Chapter 3 - Raven
As soon as they were safely in Terminal City Max rounded on the girl again. She stood there unconcerned by the looks the other transgenics were giving her never having seen her before. The girl wandered over to a overturned bin and sat down daintily taking her time not really in any hurry and Alec stood regarding her from the car. She was so beautiful - and sassy, that was the part Alec liked best. Kinda like Max only.classier.
"Okay, what Manticore are you?" Max demanded and the girl made a mock bow that Max found irritating. It was like she was intentionally trying to annoy her
"X10-242 at your service, but my sisters call me Raven," the girl introduced herself and Max frowned at her reply obviously bothered by something Raven had said.
"X10?" Max repeated and Raven looked over to Alec who seemed to be nodding in understanding.
"They were after your time Maxie, X10's were the perfect assassins, equipped to go undercover and to kill a person with very little effort or suspicion, I never actually met one but you guys were the talk of the block, back at good old Manticore," Alec said and Raven smiled at him winningly in a way Alec found hard to resist. Never had he felt himself to overwhelmed by a woman, especially one who looked as young as she. Usually he felt so in control, but under her gaze he felt helpless and it both excited and unnerved him at the same time.
"The boy has it in one, smart very smart, you must be an X6 series, and you," Raven turned to address Max shaking her head, "by your fighting style which, by the way, is sorely outdated you have to be an X5, one of the naughty ones who escaped tut tut."
"Well you know all about us, tell us about you," Max said quickly unnerved at how much this girl knew and Raven cocked her head to one side.
"What do you want to know?" she asked and Max wondered again if she was deliberately trying to be annoying. She's doing a good job, Max thought snidely practically scowling at Raven.
"You want to help the transgenics in this war against the Familiars?" Max spelled the proposition out slowly and Raven stopped to seriously consider what Max had said.
"I look out for my sisters, nothing more, nothing less, I couldn't care less about the Familiars unless they try and hurt my sisters," Raven said after a long silence of deliberation and Max held up her hands in confusion.
"Your sisters?" Max repeated and Raven smiled affectionately.
"Only a small number of X10's were made, just the five of us," Raven explained and Max considered how helpful it would be to have the perfect assassins on their side. White and his idiot cult cronies would be gone before they knew what was going on.
"Well will you and your sisters join us? We could use some trained assassins," Max said and Raven shrugged her shoulders getting up.
"I guess they wouldn't mind," she said then smiled a full smile totally disarming Max for a moment before she said quickly, "I'll meet you back here."
"I'll drive you," Alec offered and Raven viewed him through narrowed lids and winked slyly.
"No thanks, I'll get there faster on my own," she said turning and then she seemed to disappear into the darkness. Max and Logan stared after her while Alec went inside to help Joshua get the rooms ready for their new arrivals. Logan ever so slowly reached out and clasped Max's hand and Max felt all her worries melt away at his touch, even if it was through thick black gloves.
"Think she'll be back?" Logan asked wearily and Max turned to smirk up at him.
"Not a chance."
Max had been waiting by the entrance to Terminal City. She knew in her head that Raven wasn't coming back but she couldn't help that small thread of hope in her heart that Raven was coming. Her prayers were answered when five young women appeared before her carrying a suitcase each. There was a small petite girl with ringlets of honey blonde curls and innocent blue eyes and she was watched over by the tallest of the five who had a stubborn jaw line, expressive green eyes and auburn hair that was pulled off her face into a ponytail. Then there were two girls who appeared to be twins, both sharing the flaming red hair and piercing blue eyes that sparkled with mischief as they exchanged glances with each other. The last was a woman Max knew she had seen before but instead of the long blonde hair, the girl now had long black hair just a little shorter than Max's own hair and in the place of her blue eyes were these wide violet coloured eyes that only Manticore could have created.
"Raven?" Max asked the violet eyed girl cautiously and she laughed at Max's precautions.
"You seem surprised to see me, let me guess you thought I wouldn't come back," Raven said ignoring that fact that her appearance had totally changed and Max shook her head in disbelief.
"Well." Max said for once in her life not knowing what to say and Raven gave Max a patronising look.
"I always do what I say," Raven assured Max certainly and Max smirked.
"I know that now," Max said sarcastically and the other girls let out a laugh interested to see what the relationship would be between these two girls who were both obviously used to giving the orders.
"Let me introduce you to my sisters, this is Hawk," Raven said pointing to one of the twins who winked.
"Hi," she said lifting her hand in a friendly wave and Max nodded at her.
"And Talon," Raven pointed out the other twin who made her fingers into the shape of a gun and pretended to fire it at Max.
"Nice to meet you," Talon said sincerely and Max nodded at her smiling now.
"This is Falcon," Raven introduced the tallest of the group and Falcon looked over Max and merely grunted making her displeasure obvious to all. Raven rolled her eyes and indicated that Max should ignore the sulking X10.
"And this is Dove," Raven said placing an arm around the smallest girl who smiled at Max innocently looking around and at that moment Joshua wandered into the area but stopped short on seeing Dove.
"Is this where we are staying Raven?" Dove asked her eyes locked on Joshua who shyly hung back in the shadows and Raven patted her on the back.
"Yup this is it, home sweet home, at least for the moment," Raven said and Max gestured for Joshua to come forward.
"This is Joshua, he'll get you settled in," Max said and Joshua snapped to attention and took Dove's bag from her while she stared at him in adoration.
"Thanks," Dove said following Joshua closely while the other three girls followed rolling their eyes knowing Dove had a special place in her heart for all transgenics of the dog breed.
"Tell me about them, about their specialties," Max said to Raven as soon as they were out of earshot and Raven smiled knowingly.
"Well Hawk is a master of the arts, the best fighter we have, one blow from her can kill a man, she knows exactly where the points are that could kill a man instantly and she can hit them without anyone noticing. Talon is a master of weaponry, you give her any gun she will know how to use it, she's especially good at sniper shooting. Falcon's a sword's master, she has knives everywhere, a very dangerous girl, her temper is dangerous as well."
"What about Dove?" Max questioned knowing that Raven had left her out of the explanation and Raven smiled fondly.
"She is Hawk, Talon and Falcon all mixed together, she's the perfect assassin," Raven said and when Max gave her a sceptical look Raven rolled her eyes, "I know she doesn't look it, but its all part of the ploy, the image, who would guess that an innocent looking naïve teenage girl could kill a man? No one would ever suspect her, they wouldn't suspect any of us."
"My God Manticore was smart," Max agreed in wonder thinking back and Raven nodded.
"Yeah, but they overlooked you setting us free," she said happily patting Max on the back and Max looked a little worried at how infamous she was getting.
"You know about that?" Max asked and Raven giggled at Max's naivety.
"We know everything, we're assassins, we know how to sneak, by the way, your boyfriend over there probably needs this," Raven said pulling the disc from her pocket and handing it to Max with a wink.
"He's not my." Max began to deny when Raven held up her hand to stop her.
"We know everything, night Max," Raven said turning and walking away.
"Wait Raven, what's your specialty," Max called after her and Raven didn't even stop.
"Ah, that's a surprise," she threw over her shoulder laughing and Max stood there confused before joining Logan behind the computer giving him the long awaited disc.
As soon as they were safely in Terminal City Max rounded on the girl again. She stood there unconcerned by the looks the other transgenics were giving her never having seen her before. The girl wandered over to a overturned bin and sat down daintily taking her time not really in any hurry and Alec stood regarding her from the car. She was so beautiful - and sassy, that was the part Alec liked best. Kinda like Max only.classier.
"Okay, what Manticore are you?" Max demanded and the girl made a mock bow that Max found irritating. It was like she was intentionally trying to annoy her
"X10-242 at your service, but my sisters call me Raven," the girl introduced herself and Max frowned at her reply obviously bothered by something Raven had said.
"X10?" Max repeated and Raven looked over to Alec who seemed to be nodding in understanding.
"They were after your time Maxie, X10's were the perfect assassins, equipped to go undercover and to kill a person with very little effort or suspicion, I never actually met one but you guys were the talk of the block, back at good old Manticore," Alec said and Raven smiled at him winningly in a way Alec found hard to resist. Never had he felt himself to overwhelmed by a woman, especially one who looked as young as she. Usually he felt so in control, but under her gaze he felt helpless and it both excited and unnerved him at the same time.
"The boy has it in one, smart very smart, you must be an X6 series, and you," Raven turned to address Max shaking her head, "by your fighting style which, by the way, is sorely outdated you have to be an X5, one of the naughty ones who escaped tut tut."
"Well you know all about us, tell us about you," Max said quickly unnerved at how much this girl knew and Raven cocked her head to one side.
"What do you want to know?" she asked and Max wondered again if she was deliberately trying to be annoying. She's doing a good job, Max thought snidely practically scowling at Raven.
"You want to help the transgenics in this war against the Familiars?" Max spelled the proposition out slowly and Raven stopped to seriously consider what Max had said.
"I look out for my sisters, nothing more, nothing less, I couldn't care less about the Familiars unless they try and hurt my sisters," Raven said after a long silence of deliberation and Max held up her hands in confusion.
"Your sisters?" Max repeated and Raven smiled affectionately.
"Only a small number of X10's were made, just the five of us," Raven explained and Max considered how helpful it would be to have the perfect assassins on their side. White and his idiot cult cronies would be gone before they knew what was going on.
"Well will you and your sisters join us? We could use some trained assassins," Max said and Raven shrugged her shoulders getting up.
"I guess they wouldn't mind," she said then smiled a full smile totally disarming Max for a moment before she said quickly, "I'll meet you back here."
"I'll drive you," Alec offered and Raven viewed him through narrowed lids and winked slyly.
"No thanks, I'll get there faster on my own," she said turning and then she seemed to disappear into the darkness. Max and Logan stared after her while Alec went inside to help Joshua get the rooms ready for their new arrivals. Logan ever so slowly reached out and clasped Max's hand and Max felt all her worries melt away at his touch, even if it was through thick black gloves.
"Think she'll be back?" Logan asked wearily and Max turned to smirk up at him.
"Not a chance."
Max had been waiting by the entrance to Terminal City. She knew in her head that Raven wasn't coming back but she couldn't help that small thread of hope in her heart that Raven was coming. Her prayers were answered when five young women appeared before her carrying a suitcase each. There was a small petite girl with ringlets of honey blonde curls and innocent blue eyes and she was watched over by the tallest of the five who had a stubborn jaw line, expressive green eyes and auburn hair that was pulled off her face into a ponytail. Then there were two girls who appeared to be twins, both sharing the flaming red hair and piercing blue eyes that sparkled with mischief as they exchanged glances with each other. The last was a woman Max knew she had seen before but instead of the long blonde hair, the girl now had long black hair just a little shorter than Max's own hair and in the place of her blue eyes were these wide violet coloured eyes that only Manticore could have created.
"Raven?" Max asked the violet eyed girl cautiously and she laughed at Max's precautions.
"You seem surprised to see me, let me guess you thought I wouldn't come back," Raven said ignoring that fact that her appearance had totally changed and Max shook her head in disbelief.
"Well." Max said for once in her life not knowing what to say and Raven gave Max a patronising look.
"I always do what I say," Raven assured Max certainly and Max smirked.
"I know that now," Max said sarcastically and the other girls let out a laugh interested to see what the relationship would be between these two girls who were both obviously used to giving the orders.
"Let me introduce you to my sisters, this is Hawk," Raven said pointing to one of the twins who winked.
"Hi," she said lifting her hand in a friendly wave and Max nodded at her.
"And Talon," Raven pointed out the other twin who made her fingers into the shape of a gun and pretended to fire it at Max.
"Nice to meet you," Talon said sincerely and Max nodded at her smiling now.
"This is Falcon," Raven introduced the tallest of the group and Falcon looked over Max and merely grunted making her displeasure obvious to all. Raven rolled her eyes and indicated that Max should ignore the sulking X10.
"And this is Dove," Raven said placing an arm around the smallest girl who smiled at Max innocently looking around and at that moment Joshua wandered into the area but stopped short on seeing Dove.
"Is this where we are staying Raven?" Dove asked her eyes locked on Joshua who shyly hung back in the shadows and Raven patted her on the back.
"Yup this is it, home sweet home, at least for the moment," Raven said and Max gestured for Joshua to come forward.
"This is Joshua, he'll get you settled in," Max said and Joshua snapped to attention and took Dove's bag from her while she stared at him in adoration.
"Thanks," Dove said following Joshua closely while the other three girls followed rolling their eyes knowing Dove had a special place in her heart for all transgenics of the dog breed.
"Tell me about them, about their specialties," Max said to Raven as soon as they were out of earshot and Raven smiled knowingly.
"Well Hawk is a master of the arts, the best fighter we have, one blow from her can kill a man, she knows exactly where the points are that could kill a man instantly and she can hit them without anyone noticing. Talon is a master of weaponry, you give her any gun she will know how to use it, she's especially good at sniper shooting. Falcon's a sword's master, she has knives everywhere, a very dangerous girl, her temper is dangerous as well."
"What about Dove?" Max questioned knowing that Raven had left her out of the explanation and Raven smiled fondly.
"She is Hawk, Talon and Falcon all mixed together, she's the perfect assassin," Raven said and when Max gave her a sceptical look Raven rolled her eyes, "I know she doesn't look it, but its all part of the ploy, the image, who would guess that an innocent looking naïve teenage girl could kill a man? No one would ever suspect her, they wouldn't suspect any of us."
"My God Manticore was smart," Max agreed in wonder thinking back and Raven nodded.
"Yeah, but they overlooked you setting us free," she said happily patting Max on the back and Max looked a little worried at how infamous she was getting.
"You know about that?" Max asked and Raven giggled at Max's naivety.
"We know everything, we're assassins, we know how to sneak, by the way, your boyfriend over there probably needs this," Raven said pulling the disc from her pocket and handing it to Max with a wink.
"He's not my." Max began to deny when Raven held up her hand to stop her.
"We know everything, night Max," Raven said turning and walking away.
"Wait Raven, what's your specialty," Max called after her and Raven didn't even stop.
"Ah, that's a surprise," she threw over her shoulder laughing and Max stood there confused before joining Logan behind the computer giving him the long awaited disc.