A.N. Hello, everyone! It's been awhile since I've written, but recently I've been having the idea for this Max Ride story.

I don't want to give too much away, except for there's another baddie out there trying to rid the world of the 'inferior' people to create a superior race, and ultimately: the perfect world.

It takes place somewhere in the 2nd book; the flock is already going to school and living with Anne. I'm going to put my own little twist on the Codes they found at the Institute back in the Angel Experiment, as they're going to play a really large part of the story.

Disclaimer: I don't own Maximum Ride or the characters, just my own ideas! ;)

I'm going to try and give this story a mystery/puzzle solving flair to it: Hopefully I can pull it off! :)

I hope you enjoy it, and happy reading!

Prologue:

It's funny, really – how she found out about this. Who'd have known that she'd ever figure out those codes? Then again, who could have guessed that she'd steal them in the first place?

The man chuckled, shaking his head at the thought. 'Maximum Ride,' he thought, gazing at the tiny red blimp on the large television monitor in front of him. 'You are truly more intelligent than I'd realized.' He scratched his chin, smirking as the dot slowly progressed down a line, signifying her travels down a road.

'Too bad you don't realize you're being tracked.' He looked down at the keypad, fingering the controls until the view on the screen was minimized. Glancing back up, a satellite map of the city of Paris, France filled the monitor, with squiggly crisscrossing lines that marked the city's busy roads and highways. The red blimp was at the upper portion of the city, a place that he had visited recently in the past few months.

'You're getting close, little birdie.' The blimp stopped moving, the red color pulsating as it did so. 'A few more days and you'll step right into my trap.' The man debated on laughing evilly, but decided against it. His colleagues would shame him for sure.

No doubt the so-called 'savior of the world' was journeying with her dark boyfriend, which made capturing her a bit harder. If only she would have listened to her Voice like she was told, she wouldn't have given any room for the possibility of her being followed. His plan would have worked perfectly. Now here he sat, analyzing the screen and attempting to predict their next move.

After twenty minutes, the blimp hadn't yet moved from the screen. In zooming back in, he concluded that they were in La Brasserie de l'Isle Saint-Louis, a quaint bistro and coffee shop in the heart of Paris. It was strange that they had chosen to stop there, really. They were faced with the threat of the world being destroyed, and all they could think of was eating scones and sipping vanilla lattes?

Her time was running out. The first snow had already begun to fall. Did she not care? Maybe the 'almighty' Maximum wasn't destined for greatness after all. But he digressed. Her ability to be easily sidetracked helped to play in his favor.

He sat back in his office chair, lifting his legs atop his desk and crossing them. Was it professional? No. But did he care? Not at all.

For once things were playing out the way he wanted. This was his plan, and it was working. No one, not the other scientists, the other 'professionals' could call him a failure anymore. Once he had Max, that is. And he would get Max, even if it was the last thing he did.

He chuckled, pressing a hand against his mouth. 'Soon, Maximum. Soon you'll truly see what it's like to be miserable. To not be the one on top. And you'll have a front row seat, my dear…' He closed his eyes, listening to the soft beeping sound of the blimp.

'…To watch the world burn... with you as the kindling.'

A.N. Feel free to tell me what you think! Constructive Criticism is always welcome and appreciated, as is every review!

Thanks for reading, and let me know how you think it's going to go! I always love hearing you guys' ideas!