AN: Hi! Here's the second chappy, and for your information, I will be cutting out most swearwords. I want to be able to keep a K+ rating!
"Well, that explains it," Star said.
Gazzy gave a cheer. "Awesome!"
Sam and Elle flew in a circle, bouncing off the walls and ceiling, and landed back in front of everyone.
"See? Now can we read the books?" Sam said.
"Fine, let's read the books," Max said. Everyone cheered.
They all sat down on the couches. Max sat next to Fang on a love seat, Nudge, Star, and Kate sat on a large couch, and Iggy and Ella sat on the next loveseat. On the next couch sat Dr. M. keeping an eye on Iggy and Fang, with Total and Akila, Magnolia at her feet. Holden, Gazzy and Ratchet sat on the next couch, followed by Dylan and Maya on a loveseat. Angel sat on her own chair. Finally, Elle and Sam had a small couch next to Max.
"Should I read first?" Max asked. She picked up 'Max'.
"Actually, that's the fifth book." Elle said.
Max picked up 'Angel'.
"And that's the seveth. The first one is 'The Angel Experiment'." Sam explained.
"Oh!" Angel said softly. Max noticed.
"Sam, Elle, would you two mind scooching your couch over a little?" They obliged. "Angie, come here." The seven-year-old pushed her chair next to Max and snuggled in close. Max picked up the book and began.
"Well, that's ominous." Iggy said when Max read the first part of the warning.
"Shh!" Max said.
"Well, that's funny, I don't feel any wings." Ella said after Max read the part about becoming part of the experiment. Iggy laughed.
Max read the next line about it being a little mysterious. "A little?" Iggy asked.
"Are you two going to keep commenting after every half a second or will you be good?" Max asked giving them her awesome-Max-glare[patent pending].
"We'll be good!" Ella and Iggy chorused.
Max continued reading, getting into the prologue.
"Maximum 'Charging off' Ride" Total said again when Max got to the part about jumping right in.
"Shut it, pup." Max said, keeping on reading and getting to the part about describing her family.
"What about me, Ella, and the rest?" Dr. M asked.
"This must be before I meet you." Max explained.
"Woo!" Iggy yelled at the mention of his name.
"Yeah! That's me!" Nudge said excitedly at her own name.
At the sound of his name, Gazzy let off a huge purple stink cloud that left everyone choking for a few minutes.
Finally Max read Angel's name. Normally Angel would be working it up, but she was snuggled into Max. Max sat her up.
"Angel, it'll be okay. At least listen, won't you?" Max asked.
Angel uncurled and sat between Max and Fang.
"No harm intended, Mom," Max said at the description of how terrible the scientists at the School were.
"I was just a researcher. I had no idea until too late about what was really going on." Dr. M said.
"Got that right!" Gazzy said proudly when Max read about them being able to do so many things, perfectly mimicing Max's voice. Everyone laughed.
"Yeah!" Angel said, shifting into her bird-of-paradise form and startling the joined flock.
"Speaking of which, you never answered my question about Ari." Max said to Sam, pausing after reading about the Erasers.
Elle gave a piercing wolf-whistle and a small, Gazzy-sized brown-haired head popped around the living room door. A boy walked in. "You whistled?" Ari said.
"Ari!" Max cried out. She ran over and hugged him. After a moment, the rest of the original flock joined.
"Wait a moment, who's Ari? And what does he have to do with Erasers?" Ratchet asked.
"Ari is Max's half brother on Jeb's side. He's an Eraser and has died twice, once from his neck cracking and once from an expiration date. The first time, he was brought back to life by fusing his neck bones. Now, he's alive again because of new advances in DNA and genes studies." Sam explained.
Max brought Ari to Angel's old seat and sat him there, explaining what had happened so far.
"Oh, and nobody is supposed to hold grudges about anything that happens in these books," Sam added, "We don't want any mishaps!"
"Mishaps? Really, Sam?" Elle asked.
"Hey, you know I'm nuts about words." Sam defended.
After some hemming and hawing, everyone agreed to not get mad and Max began reading again.
When Max read that Erasers could look human, Ari took a bow.
After reading about the Erasers' abilities, Max looked to Ari. "Can you still transform now that you look normal?" She asked.
Ari transformed into his full adult wolfman glory and roared, shocking Dr. M off her couch and causing all the mutants to jump to their feet ready to fight. Ari shrank back to normal. "It's still me." He explained. Everyone sat back down, but the air was still thick with tension.
"And I'm really sorry about that. Apparently, having your DNA messed with screws up your emotions. The more your genes are played with, the more emtional you get. And since I was a special case..." Ari trailed off bitterly after Max read about how deadly the Erasers were.
"Too late!" Gazzy yelled at the fact that the world wasn't supposed to know about the birdkids. The tension collapsed and most of the people giggled.
"I'll guess this is before your latest adventures." Star said after Max read about the risk of telling people the truth.
"Well, whatever gave you that impression?" Katie teased.
"Maybe the fact that the world knows about us and we're safe now." Star retorted
"More scary stuff." Iggy commented on the last line of the prologue.
"Shut up Iggy. "Max said. "Fang, your turn to read." She passed the book over Angel's head, knowing she wouldn't want to read. Fang took the book, cleared his throat, and began.
"I definitely don't remember this. Whenever I ran away, I never got out of the building." Max stated as Fang read about her being as far from the School as she had ever gotten.
"Are you okay?" Ella asked, concerned about the dogs.
"I'm here, aren't I?" Max answered.
"But that's no big deal. We have WINGS." Nudge argued as the Max in the book got to the edge of the cliff.
"Use your wings!" Gazzy yelled when the book described Max falling over the edge.
"Yay!" Elle yelled as the Max in the book unfurled her wings.
"Elle, you already knew that would happen. You and I both read all the books multiple times on the way over." Sam reminded the other new winged-girl.
Elle shrugged. "It's still exciting."
"Woo!" Iggy yelled when Fang read the last sentence.
"Oh, shut it Ig." Max said.
Fang laughed and handed the book to Nudge, who steadied the book on her knees and began.
