Sequel to A Light in the Dark
Chapter Two: Election Malfunction
"Are you ready for this?" Alec asked the X4 next to him. It had been almost a month since Alec had told Jake he should run for office. It had been three weeks since Jake had officially announced his running for office. It had been two hours since the results had come back in that the X4 had won the election. Now he and Alec were standing behind a large blue curtain on the stage where he was to give his acceptance speech. In front of hundreds of people.
"I don't know. All of the other conferences were pre-recorded and the audience wasn't this big..." Jake wrung his large hands together nervously.
Alec put a hand on the big man's shoulder. "You'll do fine. They love you." It was still slightly unbelievable to the X5 that the very people who not long ago would've called this man a freak and try to kill him because he looked...slightly less than human, had elected him in a sweeping victory to a position of power.
Jake, was Max would say, had a little too much bear in his cocktail, making him very large and dangerous; however, as most had come to realize, he was more a teddy bear than other other type of the species. The people had obviously picked up on this.
Jake jumped at the sound of his name being called from the other side of the curtain. Alec patted his friend on the back and smiled reassuringly as they walked out onto the stage
The crowd cheered as they entered and Jake's nerves settled a little at the sentiment. The two men waved at the audience. Alec was smiling, but his body had gone tense, his eyes searching the crowd for what his instincts had told him. Up in the rafters of the room, he saw the glint of light reflecting off of metal and the small red pinpoint of a laser.
"Everybody down!" he yelled, his body springing into action, pulling Jake down to the floor. Just seconds later a bullet entered Alec's shoulder.
"Gahh! Why the shoulder? It's always the damn shoulder!" he cursed. He looked back up to where the sniper had been. He was gone. "Dammit!"
He warily pulled himself to his feet, still keeping his body in front of Jake's. Max rushed to his side from out of nowhere.
"I lost the bastard. I noticed him a little before you did and tried to get to him. He took the shot and ran. Got lost in all the damn crowd. You okay?" Anger and concern flooded her deep brown eyes, even as she shared a look with Jake and they both mouthed "I'm always alright."
"Yeah, I'm always alright." Max and Jake smiled softly, rolling their eyes. "Jake, you alright?"
"More fine that you," Jake said, pointing at Alec's shoulder.
"You and that shoulder," Max said, smiling slightly. She touched his shoulder gingerly, eying the damage. "At least it went straight through."
"Yeah, lucky me," he responded, the sarcasm dripping from his voice. "Ow! he yelped when Max prodded the wound.
"Oh, shut-up you big baby. That's gonna need cauterized." Alec looked at her with what could only be described as pure horror as she pulled out a knife.
"Oh no! You are so not doing that again."
"Alec, that was 5 years ago! I'm not trying to cause you pain now, like I was then."
"Ha! Tell that to my back!" he retorted, wiggling his eyebrows suggestively. Jake tried futilely to hold back a laugh at the innuendo. Max barely stopped herself from smacking him on the shoulder. She settled for cuffing him on the back of the head.
"How many times have I told you that publically announcing details of our sex life is terrible for your health?"
"I don't know. I don't remember you ever saying that. I was probably suffering from a concussion," Alec remarked, exaggeratedly rubbing his head. Max rolled her eyes, but couldn't stop the smile that formed on her lips.
"Come on, let's go talk to security. See if we can get some camera footage of the shooter."
The crowd had long been evacuated and Alec's wounds treated. Max, Alec and Jake were sitting with cops and security guards in the empty room.
"Who would want to assassinate Jake?" a rather plump officer named Gerald Dante asked them.
"Any of the dozen or so transgenic-hating groups out there. Just because most of the country has come to their senses, doesn't mean there aren't still a few fringe idiots,' Max replied.
"Well, we'll just have to do some background checks and some good ole' detective work. In the meantime, we'll keep a couple of bodyguards with the council member at all times. I'm so sorry for this-" Dante was interrupted by a frantic Dix who was rushing over with his laptop.
"Max, Alec, I think you'll want to see this," the transhuman said, pushing a couple of keys on the laptop. A video started.
"What's this?" Alec asked, staring at the screen.
"It's video footage from one of the security cams. See..watch here," Dix said, pushing a few more keys.
Max watched as Alec and Jake came onto the stage in the video. Her eyes widened as she saw the red dot that hovered over Jake's chest for a second, then quickly went to rest over Alec's heart.
"What the hell?" she whispered.
Dix turned to Alec and spoke. "Jake wasn't the target. You were."
Alec had been silent while watching the footage. He had been sure that Jake was the target. He was the one who was going in the spotlight now, after all. Turning to the officer, he said, "Make sure the press reports that it was an attempt to assassinate the newest transgenic council member."
Max nodded. "We don't want whoever's behind this to tip to the fact we know what really went down. It will be easier to catch them this way. They might not make another attempt-" Her eyes widened as she realized what Alec was probably intending. "Oh, you are soo not being bait!"
"Max, we'll talk about that later."
"No, we'll talk about this now! You aren't gonna-" Max yelled until Dix interrupted her.
"You two can continue with the foreplay later," he stated, unaware of the glare he was receiving from her and the cocky smirk from Alec. "I haven't watched it all yet, we might be able to see this guy's face." He turned the computer to face them again.
The camera panned to the area where the shooter was lurking. The footage they were watching was obviously from after the shot had been taken; there was still a slight film of smoke in the air. The would-be assassin's face was obscured by the shadows created by the rafters. As he lifted his arm to disassemble the sniper rifle, the sleeve of his shirt raised up from where it rested at his wrist.
"Damn," Dix exclaimed. "I thought we could see his face there..let me try-"
"No, wait. Dix, pause it here and enhance the picture there," Max said, pointing at the sniper's bared arm.
Max couldn't believe what she thought she was seeing. Dix quizzically raised his eyebrows, but complied. Realization dawned on him hard as his fellow transgenics cursed under their breath. There it was. The caduceus; the symbol all familiars wore. Then, Dix yelped as the video returned to normal play after being paused for so long. After enhancing the feed, most of the shadows were gone and the shooter's face could be seen. The face every transgenic knew, feared and loathed.
"That's impossible," Max said in disbelief as she stared into the cold eyes of the man on the screen.
"When are you going to realize, Maxie, that when it comes to our lives, nothing is impossible?" Alec half joked. "Especially the stuff that makes our lives hell."
"Yeah, but coming back from the dead? That's really impossible."
"You do see the irony in that statement, right?" Alec asked, saying what everyone was thinking. "You died and came back, Zack died and came back. It's like the theme in our lives."
Max sighed in frustration and shook her head. "It's not the same. You don't come back from that. We both saw him die."
"I know we did," Alec said, putting his good arm around her and pulling her close. Just like their feline counterparts, touch was what they needed for comfort. "But somehow, White is back."
Please R&R :)