We could hear screams coming from the dark corners of the cage. Screams of pain ad suffering. Somethings not uncommon is the School. But the screeches were coming from not far away, a cage just next to ours. We crawled over and looked through the bars as the screams changed to whimpers. Looking through the bars I could see a boy, about my age lying on his side, his back to us. I could see he had black, messy hair that reached his tan shoulder blades that we could see since he wasn't wearing a shirt. In fact all he was wearing was blue, knee length sports shorts. It was obvious why the boy was screaming. Protruding from his back were two black, bloody, feathery lumps. It appeared they had just pierced through his skin. We all winced as we remembered the similar pain we had gone through all those years ago.

I reached my arm out through the bars and prodded him in the back.

"Hey kid, you awake?" I felt the boy shudder under my touch, and then he rolled onto his stomach and onto his other side so that he could face me. He slowly nodded his head, like he was making sure he still could move without pain.

"My name is Max, this is Angel, Fang, Iggy and Gazzy. I pointed to each of The Flock in turn. My flock. My family. Or what was left of it anyway. They each gave a hopeful little wave as I said their names. The boy seemed to perk up a bit.

"My name is Percy. Nice to meet you." Just then we heard the sound of high heels clopping on tile and we all turned our heads towards the door. Angel hustled to the far back corner of the cage but the rest of us stayed as still as statues. Just as the evil witch of a scientist was about round the corner, Percy mumbled, "If you want to get out of this Hades, run when I say." We were all shocked by the idea but nodded our heads as the scientist stopped in front of Percy's cage.

"So, this must be the new specimen that the good doctor was so proud of." She smiled wickedly and turned to the armed guards behind her. "Pull it out and don't damage it so badly this time, it needs to be conscious." Both of the guards nodded and did as they were told. As they opened Percy's cage though, they had looks of pure terror. For a good reason too apparently, because the second the door was opened, Percy leaped forward and slammed his fist into the guards nose, then he swung out his leg in a low kick and broke the other guard's leg with a sickening crunch. As the guards screamed in pain, Percy swiped the keys and threw them to us through the bars. He then turned around and took out another four guards who had just come through the open door with lightning fast punches and kicks. He fought like a wild animal, wild and ferocious without a hint of pity.

Meanwhile, Fang snatched up the keys and started jamming them into the lock, one after another. Finally the lock popped open with a click and the door swung open. We each crawled out, myself last. Just as we reached the door to the hallway, I glanced over and saw Percy struggling to stay standing in the center of a ring of guards. He was grimacing through pain, I couldn't see where he was hurt but I knew he was. I was about to go help when I saw a guard standing in the doorway take aim at Percy. I shouted a warning but was far too late. The guard pulled the trigger three times in the blink of an eye. Percy somehow managed to get out of the way of the first bullet but wasn't so lucky with the second and third. All I could do was watch in horror as the brave teen was hit first in his right shoulder and then again in the thigh.

Percy went down hard without so much as a cry for help. He only mouthed one word that I saw before Fang pulled me away and we took off running through the white hallways. Run.

"Come on Max! We can come back for him!" Angel cried out as we ran at a big glass window and braced for impact. In case you were wondering, it doesn't feel good to crash through thick glass windows. We all spread our wings and hightailed it out of there. Feeling the wind ruffle our feathers again was a bittersweet victory though, knowing that that Percy had been left behind. But we would go back for him. We had too. He had saved us.

...

One week later:

Apparently the School hadn't had time to patch up our escape route from last time because the window was still broken, with just a white sheet in front of it. It was just Fang and myself, we flew in and imediantly started running towards the screams. As we got closer the screams got louder and the sound made my blood run cold. We rounded a corner and were immediately face to face with two guards on either side of a thick metal door. We efficiently knocked out the guards and took the keys. The screams had died down now and as we opened the door we prepared ourselves for the worst. We weren't however prepared for what was before us.

We found ourselves in a cement room that was completely empty except for Percy. He was a gruesome sight. They had chained his hands a little bit apart above his head with his wings also separately bound to the wall spread out. His ankles were bound to the wall the same way that his hands were. He looked dead. His face was deathly pale and hung down with nothing to hold it up. His muscular chest was sliced and bloody with bruises coating his entire front. It appeared the only thing that the scientists hadn't harmed was his face which remained perfect. It still had its long eyelashes and prominent cheekbones, with a tanned nose and graceful lips. Percy's legs looked broken and so did his feet. Percy's wings looked like someone had whipped them for a very long time and many of his shiny black feathers had fallen out and were plastered to his bloody body.

Percy had been tortured.

Fang walked up and started sifting through the keys, trying to find the right one. When he found it he idiotically freed Percy's hands first so that Percy's body started falling forward with nothing to hold it up as Fang went to unlock his feet. I dashed forward and caught the teen. Swearing profusely as I felt his warm blood seep through my clothes

"Come on Max, there's nothing we can do for him here. Let's get him to the house." Fang spoke words of reason but the way he said it wasn't the same. He sounded like he was freaking out. Fang then carefully picked up Percy bridal style and ran out into the hallway. I was shocked to find hardly anyone tried to stop us and we made a clean getaway out the way we came. Our plan worked perfectly until after we jumped out the window, we remember how heavy Percy was. As we both tried to hold Percy to keep from falling he fell out of our grip and started plummeting towards the pond below us. Now I would love to say that Percy suddenly got better and flew away, but that wasn't what happened.

Percy plummeted down into the water, and all we could do was watch in horror. He dropped into the water like a rock from four stories up, but it was like the water reached out for him and welcomed him into its depths. The water barely rippled as Percy hit its surface and sunk down.

I rushed down to pull him out of the water, but I couldn't find him so I started to circle just above the water. I felt a strong gust of wind behind me and then a light tap on the shoulder. I whipped around furious.

"Enough Fang this isn't the time to be goofing off! We have to..." I let my trail of thought wander off when I saw who was behind me. The black haired teen just smiled at me.

"Come on let's go find your friends." He reached out and grabbed my hand. Dragging me into the air to where Fang was waiting.

"But how?..." Percy just gave me his quirky smile and said, "I'll explain later later, let's go." At that he took off through the air, away from the School, with us trailing behind.

End.

Ok, so I know it's not great but it's my first time so well...yeah. If people like the plot I might continue. Anyway, please comment! I would love some feedback. :)