Hey guys! This chapter is (officially) dedicated to my best friend in the whole entire world, HeartfeltAngel (a.k.a. Lindsay). She is the best writer I know (Go check out her profile and amazing stories!) and the best friend I could ever have :) I love ya, Monoka!

Disclaimer: I do not own Maximum Ride or any of the Flock... But Collin is all mine!

Nudge POV:

I lay, looking out the window at the starry night, with Collin asleep by my side. He was snoring, loudly. I didn't mind, though, it was a reminder that he was still alive. I got scared sometimes, that he would die as a side-effect of whatever they pumped into him, when they were "improving" him. We tested his powers yesterday. Well, whatever powers he can display in a tiny room with an avian-American life-form who has giant ball restraints on her hands, to keep her from using her awesome power.

He could smash just about anything with that metal fist of his (we tried the wall, but got quickly restrained and beaten... Maybe tomorrow), he can run at the same pace as an Eraser... That's all we found out in the short space of time we tried, but there is probably more, knowing my luck.

I studied the metal restraints that were enclosing my hands. Those were really annoying me, I couldn't even brush back a strand of hair from my face without hitting myself in the face (I already had two black eyes and a couple of bruises). As my mind wandered, it passed over the Flock.

The Flock. They betrayed me. Left me here in this hell-hole. Even after Fang looked right into my eyes, they still flew away. My temper flared and I smashed the metal ball that went around my hand angrily against the floor. Why, why, WHY?!

In the stifling silence and consuming darkness, my pain and loss was magnified by thousands. I normally had Collin around to calm me down when I got out-of-control mad, but he was sleeping and I didn't want to wake him. I screamed silently as my heart constricted and was consumed by a different kind of pain. Pain mixed with uncontrollable anger, the kind of pain I had had the day I discovered my purple energy power. What was happening?

The pain was so intense that it had me curled up in a ball, writhing on the floor as I died inside. My head was pulsating to a different beat, and it felt like my hands were on fire. The purple light shining through the cracks in the metal ball –things was blinding, and I had to look away. I felt like I was being torn apart from the inside, and let me tell you, that is not an okay feeling.

Suddenly, the pain shot up to a whole new level, and I snapped my eyes open as all the hurt and loss was directed to my hands. The metal restraints burst apart, shattering into hundreds of shiny pieces. I screamed loudly (for the first time) as a glance down at my hands showed my purple energy balls... but they were surrounded by bits of silvery scraps, that orbited around my hands like planets around the sun. I felt elated, and full of power. Power I could use to my advantage.

By this time, Collin was scrambling to his feet, his mind still lost in sleep-land. 'Nudge! I heard a—Nudge... What the...' He stopped, amazed, staring at my hands that looked like something from a science fiction movie. Go figure, my whole life was practically a science-fiction movie. I grinned a dangerous grin, and turned to the metal table that still stood in the corner. Time to test this power out...

I grasped the sides in my hands and moved my hands as if I was going to tear the thick table in half. The metal did as my hands commanded, as easy as tearing paper and I spun to face Collin, with two halves of a table in my hands. He went to say something, but closed his mouth, shaking his head. 'Only you, Nudge, would develop a power like that. You rock so much!'

I winked at him, and turned to the shattered remains of the stupid metal balls, reaching my hands out for them, as if I could draw them to me. It worked, and the pieces flew at me, at an alarming pace. I, fearing my face was going to be mutated, flung my hands down and prepared for impact. Nothing happened. The metal bits dropped to the round as soon as I stopped wanting them and I gave a cry of joy. I was, kinda, magnetic!

'Let's bounce, Collin. This place is getting old.' My face glowed with happiness and uncontrollable joy as I realised what we could do now; we could get away. Collin, using his metal fist, smashed the triple-glazed window with ease and stood back to let me do my thing. I casually broke the re-enforced thick metal bars as easily as if I was snapping a toothpick. I am good...

Erasers were starting to flow into the room, but with a flick of my wrist, all the metal objects, with an added boost from my energy, flew at them. The first few rows were thrown violently back, taking the rest with them. It was pretty hilarious. I laughed, a dangerous powerful laugh, and leapt onto the windowsill, motioning for Collin to follow. I grabbed him under the arms and jumped into the dark night. We free-fell for a storeys, smirking at the astonished faces at the various windows, all frozen in shock.

I spotted Jeb's face in one of them and, trying to support Collin in one hand, sent vicious flames of purple energy mixed with shards of deadly metal in his direction. I had the satisfaction of watching him run in fear and the window shattering. Now that's what I call aim... it was like déjà-vu, we were attempting to escape the School, and there were creepy Erasers underneath us with huge guns (and I'm not talking about muscles, people... Though, they probably had those too) for the second time in, what was it, like just over a week.

I knew I should be scared out of my mind, with all the Erasers armed heavily and the electric fence with God only knows what other defensive tactics ahead, but all I could focus on was one thing: We were going to get out of here, or die trying...

I dodged the bullets as best as I could, Collin shouting words of encouragement and advice as I tried desperately not to get us killed. The electric fence was looming ahead of us, and I could see it sparking from here. Here goes nothing... I soared upwards, my wings aching in protest, but my heart screaming out in joy and fear: We weren't going to make it! The fence got caught in lower part of my legs and I cried out in pain, trying to get free, as we just made it over.

I kept going, my legs and ankles burning as if a fire was lighting underneath them. Collin was shouting and yelling himself hoarse from happiness, and I was yelling back at him, finally realising we were free. I landed a bit away from the School, about to throw up from pain and exhaustion, my eyes slipping closed as Collin enveloped me in a massive bear-hug. 'We did it, Nudge! Well, you did it, but we're FREE! We can-' He gushed on and on, me getting more exhausted by the second, my purple flames that had been out-lining my hands, finally fading away.

Then Collin realised something was wrong. He shut up immediately, dropping to my side and checking me everywhere for injuries. I tried to push him away, but Collin was too strong and I was too weak. He got to my lower half, and let out a stream of curses, stripping off his shirt in a hurry to get bandages. 'Go away, Collin, I'm fine. I just—'

'Nudge! Just stop for a second, and focus on developing a freaking sense of self-preservation, for goodness sake! You are so stupid sometimes, why the hell didn't you say something! Hold still while I do this...' Collin cut me off, his face suddenly pale and worried. He tugged at something on my legs, making me scream at the pain that flared up, his movements fast and panicked. 'Sorry! Sorry, sorry... Two more minutes, 'kay, Nudge?'

I thrashed and screamed involuntarily, as Collin wrapped up my legs and tried to distract me, 'So Nudge, did you –stop wriggling-, did you see the game last night?' I giggled, and then immediately screamed in agony, as he made hideous attempts to take my attention away from the burning sensations in my legs. When he was done, my body still crying out with pain, I snuggled up next to him.

My legs were wrapped in strips of dirty white bandages, blood staining through the material. 'I'm sorry I hurt you,' He whispered gently, 'and I'm about to do it again, we need to get to a town or something, and get proper supplies.' He gently hoisted me into his arms, apologising profusely as I gritted my teeth in pain. He started to run, another of his cool powers –he could run as fast as an Eraser, minus the hairiness--, cradling me against his body.

'Collin... I'm going to miss you.' I felt all choked up with tears, and my emotions were going hay-wire. This is so not me, what the hell happened to the whole no-show-emotions thing?!

'What? Where am I going?'

'Back to your family, where you belong.' My voice broke at the end, and I clutched his chest, sobbing my heart out. I didn't want him to leave me, like everyone else in my life had. I needed him.

'I'm not going anywhere, unless you're there, or you don't want me anymore. You are my family now, I can't go back to my parents and sister, I'm—I'm different now. As longs as you're with me, I'll be fine,' He stopped suddenly, looking down on me, 'Where will we go now? You pick...'

I racked my half asleep and food-deprived brain to come up with a place. Someplace where no one would take any notice of a couple of freaks like us. Someplace where we could just relax and re-group. Someplace where—I've got it! 'Let's go to New York, the lights are sooo pretty...'

Just as I was closing my eyes, I heard a chuckle from Collin, 'New York, here we come!'

Iggy POV:

Flying... flying over an electric fence, some weight in my hands. All I was focused on was the fence. We weren't going to make it. We were going to die, at last. If I could just get a little bit higher. Up, up, UP! We made it! I felt the top of the fence get tangled in my legs, burning me alive. No! I kick it away, trying to keep flying, I can do this. I get to--

I woke up, in the middle of the night, smacking my head against the low roof in the hotel we were staying in. I yelled (and maybe cursed a little) and went to roll over, falling off the bed, onto Fang. I heard him curse as he woke with me on top of him, but I was more focused on other things. Like the fact that my legs were on fire.

'Aaaagh! Fang, the fire! The fire! Make it freaking stop!' I thrashed around in panic, feeling Fang's rough hands pulling at me to show him what was wrong. I rolled around the small room, knocking into everything and making a general racket. Finally the pain started to fade, and I gave into Fang, cursing fluently.

He forced me down on the floor and, half sitting on me, switched on the lights. I gasped and moaned in agony, 'It's so damn sore, Fang, who started a fire in my bed?!' I pulled up off the duvet that I was tangled up in, and I heard Fang make a weird sound when he saw my legs for the first time. 'What?! What the freak happened to me?'

'Nothing,' He sounded weird and I raised my eyebrows, I could still feel my legs throbbing in pain, 'Like, there is nothing on your legs, no burn marks or anything...' I kicked away from him and ran my hands up and down my calves. Sparks of pain exploded within me, making my wince in agony, but there was nothing on my legs.

I stood angrily, ignoring the intense pain that still threatened to overcome me, and fell back into bed. Pulling the damn duvet over me, I made a slight noise of pain, trying (and failing) to cover it with a cough as I buried myself within the blankets. 'You sure you okay, Ig? Do you want to talk about whatever just happened?' Fang's voice was concerned and it made me want to punch myself. I was so stupid, it was just a dream and it didn't mean anything. Nothing at all.

Yeah right, I was lying to myself. The dream had hit me hard, so hard I could burst into tears (manly tears, mind you!) in a second, but I was never going to admit that to Fang. Or anyone else, for that matter. 'No. Just forget everything that happened, or... or I'll tell Max you love her.'

'Whatever, man.'

We stayed in the hotel for a couple hours (long enough to eat the equivalent of five human's breakfasts. Each), and then we were gone. We hit the air, heading for Dr. M's, but when we were almost there, Max had a brain-attack. At least that's what I assumed when she started screaming hysterically as I could hear her falling past me. I grabbed blindly out for her, but just as I grasped her arm, a spasm of pain rippled through me as well.

I yelled out, more in surprise than anything, and started falling. Thankfully I was able to stop before I went splat but I hovered for a few minutes, twitching in pain. My arms felt like they were being ripped out of their sockets, and my head was pounding. But my arms were by my sides, not moving. Something was wrong. Terribly wrong. It felt like my emotions and feelings were being controlled and I did not like it one bit.

Fang caught Max and soared back up to us, an unconscious Max his arms. At this point, I was shuddering involuntarily and my eyes were snapping open and shut. I went to fly to where I could hear him, but dropped suddenly, managing to get myself back up before anyone could say anything. Apparently, they hadn't noticed as they were busy making arrangements to land and tend to Max.

As we dove down towards the ground, I lost control again, suddenly having no control whatsoever and just falling wildly. I panicked and tried to angle myself so I wouldn't smash onto my face, but I misjudged where the ground was and ended up with a mouth full of dirt, and a bruised face. Ouch.

'Iggy! Stop playing around and get over here... Now!' Fang yelled and I scowled, stumbling awkwardly towards his voice. So they hadn't seen that whole no-control thing, or the spasms of agony? Well, it just shows how much attention gets paid to the blind guy. I wasn't being bitter about my blindness, just a little hurt that everyone didn't notice the major thing (whatever it was) that just happened to me.

I collapsed halfway there, my spine doing what felt like the Mexican Wave, and my neck rolling around on my shoulders like some kind of demented doll. What's happening to me? I dragged myself over to the others (still twitching with some kind of unknown pain), about to start making up an explanation for my little display back there for when I was bombarded with questions and worries, but the second I reached them, Max woke up.

She sat up, her movements sounding groggy and as if she's just gotten drunk and had a bad hangover, her breath coming out in small pants. Fang was all over her, his voice majorly concerned and just plain soppy. Really, Fang, I expected more from you... I hung back from the hug-fest that started to take place, not wanting them to know about my random loss of control. (A/N: Sorry, I can't figure out how to get rid of that line down there! Grrr!)

Soon we were back in the air, me praying I would be able to fly normally. I was thankfully able to fly almost properly, with the odd twitch or slackening of muscles that caused me to drop for a few metres, but how long would it last? What would happen if we in the middle of a fight and I just dropped, spasm-ing for weird reasons? That's when I concluded I was officially screwed if I didn't tell someone.

Just as I was about to blurt my "secret" out, Max spoke up, 'Guys... I didn't think we should go to Mom's,' she cleared her throat hastily before continuing, 'I just—I don't want to put her and Ella in danger, like, if they come looking for us again. It just wouldn't be fair....'

Silence. 'But... Where will we go, if we don't go back? We were going to visit some memorial in school for our field-trip, in a few weeks.' Angel's voice was small and scared, making her sound more like a seven-year-old than she normally did.

'New York.' My mouth blurted out the words without my permission, as if a hidden force inside me was dictating what I said.

'Well... okay, that was random. Why do you want to go to New York, Iggy?'

'New York.' I repeated, wishing my mouth would just shut up. My face was starting to burn with embarrassment, my mind screaming at my mouth to Shut up! Shut up!

'Ummm... sure then. New York, here we come!'

Third person POV:

Jeb Batchelder stared at the computer screen in disbelief. Maximum and her flock were heading to New York, as well as Nudge and that little misfit that had escaped with her. It could put his whole plan into jeopardy if the two parties met. He frowned, cursing his luck. Unless...

Maybe he could make this work. It would take some planning and could set the whole process back a whole year, but the results could turn out better for him. Much better... A beeping on another screen wretched him from his thoughts and he turned to the screen, and promptly panicked. This wasn't good, at all. Experiment 1gg1 (A/N: Iggy) was experiencing malfunctions that could turn out to be deadly.

It could either be caused by a hacker into the freak's system, or... Jeb didn't even want to consider the other possibility. He quickly radioed for a few teams of Erasers to be prepared, and stood, getting into his leather jacket and grabbing bits of equipment. If he didn't get whatever Experiment 1gg1 was experiencing under control, the whole project would fail. And Jeb didn't like to fail...

Dr. Batchelder got into the chopper that was waiting for him, the Eraser teams standing by in various areas of New York and the surrounding states. Nothing could afford to go wrong. He chuckled slightly to himself, in spite of the situation. There was no way they would be able to get out of this one.

'New York, here I come!'

Well, I hope that was okay for you guys! Please review and tell me your thoughts, things you want to see happen, more FAX... Whatever you liked or want to see more of!

Thanks so much to everyone who reviewed over the course of these 16 chapters – we made it to 100+ reviews! Thanks to everyone who clicked the review button, and I can't wait till you click it again!

Thanks to the following for reviewing:
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You guys seriously make my day whenever I get reviews!

Oh yeah, it's my birthday this Thursday (HeartfeltAngel wrote me an awesome one-shot, featuring me and Iggy! Check it out!) and I'll try and get the chapter up next Sunday, but I might be busy!

Review, all ye fanfiction-ers!

Peace out,
addicted-2-oxygen :)