Hi, well this should be my final chapter, I didn't really like the one
before this, it wasn't very well thought out, so if you didn't like it
that's okay. I'm quite excited about he final chapter it's so long as well,
I didn't realise when I started to write this chapter how long it would be.
Enjoy. (
Tick, tock, tick tock, all Max can hear is the sound of her watch ticking near her ear. After driving off from the store, Max had headed for a rundown building near by, having had some food, she was now trying to get some sleep, so she could feel refreshed for what lay ahead.
'Dammit, Max where are you.' Alec was pacing on the floor in Logans apartment, he had come back after going round to Original Cindy's and Max's apartment, he had thought or hoped that Max would for some reason come back to Logan's apartment, but no luck. Now though he was getting worried, he knew she wasn't in the sanest mind after the death of Logan, so he was worried what she might get up too.
Brrring, brrring 'Hello?' Alec answered anxiously
'Oh, its you, no I haven't heard from her I...'
'I did think, but I though she might need some time alone.'
'Okay, I see, I know that, but....urgh I'll be round in ten.' He slammed down the phone frustrated.
'Stupid, stupid girl, where is she.' He grabbed his jacket and a muffin from the fridge and went out to Original Cindys.
'Showtime' whispered Max, she could just make out the title from the neon sign of Guns n Stuff from the hill on which she was parked, having made sure the owner had locked up, she put on her helmet, turned the ignition on and sped down the hill. Parking near down an alley next to the store, she skimmed the metal fence and then pulled the wires from the use box making sure no alarms would o off once she broke in. Finding a side window, she smashed it. Wincing slightly as the glass cut into her knuckles.
Into the store, she removed the keys from her bra, -safest place she'd learnt to hide anything- went around to the metal cabinet.
'Ah, big boys toys, are they cute.' Unlocking the padlock, she removed the chain and scanned the cabinet, picking the most effective and dangerous, she got the state of the art gun/flame torcher, a few handguns, and the necessary bullets. She did see a whole section with stakes and crossbows.
'Doubt I'm gonna need them, but Buffy would be in heaven here.' Chuckling to herself.
Grabbing a few extra things from around the store, she then climbed back out through the window. Putting the weapons in a bag she'd hidden on the grounds, tied it to herself, she managed to get over the fence and drove off to, as she liked to call it destination zero. Crow, Logan with her in spirit.
'Has she contacted you, since last night in the letter?'
'No, how many times do I have to tell you I do not know where she is, I'm not her mother.'
'Well you seem to be hovering around her enough to know where she is all the time, you got the hots for her or something?'
'No, I, well, I, I just care about her okay, she's like family.'
Alec, and Original Cindy sat in silence.
'So what are we gonna do, you were her best friend, her roomie, shouldn't you share some bond that you read about?'
'I thought you were 'family', you should be the one who can contact her telepathically or whatever.'
'Urgh, just shut up, we're never gonna find her, bickering like this, show me the letter.'
'What.'
'The letter that she left, to see if we can find anything out.'
'Fine.'
Reading over the letter, they figure that, she must what some kind of payback towards manticore, for implanting the virus in her.
After what seemed like forever trying to figure out where Max was, they decided to turn on the t.v, to see if there had been any disruptions, maybe linking it to Max.
'Thanks Chad, for that chilling news report about killer badgers on the loose. Now onto a break in at a store, Guns 'n' stuff, It seems sometime round about midnight, Someone broke in, and stole weapons, which could cause mass destruction if used all altogether, we have only one piece of evidence at the moment to the culprit, a CCTV camera.
Shows a clip from the camera of someone pulling a moony, then smashing the camera.
Turning the t.v off, Original asks if Alec thinks its Max.
'Well I know Max, and when she pulls a stunt, she likes to do it with style, and I'm gonna say that's her doing it with style.' Laughs Alec.
'Come on then, we've got to go, find her before she does something stupid.'
Still laughing to himself, Alec grabs his jacket and they head out.
'Dum, dum, derda, dum, dum, derda, dum, dum, derda derrr, derda derrr.'
Humming the mission impossible theme tune to herself Max speed along the highway, looking at her watch she realised it was nearly 2am, she'd been at it for nearly a whole day now, thinking of plan, then putting it into action.
'I wonder what Alec is doing.' She thought, 'OMG, Alec, he must be paranoid, going psycho, especially after the other night, urgh, why do I rush into things and then immediately regret them. He's a big boy now, he can deal, although he's probably going psycho wondering where I am. Probably thinks he can contact me telepathically after all we've been through, yeah right.'
With that thought she put him out of her mind, better to ignore it than so she could concentrate on what her aim was, and also she didn't feel as guilty that way.
'Where are we going, do you know where she is, aren't you gonna say anything?'
'Stop moaning, I don't know where she is, I'm thinking she's gonna head to where they had her locked up-manticore-, and she's gonna do something big, seeing as if that was her who stole those weapons from the store, then I'd say there's gonna be fireworks tonight.'
'Okay, so how far away is it, do we have to walk?'
'No, were gonna take this car.' Alec says this while breaking open the car door.
'Hop in.'
'No, I mean, you can't just, -feeling helpless she just replied- I'm coming.'
Home sweet home, Max murmured to herself. She was just outside the gates of Manticore, grabbing her bag of tricks as she called them, she dumped the motorbike and ran around to the side fence. If I'm right, when I get over to the other side, there should be a guard a few metres in front of where I land, I can take him out and make a run for the nearest cover.
Jumping off the top of the fence, Max crept up to the guard and cracked his neck with her foot, by kicking in the back of his neck. Grabbing his gun as he fell, she headed towards the nearest tree. Scanning her options of ways to get in she decided to walk up to the front entrance, because there will probably be more guards round the back. Taking a step, she heard a noise from above, looking up she saw a crow, flying above her, almost in-sync with her every move.
'I guess Logan was right with the crow theory.'
This gave her a boost of confidence knowing that Logan was watching her and with her in spirit, if only In the form of a crow.
Running up to the entrance she quickly took out the few guards that were there, once inside the doors she decided in her head her quick plan of action. Take out anyone who is in the way. Simple really. Heading towards the basement, she walked quickly but quietly down the stairs, hearing a commotion from the floor above, probably about the dead guards she thought, she moved more quickly.
Footsteps came pounding uo the stairs below her, aiming her gun she ran down to meet them and began shooting, blood started to spurt everywhere, bits of flesh thrown threw the air. Max kept kicking and moving, a sudden blow to her arm, caused her to stop and look at her right arm, seeing blood pouring out of a bullet wound, she bit her lip, and spit out blood mixed with saliva. Seething she rammed her gun into the guy who had shot her, drowning out the pain with curses and screams she rammed it into him, causing his jaw and part of his nose to break. Falling to the floor she muttered under her breath, 'That'll teach you to mess with this bitch.'
Hurrying faster now, and cursing herself because of getting shot she finally reached the basement with no more confrontations.
Cutting off the engine, Alec and Original got out the car. Pointing to the guard at the main gates Alec said.
'What I want you to do is act like you are lost, pretend you actually like guys for now, flirt with him, do whatever you can so that I can get in.'
'You're just gonna leave ,what am supposed to do once you're in, how..'
'When you're done I want you to get back in the car and stay in there until I come out, got me?' Alec cut in.
'I, But..'
'No buts, you do as I say okay?'
'Okay.'
'Hi, urm, where am I, I was meant to be going to visit my friend, but I seemed to have lost my way.' Grabbing the map from behind her that Alec had given her, she bent down to put it on the floor, showing the guard some skin.
'Why, sure I'll help you missy, where is that you want to get to?'
'Well I'm not that sure...what's your name?'
'Wes'
'Wes, I mean I thought she said it was on the west side but obviously not, I mean..' -looking up at him, battering her eyelashes she stroked her finger along his arm- 'where do you live, she said she was like the only girl in her apartment, so maybe you know her.'
Leaving them to continue Alec quickly went through the gates, running up to the first guard, he punched him from behind, knocking him to the ground, grabbing his identity tag, Alec gave the guard a few more swift kicks which would leave him alive, barley.
Max finally reached the doors where she had been kept, while they had done various tests to her. Setting down her bag, she set up fuses around the outside of the door, lighting them she hid and waited for them to blow.
Kaboom
A big explosion shook the ground Alec was running on, dashing inside the building he saw men and women heading towards the stairs, going with instinct he guessed Max was downstairs.
Outside the gates, Original Cindy was just finishing talking to the guard when the ground shook beneath them.
'Urm, excuse me miss, I have to go and...' Answering messages that came in on his radio, he told her which way to go and ran towards the building.
'Be sure to phone me.' Original shouted after him. 'Loser.'
Opening the car door, she got inside and waited.
Through the smoke Max could see people lying on the floor through the exploded door, taking a chance she strode into the room with her gun cocked, and ready. Not meeting any unwounded people she carried on through until she could find who she was looking for.
Passing through doors, looking straight ahead, and shooting anyone who dared to speak to her, she kept moving until she got to the door she wanted, pausing, she then kicked open the door and waited.
A man looked up from a table with a person on, 'Excuse me, but you're.' Stopping dead when he saw who it was.
'Miss me?' came Max's response. 'I bet the next time you thought you would see me was at my own funeral, guess again. Do you wanna know why I am here, no, I'm not gonna let you answer that because I think you already know.' 'Don't take another step.' Max commanded. Aiming her gun at the man at the table, she turned towards the door she'd came through, there were guards all around the door aiming at her.
'Don't even think you will be able to shoot me, once you step in this room, even one inch, your heads will be blown from off your little bodies, oh no, not by me, but by these guys.'
Pointing to a group of maticore's prisoners who had started to form a small group in the room, Max told them to each get a gun or a suitable weapon out from her bag, and stand infront of the door. Doing as they were told, basically because they were frightened, they armed themselves and stood facing the guards and most likely death. But what was death compared to a place like this.
'So I will continue what I was saying to the doctor here before you so rudely interrupted. Yeah I guess I did what I was told this time round, I did what you thought, I went running straight into Logan's arms, do you want me to fill you in with how he died, how I killed him, huh?' Max was starting to break down now. We started to kiss, it was meant to be a romantic evening, as you can guess, was it when I touched him, or when our lips met that I started to murder him. No don't interrupt I don't want you to forget a thing. He started to choke and shake, I thought he was having a fit, I was terrified, he was my life. He struggled, I thought he was fooling around, he finally died about 20 minutes later, but not before telling me that he loved me. Yes that's right loved me, I bet no-one in this place thought that any human could love a mutant, but you were wrong he did, he was the kindest, funniest, annoying, lovely human that I ever met, and you know what he thought that about me too, apart from the being human part. But you, you took that away, you killed my life, my reason for escaping, now nothing is worth it, nothing.
Looking away, overcome with emotion, Max spat at the doctor at the table, grabbed a knife from her boot and stabbed him.
'Not even killing you is gonna bring him back, you are not even half of what he is, was.'
Alec had arrived at the door behind the guards, as Max was finishing, feeling guilty at not being more of a friend to her after Logan's death, he ran forward to the front where the prisoners were being held.
'Max, I'm so sorry, I didn't know how much..'
'Yeah well everyone's sorry, you're sorry, he's sorry he even met me, I'm sorry for even existing. You got here a bit late though.'
'I.' At a loss for once of what to say he just stood there feeling helpless.
'So now the ending is nigh, isn't that off some poem. Nevermind, everyone is gone, everyone who I cared about, I'm as good as gone now.'
With that she grabbed Max and pulled him into the room, kissing him, she pulled back, and said, 'There's your goodbye kiss, I know you meant well, you always do, I love you and if you are really sorry you will do me this one thing.'
Handing him a gun she told Alec to shoot her. Staring down at the gun, he couldn't bring himself to do it, frustrated, she grabbed his arm with the gun in, and placed it over her breast.
Crying now, 'I want you to shoot me there, in my heart, because its as good as dead now. Do it please.' Begging and crying Max shouted at the group of prisoners to start fighting, thinking that this would take the pressure off Alec, so now that there was no-one watching.
'Max, I, I can't, I , you're my friend, I, I, love you.'
'No, just do it, I can't stay in this world anymore, I want to go, now please do it.
Turning his face away he started to cry, realising that nothing would change her mind he fired. Hearing a gasp from her, he turned around and knelt down next to the lifeless form that was Max. Pulling Max's deformed face close to him he began to cry.
When everything had gone quiet, he looked up, realising everyone had gone picking up Max and began making his way out of the building.
A few weeks later Alec and Original were standing under a tree infront of two gravestones. After coming to terms with what happened they had finally been able to arrange a quiet funeral.
The only two people left at the cemetery, they began to walk away when a noise made them turn around. On one of the gravestones were two crows, sitting next to each other, noticing they were being watched, they crowed, then flew away into the sunlight.
Tick, tock, tick tock, all Max can hear is the sound of her watch ticking near her ear. After driving off from the store, Max had headed for a rundown building near by, having had some food, she was now trying to get some sleep, so she could feel refreshed for what lay ahead.
'Dammit, Max where are you.' Alec was pacing on the floor in Logans apartment, he had come back after going round to Original Cindy's and Max's apartment, he had thought or hoped that Max would for some reason come back to Logan's apartment, but no luck. Now though he was getting worried, he knew she wasn't in the sanest mind after the death of Logan, so he was worried what she might get up too.
Brrring, brrring 'Hello?' Alec answered anxiously
'Oh, its you, no I haven't heard from her I...'
'I did think, but I though she might need some time alone.'
'Okay, I see, I know that, but....urgh I'll be round in ten.' He slammed down the phone frustrated.
'Stupid, stupid girl, where is she.' He grabbed his jacket and a muffin from the fridge and went out to Original Cindys.
'Showtime' whispered Max, she could just make out the title from the neon sign of Guns n Stuff from the hill on which she was parked, having made sure the owner had locked up, she put on her helmet, turned the ignition on and sped down the hill. Parking near down an alley next to the store, she skimmed the metal fence and then pulled the wires from the use box making sure no alarms would o off once she broke in. Finding a side window, she smashed it. Wincing slightly as the glass cut into her knuckles.
Into the store, she removed the keys from her bra, -safest place she'd learnt to hide anything- went around to the metal cabinet.
'Ah, big boys toys, are they cute.' Unlocking the padlock, she removed the chain and scanned the cabinet, picking the most effective and dangerous, she got the state of the art gun/flame torcher, a few handguns, and the necessary bullets. She did see a whole section with stakes and crossbows.
'Doubt I'm gonna need them, but Buffy would be in heaven here.' Chuckling to herself.
Grabbing a few extra things from around the store, she then climbed back out through the window. Putting the weapons in a bag she'd hidden on the grounds, tied it to herself, she managed to get over the fence and drove off to, as she liked to call it destination zero. Crow, Logan with her in spirit.
'Has she contacted you, since last night in the letter?'
'No, how many times do I have to tell you I do not know where she is, I'm not her mother.'
'Well you seem to be hovering around her enough to know where she is all the time, you got the hots for her or something?'
'No, I, well, I, I just care about her okay, she's like family.'
Alec, and Original Cindy sat in silence.
'So what are we gonna do, you were her best friend, her roomie, shouldn't you share some bond that you read about?'
'I thought you were 'family', you should be the one who can contact her telepathically or whatever.'
'Urgh, just shut up, we're never gonna find her, bickering like this, show me the letter.'
'What.'
'The letter that she left, to see if we can find anything out.'
'Fine.'
Reading over the letter, they figure that, she must what some kind of payback towards manticore, for implanting the virus in her.
After what seemed like forever trying to figure out where Max was, they decided to turn on the t.v, to see if there had been any disruptions, maybe linking it to Max.
'Thanks Chad, for that chilling news report about killer badgers on the loose. Now onto a break in at a store, Guns 'n' stuff, It seems sometime round about midnight, Someone broke in, and stole weapons, which could cause mass destruction if used all altogether, we have only one piece of evidence at the moment to the culprit, a CCTV camera.
Shows a clip from the camera of someone pulling a moony, then smashing the camera.
Turning the t.v off, Original asks if Alec thinks its Max.
'Well I know Max, and when she pulls a stunt, she likes to do it with style, and I'm gonna say that's her doing it with style.' Laughs Alec.
'Come on then, we've got to go, find her before she does something stupid.'
Still laughing to himself, Alec grabs his jacket and they head out.
'Dum, dum, derda, dum, dum, derda, dum, dum, derda derrr, derda derrr.'
Humming the mission impossible theme tune to herself Max speed along the highway, looking at her watch she realised it was nearly 2am, she'd been at it for nearly a whole day now, thinking of plan, then putting it into action.
'I wonder what Alec is doing.' She thought, 'OMG, Alec, he must be paranoid, going psycho, especially after the other night, urgh, why do I rush into things and then immediately regret them. He's a big boy now, he can deal, although he's probably going psycho wondering where I am. Probably thinks he can contact me telepathically after all we've been through, yeah right.'
With that thought she put him out of her mind, better to ignore it than so she could concentrate on what her aim was, and also she didn't feel as guilty that way.
'Where are we going, do you know where she is, aren't you gonna say anything?'
'Stop moaning, I don't know where she is, I'm thinking she's gonna head to where they had her locked up-manticore-, and she's gonna do something big, seeing as if that was her who stole those weapons from the store, then I'd say there's gonna be fireworks tonight.'
'Okay, so how far away is it, do we have to walk?'
'No, were gonna take this car.' Alec says this while breaking open the car door.
'Hop in.'
'No, I mean, you can't just, -feeling helpless she just replied- I'm coming.'
Home sweet home, Max murmured to herself. She was just outside the gates of Manticore, grabbing her bag of tricks as she called them, she dumped the motorbike and ran around to the side fence. If I'm right, when I get over to the other side, there should be a guard a few metres in front of where I land, I can take him out and make a run for the nearest cover.
Jumping off the top of the fence, Max crept up to the guard and cracked his neck with her foot, by kicking in the back of his neck. Grabbing his gun as he fell, she headed towards the nearest tree. Scanning her options of ways to get in she decided to walk up to the front entrance, because there will probably be more guards round the back. Taking a step, she heard a noise from above, looking up she saw a crow, flying above her, almost in-sync with her every move.
'I guess Logan was right with the crow theory.'
This gave her a boost of confidence knowing that Logan was watching her and with her in spirit, if only In the form of a crow.
Running up to the entrance she quickly took out the few guards that were there, once inside the doors she decided in her head her quick plan of action. Take out anyone who is in the way. Simple really. Heading towards the basement, she walked quickly but quietly down the stairs, hearing a commotion from the floor above, probably about the dead guards she thought, she moved more quickly.
Footsteps came pounding uo the stairs below her, aiming her gun she ran down to meet them and began shooting, blood started to spurt everywhere, bits of flesh thrown threw the air. Max kept kicking and moving, a sudden blow to her arm, caused her to stop and look at her right arm, seeing blood pouring out of a bullet wound, she bit her lip, and spit out blood mixed with saliva. Seething she rammed her gun into the guy who had shot her, drowning out the pain with curses and screams she rammed it into him, causing his jaw and part of his nose to break. Falling to the floor she muttered under her breath, 'That'll teach you to mess with this bitch.'
Hurrying faster now, and cursing herself because of getting shot she finally reached the basement with no more confrontations.
Cutting off the engine, Alec and Original got out the car. Pointing to the guard at the main gates Alec said.
'What I want you to do is act like you are lost, pretend you actually like guys for now, flirt with him, do whatever you can so that I can get in.'
'You're just gonna leave ,what am supposed to do once you're in, how..'
'When you're done I want you to get back in the car and stay in there until I come out, got me?' Alec cut in.
'I, But..'
'No buts, you do as I say okay?'
'Okay.'
'Hi, urm, where am I, I was meant to be going to visit my friend, but I seemed to have lost my way.' Grabbing the map from behind her that Alec had given her, she bent down to put it on the floor, showing the guard some skin.
'Why, sure I'll help you missy, where is that you want to get to?'
'Well I'm not that sure...what's your name?'
'Wes'
'Wes, I mean I thought she said it was on the west side but obviously not, I mean..' -looking up at him, battering her eyelashes she stroked her finger along his arm- 'where do you live, she said she was like the only girl in her apartment, so maybe you know her.'
Leaving them to continue Alec quickly went through the gates, running up to the first guard, he punched him from behind, knocking him to the ground, grabbing his identity tag, Alec gave the guard a few more swift kicks which would leave him alive, barley.
Max finally reached the doors where she had been kept, while they had done various tests to her. Setting down her bag, she set up fuses around the outside of the door, lighting them she hid and waited for them to blow.
Kaboom
A big explosion shook the ground Alec was running on, dashing inside the building he saw men and women heading towards the stairs, going with instinct he guessed Max was downstairs.
Outside the gates, Original Cindy was just finishing talking to the guard when the ground shook beneath them.
'Urm, excuse me miss, I have to go and...' Answering messages that came in on his radio, he told her which way to go and ran towards the building.
'Be sure to phone me.' Original shouted after him. 'Loser.'
Opening the car door, she got inside and waited.
Through the smoke Max could see people lying on the floor through the exploded door, taking a chance she strode into the room with her gun cocked, and ready. Not meeting any unwounded people she carried on through until she could find who she was looking for.
Passing through doors, looking straight ahead, and shooting anyone who dared to speak to her, she kept moving until she got to the door she wanted, pausing, she then kicked open the door and waited.
A man looked up from a table with a person on, 'Excuse me, but you're.' Stopping dead when he saw who it was.
'Miss me?' came Max's response. 'I bet the next time you thought you would see me was at my own funeral, guess again. Do you wanna know why I am here, no, I'm not gonna let you answer that because I think you already know.' 'Don't take another step.' Max commanded. Aiming her gun at the man at the table, she turned towards the door she'd came through, there were guards all around the door aiming at her.
'Don't even think you will be able to shoot me, once you step in this room, even one inch, your heads will be blown from off your little bodies, oh no, not by me, but by these guys.'
Pointing to a group of maticore's prisoners who had started to form a small group in the room, Max told them to each get a gun or a suitable weapon out from her bag, and stand infront of the door. Doing as they were told, basically because they were frightened, they armed themselves and stood facing the guards and most likely death. But what was death compared to a place like this.
'So I will continue what I was saying to the doctor here before you so rudely interrupted. Yeah I guess I did what I was told this time round, I did what you thought, I went running straight into Logan's arms, do you want me to fill you in with how he died, how I killed him, huh?' Max was starting to break down now. We started to kiss, it was meant to be a romantic evening, as you can guess, was it when I touched him, or when our lips met that I started to murder him. No don't interrupt I don't want you to forget a thing. He started to choke and shake, I thought he was having a fit, I was terrified, he was my life. He struggled, I thought he was fooling around, he finally died about 20 minutes later, but not before telling me that he loved me. Yes that's right loved me, I bet no-one in this place thought that any human could love a mutant, but you were wrong he did, he was the kindest, funniest, annoying, lovely human that I ever met, and you know what he thought that about me too, apart from the being human part. But you, you took that away, you killed my life, my reason for escaping, now nothing is worth it, nothing.
Looking away, overcome with emotion, Max spat at the doctor at the table, grabbed a knife from her boot and stabbed him.
'Not even killing you is gonna bring him back, you are not even half of what he is, was.'
Alec had arrived at the door behind the guards, as Max was finishing, feeling guilty at not being more of a friend to her after Logan's death, he ran forward to the front where the prisoners were being held.
'Max, I'm so sorry, I didn't know how much..'
'Yeah well everyone's sorry, you're sorry, he's sorry he even met me, I'm sorry for even existing. You got here a bit late though.'
'I.' At a loss for once of what to say he just stood there feeling helpless.
'So now the ending is nigh, isn't that off some poem. Nevermind, everyone is gone, everyone who I cared about, I'm as good as gone now.'
With that she grabbed Max and pulled him into the room, kissing him, she pulled back, and said, 'There's your goodbye kiss, I know you meant well, you always do, I love you and if you are really sorry you will do me this one thing.'
Handing him a gun she told Alec to shoot her. Staring down at the gun, he couldn't bring himself to do it, frustrated, she grabbed his arm with the gun in, and placed it over her breast.
Crying now, 'I want you to shoot me there, in my heart, because its as good as dead now. Do it please.' Begging and crying Max shouted at the group of prisoners to start fighting, thinking that this would take the pressure off Alec, so now that there was no-one watching.
'Max, I, I can't, I , you're my friend, I, I, love you.'
'No, just do it, I can't stay in this world anymore, I want to go, now please do it.
Turning his face away he started to cry, realising that nothing would change her mind he fired. Hearing a gasp from her, he turned around and knelt down next to the lifeless form that was Max. Pulling Max's deformed face close to him he began to cry.
When everything had gone quiet, he looked up, realising everyone had gone picking up Max and began making his way out of the building.
A few weeks later Alec and Original were standing under a tree infront of two gravestones. After coming to terms with what happened they had finally been able to arrange a quiet funeral.
The only two people left at the cemetery, they began to walk away when a noise made them turn around. On one of the gravestones were two crows, sitting next to each other, noticing they were being watched, they crowed, then flew away into the sunlight.