Hiro whimpered, moving away from the man with the syringe. Or at least he tried too. He backed up against the back of the cage, pressing back as far as possible. He didn't want any more experiments- he didn't want anymore pain or anymore abnormality. He just wanted to go home.

"It'll be okay." The man said, smiling. His white coat flashed again and Hiro flinched back visibly. "It'll all be over soon."

Hiro had told himself over and over that he would not cry- that the white coats would not make him cry. That promise he'd made was almost untrue, because Hiro could feel the tears and hyperventilation and sobs coming over him.

"Sh..." The man in the white coat said, slowly reaching in and taking Hiro's arm. He pulled it forwards and slowly- and painfully- injected the sirum into Hiro's left arm, leaving a stinging and swelling mark. "See, that wasn't that bad, was it?"

A few seconds later, Hiro'd jerked his arm out, slamming his right hand into the white coat's arm ninja-style.

"God-!" The white coat hissed, catching himself and turning back at Hiro, who was breathing heavily, pulling his left arm closer to him. It was already starting to numb- which was always a bad sign. "You little brat!"

Hiro got the feeling he was being called way worse in the white coats head, but his own head had slowly started to throb. His vision blurred and he squinted, trying to make out the different shapes. Everything was slowly going black...

And then everything did.


Hiro bit back a scream as he jerked forwards, a hand over his fast beating heart and his other hand on his head. He was hyperventilating again. Hiro looked around his small room, telling himself everything was okay and that it was just a dream... Just a dream...

Well, more like a memory.

But one does not tell self that when self is hyperventilating.

Hiro's memories came back as dreams often- it was part of the entire School experience. The others experiences stuff like that too- except for Hiro it was every day.

Perks of being the one they 'enhanced' the most.

Hiro looked over at the clock, which read 11:34. Stretching his arm, he grabbed for his sweatshirt and pulled it over his bare chest, zipping it up. Swinging his legs over the side of his bed-like-thing, he stood up, feeling unsteady for a second, before stepping forwards and walking into the hallway again.

Where he ran into Tadashi.

Literally.

"Whoa-!" Tadashi laughed. "Hey Hiro."

Hiro smiled faintly at Tadashi. "Hey."

"Just going to wake you up..." Tadashi shook his head, trying to get his hair out of his eyes. "Breakfast in 10."

"Mmkay..." Hiro muttered, yawning.

Tadashi smiled, putting a hand behind Hiro's back, careful not to touch it. Hiro was still extremely haphephobic- even now. But Tadashi knew better than to let him walk around half asleep- last time that'd happened he'd fallen down the stairs. Hiro yawned again and the two walked downstairs.

"Hey genius." Gogo's voice rang out. "Finally up, huh?"

Hiro's eyes focused on the black haired girl leaning against the wall, her arms crossed. "Hi..." Hiro said, rubbing his eyes in attempt to get awake. Tadashi smiled. Hiro was almost always the last asleep and always the last awake. Boy liked to sleep- Tadashi couldn't blame him. Hiro basically collapsed on the couch, shifting slightly. Gogo rolled her eyes, but didn't say anything else.

Tadashi sighed, shaking his head at Hiro, then went to survey the rest of the group. There was Hiro- passed out on the couch. His black hair was even more a mess than usual and his brown eyes were closed, signaling Hiro had probably gotten 4 or less hours of sleep last night. Near him was Gogo. She resembled Hiro in a lot of ways- messy black hair, brown eyes-, but she was also a lot different. Her hair had purple streaks lining the front, and she had more of a tough look than Hiro could ever hope to achieve. Cooking was Honey Lemon- or Honey. She was one of- if not- the tallest out of the entire group. Her blond hair was tied back and she had syrup on her right cheek. Her green eyes met Tadashi's for a second and her face broke out into a smile.

Tadashi paused for a second, smiling back, then went onto Fred.

Fred's blond hair was long and he'd put his green hat on over it. His blue eyes were scanning the room- going insanely fast. Tadashi sighed, moving onto Wasabi. Wasabi's brown, dreadlocked hair was darker than his skin, and he'd pulled light green bandana around his forehead. Tadashi nodded, smiling. "Okay, so what are we going to do today?"

"Sleep..." Was Hiro's muffled reply.

Tadashi rolled his eyes. "I'm serious."

"So am I." Hiro replied, digging his face further into the couch.

"We could... Go eat in the woods." Honey offered, smiling at the two boys.

"Where there are evil badgers and maggots and other evil contaminating things?" Wasabi's voice rang out. "No thank you!"

"Fred!" Wasabi elbowed Fred, who started laughing.

Tadashi smiled, looking around at his flock. Only one thing was missing- Duncan Nelson, the reason they were out and not in the School anyways. The one white coat who'd been somewhat nice to them and who'd cared- before leaving one day on a 'mission' and never coming back. They'd all assumed he was dead- killed by some evil Eraser- a genetically engineered puppy dog from the School- or killed directly by the School. Or maybe he was avoiding them.

Either way, it'd been almost 5 years and everyone was certain- Duncan wasn't coming back.

Ever.

Anyways, the School- the torture house where they were experimented on for at least 4 years of their life- had given them all 'gifts'. Gifts as in special abilities. Fred could mimic things. Each one of them could do something cool- like invisibility, or manipulating metal and technology.

Oh, and flight.

Had Tadashi mentioned flight?

All 6 members of his flock had wings.

"Good idea, Honey." Tadashi laughed, smiling. "All in favor?"

"This isn't some sort of democracy, Tadashi." Gogo rolled her eyes.

"So?"

She sighed, rolling her eyes again. "Whatever."

Tadashi smiled. "Guess that means we're going, huh?"


Around 15-30 minutes later, the 6 of them were walking out of the house. Their house was a E shape, the door right in the center of the E. Honestly, if Hiro had to rate the house on a scale from 1-10, it would easily be a 15.

Hiro, almost completely awake now, ran forwards, separating from the ground slightly. Laughing, Hiro ran straight for the cliff. He snapped out his wings- 13 foot, raven black with a few grey spots- and jumped, free-falling a few feet before snapping out his wings, taking off into flight.

Tadashi laughed, glancing back at the group before jumping off, spreading his own 16 ft, tawny brown wings and taking off after Hiro. Pretty soon, everyone was following the two boys.

It would take the normal person another 30 or 45 minutes to get to the flock's spot in the woods. It's about 5-10 minutes by the person flies.

Banking downwards, Hiro landed first. He pulled in his wings so everyone else could land. A huge smile crossed his face, a smile that only 14 year old Avian Americans- yes, it's a race- could pull off.

Tadashi was about 2 seconds away from landing when something grabbed Hiro.

He screamed and whirled around, slamming his sneakered foot into whatever had grabbed him's chest. The thing let go of him and growled. Hiro stumbled backwards, coming to a stop in front of Tadashi. Tadashi grabbed him and pulled him closer, keeping a hand on Hiro's shoulder. Tadashi knew the younger boy hated being touched, but... He didn't want anything to happen to him.

Tadashi felt strangely connected and responsible for the entire flock, but more so Hiro.

"Aw, come on..." A gruff voice said, slowly coming into the light. "Don't take the little piggy away."

Tadashi's grip on Hiro's shoulder tightened. "Bite me."

"Oh..." The thing said, fully coming into the light seconds later. "I think I will."

Erasers.

1- no... 5- no wait, 7Erasers.

All staring directly at Tadashi's flock.

"Come on boys..." The Eraser laughed. "Let's have a little fun, shall we?"

A second later, all 7 Eraser's lunged in one quick motion.

And immediately, Tadashi's flock was fighting back.

Before Duncan had left, he'd taught the flock almost everything he'd known about fighting. They'd trained- even after he was gone. So they were pretty well prepared for almost anything.

Tadashi quickly shoved Hiro backwards before blocking the Eraser's punch. Pretty soon the two were in close combat. Gogo'd taken on one also- so did everyone.

Tadashi'd forgotten all about the one extra one until it slammed it's furry fist into his back, making him stumble. One pushed him to the ground as the other went towards-

Went towards Hiro.

"HIRO!" Tadashi screamed before a boot came, slamming against his mouth. Immediately, he tasted blood. He looked up, his eyes narrow. "If you so much as touch him, I swear, I will rip off your f-"

Hiro's scream came.

Tadashi's head swiveled around in time to see one furry, huge Eraser holding Hiro's arms and pulling him away from the flock, while another stood, ready to ward off anyone who tried to get Hiro back from them. Hiro was struggling fiercely, but no avail. A quick scan showed Gogo out cold on the ground, Honey with a black eye, Fred with a bloody nose on the ground with an Eraser over him, and Wasabi was being held back by one Eraser, a sharp, bleeding cut on his cheek. Tadashi wasn't sure how bad his own injuries were, but his one concern at the moment was Hiro.

"Oh no, we're going to take him." The one above him growled, grabbing Tadashi's face with his clawed hand and squeezing, marking cuts on his cheeks and drawing blood. "And there's nothing you can do about it."

Tadashi knew it- he knew there was nothing he could do. In the end.

Which is why he snapped.

Immediately, Tadashi kicked up, hitting the Eraser's stomach. The Eraser howled, glaring down at Tadashi- but he wasn't on the ground anymore. He was in the sky. He dive-bombed the stupid thing, slamming his foot into it's face. It fell to the ground. Tadashi- wild eyed- turned to find Hiro and the other two Erasers. One had turned away and was starting towards him. Tadashi got further into the air and flew downwards. The Eraser saw it coming and jerked his fist up- but a few seconds too late. Tadashi was already behind him, slamming his fist into the back of his head, then his foot into his back. The Eraser crumpled to the ground, landing on top of the first one. Tadashi turned towards where the Eraser holding Hiro was and got ready to take off and fly as fast as his wings would take him.

A hand muffled Hiro's cries as he screamed for Tadashi to look out, but it was too late. Gogo's Eraser had broken away from her and clamped his furry fist against Tadashi's head- hard. He jerked forwards slightly and the Eraser jerked him back, putting his claw against Tadashi's already clawed cheek and pressed in.

The last thing Hiro saw before being shoved into blackness was the wild look in Tadashi's eyes.


Honey was still awake when they took Hiro- she and Fred were the only ones still conscious. Tadashi had just been knocked unconscious, Gogo had been out for a while, and Wasabi was stirring.

She looked over at Fred, who was trying to stop the blood coming from his nose. He nodded slightly, tipping his head back a few seconds later. Honey went around to waking up the rest of her friends.

She shook Tadashi's shoulder. "Tadashi... Tadashi get up. Please." She added softly. "We need to go- like now." Fred went around to wake up Gogo and Wasabi while Honey tried to get the eldest member of the flock awake. "Tadashi..."

Tadashi slowly opened one blurry eye and found the green grass. He had a headache, but as soon as he remember why, he was on his feet, staring in the direction the Eraser's had taken Hiro. "Hiro?" He called out.

"Tadashi-" Honey grabbed his hand, but he shook it off. She pulled it closer to her and stood up, slowly following Tadashi as he walked towards where they'd last seen Hiro and the Erasers.

"Hiro!" He called again, breaking into a frantic run now. "Hir-"

Looking down, he realized he was stepping on something- something small. He momentarily let his eyes fly now, but they stuck to what he'd seen- it was a small chain with a slightly broken 6th of a star on the ground. Tadashi's hand flew to his mouth. That had been Hiro's 6th. Hiro's.

Leaning down, Tadashi gently grabbed the chain, lifting it up. He felt tears coming on again and stuffed it into his pocket before turning back to his remaining flock. "Did they go this way?"

Honey nodded.

Tadashi nodded back, turning. He spread his tawny brown wings, broke into a run, and took off into the sky.