Author's Note 1: I'm sorry for taking so long. School is nearly over, so the teachers are laying the homework on thick. Then I wasn't home all this past weekend, so I really didn't get the chance. As soon as school is out, I'll be able to update more regularly.
Author's Note 2: Now I'm going to deal with the two reviewers who obviously don't know me very well. First off, to NoShipper and Venus, I take it as a direct insult to my character when I'm accused of writing a story under a false heading. Obviously neither of you have much faith in people, or have read any of my writing before. If you had, you would know that I'm M/L. To Venus, you apparently have never visited TBW before. It's an all shipper place, which is obvious because I'm there and I'm as M/L as can be. While I like the characters of Max and White, I prefer them as enemies, not as lovers. I hope that clears things up for you.
Now for NoShipper, although you said that you weren't going to read until you were sure that this was M/L, and not as you put it Max and White together, and Logan and some other chick together. Then M/L together in the last paragraph of the last chapter, I hope you're reading this. I'm sure you understand that a person can't reveal their whole plot in their summary, but I can safely say that it won't be M/L just in the last bit. Now, because I can see what made you think that, I'm adding a little to my summary to clear up where I'm going with my story.
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Disclaimer: Unless I get myself a genie, then I won't be owning DA anytime soon.
Dust In The Wind
By Be Boring
Chapter 3: Run, Run, As Fast As You Can
Logan gazed around at all the unfamiliar faces around him. Most of the transgenics he knew were off duty on Saturday nights, so the only faces he recognized were Dix's and Luke's. Well, there was Mole and Alec of course, but they weren't working at the moment.
It came as something of a surprise when Alec reached over and pulled Logan's glasses off his face. Before he could protest, Alec raised a finger to his lips. "Terminal City is supposed to be a place for transgenics, not humans. We don't know if these newcomers are safe yet, and if they aren't, we sure as hell don't want them knowing that we have ordinaries in here. You'd be one of their first targets because you'd be the easiest to get to. Also, they already figure that Eyes Only is human, so that's even more of a reason to keep your lack of strength secret."
Logan clenched his jaw, struggling to hold back his anger. He knew from the conversation he'd overheard between Alec and Max that they weren't a couple, but it didn't change his feelings. Even though they weren't really involved, if Max chose Alec as her scapegoat, did that mean she was interested? Still, despite his feelings, he knew that Alec was right. His glasses would give away the fact that he wasn't a transgenic. Besides, he could see fairly well without them. Joshua's blood was helping his eyes as well as the rest of him, it was just habit to put on the glasses.
The first one to come through the door was Max, looking slightly disconcerted. Everyone could see that by her eyes, so almost an instant later all the necks in the room were craning to see the new transgenics. Tagg was the next to come through the door, then two young X series, a psy-ops, and a tall black man with yellow eyes and what appeared to be fangs. His appearance made the group in the Rec Center back up, but in the next second they could tell that it wasn't him who had upset Max. The final person to enter the building was a young woman. She appeared to be an X4, judging by the fact that she seemed to be in her late twenties, but it was her looks that really threw everyone off. She had dark brown curls that fell to just past her shoulders, large brown eyes that looked as though they could pierce straight through someone, full lips, and creamy olive skin. Even the way she walked struck a chord with everyone nearby, it was a slinky stride that showed how confident she was. Logan's breath caught in his throat, and he heard everyone around him do the same. That woman looked almost exactly like an older version of Max. Glancing at a nearby X6 who was simply gaping at her, she smirked. "Do I have something on my face?" It was a surprisingly gruff voice that came from her throat.
Max walked up to the highest point she could get to, and with one raised hand she had silenced the crowd. "Everyone, back up and give them some room." As soon as they had done what she asked, she turned back to the newcomers. "What are your designations?"
The group started spouting them off, and despite the fact that everyone had suspected it, a low murmur ran through the crowd when the dark-haired woman replied, "X4-452." Even Max flinched slightly when she heard that. Her encounters with clones hadn't brought her much luck in the past, even though in this case she realized that the other woman wasn't the clone, she was. Silence fell over everyone again when Mole and a few others started checking the barcodes on the backs of the newcomers' necks. When it was all done and the five guards had whispered their findings to one another, Mole looked up at Max and nodded. "Everything checks out. Their barcodes are real."
She nodded back, working to keep her eyes from wandering to the X4. Instead she turned her focus to Logan, who she had just realized was there. His eyes however, were on the X4 rather than her. He looked as though he was in shock, which was pretty much how she had felt when she'd seen the other woman. Just because she had almost always been aware of the fact that Manticore was into cloning didn't mean she had to like it. It was rather creepy to know there were carbon copies of herself wandering around in the world.
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White had hardly been paying attention to the activities beneath him, he had forced his mind to focus on only one thing: 452. She was shifting her weight back and forth, and occasionally she would sidestep in one direction for no apparent reason. Unknown to her, she was steadily making her way to stand right below him. A triumphant gleam flashed through his eyes as she moved into position underneath him. In his mind's eye, he could practically see a large red X on the back of her neck where her barcode was as she bent forward and leaned on the railing in front of her.
"X marks the spot," he chuckled to himself as he pulled the tiny tranquilizer gun out of his pocket. He was careful not to let the tip of the dart touch him, this could knock him out for over twenty-four hours, which was exactly what it would do for her. Laying flat against the beam he was on, he carefully took aim at her neck. With any luck, it would surprise her enough to make her stand upright and let her hair fall into place over her neck, covering the tiny dart. She wouldn't stay up very long, a minute at the most.
The gun didn't make anything more than a slight thffft sound as it fired, sending the dart straight into the base of Max's neck. Her hands immediately tightened their grip on the railing. Instinct was screaming at her not to move. She took long, slow, deliberate breaths, naturally slowing her heart rate. She could feel slight traces of wooziness almost immediately, but she let her breathing ward it off. She needed someone to get up here and remove whatever the hell was on the back of her neck. After a few seconds, she realized no one was even looking in her direction, there was still too much commotion over the new transgenics. She would have to get it out herself.
Logan forced himself to tear his eyes away from the woman at the front of the room, it made him feel strange just to look at her. Every little thing she did was so much like Max that it was unbelievable. Turning his head to look at the real Max, he was forced to squint his eyes. His eyesight still wasn't perfectly clear, and he doubted Alec would give him his glasses back anytime soon. Struggling to focus on Max, he couldn't help but think that maybe he was looking at the wrong person. She was standing so still, but her right hand was slowly inching up towards her neck. Logan took a glance around to see if anyone else was looking in her direction, but it was hard for him to tell. He finally started making his way towards her.
White frowned as he saw Logan approaching. He recognized him immediately, he was the Eyes Only correspondent that his wife had spoken to about Ray, and he had also been there just after 453 had messed up her mission. Dammit, he knows something is wrong. Pulling out a case from his pocket, White gingerly opened it and looked at his darts. He had only been given three, but how was he going to use the last two? He could tell he would have to shoot 452 one more time, but that man would alert everyone else in the room that there was someone else there. If he's been living in Terminal City ever since they've all been trapped here, then he would have to be a transgenic. Hopefully one of these will knock him out. Sliding one of the darts into his gun, he carefully took aim at Logan. He decided to aim at the soft region just under the other man's jaw, seeing as how he was moving at a slight angle.
Logan had just taken his first step up the stairs when he felt the sharp sting in his neck. Immediately his hands reached out and groped for the railing, it felt as if he had just swallowed an entire bottle of Unisom, which he had done once before. Colors swam in front of his eyes, and Max's face doubled, then tripled. His mind grasped the only thing it could, seeking out the person who was doing this to him. Something in him, perhaps instinct, made him look up. He could see the edges of fingertips holding onto a beam that was just above Max. His eyes remained there for a moment, then his body slumped against the stairs. He slowly lowered himself down until he was laying awkwardly on the steps, and if anyone had been listening closely, they would have heard the whispered "Max" that he breathed out before slipping out of consciousness.
Max struggled to focus her eyes on the stairs, but found that she couldn't. All the colors were blurring together to the point where she wasn't sure if that had been Logan coming up the stairs or not. She could hear her heartbeat pounding loudly in her ears, but that was the only thing that she could make out. Any other noises had blended together until it was like a steady humming. Her right hand had dropped back to the railing as she had watched Logan, and now her arms felt so heavy that she wasn't sure she could lift them, but everything in her was screaming that she had to get whatever the hell was in her neck out of her. Finally, she came to a very simple conclusion. She started slowly leaning forward until her forehead was resting against the railing, then let her fingers inch towards the dart. Gripping it as tightly as she could, she just barely managed to pull it out. It had buried itself deep in her skin, and her strength was draining rapidly.
White swore silently to himself, then slid the last dart into the gun. This had better work, he thought angrily. He hadn't gone through all this trouble just to waste the darts and get himself killed by this group of freaks. Now he would need to aim somewhere that she couldn't reach as easily without wearing herself out. Running his eyes over her body, he noticed that while she was leaning forward her jacket had raised up. The only thing covering her skin was a thin, navy blue shirt. The dart could easily make it through that.
Max let out a low groan of frustration that nobody heard as she felt another dart hit her in the small of her back. She sank to her knees, struggling not to move, but also not to fall asleep. She never heard the footsteps behind her, so it took her by complete surprise when a pair of hands grabbed her around the waist and hoisted her up into a standing position. The girl holding her was a complete stranger, but Max could tell by her grip that she was an ordinary. How had she gotten into Terminal City? Digging her feet into the ground, Max tried to grab the railing again, but her legs gave out too soon. She was hardly awake as Christine dragged her over to the edge of the raised stand they were on and slid her down under the railing to the boy who had first tried to be tough to White.
As the new transgenics were led out of the Rec Center, Alec turned to his side. "I suppose I can give you your glasses ba..." The words stopped as he realized that Logan was no longer standing by him. His eyes scanned the crowd, but Logan was nowhere to be seen. He probably went to talk to Max, he thought with a touch of relief. Of course that was it, those two were practically inseparable. Glancing around again, he rolled his eyes. Now he couldn't see Max either.
Forcing his way through the crowd, he eventually reached the stairway leading up to the miniature floor that held most of the computer equipment. "Logan?" He dropped to his knees and reached out to check the pulse on the other man's neck. That was when his fingers brushed over the dart in his neck. Carefully lifting it out, without letting the tip touch him, he raised it gingerly to his nose. There was a slightly sour smell, as though the dart had been around rotting food.
"Mole! Get over here!"
Smelling cigar smoke less than two seconds later, Alec didn't even bother to look up, but reached up with the dart in his hands. "Don't touch the tip, but tell me what you think this is made of."
Mole carefully took the dart into his hand and sniffed it. "I don't think the dart itself has a smell, but whoever was carrying it brought it through the same region of the sewers that our new buddies came through. This is just what they smelled like. My guess is that they were followed. But why would they shoot him? He's just an ordinary."
"I don't think this dart was meant for him, it was meant for Max, and I don't see her around."
Mole dropped his cigar to the floor and stepped on it. "In other words, we need someone to take this guy to the infirmary, and another group to search for Max."
Alec nodded. "Yeah, basically. I'll take him to the infirmary, you round some people up. Don't let anyone leave Terminal City."
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"Can't you take her off my hands? You're not carrying anything," grumbled Michael Brantho, the person who at the moment was in charge of carrying Max.
White looked back at the kid and snorted. "You're too scrawny, you could use the exercise. Besides, I don't like touching scum."
"What do you think you're walking in?" Michael grumbled angrily. The words were barely out of his mouth before he found himself lying on his back in the sludge that they'd been making their way through. White put an arm around Max's middle and pulled her off the kid, then slung her over his shoulder.
"Well, whatever it is that we're walking in, you're lying in it. Maybe you can figure out what it is." With that, he turned and walked off, deliberately kicking back some slush into Michael's face. "Anyone else feel like smart talking?" The other teens looked down at Michael in disgust, then followed White through the sewers.
White stopped in mid-stride as a gentle plunk reached his ears. He knew the kids hadn't heard it, and they probably wouldn't have thought much of it even if they did, but he knew better. There were transgenics coming. What he didn't realize was that they were already there.
Michael was still struggling to wipe the foul-smelling slime off himself when the butt of Mole's gun was brought down on the back of his head. "Funny, I don't remember handing out backstage passes to Terminal City," he growled as he raised his gun and took aim at White's head. White reacted immediately, grabbing one of the other teens and using him to block his body. As soon as the bullet was firmly lodged in the boy's ribs, White took off with Christine and a tall boy named Jacob hurrying to keep up.
Tagg threw himself out of a side passage and straight into White. The two of them crashed into the wall, while Max dropped to the ground. Jake leaned down and picked her up, then continued down the path, ignoring the fight going on. It was over quickly, but Tagg managed to dig his pocketknife into White's chest before his neck was snapped by one hand. White didn't even bother to pull the knife out of his flesh, he simply took off after the teens.
Mole finally had to throw down his gun to keep running, it was just slowing him down. He hadn't expected White to run so fast, he just didn't look that speedy. He didn't even appeared to be hampered by the stab wound in his chest. While the blade wasn't that large, Tagg had good aim. The blade had to have at least punctured a lung.
Actually, the blade had poked into White's left lung, but he couldn't even feel it. At the moment the only thing he was focusing on was the light ahead that came from the manhole that the kids had opened. Christine was climbing out, while Jacob waited to hand Max off to her. At that point, White pulled the knife out of his chest and hurled it at Jacob's back. The boy abruptly dropped Max on the ground and bent over with a gasp, struggling to reach the middle of his back. White kicked him out of the way, lifted Max up over his shoulder, and climbed out of the sewers. He didn't feel any satisfaction until he shoved the manhole cover back into place and saw the look of horror on Christine's face.
"Let him out!" she shrieked. "They'll kill him!"
"That's the point," he snapped, then turned and started walking down the alley.
She lunged forward and grabbed his arm. "You're not leaving them down there, I'll call the police if you do!"
He rolled his eyes and shrugged her hand off of him. "I am the police."
It didn't surprise him at all when she pulled out her own knife and pressed it against his throat, but he didn't give her any time to get ideas. Letting go of Max, he grabbed Christine's arm and bent it backwards, snapping the elbow in the wrong direction. She didn't even have time to scream before he grabbed her face and twisted hard, easily turning her head backwards on her body. Finally, with a tired sigh, he picked up Max again and headed for his car.
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Alec was on his feet as soon as Dana, one of the best Terminal City doctors, came out of the storage room that they often used for examinations. "Do you know what that dart did to him?"
She shook her head, looking worn out. "All I know is it's some form of sedative, and obviously it's a strong dosage seeing as how it was meant for a transgenic. The problem is that the customary sedatives that a doctor would use for an anesthetic are so hard to come across that I doubt the sniper would have been able to get their hands on it, so I'm not sure what I would give him as an antidote. That's what he'll need, otherwise I'm not sure what's going to happen to him."
Alec's head snapped up. "Is there something wrong? What state is he in exactly?"
"Right now he's comatose, and I have no idea whether or not he'll come out of it or just continue to get worse. I need to know exactly what drug was used on him to know how things will turn out, or if there's even something to counteract its effects."
A gruff female voice came from behind them. "Did you say he's comatose?"
Both Alec and Dana turned around to see X4-452 standing there, waiting for an answer. Dana finally spoke up. "Yes, he's been that way for about fifteen minutes now."
"Is there any of the fluid left from the dart?"
Alec raised an eyebrow. "How did you know there was a dart?"
She rolled her eyes at him. "I've been listening to your entire conversation." When Dana came back out, X4-452 took the vial of fluid that she was handed. There was only a tiny amount at the bottom, but it was obviously a clear fluid. When they looked harder, they could see tiny black flecks in it. She opened the vial and tipped some of it onto her fingertip and licked it. When she was done, she handed the vial back to Dana. "From what I can tell, it's GHB, or gamma-hydroxybuterate. It's a depressant that's mostly clear, often with some black particles floating in it and a slightly salty taste. It's usually used at parties, so it's fairly easy to obtain. Getting a slight overdose would mean passing out, which is probably what the sniper meant to happen. They must have overdosed too far though, that would explain why he's comatose. Was there any sign of respiratory or cardiovascular failure?"
Dana shook her head. "No, he's fine in that respect. If I remember right, that usually only happens if GHB is mixed with other sedatives. I think it was just a strong dose."
"He should be fine then, he'll come out of it in a few hours."
Alec had been standing there through this whole conversation with his arms crossed. "Ok, now that you've proved you can sound like you have a medical degree, could you tell us just why you're sharing this with us?"
"I was simply concerned, is there any law against that?" With a familiar flip of her hair, she walked back around the corner.
Alec frowned at the spot where she had disappeared from his view. He didn't quite know why, but he didn't like that woman. He hoped she didn't decide to come around and hand out any more medical advice while he was here.
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Author's Note 3: As always, please review. I would say read and review, but if you're at this part of the page then you have obviously already read it so there's no need to add that first part. Anyways, to get past my rantings, please leave me a little bit. Even if you leave me one word, I'll be happy! Of course, more than one word is better, but if you're really pressed for time then I guess go ahead. :)
