Disclaimer: I do not own Maximum Ride. Anyone up for a night flight?

Asch made it to the Martinez house. Immediately, he became alarmed when he saw the yard littered with unconscious or dead Erasers.

"Dr. Martinez!" called Asch. There was no answer. Asch was really concerned now.

"Dr. Martinez!" he called again. Still no answer.

He ran to the door but found it was locked. He banged on the door calling for Dr. Martinez. There was still no answer.

He was really getting scared now. He was starting to fear the worst. Without really thinking, he broke down the door with ease. "Dr. Martinez, where are you? Are you home?!"

Dr. Martinez came out from around a corner with a metal poker in her hands, ready to swing away. "What do you want?" she said.

"Whoa, hang on Dr. M," said Asch, "It's me, it's Asch."

Dr. Martinez stared at Asch for a moment. Ella came around the corner and looked at Asch. "It's okay Mom," she said, "It's Max's friend Asch. He's the one who gave us the note to give to Max."

After another moment, Dr. Martinez put down the poker. "Oh, it is you," she said, "I didn't recognize you."

"Are you two all right?" asked Asch, "I saw the mess outside. Did Max and the others do that?"

"Yeah, just as they were leaving, those Erasers came out to attack them. Max told us to find a way to be safe, so me and Ella have been hiding out in a panic room I had built a couple years ago."

"Leaving? Where're they going?"

"They said they were going to Montana. Somebody gave them some kind of clue that Max thinks means they were supposed to go there. I think she said it some manor where they were supposed to go to."

"Fang," Asch muttered to himself.

"So what are you going to do now?" asked Ella.

"I have to go after Max. She's heading someplace very dangerous and she's going to need my help. Thanks for telling me where she is. You two stay safe in that panic room. Don't open the door for anybody unless it's me or Max."

"All right," said Dr. Martinez.

Asch started to walk out the door, but then something was wrong. All of a sudden, his head felt like a lead weight. Then he couldn't feel his legs, and he collapsed on the floor.

And then there was darkness.

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We had just crossed the border into Montana. I still had my sense of direction, so I still remembered which way to get to the manor.

Iggy flew up next to me. "So, what do you think happened to Fang?"

The thought about Fang stabbed into my mind like a knife. There was so much that was going on, I didn't think of what might have happened to him.

"I don't know," I said, "but I really hope he's all right."

"You really miss him, don't you?"

I couldn't believe I said the next words that passed through my lips. "More than you could know."

"Do you think Asch knows what happened to Fang? Anne Walker made it sound like that?"

"I don't know. I mean, why would he lie to us about Fang when he's been clean with us about everything else? It just… it just doesn't make sense."

"Well, I have a theory about that."

"What?"

"Umm… you may not like it. It's probably not true but I think we should consider it a possibility."

"What is it?"

"Maybe he wasn't telling you about Fang because… he doesn't want you and Fang to be… together."

"What do you mean?" I asked as I noticed that Nudge and Gazzy were coming closer to listen to Iggy's theory.

"He could be jealous of you and Fang. Maybe he didn't tell us because he may like you the way you and Fang like each other."

I suddenly remembered my conversation with Asch a couple days ago on the roof. It seemed like ages ago. When he told me he loved me, but he accepted me and Fang.

"No, no," I said, "That doesn't sound like Asch. We've talked to each other about this before. He wouldn't do something like that."

"Well," said Gazzy, "I may say I don't want chocolate so I don't blow you guys away. It doesn't mean I don't like chocolate."

"No, guys, you don't know what you're saying. Asch is not like that. If he does know where Fang is, I'm sure he has a perfectly good reason for not telling us. He wouldn't do anything like that. There is a reason!"

I could feel myself getting hysterical. I didn't mean to. It was just that the thought of Asch lying to me was upsetting.

"Calm down Max," said Iggy, "you're probably right. And for all we know, Anne might have been lying to try and confuse us. I'm just saying, we shouldn't overlook any possibilities."

After a few seconds, I said, "Yeah, I guess you're right, but Asch wouldn't do that."

"Okay, Max, I was just saying."

A few minutes later, I could see the manor down below and we started to make our decent. We landed in front of the door of the manor.

"So what exactly are we looking for?" asked Nudge.

"Anything out of the ordinary," I said, "Anything that stands out that we may not have noticed the last time we were here."

"Oh, that should narrow it down," said Iggy, "We only come across things out of the ordinary everyday."

"Too bad you'll never get the chance," said a voice that came from behind us.

We all looked behind us. There were dozens of Erasers standing behind us. Behind them was a bunch of Lily's rifts. Jeb must have sent them to either to destroy the manor or destroy us. Or it could have been both. Who knew how he operated?

The Erasers started to come after us. I started taking them down with hard kicks and punches. Iggy managed to grab some and started breaking limbs like nobody's business. Nudge and Gazzy were able to make quick movements to dodge them. I never liked killing my enemies, but this was getting serious. The Erasers weren't just determined to kill us, they were bent on it. We had no choice now.

After a lot of blood and sweat, we were able to take out all of the Erasers. But then, five rifts opened up, and dozens more Erasers came running out of them. They immediately came after us.

This wave was a lot worse. We took a lot more hits. Iggy got a three big slashes across his face. I took a punch in my stomach that knocked the wind right out of me. But they still couldn't stand up to us because we still managed to kick their butts.

We were getting worn out. I couldn't take much more.

But sure enough, more rifts opened up and more Erasers came running out. We needed help, big time.

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Asch woke up feeling like he'd been hit by a train. As he opened his eyes, he found that he was lying on a couch in a house. At first he was about to panic because he didn't know where he was. But then he remembered he had come to Dr. Martinez's house and talked to them, and then just passed out.

"Mom," said Ella, who was standing by the couch, "he's waking up."

Dr. Martinez walked into the room with a glass in her hand. It had something in it with ice floating in it.

"How are you feeling?" she asked.

"All right, I guess," said Asch, "What happened?"

"You were about to leave when you just passed out on the floor. Here drink this." She handed Asch the glass. He took a drink of the cold liquid. It was water.

"Have you been… expending a lot of energy lately?" Dr. Martinez asked.

Asch thought for a few seconds. It suddenly made perfect sense to him. All the fighting he did in the Facility and then the hyper-fast trip to the house. It took way more out of him than his body could take. He always forgot that his super-speed wasn't meant for long distance trips, only for fighting.

"Yeah, I have. This has happened to me before, but it was never this bad. I was in this major fight that I went really crazy with, and then I used my speed to get myself here, which I shouldn't have done. But I was in a hurry."

"Well, there you go," said Dr. Martinez, "Don't try to do that anymore. Or you might fall down and never get up."

Asch took another gulp of the water. It really helped. When he used his fire a little too much at a time, his body tended to overheat sometimes. But because of his pyrokinesis, he could never get heat exhaustion or heat stroke. "I'll keep that in mind Doc."

"So is Max really in danger?" asked Ella.

"Yeah, and she needs my help. I gotta get over there now." Asch started to get up, but Dr. Martinez came over and stopped him.

"No, you should stay here and rest a little more," she said, "You were only out for about a half-an-hour. No way have you gotten your energy back fully yet."

Asch lay down for a few minutes longer and finished his water. But he couldn't fight it anymore. Dr. Martinez was out of the room and Ella was on the other side of the room.

He used his speed to get off the couch and out of the house. Ella didn't even realize he was gone until it was too late.

Asch took to the air. He knew he shouldn't have, but he used his hyper-speed to get to Montana. He had to get to Max before it was too late.

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