The girl stared at me, face to face, our wings flapping identically. Her hair was fiery red. Her naturally tanned skin was full of cuts and bruises. Her eyes were a stormy gray color, and her wings were red and brown streaked. HEr face was an angry red color, her fists were in balls. Through gritted teeth, she growled, "Who are you?"

I gave out a dry laugh. "Haven't you heard? I'm Maximum Ride."

Her mouth gaped open, obviously this girl knew about how I destroyed Itex... blah blah blah. What she didn't know is that I didn't really destroy it.

Her mouth was still open when I fipped backwards, but left my feet out, in the act kicking her chin upwards. "Haven't you ever heard that its rude to stare?" I teased, then did I fly-kick across her face. Her face turned from amazement to anger.

"You beat Omega. But you can't beat me!" She cried, then lunged at me. She aimed a punch right towards my gut, but I quickly stepped aside and kicked the backsof her knees, causing them to buckle. She flew forward and I whipped around. "Yes, I know, I am THE Maximum Ride. I could beat all the Erasers. Flyboys. And now, you." Her eyes turned to cold fear as I aimed a punch near her left lung. She gasped in pain. I grabbed her wrists, and pushed her forward into a tree. I kept her there as I said, "Now. You will NOT fight me anymore, or hurt my flock. We are going to talk, and explain about each other and if your story is any bit fishy," I inched close so that our noses were touching and growled softly, "I will make you dig your own grave." I pinned her to the tree with my foot as I turned 360 degrees to check on the Flock.

Gazzy and Iggy were on the ground, probably making bombs or something. Fang was watching me from feet away, trying to figure out when to step in. Nudge was running towards something in the trees.

Angel.

I dropped her! But I wanted to kill little Ms. Red Head so badly that I didn't even remember that her rib was cracked, and she couldn't fly good, and... and...

I bit my lip so hard blood squirted through. I kicked the girls ankle so hard she dropped towards the ground clutching it and I super-sped towards my baby. Fang followed me.

I landed in the woods and I heard Nudge yelling, "Max! I found her! I found her! Max! She's OK! She's Ok!" Those last words brought tears to my eyes and I ran towards her voice. I turned a corner and gasped.

There were two people chasing us. Fire head girl was over there. And the boy...

Was over here holding Angel.

His hair was dyed blue. His eyes were brown, and his skin tone suggested that his natural hair color was brown because of his tanned skin.

And Angel. She was fine. Her eyes were teary, and she was hugging the boy.

I was still staring when Iggy and Gazzy ran up behind me. And when Red Head came over. She snarled, "I thought it was rude to stare." I glared.

I turned to leader mode. "Everyone, SIT!" Everyone sat, even Red Head and Blue. "We have to clear things up. Now."

So, we all settled in a circle. I ordered, "You two. Tell us your story so I could determine to trust you or not."

The girl, who was still mad about me beating her little... butt, didn't speak. Little Boy Blue started talking, "We lived at the School until we were 3 years old." The Flock exchanged glances. He continued, "One day, a whitecoat came into our room and turned off all the security. The he opened the big cages..." He shut his eyes, trying to remember. "And let us out. And then, ummmmmm, he hid us in a cart. And, took us into one of the labs and started furiously typing into one of the computers. And then a whitecoat ran in saying how two avians are missing. And Jeb said, "They were taken into the extermination room. One's wings were broken, and the other one was too fierce." So then we kept going. He drove us, silently, in a truck, and then dropped us off in the middle of the woods and handed us cans and cans of soup, and then drove away. We haven't seem him since."

I decided to trust them.