Disclaimer: I do not own Maximum Ride. Are these disclaimers hypnotizing, mesmerizing, or boring?

The next morning, I woke up feeling restless. For a minute, I thought that I was still at the Counter-Breed home, and everything was all right. But as I slowly lifted my head from the pillow, I realized that the room I was in was in was different from the guest room. It was my own small little room. And then I suddenly remembered everything that happened yesterday.

I was in one of Dr. Martinez's rooms. She had a large house and there were enough bedrooms for all of us.

I couldn't really sleep that much. As tired as I was, I just couldn't fall asleep. All the events of yesterday just kept replaying in my mind. And then there was the fact that I missed Fang. I really, really wanted him here, right now. I needed him to tell me that it was going to be all right, that he would be there beside me. But I was alone.

I got out of bed and meandered my way through the house. I was just not 100, and it takes a lot to make me feel that way. I found the stairs and went down them.

The others were in the dining room. I could smell something cooking in the kitchen. Dr. Martinez must have been making breakfast.

I sat down with the others at the table and put my head in my hands.

"Rough night?" asked Gazzy.

"Yeah," I said.

"We couldn't really sleep either," said Iggy, "Way too much on our minds."

"This is way too much."

"I know we'll figure something out Max," said Nudge, "We've been in tough spots before, and we'll get out of this one. I know we can. I know that you'll lead us out."

"Yeah, but we've never been in this tough a spot before. I don't have my Voice to tell me what to do anymore…" I couldn't believe I was missing my Voice "… Fang is still gone, Asch, the only person who's been able to help us understand all of this, is gone. Guys, we're on our own."

"But we can do it," said Iggy, "Any statistic in the world would say that we should be dead right now. But we're alive. Every time it looked like we were gonna die, we defied the odds and survived. Now I know it looks bad Max, but we can do it. We're gonna find Fang, we're gonna find Asch, we're gonna rescue Angel and Lily, and we're going to stop Itex."

I couldn't believe it. My flock was encouraging me, giving me hope. Usually it was me doing it; the hope was false more than once. I don't know if there's was, but they were still giving it to me, and it was working.

"Thanks guys," I said, "that's actually helping me feel better."

"Okay," said Gazzy, "now that we've had our encouraging, heartfelt moment, can we eat?"

We all couldn't help but laugh a little bit.

After a moment, Dr. Martinez walked into the room with a huge plate of pancakes and a pot full of corned beef hash. "Okay, dig in, everyone." She sat down and we really did dig in.

We all managed to share some small talk about what our next move was going to be.

"Well, I did some thinking about it," I said, "And I think we're supposed to go to that manor in the photo."

"What makes you think that?" asked Ella.

"I don't know, but there must be something there for someone to give us a photo of it. I can't help but think that that guy wants us to go there."

"But when we were there before," said Nudge, "we didn't see anything that stood out for us, except that note."

"True, but we weren't exactly looking for anything there, except for the exit."

"So if we go back there," said Gazzy, "you think we'll find something we need, or need to know."

"It's better than doing nothing, and I think it's our best bet."

"It seems to make sense," said Iggy, "I say we go for it."

"Yeah, let's do it," said Nudge.

"You guys are going to break our hearts if you keep doing this," said Dr. Martinez with a smile on her face, "You keep coming here, you stay for a tiny bit and tell us all of this amazing stuff, and then you just up and leave. I don't know if I can take this."

"After we stop Itex," I said, "I think we'd like to stay here for a lot longer."

"And we'd really like you to stay here a lot longer," said Ella.

"I promise, we will. And we'll have Fang and Angel, and Asch and Lily too. If you don't mind them staying here, that is. I hate to keep bringing more children on you Dr. Martinez."

She raised her hand to stop me. "I would love to have them stay here Max. I'll have to make some more room, but I think we can manage. Besides, all the more company for Ella."

"Mom," said Ella, "don't make me sound like I'm pitiful."

"I'm sorry sweetheart, but I needed a scapegoat for an excuse for Max to bring more company."

"Mom!"

We all began laughing. This was a lot better compared to the funk that we were all in earlier.

After we ate, we all showered and got dressed. The flock and I had to put on our dirty clothes from yesterday. Iggy was right before, how we were going straight back to the old days.

About an hour later, we were ready to leave for Montana. We all were outside saying our goodbyes. Dr. Martinez and Ella each gave us about thirty hugs.

"Well, good luck," said Dr. Martinez, "we'll be praying for you."

"Th-thanks," I said, "We'll be back, with the others."

"Bye, Max," said Ella, "Be safe."

"We will, goodbye."

We all got ready to take off, or at least I made the others look like they were about to take off. As soon as Dr. Martinez closed the door, I straightened out and yelled towards the bushes not too far away from the house.

Just then, about twenty Erasers came out of the bushes. They had been sitting there, waiting ever since we came outside to leave.

"Very good Max," said one of the Erasers.

"What are you doing here?" I demanded.

"What else?" said the same Eraser. I assumed he was leading this pack. "We're here for you. Now are you going to surrender quietly or do we have to take you by force?"

"You must be new, otherwise, you'd know that we're not just gonna give up."

"Wait a minute," said Iggy, "How'd you find us? We know for sure Itex had no idea about this place."

"That's true," said the lead Eraser, "we didn't know until very recently. You're friend Asch told us."

"Asch?!" we all cried.

"Yeah, he can be quite the talker given the proper… applications."

"What do you mean? What did you do to him?"

"Not much. A couple of segments in an isolation tank and some truth serum would make anybody do anything we want."

They put Asch in the isolation tank. I couldn't believe that those bastards were still using such an inhumane device. Thinking about it put a shiver down my body. I remembered how I was put in that thing. The emptiness and numbness I felt was really scary. At one point when I was in it, I even thought I was dead. And now that was happening to Asch.

"You bastards!" I yelled, "How can you do such a thing?!"

"Quite easily. Now, enough chatter. Are you coming with us or not?"

"Hell no."

And with that the four of us took on the group of twenty Erasers. Overall, they weren't bad odds for us. But if we had, say, two more fighters with us, it might have gone smoother.

All I could think of was just tearing through any and all Erasers that were in my way. I had a lot of frustration that I had built up in the last couple of days that I was glad to finally alleviate. All my rage was giving me the worst case of tunnel vision.

I just know that not one Eraser managed to touch me. I was cracking their skulls and punching into ribs and breaking arms and necks. I didn't really keep track of how the others were handling themselves, but I was sure that they would be fine.

After the battle, there were dead Erasers all over the ground of Dr. Martinez's yard. We all gathered together to make sure that we were all right. Everyone had a couple of scratches and one or two bruises, but overall, we were all right.

Dr. Martinez came out of the door and came running towards us. "Are you all right?" she cried.

"We're fine," I said, "Itex knows about this place now. We have to leave for Montana now. And you and Ella should go and hide somewhere. Or, just don't come out of the house. Do you have a panic room?"

"Don't worry, we'll be safe. You guys just hurry."

"Okay, guys, U and A."

We all spread our wings and took to the air. This was just great. Itex had Angel, Lily, and Asch. And they were using Asch to get information. And God knew he knew everything there was to know.

We had to hurry. Time was running out. And Itex was getting closer and closer to accomplishing their goal.

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