Disclaimer: Come on, man. Really?
Also, I'm one of those people who go through their writing, think Goddamn, this sucks ass, and just has to revise it so. Yeah. Sorry if you're on alert.
(Shadow's POV)
First thing in the morning, I'm slamming my fist on my second biggest enemy. I think I might have broken it. Again.
What is it, you ask? Why, none other than Fang's alarm clock. Why he has one of mankind's largest problems, I have no idea. He doesn't even use the stupid thing. Fang's always up before it rings, so at points in my life I've thought it's for me, but the idea's so unlikely I've just come to accept its presence. Except in the morning where it annoys the hell out of me.
"It would be nice if you didn't murder my alarm clock every morning." Speak of the devil.
I could see Fang's outline through the thin blanket covering my face. "Ugh. If you love it that much go get him to fix it." I groaned, suddenly mustering up energy to put mountains of contempt on "him".
He chuckled, "At least get up before you start wishing people a horrible death.
I groaned again, removing the blanket. "Help me up?" I thrust my arm out, finally pulling the blanket off my face.
He smirked, "What's the magic word?"
I groaned for the third time. Now, for anyone annoyed with my incessant groaning: You get me up after I have like three or four hours of sleep, my vocabulary's not going to be at its best. "Please," I said reluctantly.
He smirked again, holding out his hand. I took it, and pulled him down making him flop down on our combined mattresses.
He should've seen that coming. I mean, he practically set that up for me. This is why Fang is emotionless in front of others, because I've taught him keep your guard up at all times through a very long series of pranks. We sleep mattresses on the ground instead of beds because we're badasses. Or, that's the story. Truth is, we ran out of actual beds.
"Hey!" His usually calm voice was indignant.
I smirked, "That was for making me wake up." I suppressed a shudder, remembering the nightmare. Like most of the flock, I still have dreams of the School and Erasers, which left me cursing at the day I met them.
Fang and I melted into the shadows, making me feel like a ninja. We "reappeared" in the kitchen, scaring Max. Well, Fang scared Max and she yelled at him. Something like, "Will you quit that!" and him saying something like, "Quit what? Breathing?", and her...you get the idea. All while I stopped the Gasman from picking open a can of beans at the table. I took it from him, putting it on a high shelf I knew he couldn't reach.
He protested, "Hey! I was going to eat those!"
"No, you weren't," I contradicted shortly.
"But, but, but-"
"No. Pour juice, I'm making bacon," I commanded, pointing to the fridge.
For those who think I'm being mean to the kid, his name the Gasman-mostly Gazzy-is the Gasman for a reason. I'm not letting his weird digestive problem get enhanced by a can of beans.
"I guess I'm making eggs then."
I rolled my eyes. "Nice to see you got your lazy butt up."
Had Gazzy not been in the room I would have sworn so creatively sailors around the world would have been put to shame. I sauntered over towards Iggy, somehow managing to stare him down even though he was taller than me. And in case you're worried, this is normal.
"Well at least I'm not the only who's insanely tired, you have bags under your eyes." Iggy said, not even flinching. Remember earlier I said Fang's alarm clock was my second biggest enemy? There is no one who could top Iggy if they were trying to get me to hate them. No one.
I yawned realistically, my way of saying whatever, but at the same time proving his point.
"It's your own fault for challenging me to-as you put it-a "staying up late" contest," I retorted "And when have I ever cared about my appearance?"
"Touché."
"As amusing as it is watching you two banter, I assure you, the rest of us are very hungry and would like our bacon and eggs," Max interupted.
"Told," Fang moved towards the TV, switching it on. Suddenly the sort of quiet room was filled with the sound of That 70's Show.
"Hmph," I moved over to the fridge, getting out eggs and searching for the bacon.
"IGGY!" I yelled, which was my way of starting a question with Iggy.
He sighed, stopping whatever conversation he was so engaged in with Gazzy. There will be hell to pay if he coruppts that boy. "YES?" he yelled back.
"WHERE'S THE BACON?"
"HOW SHOULD I KNOW?"
"'CAUSE YOU GOT IT OUT LAST!"
"WELL UNLESS SOMEONE ELSE GOT IT OUT AND MOVED IT, IT SHOULD BE BEHIND THE EGGS!"
"I JUST GOT OUT THE EGGS AND THERE'S A BLANK SPACE BEHIND IT!"
"THEN I DON'T WHERE IT IS!"
"IGGY YOU USELESS-OH HERE IT IS! IT WAS NEXT TO CARROTS!"
I heard Max and Fang smothering their laughter with my sensitive ears. How we yell and have sensitive hearing at the same time is beyond me. Max must have gotten Nudge and Angel up because Iggy had sneaked into the kitchen as soon as I finished yelling.
"Nudge Channel turning on," he muttered.
I groaned. "It's too early for that."
Max interuppted our lovely chat. You know we had a great conversation when we can break it off without shouting at each other.
"Guys, how long are you just gonna stand there? You know when you say you're gonna do something, it helps if you actually do that," she reprimanded gently. I sighed and started heating up the stove. I had just started frying bacon, using my ninja skills to use only chopsticks to flip the bacon when Iggy asked me to get the salt.
"Get it yourself," I replied annoyed. I was trying to avoid the grease popping, that stuff hurt.
"But you're right next to it," he whined, dragging out the 'it'. I growled, somewhat perturbed. Bending down, I opened the cabinet filled with spices.
"Shadow can you get that can of beans for me?" Fang asked me.
"Which can of beans?" I asked, not looking up.
"The one you took from the Gasman."
"Nice try, Gazzy."
"Darn. How'd you know it was me?" He dropped his mimicry, disappointed. I rummaged through the cabinet spotting that stupid cylindar, composing an answer.
"First if Fang would want me to get anything, it would be ravioli, not beans. Also Fang is...what two inches taller than me? So he could get it himself-which I would tell him almost immediantly. And Fang calls you Gazzy not the Gasman. And another thing, Fang doesn't usually say that much. After that many errors I could tell, without looking up, that you were talking. Not Fang." After my long speech, I glanced up, pounding the salt in front of Iggy. Seeing everyone, literally everyone from Max to Angel in the kitchen or leaning on the countertop, with their jaws nearly open.
"Iggy close your mouth, the flies will get in, here's your salt, and your eggs are gonna burn. What's wrong with you guys?" I directed the last part at everyone else, genuinely puzzled.
"When did you get the time to notice all this?" Max asked.
"What are you talking about?"
"None of us notice this kind of stuff. Why do you?"
"I can't explain it. I just kinda see this stuff. Like Nudge, she pauses after every sixteen words to breathe." I said offhandedly.
Nudge furrowed her eyebrows, something I didn't she was capable of. She was always so carefree, I didn't think she knew what worrying was. "I do that? Really? Hey, you know what the word really reminds me of? Seriously. Why does really remind me of seriously? Oh, oh, oh! You know a good subsitute for seriously? Cerealy. How would you spell-"
I shot Fang a greatful look, speaking for almost everyone in the room. "Breakfast is served! Finally," I added under my breath.
Iggy heard my comment with his super-super hearing and snorted. "Ain't that the truth." Most people would have taken that as agreement, but I saw through his words. It was a challenge.
"You're the one who almost burned the eggs," I said, quick to retaliate.
"You're the one who forgot about the bacon while looking for salt," Iggy replied coolly. Well played my friend, well played.
"Salt that you wanted me to get!" I huffed, exasperated. But not played well enough.
"Fair enough." He shrugged, and then Max yelled at us again.
"Do you two have fight every second of the day?"
"Told again," Fang said through a mouthful of scrambled eggs.
"Shut up!" we snapped together, sitting down and stealing as much food as we could before it all got taken.
Angel suddenly piped up, "I want to pick strawberries, they're ripe now!" Max being the total doter on Angel she is, said we could. Right when the Gasman let one rip.
"Oh jeez, that's horrible Gazzy!" I choked. Now you see why I didn't let him eat the beans?
"Sorry." He looked apologetic, but he just kept on eating, not much of an apology, if you ask me.
I pushed my plate away, face twisted, "I'm not hungry anymore." Iggy immediantly seized the porcelain plate.
"You hafe ta cwean da disses." Iggy spoke, spitting food everywhere. I blinked, trying to translate. Disses? How do you "cwean" disses? And then it dawned on me, he was saying "You have to clean the dishes." Well, there's always an answer to that. He got it last he has to wash it.
"No," was my blunt reply, we after all were like-as Max had once said-hygine challenged jackels. I strided towards the bathroom before Iggy could catch me.
"Where do you think you're going?" a voice maybe a few feet behind me asked. Damn, he's after me. How'd he finish so fast? I veered off to the right towards my room, trying to escape. I broke into a a run going through the open door, so close to my escape route.
To my relief the door was open, I threw myself out the giant window. As I was free-falling. I know what you guys are thinking. Oh my god! Why'd you jump out the window, you're going to die! Well surprise! I'm actually a teenage girl who's part bird because evil scientists graphed bird DNA on several human eggs. Which happened to be our whole gang, Max, Fang, Iggy, Nudge, the Gasman, Angel, and me. I slowly unfurled my wings, so I barely managed to avoid a face-plant in the ground. I know, I know, I should have opened my wings immediantly but have you ever opened your wings really fast? It hurts really bad, like someone's pushing needles into your arm.
I laughed with exhilaration once I was in the clouds. It's like being god up here. Even though I fly all the time, I've never gotten over the wind rushing against my face. The sense I'm more than a fourteen-year-old mutant freak, the feeling of freedom-trust me, if you had my life the freedom is the biggest highlight. I circled like a hawk, hoping Iggy had given up. Soon I saw a black dot getting closer, being extremely high up even my raptor vision I couldn't tell if it was a bird or something. Peering closer at it through my narrowed eyes. Dissmissing it as a bird, I shrugged it off, my powerful black wings pumping to keep me airborne. Turning my back on it was my mistake.
By the time I heard his wings flapping, he was right behind me. "What took you long?" I asked, supressing an instict to jump and replacing it with bordom.
"I took my sweet time," He shrugged, totally unfazed by the edge of ice in my tone. I had to resist the urge say Darn right you did. "Why'd you drag me up here? I know it's not just an escape route." That's another weird thing about Iggy, if I have an ulterior motive, he can see it. Let's just say I've cursed his name more than once because of it.
I gave him a small almost impish smile, "Well, I'm really bored, so my solution is having an air-borne street fight with you-if you choose to accept." I spoke casually, lacing my fingers and putting them behind my head. My tone held just a tiny hint of a dare but Iggy caught it anyways.
He smirked, "You're on." I don't remember when it happened, maybe halfway through our fight. I planted a roundhouse kick in his chest, when his clear blue eyes suddenly turned cloudy, he managed to choke out "Can't...see...", then he started plummenting 5,000 feet down through the air. Panic surged through me, he was having one of his weird episodes.
Yeah, I should probably pause and explain this, when we-the Flock escaped the School, Iggy was blind. Then Jeb did some stuff and Iggy can see most of the time, but sometimes he'll just go blind for days on end. He says it hurts in the beginning which is, I guess, why he started falling 5,000 feet even though he has wings.
"Oh crap." I bit my lip, then screamed at him,"IGGY YOU HAVE WINGS-USE THEM!" I have no doubt he heard me, since while we have twenty times better hearing than regular humans, Iggy's got twice that. And yet I shot after him. I managed to catch him right before he started crashing through the trees. I could feel my shoulder muscles straining to slow down Iggy's momentum and try to keep us from crashing and turning into a giant, gory pancake. An image suddenly flashed through my mind-it's best for your sanity if I don't describe it. By this time, I'd managed to slow us down enough to crash into a tree branch safely and stop our fall. My thirteen-and-a-half foot wingspan brushed other branches, almost snagging on them.
I groaned, "I hate you, you know that?"
"With a deep fiery passion, I know." He panted, catching his breath from his accompaniment in my screaming.
"I really thought I was gonna die." My chest heaved, recovering from the jolt of fright he'd given me. "Hey, you have wings." The ever-so-helpful Iggy said.
"Speaking of which," I narrowed my eyes, "why didn't you use yourse?"
"Oh ye-ah." he extended his pure white wings, now dirty with leaves and things. "I forgot about them." Iggy looked at me with wide innocent eyes and grinned. Ignoring the urge to punch him was harder than you think. Honestly, half of me was tempted to drop him and watch him hit the ground and then laugh at his dead body.
Closing my eyes, I started,"Iggy-"
"Hey we're safe now." he defended, I still think he jinxed us like that. As soon as the words left his mouth, we heard a craking sound.
Like idiots, we watched the branches break. Our plumment down continued as I desperatly tried to keep my grasp on Iggy.
Let's just say we made it back with minimum fighting and no broken bones.
Whew, it's a long chapter. So like it, don't like it? Tell. Wow i just realized the chapter doesn't have much of the other charecters in it. Hmm.
Note to self: Include the Flock in next chapter. *sigh* Now I have to update my other story.
QUESTION OF THE CHAPTER:Who's a bigger badass Fang or Max?