Crazy – 02 – The New X-Men

"So, what's new?" Alec asked hoping that no one knew of his and Ben's little encounter.

"Just the usual," Max said with a shrug. "Trying to find some more super-humans." Alec smiled and received a look. He stopped. He was glad that Max had finally gotten over her fear of trusting him but that she trusted him with Ben was pretty amazing. Logan was giving it to her good, he assumed. Alec looked around the room and found the new crack team of X-Men all assembled.

The ones he hated most were Blade and Hunter. The two of them were X5 as well but instead of being cat-people, they were wolves and worked it. Many of the other transgenics that had feline DNA agreed with him that they were trouble and they would turn on Max if she did anything wrong. Max, however, being the person she was – trusted them.

Blade was tall with dark brown hair that had a strange blue shimmer to it. He was grouchy most of the time and his favourite hobby was ripping Alec off. If Max – his Alpha wolf – were to tell him to kill Alec, even if only as a joke, there would be lots of blood all over the place. Alec tried to act confident around the guy, although he knew that Blade was stronger and had that odd little thing where he sniffed the air. Alec was glad that he was faster and more agile.

Hunter was generally silent, angry a lot of the time and the desire of many women. He hated them all – not because he was gay (or so they say) but because he just generally disliked people. He'd had many social relations classes back at Manticore but most of the time he tended to block all memories from them out of his head. He was rude to other people and ignored them most of the time too.

The other member of Max's little gang was Cinder. And X8 with no animal relation. She was 15 and one of the three that had been genetically engineered the way she was. The other two were dead.

She had metal in her blood – copper to be exact so that instead of bleeding red blood, it was green. She could do the whole Wolverine thing but she lacked his healing abilities so she tended not too. She was considered a bit crazy by the others because she always had a strange smile on her face. Unlike Blade and Hunter, she was talkative and enjoyed the company of people having spent most of her Manticore time in solitude.

"Can I come this time or have you found me again?"

"Funny, Alec," Max said with a laugh. "Nope, not another abomination of your kind, a girl."

"Oh, then I definitely want to come. I like girls."

"Well, that's a surprise," Blade said and smirked. He grinned at Hunter who did absolutely nothing. "All the time you hang around with Crazy Brother and Little Brother, whoda thunk it?"

"For your information, I only hang around with Crazy B… with Ben because she forces me to and Joshua is a very good companion," Alec said with a glare. Blade in his own private craziness pranced around giving everyone he met a codename. Ben was Crazy Brother because of obvious reasons and Joshua had become Little Brother as an ancestor of the wolf. Alec had several nicknames and Max was now The Alpha.

"Would you two stop bitching for one moment," Logan suggested from his computer. He turned back to the receiver in his hand. "I'm sorry, some of my people lack social skills. Alright, North Street, thank you. I'll try from there." He put the phone down and turned to Max.

"So, wadda ya got?"

"That was the last of the witnesses."

"Witnesses?" Alec interrupted. "Sounds like there was a murder."

"You're really not in on anything, are you?" Cinder asked with a short laugh. "Some people just reported seeing one of us in the city. You know how some people are good people."

"Never heard of that kind," Alec said with a smile.

"Anyway," Logan interrupted. "He said he saw the girl get off at a bus stop on North and Amber."

"Alright, we'll break out a search from there, guys," Max said nodded to the others. Hunter and Cinder moved towards the door before Alec interrupted. They stopped.

"Could I just get a heads up on exactly who we're looking for?" Alec said before everyone was gone.

"Sure," Max said. "Blade's got the files," she told him and left the room with Hunter and Cinder.

"That's real awesome," Alec said and turned to Blade who was grinning. "Look, already had a bit of a ruff up with Ben, so just gimme those files with your mouth shut and we'll walk on opposite sides of the road later." Blade laughed, licked his lips and left the room without a word. Alec turned to Logan who was smiling.

"I hate him," he growled and followed the X-Men.