AN: Don't worry; Logan will be brought back to the story- just not yet. I've just scooted him away for a bit.
Max found the right block number and looked up the landing. There were just too many stairs. She sighed and used the fire escape instead. It was early morning. Balled up newspaper littered the ground, tumbling with the breeze left over from last nights acid rain. It was especially chilly this morning. Terminal City was starting to stir with the rest of Seattle. Max climbed inside an open window, she was on the third story and already- she could hear infants crying for attention. Max smiled faintly; she liked kids when they weren't her responsibility.
"Hey!" It was a young kid who called out.
Max turned around, lowering her eyes from her inspection of the hallway, "Yeah?"
"Who are you? I've never seen you here before." The kid was probably fourteen; she assumed he was another division of X6. He had sandy blond hair that had been spiked and he wore a navy blue hoodie to both keep warm and conceal his barcode.
"Never been here before." Max saw the suspicion in his eyes; he turned to run for help. "Hold it." Max said sharply, she turned around and showed him her barcode.
"X5-452. Name's Max." She let go of the hair she had been holding.
He had relaxed and smiled softly, "X5, that's the division that got out in '09, cool."
Max smiled softly at the memory, "Yup."
"I'm X6, names Dalton. Gem mentioned you yesterday, said you might come by." Dalton looked over his shoulder; "She's probably awake by now so you can come on with me."
"Awake?" Max asked. "We don't need sleep."
Dalton laughed, "Obviously you've never shared a hall with twenty two other new mothers and their screaming babies." He smiled, "Transgenics don't need sleep during wartime, but if you're around that many kids at once, it can kick anyone's a…"
"Hey," Max scolded, "Watch the language."
"Sorry."
She smiled softly, "It's cool."
Max made her way down the flaking hall. Wallpaper hung in disarray, lights flickered to stay alight, and there were no air conditioners or heating system. It reminded her of her own home with Cindy.
Dalton led Max into an old office. There were lavender curtains hanging from the two windows to her left. Mix matched chairs had been placed in a corner around a small table of sorts. There was a desk near the window, which served as a changing table. A paper basket was nestled under the desk, recently emptied of its soiled diapers.
"Hey Gem!" Dalton called out; he closed the door behind Max. "Max is here!"
"Be right out!" Gem's voice floated from another office, which connected to the one they were standing in.
Max didn't sit down, Dalton hurriedly straightened the make shift living room. He threw all of the toys into another wastebasket, wiped down the table, and opened the blinds that hung from the windows. Gem came out from the back room, baby in her arms, "Dalton, put Cali to sleep. I'm gonna go on a walk with Max."
"Ok." Dalton carefully held Cali in his arms, and without complaint he started to rock the little girl and pat her back softly.
Gem grabbed her jacket and sipped it up to her chin; she raised the hood and smiled at Max. "Let's go."
Once outside, Gem initiated the conversation. "I gather you found out?"
"You could say that." Max answered coldly.
Gem nodded, they made their way into one of the courtyards and took a seat on an iron bench.
"You're not the only one you know." Gem offered. "Actually, there's another X6 here just last week who found her baby. Little boy, named Hayden."
"Yeah?"
"Yeah."
There was a brief silence. "I came here to talk about the surrogate."
"Oh?"
Max pulled out the folder she had kept hidden in her jacket since her arrival. She slipped out the tabbed photo and showed it to Gem. "Do you remember her?"
Gem took the picture and studied the image.
The woman was nineteen years old. Just a kid. She had soft eyes and smile. Her hair hung in waves of amber gold to her shoulders. Her eyes were bright green.
"Oh yeah, I remember her." Gem nodded with raised eyebrows. "Tried to escape, more than once."
Max's brows furrowed, "Really?"
"Yeah." Gem nodded. "She was really small- I remember the fertility doctors told her she had to gain at least fifteen additional pounds before she could take part in the program."
"What made her want out?"
Gem shrugged and handed the photo back to Max, "It's not uncommon. When the surrogates got there, Renfro made sure that they didn't know what Manticore really was. But she found out somehow. She developed a relationship with one of the doctors. Each time she tried to escape, it was because of that doctor. Because of her flight risk, Renfro ordered her to have an induced labor."
"And?"
Gem shrugged, "I don't know what happened to her after that. A few days later, Manticore went up in flames- from what I hear you're the one responsible." Gem smiled softly, "I was happy someone finally had the balls to do it."
Max sighed, "Guess I'm still at square one, unless I come across one of these Manticore doctors or somethin'."
Gem smiled sympathetically, "Sorry I can't be more of help."
Max shrugged, forcing away her disappointment, "It's ok. Story of my life, I'm used to it."
Just then, a scuffling noise, a thud, and a child screaming interrupted the quiet. Gem and Max both sprang to their feet. Max's ears picked up the source before Gem, she sprinted in that direction. The two ran down an alleyway, Gem was shouting after Max but she couldn't hear the words.
Max turned down a dark alleyway. She found a group of X children, beating on another child.
"Hey!" Max barked.
The children looked up suddenly, knowing she was X5 simply by her photo that their unit had been shown before Manticore was compromised. This was 452. This was the X5 who escaped Manticore in '09. X5 were top of the line in genetics. Knowing this, most of the children scattered immediately. But Max was able to grab the collar of one of them before he too ran away.
Gem finally caught up to Max, "Jim!" She snapped, "What do you think you're doing?"
The boy struggled in Max's grasp, "It was trespassing! It was here last week too and we told it to not come back!"
Gem took a hold of the boys arm. "I'm taking you to Elra." She looked at Max, "This happens a lot."
Max nodded, "Take him back, I'll take this one."
"They're not like us Max." Gem murmured. "Be careful."
Max didn't speak. Gem and the little boy left the alleyway, Gem scolding him the entire way.
Max crouched down to the child who had huddled into a ball. Max laid a gentle hand on his shoulder. "Hey kid, you ok?"
The transhuman child lowered his gloved hands from his face. He blinked away a second eyelid. Max almost jumped, but smothered her nerves. The little boy staring at her was covered in mousy gray fur. He had cat eyes that sparkled with the mischief that comes from being of feline ancestry. He didn't say anything, and then Max saw the small tears that had begun to leak from his feline eyes and trail across his fuzzy cheeks.
"You ok?" Max repeated.
He shook his head no, "My arm hurts." He whispered in a scratchy voice.
"Oh?" Max asked simply. "Why's it hurt?"
He pulled it closer to his body.
Max put a hand on her hip, "Now we can't fix it if you don't show it to me."
Hesitantly, the boy held out his forearm. Max rolled up his sleeve, carefully. She saw the deep cut that lanced from wrist to elbow. It was deep, and trickling with a steady flow of blood. Max tore off a piece of her shirt, exposing her mid drift. She tied the cloth around his arm.
"What's that?" The little boy asked through gritted teeth.
He was pointing at her exposed flesh. Max quickly zipped up the jacket, hiding the spider web scars from his eyes. From everyone's eyes. "Come on," Max tightened the knot. "I'll take you home."
