AHHHH! Good day today! :D Not only did I get to go to a football game (it was insanely close, but our team won!), but I totally found a perfectly good Bic pen in the bleachers. B) I call it my pen of mystery—my dad calls it a pen of germs. *shrugs* But whatever. It's good for the immune system, or something like that. It's not like I'm going to chew on it… I think. :/

And now we find out the truth about the charming Martinez-Griffiths family. :) Ah yes, nothing like finding out your family is stranger and more secretive than you are. We're also going to hear from the rest of the Flock, as well as shed some (very dim) light as to Fang's whereabouts. Enjoy. ;)


11 – The Family Business

…And my day just keeps getting weirder and weirder. Not only have I been rescued from the Collectors' clutches and reunited with my long lost relatives, but it turns out that said long lost relatives are underground resistance leaders! Bet none of your cousins are underground resistance leaders.

Once the coast was clear Iggy led us back to the house and we sat back down at the dinner table, acting like dinner had never been interrupted. Ella filled me in on the "family business", explaining that they headed up a network of rebels across the empire that free prisoners, sabotage Collectors, collect data from the West, and are slowly arranging the takedown of the Supremacy and the restoration freedom to the empire. And, considering what I'd encountered since setting foot inside the Cutoff zone, I was inclined to approve of their cause.

"Our organization is called the Coalition to Stop the Madness, or the CSM for short," Iggy explained. Apparently it used to be the name of a humanitarian/environmentalist organization Valencia started pre-Cutoff, but they had sort of adopted the title when they began setting up the network. "And Ella's being modest when she says 'we' head up the CSM. She practically started the rebellion!"

"I did not," Ella mumbled, blushing slightly. I had to admit, I had trouble picturing this sweet little mother of five as the leader of the rebel cause.

"Tell that to everyone else in the CSM," Iggy retorted, grinning at Ella. "They've been worshipping you since Camp Savahara and the Springer takeover."

"Yes, well," Ella cleared her throat, "you were at Savahara too."

"You can say that again," Valencia mumbled, glaring at Iggy. (Not that he could see it.) Clearly I was missing some sort of back reference, but I decided to leave the questions for later and get on to more important business.

"Well, no matter who's in charge here," I decided, "you guys are definitely the people who can help me most. I came here to find my parents, and my only lead is the fact that Collectors bear some resemblance to the goons that attacked them and made my dad disappear."

"I'm afraid we don't know much," Ella admitted, "Our intel agents out West have been monitoring the Brainworks for years, looking for any indication as to where your parents are. We still haven't found anything."

"But if Collectors captured Fang," Iggy pointed out, "then there's a good chance he's West somewhere."

"And what if they killed him all those years ago?" I asked, my stomach churning at the thought.

He frowned, as unsettled by the thought as I was. "Then the West is still your best bet at finding out more information. We could ship you out as soon as we got you some papers—"

"Iggy!" Ella interrupted, looking at him as if he'd just suggested flying me to Mars in a hot air balloon. "You're not seriously suggesting we smuggle Max's daughter halfway across the continent into enemy territory! Not even you or me have gone that far in years!"

"Ella, Lex didn't come here to stay safe," he reminded her, "she came here looking for answers, and the best place to look is in the West. We'll send her to Nudge, Gazzy, and Angel—they can put her to work at the front lines, plugging for information. She could be a big help, Ella."

"I agree," Valencia added, giving a nod of approval, "If anyone finds Max and Fang, it will be Lex."

Ella was quiet for a while, frustratingly mulling over the situation. Obviously her protective motherly instincts were shifting to me because I'm her sister's daughter. But you know what they say: if you love someone, let them travel across enemy lines in search of their long lost parents. "Fine," she relented, knowing she'd lost the debate. She turned to me and said in a calm voice, "Lex, would you like to go West and help the Flock collect intel?"

I nodded eagerly in response. "Definitely."

Ella sighed. "Alright, we'll set everything up for you, but I have to insist you go by land instead of air. It's already hard enough getting past security at the best of times, but if the Collectors are smart they'll be keeping extra watch for you along the sector perimeter. You'll take the transportation we give you, and you'll take an escort who's familiar with the underground."

"I'll go!" Nina piped up.

"No!" Iggy and Ella exclaimed simultaneously.

"I was going to ask Hunt to go," Ella explained, giving her daughter a look, "He's done several runs through the underground before, so he's familiar with travelling long distances." She looked to Hunt, who gave a quick nod of acceptance.

Nina groaned, a bit like a little kid who's just been forbidden from going somewhere with her big brother. "You never let me do anything! It's not like Hunt's any stronger or better-trained than I am!"

"Nina," Ella said sternly, "You're not going."

Nina scowled, but remained silent. There was an awkward pause in the room.

"So," I asked, changing topics, "when do I leave?"

It was agreed that I would leave as soon as the correct papers had been forged by the CSM printers in town, hopefully within the next couple of days. If I was going to be staying West long-term, I'd need paperwork proving that I had been approved by the government to move there as a working-class citizen. I'd have to get a job when I got there to chip in with the rent, but during my off hours Nudge could train me to search and hack the Brainworks for data that could help the CSM locate my parents. It wasn't a flashy search and rescue like I might have liked, but it was definitely a step in the right direction.


Meanwhile, in the West, Nudge was sitting in front of her plug, searching the Brainworks for any new information that might be of interest to the CSM. Her fingers glided over the keyboard flawlessly as she maneuvered her way through the 'Works, still as adept with computers as ever—though to compare a plug to an old-tech computer was like comparing a calculator to an abacus. The Brainworks was far more complex, as it ran on human brain power rather than wires and bits of metal, and so the access to the network had to be equally complicated and advanced. Thus, the plug was born.

Just then Gazzy burst in through the front door with an armful of groceries. "Sorry I'm late," he apologized, "the cashier tried to short change me ten bucks. I mean, I feel for the guy, I really do; he probably has a wife and kids at home. But he can't go around taking people's cash to meet his—"

"Don't even bother, Gasman," Nudge interrupted, seeing right through his excuse, "I know you stopped down the street to talk to that Audrey girl."

Gazzy sighed his surrender, knowing the jig was up. "How long have I been telling you not to call me Gasman anymore?" He asked Nudge.

"About since you turned thirteen," she replied, a smug grin creeping onto her face, "and you actually started caring about what people thought of you. It doesn't change the fact that it's your name, though."

He rolled his eyes, and continued, "And it's no big deal with Audrey. She's just a chick I run into sometimes at the grocery store. We've gone out to lunch a couple times, that's all."

"This is a bad idea, Gaz," Nudge warned, turning away from her screen to face him. "You know as well as I do that if that girl sees your wings she'll probably turn you in."

Walking across the room and taking a seat on the beat-up living room couch, Gazzy replied, "Nudge, I am a grown man in my late twenties who's never even kissed a girl. Forgive me if I feel a bit repressed. Besides," he added, "we're supposed to act like normal Westerners, aren't we? And normal Westerners go out on dates."

Sighing in defeat, Nudge rolled her eyes and turned back to her plug. "I still think this is a bad idea," she warned, her fingers typing a bit more angrily than before.

The room was silent except for the sound of the rattering keyboard. Finally, Gazzy asked, "So, where's Angel? Still at work?"

Nudge shook her head. "She's still convinced she'll find a way to read thoughts in the Citadel. I keep telling her, 'Angel, the Citadel walls are too thick, security's too good, and the wires coming to and from it are electric and not organic, so you won't pick anything up. You should get more hours in at work.' But does she listen to me? No, she wastes all her time out by the Citadel, practically waiting to be arrested—"

"Nudge." Gazzy gave Nudge a knowing smile.

Old habits die hard, Nudge thought to herself with a degree of frustration. Still, she wasn't nearly as loud-mouthed and prone to rambling on as she used to be. "Anyways, that's where she is now."

Just then Gazzy leaned back in his seat and exhaled deeply, a thoughtful expression crossing his face. "I'm worried about Angel," he confessed, "have been for a long time. She's always so distant, and even when she's in the real world with the rest of us for a while, she always acts so, I don't know…"

"…Superior?" Nudge finished.

He nodded. "Exactly. It's like she thinks she's better than the rest of us. And sometimes…" he paused, "sometimes I wonder: if she wasn't stuck with the CSM because she has wings, whose side would she be on?"

"I'm worried about Angel too," Nudge agreed, "She hasn't been the same since Max and Fang… you know."

Gazzy nodded again. "I think she misses them more than any of us. Especially Max."

"And that's what worries me," Nudge continued, verbalizing what they both knew was the truth, "Angel will do anything to get Max back, and I do mean anything. And Max was the only one who could ever talk any sense into Angel, so now that she's gone… well, sometimes I'm worried if that old saying came true."

"What saying?"

"Power corrupts," Nudge quoted bleakly, "but absolute power corrupts absolutely."

As if on cue Angel burst in through the front door, looking a bit flustered. Immediately Nudge and Gazzy cleared their minds of their previous conversation so she wouldn't hear their thoughts about her. "Still can't get through," Angel grumbled as she trudged through the living room into the back, "I'm gonna check the computer for messages."

"For a minute I was worried you'd run off on a date like Gazzy," Nudge called out jokingly as Angel brushed past. Angel ignored her, and went directly to the computer to check the inbox.

Technically speaking, old-tech computers were illegal in the empire, but after a booming computer age full of buttons and screens, even the Collectors grew lax on collecting the endless number of electronic devices and monitoring the erratic transmission signals that still crossed the nation from time to time. The CSM had taken advantage of their lenient policy and collected as many computers as they could, distributing them to each resistance hideout. They had established their own wireless network using old communications towers, and so now all CSM operatives were able to communicate and distribute information in a matter of minutes, and the Collectors were none the wiser.

There was only one message in the inbox today, Angel noticed. It was marked UTA, which stood for 'Urgent Trainee Arrival', and it had come from the Griffiths' farm. That's odd, she thought. They never got new recruits, let alone an important one. Angel clicked open the email, and when she read the message she gasped. "You guys," she called, "you might want to see this."

Nudge and Gazzy entered the room and leaned in next to Angel, wondering what would be so urgent that she'd ask for their immediate attention. They knew soon enough—once they read the email, they were astounded. It was written in code, as was the norm, but the message came through loud and clear: M AND F HAVE A HATCHLING. EXPECT DELIVERY SOON.


Brainworks Online Poets4Share Addy X's Profile – "The Gallery" Collection

"Raven Mind" by Addy X

"How many years?" the raven sings, "How long since I saw you last?"

He remembers, "I offered my life for yours, my Love, and was terrified when you accepted,"

The raven smiles, "Relieved, but terrified, because you confirmed my suspicions."

He bristles and laments, "I'm empty on the inside when you're not here, because I gave myself to you.

"And I think I know what you did with me."

He asks, "Is that why you ran? Because you loved someone more,

"Someone I'd love too if I knew for sure?"

Not words of bitterness, but of lacking closure,

As he continues to wonder, "Will I ever see you again?"


Hmmm… your first clue to finding Fang has been revealed. }:) Pay attention, my dear, confused readers, things get even more interesting after this.

Oh, and a shout-out to StephanieZorander, since she's been my loyal reviewer since day one. :D It's reviewers like SZ who help to make fanfiction writing so fulfilling.