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A child, wearing what looks like a hospital robe and with bare feet, runs through a snow-covered landscape with the sound of helicopters pursuing. The child stops momentarily behind a tree and as the camera zooms in close, we see that it's a girl and that there's a bar code tattooed on the back of her neck. A voiceover by the girl tells us that she and others are escaping, although they don't know to what. Snowmobiles are shown chasing the runaways. The girl finds other children waiting, concealed in ridges in the snow and joins them. One of the boys, obviously the leader, makes a series of hand signals directing the children to split up. The girl in voiceover tells us that this is Zack and that splitting up saved her life. An onscreen caption tells us that this is Gillette, Wyoming 2009 as one of the children is dragged away by armed men in balaclavas. The man in command - Lydecker - orders the men to kill any of the children who make it to the perimeter. The girl and one of the other children make it to the fence and begin to climb, one of the armed men has them in his sights but Zack knocks him out. Zack is surrounded by armed men and is shot with taser stun guns. The girl looks backs and sees what has happened but is pulled on by her companion. As they run, the ice breaks under her and she is pulled underwater. The helicopters and snowmobiles are closing in and the other child runs. One of the men tells Lydecker that they have seven of the escapees so far - three are wounded, two have been killed. The armed men go on searching and the camera pans away to show a patch of ice under the snow and under the ice is the girl, looking up.

The child's face dissolves and reforms into the face of a young woman, she's remembering what happened and says that the hardest part is not knowing whether any of the others made it. The camera pulls back and she's sitting on top of the Space Needle, looking out over Seattle. This is Max Guevara.

The adult Max is in a bathroom taking some pills, she's shaking and sweating and obviously unwell. She remembers scenes from her childhood in the facility she escaped from as she slides down the wall in the grip of some kind of fit. Minutes later and she's OK again, leaving the bathroom and greeting her roommate, Kendra. Later, Max knocks on the door of another apartment to pick up her friend, Theo, for work. Theo isn't well and Max volunteers to collect his paycheck for him.

Max rides her bicycle to work through areas of the city that look like shanty towns and in VO explains that some years back, a group of terrorists set off an electro magnetic pulse eighty miles up. Since then nothing really works properly anymore. She doesn't understand why they're referred to as living in depression though - everyone's broke but people aren't really all that depressed. An onscreen caption tells us that this is Seattle, Washington 2019.

Max is stopped by a cop and identifies herself as a Jam Pony messenger. She arrives at work. In succession we meet Max's boss, Normal, and her friends and fellow couriers Herbal Thought (Rastafarian, mostly incomprehensible), Original Cindy (lesbian with attitude), Sketchy (a mess), and Druid (quirky idealist). Normal notes that Max is late and assumes she overslept. Max tells him that she doesn't sleep. She collects the paychecks from Normal and tells him Theo's sick; Normal tells her that if Theo isn't there tomorrow he can look for another job. Original Cindy, observing Sketchy with his girlfriend Natalie, comments that it's a shame wasting a girl like that on a male.

The TV screen on the wall at Jam Pony, which had been showing the news, begins broadcasting a cable hack from the cyber journalist, Eyes Only. The Jam Pony crew gather around to watch as Eyes Only talks about Edgar Sonrisa and that he's been running drugs and guns up and down the West Coast. Max is not impressed and opines that Eyes Only is on the hustle, same as everyone else.

Later, Max is in what was the financial district of Seattle, delivering a package. In VO she explains that when the Pulse went off, all the computer records were wiped and now America is just a broke ex-superpower. As she waits for the receptionist to sign the form, Max looks out the window at the building across the street. As her pupil dilates, her vision zooms in on a gold statue of Bast, the Egyptian goddess, that is displayed in the penthouse (yes, she has super vision). She notes the balcony on the roof of the building.

It turns out that Sketchy is cheating on Natalie with an older, richer, married woman named Lydia.

Later the same evening, Max is hanging out with Cindy and some of the other Jam Pony employees at a bar, Crash. Cindy is taking bets on Max being able to identify a phone number on speed dial by the tones which Max obligingly proceeds to do. Max's ex, Darren, turns up much to Max's displeasure. Cindy appears even less pleased to see him than Max and runs down his history: He cheated on Max and worse; he cheated on her with a friend of hers. Max is not receptive to whatever Darren wants to say to her - it's unclear if he wants a second chance or just to apologise. He tells her that she was impossible to get close to, she holds everyone away. Max's pager goes off and she leaves.

Max is racing through the streets of Seattle on her motorbike; she drives into a Laundromat and breaks to a halt. In back of the Laundromat is the owner's - Vogelsang - office from where he also runs his PI business. He paged Max to tell her he'd found a lead on the woman she was looking for. Flashback to the night of the escape and Max standing in the road with a car screeching to halt in front of her. Vogelsang thinks he's found a record of the car. Max remembers a woman opening the door of the car and telling her to get in, there are police sirens in the distance, getting nearer. Vogelsang is frustrated that she can't give him much more than the woman's name, Hannah, to go on. She asks if he's found anything on the other kids, he hasn't but says that he needs more money to do a more detailed search of the records. Max leaves and goes off to attempt to break into the penthouse she noticed earlier.

She gets onto the roof of the building opposite, attaches a rope with a grappling hook to a ring set into the roof and the other end of the rope to herself. She dives of the roof, falls until the rope brings her up short and uses the momentum to swing to the other building where she releases herself from the rope and drops onto the roof. She enters the apartment through a skylight and starts helping herself to various portable, expensive looking objects. She hears a voice and peering round a door, she sees a man sitting with his back to her, broadcasting his Eyes Only cable hack. This is Logan Cale. Meanwhile, another man has found the rope Max used to get in, dangling from the skylight. Max turns away from the door and notices the Bast statue she seen earlier, she adds it to the other items she has pilfered and then hears Logan ending his broadcast. She attempts to make her way back to the skylight but the man who discovered her rope is in the way and has a gun. He doesn't see her and Max manages to slip into another room. When she turns around she finds a woman and a small child are in the room with her. The woman throws a lamp at Max; the man with the gun hears and enters the room, shooting at Max. Max knocks him out, picks up her bag of loot and leaves the room. Logan comes up behind her with a shotgun and tells her to put the bag down. Max drops the bag and turns round. He keeps the gun on her as he calls out to the woman, Lauren, to make sure she's OK. He looks down at the bag she dropped and rather surprisedly realises she's a thief. He's relieved. He and Max banter back and forth for a few moments until the bodyguard Max had knocked out, Peter, comes to and tries to handcuff her. This proves to be a mistake as Max grabs him and uses him as a shield as she starts to back away. Building security arrives and Max runs for the window as Logan yells at them not to shoot. Max dives out the window and Logan, who's now at the window himself, watches in disbelief as she lands on a balcony several storeys below and runs off over the rooftops.

Flashback: Children are lined up in their dormitory; one falls to the ground in the grip of a fit and is dragged away by two men. Present day Max is sitting on the floor of the bathroom having a fit and taking her pills. She remembers herself as a child, sneaking down a corridor in the night, and watching doctors perform an autopsy on the body of the child who collapsed earlier. Present day Max recovers from her fit and splashes water on her face.

A cop, Walter, kicks in the door of Max and Kendra's apartment; he wants his regular bribe money for not reporting them as squatters in the building. Kendra gives him the money; Max gives him coffee, which, as she later tells Kendra, she has just spat in. Max delivers Theo's paycheck to his wife on her way to work. Theo's worse - his wife took him to hospital and they gave him medicine but it doesn't seem to be helping. Theo tells Max that he knows what's wrong with him - Balkan War Syndrome. This is something Logan has been talking about in his Eyes Only cable hacks that the medicine, Cortodiazapine, meant to treat this has been intercepted and is being sold on the black-market by Edgar Sonrisa. Theo is afraid that the stuff the hospital is giving him is useless.

Logan is attempting to track down Max. He has the surveillance video from the building she broke into and there she is from the day before, delivering her package. He manages to home in on her Jam Pony id tag. Peter enquires if they're trying to id the perp or looking for Logan's new girlfriend.

Max arrives at work to be stopped by Sketchy who is now in some trouble due to his cheating on Natalie. His richer, nastier girlfriend, Lydia now wants him to break things off with Natalie or she will go to her and tell her what's been going on. Sketchy doesn't want to lose Natalie and doesn't even like Lydia anymore. He wants Max's help to get rid of Lydia. Max - for reasons beyond comprehension - agrees to help. Logan arrives at Jam Pony looking for Max. He bribes Normal into giving him her name and address.

Cindy and Max are at Crash; Max is filling her in on Sketchy's situation. Cindy's take, which Max thinks is self serving, is that Sketchy should be allowed to take the fall thus giving her, Cindy, a chance with Natalie. Max suddenly sees Logan standing by the bar. He comes over and she introduces him to Cindy, learning his name in the process. Cindy wanders off to watch Xena, leaving Max and Logan on their own. They take a walk outside, Logan tells her that since she knows his big secret, he figured he better find out as much about her as he could in case she was looking to hurt him. In the ensuing conversation, Max actually finds out a great deal more about him than he does of her. The woman in his apartment, Lauren, isn't his wife or girlfriend but a witness against Edgar Sonrisa, who he's protecting. He goes off into a spiel about what's wrong with society and what he's fighting against but Max isn't interested, she's more concerned about going fast on her motorbike. A police hoverdrone camera appears overhead and when Logan turns around, Max has vanished.

The next day, Max is set up at Sketchy's apartment pretending to be Natalie and waiting for Lydia to show up which she duly does. They have a talk, which doesn't quite go the way Lydia planned and ends up with her being dangled over the balcony upside-down by Max. Lydia quickly comes to appreciate the fact that she was entirely in the wrong and promises not to bother them again.

Vogelsang is closing up his shop as an intruder drops into his office. Vogelsang realises he forgot his car keys and goes back inside, and the intruder attacks him.

Max arrives home and finds the Bast statue that she had left at Logan's, sitting in her room. Logan is lighting candles on the dining table as she walks into his apartment again - he invites her to dinner. Max is less than happy and accuses him of following her and breaking into her apartment. Logan, not unreasonably, points out that she broke into his apartment first and he did leave her a present. Max is not noticeably impressed with this point of view and is even less impressed when Peter appears, pointing a gun at her. Logan tells him it's OK and to go and look in on Lauren and her daughter, Sophy. Max and Logan resume their discussion, which has now taken on strong overtones of flirtation. Logan tells Max he wants to show her something (get your minds out of the gutter!) and stands her in front of a large mirror, which Max identifies as neoclassic, gold leaf detail, late 1800's. Logan wasn't talking about the mirror; he was talking about Max; "Probably the most singularly beautiful face I've ever seen." Max, obviously not immune to this level of flattery, asks if he always comes on this strong. He replies, only when he meets someone he has to know everything about. He sweeps her hair away from her neck revealing the barcode and continuing that; "and now I think I know pretty much everything." Max belatedly realises that she's been played. Logan tells her that he received an anonymous report a few years back about a covert genetics lab and Project Manticore. They were using recombinant DNA to create a superior human. Given everything he's seen of her abilities, plus the barcode on her neck, he's figured out that she was one of the 12 kids who escaped back in 2009. He wants to deal - if she'll help him protect Lauren then he'll try and track down more information on her background and about the other kids who escaped. Max doesn't want to get involved, tells him no and leaves.

She goes to see Vogelsang who is sitting in his trashed office, looking fairly trashed himself. He plays it down when Max asks him what happened but holds up a piece of paper telling her the room's bugged. They go out back to the alley, Max tries to give him the money but he doesn't want it. He thinks that whoever turned over his office and beat him up was after information about her and he wants out of her problems.

Max arrives home and is told by Theo's wife that Theo is dead.

Flashback: Max is on the floor of her dormitory at Manticore having a fit. The other children rush to help her but the security guards come in and try to grab her. One of the other kids, Eva, knocks the guard down and takes his gun. The children all run out into the corridor, the others helping Max who is still weak from her fit. A spotlight hits them; Eva raises the gun but is shot by Lydecker before she can use it. The children smash a window and jump out before the adults can recapture them; this is the escape we saw at the beginning.

At work the next day, Normal informs her that Theo just got himself fired for not showing up again. Max tells him that Theo's dead. She and Sketchy start to leave to deliver a parcel but their attention is caught by the TV news who are reporting two men dead and one critically wounded in a shoot out near the superior court building. Police hoverdrone footage is shown and Max recognises the man attempting to protect the little girl as Logan. He is injured, and Peter is killed, by the masked gunmen. The leader of the gunmen sees the hoverdrone and shoots it.

Lydecker meets with two henchmen, Sandoval and Dochnovich, who report that the bugs on Vogelsang haven't turned up anything yet; they don't think he knows anything of use. Lydecker disagrees; he believes Vogelsang is looking for the Manticore kids and that he'll lead him to them. As he walks around the table, we see photographs of all the kids, including Max, on the wall.

Max goes to the hospital and finds the room Logan is in. He's alive but unconscious. Obviously feeling guilty, she spouts off a monologue about how guilty she doesn't feel. She walks to the window and sees a sniper on the roof opposite. She unhooks Logan's IV and wheels his bed out the room, seconds later the room explodes behind them.

Max is now at Logan's apartment (no hint as to where Logan is or how she got him out of the hospital), going through his computer files looking for information on Edgar Sonrisa. She finds the files and then looks through the information on his associates and employees until she finds the sniper from the hospital, Bruno Anselmo. She hears a noise elsewhere in the apartment and goes to investigate. She finds Lauren, who managed to escape the ambush. Lauren asks for Max's help in getting her daughter, Sophy back and after considering for a moment, Max agrees.

She succeeds in breaking into Sonrisa's house where there's a party going on. After knocking out a hooker in the bathroom, Max steals her dress and goes downstairs to the party, looking suitably slutty. Bruno Anselmo appears and tells her that Sonrisa saw her on the cameras and wants her to join him. Max enters the room, insults Sonrisa and tells him that she's interested in making a deal. She'll give him Lauren Braganza and he'll give her $50,000. Sonrisa tells everyone else in the room to leave. Having established each other's bona fides, Sonrisa agrees to Max's deal and Max calls Lauren to let her speak to Sophy who Sonrisa calls. Max leaves with the money and Bruno.

Bruno and Max arrive at a motel where Bruno does his best to be charming in his own special way. Max tells him he's got it all wrong - he's thinking to kill Lauren then kill her and take the money back to Sonrisa when actually she has been hired by Sonrisa to kill him. He's failed too many times and is now an embarrassment to his boss. Bruno tries to shoot her but Max evades him with ease. She beats him up and throws him around the room for a while then ties him up with the lamp cord. She leaves his gun within easy reach and turns away. Bruno manages to free his hands and grabs the gun, Max runs outside and Bruno shoots at her. She seems to be hit and falls into the swimming pool. When she stays face down at the bottom, Bruno assumes he's killed her - not noticing the entire lack of blood in the pool. He runs back to the car, muttering about revenge on Sonrisa and drives off. Max climbs out of the pool completely unharmed. She goes back to the room and calls Vogelsang to get him to trace the number that Sonrisa dialled, where Sophy is being held. Vogelsang gets the address and gives it to her. Lydecker and Sandoval are also hearing this conversation of course.

Max goes to the address Vogelsang gave her but Lydecker's men have got there first and are watching her as she breaks in. They surround the building. Lydecker gives the order to enter the building and they do so, they're all wearing gasmasks. Sonrisa's men quickly realise that they're outnumbered and outgunned and surrender. Max, dressed as one of Lydecker's men, steps out from the cellar carrying Sophy. Lydecker stops her and tells her to put Sophy in his car, failing to notice that one of his men has apparently shrunk about a foot and is now wearing heavy eye makeup under the gasmask. Max takes Sophy to where Lauren is waiting and then leaves.

At Jam Pony the next day, the TV news is reporting that Sonrisa was killed by Bruno the night before.

Three Months Later:

Logan's back on the air as Eyes Only. Max arrives at his apartment to find him making one of his broadcasts; he's now in a wheelchair however. He tells her he needs a favour; he needs some legwork done now that that's beyond his capacity. Max still isn't interested but then Logan pulls out a folder containing information on a kid booked for armed robbery nine years ago. Max looks at the photo; it's Zack. Surprised that Zack is still alive, Max reluctantly accepts Logan's terms.

courtesy of darkangeltv

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