Okay, guys, here it is. By writing this author's note, I am ATTEMPTING to make this chapter a total of 3,138 words. Woo-hoo! And, to let you know, I have an Epilogue coming up, so this is the ending, but not the actual last part to the story. Aha, I got you there. ;)
Anyways, keep on reading, and REVIEW. Thanks! It took me... five days to type this up. That's insane.
The Last Chapter.
Max POV
"How," I grunted, trying to fit through the entrance of the teeny tiny air vent. "Am... I..." I pushed harder to cram into the small space. "Suppose... to... fit... in... HERE?" I finally got my bird body through the undersized frame of the vent. I stopped to catch my breath.
"Like that." Fang said matter-of-factly. I looked behind me, and glared at him. "I wouldn't be talking if I were you," I retorted, turning back to the air vent maze in front of me. Now, how to get to the bomb room... I dropped my eyes to the map in front of me (which was in crayon, the only writing utensil we could find in the new bomb wasteland. Another point to be furious at Iggy and Gazzy), that was for the purpose of getting to where the bomb was held.
"It's high top security." Teresa said, using the green crayon to construct a map. "My father took me there once, about a week ago. It's outside, obviously, but it's protected by Flyboys, Erasers, you name it, along with recombinants that will kill you if you meet their eyes." She was carefully making a route that would be the fastest and easiest way to be un-noticed and closest to the bomb. "How do you know the air vents' paths?" I asked, slightly amazed. A smile flickered on her face before she lifted up a blueprint. "Stole it from the main office," she said simply, and then focused back on the map. She handed it to me when she was done.
"Wait," I said, realizing something. "Shouldn't Iggy be going in, not me? I thought he had to destroy the bomb." I said to her, surprising myself that I was trusting her. I mean, after she kinda sorta saved mine and the Flock's lives, I had decided that she was alright, for now. I guess. I worry myself sometimes.
"You're the distraction." she said, getting up. I nodded my head, understanding the base of the plan. Apparently, Iggy and the Gasman were going to go into the bomb hold after I get some attention, then, Fang, Angel, and Nudge would help me fight them down. Teresa was going to be on the down low, since they killed her father and all. "C'mon," Teresa said, waking me out of my trance. "Let's find that vent."
And, here I was, using the little flashlight Teresa had given me to see the map. It wasn't that difficult to decipher, but I wasn't all that good with maps, either. I began to make my way through the vent. "Be careful!" Fang called after me, sounding a little concerned.
"Yeah, yeah," I said, rolling my eyes. "I'm totally going to be attacked in an air vent." I kept on going, using my elbows and knees to squeeze my body through the box-sized tunnels. God, this is hard, I thought, trying to turn a corner. My jeans kept on getting stuck to the metal. I felt cold air go past me. Here's the horrible part about the whole air vent hacking thing : when the people turn the air on. It gets really cold. And this was a really big facility, so there were a whole bunch of air currents of different temperatures. Fun, I thought bitterly.
We're counting on you, the Voice chimed in, and I held back a groan. Way to put the pressure back on. Just remember : Make sure to check the bomb shelters first, there might be a few people in there.
I didn't bother to answer it. It was on my back enough already.
-x-x-x-
Alright. So I was at where the air vent ended, and there was a wooden door that I had to get through, to get to where the bomb hold was. Joy. I carefully got my way out of the frame (this one was a bit bigger than the other one), and approached the wooden entrance. I put my ear to the door to listen if there were any positioned people by it, but didn't hear anything. I cautiously opened the door a crack and peered in. Nobody was there. It was a warehouse.
Yeah guys, you're so smart, I thought, and I felt like cracking up. That had been really easy. Maybe too easy, the Voice added, and I went onto high alert. I had to be really careful.
"Professor! Check the hybrids! Make sure that they are being exterminated as planned!" directed a woman's voice. I sucked my breath in. I had to get outside. Being extremely quiet, I opened the warehouse door that led to the bomb hold, and saw that most of the guards were being fixed up. The bomb that Iggy and the Gasman had set off caused some damage here, too. So, now what was I suppose to do? Well, besides just hiding there and being paranoid, I needed to distract them. Jeez, this was going to be fun.
I slowly walked out into the center of the field, where I could easily be seen by everyone who was working along the sides.
"Who's that?"
"What is She doing here?"
"Code Red, we have trouble."
"Call the security!"
"Get the guards!"
"Get the girl!"
Maybe this wasn't the best way to handle this situation.
-x-x-x-
Fang's POV
"When are we going out after her?" I asked, after Max had climbed through the air vent. I was anxious to see what was going to happen, there was no way that she was falling in their clutches for the millionth time with out me being there, when she worries about the Flock, or when she's about to go insane, like she always does.
"Relax. She'll be fine." Teresa reassured me, and I just narrowed my eyes at her. For some reason, I still didn't trust her all the way yet.
"Alright, so how do we destroy this bomb?" Iggy asked, cutting to the point. He obviously was concentrating on the thing I should have been, but I couldn't. I felt bad for saying that I was giving up, when Max had tried to get us free. That was stupid. I was stupid. Argh, I wish she was here to listen to that.
"...And so you disconnect the wire, and, well, you know the rest," Teresa explained, and I just rolled my eyes. Can we please just go out there already?, I thought angrily, feeling annoyed. I wanted to kick something, I wanted to get out there. I don't care how many times I said it, over and over. I needed to be in the action with her. With Max.
"Okay, so, here's what we really should be worrying about," I said, exasperated. "What are we going to do next?" I waited angrily, fists clenching, and eyes feeling very, very murderous. "Well, uh," Teresa stammered, scared by my expression. "We need to wait 'til we get some of the guard's messages from this walkie-talkie that I took--" All the sudden we heard static and words.
"Fast! There's an intruder! She's about 5'9, blonde hair, brown eyes, and has avian DNA. That means WINGS, guys, okay? Everyone, eyes on the prize, stay focused! Do you understand me? One mess-up and you'll be on the list for extermination! Let's move people, let's move!"
I took my eyes off of the silver walkie-talkie and glared at Teresa. "We leave, now." I stated, not waiting for her answer. She was going to show us where to go before I made her. "Okay," she said, leading the way. "There's an emergency ext around here anyway, and since the alarms should be sounding any second--" the building we were in filled with sirens. I just pushed past her and traced a crack in the wall.
"Here." I said, pointing. "Open it." She searched the wall around the crack before settling on a small indent. She then pushed it. Ta-da, we were greeted with the pleasant surprise of a battle forming in front of our eyes.
-x-x-x-
Max's POV
"We do not want to hurt you," a loud speaker spoke, somewhere around me. I rolled my eyes. That was so not true, I thought angrily. "But we will, if you do not cooperate."
"Cooperate?" I yelled, ignoring the massive mob of experiments on Itex's side surrounding me, on all sides. "This is me, you're talking to!" Apparently, I was heard, but I didn't get an answer until about, say, a minute later, when the mob was carefully around me in a circle, closing in. That damn claustrophobia. "You are weak, Maximum," it had said, and I gritted my teeth. "There is no way you can help the world, now." Those words echoed in my brain, and I felt the adrenaline rush go through my body.
There's no way you can save the world, now.
Yeah, right. I stepped forward, basing all my anger on the people in front of me. "Oh yeah?" I snarled, punching a Flyboy. "Guess what? I'm damn stronger than any of you stupid scientists!" Then I went freaking crazy, going out on all of the guards that dared to come in a fifty-foot radius to where I was. Yeah, I got a few kicks and hits on me when I versed some of the newer, better protectors that Itex had come up with, but all of them, and I mean all of them, were beaten. By, yep, me.
"I'm so weak," I muttered, finishing off the last of them. "Let's see you do that!" I yelled, loud enough for them to hear me. I searched the outside perimeter, and saw that there were more Flyboys, Erasers (didn't they terminate those?), you name it, they were all coming at me. Out of a bomb shelter. How many bomb shelters were there? Considering that there had to be at least five or six, there must've been a lot of Itex creations. Oh boy.
I scanned the crowd of them to see if there were any 'leaders' that told them what to do, or if there were any that looked weaker than the others. My search found nothing. Well, not yet.
"Need some help?" Nudge called from behind me. Oh, thank the Lord, I thought gratefully. There was no way I would be able to fight all these guys alone, being that most of them were updated with some genius software and totally different than what we are used to. "I'll take the left with Angel," she announced to me, and I nodded. At least she wasn't being a motor mouth like usual. "I'll help you with the right," Fang mumured, and I turned my head to him.
"You better."
He just cracked a smile before slamming his fist into an idiotic metal head.
--
"Aha, Maximum, is it?" Asked an Eraser behind me. I just glared at it, blocking it's punch that was easy as easy could get. "Just," I threw a punch to his left to distract him. "Max." I took my other hand and landed a perfect, bone-breaking hit that was aimed perfectly at his jaw. Score.
"Strong and hot." The Eraser purred, and I glared at him, feeling my anger level raise a few notches. And by 'few', I mean a lot. "No wonder why Mr. Fangs here loves you," I had to bite the inside of my cheek to keep myself from pulling his spleen out his wolf-snout. "I'd take you any day. And I'm not emo."
"He. Isn't. Emo." I said, with clenched teeth. I thought my eyes were going to pop out of my skull.
"Oh, yeah?" Butt-head Eraser boy responded, studying his claws. I felt like ripping them off, cuticle by cuticle. "Then what is he? Besides a failure, a loser, and a professional screw up?" Then, I lost it. I took his hand, and held it, like I was about to snap it. "Now listen," I barked, putting pressure on to his wrist, making him wince. "Listen good. I've been running for my life from you guys, I've been put to tests that should've killed me, I've also been through things that you would think is completely impossible. But, guess what hot shot, here I am. I'm not going to get killed out here just because you're jealous of my best friend," I glared at him so hard, I swore that could have made him pass out right then and there. "And, yes, I am going to do this." Snap! There went his wrist. "Buh-bye." I smiled sweetly and stalked off, his muffled cries the least of my worries. I had a battle going on around me.
--
"Stop Fighting!" echoed a voice over a loudspeaker. That stupid speaker. I really wanted to know who was in charge of that thing. I still held my current victim, a new model, who had really strong grip. So, avoiding his hands was difficult, but I had securely pinned him up against a wall, my palm against his neck.
"Put Your Victims Down, Now." I slowly watched Fang withdraw his almost-there punch in defeat, and drop his Flyboy down with difficulty. Angel removed her pointer fingers away from her head, and stopped a female Eraser stop fighting with an experiment that was much too strong for any of us to defeat. Nudge let go of a boy, who looked normal, but had cat DNA graphed into his stem cells, down from her grip of his Itex shirt collar, not even bothering to set him gently on the floor, just letting him go down like a sack of potatoes.
"Max..." It warned, and I rolled my eyes, taking my palm and swiping the Eraser on to the dirt-covered ground, making sure he was face-first. He hit it, and moaned with pain. I smirked. "Happy?!" I yelled out loud, using my 'bring-it-on' face, where my eyes still showed I had adrenaline, and my teeth were thirsty for more action. I was ready to rip something apart. Fang glanced at me and shook his head, telling me not to bring on any more trouble. I ignored him. I was still mad.
"If You Want To Live," The person over the speaker said, and my fists clenched. "Then You Will Listen." I stretched my fingers out, trying not to cramp them. "We already went over this," I said out loud, and I heard a sigh.
"Will You Ever Cooperate?" It asked, seeming very angry.
"Nope." I said smiling my signature smile. There was no way I was going along with these idiots.
"Well, That Doesn't Matter," It said smartly, and I just waited for it to go on. "The Bomb Is Going Off In Five Seconds Anyway." I closed my eyes and prayed that Iggy and Gaz had destroyed the bomb, Oh please God, please, please PLEASE?
I didn't hear an explosion, and I opened my eyes. Fang was beside me, his hand on my shoulder, Angel and Nudge were jumping up and down, cheering, and I saw Iggy and the Gasman come out from behind a counter, smiling excitedly. "We did it!" Iggy announced, and Angel ran over to me, jumping into my arms. I turned around to see the other experiments self-destructing. Angel caught my attention again, and gave me a grin. She gets more powerful everyday.
Fang took Angel from my arms and threw her up in the air, and she opened her wings, flying out of the open bomb-hold. There were no more boundaries, nothing stopping us from living. Well, except the whole expiration-date thing. But, I didn't need to think about that right now. I heard some sirens coming through, and I caught everyone's eyes. It was time to leave. We joined Angel, high up in the sky, waving down to Teresa, who had a cell phone up to her ear. She called the police so the Whitecoats wouldn't get away.
"Thank you!" Gazzy screamed down, and I laughed. Those eight year-olds.
"So, what next?" Fang asked me, and I shrugged my shoulders.
"How about finding a home?"
He gave me one of those rare smiles, but this one lasted. "Now that we have nothing to do, we can be free!" Nudge exclaimed, interrupting the moment. Whatever that means. "We can go to the park, and to Saudi Arabia, and Egypt, maybe even the Caribbean! How about Jamaica?! Ooh! Let's go to China and try to speak CHINESE! Maybe, even, we can go to Canada, learn some French, then go back to France, and then go to Finland, then Iceland, then to the North Pole! Then we can go to Indonesia, and maybe even Australia!"
"OKAY!" we all screamed at once, and she giggled.
"Sorry, I got over-excited."
"I'd say," Iggy muttered, and I tapped him hard with my wing. He just shrugged, grinning. And, as a Flock of six, including our dog that made it seven, flew off into the night, the air feeling even better than it usually did under our powerful wings. Way to go Flock!
Yay! Press that bottom to review, please. I'm begging you. I am here to not only entertain you, but keep my writing up-to-date, so when I go back to school in the fall, I'll be great at writing and have the confidence to write when I get a job. That'll be a lot of fun.
And, another thing, just because I finished this story DOES NOT mean I don't write other ones. There's Choice, where the Flock thinks Max is dead, and Max really was just kidnapped (this one is a really good one, I find it a lot of fun to write), and I'm writing one that my FF partner (Hayley) is in love with, so keep your eye out!
Click Review!
-Mare