I was just finishing my English paper that was due, when the hairs on the back of my neck stood up. I turned around to see Fang leaning against the door-frame, emotionless as always.

"Stop doing that!!!" I whisper/shouted, so as not to wake the younger kids. He smirked.

"What, breathing?" he whispered back, and I stuck my tongue out at him.

We were at my mom's house in Arizona, since we had defeated Itex, Mr. Chu, and the school hadn't sent any crazy robots after us for a while. So, we had decided to settle down and be like normal kids. We were even going to school (to Fang, Iggy, and my dismays.).

"Wanna go for a little spin?" he said. I thought about it. The last time he had asked me that, we had ended up rolling around in a desert, kissing like there was no tomorrow. Then again, back then there was no tomorrow.

I ended up saying yes, and we were flying high again (A/N: OZZY OSBOURNE REFERENCE ESPECIALLY FOR ALL YOU OZZY FANS!!!). I looked up at Fang, his dark wings silhouetted in the moonlight. His face was beautiful in the moonlight...thank God and Buddha he couldn't hear what I was thinking. He'd never let me live it down.

I looked to my left, and I saw Fang heading down towards a thickly wooded area. In the distance, I saw a huge body of water and on the other side, a huge castle-like building.

"Where are we going?" I called to Fang, and he slowed down to fly beside me.

"A magical place." was all he said. I mentally groaned. I hate fortune-cookie crap, if you haven't figured that out by now.

We started flying over the water, and I flew low, letting the water spray hit my face.

"Wanna go check out that castle place?" I asked, and he shrugged as best he could while still staying airborne. I angled my wings, and started heading for the castle.

We landed on soft grass, and took a good look at the giant castle in front of us.

"After you, m'lady." Fang said, and I rolled my eyes. I was reaching up to knock on the door, when it opened and almost hit me in the face. Luckily, I have some pretty well-developed reflexes.

Standing there, were two kids that looked around Nudge's age, one boy and one girl.

"Run!!!!!!!" screamed the boy right before the girl screamed "This is the school's last branch!!!! GO!!!!!!!!!!!!" and took a running leap and whipped her wings out, as did the boy(?!?!?!?!?!?!?!?!?!?!?!?!?!?!?!?!?!?!?! WINGS?!?!?!?!?!?!?!?!?!?!).

We followed them, and soon we could see weird-looking robot things taking off after us. We let them catch up, because Fang and I mutually missed the feeling of cold metal crunching under your hands.

I was about to throw a punch, when the girl and boy locked arms. The boy then took a deep breath and spit fire(?!?!?!?!?!?!) at the robots while the girl waved her hand and created a vortex of water(?!?!?!?!?!) that enveloped the robots. The robots started spiraling towards the lake and they hit the surface of the water with a huge shower of sparks and random machinery.

Fang and I stared in disbelief at the two kids.

"Who are you?" I asked, and they chuckled. The boy spoke first.

"My name's Ignis."

"And my name's Mizu." said the girl. I looked at them curiously. They seemed like people we could trust, considering the fact that they just destroyed the robots instead of us. Then again, I wasn't the kind of person that trusts easily.

"Where do you two live?" I asked them and they glanced at each other.

"We haven't had a home since we busted out of the school seven years ago." the girl said, and the boy nodded sadly. I felt a sudden tinge of sorrow, and pity for them, but it went as quickly as it came.

"Well, do you wanna come hang at our place? Your mom has two rooms that aren't being used, right?" said Fang, and I was startled when he spoke. It was the first time he had spoken in over thirty minutes.

"Yeah, but...Fang can I talk to you?" I said, and he shrugged.

"Can you?" he said and I pinched the bridge of my nose.

"May I?" I said, and he smirked.

"Yes you may." he said.

We flew out of earshot of the two kids, and I turned to Fang.

"Do you really think we should let these two random kids we just found stay at our house? What if they're spies??" I whisper/yelled, and he shrugged.

"They did just beat up those robots instead of us." he said, and I nodded. He had a point. If they had wanted to destroy us, they would've used that crazy fire/water move on us and let the robots take our dead bodies back to the castle.

"Fine. They can stay for a little while. But the first time they try to kill us, they're out, do you hear me?" I said, sounding very mom-like. I could tell Fang was holding biting his lip to supress laughter.

"Yes ma'am." he said in an unusually high voice. I flew back over to the kids, who were playing rock-paper-scissors in the air.

"You guys can stay at my mom's house if you want to." I said to them and their faces lit up.

"Really?? Thanks, um..what's your name again?" they asked at the same time.

"Max, and this is Fang." I gestured to Fang. He waved. They smiled.

"OK. Thanks, Max and Fang!" they said again at the same time. I looked over at Fang, who was smirking.

We flew back to the house in silence. When we got there, it was around 3 am, and most of the kids were still asleep. Iggy was sitting on the bed in my bedroom. When he heard us come in, he stood up, grinning from ear to ear.

"And where have you two been? Hmm?" he said in his 'I-know-you-were-out-there-kissing' tone.

"At the last branch of the school. We need to leave now." I said. At the mention of the school, Iggy's grin quickly became a concerned frown.

"I'll get the others. Write a note for your mom so she'll know why we're gone." he said, and I nodded. I quickly wrote a note and grabbed my pack. All 9 of us, counting Ignis and Mizu, were downstairs in under a minute. I stuck the note on the refrigerator and opened the door. I jumped into the cool, early-morning air, followed by 7 mutant bird-kids and a mutant talking and flying dog.

Ella's POV

I woke up around 7:30 that morning. I went downstairs, only to find it deserted. I thought about waking the others up, but decided against it. The flock and my mom weren't very into mornings. So, I turned on the TV, found a show I liked, and went to get some breakfast.

I was reaching for the refrigerator handle, when I saw a piece of paper with scratchy handwriting on it.

Dear Ella and Mom,

The flock and I had to leave a little earlier than expected, because, about seven miles from your house, is the last branch of the school. That's how they have been finding us every time we come to your house. We will return as soon as we make sure it's safe.

Max and flock.

I dropped the note as I ran up the stairs to my mom's room.

I burst through the door, panting slightly.

"MAX IS GONE!!!!" I shrieked.