Disclaimer: Dark Angel and its characters obviously do not belong to me. I am writing this purely for non-profit entertainment. Yada, yada! No infringement intended, so don't sue me!
A/N: Thanks for all your reviews guys! I love it all! Now, on another topic, my other story:Deception, is coming to an end; next chapter is the last one. I know most of you are reading it, but if you haven't read it, maybe you would like to check it out :)
Calistra – Thanks for reviewing. Yeah, I tend to want to cast Logan on the bad side -:grins:- wonder why!
Kelzaa – Thanks for your review. Logan and White currently just have a 'deal' to help each other out.
Toniboo – Glad you liked the Max/Alec interaction. Yes! Matt and Val was something that was waiting to happen, but until last chapter, I couldn't get it in, lol! Thanks for reviewing.
AngelKougaeri – Thanks for reviewing. Let me know what you think of this chappie!
HoneyX5-452 – Glad you liked the little Max/Alec scene. It's just to make a point that they CAN talk without fighting, lol! Thanks for reviewing.
Ro – Yup…I thought it was about time they got along a bit better -:grins:- I hope the lack of bickering was not too disappointing! Thanks for your review.
GuestTypePerson – You feeling hostile towards Alec? But it's Alec! He's too cute and yes, definitely sweet when he wants to be! LOL! Zack and Jace scene is in this chapter, so read on! As for Cale…you got to read on to find out! Thanks for reviewing.
Mel11 – Yeah, I thought last chapter was a good time for another heat scene -:winks:-. Glad you liked the conversation between Max and Alec. Hopefully there's more like that to come! Thanks for your review.
Alana84 – Val had her evil way with Matt, hehe! Who wouldn't? He's pretty cute too, lol! As for Max and Alec, I am glad you liked the scene ;). Thanks for reviewing.
Angel Of Darkness231 – Shocked? Why? White and Logan makes a good pair, don't you think? Glad you liked the pairing, btw! Thanks for reviewing.
Sarah – Drat! You are better at recognizing the plot than I am…But one bit is not quite as you put it, but I am not telling you which one -:chuckles:- Yeah, only one way to shut Gab up – Jondy, lol! Thanks for reviewing.
Kungfuchick – Thanks for your review. Max going into heat? That could be arranged -:grins:- But not so soon! There's a few more chapters to go before the thing with White and Cale comes to light.
L80bug – Thanks for reviewing. Let me know what you think of this one ;)
W1cked angel – Yeah, I share your feelings towards Logan, hehe! Thanks for reviewing.
Darkangelgirl – Thanks for your review. Glad you liked the chapter and YES Max and Alec is finally getting closer, phew! Need a few more chapters before White and Cale's bit comes clear.
Eva – Thanks for your review. Glad you liked it. Read on and let me know what you think of this chappie.
Angelofdarkness78 – Hey, what did I do! No cliffie this time, or the last few chapters. I am disappointed in myself -:sighs:- Your sanity, I'm sure, will remain intact, LOL! Glad you like the chapter and thanks for reviewing.
Lotamoxie – Hmm…million dollar question – Is Logan a bad guy? -:grins:- You'll find out in a few more chapters. As for Zack…-:sighs:- no surprise there, LOL! Thanks for reviewing.
Lex2u – Thanks for reviewing. Hehe, I am glad you liked the MA scene. I can't tell you now if Logan is a bad guy; it'll spoil the story for you -:grins:- Keep on reading and tell me what you think!
Lakergirl08 – Alright! O.O It must have taken you quite some time to finish all 19 chapters! Wow! I am happy that you thought it's amazing; I am flattered. Jondy will come into play in a couple of chapters more. As for your other questions, you'll get the answer in the next couple of chapters -:grins:- And thank you for reviewing.
Anna – Thanks for reviewing. Me leaving you hanging like that? Of course not! LOL! See? I updated already, so hope you'll forgive me -:grins:-
Onwards with the story…
Retrieved Chapter 20 – Progression
(by elle6778)
The sound of the bugles blared out irritatingly loud and clear at precisely 0645 hours, followed by discontented groans from the transgenics in unit 4. All of them, bar Sandy who was still in Isolation after last night's episode, got up reluctantly.
Max found herself aching all over. Grumpily throwing the covers off her, Max swung herself off her bed to find herself facing a sheepish looking Gab. Her lips compressed as memories from the night before invaded her mind.
Shuffling his feet, Gab spoke first. "Hey, look…I'm sorry about that," he said, gesturing at the bruises on her face and neck.
Still angry, Max replied tersely, "Yeah, you should, but not for the bruises. But for your lack of self control. What possessed you to go to her, you moron! What could you do anyway? The rest of us were still in the dorm, you know,"
Gab had the grace to look embarrassed. He knew he should have walked away when he realised that Sandy was in heat, but he could not make himself do it. His brain was telling him something, but his hormones were telling him another thing. It was not as if he was the only one anyway. The rest of the guys had reacted the same way as well.
"Max, I can't help it. You know that!" Gab defended himself, a mutinous look on his face.
Max grumbled, "Yeah, unfortunately all of us, in one way or another, are victims to our own hormones. The whole thing could have gone so wrong last night. What if you actually went and did it right there and then in front of us? Have you even thought of the consequences?"
Gab nodded seriously as his lips twitched, "Yeah…I would have lost my virginity,"
Matt and Speed, who was nearby, heard him and proceeded to choke on their laughter.
Max's eye rounded at Gab's words. "I can't believe you can joke about it," she said, incredulous. She threw a glare at Matt and Speed, "Two of you were not much better either," she told them, making a disgusted face.
The three male transgenics laughed, attracting the attention of the rest of the unit, who came closer to find out what was happening.
"Talking about last night, were you?" Cass asked, grinning as she exchanged a look with Max.
"Yeah, these three did not seem too concerned about what happened," Max said in exasperation, inclining her head at Matt, Gab and Speed.
"I know why Matt isn't bothered," Cass said, her eyes lighting up mischievously. She saw what happened last night between Val and Matt when she had decided to leave Speed and Zip to fight it out between them.
"What? Tell us!" Gab turned to Cass questioningly. He did not notice much last night apart from Sandy and her pheromones. And Max, of course. Hard not to notice Max when she was trying to detract him from the call of his hormones. Spoilsport!
Knowing what was coming, Matt shot Cass a warning look, which she conveniently ignored.
Grinning, she went on, "Our CO was happily making out, lost in his own world, when the rest of us were frantically trying to save Sandy from being ravaged. So much for taking care of us, huh, Matt?"
"Cass…" Matt started, sending a warning glare to the youngest member of his unit.
"What! With who?" Zip interrupted, excited at the latest development. He wondered who it was. His curious eyes studied the three females until he noticed the heightened colour in Val's face. "Val! With you!" he exclaimed, grinning.
"Well, it's about time too," Gab said, giving Matt a congratulatory pat on the shoulder. He and Max had often wondered if Matt and Val were ever going to do something one day, considering how close they were.
"Hey, it's not what it looks like. I was just trying to distract him," Val protested lamely. Her face was scarlet with embarrassment as she recalled how she felt while kissing him last night. She shot a look under her lashes at Matt, noticing that he did not look too upset at the fact that the rest of unit 4 now knew what happened. He gave her a small smile, which she tentatively returned.
Cass rolled her eyes, "I'd say you did a fantastic job," she drawled as the rest of them laughed. Turning to Max, Cass continued by asking, "Maybe you should have tried that with Gab? Might have been more effective that beating each other up,"
"What! NO!" Max protested as she made a face, "Ugh! Don't…even…THINK…of that!"
Giving her a wounded look, Gab asked rather sorrowfully, "Why? Am I not good enough for you?" Then he grinned as he continued knowingly, "Or do you have someone else you're saving it for?"
Max glared at him, wordlessly daring him to bring Alec up.
Gab continued to look at her, their stares locked in a silent battle of wills.
Matt cleared his throat, "You talking about Alec?" he said cheekily, knowing who Gab meant.
Max gasped in surprise, "Not you too! NO! It's not like that!" she protested quickly, forgetting to keep her voice neutral. Suddenly realising her mistake, she tried to backtrack, "I don't even know him that well,"
But it was too late; the rest of them had caught on.
"You seem to have quite a large reaction at his name though…" Speed said thoughtfully.
"And I remember the time you kissed in the forest…" Cass added, also thoughtfully.
"And every time I see you and Alec together, you get all flustered and he can't seem to leave you alone…" Matt said, grinning as he recalled all the incidents featuring Max and Alec.
"And I remember the time he got all jealous of me and decided to fight me in the gym…and how possessive he got with your brother, Zack…and then how grateful you were the time he saved your life during the mission…" Gab inserted with glee.
"Enough already!" Max snapped, her face flushed, glaring at her laughing unit mates, "For the last time…We are not like that!"
"Sure you're not. We are convinced," Zip said in a disbelieving tone of voice, turning slowly to walk back to his bed, praying that Max would not decide to attack him from the back.
"Yeah, I believe you," Gab said, pretending to yawn as he went back to making his bed.
"Sure, Max…" Cass agreed with wide innocent eyes, moving back to her side of the room with the rest of the unit.
"WE ARE NOT LIKE THAT!" Max shouted at their retreating backs, stomping her foot in irritation.
Their faces averted from Max, they continued to snigger.
She gave them all a very dark look.
By the time they got to the mess hall, Max had cooled down a bit. She was still disgruntled about her unit mates' teasing about Alec, but at least they stopped now. Grabbing their food trays and their pills, they sat down at their usual table and proceeded to eat.
Out of the corner of her eyes, Max noticed Unit 3 entering the hall, led by Jace. She let her eyes travel further across the room until they fell on two familiar faces. Alec talking and laughing with Jondy. Well, at least some of us are having a good start to the day, she thought irritably. She forced herself not to dwell on why she was so irritated at the sight of them being so friendly. She was just in a bad mood after last night, that all, she told herself.
She moved her gaze back down to her plate of unidentifiable yellow mush, which she supposed was meant to be scrambled eggs. She grimaced. Manticore should sack their chefs, she thought. She wondered why Manticore could not bring themselves to serve better tasting food. Surely it was not a problem with cost.
A sudden loud bang snapped Max out of her thoughts. She and the rest of the transgenics in the mess hall stopped eating and turned to the direction where the noise came from.
Max's eyes widened in alarm as she noticed what was happening.
Jace was standing up with her palms on the table, her chair fallen on its back behind her. Zack was still seated in front of her, looking up. Jace was glaring at Zack, her lips tightly compressed. Max could hear her words even at this distance.
"I will not tolerate insubordination, X5-599! You are in this unit and I am your CO, so justlive with it!" Jace bit out, her face twisted in an obvious attempt to keep her temper in control.
Quite an admirable attempt, Max thought, not too surprised. The whole thing was waiting to happen since Zack joined Jace's unit. Max just wished that they wouldn't do this in front of everyone.
"Isn't that your brother?" Gab whispered, nudging her; curiosity shining in his eyes.
"Shh…" Max silenced him impatiently; she wanted hear what Zack had done to make Jace so angry.
His eyes flashing with some indefinable emotion, Zack bit out, "I am not denying that you are my CO, 798. I am merely pointing out that the discipline in this unit is slack. And you as a CO should make more of an effort to keep it tight," If his body language spoke for him, it was definitely stating that he did not recognise Jace as his CO.
Another transgenic from unit 3 stood up. Max recognised him as the 2IC. He pushed his chair back and went to stand beside Jace in what seemed like a gesture of support.
Max heard him say coldly to Zack, "599, you are out of order. 798 has always been a good CO to us, which is more than what I can say for you. Unlike you, she did not lead her unit astray. So I suggest you keep your thoughts to yourself in the future,"
Uh-oh, Max thought in apprehension. This could get ugly. She shifted her eyes towards Jondy to find her sister looking at Zack with a similar look of apprehension. No doubt she was thinking of the trouble Zack would get by being insubordinate.
Zack stood up slowly so that he was standing eye to eye with the other guy. Zack gave him a condescending look, "This is nothing you should concern yourself with, soldier. I am talking to 798, not to you. And I did not lead my unit astray," he gritted out, "I was--" he halted as the guards started walking towards them.
The entire room of transgenics froze.
"What's going on here?" one of the guards asked, looking at Zack and Jace warily. He had been ordered recently not to use force unless absolutely necessary and he hoped that he did not have to. But like the other guards, he still held on tightly to the tazer in his hand. It was the only way they could subdue to transgenics.
Max saw the blank mask slide over Zack's and Jace's faces. Jace spoke, "Nothing. We were just having a discussion on our upcoming mission,"
"The discussion just got a bit heated, that's all," Zack added, his eyes not leaving Jace's face.
The guards looked sceptical. Then one of them said, with warning in his tone, "Very well. Keep it down, alright?"
Jace and Zack nodded.
Satisfied that the transgenics would not cause any trouble, the guards went back to their usual spot at the end of the room.
After a while, the rest of the transgenics relaxed as the tension dissipated. Finished with breakfast, they got up and headed for the door. Max was walking out with her unit when a tap on her shoulders made her turn around.
It was Alec.
"Hey, Maxie," he smiled as he said her name in a low voice.
"Don't call me that," she retorted, her lips twitching as she tried to make up her mind whether or not she should return his smile. Especially after her unit mates' teasing. At that reminder, she looked around for them. Her eyes narrowed as she noticed that all of them were pointedly facing away from her and Alec. No doubt listening to their conversation, she thought irritably.
"What are you looking at?" he asked, trying to follow the direction of her gaze.
"Nothing," Max replied, turning her attention back to him. He smelled nice, she thought distractedly. Then realising what just went through her mind, she groaned inwardly.
"I guess you saw what happened back there with your brother, huh?" Alec said, rubbing the back of his neck. He wanted to groan at his own words. He knew he sucked at this sort of 'civilised' conservation. Heck, things were much easier back when he was hell bent on teasing her.
Max gave him an odd look, "Yeah, and so did the rest of the hall. And your point is?" Alec is behaving quite strange today, she thought.
"He's not doing too well fitting in, is he?" Alec said rather stiffly. Okay, I should give up. I am not good at this sort of talk.
Max gave him a sigh of exasperation, "Alec…I am sure you did not stop me on the way to morning drills to talk about Zack. So what's up?" she asked impatiently, her hands on her hips.
Alec did not really know why he stopped her in the first place. He guessed that he just wanted to talk to her to see how she was doing. He did not know why but the conversation he had with her last night kept him from falling asleep. Maybe it was because for once, they did not fight.
"I just wanted to see how you were, you know, after last night," he admitted
Max's eyes softened, "I'm fine, thanks. I'll just have to wear my battle scars for another day and it'll be gone," she said, gesturing at her bruises.
Alec grinned, "Makes you look like an owl," he teased, feeling lighter now.
Max smacked him on the shoulders, "Of all the insensitive things to say to a girl," she exclaimed.
"A cute owl," Alec added, still grinning as he avoided another smack.
"Why? You want a black eye too?" Max offered, her eyes gleaming.
Alec came closer to her, "Why? You can't keep your hands off me?"
"Only my fists," she replied sweetly, but there was not malice in her voice.
"I prefer other parts of your body," he said in a level tone.
Max forced herself to ignore his suggestive remark, as she retorted, "What? My feet?"
He took a while to consider before replying, "That will do too, but preferably without the boots. I am sure your feet is just as cute as your black eye,"
The sniggers and giggles from the transgenics in front of them distracted Max and Alec from their conversation. Max swallowed her irritation when she noticed that the sounds came from Unit 4 and Unit 6. They were obviously listening to her conversation with Alec.
Jondy, who noticed that Alec and Max had stopped, turned back and said, "Carry on…Don't mind us," she said with a cheeky grin. That sent the rest of them into a fresh fit of giggles.
Max rolled her eyes, "You all should grow up," she remarked, sounding very irritated as she shot a glance at Alec. She made a move to join her unit, giving them a threatening look.
Alec caught the look on her face and decided that they should not give the rest of Unit 4 and Unit 6 more fodder for gossip. Giving Max a farewell smile, he walked forward to join his unit.
"What? Eavesdropping, are we?" he asked, raising his eyebrows at the looks on his unit's face. Some of them looked sheepish, some just looked positively gleeful.
Biggs came up to him and prodded him in the ribs, "Looks like things are going well between you two," he teased.
Alec gave him a dark look.
It had been a few month sinceLydecker called the COs in to break the shocking news of Manticore's latest plans for the transgenics, the COs of the various divisions and units were asked to start working on the plan. One by one, they filed in to the briefing room and sat down, looking at each other wordlessly, none of them quite knew how to start.
Jace decided to break the silence.
"So, shall we?" Jace began, scanning the room full of COs.
"I am not too sure how should we do this," Matt admitted, wrinkling his brows as he tried to think.
Max spoke up, "Lydecker did say that we would not be actively participating for a while, but he wanted to know our thoughts on…er…stuff," she finished vaguely, gesturing in the air.
"Do you think that he actually wants our honest, uncensored opinion? Or is this for show only?" Alec asked, doubtful that Manticore actually wanted their prototypes opinion of anything.
Max shrugged at his question, "I guess at some level they do want to know, but whether they will take into account what we say is another matter,"
Alec gave a bark of laughter, "So why the hell are we doing this if all they're going to do is ignore us?" he scoffed.
Jace decided to butt in at this point, "Lydecker gave us an instruction and I suppose we'll have to carry it out, whatever the reason may be. Since when do we refuse to do anything just because there's no good reason for it?"
"Good point, J-, 798," Max managed to just bite back from calling Jace her childhood name, "Maybe we should list that down as our first point. We want in on the actual reason behind missions and stuff. Then at least we will be more informed,"
204 scribbled on the piece of paper in front of him. He had offered to take down the minutes of the meeting. Looking up expectantly, he said, "Next?"
X4-43 raised her hand slightly, "I've got another one. No more testing,"
A rumble of agreement went around the room. None of the transgenics liked to be tested. Not that it happened so often once they became adults.
Jace, however, gave an incredulous snort, "You've got to be kidding. You are asking Manticore to stop testing?"
"You've got to admit that they have done much less testing on us compared to the time when we were kids," Matt said thoughtfully.
"I asked the X6s for their thoughts a couple of days ago, you know, to get their bit for this meeting? It seemed that they did not undergo as many tests as we went through. Manticore must have found another way to do it," Max said.
The psy-ops representative, who called herself Mia, said "Now that you've mentioned it, we tend to do evaluations more on our captives rather than the transgenics. I think the last lot of transgenics we did was the two '09-ers who got recaptured recently. Even then, it was a low level evaluation,"
Max gave the girl an unfriendly look.
Noticing the look Max gave her, Mia said, holding her hands up in defence, "Hey, don't look at me. I was just following orders,"
"She just couldn't stand the thought of her siblings being tortured," Alec said wickedly, thinking of the way Zack spoke to him the last few times they crossed path.
"Shut-up, 494!" Max snapped as she kicked his feet under the table. She grinned in satisfaction when she heard him hiss in pain. Would he never run out of things to taunt her with? She admitted that their relationship was not as abusive as before but he still continued to taunt her on and off. So she reacted; with physical violence.
"Hey, no flirting in the meeting, guys," Matt drawled, earning himself smack on his head from Max's notebook. "Okay, okay, I'm sorry," he said quickly, putting his arms around her to placate her.
Alec narrowed his eyes as he saw Max smile at the gesture. Couldn't Max leave her fan club behind when she comes to these meetings? Irritated at his own reaction, he covered it up with an exaggerated yawn. "Okay, let's not get sidetracked, or we'll be here forever. I, for one, need my beauty sleep," Alec drawled.
Max snorted and gave him a disgusted look. Alec smirked back at her.
"Is there no way to get rid of the testing?" Jace asked, going back to the topic they were discussing.
Mia said thoughtfully, "I am not sure, but recently there's been talk amongst the scientists about this new testing technique they came up with,"
The room fell deathly silent at her words. She looked around in surprise and then realised how it must have sounded to them.
"No, not THOSE tests. These tests are more…non-destructive. Manticore reckons that they have enough test data from live subjects," she explained quickly.
Alec sighed, leaning back in his chair, "Now why doesn't that make me feel any better?" he said.
204 tapped his pen on the table impatiently, "So, should we put this down or not?"
"Can't see the harm in it. All they could do is say no!" Max answered, looking around for support. The rest of the transgenics nodded.
204 noted the item on the sheet of paper, and then said, "Next?"
"I don't know about you guys, but I think so far it's a bit one sided. I mean, it seem to all benefit the transgenics but not Manticore," X4-43 pointed out.
"Don't you think they got enough from us for the last decade?" 204 asked incredulously, making X4-43 wince.
"Well, all of us except for 452 here," Alec mocked, flashing a grin at Max.
Max glared at him but she did not refute his words. It was true, after all. She spent three years less in Manticore than any one of them here.
Alec felt oddly disappointed at her lack of response.
"I think he's got a point though. Maybe it would make them more amenable if we make it look like we are actually thinking of them as well," Mia said, "Basic psychology," she added after a short pause.
"Fine, then. What can we offer that they don't have anyway?" Jace asked, her brows furrowed.
The transgenic sat in silence as they tried to come up with something.
"You know, all we can offer is to do more missions or some sort of side jobs for them. Anyway, that would be good for us since it gets us out and about, instead of being cooped up in here for months on end doing nothing but training," Matt suggested.
"I agree," Mia said, eager to be seen to be on the transgenics' side. She knew that her division, although small, was not the most popular one amongst them.
"Okay, let me put it down as well," 204 said, scribbling on the growing list.
The transgenics continued that way for hours until finally, they had a comprehensive list to hand to Lydecker. Most of the items on the list were for the transgenics' benefit, but they managed to throw in a few so that it seemed to benefit Manticore as well.
Satisfied with the good nights work, the transgenics grinned at each other and went back to their respective dorms.
In a penthouse in Seattle, a cyber-journalist tapped his fingers impatiently as he waited for the database search on the computer to return a result. His eyes remained fixed to indicator bar on the screen, watching the process until it reached completion. He smiled as the results displayed on the screen.
It was as he suspected.
Manticore was using up billion of dollars of tax-payers money to fund a secret programme training children as soldiers. The cyber-journalist continued reading, the expression on his face a mix of disgust and excitement, as he digested more and more details on Manticore and its activities.
Some of the details were vague, he discovered later in disappointment. He needed more to go on with his work. But he was sure that he was on the right track now. He just needed a little bit more information. He needed names and faces and addresses.
Then Eyes Only, the defender of the downtrodden, would expose the despicable acts committed by Manticore.
t.b.c
A/N: -:grins:- So, how is this chapter? Is it going the way you want it to go? Please review and tell me!