I stared at the six kids standing in front of me, raising an eyebrow as I examined each of them. Just as I finished glancing over the tallest one that was no doubt blind, the oldest girl stepped forward. Eyes darting over her, I felt my lip curl back in distain. She had a confident arrogance about her that immediately made me dislike her. Maybe it was that we were both Alphas? Who knew.

“Who are you?” The girl questioned, a hand on her hip as she glared at me.

Staring down at the brunette, I scoffed. “Oh, don’t try to act all confident when I just saved your ass.”

For an example, Torn hooked a thumb over her shoulder, making five of the six kids look up to see the Fly Boys – they had called them that – which were suspended in the air by pillars of ice.

“How did you do that?” The girl questioned, her eyes narrowed in suspicion while the other five tensed immediately.

“How do you fly? How does the little one read minds? How does shadow boy turn invisible? Answer my question and it’ll answer yours.”

“You’re a mutant too.” The blind one said, his eyebrows furrowed.

“Yup. Tornado Bird, at your service. It’s been a long time, Maximum Ride.”

“How do you know my name?”

“It’s hard to forget Jeb’s daughter.” Max’s eyes narrowed at that comment and I grinned mischievously, putting my hands behind my head as I stared at the group. I paused for a second as I heard the sound of whooshing air before four people dropped from the air.

Frowning, I turned to glance at the people behind me, getting shot looks of annoyance as they met my gaze. “Torn, a warning would’ve been nice instead of you dive-bombing the damn R.E.’s.”

I looked at the one who spoke, staring into blood-red eyes with my own blue eyes that were almost black. “Pyro, you saw they were getting their asses kicked.”

Rolling my eyes, I turned in the direction of the group of R.E.s that I had frozen still. The Robotic Erasers, as we called them, were still making sounds even though they were frozen, making it obvious that they were still active. Narrowing my eyes, I raised a hand up and slashed it in the air, the ice become shattered and fragmented. Pieces of R.E. dropped to the ground around us, the water having torn their electronic bodies apart.

Turning, I saw the six kids staring at my Pack, a critical look in five of them while the blind one had a concentrated look on his face while he no doubt listened to us intently, hearing the rustling of wings.

Suddenly, I felt the familiar sensation of someone poking my mind and I instantly brought up my mental barriers, frowning down at the blonde girl that looked no more than six.

“Sorry, kid. That trick ain’t gonna work.”

She frowned in annoyance. “How can you block me?”

“Trance here has the ability to use hypnosis. Goes into you mind and fucks shit up. Learned to block it by now, yeah.” I patted the shoulder of the youngest member of my Pack, and the only other female. She had hypnotic purple eyes and bright orange hair, both being from an experiment gone wrong. She used to have light brown hair and pretty green eyes, but that was no longer the case. Most of our hair was unusual, actually, and our eyes.

“Where do you guys come from, and how do you know so much about us?” Max questioned, her brown eyes now narrowed in extreme suspicion.

Tilting my head, I grinned a bit. “You don’t remember? We’re the first avian hybrids. I, personally, was the first successful experiment. Then there’s Pyro, Snap, Copy and Trance. The latter two are your age.” I pointed to each one in particular before waving a hand at Max.

“How old are you, then?” The boy with black hair questioned.

“Sixteen. So ‘s Pyro, though Snap’s fifteen.” I ruffled Snap’s dark silver hair, gaining a silver eyed glare from the slightly taller boy.

“No meaning to interrupt, but should we still be standing here?” The blind one suddenly questioned, his head turning as he no doubt listened for anyone that would approach.

“Yeah, we should probably get going, nice meetin’ ya.” I waved before opening up my seventeen foot wingspan, deciding that we would continue on our way to Florida like we had planned. Before I could lift myself into the air, however, Max stepped forward.

“Wait, I have more questions!” She demanded, making me frown. Glancing over at the rest of my Pack, I raised an eyebrow in a silent question. They exchanged a few glances before shrugging.

“We could win against them easily, anyway.” Snap pointed out before he opened brown streaked eighteen foot wings and took a large jump in the air before within two strokes he was hovering about seventy feet above us.

Glancing up at the silver-haired fifteen year old, I turned my attention back to Max and nodded. “We’ve rented a suite at one of the hotels. Follow us if you want your answers.”

Max looked surprised but nodded, stepping back as I jumped about four feet in the air before rising quickly as my brown and white wings stroked hard against the air. Quickly I was beside Snap, glancing down at the six kids as the rest of my Pack joined me. They were taking running jumps into the air, their wings snapping open as they stroked several times to gain altitude.

“They’re not as powerful.” I muttered in amusement before looking around at my Pack. We were all engrained with raptor DNA, giving us strong wings meant for speed and lifting. I, personally, had the genes of a Golden Eagle, making my wings look just like theirs did.

Pyro, my second in command, had Harpy Eagle genes, giving him black wings that were white and striped on the inside. Snap had Eurasian Eagle Owl; while Copy had Bearded Vulture and Trace got had the genes of a Steller’s Sea Eagle. Each bird was unique in its own way, though they all shared the title of top raptors. All of them were within the Top 10 when it came to formidable bird of prey.

This was good for us as a Pack, however, seeing as we all had the genes of highly predatory birds that were known for their strength or speed.

“Where’s the hotel?” Max’s voice snapped me out of my reverie, though I had known that they had approached us only a second before. I was used to focusing on two things at once.

“Northeast.” I answered, closing my wings for a second so I would drop away from our bird-kid circle. Opening them once more, I flew speedily in the direction I knew our hotel to be in. I heard the sound of ten pairs of wings following after me and I smirked for a moment before my eyes caught the sight of our hotel. Angling my wings, I drifted in a circle around a hundred feet above it before catching sight of our room. The balcony was clearly recognizable due to the bed sheet we had placed on the floor that was held in place by a few of the chairs.

Flapping my wings a few times, I rose up in height before closing them and dive-bombing. Twenty feet above the balcony I opened my wings again to slow my descent before I hovered a foot above the ground. Closing my wings, I landed on the floor and opened the balcony door, walking in casually and making a quick perimeter check to see if anyone had snuck in.

As I did my check I heard the sounds of four more people landing, signifying that the whole of my Pack were back. Then came the uneven landing of one of the other kids.

Walking back into the living room where everyone was gathered, I watching as the blind one landed, the youngest boy having landed before him and was guiding him onto the balcony with his voice.

Surprisingly, the blind one had the best landing compared to the next four that made it onto the balcony. Though, the blonde girl was right behind him. Max and the other two had tried the dive bombing my Pack was known for and the younger girl had almost fallen straight on her face.

“Wonderful landings.” I told them, walking by Max as she entered the room and took a seat in the only armchair. My pack was on one couch while the three youngest of the other pack were on the other couch. The blind one was sitting on the armrest while the other older boy leaned against the wall. Max, however, was standing with her arms crossed beside the blonde one, as if waiting for an attack.

I watched her for a moment before letting out my comment in a drawling tone. “You’re so annoyingly tense. I’ve already told you my Pack’s names, ages and emitted how I know you. Know what you’ve done? Nothing. I only know your name, Max. I’ve been calling that one the blind kid in my mind and it’s getting to be annoying.”

“It’s Iggy.” He commented, sightless pale blue eyes turning to me and I let out a ‘hm’, knowing that nodding would be useless.

“I’m Gazzy!” The youngest boy let out, waving a hand with a bright smile on his face. I nodded to him before glancing at the youngest girl by his side.

“….Angel.” She said after a moment of considering, her eyes having looked over my Pack in an evaluating manner.

“I’m Nudge! It’s cool to meet some more kids like us!” She said excitedly, making me smirk at her happy tone. Turning my eyes to the kid against the wall, I raised an eyebrow.

He stared back at me for a few moments before looking away and speaking in a quiet voice. “Fang.”

“There. That’s better. Now, Maximum, watcha wanna know?” I asked, raising an eyebrow and watching her. As she stared back at me, Trance got up from her seat and headed into towards the kitchen.

“Mountain Dew.” I called, my eyes never leaving Max’s.

“How did you get away from the School?”

“The school….? Kid, what school? We’ve never been to one of those damn buildings. Can’t deal with teachers.” I waved my hand in dismissal and she furrowed her eyebrows.

“No, not a school, the School. The place where we were kept.”

“Oh, the Workshop? That’s our name for it. Anyway, we got out approximately two years before you guys did. Don’t ya remember? Made a huge fuss for the whitecoats, I believe. We didn’t really stick around to watch the aftermath. Pretty much, I discovered my icy powers,” I smirked, lifting up a hand and forming a little figure of a bird in my hand from the water droplets in the air, “and we broke out and left. Got blood on our hands along the way, but it’s expected.”

As they took in this information, Trance came back into the room and handed me my can of soda while she sat back on the couch, a Pepsi in her hands.

“Why didn’t you break anybody else out?” Angel questioned, her blue eyes turning to stare at me.

Raising an eyebrow, my expression turned to one of amusement. “Why do you think? I got them four our and we left. We were in one room, and there was no one else. I wasn’t going to waste time and free others when there was the chance we could escape.”

Max looked disgusted suddenly and I smirked, turning my cold bluish-black eyes to her. “Does that disturb you? The fact that I would put myself above other mutants only to save my own skin? It doesn’t disturb me. I took my Pack and I got out. It’s a survival instinct. I’m not meant to save the world or anything, so I’ve got a free pass from being caring or selfless.”

A grin grew on my features suddenly and I waved to Max. “It’s your job to save the world, though, isn’t it? You’ve got to deal with those issues. Plus, you’ve been raising children….though they’re far too mature than what’s normal, I believe.”

Turning my eyes to Angel, I gave her a knowing look before taking a sip of my Mountain Dew. Almost instantly, the cold aura I was emitting diminished and I turned back to my mischievous, happy self instead of the cold, calculating leader I actually was.

I watched as Pyro rolled his eyes and spoke. “Don’t feel too insulted by her. She gets kinda ruthless when she hasn’t had some Mountain Dew. I think the sugar makes her more kindhearted.”

“But you forget, Pyro, candy does nothing for me.” I added, a teasing tone to my voice. He sent me an annoyed look before rolling his eyes.

Suddenly, Iggy spoke, dragging my attention to the strawberry blond. “Where have you all been for the past six years, then? I’ve never heard of other bird-kids out an about.”

“That’s ‘cause of Trance and the fact that we like to avoid detection. Trance wipes anyone’s minds that see us, and usually gets us into places to sleep, like here. So, we’re not seen at all during the day since that’s when we sleep. Flying during night is much easier, anyway. The sun’s not glaring down at us and we’ve all got pretty good night vision.” Shrugging, I took another gulp of Mountain Dew.

“How come you’re so open about this information? How do you know we’re not spying for the whitecoats?” Max suddenly questioned, her eyes set into a glare as she crossed her arms.

“Well, asides from the fact that R.E.s were attacking you, and that I’ve read about all of you in files, I’d say it’s because we can get rid of your memories fairly easily, right Trancy?”

The purple-eyed girl looked up, glancing over the six bird-kids before nodding and speaking in her hypnotic voice. “It’ll be fairly simple, Torn.”

“Point proven.” I grinned, seeing the looks the bird-kids were shooting the youngest member of my Pack. They had all been affected by her voice, making them uneasy.

“Why should we trust you?” Fang suddenly questioned.

“I saved your asses. That’s enough, usually. I’m a mutant, too. That’s another thing.” I said in a deadpan tone, making Pyro facepalm at my insulting tone.

“Torn….” He groaned. I raised my eyebrows in his direction and he simply shook his head in exasperation.

Copy suddenly lot out a long, exasperated sigh. He hadn’t spoken thus far and truthfully, I was surprised. But now, he spoke. “This is going nowhere. How about we just agree that Max is a piece of work and doesn’t trust people and let us move on?”

I blinked before pointing to the light brown haired boy and glancing over at Pyro while nodded. He glared at me in annoyance and I smirked.

“I am not a piece of work!” Max growled.

“Well….”

“Shut up, Ig.”