Next part, sorry it's taken a while..sort of gone braindead about what to do next. My bad! Lol, anyway glad you're still liking the story, I'm sorry for MysticalPearl who didn't like my last chapter, I hope this one is better for you! I really do, if it isn't you have my permission to shoot me or tell me what's wrong with it! Take your pick lol. Also, is anyone else having trouble when they upload new chapters? 'Cause, usually, I get an email straight away notifying me but now it takes forever to come and forever for the story to appear on the actual site... confusing :S. Anyways, thanks for getting me to 73!! Please review!
Disclaimer: Do not own Maximum Ride, only own Phoeno, who you all hate, which is fine! (Y)
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Phoeno's POV:
I couldn't sleep last night. Jeb kept running through my mind, his advice, his plans…. his face. I wish he could have said goodbye when he left, it was all so sudden. I just woke up one morning and he was gone. But it made me stronger, I trained harder without him there, I became better without him there, just to prove that I was good enough for him. His departure made me want to save the world even more, him leaving me made me want to follow through on our plans even more. I knew it was what he wanted and I was going to do it, for him.
An invisible evil smell filled my nostrils and I quickly covered my nose to save me from choking. I looked round alarmed, was someone trying to kill us by gassing us? Confusion swam through me as I watched Fang take a swipe at Gasman while successfully keeping his nose covered. Oh I'd just found the reason for his name, I guess.
"Sorry!" The Gasman yelled, although with the devilish grin on his face he looked nothing but sorry.
Max was the first to take the first breath of the air testing it for the rest of us. Must be fun being leader.
"Okay I reckon we've passed the danger of sudden death." She informed the rest of us and we all tentatively removed our hands from our noses. "I'm serious Gazzy if you need to, go somewhere away from us, otherwise next time, I might have to kill you."
Gazzy's eyes widened and everyone laughed. Well, everyone except me. Nothing Max says is funny, believe me.
"I think it's time to move on, I'm thinking West." This time my eyes widened.
She just has to ruin everything, doesn't she? I have to keep everyone here for the plan to work; Erasers are going to collect the bodies when I'm done. Numerous plans flew through my mind as I watched everyone start shrugging their backpacks on their shoulders…Crap.
Max's POV:
"We can't go West!" Phoeno blurted out. I took a double take, I almost laughed, was she undermining my decision?
"Excuse me?" My attitude coming across plain and clear. My lips came together and I folded my arms, looking down on her. Taking a glance back at my flock they all looked a bit alarmed: in our world, my word was what happened, unless Fang decided otherwise but that hardly ever happened. I winced at the memory of him leaving me. Shaking it off I looked back at her.
"It's just…." She faltered and my eyes narrowed at her, "Well…" She started biting her nails, I was getting the distinct feeling she was about to make something up. Out of the corner of my eye Fang's arms folded over his chest and I saw Nudge put on a bored expression. Man I love these guys.
Apparently Phoeno had had enough time to think through her lie as she carried on, this time with no blunders.
"Well at the School, I heard Mark and Jason saying that there was a company West of here that were even more dangerous than the School, that they were trying more dangerous recombinants and had advanced plans for world destruction."
I frowned deeply. I could see so many faults in this lie it was like someone had stuck a huge red banner above her head saying in black bold letters 'I'm lying!'. Apparently the flock thought so too as I saw Angel's head cock to the side, Gazzy frown and shift his eyes sideways, Iggy stifling a laugh and Fang did an awkward cough that broke the silencing, making me want to laugh. For those who can't see the faults, I'll do a little run through for you. Numero one: okay who is she trying to kid Mark and Jason? I mean we grew up in the School so we know that whitecoats never give you their name. And what, you're thinking they may have used their names in a conversation, which was a careless mistake? Wrong answer. Careless mistakes do not happen in the School. Hello! We're talking about a place that grafts animal DNA into humans and makes super babies and brains on sticks… they can't afford careless mistakes! Two: Remembering what I just said about careless mistakes and the School, do you really think they'd have some conversation about another institute and their plans in front of an experiment? If you guessed no, have a gold star! I'll wait for the cheers to die down before I continue.
Right, do I say she's lying straight away or play with her a bit? Play with her? Yeah, I thought so too.
"Oh! Mark and Jason said that did they? And who would they be?" I watched her face cloud with fear.
"Well, the scientists…" She said uncertainly.
"Did they? And you were so friendly with the people who tortured you regularly?" I didn't wait for an answer, turning to my flock I said, "So who thinks she's lying? Let's take a vote, raise your hands if you think she is."
Everyone's hand raised in the air along with Total standing up on his back legs.
"In case you can't tell, I'm voting she's lying." Total said bitterly, I honestly think he hates being a dog sometimes. Weird.
I turned back to Phoeno, and smiled as Iggy stated "Busted."
"Rule number one, in my flock we don't lie. Rule number two we do what I say. So, now you know the rules, answer accordingly, why can't we go West?" My tone was one the flock knew all too well; it was the "I'm expecting you to give a truthful answer and you will give it in the next 10 seconds or face the consequences" tone. You don't want to mess with it. The flock looked from me to her, expecting explosives, which there would be if she didn't answer in about 4 seconds.
Phoeno's POV:
Bugger. My hate for this girl is rising rapidly, I will be glad to take her out. On the spot thinking, remember what Jeb taught you, always look believable and confident. I sagged my shoulders and looked at the floor, as though I was upset at being caught out and didn't want to tell them the real reason, as if.
"Well I saw these papers once at the School and it said that my real parents live not far East of here…" I looked up at them, my face hopeful, god I am a good actress, "And I, sort of, wanted to go find them. I'm sorry for lying earlier and for lying when we first met about not caring who my parents were, I really am." I watched their faces soften, what losers, they actually believed this crap that I was spouting again?
Nudge spoke first, "I know how you feel, 'cause I used to want that loads, but then I realised that Max and Fang and Iggy were here for me and that real parents aren't all they're supposed to be." She took a quick meaningful glance at the blind one, who knew nothing of it. "It still would be nice to meet them but I'm cool here now, I have everything I need." She smiled at Max, who returned it. Excuse me while I throw up, she carried on and I had to resist the urge to yawn. "But I know how you must be feeling!" I nodded in fake appreciation to her.
"You could have just said that to us." Max said suspiciously.
"I wasn't sure if that would be enough to make you stay here, sorry." There's that quick thinking coming into action.
Max's POV:
Something, instinctive I guess, made me not want to believe her, but I pushed it aside. There was a time when everyone around me wanted to find his or her parents. It's natural, until you realise they're not all they're cracked up to be, like with Iggy, or that they're almost everything you dreamed of, like me. I was lucky. Maybe we would be if it was the same with Phoeno, we could get rid of her. I guess that's the thought that made me believe her.
"Well, we'll do our best to find them for you." I smiled at her, and felt Fang's hand on my shoulder letting me know I'd done the right thing. "Looks like we're staying here for a bit then guys, at least we don't have the trouble of unpacking." God knows if these kids would ever experience having a stable home again, I just hate staying in the same place for too long a time.
"We won't be here that long," Fang said annoyingly reading my mind as he sat down close beside me our arms touching.
"I guess." I said subdued, I saw his mouth quirk up.
"No need to be too happy!" He said sounding totally un-Fang like.
I smiled at this and so did he, glad he'd achieved his goal. Nudge came racing up to me, almost too fast to stop. Fang steadied her as she almost fell into us and she smiled at him. Did I mention before she dotes of Fang? I did? Well nothing's changed there.
"Max, is it okay if we go outside and play tag?" She blurted out, so quickly the words tripped over each other. They meant tag in the air of course and I was tempted to join them, wanting some fun but I also wanted to stay with Fang. "Yeah sure, is Ig going?"
"Yup yup! You coming?" Her eyes willed me to go and I looked from her to Fang and to my surprise he jumped up, grabbing my hand and pulling me up as he went. Nudge darted in front of us, full speed and launched herself in the air, letting herself drop before spreading her wings to join the others. Fang still holding my hand pulled me forward and we dropped out of the cave together, letting go of each other to avoid our wings hitting when we unfurled. We raced each other to the rest of the flock and Phoeno.
Immediately I yelled "Gazzy's It!" and we all dispersed, our laughter being swept away by the air across the forest. It was times like this, that if I had a choice to be anywhere in the world, I wouldn't move a muscle. There was only one component I'd change… can anyone hazard a guess? There's another gold star up for grabs!
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Right, you guys were awesome last time, obviously I want 80, 85 would be very nice and well 90 would be amazing! Cheers :D