Maximum Ride at H.I.V.E. ch12

To text, steal, annoy, or not to text, steal, and annoy is a stupid question indeed,

-.-.-.-

"The CIA knows the eleven secret herbs and spices of KFC?!"

"Yeah, ****** ****** ******* ******* ***** **** ****** *********** **** *********** ****** ***** *** *****," Seth explained.

"Do you think we could get the cafeteria staff to do that?" Shelby asked. Max looked a little green at the thought of eating a fellow bird, but not that green.

"I dunno. We're all evil here so it might go public before we get the chance," Seth replied, lying down on his top-bunk bed. "But then again, someone from Politics and Finance would probably blackmail them first."

"More than likely. Except for Franz," Max said thoughtfully, sitting on the edge of her bunk.

"Yeah, he'd probably have personal chefs serving it to him 24/7!" Seth laughed, imagining Franz the size of a house and eating KFC by the truckload.

"Please, don't scar my imagination," Shelby giggled, while Max went even paler.

"We'd probably find gold by digging into his bellybutton, or maybe even diamonds! They form under extreme pressure, and when Franz is as big as a house, I don't know where else we'd find them!" Seth was holding his sides, trying not to hurt himself again so soon. Shelby wasn't even bothering, she was laughing too hard.

Max went very pale, and rushed into the bathroom with one hand over her stomach and the other over her mouth.

"I think we grossed her out," Shelby chortled, hearing the sounds of someone puking coming from the bathroom. "Hey, what was it you guys found out in the sick bay?"

"Oh, we're half-siblings," Seth told her. He looked down to see her on her bed, across the room. Max slept underneath Seth's bed. Shelby looked like she was going to faint again. "Same father, different mother."

"So who were you, really?" Shelby asked, suddenly quiet.

Seth sighed. It was time to come clean about who he was. He just wasn't sure about how to go about it. Where to start? Maybe his family. "You want to know everything?"

Shelby nodded.

"Well, my name was Orion Batchelder. Don't ask. I don't know what my parents were thinking either. Everyone called me "Riot" instead. My dad, Jeb, was a geneticist. He was always going on about it before he drowned when I was a kid. I think I was six. But Max told me it was a fake death, that he'd "moved to work" or something." He explained. "But after that, way after that, I sorta got involved with a gang,"

"Oh, boy," Shelby put her hand over her eyes and shook her head. "Not the best idea, was it?"

"Not really, but it was where I learnt to fight. Same place I got my knife," he said. "Then I must have done something wrong, because they started to come after me as well as police once I got into the fight with those bullies. Then I erased myself from all electronic systems and became Seth Walker, H.I.V.E. Student,"

"Quite a history," Shelby nodded, thinking. "What's Max's side of it?"

The puking seemed to stop for a moment.

"I don't know yet, she's still sorta sensitive about the whole wings part of it," Seth whispered.

"I suppose so… how on earth did she get them, anyway?" Shelby asked. She was very interested in the wings. A human that could fly. Amazing. She, like most others, dreamed of being able to fly through the clouds, over cities, diving at a bazillion miles an hour.

"She'll tell us when she's ready. In the mean time, we have to use our imagination," Seth grinned like an idiot. Shelby sighed. She wanted wings too.

"Maybe she really is an angel?" Shelby hypothesized.

"Maybe," Seth agreed.

-.-.-.-

"Let's try this again," Ms Leon sighed, shaking her fluffy white head. She'd gotten The Maze changed around a bit so that there wouldn't be any keypads to read and cheat with.

The first pair of students to tackle the course, Seth and Nudge, were really starting to regret their fantastical acting skills.

"So will you two be working together, or competing?"

Seth looked at Nudge, knowing failure was almost guaranteed either way. "Compete?"

Nudge knew they were both terrible, and together they were likely to be twice as bad, if not worse. "Might at well," she nodded, chewing her bottom lip nervously.

"Well what are you waiting for?! GO!" Ms Leon shouted, pointing a paw at the Maze entrance.

"Here goes… uhh… everything." Seth walked forward cautiously. He had no idea what to expect. Nudge, who was kind of ignoring the decision she'd just made to compete with him, followed closely behind, but didn't get in Seth's way.

Seth quickly examined all the walls and floors for any possible traps, tripwires, or… stuff. He saw none along the polished steel walls, and made his way down the halls. They seemed endless, and after five minutes wandering around lost, he supposed that part of the Maze was actually a maze. Hearing footsteps behind him, he turned to face Nudge, but saw nothing.

"Wha-" something brutally punched him in the stomach. Camouflaged guards, eh? Seth strained to get his breath back. It took him a lot longer than he was comfortable with after his recent incident. He reeled back, trying to get away from his unseen enemy.

More footsteps.

Whoever they were, they were relying on lack of visible target. But Seth, devious as ever, simply listened. As soon as the footsteps were close enough, he flung his arm out and twisted around, doing a full 360 spin before his fist crashed down on the back of someone's head. He'd felt the wind rush past his back as he'd twisted. They'd expected resistance, and so had followed the punch forward and down to the floor.

"Not your best day." Seth grunted as he stomped on the floor where the invisible attacker lay. He felt the blow connect solidly against some kind of electronic device, as the man became visible a moment later. Seth elbowed the man in the back of his neck when he tried to get up. "Stay down,"

The man complied. Well, he was unconscious so it wasn't like he knew he was obeying orders.

"Hey Nudge!" Seth yelled down the corridors, wondering where his competitor went. He got no reply. Scratching the back of his head, he looked around to try and figure out where the hell he'd come in from.

He decided to go forward, then left, then right, and then hit a dead end. Or was it?

Nope. It was a dead end.

"I hate mazes," Seth muttered angrily under his breath, turning around. Then he got a surprise. "Uhh, Max, what are you doing here?"
"Nudge fell into a water trap and then we realised that Ms Leon probably didn't know about your accident, so me and Fang got to go and whoever caught you gets bonus points!" Max smiled, grabbing his arm and dragging him through the maze in the Maze.

"I hate water," Seth muttered, running behind his sister. "You guys competing or working together?"

"We… don't really know."

"Competing then."

"You don't like him, do you?" Max asked, stopping suddenly, seemingly angry.

"I barely know him," Seth replied bluntly. "Right now, I simply don't trust most people that I don't know. So what the hell were we doing in the Maze in the first place?!"

"We… don't really know that either…" Max's shoulders slumped.

"Let's just find our way out and ask," Seth shook his head, looking down more corridors, hallways, and other things that he sincerely doubted they'd approach when not at H.I.V.E.

Max sighed.

-.-.-.-

"We're all glad you made it out alive," Ms Leon started before being interrupted by Shelby.

"WHAT THE HELL TOOK YOU GUYS SO LONG?!" she shouted at them, highly aggrieved.

Seth let Max do the talking.

"I had to drag him along too," Max said, jerking a thumb at Seth.

Seth decided to do the talking next time.

"Yeah, I get that," Shelby said, knowing firsthand what it was like to try drag Seth along on something requiring stealth. "But FOUR HOURS?!"

"So… where'd the others go?" Seth asked, looking around the classroom.

"Dinner, slowpoke." Shelby shot a duh look at him.

"I amend. We're glad you made it out before we all died of old age," Ms Leon said dryly, flicking her tail. "Seth, you have to be one of the most dreadful students I have had since Franz showed up. I would give you special tutoring to try and sort this out, but I doubt it would help, coming from me." She said. Shelby groaned. If special tutoring from Ms Leon wasn't even worth considering, he must truly be a hopeless cause. "Which is why I'm going to be handing you over to Miss Trinity."

"WHAT?!" Shelby leapt out of her seat, shocked. "What can I teach him?! You're the Stealth and Evasion master!"

Seth looked rather uncomfortable too. "I can't really be that bad, can I?"

"You can and you are, Master Walker," Ms Leon replied, ignoring Shelby's outburst. "I truly wonder how I haven't gotten a letter from the librarian yet,"

"H.I.V.E. has a library?"

Ms Leon blinked. "Oh. Well, that explains it. Anyway, I think that with the help of two highly infamous thieves, the Arch-Angel and the Wraith, you should be in quite capable hands."

"No offence to either of you girls," Seth started, looking at each of them like they might kill him for this, "but I-"

"Don't even say it," Max said, finger in the air and head tilted to the side. "Don't. Even. Say it."

Shelby started pacing around her desk, trying to pull out her hair in large chunks. "How the hell are we supposed to teach him?! We don't have access to anything like the Maze, he's damn hopeless, and like you said in the weekend, New Mexico probably knows he's hopeless!"

"Where's New Mexico again?" Seth asked, confused.

"Nowhere near here!" Shelby exclaimed, pacing even more.

Ms Leon watched with amusement. "We could always see if Raven has any spare time to give him some tips," she smiled. Shelby groaned even louder.

"That would probably just get him killed," Max said thoughtfully, holding her chin. "She doesn't take kindly to people who can't take instructions, does she?"

"OK, OK, I get it, I'm never, ever, ever, ever, ever, going to be cracking safes or unlocking doors or finding my way around a library. Can we go get some dinner now?" Seth asked fruitlessly.

"What's Nero and HIVEMind got to say on this?" Shelby asked, suddenly having an idea. "We shouldn't be distracted from our studies with the exams this close, should we?"

"No, but this is the stream for future leaders, so lead," Ms Leon gestured to Seth, who threw his arms up and walked away. He immediately bashed into a desk and doubled over, holding his knee and hissing in pain.

"Then again, maybe he could help us in Tech," Max reasoned, thinking about her and Fang's jumbled effort at it last time.

Shelby sat down in her seat, smashed her face into the desk and shrieked.

-.-.-.-

"You two, the Arch-Angel and The Wraith, want me, to help teach Seth stealth," Raven repeated, slowly.

"Yeah," Max said, nodding quickly, like it was a duh thing to say.

"Are you insane," Raven slowly asked, stressing out the insane. "Or do you need extra-credit that badly that you're willing to try achieve the impossible?" The two girls had confronted her about their problem in the halls after their late dinner, and it was almost curfew.

"We don't need extra-credit that badly… I think I've got enough normal credit for the exams so far, but Ms Leon gave us this task, so I'll remember to tell her you think she's insane," Shelby said, grinning. Raven pulled out her Blackbox and started typing furiously at the touch-screens keyboard.

-/-/-/-

To: Ms Leon

From: Raven

You really need to stop believing those stories Nero keeps making up. It would be easier to teach Block and Tackle quantum physics.

-/-/-/-

To: Raven

From: Seth Walker

I'm assuming that's an insult.

-/-/-/-

To: Raven

From: Ms Leon

Purr

-/-/-/-

To: Ms Leon

From: Raven

*texts hivemind*

-/-/-/-

To: Seth Walker

From: Raven

*texts hivemind*

-/-/-/-

To: Raven

From: Seth Walker

*hacks hivemind*

-/-/-/-

To: Seth Walker

From: Raven

*alerts nero*

-/-/-/-

To: Raven

From: Seth Walker

*re-activates hivemind but makes him on my side*

-/-/-/-

To: Seth Walker

From: Raven

*turns off the power*

-/-/-/-

To: Raven

From: Seth Walker

*umm… escapes from hive now that all the security systems are offline too*

-/-/-/-

To: Seth Walker

From: Raven

You wish. With all the noise you'd make, New Mexicans would be able to track you!

-/-/-/-

To: Raven

From: Seth Walker

So you're going to help Max and Shelby teach me?

-/-/-/-

Raven realised her mistake and looked up from her Blackbox to see Max and Shelby staring at her expectantly.

"You know you stick your tongue out when you do that, right?" Max asked, smiling innocently.

-/-/-/-

To: Seth Walker

From: Raven

*simply murders you to get this over and done with*

-/-/-/-

To: Raven

From: Seth Walker

You're supposed to be teaching me stealth and evasion stuff, not fighting. I'm pretty good at that already!

-/-/-/-

To: Seth Walker

From: Raven

O_O

-/-/-/-

To: Raven

From: Seth Walker

-/-/-/-

To: Seth Walker

From: Raven

How'd you even start this anyway?

-/-/-/-

To: Raven

From: Seth Walker

I broke something :)