A/N: *shakes head* this chapter is SO bad. Oh yeah, and you know if you guys are gonna review? Can you only click the review button once? I keep getting several reviews twice. Thanks dudes
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Chapter thirty-seven: Sweet Misery
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'No respect for the girly arts, that place. I had to torch it.'
-Max on Manticore (Bag 'Em)
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'You're cynical and beautiful
You always make a scene
You're monochrome delirious
You're nothing that you seem'
- The Goo Goo Dolls (Dizzy)
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Erin stared at herself in horror. "My God, what have you done to me?!" She continued to stare at herself in the full length mirror in front of her.
Erin couldn't believe they'd do something like this to her. She'd thought they were her friends and then they went and did this. If they thought this was funny they had another thing coming. This was just so, so wrong. Why did they have to pick on her? Well, okay, they hadn't picked on her but this was damn near torture.
Syl had dragged her off to a secluded apartment in Terminal City. Opening the door, she had revealed Max, Jondy, Lee, Cindy and Jace, all in different stages of dressing up.
The place was fairly liveable by TC standards. It looked a bit like Max's old apartment. Some walls looked unfinished but it was private. It had a tiny bathroom, a bedroom and a living area with a little alcove that would be considered a kitchen if it weren't for the mould growing over it.
"Fresh meat girls!" Syl had grinned wickedly, dumping Erin in an old wooden chair. It seemed like they had raided the clothing supply and had gotten their hands on a range of new clothes. Erin didn't want to know where they'd got the make-up from.
"What's goin' on?" Erin watched with a kind of dread creeping over her.
"I decided we needed to boost moral. We're gonna have a party" Max grinned as she finished putting on some eyeliner. "Krit got us a sound system and Lee checked out the clothes supply."
"Yeah" Jondy grinned "we're gonna drive the men wild."
"Oh well" Erin stood up quickly "I better be goin' then." She headed to the door only to have both arms grabbed by two X5s.
"Oh no" Syl grinned as Erin was literally lifted off of her feet and dumped back in the wooden chair "you're joining us too."
"But I don't want to get dressed up! I'm not in a part mood and I don't want to drive the men wild! Really! I'm fine the way I am!"
Erin's eyes widened as Jondy and Cindy picked up an arm load of cosmetics as Lee and Jace brought over an arm load of clothes and dumped them on the old couch that sat in the middle of the room.
"Well, there's a certain X5 we know who would wanna see you dressed up and getting' your swerve on" Jace smirked as the women began to close in.
"What? No there isn't!" protested Erin as she began to look for a way to escape them. There wasn't a way out. She was doomed. "Please guys! No!"
They moved in.
Now, Erin stared at herself in the morrow as the others looked at their handiwork in satisfaction.
"We've really outdone ourselves this time" Cindy murmured with a grin. "Who'd have thought?"
Erin's hair- normally messy, was sleek and smooth, back in the shape it was meant to be in. No one in TC really cared about their appearance due to the whole military threat an all. While Lee had done her hair, Cindy had applied dark blue eye shadow and black mascara. Her eyes now looked dark and mysterious. Jace had gone in search of some footwear and Max had plucked Erin's eyebrows- a painful experience. Syl had acted as a kind of bodyguard, making sure Erin didn't bolt at any glimpse of freedom. Jondy was searching though the pile of clothes, looking for something suitable for Erin, making sure that it wouldn't show any of the scars Erin was so careful to hide. Max had suggested something dark because in her dream, her black clothes had made Erin look her real age. In the end, as Cindy had forced Erin to put on some dark lipstick, Jondy and Max had chosen some leather trousers and a tight, formfitting sleeveless purple top with a plunging neckline.
When she'd emerged from the bathroom, Erin had looked like someone with attitude to spare, which in way, was true.
"You're insane" Erin glared at them and folded her arms. "You can't possibly think that I'll go anywhere like this in public?"
"Max said you were wearing less on her dream and besides," Lee wiggled her eyebrows "we could always carry you?"
Erin glared again. "These aren't my kind clothes!" She picked up her other clothes and stalked out of the apartment, careful not to trip up in the high heeled boots Jace had got her. "Some friends you are!" Laughter followed her as her 'friends' grabbed their own stuff and followed her.
"Hey guys" Krit grinned from his crouched position on the floor in front of a huge set of speakers. "Looking good."
They were in one of the warehouses near the training room. Drink and food had been smuggled in and set up on tables near the sound system. Transgenics not on guard duty were milling around aimlessly. Some of them didn't know how to party, while the ones who did were too nervous to start dancing.
Erin wandered in to the warehouse after dumping her clothes back on the couch on the 6th floor. She'd given Alec his bed back by going to sleep on it before he came back from HQ. He had no choice but to take his bed back and Erin was fine with that. Her pulled muscles were pretty much better now and she only had the odd bruise remaining from her run in on the supply mission. Alec still had the bullet hole in his leg but thanks to transgenic healing, he didn't need the crutches now.
Erin joined Max and the others after picking up a bottle of bear. Oh, how she'd missed alcohol. It didn't help about the different age limit in this country.
"Wow!" Krit's eyes went wide at the sight of Erin as she looked around her, looking bored.
"Hey!" Syl hit him upside the head "Remember me?! You're girlfriend?"
Krit rolled his eyes "Syl, I don't think of Erin like that. I just meant she looked different. Better."
He rubbed the back of his head and leant back down to fiddle with some wires in a speaker. Suddenly, music erupted from it making several people jump. Krit grinned triumphantly "Viola! I'm a genius. Go party!" He gestured to the area everyone seemed to be avoiding- the dance floor.
The girls grinned and headed over to it. "And Syl?" Krit called before she got a foot away. Syl turned around, still looking slightly pissed off. Krit grinned and winked. "You look good too." Blushing slightly, Syl walked away to join her sisters.
Erin didn't go to dance. Instead, she crouched down next to Krit to see what he'd done to the speakers. "Not bad" she grinned at him and Krit shrugged back.
"I've worked in a few clubs; they always have something that needs fixing."
They both straightened up and Erin looked around her- her bored expression back in place.
"Why aren't you dancin'?" Krit looked around at the other transgenics as they wandered closer, drawn by the music and laughter of Syl and the others.
Erin folded took a swig of her beer and shrugged "Don't really feel like partyin'."
Krit raised an eyebrow and looked down at her outfit. "So you're wearing that because?"
In the crowd he could see several appreciative looks from some of the X6 boys and a few from some X5 males. Krit edged protectively closer, his instincts kicking in. Erin was Alec's. Just because he hadn't officially taken her as his mate yet, didn't mean they could try to move in on her. He shot several of them warning glances but they didn't seem to notice.
Erin rolled her eyes at his question. "Kidnap, my friend. Kidnap. It was an extremely traumatic experience." She gave him a deadly serous look "Never let them corner you, man."
Krit chuckled and shook his head. "I'll keep that in mind."
Sketchy ran into Headquarters and into Alec's office without knocking.
"Sketchy? What is it?" Alec stood up immediately as did Zack, Zane and Mole who were there discussing some changes in security.
Sketchy took a second to catch his breath and grinned at them broadly. "The party's started."
Alec stared. "And?"
Sketchy's grin grew even larger. "It's Erin. Man, you gotta see her! She's different- I mean… aww, you gotta go see for yourself!" Sketchy blew hair from his face as he watched expectantly.
Alec rolled his eyes, hiding his curiosity.
For the last few days, everyone had felt the animosity between Ale and Erin whenever they were in the same room together. They wouldn't look at each other and they seemed to be avoiding each other.
"That's it? That's why you ran in here? Dude, you need to get your priorities right."
"So do you" Sketchy grinned "We have booze!"
Alec shrugged and looked back down at his paperwork. "You know that I enjoy a party as much as the next man, but I've got work to do. I'll go later- if I've got time."
"I think the meeting's finished" Zane stood up and gave Mole and Zack a meaningful look, "if we think of anything else, we'll tell you. Right guys?"
Zack nodded. "Yeah, you need to relax. The paperwork can wait until morning."
Mole nodded and blew a puff of smoke into the air. He scowled at his CO. He was sick of people dancin' around each other. The sooner Alec and Erin got it on, the better. "You're goin' to that damned party now" the big lizard dude told him. "Or I'll start singing Celine Dion or whatever it was Logan was trying to sing this morning. I've had that damn Titanic song stuck in my head all friggin' day!
Alec stood up immediately, his hands held up in surrender. "Okay, okay, I'm going! No need to resort to torture!"
As he walked out the door, he didn't see the 4 men grin at each other triumphantly as they followed him.
Next Chapter: Bodyshock…
"Erin, we need to talk" Alec looked down at seriously.
Slowly, she looked back up at him and the room seemed to disappear. Suddenly, there was no one there but them and this was exactly how it was meant to be.
She waited for him to answer, lost in his eyes. Only thing was, he wasn't looking at her eyes. He was looking at her lips and whatever it was he had wanted to say seemed to have disappeared from his mind. His head began to lower…
A/N: *does a little dance* I'm evil, I'm evil :P
Marty: Dude, you have a dirty mind. The whole tasting comment was about her wanting to KISS him!
Elin: *grins* I've told ya dude! I CAN'T tell you how Erin's special!
Cat X5-989: Sorry, she's short. I'm thinking 5'3 or 5/4.
Riley: Sorry dude, 'him' is not Sandeman or a clone of somebody. Damn, I'm evil.
Messymissy: Sorry dude, the scars on Erin are from when she was tortured. Max is gonna have another dream in a few chapters and things will SLOWLY begin to fall into place.
