Flock, Meet The Cullens

"Max, are you awake?" Angel said, well thought to me. Oh yeah, I guess I should explain that. Well, my name is Max. I am a girl; most people assume I am a boy when they hear my name. Anyway, I am 98% human and 2% bird. I have wings and therefore can fly. I also have raptor vision, enhanced hearing, an inbuilt navigation system (that's one way of putting it) and am extremely strong not only for my age, but for an adult. I would have no trouble taking down the average sumo wrestler. No joke.

I live with my merry band of human/avian mutants, my family, my flock. They are, if you haven't picked up on that already, just like me. Aside from Angel and Gazzy, none of us are related, we were just created and grew up in the same vile, dreadful, evil "School" where we spent the first, what? 8 years of our lives in cages where they would leave us for days without food or water. Which was better than when they were experimenting on us and doing things like; making us run for hours without stopping or we would get electric shocked and injecting us with needles that would make us go crazy. That was just the beginning. But the thing is, they want us back so they can do wicked, cruel, disgustingly painful tests on us.

In my flock there's Angel, the cutest, bravest, smartest, mature 6 year old you will ever meet. She is tall for her age, like all of us and has bouncy, curly blond hair and sparkling blue eyes that you just can't say no to. Then there's Gazzy, the Gasman. Yes, you read right, Gasman. I hope I don't have to tell you why that is his name. He is my brave little trooper. Next is Nudge, the chatterbox. Seriously, she is always talking. She's 11, but could pass for 13 because of our oh-so-handy fast growth and healing. Iggy is 14 and blind. Those retarded Whitecoats attempted to give him X-ray vision or something like that and it didn't end so well. Emphasis on the retarded. Anyway, he has unparalleled hearing. It's even better than ours. Then there's Fang, my right hand man. He's fourteen like me and Iggy, and he's been my best friend since as long as I can remember. He has jet-black hair that hangs over his eyes just a bit, olive skin and is about an inch taller than I am. He's gorgeo- great at fighting. (No, I was not about to say gorgeous.) Yeah, we fight for our lives on a regular basis. "The School" keeps sending out Erasers (half human half wolf creatures) to capture and drag us back there. If it's not the School, it's Itex. An evil company, let's just leave it at that. And sometimes we have other unknown bad guys on our case, too. On top of that, we are apparently going to save the world.

Anyway, back to the flock. I am the leader of our flock. It's my job to look after us and make sure we're not being captured by Erasers or retarded Whitecoats and making sure that the younger ones aren't getting up to trouble. For normal 6- 11 year olds, that would mean making sure they don't run inside the house and that they wear a helmet and knee pads when they go roller skating. For these kids it means making sure they don't use bombs unless we are under attack and that they don't take control of the presidents mind and pass a law like "All girls under 14 shall own a pony" or something.

But back to explaining, those Whitecoats back at the School decided that they would give each of us some special talents. When flying, I can reach speeds of up to 250 km/ph. Iggy can tell what colour something is by touching it and can see stuff against a white background. Fang, if he stays still for a while, can go invisible. Literally. But as soon as he moves again, he turns back to being visible. Gazzy can "produce" disgustingly gassy bombs and imitate people's voices flawlessly. Nudge can hack into any computer and can attract metal objects when she wants to. Seriously, anything from a paper clip to a jumbo jet. Angel is the most gifted by far. She can read minds, control minds, Send thoughts to other people's minds, Talk to animals, transform into a bird and a totally different person that looks nothing like her. Pretty cool, hey?

"I am now…," I replied (thought). "Max, I think we should leave, I heard some thoughts that sounded like they could have been Eraser's," Angel said. At that, I shot up in bed. "Are you sure?" I mentally asked. "I'm sure I heard them, not 100% sure they were Erasers," Angel answered. "We're outta here."

Chapter 2

After Angel messaged everyone that we were leaving, we headed to the front door. Iggy took off first, then Angel, then Nudge, Gazzy and after doing a 360 as usual, Fang and I nodded at each other, then took off into the crisp, cool night.

"Where are we going?" Fang asked. "Forks" Ugh, the Voice was back. And yes, I have a voice in my head. "Forks," I replied. "Where's that?" Fang asked. "Washington," said the Voice. "Washington," I said.

*One Hour Later……………approximately*

It was getting dark, although, it doesn't really make a difference to us, thanks to our enhanced eyesight, but I saw Angel and Gazzy were getting tired, so I was glad this Forks place was only half an hour away, maximum. Get it? Maximum? Anyway, then I realized I was getting a headache. Erk. I hate headaches.

Suddenly my headache became excruciating, and scenes began flickering through my head. Alas, I was having one of my famous Brain Attacks. Great. My wings folded in and I started falling rapidly towards the earth like a stone.

Then everything went black, and all I could see were the pictures reeling in my head. A misty forest, a Forks police car, some native American guy who looked about my age, a silver Volvo, a large open house with lots of huge windows, a wolf, 3 pale, royal looking men, a Jeep, golden eyes, Fang, the Jonas Brothers, what? "Max, if you hear me you need to wake up." Angel.

My eyes flung open and the scenes were gone, but my head still felt like it was going to explode. Soon I realised that strong but gentle arms were holding me. Definitely Fang,

, I have fallen from the sky because of a "brain attack", Fang having to catch me before I fall to my death before. But the last times, when I woke up, my headache was gone. This time, my excruciating headache was still there.

It was then that I heard a blood curdling scream, and I realised it came from me. I gathered my thoughts, calmed down enough to stop screaming.

"Max? I think we should take you to a hospital". Fang said in a panicked voice, (Fang never panicked). I didn't answer in fear that if I opened my mouth, I would scream again. "Ok, Max? We're taking you to a hospital, Kay? Just nod if you understand". Angel thought to me. I nodded. The pain was unbearable. I would have been grateful to have been shot right then and there. Fang gently pulled my head in to lean on his chest, then took off into the night, again. Angel followed soon after, as did the rest of the flock.

My headache got sickeningly worse when we were in the air. It took all of my self control not to cry out in agony, but I was silently crying, drenching fang's shirt no doubt, again. Yep, I've done that before, too.

"Max, you need to keep your mind off the pain". Angel said/thought. Reluctantly, I decided to ask: "Okay, you know how I get scenes flashing through my head when I get a "brain attack"?" "Yeah" Angel replied. "Well, the last thing I saw was the Jonas Brothers? I mean, how random is that? They didn't even have anything to do with the rest of the scenes I saw!" I said. "Oh, that was me, I know I had to intervene with your Brain attack to get your attention and get you to wake up, so I asked Nudge what would be totally random and different to the rest of the pictures you were seeing, and as you could guess, Nudge said the Jonas Brothers. Which was, in the end, a great idea. It worked". She smiled a sweet smile, then went back to talking to Nudge.

There was a fast jolt of pain in my head, I screamed in agony, and then everything went black again, great, more agony. I couldn't catch a break! Most people would at least be relieved of pain when they black out but, no, not me!

The next thing I knew, I was in a hospital room, the kind you stay in when you're waiting for a doctor in emergency. I was still in Fang's arms, my head still caned, but the rest of the flock wasn't there.

"Max, does your head still hurt?" Fang asked, worry set in his eyes. "No" I replied. "It kills." I said as a particularly painful surge of pain hit. I winced. "Where's the flock?" I said groggily. "In the waiting room, Iggy's in charge." He replied.

At that moment, a man with blond hair, golden eyes, pale skin and features normally found only in magazines walked over and closed the curtain around us.

"Hello, I'm Dr. Cullen, and this is your girlfriend?" He asked Fang. "Yeah," Fang answered. Girlfriend? He said I was his girlfriend? Fang would be hearing about it later. "What seems to be the problem? "Dr. Cullen asked, "She keeps getting agonizing painful headaches, and we have no idea why." Fang said. Dr Cullen wrote down something on his clipboard, then turned back to us, "and her name is?" He asked. "Ma-ndy," Fang answered, "and you are?" Dr. Cullen asked. "Nick," Fang lied flawlessly this time.

"Okay, Max", Dr Cullen asked. "Mm-hmm", was all I could manage at that point? "for now we are going to put you on some Valium, which should help, and after that, we can get you on some Morphine if necessary. "Oh, no-not Valium again last time I had Valium, I ended up saying that I loved Fang thiiiis is much and didn't know what I'd do without him, which isn't true…..I think.

I nodded, if it would ease the pain, I didn't care what they gave me. Fang carried me through to another hospital room, this one had only one bed, and ever so gently set me down on the bed, then kissed my forehead before sitting in one of the hard plastic seats.

Fang took my hand just before Dr. Cullen gave me the needle. Fang knew how much the Flock hated needles after our many dreadful encounters with them at the school.

I smiled at him; he gave me back one of his brightens-up-my-whole-day smiles. Soon the Valium had kicked in and I was feeling all airy-fairy and I couldn't feel my legs - or my fingers. Like last time.

-Fang's POV-

Soon enough, the Valium had kicked in and Max was getting all chatty. "Fang," Max said. "Uh, that's my nick-name," I explained to Dr. Cullen. "Fang" Max continued. "Yeah", I replied "you are sooooooo gorgeous." I blushed, yes, Fang blushed. That would have to be a first "you are adorable, Fang", "Uh, you already said that." "Oh, did I!" she said groggily "Oh my gosh, I hope Max doesn't say anything stupid like-"Fang! Show your beautiful wings. They are beautiful." Crap, pretty much like that. Dr. Cullen looked at me questioningly.

Well done, Max you've just about blown our cover to yet more humans. Fan-freaking-tastic, just great. "Is there something I should know Fang?" Dr. Cullen asked. There was something about that made me feel like I could trust him. He definitely seemed like the kind of guy I could tell. I sighed, what the hell? We had already told heaps of humans on my blog, and those people at that restaurant saw us, and at the football stadium, at that other hospital, that school on Virginia. Would it really matter if we told one more person?

I stood near the front of the room, took off my black shirt – Max blushed, Ugh, she has no idea what she'd gotten us into – and spread out my big, black wings. "Told you they're beautiful". Max said to Dr. Cullen who only seemed slightly shocked.

"We're kind of orphans, us and the flock. Well, it's a long story, but, pretty much, we're always on the run from Erasers; half wolf, half human mutants, or flyboys; robots, killer robots. Anyway, we wouldn't normally come to a hospital unless it's an emergency". I didn't realise how crazy that all sounded until after I had said it, but, for some reason, Dr. Cullen understood and seemed to believe me. "Wow".

"Where are you staying?" he asked. "Um, don't know it's normally up to Max". I replied. "Your flock can stay with us. We have plenty of space, besides we have some things to talk to you about". "Thanks" I answered. It would be great to have somewhere for Max to recover and for the flock to rest up.

"Max, has it gone away?" Dr. Cullen asked. "Has what gone away?" Max asked. "Yeah, I think it's gone" I said to Dr. Cullen.

-Max's POV-

After I had come off the Valium, my headache was very dull, like a normal dull headache. But I was very…..woozy. I could barely walk in a straight line without falling over. So Fang was carrying me to the Cullen's house. He had filled me in on the plan.

"You should really quit your Valium addiction….." Fang said, looking down at me. "Oh, what else did I say this time?" I asked. "Well, you said that I'm sooo gorgeous and adorable". Fang said with a smug grin. Of course I was blushing….jeez! Sometimes I wish I could be more like Fang. He could hide all emotion from his face. Lucky him!

Then I remembered, before I went on the Valium, Fang had kissed my forehead. What was that about? The last time he had done that was when we were staying with Anne and I thought I was turning into an eraser. (I am happy to report I haven't). But it's not like it really bothered me. It was actually quite…..nice. Tell anyone I said that, and you're dead.

"What do you think Dr. Cullen wanted to talk to us about, I asked?" "Don't know…but there's something off about him". He answered, back to his little-words-as-possible-self. "Yeah, he seemed….too beautiful to be human". I answered. Fang tensed at that. "and he was very….precise, steady…not as clumsy as a normal person, if you get what I mean?". "Yeah." He un-tensed.

Fang flew over an open, glassy, remote house in the middle of the woods. "Here" Fang and I said at the same time. When we landed, I still couldn't quite walk straight, so rather than being carried again I just kind of leaned on Fang…..yeah very funny.

We walked past two cars at the front of the house. Dejavu. Open house, lots of windows. The house that I saw when I had my attack, the cars…..a silver Volvo and a Jeep. Okay. Where was this going?

We started staggering up the stairs. Suddenly, my head spun and I couldn't see straight, - or keep my balance. I fell backwards down the stairs, Fang caught me just in time. "Max, are you sure you don't want me to carry you again?" Fang asked, and half-smiled. "I'm fine now", I replied. He kept his arm around my waist the rest of the way up the stairs….and when the door opened before we could knock…odd.

Eight pairs of golden eyes me us at the door. "Welcome, please come inside". Dr. Cullen said with a smile. We shuffled into the house and followed them through to, what looked like a conference room.

"Okay, we've basically established that we're all different to normal humans in this room. Let's just exchange our stories, but of course, you won't be forced into saying anything you don't want to until you can trust us".

"Well, this is – then I was interrupted. "Angel's six, Gazzy's 8, Nudge 11, Iggy 14, Fang is 14 and so are you, Max". The smallest of Dr. Cullen's group said "and this is"- shortie said gesturing to her group. Angel interrupted there. "Bella is 18, Edward 17, Emmett 18, Rosalie 18 ,you're also 18 Alice, as well as Jasper, Esme is 26 and so is Carlisle. They were dumbfounded.

Bella had long brown hair and a slight figure. Edward had blondish-red coloured hair and could easily have pulled off as a male model. Emmett was very muscular but definitely not ugly. He was still as good looking as the rest of the group. Rosalie was easily the most beautiful person I had seen. She had long blonde hair and an arrogant look on her face. What was with her? Alice was a bit shorter and slighter than the rest of the group. She had shorter straight brown hair. Jasper had blonde hair just longer than Edward's. He had an odd look on his face. Esme had wavy brown hair and was slightly taller than Bella.

After that, I explained our life story. The school, the Whitecoats, Itex, Antarctica, The Director, Gozen all of it. By the time I was finished, Bella was teary-eyed, Emmett looked furious and eager, Jasper was concentrating on something and Rosalie seemed to have softened a bit. Not a lot though.

"Let's get' em we'll smash those Whitecoats! Emmett said excitedly. Then we broke out in laughter. Even Fang. "Okay, guys calm down we need to hear their story." I said – no, ordered.

"What are you?" I asked. "Vampires" Edward answered plainly. We cracked up laughing again, "and I'm Spiderman," said Gazzy. "I'm the first blind President of the United States." Iggy said sarcastically. "I'm a Fairy Princess!!!",Angel. "I'm the Queen of England" said Nudge in an English accent, "and Fang's Joe Jonas!!, she added.

"Yeah, yeah,yeah, now seriously, what are you?, I asked in between laughs. Edward and Emmett both sighed. "Will you or should I? "Edward asked him. "I'll do it, "Emmett said with an evil grin on his face. "You said your strong?" Emmett asked and put his arm across the table. "Pick your strongest, "Emmett said. Everyone looked at Fang. Fang put his arm across the table and grabbed Emmett's hand. They were going to arm wrestle? This guy was about to get a broken wrist!

"1,2,3!" said Rosalie. At first Fang was winning, then Emmett, then Fang again. Emmett expected to get an easy win, but Fang had beaten up killer robots, half wolf mutants, carried Total whilst fighting off flying Erasers and carried me all the way hear. He didn't plan on being beaten now by some random who called himself a vampire…yeah right.

10 mins later they were still at it. "It's a tie" said Alice and Fang and Emmett gave up. "You say you can fly fast, Max?" said Alice. Edward stood up. "Good luck, Max!" Angel said. Obviously finding out what was happening before any of us. "Thanks, but this'll be easy, don't worry" I said.

We walked out to the forest. " First to the next town wins" Emmett said. "Ready, set, go!" Alice said. I started flying at a normal speed when I realized how fast this guy was, he was just a blur below me. Crap. I poured on the super speed and nearly caught up, but Edward was just too fast. He won.

When we got back to the house, I was totally puffed out. I was trying to catch my breath for ages. But Edward didn't get tired at all. He just stood there indifferent. Wha?

"Do you believe us now?" Alice asked. Just because Edward's crazy-fast, it doesn't mean you're all vampires." I said. " Max, I've just ran 17 kilometres .I'm not tired. I didn't break a sweat." Edward said very matter-of-factly walking over to me. He took my hand and put it on his chest. "Do you feel a heartbeat?" He asked. There was no heartbeat. None at all. "No." I said quietly.

"You're immortal?" I asked, my voice breaking on the last word. "Yes" eight voices said at once. " That means we don't eat, drink or sleep. Well we do drink, but not human blood. Only animal blood. But not bird blood either." Carlisle said.

"You don't smell enticing at all." Rosalie said snidely. Emmett gave her a look. She ignored it. "I don't even know why you're here. We aren't an orphanage." She spat.

" Why do we even care about them? The last time we let someone in on our secret, she had been nothing but a burden. Now look who's a vampire!" Rosalie scowled at Bella.

All of a sudden Rosalie stopped and her face softened. Automatically almost. "Thankyou" Emmett mouthed to Jasper. "Don't you dare try to stop me Jasper!" Rosalie said not nearly as viciously as she rose from her seat. Jasper seemed to be concentrating on something. For some reason, everyone in the room was calm. No one was annoyed about what Rosalie had said. I should have been, I tried to be, but I wasn't. Fang gave me a confused look, I sent one back. This was too weird.

"I'll sort it out" Emmett said to Jasper, then motioned for Rosalie to follow him. Jasper watched them until they were out of the room and upstairs, then his face relaxed and he stopped concentrating. Like I said, weird.

I guess they didn't pick up on the whole sensitive hearing thing of ours. We heard everything that was going on upstairs. " Jeez, just chill out, babe!" Emmett whispered calmly. "Chill out?!! We have mutants staying with us! And they know our secret!!! Why do they even matter!? They are just nobodies like everyone else!!! Like Bella was and should be still!!!" Rosalie said. "Rose! How could you say that?! Bella is a part of this family just as much as you are so get off your high- horse and stop acting like you're better than everyone else, because, newsflash, you aren't!" Emmett said . " AND how could you be so cruel! These aren't just normal kids, Fang down there was giving me a run for my money! And they have freaking wings! How cool is that?! They have struggled their whole lives and killed a whole ton of mutants and killer robots! Angel can read minds! Edward can do that and he's 10 years older than her!! Max has spent her whole life looking after them and she's the toughest chick I've ever met!! And you think they aren't good enough for you?!. For just once in their lives, they could have some people help them and not betray them!! And it's not like they couldn't help us!! If we had had them with us when we were up against Victoria, it would have made it a hell of a lot easier!!!" Emmett continued. "Shut up! Like a bunch of six year olds could help us?! We're Vampires, we don't need anyone, Emmett!" Rosalie snapped back. "Are you heartless?!!!! What happened to you Rose?!!" Emmet was yelling.

Rosalie stormed down the stairs and into the garage slamming the door behind her.( The door broke). I heard a clunk, brrrmm, brrmmmm and then a screeeeech. "Rosalie has left the building" Fang whispered to me.

Esme was shaking her head, looking very embarrassed and frustrated. Carlisle seemed to have gotten over it. "We should probably tell you, there are also werewolves. But they won't harm you. Their leader, Jacob, is Bella's best friend, lovely kid." Carlisle said.

"I should also tell you, we have some special gifts. Alice can tell the future. Edward can read minds, and Jasper can control the emotions in the room. I don't know where we'd be without him when Rosalie throws her tantrums" Carlisle said.

"Well, the younger ones look tired, so if you would like, Alice and Esme will get them cleaned up and show them where they'll be sleeping." Carlisle said. " Thankyou so much, I'll go with them" I said.

" Seeya in a sec, Fang" I said. He blew me a kiss sarcastically but I just stood there smiling hopelessly like an idiot.

Fang's P.O.V

Max had just gone up the stairs with the other girls-and Gazzy- when Edward, Emmett, and Jasper(Iggy had left the room) cracked up laughing. "You blew her a kiss?" Jasper asked in between chuckles. That was the first thing I had ever heard him say. "And?" I asked. "Did you see her blush?" Emmett said, still laughing. "She can hear you, you know" I said. They stopped automatically. " No, it's good the whole dark, silent type thing has got her head over heels" Edward said. " No it hasn't!!" Max yelled from upstairs. "Whatever you say" Jasper said. "I am going to kill you, Jasper!" Max called from upstairs, although yelling was totally unnecessary, because everyone in the house could here even if she were whispering. " Like to see you try" Emmett called back. I know I wouldn't. He nearly broke my wrist today!. Only an Eraser could do that, or a Flyboy, Or maybe Max if I let her.

"Hey, you can, like go invisible, right? Show us" Emmett said to me. I sat still for a while, and eventually their faces looked shocked. I chuckled, then smiled at them, knowing only my mouth would show. It was fun freaking them out. I moved my legs under the table and my arms, my head, always watching the expressions on their faces. Priceless.

"Since we're having show and tell, show me what you guys can do. Edward, what am I thinking?" I asked. "Well, you were thinking about why Rosalie had to break the garage door. Then you were thinking about Max, then you were thinking about how dumb you are to think about that when there's a mind reader in the room." Edward answered smartly. He was good.

"My turn" Jasper said. Then my fists clenched and I felt like ripping him out of his chair and throwing him out the window. Three seconds later, I felt like giving him a high- five.

Cool.

" Fang, Max asked for you to come upstairs, please. Iggy too." Angel messaged me.

"Gotta go" I announced. "Yes, your precious Max awaits" Edward said. They burst into laughter again. "Yeah, real funny" I said. I would get him back.

I walked upstairs and into Angel and Nudge's room where the rest of the flock was. "Are they for real?" Max asked Angel. " Can't tell. They've got mind blocks up. Everyone except for Edward, he normally wouldn't have to." Angel replied.

" Just keep on guard, everyone, okay?" Max ordered. Everyone nodded. We stacked fists, then Angel, Gazzy and Nudge went to bed.

Iggy, Max and I, my arm around Max's waist-she was feeling dizzy again- went back downstairs. " We're gonna go out for a spin. We'll be back soon." Max announced. Carlisle nodded. One of Max's snap decisions, I'm guessing. We made our way to the front door and leapt out into the chilly, dark night.