National Feather

Chapter 1

A/N Hey guys! This is a Maximum Ride National Treasure crossover, just 'cause I watched the movie again recently, and I was like... What Would Max Do? Thanks for reading and please review! Here we go.

Disclaimer: I don't own Maximum Ride or National Treasure, all the characters belong to the creators of the stories.

Snow. I say that one simple little word, and kids all around the world start jumping up and down with tears of joy forming in the corners of their eyes. I say that one simple little word, and I have tears forming in the corners of my eyes for a totally different reason. Ever tried flying through the snow? Two words, not fun. By the way... When I say flying through the snow, I don't mean flying in a metal death trap with engines. I mean flying through the snow with wings. I'm sort of a bird... I'm definitely not a plane... I wish I was Superman. At least my life would be a little bit simpler, but no. Here I am, flying through the snow. I'm Maximum Ride, and this is where my next adventure begins.

Remember all that saving the world and the flock stuff? Yeah... That was a long time ago... Well five or six years ago, I lost track. Anyway, that means I'm around twenty one and no, I havn't changed that much... I can still kick your ass any day. Now, back to the flock stuff. We all went our separate ways. The kids were getting older and they all wanted an education. So they're staying with Dr. Martinez, my mum, and working on that. Iggy got a job working for the government making bombs, and Fang's living somewhere in America, not really sure where any more... We lost contact a while back. Anyway, I was never really the person to settle down, get a good education and all that stuff. So I went exploring, which brings us back to the present. In the snow.

'Why did I choose to go to one of the coldest places on the planet?' I asked myself. 'Why didn't you pick somewhere warm, like Australia?' I sighed looking to the horizon. I wasn't expecting to see anything, but I did. Where the land met the sky, there was a black smudge. A black smudge that wasn't supposed to be there. I slowly and cautiously flew closer to the smudge, which turned into two black smudges, then three. As I got closer, they started taking shape. It looked like two snow rovers next to something that I was yet to see.

'Curiosity killed the cat... Lucky I'm a bird.' I shrugged and flew even closer. I was directly above the third shape. 'It's a boat.' I thought as it took shape. The boat was half buried in the snow and there were a bunch of people digging it out. 'What's a boat doing in the middle of nowhere?' I wondered. 'Oh well, time to find out.' I silently landed behind it so that the people wouldn't notice a freazing bird-chic swoop down from the sky.

Two men were sitting down on the deck of the ship smiling and laughing about something. I peeked my face over the side of the ship to get a better look at what they were doing When all of a sudden the shorter man jumped up from his position and addressed some of the other men on the deck.

"Okay! Let's go!" Three other men including one that looked much younger than the others, moved to a trap door in the deck leading inside the boat and one by one they slipped in.

"Let's find us some treasure!" Said one of the men loudly to the others. I chuckled quietly. 'Treasure hunters. This could be interesting.' I thought. I peeked over the deck again and saw that at least two men were still digging the ship out of the snow making it hard to follow the four down the trapdoor.

I waited at least five minutes before both men had their backs turned and I made a run for it. I jumped the railing and landed quietly on the deck before sneaking towards the trap door and sliding through the space unnoticed. My feet hit the slippery wooden planks and I just managed to keep myself from falling over and bruising my ass. I quickly raced for cover which happened to be a large wooden dining table. Sliding underneath it I took a look at the ship.

I was surprised how big the interior was considering how it didn't look like a very big ship from the outside. There was a layer of ice coating everything making everything look the same shade of white. I heard quiet voices coming from another trap door towards the front of the ship. Being the curious person I was, I crawled straight towards it and looked down the stairs. There was nobody there so I silently creped inside the room which was filled with hammocks dangling from the ceiling. I creped through the maze of hammocks towards the open door where the voices were coming from and peeked my head through the doorway.

The cargo hold was roughly the same size as the first room and there were hundreds of large barrels and other great hiding spots to choose from. The four men were all gathered around a small box on top of a barrel in the corner of the room, so I scrambled underneath an old bench and listened in on their conversation. From where I was hidden I could hear them perfectly, but I couldn't see the object that they were passing between each other.

"Look at the intimacy of the scroll work on the stem." Said the obvious leader of the group.

"Is it a million dollar pipe?" Asked the youngest member jokingly.

"No, it's a clue." He replied taking the pipe from the other man's hands. I heard a snapping sound and I widened my eyes. 'He came all the way out here, into the middle of nowhere to find treasure. Then snap it? Seriously?'

"Hey, don't break it!" Said the young man obviously confused about the same thing as me.

"We are one step closer to the treasure gentlemen." He stated proudly.

"I thought you said the treasure would be on The Charlotte." Said one of the men.

The secret lies with Charlotte. I said it could be here." That statement caused the other man to sigh, he was obviously disappointed. He took a step back making it possible for me to see what was going on. The leader had a knife in his hand and he prised the end of his finger. Blood droplets accumulated at the end of his finger and he smeared them on the pipe. That's when I figured out what he was doing. The pipe was like a stamp, and his blood was like the ink. Cool... But gross.

He took out a notebook and rolled the pipe onto one of the pages. It worked, from what I could see, there was a message transferred from the pipe onto the paper. The leader read out the message for all to hear.

"The legend writ,

the stain affected,

The key in silence undetected,

Fifty five in iron pen,

Mr Matlack can't offend."

A/N Yay! First chapter. Hope you liked it!

Please review!