((Disclaimer: I don't own Maximum Ride, or any of the characters in this book. They all still belong to James Patterson, well, they still did when I last checked. Enjoy!

But I do own the plots, so PLEASE respect this story and the author and don't steal the plot(s).)) I don't only Google ether.

Chapter 5: Some Smart Advise

I woke earlier then I had hoped. Looking around the room, I noticed Iggy asleep in the armchair. Then I looked at the clock and saw it had only just ticked over to 5 am. I decided to go for a fly and clear my head in the near-by mountain range in had seen coming in yesterday. Climbing out the window, I looked at the one next to me. Faintly through the glass I could only just make Angel out, sleeping peacefully in a warm bed. I took off, stretching my black wings. I felt better almost immediately as I circled above the sleeping city. I saw an accident far of in the distance. A lone ambulance was parked, lights flashing. I saw a gurney being pushed to it. The body on top of it had a crisp white sheet pulled right over the top of them. The ambulance drove off, not bothering with the lights or sirens. I was glad that Max or the flock hadn't been with me to see the lifeless body being taken away. A fire truck pulled up shortly after and being cleaning up. That's how life goes; you live life, die, then someone comes along behind you and cleans up. Then it starts and goes all over again. The 'circle of life' song immediately popped into my head. Oh, great that's all I need. I wondered what the rest of the world was doing. There were a few early cars on the highway, but it was still quite. I reached the mountains and sat on a small ridge, watching the world go by. Gradually, it got brighter and the sun came up behind me. There were more cars on the road. It was getting noisier to. I dropped of the ledge, spreading my wings. I had then out the whole time is was sitting there, letting the sun warm them. It was nice to be up this high. I flew back to the hotel and went in the back window. Max was sitting on the sill, waiting for me. She moved to let me in.

"Feeling better?" I nodded, folding in my wings. "Angel and Nudge were worried about you. Angel was scared you'd done something stupid because of what she said. I tried to calm her down, but they were convinced something's happened to you. I told them that you were Fang and you'd come home." I nodded again, looking round the empty room.

"Where's Iggy?" Max pointed outside.

"They're waiting for us in the next room. We're going for breaky in the hotel restaurant. Come on," she walked to the door, waiting for me.

"Fang, you'll get through this. You're Fang, for goodness sake!" She turned and walked out in to the hallway.

"Yo, Max!" She turned as I jogged up to her.

"Thanks, you know?" She smiled, rolling her eyes.

"Always a man of words, huh?"

"Uh, what? No more wise advice?" She shook her head.

"Not before breakfast, I'm sorry. Please drop around again in office hours." She laughed and I grinned. Walking into the foyer with Max beside me and the flock in front of me, I never felt more happy.

Dark rain clouds rolled over head as we climbed up into the back of a cargo plane, bound for Brunei, where ever the heck that was. I couldn't ever pronounce it properly.

"Max, were is this place again?" Iggy sniffed the cargo area and screwed up his nose in disgust.

"Uh, it stinks!" Max rolled her eyes.

"My rolling my eyes Iggy. And this place we're going is in Malaysia."

"Oh, cool," Nudge bounced up to Max.

"Where's Malaysia?" Max frowned.

"Somewhere in the world."

"Where's the world?" I could tell this was going to be a long trip. So could Max.

"Not where your from." Good one Max. I threw a half smile in her general direction. She smiled back, sitting down to lean against a create. Iggy and I joined her. Nudge, Angel and Gazzy were jacks or something with some rocks Angel had picked up. It was nice to see them be kids for once. Max was asleep, Iggy was listening to this Ipod and I was sitting and staring into space, thinking. Before getting on the plane Max had told me that 'everyone has a family, but sometimes they just don't know it until they find them.' That would have to be the un-Max-ish thing she's every said to me. And in a way, it makes perfect sense to someone like me. Like us. Homeless, kids and on the run. I made a decision then and there, a pact almost. And I wasn't about to break it anytime soon.

The plane landed roughly 7 hours later, in Malaysia. We piled out of the cargo area when no one was looking, and flew to a near by clump of trees.

"Ok, everyone. We'll fly to Banjarmasin. But first, anyone hungry?" There were several 'yays!' And 'alrights' We walked out of the airport and caught a taxi to a near-by shopping center. We picked a fast-food chain store and ordered as much as we needed. Which as a lot. Again the women behind the counter looked at us, but we paid and ate. We left as soon as we could. We didn't want to stay in a foreign place for to long in case there were Erasers everywhere, looking for us. We caught another taxi to a smaller area of town and hide in some trees along the road. Several times trucks full of soldiers drove past us, on their way inland. We were heading toward s the water, so we didn't get in their way.

"Ok, were going to fly from here. Everyone ok?" We all nodded.

"I'm a bit stiff from that long plane flight though. At least I'm not hungry!" Gazzy smiled, flexing his back. Nudge nodded, flexing hers to. Angel stretched her hands above her head and screamed.

"There! Erasers! 4 o'clock." We all jumped, letting out our wings. There were only 10 or so of them, we could take them down easily.

"It's crunch time!" We all looked at Gazzy, would shrugged. "What!"

"No more TV for you," Max said turning to face the on-coming Erasers. Gazzy grinned, also facing the fast moving cloud of Erasers. We flew to them, making up time.

"We've been sent to des-" I kicked it over the head, then punched it in the stomach, winding it. Max threw a perfect road-house kick at one, Gazzy was kicking one over and over again, and enjoying every minute of it. Angle was staring at her's controlling it with her mind. It fell like a rock to the ground below. Iggy was putting up quite a fight for a blind guy, throwing punches like Rocky. I side-swiped one and snapped it's head back, fast. It hit the ground, another rock. Max saw and tried the same on her Eraser. She didn't do it fast enough, and it turned and grabbed her, throwing in a punch in the process. Winded, she tried to kick back, put it got in first. I flew up behind her, kicking it sharp on the back of the head.

It stumbled and Max kicked it hard in the ribs. It fell like a rock.

"These Erasers are so easy to get rid of," Nudge kicked one and Gazzy slammed his head into another.

"Don't jinx us!" Max yelled to Gazzy, helping Iggy out with his Eraser. All of a sudden, there were none left. We gad defeated them all. We high-fived and were on our way again, not wanting to stick around.

We got to Banjarmasin at about 8 at night. We slept in trees around, not willing to book a hotel.

I thought of the women, and if she was my mother. I thought of why Max's Voice had told her to go to Australia. Where was that anyway? Some small island somewhere? I pulled out the laptop we had stole about a year ago now, and typed in Australia in Google Search Engine. There were a list of links, and I was cruising when a message from blog popped up on the bottom of the screen. I clicked on it, expecting a comment. It was, but it was wishing Max a birthday. Huh? I clicked on the link to my blog and there was a small section down the bottom with our chosen birthday dates. Max's was the 30th of September, which I guessed was coming up. I Googled the date. It was 2 days away. I thought that was pretty cool as she's obviously forgotten. She wound have said something. I looked up finding Max asleep in her branch. I quietly woke the others up and showed them. They all thought it was cool to. We decided to re-do the blog page with happy birthday note for Max, which were coming in. We had received 4 just wile we were sitting there. We started doing the blog page, stopping every so often when she stirred. It was actually fun, come to think of it. We posted up a requested for birthday notes and reorganized them all as they came in. There were heaps of people on, and it was about 10 o'clock. Well, I guess we were. Angel said blue was Max's favorite color, so we colored the page dark blue with puffy clouds, and the notes were really light blue. The writing was white. It looked really good when we had finished for the night, if I didn't say so why self.

The next morning we made no indication of the previsions night to Max, keeping it a surprise. Then out of the blue she asked me:

"Hey, how's your blog going? You haven't been on for ages? Any news?" I pursed my lips.

"I haven't had time. You know how your plan is." She nodded.

"Don't let me get in you're way of living your life Fang. Don't do that to me. I don't want to be living life through me and vise versa." I nodded and grinned.

"Why live through your life when mine's so much better." She slapped me across the shoulder and I pretended to be hurt and offended. Then I hit her back and she looked shocked. Only for a second. Within minutes we were having a punching contest, me in the lead but only just. Iggy and Nudge came up to us via their branches and sat and watched, looks of amassment on their faces.

"I'm winning, ha ha!"

"No, your not." She threw a good punch at me, almost knocking me of my perch. I tried to defend myself, but my hand came up too slow.

"Damn, you're pretty good. But not as good as me!" I threw a quick punch at her unprotected arm, leaving her whole side open to attack. I seized the chance, moving a fake punch to the head. I was winning by about 10 points.

"I'm flattered. Really, I am. But you're wrong Fang!" She swiped at my head, causing me to duck. She fake punched my stomach, putting her closer to my points.

After about an hour of this, everyone was watching us, even betting fake money on who would win. Iggy and Angel had 'money' on me, and Nudge and Gazzy had 'money' on Max. I was winning by five. Then Max sensed my distraction and swiped a fake blow to the side of my head, then on to my left arm. I blocked another right-side punch and threw her a blow to under her chin. She swiped at my stomach with another fake blow then punched my head, gently.

"Maybe you're getting to old. You're an old man!" Nudge giggled and started chanting 'old man' over and over. I dropped to the ground, taking Nudge and Max with me. They screamed with surprise and delight: I was actually mucking around with them. I could see it on Gazzy, Angel's and Iggy's face, after he learnt what had happened from a laughing Gazzy. I tickled Max and Nudge, receiving a stray blow to the side of my head and a perching scream in my ear. They giggled like a couple of school girls, screaming and laughing just because. Max rolled, kicking down my legs. I landed on top of Nudge, who's screams were muffled. Nudge lifted my up with her legs, wiggled out from under me, and rolled right over Max who all most had gotten up. I was just about to roll when Max sat on me. She turned, scrunching my shirt up. Gazzy and Nudge were laughing hysterically. I guess it must have been funny from their point of view. Even Iggy was laughing hard. She pulled both arms up and pinned them to my back, telling Nudge and Gazzy to hold them tight. My eyes widened at the though of what she was going to do. Sure enough, she starting tickling my ticklish spot. I was twisting everywhere, laughing hysterically so hard tears were running down my face.

"No, please! No, no, no! Oh God please stop! I'll do anything! Please! It's too much! Please Max! Please!" She started laughing to and soon we were all lying in a heap, exhausted. I poked her.

"You are so evil." She smiled, pleased. She was the only one that knew my ticklish spot from when we were really little. I'm surprise she remembered. Then suddenly I remembered that her ticklish spot was on the soles of her feet. Being fast, I ripped of both feet and Gazzy grabbed one. I started tickling her before she even knew what had happened. She screamed, laughing. Actually, she kinda shrieked, right in my ear. Nudge lunged at me, taking sides. With perfect aim, Iggy picked her right out of the air. We all looked up, stunned. Then we all cheered.

"Go Iggy! You're my man!" I smiled, turning back to Max. She screamed, seeing my face. I lifted her shirt up, then blew a huge raspberry on her firm stomach. She screamed, crying and laughing and begging. I also knew that she hated raspberries, especially on her stomach. Jeb had told me that years ago, when we were only, like, 11.

"NO, Fang! Please. How did you know I hated this? HOW? No God please, please STOP! Oh no!" She kept going on and I kneeled over her, laughing. Gazzy decided to do this to Angel. She grabbed his hair from fright and pulled, resulting in Gazzy flipping over, knocking Iggy who was kneeling listening to the whole thing. He hit Nudge who was about to jump on me again. She fell on Max's stomach, and Max bent forward from reflex, hitting me hard on the head. Me both saw starts before I fell over backwards ands she fell back down on her back. She pulled her shirt down.

"Ow! That hurt. What have you got in there. I always thought your head was empty." I grinned, holding my head.

"That's gunna bruise."

"Yep. You hit me pretty hard."

"Oh, I hit you? I thought it was the other way 'round."

"No. That knock must have been more damaging then first thought! Iggy, you better look at Fang's head. Something's going wrong somewhere." Iggy laughed.

"I'm sorry Max. Whatever happened with his head happened at birth. I can't fix it now." I scowled at Iggy, then softly punched his arm. He grabbed it, pinning me to the ground. My cheek was pushed into the ground, hand behind my back. Nudge saw this as a perfect opportunity to finally get to pounce on me, which she did. And took great pleasure in doing so. My back is going to be so sore tomorrow.