A/N: Hello, folks! How's your day going?

Elvira: That's stupid. Who really says "folks"?

...(sigh) I guess I'd better introduce you all to Elvira, my inner critic. I made the mistake of naming her a few days ago, and now she won't shut up. My apologies. I'll just get on with the chapter before she can make any more wonderfully pithy remarks.

72

"Hey, Fang," Max said cheerfully, bumping his shoulder with her own. "How's life?"

He smiled at her. "What do you think?"

"Okay, point taken," she said, shaking her head. Then she looked up at him. "You wanna go somewhere?"

"Somewhere?"

"Yeah, you know…somewhere."

He shrugged. "Why not?"

She grabbed his hand, and he followed her as she led him through the jungle, away from the flock's camp site. Finally, she seemed to decide that she'd found a decent place, and she stopped and turned around. Then she sat down at the base of a tree and patted the ground next to her, and he dropped down to sit next her.

"Hey, Max?" Fang said after a couple minutes of comfortable silence, a thought suddenly occurring to him. "Have you noticed that it never rains here?"

She shrugged. "So?"

"So it's a tropical island," he replied. "It's supposed to rain. A lot. And it hasn't yet."

She shrugged again. "So?"

He frowned at her. "You don't think that's just the slightest bit odd?"

"Fang," she said, sounding exasperated. "It's paradise here. Do you have to worry about little things like rain?"

"Rain isn't a little thing," he protested. "Rain is what makes the plants grow. Rain is what stops the whole world from being a desert. Rain is necessary for the continued survival of our race. I don't like it when it doesn't rain."

She sighed. "Okay, Fang. Whatever."

It almost sounded to Fang like she was saying, 'Fine, I give up. Have your rain.' But that was stupid. Max didn't control the weather. She was probably just saying, 'Fine, worry about the rain if you have to'.

And then a drop of water landed on Fang's arm. Looking up, he saw that it had started to rain.

Max smiled at him. "Are you happy now, Fang?"

"Yeah, sure," he said vaguely, staring up at the torrent of raindrops that had started dripping down through the leafy canopy.

Something very fishy was going on here.

73

Iggy was having a wonderful day.

It was a Saturday, and it was brilliantly sunny and pleasantly warm, and Tess was with him. And not just with him…she was with him. They were sitting on a park bench, his arm draped around her shoulders, and he was so happy he thought he was going to pop. Any minute now, he expected someone to say, "Oh, no, Iggy's too happy, better do something", and it would all go away.

But it hadn't happened yet, and he wasn't about to let that sort of pessimistic thinking ruin his day.

"Iggy?" Tess asked drowsily, leaning her head on his shoulder.

"Yeah?"

She lifted her head a bit to look up at him. "Have you ever had a day that was just too good to be true?"

No way. She could not be thinking the same thing he was. Grinning, he replied, "Definitely. I was just in the process of classifying this one as exactly that."

She beamed at him. "Me too. What a coincidence."

Iggy was about to reply when he noticed a slight pain creeping up the back of his neck. He frowned and raised a hand to rub the muscles there, hoping he could make it go away.

Tess noticed his movement and sat up to look at him properly. "You okay?"

He nodded, still rubbing the back of his neck. "Just some tense muscles, I think."

"Tense muscles?" she asked. "Aren't those generally stress-induced?"

Iggy shrugged. "If you say so."

Tess raised an eyebrow. "Are you stressed right now?"

"Not in the least," he replied. "Why?"

She just looked at him for a minute, and he finally realized what she was getting at.

"Oh. Right." He shrugged again. "Weird."

She sank back against the bench. "Yeah. Weird."

He was about to brush the whole thing off when the creeping pain suddenly shot up into the base of his skull. Yelping embarrassingly, he brought both hands up behind his head, pressing his fingertips into the very top of his neck. It eased the pain, but only slightly.

"Iggy?" Tess looked very concerned. "Iggy, are you sure you're okay?"

His eyes were starting to water from the pain, but he managed a short nod. "I've been worse, trust me."

And that was the thing; he had been in much more pain than this before, but for some reason this pain was bad in a completely different way. Bruises and cuts were one thing, but internal head pain? It was completely unknown territory, and his head wasn't at all used to it.

I should ask Max what she did to help her brain attacks, he thought, but then remembered that Max hadn't really done anything during those. She'd just sort of curled up and moaned. He really hoped that wasn't what was happening to him, because that had been beyond embarrassing, and he hadn't even been the one doing the moaning.

But just as he was wondering if he was going to have to blow off the rest of his date with Tess, the pain receded, leaving only a shadow of itself behind. He rolled his neck a couple times, just to be sure.

"It's gone," he reported. "I'm good."

Tess's eyebrows contracted, her expression confused. "That was really strange, Iggy."

He grinned. "What can I say? I'm a strange person." Just wait until you see the wings.

74

"Another crisis, momentarily diverted," Professor Henry muttered to himself. Why was this all happening at once? Just as Doctor Jones had discovered something that he believed to be the key to Angel's recovery, Gazzy, Nudge, and Iggy had started reacting to the machines in the same way Max had, and Professor Henry had been forced to run around giving them all a good dose of pain killers.

He went back over to the laptop he'd been working on and opened a new text file. He put the date and time at the top, then began typing.

Gazzy, Nudge, and Iggy reacted to machines. Anesthetics applied. All brain activities normal. No idea yet as to what could be causing this problem. Fang still unaffected. Doctor Jones on the verge of discovery. Angel to be treated ASA

He stopped typing as the radio on the desk nearby suddenly squawked to life.

"Professor, I've got it!" Doctor Jones' voice was verging on ecstatic. "I've figured it out!"

"I'm going to assume that you're talking about Angel?" the professor asked dryly.

"Of course, of course." Apparently the doctor was too excited to even be annoyed by such questions. "I've treated her, and she should be up and going in a couple hours."

Professor Henry was impressed. "That soon?"

"Yes," Doctor Jones replied. "Are you ready? We've got to get this plan going, you know. You were the one saying, 'The sooner the better'."

"I know." Professor Henry rubbed a hand across his face. "Okay, come up to the lab. We'll get started immediately."

As he turned the radio off, the professor sent a silent plea up to whoever would listen that they would pull this off without a disaster, because if he were being honest with himself, he would have to admit that their chances didn't look particularly good.

A/N: Okay, so...Is anyone reading the Hunger Games series? Because Mockingjay, the third and final book, came out Tuesday. I just got it today, and I am freaking psyched about it. I absolutely can't wait to read it, which I shall commence to doing as soon as a get a free moment. I've been waiting for this book since last summer, and it's finally here! (does Dance of Joy)

Anyway, reviews are always lovely. =)