Disclaimer: I don't any of the characters in this story that appear in the hit syndicated TV show, Dark Angel, which are owned by James Cameron. I do, however, own the original characters featured in this story. If you wish to use them, please ask me.
Summary: The darker side of the transgenic blend into society breaks through.
A/N: Hoorah! Hoorah! There's some violence in this chapter! =D And please, please, please visit my new website, dedicated to this story! I've made some animations that I'm extremely proud of!
http://brin734.tripod.com/neverland
Thank you!
H a p p i l y N e v e r A f t e r
By
BRIN, proud member of the Fellowship for Hot X5s~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Chapter 4: Catfight
Eddie found out the next day at school that the kids who had attacked her had been suspended for 45 days. She was genuinely surprised that the principal would actually punish them for what they did, but she wasn't one to look a gift horse in the mouth either. Instead, she walked the halls a bit more confidently to try and seem less helpless; less of an easy target. The Ordinary teenagers were a bit more wary of the transgenics after the riot, but their segregation didn't increase or decrease because of it. The teachers, too, were a little sterner with the violent looks the two sides gave each other. Nobody dared touch the cat anomaly strutting down the hall with a group of X-series around her.
And the day passed like this, cautiously and calmly. By the time the bell rang to let them out of school, Eddie felt almost comfortable with her surroundings. Perhaps it was the idea that she had survived yesterday? Whatever it was, the anomaly was feeling pretty sure of herself as she walked from the school.
But then… she saw Diana… and suddenly felt very small.
Diana was leaning against a tree talking on her cell phone, her exotic face twisted with anger and frustration. "What the hell do you mean?" she was saying, trying to keep her voice down, but not succeeding too well.
Eddie peeked both ways to make sure no one was looking, then crept over and sat on a bench a few yards away.
"Look, I don't have the time to deal with this… Adrian, I'm serious!" A long pause. "Adrian, are you crazy? I have a life, too. You can't do this. Adrian? Adrian? Shit!" Diana hurled her phone into the bushes, then groaned as she realized what she had done and went to pick it up. It had landed between two unpleasant-looking bushes that stuck Diana's arms with razor-sharp thorns as she reached for her phone.
Eddie winced as she spotted the bright red streaks trailing down Diana's forearm, then quickly turned around as the other young woman stood and made her way back to the tree.
The phone began ringing as Diana pulled strands of grass from it and sat down with her back resting against the tree trunk. "Hello?" she put it to her ear, ignoring the blood that was still trickling down her arms. "Adrian…" Here Diana stopped and her eyes darted upwards, catching Eddie staring at her before the anomaly could turn away. "I'll call you back. Yeah. Bye."
As soon as the anomaly realized she'd been caught, she gathered her things and tried to hurry away, but Diana was right behind her.
"You spying on me now? You think I don't see you?" Diana grabbed Eddie's shoulder, turning her around so they were face to face. "What the hell is it that you want from me? Huh? What, you think I got something for you?"
Eddie narrowed her eyes and felt the hair rising on the back of her neck. "Do you always treat people like this?" She shoved the Ordinary back, but had to use more of her strength than she had expected… Uh oh.
Diana quickly regained her balance and stood straight as a board, fists clenched stiffly at her sides. Her eyes, narrowed to slits, were blazing with fury at being touched, nevertheless shoved by someone smaller than her. Her powerful legs were tense and slightly bent. She was ready to spring and fight if Eddie so much as breathed the wrong way. "Don't you ever touch me again! And don't you ever, EVER fucking shove me like that. If you do… I'll knock your head off. Don't think I can't do it. I'm not afraid to hurt people."
The cat anomaly gulped. Diana had hit the nail right on the head—Eddie was afraid to hurt people, especially Ordinaries. That was why she had had to be saved earlier…
…but maybe she could make an exception this time…
"You got that?" barked the young woman, holding a finger to the anomaly's face like an adult scolding a child.
Eddie stared at the finger in her face, then took a step forward, intentionally invading Diana's obviously large personal space bubble. "Can I do this?" she asked angrily. She dropped her books on Diana's foot. "How about this?"
And then—WHAM! Eddie staggered backwards and fell onto her butt, shocked and surprised. She put a hand to her throbbing cheek then looked up at Diana, who was glaring at her from a few feet away. She shaking out her hand to try to get the numbness to leave her bleeding knuckles. "That was totally avoidable," Diana announced, picking up her things and heading off in the other direction.
Furious, the cat anomaly jumped to her feet and barreled after her. The Ordinary turned around just in time to sidestep, allowing Eddie to stumble forward in surprise and flop on the ground again. Eddie immediately jumped to her feet and turned to face Diana, who had put her things down to free her hands. The anomaly hissed, the hair on her tail standing straight up, and ran forward again. This time the two clashed, with Eddie spitting and scratching and punching and kicking—anything to cause harm to Diana, while Diana was calmly taking the blows and getting punches in where she could manage.
And the strange thing was… Eddie was obtaining more damage than her opponent. She stepped back to catch her breath and looked Diana up and down as she took a breather as well. There were four distinct red scratches underneath her eye. On her arms, rows of red welts from Eddie's claw-like fingernails crisscrossed with the streaks of blood from the thorn bush. A bruise was forming on her shin and knee, but it didn't seem to bother her that much.
On the other hand, Eddie's left cheek was swollen and turning a bit purple. Her left cheek, which had also been struck, but not half as hard, was throbbing with dull pain. At one point Diana's fist had collided with the anomaly's eye, and currently that eye was swelling up and taking on a blackish color. Her head was pounding from the force of the blows, but she pushed it to the back of her mind and prepared herself.
"You're going to get yourself hurt," warned Diana as she saw Eddie ready to strike again. "You haven't been trained like I have."
Eddie imitated the way Diana was holding her hands up to her face, trying appear like she had had some training in boxing. "Yeah, well I've got more power than you do," declared the anomaly.
Diana started moving around in circles, knees slightly bent and feet always in motion. "Power's half the story." She caught Eddie in the face with a left jab, then withdrew as the anomaly tried to retaliate with an awkward, uncontrolled swing. "You can stop, you know."
"You can stop," spat Eddie in reply. She swung again, this time firmly connecting with Diana's… hand. She had been blocked. This wasn't right! Ordinaries can't fight transgenics! Infuriated, Eddie leapt forward like a wildcat (no pun intended) and resumed her assault of kicking, spitting, punching, scratching, and biting.
Looking a bit amused by the anomaly's fighting 'style', Diana caught both of Eddie's hands and kicked her square in the knee, causing her to topple to the ground.
"Cool it!" shouted the Ordinary angrily. "What's your problem?"
Stubborn as always, Eddie rose to her feet and shook off the pain. "Come on!" She swung again, but this time with careful aim and attempted control.
Diana ducked under Eddie's arm, moved to her side, and bashed her on the side of the head in one fluid motion. The anomaly's head snapped to the side from the force of the punch and she crumpled to the ground like a rag doll. Diana spat on the ground, then grabbed her things and walked away.
And Eddie wasn't too eager to follow her.
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"So you got in a fight at school… and nobody saw you?" Max shined a light on Eddie's bruised face, occasionally clicking her tongue disapprovingly.
"Nobody except the girl who popped her in the face," interrupted Alec half-consciously. He looked up as he realized that Eddie and Max were staring at him and frowned. "Did I say that out loud?"
Max shook her head and returned her attention to Eddie's swollen face. "How in the world did you get yourself into this?" She rubbed some ointment across the anomaly's cheek and let out a deep breath. "Looks like you got into a fight with a Familiar."
"Yeah, who or what did you tangle with, exactly?" asked Alec as he filed through some papers.
"It was an Ordinary," said Eddie slowly.
Max and Alec's jaws dropped simultaneously. A few of the papers Alec was holding slid to the ground.
"You're kidding." Max looked like she was going to fall over.
"Nope. An honest-to-goodness Ordinary." She looked down at her toes, which were suddenly extremely interesting. "5' 6", about 126, named Diana Guzman."
Alec's eyes lit up. "Diana Guzman? The Diana Guzman?! Tell me about her!"
Eddie shrugged. "Uhh… She's a boxer, if that helps…"
"I think I need to sit down." Alec flopped on the couch next to her, feeling his forehead with the back of his hand. He pinched himself, flinched, and spoke, "You… got into a schoolyard fight… with Diana Guzman?"
"Yes, I told you that already. What's so great about it?"
"Great?! Nothing's great about it!" Alec cried with an Oh-my-gosh-don't-you-realize-who-we're-talking-about look on his face. "Diana Guzman can't get expelled or she won't go to college and then won't be on ESPN! You're lucky she didn't kill you, anyway!"
Max narrowed her eyes at him suspiciously. "You're a fan, I assume?"
Alec looked at her and calmed down a bit out of necessity. "I have been a fan of Diana Guzman since I witnessed one of her matches! I saw her win her first tournament—the New York Gender-Blind Amateur—totally live. She's awesome! I thought she was a transgenic at first, but she didn't have a barcode. Ever heard of Muhammad Ali? Well, she coulda taken him. Most likely couldn't have beaten him, but coulda held her own. I was eating dinner in Joshua's when the news came about the wreck and—"
"Wreck?" Eddie interrupted his rambling. "Whaddya mean?"
"Oh, she was in a car crash about eight months ago. I think it was… yeah, it was two days before she was going to announce her decision whether or not to go pro. Well, anyway, she's totally blind in her left eye from a chunk of metal permanently damaging it, and when they took her to the hospital they found out she had miscarried her baby, which no one knew about up until then. Horrible, sad stuff," said Alec solemnly. He grew a little sad and continued sullenly, "Took her three months to recover, and she announced she wasn't going to go pro. Everybody knows that a half-blind boxer can't compete professionally, so no one could blame her. Pissed the hell outta her boyfriend, though. Former boyfriend now, of course."
Eddie stared at him with wide eyes. "Really…?"
"Yeah, but enough of that poor girl's personal life." He rubbed his hands together and attempted to change the subject. "Does it still hurt?" He gestured to her face.
"Like hell." Eddie resisted the instinctive urge to touch her throbbing cheek.
"Alright, come with me. I got some remedies that'll clean that right up." He stood and grabbed his keys from the table. "We'll be back in five minutes, Maxie, okay?"
Max nodded and smiled as Alec leaned to give her a kiss on the cheek. "Don't pick up any tormented young female boxers while you're out there."
"I won't," he said dutifully. "Bye, Maxie."
"Bye, Mom," teased Eddie before ducking out the door behind him.
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Alec drove them to a small gym in the heart of the city; one of the gyms he had practiced at during an undercover op for Manticore. Eddie noticed that Alec visibly relaxed as he stepped inside, something he usually only did when Max came into view. It was definitely in better shape than Lopez's Gym—sparkling clean and lemony fresh, too. The boxers were bigger, probably stronger, and probably older, too, but there wasn't that same feeling of passion for the sport as there was in Lopez's. Some of the boxers even looked bored.
"Yo Johnny!" called a deep, Italian-accepted voice.
"Hey, Matt, how ya doing?" Alec shook hands with an older man, somewhere in his early fifties.
Matt laughed and stepped back, looking Alec up and down. "But your name ain't really Johnny, is it? Eh? It's Alec. I watch the news, contrary to popular belief."
Alec tensed. "Yeah…" He took a protective step backward towards Eddie.
Noticing this, Matt shifted his body a bit and peeked around Alec at the anomaly. His eyes widened until they were practically bugging out of his head. "L'cOh! Che cosa è questo?" He smacked a hand to his forehead and stumbled back. "Nonlo danneggi!"
"Whoa, whoa!" Alec held up his hands as several of the boxers looked up from their training exercises. "She's not going to hurt you. This is my daughter, Eddie."
The color drained from Matt's face. "Your daughter, capretto? That's impossible!"
"I adopted her yesterday, Matt. She is, by law, my daughter. You are not going to lay a hand on her, and she is not going to lay a hand on you. Got it?" growled Alec, his voice becoming dangerous and quiet, emerald eyes flashing threateningly. "Do you understand, Matt?"
"Aye, I understand," he replied cautiously. "So… what're you doing here? I hear your boxing days are over."
Alec put a hand on Eddie's shoulder and gently pulled her forward. "Eddie here got into a fight at school. I need something to help her with the pain."
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Matt led them into a back room, which was filled with things like gloves, extra shorts, tape and strips of cloth for training, medical supplies, and things like that. Surprisingly, Matt continued through this room into another room, this one much smaller and kept under lock and key. It held a small stove, cupboard, a water tank, and a small refrigerator. The Italian man went to the refrigerator and pulled out a box. Inside this box was a corked beaker of liquid, a bottle of honey, and some cayenne peppers.
"That's not aspirin," complained Eddie, the smell of the poorly-ventilated room aggravating her headache, which was turning into a migraine.
"Aspirin is not good for headaches," explained Matt as he got a pot of water and put it on the stove. "It only brings it back worse than before."
Eddie watched him disdainfully as he turned on the stove, then pulled a Styrofoam cup from a bag on top of the fridge. He put some more water into this cup and sprinkled some of the cayenne peppers in it. "Drink this," he grunted, handing her the cup. "All of it."
She wrinkled her nose in disgust, but at the stern look she got from Alec, downed the entire cup anyway. By the time she was done with this, Matt had pulled a spoon from the cupboard and poured some honey on it. He handed her the spoon and she reluctantly licked it clean, then repeated this step. The anomaly really hoped he was done with his little remedies, but alas…
He pulled the bubbling water pot off the stove and got a plastic bowl from the cupboard. He poured the water into this and said, "Put your hands in there."
Eddie's eyes widened. "You've got to be kidding me. I'll burn!"
"No you won't, now do it," instructed Alec.
Sighing to herself, Eddie thrust her hands into the steamy hot water.
"Thanks, Matt," said Alec as the man turned to leave.
"No problem, Joh… Alec," replied Matt. "You know what to do from here."
Alec nodded.
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"So you used to box?" asked Eddie, taking a large bite out of the hot dog Alec bought her from a traveling vendor.
"Yeah. Just amateur stuff, though."
"Ever fight her?"
"Who?"
"Diana."
Alec laughed. "Nah, never. She would've beaten the shit outta me, anyway."
"Oh really? Why do you think that?"
Alec took a bite out of his own hot dog. "Because that girl trains at least five hours a day, runs four to six miles every morning, and hasn't a weak muscle in her body. And she's been doing this for two years. You see, we transgenics don't train too much and we never did because we believe we'll always be superior. If we trained like she does, we'd probably be tenfold stronger than we are now. That's just how it works."
"So you're saying she's as strong as a transgenic?"
"Strong as one, but not as fast as one. That's the key." He stuffed the last of the hot dog in his mouth.
"Isn't that a bit… worrying? That an Ordinary is as strong as you?," asked Eddie.
"No. It's pretty damn entertaining." He paused long enough to wipe his greasy hands on his jeans. "So your headache gone?"
Eddie thought for a moment, then smiled. "Yeah, pretty much."
Alec grinned back. "Yep, that's what I thought. Matt usually doesn't give you all three treatments, but I guess he thought you needed extra."
"I thought those remedies were just wives' tales."
The X5 opened his mouth to reply, but just then their beepers went off simultaneously. They pulled them out and checked the number:
321-841-739-473
"Hostage situation," said Eddie, replacing the beeper on her belt.
"Two X6s, three X7s," added Alec as they began to turn around. "Possible outside forces."
"Let's go." They ran back to his car, jumped inside, and sped off, tires squealing.
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Max, Pick, Zane, Zack, and Jondy had just arrived by the time Eddie and Alec showed up at their designated meeting place—an air field. The two transgenics hopped out of the car and went over to the group while loading their M-16 automatics. A helicopter was being propped for takeoff for them while they went over the situation.
"Okay, local Transgen officials say that these people demand to see Max and Alec," began Jondy as she slipped a knife into her boot and fastened her bullet-proof vest. "Their claim is 'the only ones who will understand are the ones who went through it themselves.'"
"Basically, we got five Xs caught in a bad situation. Transgen witnesses say that they were being assaulted by several young men when one of 'em got trigger-happy and shot one of the Ordinaries in the leg. The man's not dead, but apparently these kids are scared outta there wits. They think that they're going to be punished for this—Manticore style," added Zack.
Alec, who hadn't had time to arm himself yet, was currently sitting on the ground strapping handguns and artillery to himself, along with his bullet-proof vest. "You think that's the truth? We all know both sides can and will twist the truth."
"We'll see when we get there." Zane slipped some bullets into his revolver—one which he had received from his childhood employer and never left at home when he went on a mission.
They looked up as the helicopter blades started turning. The pilot, a young man in his mid-twenties, exited the cockpit and went over to them, holding out his hand. "Hi, I'm Hank. I'll be your pilot today."
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Zane glanced around the helicopter, an old Apache, and slowly drew in a breath to calm his nerves.
"You okay?" asked Zack, noticing the pallor of his brother's face. "Zane?"
The younger X5 looked up at Zack and shrugged. "Yeah. Fine."
"How's Brin and Ben?"
"What makes you think I'd know?" replied Zane quickly… a little too quickly.
"What makes you think you have to hide it?" Zack put his hand on Zane's shoulder. "Come on, buddy. You can tell big brother Zack."
The ends of Zane's lips twitched a little, but he refused to smile. "Nothing. She just stayed over last night with Ben."
"Uh huh. And what happened to that love struck puppy dog look you both had back in TC?" Zack prodded.
Zane shrugged. "Just one of those off and on things."
"You're worried about Ben," declared the older X5 in a peremptory voice.
"Of course I'm worried about Ben. The kid's the most important thing in my life, aside from her," said Zane irritably.
Zack smiled and patted his brother on the shoulder. "Well there you go."
"She's not the type to settle down," stated Zane, more to convince himself than Zack. "I mean, she survived over five months on the streets, pregnant, and mentally unstable from Manticore."
"Yeah. Sounds like she's going to need a bit of help." Zack smiled and began scooting away towards Jondy. "I wonder who could possibly help her…" He laughed.
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Max, her head resting on Alec's shoulder as they settled in for the thirty-minute helicopter ride, smiled across the way at Pick and Eddie, who were in very much the same position as them. "Isn't that cute?" she whispered excitedly. "They're so cute!"
"Max, they can probably hear you," replied Alec quietly. He kissed her on the head. "And I don't refer to things as 'cute' unless I'm mocking Logan."
"That's not nice," said Max half-heartedly. "Anyway, they are cute."
Alec looked out the helicopter at the setting sun, refusing to agree. "You know Jondy and Zack are getting married," he commented nonchalantly.
"Mmhmm," Max replied in the same tone.
"In April," Alec continued. "It's gonna be in Florida."
"Yeah. Jondy told me over the phone this morning."
"Zack mentioned it while we were filing adoption forms."
They sat in silence for a few minutes, then Alec looked at Max. Max looked at Alec.
"Remember back in New Hope when… when I asked you if you wanted to settle down?" he asked quietly, stroking her hand.
"Of course."
"Well… I was thinking, ya know, seeing as how we might be moving into a house soon…"
"ZACK!"
The scream from Jondy jolted Max and Alec out of their trance-like state. Their heads whipped around to check for some kind of emergency—but found none. Instead, they found Zack, with both hands on Jondy's shoulders, holding her out towards the door of the helicopter as if he was going to push her.
"Tell him the truth!" Zack shouted as he swung her back and forth. "Right now!"
Jondy yelled as she was pushed forward, her head hanging out of the chopper. "Okay, okay, okay! I was the one who stole your cupcake! I did it, I did it!" she wailed ashamedly.
Max laughed as Zack put Jondy back on the ground. They were referring to an incident that had occurred when they were 6. One of the cafeteria staff members had given them all cupcakes to celebrate something or other—they later found out it was Christmas—and Zane's disappeared the moment he looked away. It was a mystery that had remained unsolved for years… until now. She looked back up at Alec and kissed his nose. "We'll talk later."
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By the time they reached the crisis area, which was in southern Oregon, the sun had set and the moon was nowhere to be seen yet. They were led from the air field to a humvee, which carried them downtown to a large apartment building. Gathered all around were people shouting, screaming, jeering, toting signs…
Max shivered as Terminal City at its worst flashed into her mind. Fire everywhere, bodies strewn about like rag dolls… She started as Alec put his hand on her shoulder.
"Max? You okay?" he asked.
"Fine… fine," Max replied, shaking the feeling of dread from her head. She climbed out of the humvee, nearly stepping on top of a tiny man with flaming red hair.
"Whoa, watch it lady!" said the young man bitterly. "I'm Captain Joe MacDonald, and it wasn't my idea to call in you guys so don't even think about getting smart with me."
Max rolled her eyes and put her hands on her hips.
"Yes, sir," grumbled Zane sarcastically.
Capt. MacDonald glared at them, obviously not happy with the idea of a bunch of transgenics running in and doing his job, but didn't press the subject further. "Alright, you have full control of the situation. Do what you gotta do."
"Such a pleasant young man," said Jondy once the captain was out of earshot. "Don't you agree?"
The others chortled amusedly, but then Max stepped up and issued instructions, "Alright, people. Keep your earpieces in at all times. We don't want any nasty surprises. Jondy, take a sniper position. Zack and Zane, you guys find a way in. Pick go with Alec to scout out the roof. Eddie, you stay with me. Got it?" She looked around as they nodded, then clapped her hands together once. "Alright. Get to it, then."
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A/N: Hmm… if I hadn't ended it there, this chappy woulda gone on forever. School's a bitch, you guys, and I have so much homework it's not even funny! U_U *sniffle* lol. If you would review, I would be ever so thankful =D