Disclaimer: I don't own Max, Alec, Lydecker, or any of those in the Dark Angel show. I only own those characters I made up! I am writing this purely for non-profit amusement - so don't sue me!
A/N: A big thank you to those who reviewed. Please let me know what you think of this chapter.
Honeyx5-452 - Glad you liked the story. Thank you for your review, it makes me want to write more!
Suenooneus - Yeah, I like the Max at Manticore stories too. Not too many of them out there, so I decided to write some.
angelofdarkness78 – 'Max got recaptured shortly after the escape fics' as you said, are less common. There are also no hints in the show to give an idea of what was it like in there when they are early to mid-teens. So its quite interesting to write.
DragonHealer – Ah, no need to wait any longer – Chapter 3 is here!
Lcm – Glad you liked the story. Let me know what you think of this one.
Chapter 3 – Re-enrolled
Max sat in the reindoctrination room, with her arms straight on the table in front of her. Projected on the wall were images of her siblings, alternating with the words – traitor, deserter, rat, enemy… There were also images of the Manticore emblem interspersed with images of Manticore soldiers in training flashing alternately with the words – discipline, duty, teamwork…
Quite calming really, you could fall asleep to this, she thought as she stifled a yawn.
Max wondered just how many times she must be subjected to this. Not like it made any difference to her. Manticore's brainwashing was definitely not working this time. She sighed. She had pretty much made up her mind to do what they asked anyway – until she found a way to escape.
Ronalds had shown every indication that he was satisfied at her performance so far. Tomorrow she would be assigned to a new unit. She had no contact with any of them. Well, apart from being observed by them while she was subjected to blows and throws from the trainers and sergeants. Hard to make an accurate evaluation of their character when you were lying on your back, looking up at them from the mat all the time. Anyway, it wouldn't make any difference; all of them wore the identical blank facial mask. No one can tell what goes on behind the mask. She wondered if there was a chance that they may be like her siblings.
Hardly likely.
Like the TAC leaders, drill sergeants, trainers and guards, they would probably view her as a traitor and give her a hard time. If she was really, really lucky, she might even be assigned to the same unit as that creep 494, she thought. Now that would really make my day!
Well, it could not be worse than the last 6 months.
Max was sitting on her side of the locked door, leaning against the wall in her cell, talking to Joshua. Explaining that she would be assigned to a new unit.
"Little fella is going to be with up-there people?" Joshua said mournfully. His soulful eyes dimmed with sadness at the thought of his little friend leaving.
"Sorry Joshua, I have to go. I cannot stay here, but I will miss you. I will find a way to come see you, 'kay" Max said, trying to console the gentle giant. She felt sad leaving him here, but it was not as if Manticore would allow her to bring him along.
Joshua nodded. He had come to like the little transgenic, but he understood that she had to be with her own kind. Joshua knew she was different from the rest of the stony faced transgenics. She was friendly with him and some of the other anomalies, telling them about her life outside and her friend, Dani. She said Dani would have loved to meet him. But he had also seen the blank mask her face turned into when the guards were around. Her lively, animated face will suddenly turn blank. Manticore mask, he thought shuddering. He did not like that look on his friend's face.
They sat there talking until she heard the guards' approach, the sound of their boots hitting the concrete floor echoing along the basement corridor. The time was 0600. Joshua slipped away quietly, and she laid down on her bunk, waiting to be let out.
The door creaked as the guard unlocked it and pulled it open.
"452. You have 5 minutes for showers. You need to then come with me to Storage for your kit. You will be transferred to your new unit today. You will start your daily routine with them at 0700" the guard snapped out, his posture ramrod straight.
Gee, these guards have to loosen up! He was standing so straight that he might just snap his backbone with the tension, she thought, trying hard not to roll her eyes. Max got up and headed for the showers.
After picking up her kit – clothing mainly comprises of camouflage, t-shirts and underwear, rucksacks and military equipments, she proceeded to her new unit, unit 4.
At 0650 hours, she stood outside the room labelled Unit 4, taking a deep breath. She grinned to herself. Just ignore everything they say, just be a good, obedient Manticore prototype! Exactly! And wipe that grin off! The mask slammed down on her face.
She pushed the door open.
The members of unit 4 were tidying their bunks, having being woken by the annoying Bugle Corps at 0645. At her entrance, they looked up in surprise. A minute later, a tall oriental female with dark hair started towards herMax stared at her in shock. That can't possibly be Brin. She just looks like Brin, Max thought, not so fast at making a judgement after the 493/494 incident. Who knows how many of us Manticore whipped up? This must be her twin.
"Your designation?" Brin-look-alike asked, with the usual blank Manticore mask.
"X5-452. I have been assigned to your unit"
"I am 735, CO of unit 4. I have been informed of your arrival. Your bunk is over there, next to 547." She gestured towards a dark hair Mediterranean looking boy.
"Unit 4, this is 452, our new unit member. I'm sure each of you could introduce yourself."
"I am 612" A 15 year old boy with blonde hair and bronzed skin.
"547." Her neighbour said with a small smile.
"593" Dark blonde boy with fair skin who looks like a modified version of Ben.
"I am 312" Girl with brown hair and dark blue eyes.
"I am 422" An intense looking blonde girl with blue eyes.
"401" A young boy with dark skin and hair.
"332" A very young girl, who looks about 11, with black hair and cherubic face. Very un-soldier-like, Max thought. But hey, she is probably perfect for undercover ops.
"I'm 564" An older, male version of 332. Definitely related, Max thought.
"481" A stern looking older boy with spiky dark blonde hair. He looked familiar. Max looked closer and realised that he looks exactly like one of the soldiers who captured her. His hair had blonde highlights! And Manticore allowed this?
"481 is our 2IC. He will be in-charge of this unit when I am not available," 735, Brin's look-alike added. Then she noticed the direction of Max's gaze. "And that hair is obviously not standard issue. He got it done on an away mission," she explained.
Max wondered if she should smile at that comment.
The bell rang, signalling the time for breakfast, hence saving her from having to make that decision. Unit 4 fell into an orderly line led by 735. Max stepped in at the back of the line. She counted only a total of eleven soldiers in her unit, much less than her old unit, unit 2 and she wondered why.
And 494's not in this unit! She thought with relief. Somehow, in their short acquaintance, he managed to antagonise her beyond belief. She found it strange that she did not feel the same towards 481's twin, the other soldier who caught her. But then, he did not insult me or Ben, she thought.
As they entered the mess hall, Max looked around curiously. There were a few X3s and X4s sitting together at one end of the hall, the younger, larger groups of X6s at the other end of the hall and X-5s in the middle. She noticed Jace, designation 798, another of her siblings who did not escape with them, sitting at a table with some other X5s. Jace did not seem to notice her. As her eyes continued their survey round the room, Max swallowed a gasp as she spotted a younger version of herself, about two to three years old, sitting with some other very young kids. Manticore cloned me? Her eyes widened as they travelled down that table, And Zack, Brin, Tinga… Our entire unit! She thought, incredulous.
"452. This way." 735 jolted Max out of her thoughts. 735 noted Max's preoccupation.
"Oh…Manticore had just started on them. Those are X7s. They are mostly clones from your old unit, some from better prototypes in other units. Rumour was that your unit's genetic make-up was the cream of the crop. But the X7 version are not as independent as the X5s. Rumour was that they trained away the independence in their early years. I suppose they do not want a repeat of that incident in '09. Not all of them are here; some of them are on perimeter guard duties. Watch out for them, especially those hive-minded ones. There have been some rumours of some… activities… of theirs which even I find unnerving. But they're not based here normally. They're just passing by en-route to their own facility."
Max nodded, pleasantly surprised to hear the friendly words from her new CO. She had expected her to be stand-offish, as with the rest of unit 4. They had not spoken to her yet, apart from the introductions.
Max followed the rest of her unit to the serving counter to pick up her food and pills. She glanced down at her tray, seeing a bowl of grey sludge, toast, an apple and milk. Looks like the menu has not changed in the last few years, she grimaced.
They all sat down at the same table. She sat in front of 547.
"So, 452, our infamous '09 escapee, seen you on the training grounds for the last couple of months. When did they bring you in?" he asked with a small grin, curiosity shining in his dark eyes. Max decided that 547 may be quite likeable.
"6 months ago. Since then I was in psy-ops and reindoctrination. The demonstrations were part of my re-training programme"
He gasped. "6 months in psy-ops! I am surprised you are still sane!" 547 stared at her in shock, his dark eyes large in his face.
"I hope you are not planning to turn traitor on us, 452." 593, the Ben-almost-look-a-like, remarked with a frown.
Silence greeted the table at that remark. Unit 4 turned to look between Max and 593.
At the silence, 593 said defensively, "What! Who knows what she will do. She escaped once already! I don't know about the rest of you but I don't want to do through all that punishment again" He looked around at his unit for their reaction.
Punishment?
735 put down her fork and pinned a disapproving gaze on 593. "That's enough, 593! 452 has gone through reindoctrination and re-training. You know what it's like over there." Casting her eyes around the rest of the unit, she added, "I trust the rest of you agree with me that 452 should be treated as our equals, not an outcast."
Unit 4 nodded in silent agreement.
"What punishment?" Max asked, dreading the answer.
547 answered, "When your unit escaped, Manticore tighten up the security and put us all through discipline and reindoctrination. It was bad. Some, particularly those who shares the same DNA with unit 2, had it worse. They had to go to psy-ops as well and subjected to tests. Manticore wants to be sure that it is not genetic. From our unit, 593, 735, 332 and 564 got the worst; 735 because she is a twin of 734, and the other 3 because they shared some of your unit's DNA."
Max reeled from the information. She had no known that it had gotten so bad because they had escaped. Lowering her eyes, she said, "I am sorry. We didn't realise that Manticore will punish everyone."
735 looked over at her, noticing her distress, "Well, not much use in dwelling over this. It is over. You escaped; we were punished. Many of us felt unjustified in being punished. I suppose it acts as a deterrent for anyone who even thinks of escaping. But I don't want this to affect the way we work as a unit. Understand?"
Unit 4 nodded.
Breaking the uncomfortable mood, 481 pushed his tray away and stood up, "We need to go. Morning drills starting in 5 minutes."
494 was in the middle lifting up his spoonful of nutrient-fortified sludge, a.k.a breakfast, when the mess door swung open. He observed as unit 4 filed in, with a bored expression on his face. Then his eyes widened.
452.
She walked in behind the rest of unit 4. He had seen her on the training ground occasionally. She looked much healthier and had grown a bit since he had captured her. Must be all the good Manticore food, he thought wryly, glancing down at his plate with a grimmace. He saw her scan the room, not noticing him, and paused when she saw the X7s. He followed her glance.
Ah, the clones, he thought.
He was not the only one who noticed her; he saw the curious looks given to her from all around the mess hall. Some obviously staring, some darting subtle glances under their eyes.
"That's 452, isn't it? The girl we caught in Seattle," 480 who was sitting beside him, asked. 480 was staring openly, his unchecked curiosity reflected all over his face.
494 nodded. He averted his gaze from 452 and continued stirring the sludge distractedly.
"I have to say, she cleaned up quite well. Quite hot under all that grime, don't you think" 480 giving her a once-over, small smile on his face.
494 frowned. What was 480 thinking of? 452? He cannot mean…? He lifted his head to look at 480. The quick once-over 480 was giving 452 was turning into a much more interested look.
He looked at 480 in disgust, "You can't be serious. That's 452. She's been who-knows-where for years. You might catch something. And anyway, she's just a kid."
"Yeah, but these girls grow up pretty quickly. She should be starting her Heat cycle soon! Maybe we'll get lucky" 480 glanced over at 494, grinning.
494's eyes lit up, his eyes returning to 452. Hmm… Maybe she was not so bad after all, he thought. To 480, he shook his head, "Nah… Not my type. I prefer them sweeter. Not tainted and used like that one over there."
480 chuckled, "I think she's sweet enough, and I don't think she's that sort."
494 smirked at 480, glancing at 452 out of the corner of his eyes, noticing the subtle curves of 452's young lithe figure. His eyes travelled from the top of her lustrous dark hair, down to the curve of her chest and narrow waist that flared out into curvaceous hips. He felt his blood rush and he quickly yanked his gaze away, not wanting to embarrass himself. Transgenics or not, they were still hormone-filled teenagers. The sporadic outbreaks of X-5 females in heat and the subsequent Sex-Ed classes had been feeding their already over-active imaginations.
Manticore had introduced the Sex-Ed classes for X-5s when it was clear that the Heat outbreaks were a result of the feline DNA in this particular X-series. It was important that these outbreaks were monitored closely and studied. At the beginning, to understand what was happening, when a female was starting her heat cycle, she was strapped down and tested while she was subjected to different stimulants. And by stimulants, Manticore meant male. Male X-3s, X-4s, X-5s, X-6s, anomalies and even humans. There was a varying degree of response from the female but the strongest appear to be when subjected to an X-5 male. What Manticore found interesting was the male's reaction to the female in heat. Apparently the males were strongly affected by the pheromones secreted by the female in heat, making them loose control. Manticore found this out the hard way when they had to subdue an uncontrollable X-5 affected by the pheromones during the tests. The guards' long list of casualties ensured that they did not attempt that experiment again.
As Unit 6 exited the mess hall, a jolt went through 494 as his eyes caught 452's. He saw shock flashed across her eyes as she recognised him, followed by a scowl. Feeling an inexplicable growth of anticipation within himself, 494 deliberately walked in her direction. He could feel 480's questioning eyes on him but he ignored it.
She stiffened as he brushed against her side. He could see, no, feel her shooting daggers at him. Keeping his expression bland, he said softly to her, "Welcome home, 452. Hope you had enjoyed your trip to psy-ops," And continued to walk past her, hearing the sound of her outraged gasp behind him.
494 let a satisfied smile slip onto his face.
480 glanced at his CO, worried. He noticed that his CO had an odd reaction towards that 452. He was usually quite easy-going, and …well, focussed when there was a mission. 480 could not pinpoint his CO's reaction to 452. 494 seemed to be overly hostile and insulting to her during the mission. Although 480 understood that she was considered a traitor by some, but he did not think that insults were necessary. It did not serve any purpose and it was unprofessional. And now, he just caught 494 antagonising 452. Interesting. 480 made a mental note to have a quiet talk with 531, his 2IC.
It was a frosty morning. Not that it makes any difference to the transgenics. Manticore set a punishing training schedule, and they all kept to it. The X4s and X5s Units 1 to Unit 6, with the exception of unit 2, of course, lined up in the training grounds.
Sergeant Hales walked along the rows of soldiers, inspecting their appearance. A few unfortunate transgenics had the misfortune of having his ruddy face close up to theirs while he made his displeasure known to everyone with sound hearing within a 1mile radius. Eventually satisfied, he returned to the front of the soldiers.
"At ease, soldiers! Today, we will start off with 200 push ups followed by 4 laps around the grounds. Go!"
Max dropped to the ground together with the other 400 soldiers for their push ups. Once the push ups were completed, they started running the laps. Most of them were not even breathing hard, Max noted as she began to feel the strain at the fourth lap. I need to catch up! She thought. It was not helping matters that she was still distracted over the encounter with 494 earlier in the mess hall. What exactly was his problem? You wait, 494. I'll get back at you one day! She vowed.
One after another, the X-series fell back into line. Sergeant Hales started demonstrating several combat moves with an un-lucky X-6. Better him than me! Max thought.
"Now pair up and practice"
Max paired up with 547. The moves were uncomplicated, both of them taking turns to flip each other over. Max realised that she was a bit rusty. Really need to catch up soon. A while later, they were ordered to spar. Max remained with 547. Both of them were already dripping with sweat, face flushed from the previous exercise. They faced each other in the standard fight stance.
Max swung a punch. 547 lifted his arms to block, twisted to grab Max's arm and stepped to the side, yanking Max down to the mat. She fell, rolled and bounced up standing. 547 sidestepped her kick and blurred around her, hitting her in the back of the neck. She fell, stunned.
Unfortunately for her, Hales noticed.
"452! You call that sparring? All these time outside made you soft! Get up!" Hales yelled. Some of the X's glanced at them. Some sniggered.
"What are you looking at, soldier? Back to sparring. Now!" Hales glared at them. They quickly went back to their sparring. Max got up and faced 547 for another round. Punch. Block. Kick. Duck.
"Hey 452, your left side is open. Block!" 574 said under his breath, just loud enough for her to hear, aiming to land a side kick to her ribs.
Max blocked just in time to avoid the impact. Shit. Too slow! Focus!
Max and 547 continued sparring, with 547 dropping hints and pointers. Gradually, Max got into it and started landing some hits. She grinned to 547.
"Thanks" she whispered.
547 gave her a small smile.
Smiling back, Max thought, this may not be so bad after all.
t.b.c.
A/N: Reviews, please? (-smile-)