Disclaimer: I hate this piece of crap and it's not like James Cameron scours the internet for copyright offenders, but there are some other things I want you to know.
All original characters (Blade, Hunter, Cinder, Heresy, Jack, etc) and the plot of this story are my property. Luxie is property of a friend of mine, Monica and the concept of Luxie's 'little problem' is mainly hers but I mess around with it in every version.
Etcetera: This is a different version of introducing Luxie and Heresy into the story. For other versions read my stories Pack Instinct and XYZ and Monica's story All American Girl. Blade used to be Two in Pack Instinct and XYZ and Tom in the X – Flipside series. I've been trying to find a good name for him and I like this one. The Cinder in this story is a bit different from the one in XYZ but basically still the same person. Jack… is not Jack from the series (obviously) but his character is… quite interesting, mind you.
Summary: A reconstructed Ben is back at band camp. He's a little bit crazy now and unfortunately for Alec, Ben is not the only nutcase around. Our normal cast is joined by a whole bunch of crazy people including the ever-horny Heresy, the plain crazy Luxie and homicidally crazy Jack.
Crazy – 01 – My Nutcase Brother
Alec looked through the two-way mirror at, well, himself.
A few weeks ago Max and some of her new buddies had gone off to Kansas on an excavation for a transgenic that was apparently still working under Manticore. Alec wasn't quite sure if he was upset or glad that they hadn't taken him with, but later he had decided on glad when they put him on pill-boy duty for that same transgenic.
Ben was sitting on his bed, the only piece of furniture in the entire room. It was considered a good room because it could be locked (though only from the outside) and was actually clean – everywhere. It was considered a bad room because it lacked windows and everything else the others found essential.
Alec turned around to look for the tranquilizer gun that everyone had to bring into the room when they went and visited Ben; and then turned back to the mirror. He found himself staring straight at Ben. Alec felt a shiver running down his spine at the direct look he was receiving since it was obvious that the guy on the other side of the mirror, didn't really know what he was looking at. Or did he?
Alec waved a hand in front of Ben but nothing happened.
Sometimes he wished Max had broken his neck in several different places, as well as shot him in the head and preferably ripped his heart out. But no, the goody-two-shoes soldier had to kill her demented priest-slaughtering brother by a single break in the neck (and leg) and left him to Manticore. Great.
Ben had been given a metal spine and his leg set into a brace for several weeks before they did some experiments to enhance his homicidal-ness and of course the always present craziness. Then when, they had enough of him, had deported him to France.
There had met a girl and followed her back to Kansas, America. When he encountered some problems with future super-villains, possessed girlfriends and wannabe superheroes, Ben (a.k.a. Jason) had gone a little crazy as he tended to do. Luckily, Super-Logan had found him and sent Max and a fun new squad of X-Men out to fetch him.
When Ben was reunited with more craziness, he, well, went crazy and Logan decided that drugging him with horse-tranquilizers and endless amounts of pills would be a good idea. It had worked so far because Ben was being a good boy and doing absolutely nothing all day. Wonderful.
Of course, Alec had been given the menial task of making sure Ben always got his medicine (Alec did a good job of blackmailing people into doing the job) and checking on Ben's stats (see above).
He grabbed the tray that housed several brightly coloured pills from beside him and stepped to the door. He glanced towards Ben, glad that the psycho was still staring straight ahead, and then slid his access card through its slot.
"Ben," Alec said with a smile. Ben turned and looked at his clone with his head slightly turned to one side.
"494," he acknowledged him.
"Geez, how many times do have to tell you," Alec muttered shaking his head and placed the tray on the table in the middle of the room. "My name is Alec. A-lec." Ben said nothing but looked at the tray. Alec noticed the expression that the two of them wore when they were upset about something, but then saw Ben's head turn and look towards the gun.
Alec was about to tell Ben to take his pill when Ben sat down and opened the plastic containers. He sorted out his pills and then closed all the bottles. Finally he put all the pills with the same colours together and looked down at them.
If I were in his situation, I'd smile like a maniac right now, Alec thought and smiled in response to the thought. That sounded like pity to him.
Ben swallowed each pill on its own with the bottle of water he had and neither of them said anything during the whole process. When he was finished Ben closed all the bottles and placed everything exactly where he had found it.
"You know, 494," Ben said and Alec looked towards him in shock. That was the most he had heard Ben say in – pretty much ever. Ben got up, moved towards his clone and looked directly into Alec's eyes.
If they weren't pretty much each other and both non-gay, Alec would have sworn that Ben was going to kiss him. With a face like his, oh, wait, they both had the same face – so Ben would probably want to go after Alec's intellect. For some reason Alec found himself sniggering. He stopped when he noticed Ben was still looking at him expressionless.
"Sorry, continue," he said and forced his smile down.
"My body, a piece of genetically-engineered genius, don't you think?" The two of them looked down and Alec, noticing it, looked straight back up.
That was a gay moment there. Hey, am I thinking about gayness? Girls, girls, girls...
"Yeah, I'm pretty hot," Alec said with a nod. He was quite proud of his body, even if he had theoretically stolen it from Ben. "What's your point?"
"You ever taken any medicine?" Ben asked slowly and tilted his head slightly to the side.
"Yeah, once when I had this badass flu, but it didn't help. My body destroyed all the anti-toxins in the… Oh." A little pause in which Alec thought he saw the hint of a smile appear on Ben's face. "Now I see what you're getting at."
Quickly Alec raised the gun towards Ben but the psycho had had the same idea and grabbed it. They struggled trying to get the gun out of the others hand and when it slipped from their fingers and clattered to the floor, they exchanged a look before running towards it.
They were still a few feet from the gun when both of them stopped in their tracks and looked forward – towards the wall. Alec breathed deeply and in between his breaths he was sure he could hear Ben doing the same. Something had happened there and Alec was not about to admit to his super-freak brother that he didn't know what happened.
"Did you feel that?" he asked and looked towards Ben. It had been there for a moment but now the feeling was gone. Just… vanished. Ben straightened and glanced towards the gun but Alec didn't seem to notice. "Not to go all psychiatrist on you, but how did that make you feel?"
"Good," Ben answered. Ah, they were back to single-syllable words. Also, whatever it was that had happened, had made him feel good too. Kind of giddy and if he was able to admit it himself… a bit like having sex.
"Okay. Well, now that you've taken all the pills that don't help and are staring at that gun very suspiciously, I'm going to leave," Alec said and moved towards the door. He didn't bother trying to grab the gun because as much as he didn't want to admit it, Ben was faster than he was.
And like a flash, Ben dashed to the gun and Alec rushed for the door. He swiped his card past the beam a few times and waited for the door to open. He heard the click of the gun and closed his eyes.
When he heard Ben mutter the word 'Shit', he quickly rushed out of the door and grinned at his angry brother and waved.
Yes, I'm back again and this time round I'm focusing on Ben and Alec a bit (I'm trying but I'm bad at that). You'll meet some characters you don't know, because I love throwing in my own little bastard children. New kids always mess everything up.