Disclaimer: I don't own Maximum Ride, or do I own Dark, Tum, Red, or the story(untill chapter three). Again I adopted the story. But the next chapter will be my work and from then on the story will be mine

…...

Max's POV

"Maaaaax! Hurry up!" complained Nudge.

"I'm coming, hold your horses." I muttered. Fang chuckled and I glared at him.

It's been six months since the flock and I had returned from our Hawaiian adventure, and so far we haven't been attacked once.

But, as always, it didn't stay that way for long. But I'm getting ahead of myself.

We have been crashing here at my mom's house for a while, trying to lead somewhat normal lives. You know, as normal as six flying kids can get. At least the younger ones were enjoying themselves; I on the other hand, was as twitchy as Iggy at a rock concert (Nudge discovered the band Paramore and demanded that we see them live. He almost had a nervous breakdown.).

Anyway, this morning, after an unholy breakfast of pancakes and bacon, Angel suggested that we go on a picnic for lunch.

Which brings us to the present, where Nudge is dragging my reluctant self out the door. I quickly stuffed my backpack with the remaining food on the counter, than sprinted out the door to join my family in the sky.

I closed my eyes and took a deep breath. God, flying is great. The feel of the wind in your feathers, the breeze on your face, the clean smell of... wait a minute.

"Ugh! Gazzy!" I yelled above the wind while holding my nose.

"My sinuses! They burn!"

"Gross!"

"That's just nasty."

The Gasman cackled and swooped to the back of our formation.

Out of the corner of my now watering eyes, I saw Fang come beside me.

"There's a clearing down there." he said, pointing to the ground. "We should land"

I nodded and started to dive, trying to hide my blush. Even though we were officially "together", there was still something about Fang that made my heart beat a little bit faster. Maybe it was how he always had my back, or how his black wings beat in sync with my brown ones. Or it might be his smile, his eyes, his touch, his abs...

My blush deepened. I really hopped Angel hadn't heard that.

As the rest of the flock gracefully landed behind me, I pulled the blanket from my backpack, spread it on the ground, and dumped the food on top.

"Dig in!" I said cheerfully to a hungry flock. About half the food was gone in under ten minutes.

Huh. That's a new recored.

"Nudge! Give it back!" huffed Gazzy. She giggled and raced away with the last piece of fried chicken and he chased after her. Angel plopped down by Iggy where he was leaned against a tree. They were probably talking about world domination.

Well, Angel probably was. Iggy was most likely talking about beach bunnies and honey mustard, not necessarily in that order.

That just left me and a certain dark eyed bird boy.

Fang scooted over to me and casually took my hand. My heart thudded in my chest.

"Are you OK? You seem tense." he whispered.

I sighed. "Ya, it's just... we haven't seen any sign of Erasers or the School for months. It makes me nervous."

He nodded slowly, than put an arm around my shoulders and squeezed. "I know what you mean. Just try not to worry so much, let the younger kids enjoy their vacation before it blows up in our faces."

Than he kissed me.

That boy knows me so well.

I turned my head sideways so we could kiss better for a minute or two, than broke away.

He smirked at me and I rested my head against his chest. Life was good.

Than I saw Angel stiffen.

Well crap. The flock and I were at her side in an instant.

"What's wrong, Angel?" I asked.

She blinked a few times, than whirled around and focused on something across the clearing.

"Something's here." she whispered.

Everyone froze.

Than at that exact moment, something crashed out of the woods and into our field.

I'll give you three guesses on what it was.

Erasers? No.

M-Geeks.?Nah.

A giant bacon monster? I wish... but no dice.

It was a dragon.

"No way..." I breathed just as Gazzy yelled, "Cool!"

The dragon was pitch black and had to be at least thirteen feet long. It had the body of a salamander, but walked with a cat-like grace, it's greenish blue eyes full of caution. Down on all fours, the giant lizard crept out of it's hiding place.

Angel took a step forward.

The dragon stopped in mid-step.

All of a sudden, it heaved itself onto it's stubby hind legs, snapped open it's humongous black wings, and ROARED.

"U and A!" I screamed, barely able to hear myself over the beast. The flock and I shot into the air to get away from the freaking dragon. Well, everyone except a certain mind reader.

"Angel! Get your butt up here! NOW!" I barked while hovering a few hundred feet in the air. She didn't respond, but simply continued to advance toward the animal.

It narrowed it's eyes at her and growled.

Angel looked up at me. "It's OK, Max. She's just hungry!" she called. I groaned and dove down to land behind her.

"Exactly!" I hissed. "And you look like a little blond crouton! Now come on!"

She shook her head and held out a piece of ham. "Just watch." she urged.

The dragon seemed to calm down when it saw the meat and it's weird ears perked up. It took a tentative step forward.

"Angel..." Fang warned. By now the rest of the flock had assembled on the ground.

She ignored him and waved the ham a little bit. "It's alright. Come here, we're not going to hurt you." she said in a sweet voice. The dragon's eyes were wary, but it came closer to us.

And closer.

And closer.

Now it was only a few yards away.

"That's it. Good girl." Angel muttered. The black beast leaned towards us and opened it's mouth.

Ha! It didn't even have teeth! What was it going to do, gum us to death?

Than at the last second, pointy white teeth popped out of it's gums and the dragon snatched the ham out of Angel's hand. We all watched with wide eyes as it savored the processed meat.

"Can someone please be as kind to tell me what's going on?" Iggy asked, his voice dripping with sarcasm. He gasped when Angel sent him a mental image. "Holy-"

"Language!" I interrupted.

"See? She was just hungry." Angel said. She walked up to the beast and scratched it's ears. It bent down and purred.

"Angel, sweetie," I said carefully, "just what exactly is it?"

Her face scrunched up. "Well, I can't exactly read her mind, only emotions and things that she pushes at me. But I think her name is Dark. And she's an experiment from the School, just like us!"

"Dark" looked up and grunted. I guess that was a confirmation.

"OMG! This is, like, soooo cool! I can't believe we found a real live dragon! I thought they were imaginary, like unicorns and stuff! Does this mean that unicorns exist too? I want a pet unicorn, but I think that they would be hard to carry. And that horn would poke you all the time. Ooooh, what if it had wings? Than it could follow us! What do unicorns eat anyway? Probably grass and stuff. Ew! What would grass taste like? Remember that one time when Iggy dared Gazzy to eat dirt? That was sooo gross! Did it-" Nudge was cut off when Fang slapped a hand over her mouth. She peeled his hands away, than rushed over to where Dark had flipped onto her back. Gazzy, Nudge, and Angel rubbed her belly. She purred even louder.

"What do you think Dr. M will say when she sees this?" Iggy mused. "Oh ya! About that! We thought that we would pick up a dragon from the pound for Angel, since Total's in Alaska with Akila. Got to love them animals!"

Wait, what?

"No." I said pointedly to Angel.

She pouted. "Please, Max? Dark's not dangerous! She has no where to go. What if the School's after her?"

I threw my hands in the air. "Exactly my point! If she is being chased by Whitecoats, she'll lead them strait to us! How do you know that she's not dangerous? You said yourself that you can't read her mind clearly! And in case you haven't noticed, SHE JUST TRIED TO EAT US!"

And that's when Angel whipped out the Bambi eyes. I gulped.

Oh no.

She smiled sweetly. Oh, yes. (AN: bold is Angel in someone's head.)

Now all three of the younger kids, and dragon, had set their adorable sights on me. I turned to Fang.

"Help me out here." I said desperately.

He shrugged and pointed to where Dark was wiggling on the ground. "That doesn't seem very dangerous to me. It's actually kind of cute."

I stared at him openmouthed. Fang thought something was cute?

"Ok, fine! She can come with us. But you're in charge of her Angel." I muttered. Angel and Nudge squealed and Iggy and Gazzy slapped high fives.

Dark grunted and Angel turned to her.

"Oh! Dark says that she really appreciates us helping her. And we smell nice." she giggled. Everyone else cracked up, even Fang and I.

That's when Nudge screamed.

…...

Dark's POV

I grunted to get the mind reader's attention.

"Oh! Dark says that she really appreciates us helping her. And we smell nice." she giggled. It was true, they all smelled like the sky. And ham.

Suddenly, the little brown one screamed.

"Erasers!" Max yelled, just as about 25 of the smelly wolf-men landed in the clearing. I shot into the air before anyone could stop me.

Dark! Where are you going?

Watch this. It's going to be hilarious.

I angled my giant wings downwards and started to dive back down to the Earth. I saw the blind and the talkative one fighting about 6 Erasers at once. Somewhere a bomb went off. The lovebirds were taking on 7 each and the blond siblings battled the rest. One of the wolf-men lashed out at my mind reader. She went down.

"ROAR!" I shot a pulse of blue fire at the group, sending Erasers flying through the air.

"NIGHT FURY!" one of them screamed. I landed on him. Hard.

Roaring again, I swept a couple more aside with my tail and plucked one from the ground with my mouth. Teeth retracted, of course.

He shrieked and I flung him high into the air, catching him before he fell to the ground. I laughed, but it came out like a choking sound.

This is what I do for fun.

"Dark, put him down." The leader said warily. I grunted.

Do I have to?

Angel laughed. "Yes you do. Now put him down."

I sighed and spat the now wet Eraser on the ground. He whimpered, than took off, his awkward wings flapping franticly.

I made a face. Ew. He tastes like dog food.

This caused Angel to giggled again and the flock to look at her questionably. She shrugged.

"I guess we should get going." Max said, eyeing the setting sun. "Mom will be wondering where we are."

She took a running start, than leaped into the air and rose into the sky. So graceful.

The rest of us followed.

After 15 minutes of traveling and the initial shock of me flying wore off, (OMG! That's so cool! Can I ride her? Uh, no) we finally landed behind a small house in the woods. It looked cozy.

"Stay here." Max instructed me. I kneeled down and Angel scratched my head.

Self...control...melting...

I flipped onto my back so she could give me a belly rub

Ahhh...

Max disappeared into the house for a few minutes, then came out with three new people. The first was what looked like a mini-Max, but a couple years younger and with brown hair. Standing besides her was a middle-aged women with kind brown eyes and laugh lines. I liked her already. Both of them were starring at me with wide eyes and opened mouths. I gave them a toothy grin. The third person was...

I shot up and narrowed my eyes into slits, snarling.

There, with his pale face and creepy pedophile mustache, was none other than Jeb Batchelder.

And I was just about ready to kill him.

…...

When you picture Dark, just think of Toothless but a little smaller and more girly-like.

As for Tum and Red, lets just say you will find out soon enough...

R&R!