Why Couldn't a Girl Have Seen Me do That?

A "Maximum Ride" and "National Treasure" crossover fic.

Disclaimer: I do not claim ownership over any characters from either series mentioned above. I claim ownership over the characters I may or may not create in the future.

1.

"Can we fast-forward to go down on me?

Stop there and let me correct it

I wanna live a life from a new perspective

You come along because I love your face,"

~Panic at the Disco "New Perspective" (2009)

---

I felt the wind ripple through my primaries as the Flock soared upward in the before-daybreak air. The younger girls and the Gasman flew with their eyes only half-open; they were so tired, poor guys. But it had to be done.

But we had to get going, because once again the government had called us to the capitol to interview. Only this time Jeb and Dr. Martinez wouldn't be there to make an excuse to talk about us like we weren't there. They hadn't bothered to tell us why we needed to come besides promising it wouldn't be about our wellbeing. That was good, right?

Fang flew beside me, his hair tied back to keep from getting in his eyes, Total in his arms. It was a shock how he still insisted on being carried despite the fact that he could manage to fly at the same altitudes as us for a few hours without getting too tired.

Iggy was only inches from where Fang's wings ended, keeping close to prevent being lost. It wouldn't be that hard once Nudge started talking, but until then, we were flying in silence, dreadfully disturbing silence.

I held out my arms and closed my eyes, wondering what was going to happen to us next, where we would go next, if my Voice would lead me to somewhere that Nudge, Angel, and the others would have fun and could act like kids again. Would we even live long enough to settle down and just drop off the face of the earth? Maybe I could just settle the Flock somewhere for half a year when I was old enough to be a senior…go to Prom. Be normal for just one night…

But that was impossible, right?

---

Riley Poole leaned back in his study, balancing a pencil precariously on the bridge of his nose as Benjamin Gates read aloud a speech by some fourteen-year-old to congress a year or so ago. The cubicle-escapee was utterly bored at this point. Yeah, yeah, conserve energy; clean the air, blah, blah, blah…

"Riley!" Ben snapped, causing the shorter of the two men to sit up and the pencil to fall off his nose. "Are you paying attention? This girl has seen more than most sixteen-year-olds."

Riley leaned back in his chair, "So wait…that speech was from two years ago? And she's sixteen?"

Benjamin nodded and handed over the transcript of the speech. "It's amazing, she brought down a corporation that was planning to eliminate half the world's population with the help of her brother's blog to get kids involved! Even some of the world's best leaders in education couldn't do something like that!"

"So she went down to Antarctica and has all these experiences. It's not like we're going to meet this kid," Riley rolled his eyes, getting his backpack and technical gear together. "And besides, aren't you a little set on finding the secret of page forty-seven to be concerned with the environment?"

Ben took the glasses off his face, "What if I told you that girl and her brothers and sisters were on their way to D.C. right not to meet with the president, congress, and the senate?"

Riley wasn't paying attention; he had opened up his laptop and was clicking on a link. Once the page had loaded, he showed the page to Ben. It was a blog. The hit-count was well over three million. "Was this the web log in question?"

Be nodded.

"He probably doesn't have wings you know. Just something to get publicity," Riley sniffed, knowing that this blog was much more popular than his book. "But he's coming here! With his family! This is big! No, this is HU–what are you planning to do with them?" the nerd quirked an eyebrow.