I obviously had fallen asleep during my watch, because when I awoke the next morning at the crack of dawn (for those of you who are wondering, the dawn doesn't crack), I had sand everywhere; in my hair, in my mouth, in my eyes. I probably deserved it. Iggy was sitting next to me, watching the sky turn golden as the sun peeped over the edge of the earth.

"Morning." Iggy said, without moving.

I groaned, and Iggy's face broke into a smug smile. "Fell asleep on the job did you?" I cuffed him in the cheek, but he just grinned. I stood up and stretched my wings out to their full length. The sun's first rays felt good on my skin, warming it up to a nice, toasty temperature. Sand fell out of my clothes and my hair onto the beach. I combed my hands through my hair and released a new torrent of sand down my back.

I was tired and itchy, so I turned and looked at Iggy. "I'm going for a swim." When I saw the look on his face, I added, "And yes, I am going to wear my clothes." Iggy frowned. Boys. I'll never understand them.

I plunged into the warm, salty ocean water and washed the sand out of my hair. I pulled the small bottle of complimentary hotel shampoo that I had grabbed from our knapsack out of my pocket and squirted a tiny amount into my hand. I lathered my head, and rinsed it off in the water. Then I got out of the water and silently sat down next to Iggy.

My hair was thick with sea salt by the time it had dried, but I was glad to have clean hair. I mean, even if I am a mutant freak, I still don't want dirt and bugs and blood in my hair. I'm not that gross!

"You smell like lavender." Iggy smirked. I punched him for the second time that morning.

"Your point?" I demanded, trying to sound angry, but I couldn't hide the sadness in my voice. Fang would have said the same thing.

Iggy must have heard the taint of tears in my sharp remark, because he gently wrapped his arm around me and pulled me close. "We all miss him Max. I can't believe he's gone either." I blinked back the tears that were forming in my eyes and looked at Iggy.

"I miss him Iggy." I whispered. "I don't know what to do anymore." I immediately shut my mouth. That was the most I had ever admitted to being dependant on Fang. Iggy just sat silently, his sightless blue eyes staring off somewhere into space.

"Iggy?" I waved my hand in front of his face. Ironic, isn't it?

"I can see the ocean." Iggy breathed. "It's beautiful."

I was immediately alert. "Is it like Antarctica?" I asked. I case you didn't know, on our last trip to Antarctica (don't ask, it's a long story) Iggy found out that he could see the outline of the ice, but nothing else. The development had almost convinced me that Iggy was regaining his sight, or at least part of it.

"Yeah," Iggy whispered, unable to hide the excitement in his voice. "I can see the water moving up and down." I was thrilled for Iggy, but I kept my mouth shut, allowing him to enjoy the moment. That's me, thoughtful Maximum.

Since Iggy was busy marveling at the ocean, I got up and began the long, hard task of stoking the fire. I finally got it going after several tries by using Iggy's matches. By now, Nudge, Gazzy, Angel, and Total had abandoned their palms and joined Iggy and I down on the beach.

"Morning everybody!" I said cheerfully. I was responded with half-hearted moans. Glad you're bright-eyed and bushy-tailed. "Breakfast in ten!"

Iggy, who had finally finished marveling at the waves, had drug himself over to the fire and was cooking a container of Jiffy-Pop. The rest of the Flock was seated around the fire, roasting Pop Tarts and frozen waffles on sticks. What?! You've never tried a fire-roasted Pop Tart?! They're really good, and really sticky. I flew up into the air and whacked a few coconuts down to the ground. Might as well try one.

I wondered if I could crack the tough shell with my bare hands, 'cause I'm super strong, but I decided against it. I didn't feel like bruising my hand right now. Instead I found a pretty sharp rock and broke the nuts in half with a few hard whacks. I eagerly tried a little bit of the milk, but spit it out. Ick! I decided to try a bit of the meat so I dumped the clear-ish milk onto the sand and began to peel the coconut.

For those of you who ever eaten a fresh coconut, you know that those darn little buggers have not only one shell, but THREE; the outer shell, or husk, which is green, then the brown, fuzzy shell, and then a thin, papery layer that tastes like absolutely nothing. When I had broken the coconut open, I had split the husk and the shell in half, but the meat was still clinging to the halves, so I whacked the halves on the rock until I was able to pull the crushed shell off of the white meat. I popped a piece in my mouth. It was better than the milk, but I wasn't all that great. But, I'd eaten worse, and I was really hungry.

I brought back a small armful of coconut meat to the Flock. Nudge immediately grabbed like, six pieces, and stuffed them into her mouth. Since Nudge is a vegetarian (or she tries to be), I supposed the coconut would appeal to her a lot more than fish.

"This is so good!" Nudge cried with her mouth full. "It's so sweet and tender and juicy and . . ." I was in no mood to hear her describe the coconut this morning, so I shot her a Look. She closed her mouth reluctantly and continued chewing. We ate the rest of our breakfast in silence.

After eating, the others went for a swim. I stayed out of the water and sat on the beach alone, pondering what my Voice had meant when it said I could save Fang. That little statement was really starting to get on my nerves.

I felt my mom's hand caress my shoulder gently, but I shook her off and ran to Fang. I stood next to him and clasped his hand so tightly that my knuckles turned white. Tears streaked down my cheeks.

"Fang!" I cried. "Fang why did you do it?! Why did you d . ." I wasn't able to get the last word past my lips. I just couldn't believe it. Fang was dead.

Once again I felt my mom's hand on my shoulder. I looked up at her kind face with teared-streaked eyes. "Why did you let him die? Why?" I whispered, putting every single emotion that I was feeling into my words.

"Max, I did everything I could." My mom and I stood still together, watching Fang's limp body and softly crying. Well, my crying wasn't that soft, it was more like sobbing, but that's beside the point.

You can still save him, Max.

I immediately perked up. 'Long time, no annoy Voice. Mind throwing that juicy tidbit by me again?'

I could have sworn that the Voice chuckled. I said "You can still save Fang."

'What!? How?'

Follow you heart, Max. It knows the way.

Now, five days later, that short conversation was bugging me to no end. What had the Voice meant? My thoughts were interrupted by a scream. I looked out at the ocean, expecting to see a shark or something. But reality is always so much worse than my thoughts. Flyboys.

I immediately jack-knifed to my feet and sprinted into the water, not caring about my clothes. There were about ten Flyboys in all; they had formed a circle around the us.

"Formation!" I yelled, and the Flock pulled into a tight circle, facing outwards, with Total in the middle. I balled my fists, adrenaline coursing through my veins like liquid fire. I really could have used your help right now Fang! I shed a tear, just one tear, and launched myself at the nearest Flyboy. I punched its face, and watched in satisfaction as its head came clean off. I spun around and looked at the rest of the Flock.

Nudge was holding her own, Angel and Gazzy were flying above our heads, throwing punches at the Flyboy's heads from the air, but Iggy was having difficulty in the turmoil. I ran over to him and place my back against his.

"You alright?" I yelled.

"Yeah!" Iggy said as he kicked outwards. A Flyboy dropped into the water and short-circuited. I could actually feel the electricity buzzing in my legs. Then I got an idea.

"Everyone, U and A!" I yelled as loud as I could. Two bird kids and one dog launched into the air at my command, I jumped up and joined them, circling low over the Flyboys heads. "Hey! Tin can!"

The Flyboys heads swiveled up to look at us. "Do not resist." they droned, "and your deaths will be quick." What IDIOT programmed them to say that?! The six remaining Flyboys lifted into the air with difficulty and started towards us.

"Follow me!" I told the Flock. I shot forward, my wings pumping. The Flyboys followed us in close pursuit, their heavy metal bodies struggling to stay aloft. I flew a good distance away from the beach until I decided to put my plan into action. I immediately dove down, straight into the water. Please let them follow me. I saw bubbles explode beneath the surface of the water as Iggy, Nudge, Gazzy, Angel, and Total followed, but not the Flyboys. Crap. Apparently, this batch was smarter the the last.

I stayed under as long as I could, then soared upwards, launching out of the water and into the air like a missile. The Flyboys were hovering about twenty feet above the ocean's surface, looking up at me. "Do not resist." they droned, "and your deaths will be quick."

"Ok, ok! I get it!" I complained. The Flyboys slowly began to make their way over to me. The Flock came

up behind them. Angel flew silently up behind a Flyboy and pulled its wings back as hard as she could. It shrieked mechanically and fell down into the waves. One down, five to go.

I flew forward, fists out, and punched a Flyboy in the small of the back, he crumpled and fell. I felt a metal fist punch me in the head, and my vision went fuzzy. I was losing altitude, fast. I shook my throbbing head and soared drunkenly upwards. Two more Flyboys were left.

My head was throbbing like nuts, but I changed forward, taking the first Flyboy by surprise. I looked over to see Angel and Gazzy wrestling with the other one, with Total biting at its heels. A quick punch in the gut told me to pay attention to my own fight. I doubled over in pain and dropped a few feet, barely missing a swinging Flyboy foot.

Iggy was clinging to the back of my Flyboy, riding it like a bronco. He looked in my general direction. "Move it Max!"

I immediately tucked my wings in and fell like a rock. A few seconds later, the Flyboy exploded into millions of tiny pieces. A piece of metal flew by my face, drawing a thin line of blood from my cheek. Iggy was way above me, his head cocked in pleasure as he listened to the explosion.

I looked over at the final Flyboy. Somehow, he had managed to throw Angel and Gazzy off and produce a gun. A gun. My victorious smile faded and my eyes widened in fright. The gun was pointing right at my head.

It was like watching a movie in slow motion. Angel dropped out of nowhere and landed on the Flyboy's shoulders, knocking it off balance. The barrel of the gun flashed and almost at the same time, I felt a searing pain in my shoulder. It had been aiming at my head, but ended up hitting my shoulder instead. Lucky me. I watched as Iggy knocked the Flyboy's block off, literally, and the crumpled body fell with a splash into the waves.

My shoulder hurt something awful. I clutched it, feeling hot blood seep through my fingers. At least it hadn't hit my wing. Angel surged up to me, a look of concern on her face.

"Max, are you alright?" she asked.

I tousled Angel's curls with my unused hand. "I'm fine sweetie. Thanks." My words seemed to calm the six-year-old a little bit, but not a whole lot.

We all flew back to the beach quietly and landed. I stumbled at little and caught myself by grabbing onto Gazzy. The eight-year-old eagerly supported my weight. I gave him a little half smile and his whole face lit up.

Iggy ended up removing the bullet from my shoulder by using a pair of fire-heater tweezers. It hurt a lot, but I didn't complain. After my shoulder was bullet-free and all bandaged up, I got out the medical kit and began to tend to my family.

Nudge had gotten scraped by some shrapnel from Iggy's explosion and had a black eye. Angel and Gazzy both had some minor cuts and bruises, but otherwise seemed ok. Iggy's arm had been sliced by who-knows-what and had a bloody nose. I had a bullet wound. Total was fine, but he was complaining about everything. How ironic.