Welcome.

Well, here we are. This is my first FanFiction, sort of. I kind of tried before, but I never went along too well with the idea. Anyway, Maximum Ride is the best book of all time!! I hope my FanFiction can live up to the books.

Prologue - Picking Up Where We Left Off

Hola. Long time no write. I suppose I can begin to tell you what happened after Itex crashed. I mean, besides me going to my Mom's (I still can't believe I have a real mom, a real mom that can make a great chocolate chip cookie, which we took some of said cookie with us) house and all. It is actually about a week from then, now. But I think it would be best if we started off where we left...uh, off.

Let's see…I believe we were, well, coasting away into the sunset. There is still so much to do. I even made a list. Organized Max, that's me.

To Do List:

Finish off the Hydra, Itex. Or as Fang has become so fond of calling it, El Diablo.

Find Total a muzzle. Oh, God did he talk! Those scientists truly are evil.

Find out Fang's issue. Lately, even though we had gotten the flock back together he seemed to distance himself once more and he made every excuse to keep from looking in my eyes.

Go shopping, soon. Before Nudge ate me.

Catch all of you up so that we can get this show on the road!

As soon as we left mom's house I was confronted with the fact that I didn't really have a plan yet. We flew for a few hours in silence until finally Nudge cracked. Her poor mouth couldn't handle being shut for too long.

Finally she burst out with, "So, where are we going? What's the plan? Do we have a plan? When are we going to stop for food?" I rolled my eyes even though she couldn't see it from behind me.

I shifted my shoulders where the straps from the baby, ahem, dog carrier was. Iggy had convinced me to take Total for a while, much to my dismay. Luckily, he was sleeping away on my back.

"We will stop for food soon. We still have some day light to burn," I began to answer her. "As for the plan, well…I think we should start going along with Fang's idea and expose Itex. Get people to topple them with us."

Share the responsibility of saving the world with normal people, I thought bitterly. I shocked myself by admitting to Fang's idea being the right one. I looked over at him to see if he was going to say something that would earn him a Max –sized shoe print on his face. He kept quiet. In fact, he seemed to not even be paying attention.

We kept on for about another forty minutes until everyone started to get a little flight cranky. On top of that, guess who woke up and was moving around on my back? Time to stop.

I scanned the sky to see if there was a possible camp-out area near by. Haha, what do you know? There was a wonderful cave dug into a cliff, perfect for hiding, say six mutant kids and their dog for the night.

"Sharp left, guys. Cliff at nine o'clock, Ig." The flock turned swiftly and we all landed gracefully into the cave.

Before too long Iggy had made a fire and Nudge was trying out some of her recipes she had gotten online. We were now going to be eating real steak with real baked potatoes, courtesy of my mom's fridge. We had received a wire rack for grilling, a frying pan, and a lot of aluminum foil along with an assortment of eating and cooking utilities.

We all ate happily, I mean, sure beats dumpster diving, huh? Very soon after we were all fat and happy, after Ig and Gazzy played a not so friendly game of tic-tac-toe and Angel, Nudge, and I played some cards, everyone was off to bed.

Except me, of course. I was taking first watch. I went out to the edge of the cave and flew up to sit on top of it at the opening. I leaned back to watch the stars. They were bright when there was no nearby city light to dim them. I sighed.

And then I felt it. The need to let everything out. Do my crying now while everyone was asleep and I could be alone. So cry I did. I cried over my new family, cried over the 'expired' Ari, cried over the empty feeling I had, cried over how so not Max-like I felt right now.

I sat a moment, trying to catch my breath. I was still sobbing some when I heard a soft voice behind me.

"Finally letting it out?" I turned to see Fang behind me. How he had went through the entrance below me and gotten behind me was beyond me. Then I remembered that I had been crying and must have tears on my face.

I quickly swiped them away then turned to face him again. He had moved to sit next to me and was looking intently at his jeans.

"I was wondering when you would. You were starting to burst at the seams with all of that pent up emotion." Fang spoke without any hint to his emotions in his words. His jaw was tight and his eyes fixated anywhere that wasn't on me.

"Yeah…Just letting it get to me. So much has happened, you know?" He nodded in acknowledgement.

Just then I wished that I had Angel's ability to read minds. What could Fang possibly be thinking? I sighed. Since leaving Ella's house he had not said much of anything and had distanced himself a lot. Which usually isn't weird for Fang, but he was doing it more than he usually does. Which is really saying something.

"What's been up with you, Fang?" I decided to swoop in for a quick approach to get to the bottom of this.

"Nothing…I'm fine," he spoke quietly looking at his pants all the while.

Darn, no dice. He was going to be difficult about this. I opened my mouth to say something to get him to crack but before a sound even left my lips he had jumped down and went back into the cave.

I sat, stunned, for a moment. Soon he popped back out and said simply, "My watch, you can go catch some sleep." He jumped back up and sat down. Before I could speak again he had flipped open the laptop and started typing on his blog. Which, I might add, I am now really thankful that he started it. You would not believe how many people showed up at Itex's everywhere! Well, unless you were there.

I jumped down. He was already absorbed and made it very apparent that he was not going to say more tonight. I shrugged it off as him just being moody and went to catch some sleep.

The next morning I woke to the smell of...pancakes! I sat up and went over to the fire that they had started. Iggy was using his newly aquired frying pan to prepare a breakfast worthy of king. Well, genetically enhanced, mutant, birdkid kings. But, hey, who am I to complain? I was getting my face full of pancakes. When you have five of them shoved in your mouth, you wouldn't have room to complain either.

"Wanna play Old Maid later, Gazzy?" Iggy spoke to the Gasman while he flipped some pancakes in a pan then caugh them with graceful ease. Strange how the blind guy was the best cook, huh?

"Old Maid?" The Gasman whined. "Why can't we play poker or something?"

Iggy inched a little closer to Gazzy and whispered, "No, no...Old Maid." He slathered emphasis on Old Maid.

"Oooooh!" Gazzy winked, then stopped remembering he was blind. "Old Maid. Gotcha. Perfect, great way to start the day." They were already talking about how to build the best game of Old Maid and what they would use it on and how big of an explosion Old Maid would make.

"You do know they aren't going to be playing Old Maid, don't you?" Nudge was giving me a look that said, 'I am not going to be responsible for anymore damaged property if these two blow up something expensive.'

"Really? I had no idea! I thought they were going to throw cards around." I tried to go for sincere. Angel came up and sat in my lap. Her blonde hair was getting longer and the curls were straightening with the weight of the extra length. Maybe we should head to New York for another makeover? I smiled at the idea.

You would really rather get your make up done than finish saving the world? Haven't I told you that you need to keep your eyes on the prize? The Voice put its two-cents in.

I know, I know, Jeb. I just thought maybe a nice break would be great before we went off to kill ourselves again. I thought back to him. I actually kind of liked my Voice after I thought about how many times it had saved my hide. The whole flock didn't have enough fingers to count that one.

"Can we really go?" Angle looked up at me with a bright smile. My heart tightened.

Now, Jeb...How can I say no to that face? I mentally laughed even though I knew he had already left. My mind was set. We were going. A trip to a sort of familiar place to just relax would be nice for a bit. Maybe we wouldn't get any Erasers or Flyboys chasing us? That would be a dream.

Soon I had filled in the rest of the flock and we were off. Big Apple, here we come. I turned and counted heads. My eyes finally fell on Fang. He looked away as I looked at him. What was his problem? I would get to the bottom of this sooner or later. Hopefully sooner.

Done for now. Let me know what you think. Sorry for the crappy Max and Fang moment. I am trying to get into Max form, but Max and typical anime characters do not mix. If you can imagine Max in an anime form that is pretty much what I am trying to ward off. So, I am sorry guys if I mess up her character. I blame anime!

-cries-

Also, check out for sure! It is awesome. Leave some comments on Fang's blog. Tell him that Raegan sent you. Maybe you could direct them to read my fan fiction? Haha.

Anyway, comment please, I would like to know if you guys think I am handling things ok.