Thank you my reviewers! Glad you like my story so far! Here's chapter two. Enjoy! -Max

Disclaimer: I don't own Maximum Ride. DUH.

I stood on the edge of a cliff, aching to spread my wings and fly as the sun rose slowly in the sky. I held Tyler on one hip and Vani on the other. Dylan stood beside me, ready to fight. Illuminate and Breeze clung onto him for dear life. Jordan held tightly to my leg.

We had just escaped the Mexican School and have been free for almost a whole day. Now we were surrounded, and had only one logical choice. Flyboys blocked our running escape, so we had to jump. I sensed back-up on the way, too.

"Come with us," Flyboys droned. I smirked, looking down at the canyon below. This wasn't how I wanted the first flying lesson to go, but it was now or never.

What's the plan? Dylan wondered.

Fly, I answered. Dylan gave a slight nod. He was a telepath like Angel and Kuro, but his powers were greater then their's combined. Itex has a great interest in telepathy and has tested it's limitations on multiple children, but they are the only successes, each more powerful then the previous one.

Dylan spun around and took Vani from my arms, jumping over the cliffs in one swift move. He snapped his eighteen-foot silvery-gold wings open and started rising a few hundred feet from the bottom. He was a natural, even without practice.

"Lumi? Breeze? Jordan?" I whispered. "Copy Dylan. Now."

I waited. None of them moved. I sighed. Lumi looked up at me with her light brown eyes, full of terror.

"We can't!" she exclaimed softly, in a scared child's voice. "It's against the rules!"

"We'll get punished," Breeze added, as terrified as Lumi. Jordan merely nodded.

"You guys know I'd never let anything hurt you," I reminded the kids. "Trust me. Jump over the cliff and open your wings. Fly. It's safe, I've done it billions of times."

"But Max…!" Jordan whined, trying to point to the Flyboy's back-up.

"Just trust me," I demanded. "These Flyboys are too dumb to follow. GO!"

The kids still weren't sure about it, but I gave them no time to think. Still holding Ty, I picked each one up and chucked them into the air. Now they had no choice but to fly.

"Open your wings!" I screamed, throwing myself over the ledge. The Flyboys watched helplessly. This was an older batch, I realized. None of them had weapons. They couldn't fly, either. The School underestimated me again. Big mistake.

I watched as all three of the kids snapped open their wings. I breathed a sigh of relief. They actually listened.

"Come on, guys!" I ordered as the back-up arrived. I followed the kids as they rose up to where Dylan waited, high above the cliff face.

I turned my head, following Dylan's petrified gaze, to see what the back-up included. I was way surprised at what I saw. There were four of them, all children. Two boys, two girls. Everything about them was perfect. Even their angry little eyes and their terrifying black-and-white wings.

What are they? I asked myself. Experiments… But their perfect, not harmed, and well-fed.

"DYLAN!" Jordan screeched. "IT'S THEM!"

"What's them?" Breeze asked, worry in her voice.

Dylan? I demanded. WHAT are they and WHY is your brother so TERRIFIED OF THEM?

The sixteen-year-old gave me an I'm-really-sorry-I-didn't-tell-you-this-before look.

"They are Immortals," he explained, his voice strained. "They are perfect creatures. They have wings, and powers, like we do. They never get tired in battle. I have battled them many times, and it never turned out good."

I knew these things had to be bad if Dylan was showing how scared he was. I could hear it in his voice and see it in his eyes. Fear was practically radiating off of him.

I looked back at the four children. They stood on the cliffs, watching us silently. Two had their heads cocked to the side as if they were wondering who- or what- we were. Both of those kids were dressed in all white, had white wings, and had white hair. The other two kids wore black clothes, had black wings, and black hair.

"Max…? Max…? MAX!"

It took Breeze, Lumi, and Jordan's terrified cries for me to snap out of my thoughts. Jordan had tears running down his little face. I narrowed my eyes, wanting to rip the Immortal's throats apart. How dare they frighten this little boy so badly!

I do not think even you could defeat them, Dylan told me. Their powers are a hundred times better then mine.

I growled. I wanted to fight them so bad.

Fight them another time, Voice said. Get out while you can.

"Let's scram," I muttered. Dylan gave me a grateful look.

We're talking about this soon, I warned him. He sighed and turned away, guilty. The rest of us followed.

I knew I didn't have long until the kids were too tired to continue. It was their first time flying. I wished I had been able to teach them properly like Jeb had shown us all those years ago, but I didn't have the time.

I managed to keep the kids going for almost two hours. I spent the time telling them stories since we were flying over some desert. Of course we had to land, though. We hadn't had much to eat in the longest time.

I showed the others how to angle down and land. None of us landed right. Even me. The others had never tried it before, and I hadn't done it in five years.

"Can we get something to eat?" Breeze asked. I smiled at her, blue eyes wide. She was always asking about eating.

"Of course," I answered. Now to find somewhere to eat…

"There's a town three miles from here," Dylan supplied. "Big city, lots of people.

Perfect. We could hide nicely in a city. We could get food and clothes, and maybe even a place to sleep.

"Money," Dylan reminded me. "We need money, though."

I pulled a small plastic card out of my pocket and waved it in front of his face.

"My credit card," I explained. "We can buy anything with it. Let's go."

We walked the three miles to the city. By the time we got there, it was dark. Vanish and Tyler were both asleep, and Jordan was close to it.

I led us to a clothes store first. It was the first one I spotted. The clothes were all second-hand, but they were better then nothing. If there's one thing I learned in the last ten or so years, it's to not be picky about anything at all.

It was a small store, hardly noticeable in the sizable city. There was a young man sitting at the cash register, and an elderly woman wandering around the store.

"Hola!" the woman called out. "Como estas?"

I smiled politely at the woman. She was speaking Spanish, obviously. I knew some Spanish, having been living in the Mexican School for the last five years where almost everyone spoke Spanish, but not enough to continue a long conversation. Especially one that involved buying things.

"Bien, gracias," I replied. "Hablas ingles?"

"No, no hablo." The woman shook her head. She pointed to the boy, speaking rapid Spanish, none of which I could follow.

I turned to the boy. He looked up at me with a smile.

"My name's Ivan," he stated with a heavy accent. "That's my mother, Sara. Do you need any help?"

"I'm Max," I responded. "We're in dire need of new clothes, actually."

"You look like you escaped a boot camp," Ivan joked. He laughed heartily.

"Something like that," I said. I turned to Dylan. "Take the boys and find clothes. Whatever you guys want, ok?"

"Aye," Dylan agreed. I rolled my eyes as he led Jordan over to where the boy's clothes were, carrying the sleeping Vani. I led the girls over to the girl's clothes.

Breeze and Lumi went crazy over the clothes. They had never seen anything like it before. I laughed softly.

I had trouble finding baby clothes for Ty. Finally I had to go up to Ivan and ask him.

"Where are your baby clothes?" I wondered. He frowned.

"Well, we don't have any," he confided. "Everyone around here saves their baby clothes for family members. I'm sure Mama has some clothes for the child at home."

Ivan went over to where his mother was emptying boxes of pants and shirts. They began speaking Spanish again, and I vowed to eventually learn the language myself.

"She would like you guys to come on over to our home later," Ivan informed me. "She'll fix up some dinner and give you a place to rest. It's obvious you're not from around here."

"You're right," I agreed, not wanting to say more. Ivan just nodded and went to the counter.

I wandered back to Lumi and Breeze, grabbing a few outfits for myself. The two girls seemed satisfied with their choices. We placed them on the counter up front. The boys joined us shortly, adding to the pile.

Ivan rung up all the clothes. As I was reaching for my credit card, Dylan stopped me.

"I need to pay for the clothes, Dylan," I reminded him. He smiled.

"I'll pay," he offered. He pulled out a wad of cash.

Where'd you get that money? I demanded.

Jeb doesn't know how to hide his wallet, he explained. It was just sitting on the counter, and I figured we'd need money. I didn't know about the credit card. But I'll need to exchange it at the border.

I let Dylan pay for the clothes. Our total hardly came to fifty dollars, though we bought so much.

"I'll take you to the house," Ivan offered. He lead us out into the night.

We walked for about two miles, in the opposite direction that we came in, down dim and deserted streets. The shabby house was towards the back of a hidden alley.

"Is everywhere like this?" Breeze wondered with a yawn.

"No, sweetie," I answered. "You'll see different places soon, I promise."

The eight-year-old smiled at me, weariness taking over her innocent features. I smiled back, happy to have a place for these kids to sleep tonight.

"And here we are!" Ivan announced. I looked up at a small home, nicer then others but still rather poor.

Ivan lead us inside. I was surprised to find three bedrooms. Ivan said that we could have the spare one.

I put Lumi, Breeze, and Jordan to sleep in the queen-sized bed. I made a nest on the ground for Vani, and continued holding Ty. Dylan fell asleep on a torn-up second-hand sofa, and I fell asleep on a second-hand recliner that was in a relatively good condition. None of us bothered to stay awake. If we were to die tonight, that'd be fine. We were finally free from the School.

Yah, so not much has happened yet, but it will soon. Um... I don't have very much to say right now. Review, please! -Max