A/N: Wow, I have free time. 3 chapters in one week. I'm quite proud of myself. Okay, so usually I (rather I used to, heh heh) pm people and thank them for their review but 1. I've gotten lazy; 2. There's too many of you; 3. I don't have any other excuses…so I'm going to thank everyone right now. THANK YOU GUYS ALL SOOOOO MUCH FOR THE FANTASTIC REVIEWS! You guys rock. –foreverandalwaysyours

Wha…? I thought mainly to myself. He still loves you. I heard again. I shook my head and rubbed my temples. No. Not that. Dr. Lyons? I hesitated. Was it Dr. Lyons (a.k.a.: the Voice that's been invading my skull over the past…oh say half of a yearish)? It couldn't have been. He had vanished the night before the tornado saying that he was going back to the City Hall to get paperwork. There was no way that guy would have made it out of there…unless he never actually went there. Hmmm…

Max, I have some instructions for you. I waited, not responding. I need to catch up with you again. Fly two miles east and drop onto Mink Road. I'll meet you there. It was kind of weird. I had never heard the Voice say that he'd meet me somewhere before. It felt really, really creepy. I mean, he had kinda led me to him but he was, like, secretive about it. He'd never actually said: Come here, I'll be waiting for you. I felt like I was on a mission. Like Bond. James Bond. Ride. Maximum Ride. It sounded cool enough. Hey, maybe after this whole mission thingy, I could make my own movie… focus Max. Right.

I took a breath and flew up beside Fang and Dr. Taylor. I was still kinda…let me rephrase: EXTREMELY pissed off at both myself and at him for what had happened so I had to get my act together and pretend like nothing happened. Yeah, 'cause that has always worked out so well for the two of us. Without turning his head to look at me, Fang questioned my presence with a quick hum.

"Two miles more east then drop," I said. There. Quick, blunt and painless. That's me! I soared up ahead of them and took my position as the potential leader of the "Flock". Meaning I was the only one who actually knew the area we were dropping to so they'd have to follow me anyway.

--

My eyes shot open like popping balloons and I moved my eyes around. Not that it'd do any good. I couldn't really identify one black spot from another. Slowly, I sat up.

"Iggy!" I heard. I prepared myself for an explanation to the screaming. Only…it wasn't a bad screaming. It was more like a "nice to see you" yell type of deal. It was Angel. I felt someone sit down next to me. I moved my hand over and felt the color blue. I also felt a soft jean material. Then I heard a giggle. I recognized that laugh…

I quickly removed my hand and I'm pretty sure my face turned read. What the heck was Ella doing here? I slouched in partial embarrassment for just like, groping her leg and partial depression for her laughing at my blindness.

"It's okay," she said. "I'm just kinda ticklish." Uh-huh. I thought to myself.

"So…what are you doing here? And where are we?"

"Jeb heard from Dr. Lyons that you guys were at his house. He asked for the three of us to meet him in Itex, Kansas. Well, the night we flew in and were supposed to meet him there, the town was evacuating due to a tornado warning so my mom insisted that we just met him on the border between Missouri and Kansas which is only about a two hour's drive from Itex. But when we all headed back to Dr. Lyons's house after the storms had passed, no one was there so we went on a little search party. I found Nudge and Angel awake in the woods. They both woke Gazzy up and we tried to get you up but you were totally out. So we carried you into the back of Jeb's truck. Right now we're stopped, though. I think were on Mink Road."

I rubbed my face in my hands and yawned. It had been nice to sleep but I had wished that someone would have woken me up.

"Why are we stopped?" I heard no response. I cleared my throat.

"Oh," said Ella. "Sorry. I'm not sure why. We just kinda…stopped."

"I think I know why!" I heard Nudge practically scream. Either she was, really, really excited or extremely scared. I couldn't tell. That girl screamed so often it was hard to tell whether it was because she had figured out the meaning of life or if she broke a nail or something stupidly girly. Instead of asking questions and taking charge (now that we were with some adults, the leader job was pretty much killed) I sat back and waited for whatever was going to happen to happen.

--

I started coasting downwards two miles later to a little road that ran by a river. I looked around. Below me I could see a white truck with a shell on it, covering the back. Was this where I was supposed to be. Wait…that truck looked oddly familiar. Where had I seen it before? It was…Jeb's truck? I sighed. This day just kept getting better.

We landed about a minute later and Fang put Dr. Taylor down. She was a little bit wobbly at first but Fang held her still until she got her legs back. Then she turned to me.

"Are you tired again?" she asked, concerned.

I glared. Yes, I was feeling a little more tired than usual but that wasn't my reason for stopping. It never was (I'd stop for the FLOCK not me) and it never would be. At least I hoped not.

"Noooo," I said a little ruder than I should have. Fang walked up to me and looked down at me. It was still really weird having him be like a giant over me. it was gonna take a while to get used to his six-footness.

"Voice?" he asked. Jeez. Stop knowing everything, will you? I nodded and started walking up to the parked silver Toyota. The door opened and I stopped about twenty feet away. The man in the driver's seat stepped out and turned to me, a smile on his face. Jeb. I turned around and went back to the other two. That's when it hit me. This would be the first time that Dr. Taylor has seen Jeb since she gave her son (Fang) to him for "adoption" (the School to become a mutant bird freak). I looked over to her.

"Uh," I began, "you're gonna have to face someone who I'm not sure you want to face or not right now." She tilted her head to the side, confused. "Remember how I said that we knew Jeb Batchelder?" Before the conversation could carry on any farther, I heard Jeb behind me.

"Janet?" he asked. "Janet Taylor?"

He stopped in his tracks and stared at the woman before him. Then he transferred glances between Fang and "Janet" Taylor. His jaw dropped slightly and he hesitated words. I coughed and subtly shook my head as if telling him "she doesn't know yet, stupid". Then Jeb cleared his throat and nervously shot out his hand.

"You do remember me…don't you?"

Dr. Taylor shook Jeb's hand very slowly and stared at the man. After a moment or two she took her hand back and nodded. "Jeb," she said silently. "You helped me with putting my son up for adoption." Jeb nodded. (That liar. Doesn't he know that people went to hell for that?)

I saw the doors of the bed of the truck open and out popped a tiny little winged-kid with golden curls bouncing with every step she took. Angel ran up to me and hugged me from around my waist. I let out an unknown breath and wrapped my arms around her. Why was she here? I pushed the thought aside. At least she was safe. I watched as the rest of the Flock (plus two dogs) exited the truck. We had some catching up to do. Then two people exited the front of the truck and one more from the bed. It was my mom! And Ella! And…Dr. Lyons. I stared in bewilderment at all of us standing here together. It was like one big, weird, creepy family reunion. I was standing there in confusion, Dr. Taylor was probably confused by all the kids and people everywhere, the kids and my mom didn't know who Janet was… and here I thought everyone knew everyone and we had this whole situation totally and utterly figured out. To make things worse:

"Can we get this show on the road? I'm starving! And so is Akila. A woman of her stature shouldn't wait around for people to feed her! She's not human you know! You could show some respect!"

Instantly Dr. Lyons and Dr. Taylors eyes both shot down to the talking Scottie at the same time. Their eyes were as wide as dinner plates. What? Never seen a talking dog before?

"Did he just…no," said Janet. "I'm going crazy. Flying people, talking dogs…too much lab testing and torture can do that to a person. I just need to lie down…"

I placed a hand on the woman's shoulders. "I wish you were delusional. I really do. But sadly, this is reality. The cold, hard truth. I fly, Fang flies," I pointed to the rest of the Flock, "they fly, the dog talks… and has wings…" I saw Dr. Taylor place a hand on her forehead. I walked over to Dr. Lyons and pointed to him. "And you can thank it all to this guy!"

I walked back over to my Flock. Janet looked at the scientist. "You…created them?" Dr. Lyons cleared his throat. Nudge tugged on my jacket sleeve.

"Max? Who's the pretty lady who looks like Fang?" I let out a chuckle. The words "pretty" and "Fang" in the same sentence just had that effect on me. Her eyes widened. "Noooo waaayyyy! It's that doctor you and Fang met!"

I took a quick, worried glance at Fang. Now wasn't the right time to-.

"You're Fang's mom!" Nudge said coming up to Dr. Taylor and smiling bright at her. "I'm Nudge. I'm Fang's…kinda sister. I mean we're not really related but in a way we kinda are, ya know? I mean we're the only six with wings and we've lived with each other our whole lives. But it's sooo cool to actually meet someone one of us is actually related to! Only Iggy and Max have met their real parents…but now Fang-."

I placed a hand over Nudges mouth and brought her back a few steps. "Okay, that's enough, Nudge," I said with a nervous laugh.

Dr. Taylor just stood there, dumbfounded. She was trying to take in all of the give that Nudge just threw up all over her. Then she slowly turned towards Fang. He had his hands shoved into his pockets and he was looking down at the ground, though his head was almost level. She came up and placed a hand on his cheek. Fang slowly looked up but never met her gaze. He looked kind of scared.

Janet kind of studied him for a while. His eyes, his hair, his facial features. They had the same deep eyes, hair, skin color, eyebrows (Fang's were a little bushier and Janet's looked plucked) and lip shape. She blinked a few times and covered her mouth while stepping back a step. Fang just stood there, nervous. I couldn't tell if this lady was happy, scared or mad or maybe a little of all three. I saw a tear slip from one of her eyes. I told the kids and the dogs to go back into the truck and wait. They did so. My mom and Dr. Lyons caught on and went into the car. Jeb and I stayed outside. I walked up to the reunited family.

"I know this must be a little weird," I almost whispered, not wanting to totally ruin the vibe of the moment. I have a way of doing that from time to time. Now didn't really seem appropriate. "You know, finding him, knowing…what you know. It was like that for my mom, too. She's the one who was just out here."

There were no responses. Dr. Taylor shut her eyes tight. For a moment she looked angry. Really pissed. I thought (and kinda hoped) that she was going to go over and punch the daylights out of Jeb. But she didn't. Instead she opened her eyes, walked right back up to Fang again and wrapped her arms around him. Fang didn't really know what to do. He looked at me and I nodded like saying "Yeah, doof, you can hug your own mother". But I knew what he was feeling. Scared, odd. Like how I felt when I first saw Dr. Martinez after I found out she was my mom. it was wonderful finally knowing, but it was hard on your confidence- contemplating if this new person (conveniently the one who gave birth to you) was going to accept you…or reject you. I hoped it was the first one, for Fang's sake. Fang wasn't the kind of person who should be rejected. Damn it.

I closed my eyes and rubbed them with my hand. When I looked back up, Fang had his arms wrapped around Dr. Taylor- his mother- and was holding her as close to him as he could. Like he didn't ever want to lose her again. I didn't blame him. I knew the feeling all too well. It was a Kodak moment, really. But all Kodak moments have to end. Especially when you're a bird-kid on the run for your life which was exactly what we were about to be doing.

I heard a loud thunder-like noise from above me. The hug fest stopped and we all looked towards the sky, shielding our eyes. They were airplanes. Tons of them. I looked closer, being able to make them out with my raptor vision. I've seen those planes before. But where? That time in town. I had been wondering what they were. Was this an air show? Then it hit me…no really- it actually hit me.