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Fang POV
We all sat down at the table for dinner. Max wasn't here. Either she is VERY pissed at me or she's in danger. Which one's worse? I could hardly eat. Well, I felt like I couldn't eat. I did shovel 3 steaks into my mouth though. Ella and Dr.Martinez were pretending to be calm. They are horrible liars.
After dinner, we stayed up to watch TV, waiting for Max. But as 11 PM rolled in, she still wasn't there. "Fang, I'm really tired,"Angel said. Whenever Max wasn't with us, they acted like I was the leader.
"Ok, Gazzy and Angel, it's your bedtimes." I walked them to Ella's room first. Angel crawled into the bed.
"Fang, I-I..." I'm scared. Where's Max? Angel thought into my head.
I nodded. "We'll wake you if anything happens." Ooh, now look who's Mr. Motherly. Ew. Definetly not. This is Max's job.
I tucked Gazzy in, and he made me promise to wake him if she comes back.
I walked into the living room where Nudge and Iggy were watching TV. Well, Nudge was. But Ig was listening. I saw Nudge dozing off, so I sat next to Ig. He touched my elbow and immediatly knew it was me. I sat there watching, but I didnt really pay attention. Nudge was dozing off.
"Ig... let's go look for her. I can't stand not knowing if she's ok!" We silently walked out the back door, and took off. Iggy followed the beat of my wings and we circled the city, looking in every tree and on top of every building for Max. We circled again. No Max. Three times. Then we gave up. I sent Max a text message:
Where r u? Evry1 is scared n misses u
-Fang
My phone beeped as it sent. Please, please answer, I willed it. No. We landed in the forest behind Dr. M's house. And I stopped when I landed, causing Iggy to run into me. He sensed that I was scared. Shocked. Angry. My fists were clenched so tight that my knuckles were turning white.
On the floor was a shot. And little droplets of blood.
"Fang." Iggy said, trying to understand what was happening. "FANG! TELL ME WHAT IS GOING ON!"
Fury was pouring out of my ears. "There is a needle on the floor. It's really long. And there's some blood. I can't tell if it is Max's. But either way, someone was here."
Iggy is GENIUS! "Get Nudge. She can touch it and see if Max was here and what was happening. Hurry."
I ran into the house, almost knocking down the door. I nudged Nudge(haha get it?) . She jumped back, but then saw it was me and relaxed. I motioned for her to come and put my finger over my lips to indicate be quiet.
We walked out the door and ran to where Iggy was kneeling on the floor feeling for more evidence. Nudge hardly poked the needle when she burst into tears. O my freaking g-d. Girls are so dramatic.
"Stop crying, Nudge."
SHe held in her tears and spoke, "Max was here. Fighting. And she was scared, adn sad, and in pain.And then she was silent. Or quiet. Or asleep. And there was a whitecoat here. And he was happy. " She burst into tears.
"-------!!!(insert curse word here again) I thought we destroyed Itex!" Iggy frowned.
"About that... I overheard Max talking to her voice before she ran away tis morning. And she was cursing and crying cause they were back. And I heard something about Washington. Iggy, Nudge..." They looked at me. "We are going to Washington to rescue Max!" We put our hands in the middle.
I started barking out orders like Max would do, "Nudge: go get Gazzy and Angel. Iggy: go get our packs and Total and all food you can find that does not need refrigeration. I am writing a note to Dr.M and Ella. Now GO! Meet here when you're done.
Nudgee scurried off. Iggy looked upset. "Write Ella and tell her I say bye too." He told me. I looked at him wierdly, but we both ran in.
Two hours later, we were still flying. The kids were basically in auto-pilot. Sleeping and flying at once. I was holding Total.
He was being annoying.
"I really need my beauty sleep. Can I take a nap?" Total whined.
"Sure!" I said with mock caring-ness. "You just go ahead and take a nap while we work our butts off to save Max. Just go ahead! NOT! Make yourself useful and tell me what state we are over."
Total said, "We are in North Nevada. Ohmigod! Lets go to Las Vegas!"
I shook my head.
And we just kept flying.
Max POV
I woke up, felling intense pain. I couldn't move. At first I thought, Oh crap, I'm paralyzed. But then I realized I was strapped down. So I tried to get out. But I couldn't. This majorly sucked! And then a whitecoat came in.
"Maximum Ride, you will be tested. You will fight. We will try to give you more powers. And if all our experiments succed, you will be terminated and another creation will dominate the world in the name of Itex."
"Wow, this proves you really are crazy," I snickered.
"Max, sarcasm will not help you. You stand no chance against us.
Um, didn't every other mad scientist say that? And how good did they do?
I searched the room for escape routes. Damn. They put me in a prison cell. The only way out was the door. She unstrapped one leg.
Before she could strap it onto a wheelchair, I kicked her in the face. Right under the nose. I could almost hear it crumble. Ew. She held her bleeding nose and ran to push the emergency button on my door."Wimp,"I muttered. I used this quick 5 second chance to pull off the velcro with my free foot. Great. Both feet were free. The whitecoat gave a cry and ran out the door, sealing it when she left. Now I felt as if I was in a box. I couldn't see the door. There were no windows. I pressed my feet against my bed and arched my back. I opened my wings. With the tip of my right one, I slid off the velcro. With my free hand, I ripped the other one off. I jumped off my bed to feel the room for any creaks to open the door. Crap.
So I sat. And sat. And waited. My phone beeped. O man! I hadn't realized it was in my pocket. There were 2 messages from Fang. I couldn't reply because there was no service. So I just kept sitting. And sitting. And sitting. And then after I don't know how many hours, the door opened. Jeb was standing there. He threw in a little girl and shut the door.
Now would be a good time to figure something out. My voice said.
The little girl lifted her head and smiled. I almost started crying. Angel! I ran to hug her but got blocked by something. I ran at her again. Then Fang appeared in front of me. I gave him the hugest hug. He smiled a tiny little smile. Then Angel ran to me.
"Ok guys, we need a plan.
