Disclaimer: Yeah... When I take over the world, steal all toothbrushes and the rights to MR then I will let you know... until then, all of this *Gestures wildly around fanfic* belongs to JP. Except the plot that is. That is mine. :) [And slightly mine cause I helped with a couple of ideas. And I helped edit this chapter. -TGG]

Hola. :) (YAY! DOUBLE DIGITS!)

BIG THANK YOU TO ANYONE AND EVERYONE WHO'S REVIEWED, FAVOURITED, ALERTED AND JUST GENERALLY THOUGHT THIS DIDN'T SUCK! YOU GUYS ROCK SO MUCH I WROTE THIS IN CAPITALS!

My chapters seem to be getting longer- hooray!

Yeah... this is kinda a filler. Sorta. Not really. It is important to the plot later on, and it kinda introduces some FAX (Grasping at straws there...), but... meh.

Enjoy!

Falling Higher:

Chapter Ten:

A tree was an uncomfortable place to hide.

Aside from all the obvious things, like branches poking you in the most tender of places, leaves trying to shove themselves up your nose and the roughness of the bark against your skin, he had also discovered that they seemed to smell rather bad on top of all that.

Not that it mattered of course, if all went well, he could leave this tree, these uncomfortable clothes; hell, even this entire state, far behind him..

All he had to do was follow her.

That was what they said.

After her last tail had gotten himself fired for being to... enthusiastic about his job (The guy was a known pedophile and suspected rapist... the Director had made the wise decision that this job was probably best left for someone with the majority of their sanity) and so he was stuck doing it for him.

Stick to the girl like glue.

Those where his instructions.

If you lose her it'll be your ass on the line.

The words had been running around his head all day. Nothing he could do would dislodge them.

As he watched, perched in his tree, with a plaid rug spread over his lap and some soppy lettuce shreds stuck to his camouflage T-shirt from lunch earlier, the girl he was supposed to be shadowing walked out of school.

Max. That was what they'd said her name was.

Maximum Martinez.

Other than her name, there really wasn't that much they knew about her.

He'd managed to memorize her entire file in less then ten minutes.

Maximum Martinez; 16 years of age; Experiment number: 83921; Batch number 9; Successful; ID number: 332.

That was pretty much all of it. Aside from the basics there wasn't much on her.

Apparently some big-shot scientist had double-crossed them and deleted all of her information.

That wasn't important though, the important thing was that she was powerful.

They said it was possible that her and the others could be the only things able to stop them.

And as such they themselves had to be stopped.

He watched as she wandered down the road, earplugs in, probably listening to some sort of rock band.

She looked like the type for that.

It wouldn't have been worth watching too closely, nothing out of the ordinary. Except for the fact that it was 12:43pm and he knew for a fact that there was no half-day at her school for three and a half weeks.

Following her had proved to be much harder then he had originally thought it would be. If it weren't for the fact they knew where her current address was, he would've lost her countless times.

She was good he had to give her that.

But he was better.

A voice called out from behind, and she turned, still within his sight range, but only just. If she made it around the corner before he'd had enough time to get to her he probably would've lost her again.

Violet eyes took in every detail of the girl who approached his target.

Her mocha colored skin, the way she seemed to talk non-stop, all her behaviors and mannerisms.

This was not good.

If rumor was to be believed and the rest of them were together, then all he needed was for their secrets to be uncovered and it would all be over.

He couldn't let that happen...

There was only one thing he could do really.

Time to arrange another disappearance.

It is well known that when I get an idea in my head, I do not let it go.

Unfortunately for me, that seems to be a family trait that I inherited from my mom.

She still hadn't let up about that fight I got into with the preppy redhead (For which I'd been suspended for two days).

And that was last week.

Damn. I think I may actually miss Jeb. He wouldn't nag me about it, he'd just do the same thing he did every time I got into a fight at school, make sure my form was impeccable and that the School was still far off our tail with all the new publicity.

Max, The voice said, It is healthy to feel, let it all out. You can't keep all your emotions bottled up all the time.

Watch me.

I'd gotten used to having the voice around, although sometimes I accidentally answered it aloud. So far I'd decided that if it was some sort of tracking device from the school, it wouldn't have A) Given me advice on how to avoid the bloodthirsty whitecoats out for my well... blood, and B) Kept my current location a secret from said whitecoats.

Speaking of which, it seems my old paranoia issues have been creeping up on me again (Is it just me who finds that sentence ironic?). Lately I've hardly been able to sit still with how quiet it's been..

People tried to kill me about once a month when I lived with Jeb. It was a regular thing, like some kind of cycle, predictable like the transformation of the moon. Yet, recently, I hadn't seen one Eraser. It made me nervous. Especially since I had no doubt that they knew where I was.

"Hey Max-"

I jumped, spinning around and automatically getting into a defensive crouch.

I can't believe I've gotten so sloppy as to let a 13 year old motor mouth sneak up on me.

Wow... things are worse then I thought.

"You alright? You've been edgy for days now... I'm starting to think that you think something bad's going to happen." Said Nudge, probably one of the shortest sentences ever spoken by her.

"I do think something bad's going to happen... it's just a question of when and how bad."

She stared wide-eyed at me.

Okay, that really wasn't the best thing to say to reassure her.

"Um... what I meant was, uh... I'm sure I'm just being paranoid." Not really. Not one of the instincts I've had (Especially about bad things that were about to happen) have ever been wrong. "Just because you're paranoid, doesn't mean they aren't out to get you!"

Still, no reason to tell her that.

"Oh... okay then..." Damn. I really scared her. That has to be the shortest sentence I've ever heard her say.

"Oi Max! You coming to school today?" Iggy shouted from the porch.

"Duh! Why do you think I'm up this early otherwise?"

Walking to school with Fang and Iggy had become habit for Ella and I.

As much as I hated to admit it, I think that my feeling of hatred towards Fang may have been a bit unwarranted.

I mean, sure. He's still and asshole. And a player. (The two things I hate most in the world aside from whitecoats and needles) But he wasn't that bad a guy. I'm sure if you were friends with him he would be alright. Maybe.

I won't bore you with the details of the walk to school. It was the same as always recently. I had no major epiphanies while I was walking, other than how different everything looks up close and on the ground as opposed to far away while you're flying (I'd been taking regular flights in the woods out back of Dr. M's veterinary clinic).

In fact, nothing exciting really happened until just after third period..

I was walking along on my way to fourth (Science... *Shudders*), when I came across a dodgy looking janitor's closet from which some pretty strange-sounding moans where coming from.

I know what you're thinking, 'Just leave it alone Max, everyone knows what goes on in there.' Unfortunately for me and my poor eyes, I did not.

And me, being me, automatically assumed that someone was being hurt in someway.

So I yanked open the door.

It's safe to say no one was being harmed.

Actually, Lisa looked like she was enjoying herself quite a bit.

My first thought was about what kind of poor desperate looser would go to Lisa the school renowned slut, for their kicks?

My second was that the guy in there looked kind of like...

My third was not really appropriate to put down here.

Fang's eyes snapped open and latched onto mine, his lips still firmly planted on Lisa's. If that's what you'd call it anyway... I now understand why they call it 'Sucking Face'... she looked like she was trying to eat him.

I felt my face flush red, my eyes bug out and my jaw drop.

The bastard didn't even have the dignity to pull away.

Well, he didn't really get the chance, since within the few seconds it took to open the door and figure out who it was, I'd slammed the door shut and started sprinting towards the nearest bathroom, sure I was about to vomit.

"Hey Max." A voice said and gently tugged me to a stop.

"Hey." I said in response.

My voice sounded far away, I barely registered that it was Sam, my biology partner, who'd stopped me.

"Umm... well, I was just wondering," He said, scratching the back of his head nervously. "If, maybe you'd like to go on a date with me Friday?"

"That sounds like fun." I said.

I didn't noticed what he'd just asked, I didn't notice what I'd said in reply, I was acting entirely on autopilot, unable to shake the weirdest sensation of betrayal I felt whenever the image of Fang and Lisa popped into my head.

"Great. So I'll pick you up at six?"

"Yeah. Awesome." I blindly took the piece of paper with his number written on it, having no idea (And not really caring) what I'd just agreed to.

It didn't hit me until four-thirty, when I was sitting on my bed, staring at the wall and pretending to do algebra.

Shit.

I had a date on Friday.

As I said, filler-ish.

Ah well, next one should be better.

WORMoverBOOK. [And The Gallagher Girl]

P.S: You read any of the A/N's, review and tell me your favourite flavour of pizza... I got into a discussion about this with my friend. She likes Meat-lovers [Nothing is better :) -TGG], I love Hawaiian. :)