I only own Blue and Sandy! When you read a first-person sentence that is italicized but not underlined, it's Max's thought. If it's italicized and underlined, it's a mental message someone is sending her.
"Unnhh…" Max groaned as she groggily tried to sit up. And found that she was unable to. Wha…? The bird-kid strained her neck as she tried to get a look at her surroundings. Where am I? She could see a white, metallic ceiling just above her, and there was some kind of fabric beneath her. At the very edge of her vision, she could see something dark on her upper arms—no, wrapped around her upper arms. It all clicked. After she had bad-mouthed the President and run out the door, she had been shot with something. That "something" must have been darts that knocked her unconscious, and they had taken her to the bunker. She was strapped to a bed like Angel had been before. Except I obviously have more straps. Nice to see they value me. Her wings were cramped, and both her arms were all tingly; how long had she been here?
Someone groaned below her. The others were waking up!
"Guys?" A very familiar voice asked in an annoyed, hiding-my-fear tone.
"Gazzy! Are you okay?!"
"Max! Max, I can't move! Where are you?!" The Gasman's steely control of his emotions cracked for a moment. He regained control quickly, though. My little trooper! "Max, where are the others?"
"I'm in the bunk above you. I don't know where the others are, Gazzy. They're probably in other bunks either in this room still unconscious, or they're in other rooms completely. Hopefully SOMEBODY will come in here and EXPLAIN what the HECK IS GOING ON!" If they are anywhere close to being a smart evil facility, they'll have at least one security camera. If they actually have experience in this business, they'll have 5 or 6 of them. Let's hope they can take a hint!
"Ugh! Great! Not only am I blind, but now I can't even FEEL anything! Can somebody tell me why my entire body is numb and paralyzed?" This voice sounded much farther away, at least 3 bunks over.
"Iggy! You're awake!" Well, there goes all hint of fear and alarm in Gazzy's voice. His bomb-buddy just woke up!
"Hey, Gasser! How's it going, pal?" Oh, sure! Let's just pretend that everything's happy and we aren't strapped down in an evil government agency! It's all just fine and dandy here in We're-About-To-Repeat-The-Germany-Incident Land!
"Uh, guys, not that we aren't in danger or anything, but I don't think this is something to be happy about! Gasman, you and I are going to hold our breaths so that Iggy can hear if there's anyone else in here. Got it?"
Her answer was silence from below her, and Iggy saying, "Ready." So Max held her breath for as long as she could. And since she had both lungs and air sacs, she could hold her breath for over 4 minutes.
"Okay, there is someone right above me who has a heartbeat faster than ours, and there are four heartbeats to my right that have heartbeats like bird-kids." Wait—FOUR?! That would mean seven bird-kids in this room, which is more than my Flock! Who are the other two experiments, and what is the one above Iggy?
"So, eight people in this room, seven of which are avian, and the last one, we don't know. Iggy, is number eight making any noises that could identify it's species?"
There was a pause. Max waited patiently for the first 2 minutes or so, because she knew he was listening. But somewhere at the ten minute mark, she couldn't take it anymore—"Iggy? Any clue?"
"No. It's really weird; the heartbeat keeps speeding up and slowing down, but it's not like what Fang's did—it stays smooth; a few minutes of fast and smooth, and then a couple minutes of slow. It's like it keeps changing between our heartbeats when we're excited and a human's heartbeat when they're in a coma. I don't get it!"
"That is weird!" A new voice spoke up—a voice Max didn't recognize. It sounded like a very young girl, but she spoke with a lot of authority. I guess it could be one of the other captured experiments, but I still should be cautious.
"Who are you?" Iggy beat her to the chase.
"My name is Blue. I sleep on the lower bunk right next to yours. Who are you?"
"Why should we tell you? For all we know, you're a repeat of my little brother!" Nice one, Max! Accuse a little girl of being an Eraser! …Still, better paranoid than dead.
"Um, what happened to your brother that would keep you from trusting me? He looks fine." Who? Oh, Gazzy.
"The Gasman is my Flock brother, but not my biological brother…Okay, he has avian biology like me, but our parents weren't the same. My brother Ari volunteered to become an Eraser and spent the last four years of his life trying to kill me…before he expired. He was eight." Come on, Max! Don't cry! I'm the Invincible Maximum Ride! I don't cry!...Aw, shucks. I'm crying.
"Oh…I-I'm sorry! I didn't mean to bring back bad memories! Please don't cry!" Max heard a creak, and a very worried face appeared above her. Blue looked about three or four years old, with popping blue eyes and some lean baby fat still clinging to her cheeks. She looked like she was going to bawl because she had hurt Max's feelings.
The older bird-girl sighed. "It's okay. I didn't really know him that well. I didn't even know we were related until five hours before he died." She continued when Blue looked at her in confusion. "I didn't know who my parents were. Ari's dad ignored him and loved me. He thought it was because I was an experiment. He was a four ear old human. After Jeb abandoned him, Ari asked the whitecoats to make him an experiment. He didn't get to choose what kind. Then Jeb assigned Ari to kill me, and yet still loved me more than him." Max laughed darkly, "Shakespeare himself couldn't come up with a tragedy like this."
"Who's Shakespeare?" Oh, right. Most experiments don't take literary analysis in an actual school. Heck, most experiments usually don't get out of the labs without being blown to bits.
Ain't that the truth!
WHAT?! Who just mindspoke, because I KNOW that wasn't Angel!
"Who's Angel?" Blue asked. Yes, I can communicate through the mind. Sorry, I thought I was talking out loud… "Anyway, who IS Shakespeare?" Blue repeated.
"Some play writer hundreds of years ago who liked butchering his characters. Why did you sound so much older a second ago?"
The crazies (I think you called them whitecoats) made it so that I stopped growing after I turned four and a half. I'm actually nine.
"Max? Who's that?" Angel's awake! Time to ask the routine questions, even though they usually involve depressing answers.
"Angel! Are you okay, how do you feel?"
"Other than cramped wings and extremely tingly arms, not too bad, actually."I'm fine! Apparently these guys know not to hurt the merchandise. Do you want me to do a background check on her?
"Hey!" Blue pouted as she tried to keep her dignity. Which she did very well, somehow… Must be the toddler face.
"Did you hear that?! Usually no one else hears when I send a message!" Angel was obviously surprised.
I'm not a very powerful telepath. I can't always control it. Mostly I just use my hydrokinetic power.
"Your whodawhatnow?" Angel sounded completely baffled. Either she sent that to Angel too, or Angel was listening in.
Power over water.
Why aren't you talking out loud?
They have voice recorders in here. At sound-off, I didn't tell them about my ability to move water and freeze stuff at will, and I don't plan on telling them now.
You aren't the only one who hid at least one of your powers. They don't know that Iggy can make bombs. Max figured she could dangle a string of the very thick rope of the Flock's lives and see how Blue reacted.
So, if you're going to talk about stuff you don't want them to know about, mindspeak it. (Interesting. She didn't directly ask about the powers I mentioned. Either she's a good guy, or she's a very smart bad guy. Hm.)
Hey, Blue, what DNA do you have?
Blue Jay. Which lab did you guys come from? I was under the Eiffel Tower.
In France? How come you don't speak French?
I do. I just had Sandy as a cage partner. Blue wandered over to meet Angel face to face. How Max knew that, she didn't have a clue.
Who the heck is Sandy and how does that help you speak English?
Sandy spent most of his time in Alaska, but was moved to France when I was five. The Alaskan labs had lots of Canadian crazies. They spoke both French and English. Sandy taught me English…Speaking of which, what is the real English word for crazies? Sandy didn't know that one.
They call themselves "scientists" but we call them "torturers". Scientists do things for the sake of learning, but the white coats hurt us so they could find out how to hurt everyone else. They hurt just because they wanted too. Torturers.
Good point. I guess you came from one of the American labs? What DNA are you?
We don't know. We're all bird hybrids, but Angel may have a very minute amount of fish.
What does "minute" mean?
Very, very small. Do you know the word minimum? The absolute smallest amount possible? Minute is extremely small.
But you don't know which birds?
No clue.
What color are your wings? I can see the tips of the older boy talking; his flight feathers are dark brown with some yellowish speckles.
Iggy's wings are gold and brown, spot-like. Angels wings are pure white. Fang has black wings with a purplish sheen. Nudge has brown and russet. And I have tan and light brown wings with dark brown spots and speckles. The Gasman's wings are red.
I think Angel has albino DNA, and the blind one…Iggy? With your gold and brown wings, I'm betting you're a Eurasian Eagle Owl. Whoever Fang is could be a crow, or a black vulture. The darker girl on my other side might have DNA like a hawk of some kind, maybe African Goshawk. Is she Nudge? She's lying on her stomach.
Probably. Can you guess what I am?
Your avian DNA is from a Red-Tail Hawk and a Barn Owl. You still have to save the world, Max.
Ho, Voice. Long time no annoy.
Max? Who's that? I thought Angel and I were the only telepaths here.
That's my Voi—Hey! How did you know my name?
The other telepath said your name. Remember how I said I can't always control it?
Meaning you accidentally overhear things?
Yeah. Who is it?
That's the Voice inside my head. I don't know who it is. I thought it was my dad, but it says it's not.
Jeb can DO the Voice, but he isn't THE Voice.
Huh?
It means that Jeb can talk out loud in that weird unidentifiable Voice, but he isn't the person who actually talks to me in my head. And since the Voice keeps telling me to "save the world" without actually telling me how, I have reason to hate both.
Hate me if you want to, love me if you can.
What? The Voice has gone even more insane!
"Um, Max? Why hasn't the dark boy above me woken up? They brought him in here at the same time they brought you, so I'll guess he's Fang. But why hasn't he woken up?" Blue sounded almost panicked. Why be concerned? She barely knows us!
You DIDN'T know Ella.
Hush it.
"Why only worry about Fang? Nudge isn't awake either." Max asked. She heard a gulping sound.
"Yes I am! I just had a very sore throat and I didn't want to talk." Note to self: sore throat equals silence!
"But still! Fang should wake up soon! What makes you think he won't?"
"…He just went into a coma."
DuN Dun DUNNN!! Revew and I may update soon! How'd you like?
