Sorry for the wait! Iv'e had a wicked case of writer's block. This chappie starts to pick up the pace a little. Hope you enjoy.

Oh, and thanks a bunch to my lovely reviewers. Thanks for your support!

Disclaimer: I don't own anything but the plot and Seth/Ally. No really. I'm broke.

I was awakened in the morning by Angel bouncing on my stomach.

"Get up, get up, get up, Max! We're gonna go explore, now." she shrieked excitedly.

I opened my eyes slowly, and wiped some gritty sand from my eyes. Angel was sitting on my stomach, looking impatiently at me. Nudge and Gazzy were up already, but the older kids, Fang, Iggy and I, were just getting up. Hey, it'd been a late night…

Fang stretched and sat up. "Holy shit", he muttered, looking at his watch, "It's already one o'clock!"

I grabbed his arm and checked his watch. It was right. I looked at the sky. The sun was already high in the sky. We had slept in for the first time in our short mutant lives. And you know what? It felt great! That was when I realized – we didn't have a schedule, or a plan, or a world to save. We could do anything right now! We could sleep in all day if we wanted to -

"Come ON!" said Gazzy, interrupting my revelation. He looked a little over exited.

"Whoa, whoa, whoa, mister. Calm down. We're gonna explore the island. Don't worry. Just give us a sec to get ready" I said, gathering some clothes to change into. My old clothes were good for chilly night flying, but were way too heavy for a tropical island.

I walked into a nearby stand of palm trees to change. While I walked, I looked around for the first time. The island was beautiful. Lush green palm trees and tropical plants made up the jungle-center of the island. The beach wrapped around in a ribbon of white sand. Beyond it extended the unrealistically blue ocean. I listened carefully and heard the calls of birds and the swishing sound of the ocean. That sound was so calming. I couldn't wait to rig up a hammock and laze about in the warm sun…..maybe I could get Iggy to make me a Piňa Colada or something. Mmmmmm.

I found a small area behind some trees where I was hidden from the flock's view. I pulled of my dirty clothes and grabbed new ones from my bag.

After about three minutes, I was done changing clothes. I was now wearing a black tank top and camo army surplus cargos. The tank top was a little small on me, and I was surprised that it showed a bit of cleavage. Ooops.

My feet were in my trusty combat boots, which were looking a little worse for the wear. I changed them for flip-flops, which made it easier to walk on sand. Slowly, I extended my wings. God, it felt so good to have them out. I pulled my brown hair up into a ponytail and froze.

Someone was watching me. Call me paranoid, but I felt like there was someone there. In fact, I could swear I had heard a small gasp. I watched the waving palm fronds suspiciously. Nothing moved. I shrugged and made my way back to the flock.

As I walked up, they were sitting on sleeping bags around the remnants of the fire, drinking sodas and joking around. I plopped next to Fang. He looked at me and accidentally snorted some Fanta. He coughed for a little while, eyes watering.

"What?" I snapped, covering my chest.

"What??" said Iggy. "What happened?"

"Nothing, Iggy. Fang had apparently not realized that I'm a girl." I said dryly.

"Man, I wish I could see" said Iggy, realizing what I meant.

Nudge snickered. Fang, recovered from his brief coughing fit, continued to ogle my chest.

"Okay, guys…..," I said to deflect an awkward silence. "Let's go exploring!"

"Yes!" Gazzy yelled.

We split up – Angel, Iggy and I to one side of the island and Fang, Nudge and Gazzy to the other. I know it was just for a short time, but the separation dredged up painful memories of the last time the flock separated. I looked at Fang.

"See you in an hour." He murmured.

Okay. I could do an hour.

I gathered my mini-flock, version 2.0, to the west side of the island. We were looking for possible food, water, and shelter sources. Well, I was looking. Angel was running around pointing out random things, and bringing Iggy over to touch them and shout out the color.

Food wise, I had seen a bunch of birds that looked pretty meaty, some small purplish berries, a couple of big fat lizards, and coconuts. Lookin' good so far.

After a while, Angel and Iggy got ahead of me. I wasn't worried. Though I couldn't see them, I could still hear them, crashing through the underbrush.

I walked alone for a while, thinking, when I heard the sound of running water. We needed a good source of fresh water, so I had to check it out. I listened for a minute to see if Iggy and Angel were still okay. They were. ("Green! Blue-Green! Ooooo, magenta, what's that?") I figured they would be okay for five seconds while I checked out this noise. So I trudged deeper into the jungle. The noise seemed to be coming from farther away. I trudged farther in. I could hear it better now, and I jogged towards the noise.

SNAP! I was suddenly upside down, the world swinging dizzily in my vision. My leg was caught by a strong rope made of tree bark, hung from a tree. A trap! My fight or flight instincts kicked in, and I lashed around, trying to free myself. My wings beat frantically, but as I was upside down, it did nothing.

Oh, crap, I was cooked now! Whatever or whoever built this trap would surely come back and check it. And they might not be friendly. I pulled my wings back in, not wanting them to be seen. All the blood was rushing to my head. Black spots crowded my vision, and I fell unconscious.

Angel's POV

I was walking along, holding my big brother's hand, enjoying the sunlight and the island and all the cool animals and stuff. Then I realized. Wait…where was Max? She had been walking a little behind us not so long ago. I remember her thinking about food. I panicked a little bit, but then realized that Max would want me to stay calm.

"Iggy, Iggy!!" I said, worried, "Where's Max?!"

"Crap!" He exclaimed, a look of horror on his face. "I can't hear her! She's not near us anymore!"

"I know, I can't hear her thoughts either, she must be far away!"

"Let's go get Fang," he said calmly, thinking. "He'll know what to do."

We both took to the sky to find Fang, hoping we would find her before the School did – or worse.

Max's POV

"Is she awake?"

"Almost. Wait."

"I hope she's alright."

The hazy whispers woke me slowly, intruding into the darkness. Was I dreaming? There was a red glow coming from somewhere. I realized that it was sun shining on my closed eye-lids. I opened my eyes to see a face close to mine. I jumped into a fighting stance, my muscles screaming. I looked around wildly. I was in a clearing, with two people. They looked human, though they looked like incredibly attractive humans. Possibly models wandered off from a bathing suit shoot? Or Erasers version 3.0?

"Calm down, we don't want to hurt you."

The girl who spoke was beautiful, with softly waving dark brown hair, porcelain skin and dark, shockingly forest green eyes. She looked about fifteen or sixteen.

Behind her was a teenage boy, leaning calmly against a tree trunk. He had messy, tawny blond hair, stormy gray eyes, and a deep tan. His mouth was quirked in a sarcastic half-smile, as if he were smiling at a private joke. I tagged him at about 16, maybe older. ( A/N - Doesn't he sound yummy? Maybe thats just me.)

He reminded me of a lion for some odd reason. It was probably because of the way he was regarding me - calmly - yet with a glint of danger in his eyes.

I then noticed that we were all dressed similarly. They both wore black combat boots, which made me want my own. Flip-flops were way too impractical.

The girl made a movement towards me, reaching out her hands as if to grab me. I launched into a round-house kick, which to my surprise, she ducked.

Okay, no human can have those kinds of reflexes, I thought. What are these people then?

I went for an upper-cut punch, and almost hit her. "Stop" said the guy in an authoritative tone. Too bad I hate authoritative tones.

"Make me" I snarled, turning on him. He still hadn't moved from his position against the tree.

"Okay" he said. Still not getting up, he flung something, lightning fast, at me. I saw a needle flash by, but I was too slow to stop it. It hit its mark, and I slowly eased back into unconsciousness, Technicolor bubbles of light clouding my vision.

My last thought, before I succumbed to unconsciousness, was: Who the hell are these people?

I promise she'll find out next chapter!

Okays! Thanks for reading lovies! Review please (does bambi eyes)...