All right, go on and yell at me, I haven't updated for almost two months now - unlike some people I can name who need to update again (coughcoughFlufferbunny37cough - read and review The Upper Hand or Only Six, please, and yell at her, too) but I think that I can honestly say that I've been pretty busy. Sort of. Ish. Not really.
Ok, no, I'm not a liar. I've been lazy. Really lazy. But that's going to stop. Soon. I swear. I've actually got some ideas for the story now - I confess, I was kinda winging it before - and the first one is to rewrite that last post, cause frankly, it sucked. So here's the revised (and hopefully better) edition of Chapter 1, Part 3. I'm posting it after the fact, rather than deleting the material that's already there, so it doesn't try to tell you that you've already reviewed the chapter. I need input! Read, review, and tell me if I need to rewrite it again. Possible plot ideas would be nice, too - I have enough material to get them out of the Itex area, but I'm still a bit hazy on what's gonna happen after! R&R
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Quite a bit happened after that, but I wasn't paying attention anymore. There was a tractor pull, some intellectual questions and a lot of mouthing off and yelling, but that was all I registered. After seeing Max's performance, I remembered a few snatches of stories I'd heard from escapees, tales passed along Itex's version of the Underground Railroad. Stories of a hybrid named Maximum Ride, who had liberated a lot of kids from places in the States. That Max had wings, too, and mentally comparing the mutant currently being told off down in the courtyard with the heroine from the kids' awestruck tales, I realized that this might be our chance to break out of this prison.
Max would likely try to get out, and with any luck, in the resulting confusion, I'd be able to make my own way out of the place. I hoped she would make it out, too - I was never an enemy of an enemy of the scientists here - but really, I was more interested in staying alive myself. If it wasn't for that stupid electric net above the castle walls, I would have been out of here the second we were called into the courtyard, but as it was, I was pretty much stuck on the ground unless the Director did something incredibly stupid, like turn it off. Uh, sorry, not likely. Not even she was that dense.
But I had just started to think about what I could do to get out of here, and maybe take out a few whitecoats along the way, when all hell broke loose. And I mean this literally. Everyone around me started hitting each other and yelling, and I looked around, bewildered. Had they all gone crazy, or was this some kind of mass expiration date kind of thing that I'd heard about?
Then it hit me, as I blocked a punch from one of the crazies: One of the girls with Max had, or so I had heard, the power to control minds. I didn't know that you could do stuff like this on such a large scale, but oh well… Maybe I was resistant to it or something. There had been stranger genetic freaks. Weird, I know, but so was the frog-combo thing that kept trying to hit me. I fended it off and subdued it with a sharp knock to the head, then looked around. If this was Max's way to make a bid for freedom, then how could I possibly use this to my advantage?
The open space in the courtyard that had been cleared for Max and Omega's showdown had completely disappeared beneath the sea of fighting mutants. The two contest participants were missing, too - oh, wait, no. Omega was standing there thunderstruck, and Max was fighting off the wolf-bots that had just started to wade into the crowd. I began to copy her, always happy to hit something that was conveniently evil and nearby, and started to make my way through the crowd to where the Director was yelling orders furiously, still standing on her stage. The mutants around me seemed to get the message and stopped hitting each other to gang up on the robots, conveniently taking down a few that were trying to sneak up on me from behind.
I saw the Director staring at a small clearing in the crowd, where I could see Max looking down at Omega's prone body, then walking away. I mentally applauded; if anyone could take down Wonderboy, it would probably be her. I didn't have any time to be jealous, though, because right then, rocks and things started raining down from over the walls. I heard shouts over the noise of the still-fighting crowd, sounding like a whole bunch of people outside were chanting something. I continued to fight my way toward the stage - not exactly sure what I intended to do, but knowing for sure that it involved breaking a few Director-y bones - when I heard the object of my not-so-merciful intentions order the robots to chase away the intruders that were currently knocking very loudly on the castle door.
Apparently she forgot about the net that was keeping everybody inside, because all of the remaining wolf-bots shortened their mechanical lifespans by about 100 percent crashing into it. I immediately saw a few younger mutants shoot out pairs of wings and hop over the walls. When they weren't immediately burned to a crisp, I surmised that the net had been short-circuited as well.
So, apparently, did Max, since I saw her and the African-American girl that had come in with her swoop onto the stage and pick up the Director, quickly taking her high above the castle, likely to beat a few answers out of the b-witch. I stopped trying to get to the stage and stared up at the dots I was sure was them, clenching my fists. Crap! Stupid avians, stealing the woman before I could get my hands on her… I'd been here longer, I deserved the revenge….
I turned back to the chaos in the courtyard, muttering angrily under my breath – yeah, I know, I have anger issues – then stiffened in surprise and had so stifle my immediate reaction – flight or flight, I'm not sure which – when I saw who had been outside.
There were a lot of kids - teenagers, mostly, but I saw a few older and younger people - standing around and staring at the scattered mutants and Flyboy remains. As I turned, I saw some of their eyes immediately fix on me, as one of the oldest people still standing. Again, crap. Their looks turned expectant as I stared back. What was I supposed to do here?
I didn't want to immediately fly away – my first response – because that would mean showing them my wings, and I really didn't think that the old trick of "Look! Behind you!" would work – even the wolf-men, with their IQ roughly equal to that of a brick wall, knew that one. Besides, it wasn't like I was actually fast enough to get up off the ground in the time their backs were turned; I needed either a good running start or a drop off of something to get going.
I started backing away slowly, not taking my eyes off of them, casting around for some solution to my problem. What to do, what to do… One of the girls took the initiative away from me, however, and stepped forward. I barely prevented myself from settling into a fighting crouch and eyed her warily – these were just humans, right? Please please please just let them be normal humans and not something else that's going to try to kill me….
The girl gulped and looked around, seemingly not as sure of herself as she had first come across. I spoke, my distrust apparent even in my voice. "What do you want?" She jumped slightly – I guess my voice had seemed pretty loud in the relative quiet in the courtyard – and gulped again before visibly summoning up the courage to answer my question, albeit hesitantly.
"Umm, are you – are you Max? Maximum Ride?"
I stared at the kid in shock, my wary posture almost collapsing in astonishment. I answered almost before I could stop myself, not expecting that at all. "Me? No way." Then I shut up. Why had I even said anything? I must have really been surprised - one of the doctrines I had held to since early childhood was "Never give anyone more information than they absolutely need." I was saved from any more questions the next minute, though (I had seen the girl opening her mouth again) by the soft whisper of wings behind me.
I whirled, hearing gasps from the crowd of humans behind me, only to see the Director lowered to the ground, more gently than I would have ever done. I glanced up a bit slowly from glaring at the Director's face (nicely white - I was glad to see that Max hadn't been too lenient with her), to see a certain winged person I happened to recognize come in for a landing.
"Did someone say my name?"
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So we meet the mighty Maximum Ride at last. Review, and I might actually get the beginning of Chapter 2 up by next week! (Yeah, I rewrote that too. Don't worry. I think I can say that it's actually better.) REVIEW!!!!!!!!!!!
And tell me if I'm pushing it, cause it feels like it. )