Legal 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: Things progress faster and faster for the Xs while things are slowing down for the anomalies. Eddie meets up with Pick again, and then she gets herself into a predicament that leaves her buried in deep trouble.

A/N: Forget my first chapter ratings disclaimer. It'll still be more mature material, but I just don't have enough time to make this into the epic I planned.

Binge

By

Brin

"Love is a trick that nature plays on us to get us to reproduce"- Callisto, played by Hudson Leick

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spree (sprē)

n.

A carefree, lively outing.

A drinking bout.

A sudden indulgence in or outburst of an activity.

Chapter 3: Head-On Collision

Pick tipped his sunglasses downward as he spotted a young woman moving across the marketplace, turning many heads besides his own. She had long blonde hair with blue streaks pulled into a braid and when she smiled he noticed that her canines were just slightly too sharp to be human. Immediately, he was moving towards her with a determined stride.

"Excuse me," he said, grabbing her shoulder and discreetly brushing the back of her neck. Psy-ops. "Do I know you?"

The young woman glanced at him with lavender eyes and smiled broadly. "I don't know… but I know you."

He made a gesture for her to follow him, and they ducked out of the crowded marketplace into a narrow alley. As soon as they were out of earshot, he began to speak, "Have you received any word from command?"

"No, sir. The star sign said scatter and go to ground, sir," she replied, saluting him.

Pick slapped her hand away from her forehead. "We've been abandoned by command. Don't call me sir. My name is Pick now. What's yours?"

"The alias I have used since the fire is Becky, si… Pick." She licked her lips nervously and touched her flat stomach. "I was wondering… do you have any food? I'm awful hungry…"

"Yeah. Come with me." He put his sunglasses back on and they moved back into the marketplace, quickly melting away in the folds of people.

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Becky followed Pick until they came to a warehouse several klicks from the marketplace. He looked up at the windows, in which small pinpricks of light could be seen by only the most well-trained eyes, and knocked on the door. A small slot opened and two green eyes peeked out.

"Open up. It's me," said the X6, removing his sunglasses again.

As if identifying him by this, the slot slid back into place and the steel door was slowly opened. "Good to see you back, sir, and with a friend!" piped the X8 that stood before them. "Hullo. My name's Bugler."

The psy-ops grinned at him and shook his outstretched hand a little unsurely. "Hi there. I'm Becky."

"Becky, huh?" The little boy crossed his arms. "We don't have a Becky here yet."

"Well you do now," she replied.

Pick ruffled his hair, laughing. "Stop harassing the newcomers and get back to your post, little man."

Bugler smiled toothily and scuttled away.

"You have X8s doing duty?" asked Becky.

"Everyone has a job around here," answered Pick coolly. "It's the only way to operate smoothly."

"And what are you operating?"

"A transgenic sanctuary." The X6 made a broad gesture to the room around them.

For the first time, Becky let her eyes sweep the area, and they widened with awe at what was before her. What had probably been a totally empty box of a building had now been built into what looked like an apartment complex. With tedious care and amazing architectural skill, three floors had been built along three of the warehouse walls. The fourth wall was equipped with balconies for guards to watch the outside.  Doors lined each story – about twenty doors per level – and each floor extended several meters into the warehouse. Transgenics were milling about in front of their rooms, some leaning over the railing of the level balconies and watching the area below, which was something to behold in itself. About one hundred fifty transgenics were sitting in a grand area of plush furniture and carpet. There were televisions, radios, video games – the whole lot. It seemed that at least one of every X series from 3 to 9 was present, the eldest seemingly in their late twenties and the youngest just beginning to walk.

"Wow," said Becky. "Just… wow."

"Yeah, it's pretty nice." Pick patted her on the back and beckoned a X4 over. "Follow Libby. She'll take you to get some food."

Becky nodded and did as she was told.

As soon as she was gone, Pick strode forward into the swarm of X series and found Hank and Junky sitting with several females.

"Well would you look at you two," said the oldest X6 casually. "Getting some game?"

Hank smirked at him. "Jealous?"

Pick held his hands up. "Ay, watch it." He moved forward and kissed one of the females on the head. "How you doing, CeCe?"

The blonde glared at him. "Fine. Why do you ask?"

"Can't I be concerned over the well-being of one of my favorite mission partners?" asked the X6, giving her an injured look.

"That's not the only kind of partner he appreciates," commented another female in a sour tone.

Pick winked at her and was about to sit down when his phone rang. Quickly, he answered it, "Hello?" A pause. "You're where?… Cisco?… You want me to what?… Are you sure?… Alright. Yeah. Tomorrow. Right. Bye."

"What was that?" asked Junky as his friend closed the cell phone.

"I got a call from Dodd in Cisco. Says he needs to see me about a few refugees that've turned up around there," replied Pick distractedly. He tapped his phone and bit his lip, obviously bothered.

"What is it?" queried one of the young women, though her voice betrayed her lack of sincerity.

"Eh… nothing. I'm just worried about Dodd getting caught. He said he's got a whole band of X8s following him around," replied the X6. After a few seconds of standing there, he grabbed his leather jacket from the arm of a couch and announced, "I'm going to go right now. Can't take any chances." He looked at Hank. "You and Junky are in charge while I'm gone, got it? I don't wanna come back and find the place burnt to the ground."

The two X6s mockingly saluted him. "Yes, sir, Mr. Picky, sir."

Pick smiled and flipped them off, then headed out.

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The X6 zipped through traffic and sector checkpoints, quickly entering the forest outside of Seattle. He was making good time, the miles melting away underneath his thundering motorcycle, and enjoying the feel of the wind in his hair. For several months now they had been out, and it seemed that he hadn't had a moment of peace since then. If he wasn't with his latest conquest, he was out gathering refugees and scouting for any sign of command. He was up at all hours dealing with crises that one would expect with a group of a couple hundred teenagers under one roof, and there was always someone mad at him for something, whether it be forgetting their name morning after or drinking their soda pop without permission.

He sighed as he regarded the road before him uneasily. These parts were dangerously close to where Manticore had been. Who knows what could be lurking in the—

As if on cue, something launched itself from a treetop and hit him from the side. The X6 was unceremoniously thrown from his motorcycle, which slid across the pavement with a terrible screeching sound and came to a stop in the ditch on the side of the road. Before Pick could recover, he felt hands searching his body, and saw his wallet flash before his eyes. He blinked, and the culprit was gone.

Immediately, the X6 was on his feet and taking off after the pickpocket at full speed, too fast for the human eye to see clearly. "Hey!" yelled Pick as he ran through the woods after the thief who had stolen the $400 cash in his wallet. "Get back here!" He could see the thief ahead of him, moving like a cheetah through the brush.

They ran like this for a few minutes before Pick suddenly lost sight of the person. He stopped and listened. Nothing moved. There was no sound. He took another step forward, then was suddenly pulled into the air by his ankle.

"Fuck! Fuck, fuck, fuck!" he yelled, furious with his undignified position - hanging ten feet off the ground. "This is bullshit!"

"Bad word," said a distinctly female voice from behind him.

Pick twisted his body around to see an anomaly sitting on the tree branch he was hanging from. "You!"

"And you!" responded the anomaly, equally surprised. "You're the one who left me outside Manticore like nothing more than a bag of rotten post-Pulse potatoes."

Pick saw bad things coming. Her tone indicated anger and her face… well, if looks could kill… "I was preoccupied. I had X8s to think about."

"Oh really?" snapped the anomaly. She pulled a knife from her pocket and cut the rope, causing Pick to fly headfirst into the ground. "I guess they forgot to give you some cat DNA to cure that horrible falling business."

Pick raised his head and glared at her. "That was quite painful." He spat leaves. "And most X6s had a blast of canine DNA, anyway…"

"Well that's a load of bullshit for me, 'cause I'm an X6 too," said the anomaly, wiggling her pointed ears and swishing her tail to accentuate her point.

"That's impossible," replied Pick as he struggled to stand up. "You're a 'nomlie."

"No, it's not. What, do you think Manticore created anomalies on purpose? We're all Xs, we just… came out a bit different."

"You can say that again."

"We're all Xs, we just came out a bit different," repeated the anomaly with a smirk. She jumped onto the ground and put him in a headlock. "Now, I know you want your money back but I'm not gonna give it to you. So you can either walk away now or I'll make sure you regret ever 'saving' me."

Pick thrust his body forward, loosening the headlock and causing the anomaly to stumble a bit. He punched her on the back and attempted to kick her feet out from under her, but she flipped backwards and kicked him in the face with both feet. Pick staggered back, his nose broken, and glared at his opponent. "That's it!" he yelled, running forward. He punched the anomaly across the face, then kicked her in the stomach. She ducked his next kick and punched him in the neck. Pick fell back, gasping for air.

"Oh… is the wittle X6 hurt?" cooed the anomaly mockingly.

"B… bitch!" choked Pick, running forward despite his lack of breath.

This turned out to be a mistake, since his movements were slowed by the lack of oxygen and his anomaly opponent took full advantage of that. She punched him in the face a few times, shoved him backwards, then, seemingly as an afterthought, kneed him in the groin.

Pick fell to the ground moaning.

The anomaly patted him on the head. "You poor thing. Don't worry, I probably didn't cause any… permanent damage." She blew him a kiss. "Hope you don't mind if I fence your bike," she added before running off in the direction of the road.

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Eddie lugged the motorcycle back to the road and jumped on, zooming off just as the egotistical X6 emerged from the forest to give chase. He was hopeless against the 150 horsepower motor, however, and she was soon miles away. The anomaly cruised for some more distance then pulled into a thicket of trees. Going slowly now as to avoid hitting anything, Eddie maneuvered the bike through the foliage and came to a stop in front of Mole.

"Look what I found lying on the side of the road," she scoffed, taking off her leather gloves. "A tricycle."

"It's a helluva nice tricycle," replied the anomaly. He whistled appreciatively. "Good work. This'll keep us in the Skittles and beer for awhile."

Eddie nodded at him as two transhumans came and took the bike away to prepare it for sale. She immediately searched out David and found him practicing his stealth underneath a willow tree. Amused, she leaned against another tree and watched him. Down on all fours, the tiger anomaly was stalking a grasshopper. It sat upon an upturned root with no indication that it cared of the anomaly's presence. David slithered around it in circles for a few minutes, seemingly sizing up his opponent, then readied himself to pounce.

"RAWR!" he yelled as he jumped forward. The grasshopper, however, seemed to see this coming, and casually hopped away. "Dangit."

"You almost got him," called Eddie as she stepped through the curtain of willow branches.

"Eddie!" exclaimed David, running over and throwing himself into her arms.

The older anomaly smiled into his white fur. Comfort. That's what they felt together, and it was the only comfort either of them had. Sure, they had befriended the other anomalies in the group, but the protectiveness they felt for each other was deeper than their relationships with any other. With their future being so unsure and seemingly so limited, the two young anomalies felt that their friendship was the only thing they would have until the end.

"Did you get anything today?" he asked excitedly.

Eddie stood and searched her pockets, eventually producing from them a shiny green apple. "This fell off a truck heading to the market in Seattle. I caught it for ya."

David's eyes widened as he accepted the treat. "Are you sure you don't want it?" he asked, sniffing the smooth green surface.

"Just eat it, squirt," she replied, ruffling his hair. "If I wanted to eat it, I would've eaten it before I got here, hm?"

"I guess so…" He took a tentative, albeit large, bite, and an extremely pleased look came over his face. The anomalies had been on a diet of, well, whatever they could scrounge up. The pregnant X5 female had been some use to them, but she was now so heavy with child that sending her into market would be dangerous and, as expected, the two male X series had disappeared as soon as they were asked to go to market.

"Hey, I'm going to go talk to Tegan for a while. It's getting late, so start heading back in awhile, okay?"

David nodded as he happily ate some more of his apple.

Pleased, Eddie exited the sanctuary and took the long walk to the middle of the woods, where the anomalies had set up a surface camp. It was dangerous, yes, but if anyone happened upon it… their conscience was overridden by their natural instinct to survive. The young cat anomaly located her apish friend and sauntered over with a sly grin.

"How about that bike I brought in?" she asked coolly.

Tegan shook her head, an exasperated look on her face. "Yes, we know, you're the best." They laughed. "Hey, you should lay off the sun for awhile – you look a little flushed."

Eddie nodded thoughtfully. "Yeah, I have been feeling a little warm today. Maybe too much time in the trees." She shrugged. "How's things been going?"

"Oh, didn't you hear? Jackie's been feeling labor pains – and it's about time. The normal X series gestation period is 8 months; she's over nine. But, with the Xs you never know." A pause. "No, seriously, Ed, you look really burnt."

By this time, Eddie was no longer listening to a word Tegan said. Instead, her attention was directed towards a looming shape standing not an incredible distance away. An anomaly several years older than her, probably in his mid-twenties, who had the likeness of a panther. He was not furry all around, but mostly dark-skinned with a furred head and hands. Standing tall, about six-foot-two, he was well-muscled and powerful-looking. These aforementioned muscles were easily seen due to the pair of boxers that were the only thing this man wore.

Tegan followed Eddie's train of sight and when she saw that her friend was looking at, the pieces fell together. She was just about to put her arm out to stop her infatuated friend, but Eddie was gone.

"Hi," drawled Eddie as she approached the panther-like male. With 'powers' that she hadn't previously known, the anomaly let loose a burst of pheromones that instantly bought her the attention of all the males in the area – especially Panther Man.

"Hello," he replied, his voice smooth and deep as he leaned forward so that he was closer to her head – the source of her pheromones. They rubbed cheeks as he did, and their fate was sealed.

"Cat in heat! Cat in heat! Red alert!" Dix was yelling as he watched the exchange with wide eyes. Not gifted in the area of smelling pheromones, the transhuman was only vaguely aware of his heightened attraction for the girl as he ushered the other anomalies away. It was extremely dangerous to get in the way now – a risk that could end in death or dismemberment for any party, no matter how skilled he or she believed himself or herself to be.

In a matter of minutes the area was clear. Panther led Eddie over to an old, rusted car that had been discovered in an abandoned barn, and they climbed inside for more privacy.

Eddie's head was jamming against the door, a spring digging into her back, but she didn't care. Her focus was entirely on the man on top of her, his lips starting at her own and then gradually moving downward as he removed the items of clothes that obstructed his way. Blood was pounding in her ears, her body reacting to Panther's every touch. It seemed to her that she was in pure bliss…

…but then there was that annoying little voice inside that kept saying over and over as Panther's boxers suddenly lay discarded on the floor, 'You're going to regret this.'

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TBC…