All of Us -- Chapter 21

Disclaimer: The TV show Dark Angel, all of the characters that appeared on it (Max, Zack, Alec, 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 (Becky/X6-405, etc.).

“This was a perfect idea,” Jondy said to Max a few nights later as the two of them and most of the adult and adolescent transgenics gathered in an unused parking garage. “We should celebrate the one year anniversary of Manticore going down for good.”

“How can we not?” Max agreed, grinning. “If there was something for us to celebrate, this is it.”

“Absolutely,” Jondy said. She looked around the room. “Oh, look, there’s Wayne…and friends. What’s he trying to do, get into bed with all three of those girls at the same time tonight?”

Max got an idea. “You never know with Wayne. Excuse me a sec, sis?”

“Sure,” Jondy said.

“Cool,” Max said. She looked around the room for a moment before she spotted Syl, Brin, and Rena standing together talking. She walked over to them and waved Jace over. “Okay, is it just me or are any of you getting the impression that Jondy might be having those special feelings for Wayne?”

“The Evel Knievels of our family together? That’d be nice,” Brin commented sincerely.

“I’ve seen it,” Syl said.

“You mean she actually might have feelings for him?” Rena asked. She looked over in Jondy’s direction and noticed how Jondy was ‘casually’ looking over to where Wayne was. “Holy crap, you nailed it on the head, baby sister.”

“Good call, Max,” Jace said. “What do you want us to do?”

Max grinned wickedly. “Help me, of course. I’m going to set them up whether they like it or not. Okay, whether they’ll admit that they like it or whether they won’t admit it. I was thinking that we’d set Jondy up by challenging her to some kind of bet that we know she’ll lose at and the penalty for losing is that she has to go out on a date with Wayne.”

“That is slick,” Syl said.

“Thank you.” Max grinned wickedly. “What does Jondy absolutely suck at…?”

“Hey, baby sister.”

Becky jumped and turned around and saw Zack standing behind her. “Hey, big brother. What do you think of the party?”

“I’m not usually much of a party person, but this seems to be pretty good,” Zack said.

“Same here,” Becky agreed. She looked around the room. “There’s most of your sisters and your girlfriend.”

Zack looked in that direction and frowned. “They’re conspiring. Damn.” He shook his head. “I’m feeling sorry for Jondy.”

“Why Jondy?” Becky asked.

“Because Jondy isn’t there conspiring with them,” Zack pointed out.

“Oh yeah,” Becky said.

“It’s okay,” Zack said. He looked around the room. “Almost everybody in your family is here. Where’s Karen?”

“In the nursery helping to watch over the babies,” Becky told him.

Zack caught the sadness in her voice. “She’s still loyal to Manticore, isn’t she?”

“Yeah,” Becky said. She looked down for a moment. “She hasn’t been getting along with Felicia either. Actually, she hasn’t been talking to Felicia at all. When she sees that Felicia is in the room, she either looks away or goes into another room. It’s like she doesn’t want to acknowledge the fact that Felicia’s alive. I think that Karen’s trying to convince herself on some level that Felicia really did die that day and that Lydecker never lied to me about that and Manticore wasn’t wrong and…you get the idea.” She sighed sadly.

“It’s okay,” Zack said reassuringly. He put an arm around Becky’s shoulders and squeezed. “You’ve got to hang in there.”

“I know, I know,” Becky admitted. “But Zack, it’s killing me inside a little bit every time I see Karen ignore Felicia or every time that Karen gets angry or annoyed when I or somebody else says something anti-Manticore. Even though Karen still likes everyone else in our family, except for Felicia and I know that she still likes her deep down where it counts, and she pretty much gets along with everybody in our family fine it’s starting to drive her apart from everybody else. I can see it in how Dalton and Brent and Kevin get a little edgy when one or more of them are in the same room with Karen and in how Maggie sometimes glares at Karen behind her back when Karen turns away for a moment when they’re talking together and just little things like that. What am I supposed to do? Tell Karen that until she wakes up and sees the light that she can’t be around the rest of our siblings or should I just wait until things really fall apart between her and everybody else, possibly including me? What am I supposed to do?”

“I don’t know,” Zack said. “I wish this wasn’t happening with you and your family, but I don’t know how to make this situation any better. If I directly interfere, it might make things worse because I’m sure Karen thinks that I’m a traitor because of ’09.”

“She does,” Becky confirmed. “I still haven’t even had the nerve to tell her about you and I being brother and sister yet. That’s so weak of me.”

“That’s not weak, that’s human,” Zack said. He hugged Becky. It hurt him to see how much this was bothering her. “One way or another, you’ll find a way to work things out. I’ve got faith in you.”

“Thank you,” Becky said. Zack released her and they continued to watch everybody.

Max whispered something to Alec, who nodded and walked off. She whistled loudly. “Hey, everyone! I got a challenge for my sister Jondy!”

“Oh, really?” Jondy said skeptically. “What could be so big of a challenge that it requires you to scream it out in front of hundreds of people?”

“A drinking contest,” Max informed her, smirking. “You were a bartender so you should know what those are, right?”

Zack groaned. “Max, are you really going to have a drinking contest with Jondy?”

“I guess that means that he prefers sober sex to drunken sex,” Zane remarked. That got him glares from Max and Zack and he grinned. “Is that a yes or a no?”

“It’s a none of your business unless you want to be decapitated,” Zack said. He turned to Krit. “Krit, if you were going to say what I think you were going to say, I will make sure that you and Syl never have children together.”

“Why does he still have to be almost psychic sometimes?” Krit muttered.

“Anyway,” Max continued. “I never said that I was the one that was going to be drinking against Jondy.” She gestured to Syl. “That honor belongs to Syl here.”

“Then why isn’t she challenging Jondy herself?” Becky asked.

“Because I came up with the specific dare,” Max replied. “If Jondy wins, then Syl has to be Rena’s slave for an entire week.”

“Sweet! I’m really liking this dare,” Rena said happily.

“I’m not,” Syl grumbled, pretending to be mad. She’d actually been the one to come up with the dare, knowing that it would have to be good to make sure that Jondy would participate in the contest. “You’d better go down, Jondy. That’s all I’ve got to say.”

“Oh yeah? You’re the one who’s gonna go down,” Jondy retorted.

“I haven’t forgotten you, Jondy,” Max said. “If you lose, then you’ve got to go out on a date with Wayne.”

“Hey!” Wayne exclaimed in surprise.

“You’re on,” Jondy said.

“How come I wasn’t told about this?” Wayne asked.

“Hey, you might get a date out of it,” Max pointed out. “So, we’re on?”

“Definitely,” Syl said.

“Absolutely,” Jondy agreed.

“All right!” Max said. There were cheers from some of the transgenics and Jondy and Syl walked over to a nearby table and sat down. Somebody procured shot glasses and set them down on the table. “All we have to do now is wait for…here he is with the beverage of choice.” Alec walked up to Max and handed her a bottle. “Everclear! I’m told by Alec that this is the highest proof alcohol an ordinary can tolerate and it doesn’t take a lot at all for an ordinary to get drunk off of it but that for us, it’d be like an ordinary drinking vodka. So here’s the deal, ladies. Everclear shots and the first person to either give up or pass out loses.” She waited for Alec to start pouring the shots. “Are you two ready?”

“What are we waiting for?” Jondy asked, cracking her knuckles.

“Then begin!” Max declared.

They stood around the table and cheered as Syl and Jondy downed shot after shot. After four, the girls looked at each other nervously. Jace had said that Jondy didn’t hold her liquor as well as other X5s she’d seen and Syl had assured them that she had drank Krit under the table more than once. Jondy started to look somewhat inebriated and when Alec finally poured them each a seventh shot, Jondy grabbed hers, drank it sloppily, slammed the glass down on the table and passed out, snoring loudly. Syl grabbed her shot, downed it quickly, and slammed her glass down triumphantly. “I win!”

“We’ve got a winner, and it’s Syl!” Max cheered. She looked over at Jondy. “Wow, she’s snoring.”

“I never thought I’d ever hear somebody snore louder or worse than Krit, but she wins,” Jace remarked.

“I don’t know what to think,” Becky said. She looked amused. “Other than the fact that Sketchy would be insanely jealous of both Jondy and Syl right now, I’m…”

“Never going to participate in one of those?” Zack finished.

Becky rolled her eyes at his overprotectiveness but then smiled. “Yeah, I don’t think I will. I needed that distraction, though.” She saw the look that Max was giving her. “Either I’ll explain it or Zack will later.”

“Who’s going to carry Jondy to her apartment and break the news to her that she’s got a date with Wayne sometime in the near future?” Rena asked.

“If I carry her, does that count as the date?” Wayne joked.

“Nope, you both have to start out the date sober,” Max informed him.

“Okay,” Wayne said. He walked over to Jondy, a thoughtful look on his face, and then carefully picked her up. “Who wants to come with me so they can open the door for me?”

“I’ll go with you,” Jace said. They left the building.

“Mission accomplished,” Max said, exchanging triumphant high-fives with the rest of her sisters.

“Karen’s gonna be sorry that she missed this,” Kyle said to Becky as he walked up to her.

“Yeah, she always did like watching other people make at least semi-idiots of themselves,” Becky agreed. She saw Kyle watching her out of the corner of her eye and smiled, knowing what he was thinking. “Hey, how about we make sure that Kevin isn’t getting the crap kicked out of him by those girls that he was trying to pick up?”

“Good idea,” Kyle said, laughing. The two of them walked off.

Max walked up to Zack. “What was the deal with Becky?”

“She’s still upset about Karen,” Zack said. “It’s really bothering her.”

“Oh.” Max sighed. “The poor kid.”

“Becky or Karen?” Zack said.

“Both of them,” Max said. “I don’t know what to do for either of them.”

“Neither do I,” Zack confessed. They looked up when they heard Syl, who was a little tipsy, trying to make out with Krit as they were dancing. “Should we break that up before Syl hurts him?”

“Nah,” Max said. “Krit can handle it. He knows Syl well enough.”

“Like I know you,” Zack said.

“Does that mean you want me to get drunk and make out with you?” Max teased.

“Drunk, no, but the making out part…” Zack said.

“I think Jondy was right. You must have a little bit of rabbit DNA in you,” Max said.

“Actually, I looked on my file and it’s wolf,” Zack admitted.

“Oh,” Max said. “Between us, it’s cat, a dash of shark, and a dash of wolf…I wouldn’t have it any other way.” She smiled and led Zack out to the dance floor.

TBC