I don't own Maximum Ride, or other preferences made or thought to have been made.


Max's POV

Walking down the Vegas Strip, it was just starting to get dark. We'd seen everything. That giant blimp that's lit up; had lunch at Hard Rock Café; seen the pirate fight at Treasure Island (Angel almost jumped out to help until I told her it was fake); and played golf at the Desert Inn. Gazzy and Iggy continuously asked to go gambling, and I told them they were too young and that it's an addictive habit. But that seemed to make them want to do it even more.

Mom said that we could see the Arch better at night, and it would still be white for Iggy to see. Mom promised that we could see The Mirage and Siegfried and Roy later, but it was too late.

After seeing the Arch, which Iggy was ecstatic about because he was able to see it, we all walked towards the Bellagio to see the beautiful water show in front of it. We stood there for about half an hour. Just as we began walking away, some teenager ran right into me. After trying to walk around him did I notice that he was gripping both my arms and I noticed that he was looking me dead in the eyes with fear and terror on his face.

"You need to run!" he told me in a yelled whisper. "They're back and they are coming for you all. I can hold them off but you have to run." He said fast enough for only someone with extremely powerful hearing could interpret, which I could. And leaning right next to my ear he whispered so quietly that even I could barely hear him. "Beware of the flight, within moon light." And he ran off past me, towards the Bellagio. There was something about the way that his eyes looked that I couldn't get out of my head. Then Fang walked up to me.

"Who was that? A beggar? Or drunk kid?" He asked while wrapping his arms around me. I was still getting used to this open relationship that we had now.

"I don't think so. He said, 'They're back' and that they're coming." Fang looked at me skeptically.

"You're taking him seriously?"

"I don't know. Something he said, about being afraid of something in the moon light."

Then I had an idea. I ran over to Angel, "Hey Angel, can you pick out something for me?"

But she looked like something was already wrong. Her head was all wrinkled, and she was pressing her fingers to her temples.

"Angel what's wrong?" Fang asked her.

"There's something here." She said. "It's messing with my telepathy."

By now, the other three had walked over to us. My mom had to go and find a bathroom.

"What's going on?" Nudge asked.

Just then, all of us froze. They all heard it. The sound of flapping wings above them, to large for any type of bird. They began looking around for the source and they saw something that was even more surprising.

Weaving in between the people in the crowd were Erasers in full wolf form. But they looked even less human than they used to. But there were about twenty of them, and they all ran past us. But not a single person noticed giant werewolves running past them.

All the Erasers, and whatever it was above us in the sky that we couldn't see, were heading towards the Bellagio. Wait…

"We gotta go after them!" I ordered to my Flock. And usually they did what I asked, but…

"What are you talking about? They're running past us. Let's leave them." Gazzy protested.

"We ARE going because of two reasons. One, we can't let anyone get hurt by them if are able to do something. And two," now turning to Fang, "that kid was heading towards the Bellagio and he said he was going to lead them away."

"Fine," Fang agreed. And turning to the Flock, "Let's go." And flung out his 15 ft. wide wings straight up not to hit anyone. But people did notice the bird kids, but not the wolves. And eventually, everyone had their wings out and fly close to the ground to watch the Erasers.

Just outside the Bellagio, we landed and looked around. The Erasers were going in, but still, no one noticed. Nudge finally broke the silence.

"Max. Is that him on the roof?"

We all backed up, and looked up at the roof. Our hawk-eye vision let us see him like he was right in front of us. But the worse things were that he was right on the ledge. AND there were wolves on both sides of him, probably one in front to prevent his escape.

"JESUS CHRIST!!! DON'T JUMP!!!!!" A woman on the ground screamed. A giant crowd gathered at the bottom of the Bellagio staring at him. They may not be able to see the wolves but they could see him.

Looking at him again, Max saw that he was talking to something in the sky. The thing that was flying earlier. And he turned back towards the wolves and the roof top, his back to the open space of a couple hundred stories drop.

Then, in the back of my head I heard something.

BUMP! BUMP! BUMP-BUMP-BUMP!!

BUMP! BUMP! BUMP-BUMP-BUMP!!

BUMP! BUMP! BUMP-BUMP-BUMP!!

BUMP! BUMP! BUMP-BUMP-BUMP!!

BUMP! BUMP! BUMP-BUMP-BUMP!!

"What is that?" I asked.

"It's the drum beat they used to play at an execution." Iggy piped up, he wasn't even looking up. Why would he? But how did he know that? Oh well.

"Yeah it is." Nudge said agreeing.

"Aaaaaaaaaaggggghhhhhhh!!!!!" Angel cried grabbing her head.

"ANGEL!! What's wrong?" I yelled, running to grab her.

"I don't know. But that drum beat is being sent to your minds telepathically. And it's messing with mine, and it hurts really badly."

"Fang! Watch her!" I yelled to him. Preparing to fly up and save the poor guy. How was he involved in this?

Suddenly the beat in our head quicken to a constant beat.

BUMP-BUMP-BUMP- BUMP-BUMP-BUMP- BUMP-BUMP-BUMP- BUMP-BUMP-BUMP- BUMP-BUMP-BUMP-BUMP!!!!

"This is when the prisoner was executed." Iggy said. And the boy on the roof stood with his back still to the drop, but his arms were spread straight out. Just like a person does when they are about to jump.

"I'm going to get him." I said. But I was too late. The beat in our head stopped. And he fell straight back off of the roof. Turning to face the ground, he was falling fast. It happened so suddenly that I couldn't think of what to do. The wolves stared down at him, surprised that he jumped. A piercing shriek came from the sky.

But when he was ten stories from the ground, something happened. He was suddenly lifted up on a blur of red. The crowd couldn't see it, but we could.

He had been lifted on a pair of giant red wings.