((Woo, Iggy! xD I just about took him; glad I don't have to. ;3 Just don't forget to post a bio...only, like, three of us actually know what Maximum Ride is. xD I've got great pics of Iggy, if you need an image.))

Fang's eyes narrowed in the darkness as he balanced Angel's message with Dravius's question. He sifted the words out carefully, then chose to answer Angel first:

Remember, I'm not a part of your flock anymore...you don't have to do anything for me. I couldn't think of another way out of this, though; and you know me - I hate asking for help. Be careful if you're gonna try to get me. They have Erasers again.

He then changed his focus to the other mutant, in a cage juxtaposed to him. "Outside. Busted outta this dump years ago." Fang said simply, still careful about betraying himself to the new experiments; he didn't want to give them false hope until he was certain he could trust them. He pitied them, really - they had never known the outside world without a ball-and-chain around their ankles, never flown freely in that endless blue...

He had to get out.

A snarl resounded from the cage above his; Fang reached up to grip the tail-tip that had sloughed down through the bars. "Raj, calm down. I'm here."

A gruff, low voice answered the Raven: "Fang? How'd they get us?"

"I don't know, buddy...I don't know." the avian said carefully, squeezing the cheetah's tail comfortingly.

Dravius seemed positivly stunned at Fang's answer, and he gently pulled his aching wings from his face to get a better look at the dark boy. "Really?" He said, his mismatched eyes suspicious. His long frame was folded almost in half to fit inside the tent that his double set of wings made in the small cage.

He unfolded his legs from the almost unnatural position they were smushed into. He stuck his middle finger into his mouth, then seemd to decide against it, opting instead to take a few feathers in his slender fingers and pull sharlpy, ripping the quills cleanly from the top of his wings, adding two spots of blood to the rivulets already trickling down the large grey feathers.

He jumped at the snarl from the cage atop Fang's, quickly refolding his body into its' former position and tucking his wings in front of him like a tent, his eyes glittering through the slits where the feathers that had been pulled out had not been regrown.

Max was silent for a few moments. What the hell was all this. She inhaled deeply and tried without much success to get a hold on her emotions before looking back at Angel. She shook her head.

"Angel please, I'm not mad at you..." She stopped and looked off at the wall for a moment, biting her lip. When she eventually turned back to Angel she was feeling slightly more apprehensive, all things considered. She kept a hold on Angel's shoulders as she spoke again, her voice straining to hide her urgency.

"Fang... What about Fang, Angel?"

~~~

Skai inhaled sharply at Fang's words. The outside?... He'd, he'd broken out of this place once before? That wasn't possible. It couldn't be.

"Tell me..." She spoke quietly, quietly enough to be barely audible to human ears. The experiments would have no problem catching her words, however. "How exactly you managed to get out of this place..."
She had no hope at all, but still, she was curious, as to how such a task was possible.

Skai looked up at the shape above Fang as Dravius recoiled from that sound. She herself had flinched slightly, but the fact that this new experiment new the one above meant without doubt they'd both been brought here. So then... This "Raj" had also escaped?...

Fang inclined his head to Dravius, then turned his head swiftly when another experiment spoke up. She looked nervous; he sighed inwardly, pity filling him as he dropped his shoulders and shook his wings from his back. Instantly, the tension bound up in the muscles relaxed, and his tendons rolled, allowing his bones to pop back into alignment. He hated having long wings.

"Yeah, I busted out. I-...had some help from the outside, though." He admitted to having help from the lead scientist, Jeb Bachelder, and he hated it. But this sounded crushing to his ears, and these experiments had no hope...Fang decided to break the tension. "What's your name?" He murmured quietly to the girl in the cage beside him. Raj remained silent, dropping to his belly and resting his chin on his folded paws. He was listening intently.

((He's talking to you, Skai. xD))

Angel wanted to reply but her eyes closed then and she looked to be in thought for a minute, catching Fang's mental link and quickly switching from Max's mind to listen to Fang.

 You still mean something to Max, Fang. You knew that. You should know that. She's still worried about you, although she doesn't admit it to us openly. You're still...part of the flock. We've split up before so much it seems like we'd break forever at some points in our adventures...but didn't we always get back together again to beat the bad guy? The flock isn't the same without you...it really isn't.

It pained Angel a bit to think that to him (it was probably obvious in her mental voice) but she knew it was the best thing to do. However...when she looked up at Max again she tried shifting her shoulders out of Max's firm grip and offering the elder girl a slight, small smile.

 "...Max. I know you're worried about him...but give me a chance to talk with him a little bit, and then I'll tell you what I know so far. I won't hide anything from you--I never did, and never will."

At least...I haven't until now...She thought to herself, trying to find a good way to tell Max what exactly Fang had 'told' her.

It took a moment to register in her mind, then she, rather hesitantly, let go of Angel's shoulders, allowing her arms to fall over her knees again. If Angel was talking, or rather, communicating with Fang, then he had to be okay, atleast. Surely?...

She smiled in spite of herself. "I trust you, Angel. Just... Tell me as soon as, next time. Please try not to keep this sort of thing from me"

She held back on that small sigh of relief, keeping her eyes on Angel the entire time. The more she thought about it, the more worried she was getting, although absoloutely none of that came through her body language. Really... Why now?... Why would Angel contact Fang, or vice versa, which seemed more likely... Just what was going on?...

~~~

Skai shifted again, gasping slightly at the ache that increased all the way down her backbone at her movements. She glanced up once at Raj, before looking back at Fang.

"My name is Skai" She kept her grey-ish blue eyes on the Raven. "You said you had help?..." Skai had realized the moment he said it he was leaving something out. She had an uncanny ability to catch onto these things, though she rarely forced her way into getting something out of it. She shrugged and leaned back, allowing the bone support to try and stop that damn ache. Not that it helped all that much...

I figured she did, Ange; remember, I didn't leave because I wanted to go...I left because I had to. That dillhole Dylan was right about us needing two flocks to survive the apocalypse...I just took the initiative. Besides, my being around Max and Dylan was causing friction...but I still love her. You can tell her that, if you'd like.

Fang thought hard, trying to convey how much he still loved Max to Angel. It was difficult without her standing in front of her; Fang was too used to conveying his feelings via body language.

"Yeah, the head scientist Jeb had a hand in freeing me..." Fang grit his teeth as he admitted to receiving help, then sighed as he revealed his identity. Surely the other scientists had talked about him...they had before... "But I flew out with my flock. And it's a pleasure, Skai - my name is Fang."

He braced himself for an uproar.

Fiachra had been listening carefully to the conversation between the three. Apparently this long haired male had been here before and gotten out. She wondered what it was like outside. Was it dark there too? All the voices speaking calmed any previous feelings she had, not even the noise from this 'Raj' made her flinch. She continued to listen carefully, apparently this raven's name was 'Fang' and the other experiment's name was 'Skai'. It was a pretty name, a name she hadn't known untill now. Since Fiachra didn't speak much and didn't listen to what some of these scientists called the other experiments she hadn't really learned anyone's name, appart from Dravius who's name she had heard once before somewhere.

Fiachra had by now decided she'd picked up a bit about how to speak to others and how conversations continue, through questioning. It was her time to speak up now. She was a little nervous but still shuffled as much as she possibly could to the front of her cage, nearest everyone else. She opened her mouth to say something, she wasn't all to sure what to say and so she closed her mouth. She opened it a second time to say a simple hello, but that didn't work. The only sound she brought herself up to make was a small and timid "Ah." She them frowned at herself for not knowing what to say even though she thought she knew. Really she was an idiot. And idiot who wanted to speak but probably wouldn't. She probably wouldn't even get included into conversation.

In her attempt to be heard, Fiachra missed what Fang had just said and so wasn't all to sure what he was on about, but she knew he was bracing himself for something.

Angel pulled Celeste to her chest as she nodded towards Max. She knew that the other was hurting, but she couldn't do anything about it...and she didn't want her to worry but yet...it had to be done.

But Fang, Max still loves you even if Dylan is here. And just because he's here...you shouldn't be the one to leave. You shouldn't have left. You know that.

Angel was biting the inside of her lip, which meant to Max that she was probably starting to get a little stressed out. "Max...he still loves you, okay? That's the first thing I can say so far..." Angel managed to reply before thinking back to Fang, You didn't have to do anything, Fang--you wanted to do it. You felt it was best, right? What about Max? What about what you guys went through for each other? Didn't that mean anything? And you let Dylan win by leaving...and you know what that means; that once I tell Max you still love her she's gonna come hunting for you!

Hey--a girl couldn't have fun? (Or some queer form of it..)

Matrix listened carefully at the small conversation at hand. She had now moved one arm across her eyes. Sighing softly, she removed her talons from the bars of her cage. When she heard Fang explain about himself -- at a small length -- a small smile teased her lips. During the pause and before Skai could respsond, Matrix said; "But now your back, and an unfamiliar scent rests on your clothes." She fell silent again and moved her arm so that only one yellow eyes was looking at Fang through the bars of the cage; her head slightly tilted in his direction.

~(Nevermind, I'll post and then I'll go xD OH! Fang, you still looking for that letter?)~

Max had returned to staring at the wall. She figured that contact between them now meant something was wrong. It had to be. No maybe's. She sighed and allowed her eyes to wander back to Angel, who was looking more on edge than she felt. Why did Max feel like Angel was missing something out here?...

She just watched as Angel stood there, her mind clearly elsewhere. When she spoke again, Max to excercise her self restraint again. Damn it. She never really doubted Fang's feelings, but at the moment, her worry and anger were getting in the way of any coherent response to that, and she simply waited on Angel to get some sort of explanation from Fang for whatever the hell was going on now; Before she lost the will to keep herself as calm as possible.

~~~

Skai nodded at Fang, both as an acceptance gesture and as a way of pointing out she already knew his name, thanks to Dravius earlier. Her eyes swiftly moved from the form of the raven to look over at the other experiment who spoke. She didn't belive she'd seen this experiment before, but that was normal. It was rare for anyone to communicate in here.

Dravius slowed his breathing, and folded his throbbing wings behind him, peering at Fang. He said quietly, "Are you alright?" he asked, almost worriedly. He buried his hand in his grey-red feathers and tilted his anglular face.

His short black hair was spiky and short, and he pushed it back from his face with one hand. He seemed tired, as he had talked more in these five minutes than he had in the five or six months previous.

Dravius shuffled his black and white sneakers on the floor of his cage, again unfolding his longe frame. he folded his legs into a more sensible position, simply crossed legs, and folded his double set of wings behind him.

The boy's breathing was shallow and fast, as if he had just run a great distance, but in fact it was owing to the improperly healed ribs that made strange shapes as they pushed against the skin of his abdomen and chest.

He waited for the strange boy's answer-no, his name was Fang. The name seemed oddley familiar, and tugged at his mind, like he had heard something important about Fang, but had forgotten, not deeming it important. Dravius put his chin in his hand, and fixed his mismatched eyes on the Raven.

Matrix snorted. "Reality outside these walls is hard to believe. In all the times I've tried to escape, I never made it p*censored*ed the Erasers." Now, she was done talking for a while. Moving over to one side, she let her back face Fang. Her tail feathers layered up on themselves as she brought her knees up slightly. One wing curled over her in a feathery tent while the other lay comfortably against the steel floor.

Alright. This was it. The younger girl took in a steady breath and focused her jumbling thoughts together.

Alright, Fang. I'm gonna let Max know...if you need me, you know how to reach me. With that she disconnected the mental link and breathed in deeply, but shakily before turning her eyes towards Max's own, her arms tightening their hold around her bear.

  "Alright...Max. Fang...he got captured. He's back at The School...and he seems to be okay right now, but..." She broke off; its Fang she was talking about. Who knew what they were doing to him? And was he really okay? The thoughts kept whirling around and around in her head, and she sighed while moving her arms to let her hands lightly m*censored*age her temples to prevent a headache.

Fiachra's attempt in speaking hadn't been noticed, hardly surprising. She was rather annoyed with heself now. She felt like a child, stupid, hurt and most of all ignored. If there was going to be anything that ouwld make her feel better it would probably be socialising. The experiment known as Matrix seemed to have ended the conversation on a rather gloomy note. She'd been listening to what Fang had been saying. His scent, the smell that clung to his body was nice, it was a enw smell. He reffered to it as reality. Whatever this reality was that he was speaking of, it's smell was plesant.

Now was the time to speak. "New." She began, her voice was hoarse from not being used, her tone was rather timid. "New york City?" This was the first time she had spoken to anyone or directly asked a question, it felt... strange to be comepletely honest. "Where's that?"

That was it. That very statement made Max's mind up for her, she didn't need to think it over. The feelings she had bottled amplified and hit her with a vengeance, not that she let any part of her body show it. She couldn't, not now. She had to think of Fang.

She looked at Angel, the worry and anger seeming to just overtake her entire being... How dare he... How dare Fang leave them like this and be stupid enough to get caught again... What in hell was that idiot doing?!... She gently pushed Angel away from her, getting to her feet and focusing on keeping herself from smashing something. When she spoke again, her voice betrayed her feelings alongside that determination that lined it, although it probably would not have been obvious to anyone but those of the Flock.
Nothing would change her mind now, and nothing on this damn planet was going to stop her.

"Come on Angel. We're going after Fang."

~~~

Skai glanced at the other experiment who had spoken. Really? This experiment had tried to get away?... She couldn't help but snort slightly. No-one "tried" to get out of here. It was impossible. Atleast, that was how Skai had seen it.

Even as those thoughts made their way around her mind, she realized she was beginning to doubt it. Afterall, this Fang had made it... Or so he said, and his scent was proving it. She thought for a moment. "Help... from the scientist?..." She looked up at the top of her cage. "You all really got out once before..." It was a wistful way of speaking, but she couldn't help but feel the first seeds of hope.

Her line of thought was disrupted when yet another experiment spoke, and she pulled herself closer to the bars to look over, ignoring the ache that returned to her back and wing joints.