Chapter 21

Hello again! Thank you for all your wonderful reviews and suggestions! The next chapter might be a long time in coming. After about 3 weeks of snow days down here in (Insert State), the teachers are piling it on us. Has any one ever built a mouse trap vehicle???? That's one of our assignments...

Anyway, like I was saying, chapter 22 might be a while. But I have some great idea's for an ending.

Enjoy!

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(Max POV)

"Yah, and you still have the queerest accent ever, yah?" I shot back at him. We turned to face ter Borcht. His assistant was standing behind him again. Can some one say, deja vu?

"No mattah. Vu have veen a large annoyance to us. De voard has decided dat vu are survivors. De vant us to question vou again. You vill cooperate, or you vill die," ter Borcht said blankly.

"What, no Hallmark greeting card?! Come on! I mean, look at all we've done for you! Blowing up garage's, giving you a concussion, destroying your robots! Don't you think we deserve something?!" I said dramatically. Nudge giggled, and Angel gave ter Borcht her bambi eyes. He looked down at her with disgust, flaring my anger even more.

"Yes. Vor death. De von called Vang is already scheduled vor elimination. He is too broken to repair. We merely set him up as vait vor you," he stated, a happy gleam in his eye. Man, I hate this guy.

"Ummmm, ya, I have a problem with your....theory. 'Vang' is not broken. If you let him out of the tank, he will show you how 'broken' he really is," Angel said fiercely. Ter Borcht laughed evilly.

"Vou can not play childeesh vames with me, little gihrl. I know vhere vour allegiance liehs," ter Borcht growled. "I vill not let him out ahv de tank. Nothang vou say vill change my mind."

"Oh, I bet I could prove you wrong! What if you let Fang out of the tank, and I have Iggy make some awesome churro's for you! His churro's are awesome! Deal?" Nudge exclaimed. She licked her lips at the thought of churro's.

"Vou vant to play games? Vine. Ve shall do thees de hard way. Ve vill now begin de questioning," he reported. Turning his eyes on Angel, he grimaced.

"Ve had such 'opes vor vou. A dooble agent vits vour style. Vut de vone called Max has corrupted vour mind. Now, vhat powers do vou hav'? I know vou have many."

"Weeeeeeelllll, let's see. Since my mind is sooooo corrupted, it gave me the power to see the future. Want to know what I see in your future?" Angel asked seriously. Ter Borcht's mouth dropped open slightly.

"I'll take that as a 'yes'. You really need to work on facial expressions. Now, about your future. It's misty...No! Wait!....It's getting clearer.....the fog is fading.....I see.....I see......A PENGUIN! Yes....a penguin.....it's waddling towards you....with a fish in it's mouth.....it's standing in front of you....the penguin is eating the fish....your standing there, dumbfounded.....the penguin is twitching....it is throwing up the fish all over you....your falling over dead...DEATH BY PENGUIN BARF!!! And that is your future," Angel finished ominously. Ter Borcht's amazed look became a look of rage.

"If vou vill noht cooperate, then......" ter Borcht snapped his fingers. Flyboy's swarmed Angel. She shrieked and tried to bolt upward, but the robots reached her before she could snap her wings out. They grabbed her, flew up, and pinned her to the ceiling. Angel fought them, but to no avail.

"Nohw, vour tuhrn," he said snidely, turning to Nudge. She glared at him. He glared back. She glared harder at him. He matched her. Wow, that guy could really squint.

"Tell me. Have vou changed any ovah de last vew yeahrs?"

"Yah. My new Snicker's Bars record is 11 in one sitting...with out barfing. How's that for a change?" Nudge replied. Gazzy grinned.

"I vill now eat 11 Snichahrs Bahrs, and bahrf on a penguin," echoed around the room. We burst out laughing again. It was just so funny to watch his face. He made the funniest expressions when he was mad.

"Ahvioulsy not. And vhat about vou? Is there anything vorth saving vou vor?" he turned on Gazzy.

Gazzy turned around, pointed his behind at ter Borcht, and let one rip. Ter Borcht leapt back a few feet, covering his nose. I could smell the stench from where I was. It didn't smell good. Gazzy had a proud look on his face when he turned back around.

"Vou disgusting creature! Ifv ve use vou, ve vill use de monahy ve gained from China to fix vour body...ahnd vour attitude!" ter Borcht barked.

"Actually, I have a suggestion of my own for you and your money. How about you go buy yourself some more brain cells, instead of torturing kids with your hybrid crap. Cause you could really use some more brain cells, since you've killed them all by inhaling too much Clorox. After all, it's helpful to know what 2 + 2 equals," Gazzy informed him. Ter Borcht's face turned bright red. He snapped his fingers again and several Flyboy's snatched up Gazzy, pinning him to the ceiling beside Angel. They went for Nudge, and she kicked one of their heads off before the robots pinned her to the ceiling too. I watched desperately, knowing that if I tried to help them, Flyboy's would give me their same fate.

Now it was just me, Iggy, and Summer. Ter Borcht seemed to debate between the three of us, his eyes flicking back and forth, then decided on Iggy.

"Vou 'ave no skeells, vight?" ter Borcht asked smugly.

"Wrong. ....I have one important skill you might find useful. Pyrotechnics," Iggy stated. My jaw dropped. Why was he telling him this? Was he a real traitor?

"Veally? I vill need some proof."

"Alrighty then. You want proof, you get proof," Iggy said, then reached into his pocket and brought out a tiny bomb. He tapped on it for a second, then tossed it at ter Borcht, who caught it like the idiot he was.

Borcht stared at it for a moment, then looked up at Iggy with a confused expression. Iggy sensed he was staring, because he grinned evilly and began counting.

"Three...Two...One," Iggy chanted. Ter Borcht screamed and threw the bomb from him. It bounced off a wall, and rolled back toward him. Borcht began to scramble backwards, and fell to the ground, out right terror on his face.

"Zero."

The bomb made a small 'poof' sound, and confetti erupted from the tiny machine, covering ter Borcht in a nice blanket of glittery paper.

Borcht opened his eyes, which had been squeezed shut, and looked sharply at Iggy. Ig was roaring with laughter, as was Gazzy. Borcht's face went from magenta, to an ugly shade of purple.

"Flyboys!" ter Borcht shrieked, jumping up and pointing at Iggy. Iggy stiffened, and fought like a madman, but they pinned him to the ceiling as well.

That just left me and Summer. Panting, he jabbed a finger in Summer's direction. She stuck her tongue out at him.

"Vou ahre vone from de cages. Ve know all there is to know about vou," he spat out. Summer shook her head in a knowing way.

"No you don't!" she cried.

"Ves, ve do!"

"Do not!"

"Do to!"

"Do not!"

"Do to!"

"NOT!"

"TO!"

"NO-!"

"ENOUGH!" ter Borcht screamed. Now his face was turning slightly blue. Wow, a human chameleon. The Flyboy's pinned Summer to the ceiling too.

Borcht turned to me with a murderous look in his eyes.

"Vhy 'ave vou turned dem into idiots?! Dey are useless!" he exclaimed. His face was fading to a weird yellow color. Dang.

"First of all, their not idiots. Second, are you a hybrid too? Maybe, a gecko or some sort of lizard? Cause so far, you've hit yellow, red, purple, and blue in the color spectrum. Take a chill pill and drink a latte if you need to. After all, we haven't hit the best part of today! The part where we kick your butt and escape," I said. He narrowed his eyes, then the corners of his lips twitched upward.

"Vine. I see ve vill not be getting any use out ahv all of vou. Vou vill be exterminated, and ve shall make vetter avian hybrids...vone's who vill obey our every command," he stated.

"Oh, come on! If you get rid of us, there will be no one to make your blood pressure sky rocket. No one to send broken Flyboy parts to your front door! Who would get rid of that?" I exaggerated.

"Kill dem."

Crushing robot arms surrounded me and flew me up to the ceiling, where they pinned me with Angel to my right. The robot's began laughing maniacally, copying ter Borcht from below.

I looked over at Angel, and gave her a sad smile. She smiled back.

The Flyboy's were starting to loosen their grips on us, preparing for the kill. I turned back to Angel and nodded. She saw me, then tensed her body, as did the others.

"NOW!" I yelled, just as the Flyboy's swung their arms back for the first punch.

I put my feet against the ceiling and pushed off, breaking free from the Flyboy's. As I fell, I snapped my wings out and stroked down hard. Leveling out, I saw Angel, Gazzy, Iggy, Nudge, and Summer flanking me on both sides. I motioned down and we dived at ter Borcht. He shrieked and ran for cover, his assistant running after him. The Flyboy's followed us, and caught up when we leveled out again.

Then, it was a full scale battle. Each of us were surrounded by Flyboy's. I punched, kicked, and chopped at every thing that came within my reach. A Flyboy punched my back, another kicked me in the arm, and then one of them grabbed my foot and slammed me into a wall. I heard a scream, then blacked out for a second.

A hard crash landing on the floor jolted me awake. That had been my scream. Me falling.

Enough is enough. We were losing. Three of us were on the ground fighting, and the rest were slowly falling.

This is not the day that Maximum Ride dies.

I snapped my wings out again, and shot into the air. The Flyboy's followed. I zoomed over the heads of robots and avian hybrids, searching for one in particular. And I found him.

I slammed my whole body weight into the glass tank. It cracked. I shot up into the air, and the Flyboy's following me slammed into the tank. Three cracks appeared. I looked around for something to add the finishing touch.

Out of no where, Summer flew out of the cloud of robots, and crashed into the glass tank also. She had seen what I was doing, and wanted to help. Unfortunately, it was a beating her body couldn't take. As she looked up at me, her eyes rolled up into the back of her head and she fell to the floor, unconscious.

The glass didn't break. Another crack appeared, but it wasn't enough. I searched the room frantically, every nerve tense to my surroundings. Any minute now, Flyboy's were going to come at me. My eye's fell on Summer's crumpled body below. A conversation we had earlier rang through my head.

"Not only are they making us weapons, but they are trying to turn old style weapons such as swords, bows, lances, etc...., into high tech weapons for the future. They are adding things like flames, lasers, tracking devices, you name it. All to try and enhance it. Make them super weapons. So they can carry out their By-Half Plan with less resistance. Or so they hope."

The weapons. Enhanced weapons. Probably strong enough to break threw what ever glass the tank was made out of. I quickly located the rack of medieval weapons, then began my descent towards them.

A Flyboy came at me. But not just a normal old Flyboy. Oh no. This had to be a new version. Because it had four arms and a chain saw in two of them.

It came at me faster than I could have believed. I dodged the chain saw by an inch, but forgot about the other two arms, and got punched in the thigh. It hurt! This Flyboy was going down.

I dodged the chain saw again, then kicked one of it's arm joints. It popped off. The chain saw slashed at my head. I saw a small clump of hair start floating to the ground. My hair. I was cutting it a bit close. I slammed my elbow into the other exposed arm joint, and it fell to the ground, taking the chain saw with it. Seeing a perfect opportunity to cause some havoc, I dived, reaching for the chain saw. I was a second to slow. It hit the ground, and smashed into pieces, so I pulled up, scraping the ground, and rocketing back up into the air. As I turned to face the Flyboy, it had it's remaining two arms out, reaching for my neck. I caught them both, and we began grappling in mid-air.

I flipped over, and started to fall again. The Flyboy snapped it's wings in, and we fell into a steep dive. I flipped back over and caught a draft just before we hit the ground. The Flyboy shoved it's knee into my side, and I gasped for breath. Before I knew it, we both crashed violently into the weapon rack. The robot's head was smashed beyond repair, and I laid there, dazed. Iggy's yell brought me back.

"Max, what ever your doing, do it quicker!! We can't hold them off much longer! There are too many!" Iggy yelled, dropping 3 feet to avoid a Flyboy's kick. I shook off the haze around my mind, and started searching for the right weapon.

All they had were bow's, arrow's, and swords. No javelin's, or any of those spiky ball things. I grabbed a huge sword with a burning red stone in it, and began to run towards the tank. The sword weighed a freakin' ton!

As I approached the tank, my heart sank. No rhyming intended.

A group of white coats were running towards the tank from the other side of the room, ter Borcht in the lead. I put on the speed, and swung my arm back, taking the sword with me. I reached the tank a few steps ahead of the white coats, and poured energy into my arms. Then I swung the sword at the glass with every thing I had.

It smashed through the glass like it was butter. Green liquid rushed out of the broken tank, swallowing the white coats and knocking them down. I leapt into the air, darting past the broken shards of glass and into the tank.

Fang was collapsed on the bottom. I crashed into the floor next to him and took his face in my hands.

"Fang! Fang, please, say something! Move, twitch, speak, cough, anything to tell me your alive!" I shrieked, trying to find a pulse in his limp arm.

Flyboy's started racing towards the tank. D***!

I picked up Fang, and took off. My flying was ragged and labored. I wasn't strong enough to carry Fang for a long time.

"Every one, out the door! Let's get out of here!" I screamed over the turmoil.

Five bird kids; one being carried by two others, appeared out of the dwindling cloud of robots. Summer was still out, being carried by Nudge and Gazzy. I flew out the door, my wing tips grazing the sides of the hallway. Fang lay limp in my arms.

Now, it was time for the chase. Literally.

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Wooo! Sorry for the cliffy, but I thought the chapter was getting a bit long. I promise to type the next one as soon as possible! Review!!!!! Or no next chapter!!!

P.S.-Be afraid for Fang. Be very afraid.