Prologue
I absolutely hate being restrained. It's one of my two worst fears. After spending most of my life in a cage, and the other part running from people who wanted to put me back INTO a cage, even the thought of it will piss me off. I mean, there's just something about that feeling of powerlessness that just makes you want to, like, scream and explode and beat the living shit out of someone all at the same time. God it's so effing annoying. And then what will REALLY earn you a place in my own special version of hell, is if you put one of my own, my Flock, in danger. Try that, and I will break every bone in your body, and then toss you into the closest volcano I find. Point of the matter, don't put me in those situations. Or you die.
But I guess my captors didn't know that.
Today, like the previous five, I'm clamped down onto a stretcher in another School, unable to move most parts of my body, and watching Max through a window getting stabbed by needle after needle of some lab crap. God, it was absolutely revolting. And I know what you're probably thinking.
Dude, you've been in here for five days. You're FANG! When's the escape?
Max would be thinking the same thing. But don't worry, I have a plan. It involved the security passcode I memorized earlier today, when my whitecoat "masters" were being careless. There was a keypad on my wrist clamp, which I could reach if I bent my fingers the right way. Tough, but not impossible. Trouble was, the School security system gives you only one try.
Focusing my energy, I concentrated on slowing my heart rate, so no involuntary fight-or-flight movement would foil my escape. My breathing got slower, and my muscles relaxed. And then I was ready.
I slowly moved my fingers around, searching for the two. Uhmmmmmmmm, there. The number appeared on the keypad screen. Great, five to go. My index finger touched the two again, then the eight. I kept my movements slow, hoping the security cameras wouldn't pick up on my motions. My fingers moved down to the four, then the three, and then the eight one more time. The keypad flashed green, and the clamps hissed open. Now for the restraining belts. Pausing every so often to listen for intruders, I silently undid the Kevlar material. And then I was free.
Keeping my stealth, I inched towards the door and touched a handle. Immediately, a klaxon horn split the air, making me jump back a few paces. Okay, no more stealth now. I grabbed a low pipe on the ceiling and heaved my body up. Five seconds later a couple whitecoats rushed through the door. They stopped and stared at my empty bed for a few seconds, and then around the room. For some reason they never looked up. Sucks to be them. I jumped down on one of them, ramming my feet onto their shoulders. He crumpled immediately, and then I charged the next guy. He looked a little bit tougher, not by much though. I threw a few punches, he blocked some, then my third one hit him straight in the stomach. He staggered backward a few steps, then I shot him a roundhouse kick, and he was knocked out. Too easy.
Scientists dealt with, I ran through the open door and spread my wings. ( yeah WINGS. I'll explain later.)
Hands reached up at me and I dodged with ease. Then the guys with the guns came. I flew faster, heading for the door to Max's room at the end of the hallway. Almost there, 50 feet, 40 , 30, 20, I put my hands out, feeling oddly like Superman, ready to break that worthless sheet of metal (yeah I can do that too) that kept me away from my family.
Wham!
I hit the door, and it smashed right off its hinges. I pulled my wings in and charged in…..to an empty lab. I stopped short, and from the corner I heard a tiny hiss, and time slowed down. Shit! Tranquilizer! My muscles turned to jelly, I lost my balance and fell on the stone cold floor. The blackness slowly took me. My vision narrowed, quickly blotting out everything except for the one figure that appeared in the middle of the room.
Brown hair, tan wings, determined face. Unmistakably my Maximum Ride. Only one difference: her eyes. They were burning bloodred, with pure hate. "Do you enjoy betrayal, Fang?" she asked, her ice cold voice barely higher than a whisper. My world went dark.
And then I was falling.
My eyes snapped open, and the creepy School was gone. I was back in the mountains with the hawks, flying under the warm summer moonlight. I spread my wings, death black, and shot downward, finding a perch among the rocks. Bleh, the nightmares were becoming more and more common. All my time was spent thinking, about Max, the flock, Angel, and my choice. The note I got, it absolutely terrified me, which is oh so hard to do. But it reinforced the one undeniable fact: I had to leave the flock. And my mind flew back to Max, how I left her, my crappy letter, everything. Hope she would figure out someday, that this was the only thing I could do to save them. And I hope she would know, then, how much I loved her, and how much it hurt.
What the hell, Fang? Since when am I emotional? I took a deep breath, wiped the sweat off of my face, and took off again.
Chapter One
When you tell someone, "Hey I'm going to Ohio to look for some mutant freaks," they're like, "WTF? Why would any mutant freak live in Ohio? It's like the most boring place on earth!" I personally have nothing against Ohio, (Cedar Point FTW) except for the cold. I HATE cold. You have to put on a bajillion layers of clothes to not be cold, and then you end up looking like some crazy ass Martian. ANDD it makes it so freaking hard for us birdkids to fly. Bottom line, Fang no le gusta. So it really made me wonder that why my first candidate for my new "flock" happened to live in ol' Buckeye Ohio.
I'd been stopping in Missouri for dinner. Nothing fancy, just a couple of cheeseburgers, two large fries, and two cups of Coke(a-cola. U bad minded people). And a reassurance for the law abiding citizens reading, I bought all my food, using some of the money I took from my old house in Arizona.
Anyway, after promising the manager I wasn't some teen runaway, I threw away my trash and stepped out, walking toward a secluded spot. I was in the middle of nowhere though, so secluded is kind of relative. But, technicality aside, once I was sure that no one was watching, I unfurled my 14 foot wings, and let the setting sun wash over them.
Then I jumped into the air and sped upward toward the heavens.
Gods, flying is one of the few things in life you can do over and over and never get bored of. There's just something about moving among the clouds, and enjoying the amazing view offered by the sky that just clears everything from your head. It's simply breathtaking.
I set my course northeast, and soared away, my powerful wings carrying me easily at almost 250mph.
Now you probably noticed how I said NEW flock back there. Yes I had an old flock once. It was me (I'm 15 btw), Iggy (15), Nudge (12), Gazzy aka the Gasman who is 9 (Reason for nickname is on my blog), my Angel (7), and Maximum Ride, my best friend, our caretaker, and my first, true and only love. And whatever crap people tell you about "Don't worry. There are other birds in the sky (hehe) ," DON'T BELIEVE IT! You will NEVER frekain forget a first love.
Me and Max weren't always "together" though. That only happened after the whole underwater base G.I. Joe thing. First it was all six of us, recombinant human-avian DNA life forms, running (flying actually) around the world after one of the whitecoats who made us (Max's dad) helped us escape from our lab. We all grew up together, and Max, being the oldest by a day or something, became kind of like the leader/momma figure. I was her second in command. And if she was the queen, I was the army. I'm the strongest, and fastest, and the best fighter out of all of us, and it was always my job to make sure that none of my flock got hurt. Especially Angel.
Yes, she may be our smallest mutant, but she hit some kind of "genetic jackpot" and got a crapload of superpowers. This, unfortunately, gives her a big - major problem causing - head…a LOT. But I still love her. Even after the betrayals and everything, she's still my little sister, and it'll always be MY job to look out for her. So yeah.
Anything I missed on us, check my blog. Or you can check one of Max's books. Actually, I would recommend that, because she's got pretty much our whole story together, romantic moments included (girls….), and she's a much better writer than I am. See, I'm that mutant kid who doesn't really talk much, so I kinda suck at it. But I'm getting better, I hope :)
Anyway. Past my little memory lane vacation, it's nighttime again, and I'm going in for a little recon. Victim in question is this kid called Ratchet, one of the Gen 77 mutants who responded to the call on my blog. We set a password and I agreed to come and visit him. Give him something like a job interview I guess. However, I've been in wayyy too many battles to just walk into someone else's territory (especially a big city) with nothing but wings and a few genetic tricks.
My enhanced eyes had no trouble making out silhouettes on the dark roads. I scanned down the empty ones, searching for the shadows that announced a hidden bearer. There. On possibly the darkest one, a group of people emerged from a building, making a very large, if unsuccessful, attempt to not be seen. But my bird's eye view revealed all, as well as something that they didn't see: a police car waiting around the corner, ready to get the drop on them. I zeroed in on the officer in the car. He was in full on cop mode, completely focused on the entrance to the alleyway. Five seconds later he picked up his radio, and whispered something. In the alley, one of the shapes froze. He muttered something to his friends, and they dove back into the shadows. I zoomed in a little bit more, and I could just barely see a pair of aviator sunglasses covering his eyes. Ok, sunglasses at night…Mutant Alert! The sunglasses kid walked forward a couple paces forward just stood there, waiting. I figured this was a good time to grab a seat, so I dove down to one of the shorter buildings, and stood, watching with interest.
After five minutes, the cop, obviously tired of waiting for his targets, left the car, and walked to the alley. He saw the one kid, and pulled out his taser right quick. "Who are you?"
The kid wasn't even fazed. "Come here and find out."
Adults often underestimate us…then they get hurt. And Officer Ohio was about to get very nice beating. He edged slowly toward his opponent, keeping his weapon up. The distance between them decreased second by second, and then they were less than five feet apart.
"Take it easy, son," the cop said, aiming his taser at the kid's chest. The kid lunged, and Officer Ohio fired…at thin air.
The kid had moved a split-second before, and now he ducked down, going in for a sweep. The officer jumped back, and delivered a roundhouse kick to the kid's vulnerable head. But it missed again. The guy had moved a split-second before, like some crazy spider sense was telling what to do. And it pissed the cop off. He pulled out all the stops, and started coming at him from every angle, punch from the left, sidekick to the stomach, over and over again, a barrage that would have beaten down any normal criminal. Just not this kid. He dodged every single one of them, and didn't even break a sweat. Finally, Officer Ohio made his big mistake. He threw a punch at the kid's arm. The guy just grabbed it, right in his palm, held it there, and punched him in the stomach. The breath left Officer Ohio with an Oof! Cop went down.
Kid wonder stood up, and looked at him with a kind of sorry expression. His eyes flashed to the shadows, and back, and then he bent down and whispered, "Don't mess with us again." Then he clapped the surprised police officer on his temples, knocking him out.
"Clear," he called.
His friends slowly crept out from their hiding places and stared at the cop.
"Nice job," one of them said. And then the little boy-band walked away, leaving me both disgusted and quite impressed.
This new kid was going to be an interesting recruit.
