By Valjean
An Invitation
The military wasn't going to wait much longer. Everyone was gathered around the television sets in the command center, listening to the sector police chief and a National Guard major giving a speech about how this intolerable situation would soon be resolved.
"Resolved how?" Dix asked.
"How do you think?" Mole said. "By killin' all the mutants."
"I'd like to see them try," Max said. "We're well armed and well supplied. They'll take heavy casualties if they try to take us down and I doubt they want that kind of bad PR."
"There's been some movement on the perimeter this morning," Mole pointed out. "Could be they're gettin' ready to launch an assault."
"Ah, you always think the worst," Luke said. "More'n likely they're just rearranging the troops, changing out the ranks."
"Be quiet," Max said, listening to the newscast.
"Our sources inform us that plans are underway to arrange a meeting between the mutant leaders and the military," Channel 9's anchorwoman read. "We'll keep you up-to-date on any new developents in this area."
"I haven't gotten any party invitation," Max said wryly. "I wonder what she's talking about?"
"Maybe about this," Joshua said from the doorway. He was holding up an envelope. "One of the soldiers outside slid this under the barricade."
Max walked down the steps and took the envelope from Joshua. Tearing it open, she read what was inside, then turned to the others. "They want two of us to come to the sector police station so we can start negotiating. They guarantee our safe passage."
"I'll go with you," Joshua said.
Max smiled. "I appreciate the offer, but I think you'd make them nervous, Big Fella."
"That leaves me out, too," Mole said, chewing on his cigar. "Who you gonna take then? Logan?"
"No," Max said, not liking what she knew she had to say. "Logan's not one of our kind." Her eyes scanned the room, but she didn't see the one she knew she needed. "Does anyone knew where Alec is?"
"Exactly what do we know about these transgenics?" Major Donahue asked. He'd only recently arrived in Seattle to take over the National Guard operations and had yet to be completely briefed on the Terminal City situation.
A man in a white lab coat, Dr. Chin, shuffled through a stack of papers until he found what he was looking for. Then he turned to the major. "In a nutshell, sir, they're supersoldiers. Created by a secret branch of our own government over the past 30 years in a program called 'Manticore.' Last year the program was ordered shut down, but something happened and these creatures escaped into the outside world -- hundreds of them."
"I know something about the mutants," the major said, his distaste evident. "I've seen the newscasts, the filmed footage, the autospsy reports. Most of them seem to be bizarre enough looking that they won't have any way of hiding even if they do escape from Terminal City. The ones I'm worried about are the X series. Their exterior human appearance would allow them to infiltrate our race, breed, perhaps one day challenge mankind's very existance. I want to know about the X's and what they're capable of."
"The X series were Manticore's most successful attempt to meld human and animal DNA," Dr. Chin said. "The X1's, 2's, and 3's aren't exactly human looking. Their appearances reflect their animal DNA in fairly obvious ways. The X4's were better, but they can still be recognized as nonhuman. Some have canine teeth, or the remnants of a tail -- possible to hide but discernable if you look closely enough. Our real problem are the X5's."
"What's so special about them?" Donahue asked.
"They're Manticore's crowning achievement, their success story. The X5's are completely human looking on the exterior, but they have incredible speed and strength due to the addition of feline DNA and other genetic tampering. In addition, our autopsies indicate their senses are enhanced -- night vision, super acute hearing, taste and smell. Their immune systems are also revved up. Oh, and according to our inside source, their average I.Q. is in the 185 range. They may have other attributes as well that we just don't know about yet. There are even rumors of extrasensory perception abilities. We've autopsied two X5 bodies, a male and a female. However, their DNA is so complex it could take us years to unravel and understand everything their creators did in the lab."
"Aren't there X6's and 7's?"
"Yes, sir. And eights. However, according to our source who worked with the Manticore project, the series beyond the X5's were actually somewhat un-enhanced."
"Explain."
"The X5's were incredible physical specimans, but their handlers determined they had several major psychological flaws. Their creators made them far too aggressive, self-reliant and independent which led to rogue behavior. It was also later decided that certain emotional factors should have been eliminated. There was an attempt to correct these flaws in the later models, make them more passive."
"In a military scenario the X5's would be the leaders, the officers, and the others their army," Donahue said. "An X5 is leading the creatures, correct?"
"Yes, sir," the police chief said. "And our source has given us specifics about her, X5-452."
Another man who had been standing to one side in the room now spoke up. "Excuse me, gentlemen, but they're not creatures. I encountered several of these people during the incident at the Jam Pony Messenger building that preceded the current situation. Some of them are as human as you or I. And right now, I imagine they're just as scared of us as we are of them."
"Major," the police chief said. "This is Detective Clemente, the officer who I'm afraid allowed the mutants to escape into Terminal City several weeks ago."
"I personally spoke with 452," Clemente continued, ignoring the criticism. "Her name, by the way, is Max. She's a brave and beautiful young woman who seems to have a very level head on her shoulders. I'm sure if you speak with her and don't threaten her people all of this could be resolved peacefully."
"Oh, we intend to speak with her," Donahue said. "An invitation has already been issued. If she accepts, and we talk face-to-face, I have an offer ready that will indeed quickly end this intolerable situation."
"What kind of offer?" Clemente asked.
"An offer for all of the mutants to surrender to the military," Donahuse said. "Technically, they're military property anyway, the same as a tank, or a gun, or a missile. If it weren't so messy, we would probably be better off simply cleansing the entire Terminal City area, taking it down to the dirt. It's not as if they're people or even animals. They're things."
The police chief cleared his throat.
Donahue looked at him. "But there are some objections to performing such a radical military action in the middle of a populated area. Therefore, we will negotiate with 452. However, the end result will be the same, the mutants will be eliminated from the general population. Whether this happens peacefully, or with a massacre, is going to be up to 452."