A/N: Oh my gosh, I'm actually updating this thing again. I'm sure some of you had given up hope. Well, if you want someone to thank, thank Hideout Writer, who, after reviewing this fic, decided to write a McGyver/MR crossover of their own, called Maximum McGyver, which you all need to go and read, since it has a much higher likelihood of actually being updated at regular intervals than this one. Also, Hideout Writer is planning on making McGyver an Avian American, while I'm planning on leaving him human, so the storylines should turn out to be fairly different. Anyhow, I was inspired to write another chapter after reading the first chapter of thier fic. So, please enjoy the new chapter and review, and then go and read Hideout Writer's fic and review it! If you don't, Angel will use mind control to make McGyver show up at your house and cover your computer in duct tape so you can no longer use ! *evil laugh*

Chapter 4

Pete decided that MacGyver quite possibly had a point about the blood pressure medications. That short phone conversation had somehow managed to exhaust him completely.

Then again, that short phone conversation had involved an awful lot of surprises. When Pete had heard rumors about Itex, he'd figured they were making recombinant animals, or, at most, humans with minor modifications like unusual coloring or slightly increased intelligence. He would have never expected them to attempt human-animal hybrids, especially not human-avian hybrids. The two species weren't exactly genetically similar. The chances of success in such an experiment had to have been infinitesimal.

And yet, they had successfully created six such hybrids, all of which had survived the genetic modifications, and could actually fly! As well as make fun of MacGyver's outdated fashion sense, apparently. Pete had never heard MacGyver this annoyed about a situation that didn't involve Jack Dalton.

Pete had given MacGyver the location of a contact in California who owned a used-car lot and would be willing to lend him transportation. He had told MacGyver that he wanted him to stay with the kids to make sure Itex didn't recapture them. And there certainly was a danger of that. Though, if Pete was honest with himself, he would admit that his reasons had more to do with MacGyver's amusing annoyance with the situation and less to do with worry about the "bird-kids", as MacGyver described them. After all, from what MacGyver had told him, they could take care of themselves.

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MacGyver, meanwhile, was walking along the side of the road with the bird-kids, wondering what he had done to tick Pete off. This had to be a punishment for something…the time he'd copiloted for Jack's airline and gotten captured by jewel thieves, maybe? Or the time he'd almost resigned from the Phoenix Foundation? No, that couldn't be it, either. He couldn't think of anything he'd done to deserve this.

"So, is MacGyver, like, your full name?" Nudge asked. "Oh, are you like those celebrities who only have one name, you know, like Madonna or Cher? I always wanted a name like that! I was thinking Tiffany. Or maybe Crystal. Or Tiffany-Crystal! Doesn't that sound like a name for a movie star? So is that why you only have one name? Or is it like both parts of your name are mixed together, like maybe your actual name is Mack Gyver, only you thought it sounded better as one word?"

"My name is Angus. Angus MacGyver," MacGyver ground out. Nudge had a future with the CIA as an interrogator, he was sure. Unless, of course, she still wanted to change her name to Tiffany-Crystal and become a movie star.

Meanwhile, Iggy and Gazzy burst out laughing.

"You're named after a hamburger," Gazzy managed to gasp between howls of laughter. "And I thought my name was bad!"

McGyver groaned.

"Knock it off, guys," Max barked. "It's not his fault that his parents had a twisted sense of humor." The blonde girl was barely suppressing a giggle by the end of her speech.

"So, Gazzy's your actual name?" MacGyver asked curiously. "I thought it was a nickname or something."

"His actual, full name is The Gasman," Iggy said.

"You have to pronounce the "The" like it has a capital letter," Gazzy put in.

MacGyver was a little unclear on how one actually did that, but he was distracted from asking by their arrival at the used-car dealership that Pete had told him about.

"Wow!" Nudge exclaimed. "Look at all the cars! There's even a pink one!"

"Max, can I drive one?" Gazzy asked excitedly.

"Gazzy, you don't have a license," Max said firmly.

"But you drove a van once, and you don't have a license, either…" Gazzy whined.

MacGyver stared at Max. She was, what, fourteen or fifteen? And she had driven a car?

Max's expression was that of a deer in the middle of a road with a semi-truck roaring toward it. "Gazzy, that was an emergency, and I'm not going to do it again unless I have to, understand? Besides, remember how me driving turned out?"

The blood drained out of Gazzy's face.

"You want that to happen again?" Max asked.

Gazzy shook his head quickly.

MacGyver was absolutely lost.

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Iggy, meanwhile, was content to stand off to the side with Fang and listen to the younger kids' enthusiasm, Max's attempts at control, and MacGyver's exasperation.

"Heaven help us if Gazzy ever actually ends up driving," he deadpanned.

Fang grunted something that sounded like agreement. Iggy rolled his eyes. Did he really think that his strong, silent spiel was going to get him anywhere with Max? It was obvious even to the Flock members who weren't mind readers like Angel was that the two oldest bird kids had it bad for each other. But were either of them going to actually make any moves? Of course not.

A soft ticking sound, like a clock's, interrupted his thoughts. It sounded familiar, but none of the Flock had a watch. Was it coming from MacGyver, maybe? No, he didn't have a watch, either. So where was the ticking coming from?

Suddenly, it came to him. "Max," he said, his throat going dry.

"What, Iggy?" Max asked evenly.

"A bomb," he said. "There's a bomb here." He pointed in the direction of the noise. "I can hear it."

Max let loose with an impressive string of curse words.

"Not around Angel," Fang said calmly.

Fang was like a brother to Iggy. That being said, sometimes Iggy wanted to slap him for being so danged stoic.

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I went into "protect the Flock" mode immediately.

"Iggy, Gazzy, go try to find it," I ordered. "Everyone else, up and away and as far from here as you can get NOW!"

"I might be able to—" McGyver started.

"Okay, go help," I said. McGyver took off after Iggy and Gazzy. At that moment, most of my mind was occupied with panicking, but a small slice of it took a few minutes off to laugh at the fact that a guy around twice my age had just taken an order from me without even stopping to think about it.

Fang, Nudge, and Angel were poised for takeoff, wings out and all, but were hesitating. I could tell they didn't want to leave the rest of us here.

"Go on, go!" I shouted. "You want to get blown up?"

"But Max, what'll we do if you guys—we're not a flock without all six of us, isn't that what you said?" Nudge protested.

"That's no reason to—" I broke off as I heard a sharp intake of breath from Iggy. I turned around, expecting the worst. Every nerve in my body was on full alert, and every muscle was tensed in preparation to throw the others out of danger if I had to.

I really hoped I wouldn't have to.

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MacGyver heard Iggy inhale sharply. The two of them and Gazzy had found the bomb, inside one of the sedans near the back of the lot. Now that they were closer, MacGyver could hear ticking. The older of the two bird-kids had been the first to approach the bomb, his pale fingers playing across its surface with the practiced grace of a pianist's.

"Big Boy?" the strawberry blond gasped in disbelief. "Is that you?"

"Oh, my gosh, it is!" Gazzy chimed in, sounding oddly happy considering that they were discussing a bomb.

"Wow, never thought I'd see another Big Boy," Iggy continued. "Did they use the Mickey Mouse clock?"

"Yeah," Gazzy said excitedly.

"Um…'Big Boy'?" MacGyver asked. "And shouldn't we be disarming it?"

"Good point," Iggy said. "Help me out, Gazz. And MacGyver, you should probably sound the all clear before Max orders the others to go to South America or something. I know Big Boy like the back of my hand. This won't take long."

"Right," MacGyver said. He ran back over to the others. They seemed to be arguing, but they stopped when MacGyver showed up.

"Iggy says it's fine, that he and Gazzy can disarm it," MacGyver said. "They were calling it 'Big Boy'."

"Wasn't that what they nicknamed the bomb they blew up the cabin with?" Fang asked Max.

"Yeah," Max replied. "I can't believe they used my alarm clock for that! Although, if it had to get destroyed, at least it took some Erasers with it."

MacGyver's brain, which had been slightly overwhelmed by the threat of being blown to smithereens, finally caught up with the conversation.

"Wait, you let the—what is he, eight?—the eight-year old and the blind kid make bombs?" MacGyver asked, dumbfounded.

"No, I try to stop them, but they keep sneaking around behind my back and getting explosive materials from who-knows-where," Max replied in a tone of exasperation. "Relax, they know what they're doing."

"Got that right," Iggy said, coming up behind the group with Gazzy close behind. "That bomb was a perfect replica of the one we used to blow up those Erasers in Colorado…"

"…they even used a Mickey Mouse clock like Max's…" Gazzy put in.

Max's eyebrow twitched.

"…so of course it was easy to disarm," Iggy finished proudly.

"You thinking what I'm thinking?" Max asked, turning to Fang.

"Warning?" Fang asked.

"Definitely," Max stated. "They're trying to scare us off, but not kill us. We must be doing something they don't want us to do."

"Is 'they' Itex?" MacGyver asked.

"Yeah and no," Max said. "Some of the people there are scientist who just think we're experiments and want us back to disse—"

She noticed Nudge's face turning green and amended, "to study. Butv there are other people there, too, mostly higher-ups, and they have some sort of weird plans for us that seem to involve jerking us around constantly. It's apparently supposed to prepare me to save the world or something."

"You mentioned saving the world when you broke me out," MacGyver said. "Does that have something to do with what you just told me?"

"No, we hauled you out of the School because the dang Voice in my head wouldn't shut up…" Max trailed off. "Um, forget I said that, actually."

MacGyver stared at her. The voice in her head told her to save him? He'd heard theories about genetic manipulation and its possible effects on the subject's mental state, but Max and the others had seemed perfectly normal until now. Great, now he had to deal with a mentally unstable mutant pre-teen, as well as five regular old avian-human recombinant kids.

"Max isn't mentally unstable," Angel protested.

"And how would you know?" MacGyver asked, deciding to humor the curly-haired blonde.

"Because I can read her mind," Angel said, as if it were the most normal thing in the world.

MacGyver certainly hadn't seen that one coming.

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NinthFeather: Oh, MacGyver, you are in so far over your head…

MacGyver: I can't believe you are doing this.

NinthFeather: What, messing with your sense of reality? Have you been here for the last few chapters?

MacGyver: That's not really what I was referring to. *Is wearing one of NinthFeather's shirts, which reads "Silence is golden, duct tape is silver" and has a smiley face with duct tape over its mouth on it. His face is a very interesting shade of red.*

Max & Flock: *laughing uncontrollably*

NinthFeather: Can't you just see him wearing that, though? Hee hee! Please review, and don't forget to check out Hideout Writer's fic, too! Thanks!