Maximum Ride: The New Breed

*cool with me.*

(Lexy)

I grabbed my shirt it was already soaked and I sat there and cried. couldn't hold it back anymore. I tried to control it but I just couldn't my ribs started to throb.

"Go to hell." I replied to Stella.

Stella wrinkled her nose, "Now Lexy!" she yelled, "I just saved your life! Don't tell me to go to hell, you go to hell."

"Don't you get it?! The only reason you saved me was because I was in your freaking arms! You should have saved her...... not me. You only saved me cause I was in your arms!!!!" I sobbed.

Rose tried to hug me.

"Don't touch me, Rose, I'm already crying." I yelled. "You were suppose to look out for her, not me, her. I was fine."

"You weren't breathing damnit!" Reed yelled.

Blood still poured out of me, I couldn't feel pain only the blood as I laid myself against Blade's body and sobbed.

"I think we should burry her here." Rose whispered to Stella.

*sorry it's short!!!!*

Reed-

I took a deep breath.

"Yes, we can't stay around here for long." I said. "We need to take care of Blade and then get out of here."

Mayze nodded and took control of the situation.

((Mayze))

"Come on Lexy, get up." I told her, holding back a tear or two. I wasn't wracked with grief but I felt the pain everyone else did with Blades death. Lexy stuck her middle finger up at me.

I snorted, "Real mature, Lex."

She shuddered and slowly stood, her eyes and face were hard, "I'm not digging my own friends grave." Her hand went to her side.

I sighed, she just couldn't not get hurt could she? I gave her an Advil, a vitamin K, and some bandages out of my cargo pants, "You'll need to bind her up, Stella. I need to bury her."

Stella nodded and went to help Lexy. Reed and ZT came next to me, "How're we gonna bury her?" ZT asked.

I shook my head, "The best we have is sticks. I think we should get started."

We worked through most of the day, digging a deep grave so animals couldn't get to her. Reed and I lifted Blade and slowly set her into her new home. The flock bowed their heads and wished Blade was in a better place. After she was buried we found a piece of bark and engraved her name on it. It was the best we could do with what we had, nothing compared to the burial I wanted to give her.

"I think we need to find some shelter." Reed voiced my concerns about the incoming storm clouds. I nodded, "Time to go guys."

One by one we each took off into the sky, a second glance back at our friends grave. I started to feel better when we were in the air. I kept a close eye on Lexy, who looked like she was going to be sick. We flew for a while until ZT spotted something.

"I think I see a cave!" ZT yelled over the winds. I couldn't even switch my eyes to find the easy flying places, the wind thrashed us around mercilessly. Everything was gold. I turned my eyes back and looked at the cave we were headed to. It wasn't really a cave, just an indent on a cliff. We all landed, grateful for some shelter from the wind and rain which had started.

I leaned back onto the cave wall sleepily, ZT sat beside me. "You ok? You didn't cry."

I nodded, "I'm fine. If I start to cry I'm afraid everyone might. Blade was a good friend."

He sighed and nodded, "Get some rest. Reed said we should move first thing in the morning. He still wants to show us that apple orchard of his."

I missed the last part about the orchard, my eyes closed and my mind tuned out.

(ZT)

My thoughts enveloped me as I sat in the cave. I was the only one still awake--or at least the only one who wasn't pretending to sleep. So the whitecoats had upgraded? Flybots now, over Erasers.

I could still take them. I grinned in the darkness.

Then I remembered my encounter with a robot Eraser. It couldn't even fly, but it still had me. Of course, I was weakened from the battle just before, but... well, there wasn't going to be much time to rejuvenate between battles with the pace that the whitecoats were going. Already one of us had died... and two more showed up. Was it a coincidence, or were the whitecoats killing us off and sending mutants that were on their side. Mutants with trackers. So that they could follow us.

Reed had once had a tracker. And he had led us into a city where we had almost been killed. But that wasn't the whitecoats... it was a rat. But now we were following Reed unknowingly into an orchard. Where the Flybots--or whitecoats--could easily be hiding.

I shook the thoughts out of my head. Reed was on our side now. He had gotten rid of the tracker, so why would he want to go back to the whitecoats? I had to find out, so I called him over.

"Reed!" I whispered loudly.

He was awake, and he heard me. It was his choice as to whether he would come to me.

If not, I might have to go to him.

*Argh! I was gone skiing, and I missed the entire battle! Seriously, I think that I've missed all three of the last battles...*

Reed-

"What's up?" I asked ZT.

"Whos side are you really on? he asked me blunty.

"Do we have to talk about this now?" I asked him looking up at the stormy sky.

His silence told me that he did.

I sighed, "I used to think there were no sides, now I'm not so sure. I've been shown evidence that there are different sides, but I'm still not sure about what those sides are."

(Lexy)

I sat in the cave just staring at the ground not once looking up to see anyones face the blood from my hand still dripped and I held it out letting it drip to the floor. My hair was soaked with rain and everytime water or blood dripped it just hurt me inside. I ran out of tears as I sat and just stared, my secret had caused Blades death... it was all my fault because of my stupid secret my stupid stupid secret.

[Chaos]

Chaos tilted his wing feathers ever so slightly, adjusting to ride an air current. He could hear Lynx behind him, following suit.

His eyes automatically scanned the ground, searching for the rumored escapees. Escapees like him and Lynx, but different. The bushes and forage littered across the ground almost disguised the little cave. Of course, he thought, I bet that's where they are.

Lynx read the shift in his wings easily, and he heard her prepare for the dive. He folded his wings into his back, letting gravity control his speed.

When he was maybe four feet from the ground, he released his wings slowly, knowing that if he did it too fast he would most likely pull a muscle, and banked into a smooth landing.

Gleaming eyes peered at him from the darkness.

**okay, go get mad and ask him questions and be suspicious all you want!**

((Mayze))

"Mayze, wake up!" ZT's harsh whisper was in my ear.

I opened my eyes reluctantly, "What's wrong?" I saw it was still dark outside.

"Look."

I turned my head up just in time to see two figures land on the ground. They looked like us. I slowly stood, the rest of the flock followed me. We met the two outsiders at the edge of the cave, their wind blown hair said they had traveled far.

"Friend or foe?" I asked warily. That line seemed familiar and then I remembered that's what the rats had said to us.

The attractive one with the black hair grinned, "Depends. Who might you be?"

I looked him over, eyes careful, "We'd like to know about you first. We're larger than you." I added a light threat.

He smirked again, "Very well. My name's Chaos."

I turned my eyes towards the female, "And you?"

Her golden eyes met mine, "Lynx."

I looked back at Chaos, "What's your purpose? We haven't provoked you."

I caught movement out of the corner of my eye and saw Reed come and stand beside me. The rest of the flock followed until we all had stood within close proximity of each other, clearly showing our strong numbers.

Chaos kept a small smile, "Well, our story is long and we're very tired. Would you mind if we stayed with you? You are the leader, correct?"

I wondered for a moment if I really was the leader of the flock. I nodded, "Yes, I am. You may stay for the night." I switched my eyes, seeing the currents. The wind was steadily flowing towards them. No hostility. I switched back, "Any objections?"

The flock shook their heads. ZT hesitated but shook his. The pair relaxed as I left to sit by the fire. Everyone followed and I offered Chaos a seat at my right and Lynx a seat at my left. They sat and stretched, "It started a while ago," Chaos began.

Just some musings... I wanted to write and didn't know what to write so decided to tell my thoughts while Chaos talked. I would like to know what he'll say though. Hint, hint.

Lynx-
I tuned out Chaos and concentrated on the flock, first, the leader, I felt a vague uneasiness towards her and sensed that I’d know her before – or had I? Next, the albino, interesting, I’d never seen a mutant albino before. She seemed to be a calm person, not a leader, but very able to think clearly in any situation, Stella seemed to be her name. Judging from how she keeps on interrupting, Rose is definitely a person who can think on her feet and has great ideas. ZT… wonder what it stands for? Something is happening between him and Mayze; he seems to be very protective of her and distrustful of us. My eyes wandered over to Lexy, comparing the cuts and bruises on her and the ones on everybody else, she is amazingly accident prone. Making a mental note to take care of those cuts, I stared with interest at the last mutant, tall dark and handsome I thought with some amusement. Reed. Now where…

Just some musings... I wanted to write and didn't know what to write so decided to tell my thoughts while Chaos talked. I would like to know what he'll say though. Hint, hint.

Lynx-
I tuned out Chaos and concentrated on the flock, first, the leader, I felt a vague uneasiness towards her and sensed that I’d know her before – or had I? Next, the albino, interesting, I’d never seen a mutant albino before. She seemed to be a calm person, not a leader, but very able to think clearly in any situation, Stella seemed to be her name. Judging from how she keeps on interrupting, Rose is definitely a person who can think on her feet and has great ideas. ZT… wonder what it stands for? Something is happening between him and Mayze; he seems to be very protective of her and distrustful of us. My eyes wandered over to Lexy, comparing the cuts and bruises on her and the ones on everybody else, she is amazingly accident prone. Making a mental note to take care of those cuts, I stared with interest at the last mutant, tall dark and handsome I thought with some amusement. Reed. Now where…

**ooh the fun part!**
[Chaos]

Chaos grinned at the listening mutants, they were real! He shook his head slightly, concentrating, and went on,

"I'm sure you know all about the big fight Max and her flock had at the Itex headquarters in Germany. Well, some of the scientists survived and apparently one of her flock left their blood on the floor. So, the scientists scooped it up and dumped it under a microscope, they wanted to create some sort of bird army to get rid of Max and the gang. They used the successes they saw in the blood to make sure they didn't get any deformities.

"From there, they just got themselves some embryos and bird genes and wa-la! I suppose it's only fair to warn you that I'm actually 3% bird, instead of 2%. They wanted to make me fly better, and hey I guess it worked and all but I can be a little strange, at least that's what Lynx says. We don't know if Lynx is 2% or #% though...

"Anyways, it didn't work too well for them, we weren't as... obedient as they had tried to make us. We escaped from that torture chamber some while ago, it wasn't too hard. They shouldn't have made us when they were rebuilding their headquarters. That's about it, we flew all the way here, any questions?"

He smiled again, looking over at Lynx and then back at all the new faces.

(Lexy)

My eyes finally looked at Mayze and Stella. I made a threating growl, Mayze looked at me.

"A word, Mayze." I said.

"Sure." She acting like there was no problem.

We both walked to the very far bak of the cave as Reed, ZT, Rose, and Stella talked to the new comers.

"What the hell are you thinking? We don't know them." I stared at her with a horrified expression.

"Their just like us. Plus it's not your choice anyways." Mayze said.

"Your not the leader of this flock, so stop trying to act like it." I whispered, and the worse thing about me whispering... it was worse than yelling. If she knew me at all she would have known that.

"Your way out of line." Mayze said with glare.

"What are you going to do, clip my wings or beat me?" I snarled.

"Don't tempt me." She said not smiling, this wasn't a friendly conversation.

"it's a mistake of getting close to them, you know that."

"Don't misjudge them, like you misjudge everyone else. Your no hero, the one that should be laying under that dirt is you, not Blade." Mayze said so fast I wasn't sure I'd heard her right. But the truth was I did. She really said what I thought she did.

That did it. I sank back on my heels with a hurt expression.

"Lexy... I'm so sorry the words came out before-"

I had a hurt expression while I put my index finger up like I was counting one.

"I didn't deserve that." I said walking away still hurt as I slowly opened my wings and sadly flew out of the cave... hopefully none of them would follow me.

*sorry had to sturr up some kind of drama.*

(ZT)

Mayze came back and sat down near me. I grinned and said, "So you're the leader? Since when?" I was joking, and she could tell... at least, I thought she could. But she wasn't happy, I knew that just after I said it.

Something must have happened with her and Lexy.

"You want to go see where she goes?" I asked. "We won't bother her yet, she wants to be alone. But that's the problem. We're on the run, we can't ever be alone."

Mayze nodded... my words had taken effect.

Together we flew off into the night, leaving the others with the two new mutants.

I hoped that the others wouldn't be attacked... that the new guys wouldn't have trackers... because anyone could tell that Mayze and I were some of the strongest in the flock. After all, no one had argued with Mayze saying that she was the leader, and I had probably taken more blows than most in the flock. Except Lexy, who also was gone... and Blade. Blade. I hadn't know her too well, but she was one of the best at joining the flock together. She had probably been one of the first to really trust Reed (not just for a little bit 'cause he saved your life), who was seeming to be okay now.

I hoped that they would all be okay. Everyone. Even--or maybe especially--the new ones.

Us mutants had a right to live... to live free. And I sure as hell was going to take it--as well as whoever I could take with me.

Especially Mayze. I flew a little closer and brushed her hand as we shot off into the night.

[Chaos]

"Well," Chaos said brightly, breaking the sudden silence, "That was... interesting?"

Most of them glared, Chaos knew they didn't trust him, but he couldn't blame them. They'd obviously been through a lot. He glanced at Lynx, shrugging.

"Anyone up for intros?" he asked, smiling again. They couldn't ignore him forever.