235 woke up battered and bruised, with her hospital gown ripped to shreds. Her leg was soaked in blood. She tore of one of the shreds and rubbed away the blood, revealing a long, shallow cut down the back of her calf.

Jeb appeared out of the trees. "You're the only survivor," he said, politely averting his eyes. "I saw the monkey go down. The cat ran off and got attacked by Erasers. I claimed I was trying to get her back and 'went to go see how far you were'."

"Whole lot of good you did me," 235 snapped. "I'm practically dying here!"

Jeb sighed and tugged an Ace bandage out of his pack. He wrapped it around her calf neatly, securing the Velcro end. "There," he said. "Max will know how to deal with it better."

"Max?" 235 said curiously.

"Maximum Ride? Surely you've heard of my daughter?"

Maximum Ride was a legend at the School. No one knew when or how she and her friends escaped, but somehow they did. Some claimed she was probably sitting out there as a granny with iced tea in hand. Other claimed they knew the "little tot" when she had still been at the School.

"Sure," 235 said, playing it cool. Surely she wasn't about to meet Max?

"A few months ago, she wanted to rescue mutants from the school. I told her she shouldn't go. Of course she didn't listen." He looked regretful for a moment. "She got captured and studied, but managed to escape. I told her I'd rescue someone." Pride lit his gaze, for himself and his daughter.

"Anyway, if you can remember where she lives you can fly there," he assured 235. He handed her a slip of paper with an address on it. "Go to this house, and then fly up the mountain behind it."

The address was a long way away, but 235 nodded and took off.

After two hours of flying, her wings burned. It had taken her forever to get the hang of it. The first half hour, she had been careening around, skimming rooftops. Good thing 235 was camouflaged! Now, she was high up. But feeling the need to rest, the avian paused on a tall building, gasping. She let her wings drape to either side of her and tipped her head back.

The girl woke up about an hour later. The sun was directly overhead and her wings ached. But she stood, adjusted her disguise, and took off again. It was a particularly sunny day, so people would look up, expecting a plane(a large silver thing with wings that she had only heard about) or something after seeing her shadow, and be rather confused.

She flew four more hours and was an hour away from her destination when she heard such strange things, she almost plummeted to the ground. Other's thoughts. In her head.

As she flew further, the thoughts changed and shifted depending on where she was in the country.

Finally she was at the address. It was an empty house. She sagged in disappointment, but then remembered-Jeb had told her she needed to fly up the mountain behind it.

Sighing, she flapped her wings and took off again. As she flew, she flew above a still pond, reflecting the sky and herself. This was perhaps the first time she had seen herself. She had dark brown hair, and high, angular cheekbones. Her eyes were an icy, piercing blue, standing out from her thin frame.

At last she came upon a large house on an outcropping. A porch stuck out from the doorway with two lawn chairs, one with an abandoned magazine and a glass of lemonade.

235 crashed to a halt in front of the doorway, becoming a melty pile of limbs. After a few minutes, she drew herself up and knocked.

Two seconds later a stunning girl with coffee-colored skin, long dark curly hair, and wings opened the door. She held a book titled Fashion Advice in hand and wasn't paying attention.

"Yes, sorry, we're not taking deliveries today, I just told you that an hour ago, you can-" She looked up, noticing the battered girl. "Who are you?"

"Um," 235 said, shuffling her feet. "Uh, Jeb sent me?"

Nudge rolled her eyes. "Jeb! He did tell us he was delivering us something today. I'm Monique, but you should call me Nudge, really. Welcome to the Ride household, what can we do for you? I suppose we can't really do anything for you, just take you in and stuff, although you clearly could use a little cleaning up. Max! Fang! Gazzy! Angel! Iggy!"

Footsteps echoed from behind Nudge, and five people appeared behind her. Nudge quickly explained to them that she was the delivery, and she was ushered into the house.

They sat down on a large orange sofa. Max stared at her, making her shift uncomfortably and cross her arms over her chest.

"So," Max said. "Who are you and what are you doing here?"

"Umm," 235 mumbled. "I'm 235, and Jeb broke me free from the School and told me to come here."

Max nodded. "Well, welcome to your new home."

"She can read minds too," A small blonde girl blurted. "My name's Angel," she added.

235 nodded. "I can also camoflauge, like this," she said, fading away into the sofa underneath her.

"Whoa!" The younger boy said. "Man, you'd be crazy good for spy work!" He opened his mouth to add something else, but was silenced by a look from Max.

Nudge introduced everyone. "Well, uh, 235," she said. "You're going to need a better name than a number. How about, um, Lulu? No? Adrienne? Bertha, no definitely not. Gigi? Whitney? Laurel?" The rest of the flock were rolling their eyes.

"Let her decide," Dylan said, appearing from the kitchen.

"Um," 235 said. "Tess?" Nudge shook her head violently. Tess was the only name she knew, because it was her mother's name.

"Harper? Amelia?" Nudge said. Her eyes lit up. "Madison!"

"Maddie for short," Angel threw in.

Madison nodded. "I think I'll just go with Madison for now. Thanks, Nudge!"

Nudge nodded, pleased. "But, uh, I think you're going to need to shower first."

A/N: Well? What did you think? Hate it? Love it?

Two chapters from now, I'm opening up a SYOC. More flock members! :D