Maximum Ride: Returning The Fire Part One

xXx xXx Chapter One: Returning The Fire xXx xXx Itexicon Underground Ellen Glameson spoke quietly with Eric Falmers, speaking of what they had to do to get back at the last six mutants on Earth that the School has ever made. Those six, referred to as 'the flock', had thoroughly destroyed most of Itex, the Institute, the School and any other related businesses that helped with the genetic mutations and hybrids. But Itex Underground, also know as IU, still survived. And, well, as it says in the name, it's underground where no one can access it except for those who know the one entrance in. And anyone who did know had been kept in here, stuck, so that no one can escape and no one can tell others what they are planning. IU was one of the only things left of anything related to hybrid and mutant developers. "What are they threatening to get them to actually kill th-" Dr. Glameson asked, whispering, even though no one else was in the room. But any one of the security guards could be watching them through cameras, though, and very few people were allowed to know plan at this point. The less that no, the less chance of the word spreading to outsiders. "You'll find out." Dr. Falmers interupted her, which he did offen. He flipped some of his longish brown hair out from infront of his dark blue eyes. Then, in a much louder voice, he called out,"Bring him in." The double doors to the small room flung open, and in came two burly Flyboys carrying the young and helpless boy that was struggling with all his might to get free. "What are you doing- where's my Mac- let me- GO!" He started kicking and flailing, reminding both of the whitecoats of a dieing fish, which them both smirk. He jumped and snarled, seeming completly wea and worthless. But he wasn't. This was IU's only chance at getting back at the flock. "Michael, calm down and this will all be much easier on you." Dr. Falmers told him firmly. He stopped a little, but then his eyes widened at both of their faces. "Wait, you guys are... you were..." He stuttered, letting his whole body stop struggling. "You were on the news! I saw! Through a TV store window, I saw you! You guys were, like, the people who made weird freaks and then you went missing... oh my God, what's going on?! You aren't gonna' test on me, are you?!" "No." Falmer said, keeping his eyes glued to the boy. Glameson had her green eyes flickering between them both quickly, tossing her shoulder length blond hair across her face when she switched from both of their faces. She was not only confused, but curious on why this boy was here. "You are going to help terminate the flock." If possible, his eyes got even wider. "What?! No, dude, Fang's awesome! I've met him, he rocks! I'm not going to kill him!"

"You are good with computers." Falmer replied, ignoring his refusing responce. Either Mike was going to do this or die. His choice. "You put the message across all the screens before, correct? The one saying to destroy us?" "What? Oh yeah, the one I did at the coffee shop for the flock-" "Yes. Now, you are going to send another message. It is going to tell everyone to kill the flock, but make sure no one knows it's from Itex. That part is extremely important." Falmer went on, indirectley telling Glameson that this was the boy who was going to spread the threat, but she stilll didn't know what they threat actually was. Because if the message only said 'kill the flock', people would refuse and ignore the message. "And the threat...?" Glameson pushed. "We will use nuclear weapons if they refuse, and we will bomb anywhere we need to." The flock had lit the whole plans of anything a part of hybrid developing on fire, and now IU was going to return that fire on them. xXx xXx Chapter Two: The Good Life Gone Bad xXx xXx The best word to describe what was going on: Heaven. Sweet, wonderful, perfect and sunny heaven. I sipped on my strawberry lemonade, letting the sun soak good ol' vitamin D into me. Me and the flock had settled down at Mom's new house, which by the way was totally huge and awesome. I was wearing my new swimsuit, laying on a beach chair next to the pool that came with the house and just chillin'. It was the good life. "This is so perfect!" Nudge exclaimed draining down the rest of her lemonade. I turned to her and saw her set the drink down through my sunglasses. She closed her eyes and looked totally peacful. On my right, Angel was snoozing with Total curled up in her lap, breathing quietly and evenly. Gazzy, Iggy and Ella were playing water tag in the pool (though I don't know how Iggy could tag them when he was freaking blind), every once in a while spraying some water up at us. Mom was inside, fixing up some sandwhiches for lunch. Then, fitting for him, Fang was sitting in the shade of a tree on his laptop. "Fang, can you try to enjoy life for once outside of your blog and the web?" I called to him over the loud, maniac-sounding laughing of Ella, Gazzy and Iggy. He looked up for a quick split second, and shrugged. Then he continued typing away at the keyboard, and with my awesome hearing I could hear the click of the keys. That's the Fangilator for ya'.

"I swear, he's given a pool and sun and food and peace, and he cowers in the shade like everything around him is hell." Nudge said quietly, not even opening her eyes. I heard Angel turn over next to me. "I second that." She laughed, smirking. Well, beside the fact that Fang was being... himself, everything was perfect. I just wish he could be happy for once. This was total relaxation, and we had nothing to worry about. No more Itex. No more School. No more anything involving that crap. I could totally just lay down and not expect to get attacked now! Almost. Of course, there was that constant little voice (not the one you are thinking of) in the back of my head always screaming, 'Hurry! Hurry! Someone's going to attack you!' I call that lil' voice Paranoia, people. Maybe I got it from living the past couple of years on the run, sleeping in freaking subway tunnels and not being able to settle down anywhere without being attacked. Maybe I got it from Jeb (my dad) if he was ever paranoid but that was a gross thought that I could be related to him in anyway. Maybe I'm just really insane and I have a strange mind. I'd like to just think it's a mix of the first and last choice. "Max." I looked up. "Hm?" Fang was waving me over to him, looking anxiously at his computer screen. I walked around the pool and over the grass to where Fang was sitting against the trunk of the large tree. "What?" I asked, sitting down next to him. "Just look and read." He said, pointing at the screen. Bold, black letters sprawled across the screen against a bright white background. ATTENTION MUST READ We are sure you have heard of the 'wonderful flying wonder kids'. The 'terrific, high flying flock'. Maximum Ride and the gang, right? Destory them. Kill them. Murder them.

We don't care what it takes. They must be terminated immediately, and if you refuse we will use nuclear weapons. We will bomb anywhere we need. And why don't we take them down ourselves? Because those bird brains are 'smart' enough to escape our plans and we need you to get them. This is not a joke. Just check any news website or TV station. That bombing in southern California? That was us. Repeating: This is not a joke. Destroy them or you will be destroyed. xXx xXx Chapter Three: Bye, The World Might Need Some Saving xXx xXx The color drained out of my cheeks, and I could feel my blood run cold if not totally over freeze. It took a second for me to thaw out before I actually got my mind back in reality. "Crap." I murmured, with no other word to say. My ears were ringing and for a moment every sound around me was either drowned out or completely gone. Someone was threatening the world to kill us, or else they would kill them. "Yeah, crap." Fang said through a sigh. "I'd say so, too." "Okay, we need to get out of here. Now." I told him firmly, getting up and already giving the flock looks that told them something was wrong. I bet they'd recognize that face anytime, seeing how we always have 'something wrong'. They all bit their lips, preparing for bad news, and walked over to me and Fang. "Max, what's going on?" Ella asked. "Go inside, Ella. Tell mom this..." Then I gave her a mini-speech on what to tell her, and then she nodded and scurried off back inside. I thanked her silently that she didn't argue like the flock sometimes did. "No, seriously Max, what's going on?" Iggy asked. "Uh, Fang just got a message... well, everyone did. Someone is threatening everyone that either they kill us or they start bombing places. We need to get out of here before anyone comes, and we need to figure out what is going on." I informed them. "We might have another Itex out there." Grim looks spread across their faces, and I felt guilty for ruining there good day, but it was the best and basically only choice we had. Unless we were crazy maniacs and decided to stay here, which was suicide if anyone listened to the message.

"Who's everyone?" Nudge asked. "Anyone who owns a computer, which means a lot of people near us, figuring we're in one of the richest neighborhoods ever." I clarified, getting up and shaking my wings out a bit. "Now, we need to get out of here before anyone gets here to attack us." They all gave grim nods with grim faces and grim posture, if that was possible. They really had loved this place, and they really didn't want to get back on the run again. But, if it was for your life, wouldn't you do it too? *** "Run that by me again." Dr. Martinez told her daughter, putting down the bread she was cutting for sandwiches. "Okay, this is almost exactly what she said, from my memory; Me and the flock are being threatened. Again. Don't expect us to come back soon, there's a world that might need saving again. Bye Mom, see ya' later." xXx xXx Chapter Four: Double The Feathers xXx xXx That feeling of the wind blowing through my hair and feathers, well, I guess you would guess that I would say 'there is nothing better'. Well I wouldn't. 'Cause there is something better, and it's something known as not being on the run all the time. So yes. How's that for my cliche line? But anyways, my hair was all over the place and it was totally quiet because no one wanted to talk. And it was all because I had ruined their moods by actually trying to save our sorry butts. I know, blame me for ruining innoccent (well, scracth that) and little kid's dreams, yada yada yada. It's the life of a mutant bird kid, and they are going to have to get use to it eventually. "Okay guys, I know you wanted to stay there." I called over the blowing wind. "But do you want to stay there now?" I turned around. Five nods. "Even when someone is threatening us?" Five more nods. I bit my lip and turned back around, feeling beaten. Whatever. We could go back as soon as we found out who exactly is threatening everyone. I shifted in my shirt, because I had just pulled my shirt over my swimsuit earlier, which was still a bit wet from the splashing

of water tag. Everyone was a bit damp, but hey? It's not the worst that could happen. Then Angel's recognizable yelp rang in my ears. "Oh my God, it's Max!" Angel yelled. "Look, look! She's right there!" "Yeah, Angel, I am here. But what the heck does that have to do with anything?!" I asked/yelled, turning to face her. She shook her head wildly around. "No, no, it's Max 2! She's up ahead, and there's others..." Her voice trailed off, and we all stared ahead at them. They're recognizable faces. Our recognizable faces. They seemed surprised, too, and then they flew towards us. Oh God, this was just great, wasn't it? I sighed. I mean, what was the chances of seeing them? They were back in Germany last time I saw them, and suddenely they were here. Right near us. "Angel, remember, they're on our side." I told her, reminding that she had helped us a tiny bit back at Itex awhile back. She nodded, just as I heard my voice that wasn't me. "Oh my God, hey Max!" She said. "Woah, uh, you guys are here and so are we... Yeah." Really? I would of never guessed. I felt like saying, but I didn't want to be totally rude. I mean, maybe if we joined our flocks we would have an easier time beating the crap out of whoever was threatening us. "Uh, yeah." I responded, looking over they're clone the flock. Angel 2 was looking sweet as usual, like the normal one, and Gazzy 2 looked... devilish. Nudge 2 was beaming, happy like she was on sugar or something, and Iggy looked slightly annoyed because he couldn't see what was going on. Fang 2 was Fang-ish, being all Mr. Mysterious, and I- I mean Max- was being myself, except in a lot better of a mood. "Actually, we were looking for you guys." Fang 2 said, flying up next to Max 2. She nodded. "Yeah, well, we, uh..." Max 2 stuttered. "We got that message. At our place. And we heard where you guys were, 'cause you're all famous and stuff, so we thought about coming to see if you guys needed any help with what's going on." My eyes lit up. "Yeah, actually, we do. Do you know who's doing it?" "Naw, but I have a feeling that it's Itex." I nodded, a bit dissapointed, but whatever. Because we just got some help on our part, and that's cool. "So, what are we going to do? We have no idea where it's coming from, and we're not

sure if it's Itex or not. Where would we start?" I asked, completely clueless except for one basic idea; 'get away from humanity who will kill you.' There was a moment of silence. "Well, let's land and come up with some ideas." Max 2 said. xXx xXx Chapter Five: Double The Chaos xXx xXx IU Glameson stared at Mike, who had been strapped down on a chair and bound up. They couldn't release him, because he would tell everyone what was going on here. But they also couldn't kill him, because IU might need him for later if the original plan doesn't go as planned. But if they let him live, he might sneak on to a computer sending everyone a message where they were and what they were doing... the safest choice for the company was to kill him, but that would wreck up most of their plans even more. Mike was screaming into the duct tape around his mouth, making the room full of nonunderstandable sounds that really got on everyone's nerves. Glameson turned away from him and back to Falmers, who was at a desk, looking at the problems. "What is the problem?" Glameson asked, almost as if she was of a higher rank than him. Which she wasn't; she was the same as him, but she didn't plan keeping it that way. She had other plans, where she could take over the company and do everything the right way and not make mutant disasters like the flock. She wanted creatures of the same build; same wings, same strength, same stamina, but with different attitude so that they wouldn't argue with everything told to them. That was the main draw-back on them, and the fact that they thought what Itex was doing was cruel. But it wasn't; it was preparing the world for a new age. "The problem? The problem?! It's that the other failures haven't been terminated, and now they're with the original mutants! This means twelve bird disasters that need to be taken care of, before they ruin us." Falmers snapped, scrolling over pages of information about the clones. The clones; who had been made for an older plan, designed by one of the lower ranking whitecoats, which had failed misserably. Another thing Glameson had despised about her job; the fact that the people who did run the place had let lower ranks make such horrible ideas, and then continue them to try and make it work. Glameson knew that she belonged to be the greatest, the highest, not the others. "The clones? Hm." She took it less of a problem. Because soon they would be terminated, and all twelve flying freaks would be gone. With Itex atacking them, they knew what was coming. But now they had normals going after them, which meant anyone and anytime could attack them. They can't predict that now, can they?

Mike stopped struggling and whining, becoming breathless. Stupid normal. People like him would be good for the new age- if he wasn't as disobeying. Falmer started typing angrily away at the keys, trying to find a way to shut them down, or at least get them to obey orders. They were better than the originals, but not good enough. Glameson strode over to the door and left Mike and Falmer to their missery buisness. They were too worried; both Mike and Falmers. She took a turn down the windowless hallways and then turned into a different room, where there was even more chaos; whitecoats buzzing around, getting work done, demands and yells instructing them what to do. They're harmless bird-kids who don't see what's coming to them. How much problems can they possibaly cause? Glameson thought, just standing their in the middle of the chaos. Too bad she underestimated them, because it was her who didn't see what was coming.