A/N: You're back, reviewers! Nearly twenty reviews in two days! (It's Monday the 25th as I type this A/N.) Thank you! EDIT: Dang snow day. (Never thought I'd say that.) This was saved at school and I couldn't get to it!

The timer flashed once and began to count down.

I scanned the room for an exit or way to escape, pushing down the panic. Maybe there was a way out of this before we were killed. Nudge's hands hovered over the package, eyes closed. Her hands were sweating. I guessed that she was sensing what the person had done to design the bomb, and hoped that there were no misleading trails hidden there. What if the person that made the bomb made a mistake that Nudge too would make?

Nudge slowly loosened one string of the package with a shaking hand. "No motion sensors," she whispered. "There's a wire that will set everything off, but there's also one that'll deactivate it." The paper fell open, and inside was a mass of wires.

"Stop," I said suddenly on impulse, to the whole room. I spun in a circle because I didn't know where I was supposed to be talking to. "You don't have to do this. I'm right here! Don't hurt the rest of them!"

"Don't be so stuck up," Hollywood's voice said over the speaker. "Didn't you get that message on that laptop of yours a few weeks ago? The one that said that the fate of the world depended upon the entire flock?" My blood ran cold. I remembered, alright. I'd had Fang shut everything down just in case they got a lock on where we were.

"We want all of you now," Hollywood continued. "Not just you. Welcome to our world, Max."

I glanced at Nudge again. She glanced at me quickly. "I can't cut the wire!" she said, glancing at the tangle of multicolored wires in front of her that were the bomb. "That's not fair!"

"You won't have anything on the battlefields either," Hollywood said, using his flawed logic. "Be resourceful."

Tell her to look under the table, Jeb said urgently. Do it, Max! Otherwise you'll never get out of this alive.

"Look under the table for something to use," I muttered out of the corner of my mouth. "Trust me." One of Nudge's hands slipped under the table, searching for something, anything, to get us out of this mess.

I see you,said the second voice smugly. Having fun? I certainly am.

Shut up! I shouted in my head. I was still trying not to panic, and at the moment, I was failing miserably. I glanced at the timer and saw that we only had five minutes left, and counting. Just get out of my head!

I'm afraid I can't do that. Though at the moment I wouldn't miss anything. I'm in the room with you, but you can't see me! Whoever this was, first of all was a) enjoying him/herself way too much, b) literally going to drive me out of my mind, and c) apparently in the room? Were they with Hollywood or something in the room attached to this one? Wait a second – was my second voice Hollywood? This was getting to be too much.

"Got something!" exclaimed Nudge under her breath. She pulled a short scalpel from a hidden compartment under the table, no doubt intended to dissect what was left of us after the bomb blew us into a million bits of Max and Nudge. I looked at the timer again. Three minutes.

"Nudge, cut the wire," I said urgently. "Once you know which one it is, cut the wire, please!"

"I'm trying!" she replied, holding the scalpel over first one wire, then the other. "But I'm getting different signs from these wires – they both say that the designer did something really, really important, but I get a stronger signal from one and I'm just not sure…" I got what she meant. It could be stronger because it was the one that could kill us, or because it was the one that would save our lives.

My brain began coming up with a plan. If Nudge got the right wire – please, Nudge, please – then Hollywood would have to come back through the door for me. That would be our only chance to escape. If I could just stall him from shutting the door too quickly…

"Max," Nudge whispered. "I think I know which one it is. If I'm wrong, I am so, so sorry. You don't even know how sorry I'd be. Even after I was dead, I'd be sorry. Like, monumentally sorry." I looked at the timer again. One minute. I glanced back at Nudge.

"It's okay Nudge," I reassured her. I hugged her tight, pushing away the thought that she would be the last person I'd ever hug. "Don't worry. You do what you have to do." Her arms squeezed me tight, and then she let me go. She turned back to the bomb with forty seconds left on the clock.

"Which one is it going to be?" taunted Hollywood. "This or that. That or this. Make a choice, little mutant. But don't choose wrong." My teeth ground together in frustration. I would tell you what I thought about him right at that moment, but I think JP would edit it out anyway. It's not exactly printable.

"I'm not choosing wrong!" Nudge shouted at him, slicing through the wire. I held my breath and closed my eyes.

Nothing happened.

I opened my eyes again and grinned shakily at Nudge. She'd done it. Of course she had. How could I have doubted her? Sweet, sweet, beautiful, gorgeous Nudge, my savior! Okay, so I was ranting almost as badly as she does. But hey, I was relieved. I'm allowed to do that, yeah?

Silence from Hollywood. Take that, you unprintable word. What now?

I looked around the room again. If I was right, which I was pretty sure I was, we came in right about over there and Hollywood disappeared right over there. I sidled over to where I thought we had come in and leaned against the wall. I put a hand behind my back as if I was itching, but really I was searching for a handle or something so we could get out before Hollywood came back to….well; let's just not even think about that right now. It doesn't exactly help with good memories, you know?

Part of the wall on my left seemed to swing open. I was right – that was where Hollywood had been hiding. So if that was right, then the door handle should be hidden around here somewhere…come on, come on! Where is it? My hand kept inching along the wall. Nudge caught my eye and realized, thankfully, that this was not the time to ask me what I was doing, but looked like she was going to bust with things she wanted to say. Thank the Lord the child has the sense not to talk when it's life-threatening.

Hollywood stepped through the doorway with a highly disappointed look on his face that was mingled with one of greed and anticipation. "So you passed the test," he said, sneering. "You get to live, and you saved your flock. Congratulations." My hand hit something solid, and I felt around it. It felt like the handle, but I didn't dare to hope yet. I started turning it slowly, and shifted my weight so that I wasn't leaning on the door, but also so Hollywood still couldn't see what I was doing.

"Now, that one will be escorted back to your room," Hollywood said, pointing at Nudge. Then he turned to me with a sick grin. "And you will come with me."

"Um, how about no?" I asked with a raised eyebrow. "Or, that'll never, ever in a million zillion years happen?" I kept stalling for time as I slowly turned the handle. "I honestly don't think you've studied me that well, I mean, really, you expect me to just willingly go with you? Have you read the reports on what happens when people do that? It doesn't turn out so well."

"Have you forgotten what will happen if you don't?" he asked me. "You and your flock will all die."

"Not if I can help it," I shot back. "I've gotten them out of near death situations before. Now isn't any different." I flung open the door and shouted, "Go, Nudge! Get out of here!" She obeyed without question, flinging herself out of the open doorway and racing back towards where the rest of the flock was kept.

"Get back here!" Hollywood bellowed, making a swipe at me, but I dodged him and landed a punch of my own right on his perfect nose. He howled, and I took the chance to skedaddle out of there. Time to rescue the rest of the flock and get the h out of here.

000000000000000000000

The Director of Itex leaned back smugly in her chair. Everything was falling into place. Max had just escaped the clutches of Warner – much to his dismay and pain, as she had also given him a broken nose to heal. She shook her head. The man needed to grow up if he was going to howl like a two year old over a broken bone. He would have to be taken care of. He couldn't be working on his own agenda like that. Honestly. Raping an experiment? And he was supposed to let them escape. He was going to need a little…reminding of his purpose here.

She rewound the video feed on her computer screen to re-watch the clip of Max and the other experiment – her real name was Monique, but she went by Nudge – disable the bomb. It had been a simple task that she knew they could accomplish, and of course they had found the hidden scalpel – she had been counting on them to remove it, for if they hadn't, it never would have activated the invisible scan that told them everything that they needed about the mutants, down to the last phosphate group of their DNA. The scan was virtually undetectable – they wouldn't feel any after effects, let alone know that they had even been scanned in the first place.

If they hadn't been able to deactivate that bomb, then they were dumber than she thought. Worthless. Trash.

Now, of course, Max would be setting the rest of her flock free, and then the next stage of her perfect plan would begin.

On impulse, she held out her right arm and pushed up the sleeve of her tailored suit with a manicured hand. The bruises from when she had been forcefully grabbed and dragged into the sky – only to be dropped and caught once more – were fading, but they were still there, and quite painful. She traced one finger shaped bruise with a red-painted nail. She was going to get her revenge on the mutants. The By-Half plan must not fail. The Re-Evolution would happen. Nothing could get in the way of that. Nothing. She had to save the world.

She was certain that the hybrids had no idea of how the plan would be executed. Not even they were that smart. But then again, they had that traitor Batchelder helping them every other second...someone was going to have to look after him extra carefully. They couldn't afford his mistakes.

The phone rang, distracting her from her meditations. She picked up after the second ring. "Yes?" she asked in a clipped tone. "What is it? I'm busy."

"You ordered me to speak to Warner, Director?" said a man's voice on the other end.

Morgan, the Director thought. Just who I needed to talk to.

"Yes, and take some robots with you," she replied. "The wolf-shape shifting kind, not the improved ones. We're still experimenting on those."

"Yes, Director."

"Convince him of what he needs to be doing."

"Yes, Director."

"Oh, and Morgan?" she asked, before she hung up.

"Yes?"

"Keep a tab on the avians," she told him, and replaced the phone on the receiver.

A/N: Important question! Should I continue after MR4 comes out March 17?? I have it all planned out, and I wouldn't deviate from it, but just wondering if anyone would still read...