Hi again. Good, I feel so cool and happy and awesome, because my confidence is through the roof with this story. I have not had a single review in the whole story that has been mean and told me my story is crap. Thank you all so much! Plus, I’m glad at least some people found my smithereens joke funny…I made it up, and couldn’t believe that no one else had ever caught on with it! What can I tell you? I’m a funny girl.

Disclaimer: Alex Rider is not mine, neither is Maximum Ride. Exploding care bears, however, are totally my idea and the smithereens joke totally belongs to me. XD

Chapter 9

It would be an understatement to say that he was in pain. If he felt pain, and vocally expressed it, he was in pain. He was in ‘burning alive never going to get up again’ kind of pain. Not to mention that the fact he would never get up again pretty much meant that Max would have to die of starvation along with him, because she was currently squashed between him and the, admittedly cracked, plaster wall.

“Ow…” every movement sent shocks of agony shooting through his entire body, and even opening his mouth and moving his jaw was so painful that he was considering becoming mute. Apparently, though, the girl he was currently flattening did not believe that he could be in so much pain, because her elbow shot out and hit him in the ribs. Hard.

“AHHH! WHAT THE HELL WOMAN!? CAN YOU NOT TELL THAT I AM IN PAIN, YOU IDIOT!” He had given up on the subtlety, and yelled at Max, causing her head to whip round to stare at him. And headbutt him. Could it get any worse?

“…I had a spaz?” she spoke uncertainly, her eyes widening in what he foolishly believed was concern until he realised that the corners of her lips were threatening to turn up. Whilst he was in agony. She was happy, was she?

“Not funny. I am in pain, and you elbowed me. My ribs are now on fire as well as my leg,” he looked down, realised just what was wrong with his leg, and felt even more pain through his limb “which currently has the worlds biggest piece of blood metal stuck in it. And…is that fluff? Where the hell did that come from?” He frowned before moving his arm to pick off from his leg the piece of fluff that looked suspiciously like a cuddly bears nose, only to immediately regret moving as yet more pain ran over his body.

“I knew I saw a care bear…” Max muttered under her breath. He watched as her eyes went to his leg, and her eyes once again widened, before shooting back to his face.

“Ouch…” She said, her face turning into a grimace.

“You’re telling me.” Fang was not amused, his leg hurt and he was getting a headache from when Max had turned around. Footsteps sounded behind them, and before Fang could announce a warning of his hurt, a hand landed on his shoulder, painfully he might add, and patted him harder than necessary.

“You alright Tooth?” The Rider boy was standing over him, grinning like a mad man, with a detached cuddly toy’s ear sitting on his head. It looked pretty comical, but Fang wasn’t really feeling all that funny right now.

“When you get your hand off me I might be. The curtain pole through my leg is a bit of a problem too. Oh, and you do realise that Angel is capable of murder, and if you blew up Celeste you will be on the bad end of that talent, right?” the hand disappeared, but the boy attached kept on grinning cockily. What Fang wouldn’t give to knock that grin right of his face but, alas, the boy was a James Bond mini and probably had a gun connected to his earlobe, and he decided that he had no death wish today, arrogant English kid or no English arrogant kid.

“Oh, don’t worry. I didn’t blow up her teddy. It was a care bear…quite cool really. Fun to watch the cheery face go bye-bye.”

“Yeah but you see, most of us aren’t stupid enough to face a bomb when it’s going off.”

“But some are stupid enough to leave legs exposed…” a sarcastic eyebrow went up, and Fang had enough.

“Listen up, you posh twat. I don’t like you, your accent sucks and you get no sunshine in your life. You are a mini James Bond yet can’t blow up a Care Bear without getting excited and your watch is cheesy. Thanks for getting us out and everything, but please leave before I commit murder and suicide at the same time.” Then, momentarily forgetting about his leg, Fang tried to do what anybody having made a big speech would do. He attempted to stagger coolly out the door. He didn’t even get to his feet, and fell down cursing under his breath.

“Language, Fang!” Max smacked him over the head, which didn’t really help matters.

“You should hear his thoughts…what’s a prostitute?” Looking up, fang realised that the whole flock had been standing over him throughout the entire exchange between him and the Churchill descendant, and realised that Angel must have heard his, rather unusual, insults towards Max in his head.

“You called me a prostitute?”

“In my head!”

“Oh my mistake! I mean, if it was in your head that it’s not as bad. Silly me.” she began to glare at him, and Fang could feel another, probably harder, hit over the head coming. Alex, who chose this time to begin laughing, saved him, ironically. Loudly. And hysterically.

“What is he laughing at?” she seemed to have forgotten about her hand, raised in threat towards his head, and Max was staring at Mini-Jimmy like he was absolutely mad. Which he did appear to be, at the moment.

“Prostitute! Hahaha! Classic!” The whole flock exchanged looks. It was official…the English boy had cracked.

“Sorry, weird sense of humour. Should we be going? Err…maybe we should pull the pole out your leg before we leave, actually, Tooth. You can’t walk on that.” Alex was frowning at Fang’s leg, biting his lip and obviously thinking about the best thing to do.

He didn’t contemplate what to do for long, though, because at that moment the doors, previously hanging from the wall, blew completely off their hinges as at least fifty flyboys ran into the room.

“…That could be a problem.” Understatement of the century, Rider.

In a way that was incredibly touching, the flock surrounded Fang’s lying body protectively, all in fighting stances. He felt useless, sitting there, and made yet another attempt and standing, but fell down again.

“Bugger! Bloody English kid blowing up the lab and making me have a metal bone that I don’t bloody need stuck into my leg. Fan-bloody-tastic…” he carried on, cursing Alex’s existence under his breath.

“Oh God, they have guns. I thought they wanted us to stay alive. Max? What do we do? I don’t want to be shot, but we can’t just leave Fang on his own, because then he would be shot, and killed and I don’t want Fang to be shot either. Max? Do we grab Fang, ignore the protests, and fly away? But then, what about Alex? We can’t leave him here, because then he would be shot, and we can’t carry him and Fang. What do we do? Max? I-…” Gazzy had finally seen sense and shut Nudge up by placing his hand over her mouth.

“Thanks Gaz.” Max looked at him, grateful, and Fang caught the expression on her face. She was prepared for a fight, but she was concerned, and she knew that they probably wouldn’t get out alive. When he thought about it, that expression really didn’t make sense. Get out alive? Has anybody ever gotten out of anything dead? You can’t get out of anything if you can’t move out of it, right? Anyway…

“Max…just go. Leave me and the bond miniature, they will keep us alive because they know that us being here will lure you back. Go.” Max looked at him, and obviously was about to protest.

“As much as I hate to admit it, Tooth is right. You going is the only way that we will all stay alive. Plus, it will probably be the closest and best medical care that Tooth will get for now. Leave before you won’t get the chance.” Okay, maybe the English boy wasn’t so bad after all.

“No.”

“Max…”

“Don’t Max me. I’m not leaving you behind.”

“Yes, you are.”

“No!”

“Yes!”

“No!”

“This isn’t getting us anywhere. Max, shut up and…get down!” Alex grabbed the top of Max’s head and pushed it down, just as a bullet flew where her left eye had been.

“Hey! Stupid robots, I like that eye! It’s my winking eye, I need it, and would rather like to keep it.”

“Then save your bloody eyes and get the hell out of here!” Okay, so Fang’s argument wasn’t the best, but it seemed to work, because with one last, regretful look towards him, Max announced their leave.

“Up and away kids. Looks like one of us is staying behind. See ya soon Fang.” Her eyes glanced at him for the last time, and she frowned slightly, before unfolding her wings (‘Woah, yours wings are so cool.’ Alex was always helpful in moments of sentiment.) and taking off into the sky, with the flock all following her.

“Wow…I actually can’t believe that she left you. I thought she was going to throw a hissy fit…I think she loves you Tooth.”

“Shut up you English ponce.”

Okay…so kind of written from Fang’s point of view. It was a little longer than the last one…I just can’t seem to write long ones because I really want to upload them quick. XD

Oh…and calling Fang ‘Tooth’ totally belongs to me, and so does ‘Mini-Jimmy’…if you didn’t get that, it’s because of James Bond…James can be made into Jimmy. Yeah, another example of my warped sense of humour. Anyway, hoped you liked this chapter. it hasn’t got much action because I’m not feeling overly actiony today, if that makes any sense. Which it probably doesn’t. Anyway, thanks to everyone who reviewed. I think I’m going to start naming the people who reviewed at the end of chapters, because they are all great. XD