20 chapters! Woot! You guys rock! Anyways, have some fun reading about to psycho derangedness of the one and only Angel :)
Third Person POV, Angel
"Look, my lord. Osgiliath burns."
The city in front of them was constructed mostly of pale, crumbling rock, but fire had found something to latch onto. The flames weren't particularly big, but they gnawed through everything in their path and lit up the night, bathing the rangers, Sam, Frodo, and Angel in a flickering yellow light. Sam was fidgeting with his cloak nervously. Frodo stood stock-still, staring at the flames that licked desperately at all organic material. It was dying quickly, since it had exhausted most of the plants in the city already. Angel cocked her head. Fire wasn't an unfamiliar sight to her – she'd depended on it for warmth and to cook delicious meals of rats and squirrels ever since they'd lost their house – and fire being dangerous wasn't an unfamiliar sight to her, either – thanks to the Gasman and Iggy's bombs, mostly – but something about this made her feel small. Maybe it was because it caused so much destruction and she was powerless to stop it, since it didn't have a body to hurt or a mind to control.
"Mordor has come."
Angel leaned in a little closer to Sam.
"The Ring will not save Gondor," Frodo pleaded. "It only has the power to destroy. Please, let me go!"
Faramir hesitated slightly, and then shook his head to clear it. "Hurry."
Rangers grabbed the girl and the Hobbits roughly and pushed them forward. Frodo twisted. "Faramir!" he half cried, half wailed. "You must let me go!"
Faramir ignored him and they continued tramping on towards Osgiliath. Once they passed through the city limits, they were immediately under attack. Angel had to jump around to avoid being stuck full of arrows or flattened by rocks that shot through the sky like missiles.
"It's calling to me," Frodo whispered. "His Eye is almost on me."
"Take them to my father," said Faramir bitterly. "Tell him Faramir brings a mighty gift – one that may change our fortunes in this war."
"Do you want to know what happened to Boromir? You want to know why your brother died?" Sam growled. "He tried to take the Ring from Frodo! After swearing an oath to protect him, he tried to kill him! The Ring drove your brother mad!"
Faramir made to answer, but was cut off as a boulder shattered a tower and sent little bits of shrapnel raining down on them. Frodo was the only one completely unfazed by this. He gazed up at Faramir, a peculiar expression pasted on his face.
"Mr. Frodo?" said Sam nervously.
"They're here," he said in a faraway voice. "They've come."
An ear splitting screech rent the air and one of the big black dragons from before swooped down, gnashing its teeth and spitting. There is the girl I was ordered not to harm, Angel heard its rider think. How annoying. It would be amusing to kill her.
Angel was seriously considering breaking this guy's mind just to show him how amusing she could be.
"Nazgul!" Faramir shouted. He grabbed Angel and the Hobbits and shoved them under an overhang of rubble. "Stay here. Keep out of sight," he spun around and addressed his men. "Take cover!"
Frodo apparently had no intention of keeping out of sight, because he rose to his feet as quickly as he'd been thrown down. He scuffled across the ground and up some steps. Sam and Angel exchanged a glance and then dashed after him.
"Mr. Frodo!" Sam yelled. "What're you doin'?"
Angel reached out with her mind and sensed something other than her was playing with Frodo's thoughts and bending him to its will. That was annoying. She didn't like not being in total control.
Frodo was already at the top of the stairs. The Nazgul had already swooped down and was hanging in mid-air in front of him. Angel tensed and prepared to whip out her wings if she had to. But she had something more important to do. As she and Sam reached the top of the steps as well, she grabbed the blonde hobbit's cloak and dragged him backwards.
"What're you doin'?" he said in disbelief. Her eyes flashed and a small smile played at her lips.
"Nothing," she said simply. His eyes glazed over.
"Nothing," he repeated dumbly. "You're not doing a thing." But then he shakes himself. "Mr. Frodo!" he says, and leaps forward, slamming into Frodo. They both went careening down the stairs on the other side. Angel gaped. How had he broken through her mind control? Only the Flock could do that, and even they found it difficult. She walked slowly to the top of the steps and looked down at them.
Frodo had his sword to his gardener's throat for a moment there, but he quickly dropped it. Angel couldn't be bothered to hone in on their conversation. She was too busy puzzling on how exactly Sam had done it. It pissed her off, that's what it did. Finally, she quit moping and stomped back down to the bottom level.
"You know the laws of the country, the laws of your father," a ranger guy was saying. "If you let them go, your life is forfeit."
"Then it is forfeit," said Faramir. "Release them."
The rangers backed away from Frodo and Sam grudgingly. Another one released Gollum, and Faramir beckoned for the four of them to follow him. Frodo, Sam, and Angel looked at each other. Frodo gulped, Sam shrugged, and Angel skipped happily after the man without any further interaction. Her blood had already quit boiling. Sometimes she thought she was too simple minded, but then she remembered that she was genetically enhanced to be exactly the opposite.
They snuck through the shadows until they stopped at a tunnel.
"This is the old sewer. Runs under the river through to the edge of the city," Faramir explained. "You'll find cover in the woods there."
Angel wrinkled her nose and peered down into the sewer's depths. It had been washed free of most of its horrible scent from lack of use, but it still smelled nasty, and she wasn't the biggest fan of sewers. Not that she hadn't kipped in them on more than one occasion.
"Do we have to?" she glanced back at Faramir and gave him the Bambi eyes.
"This is the only safe way," he said apologetically. She sighed and slumped over.
"I hate sewers," she grumbled.
"Captain Faramir… you have shown your quality, sir," said Sam. Faramir looked at him in shock. "The very highest."
"The Shire must be truly a great realm," Faramir countered. "Where gardeners are held in very high honor."
Sam blushed deeply.
"What road will you take once you reach the woods?" Faramir queried.
"Gollum says there's a path near Minis Morgul that leads through the mountains," Frodo supplied."
"Cirith Ungul?" Faramir turned to Gollum, who shrank backwards, looking guilty. Angel got a waft of thoughts and figured this Cirith Ungul wasn't too fun of a place. Gollum tried to creep away, but Faramir lunged and gripped him around the neck. "Is that its name?"
"No, no!" Gollum shook his head furiously. Faramir tightened his grip. "Yes!"
The ranger threw Gollum back onto the ground roughly. "Frodo… they say a great terror dwells in Minis Morgul. You cannot go that way."
"It is the only way," Gollum hacked. "Master says we must go to Mordor, so we must try."
"I must," Frodo confirmed, looking unsure of himself. Faramir looked hesitant, but nodded.
"Go, Frodo. Go with the goodwill of all men," he said.
"Thank you," Frodo ducked a little bow and turned down the tunnel. Gollum crept around and made to follow them, giving Faramir a wide berth, but he found himself being choked again.
"May death find you quickly if you bring them any harm," Faramir warned. Gollum whimpered, and the ranger practically threw him down the tunnel. Once he was out of sight, Faramir turned to Angel.
"Aren't you going with them?" he said. Angel smiled brightly and nodded. Her curls bounced with the motion.
"Uh-huh!" she chirped. "I just wanted to say I'm sorry about your brother. Your dad, too. My sister Max has a jerkoff dad like you, sort of. Kind of. I mean, technically he's a good guy, but Max says she doesn't trust him, so I don't really trust him either. But he didn't seem to care about his son, either, but then when Ari died, he was really, really sad. So I bet your dad loves you, even if he doesn't act like it. Jeb says he pretended not to love Ari because it was the only way to make sure he was safe."
Faramir looked completely caught off guard by this onslaught of insight into his mind. "How did you…?"
"Oh, never mind," Angel said. She shot him one last smile and then flounced down the sewer behind her companions.
Max POV
I knew we were going to be confronted eventually, but I was hoping it would be in a setting other than an ex-battlefield covered in steaming bodies that were emitting some ungodly death smell.
"You have some explaining to do," said Aragorn angrily. I looked up at him innocently.
"Explaining?" I said meekly. Wow, me being meek. Didn't see that one coming. "What on earth do you mean?"
"The wings!" Gimli snapped.
"Well, you don't have to be so mean about it," I said. I turned to Gandalf, who was picking through the wreckage and trying to keep his spotless white robe spotless. "This answers your questions, G-man. You wanted to know what we were hiding? Here you go."
I extended my wings, twisting them around my body and stuffing them practically in his face. I really wasn't in the mood for this. My ears were ringing and I had a splitting headache, partly because the Voice was pissed at me and partly because Epsilon was a wicked head-butter.
"Yes, I saw them before," said Gandalf. "Wings. So you aren't human? Do all of you have these?"
"Even Total," I nodded. "That's why he has the doggy jacket on. We've gotta keep 'em secret, you know? They tend to freak people out a tad."
"Hey, you callin' me a freak?" Total ruffed.
"That I am."
"How is this possible?" Legolas asked, cocking his head. He was the only one who hadn't totally gone off the deep end. "I have never seen a creature such as you."
"We're one of a kind… six of a kind… twelve of a kind? Anyways, there aren't very many of us," I said. "It's a long story, but we're not really a species. Some dudes created us."
"What 'dudes', exactly?" said Aragorn.
"Evil dudes," Fang assured him.
"Very evil dudes," Iggy seconded.
"Super very evil dudes," Nudge added.
"I'm not even going to add onto that string of prefixes," I said.
"And what about that boy?" said Theoden. "The one who attacked you and killed one of my soldiers."
"Epsilon," I said. "Fang, Arry and I ran into him back when they took their little spills off that pathetic midget cliff. I don't know much about of him, to be honest. There was this other guy, Omega, who was supposed to be the perfect super soldier. It looks like the super very evil dudes decided to top him with Epsilon."
"Who are you?" asked Eomer. "Who are you, really?"
"I'm Maximum Ride," I smiled wryly. "I'm 98% human and 2% bird. I've got two abilities – well, one really. One's more of a curse. The ability is that I can fly, like, super-fast. Like light speed or something. The curse is that I hear this Voice in my head. It can be useful sometimes, but mostly it's just freaking annoying. Then I can also breathe under water, but so can the rest of the Flock – yeah, we're a Flock – so I don't count that as an ability."
"I'm Fang," said Fang. "I've got the same genetics. I turn invisible if I sit still long enough."
"I'm Iggy," said Iggy. "Same same with the whole human/bird thing. Uh… yeah, I'm blind, but you already know that. I can see when the background's all white, though. And I can feel colors."
"I'm Nudge. Duh. I mean, you already know our names, right? So why are we telling you again? Dramatic effect?" Nudge rambled. "Well, anyways, I'm also an Avian American. I'm really good with computers. Like, I'm some sort of super-hacker. It's really really really cool. But I guess you guys don't know what computers are. They're cool things from our world. And then, I can sense the left over vibrations in objects and figure out who did what while using it. That's pretty cool, too. It's probably a contributing thing towards my hacking thing, right? Also, I have a magnetic personality. Haha, get it? Magnetic personality? Because I'm also magnetic. I can attract other magnetic things towards me. Then I can breathe under water, too, just like everyone else. Well, not Total. He can't because he's - "
"Nudge!" Iggy yelled, squeezing his eyes shut and clapping his hands over his ears. "Shut up!"
"Don't look at me," said Total. "I'm just the dog."
"Then there's Angel and Gazzy, too," I said. "Angel can read minds, talk to fish, and kind of shape shift a little," I conveniently left out the controlling minds bit. I thought that might make them a little mad. "She's pretty powerful. Gazzy doesn't have any abilities."
"So he's the only one who doesn't have an ability," Eowyn said. "Really?"
"Well," I scratched the side of my head. "He has a skill, maybe, but I refuse to call it an ability."
"You know how Gasser's got some… well, gas problems?" said Iggy. When everyone but Eowyn, Eomer, and Theoden nodded, reminiscing with horror from the looks on their faces, Iggy continued. "Well, turns out he can crank that up a notch when he feels like it. The stench can actually knock you out. Like, seriously. No joke."
"Really?" Gandalf said. It didn't sound like a question.
"Really."
"It's gross," Nudge added. "Really really really really really really gross."
Gandalf, Aragorn, Legolas, Gimli, Theoden, Eomer and Eowyn stood in silence for a little while, staring at my wings, until Aragorn finally broke the silence.
"Why didn't you tell us about this earlier?" he demanded.
"Well, your reactions are Exhibit A," I rolled my eyes.
"But this could have been very useful!" he said. "Frodo and Sam are walking to Mordor right now. Imagine how much simpler this all could have been if you'd just flown the Ring there?"
I paused. "Wow. Didn't think of that. Oh, well. Ange's with them. If things start getting rough, she can always knock 'em out and lug that thing to the Mountain of Doom and Destruction or whatever it's called."
They all stared at me. More horror.
"Jesus, I was just kidding!" I cried, crossing my arms. "I mean, Angel probably wouldn't knock them out."
Gimli gave a soft moan.
"Good job explaining," said Fang. "I can tell you really have them convinced."
"Can it, emo boy."