i do not own Maximum Ride, or any recognizable elements, which belong to James Patterson. I only own my original characters which I have created, along with the plot.


My name is Blake. Short for Blakelyn.

Pleased to meet you, I guess.

Bet you're wondering why exactly I'm writing this, right? Well, I am too, but Molly said it might help.

Whatever that's supposed to mean.

I doubt it, but hey, whatever. I'll give it a shot.

I guess I should tell you about my Pride - my family - and where we came from, right? I guess that's how these things work.

Well, the oldest is Gabe. His name is actually Gabriel, but he doesn't like it. Probably because I started calling him Gabriella. He's not exactly a small fry - he's gotta be over six feet tall. He's blond, though, so I tend to tease. It's what I do. Keeps him from taking me too seriously. Anyway, he's sixteen. Only four months older than me, and he never lets me forget it, either.

After me, comes Kitti. Her name is Katherina, but hey. Kitti sounds better. She's fifteen, and about... oh... five-foot-four. She's short. I don't really trust her all that much, but I guess I can delve into that later.

Then comes Jag, our thirteen-year-old pet. All he ever does is talk, and he talks fast. Heck, everything about him is fast. And he eats like there's a one-hundred year famine on the way. Let him loose on the world, and there would be.

And, finally, the baby of the group, Vicky. Seriously, she's a baby: Only two-and-a-half. She's my little sweet-heart, really. I've taken care of her since the Zookeepers dumped her on me back when she was really little. I didn't mind, though.

As for where we came from, surely you've heard of Itex and all it's branches, yada yada yada. We came from one, located down in good ol' Mexico. Everyone calls it 'The Sanctuary'. It was a small-but-well-paid little place. We were among the only recombinant-DNA projects there. Mainly, their department was the DNA part. They worked on grafting and creating creatures just from their DNA. Kind of like that dinosaur movie, where they create dinosaurs from the DNA stuck in the mosquito.

Okay, not really. But that's the best way I can describe it. Who do you think I am, some kind of Zookeeper?

Zookeepers were what we called the scientists that worked at The Sanctuary. They were decent enough, for scientists anyway. They fed us, gave us clothes, made sure we were 'comfortable', if you'd believe that.

But enough about that. Since Itex was 'taken care of' by the wonderful Maximum Ride, we were shipped to that stupid 'Lerner School for Gifted Children'. Or whatever it's called. I don't really care, to be completely honest.

It's not really any better than The Sanctuary was. At least at The Sanctuary I didn't have to study, or do chores, or anything else. All I had to do was run on a treadmill, comply with the blood tests, etc, etc. Here, there's math.

Ugh. Talk about cruel and unusual punishment.

And that... that... the marvelous Maximum Ride got to skip out. We didn't. She and her merry flock got to go where ever they wanted, whenever they wanted.

How could she be so lucky? She's got four loyal friends, that dark one that's obviously head-over-heels with her, freedom, wings, not to mention a freaking dog!

You've heard her story, about how she's supposed to 'save the world' and all.

Now it's our turn.

It's nothing personal, really. We've never even met.

It's just the way things are.

Cats just don't like birds.

And yes, I do mean cats. Well, actually, big cats.

Lion, tiger, snow leopard, cheetah, and panther, to be exact.


okay, my first attempt at a MR story. did it suck terribly? i don't know if anyone has ever done a story like this, cause i haven't read any. review? please? i'll try and update asap.