A/N: This story's title is based on the song by Weezer. If you haven't heard it go shoot yourself in the foot. That is all.

I take a large savage bite of rat and survey my surroundings. Trees. Pines. Lots of them. All of them hundreds of feet down. The sun is just setting, casting oranges and pinks into the shadows of the huge Cliffside. As I watch a flock of birds flutter upwards, startled by something down below in the distance. Nothing of a threat to me, I am so high up, my little cave nearly at the top of the cliffs. I wonder musingly if it would even faze me if there were a threat out there. It seems so long and tedious staying hidden; maybe I would quite enjoy a fight. For sure I would win. My rocklike muscles would be no match for any predator this area could provide me. My lengthy blue white and black wings could batter and wound easily, making them lethal weapons. My strength is even greater than Max's.

As if she knew. As if she cared. As if any of them cared about anybody accept themselves. They probably didn't even remember me anymore. Poor little Avery. The other mutant bird child. Oh no, she doesn't matter a damn thing.

I bite into my cheek, my fists curling. No. It's not their fault. I'm smarter than Ari. I know it's not their fault. It's that horrible Jeb's fault. He could care less about anybody else. Just his darling Max. Darling Max and her darling 'family'. Idiots all of them. We're mutant freaks for Gods' sake! Does that not tell you anything? We're genetically engineered. We do not have 'family'.

My sharp nails dig in to the flesh of my palm, drawing blood, but I continue to press into them. I will not hold a grudge against them. I will not! I'm not Ari. I'm not evil. I will only be mad at those who deserve my fury. Jeb!

Didn't I mean anything to anyone? No, not ever. Not since the day I was born. Always. I didn't mean anything to my birth parents, who just gave me away. Did they care that the white coats were going to experiment on me? Mutate me? Make me into this thing? No, they didn't.

And what about the white coats themselves? Do they even have feelings? I don't think so. Shooting me up with random drugs to test how my body filters poisons and toxins. Making me fly with weights strapped to my feet. Zapping the soles of my feet to see how fast I could run.

I shudder and turn my face down to my palm. I'm now gushing blood onto the cave floor. I stare at the blood for a moment.

Then out loud I say, "That's for all those people who cared for me."

I jump out of the cave, unfurling my wings as I fall, and take a powerful wind stroke towards the setting sun.

Itex's latest monstrous creations will probably be back at my cave sniffing my DNA in less than two hours' time. It was a bonehead move. And for who? No one. Like always, I'm all on my own.