Disclaimer: This idea was inspired by Kingdom Hearts II. I do not own Maximum Ride or KH II, although it would be pretty cool if I did.


I woke up with a headache. It felt like someone took a sledgehammer and repeatedly hit me with it.

I managed to slide out of bed and walked around my room a little bit in my blue nightgown, holding my head. After a few minutes, the pain slowly died down. I couldn't remember the last time I had a headache like this.

I walked over to the window and opened it, the orange dawning sun shining right into my face. I winced at it, making me wonder why I even opened it.

I started getting dressed, putting on some blue jeans and a large blue shirt that had slits in the back of them for my wings. They were specially made for me by my mother so I wouldn't have to cram them in my shirt.

"Max, are you up?" called my mother.

"Yeah, I'll be down in a sec," I said back.

I couldn't believe how cool my mom was with my wings. In fact, everyone I knew was pretty cool with me having wings, as long as I didn't use them to cheat at games or racing them anywhere.

I headed downstairs and into the kitchen where my mother was making English muffins. I didn't have a father. Well, I know I have one but he wasn't around here. My mom told me that he just went away somewhere and disappeared. She never told me anymore and always tried to change the subject. I figured something bad happened and it just pained her to talk about it, so I never pried.

I sat down at the kitchen table and she passed me a paper plate with two toasted muffins on it. Then she gave me a dish of butter and a jar of jam.

"So what are you doing today Max?" she asked.

"Nothing much," I said, "I'm just gonna hang out with the gang over at the treehouse."

"Oh, well that sounds nice."

I was on summer vacation from school. Everyday I would be doing something with my friends, Jacob, Celia, and Kevin. We had been friends for what seemed like a long time. We had a little treehouse in Jacob's backyard that we hung out in a lot.

When I finished with my breakfast, I got up and started heading outside.

"All right, I'm gonna head out," I called out.

"Okay, be careful," she said.

I opened the door and then I unfurled my wings and took off. It always felt so good to fly. I just loved it.

I looked over the town. It was called Roland City. It was a fairly small town but it was really nice. It had a great arcade, a really good pizzeria, and the museum they had was pretty nice.

It seemed like it was perfect for me.

I came to Jacob's backyard and flew into the treehouse. There the others were waiting.

"Hey, look who flew in," said Jacob.

"You know, that is really getting old," I said.

"Well, if you didn't fly into the treehouse all the time, I wouldn't have to say it."

"Whatever."

Jacob was seventeen like me, his blonde hair always reflecting the sun. He was taller than me but not by much. Not like Fang.

Wait a minute, I didn't know anyone who was taller than Jacob. Okay, get that out of my head.

"All right, so what are we going to today?" asked Celia. She was a year younger than me and had strawberry blond hair.

"We could go down to the arcade," said Kevin. He was eighteen, the oldest of us all, but he was the shortest. He only made it to my shoulder.

"Nah," said Jacob, "we went to the arcade a couple days ago. I say we go to the beach."

"Yeah, the beach sounds good," said Celia excitedly, "What do you think Max?"

"I think the beach is a good idea," I said.

"All right, it's settled," said Jacob, "we're going to the beach."

So we got out of the treehouse and headed down to the beach on our bikes. I could've flown but I didn't want to leave the others behind or make them feel bad.

So we made it to the beach. There was a nice, cool breeze and the gentle waves were really soothing. There were a couple of people scattered here and there, but there weren't any nearby.

We all sat by the water and had some small talk about this and that.

Looking at the sand and water was almost hypnotizing. I could picture one of those corny romance novel covers. Then I pictured me in one of them, only I was kissing some boy with black hair. And he was really beat up for some reason.

Yikes, I let my mind wander way too much.

As we sat looking into the sky, a man suddenly came up to us, "Excuse me," he said. He was wearing a suit and sunglasses.

We all turned around to look at him.

"Yeah," I said, "can we help you?"

"Which one of you is Max?" he asked.

"I am," I said.

Suddenly, the man grabbed me by the neck with his big right hand. He had a really strong grip. I grabbed his hands and tried to dig into it with my nails. It didn't seem to affect him at all.

"You are coming with me," he said through gritted teeth, "but I need you unconscious."

I tried to fight back but his grip was just too strong. My vision started to fade as my air left me.

For the last few seconds, I felt something strange on his hand. It was starting to fell hairier, and I could swear I felt claws digging into my neck. In my fading vision, I thought I saw his face turning wolf-like.

Suddenly, a flock of seagulls came and started attacking the wolf man. He let go and I dropped to the sand, bringing in much-welcomed air. The seagulls chased the man away, pecking at him. It was really strange but I wasn't complaining.

After catching my breath, I looked over at my friends who were still sitting on the beach.

"How come you guys didn't stop him?" I asked. I wasn't mad that they didn't help. I wouldn't have blamed them for being scared, but I was still curious.

"Stop who?" asked Celia.

"The guy who was choking me."

"What are you talking about?" asked Kevin. "There was no guy."

"What?"

"There was no guy choking you. Just that guy in the suit who walked by us, asking us the time. If there was someone who was trying to hurt you, I think we would stop them Max."

I couldn't believe it. Did I just imagine that guy choking me? And why did he start to look like an Eraser?

Wait a minute, why did I just call him an Eraser? What the hell was going on?

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A man in a lab coat and glasses with long white hair sat in a chair, surrounded by many computer screens.

Behind him, someone walked up to him wearing a black hoody sweatshirt with the hood up and blue jeans. "What was that?" he asked.

"An Itex crony," said the man in his deep voice, "I can't believe it. They found us."

"What do we do now?"

"We continue as planned."

"Why can't we just put in her memories all at once?"

"We've talked about this before. It could do serious damage to her mind. We need to place them slowly. At the rate we've been proceeding, it would take a week, but I suppose we could speed it up a little bit. Time is of the essence now."

"Whatever you say, Doc."

Doc turned around to face the hooded person, "By the way, we need to talk. Who are you really?"

The hooded person staggered a bit, "What do you mean?" he asked.

"I think we both know you're name isn't Nick. If we're to form trust, I think it would be fair if I knew you're true name."

The hooded person stared at Doc for a moment. Then he lifted off the hood, revealing a half-morphed Eraser face.

"It's Ari."

Doc began to start laughing for a little bit, and then he said. "It's a pleasure to be working with you Ari."


Well, have I intrigued you? Am I boring you? Please review. It's my first fanfic.