"Whoa! Who spiked this thing's captain crunch?" Max asked in complete astonishment. "The freak's going as fast as a plane!"

"Ick, planes," Iggy said with distaste. "Freakin' economic disasters just waiting to be taken over by terrorists. They scream to be crashed into large buildings."

Remembering their experiences in Europe on the huge flying sardine cans, Max said, "They're not so bad. They get you places for sure. Not everybody has the convenience of built in wings."

"Convenience," Iggy muttered darkly.

"The point is," Max said with a slightly irritated tone, "The thing is obviously on some sort of illegal drug substance that can somehow make it fly that fast. That is just wrong."

"Maybe it's got powers like you do," Iggy suggested.

"I was just coming to that conclusion!" Max exclaimed.

"Great minds think alike."

"Since when did you have a mind?"

"Can we just go! Our little speedster is getting away."

"Okay, hold on," Max said, grabbing Iggy's hand. Suddenly they were shooting off after the strange thing.

Fang, still on the ground, watched them fly away with a disappointed expression. He had no hopes of following them now.

Back up in the air Max and Iggy had outflown the Speedster. They were tucked in the crook of a tall tree waiting for it to catch up.

Max watched its wing strokes in awe. In no way did she consider herself an expert on birds, which is odd since she should be, given the circumstances and everything, but she knew that this thing was graceful as hell with a whole lot of upper arm strength. By the way the shoulder blades were moving, by the easy acceleration, the swift dips and turns as it seeped through thermals, Max knew for certain that this wasn't a special power that the thing was resortring on. When it came to her own speed, Max could pretty much choose left, right, up, down. With this creature it was...somehow circular. Able to move and go any direction. Free from gravities slight and futile pulls that were usually aimed at wings. The creature seemed so...free. Of course Max felt free in the skies too, but this was somehow just...different. Better somehow. Magical. Incredible. Enviable.

As it got closer Max could make out features and colours.

"It's got blue wings," she described to Iggy, "And there's a bit of black and white in it too. It...I'm pretty sure it's a girl. Her hair is kind of shoulder length long. It's black and in curly little ringlets. She looks 

really skinny. She's wearing black everything. I think it's just a sweater and jeans. She looks kind of...chesty," Max frowned, "And I can't really see that well but it looks like she's got green eyes."

Iggy bit his lip like he was restraining from speaking. After a few long minutes he asked quietly, "how chesty?"

Max hit him hard on the back of the head. "You sexist pig! That is so degrading and demoralizing to women! Don't you have any respect? YOU. ARE. SICK!"

"Max!" Iggy hissed.

"Don't you Max me! How dare you! You have no value for the female population. I bet you would get excited if we dressed a chimpanzee up in a skirt!"

"Max!" Iggy insisted again and he threw a hand over her mouth. She licked it and he winced but wrestled her into a headlock to keep quiet.

"Just shut up Max! It's heard us now!"

Max felt very much like a little girl hiding under her covers at night to keep away the monsters. She was certain that if she kept very still, the thing would go away. Every movement of her head made her feel condemned to a certain death as she slowly turned her head around, only to see...

Nothing.

The skies were completely clear. Max disentangled herself from Iggy, eyes darting around frantically.

"Iggy," she hissed, but before she could get the rest of her sentence out, she was slammed skywards by a million trucks to her stomach.