Hidden Danger Crouching Cat.
By Shannon Hearn
The characters of Dark Angel are owned by Twentieth Century Fox Television and Cameron Eglee productions. All other characters are of my creation.
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Parental advisory: This chapter is rated "R" due to it containing mild sexual content and nudity.
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Chapter 12: The Muse, Meeting Jade, and the Death of Annie
For the days following Logan's Eyes Only broadcast, Asha had felt as if there was a part of Max's past linked to her own. Something important for her was in play and Asha felt that it was connected to some event they had both shared to their present. Who was Jondy? After talking to Melfina for a while, Asha had learned that Jondy was Max's "sister" back at Manticore. From what Melfina had said the two of them were inseparable, practically tied at the hip by how close they dealt with each other. They had kept the other sane in their youth, so whatever Max had seen in her from that emotional run on the beach had made her look like Max's sister.
Sketchy's words still hung in her mind. "If I was going to make a Super soldier, I would make them all like you." What if out there, there was a Transgenic running around with her face. That was a thought that scared the crap out of her. Could there be a connection between Max and her that was more than friendship, what if it was "family."
***
Rita was working at her desk at the Iconographic Gallery looking over the artwork for the upcoming art exhibition show of Seattle's newest up and coming artists. Joshua was definitely going to be in it. However, her desire to get his artwork Joshua Number two on display again. She never expected to see Joshua walk into the Gallery in Broad daylight.
***
Joshua wearing his motto-cross helmet had to basically borrow Alac's sector pass again. Considering that Melfina, Logan, Alac, Asha and Shadow were with him. At least given the situation, they could tell Rita what exactly they wanted done with his painting. It was his mess that he made; he was going to make it right. The Virus Bitch was going down. So walking in the front door was very scary, all he wanted was to get this done as painlessly as possible.
Logan had parked Betsy in the parking lot outside and Joshua was walking in to the Gallery with Melfina so that it would look like a simple delivery. There were so many Ordinary people. This was not a good thing. Therefore, with Alac's bike in one hand and his painting being balanced with Mel in the other, this cakewalk was becoming a nightmare. Remember the lines and you are in.
"Jam Pony Delivery." Joshua said as he attempted not to hyperventilate in the process.
"Joshua, long time no see." Rita said looking at Josh's disguise.
"No see. Right, Rita." Joshua said catching on to the colloquialism that was used.
"Listen, a friend of ours has some papers that we need to get out of Josh's artwork, but given the paintings value." Melfina said looking at the polemicist of the art. "Can we have it X-rayed."
Rita was curious about why would Joshua go through this to get his art X-rayed, but whatever was in his painting that was so important for him to get back. It must have been highly important to him for leaving suddenly as he did, but she would soon the reasons why he had left.
"Joshua, I can't X-ray the painting without someone who owns or for legal reasons." Rita said looking at Joshua trying to explain the situation to him.
"Joshua has a friend who is interested in Joshua's art and is willing to pay." Josh said behind his disguise.
"Who is your patron other than me?" Rita questioned. Then Joshua dropped the other shoe.
"Logan." Joshua said, and then he said it again, this time much more louder so that everyone in the museum could hear him. Before Rita could say the words to be quite, she saw who Joshua's patron was. Logan Cale.
"Hey Josh." Logan said walking over in his exo. The preferable scrapping the jaw off of the floor left Rita speechless for several minutes. The Blond woman who was with him had air of being sexy and dangerous at the same time. The feeling that was building in Rita's stomach was that Logan Cale was getting some serious Transgenic action in places she would rather keep private.
***
An hour later, Logan and the Transgenics were sitting in the art conservatory as various technicians worked on restoring the different types f art ranging from sculpture in everything from Wood, Clay, plastic and believe it or not urinal cakes. Logan was looking around as he glimpsed at the artwork that he once owned, Since his financial problems after the Government had seized many of his family assets in retaliation in the building of the "Killer hover drone" he had spent the last year rebuilding his recourses so that he could have a life. Eyes Only had become his life, but it was times like these that allowed him to know what he was fighting for. Sometimes it is the culture and how we perceive that culture that makes us who we are. Joshua had set his painting on the easel so that the scanner would scan through the layers of the various acrylics he had used to get to the under layers of his paint. The underneath the structure the lead and heavy carbon of the pencil written notes started to show through. There underneath the paint and clearly on the screen was the cure to Max's Virus.
"Logan, I think we are going to need a lot of paper." Shadow said as he looked at the images on the computer screen before him.
"So how long do you think that this is going to take." Logan said to Shadow as he looked over the information.
"About a week." Shadow said looking at how Joshua had moved the polemicist of the research notes around in his art. "Given once we get all the stuff scanned and printed out, we have to reconstruct it so that we can read the information. The Good news is that we'll be able to get a bulk of the papers out just by hitting the print key. However, at least three pages will take most of the time needed. Given that Josh crumpled them up his artistic furor. Though I count our blessings that the damages is not as bad as I had expected given the amount of paint we have to work through."
"So all we have to do with those three pages that Josh crumpled is what, fit the preferable pieces together." Asha said looking at the situation before her. "Well Let's tell Max, Okay at least it will cheer her up and get her moody ass off of me this time."
"Asha, Max has had a hard enough life, so if you spend some quality time with her, you probably would be able to figure out who she is and she would be able to figure out who you are." Shadow said to Asha as she looked between Logan, Alac and Shadow.
"The things I have to go through to make sense of your Girlfriend Logan. The things I go through." With that, Asha pondered what she was going to do next. For Shadow, he was going to be spending the next few days after work putting the pieces of Max's virus paper jigsaw puzzle together.
***
Aspen was sitting at one of the tables at Jam Pony with Max eating their lunch. Aspen with her Cheese Mussel Chowder and Max eating her tuna on Sourdough sandwich. Aspen was attempting to use her powers to tap into Max's past. Over the past few days since the entire Limpkin incident Max had started to become increasingly more moody. Between her worrying about her people and the stress of not being near Logan had made her wonder if she should just leave and hand things over to Shadow to deal with. However, it was Joshua who had kept her sane and attached to those around her in these turbulent times.
"Max." Aspen said looking deeply into Max's spiritual energy and attempting to harness some connection to her past. "Max..." Aspen nearly screamed at the top of her lungs. Max just quickly looked at her as if she had been a deer in front of a pair of headlights.
"Uh, Sorry Aspen." Max said attempting to clear the cobwebs from her mind. "I'm just a little out of it."
"You feel like you need someone to talk to." Aspen said seeing an image of a Dark Haired Asha appear behind her. The girl was crying, attempting to figure out what had happened to her sister.
"Yeah," Max said looking at Aspen wondering if the dreams that she had been having were some way that her unconscious was attempting to warn her about something of prepare her for some great trial set before her to accomplish.
"Max when Quinn and Hannah drug you into the cannery a few nights ago, you look like you saw a ghost." Aspen said looking Max right in the face.
"Yeah, Asha looked like I was attempting to cry in front of her." Max said trying to figure out where the PsyOp was work out of her.
"Max, Tell me about Jondy, all I know about her is from what you muttered in your sleep." Aspen said looking at Max and starting to see that it was not an image of Asha that she was seeing behind her, but it was a grown up Jondy.
"Well all I know about her is what my brother Zack told me that she was Okay, but when she was younger we use to sit up and watch the stars all night and wonder what was beyond the walls." Max said looking back in time to seeing Jondy with her military crew cut highlighting her pudgy ears. The grin that she would always remember bringing hope to the darkest times at Manticore, the two of them were sisters in more ways than one. They were the other's sanity and spirit in that dark place.
"Jondy's life must either be better than mine or at least close to it." Max was about to start crying like crazy. At that moment, Normal walked over to see Aspen leaning over to hug Max rocking her back and forth. Which really creped him out, how close was Max to having one of her Violent Work place fantasies Cindy had told him about.
"It's okay Max, It's okay. I'll see if I can use my powers to see if I can contact her. But I have a sense that she is going through the same pain you are going through." Aspen could start to see that Jondy was looking at her not Max any more and was projecting the feeling she wanted to talk with her sister too.
"Aspen, if you are lying..." Max said as she slowly started to gain control of herself again.
"...Then I will use all my powers to help you out." With that Aspen knew that her powers would be put to the test as tracking down one of the original Oh, niners to aid her friend keep her sanity. Lowa definitely had her work cut out for her as she spirit surfed the world of the Other Realm. But the events would turn dark when a Nomilie was seen attacking several police officers making the Transgenic community known to the entire world and amped the need for Aspen to find Jondy became more important for Max's sanity.
***
Jade or X5-523 as she was know back at Manticore sat in the bathtub feeling her ever increasing rounded belly and the occasional kick from within, the Baby girl she was carrying was all she had left of her love Shadow. Was he dead, was he alive. She had dreams about her love. The last night that they had spent together, they had made love repeatedly. She could still feel his gentle kisses up her back towards one of her ears. She giggled with life, a life that was denied her. They were two people in love and despite the bleak settings they lived, they knew that this moment was all theirs. Then she was brought back to reality, as there was a knock on the door to the bathroom. The X6 Allanbe and X8 Fiona entered the bathroom to help her out of the bathtub. Between the two of them, they had cheered up the unit on many occasions. Allanbe loved hanging with either Domo, a hardcore X5 Alpha and Darrien the X-Series custom stealth unit who loved to do the "I'm invisible with the floating pizza" in the kitchen and the little Cherub Fiona, whose powers were almost along the lines of being that of a PsyOps with her intuitive nature for others around her. Given all the pain that Jade had gone through, she loved to be gal pals with Grace, or Amazing Grace as she had become to be known. The Female Brainic had used her powers to keep them off the radar and safe. Though after seeing an Eyes Only Info Burst, Grace had gone into the bathroom and puked her guts out after she had learned that one of her fellow Brainics had been killed defending peoples freedom and lives.
Allanbe had felt that even a Brainic could be killed, but what was the reason that Brain had died. All Grace would say X5-452 was the reason that he died. Jade was desperate to find answers to the questions she so wanted. Someone was hunting them, and even at Grace's most efficient predictions was that there was something leading them to meet at an event that would be the answer of their prayers. Nevertheless, Grace had said to Allanbe that she should take Jade out for a meal at some pizza place downtown. Little did Allanbe know that Jade would soon meet with her love once again but tackling a very large Dog Nomilie out for Pizza definitely was not in Grace's prediction.
***
Joshua was happy, Happy, Happy, Happy. The Virus Bitch was going down. Though being eaten alive by fleas did put a damper on things. Max had helped him set up Bug Bombs to kill the little bastards eating him alive. In the scheme of things, why did a dead cat have so many of these flesh eating creatures on its little body? Well after getting rid of the dead creature in curbside garbage can. Joshua started itching like crazy; he soon realized that there were thousands of little insects biting on his skin. When Max had come by and realized what was happening she had asked him to stay outside until she got back. The five cans of something called Bug Bomb, after they had set them off Max handed him a bottle called flea powder and told him to put it on and stay outside for a while until he stopped itching.
Max had to take care of some thing but mostly she wanted to get a bath so that she could get rid of the itching against her skin. But for Joshua sitting on the porch outside Father's house, he thought about Max and the past events over the last few days. He knew that Melfina would be by with pizza and he would be talking with her. Mel had matured much from that little scared X-series girl he found on the floor back at Manticore. But as he drifted off to sleep on the chair on the porch he looked back to remembering his father, all the times that he played with him, the little Debbie cakes and looking at the near shaven head of Little Fella. She was so small, yet she had a vulnerability about her that made her cling to father so closely as she did. When she was first introduced to him, she hid behind father's leg though he did reach over to touch her on her ear. Though she did have cat in her cocktail she always did perch herself on the counter and look down at him. After she ran into him in the basement after so many years, he realized that she was still afraid of him but he knew that backing off would be the wisest thing for him to do. Afterwards she became accustom to him that she knew unconsciously that she knew him. Even though she was young, she was very scared of him but when he met her when she was older, he got the feeling that the fear was still there but if he were nice to her, she would at least be nice to him in exchange. Through the months that he had known her, Max had become family. She was a link to his past and towards his future in these troublesome times.
He was awakened by the sniffing of a golden retriever.
"Billy, why did you drag me up here." A woman's voice said attempting to pull the dock back. Joshua shot awake at the sound of her voice. As he attempted to shun away from and hide, she started to come forward.
"Is someone there?" She said, "Are you hurt? She could tell there was someone there from his breathing. He slowly rose up with the hood of his sweatshirt covering his head.
"Uh...no, I--I'm not hurt." Joshua said looking at the girl who stood before him as hid his forehead from view. However, this girl started to awaken something in him that he had never felt before.
"Billie's never done this before. She just pulled me off the sidewalk and up these steps." She said tugging on the harness on the Golden Retriever. Billie who could see who he was really, all his Canine DNA had attracted this girl's dog to his front door.
"Hi, Billie." Joshua said petting the woman's dog as she started to nuzzle against him and liking him ferociously.
"Guess she just likes you." The woman said grinning as Billie's licking started to get louder. Then Joshua noticed something about the woman who Billie belonged to she was not looking at him but she was sensing things about Billie's behavior through the sounds she was making and the strange harness that she had in her hands. She was blind. Josh waved one of his hands in front of her face to make sure that she was truly blind.
"She helps you." Joshua said with growing curiosity about this attractive individual who stood before him.
"She leads me around. Makes sure I'm safe." She said rolling her fingers with her free hand, like a young schoolgirl in love.
" Makes sure you don't bump into things. " Joshua said getting more comfortable with her as the tension slowly broke down between them.
"I guess so." the woman said chuckling at Joshua's simplicity. Billie started to love being stroked by Joshua's large hand.
"Good Billie. Good Billie." He said feeling that for the first time in his life he was a normal person. Then the woman offered her hand towards Joshua as she worked up the nerve to say her name.
"I'm Annie. Annie Fisher. I live up the street." The ice was broken with the subtlety of an anvil being dropped from a seven-forty-seven overhead into Josh's front yard. Josh took Annie's hand in his and shook it repeatedly.
"I'm Joshua. I'm, uh, from..." Josh said as he started to point to the house but realized that if he gave her too much information she could be in danger. What if White found her or him, then what then? Josh then though for a second for a plausible answer to give her then it hit him, be the foreign man. All the girls like a man with an accent it was what all the romantic men in all of his father's novels were, so that would be the role he would play, until he knew that he could trust her with the truth. "...not...here. Not here. I mean, I'm visiting." That would at least buy some time until he could open up to her with the truth.
"Oh, from where?" Annie said getting more and more interested in this Joshua who fate had placed before her.
" Manti--" Joshua caught himself before he could say any more, then he decided to take a spin of where he was from, well at least some place that sounded like Manticore, "...uh...coro." He said attempted with the gruphiness of his voice coming through the last syllables of what he had said. He was crossing his fingers hoping that she had bought it.
"Mantia Coro." Annie said glimpsing at the person who was before her.
"In France." Joshua said attempting to sound foreign in the process, all the girls he had read about in his books all liked men from France.
"Your English is very good." His dark Beauty said to him as the butterflies in his stomach started to cloud together en mass.
Joshua said using the best French he had learned from all the novels he had read, "'Merci beaucoup.'"
Annie laughed as she started to see that there was a man who would love her for who she was, not the "Blind Girl" who was to be pitied, but as a true individual, "Well, we should probably be going. Come on, Billie. Come on." Annie said as she tugged at Billie's harness to pull her in the direction she wanted to go. As Joshua watched Annie walk away, he felt that he had a new Muse in his life. This one he could be close to. As Annie reached the sidewalk, she stopped and called back to him as Billie started to point her in the direction back to their house.
"It's nice to meet you, Joshua." She said moving away with her heart floating above the stars themselves.
Joshua looked at Annie as his heart started to beat faster and faster pulling at his heart like wild stallions for him to ride out to meet her on his gallant steed so that he could take her back to his mighty noble castle. "Nice to meet you, Annie." Little did the both of them know that their lives would lead to their worlds being changed forever. As Annie walked away from Joshua's house, Max pulled up on her Ninja, with a desperate need in her eyes.
"Joshua! I need your help!" She said as the raw fear and terror filled her eyes. Something had happened to Logan. In the next few hours Joshua would be taken to the Hospital where Doctor Shookcar worked with him being pulled on a gurney through the hallway to help save Logan's life by a transfusion of his blood.
***
Max just sat waiting to hear news about where or not Logan would make it. However, what scared her the most was that she felt that she as responsible for it all, the troubles with her people. Aspen was attempting to help her out as in the fact that they had to deal with issues from her community. Knowing that, Alac and the other Transgenics that she knew were spread out through out the city. She felt as if she was all-alone with her problems. But a day or so later, after she bailed Alac out of jail for the murders which his brother Ben performed the year before, forced her to deal with some of the issues about her past.
Spending those hours with Alac made Max connect with whom her late brother was like. She could still hear Ben's stories in her mind as they all attempted to make sense of the world. She got over some of her anger at Alac was they sat down and drank their coffee. Alac talked a lot about some of the trouble that he went through as a kid. Though Max connected with Alac as a fellow brother, she wondered what it would be like if she had a child. Would her people be fully accepted by Humanity, or would they always be seen as freaks. Nevertheless, for those few hours, she was a normal person for once. Little did she know, that events connecting with Joshua would lead her to learn more about what it meant to be a family than she ever did while she was growing up.
***
Melfina decided to swing by Joshua's so that she could find out what he was up to. The simple house in which Joshua lived was very elemental, though after the last few days when her people were revealed to the world, the fear she and the others had shared terrified them all. Aspen's "Boyfriend" Quinn almost had become linked in a very unhealthy way. However, Quinn was trustworthy enough that Aspen had started to tolerate him. But after Logan had Asha and a few of her Security First World buddies grab him in an nearby ally, Logan doing his Eyes Only impersonation to Quinn scared the crap out of him and made sure that he would keep Aspen and the other's secrets under his hat.
After the events of being exposed to the world, Aspen knew that being with Quinn might be helpful later. However, there were terms that Quinn had to meet, first of all he had to ensure that anything he had seen, he would keep under his hat till Eyes Only said so.
Mel had felt that being with Joshua might allow her to at least feel safe. Ever since the fire, Joshua had become her own lifeline to her sanity. As she walked through the front door of his place, she could smell the chemicals from the bug bomb that Max and Joshua had set off earlier.
"Joshua." Melfina said as she slowly moved through the chemical filled environment. It took several moments for her to hear a reply.
"Hi Shocky." Joshua said as he emerged from the bathroom. From the looks of it, Josh had recently bathed as he had a head full of doggie dry shampoo in his hair.
"Whoa, Josh..." Melfina said as she saw the Dog Nomilie take up some serious bathing habits.
"I know Shocky, Joshua turning over a new leaf. After Bugs tried eating me, baths are now very appealing to me." He said trying to hide the other reason for his interest in bodily hygiene.
"Josh, Something tells me that you have a crush on someone." Melfina said looking at her friend's sudden interest in being clean. Joshua just stood there looking at his friend and realized that he had a lot of explaining to do. "Listen Josh, why don't I grab you some pizza and the both of us sit down and talk about who you have the hots for."
"Okay, Listen since Shadow has Virus papers now, the Virus Bitch is going down for good." Joshua said wondering if Shadow had started on getting the cure made.
"Yeah, this time he made photocopies and placed them at several places so if one gets lost, he can rebuild the formula from the backups."
"Shocky, get sausage and cheese pizza and I'll tell you about her." Joshua said moving over the sink in the kitchen to wash the shampoo out of his hair.
"Okay Josh, I'll be back in a little bit." Melfina said walking out the door.
***
Jade had felt over the past few days since their kind had been revealed to the world, getting out of the preferable house had allowed her to regain some of her sanity. Though wearing the green hooded sweatshirt and the coveralls made her look like an oversized Winnebago on ridaline.
"Jade" Allanbe said as she walked next to Jade in her Blue sleeveless jumpsuit in which she had on a tight black hooded sweatshirt that covered her head and a pair of yellow gloves. "Whac'ya thinking."
"I don't know Allanbe, Just remembering some of my youth." Jade said as she kept hearing the dolphin sounds of the Gill people she meet when she was younger.
"You're joking me, about that." Allanbe said as they walked into the Pizza Shack.
"Allanbe, when I was a Kid, I used to sneak around the air ducks and see what was around the complex." Jade said as they started to move over to one of the tables near the wall and snagged another chair so that she could put one of her legs up. "I saw a lot of strange things, but that was until I saw the Gills."
"Gills." Allanbe said in astonishment looking at Jade.
"Gills, a groups of kids that had what I said. Gills. Well, every time that we went by that section, I always heard some singing, A voice that was so beautiful that it made me and Shadow's youth tolerable." Jade said as she haired the Brunette Gill Girl's song in her head.
"Shadow???" Allanbe said as she started to realize that Jade was talking about a member of her unit and that they, like the rest of the X-series had secretly taken names. "The same Shadow that had banged you up and added that extra thirty pounds of weight that is sited on your belly."
"Yes, the same one." Jade said as she looked out to the patrons in the restaurant. Ever since she had heard that Shadow was alive from the Lady Chimera and Eyes Only broadcasts several days ago. The fact that a member of his new unit did what she did in public would have gotten her tossed in the brig for a year and serious reendocernization for her actions. However, if unconventional you wanted well it was unconventional they got with the soldiers from Manticore.
Then she decided to ask Allanbe to get their pizza. As Allanbe walked over to the order counter, she saw something she thought she would never see in public, another barcode on the back of a person's neck.
***
"Shadow, Listen I know that Aspen has been acting weird over the last few days, but what in the Blessed Blue Lady is she smoking because why would she want us to come here to get pizza." Melfina said looking at Shadow, then as they placed their order of their meal, they noticed something about the girl behind them as they went to sit down to wait for their pizza to come up. Then there was the sudden feeling that they were being watched, and then Shadow turned around to see a face that he thought he would never see again. There was Jade sitting with a dark haired girl in a blue jumpsuit right across from him. Some higher being had guided them there.
***
Jade just stared at Shadow for several moments as the girl next to him moves slowly over next to him as Allanbe took up an defensive posture towards this treat that stood before her. Then Jade decided to break the tension by confirming or denying who she was seeing.
"Shadow???" Jade said as she examined the features the person who stood before her. Then she heard the words from a voice she never thought to hear.
"Jade." The tension was quickly broken as the two of them rushed towards one another and hugged as it was going to be their last moment.
"I missed you, Blessed be the Blue Lady, your alive Jade." Shadow said as the tears started to come out his eyes like a flood. Jade reached up and held him tight then there an abrupt kick from Jade's belly.
"Hey down there, I'm trying to have a conversation here." Jade said to her unborn child. Then there was a realization that everyone in the restaurant was looking at them.
"Uh, I'd think that once our meal orders come up we better adjourn to somewhere else so that we can continue to have this conversation in a more private place." Said Melfina as she got a look at the people around both her and Jim, this was the mother of all Shit Fucks that could happen in an open place.
"I agree with your friend Shadow," Said Allanbe moving over to help Jade to her feet and Allanbe handed her the order number to Melfina and se went over the pickup counter and grabbed both pizzas. With a few moments, they were all heading to Joshua's house to eat some pizza. However, Allanbe would have her first encounter with a Nomilie.
***
Joshua was listening to the radio, and enjoying painting Annie and her guide dog Billie, he finally felt like he was able to be free for that little time each day. He was part of the world outside and was proud to be alive. Then he got a knock on the door and realized that Melfina was probably back with their pizza. Joshua cracked the door open just enough for him to see out and he saw Melfina standing there with two extra large pizzas, But there was a sent of two other Transgenics with them. Judging from the talk outside Josh got the feeling that Shadow and Melfina were working on the right way to introduce him to them.
***
"Well Jade, Allanbe, Josh is not used to having people drop by his place uninvited." Melfina said knocking on the door.
"Well what is it with your friend." Allanbe said trying to figure out why Shadow and Mel were so apprehensionous about him. "Ante like he is a Nomilie?" She continued.
Shadow paused for a moment to decide whether or not to spill the preferable beans but Josh cracked the door open to see who was there. That was when Allanbe got a look at Joshua and attacked through the door.
"Nomilie..." Allanbe screamed as she started fighting as fast as she could to defend Jade from this creature would be attack.
"Allanbe." Melfina screamed as she attempted to pull the X6 out of combat mode. Joshua was dodging and blocking when he could from all of Allanbe's kicks and punches. Then in fervor Melfina physically tossed herself into the line of fire to stop Allanbe. "Don't make me do this..." she said as at that moment Melfina was forced to use her eel DNA to shock Allanbe away. Allanbe just lay sprawled on the floor looking up at Melfina.
"What the..." Allanbe said realizing that Melfina was an X-series custom like her friend Darrien.
"Sorry Allanbe but Joshua is my friend." Melfina said reaching over to hug the huge canine Nomilie.
"You mean that this large..." Allanbe said looking at the strange individual standing before her. "Guy," She paused, "is Joshua."
"Yes, he is." Melfina said looking at the dark haired X6 who was sliding up off the floor.
"Whoa." Jade said looking as Joshua and Melfina headed over to one of the kitchen table's chairs so that she could start dressing some of Joshua's injuries. "This is Joshua?" The pregnant X-series said looking at the artist and philosopher Transgenic that stood before her.
"Yes." Shadow said wrapping some gauze and tape around some of the bruises on Joshua's ribcage.
"I see that you're still the medic that I fell in love with." Jade said as she started to get the feeling that Joshua was not just the only Transgenic that he had used his medical skills on since the Fire. Over the next few hours, the five of them started talking about what they had been through since the fire and what had happened since they had found themselves in this new world of trouble.
***
Annie Fisher was feeling through her clothing, though everything that she owned was organized through appearance, color and texture. She felt the brail marking on the hangers as she started to wonder what would look good of her date with Joshua. Billie started to bark at her acceptation to Annie's yellow blouse and floral print skirt. Billie was always right when it came to choosing out clothing for special occasions. Billie had a good taste for people and clothing, for a dog.
***
Melfina went to visit Allanbe and Jade at their base of operation with Jim. Jim with his messed up blond hair and Mel with her foffy hair looked like rejects from a Japanese Anime convention. It wasn't until that she knocked on the door that she got the biggest shock of her life in seeing Max answer the door.
"Max." Melfina and Jim said both at the same time. At that moment Jade came to the door, and moved the younger version of Max out of the way.
"Melfina." Jade said as she brought Mel and Jim into their little abode. When they entered, they realized that there were at least seven other Transgenics with Jade.
"Hey Jade, you said drop by anytime. Well I'm here." The X-Series Custom said as she looked around to gain a sense of the people in the room. "Why don't you do the introductions Jade, I'm sure that getting to know your crew would be interesting."
"Well lets get started." Melfina said as she looked at Max's clone more intensely.
"Why are you looking at me so intently?" The younger Max said.
"What's your name and designation?" Melfina said looking at the clone.
"Danni, X6-453. Why do you ask?" Everyone in the room looked at the two X6s as they started talking.
"Because I know your X5 Clone, and the two of you are very much alike, its scary." Melfina said as Danni took up the "No I'm not." stance towards everyone.
"Whoa, well anyone else that you know as being the clone of someone that you have run into present here." Danni said.
"No. but I would like to get know the rest of the team." Melfina said waiting for the other shoe to drop.
"Well I'm Grace, X-series Custom, Brainic series. The one that had send Jade and Allanbe to the pizza place." The Brainic said slowly moving over as her stealth cloak fluxed so that she became visible to them all.
"I'm Domo, X5, Alpha series and leader of this unit, you're pretty perky for an X6." Domo said as his stance changed from being behind the scenes to being in front for everyone to know.
"I know, but I'm a X-series Custom, Bio-cyber computer specialist. Quirky is part of my personality." Melfina said putting forth what she was.
"Domo. She is just trying to figure out where we stand on being with those she has come into contact with." A little blond X8 girl said as her slightly messy fomage hairstyle and near shoulder length ponytail from her nape down.
"Fiona, I know that you are a latent PsyOp, but could you at least stop butting in." Domo said as the mood in the room rapidly changed.
"Domo, Melfina here is just attempting to deal with the conditions that we are presently in. Add to the fact that you are just as subtle as a brick, now just let her get to know the rest of us." Fiona said as her mental powers made them selves known to those in the room.
"Okay, the scraggy guy in the utility jacket with the scruffy beard is Darrien, he's a X-series Custom Stealth unit. He's the practical joker of the group and he has 37 confirmed kills to his record." Domo pointed out.
"Fiona, the X8 PsyOps kid that you met, who has become the resident "soul" of the group and by her is Van, a X8 Marine Tiger-stripe who is protective of Fiona, though she tends to get on his nerves. In addition, you have already met Jade and Allanbe. So what have you two been up to sine the fire." Domo finished and let Melfina and Jim take the floor.
"Well where do I begin, Meeting Max and the Transgenics that she has run into or get down the mission the me and the other got off of to stop a killer of our people." Mel said looking into the faces of the people around her.
***
The hours that Annie had spent with Joshua were the best of her life. the sensuous way that he guided her hands over one of his paintings was as if she could see again. The near sensuous ways that his broken grammar made her feel so alive. Joshua was an artist who enjoyed the simple things in life; heck the Macaroni and cheese with mini sausages reminded her of her childhood. However, something had come up when she visited Joshua again today, there was stress in his voice. He had to leave town to go home to visit his family do to there being an emergency.
Though, the chance to touch his face was a memory she would always cherish. Little did she know that she would be meeting Joshua again under the worse conditions possible, and that she would die at the hands of a man out to destroy his father's work.
***
TBC
***
Chapter 12: The Muse, Meeting Jade, and the Death of Annie
I used would thank the "Kyre Dark Angel fansite" at for the transcripts of the sections from "Hello, Goodbye" and "Dawg Day Afternoon" who helped me refresh my memory of Dark Angel Season 2.
Next time:
Chapter 13: Love Among the Runes through Freak Nation, secondary bases and the Navy to the rescue.