THEMESONGS:

Change ~ The Young Veins (actually on playlist)

.M.I.W.

3. Of Epic Wins and Cross Questionings

I stared back at my wings (is it weird how easily I come to terms with things now?) for a long time, already deciding to shoot for the impossible. Gentle warm wind brushed past me, but I hardly paid it any mind.

Taking a few steps back, I motioned for KrazyWithaK to get out of the way until I stood in the middle of the flat rock.

One…

Two…

Three!

Snap!

"Holy crap!" KrazyWithaK gasped, while I was laughing as I felt two new giant limbs furl out and to my sides.

The feathers caught with the wind, making me stumble a little bit forward, but I was still tickled. Once I regained my footing, I looked at both surprisingly long appendages. They had to have been at least fifteen feet long (and this was me guessing) and they were huge. Near the bottom of my wings, I noticed red feathers, the color of the rocks around here.

"Epic win!" I almost wheezed in awe. When I looked up at KrazyWithaK, she looked a little green. "Try yours!"

"Uh…" She took a step back. "I'd rather not. Where are we?"

"Well, if you haven't read the books, I understand." I shrugged, feeling the wings bounce behind me. Whoa… "But some form of my logic tells me that we are in the Maximum Ride series."

"I've read the books!" She snapped.

"Okay, okay. Geez, no need to get defensive." I rolled my eyes as I looked back down to the ground far, far below. "And now that we know how to get the hell out of here, I suggest we do so."

"How?" She asked.

This time I did turn around to look at her, having to make an extra effort with the weird wings blocking my vision as they seemed to flap subconsciously every moment or so. I raised an eyebrow.

Realization clouded her features. "No," She said quickly. "No, no, no! That's – That's suicide!"

"Not when you have built in aviation on your side." I challenged.

"Please, Madi, think logically, here!"

"In case you haven't noticed, nothing about me is logical, KrazyWitha…"

"Just call me Claire." She sighed. "But come on, you don't even know how to fly! For some reason, we're both here, so we should probably work together."

"Okay." I shrugged, but I looked at the open terrain. "Then I'll go, look for help, and you can explain to the nice people with white coats why you have wings."

"I'll just blame you." She snipped, and I paused.

Damn, she was smart.

I spun around and glared at her, while she looked absolutely innocent.

I swore under my breath, snorted, and went back to staring down the cliff while my wings folded loosely behind me. That was going to take some time to get used to. At least they could be opened in a flash –

Then, a thought crossed me, and made me stop short.

Now that was absolutely brilliant.

"Madi…" I looked at Claire, who studying me. "I've officially known you for about ten minutes now, and I already know that I don't like that look."

"What look?" I shrugged out of her gaze which brought me closer to the edge (quite literally).

"That smirk. It clearly means you're planning –"

But the rest of her boring as hell lecture was wasted on her screaming as I 'slipped' off the cliff, and began plummeting to the earth back first.

My stomach flew up and caught in my throat, panic flooding through my veins while my brain was mindlessly shouting orders to the rest of my body that was frozen in shock.

Turn!

Finally, I unlocked, spinning so I was now going to fall face first.

Dare I say these are improvements?

"Wings!" I snarled, which knocked the rest of me out of a daze.

I could feel the new muscles uncoiling, catching air, and then jerking backwards. "Yeow!" I growled and gave one powerful flap.

"Come on, come on." I whispered to myself as I gained altitude. "How tough are you? Let's see, let's see…"

Yes! I had it! Kind of. Every moment or so, I would forget this was flying (as stupid as that sounded) and forget a flap. Can't do that, I warned myself, stay focused.

Finally, I made it up to where I once was, grinning wildly at a pissed off Claire.

"What the hell!" She yelled, waving her hands. "You could've freaking died!"

"You know, Claire, I don't say this often, but you're right." I replied conversationally as I skimmed across the rock that I was just on, able to touch the ground if I reached out. I swooped around her and gave a quick flap so I was now hovering in front of her. "Like it or not, we are teamed up. But there's something you forgot."

"And that would be?" She asked hotly.

I gave a strong flap, which caused a strong gust of air in her face as well as made her back up while I came closer. I landed lightly on my feet, almost tripping in the process and mentally cursing myself for not being as suave.

But that didn't stop me from getting in her face. I was ready to put myself back in control.

"You forgot that I'm the one who's the most experienced. I'm the one who knows how to kick ass. And, I'm the coolest." I began to walk away then, ready to leap off of that cliff again.

"Are you seriously that vain?" She yelled after me, sounding clearly exasperated.

"Yes, I am." I said as I unfurled my wings, ready to make the descent. "Now, either you can stay here and never get home, or you can come with me. I can already tell you which option is the best."

"Yeah, staying here sounds like a grand idea to me." She retorted sarcastically.

I turned around and smiled. "So glad that you agree."

She stopped short at that, at a loss for words as I twirled off the cliff and started my flight. Yes, it was most definitely easier this time, the wings hurt less, and I didn't feel the sudden urge to throw up.

As I've said before, progress is progress.

.M.I.W.

"Madi, wait!"

I wheeled around easily, grinning when I saw Claire flying only a hundred yards behind me and fast approaching. I don't know when, but sense had been knocked into her, and she'd been following me since.

Because I'm always right, in case you didn't know.

"Oh, Claire," I said nonchalantly as she hovered beside me, panting heavily. "So glad you could join me."

"What is wrong with you? I've been calling you for ages. And it's almost night now, shouldn't we stop?"

"Geez, full of questions, aren't we?" I asked. "To your first one, nothing is wrong with me. In case you haven't noticed, I'm particularly flawless. Secondly, to your more of a statement then question, I did hear you, but I chose to ignore you. You're supposed to keep up with me. Third question, yes, I am aware that night is here, and we'll stop when I say so. I think we can go a little longer."

"You're even more conceited in real life." She muttered when we began flying, a little slower this time. "I thought it was just a show."

"I don't put up a show for anyone." I said automatically. Just myself, I added, but she didn't need to know that.

We flew in silence for a while, and I began hearing life start up in wherever we were. My best guess had been Arizona or New Mexico. Coyotes were howling not too far off, which made me hesitant on stopping and sleeping in a local cactus somewhere. But there wasn't a place in sight for us to stop that looked remotely humanized, which was somewhat as a comfort as it was an inconvenience.

I knew I could take care of myself. Easily. But I was also counting on the life of another person who I had no idea if they could fight or not. That was also going to be an issue. If I was right, and we were in Maximum Ride (which I'm about 100% sure I'm right on), then there would most definitely be fighting.

Not that I had a problem with that, of course, but there was just that second person to add into the equation.

Ugh.

"So you said you've been to other places." Claire suddenly piped up. Random much? "Where?"

"Two places. Both books." I answered. "Mortal Instrument series and Eclipse."

"Did you meet Jace?"

"Duh, he gave me the seraph blade."

Claire suddenly looked at my sword; eyes scanning over it like it was some newfound treasure. "And in Eclipse, did you meet Edward?"

"Yes, and I don't want to talk about it. So don't grow too attached to that subject."

"I'm not." She agreed hastily. "So, is this like some kind of superpower, like in your book?"

"I don't know. It only just started happening a couple of weeks ago."

"Does your family have it? That would be so cool –"

"No, they don't." I cut her off. "And they don't know about it either. You're the first real my dimension person who knows. And you better not tell anyone –"

"I won't, I won't." She said, meeting my eyes. "I promise."

"Good. I want to understand this myself before telling people."

"I wonder if I have it too then…"

I shrugged. "Who knows? You could be my apprentice."

"Ugh, lame."

"How so?" I challenged. "Personally, you could learn a lot from someone like me."

I then spied at diner below us. "Score!" I said, cutting off her probably wannabe sarcastic remark. I spiraled downward into a dive. Wind flew into and around my ears, making me feel slightly excited and nauseous.

I dropped like a bomb, only pulling my wings out and using them like a parachute when I was only a hundred feet from crashing through the roof of the diner. To my surprise, the sudden stop didn't hurt that much, and I grinned as I landed neatly and quietly on the roof.

Meanwhile, I heard Claire stumble to a stop behind me, and I turned to see her claiming balance once more.

"How come you're so graceful?" She muttered.

I extended my arms, still seeing the jet black marks that claimed them. Runes, the people of Mortal Instruments would call them. Personally, I prefer beastly useful tattoos.

"Can you see anything on my arms?" I asked.

She stared at them for a long time, then shook her head. "Am I supposed to?"

Hmm. Maybe she wasn't a real portal hopper after all. I lowered my arms. "You can't see them, but I was marked while in Mortal Instruments. I've got silence and balance on there."

"Cheat." She growled as she passed me.

"I'd rather call it strategic gaming." I said as I loped up to her side, looking for a… "Vent." I observed and jumped up.

"Madi, what are you –"

But she never got the chance to finish as I jumped on the shaft. It broke away under my bare feet and I made a straight drop into the diner's kitchen.

"Ow!" I snapped, more surprised than anything else, as I got up and dusted myself off. I looked up to see the indigo sky, and Claire's face peeking over the edge.

"Doing." She finished in a monotone.

"Finding a place to stay, and food." I replied. "Now come on."

I turned to wheel out of the kitchen, through the employee's swinging door, and out into the empty diner. Man, I was born to B and E.

"I take it you do this a lot." She noted from the kitchen as I jumped over the counter.

"First time." I called back as I made my way to a glass covered pedestal which revealed donuts inside.

I quickly removed the top just as I saw Claire come around the corner out of the corner of my eye. I picked up a chocolate covered donut and made my meal. I didn't realize how hungry I was until the first bite, and savored in it.

It wasn't too long before I started reaching for my next one.

"Found a place to stay for the night, quite obviously." I said as I licked my fingers. "But we're going to have to wake up early. These places usually start up at four."

"Okay." Claire said, still immersed in her donut.

I continued to think aloud, "And then hopefully we have to power it to a store that won't open yet to get some clothes. I don't know about you, but I'm not really in the mood to fly around in my pajamas. And… We're going to have to chuck them."

"What?" She suddenly asked.

"You heard me." I replied as I walked towards the register to pick up one of their maps.

Arizona.

Okay, good.

"We're in Arizona." I announced. "Which means we have to fly… north-ish to get to where we're going."

"Ish?" Claire demanded.

"Well, in the Montana range." I waved my hand in the air. "And quick."

"Why?"

"Because that's probably where the flock's house is. If we find the characters, we find the portal. Plus, I don't really want to go to Africa. We could surprise them… or something…"

"Probably?" She hissed.

"Yes." I looked behind me to see a fire extinguisher. I took it off the rack, stumbling slightly under its weight. Then I looked at Claire. "Probably."

I smashed the bottom of it against the top of the antique cash register.

It made a slight groan where its normal ping should be, but it didn't open.

"Fuck." I snarled, and heard Claire walk by my side.

Her arm snaked past me, and pressed a button on the register.

The drawer popped open.

.M.I.W.

Good way to end that chapter, eh? Lol, I got bested by Claire. Love ya, mate!