A/N - IMPORTANT.

First off; THIS IS THE SECOND IN A SERIES. If you're newly joining this series new, I suggest that you start with The Guardian Experiment, and then come back to this one - it'll make this whole thing a lot clearer.

Secondly; I had planned to wait until all of the chapters were written before I started, so that I didn't back myself up (XD), but I was worried that you guys would forget about me! So, I've come up with a spur-of-the-moment fill-in, Nicci plan: a chapter a week until I can get them all done.

Which brings me to the main part of this annoying long authors note... I'm holding a vote!

I figured that since I'm updating once a week... why not let you pick the day? So, faithful readers of Definition of Normal... why not R E V I E W and let me know what day would be best for you?

Anyway... onto the story!

Chapter One- Famous Last Words

"Did we really have to leave so early?" Nudge groaned, I twisted my head to look at her, relieved to note that Max had already assumed the job of reassuring her that yes, we really did have to leave so early. If we didn't want to be ripped to shreds by erasers, at least.

"It's not even completely light yet!" She complained loudly, and little Angel giggled before swooping in-between Max and the younger avian-American; Nudge thankfully agreed to play tag with Iggy and the two younger siblings, and we were saved from another round of what Iggy had affectionately called "The Nudge channel".

All Nudge, all the time.

Max swooped next to me, batting my wing gently with her own and offering me a grin. The cold wind had left a flush across her cheeks, but her brown eyes were alight and sparkling; blonde hair blowing in the breeze – falling out of her braid. I hadn't been sure what the makeover artists were going to do to her when we'd gone, but I had to admit that I loved the blue and pink streaks in her hair and the new layers.

Framing her face gently in a mixture of waves and curls.

At least, that's how my (male) stylist had described it dreamily as Max had come into the room looking for me, followed by a deep blush (on his behalf, somehow she hadn't heard) and me accidently stabbing a coat hanger into his ribs.

"What?" She asked, raising and hand to her face to tuck a pink streak behind her hair.

"Nothing," I replied easily, hiding the fact that I was inwardly a little embarrassed at being caught staring with practiced ease. "Where are we headed next?"

"I was thinking maybe Washington DC; those files that we found mention it a lot, so maybe we could dig some stuff up, and have some fun whilst we're at it." She stated easily, clearly happy with herself for coming up with a plan so quickly. Honestly, I had to give her props for it, there was no way that I could come up with such a concrete plan in such a small amount of time.

It was one of many reasons that she was the leader, and I was happily her second-in-command.

"Sounds like a plan to me," I offered, batting her wing with my own in a similar gesture to her welcoming one, and deliberately sending her off balance. "Whoops."

"Fang," She growled warningly, unable to hide the laughter from her eyes as she launched herself at me faster than I could even hope to outrun. Instead, I closed my wings and let myself free fall for a few feet, before whipping my wings out and surging forward; glancing over my shoulder in time to see Max do a practiced flip in mid-air and come zooming straight back the way that she'd just come.

Her intent was clear on her face, along with a message.

"Game on."

Anything to distract her from the events of last night, particularly the one involving Jeb and Ari, was fine by me, and I grinned - swooping over, and then under, The Gasman and Iggy who laughed at the sight before joining in. Within moments the tables had turned; Iggy, Nudge and Angel against Max, The Gasman and myself.

For the first time in a long time, we were acting like kids.

Of course, that's when everything went pear-shaped.

The Gasman (who I'd been protecting from behind whilst Max "fought off" Nudge and Angel) stopped suddenly, and I crashed into him, shortly followed by Iggy. The three of us fell for a long moment in a tangle of limbs, and I was surprised when Max didn't intervene. Instead, she seemed wholly concentrated on a strange black cloud in the distance, a hand still gripping Angel's arm tightly.

Frowning, I flew level with her, squinting and trying to make out what exactly the thing heading towards us was.

"Storm cloud?" I offered almost hopefully, but Max shook her head.

"Too fast."

"Flock of birds?" Another desperate stab in the dark.

"Too big."

"Flying monkeys?" That was The Gasman, before you ask.

"Worse," Max sighed, and I almost expected her to come up with a joke about another flying animal. What followed made my heart plummet, and certainly wasn't funny. "Flying erasers."

The atmosphere changed pretty drastically after that statement, and within minutes the newly formed flock were ready to fight and defend. I figured that my mind wasn't the only mind full of questions such as "Since when were there flying erasers?" but all we could do for now was fight.

"Angel, Nudge; you take the back. Iggy, Gasman; flank us. Fang, you can take the front with me." Max shot me an award-winning smile and it was all I could do to nod and turn back to the front, just in time to be greeted by an old friend.

Max's wings nearly stopped beating, and I barely contained my own surprise as Ari – the same Ari that we'd left lying dead in a subway tunnel less than twelve hours ago – flew at me with the grace of an elephant and the accuracy of... well, an eraser.

Which is pretty much the most inaccurate thing that I can think of.

Concerns about the supposedly dead Ari forgotten as my body filled with adrenaline, I span out of the way and wasted little time in launching an attack of my own.

I still owed him from the beach, which was probably the only reason that Max hadn't attempted some sort of tag-team manoeuvre by now. She knew me a little better than that. I had a score to settle, and I was going to do it myself.

Ari recovered quickly, swerving to avoid what would have been a nasty kick to the head just in the nick of time. A quick glance showed that the two of us had been moving gradually further away from the flock, who were now fighting erasers some twenty feet away.

They seemed to be doing pretty well, working in pairs (other than Max) to despatch the remaining three erasers.

Clearly, The School had underestimated us.

And I'd underestimated Ari.

He used my distraction as an opened to lunge for me, claws fully spread, and I had no chance to escape. There was no way out; even closing my wings wouldn't get me out of the way fast enough that there wouldn't be serious damage.

All I could do was brace myself.

For a long moment, everything moved in slow motion, and then something was careening into me, sending me spinning sideways out of Ari's reach. By the time that I span back around, Max and Ari were fighting vigorously in the air. Clearly Max had been a lot closer than I'd realised. I zoomed back in time to see Ari's eyes widen at something (although I wasn't sure what) before he took off back the way that he'd been come.

I almost regretted that his part-morph didn't include a tail, because I was sure that it would have been tucked between his legs.

"Thanks," I panted to Max, who was looking a little worse for wear. "You saved my skin back there; he didn't get you, did he?"

Max shook her head, and I noted that Ari had gotten her face pretty good, along with the top of her shoulder – where his claws had completely ripped through her sweater and shirt, leaving bloody gashes in their wake.

"Nah, I got here a lot faster than I even thought possible." She shook her head in apparent amazement, before turning to the others, who were starting to group up with us. "Report?"

"I'm good." I shrugged, wiping what felt like blood (although I was sure that it wasn't mine) off my jacket sleeve as I did so.

"A few scratches. I've had worse." Nudge shrugged, and the others agreed heartily.

"Well," Max smiled tightly. "They'll certainly think twice before messing with us again, huh? Now, let's get going."

She was met with various terms of agreement, but I couldn't help noticing that the flush across her cheeks was lessening a little faster than was normal, and the sweat on her face didn't seem to be disappearing.

I figured that I was probably just being paranoid, but something didn't seem to be right with her.

"Maybe we should land," I muttered to her, nodding at the beach beneath us. Startled, she turned to face me. "Check everyone out, you know."

"I think we should keep flying. Get as far away as possible," She reasoned, tucking a loose strand of blue-streaked hair behind her ear. "Just in case the erasers come back."

There wasn't really much that I could say to that, so I nodded and turned back to the random streak of blood on my jacket; trying to work out where it had come from. I was sure that I hadn't hurt Ari that badly, and if it was coming from me I was sure that I'd have noticed it.

So who did that leave?

I glanced up at Max, and once more felt my heart drop and thud painfully as before my eyes her wings folded, eyes fluttered shut and she began to plummet.

"Max!"

Angel screamed her name, and Nudge shouted something, but I was already moving. Angling myself downwards and closing my wings to make a vaguely "V" shape and propel myself down faster, I spiralled towards her; catching her only a few feet down.

Her face was pale, a thin sheen of sweat covering her face as her jacket fell away to reveal her bloodied shirt. Clearly, I'd been right; the blood on my jacket hadn't been from myself or Ari. It had been from Max.

Blood was soaking through my jacket at an alarming pace.

"We need to land!" I ordered the others, part of me noticing that the younger three were crying, even as the other part of me was reasoning that I didn't have time. Max didn't have time; I needed to land and stop the bleeding as fast as I could.

Within minutes the five of us touched down, and Iggy and Nudge threw their jackets on the ground to make a make-shift bed to keep the worst of the sand from her. I snapped at them to cover their wings, and they pulled their hoodies out of their backpacks and over their heads unthinkingly.

"Angel, grab some water bottles. Nudge, I need you to rip my spare shirt into strips; Gazzy, soak some of them in antiseptic Iggy, lift her feet onto my backpack."

I struggled to remember what Jeb had taught us to do if we were ever in this situation, but was fairly sure that he'd mentioned all three of those things. Wincing as I pulled her shirt back from her stomach to reveal four deep lacerations on her side – all four bleeding profusely – I collected some of the strips of cloth off Nudge and pressed them to her side, applying pressure.

The blood soaked through them quickly, and I replaced them with a fresh handful. It didn't seem to be helping.

"Hey!" A voice shouted and I jumped, glancing up into the frightened face of two human men – clearly out for a morning run. "Are you kids alright? Oh, god. Tony; call an ambulance! She's hurt!"

Nudge's fearful eyes met my own, and I could feel myself panicking. There was nothing I could do, Max needed the help.

"Get out of here." I ordered quickly and quietly - wishing that Max and I had taken the time to teach the four of them more of our secret language; it sure would have been useful now - keeping my hands pressed against Max's still-bleeding stomach.

"What?"

"You heard me. This could be a trap, the four of you should get out of here. If everything's alright I'll come back for you—"

"No." There was a fierce determination to Iggy's sightless eyes.

"What?"

"No, we're not splitting up. We're in this together now, that's what Max said."

I made to argue, but was cut off by the sound of blaring sirens.

It looked like I didn't have a choice.