A/N: I still don't own Maximum Ride. Laurel belongs to my good friend, The Inner Titan.

(Andy's PoV)

I jumped from tree to tree, watching the forest below for any movement. For a moment I thought I was free, that I was going to get away. That is, until I heard the baying of the hounds. Dang.

The branches scratched my hands and face I went as fast as I could. My tail steadied me, and my ears were pinned against my head. I caught a trunk and swung around, leaping over the heads of the Erasers below me.

Yeah, Erasers. You know, half-men, half-wolf hybrids? Not exactly the most friendly creatures in the world. Try bloodthirsty and vicious. At the moment I was running for my life, trying to get as far away as I could. There was a patch of open sky in front of me that I was approaching faster and faster. Then my feet left the last branch and I was soaring through the air.

I landed with a jarring thump on the edge of the cliff. After rolling forward a few steps I popped to my feet and raced down the side of the precipice, treating the rocks like branches. Howls of fury followed my descent. Eat my dust, suckers, I thought to them.

~LINE~

I leapt out of bed, hissing like a maniac. The fur on my extraordinarily long tail was bristling as the last of my dream peeled away from me. I flicked my ears, making my hair rustle. Did I forget to mention that they were nearly exactly on top of my head?

The house was almost completely silent, save for the small whistles of Gray's breathing. I crept quietly out of my room and down a set of stairs. The light that illuminated the house's ground floor was nearly blinding at first, and I let out a quiet hiss. My feet slid across the cool tile floor as I made my way to the kitchen. I yanked open our fridge door and pulled out a jug of milk. In the days after our caretaker had disappeared, I had taken over the care of the Pounce. I was, after all, the oldest. By all of ten minutes. There was a slight noise behind me and I whirled around. There stood the youngest member of the Pounce, seven-year-old Lake. She rubbed her hand over her deep blue eyes and yawned.

"What's for breakfast?" She asked.

"Food." I answered, plopping a half-empty box of cereal on the table. Lake pattered across the floor to stand next to me. I ruffled her small tufted ears affectionately.

"Why don't you get the silverware, and I'll go wake the others." I told her. Quietly Lake nodded and pulled open a drawer as I walked away.

Our house was sort of U-shaped, having been designed to fit around the top of a hill. Which, consequentially, was where it ended up. Funny how that works. I turned down a hall and knocked on the first door. A loud snort came from within the room.

"Gray! Rise and shine, buddy!" I called, opening the portal to possibly the messiest rooms in the history of messy rooms. I kicked my way through newspapers, dirty clothes, wrappers, and things that I couldn't identify - not that I wanted to, either. How a ten-year-old could accumulate so much stuff after being free from a dog cage for only a year was beyond me. Lake called it his protective shell. That was my girl, always the psychiatrist. Anyway...

I finally reached Gray's bed and nudged his foot a couple times. He moaned grumpily, "It was a good dream."

"Oh well. Breakfast in three." I replied, pinching his tailtip. I zipped out of his cave faster than I had done before and shut the door behind me. My twin brother and second-in-command, Bay, was leaning on the doorframe. He smiled down at me with his oh-so-cocky half-smile.

"Might pick a way to get him up that doesn't risk death," he said.

"Says the boy who nearly killed himself making toast." I said sassily, flicking his hip with my tail as I walked past. I could've sworn he was blushing to the tips of his ears.

Next stop, since Bay was obviously up, was Laurel's room. I was two months older than her. At least, we thought so. We weren't really sure. Anyway, I was about two months older than her, but we might as well have been twins. Not counting the fact that we looked absolutely nothing alike and acted completely differently. The parent thing was another issue. Back to the story.

I tapped softly on Laurel's door, calling, "You up?"

"Yeah," she replied quietly.

"Okay. Breakfast in three." I said. On to Morgan's room. Or, rather, the bomb factory. Does it scare me that a fourteen-year-old makes bombs? No. Call me a bad parent, but he had saved my butt with bombs too many times for me to refuse him the factory. Bedroom. Whatever.

The answer to my knock was a subtle whump. His hands could put together the smallest of bombs, but he obviously hadn't improved his coordination. That boy. His door creaked open to reveal Morgan, his entire front covered in soot, his entire back clean.

"Wash up fast. Breakfast in three." I told him, backing away.

"You've said that five mornings straight now." He responded.

"Change your routine, and I might change my tune. Now get moving." I patted his shoulder blade and jogged down the hall. Let's see...Lake was up, along with Gray, Bay, Morgan, and Laurel. Only Reed was left. I turned to head in the direction of her room.

Why did a girl have the name of Reed? It's a long story. Short version? She's as thin as a reed and nearly as tall as one. 5' 5" at eight has to be an accomplishment, right? At least for us it is.

I was nearly to her door when I heard a crash and a screech. Reed bounded out of her room just as I tore down the hall. Please let it be a dish, I prayed silently. Don't let it be a window. Don't let it- I spun around a corner and into the living room, where Bay was in hand-to-hand combat with an Eraser.

No.


Haha! I left you with a cliffie! For further notice:

The Pounce is a human-feline hybrid.

Andy, Bay, and Laurel are fifteen.

Andy is: 95% human, 2% Snow Leopard(really long tail), 2% Margay(best climber in the cat world), and 1% Serval(best hearing in the cat world).

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