Disclaimer: I do not own Maximum Ride or any of it's characters. I do however own Carolynne, Nick, Derek, Harshad, Tabitha, Raina, and Avel.
Chapter 11: Destination Plans

Fang

Iggy woke up and I could tell he had a headache because of the way he was rubbing his temples. He bolted upright and knocked heads with Max. As he touched his forehead he looked around confusedly. He saw me sitting on the ground and anger flared in his eyes. His expression read this is your fault. As if he read my mind, he then grumbled, "This is your fault."

My smile dropped. He pointed at me and I flinched. I thought he was going to hit me. Suddenly uncomfortable, I silently moved back. Why is he so much bigger than me? I noticed this in a way I wouldn't have liked to. This is what I get for smiling; I think Karma hates me. He cleared his throat and continued. "I could've taken them."

Max, ignoring this asked, "Who?"

"Two really big guys came in to take Nick. Sam was there too but he was still all bandaged up" Max flinched at the word "Sam" but it hadn't broke her radiant smile. Iggy had brought his hand back by now and was staring blankly at the wall.

"It's okay now because we are going to Russia, Ig; to catch them. I'm so happy I could cry. You were right."

Her smile widened and she swept him into a hug. He didn't look happy at all and I wondered why. He looked in pain. I guess she forgot he was hurt; it's understandable. I was happy enough to forget the fact that she was practically squeezing the life out of him. Did she forget the fight yesterday? That would be great. Then she wouldn't be mad at Iggy or me. "Ow, Max."

She suddenly let go of him. "Sorry. I'm just so happy."

"That reminds me. Did you guys take the Tylenol out of the bathroom? I need it," Carolynne says. Max picked up a small white bottle with red labeling and handed it to her. She popped it open with experience and took two pills followed with a gulp of whatever was in her cup. It was milk, I think. She's so weird; who drinks milk as a drink? I dub it as cereal liquid and nothing else. She frowned while staring into the bottle. "How many did you take?" she asked.

Max started counting numbers on her fingers, "Four."

"You know that's too many right?"

"Nope. We bird kids need more aspirin than you guys." Said with true bird kid pride, Maximum.

"Okay, good." Her voice seemed to go off into the distance so I decided not to ask. After thinking for a second she yelled across the house. "We need to pack people! Our flight leaves in a few hours. Hurry!"

Tabitha left the room to pack and Carolynne continued to talk. "Since you are our guests…get packed too and we'll have a place ready when you get there." She paused to think. "Oh and Max."

She whispered things into her ear.

"Okay," she was clearly trying to whisper but was failing miserably.

"Mhmm." She nodded.

"No way. How does it look?" She paused to listen but she burst into fitful laughs. What were they talking about? What was so funny? I want to know. She stopped laughing.

"He is going to be so mad!" Lyn nodded and she looked like she was trying to remember something.

She was trying to keep the conversation quiet but I had to find out what they were talking about. Is she talking about me? I have a horrible feeling in the pit of my stomach that she was. The agony! I knew they were planning something, but what? Across the room I heard Iggy smirking, his cloudy eyes filling with the slight emotion. He was still staring at the ceiling but now he was in deep thought. He was planning something. Could he hear them? It would make sense. I knew whatever they were planning wasn't good. I even saw Angel laughing quietly across the room. She whispered something into Gazzy's ear and he chuckled, his face facing mine. So now I knew this was about me. Now all I had to do was find out what…

She left the room, footsteps light and quick but returned with a piece of paper. She began scribbling on it wildly with a pen. Lyn handed it to Max. "Here is the address."

"Got it," She grasped it in her hand, as if it were gold. She clutched it to her chest for a moment then finally stuffed into her left pocket.

Carolynne left the room, probably to go pack, and then Max started to give out orders about what we needed to do next. "Iggy you stay there, get better. Fang will pack up your stuff for you."

"Why me?" I asked.

"It's my punishment for starting fights," Max said nonchalantly as she headed for the basement. Gazzy and Angel, still chuckling followed her. I heard Gazzy whisper, "Fang started a fight?"

"Yes sweetie but I also needed someone to pack his stuff because I need your help with something…" Why is it that I always never hear the part that I want to hear? It's like I am the least lucky person in the world. I sigh and take another glance at Iggy. He was beaten up pretty badly but I think he'll be okay.

The bruises that I had given him were just about gone but the ones done by the mystery men were still there. His arms had dark marks the shape of hands and also bared long lines from where the rope had dug into his skin. Overall, he looked horrible but I couldn't help but notice the small glint in his eye. It resembled… hope? He was lying on his back with his arms folding out behind his head. He had a small smile on his face and I couldn't help but wonder what was happening and why it was being kept from me.

"Iggy?" I called his name. I wanted to see if he would tell me.

"Yeah," he said. His voice was low and almost at a whisper. I couldn't help but notice how faraway he sounded.

"Did you hear them?" He nodded and continued staring at the ceiling. I couldn't help but wonder why he did that. I knew he couldn't see what he was staring at. What was the point? "Can you tell me?"

He laughed his low laugh and bored his eyes into mine. "Now why would I do that?"

I shrugged although he couldn't see it. As if he sensed the movement, he spoke. "I'm not a spoil sport." His expression was carefree but, at the same time, bored. "Just enjoy these peaceful moments. You'll be busy soon enough, Fang." He turned back to his previous position. "Oh, and one more thing."

"What?"

"Start packing my stuff man," he says and starts humming to himself. I don't recognize the tune but I shrug it off and exit to the basement.

Leave it to Iggy to ruin a conversation. It wasn't like it was perfect but the last comment was certainly not needed. I see Max with Angel and Gazzy talking in hushed tones while sitting on a carpet on the tiled floor. When they see me, they stop talking but Gazzy pulls out a world map as if on cue. Angel asks me a question and again, as if on cue. "Do you know the fastest route to Asia?"

Her little mouth was curved into a smile and I couldn't help but wonder what they were whispering about. I have a feeling I won't like it. I took the map and stared at it intently, ignoring the fact that they were whispering about me. Time to switch into overdrive Fang. First you need to get two facts straight our location and our destination. I quickly snatched a pen out of my pack. I marked where we were. I forgot the city so I'll guess. I wrote a star on the southern Michigan area. This is where we are. I looked over to the Russia area. Who knew it was so big? I looked for St. Petersburg. I see Novisbirsk, Omsk, Yekaterinburg, Perm, Moscow and here we are St. Petersburg. I marked a star on that city; this is where we need to be.

Now if you study the distances we could land in Russia in about two days if we cross the Alaskan border. The only problem is even though we will be in Russia we will be very far away from St. Petersburg. It would take us another three or four days to get there, if we don't run into problems. Considering the other path, across the Atlantic Ocean, it would take a half of a day to reach New York. The problem with that route is we need to cross the gigantic Atlantic Ocean which will be hard if we don't have a place to land. I don't think the flock could handle that long a flight. We need a mid-flight island. If we can find that we are good to go.

I squinted to see small islands named Azores that are a part of Portugal. Hmm. Those islands are well past the half waypoint. This is a hard decision; I asked the flock who had been silently waiting for an answer. I bet they were communicating with Angel, no doubt. "We have two choices basically. Choice one: we cross the Alaskan border and brave most of Russia to reach our destination."

I looked up from the map to see them, concentration deeply involved with thinking about the plan. Max nodded and asked me to continue. "Choice two: we cross the Atlantic Ocean and then cross Europe to get to St. Petersburg."

Max stared at the map. "Choice one is so tedious but safe though choice two is faster but more dangerous. How to decide?" She pondered over the map for a minute, her index finger on her perfect lips. "How about we start at Montreal, cross the little bottom tip of Greenland, quickly across Iceland, stop in the United Kingdom and starting in Norway we cross Sweden and Finland?"

Angel thought it all over. "Yeah, let's do that. There are more flying stops, and all we need to do to get ready is buy some winter clothes." Gazzy agreed and the plan was set. Why was I even asked? I just thought up two intricate plans in minutes and she makes one in fifteen seconds that we actually choose. What was the point of that? Whatever.

"Time to set into action! I'll give you thirty minutes to pack. Keep Iggy company in the living room when you're done." Max grabbed her pack and went upstairs. She's already done? Max must've really believed what Iggy had told her. She sprinted up the stairs. I bet she needs to check in with Nudge. I haven't seen her since earlier this morning now that I think about it. I bet she just found someone else to talk to death. I don't remember hearing her voice upstairs though.

Max

I grabbed my pack and sprinted up the stairs. I need to find Nudge; I haven't seen her since early this morning. She is behind on the flock's activities. I checked in the girl's room to see if she was talking with one of the girls but I only saw Tab and Lyn. They were both packing two suitcases and book bags. I left them to their packing and went to the next room. Harshad and Derek were groggily packing their suitcases and book bags too. They got to sleep in today, lucky.

There was one thing I couldn't help thinking. If I had fallen asleep that night would I have gotten beaten up like Iggy? There were so many alternate possibilities. Since I hadn't been in a fight I might have been able to take them. If they were too strong I could've been in the same position as Iggy. I really wish I would've been there to help. I wish he had woken me up. Is that too much to ask? I'm glad he's okay but he needs to stop trying to protect me. I can defend myself. That could have gotten him killed and I certainly don't want that. Iggy is our flock's infamous pyro. We all need him and vice versa. No flock member should do that. Together we stand but divided we fall.

I peeked into Nick's room half expecting not to find her there. Nudge was sitting on a low stool next to Raina. They were talking to Avel who looked a little like Iggy but not as bad. It looked like he had been punched once or twice then tranquilized. From the looks of him he had just gotten back up from a drug-induced sleep. Raina was packing while making sure that he was okay. I think he looked okay besides the fact that his lips were a little blue. I would say something, but I think they have it under control.

"Nudge, so this is where you've been hiding all morning," I say.

She replies with a smile. "I've been helping Ray with Ave. When they kidnapped Nick they kind of just threw him off to the side. He's awake now and doing much better."

"Good. I need to catch you up to speed. We are going to help them find Nick. I think we're going to fly there so don't work to hard. Start packing up your pack so we can go clothes shopping for when we go farther north."

She nodded, says goodbye to Raina and leaves for the basement. Now what do I do? I have got everyone on his or her jobs and have nothing to do myself. Now that I think about it that would make me a successful leader. I hate having nothing to do. I feel really jittery like when I drank coffee for the first time. The meet up point is the living room so I'll sit with Ig.

In the living room he is lying on the couch and is staring at the ceiling. He looks like he is in deep thought. Suddenly he sits up and rubs his back. I guess lying on your back isn't so comfortable when you have thirteen-foot wings. I sit on the couch next to him. "Hey Max."

How did he know it was me? "Hey, Ig. Are you up for flying?"

"I don't know. I need to test them out. Just sitting here makes my wings feel odd."

I don't like the sound of that. "Go stretch them out and fly. I'll come too. We need to tell you how we're getting there." I tip toed to the door to see if he would hear me. His expression was slightly puzzled but he followed me nonetheless out of the door. I guess he can hear better than I thought. He spread out his wings and started moving them around. He looked like a dog shaking water out of his fur.

"I think something's wrong," he said. What could be wrong? His wings looked all right. Wait a minute, a wing was bent down the wrong way. It looked like his bone healed in the wrong place. I hate when that happens because when you snap it back it hurts like crazy. This could be a problem; if we snap his wing he wont be able to fly for a little bit. He can't fly with the wing like this so…

"Your wing is healing in the wrong place," I commented. How can I do this? "Do you want me to…"

He nodded and braced himself for pain. I placed my hand on his golden white wings and felt around for the bone. The feathers were warm and soft but I gripped it and felt him flinch. The bone hadn't fully connected so I could snap it back into place and his wing would be okay. Don't wimp out; you can do this, Max. I took a deep breath. One, okay get ready. Two, deep breaths, Max. Three… … snap! I heard Iggy grunt and felt the bone pop out of place. I quickly put it in the right spot and pulled my hand away. I hated the sound off bones breaking; when it happens you, can't help but hold your breath. I pulled some bandages out of my pack and used them tie on his wing and keep the bone firmly in place.

"Better?" I tried.

"Yeah." He moved his wing again and I could tell it was much better. My hand slipped to his shoulder and I looked at his face. Was he blushing? Suddenly, I was blushing too and our noses were almost … Get a hold of your self, Max! He doesn't even like you! Or does he? Whatever! I let my hand fall to my side.

Angel burst through the screen door. Oh my gosh; did she hear what I was thinking? That is so embarrassing. I moved back a foot from Iggy and waited. The sarcastic or colorfully ha ha comments were yet to come. I breathed a sigh of relief; she saw my sudden, quiet outburst and looked at me suspiciously. I gave her a sincere smile and shrugged. I don't think she thought that reassuring and read my mind. I had made sure to think really nauseating things about her. She still didn't look assured but I didn't care. You're six, Angel and I'm fifteen.

I'm seven, Max.

Okay, awesome. What did you want?

She placed her small hands on her non-existent hips. "Now that Iggy can't fly, how are we going to get there?"

I seriously hadn't thought about that. I arched my brows in response. "Um… ah… we need to find a way to make some fast money."

Her face read no-nonsense. "Well, duh! How are we going to work this out?" Her expression quickly turned to worry and I was again… at a loss. Our world saving business has finally reached another climax and there is no way I am going to mess this up! When in doubt, consult… your flock? Since Angel doesn't know and Iggy is choosing this time to be silent I am going to ask Fang. Only he talked to me first. He walked through the screen door and told me he had an idea. So, we went to the kitchen to talk. We sat on the stools and he voiced his opinion.

"Max, I know you may not like this idea but it's the only way to get the money fast."

What was he talking about? "What, are we selling drugs?"

He laughed nervously. Has he? "Pssh, never done that before."

"What?" I must have sounded hysterical. I stood and pointed my finger at his chest. "Fang, don't please don't-"

"I was just kidding." He started laughing again.

"That is not funny!" I playfully punched him in the shoulder. "Or was I?" He tried to add fake mystery and persona to his voice. I shrugged him off and couldn't help wondering. Was he kidding? I motioned for his to go on.

"What I was really going to suggest do was, … street fighting."