Spread Your Wings

Previously, on Maximum Ride:

After Angel gets kidnapped by the Erasers, Max sets out to rescue her. After getting shot, she is forced to reveal herself to Ella and Dr Martinez, who finds a microchip in her left arm. Once she regrouped with the others, they are suddenly attacked by Ari! Is this the end of the Flock? Find out next.

Max woke up grunting in pain. When she briefly opened her eyes, she realized that she was inside a huge dog crate.

"Max, are you awake?"

That little voice snapped her fully awake. She looked up and saw a little girl sitting inside a dog crate, wearing a white hospital gown. "At least they gave you a big crate." She said, "I got a medium one."

"Angel…" Max exclaimed as she reached her hand out towards the girl, "I missed you." The girl, Angel, reached out as they grasped each other's hands.

I'm too late…Max said to herself…I'm so sorry, Angel…

"It's not your fault." Angel said, having read Max's thoughts, "So don't worry about it too much." Max gave her a small smile, but Angel's face then went serious. "Max…there's something I have to tell you." Max nodded and said "Sure, tell me anything you want."

But before she could say anything, the door opened, sending light into the dark room. As Max's eyes adjusted, she saw a figure walking towards her.

"Maximum Ride," said the figure, "oh, I've missed you so much." Max just stared at the figure as she recognized the voice. The voice of Jeb Batchelder.

Spread Your Wings
Written by Multiverse Sentai

Max and Jeb were in the breakroom. All the while, Max was thinking to herself.

I must be hallucinating. This man, Jeb, had kidnapped the six of us four years ago, stolen us from this freak show. He hid us in the mountains and fed and clothed us like a parent. He taught us survival skills, how to fight, and how to read. We followed him like a parent too, and he had been our one and only comfort. But then he disappeared two years ago. We'd always known he'd been killed, and the horrible, aching, wailing pain of missing him just didn't stop. It was like losing your Mom or Dad. But now, here he was and my eyes were telling me that he was one of them. Maybe he'd been one of them all along.

"I know you're surprised," he said. I'd say surprised would be an understatement… Max said to herself. "I'll get us some hot chocolate. I know it's your favorite."

"I'm so proud of you, Max." Jeb said as he placed a mug in front of her. "You've led the Flock perfectly in my absence." Is that what he calls it? He's been gone for two years. He then looked at Max with serious eyes.

"Max, I have to tell you something that may change your life forever." As if this day couldn't get any worse. "Your body as you see it now is no longer your true form." WHAT?! What is that supposed to mean? "In the hours that you were unconscious, we performed a surgery on you. You are now a cyborg."

Okay I must be dreaming. Me? A cyborg? But I still feel like my old self. Jeb continued, "The only other person who knows is Angel. The thing is, Max, you're even more special than I always told you. You see, you were created for a reason. Turned into a cyborg for a special purpose." What purpose does turning me into a cyborg achieve? "Max, that reason, that purpose is you are supposed to save the world."

After that bombshell, Jeb took Max back to her cage. "Remember," he said, "trust me. That's all I ask" Yeah, like that's gonna happen. "Just trust me and listen to your gut." Oh I'm listening to my gut alright. And it's saying that I need to get out of here. They all just watched as Jeb left the room, leaving them in the dark.

"You okay?" Angel asked her. "I'm okay," she responded, "Everyone hang tough, alright?" she then felt Nudge's worried stare at me. "Nudge…" she told her, "I'm really fine."

"How are your wounds?" She asked her, "You were out for a while…" Max was about to answer when she noticed something in the top corner of the room. It was a camera. Not that she was surprised, they were treated as experiments here for years.

"Max…" Angel said, bringing Max out of her thoughts, "where're Gazzy and Iggy?" "I don't know." she bluntly stated. But then she communicated with her mentally. They got away. They're okay. We're being watched, so let's not talk too much. Read my mind, okay? Angel nodded her head in response. Hey, Angel, she asked her, is it true what Jeb said? Am I really a cyborg? Angel just looked at her, her sky blue eyes staring straight into Max's brown eyes. She then closed and sadly nodded. So it's true. My body as it is now is not my true form.

As Max was collecting her thoughts on this revelation, the door creaked open and two whitecoats wheeled in a crate. "Leave it anywhere." one of them said, "It won't last long anyway." The other just said "Okay…" and the two left the room. The Flock looked into the crate and saw what was inside. It looked enough like a kid to make me feel sick, but more like a horrible fungus. Huge pebbly growths covered most of its body. It had few fingers, and only had one toe, stuck onto the end of a foot like a pod. Senseless blue eyes looked out at them blinking.

Sometime in the next half-hour, Max realized that it was no longer breathing. It had died, right in front of them.

Horrorstruck, Max looked across at Angel. She was crying. She knew.

Finally, much later, the door opened. A crowd walked in. A woman, two whitecoats, and two Eraser goons. They wheeled a big, flatbed cart towards the group. They approached the dead creature. "What's this?" one of them asked, "Looks like it's dead. Ah well, not our business. Let's get to work!" One of the Erasers looked down at Max. "Hey, Max." he said, "Miss Me?" She soon realized who this was. "...Ari…"

"Is the Director quite sure about this?" one of the whitecoats asked, "It seems a shame- There's so much more we can learn from them." Ari then went to Angel's cage, picked it up, and tossed it onto the flatbed with her still in it.

"ANGEL!" Max yelled. That's when Ari got up in her face. "Feel like some exercise?" he taunted, "I can take you for a walk if you beg. Ke-ke-ke." She initially scowled at him, but then smirked. "You're the one who's their dog!" she retorted, "Why don't you get your leash and beg for a walk yourself?"

"SHUT UP!" Ari yelled as he flipped her cage to its side. He then slammed his foot on the cage when…

"ARI!" the Eraser then looked at the female whitecoat. "Watch it." she warned. Ari growled but then proceeded to place me on the flatbed.

The Flock was then wheeled outside the building where in a nearby fenced area, numerous Erasers were looking at them as if they were their next meal. Ari then leaned in towards Max's face again. "Wanna race? Wanna play food fight?" he asked sternly. He then grabbed her face with his large left hand. "You're the food, Piggy." Max now had enough of this guy, so she bit down hard on his hand. Ari screamed in pain and in retaliation, he began to pick up her cage. The whitecoats tried to console him, but it was too late. Ari then threw the cage, with Max still inside it, and it crashed into Nudge's, causing both cages to bust apart.

Now both Nudge and Max were free. "You're one stupid dog, for sure!" Nudge remarked as she started to take flight. Max was going to do the same, when suddenly visions entered her mind. It was a person with their left arm across their chest, in a muscle position. The person then moved their arm to their left until it was on the outside. They then retracted their left arm to their waist and thrusted their right arm at a diagonal to their left.

When Max was brought back to reality, she wondered what that was about. "MAX!" She turned to see Angel yelling at her, "DO IT!" She must have seen my vision. So, Max decided to repeat those actions. She swung her left arm to the right and slowly moved it to the left. She then retracted it to her waist and thrusted her right arm at a diagonal to the left. As soon as she did that, she felt something happening in her body. She looked down and saw what looked like a silver belt around her waist. It had a round buckle, and a holster at each side with a pistol on the right and a sword handle on the left. At the center of the buckle was a circle with a turbine fan within it that began to spin.

Before she could really assess what was happening, she looked up to see Ari charging straight at her. Purely by reflex, Max jumped into the air. But as soon as she did, she felt a powerful energy flow within her. Next thing she knew, she had flipped through the air and landed on the roof of the "School" which was eight floors up. She started to look over herself to see if this was a dream, but then she noticed that her appearance had changed completely. She was now donned in a white suit, with red gloves, a red muscular chest plate, red boots, and a long green scarf around her neck. She then looked up at a nearby window and saw that her head was now encased in a helmet, with the top half of it colored red. It had yellow compound eyes and was shaped like an eagle's head. The bottom half was gold with an angular design, like that of a bird beak. Is this my true form?

Suddenly her attention returned to the commotion on the ground. She walked towards the edge of the roof to see what was going on. It seems that while Max was looking over herself, a huge flock of hawks had started attacking the Erasers and whitecoats. She looked up a little to see that Iggy and Gazzy were the ones leading the hawks. Nudge had now gotten the keys to the cages and had freed Fang.

She then saw Fang trying to free Angel, when she spotted Ari moving to intercept him. I have to act. Max then jumped into the air, sprouted her wings, which she was glad she still had, and swooped down to stop Ari. She cocked back her fist and punched Ari in the back as she landed on her feet. What shocked her was the fact that upon contact, Ari was sent flying. She had to look at her hand to make sure that it was really her that did that. But now that she was on the ground, she could feel everyone staring at her.

"Max!" She turned to look at Angel, who called out to her, "Is that really you?" Max slowly nodded her head in confirmation. She then walked up to Angel's cage, grabbed the bars, and pulled the door off its hinges, which again surprised her. As she scooped Angel in her arms, she turned her head to the right and saw Ari getting up, and he was mad.

She knew it was time to go, so she once again sprouted her wings, pushed her feet against the ground, and took off into the sky. Suddenly she heard a voice call out to her. "MAX!" She turned to see that it was Jeb.

"Max! Please!" he pleaded, "You were safe here! This was only a test to see if your remodeling was a success! You have to trust me! I'm the only one you can trust!" Jeb continued, "Please! Come back! Max!"

Years ago, I would have trusted him, but now… "I don't think so." she quietly said as she flew off to catch up with the others with Angel still in her arms.

"Max, your wings…" she remarked. It was then that Max turned to look at them and saw that her wings had also changed. No longer were they made up of beautiful brown and white feathers, but now they were silver, and seemed to be made of metal. She then looked at Angel's worried face as she stared into her yellow compound eyes. "We'll talk about it when we get to our hideout." she told her.

They managed to find the cave opening that Fang and Nudge found a few days ago. As soon as they landed, Max's body seemed to revert back to her human form. As she put Angel down, she noticed everyone staring at her. "What?" she asked.

"Max," Nudge hesitated, "it-it's your wings." Max looked back and saw that her wings were still metal. It seems like they were only part of her "remodeling" that would always be on show. She turned to face them and said "Yeah, I should probably fill you in."

After getting over the fact that Max was now a cyborg, the Flock just laid back and relaxed a little bit. "Phew," Iggy exhaled, "That was rough." Max then felt Angel's little hand grab her own. She turned to look at her.

"I thought I would never see you again." she quietly said.

"I never would have quit trying to get you back." Max replied, "There's no way I would have ever let them keep you." Angel gave her a small smile.

"This is how it should be forever." Gazzy chimed in, "All of us together."

"You're right." Max nodded as she brought in Angel for a hug, "This made me realize how much we all need one another." She then turned to face them. "I need all of you. Five of us or three of us isn't us. Us means all six." The rest of the Flock nodded in agreement.

That night, it was raining. Luckily, they knew how to make a fire, so they were toasty warm. Since Angel only had a hospital gown on, Max had loaned her her leather jacket to keep her warm. She was currently sleeping next to Nudge while Iggy and Gazzy were sleeping next to each other. Max was sitting in the cave entrance with her legs crossed when Fang came up next to her.

"Jeb knows where our house is." he said, "We can't ever go back. We need a new home."

Fang was right. They needed to get a new place to live. Max stood up and looked at the rainfall. "East," she finally said, "We'll go east."

Next Time, on Kamen Rider Max:

Angel reveals the secret of their creation. Max then decides that the Flock should head to New York to begin searching for answers. Once there, they are attacked by the vicious Spider Hybrid! Can Max use her new powers to protect them? Find out next time on Kamen Rider Max!

Notes:

In Loving Memory
Raymond O'Neal "Cookie" Lochridge
July 10, 1946 - May 17, 2024

I'll miss you, Grandpa.

After coming off of writing the Kamen Rider Witch Special, I decided to create my own Rider.

I hope you guys will enjoy it.

As per the wishes of Micheal Ravencroft, this story is a fanon and non-canon to the official Disney Riderverse.

Also, I'm looking for guest writers for some of the filler episodes. If you would like to join the project, let me know.

Please leave a review, and I'll see next time.