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 13: Love Among the Runes through Freak Nation, secondary bases and the Navy to the rescue.
***
The hours after Annie Fisher's death were the hardest on Joshua. Between him just emotionally breaking down and tossing his art supplies around was the hardest thing for Max to see. Annie had made Joshua's life almost tolerable during this time of turmoil they were all going through. Now with her death, he was a wounded animal just trying to get through the hours of the day without experiencing the pain of his loss. Max saw that bit of her brother Zack that was now inside of her scream, you are better off without him. But a part of her yelled but he is a part of me as well.
What about the people she had helped both human and Transgenic, what about them. She felt like the world was better off with her leaving Logan and the others as she stared out from her favorite perch on top of the Space Needle. Little did she know that fate would make her have a close look at her self by the mirror images of her life of the paths she might have taken in life.
***
For Melfina going to work since Joshua had been framed for Annie Fisher's murder was the hardest thing for her to do. The constant seeing "Wanted: Dead or Alive" poster with Joshua's face on it was slowly tearing at her. The constant use of the makeup on the back of her neck was going to definitely going to be leaving a ring around her collar, even though it was the long lasting but security was now a priority. Max and Alac had their barcodes etched off by laser, but it would not last long and the other Transgenics in the area started to lay low for a long time. Though Melfina thought about her friends at the docks and at the T-Bloods church. Even after Normal attempted to shoot Sky when those two jerks slapped that phony barcode on the back of his neck. Max had to blur right in front of everybody just to disarm him. Fake Transgenic revealing a true Transgenic at place of work, she could see the headlines now. Then there was a pause. Shit, this was not going to be a good day. Spending some time at Rain's place might calm her down. Nevertheless, the plague of human existence just walked into the room. Quinn. What was Aspen's sprit sense on when it decided to use this guy in their future?
"Hey Melfina," Quinn said as his hippie self stood right next to her.
"Quinn, could you please get out of my way before I knock you flat on your preferable ass." Melfina said as she attempted to restrain herself from tossing the idiot across the room with one arm.
"What... " Quinn said taking a step back to avoid being hit by Melfina. "All I wanted was to know where Aspen was at." He stammered to wonder what had set her off.
"Sorry Quinn, " Melfina said looking at the Hippie. "I just have been under a lot of pressure lately dealing with the fact Joshua was framed for murder."
"You mean Dog Boy." Quinn said realizing that he was the large Nomilie that he had met several days earlier who Melfina was talking about. "Sheesh, Talk about being in the wrong place at the wrong time."
"Given the fact that members of Joshua's "unit" were known for their aggression in taking down their subjects during their missions, it couldn't have been him." Melfina said after she remembered talking with Grace right after the Annie Fisher incident.
"Listen Mel, I know that Joshua is taking it hard, but how about we do something for a little while, you know help Aspen do whatever she is doing." Quinn said looking at Melfina as she attempted to cope with the world she now lived in. Every Tom, Dick and Harry were after anyone that was different, hell after what Normal had done earlier she was still on end.
"Listen Quinn, how about after I knock off of work, you and I go do some grocery shopping, grab a movie and head over to Rain's place and spend some time together. Well." Melfina said rolling the toe of her sneaker and biting her lower lip. "Get to know each other a little better."
"Okay. So what's Aspen up to?" Quinn said getting back to his original train of thought.
"Helping Hannah and the other Nymphs set up a new home for themselves." She said as she realized how she had talked her way out of doing Scuba duty. Boy did she need to do some serious praying tonight. Blessed be the Blue Lady.
***
Aspen head broke the surface of the water inside the artificial dome. Steinbeck was right this place would offer Hannah, Richard and their kind plenty of room in which to live. Over in the corner Steinbeck was pulling of his facemask and walking over to the organic sponge filter to increase the nutrients to the system. The bio-mechanoid unit started to work more and more as the sponge started breathing on its own and oxygen started to be produced.
"Steinbeck. How did you find out about his place?" Shadow said looking around at the large structure before him.
"Well several years before the Pulse, there was a research team that wanted to set up a long term observation post. But with all things scientific, they ran out of funding." Steinbeck said remembering the old times.
"Let me guess, you were one of the guys who had the funding run out on them." Aspen said as Hannah broke the surface to see a home that was safe from intruders.
"No, actually I was one of the guys that built the structure. I was in College at the time and they were looking for anyone with dive experience to inflate a balloon the size of a four-bedroom mobile home and set up a ribbed outer lining. So pretty much we are sitting in a big metal balloon." Steinbeck said as Hannah walked over to the underlying structure of the floor. The coldness made her wonder why would anyone want to pump air into such a cold place.
"Steinbeck..." Hannah said moving over to the Marine Biologist. "I know that many of my branch of this series breathe water. So are you going to make tanks for us to sleep in?"
"Yes I am, but I brought you all down here so that we could start getting the place set up. You know how you want the structure designed on the inside since you lost your last sanctuary to Limpkin and his boys finding out where you all live." Steinbeck said pulling out of one of his pouches several black permanent markers and started to pass them around to the various water breathing Transgenics.
"So, you want us to mark out on the floor where we want your individual tanks to be put?" Lucy said as she started to pull her speed suit off so that she could move around more freely. It was a bit of a shock for Aspen, Shadow and Steinbeck to see the Seal Nomilie suddenly naked before them. But for Shadow it made sense, she was getting comfortable with her surroundings. For Shadow, started to understand that due to all the aquatic animals in their DNA, they felt better having their skin exposed to the elements, for it was what they were at home in. It was going to be a long day for them as they started to make the place feel homey for its new occupants. Jade would love to come down here after she had their child. Hannah and Richard would diffidently like to have the company, though there would have to be a rule, when "Landers" were visiting, the casual nudity was going to be a No No. Then Aspen got a sense that both She and Shadow would have to leave soon and get to Terminal City armed. Something that would affect them all was soon going to happen and she knew it.
***
Max was just sick of it, the running, the hiding, not being able to touch Logan. Max had spent the last few hours talking to Joshua as he started to tear apart his paintings and toss them into the fire. He missed Annie so much that everywhere he looked around Father's house he had seen where she had been. Max had attempted to talk him down from going into Terminal City but he had made his mind up. He just hurt too much.
Afterwards she had said goodbye to her roommate and closest friend Original Cindy. Cindy had gotten her through the hard times of her life, but this was a time that Cindy could not help her out. Max was fearful that Cindy would be caught in the crossfire if White would barge into their apartment in the process of capturing her. The first time that Max had met Cindy was when she was nearly run down by her on the bike she was on. The feeling that she could start to know this girl allowed her to feel like she was just a normal person. No superpowers, no running from men in Black Helicopters, she was just a normal girl for once. Cindy's friend Kendra needed a roommate and Max needed place to stay. What started to as a short-term place to live turned into a friendship that she cherished like another she had before. For once she had a family she could be with, well sisters at least. For the years she had known the two of them, she was for the times she was around them just a normal person. Now as she rode her motorcycle out of the city she got the feeling that someone was sneaking up behind her. Little did she know that she would soon encounter her path to destiny by meeting Samantha Swaboda-Affleck.
***
Samantha Swaboda-Affleck or X5-453 as she was known at Manticore was desperate to get her life back. She wanted to be with her family again. For two years she was deep undercover doing Industrial Espionage, but she did not expect one thing to happen while she was on the mission, to fall in love. Looking at how Rick made her feel safe and at ease for once in her life, fearful that when her mission was over she would have to go through reconditioning so that she would forget him. However, all that changed when she learned that Manticore was destroyed. All her infiltration and information that she had gathered was worth nothing, but Rick and his little boy Daniel gave her a reason to go on.
For those brief eight months she was happy, she was a normal woman for once, she had wanted to get married and Rick had asked her to do so. The ring on her finger was more than mere jewelry; it was a sign of the love she had discovered in her life. The night skiing with her husband and the hot tub sessions had made her think more about her life and what she wanted to do with it. She had a dream that she was looking at a mirror image of herself, but it was flesh and blood. She looked down at her rounded belly and had felt a kick, around her there were people gathered around her some of them she knew as the traitors from '09, and other she did not know. However, there was something that made her feel at ease in that there was a piece of paper before her giving her name, and the name of a child. Her child. Then she was thrown around in the dreamscape to see that it was several months earlier, and that there was a battle raging on. Her people were dying all around her, and then she saw a X-series Male with a sword start attacking a man in a black business suit. Blow-by-Blow, the Suit was challenging the X-series soldier and was winning. Then she saw Rick behind the wheel of a police car slamming the vehicle head-on into the Suit. The man who Rick had hit got up as if out of a horror movie, then suddenly she was joined by a black police officer, who along with her started shooting the suit until he fell to the ground. Then there she was thrust forward again in time to where she saw a girl baring many of her physical features sleeping in her lap looking out the window towards the night sky. She had known that imagery like this often occurred with the X-series about to encounter something major on their missions. But the PsyOps had ruled the dreams as a possible way for the Transgenics to gain a tactical edge in battle.
Little did Sam know that she would be seeing the Suit face to face when he barged into her and Rick's apartment and took her captive. The raw shock of being forced to realize that she was mistaken for that traitor X5-452. She would probably die for the sins of her wayward older sister all because she shared the same face and nearly the same DNA.
She was a slave again to her Manticore masters. If killing her older sister got her family back, and then she would kill without mercy. Rick and Danny were her world to her. She was not going to lose them. Little did she know that her quarry would give her the means to gain the freedom she so dearly wanted to have. It had taken her a day for her to track down 452's trail in the city of Seattle, first starting out with the running into the wayward X-series Boyfriend just outside of the Doctor's office who tended to her quarry. She just stared at the face of the rugged yet educated man who looked like he was seeing 452. So much of her wanted to scream, "Help Me, I'm her clone. White has my family." But all her Manticore training just got in the way and drowned out that voice. Over the succeeding hours, she had learned bits and pieces of 452's life, she was a bike messenger who roomed with a Nubian Queen, had a boss who was a real pain in the butt and that she had people that who she really trusted. But from the mood she had recently gotten about "Max" is that there was something brewing underneath the surface for the girl. It was not until she had caught up with "Max" later that night that things started to take on the feel of urgency. She started to chase her mirror image out of the city of Seattle that was until they started to pass a section in sector 7 called Terminal city. Sam felt that catching up with her counterpart was very easy, too easy for an experienced X5. Eventually Sam/X5-453 pulled up even with Max and just watched her for several moments, everything about this mirror image who she had been cursed to be related to would soon be out of her life. They rode side-by-side for a few moments before Max looked up. She was shocked to see that the other rider moving up next to her looked just like her. Then Sam made a decision to end this chase. X5-453 pulled out her gun and took aim at the rear tire of X5-452's bike and with all her training she instinctively shot out Max's rear tire. As Max wiped out Sam turned around and rode her bike back to ensure that her quarry was not torn up too much. If her prey was damaged too much Sam would never be able to see her family again. Heaven and God help her for the choices she was about to make. Sacrificing her older sister to save her family, why did things have to be so screwed up. Within an hour Sam would learn that the older sister who she so had hated since her youth would give her the chance to regain her humanity once again.
***
Across town, the former son of Charles Sandeman walked through the layer of the once great Eyes Only alone. His team had been efficient in doing their job. With Eyes Only off the air, the mundane humans of this world would soon be cattle of Familiar kind. Five thousand years of selective breeding would soon lead his kind to taking a dominant role on the face of this planet. Then something caught his eye. It was a whiteboard that had some stuff written on it and all of it pertained to Manticore, what he saw on it made him chuckle. Eyes Only or Logan Cale as he was known to the world had figured out the enough about the origins of Manticore to start to connect it to the goals of the Familiars. If anyone got a clear look at this, they would start asking questions, so Ames decided to cover his preferable ass by erasing the words "Ames White" and "government cover-up" from the board. Just as he finished wiping the board with a wayward piece of cloth that he had found, his cell phone rang. He removed it from his pocket and heard the voice of X5-453, calling from what sounded like an abandoned building.
"Yeah." White said waiting for the response he wanted to hear for the longest time.
"It's 453. I have her." The X-series clone said over her phone as she eyed her now captured prey.
"Is she secure?" White said almost salivating at the words.
The response from the clone was "She's not going anywhere."
" Where are you?" White said as he awaited the words eagerly.
"An abandoned building. Corner of Parish and Beechwood."
"All right. I'm on my way." White said as he glanced around the apartment. He and Logan Cale would meet and when they did, only one would live and the other would die.
***
This was not shaping up to be a good night for Logan Cale. Eyes Only's operations had been traced, but luckily Logan had gotten out of his apartment slash base of operations with a bulk of his files intact. Watching across the way at the Storm troopers destroy his gear and many of his personal things the key things that they would never get was his determination and his pride to make the world a better place. After seeing the agent slam his fists against his desk was worth it. The guy was infuriated to no end and Logan enjoyed every minute of it. Nevertheless, he realized that he could never go back there ever again. Then as Logan drove on the road, he came across Max's abandoned bike by Terminal City. From the looks of it, she had wiped out, but the bullet hole in the rear tire stated otherwise. She was either injured or was running from someone, and nine times out of ten, the person whom she was running from was Ames White. Logan broke out on foot searching the former genetics facility for his Transgenic love.
***
Down the road leading to Terminal City, White thought about what his father had done. Violate five thousand years of tradition. His father and several thousand others had decided to break with tradition. He would never break with their people's ways, the Coming would occur and he would ensure it. Those members o the Familiar Council did not deserve their place walking with the Gods of this planet. Why did his father have to join the Ker and their cause? Well if they believed in the War Bride, then let them rot. The one who would awaken the hidden powers of man and make life from the face of death. Yeah right. White's chain of thought was broken when his cell phone rang in his car; He answered it as the display on the phone read that of his Familiar superiors.
"Fe'nos tol. Tell the Conclave I've found 452. I'll bring her to you." White said as he hung up the phone with almost enough force to break it. "...once I find out where she took my son."
He would make the pain that he had gone through with the loss of his son by her taking him that the torture he would perform would be sweet music to him.
***
Back in Terminal city, Max was not having a good day. Lets see she was tied up with thick chains inside an abandoned building and she had, had the crap kicked out of her by her own clone. Sheesh, how many clones did Manticore make of her? Shot by her X7 version and now shot at and kicked the shit out of by her X5 clone. How did fate make her hate the original's guts with a vengeance. Though given the way that her clone was leaning against the post near her, given the look on her face she was diffidently from the same genetic template she was.
You look familiar. Have we met before?" Max said trying to seek out some weakness or a backdoor that she could use to get an edge against her clone.
"Yeah. In a test tube." The clone said trying to avoid conversation with the woman who she would be turning over to white within the hour.
" Who came first, me or you?' Max said wondering is the person who she was dealing with was either her older or younger sister from Manticore.
"I'm 453." Her clone said attempting to stay isolated from her quarry.
"Well, do what your big sister says and untie me." Max said as she attempted to hit the connection that they had between one another. Their common sense of humor, or at least their "sisterly" connection that they had being related ton one another.
"Sister? Yeah, right." Max's clone said as the humor that Max had attempted to get across failed. Then to spite her, Max's clone lit up a cigarette to act all tough and stuff. The same way that the rude teens of Max's youth attempted to act tough to those around them. Sort of an primitive attempt to become the Alpha of any group. But here the scene was almost humorous towards Max.
To almost to spite her back Max acted like the big sister who she was, Max decided to do the thing that most Ordinary kids did when they saw a sibling doing something wrong. Rat their sibling out to their parents.
"I'm gonna tell Mom and Dad." Max said almost whiney towards her "baby sister" in an attempt to defuse the situation.
"Tell 'em I quit 'til yesterday." The Mirror X-series said as she looked down into Max's bag to get a look at what was in there. "So, looks like I interrupted a little vacation. Or were you skipping town?" 453 said rubbing in Max's sudden egress from Seattle all of a sudden.
"Something like that." Max said as something she noticed started to become clearer. It was almost as if her clone was almost envious of her.
"Same old 452." The clone said as Max started to catch the hint that there was something brewing underneath the surface for her sister. It was as if that her clone was in the same pickle she was in now with White being on her tail.
"What's that supposed to mean?" Max said as she attempted to flush out some of the details of why her clone was doing this.
"It's what you do, isn't it? Run away? Like when it got too rough for you back at Manticore. Bet you never once stopped to think about what they'd do to the rest of us. They wanted to make sure it wouldn't happen again, so they tightened the leash. We got the worst of it, your twins. Manticore figured since we had the same basic psychological makeup as the twelve of you, we were the greatest flight risks, so they hauled us into psy-ops for evaluation..." 453 said as the images of being tested and experimented on to ensure that this same mess did not occur again with the clones. Max had recalled some of the imagery from what Alac had gone through during the time they had spent several days earlier after she had broken him out of Jail. Alac had been so hesitant to talk about what he had gone through growing up but the details of this had become a part of him, and was probably the reason that he was so arrogant towards her friends. He was attempting to make up for the pain he had endured as a child.
"...for six months. You have no idea what they put us through, do you? While you were out in the world, living the dream, we paid the price." The words coming out were almost like a cry for help or a demand for her placing before Max and order to kill her and take away all of the pain she had endured.
""Living the dream" isn't exactly how I'd put it." Max said as she remembered her own childhood being constantly on the run, having an abusive foster parent, then all those years on the street being part of a gang of thieves so that she would be safe from harm. Then she realized that her clone was desperate for something but it would be a little while until she learned what was up as her clone said, "Oh, so it's too tough for you out here, too? Guess I don't feel so bad about turning you over to White, then. See, he got onto me because of you. It's been ten years since the first time you ruined my life. I'll be damned if I let that happen again."
***
Mel had just received the call from Alac; Joshua had gone through a state of full-blown self-destruction. Joshua was heading for Terminal city and if he wasn't stopped he would probably be committing suicide with a painter's dagger in his hands. Joshua had saved her life, now it was her turn to save his. She had lost her childhood friends the night of the fire; it was her turn to make sure that he got through this painful time intact. He needed to know that he was not the only one hurting from the pain of losing someone. Mel had gotten in touch with Jade and her unit. The group of X-series was searching through the old deserted buildings of Terminal City and started to find out that from the way that things had sounded for Joshua, it wasn't as hard as some of the folks in here. It was not until she discovered a twelve year-old girl following her. The pixie-est red hair, white shirt and scrounged up sown together paints stated that she was a street kid or some very resourceful X8. Then suddenly Mel blurred so that she could lose the half-pint but ran into Darrien instead.
"Hey Darrien," Melfina said as she started to realize that there was something going on in Terminal City and it was not the usual group of trodden upon homeless people.
"Yeah, What is it Mel." The X-series stealth unit said as he got an eerie feeling on the back of his neck. It was not something that any Transgenic wanted to feel at anytime in their lives.
"Do you sense that change in the air?" Melfina said as she searched out the fact that there was someone behind them and they were not human.
Quickly Darrien ducked away and disappeared into the darkness of the night. Melfina took up the position of being defenseless, but in true form, she was not. That was until she caught a glimpse at a mulatto woman in her late teens or early twenties standing right next to her. What scared the crap out of her was that she was a true to life Tiger stripe like Van. She was a Marine Transgenic. She was one of the Ohh-Ra's that Manticore had developed to supplement the X-series in the field. More combat training and a heavy sense of humor in what they needed to get done. However, what had made them to be known to the members of the Manticore community were the distinct stripes on their cheeks. The markings were seen as a symbol of pride and if you had tangled with one of them, well nice knowing you.
"You're a Ohh-Ra." Melfina said as she examined the fact that she was not the only Transgenic in the area. Alac had said that he had encountered several of their kind in Terminal City, but from what he had said, they were not the nice type.
"What series are you?" The female Ohh-Ra said as she moved over and grabbed Melfina by her shirt, nearly lifting her off the ground in the process.
"X-series custom." Melfina said as she heard a click from off to the side. It was Darrien and his stealth cloak was dissipating as he held his gun next to the Ohh-Ra's head.
"Same here." Darrien said seeing that the Ohh-Ra was heavily reconsidering her options before her as he held the gun to her head. "Listen we don't want any trouble, we're just looking for our friend." Darrien said as Mel was lowered to the ground.
"So, What's your name?" Melfina said as she started to look around at the surroundings using her night vision.
"The Name is Luna, X5." Luna said as she got a good look at Darrien, and grinned. "So, you're looking for a friend of yours. What series is he?" She said as she started to sum up the Transgenics before her.
"He's a Nomilie, uh one of the old Dog Soldiers series, about seven and a half feet tall." Melfina said to her fellow Transgenic, but there was something that worried her about the way Luna behaved when she asked what series Joshua was. She got the distinct feeling that Luna did not like Nomilies.
"You might try looking around the area past Oak Street, that's where many of his kind hang out at." Luna said as the same red-haired Asian girl who was stalking Mel earlier came up and said hello.
"Hey, Luna so what's up? There has been a lot of activity in the area and I think you better see this." The girl said as she started pulling Luna with her to one of the buildings.
"Okay E-Gad. I'm coming. I'm coming." Luna said nearly being dragged across the open area of the street. "What is it?"
"It looks like there is some bunch of Ordinaries about to have a serious dispute by Parish and Beechwood." E-Gad said as they entered one of the buildings that had been retrofitted with lots of plants and other biological material so that they provided food and medicines for the residents of the structure.
"Listen, who are the other Transgenics living in this area?" Melfina said looking Luna.
"The leader of the Nomilies around here, is named Mole, an old Desert Combat unit so I'd better watch out, you two, he tends to be a little trigger happy around people." Luna said sitting down at a large counter that had been turned into a sort of impromptu kitchen. "If your friend is here, he's probably with them."
"Okay, We'll see if we can find him. But thanks for the help." Darrien said as they started to leave.
"I'll call Shadow on my Cell phone and tell him that we have a lead on Joshua. Nice talking with you Luna." Melfina said as they left her little abode. Little did they know that Luna and her little community of X-series and Moles pack of Nomilies would soon be forced to take on their common enemy on their home turf.
***
Back across Terminal City in the abandoned building, Max watched her clone X5-453 put her wedding ring on. Then Max realized why her clone was so desperate to get her and get white off her back, she had a family she cared about. It was Tinga all over again, What was White doing to her loved ones. The image was so horrible that she had to put it out of her mind. 453 was her concern, now how to make her an ally.
"You're married? " Max said as she started to pump her for information. The more she had the more of an edge she would have in helping her sister out.
"I have a husband and a little boy." X5-453 said as tears started to form in her eyes. As she desperately wanted to fee the caress of her husbands hand against her cheek.
"You're lucky.' Max said as she realized that if it wasn't for the virus and the death of her sister. Life had been so unfair to her, if she had a chance to make things better, she would make a good attempt first to ensure that 453 got her family back.
"Yeah. You know, I had a nice, normal life...until White came looking for you and found me instead." 453 said in a sarcastic yet angrily glare at her. The pain in her eyes told her all she needed to know. Family was precious to every one, even to an X5.
"He has them. I'm sorry." Max said with understanding about the situation she was in. Then Max saw a way out, was it an illusion of in the distance. Logan. Then he moved as he picked up a lead pipe lying on the ground nearby and laid in wait. All he was waiting for was the right moment to move to help her.
"Yeah, well, I get them back once I turn you over to him." 453 said knowing that to get out of this, she had to deal with the devil to get back those she loved.
"That's if he keeps his word." Max said laying out what she knew about that bastard White. He had backstabbed before, and he would backstabbed again, her sister did not know what she was getting into. White was a major player, who needed to be dealt with major firepower and troops. No Lone X5 would be able to do the mission alone. This had to be a major assault to get the job done.
"Don't have a lot of options, do I? This is my family. Maybe you don't know what that means. Maybe you'd just run off and save your own hide, like you always do. Not me." 453 said in an almost spiteful way as she attempted to figure out hot to get out of this mess and realized that she connected with Max in the worst possible way. He had connected with her sister.
Then 453 heard a noise in the distance and walked away to check it out. Max realized that Logan was planning something to help get her out of this predicament. Logan emerged from the shadows and approached Max uncertain if it was really her or her clone.
"Logan!" Max said pleading attempting to convince that she was herself.
"You okay?" Logan said as he debated whether or not Max was Max or the clone.
"Untie me. Hurry." Max urged as if her life depended on it. Then as Logan started to loosen the chain that held her to the support column of the building. Then he pauses when he started to doubt who she really was.
"What?" Max said as she realized the doubt had finally won out in his mind. She needed to have some password for him to know it was her, heck like a pet nickname that she would like to be called in bed like Calla Nina Gato (Beautiful Cat Girl).
"How do I know it's really you?" Logan said as 453 returned from checking out the distraction that he had used to get to Max.
"Logan?" 453 said to Logan as she pretended to be her twin sister. Attempting to convince Logan that she was 452 herself. But Logan was caught off guard by the appearance of this other Max.
"Max?" he said to Max as she struggled against her bonds slowly working herself free.
"Logan!" Max said nearly pleading for him to help set her free from her bonds.
"Don't untie her!" 453 said attempting to prevent her quarry from escaping, and then as Logan realized who she was; the clone ran over and kicked him in the head. The force of the blow rendered him unconscious as he hit the ground like a sack of potatoes.
"Hey!" Max said angrily as she had worked her way lose from chains that held her as she rose up to confront her clone. It was time to give some serious sisterly advice.
"Guy's really stuck on you, huh?" 453 said realizing it was time for the two of them to go toe to toe with each other. Oh Niner verses the career soldier. Sister against sister. Damn, 452 had almost the sane taste in men she did. Well it was time to get serious.
"I thought I was a bitch, but you take the prize." Max said as the two women started to circle each other like the feral creatures they were. Then they began to fight. Max landed a few blows on her sister while the clone did the same. They were evenly matched physically, now it was all up to their individual fighting styles and skills that they possessed. As they fought, they increasingly used their own talents they had, that was until 453 got a hold of Max during the fight from behind.
"It's no use. I've got ten years of training on you." 453 said as she got a hold of her sister attempting to squeeze the life out of her using all of the additional training she had at her disposal.
"Yeah, well, they didn't teach you to fight dirty." Max said, as she broke free from her sister's grip. In all of Max's years on the run, the thing that she had learned the hard way was that no matter how strong or fast you were. You were always susceptible to the old fashioned sucker punch. With that 453 fell to the ground unconscious. Now since White was on his way, there might be a way for her to help her sister out by getting her family back. Now all it would now require now is a change of clothes. 453's clothes. Blessed be the Blue Lady, this girl seriously needed to have better taste in clothing, heck even Max's own battle garb had better taste in style than this girl's.
***
Later, as White arrived at the building, little did he know that the was walking into a trap. Max, who had dressed up as 453, lit her cigarette looked at the events that she had put into play so that her plan would come to fruition. X5-453, who was now is dressed up in Max's clothes had been chained to the same post that had held Max earlier. Now all she had to do was act more like the Queen bitch 453 was and she was home free.
"Where the hell have you been?" Max said getting into her part as 453. For the moment, White was buying it lock, stock and two full-blown smoking barrels.
"I had a thing." White said in his usual Familiar superiority way towards his reported Transgenic Flunky trying not to say what he had truly been up to covering his ass from assaulting Eyes Only's base of operation.
"Where's my family?" Max said as 453, with worry and pleading to get her sister's family back. This was not going to be another Tinga incident she reminded herself.
"All in good time, 453." White said planning on how he would shoot this abomination in the head after he was done with her. But, first he wanted the information out of her head of where his son was.
"Yeah, right." Max said as Logan had snuck up behind White with the lead pipe that he had picked up earlier. When Logan swung the pipe White did not know what hit him, as the jerk landed on the floor like another sack of potatoes. Payback and Karma were inseparable partners tonight, Logan thought.
***
Later as White woke up he found himself chained to the post next to X5-453 who was still dressed up 452. 452 was standing over him looking really, really pissed off. The creature that had spited him on so many occasions looked like she was about to do some serious damage to him.
"Ames White. I oughta put a bullet in your head. But twenty-odd years ago, me and her got cooked up in the same test tube. So, in my book, that makes us sisters." 452 said leaning over him making sure that he knew that she was in charge of what was going to happen to him next. Blasted his father for creating these things to thwart the Familiar's destiny of the world.
"Get to the point." He said wanting to avoid listen to this creature any more than he could.
"The point is, I'm gonna trade your sorry ass for her husband and kid." 452 said as something in 453's eyes realized that her older sister was going to save her sorry ass. She said leaning over to make sure that he knew that there was going to be some serious circumstances that were about to come about if he did not comply.
"I don't think so." White said making sure this creature knew that he was in charge of the situation that he was in, even if he was chained up. All he needed was a chance and these "people" would pay for what they have done to him.
"No? Well, then, I guess we get to find out how high your pain threshold really is." 452 said as she started examining the lead pipe in her hands and started playing with it as if it was a child's toy as she seriously debated pounding the crap out of him if he did not do what she wanted. Dad, if I find you, you are already dead.
***
Inside of Terminal City Alac was doing his best to negotiate with the local natives. However, his main concern was to figure out what happened to Max.
"I thought Max was with you." Alac said to his Nomilie friend trying to fish information out of him.
"No. Is she all right?" Joshua said starting to worry about his friend.
"I don't know." Alac said to Joshua.
"You don't know?" Joshua was to the point of annoyance at his X-series friend.
"I don't know." Alac said attempting to defend his position as good as best he could. Then Alac's attention turned towards the Reptile Desert unit Transgenic who was almost to the point of fuming at his presence of being there.
"He can't stay here." Mole said pointing towards Alac as he started to march over to where the X-series soldier was standing.
"Easy, pal, I'm not planning to." Alac said to Joshua as he planned to leave. "I'll hook up with you in a couple days, okay?" Alac said looking towards his friend as he started to walk away. If Joshua needed some time to deal with Annie's death then he would let him be for now.
"Okay." Joshua said with a deep sigh as something Luke was watching on the security monitors got his attention big time.
"Guys! What are they doing here?" Luke said as his furry rat ears perked up with curiosity as he saw several people walk by the surveillance camera's view. With that they all turned their attention was the four people walking across the old abandoned nearby structure. Alac instantly recognized the women walking with them. Max and one of her clones, as well as Logan walking with a very handcuffed Ames White right through the center of Terminal City at gunpoint.
"Just a bunch of humans." Mole said as the thought of having disgusting humans walk around his living place made him sick to his stomach.
"It's Max." Alac said as he attempted to appeal to Mole's sympathy towards his fellow Transgenics to help them in their time of need.
"You know her?" Dix said as he glanced back towards the monitors and looked at the two women on the screen.
"She's a friend. She's X-5." Joshua stammered out in an attempt to clarify details about his friend to his fellow Transgenics in attempt to win support to help Max out in the situation she was in with Logan. They needed help bad and they would soon need backup to get out of the mess they were in if White pulled anything.
"X-5, huh? Not our problem." Luke said as he stated his distaste for being treated like dirt due to him being a service unit. Ever since he was a child, the Manticore personnel had seen him as a lesser being due to him having all that rat DNA being dominate in his facial features. Since the fire, he had become a person who was not seen as a trench-digging servant, but of a person of importance to the other Transgenics who he had come to know in Terminal City. If Joshua knew an X-5 then it was none of his concern if she was in trouble or not, she belonged on the other side of Oak Street. That was where her people were at, and they would help her if she got in trouble.
"Yeah, well, you see that guy right there? He's in charge of hunting you down, so I suggest you make it your problem." Alac said pointing to White on the screen as, Melfina and Darrien walked in with their fellow X-series Luna and E-Gad. The residents of Terminal City would soon get vengeance for their fallen troopers and friends.
***
Behind one of the podiums in the abandoned building Sam was stripping off Max's clothes as Max was doing the same.
"Max..." Sam said looking at her big sister as she pulled Max's shirt off to hand over to Max. "Why are you helping me?" The look of worry in her eyes told volumes.
"Well, 453, or should I call you something else?" Max said as she looked into her sister's eyes. This was one very scared and confused girl who did not know what was going on.
"I go by the name Sam now." Sam said attempting to figure out what was happening. Max was very different from the reported traitor she had grown up hearing about.
"Sam, the main reason that I am helping you out is that I know what it is like to run without any ties. Finding someone that you can be open with and care about you despite that you have a "colorful" past." Max said looking at Sam slip on the black shirt.
"Yeah a few days ago me and Rick were considering about having a couple of kids other than little Danny." Sam saw the fears in her son's eyes as they started to pull him out of his room, as he was about to get undressed and go to bed.
"Is, Danny your biological child?" Max said as she looked as Sam shifted around to see the still tied up Ames White look at Logan with the hatred that would burn out a thousand stars.
"No, Rick had him from a previous marriage before his wife died. But in Danny's eyes I'm his Mom."
"So, you never told him about what you were after we became public knowledge." Max said as her sister started to break down in tears.
"Get a way from you snake." Sam said as Max approached then in a moment Sam let Max hold her as tears started flowing like a deluge as the events of the last few days started to catch up with her.
"There, there I know." Max said holding her baby sister tight. "Me and my siblings fled Manticore after the death of my sister Eva." There was a long pause as the pain came to Max's voice. "She was the oldest of us, then one day she said no. No. A simple word for most everyone else, but a word that starts every revolution. She had gotten a hold of a guard's gun to protect one of my brothers after he started to go into a seizure. Then without word, Lydecker shot her where she stood. Just for protecting her fellow soldier." Then the look of horror ripped across Sam's face as she realized that the '09 escape was not a fleeing away from their responsibilities at Manticore, but an escape and evade from a hostile force. Their commanding officers.
"You did what they trained us all to do, Survive." Sam said as she looked down at her watch. "White's men are going to be here in a few minutes. We better get going."
"Yes, lets get your family back to you." Max said as the headed over where Logan and White were and toward their destinies.
***
Later outside of the industrial research district that used to be called Advanced Recombinant Genetics Center, a black 2003 ford sedan drove into Terminal City. Standing in the middle of the street between buildings Max, Sam, White, and Logan stood waiting for the car to show up. As the car came down the street and stopped, White's Puerto Rican second in command Otto got out of the car along with another man. Their two back-seat passengers were the means to get their boss back after the infamous 452 had captured their boss. Never send a Transgenic to do a human's job.
"Let's see what you're packing." Max said towards the man by the black sedan letting her training kick in, this was to get Sam's family back and it was going to at least work.
"We're unarmed." White's second in command said as he and his aid opened his jacked towards Max and her clone. Keeping in mind that he was dealing with a seasoned professional soldier.
"I don't have a whole lot of patience. I don't think you boys want to stay in Terminal City any longer than you have to." Max said looking at the two NSA men before her. She had spent too many years on the street to know that she was being jipped by an amateur. The look on her face spoke volumes as the two men looked at each other and Otto pulled a gun out of his jacket and set it on the ground. Max watched the man as she started to sense that there was something up but she needed to let it play out so that she would be on top of it.
"All right, let's do this." Max said to the two men before her as she looked at how White's second in command was going to move. Then Otto moved over to get X5-453's husband and son out of the car. The two of them looked very scared after the events that they had been through. In a few moments' things would either end either good or very badly. Then Max set the events into motion, "Okay, on three. One...two...three."
"Is my son still alive?" White said glaring at 452 demanding to know where his son was after she had kidnapped him from the indoctrination ritual of the Familiars.
"You won't be if you don't start moving." Max said, as she nearly had to kick him to make him move in the direction towards his men. White started to walk slowly towards his men as 453's husband and son headed in the opposite direction towards Max and the others. When they passed each other the tension started to become higher and higher. Then when White reached the place where the gun that Otto had laid on the ground, he jumped with years of training and moved his legs to where he had his hands before him and not behind him anymore. Then landing on the ground White scooped up the gun and turned around and aimed the weapon at Max and the others. Otto and the second man pull out their secondary weaponry from behind them as well as two other hidden men got out of the sedan with their weapons drawn.
"Not another step." White said towards Max and the others, "Nice work, Otto." He commented to his inferior as he enjoyed this moment of victory. But that moment faded as they all heard a lot of guns cocking around them. They all look up to see a ton of Transgenics, all toting guns, a few with laser sights all aimed at White and his men. Max looked up to see Alac, Joshua and several other Transgenics she knew coming to her rescue. White looked at the situation that he was in and realized that he was ass deep in shit being greatly outnumbered by these creatures.
"You guys want to throw down, go ahead. But a whole lot of people are gonna get hurt." Max said realizing that things were on her side for once and decided to use this tactical advantage to her edge, to make sure that White knew that a "Freak of science" had outclassed him.
"This isn't over, 452." White said calling off his men as he started to grit his teeth to the point of almost breaking his rear molars in the process. "All right, gentlemen." With those words White got into the sedan and a few moments later his men lower their weapons and head for the car to drive away to safety. Then Max saw a Reptilian Transgenic lead 453's husband and son away from the area to a nearby building. Max had needed a miracle and she had received one. Her guardian angel must have worked overtime for this now she had to talk with her miracle givers.
***
Inside, in the living quarters of Terminal City Max looked over at her sister X5-453 as she comforted her son. With all the strange beings moving around them, had put Sam's child on edge. Between the Werewolves, the Lizards, the Cats, the deformed Quasimodo figures, and the X7s were enough to make anyone scared out of their wits without them saying "hello" to you.
"Sam, what's going on here?" Rick said to his wife after a Dog Girl had given him a cup of water for him to drink. As he felt as if the other shoe was going to drop in how she would explain that she had a twin sister he knew nothing about and knowing about all these "Creatures" that just has saved his and his son's life.
"I'll explain everything later. Okay?" Sam said as she held her son tight and speaking lightly that the people around them would not hurt him or his dad.
A short distance away, Max talked to Joshua in looking at the person who had shifted the political views of Terminal City to come down and help her out.
"So I guess you really can take care of yourself...and me, too." Max said to Joshua as he growled playfully at her and planted a slobbery kiss on her forehead, when Alac approached. Joshua knew that he would be there for her. It was his responsibility now, to make sure that she was okay. Then as Joshua moved away Max turned her attention towards Alac who she had sent on a supply run for Sam.
"Score anything?" Max said as she waited for Alac to respond.
"Jacked an SUV from some, uh, gangster guys outside a strip club." Alac said as he handed her some car keys to the armored vehicle parked outside.
"Thanks." Max said as she turned to look at Sam. With all that her sister had gone through, the concept of getting a life had taken on more meaning than she would ever know. It would not be easy for Sam to talk about her past, but for her to move on with her family she had to talk about it.
"It's gonna be a long ride to Canada. She's got some explaining to do." Alac said knowing that in a way, helping save Sam's life had given him new meaning, he would have to talk to Asha about his past and about his late brother Ben. But that was for another time, for now it was time for Max to be with her clone sister Sam.
"I appreciate this." Max said looking back towards Alac who she considered more of a brother now than she ever did before.
"Yeah, no worries. Anything for a friend, or a clone of a friend." Alac said with a shrug of his shoulders as he turned to see Max walk away and head towards her sister.
As Max approached Sam, the felling of uneasiness came towards the two of them. As the two sisters looked towards each other then realized that they understood each other from that point on as sisters. Blood sisters.
"You're all set." Max said moving over to the now standing Sam who had left her son on the couch with her husband.
"If you're expecting a thank-you, forget about it. None of this would've happened if it weren't for you." Sam said looking at her sister and realizing that they were not all that different from the other.
"You're right." Max said glad that her sister had her family back, somewhere out there she could feel Tinga's presence touch her and know that she had prevented another tragedy from happening again.
"You know, if Manticore hadn't gone down, you wouldn't even be with them. You know who took it down." Alac said as he looked pointedly at Max and walked away leaving Max and Sam to be together for a while.
"Not bad." Sam said looking at her sister, what was unsaid between the two of them spoke volumes. They were family and would be until the day they died.
"Good luck." Max said as she handed Sam the Keys to the SUV, knowing that in the future the two of them would soon meet again under better circumstances and not under the terror mess they were in now.
"You, too." Sam said as she hugged Max as tears started to roll down her olive brown face as she walked away to be with her family and pack the SUV Alac had gotten for them. Leaving Max to think a lot about Logan and what they would be doing if they were able to get over this dammed virus in her system. Then Max saw him sitting a short distance away working on his laptop and fussing with cell phone so that he could receive a better signal on it. She walked over to see what he was up to on his system.
"So White really messed up your place, huh?" Max said looking at Logan with is tote bag full of computer gear and files from his place.
"Yep." Logan said, as he was able to get a temporary uplink to the Internet to check if all files from his removable external hard drives still functioned on the computer network he had set up years earlier.
"I'm sorry." Max said looking down at her feel, feeling almost responsible for the damage she had inadvertently caused by coming into his life, by putting him on the government's most wanted and not being able to touch the woman with whom he had fallen in love with.
"Got my files out. It's gonna take some pricey equipment to get Eyes Only up and running again." Logan said assessing the damage to what he needed for a satellite broadcast system.
"You're going to need a good cat burglar." Max said leaning against one of the shelves that the reptile transgenic named Mole used to clean his weapons on.
"Thought you were leaving town?" Logan said looking surprised at Max when she said that.
"Nah. Got some family stuff to take care of." Max said looking around at all her people in the room. She was no longer alone, but now she had to make sure that she and her people had a future for themselves and for humanity. Max had been kicked in the head by her Guardian Angel to accept responsibility for what she had done letting her people loose upon the world. Now it was high time that she needed to become one of her people's key leaders for the future.
***
As Sam was loading the SUV with supplies, she always took a look at the buildings of Terminal City. For that little bit Sam had felt safe, her people were at least safe and they had shown Ames White that he was not going to hunt them any more. Then at that moment a X5 male came out of one of the command center along with Max and a X6 version of her and started to head over to them. The look on Danny's face was worrisome in that he was getting use to the fact that Mommie had a sister but, the fact another one of her clones was coming with them was heavily disturbing.
"Hey Sam, there is something thing that we forgot to give you." Max yelled as she started to sprint up to the SUV.
"Max what is it?" Sam said getting the feeling it was something important for her and her family.
"Its a phone number of some people we know in Canada that will help you get settled when you get there." Max said as she handed her sister a piece of paper.
"So who is on this piece of paper?" Sam said as she looked at the names on it.
"Friends of Eyes Only and a few Transgenics that I have been able to get across the boarder to Canada." Max said remembering the group of X6s she had helped across the boarder right after the Manticore Fire. They all had a sense of humor but had a lot to learn about the world they were now in. Max hoped that the X5 she had sent up right after White attempted to wipe the Transgenic population off the face of the planet with a bio-weapon would straighten the bunch out and give them some more knowledge about the world. From what she had heard over the last few months there was a growing transgenic colony in Canada as well one in Mexico with her sister Bree. Max had received a photo in the mail of her sister and a bouncing baby girl, Lil Max. Then Max got back to reality with her twin sister.
"Sam, There is a colony of our people up there and some of us have families like you." Max said reaching over to hold Sam's hand. "I know it won't be easy to explain everything to Danny and Rick alone about your past but having people who have been through it might help you out."
"Hey Sam," Shadow said as he looked at Sam, "keep in touch okay because you have a baby sister here you have to worry about you might want to lessons from you." The X5 male emphasis as he pointed to X6 453.
"Hey, take that back, I can handle myself." X6-453 said looking at 452 and 453.
"Yeap. Max, I have to tell you she is definitely like us." Sam said as her son hugged closer to her leg. Then Sam looked down at her son, "It's okay Danny, and she won't bite."
The look on the X6's face was the "okay it is way of consequence for me to take." As she started to help load the stuff into the SUV to get Sam on the road as soon as possible.
"Yeah, tell me about this, I am way too creped out by all of this." The X6 said trying to digest all of the facts before her.
"There is a check in number and emergency number so that we can get hold of you and you can get hold of us if something comes up." Shadow said as he finished helping Sam and her family get on the road.
"I'll check in a few days." Sam said as she and her family got in and head off into the night. For the residence of Terminal City it was a start of a new day for them all, now they had to ensure that they would have a future.
The first thing they would have to do was to expose White for his escalating of the Transgenic Violence in the city and make sure that whoever was pulling his strings got the point to leave the Transgenic community alone Permanently. Bad guy head on the platter anyone.
***
The next day, Senator McKinley was sitting behind his desk conducting another Senate hearing over the entire Manticore Fiasco. Before him as Ames White wearing his blue suit looking very coy, and given what had happened the night before with the Transgenics Ames was looking like he was going to get some payback against them. As usual there were lots of reporters hanging around the room like flies on the wall. White's superior was also there in the room with him and given what would happen in the next few moments would piss his boss off and give him the weapons to finally get rid of his Father's legacy to save Mankind.
"Committee calls to the stand Special Agent Ames White. Now, Agent White, I'm sure you've been instructed by counsel and by your superiors to invoke your Fifth Amendment right. But I want to remind you, as an officer of this committee and as your fellow American, that all this committee is interested in is truth." Senator McKinley said knowing that White would blow the roof off of the entire Manticore Fiasco.
"The truth, sir, is quite simple. Did parties within our government secretly divert funds for genetic experiments? Yes." White said playing his part to the hilt. The murmurs of the crowd and the look on his superior's faces were worth what he needed to do.
"Did they allow those transgenics to escape? Yes. Did they then choose to withhold that information from the American people? Yes. Are those transgenics dangerous? Most assuredly, yes." Plans were going to be seriously in effect, knowing that McKinley was a Familiar would give him the ability to get revenge on 452 with a vengeance. Little did White know that on the other side of the content events were unfolding that would bring about his downfall. 452 was heading to work to get her life back on track.
***
Meanwhile at the offices of Jam Pony package delivery, Normal and all the other messengers are watching the Manticore hearing on the High-definition Television that almost daily played Music Videos and Soap Operas.
"And I cannot, in good conscience, continue to be part of this cover-up." Ames White said to the Committee as he started to piss off a ton of politicians and gain a shit load of supporters.
"That, my friends, is a true patriot." Normal said acting like a proud American he was. If he knew the truth about White, he would instantly change his nationality and move to Canada.
"These Transgenics are a great threat to our national security and our American way of life. Make no mistake. This is a war...a war we cannot afford to lose." White continued to say on the Television as Max entered behind the crowd of Messengers and friends as she snagged the remote from Normal's desk and turned off the TV, as she was about to toss a tape gun through the plasma screen.
"Hey!" Normal said in a moment of shock as the screen went blank before everyone.
"Bip bip bip, people. C'mon, these packages aren't gonna deliver themselves." Max said going into a impersonation of Normal trying to break everyone's thoughts about Transgenics and national threats for the time being. But she knew that the seeds of doubt had been planted in their minds, she now had to tell the world that the Transgenics were not the threat but Ames White and his crones were. The look from Normal and Sketchy for that minute afterwards forced her to think that the next few days and weeks, she would soon learn who her true friends were and who just considered her a person that they knew.
"You heard her. Get back to work." Normal said as the messengers scattered to their duties deliver packages and fixing up their bikes. But both he and Sketchy still looked at her strangely thinking that they might have a Transgenic in their midst before them.
"What? You got something to say?" Max said acting normally as possible as she wanted to see how Normal and Sketchy would act.
"Not me. Nope." Normal said trying to act as normally as possible somewhat unprepared for how Max would behave if he found out is she was something other than human. He was praying that he was better than bluffing his way out than he was at playing poker.
"No. It's all good." Sketchy said siding with Normal knowing that she wouldn't do anything serious with so many witnesses around. He hoped. Shit after being interrogated by those Men in Black, being face to face with a real Transgenic would definitely clean his bowels very thoroughly. It was not until the both of them walked away that they let out a sigh of relief. Then a moment later Max hugged Original Cindy letting her friend know that she was back with the words.
"Miss me?"
Over the next few days Cindy would be let in on the fact that Max, Alac, Aspen and Melfina would not be the only Transgenics joining them at work.
***
Since the days of the Chemical fire that forced many of the researchers out of Terminal City and set in motion the decline of Seattle's business district. But since the Manticore fire the new Residence of Terminal City had started to turn the area into a place that was somewhat habitable for them to live in. Other than the occasional nut job or desperate individual having to lay low in the toxic sludge, the place was very quiet. Now the residence had started to organize the entire twenty-block area into a halfway decent colony. Max had gotten the leaders from the different units from all over Terminal City to start helping each other out; command staff, security, supply, construction and engineering, sanitation, reconnance, communication, medical, and heck even if a person had some cooking skills would be placed in helping feed all these people.
Max did not like the bigoted crap about the Nomilies and the X-series separating each other from the other group. This was a battle for survival. With Mole's old place where Joshua had correndated her rescue in the center of Terminal City had led to the modification of that building into the command center. Whatever structure that could be fixed up was used for either Living Quarters, Command and repair bays, and finally storage vicinities. Alac had gotten a hold of a few of his old buddies from his former unit such as Biggs and CeCe to join the crew at Jam Pony. But setting up the medical facility for all the pregnant females such as Jade had become a priority for the new members of the colony. Little did everyone know that events that would bring White right to their front door in the next couple of weeks. Luckily, Shadow and Max had decided to keep the Aquatics and the T-Bloods colonies outside of Terminal City around so that they could work as delivery service and as a fall back point if Terminal City ever got stuck in a lockdown or siege situation. But, Shadow would be caught off guard when he had to enact plan "B."
***
It had been a few days since Terminal City started to become a significant base of operations and after Shadow and several other Transgenic Field Medics and field Surgeons started to realize that some of the pregnant females had some unique medical conditions that had to be taken care of. Shadow had been present when an X6 Cat Nomilie named Kit had gone into distressed labor due to her baby's tail being wrapped around its neck during the delivery process. The Child was okay, but if the labor had progressed longer than it did they would have lost both the mother and child. From that point on, several of the Aquatics and X-series that had Dolphin or Bat DNA in their cocktail had been drafted into medical service to act as rudimentary Ultrasound machines. But the fact was clear, there needed to be some medical equipment on hand to help with these deliveries. One of the key priorities was an ultrasound machine to see how the baby was progressing in the womb and blood pressure medication to deal with the irregular heartbeat that occurs with the stress prior to labor.
Shadow was worried about Jade and their unborn child more than ever. He had been present when Kit had gone into labor, he could not get the look of sheer horror on her face out of his mind. Hannah had sensed that there was something wrong with the child, but since she had no experience around human females, little less than a female Nomilie she did not know what to do. Patch up a bullet wound, or re attach an arm she was okay with that, but dealing with a fetus inside its mother, that was a completely different matter.
Hannah had gotten to the point of where she was sticking next to Jade like another appendage fearful of what had happened with Kit would happen again. The only way that Richard was able to get Hannah away from Jade was either during the wetting down she had to do to keep her skin moist or to be with her kids. Shadow knew that Hannah's stress was affecting her kids in that little Neri was becoming more aggressive to her siblings to the point that she was dragging Misha out of their play tank. The only way that Hannah would feel normal again was when they picked up this Ultrasound machine that one of Steenbok's veterinary pals had been able to locate. Richard had come along with them to help aid in Hannah's state, having Nani and Gigi a female Polar Artic unit keep an eye on the Aquatic little ones in Water Dome. Little did they know that their delivery was going to be running into some technical difficulties real soon as they arrived at Sanchez veterinary supply.
"Hannah," Shadow said to the Female Aquatic," cheer up this is going to be easy, we go in, get the Ultrasound machine and head back to base." When the Female X-series custom did not answer back for several moments he got worried. Hannah was just staring out the passenger side window of the minivan they were in like she was lost in thought.
"Hannah???" Richard said from the back seat tapping her on the shoulder. It took a moment for her to respond.
"Oh, its nothing, I'm just worried about Jade." She said fluxuating between the ordinary and Nomilie languages. Then after several moments she spoke up to state her mind.
"I was with Kit in the showers when she went into labor. But the look of fear as her water broke and pain had gripped her scared the facile matter out of me." She said as she rubbed the nail marks on her arm from where Kit had taken a hold of her.
"You're just worried that the same thing will happen to Jade." Richard said rubbing her shoulder.
"Yeah, I mean we've all known Jade since we were kids. And the fact that she will be having a child soon, just worries me. I laid my cache of eggs several weeks after the fire, but she has to carry her child to term and it has to come out of a three-inch hole between her legs. I would freak if something that big came out from between my legs." Hannah said remembering pressure in her gut as she pushed out her eggs from several months ago.
"Yeah, remember how Lucy had to pull your dive skin off and let you work through the pain of your contractions." Richard said as he reached over and rubbed the soft skin behind her ear to show that he felt what she was going through.
"Yeah, Hannah being a mom means a lot, if you are worrying about your kids?" Shadow said looking at Hannah.
"What do you mean?" Hannah asked quizzically.
"When you worry about your kids, it states that you are concerned about them. Being a parent is not easy from what I read, but the rewards are worth the worries that anyone goes through." With that bit of knowledge Hannah smiled and relaxed some as they got out of the van to go inside.
***
John Carlos had been part of the Seattle PD for almost ten years now and hunting for freaks was the last thing on his mind today. All he wanted tonight was to have some quiet time with his wife and work on having that kid they always wanted. He would not get the chance tonight when passed by a Veterinary supply shop and picked up three very glowing figures on his IR scanner and he decided to call it in, little did he know that years later he would be telling his grandkids about this day.
***
As Hannah, Richard and Shadow got out of the supply place, there was something wrong in the air. Then he saw a old Checker Taxi across the street and a guy pointing a camera at them. It wasn't until he saw the words Thermal Imager that he knew that they were screwed.
"Hey Richard, Listen why don't you drive, Okay" Shadow said as he signaled with one hand in a casual style the commands "Been Spotted. Need to evade. Return to Fallback point Alpha." Hannah who was sitting in the back next to the package saw what they communicated got out a cell phone and spoke Nomilie to Command.
"Hannah here, we have a Code 6, 69 27 in effect. We are compromised, in the process of escape and evade. Need to fall back to Alpha site, inform them to be ready for a wet retrieval."
"We'll inform them Hannah. C and C out" Dix said in Nomilie then the transmission ended.
"Shadow, listen I need to visit my children, we need to get there soon because they are getting to be a hand full" Hannah said in well-spoken Ordinary.
"Yeah, lets head on down there." Richard said as he climbed on in. With that they were off.
It took several moments for the three of them to realize that two hover drones and five unmarked police cars were following them. Max had made her point after she performed that little raid on White's base of operations two nights earlier. The cops were not going to let them go without a fight.
"Shadow, I believe that we have some company with us." Richard said from the driver's seat.
"Yeah a say they are not letting us go without a fight." Shadow said using his telescopic vision to get a look into the rearview mirror.
"Yeah, will let not give them one." Hannah said looking at the oxygen tank that they had been able to snag with the rest of the gear and some tubing to go with it. "Shadow, the tank back there, you might want to use it in a few moments." Hannah commented as she decided to give the five o'clock news a story that would be talked about for months.
"Why?" Shadow said as he realized what she was planning. Quickly he used a canister of tire fix foam and sprayed the seals of the Ultrasound Machine case with it so that it had a watertight seal.
"Wet Retrieval." Richard said as he hit the accelerator of the Minivan and pushed the vehicle to its maximum speed while pointed it for the docks.
Around that time a couple vigilantes who wanted to make Seattle Transgenic free decided to pull up along side the minivan and started ramming it repeatedly. At that point Richard had decided to let these assholes get arrested for slamming a car off the road and would be booked for homicide. During the hit that Richard was planning on using to conceal their escape, Shadow got slammed against the door of with such force that his shoulder was knocked hard enough to dislocate it.
In the moment after Shadow had gotten hit hard, Richard hit the NO System that Luke had wired into the vans in case of an emergency and let the mini-van launch into the air with enough force that the vehicle skipped a few times like a stone across the water before it finally came to a stop and sank into the bay.
Outside the news crews had started to arrive to cover the accident and having the members of People for a Transgenic Free Seattle arrested for interfering with an investigation, but under the surface the three Transgenics were making their way to Water Dome. Shadow who had to be helped along to Water Dome, as he had to be partially carried by Richard as they swam in tandem. Hannah was doing her best to drag the semi-buoyant contained ultrasound machine with her, but there were points where she had to stop pushing the container, as she would look at Shadow and Richard. For a long time as she looked back and realized that it would be a long time until this mess would calm down. For the three of them the journey to Water Dome was going to be a long one, as they had to deal with the fact that the consequences of their actions would soon make them heroes. Shadow and those outside of Terminal city would soon be forced to become the greatest strike force known to man as they battled to prove their innocence and show the world there was a greater threat to their society than the Transgenics of Terminal City. Across town, Melfina would be dealing with problems of her own, as her biology would be in conflict with her spirit, but she would encounter some old friends of her's the ACT-I.
***
Across town at Jam Pony delivery service, Melfina was fighting through some serious sense of emotion and a fever that she was developing. Since Mel had come into work this morning, she felt like she was burning up inside. Word about the Flu going around was getting to the point where the members of the Transgenic community were searching for additional sources of immunization shots for the strain since the science Geeks down at Manticore forgot to tweak their systems to fight against it. Mel was doing her best not to look at the guys around her fearing that she was in Heat. Original Cindy walked over to her to tap Mel on the shoulder seeing if she was all right.
"Hey Shocky. What's up girl?" OC said looking at the young Transgenic who had become her friend.
"Yeah, I think I'm okay, but I think that I am coming down with the flu." Melfina said feeling her head to check her temperature. Then OC double-checked Mel's Temp and noticed that Mel was not just warm, She was hot, Heat hot. Mel was in the first stages of her heat cycle. Quickly to confirm her suspicions, Cindy decided to ask a question to figure out if her hunch was true.
"Mel, I need you to remember how many months it has been since your last Heat cycle." OC said as she waited for the reply.
"Let me see, it's been awhile." Melfina's said as she started to count the months out loud. "Lets see my last heat cycle was right after the Fire and Prior to me getting my job here." Then the math sunk in. "Five to six months.... OH, SHIT. OOOOHHHHHHH SHIIIIT." Melfina said suddenly realizing that she was in the first stages of being in Heat. With that Cindy grabbed Melfina by the arm and started to run her to the women's room.
"Girl, start thinking unsexy thoughts. Doing laundry, opening a really hard to open jar. Me kissing you with tongue." Little did they realize that they were going to run into Normal and his Bip Bip Bip.
"Okay ladies what is the rush here." Normal said heading them off at the pass. But Normal was soon about to encounter unadulterated teenage Transgenic hormones.
"Normal, Me and Melfina here were on our way to the Ladies room to deal with something private." Cindy said trying to get Normal out of the way.
"So what is so important that you two have to go to Ladies room for?" Normal said not realizing that Mel was about to have him in the nude as he waved his finger before her. Then Mel seeing his finger couldn't hold back her urges and grabbed Normal's hand and started to open mouth fondle it with her tongue.
"I want to make passionate love to you Ronald" Normal" Regan," Mel said as she started to push him against the wall kissing and suckling each of his fingers in the most erotic and orgasmic pattern she could think up. "I want to rip our clothes off here, right now and do the Freaking Karma Sutra on your desk. IN FRONT OF EVERYONE TO VIEW!!!" Melfina's screamed at the top of her lungs. At that moment CeCe and Cindy grabbed Mel and forced her off of Normal. At that moment Rain and Aura came in and Aura blew some dust into Melfina's face. Normal just stood there as the Bruja rubbed Mel's face.
"Normal, are you okay?" Cindy said looking at a very stunned Normal.
"Yeah, Just caught off guard, " Normal just paused looking at his finger for a long time. "What was that stuff that you blew into her face?" He said to the woman in black.
"Sleeping dust." Aura said to Normal. Normal just looked at her.
"So how long will that stuff last?" Normal said fearing that if it wore off Mel would be like Glenn close from Dangerous Liaisons and start stalking him down like Natasha Hendridge from Species to have uncontrolled nymphomaniac crazed sex with him.
"I say a few hours, but it will be long enough for me to gather the ingredients together to end the Heat Spell she is under." Aura said looking at Mel on the floor.
"Heat Spell. What do you mean by Heat Spell." Normal was able to stutter out. "Are you a Witch?"
"Well not exactly." Aura said, "I'm a Bruja."
"Yeah, Mel did say that the tea did taste a little strange this morning." Rain said looking at Mel strewn the floor.
"You fed her the tea in the blue Coco tin?" Aura said looking at Rain with the look of "no you didn't do what I thing you did?"
"Well yeah." Rain said as she and Aura picked up Mel outside.
"You idiot, that is where placed my attractant mix in Rain. Melfina is your Friend." Aura said dumping Mel into the backseat of the Car. Normal just stood there in the doorway of his company looking at what had unfolded before him.
"Between discovering Mel is a closet sex addict, and Max's Violent work place Fantasies. All we need to wrap this week up is to be taken hostage by a group of desperate Transgenics on the run from the cops." He said feeling that things could not get any stranger.
"...and its just Monday" Sketchy said walking with him back inside. Little did they know that their lives would be flipped upside-down when Normal's statement would become reality.
***
Chapter 13: Love Among the Runes through Freak Nation, secondary bases and the Navy to the rescue.
***
I used would thank the "Kyre Dark Angel fansite" at for the transcripts of the sections from "She Ain't Heavy" through "Freak Nation" who helped me refresh my memory of Dark Angel Season 2.
Next Time:
Chapter 14: Battle of the Freaks, Heads on the platter, and Fallout