I woke groggily with a headache and a strong sense of déjà vu. My nose was filled with the scent of disinfectant, which triggered memories I didn't especially want to relive. I pushed them down and blinked quickly to try and clear my head. It felt like it was stuffed with cotton or something. Holy crap, my head hurt. What was in those darts?

I sat up, and then realized that I shouldn't even be able to do that. I was normally strapped down to a table, but this time I was free to get up and move around. I was on a table, and I was in a semi-lab with all the look of a hospital room, but I was still in my normal clothes. Hey, we even had a window! What was up with this? Did Itex suddenly grow a conscience or something? I snickered quietly to myself as I imagined Roland ter Borcht waltzing in with a pile of cookies. Yeah, right. There's something else up.

I looked around. Fang and Iggy were awake too. And hey, Total was even next to Angel, both of them still knocked out. "This is weird!" said Iggy, realizing that I was awake. "Where are we? Why aren't we dead? I'm not complaining or anything, but you'd think that after we escaped once…"

"I think we're still in Antarctica," I replied. "That's what would make the most sense since we were apparently right by an Itex building the entire time. It's kind of freaky, you know? That we would end up right by the people trying to kill us."

"Like it was planned," Fang finished for me.

"Yeah, but it couldn't have been! They don't even know about-" I broke off. You never know who might be listening in this place. I hopped off the table toward Fang and lowered my voice. "You know that thing I told you about?" I asked him quietly. "That keeps popping up inside my head?"

"First or second?" he asked just as quietly.

"Second."

"Okay, go on."

"It said we were here to be improved or something. That we weren't here to be hurt. I don't believe it for a second, but do you think maybe that's why we're getting the VIP treatment all of a sudden? I know that if they wanted to kill us, they probably would have done it while we were knocked out, but they didn't…something really weird is going on here, and I don't like it at all."

"I don't either," he replied. Then he figured out part of what I had just said. "Wait. So is that part of Itex? What told you all of this, I mean."

"I bet it is."

Iggy cleared his throat. "Still here, and still confused."

"Sorry, Ig," I apologized. "It's kinda hard to explain considering where we are right now. They can probably hear every word we say." They were watching us too, most likely. Figuring out when it was best to make their move.

I heard stirring from the bed next to mine and turned to see that Nudge was waking up. "Max?" she asked. "Did they catch us? Are we dead yet?"

"We're not dead," I reassured her. "We're okay, everyone's here. They even let Total join the party today."

She managed to grin, even though all of her senses were probably going on red alert from being inside Itex. "That's better than last time, right? It's not like we're being hurt or experimented on or anything. We can just…well, I don't know. There's not a lot that we can do right now."

I gave her a half-smile. "We could…okay, you're right. Not much."

"We could play I Spy," said a sweet voice. I looked past Nudge to see Angel behind her, sitting up. Her hair was mussed, and she looked as if she had only been in a non-drug induced sleep. "Not that there's much in here to spy," she added, reading my mind.

The door beeped and I spun to see a whitecoat enter the room, carrying the customary clipboard. He glanced down at it and brushed brown hair out of his face. "Ah, the avian-hybrids," he said approvingly. "Here to be improved, according to this. You're very lucky to be some of the chosen ones."

I suppressed a snicker. Chosen ones? I mean, honestly, it sounded like something out of a bad sci-fi movie or something. "And who are you?" I asked him, raising my eyebrows.

"That's none of your concern," he replied briskly. He glanced at Gazzy, the only one still knocked out. "The eight year old still out, then? He did hit his head on the way down, which may be part of the problem."

"Yeah, whacking your head combined with a tranquilizer dart would knock you out for a bit," I said snidely to cover up my worry for the Gasman. How could he stand there and tell us that so calmly? 'Oh yeah, by the way, not only was he hit with a tranquilizer dart in the air, but he also hit his head, which was a pretty obvious hazard since we were shooting at you when you were hundreds of feet off the ground.' Good thing we dove down some before we got shot. I mean, you can't improve us if we're already dead of a broken neck, can you?

I sat back down on the 'bed' that I had woken up on and said, "So, while we're catching up like old chums, why don't you tell us why we're really here?"

The whitecoat looked confused. "I've told you already. You are here to be improved."

"We're never here just to be improved," said Fang. "It can't be that simple."

The whitecoat looked at Fang pretty warily and took an involuntary step back. I smirked. "Afraid of an experiment?" I asked him.

He jumped as if he'd forgotten that I was there. "No, of course not. What are you talking about? What gave you that idea?"

"I'm pretty good at reading faces," I answered. "You know, from having to be able to tell if I'm being dragged out of my dog cage for a good thing, or a bad thing. Mostly bad." That made him squirm. This was too easy.

"You do have a pretty good reason to be afraid of Fang here, though," I continued. "After all, we're not restrained at all. We could break your bones in a second. Oh, we won't, don't worry," I said at the quickened tempo of his breathing, "but we could."

"We probably will if you threaten us," Nudge chipped in. She couldn't stay silent for long. "Won't we, Max?"

I shrugged. Why tell him what we would plan on doing? We don't have a plan anyway. Yet.

Gazzy began stirring, and I lost my focus on the whitecoat. (Who, by the way, was shaking like a rabbit looking at a fox. Geez. What did I do?) "Max?" he asked blearily. "Are we at the School?"

I moved next to him. "No, we're still in Antarctica. Wake up, babe. We've got company." He sat up at that and rubbed his eyes, staring at the whitecoat who had suddenly begun taking notes.

"What's he doing?" Gazzy asked worriedly.

"Probably noting how good I look extra pale. It really sets off my hair nicely." Gazzy cracked a smile at that, and I could feel some of the tension vanish. "You'll be okay, bud. Don't worry."

The whitecoat coughed, and I stared at him. "What? Are you still here?"

"I have to stay until my superior gets here," he replied. "I have to report to him and get him up to speed."

Great. More of them.

"Just how many more of you are coming?" I asked suspiciously.

"Just one. And would you please stop looking at me so suspiciously? Would we have given you winter coats to keep from freezing to death if we wanted to kill you?"

I blinked. "That was you?"

"No, not me specifically, but-" The door swung open to reveal the expected whitecoat. He filled the door. He looked the Hollywood stereotype – tan, tall, muscular - and I wondered how he ever got into science. He looked like he belonged on a beach somewhere, not in a lab. He busted into the room with the unmistakable air of 'I'm-so-great'. Ugh. Not one of them on top of all this.

He stopped in front of me and looked down his nose disdainfully. "This is it?" He asked in an American accent. "You call me, raving about a genetic experiment ready to be enhanced, and this is what I get?" Hey! That cut. That cut real deep.

"It – it really is quite a wonder," stammered the first whitecoat. "It has wings, and super speed, and-"

"Shut up," growled the second whitecoat. I'll call him Hollywood since he looks like he belongs there. "I don't want to hear it."

"I've also got a great sense of humor," I chipped in. Oh, come on, how was I supposed to miss a golden opportunity like that? I smiled sweetly at Hollywood. He whipped around to look at me, then back at whitecoat number one.

"Is it programmed to say that?" Hollywood asked.

"No, I understand everything, thanks. So do they," I gestured to the rest of the flock. "So no swearing, if you don't mind. We have – innocent ears – around." I glanced at Angel, who caught my drift and looked up innocently as if to say, 'There's evil in the world?'

"Hey! Don't forget me!" chipped in Total. "I'm way smarter than some of them." One glance from Hollywood shut him up and he crawled back into Angel's arms.

"They have reason," said whitecoat one, jumping at the chance to prove himself again. "They're ninety eight percent human and two percent avian. However, Specimen Eleven-" he gestured to Angel, who suppressed a flinch, "not only has that genetic make up, but we're thinking of adding some new qualities as well. Maybe dolphin." I looked quickly at Angel, who remembered not to show fear just in time.

It's okay, baby, I thought her way. Don't worry. I won't let them touch you.

"And what can they do?" asked Hollywood.

The first whitecoat flipped pages on his clipboard. Man, I'm getting a major sense of déjà vu again. They really need to change things up so that every time we're captured, we go through something different. Like, maybe, instead of the whitecoats with clipboard asking us questions, they should play Twenty Questions. "Max, as she calls herself, has super speed. 'Nudge' has super sensory and technopath powers-" Man, that sounds awesome when you say it that way. "-'Gazzy' has mimicry. 'Iggy' and 'Fang' have no powers as of yet." Lies. Fang has teleportation. "Specimen Eleven, or 'Angel' has many. Would you like to hear them?"

"No," said Hollywood flatly. "I'd like to have them taken to be experimented on, actually."

My temper flared. One glance at Fang told me that he was picturing gladly killing both of those whitecoats. I couldn't say that I was surprised. I felt exactly the same way.

"I've got great insults already, so you don't have to experiment on that," I spat. "Like maybe if you weren't so stupid, your mother would love you. Do you think that maybe that's why you turned out so hateful? Because your mother never paid attention to you?"

Iggy snorted. I could see the anger beginning to rise to the surface of both whitecoats. Good. I needed something to yell about. I really needed to release some of the anger coiling in my stomach.

"Or," I continued, a random idea popping into my head, " I could say, 'omelet du fromar'. I just cussed you out in French!" Okay, so that really means cheese omelet, but he doesn't know that.

Hollywood spluttered. "I – I – shut up!" He was obviously used to saying that and having his orders followed. I wasn't about to start.

"Make us," said Iggy, glaring at Hollywood, obviously thinking along the same lines as me.

"We don't have to do what you say," added Gazzy. "We can do what we want. Right, Max?"

"Right, Gasman," I replied, ruffling his hair.

Hollywood turned to whitecoat one again. "Did you put them up to this?"

"N-no," he stammered. "I told you that they had reason. They don't like to be provoked."

"I don't want to hear that I've been proved wrong," Hollywood said. He glanced at Fang. "You. Goth boy. Do you talk?"

"No," answered Fang, appraising him easily.

"Can you do anything?" Hollywood asked his new target.

"Hmm…" Fang pretended to think about it. "Define 'everything'."

"Alright, I've had enough of this shit," Hollywood said, exhaling sharply.

"What did I tell you about that?" I asked, clapping my hands around Angel's ears. "No swearing! Didn't you learn anything as a kid?"

He stepped closer to me. "I learned how to survive," he hissed. "And you better learn too. Quick." He turned to whitecoat one and said, "Lock them up again until we need them. I'll tell you when to feed them, when to let them take a piss, everything. You don't do anything without my say-so, understand?" Whitecoat one nodded vigorously.

"Good." And Hollywood disappeared out of the door. Whitecoat one followed behind him like a dog. With one last wistful look at us, he shut the door. I could hear the final sound of a lock sliding into place.

There was silence in our little room for a second. Then Gazzy said, in a perfect imitation of Hollywood, "I'm going to threaten you until you all piss in your pants. Rawr!" He made his hands into claws.

I couldn't help but crack up.