#itex

They weren’t actually engineered – they just happened. No one really knows where they came from (if you ask, you’ll get a wide range of answers, from “Take it up with God” to “I just found them in the woods, lurking in the trees” to increasingly convoluted scientific hypotheses) and as they matured, folks just became afraid to ask, because

Something’s up with them.

And, yeah, obviously, because these freaks of nature showed up at the lab one day, wings outstretched behind them, carrying and injured one and asking for help. But the wings are the most normal thing about them.

Jeb is in charge of feeding them. He asked what they liked on their first day at the lab, after their buddy had been taken away, and their leader, a girl named Max, had shrugged and said anything goes.

Except birdseed.

So he fed them. A healthy mix with lots of calories – all the other recombinant forms at the lab had high calorie requirements, these skinny bird kids would have to be the same – but after weeks, they were lethargic, pale, exhausted in every way.

After a few months, Max cornered him. “Listen,” she said, eyes flashing and wasn’t that a sight, “we appreciate the food. But we need to hunt.”

Okay, Jeb thought. This is normal. Birds of prey, probably. But then he gives her the go-ahead, takes them on a little road trip to a nearby forest where he’s seen large wildlife, and watches with horror as the six kids tear into a deer with nothing but their hands and teeth.

They offer him the heart, still beating and dripping with blood.

He refuses.

The heart goes to Fang instead, the injured one, and they take it gratefully, teeth sinking into the meat. Their eyes flutter shut, and that’s when Jeb realizes.

The kids were given their own room in the living wing of the lab. Jeb had offered to give them one room for each kid, but they’d refused, stating that they’d spent too much time apart and would like to stick together. Jeb shrugged, thinking, oh well, that’s five less camera feeds to keep an eye on.

After a year of watching their room, the lab has an extensive folder on the network titled “wtf” and it’s hours upon hours of feed featuring… well, no one knows exactly, because every time someone approaches Max about the phenomena, they’re left with more questions than before because what was I here to do? oh yeah- hey, wait- and it goes in circles.

It looks like this: each kid has one standard pair of wings. Big, thick wings, capable of long flights and breaking grown men in half (the Erasers had insisted on a combat day – those Erasers were now paralyzed from the waist down), with some of the most gorgeous feathers Jeb had ever seen. However, sometimes, on the camera feed, they would have more pairs. Leathery bat wings, iridescent dragonfly wings, you name it. They would have multiple arms, multiple legs, rows upon rows of needle-point teeth and fingers that were just on this side of too long, too scaly, too sharp.

Suddenly, and without question, the flock found themselves free to go wherever they would like. On one of their longer excursions away from the School (as they’d so affectionately dubbed the lab), Fang turns to Max, smiling with a little too much fang.

“You think we played it up a little too much?”

Max takes a moment to consider their words. “Nah, they deserved it.”

max and her flock discover the most disturbing hybrid…

a creature that is half pillow, half pet…

caution: subjects may bite. ensure muzzle is securely fastened before handling.

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maximum ride headcanon where fang (and possibly other members of the flock) have scars from being muzzled in order to keep them from biting the whitecoats. this particular picture is fang having recently taken his muzzle off. in case you couldn’t tell (it’s a bit hard to with how messy the lines are) he has bleeding abrasions on part of his cheekbones and the bridge of his nose (there’s one on his other cheekbone but it’s out of frame).

this headcanon is definitely probably going to be in waverwings (my maximum ride rewrite for those of y’all who don’t know) because imma be real wit u chief... for me, there’s no such thing as too much angst. be prepared to have some fuckin emotions bro these kids got trauma and it is NOT all uphill from here.

itex, a mega-corporation that dumps all its waste into the ocean and probably doesn’t pay its employees a living wage: “humans are ruining the earth! everyone needs to die so we can start over!”

max: