"Couldn't get the other one." The Familiar holding Logan said. "He ran off."
"Doesn't matter." The Familiar holding Max told him. "We've got what he wants right here."
Max and Logan looked at each other, both trying to silently ask the other what was going on. The Familiars caught their looks and, worried that they were communicating somehow, turned them away from each other and faced them down the street where Hunt would no doubtedly be coming from.
Sure enough, a small group of Familiars led by Hunt came striding down the street. Hunt walked over to the Familiar holding Logan and wrenched him out of his grasp. He smiled wickedly at Logan then pushed him to the ground. He pulled out a gun and held it to the back of Logan's head, then looked at Max, the smile still on his face.
"I thought killing that rodent White was fun, but this is just the best day ever."
"Go to hell." Max said through clenched teeth.
"Ya know," Hunt smiled and cocked the gun. "I think I'll just get a post card from your boy here."
Max tried again to get away from the Familiar holding her, and just as she feared one of her arms broke with a sickening snap. Hunt glared at the Familiar holding her and the Familiar pushed her to the ground as well.
"We can't have you too terribly damaged, 452." Hunt said. "We need that body of yours."
"For what?"
"If I told you, it wouldn't be fun later on." Hunt said, then turned his attention back to Logan. "Now I've got work to do, excuse me."
Before he could pull the trigger, a window of the closest building broke and a giant figure landed along with the shower of glass. Joshua. He growled and Hunt turned to look at him, giving Logan a chance to grab his wrist. Hunt turned back and began wrestling with Logan for the gun, but Joshua went forward and grabbed Hunt around the middle and began squeezing him like he was a giant human stress ball. Hunt dropped the gun and Logan quickly picked it up and shot the Familiar that was holding Max.
He released her and looked at his chest and the blood quickly soaking through his shirt. Max grabbed the forgotten pipe and slammed him over the head with it, then when he still didn't fall, she swung and hit him in the face then kicked him to the ground. The other Familiars began advancing on Max and Logan, and they looked at each other. Logan shook his head when Max looked at the gun, then threw the useless weapon aside. Max tightened her grip on the pipe, hoping it would be enough.
The biggest Familiar was about to move in on them, when a roar of screams erupted behind them. All the Familiars turned around to look and Max and Logan moved over to Aaron and pulled him out of the way of the stampeding mob of transgenics led by Mole and Alec.
The mob moved in quickly, knocking all of the Familiars to the ground. The Familiars managed to get up again quickly, but they were no match for the fifty or so transgenics that surrounded them. The transgenics were silent for a moment, then a collective battle cry rang out and they all piled on top of the Familiars.
Max and Logan looked on, quite amazed. It didn't take long before the transgenics separated and moved away from the battered and lifeless bodies of the Familiars. They all looked at each other, blood smeared on most of them, then turned to look at Max. She looked at Logan, then stood up and smiled at all of them.
"We won." She announced to them quietly as she looked around at the lifeless bodies of the Familiars.
* * *
Clemente turned to his men and was just about to order them inside Terminal City when one of them pointed forward and yelled, "Look!"
He turned and saw a bruised and bloodied Max leading the army of transgenics toward the gates. She lifted her hand and they all halted behind her, but she kept walking. She walked up to the gate and said to him, "I told you we'd take care of it."
"What happened in there?" Clemente asked her.
Max smiled proudly. "We finally did what we were made to do. We kicked ass."
Without another word, she turned around and walked back to the rest of the transgenics. She looked at them all proudly and told them, "We won. I won't say it was easy, because it wasn't and we lost a lot of good people today, but we did win. We showed them that they can't just come in here and push us around, because we kick ass."
The transgenics stood quietly for a moment, some remembering the battle and others just being glad to be alive, then someone yelled something out, then they all began to cheer.
* * * *
Two weeks later, most of the transgenics stood at their burial site, looking at the hundred or so new graves and sadly shaking their heads. Most had clumped around their friend's graves and stayed in that same spot, but Max was moving around to every single one and leaving a flower.
She reached Orion's grave, where Aaron was standing. She put a flower down then stood quietly next to him. He hadn't said much since the fight and didn't seem eager to start any time soon. Max didn't want to push him, so she took a step back, ready to move on to the next.
"I was so close."
"What?" She asked quietly and moved back to stand next to him.
Aaron continued looking down at the grave. "I was so close to having a friend... to being loyal, to being everything that I wasn't made for."
"You can still be that."
Aaron shook his head. "No. I only had the one chance. Now I've got to go back to being the man of Voltaire, the man built to know."
"You don't have to." She said gently and put a hand on his shoulder. "You can still make friends and all that. And - and you are loyal."
He turned to look at her, his expression one of confusion.
"Aaron, you didn't have to help us." Max told him. "But you did. You stuck by us and fought and nearly died, just because you wanted to. If that isn't loyalty then I don't know what is."
"I suppose you're right."
"And you're my friend." She told him. "At least I think so anyway. You helped me when you didn't have to and you didn't want anything from me."
Aaron smiled the smallest of smiles. "I guess I was so wrapped up in what I thought I was, I didn't really see what I am."
"So, what are you going to do now?"
"I'm going to stop answering questions." He told her. "I'm going to go out and make a life for myself - the kind of life I want."
"You can do that here, you know." She smiled.
He shook his head. "I'd like to go somewhere where no one knows I was made to be a human computer. I could start over there."
"I know how that feels." She said somewhat sadly. "When are you going?"
"Now I think." He said.
"Right now? After -"
"There is no time like the present." He interrupted softly.
"We'll miss you, you know." She told him. "A lot."
"I think I will miss you all too." He told her, then brought her in for a hug. When they separated, he smiled warmly at her. "Thank you."
Max grinned back. "I got my hug."
Aaron's smile widened and he took a few steps back, then turned and began walking away. Max watched him go the entire length of the transgenic cemetary, then disappear into the surrounding woods. Her enhanced vision only helped her see him for a little while more before he disappeared from her sight. She wondered where he would go and what he would do, then turned and walked away herself, to finish putting down the flowers.
* * *
"Some pudknocker's in the way."
Max, pulled from her thoughts, looked out the window and sighed. A man in a suit was blocking the truck's entry of Terminal City. She mumbled that she would handle it, then pushed open the door and hopped out of the cab.
"Can I help you?" She sighed.
"I'm Roger Strum." The man told her pleasantly.
"How very nice for you." Max said. "Roger Strum, I suggest you move before the nice lizard man in the big truck runs you over."
"Yes, that's very nice." Roger said, then pulled a piece of paper from his pocket and handed it to Max. "Be there at 5pm sharp and we'll discuss your inheritance."
Max looked at the piece of paper then back at Roger, but he had already walked back to his car. She shrugged then moved to open the gates so Mole could drive through.
* * *
Max sat in her office, her feet propped up on her desk. She handed the paper to Logan, who was leaning against the desk.
"And he said he wanted to talk about your inheritance?" He asked.
"Yeah, and that's the thing." She said. "I don't exactly have a rich uncle here."
"Do you wanna check it out?" He asked.
"How could I not?"