"Okay. First up: Gazzy. What do you know about him?"

Maya responds promptly. "Subject F28246eff, known coloquially as The Gasman, nine years old, fraternal elder brother of subject F28234eff-"

I cut her off. "Okay. My Flock, which is going to become your Flock soon enough, are not just numbers on a paper. They're people. I want you to forget whatever the School told you about them. Whatever files and reports you memorized about them, they're gone. Out the window. To get along with the Gasman, you need to know three things about him."

She nods, looking extra focused. "Okay."

"One: you could lock him in a padded cell with with some dental floss and a bowl of Jell-O, and he'd still find a way to make something explode." I smile slightly, thinking about the time we spent with the U.S. army, in which he had done basically the same thing.

Maya looks confused. "He's a pytotechnic? The School never mentioned..." She falters under my gaze. "Right. Sorry. Forget what they told me."

"Two: He's beyond loyal, and not too suspicious, unlike the others. If you wanna lie to the rest of the Flock, Gazzy is a good place to start."

"So you want me to start pretending to be you in front of him before anyone else."

I grin. Maya's a fast learner, kind of like me when the thing I'm learning has nothing to do with math or science. When Jeb taught us how to read and write, I picked it up way faster than Fang did, and then I'd tease him by writing things like you suck or eat my dust on bits of paper around the house because I knew he couldn't read it.

Good times.

"Three, and this is more helpful for your personal health than anything else: Stay upwind."

Maya frowns. "You mean..."

"Trust me. Stay upwind. Unless you want your sinuses to be burned off by the sheer terror he can output after eating deviled eggs. They're silent killers, and you'll be begging for mercy- ow!"

I nearly fall off the branch I'm perched on as a sharp, stinging pain slashes across my temples. I close my eyes, breathing heavily, waiting for the pain to subside. When it's dulled to a small throbbing that I can easily ignore, I open my eyes to find Maya staring worriedly at me.

"Are you okay?"

I shrug. "It's been happening quite often. I suppose it's something to do with the date tattooed on my neck."

My statement doesn't placate her at all. "Max, I really think you should-"

"Tell someone? See a doctor? We both know how much good that'll do. When a mutant gets their expiration date, there's no way out of it. I mean..." I swallow painfully, remembering Ari's final moments. "That's how my brother died."

Maya looks at the ground, and I know she's remembering all the moments she's spent with Ari. He was, after all, her partner in crime.

"Anyways, we're moving on. Next up: Iggy. World-class chef, Gazzy's sidekick, and surprisingly good at landing punches to your mouth, despite being a blind guy."


"Where's Max?" Iggy asked Gazzy, as he started cracking open eggs.

Gazzy inhaled the sweet, sweet aroma of what would soon be scrambled eggs and shrugged. "She went to go get fresh air or something. She was acting pretty weird."

Iggy reached for the salt where he had left it only to find it wasn't there. Gazzy pushed the carton of salt towards Iggy's long fingers. "I think the fact that Max got up at seven in the morning is pretty weird." He began putting extra salt into the eggs, just the way the Flock liked them.

Just then, the front door opened, and Max stepped in, looking surprised to see Iggy in the kitchen.

"Hey, Max," Gazzy said amicably, and Max nodded at him.

"Hey... Gaz." She took a seat at the dining table furthest away from Gazzy. He grinned. Iggy was making eggs... the Flock was going to have a good, aromatic experience this morning.

"How was the fresh air?"

Max shrugged. "I just wanted to fly around for a bit before everyone else woke up."

"Well, I'm pouring the orange juice," Gazzy said, getting glasses out of the cupboard.

Max stood up. "I'll go wake up the girls."


Maya wanted to scream. The last time she had been face to face with Angel, the girl had seen through her disguise. Her last words? I can read minds, you idiot.

Of course, the situation had been drastically different then. Maya had been on the side of the whitecoats, and she was actively trying to terminate the Flock. Max is on your side now, she thought, pushing open the door to the little girl's room. Just act natural.

"Wake up, Angel," she said quietly, entering the room.

Angel sat up and Maya was struck by how small she looked in her pajamas. "Good morning, Max."

"Good morning," Maya said, smiling. "Ig and Gaz are downstairs eating breakfast. I suggest you get down there quick before Gazzy does his trademark thing."

Angel smiled and Maya relaxed slightly. "Thanks, Max." She swung her feet off the bed and walked towards the bathroom.

So far so good... Next up was Nudge, and as Maya knocked on the door to Nudge's room, she felt a little calmer. Maybe this wasn't as hard as she had previously thought. At least there was no talking dog this time. "Hey, Nudge. Time to get up."

Nudge rolled over in her bed, groaning. Max had warned that Nudge was usually the last one to get up. "Ten more hours."

"I'll give you ten minutes to get dressed and come downstairs for breakfast," Maya said, assuming the commanding tone she had copied from Max. Nudge groaned, but still pushed the covers off of her and attempted to stand up.

Ten minutes later, Iggy proved his blind brilliance by serving plates of scrambled eggs to everyone at the dining table. The rest of the flock dug in with gusto, and Maya remembered how Max said they were accustomed to living off of Dumpster meals and desert rat. She smiled and put a forkful of eggs into her mouth... only to spit it out all over the table a moment later.

"Eurgh!" Maya grabbed the nearest glass of orange juice and downed it in one gulp, shuddering slightly. The blind boy was a good cook?! The eggs were way too salty... and yet, the rest of the Flock was eating comfortably. Gazzy had even finished his entire plate.

"You okay, Max?" Nudge asked.

"Yeah," Maya muttered. "Just... a little too salty for me."

Iggy frowned. "Really? I put the normal amount. One handful."

One handful? That would be enough to season an entire bucket of scrambled eggs! And yet... maybe the Flock was accustomed to over-salted food. Maybe it was a detail Max had overlooked. It was the only explanation that made sense.

Maya forced a smile on her face. "Right. I'm fine." And she lifted another forkful to her mouth, hesitant about letting it in.

Luckily, she was interrupted, so she didn't have to.

Unluckily, the interruption came in the form of an arm slung across her shoulder. Maya looked up into the handsome, albeit scruffy, face of Subject F26254wtt. Also known as Fang.


uh-oh, guess who forgot to tell Maya about her relationship with Fang...