Author's Note: Evil is back! And some more Fax! :D Hope ya like it!

Disclaimer: Yadda yadda, Max, Fang, Eggy, Gazzy, Angel, ter Bocht, Ari, Jeb, Nudge, Total, Akila, Max's Home School, Dr. Martinez, Mr. Martinez (my Spanish teacher, tee-hee) et cetera…Not mine.

Bionic people? Yeah, those were my idea. Oh, and the plot. That too.

I plopped down next to Fang on the couch. "Since Max's Home School population just doubled, thanks to Eggy's little stunt," I said, "We've got to let 'em in on the secret."

Fang gave me an unexpected half-smile, which sent that blush right up to my cheeks. Jeez, what is up with that lately?

"Or, to, you know, punish them," he said suggestively, "We could 'get up early' and 'have all the work done' before they even start."

He knew me too well. Sometimes I don't know whether that's a good thing, since he can just convince me to do evil stuff so easily. But the idea of revenge was just too sweet for me to resist.

"You had me at 'punish'," I said.

He made a smug face. "I had you from the start."

Are we still talking about Home School? Some part of me wondered abstractly, but I pushed it aside. Okay, so I'd kissed Fang. I'd kissed him, not the other way around, and it hadn't resulted in me running away. That didn't mean that I was going to be all lovey-dovey and Eggy-like twenty-four/seven from then on, even though, I have to admit, some part of me sure wanted to.

I cleared my throat. "Are we gonna tell the kids? About 'Eggy's little stunt', I mean?"

"They probably already know. Angel would've picked it up, Iggy brags about everything to Gazzy, and Nudge would've heard it along the pipeline."

"So we can just assume they know everything and not bother with it," I cleared up.

He nodded without saying a word.

"Nudge'll have to take 'em all to school," I said. It would give her more responsibility and independence—I sorta liked that thought. She was old enough to start taking charge of the younger ones. I mean, she was thirteen, for God's sake, not three. It made me a little nervous, too, but… I realized that I trusted Nudge. Actually more than I trusted Eggy, I think.

"They grow up so fast!" Fang, very un-Fang-like, made a big theatric production about blowing his nose in his shirt. I rolled my eyes, and, for the second time in, like, a week, I chucked a decorative pillow at him.

"God, you big dork," I said.

"Well," he replied, "I know I'm very god-like in all of my handsomeness and all, but I wouldn't go as far as calling me God."

"So full of it. And who said anything about handsome?" I said, laughing.

"No one had to say it," he wiggled his eyebrows at me (again, very un-Fang-like). "Your message at the lake was loud 'n' clear."

Oh, my God, he did not just say that! Shoot me now. (Not really, crazy fans!) For, like, the billionth time in the past month, I blushed in that great shade of mauve that's sooooo attractive. Fang, in his weird Fang way, was having the same train of thought as me.

"Red is totally your color," he laughed, brushing his hand against my cheek. His touch sent lightning down my spine.

"I, uh, well, I…" I mumbled. Finally, I decided, "I'm just gonna kill you so that I won't have to deal with this anymore."

"Awww, c'mon, you know you love it," he teased.

"Dude, this PDA? Not cool," a foreign voice interrupted.

"Says the king of PDA himself," Fang countered easily.

"Okay, I can't even see," Iggy said, ignoring Fang's comment, "and yet I can tell it's PDA. That is so wrong on so many levels."

"Ig, stop with the poor helpless blind kid act already," I said. "We can totally see through it!"

"Ha-ha, so funny."

"Glad you agree," I chose to overlook his sarcasm.

Suddenly our merry little mutant-fight was interrupted by a high buzzing sound. A sound that I thought I recognized, but I wasn't so sure… I looked out the window and promptly regretted it. I thought I was going to cry.

Our house was surrounded with some robot replacements of M-geeks, the last version of Erasers we'd seen. I seriously thought I was going to break down crying any minute.

"I thought this was all behind us!" I said, in a weak voice.

"Dude, tell me that's not what I think it is," Iggy's voice somehow got into my consciousness. It was filled with dread.

"I can tell you, but Mommy said it's wrong to lie," Fang said grimly. Well, at least someone still had a sense of humor.

"Ig, go do something explosive with the Gasman," I ordered half-heartedly. I was still fighting the tears. Really, Max? I thought to myself. Pull yourself together!

Then I heard Angel's scared little-girl voice in my head. Max, what's going on?

The house is surrounded by robots, I thought back at her. I wasn't going to lie. She was too old and too experienced for me to lie to her.

Max, they're not robots, I heard her say. They're thinking. I think it's people, in, like, suits.

Relief sort of flooded through me. Bionic suits? That we could handle… But we couldn't kill the people! Itex knew they had me. We could destroy the robots, but I couldn't bring myself to kill people.

First of all, get down here, I ordered. Second of all, since they're people, can you make 'em go away?

I heard the patter of four pairs of feet on the staircase. Iggy hadn't moved. We all went into the kitchen, where there weren't any windows. I could see Angel concentrating.

"They were told to bring us…somewhere. Alive," she said. Well, that's good news. Sorta. "I can make them forget their orders, if you want," she added. "But that's as far as I can get."

"Do they have communications inside of those suits?" Fang spoke up. "'Cuz if they do, making them forget orders isn't going to do much."

"Are you sure you can't just make them… Go away and never come back?" I asked. Angel's mental powers had really gotten a lot stronger over the past few years. Maybe she could get them to leave.

She thought about it. "I can get most of them, but not all of them at the same time."

"Do what you can, kiddo," I said. All of our lives rested in the hands of an eight-year-old. A creepy mind-reading/mind-controlling eight-year-old, true, but an eight-year-old nonetheless.

"I can do it, Max," she said, picking up on my thoughts.

"Good. I trust you," I assured her. And it was true. She'd really changed—for the better—after Paris. She gave me a scared little smile. I could see her concentrating hard…And I could hear the drone of the bionic suits slowly fading into the distance.

We were scared, but safe, for the moment. I grabbed Fang and signaled for Eggy to follow me. "Executive meeting," I said. We had to figure this out, and we had to figure it out before that army came back.

Oooooh. Can't you just not wait until the next chapter? (Yeah, chew on that for a sec). I work for reviews! And it's payday! :D OK, I know, corny. Anyhoo…