Disclaimer: I do not own M. Ride and company or the quote "You weigh a freakin' ton."
A/N: I've been feeling very frustrated lately; kinda been wondering why people review stories that are clearly not good at all and love them, but don't even spare decent (though not anywhere near perfect) stories like mine a second glance. Yeah, you could say I'm a little jealous.
And I posted the last chapter only so sick/demented/insane/all-around-disturbing people like myself could read it.
The sky looked so far away this morning; the clouds like something out of a painting. They were perfectly frozen in place, like whipped cream in the heavens. All that was missing was angel darting across the horizon.
Fang allowed himself a small smile and smoothly lifted himself into space. He and his black wings would have to do.
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Max plummeted. She shouted with the exhilarating fear, knowing she had it better than any roller coaster addict would dream. There was nothing quite like freefalling; seeing the inevitable end and then cheating death out of one more bird kid.
After waiting as long as she could without cruelly smashing into a tree that had looked like leafless broccoli only moments before, she sped almost straight up, calling on all of her superhuman speed. The strain was incredible; laughing in the face of gravity, and she simply let herself fall. She closed her eyes, daring herself to guess at when she needed to pull up.
The teen shivered as she fell through a wet cloud. She sternly told herself to quit being such a baby and be brave enough to fall as long as she could. Then she felt the first of the branches and realized how stupid she'd been. But before she could even remember to open her wings, those wiry arms were around her, like they always were.
"Max, you stubborn idiot, please tell me you weren't trying to do Phoenix's job for him," Fang said heavily.
Her eyes flew open. "I had everything under control, thank you very much."
He raised an eyebrow in amusement. "Plowing into trees is under control?"
Max glared at him for a full minute.
"You know those things on your back?" Fang said abruptly. "Use them. You weigh a freakin' ton."
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"What is 'kissing'?" Omega asked, looking down at Angel.
She stared at him in surprise; automatically probing his mind to make sure it wasn't some kind of joke. His thoughts were completely innocent. Boring, but innocent.
"It's hard to explain…" Angel said, hoping that he would go away and stop asking questions.
Annoyingly, Omega stood waiting for her to continue.
Sighing, she went on, "Fine, I'll get someone to demonstrate." She reached out with her power, and, out of pity for her fellow Flock members, squirmed her way into Tareyn's mind. Apparently Angel's target was still half asleep, but she would do.
The six year-old subtly changed the course of Tareyn's thoughts, making the older girl want to stand up. The next part was harder. Angel could easily force her to kiss someone, but it would be clumsier than if she only made Tareyn want to kiss someone.
Then, inspiration struck her, and Angel moved into Max's mind. She sifted through various memories, trying not to go too far into them, searching for that day on the beach. Angel made a face, thinking about how slimy it all was, but returned to the task at hand. The memory wasn't difficult to find, and Angel copied Max's emotions and substituted them into Tareyn with a few small tweaks as effortlessly as she would copy and paste something on a computer.
"What are you doing?" Omega asked, clearly wondering why Angel was staring off into space.
"Just watch Tareyn."
Tareyn's thoughts were confused –part of her recognized that what she was doing made no sense- but she still followed her newfound, overpowering emotions. Before she could break through Angel's haze, she kissed Phoenix, who promptly woke up and shouted at her.
"Eew," Omega said.
"Yeah," Angel agreed.
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"Max, get to a television and turn on the news."
She frowned, noticing that he was worried instead of his usual cryptic. Jeb?
But he was already gone.
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"Everybody out," Max ordered, and everyone but a helpless Phoenix obeyed. "There's something important going on somewhere out there, and we need to find a T.V. and find out what it is. Check news channels."
"If we split up, it won't take as long," Iggy volunteered.
Max nodded. "Get in pairs."
Chaos ensued.
Regretfully, Max turned to Fang, knowing he meant to go with her. "Can you stay here and guard Phoenix?"
Something unidentifiable flashed in his eyes –maybe disappointment or anger, fear or devotion- but he nodded and fluidly stepped into the van, shutting the door firmly behind him.
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Mara and Tareyn had never liked each other, but they accepted their temporary partnership. They broke into a suburban house thoughtlessly, turning on a T.V. in an immaculate living room. After minutes of frustrating attempts to get the cable box to work, they finally switched it to a news station.
Panicked reporters rushed through scenes of devastation; bloody streets, smoking buildings; each dutifully informing the public of the deaths of dozens of important officials. Presidents, prime ministers, ambassadors, dictators –all dead. Tareyn's face paled and she rushed out of the room, leaving a grim-faced Mara staring at the screen.
She found a phone in a tidy bedroom, located on a pristine white nightstand by a carefully made bed, and dialed a number she'd had memorized for years. Tareyn restlessly paced across the tan carpet as she listened to the dial tones, a trail of muddy footprints appearing behind her. Finally, someone on the other end picked up their own phone.
"Hello?" the voice said, distorted by static but undeniably tired.
She stopped in her literal tracks. "Ralph?"
"Is that you, Tareyn? Man, it's good to hear your voice. We thought you were dead, disappearing like that. Are you okay?"
"I'm fine," Tareyn answered dismissively. "What's going on? This wasn't supposed to happen for another two and a half weeks."
"I know, Tare," Ralph sighed. "But the thing is: There's no more Third Faction. Itex found out what we were planning and used it for their own ends."
Tareyn swore into the receiver. "How?"
"You know those werewolf things? Apparently they come in size small. Hundreds of 'em snuck in through the air vents."
She froze, dropping the phone. It fell towards the floor, but hung spinning in midair by its old-fashioned curled cord. How could she have missed? There'd been an Eraser among them ever since they'd gone after Phoenix.
Indistinct noises came from the receiver, and she hastily swooped down to pick it up. "I have to go," she said dazedly, overriding his protests, and hung up the phone.
Tareyn ran out of the room, throwing open the front door without hesitation. She was ready to bolt outside when she felt the sudden vise-like grip on her arm. Mara was right behind her, expression even more grim than it had been when she was watching the news.
"Did you really think I didn't know about the Third Faction?"
Tareyn had opened her mouth to demand release, but dread settled in her stomach at Mara's words. "How?"
"C'mon, kid," Mara said impatiently, "you left me alone in that place too long for me not to do a little exploring. I've known all this time."
"You don't understand, Mara, Vincent-"
"I don't care about Vincent, kid. I came to help Phoenix, not you, and I'm not going to let the next part of your plan succeed."
"It'll be better this way, Mara. We're people, not experiments. We only wanted to take out those people so that mutants would have a chance," Tareyn found herself insisting.
Mara smiled humorlessly. "But you don't believe that, do you? You didn't want to have to kill just to survive. Besides, something went wrong, didn't it?"
Tareyn hesitated, but Mara's grip tightened as if to remind her she didn't have a choice. "Yeah. The right leaders weren't killed. Itex found out."
Finally, Mara's hold slackened. "Great. Now a bunch of crazed whitecoats rule the world."
A/N: You probably won't get another update for about a week. I've got a 20 page research paper due Friday, and I've written three pages of it. And then next week is midterms.