Double digits, guys! Double digits! Though...I have to say, even though it's my fault for my lack of updates, I was kinda put-down by the amount of reviews last chapter. To those who reviewed, thank you, love you, and all that. You guys mean the world to me. Seriously.

But now I ask of you to review once more, because the story is actually picking up! The plot is going to be introduced (it's about time, huh?) and then from here on out we have some serious stuff going down. So enjoy!

(EDIT: Hopefully the spacing is all good now.)

IGGY

"I'm sorry." I blurted out before anyone can say anything else. I backed up a little bit, bringing a hand up to my face. "It was my fault-I-I ran, and-I didn't mean to, I-"

Immediately Nudge softened, a harsh but crumbling demeanor taking over the space around her that had just been filled by pure joy. The sudden change broke my heart, and a frown slaps its way onto my face. There was no way in hell I was going to cry anymore, but damn, it was hard enough with Max telling me I was responsible for Fang's kidnapping. The kids were going to kill me.

"He's gone...isn't he?" Gasman muttered, with a sense of sadness and maturity that a kid his age should never be forced to have. "They took him."

The silence was so fragile someone could have broken it with a toothpick. Max decided to abandon all subtlety. "Yeah."

Nudge let out a pained squeal, and tried futilely to disguise it as a cough. I bent my head down in shame, waiting for the wave of accusations to come. But, instead...they didn't. I brought my head up and raised my eyebrows slightly, biting the inside of my cheek.

"Well?" I risked asking, stuffing my hands into my pocket. I nervously picked at the lining and the lint, afraid that I was going to bite through my own tongue.

"Well, what?" Gazzy replied confusedly.

I huffed, bringing a hand up under the skull cap and into my hair frustratedly. "Well, why aren't you all yelling at me?"

"Iggy..." Max warned softly, shifting Angel in her arms.

"What do you mean?" Nudge rasped, coming forward a bit.

"I-" I swung my head, stomping my foot and waving my arms in attempt to release some pent-up anger. "It's my fault! I was a wuss, and I got scared and ran, and that's why Fang got kidnapped, trying to come after me and I wasn't there to help and Max couldn't help both of us and she was a moron and picked me and you should all hate me!"

Again there was the silence in which I know every single person in the nearby vicinity was looking right at me. I panted from letting out so much steam in that little spiel, waiting for them to explode, maybe even wanting them to explode, but they didn't. Gasman ignored what I said altogether.

"...Are you wearing my hat?" He asked. My jaw dropped and I smashed my palm against my face, turning slightly and breathing deeply.

"What-what is wrong with you?" I gasped.

"Iggy, they know you didn't do anything wrong." Max explained, coming up to me. Angel was on the ground now, next to her brother. "They're not as dumb as me."

"Or maybe you were right." I muttered. I could tell that Max was seriously considering slapping me, but she restrained. "Shut up. We totally just had this conversation. I'm not having it again, 'cause it nearly killed me."

"Max." I objected, but she continued anyway.

"Seriously, I'm not sure how you didn't grow ovaries from that. And no, Gasman, you can't know what ovaries are."

"Aw."

"But..." I faltered, and I could nearly feel Max smirking in success.

"C'mon, guys. Group hug."

Immediately I was having my guts squeezed out by four mutant bird-kids, and I smiled weakly. I lowered my cheek onto Max's head, and Angel wrapped her arms around my middle.

"'s not your fault, Iggy." Angel spoke into my shirt. "'s not your fault that everything happens to you. That everything happens to us."

"Whose is it, then?" I inquired, and Gasman chuckled.

"Jeb's."

Amen, brotha.

After we separated from our super-awesome-sorta-kinda-family-minus-one hug, I flopped my arms down by my side. Gasman tried to swipe his hat off my head, but Max chastised him, saying that I could wear it for another day. We stood there awkwardly for a moment (we're such a functional family) before Nudge broke the silence, as always. "So...what now?"

"Now," Max announced, slinging her pack up on her shoulder and handing mine to me. "We get Fang back. Shouldn't be too hard, seeing as we don't have a timer above our heads yet. We need a plan, first. I have a feeling Bob is counting on our inept ability to plan things, so let's hunker down and churn out some brain juice to get Fang back with us."

"Sounds good, Max." Angel beamed. "It was pure luck that we got Iggy out the last time. We gotta find out where Fang is, and what's going on."

"It'll be different for him." I started talking before I registered what I was saying. "They did tests based around my blindness, like they were trying to compensate for that." The look I had on my face immediately fell, replaced by confusion. I could feel Nudge and Gazzy smiling. "What just happened?"

"Bob just underestimated you, that's what happened." Max clapped my shoulder. "I've got an idea. Nudge, can you take us back to that shelter you were staying?"

"Sure!" She piped, unfurling her wings and running off, lifting up into the air. Angel grabbed my hand and led me until we were in the sky. Max brushed her feathers against my own, and I felt something flash through me, like a sense of deja vu. She'd done that before. Many times.

"I was going to ask why his name is Bob," I started, rubbing my eye. "But I think I remember why."

I could nearly feel the happy vibes coming from everyone, especially Max. "Well, care to enlighten me?" She asked, and another shudder ran through me as I heard her cross her arms. "Because, really, we totally just picked up that name out of utter convenience. It would be great if there was an actual reason."

I thought for a minute, letting everyone train their eyes on me. A small smile broke out on my face, and I closed my eyes before opening them toward Max. "It was either that or Alfonso."

I looked forward again, perfectly aware of them staring at me. I couldn't care less. It made sense to me.

FANG

"Fang?" A voice rang out, reverberating through my ears and knocking around in my brain painfully. I curled in farther around myself, trembling slightly. Not visibly, though. Even in pain my body knew it couldn't be a pansy. The voice struck again, and this time I think I might have moaned. Might have. I couldn't really hear correctly at that moment. If this was what Iggy had gone through at his time in this hellhole, I owed him a hug. A really big hug.

"Fang, I know the hearing test hurt." The voice half soothed, half scolded. "But you have to get up and talk to me, because I don't have a lot of time here with you. Just know that Iggy went through the same thing, maybe even worse, okay? And...if you don't help me, Fang, the rest of the flock will too. I can promise that."

Wrong thing to say, buddy.

I shakily raised one hand out of my fetal position, clenching a fist save for my middle finger sticking straight up in the air. "Go to hell, Jeb." "

Fang-"

"I said go to hell." I growled. "Once upon a time, you said you'd do anything for us. Well, now you can do something for me. Go to hell, and never crawl back out. Ever. It'll do all of us a whole lot of good."

The silence was brooding, an angry atmosphere that severely wanted to strangle me. "Then who would save your ass, Fang?"

I huffed in disbelief. "Yeah, look at the good you did Iggy. The traumatized, injured, amnesiac blind ginger bird kid."

"His hair color has nothing to do with me."

I could have laughed, if it didn't hurt so much. I drove my palm into the floor of my cage, raising myself up into a kinda-sitting position and looked up at Jeb. "Welcome to the torture room, Jeb. Now tell me. What can you possibly do for me?"

Jeb seemed to roll his eyes, you know, inside, because Jeb doesn't ever physically roll his eyes. He's just not awesome that way. "I have to tell you what they're planning."

I kept my face stoic. "A key would be nice."

"I can't get you out of here, Fang." Jeb stressed. "But you will get out, if I know Max. And I do. So you will."

"Good to know."

Jeb gripped one of the bars of my cage, leaning in closer. "You have to understand what they're doing, Fang. Once you get out, you can't let them get the others. Do you understand?"

I didn't reply, I just stared straight at him and his mustache. I didn't think he'd ever heard of a breath mint before, but this probably wasn't the best time to call him out on that. Jeb looked both ways down the hallway before leaning down again. "I don't care how horrible the tests are, or what they make you do, but you can't let them get the others. It's too late for you, so just ride it out and it'll be over soon."

I narrowed my eyes. "What do you mean, it's too late for me?" I hissed. "Get me the hell out of here, if you still have any fatherly feelings or whatever for us at all!"

Jeb closed his eyes. "I can't do that."

"Like hell you can't."

"Fang, you have to know what they're doing to you."

"A simple explanation would solve this predicament, you know."

Jeb sighed. "You're impossible."

I smirked. "It's a gift."

Jeb ran a hand through his receding hairline and fixed his glasses. "The first thing you need to know, Fang, is that they still want Iggy. They think that they can use you to get him back. The clones...they're missing something vitally important, and he...he thinks that he can retrieve it from Iggy's brain."

"Clones?" I risked asking in a gruff voice. "As in...plural?"

"Yes. That's what these tests are, Fang. You kids are exceptional, but you won't cooperate. So they're making more of you. An army, per se."

"That Iggy clone was better and scarier than anything I've ever seen before." I barked. "What could be missing? Why do they need him?"

Jeb exhaled, and then sent me a sympathetic look. "I know you want to protect your brother. The doctors believe that Iggy has special...gifts."

I sent him a WTF look, and Jeb continued in a hushed tone. "Seriously, Fang. Put yourself in Iggy's shoes for a moment. If you were the one who was blinded at a young age, do you truly believe that you could maneuver as well as Iggy can now? I know you feel like you're thirty, Fang, but you're only fourteen. It hasn't even been a decade since Iggy lost his sight. It's astounding, what he can do. It's impossible."

I stayed silent for a moment, letting it sink into my pounding head. Before I could freak out, another thought drilled its way out of my mouth. "Why do they need an army?"

Jeb looked sheepish for a split second, and then sobered. "Itex believes the world isn't suited for the majority of the population anymore. They plan to eliminate this unnecessary surplus, and populate the earth with the gifted, the intellectual, the healthy. The perfect."

"What about us?"

Jeb stared straight at me, making me shiver with a sudden chill. "What better soldier than a child? An innocent, unsuspecting child? Who would think an eight-year old would bomb hospitals, or torture war prisoners? Who would expect a six-year-old girl to control thousands? Kill even more?"

The realization struck me like lightening. My lunch of bread and cheese-from-a-can from the day before suddenly found itself on the bed of my cage as I lost everything left in my stomach.

MAX

The homeless shelter was nice, I suppose, but the stained-glass window thing wasn't really working for me. Apparently it didn't work for a lot of other people, either, because when we went down into the basement, that was crowded as could be. So we found a home in one of the Sunday School classrooms. That is, until that Sunday, 'cause then we'd really need to clear out before the eight-year-olds started calling us angels.

I bet Angel would love that.

"I hope you're comfortable in here for the night, kids." The nun or whatever said to us, handing me a pile of blankets and pillows. "Tomorrow we can call the foster home in the next town over, if you children need a place to stay for longer."

Yeah, no.

"Uh, thanks, sister." I replied uncomfortably, shoving the blankets and pillows into Iggy's arms. He let out a surprised oof and stumbled back into a desk, somehow losing one of his shoes and falling back onto the floor in the process. I shoved the nun out of the door and slammed it shut, turning around and wiping my forehead with the back of my hand. I perked up and tossed my hair back. "I thought she'd never leave."

I strode across the room toward our packs, which were stacked precariously on the teacher's or whoever's desk. Iggy picked himself out of his awkward heap on the floor, Nudge had found a stack of church-appropriate magazines, and Angel busied herself in creating a pile of her stuff to cocoon herself in. I dug through my backpack, looking for another sweatshirt for Iggy, because he was still shivering and it was getting kind of annoying.

"Hey, Max?" Gasman asked, swinging his legs back and forth in the air. "What's the difference between soup and chowder?"

"Don't ask me life's questions."

I rummaged some more through our packs before I found a large sweatshirt of Fang's and one of Nudge's scarves. I walked over to Iggy and forced the sweatshirt over his head, ignoring his protests. I then wrapped the scarf around his neck. Iggy slapped at it, but I hit his hand.

"I don't wanna wear that!" He whined. "I'll look like a girl!"

"It's a bit too late for that, Igs." I squeezed his arm. "Your eyelashes are just too gorgeous. No go sit in that corner and breathe on yourself."

Iggy, although grumbling profanities under his breath, complied. I distributed some sandwiches I had more or less illegally stolen from the not-so-nearby Subway store and left the girls to their own devices, seeing as they could entertain themselves. Unfortunately, Gasman didn't own this gift. He seemed determined to make it 'Pay Attention to Gazzy Day'. I wasn't really in the mood.

"Max, I found a suspicious stain!" Gazzy cried out.

"You're a suspicious stain."

"That didn't make sense!"

"You don't make sense."

"...Touche."

"This conversation is over, Gaz." I sighed.

Gasman stared intently at me, bending over so that he could grip the tops of his shoes with his fingers.

"...And yet it isn't."

"Don't make me sedate you."

Needless to say, the night went on as such, making me want to bang my head against the wall. I sat next to Iggy and scribbled down ideas onto a notepad, trying to figure out and draw the best way to rescue Fang in one piece. Angel helped out some, and so did Nudge and Gazzy until they fell asleep, Nudge hugging Angel and Gasman sprawled out on Nudge's legs. My best guess was that was the position that they had been sleeping in for the past few nights. It warmed my heart, it was so adorable.

"How do we know where Fang even is?" Iggy asked, staring blankly into the dark space surrounding us. I fixed my grip on the pocket flashlight and bit my lip.

"I dunno." I mused. "I'm guessing that he's in Michigan. I mean, that was where they were going to take you, and it seems like Bob loves Eastern White Pines, with how much everyone seems to talk about the state. It was almost like our obsessions with beavers. Did you know we didn't even see one?"

"I remember Gasman being very upset, yes." Iggy nodded absently.

I slammed my palm against my forehead. "This thinking thing is impossible. I can't save Fang when I'm stupid. Make me smart."

Iggy pulled his lips to the side. "Well, if we can go to Michigan and get Angel close enough to these headquarters, wherever they are, then we can draw out a layout of the place and put together a plan."

I smiled up at him. "I don't need to be smart. I have you to be smart for me."

"That's what I'm here for." Iggy grinned, leaning back. "To be smart behind the scenes and look pretty."

"At least you are pretty."

Iggy ruffled my hair, and I bit back a rude remark. He yawned, closing his eyes. "Nah, you're pretty too, Maxie."

"How would you know?" I asked, still kind of alert. Well, more than Iggy, at least. Iggy grinned incoherently, another yawn stifling any attempt at talking. He seemed to try to pet my head again, but ended up awkwardly slap-caressing my face.

"'Cause I know." He slurred a bit, tilting his head back. "You're pretty. Fang tol' me. Like, when we were twelve, he told me what you looked like, 'cause I asked. And he said you were the prettiest girl in the world, so yeah."

My insides threatened to melt from sheer shock at how adorable that was. "All right." I rasped, placing his hand on his lap. "Go to sleep, ginger."

"Not just a ginger..." Iggy murmured sleepily. "I'm Chuck Norris' son."

"'Course you are." I smiled. I watched as Iggy's breaths graduated into soft snores, and then turned my attention back to my idea pad. Twenty-two minutes and a sea of crumpled paper later, I was asleep on Iggy's shoulder, flashlight abandoned on the floor.

The horrible noise that had invaded my life way too many times snapped me awake, launching off of Iggy's shoulder and into a crouching position in a split second. Iggy was awake in an instant, scrambling after me. One glance across the room showed me that the kids were in similar stances, their backpacks already on them.

I'd taught them well.

"Was that...?" Iggy rasped, and I nodded stiffly.

"Windows?" I asked.

"Three, one on the south wall, two on the east." Nudge rolled off her tongue immediately. "Door's locked and reinforced with a door, should buy us four seconds."

"There's one below the south window, another by the parking lot." Angel told me stoically.

"There's another parking lot to the west of us with two Chevys, a Jeep, and a pickup truck that's beaten up enough to be stolen." Gasman nodded at me. "I saw them yesterday."

"Erasers?" Iggy asked. I nodded again and held up a hand to be quiet.

"We've got twenty seconds." Angel warned, and immediately I got up, throwing open one of the east windows. I whipped Fang's pack around my arm and shoved Gasman out the window, then Angel, Iggy, and Nudge last. I looked at the door and bit my lip, running back in and pushing the teacher's desk against the door. I dove out of the window, shutting it behind me. Seeing that my well-oiled mutant kiddy machine had already taken down the Eraser beneath us, I signaled to them to run toward the west parking lot, and they had just taken off when I heard the frustrated roar come from the room we had just fled.

"Find them!" A familiar voice screamed, and I blanched.

Zuko was back. Joy.

We sprinted to the west parking lot, me only having to drop kick one Eraser on the way there. It was a pretty decent morning, in Eraser-attack standards. We found the beat-up pickup truck easily enough, and left it to Iggy to quickly hotwire it as we all piled in. Some things you just don't forget. Nudge and Gasman got into the truck bed as I shoved Iggy and Angel inside the passenger side, rolling like a boss over the hood of the car and getting in the driver's side. The Erasers started falling out of the window just as we pulled screeching out of the lot, heading seventy-miles an hour south towards nowhere.

"And we are homeless, once again." Gasman sighed, leaning into the small window thing behind us.

"What, are you kidding?" I asked, whipping my head back at him. "We're not homeless, dude. We got a car!"

In our book, anything you could sit in semi-comfortably and not get shot at close range in was a home. We generally preferred our homes bulletproof, but we took what we could get, and we got a car. A car that was surely going to break down after fifty miles, but a car nonetheless.

It was a good morning.

Thoughts? Wow, if we don't get some reviews in for the button soon, it's gonna go through withdrawal, and everyone knows that I do NOT have the time to deal with that. Thoughts?

Oh, yeah. So I saw the announcement for the last MR book coming out in August, Nevermore. I mean, seriously. Where's the Iggy love? Non-existant. But still, I'm kind of excited, kind of filled with a sense of dread. We'll see, Patterson. We'll see.