"Max is...special. She's not like us. We believe she was born in the year
2000, in
Wyoming. She was born at a sort of institute, where she wasn't given a name, rather
a number. She was part of a group called the X5 s, and her number was 452. Until
she was nine years old, she was known only as X5-452. She was trained like a
soldier, expected to act like an adult, express no emotions and was trained to be
loyal to her group, to obey orders without questions. They were the property of the
United States government, and lived and trained in a facility called Manticore.
Manticore was trying to create the perfect soldier, but their perfection had a flaw,
they couldn't stop the X5s from having a heart.
"All the children in Max's group grew to consider themselves brothers and sisters,
and they secretly named themselves. Early in 2009, Max started having seizures, it
had happened to one of her siblings before, and he had been taken away. Max said
they never knew what had happened to him. One of her sisters stepped up to
protect Max, pointing a gun at the director. He shot the girl; Max never would
touch a gun after that. It prompted an escape. Max got away that night with twelve
others, and has been hiding ever since. It has never been easy, but the Pulse made
it a bit easier to disappear."
"I met ma boo when she was nineteen, we covered each others backs in a fight, an'
we came to Seattle together. 'Bout six months later, she broke into this apartment,
Logan's apartment. Fell in love with her real quick, he came looking for her at Crash,
he wanted her to protect this friend of his, cuz of the stuff she learned at
Manticore. She told him strait up no, cuz she was only lookin' out fir herself. You
know, then they teamed up and were always doin' stuff on the DL, you know, she
always pulled a disappearin' act. None of us grunts that she worked with knew that
she was off playin' superhero with him, til later, anyway. They was head ova heals
for each other but in total denial."
"Why?"
"Well, there were a lot of things that they thought were in their way."
"Like what?"
"The fact that Max was from Manticore and on the run. She didn't want to have to
love and then leave someone, or put that someone in danger because she always had
the risk of being captured. Logan had a secret, too. He hated the way everyone had
gone corrupt since the Pulse, so he started to make cable hacks, informing the
people of what was going on, especially in the government. He was known to Seattle
as Eyes Only, because he only showed his eyes when he broadcasted. No one knew
who Eyes Only really was, except for Max, Cindy and I, and Logan's bodyguard
Peter. A lot of people knew him as an Eyes Only contact, but no one ever thought
that he could be the real guy. When Max broke into his apartment, he had someone
staying, he and Peter were protecting her and her daughter, and they planned on
moving them elsewhere the next day. He saw how Max took out Peter so easily and
asked her to help out. She refused and the next day they were ambushed while
making the move. The little girl was captured, her mother got away, but Peter was
killed and Logan was shot in the back.
"While Logan was in the hospital, Max saved him from another shooter sent to
finish him off. She then got the little girl back to her mother safely, but Logan was
still injured. He was in the hospital for almost three months; he had been paralyzed
from the gunshot, and absolutely miserable. Trust me. I was his physical therapist,
and that was when I met Max. She came by all the time, and had agreed to help
Logan with the legwork, so to speak. He told her he would try to find information on
her lost siblings in return."
"Wow. But my mom and dad weren't together then?"
"They was crazy ova each other, but in total denial. It was always 'We aren't like
that'. Whatever."
"Well, Logan thought the wheelchair was a barrier between them, and Max thought
the barrier was Manticore. Eventually about a year later they got together, but
just after that, Manticore finally caught up to Max.
"She was in Manticore for three months, and the whole time, Logan thought she was
dead. He ran a lot of Eyes Only hacks about Manticore. When she finally escaped
again, Max found out that they had implanted a sort of virus. If she had any skin-
to-skin contact with Logan, he would die. It put a huge rift between them, but they
were still friends and colleagues. One day, they accidentally touched each other and
Logan didn't die, the virus just expired. We were all happy for them, but they were
so shocked that they stayed away from each other for a long time. Finally, about
six months later..."
"They finally realized what I had been tryin' to drill into their heads from day one.
They was in love! It was all good for a while, till some scum dropped th' dime on the
fact that th' building me and ma boo were livin' in was condemned. We was kicked
out, I went to live with a friend and Max moved into the sky with Logan. It was all
great an' fine till the day someone must a found out who Logan was."
"We were supposed to watch a movie that night, Max and Logan had already started
it and I was on my way when someone got into the building. When they heard the
elevator door ding, they thought it was me, so Logan came to the door. Whoever it
was shot him and took off before Max knew what had happened. Soon after, Cindy
and I arrived, as did the doctors. They took Logan away. Max thought he was dead,
she thought it was her fault. We left her in the den for five minutes, and when we
came back, she was gone. We realized she had taken Logan's car instead of her
bike, so we assumed she wouldn't be going very far because she loved her bike.
When she never came back, we tried to track her down, but she was really good at
covering her tracks. We tracked her to the border, so we knew she was in Canada.
We hired a detective, and he thought he found her in Winnipeg. The person he
found was a High School student, and we were going to contact her, but she moved
away and we couldn't find her. We knew if it had been Max, the only way we would
find her would be if she wanted us to find her.
"It had been almost six months since Logan had been shot. He was in a coma, and
didn't come out of it for another two. It was April first of that year when he came
out of it, shouting Max's name. That's all he remembered, was the name Max. He
didn't remember who Max was, he didn't remember who I was, and he barely
remembered who he was. He knew he was Logan Cale; that was it. It took him a long
time to remember everything, and then he was also depressed because Max was
gone. He never really fully accepted the fact that he would never walk again, which
left him severely depressed. In fact..."
"Oh..." ~~
Wyoming. She was born at a sort of institute, where she wasn't given a name, rather
a number. She was part of a group called the X5 s, and her number was 452. Until
she was nine years old, she was known only as X5-452. She was trained like a
soldier, expected to act like an adult, express no emotions and was trained to be
loyal to her group, to obey orders without questions. They were the property of the
United States government, and lived and trained in a facility called Manticore.
Manticore was trying to create the perfect soldier, but their perfection had a flaw,
they couldn't stop the X5s from having a heart.
"All the children in Max's group grew to consider themselves brothers and sisters,
and they secretly named themselves. Early in 2009, Max started having seizures, it
had happened to one of her siblings before, and he had been taken away. Max said
they never knew what had happened to him. One of her sisters stepped up to
protect Max, pointing a gun at the director. He shot the girl; Max never would
touch a gun after that. It prompted an escape. Max got away that night with twelve
others, and has been hiding ever since. It has never been easy, but the Pulse made
it a bit easier to disappear."
"I met ma boo when she was nineteen, we covered each others backs in a fight, an'
we came to Seattle together. 'Bout six months later, she broke into this apartment,
Logan's apartment. Fell in love with her real quick, he came looking for her at Crash,
he wanted her to protect this friend of his, cuz of the stuff she learned at
Manticore. She told him strait up no, cuz she was only lookin' out fir herself. You
know, then they teamed up and were always doin' stuff on the DL, you know, she
always pulled a disappearin' act. None of us grunts that she worked with knew that
she was off playin' superhero with him, til later, anyway. They was head ova heals
for each other but in total denial."
"Why?"
"Well, there were a lot of things that they thought were in their way."
"Like what?"
"The fact that Max was from Manticore and on the run. She didn't want to have to
love and then leave someone, or put that someone in danger because she always had
the risk of being captured. Logan had a secret, too. He hated the way everyone had
gone corrupt since the Pulse, so he started to make cable hacks, informing the
people of what was going on, especially in the government. He was known to Seattle
as Eyes Only, because he only showed his eyes when he broadcasted. No one knew
who Eyes Only really was, except for Max, Cindy and I, and Logan's bodyguard
Peter. A lot of people knew him as an Eyes Only contact, but no one ever thought
that he could be the real guy. When Max broke into his apartment, he had someone
staying, he and Peter were protecting her and her daughter, and they planned on
moving them elsewhere the next day. He saw how Max took out Peter so easily and
asked her to help out. She refused and the next day they were ambushed while
making the move. The little girl was captured, her mother got away, but Peter was
killed and Logan was shot in the back.
"While Logan was in the hospital, Max saved him from another shooter sent to
finish him off. She then got the little girl back to her mother safely, but Logan was
still injured. He was in the hospital for almost three months; he had been paralyzed
from the gunshot, and absolutely miserable. Trust me. I was his physical therapist,
and that was when I met Max. She came by all the time, and had agreed to help
Logan with the legwork, so to speak. He told her he would try to find information on
her lost siblings in return."
"Wow. But my mom and dad weren't together then?"
"They was crazy ova each other, but in total denial. It was always 'We aren't like
that'. Whatever."
"Well, Logan thought the wheelchair was a barrier between them, and Max thought
the barrier was Manticore. Eventually about a year later they got together, but
just after that, Manticore finally caught up to Max.
"She was in Manticore for three months, and the whole time, Logan thought she was
dead. He ran a lot of Eyes Only hacks about Manticore. When she finally escaped
again, Max found out that they had implanted a sort of virus. If she had any skin-
to-skin contact with Logan, he would die. It put a huge rift between them, but they
were still friends and colleagues. One day, they accidentally touched each other and
Logan didn't die, the virus just expired. We were all happy for them, but they were
so shocked that they stayed away from each other for a long time. Finally, about
six months later..."
"They finally realized what I had been tryin' to drill into their heads from day one.
They was in love! It was all good for a while, till some scum dropped th' dime on the
fact that th' building me and ma boo were livin' in was condemned. We was kicked
out, I went to live with a friend and Max moved into the sky with Logan. It was all
great an' fine till the day someone must a found out who Logan was."
"We were supposed to watch a movie that night, Max and Logan had already started
it and I was on my way when someone got into the building. When they heard the
elevator door ding, they thought it was me, so Logan came to the door. Whoever it
was shot him and took off before Max knew what had happened. Soon after, Cindy
and I arrived, as did the doctors. They took Logan away. Max thought he was dead,
she thought it was her fault. We left her in the den for five minutes, and when we
came back, she was gone. We realized she had taken Logan's car instead of her
bike, so we assumed she wouldn't be going very far because she loved her bike.
When she never came back, we tried to track her down, but she was really good at
covering her tracks. We tracked her to the border, so we knew she was in Canada.
We hired a detective, and he thought he found her in Winnipeg. The person he
found was a High School student, and we were going to contact her, but she moved
away and we couldn't find her. We knew if it had been Max, the only way we would
find her would be if she wanted us to find her.
"It had been almost six months since Logan had been shot. He was in a coma, and
didn't come out of it for another two. It was April first of that year when he came
out of it, shouting Max's name. That's all he remembered, was the name Max. He
didn't remember who Max was, he didn't remember who I was, and he barely
remembered who he was. He knew he was Logan Cale; that was it. It took him a long
time to remember everything, and then he was also depressed because Max was
gone. He never really fully accepted the fact that he would never walk again, which
left him severely depressed. In fact..."
"Oh..." ~~