Maximum Ride does not belong to me, but Mr. James Patterson, the far more famous, wonderful, and talented author than myself. :)

… … …

Fang POV

Where's Max? The question replays itself over and over in my mind, but I can't find an answer. She left a while ago, with Maya, but neither has returned. Were they attacked? Taken away? Killed? I gulp.

Around me, everyone else seems just as nervous. In her cage, Nudge continually glances anxiously at the door, waiting for it to open and Max to come back. Iggy is looking at the bottom of the cage he can't see, gulping every few minutes and asking if anything new has happened. Angel seems to be telepathically sending hopeful thoughts to Gaz. Kate and Star seem more concerned for Maya than for Max, and I understand that, but they keep glancing at each other and shaking their heads. Ratchet keeps looking at Kate and Star, and Angel periodically rolls her eyes in reference to his thoughts. Holden draws squiggles on the bottom of his cage with his finger, his eyes looking sad. All in all, everyone is fairly unease about all this.

"Fang," Nudge suddenly asks me, "what would we do if something happened to them?" Something tells me this isn't the first time this has popped up in all of our thoughts. Everyone looks at me, the leader of "Fang's gang" as well as the used-to-be leader of Max's flock. Well, besides Dylan, of course, who I've refused to look at this entire time.

"Nothing's going to happen. Max knows what she's doing," Dylan answers. My usually controlled temper immediately flares and I turn to face him. "No one asked you."

Before he can retort back, we hear a bang! that seems to shake the whole building. "What was that?" Kate asks in her timid voice. She sounds scared.

"I don't know," I mutter in response, just before we hear a muffled voice yell, "Fang is mine, you sissy!"

Everyone glances at me as if to say, Are they talking about you? Well, gee, I haven't come across any other Fangs lately, so I assume so. More banging follows, and a realization crosses over me. "We have to get out of here," I say, determination dripping from my voice. I spot a paperclip just outside my cage, and, conveniently, an idea pops into my head.

"Iggy, catch!" I say after reaching to grab it and then tossing it over to him. "Pick those locks!"

And soon, we were free, all of us stretching, more than glad to be free of our prisons. "What now?" Star questions whoever answers first.

"We find Max," Dylan says, trying to look heroic.

"And Maya," I add, glaring at Dylan.

"And… how do we do that?" Iggy questions.

"Uh," I try.

"I hear something!" Ratchet shouts. His face looks confused. "Okay, it sounded like Max just said, 'Don't worry, Max.4, I'll save you'?"

Everyone is confused by that. "Max.4?" Kate looks shocked.

"Hey, anything's possible," Star points out.

"Ratchet, lead us to Max," Dylan the leader-wannabe demands.

Ratchet turns and leads everyone down a few corridors. Angel is also trying to reach out to any signals with her mind. Soon, we come to a door, where we find a… peculiar sight.

In the middle of a white room, we find this mass of… Max. There must be seven of her, maybe eight? They're all fighting ferociously in the middle of the room, and it's impossible to tell who's opponent is who. A Max wearing skimpy clothing shoves a Max wearing a leather jacket. A Max with a magenta strip of hair, Maya, pummels a crying Max. One Max is beating herself up. One Max that wears a gigantic smile on her face is pulling another Max's hair, who wears a school uniform. Then, one Max, one covered in scratches and has everything a little out of place battles another Max, who wears a white blouse.

It's chaotic.

"Which one's Max?" Gazzy cries.

I don't know either. "Angel!" I yell, "what are you picking up?"

She looks flustered and confused, shaking her head. "I don't know, Fang. They all think they're the real Max. They must be clones or something. Like Maya, just… a lot more."

"This is bad," says Dylan, Captain Obvious.

"Max!" Nudge shouts. "Max, where are you?"

All Maxes's eyes flicker toward us.

"I'm right here," they all say.

"This is going to be a little harder than I thought," I mutter to myself. But I knew what this really meant. Just like in Virginia, there could only be one solution to this mess.

Only one Max would come out of here alive.

… … …

Whew! Sorry, this one took a month! The fifth chapter was weird: it didn't get put up to the top because I replaced its content. It used to be "My excuse" but I wanted to replace it with the previous chapter so chapter 5 could be chapter 5 and chapter 6 could be chapter 6 instead of chapter 5 being an excuse and chapter 6 being chapter 5. So that's why you haven't seen me around lately. Hehe… This one is short, I know, so it really should have taken me a month at all… I'm sort of ashamed about that. But anyway, Tell me what you think: any predictions you might have, any opinions about the characters, anything you liked, anything you didn't like, or anything else at all. Yikes, today is Friday the 13th. Nothing bad happened to me: I actually put this out, finally. Oh, next chapter will be really FUNNNNNNNNNNNYYYY…. Muahahahahahahahahaha… yes. Very.

~avian-american-supporter hates stereotypes. :3

Oh, and also, sorry for any lacking of writing skills in this last bit. I just wanted it to get a move on, you know, instead of focusing on what I was doing. Yeah… probably shouldn't have said that.