Disclaimer: I don't own any of the Dark Angel characters or plot. All the
new characters are mine though!
Pairing: MA eventually, CA friendship
Later that afternoon, word had spread about the incident at HQ, and unsurprisingly everyone had sided with Alec, because not only had Max diced their favourite transgenic, she had also put down her fellow transgenics, and placed herself and Logan above all of them.
Dalton was on duty at HQ, watching all the cameras to make sure everything was alright when he saw something very fast jump from a building outside of the barricades onto one of the TC buildings.
"Mole. Quick there's someone who's entered TC by the roofs." He called across the room.
"Which team is nearest to the building." The anomaly asked.
"Team 3." The boy replied.
"Okay. Tell them what's going on and to get whoever it is, alive. I'll get Alec on it as well. He's speedy." Replied Mole expertly.
He then got out his comm. and spoke to Alec, "Pretty boy, we think there's a body that's entered TC on the Eastside. Can you go see what's going on?"
"Sure thing princess." Alec replied while Mole grunted in annoyance.
Alec easily jumped the wall to get onto one of the Eastside roofs. Using his enhanced sight he looked around to see where this intruder may be. He was scanning the buildings' horizon when he saw something, but it was gone too quickly. He carried on searching when he saw it again, and knew this time it must be a transgenic blurring. He followed the intruder with his eyes to where it stopped. He stealthily walked across the roof making no noise. He then flipped high above the transgenic's head so that he was behind it. Both transgenics got into a fighting stance. But the intruder quickly stood at attention instead.
Alec was taken aback by this, but quickly got over it and spoke on the comm. to Mole, "It's an X5. Don't worry, you can call off the search team."
"Okay, pretty boy. Sure you don't need any help?" Asked Mole. Although he would never admit it, Alec was very important to Mole. There was something about the X5 that Mole respected considerably, and so always made sure he was alright.
"I'm sure honey. No need to worry." Replied Alec with amusement in his voice. But, then again, when Alec got into one of those annoying moods, Mole would quite happily strangle the handsome X5.
"Sir." The X5 saluted when Alec had finished his conversation.
"Please don't ever salute me." Alec said tiredly.
"Yes Sir." The X5 nodded but was still standing at attention.
Alec knew the only way to handle this was to ease the female into it. "At ease soldier." He spoke in a relaxed way, "I would appreciate it, soldier, if you never, saluted me, never called me sir, and never stood at attention to me ever again."
"Yes." The girl replied. He sighed and looked at the girl. She had long black hair, light brown skin, was quite slim, and stood at about 5 ft 5", but the most striking part of her was her eyes which were hazel. It would have probably have been unnoticed by any other transgenic but he had seen those eyes before. They were just like his but instead of his green and gold flecks she had red, however, it wasn't the only thing that they reminded him of. He thought back hard. It then clicked and the female X5 could see in his eyes the recognition of who she was.
"594?" he asked smiling slightly.
"Yes." She said relaxing much more now. She then in turn looked at Alec to make sure that who she saw in front of her was indeed her old CO.
"You are 494. Yes?" she asked slowly approaching him.
"I was 494, but now I'm Alec. And you?" he asked amiably.
"Hazel. I have been looking for you since manticore burned down. I met up with some of the others but we then split up, making our own way here. It's safer in smaller groups." She replied as they walked towards the cafeteria.
"Who have you seen?" Alec asked interested at how his unit were.
"I met up with 513, she goes by the name Kat now, I saw her in Chicago. I saw 486, he's called Trigger now, and he was with Kat at the time. They say they haven't hooked up but I don't know, they're pretty close. I then also saw 757, he's called Ember now, and he was in New York. He was the most settled of all of them, got himself a little life. But when he found out about this place he said he would make his way here. Have they reached the promised land yet?" she asked whilst looking around at everything going on around them.
"No none of them have come yet." He replied watching her from the corner of his eyes. She looked like a kid in a toy shop which made him smile. But it soon faded when she looked downcast at the news. "I'm sure they'll make it though." He said to reassure her.
"Have you met up with anyone from the unit?" Hazel asked, her attention directly on him.
"Yeah. I saw 459. He called himself Biggs. He hadn't changed at all. He was still up for everything." He said whilst smiling sadly.
It didn't go past Hazel, so she asked urgently, "Was?"
"Yeah" he replied quietly but carried on getting angrier with each word, "They killed him. The Ordinaries. They bashed him up until he was dead and hung him upside down in the street. It was awful." He finally looked at her and saw her eyes had teared up but she never let them out. She was still his strong soldier.
Max was at TC HQ looking for Alec to apologise for what she had said earlier on in the day. She knew she was wrong about him doing nothing, because he did do some things to help, but to her he would always be a screw up. She hated it when he subtly put down Logan, because in Max's eyes Logan would always be the better man, but most of all she hated the fact that everyone thought the gorgeous X5 was a saint and could do no wrong.
Alec wasn't there. "Hey, Dalton. Have you seen Alec around?" she asked him whilst looking around to see what everyone was up to.
"Why so you can have a go at him again?" the boy muttered so quietly that no human could possibly have heard, but Max was an X5 and she heard well enough.
"I'll let that one go. Just answer me. Where is he?" she said through gritted teeth.
"He went to get an intruder that had entered but that was a while ago now, so he's probably gone to the Cafeteria." The X6 replied in monotone. Alec had trusted him from the moment they first met and had never ignored his presence or input, so he thought very highly of the X5. He had done the same for Max until recently because of her ever bitchier attitude towards Alec.
"Thanks." She said absentmindedly as she walked out of HQ heading for the cafeteria.
In the Cafeteria, Mole was holding an unofficial meeting which took place once every week. It was during this time new entrants of TC would come to kind of sign in. It was so they never underestimated the amount of food needed etcetera.
"Okay is that everyone?" Joshua called out. It was then Alec walked in with Hazel.
"No we have one more, Big Fella. Her name's Hazel. She's X5." Alec said casually as he straddled a chair.
"Okay kid. What do you specialise in?" Mole asked whilst puffing out some smoke.
"Solo missions in Espionage and team missions." Hazel replied whilst taking a seat next to Alec, "Is there anything I can eat? 'Cos I haven't eaten in a few days."
"Yes, Joshua will get you something, Hazel." Joshua said whilst smiling and ruffling her hair a little.
"Thanks." The X5 replied.
"What type of fighting do you specialise in?" The green anomaly asked again with the smoke.
"Hand to hand and weaponry." The girl said whilst digging into her food hastily.
"You specialise in both?" asked Mole surprised.
"My whole unit did." Replied Hazel nodding as she received the food from Joshua.
"How old are you?" Joshua asked whilst watching the girl finish what was a massive plate of spaghetti within minutes. She was too busy trying to get every last bit off sauce to answer though, so Alec did it for her.
"Around 19, maybe 20. None of us really know for sure, right?" He said putting his hands behind his head and his feet on the table, "Is the next question about strengths?" The lizard man nodded. "Agility, strength, surveillance, and intelligence." Alec answered.
"How can she have surveillance and intelligence in fighting?" asked a new voice. The voice belonged to Max and she was looking at Alec and the girl incredulously, "Both those qualities aren't needed in fighting."
Mole ignored Max and asked, "Where do the surveillance and intelligence fit in?"
"I have a bit of bat in my cocktail so my hearing is better than most X5s, meaning I can hear trouble from far away, and can also communicate with X7s, which is always a plus. They're faster and meaner than any of the other X series. So it helped with our exercises and missions where I would do the surveillance whilst fighting, as I can hear danger long before it comes." She said to Mole whilst following his example by not even acknowledging Max, "Also, the unit I was in weren't the biggest of the X5s, as you can tell by my frame. We were built lean and light. To compensate for this, our CO taught us how to strategically fight. This meant we had to use our brains to see what the enemy's weaknesses are quickly, so that we can use them to our advantage. Our unit was known for our intelligence in fighting which won us many exercises and missions, as others didn't understand how it was supposed to be incorporated. Our CO made sure we were the best we could be physically, but most of all emotionally and mentally. I've missed him."
Hazel had looked at Max until she said the last sentence when she spoke softer to Alec. Alec's posture had changed when she was speaking about her unit. He could tell she was upset, so he did what he used to do when one of his unit was upset, he hugged her whilst saying to her softly, "He's here now."
"Great. She's one of Alec's screwed up friends." Max said under her breath but everyone heard. She didn't like the way Alec had hugged Hazel. He had never hugged her like that, so close. The others at the table looked at her as if for an explanation for her quiet and unnecessary outburst.
"What? She was talking about manticore as if it was a summer camp or something." Max said finally under the scrutiny of the others.
"Who the hell is she?" asked Hazel to Mole after coming out of Alec's embrace, angry at what Max had said.
"She's the supposed leader of TC." Mole snorted.
"I thought Alec and you were the leaders of the Promised Land." Asked Hazel confused, "Everyone was waving at Alec when we were walking down here. And everyone seems to know who you are. It would make sense to have both an X series and transhuman as leader."
Alec decided to handle this one so he said, "No, Maxie here is the leader of TC. She's gonna be the saviour of the world one of these days but that's a story to tell another time. But as she is the leader of TC, we should all treat her with respect."
"What like she treats us you mean?" asked Mole bitterly but quietly so only the people closest to him could hear.
Max was standing there with her hands on her hips having conflicting emotions. Alec had stood up for her, even after all the stuff she said to him this morning. Sometimes he made it so damn hard for her to not like him by being nice like this. But to Alec's best efforts, Max could see the girl wasn't buying it. Hazel hadn't like Max as soon as she walked in. To Hazel, Max's body language showed hostility, and her face, it seemed, wasn't regularly graced with a smile.
"Who was she at manticore?" Hazel asked this time standing in front of Max but the question was thrown over her shoulder.
Alec sighed knowing what would come but soon said, "X5 452."
"What? X5 452 is the messiah of our promised land. Talk about the irony." Replied Hazel sarcastically.
Alec thought it was time for a change in topic so he asked Hazel without thinking, "How's the beautiful Jophiel?" As soon as the words came out of his mouth he knew this topic was a bad one. Hazel had gotten pregnant by her breeding partner and had her child at manticore a couple of months before it was burned down.
Hazel's eyes glazed over while she said, "Well, you knew they took him away and kept him in the baby unit. When the alarms went off indicating that we were being attacked, I ran as fast as I could to the unit but it was already on fire when I got there. Ember dragged me away from the place just before it collapsed. He must have died. My baby must have died in the fire. I just ran and saved my self. It was all my fault my baby died."
Her words got softer and softer until it was just a whisper. The girl shook her head as if to clear it and returned her attention to the X5 female in front of her, whose posture had changed rapidly during Hazel's story. Max was now looking down at the ground ashamed and guilty. Alec looked as if he wanted to kick himself. He knew the baby couldn't of survived but his mouth moved faster than his brain. Joshua looked at the small X5 with pity; whilst Gem, who had been eating her lunch on the table was silently crying, thankful that her baby was born in the outside world.
Hazel's voice interrupted everyone's thoughts, "So you're the rogue X5 452? Ran away at nine years of age 'cos you couldn't hack it. I don't know why, 'cos others had it worse off than us. The nomalies for instance. Those who didn't turn out as well as us were kept hidden and unfed for weeks on end, when we were given three square meals a day and the chance to move around. Was that just too much for you? You think I'm strange liking manticore. Well I gotta say it's much better than the outside world, where we're hunted down. Where we can't fall in love with ordinaries we meet because in the end we wouldn't be able to make families. Where we may not know when the next time we're gonna eat is gonna be. At least in manticore, we could go out on missions with other X5s and have a bit of fun. Whilst doing the job you could do everyday things like play pool or listen to music. Now, 'cos the only place most of us knew of home is gone, we are all travelling here. The transgenics on the road call it the 'promised land', 'cos we can all be safe. But that's not the case is it? I saw the massive crowds outside with all their crappy 'trangenics are scum' protest boards. There's gonna be a war, and at least half of us will be killed. What am I making you feel guilty?" the X5's tone changed, sounding tired, "I don't blame you for anything really, except your unit's escape meant a few of the people I cared about were hurt, 'cos of their relation to you. So no need to feel guilty, it's not as if you burned down the damn place."
Pairing: MA eventually, CA friendship
Later that afternoon, word had spread about the incident at HQ, and unsurprisingly everyone had sided with Alec, because not only had Max diced their favourite transgenic, she had also put down her fellow transgenics, and placed herself and Logan above all of them.
Dalton was on duty at HQ, watching all the cameras to make sure everything was alright when he saw something very fast jump from a building outside of the barricades onto one of the TC buildings.
"Mole. Quick there's someone who's entered TC by the roofs." He called across the room.
"Which team is nearest to the building." The anomaly asked.
"Team 3." The boy replied.
"Okay. Tell them what's going on and to get whoever it is, alive. I'll get Alec on it as well. He's speedy." Replied Mole expertly.
He then got out his comm. and spoke to Alec, "Pretty boy, we think there's a body that's entered TC on the Eastside. Can you go see what's going on?"
"Sure thing princess." Alec replied while Mole grunted in annoyance.
Alec easily jumped the wall to get onto one of the Eastside roofs. Using his enhanced sight he looked around to see where this intruder may be. He was scanning the buildings' horizon when he saw something, but it was gone too quickly. He carried on searching when he saw it again, and knew this time it must be a transgenic blurring. He followed the intruder with his eyes to where it stopped. He stealthily walked across the roof making no noise. He then flipped high above the transgenic's head so that he was behind it. Both transgenics got into a fighting stance. But the intruder quickly stood at attention instead.
Alec was taken aback by this, but quickly got over it and spoke on the comm. to Mole, "It's an X5. Don't worry, you can call off the search team."
"Okay, pretty boy. Sure you don't need any help?" Asked Mole. Although he would never admit it, Alec was very important to Mole. There was something about the X5 that Mole respected considerably, and so always made sure he was alright.
"I'm sure honey. No need to worry." Replied Alec with amusement in his voice. But, then again, when Alec got into one of those annoying moods, Mole would quite happily strangle the handsome X5.
"Sir." The X5 saluted when Alec had finished his conversation.
"Please don't ever salute me." Alec said tiredly.
"Yes Sir." The X5 nodded but was still standing at attention.
Alec knew the only way to handle this was to ease the female into it. "At ease soldier." He spoke in a relaxed way, "I would appreciate it, soldier, if you never, saluted me, never called me sir, and never stood at attention to me ever again."
"Yes." The girl replied. He sighed and looked at the girl. She had long black hair, light brown skin, was quite slim, and stood at about 5 ft 5", but the most striking part of her was her eyes which were hazel. It would have probably have been unnoticed by any other transgenic but he had seen those eyes before. They were just like his but instead of his green and gold flecks she had red, however, it wasn't the only thing that they reminded him of. He thought back hard. It then clicked and the female X5 could see in his eyes the recognition of who she was.
"594?" he asked smiling slightly.
"Yes." She said relaxing much more now. She then in turn looked at Alec to make sure that who she saw in front of her was indeed her old CO.
"You are 494. Yes?" she asked slowly approaching him.
"I was 494, but now I'm Alec. And you?" he asked amiably.
"Hazel. I have been looking for you since manticore burned down. I met up with some of the others but we then split up, making our own way here. It's safer in smaller groups." She replied as they walked towards the cafeteria.
"Who have you seen?" Alec asked interested at how his unit were.
"I met up with 513, she goes by the name Kat now, I saw her in Chicago. I saw 486, he's called Trigger now, and he was with Kat at the time. They say they haven't hooked up but I don't know, they're pretty close. I then also saw 757, he's called Ember now, and he was in New York. He was the most settled of all of them, got himself a little life. But when he found out about this place he said he would make his way here. Have they reached the promised land yet?" she asked whilst looking around at everything going on around them.
"No none of them have come yet." He replied watching her from the corner of his eyes. She looked like a kid in a toy shop which made him smile. But it soon faded when she looked downcast at the news. "I'm sure they'll make it though." He said to reassure her.
"Have you met up with anyone from the unit?" Hazel asked, her attention directly on him.
"Yeah. I saw 459. He called himself Biggs. He hadn't changed at all. He was still up for everything." He said whilst smiling sadly.
It didn't go past Hazel, so she asked urgently, "Was?"
"Yeah" he replied quietly but carried on getting angrier with each word, "They killed him. The Ordinaries. They bashed him up until he was dead and hung him upside down in the street. It was awful." He finally looked at her and saw her eyes had teared up but she never let them out. She was still his strong soldier.
Max was at TC HQ looking for Alec to apologise for what she had said earlier on in the day. She knew she was wrong about him doing nothing, because he did do some things to help, but to her he would always be a screw up. She hated it when he subtly put down Logan, because in Max's eyes Logan would always be the better man, but most of all she hated the fact that everyone thought the gorgeous X5 was a saint and could do no wrong.
Alec wasn't there. "Hey, Dalton. Have you seen Alec around?" she asked him whilst looking around to see what everyone was up to.
"Why so you can have a go at him again?" the boy muttered so quietly that no human could possibly have heard, but Max was an X5 and she heard well enough.
"I'll let that one go. Just answer me. Where is he?" she said through gritted teeth.
"He went to get an intruder that had entered but that was a while ago now, so he's probably gone to the Cafeteria." The X6 replied in monotone. Alec had trusted him from the moment they first met and had never ignored his presence or input, so he thought very highly of the X5. He had done the same for Max until recently because of her ever bitchier attitude towards Alec.
"Thanks." She said absentmindedly as she walked out of HQ heading for the cafeteria.
In the Cafeteria, Mole was holding an unofficial meeting which took place once every week. It was during this time new entrants of TC would come to kind of sign in. It was so they never underestimated the amount of food needed etcetera.
"Okay is that everyone?" Joshua called out. It was then Alec walked in with Hazel.
"No we have one more, Big Fella. Her name's Hazel. She's X5." Alec said casually as he straddled a chair.
"Okay kid. What do you specialise in?" Mole asked whilst puffing out some smoke.
"Solo missions in Espionage and team missions." Hazel replied whilst taking a seat next to Alec, "Is there anything I can eat? 'Cos I haven't eaten in a few days."
"Yes, Joshua will get you something, Hazel." Joshua said whilst smiling and ruffling her hair a little.
"Thanks." The X5 replied.
"What type of fighting do you specialise in?" The green anomaly asked again with the smoke.
"Hand to hand and weaponry." The girl said whilst digging into her food hastily.
"You specialise in both?" asked Mole surprised.
"My whole unit did." Replied Hazel nodding as she received the food from Joshua.
"How old are you?" Joshua asked whilst watching the girl finish what was a massive plate of spaghetti within minutes. She was too busy trying to get every last bit off sauce to answer though, so Alec did it for her.
"Around 19, maybe 20. None of us really know for sure, right?" He said putting his hands behind his head and his feet on the table, "Is the next question about strengths?" The lizard man nodded. "Agility, strength, surveillance, and intelligence." Alec answered.
"How can she have surveillance and intelligence in fighting?" asked a new voice. The voice belonged to Max and she was looking at Alec and the girl incredulously, "Both those qualities aren't needed in fighting."
Mole ignored Max and asked, "Where do the surveillance and intelligence fit in?"
"I have a bit of bat in my cocktail so my hearing is better than most X5s, meaning I can hear trouble from far away, and can also communicate with X7s, which is always a plus. They're faster and meaner than any of the other X series. So it helped with our exercises and missions where I would do the surveillance whilst fighting, as I can hear danger long before it comes." She said to Mole whilst following his example by not even acknowledging Max, "Also, the unit I was in weren't the biggest of the X5s, as you can tell by my frame. We were built lean and light. To compensate for this, our CO taught us how to strategically fight. This meant we had to use our brains to see what the enemy's weaknesses are quickly, so that we can use them to our advantage. Our unit was known for our intelligence in fighting which won us many exercises and missions, as others didn't understand how it was supposed to be incorporated. Our CO made sure we were the best we could be physically, but most of all emotionally and mentally. I've missed him."
Hazel had looked at Max until she said the last sentence when she spoke softer to Alec. Alec's posture had changed when she was speaking about her unit. He could tell she was upset, so he did what he used to do when one of his unit was upset, he hugged her whilst saying to her softly, "He's here now."
"Great. She's one of Alec's screwed up friends." Max said under her breath but everyone heard. She didn't like the way Alec had hugged Hazel. He had never hugged her like that, so close. The others at the table looked at her as if for an explanation for her quiet and unnecessary outburst.
"What? She was talking about manticore as if it was a summer camp or something." Max said finally under the scrutiny of the others.
"Who the hell is she?" asked Hazel to Mole after coming out of Alec's embrace, angry at what Max had said.
"She's the supposed leader of TC." Mole snorted.
"I thought Alec and you were the leaders of the Promised Land." Asked Hazel confused, "Everyone was waving at Alec when we were walking down here. And everyone seems to know who you are. It would make sense to have both an X series and transhuman as leader."
Alec decided to handle this one so he said, "No, Maxie here is the leader of TC. She's gonna be the saviour of the world one of these days but that's a story to tell another time. But as she is the leader of TC, we should all treat her with respect."
"What like she treats us you mean?" asked Mole bitterly but quietly so only the people closest to him could hear.
Max was standing there with her hands on her hips having conflicting emotions. Alec had stood up for her, even after all the stuff she said to him this morning. Sometimes he made it so damn hard for her to not like him by being nice like this. But to Alec's best efforts, Max could see the girl wasn't buying it. Hazel hadn't like Max as soon as she walked in. To Hazel, Max's body language showed hostility, and her face, it seemed, wasn't regularly graced with a smile.
"Who was she at manticore?" Hazel asked this time standing in front of Max but the question was thrown over her shoulder.
Alec sighed knowing what would come but soon said, "X5 452."
"What? X5 452 is the messiah of our promised land. Talk about the irony." Replied Hazel sarcastically.
Alec thought it was time for a change in topic so he asked Hazel without thinking, "How's the beautiful Jophiel?" As soon as the words came out of his mouth he knew this topic was a bad one. Hazel had gotten pregnant by her breeding partner and had her child at manticore a couple of months before it was burned down.
Hazel's eyes glazed over while she said, "Well, you knew they took him away and kept him in the baby unit. When the alarms went off indicating that we were being attacked, I ran as fast as I could to the unit but it was already on fire when I got there. Ember dragged me away from the place just before it collapsed. He must have died. My baby must have died in the fire. I just ran and saved my self. It was all my fault my baby died."
Her words got softer and softer until it was just a whisper. The girl shook her head as if to clear it and returned her attention to the X5 female in front of her, whose posture had changed rapidly during Hazel's story. Max was now looking down at the ground ashamed and guilty. Alec looked as if he wanted to kick himself. He knew the baby couldn't of survived but his mouth moved faster than his brain. Joshua looked at the small X5 with pity; whilst Gem, who had been eating her lunch on the table was silently crying, thankful that her baby was born in the outside world.
Hazel's voice interrupted everyone's thoughts, "So you're the rogue X5 452? Ran away at nine years of age 'cos you couldn't hack it. I don't know why, 'cos others had it worse off than us. The nomalies for instance. Those who didn't turn out as well as us were kept hidden and unfed for weeks on end, when we were given three square meals a day and the chance to move around. Was that just too much for you? You think I'm strange liking manticore. Well I gotta say it's much better than the outside world, where we're hunted down. Where we can't fall in love with ordinaries we meet because in the end we wouldn't be able to make families. Where we may not know when the next time we're gonna eat is gonna be. At least in manticore, we could go out on missions with other X5s and have a bit of fun. Whilst doing the job you could do everyday things like play pool or listen to music. Now, 'cos the only place most of us knew of home is gone, we are all travelling here. The transgenics on the road call it the 'promised land', 'cos we can all be safe. But that's not the case is it? I saw the massive crowds outside with all their crappy 'trangenics are scum' protest boards. There's gonna be a war, and at least half of us will be killed. What am I making you feel guilty?" the X5's tone changed, sounding tired, "I don't blame you for anything really, except your unit's escape meant a few of the people I cared about were hurt, 'cos of their relation to you. So no need to feel guilty, it's not as if you burned down the damn place."