Me~ Hey you guys! Sorry for the late chappie! Been pretty busy reading fanfics, but oh well, it's here now!

Iggy~ 'bout time.

Me~ Shut up! I'm trying!

Iggy~ Riiight.

Me~ anyway here it is, read it while I go kill Iggy. *Glares at Iggy*

Iggy~ *gulps* BTW BiteMe isn't JP, so she doesn't own Maximum Ride or any of its characters! And I'm not blind in this story, just in case anyone was wondering.

Me~ R&R u guys!

Chapter 2

Iggy POV

~Flashback~

I blew out my candles and grinned at everybody. The Flock, Ella and her mom, Dr. Martinez were clapping and cheering, all sitting around a big, oval maple table, which was surrounded by balloons and gifts wrapped in blue, red, and gold wrapping paper and there was a giant birthday cake in front of me. Did I mention it was my birthday?

"To Iggy and him seeing his first birthday!" Max announced, raising a glass filled with orange soda. Oh yeah, this is also the first birthday that I've seen. Last year, Dr. M brought me to an eye specialist for a check-up for my birthday, apparently he was the best in the world. He told me after doing some tests and examining my eyes that I could have my eyes back by my next birthday if I went along with surgery. And true to his word, here I am watching my birthday take place.

"Amen to that." I smirked, which turned into a full out grin when everyone started laughing.

After that I opened the gifts everyone got me. Gazzy got me a Demolition and Explosives book and a tracker kit, Angel got me some video games, Nudge got me some clothes, Max got me a Pocket Knife and a Lock picking kit, Fang got me a leather jacket that had 'The Flock' printed on the back between the shoulders in a white font, and Ella and Dr. M got me a travel size kitchen utensil kit.

After we ate some cake and celebrated for a bit, we packed everything up along with provisions and clothes activate the tracking system, each of us getting a tracker and bracelet, said our goodbyes to Dr. M and Ella and took to the sky.

We were flying over to the Himalayans to investigate a possible branch of Itex and The School around Mount Everest, and I was enjoying every bit of it. Seeing the ocean, fields, towns, and cities and farms, the little cars and people going about their busy lives, entirely oblivious to the bird-kids flying about their puny heads.

I heard a small giggle above me and I looked up and smiled at my mind-reader little sister. Angel giggled again and swooped closer to me.

'Pretty, isn't it?' her voice said. A shiver went down my spine. No matter how long I know her for, no matter how many times she does that, her sending thoughts into mine and other people's heads will always scare the crap out of me.

'Language Iggy. There are little mind reading ears around!' She giggled harder.

'Sorry, and yes it's beautiful.' I thought back to her and she giggled even harder, tears rolling down her cheek. 'You're just full of giggles today, aren't you?' she was laughing too hard to do anything but laugh and occasionally flap just enough to keep her airborne.

"What's going on over here?" Max asked swooping down so her feathers where brushing mine.

"Yeah, we could hear you guys from a good thousand feet below!" Gazzy exclaimed.

"We were think-talking about how pretty everything is up here and then Angel reprimanded me for my mental language and then I thought 'You're just full of giggles today, aren't you?' and then she busted out laughing and then Max came over and asked 'What's going on over here?' and then Gazzy said 'Yeah, we could hear you guys from a good thousand feet below!'" By the time I was finished everyone was laughing, exempt for Fang who just smirked, but he's an emotionless brick wall.

"Okay, everyone into a V-formation. Even you smart-ass." Max muttered, messing up my hair.

After a few hours of flying we were about to reach the Himalayans, when about 250 Fly-Boys, appeared out of nowhere and started to attack us. I closed my eyes (since I have not learned the art of fighting with my sight yet) and swung my leg back and started to try and kick them out of the sky, but couldn't seem to land any. 'New Generation.' I thought to myself. Suddenly I felt something hit me in the back of my head. My eyes fired open just long enough to see the battle around me, as my eyes started to close and the panic rise in my chest as my world started to grow dark for the second time in my life…

~don't mind me I'm just a line break~

I woke to a loud bang, which sounded suspiciously like a gun going off. I remembered to keep completely still and eyes closed.

"Was that really necessary, Jeb?" A voice that I didn't recognize uttered in a low voice.

"I told him that if he was out for more than 3 days I would shoot him, and he has been out for a week. Not to mention the concussion and the injuries he suffered? He should be lucky I let him live that long." Now that was a voice I recognized. Jeb Batchelder. Supposedly Max's father. The man who betrayed us over and over again. I heard the beeping of a heart monitor and tried to slow my racing heart. Luckily they didn't notice.

Then I thought about what he had said. I've been out for a week? Where were the others? Why haven't they tried to get me out? Where they hurt? I heard the monitor beeping again and unsuccessfully tried to slow it again. And unfortunately they took notice.

"Well, look who's up! Come on now, Iggy, open your eyes and smell the roses." Jeb said, making my blood boil.

"You have got to be the most unreliable, untrustable, unbelievable person I have ever met." I muttered through clenched teeth and clenched fists.

"I don't think 'untrustable' is word." He mused.

"I mean you promised us that you would stay with us. Max, The Flock, Dr. M, Ella. You broke your promise!" By the end of what I was saying I was screaming at him. "What kind of father are you?! To leave your kids, wondering if you're even alive. Betraying them over and over again. Experiment and test them. Grow freaking wings on them! What kind of father figure are you?!" I screamed at him. I opened my eyes, wanting to see his expression to my rant, but was blinded by a bright, white light and had to let my eyes adjust. When they did I looked at his face and saw the anger behind his eyes.

"Maybe we should send him to his crate. Level 3 has a few crates empty." The Voice that I didn't recognized said. Imma call him Mystery Man, from now on.

"We should send him down to the 20th level. I think the crate next to Subject 1283 is empty." Jeb replied. 20 levels? Holy crap.

"Is that really necessary? He's only one and he's not even the strongest of the group he flies with." Mystery Man stated. 'Not the strongest? That's kinda insulting. I can still kick his ass to the middle of next week.' I thought.

"Yes it is. He may only be one now, but soon the rest of his 'Flock'," I could practically hear the quotation marks around the name we've given ourselves. "Will come looking for him, and they will find him and rescue him." Jeb informed him.

"Hell yeah they will. And when they do, they will kick all of your no good asses to the middle of next month!" I retorted.

"Guards!" Three huge Erasers came in through a door that just appeared out of nowhere and stood in front of Jeb and saluted. "Take Subject 567 to crate 728465 on the 20th level."

"Yes, sir." They started carrying me out down the hall and into an elevator, me fighting the whole time. When we got off there were rows and rows of metal crates. I started swearing and cursing them to the pits of hell. I managed to get free of the mutts, jump into the air, whip out my light cream wings (A/N I have no clue was color his wings are, so bear with me.), and fly up over their heads. I looked around for a way out to no avail. I was about to see If I could break down the already locked door when I felt electricity rip threw my body and sent me sprawling on the floor. I was still fighting to catch my breath when they threw me into my home sweet cage.

"Dammit." I muttered to myself. "They are so going to be pissed."

"Why don't you shut the hell up? Some of us want to get some sleep before being tortured." A voice rang out.

I let out a very manly 6-year-old "Holy shit!" and sprung to the other side of my cage, trying to put as much distance between me and the source of the voice as bird-kidly possible. (A/N: You see what I did there?) It was quiet for a few seconds before the voice started to laugh her freaking ass off.

"Shut up! You scared the shit out of me! You stupid bitch." I muttered.

"No way! That was absolutely the freaking funniest thing I've ever heard!" She snickered.

"So, who and what are you anyway?" I asked. Ignoring the heat in my cheeks and face.

"Call me Viper and I'm part Reptile, you?"

"Friends call me Iggy, and I'm Avian-American." I chuckled.

"So, how and why are you here?" Viper asked.

"Well, it's kind of a long story…"

"We've got time."

~End of Flashback~

"And that's basically it." I finished.

"Wow. So you got a girlfriend or anything? What are The Flock like?"

"Well, in The Flock there's Max, she's the leader and she has dirty blonde hair, chocolate brown eyes, she's slim and lean, about 5'10, and 16 foot wings light brown feathers on top then dark brown and then white. Fang is Max's second-in-command, dark black hair, obsidian-black eyes, lean and muscular, about 6'4 foot, and 17 foot blacker than black wings that glint purple in the sunlight, even though he denies it. Then there's me, but you know what I look like and I'm 6'5. Then there's Nudge, AKA Motormouth Nudge, she has mocha colored skin, with frizzy dark brown hair and brown eyes, about 5'8 with 15 foot tawny colored wings with dark brown flecks. Then there's The Gasman, or Gazzy for short. Spikey blonde hair and blue eyes, about 5'8-5'9 with white wings and he's my Pyro buddy; we make bombs and explosives together. Angel is Gazzy's biological little sister. So, curly blonde hair and blue eyes, about 5'4 with, again, white wings. Ella is all human but is Max's Biological half-sister, she has brown hair and the same eyes as Max. Dr. M is Max's and Ella's bio-mom, Brown hair and eyes. We all have powers too. Max can Warp Drive and has gills so she can breathe under water, Fang can blend himself with his surroundings rendering him invisible and gills so he can breathe water, the powers I have are pointless; feeling colors and being able to see when surrounded by white since I was, you know, blind a year ago, Nudge can hack into pretty much anything and can attract metallic things, Gazzy can some digestive issues so he's better than any knock-out gas on the market, Angel's the one who hit the jackpot here, she can read minds, shape-shift, send thoughts into people's mind, take control your mind and gills so she can breathe underwater. She says that the more familiar the 'Voice' is, the easier it is to use her mind powers on ya. So hurray for me. And Max and Fang are a couple, and play tonsil hockey every chance they get, but don't start flirting with Fang or you'll wake up very confused in a ditch in the middle of nowhere. Max, Fang and I are about 18, Ella 17, Nudge 16, Gazzy 12 and Angel 10. Ella and I were dating for a few years but ended it a couple years ago because it wasn't working out, where The Flock and I were flying a lot, we weren't together as much." I took a deep breath. Man, I was not cut out for Nudge work.

"Me and my brother were kidnapped and taken here when I was 10 and he was only 2. My family and I were out camping and having a BBQ, when out of nowhere Erasers started to surround us. My mother started to yell at me to take my brother and run. We had just reached the treeline when we heard shots ring, and when I turned around," she paused and took a deep breath to steady herself. "I saw my mother lying in a pool of blood, I didn't see my father but I hadn't really looked. So…" She stopped and looked away and I could see her eyes pool up with tears.

"I'm sorry." Real creative, eh? But honestly, I had no idea how to respond to this. So I just pushed my hand through the bars as far as it would go, put my hand on her shoulder and give her a small smile which she returned.

A few seconds later, quiet whimper, well, whimpered from close by, interrupting our little moment. Viper must've known who it was, because she immediately lurched herself to the other side of her crate. "Hey, how are you feeling today?" She murmured.

"Same as always." A small voice answered. I saw a small silhouette in the cage next to hers. I couldn't see anything else because my eyes weren't as sharp as the rest of the flock.

But before anything could be done or said, the door showering us in a blinding white light. I quickly looked over to Viper and the voice who had spoken and realized that the voice was a miniature boy version of Viper. Black hair, blue eyes, fair skin, about 10 or 11. Both instantly moved towards the middle of their cages and put on a scowl. I did the same.

Three Erasers came in and stood in front of Viper's cage. They pulled out a remote control and 4 green lights lit up around her neck. I realized that she was still wearing a dog collar, but why was she wearing one while in her crate? Didn't they make their experiments wear them when they're not in their crate? Or was this place different? I glanced at the boy Viper was talking to. He didn't have a collar. I brought a hand to my throat. I didn't have one either. I looked back and saw a small smile tug at Viper's lips which turned into a big smirk when one of the Erasers said "Subject 1283, you are presence is required in Dr. Batchelder's office." Whoa, whoa, whoa. Jeb Batchelder?

…..

Well, damn.

"Well then, hurry up and let me out of this cage. Wouldn't want to keep him waiting, now would we?" She sneered in mock politeness and she immediately reminded me of Max. They let her out and grabbed both of her arms and lead her away, out through doors. Without thinking I screamed "VIPER! NOO! DON'T GO INTO THE LIGHT!" As funny as it was, the Erasers didn't find it funny AT ALL. Apparently, electric dog collars aren't enough we these guys. They have Tasers too. Yeah, that would have been nice to know 30 seconds ago, before I screamed trying to be funny.

Vipers POV

I let them drag me down the halls to Jeb's office, tears running down my face and still laughing my ass off from Iggy's… outburst. He was just. Too. Funny. They shoved me in a chair in front of a mahogany desk and strapped me in the metal cuffs around my wrists and ankles. Once I had calmed myself down, Jeb made his presence known.

"Now that I see you have yourself under control, which, quite frankly, I'm glad to see, I will begin to tell you what I've brought you to my office for," He started, but I was only half listening. I was looking around his office. Boring white walls, boring white carpet, boring white couch, boring, boring, boring… man, someone needs to teach this guy how to be more interesting.

"Now, I noticed that you and your brother are quite close." I whirled around and growled at him, letting my eyes darken to the natural, soulless black, and my claws extending to their full length, and baring my teeth. Nobody, especially anyone that works here, so much as looks at my brother without getting a good snarl from me. I'm a bit overprotective. But anyways it did its job; Jeb flinched and turned a bit pale in the face. He cleared his throat and continued on, his voice shaking a bit. "So I think you'll like what I have to offer." He paused, whether to give me a chance to speak or to give it a dramatic flair, was beyond me. But he seemed to be expecting a response so I raised an eyebrow in acknowledgement for him to continue. "I'm sure that you know Iggy and his 'Flock' somewhat?" I nodded once, noting the somewhat obvious upward twitch of his upper lip in disgust when he mentioned 'The Flock'. "Well, I have a job for you. If you do this, I will release you and your brother from The Mountain and delete and burn any scrap of data and information in The Mountain's database. No strings attached." I narrowed my eyes. That's too good to be true.

"And the catch?" I asked, growing more suspicious when he grinned devilishly.

"You're smart, and catch on quick. 'The Flock' should be here any minute now to break out precious, little Mr. Iggy. I need you to go with them, gain their trust, and then find a way to bring them here. Where we can keep an eye on them and make sure they stay out of trouble." I looked down, debating. This wouldn't be the first time they had giving a mission or 'job' as Jeb put it, but normally it was with a couple Erasers, never alone… they would probably just put a tracker into my skin and track my every move. Then I thought of Jason. He deserved so much better than this. And I could give it to him. All I had to do was agree to this.

"Fine, but on two conditions." I bargained.

"And that would be?"

"One, my brother, Georgie, Victor, Christian, Dawson, and Charmaine comes with me, but they aren't going to know about this. And two, all this, is in a Written Contract. You break it, I break you."

"Deal." Jeb agreed. "Bring in Subject 3684, Subject 1748, Subject 1086, Subject 6254, and Subject 4135 for implant." He pressed a button and a gun-resembling-thingy soundlessly came up from the bellows of his desk. "This will implant a tracking device into your hand," There you go. "It will emit a signal that we'll be able to track and will allow us to send messages to you and to your brain." Jeb pressed the barrel of the gun to the back of my hand and it shot the tracker into my hand. I suddenly felt a tad bit woozy but managed to keep my guts in.

I heard the doors slide open again and saw multiple Erasers bring in my family, my friends and my reasons for living. So as you can imagine they're pretty damn important.

"Viper?! What the hell's going on?" Victor asked.

"Maybe they want you guys to mate or something." Christian joked in his deep voice. He, by far, had the deepest voice I have ever heard, on 14-year-olds or otherwise. But of course this little sentence had multiple reactions. Victor turned beet red, I paled, and everyone else busted out laughing, besides Jason anyway, he looked more than a little peeved and muttered "Don't even think about it." That's my little overprotective guy.

"Uh, no. They're going to give you a needle. Just do it, no questions." They didn't look exactly enthused about this, especially Jason; he looked scared, but would never admit it. So I added "Trust me." Looking him in the eye. They all nodded and let the Erasers take them to the chairs that had magically appeared in the white room.

Soon after, we were all walking down the long corridors and Jason looked like he wanted to ask or say something.

"I like Iggy."

"What?" I asked floored. How did he know Iggy? Was he listening in on our conversation? How much had he heard?

"I like Iggy. He's nice. And funny. And makes me smile. And laugh. And-"

"Shut up, you stupid little brat!" One of the Erasers practically screamed.

"Let my brother speak." I snarled. My fangs protruding through my lips and my eyes turning black. Yeah, that happens a lot when I'm mad. FYI.

Anyway, it scared the Eraser shitless and shut him up. Even my little posse jumped and leaned away from me.

"Continue, sweetheart." I said as sweet as I could, trying to soothe him from my outburst.

But he was used to it. "And he said he would be my friend." He finished.

"Really? Well, he does seem to be nice, doesn't he?" he nodded.

After the Erasers left, Iggy slid over to my side of the crate. "So, what was that about?" He asked.

"They just wanted to do some tests on me and the gang." I shrugged.

"Who-" Iggy began but was interrupted by the doors whirling open and hitting the walls with ha loud BANG!

"Iggy?!"

"Max?!"

Me~ Well, that's it for chapter 2! And we've got some NEW characters! Georgie, Charmaine, Victor, Christian, and Dawson!

Georgie, Charmaine, Victor, Christian, and Dawson~ YAYY! *Starts doing happy/Victory dance together*

Iggy~ Well, then…

Me~ Riiight. Oh well, they're family.

Iggy~ Yeah, tell me about it. If you think this is bad, just wait till the flock gets here. -_-

Me~ Oh god… 0.0

Iggy~ Yeeaaah.

Me~ Annyyywwaaayyyss… Time for a Fun Fact! Remember when I said "Oh well, they're family."? Well, Victor, Christian, and Dawson are my cousins in real life!

Iggy~ Awesome.

Me~ Yeah, I know. ;)

Iggy~ You want to join their happy dance?

Me~ Oh yeah big time.

*Me and Iggy starts happy dancing with Georgie, Charmaine, Victor, Christian, and Dawson.*

Me~ R&R you guys! And stay in touch, cuz there's going to be singing, and Fangs not getting out of it this time!

*The Flock walk in*

Fang~ WHAAAAT?!

Me~ *laughs* You're going to SING! :p R&R you guys!