Author's Note: Ok, I'll admit it. My title was deceptive! Sounded better than "Familiar vs. Transgenic," "Max Saves the World," or "The End of Ames" (hmm that last one's not too bad… oh well!) How… weird. This is story does feature Sandeman, who I really wish we got to meet.

Another thing I should note about this chapter: I am a biology nerd. To explain about the transgenics, I put in some biology. So to understand this, I will give you a quick review of the DNA molecule:

DNA is composed of 4 nucleotides: guanine, adenine, thymine, and cytosine, which are linked together by hydrogen bonds in pairs. The nucleotides of DNA link up to complementary mRNA base pairs called codons. The codons specify for different amino acids in the body. Amino acids made up proteins which act as enzymes, catalysts, and basically 'make stuff work' in the body.

Biology rocks.

Spoilers: The Coming is pretty much as described in the commentary of "Freak Nation" if you haven't heard it yet.

Chapter 2: So Many Questions, So Little Time

"Father," Joshua whispered. The old man craned his neck to look up at his giant creation and hobbled forward for a closer look. He nodded and smiled at the bewildered dog-boy in front of him. Then he leaned forward and pulled Josh into a warm embrace.

"Joshua… my boy," he said, airily. Tears began to leak from Joshua's eyes as he was finally reunited with his long-lost father. He let himself be caught up in the moment as he rested his head on Sandeman's shoulders, and then slowly eased himself back. His bright blue eyes, wet with tears, connected with Sandeman's.

"Father, why did you leave?" he asked directly. Sandeman sighed and put his hand on Joshua's shoulder.

"My boy, everything will be revealed in time," he assured him. Not liking his answer, Joshua wrinkled his nose in disapproval. "Right now, time in not on our side," Sandeman sighed, pulling his hand through his thinning hair. He started to trudge toward a dilapidated building, the size of a small shed nearby. C.J. sprinted beside the old man and walked beside him, Joshua trailed closely behind, while a more skeptical Alec and Max walked beside each other behind the bewildered dog-boy. Sandeman reached into his tattered coat, pulled out a tiny, dull key, and stuck it in the keyhole. He slowly opened the door to reveal a dusty room. The room was fairly empty; there was only a small cabinet in the back and a strange cloth covering a large desk in the center of the room.

Alec coughed and touched his throat gingerly at the dust. "Remind this guy to fire his maid," he commented, dryly. Sandeman smirked slightly at his remark, then grabbed the cloth and swiped it off in one fluid motion. Even more dust billowed in the air, choking the lungs of the unhappy transgenics. Joshua then took note of what was under the cover and tilted his head in confusion. Sandeman revealed a rather outdated computer from the late 1990s. The monitor was huge, foreboding, and took up most of the desk. The keyboard and computer were a dull yellow color from years of wear and were caked with a thick layer of dust. Joshua hovered around the enormous piece of machinery and began swiping the dirt away obsessively. Sandeman leaned down pressed a button, turning the machine on. The computer began to grind and moan as he turned to the desk drawers in front of him.

Max and Alec exchanged a look and scowled. Max blew out her breath and addressed her creator, "Okay, what's going on here? Are we checking Email? The weather report? I don't know… she asked, irritated. Sandeman frowned and shifted through the drawers slowly and methodically. His fingers eased through a stack of colorful disks in the center of the drawer one by one. Suddenly, he stopped flipping and grasped a plain, gray disk from the pile.

"Aha!" he shouted, triumphantly waggling the disk at Max and Alec. He slipped the disk into the computer and waited for it to load. When the screen began to display, he smiled and turned to the transgenics. "You see, in this disk are all of you. The genetic codes of every one of my children."

"Yea? And what good is that?" Max prodded.

"It's her… I need her. The one who can stop all this. The one who can save us all," he said, his eyes lighting up as he tapped the monitor screen.

"Dad… dad!" C.J. exclaimed to the old man, tugging his clothes to get his attention. Sandeman turned toward his son, his brows knitted in confusion. CJ then rushed between the two bewildered X5s, his snake still coiled around his neck. "Look!" he exclaimed, putting his arms around Max and Alec. Max scowled as the snake around CJ's neck started to slowly slither onto her shoulders. Feeling the pull of the snake off his neck, CJ nodded and turned toward Max. "She's the one," he declared, with wide eyes.

Suddenly intrigued, Sandeman walked slowly over to Max. He surveyed the woman in front of him, curiously. Feeling a bit uncomfortable, Max decided that she needed to take control of the situation. She pulled the snake off her neck, holding its long body with both hands, and handed him to Alec. Alec frowned in disgust, but reluctantly took George, extending his arms to make sure he was away from his body. "Yea and I got the creepy tattoos on my skin to prove it. Thanks for that," she scoffed, pulling off her gloves to reveal the ruins.

Sandeman jerked her hand toward him with a swift movement. He gently began to trace over the tattoos on her arm. "Ancient Minoan, yes, yes…" he whispered. "Come with me. You should be right in here." Max stared in front of a blank computer screen, confused, as Sandeman typed furiously on the keyboard.

"Yea well, I don't think you Familiars can translate the invisible words on the 'Black Screen of Death'," Alec said, noting that the Sandeman's monitor seemed to be completely black.

"Ahhh, but you can't see the codes without a trigger," he replied, cryptically. Sandeman again reached into the cardboard box and pulled out… a scanner? It was an older, handheld scanner connected to the computer by a twisted wire. Alec and Max exchanged confused look at the object in front of them. Then in a second, Sandeman had grabbed Max by the neck and pressed her against the table. Max struggled under his grasp, the amazing strength of the Familiars suddenly coming back to her. Alec tried to make a move to stop him, then halted dead in his track when he realized what Sandeman was doing… He was slowly passing the scanner along the barcode on her neck.

The scanner made an eerie buzzing and then a loud beep! sounded. Max stood up slowly as her genetic code started to flash into the computer. Her eyes traced the sequences of nucleotides, instantly computing the information into her brain. In a matter of seconds, her entire genome was completed. CJ giggled in amusement pointing the snake toward the screen. Max scowled and felt the back of her neck. "Did you just scan me!" she asked incredulously.

"The barcodes… they pick up the laser and transfer it through the DNA. The laser bounces off and forms a complete image of all the nucleotide sequences. They're sort of a… map to your DNA. That way I would know if anyone… altered it. That's why each one of you has a unique barcode number," he explained as he stared into the computer at Max's DNA, scrolling down with his mouse.

"So… they're not a form of identification?" Alec inquired as he unconsciously began to feel his own barcode. Sandeman head whipped around at his question.

"No! Of course not! Your numbers were never meant to be names!" he cried, as his wrinkled hands balled into fists. "Why do you think I called him Joshua?" he asked, beaming at the large dog-boy in front of him. Joshua smiled and put an arm around Sandeman with pride.

"See? I told you. Father's a good guy," Joshua smiled, feeling more confident in his words.

"Not that good," Max scoffed. Or maybe you forgot how he left you in the basement to rot? And… us too." Max's eyes searched Sandeman's for an explanation. He only stared at her, his mouth shut tightly with an unreadable expression on his face. Feeling her anger rising, Max opened her mouth to say more only to be cut off by an equally indignant Alec.

"You left us to them," he added, his voice heavy with emotion. "Do you have any idea what they did!" he asked, his voice now rose to a shout.

"They tortured us, beat us down, made us… made us slaves," Max added, her voice cracked with emotion.

"No… no… you don't understand!" Sandeman protested, shaking his head. He slowly rose from his spot near the computer and began to pace the room with his cane. "The government… they betrayed me. Of course they betrayed me. It still needed to be done. You still needed to be created," he mumbled.

"Why?" Max said, asking the question she had wanted to ask all her life.

"To defeat them!" CJ interrupted, jumping between Sandeman and the transgenics. "Geez, Dad I'm sorry. She just doesn't seem to get it. Why doesn't she get it, George?" he asked, flustered.

"CJ," Sandeman said, putting his arm of his eager son's shoulder to calm him.

"And just what the agenda of the Familiars?" Max prodded.

Sandeman stared at the wall in front of him, stroking his cane in thought. "Thousands of years ago, a comet flew across the atmosphere," he explained, waving his hand in emphasis. "The comet carried a certain viral material. It is estimated that 90 of the human population was completely wiped out. Some however, were… genetically predisposed to survive. We… the Familiars, wanted to ensure our survival if the comet ever struck this earth again. We carry the antibodies to guard against the virus. The comet… is coming back. It's coming back," Sandeman then turned to CJ and stroked George gently.

"What's the deal with the snakes? Some kind of Familiar reincarnation ability?" Alec inquired, rolling his eyes. He was finding Sandeman to be just as loopy as the Familiars anyway.

"The snakes were bred by our people to carry a virus similar to the one brought by the comet all those years ago. If you are bitten and survive the ritual, it means you are immune to the virus and the effects of the comet. If you do not survive, you are not chosen and they leave you to die," Sandeman sighed softly and looked at CJ again.

"I loved my sons. I-I had seen many children writhing on the floor when they failed. I couldn't bear for that to happen to one of my own. So… I tested their blood. They found out somehow," he said, twisting the cane back and forth against the palm of his hand. "That was when I was banned. They approached me and said 'if they are not Chosen it is the will of Fate.' I started to look beyond the Familiars… our people." Sandeman looked outside the window of the ramshackle building. "I thought of all the others, how they would lose everything. It didn't seem right. How could we inherit the Earth and stand aside while everyone around us perished? That was when I started… the project. How I created you… him… everyone," he smiled, pointing to Max, Alec, and then waving the air with a flourish.

"We were made to help them," Joshua concluded, connecting the pieces of the puzzle.

"Yes, yes!" Sandeman agreed enthusiastically. He made his way back to the desk and pointed at the computer screen, which still showed Max's genetic code. "I made each of you immune to the toxins. But you also had to be prepared to face the Familiars so spliced human DNA with animal DNA to enhance the senses. See, these are the codons that specify feline DNA. They'll form the amino acids tyrosine, glumatic acid, cysteine…" he pointed to a group of nucleotides with two fingers. "They make you more agile, faster." Max moved closer to the screen to read her code. "This one… shark DNA: to keep alert. And this one," he traced a longer strand of DNA down. "This one is the one that provides the antibodies for the cosmic dust. The one that will save all of mankind," he explained, his eyes glimmering with hope.

In addition to being hit with the news that she was, in fact, the savior of the planet, something else about the explanation wasn't sitting well with Max. "Wait so, that was the plan all along… for us to be super soldiers," she scowled, feeling angry.

"I didn't know," he whispered softly, while staring at the floor intensely. "I only found out years later. And then it was too late. They swept the project from underneath me. They made my children into… killers," he finished, turning around and eying Max suspiciously.

Max realized that Sandeman must have been keeping up with her trial on the news the past few weeks. She felt stung by his words, but even more surprised that she was stung by his words. What did it matter what Sandeman thought anyway? He wasn't even her father. Just some man from a wacky cult with too much time on his hands. Still, the sad truth was Sandeman was the closest she was ever going to get to father and his words hurt. Alec noted Max's expression and stepped in indignantly.

"Hey, what do you know about it? You're the one who forced us to live the life we're living now. Besides… if you want to take a look at cold-blooded killers, maybe you should take a look at your son," he argued, shrugging his head toward the picture of Ames.

"Ames? No, he can't be. I… wasn't around much. They took care of him and poisoned his mind. He feels loyal to them," Sandeman protested, gently stroking the picture of young Ames with affection.

"No, he's right Father," Joshua added. "White is… a very bad man," he said, clenching his fists as he remembered Annie.

"Awwww, now that's not very nice," a new voice came from the other side of the room. Ames White stood in the doorway with a cocky grin on his face. Ten Familiars masked him on either side, each pointing heavy guns at the transgenics. Realizing they were vastly outnumbered and weaponless, Max, Alec, Joshua, Sandeman, and CJ slowly put their hands above their heads. They exchanged worried looks as the Familiars started to descend upon them.

"Don't you just love family reunions?" White sneered.