a/n: Whoa! I got almost eight reviews for the last chapter – I'm at thirty now! Woot!

And aviator301, you have creepy perception. Almost right, you were. --- okay, that was a backwards sentence. And Agni, no. I shall not stop until I dominate the world. Oh, you know what I mean. To anyone who doesn't know, I have another fanfic now – Maximum Ride: Stuck

Okay, to be truthful, I am writing about six. You see, I actually am finished writing this one – and you are getting scarily close to finishing reading it. But don't fret, faithful readers. There will be a sequel. It will pick up right after this one left off.

And then I'm writing another one that centers on Nudge, I don't know if I will put it up. I probably will.

Okay, so that was only about four. But then I'm writing two novels of my own. :) so there.

I'm rambling like Nudge today. Okay, if anyone read Maximum Ride: Stuck, my other fanfic, I want to say that I personally love the following line, because I totally wrote it late at night, and I have no idea where it came from. Ter Borcht comes in, and he wants to take Fang for testing – Max is bothering him, and he turns around and says:

"Do not test me."

And then, Fang totally turns around and says "Funny, I'd say the same to you."

It's really sad when you start to laugh at your own fan fictions.

Disclaimer: I don't own Maximum Ride. I do, however, own Lai.

Apologies: The really long a/n is totally my fault.

Lai's Point of View

I woke up falling.

My hair was straight up, eyes tearing with the wind. I could barely do so, but I looked up. Three Flock members above me were staring down.

The ground was rushing up to meet me. As a reflex, I unfurled my wings, fast. Like with a parachute, I started to float, but not without effort. Due to the adrenaline rush, I didn't feel the searing pain until a second later. It hurt, really bad… and that was when the parachute effect wore off, and I started to fall.

Max tucked in her wings and dive bombed for me as I screamed, rushing towards the ground. She scooped me up into her arms at the last second, and I was crying.

"Shh, baby, it's alright."

"Max, Max, I'm so sorry! I don't hate you – you saved me." I sniffled. "It just really hurt. A lot." I reached out and touched the sore wing. It didn't hurt as bad anymore, and now that I thought about it, if I knew how to fly I probably could have. "That's the second time you saved me. No, the third." I sniffled again, wiping my eyes as she flew me up towards the others.

"It's alright hun. I know you don't hate me. I probably would have killed Fang if he had to do that to me." I couldn't see her killing anyone.

"Dude, what in the world is that smell?" Iggy asked, lifting his nose in my direction.

Fang was looking in my direction, staring at my head calmly. "Lai." He said.

"Hey! You don't smell like a flower patch exactly."

Max was laughing. "No, Lai, check out the blue part of your hair."

I grabbed it in between my fingers – it was warm, tingly. I pulled it in front of my eyes. Oh, wow.

It was sparking. Blue and yellow sparks were shooting out of it. I'd always had the blue part – as long as I could remember, anyway. I knew that they all thought I had dyed it myself – but really, how would I get Kool-Aid at the Institute?

"Max, what's going on with my hair?"

"Her hair?" Iggy asked.

Max looked to Fang, who had the side of his mouth in a tiny grin. But there was also sadness in his eyes – just the tiniest bit, something that I knew Max wouldn't even find. And they knew each other pretty well.

"Looks like you've got a new power, Lai." Max said.

"Um, Fang, you've got ten seconds to tell me what's going on." Iggy said, crossing his arms. We were all halted in the air now, hovering.

"She's got a power." Fang said. "Her hair can electrocute people. Or at least shoot sparks."

"Dude, I'm not carrying her anymore." Iggy said. I felt sad, but I didn't blame him.

"That's okay. Fang will carry me."

He held up his hands. "I like toast, just not me as toast."

"Max?" I asked hopefully.

"Looks like we're going to teach you to fly."

Max's POV

"Time?" Fang asked. Did he ever talk full sentences?

"No. But we don't have time to become winged toast, either." I said.

I looked to Lai. She was looking at me with hopeful eyes. "Alright, Lai. Can you stretch out your wings?" She did so, wincing a little as the muscles stretched. They were sore, but she was healed. Fang flew over to help coach. Iggy looked mad that he couldn't do much to help, but I would have to deal with that later. Right now, I needed to teach her as fast as possible and get back to the mission.

Fang looked at me, nodded twice. We were going to teach her the same way we'd taught Nudge, Gasman and Angel. It was cruel, but, hey, it was effective.

"Lai – count of three, push your wings up and down." Fang said. Lai nodded, a trusting look in her eyes. The whole trust fall thing that they had going on between them was beyond me – and it was about to get a little more trust fally around here in a few seconds.

"One." Fang said.

"Two." I answered.

"Three!" Iggy shouted.

And then, I dropped her.

This girl was doing a lot of falling lately.

Lai's POV

I was falling.

Again.

This Flock had butter arms, was I right?

But I did as they said – it was an instinct almost. I'd realized they did it on purpose. I pushed my wings down, then up. I had never flown before, but suddenly, I was flying.

Soaring, actually, soaring up to meet my new friends. "Max, look!" I shouted. "I'm flying!"

They slapped me high fives – even Iggy, who for some reason, could do just about anything a sighted person could do besides see. I could feel the blue part of my hair sizzling – I was going to have to learn to control that – but right now, it didn't matter.

We were going to go rescue the rest of the Flock. And suddenly, I realized – I was part of it.

I wasn't a freak. I wasn't a mutant. I was a Flock member. I had a family. I had wings. And I really, really, liked my life.

a/n: Don't worry, this isn't the end yet! And there is a sequel. Which I am hoping will be awesome.