A.N. QUESTION. This is very M/A and doesn't focus as much on the new characters such as Pix, Zan and Sunny etc so during my more…insane moments I have been writing a parallel story to this featuring some characters other than M/A. It takes place along the same time line and fills in parts that Moving Ahead skims over. I was wondering if there was any interest for this story? If so shall I wait until after Moving ahead to post or start now so you can get a feel of the characters? Oh and to the gal who emailed to ask, the pics I was speaking of can be found if you type in www dot geocities dot com/fayth82. For some reason ff.net doesn't like you to link to websites.
Open mouth…insert.
Max avoided him as much as she could for the rest of the day. She stayed mostly with Zan and Pix who kept her company and kept most of her attention away from the blonde transgenic.
It wasn't until almost lights out that she saw him again. They were in the dining hall and she was sitting with her friends. The units generally kept to the same lunch tables as they were assigned. Unit 1 together etc, Special Ops had just chosen a table and mustered there. Those from the Seattle facility chose mostly to sit with the Units that they had been in before. So it was with some surprise that 510 came and sat next to her with a smile on his face.
"Hey 452, that was impressive. I've never seen anyone hold their own with 494 before."
494 sat next to him with his lunch tray "It's not that unusual, maybe I was off my game."
Max rolled her eyes and ignored him; unfortunately it seemed he hated being ignored.
"Actually I was being a gentleman and not showing up our new friend." He shot her a cocky grin. "I had her exactly where I wanted her."
"Really?" she glared at him.
"Oh yeah." he could see 510 staring at him out of the corner of his eye in something akin to shock -again.
"You want a rematch pretty boy? Anytime." She was obviously annoyed with his presumptuousness.
"Hey Ma-452, calm down." Carrot hissed looking around.
"Ah ignore her; she just wants to be the first in discipline detail." Pix said with a dismissive wave of his hand "I told you I have this great joke with a spring and a cockroach that I want to try."
Her lips twitched and once again he was glad that she had these guys to cheer her up and stop her from ripping the head off this moron who assumed he was the greatest thing in Manticore since sliced genes.
"You can't get put in discipline." Zan said "First lesson tomorrow is common verbal. I want to know what you say."
"You good at that?" 510 wanted to know.
"Oh yeah, she's great. Not sure where she picked it up but I can't understand half of what she says." Pix teased.
"Probably from the guards and trainers." 510 said "I know that's where we started to understand it. I wanted to know what they were calling us."
They all laughed
"I'm serious." 510 laughed "What is a dipstick? How exactly does one put their nose to the grindstone…and why would they want to?"
"I always wondered what freak out meant."
"What about wise guy?"
"Yeah, exactly what does Dumbass mean?" Sunny asked "How can someone's ass be dumb?"
"I don't know. 452 watches asses enough. What do you think?" Alec turned to Max and she had really had enough of his cheek.
Who did this creep think he was?
"I think that if you put half as much thought into your rejoinders as you do you're fighting and vanity it's possible you could best me in a verbal fight. But I don't hold out high hopes for that or for you in general."
He touched his heart "Oh that hurts 452. It really does."
"And if I cared that would be a problem." She snapped back with.
"You are such a ray of sunshine. No wonder they left you behind." He murmured.
Her breath caught in her throat and she suddenly wanted to be sick.
No wonder they left you behind.
If there was anything that had ever hurt worse, she couldn't remember it. her hands shook as the memories of that night assaulted her and the way they all separated and ran, her and Jondy racing through the woods trying for safety, Zack risking his life so they could reach the fence and then her falling through the ice. Fighting for control even as she urged her sister to make for the fence and save herself. The icy water closing in and pushing on her lungs, the way the stinging cold tugged at her thin clothes and threatened to hold her under and her fight to reach the surface. The way she had clawed her way back into the frigid air, choking on water and had come face to face with her nightmare- Lydecker- and being shot by him, waking up only to be shown pictures of her siblings being dissected and told that it was her fault.
No wonder they left you behind.
"S-screw you." She spat and got up pushing herself away from the table.
494 seemed to sense that he had gone too far and he stood up following her and grabbing hold of her elbow
"452 wait, I'm sorr-"
She wrenched her arm out of his grasp and turned to him, spitting mad over the hurt that swamped her. The glare that she gave him had only ever been reserved for Bulli but now he was getting both barrels.
"Just stay the hell away from me."
494 watched the retreating back of 452 as she practically ran away from him and he ran his fingers through his hair.
Damn, he hadn't wanted to do that. The look on her face was one that he knew would stay with him forever, he didn't think he had ever hurt anyone that badly before and he had never wanted to, especially her.
What was it about her that made him want to get under her skin like that? He had known as soon as the words came out of his mouth that they were the wrong ones to say but that hadn't stopped his mouth from letting his foot making the unwanted detour down his throat.
He didn't want to hurt her but he had been annoyed that she was ignoring him. That she thought he was just annoying or worse, she didn't think of him.
Well she wasn't now. He thought sarcastically to himself. Now she truly hated him.
From that point it was like a war had been declared and a line drawn in the sand.
Max wanted to avoid the jerk as much as possible and he wanted to get back to the way they were before he had screwed up. He was trying to make things up to her but she was having none of it.
So used to being the one that was put down and hurt she had erected walls higher than anything Manticore could ever have come up with and, sadly, he was the outside of those walls now.
Unfortunately for her and almost as a blessing to him their superb scores and physical and mental attributes meant that, more often than not, they were paired together for exercises.
Their records and achievements meant that they were prime material for the C.O and Second in Command positions on their training and missions.
Their first operation was a prime example of what an explosive combination they were.
It was about four weeks into training. At every turn Alec tried to get 452 to talk civilly to him but somehow he just ended up making her mad. He was perplexed at how this always seemed to happen. His Unit and his friends wondered the same thing; how their mild mannered and slightly distant C.O could go from the 494 they knew and loved to a sarcastic smart ass that drove 452 to distraction.
They stood outside waiting for instruction and chatting in small groups when Trainers Banns came up to them
"Ok people listen up. This is your first training with us as Special Ops. The aim of this exercise is to capture the flag belonging to the other team- without them being aware of your existence. They are equipped with paint balls and if you are hit then you are dead and out of the exercise. The chain of command is as follows 494 is C.O, 452 2IC and 344 aide."
494 and 452 shared horrified glances, even though his was slightly more triumphant.
Banns left them and they turned to Alec.
"Ok, nice and quiet people. We want half to come from one side and half from the other, maybe a distraction?"
Max spoke up "Its Unit 5 they were pulled from training this morning. Tar- 677 is a field med, maybe a faked injury?"
Alec nodded "Good plan. 521 can you fake an injury."
"I could give her a real one?" one of the guys offered and they grinned as Sunny rounded on him
"Get over yourself Dumbass."
Max grinned at her use of slang. They had all loved Common Verbal usage- finally finding what all of the phrases meant.
"Okay okay, no need to go ballistic." Alec calmed them with a smile. "You two, you and you tree point." He pointed to several transgenics. "Myself and 452 will catch the flag and you three cover distraction. 344 and you three back up and cover fire in case it goes sideways. You two I want coming from the left side and keep an eye out for those guards. Move out."
They slunk silently through the underbrush and watched the enemy encampment from beneath the hedges.
Max suddenly felt something in her hair and she glanced up sharply to see Alec withdraw his hand. He looked half panicked at being caught.
"What are you doing?" she hissed and moved her head back.
"Grass snake." Her head shot around to see nothing, her eyes narrowed and she turned back to him but he was staring ahead.
What the hell was he thinking? He yelled at himself. He had been crawling before her on his elbows and he had turned back to see her looking down, intent on not stopping or crushing any dry twigs and giving away their position and her hair had fallen into her face. One strand hung over her eye and his fingers had itched to push it away.
When she lay next to him and they scanned the valley he hadn't been able to help himself and had run his fingers through the soft curl. It was only when her sharp eyes pinpointed him in a glare that he realised what he was doing was the equivalent of prodding a lioness.
He made up something about a snake and hurriedly looked away trying to rein his emotions in when all he wanted to do was yell at her. Ask her what he could possibly do to make things up to her. Yeah so he had screwed up and hurt her feelings but he hadn't meant to and he really was sorry and had been trying to make things up to her in as many ways as he could think of. What did she want from him- blood?
He was about to offer her a transfusion when he saw the distraction and several guards left their posts.
Sloppy, he thought with a grin and gestured to those in the trees to get the remaining guards out of the way. He turned back to 452 and motioned for her to follow him as they crept through the underbrush and closer to their target.
He gestured for her to cover him as he went in and he slunk around the side of the nearest outpost hut and crouched behind the rough wooden shack. One guard passed about a foot away from him and he held his breath until he moved away. He looked back to 452 who nodded telling him that the coast was clear and he blurred across the courtyard and towards the flag pole.
As he pulled the cord to let the flag down he heard movement from behind him and he dodged back to see several guards obviously on their break coming towards him. There was nowhere he could hide, they were going to discover him and either capture or kill. Dammit.
"Hey!" he looked up to see 452 stand and wave her arms at the guards. They jumped, startled and aimed their rifles at her but she had already blurred away.
494 grinned as they gave chase and he grabbed the flag and raced the other direction.
He met 452 in the clearing in the woods where she stood with a fist on her hip.
"Subtle, 452 real subtle." He inclined his head and she glowered
"Gee you're welcome."
He shrugged "I would have managed to get out of there eventually."
She glared at him "Yeah with paintballs all over your ass."
His grin grew "I knew you had a fixation with my ass 452."
"Argh!" she threw her hands up "I don't know why I bothered, like it would trouble me if you got captured by the enemy."
"They're Manticore, not the enemy."
Her face fell into the mask that he hated and he frowned, confused as to why.
"452?"
"Let's go." She ordered and moved away but he captured her arm. "Let go."
"Manticore aren't the enemy, 452."
"Whatever, would you let go of my arm?" she tried to prise him off but he held tight making her meet his eyes.
"We're not the enemy. I'm not the enemy."
She held his gaze for several seconds, not letting him see what was going on behind hers.
"I never said they were."
"Sure." He stood straighter. "Is that why you always act like you're in hostile territory?"
"You don't know me." She spat "So don't presume to tell me how I'm acting." She knocked his arm away.
"Because you won't let me get to know you." He countered "You don't let anyone."
"You have no idea what you are talking about." She brushed him off.
"I think I do." he rushed in front of her "What are you so afraid of 452?"
"I'm not afraid of anything and will you stop calling me 452!"
He started "It's your designation, and I think you are."
"Don't think too much, you're not used to it, might strain something." She said pointedly.
He ran a frustrated hand through his hair "If you think we are all the enemy why are you here?"
"You think I wanted to be-" she bit off and tried to reign in her temper "Listen to me smart ass, I don't have to qualify anything to you, you aren't my C.O."
She tried to walk away and he grabbed her wrist again but this time she was ready for that, she grasped his forearm and slammed him into a tree. He bounced against the bark and jumped in front of her again.
"Move." She commanded.
"Talk to me."
"Move." She smacked him in the ribs and he countered by knocking her arm away.
She took a deep breath and kicked out at him; he grabbed her ankle and twisted. Max turned with it and flipped over kicking him in the chest with the other foot. He fell to the floor and swept his legs around in a scissor movement knocking her to the ground too.
She did a back flip and got to her feet at the same time as he did. They circled each other and 494 felt the rush of adrenaline he always got when he had 452 riled up and ready to attack, it was a singular rush.
Always ready to kick some ass, Max was the first to break their stalemate and she punched out at his face, he deflected it and began to parry of blows that they traded without let up for a solid three minutes until a snap of a dry twig had them reeling around back to back to cover their backs instead of face to face.
While they had been intent on beating the crap out of each other they had been encircled by Unit 5.
"Dammit." Max hissed still in fighting stance.
"We can handle this." He eyed the guns.
"This is entirely your fault."
"How'd you figure that?" he glanced over his shoulder at her incredulously.
"I wanted to go back to base but you just couldn't shut up. Yap yap yap."
He let his stance drop slightly as he half turned "Oh so it's my fault you got all defensive?"
"Duh." She glared back at him, ignoring the amused glances Unit 5 were giving each other. "And I am not defensive."
"You wrote the book on it Princess." He gestured widely.
"Oh like you can read." She put her hands on her hips and faced him again.
"Yeah and I can count too, 1…2…now." they twirled together and she kicked out at one member of Unit 5 while he smacked one out with his elbow.
Max twirled faster than she thought possible as she knocked the guns out of the hands of the surrounding transgenics closest to her like Alec had gestured to her. He took out the two on his left whilst she did a damn fine job of kicking ass.
Alec smacked the transgenic in front of him and watched as he fell to the floor with a satisfied smile. He turned and waited as Max was kicking the ribs in of another transgenic soldier. He leaned against the nearest tree and watched her with a smirk.
"Need help?"
"As if." She huffed and the last transgenic fell to the ground, unconscious. He glanced around at the bodies.
"See, we make a good team." He said moving closer. She spun out of her last stance and before he knew what she was doing she bought her foot up in a sharp arch and kicked him…below the belt.
"Shhhhhiii-" he fell to his knees and held his hands over his privates in a protective gesture. "W-w-what the hell was that for?" he gasped
"Don't call me Princess." She replied archly and walked away with a smirk and a hitch in her step.
510 was wondering where the two of them had got to, they had all managed to make it back ages ago and were waiting to report to Renfo on the success of their assignment when 452 sauntered into the command centre and over to her friends with a grin.
"Where's 494?" 510 asked her.
"He'll be…hobbling in soon." She responded and 510 wondered at her wording.
It was another five minutes before 494 finally arrived to hand in the flag and report and he was limping slightly and grimaced whenever he had to stand…or sit.
494 gritted his teeth as he stood to report to Renfro about the success of their mission.
"We managed to get in without detection; however we were almost compromised when several of the guards returned from lunch without warning. 452 set up a diversion and we managed to obtain the flag as ordered. On the way back we were ambushed by some who had ascertained that the artefact was missing and we had to subdue the soldiers before we could make it back."
"So you got the goods but didn't manage to make it in and out unannounced?" she sighed "Well you were against transgenics, I surmise that against civilian or ordinaries, you would have been 100% successful." She shrugged. "It's something to look into. Dismissed."
494 waited until 452 was almost passed him before he leaned in and hissed
"I'll get you back for that."
She grinned cheekily "I'll look forward to it."
~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~
Ethos- Glad it amuses!
Freedom Angel- LOL, so what do you think about the pics then?
Messymissy- I do tend to update a lot don't I? I just want people to enjoy the stories as much as I love writing them. As for your Q. It was originally planned to be O.C so that Max had someone on Seattle but I nixed that idea about halfway through…hey it could be Diamond! She taught O.C to talk the talk. But anyway no Bill's niece isn't O.C.
Sigma1- annoying in what way? Constructive criticism appreciated.
Natasgi- Oh they will- they are perfect for each other after all.
Et- I was tired, brain not working well. Any suggestions to better my fight scenes?
Nat452- Thanks pet, Max and Alec have a bumpy road ahead.
Brynnmissy- Aw thanks hon, hope this keeps up with expectations
Fan- Welcome aboard, glad you like it.
Allison_lightning- Max beat Brin's ass in acrobatics! She rocks. Plus in Wyoming Max used acrobatics to help her through the obstacle course so she's better.
Ting- They have so much in common- they just need to realise it and stop screaming at each other so much!
Cloudburst- yes you did! I know what you mean when I was doing exams I spent more time surfing for new stories than actual revision- my bad! (Just don't tell your parents please!) Glad you liked the banter and fight scenes. Love triangle? Nah I got someone in mind for Biggs. I know the descriptions are big and there are a load of new characters but all will be revealed- I hope! (yes it was Riley!) HSH can be read on Agora- It's called Wild Boys. You can email me for the URL.
GivenAlias- Thank you very much, after reading a lot of fic I found the middle ground better since I tend to skip a lot of descriptive language. Glad someone feels the same.
Marielle- Cheers- they are hot aren't they! Yeah Bulli was an X5 so he had to be at least semi-cute...urgh!
Elizabeth Arden- You are Sunny? Great I hope I'm writing you true to form!
Cesium- Cheers pet, they are a comedic duo aren't they?
Melinda- Hey pet, glad it's still holding interest. They seem to be writing themselves! Not so sure about Zan, he's complicated. Look forward to an email from you.
Darkangel562- Thank you for the sweet review, Hope you liked this part as much.
Raven- What can I say…Max has issues! But never fear Alec is tenacious to the last and will go for it as much as he can. Glad you liked the interaction.
Nat1- I know, that's why I make chapters long. These get longer soon. This was okay length though. See A/N- what do you think?
Acb- Thanks, thy were some of my fave lines too. Love is never easy.
Kim- Alec wants Max all for himself, we want Alec all for himself…ahh what's a girl to do?
JG- Hey! Delighted that you like the conversations- they are a pleasure to write.
Kathryn Buffy Gellar- I'm so getting into trouble for people screwing their revision aren't I? LOL INFALLIABLE? I wish! I know about the guys, I mean hello Pix and Mets! X5's with attitude I swear. You can have Zane if you want him. As for why you missed me before? I was a Willow/Spike fan, only recent to Dark Angel…not bad for a newbie huh? BTW see A/N tell me what you think.
Athena- Yeah 510 is Biggs, if you got to my site you can see names for all of the designations.
Elfie- Thanks darling. I live for your praise! Heat is important from someone's view- I can't tell you much but see the next chapter. The seizures also play a huge part in the chapter after that. all questions will be answered and if not…hey ask again! Seattle is bigger because in Season 2 Logan said that all of the bases had been consolidated there. I assumed it was bigger.
Angel21- Hey sorry I didn't reply to your last review- my bad. Max is happier- she rocks doesn't she. Thanks for reviewing its great to hear from you.