A/N: Okay, there is something about me that doesn't want to write after 3 chapters. Strange, Right? Well, because I updated these chapters at the same time, most likely, I don't have any questions. Maximum Ride is disclaimed by who? By me. James Patterson completely, absolutely, owns MR. I only own the plot of this story and other stuff. You know, it's rumored that Kristen Stewart and Robert Pattinson were auditioning to be Max and Fang? That is horrid! They don't even look like 14 year olds! They barely look 20! Sorry about people who like them. I just finished reading Angel. I hate Fang now, and still will evermore hate Dylan. I am still a full on FAX supporter. Just that, Fang hooked up with Maya! NO! That's Max's clone, nonetheless. Ugh, idiot. Max is even thinking about Dylan! NO! Don't do it Max! Don't do it for the sake of me and my mind! NO! Ok, so Angel unsupported FAX, I just hope they get back together again in the last book (Which is rumored to be coming out next year.) . You know, just to be nice, I'll let Maya and Dylan get together but not Max and Dylan or Fang and Maya. Ugh, so much for your mushy love note, Fang. And I thought that you would actually keep your promise and Max might not. But, noooo it was the other way around. Why James Patterson? WHY? Okay so I just wanted to say, I am going to be using variations of one of my reviewers names for the original names for the flock. OK, enough of my ranting, get on with it. Read the story! ONCE AGAIN: I NEED A BETA!
Max/ Phoenix(Phoe) POV
Ugh, there go the alarms.
Get out of there Phoe!(Lilly)
Be patient, you don't know what I can do.(Max)
Inwardly, I smirked. She really didn't know what I could do. Re thinking that sentence I see that it is creepy to inwardly smirk. It's like flipping your face over, or ripping the skin off of it and then smirking, creepy, right? So, back to everything.
I watched out for Erasers, flying as quick as possible to Lilly's room. I spied Erasers charging at me. Hm…am I in the mood for incinerating a few beasts? Why, yes, yes I am. Quickly calling up a fireball, I perfected my skills, I aimed and fired! Literally! Pleased with the success, I melted the metal door as well.
Peering inside the hell hole, I saw a little girl with white wings that fade to a lavender. I was guessing that's Lilly.
You're right!
Ignoring that, I grabbed the keys hanging from the hook near the door. I mean, really? You never figured there would be a rescue team, now did you, whitecoats? Getting back on task, I took the keys from the hook and ran to unlock every cage.
Taking in the smell of antiseptic, I realized this really is familiar. It's like deja-vu except I usually was on the other side of the bars. I unlocked the cage of the girl with lavender-white wings first. One by one freeing every experiments' cages, I burned a hole through the roof. Spying more Erasers and Flyboys coming for us, us as in the experiments, I just incinerated them.
"Go, go, go! We're all avian-hybrids here! Anyone who isn't, find someone who is and they'll carry you! Vice versa! U & A everybody! Up and Away!" I commanded them with extreme urgency.
"Listen to her people!" I heard a small voice say. I realized it was Lilly, holding my back. I smiled a small at her and started to fly in the air, hoping that people would see my example and follow. Seeing a particularly heavy non-avian hybrid, I lifted that one up and soared through the recently burnt hole in the roof.
Following my example, the youngsters started to soar through the air. The elder avians took to the sky, grabbing the first non-avian and flying. I attempted to slow down in order to let the others catch up to me. Ever since they left, I've been flying at super speed, not having any one there to slow me down.
Everyday since Lilly contacted me, I honed my powers, in hopes of beating the School.
"So, what's your name, hero?" I heard a voice ask me, interrupting my thoughts. I smirked, replying with a short nod.
"M- Phoenix, Phoenix is my name… Yup. Yesiree." I said nervously, meanwhile replacing my mind wall.
"Ah. I'm Desiree. You know Lilly, right? She's part of my flock. We told her you wouldn't come, thinking she was cuckoo, but you did. The name suits your powers. So, I guess you're our leader?" She ended the statement with a question.
"Yeah, I guess. Considering I was for my old flock too." Hopefully, Desiree wouldn't recognize the nerves.
"Ok, so what happened?" She was expecting an answer, so I went for the easy go.
"I don't like to talk about it." Which was true, and to make it look as if I didn't care, I shrugged.
" You know, Phoenix is like a fiery name, that matches your hair and your power." Desiree said to me.
" Powers", I said emphasizing the 's', "I'll tell you later, considering, I'll have to because you're part of my flock now."
"I'll tell you my power now, I am the one who can always tell where we are at any time, the human GPS of the flock." Desiree replied.
"So, how far are we from the School now Desiree?" I asked, honestly curious. Suddenly, I remembered something.
"Lilly never mentioned a Desiree in her flock.", I said, voicing my thoughts.
"Oh, that's because we rename ourselves every time we don't like our name. Hopefully this, time it's permanent." She shook it off with a breezy laugh.
It's true. Lilly voiced in my head, deleting any of my suspicions. I put up my mind blocks again, because I didn't want any trouble.
"To answer your previous question," Desiree said, breaking into my thoughts, "We are about 257 miles away from the School."
Thinking about it, I figured that 257 miles in 3 hours of flying is pretty good. It would take flyboys at least a night to catch up to us. Sighing, I decided that the younger hybrids were probably tired now.
"Okay everybody, we're going to land now. See that splotch of grass in the middle of the forest?" I questioned, pointing to it with the hand not holding the now passed out mutant. Getting murmurs of agreement, I continued, "That's where we're going to set up camp for the night."
Illustrating this, I flew down with super speed to create the hut. I practiced this too. My record for making a shelter, complete with furniture, running water, and masked, was about 15 short, shallow breaths. Breathing is the only way we can keep time in the wild, you know. That, and the sun. But, the sun is not the fastest way to track time.
Focusing, I concentrated all of my energy on constructing the hut. Finishing, I inspected my work and went inside. Looking at the beds, I did a quick count. Checking to make sure there were enough beds of flowers, I laid the experiment I was holding down. She or He, you couldn't tell, actually looked peaceful. I went outside to survey my work. Apparently, you couldn't see it unless you know the house was there! That's how good it was.
The experiments, I was surprised they trusted me so fast. I wouldn't have trusted anyone that fast, but then again, I can't trust anyone, except for the ones of my own. Musing, I looked up to see Desiree arrive.
"Where were you?", she demanded.
"Phoenix…. Phoenix!" She snapped, getting me to jump.
"Oh, I was just building this awesome hut." I said, standing up.
"What hut?" She asked, looking confused. "Are you playing some sort of trick on us?" She commanded.
God, by the way she's commanding me, she could have been a leader if she wanted to be.
"Wait a sec, I'll show you when everyone lands." I told her, in an attempt to soothe her.
Sure enough, one by one, everyone landed. Thinking, I decided that these hybrids were defiantly a lot faster that my old flock. I mean, only on a good day they would be flying at 70 miles per hour. This flock, flies at 100 miles per hour on a bad day. They might be as fast as me. Except for the fact, that I fly at 700 miles an hour on a bad day. On a good day, I can fly at the speed of light, if I had sunglasses. If I didn't, then ooh. That would burn my eyes.
"Okay everybody, now there is something we are missing. Shelter!" I said, " Follow me." With that, I turned into the hut, leaving the door open for them to enter.
"This place is completely made of natural elements. Fire, Water, Air, Earth, and Imagination." Technically, imagination is an element. You can make anything with those elements if you have imagination and know how the thing is made, then only you can make anything out of elements.
"Okay, anyone who is holding an experiment without wings, most likely they are all asleep, lay them down on one of the flower beds." I took a deep breath in the middle of my rant, "Now, time for….." I paused dramatically as if I waited for something big to happen, "Introductions! Yay!" I shouted.
"Okay, so there are 12 avian hybrids, and we evacuated exactly 21 experiments total! That is something to celebrate. Now the big details. I'll introduce my name, power, gender, and how I look, plus past history. Everyone else do the same. Okay?" I asked, waiting for everyone to come sit down in a circle. Once they sat down, I started.
"Okay, I am a girl, obviously. My name is Phoenix. I am 14 years old. I have red hair and b-green eyes. I used to have a flock, but don't like to talk about them. No, I did not kill them. There was an unfortunate accident. My red hair is dyed with a blue streak. I have all the elemental powers, hence this house, and super speed, hence how I landed so quickly. I have wings that are tan-speckled. Call me, Phoe. Okay, you next." I finished, pointing to Desiree next to me.
If you wondered why I didn't change my wings but everything else, I found out the hard way that you can't dye wings. So, yeah. If the flock ever sees me again, they'll just figure that I am another avian experiment.
" I am Desiree. I am a girl. Phoe already knows me. I am 14 years old, too. I have light blue wings, like the sky. I have bland light brown hair with blue eyes, the same color as my wings. My power is premonition. Basically, I know everything. If you ever want to read my mind, too bad. You can't. I have a mind block just as strong as Phoe's(A/N: I typed this and it said Hoe's. LOL). So, I am pretty helpful. Ask me any question, I know all. The bummer is that if I touch a book, I already know the whole story. It's sad. The only thing I don't know are your personal thoughts. I can't tell anything in your mind. Just the events circling it. Oh, and call me anything other than Desiree, you have to face my wrath. Trust me, I will know. So, go ahead Lilly." Desiree said.
I was shell shocked. If she knew everything, then, she knows about them. All I know is that I have to talk to Desiree soon.
"Okay," I snapped out of it as I heard Lilly talk. "My name is Lilly, as you already know. I am only known a Lilly, fine? No one calls me anything else. I can read your mind, but can't see through mind blocks. I am 6 years old. Personally, I prefer if you do have mind blocks. It keeps me sane. Not hearing your thoughts, actually, is a great relief. So later on, if you want to learn mind blocks, ask someone who knows, like Desiree or Phoe. My wings are white in the middle and fade out to a purple. I have blonde hair with one natural, but strange, purple streak in it. My eyes are brown and have heard people say it has flecks of green in them."
"Wait," I interrupted. "Okay, who wants to be in a separate flock. I just realized if we have 12 of us, we need separate flocks and it would take all night for introductions. So, if you want to be with me, or are part of Lilly's or Desiree's flock, come with me, and if you want to be separate, go to the other side. We will make introductions like that and at the end, we come together and just say our names and powers. If you want a separate flock, you might want to elect a leader." I finished and waited for people to separate.
In the end, there were 7 who came to me and 5 on the other side. I waited for the commotion to settle down before I said something.
"Okay, I want to know, who was elected leader of that flock? If you are, step forward." I said.
I watched a girl with platinum blonde hair come up to me. Jeez, what's with the scientists and blonde hair? I thought. The girl had purple eyes and a pair of light green wings. She reminded me of someone. Oh! I remember!
"Hey, you're the girl I rescued before from the institute, right?" I asked her.
"I don't remember you." She said, "Sure, I was rescued from the institute, but you didn't rescue me."
I was surprised and realized that I was Phoenix not Max. So, duh, she wouldn't remember me. Ugh, I can't believe I almost blew my cover.
"I'm sorry. I was probably thinking of someone else." I covered up and held out my hand. "I am Phoe, and you are?"
"I'm Rayleigh.(Taken from one of my reviewers, A/N) Also known as Ray. Don't call me Ray-Ray, or I bite you." She said confidently shaking my hand.
"Okay, I think we should get to know our flocks. Don't you?" I asked.
With that, we both went back to our flocks.
"Okay, ready to introduce your self? Lilly and Desiree went, so you go." I said, pointing to a guy who looked nervous.
"I'm Stelton. I have bronze wings and black hair with brown eyes. I am 11 years old. My power is invisibility. It's really useful, you know? Like, if you don't want anyone to see you. In the School, it made whitecoats really angry. Why do they wear white? Why not black? Black goes with everything! My favorite color, though is green. It's the color of everything in nature! Nature is so pretty! You know if someone calls you a bitch, I have a really good comeback I heard somewhere. It's like thank you , a bitch is a dog a dog barks, bark is on a tree, trees are from nature, and nature is beautiful! Therefore, you called me beautiful. It's weird if you call a guy like me a bitch, because bitch is a girl. And, that isn't helpful for guys, cuz nature isn't handsome. I don't like tuxes even though people think everyone looks handsome in tuxes. They are all itchy and everything. So, yeah. Yeah is such a weird word, right? How do you spell it? Is it Y-E-A, Y-E-A-H, or Y-A? No one knows! There are barely any things that start with the letter X. Strange, right? There are barely and Q's either! I mean, they should come up with Q's right? There's only Quail, Queen, Quiz, and Quadrant! I can't think of any other words! But then again, Q deserves it! Q is just a letter copying O, but trying to be all fancy with it's tail. So, I take back being sorry for Q. Are there any colors that start with O?"….. Is what Stelton said.
Basically, we were all just standing there shocked. I was the only one not shocked because of years of Nudge training. I jumped out and covered his mouth with my hand.
"Ok, Stelton. That's enough, I think. How do you get from introducing yourself to talking about how the letter Q is a copycat? Wait-don't answer that. Okay, Stelton just don't bleed our ears of okay?" I told him. He nodded enthusiastically.
I nodded towards the other guy, a bit younger than Stelton. He was about the same age as Gazzy. Basically, I got over it all, except for him. I mean, they all looked sad except for him. He(Fang) actually looked angry at me, as if he believed I did it.
"Yeah, I am Captain Terror." The boy introduced.
I bit my lip to stop from laughing.
"Actually, I am Zeph, short for Zephyr." He said. I wonder what it is about 8 year old guys and the names Captain Terror and Zephyr.
"I am 8 years old and love to build bombs. My power has to do with shields. I can put up a shield around my self or others, but it can only be used to protect. So, yeah. I have red hair and hazel eyes. My wings are red too."
The girl automatically went next. " I have red hair and wings too. We're twins but I have blue eyes. I am 8 years old too and I can manipulate any technology within a 100 foot radius. My name is Lacey. You can call me Lace."
Let's make this clear. I only hate red haired girls older than 15 that I didn't know before they turned 15. Lissa is 15 and Brigid is like over 20.
Next came another girl. "My name is Quail. I have something like telekinesis, but only if I can see the item. All I can do is make the item move 1 foot in any direction. After that, I can't. It's like the item has a limit. Weird, huh? I am 14 and have hazel hair with golden eyes. My wings are grayish blue."
I beamed at my flock.
"So, our flock is me: Phoe, Desiree, Quail, Lilly, Zeph, Lace, and Stelton. Come on. Let's go to the other side."
We went on with introductions and we all went to sleep. We had a deal. My flock was going to move while this flock stayed here. All of us avian bird kids took turns with watch, mine being the longest outside. At the end of the day, I was actually pretty happy.
The next day, the experiments and the other flock decided they would call us when help was needed. Apparently, the secret word was 'Tutu' if you were in trouble. Stelton came up with it. Later, we left and took to the skies.
I flew near Desiree.
"Hey, you wanna be my new second in command?" I asked her.
"Hell yeah! You know what? I am so sorry about that. I know what you mean by you don't want to talk about them. I can't believe that they would do that to you! So, yeah. I understand why you had to change your looks Phoe. So-"
I was about to reply when we were interrupted by a BANG! Shit.
"Come on! We have to go help them! There are avian-hybrids down there!" I shouted to my flock, checking my mind blocks.
The sounds kept getting louder. I flew down to see a fire. Quickly, I called on water to hose down the fire. I landed with my flock following me.
Through the smoke, I could vaguely here some voices.
"Idiot! Gazzy you had to do that, didn't you? We're lucky there was a freak rain storm! Rain is such a weird word, right? Rai-" I heard someone slap their hand down on Nudge.
I checked my wig to make sure it was on right as I heard Quail interrupt.
"Um, hi? Sorry. That wasn't a freak rain storm! That was Phoe saving you!" Quail said.
I widened my eyes in terror as I saw them again. Especially, him.
"Phoe, Phoe, PHOE!" I vaguely heard Desiree say then she whispered in my ear, "Max."
That snapped me to attention. I glared at Desiree to say, Don't say that in front of them! That's my old flock! I think she knew because of the premonition stuff.
"Don't worry about her, she doesn't matter. She's just our LEADER!" Desiree said. I grabbed Desiree and pulled her around.
"Desiree, I can't believe it's them!" I said, almost in fear.
" The Maximum Ride, Scared? The one kicked out of her flock, went through hell, pulled her way through, and found her way back up the ladder, with a new look, scared? I can't believe it." Then, she shook her head to illustrate her point.
I thought it over and decided that I don't have anything to be scared about. In fact, I should be mad at them. But, too bad Phoe can't be mad at anyone, cuz she doesn't know the flock. Ugh.
"Phoe, you're muttering. Don't worry. Just act like you don't know them. You can still sort of act pissed at them. They are just some random avian-hybrids that you don't know you can trust yet."
"Desiree. That's the point. I can't do that. Cuz I know I can trust them except for him." I didn't bother on evaluating who him was. Desiree, by the look on her face knew.
Because I'm the leader, I can't afford to be weak. So, I just put my game face on and sucked it up. Those are just some random strangers that you don't know. You don't know them. You don't know them. You don't know them. I chanted through my head. We can leave now, if we want. Suddenly uplifted, I went back to my flock.
Max, You cannot leave them. You have to work with them.
And if I don't? Where were you when I needed you? I thought back to the voice.
Too Bad then.
Then, my brain exploded. I vaguely heard voices, but I curled into fetal position trying to keep the screams from escaping my mouth. I guess I failed though, because I could hear the worried voices of everyone crowding me. I just clutched my head. You want to know the worst part? I can't even pass out from the pain, because there is just too much. I think I must have screamed forever before I passed out.
3rd Person POV
All of the hybrids could here Max's screams. The old and new flocks collided gathering around Max. The old flock was confused, watching Max twitch. To them, Max was Phoenix as she was for everyone but Desiree. Desiree knew better than to come between this, for she knew the pain. That was the harm of knowing. It can scar you. She knew there was nothing she could do for Max other than to wait it out.
Angel, Fang, Gazzy, Nudge, and Iggy all watched in confusion. The only one who ever had brain attacks was Max and she was a betrayer. Yet, this person had brain attacks too. She had a different voice and everyone just watched as it rained heavily, filled with thunderstorms, tornados, earthquakes, tsunamis, and every natural disaster known to man. This continued on for about several hours before the person, known as Phoe, passed out from energy loss.
Everyone just watched, trying to control Phoenix, Max's pseudonym, as she was known. Eventually, she passed out with a feature of immense pain on her face.
A/N: OK, I love you all! I had 105 people who read this story yesterday! Or at least it said, 105 visitors, so THANK YOU! Once, more, I need a beta really badly! SO, If you are a beta and would like to beta this story, please do so!