Hey, here's one more chapter! This is where the real action starts, so, hopefully it gets better for you readers!

-Chapter Four-

"When you open your eyes, you will be exactly like the person sitting beside you." A voice said calmly from somewhere in front of me. "Open them!" it called out again more demanding than before. I did as I was told.

I opened my eyes and a whole new world was revealed; one that was more chaotic than usual. To my left, Fang was looking at me, a wide grin on his face. I tried to smile but did not feel my lips move. He had become like me, while I was like him.

"And, like, we went to the mall with Dr. M and I wanted to buy this really cute skirt but they didn't have my size. I felt so bad. Now I have nothing to wear to that formal dinner thingy on Monday in the main Cafe place. Have you noticed how giant this ship is? It's humongous!" Iggy said, putting his hands on his hips. Wait- Iggy?! Man, I wish I had my video camera.

"Now, sleep!" the voice called out one more. I felt my eyes automatically shut and my brain shut down. What seemed like hours later, I came back to.

"Man, why do I feel like my mouth is going to fall off?" Iggy asked, feeling his jaw. If only he knew. I glanced over at Fang, watching him chuckle silently at Iggy. I felt my lips tug up and I looked back up at the stage.

"Now, for my next trick, I'll need a volunteer." the magician-hypnotist guy (or magicianotist as Nudge says) said, scanning the crowd for the right person. Hands flew up around me and I turned to see more than half the flock's hands raised high in the air. Fang and I were the only ones at our table without our arms raised high above our heads. I smirked and glanced at Angel and the Gasman's hopeful faces. Nudge was holding both her and Iggy's hand in the air. She forcefully waved his arm through the air causing a slight breeze to waft over to us.

"How about you." The 'magicianotist' said, pointing to our table. "The young lady in the pink." Nudge stood up and cheered as she skipped onto the small stage. She sat down on a small wooden stool standing in front of some speakers.

"What am I going to help you with?" She asked, beaming up at the magician.

"You, my dear, are going to be assisting me in a very, very important trick. It may be the most important." He said, leaning to talk to her. "I just need you to do everything I say."

"Sure!" she squeaked out, anticipation spewing out of her.

"Good." The magician said with an evil grin. "Now sit there and be quiet."

"Ladies and gentlemen; boys and girls! This is, regretfully, my last act and then, I shall be leaving with commotion. This young girl, Nudge is it? Will be helping me make my magic true." he said, casually walking up and down the stage, his metal-plated shoes clicking against the polished wood. "I will need complete silence for this bit of magic."

I watched carefully as he circled around Nudge, speaking to her softly. He stood behind her, whispering in her ear. A look of uneasiness came across her face and I stood up, ready to get her.

"And now without further ado, watch us disappear!" I felt my body freeze over as the magician glared up at me through small beady eyes.

"Nudge!" Iggy yelled as he sprinted up to the stage, but it was too late; it was already engulfed in flames. Iggy threw himself over the stool that Nudge had been sitting on just ten seconds earlier.

"She's gone, Max!" Angel said from besides me, tears streaming down her face. "I can't hear her! She's not coming back!"

Then, all hell broke loose. People were running from room to room, screaming of the 'kidnapping'. The fire was put out while the whole ship's residents were evacuated to the main deck, where we were told the situation. Sadly, Nudge was nowhere to be found.

"Max?" Angel said, looking up at me. "Are we going to find Nudge?"

"Oh course we are!" Gazzy answered before I could. "Don't worry, Angel. We'll get her back." my heart swelled as the Gasman wrapped his arms around his sister as she shuddered. I wanted to smile, I really did, but I couldn't. I couldn't feel happiness; I couldn't feel anger; I couldn't feel remorse; I couldn't feel sadness. I couldn't feel anything but what felt like my heart being ripped out.

"Relax, Max." Fang said from behind me. "It'll be okay. We'll find her and kick that magician's butt from here to next week, okay?" I nodded, feeling the corners of my lips pull up as I listened to him quote me.

I sighed and my nod turned into a shake. "I knew this was a bad idea."

Fang rolled his eyes and glanced down at me, placing his hands on both myshoulders.

"It'll be fine. We'll find her. Don't worry."

"I have to!" I said, my voice increasing volume with each word. I looked around, seeing some people looking at me like I was crazy (which, at the moment, I was). I looked around awkwardly, giving anyone who looked at me wrong a 'Look away before I punch you'

expression. Fang shook his head and took me by my shoulders, taking my slowly down the stairs to the lower level of the ship.

"Max, you need to calm down." he said soothingly. If I was in any other situation, I would have melted right into his arms but I needed to be on guard.

"I can't, Fang!" I exclaimed, not caring how loud I was. "It's not like we can reach into a hat and pull her out! She disappeared along with that jerk of a magician!"

"We can turn around, go to land and try to find her." he suggested, looking at my frantically.

"That's more of a risk than staying out here! We need to stay on the water. The magician guy could have taken her anywhere but he'll stay near the boat considering this is where his stuff is."

"Why would he only want Nudge? Why not the rest of us." Fang asked, his eyes staring directly down at me.

"I don't know." I admitted. I felt so guilty. How could I have let this happen? Nudge was gone and now we needed to get her back.

Fang looked down at me, a worried expression dancing through his eyes. As though he were reading my mind, he said, "You do know that we'll find her. We'll get her back no matter what." I nodded as he pulled me into his chest. I realized that his hands were gently rubbing my back as I tried to resist shaking. I felt like collapsing then and there in his arms but there were things that needed to be done.

"Why do these things always need to happen to us?" I mumbled into his shirt, not entirely sure that he had heard me. It was silent and I looked up at him. His eyebrows furrowed together as he thought for a minute.

"I think," He started, still pondering the question, "I think that if it happened to anyone else in the entire world, they wouldn't be able to handle it. They'd give up; unlike you. You strive to finish things. That's probably why were still alive and standing here right now."

"Yeah," I mumbled, leaning back out of Fang's tight grasp on me. "But one of us is missing so, I haven't finished this yet." I turned on my heel and strode up the stairs, wondering what the hell I was supposed to do. Nudge was gone. We didn't know where she was but we knew she couldn't have gone far.

I took the stairs to at a time and went up to the main deck and saw that everything had somewhat calmed down. I weaved in and out of the crowds, avoiding all of the panicking people.

"Max!" A voice called from my left and I jumped over an elderly lady in order to follow it. After receiving vicious glares from the woman, I reached the person who called me; Iggy.

"What'd I miss?" I asked, silently catching my breath. "Where's everyone else?"

"Everyone is in the café waiting for us. I came down to find you and Fang. We need to figure things out." I nodded and turned back around, scanning the crowd for Fang. I could see his dark head bobbing up and down as he came towards us.

I felt as if I were in slow motion as Fang, Iggy, and I were walking to the café. Everything passed me so quickly and yet, I was moving at an extremely slow pace. There were people all around me and yet I felt the icy feeling of loneliness circle around me, my uneasiness was easily matched by my growing paranoia. Nothing was fitting into place.

We reached the café and the tree of us became bombarded with the flock and CSM members. Apparently they had closed the area off so we could have a private discussion. The small square tables were pushed together; forming a long conference table. Many people were sitting along one side of the make-shift table including Brigid, John Abate, Jeb, my mother, and Captain Hawkins (The ship's captain).

"Please, kids, sit," My mother said hastily. I slowly walked around the table to where there were at least ten empty seats. I pulled one out and begrudgingly forced myself onto it, not wanting to sit still. I glanced down the row of chairs, seeing that the flock took their seats next to me. I took note of who we had. Fang? Check. Iggy? Check. Angel? Check. The Gasman? Check. Nudge? Nowhere to be found.

I started to get worried over two hours ago when this all began but now I was on edge. I was terrified.

I jumped at every sound and I felt more claustrophobic than ever. I could barely sit in that stiff wooden chair without feeling my fingers twitch and my palms get sweaty.

"We need to assess the situation more thoroughly." Jeb said as he adjusted his reading glasses onto his nose. When had he ever needed glasses? I asked myself. I shook my head slightly, trying to get rid of the useless thoughts. All I needed to concentrate on was getting Nudge back.

"What we need to do is keep these kids safe!" my mom said, glaring at Jeb. I knew what she was trying to do but right now we needed to help Nudge; not worry about our well-being.

"Valencia," Jeb said, looking up at her through his spectacles. "That is preposterous. We need to find this magician and get young Nudge back." I glanced at my mom and saw her roll her eyes and fold her arms over her chest. I inwardly smiled.

"I think he is right, Valencia." John said, taking a piece of paper out of a manila folder. I looked over at it curiously. "We need to find her and the kids are the only way to do it."

"I can turn the ship around. We'll sail back to the shore. It will only take about twelve hours." Captain Hawkins said, standing up. I immediately sprung up at the same time, holding up my hands.

"No." I said, glaring at Captain Hawkins as he lowered himself back into the chair as I lowered my hands. "We are keeping the ship right where it is. If we go back to shore it could jeopardize any chances we have of finding her."

"But Max-" My mom started but I shook my head, dismissing her.

"No, mom, listen to me. She was taken off of this ship. She might still be on this ship." I said, taking a step back and pushing in the chair slowly.

"She has a point." Said Logan Fletcher, a scientist who had come to ensure that nothing bad happened on this trip. He didn't do his job very well. "There still is a large chance that the magician and Nudge are hiding aboard the ship."

"Exactly." I said, nodding at Logan gratefully. He gave me a shy smile and I turned back to everyone else. "We need to search the whole ship. Every nook and cranny until we are absolutely sure that they aren't on it. Double check it. Triple check it! I don't care how many times you have to. Just make sure they are not here before we go out to find them."

"Max," Brigid said, speaking up for the first time since we got here. "That is silly. We can do checks while we are on our way back to the shore. It will also give us a shorter trip in case she isn't on the ship and we have to go to land and get her."

"She does have a pain, Max." Fang said from next to me as he stared straight at Brigid. She smiled at him as his eyes scanned her face. I rolled my eyes and looked straight at her.

"Have you noticed that while we're in motion there is a lot more commotion?" I asked Brigid, putting her on the spot.

"Well, um, there is, um, maybe," she stuttered, eyes darting from side to side as she answered.

"That would give him a much easier time moving Nudge to a separate location if he thinks we're figuring things out." I said, pointing out something she had overlooked as if it were nothing.

"She does have a point, Fang." Iggy said, chuckling. Fang rolled his eyes and looked over at Iggy, wasting a perfectly good death glare on him. I felt a smile tug at my lips. At least I had one person supporting me. Thanks to Iggy, I had help.

"You're right." Mom said, standing up. "We need to search. We need every trained person to search for this man and Nudge.

"I have a paper on the man!" John said, holding out a folded sheet. "His name is Owen Jackson." My head snapped up once I heard that name.

"Owen Jackson?" I asked, staring at John through wide eyes. I saw Fang and Iggy doing the same out of the corner of my eyes.

"Are you kidding!?" Jeb screamed as he jumped up from the table. "You let Owen Jackson onto this ship and didn't bothering telling us!" He was outraged and for good reason.

"Jeb! Calm down!" my mom said, placing her hands onto his shoulders. "Who is he?" Jeb looked over at me and gave me an apologetic look, his eyes glazing over with uncharacteristic impassiveness.

"He was a man who worked at the School." Jeb explained, his eyes not moving away from mine. "He worked with Max, Iggy, and Fang. They were his top experiments. I'm actually surprised you three remember him."

"We have good memories." I growled, "That's just one of the perks of being a human-avian hybrid." I added, sarcasm dripping.

I saw Jeb flinch away from my glare as he continued. "He was thought to be dead after we escaped. He was the one I wanted them to get away from the most. Not only did he work at and run the School and other branches, he was an older experiment. The only reason he was not tortured like the other ones was because he believed in everything we were doing. He wanted to help us and he did."

I took a deep breath, trying to calm myself down. Memories flooded through my brain of the days in which I had spent with Owen. They were the worst times I had ever experienced.

"He is forty eighty nine percent human and eleven percent chameleon. He's able to blend in with any of his surroundings. I'm moderately sure that he was experimenting with himself about the possibilities of being able to not only blend himself, but other beings into their surroundings. Regretfully, he had a full training in weapon and equipment handling and in many different forms of self defense."

"So he is a threat?" Logan said, speaking up once again. Many of the other scientists nodded their heads and vigorously took notes on the matter.

"He is a huge threat."I said grimly, remembering seeing his ability in person. "No matter where he is or what he is doing, he can disappear."

"Wait!" Brigid said, springing up immediately, her eyes drifting from person to person. "If he can blend in with surroundings then he didn't actually go anywhere! Instead of transporting or simply disappearing like you were thinking, Jeb, he just took Nudge, set off a flash bomb, and blended in!"

I stared at her in disbelief. For once, I was glad that Brigid was with us. "But that would mean…" I started, looking around.

My mom looked at me and seemingly read my mind. "They're still on the ship!"

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