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Chapter 3

We had been flying for about an hour and a half. I had wanted to make it to the beach before we got lunch, but apparently the beach wasn't showing up any time soon. Nudge would be getting hungry any time now. Especially since the breakfast we had was so meager.

"Max," Nudge said suddenly.

Right on schedule. I turned to her, "We're gonna stop soon-"

"I can see the beach." Nudge finished with enthusiasm.

I blinked in surprise and looked intently ahead of us. There it was, the big blue, about 15 miles ahead of us. I could barely make out the waves crashing onto the beach and motor boats dotting the water like lilies

I turned back to Nudge and shot her an embarrassed smiled.

I looked down at Fang. He had seen it too and was flying faster, his dark wings moving powerfully. Suddenly, I remembered that day at the beach, when I had kissed him in front of everyone. I wonder what had gone through his mind at the time. He felt my eyes on him and looked up, while I quickly looked back at the horizon.

We made it to the beach and dropped off the others while Fang and I headed off to find a supermarket.

There was a Publix a couple miles south of us. We stopped at the edge of the parking lot to pull on windbreakers, and then walked inside all casual. It was huge, probably about the biggest food store we'd been to so far. Plus there were only about 15 people around. Altogether, it was cool. No one would pay attention to us. Fang grabbed a cart and we walked through the aisles, pulling things out at random.

When our cart was half full, we made for the checkout lines. There was a guy in front of us, so I took the time to glance in my pocket to see that I had enough bucks-and gasped. I didn't have any money; there was nothing in my pocket, nata. Where had it gone, I was sure we'd have enough for two more stock ups. I looked up at Fang to find he was watching me with a grim expression on his face.

"We're out." I answered his fears.

"What happened to your money?"

"I don't know, maybe the boogey man took it." Truth be told, I kinda wondered if the guys who dropped me in that tank had took it. Crap.

Just as I was going over a plan in my head that involved distracting everyone while Fang made a run with the cart, in walked two men. Yeah, I know what you're thinking: two men, no big deal right? Except that these were no two ordinary men looking to buy some cookie dough. First of all, they were huge. I mean gigantic, it's a wonder how they were able to fit through the double doors. They had very broad shoulders, and must have been over seven feet tall. Okay, Maybe I'm exaggerating a little but I'm just trying to explain to you why these guys immediately caught my attention, besides the fact that they were wearing ski masks. And toting guns...in the crooks of their huge, gangly, gorilla arms.

A robbery? Jeez, can my day get any worse? You can imagine how all the shoppers in the immediate vicinity reacted to the sight of the huge, armed, gorilla men. First there was a sort of shocked silence and then suddenly there was an uproar of screaming, shrieking, yelling, shouting, crying, and I think I even heard one little kid behind us say "whoa". Then everyone was running in every direction besides the front of the store that the two armed men occupied. Fang and I were the only ones (besides the kid) who weren't freaking out. Not to say that we didn't react, I felt Fang tense beside me and I immediately put my game face on and crouched low, ready for some action. I knew this could get ugly really fast, especially if these guys decided to shoot somebody. But I would do everything I could to prevent that.

One of the two muscle men, who I immediately labeled as Jerk #1, lifted up his gun. I almost sprinted forward right then, afraid that he would shoot someone. But he just pointed it toward the ceiling and shot a hole through it with a BANG! The move was successful, everyone who was running stopped dead in their tracks, fear written all over their faces.

"Everyone get on the floor!" Jerk #2 shouted this in a gruff voice that was slightly muffled by his ski mask.

That was it; I couldn't take this any more. The muscle men had to go. I did a quick 360 around the area I was standing in, before spying the perfect object of distraction.

A soda can. Yep, in the right hands, a seemingly harmless 12 oz can of Coca Cola can become a dangerous weapon. To emphasize this, I snatched up the can, shook it with enough force to cause a minor earthquake, and aimed it at Jerk#1's face. To ensure the correct level of pain, I shouted out to the guy to get his attention, before cracking that baby open.

As expected, the contents of the coke spewed out at an alarming rate and hit the guy's face head-on. Immediately, he let out a pained roar that sounded sorta like, AAAAARRRRRRGGGGHHH before clutching at his soda-soaked eyes.

Yes! Not having enough time to do a victory dance, I dropped the empty soda can and sped toward Jerk #1. Leaping up before I could run into him, I sent my booted foot into his face with a crunch that almost made me cringe.

Oooh, that's gotta hurt.

The effect was great though: the thug let out a shriek that sounded somewhat like a girl's and slumped to the ground, clutching his bleeding nose in favor of his stinging eyes. I turned quickly around to find Fang throwing punches at Jerk #2 like there was no tomorrow. The human looked like minced meat, before his legs finally gave out and he too sank to the floor. I grinned at Fang before turning back to Jerk #1. He was still groaning on the floor, feet away from his dropped gun. I decided not to take any chances, so I rewarded him with another kick that made his eyes roll back in his head and he too was knocked out cold.

I stood for a minute and breathed out a sigh of relief. I was so glad that was over, and I had been amazed how easy it had been. I mean I knew humans were a lot more fragile than erasers but man,that felt too easy. I was driven out of my thoughts when a noise like heavy rain hitting a roof reached my ears. I was confused for a second, until finally I realized what it was and turned around slowly, a look of disbelieving wonder on my face.

They were clapping. Yeah, you read that right. There they were, the same shoppers who had been freaking out a moment ago were actually standing there clapping. At us. Or rather for us. I turned to judge Fang's reaction-and froze.

No, I pleaded silently, as the sound of clapping quickly faded into a shocked silence at the sight of what or rather who stood before the double doors of Publix.

A/N: Jeez, I'm so sorry, I had originally edited this story a few weeks after I had updated it and I don't know how, but half of it got erased and I just realized it when I was reading over my old chapters. Then I couldn't find the missing half so I had to rewrite it. So right now it's whole, I've fixed the problem, but its not the same as the original missing part. It's real close, but not the same. Confused yet? Just read this chapter over again and then you'll understand ch.4, which is the next chapter. Once again, sorry for the screwup.