Disclaimer.

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Chapter 11

I woke up in a cage. How the H-E- double hockey sticks did THAThappen?! I saw Gazzy in a cage next to me and poked him through the bars. He jumped; then saw it was me.

"Hi, Max."

"Gazzy, what the heck happened?"

"I missed part of it, but Fang said Erasers came charging in with tranquilizer darts. Ava and Iggy and Angel got away, but we got knocked out. They shot one in you even though you were asleep."

Stupid Erasers.

You shouldn't have been so close to the University, Max.

Shut up! I figured that out already.

"Don't beat yourself up about it, Max." It was Ichthia. "It was stupid of me to have us land so close. And I should have seen it coming with the darts. They're too scared to come near me otherwise."

"Hey Ichthia, do we get introductions?" someone asked.

I looked around to see the person who'd spoken – a blond boy. Except his blond hair had black spots in it and he had large brown freckles on his face. I saw a tail twitch. Due to my great instinct on such matters (AKA remembering what Ichthia and Ava had told us) I guessed this was Leti.

"Leti, these guys are Max, Fang, Gazzy, Total, and Nudge. Flock, meet Luna, Leti, Myles, and Nat. And Drake."

"Who's Drake?" Nudge asked.

"Drake's a lizard with bat wings. He breathes fire, so we call him a dragon," said a redheaded boy who had to be Myles.

"How exactly are we getting out of here?" said Fang, stating the obvious question – which I, as leader, was required to answer. Lucky me.

Get used to it, Max.

Argh!!! I don't need a running commentary!

Okay. Escape plan... Ichthia? No, they'd put her back in that steel cage or whatever it was made out of. Nobody else had super strength. Wait... Fang?

"Fang!"

"What?" he sounded like he was in a bad mood. Well, he was in a dog kennel.

"Can you melt the bars on Ichthia's cage?"

"How should I know."

"Well, try it!" Sheesh...

"I might burn her."

Oh. Yeah. Oops... Okay, plan B.

"Try it, Myles," Leti said. Try what?

"It doesn't always work," said Myles.

What doesn't always work? "If it'll get us out of here, I think you should try it," I butted in.

"Fine," Myles sighed. He held out his right hand while concentrating. A few seconds later an empty ice cream cone appeared in his hand with a little "pop." Nudge's mouth dropped open.

"Cool," said Gazzy.

"Umm... How does this help us?" I asked.

"Sorry, wrong thing," Myles told us. He concentrated again.

This time he got a pair of bolt cutters. He cut the lock on his cage and stepped out, proceeding to release each one of us.

"Cool, how does that work? Can you -"

I cut Nudge off. "Nudge, we are trying to escape. For that, we need to be quiet."

Leti jumped up onto the kennels and called down to Myles for a screwdriver. The first time Myles accidentally got the drink. Then he got the tool. It was handed up to Leti, who used it to open an air vent for us to climb through. So far, so good.

Luna, Nudge, and Nat climbed up and into the air vent. Then Total was handed up, along with Drake, who was asleep. I was about to follow when we heard something going on outside.

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A/N: For those of you who don't know, there's an alcoholic drink called a screwdriver. Also, please review. Is Max or anyone else out of character? I'm really sorry if they sound that way. But show some love and tell me if this is good.