A/N: Hi! I'm feeling a little hyper today. Let's just say that about 100 bajillion Gobstoppers + an extremely scary thriller at 11:00 last night X only 7 hours of sleep= one very stranged out Maia. Sorry.

One by one, the Flock drops off the cliff and veers in formation toward the Humvee, swooping up and down with the wind. I'm right behind Max's right shoulder, far enough back that my wings don't hit her black boots. I heft my dead branch into a more comfortable position on my shoulder and speed up, veering past Max and toward the car. I hold the branch like a spear, landing in a crouch on top of the car with one hand down and the branch held above me like a sword. I experience a brief moment of Ninja Fang – but then it subsides.

I chaste myself for thinking about ninjas and drive the branch into the windshield of the car. To my extreme surprise, the sharp point pierces the glass and the branch goes crashing into the car. I leap away from it, extending my wings and letting them fill with air. Just in time. Glass shatters and the air is suddenly filled with the stuff – as well as bullets.

A gun is poked out of the right backseat window and there's a loud WHOOSH as a tree catches fire. I catch a glimpse of Max as she swerves back into the woods with Nudge. I grab the stick and jam it through the window one last time before they extend six more guns and three of them train on me. I blow myself backwards, avoiding the tiny black objects swarming the sky like flies.

"Angel!" Max screams from behind me. "We're here! We're coming for you!"

I spot a clearing about 200 yards away from us. It's our only chance. We need to intercept Angel before she gets to the copter, and we can't do that if there are trees between us and the sky.

"Up ahead," I call, and hope that everyone can hear. I find the outline of the copter through the trees, shading my face, because at this angle, the sun is right in my ultra-sensitive mutant eyes. I can hear the truck bouncing along the rutted road, and then Nudge shrieking in pain. She's hit, I think frantically, but then I realize that it just grazed her cheek, still slicing it to the bone.

I meet Max's eyes and nod. Her brows are set, I think, without her even realizing it. She nods back, then her gaze drops to the Humvee. I follow her line of vision to see the Humvee skidding in the mud below us, the wheels twisting madly to try to get a grip on the smooth surface. The doors slam open and an Eraser jumps out. I drop on his head, startling him. The Humvee slides past us.

Suddenly the Eraser turns a gun on me and attempts to blow me to bits. I jump out of the way and the bullet lodges itself in my forearm. Blood gushes out.

I yell and spring away from the Eraser. He grins with triumph and jumps up to me, his claws raking my bleeding arm.

Agony. The bullet is enough, but the Eraser felt that he needed to just finish me off. Another Eraser throws something out of the car: a grenade. Only, my senses aren't reacting fast enough, and I slide through the air, feeling as though I am on dry ice. I slam into a tree and pass out before I can hit the bottom. The only thing I register is that the impact has cracked the tree in two, and with and agonized groan that echoes the one in my entire being, crashes to the forest floor.

**!**

The pain in my arm wakes me about twenty minutes later. I'm crumpled in a Fang-sized heap on the forest floor, and I feel like the bone in my arm has been shattered. I stand slowly.

Suddenly my brain wakes up, and the pain in my arm doubles tenfold. I let loose with a roar that would have scared a T-Rex. Birds scream and catapult themselves into the air, flying away in one massive cloud. I stare, shaking, at my arm, digging my nails into the tender skin on accident. I hold in the shriek and gulp. This is V. bad.

"Fang?"

I can't make my feet move at first. It's all I can do to keep from passing out again. I cradle my arm and turn, shaking, to the person who called my name.

It's Gazzy. His face is streaked with tears, making clear tracks in the blood and dirt, letting his freckles show through.

"Fang?" he asks again, his voice breaking.

"It's me," I grind out. My voice cracks too, something that hasn't happened to me in over a year. "Are you okay?"

"How do you mean?" Gazzy chokes out. The he rushes to me and throws his arms around me. Pain blocks my vision for a moment, and I sway on the spot, squeezing every muscle in my body to keep it in.

Gazzy feels me clench my fists. He slowly backs away from me, hurt passing over his face. Then he sees my arm and lets loose with a word that would have him over Max's knee.

"Fang! You're hurt! Oh, God, Fang, why didn't you say so?"

"It doesn't hurt that much," I hiss through my teeth, which are also clenched. Blood drips onto the ground.

Gazzy puts his arm around me. "Come on," he says encouragingly, "let's get you back to the house." His entire demeanor has changed in the past ten seconds. I resist the urge to shrug him off.

"Wait," I say, and squat down so I'm on his level, keeping my entire black-clad weight on my toes. He stares me right in the eye. The corners of his mouth turn down, and his lower lip trembles.

Careful, Fang, I think, you're stepping into the danger zone. I do not do crying kids.

"Are you okay?" I ask again. His eyes fill with tears but don't spill over, and the baby blue color shimmers with the extra liquid.

"N-no," he whispers. I take both of his hands in my good one, the left one, settling them against my knee.

"We'll get her back," I promise rashly. "I promise."

Gazzy nods and his arms go around my neck. I put my arm around his skinny body, feeling him shake against me. His head goes down, and he cries into my shoulder for a good five minutes. I rub his back and resist the urge to ask him to move his head because his hair is tickling my ear.

Finally his shoulders stop shaking. He pushes off of me and wipes his face with the heel of his hand. My hand rests lamely on his shoulder, but my other arm is screaming for my attention. Too bad, I think at it, but it doesn't get the message.

He sniffs.

"Let's go," he whispers. I stand and he slips his hand into mine. We slowly make out way through the woods back to the house. Each step, I feel like someone's shooting at me again: my arm pulses with the tiniest jostle. It hurts so much that the top of my eyeballs feel sore. Don't ask.

Finally we emerge from the woods. Gazzy's hand curls tighter around mine. He looks up at me, his expression small and timid.

"Thank you, Fang," he murmurs, and I feel a swoop of desire to protect this little boy. He seems so innocent now, and I feel as though I actually want him to let one loose to remind myself of what he's capable of. This vulnerability in him is too much for me to bear, like someone stripped away his shell and left him cold and defenseless.

I nod at him, and we enter the house.

Inside, Iggy is throwing things around the room. I'm glad to see that the rest of the Flock is here, and I slither over to the first-aid box to see if there's anything I can use for my arm. I take six pain pills and then dig through the box for some sort of bandage.

Nudge is curled up on the couch, not crying, not moving, not blinking. Her arms are wrapped around her knees, and her expression is one of extreme pain. It's too much for me to bear, like I honestly can't look at a person with that much emotion.

Just as I turn to Iggy, he swipes Angel's breakfast plates through the air, the mug coming straight for me. It hits me in the side of the head.

"Watch it, idiot!" I nearly scream at him, my nerves stretched to the breaking point. I realize what I said, that we need to bond together and take this as a team, and feel guilty. I clench my teeth and look at Max, rolling my eyes at her.

She'd been slumped on the kitchen table, but now she gets up and moves robotically over to me, pushing past me and grabbing the first-aid box. It spills on the floor (which she conveniently DOESN'T mention in her story) and she stoops to pick it up, sighing and brushing a piece of hair behind her ear. I swallow, but make no move to help her. Instead, I pick up a kitchen rag, wet it, and begin pressing the blood out of my wound. It hurts like hell.

Max begins cleaning Gazzy's cuts like a mom. I stop looking at people and focus on my rag. Max does not come rushing over to help me; I don't even think she notices that my arm is whacked up. I wonder if she even noticed that I was gone.

"You watch it!" Iggy yells at me, startling me back into the present. I glance at his sharply, finishing with the rag. I walk to Max and pick up some gauze. "What happened? I mean, you guys can see, can't you? Why couldn't you get Angel?"

"They had a chopper!" Gazzy yells, squirming away from Max. "And guns! We're not bulletproof!"

"Guys! Guys!" Max shouts. "We're all upset. But we're not the enemy! They're the enemy."

She grabs Gazzy again and pushes one more Band-Aid onto his cheekbone before he slips out of her grasp. I place the end of the gauze on my arm and begin winding, wanting to put a layer between my wound and a brace.

"Just – be quiet for a moment so I can think," Max adds calmly. I disappear from the room and return holding the remote to the TV, wrapping it into the bandage. Iggy sits down on the couch and comforts Nudge, and I see a wet stain spreading on his shoulder where her head is resting from her tears.

"Take deep breaths," Gazzy advises Max as I finish the bandage. I now feel as though I could use my arm as a club, if I desired - the wrapping is so thick. It still hurts, but not as much anymore now that I have the remote in there. I am silent, walking over to the fridge and opening a can of cold ravioli. I'm ravenous. Max's eyes finally settle on me, taking in my arm. She turns away and I pick up a fork off the table and dig in.

Nudge draws in a deep breath, and I prepare myself. "You know, if they had just wanted to kill her, or kill all of us, they could have," she says shakily. I agree. I had almost died, but they left me alive. "They had guns. They wanted Angel alive for some reason. And they didn't care if we were alive or not. I mean, they didn't go out of their way to make sure we were dead, is what I'm saying. So that makes me think we have time to go after Angel again." Her jaw sets.

"But they were in a chopper," Gazzy says, his voice trembling. "They're way gone. They could be anywhere." He swipes at his eyes. "Like, China or something."

Max stands slowly, limping over to where Gazzy is sitting with his chin in his hands, staring at the floor. She ruffles his hair. "I don't think they took her to China, Gazzy," she says, voicing my thoughts.

"We know where they took her," I cut in, popping the last piece of ravioli into my mouth. I scrape the bottom of the bowl with my fork, wincing at the screech.

"Where's that?" Iggy asks. His hand goes up like a school kid, and his red, bloodshot eyes stare at a spot close to my right ear.

"The School," I say at the same time as Max.

As you can imagine, that went over very, very well.

By the way, this is the longest chapter I have ever written. It has exactly 2,324 words. I'm so proud of myself. *Winks* Review, y'all.