I don't own Maximum Ride or anything related. But if I did, I wouldn't change a thing. But these characters are mine

"Let's get some clothes," I said. Kitten just followed me trustingly. I found plenty of baby clothes. Even though they were girl clothes. The last people who lived here must have had a daughter. It took some creativity to make clothes to fit the seven year old. I had to cut some of the woman's pants and told her to put them on. We had to hide Kitten's ears. Luckily the woman had some very cute beanies. I put one of them on Kitten's head.

"Ow!" she said as I flattened her cat-like ears.

"Sorry, hun. But look! You're beautiful," I said. Another word some of the whitecoats had used that she might understand. She looked in the mirror and gasped. I'm telling you, cat's are very full of themselves.

"Beautiful," she whispered in awe of herself.

"Say I am beautiful," I told her hoping to make her start saying sentences. That may not have been the best on to start with.

"I am Kitten?"

"I am Kitten. I am beautiful," I said. She giggled.

"I am Kitten Beautiful," she said triumphantly with her arms in the air. I think she thought she had two names now. I sighed.

"Good enough," I told her. Suddenly the bathroom door opened. Tarzan was out of the bathroom. I poked my head outside the bedroom and looked across the hallway. There he was. Or at least I think it was him. His mane was completely gone. He looked surprisingly...human. Aside from the tail sticking out of his butt. He had a chisled masculine jaw and his eyes had somewhat softened. He looked...dare I say handsome? I mean he looked like Prince Charming or something. Talk about the perfect male specimen.

I smiled at him.

"You look good," I said. His hand reached up and touched his skin. I think he liked the feeling. He shook his head amazed at the wind he could feel on his neck and side burns.

"Thank you," he said rather immodestly, more manners courtesy of Elmo. Seeing that Tarzan was now out of the bathroom Kitten jumped up extremely high and down again. She reminded me of one of those tiny dog's that can jump as high as a full grown man. I had to grab her arm and pull her down before she made another hole in the ceiling.

"Sesame Street!" she shouted. Salem practically came running. Tarzan cooly came down the hall strutting his stuff. Then they planted themselves on the floor. Salem reached up and pressed the on button. I got Taz and walked over to the living room. Tarzan automatically held out his arms to take Taz. Though he could be terrifying, immodest, and strangely attractive he was a very sweet guy when it came down to it. Eric handed Tarzan the bottle, who fed Taz like it was second nature.

Eric and I sat back on the couch paying little attention.

"How long are we going to be here?" he asked softly as to not interrupt the Letter of the Day. I sighed.

"No clue. As long as we can safely, I guess. Then we can take another car. Salem has that weird high jacking power thankfully," I said. Eric nodded to Tarzan.

"He shaved. And Kitten's wearing a beanie," Eric commented on a lighter note. I smiled.

"Yup and I found a black hoodie, pants, and gloves for Salem," I said. I patted his knee. "I think we're going to be okay." Eric gave me a look as he leaned forward, knocking on the wood part of the coffee table in front of us.

"Don't jinx us, Cat," he warned.

By the end of the week Salem, Kitten, and Tarzan were actually talking pretty well. While they learned Eric showed me how to work the stove, which was easier than I thought. We found out what Salem's power was. We had a bit of a power surge in the middle of their watching TV. God forbid anything should get between her and television. She put her hand on the TV screen and it came on again.

Eric says that our brains make electricity and it must have something to do with that. He tried to explain it to me, but let's face it. I never went to school. I could read, write, add, and subtract (sort of), so I didn't really understand his explanation. Not like I told him though. I nodded along as if to say, Ah yes, of course.

We were all enjoying ourselves very much playing house with each other. Salem was in her black hoodie and pants. She refused to wear the gloves though. I can't really blame her though. I wouldn't want my claws cooped up in fabric either.

Eric was wearing one of the man's skateboard hooded sweatshirts and pants. Tarzan was wear one of his undershirts with a pair of jeans. I wore jeans and a tank top myself. Taz was in overall's that had flowers on the butt, but we managed to get a white T-shirt. It was the most masculine outfit we could find out of girl baby clothes.

"This is one snazzy group of mutants," I said.

"What does snazzy mean?" Kitten asked.

"Well dressed," I told her. Suddenly we all heard something. Our cat ears perked simultaneously. Kitten put her beanie on her head. The sound of a car door closing. The car was too close. Salem got off the floor and poked her head around the curtains.

"Uh oh," she said. "The Erasers found the car and it looks like they're...Yeah, they're coming this way." I cursed out loud.

"What does that word mean?" Kitten asked.

"Um. I'll tell you later," I said hoping she'd forget after the excitement.

"Okay, guys. It's time to run," I announced. They were on their feet instantaneously. I picked up Taz and held him. "Remember not to let normal people see that you're different. Let's go!" I led the way to the back of the house. I opened the door. There was alreadu an Eraser in my way. He held up his paw ready to slam me down. I slammed the door in his face. A paw slammed through the wood.

"We're trapped," I told them.

"No," Tarzan said. "There's only one." He opened the door and pounced. It's a funny thing seeing a giant ultra strong cat pounce of a giant mutated dog. But there was no time to dwell on that thought.

"Go!" We ran passed him into the backyard. The walls were quickly covered with Erasers in human form. But once they were in the privacy of the backyard they quickly morphed. I handed Taz to Kitten.

"You and Salem run. We'll catch up with you," I said. Kitten nodded. She ran and easily jumped over the wall with Salem climbing the wall with outstretched claws not far behind her. Two Erasers turned to follow her. I got down on all fours and opened my mouth to deliver an ear piercing roar. I leapt on one. The other automatically turned to aid his partner. In the middle of scuffle there was a crash. Eric was thrown through a window. He hit the ground bloodied, but didn't hesitate to roll off the ground right to his feet.

He was the only one of us not in a battle. "Eric, run!" I was tackled as I was momentarily distracted. Suddenly Tarzan jumped with me on my Eraser. Then three more pounced on both of us. I slammed down hard on the ground knocking the wind out of me. My hands were cuffed with claws and a snout came next to my ear.

"I told you this wasn't over," Jason said in my ear. I turned my head and snapped my jaws onto his cold, wet nose. He made a pathetic yipping sound. I rolled around and in one large lion roar Tarzan jumped up shrugging all of the Erasers off of him. He definitely outstrengthened them. It was obviously his strength wasn't natural.

I gave him a nod and he instinctively knew to follow me. I jumped over the backyard wall and landed on all fours.

The Erasers had to turn back to their human forms before stepping out in the public. Frankly I didn't care. Keeping my mutant secret wasn't on the top list of my concerns that moment. Over the gate and into the front yard. We ran out into the street looking both ways unsure of where to go. Suddenly a dumpy old van rolled around the corner.

I grinned proudly. Did my pride know how to improvise or what?

The door opened and Tarzan and I jumped in without even bothering to slow down. I hit the opposite wall hard. Then Tarzan hit me just as hard. I was bruised every where. Okay, maybe he hit me a little bit harder. The car jerked forward and we were thrown to the back with the momentum.

I lifted my head up over the backseat.

"Everyone...here?" I said still trying to catch my breath. Kitten was in the back with us and Taz was in her arms. Salem sat next to Eric who was driving. I let out a huge sigh. "Oh good." I looked out the back window. There was another car behind us swerving when we swerved and following us where we went.

Suddenly I felt the car slowing down.

"Eric?" I asked hesitantly.

"Go!" Salem shouted. He started going as fast as the other cars around us.

"This is no time to be concerned about laws!" I shouted frustrated and crawling the front of the van.

"No, it's the perfect time," he said. I looked out the back window. Behind the black car blue and red lights started to flash. They were being pulled over. I laughed out loud and collapsed with relief.

"Eric, you're a genius!" I shouted.

"I'm holding you to that," he said back to me. "And you'll be happy to hear that all the money that was just lying around the house is now our grocery money." Tarzan and I looked at each other. He had a nice bruise forming on the side of his face.

"You okay?" he asked me. I reached up to feel blood running from my nose.

"Yeah. I'm fine. Are you okay?" I asked. He opened his chest where his shirt was ripped to shreds with lines of blood. Kitten found a torn up beach towel under the seat and handed it to me. I put a claw in the fabric and tore down the middle. He got a piece and so did I to clean ourselves up with.

"Where do we want to go now guys?" I asked. No one answered me. Okay. Another decision up to me. "Um...Head north. There should be thicker forests. We'll be able to hide better." I collapsed on the seat beside Tarzan.

"We got away," he said smiling. "No School." I froze up at the word. School. Of course we got away. There was no chance of me going back there. I knew that's how we all felt.

"No School," I agreed. We had survived our first attack.

We stopped at a grocery store where Eric and I were going to switch places. I was older than him so we decided it would be less suspicious to see a sixteen year old driving than a fourteen year old.

"We should get food," Eric said in the parking lot. I nodded.

"What does everyone want?" I asked.

"Macaroni and cheese!" Kitten responded before I could even bother finishing the question.

"We don't have a stove," Eric said. "They should have some rotisserie chicken or something." I cocked an eyebrow at him. After a minute of trying to explain to me what it was, he decided. "I'll go in and get it."

"Put your hood up, Stripes," I said. He gave a thumbs up. I turned toward the rest of the pride. We found a coat in the back of the van for Tarzan. In the middle of showing him how the zipper works, Kitten started to cry.

"What's wrong?" I asked her. Her large green eyes looked at me in that sad, heartbreaking way that I'd seen her when we had first found her in that dog crate.

"I don't want to go back to School," she said in a tiny voice. Everyone locked up. There was that word again.

"We're not going back to School," I said. Kitten started to cry. I looked to my fellow lion who didn't bother to meet my gaze.Tarzan picked her up and sat her by him. He gently put his arm around her.

"We're not going back," Salem said almost as a question.

"No way," I said. The tension fell out of the air like it had suddenly fallen prey to gravity. It looked like someone had just taken a ton of bricks off Salem's back.

"Dah!" Taz shouted suddenly. We all looked down at him he was reaching out his arms and drool dripped from the sides of his mouth. He squirmed anxiously in Kitten's lap. My sensitive nose picked up a delicious smell. Eric came back and sat in the open door of the van. I nearly died of happiness when I got a whiff of the full aroma.

He took off the lid and laid it down.

"This is rotisserie chicken," he said. And it was so good.

A little tid bit. I don't really like rotisserie chicken. But whatever. This story isn't about me. Love ya, guys!