Okay, this is AU. Nothing past Saving the World and Other Extreme Sports happened. Because reasons.
Maximum Ride belongs to James Patterson (He's not doing a good job with it).
Transformers Prime belongs to Hasbro.
Rain fell from the darkened sky one dark summer night in Arizona. The downpour fell on darkened houses and silent cars. The entire world seemed asleep. Except one.
A lone woman walked through the deep forest in the direction of these houses. Her blonde-brown streaked hair was wet and matted to her head. She wore a very large and bulky windbreaker draped over her shoulders and tied around her neck by the sleeves. Underneath she wore a thick jacket, jeans and combat boots. She walked quietly through the forest, her boots splashing in puddles.
She walked until she came to the nearest house on the edge of the forest. The woman ascended the porch steps and knocked on the door. Lights came on inside and there was movement inside.
"Coming," A muffled voice said from inside. The woman heard the locks clicking in the door and the door opened. The person behind the door was a woman with dark tousled hair and chocolate brown eyes. The dark haired woman gasped, covering her mouth with her hand in shock. "...Max..."
"Hi Mom," Max smiled sadly. Her voice wavered and she choked up.
"Honey what happened?" Dr. Martinez asked, feeling her daughter about to break down. She pulled Max inside the warm house. Max managed to hold it together until she took off her boots and sat down on her mom's couch. When she did, she broke down sobbing. "Max, what happened?"
Max couldn't speak, only sobbed. Dr. Martinez hugged her daughter tightly, letting her sob on the older woman's shoulder. Once Max calmed down she asked again.
"Max...what happened?"
Max looks down and untied her windbreaker. The wet garment fell off her shoulders, revealing the her folded up fourteen foot wingspan on her back and a bundle of blankets in her arms.
"He's all I have left," Max whispered. Dr. Martinez looked confused for a second, before Max pulled the blanket down, revealing a small baby.
He was four months old at the most, with pale skin and scruffy black hair. Wrapped in at least five thin blankets, it was hard to see what he was wearing.
"...Max..." Dr. Martinez gasped. "When did this happen? What happened? Who is this?"
Max sniffed, and the baby shifted, whining in his blankets. He opened his eyes, revealing medium blue eyes. The baby boy looked up at the two women.
"He's my son, mine and Fang's. He's only four months old," Max replied she slowly disentangled her son from the blankets. Now Dr. Martinez could see her grandson's clothes. He wore a pair of baby jeans with the hems fraying, two shirts (one long, one short), a hoodie, a jacket, and a pair of tiny black baby shoes. Two large slits were in the back of his clothes, letting out two tiny black wings covered in fluffy down feathers.
"His name's Jack," Max said, "Jack Ride. Gazzy wanted to call him Jack Sparrow."
By now the baby boy was wide awake, looking around enthusiastically, taking in all of the surroundings. When he saw his grandma he giggled and waved his hands excitedly. Dr. Martinez smiled and tickled the baby under his chin. He squeaked a giggle and flailed his arms and legs.
"Max, why didn't you come to me sooner?" Dr. Martinez asked, looking back at her daughter with a sad face. "I could've helped you."
"We thought you might've been under surveillance," Max replied. "But...its all over now."
A few seconds passed before Dr. Martinez realized what Max was implying. She gasped and covered her mouth, eyes getting watery. Little Jack whined and fussed, tiny wings flapping. There was movement upstairs as a new voice called out,
"Mom? Is everything alright?"
There were footsteps on the stairs and a young girl about thirteen stumbled half asleep down the stairs. She looked more like Dr. Martinez than Max did, with long messy dark hair and soft brown eyes. When she saw her sister, the girl was wide awake.
"Max!" She cheered and ran over to hug her. Max accepted the hug, but pulled Jack closer so he wasn't hit by her sister's hug of death. Jack chirped happily and giggled at his aunt.
"Hey Ella," Max smiled. "How's my favorite sister?"
"Great," Ella replied, walking around the couch and sitting down. She finally spotted Jack and squealed in delight. "Awwwww~ He's so cute! What's his name? Did you adopt him Max? Where's the Flock?"
Max's mood dropped again and the atmosphere changed to one of sadness.
"Well..." Max said. "It started like this,"
-Flashback-
Max slept soundly, Fang curled up facing her, their two bodies shielding the sleeping Jack from the warm wind. They rested in a circle with the rest of the Flock around the dying campfire. All eight mutants slept soundly, the summer air keeping them warm.
No one was on guard. Their worst mistake.
Several large trees fell in the distance, crashing and rocking the earth. The Flock all bolted awake, Jack letting out little wails. Max picked up her son and rocked him. She stood up, extending her wings to takeoff. The rest of the Flock was up in seconds.
"There's several Erasers heading our way," Angel said fearfully. "Jeb too."
"That son of a-" Max began to curse, but remembered the crying baby in her arms. She weighed their options.
Option 1: Face the psychos and be captured or killed or,
Option 2: Up and Away.
Option 2 it is.
"Alright, U&A guys, double time," Max ordered. "Grab your packs and scatter. Split up and meet up at the Hawk cave in two hours."
Her order was met with resounding agreement and within minutes everyone was up and out. Hundreds of feet in the air, Max flew steadily, having put Jack in a baby harness made of an old backpack. Fang was a few yards to her left and Angel to a few yards her right. In the distance she saw the others in a tight "V" formation, wings flapping in sync.
"How'd they find us?" Fang asked. "We ditched them months ago."
"I don't know," Max replied. "But we'll lose them again."
Her mind was in overdrive, cranking out plans and theories and ideas.
"I'm sorry Max," The Voice said, popping into her head. "The Erasers won't be the only one you're going to loose."
A loud screeching sound filled the air and explosions engulfed Fang and Angel. In the distance, a third explosion engulfed the rest of the Flock. Fang and Angel screeched as they were engulfed, their bodies decimated by the explosions and riddled with shrapnel.
"NO! FANG! ANGEL!" Max screamed and Jack wailed. The pieces of shrapnel that hadn't landed in Fang or Angel streaked past Max, slicing her cheek, ripping her pant legs and narrowly missed Jack's head. Max could only watch in slow motion as her loved ones fell to the ground below, the light already gone from their eyes.
Jack's wails brought the world back to perspective for Max and she heard a fourth screeching noise. She sped a great distance away, only to turn and see a missile explode where she'd just been.
"No," Max whispered, tears in her eyes as she rocked Jack. "Fang, Iggy, Nudge, Gazzy, Angel, Total. No!"
'Angel' Max sent her thoughts out as loud as she could. 'Angel please, are you there?'
Silence, dead silence. Even unconscious, Angel could use limited telepathy, and Max hoped for even a small groan. Nothing came. Far below, she saw the School vehicles surround two craters. The scientists exited their vehicles and entered the crater. From the burnt ground they pulled out the remains.
The remains of her family. Max saw Angel's singed hair bow, the dyed strip of hair from Nudge's makeover in NYC, the tattered remains of Fang's shirt, the small corpse of Total.
Max stared in horror, until she realized she was descending, she'd forgotten to flap her wings, pushing down forcefully, she propelled herself upwards, streaking off toward her mother's house, the only place left.
-End Flashback-
Ella and her mother stared in horror at Max's story. Max fell silent, there was nothing left to say, no more tears left to shed.
"What'll you do now?" Ella asked. Max looked down at Jack, who'd fallen asleep in his mother's arms.
"I...don't know."
Review if you liked, review if you don't. Review what you think.
Also, the Transformers part will come in next chapter.
Bye~
