DISCLAIMER: I don't own Maximum Ride. But I'm looking to buy the second book soon.

Set BEFORE the events of School's Out Forever (it's not released where I live yet); carries straight on from where The Angel Experiment left off.

Wings of Hope

Chapter One: The Sweep

It's funny how everything begins and ends with flying. Every story, every chapter of our lives starts and ends with the rush of the breeze through our wings as we cut through the wind and go against the currents of the air. I mean, what else needs to be said; we're half a dozen kids with wings - what else are we gonna do with them?

Anyway, as I said, everything pretty much starts off with flying. Fang, Iggy, Nudge, the Gasman, Angel and I were doing so – flying, if you didn't catch those last two sentences – and Total wasn't so much. More like lapping at the cold air like it was water, but it only made his little pink tongue drier, so he had to keep re-salivating to keep it wet. I guess that's why Fang was so distressed when the dog decided to perch his head on his shoulder; he'd get a nice dribble of dog muck soaking into his T-shirt and down his neck as an added bonus. I couldn't help but smile.

"Max?" Nudge banked and pulled up alongside me, our wings just about brushing as we down-stroked. Uh-oh. This could either be a 'I'm hungry' or a 'What do you think dot dot dot, et cetera et cetera' Nudge-one-sided conversation. Or a 'Don't you think –'

"Max?" Nudge repeated. "What do you think DC's gonna be like?" What'd I tell you – the girl can only phrase the five major Ws; who, what, where, when and why. But I love her really. She went on to answer herself without waiting for me to even open my mouth; "I mean, I think it's great that we get to meet our parents and all, but what if the city's horrible and the people are nasty and we have to stay there for a long time because it takes a long time to find the flock's moms and dads? And what if there are even more Erasers there? What if we have no parents there in the first place? What do we do then? What if –"

"Nudge," I addressed her firmly, trying to stem the flow of steadily worsening pessimism from her lips. Gosh, she used to be so optimistic (at least, she was when I last checked this morning), and now she's freaking out about all the bad things that could happen. She can't do that. That's my job. "I know you're nervous, but seriously, there's nothing to be worried about." Other than getting your head chewed by a man-wolf like it's a fluffy toy or something, when we get there – but then, that's a danger we face everyday, right? "I doubt that there are more Erasers in Washington than in any other area, but even if there are, we'll just kick butt and leave. Assuming we don't find our parents that is."

Nudge nodded like she understood, but I saw the doubt in her eyes. I wish I could have come up with something upbeat and hopeful to say, but how was that possible when my misgivings were a hundred tons heavier than hers?

"What's this about not finding our parents?" Iggy demanded from below, angling his head towards me, even though I knew he couldn't see me. Could he have said it any louder? What was originally a Max-Nudge conversation, had turned into a full-flock crisis: he had everyone worried now; Angel's attention snapped onto me, Fang turned round to face me with mild surprise in his eyes (Total planted a sticky tongue on his cheek, but Fang ignored it), Gazzy frowned and flew closer and Nudge looked at me with renewed intensity. Time to think hard, Max. You're the leader, you've got to set a positive attitude for the rest of the flock…

"Guys, guys, guys," I said, gesturing emphatically, making myself wobble about a bit in the air; Fang rolled his eyes as he continued his smooth gliding despite the squirming dog on his back. I would have stuck my tongue out at him, but that wouldn't have been very mature, would it? "Of course we're gonna find your parents. It's just… You know, you've got to take certain things into account; like maybe you'll find your parents, but they might not – you might not be exactly what they expect. I mean, some of them think there're child is dead, so when a kid with wings suddenly turns up on their doorstep claiming to be theirs… Well, that's gotta be quite hard to take in." Did I just say that? Did I just tell the flock that their parents wouldn't want them?

A stunned silence descended like soft autumn leaves upon the flock. I mentally hit myself in the head for saying such a thing. I avoided everyone's eyes and focussed my gaze on the ground below us, feeling guilty for saying everything that was truly on my mind since we had found those dreaded papers with the supposed flock's parents' names and addresses on them. I could feel the cold air slapping my face and the even colder reality of the flock sinking into the seriousness of my words. And suddenly, our lives didn't seem so bright after all.

Literally.

Fang started a low and logical sermon about not worrying to the rest of the flock; 'we will find your parents, you will be accepted by them, don't worry until the time comes to worry, blah blah blah,' but I wasn't listening. My second-in-command's voice faded away as I frowned and dipped lower to see what was going on. That was quite hard, considering I was several hundred feet above the ground, it was night-time and the lights were blinking off.

Confused? I knew I was.

Below, I could see giant chunks of land that were once dotted with little yellow lights, were suddenly plummeting into darkness. It was as if a huge blackout had just swept through the state, like a plughole had been unplugged and all the light was getting sucked down the drain, leaving…darkness. The land mass beneath us just gave way to complete black mass.

The next second I knew, I couldn't even make out the tip of my nose on my face and then the rest of the flock were shouting out in bewilderment, as we too, plunged into darkness. The stars weren't helping any, and nor was the moon (since it was covered by a severe plume of clouds) so we were basically flying around as blind as bats. It would have been a great time to develop sonar; even our great raptor-vision couldn't permit us sight without the slightest ray of light.

"What just happened?" Angel's little voice sounded behind me.

"I hear screaming," said Iggy curiously. I heard him dip lower to my level so that he was slightly closer to the ground. Of course, he didn't notice the rest of us just went blind – he was blind already. Now I know how he feels. "It's like a big crowd of people just started screaming down there. What's going on?"

"I can't see anything!" Nudge squealed nervously, forgetting entirely about the whole 'parents' issue. Phew. Next problem: entire city blackout.

"Max? Fang? I can't see anything either!" Gazzy was quick to join the blind parade, then I heard him collide with something and Total giving out an offending yip. "Ew, I touched something wet… Oh, sorry Fang…"

"Washington DC just blacked-out," I informed Iggy, feeling his wings swishing about somewhere in front of me. "The power just went poof."

Iggy sounded like he was concentrating. "There must be riots down there. I hear loads of shouting… Nudge, stop bashing me with your wing."

"Sorry. I can't see anything."

"Great excuse, Nudge; I mean, you are talking to a blind person, here."

Nudge sounded hurt. "I said I was sorry –"

"Whatever."

"Ig!" Fang's voice issued loud, but calm, above us. "Just listen out for a patch of land that is safe for us to land in – no people, no public transport, no sharp objects that we can impale ourselves on."

"And how am I gonna do that?" snapped Iggy frustratedly, "I've got good hearing, but I don't do the whole sonar thing." Damn. I guess that rules out the ultrasound power I thought up earlier.

"Just keep flying due south until you pass away from all the noise of the city," said Fang reasonably. Thank God one of us is thinking straight.

"Everyone still here?" I yelled out, taking the lead as the rest of the flock shouted back a 'yes'. "Ok, let's do as Fang says and fly in the same direction as we are now, only drop a little lower so that Iggy can hear what's going on down there. Keep up the same pace and don't lag behind - otherwise, we'll lose you."

I heard the swoop of wings and rustle of feathers, as we descended closer to the ground than we had ever gone before; if there was light, people would see us, but since there was none whatsoever, we had the cover of darkness on our sides. Something brushed my wing and I caught the faint smell of dog-breath to my right, so I immediately knew who it was before my comrade spoke up.

"We shouldn't fly so close to the ground," Fang advised me softly. "We could hit a building or something."

I didn't know what made me do it; what he said wasn't even funny and nor was our situation. But I still did it. I still managed to laugh. I snorted and had to cover my mouth with my hand to stop my spit from dropping down onto some poor human some feet below me. Us? Hitting a building? I mean, how stupid would we be to –

Thwack.

Fang shouted a 'STOP!' behind me as a clash of shrill ringing bombarded my head and the rest of my body that had smacked into something really hard. Did I just –?

"Max just crashed into a building," Fang explained to everyone in that monotone he uses when he's right and he knows it. Grrr, how much more annoying can he get? The rest of his words, however, were lost to me as the ringing got even louder, giving way to a pain that was close to the pain I first felt when the Voice began to enter my brain. Owww…

Funny, the last thing I thought was about Fang. I think I think too much about him, even if it's just about how much me annoys me.

And as I slipped into the blackness that was already surrounding me, the Voice decided to get in one of its oh-so-funny quips. Eh, this Voice annoyed me too.

I hope you didn't just crash into the White House…

A.N. As I've mentioned, School's Out Forever is not yet published where I live (UK), so I have no knowledge of what happens in the second book… I hope there are no similarities in my plot to what Patterson has already written – I don't want to be done for plagiarism!

Thanks for reading and I hope you enjoyed. The story gets livelier after this intro… please review and tell me if I should keep on posting!

Constructive criticism is appreciated (ie. NO flames)

Daygoner