Mwahaha. I decided to torture you guys. It was VERY fun. Forcing you guys to beg for an update… MWAHAHAHAHA! Yeah… not a good idea if I was dictator of… anything. Lol… But as promised, mild Faximum in this chappie… AND IT'S NOT FAX, IT'S FAXIMUM. Seriously, Fax just sounds stupid. Like, a fax machine… Who even uses those things anymore?
Faximum forever! Less than 1. That's a triangle. 1
Max POV
The flock was in full-panic mode, shouting for Angel and searching for her. Nudge was running around, shouting: "Angel! Oh my gosh, what happened to her? Maybe she just went to the grocery store? Once, in a movie, I saw that a bunch of people freaked out over this missing girl, when it turns out she was at a mini-mart the entire time! Do you think that's where Angel is? Maybe we should try the mini-mart... or maybe a gas station! Yeah, Angel could be at a gas station…" Nudge just doesn't know how to shut up does she?
I searched, too, but it was hopeless. Angel was at the REC right now, getting… fixed. By the time the flock found her, it would be too late. Too late to save anyone. The next time the flock saw Angel would be when I brought them to the REC. Then the plan would fall into place, and my mission would be over.
I sensed Fang behind me. I turned around, but he'd turned invisible. "Fang, I know your there. Stop creeping!" I hiss at him.
He turns visible. "How'd you know I was here?" He said, holding his hands up in a placating gesture.
"I'm magic," I reply, rolling my eyes. "C'mon. Let's search for her this way. That's where most of the Erasers went, anyways." I nod toward a thicker part of the forest.
Fang stumbles forward, and I catch him. "Sorry," he mutters, and disentangles himself from me. "Guess I'm not fully healed yet…"
"It's okay," I say, looping his arm around my shoulders and holding him up. Not romantically! "Anyways, we should go this way. You'll be okay?" I ask, starting to haul him towards the forest.
"Yeah. I'll be fine," Fang assures me, and we head toward the forest.
Fang POV
It's a bit embarrassing having to walk with a girl supporting you. We walk deeper into the forest, shouting for Angel, but I know it's probably hopeless. If the Erasers had gotten her, they'd most likely gotten away in a helicopter or something.
"She's not here," Max said, frowning. "If she was anywhere near twenty miles of here, I would be able to sense her, and read her thoughts."
That reminds me, that Max can read my mind. Crap. "Oh," I say, "Guess we should stop looking, then, and go to rescue her."
Max looks at me. "Yeah, I can read you're mind. Shouldn't you be used to it, 'cause of Angel?" She says, standing in front of me.
I would blush, but we all know I'm Mr. Rock. Instead, I shrug and say, "It's nothing." Okay, that was annoying… Wait, I shouldn't think that around her. Have I said crap already?
Max rolls her eyes. "Yeah, Mr. Pebble. Should I call you that from now on? Or should I call you Mr. Boulder?" She asks, her voice dripping with sarcasm. "Mr. Pebble does have a certain ring to it…"
Well, I certainly didn't miss Max's sarcasm… Rolling my eyes, I say, "Funny." I sit down on the dirt floor and lean my back against the rough bark of the tree. Max comes and sits down next to me, our shoulders touching.
"So, Mr. Pebble, what's the plan for Angel's rescue?" Max asks, cocking her head. "The classic bust-in, find Angel, and escape? Or should it be the cliché espionage and cool spy gadgets?"
"I was thinking James Bond, or maybe Indiana Jones?" I say, suddenly more talkative than usual. What happened to Mr. Rock being silent, brooding, and mysterious, hmm? I had just said a whole nine words! This was strange… was one of Max's endless powers getting me to talk? I hope not.
"So, is Fangles saying his first sentence?" Max taunts, mocking me in a babyish voice. She pretends to suck on her thumb, widening her eyes. "I should take a video! Fangles' first sentence, at age fifteen! So impressive!"
"My first sentence was 'Why are there wings on my back?' I did talk, once upon a time in the magical land of Itex, you know?" I say, a full twenty-six words… I had to get all this talkativeness under control. Max fell silent, thinking about the School.
"You know, sometimes, I wish I wasn't taken away from you and the flock. Even though I was trained-" She broke off, looking away. There was something in Max's eyes that I couldn't recognize. Sadness? Anger? I realize it's guilt. Why was Max feeling guilty?
Hesitantly, I reach out and touch Max's face. I cup her cheeks in my hands, feeling her skin, soft as satin. She looked up at me, her eyes wide with surprise. I leaned toward her, not sure what I was going to do–kiss her?- until she pulled away.
"I-I'm not good at this stuff…" Max stuttered, her eyes wide and confused. "I should probably go…" She turned, about to go, until I caught her wrist and pulled her against me.
Max was tall, but I was even taller, so her head only came up to my shoulder. She rested her head on my chest, and I could feel her breathing. I buried my face in her hair, wrapping my arms around her waist. I don't know how we stayed like that, just hugging, until Max whispered, "We should go back. It's getting dark."
Disentangling myself from Max, I nodded. Judging from the sky, we'd probably been gone for an hour or so, though it felt like a lot longer. "Yeah. The flock probably figured out Angel isn't around here anymore." Leaning down, I gave Max a quick peck on the cheek.
Max blushed, then she took my hand and started walking back to the flock. A few minutes before we reached the clearing where we were camped out in, we split up, headed different ways, so it seemed that we were coming from different directions. I headed out first, then Max came ten minutes later.
"ZOMG! What are they doing to Angel?" Nudge was talking, as usual, but this time it just made everyone feel worse. "I mean, I hope they didn't take her to the School! Like, the School is-" She trailed off, seeing everyone's misery.
"Nudge, SHUT up! No one cares what you have to say! My sister's missing and you're just standing around talking about stuff that just makes everyone feel worse! SHUT UP!" Gazzy shouted at Nudge, fury making his face red. Nudge flinched, tears filling her eyes. "Well, Angel is missing…" Gazzy grumbled, ashamed.
"Okay, guys. Let's go try to find Angel. I don't think she's at the School, though. I think she went to the REC," Max said, "At the REC, when I escaped, I saw papers saying how you guys were going to be captured, then brought there. Angel was marked as a 'level-3 important target', which is pretty high."
"Well, the REC isn't going to have Angel any longer!" Gazzy said, his eyes full of determination. "If we can break into the School, we can break into the REC."
Of course, there's always bad news, and this time it's coming from Max: "The School is easy. The REC is not. It's the top spy, reconnaissance, war, weaponry, -and a whole bunch of other things- center. Likely, you can't go within a five-mile radius of the headquarters without getting nuked. And it's off the map, probably in a secluded area in, like, Siberia or something."
"You don't know where it is?" Gazzy asked. "You're from the REC, right? You should know!"
"Well, there are several major headquarters around the world. The one I came from was in… um… Oh, yeah! Napal, I think. Not really sure," Max said, "I think there's one in… Ethiopia? I don't know, but Angel could be at any one of those, and there are other minor branches around the world, too. This isn't just like the School, you know. It's worse."
We stared in open shock. Worse than the School? What had Max seen there? I didn't really want to know.
"And," Max said, "If we don't find Angel fast enough, they'll break her mind, to get her to be obedient. She'll be lost forever."
The countdown had started.
Ooh! Dropped the whole "if we don't make it, Angel's completely, 100% screwed" bomb! And she WILL die, whenever the flock gets to the REC…
Will Max betray the flock at the REC HQ?
What will Angel say to Max as she dies?
Where is the REC going to be?
When will Max reveal the twist in Faximum?
Also, I'm going to China for a month, so I don't know if I can update. I will try, but a LOT of websites are blocked in China, so I might not be able to update. Please don't kill me, kill the internet blocks in China!
Until I can update again-
Faximum Forever