Disclaimer- The characters don't belong to me, they are property of James Cameron and Charles Eglee
A/N- I got the owl info at www.owlpages.com
A/N2- I got a bunch of reviews saying that bringing in Darren was a great twist, thanks. I wanted to bring in a character that Max could get close to, 'cause I didn't see how she fell for Logan in the first place, and an ex-boyfriend was the only solution but I had to make him transgenic otherwise she'd never get back with him. Just to lay fears aside, this IS M/A
Barcode Chick- No offense but I'm kind of beginning to get sick of all of the Max-going into-heat-when-only-Alec-is-around fics, I'd rather have Max fall for Alec herself besides I think that Max sleeping with Alec from heat would actually drive her away from him, she has said that she hates seeing heat victims again, it has always been something that she tries to put behind her. So again, sometime in the future I might succumb to Max-heat fics but not now. Again no offense, I just don't want to use that. Thanks for reviewing.
To all who reviewed, thanks a lot. You made me smile and gave me more confidence, I really thought that the story was losing its punch but I've read it over so many times that for me it does seem like crap.
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Chapter 11- Specimen Y
"So what can you guys do?" Max sat across Faile, the Y-4, at the side from the gym where two rickety tables and some chairs stood. She hadn't woken that long ago, it was a blessing that she only needed four hours of sleep, else she'd still be in bed, like most of the occupants of TC, or be suffering from a hangover like the rest of the occupants of TC. The kids had been made to go to bed early so she had called on them to see what they could do, she remembered Faile saying that she was Y-4 and needed to know if their abilities could help TC or if the other childrens' abilities could be used. Her face heated up as she remembered walking into Alec's room and finding Sydney in his bed, she had quickly closed her eyes and tried to back out. She bumped into the wall and that woke him up, he had asked if there was something that she wanted and she could swear that there was amusement in his voice, the nerve of the man! She'd convinced a grudging Alec to get out of bed and come down with her.
"Well the main animal gene that was spliced into us is owl, so our abilities come from there. We also have some feline and equine in the mix but very little, there were bad results from certain mixtures of those genes." Alec yawned behind her.
Max smiled "Well this explains the big intelligent eyes" Faile returned it and continued
"We have a wide range of binocular vision which is seeing an object with both eyes at the same time; our binocular vision is about 40 degrees so we can do the whole cross-eyed thing without getting a major headache. We also have 14 vertebrae, which is twice as many as humans so we can turn our heads 270 degrees instead of just 180 like humans. Owls can only look straight ahead but with the mixture of human genes we can roll and move our eyes more if not as much as humans or even you. We're nocturnal of course and our eyes are better adjusted to the dark but we can see practically as well in the light. Owls have very few cone cells in their eyes, cells that react to color, so they're vision is mostly monochrome but we have many more cone cells, we were specifically engineered that way but our vision is a touch dimmer. We also have a highly developed auditory system, when sounds reach us we can tell the direction it came from by the time difference it takes to reach the next ear, we can detect a left/right time difference of about 0.00003 seconds, 30 millionths of a second. Earlier models had asymmetrical ears to tell if the sound came from higher or lower but that was deemed unnecessary as it would make us conspicuous and we didn't fly so we couldn't use the ability to 'catch our prey' as it were. We are also monogamous, as in stick with one mate for an entire lifetime"
"Well that's a first" Max glared meaningfully at Alec, the still sleepy and ruffled transgenic looked back at her blearily
"What?" he asked thickly, she rolled her eyes
"Nothing" She turned back to Faile "Let's take this onto the mat" she nodded in acquiescence.
They moved onto the neatly arranged blue mats that still reminded Max uneasily of Manticore. She dropped onto the floor and swept her leg out, trying to topple Faile but she was too quick for that. The light weight girl jumped and landed after Max's leg had passed. Max seemed impressed, they circled each other. She knew better than to go easy on the Y-4, if anything she had to be extra careful as the unit had been active until recently. She had learned not to underestimate kids, she had payed the price once and because of her Zack did too; all because she had trusted that her clone would have a stirring of conscience and that because she was older she had an advantage. Then she attempted a spinning kick but Faile nimbly stepped back, avoiding it. Then it was her turn, with a running start she leapt over Max her hands splayed out, she did a handspring as she hit the ground and wasted no time driving he elbow into Max's back.
She turned around and faced the younger girl, warily watching her. Faile ran at her again and jumped up sailing towards her with her leg pointed out like a spear, karate style. (Think Karate Kid 3 with Hilary Swank doing the praying mantis thing) Max grabbed the leg and Faile fell onto her back. She jumped up into a defensive stance, Max feinted an uppercut and as Faile moved her hands to defend that, she jabbed her in the ribs. Faile backed off from the temporary wound, but still faced Max. She tried to dive and knock down her opponent but Max jumped and landed two feet right of her original spot. Faile stood up yet again and continued the match. It went on like that for about fifteen minutes then Faile tried to punch Max but she easily caught it and flipped the young Y-4 onto her back. She landed hard and didn't get up, she just looked up at Max.
"Wanna take a break?" Faile nodded. Max was surprised that she had given up so soon, this sort of lack of drive would have cost her her life in Manticore. She offered her hand to the younger girl and it was accepted gratefully. They sat back down at the table near which a surprised Alec was leaning against the wall, obviously he was thinking the same as Max.
Faile took a long sip from the glass of water on the table; Max hesitated and then asked "Um, Faile. I'm wondering how did you get by at Manticore?" she blushed when Faile looked at her with those piercing eyes and hurriedly scrambled to apologize but Faile spoke before she could get a word out.
"I" she looked down at the table "I was… considered special"
"What do you mean?" Max exchanged glances with Alec who was leaning forward slightly.
Faile opened her mouth to speak but snapped it shut. She turned slightly and swept her shoulder-length chestnut hair away from her neck. There was no barcode.
Alec who had been sipping on some milk spat it out, it splattered on the floor. Normally that would have earned him a dirty look from Max but she was otherwise occupied.
"Huh" she sat back in her chair (rather like what Logan did when he saw the runes) as thoughts raced through her mind *Well this isn't the first case, first Darren now Faile.*
"And why exactly do you not have a barcode?"
Faile looked back down at the table "Well" she said slowly "I was the daughter of a high official but I wasn't allowed to just be that. He wanted a super-child, custom made. They were willing to make me if he was willing to pay but they wouldn't let me have a normal life, they said I needed to be trained they couldn't have hybrids running amok. So I guess part of the time I was with my dad but I spent most of my life with my unit, I was to be handed over to him once I was fifteen because Manticore figured that by then I would have had enough training to stop me from going into genetically-induced killer frenzies that, with my DNA, I shouldn't have been able to have anyway but after the 09 escapees" she glanced at Max apologetically "They were a lot more paranoid when it came to their supersoldiers"
*So they were briefed on Ben and the rest of us too* "Well that's just peachy then, looks like we made history with our little jailbreak. That explains why your stamina isn't up to Manticore standards, the mix between normal DNA and that of the Y-4s must have weakened you so that your abilities were above average and still those of a Y-4 but not up to Manticore standards." Faile nodded. "That's two already. I wonder exactly how many like you, special exceptions, are there. They'd find it hard to fit into society now what with heat sensory mechanism everywhere"
Alec dropped down in the seat next to Max and turned it so that it was facing her, his hand was lingering thoughtfully at his lips and his brow was furrowed, he raised an eyebrow at her "Two already? What exactly don't I know that I should?"
"A lot" Max said curtly
"Really" the intensity of his gaze never dimmed, neither did he blink; he just continued to gaze at Max, with the barest and slightest hint of accusation. Max became uncomfortable, she didn't know why but she felt guilty for not informing him of the existence of these particular types of transgenics, it was thoroughly ridiculous of course. It was Darren's and Faile's story to tell, but still.
Max squirmed "Darren's one too"
"And when did you find this out?" his voice remained level and his gaze never wavered.
"Pretty soon after he arrived, we were talking and he… well, kinda just told me"
"Then you two love birds just slept together and made out, I'm sorry made up"
Max's head snapped up "Alec!" she'd never been that surprised in her life, not when she realized that 'Sam' was Zack or when she realized that her clone had been the one to overpower her and attempt to hand her over to White and not even when she found out that her brother had been killing people *Actually* Max's subconscious mused *That was more like devastation* Max not so politely told it to shut up. Right then she was too shocked to be angry but somewhere in her brewed righteous rage á la Max.
Faile had wisely decided to slip out, cross-breed and lacking in the physical well-being of a normal transgenic she was but she was perfectly well equipped in the intelligence department.
Alec who was still in the gym with Max was just as surprised as she was and was doing his best to deal with it himself, he did slightly regain his wits when he saw the surprised look of Max begin to fade and one of wrath begin to emerge. He just as wisely decided to leave before Max really blew her top. By the time Max recovered enough to see straight, Alec was gone.
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Alec's POV- Walking down a corridor
Why the hell did I just say that? Did I mean to? Well of course not, but still I didn't mean to let that slip out. Maybe I'm jealous but then Alec's ego got the better of him aided by his equally traitorous subconscious No way, I'm not jealous *Then why does it feel like a volcano just erupted inside of you and everything is still a burning mess?* that annoying voice again! I feel like I'm lost in the confusion, but what do I do? I have strange dreams so what? I mean a guy's allowed to have American red-blooded male dreams isn't he? God, what have I gotten myself into?
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Max's POV- Sitting at table in gym
I can't believe he said that. It was completely un-Alec like. I mean the worst he's ever come to being a touchy, bitchy person is when the memories of Rachel resurfaced and he was being tormented by the vengeful father, and all he did then was act broody and tell me to lay off. Okay, so I did sort of have that coming for being such a bitch to him sometimes, all right, most of the time but I don't recall doing anything particularly antagonistic recently. I don't think I warranted that just for dragging him out of bed anyway and why the hell does he care? It isn't any of his business anyway. Question is, what's up with Alec?
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Back to normal perspective- next day
Alec had been avoiding her all day. She only managed to catch glimpses of him as he left whatever room he was in at the sight of her, which was fine with her. As far as Max was concerned, Alec could just hide in shame for what he'd said- to hell with him. Then why did she feel like it was her fault?
"Hey Max" a voice said from behind her. It snapped her out of her reverie, it was very familiar. She whirled around.
"Jace?!" The long lost sister transgenic was grinning at her happily and holding an infant at her side. The chubby baby boy sucked his thumb and looked at her in assessment with sharp blue eyes that contained fire and intelligence. Max flung herself onto Jace and embraced her sister, careful not to injure the boy then she stepped away and just grinned at them.
"Max" she spoke to the boy "Meet your namesake. Max this is Max" the kid smiled suddenly, his entire face lighting up and extended a hand to Max
"Nice to meet you. Mom told me all about you" Max took his hand and shook it, enchanted. She exchanged an amused glance with Jace.
"How did you guys get here?"
"Well, we were offered to be brought here by this guy, Damario. He had the creds and I figured that is he could find us, what's to say someone else, like the feds, wouldn't find us again? Besides, I wanted to see my siblings"
Max laughed and shook her head ruefully "Skip".
"So you do know the guy"
"Yes. You could say he's our dealer, he gets us supplies and stuff" she spotted Skip talking to Mole, probably getting the next list of stuff. "Skip!" she called.
Skip Damario turned and looked at Max, she smiled at him gratefully, her glance conveying the wordless thanks. Skip just as silently acknowledged it with a nod and smiled at her then turned back to Mole.
"Come on" Max slapped Jace on the back and began to lead her away "You know, you've picked up the street slang quite fast" Jace smiled and let a squirming Max go and join the young new-arrivals, Y-series. The toddlers and infants were playing cops and robbers, or as the new game was being called, transgenics and the world.
"I took comm. verbal usage"
"Ahh" she had a certain memory of a cocky young clone that had said the same thing, whilst putting on his shirt, she replayed the scene in her mind...
"Besides, we were trained to adapt to our surroundings pretty fast" Jace's words broke into Max's train of thought, or rather imagery. Max blushed when she realized what she was thinking.
"Let's go to my apartment, we have tons to talk about"
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They walked in to find Alec bent over, setting up the large screen TV and music system. Speakers were already mounted on the wall. The TV was placed on a black TV strand with the music system on the bottom part; on either side of the stand was a large black speaker. From what she could see of the system it had player and recorder facilities, you could either play a tape (there were two slots for that) or a CD.
Jace's eyebrow rose and she looked at Max as if to say 'what's this piece of meat doing in your home?'
"Ahem" Max cleared her throat and Alec stood up quickly narrowly missing banging his head on the wall.
He turned around "Oh, hey Max. Jace?!"
"Alec?!" they embraced.
It was Max's turn to raise her eyebrows "You two know each other?"
"Yup."
"How?"
"He was put in our unit to replace Ben and so were the other clones of the escapees; they wanted that complete unit and the clones had the same abilities. Since we were the originals we were given that much special consideration, our own clones were scattered across other platoons."
"I don't get it, I figured that they wanted to keep all of you guys apart so that you wouldn't bond or anything and attempt another jailbreak."
"They did, but our unit was the elite of the elite. Each of us was bred specifically to be part of that team, each of our abilities complimented another's. Individually, we were valuable but together? We're priceless."
Max whistled "Well, well, looks like mommy Manticore wasn't telling us everything"
"Looks like" Alec said.
Then she sat on the couch and gestured towards the door. "But…" he objected
"No buts, you can talk with Jace later. Beat it" Alec grudgingly left.
"So, where were you?"
"In California. That place isn't as messed up as Seattle, quite fun actually. Of course, it's hard to enjoy when you're constantly looking over your shoulder."
"I hear ya"
"What about you? Are you and Alec, you know" Jace made a couple gesture with her arms
Max's eyes went wide in horror "No way! He just got moved in with me to make place for some new arrivals."
"Riight" Jace said disbelievingly "So that whole checking him out meant nothing"
"I was not…" Jace's look stopped her and that annoying tinny voice started up *Admit it, you were. Come on woman, there's nothing wrong with it, Alec is cute. Admit it!*
"Fine, maybe a little but he's still a complete jerk" Jace sat back with a triumphant look *Damn it* she could hear the laughter of that tinny voice in her head.
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"So why did you name your kid after Max?" Syl sat on the floor in a crop top and shorts and took a bite out of her tub of Ben & Jerry's "Umm, this is good. I was beginning to miss these guys"
Max, sitting opposite her, grinned and attempted to snatch it from her. Syl raised it so that Max had to reach, she toppled and landed on Syl's lap. All four girls collapsed in fits of laughter. It had been Jondy's idea to have a girl's sibling night and since Max's apartment was the largest they had decided to have it there. So Jace, Jondy, Syl and Max were spending Friday night sitting around on the floor, chatting, arguing, swapping stories, giggling and generally behaving like a bunch of tipsy transgenic girls.
"Well" Jace answered between chuckles "Max helped me out of a tight spot, she helped me remember what the meaning of family was" she smiled warmly at Max.
Max smiled back at her "Aww" they hugged. Max snatched Jace's ice cream and took a bite before Jace got it back. "Umm, yummy" she got a whack on the knee from Jace.
"Too bad we don't have any guys" Jondy remarked
Max wrinkled her nose "Why would we need guys?"
"Spin the bottle" Syl and Max looked at each other and burst out laughing. "What?" Jondy looked offended and puzzled, it was quite comical.
"Yeah, that's how you met Tony right?"
Jondy turned pink and shoved a giggling Syl, "Shush!"
"Who's Tony?" Jace was curious
"Oh this guy" Jondy's blush darkened to a deeper crimson.
Syl waved her spoon about above her head in proclamation "Ladies and Gentlemen" she said in an exaggerated voice "Introducing Jondy the tomato-human-feline hybrid transgenic, come one come all to the blushing beetroot show!"
She was greeted by a round of boos from the other girls. Max threw some left over popcorn at her.
"Another movie anyone?"
"Sure what else you got?" Jondy asked
"Well…" Max got up and went to the coffee table that was placed in the centre of the three sofas that surrounded the TV (think Alec's apartment) "There's 'Titanic', 'Scream', 'Buffy The Vampire Slayer' and 'Star Wars Episode 21'
"Titanic"
"Titanic"
"Buffy"
"Titanic"
Jace sighed, "Fine, but when you're bawling don't blame me"
"How do you know?" Syl was adamant.
"Well I was kinda in the mood for one of those romance things and by the time I got to the end I couldn't contain myself, it was like a dam had burst"
"We're stronger than that"
"We'll see"
"More popcorn!" Jondy rushed to the cubby hole of a kitchen.
Later, towards the end of the movie
"I can't believe he did that for her! It's so romantic" Jondy reached for another tissue, a small pile lay beside her. Beside her, her siblings were in no better a state. Max had buried her head in an old cushion. The door opened with a slight squeaking sound and Alec walked in quickly then turned and closed the door behind him, he faced the girls and noticed for the first time that they were there and the condition that they were in.
"Umm, you ladies okay?"
Max looked up from her cushion "Oh put a cork in it Alec"
He looked slightly offended, "Right, I'll come back later then"
"Yeah" Max rested her head on the couch "You do that"
Alec left as softly as he came. Jondy raised an eyebrow at Max "Was that really necessary?"
"I just want the apartment to ourselves, no males especially typical specimen example A- Alec McDowell."
"Think he got his last name from the whiskey?" Syl pondered with a thoughtful look.
Max snuggled down and tried to get a better view of the screen "Wouldn't be surprised"
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4 AM
Alec turned the key in the lock, he couldn't hear any noise coming from the other side of the door. He smiled briefly in the dark corridor, the only reason they had locks was because of Damario they had only recently installed them. The old locks did not have keys of course.
He finally opened it and stepped in, behind him Sydney wrapped her arms around him. She stood on tiptoes and playfully nipped him on his right ear. The girls were sprawled around the living room. Jondy took up one couch, Syl slept across a single seater sofa, opposite her Jace had done the same with the other single. Still facing the TV screen, Max sat on the floor, her back rested against the sofa that Jace occupied and she clutched a cushion tightly in her arms as her eyes moved in their sockets, dreaming.
Alec gently pried Sydney's arms off. He turned around and kissed her on the side of her mouth "Not tonight" he whispered. He still felt slightly weird when he looked at her, she was after all Lian's twin.
She pouted then smiled up at him, she gave him a quick peck on the cheek and walked out softly closing the door behind her. Alec padded over to a closet and pulled out four blankets, they were thin but warm. They had suffered worse at Manticore. He softly padded over to the sleeping girls and covered them. He picked up Max and carried her to the other couch which was a three seater and softly set her down, she never let go of the cushion. He covered her and then turned and used the remote to put off the static filled TV screen. He quietly crept to his room, he didn't notice a pair of tawny orbs following him, they closed when the sound of a door closing was heard. Max snuggled down and drew the blanket around herself tighter.
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"Remember, never follow a regular pattern. That makes you complacent and gives your opponent an opportunity to strike, whatever you do don't just give away your fighting style just like that. Now I want to see some of those moves, you don't stop until I say so or until you're half dead, clear? Begin!" Max was taking the younger transgenics for training sessions. The older ones were required to train in their own free time if they couldn't make the regular training sessions. She watched impassively as the X and Y series battled it out. The toddlers and Faile watched from the sidelines. Faile had filled out since she arrived looked healthier, she also had the stamp of Manticore on her in the sense that she looked as pretty as any other Manticore soldier ever had.
Jondy walked in, "Hey, how's it going baby sister?"
"Pretty okay. They're definitely up to par. Just a little more training and they'll be almost as good as before"
Jondy raised an eyebrow "Almost?"
Max shrugged "We don't have the facilities for 'as good as before', we're going to have to accept 'almost'" Jondy nodded and sat down on the mat at Max's feet. She patted the area beside her and Max sat down too. They watched the supersoldier youths together.
An hour later
"Okay! That's it for today, report to Shaile for recon lesson and I believe some of you have assignments to complete?" Max smiled "Good work! I'll expect better next time"
There was a collective groan from the kids, Max's smile widened into a grin and she sat back down to continue her animated discussion with her sister. From the corner of her eye she saw Dalton walking up to Faile and attempting to start a conversation, he looked distinctly uncomfortable and Max didn't think that it was because of the hard workout that he had just received. She batted Jondy on the arm and nodded towards them, Jondy turned to look.
"Well, well, well. Would you look at that?"
*
"Uhh, hi Faile"
She regarded him with those disturbingly sharp hazel eyes "Hello Dalton"
"Listen, I was wondering if you wanted to… if you wanted…" she cocked her head at him, her brow furrowed.
"Wanted to…?" she prompted.
"I don't know, hang out sometime?"
"Hang out?" she asked him quizzically.
"Right, I forgot you've been away from the public for a while. 'Hang out' is like a slang term for spending time together, you know as friends"
Faile's expression softened with a warm smile "I'd like that"
Dalton grinned and offered his hand; she looked at it pointedly not taking it. She quirked her eyebrows at him "Not until you have a long shower" His grin became wider, he grabbed her around the shoulders before she could stop him and led a protesting Faile away.
*
"He shoots, he scores" Jondy turned back to Max grinning. "Do I sense young love?" she said dramatically.
Max punched her "Yeah sure." She put on her own melodramatic voice and over exaggerated "For now is the time of spring when a young transgenic's fancy lightly turns to thoughts of… Alec?!" she ended incredulously.
"Alec?" Jondy spun around to see Alec limping towards them.
"Hey" he smiled.
"What happened?" Max asked, her tone implied that she believed that whatever caused him to limp was probably his fault and that he probably had it coming.
"It's nothing, just twisted my ankle while coming down the steps"
Max's expression said it all, it practically spelled it out- 'Idiot'. She didn't say it of course *How polite of her* he thought sarcastically.
"Darren wants to see you" he jerked his thumb back the way he came and turned to Jondy "And Mole wants to see you"
The pair ran off, leaving Alec to look after them.
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