Chapter 1

Ok, Max and Fang are 35, but still act practically the same way as always. They are married and have a 13 year old son named Shadow. Erasers are gone, but more on that later.

Shadow POV

Ok, in my life I have met 1 person who actually likes school. I recommended them to an insane asylum, but they just looked at me weird.

Long story short, almost no one likes school. And I'm one of them.

My main subject teacher is Mr. Allen, and he is so strict! He once yelled at a kid because his shoelace was undone… while he was tying it up!

Oh, well. I'm just glad today was the last day of school for the year. Dad said he'd pick me up from school this afternoon, which is awesome, because it's times like that in which we really get to talk.

I sat tensely on the edge of my chair. When the bell rang I realised I'd been holding my breath. To avoid the rush of students, I stayed in my chair for a few extra minutes. When Adam Mathews walked past, a hard punch landed itself on my shoulder.

When Jakeob Hinderlins approached, I cringed slightly. He grabbed my arm and yanked me out of the classroom. But I wasn't going to find out what he would do to me!

I pulled my arm away faster than a normal person could have, and then ran as fast as possible for the boys' bathrooms, grabbing my bag on the way without stopping. I ran behind them, and when I was out of sight, I spread my wings and flew straight for my hidden tree.

I clung to its branches as hard as I could, hiding there until Jakeob gave up. What a stupid name! 'Jakeob'. Poor kid. What were his parents thinking?

"Damn!" I saw Adam through the leaves of the trees. Then I spotted Jakeob.

"Great. You let him get away. Again!"

"I wasn't the one who just 'let go' of his arm!" I managed to see Jakeob clock Adam over the head. Ouch.

"Come on, let's go." They finally walked off.

A milliscule movement under me caught my attention.

"Enjoying the view up there?" asked dad.

"You know it!" I joked. Even though my dad can practically turn invisible, I can always see him with my x-ray – like vision.

Because all of the trees here were too close together to fly down, I took on the shape of a leopard and climbed down.

"I've always been jealous of the fact that you can take on the shape of anything," said dad, watching me change back.

I'm surprised it took so long, but I noticed it.

"Dad?"

"Yeah?"

"What haven't you told me?"

"I'll tell you in the air."

"Ok." We both spread our wings and took off, narrowly missing the branches of the trees.

Dad looked almost… puzzled… like he wasn't sure he wanted to say anything. "I'm afraid I have some bad news," he began.

"Yeah?" I pushed.

"Well, it appears that the white coats have created a new experiment. They call it the 'Dinorexus'. I got Nudge to print an information sheet for me, off their top-secrete web-site. On it is everything to know about a Dinorexus."

"Well, that's good, isn't it? That we will know everything about them?"

"Not exactly. I read some of it. They are perfectly adaptable, living in any conditions. They can eat anything, and are extremely hard to kill. At least 10 times worse than Erasers."

"Yeah, ok. That's bad news."

"But…" I looked into his emotionless eyes, and wondered what he was like when he was my age…

"They are very… obedient. Easy to train."

"So?"

"So we have a choice. We can work our butts off trying to come up with a way to train them our way, or do nothing, have the white coats train them their way, and sit silently while they tear us to shreds."

"I vote our way." Dad flashed a rare smile, and remembered mum once saying how much he had changed over the last 13 years. Apparently he hardly spoke and was emotionless all the time. I can imagine that.

We angled ourselves upward and caught a breeze that would take us high into the mountains. Time to see Angel and Gazzy…