"Float Like A Butterfly"
Chapter 2: Share and Share Alike
by: Mochaije

Disclaimer: I do not own Dark Angel or its characters. Other than that, the story and characters are mine.
Summary: Max and Logan's relationship hits some deadly turbulence when they explore feelings for other people... Meanwhile, he asks her to go on a mission that she likely won't come back from. Bold type is... Well, you'll find out so on enough! Some swearing.
Rating: PG 13

Max dismounted her bike at the back door of the Crash and batted at the kickstand with her foot. She heard someone behind her and turned. A blonde man, a couple years older than her, looked pretty pissed off. "What's up, Zack?"

"Ima came over to your place looking for you. She wants to meet you at some warehouse a few blocks from here," he grunted.

"Well hot diggity damn," she said sarcastically. "I've got a date with some uber-super-human telepath chick. At a warehouse I've never heard of before."

"It sounds pretty wierd to me, too," Zack observed. Max climbed back on her bike and he climbed on with her.

"You need me to drop you off at the Quik-E-Mart or something?" She asked, revving the bike.

"No. I'm coming with you," he yelled over the motor.

------

Zack and Max stood at the doors of the warehouse and a red-headed woman in a duster walked up. A small, hand-held machine glistened in the moonlight, held by her right hand.

"Hey. Come here a moment, Max," Ima nodded towards the curly-haired brunette that faced her.

"How 'bout you make me?"

"I would," Ima murmered, sauntering over, "but I haven't got my badge on... I'm not a born and bred telepath, you know. Just a regular human being. Turn around and hold still." Zack chuckled and Max belted him in the gut, then obeyed the woman. Ima ran the small metallic machine across the barcode on the back of Max's neck and then pulled away.

"There we go," she replaced the handheld scanner-like object in her coat. "Not a single reason for Manticore to track you down. Welcome to normalcy."

"What?" Max spat.

"You were tampered with after birth, Max. Your X5 abilities aren't... Shall we say.. Handcoded," Ima said, pacing in front of Max, watching her anger slowly build.

"Gee, how on earth will I kick ass now... What's that.. Like this?" Max jumped into a flurry of kicks and punches, all of which hit Ima, knocking her to the ground. Zack looked on, amazed. She was even faster and stronger than she had been before. She remained in a fight stance, looming over Ima. "Experience, darling, is more than enough." She knocked her out, then helped Zack tie Ima to a chair in the corner of the warehouse, then stood in the middle of the abandoned factory.

"Alright, let's go," Zack told her, pulling off his jacket. "Hit me." Max shook her head at him and walked towards the doors, but her brother chased after her. She flung him across the room in a single blow.

"There, I hit you. Let's get back to Crash," she nodded her head towards the door and realized how hard she had hit her brother. He groaned and rolled over from his spot on the floor, and she ran towards him. Zack held his abdomen and looked up at her.

"What the hell was that?"

-----

Zack walked to Max's apartment, even though she offered him a ride. She apologised to him, but he didn't turn around.

What the hell is his problem? All I did was hit him... I just hit him the way I usually would, when we fight for real like that. I'm more powerful for some reason--but wouldn't Ima take away my abilities, not compound them? This is fucking wierd... Maybe Logan will know what to do. He usually does, he's a smart guy. Ugh, I just wish that Zack would wake up and realize that he's more to me than a brother.. He always has been... Or maybe he's just mad that I kicked his ass and only hit him once...

What the hell is her problem? I tell her to hit me and she sends me flying across the room. Maybe I'm just overreacting. I'll have to talk to her when she gets back. I hope she knows that I'm just pissed because she can ovverpower me--I'm not used to losing before I can even think about winning.

Max decided to break into Logan's apartment the old-fashioned way. Not through the roof, though. She picked the door and opened it quietly, peeked inside. Asha and Logan were talking about something in he kitchen--she could hear mumbling, but that was it, so she used her super-sensitive hearing. She could hear hair move, pant legs brush against each other, vegetables creak as a knife sliced through them. It scared the shit out of her.

"How do we know who is even doing this? Or where they are?" Asha asked in her usual, semi-ditz fashion. Max spoke like that sometimes, but not as of late. She could hear Asha fingering Logan's shirt, and his voice almost deafened her.

"We don't," he said, but in a tone he only used when he talked to Max. Softer, gentler. She leaned agsint the door and listened to the rest of their conversation. She stopped using her heightened hearing and peeked around the door as Logan unsuccessfullydodged Asha's kiss. Ugh, and with tongue, too! Stupid bastard. Max silently closed the front door, but the two heard the click as the bolt closed.

"Who's there?" Came Logan's voice. She hurriedly punched the only elevator button on the wall--which was the down button, because Logan was on the top level--and waited, blinking back tears. That stupid bastard lied to me. "She's not really my girlfriend," he says. Just a replacement butt-kicker. Fuck. And to think that I almost told him that I-- The elevator's doors opened smoothly and Logan's swung wide.

"Max. Look, I didn't want you to find out like this--"

"Don't even fucking bother," she interrupted, shaking her head and stepping into the elevator. "I'm just glad that you already signed up another butt-kicker, because I don't wish to assosciate with you anymore."

"Max, please..." The doors glided shut.

-----

Max knocked on her door and ended up having to open it herself. She went in, silent, and made herself coffee. She sat on the couch tiredly, but the figure she was sitting on contested. She apologised to Zack again, then sat in an armchair and sipped her coffee. It was almost eleven at night. She finished her drink and put it down on the coffee table. After about an hour or so of sitting there, she began concentrating on the coffee cup, imagining it rising. And it did. This suprised her so much that she released her hold on it and it returned to the table with a terriffic smash. Zack woke up.

"Mmmff... What are you...breaking," he mumbled, rolling over and going back to sleep. Max got up and returned with a hand sweeper, cleaned up the broken mug. Some writing on a broken piece of glass from the mug caught her eye. The coffee cup had been one of those cheesy "Your Name in Twenty Languages", and it looked to be Logan's. She held it between her left thumb and forefinger and stared at it. The piece she had picked up showed Logan's name in beautiful cursive writing. She smashed it with those fingers alone and began shaking, suddenly aware of her immense power.

Max finished cleaning and went back to sitting in the armchair, then practised on unbreakable objects, like a small stuffed animal on the kitchen counter. She moved it from the counter to her lap and back again, several times. She found that she could pick up the fridge as well, with the same ease. It didn't seem to matter how heavy something was. She moved her shoes to her feet and put them on with her mind, then carefully tied them after many tries. Max moved things around the room for a few hours, completely amused. The sun looked to be coming up soon and she decided to try at making cereal--open the cupboards and the cereal box, pour it in a bowl, put it away, pour the milk in the bowl, put the milk back in the fridge.. By the time she had sat down to eat her Cheerios, she had a terrible headache and didn't even try to open the Tylenol bottle with her mind. Max swallowed the pill and ate her cereal.

"Mmff... Max?" Zack sat up and rubbed the sleep from his eyes.

"Yo yo yo," Max said, some milk and a Cheerio dribbling down her chin. She mopped it up with a tea towel and went back to eating.

"Shouldn't talk with your mouth full," he said observantly. She rolled her eyes and they were quiet for a moment. Max spoke first.

"I went over to Logan's last night, to ask him about something... And I could hear everything... Like, when I used my more sensitive hearing.. I could hear my own heat beast, I could hear cloth rubbing together.. It was really deafening," she twirled her spoon in her cereal absent-mindedly.

"Yeah, I kinda figured you were a bit more revved-up than usual," he told her, like he already knew that her hearing was over-senstized.

"So anyways, I--" Cindy walked in.

"Mornin', boo, and... Zack, right?" Original Cindy was wearing grey pajama pants and bright orange spaghetti-strap top. She turned to Max. "Is he one of yo' Manticore buddies?" Max nodded and the door opened, revealing a sleepy Logan.

"Get the hell out," she said, without even turning to face him. Zack and Cindy glanced at each other, confused, and Logan walked in anyway. He sat down across from Max at the breakfast table, and she refused to return his gaze. Original Cindy sat down on the couch beside Zack.

"This is gonna be interestin'," she whispered, getting a nudge in the ribs for a response.

"I said to get the hell out, as in out of my apartment," Max said, looking down at her soggy cereal.

"Look, Max, I'm sorry, can we just talk about that later--" She gazed at his face for a moment.

"No, we can't, because there's nothing to discuss. Say your spiel about the other thing and then get the hell out."

"Your buddies plan to set off another Pulse and I can't say anything about it because you'll have to kill me, remember," he said bitterly. "So I was wondering if you could ever so kindly go in and disarm the bomb."

"Hello, they're telepaths," she said, getting up to throw out her cereal. "They could stop me. It's pointless." She bit her tongue to avoid telling Logan that she was also a telepath, or she'd be in his service for a long time.

"Couldn't you at least try?"

"Try to get myself killed, you mean? Fuck no," she whispered. "First you cheat on me and now you want me to go on a useless suicide mission. Fuck you." The two on the couch were a little shell-shocked by Max's words.

"I was talking to Ima," he told her, unshaken by what she had just said, "and she said that there's small pins that you can wear, and no one can do anything with their mind to anything within ten feet of it."

"Fine. But after this, I never want to see you again." There wasn't any hate in her words.

"Fine."

"Fine." They stared at each other for almost ten minutes, then Zack announced that he was going to go take a shower.

-----

Max walked into Logan's aprtment with her hands over her eyes this time. She could only sense two people in the apartment--but they weren't very close to one another--and took her removed her hands from her face. Asha sat on the couch, Logan sat across from her in a chair . They seemed to have been talking, but they turned to the door when she came in.

"Hi. Sorry for being a bitch, but y'know, getting cheated on hurts my feelings." Max secretly promised herself to get back at Logan in some way, but not right now. "So, where's this pin thing?"

"Actually, it's a necklace, Ima couldn't get us a pin," Logan told her, walking over. He placed the necklace in her hand and caught her gaze. "I'm sorry."

Max didn't say anything to that. She undid the clasp and put the necklace around her neck, then redid the clasp. It was a silver chain, with a small ruby pendant rimmed in silver. The pendant didn't seem to be bigger than a small child's fingernail. She fingered it for a second, then looked up at Logan, and spoke without malice. "What happens if they get a hold of some more nukes?"

"Their accounts have all been frozen... I doubt that'll happen."

There was a long, uncomfortable pause. "Okay. I'm going to go get Zack then." She nudged the necklace so that it went under her shirt and left.

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CHAPTER THREE PREVIEW

"We weren't going out at the time, remember?" Logan told her. "And how do you know all this, Ima?"

"People tell you a lot when they're stoned on moraphine from having a heart transplant. How come you didn't explain any of this to Max?"

"It wasn't important." Asha just observed their conversation. Ima and Logan clashed in every way but personality. Holier than thou, with two parts compassion and one part arrogance, especially with each other...

-----

"We've got company," Max whispered, snipping the final wire. She tucked the nuke closed and replace her wire cutters. The lack of security in the place irked her to the bone. Where they so arrogant to think that no one would find out that they were sitting on nukes? She heard Zack load a clip into his gun, and stopped him with a hand on his arm. "I could throw them into a wall and snap their necks without lifting a finger," she continued in her hushed tone. "No need for firepower." Zack replaced the gun with a sigh. They slipped back out of the nuke holding room and a taser slammed into Max's side. She let out a scream and collapsed into seizures beside Zack.