Chapter 2
A/N: All right, here's some more of that FAX tension I promised, and... Maxx ?
Thanks for the reviews guys, hope this doesn't disappoint you.
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The flock trudged through the dark residential streets of the small town in South Carolina on their way to the small abandoned supply warehouse that they had been calling home for the past week. When they reached the building, Iggy picked the lock and he, Fang, Nudge, Gazzy, and Total, piled in, but Angel held Max back at the door.
"What is it Ange?" Max only had to bend slightly to be eye level with the girl that was half her age. Guess that means I'm about done growing huh? Max thought, knowing Angel could hear her.Angel grinned, then her face grew serious again. That worried Max.
"Fang wants you to talk to him." Angel said simply.
Ok. Not the type of bombshell I was expecting...but huh.
"You mean he wants to talk to me? The other doesn't make sense."
"No. He doesn't want you to argue with Total when your upset or something, he wants you to talk to him."
Arrogant male. Such a guy. Thinks he can solve my problems. Yeah right
"Did he tell you this or did you get it from his head?"Max asked before Angel could decipher her thoughts.
"His head...and his face, when he was watching you and Total fight."
"His face?" Max asked skeptically. His face is impossible to read.
"Not as impossible as you think."Angel smirked.
"Stop that!" Max scolded, but grinned.
"What?" Angel asked innocently.
"Reading my mind." Max reached out and ruffled the soft blond curls on Angel's head.
"Max? Angel? You guys coming in?" the girls turned to see Fang silhouetted in the doorway.
"Yeah. Coming." Max turned slowly and headed in. Angel ran forward and ducked in under Fangs arm. Once inside she peeked around the doorframe, winked at Max and disappeared again.
"Can we talk Max?" Fang asked, stepping forward to fill the doorway and Block her from following Angel.
"I'm tired Fang, I have a headache, and I just want to sleep. There, that's my issue for the day, can that tie you over 'till tomorrow?" She tried to push past him, but he snapped out on of his large blue-black wings, to stop her. She turned to face him.
"Fang. I really don't want to go through this right now."
"I do. I'm sick of you thinking that I can't help, you." anyone else would have been screaming if they were in Fangs shoes, but he kept his voice a deep silky whisper.
"When I needed help I would have asked you! But now... I'm not so sure." Max didn't do quite as good of a job at concealing her rage. She pushed him back hard, but he was braced against the doorframe, and as Newton's laws would have it, Max was sent backwards into the opposite side of the doorframe.
Her vision swam as a spasm went from the nerve between her wings, all down her spine. Max made a choked noise and fell forward.
Stupid door hinges. Stupid Fang.
If they'd been in a more open space, she would have fallen flat, but Fang was still standing only a foot or two away. Fang caught her before she crumpled, and held her upright until he was sure she wasn't going to black out.
"You're only gonna hurt yourself this way, Max" Fang whispered, still holding her loosely. Max looked up at him, her vision finally starting to clear.
"Now I really do hate you."she muttered. This time when she shoved past him he gave, and let her go.
Max turned and stormed off to her "room".(a small office in the corner of the warehouse)
The flock -who couldn't have possibly avoided seeing the confrontation- had gathered to watch and now scattered, to avoid being a target of Max or Fangs anger.
"Iggy!" Max called over her shoulder. Iggy froze. The tone in Max's voice was enough to freeze hell over.
"When Fang and I kill each other, you're in charge. Ok? Good." And she continued on to her door, slamming it behind her.
"Ok." Iggy squeaked miserably.
"Don't worry Ig, I wont kill her, though I cant say she wont kill me, 'cuz she probably will." Fang said, brow furrowed, and rubbing the back of his neck. Idiot. Idiot. Idiot!
"Yeah, dude, that was stupid."
"Shut up Total! What do you know about anything?! Ya know what, everyone just go to bed! 'Night" Soon there was another slam as Fang entered his own office/room, leaving the others to stack fists without either of their leaders.
'At least I don't have to lead' Iggy thought as he sunk into sleep.
"Yet." Angel whispered, and suddenly it was a lot harder for Iggy to sleep.
'The nerve of him!' Max raged to the voice, hoping that it wouldn't actually find it necessary to comment. 'What part of "not now" does he not get? And in front of the others too! God!' She started rummaging through her backpack in search of an Advil.
'It wouldn't have gone so badly if you'd just cooperated for once in your life.' The voice. As always, with perfect timing.
'How many times in one day do I have to tell you I hate you? And what's that supposed to mean, anyway?' Max found the miracle pain killer and swallowed it, dry.
' You don't have to tell me you hate me Max. And what I mean is that if you would have agreed to talk to him you wouldn't have made a scene in front of the flock.'
'Wow, that's deep, voice, and you're a real pain in the ass...or brain. I just want to sleep. I hate it that he thinks I have some huge problem that I can't solve, and that he can. I mean, he doesn't know what I'm going through, how could he?' Max started pacing, waiting for the pain killer to take effect.
'He would know if you talked to him. You are here to save the world, they are here to help you. You can't save the world if you drive yourself crazy, by keeping everything penned up inside. You need to vent, you need to talk to someone, who better, than the one who's sole purpose of being is to help you?' Another of the voices famous speeches right from the pages of, "How to Save the World: For Dummies".
'And I thought you were being deep before. Well, that's a deep pile of crap. Fangs not - their not just here to help me, they're my family.' Over the course of nearly a year, the voicehad never mentioned Fang's or the rest of the flock's part in saving the world. Fang had once told Max that he and the others were just kind of redundant, but Max had always refused to believe that. But now the voice had just confirmed, Fang's conclusion, hadn't it?
'They are whatever you want to call them Max. But I find it funny that you claim to hate Fang, then you defend him and call him family, that's what I call conflict of interest.'
'That better not mean what I think it means.' She had enough problems without the voice thinking she had a crush...on Fang! 'Yeah right!'
'I said no such thing, but since you brought it up...'
'I set myself up for that one didn't I?'
'You didn't pull away at first, you could have, but you let him hold you. You liked it. He's not a little boy anymore Max, and he cares for you, more than you know. And notice that he's the one you defended first?'
'Well yeah he's no little boy - I mean, when did he get so tall, and strong, and-'
'And hansom?' the voice interjected.
'No! Ya know what, I'm not talking to you anymore. I don't like where this is going.' Max shook her head to try and clear the image of Fang from her mind. It didn't work so well.
A few minutes later, as Max was finally nodding off, the voice spoke again.
'There's something you need to see Maximum.'
Max blinked then covered her head with her sweatshirt, too tired to realize that the noise was coming from inside her head.
x
"Hey Dog-breath! Gonna share any of that sandwich? No? Damn. How's a girls supposed to live in a dog crate anyway? I mean this place already won the prize for cruel and unusual, but this is just wrong!" Max chatted conversationally with the eraser guard on the other side of the room. But he wasn't listening, and she wasn't Maximum Ride. She was Maximum Ride mark II. Maxx. 'Aw what's the point? That guy has his headphones turned up so loud he probably cant even hear himself chew that sandwich of his. Well if he can't hear me, then he won't be able to hear me sawing through the bars.' Maxx extracted the quarter she'd kept hidden in her sock, and was about to start sawing when the door opened.
"Now, I thought I wouldn't have to come back here, I thought this area was for reject experiments."
'It talks now?' The "It" Maxx referred to was, in essence, her sister, or maybe daughter. She was part Max, part Ari, all Jeb's pride and joy. After Maxx's failure to terminate Maximum, Jeb began a new experiment, using DNA from his son, Ari, and Maxx, he created a new hybrid, 94 human, 3 avian, and 3 lupine, much like the standard flying eraser that Ari was, but more refined and advanced. The last time Maxx saw the girl, whom Jeb called Arianna, she had been hardly more than an infant, but now she looked about fourteen. That had been two weeks ago. 'Apparently this breed matures faster.'
"Shut up freak! After what you did to Ari, I'm surprised Jeb didn't terminate you himself." one of the large erasers growled as he pushed the girl into the crate across from Maxx's.
"Freak? And you are? What exactly?" Arianna cocked her head as if she was trying to figure out a difficult question. The guards just slammed her door closed and left.
"So, what'd you do to the furball?" Maxx asked nonchalantly, leaning her head against the bars.
"Knocked him out in two hits with a wooden sword." Arianna answered sweetly, as if she'd given him flowers. Maxx laughed.
"Ha! I knew he was useless!"
"But you're the one in the reject room"
"Yeah, well...so are you.!" Maxx sat back in her cage and started flipping her quarter over her knuckles. The girl ignored Maxx's attempt at a comeback and started up a new line of conversation.
"You still trying to get out?"
"Huh? Oh this? Naw, I'm saving up for a pony." Maxx stashed the quarter again. 'This one can't be trusted, she'll tell Jeb that I'm trying to escape.'
"Yeah right, I might have been too young to talk but my other senses worked fine, I saw you sawing the bars. Not to mention, heard it, when I was trying to sleep. Thank you very much."
"Fine ya caught me. Don't tell ok? 'Cuz if you do I swear I'll kill you when I do get out."
"Here. I got you another one. Yours was looking kinda dull." Arianna pulled out another quarter and tossed it over to Maxx. She caught it and shook her head.
"Why are you helping me, I thought you were, all, 'pro-School' or something?"
"Maxx, Maxx, Maxx, No one is 'pro-School' except for the scientists and the erasers, who are too brainwashed to know any better. I mean look around you whenever a whitecoat comes in here, everyone cringes, and most of the experiments in here are brain dead. That has to tell you something."
"All right, I get it. But that doesn't explain why you're helping me."
"Isn't it obvious? So you can let me out. I'd work on my own escape plan but seeing as you already have a head start and they're more likely to check my crate, I figure, I'll help you and you bust me out in return."
"Fair enough." And Maxx started sawing again.
"Hey, cut that out!" the large guard eraser had removed his headphones and was surveying the cages. He was coming at Maxx with a stun rod in hand and a look of fury, as he morphed.
'Busted" Maxx thought.
"Huh, uh, can't blame a girl for trying, right." all the fight gone from her as she realized that this wasn't going to end well.
"Guess not, but I can do this." the eraser pulled back his lips to expose huge teeth, and plunged the stun rod through the bars and into Maxx's neck. She began shaking violently as the electricity coursed through her. Arianna screamed and the sadistic S.O.B. attacked her as well. Maxx blacked out, watching her new friend try to escape only to be slammed upside the head by a ham-sized fist.
x
Max woke with a start just as her clone passed out. ' Voice? Tell me that wasn't actually happening.'
'Sorry Max, it was, and I had to show you. This is why you need to go to California.'
"California it is then." Max said with a sigh.
'Why me?'
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A/N: ok there it is. Well hope I didn't butcher it already. In my defense, a lot of this was written late at night so if some of it doesn't make sense that's why. Also Arianna is a made up character, made up by me and my friend. I do not claim rights to any other character but Arianna is mine. Just so you know. Anyway, I probably won't be able to put chapter three up till next weekend, what with school and all so don't panic ok? Review please!
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