A.N. Hey, readers! Thanks for coming along this far on a story that is not as consistently updated as it should be. I would especially like to thank FangNotFnick, Betakeys, and Mo for reviewing! You make me squeal with delight!

Lex: *snarls* As soon as this story is done, I am out of here.

Me: Not so fast! There is a possibility for a sequel, possibly a prequel! ;)

Lex: You can't keep me here! Torture is wrong!

Miranda: Au contraire, my feline friend. You see, ICBN is the ruler of this story's universe.

Nudge: So you're going to have to make an appeal to get her to let you free!

Miranda, Nudge, and Me: MWAHAHAHAHAHA!

Lex: *whimpers pathetically, gulps* Well, here's the newest chapter…

CHAPTER 10: Donut demolition

Nudge POV

The next morning, the Flock and Lex set out in this grand city called San Francisco. It was both adorable and fascinating at the same time! The majestic Golden Gate Bridge, the cute little trolley things, it was one of the best cities in a long time.

Of course, having Lex among the ranks now, we made it through the city much faster than would be expected for tourists. He had tons of connections from his years living here. We finally stopped in an alley. Lex walked up to a brick wall that didn't seem too special, but when he pulled on a small metal handle, a section of the wall curved away; it was a hidden door.

I stared at Lex. He was… intriguing. There was a calm tenacity to him, mysterious, powerful. Plus, he's pretty cute. Stop it, Nudge. You don't even know the guy. Anyways.

Lex led us into a dimly-lit storage room. What did the room store, you may ask? Well…

Gazzy POV

DONUTS! Thousands and thousands of delicious donuts! Mini donuts, huge donuts, chocolate donuts, powdered donuts, classic glazed donuts, sprinkled donuts, even jelly-filled donuts! I squealed like a little girl, and Max had to hold me back from attacking the hoard of sweet treats. (Of course, there were also lame things like cookies and cupcakes and stuff. But nothing compares to donuts!)

Lex led us through another door, away from my precious donuts. This one was like a break room for employees. There was a small window in yet ANOTHER door, and we all crammed our heads together to watch. There was a lady at a counter of what seemed like a small parlor. She looked to be around her late-thirties with blondish-brownish hair like Max's. As a customer came in, she said in a super-cheerful voice, "Welcome to San Fran Sweeties! (A.N. I looked it up, and it turns out that there is a place called Sweeties in San Francisco. This is completely made up, so no offense to anyone out in the Bay Area! ;) ) How may I help you?" I watched in fascination as the woman created custom-made donuts. So that's how it works… I was drooling at the different kinds of desserts and sweets, ignoring Angel's signature "ewww" face.

After the rest of the customers were happily munching on their fresh donuts (I was super jealous of them), the lady came into the break room. She gasped when she saw all of us random kids sitting there, but grinned and hugged Lex. "Hey kiddo!" she said, ruffling his hair.

Then she looked at the rest of us with interest. "Hi. I'm Sweetie Francesca."

I opened my mouth to comment, but she cut in, "Yes, yes, it's very ironic, my shop is San Fran Sweeties and I'm Sweetie Francesca. I've heard it all before." Her eyes and smile looked very, very familiar.

Max stepped forward. "I'm Max, this is Nick, Jeff, Tiffany, Zephyr, Angel and… Krystal." Max glanced at Miranda with a question on her face and Miranda subtly nodded; the fake name worked for her.

Lex explained to the Flock, "When Jeb brought me to San Francisco, he left me with one of the few people he could trust to keep my secret. Sweetie practically raised me, until I could leave on my own." Although his tone was light and happy, Lex's eyes pleaded us not to say anything that would reveal his pickpocketing. I'm guessing he wouldn't want Sweetie to know about his life as a sneaky thief. We all nodded.

Max was suspicious, though, as soon as the word 'Jeb' left Lex's mouth. "How do you know Jeb?" she questioned Sweetie.

"Why, I'm his sister," Sweetie replied.

Woah. Did not see that coming. The Flock stood there, slack-jawed and eyes as big as an extra-large powdered donut. Now the resemblances were showing up. The hair, the eyes, even the facial expressions… But if Sweetie was Jeb's sister, then…

Max snarled, "You're my aunt?" I snickered. Max had a real, true, no-doubt Aunt Sweetie. Oh, Iggy and I had thought the day would never come.

Now it was Sweetie's turn to look very confused. "My brother never told me he had a daughter…" Not to mention a son, Ari, who was killed twice after being turned into a mutant dog man. Of course, we didn't actually say that aloud… most of us. But Sweetie couldn't hear us!

Cue Iggy's clever comment (whispered): "Dang, Max. You're family tree's getting larger by the second. You've got a dad you hate and a mom you love, a half-brother and half-sister, and now an Aunt Sweetie who has a wonderful donut parlor in San Fran. And that's not even counting your two percent of you-know-what…"

Angel whispered back, "Iggy, you are really, really insensitive."

He shrugged, "Meh, it's part of my charm."

Fang snorted. "What charm?"

While the Flock continued this banter, Lex was explaining our situation to Sweetie. She nodded understandingly, and I wondered how many other mutants Lex had brought to meet his guardian.

After a few minutes, the talking was interrupted by the ding-ding of the service bell on Sweetie's counter outside the room. "Oops! Gotta run. I'll talk to you kids later. Oh, and help yourselves to the donuts in the back room while I'm gone!"

I seriously loved this woman. In a free-donuts kind of way.

Max POV

Gazzy was stuffing his face with as many donuts as possible. He even found a large bag and began dumping whole bins of powdered donut holes in it. Angel, Miranda, and Nudge were staring at his piggishness with disgust, but I was listening to the conversation Sweetie was having with a customer. Though she still kept up her cheery sales-woman voice, I could detect a faint nervous waver.

"Welcome to San Fran Sweeties. How may I help you?"

"I was told your store had something that I have wanted for quite a while." It was a man, with one of those deep, threatening voices that scream evil.

"Well, our sprinkled jelly donuts are rated as one of the best in the Bay Area. Would you like a free sample?"

"No. I am thinking of something far more… unique." The way he said 'unique' rang the whole Flock's DANGER alarms. We all crammed against the door, listening to the conversation/confrontation taking place in the shop.

"Ah. I see. Well…" I could tell Sweetie was stalling for time, "I am able to create special made-to-order cookie cakes. They are quite unique, if I do say so myse—" Sweetie suddenly stopped. I subtly pried the door open and peeked around the opening to see what was happening.

The man was dressed in business-suit black with a cruel face that seemed vaguely familiar. I know… it was another GH! A Granite Humanoid, like the one we defeated in Austin. Except this one seemed a little more human. He had a beefy hand wrapped around Sweetie arm, pinning it to the table. The other hand was pointing a shining black pistol in Sweetie's face. I heard Lex tense up, barely stopping himself from leaping into the parlor to jump this thug. I'll call him Thug from now on.

Behind Thug, the rest of the customers that were previously munching on donuts now were screaming. Thug turned around, still pinning Sweetie's arm to the counter. "Everyone! Scram!" he yelled, pointing his gun at the innocents. There was a stampede of running, screeching people. In walked two more thug-like dudes. I'll call them Goon and Hoodlum.

By this point, we were all fearing for Sweetie's life. Of course, if we suddenly jumped out from the shadows, who knows what Thug might have done? Surprisingly, though, Sweetie stood up tall and asked, "Is this a robbery? Because I'm sorry to say that most customers only pay with credit—"

"Shut it!" Thug bellowed. "Where are the mutants?" Everyone in the back room was tense now.

"Mutants? Okay, I know our pastries are a little less-than-stellar, but mutant is going a bit far, don't you think?"

"She sounds like you, Max!" Angel whispered excitedly. And I had to admit, Sweetie was using her wit to buy herself—and us—some time. Much like I do in similar situations.

"Listen. There's no point in hiding them, because either you tell us where they are, or we search this shop until we find them. Your choice, lady."

And bam. I had a plan. "Everyone," I whispered. "Those guys are going to come in here eventually. We need an escape plan."

"I have one!" Gazzy grinned, and we huddled to listen to his plot. It just might work…

Lex POV

I released my tail to its full length and reached out with it like a rope towards Sweetie. Sweetie was like my big sister, and no way some rock dude was going to hurt her at all. I wrapped my tail around Sweetie and yanked her away into the back room, faster than the "Granite Humanoid" guy could react. Fortunately, she didn't make noise, those she was as shocked as the dude that had her at gunpoint a second ago.

While we still had the element of surprise, I dragged Sweetie into the donut room. Behind me I could hear the angry roars of the three rock men as they started to follow us.

"Almost done, Gazzy?" Max asked anxiously.

"Just a few more touches… there!" The Flock, Sweetie, and I ran out to the alley beyond the donut room. We retreated several feet, and Gazzy pulled out a small remote with a large red button on it, his finger poised to press it. "Wait for it… wait for it…"

Then we heard the men trip over the boxes of donuts we had arranged in the floor of the donut room. They fell noisily, and Max yelled, "Now Gazzy!"

Gazzy gleefully pressed the button, and through the open passageway door to the donut room, we watched the scene. (Kids, don't try this at home.) Simultaneously, all three men had tons of glazed donuts dumped on them, momentarily trapping them on the floor. Then, the jelly donuts spontaneously combusted, somehow lighting the powdered donuts on fire. The jelly that sprayed from the jelly donuts managed to ignite from the flaming powdered donuts onto the rock men. Finally, the extra-large chocolate donuts flashed, and all of the shelves tilted over, pinning the three dudes down for good.

We all stood there in silence, and Iggy whistled, "I don't know how it looked, but the wreckage smelled and sounded amazing. Awesome work, Gaz!" And they slapped fives.

Sweetie was looking at the burning remains of the donuts for her shop. Max walked up, looking sorry as she said, "Sorry about the destruction, Sweetie…"

But to everyone's surprise, Sweetie turned and hugged Max. "Thank you so much! I've been waiting to get rid of those donuts! Those are the expired ones from last year that I couldn't sell! I used to give them out to little kids in the street who looked hungry, but after a while, they stopped taking them. I would have thrown them out, but I'm just not a waster. You did me a favor!"

Gazzy then proceeded to puke up at least thirty assorted donuts in the gutter. Not a pretty sight, let me tell you…

A.N. Wow. The word "donut" was mentioned thirty-six times in this chapter!

Miranda: Make that thirty-seven, ICBN.

Me: So how did you guys like it? Please review! Oh, and Sweetie is my fourth OC! Who's your favorite OC?

Nudge: I like Miranda best!

Lex: No fair! You're biased!

Miranda: So? *smirks smugly*

Me: Everyone! Stop bugging me! *sighs* Oh, and if you haven't heard, I am taking a vote for my next story! Which one should I do next?

1. Nudge's boarding school days- What really happened in MAX when Nudge went to school? (Crossover with Gallagher Girls series)

2. The Flock's life in the School- How they met, how Jeb got them out, and what Ari was like as a little boy?

3. Hidden Talents- The many known and unknown talents that the Flock members have, and tales where they come in handy?

4. What if… - Using different situations in JP's books, what would happen if things ended up differently?

So vote and R&R, and I will reward you with a virtual San Fran Sweeties donut (freshly made by Sweetie)! ;)