Disclaimer: If you haven't cought on allready, most of the characters in my story are not my creation, so they do not belong to me.

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Chapter 3

Max seemed to be herself again the next day. Icarus could still feel tenseness in her voice though, as if she was fighting to constrain something within her.

"Come on, Max, we're going to be late!" Wendy exclaimed from the front porch.

"I'm coming, and you're not going to be late." Max flew the last few yards out the door and off to the west, towards their new school.

Technically they went to two schools. Peter and Wendy attended an elementary school only a few blocks from the junior high school where Matt, Max and Icarus went.

After dropping the twins off at their school the others barely made it into the rooms before the first bell. The first five periods ran along fairly normally and with surprising speed.

When she walked toward her sixth period class, Max saw a large crowd at the end of the hallway. Everyone seemed to be looking at something out of the window that was there. Max immediately had an ominous feeling about the situation.

She pushed and shoved and did anything to get in front of the crowd. What she saw there horrified her. After all, Max and the others had thought the serious persecution was behind them.

Icarus was down in the yard in front of the school. Around him were four boys. They circled around him, throwing out taunts and sticks, confusing the poor blind boy.

"Oh, Ic..." Max hurried down the stairs as fast as her wings would carry her.

The incident had caught the attention of another in the crowd. A ten year old boy looked on from the side of the school with disgust. He may have been ten, but his eyes betrayed a further wisdom. His eyes were the eyes of he who had been wronged, and this young man certainly had been wronged.

"Pah, look at these humans," He practically spat out the word 'humans', "They wont even admit their own inferiority, they have to hunt in packs."

Nick ran from the shadows with lightening quickness, passing on his way those he hated the most. These are the people who hung back, afraid to be caught in any particular group. Why live if you don't know what you live for?

Than past those who would shout out the obscenities and the occasional catcalls, but never to throw the first stone. These people he pitied, always waiting for a leader to save them and show them exactly what to do.

Nick threw all of his might into that first punch; the leader (or at least the biggest and the stupidest) was bent in half and thrown back several feet. He would not be getting up. The rest didn't fare much better. In the end only one was able to walk away still conscious.

By the time Max had made it out the front door it was all over. Matt had arrived on the front steps just after Max.

"Max? What happened, Max?" Matt was confused, he too had seen Icarus in trouble and gone to his aide, only to find that it wasn't needed.

"I don't know, but I'm going to find out." Max headed towards Icarus and Nick.

Icarus was curled up in a fetal position on the dirt. Nick knelt and placed a hand on his shoulder. Together they were able to stand up and give Max a good look at what the kids did to him.

"Don't you dare hurt him!" Max yelled as she rushed Nick.

Nick swiftly turned to avoid Max and with one hand grabbed her arm and held her close. Max cried out more in frustration than in pain. He did all of this without letting Icarus fall or even stumble.

"Don't hurt her!" Icarus managed to get out before Nick dropped her and left her kneeling in the dirt.

Nick passed Icarus off to Matthew who began to address his wounds. Meanwhile Max began to twirl a feather Icarus had dropped between her fingers when Nick came and sat beside her.

"I understand your frustration but I am not your enemy at the moment." Nick said, thinking that it might bring a small bit of comfort.

"I don't even know who you are." Max remarked.

"Well, my name is Nicholas. My father...you must come with me, there is someone you should meet." Max noted the way his voice changed when Nick said 'father'.

"I'm not going anywhere with you, neither is Matt or Ic." Max looked at him with a rage in her face.

Nick thought that at that moment Max was perhaps the most beautiful creature he had ever seen.

"I can force you." It was true; Nick did hold that particular threat over her head.

"Where" Max demanded.

"Far away, only Icarus need come, but the rest of you are invited as well." Nick stood up and turned away "I will wait for you after your classes; your youngest friends have already been told that they will have to fly home tonight."

"Who, have you gone near them? If you lay one hand on either of them I will kill you!" Max was up again and in fighting position.

"Kill me? You aren't very good at making threats are you?" Nick laughed at her silence "Someone they know told them. Someone little Wendy's seen before."