Disclaimer - Please see earlier chapters.

As I have said all along please let me know what you think.

The white haired 'girl' came out of the shower wrapped in a towel; she was carrying her clothes, holding them tightly as if her life depended on them. She tentatively stepped out of the bathroom, relaxing slightly when she saw the other two transgenics and Alec.

"Water's hot now," she said quietly.

"Your turn," Alec said to the two DAC's who had returned to the room. "Don't know how long you'll have the water in a place like this, so be quick."

The older DAC nodded and took the younger one by the hand, leading it to the bathroom.

John looked at the child left in the room; she was small, and he could see it in her eyes, she was terrified.

"It's all right, no one is going to hurt you," John said.

She looked at Alec. "Are you here to collect us, sir? Are we returning to base now?"

Alec shook his head. "No."

"Then are we obsolete? We were told that old models that were obsolete got rounded up and retired, sir?" she said, keeping hold of her little bundle. She looked skittish, ready to run.

"What?" John replied.

Alec got down to eye level with the girl. "No one is being retired, all right?"

"But we were told…"

"Kid, who told you this?" John asked.

"It's okay, you can tell him," Alec said to her as she looked from Alec to John.

"Is he your CO, sir?" she asked Alec.

"Well, I suppose right now, for the purpose of this operation, yeah, he's the CO," Alec replied.

The girl snapped to attention, saluting John, while still holding on to her bundle. "Sir, yes sir."

"Oh boy, this is going to be tough," Alec said to John as the other two came out of the bathroom. The smaller one had a towel wrapped around its head; it made it look tiny. It was then the other two hunters came back with a couple of bags.

"Cleaned out the thrift store, didn't know what to get – never dressed a mutant before; gutted one, but never dressed one," Coflax said lightly.

"Shut up," John said firmly as all three small heads bobbed up at the comment.

"Right," Coflax said.

"Got burgers. Is that all right?" Rowl asked.

Alec nodded. "Should be; think we can rule out them being vegetarian."

The three hunters looked at him, causing him to glance downward. "Me and my big mouth," he muttered as he took the bag of clothes from Coflax, spreading it out on the bed, before turning to the children. "Right, find something that kind of fits."

They hesitated before diving in, picking out various items and starting to put them on.

"No, no, no," Alec said as they started to strip off in front of them. "Not here. Get dressed in the bathroom."

The children looked at each other before looking at Alec, puzzled.

"Why, sir?" the older DAC asked.

"Because I said so, now go," Alec said, running a hand down his face as they picked up their new things and went.

He turned to the other men, who looked uncomfortable. "Sorry, modesty isn't something we were taught until after basics."

"Right," said Rowl.

The bathroom door opened and the smallest DAC ran out, heading toward the bed where the clothes were and picking up a ribbon; it smiled. "Pretty."

Alec smiled at it as it ran back toward the bathroom. "Well, that clears that up."

"That's a girl?" Coflax asked.

Alec nodded. "Think so."

"Are you sure that we aren't going have something coming looking for them?" asked Rowl.

Alec stilled. "Might do, don't know yet."

"What do you mean 'don't know'?" one of the other men asked.

"No way they could have survived without help," John said. "Any idea what's been looking after them?"

"No, but that is something we'll find out," Alec replied.

The three children, dressed in their new things, came out of the bathroom and lined up against the wall.

"Right, let's introduce ourselves; what are your names and ages?" John asked

"AAC 825, sir. Aged twelve years, sir," the girl said.

"DAC 247, sir, nine, sir," the boy barked out.

"DAC 127 reporting, sir, and I'm…" the youngest one squeaked, before turning to the older DAC.

"You're four," the older DAC said quietly.

"DAC 127, and I'm four, sir," she said.

"You don't have names, do you?" Alec asked.

"Names, sir?" 825 asked, "We have designations, why would we need names?"

"They don't have names?" one of the hunters asked.

"No, they don't – it's okay, though, we can sort out," Alec said, before squatting down in front of the children.

"I'm X5-494, but my name is Alec." He pointed to the hunters on the other side of the room. "That's Mr Winchester, Mr Coflax and Mr Rowl. So, what do you want to be called?"

"Why do we need names?" the youngest one asked. "Did we do something wrong?"

"No," Alec said. "It just means that you'll have both."

"Why both, sir? Are you going to split us up and put us into new units?" 825 asked, slightly panicked. "Is that why you came for us? Is there a mission, sir?"

"Oh hell, no. Just get something to eat and think of name," Alec said, pointing to the burgers.

The children ran over to the bags, tearing into the burgers and fries.

"They don't have names?" Coflax asked Alec as he joined them. "Why the hell don't they have names?"

"They've got designations; probably all they needed until now."

"Mission, why did they ask about a mission?" Rowl asked.

Alec shrugged. "It's what they were built for."

"You guys got out over two years ago," John said. "Why don't they know they're not about to be scooped up?"

"Probably not big news readers. Anyway, they were chased down last night by four men with guns. Transgenic or not, they're kids, probably only way they knew how to explain it in their minds."

"Someone has to be looking after them," Coflax said. "A twelve, nine and a four-year-old don't get here by themselves."

"I hope so, but it's possible whoever picked them up might not be around anymore."

After their meal, the three children lined up, ready for inspection. Alec stood in front of them. "Right, here is the 411. There is no base, there are no missions, there will be no retirements, and no one is going to be obsolete. You will be known by names, not designations, do you hear me?" Alec ran his hand through his hair. "And… oh my God, I sound exactly like Max right now."

The three children looked at each other before peering around Alec to look at John. "What?" the older man asked as they stared at him.

"They need you to confirm the order," Alec said. "You're my commanding officer."

The two other hunters looked at John, who wasn't too sure what to do. "Right, listen to him, that's an order."

The three children focused their attention on Alec. The boy DAC, 247, looked at the wrappers on the table before turning back to Alec. "Can I be called Wendy? That is where the burgers came from."

Coflax stifled a laugh as Alec rolled his eyes. "No."

"Why not?" 825 asked.

"Right, that does it." Alec took a step back. "How the hell does she do this?" he said quietly.

He looked at the children, taking hold of the older two, switching the order of their line up to have the boy then the two girls standing in line.

"From now on you will be called Larry, Curly and Mo," he said, pointing to them in turn.

Larry, formally DAC 247, looked a bit down in the mouth. "I think I preferred Wendy."

"Mo, Mo, Mo," the youngest one started to repeat over and over. She marched over to Coflax, sticking out her hand. "Hello, I'm Mo."

"Hello, Mo," Coflax said, not sure if he was going to take the child's hand.

"She won't bite," Alec said as the man took the little girl's hand.

"Yes, she does, sir," Curly said, causing Coflax to pull his hand back.

"That is another thing, I'm not 'sir', no one is 'sir'."

"Why, sir?" Larry asked. "Isn't that breaking the chain of com… com …?"

"Command," Curly said, finishing Larry's sentence.

"354 says the chain is important, we have to keep the chain," Mo said.

"Who's 354?" Rowl asked.

"Now you've done it," Curly said. "You aren't supposed to say anything about others in the unit."

"It's all right, we're not here to hurt you guys," Alec said, squatting down to the youngest. "Where is 354?"

"He's at our base. He went to talk to the pointies when the new ones turned up, but they wouldn't talk, they hurt him."

"Is that why you were out last night? Have you guys been taking care of food runs?"

Curly stood straight. "As second in command of our unit it was my responsibility to ensure supplies were secured after our commanding officer was incapacitated."

"How bad?" Alec asked.

Curly looked at Larry, who took over. "We stopped the bleeding, but it was a week ago and he has a fever."

"He ordered us not to go to the pharmacy," Curly said. "Risk level too high, sir."

"But 82… Curly said that we would if he didn't get any better soon, 'cause he'd be too sick and she'd be the officer then," Mo said.

Alec handed the children a pad and pen. "I want a map of where 354 is, and I also want to know everything you know about the pointies, right: numbers, their base, hideouts, if they use weapons, all the intel you got."

Curly and Larry looked up and smiled. "Yes, sir!"

"Is that a good idea?" John asked as Alec joined them.

"You guys wanted them to help."

"That 'kid' is the second in command?" Coflax asked. "How the hell does a twelve-year-old become second in command?"

"Probably because she's the oldest one; Larry should be the Medic, and as for Mo, her job is probably sentry duty, and to stand there and be cute," Alec explained.

"Here, sir," Curly said, handing Alec a bit of paper. "But we have to go with you, sir."

"We know, you're responsible for him," John said, understanding the girl's feelings.

"We're worried about him," little Mo said.

354 shifted uncomfortably on his mattress. They should have been back hours ago, but with his leg and his arm, he couldn't get out the cave that served as their home to look for them. He just prayed that they were okay. He should have kept 127 there, but he was in a bad way, and he didn't want her there alone if the worst happened; she had been frightened enough when he had appeared back after being attacked.

He had told the children that he was going to see if he could find out information from the new pair that had arrived and taken over from the others that had previously left the little unit alone. Not that he knew what they were, but he was just a lowly logistics unit, so he was sure that he hadn't seen all the various transgenics that they had cooked up. He just figured that they were a new hunter killer design that hadn't made it out of the R&D department before the attack on the base.

He had been drifting in and out of consciousness for a couple of hours. He thought that he could hear voices, but he wasn't sure. When he finally woke up he was somewhere else; it was warm, not damp, and 127 was sitting on the end of his bed.

"He's awake, he's awake!" she yelled, jumping down and running to the other side of the room.

He tried to get up as she came back to him. "Hey, what's going on?"

"We've got lots to report," Mo said excitedly as Larry and Curly joined her.

"Where were you three? You knew what to do," 354 said, reaching out to Curly.

"We're sorry, but we found something, or something found us," Curly said, trying to explain the situation, but her words caused 354 to look around the room, and on seeing the others there, he tried to struggle out of the bed.

"It's all right, it's all right," Alec said, trying to reassure the transgenic in the motel bed. He was a 'ditch digger' just like Luke, a standard logistics unit; not too smart, generally, but they didn't need to be. Butthey could take a pounding, probably the only thing that had saved the kid from the beating he'd received. Christ, he looked all of seventeen.

"Who are you?" 354 tried to say, though his mouth was dry.

"He's an X, and the rest are our friends," Mo said.

"Mo, quiet," Curly said.

"Mo?" 354 asked.

"Here," Alec said, handing him a glass of water as the hunters watched from the other side of the room. "I gave them names if that's all right?"

"You really an X series?"

Alec turned around, showing his barcode. 354 sat up in the bed. "You're an X5?"

He looked around the room, at the three men standing in the corner, and then back to Alec. "You're here to collect us, sir?"

He gestured to the three children. "I trained them as best I could, sir. What with the resources available, they're a little limited in weapons tech, but they are good on hand to hand, and I'm sure that they'll catch up with the rest very quickly, sir. They shouldn't be punished for my incompetence."

"It's okay, no one's going back. Get some rest. I swear, no one is going back," Alec said seriously.

Alec walked back to the hunters while the three children settled down beside the only parent they knew.

"He's been training them?" Coflax asked.

Alec nodded. "Yeah, probably didn't know what else to do. From what I could get out of Larry, 354 here was pulling infirmary duty in the nursery the night Manticore went down. He grabbed Mo and Larry and made it out, found Curly in the woods during the breakout; she must've got cut off from the rest of her unit."

"How did they get here? That Manticore place is a hell of a long way from here," Rowl said.

"Must have seen the Escape and Evade signal and kept on running," Alec said, looking over at the little group on the bed.

"Why was he telling you that they'd catch up quick?" Coflax asked.

Alec sighed. "Why do you think?"

All three of the other men looked over at the children, who were explaining everything they had been through in the past few hours to 354.

"Jesus, they wouldn't of, would they? They're only kids."

"We aren't human, remember? We're freaks," Alec said sarcastically, remembering how many times he had heard that word used around the Roadhouse when the hunters were discussing the situation in Seattle. "If we couldn't do what they wanted us to do, what was the point of keeping us around?"

John sighed. "Can they help us?"

"The kids have a bit, but he'll probably be able to tell us more," Alec said. "He just needs to know that the kids are all right first, and then I'll ask him."

"This is starting to get real weird," Coflax said.

"We have a goblin in bed, surrounded by a miniature yeti and two lizards, but what we really want to be doing is going after some goatsuckers, which we can't do until cat man here, talks to the goblin man. Please, tell me how this is just starting to get weird?" Rowl said sarcastically. He turned to Alec. "No offence."

"None taken," Alec replied.

After talking to 354, or Papa Smurf as John had accidentally named him after Mo had put a red wool cap from the thrift shop on him, they got more information on the chupacabra: there were four of them now.

Three originally, concentrating on the local cattle, not attacking too many, though 'Smurf', had kept the children as far away from them as possible. However, two more had appeared, more aggressive than the others. They killed the leader of the old group and took over, increased the hunting territory, drawing attention to the area by going after greater numbers of cattle and then eventually the ranchers' children.

The hunters readied themselves to go, though as John opened the door to the truck, he was surprised to find Curly sitting in the passenger seat eating an ice cream.

"Out!" John said firmly.

"Sir?" she asked as Alec opened his side. "Why, sir?"

"Because this isn't your fight," Alec explained to the girl.

"But isn't it procedure to have as much intel as possible? 35…Smurf can't go, so that makes me next officer on the line, right? I know the territory and everything."

John looked at the little girl. "You should be in the room watching the others."

She looked at the floor of the cab. Alec sighed. "Larry found the space heater, huh?"

She nodded as Alec looked at John. John grumbled as he got in the cab; if Ellen was there she would be have a few choice words about having the kid coming with them. He thanked God sometimes that she had no idea how often the boys used to fall asleep in the back of the car while he was burning some set of bones in a old cemetery in the back end of nowhere; she would probably skin him alive for it.

The place that Smurf had described was some old scrubland next to a few old outbuildings on an abandoned spread North East of town. The lair itself, they had been told, was nothing more than a hole in the ground.

Coflax and Rowl were preparing to make a quick survey of the buildings for any signs of life before they smoked the place. That was until Curly piped up about an escape hole concealed by a couple of bushes. She was almost out of the cab to show them where until both John and Alec had to give her a direct order that she was to stay put.

They made a quick recon of the area, finding a couple of more exits, though they covered up all but one.

"Right, seeing how I don't think you two will be too happy about me covering your backs right now, how about I go in front while you guys take the back?" Alec said to Coflax and Rowl as he picked up a tear gas grenade.

"No," John said as he walked to the back of the truck. "You may be stronger and faster, but you'd be blind."

Alec smiled. "Come on, Pop, let me show these two what a transgenic can actually do. And I wouldn't be blind."

"How?" Rowl asked.

Alec shrugged. "Let's just say I was never a morning person," Alec said tossing the gas grenade in the air before effortlessly catching it a gas grenade in the morn. ing was the "oOnly way they could wake me up as a kid."

"You're not serious," Coflax said.

John and Alec looked at the other two hunters.

"No," Alec said slowly. "Immunity, man."

"Really? How?"

John shook his head as he brushed past the others. "Can we get this done before you two come up with more stupid questions?"

Alec slowly went down the hole. The light began to diminish as he continued to crawl down the cramped dark tunnel.

He put his gun down in front of him, before he pulled the pin, and threw the canister in the direction of the large 'room' at the end of the tunnel. They started screaming as the tear gas filled the room.

Alec picked up his gun as one of the larger ones charged him, the spines on its back raised. Alec didn't panic, waited until it was close, until he could see its glowing red eyes; truth was Alec was more interested in the large pair of fangs that seemed to be moving rather swiftly toward him before he pulled the trigger.

The sound of the gun going off caused the other three to move in the other direction.

Alec bent down to the creature that was lying near his feet; he prodded at it, causing more and more blood to trickle out of its mouth. But, even though it was obviously dead, the unearthly screeching continued to come from it. Though, after about a minute it slowly began to quieten.

Alec stood up as best he could when he heard the sound of the other three being taken out. He took a long look at the thing lying dead in front of him; it not only looked hideous, it stank. He wasn't sure what he felt: guilt, relief, justified? The one thing he did know was that he didn't feel numb, like he did back in the day.

Yeah, sure, this was a job, but somehow it was different than before – it was survival –because somewhere in his head something was telling him that the thing in front of him was from somewhere wrong and it couldn't be left out there, not after it had attacked people, not after it attacked Smurf.

Smurf, Rowl and Coflax had jumped to similar conclusions: that these things and Manticore were connected. Hell, when John had taken him on that first hunt, he had thought it.

As Alec started out of the tunnel, he knew what had to be done; the question was how was he going to get everyone else to agree to it.

Ellen heard the truck pull into the access road a little after two. She was glad they were back as she hadn't heard back from the cardiologist yet. Though she was still hoping that he could help; Billy's chest was getting worse, which wasn't a good sign for his heart.

She waited for the sound of the truck doors opening before she moved; she refused to move before that happened. It was a stupid little ritual really, her sitting there not moving, holding her breath until the truck door went. She knew he was all right when he did that. She smiled before she walked out of the house, only to be greeted by one of the strangest sights she had seen in a long time.

John was carrying a small lizard 'child', while holding the hand of another one, and Alec was helping a 'thing' out of the truck while an almost albino girl watched.

"It's a long, long, long story," John said as he took the children into the house.

After Alec helped the thing get comfortable, he turned, calling out Billy's name. Ellen clenched her jaw, not too sure of what was going on.

"Hey, you're back," Billy said, coming into the living room, stopping a few steps from the doorframe.

John nodded some reassurance to Ellen as Alec proceeded to line up the three children. Billy stared at them.

"Right, if you don't get that you aren't taking orders, here's a new one," Alec said firmly, before pointing in the direction of Billy. "That's your new field commander; you will do what he says, all right? There will be no training other than what he says until further notice. There will be no biting and no roughhousing, got it?"

They looked each other and over to Smurf, who shrugged. "Yes, sir," Curly said, a little confused.

"Bill, come here," John said to his son.

Billy walked over to his dad. "Yes, sir?"

"Sport, we need you to show them how to be kids, all right?"

Billy was confused. "How do I do that?"

"Just be yourself and show them how to play," John said, smiling.

"Right - what are they called?"

John pointed to the children in turn, as he introduced them.

Billy raised an eyebrow before resigning himself to his new task. "Fine." He turned to them. "Come on, I'll show you my room."

As the group left the room, Ellen turned to her husband. "The Three Stooges?"

"Don't look at me, I didn't name them," he said, tossing a glance in Alec's direction.

"What – it works, don't it? Anyway, better than Smurf," Alec retorted.

"Smurf?" Ellen asked, to which John shrugged.

"What's wrong with Smurf?" Smurf asked as he sat on the couch.

It was bizarre: the four transgenics and the family settling into the house. Alec spent a few hours on the phone before sitting down for dinner.

"They are going to send someone to pick them up, should be here the day after tomorrow."

"Good," John replied. "Can't keep them here for too long, and it ain't just because we don't have the space."

And as always thanks to the awesome Twinkiecat and Rospberry for looking at this for me.