So hi. This used to be a submit-a-character story, but that's all over and done with now, so I deleted all that stuff. Here's the characters and the people who submitted them!

Ross - Moe10

Olivia (Livvie) - Great Hawk

Energy - ImmortalWings2.5

Rhaksha Ora - Cadisha Ora Rhaksha Caden

Zelda - JPfreak100 (a.k.a. KaylaAnonymous)

Brisk - Me, aided by the popular Artificial Intelligence Cleverbot

Snow - Me again!

Shh, the disclaimer's starting! *Munches popcorn loudly*: Maximum Ride belongs to James Patterson, and the characters belong to the authors who submitted them. Except Snow and Brisk, they're mine.

Snow POV.

If there's one thing I've learned about life, it's that everything can - and will - change in the blink of an eye. Everything's a balancing act and if something slips, it's all over. You think you've won - and then it's all gone.

Take right now for instance.

Two minutes ago, me and Olivia were on top of the world. But now we were running for our lives, being chased by the hounds of hell, and the place we called home was about to go up in flames. Why? Because something slipped. And now if we weren't fast enough our future was gonna look a whole lot like our past.

So, honestly, I didn't have time to think about what I've learned. All I had time for was my feet slamming the ground, my heart pounding like a hummingbird's wings, and the shadowy, running figure that was Livvie in front of me. And - oh, yeah - the bloodthirsty wolf-men hot on our heels. Fully-morphed Erasers with lethal claws and jagged, razor-sharp teeth, ideal for ripping apart the flesh of lesser mutants.

Like us.

Then the fuse we'd set before fleeing must have lit - my major clues were the big BOOM and even bigger fireball heading towards us at impossible speeds. Luckily, most of the Erasers were consumed in the fire and the rest were scorched pretty bad. Not-so-luckily, the force of the blast lifted us up, propelled us forward, and slammed us back down like ragdolls. I landed hard on my left arm, felt something snap and a shooting pain. Swearing, I looked up and saw Livvie spit out blood by the light of the burning trees surrounding us. "You okay?" she called.

"Y-yeah" I said shakily, climbing to my feet. Turning, we saw the roof of our blazing house collapse in a blizzard of sparks. The inferno surged and I turned my head away from the heat.

But the fire was everywhere. When I closed my eyes I still saw a red glow, like when you scrunch your eyes shut and look at the sun. Behind us a flaming branch crashed to the ground, sending up another shower of sparks. Smoke was filling up the air, making it hard to breathe.

"We have to get out of here." I coughed. Any other time Livvie would have given me a No shit, Sherlock look. But she just nodded and looked around for a clear path out.

"There!" she cried, pointing to a spot where the flames were weakest. "Run for it!" Squinting to see through the hazy smoke, I sprinted in that direction and and heard Livvie right behind me. We were still in the forest, and the wildfire was spreading like, well, wildfire. But I knew there was a lake about half a mile to the north. If we waded in the water we wouldn't be burned, but even more importantly, we'd have a clear shot at the sky.

Then it was a race against time. I was expecting a second wave of Erasers to show up any second now, when they realized the first wave was dead. We had about an estimated two minutes to get to the lake in time before either the fire or the Erasers killed us. But three minutes later, we'd managed to outrun the fire and no Erasers had shown up. Where are they?

Normally, we had tons of stamina but the smoke was occupying the space normally filled with oxygen and fogging our brains, making us slower. I'd broken my left arm in the explosion, and Livvie had at least one broken rib; she grimaced with pain everytime she took a breath. She could hardly breathe at all. The fire was catching up with us.

Crashing blindly through the underbrush, we struggled to fill our lungs with air. I was feeling lightheaded and dizzy, and I could tell Livvie was too. It felt like an eternity before we saw the pitch-black waters of the lake through the trees. But then I saw - what? Did the shadows just move? No, that's impossible I told myself. I'm hallucinating. Lack of oxygen, right?

I felt like I was about to suffocate if I didn't fill my lungs with pure, clean, non-smoky air right then, so with one last surge of strength, I grabbed Livvie's wrist (She looked like she was about to pass out.) and sprinted through the treeline. When we were out in the open, I closed my eyes and breathed so deep I thought I would burst.

"Enjoy it while you can, bird-brain." a deep voice growled. "There isn't much fresh air six feet under."

Gasping, my eyes snapped open and I heard Livvie scream. It was an ambush. I'd lead us straight into a trap. Erasers were swarming around us, circling us, trying to drive us back into the woods. Back into the fire. Eyes wide with horror, I looked at Livvie and saw she'd come to the same grim realization. She stared straight ahead, frozen. The Erasers came closer, half-morphed, with leering, wolfish grins. This was a new batch - they looked so young, our age, even. Some of them started to laugh - horrible, low chuckles. They couldn't wait to kill us.

Without meaning to, I took a step backwards. Big mistake. Erasers are like dogs; they can sense your fear. And they play on it. Taunting, they fake-lunged at us. And of course we flinched away. We knew what those claws felt like slicing through your skin, like a hot knife through butter. Terrified, I glanced at Livvie again. "Up and away," she whispered through clenched teeth.

Heart pounding, I nodded. "On five." I replied. "One..."

"Two..." An almost imperceptible tightening of muscles.

"Three..." Closed eyes. Breathe in... Breathe out...

"Four..." Eyes snap open, stare straight forward with a new energy.

"Five!" We rushed the Erasers, caught them off guard. Ran five steps, spread our wings and pushed off the ground hard.

One hard downstroke and we were soaring above the Erasers. Yes! We were flying! I had the crazy urge to laugh. Exhilirated, I looked over to Livvie and saw she was as happy as me. Everything was right for once.

Until it wasn't anymore.

An Eraser's clumsy, clawed hand closed around my ankle, threatening to pull me out of the sky. "NO!" I screamed, trying to kick it off. But it was no use, he was pulling me down. I beat my wings fast and hard, reaching for Livvie's hand. She was flitting back and forth; she couldn't get close enough to help me without being pulled down herself. I looked down again. The other Erasers were ready for me, they had a black body bag and creepy-looking syringes out. I screamed and thrashed around, trying to get away, but I couldn't.

Suddenly, a tall Eraser-girl slammed into the one who was pulling me down, seeming to come out of nowhere. She was fast - one second she wasn't there, then a blur of light-tan skin and brown-with-blond-streaks hair, and then she was standing there, snarling, while the one who'd had me by the ankle was on the ground. I soared upwards, not expecting the sudden freedom.

On the ground, the Erasers were staring open-mouthed at the girl. A low, feral growl slipped out of the one she'd tackled. She snarled back at him. For one electrified moment, they stood there, glaring at each other. Vying for pack dominance. Finally, the male broke eye contact. She'd won.

Me and Livvie hovered in the air far above, with know idea what the hell was going on. Was I just saved from Erasers by an Eraser? Suddenly, the girl threw her head back and looked straight at us. "Shit!"Livvie said. We screamed up through the air as fast as we could, then swerved west.

Then, because the night just wasn't bad enough already, the girl spread her wings and joined us in the sky.