Chapter Five: If You Prick Us…
IF YOU PRICK US…By Kuroi/X4-000/339182000000
It might confuse you to read the name of the author because would you not expect something along the lines of John Smith, Thomas Walker or Jeffrey Hanson?
However, I was born without name. From the moment I was able to understand I was referred to as X4-triple zero. I was taught how to hold a gun as soon as I could grasp something without dropping it every two seconds. I learned military hand signals when I was four.
Ever since I turned two I have lived with a unit. Although the guards and 'doctors' referred to us as Unit 1, we were a family.
I remember 010 whom we all thought an idiot. Until he was twelve, all he ever did was take things and put them together. It took them that long to figure it out and he was placed into a different unit. I remember exactly that it was the Electronics and Weapons unit.
I also remember 017 leaving us because she had been transferred to our SWAT (ed. special weapons and tactics) unit because of her exceptional speed when putting together a gun, giving us commands and keeping us all alive.
Of course, we were all trained in SWAT, TAC (ed. tactical air command), basic gun control and some of us even knew traffic control for god knows what reason. However, soon we were all separated into pairs of two – male and female. Our X4 DNA was unstable and the RU (reproduction unit) process only started with X5s but to created the perfect soldier duo Manticore needed instinctive female intuition along with male charm. It was something that we had because were human.
Myself and X4-274 have been training together since I was 16 and she was 14. We have gotten to know each other so well that we call each other brother and sister. Our books, movies and the guards' conversations with each other influenced our upbringing and the way we communicate with each other.
After reading some of the hateful articles in the papers and magazines, I thought I might try and fend for myself, my sister and all the other 'creatures' from Manticore.
I agree that not all of us are the most beautiful things upon this earth and not all of us seem to be human. But I assure you that we feel and we understand pain as well as any of you. I have heard people labelling us inhuman and bestial but what is human and as opposed, what bestial?
The dictionary definition of human describes them as this:
human /'hju׃mən'/ adj 1 of or characteristic of people, contrasted with God, animals or machines 2 (approv) kind; good; having or showing the better qualities of people
human n a man, woman or child; a person
I know that some of the creations at Manticore are not like that, but they are wild animals or pets to us – lions and dogs is all some of them are. You play with them and they will love you, anger them and they will hurt you. Does the same not apply to you? I know it does to myself.
The X-Series is the least of your problems and not who you should be attacking.
We were born and bred soldiers, we learnt to kill when we learnt to speak and now that we have escaped the clutches of our evil masters, we learn to die when we are just beginning to learn what living means.
Another dictionary states that being human means being able to relate to emotion. I grieve for the siblings you kill, I fear for 017, I fear for 010 and I fear for my sister. I know that she fears for my safety because ever since the fire we have been parted and I feel a pain in my chest when I think she might be dead.
I have given myself a name so that I may be able to live in this society and be accepted as one of your own. In the past did our ancestors not do the same for those who looked different than others?
So I was trained to be a soldier and to kill on command, but did I not run from who I was? Did I not run from being oppressed by the sinners that created me? I want to be part of this society and live amongst you as a friend, a brother, a father…
I was 339182000000, I was X4-triple zero.
My name is Kuroi.
I leave you with a Shakespearean quote from The Merchant Of Venice and hope that it might give you insight into who we are:
We are genetically-enhanced humans
Hath we not eyes? Hath not we hands, organs, dimensions, senses, affections, passions? Fed with the same food, hurt with the same weapons, healed by the same means, warmed and cooled by the same winter and summer, as a human is? If you prick us, do we not bleed? If you tickle us, do we not laugh? And if you wrong us, shall we not revenge? If we are like you in the rest, we will resemble you in that.
Dustin smiled and shook his head at the article he had just read. He felt much more sympathy towards the transgenics than he did those in Seattle who opposed them. He had to do something. He knew that with all the money he had he could make sure that these – humans lived their lives to the fullest.
The intercom buzzed interrupting his thoughts of making the world a better place. He sighed.
"Yes?"
"Sir, we might have filled the position for your assistant, sir," came the voice and Dustin was slightly taken aback again, that it was not Tina.
"Send him in," he said and let go of the button. He looked at his clock. He had been sitting here for ten hours. With that realization he noticed his behind becoming slightly numb and got up.
"Heya!" he heard a familiar voice and turned to see Luxie grinning widely at him. He fell back down onto his chair and she burst out laughing. "I'm not that overwhelming," she said with a grin.
"What are you doing here?"
"New assistant, dummy."
"What!" Dustin exclaimed and got out of his seat. "I can't have you as my assistant. I – you – they – they want me killed." Luxie rolled her eyes and sniggered.
"Wouldn't I be the best person to have around then?"
"But… you could get killed," Dustin said slowly. To be honest, he was quite sure that Luxie would get killed – she might have the strength of a man twice her size but she did not seem like the soldier he would employ.
"Aww, that's sweet, but I'm the last person that'll be dying around here," she said smirking and walked over to the table. Instinctively Dustin raised his hand motioning to the chair opposite his desk but Luxie just plonked herself onto the desk.
"So," Dustin said slowly. "what are you doing here?"
"You said I should come by."
"I'm not so sure that was a good idea anymore," he said slowly. Luxie looked down at his desk and Dustin noticed she had spotted an article. They both reached for it at the same time but Luxie's speed was considerably faster than his
"Genetic monsters," Luxie read the title of the article. She looked up and Dustin saw she was angry. Not just normal angry, but pissed off. She put the article back on her desk. "So, that's what I am now." She got up and cracked her neck. "Heresy was right. I thought I could trust you, Dustin, but it seems that you're just another one of those… those people who want to see what's inside of me. I've lived a lifetime of suffering and I came here in the hopes of being normal. Meeting guys is a normal thing, huh, ain't it? But as soon as they find out who you are, they want to stick you onto a table and cut you open!" she yelled now almost on the verge of tears. Dustin got up quickly.
"Don't you fucking get closer to me!" she yelled and felt the first tears running down her face. "Try me! Come on, try and get me!" Dustin slowly walked around the table and Luxie moved back. She was not as tough as she was putting out to be. "Get away! Come and get me!" she yelled and stumbled. Dustin rushed forward and caught her. "Lemme go," Luxie whined but Dustin helped her to her feet and kept her in his arms.
"Shh," he said quietly and remembered Kuroi's article. All they wanted was to be loved. He ran his hand through her hair and listened to her hiccough through her tears. "Shh."
"That stupid girl has gone done and ran away," Heresy said. Jondy was in the kitchen laxly leaning over the kitchen counter and drinking a cup of hot coffee. Heresy was angry and that amazed the blonde a bit.
"So?" she said after a while of Heresy walking through the apartment throwing clothes around and muttering curses under her breath. "I thought that's what you wanted?"
"Yes!" Heresy yelled and sat down on one of the barstools. "But now that she's gone and told her boyfriend about us, we're not going to be safe for much longer, big sister. Hunted down like before. He'll rat us out like the rat he is. Damn good-looking, rich rat!"
"I think you should calm down, Heresy. Luxie will be back."
"Why?"
"I just think she will." Heresy was just going to argue when the phone rang. Then she stuck her tongue out at Jondy and waited for the blonde to pick up the phone. Heresy never did, for fear of a past lover coming back. Jondy pulled the phone from its holster on the wall.
"What?" she asked. She never revealed her name on the phone unless she knew who it was. And politeness towards a voice – forget about it.
"Jondy?" came the voice carefully.
"Tom?" Jondy asked shocked. "How did you get my number?"
"Apparently a lot of people have the number of your roommate – the one with the green hair," he said and she knew he was smiling. Jondy glared at Heresy who grinned. She was listening in on the conversation and she could never deny a thing like that to her sister.
"What do you want?" Jondy asked gruffly. She was still angry about what he had did the night before. She had ended up sitting alone until she had finally given up and returned home.
"Look, I'm really sorry I ditched you twice, but I remembered my brother wasn't supposed to be there, because of what happened last week," Tom apologized. Jondy said nothing. It was quite a weak apology.
"What does it concern me?" she said when he waited for her to respond.
"I want to make it up for you."
"So, what? We meet at Savage, and you ditch me again?" she asked with a hint of a growl in her voice. Jondy thought she heard him breath in deeply, the way one did when one was loosing one's patience. 'That teaches him,' she thought with a grin.
"Not really," he said retaining his nice boy attitude. "What are you doing tonight?"
"Nothing." Despite her anger, she still wanted to know what he was up to.
"Can I invite you to dinner then?"
"Possibly."
"I'd like to take you somewhere nice."
"Somewhere nice? In LA?" Jondy huffed with a grin across her face.
"It's a great place. Hollywood," Tom said trying to sound convincing.
"Hollywood is not as great as it's made out to be," Jondy said with a shrug. It was better than most of Los Angeles but still not 'somewhere nice'.
"I'm sure it'll be nicer once you're there." Jondy blushed. She was usually not one for lame pick-up lines but it made for a good excuse to get away from Heresy.
"Sure," she said. "Pick me up at Savage though."
"Five?"
"See you there." She put the phone down and her smile was interrupted when she was Heresy with a sneer across her face.
"You're going out with a guy who ditched you twice?"
"You would."
"I'd know it were ending in sex. That guy sounds way to nice," Heresy said and fixed one of her bangs. Jondy rolled her eyes and finished her coffee which was cold by now.
"I'm going to work. Don't wait up for me."
"What am I supposed to do?"
"Wait for Luxie." Heresy glared at her. "Order out."
"Good idea," Heresy said and changed her glare to a grin. "I'll order pizza." Jondy laughed and continued doing so as she left the apartment. When Heresy said she was ordering pizza, it meant she was ordering a pizza boy.
It was almost eight when Luxie returned to the apartment. The Chinese delivery guy was just leaving with a very pleased grin on his face. Heresy was coming out of her room and pulling on a top while balancing an empty box of take-out in one hand.
"Hello, cupcake," she said with a grin on her face and Luxie supposed that it was because of her increased sex life. A faint growl escaped Luxie's throat as she stomped into Jondy's room. The brunette watched the other girl but did not say anything. She did not care very much why Luxie was in a bad mood or where she had been the whole day. It was common for either herself or Jondy to 'take the day off' when things were not going very well and it seemed that Luxie had gotten over their spat the night before.
Half an hour later Heresy was quite bored with having someone to talk with but who preferred not to do so. She switched her stereo off and listened for a while before getting up off her bed and walking into Jondy's room.
"Hey," she said and leaned onto the door panel. Luxie looked at Heresy. She was lying on her back and had been staring at the barcodes on the wall. Her mind had wandered back to Manticore and she remembered certain experiences.
When Dustin had finally gotten the raven-haired girl calmed down the two of them had talked it out and eventually Luxie had grasped the concept that someone did not mind her being a transgenic. They had sorted things out and Luxie was to start her job the following Monday.
The only way she had thought of getting into the building apart from the wire of their last excavation was getting a job. Since she needed one she thought she might rather get one where she could be close to the guy she liked. She had gotten Dustin's current secretary out and herself in. Although she was not quite sure what she was supposed to do, her typing and filing skills had impressed the staff. The way she had even been able to identify some of the guy hanging as decoration had made her the prime choice.
"Sup?"
"Nothing," Luxie said with a glare. She was kind of suspicious about Heresy being friendly to her since the two of them had never been the best of buddies.
"Then where were you all day?"
"Getting a job," Luxie answered with a shrug. That had taken ten minutes of her day but being calmed down and inspecting Los Angeles was much more of an effort and she had used up the rest of the day doing that.
"Pissed off because?"
"Not pissed off. Interested because?"
"Jondy was worried," Heresy explained after being caught out. She would never admit to it but she had worried too. She was not fond of Luxie taking her place as youngest in the household nor did she like the girl's personality very much, but there was something. She hated the girl but she had never had anyone that might get hurt because of her. The others in her unit had all been older than her and although they had done it unconsciously, they had always protected her. With Luxie around it was her turn.
"Where is she?"
"Date." Heresy's mind slithered away from Luxie being back and slowly turned to more important issues. "Do I have to kill Dustin?" Luxie raised her eyebrows in response to the strange question. She herself was known to utter stranger things but there was nothing wrong with Dustin. "Cause I can if you let me."
"You're asking me for permission?" Heresy shrugged. "No, then."
"If he tells anyone – he gets his head blasted off," Heresy said with a smirk that might have been a playful gesture but somehow, Luxie doubted there was a lie hidden in the brunette's statement.
"He won't. We just have to deal with those two soldiers," Luxie said changing the subject. She was not fond of the two of them because they seemed to keep coming back for a beating and someone on either side always came out a bit worse. She had strained her mind for a long time on why they had left Dustin alive but then drifted off after not having found an answer.
"I suppose."
"Dustin will supply us with some guns," she informed the other. "He says he'll help in any way necessary."
"Good for him." Luxie sat up and the two of them stared at each other in silence for a while. "Welcome to the real world, where you're hunted down like the prey that used to be yours."
"It's better out here than in there," Luxie said with a shrug.
"I suppose," Heresy answered with a shrug. Then Luxie stood up and when she started walking towards the brunette Heresy took a step back. Luxie leaned her head against the other woman's chest and let a deep sigh escaped her. Unsure of what to do, Heresy placed her hand onto Luxie's back.
"Don't die," she said in a voice completely unlike her own and the two of them remained like that for a while.