hey! i'm actually updating in under a week! bet y'all are surprised, huh?

disclaimer: don't own maximum ride

20. how many mutants does it take to plan a failure?

"Fancy," I said, trailing my fingers along the windowsill, looking down at the courtyard below. It wasn't much-just a few trees, grass, a pond. A sidewalk trailing through it in a random winding pattern. It was nice. Quaint, even.

The only thing that annoyed me was that it didn't give us any inclination as to where we were.

"I'm inclined to agree." Blaze flopped down on one of the beds, closing her eyes and letting out a breath as she folded her hands behind her head. "We made it. And without getting killed, too."

"Yep," Max said, doing a routine check of the other two rooms in our suite. "Now all we have to do is wait around until tomorrow, hopefully find time to meet with all the other mutants so we can convince them to help us, purposely fail all the tests they have for us, make sure all the investors refuse to keep pouring money into Itex's corporation, and then escape, all without getting caught, hurt, or killed."

"That was some of the best nutshelling I've ever heard," I complimented, and she sent me a wry look.

"The waiting around until tomorrow part will not be a problem," Blaze said with satisfaction. "I could get used to this place."

"Max!" Nudge and Angel came bounding into the second of the two bedrooms, beaming all over their bright young faces, Avi trailing quietly along behind. "Max, the bathtub's got jets, like a hot tub!" Nudge exclaimed.

"Again," Blaze said, propping herself up on her elbows, "I could get used to this place."

Max looked over at me, and we shared a grin.

The Director had really pulled out all the stops for us this time. After the meeting we'd been taken down from her office to the floor below, and then led to two separate suites, one for the boys and one for the girls. Our suite had two bedrooms, a main room, and a giant bathroom. King-sized beds were stationed in the bedrooms, while the main room held a big-screen TV and a kitchenette, which held a rather large refrigerator and pantry that we'd already raided. Now that we were "cooperating," that Ms. Dicus wanted to make sure that we stayed happily cooperative.

Sucker.

"It's nicer than back home, even," Avi said, wandering over to a full-length mirror on one wall. She pressed her fingers to it and slid it aside-it wasn't just a mirror, but also the door to a closet. Avi peeked inside, tucking a strand of hair behind her ear. "Though the wardrobe could use some work."

"Why, what's in there?" Nudge asked eagerly, darting over to take a look. Of course the clothes would get her all excited. "Aw, man." She grabbed something and pulled it out, holding it up for the rest of us to see. "This is so not cute."

It was a jacket, plain and an odd bluish-gray color. The rest of the clothes were the same color, and just as plain: slim-legged pants, long-sleeve shirts. I noticed they all bore the Itex logo, as did the various-sized tennis shoes that were lined up along the floor of the closet.

"It looks like we've got a uniform," I said. "Think the guys have the same stuff?"

"Probably," Max said, rolling her eyes. "They want us to look all neat and identical so we can make a good impression."

"Hey, there're already slits in the back," Nudge said, poking her finger through the back of the jacket she was still holding. "Guess they want us to fly tomorrow, too."

"Well, other than the color, those clothes will be good," Blaze said. "Looks like they were designed to be easy to move around in. And it's good that we don't have to cut wing-slits ourselves."

"Why's that good?" Nudge asked, putting the jacket back and rifling through the other clothes-probably looking for her size.

"If the slits hadn't been pre-cut, that would've meant they didn't want us flying," Avi said. "And if we couldn't fly, that'd make our escape a lot harder."

"Do we have a plan for that?" Angel asked, looking up at Max. "For escaping, I mean."

"There's always a plan," Max said confidently, but I saw in her eyes that she was lying through her teeth.

"We'll fine-tune it once we get a chance to find Sy and the cat guys," I said reassuringly. "You hear their thoughts at all, Angel?"

The little girl tilted her head and listened. "I can hear the boys across the hall," she said, "and I can hear the Director and those other whitecoats upstairs. But I can't hear anyone else."

"What's the Director thinking about now?" Max asked quickly. She wasn't the only one who wanted to know-Avi and Nudge turned away from the closet, and even Blaze sat all the way up to focus on Angel.

Angel paused for a while, and I tried not to tap my foot impatiently.

"She's thinking about Spark," she said finally.

Everyone looked at me, and I raised my eyebrow. "Me? Why?"

"She's wondering why you and Con suddenly changed your minds," Angel said, staring off into space as she relayed the Director's thoughts. "Because everything everybody told her about you made her sure that you'd never do it, so she's a little suspicious."

"Crap," Blaze muttered, but then Angel went on.

"But the one whitecoat, Jones, I think, keeps telling her that you freaked out about the news video he showed you and so you realized that you don't have any other options," she recited. I had a feeling she was pretty much giving us the thoughts word-for-word. "She's kinda starting to believe it, but she still thinks something's a little weird." Angel stopped then, and blinked. Then she looked at me and asked, "What news video did he show you?"

I tensed and hesitated. Everyone was looking at me again. I tried to stall. "Uh. . .well, it was just. . ."

Thankfully, though, just then a knock came on the door to our suite. Angel abruptly changed subject by turning and leaving the room, calling, "It's just the guys," back over her shoulder.

Max was slower to leave. She sent me a look that meant, "We'll talk about this later." I rolled my eyes. Of course we would.

Nudge left too, dragging Avi behind her as she began to babble on about Swift, leaving me alone in the room with Blaze. Not wanting to remain on my own with a crazy punk chick who'd tried to kill me multiple times, I made to leave as well.

But she held me back.

"Hey. . ."

I stopped at the door and turned. "Yeah?"

Blaze hesitated for a second, then got up from the bed and gave me a hard look. "I meant to say this before, but there wasn't time," she said. "So I'm going to say it now." She paused, then added, "But only if you close the door."

"Say what now?" I asked warily, doing as she asked. For some reason the "only if you close the door" part didn't bode well with me.

"Just because we're all working together on this one thing this one time, that doesn't mean we're just going to stop chasing you once it's over," Blaze told me bluntly. "We are not friends, and we are still going to make your life miserable for what you did to us."

I stared at her for a second, then rolled my eyes. "Oh, my. . .Really? I knew that, Blaze. I know that for whatever reason, you guys just can't let go of the fact that I ditched you when we were kids."

"You didn't just ditch us," she snapped in disgust. "You threw us to the wolves. You left us on our own so that the scientists could do whatever the hell they wanted with us!"

"Well, I'm sorry, but. . ."

"No, you know what, I don't think you are!" she said, her voice rising as she overrode me. "Do you even remember those last couple weeks you spent at the Factory?"

I stopped to think. Slowly, I said, "I remember they wanted to take me to New York. . .It was something big, like a meeting or something. I don't know, I'm still kinda fuzzy. . ."

Blaze let out a frustrated breath. "Then you don't remember what was going on with you and me then."

"What about you and me?" I asked slowly.

Blaze stared at me, and for once her blue eyes were completely void of silver. It was a little startling, because I knew she was worked up and angry, but her eyes weren't showing it.

"We had a plan," she said clearly. "You and me. They were going to send you to New York, all right, but that was going to be the last time they sent you anywhere."

I froze. "What're you. . ."

"The time before that, they dumped you back on Jay with half your bones broken and your back all slashed up from a whip," she said matter-of-factly. "Both Con and me had to give you blood so you wouldn't kick the bucket."

My eyes widened. "But. . .when. . ." I spluttered, trying to find words. "I-in Salt Lake, you said. . ."

"Jay told us a rogue Eraser had attacked you," she said flatly. "Kept us away so we couldn't see that the wounds weren't consistent with an Eraser's claws. I only just found out what really happened after you got away from us in Chicago-I had Swift pull up the old files.

"But anyway, once you healed, you said to me you didn't want to live in the Factory anymore. You said you wanted to run away. I said you couldn't just leave, so you said you'd take us with you. You said we could all run away together, and live on our own away from the scientists, away from the tests, and away from Itex."

I couldn't stop staring at her.

"So I started checking stuff out, and I figured out that on the first day of every month, at one in the morning, the maintenance guys shut down all the alarms and security cameras and electric locks in the building so they could re-calibrate it and give it a new access code. I told you about it, and we set up a plan to escape then, at one in the morning on the first day of July."

"July. . ." It was starting to get hard to breathe. "That's. . .but that's when I. . ."

"Your trip to New York was moved up, but you swore to me you'd get Jay to get you out of it. He said you had to go, but only for a few days. You promised me you'd be back by the end of June. And I believed you."

"I. . .I had no idea I. . .I don't remember. . ." Harder to think now, too.

She chuckled hollowly. "And then, the day after you leave, I hear that your stupid truck broke down, and that you had run away."

"Blaze, I. . .I was just a kid," I tried to say in my defense. "How was I supposed to. . ."

"You ran away," she said, dangerously soft, looking me right in the eye. Again, the fact that hers weren't silver when she was so obviously furious set me on edge. "Without us. After you promised me. I don't ever remember crying so hard."

"But. . .I. . ."

"I was so pissed at you that I set your room on fire." She shook her head, then reverted back to her pissed-off ranting so fast that I actually jumped. "I burned down the whole west wing of that f*cking place! And because they didn't have the money to rebuild it as a residential wing, they had to move us to the southern sector, where we were already spending most of the time training and testing anyway!"

"Blaze," I tried to say yet again. She was breathing hard, her fists clenched and shaking, but her eyes were still completely blue. Somehow, it made me more uneasy than when her irises were total silver discs of rage.

"That's why I, at least, hate you, Spark," she said, her voice forcibly even. "Because after all of your words, and all of your promises, and all of the stuff you did to protect us from the whitecoats, you left. You left us to fend for ourselves after you promised we'd always be together. That's why I won't forgive you for running away."

And without another word, she shoved me out of the way and stalked out the door.

I entered our suite's front room much more slowly, dazed by all of the new information Blaze had dumped on my head. Max glanced at me questioningly, but I ignored her. Nobody else seemed to notice me, so I was able to drift over to a chair in relative peace.

I'd ditched them. Con and Blaze and Swift. We'd already had an escape all planned out, and then I just jumped the gun and ran away without them. And, because I'd run away, they'd upped the security so the escape plan wouldn't fly anymore. No wonder they hated me! That'd been a dick move, plain and simple. I'd hate me too. God. How bitchy was I?

Now that she'd told me, I did remember. A little, at least. I remembered myself talking to five-year-old Blaze, who had a pink streak in her hair where the red was now, convincing her that running away would be better for all of us. I remembered the relief when she told me about the first-of-the-month security update, the one night when they wouldn't be watching. . .

A hand lighted on my shoulder and I looked up.

"Don't I get a hello?" Sy asked, half-smiling down at me.

I couldn't even be happy to see him. I was so disappointed in myself and so saddened by the fact that Blaze had actually been right about something that I just. . .felt kinda hollow inside. Shock, I guess.

I tried to smile, but I couldn't get my mouth to move the right way. "Hello."

Instantly his expression changed. He knew me so well now that he could tell something was wrong just from a single word. Looking concerned, Sy knelt down by the side of my chair and asked, "What's up?"

"Nothing," I lied, but I knew it was no good. He'd be able to tell. So I shook my head and amended with, "It's nothing I wanna talk about right now."

I expected him to drop it, like he usually did, but instead he pulled a Max and tried to press me for more information. "Come on, you haven't looked like that since Joey and Frankie told you you were gonna die in ten minutes. What's wrong?"

I look that bad? I thought, thinking back to how I'd felt that last night I'd been trapped in the Factory. It'd been like someone had wiped me free of emotion then; I'd been too stunned to even think straight.

So, yeah. That was pretty similar to what I was feeling now.

"It's. . ." I paused, debating whether or not I wanted to say it. Part of me wanted to carry that information to the grave. "Blaze told me something just now, and. . ."

I was saved from having to say anything by Swift, of all people.

"How'd you guys do it?"

Despite the fact that he was so quiet, everybody heard and stopped chattering about the rooms and whatnot. I looked up beyond Sy and saw Swift, from his seat beside Avi, was looking at me.

"How'd we do what?" I asked stupidly.

He glanced at Avi to answer for him-guess that's all the words we were gettin' outta ol' Talon today. So Avi spoke up and clarified, saying, "How did you and Con make them believe we actually wanted to do all this?"

"Oh." I shifted, remembering the video. I let my eyes drop to the floor. "Well, um, some M-Geeks caught us after we talked to Blaze and Iggy about the plan. Some guy was waiting for us by the time they got us back to the cell, and he said he wanted to talk with us."

"He was there so he could convince us to cave and do the London conference," Con interrupted, rolling his eyes.

"Yeah," I said. "So, we talked, and, um. . .he gave us an opportunity and we took it."

"What d'you mean he gave you an opportunity?" Fang asked.

I shifted, avoiding all eyes. "Um. . ."

"He showed us a video," Con said, picking up the tale and taking attention away from me. He really is nicer than I give him credit for. "A news clip from where Spark lives. Apparently the whitecoats made a human clone of her, killed it, and left it for the cops to find. Good news is they'll stop looking for her and asking her family weird questions, but the bad news is. . .well, kind-of obvious."

There were a few sharp intakes of breath. So it really is as bad as it sounds, then.

Sy's hand dropped from my shoulder and he twined his fingers with mine, giving my hand a reassuring squeeze. "Sorry," he whispered. "It'll be okay."

I tried to smile again. "Thanks."

He's nice, too.

I sighed, but attempted to breeze on. "But, you know, upside," I said briskly. "After he showed it to us, I pretended like I was sick of running and whatever and said I'd do the conference. Con caved right after, and then the guy left. So here we are."

"Huh," Iggy said. "You guys must've been really convincing."

"Oh, we were," I assured him. "It was a great scene, one that ought to be immortalized on the big screen. We'd get Keira Knightley to play me and Steven Strait for Con. What say all of you?" I asked, looking around at everybody else. Smiles had returned, which made me feel better. The less we're focused on sad things, the more fun we get to have.

Nudge's face instantly lit up and she kept the thought going. "Ooh, could we be in it?" she asked. "I'd want, like, Halle Berry to play me. She's really pretty."

"Sure, Nudge," I said, laughing a little. "We all get to be in it. Well, maybe not Sy."

"What?" he cried out with false outrage while the others laughed. "But I'm a very important character!"

I smirked at him and he smiled back, glad that I was at least a little bit more like my usual sarcastic, joking self. "Well, the director got pissed when we told her you couldn't be portrayed by Robert Pattinson, so she just got rid of the whole role."

He shook his head in disgust. "That bitch."

"Yeah. For some reason she seems obsessed with putting him in every movie she makes now."

"Wait." Con scratched the back of his head, thinking. "If she wants him in it, that means they'll probably get rid of Straight and have him play me now. That is so not cool."

That unexpected snippet of wit from the guy who usually hates it when I say stuff like that surprised me so much that I laughed right out loud.

"If we assume that this freaky director lady makes creepy glitter boy play Con, then I guess it would only be assumed that the lead girl's gonna be played by Kristen Stewart," Blaze said. "Which means the question is, which of us is the lead girl in this movie?"

"Well, whoever it is," I said quickly before anybody could pin her on me, "I'm sure we're all much too lively for her to handle. It seems this movie idea will only end badly."

"Agreed," Sy said. Then he stood up and looked around. "Um, who exactly is in charge of planning out what we're doing tomorrow? The guys downstairs want to talk with them."

"There are guys downstairs?" the Gasman asked.

"Yeah, the rest of my school," Sy told him. "And Joey's group is the floor below them, but I think we only have time to see my kids before they send somebody to come to check on us." He looked around again. "Who wants to plan out our failure?"

Well, of course I went. I like meeting people. Plus, Con and Max kinda said I had to, 'cuz apparently I was the one with all the connections. And Max and Con came along, too, to supervise, probably because neither of them really trusted me with something so important as planning to fail.

Sy led us to an elevator and we went down one floor. A few seconds later we were striding down a hallway strikingly similar to the one above, Sy counting off doors under his breath.

"One, two, three. . .this one."

He went into the fourth door down the hall, and after a quick glance at Con and Max, I followed him. They were right behind me.

The room was the same layout as ours upstairs, with the exact same furniture in all the same places; the only difference was the color scheme. A quick glance and head-count told me that a little over half of the fish hybrids were gathered around the big-screen TV, watching a cartoon that featured people playing some kind of card game while riding motorcycles.* I realized Ariel (thankfully) was missing, as well as a few others. They were all wearing black, virtual carbon copies of the uniforms we had in our own closets upstairs. Sy, too, I realized, was decked out in Itex's finest work-out clothes.

The door clicked shut behind Con and the fish-kids all looked up. I saw a variation of eye color, but, thankfully, no red. Small comfort, though; none of them looked particularly happy to see us. Sy, they liked. Us, not so much.

I spotted the twins-the girl I recognized from her hat, which was the same one she'd been wearing when we'd tried to escape the boat the first time. Black, with that off-white religious symbol that looks like a fish. Ha! How perfect.

She and her brother glanced at each other, sharing a wary look. The others-a girl with skin similar to Nudge's, the girl with bright green hair, a blond boy about Avi's age, and a smaller girl of about six-had similar expressions. Well, not so much the youngest. She just looked over me, Max, and Con curiously.

Sy crossed the room and turned off the TV. This was met with exclamations of protest, such as, "We were watching that!" and "Hey!" and "That was a good part!"

For the most part Sy ignored them, instead asking, "Where's everybody else?"

"Now we're gonna miss how Yusei beats Jack," the blond boy said.

"I asked you guys a question," Sy said evenly, his eyes narrowing irritably.

"And we'll answer as soon as you turn that TV back on," retorted the girl in the hat. Then she sneered. "You're not the dad anymore, Sy."

"Never really were," her twin added quietly.

All right. So maybe they didn't like Sy so much, either.

Sy rolled his eyes, but obligingly turned the television back on. "Okay, now. . ."

"Oh, nice move!" the green-haired girl exclaimed. "Now he's down to 1200!"

"Guys!" Sy said loudly, sounding frustrated. They all fell quiet, looking a bit surprised. I, too, was a little taken aback. I'd never really heard him actually get mad before. Very evenly, Sy said, "I asked you a question. Where are the others? Kyla, Wave, Jaxx, and Shark?"

"They. . .the guys went with Ariel to check out the stadium," said the African-American girl timidly. "And Kyla and Wave are in their room."

"Thank you," he sighed, then turned and strode off into one of the bedrooms.

Max nudged me and whispered, "Guess he's not so popular, huh?"

"Shut up," I whispered back.

Then a nudge came from the other side and Con muttered, "They're staring at us."

And they were. All the fish-kids were only giving half their attention to the TV; the other half was focused on me, Con, and Max, lingering as we were by the door. In an attempt to break tension, I waved at them.

They all glanced at each other, until, as one, the twins rose and came over to meet us, stopping about three feet from us. The girl crossed her arms and looked me up and down, as if she was sizing me up.

After a few seconds' awkward silence, I realized the real reason Max and Con made me go to the planning. I may not be as good as some people at making friends, but I sure as hell was a lot better at it than either of them.

So I cleared my throat. "So. Um, I don't think we've actually officially met. I'm Spark," I said, pointing to myself. Then I crossed my arms and pointed Con and Max on either side of me. "And these are my peeps. This one's Con, and this one's Max. You can call them Con and Max."

Someone back by the TV giggled, and the boy twin before me almost smiled.

"I'm Arthur," he said quietly. "This is my sister, Aqua."

"I assume that I can call you Arthur and Aqua," I said.

"Well, maybe," Aqua said, propping her arm on her brother's shoulder. "But just for starters, I wanna tell ya something. Just 'cuz we're helping you out this one time on this one thing, that doesn't mean we're automatically friends." (Wow. She just sounded so much like Blaze when she said that.) "We're only doin' it 'cuz Sy asked."

"And because we're sick of Itex and the Lab's games," her twin added. "Nobody said anything about liking you. But we might reconsider that."

"But only if you're nice," Aqua said.

"And maybe if you buy us something."

"Like a pony."

"Or a puppy."

"Maybe a goldfish."

"But that would be weird."

"Yes it would."

"Kind of mean, considering."

"I thought we were trout, though."

"I don't think there's any way of telling."

Con groaned softly, but I couldn't stop smiling. Twins are fun. And these guys reminded me of my cousins, Cody and Beck. We'd get along.

"Well, that is something to think about," I said, and the twins smirked. "But, um, for now let's just focus on the failure that will be tomorrow."

"Oh good," said an unfamiliar voice from across the room. "I'd like to get that over with as fast as possible anyway. I have other things to do."

"Yeah, me too," said another. "Like, um, we were supposed to go steal the Declaration of Independence tomorrow, too, and we can not be late for that."

Con, Max and I all looked up past from the twins as Sy came back out of the bedroom, two unfamiliar fish girls in tow. One was blond, the other brunette, but they both had ruby-red eyes, which set me on edge. But as Sy seemed perfectly at ease with them I guessed they weren't going to play for Team Itex.

Didn't mean I had to trust them, though.

"Hi, Constantine," the blond one said, smiling and waggling her fingers. She even winked. Con made a funny choking noise, and I bit my lip to keep from laughing. Beside me, though, Max didn't bother hiding her amusement, and snorted.

The blond giggled. "I love it when he gets all awkward like that."

"Don't we all," the other girl said, rolling her eyes. Then she looked at me and asked, "You're Spark, right?"

"Well, I'm not Jack the Ripper. I don't think, at least." I put one hand on my hip and the other on my chin. "Wait. What day is it?"

"Sy said you were funny. I'm Kyla," the brunette said, half-smiling politely. She jerked her thumb at her friend and added, "I'm with stupid, otherwise known as Wave."

"Hey!" Wave protested, and a round of giggling rang out behind her. I looked over and realized the TV had been abandoned, and the remaining four children had finally gotten up the courage to approach.

The youngest, who was holding on to the blond boy's hand, looked up and smiled at me. "I'm Janey," she said sweetly. Then, pointing to the boy, the green-haired girl, and the black girl in turn, she added, "And that's D.J., and Nixie, and Aliza."

The kids all waved a little, so I waved back.

I think this'll all work out, I thought.

"All right," Max said, sounding all leaderly and business-like. "So, um, I'm Max. . ."

"We know," the twins said in unison. Max frowned at them, but I sent them a smile.

So I got to know the fish kids-they turned out to be a pretty fun bunch, despite the weird cold shouldering they seemed to be giving Sy. (But Janey told me in "secret" that that was only because he'd been acting funny before, when his eyes were red. She thought it was so he wouldn't do it again. As if he could control it.)

We made sure that they'd all know what to do once the time came: if it came to running, we'd all go slow. And perhaps we'd do something silly while we were at it. If it came to strength, we'd pretend we couldn't lift whatever it was that needed lifting. (That one annoyed Aqua a bit, but Arthur convinced her it'd be best.) If it came to swimming, we could either pretend to drown or just sit at the bottom of the pool. And maybe play a game while we were down there. Anything for a laugh, really.

Not that the Itex guys would be laughing.

Just a guess.

*bet none of ya can name that show.

hope you liked this chapter. it was fun to write, and nice and long to make up for my sporadic updating with this story.