Chapter 14

Disclaimer: I DO NOT OWN MAXIMUM RIDE. CAN YOU HEAR ME? I HOPE SO. 'CAUSE I REALLY DO NOT WANT TO GET SUED. OR STUFF. I WONDER WHY I SAY, "OR STUFF". STUFF IS SUCH A WEIRD WORD. THE AGAIN, EVERYTHING SOUNDS WEIRD WHEN YOU SAY IT OVER AND OVER, LIKE "HAMMER. HAMMER. HAMMER. HAMMER." JUST KEEP ON SAYING THAT. IT SOUNDS WEIRD LATER. TRUST ME. AND I'LL THROW IN THE BONUS THAT YOU'LL LOOK LIKE AN IDIOT.

Reviewer of the Week: None other than CISV. Sorry folks, for the delay!

Other Reviewers: Nixie Rayne, candycanelover, PurpleTea88, BrokeNCYDE114MaximumRide, and Kelsie Rose!

NOTE: BTW! THE MYSTERY PERSON IS REVEALED IN THIS CHAPTER. IF YOU WISH TO GUESS, GUESS NOW!

Me: *whistling*

May: Hello?

Me: May, you made it!

May: Hey... where are PB Max and Fang? Or AA Max or Fang for that matter?

Me: *singing*

May: You're in an awfully good mood.

Me: *still singing* Tra-la-la-la!~ Max, Fang, called away by friends in California!~

May: I see. Where did PB Max and Fang go?

Me: Hey. May. the PBs went to Cali. The AAs went to Guatemala, some friend author calling them.

May: By your tone, i can deduce that -

Me: Um... scientist much?

May: Okay. Giving up the scientist act.

Me: Anyways, on with the - *phone ringing*

May: *picks up the phone* Yes?

PB Fang: (howl, smile, grin, howls more, growl, snarl) YAY! ON WITH THE SHOW! *crackles* WISH EVERYONE A HAPPY FANG DAY!

Us: ?

Nudge's POV

"Bet'cha fifty bucks that Talon and Iggy are getting together," I whisper to Gazzy.

"You're on," he growls. "For a hundred bucks."

I smile. Great. Now I need to make sure that everything works in my favor.

Gazzy's POV

"Bet'cha fifty bucks that Talon and Iggy are getting together," Nudge whispers to me.

"You're on," I growl. "For a hundred bucks."

I smile. Great. Now I need to make sure that everything works in my favor.

Talon's POV

"Pit stop!" Iggy yells. With that, everyone literally rips the doors open to get to the bathroom.

"We're almost at Santa Fe," he tells me. "Just an hour or so."

"That's it?" I ask, disappointed. I liked being with Iggy.

"Well, we're staying a night at a cheap motel. Then we head off to Denver. After that, we arrive at Lincoln, Des Moines, Madison. I think after that we can ditch the car at the Junky Enterprise in Madison. Max will be better by then, and we can get to New York City."

"Well, that's good. You only got through Books 1 to 3 in the Maximum Ride Adventure Chronicles, presented orally by motor mouth Nudge."

He snorts. "Cheetos? Or Lays?"

"Ruffles. Definitely Ruffles All Dressed."

He pulls out what seems like thousands of coins, mostly nickels and dimes, picking out a HUGE bag of Ruffles All Dressed. Delicious. It'll be our dinner. We had Cheetos for lunch.

"Ruffles? No way am I eating Ruffles All Dressed. Last time I did, I threw up," Max complains.

"How about if you buy that for the flock, I'll buy Ms. Picky here a few cans of Ketchup Pringles," suggests Fang. Iggy laughs and Max pouts when Fang calls her, "".

"For dessert... let's take one of those Lays Sour Cream and Onion," Gazzy calls.

"Nah. SO Salt Malt and Vinegar from 's," yelps Nudge.

"Whatever," Iggy yawns. "No way I'm buying that stuff for ya. Eat whatever we chose."

"You mean Talon chose," Gazzy pouts. Nudge sends a sickly sweet look at Gazzy. That look is not pretty. Not pretty at all.

Max's POV

"Max? Come on, Max. We have to destroy Base 4. Please wake up."

I yawn, stretching out. That was a great nap. Best dream I've had in ages. And don't ask me what the dream was about. You'll freak out. Fang would - never mind.

My clenched fist hits something. Wha-?

"Ow! I know you're tired, ya don't have to punch me in the jaw!" Fang complains.

"Stop being a wuss," I sigh. "Alright. Where's this Base 4?"

"Hidden literally underground," murmurs Talon. "Crazy, isn't it! I think Base 9 was the only one above ground, a sort of connection between the underground and the Shining Star Base..."

"Since we destroyed that, how are they supposed to get orders?" asks Iggy.

"Maybe they're still scrambling to fix tha - " I start.

"Wait! I got it! They must have sent out representatives out from underground to - " Talon interrupts.

" - fix the connections from - " Iggy continues

" - all the bases to the main - " Talons says thoughtfully.

" - and create a new base?" Iggy asks.

"Dunno. Probably not. Base 9 was a pretty complicated base. They'd take YEARS to build another one..." Talon trails off.

"But -" I get interrupted.

"Not with these new mutants doing the building," says Iggy, grimacing.

"How-" I try again.

"Still, months then," points out Talon. "They'll need to create and remake ALL the supplies."

"What if-" I suggest.

"I guess we'll just have to make a race for time, then," sighs Iggy. "Better get crackin'. Talon, Gazzy, The Boom Team. Let's get together and figure something out."

"WHO'S THE LEADER AROUND HERE?" I yell. Ah, that's better. All the steam's blown away.

But now the flock is in an incredulous stupor, just staring at me.

Awkward silence.

"I mean, let's make a plan together," I emphasize, embarrassed . But I like your "Boom Team". Whatever. Anyways, Nudge, Angel, and I will break in. Fang and Dylan will be the first fighting wave. We will be the second."

Fang nods. Dylan grunts.

"Fang, say at least ONE WORD. As for you, Dylan, I have NO idea what's been with you these past weeks. Seriously," I chide. Actually, I am kinda worried about him...

"Fine," Fang says casually. Dylan growls a bit, then grunts.

"Oh wow, Dylan. Great effort. Whatever. Work on that later. Now WHERE IS THIS BASE?" I ask, the slightest bit annoyed.

"Nf-24", Talon muses. "Straight road. We should get to Caja Del Oro Grant West Road soon." Iggy follows her directions exactly.

The rental car sputters on the turns. I think some piece of metal falls off it when we hit the whatchamcallit road.

"We're here. This is Caja Del Oro Grant West Road. The base should be disguised as a cement factory."

"A what?" Gazzy asks innocently. What is he thinking...?

"A cement factory." He smiles a bit. Uh-oh. Not good.

"Y'know," he chirrups. "It would be REALLY nice to get a little bit of some of that Silicon, Calcium, Iron, and Aluminum. Some good stuff for my bombs, y'know?" I sigh.

"Gazzy..."

"It'll help with our blowin' up stuff," he pouts. He's getting good at that.

"Sure, get some stuff. Just get out there QUICK," I say cautiously.

"OH YEAH!" Gazzy yelps. He slaps a high-five with Iggy and Talon. Oh, God. That just confirms that I've said yes to something I shouldn't have.

Iggy's POV

In honest truth, I didn't think that Talon would be the greatest bomber.

I was definitely wrong.

As we slink down the hallways of the cement factory, Gazzy carefully picks up different chemicals and minerals in weird bottles and metal mini-caskets. I know. Caskets. They're just that sick.

"Whoah! No way!" Gazzy exclaims.

"Nitrogen, Oxygen, Carbon. A tri-glass! I only hear about these, I've never even seen one!" Talon mutters, excited.

"With the rest of our stuff combined with that..." I continue.

"They are done for. Like, as in, having to scrape their remains off the floor for 61 days done for," Talon finishes. I grin. I like it when Talon finishes my sentences. It's... never mind.

"Anyways. I think there's a vent somewhere. Do you think we can..."

"Connection Domino Effect Explosion Chain?" I ask. She grins.

"Plan of Ultimate Destruction of Seriously Demented Psychos."

Fang's POV

I was worried about Dylan. Like, seriously. I mean, he's a bastard, but at least he stuck out for Max when I wasn't here. That should count for something.

I believe in second chances.

"Hey, Dylan, so what's the plan?" I ask, trying to pry out at him.

"I'm not going."

"What?" I exclaim. He looks at me with those bloodshot, now dark blue eyes. Who knew his eyes grew darker when he's stressed?

"I'm not going," he spits. "This is stupid. If we want to blow up the bases, we have to do them all at once. Not one at a time. Like, pack explosives in a tunnel underground them or something."

"The bases are far away," I argue, " and we might kill innocent civilians or something." He snarls, animal-like, and that makes me back up. What's wrong with him?

"Shut up!" he roars. "All of you, just SHUT UP!" He howls into the graying sky, very wolf-like. Wait... wolf-like? Eraser-like?

He falls to the ground, clutching his head.

"SHUT UP! SHUT UP! Shut UP! SHUT up! Shut up! Shut up!" He snarls. "Get out of my head!" He starts literally rolling on the ground, fighting some invisible force that he can't break free from.

"Dylan!" I yell. "Snap out of it!" I pull him up to his feet.

Bad idea.

He starts throwing wild punches, roaring and snarling and he actually starts to try and bite me.

"Dylan! Wake UP!" I screech into his ear.

"SHUT UP!" he howls. He looks at me with those angry, angry, blue eyes. Animal eyes.

"I... I'm sorry," he manages to choke out in his normal voice for a second. But then Possessed Dylan pops out again.

"WROAR!" he bellows. He slams his body into the car.

"DYLAN!" I shriek. "STOP! DYLAN, YOU HAVE TO LISTEN TO US!" That slows him down a bit, and I try to scream at him again.

"DYLAN!" I yell. "JUST... COOL IT!" Wow. My best attempt at wording. I should study a bit from Max. He definitely stops now. I walk over to him.

His eyes are normal, like always.

His memory is gone.

"Wha-?" he asks, when he sees his ripped up hands and shirt. He'd slammed into something sharp, I guess.

"Dylan," I attempt to say lightly, "you just went psycho. Like animal or Eraser-like psycho."

Silence.

"I knew this would happen someday. I didn't think they would be able to control me so soon," he frets.

"What? Who? Why?" I ask, startled. He knows something we don't...?

"Dr. G," he explains, "put some machine in my brain when I was just a week old. Besides controlling my emotions for Max - I twitch - he also said he might be able to control me someday."

"Why didn't you stop him?"

"His controller... it's in his own brain," he explains. I just stare. Did I hear right?

"But he's... he's dead."

"Max and I never saw the body in our plane wreckage."

"It's impossible!" I shout. "There's no WAY that he could have survived that crash!"

Dylan opens his mouth to say something, but the walkie-talkie on my jeans crackles, and Talon's voice whispers out.

"Alright guys, here me out. Get to mostly the right of the factory to where you are - there are way more mutants there. The bombs are set to five seconds once we detonate them. Hurry!"

Well, Dylan's issue will have to wait another day.

'Cause he's not gonna be too dangerous, right?

Right?

Max's POV

"Alright. Party one. Hear me out?" I ask cautiously.

"Loud and clear. Where are you?" Fang's voice wavers a bit.

"Nearly breached security. Nudge took care of passwords. Angel took care of guards. Then I took care of easy doors and maps."

"We're at the Main Area."

"We're right outside that."

"Good. I'll yell, "HIYAH!" and that will send ya running." I have to have Nudge choke me to stop myself from laughing.

"Hiyah?"

"Hiyah."

"See ya."

"Bye."

Another crackle, and the fight is on.

Dylan's POV

Shoot. This is her base, I'm sure of it.

Start of Flashback*

"This is wrong," I say, stepping away from her.

"If this is wrong, what is right?" she asks, hurt staining her voice.

"I...I'm loyal to the flock. If we ever meet in battle, I have to... have to kill you." I expect her to be surprised but she isn't.

"Dylan... I understand..." I sigh.

"But... Dylan..." She's got something else to say?

"Just one night. Tonight. Our last night. Make me forget it all," she whispers.

End of Flashback*

What have I done?

The pandemonium that sets off when we appear is enormous. But soon, the scientists get everything into order, and the mutants punch the ground, ready to kill.

Some are huge murder machines, with knives as fingers, breathing fire, bullets and guns lodged into their spines.

Others are speedy, lithe, with just a dash of poison or a small arrow. But their speed makes the blow fatal and vicious.

The final kind were her kind. Built like bird kids, without the experiences. Speedy, strong, smart. But she's never been in the outside world by herself. Only when I was with her, of course...

"Let the strongest army win!" sneers a Pencil.

And we clash.

Base 4 is a big base with a small amount of mutants. Just twenty seven. But those twenty seven hurt.

Slash, punch, kick, dodge... Fang and I get into the rhythm of the battle.

Then red tinges my view.

My Murder Senses sharpen, although I will them not to. No... I can't turn into the mass-killer. I need to make sure I can see her and keep her safe.

Just then, Fang -

"!" he shrieks. With that, Nudge, Angel, and Max tumble into the scene. Nudge and Angel pretty much have it made - this machinery is all metal to Nudge, and Angel... she just always has it made.

Max is slashing through the crowd, and eventually the remaining mutants just seem to draw away from her as she moves.

I can see her. She's within jumping distance now. Good. But wait.

"NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!" I cry.

Max's POV

As I slash through the crowd, I see one mutant looking pretty much terrified at the sight of me. I swing back my arm to punch through her perfect little skull.

But as my arm swings forward -

"!"

Dylan blocks the way.

I end up smashing his ribcage to bits.

He sits up, still trying to stand up right to shield the mutant.

"YOU CAN'T KILL HER!" Dylan howls. "IF SHE GOES, I DO TOO!"

"SHUT UP!" I yell. "STOP THIS! YOU'RE PART OF THE FLOCK, TRAITOR!" What the hell is he doing protecting an enemy?

"YOU CAN'T KILL HER!" he howls again. "She's..." his voice drops. "She's... your sister."

He steps back.

Ella?

Me: Ahah! Cliffy, cliffy, cliffy, cliffy cliffy!

May: I believe that "cliffy" refers to cliffhanger?

Me: I TOLD you to STOP the scientist act!

May: Sorries, many sorries.

Me: Coffee?

May: Sure. Two and two. (Canadians, get this)

Me: Perfect. *telephone ringing*

Me: *picks up* Hello?

PB Fang: (howl, sniffle, howl, roar, sniffle, break down) LMWOE! Max is being mean to me again!