Disclaimer: I do not own Maximum Ride. And for you Fang lovers out there, chill out. He is coming.

Asch was in the kitchen pulling a pan out when Iggy and Nudge came in. "So what's for lunch?" asked Iggy.

"Steak sandwiches," answered Asch.

"Okay, point me in the right direction. I can handle steak sandwiches."

"Excuse me?"

"I can cook steak sandwiches."

"You can cook?"

"Why is everybody always surprised by that?"

"Well, even if you can, which I won't doubt, around here, I do the cookin'."

"But how can you cook steak?" asked Nudge, "You don't even have a stove or an oven in your kitchen."

Asch let out a small laugh. "Nudge, go to that basket over there and pull out the bulky rolls. Then you can watch and learn. No offense Iggy, but trust me, you'll feel this."

Asch began chopping pieces of steak while Nudge searched through the breadbasket for the bulky rolls. When she found them she came back to Asch who had the steak in the pan.

"Now check out something Emeril Lagasse dreams he could do."

Asch held the pan outward with one hand and extended his other arm. He took his index finger and pointed it up from beneath the pan. He then brought out a stream of fire and it roared as it billowed from his finger.

Nudge watched wide-eyed while Iggy staggered back a bit from the heat. They heard Asch quietly counting backward.

"Three…two…one…" the stream of fire stopped. "Now take a look," said Asch.

Asch held out the pan for Nudge to see. She looked into it. The steak slices were cooked perfectly, the juices still sizzling.

"Wow," said Nudge, "that is so cool. Iggy, you've got major competition."

"Yeah," said Iggy, "we'll see when I get a chance to cook."

"Now," said Asch, "do you want your roll plain or toasted?"

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After lunch, I was talking to Calypso and Sebastian. They were at the huge computer terminal.

"So, what is this thing for?" I asked.

"Well," said Sebastian, "this thing here is for the security system and surveillance. The other things are what we use for research or to play games or what not."

"Mostly he just uses it to play the games," said Calypso.

"So what do you research?" asked Gazzy, coming up from behind me.

"Itex mostly," said Calypso, "but we also kept tabs on you guys, trying to keep track of you so we could find you."

"But you haven't been able to find Fang?" I asked.

"For a while, we did have a track on him," said Sebastian, "but then he just fell out of our radar, like he disappeared."

I guess I had a look of disappointment on my face because then he said, "But…but don't feel bad. I mean, he obviously didn't disappear. I'm sure we'll find him."

"Man, so not even your computer can find him," I asked, starting to feel depressed.

"C'mon, Max," said Gazzy, "don't get all droopy on us. Like Sebastian said, we'll find him. We'll all be together again soon, and then it will be just like before."

I thought I saw Sebastian and Calypso exchange a look, but I couldn't be sure.

"So, what do we do now?" I asked, "I mean, besides look for Fang."

"Well," said Calypso, "We need to find out what's in that new Itex building you saw. We found a way to get in. We just haven't gotten a window of opportunity to use it yet. But now that you're here, we might be able to pull it off now that we have more people."

"We need to be careful," said Sebastian, "because if somebody found us, we wouldn't be too far away to strike. We have plans, but we'll talk about them tomorrow. You've had a rough day. Why don't you just sit back and relax for a change? Watch a couple of movies in the other room if you like."

I turned and looked around. "Wait a minute," I said, "where's Angel?"

"Oh, she went with Lily to her room," said Calypso, "They're probably playing a game or something."

"It's so nice that Angel finally has someone close to her age to talk to."

"And vice versa. As smart as Lily is, she's still a child at heart and all this can be pretty overwhelming at times."

"I know what you mean. I always feel bad that Angel has to go through all of this, especially since Itex seems to have some major interest in her."

"Yeah," said Sebastian, "we were never really able to figure out what was going on there. Our best theory is that she was supposed to be a replacement for you, but then again, why would they create a second Max?"

"Oh, yeah, Max II. I remember her. I'd prefer not to."

"I don't blame ya. Tomorrow we'll talk about what we're gonna do about Itex. We got nothing to do today, so just relax."

So I did. It was an incredibly huge change to the usual running, or flying, around that we had to do. We could all just sit back and not have to worry about anything. And we were with friends. But still, I couldn't help be a little on edge. It was just my nature.

I decided to take Sebastian's advice and watch a couple of movies on their television. They only had basic cable but it was a lot more channels than we got.

For the whole day, it was just us relaxing, talking with each other, enjoying each other's company. It was almost perfect. Almost.

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Asch's alarm went off and he quickly shut it off before it could wake anybody else up. It was two in the morning. He quickly got out of bed and threw on a pair of jeans, slip-ons, and a t-shirt.

Quietly, he walked through the hall and up the stairs in the darkness, using a small flame from his finger as a guide light. He went through the living room and into the computer room. He opened the door leading to the roof and left it open so it would not lock him out as he went up the stairs.

Asch came up to the roof and leaned on the guardrail on the edge and waited. After a couple of minutes, Ari flew down and landed beside him.

"You're alive," said Ari, "Is that good news or bad news?"

"She's down in the guestroom," said Asch, "getting the most comfortable sleep she's probably ever had."

"So you didn't have to kill her."

"No, but I did try."

"What?" Ari asked, a little bit of anger in his voice.

"I fought her in the basement of the manor," Asch then started to laugh, "You never told me how resourceful she's gotten. She took a sharpened lead pipe and went Mark McGuire on my hip." He lifted his shirt to show Ari his bandaged hip.

"And this is funny?" Ari asked after looking at the wound.

"I'm just glad I lost the fight, because Max wasn't being used by Itex."

"I told you that you could trust Doc."

"You were right, and I apologize for not having more faith in you."

"Don't worry about it. If I was in your position, I probably wouldn't have trusted him either. So, what happens now?"

"We're planning on breaking in to that new Itex building over there tomorrow," said Asch, pointing to it.

Ari looked over to it, his enhanced abilities allowing him to see the lit sign on the building without needing binoculars or to squint. After a moment, he said, "That name still makes my skin crawl just a little bit, knowing what they're trying to do. They are just evil. Anything about that place is evil."

"Amen."

"How do you plan to get in there?"

"We've got a plan. It'll work better now that we have Max and the others. They've been inside several Itex buildings. They'll know what to look out for. Of course, you could help too if you join us."

"You know I can't do that Asch."

"Oh, c'mon. Just come in here and explain everything to her. She wouldn't feel any differently about you, neither would anyone else."

"Asch, I can't let her see me."

"I hope you understand how much it hurts me to lie to my best friend. But I do it for you, because I promised you. But you really should come in and tell her. And do you know what she would tell you? She would say that you're still Fang no matter what."

Ari grabbed Asch by the neck. "Don't call me that!" he yelled, "I'm not Fang, not anymore!" He suddenly realized what he was doing and let go.

"Sorry," he said, "It's the Boost, it raises my aggression."

"It's all right," said Asch, rubbing his neck, "but you need to talk to her. I know you took it in order to kill Ari so you could save Max. I understand that, she will too."

"I'll talk to her when I'm ready. Right now, I'm just glad to know that she's all right. You take good care of her."

"You got it. I'll try to look for a counter medicine for Boost too."

"I appreciate that. Thanks for helping Max. I'll see you later." With that Ari unfurled his wings and took off into the night.

Asch watched him fly away. "Good luck… Fang," he said.

R&R C'mon, don't be shy.