Chapter Two

I jolted upright in bed, gasping, hand over my heart. After realising it was just a dream, I fell back on my bed, limp with relief but irritated by my stupidity of thinking it was real.

I clambered out of bed and looked around my room. I didn't really know how we'd come to be here at... well, the right time and the right place? Something like that. But somehow, I'd found my dad and he wasn't too keen on letting me run off again.

Get this: my dad is Tony Stark. I know, I know. Waaay better than Darth Vader, ('Max, I am your father.') but I'm not really comfortable with it. We're more like friends and I've never called him 'Dad' – just Tony.

The even crazier thing is that I've been living with him from the beginning of the year and it's, like, nearly Christmas, and he doesn't know about the whole 'bird mutation' thing. Might've slipped my mind when I got my own bathroom. Or maybe I'd just prefer my father not to think I was a freak.

The good news: Tony really likes to have Iggy, Fang, Angel, Nudge and Gazzy around, not knowing about their wings either. Oh, and Total. Yep, he doesn't know the dog talks either and God knows that was hard making sure Total would shut up.

I walked into my bathroom (it still kills me that it's mine, I mean, wow) and splashed some water on my face. I looked in the mirror and, thankfully, no Eraser Max appeared. I was all good.

I pull on some jeans and a sweatshirt and opened my door silently. (The good thing about billionaire's homes: the doors don't creak!). My room looked into the living room, and the hallway toward the front door.

The TV was on and I could see the back of Tony's head and neck, on the couch and facing the screen.

It was seven am. Shouldn't he be asleep? Then again, shouldn't I not be sneaking out?

That's what I do – go to the kitchen, write a note, fly around then find the flock. I crept out quietly. Six more paces and I was out... five... four... three... two...

'What are you doing?' Tony asked.

I turned around, ready with a witty comeback. 'Uh...'

'You've been doing this since the beginning of the year, Max.'

I shrugged. Tony stood up, actually smiling.

'Do you even eat before you leave?'

In all truth, no.

I didn't answer him, just stared blankly. Tony gave me a whatareyougonnado look and walked over. 'You okay?'

Jim Dandy. Peachy. Whatever. 'Yeah, I'm fine,' I said.

'You sure?'

No. 'Yep,' I said.

Tony looked down at me, grinned and said, 'Be home by nine,' through his teeth.

I couldn't help it – Tony's irritating kid personality was funny sometimes. I mean, he tries to be a dad...

I nodded, smiling. Then I walked out the door, wondering where I might find Fang and the flock.

--

'Max,' Nudge whined. 'Why can't you come back?'

'What's wrong with Fang?' I asked, amused.

'Yeah, what's wrong with me?' asked Fang innocently.

Nudge looked like she might cry and I said, 'Nudge, I'd love to come back, it tears me apart having to sleep away from you guys, but Tony wouldn't understand. And you get to see me every day, right?'

Nudge nodded, swallowed and said, 'I guess.'

'Yeah, so what is wrong with me?' Fang repeated and I shoved him.

Nudge had turned twelve nearly a month ago, and Fang and me had turned fifteen this year, just as Gazzy had turned nine and Angel seven. Iggy was going to turn fifteen a little before Christmas, we were still in November. I have no idea how old Total is.

'So Max, how's Tony?' asked Angel, all innocent.

'Uh, fine.' I was silent then said, 'Um, Angel? Could you possibly not tamper with my dad's head to make him send me back to the flock?'

'Don't you want to come back?' The Gasman looked crestfallen.

'Of course I want to!' I told the truth. 'More than anything else in the whole world! It's just... mixing up Tony's head is wrong.'

'Okay, Max,' said Angel, scratching Total behind the ears.

'So, what's the Iron Man suit like, up-close?' asked Total, wagging his tail.

'Total, I've told you, I've never actually bothered to see it and he's never actually showed me it.'

'What's up with that?' Iggy muttered and I glared at him, until I remembered he was blind. God, that was irritating!

'So, how've you guys been?' I asked.

'You mean, in the last six hours you haven't seen us?' asked Iggy brightly. 'Fine. You?'

'Good. I... slept.' Which brought me back to my weird dream.

'What weird dream?' asked Angel and I silently cursed telepathy.

'Nothing, sweetie,' I said, smiling sweetly at her.

'Did the dream have hot guys in it?' asked Nudge, eyes wide.

'Oooh, do tell,' Iggy said, leaning forwards and Gazzy snickered.

'No,' I said irritably. 'It did not have hot guys in it.'

'Come on,' said Gazzy. 'What happened?'

'Was it about Fang?' asked Iggy innocently. I was about to push him off the park

bench but Fang got there first, leaning over the table and shoving Iggy hard so he fell back. Iggy frowned as Gazzy howled with laughter.

'Come on, Max,' said Angel sweetly.

'Yeah, please?' asked Total.

'Was it about the School?' Fang asked me quietly.

Remembering the mad whitecoats (mad as in crazy, not anger management) at the School who had permanently screwed over our lives made my blood boil. I grew up in a dog crate. I've been chased by Eraser's for four years and the beginning of this one. I have wings.

'Nah,' I told him. 'It was something... different.'

'Okay, so it's not about Fang, not about hot guys, and not about me,' Iggy said, climbing back onto the park bench. 'What happened?'

'Can I get some space?' I snapped and the flock stared at me.

Don't destroy your world, Max. You're meant to save it.

Oh, God. Here comes the Voice.

Shut up, Voice, I thought snidely. You weren't in the dream... were you?

I'm there whenever you want me to be, Max.

That's not entirely true... I mean, whenever I want you, you don't answer.

Silence. See what I mean?

'Sorry,' I mumbled, looking down.

'Sorry, Max,' Gazzy said.

'Nothing for you to be sorry for,' I said, leaning over and ruffling his hair.

'If we need to blame someone, everyone look evilly at Iggy,' Fang said with a straight face and we all put our dagger glares on Iggy, who, being blind, started humming 'Can't Take My Eyes Off Of You' and tapping his fingers in time with the humming.

After twenty seconds of this, Nudge swallowed and looked around, as if what she was going to say next was her death sentence. 'Max... please?' she asked, turning Bambi Eyes on me.

God damn this world!

I sighed and said, 'Fine. I'm... not really sure what was going on –'

'Oh, great,' Iggy said loudly and Total yipped at him then said, 'Go on.'

I hated this. They were all staring intently at me. Gazzy nodded encouragingly and I swallowed, eyes a fraction wider.

'Um. Well.'

'Bravo,' Total said and I glared at him. 'Sorry, I'm sorry... seriously, go on.'

I knew that the really hard part of this would be finding away to start it then I'd probably be off.

'Well... there was this guy called... Jack... Nape...'

'Jackanapes?' asked the Gasman.

'No,' I said, shaking my head, 'like, his last name was something crazy. Anyway, Jack had called himself... the Joker? Um, thirty years back or something. Then he had a wife and this kid – only he grew up. And he really liked knives.' One part of the story stuck in my head. 'And he had massive scars.'

'Like, across his eyes?' Total asked. My gaze slid over to Fang who was watching me intently.

'Across his mouth. Like a type of grotesque smile. And his dad did it to him.'

'Whaaat?' asked Iggy, eyes wide.

Fang blinked.

'I dunno!' I stated. 'Um, like, when he was eight or nine, his dad went psycho and he came home and his wife got a knife to protect herself. The dad took the knife from her and put it inside the kid's mouth and... and he said something like "Why so serious?"'

Everyone was staring at me.

'He would've been my age,' Gazzy said thoughtfully and he shuddered at the thought.

'Or younger,' Fang said.

'Is that it?' asked Angel.

I wanted to tell her, 'Yep, that's it, who wants lunch?' but instead all that came out of my stupid mouth was, 'No. I didn't actually see the knife part happening.'

'Thank God!' Nudge said.

'I was watching it twenty years later, around now,' I blurted. I was trying to speed this up, get it over and done with. 'Present time, y'know? And Jack went into his room and the kid was there and –'

'What was the guy's name?' asked Iggy.

'I dunno. They never said it, Jack just kept calling him kiddo or something and his mom called him Puddin'.'

Iggy snickered then said with a straight face, 'But of course, this is no laughing matter.' He cleared his throat and gestured to me. 'Continue on.'

'Can no one interrupt me for the rest of this?' I asked loudly. Everyone nodded and I continued. 'So, Jack comes in, his kid's there and Jack's all like, Where've you been? And the kid stood up and said something along the lines of "Wanna know I got these scars?" and he told Jack the story and put a switchblade inside Jack's mouth then Jack put a gun to his head and then the mom, Harley came in and she was wondering where her son had been and so on.

'Jack called him a freak and so the Joker stabbed Jack in the arm –'

'I thought Jack was the Joker,' Total said in confusion.

'I guess his son became the new one,' I said, shrugging. 'Anyway, Jack slammed his gun into his kid's head and he didn't yell or anything. He laughed. He was, like, finding it hard to stop. And then... I woke up.'

No one said anything, except for Total, who said, 'Jeezum.'

'Sounds crazy,' Fang stated.

'Yes, thank you, Tonto,' I said, staring at him.

Nudge blinked and said, 'What did he look like?'

'Who?' I asked blankly.

'The Joker! The new one. I mean, if he's twenty eight or something...' She looked down.

'Ew!' said Angel.

'Nudge!' said Iggy.

'That's gross,' Total said.

I rolled my eyes. 'He looked creepy, Nudge. He was tall, he had curly... Spaghetti would be a good term for how his hair looked...'

'What?'

'Like, you know when you get your hair wet and it's all strands and spaghetti-ish?'

'Yes...'

'His looked like that dry. And it was roughly dyed green.'

'Original colour?'

'Uh,' I said, staring at her. 'Brown.'

'Wow,' Nudge said. Her browns eyes were wide. Okay, getting off the conversation of the hair, let's talk about his face.

'He had brown eyes,' I said, remembering how they'd practically blended with the black circles. I didn't know why I'd taken note of all this. 'And he had black circles around them, as in make-up.'

'He wore make-up?' Gazzy asked, wrinkling his nose.

'Uh, yes. He also had this white make-up all over his face and a red... smile over his mouth and scars.'

'Sounds creepy,' the Gasman said.

Angel shuddered, so I thought, Angel, baby, I am so sorry! So, so sorry, praying she'd hear me.

Nudge nodded. 'He does sound really creepy.'

Finally, she got it!

'You sure took careful notes for someone so creepy,' Fang muttered.

I looked at him and said, 'What?'

Fang shook his head and I heard Iggy say in a girly voice, 'Fang's jealous!'

'Iggy, shut up!' I snapped. 'You're being really annoying today!'

Iggy's eyebrows shot up so high they were in danger of disappearing into his hair and he held his hands up. I suddenly noticed Gazzy looked mischievous and I said, 'That was not you!'

Everyone except Fang and me burst into laughter.