Chapter Eleven-again, another chapter revised. See, when I was writing these (now on chapter 40 something), I was too eager to post before taking the time to review and edit, so I'm doing it now, adding a few things here and there. Anyway, enjoy!
Happy day! Not only is there a chapter eleven, but more reviewers! You guys are great!
Sydney, thank you again for the multiple reviews, I like long chapters, too. I'm not sure how far (if there is any) the Eggy will go, but that would be a great parody with Gaz and Iggy! BOMBS R US!
FreeSpirit329, there's gonna be some bigger Fax in the next chapter!
Rainie16, thanks, and yes, I love Nudge :D
Strawberry Shortcake123, no problem, glad you like it!
LovelyNBlue, thanks, I'll put up twelve after this one
Thank you, Maxine, there's going to be a more-action sequel as well, so I'm working on it!
Thanks again everyone, although 'thanks' is probably the most used word in the ivyflightislistening dictionary right now, so does anyone have any amusing synonyms for 'thanks?' Or any in cool languages? Post when you review!
"SURPRISE VISIT OF THE BIRDKID TYPE!" Iggy hollered. I looked at him over mycereal with a WTF expression. But of course, he couldn't see that so I had toask, just with slightly different language. Angel was munching on some toastacross the table.
"It's a newspaper headline," He rolled his sightless eyes at me. "I can sortafeel the black-on-white letters." He tossed the paper my way, I snatched it away from the orange juice.
"'Surprise Visit of the Birdkid Type." I read aloud. "At 8:30 PM yesterday a Midwest Airline's plane was surprised by the sudden visit of two of the avian-human hybrids previously used in the environmental group, Coalition to Stop the Madness (CSM), air shows to spread word about global warming and the threats facing our community. Many pictures were taken by bystanders in the plane as two of the hybrids appeared to be communicating with a passenger (name disclosed). Some seem to think that they were in fact, Max (the leader of the so-called 'Flock') and Angel, the youngest of the six.' So-called?" Ishrieked the last part.
"So-called? FAILURE. We ARE the Flock, not the so-called Flock! Who does she-"
"Max," Iggy took a deep breath. "Ears. Please. I thought only Fang's fan girls could reach voice pitches that high."
"Yeah, or they could all go jump off cliffs and no one would have to hear it." Fang entered the kitchen and made his way to the fridge. Not that I wasn't pleased by this remark, to say the least, but I am trying to get over my immature little bouts like that.
"Fang," I chastised, "Let's not be mean and cruel to little fan girls in skimpy skirts who haven't even met you but for some bizarre reason pledge their love to you over the internet. Don't ask them to go jump off cliffs."
He glared at me as everyone laughed, minus mom who was on her way home. "Okay. I could ask you to push them off."
The laughter reached a new level. I flipped him the bird when he smirked. Nudge was peering over my shoulder at the numerous pictures covering the whole front page. Apparently they couldn't narrow down fifty takes of a clip of my wing, a white feather in one window, our faces.
"Max, you totally should have moved to the side so they couldn't see that bloody bandage on your shoulder, nothing personal or anything but it totally puts off the picture. You and Angel even have nice little smiles and you weren't even posing! Granted, you knew they were there so I bet you had to fly around like that like we had to at the air show where you and Fang and Iggy had these fake little smiles. In this picture, though, you look totally ticked off, you're glaring at someone through the window, but why they put so many in I don't know, your shirt totally clashes and-" I was finally able to snake my hand through all the food and paper to clamp it over Nudge's mouth. I think I went deaf in that ear for about ten minutes afterward.
"Nudge, I hate to break it to you but Angel and I weren't really concentrating on the obnoxious people inside, and I couldn't help it that the wind made my hair fly into my face for half of these. As fabulous as I am, I cannot counter the law of physics."
"You did okay in the other half, though." Ella said. "You're so lucky you don't break out, pimples and stuff. Yearbooks can be great at school because of the poor pimply fellows who ran out of cover-up on picture day."
"'Poor pimply fellows?'" Mom called from the entry hall. "Do I even want to know?"
"Max and Angel are just lucky they aren't!" Ella hollered back. "They've got about forty pictures in the headlines."
Mom walked in and peered over the numerous shoulders that were peering over mine. I had eyes for only one though. Fang. He nodded once. We had to be on watch, if anyone was looking for us, this would point the way with neon arrows and welcome signs. What can I say? We're paranoid like that. Then he smiled and pointed to the last one, just my wing against a blue-and-white backdrop.
"I like that one."
"Just my wing?" I hadn't been expecting his input at all. He nodded then walked around the table to finish his second sandwich.
"They're even in color," Iggy ran his hand over the page. "Here, turn the page." He did it himself then asked us to read the headlines.
"Fire Decimates A Kenya Village. 500 Dead."
There was silence from most of us, and I even jumped a bit when there was a clatter from the other end of the table.
At first I thought Fang was having a seizure or something, his shoulders were heaving and he had dropped his empty water glass on his plate, hence the clatter. But then he started laughing out loud.
"What is so funny?" Mom demanded, throwing down the paper and walking over to him as if scolding a young boy. Fang didn't even look up at her and roll his eyes, just kept laughing.
"People are dead and you think this is FUNNY?" Mom threw the paper at him. I could see where I had gotten my yelling abilities.
Fang shook his head, unable to say anything, but he did look at me and gesture to the paper. Convinced he had finally lost his crackers, I got up and handed it to him. He grabbed the front page with Angel and I on one side and the Kenya incident opposite, and tried to flip it with a steady hand.
Flock...Kenya
Flock...Kenya
Bird Kid Mutants...500 Dead
I burst into laughter, slipping to my knees and cracking up right next to Mr. Hardcore until I felt like my shoulder was tearing off.
"We..." I managed to spit out. "Birdkids!" I couldn't speak anymore, dimly I heard Angel explain, now laughing herself.
"Fang noticed that Max and I take up the whole front page of the Phoenix news, and five hundred dead people are less important than us. They take up a fourth of a page on the inside cover!"
A high-pitched shriek escaped me as Fang and I collapsed again, laughing so loudly that Iggy had to slap us to shut us up, then crammed his hands over our mouths.
"Doorbell." He breathed. The effect was immediate. Fang and I stood, all serious.
"Flock," I breathed, "Scoot." And there were no longer six appearing to be normal kids at a kitchen table laughing over the newspaper and screwed up antics of the world.
"Ella, dishes." Ella gathered up all our food and plates, somehow in one big armful and dumped them in the sink where she covered them with a large mixing bowl. I ducked into a coat closet and hid behind something wooly. I heard the door creak open and a scratchy but warm voice laugh.
"Va-lencia!" It exploded, and I imagined mom being wrapped in a huge hug.
"And Ella! It's been so long, I've been in Europe, as you know, my cat hasn't been feeling her best, ah, Schnookoms! You remember the Martinez's!" There was a purring of a cat. I forced myself not to giggle.
"Ahh, Schnook," Ella was forcing herself to be enthusiastic. "How was Europe?"
The cat meowed.
"Oh, Schnookie loved Europe!" Steps signified the woman had brushed in, tugging mom and Ella along behind her, a chair scraped back. There was a coat and a door between myself and a stranger, and let me tell you, I was not happy about it, not matter how harmless this neighbor seemed.
"Tea-"
"Of course, Ella, dearest! The usual, you make the best tea, I always said so. With the exception of Belgium. Speaking of which, Europe. Come, Schnookie, have some tea. I found the best vet in all of Europe, it was nothing personal, Valencia, but you know how Schnookie Pie doesn't like to be far from me. It was a state of the art clinic, Valencia, though I couldn't understand half the babble that flowed everywhere. The French, such wonderful people! So enthusiastic and willing to help, unfortunately, I couldn't understand, as I just said, but they sounded it! I learned a bit of the language though, brushed up a bit on my "Merci" and such, but in the meantime I got a translator. Oh, thank you dearest Ella! Lemon tea, you always remember, don't you? England also has just the most marvelous tea, and they even let Schnookie in! This was during her health break, of course. When we first got there..."
Oh God. Poor, poor, mom and Ella. They couldn't get a word in edgewise.
"So he said everything was fine, I told him he was bonkers of course, but he gave us directions to rent a beautiful house in the country, and Schnookums and I got plenty of fresh air, away from all that city stuff. And then of course Schnookie sneezed, so I hired a chauffeur to drive us the ten minutes because cabs and busses are just so dirty and full of germs and who knows where those drivers have been? Didn't you have a case onetime, Valencia involving a cab driver?"
"Well, it was more of a minivan than a cab-"
"Oh, what do you smell Schnookie? Over there in the corner?"
Shit.
Damn.
Crap. Angel can read minds, just forget I said those last two and thought another very bad one that Angel doesn't need to know. It's the corner of space between the wall and the stove, whenever there had been previous doorbell ringers (girl scout cookies, anyone? The Flock and I had nearly tackled her), that was where Fang usually hid. Invisible, obviously.
The chair scraped back. "Schnookie, don't get caught up with any spiders or anything. They could hurt you, Schnook! Come here!"
What would happen if she ran into Fang? The kitchen was too small, he wouldn't be able to move without someone noticing...
"Mrs. Hetter, you may not want to go near that corner," Ella began, making the sound of running forward to grab the cat.
"Don't pick up that cat, dearest. You might scratch her!"
"Okay, Mrs. Hetter!" I heard the thunk of something, a cat screech, and a woman scream like she had just witnessed an ax murder. Or the victim of the ax murder.
"ELLA!" That was mom. Ella was snickering.
"SCHNOOKIE! DAMN IT ALL, GIRL! WHAT WAS THAT FOR?"
More cursing, stumbling, yowling, and a slammed door later, I pushed the door open and stepped out.
"You kicked Schnookie?" I guessed, looking around the kitchen. Mom was sitting, quite relieved in a chair, Ella was laughing hysterically, and Fang was slowly coming into view. I could hear Flock members creeping out of their spaces.
"Thanks," Fang breathed, trying to unflatten himself from the wall. He was as far back into the corner as you could go.
"Who was that?" Iggy asked, coming down the stairs. "I heard it all, but, what the heck?"
"Next door neighbor, she was here when I moved." Mom sighed heavily. "Her cat is her life, explaining why she moved to Europe for six years because it sneezed."
"Her cat hates her." Angel announced, coming out of one of the cupboards.
"And who wouldn't, with a name like Schnook?"
"To true, Gaz." Iggy moaned. "I'd rather commit suicide. Be named a number. Uhh..."
"Give all your bombs to me?"
"NO!" They both turned to look at me with such a frightened look on their faces, you would have thought that I admitted I ate live puppies for breakfast, tails first.
"She didn't work for the School, though. And she seemed nice, I don't know why her cat hated her unless it was because of the way she dressed, which would be really shallow but true. I saw her when she came through the door. Capris are really a bad look for almost anyone, and I don't even want to know how she could wear them in this heat mmpphhh."
"Thank you, Iggy." I breathed in and out with my eyes closed, and counted to ten.
"Doorbell, it's Jeb."
"Flock, Scoot!" I demanded, jumping towards the closet again until mom grabbed my elbow and turned me around. The Flock was judging if I was serious or not.
I could now hear him in the hall, tentatively taking steps forward.
"C'mon in, Jeb!" Mom called, now doing dishes.
"In to hell." I muttered, and received a light smack on the arm.
"Living room," I muttered, to extreme joy of everyone. Not. So we trooped in, ignored Jeb, allowed him to put video numero three into the player, accepted mom's bowl of popcorn, took our usual places, and after that list of things, began to watch the movie that was much less enjoyable than Disney.
"I'm going to warn you guys," Jeb spoke specifically to Fang and I, we ignored him. "This isn't one of the better videos. I'm in it-"
"That would explain why it's not a better one."
"Max!"
"Yes, mom."
"Continue, Jeb."
He looked uncomfortable. "It's just a side note, I'm done."
"Then press play! And turn it down, last time the speakers were destroying my ears."
Have I ever told anyone how glad I was that Ella shared my view of the Jebster?
The screen lit up, and the video began to play.
It began simply enough, Fang and I sitting back to back. Not talking, just sitting. That is, until we sprang up as the doors spread open. It wasn't much to see, the usual commencement of Fang and I making a ruckus and the whitecoats yelling and the Erasers kicking at us until we were wheeled out of the room. The screen crackled for a moment, then a lab appeared. We couldn't help it. Fang and I jerked so badly that the little footstool thing got pushed toward the TV and into the wall. Our breathing was rough, and somehow we had backed into the corner of the room at the same time that our younger selves were wheeled into the center of the lab on screen.
Then the needles appeared in the hands of some whitecoats, filled with gooey liquids in different colors. An Eraser pulled a screaming Fang out of the cage and strapped him to one of those body boards you only see in sci-fi alien abduction movies that no one actually thinks are real, then when Fang was secure, did the same to me. I was proud of my four year old self for making a bite mark on it's hairy arm. I dimly realized Fang and I were holding each other's hands, and both of us were an ashen white. Like, Snow White white.
Small needles were stuck into our necks, legs, and arms and beeping started, our hearts, blood pressure, random things only they could think of.
There was a large needle, like an inch in diameter filled with silvery fluid, and a whitecoat jammed the needle point right into my forehead and pressed the little dispenser thing. The four year old me screamed, writhed in agony, twisted and turned as I tried to escape the pain.
"Mercury intake," One whitecoat muttered aloud while scribbling. I grabbed my knees, unable to look away from the screen and breathing heavily, and my younger self was still screaming when Fang's back arched and a noise suited for the fiery pits of any hell there may or may not be escaped him when a needle just the same size was plunged into his neck with blue contents. Whitecoats yelled, Fang and I tried to get away from the liquid agony spreading through our veins, Erasers raked their claws across our faces which only made us yell louder. Jeb turned it down. Fang managed to uncurl his wings between the metal and his back and he was feebly struggling against the bonds whereas I had collapsed and was retching.
The whitecoats scribbled away furiously.
One of them took two more needles, smaller, but with more substance in them, and jabbed one into each of our wrists, then consulted the rising beep on the heart monitor.
"This one, 10442, has a high potency level for arsenic! Come look at how her heart rate has barely accelerated!"
A crowd of whitecoats gathered around me, all with their little clipboards, leaving Fang and the Eraser.
"Riley, another injection?" He held his hand out, an identical needle was placed in it. Another injection. Another scream. In the background, the Eraser was toying with Fang, grabbing an arm then tugging it sharply before running around the table to smack his head.
"Jeb," Mom suddenly had the remote in her hands, the screen froze and she was looking in the corner at Fang and I. She stood, but with the sudden movement I flinched and moved farther back.
"Max, go outside." Iggy demanded. I flinched at his voice. "Fang, move. Go fly."
I tried to slow my breathing, trying to get back to normal. I was a leader, I couldn't be freaking out like this, I had a Flock to lead,
Go Max, it's okay, you take good care of us, go. Angel got up and walked over to us on light footsteps, then slowly pushed us out the living room doors, and suddenly I was running down the hall and out the doors and my wings were spreading and I was in the air.
No more antiseptic.
No more Erasers.
No more needles.
Arsenic.
Mercury.
Just the wind in my face, the steady beat of my wings, and the heavy breathing of Fang to my right. All I could do was fly, fly away, not anywhere near the School.
Remember, synonyms for 'thank you' or in another language when you review! Hoped you liked it!