Me: Alright...I'm not in a good mood right now

Iggy: You can say that again

Me: -eyeroll- So I'm just gonna update this (I wrote it yesterday but didn't have time to put it up) and then go and do something that will cheer myself up.

Iggy: Good luck with that.

Me: -sigh- yeah...enjoy guys.

The three of us piled into the trailer - making sure to pull funny faces at Banjo and Goon one on the way - and closed the door behind us. When we were all inside, Monique sat down on a swivel chair which was in front of a huge mirror with pictures around the edges. One that particularly caught my eye was an old photo of Monique when she was about seven, standing in front of a smiling couple. Monique was cuddling a little puppy close to her chest while the couple – most likely her parents – each had a hand on her shoulder. They looked so…happy. Like a picture perfect family.

"So," Monique started, swivelling around in her chair. "Where are you guys from?"

I answered her question, and kept my eyes locked with hers. She seemed all excited and bouncy as if she'd just swallowed ten cups of coffee in under five minutes.

"Oh wow, that is so cool! And so far away! Did you come all the way here to see my concert? You guys are amazing. I'd be glad to sign some autographs!" She blurted out, reaching for my notepad.

Did I say ten cups of coffee? I really meant fifteen.

Blinking once in astonishment, I handed her the pad and she scribbled something down on it.

"So who do I make this out to?"

I decided to take the risk. After all, I really had nothing to lose at this point.

"Maximum Ride," I said simply and she stopped writing abruptly. "And as for these two," I gestured at the boys, "you can make theirs out to Iggy and Fang."

Monique dropped her pen and stared at me, her eyes filling with tears. "Max? Is…is that really you? It's me! Nudge!"

"No!" I exclaimed in fake shock. "I really had no idea, Monique Carlson."

She laughed and stood, practically barrelling me over when she hugged me. "I can't believe that you're here! At my concert! In New York! And Fang and Iggy are too! OMG!" She unwrapped herself from me and hugged them both and I was surprised to see that they were both smiling from ear to ear. Well, Fang's lips were tilted slightly upwards. That was enough for him.

"But…how did you find me, and what are you doing here…together?" She said the word 'together' as if it was absolutely impossible that we could have found each other. And I guess it almost was. But here we were, standing in Nudge's trailer – the Flock. Well, most of it now.

I smiled and told her the story as quickly as possible. How Fang had showed up at my highschool and how Iggy had appeared shortly after. Then about how Igs heard her on TV and I made sure to mention the parts about how I had been desperately searching for the Flock and, oh yeah, the fact that some guys in black were looking for us and probably hunting us down at this very moment. I couldn't forget about that now could I?

At the last piece of news she stared at me in shock. "But they let us go! Why would they want us again?"

"I don't know," I admitted. "But one of my friends back home was in on it…and, strangely enough, my science teacher Mr. Batchelder."

Nudges mouth opened but no words came out and her eyes widened . I was afraid that they were about to fall onto the carpet at any minute.

"Max," she said slowly. "Don't…don't you recognise that name?"

I bit my lip thinking hard. Batchelder…Batchelder…it sounded familiar but I wasn't sure if I was just relating the name to the memory of my science teacher or something more. Suddenly Iggy gasped.

"Are you thinking it could be Jeb Batchelder?"

Nudge nodded quickly. "That's exactly who I was thinking!"

"Are we missing something?" Fang cut in, and Nudge's eyes shot towards him as if she'd forgotten he was there for a moment. Fang has that affect on people.

"Ah," she said as if understanding. "You two left beforehand didn't you! Well I'll tell you what happened. You and Fang had gone, right? And there were just four of us left. And we were scared for a while that you hadn't really been taken away by nice people and you'd actually been murdered or something. I mean, we had a good reason to believe that, right? It was just so scary and the two oldest members had left and there was only four of us and-"

"Nudge!" I cut in before she started to tell the whole story again. "Who is Jeb? Tell us that."

She sucked in a breath so she could start talking again. "Anyway, Iggy and I were taken a day after you two were taken. However, on the same day that you were taken, two Whitecoats came in to…uh…inspect us. They kind of just walked up and down, looking at us all. One of them was angry about how you and Fang had been taken away first, and that we were worth nothing without you guys. While the other one was encouraging the first Whitecoat, saying that it was for the good of the experiment or something. That it would be good for us to get out into the world…I think."

"Yeah," Iggy interrupted, probably sensing our confusion at the way that Nudge told it. She spoke so fast that I could barely understand what she was saying and I was glad when Iggy continued for her. "I remember now. Then the angry Whitecoat said something like "you're endangering the experiment, Batchelder!" then stormed out, probably trying to be dramatic but he really looked like an idiot - so to speak. But the Whitecoat that was left knelt down next to us and introduced himself as 'Jeb Batchelder' and said that it was his idea to let us go and we were very special. He said that it was important that we didn't mess it up. Whatever that means."

"And you neglected to tell us this until now?" I asked him, feeling slightly annoyed. The crisis with Mr. Batchelder and Ali could have been avoided. Well, not with Ali...

"I forgot, ok? It didn't seem like a piece of vital information so I didn't think that I needed to share it," Iggy said sheepishly, running a hand through his strawberry blonde hair.

I sighed. "I guess it doesn't matter now. What's happened has happened."

Just then, a loud knocking came from the door, followed by Banjo's voice.

"Monique! What are you doing? You're on in five minutes!"

"Oh no," she said, looking between us and the door. "Can you guys-"

"Of course we'll wait for you," I interrupted, understanding what she wanted us to do. "Just meet us here when you finish your concert, 'k?"

She squealed and hugged me again, clearly overjoyed to have us back. But that was pretty short-lived.

"Shh!" Iggy interrupted, his head tilting slightly in concentration. Everyone paused and listened hard for a moment before Iggy spoke again. "Oh no."

"What is it?" I barely whispered.

"They're here! Outside!" He whisper shouted.

But before any of us had any time to react there was a loud rap at the door followed by someone saying in a gravelly voice "Little pigs, little pigs, let me come in." Then, the door was quickly ripped off its hinges. The four of us stepped back and stared in horror at the Eraser. His teeth were bared in a fierce gesture and his muscles bulged with power. His eyes flickered between each of us hungrily as if we were his next meal.

I hadn't seen Erasers in six years. I wasn't even sure they still existed. But here it was, standing in the doorway of Nudge's trailer. God my life sucks.

"Don't worry, I let myself in," he growled before lunging right at me.

Me: Yeah...the peace couldn't last forever

Iggy: Wait...if Jeb never trained us properly...

Me: Then none of you learned how to fight? Exactly. You guys are screwed.

Iggy: HEY!

Me: You are. Anyway, R&R? Sorry, it's really just a filler...but yeah :)

-Bell and Ig