A/N: So, I decided to rewrite this story…yes, I deleted it and I totally forget what my plotline was, but I'm going to try because I feel like it!

I don't own Virals or Maximum Ride!

MaxPov

Currently, we were flying over the islands off the coast of South Carolina. It wasn't my suggestion, but I figured it would work. We needed an inconspicuous hiding spot. You see, a couple days ago, we were attacked by Erasers in Virginia…you know, after the whole Anne incident…of course we beat them, but we came away with more injuries than normal. Especially Angel, she got a concussion and an Eraser broke one of her wings. My arm is broken, Fang has a black eye, and we're pretty sure his nose is broken, Iggy has some pretty deep claw marks in his cheek, Nudge broke her wrist, and Gazzy has a nasty gash in his leg. We needed some time to heal without having to run all over the place.

Fang was carrying Angel, being the only one of us who actually could, and I could tell he was getting tired; we all were, so I suggested we land. I surveyed the area, and found a small island connected to the mainland. We dove and landed on an isolated abandoned beach. Iggy got started with the fire, and I went to look for some more firewood.

I stepped through the trees and found an odd shape hidden in the sand dunes. I shrugged and pushed myself forward, investigating. I stumbled over a tree root I didn't see, and looked up, finding myself at a doorway. I opened the door and stepped inside.

It was an old bunker from one of those wars I didn't care enough to learn about, but it was decked out with a ratty couch and some chairs. It looked as if it was used as a club house, but those kids wouldn't miss it for one night.

"Hey Flock!" I called, walking back to camp, "Put the fire out Iggy, I found a better place to stay." Fang gave me a look, and Nudge looked hopeful while Iggy went and grabbed a handful of water and sprinkled it over the fire before stomping it out. Gazzy was already asleep next to his sister so Fang picked him up gently, and I scooped Angel up with my not broken arm. I led them to the bunker/club house. "What do you think?"

"It's perfect!" Nudge gushed, running in. Fang gave a half smile and walked in after her.

"What is it, exactly?" Iggy asked, walking up to me.

"It's an old bunker," I explained, "and I think it's being used as a club house, but whoever uses it won't miss it for one night."

"Nice find," he said with a smile as I led him inside.

We decided that Gazzy and Angel would share the couch, Nudge would take one of the chairs, and the boys insisted that I take the other chair because of my broken arm. Iggy and Fang were on the floor with Iggy keeping watch because he had the best hearing.

I didn't realize just how tired I was until I was in the chair. I fell asleep the second I shut my eyes.

~0~

I woke up to the rustle of bushes outside the bunker. My senses were on high alert as my eyes snapped open. The rest of the flock was asleep, including Iggy, who must have been just as tired as the rest of us despite the assurances he gave us that he would be fine all night. I shouldn't have listened to him, I should have insisted that I take second watch, even though I was as tired as the rest of them, ugh, sometimes I just feel so stupid! Now they were all asleep and we were all cornered by whoever was about to come through the door.

"Guys!" I whispered. Everyone's eyes flew open, automatically on alert. Everyone except Angel, who stayed asleep...slight side effect of the concussion she received, but I wasn't worried about her, I knew that we would be able to get her out if we needed to.

The flock looked to me, waiting for instructions, or at least an explanation as to why I woke them up so urgently. Iggy answered for me though, hearing before everyone else. "Someone's coming." At that point, everyone stopped and listened, but it was totally pointless, considering they were walking through the door.

ToryPov

My alarm went off, reminding me that I promised the Pack I would meet them at the bunker at 7 this morning. I groaned; what a stupid idea, what was I thinking? Oh yeah, we were going to practice flares, and hopefully help Ben. He's the only one of us who can't flare on command, and that could be potentially dangerous, especially with all the trouble we get into.

I rolled out of bed and did my morning routine, showering and getting dressed in my normal cargo shorts and thin t-shirt. I attempted to brush the tangled mess that was my hair, key word being attempted, and gave up, shoving it up into a ponytail. Grabbing my bag, I put a second set of clothes and my cell inside and ran out the door, telling Kit I'd be back later.

"Tory!" He called.

I turned around. "Yeah?"

"Whitney's coming for dinner. I expect you home by 5 at the latest, especially since I'm working late today."

I winced. Ugh, Whitney. "How late?" I asked, hoping he would be there for dinner too.

He hesitated, "I won't be home for dinner."

Ugh! "Fine," I sighed. I turned on my heel and headed for Ben's house. We had agreed yesterday that we would go down as a group. After the shock of everything that's happened, it was just more comfortable for all of us.

Ben was heading out the door as I walked up to his house. He gave me a nod and a smile, acknowledging my presence, and as soon as I caught up, we headed further down to meet Hi and Shelton, who were a bit early. We headed down to the bunker.

The guys and I were walking when Cooper ran out of the bushes and jumped into my arms, licking my face and barking. "What is it Coop?" I asked. This was weird, Cooper usually didn't like to leave the bunker without us, and he seemed almost...frantic. I let the wolfdog down and he bounded towards the bunker, stopping only to look back to make sure we were still following.

When we got closer, I could sense there was something wrong, and I quickened my pace. I desperately wanted to flare, but what if I was overreacting? We reached the bunker and I opened the door. When I looked inside, there were five pairs of eyes staring at me.

I was frozen. Completely frightened. Honestly, if I could have flared in that moment…I would have, but I was so taken off guard that I wasn't even thinking straight. Even if I was in immediate danger, I wouldn't have been able to protect myself in that moment.

Fortunately, as the stare-off continued, I started to thaw out enough to notice that they were only kids, most of them younger than us and I noticed that only four pairs of eyes were actually focused on us. The fifth pair was focused on the wall next to us and there was a sixth kid, still curled up on our couch, fast asleep. We were in no immediate danger that I could detect, and I broke the tense silence.

"Hey," I said softly, as to not frighten them more, although they didn't seem so much frightened as tense, as if they expected us to attack them. The set of eyes that were focused on the wall shifted to focus on a point just above my left eyebrow, and the little shape that was fast asleep two seconds ago squirmed and a pair of unfocused, angelic, blue eyes struggled to make contact with mine. My heart melted. I noticed the oldest girl with dirty blonde hair and chocolate brown eyes follow my line of sight to the angelic little girl and her eyes snapped back to mine, hardening exponentially. I couldn't help but glare back at her. I mean, come on, this is our bunker that she and her friends practically stole from us and she is glaring at me as if I just infiltrated their special place. The nerve!

A hand rested itself on my shoulder. I broke the glare with the girl to glare at whoever had their hand on my shoulder, and was surprised to see that it was Ben. He gave me a look that said 'stop with the alpha wolf crap.' I sighed and looked back at the group of kids in front of me. "Why are you guys here?" I asked as nicely as I could manage with Blondie staring me down and Ben's hand gripping my shoulder.

"We needed a place to stay," Blondie answered flippantly.

I wanted to punch her in the face, and as I advanced to do just that, Ben's grip on my shoulder became deadly and I felt the rest of the Pack hold me back too. I gritted my teeth and practically growled at her. "Well too freaking bad!"

SNAP.

Shit. I closed my eyes, covering them with my hand, and turned so I was facing my Pack and not the other kids. I looked at them, and their eyes all widened in surprise. I rubbed my temples, the sudden sensory overload in combination with the overflowing anger that caused the flare made for a bad headache.

I took a deep breath…and smelled something I didn't expect to smell. Underneath the anger, anxiety, and confusion flowing through the bunker, I smelled bird. But the weird thing was, it didn't smell like there was just a random bird in the room, it had the same scent as if I were smelling the wolf part of the Pack. It was a part of us…could it be possible that the bird was a part of them? I was pulled from my odd train of thought when Blondie spoke up again.

"What's wrong, Red?" She taunted, and I could practically hear the smirk in her voice at winning our little glare war.

"Max, calm down," A low male voice suggested. So Blondie's name is Max…interesting, I thought.

Max took a deep breath, and I could smell the difference. The anger in the room dropped substantially, and was replaced with more anxiety.

I looked at my Pack, "Do something," I whispered, almost inaudibly, "Because I obviously can't."

Shelton stepped up to the plate. "Look," he started, "We don't want any trouble. It's just that, well, you guys kind of crashed in our bunker…"

"Kind of?" I scoffed, crossing my arms. Ben whacked my arm warningly and I rolled my golden eyes at him.

Shelton hesitated, "Okay, moving on…why are you guys here? I mean, aside from the obvious. Don't you guys have parents? How did you get here anyway? Oh," he added, "and who are you?"

"Well," Blondie, oops, I mean Max said, "Is Red done with her temper tantrum?"

My anger blossomed almost to the point of turning around and scaring her into being civil…but that wouldn't exactly be practical would it? "No," I steamed, "Not quite, oh, and my name is Tory, thanks. Feel free to continue without me." My nails bit into my palms, leaving crescent shaped cuts that were deep enough to leak blood. I cursed; unfortunately, I would have to deal with the pain of that later.

Ben looked at me worriedly. I knew why too, because this wasn't me, I usually didn't act this way. I sighed, and looked at him. "Can I help?" He whispered. I shook my head; my flare had to die on its own, unfortunately.

Max took my advice and introduced everyone. "Well, my name is Max, this is Nick, Jeff, Tiffany-Krystal, Zephyr, and Ariel—." I cut her off.

"You liar!" I shouted. I could not only hear the lie, but I could smell it. "What's with the fake names, Blondie? Huh? What've you got to hide?!" Of course, the effect was smothered by the fact that I was shouting over my shoulder. Ben took another death grip on my arm, keeping me from revealing my primal gold eyes. I met Ben's eyes (he was the only one still visible to me, Shelton and Hi had moved inside the bunker while Shelton was speaking to them). "Please calm down," he practically pleaded.

"I can't," I breathed back.

"Well you're a coward!" Max yelled. "Only a coward would make an accusation like that without facing me! It only takes your little boyfriend to hold you back." That's it.

I whirled around, breaking out of Ben's grip and stormed over to Max, pushing her up against the back wall of the bunker. "You listen to me," I hissed, "I don't care what you're problem is, but you don't just come in here like this is your territory when it's mine and threaten me and my Pack like that! Get your act together and stop being such a snotty brat who thinks she knows everything and owns everything! Because you are not that special!"

Her chocolate brown eyes were wide with surprise and I could smell the fear radiating off of her, actually radiating off of everyone in the room. The full realization of what I'd just done hit me like a brick wall.
SNUP.

My flare finally died and I gazed around the room in complete shock, trying to survey the damage. Max was completely frightened, the tall dark boy who I heard speak before looked frozen, tense, the mocha skinned girl was staring at me, wide-eyed, the little boy was gripping the edge of the couch as if it was his life line, and the little angelic girl with the soft blue eyes was looking at me with...understanding?

I looked to my Pack, Hi and Shelton both looked like they couldn't believe I just did that, trust me, I couldn't believe it either, and lastly, I looked to Ben. He looked calm, but I could sense his devastation, he thought he failed me.

"I'm so sorry," I whispered. And then, I ran out of the bunker. As I ran through the trees towards the beach, I couldn't help the tears that streamed down my face. I collapsed in the sand. I don't deserve to be a Viral. I'm a failure; I just gave up our secret to a bunch of kids we don't even know because I couldn't keep a leash on my stupid temper!

I was so upset that when I heard footsteps behind me, I didn't even bother to look to see who it was.

"God, Ben, I'm so sorry," I sobbed. I felt a hand lightly touch my back, and then there was a presence beside me. I looked over and saw...Max? I sniffled and tried to wipe away my tears, the last thing I wanted to do was cry in front of her.

"It's okay," she soothed, "Look, I know we both have our differences, but we have the same...spirit. Although I don't understand what happened, I get it." She sighed, and hesitated, as if she was having trouble getting the words out. "I forgive you for freaking out on me, because I do the same thing all the time, like just now. Plus...I admire your fire. Not many people have that, and I think it's got something to do with being the alpha..." I gave her a surprised look and she smirked. "I may have been scared to death, but don't think I didn't catch the part about threatening your 'Pack'...I get it because, well, you were threatening mine."

I looked at Max in a whole new light. That's it, Max was being so defensive and mean because my pack was threatening hers. I gave her a smile. "I'm sorry for that. Let's start over," I said, holding out my hand, "Hi, I'm Tory Brennan."

She laughed; it was a happy, bubbly laugh that I don't think many people got to hear. She took my offered hand. "And I'm Maximum Ride, pleasure to meet you."

A/N: Okay, I figure some explaining is in order. I wanted to do an…experiment of sorts. I came up with this idea of how they meet, and at first I thought, 'Well, they could just talk'…but I figured that was boring. Then I thought 'Well, there could be a fight scene', but I'm no good at fight scenes. So then, I came up with this. Alpha female to Alpha female. Yes, it got bitchy, but that was my take on it. I also couldn't figure out a way for them to become friends, but I was swamped from trying to get the meeting scene right! So…please review! I promise it will get better. ;D