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Chapter 6 Never Enough

Needless to say Iggy wasn't one to hold a grudge, especially not after I threw in a few little knick knacks. What can I say? Bribery wasn't against my moral code.

So after getting back on Iggy's side there was still the rest of the Flock to deal with. After seeing the bear I'd given Angel they all figured out where I'd been, and they were dying to know what I'd seen. "Is it still there? Did the School not destroy it? Can we go visit it? Are my clothes all there? My make-up? My Hello Kitty!"

Okay, so Nudge did most of the questioning, but Gazzy managed to get a few words in there every now and then, mostly about his Transformers or bomb supplies he'd had hidden.

"Guys!" I finally shouted, breaking into the middle of one of Nudge's longer questions. She and Gazzy looked at me in surprise and I rubbed my hands across my face. "Look, I'm sorry I ran off like that but I just needed to blow off some steam."

"Nudge told us it was Brigid at the door." Angel said from her spot on the floor where she was busy brushing through the fur of her bear.

I frowned at her but nodded. "I might have overreacted," I admitted. Iggy laughed, "Some over reaction." I turned to glare at him but snapped back around as Total murmured in a sly voice, "Maximum 'Charging Off' Ride."

"I do not 'charge off'!"

"Yes you do!" the Flock chorused. Now I was the surprised one.

"Whatever, what matters is that I'm back now."

"Max," I looked down at Gazzy who was staring up at me with large blue eyes. "Have you thought anymore about what Jeb said? You know, about Mr. Chu taking over the world?"

"Um…, of course!" I said, and it wasn't a lie. The entire fly back all I'd done was think about this new threat to the world. But what was there to do about it? I had no idea where Mr. Chu was or when or how he planned to begin his over throw of the world.

How could I make a plan out of nothing?

"The first thing we need to do is find out where Mr. Chu is." I said decisively, trying to grab a plan out of thin air. I was surprisingly good at that.

"Okay…so how do we do that?" Iggy asked, looking up at me from the other side of the couch.

"Um…well-."

"I can help with that." a voice said, and I stiffened unwillingly as I turned to look towards the kitchen. There, Jeb stood leaning against the doorway, his face impassive, eyes looking over his rimmed glasses at me with an unreadable look.

I swallowed, my natural instinct was to throw some snide comment in Jeb's face, but at the moment I was fresh out of ideas and even fresher out of options. Besides, Jeb had been the one to give us the information about Mr. Chu's plan to begin with; and even though I didn't fully trust Jeb, he was still more trust worthy than most other people I'd met.

Jeb waited, obviously thinking the same thing as me, but when I sighed and nodded his way he pushed off from the wall and came towards us. "Mr. Chu, as you know, is a very well connected man. He has money, power and influence, however there is one flaw to having all this."

"You become a sadistic back stabbing murderous bastard?" I said. The Flock laughed as Jeb frowned and sent a glare my way.

"Yes, I mean no. The answer is that all of these things leave a trail." he waited, but when no one said anything he said, "Don't you see? A paper trail. Mr. Chu's investments can be tracked, especially those here, in the United States."

"Which means what exactly?" Iggy asked, crossing his arms over his chest.

Jeb opened his mouth to speak but Angel stood up and said, "I get it! Guys," she turned to us, her blue eyes wide. "If you were going to create an army of mutants and robots, you'd need a quiet place to do it. Somewhere no body would watch you. You'd need a big warehouse or a building of some kind. That way you could perform your experiments in peace without interference from outsiders!"

Okay…anybody else worried that Angel was able to think like a sadistic megalomaniac?

"Exactly," Jeb said, and I noticed he looked a bit unnerved by Angel's thoughts as well. Still he continued. "All you need to do is find his bank records and track his purchases. You can find any properties he has purchased. Then it's just a matter of narrowing down the search to places that are secluded."

"Like the School," I muttered darkly, Jeb nodded but wouldn't meet my eyes.

"But how are we going to get that information?" Iggy asked. "Leave that to me." Nudge said, stretching her hands out in front of her and intertwining her fingers. "I'm a computer wiz, remember? Fang, where's your laptop?"

For once, I was glad our DNA was always changing, otherwise Nudge might not have gotten her crazy hacking skills. "Okay, so I just bypassed the main firewall, and now I just type this…" Nudge's fingers flew across the keyboard lighting fast and before I could blink file after file appeared then disappeared on the screen.

I took a step back, I didn't understand half of the stuff she was typing in. It all looked like jumbled codes to me. But apparently whatever she was doing was working because she kept nodding. Hopefully this would work.

"Max." I looked up, and saw Jeb motioning to me from the kitchen. I frowned, but got up and followed him into the kitchen and then out through the back door. I caught Fang's eye as I went out but shook my head.

Jeb walked across the yard but stopped just on the fringe of the woods. There he turned to face me but didn't speak, instead he looked at me, eyes searching, but I refused to twitch under his scrutinizing gaze. So we just stood there, staring at each other. But after about a minute Jeb was the one to finally look away.

"Max, I-." Jeb started but I raised my hand. "Look, Jeb, if you pulled me all the way out here to apologize, forget it. I don't want to hear it." Jeb looked surprised, but quickly hid it. He stuffed his hands into his kakis and scuffed his shoe into the dirt.

It was quiet. Then….

"I am sorry though, and please-," Jeb said, as I opened my mouth to interrupt him again. "Please, let me speak."

I frowned, but pressed my lips together. "Thank you. Now, Max, I know I'm not your favorite person in the world," Jeb looked at my face but I kept it neutral. He shook his head but continued, "but I am your father. I want you to know that I only want what's best for you. No matter what you may think of me I would do anything to make sure you stayed safe. That's all I've ever wanted. Granted," and now he rubbed the back of his neck as if embarrassed. "Granted my actions may not have always matched my intentions, but everything I've ever done was for your own good."

"So letting me get tested on by evil scientists, that was for my own good?" I questioned coldly.

"In the long run, yes."

"And taking us away from the School and then leaving us to fend for ourselves? That was for our own good too?"

"Yes, I-."

"And letting Angel get taken so that we'd go after her and get kidnapped by the School again and nearly killed?"

"It was for the best at the time-."

"And letting Fang get ripped open on that beach by the Erasers?"

"That wasn't part-."

"And letting me kill my half-brother because you'd never told me who he was and letting him get Eraserfied?"

"I wasn't there-."

"And cloning me and making us fight one another to the death to see which was stronger?"

"Max 2 was-."

"And taking us again and killing the Erasers and almost killing us until your own son broke us free?"

"I-."

"And the Director in Germany? Letting me think she was my mother? Making me fight Omega? Letting Ari's date run out so that he died right there in my arms?"

"Don't bring your brother into thi-."

"And letting us freeze our butts off in Antarctica then almost getting sold and then ripped apart by a hurricane in Miami?"

"I didn't know-."

"Or how about letting my mother, my real mother, get kidnapped by Mr. Chu after I was nearly assassinated in New Mexico City and then shot for real?"

"Max if you'd just listen-."

"No! You just listen! Everything bad that has ever happened to me, to my Flock, to my mom, to Ella, to Total, to John Abbot to your son and my brother Ari has been your FAULT! It's always you! It always comes back to you and it always will! It's your fault Jeb! IT'S. ALL. YOUR. FAULT!"

I twisted, my face full of rage, and headed back to the house. "Max please I just want to help!" Jeb shouted after me. But this only angered me more. I spun around, my eyes blazing, and shouted, "You'll never be able to help me! Nothing you do will ever be enough to make up for what you've done to me!"

I didn't even register opening the door to the kitchen until I heard it slam shut behind me. I stood there in the middle of the kitchen, my chest heaving and blood pounding in my ears. I was so angry at Jeb, so mad that he thought he could just apologize and everything would be okay that I couldn't even think straight.

I would never, for as long as I lived, forgive Jeb, and there wasn't anything he could do or say to convince me he ever wanted anything good for me, or ever would.

"Max?" I looked up, and there stood Angel in the doorway, her blue eyes wide. I immediately threw my mind blocks up and took a steadying breath. I didn't want Angel taking the brunt of my anger at Jeb. She didn't deserve that.

"Yes?" I asked, forcing my voice to be calm. Angel looked at me, her eyes still wide, then said, "Nudge found it."

Night guys and please don't forget to review!

Sincerely,

Avenging Angel