Chapter 2

Tick...Tick...Tick... Everyone can recognize that sound. The steady ticking of a clock, unceasing and subtle. But what did that sound mean? To you it simply means the passing of time, and on occasion, a reminder that you have to hurry to catch a bus or to get to your date's house on time or whatever it is you guys do. But for us, it goes much deeper. For us it means the passing of precious, all too important moments. With every tick my heart speeds up and my nerves twinge.

I looked at the watch I had stolen from one of the Humbots that came in and gave us food (Not that he needed it, in fact it was there to make him look more human). The green numbers read 12:17 p.m. I sighed; if we wanted this to work we had to move now.

The others were lying in their cots around me, waiting nervously. For their sake and mine this had to work, this was our last chance.

I was silent a moment in my thoughts before I spoke in a barely audible whisper, "Go, Minnow."

She nodded and touched the wall near the security camera. An expression of intense concentration glazed over her face and a second later her pupils dilated, it was her tell. A second later the camera's operation froze.

"Everybody up!" I said, "get near the door." The others sprang up silently.

"Hurry, Mira," she urged, "You've only got a minute and a half."

This was to be the most challenging image of my life. I cleared my mind completely save for the faces of my friends. It started as a picture in my head, then, like a fog rolling in, it formed in the room getting more and more visible until what looked like 6 solid, teenagers were asleep in their cots.

"30 seconds," warned Minnow.

"Smidge, you're up."

She came forward and said in her slight Australian twang. "Everyone grab hold of my arms, and take a deep breath."

We all obliged. After a moment of concentration her eyes flashed silver and the next thing we knew we were teleported on the other side of the door.

"Time." Called Minnow.

We all got out with no time to spare. Phase 1 complete.

"Ok, Ozzie, do your stuff." Encouraged Smidge.

The slender blonde nodded once and started her transformation. With a little twitch of her eyebrow she jumped up and changed into a roach. I cringed a little before she scuttled quickly ahead of us and rounded a corner. As we came to it she crawled back our way and changed into her human form, or whatever it was you would call us.

"All clear, no Humbots." She reported and we snuck on. At the end of every hallway we repeated the process, and each time Ozzie came back with the same message. Our advance was slow and agonizing. But we eventually made it to the Promised Land—or at least 15 feet away. We breezed forward to the doors. Right there, Freedom was right there! We had done it! We'd escaped! We were about to burst through those blessed gates when a voice, metallic and static-y spoke.

"Halt!"

We froze and turned slowly around.

Right there with machine guns sticking out of their arms were at least 3 dozen Humbots. Crap.

"Unauthorized personnel will be terminated." The one in the front droned. That's when we realized, they didn't know who we were. The looks on the other's faces confirmed it.

"We're sorry sir," lied Shady, her voice smooth as silk.

The Humbot wasn't moved. "Unauthorized personnel will be terminated," it repeated.

"Step forward with your arms up."

None of us moved.

"Step forward with your arms up," it said again.

This time Shady stepped up...and sent a blast of electric power straight at the Humbots.

She managed to take out ten of them. Unfortunately, the rest counterattacked with a round of bullets each.

We scattered and the fight was on. Minnow unsheathed her claws, Wolverine style, and went to work. Ozzie transformed again, this time into a tiger. She was unstoppable, taking on seven at a time. The rest of us skirmished around beating and dodging. A Humbot went straight for me and I gave chase...until it had me cornered. I was trapped and escape was impossible.

"C'mon then! Gimme your best shot!" I screamed.

The Humbots gun slid out of its out and a round of shots headed right towards me--and right through me. He was dumbfounded, well as much of that as a robot can be. Upset, I guessed, he tried again and again and again.

"I'm intangible stupid!" I yelled again and went straight towards him. Leaping up, I readied my fist. Just as my feet left the ground I swung down to the middle of his head. With lots of guts and gore it split apart. Slightly queasy, I returned to the battle taking another couple of the Humbots. Checking on our progress I saw Graves swarmed by a good 15 of them. He tried desperately to fight them off but his eyes glazed over, causing him to be overpowered.

"Graves!" I screamed.

"I'm on it!" responded Shady while finishing off another ten Humbots. She bounded over to him and let out her biggest power surge yet, taking out the remaining Humbots.

"Whoa," breathed Minnow, sheathing her claws. "That was awesome!"

"Amazement later! Right now we gotta jet!" Ozzie urged.

MRMRMRMRMRMRMRMRMRMRMRMRMRMRMRMRMRMRMRMRMRMRMRMRMRMRMRMRMRMRMRMRMRMRMRMRMRMRMRMRMRMRMRMRMRMRMRMRMRMRMRMRMRMRMRMRMRMRMRMRMRMRMRMRMR

Hours later we found ourselves inside of a nondescript diner on an abandoned road. The place was probably from the late 70's and had long since out lived its glory. The tile was yellow and dented and the walls were covered with wallpaper from the 90's.

"So what now?" Asked Graves.

"We need help. We can't keep this up on our own." I answered as the soft fuzz of a T.V in the background, channeled on six o'clock news, made it to my ears. I had to resist turning around.

"Help? Who the hell is going to help a bunch of whacked up kids on the run?" he challenged, lowering his voice from the people around us eating casualty.

"I didn't finish," I tensed back, " To answer that I happen to know someone whose likely to help us out, someone who'll get our situation."

"Yeah? Who?"

I paused, hearing the name come out of the news broadcasters mouth before I jerked my thumb towards the T.V. "We—We're going to track down Maximum Ride." Everyone stared at the pictures of her now flowing across the screen. I didn't need to look at the machine to know that something was up with Max's flock for them to be so hugely broadcasted. I had met them once before in a previous escape plan that had failed miserably for us, but they had gotten away just barely. I hoped I was making the right decision.


Eyeliner_Vampire here again THOUGH I did NOT write this chapter. Daydreamer747 did :D It's great right? Just remember, the more reviews we get, the longer the chapters will be and the faster the up-dates will (hopefully) be.

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