"Where is she?" Tristan demanded, pushing Mack into the bar. The club was empty and it was dawn.
"Beats me. The damn bitch disappeared for a break and haven't seen her since." Mack was not an attractive man. He was hairy, balding, and had a pot belly.
"I am going to repeat this one more time.." Tristan muttered.
"Where the fuck is she?" A voice rang out. "I've searched her apartment and the entire city. Where the fuck is she?"
Tristan and Mack looked at the entrance to see a dangerous-looking brunette man and an equally dangerous-looking brunette woman behind him.
"I tried getting an answer out of him, 49—Alec. The man won't budge." Tristan replied, standing up straight.
"At ease, soldier." The woman muttered sarcastically. "It's only Alec."
"And this would be Max." Alec introduced his companion before grabbing 'Mack' by the collar. "Where the fuck is Vada?"
"Jesus, the girl isn't that good-looking." Mack murmured.
"Mack, meet Alec. Her big brother. Kind of." Tristan introduced Alec before shaking Max's hand. "X6-528."
Max nodded. "Got a name to go with that? Or are you still living in the fantasy world of Manticore-Will-Rise-Again?"
"Tristan." He murmured. And he saw it. It was 492, Vada's—
"Got a picture of her?" Max demanded.
"Hello? Do we seem like the kind of people that would like to have pictures of ourselves just lying around?" Tristan whispered. Max rolled her eyes.
"That's right. What does she look like?" Max said in a hushed tone.
Tristan appraised the transgenic in front of him. "Like you, minus a few years. She's seventeen but she looks twenty-one. Adores black-cherry lip gloss, red sparkly clothing, black leather, those NYC Pen Pals solid cologne thingies.."
Max grinned. This guy had a crush on her if the word crush ever fit anyone better.
"She was SEVENTEEN?" Mack demanded, only to be pushed even further against the not-so-smooth surface of the bar.
"Well?" Alec snapped.
"Well, there was this one guy. Black leather, blonde- Spent the whole night with her and followed her into the lounge when she took her break." Mack said slowly.
"Damn." Alec let go of the pathetic man and swept out of the club. "Let's go, Max."
Max was not exactly the following, quiet and meek type. But she followed Alec anyway. And Tristan followed in pursuit.
Vada woke up groggily. "Damn Tristan. Never has his stupid hangover kit around when you need it."
She tried reaching for a bar, a pole, anything-- and found that her hands were in handcuffs. She rolled her eyes. "Oh, please. Even with a hangover, they can't honestly think--"
She didn't finish her sentence, just pulled her arms apart and the strong metal chain linking the two wristlets broke.
She looked around, dizzy. She didn't know where she was. She was still in the clothes of the night before.
And she slightly remembered the night before. She was—Dare she even think it? Kidnapped?
She looked around her. Who would want to kidnap her and keep her alive? White would just murder her in her drunken sleep.
But then she remembered Alec's speculation about White—That perhaps the government had wised up and figured out their biggest assets were brain-washed superhumans.
The dizzy feeling came back again.
"You'd be surprised what the Virus looks like now." 510 was muttering. "Definitely what the ideal breeding partner is."
"Isn't she--.." 534 began, but there was a bang in the cafeteria. The occupants of the room had their eyes on the door in a second flat.
Two X7s, on either side of a brunette girl, were holding her up by the arms and she was kicking and screaming and they almost lost their grip. Almost.
"Is that her?" 521 asked, his eyes appraising her quickly.
510 nodded. The two X7s escorted her to their table and handcuffed her down. She smiled at them sweetly and they left.
When they were out of sight, she snapped all of the handcuffs in two.
"I may be hung-over, tired, hungry and confused, but they need a lot more than HANDCUFFS to keep me down." She muttered, grabbing 510's sandwich.
"I was eating that!" He protested, and she shot him a look. At first, it was angry, but then, it was confused.
"I know you from somewhere." She whispered, before finishing the sandwich. "Thanks."
"I wish she had god damn listened to me!" Alec was shouting, punching a wall. Max looked on silently with wide eyes. "She's so god damn stubborn and for all we know, she could be fucking dead."
"She's too smart for that." Tristan snapped, taking a sharp turn.
"Why do I have to be here?" Max asked after a moment.
"Because she's your fucking sister." Alec shouted at her, glaring at her having audacity to talk.
Max then knew that something was wrong. Very, very wrong. Alec never lost his temper. He was always cool, casual, calm, collected and cocky. And wasn't everyone at Manticore related?
"Where are we?" He demanded shortly, taking his eyes off of Max and directing his glare at Tristan.
"Our apartment." Tristan had Alec's normal demeanor. Cool, casual, calm, collected and cocky. You could tell just by the way he talked to Alec. As if he was a silly little boy wasting Tristan's time. "You've been here, supposedly."
Alec was tight-lipped, though Max knew he would have said, "You bastard! You can't talk to me like that! I can snap your neck in two without blinking!"
But of course, Max knew Alec wasn't acting normal at all. And come to think of it, neither was she.
Vada looked at the walls around her and screamed.
"I look horrible in gray. HORRIBLE." She shouted. "And does ANYONE ask me if they want to kidnap me and turn me into the star attraction at the Manticore Museum of Weirdos? NO!"
"And what is with this 510 person? Who the HELL is he?"
She couldn't believe that she was shouting at the walls.
"Could I be any more pathetic, talking to myself?" She murmured, lying down on her bunk and curling up into a ball.
"What would be more pathetic was if I answered myself."
"And this I am doing."
"I have to get out of here."
"Now."
Vada had had a bad day.
First, it was the food.
The horrible, horrible food.
Then it was the drills.
She realized she hadn't done a push-up since her days with Tony.
And then the whole thinking about Tony thing sort of screwed it up.
And she was hungry.
So she smarted off to her colonel.
And didn't get to eat lunch.
And now, HE had to trip her.
He, the only he that there could be, Vada hated when her thoughts rhymed, was the calm, the cool, the collected, the casual, the cute, the COCKY bastard whose face triggered some nerve in her body.
She whipped around and thoroughly kicked his ass before he had time to think.
And then, she was in the middle of practically killing him when several pairs of hands strongly pulled her away, kicking and screaming.
Tristan looked in surprise at his apartment. It was completely trashed.
He looked back at Alec, who shrugged. Max, the only quiet and sensible one the entire day, looked away.
"I needed Vada. Didn't find her." Alec said flatly.
"I don't see why you don't like me, 494." Tristan growled.
"You slept with a girl that I consider my daughter." Alec snapped, darting in front of Tristan in a second. The two were inches apart and Alec did not look happy.
Tristan kept the same cocky demeanor, looking at Alec simply. "Is it that obvious?"
Max winced when she saw Alec get even angrier. She didn't know what was wrong with her- The fact that she was meekly sitting back and watching this whole ordeal, the fact that she didn't seem to care about this 'sister' or the fact that if this person was her 'sister' that Alec might consider her his daughter too?
Instantly, she ran over, separating the two. "How on earth are we going to find her if you kill each other? I certainly don't know what she looks like!"
Tristan and Alec looked at her as if she was crazy.
"It would be as if you were looking in the mirror." Tristan murmured.
"Don't exaggerate." Alec ordered. But he looked Max over again. "But almost like that. An obvious resemblance."
Max was asking herself why she liked that Alec had his eyes on her. And why was it getting more and more confusing to be helping these two.
"Come on, 734, what is your problem?" White demanded of her. She was being held down by eight X7s, so there was little if no risk. "Still bitter over Anthony's death."
She spat at him. "You fucking bastard of an asshole."
He smiled in a very White way. "Articulate, 734, articulate."
She had her mouth shut.
"Now, darling, you've been raised in this environment. Has four years of the outside really done this to you?" White asked, almost resembling a concerned father.
She growled. "It wasn't the outside that did this to me, it's in my DNA."
White laughed. "What a Manticore excuse. You are the epitome of Manticore."
Vada looked horrified.
At that, White could only laugh more. But he sobered quickly. "Damage one of my Xs ever again and I will personally ensure your life is a living hell. I put a lot of time in finding the best of the best and killed off the stubborn ones. I shall take pleasure in watching you bleed."
She sneered at him, but inside, she was worried.
"In trouble already, 734?" Somebody asked innocently as she stormed out of White's office.
"What the fuck is your problem?" Vada demanded, knowing it was 510 already.
"Well, it starts off with this beautiful athlete hating my guts and trying to kick my ass.."
"Trying? I kicked your ass from here to the next century!" Vada shouted, whipping around.
"You wish." He said cockily, leaning on the wall and smirking.
"I can do it again, if you want proof." Vada hissed.
"734! That is IT! You can't honestly be.." White kept rambling and 510 was still smirking. "To your cell! No dinner!"
Vada was about to protest, but she figured there was no use. She would need breakfast tomorrow morning.