Summary: AU in which Wammy's is no longer a safe haven for intelligent orphans, rather it is a lab where intelligence, strength and beauty is bred into children to create super soldiers. Set in a world where technology has become near nonexistent due to a terrorist attack, called the Pulse. When a group of young W-soldiers escapes from their training home, they must fend for themselves in an unfriendly world attempting to rebuild itself. They must stay free from their captors and creators at all costs...

Okay, so this will be a mixture of L/Light, Matt/Mello and some Near/Sayu...with some other pairings. I'm quite sure that my main focus will be L/Light, but the M/M will defiantly be there. Also look for Beyond and a few other happy campers from Death Note.

Btw, I have altered many a birth date to fit, many changes in the canon ages.

Disclaimer: I do not own Death Note, or else it would be a haven of sweet yaoi. Also, I have borrowed quite a bit from Dark Angel-I'm sure you noticed if you are familiar with the show, I do not own that show either.

Programmed

Chapter One - Escape

-2005-

"The time is 0700 hours. Please wake up, enjoy your day." a robotic voice sounded over the room, female and pleasant. The young boy ignored it, he hadn't slept at all again and the wake up call was decidedly useless.

"L, did you sleep at all?" The young adult shook his raven head, a slim hand grasping the tip of a spoon. It swooped down to delve into a piece of cake-some of the finest L had ever eaten in the last five years. But that didn't make it very good, it had been quite a while since he had tasted something more than just edible. His sugar cravings made him continue to eat these sweets, but ever since the Pulse...it had been hard to find something worthwhile.

"Watari, I believe something unusual has occurred, the communications have been peculiar as of late. Please check into sector 4, it has been particularly busy." Watari moved quickly, his body not showing any signs of age. He scanned over the area, picking up strange random signals.

"Yes, it seems like something has gone a muck. They must have lost control of another project, shall I investigate further?" Watari questioned his intelligent ward, who looked wary and tired. Not tired because of lack of sleep, but rather tired of life. Life after the pulse, life after the orphanage, life after life. Never had he known a normal day, never a normal time of happiness and peace...always the life of a soldier, the life of a detective, the life of an experiment.

"Lawliet, let us take the day off. I want to take you outside, we can continue this all tomorrow." L looked puzzled, wondering what was wrong with the old man but he agreed silently. Although, in the back of his mind he wondered what could possibly be occurring in Sector 4 that was bothering him so much, he quickly shut down his own thought process and computer and went outside to enjoy the day with his adoptive grandfather.

--

Sector 4

They ran fast, as they had been trained to. Their leader, one of the older ones, was carrying one of the younger ones who had fallen. They crashed through the woods, some being taken back with loud shouts and the sound of shooting bullets.

Others made their way to different roads, caves and other means of escape. The leader of the group passed off his charge to one of the faster children. Knowing he would be one of the most sought after, he ran far away from the group.

It was dark, but his artificially enhanced eyes let him run through the trees unharmed. The woods had surrounded the mansion and seemed endless since they had all been children. Underneath the mansion was where most of their special training had been met out, the laboratories and the medical experiments took place there as well...but if Raito had his way, then they would all be free of this place forever.

His last memories of that night were of getting into the car of a friendly looking couple-worried looking and claiming to be from the authorities who had been notified of a mass contagion breakout.

The man was the chief of police, his wife was a nurse. They drove along, both panicked and wondering why this child had been wandering around in such a hazardous and isolated area.

Before leaving they found another wandering child, this time a girl, Sayuri. Both fell into a deep sleep in the back of the car, a blanket draped over the two as the couple attempted to leave the area without detection.

--

"Mihael, Nate?" Mail whispered out, searching semi-blind in the woods. He could hear screaming, his standard uniform was a bit torn. He flailed as he tripped over yet another tree root, finally realizing he had forgotten his goggles in the small bag he carried. He ripped it open and threw them on, the special lenses allowing him to see a bit better in the night.

"Mail, is that you?" a whisper sounded out near his left side, a familiar one. Nate!

"Nate, I'm over here-near the big tree." a scoff could be heard coming from the now-invisible albino. The redhead got the noise right off the bat.

"Oh right, we're in a forest. Damn." Suddenly he felt a warm hand on his arm, another hand coming around to hold back the squeak building in his throat at the touch.

"Shh, it's just me." a sigh of relief fell out of Mail's mouth, Mihael.

"Where have you guys been? We have to get to a road before they put this place into permanent lock-down. Have you seen anyone else? Raito, Taka?" the oldest was leading them towards a rarely used pathway that he had just come from. The youngest genius was walking behind them, his baggy uniform making his small legs trip.

They moved in perfect synchrony, their training helping them escape their trainers. They heard many being taken and taken down, but many also seemed to have gotten away. The three boys kept running, keeping heads low and voices down. Finally reaching a small clearing amid a connected forest...a chance to rest after a whole day spent running.

"C'mon, we've gotta stop the bleeding and then find a way back to civilization, dammit Nate-how'd you get so scratched up?" The blonde boy cursed softly at the younger, ripping pieces of his own dull blue uniform up to tie off the random bleeding cuts on albino's feet and arms. Mail rubbed his own wounds, making sure none of them were enough to leave tracks. Mihael had almost no tears on his lithe body.

"I apologize, Mihael. But we were not all blessed with your vision or stealth, I believe they focused more on my intellect rather than physical abilities." the lower-rank boy glared death in the white-haired boy's direction, swearing in German-which was useless since all three of the young soldiers were versed in the language.

"Shut up, you two." Mail snapped angrily at the two while he tried to listen to the woods around them. His hearing was not enhanced like some of the others, his eyes were not super-great, in fact he suffered from migraines whenever exposed to bright lights. The Wammy children experiment's was not yet down to an exact science; there was a lot of guess work-and he had lucked out, only walking away with minor side-effects of his enhanced abilities. Like his empathic powers when it came to the feelings of others, so he always felt on edge when he was around Mihael and Nate-who couldn't seem to stand each other at most times.

The saintly beauty shot Mail an almost apologetic look and finished wrapping up Nate's wounds...now it was time for a plan. A plan that would make sure they wouldn't get caught, would get fed and stay safe for the rest of their lives...ha, no problem, right?

"We should move, staying still will increase our chances of being caught ten-fold." Nate spoke in his low tone, dark eyes darting around to view the trees. Mihael also scanned the place, his head raised as he tasted the air for guards, his breathing calm as he waited to be altered.

"We'll be okay, they aren't anywhere around here. But let's move, they are beginning to use secondary soldiers to hunt us down, even though they're still so young-little bastard's won't even have a choice...but I'd love to see Roger's face when they tell him that his top four are gone."

Mail grinned at the image, but his heart rate picked up a bit at the thought of being found by their former-captive and commander. Mi shot him a glance of reassurances, smelling the fear radiating off the young empath with his feline enhancements. The L lookalike hand signalled them to some trees, choosing to silence their conversation now that more WS-Wammy Soldier's-were being used.

They ran long and hard, stopping only to scan the area and re-wrap Nate's wounds. Finally they reached an almost empty lot. Mail stepped up to the nearest vehicle, surprised to see such a nice one out here in this area. He quickly opened it up and hot wired it to fire up the engine.

The blonde hopped into the driver's seat, Mail and Nate jumping into the back seat to lay hidden. Mihael pulled out, his grin devilish as he drove to the nearest exit from Sector 4. Stopping at a check point with a couple of guards he sent out his usual scent for the poor sucker to eat up.

"Well, hello there. Is there a problem, solider?" the blonde's tone was seductive, his uniform shirt was off, now he wore a plain black wife beater and rosary. He looked bad-ass and his beauty made people breathless. The guard stuttered a bit, blushing at the young boy.

"N-no, sir. I must ask if you have seen anything suspicious in the area, or if you are harbouring any passengers in your vehicle?" Mihael nodded, blue eyes blazing up and down the other man's body. He was actually digging the whole army fatigue ensemble, and the thought of a certain redhead in such an outfit was making him uncomfortably hot.

"No, I haven't tried to pick anyone up in ages, let alone given 'em a ride." the solider nodded a final time to the beauty, who winked as he spoke and finally signalled him through the gates, not giving the blonde a moments hassle. Once they were clear of the check point Mail spoke up, Nate had fallen asleep in order to utilize his enhanced healing abilities that required a bit of sleep.

"Mi, you mind turning down the juice...it's making me uncomfy." Mihael grinned and looked back at the empath, looking down right evil.

"M, I don't know what you're talking about...I turned off the power right after we left soldier-boy back there, I didn't know you were still so sensitive to my scent." Mail's face went as red as his hair, the blonde laughing a bit before turning his eyes back to the road. His features were clearer than they had been in such a long time.

"Mihael, do you think we're actually free of this all? I just...can't believe we're actually home free." The blonde nodded, one hand coming up to play with his prized necklace.

"It feels like a dream, but I'm not sensing anything else right now. So let's just trust that we'll be able to find L and Wammy in time...before Roger finds us. Here, pass the little jerk back there this." Mihael passed over what was left of his uniform shirt for the albino to use as a pillow, Mail was touched, Mi had actually been a bit concerned about Nate sleeping. It was unnerving to see the insomniac close his eyes for longer than the occasional blink, but it felt good to see Mihael being so human for once.

"Heh, I know what you're thinking M." the blonde scoffed at the gamer in the back seat. The redhead nodded and smiled a bit.

"And here I thought I was the empath...what am I thinking?"

"Besides how damn fine I am, you're thinking I give a damn about that little shit." Mail blushed again, his eyes wandering the blondes form from what he could see. Mihael's eyes widened as he felt his partner's eyes roaming his body, his hormones pouring out for the blonde to smell.

"I know you care, Mi. It's only natural...and besides, I think I like you better when you show a little humanity now and then." The blonde nodded and made a turn in order to get into the more populated sector nearby. Mail scurried into the passenger seat and nestled against Mihael's bare shoulder, his goggles pushed down at his neck, his bag resting on the ground. Before drifting off to sleep the redhead spoke his appreciation to the blonde driver, but kept most of what he wanted to say inside.

"Thanks, Mi."

And in moments he was out.

--

Back at Wammy's

"What do you mean 19 got away? Is this not one of the most secure facilities in the world? How did so many get away?" An angry man screamed out mercilessly at the guard's before him, a line of secondary soldier's stood at attention.

"I'm sorry sir, but they were mostly too fast. Many of the ones taken back were of lesser skills, those with higher abilities have been trained all their lives to escape situations such as these." the captain of the unit spoke out, his eyes furious but his tone submissive. Roger glared at the man, his hands shaking and eyes burning holes into the captain's face.

"Yes, Captain I know. I did design some of them after-all." the words '...but not all.' could be heard coming off of the military leader, his hatred blatantly seen in his look. But Roger ignored it all, instead he turned to the Secondary group-his newest batch...some even showed great potential.

"You will have to make up for your upper-classes mutiny-you will be trained harder, and will receive more special treatments in order to be able to hunt down your betters. You will find them all and if you even attempt to step one foot out of line, you will be destroyed." his cold voice spoke out at the line of young children, many who were already being pushed to the brink by his madness and need for experimentation.

"Yes, sir!" they sounded out as one.

"Linda, you will tell me how they all escaped in order to prevent such a thing from occurring again. Team leaders O through R will report to the medical bay for their treatments first, all other units will go to their classes immediately. In the morning, your training intensifies! Dismissed."

Roger watched his young troops and older militia leave the room, his anger boiling-a dull simmer in his ageing veins. He would find all of the missing W-Soldier's, he had to...this would not be his downfall...he vowed then and there to make sure that his creations would never turn on him again and those who already had would face the most severe of punishments...

"Just you wait, I'll find you all if it's the last thing I do and make you pray for obedience, beg for my mercy."

I'm not sure if I liked how this turned out, so I may revise it. I have had this idea running round my head for some time-but it was quite different when I first wrote it. I hope you enjoyed it, please tell me your thoughts.

-Sinner