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Photo courtesy of Jensen Ackles World

"No! No! No!" Ryan shouted as Alec landed awkwardly from a 540 degree spinning hook kick. "What the hell's the matter with you? You've got the strength! Let's see some balance! Some finesse! Max can do this with her eyes closed for cryin' out loud!"

"Max weighs about seventy-five pounds less then me!" Alec shot back. (They'd been practicing for almost an hour in the Quonset hut the mutants used as a gymnasium and training facility, and Alec was really beginning to feel the strain on his muscles.) "Or at least she does when she's not six months pregnant. She goes aerial easier than me."

"Cut the excuses, soldier!" Ryan bellowed, crossing bulging muscular arms across his barrel chest and scowling at the younger, more lithely built X5. "If you'd been in my unit back at Manticore I'd have you in solitary. You've got a lot more muscle than that tiny chick and you know it. Use your power!"

"I was in your unit back at Manticore," Alec reminded him with a good-natured grin, refusing to be baited. "And you did put me in solitary once, that time I messed up on the demo team in front of the big brass 'cause I'd skipped five practice sessions."

"Don't remind me," Ryan groused. However, he, too, was grinning now. "But I've gotta admit, you always did have a way with the kids. Their forms look pretty good, and I credit that to you."

"X6's are fast learners," Alec replied with a shrug, uncomfortable taking the praise. "Almost as fast as the X5's and without the attitude."

"Whatever," Ryan conceded. "Your youth group is sharp. Now, if only you were as clear-headed."

Alec knew Ryan wasn't truly upset with him. Most days he could easily keep up with his instructor, and there'd even been a time or two when he'd kicked the bigger X5's ass. But now it was time to call it a day. He walked to the side of the room, picked up a towel, and wiped the sweat off his face and bare chest. Then he grabbed a bottle of water, tilted his head back, and took a long drink, Adam's apple bobbing as the cold liquid poured down his throat.

"Alec ready for my lesson now?" a gentle voice said from the double sliding doors at the end of the metal building.

Alec glanced at the clock on the wall then turned to Joshua. "Sure, Big Fella." He faced Ryan. "Tomorrow? Four o'clock? After my shift on the new construction site?"

Ryan gave him a high sign then gathered his own gear and headed out toward the mess hall. The mutants on the island had been taking voluntary turns working on erecting a small pharmaceuticals plant according to the specs provided by Lydecker. Of course they didn't have the equipment yet to put in the factory, but at least it was a start -- and hopefully they'd soon be solving that problem as well. The colonel was arriving tomorrow with mission parameters for a job that, if successfully pulled, would earn them another big piece of what they needed in order to manufacture not only tryptophan but other medicines as well.

However, just what that job entailed remained to be seen. Knowing Lydecker it was going to be as dangerous as hell Alec figured -- which meant Max's participation was out (and besides, Lydecker had to have figured out by now that Max had found and removed his tracking device so she wouldn't be of any use to him in that respect). She was growing heavy with her pregnancy now, hardly able to sleep due to the baby kicking at night, not to mention running to the latrine every hour on the hour. Alec smiled to himself, thinking about how it felt, those tiny feet and fists pushing against his hand from inside his mate's womb, his baby girl's tumbles and turns. No doubt about it. She was going to be an acrobat like her mommy. And Brac just loved to lie in bed with them in the morning, resting his flaxen-haired head on Max's tummy, feeling his baby sister's gyrations.

Alec brought his thoughts back to the task at hand -- Joshua. "Warm up, Big Fella," he said, doing a couple of jumping jacks to demonstrate. "Two hundred ought to be a good start."

He watched while Joshua complied, the dogman bouncing high and enthusiastically into the air on his huge feet and clapping those oversized hands above his head. Push-ups followed, and leg stretches. Only then were they ready to really start the lesson.

*****

Joshua had always wanted someone to show him how to fight. Oh, he was certainly capable of defending himself just fine, his strength easily double that of any X5 on the island. In fact, when Joshua landed a punch the one on the receiving end, even if "genetically empowered," usually didn't get up again. But there was fighting and then there was the art of fighting. The big dogman watched Alec and Max with envy as they kicked and turned and blurred, fists and feet flying so fast a human eye sometimes couldn't follow. They seemed like poetry in motion to him, their athletic bodies an expression of their soldier minds, each move crafted ... honed ...practiced to perfection. "Looks like fun," he said. "Beautiful. Please teach me?"

Max hadn't liked it, showing the gentle transhuman ways of violence. But Mole had vehemently backed up Joshua's plea and Alec couldn't disagree. In the end Max had reluctantly backed down, admitting that Joshua should probably learn a few fighting tricks. But she'd stipulated only Alec could teach him. She trusted him to not turn the gentle giant into a murderous automaton like so many of the X5's on the island reverted to when in combat.

Hence, the twice weekly lessons began.

*****

"Okay, big guy," Alec said cheerfully, holding up a training target, a large foam padded square that could absorb a kick. "Show me what you've got. Do that series we worked on the other day. Double punch, side kick, spinning round kick."

Brow crinkled with concentration, his blue eyes determined, Joshua assumed a fighting stance and came at Alec with all he had. His blows were indeed powerful, sending the X5 back a step with each punch. And his kick was enough to almost put Alec on his ass.

"Good job!" Alec yelled, high-fiving Joshua when he was finished. "Now all you need is to get a little more speed and you'll be in business with that move."

"Joshua can't blur," Joshua said, his head hanging.

"Don't need to blur, Big Fella," Alec said, clapping his friend on the back and giving him a little pep talk. "That's mostly cat stuff anyway, nothin' a big proud canine like you needs to worry about. Just concentrate on your own strengths. Make the moves as fast as you can. It'll be enough."

By the end of the session Alec felt as if he'd had another workout. Joshua really was strong, and being his "target" was a huge job all in itself. He was breathing hard, his body covered with sweat again when he heard Brac call "Daddy!" from the door.

Without thinking he turned and looked toward his son.

Alec was holding the target pad tightly, one hand on each corner, his body braced for impact. But his fingers were slick with perspiration and as he twisted his head the foam shield slipped -- just as Joshua's huge foot landed in a vicious, full force side kick.

The blow caught Alec under the last rib on his left side. Involuntarily he cried out as he lost his footing completely and sailed through the air to crash heavily into the side of the Quonset hut. For a second he just sat there, propped against the wall, stunned, trying to catch his breath.

"Alec!" O.C. shouted from the door where she was holding onto Brac. "Alec, honey, you okay?" Brac was crying.

"Alec!" Joshua echoed her call, running over to kneel at his best friend's side, his blue eyes filled with guilt and worry. "I'm sorry! I'm sorry! Joshua's sorry!"

"Not your fault, big guy," Alec coughed, holding a hand to his side as he sat up straighter. "Mine. Shouldn't have gotten distracted." He glanced apologetically at O.C. and rolled his eyes. "Story of my life. And please don't tell Max." Shakily he got his feet under himself and stood, waving off Joshua's helping hand. "I'm all right," he insisted, coughing again. Realizing how much he'd scared Joshua he forced himself to smile. "I'm all right," he repeated. "But I think that's enough lesson for today."

*****

As usual, Donald Lydecker was unpredictable. He showed up early, his boat docking in Chimera's main harbor not at dawn but shortly before midnight. Max was still up, not sleepy at all due both to her nocturnal tendencies and her daughter's gymnastics in her belly. Alec, although he'd curled up in bed, hadn't been able to sleep either, the bruise on his side throbbing to the point of distraction even though Dr. Makari had loaded him up with pain pills.

"What is it this time?" Alec asked sarcastically as he and Max sat across a table from their former (and, truth be told, not-so-former) CO in the colony's mess hall. Dressed in loose fitting khaki cargo pants and a black sweatshirt layered over a black T, Alec balanced his chair on its back two legs and chewed distractedly on a fingernail. Max, not the least bit concerned about fashion at this hour of the night, wore a pajama top over stretch jeans. Lydecker, as usual, was in Army fatigues and a leather jacket. There was a pot of coffee on the stove, and the colonel and Alec had cups of brew in front of them. Max, however, merely sipped a glass of spring water. To anyone glancing in on the scene, it could have been three friends gathered for a friendly conversation.

"Lemme guess," Alec continued, bringing the chair legs down with a thump. He looked down into his cup, absently swirling the dark liquid as if he might see answers in its ripples. "You want us to attack Calvi and destroy all of those cloned X5's beneath Sandeman's castle." Then he glanced up, a foxy look in his golden-green eyes, waiting for Lydecker to answer what he'd just thrown out as a conversation starter, as absurd as it was.

True, Sandeman's remaining people were attempting to create an army of pseudo-X5's on the Corsican island of Calvi. But the creatures they were producing were of poor physical quality, low intelligence, and practically untrainable -- hardly a threat to the world. In fact, they were barely more than a nuisance. Certainly Lydecker had better things to do with his time and people. (Alec flinched inwardly at that thought that he was one of Lydecker's "people.")

"Actually," Lydecker said. "My men have already taken care of that little problem."

"What do you mean?" Max asked sharply.

"We blew it up yesterday."

"The whole castle?" Alec said, his mouth hanging open in surprise.

"The whole island. You aren't the only ones with a thermonuclear device."

Alec closed his mouth and gulped. So did Max. Then the two transgenics looked at each other. Once again Lydecker was showing his utterly ruthless side. There must have been hundreds of innocent casualties. Of course the news hadn't reached the rest of the world yet, and with the dreadful state of communications, perhaps never would. Operating as a bad guy on planet Earth was getting easier all the time.

"But you're not entirely off target," Lydecker continued. "Trouble is, we didn't get all of those abominations. There's a second facility in France where they're training the best of the crop." His pale blue eyes twinkled in anticipation. "And you especially, 494, are going to be very interested in who's commanding that base."

Alec's decisive eyes locked with Lydecker's. "I'll bite," he said. "Who?"

The colonel smiled coldly, enjoying the moment. "It seems Manticore wasn't the only game in town when it came to twinning its best embryos."

"Oh, please don't tell me White had a twin brother," Max pleaded.

"Thankfully no," Lydecker said, obviously sincerely meaning it. "But it turns out our beloved Madam Renfro does have a twin sister."