Chapter Fifty-One

Hey, everyone! Ivyflightislistening here, along with some awesome reviewers/readers/favorite-ers.

Quick general announcement: Please read, IMPORTANT!

I don't know how many of you readers are girls, or how many of you know at least one girl that is important to you. Your mom, your sister, your cousin, friend, girlfriend, aunt, grandmother, whatever. I'm a girl; I have friends who are girls, a mom, a sister, and quite a few aunts and cousins. And they're all important to me.

But girls, usually between the ages of 10 and 20, are being hurt, by crazy people usually falling under these categories:

-Kidnappers

-Rapists

-Murderers

Pleasant, huh?

This doesn't just happen to people in the news. This happens too often, and its on the rise. Young women are being targeted, taken advantage of, raped, abducted, and sometimes killed. It's more common than you think.

Which is why I'm taking up so much space to get this point across.

We need to take a stand, girls. We need to let people know this is not okay. We need to defend ourselves against the guys who stake out bus stops (true), who wait outside of schools or houses or workplaces or in parking lots. There are predators out there, and we're not all Max who can kick some mega butt and fly away.

Some statistics: (note, in America, but don't let it discourage you!)

1 in 4 girls in middle or high school will be date raped before going to college.

On average, a sexual predator has had 100 victims before being charged in court.

1 in 4 girls will be the victims of sexual assault.

Every 2 minutes, a girl in the USA is taken advantage of,

1 in 4 college girls will be the victim of sexual assault.

1 in 2 rape victims is under the age of 18.

26% of high school girls have been the victim of physical abuse, sexual abuse, or date forced sex.

I don't know about you guys, but I'm not going to take it.

Learn basic self defense moves that could save your life, the lives of your friends, and the lives of others if you're attacked and you can get away and maybe prosecute your attacker. Send it to all your friends. Don't be caught unaware.

Go to just yell fire dot org (no spaces, you know the drill) and watch this video free. I'm not kidding, ladies and gentlemen.

Anyway. Please do so. Take the time to read that note. You don't even have to review.

And sorry for not updating in ages!

emotionalpoemgirl-ha, yeah, it's a typical Gazzy thing.

GeraniumRose-thank you so, so, so much! It heartens me to hear that… and I worry about the next MR book. I'll read it, but I might just consider it a bad fanfiction and just continue writing/reading instead :D And I'll try to update more! Really I will. Cross my heart. Thank you!

Turtlelover0511-firstly, thank you for your PM-I'll never not respond unless you turn out to be some crazy creeper (see note above) or I'm dead or haven't logged on in ages or something… Really, it's wonderful that there are people like you out there that care. I'm okay, thanks for asking, just trying to make this chapter the best I can before updating… But I'm glad you liked the last one! Fang definitely didn't have the best time.

Serein Q-haha, no, it's perfectly acceptable to laugh. Gazzy's jokes are hilarious just because they're so awful.

Maddy-ack! Sorry, I'll go over and try to fix it. But thanks for reading/reviewing!

MAXFINGA-don't worry about it, MFG. I'm glad you enjoyed it!

Goddess of the Flock-sorry it took so long! Thank you for the review and reading!

UNDERLANDERfromtheOVERLAND-heh heh heh… Jebmeister will get whatever he deserves, whether it's good or bad…

And without further ado (and huge thanks to everyone who's here), chapter fifty-one!

"Good morning, everyone!" Lamy entered our cell, followed by Thing One, Thing Two, and an EM. I rolled my eyes, staving off a yawn. Iggy had woken us a moment before the four had entered, hearing their footsteps even through walls as thick as ours.

I stared Little Asian Man down until he at least gave us the courtesy of abandoning the sickly smile. "Your point?" I asked coldly, tired of beating around the bush. Tired of staying awake. Tired of the hell hole we were stuck in. Just plain tired.

"Manners, Maximum." He sighed, as if I exhausted him or something, and sounding incredibly Voice-like.

I snorted. "I'm not about to take manners lessons from the guy who threw me in chains!"

Lamy rolled his eyes, sighing again. "I didn't throw you in chains."

"Yeah, but you certainly condone it. You support it-"

"Enough." He growled. I plowed on.

"You test the subjects that are chained, you mock them, you accept support from the guys who did chain us-"

He was shouting now, not showing very much restraint, while Ruth and Roux looked at their struggling colleague in amusement.

"I said enough!"

Not to be outdone, I bellowed back. "I wasn't done!"

"When I tell you to quiet down, you quiet down!" His face, tomatoey red, contorted in his fury. It made him look almost comical, and I could help my obnoxious smile, which didn't seem to help his anger management issues. I heard Fang and Iggy exchanging bets on how long this would go on.

"It might benefit you to know that I don't take orders easily, you sicko!"

"Watch your tongue!"

"You think 'sicko' is bad?" I laughed loudly. "I was holding back, unlike you, Mister Self-Serving Heap of Trash."

"I am your elder-"

"You think I fucking care, Yoda?"

"Silence!"

"Make me!"

"You don't think I can?"

I was about to rattle off another infuriating reply to make him step a few feet closer… close enough to hit, but French women must have really loud vocal chords as part of their genetic make-up. "No!" Roux yelled, her voice pitching loudly and making my eardrums ache. "Monsieur, you are encouraging 'er." She stepped in front of him, waving the other man down with a manicured hand. Even now, the room echoed with the effects of my vocal capacity. I wanted to keep it that way.

"I'm sorry," I said in a way that made it clear I wasn't. "Do you think you can control me?"

The French woman didn't reply verbally, clicking up to me in her heels and slapping me across the face. The room went dead quiet. Her unnaturally long fingernails stung on my face. Her cherry lips smiled cruelly.

"Miss Roux," I raised an eyebrow, not shifting from my aggressive stance. "What did you just do?"

Thinking she was out of my reach, she laughed. "I hit you."

I shook my head, clucking my tongue. I heard Angel snort, but kept my eyes trained on the woman. "No. You are in America, ma'am. I suggest you at least make an effort to recognize this with appropriate American slang. What you did is called a 'bitch slap,' named because of the common use of it by hormonal teenage girls on other hormonal teenage girls disputing over issues like clothes or boys. And," I paused, whipping an arm out around her neck to pull her closer and then round house kicking her across the room. "That is called, depending on the region you're in, either having your butt whupped or your ass kicked. Your choice. Now, Lamy, what were you saying about knowing how to shut me up?"

For a moment Lamy was speechless, reveling in the mess of Ruth trying to help Roux to her feet in six inch heels and my family, all roaring in laughter.

"Pay up." I heard Fang mutter to Iggy.

"Stop it!" Lamy shouted, in near hysterics. "Quiet, all of you!"

I spat at him, which must have been the last straw because he snapped his fingers and the EM charged. I had been expecting this and quickly threw out my hands to deflect his knife with the chains, causing it to skitter across the room towards the Canadian. Now its claws were raking towards my face and I twisted to the side, ducked, and I caught one of his arms with a well placed kick. This dragged his left side to the ground with my foot, trapping him no matter how strong he was.

Now by my writing I might be giving the impression that this was easy. It was not. An EM has more muscle mass than an Eraser and the agility of a cheetah. But I have the fury of a wolverine and the ruthless characteristics found in wolves and packs of hyenas. Not to say that Fang is worse at fighting these suckers, either. He had been restrained when he had picked a fight with the EM, and I was still trying to keep that from happening.

He swung at me again with a clubbed fist, which luckily missed smashing into my entire face but it did glance off my nose, which wasn't exactly a walk in the park. I was now on defensive, tripping him up in my chains as fast as possible. He kept falling to his knees, but this wasn't a huge advantage as he was still about my height. I broke his nose anyway and scratched his face with a rough edge of the manacle that had been chaffing my wrist. He roared, wrenching the chains binding both my feet and his out of the wall, and tossing them and me to the side. My wrists, still in their restraints, popped out of their sockets and I held back a scream as he yanked on me again and tried to throw me to the opposite wall, towards the others. I narrowed my hands, making them as small as possible and begging that they would slip out of the cuffs. My wrists would break more easily than the chains.

Dear God, Allah, Zeus, Jesus, Mary, Joseph, anyone with any mystical abilities…

Either I was lucky or someone heard, because though it hurt like hell, my hands crunched through the restraints. Freedom! The EM, now looking more evil Jacob Black than human, nabbed me up and tossed me to the ground in one stroke, sort of like those sea birds who drop shellfish on rocks to break them open. I didn't have time to stand, but I rocked back onto my hip bone, one foot raised and one arm held up to ward off any blows if he got past my foot. Nudge called it the defensive model stance, since you were lying down, but it was designed to injure your opponent and buy you time to get back on your feet.

Each time the EM tried to grab me, my raised foot lashed out and hit him hard. If he tried to go to the side, I scooted or rolled to move with him.

"Elite Man 276!" Barked Ruth. "Restrain her!"

"Not likely." I muttered, ducking between the EM's feet, shoving the legs out from underneath all the scientists and pouncing on the chains at Fang's feet. If I could just get him out, we would have a chance at this beast… If I didn't have these chains on my feet, slowing me down, if I wasn't already on the ground… If it had been a fair fight…

Even if I had a key, I didn't have time to do anything more than graze Fang's hand before the EM grabbed me again and slammed me into a portable cage that they always brought along incase one of us got out of hand.

"Well done, 276." Roux muttered gruffly, trying not to let her pain show but limping over to my new enclosure all the same.

"Good riddance." She snapped at me, yanking part of the chain still attached to my foot. The four of them were circling me in a very predatorial way, and I prepared myself to be poked and prodded and drugged into next Tuesday.

What I did not prepare myself for was Ella's shout of "Leave her alone!" or for the EM to actually take my sister up on the offer and advance towards her.

"No!" I gasped, throwing myself against the bars of my cage in desperation, seeing his claws unsheathe… and Iggy leaped in front of her. He spread his tawny wings, nearly fifteen feet across, to completely block Ella, mom, and the three youngest from view.

"Out of the way, useless one."

"You already fought two of us." Growled Iggy. "Do you really want to make it a third?"

The EM hesitated, but it was Lamy who called the beast back. "Go get eight more cages." He ordered. "We have a punishment to dish out."

And then they exited, Iggy waiting a good ten seconds before he shuffled his wings back in place. Yes, we have broad backs. Yes, we're built like Michael Phelps. Yes, we even have creepy indentations in our backs that normal humans don't have that help keep our wings folded. Even so, it's a bit of a pain to keep them entirely closed up. Usually, they're relaxed and half unfolded, which is the most comfortable. But we were in Cirque du Freak here, and none of us were up for letting the scientists ogle at our wings even when we weren't directly being tested.

So anyway, it took him about a minute to press his wings to his back, enough time for Ella to look Iggy's way, about to say something, but after opening and closing her mouth a few times, shook her heads and fell deep into thought. Fang met my eyes, and I nodded once. I was fine. He held my gaze for a moment longer, checking if I was telling the truth, and then set his sights once again on the far wall.

That blank and hopeless expression killed me every time.

"Max?"

I glanced up at Total, now leaning forward on his front paws in a very 'play with me!' sort of way. I wondered what his deal was.

"Yeah?"

"That was totally, like, badass." He woofed. I put my head in my hands, wondering now where all his sense had gone. "You were chill when she hit you, then you pulled the American slang thing? That was brilliant."

"I should not have used some of the words I did, Total." But I was smiling anyway.

"Hypocrite." Muttered Iggy, but he was grinning, too.

"I like her accent." Angel said. "I want to move to France. After we incinerate her."

"How about we learn French first?" Said Gasman. "'Cause, like, I want to be able to communicate. Find non-alcoholic chocolates."

Even Fang twitched his lip at that comment, but the arrival of whitecoats flanked by eight EM's ruined the moment pretty quickly. There (thankfully) was no small talk, the three whitecoats waiting at the door while one of the EM's effortlessly lifted my cage and strode to the front of a quickly forming line. You see, they let everyone go. As in, out of the chains. But they tailed everyone but Total (who tailed Angel) who tailed Gazzy who was held at gunpoint.

"Follow me. We don't care about the runty male, so if any of you misbehave, we will shoot him. You have been warned." Said Lamie briskly, turning on his heel and beginning a chain that led down the corridor. Fang walked calmly at my side, his eyes flicking every which way in an attempt to map out the confusing hallways, and I tried not to flinch whenever something bruised and battered hit the bars of the cage. He wasn't the only one watching.

I admit it: I was a little worried once we stopped and I found that Lamie led us to this room with three white walls and the last being a balcony looking out into a large empty space. Would I have to watch some other winged beastie tear apart my Flock? I couldn't see what was at the bottom of the arena, maybe it was just a sandpit to properly absorb blood once one of us was struck down. Maybe they'd make me choose who to send out there… maybe they'd shove Ella and Mom off the balcony.

Maybe I needed to stop with the what-ifs and maybes otherwise I was going to give myself a heart attack.

Besides, most of these were canceled out as soon as one of the EM's yanked me out of my cage, slung me across his shoulders like a sack of potatoes, and then transferred me to a heavy metal chair that looked appropriate in an intense interrogation scene of CSI: NY. Unless I was a spectator, I finally realized they might actually be trying to hurt me.

As the EM tied me securely to the metal chair, a few of the others nudged the rest of my family towards the edge of the balcony. I stiffened and tried to twitch away, but Roux just laughed at me and said that he wanted to give them a good position to watch. I was really starting to hate that woman. Good thing she wasn't a redhead or I would've already ripped up her entrails and fed them to Total.

"Watch the wings." I barked at the EM, now layering the ropes with some good ol' duct tape. I wasn't going to admit it to him of course, but I didn't really think I was going anywhere. I mean, I could tell this chair was similar to the one Ari had wheeled me around the School in way back when, and that had been like, five hundred pounds of steel or something. And this time I was tied. Like, I'm not Wonder Woman. Contrary to popular belief.

Of course this made him yank even harder, and I tried to concentrate on something other than basically my entire back. It wasn't hard once I realized how furious Fang was I tried to communicate telepathically and ask him to calm down. He wouldn't do me or any of us any good if he got himself killed or beat up even more. He seemed to get this message, but I don't think really cared because he sent me a look that clearly read, I want to kill them.

"Now, Maximum Ride." Lamie interrupted our mental conversation with a rub of the glasses and a superior smirk. "Do you know why you're here?"

"Free milkshake day at McDonalds?" I grinned, trying to wiggle in my ropes. It didn't work to well, but I think Lamie got the sarcasm without the body motions.

"Don't make it worse for yourself." He advised darkly. "It really wouldn't be helpful to anyone if you died, but we also can't have you as a loose cannon. This is your punishment. You earned it."

I was going to reply something snappy and irritating that would be sure to get under his skin, but at that moment he snapped his finger to an EM who in turn lifted me and the entire chair (the entire freaking chair!) and tossed me over Mom, Fang, Nudge, and the others, over the guardrail, and into empty space.

There is nothing worse than free-falling towards earth without the use of your wings. Nothing. Well, being at a School-esque facility, I may come to take back that statement, but just about nothing. You feel useless, pathetic, scared silly and like you might wet your pants any moment, and at the same time my wings were screaming to snap open and catch the wind like a baseball to a glove.

But of course they couldn't, all I could do was crane my neck downward as I bit in a scream and took in the fast approaching water.

Water? I thought hazily, but even my fear instinct has been overridden by my instinct to make my enemies angry. This is why I used the deep breath I had taken prior to being thrown into the air to shout, "Jeronimo!" At the very top of my lungs.

And that was all I had time to do before I hit the water.

Let me tell you, it was glacial.

Any air I had in my lungs that hadn't been used up yelling at the scientists escaped me in a scream underwater. It was as if the very air had been yanked from my body, my blood immediately thickening as if it was icing over. My lungs were burning, even if they were burning in ice. Hastily, I gulped in oxygen through my lungs, but even that was painful as I forced myself to adjust to the temperature. I burned if I breathed, and died if I didn't…

It's just a message. I whispered to myself. Just a message. I repeated it mentally, thinking of warm beaches and the sun and showers and hot tubs and hot chocolate and cookies fresh out of the oven… but they were all cold. Gills wouldn't keep me alive long if I caught hypothermia.

And all I could do was sink.

I tried wiggling and wriggling and twisting and fidgeting and ducking my head to gnaw at the ropes but I was stuck tight.

And I have pretty exceptional night vision, except that amounted to absolutely nothing under water. What kind of hell was this? A breeding ground for sea monsters? I stopped myself from guessing and forced myself to take some deep, calming breaths. Yeah, right.

Angel? I called mentally, hoping I didn't sound too scared. What's going on up there?

Oh, thank God you can still think, Max. She breathed a sigh of relief. You must be freezing, even your thoughts are shivering.

Only a little. I muttered, still trying to brush it aside. You okay?

Everyone just about flipped until they heard the splash, then they went quiet for a moment until your mom broke an EM's collarbone-yeah, she lashed out at it with a bar of metal she snagged. Anyway, they fired some shots, got everyone under control, and herded us downstairs. Its like a huge pool, with concrete edges and even a diving board, and some techie stuff that keeps beeping. They made us sit on some benches-what was that?

I had screamed, the gnawing fear finally getting to me as I unexpectedly hit bottom, the chair thunking and tipping slowly. I was now lying on my back. At the bottom of what felt like the freaking Arctic Ocean! And, to top it off, I had no idea how to get out.

I just landed. I'm fine. Anything else?

Yeah, the scientists are milling around, talking a little and comparing notes or something. They say if I make one of them do something abnormal the EM's will shoot me. That's their orders. Since they're part machine I can't mess with them. She pouted.

It was the one time I had ever felt glad that she could throw her thoughts in my mind, for they were my soul comfort as I strained at my bonds in the freezing, binding darkness.

Don't be so negative. You think I'd abandon you?

I laughed without humor. I think they might make you.

She didn't say anything, but projected an image of the six of us tapping fists, something we had done every night at mom's but hadn't gotten to here. The chains kind of impaired that.

No, she continued. Really. Some flesh-eating fish are on their way to chew the ropes off.

Flesh-eating… what?

They won't eat you. I promise. Just hurry up here before you catch a chill.

I didn't know what to say to that, and it was only Angel's little voice in my head that kept me from going completely loony when the fish did show up and begin to nibble. I couldn't see them unless they swam really close to my face, but I could feel the currents they caused with their swimming (there were quite a lot of them) and even hear the gnashing of their teeth. As soon as I was free, I booked out of there.

Say thanks.

Good point. Before I pushed off the ground, I bubbled a "thanks, guys" not entirely sure if they understood English, but I wasn't into bowing and exposing my neck. As soon as the formalities were over, I kicked as fast as I could, and not a moment later, my head popped the surface of the water.

"Do you have any idea how God damned freaking cold it is down there?" I snapped at the scientists as soon as my eyes had adjusted to the seemingly blinding light. I was pretty sure they were aware of the temperature down to the exact, but I noticed my loud mouth tendencies seemed to bother them and couldn't pass up the opportunity.

"Mmh." Lamie muttered, not really paying attention. "And Miss Roux, yes, the equivalency of the quadratic singular zygote… yes. I understand now."

He continued with them, and I swam over to the ledge, peering at my family. The EM's trailed me with their eyes, but kept their guns trained on their charges, not paying me too much mind. Mom's eyes were red and teary. Ella, too, looked on the verge of either screaming someone out or sobbing. I wasn't sure if she could speak.

"Gills working okay, then?" Iggy rolled his eyes in my direction.

"Oh, yeah." I nodded. "And this new scale growth on my hands is really fascinating…" I pretended to examine the back of my hand, catching not only the scientists' attention but probably giving the flock a little extra freak out that they didn't need.

"Kidding!" I muttered, flashing them my hands. "God knows that would be creepy."

"Uh, yeah, Max." Nudge nodded. "And imagine if you grew fins, too? Like, how sketchy would that be? And I bet scales would be harder to hide than wings. We'd have to get you one of those things some women wear in parts of the world, that cover their whole bodies, you know? Not that I'm suggesting some women have scales, but if you were concerned with hiding your skin in a discreet way, you know? No one would ever guess you had scales."

"I bet she would rather just not have them." Gazzy said reasonably. I grinned at him.

"Yeah, knock on wood. Who knows where the gill thing even comes from?" I said, giving Fang a quick look to see if anyone else knew about his development on the gill front. He shifted his head slightly to the side, to anyone else a change of scenery for a bored kid. For me a no. And I wasn't sure if they knew about Angel's… we'll call them skills, but for now I hoped the scientists kept their attention on me.

"I can answer that." Said Roux gruffly, coming over as the other two finished up notes. "Or at least offer a hypothesis. Humans are able to hiccup because of a trait passed down from our very ancient aquatic ancestors. I believe your avian DNA causes whatever is left over from these ancestors to change in ways we hadn't predicated."

"Meaning you still have no idea what the hell you're doing." I muttered.

He narrowed his eyes at me, coming to the edge of the pool, but far enough away so that the EM's could defend him if I suddenly grabbed his ankles and towed him in. Just an idea.

"Do you know what a Taser is, Ride?"

"Well it rhymes with laser." Offered Angel.

Gazzy nodded. "Which is what Buzz Lightyear uses."

"To infinity," Iggy began, and Ella joined in. I knew enough Disney to know Buzz Lightyear's catchphrase. And it was even from Toy Story. And Ella said I hadn't watched enough movies. "And beyond!"

"Like an electric gun." I answered in your typical irritating teenager tone. "Instead of shooting bullets, you shoot shocks, right?"

"And are you aware that water conducts electricity?"

I grinned. "Now I am!"

Apparently there was a point behind his questioning (uh, duh) because he just happened to whip one out and stick it in the water. I'm not a scientist. I don't know why it didn't shock him, how it worked, why it shocked me, or if it would hurt that much out of water. But I am a life form, and it hurt my little life form nerves like hell. So, EM or not, after I had regained proper breathing technique and cleared the water from my lungs, I lunged forward and pulled him into the water with me.

Although all six of us had been raised to deal with crap like being pulled into a pool, Mr. Roux clearly hadn't been, because he began to panic and press the trigger on his gun. This didn't go over too well for either of us, until he went limp and I managed to toss the thing out of the water. An EM fished the limp scientist out, making sure his heart was still beating (it was, unfortunately) and then proceeded to Taser me again. This one had the smarts to dodge before I pulled him into.

The whole affair, with shouting scientists and angry flock members, sort of set the tone for the entire day.

I hope you enjoy, and remember, just yell fire dot org. If you don't want to (DO IT ANYWAY!), read this:

-Be aware when alone.

Don't park in far corners of parking lots when its dark.

Don't go to secluded ATM's.

If you run/exercise and listen to iPod's-NOT TOO LOUD and PAY ATTENTION TO SURROUNDINGS.

Be aware if reading in public. Don't let anyone surprise you.

-When strangers come up with innocent questions like, "What time is it?" Give yourself a good five feet personal space. Say, "Stay back, I can tell you the time from here!"

-Try and make sure people know where you are.

-Don't open the doors to strangers.

-If you think you are being followed, head to a public area-NOT HOME

IF YOU ARE JUMPED: Don't yell RAPE or HELP or GET AWAY or anything. YELL FIRE because other people will come. Fires concern them. If you yell rape, kidnapper, help, people may be too callous to help. They don't want to get involved.

Capiche, everyone? Sorry if this was really heavy/freaked anyone out. But you need to know. If you need the motive, pretend you're Max beating up Erasers.

I hope you liked the chapter, but I hope even more that you watch that video, that you learn to defend yourself, that you tell others and help them learn, because we don't all have a flock to come help us. We don't all have wings to fly away or super DNA to punch a man's ribs in.

My sister is petite and 5 feet tall. A six-foot body builder could lift her up in a minute. Think about that.

Love is a verb, everyone! Love is a verb.