FULL SUMMARY:
Max has been been brought up inside the school all sixteen years of her life. Her only view of the outside world comes from Jeb's stories, and the video clips the white coats show to the mutants during testing. She's the oldest experiment Itex have, so between her and Jeb, she takes on the responsibility of protecting her 'flock' from Itex, whatever hell that may entail.
Max's flock, though not all avian, are her responsibility to protect, especially as they're all each other has in that small room at the school. It's not easy, but even fifteen year old Iggy, Star, Kate, Ratchet, and Holden, help Max look after the younger flock members; afterall, seven year old bird kid Wren, and human Ari (kept as the human control subject for the group) are as vulnerable as they come.
After years of attempting to escape from the school Max finally manages to break free, crash landing alone in the Martinez's back garden.
Luckily for her, the Martinez's are the founders of the CSM, a government funded program to stop the atrocities of Itex. With their help, Max scours Itex branches all over the state, desperately looking for the flock and rescuing any other mutants she finds along the way.
Meanwhile, in her absence, Itex had been building project 'Fallen Angel' searching for her, their oldest and most important experiment. When the Eraser's blunt attacks don't work and she avades capture the whitecoats take the advice of a former white coat and recruit a human to do the job more stealthily. Under the name of the Institute for Higher Living, and while posing as a government friendly spy school, Itex start training Nick Walker, otherwise known as Fang.
When Maximum Ride herself walks into Fang's high school, Fang finds himself on his first challenging mission; becoming friends with the mysterious girl in order to find out what she knows about Itex. According to his mission breif, if the institute had that information they could 'help take it down'...
Fax&Eggy
Minor OC
If you read till the end of the chapter and don't think it was worth it, then you might learn something thanks to the factoid at the bottom - so it hopefully wasn't a complete waste of time :)
Chapter 1:
Fight, Flight, and Far Too Much Real Life for A Simple Bird-Kid
MAX POV
The door banged open, ricocheting off the white wall. Light from the corridor outside flooded the room and I saw the sillohettes of every mutant in the room shuffling to the back of their crates.
I squinted at the figure blocking the harsh light in the doorway, using all my strength to push myself upright. I knew I still wouldn't be able to walk straight after the stamina test they'd put me through this morning, so there was no reason for my white coat to be here after lights out.
Dr Hagen loped over the threshold, zombie-like. Judging by his gait he was very, very drunk, staggering over to the wall of crates, and clutching the bars to keep himself on his feet. He began pulling himself along, ignoring the subject numbers on the locks and leering in at each of my flock - trying to distingush my outline from the kids' quivering ones.
Hagen passed Star, Ratchet, Holden, Kate, Ari, and Iggy, but stopped just short of my crate.
He must've drunk a hell of a lot if he couldn't tell the different between me and Wren's (who was at least four years younger). It was almost offensive to be honest, considering I'd spent so much quality time with Hagen since he was put in charge of 'sorting out my attitude'.Even in the dim light, he should be able to see that Wren was hiding behind hair that was long and brown, not dirty blonde.
I could hear her breathing shakily as Hagen began fumbling for his keys, inserting the key to my crate into the padlock on Wren's. He cursed as the key refused to turn, rattling the padlock around and turning on his heel, staggering over to the button that would summon Erasers. If they came to break Wren's crate open, they wouldn't care about her being inside while they broke and bent the bars apart; and once she was out, I knew she wasn't strong enough to take the kind of tests Hagen dished out.
I tried to yell, but my voice was so hoarse from dehyrdration I only managed to get out a loud whine. I scrambled back in my crate and lifted my aching legs, pain shooting through my muscles as I kicked out at my crate door. It rattled, loudly enough to catch Hagen's attention, and bracing myself I kicked out at the bars again to lure him over.
Thankfully, he took the bait, and as he came stumbling over I heaved myself upright, moving forwards into the light so that he might recognise his mistake.
I don't know whether he actually recognised me or if he just assumed that any sign of rebellion must've come from me, but he slid the key to my crate into my padlock and turned it smoothly, grinning sloopily as it clicked unlocked.
Hagen wriggled the padlock free and I braced myself, repeating Jeb's words to myself and trying to stay calm as the door swung wide. I was still weak from the stamina test, not to mention dizzy with hunger, but I'd be damned if I didn't fight going on another of his pyscho excursions into how far I could be pushed.
Before Hagen could grab me I threw myself forwards, using his drunken weight against him to tackle him the the ground. Hagen took the brunt of the blow, falling spread eagled on the floor, his head cracking into the concrete with a sickening thud. I lashed out with a punch that would've been weak even by human standards, and it connected with his jaw. But he didn't move.
I stood up shaking, barely aware of the dull throb in my head and legs.
I did it. I actually did it.
I grabbed Hagen's dropped keys, a giddy feeling ballooning in my chest as I staggered over to Wren's crate.
Shaking as adrenaline tried to battle my exhaustion, I slotted the key marked 'Subject 23' into her padlock, and hearing the click as it unlocked I pulled the lock free of the catch. Wren shoved the door open as soon as she could, throwing her arms around my waist and tightly hugging me (and half holding me up despite her shaking with fear). I heard her muttering thank yous as she gathered fistfulls of my hospital gown into her hands, clinging on desperately as I tried to ply her off.
We could all hug and cry once we were out, right now I needed to unlock the other's crates.
I curled her hair behind her ears, and said in a voice that was barely audible,
"Sweetie I need to get to the others, give me one second..."
Wren slowly releashed her death grip on my gown, resigning herself to staying on my heels as I stumbled over to Iggy's crate, finding the key marked 'Subject 3'.
I unlocked and threw the padlock aside, pulling the door wide and reaching inside to grasp his hand - tapping the back of it twice to let him know it was safe. It'd been years ago that Jeb had taught us a series of hand signs to use in case with couldn't talk in front of the white coats, but I never thought I'd have to use them because Iggy wouldn't be able to see. He'd come back with his head wrapped in bandages a few days ago, when the white coats had decided to fiddle with his eyes under the knife.
He gripped my hand tightly, pulling himself through the door, and I passed his hand over to Wren's so I could unlock the next crate. I tried to smile at little Ari through the bars, hoping he could see my hopeful face despite his human vision.
"Let's get you out of here." I said, my heart sinking a little at Ari's knowing blue eyes behind the bars.
Hagen had only brough the avian hybrid's keys with him, but I still tried to shove one of the keys into his padlock. It'd had to fit, I'd make it fit - I wouldn't leave them here.
"...Max" Ari whispered, "...you know that won't work." I didn't look at him, focused on trying to shove every key into the padlock.
"Don't worry baby bro," I reassured him, "Jus hang on…"
Giving up on the keys I rushed to the table of spare surgical instruments in the corner of the room, tripping halfway across the room and forcing myself painfully back onto my feet. I needed something to use as a lock pick, though I didn't know much about how I'd use it from the few movies the white coats made us watch in psych assessments.
I didn't have any time to doubt though, so I picked two thin tools from the tray and staggered back to Ari, who looked up at me with tears in his eyes,
"You need to get out of here!" I just about managed a nervous grin,
"I know sweetie, and I will. We'll all get out of here as soon as we get all the doors open. Then I'll fly you off into the sunset, just like in that film we watched last week...just like I promised..."
It took a few tries to jam both the implements into the lock, but wiggling them around did nothing to loosen the lock.
"…Com'on!" I muttered desperately, my head pounding and a blunt ache blossoming up from my legs and into my back. Ari wrapped his fingers around the bars,
"Max, Erasers are gonna be here any minute - they'll have seen you on the surveillance cameras..." My head gave a particularly painful throb. I looked over my shoulder at Wren and Iggy, my voice almost giving out as I tried to speak again,
"Ari's right - they'll be here soon. Wren, I need you to take Iggy and get going - he'll need your help to escape." Wren looked horrified, and her bottom lip started quivering,
"But-"
"I've got to get the others out," I said shakily, standing up as tears began running down her cheeks.
I stumbled over, my legs giving way just as I reached her. Thankfully it looked more like I'd knelt down to look her in the eye, rather than been defeated by a few steps of walking, and I smiled as I gave her shoulders an encouraging squeeze,
"I promise, I'll be right behind you." Wren's eyes filled with more tears but I gave her a serious look, "Just do what Jeb said - take the first door on your right, go down the hall to the emergency stair case - from there you can get out, and do a U&A. Three miles west, I'll meet you in the nearest clearing." Wren looked like she wanted to protest but I gave her a small kiss on the forehead, thumbs smoothing over her temples as I held her face in my hands,
"Sweetie I need you to help Iggy - he can't get out by himself, and I've got to get the others. You can do this, I believe in you." Wren hesitated a second but gave me a watery nod, backing away with difficulty and tapping the back of Iggy's hand twice to signal that they were off. I watched for a second as they broke into a run, Wren leading Iggy by the hand, and Iggy looking back blindly over his shoulder in my direction.
"Holden!?" Ari cried, "tell her I'm right!"
Holden didn't say anything, though that wasn't exactly out of character for him. This time however, his silence was probably because he knew as well I did, that I might as well be trying to open their crates with my bare hands for all the good my lockpicking would do. Nevertheless I wobbled back over to my make-shift tools, Kate speaking in an urgent voice as I wriggled the instruments around again,
"Max, if you don't go now, you'll never get out - go and get help or something!" I scowled, knowing she was right. But the thought of leaving any of them, anyone, here tore my heart into pieces.
The fire alarm went off as Wren opened the emergency exit door, making me flinch and knocking the lock picks loose. Both metal implements scattered across the floor as the sprinklers came on, and goose bumps rippled down my back as panic began to set in. I looked around, searching for some kind of plan C.
I'd always looked after them, I was the one who took the brunt of the Eraser's fury to keep them safe - they were my responsibility when Jeb wasn't here. At the very least, it should be me staying behind while they all escaped. But Wren was waiting for me, and with Iggy in his condition they couldn't look after themselves...
"MAX GO!" Star shouted frantically as familiar snarls floated down the corridor.
I looked around at them all, one last time, my eyes lingering on Ari,
"I'll be back...I'll bring help, I- I promise..."
Before it was too late I broke into a run, my bare feet slapping against the concrete and my legs feeling like they were on fire.
"There!" yelled a white coat, standing 50 metres away at the end of the corridor and pointing dramatically at me. Three human Erasers sprinted into view, morphing out as they ran towards me, falling from two legs onto all fours mid-transformation. I sprinted through the first door on my right, racing along the white hallway with the sound of yellow-toothed snarling on my heels.
I shouldered my way through the fire exit door into a stair well, and leapt up the steps four at a time, using my wings to propell me forwards, faster. My legs were beginning to sieze up as I ran upwards, focusing on the light above from the open door to freedom, the dogs catching up inch by inch and far too close for comfort.
When I reached the final step I felt a fist collide with the square of my back, and the wind was knocked out of me was I flew through the door into a dark room. I landed painfully on more concrete, scuffing my knees and elbows as I rolled across the floor, scrambling up as the 'light of freedom' showed me an Eraser with his paw raised over his head.
I didn't have the time or the energy to dodge, but threw my arms up to take the brunt of the blow as his claws slashed down. Adrenaline blocked a little of the painful sting as he gouged deep cuts into my forearms, and I kicked out at him before he could lunge at me again.
I may as well have patted him on the head for all the good it did. My fighting strength had now dipped below the level of a human toddler, and he easily knocked my leg aide and threw a punch into my stomach that sent me stumbling back, tripping over my own feet and falling onto my back. Even adrenaline couldn't block out much of the pain now, and I screwed up my watering eyes, trying and failing to pull myself together.
It was over.
I wasn't strong enough to fight this many - not today.
I kept my eyes closed for a few seconds, but when no futher pain came I opened them again, registering the sound of bodies thudding to the ground.
Forcing myself into a sitting position, I blinked the tears out of my eyes and found my mouth falling open in disbelief.
No superman had come to my rescue - I'd learn early on that it was stupid to dream of such things. What I did see however was the entire pack of Erasers on the floor, all heaps of messy, smelly limbs - unmoving, like someone had just hit their power buttons. Groaning with effort I forced myself onto my feet again, spying the bar codes visible on the nearest Eraser's necks. They all went out of date at the same time? The School was never that sloppy?!
My raptor hearing picked up more barking from beyond the fire alarm and the stairwell - I didn't have time to think, I had to move.
Straightening up a little more, I forced myself into a run, heading for the stairs set into the far wall. At the top I pushed through the door, hearing the sickening sound of claws on concrete as more Erasers climbed the first stairwell into the room behind me. My vision swayed, becoming fuzzy for a second, and I shook my head roughly, breaking into a run again. Just a little futher.
I had to repress the urge to escape using my hyper-speedn (not wanting to run into any walls at 200mph) but the cold daylight streaking in through the windows lining the corridor spurred me on. Ahead of me was a door, still ajar from Wren and Iggy's escape, and with freedom merely feet away I heard Erasers clattering into the hallway behind me.
I shook out my wings, willing my burning legs to work for just a few more seconds as I reached the door.
The fresh air outside hit me like a wall and with one jump I slipped into hyperspeed, one painful wingbeat after another lifting me into the air. I almost choaked as I tried to inhale my first deep breath of fresh air at 200mph.
I pulled out of hyperdrive, gasping, the icy morning sky freezing my hospital gown to my skin as the water from the sprinklers crystalised. The cold felt good, cleansing, and my lungs felt like they were being expunged of a lifetime of stale, sanitised air. Without glancing back I reorientated West, my eyes searching for the first forest clearing in the suburb below me - searching for where Wren and Iggy would be waiting.
As nice as the cold air felt in my lungs, with only a thing cotton gown to cover me I felt like my bones were freezing solid, and my heart sank as my vision swam in front of me. I felt myself dropping in altitude a little, my vision not steady enough for me to do much else but slow my descent. Black spots started winking in and out of sight as I dropped lower, and I could feel what was left of my energy leaking out into the air around me.
Oh crap...
The cold air kept me just about concious but not awake enough to stop the falling towards the sharp roofed suburbia now 30ft below. Waves of what felt like warm sleep pushed up from my chest, washing away a little of the pain as I collided with someone's roof like a bird hitting a window. Bones and tiles cracked in the morning air, and I felt myself tumbling, rolling off the roof, and falling to the ground.
I think the choaked shriek was from my voice when I hit the ground, possibly due to landing on a shoulder that was definately dislocated, but it died with my vision in seconds as everything went black.
6 Months Later...
I sat bolt upright, my chest heaving as I looked around in panic.
I was in my bedroom (top floor of the Martinez's house) and 4am daylight was pouring in through the open window.
Nothing broken. Nothing hurt. And there was nothing here to hurt me.
I screwed up my eyes, rubbing away the moisture with my knuckles and feeling shaky at reliving my nightmare of an escape.
The Martinez's has found me in their garden 6 months ago, and boy had I picked the perfect place to crash land. As the local vet, Dr M patched up every broken and fractured bone in my body, and the Martinez's had looked after me around the clock while I was unconcious for a full week.
Waking up was a bit of a suprise. Sure I had IVs stuck in me but the cushy bedroom I woke up in was no crate, and I felt better then I could ever remember being at the school, especially with the unfamiliar feeling of not being hungry. Still, when the Martinez's walked in to see the bird kid who'd fallen into their tulip patch ripping out IV lines, stumbling around, and looking terrified, not one of them seemed freaked out. Hell they seemed more worried then suprised when I threw my wings out fully, going for (what I've been told is a very intimadating) 'get-out-of-my-way-before-I-break-you' stance.
See Rob Martinez worked for a secret government program called 'CSM', and he'd been investigating Itex for years without anything to show for it. Enter me, stage right, face down in the flower bed like the angel of information they'd been praying for. Not that I gave everything away as soon as he showed me his government ID. To be honest, that did more harm then good. I hadn't had the best role models for authority, seeing as most of them had tried to beat me into submission if I didn't obey instantly and without question. So seeing a shiny plastic card showing him to be the head honcho of the CSM didn't give me the best impression. Still, after a whole week of feeding me proper bird kid meals, and proper food, Ella's horrifically innocent chatter by my bedside did convince me they weren't going to chuck me in a treadmill room with electrodes stuck to my face any time soon.
I let my gaurd down a little. They reminded me of Jeb, never pushing, always hopeful, always smiling.
When I finally trusted them enough to explain I'd escaped, and that I'd been planning to meet with two other mutants, Rob offered every resource he had to help me find them. With a thermal imaging camera in hand I flew a few miles out of town to the nature reserve and searched every clearing West of here for 50 miles.
No sign of them.
It gave me a bad feeling. I didn't know how I'd ever find them if they'd been caught; I couldn't remember where the school was, I'd been too out of it when I escaped to know where exactly I'd escaped from, and retracing my flight didn't lead me to any clues. Still, yet again, Rob came through for me.
The CSM had made tons of predictions through calculations, reports, (and other mathematical stuff I had no time for) to map out possible Itex branch locations. These were small buildings, some abandoned, some underground, all Itex. Though the information I'd given them about the school didn't seem to match any of these, Rob suggested that these smaller branches might contain the location of the school on computer databases. So every night, I found myself sneaking past viciously attractive gaurds and into new Itex locations - looking for info on the school.
Weeks turned into months of searching, and summer passed by.
With each new Itex base we snuck into, the security seemed to get tighter, but then that might be because the bases we started breaking into had mutants locked up in them. There was only ever one or two, but it'd be more difficult to sneak 8 mutants out than a couple. They were usually so underweight, as long as I could get to the roof, I could carry them with me on my flight back to the Martinez's.
Each trip started to include a hand to hand fight with Erasers on guard duty, and as they started increasing security, the fights went from fighting to keep them from catching me, to fighting for my life. I always got out, but I seemed to be getting out with more and more injuries every time.
That didn't matter though, what mattered was with the resources of the CSM, back at the Martinez's house, the kids I rescued all got nursed back to health. When I wasn't out on night raids, I usually spent my time comforting them, mutant to mutant, trying to reassure them that they were safe, and these people weren't like the white coats.
And you know what, they were damn good kids when they got better - some of them even helped me settle other mutants in when I brought more home from missions.
In the next few months we went from a household of 3 humans and 1 bird kid, to 3 humans and 15 mutants (most of them needing twice, sometimes three times as many calories as usual).
As it was getting pretty crampt, the CSM decided to set up a safe house for them that was, less of a house and more of a giant ship. It was refitted, with mutants in mind, into a sort of hotel for hybrids. The kids had their own bedrooms, plenty of space to run around both inside and out (when parked a few miles off shore, away from the public eye) and Rob even set up a kind of on board middle school. It was as close to real life as kids with tails, fangs, and scales could wish for.
But out of the 40 or so kids I saved in the six months since I'd escaped the school, none of them had ever heard of Ari, or Star, or Rachet, or any of my flock. And we were running out of places to look.
I loved those kids, I really did, but I'd made a promise to my flock, and I dread to think what the white coats would do them while I was gone. My thoughts constantly drifted to Ari, the youngest, and the human control subject they used for every single experiment. What they might do without me there to make life difficult, it—
I shook the thought from my head as I felt my eyes watering. I swung my feet out of bed and got up, my chest feeling tight as I blinked rapidly, forcing myself to hold back any tears. If I started, I didn't know when I'd stop.
Splashing your face with cold water seemed to help in the movies, and still feeling shaky I decided to cross my room. Opening the door quietly, I crossed the hallway, heading into the bathroom.
The moon was directly shining through the window, but most of the light came from the streetlights outside. I walked over to the sink and stopped in front of it, turning my head and frowning at my reflection.
There was a large bruise on my cheek from where an Eraser had dislocated my jaw two nights ago. It was going yellow, but still looked really out of place for who I was supposed to be (starting today) - a high school student.
"It'll be fine." I told myself, thinking of how dissapointed Ella and the kids would be if I backed out now.
A few weeks ago, onboard the CSM's ship, Ella had more or less started a protest for me to go to school.
Ever since the kids had started learning on the ship, they'd been asking me why I didn't go to class with them. I was too old, and searching for Itex took up too much time, but Ella voiced aloud that, since I only went on missions at night, I could always go to school with her. And that was that.
I know the kids just wanted me to be happy, but I wasn't feeling as excited as they were when Ella had told them all about high school.
"You could actually blend in Max!" Shrieked one of the more scaly kids.
"You could be like a spy Max!" One of the feline girls was looking dreamily at me, stricking a super hero pose, "High school girl by day, kicking Itex butt by night!"
I really didn't have time to be wasting on human stuff, but all their sad faces along with fourty sets of bambi eyes made my mind up for me. I had to go, I'd never seen most of them this happy or united in anything before.
I knew it wouldn't kill me to go; I could keep my wings hidden with hoodies, long sleeves would hide any marks left by the school, and (apart from my lack of respect for authority) the only thing that might draw attention to me was my bird-kid brains. But I could hide that.
There was, on the other hand the 900 possible ways of people finding out I wasn't as human as I appeared - and if word spread about a winged teenager at highschool, Itex would be there faster then Ella at a sales rack while shopping.
Feathers could drop out my hoodie. Maybe they were heavy on the disinfectant in science labs? What if someone felt my wings while I pushed through a crowd?! Hell the prospect of being in a crowd alone made me—
"—Max?"
I whipped around, too caught up in worrying to have heard Ella walking up the hall. She was standing in the doorway, looking tired in her nightdress and fluffy slippers, her long dark hair suffering from a severe case of bed head. She frowned at me, worry etched on her face,
"You still worried about school...?" I shrugged as by way of an answer, walking over to the bathtub and sitting down on its edge.
The back of my pajamas had slits cut into the fabric, leaving me free to ruffle my wings a nervously as Ella walked over and sat beside me. She bumped her shoulder into mine,
"You'll be fine, trust me - especially once I decide what you're wearing!"
I gently wapped her over the head with the crest of one wing, and she scowled at me, smoothing down her even messier hair. I let my wing fall loosely around her, sheilding her from the moonlight as I rolled my eyes,
"There's no way in hell, I'm going dressed in anything you pick out."
Ella gave me an appalled expression but I held my ground,
"Don't look at me like that. If you had your way I'd be wearing something tight fitting - and that wouldn't go well with these." I raised my wings a little, waving them around pointedly, but she crossed her arms, determined,
"That's what jackets are for! Come on Maaaax, you'd look even prettier then usual!" I rolled my eyes,
"El, I appreciate the effort but I'm going in a hoodie and jeans - end of story..." I scowled at my knees, muttering, "...that's if I end up going at all."
"What're you talking about?!" Ella asked, horrified, "The CSM kids are all psyched about one of their own infiltrating human society!" I didn't look at her,
"I know, I know, but you made me watch the X-men; not everyone would act as cool as your family if they found out about...y'know." Ella pouted a little, fiddling with the hem of her nightdress,
"...we just want to see you happy." I snorted at her,
"Since when have you talked about high school being a happy place?"
"It is!" She protested. "If they didn't give you homework it'd be even better!" She was staring at me with wide, hopeful eyes, and I felt myself deflate a little,
"Well, it's still making me nervous." Ella gently jabbed a finger into my arm, a mischievous look coming over her face,
"Aw...I know what it is...is Maximum Ride scared of cute boys?" I rolled my eyes but Ella was on a roll, reaching out with her hand and looking into the distance dramatically,
"I can see it now…the Angel that falls for a human…" I whapped her over the head again with my wing,
"Yeah, sounds totally plausible."
Ella made to laugh but yawned instead, stretching rubbing sleep from her eyes.
"Go back to bed Ella," I said, "the sun's not even up yet..." She frowned at me,
"I'm not leaving if you're just going to stay here worrying all morning!" I shook my head, and ruffled her hair making her scowl and try and pat it down flat again.
"Don't worry," I said, pulling my wings in and ruffling my feathers, "I'm going to go stretch my little bird legs."
Ella raised an eyebrow accusatively and I held up my hands in surrender,
"Relax...I'll be back in time for this high school adventure of yours."
She grinned happily and hopped to her feet.
Knowing I'd regret this whole thing, I stood up myself, following Ella as she walked out the bathroom door.
FANG POV
The elevator rushed downwards, sliding smoothly to a halt, and with a woosh of cool air the doors open sleekly.
The office floor beyond smelt of strongly of antiseptic cleaning products, but beyond that the room was creepily sterotypical for a spy base. The walls were almost completely covered in neat collections of wires and piping, computers and furniture gleamed professionally, and in every corner there was a survalliance camera.
The door to my right led to higher clearance levels of the institute, locked by key card entry and way above my paygrade. A desk and chair stood at the back of the room, and behind it sat Jeb, dressed in a suit with his elbows on the table and fingers interlocked. He smiled at me as I walked towards him, nodding tiredly,
"Morning Fang." I gave him a small nod and took up my usual breifing position in front of his desk. Jeb opened a draw to his right and took out an old fashioned pager, holding it out for me to take,
"Replacement for the ear piece, as requested. It'll vibrate and light up if the institute needs you."
I took it, attaching it to my belt gladly. The last few times they'd called me down to the Institute, the ear piece was so loud I'd flipped my school desk in alarm as someone yelled orders at me about shooting practise in the middle of triginometry. I'm pretty sure it was Ari's idea of a good joke.
"Anything else?" I asked. Jeb ran a hand through his dirty blonde hair, opening his desk draw again and bringing out a breifing file,
"We have a new mission for you. Ari will be on stand-by if you need him, but orders from above have given this mission to you only..."
Jeb slid the file over the desk to me, red words stamped across its cover reading; 'Top Secret; Mission Fallen Angel'
"There's a new student joining your year," Jeb said, "she goes by Maxine Martinez. She has vital information on Itex's top secret labs." I opened the file, seeing the usual school ID picture bearing the caption,
'Max Martinex'
'A.K.A: Maximum Ride'
Dark blonde hair hung loose around her face, her brown eyes glaring stonily at the camera. I scanned down the mission overview,
"How'd a student end up with intel on Itex?" Jeb shrugged,
"I have no idea - to be honest, we were lucky to pick her up. She's been lying low for months. Point is, now we've found her, we could really use any data that she's got on Itex. The higher ups tell me she's been at the epicentre of most of its operations, so whatever she knows will be key in bringing the whole corporation down." I looked up from the file, speaking a little slowly,
"I don't want to speak out of line..." Jeb waved a hand for me to carry on, and I put the file back on his desk with a frown, "why is this my mission? Ari usually has more luck with girls then I do - it's not like she's going to give up such sensitive information easily." Jeb sighed,
"Normally Fang, no offence, but I'd agree; you're a marksman, combat specialist, stealth expert. True, Ari can sweet talk his way out of any situation, but this isn't any normal situation. Max, she's..." Jeb paused, taking off his glasses and polishing them on the end of his sleeve, "...Maximum Ride has been through a lot with Itex. If we send Ari in to flirt and conquor like usual, she'll be gone with the wind - and if she's avoided both us and Itex this long, there's no way we'll be able to find her again easily." Jeb put on his glasses back on, pushed them up to the bridge of his nose and crossed his arms,
"I want her to have a friend. She needs a friend, someone that she can trust - that is how you'll get the information. If the head honchos had their way, they'd just bring her down here by force. I managed to convince them without our (and your) trust, she'll never say anything." I raised an eyebrow, still unsure,
"You sure I'm the best one for the job?" Jeb stood up, smiling modestly at me,
"You should have more faith in your social skills Fang, especially from what I hear about Nudge. If you do get stuck with how to make friends, I'm sure your sister would be more then happy to give you few tips on vocalisation." Jeb grinned jovially, waiting for me to accept mission impossible like I had some sort of choice.
I'd never turn down a mission - Mum would go beserk that I'd 'soiled her reputation'. I sighed heavily,
"...I'll give it a try." Jeb grinned, standing up and walking around the desk to clap me affectionately on the shoulder,
"Excellent..." Jeb kept his hand on my shoulder and fixed me with a much more nervous expression then I'd ever seen on him, "...you...I must emphasis the need to be careful with her Fang...I'm not going to lie, I'm on orders to get this done as soon as possible, but we have no idea what she's been through. You've never see one of Itex's labs up and running... It's caused her to—" Jeb scowled, staring at his feet, like he usually did when he wanted to say something that was above my clearance level.
"I know," I said, "I'm not high enough up in the food chain to know."
Jeb's hand left my shoulder, and he walked back to his desk chair. To my surprise he grimaced and said,
"No, you'll know. But it's something that needs to be seen and not heard. I'll arrange for Ari to clear things up for you." He hoisted a more businesslike expression onto his face and intrerlocked his fingers again, professionally,
"Now, gaining her trust isn't going to be easy, and that's if she trust anyone at all. She'll be protective, dismissive, and most likely a little agressive..."
The side of Jeb's mouth twitched a little, and I wondered just how much more he knew about this mission then he was allowed to tell me.
"Other then herself," he continued, "the only person she's going to be protective of is her adopted sister - Ella Martinez."
I opened the folder dropped on the desk, flicking through to the additional information section, and seeing yet another profile with a school ID belonging to Ella Martinez.
"She's a freshman" I clarified, recognising her, "one of Nudge's friends."
I flicked back to Max's picture, making a note of her face in case I managed to pass her in the corridors.
An alarm behind Jeb's desk started pinging and he lent back, clicking it off,
"Time for you to get going - school starts in ten minutes. Ari's already above ground." File in hand, I nodded respectfully and turned on my heel. Stowing the file away in my school bag I walked towards the elevator, the doors opening automatically as I reached them and stepped inside. I caught Jeb giving me a loose wave before the door slid shut and the lift began to rise.
Now out from under the gaze of authority, I let my head loll back, groaning.
Sure Jeb. Don't pick agent superman - it's not like every girl in the school thinks Ari's the hottest thing to walk this earth, they'd do anything to get close to him. No, the tall, skinny, agent with no social skills, no friends, and no desire to make conversation is clearly the better option.
I bet Ari was pissing himself about this. Me, talking. For longer then a few minutes at a time.
It'd be more effective if they gave a house plant this mission. If I'd known I'd be getting missions to make friends when I joined the Institute, Mum could've given them the plant personally instead of suggesting me.
So far the only missions I've had, have been investigating old Itex facilities, making sure they hadn't moved back in. Nothing really dangerous. The few new ones the Institute had managed to find, seemed to get a heads up that we were coming; because by the time we'd gotten there, Itex had already high-tailed it over the horizon, leaving only loose wires and lab equipment behind.
I'd been training to help take them down for just under six months, but apart from sneaking around to scope out disused buildings, I hadn't had the chance to use any of my 'specific set of skills'. Still, doing anything for the institute seemed to make Mum happy. She'd been forced to leave the institute after the car accident that'd killed Dad, and though Nudge's Dad was a good guy, she still never smiled much.
After six months I still had the lowest clearance level at the Institute, but there was the perk of getting my hands on the real 'gadgets, suits, and sunglasses' deal. The tech they assigned me was pretty cool, and despite their extensive proceedures and checks, their goal was to help people. They weren't doing badly either. They'd managed to shut down Itex branches all over the world, confining them to bases inside the US, and Doctor Hagen's leadership at the Institute had Itex on its last legs.
The familiar whooshing feeling in my stomach announced my floor and there was a quiet 'ding' as the doors whirred open. I stepped out into a closet, opening the door to walk out into the school's boiler room where the entrance to the Instistute was hidden. I crossed the concrete floor and trudged up the stairs set into the far wall. At the top I slipped through the door and out into the school hallway, following the steady flow of people walking right - heading towards my locker.
It wasn't far, right next to the water fountain, and standing right next to the fountain, leaning against the wall, was Ari.
His bleached blonde hair was stuck up with wax, and his blue eyes were scanning the corridor left and right. He had the kind of look that made me glad he was my partner and not my target. Though a little childish he was scarily strong, and fighting him in combat practise was like battling a machine of muscle rather then a teenager.
He'd always been a little rough around the edges, but as jocks usually went, he was alright. True, neither of us ever talked above ground or outside of missions; but that was only because it'd be wierd if we were seen talking to each other. We may be friends at work, but we weren't best buddies at school, and he was miles ahead of me in the popularity food chain.
Still, without one of his equally muscled football friends around, he could talk to my indirectly.
He was focusing on the passers by as I opened up my locker, but I caught his low voiced question,
"Get the low down on your mission yet?" Not looking at Ari (or A-jax as he was known in school) I rummaged about in my locker, keeping my voice low,
"Yep." I heard Ari snort, and the retort I expected came in a patronising tone,
"Now, I know talking is hard for you Fangy, but can people like you actually flirt?" I rolled my eyes, stuffing books into my bag a little aggressively (wishing we were below ground so I could at least try and drop kick him),
"Who said anything about flirting? The missions to make friends, not make her my girlfriend." Ari sniggered,
"Nah Fang, you just gotta pull a few tricks to ease a lady in. Just keep it PG, they find all that chivalrous stuff hot, trust me..." I scowled, searching my locker aimlessly,
"Sure. And how many girls have you gone through pulling that crap?" I saw him grinning out the corner of my eye,
"A couple." I spared a short glare at him, just reaching for my sketchbook as Ari straightened up, "oh hold up...here she comes...tall, blonde…with that Ella girl. Looks a bit uptight, like she's got something shoved up—"
"—I got it." I said, cutting off his language as they came into my peripheral vision. I got around staring like a wierdo by dropping my open pencil case, using the excuse of picking up pens to look around a little.
Kicking my locker shut, I bent down, recognising Ella's waist length dark hair as the two girls walked towards us. The girl walking at her side was wearing a hoody almost half way down her thigh, scanning her surroundings and looking more cautious than interested. Similar to her ID picture, she looked like she was braced for someone to pull out a gun, and she nodded intermittently as Ella spoke, clearly half listening.
"Yo, A-jax" said a recognisable voice, and I heard Ari exchange some form of 'cool guy greeting' with one of his friends. Gathering up the last of my pencils I stood up, glancing over my shoulder to see Iggy Griffiths - Ari's main man and partner in crime for most sports. Ari told me he only kept him by his side for Iggy's jokes, but I think he was just trying to justify having a friend that wasn't a dick.
He sure as hell played the dick above ground, meaning that as he passed he shoved into my shoulder, sending my pens scattering across the floor again.
I glared at him as he spun around, holding his hands up innocently. I made a mental note to kick his ass later - or more likley get in one punch before he floored me. Iggy scowled at him, apologising and handing me back the pens nearest before punching 'A-jax' dissaprovingly.
Ari grinned at me, letting out a small bark of laughter over his shoulder, knowing all I could do was to stuff my pens back in my bag and walk away from a lost fight.
Thanks for making it to the end of the chapter :) As promised, please accept this small factoid for your troubles,
Only one half of a dolphin's brain sleeps at a time.
The other half that's awake signals when the dolphin needs to come up for air to prevent it from drowning.
Fly on
M