Chapter 1

Kai sat in the dark corner, watching the other erasers train. He felt left out since he was too much like an eraser to be in a cage, but too weak to train with the others. Unnoticed by Kai, a girl was watching him from around the corner. She was confused. He was completely different from other erasers. Was he just another experiment? Maybe… She turned to leave, but there was a crash. Kai looked around wildly, wondering what had happened.

"Damnit..." The girl whispered to herself. She had knocked over some metal crates. Kai saw an eraser leave the room to see the commotion, and followed. He turned the corner just in time to see a girl standing there. Her hair was an electric purple, and her eyes were the color of ice. She saw him and ran down the hallway as quickly as she could.

Kai had few things the other erasers didn't. While they did have enhanced speed in order to catch mutant kids, he was faster due to his weight being lighter than the average eraser. Not by much, but enough to outrun them and make it to a target faster than the others. He could almost feel her warmth when he reached out and barely missed her jean jacket by centimeters. That's when he tripped. He saw the girl look back at him and saw something in her eyes, like pity but not exactly. She kept running and turned down the hallway, out of sight.

The other eraser almost stepped on Kai's wing, but Kai didn't care. All he wanted was to prove he was as strong as the others. He stood up and started running again, turning the corner just in time to see the girl disappear down another hallway. A man stepped out in front of Kai and the other eraser, preventing them from following her any further. It was Mike Latcheder. Kai looked at the floor. Mike was one of the lead whitecoats, respected by all and the official leader of the erasers. Even when not looking at him, Kai could feel Mike's eyes boring into his soul. Mike motioned for the other eraser to go back to training, then bent down to Kai's level.

"Come with me." Kai felt his palms start to sweat as Mike led him down a hallway and through a few doors. All Kai could do to stop worrying was focus on looking like he wasn't worried. He looked straight ahead, trying to put on an expressionless face. They came up to a door labeled Mike Latcheder: Office.

"Now, I know you're different from the other erasers, Kai." Kai didn't know what to say so he just nodded. "So… How would you like to leave this place?" Kai was shocked. He thought he was in trouble, not that he was going to get a chance to leave. Mike smiled. "I knew you would."

"I- um..." Kai stuttered. In all his years he'd never considered leaving. He'd never seen farther than the gates of the school before, where would they go? After a minute of silence, Kai nodded his head. Slowly at first, then growing faster the more he imagined leaving and what the outside world looked like.

"Good." Mike said and he walked toward the door motioning for Kai to follow.

As Mike opened the door, two people collapsed inside the room. One was a boy Kai had never seen before, but the other was the girl he recognize from before. Mike looked down at them.

"Jack, why are you here?" The boy, who Kai assumed was Jack, didn't look up. The girl next to him was trying hard not to tremble. Mike sighed.

"Come on, all of you." He looked down the hall to make sure nobody was watching and ushered all three of the kids out to the parking lot.

The girl was scared, something she hadn't experienced in a long time. She realized she had two options- go with Mike and see what happens, or attempt to fight back. Slowly she crept her hand towards her knife, and she saw Jack doing the same.

Somehow, Mike saw them both out of the corner of his eye. "No need. I can assure you it's not a trap." Kai was surprised. He hadn't even noticed them reaching for their weapons. How did Mike?

She scoffed. "As if it's not a trap." She reluctantly lowered her hand and crossed her arms. "So when are you gonna tell us where we're going?"

"You guys are going to my house." Mike said calmly. "That's all I can tell you now."

A loud alarm sounded from the school. Mike hustled everyone into a car and sped off before anyone could even comprehend that the alarm was about them leaving. In no time, they were far from the school and the erasers probably sent after them.

The girl was clearly unhappy about being shoved in the car between Kai and Jack. She elbowed Jack in the ribs. "Oww!" He whispered. "What was that for?!" "It was your idea to come back here! We could've just escaped!" She seethed. "Come on, Luca you know we needed to come back!" Jack whispered back to her. Luca shook her head and looked back down. "You're an idiot, you know that, right?" Luca muttered. Jack stifled a chuckle "You never let me forget."

After a painfully long car ride in the cramped back seat of a car, Kai was glad when the car came to a stop and Mike told everyone to get out. The kids looked around at the mountains above and the vast rainforest below. There was also two big birds flying in the sky near what looked like a small white building on the cliffside. Upon closer inspection, Kai noticed that the big birds were actually kids.

"Where are we?" Luca asked, unable to hide her curiosity

"Welcome to my home."