#maximum ride au

[gamerbearmira]

Maximum ride au

Ok, so kids' origins are a little tricky, because obviously they can't match what happened in the actual book, since their parents would never sell them. So, what I'm thinking is at least two of the parents were scientists working for whatever organization. They didn't realize that the organization was sus at first, and when they tried to back out, they, their spouses, and probably Bruno? were forcibly detained, and whichever ones are scientists are forced to continue experimentation. Alma is going to fill in for that nice lady from the books, I forget her name? She's got a big house out somewhere and is worried about her kids who disappeared.

Anyways, the grandkids happen, and they're all pretty much immediately seperated from their parents and 'housed' in a separate part of the lab. They're there for years, until their parents and Bruno manage orchestrate an escape, and Bruno gets out with the kids. They hide out in an out-of-the-way house that they may technically be squatting in? They can't go to Alma bc Bruno thinks the organization(I cannot remember its name for some reason) might have her under surveillance.

What do you think?

I’m rockin wit it⁉️⁉️⁉️

Tbh it does all tie together. Now I’m off on google so, and memories of the book. Also, none of the Mary Sue, a bajillion abilities lost siblings stuff. Don’t think I can handle that. BUT I kinda know about the woman you’re talking about. Wasn’t she a doctor or something, some medical field, or am I thinking of someone else? I swear she was in the first book. Regardless, Alma must be wondering what happen to her children and son-in-laws. I mean I doubt the organization would let them have much, if not any contact with Alma. So them being detained wherever probably worries her when they just go no contact/off the grid 🤧

Just need clarification they’re detained before the grandkids are born, right? Or is it after, cause that also would play into things. If it’s before, then testing wouldn’t be as hard, it’s something they’re used to. After, not so much.

BRUNO W 🗣️🗣️ house squatting, how dare they. No but uhhhhh I don’t think he’s very sure on what to do, cause the plan itself was pretty risky, and the fact that they got out was a miracle, so he’s just trying to keep himself, and more importantly his nieces and nephews, so yeah.

Bruno worrying about Alma being watched is so reall too. He’s probably not only trying to prevent the kids from being found, but also keep Alma from getting too involved.

Y’all I’m insane. Crazy even.

[officermaddie23]

Free Bird the toliet is smoking again

Gregory: OH MY GOD DAD 

Michael Afton: WHAT 

Gregory: THE TOLIET IS SMOKING 

(Gregory moves the camera to show two toliet paper rolls on top of the toliet that are made to resemble eyes and paper towel roll that is placed in between the toliet seat and lid when Michael runs in he knows what Gregory is doing and decides to play along)

Michael Afton: HONEY GET THE EXTINGUISHER THE TOLIET IS SMOKING 

Charlie Emily: WHAT I'M COMING (runs downstairs with the extinguisher and heads straight for the bathroom only to find that it was a prank) really? 

Michael Afton and Gregory: *laughing their asses off*

Charlie Emily: *sighs and walks off*  

@mellowwolflady lol Michael playing along in the prank

[calibornedits]

maximum ride au thingies

[adina123]

Maximum ride au

grian Jimmy Martyn and pearl are the flock they are escaped avian lab experiments the only blood siblings are grian and pearl

[fakecrfan]

Hi there! I was curious if you had any headcannons regarding what type of bird wings the main Magnus Archives crew + Gerry would have in a Maximum Ride type au?

Well damn. I didn't but the second I saw this ask I was certain that Gerry had brightly colored parrot wings. Behold: the wings of Gerry.

He hates them. Haaaaaaaaaates them. They fuck with his entire aesthetic, and he's DEVOTED to his aesthetic.

Eventually he steals a SHIT ton of dye and makes a giant mess dyeing every inch of his wings black, with limited success.

But that's all a sidenote. Colors have nothing to do with wing type. So, after some consideration here is how the rest of the Archives (plus Gerry since you've decided he's involved somehow) would be grouped based on wing type.

High lift/broad soaring wings: Jon, Daisy

Elliptical wings: Martin, Gerry

High speed wings: Melanie, Sasha (?)

Long soaring wings: Basira, Tim, Sasha (??)

Explanation: maximum ride is a story where people are given wings via unethical experments.

Further explanation: None of them could remember what Sasha looked like when they were breaking out of the facility due to said hideous experiments. And there were two cages labeled "Sasha" so the gang just grabbed both and are desperately trying to pretend they know which one is which, really, we'd never forget you Sasha--we just saved someone else out of pure altruism.

[americanhoney913]

Chapters: 1/1 Fandom: Stranger Things (TV 2016) Rating: Teen And Up Audiences Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply Relationships: Steve Harrington & Maxine "Max" Mayfield, Steve Harrington/Nancy Wheeler (Background), Steve Harrington & The Party Characters: Steve Harrington, Nancy Wheeler, Maxine "Max" Mayfield, Dustin Henderson, Robin Buckley, Erica Sinclair, Billy Hargrove Additional Tags: Inspired by Maximum Ride, bird kids, not my fandom, my friend made me do it, the Flock - Freeform, On the Run, Found Family, Big Brother Steve Series: Part 1 of To The Sky Summary:

There's a realm above the trees Where the lost are finally found Touch your feathers to the breeze And leave the ground --- To the Sky, Adam Young

“Not tired.” Max shrugs. “I was thinking of maybe going on a bit of a midnight adventure?”

“Not too far though. Ten minutes. We don’t want Nancy to wake up and freak.” Steve stands up and holds out his hand. “No further than the lake.” He sounds exactly like a big brother should and she doesn’t begrudge him that, but having no freedom kinda sucks.

“Fine.” Max takes his hand and pulls herself up, shakes out her shoulders. “See ya down there.” And then she turns around so her back’s to the edge of the cliff, wiggles her fingers at Steve and salutes him, before she falls backward.

[sky-pie]

Lies in Being Bold - A Maximum Ride Fanfic

Chapter 2: Acclimating (Trying To)

Max had been pretty down in the dumps since Fang abandoned everyone so the rest of the flock thought it'd be a good idea to stay with her mom, Valencia, and her half-sister, Ella. They thought her family would cheer her up. Adam wasn't really sure if it was working though, especially with Dylan there. If he didn't get on her nerves before, he definitely did now. 

Adam, besides a few moments here and there, did his best to forget Fang even existed. He even threw the ring Fang had gotten him for his birthday into a nearby pond with support from Nudge. Which he immediately regretted and dove into the water to get it back. He found it and made Nudge vow to never bring it up. 

But other than that, life was good. This was probably the longest the group had gone without an injury of some kind. Gazzy had won like twenty bucks off of Max's mom in a poker game, Nudge took up baking again and sometimes let Adam help her (emphasis on sometimes), and Adam signed up for online college classes. Back when they were with Anne, she made him do a placement test to figure out what grade he should go into and he actually ended up getting his GED instead thanks to the School's lovely education system. 

This was one of the times Nudge didn't let Adam help her bake, so he opted to just sit and watch her. Max came through the front door and Nudge immediately rushed to her holding a cookie from the latest batch.

"Taste," She demanded while shoving the cookie into Max's face. 

"Oh, what? You didn't trust my opinion?" Adam asked with an overdramatic offended expression. 

"Oh, zip it," Nudge said over her shoulder before she looked back to Max, "here." As soon as Max opened her mouth to say something, probably "no" by the look on her face, the cookie was put into her mouth anyway. 

"Your mom's been teaching me how to cook. Too dry? Too chocolatey?" Nudge rambled on. 

"'Too chocolatey' is an oxymoron," Iggy spoke up from the living room. Adam heard a faint giggle from Ella before Iggy asked her to keep reading Tarzan to him. He could tell that she had a little crush on the lanky guy. 

Max didn't say anything, she looked upset. But these past eight days, that's all she looked. Nudge walked back to the kitchen when Max and Valencia started talking.

"I'm tellin' ya, Nudge, you gotta cook them for like two minutes less," Adam went back to explain, "they're good when they're a little doughy still." 

"Alright, I do that for the next batch," Nudge rolled her eyes and took a bite out of the cookie. 

"Someone's coming," Angel said suddenly. God, she always made Adam's hair stand on end. That kid was creepy as hell. "It's Jeb...Jeb and Dr. Hans." She clarified after a moment. Oh great, just a casual meet-up with Max's estranged father and the crazy scientist who almost killed Fang. Why would any of them not want that?

"How'd they-" Max murmured before turning to her mom, "you told them we were here?! You know I hate seeing Jeb! And Dr. Hans! He could've killed Fang!" Adam's heart pinged at hearing his name. Out of the corner of his eye, he could see Angel give him a sympathetic look. 

"I know, honey," Valencia spoke calmly, "but Jeb called and said he just wanted to talk to you. Something urgent, he was really insistent."

"I'm not talking to him," Max huffed and started storming off down the hall, but Dylan's voice made her suddenly stop. 

"If Max doesn't want him here, he shouldn't be here." That guy was a real ass-kisser.

"Don't worry, Max," Angel had gotten up and took Max's hand in hers, "whatever he says, we're in this together. We're the flock." 

Adam could tell that he and Max were thinking the same thing: jeez, this kid switches up fast. Just last week she was trying to overthrow Max's 'rule' over the flock. 

"Let him in," Max said with a shrug after a moment. 

---

It wasn't long after Angel's prediction that the two men came through the door. Adam hung back. He didn't have as much beef with Jeb as the rest of the flock and Jeb seemed to forget that he existed, and Adam wanted to keep it that way. But that didn't mean he wouldn't glare at him in support. 

"So much for my vacation," Max muttered and crossed her arms, which Angel mimicked. And Dylan (ew). 

"I'm sorry to interrupt, but we really need to talk to you, all of you," Jeb spoke, "but especially Max." 

"This oughta be good," Max said with a roll of her eyes, "what? Are we needed in the coldest part of the earth? Or to take down another unwater lair?"

"No," Jeb said, very clearly irritated which very clearly amused Max, "this is bigger than you, bigger than all of us. I need you to open your mind and listen." 

"Last time I 'opened my mind'," She used air quotes, "you injected hallucinations into it." 

"Just hear me out. An evolutionary revolution is happening all over the world."

"Which means what exactly?" 

"Worldwide, a new generation of children with supernatural powers has appeared," Dr. Hans explained. 

"Sounds like we should join 'em," Adam spoke up from where he still sat at the kitchen counter. The two men only glared at him before looking back to Max. "Alright fuck me I guess," Adam muttered quietly to himself. 

"These are the type of people you will be leading after you save the world. It's time you start leading them," Dr. Hans told her sternly, "now." 

Adam looked over at Max. She didn't usually take being told what to do well, but she seemed to be interested. He sighed and zoned out of the conversation, it's not like he had anything to do with the crazy scientists' plans. He was supposed to be dead by now. Just a failed version of an eraser to be put down. 

"...We want Max to breed. Produce heirs. Who will govern the world after she dies," Dr. Hans' words brought Adam back to reality. 

What the-?

"Oh, no," Max shook her head, seeing Jeb glance at Dylan. 

"Over my dead body," Max's mom put her hand on her shoulder, "the hells wrong with you? She's barely fifteen!"

"Oh, thank you. So it's not just me," Max looked relieved. 

"We have a house in Germany that-" Dr. Hans started again. 

"No! You've already put too much on her with the whole saving the world deal, now you want her to do it with a baby on her hip? Are you insane?!" Valencia interrupted him, queen shit.

---

They all got onto the private plane not an hour later. Valencia said she wanted to at least see "Gen77" and Max folded like a lawn chair, she truly was a mama's girl at heart. But there was at least soda in there. Max opted to fly herself outside of the plane to clear her thoughts. 

Adam and Nudge were chowing down on the last cookies left when Angel ran past them yelling at the pilot. This gave them all an extra second to brace for the impact. The screaming of metal prompted everyone to look out the window just in time to see both the plane wings plummeting toward the ground. 

He took two seconds to think about his options before Adam jumped up and started his way to the door. Dylan had already tried to get to it and failed, falling to the back of the plane. Adam reached for the handle and managed to get ahold of it. 

"I'm opening the door!" He yelled as a warning to everyone else, praying they all knew what happens when you open a door in a plane. With a grunt and maybe a few popped blood vessels, he got the door open. The feeling of triumph lasted for not even a second when a table hit him, sending Adam flying out of the plane. 

Max watched him fly by her and looked back to the plane, her face pale watching Iggy and Nudge jumping out. Adam barely regained his control when he saw blood and brown and gray feathers fly, partnered with Nudge and Iggy's yelps of pain. 

"I got them!" He yelled to Max and dove down to the two now-falling kids. How did he have them? He had no clue. Angel and Gazzy came over to help him. In an awkward mix of limbs and wings, they landed, hard. 

Adam's hearing was filled with a high-pitched ringing making him only barely to make out everyone's voices. He got onto his knees, clutching his cracked rib, and gave Max a small nod that he was fine. He groaned as he took Gazzy's outstretched hand to help get him to his feet.

Max and Dylan stayed back to look for Dr. Hans as the others made their way back to civilization. Valencia said she had a friend who would patch everyone up at the vet's clinic since Jeb, for whatever reason, wanted to keep this under wraps. The moment they finally got to stop walking and sit down in a car, Adam leaned his head back and closed his eyes.

---

"Wait, so can you, like, explain that again," Adam asked a little embarrassed. He wasn't used to asking for help yet. 

"Yeah," Fang nodded and stepped toward the edge of the large farmhouse's roof, "all you gotta do is make sure you get to a good height and then angle your wings just right to glide. It saves a ton of energy. Just watch, it's easier to show than explain." He flashed Adam a small smile and jumped off the roof, gracefully unfurling his large black wings. He found it hard to focus on Fang's technique, instead he watched the way the sun shined through his feathers, making them appear almost purple or blue. After a few twists and turns, Fang returned to the roof. 

"Did you see?" He asked. The way he asked questions always seemed so genuine, at least to Adam. Like, if he didn't care, he wouldn't bother to ask.

"I think," Adam replied, unsure. He stretched out his wings and walked to the edge. 

"You'll catch on quick, you're smart," Fang reassured him before letting himself fall backward off the roof again. Show-off. Adam waited for him to get a little further away before he jumped and flew after him. 

[alexxuun]

Save a thomas, ride a cowboy.

[kagoutiss]

what if undercover sheik au had a cute sheik/malon subplot….more likely than u think………

[galactic-dragoness]

AU where James Patterson's Maximum Ride series was set 10-15 years later, the writing and ending is improved, and instead of blogging Fang Twitch streams.

[ladsofsorrow24]

my silly little modern day AU

[definitely-not-a-wasp]

So I was reading through the first MR manga for lore reasons, and I got to a part I had forgotten from the book, which was essentially a conversation between Fang and Nudge about their parents, where Nudge asks what Fang would do if they had an opportunity to meet their parents, and Fang, very honestly, says they don’t know.

And Nudge says along the lines of “well, that’s because you don’t need anyone or anything”.

Which. I love this more than the entire late series combined. Because yeah, it’s something a stressed out 11-year-old would say, mostly out of frustration. She feels like she’s falling apart, meanwhile Fang is a-okay with being isolated from the rest of humanity. But it’s also possibly THE MOST CRUEL thing Nudge has said in the whole series, and I want to see the fucking fallout.

Because in the past few days, Fang has

Watched their youngest sister get kidnapped

Had to leave their brothers behind in a potentially compromised location

Watched their older sister abandon them

Tried their best to keep a brave face on for Nudge’s benefit while feeding her and keeping her safe, even though they’re separated from the majority of the flock for the first time in their life.

Like, they are at their limit. They have one person left that they need to keep safe, and they are trying so hard to make her feel safe, too. In book 1, they’re pretty clearly close with Nudge, and she just. Says that. With no thoughts about what it means.

Acting like Fang doesn’t care about anything or anyone when they very clearly do, and are standing to risk losing every single person that they’ve built their life around.

And it’s even better in the manga, because the panel immediately switches back to Fang, and they are HURT. It’s pretty clear that Nudge struck a nerve without realizing it.

And I wish so badly that interaction has been explored more, or at least more time was spent on it. Because there is something so good and so telling in those words about both Nudge and Fang, and it deserves better.

[officermaddie23]

Protecting her adoptive siblings cause she's the best older sister

Bluescar: ARE YOU READY TO BE DEFEATED BY THE SUPERIOR ERASER

Vanessa (with boxing gloves on): BITCH I WON 100000 FIST FIGHTS IN SCHOOL YOU STAND NO CHANCE

(Redscar hits the boxing bell)

Montgomery Gator (under Echo's control): LETS GET READY TO RUMBLE

(Cue Vanessa beating the absolute shit out of Bluescar)

Gregory: GO NESS

Millie Fitzsimmons (pulling her phone out to record this): OH THIS IS GOING ON WORLD STAR

@mellowwolflady lol Gregory and Millie

[adina123]

Like the flock in cannon they named them selves

grian called himself pesky because that’s what the scientists called him do to him being the most difficult to control

Pearl was fade or shadow or something if anyone has a suggestion for it please share anyway it didn’t last long before she decided to change it to pearl but the reason for her original name was because when ever the scientists would talk about her power they would mention how she would blend into the background

Jimmy was canary because they didn’t have anything to really say about his personality and power because he was like 5 or something he didn’t have fleshed out a personality yet and even though he was the youngest which did cause him to be difficult he wasn’t as difficult as grian and he also didn’t have powers yet so the others called him by the bird the scientist said when they talked about his wings

martyn was similar there wasn’t anything that stood out other then what bird he was so his family called him wood because he has the wings of a wood pecker

after they escaped they chose new names that would allow them to blend in for and help keep the scientists from finding them

pearls the only one that kept her name it was passable as a name a normal girl would have at birth the reason she’s named pearl was because one of her only happy memories that didn’t involve her siblings in the lab was when she asked this janitor lady about some jewelry she was wearing and the lady told her about where she got it she probably got it as a gift and it wasn’t even a real pearl but that janitor gave her proof that there was a world outside the lab filled with gift giving people like the janitor

[thejakeformerlyknownasprince]

Maximum Ride AU?

[This has elements of When the Wind Blows as well as Maximum Ride, because I know the original book a little better.]

• They look like six kids right now.  Six fun-loving kids out for a good time in the California fall, enjoying loaded fries and hot wings while crammed around a table at the sidewalk café.  They stand out, to be sure — they all have multicolored dye in their hair, Marco’s sporting a mohawk, Ax wears those wraparound sunglasses despite the cloudy day, and of course there are the bulky windbreakers slung over all their shoulders.  But they only stand out enough to get a second glance, not a third.

Don’t give them a third look.  They’ll notice, and you’ll be the one who regrets it.

Still, though, they look... If not normal, then normal enough.  Normal-adjacent.

• Of all the workers in the Sharing Institute, Dr. Aftran was always kind to them.  She was the one who let them into the outdoor enclosure even when they hadn’t earned yard privileges, the one who snuck candy bars into their cell, who “forgot” to turn off the television when their TV hour was over more often than not.  She was kind, and that was all she was... until Ax’s bidirectional vision implants didn’t take, until he came out as a null result.

Null results get put to sleep.

Dr. Aftran injected him, exactly on schedule, and his unseeing eyes fluttered shut even as he fought hard against the drugs.  But when he woke up, it was outside underneath an open sky.  And the rest of his flock was around.

They never do find out what happened to Dr. Aftran.  Maybe it’s better that way.

• The sidewalk café fills, empties, fills again around them as the afternoon passes, but no one kicks them out.  Their waitress initially shows interest in Ax — everyone always does.  But it’s Marco who finally catches her attention on purpose, whispering back and forth, scribbling something on a napkin that causes her to blush and lean in close.

Jake watches.  He glances at Cassie.  She glances back.

Ax doesn’t see their glance, of course, but he can pick up on the currents of the conversation just fine.  His knee bumps Cassie’s, a silent question, and she taps his arm once in confirmation.  Ax sighs.

It’s been like this, more and more lately.  Marco spending time with outsiders, turning away from the rest of his team.  Chafing at the need to go everywhere with five other kids his age in tow.

Too freakin bad. They go together. For Ax. For themselves. They go together, or not at all.

• Evening creeps up on them, and by now the café chairs are being flipped up onto fresh-wiped tabletops.  This is as long as they ever stay anywhere, so they’re full and content when they stretch to go.  Without discussion, they’re assembled at the lip of the canyon.  It’s nice to use this kind of natural formation — the dropoff makes it easy to get up speed — and Jake is just thinking how nice it will be to get going again, when...

“Where’s Marco?” Tobias’s voice is tight.

Rachel groans.  “This time, I really am going to kill him.”

They’re all modified: Rachel for strength, Tobias for skill, Jake for speed.  Marco for his lightning-fast calculation, Cassie for her ability to move underwater.  Ax’s modification didn’t take, but he’s scary smart all on his own.

So really, there’s no question of who will be chasing Marco down.  Especially not in that narrow canyon.

“Be back in a minute,” Jake says, and jumps off the cliff.

• Black-and-white wings, ten feet from primary to primary, unfurl from Jake’s back.  He’s not as beautiful as Ax, his pinstriped underwing and blue-gray back no match for that angel-white black-tipped plumage.  He’s nowhere near as large as Rachel, who once knocked a grown man clear through a wall with a sweep of her enormous brown wings.  But he can do this: rocket through a canyon at over 150 miles an hour, banking into turns so tight they’d kill any of the others who tried, trusting he can adjust in time even as the walls brush within inches of his feathers.  Luke Skywalker in the trench of the Death Star, Tobias often jokes while watching him.

Catching up to Marco is easy.

Getting him to talk is a whole other ball game.

They’ve been sitting there for a good fifteen minutes — fifteen minutes they can’t afford, not with half the Sharing Institute hunting them across the state — before Marco finally swipes a hand across his face, clears his throat, and finds something to say.

“Warren Worthington the Third,” Marco confesses at last, staring not at Jake but at the vireos hunting the canyon far below.  “That’s the name I gave her, when she asked.  Warren Worthington, and the phone number of a Domino’s pizzeria.  Only my name’s not Warren Worthington, is it.”

“Marco,” Jake says, trying to forestall the inevitable.  “Your name is Marco.”

“Marco,” he spits, “is something you call me.  My identity is Subject 1273-MRO, and my code name, the name my mother put on my birth certificate, is Icarus.  Fucking Icarus.  Because she knew I’d never, ever be able to eat at a café or flirt with a girl or have a life at all.  So it didn’t matter if she gave me the stupid fucking name of a guy legendary for how much he sucks at flying.”

“I know,” Jake says heavily.  “I know.”

“You don’t.”  Marco’s voice cracks.  “If you ever feel like giving up on the rest of us, you can always go find your normal-ass mom and dad and brother in their normal-ass house and...”  He spreads out his arms.  “Surprise, guys!  I didn’t kick it at birth.  Thanks for naming me Jake, and not Uriel or Vajrakila or Tinkerbell.”

Jake doesn’t answer, because Marco’s not wrong.  They know from the Sharing Institute files that Marco and Ax stole that Jake’s parents were all told they’d be signing up for an experimental drug trial during pregnancy.  That they’d agreed to be impregnated with genetically modified embryos.  That on the day of delivery, the doctor had been heartbroken to say newborn Jake had died in the incubator.  That the Sharing would very much like to keep the remains for study, and was terribly sorry for their loss.

“Marco,” Jake says.  An affirmation.  “Marco.  I know you guys decided I should be the leader or whatever, but I’m just a dumb scared kid like you.  I don’t know what’s going to happen, and I don’t know if we’re ever going to find someone we can trust.”

“Yeah,” he whispers.  “No kidding.”

“But Marco... I know I’m sticking with you guys no matter what.”  Jake shifts around, forcing eye contact.  “I know that.  Those people, they’re not my family.  That’s you guys.  We fly together, and I know that.”

Marco stands.  They haven’t solved any of it, not really.  This is all going to happen again.  They’re still freaks, still hunted.  But he nods, resolute.  “We fly together.”

And they leap as one.

• They find Tobias’s birth mom, from the stolen records.  She claims she doesn’t remember any of it.  Doesn’t remember being pregnant, doesn’t remember giving birth, doesn’t remember who might have knocked her up or when.  She says this all to their faces, not hesitating, not looking away.  There are scars on her forehead, scars on her scalp.  She doesn’t remember having a son, she says, she’s terribly sorry but she doesn’t remember.

• Jake dreams.  The voice doesn’t give itself a name, but it always tells him the same thing: he’s meant to save the world.

• David was their tagalong, their unwanted but tolerated kid sibling, their friend.  He could be annoying, and he never seemed to realize just how different his life was from theirs — he went home every night to a warm bed, he had a mom and dad, he had food that wasn’t protein mush.  But he went through the tests, the endurance exercises and the injections, right alongside them.  And his insider knowledge of the Sharing Institute saved their lives, on more than one occasion.

So when the creature — every bit as freakish as them, but with none of their grace and with joints that move hampered by pain — steps from the shadows and into the light, Cassie gasps sharply against the threat of tears.

David was supposed to be an entirely separate project.  He’s programmed with regenerative cells, has a life expectancy of over 400 years... and yet here he is, creeping forward on swollen knees that are powered by straining lungs.

“We have to go,” Jake says, when Tobias takes an involuntary step toward their former friend.  “We have to go now.  If he found us, then the Sharing’s not far behind—”

David lunges, mouth open, unnaturally long teeth aimed at Tobias’s throat.  Rachel body-slams him on intercept, the two of them rolling in a mess of feathers and blood across the filthy ground.

“Go!” Jake points to the sky.  Tobias takes off, whistling to guide Ax, and a second later Marco follows.

Jake grabs a fur-covered arm.  David’s wrist twists the way no human’s would, and he sinks claws into Jake’s skin.  Jake cries out in pain, but he slams his head forward into David’s face.  Jagged teeth tear open Jake’s cheek, his forehead, but David recoils from the blow.

Rachel rolls loose.  With overhuman strength she stomps down onto his stomach, until David jackknifes around her with an oof of pain.  She raises her foot again, but Jake catches her arm.

“We go!” he shouts.  “Together.  NOW.”

Whether it’s the sight of his bloodied face, or the sounds of the others hovering and desperately whistling for them to join, Rachel shakes the bloodlust.  She beats hard against the air, helping Jake to rise with her much larger wings.

Down below, Sharing agents are streaming across the ground.  Most of them are armed with rifles and tranq guns, but the man who dives forward to pull David into his arms has no weapons at all.  The flock takes off, and for now they get away.

• They find Cassie’s parents.  Michelle and Walter are gentle and kind.  They stitch the cuts on Jake’s face and Rachel’s arms.  They ask questions, like are you okay and how long have you been on your own.  They give the flock hot food, and soft beds, and something infinitely more precious that the kids all drink up like lizards in the sunshine.  But Cassie looks out the window one night, and she sees a girl who is not a girl standing at the edge of the woods.  They don’t stick around to find out if it is the Sharing, if David and his fellow trackers would settle for killing the horses or would murder the veterinarians too.

• Jake dreams.  The voice tells him again to save the world.  He replies, just as he always does: the voice can go fuck itself, because he’s only here for saving his friends.

• “Look,” Tobias says.  “Look.”

There are hawks hunting along the cliffs below.  They dive with sickening speed, pulling up short with crabs and trout in their claws. 

They swoop and spin around each other, wheeling and screaming.

“We’ll scare them away if we get any closer,” Rachel points out.

“So don’t get closer.”  Tobias perches so close to the edge of the cliff he threatens to tip over, relaxed and unafraid.  Happy, or as close as he ever gets.  “Just watch, and learn.”

• He scares the hell out of them, when he drops out of the sky the following evening.  Cassie screams in shock, but he’s back before any of them can get too scared.  He’s holding an ice cream cone he just stole clear out of some guy’s hand, seagull-style.

“What?” Tobias says, laughing, making a mess.  “I was just hunting.  It’s what birds do, right?  We hunt!”

Later Tobias shows Rachel what do to: wheeling close, wheeling far.  For a time they rocket along toward the ground, synchronous and breathless, wings half-tucked.  Then they split, and shoot apart, and wheel around again.  Courtship, the ornithologists call it, and there’s an ecstasy in the dance that no human can touch.

• They find Jake’s family.  It’s a temporary measure, they tell each other, they tell themselves.  It’s temporary.  But it’s better than a cave above a sea cliff, better than a tent in the woods.  It beats nesting in an unused clocktower or a moldy steeple.

Jake’s parents and brother are nice.  They’re conventional.  They’re upright and intelligent and suburban.  They sit the flock down in the living room, and they sip tea and make concerned faces and try to determine just how not normal their newfound son is.

There’s an uncertainty there, a hint of hesitation that Michelle and Walter didn’t show.  But Jake’s family is comfortable, is middle-class and law-abiding.

• So law-abiding, in fact, that Jake wakes up the following morning to a room full of Sharing agents and a rifle in his face.

If he had to guess, it was his brother who called 911.  One the cops who answered thought to contact the FBI.  Some FBI agent knew to call the Sharing, and to tell them to retrieve their lost property from the Berenson residence of suburban Carmel.

“RACHEL!” Jake screams.

She knows what to do.  There’s a crash from below, his parents’ picture window exploding out onto their lawn.  Three figures shoot toward the sky — Rachel’s enormous brown wings, Marco’s brown-and-white striped ones, and Ax’s angelic pinfeathers.  Rachel has blood limning the tops of both wings, Marco’s clutching Ax’s wrist in his hand, and they’re away.  They’re away. 

There’s no sign of Cassie or Tobias, but Rachel and Marco and Ax are clear.

Jake watches them go, hope tugging his heart toward the sky, even as the needle jams into his neck and the black drugs suck him down.

• Jake awakens in a dog crate.  Size medium.  Suited for dogs 90 to 120 pounds.  His wings are pressed against his sides with cramping force, his body twisted in a fetal position he won’t be able to uncurl from.  Ask him how he knows.  Better yet: don’t.

• “Marco?” Cassie says, sucking in a breath and coughing, the instant she’s awake.  “Rachel?  Anyone?”  She rolls, feathers scraping painfully on the sides of the cage, until she’s sitting on her knees with both hands pressed on the ground.  She can’t stay like this forever or her feet will fall asleep, but there’s a fundamental comfort to be had in hugging her own wings around herself.

“Cassie,” Jake says, quiet and dull, from somewhere to her left.  “Cassie.”

“Jake. Who... Who else?”

“I see Tobias across the way,” Jake says.  “I think it’s just us.”

Cassie closes her eyes.  Thank goodness.  They’re probably going to die here, the three of them, and there’s going to be a lot of horribleness in between now and then.  But at least Ax is safe, at least Marco and Rachel are free.

“Ax is okay,” Jake says, thoughts following the same path as her own.

It could be better.  Tobias tolerates crating the worst of any of them.  No one planned for Jake to sprout to six-one and over two hundred pounds during puberty when they mass-ordered cages this size.  She’s probably never going to fly again.  Nor are Tobias and Jake.

But it could be worse as well.  Null results get put to sleep.

• They all hear it when Tobias wakes a little later.  There’s silence, and then there’s the sound of thrashing so violent that the whole row of cages shakes.  Tobias is breathing in soft hoarse cries, shoving wings and knees and wrists against the bars with bone-breaking force.

“Tobias!” Cassie calls.  “Tobias, it’s okay, you have to calm down or —”

He’s making small desperate noises between gasps for air.  There’s a sickening thud as his head impacts the ceiling of the cage.  All six of them are claustrophobic — it’s the whole reason the Sharing ordered these cages — but it always hits Tobias worse to be confined.

“You have so many relationships in this life,” Jake says in rhythm.  “Only one or two will last,” and it takes Cassie a second to realize he’s singing.  “You go through all the pain and strife, then you turn your back and they’re gone so fast...”

Tobias has quieted, panting, listening.  Jake’s no great talent, and his voice is too low to do the song justice, but it’s something.

“Oh, so hold on the ones who really care,” Cassie sings now, joining in with Jake.  “In the end they'll be the only ones there.”  It helps her to sing as well, she realizes.  Forces her to breathe in rhythm, gives her something to focus on.  “And when you get old and start losing your hair, can you tell me who will still care?” she and Jake sing together, and it must be working because Jake’s getting louder and Tobias is getting quieter.  “Can you tell me who will still care?”

And then there’s a third voice — not Tobias, not the white coats — that joins them for the chorus.  “Mmmbop, ba duba dop, Ba du bop, ba duba dop...” they harmonize, off-rhythm but singing hard enough not to care.

“David,” Jake says quietly, in the pause before the second verse.

“Hi.”  He speaks just as softly.  He’s in the cage directly above Cassie’s, out of sight through the opaque floor.  He sounds bad, hoarse and wheezing almost as hard as Tobias was a minute ago.

“David?” Cassie asks.

He answers the question she didn’t put words to.  “What do you think?  The new modifications didn’t take.  Obviously.  I’m a null result.”

She thinks back to his swollen joints, his awkward gait, the teeth that didn’t fit into his mouth and the bone claws that split the ends of his hands.  Seeing them with new light now, beyond the horror of what his own family had done to him.

“David,” Cassie whispers helplessly.

“I should have come with you,” David says.

Cassie flinches.  They never asked him.  They figured he was better off here, and so when Aftran got Ax and Ax got Jake and Jake got the rest of them, they’d left David behind.  He’d known they were going to take any chance they could to get out, and he’d always warned them against it when the conversation had turned that way.  They’d thought, they’d thought...

“Your mom and dad were here,” Jake says.  “And anyway it doesn’t matter now.”

“They can’t!” Cassie blurts.  “They can’t, they can’t.”  It’s David.  He’s supposed to live forever; that’s why he was made.

“Plant a seed,” David sings, with desperate force.  “Plant a flower, plant a rose...”

“You can plant any one of those,” and now it’s Tobias joining in, then Jake, “Keep planting to find out which one grows.”

Cassie sucks in a breath through tears.  “It’s a secret no one knows,” she sings, because what else can they do, “It’s a secret no one knooooows.”

• The door slides open, sometime after they enter their second rendition of the song.  Marco’s mom stands on the other side.  Lab coat on.  Syringe in hand.  “I hear you’re awake,” she says.

“Can you tell me who will still care?” they sing, ignoring her.  “Tell me who will still care—”

“Stop it!” she snaps.  “All of you, stop it immediately.”

Jake lifts his head, red grid from the bars imprinted into his cheek.  “If you didn’t want us singing, shouldn’t have made us into birds,” he says flatly.

She draws in a breath, but they launch back in, louder and louder: “Can you tell me? No, no you can’t ‘cause you don’t know.  Can you tell me?  No, no you can’t cause you don’t know.  CAN YOU TELL ME? NO YOU CAN’T CAUSE YOU DON’T—”

Zzzzzztt-BAM!

The cages are electrified.  Would’ve been nice to know sooner, Cassie thinks as she clenches her fists and her jaw until the tremors wear off.

“Enough!” Marco’s mom shouts.  She twists the lock on David’s cage and wrenches open the door.

“No,” David moans, “no, no, please, I want my dad—”

He’s still uncoordinated from the shock; Marco’s mom easily drags him out by the hair and throws him to the floor.

“Don’t do this!” Jake shouts.  “He’s a person.  This is murder.”

Marco’s mom lifts her head, brushing hair out of her face.  “He’s a failed pet project of Mr. Visser’s, and it’s high time we eliminated him.”

“Please,” David screams.  “Please, I want to see my dad, please!”

“This won’t even hurt.”  Her tone suggests she has no idea what David has to complain about.  “You’ll be unconscious long before cardiac arrest sets in.”

David struggles for everything he’s worth, but the needle is large and unforgivingly sharp.  Marco’s mom slams it into his chest, not seeming to care where it lands, and depresses the syringe until it is empty.  She tosses it aside, breathing hard, watching David closely.

“Can you tell me,” Cassie sings, a thready whisper, barely there, “which flower’s going to grow?  No you can’t, ‘cause you don’t know.”

David is crying, already fighting for air with more than just exertion, but his eyes lock on hers.

“Can you tell me,” Tobias sings with her, that same tiny thread of sound, “If it’s going to be a daisy or a rose?  You say you can...”

David’s eyes slide shut.  His lungs empty, and they don’t refill.

• Tobias does his best to lose reality, after the white coats drag David out of the room.  He tries to retreat into the memory of flying through caves with Ax and Marco, their whistles bouncing off the walls to map the space none of them could see.  He should be more like those hawks, who slam the ground when they miss a strike but recover in seconds.  He should be more like the pigeons who get by with two toes and one working wing, still surviving just fine.  He should be like the mallards who never tire or slow, even after months’ worth of twelve-hour days.  Instead, he’s a fucking parakeet: ripping out his own feathers, unable to stop no matter how hard he bites down on his own fingers to punish himself for punishing himself.

“They have to feed us eventually,” Jake says with confidence.  “They have to give us water and space.”

“A bathroom would be nice too,” Cassie mutters.

“Exactly,” Jake says, hearty as a camp counselor.  “Exactly.  They’re going to let us out pretty soon now, you’ll see.”

Tobias would like to punch Jake’s fucking teeth in.

• There’s a scree of metal on metal, somewhere in the depths of the facility.  Jake tries to lift his head to look, but gets no response from his neck muscles.  He lost feeling in his lower legs a while ago. 

There’s a thud, quiet like it’s far away but powerful enough to rattle the room they’re sitting in.  The next thud is closer, louder, and this time the cage bounces off the floor.

WHAM.

That’s directly on the other side of the door.  Another WHAM, and the door visibly dents inward on its frame.

“Guys, be ready,” Jake says.

“To do what?” Tobias asks sourly.  But at least he’s talking.

WHAM.

The door crumples off its hinges.  Rachel stands on the other side, a firefighter-issue battering ram in her hands.  It has to be 200 pounds, but with all their enhancements it’s no real surprise to see her holding it easily.

“Step aside!” an unfamiliar voice calls from behind Rachel.  “Please, step aside.  The more footage we can get —”

Rachel moves out of the way, but goes into the room.  She stops long enough to press her fingertips against Cassie’s through the gaps in the cage door, but only for a second before she focuses on Tobias.  His fingers are bloody, his left wing as well, but he’s coherent enough to whisper her name.

The man who pushes into the room just after Rachel is a lot harder to explain.  He’s middle-aged, but has the kind of blue eyes and tall frame that suggest he used to be beautiful.  The strangest thing about him isn’t the makeup he wears or the way there’s something naggingly familiar about his face; it’s the industrial-size video camera perched on his right shoulder.  He points it around the room, pausing to zoom in first on Tobias and then Cassie.

Ax shoves into the room after the man, Marco brushing wingtips with him.  “Jake?” he says, lifting his head to listen.  “Tobias?  Cassie?”

“We’re okay,” Cassie says.  “We’re here.”

“Shit,” Marco whispers.  He’s peering through the door of Jake’s cage, lips pressed together.  “Shit, man, you are too damn tall.  Anyone ever tell you that?”

“‘S what I have you for,” Jake says.

Marco fumbles at the lock on the door.  Luckily they’re simple mechanical things, not requiring keys but only the leverage that comes from being outside.  “Okay,” he says.  “Okay, we’re getting out of here, I’m doing a guest appearance on Touched by an Angel, and we’re headlining for Leno.  Yeah?”

The door pops open, and Jake is sliding out from the sheer force of where his body had pressed against it.  Some combination of the shock and the dehydration and all the blood in his body deciding to rearrange itself at once gets to him.  The world goes black.

• Jake wakes up what feels like an eternity later.  He’s propped sitting up, his back against the row of cages, and there are several unfamiliar adults talking over his head.

Before he can go into flight-or-flight mode, Rachel crouches in front of him.  She’s peering close into his eyes, holding out an object that — once he finally figures out how to focus on it — proves to be a juice box with a picture of an apple on the outside.

“Take it,” Rachel says.  “Cassie already had like six and didn’t keel over, so it’s probably fine.”

Jake takes it, sucking gratefully at the tiny straw.  He looks over her shoulder at the guy who came in with them, and the three other people who are now filming that guy as he talks into a microphone.  “Who...?”

“Kept finding parents.”  Rachel jerks a thumb over her shoulder.  “Finally hit on a useful one, go figure.”

“Hello, Jake.”  The man crouches next to Rachel, holding out his hand.  “I’m Dan Berenson.  It’s an honor to meet you, son.  Nephew.”

Jake stares at the hand.  “Who do you work for?”

“NBC,” Dan says.  “National Broadcasting Comp—”

“What are you doing here?”  Jake’s being rude.  He doesn’t care that he’s being rude.

“We’re doing an exposé on the Sharing Institute.”  Dan gestures to the people behind him, presumably coworkers.  “It’s a very important project.”

“I brought helicopters from two other news stations while I was at it,” Rachel says.  “Just to be on the safe side.  One’s technically the Weather Channel, but whatever.”

The thought of her simply flying at the nearest two helicopters with cameras until they followed her is almost enough to make Jake laugh, in spite of it all.  He knows why she didn’t trust NBC alone — far too many companies and government orgs are in the Sharing’s pocket — but it’s a typically Rachel approach.

And here he’d thought Marco was joking about being on TV.

“C’mon.”  Rachel hooks a hand under Jake’s arm, helping to haul him to his feet.  “The others are outside.”

He shifts, tangling his feathers with hers, as they walk together.  She gets a wing around him and yanks him close, a few inches shorter than he is but still with that unmatched wingspan.  He lets her shove their shoulders together, bullying her way into his space, and doesn’t comment on how much her hands are shaking.

“Check this out!”  Marco spreads arms and wings when he sees them, taking in the vans and helicopters and dozens of camera operators on foot.  “That’s what I call a media circus, baby!”

“No,” Tobias is telling a woman with a paramedic’s uniform.  “No, I’m not going anywhere without my flock.  You take us all, or none of us.”

Lab coats are fleeing, Jake knows, taking what they can and running for it.  Ordinary Sharing staff members as well.  Any incriminating experiments the reporters don’t find in time will be put to sleep.

But it’s something.  It’s the whole world watching, from those hovering machines to Rachel’s dad with the handheld camera.

“He said it,” Rachel announces, chin lifted.  “We fly together, or not at all.”  She’s smiling, tears in her eyes.

Jake finds his gaze drifting past her.  There’s still smoke coming from the crematorium, dispersing slowly into the sky.

• Jake dreams.  There’s still work to be done, the voice says, and for the first time Jake thinks yeah, okay.

[tricobicofriend]

me, last week: really bad idea for a crossover just dropped(lighthearted/not serious)

I rly want to make a tf2 fused into the universe of maximum ride au where they're experiments, but I don't wanna take away their unique backstories (esp medic's evil scientist parents). Maybe they all hate the School bc at different points in their lives they were kidnapped & trained to become soldiers for the school's agenda but they hated being stifled like that so they escaped? Or they were experimented on post-birth (giving them their ridiculous durability/regeneration/"I just put the blood back in!"-ness) but as the school sees it it made them crazy & unstable/unpredictable/unuseable they kind of went "eugh freaky", washed their hands if them, and decided to only experiment on v young infants or embryos from then on? Medic wears his white coat bc he's better & more powerful than the scientists & School that tried to stifle him, as a way of asserting control over them? Anyways this au culminates in them blowing tf out of the school. And maybe the Administrator is the Director, idk?

or they experimented on them/added bird dna & their observations showed no sign of them ever yielding results nor did their data projections so they released them and then they became mercenaries OR that but all the mercs' families are fucking badass/protected & rescued them from the School and kept fending them/off killing their forces to the point where it was actually no longer worth it to keep going after their failed experiments, so they resolved to cover it up if any of their unethical experimentation came to light, and then the experiments became criminals so they were like "oh cool they took away their own credibility" OR the 2nd one and then one day medic accidentally-on-purpose activated the bird dna and now they all have wings and probably hollow bones & need to eat SO much more food but the school never hears of it bc medic has experimented on himself & the team so much teufort's become numb to it(also they're lead poisoned)(also in this au & every 1 of my interpretations of tf2 some1 tells soldier a communist poisoned the water w lead & they're trying to fix it but until then he has to drink bottled water, and then he doesn't get lead poisoning bc they're his friends they wouldn't do that to him). So they're like late bloomers with have way more bird features than the flock: taloned feet & hands, hard nose connected to upper lip or just beak lips, tails, feathers on parts of faces, etc it would be SO funny if what activated the bird genes was when he gave them all bird heads. and then they were confused when the bird wings didn't match up with their bird heads ljhgkjd

and maybe the mercs faked their deaths (or really died & medic brought them back) in the like 80s or 90s & then came back around once their grapevine told them abt the school experimenting (spy backstory-ing/exposition-ing is how they find out??) and just blow up the school and free the experiments (not in that order lol) or the flock keeps getting tracked & randomly protected by the mercs & the school is like "!?!?!" while the flock is like "???"

And the flock does Not trust them but they're also like The Enemy Of My Enemy is my Ally, y'know?

The School: we have to find the key to immortality with [fang]'s genes Administrator, Medic tf2: i can't believe ur dumbass died AGAIN that's the fifth time this WEEK-- like the meme abt Engie inventing teleportation before cave johnson & the half life guys