AN: Hey, guys, it's me again. :P Did you miss me?

I'm sorry I took so long to review; things are very hectic during winter break for me. :( It's my birthday, though, and I'm sick, so you should be very grateful for this update and review a ton. ;P

Enjoy!

DISCLAIMER: Maximum Ride belongs to James Patterson.

CLAIMER: Any new plot ideas and characters in this story are mine, unless otherwise noted.

Chapter Twenty-Five

"Shoot," I muttered, pausing in the air and watching the Flyboys approach. They just loved to come at bad times, didn't they?

"Do you guys know how to fight?" Fang called out to Serena and Jayden. They looked at the Flyboys a bit warily, but nodded.

"Yeah," Jayden replied, clenching his fists and gluing his eyes on the approaching creatures.

"Good, 'cause now would not be a good time to learn," I said. The furry robots swarmed in front of us, their metallic wings beating hard to keep them stationary in the air.

"Surrender," they commanded in unison.

"Do we have to go through this every time?" I asked. "We'll never surrender." The Flyboy in the front locked his eyes on mine.

"Then we will take you by force."

The Flyboys all charged at once, looking more like a herd of wild animals than robots. I lost track of the rest of the Flock as the Flyboys surrounded us; the only thing I could see was metal.

I began throwing punches every chance I got, taking down as many Flyboys I could. Luckily, they were the batch with the bad knees. Flyboy after Flyboy fell, and soon there was a pile of them littering the ground. The area around me thinned, and I could see the others.

Even though the Flyboys had weak knees, they were strong. All of us were suffering several injuries; just black eyes and bruises, though, nothing very serious. Our strategy? Get beat up, find a chance to hit their knees, and make them fall to the earth, several hundred feet below. Worked like a charm.

"Max!" Fang called out from below me. "Serena and Jayden need help!" I glanced over to the newest members, who couldn't seem to get any punches in. I made sure my original Flock was all right, then followed Fang to Jayden and Serena.

"Just kick them in the knees!" I yelled, starting to take down the Flyboys surrounding them. They tried, but still only managed to defeat one or two each. The Flyboys seemed to realize that Jayden and Serena were the weakest members of the Flock, and were all ganging up on them. Iggy and Nudge came over to help, while Angel and Gazzy fought the stragglers.

"Fire in the hole!" Gazzy suddenly shouted, making everyone, including Jayden and Serena, stop mid-punch and look up at him. His small hands were fumbling with some wires on a bomb, and his forehead was scrunched up in concentration. I gasped as the air got knocked out of me, pulling me back to the fact that we were surrounded by Flyboys.

"Move!" I commanded, pushing Serena and Jayden out of the way. The rest of the Flock followed, everyone pulling their wings in and diving to get shelter under the trees.

We touched ground several hundred yards to the side of were we had been fighting, not wanting to be showered by Flyboy bits. I sunk to the ground once we stopped, tired and sore, Nudge and Angel sliding to the ground beside me. Iggy remained standing and began to pace, waiting for the bomb to off. Fang approached Jayden and Serena, his expression dangerous.

"I thought you said you could fight," Fang growled. I let my head drop into my hands with an exasperated sigh; I was too tired to stop Fang from fighting with them.

Iggy's head quickly snapped back, forgetting about the bomb as he saw Fang approaching Serena. "Leave her alone! They probably know how to fight; they're just not that good at it yet," he said, stepping in front of her defensively.

Fang glared at Iggy, having a silent fight with him. His fists were balled in tight fists by his sides. When Iggy didn't back down, Fang turned his back on him and walked several feet away.

"They put us in danger. That wouldn't have happened if we knew they weren't good fighters. We would've covered them from the beginning," he said, his back turned on the Flock as he searched the sky through an opening in the canopy.

"You're just over-reacting because you don't like them! You're jealous of them!"

Fang seemed to not hear Iggy's comment. His body froze, and his fists loosened, hanging limply by his sides. He cursed under his breath.

"Gazzy's still up there!" he exclaimed, turning to face us so quickly I was surprised he didn't get whiplash. My eyes quickly scanned the forest for the little pyro, but I couldn't find him. How could we not notice that he was missing?

I jumped up from my spot on the ground and was at Fang's side in an instant, searching through the metal-filled sky for Gazzy.

"Should we go help him?" Nudge asked, not sure if she was supposed to risk going in right as he set off the bomb.

"No. He'll get the bomb to work, and then we'll all be fried. He just needs a minute," Iggy said, listening intently for any sign of him. I knew that Iggy was right, but as I nearly jumped into the air to help him as I laid my eyes on him.

His tiny fingers were still fumbling with the wires, and the Flyboys were using that to their advantage. He was doing little flips in the air, dodging as many punches as he could, but he wasn't able to keep his eyes on them, and got hit repeatedly. The Flyboys were trying to destroy the bomb in his hands, which he held in front of his abdomen protectively. They weren't able to hit the bomb, but he got hit in the stomach repeatedly as they missed.

I watched as Gazzy's bruised face lit up in a smile. He connected one more wire, let go of the bomb, and allowed it to drop it into the mass of Flyboys surrounding him. He shot up into the clouds, trying to get out of the way, but he was too slow and the bomb was too fast.

The fire from the explosion shot up, engulfing his small frame. The tips of his wings got scorched, and he began to fall.

AN: All right, chapter 25 is FINALY done. I've been writing snipets of it for the past two weeks. Urgh.

Anyway, I wrote a one-shot that you guys should check out. It's not related to this at all, but it's kind of faxy and sweet. :P It's called 2,000 Miles. Just go to my profile to get to it, if you're too lazy to look through the listing like me. :P

I hope this chapter turned out all right. I stink at writing fighting scenes, I'm sick, and I'm tired. (I only got four hours of sleep. Me+Little SleepEvil Person) Like I've said before, I'm writing this for quantity, not quality. I just want to finish a novel length story. It's HARD!

Please review, or I might take even longer to post next time:P