[God! You guys, I'm so sorry!! Here's the actual chappie 3, k? The reason it's so short is cuz I need to find my planning pages, with the story line and all that jazz. Be patient, because without them, this story may belly-flop. Agian.]

Hyper-Dinosaur-says-RAWR:

(FWI, I dig your penname) Thanks for the tip! But…er, copying from the book… isn't that, like, illegal? Just, y'know, a minor detail. =P (PS: thanks for commenting on the end A/n's- I'd thought I'd creeped everyone out, or somethin'!)

L/Ove ():

PLEASE DO NOT HUNT ME DOWN!! PLEASE!!! But, don't kill the chapter bunnies! They supply you guys with chapter plots!! KILL THE EVIL STORY-IDEA BUNNIES!!!1!! THEY'RE THE ONES WHO KEEP TURNING ME OFF WRITING CHAPTERS ON OLDER STORIES!!! Kkthnks.

Check out my other (short- very short) story. It has my attempt at Fax. My very lame attempt at Fax. It's actually sort of hinted Faxness, 'cuz they don't kiss or nuthin. Like I said, bar-of-soap and shoe. (see prev. chapter note)

I'll try some hinted/obvious Fax, though, because if I feed you Fax/more-chapters, I've been promised reviews and virtu-cookies. I just finished some Ginger Bread Men (cough-deformedblobs-cough) with wonky gel smiles. (that I licked off =])

Straight from wiki!answers: Hyperthermia (High) - Body temperatures above 40°C (104 °F) are life-threatening. This compares to normal human body temperature of 36-37°C (97-98°F). At 41°C (106 °F), brain death begins, and at 45°C (113°F) death is nearly certain. Internal temperatures above 50°C (122°F) will cause rigidity in the muscles and certain, immediate death.

Yes, this is Max/Flock POV. Finally, some mutant-bird-kid view!

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"You're burning up!"

"So, it doesn't mean I'm sick! OR THAT I NEED TO GO TO A HOSPITAL!"

"Face it, Max, you're not indestructible."

Yes, that's right. The great Maximum Ride is sick. And being hounded by her cohorts to go visit a doctor, like, a people one. In a hospital, no less. What is the world coming to? This argument had being going for quite some time now, Fang insisting, me objecting, and Iggy yawing tiredly on the side.

Yeah, I know what you're thinking- 'Uh, Max, does a certain Vet spring to mind?' Unfortunately, said Vet is on her honeymoon.

With my father.

Bleh.

I'd been sitting around the fire with the Flock a couple of days ago, and had started having heat flashes. Yeah, the nasty ones I'd had right before I'd turned into an Eraser, last time. I'd looked down, into the role of crumpled al-foil, and screamed when I saw two yellow eyes staring back. Which had sent the Flock into immediate panic-mode.

Fang had tried to get closer to me to see what was going on. I'd kept screaming at him to stay away. Typical, stubborn Fang had tackled me to the ground and pinned me next to the fire. Jerk.

After he'd managed to convince me that, no, I was not an Eraser, I'd finally calmed down.

And then, I'd started shaking uncontrollably. 'Seizing', was the medical lingo Iggy had used. Basically, I looked like a panicking fish on dry land, with a few volts being shocked into it every couple of seconds. Not a pretty sight.

So, here I was, bouncing my leg while waiting for a doctor to check me out, with the Flock all making sure that I wasn't going to make a run for it. Cheaters.

"Next please! Uh… Max Walker." Sighing, I headed towards the nurse holding the clipboard.

"Exam room four, okay?" she said, pointing towards the door. I nodded, the Flock shuffling after me. The woman looked like she was about to object, when Angel smiled at her sweetly.

"It's okay, right?" She said in her little-girl voice, her mind-control face on. The woman nodded absently with a blank look and shuffled through her clipboard. I gave her a hard look, but opened the door for her to get through. The doctor in the room was snapping off a pair of gloves, when she turned to me and took in the amount of people.

"Uh..."

"It's ok," Angel said, smiling at her, "Shirley said it was alright." I hoped the woman wouldn't be suspicious of her, because the nurse out front hadn't been wearing a name tag. The woman patted the bench, scanning the crowd in the exam room.

"So, who's Max Walker?" she quickly checked the name on a chart on the wall. I shifted from foot to foot, with a small wave at the doctor. The tiny exam room was making me extremely anxious, as was the smell, and I pitied Iggy as the doctor accidentally bumped a drawer, hearing the needles rolling around in there. "take a seat, ok? I'm Dr. Cuddy." Once I was properly seated, she started the questioning.

"What seems to be the problem, Max?"

"Uh…" I looked at Fang for support, who just motioned minutely for me to continue. "Well, nothing, actually. My brother just over-reacted a little bi-"

"She's been getting fevers, heat-flashes, and the headaches are getting worse. Her eye's just sort of glaze over every once in a while, and she was hallucinating a few days ago." I glared at Fang, who just glared back, obviously annoyed by my lack of info-giving skills. And did he have to mention the Eraser thing? The lady's brow furrowed.

"Hallucinations? What kind of hallucinations? And how high do the fevers get?" she started taking notes on a small doctor's pad that she'd whipped out of god-knows-where. Fang shrugged, and I figured that he'd probably used up his word quota for today. Iggy took over.

"Well, immediate fatalities are certain at 122 degrees (F), right? And the 'average is around 36.6 or something like that…" Cuddy looked a little taken aback by Iggy's offhand questions. She nodded.

"Hers is considerably higher -than normal, I mean- on a good day. And I'm pretty sure it was approaching the 'abnormal' range. And she says that the fevers and headaches come in flashes- good one second, bad the next-"

I sorta tuned Iggy out after that, I have to admit. The words were getting bigger and more complicate as those two talked, and it was starting to make my brain hurt.

A flash of –what felt like- molten iron being poured across my brain brought me out of my day-dream, and I was only semi-consciously aware of a scream that wracked the cramped room, dimly realizing that, like usual, it was probably mine. My body was shaking- shivering like I'd suddenly been dumped into the Antarctic all over again, while I felt like I'd been tossed into the sun. I heard a far off voice scream instructions, and was temporarily annoyed that someone else was bossing around my flock, before dark clamped white-hot fingers over my vision and my head thumped against the ground.

--

Sorry, that was a really short one. But it was dedicated to a good friend of mine –Lozza, you know who you are!- who's known on as JaspersImaginaryFriend, who kicked my butt into gear today after a party we attended, and a reviewer who this goes out to- Thank you! The editing was really needed…

MAX: So, you finally got your lazy ass around to the beginning of this whole mess.

W.T: Hey! You're in my story! No telling on meeee!!!

Lozza: *smacks W.T 'round the head* You done it! You got past… 'THE BLOCK'!! *does weird, original happy dance*

Max: …happen often? *stares on horrified*

W.T: Yeah. A lot, actually…