Rocky 2: (suddenly I'm picturing Stalone, go figure.)

A/N: Okay, so as last we left Zack adn Alec were facing off, which just has so many wonderful possibilities. Warning though, the M/A progression in this story is going to be slow, because somehow I just can't see Max dropping Logan without agonizing over-analyzing it, but I'll be dropping hints throughout, don't worry.

A/N2: Again, still need insights into Zack. Any good Zack centric sites I could go to brush up or whatever? Also, just as a random little note, it's bad thing when you start speaking in fanfic-ese to people who don't know you write fanfic. (canon, slash, drabble, fic etc.)

Disclaimer: Oh bite me already, they cancelled the show, what does it matter?

~*~

"Well then it's a good thing I didn't come here for Logan. I came here for you."

The muscles in Alec's jaw twitched as he suppressed a small grin. "Awww, I feel so special. So what exactly do I owe this honor Brother Zack?"

The elder, blonde transgenic's eyes narrowed and a low rumble escaped his lips. "You know exactly what you did. And you will pay for it. Nobody threatens me and mine."

Alec's mind was spinning. "For the love of…..what is with everybody and being so damned cryptic today!? Just say what you mean already. Make my life so much easier."

"How about instead of telling you what I mean, I just show you? Make my life a little more entertaining."

Alec dropped his hands slightly. He pursed his lips together and assumed a very 'I'm bored' expression on his face. "Are you gonna talk all day long, or are we gonna lay this bitch down?"

Alec barely had time to move as Zack leapt into the air. For a moment Alec lost him in the glare of a streetlight, and when he finally managed to refocus the other transgenic was nearly on top of him. Alec jumped away awkwardly, stumbling backward. He rolled his neck, cracking it. "Well okay then. Just making sure you were ready."

"Shut up."

"Good idea." Zack came again, lashing out with his right foot. Alec caught it, grasping Zack's ankle between his palms and twisted it. Zack rolled with the motion, jumping and spinning, his left foot connecting solidly to Alec's ribs. Zack pushed himself off the ground, but Alec had already jumping, flipping head over heels to land behind Zack. Max's brother grunted when Alec's boot struck him in the lower back.

Alec rushed forward with a solid punch that caught Zack underneath the ribs. Alec moved in again, but Zack stopped the onslaught, flipping the slightly smaller man over his back. He meant to send Alec face first into the pavement. Alec reached out with both arms, slapping the ground with his palms and tucking his chin to his chest as he somersaulted on the road.

Slowly, their actions became less planned, more wild. They stopped watching the other's movements as their tempers began to control their actions. Soon, they were locked up, hand on hand, wrestling. Neither X-5 had any real advantage over the other in the game of pure strength. Such as it was, neither was likely to gain the upper hand.

The sound of screeching rubber and loose dirt and stone striking a wall finally broke them apart. Max, still straddled atop her Ninja, one foot on the clutch had arrived. She cut the engine and removed her sunglasses, dark eyes flinty. "What the hell do you two idiots think you're doing? People are running scared around here as it is already. We do not need to be adding fuel to the transgenic fire by brawling in the streets!" she called out as she stalked towards them.

Alec watched her come forward, not really having a valid answer. Funny, how she could look so intimidating, so proud, just walking. "Zack started it," he mumbled.

"Ask Smart Alec here," Zack growled. He relinquished his grip on Alec's neck with a shove. Zack moved closer to Max. "Some of them Max," he continued, "some of them will never let it go."

"Let what go?" Max wanted to hear him talk more than she wanted to hear him explain. She wasn't quite sure where Zack's head was at. But still, she doubted he would do anything to her, where the way he was acting toward Alec, she wouldn't put anything past him.

"They don't see the big picture. Like him." He pointed an accusatory finger at Alec. "He'll never care about anything more than himself. He'd sell us all out if it guaranteed his safety." He turned his head to gaze angrily at Alec. "Is that what you're doing? Saving your own neck?"

"I have no clue what he's talking about Max," Alec said in defense. "You need to get the men in your life a book on how to speak plain English!"

Zack went on. "he's dangerous Max, to all of us. He's a killer. You'll never get that out of him. He was inside for too long. We have to stop him now, before he turns." Zack whipped around with all the speed and agility born into him, and suddenly Alec found himself staring straight into the business end of a Gloc pistol.

Max's eyes shot wide open. "Zack no!" Max hit Zack in the side with her shoulder. His finger squeezed the trigger. Alec froze as the shot fired, the bullet arcing slightly too wide because of Max's interference. Max reached out an twisted the weapon from her brother's grasp and threw it into the darkness of a near alley.

Zack turned on her. "No! You don't understand. I'm trying to save you! He'll hurt you." Zack scooped his baby sister up, holding her over his head before she even realized what was happening. "Stay out of this Max." Then he threw her. She sailed all the way across the street and hit the wall, rebounding into an open dumpster. The lid slammed shut behind her.

Despite the situation Alec had to laugh, though he didn't get to for long. Zack came at him again. "You just don't know when to quit, do you?" Alec said through gritted teeth as he ducked to avoid Zack's fist. He hit the other transgenic as hard as he was able, and reverberations coursed through his hand and arm like he had struck a metal plate. Actually, considering what he knew about how Zack had been rebuilt, it wasn't totally out of the question. Alec shook his now battered fist. 'God that stings.' Zack was just smiling grimly. "Ah shit."

Zack let loose a tremendous uppercut. Alec staggered backwards, blood flowing from his nose. Then he grasped Alec's neck and pushed him down as his knee connected solidly with Alec's stomach. Zack gripped onto Alec's sweatshirt and pants, lifting him like he weighed nothing and chucked him straight into a store's plate glass window.

Alec reacted, bringing his right hand up to shield his head. The glass shattered into sharp fragments as he sailed through. The shards nipped and cut at his hands and face. He landed on the store's floor with a crunch. The impact of his head on the glass made him dizzy and he couldn't stand right away.

Meanwhile, Max had managed to dig herself out of the piles of garbage and climb out of the dumpster. She got out just in time to see Zack throwing Alec through the window. The siren split out over the air almost immediately. She tensed at the sound, crouching low and bringing her hands up. Max's eyes immediately shot to the sky, on the lookout for hoverdrones. When she looked back, Zack was already more than halfway up the side of a building.

He paused on a window ledge. "I'm right Max," he called out. "I'll prove it to you. I'll make you see. Until then, watch your back." He continued on, slipping over the rim of the building onto the rooftop. Max considered going after him briefly, but when she heard the police sirens coming she decided it was more important to get herself and Alec out of there. She hurried over to the busted window. Alec was just picking himself up off the ground. His hands were torn and bloody, and his face scratched.

He squinted at Max as he stepped through his own, self made entrance. "Can we go now?" Max just nodded and headed for her bike. "Oh and by the way," Alec's nose wrinkled in distaste as he picked a banana peel off Max's jacket, "you really stink."

--

"Ow!" Alec yelped when he plunged his hands into the iodine bath Max had made up. The water turned a nearly ink black almost immediately. He let his hands rest in the hot water for a few moments before gingerly removing them and sitting back in the seat Max had set out in the middle of his apartment.

Max rolled her eyes, setting the First Aid supplies she had gathered down on a small table. "You're such a wuss," she teased.

"You're not the one who got tossed through a window," he reminded her.

"True, I'm just the one that got thrown into a dumpster." She shook her head as she looked at her discarded leather jacket. "That's just never going to be the same again."

"You're right, the window's better," Alec conceded. "Except for the whole glass imbedded in flesh thing."

"Well hold still and we can work on that." Alec let Max take his hand into her lap. He tried not to think of it as a bad sign that Max was wielding his pair of tweezers like a steak knife. She obviously missed out on most the of the Field Medicine Training at Manticore. They lapsed into silence for a few moments as Max worked the first few slivers of glass out of his palm.

Max chewed uneasily on her lower lip. It could have been a lot worse, she reminded herself. What if Alec had been a little slower? What if the car crash had killed them both? What if Zack had managed to get off the shot he'd intended? Max shook her head a little, clearing the disturbing thoughts. Alec was fine, and so was Logan. And as much as she hated to admit it to herself, she would have kicked herself for letting Zack get to Alec.

Despite all his annoyances, Alec had started to grow on her. He was always there, like a mouthy shadow. She'd dragged him into plenty of hairy situations that no sane person would have willingly volunteered for. He had her back; it was something she took for granted.

Max let her eyes flick up to his face once before falling back to his shredded palms. "So….uh…what was Zack talking about?" Max queried.

"He's your brother. You know him better than I do." He tried to jerk his hand back as Max poked at a particularly large glass shard, but she held fast. Alec rolled his eyes. "You mind being a little more careful? I'd like to have that hand still attached in the morning."

"It's not my fault Zack kicked your ass."

"Okay, first of all, Zack did not kick my ass. I was just setting him up so I could make a rousing comeback.

Max snorted, "Right."

"And second of all, it is your fault. If not for you and your whole protect Logan spiel I never would have been there in the first place."

"He would have found you anyway," Max answered softly. "No matter where you were. I just wish I knew why he was after you."

"You and me both Maxie."

" Just as a side note though, would you mind not doing this again?"

"What, is Maxie feeling a little ill at ease?" Alec grinned triumphantly. "I knew it. You like me, ha."

"I don't know what you're talking about."

"You're worried about me. Actual concern. Admit it," he went on playfully, "you'd miss me. Come on Max, say it."

"You're not going to stop are you?"

"I could go all night. Want to see?" He wiggled his eyebrows. "You would, I know you would."

"Does almost getting killed always make you this giddy?"

"It's the adrenaline," he shrugged. "What can I say?"

She started wrapping his hands with gauze, avoiding having to answer his questions. Deep crimson stains appeared through the thick layers within moments. "Some of these really should be stitched," she grumbled.

Alec shook his head, jutting his chin out stubbornly. "No doctors, no risk of exposure. Need I remind you of the whole CDC catastrophe? White almost got you then. Still can't believe Logan didn't call for my help," he complained huffily.

"Logan did all right on his own."

"That's not the point Max and you know it." Angry green sparks seemed to shoot from his eyes. "You could have been killed or captured just because he wanted to play hero."

"Hey!" Max snapped. "He's been watching my back a hell of a lot longer than you have, so just lay off." She swatted him in the side with her hand, and Alec ducked his shoulder protectively, despite the weak blow. Max sighed. "Show me." Stubbornly, Alec kept his arm pinned to his side.

Max grabbed his wrist and wrenched his arm upward, ignoring the pained hiss Alec emitted. There was a large tear in the gray fabric of his shirt and the area around the tear was damp and sticky with blood. "Off," she ordered.

Alec grumbled something incoherently and went to take the sweatshirt off over his head. "Your bedside manner sucks ass," he complained through the veil of fabric. Max just ignored him and examined the wound critically. The gash was about four inches long and a centimeter deep between his fourth and fifth ribs. The wound oozed blood and she could see the corner of a fairly sizeable chunk of glass peeking out from behind a patch of skin. Max went in with her tweezers, but Alec batted her hand away. "Keep away from me you butcher." he snatched the tool from her grasp. "I'll just get it myself. Be less painful that way." He plucked the shard unceremoniously from his flesh and dropped it into the small bowl at Max's feet.

"Okay Max, that was a really weak ploy to see me with my shirt off," Alec teased.

She rolled her eyes. "I'm gonna blaze. Keep your eyes open Alec. Zack isn't one to leave jobs unfinished."

"Wait a second, you're just going to leave?"

"That was the plan, yes."

"With a psychotic X5 on the loose who just happens to want my head on a stick? Who, may I remind you, also happens to be your brother? Thanks."

"I figured you could handle it." She moved for the door, but Alec stepped in front of her. He leaned against the old wood, blocking the handle.

"You're going after him aren't you?"

"I have to talk to Logan first, but yeah, probably." She shifted from foot to foot. 'How could he know that?' "What's it to you?"

"Well I'm coming with you," he said as if it were the most obvious thing in the world. "There's no way you're going after psycho boy on your own."

"You're not coming."

"Yes, I am."

"No you're not," Max glowered. "For once in your life Alec just listen to me. I don't want you with me."

"Why the hell not? I'm the one Zack just tried to slice and dice! it's not like you couldn't use the help. And it's not like you've never asked me to risk my neck before."

"It's different," she insisted.

"Different how? Except that this time the big bad doesn't want you, they want me."

"Exactly! God damn it Alec don't you get it? I don't want to lose you!"

End Chapter 2

Mind Games next I swear. Is FF.net being a pain in the butt for anyone else? I can almost never get on.