WOOHOO! An UPDATE! Don't own any of these characters. There's a surprise at the end of this chapter; see if you can figure it out beforehand!

SLAM! The front door closed behind Jake and his guests. The Flock immediately felt the claustrophobia kicking in. They nervously made themselves semi-comfortable around the front room.

"Mom? Hailey?" Jake called. "Anybody home?"

A short-haired woman appeared at the top of the stairs. "Oh, Jake! Trixie and Todd called for you a few minutes ago. They said they had something really important to tell you!" Thunk! She jerked to look up at a blond boy who had just walked into a chair. He mumbled and sat down.

"Okay Mom, but Trix and Spud can wait. There's something more important going on—" The ex-American Dragon was cut off by a high-pitch squeal.

"Did Jake just say that there is something more important than junkfood, skateboards, and his strange friends?! I'm amazed!" A little girl with pig tails now stood next to Mrs. Long. Jake sighed.

"Hailey, I didn't say that. I just said that I can't call them right now, seeing as Councilor Jebidiah just did something really wack to me and some other girl—"

"Hey! Her name is Max, dragon boy!" Fang snapped. "And you should be thankful that Jeb turned you back to almost normal!"

Jake's mom jumped. "Who are you?! How did you know Jake is a dragon? Why did you talk about the Head Councilor with such informality, and what do you mean?! What did the he do to Jake?!"

"MOM! Calm down!" When she had regained control of herself, Jake continued. "That's Fang, the second-in-command. This is the Flock, a group of…" He looked to Fang for help. The bird-kid rolled his eyes and crossed his arms. His mop of black hair spread out as if by static electricity. Mrs. Long and Hailey gasped as he spread his 16-foot black wings.

"We are genetically mutated recombinant-DNA experiments. We are 98-percent human, 2-percent bird. We have wings, raptor vision, and other things characterized by birds and/or comic book superheroes. Except Iggy, who was turned blind by a failed test at the lab. The company that created us wants to destroy all people on earth who are flawed in any way, and so they are trying to make a perfect-species to refill the world. It's our job to stop them. We were rescued, betrayed, attacked, lied to, and helped by Jeb, all in that order. Max is our leader and Jeb is her dad. Apparently, he has found a way to transfer her powers to someone else, AKA Jake. Max now has dragon powers, and Jake is like us. Lao Shi told us we were staying here for a while—" (Jake grumbled at this.) "—and none of us are happy about it."

For some reason unknown to the dragon family, the four other kids stared at Fang as if he had just grown another head. The African-American girl, who looked about twelve, stuttered, "B-b-but! Fang, you never say anything! You haven't said that much since EVER! The longest sentence you have ever said had, like, four words! Since when did you talk so much? Why—" The blind boy put a well-aimed hand over her mouth. Unfortunately, the rant continued.

"Why did you say we were attacked by Jeb? He didn't attack us; it was always Ari that attacked us! And Jeb says that it's Max's job to save the world, not ours! We—" The stream of words stopped when the Flock glared at the youngest boy. Even Iggy. The kid blushed and looked at the floor.

Hailey cocked her head. "Why are you glaring at him? He wasn't the one talking. And how did Iggy know exactly where her mouth was, if he's blind?" The blond boy smirked.

"He was the one talking. I had my hand up to keep Nudge from going full motor-mouth; how could she have said anything? The Gasman can imitate any sound or voice to perfection. If she can't say anything, than the voice that is talking is obviously not hers. Therefore, we glared at the one other possible source: Gazzy. Simple!" Iggy tapped his foot twice then stated, "Hey, Fnick, your hair is all static frizzy."

Without any expression at all, Fang licked his hand and smoothed his black mess. Then he smirked at the Long's expressions.

Iggy shrugged. "My blindness makes me stronger," he said. "I see with my hands, my ears, and my nose. My neighbor taught me to see with my feet as well." He shuffled his feet around and continued, "There are four bedrooms up-stairs, as well as a bathroom and walk-in closet. Two of the smaller bedrooms are directly across from each other, at the end of the hallway. One of the rooms has a medium bed and is very messy. The other has a smaller bed, and nothing is on the floor other than a large unicorn. At the middle of the hallway is the bathroom with lots of bottles and stuff, and right next to that is the closet, which has not much in it." Iggy jumped a bit and, upon landing, grinned widely. "On this level, there is a TV room, adjacent to which is the kitchen."

By now, even the Flock was amazed. But the boy wasn't finished yet: "The breakfast area has a round table, which is a bit wobbly. The third bedroom is much larger than the others, and is right above the kitchen. It has a large canopy bed and two tall dressers. The last bedroom is medium sized, suggesting that it is a guest room, not the master bedroom or Jake or Hailey's room. It has a bed with a lumpy mattress, a small bedside table, a desk, and a connected bathroom. And there is a very tiny person sitting on the desk. I don't think it's a toy."

Iggy concluded his description of the entire house and twitched his heel. "Hey, Jake, you can close your mouth now."

Jake immediately righted himself. Gazzy gaped at his bomb buddy.

Fang looked grim as he said, "Who taught you that, and how long could you do it?"

"When I lived with my parents, I hated it and so I spent most of my time with my neighbors. Their daughter is blind too, and taught me how to use that to my advantage. Among other things," Iggy quickly added.

"What other things?"

"Is there a good cave anywhere near here?"

Jake was startled by Iggy's question. "Yeah, it's up on that cliff in central park. I'll show you."

When they arrived, Iggy stood on the ledge and stepped around a bit. After a minute, he placed his feet wide apart and made his arms into right angles, left fist pointed up, right fist pointed down. He lifted his left foot and sent a hard stomp to the ground. To the amazement of his comrades, a boulder shot up in the air and hovered for a split second. Then he used his right foot to sidekick the boulder off the cliff. Fang could have sworn he heard the blond mutter something along the lines of, "Thanks, Toph."

Ha ha! Who saw that coming? To answer some likely questions: no, he didn't switch powers with Toph; Toph is from Avatar: Last Airbender, and therefore not mine; I don't know if this developement is gonna play a big part in the overall story. Read and Review, please!