Max:

Well isn't that just our luck? The computer brain can't hear. "How'd you know what I said before then?" I challenged.

"I'm not completely helpless," the girl, Giga, bridled, "I've gone to a deaf school since I was eight and I can lip read, as long as you're facing me I can see what you're saying, I don't need my ears to carry on a conversation."

"Well then, I guess we need to redo our introductions to fit the deaf girl." She glared at me.

"Angel, Gasman, Nudge, Iggy, Fang and me, Max," I said pointing to each of us and then turned, "Ang, she telling the truth?"

Angel shrugged. How could she not know? She could read minds and she wasn't sure she was telling the truth. "We'll just have to watch her for a while then." The flock gave no indication that I had said anything, which was good because if her eyes were as good as Iggy's ears were we might have a problem. "Ig you'll probably be able to get closer to her then any of us, watch her, talk to her, and get her to slip up."

I turned to face Giga again; she had a deep frown set on her face to greet me, great she knew we were keeping secrets, "Iggy'll show you the ropes…"

"Yeah, you're deaf I'm blind it works out," Iggy said, bless him! She perked up like a wilted flower, smile spread wide across her thin face. Of course Iggy wasn't done amazing me yet, "Except when you showed us that thing I saw that."

She grinned, "Really?" she asked excitedly at the she time I did.

"Yeah," Iggy said shrugging. She leaped up then muttering something I couldn't make sense of.

"Can you see that?" she asked.

"Yeah, is that me?" Iggy asked.

"Yep," she said, looking two seconds away from jumping up and down, clapping wildly, and giggling. I hope I get to watch.

"Hey!" Iggy said, "It's gone!"

"It's new to me I can't kept a illusion up for more than a couple seconds, come on let's practice," she said dancing around him now she grabbed his wrist and pulled him into the woods she'd just left.

"So Angel why can't you know if she's lying?" I asked when they were out of sight.

"Her mind…" Angel started, "It works weird… I can't understand her thoughts. She thinks in numbers I don't understand."

"That is weird."

I don't think she's lying though," Fang added.

"What do you mean?"

"The way she acted," Fang said, "I don't think that could be staged. Besides they would have to sink pretty low to try to use kids again, remember last time? I don't think she's lying about being deaf either, she was too mad when you called her deaf."

"We'll keep that in mind."

Fang shrugged.

"This means we're counting totally on Iggy," I said.

"I know, I know we shouldn't but what choice do we have?" Fang said, being infuriatingly logical "Besides it's really unlikely that she knows how to fight better than him." Fang had a point sadly.

We pretty much sat around waiting for Iggy to come back. We were all stages of anxious. Angel was probably the worst, because she couldn't understand the patterns of numbers Giga thought in she knew that Giga could be lying through her teeth to us and Angel knew it. I probably wasn't much better, but there were not mirrors leaning against any of the trees so I'm not sure how I looked.

Iggy returned for dinner trailed by a rather upset girl.

"You haven't taught him to read Braille!" she demanded

"We don't even know Braille, are you going to eat?" I said, making sure to face her.

She sat down after an extended hesitation, "What am I eating?"

"We still have some hot dogs (I really couldn't bring myself to make him say anything more likely)," Fang said, digging in the pack and pulling out a half empty pack of hot dogs, conveniently forgetting to look at her.

"Is it so hard to say 'hot dogs'," she demanded as Fang handed them out.

Fang turned, "I did."

"Oh," she said, becoming silent. She sat there for a few minutes playing with the spit (aka stick) Nudge gave her to cook her hot dog with Iggy trying to talk to her. Something past by her face quickly, it wasn't even there for a second so I couldn't decide whether it was irritation at Iggy for trying to talk to her when she clearly wasn't in the mood to chit-chat or hurt that we clearly didn't trust her to even tell the truth about being deaf. Maybe both, but it was gone as soon as it came and she shut her eyes, weird reaction.

She finished her hot dog quickly and walked into the woods.

"She telling the truth Ig," I asked when she was gone.

"I think she is," Iggy said, "she was thrilled that she could help me see, she was all but jumping up and down, and then she decided to teach me to read Braille when she found out that I didn't know how to."

"Well what are we gonna do?" Gasman asked.

"Let her stay I guess, but I still think she's hiding something."

"Aren't we all?" Fang challenged, "I'll go find her."

Max is more right than she imagines, of course you'll have to keep reading to find out what exactly is up with the newest member of the flock. Who by the way is a runaway characterization project. What do I mean? Well, Giga, when I first came up with the idea of a computer brain was not deaf and she couldn't show you illusions. And when I decided she was deaf I also decided she wasn't born deaf along with a long history that you will hear about later. And I'll tell you now that's going to be a fun chapter to write.

~Lilly