Hey guys! Wow, thank you so much for the reviews, especially Julie Pusch
and Stretch2. Misty7 – Thanks for your support and advice and candyabble –
you find out where Max is next and Diamond*Princess - the rape's gonna
happen in the next chapter, I had to write some background first.
Without those reviews, I wouldn't have updated so quickly! Well, actually
I cheated, I already had half of this chapter written, but I did manage to
finish it this week, even though I had to revise for a nasty German oral!
Hope you enjoy this chap!
CHAPTER 2
Alec looked around the abandoned warehouse, blowing a stray hair off his forehead as he sighed. There was nothing here to indicate a struggle or, in fact to indicate that anyone had been here since the Pulse.
Mole had been organising the search of the others for Max when he caught sight of Alec standing by himself on the side. After the rest of the team had reported their non-existent findings, he had sent them to search around the creaky building and then he went over to Alec. "You know, all this brooding and frowning will spoil your pretty looks" he told Alec in a motherly tone, as he puffed away on the cigar that was hanging out of his mouth.
"Yeah, yeah" replied Alec sourly. "You know those cigars are shortening your life span as we speak?"
"Hell, what could kill me? I'm a bad ass with a shotgun and I'm a transgenic Manticorian killing machine, and in the end, so is she. She can deal with it pretty boy, and when we find her she'll probably make some smart ass remark about what took us so long." Mole said to his gloomy friend, trying desperately to cheer him up. It wasn't like Alec to be so down – hell, from his cell in the basement at Manticore Mole had seen everyone entering and leaving Psy-Ops. Only Alec had been the same leaving, and Psy-Ops was rough shit. Alec didn't normally give up.
"I know Mole. Its just ... she was my only friend in Manticore and when I started out here. Its strange, but I sorta miss her insults and kickin' my ass." Alec straightened up his shoulders and looked the transgenic lizard beside him in the face. "Thanks for trying to cheer me up lizard breath. But you know a couple of strippers and some beer would have worked like a charm. Note that down for future reference." Alec smiled his cocky grin at Mole and took off before Mole could think of a suitable retort.
Mole watched Alec go outside to join the others in the hunt and hoped that Max's second-in-command was back to normal now. The transgenics couldn't deal with the loss of two of its charismatic leaders.
"Over here Alec!" yelled an X5 that Alec didn't know by name yet.
"What have we got?" asked Alec hurriedly, hoping desperately that it was Max, and not some evidence that she had been kidnapped or killed.
The guy who had yelled for Alec looked steadily at him, but Alec could see the glint of worry that the transgenic was trying to hide. "Its Max's motorcycle."
Alec looked at the machine and thought of all the times that he had seen Max on it. "Right, let's search the surrounding area. As Max is not inside, it means that she's gone and she wouldn't have left her `baby` out in the open like this."
"Hell no" grinned Mole "She takes more care of that thing than Gem takes care of her baby."
The others all grinned – they knew how protective Max was of her transportation, and they had all witnessed Max blowing up at Alec in the control room after he had `borrowed` her bike to use it on a mission. The group of mismatched transgenics spread out, looking for evidence of Max's passing. It was Alec that found it.
Alec caught sight of the small patch of dark red, lying on the tarmac near where the motorcycle stood. His sensitive nose, thanks to the feline DNA in his cocktail, picked up the unmistakable odour of blood. His worst fears had been realised. Looking around, he caught sight of another patch of blood. Slowly, he stood up, and walked towards the second patch. The others, puzzled by his strange behaviour looked on. As Alec saw yet another small patch of blood, he realised that he finally had a trail to follow.
He followed the trail of blood droplets, quickening his pace. The other transgenics followed him, realising what Alec had spotted. The tracks went around the back of the warehouse and then, they stopped. Alec was desperate, where could have happened? Then, the cold shiver running down his spine intensified as Mole began to speak.
"There's petrol on the ground, as if a vehicle suddenly pulled away." Mole faltered, not knowing what to say next, a stark contrast to his normal wisecracking and tactless behaviour. Mole knew what had happened and knew that it was the worst thing that could have happened to the transgenics.
A shiver ran through the group of transgenics, who couldn't feel the chill in the nighttime Seattle air, as Alec's words penetrated their ears, with a coldness that unsettled even the most hardened soldier, "She's been kidnapped."
Max groaned slightly as she came to. From the amount her head hurt, she figured that she had been out of action for about 6 hours, almost unheard of for her, courtesy of her shark DNA. Before opening her eyes, she took stock of her situation – couldn't move arms or legs, no breeze and one heck of a migraine. All in all, her usual shit situation – she'd been captured.
Finally Max opened her eyes to immediately shut them again, against the blinding light. Slowly opening them, she registered the clinical cleanliness of the room and the fact that she was restrained to the steel table that was in the middle of it. Tilting her head slightly to the side she saw a surgical tray, full of nasty, sharp instruments that she had no doubt would find their way into her skin, sooner or later. Max then leaned her head to the left and immediately wished that she hadn't. Sitting confidently on a chair was the biggest son-of-a-bitch of them all, Ames White. He looked at her calculatedly and coldly, before smiling at her, "Hello 452,"
Alec pulled out his mobile and quickly dialled a number, still staring at the petrol tracks on the ground. "Dix, she's been kidnapped. We've got petrol tracks here; looks like a heavy armoured vehicle from the amount. Hack around the net and see if you can find any records or hoverdrome footage of trucks leaving the warehouse and follow it back to their base. We'll follow the petrol trail as far as it leads us," Alec spoke quickly into the handset, his voice not betraying the anxiety and fear he felt.
"Sure thing Alec, but it may take a while. Phone Logan and ask him if he could try and find any info too, they may have avoided detection. Anyway, it'll be quicker with two on the case." The transgenic in TC tried his best to behave like the soldier he had been trained to be, but Dix was still afraid for Max, and Alec. Like Joshua, Dix had perceived that something apart from arguments linked the two leaders together.
"Alright, hit me back as soon as you have anything."
"Got it."
The transgenics prepped their transports and tried to think of ways to trace Max, while Alec dialled Logan's number.
"Hey Logan, we've traced her to the warehouse, but there's signs of a struggle and a petrol trail. She's been captured. Can you try and track her down, Dix is also working on it back at TC?"
"Captured?" Logan's voice faltered on the other end of the line. "I'll get on it straight away. What kind of vehicle do you think it was?"
"Heavy truck, maybe armoured or military. Do your best, we'll follow the trail till you or Dix finds something."
"I'm on it." There was a click as Logan put down the phone to commence busily tapping away at his keyboard.
Alec put his phone away and looked up at the others. "Come on, we'll do the best we can till Dix or Logan gets us more information." With that, he and the other transgenics got onto their bikes and zoomed off, following the slight trail.
Oh shit, Max thought, giving no sign of her anxiety. "Ames, we gotta stop meeting like this, otherwise people might get the wrong idea." Max looked at him, trying to act like her normal badass self.
White smirked and stood up, going over to one of the white walls of Max's prison. "Do you know what's going to happen next, 452?"
"You'll torture me, ask various inane questions, threaten me with several things, blah blah, woof woof," Max said, giving the constraints around her hands a testing jerk.
"I wouldn't do that you know, you might hurt something," White replied, without even turning around from the wall.
"And you expect me to believe that you're not gonna hurt me?" Max scoffed, realising the truth of what he said. Damn him to the worst kind of hell possible. The constraints were steel cuffs, tightly screwed into position, the same at her ankles.
"No," White said, turning at last to look at her. "You know that I am going to cause you a lot of pain. Another way in which we are better than transgenics, we don't feel pain." White stalked across the room to the table with the sinister looking implements. He picked up one knife, with a wicked-looking razor-sharp edge to it, holding it up to the light to make it glint. "You took my son from me 452, I want to know where he is. Are you going to tell me now, or must I use this beauty?" His eyes practically begged her to choose the second option. Although he wanted to know where his son was, White wanted to make the transgenic lying in front of him suffer for causing him so much heartache over the past year. Ames loved Ray more than anything else and he didn't know what had happened to him.
"I hate to be predictable Amesie, but you can kiss my transgenic ass!" Max knew that she was in trouble, but she was a soldier and a badass. Hell, she'd survived Manticore twice - next to that, a Familiar was nothing. Max knew that it was bravado and also that she wouldn't give in.
"Oh well, so much for being a gentleman," White sighed mockingly and held up another, much duller blade. "Which one would you like me to use first?"
~~~
That's that. Was that an evil cliff-hanger? Grins evilly. Sorry. I'll try and update soon, but I don't know what I mean by soon, hopefully within the next two weeks. As usual reviews would be greatly appreciated and for those that reviewed last time, thanks again!
CHAPTER 2
Alec looked around the abandoned warehouse, blowing a stray hair off his forehead as he sighed. There was nothing here to indicate a struggle or, in fact to indicate that anyone had been here since the Pulse.
Mole had been organising the search of the others for Max when he caught sight of Alec standing by himself on the side. After the rest of the team had reported their non-existent findings, he had sent them to search around the creaky building and then he went over to Alec. "You know, all this brooding and frowning will spoil your pretty looks" he told Alec in a motherly tone, as he puffed away on the cigar that was hanging out of his mouth.
"Yeah, yeah" replied Alec sourly. "You know those cigars are shortening your life span as we speak?"
"Hell, what could kill me? I'm a bad ass with a shotgun and I'm a transgenic Manticorian killing machine, and in the end, so is she. She can deal with it pretty boy, and when we find her she'll probably make some smart ass remark about what took us so long." Mole said to his gloomy friend, trying desperately to cheer him up. It wasn't like Alec to be so down – hell, from his cell in the basement at Manticore Mole had seen everyone entering and leaving Psy-Ops. Only Alec had been the same leaving, and Psy-Ops was rough shit. Alec didn't normally give up.
"I know Mole. Its just ... she was my only friend in Manticore and when I started out here. Its strange, but I sorta miss her insults and kickin' my ass." Alec straightened up his shoulders and looked the transgenic lizard beside him in the face. "Thanks for trying to cheer me up lizard breath. But you know a couple of strippers and some beer would have worked like a charm. Note that down for future reference." Alec smiled his cocky grin at Mole and took off before Mole could think of a suitable retort.
Mole watched Alec go outside to join the others in the hunt and hoped that Max's second-in-command was back to normal now. The transgenics couldn't deal with the loss of two of its charismatic leaders.
"Over here Alec!" yelled an X5 that Alec didn't know by name yet.
"What have we got?" asked Alec hurriedly, hoping desperately that it was Max, and not some evidence that she had been kidnapped or killed.
The guy who had yelled for Alec looked steadily at him, but Alec could see the glint of worry that the transgenic was trying to hide. "Its Max's motorcycle."
Alec looked at the machine and thought of all the times that he had seen Max on it. "Right, let's search the surrounding area. As Max is not inside, it means that she's gone and she wouldn't have left her `baby` out in the open like this."
"Hell no" grinned Mole "She takes more care of that thing than Gem takes care of her baby."
The others all grinned – they knew how protective Max was of her transportation, and they had all witnessed Max blowing up at Alec in the control room after he had `borrowed` her bike to use it on a mission. The group of mismatched transgenics spread out, looking for evidence of Max's passing. It was Alec that found it.
Alec caught sight of the small patch of dark red, lying on the tarmac near where the motorcycle stood. His sensitive nose, thanks to the feline DNA in his cocktail, picked up the unmistakable odour of blood. His worst fears had been realised. Looking around, he caught sight of another patch of blood. Slowly, he stood up, and walked towards the second patch. The others, puzzled by his strange behaviour looked on. As Alec saw yet another small patch of blood, he realised that he finally had a trail to follow.
He followed the trail of blood droplets, quickening his pace. The other transgenics followed him, realising what Alec had spotted. The tracks went around the back of the warehouse and then, they stopped. Alec was desperate, where could have happened? Then, the cold shiver running down his spine intensified as Mole began to speak.
"There's petrol on the ground, as if a vehicle suddenly pulled away." Mole faltered, not knowing what to say next, a stark contrast to his normal wisecracking and tactless behaviour. Mole knew what had happened and knew that it was the worst thing that could have happened to the transgenics.
A shiver ran through the group of transgenics, who couldn't feel the chill in the nighttime Seattle air, as Alec's words penetrated their ears, with a coldness that unsettled even the most hardened soldier, "She's been kidnapped."
Max groaned slightly as she came to. From the amount her head hurt, she figured that she had been out of action for about 6 hours, almost unheard of for her, courtesy of her shark DNA. Before opening her eyes, she took stock of her situation – couldn't move arms or legs, no breeze and one heck of a migraine. All in all, her usual shit situation – she'd been captured.
Finally Max opened her eyes to immediately shut them again, against the blinding light. Slowly opening them, she registered the clinical cleanliness of the room and the fact that she was restrained to the steel table that was in the middle of it. Tilting her head slightly to the side she saw a surgical tray, full of nasty, sharp instruments that she had no doubt would find their way into her skin, sooner or later. Max then leaned her head to the left and immediately wished that she hadn't. Sitting confidently on a chair was the biggest son-of-a-bitch of them all, Ames White. He looked at her calculatedly and coldly, before smiling at her, "Hello 452,"
Alec pulled out his mobile and quickly dialled a number, still staring at the petrol tracks on the ground. "Dix, she's been kidnapped. We've got petrol tracks here; looks like a heavy armoured vehicle from the amount. Hack around the net and see if you can find any records or hoverdrome footage of trucks leaving the warehouse and follow it back to their base. We'll follow the petrol trail as far as it leads us," Alec spoke quickly into the handset, his voice not betraying the anxiety and fear he felt.
"Sure thing Alec, but it may take a while. Phone Logan and ask him if he could try and find any info too, they may have avoided detection. Anyway, it'll be quicker with two on the case." The transgenic in TC tried his best to behave like the soldier he had been trained to be, but Dix was still afraid for Max, and Alec. Like Joshua, Dix had perceived that something apart from arguments linked the two leaders together.
"Alright, hit me back as soon as you have anything."
"Got it."
The transgenics prepped their transports and tried to think of ways to trace Max, while Alec dialled Logan's number.
"Hey Logan, we've traced her to the warehouse, but there's signs of a struggle and a petrol trail. She's been captured. Can you try and track her down, Dix is also working on it back at TC?"
"Captured?" Logan's voice faltered on the other end of the line. "I'll get on it straight away. What kind of vehicle do you think it was?"
"Heavy truck, maybe armoured or military. Do your best, we'll follow the trail till you or Dix finds something."
"I'm on it." There was a click as Logan put down the phone to commence busily tapping away at his keyboard.
Alec put his phone away and looked up at the others. "Come on, we'll do the best we can till Dix or Logan gets us more information." With that, he and the other transgenics got onto their bikes and zoomed off, following the slight trail.
Oh shit, Max thought, giving no sign of her anxiety. "Ames, we gotta stop meeting like this, otherwise people might get the wrong idea." Max looked at him, trying to act like her normal badass self.
White smirked and stood up, going over to one of the white walls of Max's prison. "Do you know what's going to happen next, 452?"
"You'll torture me, ask various inane questions, threaten me with several things, blah blah, woof woof," Max said, giving the constraints around her hands a testing jerk.
"I wouldn't do that you know, you might hurt something," White replied, without even turning around from the wall.
"And you expect me to believe that you're not gonna hurt me?" Max scoffed, realising the truth of what he said. Damn him to the worst kind of hell possible. The constraints were steel cuffs, tightly screwed into position, the same at her ankles.
"No," White said, turning at last to look at her. "You know that I am going to cause you a lot of pain. Another way in which we are better than transgenics, we don't feel pain." White stalked across the room to the table with the sinister looking implements. He picked up one knife, with a wicked-looking razor-sharp edge to it, holding it up to the light to make it glint. "You took my son from me 452, I want to know where he is. Are you going to tell me now, or must I use this beauty?" His eyes practically begged her to choose the second option. Although he wanted to know where his son was, White wanted to make the transgenic lying in front of him suffer for causing him so much heartache over the past year. Ames loved Ray more than anything else and he didn't know what had happened to him.
"I hate to be predictable Amesie, but you can kiss my transgenic ass!" Max knew that she was in trouble, but she was a soldier and a badass. Hell, she'd survived Manticore twice - next to that, a Familiar was nothing. Max knew that it was bravado and also that she wouldn't give in.
"Oh well, so much for being a gentleman," White sighed mockingly and held up another, much duller blade. "Which one would you like me to use first?"
~~~
That's that. Was that an evil cliff-hanger? Grins evilly. Sorry. I'll try and update soon, but I don't know what I mean by soon, hopefully within the next two weeks. As usual reviews would be greatly appreciated and for those that reviewed last time, thanks again!