First of all im so sorry its taken so long for me to get this chapter up... please don't hate me! It's been the craziest two weeks ever and my computer decided it hated me so it only lets me work on this when it feels like it... LAME! Anyway, i couldn't decide how i wanted this conversation between Fang and Sterling go and i think i re-wrote it about ten times before deciding to put it up and hope it okay. And again I'm sorry it has taken so long!

And some of you guys keep asking why Blade calls Max and Sterling Mom and Dad. He's five and was even littler when they found him. Max has always been motherly toward the kids in the flock, so shes still kind of the same. She and Sterling are the closest thing Blade has to parents, so that's what he calls them sometimes when he's really mad or sad or something. He's still a just a little kid. Sorry for the confusion!

emz23hilski (aka me) doesn't own anything you people are familiar with. Such as the flock. Or the School. Or the erasers. Or any of the good stuff. BUT.. Sterling, Blade, Peak, and any other random characters you meet that aren't in JP's fabulous books... they are mine.

But enough chit chat… So here's what I ended up with and hope its okay! (Sorry all that was so long!)

Sterling POV

I sat on the ground next to Peak and watched him as he passed out in about 2 seconds flat. I shook my head. He had over done it when we were fighting erasers. Again. He loved showing off his powers, and he hadn't gotten to since Max found him and that was a little over three years ago. So of course now that there were newbies he had to go overboard.

I looked and noticed that everybody had disappeared except for Fang, who was leaning against a tree with his arms crossed and a scowl sketched across his face. He obviously wasn't too happy with the situation. Join the club bud.

"How long is it going to take us to get there?" I asked breaking the silence.

The scowl was slowly vanished from his face, replaced by a blank look of emotion. He looked at me a second before answering. "The morning after tomorrow if we stop tonight and tomorrow." He said simply.

"That long?" I murmured disappointed. I was hoping we could get there sooner than that. After a while Max had told me all about the school and I really didn't want her being there.

Fang nodded briefly. " Ig and I would be faster. But its to hard on the everybody else." I ignored the swipe. "Any plan?"

I shrugged. "Get in, find Max, get out." Okay, not really a plan, but they were guidelines right? thats better than nothing. There's always a planMax's voice ran through my head. She said that all the time, even if she just BSed her way through it.

Fang snorted a laugh. "Getting out will be the hardest part."

"You're speaking from experience, huh?" I already knew the answer so i continued without really giving him a chance to speak. "But you've never had Peak with you. He's got a permanent get-out-of-jail-free-card."

His eyebrows rose. More like went up a fraction of a millimeter, if that. "So we have an easy in."

I shook my head. "No. He can only go somewhere he's seen. Once we're in, we got a quick out, but the getting in part is up to us." My words drifted off as Fang nodded but didn't respond. He sunk down and sat at the base of the tree he had been leaning on. At least he didn't seem as pissed off as before. There was no way I could stand the guy if he was going to be in a pissy mood all the time.

"How was she?" He asked queitly, his voice harsh against the silence that had surrounded us.

"Huh?" I asked confused. How was she when?

"When she..." He stopped and frowned slightly. "When you found her." He amended, his voice raw with pain.

"Oh." I paused thinking about what to tell him. I wasn't going to lie, but how much would Max want him to know? "It wasn't pretty." He winced slightly at the memory.

"The first time I saw Max she and Ryder were facing off in the sky. She was a mess and was to upset to really put up much of a fight. He took off once I got there, so I took Max back to my shabby apartment. Once she calmed down, it took me forever to convince her I didn't work for the school." I smiled slightly as I remembered all the things she said to me. "She was so quiet and it just really tore her up." I looked at Fang to see him staring at the ground, but i could tell he was listening.

"God, she was so stubborn," I said shaking my head with a soft chuckle. "It took forever before she trusted me and started acting more..." I paused looking for the right word to describe Max. "normal. Once in a while someone will say something or do something and you can tell she thinks about you guys. But she covers it well. She hates being weak and letting Blade know how she feels." I trailed off, not knowing what else to say. That summed up everything he needed to know.

Fang nodded but didn't say anything. It was silent with tension for a few moments before a huge BOOM sounded and echoed through my ear drums. Peak shot straight up from his nap and looked around quickly. Seeing nothing around he lay back down and promptly dozed off again.

Fang groaned and shook his head. "Iggy and Gazzy." Two dark figures came flying out of the dark plume of smoke, and as they got closer I could hear them laughing and talking excitedly. They were covered in black soot.

"Dude! You missed it Fang, that was the best one yet!" He yelled excited. Then he stopped and thought about it. "Well, it was pretty close at least. The oil-slick-hummer-crash and mickey mouse bomb were the best."

"Ugg!!" Iggy groaned. "Of course my best work had to happen when i couldn't freaking see." He grumbled.

I heard someone burst into a fit of giggles behind me and looked over my shoulder. Blade was skipping towards us with a smile and Nudge and Angel were right behind him. He stopped and looked at soot covered Iggy and Gazzy for a second. He shrugged, apparently not finding the two boys appearance worth questioning.

"Can we go now?" He asked me, green eyes wide.

I looked at Fang and he shrugged. "If everyone else is ready and you can wake Peak up." Blade frowned at Peak's sleeping form.

He huffed and went over to Peak, poking him lightly in the side. I rolled my eyes. There was no way Peak was going to get up to that. He never got out of bed easily unless Max was the one waking him up. Problem was, Max wasn't there to help. Blade poked him a little harder this time. "Wake up Peak."

Peak moved away slightly, but didn't wake up. "Wake up!" BLade shouted, stomping his foot. Needless to say, that didn't work either. Finally Blade gave up trying to be nice and jumped on him, smacking his cheeks and jamming his fingers into Peak's side again. Probably harder than necessary.

"Blade!" Peak groaned and pushed Blade off him, who just rolled away with a triumphant smile on his face. "You didn't have to do it so hard!" He whined, rubbing his eyes and grumbling to himself.

"You wouldn't wake up." Blade said stubbornly. He turned to me. "Can we go now?"

Max POV

The whitecoats unhooked all the wires they had attached to me. Maybe they were finally done. I don't know how long they had been running tests on me. It seemed like forever. Whenever they thought I could go more or I wasn't cooperating another shock ran up my arm. I ended up doing what they wanted for the time being because I was only hurting myself by resisting.

I was so tired and just wanted to lay down and sleep, but I stayed as alert as I could. Always looking for when they finally made a tiny slip up and I had time to get away. But they were being more careful then they usually were.

"Take Maximum back to her cell." A white coat said, his head ducked as he typed furiously on the computer. I snarled half heartedly at him, it was to much effort. He looked at me quickly, pushing his glasses up on his nose and mumbling something under his breath before turning back to his screen. "worthless... experiment... stupid." Was all i could pick out.

The Hulk guy grabbed my arm and half pushed half dragged me towards the door. "I can walk by myself." I grumbled as I shook his arm off. He let go but stayed right behind me.

We passed some of the same doors as before and I walked obediently until i found the door I was looking for. I darted inside and slammed the door closed, catching the Hulk off guard. I held my breath praying I had remembered the right door and hoping she was still there. My breath came out in a whoosh as I saw the red headed girl, standing in the middle of the room only one whitecoat there.

His back was facing me so i whacked him in the head, knocking him out. He crumpled to the floor as she looked at me with wide eyes. "Wha-- Who are you?" She asked confused. I grabbed her arm and ran through another door hoping it wasn't a dead end. The door crashed down behind us and the Hulk stumbled through, a murderous look on his face.

"Why you little--" I didn't wait long enough to see what he was going to say. Adrenaline pumped through me, giving me energy I didn't have before.

"I'm Max." I explained quickly as we ran. "I know your brother." I said hoping that she was indeed Ryder's sister. They both had red hair and wings, so i was taking a wild guess. "I'm getting you out of here."

She didn't say anything, so I assumed my guess was right. We ran through another door and into the hallway. "You know the way out?" I asked.

"This way!" She called before taking off to the right. I was right behind her. A couple white coats burst through another door into the hallway and i looked over my shoulder at them. When I turned back around I saw the Hulk had the red-headed girl. I ran smack into them, having no time to slow down, taking us all down. His grip on the girl loosened and she squirmed away before pausing and looking at me.

"Go!" I yelled, scrambling to get up. A huge shock ran through me and I collapsed on the floor. I struggled to get up but the adrenaline was fading and I had no energy left. At least the girl would get away. Hopefully. Something knocked me in the head and darkness sourounded me and I was thankful it was finally over.

I know that Fang and Sterling's conversation wasn't very long but i really didn't know what to make them say. & Fang is a little different so lets just say him having to be leader after Max was gone changed him. Deal? So was it okay? a hit? hopefully not a miss? Please help me out and tell me! Y'all reviewers realize this story is still going cuz of you guys! Right?

Okay people here's the deal…I no the chapters are kind of short and I'm going to try to start making the chapters a little longer then they usually are, so there will probably be a little more time between updates… I'll get them up as soon as i can, but i cant promise anything!

Thanks everybody for your reviews… We've passed the big ONE OH OH! mark! Woot! woot! Go team! That's way more than I ever expected to get… Thanks and Keep it up people! So now you know what to do... go hit the little review button, i think i hear it calling your name. Listens Yep... it definitely is... You know you want to ;)

emz23hilski