Note: I do not own Maximum Ride or it's characters. I only own Elisabeth.

It was dark. Probably around midnight. I couldn't be sure cause my watch broke like six months ago. That's what happens when you're a bird kid on the run. You can't keep anything nice. It either gets lost, broken in a fight, or you have to lose it 'cause it has a tracking device implanted in it. But, no matter. I needed to get rid of it anyway. It was starting to get on my nerves.

Where were we? At a School in New Jersey. We were on a rescue mission. We had to break out a high security prisoner. Jeb wouldn't tell us why she was in there or for what reason we had to break her out. He just told us what to do. It wasn't going to be easy. Stuff like this never is, especially for six mutants bird kids and their pet dog who were on the run. But no big deal. I mean, the worst that could happen to us would be getting captured, put in cages that were too small for us, getting tortured, being sold to foreign countries as weapons, or possibly dying. But like I said, no big deal right?

"Remind me again why we're doing this." Fang said impatiently. He really didn't want to be doing this. He saw no point in it. Why were they risking their lives to rescue a high security prisoner? If the whitecoats thought she was dangerous, shouldn't that tell them something? Or maybe she was a high security prisoner because she had tried to stop them? Fang hoped it was the second reason, but he wasn't going to risk his life to find out. It could just as easily be the first reason. He only came because Max had asked him to. Otherwise, he wouldn't be taking part in this hair-brained scheme at all. She was his only reason. If this girl was dangerous, he would have to protect Max and the others. That was his reason for going.

I sighed. "Because, as I've already told you, mom said it was important." I just wished I knew why. I don't think my mom really knew why either. If she did, she would tell me, right? Wouldn't she? Of course she would. Why wouldn't she? She's just doing it because Jeb said it was important. But why? Why is she listening to him? Because she trusts him. Why? Because he hasn't given her reason not to. But he has given me reason not to. But me and mom are two different people. No matter how much I am like her.

"And since when do you listen to adults?" Iggy asked, jerking me out of my thoughts. Honestly, those two were more irritating than the mad scientists who were constantly trying to get us. I mean could they just make this easy for me and not talk back? Of course not. They're boys. And not just any boys, but Fang and Iggy. The two most aggravating boys on the face of the earth. Sometimes it was hard to tell which one gave me more grief. Half the time it was Fang. The other half it was Iggy. It was like their life's mission was to see which one of them could pester me more. Get me more angry. Oh well, you can't help but love your brothers. Well...your friends who are like your brothers. Or something like that.

"Well Ig," I said, giving him an annoyed look I knew he couldn't see, "She is my mom so I kinda do have to listen to her." Right now, Iggy was the one getting on my nerves the most. I mean what did I have to do to get him to stop? Tie him and gag him? That was a possibility. No Max. You can't tie Iggy up no matter how much he annoys you. You need him. And besides, you wouldn't be able to live with yourself...for very long.

"Okay, okay. Don't have to get all touchy." he said. He didn't want me to get mad. If I got mad, I could blow the whole mission. That and he didn't want to have to deal with a very steamed Max. No, he didn't want that. The best idea was just leave me alone, so I could concentrate on the task ahead.

I shook my head and then looked around at the huge building. When I say it was huge, I mean it was huge. It was at least fifty feet high. Okay, maybe I'm exaggerating a little. But only a little. From our spot in a tree, I could see a huge training area. It was as big as two and a half football fields. No exaggeration there. I could just image all the kinds of nasty experiments that they trained there. Experiments that were far worse than Omega and the Gator Guys. Worse than anyone could even imagine. We flew out of the tree and landed on the ground, so we could get a better look at things.

Like Jeb said, there were no guards. Nope that would be too easy. Guards, we could handle. Robots, we could handle. But they had virtually nothing...outside. Just a security system on the side of the building. It was state of the art and almost impossible to hack. Almost.

Lucky for me I had an expert hacker with us. Unfortunately, the expert hacker was Nudge. I mean, I love the little kid, but she isn't that good at the whole stealth thing. She just can't seem to keep that mouth of hers shut. It's like when something pops into her head, she has to let the whole world know. But, she is a terrific little fighter, and she's very brave. But quiet? Not so much.

"Okay Nudge. There it is. Go do your stuff." I said edging her forward.

"Got it Max, but do you think after this we could get some ice-" See what I mean? Something pops into her head and then she just has to say, no matter if we are all about to die or not.

"Nudge, just go." I said glancing around for any signs of robots. Needless to say, I was a little worried. I mean, you would be too if the lives of you and your friends were in the hands of an eleven year old motormouth. Wouldn't you? I thought so. So, next time you're thinking "Come on Max, don't be a worry-wart." put yourself in my position and see how fearless you are. I'm betting on "not very". You'd probably be much more scared than me because you are not a mutant bird girl who can make a grown man scream for his mommy. At least, I don't think you are. And if you are, you'd probably be a little more scared than me, because...well, because you aren't Maximum Ride, the girl destined to save the world and all that stuff.

Nudge walked over to the computer. She laid her hands gently on the keyboard and closed her eyes. Two seconds later she smiled triumphantly. "I'm in." Well, thank goodness that was over.

Now it was time for phase two. I just hoped this part would go as planned. This was the part I wasn't sure about. I didn't know if this would work. I mean, we'd never used Total before. How did we know that he would actually fit through that tiny air vent? Jeb assured me that his calculations were right. As if that eased my mind. Calculations are off alot more than they are right on. How did I know this was going to be one of those right on target times? I didn't. And that's what made me nervous.

"Total, you know what to do right?" I knew he did. I mean, we only went over this a hundred million times! But still, I had to make sure. You can't be too careful. Besides, it would make me feel a whole lot better if I was absolutley positive that Total knew what to do and could do it. And besides that, if he didn't know what to do then I really didn't want to have to go over it while we were doing it.

Total scratched his ear with his hind leg. "Yeah, yeah. I go through the vent and unlock the door from the inside." Okay, so he knew what to do. I had to make sure, didn't I?

I rolled my eyes. "Then go and do it." Sheesh, this leader stuff was a real pain. I mean, couldn't they trust that I actually knew what I was doing? Alright, so at this particular moment I didn't have a clue what I was doing. I was just following Jeb's orders, doing what he told me to do, and going along with the plan. At least, I was going to until the plan went horribly wrong, like it always does, and I had to do what I always do. Make it up as I go along, and kick some major whitecoat butt. Now that was a plan.

Iggy unscrewed the vent and hoisted Total in. I was amazed. He actually fit, and there was some room too. Well, I was wrong. Maybe this would go smoothly for once. And maybe Nudge would shut up, Iggy and the Gasman would stop blowing up stuff, I would become a total girly-girl, and we would be normal kids. In other words, "No way!" So everything had gone right so far. Something bad was bound to happen soon. I mean we weren't inside yet. Who knew what horrors were awaiting us. Who knew if there were a thousand whitecoats waiting for us in there. Who knew that we weren't walking into a trap. If you guessed no one, then you'd be right! No one knew what was going to happen once we got inside, so let's just say I was pretty nervous.

"Cross your fingers." Iggy said.

"I don't have fingers." Total replied.

"Oh right."

"Can we hurry this up?" I asked tapping my foot and getting anxious. Our lives were dangling on the line and they thought this was the appropriate time to make jokes? I mean, my god. They might as well have shouted, "Hey whitecoats! Here we are! We came to break out a high security prisoner! Why don't you come out here and let us fight you! I mean, it's only six of us against thousands of you, your crazy experiments, and millions of Flyboys!" Did they want to get caught or something? Of course not, they're just trying not to be so nervous. If they're nervous, they might not do so well. I mean, this is a pretty big job for not so big kids and a little dog. Just because we had wings, could outrun a grown man, and kick butt didn't mean that we were indestructible.

I watched as Total disappeared into the vent. I was thankful that he was so small. I mean, none of us could fit in there, not even Angel even though she's only six. We were all tall for our age. That was presumably because of our bird DNA, but I'm pretty sure that if Iggy was a normal kid, he'd still be pretty tall. I mean, he was younger than Fang and he was like five inches taller and he still had some growing to do. We all did. I mean Angel was already almost as tall as my sister, Ella, and Ella was about six years older than her. But I'm getting off subject. Where was I? Oh yeah. Total had just went through the vent.

Now all we had to do was wait. For what? Who knew. Maybe Total had actually made it. Maybe they caught him. Maybe when the door opened Total would come out. Maybe an army of whitecoats and Flyboys would. All I could do was wait and be ready for whatever came through that door. Whether good or bad, I had to be prepared. If it was Total, I had to be prepared to rescue a prisoner. If it was whitecoats, I had to be prepared to fight. Come on Total. Come on. Hurry up. Our lives might depend on you. Don't get caught. Please. Come on Total, come on.