A/N: We all know who owns Maximum Ride... James Patterson. Anyway, this idea, as corny as it is, was all mine. Written as a "fourth of july" oneshot. I let it sit in my files until I had time for an edit. (It's December!) I didn't have the heart to cut it, so i have left it at it's original length.
Enjoy, because we're all pyros at heart.
-twilightjunkie1313
Max Pov:
It is the fourth of july. That meant huge and highly explosive fireworks, lots of corn on the cob and the occasional parade. But mainly lots and lots of fireworks.
So naturaly it is Iggy an Gazzy's favorite holiday.
It was also four in the morning.
"Please can we get some fireworks?" Gazzy begged, kneeling a few feet from me, hands clasped in front of him. We were already deep into the begging stage.
"No."
"Come on!" Gazzy's tone was indignant. Wonder where he learned that...not me.
"Yeah, it's american tadition." Iggy chimed in. He had been awake for a while now too, but he was using a diffrent approach. Iggy was not one to flat out beg, he preffered arguing the pros of his various ideas.
Fang was also awake, watching the scene play out with a smirk on his face. Angel was asleep, so was Nudge.
"I said no. We do not need to set off bright, loud explosives. They do not help the lay low and keep quiet plan." I patted myself on the back, internally. It was a very good response.
"Please?"
"No."
"Please?"
"Nein."
"Huh?"
"No."
"Pleasssssse?"
"No, and if you ask me again I will search your stuff and confiscate anything I think could be used for a bomb." That shut them up.
They both turned to Fang.
"No." He said in his standard emotionless tone. Note to self: thank Fang.
I was getting so sick of this, Iggy and Gazzy needed to go to bed. Otherwise they would be half asleep all day. As much as I wanted them to sleep for the day (thus avoiding them begging me for fireworks) it would screw up their already convoluted sleep cycles.
I had them sleeping in less than three minutes. What can I say, I am very persuasive when I want to be.
Fang rose from his place in the corner of the cave. He shot me an amused grin.
"Are you going to let me take watch?" He asked, stretching slightly.
"Yes." I replied, knowing I had been on for most of the night. I walked to the mouth of the cave.
Fang Pov:
Max stood and stared out, our eyes were strong enough to see at night. Normally I would have brushed it off as Max doing her own thing.
But not today, she had pulled nearly a full watch. It was hardly past four, and already she had argued with Iggy and Gazzy. She was tense, bothered. Something was wrong.
"Max?" I asked, using a neutral voice. She turned abruptly to face my direction.
"Hmm?"
"Are you going to sleep today?" I could tell from her face that sleep wasn't a top priority.
She was thinking, planning someting.
"Max." I said a bit sharper, snapping her out of her trance.
"Ermm, Not right now. I have to go do some stuff." She looked at me, her sentence dropping. Then with no further notice, she lept out of the cave.
I did a 360 out of habit. My gaze falling on Iggy.
I laughed to myself. There was no way Max would cave and let Iggy and Gazzy come within 200 feet of a firework. I couldn't blame her, Iggy and Gazzy were pyros of the worst kind.
They knew what they were doing, and they had the special ability of turning anything into a bomb. Worst of all, they were not afraid of turning anything into a bomb.
It was just bad karma to let them near fireworks.
Max Pov:
A few minutes ago I had jumped out of our fabulous cave and taken to the skies. My final destnation? A firework wearhouse storage and distribution center. I was going to get Iggy and Gazzy some fireworks.
Now I am about 100 sure that went against everything I had just told them not an hour ago. I wasn't too concerned about it. Iggy was right, it was just plain wrong to not have fireworks if your a 14 year old pyrotechnical genius...or the close friend of one.
That and It would make them happy. Really happy, and they deserved that.
(TEN minutes later)
I landed in the middle of some random park. (Note to self: post blog entry about parks.)
I walked out of the park onto the street, acting very calm and nonchalant. It was about five in the morning. Ahead of me was a big half empty, decrepid wearhouse. On the side of it hung a huge plastic sign saying 'Fireworks here.'
So I smiled, shook out my hair and began to walk toward the building.
I got to the door and descovered-it was locked. Big surprise. So I glanced around and noted that wearhouse security sucks bigtime. There were three huge dirty windows right next to the door, half a block down was a fire escape. I glanced around somemore and spotted an alley way.
Could these people be any dumber? They had practicaly painted a 'break in' sign on the door.
I smiled and walked to the fire escape, jumping up and grabbing the bottom rung of the ladder. To my surprise the ladder slid down, putting the bottom rung about three feet off the ground. I almost smacked my forehead on the pavement.
It took about two minutes to get in, pick out some random fireworks and get out. I had to stop and leave the appropriate amount of money on the temporary counter by the door.
After I shoved the explosives into my bag I ran to the park and launched into the air. I felt pretty good. Morally I was in a good place, having not stole the fireworks, nor broken into the building.
But technically I was now a grade A hipocritical jerk. If I were more of a goody-good that would bother me. But I wasn't, so it didn't.
Fang Pov:
Being on watch was really kind of relaxing. Normally it's pretty stressful, but not today. Max and myself had picked out a really awsome cave. It was big enough for Iggy and myself to stand in without hitting our heads. It had a lip that kept the rain out, and some ledges for the flock to sleep on.
So basicly it was the most amazing place to spend a weekend. Easily defendable, out of sight and impossible to reach on foot. It was also in the middle of nowhere.
Iggy shuffling in his sleep snapped me back to reality. I did another 360 and then stared out at the sky.
Wait a second, there was a huge flying thing out there. Max, it has to be. Erasers never flew alone, and it was way to big to be a bird. Well a normal bird.
Max Pov:
I glided into the cave without hitting anything. I was very proud on that little feat, especially since my backpack was loaded with about fifty pounds of explosive material.
"Hi." I said dully, trying to act like i wasn't carrying stolen contraband. In truth I wasn't, I had paid for all of it.
Fang looked me over, his eyes narrowed.
"Where were you?" He asked, my face began to go red. I turned away, my back to him so he couldn't see me blush.
Fang Pov:
Max's backpack was full. It hadn't been when she had left. So logicly she had gone and gotten something...but what?
"What's in the bag?" I asked calmly, she froze.
"Nothing." She replied after a second, her back still to me. Max sucked at lying, at least to me.
In a smooth motion I took a step toward her, unzipped the bag and reached my hand inside it. Lighting fast I pulled my hand back out holding...
"Fireworks?" My voice was surprised and amused.
Max spun around to face me, her eyes wide.
Max Pov:
Crap. Fang had outed me, and he seemed...surprised?
But not mad. Definetly not mad, in fact he had a small smile on his face.
"You should have let me come." He said slowly.
"I ahh, erm yeah." I stuttered, caught off guard.
"Why did you get these?" He asked putting the firework from his hand back into my bag, closing the zipper quickly.
I had to think about that for a second.
"They deserved them."
Fang Pov:
A few minutes after she landed Max went to sleep. I was left on watch, and in charge of the explosives backpack. In about another hour the flock, minus max, would wake up. I would let her sleep past breakfast.
One Hour Later...about.
I stood and walked to the back of the cave, where it was still kind of dark. I decided to wake up Iggy first. So I kicked him gently in the ribs.
"Go the 'ell away." He replied, sounding a little british.
"Get up pyro. It's the fourth." I muttered coldly, kicking him a few more times for good measure. He groaned, and sat up.
I walked over to Angel, she had managed to crawl onto a high rock shelf and curl up into a ball. I rubbed her back softly, and she began to move.
"It's a holiday." I muttered in a clam voice. She opened her eyes and nodded at me, yawning.
I turned back to the larger part of the cave, where Iggy, Gazzy and Nudge had slept.
Gazzy was now awake, sitting bleary-eyed next to Iggy.
Now for Nudge. I hated waking her up, she just wasn't a morning person. But thankfully, I didn't have to. I could pull rank and ask somebody else to.
"Angel you wanna get Nudge up?" I asked politly.
"You mean like poke her?" Angel questioned, looking a bit grossed out.
"However you want." I replied and shuffled back to the entrance of the cave.
Max Pov:
When I woke up the cave was empty. I did a quick scan for signs of a struggle, finding nothing. So the flock had gone out with Fang, leaving me here by myself.
Well not totally by myself, I thought glancing around.
My backpack full of explosives (re: fireworks) was still here.
Fang Pov:
Right after breakfast we took off for town. I left the bag of fireworks next to Max's head.
So we see town and land a few miles outside of it. Immediatly everybody has ideas as to what we should do.
"Swimming!" Angel cried skipping along the shoulder of the two lane road.
"Angel we have wings." I reminded her, yelling a bit over the traffic.
"Oh."
"We could shop?" Nudge suggested doubtfully.
"No money Nudggie." Gazzy added quietly.
"Not true." I said slowly, a smile trying to spread across my face. Iggy shot me a desbelieving look.
"I lifted Max's bank card." I said slowly, pulling the card from my pocket.
As soon as we got into town we located the bank. I withdrew two-hundred bucks and we walked out of the bank. It was so simple...untill it came to spending the money.
"Clothing, can we please go buy some new cloths? Please Fang?" Nudge began, her eyes wide.
I could see where this was going, and I didn't like it, at all. So I distributed the money. Everybody got forty dollars.
"Now we meet back here in two hours okay?" I said for the third time. Nudge's eyes were glazed over, she was looking at at a frilly store window.
"I got it." Angel answered, pulling on Nudge's arm.
"Erm yeah..." Nudge said distractedly. I turned to look at Iggy and Gazzy.
"Yeah, back in two hours." Iggy said simply, he sounded bored.
"Okay then." I said quietly, and they were off. Iggy and Gazzy shuffling down one side of the street, Nudge and Angel going the opposite way.
I wondered what Max was doing...
Max Pov:
It had taken me about three seconds to decide to play with the fireworks. It had took me five minutes to find a lighter. Fang had taken my lighter out of my bag and stashed it next to some rocks. Yes, we all get our own lighters, they were on sale. Six for two dollars at a gas station in kansas. Lighters, as it would turn out have many uses, you can cook food with them, find your way in a dark cave with them and even use them to light other things on fire.
As I was about to do.
I emptied my bag onto the cave floor. Roman candles, smokebombs and other assorted exploding things landed in a heap on the ground. I looked at them, wondering what to try out first.
Insparation...the smoke bombs.
So I grabbed two of the smoke bombs, and shoved the lighter in my pocket. Then I gathered up the rest of the fireworks and stuffed them back into my bag. After throwing the bag into a dark corner of the cave I took off into the air.
It felt so good to fly without a backpack on. I shot straight up to about five thousand feet, them leveled out doing lazy circles over the cave. Now to test my idea...I pulled the lighter from my pocket and lit the smoke bombs.
Then I began to dive, it was a slow shallow dive. At the end of the dive I pulled up into a loop. After the loop I let myself fall, spinning headfirst as i went down like a top.
Then the smokebombs quit spewing smoke. I stoped and turned to look at the air above me. The bombs had left a trail marking exsactly where I had flown. It looked really really cool.
Sadly these smokebombs were used up...but I had more.
Fang Pov:
I hope Max was having more fun then I was. This town was small, rather empty and very, very boring. I had wandered around mainstreet, the wearhouse district and then finnaly settled on a bench in the miniscule park.
I tensed up, going into watch mode. My hearing picked up everything, the soft sound of a wind chime, the grating noise of skateboard wheels on concrete. I heard it all, each sylable of conversation between two girls who had come to the park and now stood maybe thirty feet away.
"He's hot." One of them muttered quietly. I resisted the urge to roll my eyes.
"Mmm, hmm." The other replied breaking into giggles.
I hated moments like this, they were alkward and creepy. These people didn't know me. I turned getting ready to tell them off. To my surprise they had walked closer, and were not six feet from me.
"Your new here. Do you need help finding your way around?" The taller girl asked slowly. She was an artificial blonde. Attractive, possibly- but she had nothing on Max. I smiled to myself just thinking about how Max would react to her. Max could have them both on the ground in under three seconds.
But sadly she wasn't here, and I had to deal with them myself.
"No thank you, I was just killing time before I meet somebody." I replied keeping my voice level and flat.
"Oh, well who are you meeting?" The other girl asked, not quite picking up on my 'go away' vibe. This girl was shorter, had jet black hair and was dressed solidly in blue.
"My gilrfriend." I replied curtly, standing and walking away.
Iggy Pov:
After about an hour Gazzy and myself had gotten bored. So we had gone back to the meeting point and found Nudg and Angel-looking equally bored.
"Hey." I heard Gazzy say quickly.
"This place is dullsville. I mean there is nothing to do, and whatever there was to to Angel and I have aleady done. We got some new shoes and grabbed a slushie...But other than that I mean there is nothing! So you wanna hang out?" Nudge said in a rush of words.
"Come again?" I asked slowly.
"You want to hang out? Do something funner?" Angel asked.
"Funner is not a word Angel." I said quickly. I sensed a few glares shot in my direction.
"We could play tag, there's an nice empty forrest a ways from here." Angel suggested.
So we started trotting off in the direction of the forrest.
"It's Fang." Nudge hissed sharply.
"Huh?" I said slowly, my ears pricking for the near silent sound of his boots on the pavement.
Fang Pov:
The flock had gathered back together, and was heading my way. So I stood in the shadow of a tree and waited for them. They had to pass me in order to get out of this side of town. I found it strange that I let them all loose in a town and they manage by coincidence to find each other again. I knew the feeling, the flock were the only people I felt confortable with.
Without them I was alone.
They paused Nudge muttering something harshly to the others. Iggy cocking his head slightly to listen. Angel's laser-like viion fixed on me. I had been found.
Nudge Pov:
We stopped for a half second, each of our steps faltering a little when I hissed Fang's name. It was odd seeing him there at the edge of the park. He looked so out of place, lonely, tired and well...lost.
He stepped out of the tree's shadow, stopping in the center of the sidewalk. The sun just highlighted the shadows under his eyes, the bone-pale color of his scars, visible to our raptor-like eyes even from this distance.
Is he okay? I asked Angel mentally. She looked at me for a split second.
What do you mean, I can't read him. She replied, her thought confused.
Does he look diffrent to you? I re-stated the question.
She didn't answer me.
Max Pov:
After a few more rounds with the smokebombs I put the lighter away, not wanting to use up all the fireworks. After that I had nothing to do. So i decided to go find the flock.
I looked for the Maximum Ride credit card, it was gone. Iggy or Fang must have lifted it while I was sleeping. (not to self: descuss ethics and morals with flock.) So I took off, slightly annoyed but well rested. I left the backpack in the cave, it was a fire hazard.
Fang Pov:
I decided that we needed food...well actually I thought it was better to eat and then go play rather than leave play come back and eat. So we settled on subway. Iggy and Angel went first.
"Hi," Angel said cheerfully, her gaze fixed on the cashier. I noticed that the cashier's eyes began to glaze over.
"Three foot longs, all with ham, cheese, extra lettuce, tomatoes and some mayo." She paused looking at Iggy.
"And four bags of chips please." Iggy said clearly. Angel stared at the cashier, who nodded dumbly and instructed two other people to make their order.
"I forgot about the chips, sorry." Angel whispered to Iggy. He nodded and laughed a little.
"Chips are a staple." Iggy said easily. "what about drinks?" Angel nodded and then looked at the cashier.
"Drinks are free right?" Angel asked slowly, her eyes boring into the cashier.
"Yeah...they are." The lady replied dumbly, nodding.
So Angel and Iggy trotted away about a minute later. Iggy held the tray, full of sandwiches, drinks and chips. It wasn't any better for the rest of us.
Mainly because we ordered more.
So after the experience of buying out subway. Really we got like fourteen sandwiches, and ten bags of chips and a lot of pop. We left the place and began to head home. Gazzy, Iggy and Angel suggested that we bring the food back to the cave to share with Max.
Max Pov:
I spotted the flock about five miles outside of town. I was flying really, really high. Fang seemed to have them at a lower altitude than normal, and they were going fast.
So i decided to buzz them...
I went into a steep dive, angling myself so I dropped behind the flock. Then, about half a mile from them I leveled off. The extra speed from the dive hurtling me toward the flock.
I lined up with the middle of the flock, they were less then a quarter mile away.
Three hundred feet, two hundred, one hundred...
Iggy freaked out, pulling in his wings and dropping a good twenty feet before pushing them out again and leveling off. Fang did a 360 stopping in midair, looking at me. Half a second later I tilted sideways, barely avoiding Nudge and Fang.
They didn't have time to move, or blink. I laughed as I rocketed away, my superspeed kicking in. It was a pity really, I didn't get to hear myself laugh. The wind snatched away the sound.
Fang Pov:
Max was gone just as fast as she had come. She was a little black, max shaped speck in the clouds. I did another 360, we were okay, sort of.
Iggy was the first to speak, darting up to us with a semi-shocked look on his face.
"Max?" He asked, still to stunned to form a full sentence.
"Hmm." Was Angel's reply. She hadn't moved, her wings keeping her in a perfect, confused sort of hover. Looking around I saw that none of us had moved, minus Iggy.
"I say we eat her food." Gazzy muttered, he was staring in the direction Max had gone.
"I wouldn't if I were you." I warned, starting forward again. They fell into formation behind me, effortlessly.
"Why?" Gazy asked, his tone annoyed.
Silence.
"What did she do?" Iggy asked suspicious.
"Nothing." I said uselessly. They were onto Max's buy-explosives-for-the-pyro's plan. They just didn't know it yet.
"Did she get us fireworks?!" Gazzy said excitedly.
I take it back, the flock was way onto the buy-explosives-for-the-pyro's plan.
"possibly."
That's all it took for them to race off at nearly one hundred miles per hour.
Max Pov:
I didn't stop or turn to look behind me. It only took me about three minutes to reach the cave. In seconds I had grabbed the backpack, and taken off into the air. I was up in the clouds, at about thirty thousand feet. Watching the cave entrance with my amazing raptor-like vision.
Fang Pov:
It was a totaly unexpected thing, I had wanted to follow Max, but I knew with her hyper drive she'd outrun me. Still I tried.
And that was when the most amazing thing happened, i started to go fast, really fast. I was flying like i had never flown before. Going as fast as Max. Then I saw Max come into my sight, getting closer and closer.
Correction, I was going faster than Max.
I could see everything like i was still flying at eighty miles per hour. Only i guess I was going about two fifty, maybe two seventy. The ground wasn't blurry, and the sky looked crystal clear. And I was somehow gaining on Max.
So I slowed down and flew behind Max, in her blind spot. She dove into the cave and i hid in the trees where she couldn't see me. Then seconds later, she lept out into the air and took off, going vertically and gaining speed fast. I follwed her, move for move, coming to a stop right behind her. I hoovered silently, waiting for the ideal moment to announce myself.
Max Pov:
I hoovered in the air watching for the flock. They all arrived two minutes later. Iggy came o the entrance first, yelling something I couldn't hear. Or at least he looked like he was yelling. I couldn't be sure, I couldn't see him that well.
Then Nudge, Gazzy and Angel arrived. They hadn't flown as fast. They were maybe fourty seconds behind but to us that was a lot. I looked closer, Fang was not with them.
Where was he? I expected Fang to be with the others, maybe pulling up to be with Iggy, or lagging a little farther back to be with Angel, Nudge and Gazzy. Then I felt the hairs on the back of my neck stand up, a shiver race down my spine. I turned quickly.
Coming face to face with Fang.
"Fang!" I said in total surprise and shock. He grinned breifly and then turned his attention to the flock. I couldn't turn to face the cave, I had a million half formed questions in my head.
"How did you get up here?" I asked quickly.
Fang Pov:
I turned to look back at Max's face. It was such an obvious answer.
"I flew." I explained quickly. Prying my eyes off of her surprised face, keeping a watch on the flock. They had gathered into a group and stood on the edge of the cave.
"How did you catch up to me?" Max sputtered, determined not to let it go.
I looked at her for a second.
"Catch me if you can Max." I said suddenly, taking off.
Max Pov:
And he was off. I followed him, speeding up to ninety miles per hour. He tangled into a sharp turn, gaining speed as he straightened out, going into a dive.
I felt myself going faster than normal to keep up with Fang. And faster. Then it dawned on me, so obvious. Fang stopped suddenly and I came to a stop too. We were miles away from where we started. My jaw dropped.
"You can fly as fast as me." It was a statement, and an awestruck one at that.
"I don't know." He replied. One eyebrow rose slightly.
"How can you not know?" I shot back.
He paused before he spoke, as if trying to censor the obnoxious superiority from his voice.
"Well," He began. "I wasn't going my fastest, and you probably weren't either."
I snorted loudly.
"So," he began again, unfazed by my interuption. "I say we go full throttle and see who falls back first."
Fang Pov:
I hoovered quietly, waiting to see how she would take that. I knew Max, she was stubborn and competitive. Part of her would never want to race me, she'd be happier not knowing who was fastest. The other half of her would never back down from a challenge like that, she would need to know if she was faster than me. I watched her fight with herself, it was kind of anusing in a sick sort of way.
"Fine." She sighed slightly. "Bring it."
I laughed internally. Max had always said curiosity kills the mutant bird kid.
Max Pov:
We lined up in the air, facing the way we had come. The plan was simple, fly straight, the way we had come from. Go as fast as we could, until we passed the cave.
"We'll just keep going until somebody falls back." Fang didn't say it like a question, it was a statement.
"Yeah." I replied quickly.
"Okay."
"Okay."
We spaced ourselves apart a little. Fang looked at me, waiting for the count.
"On three."
"Like three, three or one three?" He questioned sarcasticly.
"Three three." I said slowly. He nodded.
"One...Two...Three." I said.
And we were off. In less than ten seconds we had each sped to fourty miles per hour. Then seventy, then one thirty...
I stretched out, putting my fists in front of me, slicing through the sky. Fang copied the motion, and we were matched beat for beat. I lost track of how fast we were going, but not once did Fang fall behind. I never pulled ahead.
Fang Pov:
I laughed, the sound snatched away from me by the wind. I couldn't have asked for a better race. Max and I were equals in the sky. Our skills, speed strength were the same. At least for the time being.
I looked over and Max was staring at me, a smile crossing her face. I tilted my wings slightly, and flew above her. It was a tight vertical stack.
"Max!" I screamed loudly, trying to speak over the sound of rushing air.
"What!"
"We already passed the camp!" There was a slight pause, as Max thought about this.
"So?"
"So what?"
"Can you go any faster?" She screamed back to me. I saw the slight glint in her eye.
Max Pov:
With a slight smirk Fang began to go faster, maybe twenty miles per hour faster. I swore loudly and pushed myself faster to match him. We flew like this for about four minutes.
"Okay, you win!" Fang yelled to me.
"How so?" I asked, beginning to slow my speed so we could turn around and get back to camp. Fang got the hint and began to slow down as well.
"You are the fastest bird girl on the planet." He yelled.
"Thank you. And you get fastest bird boy." Fang shrugged, and we had slowed to normal cruising speed. My ears were ringing a little.
Fang Pov:
We landed in the cave twenty minutes later.
"Where have you been?" Iggy asked quickly. The rest of the flock was staring at us expectantly, waiting for an answer. I stayed quiet, and glanced at Max. She said nothing.
"Who won?" Angel asked suddenly. I smirked, waiting for the lecture Max was about to give.
"Angel you cannot just barge into other people's heads, okay?" Max said softly.
"Okay."
Iggy stood confused for a few seconds.
"What race?" He asked quickly. "Don't you have like superdrive Max? How could it be fair?" Iggy was so logical sometimes. Unlike Gazzy.
"Who won?" Gazzy asked, looking from Max to me. Both of us stayed quiet. I heard Max sigh in annoyance and looked at her. She was staring at me with a 'tell them' look on her face.
Right, i guess i should tell them.
"It was a tie." I explained simply. Iggy still looked confused.
"How fast were you going?" Gazzy asked.
"Fast." Max said quickly. I could tell from her face that she had no idea how fast we were going. I didn't know either, but it was fast.
"Estimate." Iggy demanded.
Silence.
"How fast?" Iggy repeated, now getting a bit closer to the mouth of the cave. The flock was on it's feet, waiting for our answer.
"Over two hundred." She whispered so quietly i could bearely hear her. But Iggy did.
Max Pov:
The flock reacted to this bombshell in a variety of ways. Angel smiled happily and went back to holding celeste. Nudge began to squeal, in a restrained sort of way. Gazzy was muttering things like 'wow' and 'thats really fast.' Fang smiled cheerfully, and then began to pull the back pack off my back.
Iggy wasn't taking this as well as I had hoped.
"So you both have hyperdrive?" He asked in an exsaperated kind of voice.
"Yes." Fang answered evenly.
"Okay, that's normal I guess." Iggy managed to say nonchalantly. Darn right it is. In our lives descovering your friend can now fly over two hundred miles per hour unassisted thanks to geneticaly engineered wings is shockingly normal. Going to school, like with other kids our age who are fully human (as in not bio-engineered wonderlads) is the most bizaro thing ever. To us at least.
Fang Pov:
After dinner Max had doused the fire and was about to put the flock to bed.
"Max." I reminded her, shaking the backpack slightly. I was aware that the backpack was full of fireworks so i didn't shake it too hard.
"Right." She nodded. By now the whole flock was watching us.
Max stood up and grabbed the pack from me.
"I got you guys something." She said suddenly.
"What?" Gazzy asked quickly, eager to see whatever was in the pack. They rarely got gifts, so anything at all was a major plus.
But Max didn't tell them. Instead she walked over to Iggy who had stood up, and placed the pack in his arms. Iggy grabbed the bag and instantly began to pull on the zipper. In a second his hand dissapeared inside the pack, a smile spreading across his face.
"Do we have to use them all today?" He asked quickly.
"No." She replied, "But you will carry the rest, not Gazzy."
Iggy seemed to weigh that for a moment, then nodded. But now Gazzy and Nudge were at his side, trying to see in the pack as well.
"Fireworks!" Nudge siad quickly, grabbing a pack of smoke bombs. The opened the pack and started tossing one in the air.
"Max, Fang, Iggy..." Gazzy began his wide eyes glazed over, pleading with Max. "Can we do the blue angels thing...with smoke bombs?"
"Yeah." Max said with a smile. I smirked at her, she was such a sucker for bambi eyes.
She glared back at me, and i was suddenly reminded of all the times i caved at bambi eyes.
Which was a lot.
Max Pov:
It was the best holiday ever. And i know that sounds completly sappy and corny. But think about it for a second. We were raised in a lab, abandoned and betrayed by the only parental figure we ever had. We spent a thanksgiving with another person who lied to us, and coincidentaly happened to be conrtoling our lives (which were very miserable.) We spent the better part of our lives running from a variety of people and things that were hellbent on our destruction.
I know that's overkill but whatever. It was a really good holiday- trust me on that.
Iggy and Gazzy each got to keep a few larger fireworks, and some smoke bombs. We used the rest, dropping them from way, way high up in the air and watching them explode, sparkle and whatnot all the way to the ground. It was really fun.
And of course we did the blue angels thing. We even tried a vertical stack with smoke bombs. The end result was really cool, six parallel lines of color streaking across the sky.
Blue angels we are not, but it was still really cool.
Later after i had settled them all down, and warned Iggy and Gazzy to wait until sunrise before dismantling the rest of the fireworks, Fang and I started to talk.
"They did deserve that." Fang said evenly, staring sideways at me.
"I know they did."
There was a pause. Each of us scanning the sky and ground for trouble.
"How did it feel to fly?" I asked suddenly. Fang's face grew relaxed and a smile twitched around his cheeks.
"It was just like flying before. Only faster, and that made all the diffrence. It was like I could just go on forever, and nothing could stop me. The rest of the world just stopped existing except for you." He stopped talking suddenly, as if he had said too much.
"It was diffrent for me too."
He raised an eyebrow.
"Before I could just go. Nobody on earth could catch me, i was safe and everything else was just gone. The voice, my own thoughts, itex all of it was just gone. I felt so free, me and the air and i was flying..." Fang nodded.
"And now your here with me." I finished.
Again Fang nodded.
"I'll take first watch." He said slowly. I nodded, he was lost in thought. Besides that I was dead tired, even after sleeping in.
"Night." I chimed, yawning.
"Night."
Fang Pov:
I took first watch and last watch. The beauty of the three watches was I got three hours of sleep. Which if your a paranoid bird-kid on the run, was great. With last watch i get to see the sunrise, and be awake to greet the flock.
Iggy woke up first and walked over to me.
"Hey." He said cheerfuly.
"Hi." I repiled simply. Iggy guaged my voice, and sat down three feet in front of me, facing my direction.
"You really flew that fast." He said slowly.
"Yes."
"What was it like?"
"The world just melted away, and i wanted to keep going because i knew that nobody could catch me. Everything was gone. I was just flying."
"But you came back." I sensed a sad tone in his voice. Like he thought i would leave him and take Max with me, like he'd worried we would abandon them.
"I would never leave. Everything catches up with you when you slow down."
"But that moment when you felt nothing, it must have been great."
"Yes." I nodded to myself. "It was."
Iggy sat quietly for a little while, we waited, listened and thought. Then Iggy came out of his revere and stared straight at my eyes.
"Is it what you want?" He asked slowly.
"It depends on what you mean."
"Your the leader, the other leader." Iggy clarified before I could protest. "You and Max are equal now. Is that what you want?"
I thought it over for a moment.
"We are not equal."
Iggy Pov:
I could understand that, to a point. Fang and Max had always had a different relationship. It was difficult to describe, hard to comprehend.
They were perfect opposites, and exsactly alike. Fang had always been there for her. He fixed her, so many times I had lost count.
They were like two halves of a soul. As much as Gazzy and Angel were one in the same so too were Fang and Max.
"What are you afraid of?" I asked suddenly. I had always wanted to know, ever since we were at school he had seemed fearless. But i knew that everyone was afraid of something.
He was silent for a long time, though I knew he heard the question. Finally he sighed.
"When I was up there, flying, and the world just vanished, it felt so good, so right. Right then I knew how easy it would have been for Max to just keep going and not come back. That scared me, worse than on the beach, worse than ever." Fang's voice was raw, pain, fear and sadness seeping into each word.
At that moement I had my answer. Fang was afraid of losing Max, not because he would lose his leader- they were both equals. He could always lead in her place. He was afraid of losing his other half, his soulmate. He had come so close on many occasions.
I winced as i remembered...Max on the beach, the silence as the flock drew closer...The countless brain attacks...the e-mail from germany. How had he felt when he read that? The idea that she could just go and he would never know where she went, that unless she wanted him to find her he never would.
The last memory was sharp and chaotic...The sound of droning matalic voices.
'"Max and the rest of your flock are already dead. Now it's your turn." The voices droned together over the sound of bullets.
For a moment there was no response. Just the shredding hail of gunfire. Then the chorus started again.
"We are here to kill you." They sounded like a chior from hell, flat dead and cold.
"Then your out of luck." That voice was angery, snarling above the sound of gunfire.
There was a silence.
Then a loud hail of bullets. It had taken him a second to realize that the voice was Fang's and the bullets were fired by him. There were hissing sounds as metal bodies fell out of the air...
I could only imagine what he was feeling in those few seconds. Few things brought out emotion in Fang. It wasn't that he didn't feel, it's just he prefered to mask it.
But then, I winced again.
Fang had been upset enough, scared, hurt, angry, sad enough that he had taken down almost three hundred flyboys. The best weapons itex had ever built.
Fang Pov:
Iggy's face had flashed fom pain, to sadness to amazment several times.
"Igg?" I asked calmly. He just stared at me, not answering.
"Iggy." I said slowly colder, sterner.
Finally he spoke.
"Max won't leave you."
I hoped he was right.
-Twilightjunkie1313