Mark's POV

Disclaimer: I don't own Maximum Ride, and I never will. I know, Sad, isn't it?

A/N: I am completely sorry about how long it has taken for me to update this. I don't have much of an excuse except for that I have been working on my other story and school. This isn't the most important thing in my life (because I do have one) and I have other things I'd rather do/ have to do. Still, I'm sorry to keep you waiting and I'll do my best to decrease the gap between chapters. Anyway, here it is, R/REVIEW!


Mark's POV

"She's here, she's here! I know it, I can sense her in there!" JB called out, relieved.

"Yeah, and so are 7, no eight others. And at least six of them aren't completely human…"

JB stared at me wide eyed. "Then…what are they?"

I shook my head, trying to clear it. Images of birds and wings kept blocking my view of the inhabitants of the house. Stupid wild animals, they should all be caged up and left in the middle of a desert to die.

"I don't know."

I heard JB mumble something incoherent under his breath and I rolled my eyes.

As we flew closer to the house I caught a strange scent drifting up my nose. Well, actually not so strange, as I had smelled it many times before, more then I would have wished.

Blood. Callie's blood. Not much of it, but the fact was they had hurt her. They're going to pay.

"JB, she's hurt."

His eyes widened at my comment and I could practically see his mind go into battle mode.

"Get on the roof. Make sure you're noisy so you can scare them. I don't think the element of surprise is going to work on these things. I'll shut down their power. We get in, and get out. Do as much damage as you can, but make sure you can still fly afterwards. And if she's hurt we may need to carry her back."

I nodded at his commands and flew downwards, aiming for the roof.

You may think it's weird that I was taking commands from an eleven-year-old without even hesitating, but after all these years I've gotten used to it. Besides, it wasn't nearly as weird as when he was six and ordering us around like an army colonel.

A few seconds before I hit the roof I curled my wings around myself, allowing myself to drop, heavily, onto the roof. My weight, combined with the altitude and speed of my decent caused a sufficient bang. In fact if I wasn't so light because of being part bat, I'm willing to bet that I would have fallen through the roof.

JB hadn't said anything about going inside, so I decided to make like he said and be noisy. Grinning I held out my wings, jumped about six feet into the air and somersaulted back down. I could hear the beams of the roof bending, and I was impressed; this was a sturdy roof.

I did it again, and I was pretty sure that one more time would take the roof in. Only JB had just returned from…well wherever he had been, so I gave him an attentive look, awaiting his next orders.

"I got a peak in the window. There are at least six of them that we really need to watch out for, all of them about our age. The other two are just human, I think."

"Which ones go down first?"

"Start with the two older ones; you'll know who I'm talking about. They're going to try and protect everyone else." He scoffed slightly at that before continuing, "And the youngest one. She's going to be troublesome."

"Any weapons?"

"As far as I can tell just teeth and claws."

I frowned. "Laterally?" In the world we lived in, you never know.

JB shook his head.

"Can you make it through the roof?" I nodded. "Good. I'll climb through one of the windows downstairs. Don't worry about blocking their exits, if they want to run, let them. As long as Callie's fine it doesn't matter what happens to them."

"Wait, JB, do you think they…know things?"

JB frowned. Sure he's great at planning things out and everything, but sometimes he forgets stuff.

"Your right. Okay, kill them all. Aim for the throat, make it quick and move on."

I nodded, smirking slightly. This was going to be fun.

Callie's POV

Relief flooded through me as I heard the sounds of my two brothers talking on the roof. Then came the huge crash and the sound of glass breaking. It didn't occur to me that there might actually be trouble until the power went out.

The younger of the bird-kids shrieked at the sudden darkness. And if I'm not mistaken Max did too. Ha, ha!

Heavy footsteps pounded the floorboards upstairs. That had to be Mark, he had probably crashed through the ceiling, and then the quieter footsteps from just the other room. BJ.

I could only hope they had left Isabella at home.

I turned to the stairs, waiting for Mark to come running down when I heard BJ slip in the dining room unnoticed.

Almost unnoticed.

Fang, the big idiot, had been the only one who hadn't panicked or jumped at the sudden darkness. And instead of watching the stairs he had been watching the other door, which led to the den, so he had seen JB come in.

Before I could say anything, Fang pounced on JB, who had been reaching in his back pocket for something, probably a knife.

They both fell, JB making a cry of surprise at his attacker. Luckily he only hesitated for a moment and I felt a feeling of pride well up in my chest as he sunk his teeth firmly into Fang's shoulder.

Fang's howl of pain caught everyone's attention. I was impressed how even the younger ones jumped into a fighting stance when they noticed what was going on.

Max was the first one to shoot forwards. She grabbed onto JB with her clawish like fingers and threw him off Fang and into the wall, before I could do anything.

Iggy's POV

I had never wanted to be able to see more then I did now. All the bangs and crashes were confusing me. As far as I could tell the power had been switched off, which really didn't affect me.

Then there was the presence of to other…creatures. Their heartbeats were much faster then a normal human, even faster then ours were. Just like Callie!

I jumped as I heard Fang cry out in pain, and mentally begged Angel to send me a picture of what was happening. She did not, however, which completely pissed me off.

Then something slammed against the wall; a body as far as I could tell.

A strange sounding snarl filled the room, and one I had heard before. Someone had done something to piss Callie off.

I tried to organize the sounds, but found it to be much more difficult then it normally was. As far as I could tell there one of those intruders was crumpled up by the wall, Fang was leaning on the floor, hurt (I could smell blood), Max was making sure Fang was okay and Callie…

Well, now Callie was charging towards Max, ready to rip her to shreds…I think.

Mark's POV

I stomped down the steps, knife in hand. They had obviously heard me, so it was only a matter of time before either they tried to head me off or I found them.

Of course what I hadn't expected to find was a dining room filled with half eaten plates of food, four people, all of which seemed to be much younger then me, a guy about my age bending over, clutching his shoulder, JB staggering as he tried to stand up and Callie and some other chick in the mists of a heavy brawl.

Only, Callie was hurt, bad. Sure she was putting up a good fight now, and I was sure that were the odds even she'd have no trouble at all beating the hell out of this chick. However it was obvious she wasn't going to last much longer with that injury of hers.

I stepped into the room slowly, without a sound. I couldn't be noticed. Not yet anyway.

Soon I was standing right behind one of the smaller kids. He looked a bit younger then JB, only he didn't have that look in his eyes. You know, the one where pretends to act more immature then he really is? This kid didn't have it.

Slowly I reached into by boot and grabbed the dagger I had hidden in there, just in case. A good thing too, I had been too panicked, wondering where Callie was to think about grabbing my knives. Besides I don't rely on them as much as I used to so they aren't constantly on my mind.

Anyway, in the next split second I had grabbed the boy and had my dagger to his neck. Of course, no one had noticed but him.

I saw Callie start to falter and blood had soaked through her shirt. I had to act now, before she got even more hurt. There's only so much I can heal at one time.

"Everybody stop moving or the boy dies."

Well that sure got their attention.

Max's POV

That bitch, I knew she couldn't be trusted. She's the one that brought these intruders into our home. And her stupid little friend hurt Fang.

Of course then she had to go and attack me like a mad woman. But it didn't really matter; it only took me a few seconds to remember she was still hurt, giving me a huge advantage. I could see her struggling to make her next moves.

"Everybody stop or the boy dies." My heart almost stopped when I heard that sentence, and again when I turned around.

A tall, dark skinned guy stood there with Gazzy held hostage in his arms and a knife to the poor kid's throat.

If Gazzy's life hadn't been in danger I would have ripped his throat out in a second.

"Now I want everyone to go sit over by that wall over there. One wrong move and I'll…"

"No, Mark…no…" Callie tried to speak to him, but she was too out of breath and loosing blood fast.

'Mark' looked at Callie, biting his lip. He seemed to be having trouble deciding whether go to her or keep his hold on Gazzy. Luckily he decided the former. My attention was locked on Gazzy and I rushed forward once Mark was too far away to hurt him. Gazzy whimpered as I gathered him up in my arms and he was shaking.

It was all I could do not to kill that bastard.

"Callie? Hey Cal you alright?"

"I...I'm fine…" but she obviously wasn't.

"Come on Callie girl, don't lie to me. What happened? Did they do this to you?"

My back was still to them so I craned my neck around to see what was happening. Of course it was still dark, but as far as I could see Mark had lifted up her blood stained shirt and was tentatively ripping away the soaked bandages.

"N-no…no of course…of course not." Each word seemed harder for her to form and her eyes were blinking shut.

"Callie!" The other kid had gotten up again. You know, the littler one? The one I had thrown against the wall?

He limped towards her and I flinched inwardly. I hadn't meant to throw him that hard. No wonder she had been mad…

"JB?" Callie asked, unable to find the energy to turn her head and look at him.

"Yeah. It's me." Slowly he reached her, collapsing on the floor next to her. He smiled, as if he was relieved. As if she wasn't lying there, about to die from blood loss.

"Here, JB, can you move back a bit? I don't want to accidentally cross into you when I'm healing her.

He nodded and scotched back.

At first I didn't know what I was seeing. Mark was leaning over her; eyes closed tightly, hands pressed over her bullet wound. Callie was perfectly still, almost as if she were dead. Only I could still hear her breathing so I knew she wasn't.

Minutes passed, nothing changed, although Callie's breathing became less harsh and more normal sounding.

After we had been sitting there, huddled together while the strangers did…whatever they were doing, I had started to get restless. If they didn't finish up what they were doing now and get out, there would be hell to pay.

Luckily, seconds after I had that thought, the Mark guy opened his eyes and stiffly moved back from a now fully awake and alert Callie.

He stood up, so I did too, although I wasn't really in the mood for another fight. But if it came to protecting my family I would do anything.

He didn't say anything. He just stared at me, making me feel self-conscious. I started to squirm, wondering if he was going to make a move.

Of course, two seconds later he punched me in the face.

Callie's POV

I felt perfect. My stomach was healed, any bruises I had gotten from my fistfight with Max were gone, even though they hadn't shown yet, and I wasn't the least bit woozy. My blood supply had been replenished and I could get up and ready to go.

But if I got up now, I'd have to be the mature one and stop Mark from punching Max, and I didn't want to do that, at least not until he got a couple in.

"You bitch!" Mark screamed and threw another punch.

I winced. That was my queue to intervene. "Mark, stop it!"

He hesitated, but luckily he listened to me.

Mark glared at Max, who was now being held by an enraged Fang. No really, I wouldn't have been surprised in the least if steam started coming out of his ears.

Obviously annoyed Mark marched over to me. Suddenly I was completely aware of what we would look like to an outsider. Or rather, what we looked like to the two humans huddled together, wide eyed, under the counter.

It was the flock against my colony, birds against bats.

Hate to be cliché, but the tension was so think you could have cut it with a butter knife. Would another fight break out? Would we just have to leave? Who would make the first move?

Apparently Iggy decided to do that.

"So, this is your…family?" he asked me, his eyes as empty as normal.

I nodded. "Some of it."

He nodded back. "Cool," and this surprised me most of all, "I'm Iggy," and he held his hand out for either JB or Mark to shake it.

Mark gave him a look, and looked as if he was about to say something when JB stepped forward.

"JB," he said simply as he shook Iggy's hand.

Iggy smiled; glad to not have been left hanging.

I smirked when I saw his flock's reactions. They were all staring in shock at the blind blond. Gazzy looked more confused then anything, Max and Fang looked almost disgusted, and Angel and Nudge looked more surprised then anything.

"This is insane."


A/N: PLEASE REVIEW! You know I love getting feedback, both good and bad.