Max POV:

Mom gently took the book from Angel and smiled at me. "Is this one nearing the 'fun' yet?" She asked warily.

I laughed at her expression and Fang just smirked. "Almost Mom, we're getting there. The sooner you read, the sooner you guys come in" I winked at her, and she started to read.

Chapter 12:

"We clear on Plan B?" I asked, raising my voice so Fang and Nudge could hear me over the roar of the wind.

We were headed into the sun, south-southwest. Leaving the Sangre de Cristo Mountains behind, streaking through the sky at a steady ninety miles per hour. "Whoa! Ninety Miles an Hour! That's like, super fast! I knew you could fly fast, but I didn't think you could fly that fast!" Ella said. If we hit a nice air current, we could add twenty miles per hour to our speed. The glory of flight. The rest of us chuckled at El and Mom's chagrined expressions.

Fang nodded. God, is he ever the strong and silent type. Most of the flock stared at me, then at Fang, shaking their heads. "You guys are so crazy." One of them said, I wasn't paying attention though… I was motioning mom to read on.

"Uh-huh," said Nudge. "If we get separated somehow – though I don't see how we could unless maybe one of us gets lost in a cloud or something – do you think that could happen? I haven't ever been inside a cloud. I bet it's creepy. Can you see anything inside a cloud –" Everyone laughed at this. "What! It's a good point!" Nudge defended herself.

"Just to let you know, you can't really get lost in a cloud. It was really cold though." I shivered remembering the time I had to go cloud jumping to save Total.

I shot her a look. She paused, then quickly finished. "We meet up at the northmost point of Lake Mead."

I nodded. "And where's the School?"

"In DeathValley, eight miles due north from the Badwater Basin." Her mouth opened to add more, but I raised my eyebrows at her. I love Nudge, Nudge is a great kid, but that motormouth of hers could have turned Mother Teresa into an ax murderer.

"You got it," I said, "Good job." Did you hear that address? Death Valley. Above the Badwater Basin. Like, when we got there, we'd see a road paved with good intentions and have to cross the river Styx to get in. Wouldn't surprise me.

The wind was undoing my braid, and chunks of long hair whipped annoyingly across my face. Note to self: Cut hair short. "I love your notes to self Max. I thought only I did that!" Iggy laughed at Ella's comment. "You mean you don't talk to yourself, Ig? I guess it just runs in the family." She added the last part with a sigh and Angel laughed at some thought she heard. I decided to stay out of it.

The Gasman and Iggy had been non-too-happy campers when we'd left, "Did you really think we would be?" Iggy asked. "I mean, really!" Gazzy 'humphed' beside him but chose to remain silent. "but I thought I'd made the right decision. That was the problem with this leader stuff. It didn't come with an instruction manual. Given what Angel was facing their being unhappy was the least of my concerns.

I glanced over at Fang and saw that his face looked serene, almost – well, not exactly happy, Fang's never happy – but just really calm. I edged closer to him.

"On the plus side, flying is just really, really cool." I said, and he looked at me with a half smile of understanding. His dark wings moved powerfully, glinting faintly purple in the sunlight. "My wings are NOT purple." Fang said with a frown as he stared at me. I looked up at him innocently and smiled. The wind was whistling in our ears; we could see everything for miles. It was like being God. I imagine.

Oh, yeah. "On the minus side, we're mutant freaks who will never live a normal life."

Fang shrugged. "Win some, lose some." Mom chuckled at that.

I was too upset to laugh but gave a wry smile and looked over at Nudge. She was three years younger than us but was holding her own. Like all of us, she was tall for her age, and skinny, probably weighing no more than sixty pounds, thanks to her strong, light bird bones.

Ninety miles an hour wasn't fast enough. The "scientists" at the School could do a lot of damage in seven hours. Even so, I knew we'd have to take a break before we got there. If we were going to hit the School, we'd need to be rested not hungry.

"This reality check brought to you by Maximum Ride." The entire flock recited having heard me bring them back down to earth like this numerous times. I rolled my eyes.

I checked my watch – we'd been skyborne for a good two hours. I was already feeling empty, a little shaky. Flying burned energy like nothing else, and after a long flight, I felt like I could eat a cow. Fork optional. Even needing to get to Angel, we couldn't forget the basic necessity of eating.

"Max?" Nudge's big eyes, the same tawny russet as her wings, looked over at me. "I was thinking –"

Here we go. This was met by a chuckle from maybe 2 or 3 people and a "Hey!" From Nudge.

"I mean, right before we left? I just looked at Jebs old files, you know? And some of them were about us. Or me. I saw my name on a page, my real name, Monique, and then, like, some people's names, and then – Tipisco, Arizona. Tipisco is right on the Arizona-California border – I found it on the map. Real tiny town, it looked likey. Anyway, I was thinking, none of us ever knew our real parents, and, you know, we've always wondered, or at least I mean I've always wondered, but I guess the rest of you have too, like, whether they gave me up voluntarily or whether –"

"Nudge. I know how you feel. But those names might not have anything to do with you. We don't know if we were just test-tube babies or what. Please. Let's focus on rescuing angel."

No response.

"Nudge?"

"Yeah, okay. I was just thinking."

I knew this one was going to come back and bite me in the butt. I never did apologize, though I knew I should. I knew it was all behind us. Thank goodness for that. Mom passed the book to El so she could read. . . I found it ironic that she got the chapter written from Angel. She continued to read without any comments from my family.

Chapter 13:

Her mouth was so dry. Her head ached – everything ached. Angel blinked several times, trying to wake up. Above her was a dark brown plastic roof. A cage. A dog crate. A Kanine Kamper, size medium. Fuzzy thoughts pushed at her brain as she struggled to a sitting position. She knew where she was – she would recognize that chemical, disinfectant smell anywhere. She was at the School.

New new 'n' wings and new new wings girl new.

Quickly, Angel turned in the direction of the thoughts.

In a crate next to hers were two other children, younger than she. Their eyes, too big for their hungry faces, locked onto her.

"Hi," Angel whispered. She didn't feel any whitecoats around – just the scrambled incoherent thoughts of these kids.

Mouth noise girl wings new new.

The other children stared without answering. Trying to smile, Angel looked at them more closely. She thought they were both boys. One had rough, scaly skin - literally scaly, like a fish, but just in patches, not all over. Not a happy effect.

The other one just looked like...a mistake. He had extra fingers and toes, and hardly any neck. His eyes where huge and bulging, and the hair on his head was sparse. It made Angel's heart hurt just to look at him. "The poor dears." Mom's heart obviously ached for the kids that the 'scientists' played around with.

"I'm Angel," she whispered again. "Do you have names?"

Noise noise bad girl wings bad noise

The two boys looked afraid, and they turned from her and edged farther back into their cage.

Angel swallowed hard and was quiet. What had happened to Max and the others? Were they in cages too?

A door opened and footsteps sounded on the linoleum floor. Angel felt the caged boys trembling with dread, crazed, swirling thoughts of fear crashing in their brains. They huddled together at the back of their cage. But the two whitecoats stopped in front of Angel's.

"Oh, my God - Harrison was right," one whitecoat said, hunching down to stare at Angel through the grate. "They got her! Do you know how long I've wanted to get my hands on this one?" He turned excitedly to the other whitecoat. "Did you ever read the Director's precept report about this recombinant group?"

"Yeah, but I wasn't sure I believed it," said the other whitecoat, a woman. "Are you saying this is subject eleven? This little girl?"

The first whitecoat rubbed his hands together with glee. "You're looking at it." He leaned forward to unhook her cage door. "Come on, little thing. You're wanted in lab seven." Oh, yes! Man, when I section her brain...

Angel winced, then rough hands dragged her out.

Pathetic relief washed through the boys that it was she who was being taken and not them.

Angel didn't blame them one bit.

No one commented through the whole thing. Quite a few winces, a few cringes, and a whimper or two. It was too painful to make it pause just so a question could get asked. Which of course, since El read this one, she had to ask something. . . "A-Angel? Are you okay? They – they didn't hurt you real bad did they?"

"All I can say is, I'm glad Max got there when she did. I was really starting to worry, though I knew they would never let me stay there long." Angel said. And I rubbed a few of her feathers.

"No worries guys. You already know we all make it okay. Anyway, It's my turn to read again… Hand it over El." I said, anxious for us to keep moving.

A/N:

Hey! Soooo, I tried to update fast! Does this work for you? Oh, my faithful viewers, you inspire me :). Lets spice things up a bit. . . For the next chapter to be posted I want 7 reviews. Okay? That or I'll just update on Wednesday next week. . . whichever comes first…

Major, MAJOR props to percabethatw! MAJOR HELP! I definitely owe this one to you!

Annnd, the winner for the animal war update goes tooooo *drum roll* MissA540! Thanks! I totally believe that! I mean, that's why you only see a few of the Rabbits and Chipmunks! They're in hiding! :)

Next time, lets see….. How about a dedication to whomever can tell me what the best summer activity is! Bowling, Swimming, Water Skiing… Sculling? Or maybe even Squirrel watching? Who knows?

Until Next time!

Fly On!

~Jezabel Raewin