Chap. 28

Why'd the Dumb Whitecoats Lock the Door?

Fang POV

What. The. Heck.

Angel being kidnapped (more like birdnapped) again? Sure, we'll get her outta there. Not so surprising. Nudge's screaming power? Surprising, but manageable. Max beating me in a footrace? Nuh-uh. Never, ever, ever,

Max was like a blur, flying (not literally) towards the School. How the hell did she do that? When the frick' did she get so fast?
Her only response was a light shrug and an innocent, "I don't know." Hmm...

All of a sudden, (A/N: Sorry for the use of such a cliché phrase. I haaate using "all of a sudden") the doors/windows/openings of the School flung open and even more cat-snakes spilled out. Ugh. Haven't we had enough cat-snake killing to last us a lifetime? Well, I'm sure I have.

Nudge POV

I had stopped screaming. Wait – before you start to ell at me and demand why, I ran out of breath.

Yeah. That happens to Avian-Americans too, y'know.

I took a deep breath, filling my inhuman lungs with fresh air. More screaming. Specifically, my screaming.

I smiled in satisfaction, watching cat-snakes clamp paws over their huuuugee hears. Not gonna help, buddy. This plan was brilliant. Max was waaay smart. I would've never thought of a way to use my own power to rescue Ange and IG and Gaz.

Max and Fang were both sprinting and fighting their way toward the School, a huge brick building. The cat-snakes were pretty much defenseless, most of them rolling around on the ground in agony. Agony. Hm, I kinda like that word. Especially when it applies to cat-snakes.

Lost in my thoughts, I was brought back to earth by a "NUUUUDGE!"

Guess who? None other than our loving friend, Max.

"Keep screaming!" she yelled at me.

"OKAY!" I yelled back. Well, the yell came out as a scream.

That scream put the attacking cat-snakes literally on their knees. Well, technically, on their bellies, since they didn't have knees. Cat-snakes mostly traveled on all fours, although I had seen a few rear back to swipe their claws when we were fighting once.

"Go, go, go, GO!" Max screamed over the yowling of pained cats.

And 'go' we did. Max had earplugs ready in a baggie just in case Angel or Gazzy or Iggy needed some.

Max held up two fingers. That was her code/signal for me to shut up. One finger meant for me to take a deeeeeep breath and scream.

This is one of the many reasons why we have Max as our leader. She's great at this… leaderly stuff, and thinking ahead. That's just the way she rolls. She wouldn't be able to rest if she had not prepared every single tiny detail down to the dot. That included who was going to get EXACTLY how much to eat and who was going to have the highest number of 'bad' watches. By bad watches, I mean 2nd watch.

"Whitecoat," Fang murmured. "Can't hide. Have to take out." It seemed that here at the School, our old… habits and instincts came into play. In Fang's case, his speech became clipped and short as ever.

Max nodded curtly. "On it," she whispered.

I almost felt sorry for the poor guy. At least he had died a quick, clean death. … Wait, never mind. I take that back. No one can look clean when Max is done with them. She was probably taking out the anger that had built up after Ig, Angel, and Gazzy's birdnapping on the whitecoat, because when she stepped back, the white coat looked (and this is a nice way of putting it) hideously transfigured. (A'N: I think I've heard that phrase somewhere, and it kind of fit in with Nudge's narration, so… Anyways, back to the story.)
Moving on. The whitecoats had made it a lot easier to find Ig, Angel, and Gaz by sticking maps up on the walls.

Rooms "2B to 6A are experiment resting quarters," Max announced. "Make a left; go down the corridor, another left, and a right."

We were there in pretty much no time. Luckily, the people who run this place (I've realized it can't be whitecoats, because even whitecoats aren't this stupid) were dumb enough to label the doors.

"Three males, one female," Max read, "No particular powers or details."

"Don't sound like them," Fang said.

"Okay, we're looking for "Two males, one female. You know the 'details'."

We spread out along the corridor. I shuddered at the white, white, walls. All the walls were white. They brought back unpleasant memories.

I sniffed the air, and considered the smell thoughtfully for a second. "Antiseptic," I muttered.

We went from door to door just like that, reading the signs on the front of the doors. "Max!" I yelled. "I found something!" Max came jogging over. "Two males, one female, and –oh, oops– one disgenderal." I read. (A/N: I just made that term up. Disgenderal. It sounds silly, don't it? Couldn't think of a better substitute.) I crinkled my nose. "I guess that's what Janssen meant by, 'all genders are equal'."

Max managed a laugh, and kept looking.

It was Fang who found them. "They're here!" he called. "Two males, one female. Female reads minds; one male is blind, other releases gas."

"That's them!" Max said.

"Releases gas," I sniggered under my breath.

We tried at the door. It didn't budge. Well, seems like the whitecoats WERE smart enough to look the doors.

Fang shoved his shoulder against the door. Zero results. Finally, I spotted a fire extinguisher down the corridor and used it to smash the handle. Max kicked the door open and we rushed din.

Inside of the room was a cage (no surprises there) with Ig, Angel, and Gazzy inside.

"Max!" Angel cried. There were dry tear tracks on her face.

"What the heck took you so long?" Iggy demanded.

Max rolled her eyes and retorted, "Well, we got here, didn't we? I'd like to see YOU have a brain attack and try not to faint."
"I can give him one," Angel said brightly.

"No, sweetie," Max shook her head. "We need him conscious. Iggy's too heavy to carry. We can do that when we get home."

"Well, I sincerely hope I'm not breaking up this cozy get-together," Fang said sarcastically, "but we have to get going. NOW. Unless, that is, you'd like to stay and enjoy the School's hospitality?"

We all gaped. Mr. Tall, Dark and Silent making a speech? Uh, like, WTF?

Like Max always says, the world will never cease to amaze me.

A/N:

Hey, guys.

Before I forget, that last line said by Fang (I sincerely hope I'm not breaking up this cozy get-together…) was in the seventh Harry Potter book. Couldn't resist, you know?

Terribly sorry about the many A/N's in between the lines. I'm thinking of putting an asterisk (*) wherever I need to make a note, and addressing them at the end. What do you think?

Please leave constructive criticism in your review.

Also, on a happier note, I recently watched the third Pirates of the Caribbean movie for like the fifth time, and the urge to write overtook. If you are a 'Sparrobeth' fan, and even if you are not, please check out my new fic. You can access it by clicking on my penname at the top of the the page (IceCweamWuver), scrolling all the way down my profile, and clicking on the fic, Elizabeth Swann, not Turner.

All my love,

IceCweamWuver