Maximum Ride

It was cold. dark. i didn't know which way was up. or down. birds dont swim at the bottom of the ocean. they fly. up high. like, in the sky. I wasnt a bird; not really. i looked in the mirror and saw human, but in the sky, my wings told me bird. yes, i said wings. big wings, nearly 13 feet long, from tip to tip. I was diiferent from the rest. even the original ones. i was a mutated mutant, started from a modified cell, then further modified. My wings were slimmer, faster, more agile. but they were bigger across, for maximum lift. I was a mix between copy 001 and 006, or max and max. a 'perfect' being. yet i wasnt. i didnt have all of their characteristics. for instance, the is NO way i could breathe underwater, and they tested that. but they didnt want to change me, after what happened with copy 003, or iggy. or copy 005, angel. they mightve punctured a hole in my lungs, making me a failure. fun stuff like that. my wings are a copper color, like a red tailed hawk, not taking form of my modified DNA. i sort of had a mother, i guess. my mother had the tiny cell embryo in me, but they removed it and mashed max and dylans dna into it so it would be less painful and more likely to succeed. from there, they basically kept me in a human sized test tube, added knowledge of flying, eating, etc. and age. i was programmed to be 10 when i was 'born', with the knowledge of a hardly schooled 14 year old, but with anger issues, and passive aggressiveness. maybe i was born with that, and its why i didnt come out perfectly. i dunno. anyhow, back to my life of drowning doom. the surface had to be at least 50 feet above me. i was floating back up slowly, but my lungs felt sore. then i saw it. a memory, one of max's. in antarctica, she'd seen a puffin, and liked how it swam. I pictured that, and exposed my wings slightly. by then my lungs were burning, and i was at maybe 45 feet. i flapped my wings, and I shot upward, but i couldn't stand it any longer. i inhaled the water, choking and inhaling more water. i was gonna drown. i flapped my wings harder, and i shot out of the water, sputtering. since i have to take running jumps to fly, i couldn't get out of the water. I shivered, watching the gray cloudy sunrise. i remembered how i fell in the water, flyboys, version 48. now modified to fly much better. and they had techy shmancy laser thingys that shot my wing. thankfully it was near the tip, but i would have some serious flying keel. I saw a nearby island, and a few miles after, my city. NYC. The island was empty, just a strip of land that would be gone when high tide came in. I swam to the island and crawled out of the water. I got up looked around, and set off. I started at a jog, then a run, then sprint, than a dash, and leaped, unfurling my wings. I winced at the soreness, but bared with it. the wind was heading towards home, which was good. I soared, my wings adjusting at every little windchange. NYC was growing nearer. I soared over the city to my little subway hotel, and I tried to sleep. obviously, i couldn't(will I ever). I stared into the subway tunnel and counted the oncoming trains.

eventually morning came, and i guess i slept a little. i went into a big corner and stretched my wings. I turned around and noticed some overly handsome guys. I quickly snapped my wings back into place and kept up my guard, dashing out of the subway. I found a long alleyway, jumped up, and flew up to a tall building. looking down, I saw the guys morph into hideous cyborg wolves. Flyboys. I wasn't sure how they got the morphing thingy down, but these guys were clearly flyboys. I dashed across the building, hoping they didnt see me. I felt so epic dashing around from building to building, like in the movies. but then again, almost everything about me is movie-ified, so it wasnt a new feeling. BAM! uh-oh. that cant be good. either they istalled super strength, laser vision, or.. or someting. either way, that wasnt good. theese guys wouldnt just blast through a wall in full morph, would they? I peered over the egde to see what was going on, and I saw the flyboys and a guy. there was a green aura aroud the flyboys, and one around the dudes hands. hmm… i jumped down, gliding and taking a running stop. i saw the flyboys fly once more as he flung them possibly into outer space. Oops. "whats your name?"

"tristan. Yours?"

"Valerie"

"ok….um..are those..wings?"

"oh. um, yeah they are"i said. Oops I totally forgot to put them back in. "whats with your hands?"

"well, these are wierd. believe it or not, its telekinetic."

oookaaay. well, that was wierd, but this kid was not different from the ones in the bunker at the school. "how did you get that way?" i said. in his eyes, I saw fear. he kept a stoeic face, and anyone else wouldnt have known he was from the school.

"lemme guess, the School?"

"how did -

"I..I was there once..."

"oh...well, at least ... At least I know how you feel"

Awkward...I shivered, knowing that they had to do terrible things on order to give him telekinesis. Technology must've gotten better since about 200 years ago. What happened was, after the sky fell, more or less everyone died. Including Max. However, there were a few scientists that survived in a bunker deep under the surface of the earth. There, they kept their best mutants, like me and probably this guy. From there, they tried to manipulate the world, and they did a pretty freaking good job. They have flyboys, still in disguise like evil police, searching for escapee mutants, or people to experiment on. Up on the surface of the earth, some people lived, and after about 200 years, the world has around 3 billion people. They built most of the major cities, like DC and NYC. From there, the School is pretending to help us by cranking out the technology we need, like phones.

"so...um...can you...fly?"

"heck yeah"

I shot straight up into the air, spinning as I went. It was kinda painful, but I did it to look cool. Don't want him to be showing off telekinesis too much. I spun up a few hundred feet, and stopped, letting my wings circle me, covering most of me. He stared up in fascination, and I shot towards the ground, straight at him. This was the test. He stared at me, unflinching. Right before I was going to turn away, he raised his hand. I froze, wings still spread in mid flight. He moved his hand, and I moved with it. Wow. Totally unexpected. This kid had guts AND power. Not to mention he was my age!

I wanted him as an ally. I saw what he did to those flyboys, and I did NOT want it to happen to me. He gently lowered me, and I stood up.

"um...sorry? Its an instinct. I have to fight a lot.

"s'okay, I do too. Actually, you did great."

"really? Wow...okay"

"I...I was wondering, do you wanna come with me?"

"to do what?"

"well, um..I..I want- no, I NEED to stop the school. This could be bad. I think that theyre gonna strike back because people trust them."

"seems legit...um...sure. Without anyone to be with, I think it's the best we can do."

"great, but you need to be able to get around quickly. How are you gonna do it?"

"well, for starters, I can lift myself up to fly, or change the muscles in my legs so I can run really fast. And also, I can teleport small objects, but its really hard. People would be a nightmare. So, I can sorta fly."

"ok. That will do."

we took to the skies, his body glowing faintly, and my wings spread wide, sunset glowing against my pale skin. Tristan stared at me, and I angled my wings towards the sun. The layers of crismon, cinnamon, and flecks of white glew in the sunset. My primary feathers are a rusty shade of reddish brown, and the next layer a brick red, then caramel, cinnamon, and eventually white feathers speckled with a pale brown. Against the sun, my red hair shone and flew around with the wind.

"sooooooo…..you know where we're going?"

"kinda. Were going to the School in death valley, but thats pretty far. all the way across the country, actually. can you handle it?"

"well, we've been flying for.. lets see..two hours maybe?"

"seems legit, lets go for at least 3 more hours. then, once we reach the colorado border, we can stop at an old cabin that max once knew."

"wait, but what about the end of the world thingy?"

"oh, right. well, that officially sucks. ok, then I have a backup plan."

"what?"

"well, we can stop for food and then go for a few more hours, until we reach arizona. from there we can go to some of the secluded natural caves there for shelter."

"sounds like a plan, but how are we gonna get food?

"simple. we can do it 2 ways. if your feeling like exhausting yourself, you can teleport us at least $50 to get us our food, i eat a heck of a lot of food. or, you can help me break into an ATM. Last, but not least we can always go in and sneak out food from a mcdonalds drive thru window"

"but thats three!

i had no words for that.

anyhow, we went off to an ATM, and tristan moved around some gears and a bunch of other crap i dont know, and 15 $20 bills spat out. then we headed to a mcdonalds.

"hello, welcome to McDonalds! can I take your order?"

"um, sure. ok, so I'll have 2 big macks, 3 large fries, a soda, a milkshake, a mcflurry, and 6 cookies, please!"

"you sure you can eat all that, hon?"

"well….I um...I need to save it for later because i'll be outta town."

"whatever you say, honey"

"thank you!"
I had tristan hold back in the line, he actually only needs to eat slightly more than the norm. We got our food, sat down an I tore into one of those sandwiches. Between bites, I tried to get a good grasp on our surroundings, looking at which city we were in. Jefferson City, Missouri. Ok, for all you nerds out there you know where that is for the not as educated, thats about half way across the country from NYC. And if you dont know where NYC is, well, youre basically screwed. "hey Tristan?"

"mhmhmh"

I sighed, "um...without the burger please?"

"sorry"

"ok, so I think were gonna have to fly through the night to get to Arizona."

"from there, we can get a good rest, food, and we can be at death valley in about an hour"

He looked at me as if he had something to say "max, i've been meaning to ask…"

My heart pounded, fantasizing at what this could be. Bad Val! no! just….just quit fantasizing...he wouldn't say that!

"well, I uh….I wa gonna ask you if you"-

BLAM!

Erasers. I swore under my breath, cautiously turning about the table. I turned around, thankful to see Tristan flinging Erasers into space. I jumped out, ran through the stampede of people attempting to escape from the mess, and sprang into the air, unleashing the back of my foot in a wild tornado kick around the Eraser's temple. His neck snapped sideways, and he fell to the ground, motionless. Three down, three to go. Tristans face was beaded with sweat, and the Erasers weren't rocketing as high. Worrying did me no good, I was caught unexpectedly with a strong uppercut that made me see spots. I staggered getting up, still slightly unbalanced. Three more still. Tristan's hands glowed a neon green, and he flung all three erases about twenty feet up. Noticing his plan, I rocketed up towards them, and with a final amount of energy slammed all three of them to the ground in an Axe kick. Tristan looked at me, grinned, and collapsed in an unconscious pile on the ground.

"Ungh... Where am I...?"

'Shhhh, they really tired you out. Rest for a bit, OK?"

"OK, captain Val"

Tristan lay his head down again, and I stepped out of the small cave on the rock formation. I stood looking at Tristan, and just fell backwards of the cliff, wings spread wide. These eagles, spiraling around and around. They altered my life, some of their DNA structure was use to teach me how to fly. I spiraled for what seemed like endless hours, the warm desert air blowing my ginger hair around. I only realized how long it was as the sun began to set. I headed back to the den and roused Tristan and told him to let me sleep till midnight.

I awoke with the sun shining in my face. "TRISTAN!" I shouted, leaping to my feet, snapping my wings open in case I had to fly to save him or slap him. Or both. I was indifferent. I saw him flipping, diving, doing barrel rolls, having fun out in the bright desert morning. I looked at him, grinning. So he wants to play it that way, huh? We'll see about that!

I dove off the cliff, face first, spinning on the way down. Just before impact, I yanked my out my wings(ouch!), shooting straight up. Beating my wings hard, I shot up past Tristan, and he spun around, startled. He laughed, and shot up after me. It was a race to see who was faster now, who could embrace the clouds without struggle. Spiraling around each other, getting dizzier, and more tired with each beat of the wing. We stopped, him floating, me bobbing up in down wit the consistency of my wingbeats. He looked at me, and I stared back into his deep brown eyes, mesmerized by a look, not of love, but more like, oh-my-God-I-barely-know-you-but-it-feels-like-I've-known-you-forever look. Snapping back into reality, I winked at him, tucking my wings against my sides, shooting straight down. You know how they say falcons are the fastest animal or something? Well, a Valerie is a lot faster, almost reaching 300 mph, if I'm going straight down. Tristan followed me straight down, forcing on a little added speed. We read each others movements, perfect spirals, flips, barrel rolls, loops, as if we had practiced. But we hadn't. We could read each other, work in perfect unison. Just like we did with our enemies, but this was for teamwork. He caught me in his arms, and we hurtled upwards, my stomach in my throat, not because of the breakneck speed, but because he was legitimately embracing me, hugging me. We seemed still, the world hurtling around our little bubble. I..I had never had a single thought like this before, but this boy knew me, my pain, and it felt good to be with him, even though we had been together for only three or four days. I lost track by now, forgetting about the mission, the only thing in the world right now was him.

Mmmmm... perfect marshmallow. Nothing like it. S'mores are the most heavenly thing in the universe. I loved S'mores like max loved chocolate chip cookies. at first I was suspicious as to where Tristan got them , but they were unopened and smelled delicious, so I tried one. Then he pulled out all the necessary ingredients for S'mores. Wolfing down S'more after S'more, tasty after tasty, I asked him something. "Tristan?"

He gulped down a S'more."yeah?"

"how come your name is Tristan? I have a odd reason for naming myself, but...?"

"funny story. I used to spend my time at arcades, playing for free because I cheated around paying with telekinesis, and there was a fantasy rpg where the main character was named Tristan. I loved the game, so I named myself after it's character. You?"

"well, I was the copy number 21 for Max and Dylan's recopy, and 21 corresponds with the letter V, so I like Valerie, but just stuck with Val for short. Nothing special."