Riley sat back down on the couch, but this time Alec sat down next to her
instead of pacing back and forth in the other room. Max sat on the other
side of Riley, and Logan was seated directly in front of her.
"You think you can answer more questions?" Logan asked Riley. When she shrugged and leaned back he continued. "Are there other kinds of transgenics there, with your abilities?"
"All together there are about fifty of us, and we are all X-5s. My age group is the oldest though. In the fifth year of producing X-5s things started to mutate in our brains which allowed us to do what we do. At first there were only five of us, each with different abilities. I of course, am telekinetic, and there was one with telepathy, another that was empathic, another with the ability to see through solid objects, and finally one that could walk through solid objects." Riley chuckled and continued. "You should have seen her on the obstacle course when she couldn't control her ability. She would always fall through the ceiling or right through that bridge. She hated it when she fell through the bridge because she always got soaked."
"That must have made training fun." Alec said.
"We got punished several times for her accidents until I learned to hold her up when she fell. She finally got the hang of it though." She responded.
"Any strange side effects?" Logan asked.
"Side effects? We were the side effects! But I'm sure that's not what you meant." Riley said, and smiled when she saw Logan shaking his head. "There was one weird thing, the telepath, X5-469, he was never able to use his abilities on me, or any of the other telepaths that showed up later. It was really weird. Manticore tested him and us to see what was wrong but they could never figure it out. They way I figure it, our brains were messed up to bad for him to make it work the way he wanted it to. For the others though, he could read and manipulate their thoughts just fine.
"Manticore tried duplicating our abilities with numerous experiments but all the kids they grew died. They never figured out what went wrong in our heads, but X-5s with the same abilities kept rolling into the center and we adapted. It was as simple as that. I got fed up with Manticore and ran away; end of story."
Max looked at Riley and saw a wave a sadness sweep across her face when she said the last sentence, but decided it was just her imagination. When she looked over at Alec though, she noticed that he had seen it too. They both looked at each other quizzically, but shrugged it off.
"Do you have anything to eat around here? I haven't eaten in a while and I could really use some food." Riley said, breaking the momentary silence. Logan snapped out of his reverie and looked at her.
"Sure, you can have anything in the refrigerator," he said.
"Thanks," Riley responded and got up to raid the refrigerator.
"So, what do you think of all that?" Alec asked Max and Logan once Riley had left.
"I think Manticore is even more twisted than I thought," Max said in disgust. "I didn't realize it could get any worse than it already was."
"Its really quite incredible if you think about it," Logan said, only half paying attention to the conversation going on around him.
"We're going to have to get her a bike so she can work at Jampony. It would be best if she could start tomorrow." Max told Alec.
"I think I know where I can get one, when she's ready to go, we'll drop her stuff off at my place and then we can go get her a bike. Normal will be happy to get another messenger." He said.
"He's always looking for fresh meat." Max responded, looking aver to where Riley was.
"Hey, Riley," Alec said, turning around so he could see her.
"Yeah," she responded, her response slightly muffled since her head was inside the refrigerator.
"Why did you get out alone? Why not get others out too?" he said. He saw her back stiffen, and she slowly straightened.
Without turning around she said, "No one else wanted to come." She then turned around and faced the threesome. "Can you please stop with the questions?"
Max opened her mouth to respond but Logan beat her too it.
"Sure, go ahead and eat, and then you and Alec are going to go get a bike so you can get a job."
"What kind of job?" she asked.
"A crappy one," Alec said. "But its money, and you get a sector pass."
"What would I be doing?"
"You take packages all over the city." Max said.
"Sounds exciting. At least I'll get a sector pass out of it." Riley said, in between bites of food. "Oh, off the subject, but do you two get cold?" she asked Max and Alec.
"What do you mean cold?" Max responded.
"You know, a side effect from being genetically engineered?" Riley said, glancing between the two.
"No, I did have seizers until they fixed it, but I don't get cold." Max said.
"Oh, okay." Riley said, turning back to her mountain of food.
"Why do you ask?" Logan said.
"I was just wondering, because I do. It must be some freakish thing that has to do with my brain being all screwed up." Riley responded.
"What happens?" he said.
"In interrogation training, when they use a sedative or truth serum, anything that doesn't originally belong in my system, I get cold. To keep the chemical from spreading my blood slows down and retreats to the center of my body, and purges itself. Its weird, and I hate it when it happens, but a fat dose of sedative has only brought me down once because of it, and even then it was only for five minutes. I hate getting cold though. I can't stop shivering when I do. It drives me nuts. The larger the dose, the colder I get." She said.
"I would consider that a side effect of your abilities." Logan said. "That's incredible though."
"So you can't get drunk?" Alec said. Max looked over at him in disbelief and rolled her eyes, but Riley just laughed.
"I don't know. I haven't taken the time to try since I got out. I would tend to think not though." Riley said. "It's almost sunrise, do you think we should see about scoring me a bike?"
"Oh, yeah. You ready to go?" Alec said.
"Yeah," Riley said. "Thanks for the food Logan"
"Sure thing," he said, getting up and following Max and Alec to the door.
"I'll see you later Max," Riley said, and she grabbed her pack and left with Alec.
"You think you can answer more questions?" Logan asked Riley. When she shrugged and leaned back he continued. "Are there other kinds of transgenics there, with your abilities?"
"All together there are about fifty of us, and we are all X-5s. My age group is the oldest though. In the fifth year of producing X-5s things started to mutate in our brains which allowed us to do what we do. At first there were only five of us, each with different abilities. I of course, am telekinetic, and there was one with telepathy, another that was empathic, another with the ability to see through solid objects, and finally one that could walk through solid objects." Riley chuckled and continued. "You should have seen her on the obstacle course when she couldn't control her ability. She would always fall through the ceiling or right through that bridge. She hated it when she fell through the bridge because she always got soaked."
"That must have made training fun." Alec said.
"We got punished several times for her accidents until I learned to hold her up when she fell. She finally got the hang of it though." She responded.
"Any strange side effects?" Logan asked.
"Side effects? We were the side effects! But I'm sure that's not what you meant." Riley said, and smiled when she saw Logan shaking his head. "There was one weird thing, the telepath, X5-469, he was never able to use his abilities on me, or any of the other telepaths that showed up later. It was really weird. Manticore tested him and us to see what was wrong but they could never figure it out. They way I figure it, our brains were messed up to bad for him to make it work the way he wanted it to. For the others though, he could read and manipulate their thoughts just fine.
"Manticore tried duplicating our abilities with numerous experiments but all the kids they grew died. They never figured out what went wrong in our heads, but X-5s with the same abilities kept rolling into the center and we adapted. It was as simple as that. I got fed up with Manticore and ran away; end of story."
Max looked at Riley and saw a wave a sadness sweep across her face when she said the last sentence, but decided it was just her imagination. When she looked over at Alec though, she noticed that he had seen it too. They both looked at each other quizzically, but shrugged it off.
"Do you have anything to eat around here? I haven't eaten in a while and I could really use some food." Riley said, breaking the momentary silence. Logan snapped out of his reverie and looked at her.
"Sure, you can have anything in the refrigerator," he said.
"Thanks," Riley responded and got up to raid the refrigerator.
"So, what do you think of all that?" Alec asked Max and Logan once Riley had left.
"I think Manticore is even more twisted than I thought," Max said in disgust. "I didn't realize it could get any worse than it already was."
"Its really quite incredible if you think about it," Logan said, only half paying attention to the conversation going on around him.
"We're going to have to get her a bike so she can work at Jampony. It would be best if she could start tomorrow." Max told Alec.
"I think I know where I can get one, when she's ready to go, we'll drop her stuff off at my place and then we can go get her a bike. Normal will be happy to get another messenger." He said.
"He's always looking for fresh meat." Max responded, looking aver to where Riley was.
"Hey, Riley," Alec said, turning around so he could see her.
"Yeah," she responded, her response slightly muffled since her head was inside the refrigerator.
"Why did you get out alone? Why not get others out too?" he said. He saw her back stiffen, and she slowly straightened.
Without turning around she said, "No one else wanted to come." She then turned around and faced the threesome. "Can you please stop with the questions?"
Max opened her mouth to respond but Logan beat her too it.
"Sure, go ahead and eat, and then you and Alec are going to go get a bike so you can get a job."
"What kind of job?" she asked.
"A crappy one," Alec said. "But its money, and you get a sector pass."
"What would I be doing?"
"You take packages all over the city." Max said.
"Sounds exciting. At least I'll get a sector pass out of it." Riley said, in between bites of food. "Oh, off the subject, but do you two get cold?" she asked Max and Alec.
"What do you mean cold?" Max responded.
"You know, a side effect from being genetically engineered?" Riley said, glancing between the two.
"No, I did have seizers until they fixed it, but I don't get cold." Max said.
"Oh, okay." Riley said, turning back to her mountain of food.
"Why do you ask?" Logan said.
"I was just wondering, because I do. It must be some freakish thing that has to do with my brain being all screwed up." Riley responded.
"What happens?" he said.
"In interrogation training, when they use a sedative or truth serum, anything that doesn't originally belong in my system, I get cold. To keep the chemical from spreading my blood slows down and retreats to the center of my body, and purges itself. Its weird, and I hate it when it happens, but a fat dose of sedative has only brought me down once because of it, and even then it was only for five minutes. I hate getting cold though. I can't stop shivering when I do. It drives me nuts. The larger the dose, the colder I get." She said.
"I would consider that a side effect of your abilities." Logan said. "That's incredible though."
"So you can't get drunk?" Alec said. Max looked over at him in disbelief and rolled her eyes, but Riley just laughed.
"I don't know. I haven't taken the time to try since I got out. I would tend to think not though." Riley said. "It's almost sunrise, do you think we should see about scoring me a bike?"
"Oh, yeah. You ready to go?" Alec said.
"Yeah," Riley said. "Thanks for the food Logan"
"Sure thing," he said, getting up and following Max and Alec to the door.
"I'll see you later Max," Riley said, and she grabbed her pack and left with Alec.