A/N - Another chapter, whoo. Took longer than expected but I hope it's worth the wait. Remember to review and that you get 10 redemption points for doing so. Oh and the plot device is coming to an end so I'll need to think up a new one.
Disclaimer - I own Maximum Ride and everything else that James Patterson has ever written and will ever write since I threatened him at gunpoint. I was lying, I don't own Maximum Ride, if you believed me you are ridiculously gullible and the moon is made of cheese. If you believed that then you are thick as well as gullible.
Rogue Mantis Chapter 9
Pythus' POV
300 miles after I remembered that conversion with Angel, and they were still going on about it, it's starting to annoy me.
"Max and Pythus sittin' in a tree K-I-S-S-I-N-G"
"Rose, will you shut the heck up!" I am sick of people going on about this supposed romance.
"Oy, leave Rose alone." Banquo called over, red eyes flashing, I think he's got a thing for Rose but nobody goes on about that. Did I say red eyes? I forgot to mention, Banquo is albino, we think it's something to do with his weird ghost powers, maybe having no pigment in his skin means he can go invisible easier.
"Hey guys! There it is, New York!" Called out Lucy, who was flying at the head of the group.
"I can see it!" Shrieked Nudge, the teasing about Max's relationship with me meant that the team bonded with the flock, at our expense.
"I can't." Replied Iggy in his usual sarcastic manner.
"Iggy, we're all rolling our eyes." Max and I retorted as I knew she would, and like I had done so many times before, no Max had done. We'd been synchronising more often now.
"Max, can I have a copy of your script?" Joked Gazzy lamely.
"Ha ha" laughed Andrea drily.
Unfortunately this was what the last 300 miles sounded like. The team has lost its edge recently, the worst part is that I think it's my fault; I'm the one who inspired them. But then I was forcibly inspired by Max, it all boils down to her, it's all her fault. If I were my usual self, pre-personality download, I would've had no problem with killing her, even at the cost of my own life. Like I said, it all boils down to Maximum Ride, even when I'm not blaming people i.e. Max. It really does annoy me, I used to be the most efficient cold-blooded killer in the world, no Eraser, Flyboy or 'bot could beat me, heck not even super-boy Omega could win against me and here I am thinking about settling down with Max, I'm only 16 what am I doing thinking about 'settling down'? On the positive side, I now know why I despise the memories of kissing Fang, turns out I was jealous, me jealous, and pigs will fly, which they did, for the few weeks of its life before it died, it was not pretty. I saw it first hand; the gunk took ages to get off my uniform.
But here we are New York, the Big Apple and the stationary circus that's on 24/7 and is potentially filled with Itex agents; I remember our last visit, no, Max's last visit.
"I hope they've forgotten about us since our last visit." Nudge voiced my concerns, I hope she can't read minds too, that's just what I need.
"Nah, I'm sure they've forgotten us by now." Max reassured her, I wasn't so confident, the public might've forgotten us but Itex won't have and those new guards really worried me.
We touched down in central park, talk about déjà vu, tucked away our wings; I snapped my wing cases over them. I'm the only one in the team who has wing cases, flies and dragonflies don't have them, mantises do, just another snippet of entomological info for ya. So we just strolled out of the trees real calm and inconspicuous and we're surrounded by Erasers, typical. Well there were no preliminaries to the fight, no witty banter, no ultimatums and no gloats we just went for each other's throats, literally. The good thing was they were Erasers the bad thing was that I'd lost my edge, I was slower than usual and I was getting pounded. My blades were out I was hacking like a demented lawnmower but didn't seem to hurt anyone. Until I saw an Eraser get Max in a headlock. Then naturally all the psychotic 'I'm in love with Max' protectiveness bubbles up, the self-preservation kicks in and I start fighting well for a change. I hope the voices are going to help us fix the personality transfer 'cause if the only way I can fight is when Max is in mortal peril I'm going to be a big liability. Soon the air is filled with flying fur and splashes of blood, I hate the stuff, tastes foul and stains worse than tomato sauce. How did they know we were going to land here anyway? The battle was over in less than tem minutes, there were twelve of us, half of whom are exceedingly efficient killers. Seriously, even Lucy has no qualms about killing and she's supposed to be the nice, sensitive person. So we quickly dragged the bodies out of sight, I think people wouldn't be pleased if they found a load of dead and unconscious human-lupine recombinant experiments that were previously unheard of. I mean who would? They were ruining the natural beauty of the place and making a mess. We concealed our various weapons of moderate destruction and strolled out of central park like a nice normal group of kids who hadn't just beat up a load of Erasers.
"Can't you control your teammates?" Whispered an irate Max. "They didn't have to kill them."
"'Course I can't control them, it's how we were trained, to use lethal force whenever necessary."
"But it wasn't necessary." Came the reply through gritted teeth
"Of course it was necessary; they were going to kill us. You might think you're so street-smart Maximum and I might've only been living in the 'real world' for a few weeks but let me tell you something. It's a wolf eat birdkid world out there and it's kill or be killed, I know Itex much better than you do Max, I lived with them for 16 years and they are ruthless. Think of the worst thing they could do to you, multiply it by a thousand and you're still nowhere near close to what they'd do to you. So don't go on at me and my team about using lethal force, it's always necessary. Can you smell cookies? Oh and by the way, you've got Eraser blood on your face."
Great ending, I had a great rant going on about Max's superior attitude when the smell of cookies jerked me out of 'rant mode'. Ah cookies, memories of baking them at mom's house flooded in, no, no, no! These were Max's memories, for the fifth time in the time we'd been travelling to New York I had a Max personality relapse. Max and I collapsed, memories shot past my mind's eye I was only vaguely aware of the team and flock crowding around us and passers-by muttering about crack heads or something. Luckily I knew that I would be launched out of Max's memories as soon as I remembered kissing Fang, then my anger and jealousy kicks in and drags me out. But the memory didn't come; the pain was intense, other memories were flickering past but not any of kissing Fang, which is typical since more recently all the memories were either kissing Fang, thinking about Fang and general lovey-dovey stuff. Then finally a memory passed my mind's eye and I locked onto it desperately. It was half-remembered, when I was shot full of valium and holding Fang's hand and saying 'I love you Fang.' Or something like that. Then the kick came and I resurfaced from the flood taking a huge breath, in perfect harmony with Max.
We didn't mention the memory breakdown; we rushed to the nearest station and hurried off down the tunnel and into the sewers.
"Is it just me, or are there more rats here than last time?" Asked a worried Nudge, she was right, there did seem to be more rats than before. We dashed through the tunnels at record speed until we reached the door. It was locked.
"Iggy, pick the lock." Max commanded in that annoying superior way of hers.
"It'll take too long, every second we waste means we're a second away from becoming clones of one another. Rose, pass me your crowbar." I wondered vaguely whether the whole clone thing would extend to physical changes, I decided it was too freaky for me to even think about. I wedged the crowbar between the door and the wall and with one solid push, cracked it open. Handing back Rose's crowbar, which she has affectionately dubbed 'Mr head-basher', O led the way down the stairs into the main lab room.
The room was dark, which should've screamed 'TRAP', but I didn't care, I was too busy thinking about getting Max out of my head. As soon as we'd all entered the room, predictably the door slammed shut and locked itself. The lights then flicked on and we were surrounded by nanomite guards and Ter Borcht standing right in front of us singing softly.
"I like New York in June, how about you?" The discharge of twelve dart rifles, the last thing I heard was Max muttering
"I hate anaesthetics." Before I slipped off into oblivion vaguely remembering telling Fang how much I loved him.
A/N - 50 redemption points to anyone who can name the singer of the song that Ter Borcht quotes, tell me in your review.
