Rikki skipped down the beach to a ledge where the sand-covered rock gave way abruptly to water twenty meters below.

She hesitated a moment, looking around to make sure no one was in sight, then dove off the cliff in an arch and slid smoothly into the clear water. She lie motionless as she sank slowly toward the bottom, looking at the beautiful sea flora and fauna that adorned the ocean walls and floor.

About ten seconds later some blue magical sparks swirled around her and a moment later she looked down to see the familiar mermaid tail covering her from the waist down.

She laughed, as much as she could laugh underwater, and twisted, swimming happily in the ocean currents, making sure to not get too close to any populated shore. She didn't want to be seen like this. If anyone knew what see what she was and what she could do she would lose all her freedom. All her friends (at least as she knew them now).

Rikki turned and stretched out her hand, creating a miniature geyser at the surface of the water in a moment of pure pleasure.

About thirty minutes later she swam back to the same rock ledge, beaching herself on a shore below the cliff, out of sight. She lay down at rested from her excursion, letting the sun dry her.

After a while she sat up. Her legs were back; her tail gone. Rikki walked down the beach back toward her home. She had school today, but soon school would be out. To most kids summer break lasted only a little while. A few months of juggling sports camps and vacations. But Rikki didn't have to worry about that. She knew she wouldn't be going to any summer camps this year. All summer camps, being summer camps, involved water.

For her, summer break lasted the longest time in the world. She would have several months for nothing but swimming in the clear, wide ocean.

Rikki grinned as her bare feet sank slightly in the gradually warming sand. In two days school was out forever.

The air rushed at me at a tremendous speed. I saw Iggy and Gazzy peering in the plane's windows as the clouds flew by (no pun intended). I adjusted by wings to try and steer in a vaguely forward direction as the rope tied around my waist, the other end of which was tied to the wing of the plane, yanked me along. It wasn't the most pleasant thing in the world, but it got the job done.

Wait, you ask, Did Max just forget last night's invasion? Has Max finally lost her marbles? Why is she tied to a plane?

Let me give a quick recap.

After last night's invasion of the Itex building we got back to our heavily forested temporary residence in the middle of nowhere and discussed our findings. Or rather, my findings (I had had help, but apparently since I was the only one who seemed to know what was going on I got the credit).

"What's going on Max?"

"What do you mean there are more of us?"

"Are there more kids with wings?"

"When do we eat, anyway?"

Okay, so that last one was Gazzy. Anyway, I shushed them and tried to explain.

"This list lists all the successful mutants that the School has produced," I explained, "But," I continued, "Most of them are dead now."

My flock watched with rapt attention. Except Fang, who only looked vaguely interested and mostly bored, but I knew he was listening.

"But," I said again, "There is one set of experiments that survived," I pointed to the paper we'd printed off, "There are three of them, and their being kept in Australia right now."

And from there everyone started talking at once excitedly and saying how cool it would be to have other experiments to talk to and they're in Australia, that's where the kangaroos live, and when can we go see them anyway?

I had explained that Australia is on the other side of the world, and that even with our enhanced flying capabilities it would take too long and be too hard to fly over an entire ocean.

That only brought on more talk about how we could get there, however, which brought up Gazzy's bright idea to tie ourselves to the wing of a 747 and get a free ride across.

I was hesitant, but Iggy presented me with confusing statistics until I finally gave in. Fang found a bunch of rope in a dumpster downtown (he assured me it would hold us) and so, after a very nervous trip inside the local airport, we snuck onto the yard as a certain 747 taxied toward the runway for a trip to Australia.

Fang and Iggy secured the ropes and I double-checked them for peace of mind. It didn't help. The plane taxied forward, going faster and faster until it was airborne. We were yanked around quite a bit but after a while we figured out how to use our wings as rudders so the ride was smoother (and we didn't get sucked into the engine).

And that is how I ended up tied to a plane. I looked back at Iggy and Gazzy, who were still having a great time making terrified expressions to anyone inside the plane who was awake enough to freak out that there were two kids stuck on the outside of the freakin' plane!

I thought about barfing, but didn't feel like watching it drop several thousand feet before hitting the surface of the ocean far below us. I groaned, the noise lost in the air rushing past us.

We're going to see more of us, I reminded myself, Keep your eye on the prize.

If I didn't, I probably wouldn't survive. Why, oh why, oh why had I let myself get talked into this??