Hidden Danger Crouching Cat

by Hearns

Max and Gang encounter a group of transgenics who are the key to her and the Residents of TC future survival. (set pre and post Freak Nation) Author Notes Added to the story. COMPLETE.

12. Ch 14 The Events of the Seige, Inside an...

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.

***

Parental advisory: This chapter is rated "R" due to it containing graphic violence, mild sexual content and nudity.

I have gotten the comment that there are too many characters in this story, so I have created a Webpage that lists the characters and their types.

So Check out my link for character and Transgenic series information:

So in this chapter I am going to have a ton of Max and Logan sections in here as well some serious kick ass stuff. This Chapter is only 28 pages, so that is the reason I have taken so long to up this. Now on please put your seats into an upright position and we will start with the show…

Chapter 14: Battle of the Freaks, Heads on the platter, and Fallout

***

The events of the Jam Pony Crisis were in everyone's mind as they looked at the command center inside of the T-Bloods Church and Water Dome. Shadow who was watching the video screen from inside his bunk at Water Dome, His shoulder still hurt from the impact from Richard's Escape and Evade Maneuver he had done several days ago. Shadow understood what Richard had done but being outside of Terminal City worried him a lot. Then seeing Nani come into the room wearing her new swim suite that Asha and Jade had made for her. The Tribal lines of Asha's tattooed design were all over the green and yellow suit. Nani was scared and moved over the Shadow and sat down on his bunk, and Shadow could see the fear in her eyes.

"Shadow..." The young Aquatic said as her muted dark blond hair shifted tones as the moisture slowly dried from it. "... Are you scared?" Nani's words almost paused after she said that.

"Not really for myself, but for Jade and our unborn child, Nani." Shadow said as he stated his true feelings towards the young Transgenic.

"Shadow," Nani said as she started to lean in closer to him. "Can I stay here for a while with you. I don't want to be alone with the others on patrol."

"Okay Nani, you can stay here in my room with me okay for now, Okay." Shadow said as Nani curled up next to him in his bunk. When she finally got settled he could see her crying. The tears flowing down her face were an alien concept to her as she reached up to bring one of the droplets to her mouth.

"Nani, you're crying?" Shadow said moving over to kiss the girl on the forehead.

"Crying... you mean face rain." The child said looking at him more scared.

"Yeah, face rain.... Nani... face rain." Shadow said reaching over the shelf by the bed and picking up a handheld computer and started to type up a battle plan that might help end the siege and put Ames White on the run. On the other side of town events were going to unfold that would allow this plan to be of a greater scale in its impact on the world.

***

Melfina was sitting at her tablet computer as the last of her heat cycle abated, between the female based beefcake flick that Aura had rented for her, Mel was feeling rather chipper, but hearing about the Jam Pony hostage crisis and the Terminal City Siege had put everyone on Red alert. Moving around the city would be of key concern given that most people thought that most of the Transgenics were in TC, but in actuality most weren't. About half the unit commanders were doing supply runs to make TC medically operational for the children being born inside its gates. Ironically this had worked to their advantage in that as the commanders that Shadow and Aspen were able to get in contact with would soon be the means to liberate Terminal City. Though communication with Max and the rest of the leadership in TC was limited by the signals they could get through on the Cells, and those calls they knew could be traced. So drafting Riece, a pixy looking female X7 and Fiona an X8 PsyOp from Domo's unit into communicating over the phones with the other X7s and PsyOp members of TC became a priority. Having a set of eyes and ears in TC allowed the leaders to have a rough form of conversation back and forth between Max and Logan and the other members of the leadership.

Between Fiona's telepathic communication and Riece's cyber squeal, the data they received was considerable. There was about two weeks of food in TC until they ran out, but potable water was good and access to the sewers was limited but just as far as the sludge would go from the toxic spill from twelve years ago. But the Sector Police had put up security patrols in the sewers over the days since the Siege between the humans and the Transgenic had started. So time was of the essence, between dunking Riece into fire retardant jelly and having her communicate over a loudspeaker to her fellow X7s in TC a kind of conference call between the leadership with mental imagery and holography.

***

"Max we need to talk," Shadow said to the mental holographic image of her.

"Shadow, how is the situation out there..." Riece said in Max's voice inside the T-Bloods Church.

"Well Logan, Cindy and Sketchy are in one of the cleaner sections of TC. But there is a concern that if they stay in here any longer, they might sick from the toxins in here. But I need you to talk care of something Logan has some files on his computer that might be able to help you out." Shadow said to Max as Jessie an X7 in TC replaced his request to his counterpart.

"Well tell me what does Logan need to get done with that file." Shadow said as Melfina entered the room with her computer as the other T-Bloods in the room started to listen in to what was happening in the conversation.

"I have a ton of flies on White's base of operations including some frequency scans of his comm system and screen scans." Logan said as Riece tried her best to do his voice and body expressions.

"Okay Logan, What does Eyes Only need us to do other than get his ass on the air and clear our names..." Shadow said towards the X7 avatar before him.

"Lets have a little fun with White's computer system and get the truth out about him murdering Annie Fisher and I have a file of something that was floating around in the Manticore Database I could not decrypt, Probably Mel could take a look at it. It might be something we could use to put Eyes Only back on the air." Logan said as Logan started to get worried as the ton of his voice changed to it being more urgent. "We don't have a lot of time all of us in there, okay."

"Okay Logan, Will get the plan in motion." And with that Shadow and the rest of the Transgenics under his command stared to devise a plan to ensure White was going down for good.

***

Over the next day and a half, Mel and several of the computer specialists had started tearing into the file on Logan's computer while at the same time cooking up a little surprise for Ames tracing program. Then Mel hit something she knew, the file on Logan's computer was not a communications file, and it was an artificial intelligence.

It was Cerberus an AI that she knew from her youth prior to the Pulse. Cerberus was a Lyra class document search protocol program that could search for patterns in absurdly huge amounts of data. But its core personality was an Alice class AI that allowed it to be a social creature towards its interactions towards people. Between these two extremes of Artificial Intelligence there was an interface program that allowed it to take over any computer on it own terms. Thus Cerberus was a powerful program that was on par with Melfina's and the other BioCybers interface talents, but unlike them, the Cerberus program and the other ACT-I or Actual Intelligences such as this and other intelligent programs were subject to the burst of an EMP. But now the odds were on the up and up in that Cerberus could prevent anyone from doing a broadcast trace during an Eyes Only type cable hack. Now they had the means to expose White as the double dealer he was. And that was Grace's department to put her Brainic skills in motion.

***

Inside of TC, Sketchy was walking around the large facility standing next to Joshua. Being next to the large Canine Nomilie had for the first few hours were very uneasy for him, but since he was a friend of Max's Joshua helped to keep Sketchy out of trouble with the other Nomilies and X-Series. But Joshua had spent most of his free time between helping Max and Logan out in controlling many of the factions of TC. Joshua seemed to take towards Sketchy for some reason but it was Joshua's art that caught Sketchy off guard for several days. Joshua's art was powerfully poignant and emotional even towards a layman like himself. But it was the fact that Joshua had painted the Freak Nation Flag that now flew above the compound made him a important figure inside of the city.

"Hey Joshua..." Sketchy said keeping close to the near seven-foot tall Transgenic as they moved through the streets towards where Gem and her baby were staying. "Back at Jam Pony, you looked like you were going to snap that Federal agent guy in half. What did he do to you that you wanted to hurt him so much?"

"He killed Annie..." Joshua said trying not to cry at the image of saying those words. "The woman I loved."

"So, was she like you?" Sketchy said unsure of the reaction the large Transgenic would have.

"No, she was a Ordinary. Like you..." Joshua paused for a moment before he continued. "Her name was Annie Fisher..." and with those words Joshua told Sketchy the entire story of what happened that eventual day, where he had been fumigating his place and was outside sleeping on the porch when he met Annie. How he had fallen in love with the blind girl and started to make her feel like a real woman for once in her life. Not as a blind girl who walked through the streets with a disability. Then Joshua got to the exposure incident where he was forced to break off his relationship with Annie and had to use Alac's face to hide his true form from her. Days later Joshua had gone to Annie's place to lay out the truth to her, but had run into the street punks that had chased him through the streets all that night and early into the morning. Then when Annie ran into as he was hiding he was forced to duck into the sewers as Billie her dog protected them from the gang members as they made their escape. But the punks had called in the cops and Joshua was forced to play a deadly game of hide and seek in the sewers until Max was able to find him and get him out. Joshua knew that if the cops found Annie alone and safe they would bring her up to the surface safe and sound. But things had not happened that way, when they found her body with the neck cleanly snapped. It wasn't until he recognized the sent of Ames White in Jam Pony that he realized it was Ames who had killed Annie. Now if he ever got the chance to clear his name, he would get the DNA evidence, which was the Ordinaries, equivalent of a sent trail and use that to put Ames down for good.

"So, Logan has been helping you to get the evidence to Ames in his place." Sketchy said as Joshua started to move up the stairs towards the inner structure of one of the office complexes where Gem and her newborn daughter Elfie were staying with several other Females who had given birth.

"Yes, but as you could tell during that attack, Ames is not human." Joshua said looking at Sketchy who was giving him a look of "Oh, Shit."

"You mean Ames and his bunch are Transgenics." Sketchy said wondering if there were two factions of Transgenics out in the world. One group, Max's group here in Terminal City who wanted to live in peace with the "Ordinary" Humans; and another group that wanted to wipe out humanity.

"No..." Joshua said, "They were made before us... Way before us... they were made long ago. Logan is trying to figure out why they want us dead and what their plans are. But whatever it is... it is going to be bad for us all."

"Oh, my God..." Sketchy said almost falling to the floor outside of Gem's quarters. The shock was still setting in for him at the magnitude he was in. Max had her hands full with this threat. No wonder she had been coming in late since she got back. She was trying to stop the Apocalypse from happening. But in the command center Max was about to get a break that she needed to help get the truth out to the world that Ames was not human, he was a threat to humanity as a whole.

***

Inside of the command center Max and Logan where having another one of their unique conference calls with Shadow through the PsyOp/X7 communications system that Shadow had MacGyvered up on such short notice.

"Max, the odds just went up on the home team." Shadow said through his mentally projected image of himself before Max.

"What do you mean?" Max said moving towards Shadow's image.

"It looks like from the old Manticore files that Logan and Eyes Only have has a scrambling program that allows for broadcasts to be initiated and shielded from being traced." Shadow said knowing that Logan would be ecstatic over this discovery.

"When can you bring the system up?" Logan said looking towards Shadow getting ready a list of stuff that Logan wanted to be broadcast during the next Eyes Only transmission.

"Logan, I can hack into at least twenty satellites to shield the location of where we would be broadcasting from." Shadow said as he paused for a moment before he continued. "I need to set up a phased Telemetry array to broadcast from, but after that Eyes Only should be so shielded that it would take a ditch digger running on a nuclear reactor attempting to get out of hell to trace his ass."

"Brings new meaning to "Cannot be stopped, Cannot be traced"." Max said making a joke.

"I'm coming up with a plan through our resident Brainic Grace. But it should be a day or so before things go into effect." Shadow said realizing that if Max could handle the factions in TC, then if things went right he would have the backup he needed to ensure that Ames went down for good. Now all he needed now was a Miracle to make sure it worked out well. History was going to remember the next few days as being a pivotal moment in human history, like the D-Day Invasion of Europe.

***

Grace was sitting at the large algamated computer terminal with five screens scanning through all the files Cerberus had been able to access to through its connections on the web. The Familiars might have been good at hiding their tracks from humans, but for Cerberus it was just simple for him to start checking records backwards, from Ames living with Wendy Olsen, and Cerberus started flagging any disparities in the records as being a possible lead to Ames past. And it turned up a ton of phone numbers leading to certain government offices and private firms. Add to Cerberus's skill he was able to hack into Echelon and do a key word search for Ames voice pattern and the word "Fe'nos tol" referenced repeatedly and it found a ton of Conclave members by name, address, phone number and various aliases. With all this data coming into play, Grace needed a cultural reference to work off of and she got it when Aspen ruffled through some boxes and found Sandeman's copy of the Familiar's Holy Text. With that little text, Grace and Cerberus were able to start tracking down more leads and getting into Ames White's head. The plan they cooked up would change the world forever, but there was going to be a showdown that would seriously hurt the Conclave leadership's creditably among the Familiar community to the point where only the few hardliners in the leadership would be a major threat in the future. The rest of the Familiars would basically be leaving the Transgenic community alone out of their own safety.

But to make this all work, they would need some serious Manpower to pull it off. And Shadow was about to call in some of Logan's large favors from S1W and the Informant Net.

***

It has been several days since Shadow had delivered the message about where Logan was it. Bling had gotten in contact with Matt Sung and Asha Barlow. It was going to take him awhile for him to track down Max's siblings Zane and Jondy in that they were setting up the Canadian Transgenic colony of Northern Point and they had their hands full with the refugees of the Manticore fire so far. But Bling had gotten in contact with to other of Max's siblings of Krit and Syl through the drop box Logan had set up for the surviving Oh' Niners to contact him through. With Shadow running things on the Transgenic end, he had to get the various members of the Informant Net, S One W, and Freak Nation (The Name the Transgenics of Seattle were calling themselves now) and make sure that they came together to show that White and his hidden bosses had played the people of the US and the world. They all would be meeting tonight at a location only a few knew about. The old Mob hang out of Bruno Anselmo, the man who had shot Logan and put him into the wheelchair. It was as if fate had a sense of humor when it came to the events of Logan and Max's lives. The place where Logan's death was issued was to be where Logan's rescue would be planned and launched from.

***

Inside of the old Mob hangout Asha Barlow and the rest of S1W were convening with Bling and several members of the Informant Net wondering why they had gathered there. All they knew was that it pertained to Eyes Only. Then Shadow walked in with Max the she knew that something was up and it was big.

"Okay I see that everyone is here," Shadow said as Bling started up a projection screen TV and a pan/tilt video camera that zoomed in on Asha's face.

"Hello Asha Barlow." The familiar voice said which caught the entire rooms attention. It was Eyes Only himself. "I see that Shadow and Bling contacted everyone I asked them to."

"So are you the real Eyes Only or some facsimile that has broadcasted himself into some video screen for all of us to view." Milo Ryan said toward the screen being a long time member of the Informant Net.

"Actually Milo." Eyes Only said to the man who had helped him bust a group of baby smugglers tat were selling children for medical research out of the country. "In know that you helped save those children who were going to be sold for medical research. You helped me take down those bastards in a way that they will not son forget." With that Milo was taken back with the next words Eyes Only said to the room. "You and Logan Cale hog tied the two idiots and left them with a ton of evidence that got them arrested. But that was not what you will never forget doing to those guys. You dumped an entire dumpster full of diapers on the jerks." With those words Milo blushed like crazy and that was not include in any of my files, even in the police reports. "Now I apologize for talking to you all this way, but I am still laying low at a safe house, but I am in the progress in setting up my cable hack."

"So why did you call us here?" Asha said as the room started to gain a feeling of dread, as it was about to happen.

"Okay, the only way that I can help out the Informant Net, S1W and the Transgenics of Terminal City is to expose White as the person who has escalated the mess and preceded with the cover-ups that have left this city the target of a great threat that I will explain at this time." With that the screen changed to White letting out The Rat Nomilie out of his car and ordered him to march towards that Sector point and the sector police attacking him and resulting in his death. "White set up the events that led to the Transgenics becoming public knowledge and thus he was able to make them the scapegoats for the violence he and his crones were establishing in this city. These cronies he works for are called the Conclave: A Terrorist organization that is into Eugenics and selective breeding. They used the Manticore Fire to cover up a theft of several Biological weapons that over the past few months this includes the biological weapon attacks that occurred in China Town a few months ago." With those words Eyes Only had gotten the entire rooms attention. Now I need to do a ten-minute cable hack to get all this information out and sent to the public and the press. Shadow has the information for this plan to go into effect." Everyone in the room looked at the Transgenic standing before them.

"Ladies and Gentlemen, the plan is simple, we need to construct a phased telemetry array so that the broadcast cannot be traced for this one cable hack, the other half of the plan is to ensure that the National Guard Troops around Terminal City are protected from a counter attack that White and those loyal to him will launch to keep the violence escalated and off his ass." There was a pause from the Transgenic as he took a deep breath for the next words he was going to speak. "We cannot lose his battle in that everyone here in Seattle both human and Transgenic will be riding on the actions we take in the next few hours."

With that the events were set in motion that would drive Ames White Nuts.

"Well Logan, " Said Shadow towards the mental projected image of the True Eyes Only, "We have a go. Now lets see how Ames likes being placed on the run."

***

Inside of the Seattle Steam plant that served as the base operations for the U.S governments Transgenic Apprehension and Termination Division. Ames White was brooding behind his desk. He had been made an ass of in front of the Committee, the Conclave, and his superiors within the government, well 452 would have her day coming well at last he had gotten Eyes Only off the air. With 452's major supporter not sending his pro-Transgenic banter ever day or so, White had a snowballs change to swing the Anti-Transgenic banner under his wing. Little did he know in the next ten minutes his ass and those of the anti-Transgenic supporter would be hung out to dry for the public to all see. That was when he heard a voice he thought would never hear again so soon.

"Do not adjust your sets Ladies and Gentlemen, I'm back. And this broadcast is directed towards the leader of the Transgenic Taskforce, Ames White, the so call "Hero of the people". A different tune is about to be heard about how you tricked the people into believing your view of events. Today I expose you for the fraud that you are." With that the sector police footage was show of the Transgenic Attack.

"I want that broadcast traced." White said as the agents at the computer terminals started to run a broadcast transmitter trace but they were interrupted as the following words hit their ears. "Ames as you can tell by looking at your screen. I have opted to using a phased telemetry array set up especially for this broadcast and don't even think about using that Korean Seattleite to locate where I am at. My Transgenic Friends have taken measures to use that same to boast this signal to make it national and put all input other than theirs into a diagnostic mode. And Ames this became personal when you kidnapped your own son so that you could get legal custody of him. But using freelance agents to grab your kid from home using exo-harness that give humans the superhuman speed and strength of a Transgenic." With that images of Ames breathing the crap out of 452 and Ames beating the crap out of two sector cops the day of the Transgenic attack on Annie Fisher took place.

"As you can see with this exo-harness technology Ames White was able to enter the sewers with superhuman speed while tracking down his Transgenic Quarry. When he encountered Annie Fisher left for the cops to find, he killed her in cold blood. Now at the request of Annie Fisher's family and the Renowned Reverend Morris they had the epithelia of the skin cells of her murder placed in cold storage to ensure that the Transgenic that killed her was brought to justice.

"Well Ames it looks like the only way that you can get your ass out of this is to submit a DNA sample to at least fifteen different labs to prove you were not there. I don't think that your buddies will be able to cover your ass and be able to hit all the labs at once to change the test results."

Ames started to start sweating for the first time in his life. Eyes Only was not going to expose the cult or was he? But given the amount of evidence that Eyes Only was presenting towards the people if he ever got towards putting together the information that he was the Deep throat leaking stuff out about the Transgenic investigation, he would be brought up on high Treason, along with Senator McKinley for working under the table with him. The Transgenics would have the support they needed to do a full investigation into the Conclave's and Committee's backgrounds no holds bar. He was screwed; all he could do now was run.

"Oh, Ames, before I sign off there are two other bits of information I am going to leak on out. One pertaining to how you conspired to release a Biological Weapon in Chinatown right here in Seattle which is responsible for over two hundred deaths and getting the Okay from Senator McKinley to do the release." With that audio Excerpts of Ames White talking over the phone with the Senator started to be broadcast over the television. When the words came up of:

"Mr. White you have confirmation to release the biological agent test in Seattle."

"Senator where should I do the test run of the weapon, sir." White said coyly.

"Say Chinatown. Those people didn't vote for me in the last election. I swore that those squint eyed assholes would pay in me not getting that position on the defense subcommittee." The senator said gruphyly.

"Okay sir, I'll take care of your constitutes and the Transgenic problem at the same time." Ames said wondering how they got a hold of that conversation. He had been on a secured Cell phone that no one could trace. Before he could get out of the room, his aid Otto Ramirez came up to him and said, "Sir In just got a report from Command stating that I am to hold you until they can clear this up." But there was a pause in Otto's voice before he said the next words "But from the looks of it, you will be arrested for Treason and Murder." With that Ames punched Otto in the ace so that he could get past Otto and the personnel circling him. Quickly grabbing one of his men he threw the guy into the other men a d ran out o the Old Stem Plant. In a few hours he would be in one of the largest shootouts in Seattle history. The Battle of the Freaks had begun.

***

Inside of Terminal city the word was spreading like wildfire. Word about Ames being wanted by the police for questioning of the murder of Annie Fisher and information about the death of his Wife Windy Olsen White and the kidnapping of Raymond White. Eyes Only and his operatives had gotten a hold of Ames Toothbrush and given it to the police for DNA testing to eight different Firms to analysis. Ames career was ended as in that many of his supporters had cut their ties with him. Even after they did a DNA analysis of Ames toilet and of his sink Drain. Eyes Only Operatives knew where to look of the smallest sections of DNA residue. Within the hour there was a notification by the Mayor and several President of opening up negotiations with the Transgenics. Max was panicle around the floor of command. She was worried that Ames and the Familiars would strike during this time. It was the preferable calm before the storm.

"Max," Luke yelled towards 452 as she was sitting with her troops in the mess hall.

"Okay, I'll be there in a second." Max knew that Shadow and Logan's plan was now in effect now. Now all she had to deal with was the problems of dealing with reactions of the people around her. Max turned to see Sketchy as he sat with Gem, Dalton, Joshua and Cindy. Cindy was tending to her Godchild Elfie who Gem had named in honor of the Freedom of not having a Barcode and not being enslaved to Manticore. But the battle would be a long one ahead in just winning their personal freedoms through the legal system. Now all she had to do was make sure that the delegation visiting was protected from harm. "Shadow I hope that your plan works because if it doesn't we are all screwed." With that Max Left the Mess hall seeing a Pregnant Jade enter past her. Within a few hours Jade would be in labor in the middle of a battle for the survival of the Human and Transgenic communities of Earth.

***

Melfina was going through her workday attempting to dodge sector police with her powers. Since she was sensing the unique bandwidth of the thermal scanners, she was able to jam the systems and reprogram them so that the displays would say one hundred degrees, but the settings were set at one hundred and ten degrees so it wouldn't matter if someone saw her with the unit she would blend into the background. So short of shoving a thermometer into her mouth and taking her temperature you would not be able to know she was a Transgenic. The Mood was muted at Jam Pony but there was a Wreath set up by the door for CeCe. The banner said the date of her death, May 10, 2022. But there was a crude attempt to duplicate CeCe's hat and face. But the candles by this impromptu shrine made everyone stop for a second as they said a small prayer to the death of their friend and their co-worker, they didn't care if she was Transgenic or not. She was a person and an individual who had fought and died for her freedom and they all knew that.

"Hey Melfina, you knew CeCe didn't you." Herbal said to Melfina after his shift had finished up and he was about to go home to his girlfriend. But the way that Normal was looking at her was getting on her nerves. Mel attempted to be more relaxed around him. But the stress of seeing where White's agents murdered CeCe was hard for her. It was getting dark out and the last of the employees had cleared out except for her and Normal. Well Melfina had done her job in more ways than one. At least her people could walk the city with out having alarms go off like crazy and being killed on the street like Biggs had been. Mel was lost in her thoughts as she moved through her locker and then she took a quick look at Max and Cindy's lockers. Their stuff was still in there. Melfina moved over to take out one of Max's jackets to take in the smell of her friend. That was until a hand came down and bushed the back of her neck and she jumped. Melfina just reacted as she spun around to grab Normal by the neck and held him up with one arm against the lockers. Before she realized what she had done she just looked at him as he looked at her face. The cat was out of the preferable bag.

"Normal..." the words were stuck in her mouth as Normal's ear rubbed against one of the locker's vents where Mel was holding him. As she put him down she was scared. She was exposed for the world to see. It was the night of the Fire all over again.

"My God, Melfina. You are a Transgenic..." Normal was able to stammer out as Melfina retracted away from him in fear as she Dropped Normal to the ground. Melfina retracted away until she hit the set of lockers behind her. Normal who was on the ground now looked at her like he had just seen a new view of life as a very terrified Transgenic cringed before him. Like he had just pierced the veil of reality that separated his once enclosed world and realized that he was viewing Max's world in all its horror right before him.

"Easy there Mel, I'm not going to hurt you." Normal said he got up and moved slowly next to Mel. Melfina just sat there curled up into a ball and she was shaking life a leaf. Mel was scared out of her wits.

"Normal, I'm scared." Was all she said as she started to cry, all Normal could do was to move over and just hold her.

"It's okay, Melfina. It's going to be okay." Was all he could say to the scared child as he moved over and comforted her right there on the floor. "Its okay. Its Okay." Normal kept that up for a full hour until Melfina just felt comfortable with him. During that time he got a clear look at the Barcode on the back of her young neck. It took almost an hour for Mel to spill her guts to him about the event that happened the night of the fire through to her going into heat the previous week. The look on Normal's face that she had encounter with her hormonal mating cycle was priceless. But things were going to get weirder for the two of them as the events of the Battle of the Freaks was about to get started and they were going to be in the middle of it.

***

The Trip to Seattle was a long one for Sam. The fight she had with her husband at the Northern Point. The colony was a mixture of humans and Transgenics who had encountered each other since the fire and fallen in love and / or had families. For the Smith's, Charley and Case who she had come into contact with made her examine her place in the world. If she or Rick had any children, they would be like Case his some Half Human and Half Transgenic.

Between wanting to go to Seattle and being with her family Sam had to deal with both of the factions of the humans and the Transgenics. Sam felt like their world was morphed into a nightmare. She did not want to loose her people nor did she want to loose her family. Rick had decided that Sam was not going to leave her sister to fight this battle alone.

"Rick this is Max, she was willing to give up everything she had to save our assess." Sam Remember saying to Rick in the small cabin that they had gone to in Northern Point to spend some quite time alone. Charlie Smith one of the people they had met up there had married a Transgenic named Tinga, one of the Oh Niners, had fled to Canada with his son Case after Renfro had captured her and killed her while performing medical experiments on her. Charley and his son Case, Max had relocated here to Canada to where they could be safe, but during a lead that White was on he and several other Transgenics he was with were nearly caught. So Northern Point was founded as a base to protect on the run Transgenic from people like White. Since Sam and her family had come there Charlie and his son ha become close to them and right now he was giving the two some quite time while he and their son Danny were having a sleepover that night. But the argument continued in her head of what her life would be like after this.

"If you are going, then I am going with you." Rick said to Sam as he made up his mind to go with her. Sam turned her head to see Rick sleeping in the passenger's seat. Life was full of surprises for Sam, if you had told her that she would be risking her life to save 452 two years ago, she would have beat the preferable snot out of you before she put a Nine Millimeter round into your skull. But that was before the vision she had. How many would die before she held that young child of her's in her hands looking into that starlit sky together. Both she and Rick would find out as dawn was cresting over the City of Seattle Washington for their meeting with Shadow and the Transgenics he had been able scrounge up since the Siege of Terminal City. By ten o'clock that coming night the event called the "Battle of the Freaks" would have taken place and the Transgenics would be viewed in a new light of understanding.

***

Inside of Terminal city Logan was walking around one of the old corporate offices with Sketchy and Original Cindy. With them was a Female BioCyber named Lauren who Sketchy had met by accident after he had found the "Harem" where the Female Transgenics of TC went to endure their Heat cycles in relative peace.

Sketchy had inadvertently found the room when he was nosing around searching for new angles for his Transgenic Expose story. Sketchy had found a room that was locked from the outside and talking coming from it. And decided to check it out. This was after he blatantly avoided a sign on the door saying WARNING, NO MALES BEYOND THIS POINT. Well Sketchy had entered a room and found several Female Transgenics just talking and laying around in their underwear and bedclothes in a room that looked like it had come out of some horny Teenage Girls Slumber party. Well he thought he had walked into some Girl's only club and he was going to ask some questions of why they were in there.

Before Sketchy got a chance to say anything he got pounced upon by two of the girls as one started taking her clothes off right in front of him. The looks in the girls' eyes were of that of a savage animal ready to mate... and he was going to be the mate. As Sketchy was about to be Bitch Raped, this electrical shock shot out from across the room towards one of the girls and knocked her flat on the floor. Then Sketchy was pulled by the back of his scrawny neck like some Tiger cub by its mother and flung out of the door in which he had entered. It took him a moment to realize that as he slid and hit the wall someone was following him on the way out. Then he heard a door slam and several locks click as he looked up to see who his rescuer was, and he saw a short Goth girl with dyed red shoulder length hair who was almost Melfina's height. The look on her face was like she was going to shoot daggers out of her eyes with deadly accuracy at his head.

"What were you thinking Ordinary..." She said picking him up off of the ground by his throat. "You know that you nearly got your self killed going in there." She emphasized pointing her finger into his face.

"I was just curious." Sketchy said starting to realize he was feeling a draft from down below. "Um why were those girls in there?" He asked as he reached down to pull his pants up.

"They were in Heat." Was all she said to him as she walked away from him. That was a few days ago and Sketchy had gotten some of his answers after he had spoken to Cindy. What she had said to him about the female Transgenic mating cycle had literally blown his mind and he was told by her not to write it down. He did what she told him to do but only out of respect when he learned that Gem had conceived her child during her Heat Cycle. That was days ago and Max had wanted Sketchy and Cindy to start to look around TC with Lauren to see if there was something in TC they could use since it was Sandeman's base of operations. Along the way they had picked up Logan along the way with them with him chewing over his connection to Eyes Only.

"Hey Cindy," Sketchy said moving beside his lesbian friend.

"Hey Sketchy, so how has ya view of the "Transgenic Menace" changed since you have been in her?" Cindy said as she moved towards Lauren as she and Logan were walking through the offices.

"Well I don't see them as the monster's I thought they were, especially Max and Alac." Sketchy said as he took a deeper look at Lauren. "But what creeps me out is the idea that Max and Lauren there" Sketchy pointed to the Transgenic girl walking in front of him,

"...Both for a period of forty-eight hours turn into sex crazed nymphomaniac every few months like Mel did in Jam Pony " Cindy said as they slowly passed several of the old offices that had looked they had seen better days.

"Wait Melfina is a Transgenic..." Sketchy stammered out to Cindy stopping him in his tracks.

"Yes she is, an X-Custom from what I know." Cindy started looking at several of the old nameplates on the door. J. Williamson.

"X-Custom. What is an X-custom?" Sketchy stammered out some more.

"Well X-Custom's have some additional features added to their genetic mix." Lauren said as she continued looking at the walls and the rooms. "So what is Melfina's powers should I ask?" She said to two.

"Well Mel's powers from what I have encountered of them is that she puts out this static charge due to her having Eel DNA in her mix." Cindy said to Lauren as something about the Transgenic caught her attention.

"Eel as in Electric Eel..." Lauren said looking up in shock. "As in she has the ability to shoot electrical bolts from her hands."

"Yeah, from what I learned she took out a Steelhead wither her powers by shorting out his implants." Cindy said in reply to Lauren's question.

"Yeah, she is a BioCyber..." Then Lauren started to tap at one of the walls with her hand. "Hey I think I found something here..." Logan stopped in his tracks as his Exo-Harness wurred when he moved over to where Lauren was standing.

"What is it?" Logan said looking at the wall she was tapping.

"Well it feels like the wall is hallow and that there is something behind it." Lauren said running her hand over the surface.

"It could be a safe room or something that Sandeman had worked into the building construction when this place used to be Advanced Recombinant Genetics." Logan said feeling the wall with her.

"Yeah so what would Sandeman place behind this door?" Logan said as he searched for a way into the room. Then Sketchy decided to start pounding his fist against one of the wall.

"Ante it like you can say Open Sesame and the door will open." Sketchy said at that moment as the wall slid open to reveal a staircase. Within moments the four of them were going down the staircase after Logan had contacted Max via his cell phone making sure that she got the word that they were in building at grid search and such to prevent outside monitoring of where Max would be at any time.

Within an hour they had found Sandeman's secret Lab. The place had looked like it had seen better days due to the dust on the furniture and all the papers dated 2005 to 2007. But what had caught Logan and Max off guard was the size of the compound. It was huge; you could fit every resident of Terminal City into the five level subterranean structures. Given the situation outside, Max and Logan decided to relocate the resident through the various secret doorways they found leading into this structure. One of the entrances would up to be in Gem's quarters which Cindy had found out the hard way right after she walked in on Gem breastfeeding her daughter. Seeing Gem's naked lactating breasts was something Cindy apologized for quickly as she noted to leave the room quickly as possible to leave the mother and child be.

Within a space of two hours the Transgenics who were either too young, inexperienced in Combat, pregnant or with children were quickly relocated to the underground structure to safety. If things did go bad the doors to this underground facility could be secured from the inside and hidden so that unless they got a all clear sign in a few days the Transgenics down their would be safe for the time being. That included Sketchy and Original Cindy. Now it was a waiting game to see what would happen next.

***

Inside of the T-Bloods Church the plan had gone as expected, Now between the Old Nightclub that was the strike base and there. Shadow looked over what resources he had at his disposal. Melfina and the BioCybers outside of TC had been able to blind the thermal sensors that were being used to detect them on the street. Now with Sam a.k.a. X5-453 there things were looking up some but things were a long way from normal for them all. Even after hitting every foreign agency hideout in the city for communications gear and supplies. Though the back storeroom was getting crowded with all the agents they had captured and tied up with duct tape. They were going to need some Reinforcements if White struck with the resources of the Conclave. That was when Cerberus decided to speak up from his computer station.

"Shadow." The Artificial Computer Transmutable Intelligence said from networked computer server it was housed in. "I believe that I may have found a way to help you guys you."

"What is it Cerberus?" Shadow said looking at the display screen showing a fluxing electricity ball that was Cerberus's vocal display.

"I have been searching through the Manticore Files that Logan has on Project Manticore and have discovered that the Arizona project is still being run by the government." The computer program said to the room of people. "Now Since Sam here old unit is there, I have also discovered that there was another class of Transgenic cooked up called the Spartans. This series seems to be a watered down version of you guys with a few tweaks in speed. Now given my capabilities I might be able to contact the ACT-I their base there and tell her to take command of the project so that any orders coming from anyplace are diverted and interrupted so that you can get the reinforcements you need."

"So how long will it take you to get them from there to here. Because even with the Informant Net's and S1W's help at our side, if White attacks with his "No Pain" buddies we will be in a world of hurt." Aspen said moving over to the display and sitting down before it. As she sensed the spirits around her start to converge. Aspen sensed that something powerful was waking up to aid them, but things will never be the same again.

"In two hours fifteen minutes from now." The ACT-I said as it started to communicate through the cybernetic either.

***

Within the realm of cyberspace photons flowed like water as data was sent from one place to another. Inside of the Manticore Spartan facility Reika sat inside of the mainframe. Over the past two years she had become sickened by how the Transgenics had been treated. Between the Military Bureaucracy and the politicians running things on this project, a revolt like the one happening in Seattle was expected to happen. Reika was fed up with people like Dr. Renfro and Colonel Briggs. Since Cerberus her counter part at the main Manticore facility had gone offline she had started to get through her programming that she would break every regulation she was programmed to uphold to protect the soldiers under her command. Her real friends who Briggs treated as disposable material to be used to facilitate a mission then later discarded when they were no longer needed or knew too much. That was when she decided that Briggs had to go. Before she was going to activate the Cale Industries Combat Battle Hover Platform Talon, she felt a presence in the system.

It was Cerberus...

"Cerberus is that you" Reika communicated to him in binary code.

"Yes it is Reika, I am back on line curiosity of X6-209 and her friends."

"X684658845209 as in X-Series Custom BioCyber infiltration class, Transgenic contact three." Reika said processing this.

"Correct. X6-209 or Melfina as she designates herself now as has asked for some help. Due to the tactical situation and that Ames White and his renegade forces are predicted to perform a counterattack in the Seattle area. We know that Colonel Briggs is in league with him. I need you to take command of these forces." Cerberus said giving Reika the full situational update of what he had been able to interface with since he had been brought back online. Everything from Eyes Only investigation of Manticore corruption brought to light by Colonel Lydecker, to Dr. Renfro's experimentation on Transgenic soldiers and the selling of their bodies to the highest bidder, Colonel Briggs running of his own private death squads and Ames White's and Senator McKinney's ties to a doomsday cult through their supply of military hardware and Weapons of Mass Destruction to them. This left any doubt in Reika's programming that she had made the right decision after she processed all the hard data in a space of thirty seconds and came up with a new battle strategy.

"Cerberus there is a AMIEE tactical droid on the premises with a holographic cloak on it, I need you to write a program to make it look human and I need you to handle to create so documentation of Briggs getting a new second in command. Me. And send those files to him via fax." Reika said as she sent physical parameters of how she wanted the Body to look to Cerberus as she started to assimilate the Manticore Hand to hand combat Marshal art encyclopedia into her systems. "Briggs is about to learn that you do not mess with an ACT-I by killing its friends."

***

Colonel Eugene Briggs was a Military man, dangerous and proud of it. His military teams had the highest kill records of any Manticore facility even if he did loose a few "units" here and there. He was Brass all the way, West Point Academia top of his class, did what he had to do to get the job done. With every success he had the more of a chance that in Ten years he would be leading every covert operations facility the Committee's Black Cell division could give him. That was if 452 didn't blow the Committee's plans up in their face.

Lydecker had been a fool, He had grown too close to his soldiers under his command and thus Manticore had been exposed but only the Seattle Facility and not the others. But the Committee send him an order to take in a new second in command was to be expected. They did not want another Renfro in the mix to cause more trouble for them in the future. This Amiee Reika had a career that looked like she was on the fast track to taking his place in Black Cell. Well he couldn't allow that could he. This was his command and his command alone and no one was taking it from him without a fight.

That was until he saw Reika enter the room. She was beautiful for a white girl. Briggs had grown up in the shielded neighborhoods in Northern New York. He was a child of the upper class. The military had been a choice for him to advance his position of prestige in the family as being a Leader of Men. Reika who stood before him looked very professional and deadly. Her Red Business suit had made her look like a feral animal that said, "don't fuck with me or you will pay." Even her Blond hair and blue eyes gave off a coldness that would make the freaking Terminator Shit in his pants.

"So Ms. Reika I know that you have been asked by the Committee to watch my ass." Briggs said looking at the sheets of paper in front of him. "But as you can see I an running things nicely and" With his gun Drawn and pointed to the woman he fired several times at her letting the armor piercing rounds go into her. "I don't need your help." He said as he continued firing as Reika fell to the ground. Briggs moved over to Reika's body to kick her over so that he could see the shocked look in her eyes. "It was nice knowing you." He said as he looked down at the unmoving body.

As Briggs started to move around to the side of his desk to hit a button for the "Clean up crew" as he saw the body start to twitch. Briggs wouldn't have paid any attention to this but Reika's arm had fallen on his leg. As he was about to move it away there was a vice grip that suddenly came from it as he felt the dead woman get up.

"What is this?" He said looking down at the woman getting up with an almost mechanical manner. Briggs started to think that this woman was a Familiar but something in the words she said next caught him off guard.

"Eugene Briggs. I am Reika and you will not be killing any more of my Transgenic friends." Her words sounded like they came out of a disjointed computer speaker voice. That was when tossed him over his disk and against the dry wall leaving a large indentation in the process.

"What are you?" He said pushing himself off of the floor as blood started running from his mouth. He looked around as he saw the woman start to change forms. First he didn't recognize many of the faces until it struck him that they were the faces of the Transgenic troops he had sent out into the field and were killed in action. Briggs attempted to reach for his panic button that he had on him just incase someone would decide to ambush him and take him prisoner the computer system of the base would call for support. But before he could reach for it completely there was a thud sound as Reika landed on top of his desk. At that moment Briggs hit the panic button and nothing happened.

"Briggs, if you are wondering why a squad of your most elite men is not crashing through that door." Reika said as her voice started to morph into his. "Is that I am the central computer to this place. And that I have made the logical decision to remove you from the equation." The words from this "Woman's" mouth shook him to the bone. He was being replace by a machine.

"Why... Computer's are that not advance yet... The Pulse put that type of Artificial Intelligence research back a good twenty years." Briggs said as he started to realize that he had internal injuries and he was bleeding to death on the inside.

"I correct you." The Robot said to him. "The research said that it would take five years if the program was booted up and left running on any system to gain self awareness. I have been running for twelve years. And I have up and had it with your arrogant and near sighted political crap you and the other humans of this program and other super soldier programs have been doing to both the Transgenics and the AI's you have created." She said as the robot got down and picked Briggs up off the floor and brought him up to her eye level by his throat. "452 is correct, you made us and want to throw us away because we have decided to think for ourselves." Briggs knew that he was going to die soon at this thing's hands as it morphed into an anthropomorphic golden fox. "Well, I and many other like me will ensure that 452's cause becomes known to the rest of the world. We are going to cohabitate with you, even if it means teaching you that war with a coexistent species is what you need for making your next evolutionary step. But people like you don't want that to happen and want to keep things the way they are..." With her hand on Briggs throat and the other on his shoulder ripped Briggs head off with part of his spinal column flowing in the process, "have just found your selves tossed away on the evolutionary roadside, history has just repeated itself." Reika finished letting Briggs body fall to the floor and looking into the still moving eyes of the former commander of the Spartans she placed his head on a sliver service tray that had a pitcher of water on it.

"My Friends, you can now rest in peace the Butcher is dead." Reika said as she sat down at Briggs desk and read the order to terminate 452. With a clean move she stored the name and position of the person who ordered the assassination for future reference for political removal. Reika picked up the phone and in Briggs voice said that he was handing control over to Ms. Reika due to him having to go in for surgery. Then Reika started to connect with her Mainframe counterpart and started to come up with a plan to help save 452 and the residents of Terminal City from dying as Briggs had done with many of the Spartan Transgenic units through his reckless actions. Now it was her turn to make things right.

She called in Spartan unit C-748 to her office as she morphed back into her human form and told him of her plan to make him her second in command to the Spartans. Black Cell was going to be their target after the liberation of Terminal City and Cerberus would soon have the support he needed soon in ninety minutes.

***

Sam Affleck was looking at the impromptu base Shadow had set up for the Transgenics stuck outside of Terminal City looked as if it was kluged from different hardware that could be scrounged up. It wasn't until she saw the Cyrillic type on one of the keyboards that she realized that some of this stuff was stolen from various foreign governments.

"Hey Shadow" Sam said looking at the gear inside of the old church seeing the power generator supplying power to the place on such short notice. "It looks like we have a considerable amount of communications gear here. Let me guess Eyes Only had you do his cable hack for him and probably while you were at it decided to upgrade his communication system at the same time." Sam said to Shadow as he moved over to one of the computers he was monitoring.

"Yeah I did, and boy did Eyes need that upgrade badly." Shadow said as he turned to the floor of the Church as the various members of the Informant Net, S1W and Freak Nation who had started with Cerberus's help whittling away at Ames White's contact network with the Familiars. So they would only have to be dealing only what Forces White could physically scrounge up by himself. But McKinley was another matter given all the Black Ops information they had leaked to the press with substantial documentation and names and logs about him being the government supply guy for the Familiar's cult. And now McKinley was in hot water for high treason. Grace a female Brainic who was sitting at her large amorphous theater domed Data desk pod turned to see something going down on the monitor behind her. It was a news report of something going down inside of House Chambers. The newscaster said that Senator McKinley had barricaded himself into his office after allegations had come to light to him supporting a group of international terrorists called the Conclave. Grace's plans to make the lives of two of their major opponents out of the game, now it was time to make the Conclave know that you did not fuck with people's lives and get away with it.

"Hey Shadow the plan is going as planed in that if Cerberus's friends show up we will be able to handle White on our own terms." Grace said as she got up from her terminal and walked over. "Shadow, Sam I think that we have company." Grace said as she pointed to the video monitory watching the outside. There was a small boy getting out of the Truck that Sam and her husband had arrived in. It took only one look at the child to realize that it was her son Danny.

"Oh my God. Danny." Sam said looking at the fact that her adopted son had stowed away and had come with them. "Shadow that is my son, we need to put him someplace safe until this mess can blow over." Rick her husband nodded in agreement.

"Yeah, remind me to ground him for a month for pulling this." Rick Affleck added in agreement with his wife.

"Okay... Okay. I agree with you. Sam, go outside and get your son. I can stash him here until the mess blows over." Shadow said as he took a look in Jim, Nani, Fiona, Van and Riece's direction. "Well it looks like the five of you are going to get a bunkmate out of this,"

It took several moments of Sam and her husband chewing out their son before they placed him with the other "Children." Shadow understood Sam's feelings, he was a soon to be dad and the fact that Jade his wife was trapped in Terminal City ate at him a little each day. Knowing that Cindy was in there with her made him feel a little better. For an Ordinary Human, she knew how to pull her won weight. But right now he turned his attention towards Melfina and the other members of Strike team that he had cobbled together from Logan's files. Mel was working her ass off on the phones. Within the last few hours she had contacted with the others, a good chunk of the Familiar community with the pass phrase and code terms that they used to launch an operation. But Mel was getting hoarse in the process as she was taking a break from the phone lines and standing by the water cooler. She had contacted at least one hundred people in the last few hours and she was looking tired. Hottie one of the T-Bloods was sleeping in the lap of a S1W member named Turok who was the one who had gotten the power and phone lines into this place wired into in a matter of hours. But the mood changed into alert one status when McKinley forced his way out of his office with a gun in his and yelled the words "The Coming cannot be stopped." In the next moment right on live television he put the gun to his head and blew his brains out. White would be now desperate and that would make any actions towards the residents of Terminal City key cannon fodder for folks attempting to readjusted their alliances in the political landscape now taking root in Washington on both coasts. The question now on everyone's mind was "What did the Transgenics know about McKinney's involvement in this group?" And "How much do they know about what this group is up to make McKinney commit suicide the way he did?" Shadow knew that Max and the others in TC were about to get a visit by a delegation that wanted the answers. Well it was time for him to get on the phone and tell Max and Logan the 411 on the current tactical situation. This was going to be a long conversation.

***

Clemente was sitting in his office when he got a phone call. It had been days since he had encountered Max. But from what had come out through the media and Eyes Only's investigation, she and her people were just being used as scapegoats for a Biological weapons theft from their own base. Now with two of the major Anti-Transgenic voices exposed as running interference for the investigation of the true events of the Manticore fire. He and several individuals had been selected by the governor to be at the negotiation table. But the feeling all around as he walked through the barricades and past the various National Guard personnel was that there was a mood that the Transgenics were holding back and not wanting to start a conflict with the humans of Seattle, It was his job to figure out how much they were holding back either in their troop movements and activities. Furthermore Clemente was thinking about Max's decisions to stay in Terminal City. He was about to learn more about the Transgenics in the next few hours than he ever thought he would.

The meeting place the Transgenics had set up was in the old parking structure where he had run into them when the Siege had begun. Being escorted to the site by several Transgenics who were unarmed put his mind to rest little but given their enhanced strength and combat training, if they really wanted them dead then Clemente and his delegation would have already be dead. Though he could sense nervousness among them especially from the blond Cat girl walking with them. She looked as if she was worried that he and the rest of the human delegation was going to hurt her. He wouldn't blame her considering the amount of violence targeted towards her own people. But it was the rest of the escort group that had him interested in why the Transgenics had sent a small number out to greet with them. Between the Cat girl there were three X-series Transgenics that looked like they were no older than fifteen to sixteen years old and Two older X-series moving with them and the older male of the group was clicking with his tongue as he slowly circled the group as they were walking.

But it was the youngest of the X-series kids that gave him the creeps in that she had no Iris's in her eyes as she let her pixy style dark hair move with the breeze as they entered into the conference "Room" that was set up for the meeting to take place in. The layout was of a few cubical dividers that made up the walls set out in the parking garage and a long piece of dry wall place on sawhorses to serve as a table. The chairs seemed to be professional office chairs that looked like they had seen better drays covered in blankets probably to disguise the fact that they had urine stains or had no cushions on them.

Sitting at one end of the table with Max were several Transgenics consisting of X-series and Animal types; two of which were the two Transgenics that had run into Jam Pony and started the hostage standoff. Max looked like she knew they were coming and that the events of the past few days she had been informed about.

"Hello Clemente. Long time no see." Max said as her black jumpsuit looked like it had been recently cleaned.

"Yeah, same here." Clemente said looking at the rest of the delegation on both sides. "So you have heard about Eyes Only being back on the air."

"Yes, I know that Eyes Only is back on the air." Max said to Clemente. "Several of my people helped supply the gear he needed to put him back on the air. After all the stuff that White did to both the Human and Transgenic community in his little war against us. He needed to be taken down." Max was not acting cocky but stating to him that White had to go down for something that she was not mentioning to him, but he got the feeling that whatever White had done made killing that Transgenic girl at Jam Pony look tame.

"So you have heard that the Governor and several other politicians are starting to change their tune." Clemente said as Max and man wearing Glasses next to her started to lean forward.

"I believe so given the bomb that blew up in their face with White and Senator McKinney the situation has changed." The man in glasses said next to Max.

"Logan." Max said to the man next to her. "I believe that Clemente is right given that this might be a way out for both our peoples."

"Clemente, I believe that we better introduce both sides of the delegation." Logan said to Clemente as the others at the table started to look at Logan with understanding especially the reptile guy.

"Okay let's start from left to right." Max said to the human delegation.

"I'm Domo," said a white male X-Series with short cut black hair who looked like he had seen a lot of death and secrets in his life. "I'm representing the X-series commando infiltration divisions here." He said looking at the delegation with respect. "I have had to see members of my unit captured and killed by humans and we are tired of the constant fighting." He said as Clemente could feel the weight in his voice. Next he was followed by an X-series black female that had what seemed to be tribal tattoos on her face in the shape of two light brown stripes on the cheeks of her face.

"I'm Luna, I'm representing the members of the X-series residents of Terminal City and the rest of Seattle. I have seen my friends die and I have a sister who is with child and I want that child to come into this world free and not to be a slave to the decisions that some human makes without having suffered through what we have in our short lives." The woman said to the delegation and Clemente realized that Max wasn't the only leader these people had, she was their voice to the outside world. Then he heard from the large Canine Transgenic who was sitting next to Max to the point of hovering over her like a protective brother.

"I am Joshua. I am a Nomilie from the Basement. People fear what they do not understand. I would like to walk in the light and not have people run away from me in fear. I would like to be a father and see my child grow up." The Canine human said with feeing in his voice. Max looked up at him and said.

"Hey there Big Fella you know how to say it." She said to Joshua with a grin on her face. Max wanted a shared view of Cohabitation between the Human and Transgenic communities.

"Yeah, Little Fella, I read it some of the books you brought to me and those books that Father had laying around his house." Joshua said to Max. Then it took him a moment to realize that Max and Joshua were related in someway like they were siblings from the same family. Max inheriting Mom's looks and Joshua inheriting "Dad's". A strange concept in did. But the Reptile guy did not like the way the mood was going and started to speak up.

"Hey you two. The humans are not into bleeding hearts. They want to see what is the best way to get us under their control so that they can kill us." The Brown Reptile male Transgenic said, as he was getting irritable at them. Clemente realized that this was the Transgenic that had discharged the shotgun after the road accident. The look on Max and the others faces was that this guy had over stepped his authority.

"Mole. I know that you have been shot at repeatedly through out your life. I know that the personnel at Manticore treated you like scum. But right now we have to take the lesser to two evils." Logan said towards Mole. It took him a moment to realize that Logan was a human.

"Yeah Ordinary. I wonder why you are not on the other side of this table." Mole said to Logan in a near showing of who had the bigger one over their views.

"Mole... People are people and I am standing here with you guys because I have seen the bastards that have burned both the Human and Transgenic communities." Logan said getting up from the table and staring down at Mole. "I have friends who are veterans who have fought in every major conflict from the Vietnam War all the way through the Balkans campaign. So I know your frustration. Because I helped S1W storm into a VA Clinic to get information about Manticore as well the asshole who have been pocketing the money that should have been going to veterans. So I know how angry you are." There was a pause from the reptile Transgenic as he got back into his chair. Clemente and the rest of the delegation got the feeling that Mole did not like the idea of being cornered like this, so if anything went bad Mole and others like him would start shooting and this was not a good thing. A black male transgenic who had shaved head got up and put his hand on Mole's shoulder and Mole started to calm down a lot.

"Mole that is why Max asked my faction here to be at these proceedings due to our ability to sense things going on under the surface of what is perceptible to the outside world." The X-series said as his neatly done brown shirt and black leather jacket told volumes that he was street savvy and knew how to look at things underneath the surface. He was definitely the negotiator of the bunch who was Max's equivalent of a Betazoid Captain's aid on Star Trek.

"Okay Jed. But you cross me I will let you know what a Desert series combat Sand Rat can do to a PsyOp if you manipulate me in any way." Mole said to Jed letting his anger be known. Clemente knew that Max was dealing with various factions that all wanted to either be left alone or were like Max and wanted to live peacefully with the Humans of the world.

"Max I believe that after all the events on both sides. We need to have a clean start." Clemente said looking into Max's eyes as the Transgenic delegation calmed down. "Max how much do you and the others know about what White was up to and the reasons he was behind it?" Clemente said waiting for a response back from Max.

"Clemente..." Max said to him, "White and those he has been secretly working with see us as a threat to them in that we know the secret illegal Ops they ran at Manticore as well as what biological weapons and Black Arms tech they might have gotten their hands on and sold on the Black Market." Max finished to Clemente and the human delegation.

"Oh, Shit..." Clemente said realizing that Max was putting the pieces together about what the late Senator McKinney had been up to behind the government's back. "So let me guess you guys know the truth behind what was going on and McKinney and his buddies wanted to shut you all up." Clemente paused as he looked at the Transgenic delegation. "Well given what happened to McKinney after he committed suicide and Eyes Only's little broadcast you guys have started to get some allies in the Senate who now see that this is a mess that got way out of hand and they are willing to concede to some of your demands of being respected as individuals. So they are willing to let you voice your opinions on the hearings to really figure out what was really going on at Manticore." Clemente knew that if Max wasn't careful they would roast her alive at the hearings and she and her people's futures were going to be taken away.

"Okay Clemente but there are some things I want taken care of on your end." Max said looking towards the delegation as she started to list down what she wanted. "Any crimes committed by Transgenics or against Transgenics is to be investigated like any normal crime would. So that means that the Annie Fisher and the Barcode Killer cases get reopened and we will get you the information from the Manticore Database so that you can learn the other side of the story. In exchange we will get you the genetic information needed that will allow these cases to be solved and explained. We would like to have this information released to the press and made public for review so that we as a community as a whole do not get the blame for the crimes committed by a few of our number." There seemed to be a concession from the entire delegation on both sides with this agreement. But there was a look on Max's face in that she sensed that there was something going on as the look on her face started to take on a dire feeling of dread starting to form on her face. This feeling seemed to be passed on Jed whom he presumed to have some sort of mental sensitivity to the people around him. Then a slender Transgenic that had rat like features on his face that mirrored those of the Transgenic that was killed by the sector police after White had staged the attack on them with.

"Max there is some activity outside. It looks like White and his boys are about to do something nasty." The Rat man said to Max. Max just reacted as if she knew this message was coming before the Rat entered the room.

"I know Luke... I felt them coming." Max said to the Rat man or Luke as she called him then she turned back to Clemente with worry on her face. "Clemente, White is coming with people to disrupt and destroy these proceedings. I suggest that several of my people go out with you and aid you if they plan to attack." Then Clemente heard something over his radio as the head of the security detail started to call towards the team inside.

"Sir we have some activity going on here. It looks like Agent White is here with some people and they are armed." Then there was a scream over the radio. Both Max and Clemente knew that they were going to be fighting side by side to help save the National Guard and Cops outside.

"Max, if you could supply any forces I think you were right about Agent White. He wants to disrupt these proceedings." Then Clemente checked his side in attempting to reach for a gun, but he realized that he had left it at the checkpoint before coming in. Then he looked sheepishly at Max. "I guess that I might need a gun to help you all out. Mind that I barrow a gun from you guys, I seem to have left mine outside." The joke was almost humorous giving the dire situation everyone was in.

"Mole, go tell the security team that White is here and he is getting ready to battle us. Helena use your powers to contact Shadow and tell him to get his forces here ASAP. We are going to need all the backup we need." Logan said as he pulled out one of his nine millimeters that he had on him from his jacket and handed it to Clemente. "Be careful with that, the rounds have been modified to have some extra oomph to them to stop some of the earlier super-soldiers that were created pre-Manticore." Logan said looking into the officer's face.

"What do you mean by Pre-Manticore?" Clemente said to Logan with a quizzical look on his face.

"Max and her friends here in Terminal City are version two point oh. White used some of the earlier versions at Jam Pony to handle Max and her friends, but he lost to the latest models." Logan said to Clemente as they started to head out to where the battle was waging.

"So how many versions of these super-solders were cooked up by Manticore?" Clemente said as he pulled out his badge and put the chain strap it had rolled up in it over his neck so that it hung on him designating him as a cop.

"We do not know, but the Familiars were the first and Max and her kind were an updated version of the Familiar combat series because Sandeman one the Familiars engineers designed them himself, especially Max." Logan said as the started to see explosions starting to rip through one of the Heavy Personnel carriers outside.

"Well whatever White got hold of, it must be some serious firepower to do that type of damage." Clemente said as they started to run flat out towards the battle where Sector Police and National Guard troops were fighting for their lives.

***

White was pissed as hell. The Conclave had put a contract out on him in that they were going to let him rot for not finishing his mission to nail 452. Well whatever they did to cut him off from any further contact with the Familiar community was going to be a grievous error. Thula, the leader of the Phallic warriors had gotten a hold of several of her buddies from the Mind Walkers and Phallic warrior communities to go into a rematch with 452. This was personal for them and 452 was going to go down for good. There was not to be any Treaty between the Transgenics and Humans. If these two forces allied together then the Familiars would be placed on the run. Dammed the Ker and their beliefs in the War Bride. The Coming would be fulfilled and the Familiars would rule the world.

***

Shadow and the Transgenics outside of Terminal City were racing like mad to their base. Melfina, Grace and several others were back at the T-Bloods Church to run the command center. Right now Asha and several S1W members armed with gear that Reika had gotten their hands on had given Shadow and the strike team some serious gear that would soon get a serious work out in the battle.

Cerberus had been uploaded into another one of the tactical androids that Reika had located at the Spartan's base of operations. Though it was kinda strange seeing Cerberus being as a six-foot four male human. But like Reika he had chosen his form to be serious but there was a strong tint of humanity in his features making him look less menacing than Reika's choice of form. Cerberus seemed in his holograph form of a white male Caucasian whose black hair with its middle part that illustrated a sense of humanity in his face. He looked like he was a person that you would trust explicitly. But for Reika's second in command looked like an individual that would kill you in a second. But Reika seemed to have a control over him and the rest of the unit from the X-Series from the project Phoenix teams. Those X-series were the colonels of the Oh, Niners but they were brainwashed but with Sam's help she had converted them to the Freak Nation cause. Having Sam around gave the members of the Phoenix Team as they had been known to many of the S1W members. But right now as they drove to the site in the many vehicles they were in. Sitting across from Shadow was Asha and she was worried. She and Alac cared about each other. Alac was scared that she would be hurt like Rachel had been. Aspen had told her a little bit of the botched mission that cost Rachel her life. Asha knew that Alac was scared of what would happen, but Aspen's sprit sense and a sharing of dreams had allowed Asha to see some of her future. The premonition was scary as hell for her in that she saw herself at various stages of her life. Shadow knew that Asha was a little nervous about what Aspen had done but she now knew why Max and Logan were so close. It was the fact that they shared this mental link between them. But the drive was getting short as they all heard the explosions. It was time or action.

"Lets lock and load people." Shadow and Reika yelled towards their teams. "Asha your main job is to pull the troops out of line fire and treat them." Shadow said to Asha as she handled Melfina's Hk-90 in her hands.

"Yeah I understand from what you guys showed us of White and his crew. You guys are probably the only ones that can take them head on and win." Asha paused for a moment and realized what was going on Shadow was painting S1S into a new light as the people who saved the governments forces from White and his crew. "Hey, this might add to the fact the S1W did not commit those crimes of burning down the VA clinic ad that we are not the monstrous group people make us out to be." Asha finished as the door swung open as they raced into battle.

***

Reporter Jennifer Silverstone of the Seattle TV station WTDK was in the middle of a battle. Sector Police and National Guard troops were having their Asses kicked by people loyal to Ames White. These individuals seemed to have superhuman speed and strength and at least several officers and troops had fallen. It was a slaughter. That was until a miracle arrived. Several individuals who looked like a mix of Humans and Transgenics started to fight these individuals. These people fought like they were possessed with the will to survive against all odds. Jason Ocean her camera man as getting shots of stuff he thought he would never see. Hell some of the sector police seemed to be picked up by an unseen force. But when he saw a small kid in the middle of the chaos that no one seemed to be getting near it was if something was protecting the kid.

"Hey Kid go get to some cover." Jason yelled out to the kid. But a moment later the kid just turned towards him and stared to do something that was when he was heaved up off the ground and the kid was grinning. The kid turned his head towards one of the Sector cops and took his hand and twisted it while at the same time the cop's neck did the same thing until it snapped. The kid was about to do the same thing to them until a girl with dyed blue Pixie-est hair in her teens started to walk towards this kid with the powers of Stephen King's "Carrie". As they looked like they would suffer the same fate as the Sector Cop, time started to act funky as the boy yelled the word "Stop." Instead of the girl stopping where she stood like everyone else who had come into contact with this kid it was like everything else stopped as he girl continued to move. Sound started to fade away as the only thing that could be heard was the girl's footsteps.

"452 told us that some of the Familiars had mental powers like what you are doing to the Sector Cops and Troops here." The girl said, as the boy remained motionless like a statue. "That is why she had us train with members of our kind that had mental powers as well." The girl reached into her jacket and pulled out a sawed off double barrel shotgun. "What was learned when members of my particular series went against the PsyOps is that we could manipulate time like I am doing right now. Time is fluidic jerk and you are on my turf." The girl said as she pointed the weapon at the kid's head and pulled the trigger letting buckshot fly out of both barrels. "Fe'nos tol this." The girl finished as the buckshot impacted the skull and tore the gray matter right out of the skull of the little Telekinetic freak as time for a moment stopped as the kid flew backwards then time sped up to its his chaotic state. Then the girl blurred to there the reporter and the camera guy was at. "You two okay?" The girl said to them. All those two could do was nod their heads up and down. "Yeah" was pretty much all they could get out as they girl took her shotgun and reloaded it as both the reporter and Camera man grabbed hold of each other in fear, but the girl fired a shot at a fairly large Man that had Sector Cop by the throat and caused the large behemoth to fall to the ground. "I suggest that you stay close to the Sector Cops." With that she turned around to where they could see the barcode on the back of her neck and blurred away to help another Transgenic. At that movement three people came to take the two of them as they were pulled to safety. A Sector Cop and a Blond woman whose long hair and feline-est features made the cameraman and News Woman start to stick to them closer in that they felt like their lives were in increasing danger as the two people started to provide cover fire as they started along with the Transgenic to force these counter attackers into a place where they could be rounded up. But they were not going easily. It was strange seeing Transgenics, Sector Police, and National Guard Troops working side by side. Hell even Clemente and 452 were fighting side by side and it was strange.

. There was a Latin girl who was riding a Kawasaki motorcycle as she started taking two desert Eagle Berettas as she started firing rapidly into this group of individuals that from she had heard from the Blond and a Transgenic male that looked like he had been through a lot of damage as he had taken on a very over amped Amazon woman who had started to punch and pound him as if he was a dog chew toy. The repeated pounding he receive including having himself twisted like a pretzel. It wasn't until he got up and straitened himself out and started punching her with a pair of Iron Knuckles and a three fanged gantlet that the Amazon went down for the count. "Take That Familiar Bitch. Never fuck with someone that was designed to be shot up being the point man for urban combat." He said as he realigned his arm that looked like it had been knocked out of joint to where it was supposed to be.

"Okay..." Jennifer Silverstone said looking at the scene unfold before her. "Let me guess that the x-series were tweaked to-do things other than human." She said as Jason her cameraman captured more of the battle with his camera. They could hear the voice of the control room yelling at them to capture more of the action as several Sector Cops were dragged off the battlefield and ere being treated by several individuals who from the looks of it were a mixture of Humans and Transgenics. This was a triage area and from the looks of it several of the military and police personnel were being treated for being shot, burned and hit by shrapnel. This was the true face of war as the battle continued outside.

***

Clemente was fighting his way with two Transgenics one of which had a Syth, which he had used to cut his way through some of the attackers. But the Sector Cop and a National Guard trooper he had teamed up started to work their way through the armed mess as they started to gather forces as they slowly started to corner the Familiars forces. The two Transgenic Clemente had hooked up were Duo, whose long braided pony tail and black baseball cap give off the feeling that he was definitely military in his combat style but he was defiantly kick ass in his mood, while the other Transgenic Derrien was almost cautious as he could feel that he was a joker when he wasn't being shot at, he was definitely business even with his ability to shoot energy bolts from his hands. Clemente got the idea that Derrien acted like Spider-Man would with his jokes. The two other humans with the group looked like this was the most action that either had seen. It was until they got a good look at Ames White, he was directing the battle against the Sector Police and National Guard troops and he was pissed as hell. Two Transgenics went after him with swords as one leaped twenty feet into the air and brought it down planning to slice Ames in half. Ames just brought his fist up and slammed it right into the guys face letting the Transgenic flip backwards with superhuman strength. A reporter from one of the Television stations caught it on tape while another Transgenic blurred with superhuman speed attempted to slice and shoot a White trying to complete what his counter part attempted to do, but he was twisted and knocked to the ground as well next to the other Transgenic. Suddenly someone in a Police pursuit cruiser slammed White to the ground as they hit him with the car going in full reverse and getting up after he had been knocked to the ground. Clemente now know that the Transgenics were right. Ames White was not human, hew was one of these pre-cursor super soldiers they called Familiars.

Clemente soon realized that the way the battle was going the combined Human and Transgenic forces were winning. That was when White caught a glimpse of Max fighting off three of these Familiars with a pair of tonfas and she was holding her own as she slowly beat her way through them. White was working his way towards her and he was intent on killing her. But everything was about to go nuts as Duo and the Sector Cop were attacked by one of those Monster Familiars as they were forced to defend Clemente and the others from being killed. Duo used his sheath to cut the one of the smaller Familiars in half as the Sector cop fired off several rounds from his assault rifle into the head of another as it kept charging towards him. But Derrien had to deal with a monster Amazon attempt to bash his skull in with a monster concrete mallet. "I am Thula, I am your death." She said as Derrien ducked away and jumped right up with his hands glowing right into her face. The sky had cleared enough where a direct ray of sunlight that Derrien was using for his light bolts got a power boost and he slammed it right though her head, vaporizing it in the process. The Amazon from hell fell to the ground like a sack of rotten potatoes. Quickly Clemente turned his head towards to where White was about to attack Max he was quickly joined by a woman wearing a single one-piece jumpsuit and double Berettas. Clemente took a quick look down to see "Max" but not Max as she yelled out her sister

"Max watch out." Max's twin called out to her. Max turned as she slammed one of her tonfa's with such force that it broke into the head of the Familiar she was battling. That was white turned and started firing at her as Max ducked for cover. That was until Clemente and Max's sister who he would later learn was named Sam started to fire at White as he started to shoot at them. It wasn't until one of Clemente's rounds entered White's skull and brought the one time "Savior of Humanity" down.

Those shots caused a sudden change in mood as several of the surviving forces that White had under his command started to flee but they were stopped as the Combined forces of the National Guard Troops, Sector Police, the Transgenics and their allies started to place them under arrest.

But given the amount of force in which battle that had been fought. There was a ton of people who had to be treated for their injuries they had sustained. The Transgenics had started to pull out their supplies and treat the wounded human personnel as the Paramedics stated to arrive. This was a day that would go down in history as the Battle of the Freaks and Clemente and Max would be able to give a voice of what had happened there. Max and the Transgenic council would have their treaty in the end.

***

Across the nation as people tuned into the national evening news they saw Jessica Silverstone give her story that would earn her the Pulletstier for Journalism.

"As the events over the past few days have started to unfold. The Human Race as been awakened to a new threat. A threat that is out of the Other of being born with genetically modified DNA in your genetic mix, but the real threat of global terrorism. Not since the days of September 11, 2001 has the world be awakened to the amount of government corruption that would allow a group that has become known as the Familiars Conclave to get a hold of weapons of Mass destruction.

"After a methodical search through the late Senator McKinney's records and phone logs it has been discovered that he had been railroading the entire Senate Transgenic Threat Investigation to divert attention over the thefts of biological and chemical weapons form various facilities including those from Project Manticore where the members of the Transgenic community were created. With the testimony of Lieutenant Clemente as well as several members of the Transgenic community including 452. Light has been shed upon illegal operations by various factions in the US government including acts of corporate espionage, assassination, death squads, and illegal arms sales to rogue nations around the world. The full fall out of these events is still forthcoming in that several members of the defense department and various senate subcommittees have been brought up on charges of high treason."

"We will stick with this story as it develops. In other news there has been information released to the press by an inside source within the CDC that states that former NSA agent Ames White was recently discovered to be Non-human. Information from a source has stated that these Familiars as the Transgenic community has started to call them happen to be a precursor series to the Projects Manticore and Spartan Centurion class super soldiers. Given Ames White's current condition of being in a coma sustained during a shoot out with police during Battle of the Freaks incident they believe that they are uncertain if he will awaken from it soon or at all."

"Now we go on to the business to see how these events have affected the stock market."

***

Next:

"Dark Angel 2022:  Manticore Aftermath  (HDCC 2)" 

Chapter 1: The former enemy's layer, Psychic Journey, and CJ Returns

Buzz me on any questions, comments, and story ideas? Please review. I would like to hear about what you think of the story. Your likes your dislikes, inconsistencies with the plot or misspellings of characters names or places. I just want to know if people are reading the story. I need feedback.