"Josh, are you kidding? He'll love it," said Alec encouragingly as he stared at Joshua's new painting 'Joshua #87'. The two had been debating for nearly an hour now about Joshua's newest piece of art, which he had been working on in secret, for the past three days. Two days prior to starting his piece, Joshua had learned from Max, that Logan's birthday was coming up, and this new information had put Joshua in a sudden state of panic over what his present to Logan would be, that was of course until Alec had suggested he do Logan a nice painting.

"Uh, hey Josh I gotta go" said Alec looking down at his pager

"Ok bye Alec" said Joshua returning to his painting

"I'll see you later" finished Alec giving Josh a pat on the shoulder before making his way out onto the street.

It wasn't long after he had left that there came a knock on the door.

"Alec"? Said Joshua to himself as he headed over to the front door.

"Alec always forget keys" he chuckled as he took the doorknob in his paw like hand and gave it a turn.

Opening the door he found that it wasn't Alec and at first Joshua was afraid that he would scare the man off, but the man only smiled.

"Good evening sir" came a confident cheerful voice.

"Hello" answered Joshua ducking his head back behind the door to disclose half of his face.

"My name's Anderson Whitney, I'm interested in buying property in this area and was wondering if you would be so kind as to give me a few moments of your time…" the man's eyes keenly surveyed the inside of Joshua's home.

"Do you…ah...live alone sir?" he asked as he pushed past Joshua and made his way into the living room.

As soon as Joshua had shut the door and joined him, Anderson Whitney set his briefcase down on Joshua's table and popped the lid.

Joshua, who was oblivious to this, and still in shock over the fact that this man wasn't at all fazed by his dog-like appearance, decided to try his best to make this stranger feel welcome.

"Would you like some refreshments?" he asked with a smile

"Tea and coffee"?

The man withdrew the contents of his briefcase and turned to face Joshua.

"No thank you" he said as the blue blast of electricity, launched from the taser he held, hit Joshua in the chest and knocked him unconscious.

White kicked at Joshua with his shoe to make sure he was out cold.

'Ick' he thought to himself, of all the transgenics he had seen, this was by far the most hideous.

He put his taser away and took out both pen and paper and began to scribble a quick note for Max. Dear 452 he wrote before realising his mistake and scribbling it out to begin again…. Dear Max…. this time he screwed the paper up and took out a new sheet….Hello 452 he wrote, and this time he was pleased with his choice of words….I have your transgenic friend….if you ever want to see him again then you'll call this number and arrange to meet….and come alone…he quickly added, for a brief moment he considered ending his letter with 'love Ames'  but after rethinking it, the words, 'kindest regards, Ames' seemed more appropriate….at least for now. After he was done he left the note on the table and as soon as he was sure no one was watching, he hauled Joshua down the stairs and into the back of his car.

* * *

"Joshua"!! Max called out as she entered his living room.

"Where are ya big fella"!!

'That's strange' she thought to herself as she checked all the rooms then double-checked them to be sure.

'I told him to lay low, I thought he knew better than to go wandering off into the night like this, something must be up'

Max went back into the living room and sat down. It was then that she saw the note.

Hello 452

I have your transgenic friend, and if you ever want to see him again, then you'll call this number and arrange to meet.

445769380294

Kindest regards

Ames White.

Max snatched up the note and ran to the door.

AN: I know this is a pretty short chapter, the truth is that I've been sitting on this story for a couple of months now, about 4 in fact! So give me a couple of days to get writing again and finish it off. Oh, and in response to the reviewer who said my story was like Zeke's, yeah I can kinda see how you would come to that conclusion, however, I think as the story progresses it will become more obvious that the only similarities it has to Zeke's is the coupling, and how White has Max hostage at the start. I am a huge fan of Zeke's story and hold much admiration of Zeke as a writer, and if anyone enjoys my story half as much as I enjoyed Zeke's then I'll be doing well.

Peace out ya'll, love ya and keep reading! Cause there's plenty more to come.

BBL