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The blackout lasted less than a second, Alec's X5 stamina overcoming the initial shock. But even though his mind had cleared, he still couldn't control his limbs as plunged helplessly to the pavement below.

"Alec!"

Max's scream was raw, primal, as she saw him falling to his death right before her eyes -- but it was the incentive he needed. Stretching his body out like a skydiver, Alec grabbed for Max as he dropped past where she had her precarious handhold. Their fingers touched, locked, and his weight slammed against her shoulder joint, his fall momentarily broken. However, Max was only hanging to the conduit box with one hand now, and a few seconds later her own grip slipped and they both plummeted toward the ground.

Which is when Alec felt the rope wrapped around his right arm tighten, the nylon slicing through his shirt, biting deeply into his skin. He hissed with pain, but held on as their descent came to an abrupt halt, his abused muscles stretched to their limit as Max's weight dragged on his other side. And then they were swinging forward, across the street and over the gaping crowd that had formed below drawn by the commotion.

"Shit! Ow!" Alec yelled as they plowed into the side of the abandoned apartment building, his body slamming against the cement slabs. Max's whimper of pain echoed his, but the feel of her warm fingers in his hand gave him the strength to hang on. They dangled a moment against the cold concrete, then Alec pushed them off with his feet. "The window!" he yelled at Max.

She saw and understood. Swinging her wide, Alec waited until just the right moment, then he let her go, tossing Max through the gaping hole where a picture window had once been intended to go. He had just enough time to see her land gracefully on her feet inside before the wall was rushing at him again. Flipping himself over to untangle the rope from his arm, Alec used his momentum to free fall forward, aiming for the same opening he'd just thrown Max through.

He almost made it, his fingertips brushing the lintel, his rubber soled boots scrambling for purchase on the smooth facade. But he was a precious inch shy. He wasn't going to make it.

Which is when Max's hand snaked out and grabbed hold of his belt, hauling him hard through the opening. Together they tumbled to the floor, landing in a gasping tangle of limbs, their hearts racing, the adrenalin overload leaving them shaking.

"Well, that was graceful," Max observed sarcastically from where she lay beneath Alec's panting body.

"Hey," Alec gasped. "We're alive aren't we?"

"Barely," Max snapped. "And I think you dislocated my shoulder."

Alec's eyes immediately filled with concern, all thoughts of a nasty comeback abandoned. "Are you okay?" he asked. "Other than the shoulder? I mean ... the baby?" He realized he was lying on top of her and immediately rolled off.

"I'm fine, I think," Max said, checking herself out.

"The Taser? The shock? Did it hurt the baby?"

Max hadn't even thought of that, and Alec saw the fear light up in her eyes. "I don't know," she said, putting a hand protectively on her abdomen. "I don't feel any pain."

There was a sound from down below, voices. Alec stood and moved to look out the window. The building was rapidly being surrounded by sector police vehicles, their blue and red flashing lights turning the neighborhood into an eerie kaleidoscope of color.

"We've got to get out of here."

"My shoulder," Max reminded him.

Alec gave her a skeptical look. Are you sure you want me to do this? Then he held out his hand. "This is gonna hurt," he warned.

"Just do it."

Alec took a firm grip on Max's right wrist, looked her square in the eye, and yanked. The sound of the joint popping back in wasn't quite covered by her stifled cry.

Drawing Max into his arms, Alec kissed away the single tear that was sliding down her cheek. "You okay?" he asked softly.

"I'll be fine," Max sniffed, clearing her throat and gingerly testing the arm. "Let's go. Can we get to the bikes?"

"We have to try," Alec said, taking her hand and leading her down the steps.

The motorcycles were parked in the back of the ground floor, but when they reached the next to bottom level they knew they were out of luck. Police were everywhere, sweeping the dark corners with flashlights, working their way up. "They have to be in here!" someone shouted. "The building's surrounded and they've nowhere to run! Filthy transgenics!"

Alec and Max looked at each other. How did the cops know they were transgenics? But the fact that they did know was bad. Seattle, more than any other city in the U.S., was transgenic phobic, the siege at Terminal City giving the town a bad name all around the world. In fact, Seattle was commonly known as "Freaktown" now, referred to that not only by its own citizens, but by everyone else in America as well.

"Shit, shit, shit," Alec said under his breath. The bikes were out of the question. There had to be at least 20 cops in that section of the building. Motioning to Max with a hand signal, he pointed to another exit on the side. There were four patrolmen lounging against a squad car, its headlights shining into the interior, but it was still the path of least resistance as far as he could see. Max nodded in agreement. Alec started to draw his gun, but she shook her head. Noise, she signaled. And she was right. They didn't dare draw attention to themselves if they were trying to sneak away. Better to take down the four cops as silently as possible and vanish into the night.

Max knocked her two out with a pair of excellent roundhouse kicks. Alec's uppercut sent another to sleep, but the fourth managed to squawk before his arm around the pudgy guy's throat finally choked him into unconsciousness.

"Go!" Alec hissed as the sound of running feet drew closer, the cop's squad mates coming to their fellow officer's assistance.

"It's them!" someone shouted from behind as he and Max took off running down the dark, wet street.

"Ow!" Max yelped as her racing bare feet flew through broken glass. Alec hesitated and turned, looking at her anxiously.

"I can carry you!" he yelled.

"Just go, you big idiot!" Max shouted back, giving him a push from behind for emphasis. "I'm fine."

Together, side-by-side, they raced through the night, their breathing even, puffs of white condensation streaming from noses and mouths, their transgenic hearts pumping easily. Their pursuers quickly fell behind, the shouts dying. However, the sector police had radios, and it wasn't long before more cop cars with flashing lights began appearing at intersections up ahead.

"We've got to get off the street," Alec panted, slowing his pace and looking around for a place to hide. He kept thinking of Biggs, the way an angry mob had beaten his former unit mate to death then hung his mutilated body from a bridge as a trophy. The thought of something like that happening to Max -- what the crowd would do to her -- made Alec's heart race in a way exertion never could. He had to protect her.

"Where?" Max asked, looking frantically around.

Alec checked a street sign and his eyes lit up. He didn't believe in coincidences, or in miracles for that matter, but this was Divine intervention if ever he'd seen it.

"Jam Pony," he said, pointing. "Two blocks away."

"Is it still there?" Max asked as she followed him through an alley that would bring them out behind their old place of employment.

Alec shrugged. "Dunno. But at least we know the building and how to get in."

Max didn't argue.

The back door was closed and locked, but the side of the brick building was easily climbed. A cracked window on the second floor gave access to an all too "familiar" place. It was here where they'd battled White and his Purebreds ... here where Gem had given birth to her baby ... here where Max had finally realized her true destiny as the leader of a nation.

Alec helped Max through the window and together they stood in the middle of the debris-strewn floor, gazing at the broken mannequins and glass shards that had never been cleaned up. This part of the second floor had been more-or-less abandoned long ago, not used by Jam Pony for anything more than the storage of old records that sat in moldy boxes along the back wall.

"Last time we were in here you were in love with Logan but pretending to be in love with me," Alec said, for the life of him not knowing why that had just come out of his mouth.

"I'm sorry," Max said. "I'm sorry I did that to you. I know now how much it hurt, me using you like that. It was cruel of me."

"Yeah," Alec admitted as he took up a position to watch out one of the cracked windowpanes. "It hurt like hell, to have you pretending to be with me, but not, when all the time I wanted so much to really be with you."

"But I had to learn my lesson the hard way," Max said, placing a hand tenderly on his arm, the one that was bleeding from the rope burn.

Alec winced away.

"That needs to be cleaned," she said.

"Later, when we're safe."

A noise from downstairs made both transgenics tense. Putting a finger to his lips, Alec glided to the open door at the top of the stairs, the one that had been blown in by the Familiars when they attacked that fateful day. There was a light on the first floor and now came the sound of voices.

"We're searching every building," someone, probably a sector cop, said. "Your objections don't matter."

"I don't object," Normal replied. "Heck, I hate their kind as much as you do. Search all you want. But you won't find any transgenics here I tell you."

Alec and Max looked at each other, their eyes wide.

"What's up there?" the cop asked, aiming his flashlight up the stairs.

"A lot of dirt and some old records," Normal said.

"Show us."

There was the sound of footsteps on the stairs. Alec sprinted to the window and looked down. The alley below was knee deep in squad cars. He looked up. The roof might be an option, but he didn't see an easy way there, and Max's shoulder wasn't in any shape for fancy climbing, nor was his injured arm.

They had no choice. They were going to have to hide -- and if found they were going to have to fight.

Max pointed to an alcove behind an old cabinet in the back of the room. Alec hated to be cornered, but if the cops did a real quick check up here they just might be overlooked. Drawing her close in his arms, he pressed his body into the niche and held his breath as pools of light danced across the broken glass on the floor.

"I tell you there's no one here," Normal said loudly. "I don't have time for this. I haven't seen a transgenic in forever."

"Weren't you that guy who was on all the talk shows after the hostage situation here a few years back?" a cop asked.

"That?" Normal said. "Oh, that was all a misunderstanding. I helped a young woman give birth to a baby, but she wasn't a monster or anything. And yes, there were a couple of transgenics working as messengers here but they were those sneaky kind, the ones that look human on the outside, the X series. I told the police everything I knew, turned over all my records. Why, I used to be a staunch supporter of the anti-transgenic coalition before the military shut it down."

Max looked up at Alec, a scowl on her face. Alec raised his eyebrows and shrugged. It sounded as if old Normal had changed his spots again, much as he hated to believe it. Last time he'd seen the man, when he'd delivered a batch of the plague vaccine to their Jam Pony friends, Normal had welcomed him with open arms. Now, however, it seemed their former employer was once again in the kill-the-trannies camp. Either that or he was just covering his ass with the cops.

A beam from one of the flashlights cut across their hiding place and Alec drew Max closer, his hand going to his gun. And then suddenly a pair of startled owlish eyes behind thick-lensed glasses were staring straight into his.