Angel POV:
It felt so good to be in the air again, with Max in the lead. We were in a tight pyramid formation: Max out front, Fang and Iggy next row, Gazzy and Nudge in the last row on either side of me. I was riding the currents of the others.
Finding the Director won't be so easy, I heard coming from someone's mind. Max. Okay, focus Angel, listen to this! We already blew up Lendeheim Itex, so she's not there. Where are the other schools we know of? Oh, right, the Institute, and that other school in Europe. Where to go, where to go?
So Max didn't really know where they were going! Personally, I prefer Europe, but that's not what she needs to hear. I sent her a thought.
*Conversation in Max's Mind*
Go to the Institute, Max.
Are you the Voice or Angel, little fortune cookie?
Angel.
Oh, thanks sweetie, but how are you sure?
She thinks that since we already went there you wouldn't worry about it, so she'd go there to hide. She probably knows you're going to want to kill her at some point and go looking!
Right, right. We'll go to the Institute. Thanks Ange!
You're welcome. Bye!
*End of Conversation*
Max POV:
Angel just told me to go to the Institute. I hated that place, underneath New York. To get there, you have to go through a complex maze of subway tunnels and the sewer system, and then open a locked door and climb a bunch of stairs. Fun, right? But if that's where Marian Janssen is, I'll deal.
When we were in Europe, she pretended to be my mom. She almost had me killed before blog readers saved us all from her wrath. I almost killed her, and now I am coming back to finish the job. She better watch her back because the Institute is pretty small!
We're just passing over the border of New York. I remember how many people there were and tell the flock to land so we can be as inconspicuous as possible. We'd just flown around 6 hours from a national park near my mom's house in Arizona to a crowded city where we planned to go sewer walking. Sound a little backward to you there? There's my life in a nutshell! Here it is... the subway entrance. "All aboard the Train for World-Saving Mutants! Or whatever you call it when six avian-Americans walk through a subway system looking for a certain metal grate to climb into." I'm rewarded with a few snickers and grins. But we're all grimly focused on the task at hand.
It was much easier than the last time to find the grate, because we've done it before. I unscrewed it, they'd obviously redone the latch since the last time we broke in because it took me extra Maximum strength to pop it. I went down first. I tried to get Fang to go, but he only shrugged, grinning, and said, "After you, my lady!"
Eew, that smell, it brings back old memories long buried. I thought I'd forgotten my escape, and Jeb screaming after me "You killed your own brother!" Apparently not, cause I was having a mental breakdown right now.
To add to it, my Voice gave me another brain attack. My skull was bursting through with pain, I thought it would break in two. I staggered back and fell against the tunnel wall. Angel sent me a thought asking if I was okay, but I was too out of it to even think a reply. I just sat there, holding my head, knuckles white, breathing heavy for a long time. I gradually became aware that someone was holding me tight against them. Fang, as always. I gratefully laid my head down on his chest until all the pain subsided and I could think my own words again. "Thank you" were the first words that came out, directed at Fang. He nodded. We all stood up, ready to move on. Fang let me go so I could walk. I took a step, before turning around to look what was behind me, and walking literally right into the arms of the waiting Director.