Prologue

My name is Phoenix. I named myself considering nobody at the School bothered to give us real names. When I say us, I mean me and the rest of the flock: Max, Fang, Iggy, Nudge, Gasman, and Angel. I am Fang's twin, and, like Fang, I don't know much about my parents. We have been on the run for quite a while now, and I won't lie to you, sometimes it really bites.

We recently discovered that Jeb, the person that was basically our fatherly figure until we thought he died, is alive and - surprise! - he's rejoined the School. At first, we were just shocked. Now, he's just a traitor, laying all these "tests" out in front of us, expecting us to be his lab rats and jump through his hoops.

Oh yeah, I almost forgot about the School. The School is this group of mad – and I know what I'm talking about when I say mad – scientists who created us. They are seriously crazy. It's supposed to be a miracle we're even alive, considering how many of their experiments have failed. It's just us and the Erasers, other mutants which are basically your everyday werewolves, except they can transform whenever they like. There's not much difference from us and normal humans, except we have wings and our bodies are engineered so we can fly.

We didn't exactly have a normal childhood, but we're pretty amazing fighters and somehow we get by okay. Even after the Erasers took away Angel and we lost our house, we still do pretty great. Well, as great as you can when you're on the run and hunted by Erasers every time you turn your head.

You've probably heard Max's story. Well, this is mine.