Disclaimer: If you lawyers still don't get the fact I don't own Maximum Ride, then you need some serious help.

Everyone stared at me.

"That's the only thing you can say to being told your parents are dead?" Omega looked at me quizzically. I shrugged. The cat in my arms just stared up at Omega, and I was sure there was something like respect in it's gaze.

"That and two more questions. One, how can you control cats? And two, is this Mr. Fluffikins, or his son?" More stares. Gosh, the stares were getting annoying! I'm sure my irritated manner got to them, because everyone looked away. I bet it was my powers, but I like to think that my facial expression.

"Well, the cats are genetically enhanced. The Director assigned them to me." I looked up at him. He had spat out the Director's name, and was looking troubled. I giggled.

"I bet you asked her to assign them to you. You probably said that you needed your lonely man cats." Omega glared at me. I couldn't help it, but the giggles soon turned into laughs that were almost hysterical. I got up unsteadily when I was done laughing. Omega understood why I was laughing. I couldn't get a grip on what I had just been told, and needed to let it all out. And this was the only thing that allowed me to let it out without involving me running away and getting myself lost, hurt, or worse, captured and taken back to the School.

"Well, now that that's over, I suggest we get as far away from here as we can manage," I started out. "If Max says that's alright." I added that at the end, because from what I'd learned at the school, Max was the leader. Said leader looked up at me briefly, and nodded, going back to the bandage she was tying on to the little girl's (Angel, I believe) arm. After that was done, she stood up.

"Up and Away!" The young members of the flock flew up first, followed by the older ones. Omega and I were last, giving each other a look that said to look for trouble. I started running, and with a jump, was up in the air. I relished the air rushing past my face, cooling my hot face.

Omega and I, strangers of the flock, assumed the back positions of the formation the flock made. I started doing loop-de-loops, dives, and more of your typical aerial maneuvering. I needed the rush, the exhilaration, to lose myself. My parents were gone, and that realization was finally setting in. The people who had produced me, had nurtured and loved me all of my life, were gone. That, and my brothers, my annoying, smelly, dirty bothers were gone too. Zall of them murdered by the people I had been staying with for the past year. Harsh.

Later that evening, we settled down in a small copse of trees. To me, they smelled lemony-scented mixed with something that smelled like it was burned, rotted, and decaying. To the others, it was just a plain old patch o' trees, though. Weird didn't even begin to describe it, and it got to where my sinuses couldn't handle the scent. Mumbling an excuse to everyone else, I flew up into the air. My nose felt like it was burning, which puzzled me, since I was hundreds of feet away from the trees.

Then I realized what it truly felt like. It felt like my powers where being used to the max, and to avoid so much pain, my body had turned the emotions into scents. The lemon scent was… happiness! In a rush, a mental catalogue appeared in my mind. I could see scents for sadness, depression, anger. What surprised me most, was that I could see smells for instincts. Like, for example, hunger smelled like steak to me. And the need for shelter was an earthy type of smell, almost like the smell of loam. I was about to explore my new power some more when I heard a mental shout from Omega.

Get down here, there's something you need to see!

AN- Yay! An Evil-Cliffie-of-Doom! I know, I'm so bad... not. I honestly thought I wouldn't be able to get this out today, with a new quarter of school, but I still did! Double-Yay! But just warning you, I might not be able to get chapters out as fast as normal. Oh, and did anyone expect the scent thing? Of course you didn't, but still... this surprised me so much, I'm going to need a lot of levels of Chuzzle Deluxe to regain my zen. (Don't ask...) It just came to me while I was writing, and so did the cliffie. Triple-Yay for unexpected-yet-still-really-good bursts of writer intuition!

ElvinDragon-Yah, and it's too bad the party's over... And it was some party!

aviator301-I agree, Tony never stood a chance, the poor mugger-guy.

OhMyGoshsickles- I was waiting for someone to ask that question, and you did! Do you win a prize? Unfortunately, no. I'm all out of special-double-chocolate-brownies. And yes, Mr. Fluffikins is doing really well. Quadruple-Yay for breeding like rabbits when you're not one!

Regaining my Zen, and brownies for reviewers,

White Wolf, Aqua Horse and Aurora Akira,

avikar