Yay!!! I am writing this for the Fang, Fang, FANG! Contest (created by Maximum Ride Contests :)) in the category Best Action/Adventure! Yay!!!

So, I know this first chapter kind of sucks, but it's gonna get better. I just needed to explain several things before getting the story started. Also, just wanted to clear something up. Although there is a small mention of Fax below, there's not gonna be much mushy romantic stuff in here...

So anyways, I don't own Maximum Ride. I do own this idea, though. So if anyone else has thought of this, sorry. Oh... you'll find out about the plot in the next couple of chapters, I think. :)

The wind whipped my overlong hair in front of my eyes. I brushed it aside, frustrated. Max kept telling me I needed a hair cut, and I knew it was true, but I wasn't about to admit it.

You might have figured this out by now, but I'm Fang. You probably know me from Max's book. If you've read it, you know that our mission is to save the world. Or rather, was. See, about half a month ago, Iggy and Gazzy made us, like, the mother of all bombs. We freed all the experiments inside the main Itex plant – in Washington state – in the middle of the night, then bombed the stupid sons of bitches in broad daylight, reducing it to a pile of rubble in mere seconds.

So pretty much everyone in the world knew about us now. Not exactly a dream come true for Max and me, but everyone else seemed to enjoy it. The CSM was practically drowning in donations, and there were special schools – at least one in almost every country of the world – for the experiments who had been subjected to the torture of Itex, to help them get up to date on everything they might need to know to help them live a normal life. Soon they would be able to speak and act like normal human beings. The world would, hopefully, accept them, and I was thankful for that. We didn't have to attend them, though, much to the entire flock's relief.

At first, we had been staying at Max's mom's house. But I just don't think that's our thing. After a few days of staying there, we grew restless. And you really don't want to be around a restless Gasman. I guess, after almost a year of being on the run, it's kind of hard for us to settle down.

So here we were, flying contentedly through the air. I think we were somewhere over Texas. We were on our way to Florida – the kids wanted to see Disney again, and the prospect of a beach didn't sound too bad, either. We were coming from California. We hung out there for a couple of days, since the girls wanted to see Hollywood, and us guys saw it back when the flock was split up.

Ugh. Just thinking about that made me shudder. I glanced over at Max. Yeah, we're together now. So just the thought of being apart from her seems like the end of the world to me. I must sound really feminine right now, but I'm not afraid to admit that I love Max. At least, not afraid to admit it in my head. I sighed. I was such a wimp.

"Max!" Nudge whined from behind me. "I'm hungry."

"And tired," the Gasman added.

I looked down. We were flying over a really big city.

"I think that's Houston, below us," Max replied. "Let's stop there. You guys wanna stay in a hotel tonight?"

"Yeah!" Nudge said, and the Gasman nodded eagerly. Max looked at me, and I shrugged.

We spiraled downward. We didn't have to try to stay unseen, which was a nice change. But we tried not to be too noticeable. We landed right in front of a hotel. After we checked in – the hotel manager insisted on giving us the best suite for free, which was one of the good things about being famous – we went up to our room. We set our backpacks down on the carpet. They each contained two changes of clothes, and Dr. Martinez and Jeb had insisted on sharing the cost of buying us each an iPod and cell phone. They also gave Max a thousand bucks, which led me to believe that they were swimming in cas or something.

But I digress.

Max sat down in a chair and propped her feet up on the desk that was against the wall. Nudge, Angel, and Gazzy ran off to admire our nice room. Iggy sank carefully onto the couch, then leaned back. I plopped down next to him. Max sighed.

"What's wrong?" I asked.

"I dunno," she said, looking worn out. "It's just – the lack of stress... it makes things seem more stressful somehow. I'm just so used to being constantly alert, to having to watch for Flyboys and stuff that it's kind of weird not being in constant danger, you know?"

I nodded. I was about to reply, but my phone suddenly rang from my pocket. I pulled it out and looked at the screen, then my brow furrowed. "It's Jeb. Should I answer it?"

Max looked puzzled, but she nodded. I hit the green button and held the phone to my ear. "Yell-o?"

"Fang? It's Jeb."

"I know," I answered shortly. "What's up?" We still weren't so sure about Jeb, but I figured if he was going to turn on us – again – he would've done it by now.

"I need to talk to you in person. Just you, not Max. Where are you right now?"

I frowned. "We're in Houston. Why just me?"

"I'll explain when in see you. Can I meet you guys at dinner in three hours? I'm in San Antonio right now." I wondered absently why he was in San Antonio, but replied, "Fine. Meet us at... that burrito place. Mission Burrito?"

"Okay. See you then."

I hung up. Max, seeing my vaguely puzzled face, asked, "What did he say?"

"He wants to meet us at Mission Burrito. To talk to just me."

Max was about to reply, but was interrupted by shouts from the bathroom.

"Gazzy! Nudge! They have five different colors of bar soaps! No – Gazzy, don't eat them!"

I rolled my eyes and got up. "Gazzy, you're not supposed to consume the complimentary soaps!"