Hey everybody! I'm stuck at work full time this week, so I will be making several extra-long chapters for your enjoyment. (Note that an average chapter should end up at about three pages in my word processor, and extra-long is about double that.) I am also making these chapter wayahead of time; I only intended to manufacture one a week. Now, we have LTC John Sheppard with the Disclaimer! John?
Sheppard: Yeah, Hideout writer does not own Stargate Atlantis; if he did, I'd probably be getting into a lot more tight spots than I've been getting into recently. There would be more episodes of SGA, and he would be filthy rich. He also does not own Maximum Ride, James Patterson does. If Hideout Writer actually owned Maximum Ride, he would be filthy rich, and a movie based on the first book would be out by now!
Announcer voice: Thank youuuuu Lieutenant Colonel Sheppard! And now, GO! READ! THE! ! (and leave a review when you are done.)
The Layman here, saying I don't own anything either. Well, except for the first six chapters and the OC in them.
But enough about me, read on!
Max's POV:
I shot ahead, knowing full well that Sheppard couldn't follow me at my current speed unless he left the rest of the Flock. I looked back and grinned. Even at the rapidly increasing distance, I could see Sheppard's face, and boy, he looked surprised that I was going this fast. I looked forward, and saw something dark on the horizon. As I got closer, I could better see what it was, and I saw the Jumper with all the supplies turning around, and going back. What was going on? Then I saw this huge flash of lightning. Right, Jumpers don't fly through massive thunderstorms. I turned around, and headed back for our Jumper. The storm was chasing us back to Atlantis, and I knew that he would have just turned around when the other guy told him about the thunderstorm. When I got close enough to see the Jumper without squinting, I saw that he had yet to turn around. If Angel is flying, I hope she turns around soon, 'cause there's a big T-storm comin' our way. I thought. I hoped that she was reading me at that moment. Suddenly, the Jumper swung around, and picked up speed. Nudge was the only one besides me still not in the Jumper.
"NUDGE! GET IN THE JUMPER NOW!" She got a scared look, and flew up to the ramp of the Jumper. She got on the ramp, and just sat there.
"Max, what's going on?" she asked, yelling over the wind.
"There's a huge thunderstorm coming, and the Jumpers don't work well in thunderstorms." I flew on, staying right in front of the Jumper. When I saw the city, I flew as fast as I could towards the city. I had just hit my top speed when I began to feel tingly all over. I hope this is just a new power, and not my expiration date. All of a sudden, a blue tunnel opened up, and I shot through it, coming out close to the central tower.
The Jumper:
Angel's POV:
Directly ahead, I could see Max flying. I peered ahead, and was able to see the city. When Max saw it, she poured on the speed, and flew -all out- for Atlantis. Suddenly, a blue tunnel opened, and she shot inside it. It closed right behind her.
"Did she just open a hyperspace window?" asked Sheppard.
"I have no clue what that is…oh, right. I don't know. Maybe."
Sheppard looked elated. "Maybe she will be able to jump to hyper space and take out
Wraith hives before they have a chance to figure out what happened."
I rolled my eyes. Was that all he cared about: ways to destroy the Wraith, and caring for the city?
"Nudge? Is Nudge in the Jumper?" I asked
"Yeah, she's on the Jumper." Gazzy replied.
"Good." I said, hitting the button to close the back door.
"Walp!" came the cry from Nudge as she tumbled off the ramp. "Angel! Why'd you do that! I could have been hurt, or I could have fallen off, and even though I didn't get hurt or fall out, it was still and mean trick to play on me, and-mmm-mm-mph!"
"Thank you, Iggy." I said, a smile in my voice.
"Don't mention it."
"Umm. Fang, and Nudge. Could you guys come up front to the cockpit side?"
"Sure. In fact could you-"
"Already on it. Do me and the LTC here a favor, Nudge. Word flow: Down." I commanded.
"Who died and made you Max?" I heard her think.
I closed the door dividing the two sections, just in time too, cause right before they closed, I heard the biggest fart in the world emanate from the Gasman.
"Uh, Angel? This display says that the rear life-support system is dead."
"Yeah, you know about the Gasman, right?"
"Uh, … oh."
"Yeah. Not exactly pleasant." I opened the back hatch so that the air could clear before we had to exit the Jumper. I also adjusted the Jumper's speed controls to maximum. Five minutes later, I slowed the Jumper considerably, and maneuvered for entry to the central tower. We landed, and I released the yoke as I stood up.
"What are you doing? You still need to actually land it! You can't leave a Jumper hovering like that, or you will burn out the batteries, and then it will fall."
"It's on the ground." I replied.
"Can we go now?" asked Nudge. "'cause I really don't like these things, and I want to get off!"
I leaned over and hit the button. With a slight hiss, the door opened. The back hatch was still open, and Gaz had already left with Iggy.
The Control Room:
Dr. Wier's POV:
I still didn't know what to do with this particular Accidental Activation of Ancient Technology. Angel had done something that nobody else had thought possible, without trying it. In addition to this, Atlantis was -if Angel's report was correct- sentient! The IOA
would have a field day with that! Just thinking about the IOA gave me a headache.
"Ma'am? The Jumpers have returned from the mainland."
Great, just great. Another headache to deal with. They were supposed to be away the whole day. Radek would not be too pleased about this. "They're ahead of schedule. What's wrong?" I asked. What will it be today? Wraith? Solar flare that can only be seen from a Jumper, that we need to protect against? Whale invasion? Athosians not happy for some reason? House guests don't want to go? No, that last one was unlikely. They had seemed so eager yesterday evening when I talked about it. On the other hand, that was before the latest AAAT. Well, maybe Sheppard could shed some light on this.
"There is a super cell thunderstorm of massive proportions heading towards me." came a voice, seemingly out of nowhere.
"Who said that?" I called.
"I did. You know me as Atlantis." came the voice. I recognized that voice. Angel had spoken in that same voice when Atlantis talked through her. If Atlantis had talked through Angel.
"I assure you, I did talk through Angel. It is easier to talk through her than to talk directly to those living in my halls. You may wish to talk to your visitors. They will be right outside your door in mere seconds." So saying, the voice of Atlantis faded away.
"Visitors?"
Tap, tap, tap. I looked up.
"Can we come in?" asked the Gasman.
"We want to help." said Iggy.
"Really? How do you intend to help?"
"We're pretty good with explosives, and making bombs." said Gazzy, a proud tone in his voice.
"Should I be worried?" I asked. I hadn't read everything about them, just the basics.
"Not if you help us help you." said Iggy. He seems to be more serious than the Gasman. I'll give him a shot.I finally said, "Siddown, both of you." They sat. "I will let you try this, BUT, let me warn you, if ANYTHING happens that shouldn't, you're getting removed from your explosives. That means no bombs in the city. I don't care if it's a stink bomb, or a smoke bomb, or any other kind of bomb, NO BOMBS IN THE CITY! Also, no bombs going off in the Jumpers, unless it can't be helped. As in, there are enemies in the Jumper, and they've figured out how to use it. You will be with LTC John Sheppard's team, and you will answer directly to him. Am I clear thus far?" They nodded vigorously.
"Good. Oh, and one more thing, Max MUST sign off on this first, otherwise, you aren't going anywhere. You hear?"
"Yes ma'am." they chorused in unison.
"Good. Dismissed." Oh, I hope Max doesn't kill me for that. She seems to be highly protective.
"Can I come in?" Speak of the devil, there's Max.
"Sure. What do you want to talk to me about?"
"Well, everyone seems to be finding things to do around here, and I figured I might as well do the same."
"What do you mean, 'everyone'?" I asked, curious.
"Well," she replied "Angel bonded with Atlantis, Gaz and Ig want to join Sheppard as 'elite explosive managers', and the only ones that haven't found a job yet are me, Fang, and Nudge."
"What do you specialize in?" I asked. "We can use all the help we can get."
"Fang and I can open the biggest whup-ass you ever seen on anything, and Nudge like fashion. She might do good with the botanists."
"Okay, that's a good start," I said. "I'll check with the Lieutenant Colonel and see if he would be willing to take you and Fang on missions."
"Sounds good. Oh, and I'm sorry that we had to come back. There's a huge thunderstorm coming in."She tapped her headset.
"Ride to Sheppard. Come in."
"Sheppard here. What's up, Max?"
"I would like to join your team along with Fang, Ig, and Gaz. Dr. Wier said that it was okay, as long as you were fine with it."
"I tell you what. Beat Ronon and Teyla in a two-on-one sparring match, and you can consider yourself on the team. How's that sound?"
"Fine by me." she was working hard to suppress a grin.
"Sheppard out."
Max's POV:
So…he wants me to beat up a couple people that he thinks are the best there is. Whatever.
"Max to Fang, come in."
"I'm right behind you"
"Jeez! You've gotta stop doing that!"
"What, breathing?"
"No, sneaking up on me like a fricking ghost! Do you want to join Sheppard's team? All we gotta do is beat up two of his team members."
The corners of his mouth twitched, the Fang version of rolling on the floor and laughing uncontrollably.
"I'll take that as a 'yes'." I turned and asked Dr. Wier where the gym was. She told me, then Fang and I walked down to the gym.
The Gym,
Ronon's POV:
"Hey, Ronon!" Sheppard.
"What?"
"Our 'house guests' want to join the team and help us kill the Wraith."
I grunted. "Fine by me. The more the merrier, you used to say."
"Well, as a condition of joining the team, the have to beat you and Teyla in a two-on-one match."
"Why both of us?"
"Because they claim to be stronger. She seemed confident that she would win. I've gotta go find Teyla." he hurried off.
Well, I've been waiting for the Daedalus to bring me fresh meat. I guess I've got some extra. I walked to the gym, and began practicing with my stick.
Teyla's POV:
*Ding* I stood up, and walked over to the door.
"Sheppard! What are you doing here?"
"Oh, our house guests want to join the team, and I told them that they have to figh against you and Ronon in a two-on-one match."
"Why both of us, John? Our abilities combined would destroy them!"
"Maybe. They claim to be stronger than average humans. I figured that if the could take you and Ronon, they would be more than a fair match for the Wraith."
"John! They are only children! You cannot send them against the Wraith at their age!"
"Hey, they were the ones asking! I didn't come asking for more team members. All I did was set the test."
"Very well. I will go to the training room at once."
"Thank you." He turned and left.
Rodney's POV:
"Hey! Rodney, wait up!"
"Oh, hi Sheppard. I was wondering when you were going to stop babysitting."
"Yeah, well. Now they want to join the team."
"No. Uh-uh, absolutely not. Ain't gonna happen. Not on my watch." I said, sincerely hoping he was joking.
"Actually, it's not your choice. They get to fight Ronon and Teyla, one at a time."
"Both of them! They'll kill those kids!"
"I doubt it, but didn't come here to argue about that. I came here to lay a bet with you that Teyla and Ronon will win."
"If they don't win, what do I get?"
"Two cans of your favorite coffee next time the Daedalus comes. And if I win; what do I get?"
"Two cases of Snickers bars."
"Deal." We shook on it, and he turned around, leaving my lab.
"Wait, are they doing it right now?"
"Yeah!" he called over his shoulder.
"Well…wait for me!"
Dr. Wier's POV:
It had certainly gotten very quiet; where was everybody? Oh, right, John had stated that if
they beat his best two in an unbalances fight, that they could join his team. I guess I will go see how they are faring.
In the gym, everybody was gathered around, and Jon had a look on his face that stated the loss of another bet. I smiled in spite of myself.
"Who's winning?" I asked.
John turned to me. "Oh! 'Lizabeth. Gazzy, Iggy and Fang have won their respective fights hands-down, and Max here seems to be toying with Ronon and Teyla. I bet poorly."
"What'd you lose?" I asked.
"Two cans of McKay's favorite coffee."
Max had her stick held out in front of her, and was twirling it when she suddenly stopped, raised her knee, and broke the stick across her knee. Twirling her half-sticks, she blocked several shots in succession from Teyla, and put Ronon on the defensive.
"Enough," she said. "I'm tired of fighting you." Max advanced two steps, and cracked Ronon hard over the head, and he slumped to the floor, out cold. I gasped. That hadto hurt. She whirled 'round, dropped her sticks, and picked up Ronon's stick. Spinning it rapidly, she knocked both sticks out of Teyla's hands, dropped her own stick, and getting behind Teyla, administered the 'Sleeper's hold'. After a second or two, Teyla dropped to the floor, out cold.
"Good enough for you, Lieutenant Colonel?" she asked, stressing the Lieutenant Colonel part.
"Yeah, that's good enough for me."
"Good."
She strode over to Teyla, and picked her up, setting her on the seat in the corner next to the door. She then picked up Ronon and slung him over her shoulder as if he was a sack of potatoes. She grabbed Teyla and did the same thing on the other shoulder, and marched out of the gym.
Max's POV:
I had finished the test, and was taking them to the Sickbay when Teyla started to come to.
I set Ronon down on the floor, and gently sat Teyla against the wall.
"What…happened to me?" she asked softly.
"I beat you and Ronon." I stated flatly. Picking up Ronon again, I asked "Can you walk?"
"Yes…I think so." she replied.
"Good. I'm taking Ronon to Sickbay. You coming with me?"
"Yes, I will come."
"Dr. Beckett!" he turned. "I have an unconscious Ronon Dex here for you, and a weak, but awake Teyla Emmagen for you." I gently dumped Ronon on the Ex-long bed.
Producing a scrap of paper and presenting it to him, I said "Sign here, please."
"What? Why d'ya want me to sign that, lass?"
"It's a receipt. Fedex has you sign a data pad when they dump a box at your door."
"This is probably the most bazaar thing that has happened since Angel bonded!"
I smirked as he signed.
"Here ya go. Now, what's wrong with tha patients?"
"I went into a two-on-one fight with them. And won."
"That tells all, lass. Thank ye for telling' me. Can ye tell me why you were in such a brawl?"
"I wanted to join Sheppard's team, and that was his test."
"I see. Na why would ye wish ta join his team, lass?"
"My name isn't 'lass'; it's 'Maximum Ride', and I wanted to join his team so that I could tear something apart. I used to go up against odds of thirty to six with the Erasers, and so this two on one thing was no sweat. I hear that you have a species here in the Pegasus galaxy that is an acceptable target for my fighting abilities called the Wraith?"
"Aye, Maximum. We do. And they're nae so easy as Ronon and Teyla."
"Have you heard of were-wolves?"
"Aye, men that changed into wolves on the night of the full moon, right?"
"Yeah, well. Erasers are were-wolves that can change at will, and were created by Itex.
They lived for about six years, and they hunted us full time. We usually faced odds of five-to-one, but we still managed to escape their grasp. They were my training. That and surviving on what I could find in the dumpsters, and desert rats. I very much doubt that the Wraith have anything new to show me."
"They have an oval shaped opening on their right hands; they use it to feed on their prey.
Their 'prey', their 'cattle', are humans, and when they feed, they steal years from ye. If they ever feed on ye, ye're lifespan will be considerably shortened, unless you can convince them to give it back, and that rarely happens."
"Great." I muttered sarcastically. Just what I need, no enemies that wish to take me back to a lab, just enemies that see me as a warm meal.
The next day:
"Suit up!" I heard Sheppard call. "We leave in five."
"Where are we going?" I asked.
"Well, your 'Iggy' and 'Gazzy' wish to test their bombs on the Wraith, and P2-MX-7a just happens to be a Wraith controlled planet."
"Good! I can't wait to take names, and bust ass."
"I don't think they have names." he replied. "But even if the do, they don't share them with us."
We walked to the Jumper bay. "What's Angel doing here?" I asked. "I didn't see her take Teyla and Ronon."
"Yeah, about that…you know, I really don't know why she's here."
Of course, she used mind control on Sheppard. "How many times have I told you not to control people unless it's a life-or-death situation?" I hissed.
"How many times have I used mind control when it wasn't life-or-death, and got caught?" she asked.
"Six times that I remember. But that-"
"In that case, you've told me not to use mind control at least six times." she said sweetly.
"Urgh! You really are trying to torq me, aren't you?"
"Not trying. Doing."
Resist the urge, Max. Resist the urge to slap her into next week.
Sheppard spoke up, breaking through my thoughts of punishments for Angel with "Since Angel and I are the best pilots, we will be taking two Jumpers. Rodney, Teyla, and Ronon, you guys with me, the rest of you with Angel."
Since 'the rest of you' encompassed five people, Gazzy was voted the guy in the back. He had a cart with several explosives, and a weird vacuum thingie. It had a hose, a compressor, and a pressure tank in the back. "For my signature scent." he explained proudly.
Angel closed the door, and slowly followed Sheppard's Jumper. She had an intense look of concentration on her face, and below, I heard the Stargate dialing. A second later, I heard the sound of the water vortex being pushed out, then retracting to hold a steady screen of whatever that stuff was.
*Angel, was that you?*
"Yeah, that was me."
*P2-MX-7a, right?*
"Uhh,…yup."
*Good*
Sheppard's Jumper shot forward, and we dropped down to where his had been. A second later, we shot through, and I heard the 'gate closed behind us.
Angel cloaked the Jumper, saying "Let's remember where we parked, okay?"
"Sounds reasonable." I said. I hefted my weapons, a stick as long as I was tall, and two smaller sticks that were about half the size of the big stick. I also had, in case of an emergency, a P-90, and two handguns. I was trying hard to forget I had them.
Beside me, Fang was checking his weapons. He had a P-90 as his weapon of choice, and eight or nine matching magazines. He also had an odd looking pistol, the barrel was extremely long. "It's silenced." he said, after seeing the question on my face. Right. Fang:
Invisibility and silence on the move.
Iggy had some specialized rocket launcher, it had this weird screen that fit over his eyes. I guess it shows a white picture, with tiny blips to indicate people and objects.
Gazzy was still working with his compressor vacuum, and I saw a number of odd bombs that where not on the cart when we left.
"Odor-Le-Gaz stink bombs." he said, and behind me Iggy sniggered.
"That'll be a riot."
We had arrived at nighttime for this planet, and I looked around, trying to see if there was anything around me. Picking out a spot, I settled into a crouch, waiting for my opponents to come.
I saw Sheppard and his team moving out, and Gazzy came running up. "I think we are supposed to follow them." he said. I flew over to Sheppard, and when I landed he said
"Send Gazzy over to us, the rest of you, guard the Jumpers."
"Okay," I said, and took flight again. "Gaz, you're with Sheppard, the rest of us are guarding the Jumpers. Take half of your arsenal, and leave the rest for Ig. I doubt that you can carry all those bombs, and I don't think that Ig has enough rockets." He selected several of his bombs, and flew off, headed for Sheppard. "All right, the rest of you! We are to guard the Jumpers while Sheppard an Co. do whatever they came here to do. Now, since I want a big fight, I'm gonna chuck four glowsticks: one for each point of the compass."
Nobody said anything for a moment, then Fang said, "If you do that, you'll bring the place down around our ears."
Angel put in with, "Do it! I have drones on the Jumpers, and I can use my mind against them."
With no further discussion, I cracked a glow stick, and waited a couple seconds, then chucked it. "I call that North!" I yelled. Cracking a second one, I turned ninety degrees, and flung the next one. "I call that East!"…"South!"…"West!"
No sooner had I flung 'West' than several pasty-green things came out of the forest. Fang fitted a silencer to his P-90, and after setting it to semi-auto, began firing. Slipping my sticks into the loops on my vest, I spun the spar stick over my head.
The Wraith charged me. I sidestepped, swinging hard enough to break bones. Iggy fired, and the Wraith turned towards him just in time to get hit with the rocket. Fang was still firing, I could see his tracers in the air.
In my maneuvering, the Wraith had separated me from the group. I crouched into a ready position, ready to fight, and a song popped into my head. It was David Garrett's instrumental version of Smooth Criminal. They came at me from all directions, and I swung hard, taking out the ones behind me without even looking. The ones in front began to see me in a new light, but didn't think about it long, as I cracked them on the head in a sweep stroke. Changing sticks, I began a ballet, humming the song as a taunt. Time went by like this, and it could have been hours, it could have been mere seconds. Either way, when I was done, the was a large pile of bodies on the ground, and I was drenched in sweat, but untouched by these things. Putting the sticks back in their loops, I picked up the larger stick, and flew over to the group. Iggy was out cold, but nobody looked like they had suffered any injuries.
"That was fun." I said. When John got back, he would have quite the surprise. I heard a massive BOOM! and then I saw Gaz running back ahead of the rest of the team. When they got to the Jumpers, Sheppard called me over.
"What happened here?" He asked, deadly quiet.
"I upchucked four glowsticks, yelling out North, East, South, and West. When I chuck the last one, the Wraith showed up, and we fought them. Ig got hit with some sort of blue light, and was knocked out cold, but other than that, he seems fine. No-one else was hurt in the fight. What happened on your end?" I asked the last part almost teasingly.
"We hadn't gone sixty paces from the clearing when I saw you throw the first stick, and bellow 'I call that North!'. W hightailed it on a circuitous route to the laboratory, and there were no guards, no patrols, nothing. We set charges, and left. We were detected right as we left, and a small group of Wraith soldiers followed us when Gazzy here chucked what he called 'The Stinking Grenade of Death.' When it blew up, the Wraith were downwind, and while the first two were killed by the blast, the third was not. He died of suffocation, I think. When we got here, I saw piles upon piles of Wraith, and you drenched in sweat.
Naturally, I was curious to know what happened." Raising his voice so all could hear, he said "That's all guys. Load 'em up, and let's get out of here!" Angel un-cloaked the Jumper, and we got in, dragging Iggy to his seat, and propping him up in it. Gaz closed the back door, and Angel quickly hit the switch for the front door.
Turning the Jumper around, I saw the Stargate light up, and stabilize. I wondered what Nudge had been doing.
Stay tuned for scenes from the next episode of Angels on Atlantis!
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I was wandering around the city when Dr. Wier called me.
"Dr. Wier to Nudge. Come in please."
"Nudge here!"
"If you like flowers you could help out the botanists in the garden section. I called ahead, and they said that they would be glad to have you with them."
"Sure. It sounds like fun! In fact-"
"Sounds good to me. I have paperwork I need to work with, so Wier out." the radio went dead. Well, where's the garden?
To Andrew; I'm glad you liked the first chapter, it's admittedly one of my best attempts at writing Fanfiction. I was trying to emulate Patterson's style in "Maximum Ride" for the first six chapters.
I'm also glad you were able to apriciate some of the humor as well. I couple things were actually taken from other TV shows, but a majority I tried to make vintage Max.
Anyways, I hope you'll enjoy the rest of the story just as much, as well as the new writer I've hired to keep it alive.