Roommates (A Maximum Ride Fanfic)

...24...

Disclaimer: I. DO. NOT. OWN. MAXIMUM. RIDE.

Max POV

The white coats picked up both sides of the gurney and carried me off down a few hallways. I tried to memorize the directions but everything looked the same. They finally set me on a table in what looked to be a check-up room. The table was metal and the biting cold made its way through the canvas of the gurney type structure and seeped into my skin. Ari, Dylan, and Sam all walked in as the white coats exited and shut the door behind them.

"You're probably wondering why we captured you in the first place." Ari said and eyed me.

"Damn right, I am." I said and glared at him.

"Well, as you well know your stepfather, Jeb Batchelder, is a scientist, but do you know what it is he's studying?" Ari continued.

"No, he said it was for the government. What does this have to do with me?"

"Let me continue and see if you can get where I'm going." He cleared his throat, "Anyway, yes he is researching topics for the government and conducting experiments, but he hasn't told you what about. Your stepfather has been studying, for the past ten years, the weaving of animal and human DNA, taking the embryos of living human organisms and injecting them with the genetic information of a certain animal. About two years ago he discovered the secret to creating a successful life form that was part human and part bird. This information is critical to the scientific community. This could change the lives of millions of people and give them the power to fly, along with super strength, and stamina. Do you know what that means?" He was breathing hard and he had a dreamy look in his eye. "The entire human population would be indomitable; an entire race of super humans. The only problem is that your stepfather refuses to let the information out to the other scientists or the public. He has convinced the government that if the entire human race were to be like that, no one would be safe. Crime rates would skyrocket and everyone would be overtaken with power." He said the last part with such darkness that the temperature of the room dropped a few degrees. "This is where you come in." He smiled evilly at me. "Without his information on how to create such a life form we have been forced to try to figure it out for ourselves. You, my darling, are going to be our comparison. Our versions of super human life will be tested in the same activities you will be tested in."

"Why me?" I asked and my eyebrows furrowed. "Why couldn't you have asked someone who wanted to help you?" At this his smile grew into a malicious grin and all the pieces fit together. "You think that if you use me as your comparison that the tests will be so horrible that my stepdad will give you the information to free me. You're holding me for ransom." I said and, if this is even possible, his grin grew. "Well, that's too bad that he doesn't know who took me." I said and smirked at him. At this his grin turned back into a smirk of his own. "This is where you are wrong. We are going to tell him. Right now, actually." He grabbed a remote from a nearby counter and pointed it at something. A little square of the wall across from my table slid open to reveal what looked like a monitor and a camera. Dylan cranked something to my left and the table slowly started to tilt so that I was in a standing position. The gurney was strapped around the table so that I wouldn't fall off. Ari pushed another button and the screen flickered. Jeb's face appeared on the monitor and my eyes widened.

"Max?" He asked and his eyes scrunched up. "Max, what's going on? Where are you? Why are you strapped down like that?"

"Je-" I started.

"Well, you see Jeb, I was just having a little chat with our guest here and she told me some pretty interesting things." Ari walked closer to me so that he was also in the frame.

"Ari," Jeb's teeth clenched and he spit Ari's name. "What the hell are you doing with my daughter, you bastard?" He glared so intensely down at him that chills ran up and down my spine.