Okay I'm ganna make this first part quick.

Ohai96, Jone can be as flabernackle as you want her to be.

Nathalie-Cullen-Black, the only reason your stories have fifteen reviews in under five chapters each is because you started both of them back in May. I started mine in this month. You had a lot more time to get that many reviews than I did.

And now, I have something to share. For art class a couple weeks ago, we had to make boxes with a drawing on each side. My friend made a box with each member of the Flock on it. She brought it to dance class cause she didn't want it anymore, so my other friend takes the box and rips it to shreds because she's sick and tired of my friend and I always talking about Maximum Ride in dance class. It was very interesting… and violent. Haha.

Okay, back to the story.

Max POV

The deserted lands of California were right below us. For a moment, I forgot why we were even here. I just let the wind consume me, flowing and whispering through my feathers. Wow, poetic much?

The buildings of the School came into view. Even though it looked completely normal on the outside, I knew there was nothing normal on the inside.

A weird feeling in my stomach aroused, and I had actually considered turning around for a second. Maybe Dylan was right, maybe this was too dangerous for the flock, I thought. Ugh, why should I even listen to Dylan? Even when I tell him I know what I'm doing, he still has to open his big mouth.

I then thought about what Fang said the other night when we slept in a cave.

Sit back and relax while I enter this flashback.

There was a campfire, of coarse, crackling quietly in the middle of the cave. The flock was asleep on the floor, and Jone was sleeping in her wheelchair.

I was half asleep lying on the floor as well, my head resting on Fang's shoulder. Apparently, he wasn't asleep.

"Max," he whispered, "you awake?"

"I am now." I said, chuckling slightly. "What's up?"

"Nothing, I'm just… worried." He said so silently that I almost couldn't hear him. I sat up, and he did the same, so that I could look him in the eyes. His deep, dark, beautiful eyes… I snapped back into reality just in time to answer him.

"What could you possibly be-" I stopped myself, realizing that there was a lot to be worried about. "You shouldn't worry. Everything will be fine." I really didn't know that for sure, but I didn't know what else to say at the moment.

"I don't know, Max. How do you know we can trust her?" I realized he was no longer looking at me. I followed his gaze to look at Jone's peaceful, harmless form.

"Jone? Why on earth would we not trust Jone? She's disabled. She's not that much of a threat."

He shook his head. "What if she's lying? What if she's just luring us into a trap? Think about it. We find her injured in the middle of the forest with a wheelchair, and she claims she was just rolling through? How could she even get into that forest on a wheelchair? Someone could have put her there, and all she had to do was play the part."

This was the most Fang's ever said since we found Jone. Had he been thinking this theory up the entire time?

"Fang, there's no way she could be working for the School. I had Angel scan her mind over a dozen times since the second she wheeled in our door. Trust me, she's harmless. And I have Angel to prove it." I met his eyes once again, and saw something flash in them. I didn't know what it was exactly, but I did know what it meant.

"No." I whispered, "You can't honestly think that Angel's one of them too? How can you even say that?"

"I didn't say anything." He snarled.

"You didn't have to." I whispered loudly. I looked at my flock, checking to see if I woke anyone up. I waited a couple more seconds, then started again, my voice one notch lower. "I know Angel hasn't been… well like she use to be. But she's a clever, devious, mind controlling little kid. Don't you think that if she were working for the School, she would have gotten us there already? And with a better, more full-proof plan than this? Some members of the flock are expecting me to pack up and turn around saying that there is no way in hell I'm going to willingly take us back there. And believe me, I would. But that's only if I didn't know how things would turn out. Right now, I do. And if everybody just does what they're told, nothing will go wrong."

Fang eyed me for a couple seconds more. Oh, God, don't tell me he thinks I'm working for the School now too! Jeez, he's so paranoid.

Just to cool the tension, I leaned over and kissed him sweetly. When I leaned back again, he was a centimeter from smirking. I laid back down, satisfied, and went to sleep.

Back in present time, I was mentally preparing for the next few hours or so. I had to find Jeb before anything. That sounded easy right? But there were a few things you have to consider.

Did I know if he was presently in the School? No. Did I know where he lived? No. Could I just waltz into the School and hope I get lucky? Yup.

Pretty high chances, right? I didn't think so either.

I just hoped he was there so that I didn't have to use plan B.

We landed right in front of the School. Perfectly visible and vulnerable.

I know what you must be thinking. Max, are you crazy? Why would you just bring the flock right up to the whitecoats? This could totally get you guys caught and killed!

That's exactly what we expected. And three… two… one…

"There they are!" I heard a whitecoat scream from inside the building. thank God for our super sensitive hearing, or else we wouldn't have been prepared.

"It's the bird children! Get them before they escape again!" Another whitecoat said.

I lunged slightly, preparing for action. "Okay, guys, you remember the plan?"

Everyone nodded, not speaking any of it just in case. Jone had a game face on, leaning forward in her wheelchair. Nudge gripped the handles of Jone's wheelchair with fury, ready to push her past anything and everything. I was so proud of them both.

About two dozen whitecoats and twenty new experiments and creations I didn't know about came running towards us, and the plan went into action.

Yes, I had a plan. I always have a plan. You should know that by now. And what is this ingenious and amazing plan that I did not tell you about when you were all thinking I was crazy for coming here? Yeah, like I would tell you. For all I know, you could be a whitecoat, or someone working for the School!

I had been forming a plan since a couple days after Jone told us she was dieing. I telepathically told Angel about it the day before we left. How did I know Angel wasn't actually luring us into a trap with Jone's assistance like Fang suggested? Because I was the one who came up with this plan. Every little detail was mine. Even the grouping and who was taking Jone in and all that jazz was mine. I told Angel before hand so that she could telepathically fill the rest of the flock in when we were approaching the School. The rest of the Flock didn't know about any of this until about twenty minutes ago.

About two and a half seconds passed when I sprinted forward, head on for the whitecoats, then snapped out my wings and flew right over them. The rest did the same. Nudge was barely holding Jone and her chair up, but she managed. We flew dangerously low to the whitecoats. Nothing seemed to be attacking us from above or below. Where were all the M-geeks and flyboys? Where were anybody, for that matter? I wasn't familiar with any living creature below us besides the whitecoats. We swooped down and around them, making them duck and cover as if we were going on the offensive. Perfect.

One guy pointed a gun at me, and when he pulled the trigger a fast moving net raced towards me. I easily dodged it, letting it fall onto two whitecoats on the ground behind me. The same thing happened about six more times, but the nets failed to catch any of us. As planned, Fang and Angel banked downwards and crashed through two individual windows on the left side of the School. It must have really hurt because those windows were thick. But they got through. Nudge flew Jone into the open window Fang went through.

Okay, Max, we're inside. Phase one complete. Phase two starts now. Fang, Nudge and Jone are okay, I see them down the hallway now. Keep distracting. The halls look clear so far. Angel thought to me from the inside.

Iggy, Gazzy and I were still in the air, distracting as many people as we could. As a bunch of whitecoats barked orders at certain experiments to go in after them, I swooped down again, stopping them dead in their tracks. My wings beat powerfully, practically blowing everyone remotely close to the front door away.

I landed heavily in front of the, at a loss for a better word, mutant freaks and put on the scariest face I could muster.

"Do any of you know where to find Jeb Batchelder?" I asked harshly.

They looked at each other, then at me again as if they couldn't understand a word I was saying. Well, they understood that whitecoat, so they had to have understood me. As I stared at them, I realized just how far the whitecoats really had gone with their crazy, megalomaniac schemes and experiments.

In front of me stood not just experiments, but pure monsters. There was a man with, no lie, light blue tinted skin, an arm that looked like airbag had blone up inside it, and puffy eyes that were so swollen shut it looked like he could only see out of slits. There was a young girl with what looked a fish tail attached to the end of a monkey tail, black patches all over her skin, a cat's features morphed into her face, and retractable claws on her fingers and toes. There was also a teenage boy with metal fists permanently replacing his hands and wheels replacing his feet, not to mention the branched veins popping out of his skin in various places of his body. He looked like he had some sort of electronic disease. There were plenty more, but I ignored them, too disgusted to even look them in the eyes (mostly because one of them had no eyes).

Realizing that these creatures weren't going to be any help, I stormed past them, knocking out anyone - or anything - in my way until I could get to a whitecoat.

Seeing one up close was petrifying. Especially seeing that she still had test tubes filled with a mysterious purple liquid stuffed in her coat pocket. I pushed the test tubes out of my vision, and took a fistful of her stupidly perfect white collar.

"Where is Jeb Batchelder?" I demanded. I first intended to track him down without being noticed inside the School, but with closer examination of that plan… well let's just say that I knew it wouldn't work out.

"I- I don't know who you're talking about." She stuttered, attempting to be stern. That failed.

"Don't lie to me. Jeb is one of the most well-know scientists here," I spat the word scientists, hoping to show her the hatred I showed for them, "Either you're lying and know where he is, or you're just a newbie nitwit who can't remember who your boss is."

She rolled her eyes and went pshh. "Please, even though he may act like it, Jeb is not my boss-" She literally bit her lip, as if that would stop her from saying anymore. I smiled triumphantly.

"So you do know him. Mind telling me where he is?"

"I would never tell you." Oh, yes you would. I grabbed her arm and twisted it around her back, then held the other one in place with my other arm. It was a simple procedure, one that I could have easily gotten out of, much less scream in pain from it. Which is exactly what she did. Wimp.

"Okay! Okay," she screamed, "He's in section C in room 102 the last time I saw him. He was working on some new creation with wings." Figures.

I memorized every word, then let her go after one last twist of her arm. She fell to the ground whimpering and clutching her superficially bruised arm, and I thought the directions to Angel and told her to meet me there.

She confirmed it, and I waved for Iggy and the Gasman to follow. The whitecoats didn't even notice us going inside! They were too concerned with helping the creations and other whitecoats get out of the nets they practically trapped themselves in. Iggy threw one last bomb at them, making them scatter even more. I have to say, I didn't think this first part would be so easy. I did, however, figure the second part wasn't going to be as easy.

We tore through the halls, looking for the section of the building the whitecoat said Jeb would be in. You see, Iggy, Gazzy and I were suppose to distract as many whitecoats as possible while Angel, Fang, and Nudge got Jone to Jeb. We didn't all go together because if my group was outside distracting everybody, the halls would be clearer for Angel's group and there would be less people to stop them on their way to find Jeb. I hoped that Jeb would just run outside with those other whitecoats after hearing we were back, but I couldn't get so lucky.

We rounded a corner and found Nudge and Jone standing nervously outside an open door that led into room 102.

"Did you guys find him?" I asked hastily as I came to an abrupt halt in front of them.

"No. We just checked in there," Nudge said, pointing to the empty room. "I guess he must have heard and ran out to find us right away. His experiment I'm guessing was taken back to it's dog crate, or escaped. It looks like he just got up and left."

Hearing the dog crate part sent a shiver down my spine. I hated the thought of someone living inside one of them. But there was no time for a rescue mission right now. I peeked in the room. There was a counter with spilled purple liquids - just like the one I saw in that whitecoat's pocket - all over it, a couple chairs shoved in the corner and knocked over, and a syringe containing more purple liquid placed on a bare metal cart. I wondered what that purple liquid was… no time.

Had to find Jeb.

"Where are Angel and Fang?" Gazzy asked. I hadn't even noticed they weren't there. I suddenly felt guilty for not paying attention to my flock.

As if on cue, Angel raced around the same corner we just came down, panting like she was running for her life.

"Angel! What happened? And where's Fang?"

It took her a minute to catch her breath - a minute that seemed to take all of eternity - until she finally spoke.

"I heard Jeb's voice right down the hallway! Fang and I went to find him, and Fang told Nudge to stay here in case he came back. I'm guessing he didn't. I lost him for now - but there's a bigger issue at hand."

"What?" Iggy asked impatiently. I looked at Angel intently, as if what she was about to say was life or death for Jone.

It was life or death all right. But not for Jone.

"They got a new security system. Those creations that poured outside when we arrived weren't just experiments. Some of them found us, and I got away. But Fang's missing!"