Manticore.
How
good it feels to be back.
Two
months here and I am stronger then ever.
My
flaw was put under control when Lydecker brought me in. After I told Logan what my problem was I
decided to leave Max and return to my home.
I
went to the outskirts of Seattle, and called Lydecker. Back then, I wanted to protect Logan's
position, and not endanger Max. I was
so weak.
But
Manticore fixed that. Lydecker picked
me up, just as my head had started pounding with the noises of my brothers and
sisters. He took me back, and put me
into Medical for three weeks. Now, the
chip works to my advantage. Sorting
through the disorderly thoughts is much easier now. Three X-5's have given away their position in the last month, and
Lydecker brought in two of them.
My
training has been stepped up, my body adapts to the punishment faster then my
comrades, so I am better then them.
Soon
I will have my first outside mission.
And I will have the chance to bring in one of the rogue X-5's.
Watch
out brothers and sisters, Fran's going to bring your sorry @sses in.
Lydecker
sat in his office, watching the camera's placed in the main training area. His X-5's were doing tag-team fighting,
except that one team was comprised of one person; Fran.
Lydecker
watched as the combined team of Krit and Bren converged on Fran. She adopted a stance, and waited from them
to make the first move. Krit jumped
quickly over Fran while Bren threw two punches at Fran's face. Fran reacted by blocking Bren's punches then
executed a sidekick to knock back Krit.
Fran then blocked a spinning crescent kick from Bren, and grabbed her
leg, and pulled her round to hit Krit.
But he was prepared, and jumped aside, but Fran had counted in this
possibility.
With
Bren down, it was one on one. Fran ran
toward the wall, and using her agility, ran up it part of the way and flipped
herself backward. In a flash, she had
Krit over on his back, dazed. Lydecker
stopped the real time recording, and took the video back.
He
hit the slow button, and watched as Fran grabbed Krit by the shoulders, and as
her feet hit the ground she threw Krit over her head.
Lydecker
sat back in his chair. Fran was ready
to go outside Manticore, and he had no doubts that she was loyal to him. She would bring in the X-5 that had been
dodging his patrols for the past year, Max.
Fran
lay quietly on her bunk in the room the X-5's were assigned. She stared up at the ceiling, and closed her
eyes, and slowly sorted through the voices in her head.
"X-57484,
Lydecker wants to see you"
Fran
glanced up at the guy at the door, and got up off the bed. She was escorted through the corridor, and
up to Lydecker's office.
Lydecker
looked up from his work as Fran walked in.
He sent the soldier away, and indicated for Fran to sit down.
"I
have an assignment that I want you to lead," Lydecker said, "You will
have control of two units, each with four soldiers. I want you to bring in an X-5 that has been evading me for too
long, X-..."
Fran
knew what he was about to say,
"Max."
Lydecker
paused, and lent back in his chair.
"Will
you be able to complete this with out personal involvement?"
That
was a question that Fran wasn't sure if she could answer. Max was a problem, one that had to be fixed
if they were ever going to complete their primary mission. She looked at her hands, then up at
Lydecker.
"Yes. I will bring her back home."
Lydecker
nodded, and pulled out another folder, and passed it over to Fran.
"We
have reason to believe that Eyes Only is somehow involved with Max. When you apprehend her, I want you to track
down and dispose of him, quietly. You
understand?"
Fran
knew that it would come to this.
Returning to Manticore had many calculated risks, and this was one of
them. She was here to complete what she
was made for, hunting and killing. Some
guy is going to get creamed because he made Manticore business his.
Fran
opened the file and saw various pictures of this guys scrambled retina
pictures, and as she flipped through the photos, she found one of Logan.
Without
giving anything away, she asked who this was.
"A
contact, we think. He was spotted being
held captive by a group of terrorists, along with Detective Sung of the police
dept."
So
somehow Logan is mixed up with all this ... wait, its finally clicked.
The
way Max knew I was coming to Seattle, Logan's computers, how he was going to
set me up with a new identity, and now, these pictures linking him to Eyes
Only...of course, Logan is Eyes Only...
Fran
passed the pictures back.
"When
will the operation start?"
"Tomorrow,
08:00 hours."
Early
the next morning:
The
area around Manticore forest seemed a dead black as the sun rose slowly, and
the shadows cast by the trees caused the woods to look eerie and dark. Fran and her two units drove slowly down the
road to the gates, past the small river that ran through the wooded area.
The
barricades lifted, and the road stretched far in front of Fran. Her hair, now just below her shoulders,
whipped back as the jeeps sped down the tracks.
Max
would be at Jam Pony or Logan's. Either
way, she wanted to deal with Logan last.
Fran felt the urge to see the look on his smug face when he finds out
that Max has been recaptured. There are
no regrets, there is no hesitation.
Just the instinct to kill.
Max
looked at the entrance to Jam Pony, and checked her watch. Herbal Thought was late, yet again.
"Bet
he's stoned!" She laughed at this comment from Original Cindy, and dumped
her pack on the floor.
"Come
on people, bip bip bip!"
Max
shot a 'you say that again and you die' look at Normal, who backed off toward
the entrance to Jam Pony, where he looked down the alley.
"Look
people, I don't pay you to stand around and gawp!"
Max
and Original Cindy walked over to Normal, and saw what he and most of the other
employees of Jam Pony was looking at.
Two jeeps filled with Manticore soldiers coming down the street...with
Fran leading the way.
For
a second Max froze. It would only be a
matter of time before Fran became one of them again, and told them where she
was. Though, Max had hoped that Fran
hadn't been re-captured, that she had just left and gone somewhere else. Guess she was wrong.
Original
Cindy looked in Max's direction, but she was already gone.
Max
could hear her own heart beating as she ran quickly down the back way of Jam
Pony, and she jumped onto the roof of the place next to Jam Pony. She looked around, and saw the jeeps coming
down the road next to her. She lay down
on the gritty housetop, and listened until they drove past.
"Get
off the ground sis"
Max
jumped up, seeing Fran for the first time.
She looked for any expression on her face, but she saw just the coldness
and evil that Manticore tends to pump into you.
"Why
did you go back Fran?"
"Because
dear sister, I was ill. Not something
that you or Logan could of solved, oh, speaking of Logan, how is the famous
Eyes Only?"
Max
didn't give anything away in her face.
"You
know? How?"
"I
joined the dots, Max. Look, I ain't
here to make small talk. You are coming
back home, big sister."
Without
another word Fran jumped forward and engaged Max in hand-to-hand combat. Fran released all the hate and envy that had
been building up Max and all the other X-5's out on her. She threw kick after punch, Max blocked as
best she could.
Fran
kicked out Max's leg, and she fell to the floor. Max pulled herself up again, with all the weight on her other
leg, she hit Fran hard in the side.
Fran took it and kicked out Max's other leg. This time Max couldn't get up.
"Fran,
please don't" Max said as she struggled to pick herself up.
Fran
looked down coldly at her, and their eyes met.
Fran saw the fear and pain in hers, and then she remembered the day of
the escape.
Zack
assigned me under Max's protection, and when we all split up she took me across
the icy wasteland and into the forest.
She
told me not to worry, that we really would escape and be free.
When
one of our group was tracked down and caught, we hid under the ice until the
soldiers moved.
Then
we were separated. I was left alone to
escape by myself; somehow I got past the perimeter.
I
will never forget what Max said to me before we split up:
"I
know that we will see each other again, just remember, your big sister will
always be here."
Fran
saw the love in her eyes, and as she bent down, she cradled her big sisters
head in her arms.
"Get
away from her!"
Fran
looked up, and saw Zack standing on the roof in front of her. He had a magnum aimed at her, and Fran knew
that she had to leave.
She
hugged her sister for the last time, and whispered her ear,
"Thank
you"
In
a flash Fran was up, and Zack let off rounds of ammo at her back. But Fran was too fast. She dived off the building and rolled on the
ground below. She knew that Zack
wouldn't follow, and she looked for one of her units.
