A/N: Here it is - sorry it has taken too long. Actually - I will be honest - have not gotten past chapter 5 so updating will not come as quickly in the beginning. I plan to post every other day for a while and only one chapter at a time. I know - lame. Anyway - hope you like - tried to keep it in the Max style - so let me know when I falter. And I hope it lives up to your expectations! :D
Chapter 1
Los Angeles, California
"And you can snap your fingers and the whole world freezes?"
"Yeah! It's really cool! Wanna see?!"
"No, no," Anna Banana whipped her head slightly so that her blond waves flew across her face. Her fingers quickly pecked away at the super standard size laptop that rested on her long skinny legs. "Any other unique abilities that we should know about,… er… Gasman, is it?"
Gazzy immediately leapt onto the shiny green patio chair he'd been sitting in. He threw one arm into the air and pointed at the sky. "Yeah! I can make a force field to defend myself from the evils that strike mankind." He was starting to sound more and more like Superman with each passing moment.
"Force field?" Anna Banana's eyes stretched to the size of bowling balls.
"Yes," Iggy said with a straight face. "Gazzy emits a cloud around his body that shields him from others." The pregnant pause in the conversation urged him to continue. "Typically happens when he gets scared or nervous." Iggy smiled broadly in the direction of the Gasman. "Or when he's downed ten bean burritos."
Gazzy patted his stomach. "Yeah, that was a good lunch." He burped, a belch that lasted at least five seconds.
I rolled my eyes – again – and moved my car on the game of Life sprawled out in front of me. For those of you that are completely clueless about our current situation, join the crowd. I was too. Just couldn't see why I was spending another Friday afternoon in sunny Southern California lounging at a pool playing Life with the other three members of the flock. Downing my third coke, munching on finger foods of every variety, letting my wings fan out in the bright afternoon. It was a pretty rough life. Guess somebody had to live it.
Actually, life had kinda been like this for the past three months. Relaxing. No one chasing us. No one trying to kidnap my mom and keep her locked up at the bottom of the ocean. Hanging out with the flock while talking to some ninny about what we can do. The first month of this, I was twitchy. Kept checking over my shoulder every five seconds. Waited for something bad to happen. But nothing did. Nothing bad happened. And for a group of kids who were used to something traumatic taking place every – oh I don't know – five seconds, well, safe to say I was understandably edgy.
After several weeks of jumping every time someone tapped my shoulder and snapping at Nudge every time she talked too much or too loudly, I began to realize that perhaps I should ease up. Calm down. Relax.
"That's right, Max," I heard a small voice say beside me. "Relax. Everything will be okay. No one is coming for us. Not for a long while."
I looked at Angel, shot her a fleeting smile to match the innocent one on her angelic features. From a normal seven year old, her words would have been a simple naïve reassurance. But Angel was no normal seven year old. Unless of course normal seven year olds could drop a grown man to his knees with one swift kick to the chest or flitter about in the air like a hummingbird. Or talk to fish and breathe under water. Or perhaps nowadays your run of the mill seven year old could – you know – read your mind.
"No one, baby?" I looked at her skeptically, rustled her curls. They sat atop her head in ringlets now, making her look like a blond Shirley Temple.
"Uh-uh." Angel shook her head and stuck a blue peg in her Life car. "We're very safe here – for at least three more months."
Did I mention Angel also had an ESP thing going on?
I sighed and flashed a quick look at Fang. His dark hair hung low over his face, but I still caught a slight crook upward on the corner of his mouth. The Fang equivalent of a Cheshire Cat grin.
"Yeah, Max. Relax. This place is so cool. Did you know they have three pools here? There's even one in the shape of a guitar! Oooh – and I read somewhere that you can get a manicure and a pedicure at any time of the day or night. And they'll paint your nails like three different colors if you want them to. I think I'll get mine done in purple, pink, and chartreuse." Nudge fanned her chocolate fingers out in front of her lap. "I don't even know what color chartreuse is but it sounds really cool. I'm thinking of using that as my stage name." Her head bounced up, her smile lighting up her face. "Chartreuse Oliviana Bangles. What do you think?!"
Nudge was our in-home motor mouth. We were still trying to find her "off" button.
"I think…" I shifted in my seat and stared at Gazzy who was now flying through the air and getting ready to dive bomb the pool. "I think we need to move."
