Waking up in an unfamiliar location, suffering from a splitting headache, and miserably sore in general might seem like an odd, if not worrying circumstance to you, but for me, Maximum Ride, its pretty much an annual occurrence.

Slowly propping myself up on an elbow and cracking open my eyes, I took in my surroundings, surprised to find myself in a small forest glade, laying on a thin carpet of deep red leaves, rather than laying on the tiles of some bleached white room in a lab.

I felt a small breeze as I sat up, wincing as my headache throbbed from the movement, and looked around, trying to find any evidence of the flock.

Finding none, I scrambled to my feet despite the pain it caused, frantically glancing about hoping to find something I missed. Other than the seeming emphasis of the color red in the forest I'd found myself in, I saw nothing.

Don't panic Max, you've been separated from the others before and everything turned out alright then, right? I thought trying to calm myself.

But Itex almost captured the flock then, whose to say they weren't successful this time? Said the pessimistic side of my brain.

Thinking back to what I could last remember, me and the flock had been captured by a science project gone wrong calling himself the Uber-Director, who had set up an auction with the powerful people of the criminal underworld (at least I think that's who they were, it was hard to tell), the main and only attraction? Us.

Through a series of events (aka, the flocks tendency to ruin any and all villainous plots in the most unlikely manner), along with the destruction caused by the powerful hurricane raging outside, we were able to escape, and somehow we all managed to land safely despite said hurricane. Then I decided to be stupid.

Seeing the wheelchair bound collection of plexiglass boxes being tossed by the winds, I decide to have the last laugh with the 'Uber-Director,' flying back into the storm, up to the wheelchair, I gave him the bird as I broke the straps holding the boxes, which contained the various parts of him, to the wheelchair. I then attempted to fly back to the flock.

The last things I remember was the bone chilling fear that filled my veins as I lost all control, feeling the hurricane's winds tossing me in the air, and the pain as shards of glass cut into my skin as I broke through my reflection in a skyscraper's window.

Expecting to hear from the Voice, to say I was surprised when I heard nothing is an understatement, and I found myself hoping it wasn't permanent, though why I couldn't say.

"Well, standing around here's not going to get me any answers," I said to myself, and pointing in a random direction, took off into the air (albeit painfully), hoping to come across some form of civilization I could get my bearings in.

Trying to not think negatively, in focused on what was below me, finding the strange red forest stretched as far as I could see, with some mountains scattered along the horizon. Looking up, I saw the sun was on my right, and based on the temperature I figured I was heading almost due south, though that could be wrong if wherever I was had hot mornings. All in all though it wouldn't matter until I knew just where I was anyways, and so I refocused on the ground below me, using my raptor like vision to focus in on the ground between the trees.

What the heck?

In the forest clearings below, I could see what at first appeared to be regular animals, but upon closer inspection, though of similar stature to bears and wolves, had pitch-black fur, and white protrusions (bone?) that was ingrained with red markings akin to some Native American art I'd seen once.

My only thought was that they had to be genetically modified, and if so that meant there likely was a lab nearby, and though I was loathe to willingly go near one, it was my closest option for gaining my bearings, and learning where in the world I was.

I was so deep in thought, trying to figure out the possible location of the lab, that I almost missed the group of people below.

Making sure I was high enough to be mistaken as a bird, I took a closer look and was shocked to see a group of seven kids around my age, that being between thirteen and seventeen, since my actual age is up for debate (though I consider myself closer to fifteen).

Observing the group for a few minutes, I considered going down and trying to talk to them, but instantly tossed the idea cause this was the absolute middle of nowhere, and how would I explain that I'd gotten there? That I could fly?

Pfft, like they would believe that. And even if they believed I'd just been walking in the woods and had gotten lost, how would I explain surviving up to this point? What little I had seen of those strange creatures made me think they weren't of the friendly Disney type of woodland animals, but were more likely to view you as a tasty snack before tearing into you.

My best option was to just wait and observe, because from what I had seen of this group so far they didn't have the necessary supplies for camping, and seemed to be collecting the sap from the trees in the jars they carried, making me think after they were finished they would head back to where they came from, hopefully that being some form of civilization.

On the hill next to the original group, I saw five others, all boys, creep up the hill and begin watching those below, blonde haired one of the group seeming the pack-mule carrying a box of sap filled jars stacked on top of another box, this one seemed closed however, its contents out of view.

Continuing to observe, I watched as the obvious leader of the group singled out pack-mule, who then, after setting down the boxes, reluctantly pulled a jar out of the open box, and appeared to be aiming at a redheaded girl below. I was just about ready to swoop down land take out the leader when something held me back, and I saw the blonde lower his arm, and shake his head at the leader, before throwing the jar at him, the contents splattering acrossed the front of his… Is that armor?

In a split second, the leader, and the others with him grabbed the blonde and dragged him into the woods, into another clearing, and started beating the crap out of him.

Instantly I was conflicted. Do I go down and kick the crap out of this now apparent bully and his cronies, and to heck with the consequences? Or do I continue to wait, and see how things pan out?

Knowing I'd already decided, I tucked in my wings and dived for the ground, aiming for a small opening in the trees opposite where the group was looking, and hopefully I could keep my wings secret at least. About fifteen feet from the ground, I hear a guttural roar, followed shortly by a girly scream and a thud. Landing hard, I shifted my jacket as I folded my wings tight against my back, effectively hiding them, before glancing around the tree, my fears being worse than confirmed by what I saw.

One of those bear creatures had attacked the bully, who had landed a few feet away from me facing the creature, but that wasn't the worst part.

This 'bear' unlike the others I had seen, was much larger in comparison, and had more of those white protrusions and larger claws. The only thing standing between the creature and its apparent prey, was the previously picked on blonde, who now wielded a sword and shield.

Stepping into the clearing, both of the boys were shocked at my appearance, and aimed a wicked smile at the 'bear,' more excited than I probably should have been for the fight to come.

"Wanna dance?" I quipped before charging, not giving it a chance to respond as dodged under its swipe at my head, before bouncing up and giving it a solid right hook, causing it to rear up and push it back a few feet, and I took the opportunity to kick it between the hind legs. Hard.

What can I say? I'm not one for fair fighting, especially after facing Erasers my whole life.

Crumpling for a few seconds, I jumped on top of it, careful to avoid impaling myself, and grabbed one of the white spines, cutting my hands on its sharp edge as I broke a good two foot length off, jumping off the creature's back as it swiped at me, and I could feel as its claw as it just barely cut across the back of my shoulder.

Wincing in pain, I rolled back, quickly standing few feet from the 'bear.' Giving another roar, it charged, and I counted.

One Mississippi. It was now twenty feet away.

Two Mississippi. Ten feet away.

NOW!

I jumped, turning in the air before landing on its shoulders, my grip tightening on the broken off spine in hand before jamming it into the creature's eye point first.

It roared in pain, the 'bear' standing up as it tried to shake me off, but before it could I jumped off its shoulders, spinning in the air as I landed a solid kick against the exposed end of the spine turned weapon, shoving the full two foot length into its skull, the point poking out the back of it's head with a spray of black ichor as I landed a fair distance away, face down, hearing the satisfying crunch as the creature collapsed behind me.

Only after looking up did I notice the spectators, namely some of the group I'd first seen, along with the blonde and the sap covered bully. All of them had their mouths open, in apparent shock of what I'd done.

"you know," I said with a smirk, standing up and brushing some dirt off my jacket,"you'll catch flies if you leave your mouths open like that."