Max takes Seth to her house

Original Cindy was distracted by the door opening, and watched Max roll her motorcycle into the apartment, then raised an eyebrow at the man that followed.

“Hey boo”, she greeted.

Max smirked, she knew that look all too well, though usually it was on Cindy’s face when she brought home one of her ‘lickety chicks’, “Hey.”

“This is Seth”...
“Seth my roommate, Cindy.”

“Hey, and its, Original Cindy”

“Hi.”

“Seth got in some trouble with one of the gangs, he needs a place to crash”, Max continued after the introductions.

“Huhmm, your room or mine?”

Seth stood there awkwardly, as Max gave Cindy an irritated stare.

“Just kidding boy”, Cindy smiled at Seth, “I bat for the other team.”

Seth was even more uncomfortable than before. Max smiled walking to the kitchen, followed quickly by Cindy. As she got two beers from the fridge Cindy came up behind her.

“So, is he a new flame?”

“What!? No! His a friend.”

“Friend?” Cindy asked cocking her head mockingly, “From where?”

“From before we met.”

“O’hight”, Cindy dropped the interrogation right there, she knew better than to question Max about her past. Max had her secretes and that was always cool with her, it was why they got on so well.

“I gotta go catch up on my gossip columns”, she said walking into her room and shutting the door, “Have fun”, she shouted out, unable to resist.

Max shook her head, taking the beer to Seth. He was standing staring out of the window.

“You ok?” Max asked handing him the beer.

“Yeah, I’m just thinking”…

It was a long pause, Max waiting, knowing he’d continue.

“You ever heard of specialized DNA tampering done at Manticore Max?” he asked finally looking at her.

“Like?”

Specialized infantry troops designed for particular infiltrations”.

“Why are you asking me this?”

“I came to Seattle to find you, to ask you for help”…

Another pause.

“I found Jondi.”

Max looked up not sure what to say, “When, where?”

“She got herself in trouble with this guy, Sway. His one of us”…
Well, not exactly like us, I mean not X5, but his a transgenic”…

“He said he was designed for solo incursions, in snow capped places, he said at the time Russia was suspected as being behind the ‘pulse’, so they created him to break into their military bunkers”…

Max cut in, “What does all this have to do with Jondi?”

“Manticore did something to Sway’s blood, it was designed to be used to make enemy soldiers talk if they drunk it”…

“But he found out he could control people as long as the blood remained in their system, they’d do anything he wanted.”

“He has Jondi under his spell”, Max interjected, putting things together.

It wasn’t that hard for Max to believe. A little while ago she faced another Manticore psycho, who also used his blood to control ‘Ordinary’s’, temporarily giving them super-human strength.

Max got off the couch and placed the beer can on the table, “Let’s go.”

Seth looked at her questioningly.

“We’re not sitting here while this guy has Jondi do god knows what.”