Chapter 4:

Lessons in Pain

Damp, musty air filled his senses and filtered into his consciousness. He shifted slightly on his bunk; dragging a groan of pain from his abused body in the process, which only served to bring the events of the last two days crashing down around him, causing him to wince at the memories…

He’d just left Terminal City, after dropping of the money from a heist and was making his way back to his apartment; speeding along the roads and letting his mind wander. Thinking over how things had changed in the last month or so. How Max had started to mellow towards him off late, not treating him with the usual disdain that had been her standard reaction to his presence. But now that he finally knew about Ben; knew what she’d had to do; he could actually understand why she behaved the way she did. Because it was the only way she could cope, the only way she was able to function and keep her sanity whenever they were together.

It was because of these thoughts that he hadn’t noticed the unmarked car that had been tailing him, ever since leaving TC; so it came as a shock when they ran him off the road and into a nearby ditch.

He didn’t remember anything after that, until he’d awoken to find himself suspended from the ceiling by his arms, his legs shackled and held in place. Looking around himself he saw that he was in a large cell; with nothing to rest his eyes on, except an expanse of bare brick wall. Alec didn’t know how long he’d been hanging there; but from the ache in his muscles he surmised that it had been a while.

It seemed like several hours had passed, even though in reality it was probably no more than a few minutes since he’d regained consciousness, before anyone else entered his stony cell. And when they did, he suddenly found himself wishing that he never had.

The two men who entered remained with him for an insurmountable amount of time; never speaking either to him, or indeed to each other. They had just gotten straight down to business.

The taller of the two men; a dark haired, broad shouldered, grey eyed guy who had a deep scar running down his left cheek bone; tore his sweat soaked T-shirt from his body, leaving him in nothing but his worn jeans-(obviously before tossing him into his cell, they’d removed his jacket and sneakers, as well as confiscating his cell-phone)- And with meticulous precision, started to slice into his now bare chest with a small scalpel.

The cuts weren’t deep, but as Alec new from personal experience, the shallower the cut, the greater the pain. Once they’d tired of bleeding him; the second of the two men-(who Alec had mentally named Tweedledee)-withdrew a tazer from the large, black medical bag that he’d carried in with him.

As Tweedledum, tossed a bucket of cold water over Alec; Tweedledee jammed the tazer into his bruised and bleeding chest.

Up until now Alec had managed to keep quiet, to block the pain from his mind; but with the double onslaught of shock from the icy water and the electric jolt of the tazer, he was unable to keep himself from screaming as a neurological overload sent him head first into a grand mal seizure, as he blissfully succumbed to the blackness.

Lying on his bunk, Alec looked around his new quarters, while trying not to move too much. He still had no idea where he was, or indeed who his unseen captor was. And having been unconscious during both occasions that he’d been moved around the facility, he couldn’t even begin to formalize an escape plan. All he could do was wait, and hope that Max, Biggs and the others would know what had happened to him. And that knowing Max, she’d be gearing up for his rescue.

Closing his eyes, Alec figured he might as well as get some rest, because he had a feeling, that he was going to need it.

~*~

The atmosphere in TC’s headquarters’ was thick with anger, and laced with fear; as the cavernous walls rebounded with a multitude of accusations…

“This is on you!”.

“White didn’t know we were here, until you brought him here”.

“Pretty boys, probably being tortured right now, cause of you and that fucking ordinary!”.

The voices kept on, and on. And the hysteria of the collected group of transgenics was taking its toll on both Max’s nerves and her patience.

It had been over an hour since she’d told them about the phone call from White;

Over an hour since the first accusation was sent her way.

Over an hour of listening to Mole’s threats; and Max was sick of it.

As soon as she’d finished telling them everything she knew, she was sidelined. Ignored for the most part, only looked at with loathing and disdain, by all but a handful of the assembled transgenics. And throughout it all a pair of fiercely intense green eyes, remained locked in her mind, causing her heart to constrict with guilt and fear. Fear that they wouldn’t get him back.

Fear about what was happening to him.

Fear that she would loose the one person, who saw her for herself, and who’d accepted her without any hesitation.

Fear of knowing that underneath all the cocky smirks, sarcastic banter and happy-go-lucky charm; that Alec would willingly sacrifice himself in order to keep her; to keep them all safe no matter the cost.

Pushing her way forward, Max caught the eyes of several of the assembled transgenics, and waited until all but one voice could still be heard. “Mole, if you don’t have anything constructive to say, then shut the fuck up”, she quietly said but her voice held an edge of steel to it.

Mole was taken aback by the small woman standing in centre of HQ, hands on her hips, and a deadly glint in her eye. Up until this point, he hadn’t given much thought to 452, except for placing the blame for whole sorry mess, squarely on her slim shoulders. But he wasn’t going to be cowed by some jumped up ‘ordinary’ lovin’ traitor. “And how are you gonna make me?”, he spat out, around his ever present stogie and cloud of smoke. ‘Yeah, right like she could actually do anything, to stop him’, he silently sneered to himself, as he continued to glare in her direction.

Watching from the sidelines; several of the surrounding audience unconsciously shuffled their feet, and rubbed the back’s of their necks as they felt their hackles rise; as they watched the scene unfolding in front of them.

Glancing warily around him, Joshua decided to step forward before Max got herself into some serious trouble. “Lil’ fella’”, he called as he made his way forward through the crowd, to stand beside Max. “Lil fella’, leave it”. But Max just turned to look at him, before returning her steady gaze to the scaly transhuman in front of her. “Back off, Big fella’”, Max said gently, feeling disappointed that Joshua didn’t think she could look after herself; that she couldn’t make them realise that she had just, as much right; maybe more so to find Alec. Max needed them to understand that there was no way in hell that they were going to rescue Alec, and leave her behind. She was not going to stand by and loose her family again.

Not again.

And it was time that everybody learned that, and it looked as though she’d already found a volunteer for the first lesson…