he had been shot, stabbed, or beaten.
"…no pain…" Knowing that she wouldn't be able to hold on to him, he placed her in front of him on the bike facing him, and when he straddled the bike he felt her arms come around him and he hoped to God that she was holding on for dear life.
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"Shouldn't they be back by now?" Once in a while Logan was allowed into TC and when Max was on a dangerous mission that is usually when he would want to come.
"Rose and Amaya just got in 30 minutes ago, we'll know as soon as the Ninja kicks on that they are okay."
There was a flicker on the screen and the tracking device on the Ninja beeped, showing that indeed the engine on the bike had been started. Luke watched on the monitor as the Ninja made progress. Watching it he knew something was wrong.
"Get the hospital ready and call the doc."
"What!?" Mole asked jumping up, the Ninja was on its way back everything is fine.
"Whoever is driving that thing is driving like a mad man, at least 90 miles an hour… that tells me something is wrong."
As though to confirm that, the link to comm. device came up. With White's technology they had decided against using them during the actual mission, just like the idea of going in with backup, but now was a different story.
"Ninja to HQ." Alec's voice cut up the static that cut through the line.
"HQ go ahead." Mole answered back glad that Alec was on the other line.
"I'm coming and I'm coming in fast. Max, shot in the stomach loosing blood, I'm taking her straight to Med Bay."
"Is she okay?" Logan asked frantically, overhearing the message.
"I repeat, she has lost a lot of blood, and is going into shock." Watching the progress on the satellite feed he was only minutes away.
"Go head, we'll meet you there." Mole rushed before tuning away and heading for the hospital, the worried cyber journalist on his heels.
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Alec had never been so glad for adrenaline in his life. The Ninja was spiking at speeds of 100 miles per hour and he weaved through traffic, and before he knew it was in the subway leading back to the garage. The lights in the tunnel passed so fast that they looked like a blurred line and he noted that it wasn't good that white was dancing along his vision as well. Max was barely holding onto him and she was shivering and her breathing was beginning to border on hyperventilating, he knew she was going to go into shock. The garage appeared before him but he barely slowed down, and before he knew it he was racing thought the streets of TC. It was late, 4:00 in the morning, but a few people were out and about.
They all got out of his way.
He skidded to a halt in front of the med bay, and picked Max up walking in. Seeing that the doc was there, he took her to where she motioned and put her on the bed.
"Just a gun shot wound, to the stomach, lost a lot of blood, going into shock. She needs help. I got here as fast as I could." Alec's words weren't coming out as well as he would have liked but the doctor nodded in understanding.
"You did good Alec." The doc nodded her blue eyes were understanding knowing that he was most likely worried. But she needed to focus on Max, TC couldn't loose her, she was too vital too their cause. She was their cause.
The door opened behind Alec and he turned to see two more people come in. He knew that they were the doc's assistants but he couldn't remember their names, hell, he was having a hard time even focusing on them right now. Alec was pushed out of the door as the two doc's assistants rushed in to help with Max.
He turned as the door to the building opened and was not surprised to see that Logan was standing right beside Mole.
It was then that Alec realized how dizzy he was. The edge of the world was fading to black and he barely registered Logan coming forward and grabbing him by the shirt.
The shirt that was covered in Max's blood.
"You were supposed to protect her. What were you doing? Where were you?" Logan yelled. Alec lifted a hand, incidentally his cut hand and put in on Logan's chest, he frowned as the pain went up his arm. He had forgotten about that wound again and his arm…the same arm was cut… he had absolutely no power to push him away.
"Alec?" It was Mole that voiced the question, as he noticed the blood on the floor. There was blood dripping from his chest, from his arm and from his palm. It was then that Mole noticed the hole in his shirt. "You were shot. I need some help here." The last part was stated loudly, drawing attention.
Alec focused in on Logan, who looked a little pale, and he grabbed his shoulders trying to stay standing.
"The bullet…didn't come out…cut…" and the adrenalin finally ran out, Alec collapsed to the floor.
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A/N: I've never written action before… How did I do?
Thanks for reading,
Cat