I just realized I update very soon. I don't know if it's because I have no life or I just do this whenever I am bored… which is a lot. Yep… I'm really awkward when I'm writing about me. So I am going to shut up and continue the story.

Hawk POV

When I regained consciousness, I saw that we were in the back of a van. Xavier wasn't there, and Josh and Janie were still out cold. Had Xavier gotten away?... Or was it bad news? My fingers trailed to my temples and started to massage them.

Only one way to find out… I thought. I started to read the thoughts of the whitecoats driving the van. Wow… they were really dumb.

Dumb owl kids! They fell-ded into our trap! What dip-twits. I flinched at the whitecoat's horrible use of grammar. I hadn't had one day of schooling in my life and I still talk better than him. We will get to the Itex and dissect them limb by limb! They think they can join the flocks together and shut us down? We'll show them!

I rolled my eyes. No information on Xavier at all. I decided to read the other whitecoat's mind. He had more brain cells than the other whitecoat… obviously. He was still dumb for becoming a whitecoat, but he wasn't brain dead like the other guy.

How did I get partnered with this shlub? At least we have that Dylan. If it weren't for Dylan, we wouldn't have ever caught the mutants. Well, the one owl kid escaped, but it was four against one. I don't blame him one bit for letting one get loose.

I smiled and relaxed. Xavier got away. Relief flooded through my blood. I pushed away a box that was jamming me in the hip and leaned back on the door. After a few minutes, the van stopped and the door I was leaning on opened. I fell out of the van and snapped out my wings. The blonde haired guy, the whitecoat called him Dylan, looked down at me and stepped on my stomach, keeping me from flying up and hitting him.

"Nice try." Dylan spit at me. I tried to shove his foot off of me, but he just pressed down harder.

I looked up at him, "Why are you doing this? You're like us too." I gasped for air. "You have wings. We are the same. Why are you giving us up like this?" I tried making him feel guilty.

He stared down at me and laughed, "I'm nothing like you. You see; you are going to die, I am not. It is as simple as that." He removed his foot and kicked me in the gut. Man, I hate him. Dylan picked me up by my neck and punched my jaw with the other hand. I heard the undeniable CRACK! And clenched my fists to keep from crying out.

"F-fuh yew. Yer nothin bussa bas-tar." My jaw was broken, so my talking was slurred and painful. Dylan gave me a small smile and threw me over his shoulder.

"I know, I'm a bastard, I know." He laughed. "Jake! Fernardo! Get the other two from the van and follow me." I craned my head and looked back at the two whitecoats grabbing Janie and Josh. The one whitecoat was having extreme problems carrying Josh, so the other whitecoat had to give Janie to Dylan and helped drag Josh. Dylan started walking and the whitecoats followed. I kept my eyes open, remembering any routes that could help in our escape. Dylan opened a door and stopped in a room. I thought that this was where they were going to keep us, but I was wrong. A whitecoat came into the room and got on her knees. I was confused why they were doing this, but I saw what she was doing. She put a key in the lock and twisted it. In a couple of seconds, she pulled up a small trap door. Dylan threw Janie and me down into it. Underneath the trap door was a small room that had no hope for escape. The walls had no windows. Great.

The whitecoats threw Josh down into the room with me and Janie. Why couldn't they put us in dog crates? Dog crates were easy to get out of. This room… it was probably indestructible.

"Have fun, little owls." Dylan said before he shut the trap door. I heard a lock switch close and sighed. After minutes of sitting and doing nothing, Josh and Janie woke up at the same time… freaky.

"Where are we?" Janie asked.

I rubbed my temples. It was becoming a habit of mine. I glided my finger across my jaw and took a deep breath. If I didn't pop my jaw into place soon, it would heal incorrectly because we heal extremely fast. I didn't know how to pop a jaw back in. It would just have to stay like this for now. "Holdin' shell." I made out painfully. "No eshcape."

Janie groaned, "What happened to your jaw? And there has to be some esca—"

BOOM!

It was all a blur. I was sitting a few inches away from a wall. A giant explosion came from the other side and the bricks from the wall went flying all over our room. Fire was engulfing the plaster that covered the bricks. Shards of a grenade went flying toward my face. I ducked before anything could severely damage me. Josh rolled on top of Janie and was covering her from the blast. I looked up at part of the wall that was on fire and it fell on me.

I was covered head to toe in debris.

Max POV

The flock and I had gone through every possibility to get out of the small room. Our wings were clipped together, so we couldn't fly out. Now why couldn't we just unclip each other's wings? There were small locks on it; we had to have a key to loosen up the pins grip. Iggy's bomb was our only source of freedom… but we couldn't use it yet.

We waited for hours for someone to open the door, but no one came. My mind clicked on and I almost jumped up from my sitting position from excitement.

"Iggy! Do you still have that lock picking set that I tried to get you to get rid of? It could unclip our wings!" His face brightened up and he pulled a small box out of his shirt. The box wasn't bigger than one an engagement ring would go in.

"I forgot about this set! I haven't had to use it since at the Institute in New York!" He stood up and walked over to me. "Max, I need to pull up the back of your shirt." I nodded and mumbled a small 'okay'. Iggy's fingers gently brushed the back of my shirt up and felt the edges of the pin. He pulled on it and I winced. "Sorry." He muttered. He pulled a small metal needle out and shoved it inside the lock that was on the pin. He moved the needle around gently. About five minutes later I heard a small click. Iggy pulled out the needle and slipped the unlocked pin out of my wings.

I stretched my wings full out. You don't know how good it felt to crack all of my wing's joints. They were pinned down for so long. Iggy undid everyone's wings under half an hour. I was so proud of him.

He looked down at the small needled in the palm of his hand and sighed, "Who is going to unlock mine?" I hadn't thought of that…

"I will." Gazzy said. Iggy nodded and handed the needle to Gazzy. "You just push the needle into the lock, when you feel a gap of air, take it out and start over. The needle should feel like its pressing against a wall. Push on the needle when you feel the wall. It unlocks it." Gazzy nodded and pulled up Iggy's shirt. A whole forty-five minutes later, Gazzy had Iggy's wings free.

"Finally." I heard Nudge mutter to Angel.

I smiled and patted Gazzy on the back, "Thanks, Gasman." We all sat down, our wings fully outstretched. It was really boring in this room. Iggy pulled out the grenade and traced his fingers over it, trying to guess what model grenade it is. Gazzy walked over and sat next to Iggy. Gazzy tried to pull the bomb out of Iggy's hand, but Iggy slapped his fingers away. Gazzy narrowed his eyes playfully and grabbed the grenade. Iggy held onto the other end and they both started pulling. I was about to tell them that that was dangerous when Gazzy pulled something off of the grenade.

"Great. You probably just broke it." I yelled at them.

"NO!" Iggy yelled. "Duck and cover! He pulled out the pin!" Iggy and Gazzy threw the bomb to one side of the room and we all ran to the other. A giant blast engulfed the room, but it only shattered the wall on the other side.

Nudge and Angel were curled up in balls under me. Iggy had thrown himself over Gazzy.

"Report." I said.

"Fine here." Nudge said.

"I'm okay. Gazzy that was so dumb of you!" Angel yelled.

"Fine here." Gazzy muttered. He was trying to look sorry, but it was obvious he found this situation funny.

"I could be better." Groaned Iggy. He rubbed the back of his head where debris had hit him.

I stood up and looked at the wall opposite of us. A giant hole was in the middle of it. Bricks and dust was all over the ground. Small flames flickered on the drywall. I walked over to the hole in the wall and peered my head into the other room. Two figures were crumpled on the ground. \

What was the owl flock doing here?

Josh was lying on top of Janie. Josh's platinum blonde hair was covered in dust. Janie had a few cuts and bruises on her legs. I had a sigh of relief seeing that they were okay… but where were Hawk and Xavier? My questions were answered when a giant pile of bricks started moving. Hawk crawled out, blood seeping through her clothes.

"Well shat hurt." She muttered. Josh stood up and helped Hawk out of the debris. "I'm fine." She muttered. "Jus' shum cuts." What happened to her jaw? She could barely talk. I hope the wall didn't do that to her; I would never forgive Gazzy and Iggy for that.

"Guys… are you okay?" I asked. Three sets of eyes stared up at me and widened.

"MAX!" Janie squealed. She stood up and ran over to me, tackling me into a hug. I hugged her back and smiled as Hawk and Josh wiped dust off of themselves.

"We are fine. Is your flock here?" Josh asked.

I nodded. The flock walked over to the hole in the wall and peered into the other room. "That's Iggy. He's blind, but can do anything. He is fifteen." I pointed to Iggy who waved. "That's Nudge. She is twelve. That's Gazzy. Don't sit next to him after eating Mexican food. He is nine. And that is Angel. She is Gazzy's sister. She is seven." I looked at Angel who smiled at Hawk. "Guys, these are the people that took care of me and Fang while we were gone." The flock nodded and relaxed a bit. I was so proud that they were on alarm still.

"Hawk you should let Iggy check out your jaw… he is good at stuff like that." Hawk looked at Iggy and shrugged. Iggy stepped over the pile of bricks on the floor and lifted his hand up to her jaw. His finger traced the side of her face. After a few moments of feeling the break, we heard a small pop, and Hawk sighed with comfort.

"Thanks." Hawk said without a slur.

"No problem." Iggy gave her a small smile and walked back over to me. We sat there in silence for a moment, both flocks checking each other out.

"It's cool reading your mind, because you are reading mine." Angel said to Hawk. I didn't even know they were already interacting with each other.

Hawk smiled, "I was just about to say the same thing."

Hawk looked back at Janie and Josh and then back at us, "Hi… I'm Hawk. I'm fifteen. This is Janie. She is fifteen too. And that is Josh. He is nineteen. My little brother Xavier is ten. He got away before Dylan could catch him." My flock waved at the owl flock. "We are part owl. You guys are part avian, so don't ask why our wings are bigger than yours." Both flocks nodded and smiled. The owl kids stepped through the hole in the wall into our room.

I took a deep sigh of relief. At least some of us could be together. Even though we were together before whatever Itex had planned for us… I can't help but fear for Fang. He looked so… lifeless when Dylan left him tied to the pole. I know he will get out of the situation some way, but it was so horrible seeing Fang go through that.

The two flocks started talking right away. Nudge and Janie were chattering away about something. Josh was teaching Gazzy fighting moves, Hawk and Iggy were talking to each other. Angel had a sly smile on her face. She was obviously talking to Hawk talk through telepathy. Was Angel seriously playing matchmaker in this place? Between Hawk and Iggy? Let's see how that turns out. I rolled my eyes and sat next to Angel.

She turned her attention off of Hawk and onto me, "Hey, Max." Angel leaned her head on my shoulder and I let her. Angel had pointed a gun at me before. Angel had tried taking over the flock. Angel had told me I would never be good enough for the flock. But right now she believed in me. That's all I could ask for. "I'm sorry… about everything."

"It's okay, sweetie. Just don't do it again." I chuckled and ruffled her hair.

"Don't worry about Fang. He will be fine. According to Janie's thoughts, she sent that Xavier boy back to our house to check and see if we were okay. Xavier will find Fang." She gave me a sweet smile.

"Thanks, Angel. I hope so." I really, really hope so.