A window of the building to his right flew open and 469 crawled gracefully through. She closed the window silently and walked over to stand next to 587. They both looked around, but could not see 385 coming for any direction. Confused, they looked at each other. Then, to their surprise, the manhole cover slid off and 385 popped his head out of the hole. All three smiled then 587 and 469 joined 385 in the sewer.
This way. 587 signaled and pointed ahead. The other two nodded, then followed him.
* * *
"We're out of lettuce."
Max closed her eyes, then dropped the pencil in her hand and pinched the bridge of her nose. She hoped that when she looked up, Alec would not be standing in the doorway ready to tell her that they had virtually no supplies. She looked up, saw him there, and sighed.
"Why did we have lettuce in the first place?" Max questioned. "Who here eats lettuce and has apparently eaten it all?"
Alec shrugged. "I'm just the messenger boy."
"Well someone oughta shoot you." She mumbled and focused her mind on the plans she had been working on before Alec had visited.
"Ah, it's one of those days." He said and leaned against the door frame
Overcoming the feeling to get up and slap him until unconscious (she didn't care which of them ended up unconscious, just so long as she didn't have to deal with him at the moment), she looked at him. "And what does that mean?"
"Now, before I tell you, don't bother replying because I know exactly what you'll say. It's one of your favorite gems." He began. She began to open her mouth, so he spoke quickly. "It's one of those days where you're so incredibly preoccupied with Terminal City junk, you go around with a 'Bitch, Imma kill you' look on your face, ready to kill, pussycat, kill."
She just sat there silently. She would've liked to tell him something, but as he had said, he already knew what she was going to say. He grinned.
"Get outta here before I kick your ass." He said, then chuckled to himself and walked off.
She tried concentrating on her work again, but couldn't help but wonder if she really said that that much. Was it her catch-phrase? Should it be? How predictable was she anyway? Did other people besides Alec mock her usage of the phrase? Was it a big joke? Was she a big joke?
"But the t-shirt..." She muttered to herself, then decided that she didn't care and went back to her work.
She wasn't working long, however. A few minutes later, Joshua came pounding into the room. He slammed on her desk to get her attention, then stuttered a bit before getting out what he really wanted to say, "Lil fella, Joshua - Joshua came to tell you, uh...uh... oh! New people! There's - there's new people."
He smiled goofily and Max pushed her chair back and stood, trying to keep the, as Alec had described it, 'Bitch Imma kill you' look off her face, then followed Joshua to where the new arrivals were. When they got there, she couldn't even see them. There was a small crowd surrounding them, and no matter what she said, none of them seemed keen on moving. Finally, Joshua grabbed her around the middle and pushed past everyone. He set her down in front of the three nervous-looking arrivals.
"Thanks, Big Fella." Max said, then turned to the new arrivals. "And who might you be?"
"They're X6s!" Someone in the crowd shouted out. "They stayed with Manticore!"
"We can't trust them!" Another exclaimed.
"I'll decide that." Max said loudly, then when the crowd had calmed, she looked over the X6s. "So, what're your names?"
"I'm 587, this is 46 -"
"Not your designation. Your names." Max interrupted.
"We have none, ma'am." 587 told her.
Max smirked. "Drop the Manticore vocab, and follow me to my office."
The crowd parted to allow them past, though no one took their eyes off of them. Those who had shouted out looked at each other with worried looks on their faces. Max and the three pretended not to notice any of it and just walked along until they reached her makeshift office. It was just a room with a squeaky metal desk, a chair or two, an empty filing cabinet and bookshelf, and a never-used stapler Max called Gus.
"So," She said and leaned against her desk. "What brings you to the lovely Terminal City?"
"Well," 587 answered. "We were at Manticore and we had just finished a mission, successfully, and - and they sent people to kill us. We got out of there as fast as we could and we realized then that all those Eyes Only cable hacks and stuff in the news about Manticore was true."
"We had been talking about Terminal City for a little while." 469 continued. "I mean, a city of transgenics where they didn't have to be anything but themselves seemed like a good deal, but at the time we didn't have a reason to leave Manticore, so we didn't."
"When we talked about it," 385 started up. "We agreed that if we ever had to leave Manticore, we would definitely come here. When I was sent out on a mission in the city, I scouted the area and found a sewer that led here, so that's how we made our plan to come here. We didn't think we'd ever need it though."
Max nodded. A silence settled over them that none was eager to break, but Max figured that she'd go insane, so she spoke up. "So, no names, huh?"
* * *
Mole finished talking to the X6s that had expressed doubts about the newbies, then walked over to where Alec and Dix were talking. He grunted and removed the cigar from his mouth, then jabbed a thumb in the direction of the X6s. "They say that the one kid, 587, was a CO and damn dedicated to Manticore."
"I'm gonna wait on Max." Dix said. "I don't need an ass kicking."
Before Alec could make a remark about that, all the heads in the immediate area turned to stare at Max and the others as they walked back from her office. Everyone was silent as Max stepped in front of the three.
"They're cool." She announced. Then she moved aside so everyone could see them. "And they've got names now. Orion, TJ, and Spring. Welcome them, or... I'll kick your ass."
She walked back to her office, smiling to herself. 587 (Orion), 385 (TJ), and 469 (Spring) had never felt so awkward before in their lives as they stood before the other transgenics. Max had told them to just blend in, but they weren't currently seeing how that was possible.
"Well, since I don't need an ass kicking," Alec said with a smirk and strolled over to the trio. "Welcome. I'm Alec, and I gotta say you came up lucky with the names. Usually she names newbies crap like Day or Plate."
"Plate?" Orion repeated.
"She hasn't used it yet." Mole replied as he walked over. "But we've got a pool going for how long it takes her until she does. I'm Mole, by the way."
"Dix." He introduced. "And I've got six months in the pool."
The trio looked at each other, not quite sure what to make of the situation, but decided that it wasn't all that bad.