Hello readers! I am back after a month….:( I almost considered not writing this fanfiction anymore because it is really hard finding time to work on it with everything going on at school, but I went and re-read all my wonderful reviews and it gave me plenty of inspiration to keep going. I don't really know often I will updating from now on, but as long as you keep reviewing it will give me the drive to want to write and write and write to make you people happy!!

Disclaimer: I don't know own the strong, powerful, witty Maximum Ride character, her books, or any of James Patterson's fabulous characters.

So after that cliffy…..on with the show!

_________________________________________________________________________________________________________

What was going on? The entire house was on full lock-down mode and my mom was completely freaking out. Everyone was in the living room, sitting quietly on the couch. The rest of the flock looked pretty relaxed; they were used to this kind of thing. Ella, however, sat in a separate reclining chair near the fireplace with wide eyes.

She turned to Iggy, who was coincidentally the closest to her. "Are we going to be okay? Are they coming to get us? I don't know how to fight, what do I do?" Apparently she had inherited the worry-gene from our dear old mother.

And what would Iggy say to a damsel in distress? Well, first he gave her this sly smile, which in my opinion was completely creepy, but Ella seemed to like it. Then he said, "Don't worry Ella, everything is going to be okay. If anything happens, I'll protect you."

Fang and I looked at each other, amusement dancing in our eyes. We were careful to turn our quiet laughter into coughs.

My mom rolled her eyes at us and pointed her finger at a door near the staircase. "Ok, kids, everyone down to the basement. It's the safest place." She turned the lights off in the living room, leaving us in darkness.

We followed her to the old basement door that creaked when it opened. The alarms were still going off and my ears were starting to ring. Angel came and took my hand as we made our descent down the narrow steps into the dark room below.

My mom flipped on the lights that revealed that the basement was much larger than I had thought. The carpet was black and the leather furniture was grey. There was a metal door that led to a small bathroom off to the side. It was like a top-secret hideout. What surprised me the most was what I saw when I looked up at the walls.

"Mom!" I gasped. "Why do you have so many GUNS in here?" Tons of them lined the walls, hung carefully and gleaming as if they had never been used. How did she even afford this?

My mom smiled at me sheepishly. "Well, I thought it was for the best. What with these new fly-thingies running around I thought we might need some protection."

"Flyboys." I corrected. "And this is insane, you know."

Iggy suddenly turned his body in my direction. "Max, I hear someone in the house."

Everyone instantly tensed. We remained silent in order to be able to hear the sounds from upstairs better, and sure enough we heard footsteps near the door.

My mom randomly grabbed a gun off the wall and held it unsteadily, not expecting the weight of it. She started to make her way up the stairs. "You're in charge Max! I'm going to go check out the situation." She was one brave woman, thinking she could just march up there and fight whatever was on the other side of that door!

I instantly beat her there and stood in front of the door with my arms crossed. No way was I going to let her go out there! "Whoah, there! How about I go?"

She looked at me uncertainly and worry crossed her features. I shot a desperate look at Fang silently pleading for his help.

"She's right, Dr.M. You shouldn't be the one to go out there."

I smiled gratefully. "Thank y-" I started to say, but he interrupted me.

"I should." He stood defiantly, challenging me to say otherwise. Did he seriously think I wouldn't?

"No way Fang! I'm the leader and therefore I will be the one to see what's going on up there!" He didn't say anything, just shook his head slowly.

Both he and I knew neither of us was going to give in so he offered a solution. "How about we go together, but Dr. Martinez stays here with everyone else?"

My mom still looked scared, but she grudgingly agreed.

Fang's dark eyes stared intently into my own. "Deal?" He asked.

I made myself looked away. "Deal." I sighed to show that I was still annoyed, but in a moment he was standing beside me and surprisingly, I started to feel better knowing that he was going with me.

"Here!" My mom called. She tossed a couple of guns at us, which we caught easily.

I looked at the heavy, dark object in my hand. "Um, I don't think this will be necessary."

"Yeah, I don't need anything but my pure muscle power, anyway." Fang said. I rolled my eyes at him. Even as we gave our guns back, he looked at his longingly so I punched him in the arm to bring him back to reality. He winced.

"Hey, I just thought that pure muscle could handle a good blow every once in a while." I teased.

He glared at me. I shrugged. "Ok, everyone get in the bathroom and lock the door just in case someone tries to get in when we slip out." I ordered, and my mom hurriedly (but gently) shoved everyone behind the big metal door and I heard a lock click into place.

I started to make my way out the door, but Fang caught my shoulder and protectively moved in front of me. I glared at him, "Ladies first." I stated, and shoved him out of the way.

Back in the living room, the lights were still off so the pitch-blackness enveloped us in an uncomfortable way. Thankfully, our enhanced vision and hearing helped us, but it made me weary knowing that someone or something could be hiding somewhere.

I could faintly see Fang's silhouette in the darkened room, so I unconsciously moved closer. We both turned to each other when a sound near the front door caught our attention. It was the sound of breathing. Human breathing. At least I thought so. The flyboys were getting more human-like every day, so it was hard to judge what it might be.

Fang and I looked at each other, both thinking the same thing. I ran to the couch, where I remembered a blanket was lying from when Angel had been napping earlier. I took a hold of two corners, and Fang grabbed the others. Together, we ran towards the direction of the breathing. Ahh, sweet success! We had run straight into somebody, and we instantly collaborated to throw the large blanket over its head, disabling its arms and throwing it off track. It was definitely human, or at least had the body of one. It could be a robot for all we knew.

It was trying to talk, but all we heard were small snippets of muffled words. "Hey-….mmmfff." The creature struggled inside the blanket and began thrashing its legs when Fang grabbed them so that I had the top and he had the bottom so we could easily maneuver back into the basement and down the stairs.

Thanks to teamwork, we easily made it easily down and we set the "thing" on one of the leather couches. It was still struggling and mumbling something so I suggested that we lift the blanket off on the count of three. We needed to know why it was here, and we wouldn't be able to ask it if we somehow suffocated it. Fang nodded and braced himself to hold down its legs if necessary.

"Ok, one…two…three!" We lifted the blanket off in one fluid motion and blinked at our victim in shock. He stared back at us with wide eyes behind his glasses and his hair was sticking up in all directions.

"J-Jeb?"I choked out. "What in the #%$ are you doing here?!" I won't say what #%$ means….

Fang released his legs and stood in a fighting stance next to me. My hands were on my hips in that annoying-teenage-daughter-way I just knew Jeb would love. After all, he was the father of a teenage girl and he needed to realize that that job came with consequences. He sighed impatiently at us and pinched the bridge of his nose. How terrifically fatherly of him to do. Yuck.

Just then, the bathroom door opened, and out tumbled the rest of the flock along with Ella and my mother. "Jeb!" she cried, and ran to give him a hug. I looked on with disgust as he embraced her affectionately and patted her head.

Then, my disgust soon turned to amusement as she turned and slapped him right across the face. "Don't you ever do that again!" Some of us looked at her in surprise and wonderment while Fang and I struggled not to laugh.

Jeb hung his head in shame. "I'm sorry Valencia, I just came here to…" he looked at all of us and trailed off uncomfortably. He suddenly looked up and grinned. "I see the new security system is working wonderfully!"

"Don't try to change the subject, my dear father!" I sneered. "Whatever you have to say to my mom you can say to the rest of us."

He looked down at the floor thoughtfully for a moment or two before replying, "Well, I suppose you, Fang, and Iggy can stay and hear what I have to say, but the rest of the kids need to go back upstairs."

I turned to Gazzy, Nudge, Angel, and Ella. "You heard the man, kiddos." Ordinarily, I wouldn't have let Jeb take the leader role so easily, but I desperately wanted to hear what he had to say. Also, I was sort of looking forward to grilling him about the new flyboys he must have "forgotten" to tell me about.

"Uh…I'll just stick with the 'kiddos', if you don't mind." Iggy said. That liar. He just wanted to stay with Ella.

Ella smiled and took his arm to guide him up the stairs (even though he didn't technically need the help). My mom eyed the two of them critically, but not disapprovingly.

The younger kids glared at us and trudged unhappily up the stairs.

Fang POV

Ok, so I was pissed. Max had been unnerved to no end lately, and the last thing she needed was this little surprise visit from Jeb. I looked over at her out of concern. She looked calm and determined, looking at Jeb expectantly, which was really uncharacteristic of her. I didn't have as much against Jeb as she did, but the anger I did have for him was always heightened when he said something that hurt her.

We all sat down on the couches, Max and I opposite Jeb and Dr. Martinez, who were very quiet.

Max shifted in her chair so that her back was straight, probably just to make herself look mature, like she was doing just fine taking care of us on her own. Of course she was. She's MAX for God's sake. Jeb did show a certain amount of pride for her, but he didn't give her enough credit for everything she did. He had the infuriating tendency to treat her like a child despite everything she's been through.

I squeezed her hand in order to calm her down and her cheeks turned a faint pink in response to this show of affection in front of the two adults across from us. However, neither Dr.M nor Jeb showed any sign of surprise, almost as if they had been expecting it. She didn't need to say anything for me to know that my small action had helped to calm her even just a little.

"Ok, speak." She ordered. He sighed and looked at Dr. Martinez questioningly. She nodded at him sternly, urging him on.

Max huffed. "Some time before our expiration dates start showing up…"

Jeb held his hands up to quiet her. "Ok, ok. I'll tell you what I know."

______________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

So, did you like it? I hope you did so please REVIEW to tell me what you think. I would like at least 5 reviews before updating the next chapter, but it would be nice to have much more. The end is sort of a cliffhanger, but not as much as the last one. I hope it keeps you interested. Next chapter will hold more action and lots of talking. REVIEW PRETTY PLEASE =)