ok, ok. Sorry for the wait. I sincerely apologize. I don't own Maximum Ride, but I do own Coral, Zhone, and Cork.

Now, the first two POVs are pretty much just fillers, but the last one is pretty awesome. I gotta give a warning though. This chapter has a someone exploding. And guess what! Cork gets a backstory! Hooray! My thanks to:

User user (for informing me how to say update in five new languages)

Reading Addicted (thanks for your review! you haven't seen the last of mean Max!)

BirdKid13 (whoo hoo! Go back stories!)

One week

Coral's POV
Ok. We have one week. And so far it's not going great. Cork was trying to suck up to Max, and it was just annoying her. Zhone accidentally ignited a small bomb in Iggy's face, and I think I may have just accidentally changed Fang's depth perception, causing him to run into a tree.
"What the-" He muttered angrily, rubbing his head.
The Gasman snickered.
"Oh! Sorry!" I cried, quickly changing it back. "That was my fault..."
"Darn right it was." Max muttered angrily.
"Did you know that lions tongues are really for-"
Iggy cupped his hand over Cork's mouth. "Cork! I thought Nudge was bad! Enough with the random facts! Nobody cares!"
Cork smiled sheepishly. "Uh... Sorry. That's just me being me."
"Yeah." Zhone laughed. "Nerd country over here! Population- Cork."
Angel giggled. Everyone liked Zhone. Even Max. It was hard not to. He was just that kind of person.
"Ok, question." Iggy smirked. "Do you have to climb into a tree every time you take off?"
Zhone grinned. "Nah. Cause I'm smarter than the average... Bat."
We all laughed. Except Fang and Max.

Zhone's POV
Coral is so beautiful when she laughs.
Oh my gosh. What was I thinking? I shook my head to clear it. Ok. Five more days. Five more days to become friends with Max. Piece of cake.
Not.
The girl was so dang stubborn. I made a joke. She tried not to laugh. I said something nice. She pretended not to care. I accidentally ignite small bombs. She blows her top. (No pun intended.)
I mean, what's her deal?
Angel laughed. I smiled at her. Now that girl was a totally different story. She was so trusting and sweet and adorable. And she can read minds.
Max loves chocolate chip cookies.
I heard a little voice in my head and nearly jumped out of my pants. I would have assumed it was Angel, but I couldn't tell if it was male or female, young or old. I was pretty sure it was on my side though.
Everyone looked at me strange. Coral laughed. "Uh... Zhone?"
"I think I just heard a voice in my head..." I mused.
"Welcome to the club." Max muttered.
I chucked. "You have a voice in your head? Good. I thought I was the only one going crazy."
Then Fang actually laughed. Not an unusually large puff of air or a smirk. He laughed. Out loud. Oh my-
"Oh my gosh! Fang did you just laugh?! Zhone how did you just do that? We've been trying for years! Even when Gazzy does his awesome imitations all we get is a puff of air, but you just made Fang laugh! Fang! Laugh! Oh- em-"
Nudge was silenced as max glared at her, me, and Fang. Me for making the joke, Fang for laughing at it, and Nudge for pointing out how incredibly awesome it was.
Next time you're in town, you should buy her cookies.
Noted.
"We should go somewhere." I suggested. "Sitting here in the forest is just a bit anti-climactic."
"Fine." Max muttered and unfurled her wings, ready for take off.
I grabbed Cork and we were off.

Cork
If I were the least bit the macho man type, it would have embarrassed me that I was being carried everywhere like a rag doll. Fortunately though, I always accept help. Almost.
We closed in on a city after about three hours of flying. It was a decent town. I mean, it wasnt busy or anything, but it wasnt run down. It had quite a few shops, some restaurants, a couple apartments, the usuall. We landed smoothly, no one around to see us. Zhone grinned as he spotted a little bakery, and turned to Max.
"Hey, I'll be right back." He called as he jogged off in its direction.
Max eyed him warily but waved on the group.
"So what do we so now?" Nudge asked. "I think we need to find out where all these bat-gecko thingies are coming from. I mean, they could be from the school or the institute, but you never know if some scientist could just be hanging out in his basement creating recombinant life forms like a mad man. Mad like crazy not like angry, y'know?"
Max nodded, thinking carefully. "I don't think they're from any of the scientists we've met. These things explode."
"Wait, they explode?!" I cried, baffled.
Everyone nodded.
My mind instantly transported itself to a different time, when I was small and helpless.
I was in a cage. Everything was cold. I was cold, the floor was cold, even the air was cold. The walls around me were grey and uninviting. A man in a white coat appeared in the doorway. His shoes clacked eagerly on the floor as he walked toward me. I watched in both relief and sorrow as he picked up the four armed girl in the cage next to mine. She hung limply in his arms. Everyone here had learned not to struggle. If you did, they trashed you as uncooperative and used you as entertainment. They often used a thick grey tape of some kind to tape you to a wall, then tortured you untill you died of starvation or disease or dehydration. It all happened in one room, and sometimes the men a women made us watch. It was awful.
The man strapped the girl to a metal table, and I shrunk to the back of my cage. I hated the operations. There was too much blood, and too much screaming. The man grinned devilishly and pulled a sharp object from his coat pocket. He began to make precise cuts, and I turned away. The whimpers of fear were enough, but when she started screaming, I felt sick. And I actually was. I had spent the entire night vomiting up a strange blue liquid they had forced me to drink, and I became queasy again. I whimpered a little, and the scientist yelled at me.
"Be quiet, mutant scum! I'm trying to concentrate on this one!"
I clutched my knees to my chest and rocked slowly on my feet, trying to hold down the small bit of nutrition I had been fed this morning. I failed. The reptile boy on my left was older than me, about 12, and he looked at me sympathetically. The girl screeched and we both winced.
"All done, little freak." He laughed, and carried her back to her cage.
She curled up into a little ball and whimpered as he locked her door. She cried all night. It was terrifying, to know someone could be that scared and in that much pain. In the morning, the man came back with another man and a woman. They took the girl out and set her in the middle of the room. The first man took out a remote and pressed a button. Her eyes dilated and she started breathing heavily. Hissing filled the room and I was confused. She let out a blood curdling screech and exploded, sending tiny parts of her flying into every corner of the room. I screamed. The scientists laughed in victory. The boy next to me just sobbed quietly to himself.
Months later, they sold me to the school, eager to make room for better experiments. At first, the school felt like heaven.
I shuddered and whimpered, needing to put a hand on Coral to steady myself.
"Cork, are you ok?" She said, concerned.
I nodded, but it was halfhearted. "I know... I know where these things are coming from."

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