A Definition of Leadership

Summary: Every member of the flock has a different definition of what a leader is and does. OneShot.

Warning: -

Set: Story-unrelated

Disclaimer: I don't own Maximum Ride. Do I look like James Patterson? (No, I don't.)

Angel is the youngest member of Max's flock and by far the most special.

Her abilities transcend imagination.

She is blond and cute and intelligent, and sometimes people forget she's still a child. It's difficult to remember she isn't merely a child.

Throughout her entire life, Angel has received special care from her siblings. She is the youngest one, after all. She has been protected and pampered. Most of her wishes have been fulfilled (as long as they were reasonable). Most of their everyday life has evolved around her because she is witty and interesting and it is fun to be with her.

Angel loves animals, no matter what kind. Meeting Total has been a gift from above. But she likes to chat with dolphins and whales and sharks as well, and sometimes her siblings fear she will start to talk to fully grown brown bears or wolves one day. You needn't worry though, because she knows there is a special bond between nature and animals and as long as she is able to integrate herself into this bond, no animal will attack her.

Next to Nudge, she is the one flock member who likes human things most. She enjoys being the center of attention far too much and always finds a way to have everything her way. She likes being special, she likes her wings and her abilities and the way people stare at her when she takes off into the sky. But she also likes calm evenings with the flock, when she sits on Fang's lap and Max and Gazzy fight and Iggy listens and Nudge watches TV.

In Angel's mind, a leader has to have the following qualities:

He has to be strong and intelligent. He has to be pleasant and has to listen to what the other members of his team say, even the youngest ones. He has to be funny and patient and has to enjoy taking time off at some points. And, sometimes, a leader has to be willing to sacrifice some things in order to achieve the final goal.

-V-

Iggy is blind.

And, at the same time, he possesses the ability to see without eyes.

His hair is red and gold and his eyes are grey, but if one looks at them closely one can see that he actually is staring into nothingness. Instead, his hearing is excellent, and he can feel what color objects have.

He wasn't blind his entire life and he has needed some time to get used to the fact. But now he can live with it well, even though sometimes, he still feels bitterness well up inside of him. But generally, Iggy is a cheerful person. He doesn't hang on to regret and sadness for a long time. Instead, he tries to help other people. He feels better if he actually can help. It is like he can prove to himself that he is not useless.

One thing he loves most is cooking. Why? He can't say. He simply likes creating things. Meals, desserts, sweets. And he is so damn good at it. Almost as good as in inventing explosive traps for their enemies. Those bombs, he builds them with Gazzy, who is his eyes and his assistant in any kind of prank he develops. But only few know Iggy has trained himself to be the expert in explosives because this is one way of fighting he really can do well. It is his way of protecting his flock.

Meeting his parents was one of the most important things to him. The fact that they sold him for money is something he won't ever forgive. Nobody would believe, but Iggy seldom forgets that kind of things. He doesn't show it openly and he never mentions it but he carries a grudge in his heart until he can resolve it. Those who have hurt his flock will pay even more dearly.

This is the way Iggy thinks a leader has to be:

He has to be strong and determined no matter what. He has to do everything possible to protect his team and he has to be willing to sacrifice himself for them. He has to go along with the plans his team members develop and has to be able to integrate every single member, even if they are blind or otherwise hindered. And he has to be able to provide for his team with everything they might need.

-V-

Sometimes, Nudge would rather be a normal human being.

She has the best requirements.

Her skin and her hair and her eyes are dark and she is the one of the flock who is most like a normal, human teenage girl.

Nudge loves pretty things and everyday life. She can pour over magazines for hours, imagining herself in such a dress or in those boots on a red carpet or in a High School. She reads everything there is about actors and idols and always knows what kind of music is up to date and what kind of clothes are worn. Her knowledge about this other kind of life is wide and varied.

But how much she sometimes despises it she is a born member of their flock and whenever she flies, she is happy. She has special abilities, too. She can hack a computer in no time because she is able to communicate with it. There's that and her gift of being able to manipulate magnetic fields and such, which comes in really handy if you need to scramble a surveillance camera.

Nudge is kind. She is the kind of person everyone wishes for as his sister. She can chat and blabber for hours and get on your nerves terribly, but she can also listen to you pouring out your heart to her about the world and its cruelness. She is the one person to talk to if there are problems between flock members. She is the one who comes up with good advice and who knows how to solve problems and upcoming tensions. But she is the one who is most sensible to tensions, too, and it has happened that Nudge has been the first to snap under the pressure.

A leader, Nudge believes, should show the following abilities:

He has to be polite and friendly and he has to listen to all his team members when they have problems. A leader has to live between two worlds – the outside world and the flock world – and has to connect both, has to intermediate between them. He has to know what he does and has to follow whatever path he chooses. And, finally, a leader has to return the loyalty given to him by his team members. That's the most important thing.

-V-

Gazzy still loves his name dearly.

Next to Angel he is the second-youngest and, like his sister, he possesses a whole bunch of interesting skills.

The similarity is striking. His hair is blond and his eyes are blue as the sky and by looking at him, one might come to believe he is a cute, good boy.

Gazzy believes that there is no point in being a good child if the world is as evil as it is. Maybe that sounds a bit bitter for a eleven-years-old but in his experience, the world is bitter and cruel. Like Angel, he has been sold to the School. Unlike Iggy, he doesn't hate his parents, though he never wants to meet them. He simply detests the world for creating people like them.

Being Iggy's assistant in crime doesn't mean Gazzy isn't cunning and wild himself. The little boy is highly intelligent and thinks about their situations extensively. He is no genius – no, that's Fang's title, not his – but he is clever. Sometimes this is overlooked by the people who believe he is only a little boy. Sometimes, even his flock forgets. But sometimes, it's him who comes up with the best solution to a problem.

But sometimes the weight of the world crushes him as well. He desperately wants to be strong – to be there for his sister and for the flock – but there are points in which he is unable to go on. He isn't aware of these breakdowns, but his flock is, and they give him strength when he needs it. Gazzy is a good fighter; he is stronger that people give him credit for. And he has sworn himself to get stronger because he wants to be able to protect the flock.

This is what Gazzy thinks makes a good leader:

The will and the ability to protect ones team no matter what, the strength to go on whatever happens, the determination to solve every upcoming problem no matter how difficult it might seem. But then also the knowledge that a break and some free time are necessary to gather strength again and that every being needs a break and some fun now and then to keep going.

-V-

Max is the one who constantly doubts.

She is the strongest of them, too.

Her blond locks are tangled and her face shows determination while deep down in her heart she wonders whether she has made the right decision or not.

She tries to hide it, to suppress it and to forget it until not even she herself remembers those pangs of doubt. Besides that, she is a great fighter. She is fast. She is intelligent. She is skilled, and she protects her siblings no matter what. Her siblings are her family. She shoulders responsibility and carries it easily. It is like she has been born for their mission of saving the world.

Her character isn't flawless but that is what makes people love her so much. She makes mistakes, yes, but she apologizes for them (mostly). She cares for her flock the way a mother cares for her children but at the same time, she tries to remember she is only a teenage girl, too. So she has fun and shouts and bickers and worries as much as every single one of them and they all know she knows what she is talking about when she says she understands.

Contrarily to Angel, Max never wanted to save the world. Grown-ups have brought them to this point, she believes, and they have to see how to solve those upcoming problems. But at the same time she refuses to ignore a problem once it has come to get her. Albeit unwillingly, she has accepted whatever fate the world has put on her and she will do everything she can to help. But she has drawn her lines, too. There are things she won't do, not even to save the world.

Being a leader, Max thinks, involves these kinds of things:

A leader has to be willing to do what is imposed on him, but not at all costs. Peace at all costs is not peace; erasing mankind to save the world is no option. If one forgets all ethic boundaries there is no need in continuing to live. And second, a leader has to do everything to keep his team together and to protect it, even if that means oneself will get hurt. A leader is only important as long as there is a team, after all.

-V-

Fang is a mystery.

And he knows.

His dark hair and his dark eyes have caused girls to faint – it has happened, it really has. Maybe that is the reason why he doesn't talk much.

His obvious silence suggests Fang thinks a lot, which is correct. Sometimes he actually thinks too much for his own good. People already have told him. If he has one great weak spot it is the fact that he cannot say no to crying girls. He would rather throw himself off a cliff (figuratively) than watch someone cry. Angel takes advantage of it, sometimes. Nudge does so, though definitively less often.

Fang's cool demeanor has led people to think he is cold and unfeeling. Sometimes, he would gladly exchange his heart for a pair of new sneakers. He hasn't chosen to be the cool one – he just hates to let people see what he thinks and feels. It's disgraceful. He likes it best when he is calm and centered. In this state, he can think best, he can develop the best plans and can concentrate on problems neutrally.

In his opinion, thinking about what could be and what should be is pointless. He lives in the present. Everything else is distracting: so what if his mother died in childbed? So what if he was sold to the School by his father? He doesn't care. What matters is that he is here, and that he is with the flock, and that everyone accepts him the way he is. He wouldn't want to be anywhere else than here.

Fang never wondered what a good leader should be like.

Max is everything he needs.