le gasp!! i was hoping to break 100 reviews on chapter 25, not before! love to all who reviewed my story!
and now, as the title clearly states. . .spark and the flock finally reunite. yay!
disclaimer: don't own maximum ride
25. together again
Third Person POV--Dr. Julian Newell
"You got cocky," Newell said flatly. "You underestimated them."
Jay watched as the five kids on the screen averted their eyes, all of them looking more than a little ticked. Blaze especially looked mad--smoke curled from her fingertips, burning little holes in the wood of the conference table as she tapped her fingers.
"And because you underestimated, you failed. Not once. Not twice. Not three times. Four times. That's four too many, Constanti--"
"Just shut up already!" Con interrupted loudly. "We know what happened! Ride escaped twice and Spark escaped twice. Hey, if you wanna get technical, Westerfield escaped, too, so let's just make it a nice round five failures!!"
"Can it, Con!" Blaze yelled. Con rolled his eyes irritably. "I'm pissed enough as it is, you don't have to bring up that stupid trout, too!"
"Stop yellin' at him!" Shadow shouted, standing and slamming his hands on the table. "It's their fault, not ours!"
Julian Newell rolled his eyes as an explosive argument broke out on the other side of the screen, waiting for it to die out, as it always did. He checked his watch and wondered absently if this should've waited--it was late over in Utah, and the team hadn't had sleep in a while.
Once the last shout's echo had died, Newell said, "Children."
Blaze mumbled something about not being a kid, but Newell ignored her.
"Children, perhaps you should accept that you five aren't suited for this. Let that upstart team in Brazil handle it instead?"
"Don't you dare think about sending another team!" Con snapped. "You know we're the ones to do this, Jay! We're the only ones!"
"No one else has gotten this close!" Blaze added. "We nearly had them!"
"So have countless others. Batchelder's kid got closer than you as well."
"That thing turned on us," Shadow said. "And Max killed him anyway."
Newell shook his head. "You've got it backwards. She killed him before he went to her side."
"Key words being went to her side," Swift said quietly. "None of us would do that."
"Spark did."
"Th-that's not the same thing!" Avi blurted. Everybody looked at her and she started to chew on her nail. "I mean, she ran away, but she met Max later, right? She didn't technically go to her side."
"Ah, shut up." Glaring at Newell with silver eyes, Blaze said, "Look, Jay, Spark's ours. I don't care about Westerfield, but you said we could take Spark. And if she's going to be with Ride and the others anyway, we might as well take them out too, right?"
"Just. . .give us another chance, Mr. Jay," Shadow pleaded. "Please?"
Newell sighed theatrically. "Fine. One more chance. You fail again and I'm calling Brazil."
And with that he cut off the feed.
Leaning back in his chair, he smiled to himself. He'd done what was necessary--re-instated their drive to succeed. After so many missions, so many successes, his little flock had started to get big-headed. Cocky. They thought they could do anything without any trouble. But now. . .
Now they actually had a challenge.
Third Person POV--Avi
Everybody let out a relieved sigh as the screen went blank. Shadow yawned and rubbed his eyes. "Hey, Con. . .?"
"Just. . .leave," Con muttered. He put his elbows on the table and hunched forward, holding his head in his hands. "Everybody just. . .go."
Shadow glanced at Swift, who shrugged. The two boys rose in unison and exited the room, heading for their bedrooms. (Obviously, some cleaning would have to be done before they could actually go to bed. . .)
Avi hesitated, waiting to see if Blaze was getting up, but when she didn't, Avi left by herself. She'd wanted to ask Blaze a couple things--why Westerfield had helped Spark, and why Con was being so weird--but apparently, her questions would have to wait until the morrow.
When she reached her room, Avi glanced down the hall, to be sure nobody else was around. Then she darted inside and shut the door, leaning against it and letting out a breath.
One thing she didn't want to ask Blaze about was why Spark had trashed everybody's room but her own.
She glanced around, the confusion welling up inside her once again as she saw that everything was still in its place.
Why'd she leave me alone? Why me?
Thousands of possible answers swirled about in her head as she crossed over to her bed. She turned and fell back on top of it, fully clothed, eyes closing. . .
. . .only to shoot open again as she felt the hard thing beneath her pillow.
Bewildered, Avi sat up and lifted the pillow. Her eyes went wide when she saw the dark blue cell phone with the sloppily-written note:
Call your family. This phone will not work in 36 hours from 8:49 pm Wednesday, August 6, 2008. (ignore any texts or calls that pop up when you turn the phone on.) DO NOT TELL ANYBODY. DESTROY ONCE CALL HAS BEEN MADE. I'M TRUSTING YOU TO DO THIS FOR ME.
Spark. It had to be Spark. Avi glanced at the little clock on her bedside table and saw it read five-forty-five a.m., Thursday, August seventh. Nine out of her thirty-six allotted hours had passed.
Avi took a breath and opened the cell phone. She held the end button, jumping when the device vibrated to announce twenty missed calls (the most recent being from a "Marie") and forty-five unread text messages (the most recent being from a "Kendra"). Slowly, Avi went through and closed all of the reminders, ears tuned to the hall outside in case anybody decided to drop in for a surprise visit. Then, with trembling fingers, she dialed out her home phone number. Putting the cell to her ear, she waited, shivering in anticipation.
Riiiiinnng. . .riiiiinnng. . .riiiiinn--
"Hello?"
Avi nearly dropped the phone, unable to believe that it wasn't a trick, that that voice was really. . .
"Helloooooo."
Blinking away sudden tears, Avi smiled. "Hi, Mom."
Spark POV
"Mmmmnnnnn. . ."
I groaned as I pushed myself away from the tree and forced myself to keep shuffling along. It was nearly seven in the morning, and I was practically sleep-walking. My teeth felt like they were coated in sugar (not a good feeling), my feet hurt, my head was killing me, the backpack felt heavier and heavier, and if anybody tried to capture me right then they wouldn't have too much trouble.
Why was I even on foot, you ask? Because a) I doubt I could even keep myself in the air I was so tired, and 2) there was a better chance of me being spotted while flying around. So it was the oldest way of human transportation for me.
"Ah, crap!" A tree root tripped me and, as tired and uncoordinated as I was right then, I fell flat on my face, a rock digging painfully into my ribs as I hit the ground. I crossed my arms and lay my head down on them, blocking out the world for a moment or so.
I just wanted to sleep. . .
Sleep. . .
Ziiiiip.
The slight tug of the zipper on my backpack was what woke me from my sleep. You know after a long day, you just sit down and rest your eyes, but then you wake up and, like, six hours have passed? And somehow you're still tired? That's what I felt like right then. I was only dimly aware of the something rifling through my pack, unwilling to lift my head and check it out.
(You may think this is lazy and possibly rather stupid of me, but hey, if it were somebody who wanted to kill me, I'd be dead already, now wouldn't I?)
Crackle, crackle. . .pop!
I jumped a little as one of the bags of chips popped, and I sensed the something (or someone) leaning over me gave a little start as well. Now I wanted to look up, but then again, I didn't want to, because I wanted to see if I could guess what it was before I scared it off.
Whatever it was stuck its head back into the backpack, sniffing delicately. There was some more crinkly noises before a tiny crunch signified the eating of a chip.
Well. Sure got weird after that.
The creature inside my backpack flipped out--it must've been a "Flamin' Hot" chip. My backpack jerked, and there was a slight ripp! before I got clocked in the back of the head with something hard.
Ow! I grabbed the back of my head but, surprisingly, felt no blood. There was a soft clip-clop! before leaves stopped rustling and all was still.
I propped myself up and rubbed my eyes. I yawned and forced myself to my knees, where I shrugged off my backpack and checked inside. One of the mini bags of spicy Lay's was open, and there were two parallel rips in the front of the pack.
I pulled out the chips before zipping up the bag and setting it beside me. Then, sitting cross-legged and tilting the open chip bag toward the place where my little theif had run to, I waited. After a few long minutes, the leaves in the underbrush began to rustle. I tensed, then had a girly moment when a little baby deer stepped out into the open.
"Awwww!"
The fawn--a leggy, spotted little fellow with little antler buds poking up out of its head--shied away, and I immediately cursed myself for the lapse. Using my foot, I pushed the bag of chips closer the the animal that still hovered in the darkening shadows and clicked my tongue.
"It's okay. You can have them."
Like he'd understand me. Like I'd even touch those things after a deer that's been who-knows-where has been at them anyway.
Eyeing me with large, innocent, liquid gold eyes, the fawn picked its way out of the bush and made its way toward the bag of chips. I carefully scooted away as he neared, unwilling to scare him off again. The baby deer bent his neck down and sniffed at the contents of the bag.
"Careful. They're spicy."
The deer's head retracted from the bag, a single reddened chip held between its flat, square teeth. Tossing his head back, the deer let the chip fall into his mouth with a quick crunch.
His eyes rolled a little bit, and he coughed a few times (how many people can say they've seen a deer cough? It's a pretty weird thing to see) before blinking and looking back down at the bag. After a second's indecision, he went for more.
"Ha, ha! A deer who likes spicy stuff. That's so cool!" I said, laughing a little. The deer paid me no mind, intent on satisfying his munchies.
"I wonder why you even came to me in the first place. Maybe you thought I was dead or something and wanted my food. Ah well. I'm not dead, I was just asleep."
When you get tired, you start talking to yourself and other random things, be they animals or inanimate objects. So, while the deer continued to eat, I continued to ramble at him, bringing my knees up to my chest and crossing my arms across them.
"You know, it was really stupid of me to fall asleep right in the middle of the ground like that. Probably should've went to a tree or something. You know, I'm gonna call you Chip, 'cuz you're eating my chips, and because you just look like the kinda deer that'd be named Chip."
Chip came out of the bag and looked at me, eyes wide.
"Sorry. Fawn."
He continued to stare, his tongue flicking out absently to lick a few missed chip crumbs on his nose.
"Buck?"
He sneezed at me and returned to the bag of chips. I laughed again.
See, had it been a dog, it wouldn't've been so weird. I mean, everybody talks to their dog. And some dogs--like Total--talk back, and. . .
Total.
Max. The flock.
I'd wasted so much time. They'd probably come up with a plan by now! They could be flying off to rescue me any second!! Screw the deer, I had to find them!
I jumped when a cold nose touched my hand. Chip was staring at me again with those big gold eyes, begging for more food. He even went so far as to turn to my backpack and poke at it with his hoof.
"Sorry, Chip, but no more munchies and crunchies for you." I pulled the bag out of reach. "Hey, how'd you even get the zipper open anyway? Actually, never mind. I don't wanna know."
I was starting to remind myself of Nudge with all this chatter.
"Speaking of Nudge, Chip, I was looking for my friends before I fell asleep. Have you seen them? They're six kids and a dog. Three of the kids are big, like me, and the other three are littler, like, yay-high." I stretched my arm above me and marked off what I thought was Angel's height.
Chip blinked at me, then suddenly turned tail and bounded away.
"Hey! I wasn't done talkin' to you!" I called after him. I sighed. "How rude. Ah, well." I grabbed my backpack and the empty chip bag, stuffing it into my pocket as I forced myself to my feet. Shouldering the pack, I stretched and set off north, where the campsite was (if Max and the others were indeed still there) and, oddly enough, the direction Chip had run in.
To my surprise, he found me again almost as soon as I left the clearing, bouncing around me as happily and energetically as any child. Perhaps giving deer potato chips isn't such a good idea.
"For the love of all that is Bambi, what are you doing?" I asked him suspiciously. He trotted around behind me and bumped my backpack.
"Hey! I said no more munchies and crunchies!"
Chip bumped me again for good measure before coming to my side, tiptoeing along like he was the prince of the forest. His back came up to my waist, the top of his head nearly at my elbow.
"You are the weirdest de--sorry, fawn. . .I mean--sorry--buck that I have ever met," I told him. "Just what are you so gosh-darned hyper abou--"
"Max, we have to wait a little longer! Please?"
I froze mid-step at Angel's voice, eyes popping wide. Chip nuzzled my arm happily before darting off to the right, staring into a new clearing.
"I'm sorry, Angel, but we can't. Who knows what they're doing to her right now?"
I'll be damned. I'd found them! Angel and Max and the rest of the flock! I spun on my heel and went to hover by Chip, my hand resting between his fuzzly-soft shoulders. His little white tail spazzed back and forth and he twisted his head around to lick my hand.
"I'll be damned," I breathed, staring into the clearing. "There is no freaking way. . ."
Angel and Max were almost in a face-off, with Angel looking determined with her hands on her hips. Max looked all condescendingly kind, and after a second I saw Fang hanging back, awaiting the verdict. (Iggy, Nudge, Gazzy, and Total were nowhere to be seen--in the air, most likely.)
"But Max, I know she's coming!" Angel insisted. "She's already out!"
"Angel, we have to check out that lab," Max said firmly. "If you're wrong, then Spark's still in there, waiting. Would you have wanted us to wait before rescuing you?"
Angel sighed, unfolding her white wings in defeat. Max looked at Fang, saying, "Up and away."
No, wait! I tried to run forward, but Chip bit down on the back of my jacket and pulled me back. I twisted around and started a weird tug-of-war with him. "Hey! Let go! Stop it, you stupid, stupid little buck! Let go!"
Spark?
I stopped, trying to focus on the voice in my head. Angel? I ventured.
Spark! It's you, it's really you! I was right! Chip told me he saw you and that he'd go get you for me and. . .
Wait, what? Who're you. . .My jacket fell slack and I glanced back at the little fawn, who was practically beaming at me in pride. (It was a funny sight. To this day all I gotta do to get a giggle is picture Chip with that look, his little tail wagging back and forth as fast as any terrier's.)
You can read animal minds now? I asked incredulously.
Only a couple. But Spark! Come on, Max wants to leave to get you! You have to get out here!
"Angel, let's go. Up and away."
"But Max--!"
"Angel, it'd take a miracle for Spark to escape on her own," Fang said quietly. "We should--"
"I take insult to that, Fang!" I said loudly. All four heads in the clearing turned toward me and I looked back at Chip. He was still looking all proud and stuff, and it made me chuckle. I rubbed his fuzzly head, tapping one of the growing antlers with my knuckle. "See ya, Chip." Then, straightening my stolen and sleeveless vest-like thing, I stepped out of the underbrush with as much dignity as I could muster. "Granted, I really didn't escape all by myself, but it's still insulting that you underestimate me like that."
"Spark!!" Angel cried joyfully, running toward me with arms outstretched.
"Spark?!" Max exclaimed.
Fang just blinked--his version of completely and utterly shocked.
"Yeah, hi, guys," I said. Angel flying-tackle-hugged me and I staggered back a step or two, laughing. "Hey, Angel!"
"I told them you were out already, but they didn't listen!" Angel said into my jacket. "And when I heard Chip thinking about you, I knew it was you, and I tried to tell them. . ."
"Hey, Max, what's taking so--ohmyGod!!" I looked up to a little hole in the foliage and saw Nudge's excited face peering down at me. "Spark! It's you, it's you! OhmyGod, I have to get Iggy and Gazzy and Total!"
"Missed you too, Nudge!" I yelled after her.
"Spark, I. . .I can't believe it's you!" Max said again.
"Oui. C'est moi!" I replied, gently trying to push Angel away. She was hugging me quite tightly, hurting my wounded midsection just a little bit.
Max shook her head in disbelief, running a hand through her hair. "No, I mean. . .how'd you escape? Did you just. . ."
She was cut off by ecstatic yells of "Spark!" and "Sparky!" I glanced up and caught the tiniest glimpse of tawny feathers before I was literally (and painfully) floored by Nudge and the Gasman; Iggy and Total landed on the ground a few feet away, but Total ran right up to me and started to lick my face.
"Ow!" I yelped when I slammed into the ground, new pain blossoming from all of my wounds. My arm, my stomach, my other arm, my ribs, by back, my neck. . .but I was unheard beneath all the laughter and excited cries.
Geez, they'd missed me that much?
"Ow ow ow ow ow!" I cried out again as Nudge hugged my broken arm. She heard me and looked at me in confusion.
"What's wrong, Spark?"
"You're hurting me," I said with difficulty, prying her hands away from me. She saw the splint on my wrist and let go so fast it was like I'd burned her.
"Ohmygosh! I'm so sorry, Spark! I didn't mean to!" she said quickly, waving her hands. Gazzy and Angel backed off as well and I sat there for a second, rubbing my various pains and willing them to go away. Nudge gasped as she took in my various bandages. "What happened?"
"I. . .fell?" I ventured, knowing it wouldn't do any good.
Max frowned. "You fell."
"Okay, fine. That was false. I was. . .look, can I tell you later?" I asked. She eyed me for a second, seemed to take pity in the pleading look in my eyes, and sighed.
"Yeah, yeah, whatever. The main thing is that you're alive and in one piece."
I nodded. "Uh-huh. I'm really glad I found you guys before you went charging off to that. . .place."
Fang's mouth almost twitched in what could've been the ghost of a smirk. "Good thing you did. We'd've walked right into their hands."
"Then I would've had to go in and save you," I teased.
"Please," Iggy said, rolling his eyes. "If you can get out on your own, we definitely could."
Ha, about that. I didn't get out on my own. So yeah, I would've had to go rescue you.
That's what I thought to myself. Out loud, all I said was, "Oh, sure. Whatever."
"Speaking of that place," Max said, "don't you guys think we should be flying away from it?"
"Definitely," I said, standing up and brushing off my jeans. "I never want to be in the Salt Lake area ever again in my life."
One after another, we jumped into the air, flapping our wings hard to get airborne. Max didn't seem to have any particular heading in mind, so I angled little by little for the town where I'd ditched Sy. I would still have to warn him that Con and them knew he'd escaped and helped me and stuff.
But for the moment. . .
I was alive, safe, and in the company of friends, heading away from that hellhole of a lab.
I was content.
Max POV
Spark was okay. I still couldn't believe she'd actually caught us before we went running off to rescue her, that she was actually okay. . .
All right, so maybe "okay" was a bit of a stretch. She had off-white bandages around her arms and neck, and there were black marks on her hands, and she looked tired beyond all get-out, but otherwise. . .
I glanced at her, jumping in alarm when I realized her eyes were closed and her body limp. I tilted over to her and whacked her back with my wing. She flinched and opened her eyes, looking around.
"Ahh! What, what?"
I circled around beside her and gave her a funny look. "You were falling asleep."
She blinked owlishly and covered her mouth to hide a yawn. "Uh, so?"
"You do realize we're still flying, right?" I asked, using a tone that implied stupidity. "We normally take that as a bad sign."
"That's it?" she said. "You just woke me up because we're still flying?"
"What d'you mean, that's it?" I shot back. "None of us have ever actually fallen asleep while flying! Spark, you're exhausted! We need to land!"
Spark rubbed her eyes tiredly, yawning again as she said, "We don't have to land right this second, Max. We're not far enough away yet. Besides, I can do a lot of stuff while falling asleep. Like homework, watching TV, taking notes, reading, writing, talking to somebody. . ."
"Okay, okay, I get it," I interrupted. She nodded, her eyes sliding closed yet again. "But you still need to rest."
"Huh, no sh--erm, uh, duh." She reached into her pocket and pulled out a crumpled ball of green bills. My eyes went wide when I saw the multiple fifties and twenties. "Look, how about we sit down and eat and check into a hotel or something like normal kids for once in our lives?"
"Where'd you get that?"
"I found it in the backpack I stole." Right--along with a weird sleeveless jacket thing, she'd acquired a black backpack and stuffed it with junk and a couple other things she said she'd show me later. "Is that okay?"
I blinked. "Uh, yeah. Totally."
"Good." Spark began to flip through the wad of cash, sorting it out, smoothing out the wrinkles. "Not that it'd matter if you'd said no," she added, and my mouth quirked in a smirk.
"Guess not."
hey--if the whole deer thing seemed weird and random, it kinda was. i wrote it one night around midnight, and i was super-tired. the original scene had a whole cast of talking animals with funny accents (including but not limited to: tavis the scottish squirrel, liam the irish fox, randolf the russian wolf, dyani the french doe, pidge the cockney sparrow, bobby the boston sparrow, and sid the australian gecko). but hey--i got in some references to bambi, the black cauldron, and even full house. so there!
i had a lot of time on my hands this week--two delayed starts and three snow days!
so much time, in fact, that i figured out exactly what's going to happen in this story! (i even wrote the end!!)