"Tracker, stop, Serenity is getting too far back" The boy turned his head, looking over his shoulder to see. Sure enough his young friend was nothing more than a small black dot, barely visible on the rapidly darkening evening sky. He slowly moved his black wings until he was hovering in place 1500 feet from the ground below.

"So Shadow, think you can make it the rest of the way?" Tracker asked the raven-haired girl who had yelled to him earlier. She nodded.

"I should be alright, as long as it isn't much farther." She carefully shifted the weight of the sleeping toddler in her arms so not to wake him.

"Well I'm guessing they're about an hour or two away." He replied pushing his fingers through his sun streaked brown hair. Serenity caught up to the older children.

"So are we almost there?" the small girl panted. Tracker nodded handing the exhausted girl a bottle of water. She took it gratefully, downing it in a few short gulps.

"Can you make it?" Shadow asked

"Yeah I think so" Serenity handed the empty bottle back to Tracker and whipped the sweat from her face.

"Well if you keep holding Rider," Tracker glanced down at the sleeping toddler in Shadow's arms, "then when Serenity thinks she can't fly anymore then I'll carry her, the rest of the way." The two girls nodded in agreement. Tracker took off into the night sky, scanning the dark camouflage earth below for any sign of what they were looking for, Shadow and Serenity close behind.

"How does he know how much farther we need to go?" Serenity asked Shadow sometime later.

"He can feel his power growing as we get closer. You holding up OK?"

"Yeah I'm fine, but how come I can't feel mine getting stronger?" The small girl wondered looking down at the ground.

"I think because you were so young when they took him from us." Serenity nodded.

"Do you think he can feel his power growing as we get closer?" Shadow shrugged

"You would think so, but I'm not 100 percent sure."

Max POV

Have you ever noticed how nice the earth seems when your 1500 feet above it? I have. It's just so peaceful, doesn't even look like an evil incorporation was trying to destroy it. I was looking below focusing once in a while on something going on down there, like some kids playing ball, a lady walking her dog, my favorite was the family having a picnic. I could picture each member of the flock down there with his or her own family having a great time.

"Max when can we eat? I'm hungry" I rolled my eyes as Nudge complained about her stomach for the millionth time. It's only been like two hours since our last stop. If we kept stopping every time Nudge got hungry, then we won't find the flocks parents until Christmas.

Yea now that Itex is gone, I didn't think it was fair that I was the only one with a family. I talked it over with Jeb and mom. They agreed with me. So being the nice person he was, Jeb brought out some files for each member of the flock, each folder containing parent locations, family names, and when the flock was born and their real names. So after some hard thinking we set of in search for parents. Our first destination; northern California in a place called Lake City. That's where Angel and Gazzy's dad supposedly lives with his new wife. Turns out he didn't like the fact his ex wife sold his kids to genetic scientists.

"We just stopped like two hours ago, at least wait until we get to California" I said as calmly as I could, trying to hide my irritation.

"But I'm hungry too" I heard Gazzy mutter under his breath several wingspans away.

"Fine" I said frustrated "We'll stop-"

"Now" I was cut off by Fang who then tucked his dark wings and dove towards the forest below. Since when did he get to call the shots? I stared in disbelief for a second before following tucking my own wings and diving after him, the rest of the Flock close behind.

A hundred or so feet from the ground I unfurled my wings and landed almost silently on the forest floor. "Nudge, Gazzy go get some firewood. Iggy start a fire and get some food started, Angel put some rocks around the fire." I instructed the members of the flock who actually listen to me. Once they went their separate ways and were out of ear shot, I turned to Fang. "Since when do you get to call the shots?" I spat at him

"When the kids got hungry and you failed to do something about it" he answered simply, digging through his bag, then tossing a pack of hotdogs to Iggy.

"Well we just ate not that long ago, they could've waited until we at least got to Nevada"

"What's the hurry in getting them to their families, it's not like the world is going to end tomorrow"

"I'm not in a hurry, I just want you guys to be happy" I said. What was his problem today?

Fang rolled his eyes "sure" he turned and started walking to Iggy and Angel. I grabbed his shoulder and swung him around, pushing him into a near by tree.

"What's that suppose to mean?"

"It means you couldn't care less, Max. Ever since you found your mom you couldn't care less what goes on with us. You got the addresses from Jeb so you can dump us on someone else's front door, walk away and hope you never see us again." My eyes widened. I can't believe he just said that, what makes him think I don't like him and the others. I loved them with all I've got. I just thought they would be happy with their families.

"Fang that's not it at all" I said quitely fighting back tears.

"Oh yeah then what is it?" he shouted

"I thought you guys wanted to have your families, the others always talk about what it would be like."

"Did you ever bother asking any of us if we wanted to find them?" I opened my mouth to answer, but he was right I never did ask then, I always thought that's what they wanted. "Exactly Max, you didn't. You just want us gone so you can life a normal life and completely forget about us!" Tears welled up in my eyes. I ran past Fang, pushing him to the ground on the way. I can't believe he thinks this; I don't really want to get rid of them. I kept running until I came to a clearing, where I just collapsed upon the cool earth and cried.

Sometime later I sat up and whipped the tears from my eyes and face. I stared at the ground in front of me and thought. I didn't want to give them up. I really thought it was what they wanted. This was one of those times where I really missed having Jeb giving me advise and helping me out when he saw fit. "Jeb if you can hear me please tell me what to do. Do I bring them to their real families? Is Fang right, do I just want to get rid of them so I don't have to deal with them anymore?" I thought out loud to myself. I waited patently knowing that he would not answer me, but a small part wished it would.

I stood up inhaling a deep breath and started back towards camp only to stop when I heard small footsteps and a whimper. "Who's there?" I demanded.

"Mommy?" came a small voice from the other side of the clearing. I squinted my eyes hoping to see in the now dark forest. With no luck I started to creep towards the voice keeping my guard up. I wasn;t sure if it was an Eraser disguising it's voice so it could lure me in then take me back to the school, or if it really was a lost little child. As I walked a pair on tiny arms wrapped themselves around my legs. I fell back due to the impact and the fact my legs were now bind together. I looked at my legs to see a small toddler holding on like he had just found his long lost Teddy bear.

"Hello there" I said in the nicest voice I could in attempt not to scare him. He looked up, eyes full of fear. He let go of my legs and backed up a few feet before tripping over a stick. As he hit the ground he began crying. I sighed, really what do I know about helping a baby. I leaned forward onto my knees and crawled closer to him. "Are you lost?" I asked rubbing his back. Yeah I already knew he was but I'm just trying to be friendly. The little boy nodded before crawling into my lap and curling into a ball. "Well uhm how about I take you back to my...friends and we'll get you something to eat, then help you find yoru family in the morning. Does that sound like a plan?" He nodded again and climbed off me so I could get up. Once I was on my feet he raised his hands to show me he wanted me to pick him up again, which I did. "So do you have a name?" I asked as we walked back to camp.

"It's Rider" he aswered.

"Hey, Max is back!" The Gasman shouted as I walked through the brush into the clearing. He, Angel and Nudge started running towards me only to stop when they saw the little bundle in my arms.

"Who's that?" Angel asked embracing me in a hug. I looked down at the toddler, who now thanks to the light of the fire looked like his parents lacked a little in the hygiene department. His white blonde hair looked more grayish and was matted with dirt in places. His clothes were torn a little and dirty, and he had some cuts and bruises around his body where I could see.

"Uh his name is Rider" I stated gently rubbing his back to wake him up. His back felt a little lumpy and I lifted his shirt to see what it was. My eyes widdened.

"Well, I don't think any of us were expecting that" Gazzy whispered walking closer to us. Under his shirt there ware a pair of white with blue edged wings pressed to his back. The little boy began to stir as a moved my fingers across his wings. He looked up at me, his ice blue eyes full of fright and confusion.

"Hey are you hungry?" I asked .

"yeah" he whimpered, "Who are you?"

"Well I'm Max, that Angel, Nudge, Gazzy, Iggy and Fa-" I said pointing to each person as I said there name, stopping when I finally realized Fang wasn't here. Before I had a chance to ask Iggy spoke up.

"He said he need some alone time and would be back for first watch later" Iggy stood up and brought over a few hotdogs for Rider and me. I took the hotdogs, sat down on a log with Rider on my lap and handed him a hotdog, he downed it in like seconds. Looks like his parents didn't feed him much either. Or maybe he escaped from the school too.

"Max?" Rider asked. I looked down at the little boy "who is Fa?"

"Oh that's Fang, he's not here right now, but he should be back soon. I think we should put you to sleep you look whipped." Rider's eyes widened when I said Fang's name. It's like he knew exactly who I was talking about.

"I know Fang! Mommy and Daddy and Reni are looking for him." I starred down at the boy who just got a sudden jolt of energy. OK well I'm going to need to talk to the flock about this.

"Hey Angel, do you think you can play with Rider for a minute" I want to talk without him hearing listen in Angel nodded and walked over to Rider.

"Do you want to play a game. I know some really good ones" Angel said taking Rider's hand and leading him to the other side of the fire. I tapped Iggy on the shoulder so he would know to follow. Nudge and Gazzy got up to follow as well. I lead them to the clearing where I had fould Rider.

"Guys we have a problem, this kid says he knows Fang." I stated

"Yeah we kinda heard that too, but how is the question without answer. I don't think any of us have ever seen him" Iggysaid

"Well of coarse you haven't seen him" Gazzy joked "but your right he doesn't look familiar. Did you ask who his parents were?" I looked over at Gazzy. He had a point I didn't ask. Man I need to start asked questions.

"I think he's from the school. Like he has wings and all, but I thought Angel was the last hybrid created, I mean like with wings cause the whitecoats are always making new and improved Erasers" Nudge said

"So what do you think we do Max, we can't really leave him out here" Iggy pointed out trying to ignore Nudge.

"I know, I don't want to leave him out here, but what if he's a threat to the flock. Like maybe he could be a spy for his parents. I honestly don't know what to do"

"Well lets go back and act like we don't know anything and first thing in the morning we'll go look for his parents. Right now we need some sleep, we've had a long day and if we want to get to California tomorrow then were gunna need some rest." Iggy was right, I was pretty tired and maybe I was over reacting. He might not be a threat at all, just some poor lost child with wings…yea and maybe I was born yesterday.

"Ok then let's do what Iggy says, I'll talk to Fang when he gets back and see if he knows anything about Rider" The Flock nodded and we made our way back to Angel and Rider.

The first thing I noticed when we got back to our camp was that Angel wasn't alone. Sitting around the fire with her and Rider were three other people. One of them was holding onto Rider while the youngest one was talking to Angel. I took off into a run getting ready to kick some butt. Once closer I saw that they were like us, each of them had a pair of wings. Man how many bird kids are out there that I don't know about.

"Angel who are these guys" I shouted getting ready to fight.

"Calm down Max, it's ok, Their Rider's parents and friend." Angel said calmly getting up from her seat. I looked over and studied each of the new bird kids carefully. There was one boy and two girls.

The boy, he seemed like the oldest and didnt look much older than 16 or 17. His shaggy brown hair was sun streaked and hung below his ears in sort of a surfer cut. He had light blue eyes that matched Riders. He stood about 6' and had beautiful black wings with silver edges. The cloths were pretty shredded. His black shirt had holes and tears all over it. I think his now leather vest was at one point a very nice looking leather jacket. He wore a red bandana tied around his left arm and wore leather gloves that had spiked cuffs on the ends.

The eldest girl, who held Rider didn't look much older than me. She had her Raven hair pushed behind a red bandana, her bangs pushed over covering one of her almond eyes, Her wings dark similar to Fangs. She was about my height as well. The cloths she wore didn't seem as worn as the boy and Rider's but could still be replaced. She obviously like to follow trends. She wore a cure baby blue tank top with a darker jean fitted jacket and cute pair of jeans that had a little design stitched up the one leg. Rider did seem to resemble this girl and the boy in some way but they looked way to young to be parents.

The younger girl who appeared to be about the same age as Nudge has medium length blonde hair tied back in two pony tails. Her piercing emerald eyes not moving from mine. She was very short maybe shorter then Angel with what looked like butterfly wings. She had on a pair of tight black pants with a bright pink short skirt over top. Her shirt was a pink and black striped t shirt with a white long sleeve under it.

"Ok while you continue to stare us down like were some sort of mutant, do you think you can tell us where the hell Fang is?" I broke from my trance as the older boy spoke.