As a child, Max was part of a highly classified genetic enhancement project. She and several other children were trained in a deeply secluded compound to use their superhuman powers. At a young age, Max and several others escaped the compound and made their way in the world. Now a beautiful young bike messenger and thief, Max is trying to find her lost ""siblings"" from the project, but at the same time, Max is trying to dodge capture from her former handlers led by Lydecker, and is aided in her quest by Logan Cale, an idealistic cyber-journalist.

Max's seizures increase. Low on her medication after her friends mistakenly flush it down the toilet, Max breaks into a drug clinic. She is caught and ends up in jail and more openly a target for Lydecker. When her friends find out, Cindy gets herself arrested in order to help Max break out. Meanwhile, Lydecker closes in on Max. With the help of a stranger Cindy and Max manage to breakout. Lydecker's efforts to trap Max are again thwarted by Logan's tactics.

The ""transgenic"" Reds catch up with Max when her lost pager reveals her whereabouts to them. The Reds are former death row convicts seeking to combine their technology with Max's genetic material. Logan and Max, after a deadly fight with a Red, learn that the transgenics' power is controlled by a special implant placed in their bodies. Meanwhile, the Reds take Original Cindy hostage and used to lure Max into their trap. Max risks it all and inserts the Red's implant into her own neck in hopes of gaining extra power. The implant makes her hyper violent and she kills off the Reds in order to free Original Cindy. Max then has a seizure. Logan learns the only way to save Max's life is to get the chip out of her head, but first he has to electrocute the chip in her neck. He is able to save her. Max then has to reveal to Original Cindy her Manticore secret. Also, Logan begins to regain the use of his legs and stands up.