People can no longer cover their eyes

If this disturbs you

Then walk away

You will remember

The night you were struck by the sight of

Ten thousand fists in the air

((boo! I know, I didn't get five reviews for that chapter, but only three. I decided that it's not fair to those who DID review, and I couldn't stand it. Thanks to: SilverDragonGirl, nudge343, Bubble Blower, duudezilla, and silverswift! Dudezilla, Fang doesn't really have a Voice. Jeb can get in anyone's head in the event of an emergency (please walk to the nearest exit. Exits are located in the front and rear of the auditorium. Lol, that's what they always say at movie theatres. There's your daily dose of randomness) but he chooses not to. It takes more energy to get into someone's head that he's not connected to (like a relative- Max is his daughter, Ari is his son, and just because Sam has a voice in her head doesn't mean that it's Jeb. Don't assume. Ever. It will get you killed).

Since I've already got a long A/N, I'll explain the little italics things at the top. Those are sections from my favorite songs. The first was Through the Fire and Flames by Dragonforce, the second was Leave it All to Me by Miranda Cosgrove (it's also the theme song to iCarly), and this one is Ten Thousand Fists by Disturbed. If you don't like some of my favorite bands, like Chiodos, Three Days Grace, P!nk, Thirty Seconds to Mars, Drake Bell, Disturbed, and Avril Lavenge, then I will eat you to the marrow. –crocodile smiles-

Disclaimer: I don't own Max. I don't own Fang. I don't own Iggy, or Nudge, or Gazzy, Angel, Ari, Jeb, and the others. I don't own much of this except a little bit of the plot and my characters. The other characters (not going to say, it will give it away. All I'll say is that a few characters will be making a reappearance) are James Patterson's gear. Not mine. –sob-))

Sam

Oh. My. God.

Fang, the love of my life, the only one for me, had just fallen out of the sky. I couldn't take him to the hospital, so I had to fix him myself. In secret. Without any help or anyone knowing. Not the best situation to be in, if you ask me.

Sam, I'm sorry, the Voice intruded.

Why? It's not your fault, I pointed out wearily.

No, I suppose not. Was it just me, or was there a trace of guilt in the Voice's voice?

Carefully, I double-checked that Sue wasn't home yet, and carried him into my room laboriously. He was lighter than he should, but we all were, me especially. We being the flock and I, since I considered Polo part of the flock now. Our hollow bones and airsacs made sure of that. Fang had a lot of muscle and no fat, but muscle weighs more than fat.

When I got in my room, I carefully laid him out on my bed. A sigh escaped me as I looked at him. Even as broken as he was, his beauty was undeniable. I stifled a sob. What would he think when he woke up to see me? Why had he fallen? What did the flock know about this?

I pulled myself from my thoughts and looked at him. I needed to set his wing and his leg, and make sure that those were the only injuries. I dragged my fingers carefully along his wing, extending it slowly. There. I felt a slight bump where it should be smooth. I tested it carefully, analyzing the damage, then yanked it back into place quickly. A slight cracking sound showed my success. It wasn't really broken, then, just sprained badly. It would take about four days for it to heal completely, even by our super-fast healing standards. Now to the leg.

His leg was worse. It seemed to be the small bone near his shin. The fibula, I think. It seemed to be a clean snap, so I shoved it back into place. Set bones, check.

There didn't seem to be any other major injuries on him. Lots of bruises and scrapes from tree branches made me wonder how far he had fallen. I guessed from very high up, near cloud height. Now to put a splint on his wing and leg to keep them from getting damaged worse. I didn't have much I could use in my bedroom, so I reluctantly flew outside and grabbed some long and straight sticks. I returned as quickly as I could and set them around his leg, then bound them with that medicine wrap stuff, then layered medicine tape over it. The wing was a bit more tricky. I had to only wrap it around a small section of the wing so that he could fold them, and I couldn't cover the whole thing. It was complicated, but it worked better than I had thought.

Just as I finished, his eyes fluttered. I took a deep breath, readying myself. Here we go…

Fang

Even before I opened my eyes, I felt the pain. Eeowww. What had happened? It felt like I had been hit by a train, or had been holding one of Iggy's bombs when it detonated, or fell from a half-mile up. It was the years of living as a freaking test subject that kept me from crying out. But once I accepted that the pain was there, it dulled to a throb, like a bruise. All over my body.

I heard someone take a deep breath, and my eyes flew open. I tried to jump to my feet, but one of my legs seemed to be broken and in a splint. A splint? Where had that come from?

I looked at my captor/hero, whichever she was. Red-brown hair was windblown, as if she had just been running, and golden eyes stared at me intensely. Something was horribly familiar with her. Wait! I had seen her in a dream! She was the girl who kept bothering me, who would talk and then turn into a slithard!

I slithered backwards across the bed, away from her, until I hit the headboard. I hissed in a breath as I realized that my wing must be broken too. There was a strange splint there, also.

"Who're you?" I demanded, already assessing the situation. That chair was in arms reach, I could throw it and hobble out of here, but I wouldn't get far if there were others in the house. Maybe I could even chuck the bedside table at her. Then I could make a quick getaway. If I slammed the door hard enough and stuck some icicles in it, that would be a nice trap for her.

The girl looked at me, confusion playing out across her features. Her totally hot features, with perfect lips. I imagined touching those lips, kissing those lips… No!!! Bad Fang!

"What do you mean? Quit kidding with me, Fang," she said, letting a nervous laugh trickle out. Such a lovely laugh, like tinkling bells. No, get back into the zone, Fang. How did she know my name?

"H-how do you know me? Where am I?" I barked, attempting one of my venomous looks. It wasn't a great one, partly because of my injuries but mostly because I was having a hard time hating her. Confusion turned to shock.

"Fang? It's me, Sam. Remember?" she said, almost pleadingly. I shook my head quickly.

"Who are you?" I repeated, whispering. She stared at me, horrified.

"What happened to you? I'm Sam. I'm from the Home, where Polo came from. I saved Max's life. I…" she trailed off, realizing that I wasn't following. "Oh Fang," she muttered, looking at me with pity. Pity? That was unexpected.

"I. Don't. Know. You," I ground out painfully. It hurt me to hurt her like this. And I didn't even know why it was hurting her. She shrank back against the wall.

"Oh Fang. FangFangFangFang," she murmured, shaking her head disbelievingly. "What happened to you?"

I suddenly exploded.

"What are you talking about? I don't know you and never have! Polo came to us alone, without anyone else! I just fell a fucking mile, and now you're grilling me? How many times do I have to tell you that I don't know you!" I shouted. She flinched, and I saw her eyes deaden as she drew inside herself.

"You used to know me. I met up with you guys around two months ago. You and the whole flock, and Polo wasn't with us. Max was sick from the disease spread by Itex. All of the flock except you got it, and I had to keep drawing the heat from them. I saved Max's life in my room inside the Home, and then I turned into a slithard and attacked her because she was taunting me again. The flock and Polo busted out, and I met up with you all on the way out. Iggy injected himself with bat DNA and got echolocation, and then we stayed at a house. We went to school, and then Max and I got tasered during a slithard fight. We got new powers, to turn into smoke instead of our other abilities. We fought each other, and I- she beat me, so I left," she explained in a dull monotone. I just stared at her in shock.

"No, that's…" I broke off, shaking my head. "I would remember it… I wouldn't just …forget something like that. You're just… insane," I said haltingly, very confused.

"It's true. I'm so sorry Fang," she replied, a longing in her eyes.

"No," I said more firmly. "It's not. You're insane, and I'm sorry if I don't 'remember' that."

"Fine. I'll find a way for you to remember. Meanwhile, you've got a badly sprained wing and a broken leg. You're going to have to stay here for at least four days while it heals," she said, an edge of determination in her voice.

I shrugged. At least she wasn't trying to convince me about something that wasn't true.

"Whatever," I muttered, sinking back into the pillows of the bed. "How's this going to work? Do you have parents or anyone that'll object?" I asked warily. She grimaced.

"Yes. Sue, my foster mother. She'll be pissed if she finds out. She already knows that I'm hiding a ton from her, if she finds out I'm hiding a busted up guy who got hurt during a flight, she'll send me to a shrink. Not like it'll work. She's tried it before," she explained grimly. "I have to keep you hidden." I nodded.

"I can stay outside. Just lend me a sleeping bag and some matches," I suggested. She shook her head.

"Sue is a spaz, she'll think the forest is on fire and either run to investigate, or call the fire department."

"Then I won't have a fire."

"No, you'll freeze. It's almost winter," she said. I just stared at her, and she sighed. "That means snow."

"So? I'm used to bad."

"You're not going to have it bad here, I'll make sure," she said, smiling a crocodile smile. Again, something familiar was nagging at the back of my head, but I couldn't figure it out. Oh well. I dismissed it.

"Okay, that's good. Can I get something to eat?" I said, smiling slightly. She nodded.

"What would you like?" Miss Waitress.

"Don't really care. Lots of something with protein," I asked, trying not to drool. The depression seemed to have fallen away, replaced by hunger and curiosity. She nodded and left the room.

As soon as she was gone, I yanked a cell phone out of my pocket. Nudge and Iggy had worked hard to wire up seven cell phones, one for each of us, all of them untraceable. I flipped it open and signed onto MSN. There was Max's name. Before I could even select it, she had sent me a message.

Where the hell r u? it said. I typed quickly, my fingers flying over the number-key things.

Im fine, dont worry. Im at some girl's house, I have a sprained wing and a broken leg, but I'll be fine. Dont come, I sent back.

Oh, so u can disappear for 2 hrs, but we can't know where u r? We're coming to get u.

Oh really? How r u going to find me? I'm fine, this girl is practically an older version of Ella, and her mum is just like Dr. Martinez. I wasn't sure about her mother yet, but I wasn't about to tell Max that. She was probably already getting a brain hemorrhage.

Fine, but if ur not bak in 3 days, we're comin.

Its gonna take 4 days for just my wing to heal.

Then fly, dumbass. In case you didn't notice the large amounts of swearing, she's really upset.

Landing? Taking off?

Shit. kk, we'll give u a week. Message me daily or I'll come get u

Whatever. I signed off, hearing Sam come back up the stairs. She had a plate of about five PB&J sandwiches, a huge bag of chips, and two large bottles of water, making my mouth practically do a tap dance, my stomach singing along. But five? I could only eat about three. I quickly learned that she ate a lot too, but not as much as me. She had two of the sandwiches, eating them with no visible strain. I was pretty impressed.

"So, what's your story? You don't seem too bewildered by the wings," I asked through a mouthful of chips. She took a gulp of water.

"Because, as I keep insisting, I've already met you and the flock and their wings. But since you don't like that explanation, I guess I'll share with you that I have wings like yours."

I stared at her in shock, eyes widening slightly. She lifted an eyebrow. "What?" she asked innocently.

"So… you have wings like us? Do you have all the other effects like the enhanced senses, speed, strength, all that? Any abilities?" I said, my voice slightly fainter than it was a moment ago. She smiled.

"Well, not exactly like yours. It's one of my secrets I've been keeping from Sue." One of her secrets. Translation: She has a whole motherload of secrets. Slowly, she extended her wings.

'Not exactly like yours.' Understatement of the freaking year. Her wings were pure black bat wings, leathery and strong. I could see the faint outline of the bones, looking like a long, skinny arm with thin fingers that extended almost as long as the arm itself, black webbing in between. They weren't as wide as ours, but looked just as powerful.

"As for abilities, I can turn into smoke, like Max," she admitted. I blinked slowly. It was unnerving how she knew all about the flock and our histories, even though we had never met her.

"Anything else I should know about?" I asked, keeping my cool, collected, indifferent tone. She smiled.

"If there was, I would wait to tell you. I don't want to overwhelm you." Whaat? I had shown no signs of shock. Max was the only one who knew when I was tense, upset, angry, or amazed. This girl was good. My only reply was a laugh.

She leaned against the window, the late afternoon sun shining on her hair and lighting it up red. "I still don't know what to do about Sue. You got any ideas?" she asked, fiddling with the sleeve of her shirt. I started to shake my head, but then something came to me. I remembered Max's story with Ella and her mom. They had welcomed her in because she was hurt, and she had helped Ella get away from a small gang.

"Oh yes. You're gonna love this," I said, smirking.