A/N: Just a standard issue, authors note, I don't own any of this(not even the computer I'm working on) The characters sadly belong to JP, but I try. By the way... this is my first fanfic (that I've typed) so I hope I don't do too badly.

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"Uh, Jeb?"

"Yes Fang?"

"Max is stuck in a tree."

"So climb up and get her down, I'm busy with Angel right now."

"Uh, Jeb?"

"What, Fang?" 'Ugh twelve-year olds are annoying.' Jeb thought as he brushed little Angel's tangled hair back into silky curls.

"She's really high up."

"Well, how'd she get up there?"

"Well, um, she, uh... flew." Fang, the boy with no fear, cowered, as he stammered. He had a right to be nervous, they'd never been taught to use their magnificent wings and fly, and had always been forbidden to even try. And now he understood why... You get stuck in trees.

"Dear God! Fang show me where she-"

And there she was. Max came bolting thru the front door of the mountain house that the seven of them shared, a big grin on her beautiful face and pine needles in her hair and feathers.

"Jeb! I did it! I flew! But I landed in a tree and then I forgot how to fly down so I had Fang go get you, but then I remembered so I.- I - I gotta show you!" She bounced on the balls of her feet as she rambled on, looking like she was going to take off right there.

'And she's supposed to save the world. Help. Me.' Jeb loved all of them most of all Max, but he couldn't deny what they were created for, what she was supposed to do, her destiny. All this - the escape, the house, the combat training- it was just the next step in the experiment. And Max had just passed another test. He should have been happy, but right now all he did was sit, and think about what came next. When this stage of the experiment was over, Jeb would have to betray their trust, and leave, or worse, take them back to the School where they were created.

"Max...you're talking more than Nudge. And from what I can hear, bouncing more too." Iggy, the third oldest, commented from the kitchen table, where he was "staring" down a bowl of very loud cereal, his blind eyes never leaving the bowl.

"Lean closer to your Rice Krispies, man. Maybe that'll drown her out." Fang whispered, having lost interest -since he had been there- and coming to the kitchen to rummage thru the fridge for a snack.

"I heard that! You may think you're cool Fangy-boy but not even a jackhammer can drown out your annoying voice, much less Rice Krispies!" Max glared at both boys thru the doorway .

'Easily distracted, not good.' thought Jeb, taking mental notes of all the flock's progress.

"I AM cool! And your comebacks suck!"

"I don't need good comebacks, I can fly!"

'Then again...'

"Can you teach us Max?" Four year-old Angel asked. She had long since struggled out of Jeb's hold.

" Hey! Yeah! We all got wings, we should all get to fly right?! Well, we all have wings except Jeb, but he- Oh! Umm... Jeb?" Max folded her wings in tight, hung her head and waited for Jeb's inevitable reprimand - after all she had broken the most important rule in the book - but it never came. The others noticed that Jeb was grinning, something that never happened if he was angry, and decided to push their luck.

"Jeb? Can we please fly? Please?" the other five bird kids (including Nudge and the Gasman who had come in from the other room where they had been "playing" with Jeb's computer) chorused, causing Max to look up in shock. Don't they get it? Flying equals bad! Then she noticed what they had...he wasn't mad.

Jeb's eyes softened as he saw Max's look of shock change to one of confusion.

"Max? I'm not mad at you. How could I ever be mad at you? I've been asking myself when to teach you guys to fly since we got here. I guess better late than never. Eh?"

Six pairs of eyes widened in joy. Jeb was, after all, their hero, and he'd come thru for them yet again.

"Max, maybe you can give the demonstration. Because as you so kindly pointed out I don't have wings." He grinned, and set off a chain reaction of whoops and cheers from all six kids, even Fang, who had never "whooped" in his life, as far as Jeb knew. The whole flock and their guardian traitor piled outside and soon six sets of wings carried six kids into the cool Colorado air.

x

'And cue the swirly time warp effect.' Max thought bitterly as the joy of that moment faded from her mind, yet again. 'What the hell was that for, Voice?'

'Oh, automatically blame me. Is that how we're playing now Max?' The normally monotone voice that resided in Max's head, now had an almost sarcastic tone.

'Are you evolving or something? I mean, first you ans- no reply to a direct question, and I could be crazy -imagine that- but I could swear I heard some emotion.' Max was vaguely aware of Fang talking about something or another, but she couldn't remember what.

'Sarcasm is not an emotion Max, and don't question me. I can give you the worlds biggest migraine in a matter of seconds.' More sarcasm.

'You are the worlds biggest migraine.'

'Well someone has to motivate you to save the world.' Less sarcasm.

"I hate you." Max said rolling her eyes.

"What'd I do?!" Fang looked up, his dark eyes wide, like he had been slapped.

Max adopted a similar look of shock, and slapped both hands over her traitorous mouth.

"Did I say that out loud?" Max asked thru her hands as she winced. Fang raised an eyebrow and crossed his arms over his chest.

"Yeah, ya did. Now, care to explain why you hate me?"

"No!"

"No?"

"I don't hate you Fang, Not ever! The voice, I hate the voice! That's what I meant." Max was near panic.

"The voice?" Fang leaned back in his chair and the flock (who had been watching intently) relaxed, and went back to their drinks.

" It was talking to you again?" Max nodded and Fang looked toward the TV mounted in the corner of the Starbucks.

"Then why isn't the TV fritzing?" Fang asked, remembering the New York subway and the kid with the mac.

"Hell if I know! That's why I hate it."

"Ma-ax don't curse!" Nudge warned from the next table.

"Hell is not a curse word, it's a place." Max retorted.

"So can I say it?" Angel quipped, she knew Max was trying to cut down the foul language mostly to set an example for her and Gazzy.

"No!" Max and Fang answered simultaneously, then looked at each other in mock horror. The rest of the flock laughed.

"Anyway," Fang said quietly, drawing Max's attention back to their private conversation.

"Did you even hear what I was saying the past ten minutes?" He kept his voice low, so Max had to lean in a bit to hear him over the noise of the Starbucksians.

"Honestly...no." She answered sheepishly. Not for a lack of trying.

"Jesus, Max!" he threw up his hands in frustration.

"Where's Jesus? Maybe he can fill me in." Max could tell when Fang's mood was veering towards dangerous, as it was now, and tried to lighten the mood a little.

"Max, this is important, you cant just zone out when we're talking about things like this." Fang tried to relax. Its not her fault she's on top of the Scientist's Most Wanted list. Cut her some slack. He thought.

"Sorry Fang. But I got- it gave me some sort of flashback or something."

"A flashback?"

"Yeah, a full blown, Hollywood movie, flashback. Minus the swirly lights and Twilight Zone music."

"Huh, What about?" All of the anger and frustration inside Fang had changed to curiosity and concern.

"Remember the day we first flew?" How could any of them forget.

"Uh, yeah, of course. Why'd you see that?"

"Do you really think I know?" It was Max's turn to raise an eyebrow.

"Guess not huh?"

"But you know what the freaky part was? I wasn't seeing it from my eyes, it was like someone video taped it and I was watching everyone. And that's not even the worst part, I could hear what you and the others and mostly Jeb, were thinking. And I think he broke us out as part of the experiment, he never wanted us to be free."

"Max, I think that's pretty obvious by now. Wait, you said you could hear my thoughts?"

"Well, not really, but to an extent, yeah."

"Freaky."

"Ya think?"

"So can you hear what I'm thinking now?" Fang smirked. Now he tried to lighten the mood.

"Fang, Honestly! Angel is the psychic, I just have omniscient flashbacks apparently." it sounded harsh but Max laughed and shook her head.

"Anyway, you were saying...?" Max prompted, rotating her hand in a "carry on" motion.

"Huh?"

"What were we talking about before?"

"Oh! We gotta decide where were gonna go. 'Cuz we can't stay in the warehouse forever."

"Florida."

"Really?" Fang looked surprised. Even after that incident in the swamp?

"I didn't say that." Max said, throwing one of her patented glares Gazzy's way. The eight year-old just grinned .

"I see. So what do you say?" Fang had somehow developed a skill for mediating.

"Well, lets look at this logically. Because we're not having another go round at Disney World," another glare at the younger three. "And we're not flying to Australia to yell at the parliament about their lack of a cloning ban, even if I really want to. And we still have the oh so 'creeptacular'," Max winked at Nudge who was the self appointed word creator for the flock, and was in charge of coming up with all manner of strange words.

"Itex on our tails, so-" she continued but was stopped short.

'How about California?' the voice asked casually.

'California!? No way! That's where the school is!'

"Max?" Iggy asked, he couldn't see the puzzled look on her face.

"The voice says California. Don't know why but that's its vote. I vote, we need more options, options that don't involve the school."

"California is a big state Max." Her jaw dropped when Fang voiced his opinion. He was supposed to be on my side.

'Yeah Max, California is a big state'

'Don't even start Voice!'

"Come on Max, they have a Disneyland there too!" Angel pleaded. Then she, Gazzy and Nudge were making begging motions and puppy faces.

Damn! Max thought. Puppy faces!

"How about this. We go back to the warehouse for the night, and see how things look in the morning, ok?"

"Sounds good." Fang answered for the rest of the flock before they could protest, they nodded agreement instead. A few minutes and final sips later the flock headed into the ally behind the Starbucks to collect, Total, the talking dog.

"'Bout time" he muttered as Angel untied him from a bike rack.

"Shut it Total, or I'll turn you into a hat." Max grumbled, the headache from her earlier flashback was finally catching up with her.

"Your in a bad mood. you loose a bet?"

"No, I have a voice in my head and a talking dog."

"Ouch, that really hurt Max, I might have to bite you for that."

"I'd like to see you try."

Fang laughed silently to himself as Max and Total argued back and forth, insulting each other whenever there was nothing else to say, as they all headed "home."

She wont tell me about her problems, so she vents by insulting the dog... Typical.

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A/N: hope that went as well as I thought it would. If you liked it, don't worry, more to come soon, I am working on it, and if you didn't like it, I'm sorry.

(Certain things that are mentioned; i.e. the Australian Parliament, and Creeptacular are taken from "Fang's Blog" just search "6 kids 12 wings and 1 blog".) Anyway, comments are much appreciated. Thanks you guys