This is where my story actually starts making sense! YAHOOO!!!! I know you must be so excited!........no? Oh well. I hope you enjoy reading chapter 4 as much as I enjoyed writing it! :)
Disclaimer:I disclaim Maximum Ride....if that's even a word...
Max POV
After we'd all picked our jaws up off the ground, the Threat, accompanied by Angel, led us back to the cave she'd been staying in. There, she'd introduced us to Skye, a.k.a. the girl who'd gotten us into this mess.
You can't blame her for your own problems, Maximum, my Voice had told me as we all kind of settled down into an almost-circle.
Oh, that's right! Because it's your fault, not hers! I shot right back.
Use what you have, it said, completely ignoring me. Take advantage of the situation.
How? I mentally shrieked
You know what to do, Maximum.
It took every ounce of my self control not to scream in frustration. Use what I have? We're on the run! We don't have anything! And yet Gazzy and Iggy still manage to blow things up...They will forever be a mystery to me.
I suddenly realized that everybody was staring at me like I should be making a big, important, leader-like speech or something. Which I probably should. But instead, I decided to skip right to the interrogation.
"Who are you?" I asked the Threat, putting as much steel into my voice as I possibly could. She winced under the force of my gaze. Score one for Max.
"I'm me, and this is my sister, Skye, but you already knew that," she answered, voice trembling slightly. I could already tell that getting answers out of her would be like trying to get Nudge out of bed. In other words, this was going to take a very, very long time.
"What's your name?" I asked forcefully. Let's see her worm her way out of that.
"I don't have one," she said wistfully, but her eyes were dead serious.
As the flock leader, I've had a lot of practice searching people's faces for lies. For instance, I can usually tell if the Gasman is lying about not having any bombs, or if Angel "influenced" some poor schmuck to buy her something, even though she knows she's not supposed to. So when I saw the unclouded sincerity in her eyes, I accepted the fact that this girl didn't have a name. Against my better judgment, I, Maximum Ride, trusted a stranger.
She's lying, Angel said. Big surprise. But before I had a chance to strangle the truth out of her, I was interrupted by none other than the Nudge channel.
"Oh my gosh! That's horrible! We should, like, totally give you a name! You know, like he's the Gasman," she said, pointing to Gazzy, "because he farts all the time. So we could totally name you after one of your powers! What can you do?"
And just like that, Nudge saved me about an hour of forceful interrogation. I love that girl.
"Well," the Threat said, hesitating. "I think it would be better if we showed you." My heart rate kicked up a notch as a wide grin spread across her face. Anything that involves surprises and evil grins is not a good thing. Fact of life.
"Let me go first!" Skye yelled, finally coming out from...wherever she'd been hiding from us.
"Wanna do it at the same time?" In response, Skye jumped up and down, nodding excitedly.
"Close your eyes," she commanded as if she actually expected us to. And to my complete horror, the younger kids actually closed their eyes. Iggy obviously didn't need to, and Fang and I were being cautious. Or you could call it paranoid.
"No way, not me," I refused, my decision set in stone.
"Turn around?" Skye suggested, still looking totally pumped about whatever was about to happen. I looked at Fang, who shrugged and turned his back to the Threat. I sighed, completely outnumbered. Grudgingly, I followed Fang's example and turned to face the opposite wall.
I strained my ears to hear any sort of movement, but all I heard was Nudge, who was shuffling her feathers excitedly.
As soon as Skye shrieked, "OPEN YOUR EYES!!" I had turned around, only to see...nothing. An empty cave wall. I automatically went into panic mode. I had heard her! She had been right there!
A shrill giggle came from the space in front of me. "You should see your faces!"
"I wish I could," came the Threat's muffled voice.
"What just happened?" asked Iggy, clearly confused. "And why is she huddled down against the wall?"
"They just disappeared," the Gasman explained. Iggy gawked.
"I wanna try something," Iggy muttered, standing up. He then walked over to the cave wall and touched a medium-sized rock. "What do you mean, 'disappeared?' She's right here."
"That's a rock," I said stupidly, totally not getting it.
"A breathing rock. With feathers." At that, the rock grew legs. And a head. You ever seen a rock grow body parts? It's a very unique experience. Then it turned, revealing a smiling, and apparently wingless, Threat.
"Whoa," breathed Nudge.
"Double whoa," Gazzy agreed.
"Anybody feel like telling me what's such a big deal?" Iggy asked at the same time I said, "Somebody better tell me what the heck is going on."
"It's my wings," the Threat explained as they suddenly reappeared. "They can change color."
"Let me feel," Iggy immediately demanded. I expected the Threat to give him a really weird look, but she held out her wing, and a look of wonder crossed his face as her white, brown-speckled wings turned every color of the rainbow and then some.
"It's really easy, actually," the Threat explained as they turned a light shade of purple. "All I have to do is mimic the shade of the cave wall. Looks like the blind guy can see more than you do!" While she cracked up at her own (really bad) joke, Fang and I exchanged a "she's crazy" glace, and Gazzy let out sort of a nervous giggle.
"How'd you know I was blind?" Iggy cut in, still engrossed in the Threat's wings, which were now a subtle shade of forest green.
"Not hard to guess," she said, shrugging.
"Awesome," Iggy breathed as her wings reverted back to their original color.
"What about Skye?" asked Angel, probably already knowing, but wanting to see it anyway.
"BOO!!!!" I heard directly behind me, and I swear I jumped right out of my freaking skin. Whipping around, I saw a hysterically laughing Skye along with Angel, who was laughing just as hard. That little twerp. I saw Fang smirk, so I gave him a oh-shut-up glare, which only made his smirk hot- I mean bigger.
"Skye's more talented than I am," the Threat said, interrupting the insane laugh-apalooza going on at my expense. "Turning invisible is way better than limited camouflage."
"Can you do patterns or just solid colors?" Iggy asked, his hand still halfway extended towards her wing.
"Oh, I'd never thought of that," she said sheepishly.
After that, we all somehow managed to split into 3 groups: Iggy and Nudge watching (and feeling) in wonder as the Threat managed to turn each wing a separate color, Gazzy and Angel shrieking in delight as Skye disappeared before their eyes, and Fang and I, sitting against the wall, hating every second of it.
"I just don't get it," I complained to him. "Why would she not give us her name? What's she got to lose?"
"Maybe she's afraid we'll turn her in to the School," he suggested in a way that told me he didn't think it was true.
"Should I try to force it out of her?" I asked, kinda hoping that he would jump up and yell, "What a great idea, Max! Let's start the torture right now!" But I knew that it would never work. And this is Fang we're talking about.
"She'll never give in," he said, being his own calm and reasonable self.
I groaned internally. I was Max. I was the leader who always had a plan, who always knew exactly what to do. For the sake of the flock, I had to find out more about the Threat. But how? She doesn't respond to intimidation, which is usually how I get answers out of people And I couldn't just beat it out of her like I desperately wanted to. I wonder what would happen if-
Use what you have, Maximum, my Voice reminded me
And what exactly would that be? I screamed back. The flock? What do you want me to do, lock her in a room with the Gasman? I was desperate enough to actually consider it. How sad.
Not quite, said the Voice. And then it hit me. Angel.
Duh.
I had a mind reader. Why didn't I think of that before? I felt really stupid.
"Your Voice say anything helpful?" Fang asked.
His question was answered by Angel, who skipped over and said, "You called?"
"I need you to tell me everything you know about her," I said quietly, gesturing at the Threat. Angel sighed.
"She's not a threat Max," she explained impatiently.
"Then why won't she tell us her name?" I demanded.
"She doesn't want us to know," said Angel as if this was the mots obvious thing in the world.
"Why not?" I growled, my patience wearing thin. Not that I had a lot to begin with, but still.
Angel paused. "She doesn't want me to tell you," she finally stated in a very matter-of-fact tone, which you all know I handle so well.
"You have got yo be kidding me!" I practically yelled, earning several pairs of curious eyes.
All in good time, Maximum.
Sigh. Well, there you go :) I really hope that you know what to do next, but I'm going to tell you anyways. REVIEW! It will make me very happy to know that people are actually reading my story.
Oh and one more thing. I read this freakishly awesome Maximum Ride fanfic called Fifteen. It's by Maximum Writers (haha what an awesome name).
Also, if you love Fax with all your heart and soul, you might wanna check out MR : Bloodlust by Hiwatari-Angel-15. Live long and prosper. :P