He he he, I just love keeping you guys waiting during a cliffy. Although, this seems to be my most popular story, with Angel's World in a close second. So, go this story, I guess. Anywayz, I'm babbling like Nudge now, so let's just move on with the story.
Previously…..
He explained that there was a 'basement.' At first, we thought it was a magical land only whitecoats and erasers could go in. Then he pointed at a door. When we went though it, we saw something.
This room was totally awesomazing. Actually, all I saw was curtains.
"What's with the curtains, Jeb?! Are you trying to trick me?!?!" I said, then kicked him again.
"Max! Do you not notice the markers?! And other supplies?! Decorate the curtain you want! You can paint them with that special fabric paint, to make them whatever color you want, them paint on them, to decorate them! It's to test your artistic skills. Do your best, guys." And with that, he left. Let me tell you, these rooms where huge. The rooms behind the curtains, that is. But I was confused, there wasn't a room for Gazzy.
"Hey, Igs? Wanna share with Gazzy?" I asked him.
"Sure." He said. He carried Gazzy in with him, yelling out what color he was holding every once in a while. I was next to Nudge and Fang. We all decided to paint our names on the covers. It was split up so that there was a hall, but mine was attached to Fang's. Nobody else's was like that. I just smiled at him. We started on the outside first. Fang's was black. I stuck my tongue out at him when he chose that. He just smirked. I thumped him on the head. Then, Nudge yelled.
"Maxie! I need hwelps!"
"Coming, Nudge." I said. I ran over to help her.
"I wants it to be pwurple with pwink letters! The letters gotsta be shmancy, too!" she yelled, then walked off to get the paints. I had found some big stencils earlier, one spelled Nudge in fancy lettering, one spelled Max in this really cool lettering, one spelled Iggy in bubble lettering, one spelled and Gazzy in the added on style lettering, though the and Gazzy part was smaller, and one spelled Fang in this really funky lettering, looked like something an eraser I knew would write. That eraser was actually kind of nice…….
(thought you might wanna know that Max's looks like this: MAX and Fang's is just Graffiti-ish. Just an FYI.)
Anyway, me and Nudge took two paint brushes that rolled. We dumped the purple paint into this thingy, after we all got in some overalls. Then, we dipped the rollys (that's what we named them) into the paint, and went to work. Nudge promised to help me paint mine, once we where done with hers. There was less to do on mine, anyway. I was thinking of painting green with blue splatter paint, the floor was concrete. But we could only splatter paint the inside, Nudge didn't want us messing up hers. So, we decided to do blue stripes on the outside, with bright red lettering. I was thinking about this, when I noticed Nudge was telling me we had to go do the inside now.
"Oh. Sorry, Nudge. Let's go." I said. We ran inside. We painted the inside purple. Then, we moved on to the inside and outside of mine. Me and Nudge got covered in paint. Blue, green, red, every color of the rainbow. We had decided on more splatter paint, but not more stripes outside. Once we where done, they weren't dry yet. Fang and Iggy weren't done yet, so we decided to play outside. When we got out there, we found more art supplies, with more things to paint! There was a special play set for each of us, me and Nudge had pianos, and Fang had a guitar to paint. There was special paper and paints, to paint the instruments with. My piano was white, and so was Nudge's. The guitar was black. I pulled the guitar out of the way, and went at it. I splattered the piano, all the keys covered. The colors were all bright, so I painted MAX in the same style as the one that would be on my curtain. Then, I took the paper off the keys and painted them rainbow. Then, I painted the key names on each key in black. Then, I went up to pick out a play set. One had more of a jungle theme. Total Iggy. One had a princess theme. So Nudge. One had a more…. Darker theme? It was kind of a scary castle. So Fang. Then, I noticed a sky one. It had fake, wooden clouds. It was high enough that it would reach the ceiling. I could tell there were missing pieces. There was a little pull elevator to lift me up, plus stairs. There where little rooms. Oh, the basement ceiling was really high, Iggy and Nudge had a contest to see who could reach it first. Nudge won, but she flew really fast. It seemed higher than anything I'd seen, other than the sky itself. Or a tree. But anything inside, definitely. Up top, it was glass. Below the glass, there was a dock. I guess I could open it. The basement was huge, so the play hut was too. It was underground, bigger than the house. I had chosen the biggest one, so I ran downstairs to get the guys, sure they would be done. When I got there, they were. They had just finished.
"C'mon guys! Come look outside! I need your help!" I yelled, then ran back out, the guys following me the whole way.
"Look!" I screamed when we got outside.
"Max, I hate to break it to you, but I'm BLIND. What are you pointing at?" Iggy said. Gazzy giggled. I just rolled my eyes.
"I'm rolling my eyes Iggy. And your looking at the best damn thing, ever!" I said, pumped.
"Which would be what, Max?" he asked.
"PLAY HUTS!" I screamed.
"Oh. How big?" he asked.
"MINE'S AS BIG AS HALF MY THING, AND IT GOES ALL THE WAY TO THE CEILING! YOU GUYS GOTTA HELP ME PAINT IT TOMORROW!" I screamed.
"Ok. Did you pick one out for me and Gazzy?" Iggy asked, calmly.
"HOW CAN YOU BE SO CALM?! I PICKED OUT A JUNGLE ONE FOR YOU GUYS! BUT WE'RE WORKING ON NUDGE'S TODAY!" I screamed again. Nudge squealed at my words. She hugged me.
"Let's get started!" I yelled. I ran over to Nudge's, dragging Iggy along with me. She had already set out paints. Pink, purple, gold, silver, and other girly colors were out.
"Grab a brush, grab some paint, then head off to set the paint in the rooms." I said. Nudge's was only one that wasn't tall. It was shorter, only two climbing stories, but had a lot of room. It was more spread out, and would take up her entire space. There was a little draw bridge that we painted brown. We painted NuDgE in gold, the N, D, and E looked like they were supporting a little crown, but the crown was floating. I only painted a few rooms with Iggy. One was pink, one was purple, one was pink with purple stripes, one was purple with pink stripes, one was purple with pink, silver, and gold swirls. She even let us splatter paint a room! The top floor, actually. I don't know what anybody thought they where going to be DOING with these painted rooms, but oh well. After we where done with Nudge's we started on Fang. Of course, it was all grey and black. It was really easy. I sighed. Fang gave me a look of question.
"You're so quiet. And you love black now, Fang. I don't understand it." I said. Fang's eyes softened a little.
"I don't like talking, Max. I only talk to the Flock. It's my version of protesting. Just not talking to them. The black is what they are. The grey is where we stand. Do you wanna know my favorite person to talk to?" Fang said, quietly. I nodded.
"You." He said. My eyes teared up.
"Don't cry, Max! I didn't mean to upset you!" Fang said.
"It's not that. Let's just get back to painting." I said, turning away. We then finished the room. I decided that there was just enough time to do Iggy's, but we had to go in to eat.
"What should we have for dinner, Nudge?" I asked.
"Ummm……. A chicken!" she said.
"Igs?" I asked.
"I'll get it started. You guys start on the play hut." He said. We decided to paint Iggy's normal, jungle tree colors. We had a picture of a jungle. All Iggy's really was, was a tree house with four separate rooms. It was easy enough, but Iggy wanted us to paint the tree in detail. I don't see why he cared, he is blind, after all. And, we are three five year olds, a three year old, and a six month old. What did he expect?! We did the best we could, it's not like he could see it. Of course, we let Nudge go at it in the skylight room. She painted stars on it. The night sky, she said. We also flew up and painted the ceiling with stars and stuff. One was a little porch place. One was a little bedroom place, where we painted a hammock. There was a last room, for Gazzy. We painted it for a little boy, it didn't even fit though. It was perfect for Iggy. Then, we ran inside and started painting the names on. Me and Nudge put silver and gold designs inside of hers, then we splatter painted mine. After that was done, Nudge looked like she was going to fall asleep standing up. I took her upstairs, then shoved her into the shower with me. I washed the paint off her, even though it took a while and she also fell asleep a couple of times. I was washed my hair, too, and got all the paint off. Iggy came in once and Nudge squealed. He ran out, his pants falling off. I giggled as I saw him run with his pants at his waist. Then he fell. We have a long bathroom. The shower went without issues besides those few things. I got her out in a towel, me already in one. I had promised to figure out how to use the flat iron (on my hair, it was long and I didn't care. I had about down to my knees, I didn't want all the hair anyway.) I don't know why they trusted us with a flat iron. Especially me, but oh well. I went and got into some soft shorts and a t-shirt. I fell right asleep.
The Next Day…..
I rolled over, expecting to hit Fang in the face. I fell off the bed instead. What? I looked around. I was in an isolated room, by myself. Thank god they hadn't taken anybody else, I knew Fang could take care of everybody. Then, I heard a high-pitched scream. It sounded like Fang. I heard another one, different. They where both male, but neither a baby. Fang and Iggy. OH MY GOD. OH MY GOD. NO. NO. NO. OH MY GOD. They left NUDGE with a baby, all by herself. Oh my god. OH. MY. F**KING. GOD.
"JEB GET YOUR ASS IN HERE!" I screamed. Somebody came. It wasn't Jeb though. I was a little taller than them. It was a girl.
"Who are you?! What gives you the right to take me from Nudge?!" I yelled, ready to pounce.
"Oh, Maxie, do you not remember me?" she said.
"Brigid." I said, venom in my voice.
"Yes, Maxie?" she said.
"Take one of us back to Nudge, or I'll tear you to shreds." I said.
"Ok. You can go back. But you'll never see Fang or Iggy again. Pick one to bring with you, the other one is MINE." She said, cackling. This was not the girl I had met two years ago.
"What?" I asked, really pissed off at this chick now. Who did she think she was? Taking me and two of my flock? Leaving Nudge to care for a BABY?!
"You heard me." She said, smirking.
"I want to see your mom, Brigid. Your mom and Jeb, before I RIP YOUR SPINE OUT OF YOUR BACK AND BEAT YOU WITH IT!" I screamed.
"Ok. I'll bring in your precious Jeb and my mother, who loves ME. She doesn't give a piece of SPIT about you." She said.
"Oh, yeah? I'm so sure." I said. "Bring them in."
"Ok, MOM! JEB! COME HERE! MAX WANTS TO HURT ME!" she screamed, acting scared.
"Why is she in this room, Brigid?! You can't interrupt Max's experiments!" They both yelled.
"I don't care if she scared you, she's going BACK, and if you take her again, I'm sending you to boarding school, no matter how low a level!" Her mom screamed. I smirked. She scowled.
"She has Fang and Iggy, too. She left Nudge alone with Gazzy." I said, running up to Jeb and hugging him. He patted me on the back.
"It's ok, Max." he said.
"She was going to keep one of them. She said I would never see them again!" I said. Brigid's mom gave her a glare.
"She's lying! I only kidnapped her!" she squealed, but not in a cute way like Nudge, in a high-pitched, annoying way. Then, Fang started screaming bloody murder. Iggy followed his lead, screaming. I felt Fang and Iggy trying to ram the wall, get into this little spat. I clung to Jeb, who clung to a bar on the wall. Fang and Iggy burst through the same wall. They fell, Fang sliding in a tangled heap towards the other wall. Iggy slid a little, but didn't go as far. I giggled, knowing he was OK. I went and helped him up, but we slipped and fell to the floor, getting tangled up again. I giggled. Iggy untangled us. We walked over to Jeb, who picked me up. He held Iggy's hand, and Fang held my hand. It must have been a little uncomfortable for Jeb, but he didn't seem to mind. He walked us over, them dropped us down this shoot. We landed on a bed, the bed for Fang and I. I ran to the door.
"Nudge?!" I screamed.
"MAX?!?!?!" I heard a little scream come from the basement.
"NUDGE UP HERE!" I screamed back. I heard somebody climbing up the stairs, then a fall, then somebody climbing up the stairs again. Next thing I knew, I was on the floor, Nudge on top of me.
"MAX!" she squealed.
"Chill, Nudge. We have to go do my playhouse." I said.
"OKAY!" she screamed, then ran outside to a crying Gazzy. I picked him up and gave him a kiss on the head. He giggled, then farted.
"EW!" I shrieked. I dumped the Gasman on Iggy, then started on my playhouse. I picked out bright colors. Bright blue outside with silver clouds. Multicolor rooms outside, one for music that was just orange. The others where splattered all over. It took us a while, but it was fun. Gazzy even helped, he slapped a paintbrush at the wall a couple times. He got more paint on him then on the wall, though, so it wasn't much help, but it's the thought that counts, right? I made Gazzy a room, incase Ig wanted a brake. Then, we all went back to being normal, although we did find carpet squares that matched our place, so we laid those down. Then, we went back to normal.
The Next Day…..
We all ran outside to find our toys gone. The painted ones, that is. We ran down to the basement to find them in there. I ran into my curtained room, to find a Max Wonderland. It was perfect. The curtain that was between me and Fang was open. He didn't notice, though, so I clambered into my little two seated elevator and tugged on the ropes. It wasn't hard to get to the second floor. I let the elevator down slowly. I sat in this chair, watching the delight on Fang's face. It was something I hadn't seen since that day Val and Ella had come. No, I was going to forget that. I NEEDED to forget that. Then, Fang stared right at me. Uh, oh.
"Hi, Fang." I said weakly. I had a little cup full of lemonade in my hand. He looked dazed at mine. Why?
"It's amazing, Max. Go up to the higher floors." He said. I climbed back into the elevator and pulled the ropes. I found a little room full of books and journals, a laptop all my own, and all sorts of other goodies. Then next level up, a kitchen full of junk food. Next level, a bedroom! It had a Nudge bed, a Max bed, an Iggy bed, a Fang bed, and a little pen for Gazzy! I went up a floor. I found a TV room. The next level up was covered in wings. Wings, wings, wings. There was a pad, it looked like I could take off and land on it. Then, a level up, I reached the sky. What? The sky, here in this basement? I was amzing though, high and wide. Well, not wide, but wide enough for me and Fang, the two with the largest wings, to fly in together. It was amazing. I loved it. Fang came up, after I pulled the ropes down to get him. I dropped him off in the sky room, coming down for Nudge. Then, Iggy and Gazzy. Iggy had to help me, but I didn't care. We flew all day, then slept in my playhouse, in the beds. We did this for a couple days, only leaving the basement to shower and change. I had proper food, and Iggy had a kitchen in his play hut. I was the only one with a bedroom in mine, though, so we always slept in there, except for one time Nudge wanted to play princess so we all stayed in hers, on some pillows. I was Queen and Fang was King. Iggy was our son and Nudge was our adoptive daughter. Gazzy was Iggy and Nudge's baby, who they had found. Nudge 'raised' him. We had lots of fun in that house.
Likey? No likey? Choose and review. Please, critique me in PMs, critiques in reviews are embarrassing. But, if you have to, I don't mind. THAT much…… The next chap is going to be REALLY short, but I'm posting it right after this one, so it really will be in this chapter.