Hi! I'm sick as I'm writing the author's note, so I don't have to go to school. I have a sore throat, and a bit of a headache, but I'm starting to feel better, so I think I'll go in the afternoon. For now, I write my story. Hmmm, I wonder if me being sick has anything to do with staying up till 3 am on Friday night, then 11 pm on Saturday night. Just some of my crazy random thinking. SanraitaFang, I have another incident where people can't tell ages at all. I was mistaken for a stay-at-home mom by a telemarketer. "Do you work full-time, part-time, or casual?" "." "Are you a stay-at-home mom?" "I'm in junior high!" "Oh…Are your parents there?"

Shanyn POV

In the morning, I woke up to the glow of the rising sun coming in through the window. For a second, I was incredibly confused. My room didn't have any windows. And I was in a bed, not a dog crate. Where the heck was I?

Opening my eyes, I looked around. There was a window, with some deep blue curtains around it, dimming the sunlight. I recognized the round, almost human figure of the shadow caused by the tree outside. On the opposite wall there was a brown fold-out bed-couch, and on the brown couch, Madysen was sleeping. Looking at my own bed, I saw a blue comforter, tangled up with some blue sheets with narrow diagonal stripes on them.

I looked down. I was on a bunk-bed, and Natalca was on the lower bunk. Hmmm. Oh! I was at Max's house. Now I remembered. That had sure taken me a while.

Looking over at the luminous digital clock, I saw why everyone was still asleep. It was 6:00 am. Groaning, I rolled over, curled back up in the nice, warm comforter, and went back to sleep.

Hunter of the Dawn POV

As I peered in through the slightly opened curtain, I saw the girl in the top bunk wake up. I noiselessly ducked down, praying she hadn't seen me. If she had, my mission was done. After a few minutes with my back pressed against the side of the house, I dared to peek over again. The girl had gone back to sleep, her back facing towards me, her front facing the wall. Apparently she either hadn't seen me, or thought I was a dream. The two times I had been seen, I had been mistaken for a nightmare. And for good reason. I was everyone's worst nightmare.

My work was done for the night. I had seen where the girls slept. Tomorrow I would survey the house, looking for entrance passages, fire escapes, anything I could use to get in. I would take a few days to plan my strategy, and then I would strike.

Madysen POV

Yawning, I stretched out, then curled back into my warm fetal position. This bed was so warm and comfortable. I realized that I had been woken up by a knock on the door, and Max calling to us that it was breakfast in 10 minutes. Iggy was making pancakes. Pancakes! I hadn't had pancakes in forever!

Hopping out of my bed/couch, I hadn't succeeded in making Natalca sleep in it, (Thanks for finally reading my story, Natalka!) I ran to the dresser and pulled out a pair of denim shorts, a reddish-purple t-shirt, socks, and undergarments. Ducking into the little bathroom, I tossed Shanyn and Natalca each a bath towel. Getting my idea, they pinned the towels over Natalca's bed, creating a makeshift change room. I used the bathroom, and Natalca and Shanyn used the change room. By the time I came out of the bathroom, Natalca was changed, and Shanyn was almost done in the change room. As soon as she got out, we literally ran to the kitchen, only to discover that the pancakes weren't even done yet! With overdramatic sighs, we flopped down on the couch. Max came to sit by us. "That was fast!" she said, "I'm used to waking up Nudge, who still hasn't come out of her room, even though I told her to almost fifteen minutes ago. The pancakes won't be done for at least 20 more minutes. You girls should brush your hair. You look like Godzilla's girlfriends."

So, in order to pass the time, we went to the bathroom and brushed our hair. Of course I got to go in last. Natalca got first, thanks to a fair bit of punching and kicking, and Shanyn got second, again, lots of violence involved, as well a bribe to help me steal bottom bunk from Natalca tonight. After about seven minutes it was finally my turn to go in. I used the toilet, washed my hands, and then reached for the hairbrush. I looked up towards the mirror, mentally preparing myself to see the tangled blob of hair on my head. But what I did see was nothing at all like my mental image. My face was the same shape, but the skin was a rich, smooth tan. My eyes were as bright a blue as you could go, with a strip of green around the center. My lips were thin, but still very red, and I had jet-black, perfectly straight hair. Through my slightly open mouth, I could see bloody, pure white fangs. The creature in the mirror smiled, even though my face was frozen in shock. It took my brain a half-second to recognize what I was seeing, since I had only ever seen them from far away. After that half-second, I had backed against the far wall of the bathroom, hyperventilating. "There's a Shifter in the mirror!" I screamed, hearing fear make my voice crack.

In a second, Shanyn and Natalca had run into the little bathroom. "Where?" they said, sounding as panicked as I felt.

"In the mirror," I said, "It was my reflection in the mirror, but it looked like a Shifter."

At that minute Max came into the bathroom.

Max POV

I had heard Madysen scream something about something in a mirror, and was instantly reminded of when I had seen my own reflection as Eraser-Max. Remembering how it had scared me to death, I ran to the bathroom. Inside, I found all three bat-girls. Madysen was white-faced and terrified. Shanyn and Natalca were standing by her, looking confused, and just as scared. "What happened?" I asked, radiating authority.

"I looked in the mirror, and there was a Shifter in there. It was still my face, but it was in Shifter form," she said, starting to calm down a little.

Yup. This sounded just like when I had been Eraser-Max. "Madysen, you come with me for a second. Shanyn, Natalca, she'll explain to you after," I said.

Madysen followed me out of the bathroom, down the hall, and into mine and Fang's room, where, of course, Fang was sitting on the bed, checking something on his blog. "Out," I told him.

He looked at me and Madysen questioningly, but packed up his laptop and left the room. Turning to Madysen, I asked her, "What happened exactly? Every detail."

"I went to the washroom, and when I looked into the mirror, there was a Shifter-"

"What's a Shifter?" I interrupted.

"They're like ultimate predators. If the labmen, you guys call them whitecoats, want something really bad, they send a Shifter to go get it. Shifters can change their form to these monster things. They're the size of a bear, but they don't look like a bear at all. They can change their fur colour. I've seen black, brown, tan, giraffe spots, tiger stripes, leopard spots, and white. Their bodies are sort of like a panther, or a mountain lion. They have amazingly good senses, and they have dragon wings, so we won't be able to fly away from them," she said, a look of genuine fear entering her eyes.

"Okay," I said, "Sometime today I'll have to call a flock meeting and you guys can explain exactly what you know about what's happening at the School these days. We've been a little out of touch lately. In the meantime, what do Shifters look like in human form?"

She considered for a moment. "They look almost normal, but they're always female, don't know why, and they have straight hair. Their hair changes, just like they're fur, but they can only do normal human colours. And their eyes are really bright. In the mirror, my eyes were electric blue, and they had a strip of lime green around the middle, but they don't always have to be normal colours for the eyes. I've seen red, purple, orange, yellow, and pink. If it's a colour of the rainbow, one of them has it for their eye colour. Their skin is also tanned, and they have cat fangs. Like the kind jungle cats have, only not as big."

She had given me a pretty thorough description. If I saw one, I would know what it was. "Okay, so about seeing one of them in the mirror. I don't know what's up with that. But I do know the same thing happened to me once," I told her, "Only I saw myself as an Eraser. Wolf-human hybrid."

She stared at me in shock. "Seriously?" she asked.

"Yeah. Scared the crap outa me, too."

Madysen laughed, and then said that she was going to go see Shanyn and Natalca and tell them what was up, and that she wasn't crazy. At least not 100%.

By the time she was done telling her friends, Iggy's breakfast was done. To everyone's amazement, Iggy had actually burnt the pancakes. "What's up with you, Iggy?" asked Gazzy, "You never burn anything!"

"It's my first time cooking and actually being able to see what I'm making. It's kinda confusing!" He answered, "It made no sense at all."

"If you're gonna be messing up because you have the advantage of sight, maybe we should appoint a new head chef," I teased him.

"First time mistake only," he promised.

Even though the pancakes were burnt, we all had fifths. After that, I decided to call that flock meeting I so very needed to call. "Everyone in the living room!" I shouted.

After a few seconds, the flock and the colony was piled into the couches and chairs of the living room. Iggy was plonked down beside Shanyn, one arm over her shoulder. I raised and eyebrow at him but didn't say anything. I knew he would make his move pretty soon "Okay," I said, "If I had a dollar for every little tidbit of info the colony knows that the flock doesn't, I'd be rich. Heck, it doesn't even need to be a dollar. If I had a penny for every bit of info I'd be rich. So the colony is going to tell us what they know about themselves, and we're gonna share our history with them. Anyone can start anytime."

Of course Nudge was the first one to volunteer, "We escaped from the School a few years ago, and the Erasers chased after us. Erasers are like, wolf-human hybrids. But every time they came, we beat them up, and then Jeb, Max's dad, found us a home in the mountains. And we lived there for a few years, but the Erasers kidnapped Angel, so we went after them. On the way, Max flew down to help someone, but she got shot in the wing, so she went into the house of the girl she'd helped, and the girl, Ella, her mom ended up being Max's mom, but we didn't find out for a long time. Eventually we saved Angel and then, uh, we brought her back home. After a few more years we got to go to Antarctica and there were these freaky people there that kidnapped us and wanted to sell us somewhere, but there was a hurricane, and they died. And Angel's dog, Total, who we got a few years ago, fell in love with this malamute dog, Akila. They're away on their honeymoon right now. Total behaves more like a person that a dog. He can talk and fly, too. And then a few months later, Max's mom, Valencia Martinez, got kidnapped and we had to go to army training and we passed in like, a day. So then we went in a submarine into the ocean to go save her. But there was a big sea monster thingy whose mind Angel could read, and all he was thinking was like, kill, revenge, stuff like that. But Angel befriended him and named him Gor, and then he helped us rescue Dr. Martinez, and then Total proposed to Akila after a few more weeks, and she apparently accepted, so then they got married two weeks ago and are on their honeymoon right now. They get back in another week," she concluded happily.

She had just summed up our entire life in one really long speech. She amazed even me sometimes. "Wow, Nudge, that was our entire life you just said. Now it's your turn," I said, turning to the colony.

Madysen started. "We didn't actually meet at birth. We came to the School a few years ago. I think I was maybe Angel or Gazzy's age. Natalca was there before me, she had been there for about two months, and then Shanyn came after maybe three weeks. So, I guess, would it work best if we each just tell our own stories?" she asked, turning to her two friends.

"Yeah, probably," said Natalca, "I'll start, since I came to the School first. When I was seven, I went to the zoo for a field trip, and I was watching the lions, and the gate was open. Since they were so pretty, and since I was seven, and didn't know that they would most likely rip my head off, I went in the enclosure. A labman was apparently watching me. After a few seconds, the alpha lion saw me and started to attack me. He scratched my legs, my back, and I think he might have broken my arm.

"The labman had a tranquilizer gun with him, and he shot the polar bear, and took me to the School. I don't know what happened then, I fainted as soon as we were out of the enclosure, but when I woke up, my arm was splinted, and not very well I might add. When I woke up, I was in the dog crate, and there were two little stumps growing out of my shoulder blades. In about a week, they were all the way grown into these babies," she concluded, flipping out her enormous wings.

"So, you didn't have wings grafted onto you?" asked Fang.

"No, none of us did."

"That means the whitecoats have gotten even more advanced, now they can grow stuff on you," I said.

"Sort of," Shanyn corrected, "They can only do it if some of the bone's missing, and otherwise they have no foundation to grow it on. I overheard them talking once."

"Good to know," I said sarcastically, "Does Madysen want to go next, since she was the next one to arrive at the School?"

"Sure," she said, and started her story, "I was tubing with my friend Taelyr, (Pronounced Taylor)and the boat driver, another camper we had met, was going really near these rocks. He had done it a gazillion times, so we weren't worried about it. He would go to the rocks and swing us around really fast, then go the other direction. Only this time when he did it, the rope, which was tested for over 5000 lbs. even though the two of us at the time weighed less than 200, snapped.

"The two of us got flipped about twelve feet above the water, and then landed in the rocks. It really hurt. I think I broke my left leg, and I got a really big, deep, cut on my back, and I hit my head.

"I saw a man come and pick me and Taelyr up, and put us in the back of a van, then I fainted. When I woke up, well, pretty much the same story as Natalca, only I had someone to tell me what was happening. I don't know what happened to Taelyr, but I don't think she survived."

"She did," said Angel, surprising everyone.

"What?!" said Madysen, disbelief written over her face.

"Taelyr survived. She went to the School in England. They were doing different experiments there, and they needed a test subject," Angel explained.

"Are you sure Angel?" asked Gazzy.

Max, she's right. You should go to Oxford.

Ahh. The sweet sound of the Voice. I hadn't heard from it since yesterday. Good to hear from you, Voice. Now, how did Angel know about Oxford?

No answer. There never was. "Angel," I asked her, "Do you have a Voice or something? You're seriously starting to freak me out. How did you know Taelyr was in Oxford?"

"The same way I knew the password for the MaxRide card was 'mother'. It was just one of the first thoughts that came to my mind."

"If you say so. In that case, we leave at 1:00 sharp. Everyone go pack what you need. If we're crossing the ocean, we're gonna have to take a plane," I said.

The flock groaned. That's me; take the fun out of everything. "I'm sorry, guys, but the Madysen, Shanyn, and Natalca aren't the greatest flyers yet. They just learned how yesterday, and they still have to learn to land properly," I said, with a little glance at Shanyn, who stuck her tongue out at me.

"Go pack. Shanyn, you can tell us you're story on the plane."

Wow! That's my longest chapter yet! On Microsoft word, it totals just over 7 pages, with a total of 3044 words. And that's including the stuff written after this sentence. WAHOO!!!! Oh, and by the way, if you try to search my story, but nothing comes up, it means the 6th chapter is up, and I have re-titled it Bird-Kids and Bat-Kids. I finally came up with a new title for my story. Lots to digest in that chapter, sorry. For some reason, though, I don't think anyone really cares. Especially not SanraitaFang. Oooooh, will they save Taelor? Is she still alive? Will the Hunter of the Dawn attack? Will Shifters attack? Is Shifter a good name for the bad guys? Technically they would be bad girls…

I AM STILL BENT ON TAKING OVER THE WORLD!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! I WILL RULE IT ONE DAY!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! MWAH HAH HAH HAH HAH!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! I AM SO EVIL!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

I LOVE EXCLAMATION MARKS!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!