Sorry for the wait. ISAT testing week. All week. I'm just a little drained.

Iggy: You should talk. Having someone read off the answers three times isn't a walk in the park either. I hate being blind.

Fang: I hate it when you talk.

Alex: I hate it when you fight!

Me: -Duck tapes Iggy and Fang together with gags-

Alex: That works.

Max POV

"We have some insider information for you." I said with a steely edge in my voice. The woman didn't even blink.

"Ah, you must be Max. Come. We'll talk upstairs." She said crossing the reception area to the elevator. A panel slid up and revealed a hand scanner. She placed her hand on it and the light above turned on. I upped my DEFCON level to red. I hated small spaces. They made me twitchy. So you could imagine how Fang and I reacted after ten minutes in an elevator.

We burst out of the elevator, and into a small grey hallway. I hated this. To much grey, for one, another is that everything is too close together. I was practically a twitching feathery nutcase walking to the woman's office. Alex seemed to know where he was going, and he acted like he knew the woman. Maybe he did.

"In here, please." She said, politely, but with a tone that also said that you had no choice. "Take a seat."

The Flock sat on the floor. Fang has closest to the door with Total close behind, and I sat in a chair next to Alex. "Now, what information do you have for me?" She asked looking between me and Alex.

"We were told by…a little bird, that that Scorpia was going to try to mass murder half of the world's children." Alex said smiling at his insider joke.

"Scorpia?" she clarified.

"They really don't like me." Alex joked. The woman frowned.

"Sorry, Mrs. Jones." He said sadly.

Mrs. Jones. Okay.

"Uh, Mrs. Jones, how do you know who we are?" I asked. Fang beside the door, nodded.

"We have access to the School's files. They are limited, though." She paused. "And with Itex and Scorpia, it seems you will have your hands full."

"You're going to let us all go?" Alex asked. He had wide eyes. "The largest group I've worked in was at Skeleton Key, and I was the only one to make it out alive. How am I going to baby-sit and save the world at the same time?" Mrs. Jones frowned.

"You have help, Alex. Peers and family. You should be fine." She hit a spot on her desk and raised her voice ever so slightly. "Maybe you should go see Smithers now."

Alex POV

And I was off to see Smithers, again. Max was twitchy as Hell, and Fang actually looked kind of twitchy himself. Iggy was feeling both walls and walking silently.

Angel tugged on my sweatshirt. "Who's Smithers?" She asked.

"He's an old friend. You'll like him." We walked to Smithers' office. I knocked once.

"Come in!" He yelled. I opened the door and saw Smithers, overflowing the chair with his enormous body.

"Alex! Hello! And who are your friends?" I turned around and gave Max a look.

Max introduced herself. "I'm Maximum Ride." She started pointing to the rest of the Flock. "This is Fang, Iggy, Gazzy, Angel, Nudge and Total. I take it you are Smithers?" She said pointedly. He nodded, her tone going in one ear and out the other. He rolled his swivel chair over to a table.

"I heard you all are going to be facing Scorpia. You'll need some gadgets." He opened a side drawer and pulled out a stuffed bear, almost a clone of Celeste, except this one was cleaner. "This is the Baby Bear. It has a super powerful explosive in it." He looked at Angel. She frowned, as did Iggy and Gazzy.

"How powerful? Like these powerful?" Iggy took out one of his experimental hand grenades. "Two of these can cause a miniature tsunami in Lake Erie." He said gingerly handing them to Smithers.

Smithers looked astonished. "You have bombs on your person?" He asked, fingering the grenades.

"Plastic explosives." Iggy shrugged. Smithers recovered quickly.

"This next one has X-Ray vision." He handed the sunglasses to Fang. Fang looked over to Angel. She shrugged.

"I can read minds in the next room, and get floor maps from them." Fang handed the glasses back to the disappointed Smithers.

"I have a couple more yet. This one is a special tranquilizer." He held up a water gun pistol. Gazzy looked at him expectantly. "It fires a stream of tranquilizer to dissolve into the target's skin. Handy in a hostage situation." Gazzy took the pistol and checked for a safety. He clicked it and crammed it into his pocket. Smithers looked happy to be able to actually provide a gadget.

"This one is—" Smithers started.

"A set of mechanical wings?" Angel said, surprising Smithers. He pulled a backpack up onto the table.

"Yes. I understand you all have wings and can fly?" He asked eyeing Max.

She nodded. "But we were going to take a plane to the United States. That's where Scorpia's based. If Alex has metal wings, we're bound to get caught at the airport." She said gesturing to the backpack.

Smithers laughed. "I understand your reasoning, but it would be more helpful to you if he could fly right? And the backpack is made entirely out of non-metal parts, except for the zippers and the joints. But they'll hardly be noticeable. The wings are specially made with lightweight aluminum and polyurethane and fit perfectly into the pack, and have a span of about sixteen feet. They are only able to be activated when Alex is wearing the pack." He handed it to me. I took it and put it on. It felt like a light day's homework in the pack. I saw Smithers' expectant face.

"Go ahead an open them up." I frowned. He smiled. "Just think about doing it. The backpack will open them up on a thought command from you."

I concentrated. The backpack made a slight whirring sound. I looked over my shoulder. The pack had gold, white, and black feathers coming out of it on a lightweight aluminum skeleton, just like what Smithers had said. Max was smirking, and I smirked back. This was the coolest gadget in the history of gadgets.

Max POV

I was running through a familiar forest. That dream again. I groaned, but continued to run through the forest, stepping on every twig, pebble and pile of deer poop as I ran bare foot away from the Erasers. Then I noticed something new. I heard the distinct sound of helicopter blades. Erasers in a chopper?

Well. That eliminated escape by flight. I looked behind me, and saw nothing. I heard nothing. I looked down. I was in one of Alex's baggy shirts and I was wearing his backpack. I saw his pants. I ran faster, but I was breathing hard. I shouldn't be breathless. Then it dawned on me.

I was Alex. Well, this will make an interesting conversation.

I ran through the woods and dared a look up to the chopper. There were Eraser forms, and there were human forms, and they all had Uzis. I sped up, my heart beating out of my chest and my lungs trying desperately to get oxygen. I saw a large gap in the trees, and poured all of my strength into getting into it.

Turns out it was that cliff again. So I was falling and flailing until I remembered that I had the backpack on. I just thought about the wings in the pack and they unfurled, lifting me straight up. The straps strained against my body and I fought to keep level. I floundered in the air until I was level with the copter. I had confiscated one of Iggy's bombs so I was armed. I chucked it directly into the blades.

The bomb exploded and took all the blades off. The chopped was still traveling toward me, but it was plummeting to the ground at the same time. So I did what I would have if the chopper would have been one of Iggy and Gazzy's grenades. I got the Hell out of there.

As soon as I was clear of the forest, the copter crashed. Then I woke up.

Fang POV

There was an odd sound. Familiar, but still odd…Max. Max was crying. I woke up. Max was on the floor in the hotel room, because it was the boy's turn to have the beds. Max was curled up on her side crying and breathing heavily. No one else had stirred.

I put a hand on her shoulder. "Max." I whispered. She whimpered. "Max." I said a little louder, shaking her. She cried fresh tears. I sighed. She was never like this, so naturally, I had no fricking idea what I was doing. So I went with my gut. My gut told me to hold her close to comfort her. So I did.

I lifted her off the floor into my bed that I shared with Iggy. I kicked him onto the floor, which I have done in my sleep before, and laid Max down. She was shivering at this point and still sobbing. I climbed into bed and curled up next to her, my chest to her wings, my arm across her waist. She stopped shivering, and she curled into me. I smiled and extended a wing over us as a feathery bird-kid blanket.

I fell asleep holding her. She had stopped crying.

When I woke up, Max was still tucked under my wing. I pulled my wing back and got out of bed. Max's face was streaked with dried tears and her hair was matted slightly. I smiled. She just looked so peaceful now. I turned to get into my pack for some clothes, when Max stirred.

"Fang." She mumbled. I looked over my shoulder. Her breathing was still heavy and even and her eyes were closed. She was even smirking like she had just won a gold medal. Asleep. I turned my attention back to the pack.

"Fang. I —" Max mumbled again. I looked back; she had moved slightly, her hand was now up by her head, resting on her pillow, but still asleep.

"Fang, I love you." Max finally said. I saw her mouth move. I felt my cheeks warm slightly and I had the urge to go and cuddle up with her again, but I pretended like I didn't even hear her say that. I continued to shuffle through the clothes until I found my favorite t-shirt, jeans and sweater. I pulled them on quickly and hopped back into bed. Max flipped over to face me. She had her eyes open. Definitely awake.

"Hey, Fang." She said casually, as if she hadn't just then said 'Fang, I love you.' But then again, maybe her subconscious had said it for her.

"How'd you sleep? Have any interesting dreams?" I asked casually. She nodded, much to my surprise. I expected her to not say anything. Must have been pretty interesting then.

"I had that flying dream again. Except that it was different." She frowned. "In my dream, I wasn't me. I was Alex." I raised an eyebrow and looked over to Alex, who was still sleeping soundly.

"You were Alex?" I asked. She nodded.

"It was weird. I was being tailed in a chopper filled with Erasers and humans. They all had Uzis. I had the backpack on and I used it to get up level with the chopper and used one of Ig's bombs to blow it to smithereens." She paused and took a deep breath. "Then I had a dream about you dying." Ah. That made sense.

Max didn't cry, unless someone was dying that she cared about. Like me. That's why she was bawling her eyes out and why she subconsciously proclaimed her love for me.

She looked so sad, and so relieved at the same time, and like she needed a big hug. I scooted closer to her on the bed and wrapped my arms around her. She relaxed.

"You're warm." She said.

"You like it?" I asked, hugging her closer. She looked up to me and smiled. I took that as a yes.

Alex POV

I heard scuffling and Max barking quiet orders. The Flock was running around and whispering. A glance at the clock told me that it was only five in the morning.

"What's up?" I slurred. Max gave me a sideways look.

"Somebody's put a tracker in Angel's pack. We got to move," Max said tossing me a pair of clothes.

I shuffled into the bathroom and changed. When I got out, the Flock was fully prepared for take-off. Fang gave me a once-over.

"Aren't you missing something?" He asked. I looked down. I was fine. Then Iggy shoved the backpack into my arms. Oh. Right.

"Ready now." I said following Max over to the window.

Max nodded and jumped out of the window. I followed suit, remembering to flap. Soon we were soaring, away from the hotel and toward the danger. The story of my life...

So. I'll try to update soon. I'm working on making a sequel to Werewolf Epidemic. So, it may or may not be up there soon. I dunno. It should be very Fax-y.

Alex: And we all know how much Fang likes Fax.

Fang: -Death Glare-

Alex: :)

Me: I have a new 'poof'!

Alex: Oh, no.

Me: Alalalalalaka'poof'

Alex, Iggy, and Fang: -disappear-

Me: Shoot. My company's gone.

R&R if you want Iggy or Fang... Or Alex...

P.S. Review if you think my friend should read it. She doesn't want to at all.