Author's note: well, here i am with chapter three! A big thanx to my reviewers, Myrah (uhm...so maybe it's not as slight as i thought...?), coolbeanie (so glad you like it!), and EdwardAddict (I love my Fang! --hugs him tightly as he groans loudly-- mmmm...i heart chocolate...) for their votes of confidence. Again, there is a vast majority of readers not reviewing...but alas, I cannot force you, for I am guilty of the same crime...so I shall not yell and rant about it (because that would be hypocritical...and i hate hypocrites.) I can't believe that 130 people have checked out my story...making it my second most looked at story!) Okay, now i know you're all itching for me to continue...so I will...after my disclaimer. Fang?

--black haired teen grumbles loudly...then says something under his breath--

Fang: ...--mumble grumble--...

Lovie: ...What was that, Fang dear?

Fang: Lovie doesn't own Maximum Ride, the characters or even the plot line. James Patterson does. ...can I go yet?

Lovie: --claps hands-- That's the most he's ever said! YAY! --glomps Fang-clone-- THANK YOU EDWARDADDICT!

Random Quote #3

People ask me why I do this, why I write such gross stuff. I like to tell them I have the heart of a little boy-I like to keep it in a jar on my desk.

-Stephen King (All time fav. Author! ...then J.P w/M.R series...it's so close...)

Chapter 3: Things We Could Have Lived Without Doing, But Did Anyways.

Gazzy wanted to know if we had any money, and Max turned to me as if she were mentally asking me for permission to try the card we found-which she pulled out of her pocket-and asked me what I thought. We needed money, there was no avoiding that problem, and I told her so. I also said that we could easily be traced by it, and I knew that she wasn't sure if she wanted to take that risk...but the need to eat won out over being followed, and Max popped the thing into an ATM machine. Then another not farther down the street...and another...and another. All the passwords she tried were not the one we were looking for. Max tried again, obviously stumped and frustrated at her lack of success, when Angel suggested a thought.

"Why don't you try 'mother?'" she asked. Well, Max plugged it in, and it worked like a charm-making us two hundred dollars richer.

"How'd you know that?" I asked, and she shrugged.

"It just came to me."

"In a voice?" Max asked, and I knew what she was thinking. Her voice had somehow infiltrated Angel's mind, giving the six-year-old the password subconsciously. I know-sounds ludicrous-but stranger things have happened. But Angel shook her head no.

"It was just in my head. I don't know why."

Max and I looked at each other, both wondering what could have happened in the time before we rescued her. But there was no way of knowing, so we shrugged it off and kept walking. Several blocks later, there was the building we were in search of...but no Institute for Higher Living anywhere in sight. Max randomly asked about a basement, and the secretary got really defensive. She motioned the security guard over and everything. I was angry...we had gotten so close, but so not. This caused a Gasman explosion, which I must say is a very rare occurrence. It's kind of like me talking like Nudge for a day. It usually doesn't happen. Max, being the caring, oldest, rich bird girl we all know, offered to make it up to the little guy by taking him anywhere to eat. Yeah, that couldn't have gone any worse. He picked out 'The Garden Tavern,' which I knew that, as soon as I saw it, was going to be bad news. I don't really want to go into a large amount of detail into that fiasco, but I will say that I don't think that they'll be refusing any large orders here soon. It ended badly...very badly. Bouncers were brought in, cops were called, and we were forced to reveal our wings. But there were some good moments. Like when Max dumped the olive oil on 'Jason's' head...that was funny. People taking our pictures...wasn't so funny. The dumbfounded looks of astonishment on the humans' faces when they saw us flying around the restaurant, utterly hysterical...flying first through the skylight, not so much fun.

Max told me to head for the trees in Central Park again, so I did. Man, I will not lie to you, it felt soooo good to fly again. Walking is crappy when you have wings to carry around with you. I felt my mood rise slowly-which was surprising, considering how much we just revealed about ourselves-and decided to poke some fun at my oh-so-thoughtful leader...after we landed of course. Picking on her in the air is usually a dumb thing to do...especially when she's faster than you.

"You didn't think before you dumped the olive oil on that waiter, did you?" I asked, keeping my face straight. That is way hard, especially when she scowled at me...made me want to laugh even more. Yet my good mood plummeted the moment I realized our tree was surrounded by Erasers. ...And one just had to be Ari. Max and the wolf-boy fought a verbal fight-which Max won magnificently by the way-and Ari gave up some rather interesting information. When we left with Jeb, he was left behind...and the whitecoats experimented. They were probably trying to find a way to make a longer lasting creature. So they tested on a three year old boy. That's disgusting, despicable, and vile. It wasn't long before he resulted in treachery, pulling out Angel's bear from somewhere. The girl dropped down to some lower branch, and I knew what she was going to try and do.

"Stay put!" I called out, at the same time as someone else.

"Angel, no!" Max yelled out. Apparently, she knew too. But Angel ignored us both and jumped down in front of the boy who held her bear. The Erasers leaped forward, but Ari held them back with his arm. Max jumped down behind the girl, and again the Erasers jumped to again be held back. My body tensed, ready to join the girls if necessary. As soon as a single finger was lifted against my Max, I'd be down there taking heads. And I am dead serious on that front. Angel told Ari to put her bear down in a voice that i had never heard her use before. His other arm flew to his throat, and she told him again, in that same creepy voice. Ari dropped the bear and Angel, in the blink of an eye, had grabbed the bear and was back up in the tree by me. Max looked slightly startled for a moment, and the Erasers lunged at her. As I tensed to jump down, Ari said something about 'the director' wanting to see them. He threw one final insult in Max's direction, and she shot one back, then he left with the Erasers right behind him. Never again did I want to be anywhere near that many Erasers, and watch as they lunged at my Max and our Angel. Iggy was understandably upset, as were Gazzy and Nudge, but Max calmed them all down enough to get us to move to a new locale.

We left the tree and moved into the ninety story building that was still under construction. We were on the top floor, and it was all debris and sheet wall inside the outside walls. Nudge and Max went for groceries as soon as we were all somewhat settled; although I hated the fact that Max could have easily been snatched and carted off somewhere. But I let her go...my duty was to watch the flock in case something did happen to her. Yeah...right. More likely that we'd all fly off to rescue her and be reunited either with a successful rescue, or all be captured and be put back into cages. I would rather die than be put back in a cage, but I think that I'd prefer a cage to seeing Max get hurt. I can always escape from the cage.

Max and Nudge returned without any trouble, and we ate in silence for the most part. Not long after that, Iggy and I moved the sheet rock out of the way a little bit while Max and Gazzy cleaned up the debris. We had a pretty decent nest going on, and we all lay down to sleep; exhausted from the long day of failure and problems.

Quite surprisingly, Max was still out for the count when I woke up the next morning. Usually she's up at least ten to twenty minutes before I've even stirred. Iggy, Nudge, Gazzy, and Angel were all up within a couple of minutes after I was, but Max didn't even budge. Knowing she needed the sleep, I rounded us all up, and we went out to the store for breakfast items. While there, I noticed a very bad thing. There, on the front page of at least four papers, were fuzzy pictures of us. Headlines blared, and I instinctively made sure that we weren't recognized. I snagged the four papers and threw them with our stuff, knowing Max would just love this.(You caught the sarcasm there, right? Okay, just checking.) The clerk looked at us strangely, but didn't stop us or anything weird. So we flew back to our little safe house to await Max's awakening...and to eat of course.

Max finally stirred a couple of moments after we got back-not long after Gazzy and Iggy dove into the food. Boy was I ever right about Max loving us on the front page. She was way less than pleased...like saying she was mad could have been an understatement...not that she showed it. She blamed it on herself because she thought that she should have maybe tried to have discourage the Gasman a little bit more. But I guess that it's all wind under our wings now. (yes, I did mean that the way that you'll probably take it...Max is insisting upon these puns...) Nudge said something about disguises-which is actually very clever-but we had no way of getting anything. When nothing materialized by lunch, we went out as ourselves. Max had us stop at a deli for our meal, and was telling us that we needed to leave the city as soon as it got dark when some guy with a Mohawk pointed at us yelling "YOU!" Tell you what, that is pretty creepy when you've been chased by Erasers for the majority of your life, and your picture has just been plastered to a large number of papers in a very large city. I saw Nudge try and hide behind Max's back, who had dropped her pop, as I froze due to instincts. The only thoughts that were running through my head were 'Where are the exits? Is everyone able to get to one easily? Can I grab Max and Nudge at the same time? Will I be able to stall for time so that they can get away?'

"You guys are perfect!" he said, rather enthusiastic.

"Perfect for what?" I asked calmly while my brain thought of anyway for me to stall for time while Max and the others escaped. Not that she'd willingly leave me behind...she never did, no matter how I tried to tell her to go ahead without me. Meanwhile, the guy had pointed to a sign that read 'U-do: Tomorrow's styles today!'

"We're having a make-over fest! You guys can have total makeovers for free-as long as your stylist gets to do whatever he or she wants." ...this guy seemed a little too excited for this.

"Like what?" I heard Nudge ask. 'Oh man, she's gonna want to try this!' I thought. I really didn't want to get a make-over. I liked myself just the way I was...wings and all.

"Make-up, hairstyle, everything! ...except tattoos. We'd need a note from your parents."

"That's out," I heard Max mutter. I couldn't help but look at her in disbelief. Was she actually thinking of doing this!

"I want to do it!" Nudge exclaimed, almost bouncing up and down with all the excitement and want of an eleven year old girl. "It sounds so fun! Can we do it, Max? I want a make-over!"

"Uh..." she paused, and I felt myself suck in a deep breath, hoping against hope that she'd say no. Then, "I'm up for it."

I couldn't stop my eyes from widening as Max looked at me, her brown eyes intent upon my dark ones. "We'd love to be made-over. Make us look completely different." she said without dropping her gaze from mine. I nodded in understanding, but growled under my breath. Hey, just because I understood the 'why' doesn't mean I wanted to go through with it. I don't know a lot of the female portion of the human race, but the girls that I live with jump at the opportunity to have their hair done professionally. I swore that if they cut my hair short, I'd never speak to Max again. Okay, so that's not true, but man I would give her my best glare for weeks. Show her to drag me into some beauty salon...

Author's note: okay, okay, I know...the chapters are gradually getting shorter...but it seemed like such a good place to stop! I think that final thought of Fang's was pretty good...but that's just me. So please review, and I'll be a very happy camper! Oh, and I'm not too sure when the next chapter will be coming out...i've used up all my pre-written stuff...unless i work on it some tomorrow. But it'll be up soon! I promise...and if not, i give you all permission to kick me until the next chapter is out! Later readers! -Lovie