New Friendships

A Maximum Ride and a SWISHY short story

Cheryl-

I leaned back and lay my head in my hands as Althea went through a brief summary of our life story. I still didn't know why we were trusting these kids with our life story. We've known them for a good half hour or less and already they knew everything about us.

"So back to the story," Althea continued. "Jared wants to use our powers. Our real parents have been held captive for about 13 years and we are on our way to free them. However, Neptune, god of the seas, wants us dead because we are more powerful than he is."

"This is like a fairy tale! Cool." I heard Nudge whisper in Angel's ear.

"No, not cool." I said to her picking my head up. "This is real life and every day we are fighting for our lives and hoping that each day we are here, our parents aren't already dead because they are useless to that dogfish Jared!" I hadn't realized my voice was rising so I tried to lower it. "I don't know what your deal is, but this is most definitely not a fairy tale."

Nudge lowered her head and was silent. Max looked at her and then the rest of the flock before tuning to me and my friends.

"We should understand reality as much as you do. No our parents aren't held captive and no the god of the seas isn't after us, but we were kidnapped from our parents before our eyes were even opened by a bunch a mad scientists who rudely unraveled our DNA and combined bird DNA with it and forced us to live in dog cages for most of our lives." I noticed Julia was flinching at every word Max was saying. Poor girl must be hard feeling someone's feelings when someone is steaming mad.

"We were tested on more times than any of us can even remember and because of one of those tests, Iggy is permanently blind!" she pointed at Iggy and he to lowered his head in embarrassment.

"Then when we finally escape, Erasers, human-lupine hybrids, are everywhere ready to rip us to shreds. All the while it is my mission to save the world from these mad- scientists cause in their 'genius' minds, they think it is right to destroy half the world's population to create a perfect more advanced generation!" Fang put his arm around her shoulder but in her rage she flinched at the touch.

There was silence after Max's outburst.

"Well I guess we need each other more than we think." Cynthia said seconds later. "We both live crabby lives and you could teach us stuff like how to fly better and fight on land."

"Yeah they should stay. Please let them stay." Max looked into Angel's pleading eyes.

"Yeah I know their staying." She told her, and then looked at us. "We can't let them leave after we've told them all about us." I nodded grimly.

"Well now that that's all out there, let's get outta here." Fang said getting to his feet. "Flyboys could find us in any minute." He jumped into the air and the flock followed him.

I shook out my dark purple and blue wings. We had only flown like twice and I was still a little scared, which is something no one else but you will ever know. And If I find out that you told someone. You're dead.

I jumped into the air and flapped my wings. My belly lurched when my body fell back down to earth before the second flap. Soon I was flying with the wind whistling through my hair.

I caught up to Max, who was flying as close to Fang as possible in the air with 14 feet wing spans.

"So you never told us your special skills." I nodded toward Max and Fang.

"I, uh, have super flying speed, a voice and can breathe underwater." She said hurriedly.

"A voice?" I asked. Does she mean like a speaking voice, a conscience or something else?

"Yeah! You mean you don't have one?" she said sarcastically. "They're on sale at Wal-mart this week. Roll back prices."

"Wal-mart? What's that?" I asked. Ok you might know what Wal-mart is but I mean I've only been in America for about week or less. So give me a break. Max and Fang exchanged a look of shock.

""It's one of the biggest stores in the world. We might stop by there to stock up on food."

"So what do you do?" I asked Fang. He didn't give any sign that he heard. "I said, what—"

"Blending." He interrupted. "I can blend into things and breathe underwater."

"Yeah and he's got some killer fighting skills." Max added with a smile. Fang gave a ghost of a smile, tipped his feathers and barreled into Max, who happened to barrel into me. I don't really even remember what I was thinking when I fell, and fell even further. Although I remember my belly dropping a whole lot farther than my body did.

My wings trailed out above me and I feebly tried to flap, to no avail. I closed my eyes waiting to splatter on the earth, when I felt strong arms wrap around my waist and pull me upward.

"What are you doing?" It was Fang. "Flap harder!" I strained my wing muscles and obeyed. Fang let go of my waist when he was sure I wouldn't fall again and we made our way back up to the others.

"What were you doing?" Max screamed at me. "Did you want to die?"

"No… I" I stopped to catch my breath. "My wings aren't that strong yet. I've only flown like twice." Max rolled her eyes at me.

"Well word of advice. If you fall, remember you have wings and can fly!" she snapped. I winced as I felt a twinge in my belly, my heads up to a future video. I closed my eyes and concentrated on it, but also reminding myself to flap. What I saw sent shivers down my spine. I opened my eyes.

"Umm guys? There are some robot things flying toward us and they look pretty dangerous."