OK guys I'm sorry I updated late! I had full intentions of updating Friday but I had to go visit my grandparents and when I got there BAM! I found out they don't have internet. I felt so isolated! But on the plus side I did get some new ideas for this story (but I'm always looking for more if you want to impart some wisdom on me!). I also found out that my Fanfiction account isn't emailing me alerts when you guys review. So, I just found all of your reviews for, like, the last three chapters and just wanted to say thanks so much for the love!

Also, I finished Angel (actually I finished it a week and a half ago but I forgot to write this in the last AN) and I want to know if I'm the only one totally and completely pissed off at JP for his sordid writing in the last two books. Well, am I? Because I swear if he doesn't fix it in the final book I will go hunt him down and tie him to his computer until he writes it MY way! Alright, my rants over now! :) On with the story!

Disclaimer: I don't own Maximum Ride

Chapter 9

"You're telling me that walking into a door gave you a black eye and split your lip?" Nudge demanded, scrutinizing my battered self. We were sitting in a café called the Green Bean, sipping idly at our coffees. Well, my coffee her chai-whatchea-somethin'-fancy. She'd called and asked me to hang out and tell me about last night, not that I had anything to tell.

"Positive," I said, already understanding where she was going with this.

"And those bumps and bruises have nothing to do with a certain dark and mysterious someone, would they?"

"Absolutely nothing. I didn't even go out last night. I canceled." That was totally 100% the truth. After getting an eyeful of myself yesterday morning, and after many failed attempts at concealer, I'd called Fang and canceled our date. I felt pretty suckish afterwards too. I had been looking forward to the date but there would be too many questions if I showed up in my current state. Instead I'd told him that I was trying to get back in Mom's good graces and had to babysit Angel.

"What? Why?" she looked scandalized. Like canceling a date was the worst thing I could have done. "Would you like to go on a first date looking like a friggen gorilla played punching bag with your face?" I demanded. She winced sympathetically and nodded.

"Guess not."

"Exactly." I sighed. "Stupid door." I added for my stories sake.

…..

I glared at the map in front of me so hard I thought I might burn a hole right through it.

This is useless. I thought, my mood plummeting from black to friggen black hole black. I'd gone over everything I could think of trying to distinguish a pattern of Shadow sightings around Night Hawk residences and connections between those gang members. Right now I was looking at a map of Night Hawk territory and I had little blue push pins placed in every gang member's residence. Red push pins marked houses that Shadows had been sighted around.

There were twelve red pins. Twelve too many. In my lap sat one of those yellow legal pads with a list I'd been compiling of the residents of those red push pin houses. It looked a little something like this:

Name: Julian Ortez

Age: 17

Sex: Chick

Info: Sweet girl. Kicks butt. Quiet. Determined. Can take a punch.

Family: Mom, 3 sisters, 1 brother. All younger. 7 and down.

Lives: near border

Name: Jose Fosner

Age: 15

Sex: Dude

Info: Don't know too much about him. He's a newer recruit. From what I can tell he's a decent fighter and means business.

Family: Mom. Dad. Little sister, Angie (cute as a button!)

Lives: near boarder

Name: Nikki Arnold

Age: 19

Sex: Chick

Info: Tough. High pain tolerance. Smart ass (too much sometimes but otherwise she's cool).

Family: Dad, 2 brothers (both younger)

Lives: Inner territory

And the list went on. And on. And….you get it. Ages, gender, race, and home location all differed from one person to the next. The only thing they had in common was that they all had younger siblings. Every last one of them.

"How are you getting this information Grey?" I whispered to myself.

"Who?" Angel asked as she bounded down the stairs and into my room. She launched herself onto my bed and started jumping up and down as I watched in amusement from the chase lounge.

"Nothing, sweetie." I assured her. "What are you doing?"

"Jumpin'" she answered sweetly.

"Obviously." I rolled my eyes and she giggled.

"Mom's on the phone and Ella's got Jennifer over. I was bored so I thought I'd come see the bestest big sister in the world!" she giggled again.

"That's sweet. But you're going to hit your head if you jump much higher."

"Bet I won't!" she jumped higher.

"You really want to test that theory?" I asked her, coming to stand at the edge of my bed.

"Maybe!" she jumped higher.

"Angel." I said in my warning voice.

She kept jumping.

"Do you really want to mess with me?"

She gave me her exaggerated patience look, one that I gave Mom a lot, and continued.

"You asked for it!" I informed her before tackling her lightly to my bed. She shrieked and laughed her little girl giggles as I tickled her.

"I warned you, munchkin!" I called over her laughs.

She pushed me away and ran tore out of my room like a bat outta hell, running up the stairs. I followed her as she ran through the living room and out of the house.

Angel and I played chase a lot so nobody in the house reacted like this was out of the norm as I chased the bundle of energy known as Angel down the uneven sidewalks that lined our street. I kept myself two steps behind her at all times as I pretended to struggle to keep up. Truth is I'm used to this type of physical exercise, between fighting and runs I go on most nights I'm in top condition and could easily outrun this six year old.

Angel stopped and I closed the gap between us, sweeping her up into my arms as she beamed at me and hit me lightly.

"Put me down! I almost beat you that time!"

"Sure you did, Ange!" I laughed lightly.

"Really I would have, but those guys were watching us! It was weird." I immediately stopped playing and looked around. It didn't take me long to spot the two guys watching Angel and me play. They were leaning up against a chain linked fence across the street, watching us with greedy eyes. My eyes quickly picked out the ink that they supported on their arms.

Shadows.

I set Angel down.

"Stay here." I told her in my no nonsense voice. Something in my expression must have told her I meant business because she made no objections.

I crossed the street, eyes locked on the two boys the whole time. They stood straighter as I approached them.

"What do you think you're doing here?" I hissed.

"Standing around?" one suggested.

"You're on Night Hawk territory. Give me one good reason why I shouldn't kick your asses right now."

"Because you don't want your little sister to see her big sister get hurt." The other one suggested.

"I won't be the one getting hurt." I assured him.

"You're a bit self-conceded don't you think?" he demanded. "I mean, you really think you could take two of us at once?"

"Wouldn't be the first time. And you really aren't that special." I ground out.

"But there is something to numbers. You can't be watching our every move at once, and when you're not watching there's your sister to think about." He sneered.

I froze. Angel. He was right. I couldn't be certain one of them wouldn't break loose and go for her. I swear I was seeing red right now.

"You touch her," I spat, "And you will have to deal with me."

I have to say that I sounded pretty damn scary right now. But nobody, I repeat nobody got away with threatening my little sister. I would send them to dance with the devil before they got near her.

I gave them one last piercing glare before I turned and headed to Angel. I grabbed her hand tightly and set off at a pace that had her running to keep up with me.

I had to add another red push pin to that map.

Ohhhhhhh what will happen next? One way to find out! Thanks again! Review!

Peace!