Happily Ever After...
The facility had formerly been a government lab creating new chemical or electromagnetic arms in case of another terrorist attack. The main aim of the government being to hide the transgenics to prevent another scandal, it was the perfect hide out. Max had the hand it to Lydecker.
After submitting the whole transgenic population to medical tests, Lydecker suggested to keep up with the trainings, lighter trainings but still trainings anyway. Max could only agree. She knew Familiars where out there, seeking nothing but destroying them once and for all. She had fought them and she knew their strength and it had been important enough for her to take them seriously.
"Split into groups of two and fight" Lydecker ordered.
Physical training... the first training of that morning. Lydecker ordered and it was funny seeing him enjoying the whole thing and pretending they were back in Manticore when 'his soldiers' as well as himself perfectly knew that he no longer had any sort of power over them.
Still the whole X5 group obeyed, split into teams of two and started fighting each other as Lydecker passed around the room in a superior supervising manner.
"Oh come on" Alec said, "Don't tell me you've never thought about it"
He was in a fighting stance, fists raised and facing Noah's green eyes with which not a single flicker allowed others to know what was going on in her head. She tried punching him but he eluded.
"I know you want to and honestly, I can't blame you!" he smirked; "You wouldn't be the first" he shrugged letting his guard down.
Noah kept focus on the task at hand and therefore, immediately noticed the failure in her adversary's defense. She went for it and in a punch and a kick, Alec was on the ground. Noah looked down on him with the same emotionless expression that was personally reserved for him... and Lydecker.
The fight was over and she had won. At least she thought so. Still on the gymnasia's floor, Alec gave her quick yet efficient kick behind the knee and Noah feel on top of him.
"Don't fight Noah, it's no use" he said, his mouth really close to her's.
Noah pushed herself back up thanks to her arms.
"What can I say Alec? You're just so irresistible; I can't help myself from..." Noah carefully placed her knee between his spread legs "... getting all over you" she added bringing her knee back up.
Alec let out a groan while Noah got to her feet, perfectly sure that he would stay where he was this time: on the floor, his hands on his groin and his face disfigured by a horrible contraction.
Noah looked at him for a second, long enough to mark this frame in her permanent memory. Alec really was a good looking guy and she came to the conclusion that the way he looked at that very minute was exactly the way she liked him best.
-------------------
Max walked towards the huge secretary, whose butt seemed to be falling over each side of the chair, and said in a confident yet pleasant tone:
"Good evening, Christina Jackson. I'm here to see my husband. Dylan Jackson"
The woman regretfully dragged herself away from the pack of cookies she was making her mission to devour in less then 7.6 seconds, looked from Max to her screen and then through her papers, before finally grumbling:
"Fifth floor. Observation. Room 645"
"Thank you" Max replied politely though she didn't think the secretary deserved it.
She wasn't here to attract attention. She wasn't even supposed to be here at all. She had forced Lydecker to let her out of the facility for a few hours and lend her a car to go and see Logan.
Logan was receiving transgenic blood daily and was doing much better, though it had only been a few days since he had entered the hospital. His doctor worked for Lydekcer and he was the one covering up for Logan.
Max softly knocked on the door, both impatient and apprehensive as she hadn't seen Logan since the night they had escaped from TC. She really hoped he was doing better and she thought that if he was then she could truly start to have a little more trust in Deck.
"So, how's my dear husband doing? Recovering from that horrible pneumonia?"
"Well, I'm doing a whole lot better now," said Logan pushing on his elbow in order to be in a sitting position.
"How are you?" she asked more seriously.
"Well, I'm doing so good, I actually have to pretend so people won't get suspicious. The truth is I'm bored"
"Yeah, well don't be in such a hurry. I got an idea that Deck's cooped up a lot of work for you" Max smiled tenderly.
"Can't wait to get back and fight the good fight. So, how's it going?"
Max hesitated for a moment then said:
"Surprisingly... good"
"Really?"
"It's nice to know that we're all in this together. It makes it all... possible and overcomeable"
"How's Lou?"
"I think she's lonely. I'm trying the best I can to make her feel at ease but you know, she's one of the few of us to have a real home and I think she misses it"
"And how's it going with Zack?"
"Now there's another slippery ground..." Max started to relate.
-------------------
"So, how's it going with Alec?" Syl asked, a malicious smirk on her lips.
"Can't find a way to get rid of him" Noah said rolling her eyes and taking a sip from her glass of orange juice.
It was 8:30 am and the girls were having breakfast in the cafeteria and casually chatting. They were perfectly aware of being late for training but neither of them seemed to bother; sure Deck or Zack would yell but the girls would get over it. Anyway, they would arrive way before little Lou who couldn't seem to get enough sleep.
"-kinda like Krit. It's not that they need the sleep so much, it's just that they like it and have gotten used to having so much" Syl explained.
"Yeah, well, Krit also takes an incredible amount of showers, doesn't he?"
"He just might become Posh X5 number 2 if he doesn't watch out" Syl laughed, "And I don't even think he'd mind"
Noah started laughing but she suddenly stopped and gazed at the air right above Syl's left shoulder.
"What? What is it?" Syl frowned, turning her head around to see what Noah was staring at, "If it's Zack that's come to get us, I'll leave you to sort this-"
She was interrupted by Noah's giggling.
"What is it now? Would you mind sharing?" Syl asked turning back to face her.
"I've just had an idea concerning my Alec problem"
"Does it involve Zack?"
"No" Noah shook her head, "He's already got enough on his mind"
"Then what? Spit it out already" Syl said seething with impatience.
"I'm gonna give Alec exactly what he wants" Noah said with a grim smile.
-------------------
Hands in his pockets, Alec was whistling in the facility's corridors. Fresh out of shower, a new shirt on (not that he intended to keep it on that was just the decency part in him) Alec had skipped last training to get ready and was now climbing up the stairs that lead to the X5's rooms.
He reached the last step and lowered his whistling to a low humming. No need for the whole X5 population to know that he wasn't heading back to his room tonight. He bypassed the door of his room without even looking at it and headed straight for the sixth door on the left.
He gently turned the door's handle and as Noah had said it would be, it wasn't locked. He stepped in and noticed the warm atmosphere and the dim light.
A smile twitched the corners of his lips as he thought of the night that was ahead. 'This my friend, will be a night to remember' Alec told himself. And, it was bound to be.
The room was empty, once again as Noah had said it would and the two bunks had been pushed together. So Alec decided to make himself comfy and make sure he wouldn't be loosing any time with superficial details when the lady arrived, such as taking clothes off. Alec lost shirt, trousers, underpants and socks in the next three seconds and decided to lie down on the bed and wait for his partner in tonight's assignment.
That hadn't been too hard when he looked at it. In fact, it had been a lot easier then he thought. Well, of course the fact that Noah was supposed to go into heat tonight had speed things up a little. Alec just hoped that she wouldn't fall face to face with another male before she reached her room. But Syl was supposed to make sure such an incident was not going to take place and Alec had faith in the good big sister that Syl was.
Wearing nothing but the locket around his neck, Alec was humming, head resting on his crossed arms and lying on the bed. He was so caught up in his fantasies that he was startled when the door's handle gave a slight turn.
He straightened up to resting on his elbows, his trade mark charming smile ready for action as well as other parts of his body.
However, the next second, the smile had faded away and Alec's eyes widened in horror as he recognized the figure that stepped in.
"Alec? What the hell-?" Soaked black hair, water dripping down his naked chest and back, carefully following the curves of his mocha too-good-to-be-made-in-mother-nature body, Krit was standing on the threshold of his room, a white towel (beautifully contrasting with his tanned skin) wrapped around his lower parts, just as horrified as Alec; and that meant something.
"What are you doing here?" Alec said going for his pants.
"What am I doing here? What d'you mean man? This is my room!" Krit bellowed.
"What?" Alec said "Look, there must be some kind of mistake-"
"Well, there better be. Cuz I don't ever wanna step into my room again to find you playing femme fatale on my bed!"
"No wait. It's not what it looks like... I was... See, I was supposed to... This isn't Noah's room, is it?" Alec asked as he finally realized what was really going on.
"Noah? Of course not. I share this room with Syl! And I've got two things to tell you; A) If you don't get outta here really fast, I'm going to have to kick your play boy's ass and not in the way you'd want me to-"
"I'm not gay, man" Alec said defensively.
"-and B) if you go out there looking for Noah, Zack's gonna be the one that's gonna kick your play boy's ass not in the way you'd want it. Either way, doesn't look too good for you man" Krit said.
"Zack? What's he gotta do with this?"
"Zack is involved in everything that concerns Noah. If you still don't get it, then head for the third room on your right and there, you'll find Noah in her room, the one that's she's sharing with Zack!"
"Oh" was all Alec got the time to say before the door closed on him.
As he was there in the hallway, his clothes tossed in his hands and still wearing nothing but the locket around his neck, Alec heard muffled giggles behind him.
He slowly turned around, dreading the sight that would lie before him. Max, Lou, Syl and Noah were laughing their asses off. Things couldn't possibly get worse.
"Sorry" Syl said, "Krit tends to get a little cranky when finding naked boys on his bed"
Alec gave them a forced smile and said:
"Repressed homosexual tensions, that's what it is" Alec said in a small attempt to keep his dignity.
The laughs got louder and Alec was pretty sure that they would soon attract the whole facility's attention. After all, its inhabitants did all have highly sensitive hearing.
So, Alec shrugged and told himself he might as well do it all the way and not disappoint the audience. He suddenly dropped the clothes with which he was trying to hide what he could of his body.
As the girls' laughs turned into screams of surprise, he walked calmly and slowly, head high, back to his room as if he had just received a pre-pulse Grammy Award. His dignity was preserved. At least he considered it so.
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"I just can't believe you guys did this for me!" the little girl in Lou coming out as she squealed in delight in front of the computer.
"Completely untraceable for a limited number of minutes-"Max started.
"Which you should under no circumstances go beyond" Lydecker reminded.
"-you've got visual. This is your direct link to your parents" Max said.
"Can I call them, like, now?" Lou asked hyper excited.
"Well, I suppose" Lydecker said.
Lou held herself back so as not to hug Lydecker but she couldn't do so with Max.
She jumped into her big sister's arms. Max being a little taller, Lou had to fully rise to hug her properly, therefore revealing a bit of her abdomen's mocha skin. Then, she went for the chair and was about to dial when-
"Lou, wait a second! Max, take a look at that!" Lydecker said taken aback and pointing at Lou's stomach.
"What?" Lou frowned looking at Lydecker's finger pointing at her "I'll probably be loosing that little belly with that horrible food you feed us and those exhaustive training exercises" Lou said putting a protective arm around her waist, "so what's the big-"
"That's not what I'm talking about" Lydecker said, "The markings..."
"What?" Max said shoving away Lou's arm and lifting her sister's sweater in order to see for herself.
And there they were, just as precise as the ones on her own body... Runes.
Lou looked down at her belly and said:
"These were not here this morning" Then, she sighed heavily. "Dad always gets so freaked out when new ones appear after others faded. Lucky for me he isn't here"
"Your dad always what? You mean these aren't the first?" Max asked still staring at the runes.
"I wish" Lou rolled her eyes "But what's all the big fuss about anyway? I bet other's got them too. I always thought they were some kinda directions for use, you know... Been wondering why they didn't just write it in plain English though. Guess, it wasn't in enough for Manticore, huh?"
"There's only one other person that has those, Lou" Deck spoke slowly.
"Really? Who?"
"Me" Max responded.
-------------------
This was getting stranger by the minute. He had supervised the whole creation of those kids and he had no idea where all those runes where coming from or what they meant.
Lydecker rose up as he heard a knock on the door.
"Joshua? Come in, come in" he said as Joshua was shyly staying on the threshold "How can I help you?"
"Joshua thinks you should look for father" the dog man said timidly sitting in the chair across Lydecker's desk.
"You think I should look for who?"
"Sandeman, our father" Joshua explained?
"Sandeman, why should I look for him?"
"Has all answers about the coming, familiars and little fellas Max and Lou. Father knows everything" he repeated with a little more confidence this time.
Lydecker laid back in his chair. Joshua was right. It always came back to Sandeman. There was only one problem:
"Do you think he is still alive? They might have tried to kill him too"
"They tried to kill you and you're alive. Father's stronger, like White because was part of them. Father has to be alive"
A determined face appeared on the dog man's face; Joshua was sending Lydecker on the track of the most important person of his life.
After all, if Joshua had decided to join 'upstairs people' in the first place, it was to find his Father.
-------------------End of Chapter II
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