Chapter Seven: Switch of Sides
I wake up the next morning and ask Iggy, who's on watch, to check my leg and wing. He feels my wing and then my leg. Then he thinks for a few minutes.
"You should be able to walk tomorrow, and as for your wing, it's healed but stiff. You might want to shake it out and try to get the stiffness out before flying. Wait until tomorrow to walk or fly." I sigh because I have to wait another day, but I'm happy it's only one more day.
"Thanks Ig." He goes back to his spot where he's on watch.
I sit up and start to think about what we should be doing. We need to go somewhere, but where… Going back to Florida would be fun, and we are already headed in that direction… That's when Angel decides her input is necessary.
Let's go back to Florida, but no Disney this time. How about we go to the Florida Keys? South Florida would be fun.
Good idea. Florida it is, but no saying anything until I tell the Flock. Got it?
Yes Max.
I guess we're going back to Florida. Florida would have been nice the last times except the first time we were there for Itex, and the last time we were brought to Miami to be sold during a category four hurricane. Not very good memories of Florida so far, but maybe we could change that.
I rest until the rest of the Flock wakes up. Once we ate our breakfast, I decide it's time to tell them of the plan. "Guys, we're going to South Florida. Only this time it's to have some fun, not to go after Itex." All of the younger kids look happy, Iggy is with them too, but Fang is being Fang and showing no emotion. In five minutes I'm in Fang's arms and we're in the air, headed towards Florida.
"Why Florida, Max?" I'm surprised he's even asking.
"We need a break, and Florida is nice; we just haven't had any luck while we were down there." He seems to ponder my reply for a little while.
"We might not get lucky again. We are being chased, remember?" I'm surprised he is replying. He rarely replies to anything I say.
"Yeah, I know, but the others need a break. If we even get a few days of a break, it will be nice." He just nods.
We are flying in silence for three hours, and then the Nudge Channel turns on. "Okay, so let me get this straight. We are going to South Florida again; even though the past two times we have been there we have had trouble? Or am I the only one who remembers Max II replacing Max, the hologram machine, the hole in the wall of Itex because of Iggy and Gazzy's bomb? Also the weird robot human thing that was trying to sell us, and then the category four hurricane that smashed open the windows so that the building was destroyed and we almost died from being out in the air during it? Am I the only one who remembers those things? Well, am I? No one seems to be- humph." Iggy. Man, I am thankful that he puts his hand over her mouth so often. Otherwise my ears would be dead already.
"Nudge, we all remember those things. We are just hoping that this time will be different, or at least easier." She nods at my response and stays quiet.
An hour later though she says, "I'm hungry." Of course she is; she's always the first one hungry.
"Let's find a place to eat at. Fang, any place you can see?" He's looking at the ground and points to a town about two miles ahead of us, and we head towards it. This time we get our food and get right back into the air. As we fly we eat, everyone except Fang that is. I'm still in his arms, so he can't eat. "Fang, why doesn't Iggy carry me for a little? You need to eat."
He shrugs while saying, "I don't feel like I need food for some reason." That confuses me, but I let it go.
We do one more food stop and this time I make Fang eat while we walk, though I'm using Iggy so that I don't fall over, so that he gets his energy. When we stop that night at another well hidden cave in Alabama, I make sure he eats a little more than the rest. We stack fists and everyone but Fang and I go to sleep.
"Fang, are you sure you aren't tired? You just carried me all day in your arms, with only our normal breaks." I watch him to see if I can tell how he will react.
He shakes his head and says, "I told you before, I'm not tired for some reason." I look at him closely and realize his breathing is completely normal and he doesn't look any more tired then he normally would. It's weird, but I decided to forget it.
"Good night." I fall asleep; healing is wearing me out.
I wake up because Fang taps my hand. "What's wrong?" I whisper so quietly he can barely hear me. He just points out the cave entrance and I see why he woke me. He's pointing at the other flock and Max II. They are flying just outside of the cave. The problem is that we can't get out with them up there because they will see us leave. "How do we get out with them up there?" Fang points to the other end of the cave, so I look in that direction and see a crevice in the wall just large enough for all of us to squeeze through, one-by-one.
I nod and he starts to tap the hands of the others. I start to stand up and find out that I can without any pains or anything, so I open my wing. It's stiff, but I can fly again. We are in business. We pack up our stuff and I lead us to the crevice. I squeeze through it and find that's its long, so it takes us about five minutes to get to the end. When I get out I find myself in another cave, but this one has no flock or Max II flying out side of it.
I help the rest of my Flock get out of the crevice and we go to the cave entrance. I fly outside and look around a little. I see no other flock or Max II so I motion for my Flock to come out, but to stay low like I am. They do just that. We fly off to the Southeast some more, but this time we are more careful and keep our senses open.
After an hour of flying safely, we start to relax a little. That is our mistake. Half an hour later, out of nowhere, Max II hits me directly on my side, almost making me fall out of the sky. Everyone turns to see the other flock is back as well, and they brought some Eraser friends. I move back to my Flock, and we prepare ourselves for another battle. Gazzy and Iggy had been making more bombs last night, so I know we have one line of defense ready. I decide to use it now.
Angel, don't reply, just tell Gazzy and Iggy to take care of the Erasers as fast as they can. Then tell Fang and Nudge to join the two of us and take out the flock and Max II.
She doesn't reply but Iggy and Gazzy are already taking out bombs and headed towards the Erasers. The rest of us head towards the flock and Max II instead. I fall behind my group a little and watch as Iggy and Gazzy take out ten Erasers at a time with each bomb they throw. Good thing that they made thirty-five bombs because there are 200 Erasers there, and we will need the spares for the Flock and Max II.
Then I turn my attention back to the rest. Both Maxes are headed my way, but they are flying from opposite sides, so I just wait. Then at the last second I tuck my wings in and they smash into each other. That has got to hurt, I think as I unfurl my wings. That must have hurt because they start to fall like rocks when they forget to flap. I take that as my chance to go help Nudge who is having some troubles.
I must be a surprise to Matthew because I come out of nowhere and punch him in the face. Nudge smiles gratefully at me for a second and then switches to Icarus while I take care of Matthew. He aims a kick at me, but I dodge it and kick him in the stomach instead. He drops ten feet before he soars back up again, trying to punch me in the leg. Instead of hitting my leg, he hits my foot which is kicking at this hand. I actually feel something break, and he yells in pain. I kick him between his wings, and he falls like a rock.
That's when the two Maxes come back again. Matthew is out of the fight, but these two had just needed to regroup. This time they come at me at a right angle. I do the same thing as before, and they fell, again. I don't understand why they aren't trying something new, but I don't have time to think about it very much.
This time I go help Angel because she can't seem to use her mind control on Ozy and Frannie. I punch Frannie in between her wings so fast that she doesn't even know what hit her. She also falls like a rock, but comes right back up… into my kick to her face. I knock her unconscious, and she falls again.
This time Ozy doesn't look for more than a few seconds. He goes straight back to fighting Angel. The only difference is that Angel seems to be able to use her mind on him this time. That's when an idea comes to me, and I wish that it hadn't.
I fly towards Angel and ask her a series of questions while we fight, "Can you read the minds of the rest of them?" She shakes her head. "Is his mind different then a mind normally would be?"
She nods and says, "There is this weird feeling in his mind, and his mind is pushing at it."
Everything clicks in my mind. "Help him!"
She seems to concentrate for a few minutes while I take over the fight completely, and then both of their faces relax. "Thank you so much! But now we need to do that to the rest of my flock!" Ozymandias says in a very out of place relief to anyone who doesn't know what had just happened.
"Okay, Angel. I think what we have to do is hurt them enough that their minds break open just enough for you two to slip in and help their minds get control. I think Matthew and Frannie are hurt enough to be freed. Ozy, what was controlling you?"
Angel nods at me while Ozy replies, "This weird robot human thing." Interesting… sounds like the Director thing that brought us to Miami.
"Okay, well you both go and handle Matthew and Frannie. Let me know when you're done. I'll leave Fang and Nudge to their fights, but let them know so that they make sure they don't hurt them until you guys are ready to help them. Gazzy and Iggy are fine taking care of the Erasers. I'm going to handle our two Maxes." They both nod and dive down towards Matthew and Frannie.
I look around until I see the two Maxes coming at me with punches. I roll my eyes and block them. As I block all of the punches, I can imagine what they thing controlling them is thinking. 'Why isn't she hurting them, or making them hurt each other?' That makes me smile as I fight. After five minutes, Angel tells me they are done with Matthew and Frannie, so I ask her to tell Nudge to hurt Icarus enough so that he falls to the ground, and she tells her.
A minute later I hear Icarus falling towards the ground, but Angel and Ozy catch him and start to help his mind fight. This time it takes only two minutes and then I have her tell Fang to hurt one of the two twins. When that happens and Peter, who Fang had hurt, was done, Angel just tells him directly to hurt Wendy. Once he and Nudge are both done, they start to come towards me, but I call out to them, "No, I'll deal with them." They both shrug and go to be by Angel and the other flock on the group.
The two Maxes are punching and kicking at me like crazy, it's taking most of my concentration just to block. I push both of them away from me a little, and that's when Angel tells me she and Ozy are ready for one of the Maxes. Max II recovers first and comes at me, but this time I kick her in the stomach, hard. Then I kick her between the wings, and she falls like a rock into Fang's waiting arms.
The other Max starts to come at me, very fast and hard. It seems like whoever is controlling them doesn't want to lose her. I dodge and block, but never hit back. When Angel lets me know they want the other Max, I have a hard time hitting her when I try. That's when I decide to have Angel tell Fang to come up here and hit her from behind while I'm distracting her. He does just that, and so we all go down to the ground.
Gazzy and Iggy come down with us because they had just finished off the last of the Erasers. Angel had told them what was going on, so we all just wait for Ozy and Angel to finish up with the other Max. Everyone else is down here and not fighting. I guess I was correct in thinking that if we forced the control away, we would have a new team. Once the other Max is free, she and Max II go over to the side to talk with me.
"Do either of you know where all of this is happening this time?" I ask the two Maxes. The other Max shrugs, but Max II says, "Just outside a city called Weston in South Florida. I think in the Everglades." I look at both of them and decide that they should come with. "Want to come with us?" They both look up at me, relieved.
We go back to the rest of the group, and tell them, "We are going to the Everglades in South Florida. That's where everything seems to be happening this time. Let's get going." And we take off towards Florida, and our next adventure.
My longest chapter so far. I hope you enjoyed it. It took a little bit to write, but it is another plot changer. This plot will take some twist and turns, but I hope you all start to catch on. I don't want to ruin it for you.
I have to say one thing to Figgy Max. I know I changed the tense, and I fixed that in the earlier chapters after I saw your review. Thanks for the critique, it really helps.
Review Please!!
Edited: 10/10/09