Okay, I give… I don't care if I haven't finished reading the series yet, I'm gonna toss in the characters from Maximum Ride. I mean, why not? Maximum Ride and Twilight is one of the most popular crossovers on the site. And yes, those who have at this point read "MAX" will probably regard me as an ignoramus for having not done so. All I know is that Max and Fang finally date. So, let's say all this crossover stuff happens immediately after the ending of "The Final Warning", and the events of "MAX" will never occur. Okay? Okay. Those of you who haven't read Maximum Ride… well, I'm terribly sorry, because the characters from Maximum Ride, as it turns out, are the key to the story once chapter 18 rolls around.

Chapter 7: Convention

MAXIMUM RIDE

I led the flock in formation across the countryside that the Voice was leading me to. The sun was setting over the Pacific Ocean. Suddenly, I knew exactly where we were going. I had never seen the place in person, but there was no mistaking it.

"This is the place," I told the flock. "This must be where the Modesto Monsters live."

"What tipped you off?" Total retorted from my arms. "The giant mansion guarded by the giant butterfly?"

In response, I dropped him. Don't worry, I caught him as soon as he screamed. Insectosaurus glanced up at us, and we heard his startled screech from a mile away. As we swooped in, we saw that a crowd had gathered at the back of the house. I recognized the monsters from the news reports, as well as several people who I didn't recognize; seven gorgeous, pale people, a rosy-cheeked little girl, and a hulking russet-skinned man.

"Hey, it's the bird kids!" I heard the Missing Link say.

"Who?" one of the pale men muttered.

We all landed in their backyard, between Insectosaurus and the giant building. The Missing Link opened the back door. "Come on in!" he said. "It's the flock! What brings you here? The voice in your head?"

I scowled. "How exactly do you know who we are?"

"We have a TV," he said dryly. "You guys are hard to miss. Insecto reads your blog."

Fang eyed the giant butterfly. "Oh, FuzzyBug350?" he asked.

Insectosaurus nodded.

"Very original," I said. "Well, you guys are hard to miss too. We've been on the run for a while, but we catch a bit of news. Who exactly is everybody here?"

The insect-headed man approached. "I am Dr. Cockroach, Ph.D.; this is Susan Murphy, the Missing Link, B.O.B., and Insectosaurus. These are our guests, Carlisle Cullen and his family."

"Yeah," the Missing Link said. "It's the first annual Monster Convention. I'm glad the flock could make it."

"Uh… really?" I said.

"Nah, I'm just kidding," he said. "But it's kind of turning out to be something like that. We're just partying down. We're ordering pizzas. You guys want some?"

"Ooh, Max, can we?" Nudge begged.

"Fine," I said. Years… okay, year… of experience told me that everyone but Fang would hop on the bandwagon at the first sign of any kind of luxury.

Susan made a call on her cell phone. "Hey, it's me again. We've got some unexpected guests…" She looked up at us. "What do you guys want?"

We all rattled off our favorite toppings, and instructed Susan to order three, a half for each of us.

"So, what are your names?" she asked.

I instinctively began to list our aliases, then I remembered that we didn't need to do that anymore. "I'm Maximum Ride," I said. "This is Fang, Iggy, Nudge, Gazzy, and Angel."

"Ahem!"

"And Total."

"AHEM!"

"…And Akila."

"Hmm," Dr. Cockroach said. "And I thought the government gave us unfortunate monikers."

"We named ourselves," I told him.

"Oh," the bug-man said. "Well, that's… groovy."

"Who's reading my mind?" Angel said suddenly. "Is that you?" She eyed one of the pale men, an average-sized one with red-brown hair.

"What?" he said, alarmed. "You can read minds?"

"You can read minds?" Angel countered.

"Our guests are vampires," Link explained. "The kid is a vampire-human hybrid, and the big guy here is a wolf-man." The newly introduced supernatural creatures glared at him. "What? I thought monsters could know the secret."

"We're not monsters," I said.

"Are you human?" he challenged.

"Uh, mostly."

"But not completely."

"Yeah."

"Then you're monsters by one of the many terms defined by the United States government," Link concluded. "Trust me, I've been studying that law for as long as I've understood the concept of a spoken language. It's rock-solid."

"Listen," said a kindly-looking blonde vampire, "it's illegal for any non-monster to know about the existence of vampires. If you could keep Link's little slip of the tongue under your hats, it would be most appreciated."

"Do we still get the food?" Nudge asked.

"I suppose."

"Then we can keep a secret."

"Ugh," said the dark-haired vampire girl who was holding the rosy-cheeked child. "We are so going to have to start the Vampiric Revolution."

"Hey, I was kidding before, but maybe we could set up an annual Monster Convention," Link mused. "It's the fourth, right? That would be awesome."

"Hold on," Fang said. "We have no intention of hanging around. We tend to spend our time on the move before any international super-villains catch up to us. We don't settle and we don't return to any place."

"But Fang," Nudge whined. "They're ordering us a pizza! A pizza with no explosives in it, because nobody knows that we're here!"

"And hey," one of the vampires said, "if you're being hunted, sounds like the perfect situation to surround yourself with monsters, wouldn't you say?"

"Works for me!" Gazzy offered.

The flock had rushed off to mingle before I could get a word in. I turned to Fang, by my side as always, and said, "I hate it when they do that." He nodded.

"Monster party!" Angel whooped.

-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-

The pizza guy arrived a few minutes later. "Okay," he called. "The usual—anchovies and Canadian bacon for Link…" Link took the top box from him. "Super-large with everything for B.O.B.…" He tossed the second pizza at B.O.B., who consumed the entire thing in an instant, box and all. "Hawaiian for Dr. Cockroach, meat-lovers for the guests, and a mix for the bird kids." Iggy and Gazzy snatched the three boxes. "Five-footer with extra cheese for Susan, and thirty-footer with broccoli and spinach for Insectosaurus!" Several muscular people were hauling the latter two pizzas through the big door.

"Thanks, Antonio!" Susan said cheerfully, taking the five-footer up to her big table. "Have a tip." She passed him a wad of bills. "You'll be able to quit the pizza gig pretty soon."

"What, and get out of show business?" Antonio said. "No way. Delivering pizza to you guys is where the cash is."

Dr. Cockroach stood up. "Could you hold down the fort, Link?" he asked. "Susan and I are going to work on our invention."

"The electric super sex?" Link asked.

"Don't be vulgar, Link," Dr. Cockroach sneered. He and Susan took their pizzas upstairs.

"They're working on the electric super sex," Link said smugly. Seeing my confused expression, he said, "He's too small to make out with her, so he's building a giant robot to do it for him. It's sweet in a creepy sort of way. Or creepy in a sweet sort of way. Whichever you prefer." He began to tear into his anchovy-and-bacon pizza. Apparently a ravenous appetite is something that all clinically-defined monsters share.

Iggy sidled up to me with a glass and his entire half of a pizza. "Hey, Max," he said. "These monsters throw some party! And apparently these vampire chicks are all really hot. What's your opinion?"

"Um, I'm sorry, Iggy," I said, "you appear to have mistaken me for what those in the medical profession call a dude."

"Oh, that's right," Iggy said. "Where'd Fang go?"

"Is that champagne? Give me that." I snatched the glass from him.

"Right here, Ig," Fang said, popping up. "But I agree with Max. No champagne for you. Go play Wii Music with the wolf-man."

"Fine," Iggy muttered. He drifted off.

"Could I talk to you, Max?" Fang said.

"Sure, pal," I said. "Sup?"

He took me to a corner of the high-ceilinged room.

"There's a lot of couples in here," he noted. My heartbeat doubled. "All the vampires have split into pairs… the wolf-man and the little girl who's only slightly less frightening than Angel are bonded by the power of the universe itself. Dr. Cockroach and Ginormica are going out."

"What are you getting at, Fang?"

He leaned in towards me. I was quite suddenly aware of the largest eyeball on the planet peering at us.

"Okay, you, turn your eye somewhere else!" I said to Insectosaurus. "And you…" I turned back to Fang, then turned to run. He grabbed me.

"Max," he said solemnly. "I just had a brainstorm."

He seemed so serious that I had to say, "Lay it on me."

"How about," he suggested, "I kiss you and you don't run away as fast as you can?"

I considered that. "Nope, that's not gonna work out for me."

He shrugged. "All right." He grabbed the back of my head and pecked me quickly, then backed off. I stared at him. "Go on, scoot," he said.

"What? Oh, right," I said. I ran.