C h a p t e r O n e
The dark woods echoed with the cries of the Erasers, their howls piercing through the midnight sky. As the battle raged on around me, time slowed as I instinctively kicked at another morphed hybrid. Around me, my flock was fighting for their lives.
"Max," a voice called out to me in the midst of the chaos. "I was hoping to find you."
My head whipped around to the sound of the voice. Ari, my arch enemy, sat before me on a tree branch at my level, half morphed into his wolf form.
"Look, I'll give you one more chance. You can either die now, or run away with me. You won't have many more chances." Surprisingly, Ari's voice wasn't icy or completely threatening. In fact, it sounded quite sincere. Hmm…suspicious. He motioned for me to sit next to him on the branch. Something in his eyes made me. I couldn't seem to stop myself from doing so. Even more suspicious.
For those new to our little adventure, allow me to fill you in. Fang, Iggy, the Gasman, Nudge, Angel and I are all avian mutants. We're 98% human; the rest is all bird. We have wings. We have also acquired other special features. For example, the six year old Angel can read minds…and control other people's…and breath underwater…even talk to fish. So far, she's the only one with so many talents. Nudge can feel emotions from whatever someone else has touched. She's also good with technology. I have the ability to fly at supersonic speeds.
Erasers happen to be our worst enemies. Back at the School (the labs where experiments are created, like us), Erasers are used as guards and are usually used to test our strength. Basically, they track us down and try to kill us, and we try to survive through it. We're all exceptional fighters, and have strength stronger than the average male human. We can also heal quickly and don't get damaged as easily. The downside to all of these perks? It requires a lot of energy to stay alive, and food tends to run short when you're on the run and never able to go anywhere public. Not to mention we have little to no access to any form of currency.
Jeb is one of the lab-coats, or scientists, that created us, but he stole us away from the School and practically raised us as his own; teaching us everything we know. Ari is his son who is technically only seven years old, but since he became an Eraser, he now looks and has matured to about seventeen years old. I've already killed him, but somehow the School brought him back to life; and gave him and his Eraser posse wings. On the upside, they are not nearly as experienced in flying as us, but they are still potentially very dangerous. Ever since we've met, he has been madly in love with me. Angel has read his thoughts to clarify this information. It's a very…complicated relationship we share. He loves me, yet hates me because Jeb has always favored me over him. I just flat-out hate his guts, but it gets hard as I have known him since he was a little kid. Just recently, I have been told that the responsibility of saving the world was mine, and since I was feeling too much and doing what I think is right rather than what they want me to do, the School's newest production was an exact replica; of me. Our only difference was our vast personalities. I was nothing like her on the inside, except she knew all of my weaknesses. Defeating her had been tough, but I could have killed her in our last encounter. My conscious wins again, I guess.
Not too long ago, Ari asked me to run away with him and escape from the mass chaos called my life. Obviously, I refused, and yet here he was again asking me the fateful question once again.
Making an effort to punch the kid in the face, I reply, "How many times do I have to say no to you?" Ari blocked my punch that would have jammed his face in.
"Seriously, Max. Think about it. You now have, like, five seconds." Wow. Ari's face started to morph back to its almost fully human form. His dark brown eyes looked pleadingly into my own face. For the first time in my life, I was shocked into silence. I noticed myself stuttering, searching for words.
"So, what do you say?" Ari's hand was on my arm now, which suddenly snapped all of my senses alive.
"Nope!" For the few moments I could see Ari's eyes before I made them a new shade of black and blue, I actually saw pain and sorrow. Who knew that something like that could actually carry feelings like 'compassion' and 'caring'.
I punched him in the face, causing a gushing nose bleed, and for a few brief seconds Ari did nothing back. But I wasn't going to be surprised. I swung out my leg and side-kicked him in the ribcage, causing Ari to go careening off the branch. His wings suddenly opened, catching a the air, and with several energy-consuming pumps, he continued up into the air to where I hovered above. In one rapid motion, Ari grabbed hold of my wrists and pulled my face closer to his mouth. I struggled, but considering he's like, two hundred pounds-of-solid-muscle-meant-for killing stronger than me, it didn't do much except give him a few not so promising kicked blows in the stomach.
"Max, try to believe me. I'm as sick of Jeb as you are. Consider my offer. If you change your mind, I'll be here." I looked into his face, still almost human. One weird flick of the eyes and suddenly I stopped kicking, involuntarily. Still suspicious.
"Max, listen to me. Jeb wants you to save the world, right? You're the chosen one, right? Well think about this: Jeb wants to 'save the world' from a company that he works for. He wants you to save the world from finding out about the School."
"Ari, let me go! I already know about my destiny!" I through another kick up into his ribs; but again, my foot didn't do as much damage as it should have. Ari didn't even flinch. Then he leaned closer to my ear and barely whispered:
"I'll bet you didn't know this, Max. After Jeb gets what he wants from you, he's going to terminate you. They're getting tired of you, Max. They want someone who can do as they're supposed to without getting so attached. The fake Max was just the beginning of a whole new line of experiments that they are determined will work. Eventually, you will be eliminated from the equation. Everything Angel told you that she heard from the lab-coats' minds is a lie. You're not going to survive for more than a few weeks, at best. Without you, your flock won't survive for too long either, will they?"