Disclaimer: I hereby acknowledge that I have no right to the Maximum Ride series. James Patterson (unless he decides to turn the series over now that he's finished the whole thing …) owns it.

Chapter 119

Fang and the rest of us made it back to Manhattan without dropping out of the sky due to injury, exhaustion, or both. "Thank gods," Ella said with a sigh of relief.

"You macho thing, you," I said Ella and Mom laughed. When we finally landed in the darkness of Central Park. He looked worn out, clammy, and pale, but he had flown all the way with no complaint.

"That's me," he said, but he gave me a long look, like I haven't forgotten what you did, meaning the Kiss. Everyone laughed. I blushed.

I blushed furiously, embarrassed beyond belief. I would never live that down.

"Are you really okay, Fang?" Nudge asked, the most touching concern in her voice. Nudge doted on Fang. "Aw, sweet," Ella said, smiling at Nudge and this time it was her turn to blush. Nudge and Fang have always had a sweet Big Brother, Little Sister relationship. *(See AN below)*

He looked like he'd fallen off a cliff, with huge bruises distorting his face, the awful scratches Ari had left on his cheeks, the stiff, pained way he moved.

"I'm cool," he said. "Flying helped loosen me up some." "Liar," I said with a smile. "Flying loosens up to an extent, but with your wounds, you should've hurt worse." Fang glared at me and I stuck out my tongue.

"Look, let's find a place to hunker down, catch some Zs and then take another shot at the Institute," I said. "We've got to figure it out – we can't stop now. Right, guys?"

"Yeah, right," Nudge said. "Let's do it, get it over with. I want to know about my mom. And other stuff. I want to know the whole story, good or bad."

"Me too," said Gazzy. "I want to find my parents so I can tell'm what total scuzzes they are. Like, 'Hi, Mom and Dad, you're such scum!'" Gazzy and Angel sighed and I shot them both warm smiles. "Don't think about it, guys," I said. "Doesn't matter, anyway." Angel beamed at me and Gasman shot me a grateful look.

I decided we'd better stay underground for safety's sake. "Back to your subway ledge?" Ella asked and I grimaced. In the subway station, we jumped off the platform and walked quickly along the tracks. It looked familiar, and sure enough, a few minutes' walking brought us to a huge firelit cavern populated by homeless people and misfits. Home, sweet home, especially if you happen to be a sewer rat. "There actually weren't that many rat's in that area," Angel said thoughtfully. Nudge nodded along.

"Yeah, they came later, when we were almost at the institute," She said. I shivered delicately and kept reading.

"Boy, does this look inviting," Fang said, rubbing his hands together.

I made a face at him as we climbed up onto the concrete ledged. Inside, I was glad that he had enough energy to be sarcastic. Fang smiled at me and snickered quietly.

Suddenly exhausted and emotionally wiped, I held out my left fist to make our bedtime stack. We did our thing, then Angel snuggled next to me. I checked to make sure the others, especially Fang, were okay, then I lay down, letting despair cover me like a blanket.

I was in the middle of another sleep-driven brain explosion when I felt myself surface to consciousness without opening my eyes. Not analyzing the impulse, I shot out my hand and grabbed someone's wrist. "You just can't catch a stinking break!" Ella said suddenly, throwing her arms in the air and almost losing her balance on her limb. If Iggy hadn't of caught her arm, she would've tumbled backward. I laughed.

"El," I said, "calm down, it's okay, it's nothing harmful here." She looked into my eyes and trusted me.

Moving fast, still on instinct, I sat up and twisted the intruder's arm behind his back, my senses roaring to life.

"Cool it, sucker!" the arm's owner whispered furiously. I yanked upward, threatening to pop his arm out of its socket. I definitely could've done it. "Do you guys remember this? Nudge? Angel? Gazzy? Iggy?"

"I was out cold, sleeping. I passed out the moment I hit the concrete." Nudge.

"I fell asleep as soon as I curled up by Max. I wasn't awake for this." Angel.

"Gasman and I were asleep." Two Iggys said in unison. I shook my head.

Fang creaked upright next to me, his eyes alert, but his body moving stiffly.

"You're screwing with my Mac again," said the hacker, "OH! It's him!" Ella said and laughed. and I loosened my hold him. "Jeez, what happened to you?" Directed at Fang.

"Cut myself shaving," Fang said. "I'm sure that was convincing," Iggy said and mom and Ella laughed with Nudge and Angel.

The hacker frowned and rubbed his shoulder where I'd strained it. "Why'd you come back here?" he asked angrily. "You're totally wrecking my hard drive."

"Let me see," I said, and he grumpily opened his laptop.

The screen was covered with the inside of my head: images, words, photos, maps, mathematical equations. "That is so…" Ella started.

"Yeah," I answered, "I know.

The hacker scowled, seeming more perplexed than mad, though. "It's weird," he said. "You guys don't have a computer with you?"

"No," Fang said. "Not even a cell phone."

"What about a Palm Pilot?" the hacker asked.

"Nope," I said. "We're kinda more low-tech than that." Like, having Kleenex would be a huge step up for us. Everybody laughed.

"A memory chip?" he persisted. "Ding! Ding! Ding!" Ella said. "We have a winner."

I froze. Almost against my will, I slid my gaze over to Fang. And my gaze flittered down to my wrist. The ugly scars that mysteriously vanished never showed again. I shivered again.

"What kind of memory chip?" I asked, striving for casual.

"Anything," the hacker said. "Anything that would have data on it that would interfere with my hard drive."

"If we did have a chip," I said carefully, "could you access it?"

"If I knew what it was," he said. "Maybe. What do you have?"

"It's small and square," I said, not looking at him. "Like a box?" Gazzy asked eagerly. I rolled my eyes.

"Like this?" The hacker held his fingers about three inches apart.

"Smaller."

His fingers were a half-inch apart. "You have a memory chip this small?"

I nodded.

"Let me see. Where is it?"

I took a deep breath. "In me. It's implanted in me. I saw it on an X-ray."

He stared at me with horror in his eyes. He turned off his laptop and closed the lid. "You have a memory chip that small implanted in you," he verified.

I nodded, guessing this was somewhat worse than having cooties.

He took several steps back. "A chip like that is bad news," he said slowly, as if I were stupid. "It might be NSA. I won't mess with it. Look, you away from me! Next thing, they'll be after me." He backed away into the darkness, his hands up as if to ward off evil. "I hate them! Hate them!" Then he was gone, back into the bowels of the tunnels. "Well, that was interesting," Mom said with a light laugh.

"See ya," I whispered. "Wouldn't want to be ya."

Fang looked at me irritably. "I can't take you anywhere." Everyone laughed.

I so wished he weren't all banged up – so I could whack him. They laughed harder. Ugh. We're almost done, then maybe we can actually get somewhere. Thankfully. I handed Fang the book.

Chapter 120 he read and I couldn't help but be soothed by his voice. My head was hurting a little from this whole event. But it felt good where we were.

We tried to get some sleep – God knows we needed it. I kind of dozed off. Then I wasn't asleep, I knew that much. But I wasn't awake, exactly. "That crazy in between state where your aren't in a REM cycle is so aggravating, and yet, I find myself there in most of my classes at school," Ella said and then backtracked a little under mom's glare. "Uh, I mean, in… um… oh, nevermind."

"What's a REM cycle, Max?" Gazzy asked.

"REM means Rapid Eye Movement and is when your mind is fully asleep. It's typically when you're dreaming," I answered.

"Ooh, okay."

I'd been, like, sucked into another dimension, where I could feel my body, sort of, knew where I was, and yet was powerless to move or speak. I was in a movie, starring me, watching it all happen around me. I was going down a dark tunnel, or the tunnel was slipping by me, and I was staying still. Trains were rushing past me on both sides, so it was a subway tunnel. "Okay, so what are you seeing? Is this where you're supposed to go?" Ella asked. My flock applauded and Iggy laughed. Ella huffed and crossed her arms, her cheeks bright red.

I was thinking, Okay, subway tunnel. Yeah, so? "However," Fang said, "I did wonder how you knew where to go. I wish you'd told me about this then, I thought you were going crazy." He shook his head and I stuck my tongue out at him.

Then I saw a train station: Thirty-first Street. The Institute's building was on Thirty-first Street. In the darkness of the waking-dream subway tunnel, I saw a filthy, rusted-over grate. I saw myself pulling the grate up. Fetid brown water gurgled below. Bleah – it was the sewer system, beneath the city. "Oh, gross," Ella said.

"And you're only reading about it," Nudge said with an expression of plain disgust. "Try witnessing it firsthand. It was absolutely horrendous."

Hello.

Beneath a rainbow. . .

Bingo, Max, said my Voice.

My eyes popped wide open. Fang was watching me with concern. "Now what?" "How long had you been watching me?" I asked slowly, turning my head to look at him with playfully narrowed eyes.

He shrugged, but I could see the smile in his eyes.

"I know what we have to do," I said. "Wake everyone up."

He closed the book and Total flew up to take it to Nudge.

Chapter 121 She read.

AN: NO WAY! THREE CHAPTER'S IN A WEEKEND! AHHHH! I'm so proud of myself *sniff* *sniff*.

I always love seeing these in other fanfictions I read, so I decided to offer one up to my lovely readers: Challenge time!

My challenge: Write a cute little drabble about a bonding moment between Nudge and Fang. Can be from any perspective (Preferably either Nudge's, Fang's or 3rd person. . . but it could be an outside person). If you can write it, I can read it.

The winner will have it posted in one of my stories and get a special mention in my next chapter. Let me know if you want to try it in a review okay? PLEASE review either way.

I'll tell you how to send me the challenge. :)

Anyway.

I hope you enjoyed it!

Until next time,

~Jezi Raewin