Prologue

It's been a year since I didn't save the world. We were able to get everyone out of the cave and rebuild the Island. We started training all of the other mutants so they can control their abilities. It's been a good year.

I was sitting in my treehouse, practicing my new guitar (that's right! Maximum can nowplay an instrument!), when I heard someone say, "Hey Max." I turned and saw Fang in the doorway. We've rebuild our relationship and almost back to where we were before he left.

"What's up?" Fang came over and sat on the edge of my bed.

"Your mom wants to talk to us. She said that it was really important."

"Ok. I'll be right there." Fang got up, kissed my cheek and headed towards the door. "She said meet her in conference room B."

I packed up my guitar, jumped off the tree branch that connected mine and Fang's houses, and began flying towards the conference rooms. That's right. I flew. You guys really shouldn't be surprised, and if you are, stop reading and go back 8 books. Anyway, I flew towards the conference rooms and looked down on the forest below me. In one clearing, I saw Angel teaching kids to move things with their minds. In another, Gasman and Iggy were teaching the older kids how to build bombs. Hopefully they wouldn't blow up half of the forrest again...

When I reached The Building the held the conference rooms, I landed and walked in. Conference room B was on the third floor, on the other side of the building. I walked towards the elevators and saw Nudge teaching some kids how to hack NASA in the auditorium. I finally reached conference room B and saw Fang, My mom and various adults that work in The Building.

"What's up" I asked while taking a seat next to Fang. He gave me a small smile and rested has hand low on my inner leg, close to my knee. "What's so important?" My mom looked at the other adults nervously.

"Well, Max," started a younger man wearing jeans and ratty t shirt, while holding a clicker. Is name tag said Tommy. He couldn't be older than 22. "We understand you have taken down many Institutions that take children and experiment on them. Many of which people here have come from." I nodded, confirming what Tommy said. "With that, the past year we have been keeping an eye out all over the world, for other Institutions or stories of children being able to do some of the things that The Flock can. Just in case." Tommy clicked the clicker once, and a map of the continental US came up.

"We're lucky we did." An official looking women said.

Tommy clicked the clicker again and slowly, starting in Washington state, red dots started appearing across the States. There were about 25 in total. "All over the US, stories of kids disappearing, some reappearing and being able to do things no one should be able to do."

I just sat there. I couldn't believe what they were saying. All of the running we did, every fight we fought, everything we went through for 15 years, was for nothing. There were Schools still active, kidnapping and torturing innocent kids. I didn't want to believe it.

I looked over to Fang. To anyone else, it looked like he didn't care. That the information just given to us didn't affect him. But i wasn't anyone else. I could see his jaw slightly clenched in anger, i could see disbelief that inhabited his eyebrows and edges of his eyes. I looked at my mother. She was looking at me, trying to figure out how i was feeling.

Finally, after more than 5 minutes I spoke up. "How do we stop this?"

Another woman, who was blond and wearing a skirt and blazer, whose nametag read Becca, stood up and clapped her hands. "I am so glad you asked that Maximum!" I refrained from telling her to call me Max. "We are sending all of the older kids to each one of these dots, with the intent to find the mutants in the area, and reporting back to us once they find the Institution so that we can shut it down."

"What about the Flock?" I asked. "We're going somewhere too." Somewhere warm I hope.

Tommy clicked his clicker again and the map zoomed into one of the dots that were further north. So much for warm. "You and the rest of the Flock will be going to a suburb of the city, Minneapolis, a city in Minnesota. You guys will be attending a high school called Osseo, which is the school the mutant attends." Fang squeezed my leg when I prepared to stand up.

"School?" I shouted. "Absolutely not! Every experience that I have had with schools has not been pleasant."

"Max, sweetheart," my mom said softly. "I know how you feel about school, but it is vital to finding this mutant." I leaned back in my seat. I couldn't say no to my mom.

"Fine. We'll go to school." I grumbled. Fang released his grip on my leg, knowing that I wasn't going to fight anymore.

"Do we know anything about this mutant?" Fang finally spoke up. "You know, so that we can find them easier."

Another man stood up, as Becca sat. He didn't have a name tag. "We know very little." Tommy clicked again. A smiling girl with red hair, blue eyes, braces and glasses popped up. It looked like a yearbook photo. "This is Adrienne Stevens. This past June she went missing while walking home and two months later, she reappeared more than 3 hours away from her home. She told the authorities of a laboratory that conducted different experiments on her."

"Next month, she will be a senior at Osseo." Tommy said "We need you to get close to her and find out what her mutation is. You guys will be in Minnesota all school year, gaining Adrienne's trust."

We were in the meeting for another hour, talking about when we leave, where we will be staying, and various other things about helping Adrienne. After, Fang and I called a Flock meeting. The reactions varied from person to person.

"Finally! School!"

"But Gazzy and I still haven't finished the bomb!"

"Can I go by Captain Teror again?"

"Can Total come with?"

You can guess who said what.