Author's Note: Alright, I probably really shouldn't put this up, because I've already got two other Fics in progress right now. However, this story kept screaming at me from my notebook, "PUT ME UP! PUT ME UP!" and so, here we are. This takes place after Fang and The Last Olympian— b'cept, the kiss between Annabeth and Percy at the end never happened. Personally, I'm not a Percabeth fan. There will be very little of that in here... So, sorry if you were looking forward to their being together, but I suggest that you go find yourself another FanFic. (:

Max's POV.

Pushing through crowds, running through city streets, weaving between pedestrians, cursing at any who got in my way— and all because I'm chasing a random person who may or may not have been telling the truth about whether he may or may not have the answers that I may or may not need and that may or not break my heart.

Sound familiar?

Yeah, of course it does. Or, at least— it should, if you've been following up on the oh-so-marvelous adventures of me and the flock. And if you haven't… well, quite frankly, I have no idea what to tell you. Because why you're reading this is a mystery to me. But, anyways… Ever since what seems like a lifetime ago when Angel got kidnapped (Do you guys even still remember that? It was freaking forever ago!), this has been my reality. Of course, this little marathon was slightly different because I didn't have the rest of the flock on my tail like I usually did. While their presence was reassuring, I was actually pretty glad that they weren't here for three reasons. One, the least important reason of all, is that it gave me a little variety from my spontaneous and yet oh-so-similar routine. Two: It prevented the kids from seeing me in this insane moment of weakness. Third and foremost, their absence from this little wild goose chase meant that they would all be safe from whatever trap I was inevitably leading myself into.

Well... now that I've gotten all the ranting out of my system, I'm guessing that you're wondering what the latest and greatest event in the series of stupid things I've done is, huh?

Alright, here goes. As you know, Fang left the flock. We haven't seen or heard from him since, and I've been trying to convince myself that it's good riddance. Neither my head nor heart are buying it. Ever since he left, the flock— we, mostly me— has been moping around my mom's house like a bunch of bums. We were bummed, and we were bums. It kind of sucked. One day I got sick of it all, kissed my mom and Ella goodbye, and whisked my winged family off to New York. You may be asking why I brought us all the way to New York, home of the oh-so-wonderful Institute, as opposed to staying in Arizona with my actually wonderful biological family.

I'm not quite sure what brought us here. It certainly wasn't a certain post on a certain blog saying that a certain someone would be in a certain city.

Certainly not! Where would you ever get an idea like that?

So for whatever reason—not Fang— we were in this stupid city again, and the flock and I were waking up around nine-ish on top of some construction site. The warmth from the sun was warming my feathers, and a gentle breeze blew my hair around. It was insanely peaceful— that is, until somebody turned on the Nudge Channel. Today's program was all about how hungry she was. Everybody quickly agreed, their silence broken by our resident motormouth. None of us felt like going out to get food, so we had a vote on who would do it. The unanimous decision was that I, their faithful leader who they kicked out not too long ago, would be the one to move her ass and put some effort into things. (I still swear that Angel rigged the voting process.)

As I was wandering the streets, I smelled freshly-made chocolate chip cookies. If you knew me at all, you'd know that chocolate chip cookies are my one fatal flaw. So I was standing there, obsessing over the scent of cookies, minding my own business, when I felt a tap on my shoulder. I whirled around, expecting to have to fight yet another brainwashed psychopath to the death, and laughed at myself when it was only a kid. He was probably around ten, with long, blonde hair and dark-as-night eyes.

However, when he looked me dead in the eyes and said monotonously, "I know where Fang is," my laughing immediately ceased. I felt my jaw fall slack and I stared after him as he turned and ran. It took mere seconds for my brain and feet to reach an understanding:

Follow him!

…And that, my friends, is what wound me up in this predicament. The crowd was beginning to thin out, and soon enough, there were barely any people on the streets. Now that I didn't have to battle an onslaught of pedestrians on top of my claustrophobic tendencies, I began to slowly gain some leverage on the kid I was chasing. The gap between us was beginning to close, and I reached forward to grab his shirt—

Crap! My shoulder hit somebody else dead-on, and we were both sent sprawling. The blonde I had been chasing looked over at us, gave an approving smile, turned, and ran away.

Crap.

I scowled at the guy whom I'd run smack into and gave him my meanest glare as I studied his face. "Way to go, dumbass! Do you have any idea what you just did?"

If my anger had any effect on him, he sure as hell didn't show it. He blew off my remark as he got to his feet, stuck down a hand to me, and introduced himself. "I'm Percy."

His lack of fear threw me so far off balance that I actually reached up and accepted his hand. Once he'd pulled me to my feet, I said warily, "I'm Max. Maximum Ride."

A thoughtful frown crept onto his face as he said slowly, "Like… like the flying mutant spokespeople for the planet?"

I sighed. Maybe it would've been better to use a fake name… I nodded reluctantly and admitted, "Yeah. We went through kind of a bit of a sell-out stage…"

His thoughtful frown turned into a grin. Recognition lit his sea-green eyes as he realized where he really knew my name from and he exclaimed, "Oh! Maximum Ride! Like from Fang's blog!"

My expression immediately darkened at even the mention of his name. It took a hell of a lot of restraint not to rip this kid's head off. "No," I growled menacingly. "Nothing like Fang's blog."

I suppose that something about my reaction— maybe it was the growl, maybe the menace— told him to back off, because he swiftly changed the subject. "So, uh, Max. What brings you to New York?"

I couldn't help but roll my eyes at his feeble attempt to path things over between us. I decided to answer this complete stranger with semi-honesty and responded, "Food." I frowned and pressed my hand to my temple. I suddenly had a throbbing headache, which I contributed to this kid's blatantly obnoxious friendliness.

"Want some help getting it? I know some great places." When he caught the dubious expression in my eyes, he added, "Information from locals beats tourists' around ninety percent of the time."

I scowled and responded, "I'm not—" My stomach rumbled, cutting off my denial before I could even get through it. I let out a sheepish grin before admitting, "Alright, so maybe I am just a bit hungry…"

"My mom can—"

I shot down that offer immediately, not even bothering to let him finish it. There was no chance that I was going to let myself impose on anyone. "It's not just me. I don't go anywhere without the flock. Which means you'd be feeding six mutant freaks. That's a hell of a lot more than just one. You'd probably need around enough food to supply a small army for a month."

Percy just stared at me blankly. It was the same look that I'd had on my face when my mom had suggested making chocolate-chip cookies from scratch instead of a box. "So?"

I tried explaining my morals. "So, I refuse to be a burden."

"It's no burden." Didn't work.

I tried reasoning. "Tell that to the woman who has to cook enough food for, like, fifty men!"

"She's all for helping people." Didn't work.

I tried just flat-out denying him. "I refuse to impose."

"You aren't imposing." Didn't. Freaking. Work.

I tried shooting him the meanest, nastiest glare I could muster and demanded, "Give it up, Perseus." I crossed my fingers and hoped that Perseus really was his full name, and that I hadn't made a complete idiot of myself by calling him the wrong name.

He looked kind of annoyed, so I assumed that my guess on his name had been dead-on. But then he completely changed his expression to one of longing and whimpered, "Please?"

And then he shot me the Bambi eyes. My only weakness.

I wrinkled up my nose indecisively, and shifted my weight from one foot to the other. I was trying to figure out how to say no when he kicked the look up a notch. I let out a small groan and prepared to concede. "Are you, uh… sure your mom won't mind six extra kids in her kitchen?" I paused before remembering Total and adding, "And a Scottie?"

Percy's brow furrowed as he demanded incredulously, "You have a dog?"

I returned his confused expression with a cocked eyebrow and a snippy, "You didn't even question the fact that we all have wings, and yet you're surprised by a dog?"

Percy let out an impish grin that kind of reminded me of Gazzy's. He ducked his head and admitted sheepishly, "I guess I've heard stranger."

I snorted in bemusement (hopefully not looking as stupid as it sounds like I did) and informed him, "I'm gonna go get my band of merry mutants now."

I had taken all of three steps away from him before Percy reached out and grabbed my wrist. I glanced down at his fingers and up at his face, ready to break his arm if I had to. Instead of attacking like I'd expected, he frowned and inquired, "How do I know you'll come back?"

"You don't," I responded earnestly. When I saw his face fall I let out a small, defeated sigh. "But I will. Just… meet me here in, like, fifteen minutes, alright?"

He nodded and plopped down on the steps of the nearest building, as if to prove a point. "I'll be waiting," he informed me before shooting me a grin.

I rolled my eyes yet again and began to walk away from the kid who had somehow hassled me into eating breakfast with him and his mom. As I walked away, I went over our conversation in my head and scowled to myself. How had I managed to let my guard slip so quickly?

If this is a trap, I promised myself as a wave of uncertain anger rolled over me, I will rip off Percy's arm and beat him with it.

A/N: Alright… So? What'd you guys think? This is my first crossover Fic in the history of ever, so I would really appreciate some reviews telling me what you guys think. Thank you so much for reading and stay tuned for the next update! 3