Me: Three-day weekend, I do what I want!

Finn: You could practice not being such a procrastinator.

Me: I'll try. Tomorrow.

Finn: -facepalm-

Chapter 10

Max POV

I escaped my charade of working at Disney and hid in the gift shop until dark. Everyone was gone and it was an eerie silence. My paranoia was on hyper-mode and I found myself jumping at shadows, which turned out to be mine. Finally, the DHI's showed up. Maybeck was carrying a climbing rope. They were going in the fountain. Hopefully, with the flock. Sure enough, Iggy approached first, with the others shortly behind.

"I still have the flashlights," Nudge said, holding up small pocket flashlights. Finn pressed the button on the garage-door-opener and the fountain creaked again. Maybeck threw the climbing rope down into the fountain.

"So," he said. "Who's first?" Everyone looked around, trying to figure who the first victim was.

"Finn," Angel said immediately.

"Me?" Finn asked stunned, and possibly nervous.

"Yeah! We'll follow!" Nudge exclaimed. Finn grabbed the rope and slowly slid down the fountain and out of view.

"I reached the bottom!" he called faintly. Everyone took turns, with Iggy last, going down into the fountain. I quietly crept out and looked down. I quietly slid down the rope and landed. They were right there. I held back a surprised squeak and hid behind one of the many clustered barrels. They slowly went into the big room. I peeked over the top of the barrel. Nothing was happening. I looked behind me and saw someone's footsteps coming down the hallway. They were trapped. And so was I. Time to prove that Max isn't dead. I crept down the direction of the footsteps and saw it. It was a whitecoat, discussing something with a scaly green lady. Maleficent. I bit my lip and let out a scream as I tackled the whitecoat and Maleficent, slamming them both into the wall. The air suddenly felt cold and ice started pricking at the tips of barrels and my boots. But I had been to Antarctica and this was Hawaii compared to it. The whitecoat lunged at me but my boot caught him in the throat and he went down. I heard yelling and saw that a.) Maleficent was gone and b.) that the room my flock and the DHI's were in were under attack. Lots of whitecoats I suppose. I raced into the room, not caring if I was dead or alive and pulled a whitecoat off of Philby's back.

"Max?" he yelled in the sounds of war.

"That's me," I grunted as I took another whitecoat out.

"Max!" Nudge yelled gleefully.

"Max!" Gazzy smiled as he slammed two whitecoat heads together. I waved casually and tripped a whitecoat headed for Finn. More were swarming the hallway. We couldn't hold them off and save the DHI's at the same time. I quickly calculated in my head what we could do.

"Alright, guys!" I yelled to my flock. "Angel and Nudge, grab Charlene. Iggy, grab Maybeck. Gazzy, take Philby!"

"What about you and Finn and Willa?" Iggy yelled back, grasping Maybeck's shirt and pulling him back.

"I'll defend! After they climb up come back down and get Finn and Willa! Now go!" They took their assigned people and pushed and shoved their way out of the room. Whitecoats pinned me down but me, being way stronger than them, I shook them off and pulled a whitecoat off of Willa.

"Max?" she asked, surprised.

"Yo," I said and kicked one in the stomach.

"Max? You're… dead," Finn said and tried to punch one in the head.

"Not anymore. Think of it has the zombie apocalypse," I said, punching one. Iggy came down with Gazzy and they took Finn and Willa. They shot me a look as they kicked their way out.

"Right behind ya!" I fought my way behind them. When I got there, Iggy and Gazzy were already at the top and I went to grab the rope when it fell back into the fountain.
"No!" I yelled shaking the rope. What now? I looked to my left and saw whitecoats pouring into the hallway. I looked to my right and saw shadows of more coming. I snapped out my wings and pushed upward. I gained height and didn't dare look below. I shot out of the fountain like a rocket and up towards the sky. I let my heart calm down before landing and folding my wings back. The DHI's looked at me. I smiled weakly.
"'Sup?"

Finn POV

I wasn't expecting that. By the faces of the Kingdom Keepers, I wasn't the only one. Max wasn't dead. She had wings. Like bird wings. Her friends seemed perfectly fine at this.

"Explain," I said, breaking the silence. She went and told us the entire story. How she fell off the Castle and spread her wings but wanted to keep this a secret so she played dead. And then she told us how they had been infused with bird DNA. I was about to ask if there were anymore like her when Charlene blurted out,

"What do you mean, 'we'?" I was confused and then I realized that Max had said, "We were infused with bird DNA", not just her. The others looked sheepishly at us and spread their wings. Suddenly, I felt really dumb.

"Don't feel dumb, Finn," Angel said reassuringly.

"How…?"

"I read minds," she smiled. They folded their wings back.

"Does this mean Nick has wings too?" Philby asked, connecting us back to the real world.

"Yeah, and his name's not Nick, it's Fang," Max explained. Maybeck was staring at her, probably not believing what was happening. She walked in front of him and hugged him.

"Sorry about that," she said and let go. Maybeck looked a little dazed.

"Since you told us the truth," I said. "We can tell you the truth. Our friend that got kidnapped, Amanda, she has special powers too. She has telekinesis. She can levitate herself and she's been taken too." I straightened up, now realizing what we had to do.

'Her sister saw an Overtaker by her house, and she couldn't leave."

"We have to find out what they could be using them for," Philby said.

"They both fly," Max pointed out. "Is that a similarity?"

"Could be," I said and Philby nodded.

"Why would they need two flying kids?" Maybeck demanded.

"Bait," Max said. I froze. I was right. How? Why? I couldn't think.

"Finn? Are you okay?" Charlene put a hand on my shoulder.

"Yeah… I'm…" I couldn't even form a sentence!

"He's in shock," Angel said.

"Why?" Nudge asked.

"He thought of this theory earlier today and he didn't believe it," she clarified.

I shook my head and brought my brain back to life.

"We need to figure out why they want to bait us," I said.

"Not us," Max said.

"You," Angel said.

Me: Lots happened in this exciting chapter!

Finn: -frowns- My brain short-circuited?

Me: Such an ignorant Llama Boy.

Finn: … FOOD! –runs into kitchen-

Me: It's lunchtime and Finn will never miss a meal. On purpose.

Finn: Chicken nuggets!

Me: Hey Finn…

Finn: Yeah?

Me: Shut up.

Finn: -frown-

R & R?

My dad's computer: Sri Lanka.