Okay quick establishment of the time line of this story. It started 6 months after book 5, they are already sixteen, six more months go by when Max disappears, and three months since she's been back with them. So at this point the flock is almost two years older than they were in book 5.
So besides a very nasty comment, I had a very good week.
This chapter is my birthday gift to you guys! Thanks for being so amazingly supportive, and patient with my horrid slow updating. I'll make up for it by providing awesome chapters.
Chapter 15 Part 1: The Coming of Nudge
Fang POV
"Come on Fang SPILL!" Gazzy shouted in my ear. I rolled my eyes at the kid, and focused on the task in front of me, updating my blog. It was my first time updating in a year but that mostly due to the fact that nothing exciting has happened to us in the past year. Last time I check I had a lot of pissy comments about my separation with Max. Lots and lots of hate mail man, I'm not gonna deny it, it hurt to be hated by strangers.
Okay that was only partially a lie, I updated once in between after we discovered Max wiped her memories. My brain was rejecting the memory of the update because this time I actually got a lot of death threats. Apparently the whole world was reading my blog for Max and Fang action and not "Bird kids mission to save the World."
"Fang I swear I'll fart in your face if you don't tell me!" Gazzy threatened. I winced and considered giving in. Gazzy's farts were pretty damn lethal, especially now that he can light them on fire . . . ugh, I mentally shuddered at the memory.
"Don't even think about it Gaz. I'll just look into Fang's mind," Angel taunted me. I narrowed my eyes at her as she tried to probe my brain, which I instantly closed off from her.
"Don't try Angel," I replied.
"HE SPEAKS!" Gazzy threw his arms up in celebration. I chuckled and continued typing away. It was time to get my followers back into preventing the end of the world plan. I was by no means being half hearted about this. I earnestly wanted to promote teens, the human ones, to do what's within their power to save our home and planet. Maybe I was doing it to lighten our burden, maybe I was doing to be the righteous hero? Who knew?
I was aware that Gazzy was rambling, and Angel was complaining how everyone seemed to have their minds blocked these days, but I paid no attention. Iggy loved Max . . . I should have seen it coming. Maybe I did and didn't want too. Nudge loved Iggy, that was definitely a shocker. I love and kissed Max. Where the hell does this leave our family? It was too complicated to think about, so I neatly stored it away in the back of my mind. Iggy and Max, I could deal with, but Nudge was a whole other story. In my head, she was just a kid.
I stopped typing to rub my temples and try to forget the thoughts previously plagueing my mind. It's time the flock talked some things through.
"Gazzy," I finally responded, effectively shutting him up. He gave me his undivided attention and an eager look in his eyes. I almost felt bad for deceiving the kid. "Get the flock together in the dining room. Do whatever you have to,"
"Can I use my flaming farts?" He almost pounced where he stood. I visibly paled at the idea.
"No!" I told him firmly, Gazzy frowned but ran to look for the others. Angel smiled, grabbed my hand and pulled me into the kitchen with her. Max, Iggy, Nudge, Total, and Gazzy all rolled in one by one. The atmosphere in our small kitchen was so thick with tension that it hung like fog in the early morning. I could pretend that I didn't notice, but I did. The tension seemed to extend to me as well. To my dismay, Max wouldn't meet my eyes, but she wouldn't meet Iggy's either. Iggy watched Max, and Nudge watched Iggy. I sighed; life was just so cruel some times.
Gazzy whistled. "Who died?" he squirmed under the heavy air. I noticed Iggy crack a tiny grin at the Gasman. Nudge too didn't look as weary.
"No one died Gazzy. Nudge likes Iggy and he broke her heart and told Max he loved her who was kissed by Fang yesterday. Max can't choose between Fang and Iggy, and Iggy is confused because now Nudge likes him, Fang is skeptical of Nudge liking Iggy, and you and I are the odd ones out." Angel rolled her eyes as she listed off. Nudge and Max blushed brilliantly and began playing with hair or clothes, whatever girls do when their embarrassed; Iggy and I avoided eye contact.
I cleared my throat. "Now's not the time for that Angel. We have work to do," She shrugged, but smirked quite evidently. Little brat knew everything. She shot me a dirty look.
"Oh god! Please tell me there isn't any manual labor involved! I cannot afford break another paw nail!" Total squeaked and jumped into Angel's lap. She instantly brightened and began stroking his fur endearingly. No one paid attention to the Scottish retriever.
"Something happened yesterday didn't it?" Iggy murmured in realization. "I knew something strange was goin on when you showed with scratched up face,"
"We were attacked," I nodded at Iggy. His jaw dropped in shock. I looked pointedly at Max. She realized what I was asking.
"We, umm, we were going for a walk and Fang suddenly became really tense," She began to explain in a quiet voice. "It took me a few seconds, but then I felt it too. We were being follow –err – watched. Next I know, we're in the clearing and are about to take off, when the…wyvern threw me against a tree. It quite literally attacked out of nowhere,"
"How can that be?" Nudge asked abruptly. "We destroyed Itex; there is no School, Günter Hagan, Mr. Chu or Dr. God, or any other freaky scientist. It's been almost a year since we were last attacked, and since we took the Chu-ster. I starting think that with all this calmness in our lives the evilness in this world might have declined. But seeing as you guys were attacked yesterday, clearly someone's out to get us. Who else is left to attack us?"
"Well, we are coolest super humans on this planet. Who wouldn't wanna attack us?" Gazzer piped after her, but then his face contorted in confusion. "What's a wyvern?"
"It's a mythical creature Gazzy. Fang just nicknamed it," Max gently explained. I nodded; something didn't quite add up. As Nudge said, it had been almost a year since our encounter with a mad scientist plotting take over the world. One thing they all had in common was their massive ego that basically announced their presence before attacking us. There was always some kinda pattern to these attacks. But this one was LITERALLY random. No explanation what so ever.
"Fang is thinking there are absolutely no leads what so ever," Angel announced. I frowned at her as if to say "stay out of my head" not that the threat ever worked on the mischievous eight year old. The flock may have felt displeased with my notion, but even they couldn't seem to think of an explanation. But Angel tried chipping back into the conversation again. "Come on Fang, think! You must have seen something!" She says almost in a demeaning manner. Girls….I swear they're never the same person two days in a row.
"None," I respond. Because it was true; the attack was random, and we didn't even know who we were up against.
"You guys are sooo old fashion," Nudge sighed impatiently. The flock's attention was now on her. Nudge, who had been staring at the floor diligently, noticed that we were all now staring at her. She blushed like she said something she shouldn't have.
"Really Nudge?"Iggy snorted sarcastically. "Enlighten us then," He said with a hard edge. I guess I should have realized that my kissing Max would make Iggy take his anger out on Nudge. I wanted to intervene since it was me Iggy was mad at, not Nudge. She didn't give me that chance.
"Don't you dare take your anger out on me Iggy! We have more important matters than your feelings right now," She snapped back just as harshly. Iggy hissed in anger, and opened his mouth for another insult.
"Both of you shut up!" I commanded. This was not getting us anywhere. From my peripheral vision, I notice Max guiltily sink in her chair. "Max and I were attacked by an experiment from an unknown enemy. I know it's hard, but you all need to put your personal feelings aside at the moment!" I say in one big breath. Nudge and Iggy exchange heated glares but instantly close their mouths.
"Whoa Fang, I think that's a new record!" Gazzy piped in excitedly. I grimaced, this was all so hopeless. Nudge cleared her throat and looked at me with excited eyes. She had an idea.
"You said you were followed correct? Max and you were most likely walking along some public boulevard chasing the sunset yadda yadda." Nudge began to ramble. I gave her a pointed look but she continued anyway. "My point is, you were in a public area, meaning cameras. Cameras in front of shops, on the streets, before the traffic lights, around the stores. If I could get a laptop connected to one of those cameras I can rewind to yesterday's images and find out who was tracking you and Max. Depending on who we find, I can later hack into a government computer and find out all sorts of personal information. Everything from our enemy's background, family or friends association, address, time and location of the places they've been spotted in the last three years or so. You name it; I bet you I could pull it up. "
I blinked in surprise. It was brilliant. It was offense. It was a direct attack on our enemy. For once we would be one step ahead in the game. I grinned at her and nodded in approval. It didn't take too long to come up with a plan after that. Iggy and Gazzy managed to work together and pulled a laptop and the cables for Nudge's hacking.
In my hurry to gather some quick recon supplies, I caught Iggy awkwardly pushing a laptop towards Nudge and asking Gazzy to help her out. Iggy was acting like prick to Nudge but to my astonishment, Nudge just nodded gratefully and turned her attention to Gazzy. She was on full mission mode. It seemed that an entire year without Max forced Nudge to grow up faster than I thought.
I shook my head clear of those thoughts. There was no time to be dwelling on such things. I racked my mind trying to figure out all the different reason we were attacked. Obviously it was some kinda warning from some evil, demented, science lab letting us know "We're still fnicking alive, we're gonna hunt you down," well something along those lines. We know that their creating experiments. Yesterday, Max and I were attacked by a wyvern, most likely a prototype. Maybe the bad guys were testing out our strength. That wyvern was no joke either. It was strong. Stronger than anything we faced before. Also unlike our enemies before (i.e. Erasers, flyboys, m-geeks) these wyverns were smart. They learned after one attack.
If I hadn't spent so many years practicing functioning while keeping all my thoughts in my head, I probably would have run head first into a wall. Maybe I would have walked right through the wall if it weren't for a hesitant tug on my sleeve. I found Max staring intently at my shoes.
"I –could I…that is…" Max sighed as she was having a hard time speaking. "Fang, who is Lissa?"
Beep, beep, beep,either there was a bomb in this room that would hopefully explode in five seconds, or that was the ringing of my heart in my ears. I wanted to groan. I wanted to scream. I wanted to throw a tantrum. Of all things Max should ask me, why this, why now? Did this mean she remembered something? Why Lissa of all things.
"Where did you hear that name?"
"A-angel –errr – had a vision this morning. She w-wouldn't say what, but she was moaning that name. Is it her mom?" Max asked quite innocently. She cocked her heart shape faced to the side in mild curiosity, letting her straight blond locks of hair drape gracefully across her shoulders. Growing up on the run and getting through thousands of sticky situations in my life taught me how to make a fast lie. However when Max looked at me with those wide chocolate brown eyes that glimmered no matter what slant of light she stood below, made me weak in my knees. I couldn't lie to her.
"No, you're Angel's mom. You're the mother of the flock." I reply to her first question quite honestly. She saw the hesitation on my face; Max could always read me better than anyone. She smiled softly with those plump pink lips, prompting me to continue. My eyes softened as I tried to tell her as gently as possible. "Lissa… wa-is the biggest mistake I ever made. I kissed her while we were together. You left the flock, and asked Bridget to wipe your memories. You know the story from there."
Max's reaction was one of wide teary eyes, slackened jaw, and frozen stance. Her grip around my wrist faltered for a moment and then she tightened it again. "You're lying," She muttered through gritted teeth. I shook my head. "You're lying." She repeated on the verge of tears.
"I won't ask you to forgive me."
"No!" She shouted. "I know you! You would never do that Fang! I refuse to believe that I would just accept that you and Lissa were kissing. Something happened right? She was….she was controlling, or manipulating you in some way wasn't she? Did she force herself on you?" Max blubbered through her tears. I gently pried away Max's hand (as she was cutting off the circulation in my hand) and grasped her delicate hands my own calloused rough hands.
"Doesn't change that I kissed her. I broke your trust Max. I won't expect you to forgive me."
"No it's impossible!" She vehemently denied. "Just because I don't have any memories Fang, doesn't mean I don't remember my feelings. Even now, my heart has absolute trust in you." I brushed the tears away from her eyes, and cupped my hand around her cheek. I didn't like seeing Max this way. It seemed all I capable of doing these days was making Max cry. I would have been proud of this achievement a year ago, but now…god please don't take my manhood away for saying this…I would give anything to make her smile. Of course I'd never tell anyone I felt that way.
"We had a hard life Max. Our trust in the outsiders was limited if not nonexistent. The one stable thing in our lives was each other. I broke that trust we built." I calmly whispered. Max continued to cry quietly, her eyes never left mine as I explained. I kissed her forehead softly, swung a green khaki drawstring bag around my shoulders and left Max standing in the middle of the hallway. I didn't dare glance back, if I did, I wouldn't be able to function.
I found Nudge ensconced into a couch rapidly typing away on her laptop setting it up for our mission. I let her know that we were leaving in five. Before the two of us walked out of the door, Iggy pulled Nudge aside. "Now is not the time, Iggy," She replied softly, the previous anger melting into a cumbersome smile. Iggy promised it would only take a minute, and looked to me with pleading eyes. I nodded, allowing them to talk.
# # # # # #
Fifteen minutes later, Nudge and I were soaring high in the clouds. We fly in silent steady pace. Nudge and I were currently an hour's fly from the boulevard Max and I had journeyed only yesterday. After their little "talk" Nudge returned quietly and we ended up doing an up and away without much conversation. It almost irked me that the fly was so silent. I couldn't believe I was going to admit this, but I actually missed Nudge's incessant chattering.
I glanced at her ever so slightly with a tiny swivel of my eyes. Nudge's mocha complexion seemed almost reddish, but not with a usual blush, but a steamy face. Her eyes were crunched together creating wrinkles on her brow, and her teeth were angrily tearing at her lips. I shouldn't ask. I really should just keep my mouth shut, enjoy some quiet non-awkwardness and let this mission run as smoothly as possible. Yes I would do exactly that.
"You're angry," I smartly told her. Nudge shot me copy of the famous Maximum Ride glare, no doubt she picked it up after seeing it only a thousand times, but her eyes had a more mischievous glint in them. Perhaps I eased some her anger by speaking up.
"Really, what gave you that idea Fang? Does being emo come with face reading abilities or is that another perk of being a bird kid?"
"It's perk of growing up together." Nudge snorted and rolled her eyes, but flew closer, matching my wing stride. I ignored her emo comment for now, but she was definitely getting it later. Nudge looked to me with thoughtful eyes. Her eyes were no longer that of an ignorant child, they were intelligent, wise, and full of pain. Her eyes made Nudge seem four times her age. Gone was the chatterbox girl with a knack for fashion and caffeinated coffee drinks. At this moment she was replaced with Nudge, the genius hacking bird kid, who faced more horrors in her short fourteen years than the average human. She was hurting and a lot.
"Iggy is an idiot." She began. "He said something stupid again. Something about 'losing Max the moment he confessed to her and I can't compete with Fang.' It pisses me off, Fang. I get that Iggy rejected me because he sincerely loved Max. But the moment that dummy realized that Max could never be his, because I 100% support the two of you, he came to me." She said exasperatedly.
"I see," I stupidly open my mouth again. Why did I bother? Oh right cause I have a fnicking soft spot for the girl. Though I'd rather die than admit it, I always was very protective of the flock (the girls especially). Of course if I admitted that aloud Max would have skinned me alive for being a sexist pig and beat into my head the "girls can fight" speech. Sometimes keeping my mouth shut seemed to be the only thing keeping me alive. Whoever said silence was a virtue is a damn genius.
Nudge snorted once more. "You don't have to talk Fang. Trust me, you're not the first person I'd want to talk about this kinda stuff with but seeing as we are nearly a half an hour away from Angel and Max and like 1000 feet in the sky, I'm gonna talk and you can just listen. Okay? Okay. So I know that when I put it as 'Iggy coming to me,' sounds like he made me his rebound but I don't think it's like that. The dummy was literally admitting his defeat. Kinda like he knew he stood no chance with Max. He knew I was right and came to apologize. Obviously I'm going to be pissed. He gave up way too easily don't ya think? He loves Max a lot, I know, I can see it. If Iggy's got balls at all he wouldn't stop fighting for her.
"By the way Fang, don't you get an ego boost because I think Iggy doesn't stand a chance with Max. I don't think you do either. For all you know, this time around Max might not choose anyone. Okay maybe she could choose you, but the way Max is now, she probably wants nothing to do with the Flock. I just wish Max would hurry up and remember us. I love her no matter what her personality, but I want Max to remember us. Oops, I got off topic didn't I? So I'm not Iggy's rebound, right Fang?"
My mind reeled at the amount of information Nudge threw at me. I flew a bit uncomfortably. I knew Iggy lo-liked Max like I did, but I thankfully didn't know the details. At least until Nudge decided to open her mouth. She may have rambled a lot, but some of what she said made sense. She was really thinking about this. As guy, it's not really my policy to figure this stuff out with words. But that's what Nudge needed right now. I really hope I don't screw this up.
"Iggy's a good man. He wouldn't do that to you." was my reply. Iggy may lo-like the same girl I do and sure we both wanted her, but it didn't change the fact that Iggy was like a brother to me. I'd never think bad of him just because he fell in lo- liked the same women I did. Can't really say I blame him, Max is just…beautiful. But she was mine.
"You're not jealous?" Nudge asked in astonishment. I frowned; I definitely deserved more credit than that.
"He's a better man than I am. I wouldn't blame Max for choosing him."
"But you still love her, right Fang? I mean I know Iggy loves her too, but I know how you and Max used to be. You guys were like soul mates. I mean Iggy no offense, but you just can't compete with that." Nudge rambled more to herself than me. I inwardly blushed at the word. Wait, not blushed, and just got warmer in the cheeks, yeah. But Nudge's words bothered me in other ways.
"This isn't about us. What do you feel Nudge?" that's right, I just something smooth and philosophical. Notice my thoughts and words make it seem like I have a split personality. I glanced at Nudge; she smiled with certain softness. I almost wanted to look away, but with a smile like that, Nudge looked quite beautiful. Maybe it's too early for her and Iggy, she's just a kid right?
"I love him Fang. So much. I don't know when or how, but I somehow fell in love with Iggy. Of course I know he doesn't really have eyes for me. I'm just a kid sister in his eyes. It hurts, but I know that's all I can ever be." She whispered.
"People change," I replied. That was the last thing either of us talked about. Less than ten minutes later, we landed in the tall trees a few streets away from the boulevard. We navigated out of the domesticated wilderness with ease, and quietly blended in the crowd of city dwellers going for their morning jogs. I pointed out to Nudge the exact path Max and I took yesterday. Being a bird kid allowed as to have extraordinary memory among other things.
Nudge's plan was simply, I needed to use my ability to turn us invisible so that we could climb up to one of the street cameras. My first question was obviously if doing this in broad daylight was good idea. Nudge just waved me off and said it didn't matter since we were invisible anyway. Plus, she guessed we'd have to make a few stops to catch our enemy, and the more time wasted, the more time lost.
We ducked behind a booth, and I latched my arms around her. I focused all my energy into completely masking our presences. "No sudden movements" I told her. The faster she moved the more visible we became. We approached the street camera on the boulevard at an agonizingly slow pace. The only thing harder was climbing up. Nudge, with scrupulous movements, carefully unscrewed the back of the camera, and began cutting wires. She then retied the inner copper parts with other wires that extended to her laptop. This took her less than three minutes.
Within moments, she had the screen opened up and fingers dancing across the keyboard at a rapid tempo. Hundreds of windows opened up on the monitor, even with my enhanced eyes I couldn't keep up with the hundred thousand images being shown in the frame of a minute. I watched in amazement as her eyes rolled rapidly side to side reading in the information. When the movement of her eyes slowed enough, I noticed that the color of her eyes were different. They were a light, almost silvery blue.
"Got it!" She quietly exclaimed forty-five minutes later. Although I spent much of that time clueless, and just carrying Nudge (strong as I am, forty minutes killed my arms, not to mention keeping our veil of invisibility flowing), I thanked God we could move on. I nodded at her, and we climbed down together carefully. (She fixed the camera first though).
I wanted to ask her what she found, but the moment we turned visible; she placed her laptop back into her backpack. Without answering she walked into a store about fifty yards from where we stood. It was just a random junkie store with useless souvenirs that no one wanted to buy. I wanted to ask if she was fooling around. I guess she was because she suddenly paused, ripped a pair of sunglasses off the display, and forced it onto my face. I scowled.
"Yeah, you're right. They're too cheap." She muttered and pried them away, and stalked away from me once more. Bewildered, I followed her again. This time she stopped in one of the isles to try on a sunbonnet. "You think it'd suit Max?" I glared in response. She giggled and replaced the hat. Nudge quickly walked to the back end of the store, running her fingers along clothing, pausing briefly picking things up and placing them back. I gritted my teeth and bared my fist but said nothing. It wasn't until we reached the very back did I understand what she was doing.
We came across a door that said "Employees only." Nudge casually opened the door and swiftly walked in before we could draw too much attention. Now her "shopping" like motions made sense. She was trying to get us to blend in. (Probably because I stood out with my incredibly good looks. Damn I sound like Iggy).
She plopped herself in a spinney chair in front of the ancient 1990's Microsoft computers with huge monitors. The computer buzzed to life and showed images of the interior of the store. Nudge scrolled through the views in the store till she located the one by the front door. Then she scrolled the video in rewind. I saw the two of us walking in followed by those weird blond chicks that kept brushing up against me. Watching it like this, I felt disgusted that I didn't see their intention earlier. Nudge kept rewinding to yesterdays film. Bingo, we saw a flash of red.
"I knew it!" Nudge exclaimed when the image came to life. My jaw dropped; there was no way this was real. "I knew it was her! When I was scrolling through the footage of the street view I kept seeing all the same red flashes by you and Max. But she was too good to get caught by the street cameras. Lucky for us she was stupid enough to walk into a store. Look at the video, she walked in, stared at the two of you from inside the store, and then walked out and jumped into a car." Nudge explained rapidly. I started to put together all that she has been doing till now. Nudge. Is. Amazing. I thought in awe. I reached over and ruffled her hair.
"Good job Nudge." I grinned at her proudly. Nudge laughed under my hand, but as soon as our good mood came, it left. "Why is Lissa after us?" I spoke aloud.
"That's what I'm gonna find out. Let's try the store above us. They should have a view of the street from the outside. I'll try and zoom into the license plate. If we can get a number, I can track down the owner and find why, what, and who the bi-Lissa is working for." She grinned. I opened my mouth to tell her let get a move on, but at that precise moment, the door swung wide open.
The silence that followed was so sudden and sharp that I could have heard a pin drop. . I placed and arm on Nudge's shoulder. My invisibility stretched fast, faster than ever before. We held our breath as our hearts reached the pinnacle of its beating. Here we were…trapped by an eighty year old lady in deadly cheap red lipstick, and cheek pinching claws armed for battle. You cannot say you have faced worse!
"Wha-" the manager, an old lady in her eighties wearing a red apron, gasped. The manager blinked and wiped her old bifocal glasses off. "Must be getting old," she grunted and left the room. Nudge and I let out a sigh of relief.
"That was close!" Nudge sighed with a goofy grin. I threw my head back and let out a hearty laugh. What an understatement. Nudge giggled softly with me. She stood up and quickly turned off the monitors. Before we could exit the room, Nudge stumbled and fell forward.
I caught her with ease; however, her body went limp in my arms. Alarmed, and gently held her head in my arms as her body collapsed and shut down on her.
"Nudge?"
"swry- cough –sorry I think I used my ability too much." She whispered softly. I carefully shifted her so that she could breath. I noticed for the first time how truly pale Nudge had become. Beads of sweat lined her head, and her dark brown tresses were slightly matted to her head. Her eyes flickered and her breaths slowly picked up again. I looked at her for an explanation.
"You know Fang, I never really told you about my ability did I? Well just hold me for a minute and let me explain while I reenergize." She began rambling, the usual Nudge back with me. I suppressed an amused smile and decided to let her rest a moment. I quickly placed a chair under the door so we wouldn't get any more visitors. Nudge waited for me to finish, deep in thought, thinking about where to start her story.
"I hate my abilities you know? I hate them more than anything. Not because they make me more of a freak then I am, but because it's so freakishly annoying. Every time I touch a friggen laptop, camera, ipod, whatever, I can see number and symbols rolling around in my mind. I don't know what they mean, only that I know what to do with them. When I find something I need among the freakish symbols, they pop out at me and all of a sudden I know what to do. It's so friggen annoying. It's so mentally draining too!" She whined.
By now, her ramble fest was over and we slipped back into the store completely unnoticed; it was like we were never there. I let Nudge explain, but I was only half listening. Something about symbols popping out right? I was more worried about Nudge's sudden collapse and Lissa's sudden appearance in our lives. How does yesterday's attack relate to Lissa at all? More importantly, why did she choose to jump me nearly a year back?
I frowned. There were more answers than questions at this point. Looks like Nudge and I would have to push our mental abilities to a whole new level. We were going to find out who Lissa worked for and what where her motives.
Jan 18. Happy birthday Kiki
I made a small reference to the movie "The Da Vinci Code" in here. I saw the movie a few days ago. It was amazing.
REWRITTEN Chapter 1 should be up in a few days
Happy Reading!
Review please :P