AS205 Viridae Chapter 12, a dark angel fanfic

AS2.05: Viridae by Star24

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Chapter Twelve

Max's Apartment

Logan followed Max as she wheeled her Ninja into the apartment. She turned from carefully parking her baby, to catch him looking at her.

"What?" she wanted to know.

"Interesting parking spot you have here." He deflected her question.

She shrugged. "Not everyone can live in a castle above it all, you know. The proletariat has to make do with what they can. The realities of life amongst the teeming masses. Blah blah, woof woof and all that."

"Max, knowing you has certainly brought me down to earth with a vengeance." He chuckled, trying to keep it light.

Their eyes caught and held. Suddenly light wasn't what she wanted, so she waited him out, letting the silence stretch between them.

"That's not a bad thing you know," he finally said. His inflection made it almost a question.

"Because it's useful for Eyes Only to experience what he's dealing with first hand?" She prodded.

"Yeah…" He began to agree, but stopped himself at the look of disappointment that swiftly crossed her face. He held her eyes for a moment more and then he took a deep breath and plunged in. "I was thinking more along the lines that it's good for Logan Cale to get out from behind those walls he's so good at putting up between himself and other people, and to realize that he's only human. And… that he makes mistakes."

A slow smile spread across Max's face. "To err is human…"

"…to forgive divine. So can you?"

"Can I what?"

"Forgive me for being an ass about things lately?" As they talked his eyes had gone from laughing to serious. Conversely the atmosphere in the room seemed lighter, as the tension that had been present between them since Logan had learned about Carly, began to dissipate.

"I think that might be arranged." Max felt suddenly lighthearted, despite the lingering weakness from Gertal's experiments. "Want something to drink?" She was halfway to the kitchen, when she felt her legs give way slightly.

Logan was at her side in an instant, supporting her and helping her over to her couch. "Are you okay?"

She smiled at the concern in his voice. "I'll be fine. Just a little shaky still." Max was leaning back against the couch arm and Logan helped her swing her legs up so that she was stretched out on the couch. He crouched on the floor next to her holding one of her hands.

"Can I get you that drink?" he asked her.

"Now ain't this just the sweetest sight," a familiar voice drawled. Neither of them had noticed the door opening and Original Cindy entering.

"It's not…" Max started to say as she flushed slightly.

"…what you think." Logan finished for her.

Cindy stood there with her hands on her hips. "And Original Cindy just came back from knockin' boots with a hot male stripper." She rolled her eyes at them. "Whatever you two gotta tell yourselves." She held up a hand to silence any protests and continued, "Missed you at the meeting tonight, boo."

"I was kind of under the weather." Max said by way of explanation.

"No matter. We met with Steel Wheels and Burnin' Rubber and they in on takin' down the Guild."

"The Guild has a lot of muscle." Max warned.

"Boo, we ain't got a choice."

"Well you know I'm in on what's goin' down." Max said.

Logan cleared his throat. "I think a friend of mine might be able to lend some assistance."

Max and Original Cindy exchanged glances, and Max shook her head slightly behind Logan's back.

"You wouldn't be talkin' about Mr. Eyes now, would ya?" Cindy asked.

"Let me see what he has to say. I'll let Max know tomorrow." Logan said.

"Sounds like a plan." Original Cindy agreed.

Logan reluctantly rose. "You gonna be okay?" He looked down at Max.

"Better than okay."

Logan hesitated, but then he leaned in and dropped a swift hard kiss on Max's lips, ignoring the fact that Original Cindy made no move to look away.

"Nite, Max. I'll call you in the morning." He straightened up and turned to go.

Max smiled. "Nite, Logan."

When Logan reached the door he turned to Cindy. "Take care of my girl." Before she could answer, he was gone.

Cindy looked at Max with raised eyebrows, but made no comment. Max yawned and slowly rose from the couch. "This little girl is going to get some sleep for once in her life. See ya in the morning." She headed toward her bedroom.

Cindy watched her leave and a knowing smile crossed her face. "Looks like you two finally startin' to step to the real, boo. It's about time." she murmured to herself as she headed off to find her own bed.

An Alleyway in Seattle, Next Afternoon

Blue rode her new bike slowly down the alleyway. She tried hard not to look back or from side to side as she rode. A voice spoke softly in her ear and she jumped slightly, not used to the earpiece she was wearing.

"Blue, are you okay?" said the husky male voice that seemed slightly familiar to her.

"Kind of nervous, but I'll be good." she whispered.

"Don't worry. Everyone's in place. All you have to do is to lead them out into the square. We'll do the rest. You're almost on them. Just follow the plan." She nodded forgetting that the voice couldn't see her.

"Gotcha." She whispered belatedly.

As she neared the exit of the alley it was déjà vu. Three huge men stepped out to block her path. She knew without looking that there were more behind her. Instead of slowing her bike to a stop, she kept on going.

"I think you better stop right there, bitch." One of the men growled. She recognized him as the one who had promised her "fun and games" next time they met, and a sudden burst of rage surged through her.

"I think not, asshole." She retorted. She pushed hard on her pedals giving her bike a burst of speed. As she came even with him she kicked out hard, catching him in the stomach. Her momentum kept her bike moving and in moments she was clearing the alleyway, hotly pursued by six thugs.

They burst out into a busy square, a miniature version of South Market, filled with small stalls selling a variety of merchandise, and populated with a fair number of people. The thugs ignored the crowds and one of them grabbed her handlebars, pulling her bike to a halt.

"Go about your business if you don't want to feel the hurt." One of them threatened the bystanders.

All six of them surrounded, Blue. One of them pulled her off her bike. "You're a dumb bitch aren't you? Thought you'd a learned last time."

"I'd say you're the dumb ones. Not her." A voice rang out. The thugs turned. Max and Original Cindy stood side by side staring at them.

"Aw look, two of her little friends came to join the party," said one of the thugs with a leer.

"Why don't we take em all back with us and have some real fun?" A third started toward Max and Cindy, who stood their ground.

"They aren't going anywhere." A man's voice rang out and they turned to see a group of male bike messengers including Sketchy, Herbal and Druid, as well as some from the other services, standing opposite where Max and Cindy stood.

"The bike pansies wanna play tough," laughed one of the thugs. "Get 'em guys."

The six men charged, two heading for Max and Original Cindy, and the others going after the males. As if by magic, more bike messengers appeared from behind the stalls, and out of doorways.

Max stood at the ready, but let the others handle the men when it became evident that they had them well outnumbered. It was over in minutes, and the six men were on the ground, surrounded by angry bike messengers. There was the sound of sirens and Sector Police began to converge on the area, accompanied by a hoverdrone or two. Max ducked back under the cover of a stall and watched from a safe distance.

As the police arrived, several television screens that were sitting on the stalls came to life with a familiar red, white and blue banner.

"Do not attempt to adjust your set. This is a Streaming Freedom video bulletin. The cable hack will last exactly 60 seconds. It cannot be traced, it cannot be stopped, and it is the only free voice left in this city.

The eyes in the picture morphed into an overhead shot of the square, showing the thugs on the ground surrounded by messengers and police.

The video you are watching comes to you live from Seattle Police hoverdrones in Turner Square. In past weeks, hard working members of Seattle's bike messenger community have been terrorized by thugs calling themselves the Guild, who have demanded blood money in return for allowing these citizens to make an honest living. Eyes Only has obtained information that the Guild is being run by Hubert Marelson, none other than the postmaster general of our fair city. Marelson has been living high on the hog with the money he has been extorting from innocent, hard working citizens. Today, Seattle's bike messengers have spoken up and fought back, proving that the people of Seattle do have a voice in what happens here. The Guild is no more and Mr. Marelson will soon be seeing the inside of a jail cell. This has been an Eyes Only Streaming Freedom video bulletin. Peace. Out."

The televisions fritzed back to normal programming. The messengers let out a cheer and slapped high fives on each other, as the Sector Policy made short work of cuffing the Guild enforcers and taking them away. Cindy looked over to where Max was standing and sent her a thumbs up.

Within moments the Square was back to normal as the messengers dispersed to head out on their runs. Max was about to climb onto her own bike, when her cell phone rang.

"Hey you," she answered. "Very cool hacking into the hoverdrone feed."

There was a chuckle on the other end of the phone. "I thought it added a nice touch. You gonna come over for dinner tonight?"

"Depends."

"Depends on what?"

"What's for dinner?" she teased.

"Just a minor culinary miracle."

Max laughed, "How can I pass that up? There aren't too many miracles in this broken world."

"Eight O'clock?"

"I'll be there." She snapped her cell phone closed and was off.

Epilogue, The Space Needle

Max stood on the Space Needle, looking down on Seattle. Below her lights began to wink on in the growing darkness.

"So here I am, still standing after another run in with one of Manticore's finest. The irony of it all is that it was my personal anti-Christ himself who bailed me and Logan out this time around. That getaway was a set up if I ever saw one. The Colonel wants something from us and the tricky part is going to be figuring out what it is. But I think we can do it. Together.

Bad as this all was, I think Logan and I might just make it because of it. Maybe we got past something. And maybe he's gonna be able to figure out a way to live with Carly and what happened. So that puts it on me to figure out how to live with my ghosts.

He called me his girl. In front of OC. Coming from Logan that's major. Maybe that's why I'm kinda nervous about going over there. OC would call it being girly. Imagine that, a genetically engineered killing machine acting like a normal girl. But enough of that. Take a breath Max, and get your ass moving; you faced live ordinance drills, you can face this…
End of Viridae

Coming soon… AS 2.06

Mayhem ensues as a priceless manuscript goes missing, and Logan enlists Max to chase it down as a favor for the author. Sketchy gets himself in hot water when he tries to pursue a new career.