The Second Key
By Be Boring
Chapter 14: Breaking Family Ties
Kay was greeted by a wild fight as she walked into Foggle Towers. Apparently the psy-ops hadn't been able to smooth things over when they came, the other transgenics didn't seem too happy to see them. If she had thought Logan's apartment looked bad after White shot it up, it was nothing compared to what it looked like now. Rather than his fancy walls just having bullet holes in them, half of them had holes the size of a person in them now.
Kay jumped on top of one of the only tables that hadn't been destroyed in the fight and shouted "Come on people, we're not supposed to be fighting each other! The enemy is out there, not in here!"
No one paid her any attention. Finally losing her patience completely, she went about it a different way. "Stop acting like dumbasses and shut the fuck up so you can hear me!"
That got everyone's attention. Funny how everyone just snaps into line when you use foul language. Maybe Manticore should have taken that approach. She remained where she was on the table, looking pointedly at Zeke and slightly tilting her head in the direction of the street. He nodded and was out the door before she started talking again. Now she had to deal with the rest of these idiots.
"What happened?" At the shouts that suddenly started flying at her, she rephrased what she'd said. "What really happened? One person at a time!"
Finally, Joshua stepped out. Kay sighed, at least she would get a straight answer out of him.
"We thought they would attack, so we did it first."
She nodded in understanding, she probably hadn't handled this the right way. It would have been much better if she'd have told the others before bringing the psy-ops in. "Alright, let me explain to everyone what is going on. First of all, the psy-ops only did what they did at the Rec Center because their leader Sate told them to. It's been discovered that Sate was a Familiar, so he was misleading them. They were every bit as much of victims as you were. It's too late to go back now, you're all just going to have to learn to live with each other. I hope that once things settle down for us here, everyone who looks normal, that means both the psy-ops and the X series, can go get jobs. Some of you had previous jobs that you can return to, and for almost everyone else Normal has agreed to let you fill some of his positions that were left open when we got locked in Terminal City. For anyone else that still can't get a job I'm sure we'll be able to find something. We'll have to continuously remove our barcodes so no one gets suspicious, but I'm sure you were expecting that. Are there any questions?"
Joshua stepped forward again and held up Tahira. "What do we do with her? Gem said I take care of her, but Logan don't have diapers."
Kay walked over to him and lifted the baby out of his arms, smiling as the little girl took hold of her finger right away. "We'll find a way to get her back to Gem, she's better off with her mother. Until then, if we get diapers can you keep an eye on her big guy?"
He nodded. "Joshua do it."
She smiled at him. "Thanks. Where's Ray?"
A pull on her pants leg made her look down to see him standing next to her. She almost jumped, she hadn't even heard him approach. It creeped her out that he could sneak up on her so easily despite the fact that her senses were so heightened.
"Where have you been?" he asked innocently.
Every negative thought she had about him went right out the window when she looked down at him looking so sweet. It was hard to believe he would grow up to be an extremely efficient killing machine. "I've just been busy, that's all. What have you been doing while I was away?"
"Playing checkers with him," he said, pointing back at Petey. Turning back to her and whispering like he was telling her some big secret, he added "I'm kicking his butt."
Kay threw back her head and laughed. Knowing Petey, it wasn't really a surprise. "Why don't you go back to doing that? I've got some things to take care of."
He nodded and ran back over to where Petey was sitting by the checkers board. She watched him run off, then headed over to Digit, a transgenic that was strangely similar to Dix.
"I know you and your cameras. Did you happen to tape any of the broadcast that showed me and the X2s in it?"
He nodded nervously, not sure how she would react to him having it on tape. To his surprise, she smiled. "Can I borrow it? I don't know if you'll get it back." He nodded again, still not believing that he wasn't in trouble. After she had the video in her hands, she left the room. Making her way to the basement, she finally found where Zeke had tied Sate up.
"Did you have any problems with him?"
"He tried to get some things to hit me, but that's hard to do when I keep hitting him in the head. Other than that, he hasn't been too bad."
Sate's one good eye glared up at her as he tried to mumble through his gag. Kay gestured to Zeke to remove it. As soon as it was off, she wished she hadn't done that.
"I don't care what you do to me. This is just distracting you from what they're going to do, they will come for me once they've set the Coming into motion. It doesn't matter if you hurt me, it won't hurry them up and it won't affect me. We're superior, you can't make me feel pain."
Kay sneered down at him. "I'd watch it if I were you, I just might take that as a challenge. As much as you like to think you're tough stuff, I can still make you squeal. I plan to do it someday too, just you wait and see. We'll see how well your 'no pain' theory holds up."
His eyes remained on her, but he didn't say anything. She couldn't care less, she just wanted to make sure he was secured. She leaned down to help Zeke finish tying him up, then followed Zeke out into the hall. He looked nervous when he turned to face her.
"Are you sure his people won't come after him?"
"I'm pretty sure. They probably won't even come after Ray. Ames might, but the cult won't back him up. They're not the sweetest bunch. I think they go by the rule 'every man for himself'. Don't you have a pregnant girlfriend waiting for you? You don't have to waste your time down here."
He shrugged. "Natalie's sleeping right now. The trip wiped her out, she's not used to moving around anymore. The baby's due in a couple months, so she doesn't really like moving around. She says being seen in public is embarrassing."
Kay smiled, she couldn't compare but she could see where Natalie was coming from. "Get back to her anyway, I don't see why you'd want to stay down here. He's not going anywhere. Hey, did you drop off his blood sample at the hospital?"
Zeke nodded and headed upstairs. She waited a few more minutes before leaving, she just wanted to make sure Sate couldn't go anywhere, then she headed out of Foggle Towers and went towards Harbor Lights Hospital. She would get Sate's bloodwork from there, then head to JamPony. She managed to nod briskly towards an alley as she passed, knowing the occupants saw her.
Max collapsed on her bed. They had spent most of the afternoon looking for where the transgenics might be, but what they had come across instead was a news broadcast talking about the X2s, Kay, and Sate. Max's eyes had nearly popped out of her head when she saw the Caduceus on Sate's arm. No wonder Kay was letting him get beat up like that. She felt a chill go through her when she saw the X2s again. Why was Kay talking to them? No matter how much she wanted it to go away, the feeling that she was never going to be friends with Kay again was bugging her. It seemed she just couldn't keep people around anymore.
Brin peered through Max's open door, watching her sister with concern. She knew Max was going through a hard time right now, she just hoped she could help. Zack was standing behind her. He still wasn't sure if things were okay again between him and Max, but he wasn't going to push it if she hadn't forgiven him yet. What worried him was that she might blame him for what was going on with the transgenics. After all, he was the one who'd pissed Kay off and probably made her run away. If she hadn't left, they wouldn't be in this situation right now.
Brin finally stepped through the open doorway and walked over to sit next to Max on the bed. Max barely even registered that she knew her sister was there. It felt like she just wanted to melt away and never be seen again, maybe things would be easier that way.
"You don't suppose Manticore gave us the ability to open a hole in the ground and disappear, do you?"
Brin smiled. "Sorry baby sister, you'll just have to do it like everyone else and go get a shovel."
"Nah, I'm too tired. I just wish I knew what was going on. White's gone and probably back with the cult, Logan hasn't called in days, half our people are gone, and I just don't know how I'm going to lead the rest of them!"
"You'll be fine. Who cares if White is with the cult? We're safe in here. Logan will most likely call soon, you know him, he's probably just getting ready to make an Eyes Only broadcast or something like that. It might be easier having less people in Terminal City, we won't need so much supplies. As for the leading, you're not alone. You have so many people around who will gladly help you out that you don't have to worry about anything right now. Why don't we all get out of the city for some fun stuff? Maybe go to Crash like you always talk about or go to JamPony just to see everyone. How does that sound?"
Max smiled serenely while just thinking about it. "That sounds so good right now you wouldn't believe it. As much as I don't want to, we should still get Alec. They were his friends too and he'll probably want to see them. Normal's probably been missing his Golden Boy."
Nearly getting run over by an over-zealous messenger on his motorcycle, Kay managed to get into JamPony without getting hurt. It still looked the same, but it wasn't nearly as full as it used to be. Normal was obviously in need of more workers, and he would need them soon. Making her way over to his counter, she finally caught his attention by whistling sharply. His head snapped up, then he let out a deep breath as he saw her.
"You gave me a scare missy, I almost thought you were one of those federal agents trying to talk to me again. I'm telling you, they've been as thick as flies lately. They're suspicious of me hiring transgenics, as if a decent citizen like myself would ever do such a thing."
A grin crossed both their faces for a second, then Kay leaned in closer. "So you're planning on keeping that promise? I have a lot of people in need of jobs and you're our best shot."
"Don't worry, I never go back on my word. Besides, I can use all the help I can get."
"Good, cuz in the next few days you're going to have a lot more employees showing up."
"What are you going to do with them in the long run? They can't live like this forever."
"I'm hoping they won't have to. When the public knows the truth about who they should really be afraid of, they won't give us a second thought. Then, when we stop their real enemy, maybe they'll even be grateful to us. I know that sounds farfetched, but maybe they'll at least stop hating us so much."
Now Normal leaned in even closer so they wouldn't be heard. "How can you prove that there's something worse than your kind out there?"
Kay held up the tape that she'd been carrying under her jacket. "This is how I can prove it. Is Sketchy here?"
"I'm right here."
Kay turned to look behind her where Sketchy was standing. She had the feeling he had been trying to listen in on the conversation. Holding up the tape so he could see it, she waved it in front of his face. "Want to see it? I guarantee it'll be a good story. I also have other information about these people and ways to prove they exist."
He nodded and both men followed her upstairs to Normal's office. Normal turned on his TV and Kay popped the video in. "There's only one of them on this, the rest on the tape are my kind. I'm sure you've seen it on TV already, but I want you to notice everything there is about the very tall man in the video."
After pressing play, she sat back between the two who were now keeping their eyes on the screen at all times. The first thing that could be seen was the crowd running away from something, then Kay was grabbed by an X2. Once all the ordinaries were out of the picture, it was obvious who was not the transgenic out of the bunch. The X2s didn't look human and they already knew what Kay was. That left Sate, whose Caduceus mark stood out brilliantly against his pale skin. Kay felt Sketchy and Normal shudder when Sate sent one of the X2s flying with just his eyes. Now they were really seeing what this was about. Sketchy turned to Kay.
"It's great that he's telekinetic and all, but aren't there transgenics that can do that too?"
"Yeah, but you don't know the whole story yet. This is just an example of one of these people. I think you can tell that if he was one on one with one of those X2s he'd be able to take them out easily. His only disadvantage here is that he's outnumbered."
When the tape was done playing its course, Kay popped it out. Normal was the first one to speak.
"Is that snake thing on his arm their identifying mark? If so, that's not the best way to find them. All they have to do is wear long-sleeved shirts, and that's pretty common in Seattle."
"They have a greeting too. It's fen'os tol. You probably won't be lucky enough to catch them saying it to each other, but anyone can walk near them and say it to them to see how they react to it. With any luck they'll slip up and say it just because it comes naturally to them."
"What makes them more dangerous than you?"
"They've been around a lot longer. They're some kind of breeding cult that specializes in producing very advanced humans. Every bit of their blood looks like yours, to any doctor they would appear to be perfectly normal. They've been around a long time too, so they come in all ages and colors. They're also all over in the government system. Do you remember the federal agent who first confirmed that there really are transgenics out there?"
Normal nodded immediately. "Agent White? I thought he was a true patriot for doing that."
"Well, he's one of them. His last name isn't White either, it's Sandeman. He changed his name because his father is the one who made the transgenics. Apparently he thought it was time to bring genetics into the cult, but they wouldn't listen. I'm sure you remember the people who started that huge fight here a while back. They're the most powerful in the cult, they're called the Phalanxes. Get this, even Senator McKinley is part of the cult."
That got their attention, especially Sketchy's. That kind of information was gold for a reporter, and he'd had it dropped into his lap! Something like that didn't happen everyday.
"What makes them so dangerous other than being that powerful?" he asked eagerly, wanting to hear more to fill the magazine with. This kind of stuff could become front page news.
"To become an official member of the cult, they have to have snake's blood put in them. Not just any snake either, but a snake with a certain kind of pathogen that would kill any normal person. The lead Phalanx, Thula, was born with this pathogen in her blood. The one in her blood is slightly different from the snake's, it can be changed so it'll be airborne. Once it is in the air, it'll be like an epidemic, it'll knock out everyone who isn't part of the cult. They already have a problem though because it appears that Sandeman made transgenics immune to the virus so we would be left too after the Coming, which is what they call it."
Now Normal and Sketchy were speechless. As luck would have it, Sketchy found his voice again first. "This sounds too far out to be true."
"Well, doesn't genetically altered human beings that can fight, move things with their minds, or alter your mind sound a little 'far out'? Why is this any different? I know they're real, and so does Max. You should see the runes that Sandeman put on her to appear at this time. They're supposed to show up at the time of the Coming to warn everyone about it. Max is the main weapon against it, she has DNA in her blood that will mix with the anti-key's blood and make the cure for the virus. The anti-key is one of the cult members whose blood is an antigen for the virus, but not on its own."
"Now this does sound far out. Do you have any of these people for us to take DNA tests of? It would be great if we could get the bloodwork on that guy in the video."
Reaching into her jacket once again, Kay pulled out the folder with Sate's bloodwork that she had picked up from Harbor Lights Hospital earlier and handed it to Sketchy. He looked at it eagerly although he didn't understand what he was seeing.
"This is great. We have a guy at the magazine who can make sense out of this for me. Do you mind if I ask you some questions so I can get this down in writing? This is too much just to keep in my head."
"Sure, I'll be here for as long as you need."
Ames sat back in his chair, he wasn't looking forward to this at all. Lenore had convinced him to rejoin the Phalanxes, but this was the first time he'd seen them since the incident at JamPony. Well, that wasn't necessarily true. He'd seen Thula a couple times while he was in solitary confinement just after getting back from being held hostage. The rest of them were good to see again though, they were a hell of a lot easier to get along with than Thula.
They were meeting today to discuss what they should do to bring about the Coming. Now that they knew Ray was alive, they could proceed with their plans. There were rituals that would be followed, but the main thing they had to worry about was getting rid of Max since they thought she was the only way to stop them. They had to make sure nothing ruined their plans.
Once everyone was seated, Thula started talking. That was the part Ames dreaded, he hated to hear her sound like she knew everything. "I think we all know what we're doing here today. We want to bring our ancestors' dreams to life, but that can't be done unless 452 is gone. What we need to figure out now is how to get rid of that particular threat."
Maverick, the fourth-in-command, leaned forward. "Why not something similar to what happened to that other X5 that the public got a hold of?"
Levanna, the third-in-command and only other female Phalanx, raised an eyebrow. "You mean a massacre? How could we do that without getting attention drawn to us? That's the last thing we need right now."
"I'm not saying we do it ourselves. There are several transgenic haters out there, as was demonstrated when they strung up that X5. All we have to do is give them a nudge in the right direction. Perhaps we could provide them with equipment and chemicals to make it more interesting for them. If they got into Terminal City and died, then it's no matter to us. If they succeeded, then it would be exactly what we need. We would just have to make sure that they definitely took out 452."
A slow smile spread across Thula's face. "That sounds like a good plan to me. It's no harm to us if they fail and it's great for us if they succeed. I would suggest not pulling this one too soon though, we would need to gather enough people to be able to stand a chance against the numbers of transgenics in Terminal City. We want them to at least have a chance of pulling it off."
Isaac, the last member of the Phalanxes, decided to finally speak up. "Maybe we can make it a more public thing. There's an old football stadium just outside of town, we could provide transport so they could take the transgenics there. If this turns into a big enough deal, the entire lot of them would be killed while on national television. While a lot of people hate transgenics, they also don't believe in killing like that. It would send the whole country into a debate, then we could go about our business without being noticed."
Now Thula's eyes were practically dancing in her head. "That sounds even better. What's more, it sounds manageable. What do you say, Ames?" She turned her head to smirk condescendingly at him. The others remained silent, they were always aware of this tension whenever these two were together.
He shrugged, then even went so far as to stretch and yawn. He knew how Thula hated it when someone wasn't hanging on her every word. "Sounds fine to me, even though it sounds like overkill. Rather than killing two birds with one stone, it's killing one bird with 100 stones. Now if you don't mind, I would rather be sleeping right now. I didn't get out of Terminal City to talk to you. If I had known I would be back here, I would have stayed there but they wouldn't let me do that because you needed me here. Apparently they need me to cover up your mistakes. Doesn't that sound a little ironic to you?"
With that said and done, Ames stood up and walked out of the room. A smile shone on his face as he felt Thula's eyes burning furiously into his back. He'd been waiting to say something like that to her for a long time.
Max couldn't believe how excited she was as they reached her old workplace. Even Alec looked excited, which Jondy could testify to seeing as how he was nearly crushing her hand with excitement. Brin couldn't see what was so great about the place, but she wasn't about to spoil her sister's happiness. She deserved at least some fun after all the stuff that had been on her plate lately. Zack just hung back, not talking to anyone. He didn't even know why he had decided to come along with them.
The first thing they saw as they walked into the building was Original Cindy. OC looked up in shock when she saw her best friend, then the two women ran squealing into each other's arms. Alec rolled his eyes at the childish display.
"And she says I'm immature," he whispered to Jondy, who smacked his arm in reply. That was when he looked up and spotted Sky across the room. "I'll be back in five." Jondy rolled her eyes as he walked away to high five his friend.
"Men," she grumbled. She stepped back to stand by Brin. "I'll keep you company since we don't seem to have any history here."
Brin grinned at her. "Jealous?"
"Of these people? I don't think so!"
"Not of them, exactly, but of the history they have with Max and Alec that we didn't get the chance to have. After all, we've only just met them, Max after twelve years and Alec for the first time."
"Well, maybe a little. I mean, you can tell they got to be really close here."
Max overheard the conversation. "You guys will love them just as much as we do by the time we leave here. You should meet Sketchy, he's someone you'll never forget whether you want to or not."
Cindy toyed with one of her curls. "I think he's up in Normal's lair, I don't know what that fool thinks he's doin' there."
Max smiled and hugged her again. "Thanks, I'll see ya when I get back down."
Everyone went up the stairs in a group, Alec running over to catch up with them when he saw they were leaving the room. Both he and Max saw images of the fight here just over a month ago flash in front of their eyes. Normal had gotten it pretty well fixed up, but some of the windows were still broken.
Although Zack had been walking farther back, he still ran into Brin's back as everyone came to a dead stop in the door of Normal's office. Max's angry voice sounded clearly from the sudden silence. "What the hell are you doing here?"
Zack, being quite a bit taller than the women, looked over their heads into the room. He was stunned to see Kay sitting in a chair near Sketchy and Normal. She didn't look any happier to see them.
"It's a free country, isn't it? No one said I couldn't come see some friends," Kay snapped, not missing a beat.
Max stormed into the room, her eyes blazing. "You shouldn't be here after all you've done. If you were smart you would have gotten out of town a long time ago. You of all people should know you're not wanted here."
Sketchy climbed to his feet. "Why don't you give her a break, Max? There's no reason for you to go nuts on us."
Turning her furious eyes on him, Max wound up making Sketchy back away nervously. "You have no idea what she did! If you knew, you wouldn't be bothering to talk to her right now."
Normal built up the courage to speak. "What could she have done that was so bad?"
Kay was already feeling a sense of dread as Max started talking. She knew exactly what Max was going to say.
"Do you know about Ames White?"
Normal shot a glance at Kay, remembering what she had said earlier about the cult. "Yeah, he's the federal agent who let everyone know you really exist."
"Well, it might interest you to know that for a while we thought Kay was dead. It turned out that she was being held captive by White, but not necessarily against her will. It seems that she was fucking him the whole time!"
Kay jumped to her feet. "I was NOT fucking him the whole time! You have no idea what was going on!"
"Did you or did you not screw him?"
"I did, but only once! Well, once before my heat cycle, but you can't hold me responsible for that one." Her glance at Zack made it clear that she still blamed him for that incident.
"Well something must have been going on between the two of you in order to sleep with him! For all we know you could hand over the whole lot of transgenics to him!"
Kay wanted to argue more, but she could see the looks on Sketchy and Normal's faces. She was no longer considered a friend of theirs, she was sure of that. "Fine, think what you want. It makes no difference to me!"
Pushing her way past the rest of the group, she headed downstairs. She was mildly aware of a pain in her gut that felt strange, but she pushed any thought of it away. I'm letting myself get too upset. I'm so mad my stomach hurts!
Max watched her go, then turned back to Normal and Sketchy, not noticing Zack slide away from everyone. "I don't want you two to ever contact her again, do you understand me?"
They both nodded, and they were both thinking along the same lines. Normal didn't want to see Kay again, but he couldn't blame the other transgenics for what she'd done. He still planned to give them jobs, he needed the workers anyway. Sketchy also still planned to write his article about the cult. He already had all the information on it he needed, so it wasn't like he would have to call Kay again.
Just as she reached the front doors of JamPony, Kay felt someone grab her arm. She whirled around to see Zack. "What do you want? Don't you think you've done enough for one lifetime?"
"I'm sorry! That's all I wanted to say. I'm sorry for what I did. I still don't agree with the decisions you made, but I shouldn't have done that. Are you happy?"
"No, you waited too long to say it. I'm not in the mood to deal with you right now, why don't you go back to them? I certainly don't need you."
"Kay, don't be like that."
Her nostrils flared in rage. "Don't call me that."
Now he was confused. "Call you what?"
"I'm not Kay anymore. You gave me that name and I don't want it. I'm 358."
Before he could say anything, she was out the door.