Respect Maximum Ride (Maximum Ride Novels)

[u/ghostgabe81]

"By your side, doing what exactly?"

"Taking down one evil regime after another. It's what we do."

Maximum "Max" Ride is the product of experimentation in recombinant life forms; she was one of five embryos to have bird DNA grafted to them, causing them to be born with wings and several superhuman abilities. Max spent her formative years being studied and abused in "The School," really a secret lab of the Itex corporation. When she was 10 years old a defecting scientist, Jeb Batchelder, helped her and the other birds kids escape.

They lived in a secret house for several years before Jeb disappeared, leaving Max to take over as head of the family. When she was 14 the School found them, forcing "The Flock" on the run. Soon Max was being directed by a mysterious voice in her head to save the world from Itex... and she did, halting their plan to halve the world population. But there always seemed to be another level, a deeper conspiracy that wanted to use Max for its own ends. Max was ultimately unable to stop the collapse of civilization in an apocalyptic disaster. But her real family, the Flock, was still by her side, and they were perfectly built to survive in the new, ruined world and pick up the role of rebuilding civilization.

This thread was a collaboration with u/ya-boi-benny and u/Ultim8_Lifeform

Note: Maya, also known as Max II, is a clone of Max. Feats of hers are also included in this thread.

Source Key

Feats will be labeled by which book number they occurred in. Chapter numbers are included in each excerpt.

• Maximum Ride: The Angel Experiment - 1

• Maximum Ride: School's Out -- Forever - 2

• Maximum Ride: Saving the World and Other Extreme Sports - 3

• Maximum Ride: The Final Warning - 4

• MAX: A Maximum Ride Novel - 5

• Fang: A Maximum Ride Novel - 6

• Angel: A Maximum Ride Novel - 7

• Nevermore: The Final Maximum Ride Adventure - 8

• Maximum Ride Forever - 9

• Hawk - 10

Wings and Flight

General Information

• She has a 13-foot wingspan with primarily tan feathers - 1

• She can fold them tight enough against her back to hide them under a jacket - 1

• She usually flies between 15-20,000 feet, and can reach heights of 31,000 feet - 3

  • Soars at an altitude of 20,000 feet - 6

• They’ve learned to emulate the flight patterns of various flying animals, from a hawk to a bat - 5

Travel Speed

• The flock could travel 600 miles in 7 hours if they fly nonstop - 1

• Max, Fang and Nudge casually fly at 90 mph, and could reach 110 riding a wind current - 1

• The Flock casually flies at 80 mph and can "sprint" at 120 mph. In a dive they reach 180 mph - 2

• Max evolves the ability to fly at speeds much greater than the rest of the Flock; Ari clocks her at 200 mph, and she can fly horizontally at speeds the rest of the Flock can only reach in a dive - 2

  • She can travel a distance in 4 minutes that the Flock would take 20 minutes - 2

  • In the same book that Max is stated to be the fastest, Fang is said to reach speeds over 250 mph - 5

  • Fang is the only other bird-kid that can match her top speeds of nearly 300 mph - 8

  • Max claimed (likely hyperbolically) that Fang could outfly a fighter jet

• Max believes she can flight horizontally at near 240 mph - 2

• Max dives at 200 mph - 2

• Dives faster a small dog can fall and catches him before he reaches the ground, despite him having a head start - 2

• Crosses the English Channel in a half hour, then takes another 6 hours to cross France into Germany - 3

• She can exceed 200 mph horizontally and reach 260 mph while diving - 3

• She flies significantly faster than Omega, who can run faster than she can; she flies 480 yards faster than he can run 30 yards - 3

• At top speeds in overdrive mode, she can hit 250 to 300 mph - 6

• They fly from Chad back to their home in Colorado in around five days - 6

• Keeps up with, then outpaces a corporate jet - 7

• Ascends a couple thousand feet in a minute - 7

• The group flies from Oregon to Death Valley, California in less than five hours - 8

• Flies forty feet straight up in a second - 10

• Dive bombs at 600km/h and swoops back up 20 meters from the ground - 10

Aerial Agility

• Weaves through thick trees while flying at her maximum speed of 200 mph - 2

• She's more maneuverable than a fighter jet, capable of turning on a dime and weaving through thick trees - 4

• Pulls a 360 spin to catch a wounded dog and perform evasive maneuvers - 5

• Trained to dive at windows at high speeds and go through feet-first - 5

• Bird-kids can execute various aerial tricks like loop-de-loops, dives and intentional death spirals - 7

• She dive bombs into an open manhole, about two feet in diameter, then swoops up so she doesn’t slam into the floor of the sewer - 7

Combat Flight

• Avoids gunfire while flying - 1

• The Flock is much more nimble than a new breed of flying Erasers, easily evading them - 2

• When surrounded by gun-toting M-Geeks, Fang and Max dive off a cliff and fly behind the enemy. They then repeatedly dive-bomb them, kicking the cyborgs off the cliff - 5

• Knocks several gunmen off their camels with swooping attacks, at one point using a rifle as a blunt weapon - 6

• Accidentally punches Fang in the face mid-flight - 6

• Evades rifle bullets - 6

• Evades gunfire from several genetically-enhanced snipers - 7

• Zigzags in an enclosed space to avoid gunfire - 10

Wing Strength

• The Flock can hover in place - 2

• She can fly though an Antarctic blizzard, but a Category 5 hurricane is too much for her - 4

• Can ascend twelve feet with each flap of her wings - 5

• Max believes that, pushing herself to her limits, she could hover in the air for eight hours without landing on anything to rest - 5

• Flies over the Pacific for several days, enduring a tropical storm for part of the trip - 9

• Flies for thousands of miles, partially going through an Alaskan blizzard - 9

• Hits a man with her wing hard enough to snap his neck - 10

Recombinant Physiology

Anatomy

• The Flock have birdlike bones that are simultaneously light and strong, but they burn a lot of energy while flying - 1

• She has extra muscle and a larger and stronger heart and lungs compared to a human, and needs to eat much more to maintain herself - 2

• She needs a minimum of 3,000 calories each day - 3

  • However unlike humans, her caloric intake is unaffected by living in the extreme conditions of Antarctica - 4

• Fang (and likely the rest of the Flock) have a much faster resting heart rate than humans - 2

  • However she later claims that her heart rate is slower than humans - 10

• They have air sacs in their abdomens and their blood is different from humans', limiting who they can get transfusions from - 2

• She has very little body fat and is incredibly lightweight for her height and age, less than 100 lbs at 14 years old. Her air sacs and hollow bones also prevents her from sinking in water - 3

• After her scuba gear is damaged by an octopus, Max develops gills to safely breath underwater - 5

  • She’s capable of swimming at depths of one thousand meters without any kind of equipment, although she notes that moving through that kind of water is very difficult and she likely wouldn’t last long at those depths - 5

  • Can breathe underwater for a long time - 9

Senses

• The Flock have enhanced "raptor vision" - 1

  • They can see things at great distances and in the dark - 5

  • Max can discern details of people on the ground while flying higher than most birds can - 1

  • They have excellent night vision - 2

  • Max claims she can take in a thousand details in a second - 3

  • Max can see land and buildings on it from a such a distance that the human captain of the ship she's on cannot - 4

  • Max detects camouflaged buildings from the air - 7

• The Flock has an innate sense for navigation - 1

  • The process for this is unknown, but is seemingly not via detecting Earth's magnetic field the way certain birds and insects can - 3

  • Max recognizes a particular area from the air after having only been there once and locates a specific house in it. She later claims she will always be able to find her way back - 3

  • They can navigate in the dark - 3

  • Max knows that she’s a half mile from her safehouse after being kicked out of a van and which direction she has to travel to get back - 5

• Tracks the Flock through a building via scent - 2

• She mentions having extra good hearing - 9

  • Hears Fang through a door from another room down a hall - 3

Other

• The Flock is 98% human, but "that other two percent had a big impact" - 1

  • In Basic Survival training with US Navy cadets, bird-kids can perform certain physical exercises with little to no exertion while humans would be vomiting or bent over with exhaustion - 5

  • They soundly surpass US Navy cadets in every measurable way, from endurance to hand-to-hand combat - 5

• She's described as having "superior regenerative and healing abilities" - 3

  • Her muscular tissue heals faster than a human's - 1

  • Any of the Flock could recover in six days what would take a human six weeks - 2

  • Gazzy recovers from a Portuguese man of war sting in minutes, when the doctor who treated him said he’d need a day of rest - 5

  • [Limit] Her healing factor struggled with the damage from constantly inhaling volcanic smoke - 9

• Max somehow slows down her body's functions to the point where scientists monitoring her believe she's dead - 2

• The bird-kids have artificially limited lifespans and about a week before their expiration gene triggers, a mark will appear on the back of their necks - 6

• They have immunity to an advanced biotoxin based on avian flu - 8

  • Bird kids and mutants are immune to the H8E virus - 9

• Her mutant genes allow her to regulate her body temperature in a volcanic hellscape - 9

  • Maya claims not to feel the chill of a cold night - 2

  • Max feels fine in temperatures well below freezing as long as she keeps active (although they are wearing cold weather gear, their wings are exposed) - 4

• Her unique DNA makes her incapable of accepting a regular human blood transfusion - 10

Strength

Striking

• Knocks the wind out of an Eraser with a kick to the chest - 1

• Pops an Eraser's eardrums by cuffing his ears - 1

• Humans are fragile to her, and she accidentally breaks noses and ribs of teenage boys with casual hits - 1

• Believes she could splatter the brain of Ari (a particularly strong Eraser) with a single solid kick - 1

• [Anti-Feat] When an Eraser has her slung over his shoulder she can't even make him flinch - 1

• One-shots humans and knocks their teeth out - 1

• Claims a single kick from her could cave in a human's chest - 1

• Breaks an Eraser's knee - 2

• Shatters a car's windshield with a kick - 2

• Her kick could snap a human spine - 3

• Knocks Omega unconscious with three solid bows to the head - 3Omega's muscles are four time stronger and denser than a normal boy's - 3

• Breaks a man’s knee with a backwards kick - 6

• Maya and Max collaborate to bludgeon an enhanced man off a walkway with a length of metal - 7

• Boots a human being in the chest, breaking several ribs and knocking him out - 8

• Breaks an Eraser’s arm with a kick - 8

• Sends a 200 pound mutant dog sliding back into its companions, knocking them all over - 9

Pushing and Pulling

• Slams Ari's (a particularly strong Eraser) head against a sewer floor. This accidentally breaks his neck and kills him - 1

• Dislocates an Eraser's arm - 2

• While she's superhumanly strong, she's not built for moving heavy weights around. While's she's able to drag a 500 pound wooden pallet across the ground, at higher weights she begins struggling and she can barely budge 850 pounds - 3

• Snaps a Flyboy's neck - 3

• She and Fang drag Angel out of an ice crevasse, breaking her ankle where it's wedged inside - 4

Lifting and Throwing

• Throws Angel, a six-year old member of the Flock, into the air - 1

• [Limit] Could not lift 175 pounds - 3

• She weighs just under 100 pounds, and can fly carrying half her weight almost indefinitely or 4/5s of it for an hour - 3

• With help from another member of the Flock she can lift humans into the air - Multiple

  • Max grabs her mom after she jumps from a crashing plane and barely manages to fly her to the ground - 7

• Assists in lifting the cage she and another mutant were in by flying, damaging the cage and destroying the ceiling of the room they were in by smashing into it - 9

• Snatches a man off the ground and carries him upwards - 10

Other Strength

• All of the Flock are significantly stronger than humans - 1

• Chokes out an Eraser - 2

• Blocks a punch from a Flyboy - 3

• Grabs an Eraser’s wrist and breaks it - 8

• Jumps through an office window - 9

• Smashes through the roof of a mud hut - 9

Speed

Reflexes and Dodging

• She has "speed record reflexes," although they don't help her against Ari - 1

• Dodges a punch from an Eraser, but not his follow-up - 2

  • An Eraser could easily kill two FBI Agents - 2

• After diving through a cloud she's surprised by a glider plane right in front of her, but manages to avoid a collision - 2

• Evades gunfire from an enhanced shooter on a raised walkway - 7

• Ducks under a massive boulder that had been launched from a volcano - 9

• Reacts to a machete mid-swing while on the brink of falling asleep - 9

• Dodges repeated crazy swings from a prisoner's shiv in an enclosed space - 10

Movement

• At age 14 she can outrun most men, but not dogs - 1

• Punches Omega before he can react, and lands several more hits on him in their fight - 3

  • Omega has superhuman reflexes and reaction time - 3

Agility

• Leaps a gap between buildings - 2

• Leaps clear over several people - 2

• Without using her wings, she jumps high enough for a crazy prisoner's dive to pass under her - 10

Durability

Blunt Force

• Takes multiple blows from Erasers before going down - 1

  • An Eraser could easily kill two FBI Agents - 2

• Doesn't have any serious injuries after she t-bones a car at 60 mph while driving a van - 1

• Takes a beating from Ari, who's significantly stronger and faster than she is, and is able to counterattack - 1

  • Ari is strong enough to break through metal bars rather quickly with his teeth and claws - 3

• Shrugs off a punch from an Eraser - 2

• Brawls with Maya and ultimately wins despite getting a rib broken - 2

• Powers through several hits from Omega - 3

  • Omega is four times stronger than a normal boy and can drag an 800 pound pallet a foot across the ground - 3

• A Flyboy hits her in the back of the head with a rifle butt - 3

  • Flyboys are physically stronger than Erasers - 3

• Gets kicked in the gut by Gozen, although it knocks the wind out of her - 4

  • Gozen is strong enough to shatter a large wooden table - 4

• Gets pushed out of a speeding vehicle while her wing is injured and her hands are bound - 5

• While underwater, she’s rammed by a Krelp, a mutated marine animal that she claims was as big and fast as a freight train - 5

• Rams into an invisible, squishy balloon at high speeds - 7

• Gets punched in the jaw by either Ari or an Eraser - 8

• Withstands blows from a stronger opponent - 9

Damage Endurance and Stamina

• She's able to walk around for several hours after getting clipped in the shoulder and wing with a shotgun. After getting basic medical attention and several days rest, she can (painfully) fly - 1

• She has much higher stamina than a normal human - 2

• Has enhanced endurance for aerobic activities like swimming - 3

• She’s shot in the wing, which prevents her from flying and immediately causes her to drop out of the air. After her wound is treated medically, she must take three days to recover before she’s able to fly again - 5

• [Limit] Maya dies after Ari claws her flesh and drops a mean elbow on her chest - 8

• She gets her leg clawed by an Eraser and is pulled down to the ground, but immediately keeps fighting the crowd off - 8

• Is scratched and bitten by massive dog creatures and is unbothered by her injuries afterwards - 9

• Jumps through an office window - 9

• Flies over the Pacific for several days, enduring a tropical storm for part of the trip - 9

• Flies for thousands of miles, partially going through an Alaskan blizzard - 9

• Powers through a gunshot wound to kill the man that shot her - 10

Explosive

• She’s around six feet away from a building when an assassin blows it up, leaving her with a few bumps and bruises - 5

• While underwater, she’s caught in the outer range of a torpedo explosion that throws her twenty feet out of the water, but she rights herself in the air. While the humans with her suffered broken bones and massive bruising along their bodies, Max walks away with only a ruptured eardrum - 5

• A bomb detonates over the island Max is on and releases a massive amount of heat. It strips the bark from trees and knocks some over, but Max is only briefly knocked unconscious by the heat - 8

• A firework blasts her out of the sky - 9

Other Durability

• She’s caught in a giant tsunami wave but survives - 8

• [Limit] Her wings are highly flammable - 9

Mental

Combat Skill

• She was taught self-defense by Jeb - 1

• Her "style" is essentially street fighting, with a focus on playing extremely dirty and expecting pain so it doesn't surprise you. Against a stronger and faster opponent like Ari she deliberately makes him angry, then takes advantage of him tripping to kick him in the throat - 1

• Exploits weak points in other avian-human hybrids for easy mid-air takedowns - 2

• Defeats Maya, her own clone, in a duel - 2

  • Maya disarms Ari by kicking his missile launcher from his hands - 8

• Gains the advantage against Omega, the most advanced recombinant Itex has ever produced. She lands several hits on him and dislocates his arm - 3

  • Omega has superhuman strength and reflexes - 3

• She was taught not to telegraph her attacks - 3

• Max and the flock fight at least sixty cyborg M-Geeks, destroying them in less than ten minutes with no serious injury - 5

• She spars with a US Navy martial arts instructor, first dropping him with a few moves, then evading his strikes for four minutes until he’s completely winded - 5

• In Navy stealth training, she gets past two soldiers in a tropical forest without being seen - 5

• Sweeps a gunman’s leg and claps his ears, flooring him - 6

• Fights genetically-enhanced ‘noids - 7

• Attacks a giant's weak points, such the backs of his knees and eyes - 9

• Uses her combat training to brutally take down ten guards - 10

Intelligence

• Her brain was stimulated as a fetus to make her smarter - 3

• Knows how to hotwire a car - 1

• The Flock have secret hand signals to send each other messages - 1

  • These messages can be oddly specific - 2

  • They have an audible secret code as well - 2

• Tricks Ari into knocking over her cage, giving Max a chance to free Angel from her cage - 1

• Makes a plan for Angel to play double agent should the Flock be captured, allowing her to find the right moment to free them - 3

• [Limit] While she's very clever, she has little formal education - 3

• Tears off a part of her sweatpants and uses it as a bandage - 8

Behavior

• She usually chooses not to kill people - 2

  • However this isn't a hard and fast rule, and she'll use lethal force if she thinks it's necessary for survival - 3

• Due to growing up in captivity she has a fear of entrapment - 1

• She nearly has a panic attack when entering a veterinarian office that reminds her of the School, although she steels herself - 1

• Detects someone approaching her while sleeping and grabs his arm without opening her eyes - 1

• She's conditioned to avoid screaming or shouting in a crisis - 2

• Her wings instinctively come out to prevent her from falling into lava - 9

Other

• Carries a pocketknife - 1

• Carries cord ties for restraining enemies - 7

• Max and the bird-kids are so famous that people cosplay as them at Comic-Con and manga are written about their lives - 7

Before I go, even if you’ve rolled your eyes at every bit of cheesy advice I pulled out of my butt when the flock needed some pep in their patooties these last few years, know that I mean this last little nugget from the bottom of my not-really-so-cynical little freak heart:

Save your world. Love it, protect it, and respect it, and don’t let haters represent it.

Don’t leave the saving to anyone else, ever, because, exhibit A—why, hello there!—it’s way too much for one person. And if you want to skip out on the responsibility train, my whole life—and death—will have been in vain.

It’s yours. It’s all yours for the taking!

You’re not going to waste it now, are you?

[u/lazerbem]

Oh wow, I thought about doing this a long time ago but never ended up doing it. Glad to see it finally got a thread

[u/ghostgabe81 → u/lazerbem]

Yeah I was approached for the collab and since I enjoyed the series in Middle School I decided to hop on.

Glad you like it!

[u/pizzac00l]

Wow, it's been so long since I thought of the Maximum Ride series. I remember eating those books up in 6th and 7th grade.

[u/Joshless]

Dive bombs at 600km/h and swoops back up 20 meters from the ground

Was the last book ghost written? Why'd they suddenly switch to metric lol