Chapter 1(Kate’s POV)

School stinks, but luckily, today was the last day of my freshman year. The school bell finally rang. I grabbed my backpack and slung it carelessly over my shoulder. I ran to my empty locker to make sure that I wasn’t forgetting anything. Nope, all clear. I ran outside to meet my younger sister, Sammy. I saw her finally come out, her blonde hair bobbing as she skipped out of the elementary side of the school. I flicked my own black hair out of my eyes. We ran to the forest behind our school. I unfurled my jet black wings and took off, my sister following with her white wings extended to their full length.

Yes, we have wings. Our parents are none other than the famed Maximum Ride and Fang. I took after my dad. I wore nothing but black and other dark colors. Black was my favorite color. My hair and wings were black. I landed in the backyard of our huge house. I opened the back door.

“Mom, we’re home!” I called.

“Maximum isn’t here right now, but I am.” A voice growled. An eraser stepped around the corner. I dropped my backpack and turned around. I started to run towards the back door, but heard a scream. The eraser had Sammy by the collar of her shirt.

“Let her go!” I screeched as I lunged at him. I hit him with a roundhouse kick. He dropped Sammy and she ran out. The eraser leaped at me. I dodged his kick and retaliated with a punch that made him fly and hit the wall. He landed with an oof. He stood up and lunged for me. I tried to dodge him, but he got my anyway. My head snapped to the side and blood trickled out of my mouth. I growled and flipped to get behind him. I kicked the base of his spine and he went down.

“That’ll teach you to mess with my little sister, now where are my parents?” I growled in his face.

“They’re at Itex.” He rasped. I punched him once more and ran out the door. My sister was hovering in the air, waiting for me.

“We need to find the rest of the old flock.” I ordered to her.

“Okay, let’s go.” She said back. My sister was in the third grade. We started on. My black hair was whipping in my face. I took the ponytail holder from my wrist and put my hair up in a sloppy ponytail. I went to Iggy’s house first. I rang the doorbell.

“Kate, Sammy, what a nice surprise, come in. What can I do for you?” Iggy’s wife, Nora, asked.

“We need to see Uncle Iggy right now.” I said urgently. Nora grew serious at my tone.

“He’s upstairs in his office.” She said, pointing up the stairs.

“Thank you. Come on Sammy.” I said. I pounded up the stairs as fast as I could.

“Iggy, IGGY!” I yelled.

“What, what, what do you want?” Iggy asked, dashing out of his office.

“Itex has mom and dad, again.” I said.

“Let’s go.” He said.

“K.” I replied.

“Nora, I need to go help Max and Fang.” He told her.

“Okay, be safe.” She said. We dashed out the door and headed for Gazzy’s place.

“Hey, Ig, Sammy, Kate, what’s up?” He asked.

“Itex has mom and dad.” I said. Gazzy nodded and we went for Nudge next. After we told her and got Angel, we were off. We saw a white building. We decided to check it out. I landed and knocked out the guards. I quietly opened the door and walked in.

“Max, MAX!” I heard my dad yelled. I followed the sound. Jeb was taking mom out of the room.

“Let my mom GO!” I shrieked and took him by surprise with a roundhouse kick. He let of my mom and lunged for me. Erasers held back the flock and my mom. Jeb grabbed my arms and yanked them behind my back. He held my wrists together with one hand and pulled a gun out of his pocket with his other one. He pointed the gun to my stomach. The rest happened in slow mode. Jeb pulled the trigger. My mom got free from the erasers and my dad burst out of the room. Jeb let go of me and let me fall to the ground. I was gasping for breath as blood poured down my side. I narrowed my eyes and stood up, clutching my side. I pulled the gun from Jeb’s hand and shot him back. His eyes went round, and then rolled back in his head as he fell to the floor. I staggered a few steps. I quickly regained my balance.

“Mom!” I screeched as more erasers poured down the hall. We disengaged and ran out the door. I opened my wings and we took off. Blood was still pouring out of my wound. My wings instantly got tired. I started losing altitude and before I knew it, I was falling. Iggy’s son, Blaze, angled his brown wings to head for me. I screamed as loud as I could as I started gaining speed. Blaze tucked his wings in to catch up with me. The rest of the flock was hovering, looking very scared. Blaze caught me and whipped his wings open, wincing at the pain, but flapping them as we rose to the flock. He had me tight. My blood was soaking his arm. He was looking down at me with his handsome, strawberry blonde hair hanging over his eyes. I tried to smile up at him, but it turned into a grimace as a wave of pain overtook my body, centering from my bullet wound. I squeezed my eyes tight as the pain edged away slowly. I let out my breath, which I had been holding. I then realized that there was wind on my face. I was still in Blaze’s arms, but we were flying, his wings working twice as hard as he held both of us up.

Chapter 2(Blaze’s POV)

I went with my dad to help Max and Fang. I was watching Kate. Wow, she was beautiful. We were close friends. When I told my dad about it, he told me that that was how Fang and Max were like and look where they are now. We went to check out a building. We walked in and Kate charged straight at a whitecoat that had Max. She hit him with a roundhouse kick. He let Max go and grabbed Kate. The whitecoat pulled out a gun and shot Kate. Kate crumpled to the ground. She stood up and pulled the gun out of the whitecoat’s hand and shot him. He fell to the floor, obviously dead. She staggered some.

“Mom!” She shrieked. More erasers came pouring down the hall. We ran out the door and took off. Kate looked like she was getting tired. Suddenly she started falling. I angled my wings as she started screaming. I tucked in my wings to catch her. I gathered her in my arms and opened my wings. They snapped up. I winced, but started flapping as we rose to the flock. She tried to manage a smile, but turned into a grimace. She closed her eyes and squeezed them tight. We started on, the kids at the back. There was me, Kate, Sarah, Sam, Jake, and Josh.  Kate slowly opened her eyes and looked up at me. Her black hair was flying around her face. We landed at Max’s mom’s house.