This is my longest chapter ever (2,049 words and 4 Microsoft Word pages)! And I have never actually been to the Empire State Building, so some facts may be wrong. Just go along with it.
I'm thinking of changing the title to Evermore (the last book is called Nevermore). Tell me what you think.
Additionally, my Internet is going down on Wednesday for about 2 weeks, so this will be the last update for a few weeks.
Shout-out to: Sierra156
Max PoV:
The streets were hectic. Everyone, and I mean everyone was screaming. It was extremely distracting. Police and news vans were already on the scenes. The annoying news lady was saying it was some terrorist attack. The police were setting up barriers to keep the public away. Good luck with that I thought.
"C'mon guys, this way," I whispered to them. We shuffled through the crowd, our heads down, when I saw a gap in the barriers. "Quickly," I hissed. I took a step through when I felt something grab at my collar. Crap.
"Hey, no kids allowed in there. It's too dangerous," a policeman scolded in a gruff voice. He started pulling me back into the crowd, which was slowly dissipating as parts of the building were falling down and the fire was spreading. I struggled against him, and his grip tightened. Taking a big risk, I punched him in the side, and his grip loosened as he fell to his knees. "NOW!" I shouted, unfurling my wings. Behind me, I heard their wings unfurl and gasps from the crowd as we took to the air. Through sirens, I heard gunshots piercing the air. Damn.
We had to get in through a window that wasn't in flames. Harder said than done. The only windows that didn't have fire bursting from them made us easy targets.
There was another explosion. Smaller, coming from the side, fire erupting where I had just been. Something about their timing was starting to get to me. But the explosion distracted the police and anti-terrorist forces, and they covered their faces. Now's our chance I thought. "GUYS! IN HERE!" I screamed, flying into a window. Even with my arms covering my face, flying headfirst through a window hurts like hell. Nudge popped in first, followed shortly by Iggy. Then Dylan came in, but Gazzy was nowhere to be seen. I looked out the window. He wasn't even in sight!
Nudge spoke first. "Uh, guys, where's Gazzy? I mean, he isn't here with us right now and I don't see him outside though I guess all the smoke makes it hard to see out there but he still isn't-" Dylan shut her up and jumped back out the window. We had waited about 30 seconds when the ceiling above us started heating up, turning orange, and fire started cackling. "We give them 10 seconds, then we have to go and meet up somewhere else," I ordered. I got anxious nods in return. I started counting to myself. 1…2…3…4…5…6…7…8…
On the 8th second, I saw Dylan flying with Gazzy slung over his back. "They're here!" I shouted. Bullets were being fired nonstop, and shots were getting dangerously closer. The last shot just missed Dylan's head. "Hurry!" I called out to them. They lumbered into the window, a bullet grazing Dylan's powerful wings. He gently lowered Gazzy to the floor. I saw the problem almost immediately. Most of the feathers on Gazzy's right wing were singed. It wasn't impossible to fly, but balance was much more difficult that way. "Gazzy?" He looked up at me with a pained expression and forced a smile.
"I'm okay, Max. I can walk," he said weakly.
"Good. We have to get off this floor before the ceiling collapses." We ran over to the stairs and I whispered to Dylan, "Thanks." He smiled at me.
Fang PoV:
Fang's Gang arrived at the scene of a growing crowd at the foot of the Empire State Building. People were screaming, and Special Forces were shooting at the sky. They were too distracted to notice anyone sneaking in. Besides, no one else would want to.
Fang led them in, crouching to stay out of sight. Once they were past the barriers, they went into a full-out sprint for the doors. They weren't noticed until they had opened the glass doors. Bullets shattered the glass, and they had to lean against the solid walls on either side. The stairs were directly behind the door.
"Holden, can you cover us while we run up the stairs?" Fang asked. Holden nodded. Bullets could go right through him without injuring him, making Holden the perfect human shield. "Holden, get to the door! Everyone else, run up the stairs!"
Through Holden's cover, Star, Kate, Ratchet, Maya, Fang, and then Holden charged up. Before long, they arrived at a series of giant bombs, taking up an entire room. "Holy shit," Ratchet let out a low whistle.
Fang stared. "I guess we should try to…defuse them. Anyone know how?" Then he saw a group already started on a bomb. He gaped at them.
Max PoV:
I felt someone staring at me, and I whirled around, shocked at who I saw. My eyes narrowed. "What are you doing here?" I demanded. Fang was just as confused as I was.
"Trying to stop the DG," he stammered after a short pause.
My eyes narrowed further. "You know what I meant. Why are you in New York?"
He shrugged. "Our flight landed in New York, so we stopped here. You?"
"Closest stop after our plane exploded." I sighed. "We should probably try to work together on these bombs."
Gazzy had his eyebrow furrowed in concentration. "All of these bombs are exactly the same. They're incredibly simple. Cut the large red wire, pull out the short blue wire, then cut the yellow and white wires at the same time.
"Um, what was that again?" Kate asked.
"I'll go through it for each bomb. Here are wire cutters," Gazzy said, moving onto another bomb and motioning to a bag of supplies. We all took some and walked over to random bombs. "Okay, find the large red wire. Cut it, but make sure you don't cut anything else. Find the short blue wire. Pull it all the way out. Then find the white and yellow wires. Hold them both in your hand. Take the wire cutter so it will cut both of them, and cut them in half. Then, make a small indent on the frame so we know we've disarmed it." Gazzy led us through multiple bombs until there were just 4 bombs left.
Gazzy began his instructions, but I was confused. "Gazzy, this bomb doesn't have a red wire." I looked at it closely. It had much more wires than the previous bombs I'd defused. Plus, it had a red blinking light. Wait. The red blinking light was a series of numbers. It was a timer.
0:06:52
Crap. "Gazzy, come here! I think this is the main bomb. It has a timer on it." I called out.
He turned to me and started walking over as everyone else finished theirs. He looked at the bomb. "This'll take me at least 10 minutes." I pointed at the timer. It was down to 6 minutes exactly. "Oh…"
I watched the timer as he started defusing. With the bomb almost taken apart, I gave him a warning. "1 minute left." Gazzy's face wrinkled in concentration. "10 seconds." Gazzy placed the wire cutters over a wire, then switched, and switched back. "5 seconds." 4…3…2… "1 second!" Gazzy clipped a wire. The clock hit 0, but there was no explosion. We both sighed with relief. "Good job, Gazzy," I said, ruffling his hair. He just grinned. I stared at the bomb Gazzy barely managed to defuse. There was a tiny handwritten note taped on next to the wires that Gazzy didn't remove. I picked it up.
Something you have lost is hidden underneath.
It couldn't mean…no, we saw the explosion. We looked for hours, looked everywhere. I was shaking. Dylan walked over to me. "You okay?" he asked me quietly. I lifted my trembling hand and gave him the note. He stared at it, then at me. "You don't think…it means Angel?" he whispered.
I nodded. "I don't think they're talking about someone's lost wedding ring."
"Underneath…maybe under one of these desks? Or on a lower floor?"
I nodded. "We'll check them both." I walked over to Fang. "Can you guys check the floor below us?"
He looked confused. "Check for what?"
I muttered something inaudible. He raised an eyebrow. "Angel," I whispered, and if we hadn't had super hearing, it would have slipped by him. He gave me a small, understanding nod.
I got the Flock to start looking under every desk, but we found nothing on the floor. "Let's check the floor below us."
"What are we even looking for?" Iggy asked, who was searching by feeling the bottoms of desks.
"I don't know, something to help fight the DG," I lied.
His unseeing eyes stared at me. "You're lying through your teeth," he accused.
I turned away from him. "Let's get going, guys," I said, trying to avoid the conversation.
We arrived at the next floor to find Fang discouraged. "Get the floor beneath us," I told him.
"Are you sure she's even here?" he asked. I didn't answer. He sighed. "I'll take them downstairs."
"Thank you," I whispered. He gave me one of his half smiles. Only a few weeks ago, that would have made my heart melt. How different times are now.
The Flock and I checked every desk, and we found nothing. There was only one desk left, and it was facing a different direction than every other desk we'd checked. I kneeled down at it. I checked both sides underneath it, and then looked up. Bound and gagged to the top of the desk was my baby.
"ANGEL!" I screamed, joy flooding my voice. The rest of the flock came over and helped me get her down. Tears of happiness started falling down my face, and I started crying. "My baby. I thought I'd lost you. I thought I'd never see you again." The whole time she said nothing, but returned our embraces.
Fang PoV:
Fang heard shouts of joy from the floor above. They found her he thought. Despite himself, he began to grin. He started walking to the stairway, taking a step up, smiling like a fool. Just then, he heard a gun cock and felt the barrel of the gun push against the back of his head. He closed his eyes. He would regret this. "U AND A!" He yelled up the stairs before a hand clamped over his mouth and started leading him down the stairs. He had no choice but to go willingly.
Angel PoV:
The plan had been going perfectly! Then the stupid guards arrived on the floor below. When Fang called up to them, Max was torn between wanting to leave and going down to help.
We should go down to help them. Angel projected to Max.
I know, but there was something he wanted us to get away from.
Angel frowned. These guards were ruining everything! Angel didn't have time for this. Angel used her mind control powers on Max. "We should go down there and help them," Max decided. Angel grinned.
They descended slowly, low to the ground. Max looked around a corner, then waved them forward.
"FREEZE!" a man ordered, a gun pointed at Max's head. In his grasp was Fang.
You will let the boy go, lower your gun, and walk away. You will order your comrades to release anyone they have seized. The man looked dazed as he released Fang, holstered his gun, and walked down the stairs. Angel just barely heard his commands to release everyone. Before long, feet were shuffling up, and Fang's Gang had rejoined them.
It happened so quickly, and Angel didn't have to stay in his mind. The DG had made her much more powerful. After the mission, she would be given the abilities of the Flock, of those she had killed.
"Wait, how are we getting out now? The building's still on fire," Holden pointed out.
"I can get us out," Angel said.
"How?" Ratchet snickered. "You're just a little girl.
Angel narrowed her eyes. Then she remembered. The old her hadn't told them about her ability to read minds. First, she sent out a message to both the Flock and Fang's Gang to do what she said until they were out, and then to the guards and people outside, ordering them to let them pass and act like nothing ever happened. It worked perfectly. Angel grinned. She could get used to this increased power.
You guys have no idea how long it took me to write this chapter. It's been 4 days since I started this, and I have spent at least 3 hours a day since then on it. I tried to make it long for the upcoming drought of chapters starting Wednesday. So please, R&R for all the work I put into this. And remember: Should I change the name to Nevermore?