Did you know that if you take the first initials of Iggy, Max, Fang, Angel, Nudge, and Gasman, it spells I'M FANG? Ha-ha. I found it funny.

Disclaimer: I don't own Maximum Ride.

Max POV

Silica opened the blue box, which contained… a book. A dirty, brown, really, really old book. How would this help us? I had no clue.

"This is a law book," Silica said, lifting it out of the box. "My dad is a lawyer, and my mom's a cop, so we have tons of these things back at home. My family's always been strict with laws, and the laws Fang broke are some of the most common."

"Okay, so, we can use this book to…" I said, urging her to get to the point.

"We can find a loophole. Some way to convince the jury that Fang is innocent." Nudge said, finishing for me.

"That's a good plan," Angel started, "but there's one problem. Fang isn't innocent."

The more I thought about it, the more I realized she was right. Fang was only fifteen, and he robbed a store, a car, and beat up some random guy. There was no way he could not go to jail. He was just another juvenile kid to the jury… or so they thought. How could I have forgotten? He's a bird kid! He didn't apply to regular laws. He stole food because he was starving (considering his diet), he harassed the man because he was using self defense, thinking he was someone after him trying to bring him back to the School or something, and he stole the car because he was just trying to get away from the person he thought was trying to capture him. Practically most of the world already knew about us, what would one courtroom full of people harm if they saw his wings? Wow, I just figured out Fang's testimony all in my head. Sweet!

"Hey guys," I said. I explained everything I had just figured out, and got backup law information from Silica's book. Nudge and Angel thought it was genius.

"Alright, well, we need to go right now. Lets go see if the boys are ready then it's up and away." I said, finally finished packing my bag.

Once we were all ready to go, we all gathered outside, including Silica, and I told them the plan.

We said goodbye to Silica as she wished us luck and gave us her phone number, waved to Ms. Hamilton as she stubbornly told us how much trouble we were in with Jeb, and took off. If only she knew that I called Jeb and told him what we were doing while Angel and Nudge were finding the boys. Jeb was totally okay with our plan! He wanted Fang back with us too.

We took off and headed south, to Arizona.

Once we crossed the border, we stopped at a café to eat and check to channel 10 news website on Fang's old laptop. We needed to know exactly where we were going and how to get there, and the only source we had was the website. The one webpage had a whole lot more information on the story than the reporter did on the TV! We found the name and address of the courthouse Fang will be held in, then tried to find somewhere to sleep, since the trip took a lot shorter than I thought. We lounged in some trees, safe, cozy and warm, and drifted into sleep.

Except for me.

I was either a: too eager to finally find Fang after all those miserable days of depression, b: too curious why Fang had us go to him instead of him tracking us down, which he could have very easily done, or c: still too hyper from the three cappuccinos I had.

Or it was somewhere in between all three. Either way, I couldn't sleep. I remembered all those alone moments with Fang. The time in the New York subway tunnels, when we met that weird computer geek; when we were at Anne's house and we were fighting; when we had our first kiss; our second kiss; the time we were in the dessert after our first attempt at the Day and Night school, and we kissed on the beach. I remembered that moment most. It was the first time we kissed and I accepted it, didn't run away like the last couple of times. That had to be the one of the best moments ever, until I got home to find out my mother had been kidnapped. That killed the mood.

I woke up to a very bright sun, not realizing I actually fell asleep. I looked around finding my flock… missing. They weren't in the trees! I dropped to the ground, not even a campfire. I screamed their names. "Angel! Gasman! Nudge! Iggy! Dylan! Total?" None of them responded. I began to panic. No, no, no! How could I have lost the flock? Had they been kidnapped? Was this another "test" controlled by white coats at the School? My heart automatically restarted as I heard the small voice.

"Max! Max! Over here!" It was Iggy!

I ran towards his voice, running deeper into the woods, almost tripping over a giant bush.

"Iggy!" I shouted in between pants, "What's going on over here? Where are the others?"

"Max, it's okay. We all woke up because we thought someone was coming, so we hid in here. It turned out to be just a couple of hikers. We made camp over there." Iggy pointed toward a huge tree surrounded by bushes, all brightened by something behind it which I could only guess was their fire. I sighed in relief.

"Why didn't anyone think of waking me up?" I asked Iggy.

"You were snoozing the morning away. We tried to wake you, but we would have had to put a bullhorn to your ear to wake you up. We couldn't risk letting the campers discover us, since they were both looking up in all the trees trying to find this rare bird. They would have found one rare bird if we stuck around." I nodded, encouraging him to continue, only half believing his story.

"Once the idiot campers were at least ten yards away, we climbed out of the trees and hid before they came back in our direction, which they did. You were so high in the tree and hidden within the leaves that there was no way they would have seen you, which they didn't. They made there own camp about one and a half miles away. It was almost dawn, so we thought you would wake up soon. We didn't know you were that out of it."

I mumbled something like "okay" and climbed over the bushes, ignoring the thorns that scraped my ankles.

I saw my flock sitting around the campfire, roasting random foods on sticks. Everyone was wide awake, even Nudge and Gazzy, who were always grumpy right after they woke up. I looked up, finding the sun pretty close to the highest point in the sky. Which meant it was almost noon. Noon! And we were suppose to be finding Fang!

"Okay guys, we have to pack up and keep going. Fang's testimony is at one o'clock, and we still have to find this place. Let's move!"

It was going to take us about forty-five minutes to fly to the courthouse, and who knows how long it would take to come up with a plan. So we took off, kicked it into high gear, and began forming a plan.

The building was surrounded by cars and had an all-business aura to it. We walked right in, being stopped by many security guards, who "decided" to let us go after Angel had a good, short chat with them. I reminded her not to control minds when we entered the court room. The last thing we needed was for her to get sued too.

We walked swiftly through the many hallways, being guided by Gazzy, who had the laptop which displayed a virtual map of the building, and Angel, who had the mind reading ability. We circled the building a couple times, getting lost and taking alternative routes. Then, right after the clock struck one, we found the courtroom. I put my ear to the door, trying to make out what the Judge was saying.

"Mr. Ride, are you represented by an attorney?" she asked. I didn't need Silica's law book to know what that meant. My jaw set, and I swung the double doors open and marched right in there, all eyes turning to me.

Including Fang's.

"Yes he does, and she's right here." I said, leading them inside. I motioned for them to sit down in the second row. The Judge, and the guy Fang beat up (what was his name? Something Soapy? Poor sap) were taken aback.

"Max," Fang whispered, a big grin creeping onto his face, "I can't believe you're here."

I pulled him into a tight hug, fighting back a tear and never wanting to let him go. But I was standing in front of a judge and a jury, so I had to.

"Your honor," I said with my sweetest, most convincing smile, "I believe there has been some kind of misunderstanding. You see, Fa-- I mean, um, Nick here is completely innocent of all charges."

"OBJECTION!" Soapy interrupted. I looked at him with my eyebrows raised and a death glare in my eyes. "Your honor, this boy is about as innocent as it is possible for him to grow wings and fly!"

I laughed, along with Fang and the rest of the flock. I swear I thought Nudge was going to fall over clutching her stomach.

I only stopped when the Judge banged her gavel saying "Order! Order in the court! Miss, you better have a good explanation why you chose this time to start laughing. I assure you the situation Mr. Ride is in is not funny."

"I apologize, your honor, but you see, what Mr.… Soapy is it? What Mr. Soapy had said is so true that it is funny. For Mr. Ride can, in fact, grow wings and fly. There for, he is innocent."

It was the jury who laughed this time. I scowled at them.

"Your honor, if you don't mind, I would like to call Nick Ride to the stand." I said, my voice tight and professional.

I could feel Fang looking at me, giving me a look that openly said What the hell are you doing? I honestly didn't know what I was doing. If I was doing anything, it would be either following my gut, or saving Fang's butt from prison. Fang took a seat at the stand, and the questioning began.

But before I did that, I wanted to make sure Fang didn't screw up.

Angel, tell Fang through his mind what I told you yesterday in the dorm room. You know the plan.

I glanced at her for a millisecond, and saw her slightly nod. Luckily, while we were making our way through the building, Angel and I were creating a plan through our thoughts. I felt bad about not letting the others in on it, but if we discussed it aloud, the security cameras would have picked up on it.

"Mr. Ride," I began, "is it true that you stole grocery items from a small food store?"

I waited about twenty seconds, knowing that Angel was explaining to Fang what to say. I thought I saw Fang smile slightly, but it was gone faster than it came.

"I stole the food because I was hungry, starving even, and I didn't have any money." He said, almost too smoothly.

"Can you please explain why you were so hungry?"

Another ten seconds went by.

"I hardly ate anything in the two days before the incident. I have a very big appetite. I need to eat around three thousand calories a day, if not more."

There was a soft murmur from the jury, obviously disapproving his story.

"And can you explain why you felt the need to, um, harass Mr. Soapy?"

Another fifteen seconds.

"For a while now I've been on the run from these whacko scientists who either want to kill me, or want to take me back to a secret facility to experiment on me. When Soapy approached me, I only followed my instincts. I was certain he was someone trying to capture me, but I suppose I was wrong."

"This is insane," Soapy once again interrupted, "he's obviously lying!"

"Mr. Soapy! Please settle down." The Judge said. I was thinking that maybe it was Soapy I needed to convince now.

"Thank you, your honor." I said with a small nod. "And, Nick, why did you steel that car?"

"Like I said before, I thought Soapy was trying to capture me, so I had to make the quickest getaway I could manage."

"Your honor, if I could just ask Nick one question?" Soapy's attorney asked, standing and pitching in for the first time.

"Certainly, Mr. Danville." the judge said with a gesture to the stand.

"Mr. Ride, even if that story was true, why would someone-- anyone-- kidnap you so that they could run experiments? You are only a kid."

Fang stood up out of his seat, but didn't step from the stand.

"This is why." Fang said, letting his glorious black-as-night wings out in front of the jury.

No surprise, everyone gasped. One woman in the jury even fainted.

Fang pointed to Soapy and said, "I thought that man was going to take me back to the horrible science lab I grew up in. I had to make the fastest getaway possible because it was for my own good. I didn't fly away because there were too many witnesses in the area."

I smiled. This was going almost too perfectly.

"Your honor," I said, "This boy is not only a kid. He is genetically enhanced in his senses, speed, and strength, must eat from 3000 to 4000 calories a day, and was only protecting himself when Soapy approached him."

The judge just sat there, her mouth gaping open, her eyes blinking rapidly, looking back and forth between Fang and me, making small gasp/panting sounds.

"Uh… um, has the jury reached a verdict?" she said, still in a stage of shock.

One guy sitting in the front row of the jury stood up. "We have your honor. Due to the… overwhelming condition the defendant is in, we find him not guilty." the guy said shakily.

The flock cheered and laughed and hugged, as if they thought we weren't going to win the case. But I never leave without a fight.

I almost jumped for joy, but being that I'm me, I didn't. I just ran up to Fang when he finally stepped down from the stand, and gave him a big bear hug, followed by a small kiss.

"C'mon," I said to him, still wrapped in his arms, "let's get out of here."

I took Fang's hand, and with the Flock, we left the courtroom and nearly ran outside into the sunlight.

I was so happy. My flock was happy, safe, and had beds to go back to. We had Fang back, and I was never going to let him leave us again.

I was about to get ready to leave when I felt Angel's gaze on me. I looked back at her.

Angel, who had grown up as my little girl, scared me when she so easily controlled people's minds, and not to long ago held a gun pointed at me. I didn't think things between us could ever be the same between us again. I thought I knew why she was staring at me, and what she wanted to ask, but things are better said aloud.

"Max," Angel said, "I know you're happy we have Fang back, but are we going to have to go through that whole thing again? Are you going to focus all of your attention on your relationship now that you have one again?" Lucky for me, I saw this coming, so it didn't hurt as much. Everyone was watching now. Good. I wanted them to hear this.

"No," I said, "we are not going through that again. I promise. The flock comes first, no matter what. I know I let you guys down before, but I won't make that same mistake again. Now, let's go. I promised Ms. Hamilton we would come back." and back we shall go.

We took off, one by one. While in the air, I filled Fang in on everything he missed, leaving most of my depression out. He already knew I was hurting. I didn't need to make him feel worse than he already did. He was a little ticked off about my saying yes to school and all that. But he laughed when I told him about Nudge jumping off the roof of the school.

"Okay, so what was with the stunt? Why didn't you just track us down if you wanted to come back?" I finally asked him. That whole mystery had been racking my brain the entire time.

"Well, I did want to come back. I missed you… a lot." he said. "But while I was gone, I gathered some info. I found out that someone was after you guys."

"Someone's always after us," I said as if it were no big deal.

"No, I mean, someone was trying to kill you guys. Someone with a lot of power. Someone who really doesn't like us. I didn't know where you guys were, so I figured I'd make a secret public announcement." Fang said with a grin that made my heart beat like a hummingbird's wings.

"But we were at the Day and Night school. It's in the middle of freaking no where. No one can find us."

Fang paused for a couple seconds, then said slowly, "they already have."

I almost dropped out of the air.

"What do you mean?"

"The person who wants to kill you is already at the Day and Night school."

Sorry it took so long to write this. Busy week. Read and review, and suggestions are now wanted! Thanks!