I was sitting in my desk scanning the news feeds for anything of interest. Things were pretty quiet on the front line. Since my recruitment 2 months ago, I was cooped up at the SHIELD in what is a sort of "sentry duty" scanning for potential threats. Although I have passed my training, I had not been sent on a single mission and I was yearning for some adrenaline action.
There was not a single incident of attacks from Loki or any of the other villains, which was very suspicious. In addition, General Fury had gone missing. I have asked around Agent Oliver, my recruiting officer, and Mrs. Maria Hill, the second in command, but neither of them had heard about him.
While I was looking at the screen trawling through the funny YouTube videos on cats, suddenly, a small popup at the corner of the screen flashed. I maximize the window. The web crawler I have set to find out other experiments like me had flagged something interesting. The crawler picked up the words "avian," "hybrid," and "experiment" being mentioned on a shady underground forums. I clicked on the link and it loads up the thread saying they have 5 avian-human hybrid for sale to the highest bidder: Experiment #665 Series A, Experiment #666 Series A, Experiment #667 Series A, Experiment #668 Series A, Experiment #669 Series A. In what is dubbed "The Angel Experiment," this was Itexicon's first successful attempt in human-animal hybrids.
Itexicon… Itexicon, I thought, where have I heard that name? The name "Itexicon" seems really, really familiar to me.
Suddenly a bell rang in my head. Itexicon was the name of the company behind the lab I escaped from. It was stamped everywhere, from the uniform of the people working at the labs to the equipments.
The word triggered the painful memory of me being kept in a cage and subjected to various painful experiments. I feel myself short of breath and gasping for air.
Keep it together Max, I told myself. I took a deep breath to calm myself down.
When I was at The School, the lab where I was "developed," I heard the other lab technicians mentioning other experiments. However, at that time I was heavily sedated that I barely knew what was going on. I was in a sort of dream like state.
I scanned the thread and according to the thread, the auction being held at The Institute for Higher Living at 118 New Street Avenue, New York. These experiments would be demoed and sold to the highest bidder.
The news got me quite excited. There are like me. And I had to rescue them from captivity.
I printed out the forum thread. Then I went to knock on Agent Oliver's door.
"Come in," she replied.
"Agent Oliver," I said, "I discovered the news that there are other experiments like me and I want to free them. Is there any way you can authorize a mission for me? I know this is of short notice."
"Max, I'm sorry, but I can't surprise missions, it's not within the remit if my position. However, take these forms and go to the assignments department," she replied. "Tell them I sent you."
"Who?" I said.
Agent Oliver looks at the duty rosters before responding, "Agent Whitman should be on duty right now. He'll be able to approve it."
"Right," I replied, "So where is this department located? SHIELD is a really large building and it is veerry easy to get lost!"
"Take the elevator at the end of the corridors to the 4th floor. Take the second corridor on the right and it's the left 2nd door," she answered.
"Okey dokey," I said and headed out.
I followed the direction given by Agent Oliver to a nice tidy office. In the office sat a rather young man and beside him stood General Fury.
"Agent Ride. I'm approving your mission. They can't do such thing as sell them. we'll make sure that Itexicon pays for their actions," General Fury said.
"Thank you for approving such the mission on such short notice," I replied fidgeting.
"Very welcome. The department has to contact me first, and since Agent Oliver sent you there. Your 'message' came to me first. The assignment department has to send me the assignments especially the assignments other agents want."
"Oh my god," I said excitedly, "General Fury, sir, you're back! You were gone for two months! "
"I had to. I had something very important to do," he replied.
"It's just good to see you again. I thought you were dead."
A small smile appears on his lips. "Me? Dead?" he said, "Oh, don't worry about that Agent Ride. I know how to take care of myself. I'm the director of SHIELD. I know a lot of things, but know a lot of hiding places too if anything happens "
"So what would be the best course of action?" I asked
"To free others like you?" he replied " We'll send a team there, attack when they at least expect."
"You'll come from behind and free the experiments," he continued, "Since they'll be scared, try to explain that you're one of them, and that we came to free them as fast as you can. We'll have no time for talking. We'll free them and capture the sellers to get info. But the experiments have to come with us too. We'll have to run some tests on them."
"Will you be involved General Fury? Or am I to lead the whole operation?" I asked.
"Although you are new here, you know the place better than any of us so I'm putting you in charge of the mission. I would come, but I can't," he responded, "I have more pressing things to do. I will inform you when a team is assembled."
"But the auctions will take place this evening," I said, "After that they may be moved."
"I will see what I can do," he said.
I exited the room and return to my dorm. I was quite nervous, as it would be my first mission. In addition, I would meet the other experiments like me and free them.
A few hours later, I received a call on the local telephone. "Agent Ride meet me in the briefing room."
I grabbed the dark blue SHIELD mission suit and put it on. It hugged every curve on my body. I tested snapping out my wings through the slits in the back of the suit and it opened perfectly.
I walked into the mission room and was greeted to a lanky geekish boy with blond hair and a young girl with fiery red hair tied back in pig tails. Neither of them looked older than I am. General Fury was also in the room.
All right, this is not exactly the commando unit I was expecting.
"Sorry," General Fury said a little apologetically, "Most of the agents are on Christmas holiday and this is the best I could do in such short notice."
"Brianna here," General Fury nodded at the red-haired girl, "has superspeed. Basically, she can run really, really fast. We clocked her at about 600 miles per hour."
"And Jack," Fury said nodding at the boy, "is rather good with computers. He should be able to hack into any systems."
"Hiya," she said rather perkily and held out her hand to me. I took her hand and shook it with a smile.
"Everyone this is Max," Fury said, "she will be in charge with this mission."
"So Max," Fury said turning to me, "tell our operatives the mission plan."
"Umm right," I said, "So ummm…." I was shaking all over like a Chihuahua. I was super anxious as this was my first mission and I didn't want to fail. To make matters worse, I was put in charge of the mission.
I breathe in deeply to calm my nerve. "This morning my web crawlers pick up an underground website dealing with the trading of genetic experiment. Avian-human hybrids to be specific."
I took a look at my gang to make sure they are still following me.
"I too am a human-avian hybrid created by the same company that is selling these experiments. Therefore, it is also a personal mission for me to save the avian-human hybrids, to rescue them," I continued.
"OK?" Brianna asked confused.
I turn to look at General Nick Fury for guidance. "Well it's your mission," he said. "You are in charge."
"Right, some back ground info." I tapped on the glass table throwing up the Itexicon's website. "Itexicon or Itex for short are the world's largest corporation producing everything from toilet papers to processors. Itex owns half of the world, literally. They own almost every company, having branches in every country in the whole world. They have bases worldwide. Our target is at 118 New Street Avenue, New York. The auction for the experiment will end the day after tomorrow after which we can assume they will be shipped out to the potential client."
"Plan of action," I continued double tapping the glass, "The plan is to get in, rescue the bird-kids and get out. Oh and grab any intel you can on the company and their illicit activity."
"How about the gadgets," Jack asked, "I take it every agents on a mission gets issued special gadgets, which is always exciting."
"Umm," I said hesitantly, "I was never told about that."
I glanced again at Fury. He pressed a button on the console and a rather old man wearing scarves and glasses entered the room carrying three boxes. He opened the first box in it was three headsets, which was similar to what I have seen other SHIELD agents wearing. "These are stand issue headsets," the man explained, "It is fully voice activated so you just speak into it to activate."
I nodded, grabbed the earpiece, and placed it into my ears. I am beginning to look the part already. Brianna and Jack also did the same.
"Next," he continued opening the second box. In it were three sleek rounded smart phones, "we have the smart phones. They may look like regular everyday consumer headsets but underneath the stock Android Jelly Bean operating system is the specialized SHIELD OS present on all SHIELD computers. It will have access to the SHIELD network of information. To access it, double tap on the top right corner of the screen as so. To exit swipe upwards or press on the power button."
He double tapped on the screen as instructed and the Android interface was replaced by the spinning SHIELD logo. He swiped upward, returning the phone to the Android interface, and handed it to me. He gave the two remaining phones to Jack and Brianna.
"As for the weapons, you will be issued with the standard issue Glock 19," he said handing us the guns. I placed the guns in the side holster on the side of my pants.
"Oh and here's your ride," the old man said handing me the keys.
"Please do return the equipment in one piece," the old man chided.
After the weapons were sorted out, all eyes returned to me. "This is a covert operation. So keep noises down to a minimum. We will leave in two hours. Be sure to wear civilian outfits over your uniform to conceal them. Meet me at the underground car park."
The three of us like three teenagers on a day out instead of an official SHIELD mission, well apart from the headsets, which, luckily, looks like Bluetooth headsets. I wore a loose gray t-shirt and jean pants while Brianna wore a green t-shirt with a red color around the lining around the neck and black sweatpants. Jack had on a blue hoodie over his SHIELD uniform and blue cargo pants.
"Which do you think is our ride," Brianna asked.
"I don't know," I answered. I pressed on the key fob and the chirping sound came from the right. I craned my head over the sea of black SUVs and saw that the chirping sound came a silver four door urban mini.
"Well I guess nothing says rescue mission like four teenagers in a red mini," I said rather flatly. I jumped into the driver's seat while Brianna and Jack rochambeaued for the unwanted back seat; Jack won. Brianna was squished at the back of the car and was quite grumpy throughout the whole ride.
In 30 minutes, we arrived at our destination. We got out of the car and as soon as Jack got out from the front, Brianna leaped out. "Finally!" she exclaimed, "some room to stretch."
I looked around but could see nothing but tall skyscrapers. "Are we sure we're at the right place Max," Brianna asked.
"Well this is where the address leads to," I replied.
We walked down the street looking for the elusive building 118. "114, 116, here it is, 118," I said reading out the building numbers. There was no sign whatsoever saying "Institute for Higher Living" or just about any indication it holds a laboratory. In fact, building 118 looked nothing like a lab but rather a tall glass-paned tower block. I began to doubt myself
"Now what?" Brianna said.
"Well, we could go to the lobby and ask. We might get lucky," I replied with a shrug.
Coming up with no better idea we entered the rotating doors and approached the lady at the desk. Above her were the embossed letters of AMcon, which our sources says is one of the companies belonging to Itexicon. Well at least we were at the right place.
"Excuse me," I said. The lady stopped her typing looked up at me.
"Can I help you miss?" the receptionist said flatly.
"Can you please tell me where I can find the Institute of Higher Living," I said in the sweetest voice.
"The what now," she said, looking at me like I was crazy. "The Institute of Higher Living," I repeated.
"I got an apprenticeship letter to work at the Institute," I lied.
"Stop wasting my time," she said annoyed. Then she continued her work. We went out of the building and went to the nearby Subway restaurant to grab a bite. "Well that was a waste of time," I said, "How are we ever going to find the…?"
"Max," Jack interjected, "when we were at the facility I took a look at SHIELD satellite scans of the area. It shows a large cavern underneath the building. That's where the lab should be located."
Jack showed me his phone displaying the satellite picture of the area.
"Good work Jack," I complemented. "But the problem is how are we getting down there?"
"The lab is close to the sewers and there are access hatch leading to the cavern," he replied.
"Where's the nearest sewer …?" I asked but before I could complete my question I spotted round sewer hatch just across the stret.
"Forty feet from here," Jack replied nevertheless.
I finished my sub sandwich and tossed the wrapping into the trashcan. Then I headed to the toilet to wash my hand, a quite unnecessary action since we were heading to the sewers, which was not exactly known for its cleanness. When the others were done, we crossed the street. We looked around to make sure there was nobody in sight before we pried open the cover. Being the leader of the mission, I climbed in first. The ladder of the hatch didn't exactly reach all the way the bottom so I had to jump; there was about a five foot drop. As I splashed into the sewers, I felt something big and lumpy float past my legs, which I'm sure wasn't quite nice. Thankfully, the SHIELD uniform was waterproof since although my outside clothes were wet, my body stayed dry.
Brianna and Jack climbed in after me. I fished out my phone and launched the torch app. This turned on the phone's LED flash and illuminated the surroundings. I ripped off my civilian shirt and pants, which was ruined anyways, leaving just my SHIELD uniform.
"Max, what are you doing," Brianna asked curiously.
"Umm…. switching to mission mode." I replied, "Basically I'm removing my civilian's outfit."
"Right," Brianna said, and before I could blink an eye, she changed took off her outer clothing. Jack also removed his outer shirts, though not quite as fast.
In the distance, we heard the squeaking of the rats and Brianna let out an "Eep."
"Hush," I said.
"Sorry," Brianna apologized.
We plodded in silence with nothing but the occasional squeal of the rats (and of Brianna) to keep us company. Soon we came upon a metal hatch with a 5-digit combination lock in the center. All eyes turned on Jack since computers and gadgets were his specialty.
I shone the light on the lock while Jack did his thing. After 5 minutes, we were in. Just as we entered the building, we encountered a squad of guards armed with long machine guns.
"Intr.." before the guard could finish the word, Brianna whizzed around the room and took out all of the guards. She even had time to scan the vicinity and nab three lab coats for the three of us. We shook ourselves the best we could and then put on the coats.
Brianna took out a chocolate bar from her lower pocket and popped it into her mouth.
"Seriously, this is no time for snack breaks," I said angrily.
"Super speed drains the calories," she replied and I needed a refill.
"Fine," I replied.
The Institute was a large sterile building with many corridors. Although we had made it into the lab, we had no idea where the human-avian experiments were stored. We came upon a dark room full of crates. I opened the door and from it came an assortment of sounds ranging from the ribbiting of frogs to the braying of squaking of birds. I peered into one of the crates and could see a young boy, around 5 years old with a green skin. He also had a double eyelid and yellow eyes like a frog as well as webbed fingers and toes.
"Hello," I said tenderly. Instead of replying, the boy "ribbited" at me. The boy was more frog than human. I moved on to the next cage where I saw a cat-dog hybrid growling ravenously threatening tear itself apart due to its conflicting nature.
In another cage was a short girl with purple hair and a bushy purple tail, and, in another, was a 14 year old girl with wings like me. Our eyes met contact and I could feel the plea to free her.
I feel a sickening feeling in my stomach. There were rows upon rows of crates of genetic experiments, not all of which are successful.
I felt Brianna tugging on my hands, which snapped me back to my mission of finding the 5 avian-human hybrids that was on sale.
"I promise I will free all of you," I whispered before I left the room.
As soon as we came out of the room, we bumped into a short and rather stout scientist with a long mustache. "Vat are ze doing here, Mrs. Marian Janssen" he said in the thickest German accent, "you are suppose to be at zee demo of ze experiments."
Jackpot. Although I don't know who this Marian Janssen lady is suppose to be but apparently she is of authority.
"Just checking on the experiments," I said cooly.
"Follow me," he said.
I timidly followed him signaling Brianna and Jack to stay out of sight.
We arrived at room 629 where a crowd of other, presumably, evil scientist has gathered. Too bad I do not have any eye camera or any micro cameras for that matter so that I could snap a picture of the scientists.
"Take a look at ze nice speciments," he said in a thick German accent. The other scientists drew closer to take a look.
The bird-kids were lined up against the walls. However, they had no intention of escaping since they had the dull sedated look over their eyes. The experiments range from a tall boy around the same height and age as me a young girl in a frilly dress around the age of 4. One of the girls really stood out since she has dark skin unlike the others who had light skin.
"How much are they?" a Chinese man in suit and tie asked.
"For zhat, we have to consult our director Marian Jansseh here," the portly scientist said nodding at me.
"Umm," I said, "go to hell."
I shot at the light bulbs in the room shrouding the room in darkness. I blinked as my pupil slowly adjusted to the darkness. Thank goodness that I can see slightly better than normal human beings do.
I approached the little girl with frilly shirt since I figured that she would cause the last problems. "Don't hurt me," she said into my mind. Her voice echoed in my brain.
"I am here to help you," I said. "I am one of the good guys."
"Don't hurt me, don't hurt me," she whined in my head giving me a massive headache.
"I am like one of you guys," I explain. I work for an organization called SHIELD dedicated to protect the world from threats."
The sound of the gunfire drew the attention of the guards and outside alarms loudly.
In a last attempt to convince them to follow me, I opened my wings wide. I knew the others can't see in the utter darkness but if they are anything like me, they could.
"See I am an experiment like you," I said.
They stared in amazement at me.
At that moment, I could hear gunfire outside the door, which suddenly cease as Brianna kicked down the door. Brianna suddenly cascade
"Come on," I exasperated, "we have to go."
I made sure the experiment hybrids we were rescuing left first before I followed. Angel and Gazzy, the two youngest hybrids hovered in the air while the kid with black wings grabbed the hand of the other bird-kid his age and dragged him along.
In the flashing red lights, I noticed that the eyes of the hybrid being dragged are clouded white.
"Is he blind," I asked.
"Yes," replied the sexy hybrid with black wings.
Alarms continue to sound and we could hear the marching of feet not far behind us. "Brianna," I said, "free the experime…"
"On it," she said and ran off with a blur.
Boy this is getting annoying.
I saw the stampede of experiments crowd the hall heading straight toward us in panic.
"That way to the exit," I screamed. The experiments stopped in their tracks and turned around. The guards were inundated by the escaping experiments.
I passed by an office with the plaque that read Jeb Batchelder with the words Lead scientist below that. I stopped in my tracks and entered into the room. Jack, who was close by and could see me, hissed into my earpiece "Max, what the hell are you doing?"
"Gathering information," I screeched back into the mic.
I took out my phone from my pocket and attached it to the computer using the built in USB adapter. When I did that, the Android interface asked me whether I want to mount the phone as a hard-drive. I pressed cancelled and launched the SHIELD OS. I hit "copy hard disk" and the software proceeded to make a copy of all the files on the computer.
I saw a file on the desktop labeled "Max." I opened the file and scanned the content. I saw the name "Dr. Valencia Martinez," "egg donor" and "Arizona" on the file. If the lady donated the egg she must be my mother. And apparently she lived in Phoenix, Arizona.
I heard footsteps outside the door and glared at the progress bar 50 percent, but the person did not enter the room. My heart literally leapt into my throat when I saw the handle of the door turn.
I quickly dove beneath the desk but the phone remained on the table.
"Max," the white coat said, "I know you are hiding there."
How the hell did he know my name, I thought.
"Oh, I've missed you so much. I am so glad you are alive," the man said. "When you ran away I was so worried."
Was he for real? Seriously.
I heard the ding from the phone signaling the completion of the file transfer. I slowly emerged from the bottom of the desk with the gun pointed at his head.
The man was fairly tall with a squarish face blond hair and moustache, like me. He wore a long lab coat with a red tie.
"You wouldn't shoot your father would you Max?" he chuckled.
"You are not my father," I said keeping my gun pointed at him. "No father would experiment on their daughter."
"Can't you see," he said, "We augmented you with bird DNA. Max, that reason, that purpose, you are supposed to save the world."
I pointed the gun at his knee and fired. The man buckled in pain and fell to the ground. I ran past him but my corridor was blocked by a group of erasers and Ari, the lead of the erasers. The erasers are hybrids like us but they are human-lupine hybrids. In other words, part man-part wolf, sorta like werewolves but much nastier and oh very real.
"Remember me Experiment #664 Series A," he snarled at me.
"Oh yes I remember your dog breathe anywhere Ari," I replied. "Oh and call me Maximum Ride not Experiment #664 Series A or whatever gibberish serial number you guys give me."
"You will not escape from me again Maximum Ride. You have made a fool to come to this place," he growled.
"Oh give it a break," I said squeezing the trigger. The bullet hit Ari but he barely buckled. I fired another round but he was still standing. Ten shots finally bought the beast down but the other erasers were charging at me. I tried to fire the gun but it knocked the gun out of my hand, sending it skidding on the floor. I dived for the gun but another eraser got there first and destroyed it. An eraser leapt out and try to squash me but I quickly rolled out of the way. I gave an eraser an uppercut and kicked another in the balls leaving him howling in pain. Men. If in doubt, go for the bottom. It will hurt like hell.
I squeezed past the erasers and dashed for the exit. I ran to the service exit and spread my wings and shot into the air. I could see the erasers following not close behind of me. An eraser poked its head through the sewer hatch and I wacked its head with the grill. He fell down with a splash. Then I swiftly returned the grill to its place so that no pedestrian will fall down into the sewers.
"SHIELD HQ this is Max, request cleanup crew at site. Freed experiments mixed with baddies," I said into the headset.
"Agent Ride, acknowledge," came the reply.
When I arrived at the car, I could spot a problem. The red mini was cramped full with the rescued experiments with no place for me.
"Jack you drive," I said I would be flying back.
I flew back to SHIELD HQ with the sun setting behind me. Although I was tired and dirty, I was happy. I was thoroughly pleased with myself as my first mission was a success.
But one thing tickled my mind. First, that creep scientist claims to be my father. Second, I read in my file that my genetic mother could possibly be alive in Phoenix, Arizona. If I ever get a chance to get to Arizona, I will drop by to say hi. Hope she is not as bad as my "dad."