Max awoke with a stiff neck.

Max awoke with a stiff neck. Most likely awakened by the sound of Bling arriving. She groaned and rubbed at the offending muscles, noticing with some surprise that she'd been sleeping on the couch instead of the bed in the guest room. That made her remember the conversation she'd had with Bree. She smiled slightly, then stretched as she got off the couch.

Making her way in to Logan's kitchen, she found him hard at work making starting breakfast. "Making another culinary miracle?" Max asked from the doorway.

Logan looked up and smiled, "Attempting to."

"I'm sure it'll be good, I'm starved. I'm sure everyone else is too. Need some help?"

Logan nodded silently, engrossed in whisking something in a bowl. He pointed to the fridge. "I should have some eggs left in there. remind me, when this is all over, to grab some more from the market."

"Sure." Max replied easily. "So, where's the girls?"

"Well, Cindy's in the washroom, cleaning up..."

"And Bree?"

Logan looked up, suddenly. "I thought she was sleeping on the couch."

"She was, we both fell asleep there ... An' I got the neck to prove it." She rubbed at it, easing the knot out. "Maybe she went an' grabbed a bed sometime in the night. Wouldn't blame her." Max smirked.

"You gonna go check on her?"

"Naw, she's a big girl," Max replied.

"Funny, the way you went about it, you'd think she was your little sister."

"She is my little sister," Max replied, giving him a look, "But I don't wanna wake the girl. She barely had anything to eat or drink in the past few months, I'm sure. She'll need all the strength she can get to get her through this."

Original Cindy wandered in to the kitchen then, "Mmm, what's the man cooking this morning."

Logan looked at her, a bemused smile stretched on his face. "Nothing yet," he replied. "Soon, I hope it'll be crepes and eggs. Best I can do on short notice."

"Whuteva, food sounds good to Original Cindy right now. Any food. Zack pounding on my door interrupting my dinner didn't exactly do wonders for my stomach, a'ight?"

"Right," Max replied.

"Ahh, so where's my other girl at?" Cindy asked, walking in to the living room.

A bolt of panic shot through Max's veins then. "She's not in the guest room?" she asked quickly, following Cindy.

"Naw, last time I saw her she was sittin'on that couch over there by tha' window, starin'in to the night." she replied.

Max turned around, walking quickly through the kitchen to check the bedrooms.

"Max?" Logan asked from the kitchen as she raced back through after a moment. "Max!"

She came back in to the kitchen. "Bree's gone, she isn't in the apartment." Max said quickly, "I gotta go look for her."

"I'm sure she hasn't gone too far-" Logan began, putting down the bowl and whisk.

"Logan." She looked him in the eyes, "she doesn't have to go far in order for Lydecker to see her and grab her!"

Zack, probably awakened from all the noise, came in to the kitchen on full alert, standing beside Original Cindy. "What's going on?" he asked.

"Bree's gone," Max replied, stuffing her feet in to her shoes.

"Dammit," Zack swore, turning on his heel and heading back in to the other room. He quickly returned, shoes on, and met Max on her way out of the kitchen. The two of them left, closing the door loudly, and almost running down the hall.

"Damn," Original Cindy said, still in her bathrobe. "This ain't soundin' too good." She headed in to the other room, quickly throwing on some clothes.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

"Bree!" a voice called out behind her. Bree turned around, a half smile on her face at the sound of her name.

"Hey," she greeted Sketchy as he pulled up on his messenger bike.

"Hey yourself, Normal's freaking, raving on and on about you Max and Original Cindy. You guys plannin' on showing for work today or what?"

"Uhh," Bree replied, "actually I don't think that-"

"Normal's freakin'especially on your ass, you're on trial, remember?"

Bree stopped talking. She shouldn't go. Shouldn't. But she found herself walking with Sketchy as he moved down the side of the road on his bike. "I'm headin'back, you can hop on the bars," Sketchy pointed out.

"Nah, it's okay," she replied, thinking about how she'd left this morning when everyone was sleeping. She should go back. Or call.

"You are comin'back with me, right?"

"I can't, I've really gotta get back to Max and them..." she began.

"Come on, " Sketchy pleaded with his eyes. "Plus, we're just about there, see." He pointed ahead. "At least come in an' tell Normal you can't work it today."

Bree stopped when she realized how close she really was to Jam Pony. She saw Herbal come through the doors on his bike, then recognize her. He called something back in to the shop and a few seconds later Normal stepped outside, the headphones hanging over his ear and packages in his arms.

"You are on trial!" he snapped, "Remember that. Not to mention you've already gotten yourself in trouble. Already been people here searching you out. It took even Max a few weeks to make that happen!"

Bree didn't move, instead she stared in awe. "Listen, Normal, I can't work it today, I... I really have to get home to my mom, she's sick. I gotta make a run to the drug store and grab her some stuff, and head back. It's really bad. I just thought I'd stop by and let you know," she said, looking at Sketchy, and warning him not to say anything.

"Yeah, yeah, you tell Max to stop telling you to use the same excuses she does!" he said.

Bree sighed and shook her head. It was only then that she noticed the white van parked across the street. Nondescript. It wouldn't have looked out of place at all, if the two people in the front hadn't been staring at her and talking on a walkie-talkie.

Lydecker spotted her first, pride swelling in his chest as he saw his girl. All grown up now... she'd be seventeen right now.

"Ten-Six all teams," he ordered over the radio. He hadn't know it was going to be this easy. Part of him thought there'd be more of a fight to it.

"Ten-Four, alpha team," a reply came back. Bravo team followed answer.

He waited for the right moment.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Max and Zack split up, Max using her bike and Zack using the recon method of jumping rooftops and sneaking in shadows. She headed right for Jam Pony. Probably a dumb move, but at least she could check in with her peeps there, see if any one had seen Bree.

Doubt filled her mind, and she found herself hoping against hope that Bree was safe. Maybe she'd just gone to grab something from their apartment, or maybe to get some food. Or even if she'd just gone to work Max could hunt her down by catching a glimpse of the run she'd taken. Being on the streets wasn't exactly the smart thing to be doing at the moment.

They didn't even have their army in place.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Jani arrived in Seattle precisely four hours after the she'd hung up on Zack. Luckily she'd had a map stored away for some reason, and it took her only seconds to memorize her route she would take. //Give me a few minutes guys, don't be starting the fight without me now.//

Jani flew past the stores on the streets, then saw Jam Pony. //That is the place where Max works,// she thought. Zack mentioned it at one point in their past conversati ons. A white van was parked on the street, and she flew past, glancing in the driver side window. It took her a block to realize and register what she'd seen. She stepped on the brakes, turning around a sharp corner and parked the car she'd raced to Seattle in. Then walked up the street a little, ducking in to an alley and watching the people in the white van.

//Lydecker.// She almost spat the name. He was seated in the passenger seat, talking on a radio and staring across the street at a girl.

She moved her eyes around, focusing on the surrounding buildings and spotting Lydecker's men. Zack had mentioned that they had the place scoped out, but what was with all the people. She counted half a dozen. And those were only the ones she could see. Which meant they had at least a dozen hiding elsewhere, just waiting for a signal.

The roar of a motor cycle filled the street then, and Jani turned to look down at the bike, swerving through traffic... It was then she recognized the person on it. Max.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Zack followed the general direction Max headed, creating short cuts along his way. Jumping through alleys where it was appropriate, until he knew Max was headed for Jam Pony. Suddenly it seemed like the smartest place to first go. He followed suite

.~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Logan watched as Original Cindy dialed a number on the phone, then pressed it to her ear. As if answering his questioning glance she spoke up.

"I know my girls like running around the city, but Original Cindy's got some sense in her too, an'she say call the obvious place first."

"Normal," Original Cindy snapped to attention as the phone was answered.

"Well, isn't this just a regular get together. You, young lady, better get your butt over here or you're gonna be looking for a new job," he demanded.

"'Lax, Normal, is Max or Bree there?"

"Of course, like I said, a regular get together."

"Well damn Normal, which one is it? Max or Bree."

"Both." Normal replied.

"Great, thanks Normal."

"Hey, you ain't getting out of it that easy missy, you better get your-" She cut him off, hanging up the phone on him.

Logan raised his eyebrows in question. "Our girls are down at Jam Pony. Now all we gotta do is go an' pick 'em up." she said, grabbing her shoes.

A knock came on the door. "Bling, can you answer that!" Logan called out loud.

The door opened a few seconds later. Logan rolled out in to the living room to see who it was.

"Logan," Bling said, keeping the door slightly open. "Person here askin' for Max."

"Open the door." Logan told him. He opened it, but still stood there. "Which one are you?" he asked the girl, standing there, long blonde hair falling over her shoulders.

"Syl." the girl replied.

"Great, just in time to go on a road trip," he told her, she looked at him, backing up a step. "They're down at Jam Pony." He replied. Cindy gave the address and a look of recognition flew in to the girl's eyes.

"What is it?" Logan asked quickly.

"Jam Pony?" she asked.

"Yeah, so?"

"Yeah, so on my way here I spotted Lydecker's men setting up camp. Looked like they were ready for action. If Max is down there, you might want to warn them to get out of there." she said. Without another word she turned and ran down the hall.

Original Cindy dove back in to the kitchen and grabbed the phone, dialing once more.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Tinga slipped past the border guards and back into the good ol'United States of America with surprising ease. //Funny.// Tinga thought. //They don't want to let you out but they don't care who slips in. Typical.// With a shrug Tinga continued on her way. She felt guilty that she hadn't woken Charlie before she'd left, but after all that they'd been through in the past few months she knew that she wouldn't have gotten out of the door without an argument.

It'd been bad enough having to run off in the middle of the night once, and it had been almost three weeks before Zack had let her on her own. There was no way that Zack would have allowed her to contact them if he'd known. So she'd just waited it out and then sent Charlie a message. Charlie had not been happy. But he had come. Tinga, Penny to non-X5's, had always told him that there were parts of her past that she could never share with him. He hadn't liked it but what could he do? When he'd asked for an explanation she'd given him the only answer she could.

"We all have our demons Charlie." She'd told him. "Some of mine are flesh and blood and they found me in Portland. I would have only gotten you and Case hurt by trying to come back to you."

"So what?" Charlie had asked. "Every time trouble comes you're just gonna run?"

"My demons come carrying semi-automatic machine guns Charlie. Yes, when trouble comes I will run. I will run to take it as far away from you and Case as possible. But I will always come back to you. Or get you to me."

Yeah, Charlie hadn't liked it, but he knew she had a dark past. Kind of hard to miss considering how many times she woke up screaming or crying even these days. Tinga sighed, and then she smiled. She was going to see baby sister Max, an d from what she could tell baby sis had somehow managed to swing a family reunion. Sure it was likely to be a family reunion on the battle field but that was somehow poetic for genetically engineered killing machines, wasn't it? \par \par "All by the grace of God." Tinga whispered to herself. "Even for those not made by }{\i\cf1 H}{\cf1 is hand."~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~"Dammit!" Jondy yelled as she slammed the hood down on her overheating car. "Dammit! Dammit! Dammit!" Here she was, stuck in the middle of nowhere with steam erupti ng from the remains of her vehicle. Just then a loud *crack* could be heard and boiling water started to spew forth from under her car. Deciding that this was more than she could take Jondy began to attack the car. She continued to send kicks and punches at it until a voice pulled her out of her rage. \par \par "You alright?" A male voice asked her. \par \par She turned to look at the person speaking. A young male, maybe twentieth, likely Hispanic in a very tidy looking jeep. "Not really." She replied with a shrug. "Stupid piece of shit." \par \par "Where you heading?" He asked. \par \par "Seattle." She muttered. \par \par "Same." He replied. "Want a lift?" \par \par Jondy grabbed her bag and tossed it in the back of the Jeep. "Thanks." She replied. \par \par "No biggy." The guy replied. "I'm Krit." He added extending his hand. \par \par "Jondy." Jondy replied. \par \par Krit froze. "Jondy as in 'big brother Zack's gonna kick my a** if I don't get to Seattle quick smart'Jondy?" He asked looking at her carefully. \par \par "Krit as in 'big brother Zack's gonna kick my a** if I don't get to Seattle quick smart'Krit?" \par \par "That'd be the one." Krit replied. \par \par "Oh that's be bloody typical." Jondy replied with a laugh. "My knight in shining armor would turn out to be family." \par \par Krit pulled a face and started up the jeep. "Missed ya too big sis." He replied sarcastically. \par \par }}