Disclaimer: The TV show Dark Angel, all of the characters that appeared on it (Max, Zack, Jondy, etc.), and everything else that has to do with the show belong to their respective owners, not to me. No money is being made off of this fic. I only own the original characters (Elle/X5-164, etc.).
About five months later…
Chapter 40: Elle (X5-164)
I was bored. I looked around, saw only what had been there two seconds ago, shrugged, and started to stretch out. We were scheduled to run an exercise with, of all people, Alec's unit, though Alec himself wouldn't be here. Neither would Biggs, for that matter. The two of them plus Jeff had been deployed to Alaska a few days ago to take out a small naval base. Anyway, we had beaten the other unit out to the yard where we would be meeting the trainer so we were more or less twiddling our thumbs.
"I hope they get out here soon," I said.
"It's chilly out here," Gale complained. She shivered a little. "I hate cold weather."
"You grew up in Wyoming where there would be snow on the ground at this time of the year and yet you're still complaining?" Parker said incredulously. "Compared to where we used to live, this is almost like a tropical paradise."
"Tinga's out on a solo mission so that means that it's my duty to tell all of you to behave yourselves," Max said. "Shut up or get smacked down."
"Did Tinga tell you to say that as well?" Wayne teased. Max rolled her eyes, walked over to Wayne, reached up, and slapped him upside the head. "Okay, okay, okay. I get the point."
"It's good to know that you all will be in good hands when I leave for my mission next week," Zack said dryly.
"Ooooh, were you insulting your girlfriend?" Reese teased. Time to point out how differently Max and Zack handle an annoying brother. Where Max would have slapped him upside the head like she'd done with Wayne, Zack simply glared at Reese. Trust me, a glare from Zack is more than enough to get the job done. Reese's eyes went wide and he turned around to talk with Ben and Kenny.
"Reese's brain seems to be stuck on stupid again," I remarked.
"When is Reese's brain ever not stuck on stupid?" Eva pointed out.
"Probably when it's stuck on complete moron," Jondy agreed.
Reese stuck his tongue out at us. "Thank you so much for your opinion of my mental state, girls. It's just what I needed."
"You're welcome," I said. "Would you like for us to tell you what we think about your maturity level as well?"
Kenny snickered. "This I definitely want to hear." He looked over and grinned when he saw Sasha leading her unit out to us. "Hey, there. Glad that you could join us."
"Yeah, lovely," 786 said sarcastically from her place in her unit's line directly behind Sasha. Her opinion of the guys in our family and just our family in general had not improved to say the least since Max had decked the living hell out of her when she'd tried to proposition Zack shortly after we'd arrived in Seattle about seven months ago. "Is there anything else that we could do to make your lives brighter?"
"I could name quite a few things," Sasha said sweetly. "How about shutting your skank mouth for once?" She smirked when she saw 786 make a face and then go off to talk with 908 and 714 in their own little group. "I don't know about the rest of you, but that just made my life a little bit brighter."
"Mine too," Rena agreed. We all suddenly shut up and formed two lines when we saw three trainers approach us. Two of them stopped a few yards away and the third continued along until he was standing in front of us.
"Nice to see you lined up properly for me," he snapped. "The purpose of today's exercise is to reinforce your abilities to work in small groups. You will be split up into groups of four and each group will be given their own objective. You will be receiving these objectives after the groups have been set. Each group will be working completely independently of the others." He took a piece of paper out of one of his pockets and unfolded it. "Group One will be led by X5-205 and joining him will be X5-532, X5-552, and X5-619. Group Two will be led by X5-599 and joining him will be X5-295, X5-369, and X5-967. Group Three will be led by X5-452 and joining her will be X5-120, X5-164, and X5-714. Group Four will be led by…" The guy continued to drone on with the other groups and then with our objectives, but I was glancing behind me to glare at X5-714, who was glaring right back at me. Bitch.
Maybe I should explain a few things here. Of all of the members of that unit with the obvious exception of Alec, Biggs, and Sasha, I get along with 714 the least. Jack once described 714 as being the 'dark side' version of me. Okay, this was after he'd come back from a mission where at one point during his off hours he'd seen one of the Star Wars movies, but I definitely see where he was coming from. Heck, most of the rest of my siblings starting calling her 'Evil Elle' behind her back from that point on. Here's some 411 on me. I'm absolutely willing to admit to being at least something of a girly-girl. I might kick as much ass and enjoy physical exercise as the next X5, I'm pretty sure the scientists managed to write that into our odd DNA somehow, but I love putting on makeup and fixing my hair and dressing up when on missions and all sorts of things of that nature. While Jace would easily be characterized as a tomboy, or at least she had been like that until she hit her late teens, I was—and still am—close to the opposite. 714, on the other hand, crossed the line from 'girly' to 'priss.' Hell, the woman's got one foot in 'priss' and the other foot in 'bitch from hell.' I can't stand her at all.
"All right, girls, let's get together," Max said, motioning to myself, Rena, and 714. We followed her over to the edge of the woods. "Everybody's got all of their gear on them, right?" I double-checked to make sure that I had all of it before I nodded. I saw 714 smirk at me and I tried really hard not to slap her. Luckily for me, and probably at least for Rena's entertainment as well, the look on 714's face didn't get past Max. "Is something amusing you, 714?"
"Negative, ma'am," 714 said quickly.
"Then focus," Max said. "Everybody, move out." We followed her into the woods until we reached a fallen tree several yards away from our starting point. Max gestured us to hold while she took out the map that she'd received from one of the trainers. "Our objective is another hundred yards out. It's going to be incredibly heavily guarded. We need to expect at least several booby traps."
Rena frowned. "What about transgenic guards? Obviously not any of the people involved with this exercise that we know of, but it's definitely not unheard of for the trainers to pull some other X-series to have them act as guards for this kind of thing."
"I'd have to go with you on that one," Max said. "Keep that possibility in all of your minds as well." She looked intently at the map for another few moments. "Okay, here's how we're going to start this. We'll move ahead to this point right here. 120, once we reach that spot and scan the area, pick a tree and go up top to get us a better look and to take out any hostiles should there be any of them. After we confirm that the threat level is down to nothing, we move forward to our designated area and disarm any traps surrounding our objective. The trainer said that it's buried a couple of feet underneath the ground, so we're going to have to dig—"
"Dig?" 714 wrinkled her nose. "With our hands? Are you crazy, 452?"
"Yes, we're going to have to use our hands," I said coolly. "Just like 452 said. Unless you happen to have some kind of shovel in your backpack with the rest of your gear, that's the best option that we have."
"Can it, 164," Max said, though I could tell when our eyes met that she was thinking the same things that I was. "164 is right, 714, and so am I. If you have a problem with my orders, deal with it. This is what we are going to do and you are not going to say another word about it. Am I making myself clear?"
"Yes, ma'am," 714 said sullenly. When she saw Max put the map away and thought that Max was occupied, she turned to me and gave me a nasty look. "You are such a nasty little suck-up, 164. How about you go do me a favor and play with some X7s, huh?"
"I would rather spend time with X7s than with you. At least they know when to keep their mouths shut," I hissed. "Unlike you, you spoiled little—"
"Shut it now," Max ordered. She glared at me. "164, start behaving like the grown woman that you are right this instant."
I nodded. Max was right, I shouldn't have let 714 bait me like that. "Yes, ma'am. I'm sorry."
"Good," Max said. She turned to 714. "As for you, 714, if you even think about opening your mouth again for something other than offering advice that will help our mission, I'm going to have to explain to 494 when he returns from his assignment why your head can be found in the West woods and the rest of you can be found in the East woods. Got it?"
"Yes, ma'am," 714 said.
"Glad that's settled," Max said. She stood up and the rest of us did as well. "714, you can take point. Move out." We moved forward. I fell back behind Max and next to Rena.
"I…can't…stand…the bitch," I said to Rena quietly enough for 714 not to be able to hear me.
"You and me both," Rena said. "I'll make you a deal. If you can get through this exercise without throttling 714, I'll sneak you some of that ginger beer soda that you like when I go out on my next mission whenever that may be."
"Deal," I said. We exchanged grins and a quiet high five before we moved on through the forest.
TBC