Me: Sorry! I took too long to update. Blame me not my story.
Shadow: Yeah.
Me: Don't start with me. Do the disclaimer.
Shadow: Okay! She doesn't own Maximum Ride. She owns me, Hunter, Annabell, Cass, Chris, Ghost, and Lies. Is that all of them?
Me: I think so. On with the story!
Chapter 2: The Deal
Max's POV
"What now, Nudge," I muttered into the microphone. Sam either didn't hear me or ignored me. Both options were good to me.
"We have a problem," she said.
Oh just perfect.
"What's the problem?" I asked. The song was ending, thankfully, so Sam was dragging us off the dance floor. I looked at Shadow. She jerked her head in Fang and Hunter's general direction and pointed to her eyes. Good, she'll keep an eye on them. I can't always do everything at once, no matter how badly Jeb wants me to play Wonder Woman.
"Well, see Chris was in the air vent right, and then Ella was all like 'Hurry up or Jeb will have our asses and Chris was all 'Alright but if I drop down not only will Jeb have our asses but Itex will have them too' and I had to tell them to shut up because Jeb told me to tell them to be quiet or the guards will hear us an-"
"Nudge!" I shouted-whispered. God, that girl can TALK! Sam had left to get drinks and left me at an empty table. Everyone else was still dancing. "Tell me what's wrong, not what happened."
Sam came back, all smiles, and handed me a drink. "Here you go."
"There's no alcohol in this, right?" I asked, half-joking. What? I couldn't be drunk on the job.
Sam chuckled, "Of course not." Yeah better not be bub. Then, he started talking about tennis and how he and Lissa play games all the time. Whatever, I thought rolling my eyes. She can have him. He's a dull boy anyways. The microphone in my ear crackled to life and Nudge started to speak to me.
"Sorry, Max. We hit a no telecommunications zone for a minute there," she said.
I fake smiled at Sam and nodded my head every so often. In between my teeth I said, "Tell me what the problem is in one sentence. And keep out the fluff."
"Well, I accidentally intercepted someone's radio message," she said, then stopped, leaving me on edge.
"Well! What was it?!" I said aloud. My eyes widened a bit and I closed my mouth. Dang! I blew it!
Sam chuckled, "Don't worry. I find this story quite riveting myself. Anyways we were at a deuce and-" I relaxed in my chair. Thankfully, Sam is conceited and not the sharpest tool in the shed. I must be the luckiest girl in the world to have a boy like that. Then, I felt the back of my neck prickle and I turned around to see...
Fang.
Okay, here's the deal with Fang. With everything as a matter of fact. There is an alternate group trying to take down Itex. They're called The Fallen. Our group, the one that Shadow, Nudge, Ella, Chris, Cass, Angel, and I are in is called The Angels, named after our youngest member.
Angel is our special member. Why? She can read and control minds. But she's only six and Jeb, the supervisor and, can't believe I'm saying this but, mentor of our group, says that it's unsafe for her and us to bring her along. I whole-heartedly agree, but Angel gets mad. Oh well. She's like my baby. I don't want anything bad to happen to her.
Cass is a normal human. She takes care of Angel when we're not around. She desperately tries to make Angel's life as normal as possible. I really appreciate it when she does that. She's also the inventor. Makes little things that can get us out of trouble.
Ella is also a normal human. Jeb told us that she's twelve years old, and that's all he said about her. She woke up with us when we first regained consciousness to a world we didn't remember. The others in the group often say that Ella and I have some resemblances, but whatever.
Nudge is an avian hybrid like me and Angel. And she also can't stop talking sometimes. But on the up side, Nudge is a hacker. The best there is. I can't even count how many times she saved The Angels butts from trouble. All this and she's only eleven.
Chris is a human but she had been trained to be a government spy since she was a baby. She broke away from there for reasons unknown with a group when they joined The Fallen. Then the Fallen rejected her and Cass, and that's when they joined up with us. She has the best connections with everyone. The government, the streets, you name it. Pretty good for a fourteen year old right?
Shadow, Avian Hybrid. Shadow's my second in command. Strong and silent, she's the most skilled when it comes to weapons. I don't know how she became such a sharpshooter that she is. She's the same age as me, Chris, and Cass. And she's also my best friend who I spill my guts to when I can't fall asleep.
Me. Max. I'm the leader of the group. On the top of the hit list of snipers working for Itex. The first avian hybrid. The bane of The Fallen etc. All this and I'm only fourteen.
Now, you're probably wondering: If the Fallen and The Angels are both trying to take down Itex, why aren't they working together? And what is Itex doing that's so bad anyways?
Well, one question at a time. Itex does experiments on kids. They take babies from families and transform them into mutants to help them for a "better planet". This "better planet" will only happen when half of the world's population is gone. Yeah, bad right?
The Fallen believes that Itex has to be obliterated at all costs. Even if innocent people have to be killed. The Angels don't kill innocents.
Anyways, back to the party.
"Hello, Miss Maxine," Fang said, a smug smirk on his face. My eyes narrowed. What a bas-. Oh well, two can play at that game.
"Hello, Nicholas," I said. That stupid grin fell off his face. That was his fake name. Nicholas.
"Hello, Nicholas. How's Lissa doing this evening?" Sam said. God! How does everything he talks about end up going to Lissa?! Not that I'm jealous, or care for that matter, but give the topic of Lissa a break for a change!
"Fine, Samuel. And how's fine Maxine doing this evening?" Fang said. I tried not to roll my eyes. Like he cares.
"She's fine, right Max?" Sam said, obviously threatened by Fang. Oh, so now he calls me Max.
"Yes, I'm feeling well this fine evening," I said politely. Hah! How's that for manners? Shadow would be snickering her ass off if she was here.
"Nick!" a shrill voice well...shrilled. I couldn't help but wince. Here comes the red-haired wonder or red-haired bimbo, as Shadow says. Lissa. She came over with Annabell and Hunter in tow. Poor Hunter. He looked like he rather be at the dentist. Annabell was wearing a frilly yellow dress. Dang, I don't care if it was a designer dress, it was ugly. Lissa was wearing the same dress but in green. Then, Omega decided to come, arm and arm with Shadow.
"Oh look," Shadow said with mock cheeriness, "The whole gang is here!" That comment and the way she said it made me want to crack up. Itex, The Fallen, and The Angels all in the same place at the same time. I'm surprised nothing exploded yet.
"Sorry Max another telecommunications error again. The message said 'Fang, we've broken into the facility but Gazzy may have tripped an alarm," she said. I cursed inaudibly under my breath. That alarm could also lead to my guys not only The Fallen.
"Excuse me," I said, "But I'm thirsty," I got up but Sam sat me back down.
"Don't worry, I'll get it," Sam said.
"Thank you Samuel," I said through gritted teeth.
"Do you want a drink Sky?" Omega asked.
"Sure!" Shadow said, sounding very perky. Oh God, we are going to bust our seems laughing at this later.
"C'mon Lissa! Let's go greet other people," Annabell said, naturally perky.
"Sure!" Lissa said, "See you later Nick." He put on a strained smile and waved at them. They bounced off. I rolled my eyes and exchanged a look with Shadow. She looked bored out of her mind.
"You know, your people tripped an alarm. If any of mine get caught because of that you're going to pay, Brian," I said immediately glaring at Hunter once the coast was clear. He was The Fallen's leader, with Fang as his right hand man.
"If your pathetic agents get caught it's their own fault Maxine," he hissed back, keeping on his fake smile.
"Pathetic? Ha! It wasn't mine who tripped the alarm in the first place," I said also keeping on the fake smile and waving to those who waved.
"Listen you two! This is neither the time nor the place to be discussing such matters," Fang said.
"What matters?" Omega said. I turned to look at him quickly. He was staring at us intently, with 2 glasses of punch in his hands. Sam was next to him, looking suspicious. I tensed up and felt The Fallen spies do the same.
"Politics," Shadow said. I looked at her. She looked as cool as cucumber. We were all taught by Jeb on how to lie and look as innocent as Angel while doing it. "And religion. You know how some people are touchy on those subjects." She even threw in a smile. Wow. I saw Omega smile back and I relaxed. That's better. I saw Fang's facial features relax and stiffen. I immediately tensed again and looked around. Nothing wrong.
"Maxine?" Sam said. I locked onto him. He had a friendly smile on his face.
"Huh?" I asked.
"Are you okay?" he asked handing me my drink.
"Yeah, fine," I said.
"We've made it into the motherboard room Max, over," I heard Nudge say. I smiled at Sam and pretended to sip the drink. But instead of drinking, I muttered, "Okay, good work, and be careful. The Fallen is here, over," I put my cup down and plastered a fake smile on my face.
"So Maxine," Shadow said. I looked at her. "How are your cats doing?" I smirked. That was our code for how were the others.
"Fine," I said.
"Where are they now?" Shadow asked. "You know how they can't be left alone."
"Chocolate, Cinderella and Crystal are all at my mother's house," I said to her. That meant that they were at the main computer. Shadow nodded in satisfaction.
"I didn't know you had cats," Sam said across from me. I looked at him.
"Yeah, it's a hobby," I lied.
"Um, Omega," Shadow said, her voice having a trace of worry in it. I looked to my right at her and saw her giving me a sideways glance. Uh-oh.
"What is it Sky?" Omega asked from across the table.
"Is that your mother coming over with Lissa and Annabell?" I looked in the direction she was looking and there they were. The Director in all of her psychopathic glory was approaching.
"Yep," Omega said nonchalantly, oblivious to our horror.
"Shit," I hissed.
"Massive understatement," Shadow muttered back.
Me: And that's how I'm leaving it for now. But if you want more than review :