Chapter Text
“Hey, did anyone hear that?” X5-798 asked into the darkness. No one responded. Even 211 and 453 were asleep, or at least pretending to be. No one wanted to talk to one of the traitors that had landed them all here. Three weeks into the X5R program and it turned out genetically engineered ten year olds can hold a grudge.
“There it is again,” 798’s blankets rustled and she’d clearly sat up. 494 could imagine her on the other side of the wall, her small frame sitting up in bed, hugging her knees to herself. She was the smallest of any of them, even tinier than 211. Did they even feed them over there at the Gillette base? No wonder they’d broken out.
494 kept quiet, but he could hear a scuffling sound. Like it was coming from the floor below them, from the basement. They were in a very unusual sleeping arrangement, in a barracks that was split into five separate rooms with false walls made of tacky looking wood paneling. Part of their reprogramming protocol stated they couldn’t be allowed together in groups larger than three at a time. 494 was sharing sleeping space with X5-472 and X5-418, with 798 speaking from the other side of the flimsy, fake wall. Perhaps Manticore’s new policy would be more successful if they had the budget for actual walls, or if the Phoenix base had enough spare single-occupant cells available for each of them. Alas, neither possibility was a reality and the X5s could communicate just as well as ever.
“I know you’re awake 494. Can you hear it? Like growling.”
494 got up then, bare feet tiptoeing across the tiled floor, peeking through a knothole in the paneling. Pointless now to pretending to be asleep, when 798’s ridiculous hearing could suss out the truth effortlessly. She was looking around the room with her gigantic brown eyes, eyes that almost seemed too big for her head. There was a bit of fear in those big eyes, dashing out like little laser pinpoints of terror. She looked right at 494 and the fear seized him as well.
He couldn’t hear the growling, only more of that scuffling sound, but he was pretty sure 798 had wolf DNA or something. She always heard and smelled things sooner than the rest of them. Just like X5-799 used to do. Maybe that’s why it was so easy for the Seattle unit to hold their grudge. Every time they looked at her they saw their lost sister.
“What is it? 494 asked. 798 wasn’t just fearful, she was curious as well, listening intently.
“Something big,” she said. “It’s right downstairs. She gave him a wry smile, “Wanna go see?”
Chapter One
“…And where the fire truck is Alec?”
Most of the Jam Pony messengers ignored Normal, you know how they are, all too busy buzzing around in their own lives to care about Normal, or where Alec is. Normal really brings it on himself though, with his head stuck almost completely up his own ass, so he was lucky when Original Cindy, feeling sociable, said, “I ain’t seen your Golden Boy for over a week. You sure he still works here?”
“I think he left town,” Max sauntered over, grinning conspiratorially at Original Cindy. It was true that neither of them had seen Alec for a week, but she was certain he’d show up again. He always did. Like a cat, ironically enough.
After a couple more days, however, even the parts of Max’s brain that were the best at pretending to be indifferent to Alec were beginning to wonder where he was. Maybe she could nonchalantly ask Logan or Asha if they knew where he’d got to. Logan might know, given that he knew random information on just about everyone. And of course Asha frequently had the guy following her around like a puppy every time he felt lonely and misdirected.
Max pretended that didn’t bother her. Or actually, it totally did bother her. If Asha were interested in him, she’d have closed the deal by now, and Alec was being totally obnoxious. So her upset feelings on this matter were clearly for the benefit of Asha, and how she shouldn’t have to deal with Alec. Except for the part where Asha continued to make flirty conversation with him all the time. Max narrowed her eyes to prevent herself from sighing audibly. Her thoughts would go around in circles like this all day if she let them.
“I’ve not heard from him for over a week,” said Asha, her nose scrunched all up and she smiled cutely, but her eyes looked worried. She was trying to hide it, not wanting Logan to know she cared, probably.
Before Logan could get the chance to drag her into some Eyes Only business that she didn’t have time for, Max excused herself. “Well, I better bounce. I owe Joshua groceries and I have no idea what the haggling situation is like out there.”
* * * *
Once at Joshua’s, Max handed him cereal and Zebra Cakes. She couldn’t understand his affinity for the cakes. They tasted like plastic and air. The first one she’d eaten tasted like sugar, fair enough, but after that the main flavor was plastic. Maybe it was a fresh out of Manticore thing, because the only person who loved those cakes more than Joshua was Alec.
“So, what’s Alec been up to lately? He’s not been dragging you into any more scams, has he?” Max put on her stern, don’t-you-dare-let-that-asshole-drag-you-into-the-criminal-underbelly face.
“No, not here. He left town.”
“He left town?” A heavy, sick feeling sank into Max’s gut. She did an impressive job of ignoring it, if she didn’t say so herself.
Joshua nodded, slowly unwrapping a Zebra Cake, the cellophane crinkling dramatically. At least the cellophane wrapping wasn’t as dingy looking as the box. Whatever it was with snack cake boxes, and why they always had to be caked in fifty layers of dirt before they made it to Seattle was beyond Max. It’s was like everything in this entire city spent a year in a wet shoe, save for Logan’s iMac.
“Where’d he go?”
Joshua didn’t look up, still engrossed in Zebra Cake. He stuck his nose in the open wrapper and inhaled deeply, a trick that Max knew he’d learned from Alec. Finally he replied, “Alec went on a road trip.”
“What? Where?”
Max was concerned. Wait, no she wasn’t. Why would she care what Alec does? Why would he take off so quickly? He wasn’t on the run; he’d been off Manticore’s radar for over a month. He would’ve told her if he had to run from Manticore goons, right? He most certainly would have, so they could’ve worked together to get themselves and Joshua all out of dodge. Unless he was in such a rush that he’d figured leaving Joshua with the message he was leaving would have to be sufficient.
Joshua shrugged, jamming a whole Zebra Cake in his mouth before answering. “Said he had to get something,” Joshua sprayed little bits of cake in Max’s direction. She squinted and flicked the chewed food off her cheek.
“Great.” He’d probably gone off on a drug run or something. If he “had to get something” presumably that meant he’d be coming back, and if Max knew Alec, whatever he was coming back with was going to be the cause of her next headache.
* * * *
Max probably could’ve gotten a job as a psychic, given how correct her prediction was.
Not that she didn’t already have a headache from worrying for the next three days. Well not “worrying” exactly. She didn’t worry about Alec, because obviously she didn’t care what he did. He was just stupid Alec. But Joshua would be sad if he just disappeared forever, Max rationalized, so obviously that’s why she kept wondering where he was and if he was okay. Three days later and Joshua was due for another batch of groceries. Max inspected some of his newer paintings while Joshua rooted through the paper bag Max had left on the table. This time she’d brought more veggies and fewer snack cakes. “I suppose it’s been a quieter working environment around here without Alec stomping around all the damn time.”
“No Little Debbie,” Joshua wrinkled his nose in protest. “Alec is back now.”
As if on cue, several loud thuds, followed by a quieter, scuffling sound came from upstairs. And growling. Did we mention the growling? There was an awful lot of growling. Weird, high-pitched growling.
“Yeeaaah,” said Max. “I guess so. What the hell is he doing?”
First he just disappears leaving everyone to wonder for almost two weeks, and now he’s brought a drug kingpin or one of the Steelheads or someone into Joshua’s house? What the hell goes through that X5’s head?
“Alec said not to go upstairs.”
“Oh he did, did he?” Now Max was really suspicious, and made a beeline for the staircase, tromping up it with angry footfalls she hoped Alec could hear over the sound of whatever the hell he was doing on the other side of the bedroom door.
Who the hell did Alec think he was, disappearing for over a week, most likely crossing state lines without telling anyone where he was going, and then coming back and wreaking god knows what kind of havoc on Joshua’s house? Oh, she would kick his ass. She would make him wish they’d never combined his DNA in that arrangement that was just him. She would—
Max put on her most charming smile, took a deep breath, and calmly knocked on the door. Well, not super calmly, or it wouldn’t have been loud enough for Alec to even hear it. But loudly and controlled.
“Five seconds,” Alec called, as there was another loud thump and something that sounded suspiciously like the gnashing of teeth.
Max continued pounding at the door as the old house creaked and groaned. She was having a harder and harder time keeping her face poised so she could berate Alec while still looking like the sensible one. She was pretty sure the muscles above her eyebrows were going to cramp. Whatever the hell he thought he was up to—
Max didn’t get the chance to finish mentally threatening Alec before the floor let out a loud CRRRRRAAAACCKKKK! Followed by a slightly less loud thud downstairs, and then more drawn out crashing sounds. Joshua howling. More of the growling and gnashing that had previously been upstairs, and a minute or so of what had to be smaller objects and bits of house falling through what was clearly a large hole in the floor.
“What the hell, Alec?” Max shouted as she ran back downstairs. “Did you kidnap a freaking bear?”
Alec peered through the hole in the ceiling, looking down at Max and the damage below. “Not a bear,” he grinned, before disappearing back behind the rubble.
“Alec, this is Joshua’s house! Do you even think before you do things?”
Joshua and the growling sound had both disappeared into the kitchen. Max followed, stepping over the pile of destroyed plaster and 2x4s in the living room. A fine plaster dust coated almost everything.
Max had to double take when she reached the kitchen.
Wedged in the corner between the refrigerator and the door to the back steps, was Joshua, batting a chair at the thing that had him cornered, like the world’s most desperate lion tamer.
And the thing that had him cornered? Clearly it was a dinosaur.
But no, that couldn’t be. Some sort of genetically engineered Komodo dragon? It moved like a much more coordinated version of the gossamer. Max peered at it, looking to spot a barcode along its scaly neck, but if there was one, it was obscured by the Mohawk of feathers that started between its eyes, and followed its spine all the way to halfway down its tail. They were all standing on end, like a dog with its hackles up.
“Little Felllaaaaa…” Joshua protested, pushing the dinosaur… thing… batting its foot down with the chair. It had wicked claws and seemed to be attempting to gut him.
But for that matter, those claws were a major complication in Max trying to do anything to help. She puzzled over the situation, sorting out the best way to subdue the giant, lizard-bird-thing. Max refused to call it a dinosaur. Dinosaurs were extinct, and she was pretty sure if she called it a dinosaur, Alec would never let her live that down.
But it really, really looked like a dinosaur. Kind of like the ones in Jurassic Park, especially those claws. The rest of it looked kind of different though—there were the feathers, and they weren’t cinematically pretty feathers—just kind of brownish with black speckles.
The thing was eight, maybe nine feet long, and about four feet tall. Joshua’s kitchen was not very big. Its tail swung around, knocking the remaining chairs in all directions and scooting the table closer to the far wall. Alec’s beloved TV had already taken a tumble and the screen was cracked. Served him right, thought Max.
“Maaax?”
“Sorry, sorry. Keep holding him off, Joshua.”
The best bet seemed to be for her to grab one of the other chairs, then they could work together to try to force him down the basement steps. The nearest tipped chair was about a foot away from where the not-dinosaur was standing. And about a foot away from those claws.
With a burst of X5 speed, Max dove for it.
The not-dinosaur’s head swung toward her, nostrils flaring as it sniffed the air previously occupied by her head. It grimaced, seemingly disapproving of her new coconut shampoo.
But its eyes locked on Max and that stare. Her blood ran cold.
Every instinct told her to run. But also to not move a muscle.
Max was pretty sure she hadn’t soiled herself, but it sure felt like her heart was losing its shit.
Its eyes though. In all the years of scientists and doctors experimenting on her, Max had never seen a face so predatory. It wasn’t evil. It wasn’t cruel. It wasn’t dehumanizing her, because in no universe could it ever care that she was human in the first place. She was always just meat.
And this thing had teeth.
Max copied Joshua, and thrust the chair into the not-dinosaur’s face, keeping those teeth as far from her as she could.
“We need to push it into the basement,” Max whispered. “Maybe we can lock it in down there.”
Joshua nodded, and adjusted his angle to force the not-dinosaur across the kitchen and back into the living room.
The not-dinosaur tripped over rubble, and was forced to keep looking down at its feet as it stumbled backward, closer and closer to the basement door. Which was still closed, of course. If Max hadn’t been panicking about having a large, predatory, not a dinosaur, creature in her friend’s kitchen, maybe she would’ve had the forethought to open the basement door before grabbing the chair.
“I have to open the door,” said Max apologetically. “Can you hold him off?”
“Go, Little Fella.”
“Hang tight, Big Fella.”
Keeping her chair trained on the not-dinosaur, Max darted around behind it. It turned, nearly thrashing her with its tail. Max saw the movement at the last second, and made an impressive leap over the tail, before landing and throwing open the basement door.
Joshua thrust his chair more forcefully in the not-dinosaur’s direction. It made a loud, echoing, barking sound—more like a seal’s bark than a dog’s—and opened its mouth widely in Joshua’s direction.
Max ran around behind him, and back to the not-dinosaur’s side, cutting off its only means of escape, albeit a means through the pile of rubble. It looked like it was getting ready to jump.
That was alarming. It looked like those legs had some power behind them.
“Joshua, stand up tall and push your chair down on him!” Max shouted. “I’ll guard your belly!”
Joshua did as instructed and the not-dinosaur shrunk down and let out a low growl. They continued to push him back toward the staircase.
It still had its eyes trained on the two of them, and now having cleared most of the mess from the ceiling collapse; it wasn’t even looking at its feet anymore.
That was clearly a mistake as the not-dinosaur stepped backward through the doorway to the basement, then tumbled down the flight of stairs.
Max slammed the door, then jammed her chair under the handle, looking around the room for something heavier to block the door with. Joshua was already on it, hauling the desk across the room and sliding it in Max’s direction.
Desk in place, Max slid down to the floor, breathing hard, and leaning against the desk.
“I’m gonna kill Alec,” she said.
“Alec gets himself in danger,” Joshua noted. “But Alec should clean the house.”