A/N: Hi, everyone. I would've posted yesterday, but I had a huge brain fart when I tried to think of how to do a certain scene in this chapter. I only have the layout down for this story, and I'm winging (no pun intended) the details. I also know that I haven't put in much from the Uglies series yet, but a bit is coming in this chapter.

Replies to Reviewers:

UNDERLANDERfromtheOVERLAND - Don't panic, they're not gonna die. At least, I hope not.. O_o

disney-movie-lover - Thank you, and I hope more people do read it. I worked hard lol

The Blind - Thanks for the criticism, and as for Max's reaction, she's mad because people were following the government's stupid decision like flocks (again, no pun intended) of sheep.

Disclaimer: Do I really have to do this for every chapter? *sigh* Fine. I do not own any of James Patterson or Scott Westerfeld's works. Anything that isn't theirs is mine.

It had been a half hour since the EE newscast, and I was no closer to an answer than I was then.

I wearily stared at the ceiling and tried to just think. Where could we go? Where could anybody go? Antarctica was out - I'd seen some huge machines there that Brigid had told me drilled oil. Something that big and man-made had to run on gas. Africa? Nope. There were animal researchers there that kept tabs on lions and stuff, so cars and bush planes were there. The middle of the freaking ocean? No, all of the flock couldn't breathe underwater, and how would we get freshwater?

I sighed and walked outside to find my mom. She was the only one I wanted to talk to right now. Well, maybe Fang too, but he was staring into space at the moment. Probably thinking, like I was.

Mom was pacing now, yelling into a cell phone. She was frowning, the expression contrasting with her normally serene, motherly face.

I tried being patient. I really did. But after awhile, I started tapping my foot and gesturing to her to hang up the dang phone already. After a minute, she hung up, mumbling to herself about 'Incompetent, stupid people' and looking up at me expectantly.

"What was that about?" I asked her. Her face hadn't smoothed out yet, and she still looked really worried.

"The CSM wants to defy the government. They suggested that we get people out of the planes that are evacuating. Preferably before they explode into a million pieces." CSM was short for 'Coalition to Stop the Madness'. It normally did global warming gigs, but I guess this situation qualified for 'Madness'.

"And - lemme guess - they want us to do it," I groaned, thinking about how many fat people in America there were. I was barely 90 pounds at 6", how the heck was I supposed to lift a guy 4 times my size while flying?

"Yes, and I was trying to explain to them how that wasn't a possibility. But they won't listen, they're so hardheaded!" Mom exclaimed, sighing and putting on her 'deep in thought' look.

We thought in silence for a minute. 6 mutant bird kids. We could all go to very high altitudes, and were fast. At least, I was. That was my power - I could go at insanely fast speeds in a really small amount of time. I thought about our other powers, but none of them seemed relevant. Fang could become invisible if he was still for a long time, but he wasn't gonna be still, so what was the point? Iggy could sense colors, but that only made up for a weakness - he was blind. Nudge was magnetic, an excellent computer hacker, and could sense emotions on things. Gazzy could imitate voices - I refuse to call his other talent a 'power'. Let's just say he's called The Gasman for a reason. You've already heard Angel's abilities, so what did that leave us with? 6 mutants who could do a whole lotta nothin' right now. Great.

"Think harder, Max. There's always a way."

I nearly jumped out of my skin when I heard the Voice. Oh, yeah, I also had a voice in my head. Why it's there and what it's for, I don't know. All it does is drop in at annoying situations and give me stupid fortune-cookie advice that almost never helps. I can't tell if it's a man or a woman or a kid or an evil scientist, all I know is that it gets on my nerves.

"Oh, wise and powerful voice (Again, note the sarcasm). Tell me what the heck I'm supposed to do! Help me, for once!"

It didn't respond. Of course not.

I decided that, since this was a dire situation, I might actually listen to it. I thought a bit harder about the flock's powers, since that's when the Voice had so rudely butted in my thoughts. I eventually thought of an idea. I voiced it to my mom, and she agreed it would probably work.

After we got the coordinates of a plane from the CSM, Angel and Nudge could find it. Angel would influence the passengers to be calm and the pilot to sit in a corner or something. Nudge would hack the plane's autopilot, making it go in circles over a clearing where me and Fang waited. I'd speed-fly back up to the plane, make sure everything was going ok, before me and Fang set off one of those huge, emergency blow-up pillow things. On a signal from me, Angel would influence all of the passengers to walk out of the plane's door. Me and Fang would make sure the passengers landed safely on the pillow-thing, and they'd walk right into safety. I hope. Once the plane was evacuated, Iggy and Gazzy would.. ahem… 'dispose' of it once it was far away from civilization, to cover up any evidence we'd been there.

Overall, a decent-ish plan. It was better than my theory with the trampolines. This would've been so much easier if the School had just given us super-strength along with everything else.

~*Hours later*~

"I'm tired," Gazzy groaned, and the rest of the flock agreed wholeheartedly. Even Nudge, who was usually up for anything, looked exhausted.

"This is the last one, I promise, guys. If they give us one more coordinate, I'm gonna give them a piece of my mind," I muttered. My plan went perfectly every time, which was surprising. I expected somebody to miss their cue or something, but everything went smoothly.

But we were tired. Like, really tired. Plus, we hadn't eaten all day. I was gonna ask Iggy to make some of his chocolate-chip pancakes as soon as we got home.

I spotted a small speck in the distance. Much too big to be a bird, but kinda small for a plane. Maybe a jet. The flock wordlessly went into positions with noticeably less enthusiasm than the first time we'd done this.

About 5 minutes passed, but the plane hadn't started circling around us yet. Nudge seemed to be taking longer than usual, but she was tired, so I tried being patient.

10 minutes now. I looked at Fang and frowned, telling him without words that I was worried. He seemed to be anxious, too.

15. I decided I'd go see what was taking them so long. I found the small plane easily with my raptor vision. It didn't seem to be getting closer or farther away, though. Just sort of hovering in the same place. I frowned and flew closer to the other plane, really wary now. I couldn't see Angel or Nudge anywhere.

"Angel," I called in my head.

No answer.

"Angel," I called again, more urgently this time.

Still no answer. Crap.

I speed-flew to the jet, knocking the top out and looking around frantically… but then I started to feel really sleepy…

I collapsed on the floor of the plane, struggling to keep my eyes open. A man with a white coat came to look at me, and then yelled to some other people.

No, they can't take me, not again... I thought weakly as darkness overcame me.

A/N: Maybe I wasn't specific or something, but the jet was supposed to be a very old hovercraft. O_o