Hi! So, I know I haven't updated in a hilariously long time. It's been really busy for me lately, but I finally got some time to write. Hope you enjoy!

"Hurry, Val!" I yelled, sprinting across the town square of the nearest village. A quick glance to the right showed Val easily keeping up with my face pace, her long hair blowing behind her at the inhuman speed of our run. Though the predicament of our situation could be considered serious, her face glowed with childish glee, which was refreshing; she was, after all, only twelve. When she beamed at me I couldn't help but grin right back.

Our pursuer, a middle aged woman with a large handbag, had given up about 30 seconds into the chase, but we had decided it was safer to get as far away as possible before stopping to rest. Honestly, I don't get what was getting the woman all worked up. Sure, Val used one of her powers to pick-pocket her of an expensive Blackberry phone, but by the bored looks of her kids and husband, we were doing everyone a favor. Too bad everyone didn't think that way; we probably had ten minutes before a police cruiser would round the corner to arrest us.

"This is good," I gasped, sliding to a halt at a bus stop at the other side of town. "We better make this quick." Val gave me a quick nod of the head and handed over a shining phone. I grabbed it and unlocked the keyboard fast. Pressing the numbers I had memorized from Fang's phone directory, I put the phone to my ear and listened to the rings.

"Hello?" a feminine voice answered laughter evident in the tone. At first I thought I had the wrong number but a check at the screen showed this was the right number.

"Thank God I got a hold of you," I breathed heavily, still out of breath from the unexpected run. ""Val, you could have been a little bit more careful," I chastised, frowning at Val. She gave a half hearted shrug of guilt.

"Who are you?" Max said, the tone suddenly suspicious and careful, confirming my theory that this voice did belong to Max, the stubborn girl I had heard so much about.

"Sorry," I replied apologetically. "I'm Rachel. A friend of Fang's?" There was a long pause from the line and light static filled up the silence. Finally, a cold voice asked, "what do you want?"

Bold, straight, and to the point. I could deal with that. "I get you probably wish I didn't call," I started, sighing.

"You've got that right," the voice said tenaciously. "Again, what do you want?"

"I've got a message for you. Apparently, you'll know what it means. Does a place called The Galaxy Emporium mean anything to you?" I asked warily, hoping not to sound like a complete nutjob. Fang hadn't told me much about the plan, probably because he was afraid I would do exactly what I was doing now, but he had told me that there was supposed to be some message waiting for his old flock at this store.

To my dismay, Max chuckled at the mention of whatever this place is. "Yeah, sure. Why?"

This was starting to tread too closely to the plan. There was a big difference between breaking a small rule and telling the teen all about her destiny. "That's all I have," I said, deciding to take a safer path. Val and I were already going to be in big trouble. "That's the sign." And with that, I hung up, leaving Max to figure out the rest.

"So how'd it go?" Val questioned, eyebrows raised. I just shrugged. "As well as it could go."

There was a short pause. "I'm guessing you're not going to tell me what just happened."

I gave a smile. "Yeah, sorry. You'll find out soon enough, trust me. At this rate, Fang's probably going to confess the whole thing when we get back. Just keep your fingers crossed." I glanced down at the phone in my hand. "We should return this. Think you can sneak in?"

Val nodded, grabbing the phone from the tips of my fingers. "I'll be back in a few," she called out, running back into the busy city.

When I woke up, I found myself lying in a really awkward position: I was on my right staring straight out through the bars of my cage to a group of people studying me from a safe distant. My right arm was stretched out behind me, numb from being laid on so long. My legs, stretched out as far as they could were bandaged and sadly didn't have anything restricting the blood flow; for all mutants, I knew that anesthetic wore off quickly. After all, scientists were careful not to give us a dosage big enough to kill us, just give a brief session of no pain. In the end, they honestly didn't try to kill us, even with testing; they didn't want to lose their precious subjects too soon. That didn't mean they tried not to hurt us, though.

I slowly untangled myself slowly, wincing form the pain in both my legs and arm as the blood started flowing. The people all froze, staring at me with wide eyes; when I finally got up I glared at them and they cowered. Weaklings.

"This is one of our more successful subjects," said a scientist, giving me an almost gentle look. Yeah, innocent babies get heartless experiments and I get the kindness. Twisted world this sure is.

"What's her name?" one man said, gazing at the doctor, but keeping in his peripheral vision like I was going to bust out of the steel cage anytime. One power I did not have: inhuman strength. Squirrels are about the size of a stuffed animal; apparently it took all they had for the scientists to keep me at a human size and strength. My body tried to make it as light as it could be, which meant muscles shrank, but they reversed the process. It gave me an almost normal appearance, besides the awesome tail I acquired after they started the testing.

"I can talk, you know," I growled, and everyone besides the scientist gasped. "For your information, it's not Subject 17468 or whatever you crazy people call me. It's Gina." When the man stilled stared at me with awe, I rolled my eyes. "Look, just between you and me, I don't have the brain the size of peanut. It's the size of an orange," I fake whispered, glancing at the rest of the group like I was afraid they would hear.

The guy actually cracked a grin. "So what's special about you, hon?" he asked me friendly, as if I wasn't sitting in a dog cage.

"Gina," I hissed, glaring at him. "And I thought that would be obvious," I replied, flicking my tail around a bit. The man looked like he was going to swat me like a fly before the doctor stepped in.

"I doesn't matter what her name is," he called out, addressing the crowd gathered. "All you need to know is that the White House is starting to come to an understanding of what we're actually doing. You're job is to stop that from happening. You will keep experiments like Subject 18467 here from escaping and if they do, hunt down and exterminate the offending target. Do you understand?" The crowd murmured a reply of acceptance. "Now," he started again, "if you'll move on to the next room my colleague, Dr. Schwit, will show you the ropes on how to outwit a mutant."

Everyone started to exit out a door to the left, but the man who had spoken to me was stopped by the doctor. "We need to speak to you about tracking down our target, Maximum Ride. Shall we go to a more private room?" he asked, eyeballing my presense in the room.

"No, I believe this is just fine," he said highly, and gave me a charming smile. "I don't think Gina will say anything. Right, Gina?" I glowered, spitting in his direction which fell only a few inches short. He ignored the gesture."

"As you know, we have questioned Jeb, the only one known to be closest to her, besides her own flock. He hasn't relinguished any information about her whereabouts, though we have kept looking into it. As far as we know, Subject 2, also known as 'Fang', has left the flock for a mission of his own. Obviously, we also have no idea where he is or else we would have him in custody at this moment.

"Further addressing Subject 2, we have many sightings of what was believed to be a large black bird when our other locations have been infiltrated. We do not know if this is him, but it's something to look into. Whenever a place is infiltrated, only files or mutants are found missing. You do understand, however, that I only give you this information to help the capture of Maximum. Until further directions are given, you are only to help with this mission, Mr. Lenning." the doctor finished swiftly.

"Of course," Mr. Lenning said smoothly, his eyes lowered as he stood in the presense of a man in higher rank then him. "I'll look into the questioning of Mr. Batchelder." But as he said this, I must have been the only one who noticed the glint of disrespect in his eyes, the only sign that he wasn't as obedient as thought to be.

"That is all," the doctor said, leading Mr. Lenning through the door to the right. "I'll be back for you," he snapped at me. Still mad about the cheek, huh?

"Pleasure meeting you, Miss. Gina," Mr. Lenning said politely, giving me a quick grin before leaving the room. I was left in the silence of the bleach white room, trying to follow these further developments in my mind.

And there you have it! Chapter Nine! I finally finished it. For some reason I keep picturing Val as Rue from The Hunger Games, which is totally opposite to her real looks. Please review!