Disclaimer: I did not write Maximum Ride. Thankfully. I would not want the hate-mail that came along with the last book. I mean, what's up with that ending?

WORMoverBOOK: Hey guys! So um, a friend wrote the majority of this for me, 'cos I was suffering from extreme writers block. Plus I hadn't planned this bit that I kind a just randomly added in, so yeah… anyway, I thought the authors not she wrote to me was pretty funny, so I had to include it. :P

Enjoy!

Oh, and for those of you who don't know (I don't know if I've actually said this before) but TGG stands for The Gallagher Girl. You should check out her stories. And bug her to update, because her stories are awesome and she's basically abandoned them. :'( So sad…

TGG: Hope you appreciate this. I really wanted to read and I had a head ache. I had a glass of some kind of liqueur I found in my dad's stash to convince myself to write. Not quite sure what it was, but it tasted nice and was 35% alcohol.

Falling Higher:

Chapter Twenty-Three:

I made my way down the hallway as silently and stealthily as I could. Now that I no longer had Angel to tell me if there was anyone about to appear around the corner with a giant needle and a clipboard, I had to rely on my own abilities.

Which would be no problem of course- I was well practiced in the art of sneaking.

On my way to the wing where Angel and Gazzy were being kept I had noticed a door. A particular door that had seemed out of place in the white sterile hallways of the School, it was bright red and had one of those giant yellow caution signs slapped in the middle. This had sparked my interest as much as it would anyone's, but at the time I had been far too focused on following the voice in my head to where the two were being locked up to investigate.

Now though, I was almost certain I knew what it was that lay on the other side. And I knew what to do with it.

If what Angel had told me was correct (And I assumed it was) then the whitecoats were basically planning world domination. Their plan was to turn the majority of the world's population into mutants just like their experiments so that the human race could become a faster, better, stronger species. If I had learned anything from Iggy the past few months, it would be that most gas is flammable. And therefore, could be used to cause an explosion.

I fought the urge to chuckle evilly under my breath as I crept around the corner to where the door was.

I had no idea what it was that was keeping all the whitecoats away, whether it was the work of some higher power, the fact that the guy in charge had found a funny YouTube video and insisted on sharing it with all 156 of his co-workers, or both, but whatever it was I was grateful. I would've never forgiven myself if I'd made it so far only to be hauled back into my goo-tube.

"Please let this be the right door." I mumbled under my breath as I reached out and hesitantly pushed it open.

I will admit I was expecting something a little more… ominous than the slightly fat, balding scientist whistling to himself as he washed out test-tubes. Of course, there was now the matter of getting past him and through the next giant red door without him noticing me.

The room the door had opened up into looked like a bit of a mad-scientist tea room with dishes all over the place, benches, cabinets suspended on the walls and a small group of arm-chairs over to one corner. Definitely not what I was expecting, but the other crimson door (the one I had to get through without alerting the whitecoats) that stood exactly opposite me showed some promise. This door had a rather large 'X' painted on it in black.

Not very subtle, but then again the whitecoats always did have a flair for the dramatic. I wasn't complaining though. It made my job easier.

Now if I could only find a barrel of dynamite and a box of matches…

First though, I had to get rid of the scientist.

I crept towards him with a raised fist, planning on knocking him out and being done with it, but unfortunately for me, I knocked a hip into a bench and sent a test tube crashing to the ground. Subtle, I

We both froze.

Slowly, the scientist turned around to find me just a few steps away from him, looking like a mad-woman with a clenched fist above my head.

I did what anyone would do in this situation.

"You missed a spot." I told him, pointing at one of the test tubes he was washing.

He blinked, and turned to look (such a gullible idiot) giving me time to jump forward and knock him over the head.

I really tried to help him fall gently to the ground, but this guy was huge, okay? And I was already nearing the limits of my strength for the day. So he kind of landed a bit harshly… and maybe hit his head on a table on the way down, but he was already un-conscious so I'm pretty sure it's okay. Besides, there really wasn't that much blood.

I straightened and strode toward the red door, planning on barging through and finishing things once and for all. But the second I put my hand on the door I realizing I could hear voices behind it. The wood made it impossible to tell what they were saying, but there was obviously some white coat meeting going on in there.

"I just can't catch a break." I muttered, wondering what I was going to do now. I couldn't just jump in and expect to stop all of them from getting away and raising the alarm.

"Come on, come on… jackpot!" I spotted what looked like an air vent in the wall. I walked over and tried to jerk the covering off it, but the stubborn thing wouldn't move. "This is so much easier in movies." I growled.

I glanced around the room to see if I could find something to pry it open with. Despite the room looking like a tea room for a bunch of made scientists there was nothing I could use unless I wanted to waste my time with china cups and wooden spoons.

My gaze rested on the balding scientist on the floor and I groaned. "Great. Yay for me."

I looted through his pockets, pulling out pens and random pieces of paper.

"You smoke?" I asked him as I pulled out a packet of cigarettes. "Such a bad habit."

I reached into another pocket.

"A lighter," I grinned. "And suddenly my luck is looking up."

After a few more minutes of searching I pulled out a pocket knife. The kind with all those different attachments. Thankfully, one of them was a screwdriver. I grinned in triumph and jogged back to the vent. After a few moments I had it open and was wiggling inside.

With my back pressed hard against one wall I used my feet on the opposite to push myself up until I reached the flat and could pull myself up.

I shuffled along slowly, trying to be quiet in case the white coats below heard me. Luckily, they had all started arguing over something and didn't hear me as I inched along. The vent creaked a few times under my weight and I hoped it wouldn't collapse from under me.

Should have knocked on wood right after thinking that.

Within a few seconds the vent gave way and I found myself falling through the air before landing right in the middle of a hard oak table.

A dozen dumbfounded white coats stood around me, looking slightly dazed at my sudden appearance.

"Hey." I gasped, slightly winded from doing a belly flop onto a table.

"Wh… What?" One of them stuttered, still staring.

"Yeah… You're going to have to have a seriously talk about the condition of your vents. They are so old, you're lucky no one got hurt. I could have died." I informed them, stalling for a way out of this.

"Sound the alarm, get the guards!" One of them screamed and they all started running everywhere.

Reminded me of a group of headless chickens honestly.

"I was really hoping to avoid this." I grumbled as I slid off the table and to my feet.

The white coats took one look at me stumbling toward them, before turning and bolting out the door.

A door with a lock on it.

"It can't seriously be this easy can it?" I asked myself as I shoved the bolt down. "I should have just walked through the door in the first place. Way less effort…"

I turned and studied what was beyond the white coat's table.

A shining silver machine sat in a corner. It was large, roughly the size of an armchair, and looked like a cross between some form of diving gear with gas tanks on either side, and some kind of sci-fi super computer. It had glowing buttons everywhere and a dome of clear glass on top that was filled with some kind of volatile-looking purple gas that swirled and churned.

To be honest, it looked pretty cool. But what I noticed most of all was the gas at the top. I couldn't help my smirk as I looked from the gas to the lighter I was holding.

Of course, then I realized if I broke open the dome and tossed the lighter in it would not only blow up the school it would blow me up too.

So not part of the plan.

I considered the room around me, my gaze landing on the wooden beams around the ceiling. The roof over the machine was a lot higher than the roof over the table (A bit like a chimney) and I decided I was lucky I only fell the short distance to the table and not the 3 story drop to the machine.

Opening me wings, I stretched them slightly before leaping into the air and flying up to the wooden beam. I discovered when I was up there that a good half of the roof was glass right above the machine. Probably for when they would do something to release whatever it was the scientist were planning into the world.

"Not on my watch." I muttered, quickly coming up with a plan I hoped would work.

Bracing myself, I threw a punch at the glass covering the roof hoping like hell it wasn't bulletproof or anything like that.

My fist hit with a solid sound and didn't break the glass. It did however, crack it.

Shaking out my fist, I clenched my sore fingers and tried again.

There was a crunch as one of my knuckles broke on the impact, but the glass shattered and I managed to knock more away to make a decent sized hole.

I gripped the screwdriver in my other hand, my right one pinned to my stomach as I grimaced in pain. "Should have done this bit first." I gasped.

Slowly, I loosened the bolts on one of the wooden beams right above the dome of the machine.

A loud banging sound made me shoot a look at the doors. Great. The guards were here.

I worked faster, wanting to get out of there and just get home.

A great crash as the doors were broken open made me drop the screwdriver. I cried out in annoyance, but my eyes widened as the guards streamed into the room.

I lifted a foot and slammed it down on top of the beam. Luckily, I had worked on the screws long enough and it was loose enough to fall the three story drop to smash into the dome of the machine.

The guards looked in horror from the gas streaming out to me with the lighter in my hand.

With a grin that I could tell looked evil, I dropped the lighter, opened my wings, and leapt throw the hole.

Strong wing beats helped me rise quickly, but I still felt the heat of the explosion on my back.

I dipped into a turn and saw the school lying as a heap of blackened supports on the ground.

I sighed at the feeling of peace it gave me, and turned again to fly home.

It was finally all over.

Well… that was until I had to tell Dr M where I'd been and why I'd run away…

Damn. Maybe I should've just stayed with the whitecoats.

Um, okay. This is actually pretty close to finishing now that she's officially out of the School… I don't know how many chapters but maybe around five…?