Everyone froze. Then a heck of a lot of things happened at once.
Nudge tried not to scream. Fangs eyes flashed. (kinda cool, actually…) I saw fear and shock in Max's eyes. Wait- was she and Fang together? I dunno, I'm horrible at picking up that kind of stuff.
I personally was trying to freak out, as was the rest of the flock.
Then Max flashed, or ran, but it was too hard to tell which, over to Angel. She picked the little blond girl up by her scru- shirt front, not scruff, and slammed her against the nearest building wall.
"How do you know this?!" she snarled, quite scarily, "Tell me! Tell me!"
"Max…" Fang warned, moving forward to put a hand on her shoulder. Max ignored it and continued yelling at Angel.
"Max…" Fang said again, more firmly this time. He tried to pull her away from Angel. She didn't budge.
"Come on Max… Stop strangling Angel…" I tried now. Fang glared at me.
"This isn't the time to be funny."
"I know. I wasn't trying to."
Now Iggy and Nudge were gently tugging on Max. She still ignored them. Gazzy and me started grabbing her and pulling, and Max didn't move.
There wasn't any room for Fang to join. I tugged harder, and actually moved Max from Angel. She dropped Angel, who was white-faced and ruffled.
Gazzy zipped to the side to help Angel. Before Max could turn on me, Fang grabbed her, rather roughly, and turned her to face him. "Max," he started, "Stop freaking out. It'll be okay, all right?"
She nodded.
Well. That was interesting. We still had a few hours left before the helicopter came and got us and brought us back to the good 'ol USA. How much more excitement could we cram into our visit to Africa?
I didn't want to transform or show my ears and tail (they were hidden at the moment). I don't think it would be a good idea to go on a hunt for lions. We were too far to go to Isla Nublar…
Now what?
Before my question-that-would-inevitably-go-haywire could be answered, Max turned to Angel and said, "I'm sorry." It was a bit gruff, but okay, good effort Max!
The little one simply glared at her, then turned to Gazzy, who was faithfully standing by her. "I'm alright," she said primly.
I rolled my eyes. Weirdo.
The next few hours were rather boring. I dozed. I chased after a mouse that was sniffing around us. I talked with Iggy and Nudge. And was bored.
BORED I TELL YOU! BORED!!!!
Ahem. The rest of the group was rather unbusy too. Fang and Max held hands (dawww) and talked to Ella and Dr. Martinez. The pilot and co-pilot had fallen asleep. Angel was doodling in the dirt next to Gazzy, who was being protective of her.
Like I said earlier, I was chatting with Iggy and Nudge. Nudge had become really desperate for entertainment. She had started copying everything we said.
Well, if she wanted entertainment, she got it. Iggy and I were very irritated by it. I'll bet our reactions were funny.
Either way, it was very annoying. I was desperate for her to stop. So was Iggy. Desperate times call for desperate measures. Heh heh… I think it's time to test out REVERSE PSYCHOLOGY!!! Ahem.
"Nudge… please…" pleaded Iggy.
"Nudge… please…" she shot back.
"Stop copying us!" I yowled angrily.
"Stop copying us!" she yelled back. Wait… us? Was Nudge sharing her body with some other soul?
"Please Nudge! Stop it!" Iggy shouted.
"Please Nudge! Stop it!" Nudge yelled back.
"You're such a jerk for doing this!" I hissed.
"You're such a jerk for doing this!"
"Stop it!" Iggy said now.
"Stop it!"
I took matters into my own hands.
"You're a jerk!" I said.
"You're a jerk!"
"You're an idiot!"
"You're an idiot!"
"You're a bitch!"
"You're a bitch!"
"Hah! I can't believe you just said that!"
"Hah! I can't believe you just- OH MY GOSH!" Nudge spazzed and smacked her hands over her mouth in horror. "Max will kill me for saying that!" she added.
"I'm going to kill you for saying what?" asked Max, confused.
Nudge didn't reply. So Iggy and I said it for her, simultaneously. "Bitch."
"I am not!" Max shot back.
"Not you," Iggy tried to calm her down, "Nudge said it."
"Nudge! Language!" said Max sternly.
I snickered as Nudge glared at the pair of us and turned to talk to Angel and Gazzy. "How did you do that?" asked Iggy slightly admiringly.
"Reverse psychology."
"Ah."
Well, after the reverse psychology break, the helicopter came. Yippee! Finally!
It landed and nearly blinded us with sand. I coughed. It took five minutes after that for the cloud to clear and everyone to stop coughing. Why exactly did they send a helicopter after us if they were going to choke us to death with dust?
Anyway, after the dust had cleared, we walked to the plane. Max was in the lead because Max is always in the lead.
She threw open the door, and we saw two people. Both were of the male species, though one was much older than the other.
The older one had glasses and a mustache. "Who's that?" I asked Angel.
"Jeb. He's Max's dad," she replied.
Well he did look a bit like Max.
The other dude was tall and skinny, like a pure bird-kid. He had light brown hair, dark brown eyes, and fair skin.
"Who's that?"
"No idea."
Max looked rather confused too. "Who's that?" she asked sharply.
"I'm Dylan," the dude spoke.
"Okay. Now will you kindly tell us what you're doing here?" Max said with forced graciousness.
"I'm here because I was created for you, Max." Uh…. No comment… "I'm meant to be your other half."
If I called Angel weird before, well, this dude made here look really normal. Max didn't seem at all interested. "Ya huh," she shot back, "and I'm the tooth fairy. Besides, beetle-brain, it won't even possibly work out if you don't have wings."
Dylan proceeded to open up a pair of wings, fifteen feet wide, that were about the color of a barn owl's.
Max still glared at him. "Yes you have wings. But I have Fang, and I'm not dumping him for you!" She then proceeded to take Fang's arm and hold it tightly.
Fang smiled slightly at that. He apparently didn't like Dylan, from what I see.
Neither did I. Max's hand slightly around the hatchet that she was still carrying. I didn't have to be Angel to know that she was considering throwing it at the weirdo in front of us.
"Max, put down the hatchet and nobody gets hurt," warned Jeb.
She huffed but dropped it.
Jeb, impervious to her glares and odd looks that she and the rest of the flock were shooting at Dylan, stepped aside to let us in. "So," he began, "Shall we go home?"
We all nodded and padded inside. It was small and comfortable. Unfortunately, that's what the plane was like too. That's right, the helicopter inside looked a lot like the crashed plane's interior.
If this ride was going to be anything like the last flight in a machine. And, judging by the looks we were giving strange dude, this was.
Oh, the joys of small, compacted aircraft!
And that's a wrap! I actually had the inspiration to do this in one night! It normally takes me a couple days because halfway through writing the chapter, I get bored and go elsewhere.
Yes, I know most of us don't like Dylan. So I made him a weirdo, though apparently that's what he is.
The conversation of reverse psychology actually happened between a couple of friends at lunch. It was an amusing lunch.