Chapter 1
A Broken World
Dark Angel
"Alright people," Max shouts above the working clamor of her fellow transgenics. "We just got a report over the wire telling us of transgenics in about 5 different places." She waits a moment as the chatter slows to a stop.
Normally, she would be making this announcement in command; a larger building which, based on the dome shape and the equipment left behind, was once an observatory. But since it's getting late and most of her mission-fit people are also among those selected for supply runs, she would have been met with static if she called a meeting.
Max now stands atop the balcony which holds the transmission equipment used for entrances, exits, and calling for medical assistance(a service that's been needed more than once). "You all should know that if we got these reports, it's only a matter of time before White and his team get them as well." She looks around, expectant eyes staring intently up at her with the first wave of whispers rising and falling. "We need thirty volunteers."
Full on chatter rises as excitement surfs about the room. Missions are few and far between in TC. And though it's not anywhere near as torturous or constricting as Manticore was, they are still - for the most part - trapped.
Max tries yelling for attention again, though her voice becomes lost in the sea of voices.
Seeing this, Mole, their self-proclaimed transhuman armorer, bangs his shotgun against the railing. "Thirty volunteers!" He takes over as eyes immediately shoot up to the trigger-happy lizard-man. Everyone knows that Mole is a good man, but that doesn't mean that he doesn't still make most of their people nervous.
He adjusts his ever-present cigar and lifts a paper displaying barely-legible handwriting. Knowing Mole, he probably made it that way on purpose to make it just a little bit harder for prying eyes to understand. "The terrains are as follows: 3 - city and urban. 1 - country. 1 - desert." He looks back at the group, who stay silent, waiting for him to finish before they let the inevitable sound burst out of their faces. And Max can tell - just from the looks on their faces - that it is inevitable.
"I'll be leading the desert terrain mission. That's one spot off the menu. If any one of you weirdos would like to volunteer- approach me, Logan, Alec, or -" he grunts and glances at Original Cindy.
She raises her brow and gives him a knowing glare. If anyone else were to do it, it would seem slightly flirtatious. But Cindy has this incredible ability to convey her wish to murder someone whenever her eyes lay on the male species. It's a complicated recipe that only she can cook up. Hence the nickname "Original Cindy".
Mole sighs. "Or Cindy the Unicorn over here."
Max glares at him. She knows it won't do anything. Mole will be Mole, even if the world was ending, the fact of which is still up for debate.
Max sighs and suddenly realizes that everyone is looking at her.
Logan leans over to her ear slightly, knowing that her mind must have wandered off into the ongoing case of the glyphs that have been showing up sporadically across her skin over the past couple of months. "They want to know why you aren't coming." He murmurs out of the corner of his mouth - trying to make it even semi- inconspicuous. There probably isn't much of a point to it anyway, as 90% of the transgenics below him have enhanced hearing and training in lip reading, but it's the thought that counts, right?
But there is one thing he briefly forgot about - touching.
Max flinches at the feeling of his breath agianst her skin and takes a step away. She breaths once; takes a step forward. "I won't be coming this time." She says as if there hadn't been a pregnant pause.
"Why not?" A voice calls. The crowd parts to the back door of the garage where Gem, the X5 they were stuck with at JamPony's, apparently entered with her sleeping six month old strapped to her chest with a complicated article which Max honestly doesn't understand in the least. Probably came to see Dalton. Max's eye's shift as she sees the boy quickly move to her side. Though they have only a seven or eight year gap, Gem is very obviously a mother-figure to him and probably has been since the moment the two met.
Max stands straighter. "This mission is classified"
Voices erupt to the point where it's almost an all-out scream fest. Mole eyes Max with a look that says "What did you do that for?" and proceeds to bang his shotgun on the railing, shouting for everyone to quiet down. It doesn't work this time.
Max glances around frantically, her newly heightened senses overwhelmed. Logan grabs her arm and she again flinches against it. With the virus deadly to only him still traversing throughout her body, his safety is always on her mind. Logan typically keeps gloves on to prevent anything from happening - but it still worries her. What if he forgot once? What if he got a hole in them?
She finally looks over at Logan and realizes that he's looking at Alec, who is walking down the stairs to grab the attention of a girl babbling to her colleagues. He speaks to her for a moment, gesturing back at Max at several points to which the young woman glances up at her then back at him. The girl looks him up and down and Max finally realizes what Alec is doing. She rolls her eyes. Of course. She thinks. Of course he would be flirting right n-
Her thoughts are interrupted by a shrill scream. She covers her overly-sensitive ears and falls into Logan who staggers to stay upright. For trying to stay away from him, they sure end up bumping into eachother alot. A quick glance at Alec tells her that he was expecting this the entire time. He just stands there with his arms crossed over his chest without a care in the world. Oh, and also, earplugs.
Needless to say, it brings quite the string of colorful words to her lips.
After a second, though, she notices the worry in his eyes. Evidently he noticed her panic at all this noise. Logan didn't tell him to go down. She thinks. He did this himself. She almost smiles, but her ears are still ringing.
The girl's scream dies down and everyone drops their hands from their ears. "Ow," Max says.
She looks up at Max, something almost like embarrassment written in the few lines of her face. Sonic vocal tones. There are some regular - human - people who can break glass with their voices. These guys were designed to break glass, wood, brick, even steel given the right pitch. Max thinks she can even remember overhearing a lesson about the tone to break human bone. Yeah, not your typical biology class if you ask her.
The real question is - why does she look so concerned over Max? With that kind of ability, she can easily take her down. Then again, nearly everyone's been looking at her weird lately - even Alec, every once in a while, will lose track of his Alec-y remarks. I guess the rapidly enhancing senses kinda take 'em off guard, don't it? Max comments to herself. Then again, most of them don't know about that, do they? But even then, you could say that some form of urban legend has formed around how she got them out of the JamPony Holdup.
Still, it's never right to just leave 'em out there, lettin' 'em think she's just a scary drill sergeant who pushes them around.
That's how it was at Manticore. It's how they're trained to be - what they're made to be. But that's not now. They've evolved - become better, stronger. Become a family.
And if Max has learned anything, it's that it takes a-LOT of work to keep a family together.
Max tilts her head to the side and grins at the girl. "I like it." she says.
She smiles.
She looks back out at her brothers and sisters. "All I can give you is it's an intel mission - one that could be vital for our survival and coexistence with the outside world. Saying anything beyond that, I could blow my cover." Then almost to herself. "And at this point in the game, we still can't risk the eyes and ears of the outside world." Max looks over the crowd quickly - then turns on her heel and walks out to the back stairwell - which she doesn't even try to use.
Back in the building, Alec breaks the tense silence. "Well, isn't she a little ray of sunshine."
"Alright that's enough of that." Mole puffs a large ring of smoke before turning and grumbling. "Get back to work."
"There you are, Boo"
Max turns around from packing to see OC walking through their doorway. Or at least their new doorway. Ever since the transgenics were exposed to the outside world, they've lived within the confines of terminal city - so named because of the toxic chemicals within. Though, she's recently found that a new nickname has been going around the Ordinary population: "Transgenic Central". Transgenics can live there because they've been genetically made to be immune to your o-so-normal bio-bomb. Ordinaries, however, just aren't that lucky. OC, Logan, and their other human allies can stay here temporarily, but if they stay too long, it would mean them getting sick - really sick. Max just won't let that stand. So majority of the time, the allies would either crash over at Joshua's old place or Cindy's. Any others out in the city know that information can be relayed through them and it will surely be delivered.
"You worried me sick after storming out like that. Original Cindy thought you was just gonna leave without saying goodbye." referring to herself in the third person. Only Cindy can do that and make it sound right.
"Oh, I could never do that." Max smiles and pulls her in for an embrace.
"Just promise me my Boo will stay safe." She muffles into Max's shoulder after a moment.
"Stay safe yourself." Max rubs Cindy's back and then pulls away. "Yesterday, you were standing in front of me as a human shield, today, you're leaving as a leader for a squad of supersoldiers." She pushes Cindy's shoulder slightly. "Pretty soon, I'm gonna have to start watching out for you."
"Mm." She flips back a bunch of beaded brown braids from her coco skin. She didn't used to wear braids, but since she's been learning to fight, she's come to like it like that. She cocks her eyebrow and throws her elbow against her hip to get a better view of her nails. "Original Cindy can kick any one man's butt into next week without trying." Her smile falters. "But you, well, from what I hear, you could probably shove a stick up the butt of the Devil himself."
It's Max's turn to falter. "Who told?"
Cindy throws her hands up. "Original Cindy don't rat on nobody." Max looks at her. "But… I guess you should know that your boyfriend is made of mesh when it comes to lyin'."
Max sighs and holds back a smirk as she thinks of Alec, her 'boyfriend'. She knows for a fact that he would never rat on her, so Cindy must have asked the question and he must have lied - only to have Cindy recognize that it was a lie. Honestly, she's surprised that her girl didn't figure it out sooner. Six months is a long time to go without knowing what's been going on behind her best friend's door. Then again, she's only really in the apartment when Cindy is there. Any other time she's either over at Alec's or falling asleep at her desk(when she has to sleep, that is).
Some people might say that six months is a little long to keep a fake relationship going - actually most everyone would say that - but after about a month, they both decided that this is best for the both of them. Keep them out of trouble, keep the drama to a minimum, and it's a lot easier to get access to each other - if she needs to crash at his place? Totally fine; they're dating! Working late at command and falling asleep on top of eachother(which has happened more than once; even with her shark DNA)? It's cute; take a picture! Although there definitely are times when she has to restrain from punching him to keep up their cover. Smart alec. She wants to grumble whenever he gets on her nerves and then she remembers that that is exactly why she gave him that name.
There are some good parts to Alec. Parts that previous to them becoming a 'couple' she hadn't seen. Like whenever she breaks down(knowing that over five hundred people, and climbing, depend on you, gets pretty stressful) he will always take her somewhere private and just hold her - the feline in both of their DNA taking over and demanding to be touched. He's always been respectful. He might tease and hand out the most ridiculous, sarcastic, and inappropriate innuendos imaginable - but she knows that she's safe when she's around him.
She thinks that it was around that first time they were genuinely honest with one another - when she told Alec about what happened with Ben - she finally admitted to herself just how similar they are. The first time he received any sort of freedom - stealing, fighting, trying to live a normal life, finding the people who were like him and trying to connect. Even when they push away… - She basically did the same things. It was over a wider expanse of time, but that doesn't change the similarities.
After that moment, she started thinking of him as a friend. Now, whenever Cindy has to leave and get the toxins from TC out of her system, she can honestly say that he has become her closest confidant. Especially when more and more symbols started appearing all over her body and her senses started heightening…
"Not to mention all of that stuff Logan was talking about when we were in that standoff with the police." Max looks up again, remembering that she's in the middle of a conversation. "It doesn't take a genius to figure out, Boo."
Max turns away from Original Cindy and starts packing again.
Cindy watches her sympathetically as she leans against the doorframe. "You wanna tell me what this mission is really about?"
"It's probably not even true." She says, avoiding the question. "I mean Logan literally had just an hour or two to work on translating the information. And-"
"-And now he's had six months and you ain't said anything that tells me times have changed." Cindy crosses her arms. "Spill."
Max fidgets with the long sleeves of her jacket, trying to pull them further over the markings that just keep appearing all over her body "Well it seems like you already know part of it." she starts packing another black long-sleeved shirt.
"Well, how 'bout the rest, then?" Original Cindy pushes off the door to lean forward against the counter. "Original Cindy is right here, ready to listen to your story, Boo. Why not tell it?"
Max turns to look at Cindy, waiting for a minute to determine whether or not she is actually ready for the seemingly crazy story she was about to sell her - but true, nonetheless. "You know all of that apocalypse stuff you always read about in the bible? All of the fire, and disease and war? Archangels and Lucifer and whatever else is in there?"
Cindy nods, trying to figure what she's about to say.
"Well, I think- well, Logan thinks-" she pauses, afraid to say it out loud. "That I might have a part in it?"
Max watches her best friend whilst she processes this information.
She takes a couple seconds, first looking at her like she's kidding, then realizing she's serious and looking down, and finally looking back up at her. "Okay."
Max looks at her best friend doubtfully. "Okay?" she practically snorts with exasperation. "Is that all you have to say: 'okay'?!"
Original Cindy simply shrugs.
Max throws her hands up now. "Where's the fear and disbelief? Where are the 'that's impossible' and the 'Max, you're just being paranoid'?"
"Girl, I have been your friend for what? Five years?"
"Probably more like six."
"Right. And how much crazy wackadoo stuff have we gotten into in that time?"
"Depends," Max considers. "Are we talking before or after you found out about my past?"
Original Cindy nods. "Exactly." looks her straight in the eyes. "Boo, I have known you for a long time. And even before I came into this crazy, genetic whatever war, I knew that there was somethin' bigger out there for you. I might not have known what, but it was for sure waay outside of Normal's territory." she rolls her eyes and Max snorts. "I know, not hard to go outside anyway." She sighs this time. "But, seriously, Boo. Even here with your own family and people, I can't shake that feeling. I guess that this just-" She shrugs. "Makes sense. Besides, like I said, Logan did spew a little bit about you being the last hope for humanity or somethin'. Soon as something like that is said in our vicinity, you know Original Cindy's brain is gonna turn right into the 'large explosions' lane."
Max shakes her head. "What is my life?"
"What is our lives." Original Cindy looks her in the eyes and grins. "Don't you be leaving me out of this. I'm sticking to my Boo like glue, and there ain't nothin' you can do about it."
Max turns to keep packing, but she can't do anything to hide her smile.
"Max." a voice calls from behind her.
She ignores it. She's scheduled to leave in just an hour; she needs to stay focused on the plan.
"Max!" the voice yells again.
Max turns to see Gem walking towards her. "What's up?"
"I'm coming with you."
"What?" She can feel her eyes bulge. "No."
Gem cocks an eyebrow.
"Gem… you have a baby! You can't just-"
"I have been climbing the walls for the past month and a half, you've gotta let me have at it." She looks down and smiles. "Besides, Dalton is a pretty good babysitter-he's done it before and Libby knows him-and I managed to convince Sketchy to grab the formula for them while we're gone."
"Well…I-I'm leaving in less than an hour. Unless you can be ready…" She tapers off as Gem slings an already-packed bag over her shoulder and taps her side, suggesting the presence of a weapon. Or multiple weapons. If she knew anything about Gem, it was that there was no way on earth, or heaven, or down under, for that matter, that she would leave home without multiple options for protection. She's a new mother after all.
"Gem - you know I appreciate it and all - but, you're a mom! I can't risk you getting hurt, or worse - killed, and leaving your child motherless!"
"You said yourself that this was just an intel mission. That is basic Manticore training and overall low risk." She places her free hand on her hip and watches Max's expression defiantly. "You're not gonna get me back down, you know."
Max sighs. Why do I feel like everyone is against me today?! "Fine. but if you get even a whiff of danger, you run the other way. You got it?"
Gem sighs and, after a moment, nods. "Agreed."
Max inclined her head to Command behind her, the domed roof obvious against the surrounding square ones. "Come on. We're gonna debrief, and then we'll leave."
Gem smiles and jogs to catch up. "So, where are we going?"
Max keeps walking. "Ever heard of a place called Lawrence, Kansas?"
A/N: Want to know what happens next? Comment and Review.(Tell me what characters you would like to see in the future;))