Undisclosed location.
2:30 am.
The sound of a motorcycle tearing through the wind fills the street. Max is going to where she split with Alec. Maybe they'll be clues there to where they are? If they're still alive. Max shakes her head. Negative thinking will do no good. Head in the game, soldier.
Max stops her bike and looks around the deserted town. It's so quiet that her own heartbeat sounds like concert music pounding in her ears - that's probably also panic. Her friends are nowhere to be found, nor is Alec. The thought that a transgenic was overpowered here and she's alone sends a shiver up her spine. She can't see or hear anyone around, but she knows that doesn't mean this town is empty.
Looking around, keeping eyes and ears out, Max scans the area where she last saw Alec. She takes in the view of the library, the most impressive building in this small town. Probably the cultural hub in this town's hay day. The sound of wind cuts through the supernatural silence, chilling the air. Max isn't sure she can ever recall being this alone. In her head, a mental clock keeps ticking. It could already be too late for her to save her friends. She just needs at least one damn clue to where they are.
Then, she spots it. Her advanced sight focuses in on the ground. Alec. There's blood on the ground, just the smallest traces - barely visible unless someone were looking for it. Alec, that smart ass genius. He had left a trail behind for her, somehow intentionally drawing a small amount of blood to leave behind, presumably in case Max came looking. Only occasionally, he can be a smart genetically engineered super soldier. Smiling at the trail, Max looks to where it leads - up the steps and into the library. Now, the choice is up to her. Rush in rashly and save the day or wait for T.C. backup? Her training says wait for backup, going in now to save your unit is foolish and a suicide mission. Her heart says not to waste a second to try and save her friends. She stays crouched down, near the blood trail, and doesn't move. Sandeman's alarm rings in her head. With the runes, Ames' words, and his intense alarm on the phone about her walking into danger, Sandeman sure has done a good job making Max seem like the only salvation the world has. Max weighs this. Why should I stay here and wait for backup, just to be safe in case I'm the great last hope of this broken world? Friends are in trouble. On the other hand, am I letting sentiment cloud my judgment? How does going in and getting killed help anyone?
Max, on the rarest of occasions, waits for backup. She doesn't rush in, even though it seems as if every DNA molecule is screaming at her to. Normally, she saves her friends without a second thought to risk, but Sandeman's messages about her saving the world are keeping her back. She stands up, gets on her bike and leaves.
~ ~ ~
"Hey, Alec, you're bleeding." Sketchy says. With concern, though not in a particularly panicked way, as he sees a drop of blood fall.
Alec looks down to the finger he'd pricked open when the Familiars captured him on his knees. He pretends to be seeing it for the first time and shrugs. "Oh, would you look at that? Must've hit it against something or gotten a paper cut." Come on, Max. You're smart. Find us. Hopefully 10 years out in the world playing normal girl-next-door hasn't made you dull at tracking.
Alec looks over, across the room, through bars he can see the guard sitting down, watching them intently. Alec keeps a poker face, as he discretely looks for weaknesses he can exploit. He brings to mind training. Deception is a weapon. Is there any way he can deceive his way out? Seems not. Okay, onto the next digital slide flashing across the front of the room. Surprise is a tactical advantage. Was there any element of surprise left? Alec figured if he could think of a plan, he could wait until the guard is least expecting it, but after trading glances with the man across the room, there didn't seem to be a chance anytime soon. Shit. He looks over at a worried pair of human friends, for all purposes his unit now. He really needed to be able to contact base now, which is currently TC. Alec sits back down with his head in his hands, thinking. He could fake sickness or death easily, but that tactic only works if your captors want you alive and he doesn't think Familiars are looking to sell transgenics on the black market, or that they have any other reason to need him alive. Alive or dead, Max is already being lured here into their den. They're bait for Max, and knowing on her impulsive, sentimental heart she'll rush in here alone to save them. Shit.
"Alec, why are we here?" Cindy asks. "Why are they keeping us here, instead of just straight offing us?"
Alec fixes Cindy with a meaningful glare as he looks up at her from the floor.
"Max," is all he offers and the understanding flashes in her expressive eyes.
"Silence." The guard orders.
Max is pacing back and forth like a caged tiger back at the spot she called Logan. She's hidden behind some buildings, out of view, but where she can see the street for when backup arrives. She exudes worry.
Just then, her transgenic backup arrive. They could only send out ordinary looking transgenics, which left her with three transgenics she didn't know very well but hoped she could count on. There were two girls, maybe X6s. One blonde, one brown haired. There was one guy, who resembled Biggs. Clone.
She saw them arrive and carefully walked out of hiding. They turned to their right and saw her. They knew Max, everyone did. "Hey." The blonde called. "Heard you and Heartbreaker needed some help."
Max gave her a funny look.
"Alec. Girls nicknamed him."
Max wanted to die. She sighed and rolled her eyes. Of course they did. She made a mental note that Alec must never know of this, lest his ego expand and swallow up the entire universe before she can save it.
"Yeah, whatever. Let's get going. I think I have a clue where they are." Max stated and hoped back on her bike. All of them took off speeding as fast as possible to their destination.
Back at Logan's/Sandeman's house, Sandeman was obviously nervous, though trying to hold it beneath a collect mask. Logan had just made the call to TC. Together, they helped track down where Max had went. Together, they pieced together the same clues Max had to find the small town where the Familiar were and where Max currently was.
He put the phone down in the living room and looked behind him to the kitchen, where his guest was thinking. Or was Logan the guest now? "If she doesn't make it out of there, that's it." He tells Logan. Following up their previous conversation about everything resting on Max.
Logan walked over to the kitchen and sat down across from the older gentleman. He looked like a professor, like he belonged in a lecture hall or scientific conference, rather than saving the world. He lacked the cape.
"Yeah…" Logan started, "About that?" His eyes were intensely curious, like they usually were but now with a whole new level of wonder.
Sandeman looked out the window, over the city that was in his hands to save. "Perhaps, this news is better shared over some coffee, if you happen to have any?" Logan nodded, thinking that was a good idea and they both rose out of their seats. Sandeman idly wondering how Max met up with a guy this well off. Even though, he was apparently crashing in Sandeman's old house, he moved with poise and manners that characterized a higher class.
Logan pulls out real coffee from the cabinets(thanks to his cat burglar), as Sandeman offers to make it in Logan's french press, not as good as the one he used to have in his penthouse by far but better than a drip brewer in Logan's estimation. It's by far the best coffee Sandeman's had in Seattle in over a decade. They sit down at the kitchen table, which had seen better days precisely 10 years ago. Sandeman takes a slow sip of his coffee, savoring it, while Logan fixes him with the wide eyes and raised brows in curious anticipation.
Sandeman sets his old mug down. "As I was saying about Max…." Sandeman's eyes surveyed the man in front of him. He could tell Logan was intelligent and had gotten the initial impression he cared about doing the right thing. Therefore, he wasn't worried about trusting Logan with the information but just found himself at a loss of how to fully explain the gravity and seriousness of the end of the world, without sounding like he was telling tall tales.
He sighed and looked down at his clasped hands on the table. Looking back up at Logan, his blue eyes meet green in a serious moment. "The end of the world is coming. I know how that sounds, but it's the truth and denying it damns humanity. Humanity is about to face annihilation and her, Max, as she presumably prefers is the only one standing in the way of that." Sandeman lets out a breathe he didn't know he'd been holding the whole time he was speaking.
Logan's shocked. He sits stunned as he tries to comprehend the incomprehensible. As smart as he is, even a Yale degree can't endow you with the thinking skills to process the end of the world.
Once he finds his ability to speak again, he looks over Sandeman. He really does look like an older, more academic Ames. "How?"
"Her blood. She's holding onto the cure." Sandeman shared, as if that lifted the smoke and cleared everything up.
A/N: Stay tuned, as we find out how this cure for humanity will work! Also, if Max and her team can save her friends and make it out alive? Will Max agree to saving the world? Will Logan and Max get their own personal cure? We'll see later! :D