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Part 8

A few nights later

Jondy stood deadly straight, her eyes scanning from left to right and right to left in a never-ending pattern. She'd always been good at look out. Her vision had always served her well; it didn't matter whether it was day or night like it was now.

She tapped her comm. lightly and she heard her sister's exasperated sigh, "What is it now Jondy?"

"Your boyfriend seems nice," Jondy could practically see the fire dance in her sister's eyes and her nostrils flare imperceptibly with anger, "He is NOT my boyfriend."

Jondy's muttered 'my ass' only fuelled Max's anger even more and she closed her eyes counting to ten before re opening them and continuing to unscrew the glass dome around the baseball. Why her fence was willing to pay her 75 grand for a little ball she had no idea but who was she to question?

"So what's he like?" Jondy said innocently as she studied her nails with pride. Being lookout had its perks. She didn't have to break nails with this job.

"What, what's he like?" Max said under her breath lifting the protective glass and placing it alongside making sure to make no sound. Carefully she lifted the baseball and placed it in the little pouch that was strapped to her cat suit.

"Well in bed! I thought that was obvious. You were breeding partners right?!"

452 nearly dropped the glass partition in her shock and Jondy didn't miss the slight growl, "Hey I'm just making small talk," she defended; back pedaling for all she was worth. Sometimes she crossed a few too many lines with her sister, pushing her a little too far and it wasn't healthy.

"Would you please do me the favor of dropping the topic of conversation!" she hissed screwing the bolts back into place one by one, "Besides even if I was interested. Which I'm not! I wouldn't even do anything. I'm not one for commitment when it comes to these things."

Jondy's previous good humor turned a stalemate and she sighed waiting for her sister to climb back up the rope and onto the ceiling. Stretching out a hand she pulled her up through the skylight and they closed the window once again.

As they made their way to the edge of the roof to jump down and head back to Terminal City Jondy wrapped an arm around Max and asked, "Why do you keep beating yourself up about Brendan? It wasn't your fault Max."

Jondy barely heard the whispered reply, "For the same reasons I still refer to myself as 452."

********

Otto stood hesitantly outside the office. Scrounging up the little courage he had left when it came to facing his boss he knocked and entered closing the door at the replied 'come in'.

"What is it?" the man asked him. The operative cleared his throat and answered quickly, "Sir, we may have found who played that message."

Otto handed the other a black and white screenshot of Max in the control room.

He grinned menacingly and trailed a finger over the face in the photograph, "Excellent work Otto. Post someone you trust to continue the normal search for transgenics, I want you full time on finding this girl. She could be the key to all the transgenics."

"Yes sir, White sir," Otto replied and left the office.

**********

Jondy jumped off the back of the bike and Max followed taking the keys. The briefcase she carried would have been heavy for an ordinary girl but 452 carried it with ease.

"Hey Max!" the two girls turned and Jondy smiled at the eager face of Apion.

They slowed waiting for him to catch up and he fell in step beside Max, "How did the heist go? Everything go smoothly?"

Max grinned at the X6, "Course it went fine. You don't think I can handle it?" her tone changed and she feigned anger.

"Oh no ma'am! Not at all, I was just . . . " he stuttered berating himself inwardly, "Relax kid I was just playing. As you can see, it went fine. That ought to keep us in beer and skittles for a few weeks," she mused holding up the briefcase, which he took.

"Good cause we have a whole lot of new people. Transhuman, anomalies, X5's, X6's and even a few seven's and eight's," Apion nodded acknowledging another X6 from his unit, "This place is turning into grand central."

"We're gonna need more fuel for the generators, blankets, medical supplies ASAP and I'm gonna need more cigars," croaked Mole causing Apion and Jondy to start in surprise. 452 didn't so much as bat an eyelid, "You gotta stop sneaking up on people Mole, you scare the children."

Max grinned at her sister's glare and she ruffled Apion's hair signaling them to follow, "Could you take the money down to Fist? He'll know what to do with it. And then I'm gonna need you to round up half a dozen X6's you trust. I'll meet you at my place in ten."

Jondy raised an eyebrow but said nothing else and Max waved off their questioning glances, "Dix?"

Transfixed on something no doubt very interesting on his computer screen it took a second for the anomaly to realize someone had called his name, "Oh sorry. Can I help with something oh great commander?" he said with a grin.

Max rolled her eyes and returned the smile, "Any word on our friend looking to kill us? Have you figured out who he is?"

Dix shook his head, "No, we still haven't got a good enough picture of him but we know he's an NSA agent but he also works with the FBI and other such agencies. I'm going through their databases seeing if I can find the same guy in all of them. Then we'll have a visual."

Max nodded and he smiled proud of his work.

"Mole make a list of everything we need most urgently and I'm gonna need someone to start an infirmary. Jondy can you help Luke find someone?" her sister nodded and Max smiled before pivoting on her heel and leaving headquarters. She had a few minutes before having to meet Apion, she figured there was nowhere else better to spend it then at Camus.

********

A few sectors away, looking out through the recently cleaned window of the apartment Alec watched the city in thoughtfulness.

"You so spun over that lickety boo boy that your head's gonna fly off," Cindy mumbled underneath her breath. Her words shattered his dreamland and he fell back to earth.

"I most certainly am not!" he defended testily.

"Mhmmm," Alec bristled at her noncommittal grunt, "And what is that supposed to mean?" he asked raising his voice.

Original Cindy put a hand on her hip and she shook her other finger vigorously in front of his face. She looked up at him threateningly, "Don't you use that tone with OC! There's enough smack-downs to go around and Original Cindy is most certainly not afraid of you boy!

Alec grinned quieted and smiled innocently, "Now listen here boo cause I'm only gonna say this once," Cindy ignored his snorted response and continued, "Now when I first met your scrawny ass you tried to get Original Cindy under the sheets wit ya. And I told ya no, straight up, but you kept coming back. You had it easy with the women and you still do, then comes Asha into the picture and suddenly, Boom! No more ladies for my boy. Then you return from that hell ready to take the step and she gone off wit another man!"

Alec flinched at her last sentence and looked away but OC took his chin in her hands and made him look at her, "And that hurt ya boo. A lot. But now you got yourself a chica. She keeps your mind off of things and I know why you in denial. She looks like ya sister boo but she ain't. She's somethin' completely different and she's good for ya boo! Listen, OC knows what she's ranting about."

Alec smiled and his eyes glinted with an ineligible emotion before it was gone, "Alright OC. Whatever you say."

His eyes returned to the window glazing over in thought as he dove once again into the corners of his mind. Cindy sighed and with a final touch to his cheek in the last attempt to make him understand she left, leaving him to his thoughts.

"She's something alright," he muttered to the empty room.

********

452's feet made no noise as she walked down the deserted hallway towards her apartment. She could here the rhythmic breathing of four people inside and the quiet talking. Either she was the best or Manticore hadn't been very strict on X6's.

Opening the door she walked inside and the four immediately stood to attention. Gesturing for them to sit down she shrugged out of her jacket tossing it behind her not even turning to see if it landed on the hook behind the door but trusting her actions enough to know where it landed.

Apion sat comfortably on her bed while the other three not as daring remained on her beat out couch. Raising an eyebrow Apion straightened and sat up a little, "Comfortable?"

The younger boy grinned and shrugged, "It'll do."

Her stance was powerful and authoritative yet she carried herself with grace and femininity. Silently she studied the four teenagers in her apartment.

Apion had a slight grin on his face awaiting her orders. Blue eyes awaited patiently as she let her eyes trail his features. His skin looked sun-kissed and tan and his very short hair was golden blonde, sticking up in curls. His jaw was set and she smothered the urge to roll her eyes at his toothy grin that hinted teeth sharper than the normal human.

Turning to the other three her gaze encountered that of a darker boy. They were all aged around 15 to 17 but he looked to be the oldest next to Apion. His features were sharp and his gaze calculating. He didn't betray his nervousness at her study but she'd spent enough time with people to simply be able to sense it.

"What's your name?" her voice though ordering was remarkably soft and the boy didn't hesitate, "Obsidian ma'am. But I'm referred to as Sid."

She nodded in acknowledgement and she could understand the reason for his name. His hair, short and straight, was coal black as were his eyes and his skin was deep chocolate hue, "What are your names?"

The two girls were most obviously completely different. One was short but slender and she looked anything but deadly. Her hair was blonde and tied back into a messy ponytail similar to Ralph's. That kid's a mess. How she survived field med. is beyond me she mused.

The other was of darker skin much like hers and her hair was chestnut brown that she kept in a boy's cut.

"Caiman ma'am," the darker one replied and the blonde soon after, "Ese."

Max raised an eyebrow, "You can call me Max," she paused before continuing, "you named yourselves 'Alligator' and 'That one' in Spanish?"

The two girls looked at each other and back to her. She shrugged apologetically, "Hey, whatever floats your boat."

*******