Chapter Three:
~Part of the Flock~
I stumbled off my butt, which was probably covered in muck from the dirty sewer bottom, and walked over to the group. Max looked me up and down and looked back at Fang. "I don't see it. Where did you say it was?" Fang looked back at me, and whispered into Max's ear. She looked down at my shirt, and looked back at the kids crowded around. "Nudge, go take Gassy and Angel to get some broth, bring back extra if you can, but don't hog it from the people." Nudge, a small 12 year old girl, grabbed the two younger kids over to the line of hobos grabbing broth from the storing pot. Max looked down at my shirt again and motioned to Fang, who had his arms crossed, looking back at me. "Lift up your shirt." She gazed into my eyes and I was cross for a second. "Wait...what?" I said surprised, but after the events of last night, who knows what can surprise me now. "Lift up your shirt. You heard me. You 'apparently' have something I need to see." I was a little curious as to what the something might be, so I lifted my shirt's bottom to a point where they could see most of my stomach. Max's eyes looked like they were about to pop out of her head when she saw what Fang was talking about. I looked down, curious as to what exactly they were staring at, and was surprised as to what I saw. Under my belly button, above my pelvic area there was a small tattoo of a Itex's logo. I tried to wipe it away, just in case it was an illusion, but I knew that idea was a little overzealous. I began to panic, thinking that maybe this group of kids and teens were Itex assassins that were sent to kill me. Max, still looking shocked, looked at Iggy and then Fang. "Can I ask why you were looking in that area, Fang?" He shrugged and looked down at Max's stomach. "Too much to ask?" He laughed and then walked over to the kids in the hobo line, while Max looked me up and down. "Who are you?" She asked me, while Iggy got up to follow Fang. I shook my head and looked at my clothes. "I honestly have no Idea, Max." She shoved me against the wall and looked deep into my eyes. "And more importantly how the hell do you know my name?" I was about to say 'I don't know' to that too, but I had a feeling that would be the wrong answer to give her. I closed my eyes and looked down at my feet. She sighed and looked behind her to the kids. "Listen...it appears your one of us...but don't let that get to your head. If you want, you can stay with us for a while, until we figure things out." I nodded my head and looked at her face. "But if you think for one second that you can hurt my flock, I'm going to take your throat out from under your head, and feed it to Fang. Got it?" I nodded my head again, and she dropped me from the wall. "Good. Now..what's your ability? What's wrong with you?" I shook my head and looked at her, not understanding. "Your from Itex right? That means you were an experiment. I just want to know what you have. Like..do you have wings like us?" She unfurled her wings from her back and gave me a quick breeze of air. "..or do you read minds like Angel?" I was still baffled at this point, not knowing what to say. I shook my head and looked at her eyes again. "I don't have wings. I can't read minds...to be honest, Max...I don't know what's wrong with me. I don't know a lot of things actually...where I came from, who I am, what I'm here for.." She looked at me blankly as if I told her I was going to save the world or something. "Last night, I was attacked by an assassin from Itex." I told her the whole story of what I was doing in New York, how I got there, and why I had been attacked. She stood there looking at me in disbelief. I left out the part of my turning into water momentarily to kill the dude with a brick, just so I didn't give her a reason to kill me. "And I walked away and the next thing I know, I was laying unconscious in the sewers of New York with an old hobo-lady looking down at me." After I was done telling her the entire thing, the kids returned to the spot where they were before, eating the broth they had brought back, and Max looked me up and down. "Well..if your going to be joining us, you might as well meet the Flock. I'm sure they'd love to know more about the new member." We both smiled at each other, and walked over to the group, both being handed a cup of warm-ish broth from the pot. After spending about an hour getting to know the kids and telling them my story that I had told Max, I felt like I belonged with them. It felt as if I had been forced to come here, to see Max and the Flock...it was as if it was part of my destiny. It didn't last too long, exchanging laughs with Angel about how Max doesn't wear enough makeup, and joking with Gassy and Nudge about explosions and clothes. Soon after we spent a long time together, we decided to let it go and fall asleep. As soon as my mind drifted away from consciousness, I had a dream. I dreamed about stormy clouds and rainy weather. Lighting and thunder crashing down on earth like a humungous tragedy. I felt like I was god, looking down on earth to see these storms I made. Then I had a thought; what if I was the storm? So I turned into a mighty hurricane that ripped through the world like it was paper, smashing cars and buildings in my way. It felt scary having so much power, but it felt right having the ability to kill and destroy at my own will. But the storm was too powerful for me to control. I ended up leaving the storm, letting it do as it wished through the planet, making my heart ache as I saw it evaporate into the sky for more rain to come about later. It was a great dream.