Chapter 4
AN: I am having a very hard time getting the sections of the chapters to separate. I don't know if it's because I'm using a Mac or what but it's annoying the hell out of me. If anybody has a solution to this problem, please let me know. As before, thank you to X5898 for reviewing. Hopefully some of your answers are in this chapter. Also, two of my favorite Dark Angel writers on here just updated so please check out their stories if you aren't already reading them (because honestly, you should probably read them rather than this) – The Wisdom of War by Yodes and the Left Behind Universe series by Fayth3. On to the story!
Max looked up from the paperwork on her desk as Alec and Tegan entered her office. "Hey, what's up?"
"Nothing much. Just wanted to know where Tegan should stick her stuff, sleep…you know," Alec said, throwing himself into one of the seats in front of her desk.
"Hmmm." Max frowned, looking from Alec to Tegan. "Tegan, would you mind letting us talk for a moment? You should go talk to Dix about the computers or something. He was completely amazed by you before. I'm sure he has something you can look at."
Tegan rolled her eyes but nodded. "Sure thing," she replied, closing the door behind her as she left the office.
Max's eyes hardened. "Find out anything?"
"Her birthday is in a week and a half. She'll be 21. I'm pretty sure she'd kill for her family. She loves them that much and they seem to love her right back. She called her cousin while I was around. They were talking about White. Tegan said that it was her job to torment him. Told her cousin to be careful and that he didn't want to get caught by White, she said to trust her on that last part so I'm assuming she has been in the past. She wants to get us supplies to fix this dump up, to feed us, et cetera. Oh, and she's single."
Rolling her eyes, she said, "Trust you to include that in a report on a female. Do you think she's trustworthy?"
"I think so…but it doesn't hurt to keep a close eye on her. We still don't know what's up with her DNA and stuff."
"Yeah…okay, she's staying with you then."
"What? But…but…Max, you can't do this to me!"
"Why not?"
"Because…it'll completely ruin the whole bachelor pad thing I have going on if I have a girl living with me!"
"And…?"
"This'll mean I can't bring girls home with me! Max, I know you're all jealous about me hooking up with all these girls but c'mon, this is cruel and unusual punishment even for you!" he exclaimed, his eyes pleading.
Max rolled her eyes. "Oh, stop acting like it's the end of the world, Alec. It's just temporary."
Alec's shoulders slumped and he stood. "Fine…but I expect compensation for this. How do you feel about doing my laundry for a month? Or…footrubs! Footrubs sound like a good idea!"
He just managed to open the door and slip out before a stapler passed through the air where he'd been standing. He found everybody staring at the office door as the stapler slammed against it and smiled. Scanning the crowd, he spotted Tegan sitting with Dix, talking. Alec walked over to them.
"Hey, guys! What's going on?"
"Nothin'," Tegan said absently, not even looking up at him. "So, yeah, I can definitely show you how to improve the bikes. I've actually been working on a hover feature for awhile but I haven't come even close to perfecting it. I could definitely use your help if you want."
"Really? I'd love to! In my free time of course," Dix told her, excited.
"Yeah, it'll be cool. Just, you know, let me know when your free time is."
Dix nodded with a smile. "You're not bad for a human."
Pointing to her eyes, she said, "Not exactly human but thank you. You're not so bad yourself."
"I hate to break up this mutual admiration party but it's probably gonna start raining soon so if you want to stay nice and dry, Tegan, we should leave now."
Tegan raised an eyebrow in his direction then stood up, grabbing her backpack from the floor. "Somebody's a little snippy."
"He had a meeting with Max. They fight a lot," Dix informed her before standing up and walking away from Alec, who was glaring.
"Interesting. So, where am I staying?"
"My place," he growled at her.
"Ah, and that explains the whole grumpy Alec routine," she declared as they walked out of HQ.
He remained silent, fuming as they made their way to his building. The truth was he didn't like being ignored and she had most definitely ignored him to talk to Dix of all people. Why Dix? He was infinitely more handsome, charming, and interesting to talk to than Dix! Okay, so maybe he hadn't read as much as the other transgenic...but he was more current on popular culture, right? What wasn't great about that? Women, he thought with disgust.
He held the door of the building housing his apartment amongst others open for her and they both ran up the stairs to his place. His door was one of the few that actually had a functional lock but Max and Logan had been the last ones to leave his place so he just pulled the door open.
"I guess I'm gonna have to get you a key or something," he commented idly as he closed the door behind the two of them.
She set her bag down on the floor in the same place he'd found it earlier in the day, looking around again. "Nah, I wouldn't really worry about it. You know, for an apartment located in a falling down building, this isn't too bad."
"Thanks," he said in a sarcastic voice.
"Yeah, no problem," she said, ignoring his sarcasm. "Where do I sleep? The couch?"
Alec sat down on said couch, stretching out his legs and turning on the television. "That would be my guess."
She stood there, studying him for a moment then shook her head and sighed. Walking over to the window, she looked out at the clouds, which seemed to grow darker by the minute.
"Could you STOP that?" Alec asked, annoyed.
Tegan glanced over at him, confused. "Stop what?"
"Stop drumming your fingers against the damned windowsill. It's really incredibly annoying."
She looked down at her hand to see that her fingers were doing that and stuck both her hands behind her back, intertwining her fingers to keep from doing it again. "Sorry," she muttered.
Turning, she watched him as he stared at the music videos on the television. "Those are really old," she told him. "Mostly from right before the Pulse hit. Since they were the last music videos made they just kinda replay them over and over and over again. Gets pretty boring after awhile. It's gotten to the point where my cousin started looking for bands and stuff. He wants to jumpstart the whole music business. Says that people will be less restless if they have more entertainment."
"Yeah, that's nice."
"See, I would have thought you would be all over that. You seem to be pretty into the whole entertainment thing," she told him, taking a seat on the far side of the couch.
Alec glared at her. "Could you PLEASE be quiet? Is it really that hard for you not to talk while I'm watching the boob tube?"
She threw up her hands in defeat and watched the television with a sigh. Her eyes widened when she recognized the next video as one of her favorites and she grinned. "Dance party!" she exclaimed, standing up and dancing.
Alec tried his best to ignore her but his eyes kept glancing in her direction until he was openly staring at her. She was getting really into it, her hips moving with the beat of the music and her ass shaking. She looked extremely free as she moved. His eyes turned back to the television as she looked in his direction.
Laughing, she danced over to him and grabbed his hand, pulling him to his feet. "C'mon, dancing is fun! And I can guarantee that dancing with me is WAAYYYYY more fun than watching some old video."
He needed no encouragement and moved with her. Dancing, he decided, could definitely be considered foreplay. His thoughts ran in that direction for another thirty seconds before he stepped away from Tegan.
"What are you doing?" she whined, grabbing at his arm.
He shrugged her off, walking to the window. "It's raining," he told her.
"Who cares? I'm nice and dry inside. Why'd you stop dancing?" she asked, inching closer to him.
He moved towards the small kitchen. "You want any water?"
"Noooo, I want to know why you stopped dancing," Tegan said, following him.
Alec turned, almost tripping over her. "Look – " He stopped when he realized that her eyes were sparkling with amusement. "You already know, don't you?"
"That you're attracted to me? Oh, yes. Is that why you stopped?"
"You know damned well that it is," he grumbled.
"But why?"
"Because…because I know absolutely nothing about you. You could be spying on us for all I know. You could be the enemy!" he declared, leaning in as close as he dared.
She shrugged, looking up at him with a slight smile. Before he realized what she was doing, she reached up, grabbed his face, and kissed him quickly. Turning, she danced over to the couch where she grabbed the remote and changed the channel.
He stood there, trying to process what had just happened. With a frown he walked over to the couch, leaning on the back of it. "Why'd you do that?"
"Because I wanted to…and because I'm mischievous. Besides, nothing wrong with a little kissing," she told him, without taking her eyes off the television, which was now playing some old movie.
"I'm going to remember that," he told her, making it sound like a threat as his breath tickled her ear.
She grinned. "You do that," she replied. "For now, why don't you take a seat and enjoy the movie? I might not even flip through the channels a billion times."
His hand on the back of the couch for leverage, he jumped over it then sat down next to her.
Max looked over her papers, frustrated. They had a route through the sewers that they could use to get in and out of Terminal City but she didn't see how they could get the massive amount of supplies they needed in that way unless they started off small. They really couldn't afford to start off small.
Logan walked in then, grinning. "You will never guess what I just did! You have to come see!"
Max stood, walking rapidly with Logan to his apartment. As soon as they entered, Logan made a bee line to his computer set up, looking back at Max expectantly.
Max followed, looking over his shoulder at the screen. "What is this?" she asked with a frown.
"I hacked into the Pride Corporation's system. This is the profile on Tegan."
Max looked at the screen again, where it displayed a picture of Tegan and vital information.
Name: Tegan Emily Armstrong
Birth Year: 2000
IQ: Off the scale
Degrees: BS in Mechanical Engineering (MIT, 2013), MS in Mechanical Engineering (MIT, 2014), Doctor of Science (MIT, 2016)
Martial Arts: Karate - black belt, 8th degree
Tae Kwon Doe - Black Belt, 7th degree
Kendo - Black Belt, 6th degree
Judo - Black Belt, 4th degree
Ninjitsu - level unknown
Other fighting techniques: Unknown
Gun Proficiency: Proficient but rarely used
Languages: English, French, Spanish, German, Italian, Japanese, Chinese, Russian, Gaelic (Irish & Scottish)
Specialties: Reconnaissance, Engineering, Computer Hacking, Computer Program Design
Problems: Tegan is an off the chart genius. Unless completely engaged in what she is doing, she has issues with paying attention. Tegan is also prone to nightmares due to being kidnapped at age 6 and experimented on/tortured for five months at which point she escaped and made her way to the closest Armstrong facility. See attached file for more information.
Last Assignment: Private Op. for President, Los Angeles, CA
Partner - Colin Armstrong
Current Assignment: Operation Freedom X-V, Seattle, WA
Partner - Colin Armstrong
Future Assignment: Possible Operation Freedom X-V.ii, Pride Corporation HQ
Max frowned, leaning as far over Logan's shoulder as she dared. "What's the attached file look like?"
Logan pulled it up and they both recoiled at the photos of the young Tegan looking emaciated and beaten up.
"What the hell did they do to her?" Logan asked, repulsed. He scrolled down past the pictures finding a transcript of an interview between Tegan and her father.
Family Interview with Tegan
Nicholas:Tegan, honey, can you tell me where you were?
Tegan: An old private school prolly about 70 miles west of Albany.
N:Was it in use?
T:Uh huh but not by normal kids. The kids were all weird. I only
saw them for a little bit but they were weird, Daddy.
N: Do you know who kidnapped you?
T: They were some big group of weirdos. They liked snakes. And this
one boy was a little older than James. His name was Ames.
He told me that they were superior to us because they'd been
breeding perfect humans for ages.
N:Did he tell you why they took you?
T:They said I wasn't human. Somebody saw one of us without
our contacts in. They wanted to know what we are and what
we can do. What it means to them. He asked if we'd been
made by scientists. I laughed at him. Who would voluntarily
make people like us, Daddy?
N:I don't know, baby. Is that why they hurt you?
T:I think so. But sometimes Ames would just look at me and
get really mad. And then he would hurt me. He got really
mad when he found out how smart I was. I guess they don't
have very many geniuses in their thingy. They
tested me and I was off their charts too! They didn't find out
what I'm really good at though.
N:Good for you, Tegan. How did you escape?
T:I observed like you taught me and I found a hole in their
guard duty. Then I found another one and another one.
Then I made a lock picking device out of some of the toys
they gave me to play with to keep me quiet 'cause I was complaining about being bored and I unlocked my cage and I
snuck out. When I got outside I ran into the woods and I
went east. I could smell the Hudson reaalllyyy faintly from
where I was and, Daddy, it smells even far away.
N:(laughing roughly) Good girl, Tegan. Then what?
T:I used all the survival stuff you taught us when we were all
really little. And I stayed away from people because I didn't
have my contacts anymore. Then I smelled Cousin David and
he called you and you came and got me and now I'm home!
You taught me well, Daddy.
Doctor's Report
Physical: Tegan's left arm is broken. During her escape, she apparently took the time to set it. She did a good job as it's healing nicely. Tegan is very undernourished leading us to believe they fed her just enough to keep her alive. She is also somewhat dehydrated. Her right leg was broken at some point in captivity. It healed badly and needs to be re-broken and set correctly so it won't cause her great pain in the future. She has many cuts, none of which are infected. There are also burn marks and bruises.
Mental: Tegan has been having extremely bad nightmares to the point where she doesn't want to sleep anymore. Other than that, she seems to be doing much better than expected. The support of her family seems to be helping greatly. Tegan getting back into her normal routine should help her as would seeing a therapist regularly.
Max stood up straight still staring at the screen. "How could they do that to a kid regardless of whether or not she's completely human!"
"The same could be said about Manticore," Logan commented.
"Yeah, but it's different with us. We were created by Manticore. She wasn't created by these people. They kidnapped her from her family who loves her to experiment on her and torture her. Neither one is right but at least we weren't ripped away from a loving family."
Max shook her head and walked to the middle of the room, looking around blindly. "No wonder she freaked out when I brought it up. I would have kicked ass if I were her."
"You didn't know, Max, so don't blame yourself."
She nodded then looked back at the computer. "Does it say what exactly her current mission is?"
Logan frowned, turning back to the computer, his hands flying across the keyboard. "Fuck!" he exclaimed.
"What? What happened?"
"They must have stuck some sort of virus into their system in case anybody attempted to hack into it. It just fried my computer!" he yelled, pounding his fist against the desk.
"Ummmm, I guess I should go," Max said, backing up.
Logan grunted in response, already hunched over his computer.
Max walked out the door then down two flights of stairs, stopping when she came to the apartment she was sharing with Original Cindy. Opening the door, she walked in to find O.C. lounging on their couch, painting her toenails. O.C. looked up when she walked in and smiled.
"Hey, boo!"
"Hey, today has been the weirdest day ever. You do not know how good it is to come back here and find you doing something completely normal."
"What happened?" O.C. asked with a frown.
"Well, first…"