A/N: Hey guys... I have a chapter written already and it's Wednesday so why not post it?
Also I really wish they made a Maximum ride movie... they said that they would make one for I kid you not, four years now. Their excuse was that the production costs would be too high for the level of animation needed and they said it would be extremely difficult. I'm sorry I just watched Maleficent... and the wings looked pretty realistic to me. MR movie directors get on this.
Sorry for the rant lol.
Enjoy this chapter :) Can't believe I'm already on chapter 24!
~Harmony
000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000
Chapter 24
NEONA P.O.V
It was almost sunrise… Why isn't Phoenix waking up?
I rattled the cage and whispered. "Phoenix. Wake up!"
"Mhmm what?" She murmured.
"How can you even sleep in a cage? It's so uncomfortable. I wouldn't expect you to sleep comfortably… after all, this isn't your 'norm'."
"Well we basically sleep on rocks so I can really sleep wherever."
I'd thought she'd have a comfy bed or whatever. "Never mind. If your flock is coming, you need to be prepared."
"Why do you keep saying 'you'?" She finally opened her eyes. "Aren't you coming too?"
"Hope so… but I'm prepared. Unlike you… no offense."
"None taken. Clearly, I'm a little rusty." Phoenix looked embarrassed.
I reasoned with her. "Not rusty. You just don't have control."
"Can you teach me?" She looked with hopeful eyes.
"No." She looked disappointed. "It's something you learn yourself. But I can guide you."
000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000
PHOENIX P.O.V
She was going to teach me how to control my powers. Who a better teacher than someone who has similar powers!
Neona spoke up again. "But to be honest, I had guidance too." She reached into the drab hospital looking outfits they made us wear. She was wearing a white crystal… it was mesmerizing. "It helps me keep in control."
"Do you think I could find one?" I asked. I lowered my voice because I thought I heard whitecoats walking down the hallway.
"No. It'll find you when you're in need." She adjusted in her cage. "It found me when I was in the arena. The whitecoats let me wear because they know I'll kill them without it."
"But it only stops you when you're out of control. That means you can still kill them even with it on!" I lowered my voice even more.
Neona spoke so soft I could barley hear it. "Exactly."
"Good morning mutants! Well a good morning for me but I guess it would be less than any other day for you… Lets see… a new day of testing, a new specimen!" It was another white coat. "How about Phoenix!"
"Oh gee like I have a choice right?" I said sarcastically.
He unlocked my cage and walked me out. I was still limping from the bullet wounds. One was in my shoulder and the other was in my leg. They both hurt and throbbed like crazy. He walked me out the door with handcuffs on my wrists. I met Neona's eyes as I passed by her cage.
"Do by any chance think you could… oh I don't know… address the bullet wounds that are gushing blood?!" I asked annoyingly.
"Oh don't think we forgot about your well being now…" He grinned at me and shoved me into a room, making me stumble.
The strapped me to a table and fixed my wounds. Then they dumped me in the arena again. This time, the wanted me to run as many times, back and forth, as I could until I basically died. Now I'd say I had pretty good stamina but what motivated me was the laser heaters under my feet. They would zap them every time I slowed down. After that dreaded time, I was stuck back into the cage.
"You're lucky." Neona remarked. "They're going easy on you."
"You call this easy?!" I was so thirsty that my throat was clenching. "This is torture!"
"They've done worse to me." Neona's voice sounded awfully monotone… as if the memory was too painful to talk about.
"Oh Sorry… I'm sure what they've done is worse... It's just that this is all too new to me. I don't know how you did it for so many years."
"Neither do I, Phoenix. Neither do I."
Suddenly, another whitecoat came in and unlocked Neo's cage. Then, he unlocked mine and we both walked together to another arena. We were both positioned across from each other. They wanted a fight as the ultimate test of training. Mine… or Max's.
I was in fighting stance right across from her. I can't fight my sister! "I can't do this!"
Neona looked at me with a frightening look. "If we don't do this, they'll both kill us."
"Fine." I was in fighting stance again. God she looked exactly the same as me. Same height, face and everything.
"Begin!" The loud speaker boomed.
I was immediately on defense. Neona closed her eyes and took a breath.
000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000
PHOENIX P.O.V.
My body hurt so badly. Neona beat me up pretty bad but I could handle it. I gave her a few bruises myself.
"Sorry." I lit up a fire.
"If you want to be strong, never say sorry."
"Oh then I'm not sorry?"
She smirked. "If we didn't beat each other up, we'd be dead anyway." She touched the bruise on her shoulder. "So don't say sorry for trying to survive. I was too."
"Wow it's pretty cut throat here then."
"Yeah it's a torture chamber." She then lifted her head quickly. "I think they're planning something big. I think they have a master plan to do something."
"What do you think they're going to do?" This was interesting… what was all this leading to?
Her eyes lit up like she was putting together a puzzle. "I mean think about it. What is the point of creating hybrids and making us fight? We're experiments. Every experiment has a purpose."
Then I remembered something that Mom told me. "… and the government can't even fund the school because its unethical so there has to be some big company funding the whitecoats!"
Neona raised her eyebrows in realization. "I know what they're doing and it's not good. Not good at all."
"What are they planning to do?"
"They're building a military force of mutants. And we're going to be the leaders. We're the killing machines."
"But… but why?"
"Have you ever wondered why all the people they bring into the school for experiments are poor? They're using the impoverished community because they know it'll create less chaos. They're kidnapping the children and training them."
"But what are they going to do with them?"
"I don't know. But they want to take over something…. the company they work for, the state, country, world… I don't know."
"But we didn't come from the impoverished did we? Mom said that when they were in the school, Jeb would always be nice to them and then took them away to a house to live in peace. And they we're definitely not poor then."
"We're special cases Phoenix."
"Why?" I then realized something. "Because we're related to Jeb."
"What?" Neona looked confused. "What do you mean related to Jeb?"
"Right before he put me to sleep, he said that he was my grandfather - "
Neona raised her voice. "-which means he's Mom—I mean Max's father!"
"That's horrible… he put his own daughter in the school and then whisked her away just to abandon her again."
"Phoenix, how do you know this is even true? We both know that the school specializes in manipulation."
000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000
MAX P.O.V
"Fang! We're here!" I squeezed Fang's hand.
We had landed about an hour ago and began walking through a complex until we reached the end of the city. As far as we can see, there was dusty, brown desert. Most people wouldn't be able to see anything but with our vision, we could make out the camouflaged outline of the school. Half of it was above ground and half was under. It was dusty brown like the desert.
"Lets go, Lets go, Lets go!" Gazzy was jumping up and down.
"In a minute Gazzy." Fang brought him closer. "We have to think of a plan first."
I spoke up. "Okay guys… Every year, they have internships Nudge hacked the front system and added our names to the list. They should let us in at the beginning. Here I printed these badges out on our last stop. When we get in, Angel, I want you to make the receptionist look for Phoenix's name and what room she's in. Got it?"
Everyone nodded. Then, Fang spoke up. "We can do this okay?" He put his hand in and smiled at me.
"Flock!" We all silently yelled and looked around to make sure we were alone. We flew up into the air and surveyed the area.
"There's a security camera on the roof! It's pointing the other way but it'll rotate!" Angel yelled.
"Land!" I immediately aimed to the ground. We made it before the camera turned around. We started walking to the entrance of the school.
"Never thought I'd have to come back so soon." Fern shuddered.
"We got this Fern." Nudge hugged Fern. "Think of Phoenix."
We reached he entrance and the two security guards were already on alert.
"We're interns." I smiled at them. "Our names are on the list." They looked on their wrist and a watch like structure was imbedded into the surface. They were cyborg hybrids.
"Access granted." The security guards spoke in a monotone voice and separated, revealing the door.
Once we were inside, we walked down the hallway looking as casually as possible. We looked around. This looked like a normal hospital? Was this the school's disguise? We walked around until we saw a hallway was relatively dark and grungy looking. Bingo.
"Over here guys." I mentioned everyone to follow me. We finally reached a door that led underground.
"Hey! Stop! This is restricted area!" A whitecoat was running behind us. Fern turned around and kicked her in the chin. She fell to the floor and hit her head hard.
"Nice one, Fern." Then I realized she was almost dead but she had to alert everyone in the building before she died. The security alarm went off. "Come on! We have to hurry!"
I ran through the door and grunted as I pushed a heavy metal door. We burst through it and ran down the hallway. We were officially in the school Ah the sweet scent of antiseptic and blood.
"Haha look who we have here." There were erasers lining the walls. "A birdie and her flock… Never thought I'd see you ever Max."
I gasped. "Ari." I caught my breath. "I thought you were dead."
"Well clearly, I'm not." He smirked. "Oh come on, I thought you'd be a little happier…"
"Well clearly, I'm not." I ran forward and punched him in the face. The rest of my flock was already fighting the erasers throughout the hallway. Ari kicked me in the chest and I fell on the floor. He pressed his weight against me but I fought. I tried to lift in above me. Then, Fang pulled him up and kicked him in the back so he fell face down. I quickly got up and helped Fang finish off Ari. I went to the next eraser and we went down the hallway until we reached the door.
We opened the door and a wave of cold air blasted us. I looked around. It was extremely dim and it was another set of hallways. Except this time, the rooms were numbered and some were padlocked. Suddenly, we heard banging coming from a room at the end of the hallway.
"Phoenix!" I yelled. "Is that you?" I could sense that she was here.
The banging got more frantic and I could hear muffled voices. We ran down the hallway towards the sound. The door was protected extremely well with professional and hi tech technology. Lucky, we have a pretty high tech item our selves- Nudge. With in a minute, the security precautions were off.
"Over there! Get them!" A whitecoat was pointing to us as a sea of erasers were running towards us.
We rushed into the room and prayed that Phoenix was there and there was an opening to get out. "Phoenix?!"
"Mommy!" I heard Phoenix crying. "Help me! I can't get out!"
"Phoenix!" Fern and Fang ran over to her as Nudge was desperately undoing the locks. I was trying to look for a way out. There was concrete above but I saw a slip of light through a crack. There was light above here.
"Gazzy, Iggy, Fire it up!" Their eyes lit with excitement as they fumbled with the bombs in their pockets.
Nudge had opened the lock and Phoenix was climbing out.
She ran to me. "Mommy, you have to get Neona out… you have to!" She was pointing to another cage. Inside the cage was another kid. Who looked exactly like Phoenix… she was huddled in the corner looking at us with amazement.
"I- I don't…" I looked at Phoenix. "- Who are you?"
She spoke with the calmest voice. "Phoenix can explain, but the erasers are coming now. You should go."
"…uh Max" Gazzy whined.
"Okay fine- come on Nudge, open it!" She fumbled with the lock. The erasers were coming. Fang had closed the door and moved a bunch of cages against it to stall them.
Gazzy pleaded. "…Maxxx.."
"What!" I whipped around.
"The bomb is gonna go off!"
"Crap." I muttered. "Everyone down!" Just as the bomb went off, the other girl jumped out of her cage and was thrown to the ground.
Tiny pieces came crumbling down as light poured in.
"Are you okay?" I helped her to her feet as the erasers were pounding on the door. The door was starting to open.
"Come on! Lets go!" Fang carried Phoenix in his arms. He made sure I was okay and he burst through the opening.
I carried the other girl and allowed the rest of the flock to go through. Just as I was getting ready to fly through he opening, something caught my ankle.
"Got you birdie." Crap.
I shook my ankle and held the girl tight in my arms. The girl's eyes glowed and she glared at the erasers. Slowly, he turned white.
"Neo—na… you'll pay for this." He coughed and sputtered up blood. Soon, he turned so pale that he froze and fell unconscious. The other erasers behind him backed away in fear.
As soon as he loosened his grip on my, I shot through the opening. I soared through the ceiling and into the sky to meet my flock. As I was flying, I noticed… Neona? Squirming.
"You can let me go now. I have wings."
"Oh… um okay.." I steadied her in my arms as she opened her wings. They were completely black except for the white wings. Exactly like Phoenix's. She let me loosen my grip before falling to the ground.
She laughed gleefully and arched upwards above me. She slowed herself to wait for me. Her eyes glowed with excitement. "This is amazing!"
"Who are you?"
She smiled. "I'm your daughter…. You're my mom and this is now my family."
000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000
REVIEW and give me suggestions!