Chapter Four: Revelation

"Ow," Luxie muttered and rubbed her neck. Somehow – something had happened and she was not quite sure what it was. She looked around finding Heresy sitting on a chair looking very angry and Dustin standing by the door watching her.

"What happened?" she asked confused.

"Mister I-Sell-Guns said another guy came in, knocked you conscious at the same time that my soldier rammed his head against mine. Then they ran away like wimps."

"They threatened me first," Dustin added to make sure she got the whole story.

"They didn't kill you? They had open way with us in Lala Land."

"I'm not complaining," Dustin said. And indeed he was not. It seemed that the anger he had shown towards Luxie before the 'attack' had fled completely and he had returned to his calm and tranquil style. "I'd just like to know what's going on before I get sniped."

"That's what got your brother killed," Heresy said tactlessly. "Knowledge is quite a bummer when you're dealing with secret non-government armies."

"What?"

"You know, I think we should talk about this elsewhere," Heresy said getting up. and stretched her back and rolled her shoulders to make sure everything was in tact. "That guy had some body," she said turning to Luxie. "I mean if his ribs weren't broken and he wasn't trying to kill me, I'd do him." She walked over to the door and stopped in front of Dustin. He had not moved away and it did not seem like he was planning to do so in the future either. "Get out of my way," Heresy growled.

"What's going on?" Dustin asked, this time looking at Luxie.

"We're genetically-enhanced humans with feline DNA. She can kick your ass in half a second and…" Luxie looked like she was thinking for something else she could tell him. "Those two guys probably want to kill you so that when you're dead Manticore can take over Infinity and make lots of weapons for just themselves."

"I think this requires a lot more explanation," Dustin said calmly although he was quite overwhelmed by the information. What Luxie was saying was that the two of them were… not human.

"Oh, we belonged to a branch in Seattle." Luxie seemed like she was going to explode. She was smiling and much to enthusiastic about the whole situation.

"Let's go home and get Jondy to cut open your head this time," Heresy said and pushed Dustin aside. When she walked towards the door he held his arm in front of her and she stopped, glaring at him angrily. "You mess with me and your fingers will all be pointing in the other direction in five minutes." With a glare Dustin moved his arm away and let her pass.

"Come on, Lux," Heresy said and stepped over the bodyguards before disappearing into the crowd. Dustin turned to look at Luxie.

"My name's Luxie!" she said with a growl in Heresy's general direction. Then she turned and looked at Dustin. "Yeah. Well, I guess I won't be seeing you around. Try not to get killed," she said with a hint of sadness in her voice as she walked towards the door.

When she was beside Dustin he stopped her, lightly touching her arm. She turned to look at him and he quickly pulled his arm away.

"Uh, look, do you still have my card?"

"Don't need it. Giant memory capacity," Luxie said with a shrug. Then she remembered she had problems with remembering things. "With a defect. Yeah, I have it."

"When you have the time, come by my office," he said blandly. Luxie could not make out if he was sad, happy or angry about finding out who she really was. There was no emotion in his voice and even his body language showed nothing.

"Yeah," she said softly and then quickly disappeared into the crowd. Despite Heresy's break in and the two soldiers clad in black, the crowd on the dance floor had not changed their focus from dancing up against the opposite sex.

Jondy walked into the apartment the next morning looking upset and angry. Tom had once again run off on her, leaving her to her lonesome and alcohol. She decided that next time she saw him, she would punch him because she would not just let him run her over.

She was very amazed to find both Heresy and Luxie sitting on the couch watching the television as if it had just insulted them. Heresy was even muttering curse words under her breath.

"And I thought I had a bad night," Jondy said, grabbed a milk carton out of the fridge and walked over to slump down onto the couch next to Luxie. "What happened?"

"Wanted to get the cash they owed us, got attacked by Mister Manticore, got knocked over the head," Luxie said quickly and grabbed the milk from Jondy she took a big sip letting the milk run down her chin.

"That's disgusting."

"What Luxie forgot to tell you, sister dear," Heresy said and Jondy knew that the brunette was in a bad mood. Any time she used affectionate words she was really, really angry. "Is that Mister Infinity knows what we are."

"What?" Jondy said her eyes wide. She looked at Luxie who was trying to pull off a 'puppy-dog eyes' on her. She glared.

"Er," Luxie said trying to find the right words in the span of time it took to pronounce the word. "You see," she said slowly hoping she could by more time. "He would have figured it out eventually. He's not as stupid as you guys think he is."

"I don't think he's stupid, Luxie," Jondy said calmly. "I just think that a guy who supplies weapons to the people who are trying to kill us, is not one of the best people to know our secrets."

"He won't tell!"

"Trust me, babe," Heresy said and gave a long sigh. "Guys that want to sleep with you, will still rat you out to the enemy."

"You saw how calm he was, Heresy. I don't think he will. He knows that we're the only ones who can help him take Manticore down," Luxie said quickly and got to her feet. Her butt was getting sore from sitting down and now seemed the best dramatic moment for changing her position.

"His best customers? Na-uh," Jondy said shaking her head. "I think you should beware of that guy. I think what Heresy's saying is right – God, that sounded strange."

"I don't care what Heresy says," Luxie said snidely. "I'll be out before you tomorrow, so don't go looking for me," she said with a faint growl in her voice and stormed into her/Jondy's room. Heresy burst into a fit of laughter when the door slammed closed behind the girl.

"What now?" Jondy asked angrily. She understood that when Luxie was feeling bad, Heresy was not. The fact that their secret was out was not a particularly good thing, but she really did not appreciate Heresy laughing about their situation.

"That girl," Heresy said with a smile on her face. "If you came out of Manticore, would you think she was one of us?" Jondy looked at Heresy. It was true, Luxie was not the typical Manticore product but she was still one of them. "Manticore soldiers, especially those that have been there for eighteen years, are not whiny-assed teenagers, Jondy," Heresy said slowly and shook her head. She got up off the couch and stood at ease. "Manticore soldiers are bright, aware of their surroundings and always ready for an attack. We are drilled with discipline from the moment we being to understand the concept of yes and no, but that girl does not listen to a word anyone tells her."

"You don't either," Jondy said not quite seeing Heresy's point.

"I've been out for twelve years, big sister. Luxie has been out for what, two weeks? Sure, we were the only ones that got out of an escape since '09 but I am so sure, she is not out on a mission," Heresy said and suddenly her facial expression changed. "What did she tell you, Jondy?"

"What do you mean?"

"What happened in Seattle?"

Luxie gritted her teeth as she heard Jondy tell Heresy about Manticore. It was gone, burnt to the ground and their unit, their siblings were running free. Heresy was sure Tinga had a hand in the destruction of Manticore – she always believed that woman would get to big heights.

After a while Luxie decided she did not want to listen anymore and turned to the wall beside Jondy's bed. It was covered in the barcodes of Jondy's old unit and photos of who they might be. Luxie tried to clear her mind but she could not get the sight of Dustin's calm face out of her mind.

It had been like he knew all along but she was sure he did not. He was a mere mortal and she – she was the spawn of hell, Satan's child, created by Donald Lydecker. She shivered when she remembered the name and his face replaced Dustin's.

"Lydecker is gone," she said calmly and heard the voices of others in her mind. Back when she had escaped Manticore she had lived underground with several other transgenics and they had had a mantra. "Lydecker is gone." There was no more Lydecker, no more Psy Ops, no more training, they were normal now. She held her hands over her ears and held her head low, repeating the sentence over and over again.

Luxie did not know how long she had slept but she realized that oddly enough her mind had woken her at precisely 6:30 am. It was strange because normally Luxie's feline genes kept her sleeping though till midday.

Quickly Luxie got up and fell onto her nose at first. She cursed hoping that the other two had not been rattled by the sound. Luxie pulled a pair of tight black pants out of her shelf and a white blouse out of Jondy's.

"She won't mind," Luxie said with a sneer. "For the cause!" Carefully she slipped all her things into her bag. A glasscutter, three packs of gum, an old comic book with several dog ears, glue, some other worthless junk she had found on the streets and a little notebook in which she had written a few important things. She breathed in deeply and then looked through the keyhole of the door.

Jondy was sitting in front of the television watching some early morning cartoons and Luxie knew that if she were to be stupid enough and escape through the front door wearing Jondy's best blouse, she would be in a lot of trouble. So she turned to the window, carefully slid it open and stepped out onto the ledge.

"Ha, ha," she told herself sarcastically as she looked down. She had forgotten that Jondy and Heresy's apartment was on the fifth floor and even for a transgenic the impact would be quite painful and induce many gashing wounds. Holding onto the inside of the window she leaned forward to look up and found there was only one other story above theirs and carefully closed the window.

Slowly she climbed to the top floor and when she arrived, spread her arms out and breathed in the disgusting, ashy air of Los Angeles.

She just hoped that her plan would work as well as it did in her mind – where there was a lot of singing, dancing and food. Also for some odd reason, there was a Manticore soldier who looked real good, but was not in focus enough for her to be completely sure.

Luxie shook her head to removed the complete image from her mind and took off in the direction of Infinity Industries.

Dustin leaned back in his seat looking at the files he had just read through. Of course, there were still several unread ones but he had found enough to make him need a rest. From what he had read, he gathered that Luxie had been telling the truth, but he had already guessed that with the assassins.

Manticore was a secret facility that genetically enhanced unborn embryos with animal DNA, which explained why both Heresy and Luxie had been so fast – felines, as Luxie had said. At first he wondered how they had gotten so strong, but it seemed that these genetically-enhanced humans were trained there as if they were in the army.

They had learnt army procedure and all kinds of fighting techniques since they could walk. It was amazing that any of them even had a drop of humanity in them – but as Dustin had been the witness of Luxie, he knew that genetically-enhanced did not mean inhuman.

Her companion – the girl with the strange hair – looked like a model, not something that he would expect to see in an army facility. It seemed that things that came out of Manticore were actually quite good-looking, as even Luxie had proven that point. However, Dustin had found files of – things – that did not even look remotely human.

It was X-series he was looking at. Heresy and Luxie were both part of the X-series which was composed of basic humans enhanced by animal DNA – they looked like anyone and the only way to tell was of course to test their strength or find a barcode on the back of their necks.

Dustin groaned and leaned his head forward onto the table. In taking over his father's company, Dustin had inherited himself into something a lot more complicated than the media presented. Infinity Incorporated had cost him his brothers life and Dustin assumed that even his father had not been as innocent to this as it seemed.

"Damien must have found out what they really are. I guess that they just want to kill me for the company," Dustin told himself and raised his head inches off the table. He pushed aside the paper he had last read and turned to a new piece. This one was an article from the Seattle Post.

GENETIC MONSTERS LOOSE IN SEATTLE Burnt Down Hospital Residents Are Not Human

By Warren Trent

A few days ago a Seattle hospital burnt down revealing a surprisingly small amount of human remains. Amidst the ashes only an average of 53 bodies were found but the facility was large enough to hold over 1,000 patients along with half as many doctors and nurses. Even if there were not as many patients to fill the whole hospital, would there not be at least 500 people present? So where did the 1,450 remaining residents disappear to?

According to many, many rumours the large hospital just outside of Seattle, Washington was not what it claimed to be. 7 out of 10 people claim that the facility actually housed a secret government experimental area – which the government readily denies.

The special of the day in this place – which many claim to be called Manticore – is an army of super soldiers and beasts ready for a war that many have predicted since the Pulse in 2009. However, reports have shown that Manticore has been occupied for a long time before 2009.

In 2009 there had been several security checks in Seattle and many residents will remember the increased security along with the hovercrafts watching our every move. Apparently thirteen of the Manticore soldiers – aged between 9 and 12 years old – escaped the facility. The thirteen children have been living among us for 12 years and we have not noticed anything odd about the people who claim to be our wives, our husbands, our business partners.

Why not?

Manticore's X-Series is a project that directly altered the DNA of embryos while still in their mother's womb, changing them from normal humans to genetic freaks. The X-Series, although the most beautiful of Manticore's creations, are considered the most deadly thing to come from the facility.

Unlike normal humans these creatures have strangely altered DNA with animal traces in it. Their mind-capacity is larger than ours, as are their stamina, speed, strength and immune system. If your best friend is drinking a lot more alcohol than a human should be able to handle – that friend might not be human at all.

If you think you might know an X-Series check the back of their neck. The DNA structure that Manticore created has caused the creatures to have a barcode on the back of their neck – humans have names, Manticore soldiers have numbers.

The article went on with things that Dustin already knew and slowly the accusations were getting to him. Something about his history lessons back in days where there were actual history lessons ran through his mind. Had not the black population, the Jews been treated the same way that these transgenics were being treated too? Outcast and hated for being different.

He wanted to read something that gave more insight, he supposed, into the mind of a trangenic. He hoped that the Seattle Post had thought it decent enough to post an article that one of them had written. He pushed Trent's article aside and smiled at his luck.

Just as he began to read, his intercom buzzed. A low growl escaped his throat and he pushed the button.

"What?"

"Uh, sir," came a voice that was unfamiliar to him.

"Where's Tina?"

"Tina was fired, sir." Dustin was much too concentrated on his Manticore issue to be shocked by the news. "A friend of hers called. She was busted for child molestation."

"Oh, okay," Dustin said indifferently although he was slightly confused. She had seemed a quite person who would not harm a fly, let alone a child. "Get me a new secretary."

"We're having interviews already."

"Good. Let me know when you're done," Dustin muttered and turned back to his article.