A/N: I plotted out the entire story! Now I finally have a plan!! Hooray!!!

The next day, we said sayonara to our plane home and took to the air. I didn't know what we were supposed to be doing. I hated having no plan. It gave me no sense of purpose. Without a plan, what else was I supposed to do?

We went on a flight just for fun, wheeling and banking sharply above the clouds. Total got a little airsick when Fang tried a move almost like a mid air flip. I hope that didn't land on someone down below…I think Fang did that on purpose. It'd be just like him to get back at Total for eating that last hot dog.

"Max, watch me!" cried Angel, zooming past. She tilted upward and looped the loop in the air, nearly whacking a high flying blue jay.

"Nice!" I laughed. I felt a tap on my shoulder from a wing.

"Tag!" yelled Gazzy. "You're it!"

-Max.-

I actually dropped two feet in the air. That was NOT Jeb. This was a new freaking voice! What the h-e- double hockey sticks was going on here? I thought I was crazy before, but geez, people, this is just crossing the line.

Fang noticed my drop and probably horrified look. "What is it? Jeb?"

I shook my head dumbly. "Worse," I answered. "A different voice."

"You have two voices?" he asked, his eyes widening in disbelief. Yep, that's me, Maximum Ride, girl with voices in her head.

"Keep it down!" I hissed.

"Hey, Max! Come on, you're it!" Gazzy called from thirty feet away.

"Pretend nothing happened," I muttered to Fang, and flew to catch up to Gazzy. My mind was going a million miles an hour. Was Jeb messing with my mind? Did Itex make a new voice? Or did I just finally go schizo? I could feel Fang's eyes on my back, and it wasn't helping.

I put on a burst of speed and tackled Gazzy easily. "Now I'm not!" I said, trying to sound cheerful. I think it only worked half way, because Gazzy gave me a suspicious look before racing off to tag an unsuspecting Nudge.

I flew slightly away from everyone to gather my thoughts. I had to decide where to go. We couldn't stay flying in circles forever. Canada is huge – just where in it were we supposed to be?

Anywhere, Max.

I jumped, but thankfully this time it was Jeb and not the mysterious new voice.

So I could land right here and it would be fine? I asked him. Yeah, right. That was too easy.

Yes, you could. As long as you turn on a television at six this evening.

What? Watch T.V?

You heard me.

Wait! I cried mentally, because I had a feeling he was about to go. Do you know anything about a new voice in my head?

There was silence. I muttered swear words under my breath. Why didn't he ever answer important questions? But no, he was answering! Hallelujah!

New voice? There should be only me.

Well, there's not, smarty pants. There's another one.

There shouldn't be.

Well, there is! So tell me what the hell is going on! I demanded. I glanced toward my flock. They were oblivious to my mental argument – all except for Fang, whose eyes had never left me.

I don't know. I'll look into it, Max. Swear.

You better hurry, I told him. I don't know what's going on and I don't want Itex to come crashing down on us because they follow my every move.

Six o'clock news, Max. Remember.

Then he was gone. Isn't he such a help?

Later

Just because I was antsy – and okay, partially because Jeb had told me to – we had landed to explore the town beneath us. We had, while playing, crossed into a French speaking town, and the people surrounded us in a bubble of random sounds. Iggy, however, didn't look quite so tense. He was probably imagining all the French speaking girls. Guys…but if Fang was looking at all the French speaking girls, he wouldn't have any more eyes to stare at them with.

We passed a restaurant that wafted smells of yet more delicious food towards us and I heard the ever growing hole in my stomach demanding me to march in there and eat all of that yummy smelling food. One glance at Nudge showed that she felt the same way. I glanced at my watch. It was four thirty five. We were going to have to eat soon.

I tapped Fang's black sleeved arm, which was on my right. "Where should we stay the night? In town?"

He glanced around it quickly. It looked like he was taking in the building structures, but really he was scanning it for hazard spots – places where a Flyboy could hide behind, or a random person could jump easily from the shadows. "It doesn't seem too dangerous," he said. "But looks can be deceiving."

"So should we chance it?" I asked.

He glanced around again, and then shrugged. "What do we have to lose?" Well, let's see, our freedom, our lives…but we risk those every day. Not much new there. Just routine: fighting robots, dive bombing into oceans, passing out from brain attacks – same old, same old.

There was an inn around ten blocks away according to a billboard, which we walked leisurely down to, acting like your normal tourist Americans. (We walked toward the inn, not the billboard. Yeah, let's all play skip around the billboard!) I wished I could avoid all the crowds and just fly there, but that wasn't the brightest idea I'd had. So we had to go at a snail's pace through the throngs of people shopping or talking. I hate acting normal.

After about a million years, we reached the tiny inn. It was away from most of the commotion, which was good and bad. Less of a crowd, easier for people to pick you out, harder for people to hear your screams. It looked like a house. Well, a house with around ten bedrooms.

"What do we do?" asked Nudge. "Do we just go up there and knock and be like, 'Can we sleep here? We're hungry and tired and want a bath.'"

I shrugged. My mind was still on that second voice. "Whatever it takes to get us in. I'm not picky." I led them up to the front door and used the silver knocker to announce their brand new guests. It swung open almost instantly to show a fat, smiling woman. The smile slid off her face when she saw us.

"What do you want?" she asked Fang suspiciously, obviously thinking he was our gang ringleader.

Fang looked at me and said nothing. I cleared my throat and stepped forward, digging in my pocket for money. "We want a place to stay," I told her, looking her in the eye and whipping the credit card out into plain view.

Greed washed over her face. She didn't even care where we'd gotten the credit card from. "Come in, come in," she said, smiling sweetly. "Would you like a room with a view of the town…?"

Oh, please.

She led us up a flight of stairs past a living room, a dining room, and a closed off kitchen to where I guessed the rooms were. A hallway stretched both ways, with closed doors along each side. Snores were coming from one. I didn't like being so close to other people. Not at all.

"There's a family suite," she said. "Would you like that? We can bring you two roll away beds. There's a bedroom with two beds, a living room with a pull out couch bed, and then there'll be the two roll aways of course."

"Whatever," I said. "That's fine. Do you have any food? We're starving."

"Dinner's served from five to eight," she simpered. Gag. Me. Now. All this woman needs is an apron and she'll be Mrs. Butterworth's or whatever that syrup lady's named.

She pressed a room key into my hand and walked away to swipe our credit card. She didn't say how much it would be costing us to stay here, I noticed. I fit the key into the lock and opened the door.

It was pretty big, but she had said it was a suite. Gazzy and Angel could share the couch bed, Fang and Iggy could have the roll away beds, and Nudge and I could take the bed room. Yeah, it would work. I scanned the room. There was a television in the living room. Jeb would get his wish.

"Gazzy, do you mind sharing a bed with Angel for tonight?" I asked him. He shrugged one shoulder, dirty blonde hair flopping into his blue eyes. He was wearing it the same way as Fang now, but the blonde didn't have the same effect as the black. "Good, then Nudge and I can take the bedroom and Iggy and Fang can take the roll aways." I knew the guys wouldn't complain – it was a bed, and beds are a heck of a lot better than the ground.

We dumped what little stuff we had and promised to bring Total back some food for dinner. I went out last, locking the door behind me and slipping the key into my pocket. Dinner was pretty basic, just chicken fingers and some fries. I was glad we were the only diners in the room, because there wasn't enough food left for anyone else. The owner's look of surprise only got funnier when she saw how much Angel alone ate. Bet she'd never seen a six year old who can eat twenty chicken fingers.

"Here's your card back," she said to me, giving me an odd look. "I'll swipe it again at the end of your stay." Now go to your room, said her look.

I smirked. "Whatever you say." I herded my flock back up the stairs. It was nearly six. Whatever Jeb wanted me to watch would be coming on soon.

I sat on the couch next to Iggy and turned on the set. It made a clicking noise somewhere and turned on to an old Western show. I flipped through the channels until I came to the news. Iggy looked at me disbelievingly.

"Since when do you watch the news?"

"Be quiet," I said, watching the screen.

We sat through half an hour of stuff I didn't care about before anything interesting came on. A blonde anchor sat behind a desk, trying and failing to look serious behind all of her makeup. "The issue of global warming is becoming more and more prominent each day," she recited, looking into the camera. "Glaciers are melting, floods and hurricanes are becoming frequent, and that's only the beginning." Clips of natural disasters played in the background. God. So much drama, so little news.

The segment continued for the next two minutes until she concluded dramatically, "If nothing is done, half of the world's population may die."

That sounded vaguely familiar…I had a memory of a By – Half plan….

Do you see what I mean, Max?

I jumped and said out loud, "Are you trying to tell me Itex is behind global warming?"

A/N: And, cut! All done now. I know you want to review…please review?