A.N. Hey folks! Thanks for bearing with me as I get through this crazy thing called high school. Since y'all are so patient, I am treating you to a new chapter today!

CHAPTER 11: Sweetie's Place

Max POV

After the… interesting events at the donut parlor, Sweetie brought us home with her. She lived in a small house on a hill that had a wonderful view of the Bay. Somehow we managed to fit all nine of us into her living room, and Sweetie looked at us sadly. "You're all experiments, aren't you?"

I glanced at Lex. He nodded with an unspoken statement that we could be open with Sweetie. I answered her, "Yes, we're avian-human hybrids."

"So, I expect you must have…"

"Wings."

"Right. Wings."

Awkward silence, and then I asked a question that had been hammering at my mind for a while. "Sweetie, if you're Jeb's sister, how come your name isn't Batchelder, too? Are you married?"

She smiled. "Yes. My husband and I have been married for almost five years now."

"I would love to meet him," I commented politely. Even though chances were good I would never get the chance to see him.

Pain hit Sweetie's kind face. "I'm afraid that he's not around. He's been fighting in the war in the Middle East for almost a year now." The Flock stared at each other with shock on our faces. For some reason, when you're busy fighting evil international corporations and diabolical megalomaniacs on a daily basis, you tend to forget that there are other non-mutant battles happening constantly all over the world.

Lex walked over to his guardian and wrapped his arm around her shoulders comfortingly. "He's stationed in Afghanistan for another six months. And then he'll come back home." All of us could tell that Sweetie and Lex deeply cared for this man.

Miranda inquired, "How much do you know about a company called ITEX?" I have to say, she's much better about getting to the point than Nudge is.

Sweetie's face hardened into a determined expression that closely resembled my own. "Well, I know more about it than most people do. I know that some of their deals are shady, but no one can get the right kind of evidence on them. I know that ever since the corporation had a fall a few months ago, one of their current main headquarters is located up in Seattle, where Lex came from. Which, now that I think about it, you kids probably had something to do with their small collapse. Most of all, I know for a fact that their experimentation research has crossed several ethical boundaries. Last I heard from Jeb, he was working in that department."

"Do you approve of his job?" Nudge questioned.

"To be honest? No. But Jeb's his own person now. I can't tattle to Mommy or Daddy like I used to when we were little. He's got to live up to his own actions. Do you know if he still works for ITEX nowadays?" Sweetie looked concerned.

"I don't think so, but there's no telling what goes on with Jeb when you're not watching." Everyone in the room could detect my feelings towards my biological father.

Sweetie noticed this, too, but remarked, "Everyone at some time in their lives does something that they regret, and Jeb is no exception. But that one evening in October, years ago, when he rang my doorbell and my husband and I saw him standing on our doorstep, with Lex's little hand in his… Moments like that remind me that Jeb has one of the softest hearts I know." She smiled to herself, and asked us, "Did Jeb send you to me? Or are you traveling for another reason?"

Right. Straight to business. "Let's just say that one of us has a little… issue, and we need to clear it up with ITEX as soon as possible. We were heading north, to Seattle, ran into Lex, and met you. He said you would be able to help us."

At this, Sweetie eyes lit up in determination. "I see." She stood from her seat on the couch and walked out of the room, calling back, "Follow me, Max."

She led me to a small office in the attic. When she flicked a switch, aged yellow light flooded the wooden paneled flooring and ceiling. All along the walls were articles, photographs, website printouts, copied pages from books, handwritten notes, and sticky notes galore. As Sweetie walked over to her desk, I caught a glimpse of a newspaper clipping:

ITEX CLAIMS HUMAN EXPERIMENTATION IS "THE FUTURE OF MANKIND"

SEATTLE, WA - This afternoon in a press conference, the Institute for Technology, Engineering, and Experimentation, or ITEX, declared that their startling advances in genetics, were "the gateway to the future of mankind, a path on the way to a world of healthy, intelligent, peaceful people, each gifted in areas previously only known to animals," according to Dr. Gwen Polymer, the leading researcher of the Department of Experimentation at ITEX.

ITEX has dealt with several legal investigations throughout their eighty-five year history, although the frequency of these investigations has increased within the past year. Last April, there was a worldwide revolt against the privately-owned, multi-billion dollar company, with one major attack against the ITEX Headquarters in Germany. While an official report had never been issued, there were rumors circulating that mutants, products of ITEX's supposed illegal experimentation on humans, were fighting back within the closed walls of the headquarters. One particular person of interest was Maximum Ride, a fifteen-year-old avian-human hybrid, whom we have reported on during several other occasions.

Maximum Ride claimed that she and her "Flock" had been created by scientists at "the School", a supposed branch of ITEX, where their DNA was fused with two-percent of avian, resulting in a variety of bird-like qualities, including their trademark wings, which have been successfully photographed on many occasions. When government authorities received this unusual account of illegal human experimentation, they immediately launched a thorough, in-depth investigation of ITEX which is still in progress.

In response to a reporter's inquiry at today's press conference, Dr. Polymer reassured the public that all of ITEX's ventures were "completely legal, ethical, and ultimately will be beneficial to the globe in coming years." Time will tell in the coming months from the multiple investigations whether Dr. Polymer's assertions are truthful. -Carson Williams

Well, nice to know that our beloved country is trying to hold the bad guys accountable. I was a little unsettled that there was a whole paragraph dedicated to the Flock, though. So much for inconspicuous, although I imagine that we threw that out the window when we flew through the roof of that glass restaurant in New York City over a year ago. Upon quick inspection, I realized that Sweetie had tons of information like this against ITEX pinned up against every inch of space on her wall. A photograph of a terrified little girl with fins swimming away from armed men on motorboats; quickly jotted phone numbers and addresses of various "Dr.'s"; scans of check receipts of millions of dollars made out to "The Institute for Higher Living"; even a coffee-stained napkin with the words " 96.2% human + 3.8% monkey? Plausible". I shuddered at that: humans and monkeys don't mix well from my experience.

While I was gaping at this impressive compilation of incriminating evidence against my arch-foes, Sweetie was sorting through several files, taking out various pages, examining them, and putting them back. With a shout of triumph, she turned to me and held out a stapled packet of pages. The cover read, "ITEX Headquarters, as of October 20_ (A.N. Fill in the blank with the current year)". I flipped through the sheets, skimming over various maps with red circles around different buildings and official blueprints of the central offices, instructions for shutting off power and bulleted lists of locations where spare keys for rooms are held. "Oh my gosh, Sweetie. Where did you get this stuff?"

"I do much more than run a donut shop, Max. The second I saw Lex's ears and tail, I knew I had to hunt this company down. They can't be allowed to do this to innocent children. I have various sources, mostly through Jeb, and I sometimes am able to hack through their firewalls. They don't know I have this information, so when it's time to attack, we'll have the element of surprise-"

"Wait a minute," I stopped her. "We'll have the element of surprise? Sweetie, you're not coming with us."

"Yes, I am." Who died and put her in charge?

"No, you're not. We have to stay focused when we're in battle. We can't be worried about…"

"Me. Because I'm just a human." She sounded offended.

I took a breath, and spoke the truth. "Yes. You are not genetically enhanced. You couldn't hold your own against three-hundred pound wolf-men made of pure muscles and claws. The second they would get a hit in, you'd be knocked out cold, or worse. Trust me. It's safer for everyone if you just stay here."

This thirty-something-year-old lady glared at me with the steely gaze I once thought was mine, but then again, Sweetie had been alive longer. We stared at each other, a silent smack down raging in the attic of the small house. Suddenly, Lex stepped into the room. We broke the tension in surprise.

"What's going on?" he asked, looking worriedly between our intense faces. I explained everything to Lex, and to my relief, he sided with me. "Sweetie, you're not coming, and that's that." I can't put my finger on it exactly, but something about Lex's flaming neon green eyes and thick black hair standing on end influenced Sweetie, and she sighed in resignation.

"Fine."

That evening, following an extensive nap, we loaded our backpacks, stomachs, and pockets with provisions, the valuable packet of insider info that Sweetie gave me folded in my inner jacket pocket. A thick, gray fog concealed the top of the Golden Gate Bridge, providing a foreboding background to our farewell to Sweetie, my long-lost aunt.

I gave her a hug. While embracing me, she hissed in my ear, "Bring him back. Bring my Lex back, Maximum Ride."

"I will." I pulled back and joined the others, my original five Flock mates as well as the two newbies. That's when I realized that we had a problem. While seven of the eight of us had the gift of flight, Lex did not.

I turned to him with concern on my face, but he interjected, "Don't worry. After you guys take off, I'll catch up."

Maybe this kid didn't realize how fast we were going. "How are you going to do that?"

He smirked his cat-like smile, "Cats have their ways."

I shrugged. I nodded at the others, and one by one, they took to the skies. Sweetie looked on with wonder at our wings. Somehow, the way that a San Francisco moon hits our feathers makes them light up like they are made of pure silver. Lex gave me the go-ahead, and I took a running start and jumped up high into the air. Soaring up to a relatively low cruising altitude, I glanced down and saw that Lex was…

Running. But not like a person runs. Like a cheetah. A crazy, genetically-enhanced cheetah. On all fours and everything. I think his hair even changed color to the cheetah's classic polka-dotted coloring. Wow, 'Cats have their ways'? No kidding. I laughed in disbelief, as we traveled north at top speeds. We would hit Seattle at daybreak.

A.N. Alright, so I felt really bad about making you all wait so long for an update. That's why this one was pretty long. I have never written a newspaper article, though, so hopefully that one seems authentic and all. (BTW, Carson Williams is my generic OC-type reporter. He appears in a TV news report in my other story, Nevermore: A Maximum Ride Novel.)

Miranda: ICBN, why do you do this to us?

Me: Do what?

Nudge: Keep us locked up in the virtual jail of your computer? It's dirty, it has no food, it's boring…

Lex: *trembling* I was trapped here for weeks with a bunch of girls.

Miranda: You're a horrible author, ICBN.

Lex: Tell me about it.

Nudge: You don't hold a candle to James Patterson. He actually publishes his stories, so we get to live in people's bookshelves, which are much nicer than computers-

Me: OKAY, OKAY, I GET IT! But what am I supposed to do? Flunk school? Because that is NOT happening. I'll try to update more often, kiddos, but there's this concept called homework that none of you have to deal with on a daily basis. Just… *sigh* I'm updating Nevermore next, or maybe I'll write a one-shot or short story. Thanks again to all my reviewers! Your words are like chocolate in my world!