Theanimedude: I'm back- again.

Nick: Yup.

Fang: Hnnnnn.

Theanimedude: ...

Nick: Question?

Theanimedude: Oh. Right.

Fang: Hnnnnn.

Theanimedude: From BlackAngelWings1010, for Gazzy.

Gazzy: Yeah?

Theanimedude: Gazzy: Why do you think Nudge is so hot? (I've got mindreading abilities and right now you're thinking- "How'd she know?")

Gazzy: WHAT?!

Nick: (snorts)

Gazzy: Iggy! You spoke of it!

Iggy: Agh! (runs away)

Nick: (full-blown laughter)

Theanimedude: I own Sara and Nick. I also own Camo and Espio, as well as Dak. The original ideas for characters Cato, Kimmy and Kiki were supplied by Pennycat11. The following is a fan-based parody. Maximum Ride and all its respecting characters and titles belong to James Patterson. Please support the official release.

Fang: Hnnnnn.

Nick: (still laughing)

Gazzy: (murderous screams)

Iggy: (screams of pain)

Nudge: Hey guys, I- (looks around) (slowly turns around and walks out)

Theanimedude: LOL. ROFL, I said LOL. Sorry about the late update... and short chapter... but I wanted to get something uploaded.

Nick the Eraser 2 chapter 25

"Hey!" I shouted as I barged into the room, the door crashing against the wall behind me. "We need to talk."

The boss man looked at me funny, before shaking his head, considerably unfazed by my sudden entrance.

"This oughta be good," he muttered. "What do you need, Nick? Christina?"

Christy and I walked right up to his desk and I braced my palms on top of it. "I lead now."

"We want what's best for all of us," Christy said. "And you're not it."

"What do you mean?" he asked me nonchalantly, obviously not as shocked as I'd anticipated.

"The attack on the school," I said, laying my cards on the table riskily. "You don't care who dies as long as you win, do you?"

He stared at me without a word, not even the slightest bit of nervousness on his brow.

"How do you know about that?" he asked me slowly.

"I can read minds, you moron," I stated simply. "Plus- freaking huge staircase out in the open. Obviously it leads somewhere." I was trying my hardest to not even vaguely allude to the fact that Rick had led the way for us.

"Oh, so you can read minds, can you?" he asked, examining his desk. He fumbled around in a drawer suddenly before pulling out a small bottle of pills.

"What are you-?"

"Oh, these? Help my memory, and... I forget what else." There was some irony in there...

"Don't try to distract me!" I said, shaking my head and glaring at him morbidly. "Now are we gonna have problems here, or are you gonna grant me leadership?"

He threw his head back and tossed a handful of pills down his throat, gulping some bottled water right afterward. He looked at me, and the unsettling feeling I got whenever we made eye contact hit me. He looked over to Christy, and she backed up a couple steps.

"Alright," he said, his eyes returning to me. "So you want my job. Why?"

"So that nobody has to die," I told him, shifting.

"Everybody dies, Nick. In the end, nobody can live forever."

"Doesn't mean they have to be killed early," Christy interjected.

"Oh, thank you!" I said, sighing with relief. "Somebody with sense!"

"You're talking to me," the boss said forcefully, and my head immediately turned back to him. "Why shouldn't I say when people lower than me die?"

"What makes them lower than you?" I asked, avoiding the question. I shook my head again and saying "Hey! You admitted it! You're just killing people off!"

"They aren't useful."

"Let's say you're not useful!" I shouted, seizing control of the conversation before he could get me off balance again. "I'll kill you right here!"

"That goes against what you're saying," he told me.

"Like I don't know that!"

"Calm down," he said, never losing his nonchalant disposition. "We need to settle this maturely, hm? You and me need to fight each other one on one."

"Fine by me!"

"And we'll do it with guitars."

" ... What?"

"Guitars," he said simply, making a strumming motion as he stood up. "We could call it a guitar battle. Everybody in the underground can watch and see who loses. The loser... you, that is, will be killed after the event."

"What do guitar skills have to do with leadership?" Christy asked, and she had a point.

"Afraid your boyfriend'll lose?" the blonde asked, cocking an eyebrow.

"Can you even play?" she asked me, and I eyed her with surprise. Had I never played for her?

"We need to edumucate you," I said, looking back to the boss guy.

"Midnight. Through the Fire and Flames," he said, standing and smirking at me. "The Even room. Don't disappoint me."

He left the room, off to devil knows where.

"Are you crazy?!" Christy screamed, throwing her hands up. "You just gambled your freaking life on a guitar battle!"

"I'll win."

"Have you ever heard of that song anyway?!"

"I have a knack for learning things on a dime."

"This isn't a dime here, Nick," she shouted, tears at her eyes. "This is your life!"

I hugged her to me, the last thing she expected, before whispering. "It's fine. I can win this, no problem. I'm going to save those poor mutants- and I'm going to live. Trust me."

3-3-3-3-3

"That freaking traitor!" I shouted at the sky, and Fang lifted a hand as I punched it.

"Easy, easy," he muttered. "I'm still hurt a little, you know."

I'd woke him up earlier by punching him the gut, which put him right out of that weird trance thing that Nick did.

"Whatever!" I said, punching his hand again. "At least you can take it! He can't take a-"

"He took a lot," Fang interrupted me. "He deserves a chance out."

"So now you're on his side?!"

"No," Fang reasoned, dodging me this time as he anticipated my growing rage. "But I can understand him. I mean, he's worked his tail off for us for a little while, and besides his little outbursts, he's been pretty loyal. No matter what, he feels betrayed, as do you."

"Stop talking," I commanded, though I knew he was right. "Whatever."

"Is that your favorite word now?" Iggy asked me.

"Shut up!"

He just smiled slightly before we took off. We were going to be spending the night in a hotel, the seven of us. We missed that pack more than anything, though. Nick, of course, had been kind of cold in the end, and denied our request for his collaboration. So now we had seven less people with us, and six less animals too. It sucked.

"What do you think he's doing?" Fang asked me, his wings almost blending in with the strangely starless sky.

"Something entirely pointless," I retorted.

"I don't know, Max," Angel said, clutching Total to her chest protectively. "He seemed like he had some sort of game plan."

"Whatever."

"Max?" The Gasman piped up, and learning from my past mistakes, I looked to him on the first try.

"Yeah Gazzers?"

"I think we have company," he said ominously as he looked up. We all followed suit and figured out immediately why the stars were absent.

"Erasers!" I shouted unnecessarily as the whole sky seemed to fall. Black erasers were coming down from the sky, eyes red and teeth bared.

These weren't just black- they seemed to be like, glowing black. As my vision adjusted, I could clearly see that little streams of black... something were flowing out of their elbows. Those red eyes were abnormal as well.

"Guys!" I shouted at the flock. "Be on your guard! These aren't our regular erasers!"

"We aRe dEMons!" they seemed to scream, their voices rising and falling randomly. They sounded as though they were in pain as well as infuriated. It sent shills down my back.

"yOU arE aN OBsTaCle!" they screamed. "YoU musT DIe!"

"Am I the only one here that's majorly freaked?" Iggy asked nervously. "I can't tell where they all are!"

There were so many that their voices WERE coming from everywhere. If we got out of this alive, There'd have to be some sort of miracle in the works.

Sigh. Everybody knows what happens next, right? Say it with me-

"Nick?!" I shouted as he fell from the sky, surrounded with electricity, effectively disintegrating a good deal of the eraser/demon/things.

"Hey," he said, smiling. "In a bind again, eh?"

"Why do you keep-"

"I'm not doing this alone," he said, cutting me off. "I don't have the time. But I do have time to help out. So let's kill these things!"

"Weaknesses?" Fang asked him as we flew towards our crazy attackers.

"Light and pain!" Nick responded, his hands crackling with white-hot electricity. "One hit should finish 'em, and light immobilizes them. So I'll give the light and strikes where I can, you take them out!"

He really was a leader now.

He moved around, and the electricity he was holding seemed to form a pair of wind and fire wheels (Read about them in history class. Nice little Chinese weapons.) and everywhere he flung them, the demon erasers- Derasers? Yes, I AM clever, faithful readers- were either paralyzed or turned into dissipating black spheres before they disappeared altogether.

We all pitched in, kicking at the derasers whenever we could, chopping at them, Iggy and Gazzy bombing them, and yet they still kept coming. Nick was literally levitating with electricity, flinging it around in such a controlled way that he followed it after launching it. He only came behind each of us, darting around quickly and killing the ones in our blind spots. We'd spread out a fair deal, and it took longer each time for him to reach one of us. It kind of hit its peak when he almost bowled Nudge over when he killed the ones closing in on her.

"Alright, stop spreading out!" he shouted demandingly. "They're after you, not me! If you're all in one place, I can take them all out before any of you get even scratched!"

We obeyed, slowly moving backwards towards each other, fending off the derasers all the while, until our backs touched one another's. With that, Nick flew up over our heads as we knocked them out, and the whole area seemed to light up with a dim blue light. I looked up to see that there was literally a series of streams made of blue electricity forming a net that surrounded us and the derasers. It was... actually pretty beautiful.

"Check!" he shouted as the electricity suddenly all moved to accumulate in one spot, where, I wasn't sure, taking out every single one of the new threat in glorious fashion. I looked at where Nick was standing in amazement as I realized that the electricity had only been going back TO him.

"Checkmate," he whispered, before looking at all of us, one by one, with concern. "Anybody hurt? Nothing broken?"

"We're all fine," I said, walking up to him and using my authoritative voice, making him smile with amusement. "Now, what are you doing here? And where's your pack?"

"Saving your butts again," he said nonchalantly, still smiling. "Pack's still underground."

"No, not- you know what I meant!" I almost yelled, frustrated. "I thought we were going to stay out of each other's lives? What's this about?"

"Fact is, Max," he said, before turning to acknowledge the rest of the flock. "Fang, Ig, Gazzy, Nudge, Angel, you were going to die tonight if I had let you be. If it won't stop, there will be no future for us, and I fought by your side, ashes still burning."

... What?

" ... You don't really care for music, do ya'?" Nick asked with some disapproval.

"Leonard Cohen," I piped up. "That was Leonard Cohen."

"Meh, one out of three," he said with a shrug. "Anyways, I'm not against you, even though I'm not standing by your side with every little thing I do. Basically, if I know you need my help, I'll step in, but right now I have a gig to get to."

"A-?"

"Yes, a gig. I'm gonna be in a... what was it, Angel?"

"Concert?"

"Yes! A concert, thank you."

"I don't-"

"Gotta run, guys. See ya later!"

And with that, he was gone with the- dare I say it?-wind.

" ... I don't understand why he won't stay with us," I whispered.