bazinga101: First fanfic! Also first time posting anything so my knees are practically shaking. Just a heads up though, for those of you who have not read Nevermore STOP READING IMMEDIATELY! Same goes for people who don't know about Iggy's color-feeling power. Enjoy!

Disclaimer: I don't own Maximum Ride (There. I said it. Happy?)


Iggy's POV

I stood on a rocky cliff; feeling a vivid green color from the moss between my toes warm from an eternity of sun. I took a deep breath, filling my lungs with cool humid air, and took a flying leap off the gritty rock.

Literally flying.

Ella tells me my wings are 15 feet long and streaked with a kind of heather gray, but I don't really care seeing as how I'm blind and all.

Right then, all that mattered was hoping I dropped in the small pond beneath me instead of the large cluster of palm trees to the side. Without warning, I folded my wings and let myself drop like a stone, hitting the water of the pond hard enough to sting. Instantly a wave of spectacular colors washed over me as I soared underwater. I could feel the sparkling blues, rainbow scales of all sorts of exotic fish and, best of all, the green of a lost twenty-dollar bill. I quickly pocketed it and surfaced, feeling the immense loss of brilliant colors once more.

"Show off," someone mumbled.

My head snapped toward the sound. "Let's see you try it blind Fnick," I snapped and stalked off to find Gazzy, already plotting revenge.

"What's his problem?" I heard Max ask.

'This island that's what's wrong', I thought as I slipped into the jungle.

Max's POV

"What's his problem?" I ask Fang, but instead of answering he just shrugged and continued wolfing down his lasagna.

I wrinkled my nose, "Couldn't you at least use a fork?"

"Since when did you care about manners?"

"Your right, I'll care about manners when pigs fly. Oh wait," I said pointing at Fang, "they do."

He snorted and poured Ice...Cold...Water...On... My... Friggin'...Head.

It was so on.

I grabbed a plate of cookies, stuffed one in my mouth and launching the rest at Fang. Unfortunately he ducked and the smashed into Ella's face.

"AAAH! Not coo- wait, these are actually pretty good!" She commented while trying (and failing) to lick her nose.

"Food fight!" a certain nine-year old yelled.

And then everything went blue. That's right, blue. Blueberry pie was dripping down my face and onto my favorite shirt.

"Gazzy!"

The clearing fell silent, Gazzy was going to have to face Angry Max.

"Your aim is good," I said, chewing on a cherry. I stood up on the unpolished picnic table, my raptor vision focusing in on the small blonde boy. "But not good enough!" I spat out at least ten seeds, rapid fire, at Gazzy. His big blue eyes widened as dark brown seeds stuck to his forehead in the shape of an 'L'. Just then, a look of confusion passed over Gazzy's face.

"Master Max," he said, "I will forever do nothing but please you, even if it means giving you all my desert. I will speak only when spoken to and tend to your every need. This is my oath."

Dumbstruck, I glanced to my right and saw Angel on the ground laughing her head off.

"Was that you?"

She nodded, gasping for air.

"That wasn't funny." I said solemnly.

A little upset that she had done something wrong Angel hung her head in shame.

"That was hilarious!"

Everyone in the clearing burst out laughing, Nudge was choking on coffee cake, Fang was guffawing into his lasagna, I was grinning triumphantly. Iggy was still missing but I didn't care, I was Maximum Ride, Queen of Paradise!

Dylan's POV

"There, that should do it."

I stepped back to admire my handiwork. On the side of Max's tree house was a gigantic neon poster spelling 'Happy Birthday Maximum Ride!'

Everyone was at the waterfall celebrating but I had felt kinda alone, so I slipped away from the festivities to work on Max's poster. It's been a year since the end of the world and Fang is still the king of the jungle. Literally. Sure, I act like everything is fine but when your designed for a person, it's kinda hard to let her go. I've tried to win Max back but the Universe just doesn't seem to like me.

Of course everything I've tried has gone horribly wrong.

Like now, Iggy comes crashing through the jungle like a mad bird, trips, and promptly rips the poster in two.

I just sighed and said "I guess everything's fair in Love and War, huh Universe?"

"Huh?" Iggy asked.

"Nothing," I mumbled.

Nudge's POV

Tears were streaming down my face, tears of laughter of course! I haven't actually cried in a year. It's just …when Gazzy…and then…cherry seeds…kowtowing…Gazzy's face…well it was really funny!

Only when the laughter had died down did I look up at Gazzy, but what I saw made me stop smiling immediately. He was in the corner and tracing his finger in the dry dirt, crouched in a defensive position, his eyes squeezed tight to catch escaping tears.

I glanced at Max and Fang, but they were too busy lifting Angel in the air to notice.

'They're so full of themselves,' I thought bitterly, 'Gazzy's crying and do they notice? I don't know, but they certainly don't care.'

I crouched down next Gazzy, "What's wrong?"

He sniffled and said, "Max doesn't care about us and neither do Angel and Fang. All they ever care about is each other and we never get to go flying with them or have a party of just us, the flock. And now Max's makin' fun of me an' everyone was laughin' at me an'…" He burst into tears again.

I thought about that and about how we used to be, every member willing to die for each other. Being able to share anything I wanted with Max, but now when I need to ask her something she's either flying with Fang or swimming with Angel. Sometimes I think that she just doesn't care about us anymore, like Gazzy said. What happened to flock forever? What happened to our family?

"Come on." I said, "Let's go back to the tree house. I don't think they need us anymore."

Iggy's POV

Stupid island, stupid Max, stupid Fang stupid poster. I was in a rage and if any of the mutants (sorry, enhanced people) get in my way they'd end up like Dylan's poster: in two halves.

Finally, I broke through the trees to my tree house. The bamboo box sat in the leaves of a tall willow, hidden from any onlookers. Listening intently, I flew up towards a faint sound of buzzing only I could hear. Dr. Martinez had installed a small buzzer so I would fly into a doorway instead of a branch.

Inside a symphony of blinking dials and unfinished projects pinged and whirred, music to my sensitive ears. I felt my way to my room and opened up a trapdoor in my bedroom. No one knew about it, not even Ella who I share everything with. I'm the only one who can navigate my house, knowing nothing lights up except for some projects and some colorful buttons. I've even color coded my inventions so I know what I'm working on, like I know where the trapdoor is because of a small yellow circle in the corner of it.

I drop through the opening into the mouth of a twisting slide. If Max had known about it she would have freaked, saying it was too dangerous and make me take it down, but of course I'd just build it again.

I shot out of the tube into a giant water tank where I could stay as long as I like, and I normally do until I get hungry.

Distorted images flashed in my head, giving me a picture of my surroundings. Indigo water swayed from the splash I had made, slowly calming to gentle lull. The sides of the tank were solid and dark, adding to the mysterious effect.

If you haven't figured it out yet, I can see underwater. For some reason I can feel the colors in the water even if I'm not touching them and the only sources of light in my giant tank are glowing sea life and mosses, pulsating and dancing all around me.

I swam over to a small, well-lit cave. Inside were my own creations of waterproof paper and a kind of paint I call "Cling Paint." With Cling Paint, I can paint and draw underwater. All I have to do is dip a special brush into the paint and the paint will cling to it instead of washing away into the water, then when I begin to paint it clings to my special paper and dries there so, if I wanted (which I don't) I could take it out of the water to show people. Maybe one day I'll paint Ella.

This was my favorite place on the island with no Max, or Fang, or Angel acting like they're better than everyone. Suddenly, I heard a gurgling scream, I looked up to see Ella, Nudge, and Gazzy trying to swim with heavy shoes.

I shot out of my cave with the help of my wings and helped Nudge lift Ella, now unconscious, to the surface, losing my only sight again.

"What are your guys doing?" I yelled, pulling them to a platform at the edge of the tank.

Ella was blinking dizzily but was still conscious , thank God.

"Gazzy and I were curious about what your house looked like," Nudge said sheepishly. " Ella saw us and we decided to take her with us."

"This place is so cool!" Gazzy was shouting a little too loudly, "I wish you could see your place Iggy!"

I was angry, not really at Ella, but Nudge and Gazzy. This was my place of solitude and they just ruined it, if one bad thing happened I was going to snap.

" Y'know what? Fine. Whatever. You guys can look around, but don't tell anyone. Especially not Max."

"But Ella doesn't have gills, Iggy," Nudge said.

Oh yeah, minor detail there. I dug into a small box on the platform and came up with a small metal mouthpiece and goggles.

"Here," I said, giving them to Ella," It'll filter the oxygen out of the water."

I heard a "clink" and a "thwap" and a muffled 'OK' and I dove into the water.

Seeing is amazing and for the first time I could see my three best friends I saw Gazzy's deep blue eyes, his flushed cheeks, and the bubbles sprouting from the gills in his neck.

Nudge's hair was spread through the water in a dark brown wave, her deep chocolate-brown eyes and skin glowed with happiness and wonder as she chased a glowing mechanical jellyfish around.

Ella was lying on the floor, lazily watching bubbles flat up from her oxygen separator. She had long, tan arms, hair like Nudges's except for a few blonde streaks. Fang says that Ella and Max look-alike, except for the skin, but I just couldn't imagine sarcastic, stubborn Max looking anything like gentle obedient Ella.

I swam over to her to get a better 'look' at her face. Through her goggles she had deep brown irises lined with specks of green, which seemed to shift with the glow of the anemone, her face was soft except for the vivid hard look of her eyes. Getting sudden inspiration I swam to the cave and grabbed some paints.

Nudge swam curiously over to me, "Can you… see?"

I hesitated, but nodded smiling slightly.

Her eyes widened "Gazzy!" She gurgled, "Iggy can see!"


bazinga101: I'm thinking I'll do my chapters James Patterson style. Ya know, super short and hardly a page. That away I can update quickly.