Hey! So the flock is off again, but how long could that last? I mean, their lives are just too complicated for them to get off that easy.

Note to Amphetere and/or all others who may be interested to know: To be honest, I haven't actually read the books either, except for the second book in the Fugitive trilogy of Maximum Ride. But I have 'flipped' them all (Twilight and Maximum Ride) enough to get an idea of what the characters are like and all that. As for Roswell, there is a book series about it, but I am basing these Roswell aliens off of the TV series that had three seasons. The story line in the book series is a bit different, as are the descriptions of the characters, but they're still pretty good.

Oh, and for those who haven't seen it, I recommend the Roswell TV series. It's great!

Disclaimer: I do not own Maximum, Fang, Iggy, Nudge, Gazzy, Total, or Edward Cullen.

Claimer: I do own Vatani and the Ferals.

Chapter 10

Cat Fight

Maximum's POV

These creatures came out of nowhere within a minute and a half of us flying away from the Cullen house. There was no warning whatsoever. They seemed to pop up out of nowhere. And get this: they were cats!

I don't mean, like, household, sit on the arm of a couch and eat kibble all day kind of cat; no, these were the regular mutant cross-bred with an animal type cats. Cheetahs, I think, because of how fast they could move.

The first one leapt out of a tree and on top of me, dragging me to the ground. I only managed to yell out a strained "Fang!" as a warning before I crashed to the forest floor with this feral beast on top of me.

How fitting. They sent cats after the birds.

I was back on my feet in a second; a second longer than the kitty. It was the first time I got a look at my new enemy. She was a rather pretty creature, I guess, with long strawberry blond hair back in a braid. She had a very small layer of spotted fur over her arms, neck, and streaks of it on her face. Her nose stuck out a bit from her face, like a cat's, and she had black lines on her eyes that went halfway to her nose, which was pink and very feline-like. She growled at me like a tomcat when it's angry.

Seconds after I was on my feet, I saw the other members of the flock drop to the ground, each with their own Feral. Fang was the last to be back on his feet, and I made a mental note to keep an eye on him.

I turned my attention back to my opponent. "So I guess you're the latest freak of anything but nature?" I asked. "Pleased to meet you." I wasn't, really. I could do without yet another group of murderous mutants after us.

"Likewise," she replied with a hiss. "I've heard so much about the infamous Maximum Ride, and I've been dying to meet you."

She lunged at me with a vicious snarl, fangs bared and claws extended (yes, they have claws). I dodged her, but with surprising difficulty. She was really fast. Out of the corner of my eye, I saw the others locked in combat with their Ferals. They seemed to be doing okay, but these were definitely not Erasers or Flyboys. They would be harder to take out.

My Feral leapt again, just missing me.

"Well," I said as I jumped back, "it seems you know my name. But I don't know yours."

"Vatani," she replied with a growl. She pounced again, and this time I wasn't so lucky. She knocked me to the ground and I kicked her off of me. Her claws scratched my cheek as I threw her over my head.

I saw Fang smashed to the ground by his Feral, a tall and vicious-looking male with a very muscular build. Gazzy and Nudge seemed to be doing okay with their Ferals, which were smaller than mine and Fang's. Iggy's was smaller than ours, too, but bigger than the Nudge's and Gazzy's. The only female out of all of them was the one I was fighting. Weird. Total, who had overcome his shock just a minute or two before the attack, was chasing a mutant housecat, with wings much like his own, that had shown up with the Ferals.

"Take to the skies!" I shouted. We all leaped into the air and spread our wings, flapped, and shot into the air. We weren't going to retreat from the fight of course, but since the new mutants couldn't fly, being in the air would be our advantage.

Or so I thought. The Ferals were nimble and very fast, and apparently, they were very good jumpers. They leapt into the air and latched onto us, punching and tearing with their claws. Vatani bit my shoulder. I had a hard time flapping with her on my back, especially since she was beating and slashing at my neck, back, wings, and arms.

I decided the war was better fought on the ground, since in the air we couldn't reach them to kick their butts. I landed again.

As soon as I touched down, the Feral jumped in front of me and delivered a blow to my jaw that spun me around. In the same moment, her foot smashed into my stomach several times at lightning speed before she swung one foot up to connect with my head. I caught her foot and countered, smashing my own foot onto her skull.

It hardly fazed her.

So I continued to deliver kick after kick, punch after punch, to her face, head, stomach, and anywhere else I could hit. However, besides the movement of her thin body with each blow, she hardly seemed to notice I was touching her.

"You'll have to do much better than that," Vatani said, "if you plan on defeating me."

"I plan on doing more than that!" I said angrily.

"Bring it on, sister."

"Do not call me 'sister'!" I lunged at her again, looking for a weak point that would be beneficial for us. She swiped at me, and I jumped over and behind her, landing a kick in between her shoulder blades. She fell forward and landed hard among the undergrowth.

I heard Fang grunt in pain and I glanced over at him. Blood was running down his arm from his shoulder and he had a long diagonal cut halfway across his forehead. His lip and nose were bleeding. He was holding his ribs and looked pale and exhausted. I decided we had to finish this very soon, for Fang's sake.

I leapt on my attacker and began once again to land punch after punch on her jaw. After about ten punches, I managed to split her lip, but that was about it before she kicked me off.

She pounced on me and wrapped her fingers around my neck. She squeezed until I couldn't breathe, digging her claws into my flesh. "You can't win, Maximum," she whispered in my ear. "They made sure of it."

For a second, I believed her. They seemed to have the upper hand in this fight. I couldn't figure out how to beat them, and my time was running out. I couldn't breathe, and I couldn't get her off of me. We were equal in strength, but they were obviously much less fragile than us.

"Don't give up, Max. Just hold on until help comes."

"How do I know help is coming?" I asked my Voice desperately.

"It will come."

I looked around as best I could to see how the others were doing. Nudge, Gazzy, and Iggy were still in pretty intense combat with their Ferals. They didn't look like they were winning, but it didn't seem like they were losing either. Fang, however, was not doing as well as them. Through blurring eyes, I saw the Feral that Fang was fighting kick him really hard in the ribs, making Fang fly back twenty feet. He would have gone farther if the Feral hadn't jumped above him and slammed him into the ground. Fang pushed himself up as fast as he could (which was not very fast), his pain showing on his face. He looked at me, then at his Feral and mine with sudden determination.

In a sudden rush of adrenalin, Fang whirled around, caught his Feral by the ankle, and threw him into Vatani. I sucked in a breath of sweet and precious air, my vision clearing with the new rush of oxygen to my brain, and jumped back onto my feet.

Vatani was enraged at Fang for interrupting her battle and leapt towards him. I was going to stop her, but the male that Fang had been fighting jumped in front of me to hold me back.

I watched in horror as she attacked Fang viciously. First, she swiped at him with her razor-sharp claws. Somehow he managed to dodge before she tore his face to pieces, but he wasn't so lucky when she kicked him in the stomach, the face, and in back of his knees. Fang fell to his hands and knees, panting and groaning.

"STAY OUT—" Vatani yelled, kicking Fang's side as hard as she could. Fang was launched into the air by her foot. Vatani jumped into the air after him. "OF MY—" She brought her foot up hard, connecting with his chin and shooting him even higher into the air so that he was at fifty-some feet. I watched, horrified, as his eyes rolled backwards into his head before closing. "Fight," Vatani finished with a satisfied smile.

"FANG!!!" the whole flock screamed at the same moment. Fang dropped like a stone after the upwards momentum wore out. I jumped over the Feral in front of me and spread my wings, flying to catch Fang, but Vatani jumped on me before I had the chance. She pulled me back to the ground almost as soon as I left it and pinned my wings behind my back with my own arms. The others' Ferals did the same to my flock, forcing us to watch helplessly as Fang fell to what I was sure would be his death.

Suddenly there was a blur of pale white that leapt from a tree and into the air. It passed Fang, twenty feet from the ground, and carried him through the air to the nearest tree.

It was Edward Cullen.