Disclaimer: Max, et all are not my property, and so I cannot claim that they are my origional ideas.
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Chapter 4
Max would never have believed that she would find herself flying over Nick as he weaved his way through the woods, sometimes leaping into the trees to jump over rocky outcroppings or small streams.
There was almost no conversation in the air. Max had only said they had to follow Nick somewhere, she hadn't specified, and the most frightful thing of all was that they had blindly agreed. Their only concern was Peter, Wendy and Frannie.
They flew for about an hour before touching down in a small clearing in the woods. It was a very quiet field, very serene Max thought.
"So where's this guy you wanted us to meet?" Max said
Nick didn't turn toward her to acknowledge Max's remark, but soon replied with his own remark
"Soon enough" is all he had to say.
They waited an hour while Nick paced angrily back and forth. "Who are you?" Max demanded once again.
"I'm no one to be trifle with, now calm down. He'll be here soon." Nick seemed to be getting impatient.
"Jeez, what is wrong with you" Matt was obviously impatient himself.
"You...you people are what's wrong with me. You and your perfect lives, such perfect creations you turned out to be. While we, the trash, were proverbially 'taken out'"
Max realized what she should have seen a long time ago. The slightly disproportionate arms, a large midsection, the thick long nails on his fingers. He must have been genetically engineered as well!
"You. You were made in a lab too, weren't you?" Max looked at Nick in a whole new light now and realized why she hadn't been so reluctant to follow him.
"No. But my father was." Nick sneered at Max while he spoke.
"Well, um, hello?" A large hulking figure seemed to appear behind them, this could be the only explanation since their keen sense of hearing would have picked up anyone approaching.
The figure seemed to be made up of many layers of thick ragged overcoats. These made his tall figure look large and menacing, coupled with a scarred face and rough calloused hand (complete with claws) he made a very intimidating site to behold.
Perhaps this is the reason for the immediate instinct to flee. The children tried to take off but in their rush they forgot to help Icarus. The tall disfigured man had him. When Max and Matt realized this they fought their instincts to land and retrieve Icarus.
"I'm sorry I have to do this, but Icarus belongs with me." The large man spread his giant leather wings and took off still holding Icarus.
Matt and Max gave chase but the demon creature was fast. Faster than fast. He must have been going over a hundred miles an hour through the air and not breaking a sweat. He had amazing agility as well. Going full speed, he would turn corners that Max had to come to a stop to turn.
It isn't surprising that soon Matt and Max had lost track of their quarry. When they did eventually stop searching Max could still hear Ic's last plea for help. It rang in her head over and over again. Matt had to hold her in the air on the way back to the house.
At the lake house Frannie was frantic; she had thought about sending Peter and Wendy to search for the missing children but decided enough of them were gone already. She called the Police, the forest rangers; even got Kit to call some friends he had left in the FBI. Nothing had turned up yet.