Maximum Ride at H.I.V.E. ch1
Well, I started writing this a long time ago... somewhere early 2012, like literally just after reading Aftershock. So this is a really old piece, but somewhere in the middle of chapter 3 I got my style sorted out. More of an explanation over there ;) Hope you guys like this enough to read it all! ~Pyro
Disclaimer: I do not own Maximum Ride, or H.I.V.E. in any way, shape, or form other than copies borrowed from the library while I wait for the book store to restock. Claimer: ALL MY STUFF IS MINE! Plus whatever I steal... what? Why are you looking at me like that? This is a school of villainous education! On with the story! Slight warnings of cheesyness and possible OOC. Not too bad though...
There's a little slight AU here. This is somewhere before Aftershock, and before that nasty security chief was hired, Raven got a little less serious after her birthday party...
Woo! I'ma line break!
Excuses Excuses,
-.-.-.-
Military Camp, somewhere in the USA
Max waited patiently in line with the other school kids waiting to tour the camp. This was going to be her best operation yet! She had crafted some false ID and hacked the school network so it seemed like she was a student. Max had been careful, putting on a wig and makeup so no recognition system, human or otherwise, would know that she was the infamous "Arch-Angel"; master thief, hacker, and general law breaker. She was only seen with wings once, on her first heist, and that was where the name came from. After that she had tried to keep her wings hidden, resorting to stealing more cars than normal.
Her current alias was Anna-lee Serri, a girl with a foreign origins but born in the USA. The school had been in the news because it was going to tour a few Military bases. So far they had visited a navy base, where Max had stolen a pair of night-vision goggles, an air base, where Max had stolen the keys to an F-22 jet, and now a land base where she was planning to steal a tank.
The tour started, being led by a grisly looking grey haired General. Most of the class played First Person Shooter games like Crysis, Halo, and Call of Duty, and were very interested in most of it. Max smiled. If only they knew, she thought, looking towards the vehicle hanger. But somebody did know…
-.-.-.-
H.I.V.E.
Nero stared at the screen in front of him, his mouth hanging open. Finally he tore his gaze away and looked at Raven.
"What the hell is going on? She's a master criminal; why hasn't she done anything yet? She hasn't done anything for almost a month now," he said, amazed and irritated. Raven looked at the girl on screen.
"I'm not sure… she's almost finished touring the army bases and the only thing we've seen her steal has been night vision goggles. She looks like Alpha stream material and it looks like she's the same age as Otto. What do you suggest we do, Max?" Raven knew he would love a new student like this. Whenever she stole something, she made it look ridiculously easy or did it with style. And it was almost always public.
"Recruit her, obviously," Nero snorted. "But I still want to know what she's planning to do in there," he said, pointing to the base. Raven smiled and shook her head.
"Something big I'll bet,"
"Oh, really," Nero said sarcastically, pulling out his wallet. "50 bucks says your wrong!"
-.-.-.-
Military Base
Max wandered about, looking at all the plans and training sheets stapled to the walls. She wasn't paying attention, but it sure looked like it. Getting deliberately lost meant she had a chance to search the camp with a decent excuse. Soon she couldn't hear the group. Perfect, she thought. Max was a great actor: it came with the job. She put on her "Innocent-But-Kinda-Lost" face and walked quickly towards the vehicle hanger.
"Excuse me, miss, are you lost?" a soldier stopped her as soon as she was out the door.
"Umm, kind of… I think the tour group went over to look at the AA jeeps without me," she said with a nervous laugh, as though it was true.
The soldier smiled and offered his arm. "Need an escort?"
"Hmmm, ok." Max hesitantly accepted. This was not part of her plan. She was supposed to get there, scout for guards, find the keys and drive off.
As they walked, arm in arm, Max was suddenly glad the soldier had noticed her. It simply looked like she was his girlfriend instead of the lost girl. Most of the army wasn't kind to trespassers. The pair got to the hanger without interruption. As soon as they were inside Max suddenly got up and gave the soldier a kiss. He responded instantly, kissing her back.
"Thanks for the help, big guy," she said and ran off, leaving soldier stunned and speechless. If only they used that tactic in close quarters fighting, she laughed and raced towards the coat room. Max must have been having an off day because there as soon as she found the keys (in someone's jacket pocket) there was another young soldier. They must be recruiting out of high school these days…
"What are you doing here?" he said accusingly. Max hid the keys in her own back pocket and slowly walked towards the soldier, smiling.
"Oh, nothing much…" she gave him a kiss. If it weren't for her strawberry lipstick, the guy would have taken her away. As it was, he tried to get another kiss.
"No more for you, greedy," she said and gave him an uppercut to the chin. He was unconscious before he hit the floor. Max once again went looking for a tank.
-.-.-.-
H.I.V.E.
"Maybe we shouldn't put her with Otto and the others," Raven said, noting how the girl was keeping the soldiers from asking questions.
"Why not? She's certainly leader material, and being with Otto and his friends is one sure-fire way to get in trouble around here. See how she stole the queens' favourite pillow last month?" Nero referred to another heist.
The girl had pretty much walked into the place and strolled through looking for the queen's bedroom. It was one of those times where she made it look ridiculously easy. Anyone that tried to stop her got beaten up. She even went through the royal jewellery cabinet, trying on earrings and necklaces, admiring herself in the mirror. She stole some of that too. She'd done what was considered a publicity stunt in the criminal world by leaving the security cameras running. Then she finally found the bedroom, and took the pillow.
The police had the building surrounded and news choppers had been everywhere. There were even a couple of snipers set up! The girl had leaned out the window and waved at the people, pretending to be queen. She took a bow just as a sniper took a shot. It missed but the girl shut the window and stared at the gunman, hands on hips. Then she pulled the finger at him and went into the halls.
Her getaway was a mystery, even for Raven. In the stand-off, which lasted a couple hours because the girl had been throwing frozen turkeys out the windows at police, a thick fog had descended. The helicopters had landed and police stormed the building, but the girl was never found. She left a note on the bed:
Dear queen,
Thanks for the pillow and jewellery. It's all very lovely, but the food's horrible. Where the hell do you hide the chocolate?!
Sincerely,
The little girl down the lane, A.K.A. The Arch-Angel
Nero and Raven remembered it, with different views.
"We shouldn't put her with Otto, Laura, Shelby and Wing. She seems to be a little too flirtatious, and Laura is trying to get Otto's attention. They're little lovebirds in the making. The other two are already in love. This would be like chucking a grenade in the middle of a rose bridge." Raven finished her speech and looked at Nero expectantly. He smiled and nodded.
"Since when have you been such a poet?" he asked.
"Nevermind" she muttered.
"But will it be a Frag grenade, or a Flashbang?" he grinned evilly. Raven turned to the screen and her eyes went wide.
"Definitely Frag. And you owe me 50 bucks."
-.-.-.-
Military Base
CRASH! Max smashed down the wall of the hanger. It was hard for her to drive, take off a wig and get rid of her makeup all at the same time. She checked the GPS: the air base she had visited yesterday was only a few miles away, and there was a large town between them. Max got the queens pillow out from her bag and put in on the seat. At least it's more comfortable, she thought while scaring her former classmates. She actually stopped the tank in front of them and opened the hatch. She looked at all the shocked and amazed faces and laughed.
"You guys might be interested to know that these things smell like old socks," Max said. No reply from anyone. Not even the General dude. "Well, laters!" she closed the hatch and started driving again. She got out onto the main road and hit the high gear. This thing could do 80 M/H! Max turned the radio (she couldn't believe it had one) and cranked up AC/DC: Highway to Hell. "I'm on a hiiigghhwaaayyy to hell! Yea," she sang, unaware that the base was listening in.
-/-/-/-
The General listened to the girl singing along to AC/DC and was absolutely speechless. The teacher however was not. "What's going on…?"
-/-/-/-
Max continued to run over cars and sing badly. She missed the air base and reversed into it. The tank was almost out of gas but it didn't really matter, she was on the air strip. She parked next to an F-22 and pointed the gun at the fuel storage area. Max was smiling as she hopped out of the tank climbed the ladder up to the F-22. Once seated and geared up, she put the keys in and charged down the runway.
-.-.-.-
H.I.V.E.
Ravens eyes could not have been more open. Her mouth was hanging open. She was shocked beyond words.
"Max, she's piloting an F-22… after stealing a tank," ok, so she did have words.
"You may want to take some of the guys and go get her before she nukes somebody." Nero replied, mouth also hanging open. It had been a truly shocking thing to watch. And it was live, so nobody knew what was about to happen.
"Raven, go and grab her, quick!" Nero almost shouted at her. "I'm going to see Otto, he needs to see this," he said as he got up and walked out of the office. Raven was still staring at the screen. "Huh? Oh, right. Go get the girl," she walked off in a daze.
-/-/-/-
Otto was looking forward to the new school year. New recruits meant more chances to show off. He was walking to the library when he was run over by Raven. They both fell down in an awkward heap. It took a moment but Otto spoke first.
"Umm, Raven, could you please get off me?"
She snapped out of her daze and looked around. "Sorry, Otto, I wasn't really paying attention. And Dr Nero would like to see you," she apologized. Otto was confused.
"Why didn't he just use the Blackbox?" he said, referring to the small black Smartphone like device everyone at H.I.V.E. had.
"HIVEMind is busy running tests on a copy of the internet. Something about it being self aware and whether it's going to try killing off the humans or something. So far Google tried to corrupt his mainframe and now he has to put all of his attention into it. Just head to Nero's office, ok?" Raven explained quickly.
"So where are you going? Is there any chance of me helping?" he asked. Raven smiled.
"If you can safely land an F-22 without killing the pilot, who happens to be a devil-may-care-but-I-certainly-don't master criminal who is more than likely to try shooting us down as soon as she sees us, then yes, you might be able to help. But Nero wants to see you," but Otto wasn't so easily put off.
"Can the rest of the gang come too?" he asked.
"No."
-.-.-.-
Somewhere in the Skies
Max was eating her sandwich: at the speed of sound. The F-22 was on auto-pilot and Max was having some lunch. She had a feeling it might be the last chance she would get to eat it. She looked at the world map below her (she was using it as a table cloth) and tapped a small island in the pacific. I'll bury some treasure or make that my evil HQ, she thought. So Max directed the auto-pilot to fly her there. She thought about a few of her pervious crimes while she packed her stuff into her backpack.
The radar picked up something and beeped. I thought it said this island was uninhabited… must be a tourist jet, she guessed. She looked out the window, but there was nothing but clear sky and an ugly plume of smoke and ash coming from the volcano…
-.-.-.-
H.I.V.E.
"Ma'am, the target appears to have changed course. It's now heading towards us, and is within visible distance of the island. Suggestions?" the co-pilot gave his tactical summary with a worried frown. Raven was shocked, again. This really needed to stop soon; it was bad for her image. Nobody was supposed to know about the island and H.I.V.E. The Shroud drop-ship rose out of the crater.
"How the hell did she get here so fast? She was a couple of hours away last time I checked," she said, "she's at least half an hour ahead of schedule!"
"The target appears to have done the trip with afterburners over the red line. Scans show that the target is fully mission capable and has an assortment of missiles and an experimental flak cannon. We could take it out or grab it for ourselves. Briefing told us that while the target has no flight experience, it won't bother with risk assessment of moves. A "devil-may-care" attitude, if you will," said the co-pilot, still frowning. "An air mounted flak cannon would be useful." He added. Otto looked worried.
"Well, if you don't mind losing the flak cannon, I can slow down the target and kick the ejector seat. It should make it a lot easier to grab her if she's not in control of the plane," he said. The co-pilot didn't want to give up the flak cannon though.
"Could you land the jet once you've launched the ejector seat?" he asked.
"I'll see what I can do. Raven, you-"
"I know what I need to do. Remember who's in charge of this field trip," she warned.
"Sorry. Who is this girl anyway?" he asked. Raven could see he was interested, but not romantically. But she might as well have a laugh.
"Don't tell me you've dumped Laura already!" she said with mock amazement. Otto blushed and turned away. Raven laughed and he glared daggers at her. Then he accessed the Shrouds systems and tugged at her seatbelt, excessively. Raven gagged and put up her hands in surrender.
"Ok, sorry! You wouldn't know her anyway. The only name we know her by is "Arch-Angel". Nero thinks she would fit on perfectly with your group; maybe even seek it out. She's a bit of a trouble magnet at times." Smiling, she undid the safety harness. The co-pilot watched this with little interest.
"The target is almost within firing range. Our weapons are set to disable," he reported. Then he turned back and grinned. "You know, kid, I don't think you get bonus points for flirting with the teachers…"
-.-.-.-
Over the Ocean
Max put her bag in her lap and turned off the auto-pilot. The radar was still beeping at her. She sighed and grabbed the controls, trying to turn to the left. The plane wouldn't respond and started to slow down.
"What the hell?" she said, irritated instead of fearful as some pilots might have been. Max grabbed her bag and searched for the ejector seat lever, almost pulling it before the plane did it instead. The cockpit lid popped off and the seat shot into the air. She tried to get the safety harness undone so she could fly away, but she saw some kind of advanced VTOL or something come out of the cloud, heading straight for her! Where was the chute handle? Max swore under her breath.
"I knew I should have gone to the School! I could have destroyed them," she muttered angrily. The parachute opened just before she started falling. The strange ship turned around and some kind of loading ramp opened towards her. She put her arms around the bag, hugging it tightly. Her life's savings and everything she owned was in that bag! She could see a really pale kid and a woman in the ship, and the lady was pointing some kind of gun at her… it looked like a Taser but-
-.-.-.-
Shroud Drop-ship
The co-pilot was sitting unconscious in his seat; Raven had dragged him out of his seat, kicked him in the nuts, and then strangled him till he was blue and knocked him out. She had dumped him back in the seat and then told the pilot to spin around so she could get the target with a Sleeper.
"Otto, open her chute!" Raven yelled at the boy, the wind whipping her hair, which had grown to about shoulder length. He nodded and closed his eyes. The girls chute opened and she looked at them. Raven could see how protective she was with that bag: it probably had everything she owned in it. She aimed the Sleeper and fired. When the girl's head dropped, Raven knew that it had worked. She fired her Grappler at the seat and dragged it in. As soon as it was close enough, she pulled out one of her twin glowing katana and sliced at the parachutes ropes. The ejector seat, girl and all, crashed to the deck with a clang, startling Otto.
"That was quick," he commented. "Hey, the F-22 can't land vertically, what should I do with it?" he yelled. Raven closed the ramp and turned to the pilot.
"Have we got a carrier sub near here?" she asked.
"No, but we can get one here in half an hour," he suggested. Raven shook her head.
"A jet circling the island for that long will draw too much attention. Sorry Otto, but you'll need to crash it," she said it without a hint of regret. The co-pilot was still in his seat, doing a fantastic vegetable impression. Otto nodded and a splash was heard; the jet was gone. The girl moaned and started to wake up.
"What- where am I?" she said groggily. Raven checked the power settings and the battery on her Sleeper.
"That charge should have been enough to knock out an adult for over six hours," she muttered, and decided to get the gun checked next time she saw Professor Pike. The girl tried to get up again. She managed to get out of the harnesses this time. She looked at Otto with a dreamy look on her face.
"Who are you?" she asked. Otto thought she was extremely pretty.
"My name is Otto Malpense, what's yours?"
"Max," she said sleepily. "Maximum Ride." The girl fell down in one of the few seats, still clutching her bag, and fell asleep. Raven watched this encounter silently.
"That went well," she said. She turned to the pilot and told him to get them back into the school. "Otto, Dr Nero still wants to see you and I don't think you can use me as an excuse this time." He grinned.
"Can I use this lovely lady as an excuse instead then?" he asked. Raven thought for a moment, and decided to do what was best.
"You can if you want, but you missed your science class too. Can you use the same excuse with your lovely Laura?" she teased. Otto went pale.