Disclaimer: I am in no way affiliated with Dark Angel, no money was made here.
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November 17th, 2019
7:00 AM
Max and Kendra's Apartment
"And where, may I ask, have you been?" Kendra asked as Max walked through the door of their apartment. She had been gone for almost a week while her leg was healing. What should I say? I'll just tell her the truth. Let her think what she wants.
"I was over at Logan's. I would have called, but, you know, the whole thing about us not having a phone sorta put a damper on my efforts." Max said as she went in to her room, Kendra on her heels, dumped her bag on her bed, laid down on it, and closed her eyes.
"You couldn't have come over here in person? Or were you too busy?"
"Actually, yeah, I was too busy. I came as soon as I could. I'm here now, aren't I?"
"Too busy gettin busy," Kendra muttered, under her breath, as she left Max's room, slamming the door. Max heard it anyway, but didn't really care. She hadn't actually really done any "getting busy," but was too tired to refute her friend's misguided comments. Mostly she spent the time at his place resting up after they had gotten Bling over there to take the bullet out of her leg. Both the guys (Logan and Bling) had made her do three days of exercises, to make sure she was still ok, but of course she had been and left before they made her do any more stretches. She liked Logan and all, but she was sick of sitting around doing reps. And she wasn't exactly in the mood for girl talk, either, so she pretended to be tired and made herself fall asleep for half an hour, before she had to go to work.
8:00 AM
Jam Pony
"You feelin betta boo?" Original Cindy asked while Max was at her locker.
"How do you know I wasn't feelin good?" Max asked, suspiciously. She knew Logan had covered for her, but wasn't sure exactly what he had said.
"Your boyfriend called and said you'd be out sick a couple a days."
"Oh. Yeah. Much better." Thank you, Logan. She wasn't looking forward to explaining how she had gotten shot. She started over to the front desk to see if there were any runs.
"Wait, boo- you sure you're aiight? How'd you get that thing on your face?" Original Cindy said, stopping Max in her tracks, and lightly running her finger down the scar on her cheek.
"Oh- this?" She asked, pointing to the line across her cheek. She had been hoping it would be gone by now, but…"Little accident." What is that girl hiding? Oh well, I'll get it out of her one of these days, Original Cindy thought.
"Fine, don't tell me. But you better haul ass over to Normal, he's pissed as hell."
"Thanks." She confidently stalked over to Normal, who saw her and quickly covered his mouth and nose with a rag. "Wassup?" she asked, leaning onto the counter with one elbow. He handed her a package, still covering his face.
"Sooth Muphet Spheet," he said, his voice muffled. She rolled her eyes at his pathetic attempt at germ-fighting and walked over to get her bike. At least he's not gonna interrogate me. She jumped on her bike and headed over to South Market.
South Market
8:25
After she delivered the package, she started back towards Jam Pony, only to be almost run over by a giant black SUV in the middle of the road. The man in the front seat looked at her funny, with an evil glint in his eye. He broke her resolve and she was frozen to the spot until the very last second when her "defense genes" kicked in. But she wasn't so fixated on the fact that she had almost been killed.
Lydecker was in town.
She grabbed her bike and pedaled so hard it felt like her feet would fall off. She heard the car swerving around after her and she switched into an even higher gear. She moved through the labyrinth of streets until she knew she was far enough away to look over her shoulder. She'd lost him. But that helped very little to uplift her disposition.
"Logan!? Logan!" Max yelled as she rushed through Logan's apartment, after forsaking her original plan of heading back to work. She had to get out of there, but it wasn't like she could just pick up and leave like they taught her to. She knew that you couldn't just ditch people, even though it would probably be safer for her. And Lydecker was smart, he would definitely be able to tell she was a messenger. He'd find Jam Pony and kill everyone who knew her, for sure. She wasn't about to let everyone she loved be killed. That's why she went over to Logan's. I mean, if anything, the guy was secretive. Hell, he based his whole operation on secrets. And it was unlikely that Lydecker would trace her to him.
"What's up?" Logan asked, coming out of his bedroom and putting his arms around her waist. She pushed him away and continued over to his phone. She dialed the Jam Pony number and got Sketchy.
"Satan's stockade here, Sketchy speakin," he answered.
"This is Max. Don't ask questions, just listen and do what I say. You, Herbal, and Original Cindy gotta get over to Fogle Towers, apartment 210 B. Tell my homegirl to pick up Kendra and bring her, too. Make up an excuse for Normal. It is imperative that you don't tell him where you are going. It's an emergency. Just do it," she said imperiously.
"I'll say we have appendicitis," Sketchy said, obviously picking up her dominant tone. She quickly hung up. Logan was looking very confused as to why she was asking all her friends over to his house.
"Lydecker," she stated simply, and a look of recognition flitted over his features before it turned to dark fear. "Look, I'm gonna need to get out of here." She was trying to act nonchalant about the whole ordeal.
"What happened?"
"I was on a run. He almost ran me over and he recognized me," she answered. "He had that same "I'm gonna kill you" look he always has with us kids, and we played our little game of cat and mouse until I lost him," she added with hate in her voice. Logan came up and put his arms around her again, and she almost laid her head down, but pushed him away. "No! Don't you get it? Do you know what it's like to have one person be in total control of your life? He could destroy me and everything around me in about ten minutes. Do you know what that's like? No! And it sure as hell won't be solved with a big hug!" she yelled. Logan stood in silence, since that was about the only thing he could do and not piss her off. "Sorry. It's not your fault."
"OK. So, there has to be a way to fix this. Letting anything happen to you or your friends isn't an option. It was a good idea getting them over here, Lydecker probably won't connect the dots all the way up to me. So we just gotta make sure he doesn't find us. I know I can get one or two people into Mexico, but six… it's gonna be hard."
"Well what are we gonna do when we get there? When they come over I can't just say 'hey guys, we're going on a permanent vacation to Mexico,'" she said.
"No, but that's a good idea,"
"What?!"
"The vacation. We'll tell them I've got six tickets that are only good for another week. Then we'll stay down there for awhile until this dies down and Donald expects that you've left."
"What happens if they don't wanna go? What about Normal?"
"You've forgotten my alter-ego." Max thought it all through in her head and looked back up, just slightly relieved that they had a plan instead of making it up as they go along.
"I should have known it would come in handy being the girlfriend of an underground cyber-journalist," she said. "So what do we do now?"
"Wait for them to come over. I'll go try and find some tickets. I know you don't sleep but you might wanna try and get some rest. I have a feeling we've got a long road ahead."
11:00 AM
Logan's Apartment
"Road trip! Yeah! Now, just when I think the world is devoid of all caring, generous people, I meet Mr. Logan Cale here and everything turns around," Sketchy said after getting the full story from Max (except for a few minor details). Original Cindy was skeptical.
"What about work? It'll be a miracle if we don't get fired, and even if Normal lets us back he's gonna work our asses double time."
"It's taken care of," Logan said from the chair he was sitting in from across the room. Original Cindy shot him a glare, as if to say 'who asked you?' but she wasn't about to slap a gift horse in the mouth.
"So… you in?" Max asked, pleadingly.
"Yea. On two conditions."
"Anything," Max said. She wanted to hurry up and get out of there, but couldn't let her friends get suspicious.
"One. Normal will not be pissy with us when we get back."
"Done."
"Two. I don't wanna see any kissin, huggin, makin out, pretty much all- around close proximity between the two a you. If Original Cindy wants to be nauseous she'll think of Sketchy naked. Understand?" she asked, seriously. Max would have laughed had she not had the whole Lydecker thing on her back.
"Done," she said, trying to end the conversation and comply with all of her friend's requests so they could get the hell out. Original Cindy smiled, satisfied.
"Aiight! So when do we leave?"
"Tonight," Max said. Cindy, Herbal, Sketchy, and Kendra gaped at her like she was crazy.
"Good one, boo. But seriously, when are we leavin?"
"Tonight! We'll drive y'all over to get your stuff then we're on our way. Plane leaves tonight. Can't miss it."
"I guess… OK."
"Great," Max said, contented that something was actually working out. Sketchy, Herbal, Cindy and Kendra proceeded to talk about what they were going to do in Mexico while Logan and Max talked in his little office.
"Well, at least one thing's going to plan," Max said, sighing, rubbing her throbbing head with her hand.
"It's gonna be OK, you know," Logan said, reassuringly. She nodded, a cynical smile on her face.
"Yeah. Hopefully."
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"Are we there yet?" Sketchy asked from the back of the tiny car they rented. They had to drive forty miles from the airport to get to their hotel. Forty miles, coupled with never-ending sector checkpoints, a very limited and cramped amount of space, a psycho murder-obsessed colonel gunning for her, and Sketchy's incessant wailing, equaled no patience and an aching head for Max. She turned around and grabbed him by the shirt collar, putting her face right up to his.
"Soon, just like the other twenty-three times you asked. Now, would you please SHUT UP?" she yelled. He squeaked something at her out of fear and she let him slump back in his seat, muttering. She closed her eyes and held her forehead in her fingers. Logan sat silently; knowing that anything he could say would just make her explode. Despite the never-ending sun this wasn't exactly a vacation- especially not for Max. Needless to say, their "relationship" had taken a back seat to this bent awakening to the real world. He looked back over at Max. She was vacantly staring out over the desert, but her eyes. Her eyes were teeming with anxiety, resolve. He turned back to the wheel and, unnoticeably, sped up.
November 18th, 2019
Veracruz, Mexico
1:00 PM
They drove down to their hotel in Veracruz, called Él Cacahuete Poco, and got three rooms, all next to each other. Herbal and Sketchy were in the first, then Cindy and Kendra, then Max and Logan. The hotel was, well, definitely not Logan's penthouse. But it wasn't exactly the squatter neighborhood either. They were mostly just happy to get out of that sweaty little car.
"Kendra and I are headin down to the beach. You comin boo?" Cindy asked after knocking on the door that connected her room with Max's. Max, being totally stressed out, decided maybe some fun in the sun was exactly what she needed. Besides, Lydecker wouldn't catch on to her down here- no use wasting a perfectly good beach.
"Yeah. Lemme get my suit and I'll be out in a sec." She decided against bringing Logan and left him to get bored out of his mind by Sketchy and try to decipher Herbal's dialect… a feat he hadn't yet accomplished.
La Playa de María, Veracruz
3:30 PM
After being absolutely burnt from two hours of swimming and being gawked at by the passersby at the beach, Max, Cindy, and Kendra decided they'd heard one too many "guapa"s and got ready to head back to the hotel.
"So wassup wit you and your boy, anyways?" Original Cindy asked Max, trying to purge from her memory the thought of about twenty males coming on to her by changing the conversation subject matter.
"That whole situation's pretty much… chilled out," Max replied, mentally berating herself for lying to her best friends. The "situation" had done anything but chilled out.
"But it is… or, was… a situation," Kendra said.
"I guess," Max said, letting it drop. Cindy and Kendra exchanged glances but kept walking towards the car. They headed back to the hotel, only to find Logan… well… not exactly at his finest hour. He, Sketchy, and Herbal were energetically performing a very slurred presentation of "I Will Survive" for an invisible audience. Logan smiled his lopsided drunken-innocence smile at Max as she came through the door.
"I leave him alone for two seconds and he can't even handle Sketchy and Herbal…" she muttered, but couldn't help the amused smile that played across her lips.
"Boys! That, right there, yes!! That one! That is my lady. Isn't she pretty?" He stumbled over to her. "You're pretty." Max was highly amused, yet mortified as she heard Kendra and Cindy's fits of laughter from behind.
"OK, Logie, party's over. Time for bed," she said, picking him up off the floor, where he had collapsed in a heap. She walked through to their room and plopped him down on the bed where he burrowed his face into the pillow and fell asleep almost instantly. Max laid in bed all night thinking about what she was going to do. Sooner or later she was going to have to go back to Seattle. Most likely sooner. And whether or not she would have to face everything was still up in the air.
^*^*^*^*^
"Ahhh… ya know, you hear stories, but… aghhh…" Logan said, as Max took care of him when he woke up in the morning with a hangover the size of Texas.
"Here ya go," she said as she handed him aspirin and a glass of water. "I leave you alone for a couple of hours and you can't even handle Sketchy? It's called peer pressure, Logan. Just say no." The door to Original Cindy and Kendra's room cracked open slightly.
"How's everything goin?" Kendra whispered from the other side. Logan grimaced.
"AGH! Not so loud!" he said, gripping his forehead and squeezing his eyes shut.
"That good, huh," Kendra said as she closed the door and retreated into her room. Max laughed again, quietly.
"You're laughing at my pain?" Logan asked, obviously in agony. Max tried to keep her face straight and crawled back into bed. As much as it must've hurt him, it was giving her a welcome release. She tried to kiss his cheek but he rolled over so he wasn't facing her. She took no offense and hugged him around the middle.
"Look, Kendra and I are goin to the store, the two a you need anythi-" Original Cindy said as she opened the door. She stopped when she saw the two of them cuddled up together on the bed. I see my rules are being put to good use, she thought as she closed the door hastily, when she saw Max's 'deer caught in the headlights' look. Cindy let out her breath on the other side of the door and laughed.
November 19th, 2019
12:00 PM
La Casa de Café
After trying to decide from six different opinions on where to go for breakfast, Max and Kendra decided they needed to satisfy their coffee fetish and they asked where they could get some. They walked into the restaurant and sat down at a table. Max and Logan got up to order from the counter and as they were waiting a man in his late forties with ugly tan colored hair stood next to them. Max glanced at him out of the corner of her eye without moving her head. He noticed and looked over at her, giving her a look that made her sick. She was literally nauseous from the site of him.
"Eyes forward!"
Logan looked over at Max and saw her jump. He was curious but didn't want to call attention to it. He lightly touched her arm and whispered, "You OK?" She paused, staring at nothingness.
"What? Yeah. Did you hear that?"
"What?" She turned her head to him and he searched her eyes for an answer. She turned away again.
"Nothing." Just then, the cashier came back with their drinks.
"Es ciento y treinta pesos," she said, handing them the coffee. Max gave her the money.
"Gracias. Look, we gotta get outta here. I'll explain when we get back to the hotel."
"OK," Logan said, used to Max's need for sudden changes of plans.
"Come on, we're headin back," Max said to the rest of their party as she walked by their table. She handed Kendra a cup and they got up to leave.
"But we just-" Sketchy started. Max shot him an icy glare and he shut up. Herbal suppressed a laugh and got in the car with the rest of them.
Back at the hotel
"You can't be sure it was him, Max. It could just be a flashback or something."
"Logan. I think I'd remember the guy that tortured me for nine years. I know it was him. There were only six officers, and we're programmed with photographic memories. It was a flashback, but he triggered it. Either we just hit the prime retirement spot for covert operations officers, or he still works for Lydecker and they're here." Logan was silent for a second, gathering his thoughts.
"Well, let's think about this. Why would Lydecker send a man in just to watch you, without doing anything else? That just gives you time to escape."
"He's fucking with me, that's why. Never put anything past Deck. He may be smart, but you gotta admit he's a little cracked," Max said with a sardonic, cynical tone.
"So what do you want to do? Run again? Will it do any good?" Logan asked. Max looked at him like he was stupid.
"Well what would you have me do? Sit here and wait for the posse so I can go back to the clubhouse? No thanks."
"No. I thought we could use that brain of yours and come up with a plan to do something about Lydecker instead of running from him over and over again." Max looked at him, surprised he was being so fearless about this. It was more then she was doing, and she was supposed to be the revved up one. The gears in her head started turning as she came up with a strategy to take the almighty Donald down.