I HAVEN'T ABANDONED YOU! These holidays have been extremely busy. I wrote and posted this chapter on my flight to Brisbane –extremely good WiFi up here- it's the only time I can update for a while.

Has anybody else noticed that JP has posted the first 23 CHAPTERS OF ANGEL! Go to the Max-Dan-Wiz website and it's pretty much the first thing you see. Or, ya know, you could just click on the link on my profile...

Max POV

I opened my telepathic connection to the flock and replayed what I saw in Reaper's mind.

"That is just sick!" Iggy exclaimed. All I could do was nod.

"Why would she want to kill her family?" Nudge asked quietly.

I shrugged. "I dunno Nudge. It's evil on all kinds of levels."

"Well," Gazzy said, his easy-going attitude was getting a little unnerving. "All she's missing is the cloak, the skeleton body and a scythe. The three most important parts of the grim reaper, so it can't really be her, can it?"

"She sure of hell is," Fang mumbled quietly. Dylan glared at him.

"C'mon guys, we gotta blow this joint, before it's swarmed with erasers and M-geeks and whatever else this Britt Maxicom has come up with," I ordered, and we all spread and took off at this same time.

"So Max, does Reaper have her own School or something?" Nudge called.

"I guess so," I answered.

"Hey, don't you think that Maxicom sounds a lot like Maximum? Why would they name the big evil company something that sounds so much like your name?" she asked.

It's because they're humiliating you, naming something after the world's lost greatest defender.

"The voice says it's because they're trying to humiliate me, that naming it after the world's lost defender."

Nudge frowned. "That's just plain mean!"

I scoffed. "Nudge sweetie, these people are planning to eliminate ninety percent of the world's population, and you think naming their damn company after me is mean? If anything, I feel honoured."

Nudge pondered this for a few moments. You're right, she thought. I sent her a look saying 'aren't I always?'

"So Max: where are we going?" Dylan asked, gliding next to me.

"To see Jeb," I said.

It was a relatively short flight, but the day's events had taken their toll on me. We landed but kept our wings out. Again, Bridget lead us into the same room we were in last time, and Jeb was surprised by appearance.

"So I take it you were successful in finding out about that experiment, then?" he asked.

"Yeah...little problem with that..." I mumbled. Jeb raised an eyebrow in question. "Well, you see...That experiment is pretty much neutral ground. She's not just their assassin, but also ours, in a way. She's pretty much a Grim Reaper reincarnate."

Jeb paled and plopped down onto the chair. I tried reading his mind but it was like trying to run through a brick wall: hard and painful. "Er, Daddy-O? Care to explain your reaction?"

He sighed. "Everyone had better take a seat." Once we were all in a chair, he started. "Well, as you know, the flock are not the only successful experiments. In fact, you are the 57th mutant generation. But there was one other recombinant in your generation that we kept separated from you. She was a vampire-bat/human hybrid. At first we thought she was a normal recombinant, but then we realised that she had the power to detect life forces, which is basically the same thing as reading minds, but more concentrated on certain points.

"She could tell you what type of personality you had, your IQ, even who your soul-mate was! But she also had the power to anticipate death, and also means of executing it. She was trained to kill in ways that most experienced assassins wouldn't dream of trying. I was hoping that she died when they were exterminating the mutants back in Germany.

"So you're right. She pretty much is the grim reaper reincarnate."

So...yeah. EXTREMELY short chapter 'cause my brain is fried.

Oh yeah, I forgot to mention: Dylan's pipe bomb that I got him for Christmas blew up on Christmas eve and I was too slack to make a new one, so I just got him an atomic bomb instead. So I'm still trying to piece him back together.

So every review goes to the Putting-Dylan-back-together-so-we-can-torture-him-again appeal.

Oh, as I said before, the first 23 chapters of ANGEL are up. That 57th generation thing actually belongs to JP. If you want to read it, the link is on my profile.