Ari: A Dog's Tale

by AllyWolfDragon

Ari's back, and now he has a choice: Find Max and help her end the DG, or be chased down by an evil group of Erasers working for the DG for the rest of his life. FAX! NIGGY! R&R! One swear word, missed during edit, oh well :3

Ari: A Dog's Tale

(Takes place 6 months after Angel)

Part 1: The Epic Battle for Earth

Chapter 1: Ari

The last thing I remember in my first life was in some sort of courtyard. A giant fight/riot churned like an ocean around me. I had morphed into wolf form (wolf head, with black-tipped ears and ice blue eyes, claws, wolf legs, tail, fur, all six senses, and my twenty feet of wings) and I was fighting like I had never fought before. I ripped the heads off of the Flyboys with ease, but something wasn't right. I felt sick; dizzy, shakey, and I kept seeing Max, my half sister, stare at me with a look of horror on her face. Then, I was on the ground, my heart slowing down. Max had me in her arms, tears in her eyes, and she was screaming my name. "Ari! Ari! No, don't-". Then, my dad, Jeb, held me, crying and screaming. Black shrouded my eyes, and I couldn't do anything. Couldn't move or talk. I was dead.

Bright lights blinded my eyes when I opened them. I tried to move, and saw that I could. Was I in the afterlife? Heaven? Hell? I didn't see Jebus (Jesus, sorry!). Something moved around me. "Welcome back, Ari." An older woman in a lab coat smiled with a clipboard in her hands. "How do you feel?"

"Confused. Where the hell am I?" I looked around and sat up on the bed, on saw that the only thing I was wearing was a pair of boxers. Several medical machines beeped, none of them attached to me. A set of dark blue pants and a short-sleeved shirt sat on a table, like hospital scrubs. "I'm pretty sure im dead, or was. Is this heaven?"

"No, you're not dead. Back, which means you were dead, but you're well and alive again." She checked off some stuff on the paper, and turned towards the door. "You're in the Institute for Experiments. You might even see some of your other Eraser friends. Get dressed and then come outside."

I slipped on the clothes, and looked into a mirror that was sitting next to the bed. I looked the same except two things. I still had my tall, muscular body shape, but my hair was a lot shorter, but still at medium length, and dark brown, almost black. And, I was a lot thinner and just smaller. My eyes were human eyes; dark brown. I morphed into a wolf real quick to make sure that hadn't changed. Yep, except for lighter, smoky gray fur, and my eyes were brown. It didn't hurt to morph, either. It used to burn all over my body like fire. In the words of Alicia, one of the first female Erasers (also known to us as Erasaes), I would be pretty "smexy". I still looked like I was thirty years old, and I felt like it too. I didn't feel like a little kid anymore. Maybe I had matured? Anyway, I slipped on my clothes, and prepared myself to open the door. Here goes nothing.

Chapter 2: Max

I wiped more tears from my eyes as I looked at the bright moon. I coudln't believe that I was actually crying. To the rest of my flock (Nudge, Iggy, Gazzy, Angel, and Fang, Total, our talking/flying dog, and his wife, Akila), I was supposed to be the hero in the story, the brave warrior woman who would fend off bedtime nightmares with something as simple as a hug. But no. Now, I was crying over Dylan, a good-looking blond kid who was supposed to be my "other half". He had left to join Fang's little personal flock(Have no idea what I'm talking about? Check previous books for reference.), and Fang decided to come back with us. If you want to know why I'm crying, it's because he was gone, and Fang was here, just like the old days, and I wasn't sure if I still have feelings for him. I don't know if he loves me anymore, and even if we do get back into the kissing/cuddling days, I wouldn't want him to leave me again. (Wow, I just now realized that I am turning into a real sissy).

I was on the roof of Jeb's house(Jeb's my dad) in Utah, hopefully where nobody could find me. (The house in Arizona, the place were Ari kidnapped Angel, and had burned down, was only for us, and he had his own house, the place where he raised Ari.) I tried to distract myself by flying with the hawks(Yeah, pretty much everyone in our flock has wings) along the giant mountains, one of which looked like a lady lying down, if you look at it at an angle. They call her the Princess, like in Sleeping Beauty. Some days, I wish that I could just fall alsleep and turn into a mountain, where people would look at me and think I wonder if she was real? What would she be like? But no, life's not that easy and that's physically impossible.

"Max? Are you okay?" Fang opened the back door.

"Holy crap!" I spread out my wings to make sure I didn't fall off the roof. "Stop sneaking up on me like that!"

"Sorry. I didn't mean to." He jumped onto the roof with a single beat of his pitch black, almost purple wings. Until he got onto the roof, I didn't realize that the only thing that he was wearing was a pair of Invader Zim pajama pants, something that my mom had gotten him. Somehow she knew that it was his favorite show when he was younger. It must be those motherly instincts. There was something else that I noticed about him.

"Wow, you're really getting a lot of muscles." I couldn't help but stare at his muscular torso.

"Yeah. Everyday, since we got here, I would fly along the mountains in the morning, sometimes messing with the skiers and snowboarders on the Black Diamond slopes." He flexed his arms and abs. "But, I have to agree that I am getting pretty RIPPED!"

I laughed, something that I hadn't done since last night when Iggy and Nudge made me sit through a whole season of Tosh.o. They said that they found it at a Walmart and bought it with some money that my mom gave them. I was greatful for something to laugh at. Fang moved a bit closer to me, and I almost wanted to kiss his warm lips, just like the old days. I didn't know if I could, though. "Max, I want to talk to you about something that's kind of important to me. Maybe even you."

"What is it?" I looked into his deep dark eyes.

"I was thinking that we should get back together."

"The flock is perfectly fine, unless you want to somehow relocate your little ragtag team of mutants?"

He ran his hand through his thick, black hair, noticing that he needed a haircut. "No, Max. Us like . . . me and you."

I was shocked. But then I thought about it. Dylan wasn't here for me, even though he had kissed me at least three times. Fang was the only one that could love me at this point. I felt happy that he was asking me this. "Yes. I'd love that."

Chapter 3: Ari

I kind of expected hospital-like halls, nurses and scientists talking about updates on mutants, and different types of animal genes and combinations that they could insert into human embryos. Some of them even on their coffee break. But instead, the room was like a lineup room from cop movies. Several kids, and two other Erasers that I didn't know, looked at me as I walked in. "Morning, sunshine!" A teenager, one with scales on his arms and legs, along with a crocadile tail, looked at me and smiled.

"Um, hi."

The window was clear, and I could see several scientists, and an Army general sat on cushioned chairs on the other side. A young woman spoke into a microphone. "Everyone, up against the wall, please."

We moved back, and I ended up at the end. A girl was to my right. She was pretty, gorgeous even, with neon green eyes and perfectly straight, red hair that went all the way down, past her butt. She was almost as tall as me, but minus at least several inches. "I'm Tina." She said.

"I'm Ari."

"Are you an Eraser?" She only looked at me with her eyes, her head straight ahead.

"Yeah." I watched as the lizard boy took his shirt off in front of the glass window to reveal belly scales, like a snake's. "What is this, exactly?"

"The nurse who I woke up to told me that they were going to see what kind of skills we have. Then, in the next room, their going to ask us some questions about our past, and then some tests. Then, we'll stay here for who knows how long." Tina's shoulders slumped.

"Don't worry." I smiled. "I'll figure something out to get us . . . or most of us and the other kids, out of here."

The woman spoke into the microphone again as the lizard kid exited through a door at the other end of the room. "Ari Michael Batchelder, please step forward."

I moved up, almost right in front of the glass. The woman spoke again. "Now, show us every skill that you have."

I morphed into a wolf and spread out my wings, almost touching the edges of the room. To be funny, I panted like a dog, crouched down, wagged my tail, and barked several times. The other kids laughed, even Tina. The Army general scowled, and wrote some stuff down on a clipboard. The woman smiled. "Ari, you can go to the other room now. Thank you for your time." I morphed back into human form, and looked back at Tina. She smiled to reveal perfectly white teeth, and she gave me a thumbs-up. I opened the door to the other room, and found another scientist, a man in a suit, probably some sort of secret-government guy, and another guy who looked like a soldier, a very young one.

"Hello, Ari." The scientist smiled. "You can take a seat right over there. All we're going to do is ask some questions, and then you can go into the next room where we can do some simple tests. Sounds good?"

"Sure." I sat down in a cold metal chair, reminding me of bad memories when I first became an Eraser.

The scientist looked on an iPad. "So, do you have any allergies to food? Medication?"

"Well, not any food. Umm . . . I got this one flu pill called . . . something like Merafin, and it gave me a rash all over my back."

"Okay. How old are you?"

"Well, when I first became an Eraser, I was about seven. But I look like I'm thirty, and I feel like it too. Almost like I've matured."

He typed something into the iPad, and then left the room. I was stuck with the soldier and the agent. The agent starting asking questions, just like the scientist did. "So, Ari, what did you do as an Eraser?"

"The usual. Chasing after mutant kids who escaped. But I stopped after the people at the School starting killing the other Erasers and replacing them with Terminator wolves, or droids of some sort. So, I just stopped, and I ran away from the School because I found out that a girl in a group of bird kids was my sister, and joined her. But then, my expiration date came, and I died. Or, half-sister, if you want to call it that way." I stopped right there, thinking that I gave away WAY too much info.

"Okay, then. That's all I needed to know." He left, and now it was only me and the soldier in the room. He had a clipboard, and thankfully I only saw one question. I really wanted to get the tests done and over with.

"Okay . . . Have you ever operated any guns? Or any weapons?"

"Well, I've used anything from something as small as a Ruger .22 to something as big and awesome as a .50 turret on a chopper. I can't really remember the name of it though."

"Niiiiice!" He slapped me a high-five, and then wrote it down. "Okay. Now go into the door behind you, and all they're going to do is do some small tests." Great.

Chapter 4: Max

Fang smiled. It was like the old days again, and I wanted it to be that way. Forever. He even promised to never leave us again, unless I was kidnapped by the DG, something that we hadn't gotten rid of yet. (We took out all of the smaller branches, and now we needed to kill it at the heart. We were just here to take a break and try to live a normal life until needed.) So anyway, me and Fang were flying under the giant moon, along the giant mountains. And he was still topless, but he grabbed a sweatshirt for our little trip to the mountains. Sunset Resort, to be exact.

We glided through the valley, twisting and turning to follow the small road that lead to it. The road was completely empty, except for the occasional bus or semi-truck, but me and Fang were the only ones occupating the skies, the cool, mountain breeze weaving in between our wings and our hair. "AAARRROOOOOOO!" Fang howled like a wolf, and we laughed when several replies came from down below. After seeing the resort and the night-time ski slopes that were lit up by giant lights, we bolted ahead to the mountain right next to it. It was something that was way to dangerous to ski on, and was only accessable by helicopter, or wings, if we were to ever try it.

Anyway, the mountain rose up before us, which gave me an adrenaline rush to fly faster and higher. "Race you!" I called out to him.

"You're on!" I beat my wings faster as he glided above me, and dove ahead. We raced together, twisting around to confuse us, and once we reached the top of the mountain, I gently smacked his wing with mine, showing that I had made it before him as I sat on a dark rock. He landed beside me, and sat down, too, wrapping his dark wing around me. At this height, the ski slopes looked like a little city, the houses around guard posts. It was almost romantic, so quiet that the only noise was wind and our breathing, and the occasional WWWOOOOOOHHHOOOOOO from the snowboarders.

"So . . . do you think that they're safe at home? The rest of the flock?" Fang decided to break the dead silence.

"Yeah. If something happened, they would have called me by now." I felt my pocket to make sure that my phone was in there.

"Or Angel would have called to me with her little telepathy skill." I added. The youngest flyer in our group, Angel, could read minds, make them do something with her thoughts, and send me little messages. She went missing during the DG rally in Paris, and somehow returned to us several weeks later, with new and terrifying information about what the Doomsday Group is planning. Anyway, we lay down on the flat rock together, just looking at the stars.

"Max, do you remember when was alive?" Fang held my hand, making my heart beat faster.

"Yeah." I looked at him, his dark eyes flickering to look at the stars.

"And he said that you and Dylan were supposed to have . . . children?" He looked at me, worry in his eyes.

"Ummmm . . . yeah." I looked back at him.

"I don't want to ask anything personal, but were you thinking of . . . you know . . ."

"Fang!" I playfully slapped him on the chest. "You're nasty!"

He laughed. "I didn't mean it like that!" He stood up and I followed. He held both of my hands, looking into my eyes, our bodies close together. "What if we start our own family. When all of this is settled. Or . . . nevermind."

"No Fang. Not yet." I smiled. "If you're asking me to marry you, I'm pretty sure it's illegal. But, we should just stay together."

He smiled, and kissed me. I wrapped my arms around his neck, pulling him in closer. We stopped, just looking into each others eyes, smiling. "It's getting late." He spread his wings. "Let's get back to the house."

Chapter 5: Ari

The next room looked like a doctor's office, except with a glass cabinet filled with bones of all kinds of animals, a table covered in all kinds of stuff, and some medical charts, along with a paper covered bed. A younger doctor, a girl, looked up at me as I walked in. "Hello, Ari." She wrote down some more stuff, and then set the cllipboard down. "Now, all I'm going to do is give you a physical check, do some hearing and scent tests, and give you shot. All I need you to do is take your shirt off, and go into wolf mode. You're an Eraser, correct?"

"Yep. Since I was seven." I took off my shirt, revealing my washboard belly and heavily muscled chest. Then, I went into wolf form, feeling the fur cover my whole body, my face getting longer and more dog like. Even my wolf tail gently wagging behind me.

"Ok. Now lay down on the bed, and I'm going to feel you're stomach." She pressed her cold hands onto my warm belly, making sure that my organs were in the right spot. I clenched my stomach as she hit a spot that was very ticklish. "What?"

"Sorry, just one of my weak spots." I tried not to laugh. Prepare for the worst wolf/dog-related pun in the world, I thought.

"For what?" She stopped and put her hands on her hips, looking at me.

"For belly rubs!" I laughed loudly, and I have to say it was a good one, but also a bad one at that.

"Oh, jeeze." She wrote down some stuff on the clipboard, and then I sat up on the edge of the bed. "Open your mouth so I can check your teeth." I opened my mouth to reveal pure white, fangs and other sharp teeth. She looked in my mouth, poking several of my canines (Haha), and checking off some more stuff. Then, she listened to my breathing, my heartbeat, looked into my eyes and ears, and felt my wing muscles and bones. Then she gave me a shot, and I was finally done. But she had to blindfold me for the scent tests. She held different candles or scented slips or paper in front of my nose, and I answered the flavors one by one. "Vanilla . . . chocolate . . . salt . . . peppermint . . . flowers? . . . blood . . . urine . . . laundry detergent . . . grass."

"Okay, you got all of them right except for the laundry detergent. It was soap. But that's okay. Now, we're going to do a hearing test. How do you react to dog whistles?" She held up the little shiny noise maker.

"Well, they're really annoying-" She blowed into it before I could finish, and this wasn't just any dog whistle. This was the dog whistle from hell itself. I whined and covered my ears. It sound was like a baby screaming and nails-down-a-chalkboard combined. Once she stopped, I was breathing hard, and my ears were ringing. "You okay?"

"Yeah, I'm OK." My voice cracked when I said "yeah", and I still hoped she saw me as the scary Eraser. Anyway, I put my shirt back on, and she pointed to another door. "This leads to the auditorium. There, they'll explain about everything. Good luck."

How many doors were in the place? Anyway, I finally left, and it was an auditorium, with a big stage, and red curtains. I took an empty seat, towards the back. Other kids were coming in too, and I could recognise every species, or at least with some of them. Girls with cat ears, eyes, and tails. Guys with lizard snouts and wings, like dragons. Everything you could imagine. Even more Erasers like me. And ironically, guess who took a seat next to me? Tina, the pretty, red headed girl from the line-up room. But no, she didn't just sit next to me. She flew with giant bat wings, dark gray ones, and skin that stretched all the way down to her hips. Since she didn't have feathers, which meant no balance, it was instead made up for with a giant, dark gray lion's tail. She even had her long red hair in a ponytail. And her ponytail revealed big cat ears on her head. Like a lions, but with shorter fur, and dark gray, like her tail. "Hey!"

"Holy crap!" I nearly jumped out of my seat. "H-Hi."

She sat down. "So, as you saw, I'm part bat. And lion." She rested her tail on her thighs, even though it still hung down towards the floor.

"Yep. And you already know me as the Eraser dude." I smiled. She smiled and giggled a bit. "I wonder what kind of crap that they're going to tell us hear?"

"I heard some of the other kids talking, and they said that they brought us all back to end the DG. Doomsday Group, or something like that."

My eyes widened. So I wasn't the only one who used to be dead. WTH? "Wait a minute . . . you used to be dead, too?"

Tina's tail nervously twitched back and forth. "Yeah. I was in the black ops, in Russia. Flew too far into enemy territory, didn't see the heat-seeking missile, and . . . boom." She gestured her hands too look like an explosion.

I remember shows about the black ops- soldiers. If someone knew who they were they would have to kill them. But she didn't look murderous, so I think I was in the safe zone. "Awesome!" Just then a man walked up onto the stage. He was tall and thin, with a short goat-tee beard type thing on his face, and short black hair. Everyone, quieted down once he walked up. I was suprised to see him dressed in a Slipknot shirt, not a whitecoat. Odd.

"Alright everyone. As you know, or if you don't a new threat has risen to take over the world as we know it. The Doomsday Group." He gestured towards a screen that had photos of teenagers protesting, but with signs that read "Kill the humans, save the planet!" . Teenagers with weird, glassy looks in their eyes. And the worst: A large part of Paris completely destroyed. "Not even our government can stop them. Soldiers, even the best of the best, are never even heard of again if they try to get into their base to stop it. So, we came up with an idea: bring back you guys. Why? Because you are the best fighters that this country has seen. We have had updates on some of you. Those who are blind, echolocation skills. Faster and stronger wings and legs. And the best part: Erasers." A group of big, burly guys cheered, some of them in their wolf forms, and I clapped, too. "Now, we noticed some flaws in your past versions, so the only way we could fix it? To make you look a bit more human. No ten inch long, non-retractable claws. No arm fur. Normal eyes, and human height. A bit less muscle. But the best part that just may be the best discovery in the history of this project: No expiration dates."

Everyone else cheered, but I thought I was going to throw up. "Ari, are you okay?" Tina put her hand on my shoulder, worry in her eyes.

"Y-Yeah. Kind of . . . I . . . "

"C'mon, you can tell me anything. I mean, I think it's a great thing!"

"No, it's just that . . . that's how I died. My date came." I couldn't believe that they had cured the flaw that was in every single Eraser that I knew. Since most of us had been young kids when we had surgery, the adult wolf gene and human child gene did not mix well together. Which ment much shorter lives.

Tina squeezed my shoulder. "Oh my God. I'm so sorry."

I calmed down. The man spoke again. "What we have learned is that the main leader of this group is a man named Dr. Chu. He has been trying to make the world full of mutants that he can control on his own, and he had been convincing people your age that his ideas are the right choice. So, we need to end it once and for all. While you are here, you will be trained by the best in the world to become the best fighters, the best fighters to save the world. Your training begins tomorrow, so tonight you will get to rest up. Agreed?"

Everyone cheered, and so did I. I could live a normal life, and save the world while I was at it. Maybe life wasn't so bad after all?

Chapter 6: Max

The house was perfectly quiet, which was odd, because when Fang and I would go and have our little private time, something bad would happen: Erasers would attack, someone would be kidnapped, or Iggy and Gazzy would set the house on fire from a home-made flashbang that they somehow managed to make out of Tums and toothpaste. But no, the guys, Iggy, Gazzy, and our two dogs, Total and Akila, were passed out in the bedroom downstairs. The two girls, Nudge and Angel, were fast asleep upstairs. After we said goodnight to each other, Fang and I went our sepparate ways to bed. In the room, Angel and Nudge were sleeping back-to-back, and so I curled around Angel, who was on the outside. Her perfect, blond curls almost covered her round face. We were all going to need haircuts soon. Another chore on my list of things to do for tomorrow.

The next morning, I woke up to Avenged Sevenfold music softly coming up from the kitchen. Iggy was blind, so he couldn't watch TV, unless we described everything to him. So he had gotten hooked onto music. Inlcuding his new favorite heavy metal band. Fang had become a big fan, too. I walked in to see Iggy stirring pankcake batter and singing to himself: "Weeeee've aaall been lost for most of this life! Everywhere we tuuuurn, more hatred surrounds us! And IIII knoooow, that most of us just ain't right! Following the wrong steps, being lead by priiide!"

"Good morning, M. Shadows." I laughed as he scooped some batter onto the pan, then tensed up as I had obivously scared him.

"Really Max?" He laughed. "Do you know how much I love this band?"

"More than you need a shower?" I teased him as the song changed to another one, one that reminded me of when Fang left. Maybe the same thing happened to the lead singer? But who knows? I was pretty much over it by now. I sat on a bar stool by the outside of the kitchen.

"Well, I certainly need a haircut." He ran his hands through his red-blond hair. Total bolted in. "I smell pancakes!" His purebred husky wife, Akila, barked in agreement as she followed.

"I'll try and make some more for you guys. There's still some leftover deer steaks in the fridge, if you want those, instead?" Iggy carefully moved over to the fridge and pulled out leftover meat wrapped in white paper.

"Sure!" Total picked them up from where Iggy had set them, and they moved out onto the patio to eat in the morning sun. In order, Gazzy, Nudge, Angel, and Fang all came into the main part of the house, eager for Iggy's famous banana and chocolate chip pancakes.

"What are our plans for today?" Nudge looked out the window at the beautiful mountain range that surrounded us.

"Well, we all need haircuts. That's one thing." Gazzy, who was starting to develop Bieber hair, looked at me like I had grown a tail. (It's pretty possible in our world.)

"I'm perfectly fine without one!" He grabbed a pancake, along with the TV remote, and turned on the news. Not necessarily a good thing during these times. The perfect looking woman was announcing the Breaking News: "More reports of the supposed wolf men in the local forests have sprung up, even pictures. Last night, a group of high- schoolers were on a hiking trip, when they caught these compelling photos." Pictures of the somewhat familiar looking, humaniod wolves popped up. But they were smaller, a bit less muscle, and some of them were even running on all four legs. The newswoman spoke again. "We interviewed the young man who took these photos. "When me and my friends came around this corner, we heard growling, barking, even cheering. Then, we saw them. My girlfriend thought it was like Twilight, but I thought it was more like a fight club. If one of them won, the other human-looking guys would cheer, and so the only thing that we could really only do was take photos and watch." Another teenager came up in another interview. "After we had taken about ten pictures, one of them saw us, and motioned us to leave. He didn't growl or snarl, or anything. He just mouthed the words: Go! Get out of here!" The newswoman came up again. "If you want to view more of these photos you can go to our website at . . . "

We all looked at each other like Holycowwhatthehellomg all combined. "Those have got to be Erasers!" Angel grabbed Fang's laptop and quickly typed in the website adress. Immediatly the wolf pictures popped up. It was the Erasers! Tall, muscular wolf dudes, all in HD photos.

"I don't get it." I finally spoke up after the news story switched to the recap of some hockey playoffs. "They were all terminated at least a year ago!"

"They could be Flyboys." Iggy set down the warm plate of pancakes on the table.

"No, they don't act like that." Fang yawned. "Remember, the Flyboys were robots. I don't think that a bunch of robots would be smart enough to start a fight club."

"And they didn't really seem threatening in the pictures. That one kid said that the one wolf didn't chase them off, just mouthed the words, Go, get out of here!" Nudge looked at the mountains, almost like she was expecting a flock of them to be heading our way.

I walked away from the computer, trying to figure this out. If they, who ever "they" were, were bringing back people from the dead, Ari could be one of them, and countless other people that had died in the past. That can't be possible! But then, if the DG could make kids our age thinking that humans like themselves were bad things and that the only way that the planet could be saved could to kill them all, then they could probably bring my brother back to life.

And yes, Ari was my brother, or more half-brother, if I forgot to mention that already. Somehow he went from a murderous wolf guy, to saving my life when we were about to be killed. Even helping us stop Itex from also destroying Earth as we know it. Angel was apparently thinking the same thing. "So, does that mean that Ari could be alive?"

"Yeah, I guess so." I looked at Fang. "Well, let's try and get this out of our heads with a haircut, shall we?"

The wind rushed through our feathers and our hair as we took off from the back porch. Total and Akila stayed behind, since they didn't need one. But still, it was pretty awesome to look at the town like it was a big set of doll houses. Since Gazzy was an expert at immitating voices almost perfectly, he was singing more Avenged Sevenfold, at Iggy's request. And it was a pretty good one, one of my favorites: I don't belong iin, we gotta move on aand . . . escaaape, from this afterlife! Cause its time, alright, to move on and oon, far away from heere!

"Good choice!" I cheered him on. As we dove down, he stopped singing and simply hummed to himself. The town was nice and small, and it looked like the average skiing town. Just like in the movies. Tourist buses slowly crawled through the small streets, and people in ski jackets walked past us like we were just like them.

"Hey Max, do you think I could get a red and black mohawk?" Gazzy pulled on my sleeve once we walked into the door of the parlor. It was a nice little place, with a hippy/country theme. Behind the reception desk, were an older lady was copying something into a computer, a large painting of a leopard, tiger, and lion in a peace-symbol shape hung on the wall. The couches were made with quilt cloth, including the styling chairs, and new age music was softly playing on the radio built into the ceiling. The walls were painted in a dark purple, along with several random painting of fairies, horses with huge, black wings, and angels covered most of it. The older woman looked up. "Hi! Welcome to Serenia! How may I help you?"

"Yes, we just need haircuts." Thank you, Captain Obvious.

"Okay, well then you can take a seat over there, and we will let you know when it's your turn." We moved over to the quilt couches, Iggy having apparently no problem finding them. As I looked through the style books, nothing really interested me. Nudge was describing the haircuts to Iggy, who had big thoughts in his mind, according to the look on his face. Gazzy and Angel were sharing a book. I decided to let Gazzy have the red and black mohawk.

"Which one are you thinking about?" My heart raced as Fang's warm breathe hit my ear in a whisper.

"I don't know. Maybe I'll just get a trimming."

"Yeah me too. I kind of like my hair like this." He smiled, one of those rare Fang smiles. Thats when I realized that life is pretty good.

Chapter 7: Ari

That night, when we got into the main dorm room, I was exausted. Finding the nearest bunk bed, actually the one that I was assigned to, and I plopped right down. I was actually happy to have met a girl like Tina, and she was really one of my only friends. It made me feel even better to learn that she was on the top part of the bunk that I was sleeping on. We went into the room together, along with the countless other mutants. A trunk with my initials on it sat at the end of the bed, on the floor, next to Tina's. As I lay down on my bed, she opened hers to find her favorite outfit: a purple t-shirt with green lettering that read "I put the ME in AWESOME", a pair of light gray skinny jeans, and a pair of beastly looking black and green Zoo York sneakers. "OMG!" Was the only word that came out of her mouth when she found it, including an orange dragon necklace, with her old dog-tags included, a tiger ring, and her iPod touch.

"Hey, I might as well look through mine, too." I got over to my trunk while Tina excitedly jumped onto her bed and looked through her songs and pictures. Other kids were finding their stuff around us, according to their excited chatter. When I opened it, I was happy and scared to find my big, black jeans, a plain black, long-sleeved shirt with a faded, Grim Reaper on the front, a black sweatshirt with a scary looking skull on the back, my skull ring, black and red army boots, and my iPod touch, also.

"Going with the goth style, huh?" Tina looked down at me from the railing on the bed.

"Yeah, I guess so. It kind of suits the half-wolf feeling." She laughed, and so did I. Pressing the power button on the iPod, it popped up to show the photo that was the most important to me: My mom and Jeb when they were younger, and when Mom was still pregnant with me.

Tina jumped down from the bed, already dressed in her regular clothes. "Not to be too personal, but who's that?" She pointed to the iPod screen.

"The only photo that I have of my mom. She died when I was born." I didn't notice that tears were coming down my cheeks until Tina was hugging me.

"It's okay. My parents are dead, too. I understand." She smiled, trying to comfort me. "C'mon, let's get ready for bed. I seriously need to brush my teeth."

That made me laugh, and feel good, and after putting our things back, we made our way to the bathrooms.

I ended up being the last person in the bathroom that night, which is actually something that I kind of regret, now. I was in my regular clothes, but still. When I first walked in, the first thing I did was stare at myself in the mirror for at least half an hour. I mean, I looked so freaking different. Back when I was first alive, I had a mess of black hair, sharp teeth, negative looking eyes, and I was huge with muscle. But now, I looked more human, and I felt good about it. I wouldn't get scared looks on the streets, if I was to ever go out into the public again.

Anyway, as I was brushing my teeth, the creaking of the bathroom door startled me. I put the toothbrush down and spit out the remaining toothpaste. "Hello?"

The intruder? A girl, with lemon blond hair, tons of make-up on her eyes, tall and thin, and only wearing an oversized Holister sweatshirt. "It's good to see you again, Ari."

"Alicia?" Yes, it was Alicia. The first female Eraser, the one that I was pretty sure was very much attracted to me.

She opened up the sweatshirt to reveal nothing but a skimpy thong and lacy bra. She pushed me up against the wall, looking right into my eyes. It almost scared me. "Do you know what happens when two people of the opposite sex end up like this?" She pressed her body up against mine, rubbing her bare thigh up my leg. My heart was racing like a herd of wild horses.

"Yes, and there's one word that goes with that: No." I tried to push her away, but Alicia would just push herself closer to me. She put her thumb on the top of my pants, starting to pull them down, but I grabbed her hand. "What the hell are you doing?"

"Well, there's this little thing called the One Light." She stroked her hands gently down my chest, and then my stomach. "If I'm going to be the future leader, than I need a heir to take my place. And you're the perfect person to provide me with one."

"If you're inducing me into sex, then I'm not agreeing with you." I tried to move away, but she morphed her hand into a wolf one and put a claw up to my neck.

"C'mon Ari." Alicia whispered in my ear. "Take me."

That was it. I pushed her away and ran out of the room as fast as I could, but she wasn't too far behind. Once I opened the door and tried to get out, she was in full wolf mode. She grabbed my legs and pulled me down. I went into full wolf form myself, and pushed her as far away as she could. I went into human form, ran out, and locked the door from the outside. Sadly, everyone heard it, and was staring at me with scared, wide-eyed faces. Another Eraser checked the empty bunk above him. "Great, she's at it again." He jumped out of the bed, and opened the door to the bathroom. "Sorry about Alicia, man."

Tina ran up. "Dear God! Are you okay?"

"Yeah, just scarred for life." I ran my hands through my hair, and took a deep breathe. Once I lay down on my bed, Tina sat down next to me on the edge of it. Everyone else had calmed down, and most of them were fast alseep.

"So . . . she pretty much wanted to have your babies, if you put it that way." Tina looked at me, worry in her eyes.

"Yep. She even mentioned something about the One Light, whatever that is." I sat up, shaking. I mean, I was scared. I had done . . . you know, before, but I am certainly not going into details about it. Anyway, Tina squeezed my hand and got up.

"Goodnight, Ari."

"Goodnight, Tina."

The next morning was pretty crazy. I got dressed into my everyday outfit, and then we were all lead to a . . . lunchroom. It seemed out of place, especially since this place was built more like a castle, with colorful windows and gray brick walls. Yep, you heard me. Where they were serving something like pancakes. I grabbed a plate from the line, and, you guessed it, sat down next to Tina. "Good morning, sunshine."

I stretched my long arms. "To you, too."

The same guy from yesterday came up on the stage. Tina didn't look up, but her cat ears swiveled towards the sound. "Good morning, everyone." Replies, such as barks and howls, came from some of the other tables. "Today, you will start your training. Once you're done eating, Erasers will head to the track outside, wings will go to the rooftop, and everything else will be in the gym. Sounds good?" Everyone replied again with the same animal noises.

Tina nudged my arm. "Hey, you want to see something funny?"

"Sure." She raised one of her wings, and stuck up the middle claw, high. It took me a couple of seconds to realize that she was basically flipping everyone off.

I couldn't help myself but to burst into laughter, and so did everyone else. She pulled her wing back in, and slapped me a high-five.

Once we were done eating, Tina went up to the rooftop to do some flying stuff, and on my way to the track, a name on a door stopped me: Files. I wonder what they were thinking when they built this place? How about: Let's lable it Files so that kids can know what to steal. Perfect!

Well, I had something on my list of what to do tonight.

Chapter 8: Max

I felt clean and great once we left. Gazzy looked great with his new hairstyle, even though it was extremely expensive, but I knew it was something that would make him happy. Fang had gotten it cut a bit shorter, and so did Iggy and Angel. Nudge got hers thinned and trimmed, just like me, except we had both gotten a purple stripe in the front. (Nudge convinced me, especially since I'm definitly not the girly-type). Once Gazzy's eyes met the ice cream store across the street from us, he lit up like a Christmas tree. I checked my wallet. Yep, we had enough money, but we were going to need more soon. You see, Jeb had somehow left us a ton of cash when we came to his house, like he knew that we were going to need it. So we moved it all into a bank account so that we could use it. I was still worried about what we would do if we ran out.

Anyway, once we walked in, the scent of chocolate hit my nose. The others ran right up to the counter like it was made out of gold. We hadn't really gone out to eat in awhile, because bad things usually happened in those places. But hey, they were happy, and so was I. Fang and I sat at the counter together with the others to my right. I ordered a caramel brownie waffle cone, Gazzy and Iggy ordered a massive sundae to share, Nudge and Angel both got sherbert (I don't know how to spell it, or say it correctly) and I decided to share my cone with Fang. Fang finally spoke up. "You remember, the other day on the mountain, and I said that I lust liked to fly around the mountains the whole day, sometimes?"

I slowly chewed a chunk of brownie. "Yeah. What about it?"

He lowered his voice. "Well, I saw a building there. It was more like a castle, but I saw a ton of bird kids like us while I was flying around it. They didn't shoot at me or rush up to attack, they just smiled and waved. One of them came up and asked me if I was going to the war against the One Light. I said I don't know, but it would be a good idea to stop it. Then the kid just dove back down."

"Do you remember where it was?" I felt like we were on to something here. Obviously these people were planning on using kids like us to end the Doomsday Group and their beliefs in the One Light once and for all.

"Kind of." Fang looked towards the window where a group of college kids were walking by. "Here's another weird thing. And I'm not positive about it, but I'm also not really sure if I was seeing things right. In one of the windows, I thought I saw you mom looking at me."

I almost choked on a chunk of caramel. My mom, Jeb, and my sister, Ella had gone missing to who-knows-where a couple of months ago. We hadn't even heard from them, which scared me to think that the One Light people had gotten into their heads, or something like that. "But the thing is that I think we should wait until the time is right to do something. I still want to lay low for a little while. Maybe even try and figure out what's going on with the Eraser fight club."

"Yeah, I see what you're saying." Fang took the last bite of the ice cream and got up. "Let's get going." The others stood up, and so did I.

Chapter 9: Ari

I hadn't seen the outside until about now. It was gorgeous, with huge mountains, some still with snow blanketing their tops, and the occasional hawk/eagle circling overhead. Once I walked on, I saw that everyone else was topless, shoeless, without socks, and in wolf form, so I did the same. We stood on the track itself and watched as an Eraser glided down from the rooftop. He was definitly older by the way he landed. Experienced. Not just that, but the fur around his muscle was graying, and battle scars covered most of his body. "My name is Jason, and I will be your flying and running teacher. I may look old, but I know more things than anyone of you. Understood?"

Everyone else replied with "SIR, YES, SIR!", and so did I. "Now, today, you are going to learn the basics of running on all fours, and flying along with it. First, running on all fours. Because everyone of you are created with the wolf gene, your back legs are designed like . . . a velociraptor's. Which is one of the reasons that your creators made you that way." He stood in front of us, his back turned. He dove forward . . . and started to run on all four legs! It was pretty awesome, and he went almost twice the speed of one of us on two legs. The way he loped was kind of like the thanator in Avatar. Long, graceful movements. I couldn't wait to try it for myself.

"Now, let's get some volunteers." He looked right at me with fierce, yellow eyes. "How about you, son?"

I did exactly like he did. But once I dove I tripped and fell right on my face. The even worst part: I yelped in pain once I hit the ground. Like a puppy. It's hard to do that instead of saying something like "Sonofagun!" when your face is that of a wolf's. The others of course couldn't help themselves and burst into laughter. "Okay, how about you start on all fours, first?" I did, and once I started moving forward, I felt like the thanator. Words cannot describe the awesome. First my arms: right, left, right, left. Then, my back legs: right, left, right, left. The rubbery track hurt the pads on my hands and feet, but they would toughen up soon. I hadn't realized that I did a full lap until I almost crashed into the others who were waiting for their turn to try it out.

I stood up and looked at the Erasers who laughed at me, even spreading my arms out. "What now, losers?"

After everyone got their turn, it was time for flying and running combos. "Here's what you're going to do next. We've removed the curve-around section of the track." I looked behind us at the curve-around. It was gone, leaving only a stony abyss.

A younger Eraser, one who was looking extremely nervous, raise his hand. "Sir, what's at the bottom of what's left of the turn?"

"Well, that's for you to find out." He stood to the side and pulled out a stopwatch. "Now, you're going to do one mile. I'll see how long it takes, and then we'll bump it up to two miles. Go!"

We all ran like mad, trying to get the four laps done as fast as possible. The only good thing about it was that the sound was like a stampede, giving me an adrenaline rush like I was a real wolf, hunting whatever was in that stampede. But once the curve came, all hell broke loose. A couple of Erasers stopped right at the edge, either from nervousness or forgetting how to fly. I remembered everything. I jumped right over them and spread my wings, beating my wings down so hard that I almost hit a couple of them on the head. A couple others came up with me, and I even saw the younger Eraser who was very nervous, at first.

I was about to give him a thumbs-up when the other Erasers smacked him with their wings, causing him to fall into the hole. I was about to dive down to get him . . . only to see him bounce back up! His arms and legs were flayling, but eventually he ragained his balance, took one more wingbeat, and then dove down to start running again. I did the same, and it took me a couple of seconds to realize that something like a trampolene was more than likely at the bottom of it. This place was alot safer than I thought. Except for the Eraser who nearly pushed that kid right to his death. That made me think if it was one of Alicia's friends.

Chapter 10: Max

When we got home, I was tired, for some reason. Even when I sat down on the couch, I thought I was going to fall asleep. It was still sunny out, so everyone else went out for a little flying trip. So the only people in the house were me, Total, Akila . . . and Fang. Total and Akila were in the bedroom, napping, so Fang put a movie (Inception) on the computer. The even better part: we sat together and watched it in the upstairs bedroom. Private time, or as all you perverted thinkers out there, the dirty time. We turned off the lights and closed the blinds so that the screen would be nice and clear.

Fang turned down the volume a little bit so that we could talk and watch the movie at the same time. I had an idea of what we could do tonight while the rest of the flock went to bed. "Which do you think would be safer? Going to that building to find my mom? Or hanging out in the forest to watch the Eraser fight club and hopefully find Ari?"

"Well, rescuing your mom would be the smarter choice, but I personally think it would be pretty cool to see some Erasers fight each other for a change." He laughed.

"I prefer to rescue mom." I watched the buildings in the movie twist and bend like nobody cared. It was pretty awesome. "But we should only go, including Nudge and Angel. I don't want to put the others in danger."

"Ok." We watched the movie until it was finally done, and then Fang moved the computer to the bedside table.

"What?" I asked. He moved over and kissed me, and I wrapped my arms around his neck. He layed down so that I was on top of him, just kissing him. Fang moved his hands up and down my back, giving me the chills. I bent down and started to kiss his neck, and I could feel my heart beating faster. Then we flipped over so that he was on top of me, still kissing each other. It felt perfect, and he pulled me up and sat me on his waist, still kissing and kissing and kissing. He kissed my neck . . . right until Gazzy ran in. "Hey guys . . . OMGOMG SCARRED FOR LIFE! SCARRED FOR LIFE!" He ran out, almost falling down the stairs.

Fang and I disconnected, laughing super hard. We picked up the computer and walked downstairs, to where Gazzy was curled up in a ball in the corner. Iggy went into the kitchen, looking for any leftover pancakes from this morning. "What happened to him?"

Nudge walked over to turn on the TV. "The only thing I saw was Gazzy running upstairs, and then running down, flipping his sh-."

"Nudge, language." Fang set the computer down on the table, and took the disc out, popping it back into its case. "Where's Angel?"

Gazzy got up. "I think she went into the bedroom down here to check on the dogs."

I moved towards to door, only to take a step back as it opened for me. Total ran out, followed by Angel and Akila. "We have some good news, people!" The little dog leaped onto the couch.

Angel had an excited grin on her face. "Akila's pregnant!"

Chapter 11: Ari

After training and dinner was done, I was exausted. The first thing that I wanted to do was fall right into my bed and sleep. But no, I had a mission to do: Get some of the files from the Files room. If nobody was around, I was good to go. That way, I could get the files, and go straight to bed. Tina, and everyone else, wouldn't suspect a thing.

After I got ready, I crawled into bed, wanting to fall asleep when I heard Tina's soft, calm breathing. But no, I got up, slipped my shoes on, grabbed a flashlight from the trunk, along with a backpack. I opened the door, as queit as possible, and slipped into the hallway. I could distinctly remember where the room was. Instead of using my flashlight, which would be a dead give-away to any watching survalence cameras, I went into wolf form to use my kind-of-good-but-not-so-good-at-the-same-time nightvision sight. Like a tiger, but I could really only see the outlines of things.

For some reason, the farther and farther I went, I kept feeling like I was supposed to do something good tonight. Maybe I was. I could get some info on my past. Maybe even Tina's.

Right away, I saw the door. I gently set the backpack down, thinking of how I could unlock this thing with my claws, or something. It was unlocked. Stupid white-coats. I grabbed my backpack, and this wasn't just a room. It was a freaking warehouse! Rows and rows of metal, filing cabinets, like the place in Indiana Jones. Thankfully, each cabinet was labeled with one letter of the alphabet. The first thing I did was find the letter A. Going down the isles, I took the second one. It opened with a loud creak, even scaring me a little bit. Thumbing, thumbing . . . here's mine! I opened it up to find my picture, like a mugshot. Jackpot.

At least half-an hour later, I had enough files to read for a week. I grabbed Tina's, inlcuding everysingle person in Max's flock. Even Total, their talking/flying dog. Once I exited the room and got back into the dorm room, a couple of Erasers stopped me after I dropped my backpack into the trunk. "Hey, you're Ari, right?"

"Umm, yeah." I went back into human form. "Why?"

"We're going to a fight club." One of them glanced at a window. "We heard that you're a pretty good fighter. You want to come with?"

I looked back at Tina, who was fast asleep. She would probably get mad, but only for my safety. I would be OK. "Sure."

We all went into the bathroom, where one of them went into the shower and opened up a hole in the wall through a metal plate that he simply moved out of the way. The all morphed into wolves, spread their wings, and bolted out of the massive hole into the night sky. Once the cool, mountain air hit me, I felt like the only thing that I wanted was to get the hell out of here. But I couldn't do it without Tina, or everyone else. We beat our wings smoothly, and dove down into the forest once we saw a cabin-like building with glowing lights coming from the windows. The others and I dove down, right at the front door. The sound coming from the inside was like a bar: laughing, cheering, music, and the occasional howl, snarl, or roar.

One of them approched a door with a metal wolf-face hanging on the front, a metal ring-knocker in its snarling jaws. The Eraser approached it and knocked on the handle. The door cracked open, the sounds getting louder from the cabin. A pure white Erasae, not Alicia, thank God, looked at us with ice blue eyes. "What's the password?"

The guy who knocked on the door stepped forward. "Lycanium."

The white wolf looked back. "Get in." She unlocked the door, and we all moved in. The place was pretty awesome. Erasers, all in wolf form, sat at tables and a bar on each side, drinking and laughing. A couple of them, with their Erasae girlfriends, were making out in the corners and along the walls. Loud rock music (Bat Country) blared from stereo systems hung on the walls and the ceiling. The Eraser who found me put my hand on my shoulder. "Okay, the fighting arena is in the back. Go there and find a big, red wolf guy with a notebook. He's the one who can sign you in to fight. Good luck, man." He left me and walked over to the Erasae who opened the door for us, slapped her on the butt, and she laughed, leading him into a back room of some sort.

Still in wolf mode, I could sense almost every feeling that everyone was creating: fear, excitement, pain, black-out drunk, extremely horny. Pride from winning a fight. As I walked through the bar, a couple of Erasaes looked at me with sugestive looks, some of them winking at me and motioning me to come over. I decided not to, especially since I just wanted to go to the fight, for the adrenaline rush. Once I opened the door to the arena, the sound of cheering, howling, snarling and growling, and yelps of pain almost exploded in my face. The room was pretty big, at least the size of a barn, and was crouded with Erasers and Erasaes. It really was an arena; a large hole in the ground with caged doors on each side. I got to the edge of it, thankfully able to lean onto the railing. A huge red Eraser was beating the living hell out of a smaller, black one. The weird thing was that they weren't punching or kicking like we normally would. They were using their claws and teeth. The big red one crouched on the ground and grabbed the ankle of the other one with his teeth. The smaller black one howled, and swiped at him with his claws.

The red Eraser threw him on the ground, grabbed him by the tail with his teeth, and tossed him like a ragdoll up against the wall. Everyone gasped when he didn't get up. A large, red-brown Eraser walked out into the arena and carefully led the loser into another door, and walked over to the red one, raised his arm, and spoke in a loud, booming voice. "We have another winner! ScarFace!"

Everyone cheered while ScarFace roared. I thought it would be kind of cool to get a name like that, if I ever stayed here. The red-brown wolf guy walked out, and later I saw him come through another door with a clipboard in his hand. This must be the guy I need to talk to, I thought as I walked over to him. "Hey, are you the guy I need to talk to if I want to fight?"

"Yep, I'm the one." He held out his hand, and I shook it. "The name's Hound. Well, it's my nickname, anyway."

"Cool. I'm Ari." He held out the clipboard, and told me where to sign.

"Good luck." He looked at the clipboard after I signed it. "More than likely, you're going to go against my son."

"Oh." This kind of made me not want to fight. Too late now. "Who's that?"

"Steven. Or, more known with his stage name, ScarFace." He pointed to a door. "Go down that way and get ready. The next fight, the one that you're going to be in, starts in five minutes. Good luck."

Chapter 12: Max

I was surprized and happy as I looked at Total and Akila. Nudge ran over and hugged both dogs. "That's awesome! We should have a baby shower, or a puppy shower! We could invite the neighbors dogs, and I could set up balloons and streamers! Oh, and we could make a cake that looks like a dog bone, or something! And I could set up balloons and streamers and-"

Iggy put his hand on her shoulder. "Nudge, I think we get the idea." He looked at me. "But I think it would be safer if we just had a family party."

"Oh, okay!" She ran outside to the shed under the garage. "I'm still going to find some decorations!"

"Thanks, guys!" We looked over to where the voice came from, and it wasn't Total, because he went out with Nudge, and Angel was in the kitchen doing something. Akila looked at us. "What?" She asked.

Now, here's the thing. We've delt with discovering that Total could talk, and that was okay. But to hear a dog that didn't speak a word of English(she can't, because she's a purebred husky) and all of a sudden speak like us? That was pretty trippy.

"Okay, Total might have taught me some English-"

Fang smiled. "Some? You're speaking in perfect English!"

"Thanks. I kind of like my native tongue better, though." Akila stood up. "If that's okay with you guys?"

"Totally!" I patted her on the head. "You're still an awesome dog, if you bark or yell."

"Cool." She ran into the backyard.

I sat down on the couch, running my hands through my hair. Fang sat down next to me. "You okay?"

"Yeah. It's just that this has been such a crazy day." I looked over at Iggy, who was playing a game on the computer with Gazzy and Nudge watching. "The Erasers are back, my mom is alive, and maybe even Jeb and Ella, and Akila is going to have puppies and can speak perfect English."

"It doesn't really sound that bad." Fang turned on the TV. "I'm just more worried about trying to find your mom."

"Me too."

Chapter 13: Ari

Downstairs was like a locker room, almost. A toilet stall, a sink, a couple of hospital beds, drinking fountains, and the gate-like door that led to the arena occupied it. I was still in wolf form, and when I saw the black Eraser lying on one of the beds, I could sense every single one of his feelings: fear, pain, and worry about his girlfriend. "Hey." He said in a tired voice. "Here's some good advice if you're going against ScarFace." He carefully sat up. "Go for his tail and his belly. He can't really defend those spots."

"Thanks, man." I smiled. "Hope you get better."

He smiled, and then lay back down. Hound's booming voice came from the arena, and I could see him standing in the middle. "Erasers and Erasaes, Lycans alike! The next fight will begin! ScarFace against Ari B!" Cheering came from all sides as the grate opened. I crouched and moved through as ScarFace crouched in too. Hound stood in the middle of us as we stood up, snarling at each other. I snarled and licked my teeth, like a real wolf. ScarFace flattened his ears, and so did I.

"Alright gentlemen. Here are the rules. No killing the other opponent; once they are unconcious, leave them alone. If you do not, the punishment will be severe. Claws, teeth, and wings only. Winner will go into the next round. Ready? Fight!" He bolted out of the door as ScarFace and I clashed. He grabbed my shoulders and pushed me back, leaping up to kick me in the stomach. I put my hands on his ribs and pushed like him, batting his back with my wings. Once he fell over, I grabbed him by the tail and started to pull back. I howled and scratched my face. The only scar he got into me was a huge cut under my jaw, and even when he did that, I put a huge scratch in his belly, and he did the same on my side.

He roared and jumped up. For the next thirty seconds, we were both in a tangled mess of fur, claws, teeth, and hatred. He pushed me onto my back and bit right into my shoulder. I howled, and then grabbed him by the ribs with my back legs, and threw him right into the air. The next moment seemed like it went into slow motion. While he was in the air, I leaped up and head butted him right in the stomach. Once he hit the wall and fell on the ground, I ran over and snarled in his face. But ScarFace snarled in fear. I raise my hand up, ready to finish the knock-out blow. But he closed his eyes, flattened his ears in fear. I couldn't do it.

I moved back and helped him up. The place was completely silent at this point. As we both stood up, we both coughed up some blood. I shook his hand, both of us breathing heavily. "Good job, man."

"You too." He went through his door, and when I did, everyone started to cheer. Hound walked into the arena.

"It seems like there was a tie, but don't worry! There will be another round!" More cheering. I washed my face in one of the sinks, and then walked back into the bar. The Eraser who brought me here came up, a half empty beer in hand.

"Dude. You look like hammered crap." He pointed to a table where some of his freinds were sitting, empty bottles around them. "Wanna join us for some drinks?"

"Sure. Thanks . . ."

"Aaron. Forgot to tell you that." I sat down, we all talked about random crap. I told them how I fought ScarFace, and how it ended up being a tie. I even learned that alot of the people here weren't just Erasers, but Lycans, just like in the movie, Underworld. Yeah, just another word for werewolves. Hound was, and he was the main person who started this place. Even his son. Pretty awesome. Once the clock struck eleven-thirty, I knew it was time for me to go.

I got up. "Thanks guys. I had alot of fun."

I walked out of the bar, and I had learned alot of things. All the Erasers were back, Lycans and werewolves are real, and it's okay to have fun during an apocolyptic crisis. Once I was outside, I noticed that I was going to have to run instead of fly. It was like the trees were purposly blocking my way, or maybe it was just because I was sore from the fight? Anyway, as I bolted through the forest, I was getting really close to the building, a loud howl came from right in front of me. Before I could stop, something rammed purposly into my ribs. I yelped as I fell over, the wind knocked right out of me. Two more wolf-like shapes came out fo the trees, tackling me to the ground. Sadly, it was Alicia and some of her friends. They held down my arms, and there was really no use with trying to move my legs to claw or smack at them. Alicia was in wolf form, light brown with a black face and tail. She kicked me in the ribs where ScarFace had given me a good cut. I yelped, and she made it hard for me to breathe once she sat on my chest and put one hand on my neck. "You've really screwed up this time, Ari. You could have been the ruler of a great empire, an empire that would take over the whole world."

Alicia smiled an evil grin. "But no. You chose to be like the others, to go agains the One Light and help them end it. Bad choice, my friend."

"I'm not your friend, you crazy witch." I reached up and bit her arm, the one that was holding down my neck.

Alicia screamed, got up, and kicked me in the stomach, on the other side. More wind was knocked out of me. She sat on my chest again, he other hand on my neck. Before I knew it, I had tears running down my cheeks. I mean, I was scared, and my injuries hurt like hell. She snarled and growled in a mocking voice. "Awww. Is little Awi-Awi scared?" Alicia elbowed me in the stomach, knocking more air out of me, and causing me to yelp and whine. "You're going to be terrified if you try and go against the most powerful force known to man."

They got up and left, and I could finally breathe again. I was wheezing as I stood up on shaking legs. I had to get back as fast as I possibly could.

At least half an hour later, I was in the bathroom, checking out my injuries in human form. We have got to leave. There's nothing safe about this place. The door creaked open behind me, and Tina walked in. "Ari? Oh my God! What happened?"

"Well, I kind of went to a fight club, won, and then I was jumped by Alicia." Tina put her hand on my cheek, and lifted my head up to look at the cut on my jaw.

She looked pretty worried. "I'm gonna get a first aide kit! Stay right there." A couple of minutes later, Tina came back with a big plastic box with a red cross on it. I spoke up when she opened it. "We have to get out of here. It's really not safe!"

"We're not going anywhere without cleaning you up." She took out a tall bottle. "This should work."

"What is it?" I looked over her shoulder.

"It's just foaming stuff. It doesn't hurt or anything, just foams up and picks up dirt and other crap out of the wound." Tina carefully poured some onto a wash cloth and gently rubbed it on my jaw. "I used it back in Russia. The soldiers would get the bullets removed from their wounds, but there would still be dirt and other nasty stuff."

"Oh, man." I looked at her as she wrapped a cloth bandage around my shoulder where ScarFace had bit it. "So, here's my plan. Tonight, we'll leave and go to the nearest city. That way, we can lay low, all while getting more info on the Doomday Group, the One Light, and find Max."

"Who's Max?" Tina put more foam on my ribs, and then wrapped a bandage around my belly.

"My sister. She's the one who's been saving the world this whole time." I laughed and shook my head. "Ironically, I used to track down her and her friends to bring them back to the School. I even beat them up several times. Then, before I died, she took me in and I helped her."

"Wow." Tina started to put everything back into the kit. "Okay, let's go and pack up our stuff. We're leaving."

Chapter 14: Max

That night, Fang and I left after everyone was asleep. It didn't really seem like it was a good idea, but we had to do it for my mom. We soared through the skies towards where Fang saw the place. The air was cool, and adrenaline was pumping through my veins. I looked forward, trying not to think about what could happen to the flock if something happened to us. We would be okay, though. I was sure of it. Especially since I had a pistol in my bag, only for if things got really ugly. We beat our wings even faster, mine brushing Fangs, sending small chills down my spine. After going past the Sunset Resort and several more mountains, Fang gasped. "There it is! Down there!"

I looked, and low and behold, it sat there. I was like a giant hospital, except with a track in the back. We dove down on the roof, circling several times to make sure that there weren't any guards, and hit the roof. The door was cracked open, almost like they knew we were coming to find Mom.

Carefully running down the stairs, we ended up in a hallway, and we ran all the way to where Fang saw her. Offices. "Which one?" I whispered, since one of them had the light inside of it on. He moved down the hallway, counting them by the window.

"Nine, ten, eleven, here!" He opened the door, only to find it empty. A nice looking, wooden desk sat there, with a laptop open on it. This was definitly her office, especially since she had a picture of the whole flock, including Ari and Ella, as her wallpaper.

"This is hers! This is where she's been this whole entier time!" I opened up a word document, and typed in a note.

Mom, it's me Max! I know where you are now, and we are nearby. I'm not lying. I miss you and I hope you come home soon. Love, Max. I kept it open, and then ran out of the door with Fang not so far behind. "That's it? No beating everyone up?"

"No, I just wanted to keep it simple." I smiled at him. "Remember what I said about lying low and not getting anyone in danger?"

"Yeah." He smiled back, and then kissed me. "That's just one of the things that I love about you."

Meanwhile, back at the house, Nudge woke up to soft crying sounds. She looked around in the bedroom. Everyone was quiet, except for Iggy. He was having another one of his nightmares about Ella leaving. "No, no Ella! Come back!" She carefully climbed onto his side of the bed and rubbed his shoulder. "Sshh. It's okay, Iggy." Before she knew it, he had pulled her down and wrapped his arms around her, still sleeping. Nudge was a bit shocked, but pretty soon she was asleep, breathing softly into his warm chest.

Fang and I got home, noticing that everyone was sleeping in the first floor bedroom. Total and Akila were curled up together on a giant pillow, Angel with them. Gazzy was on the bed with Iggy, who was curled up around Nudge. It looked kind of odd, but I thought it would be better if we left them. That left the upstairs bedroom empty. I looked at Fang. "Do you want to sleep with me?"

"Sure." We ran upstairs, changed into our pajamas, and curled up together in the warm bed together. I felt even happier.

Chapter 15: Ari

Tina found her backpack in her trunk, and packed all of her things inside. I did the same, including the files, which see didn't really see. It was okay with me, especially since I wanted to read them first to make sure that there was something that would scare her or make her upset. After I got all of my things, I led Tina into the bathroom, behind the shower curtain, and opened the door. I came out first to make sure that she got out safely, and her flying skills looked even better than mine. She beat her bat wings confidentally, and it wasn't long before we were quickly flying over the mountains and forest. "Freedom!" She cheered and did a full-on loop. I laughed, and performed a perfect barrel-role.

I could tell that it was getting late. I found a clearing where we could rest until the morning. "Tina, just be careful not to hit the-"

Before I could even finish my sentence, the sound of branches breaking and yelling filled the air as I dove down to try and catch her. I caught her, and she was breathing hard, fear in her eyes. "Sorry."

"That's okay." I saw blood on her back when I set her back onto the ground. "Can you still fly?"

"I don't think so." She stretched out her wings, wincing and pulling them back in a little bit. "Is it bad?" Big cuts took up most of her light gray, dragon-like wings. Blood trickled down the skin and turned into little droplets as they fell to the ground. We both jumped and turned around as wolf howls echoed through the trees. "We'll just clean it up, cover it in Band-Aids, and then we'll run." I did what I told her in less then ten minutes, then morphed into a wolf. I handed her my backpack. "Hold onto this. The only way we can get away from them is if you ride on my back."

I went on all fours, and she lay down on my back, her arms gently wrapped around my neck. "Sorry if this feels super awkward." Tina breathed shakily.

"That's okay." I lept forward, and ran like hell. I could see fine in the dark, nimbly leaping over logs, bushes, rocks, and dodging past trees. A river, one that was very shallow, blocked my way. I ran across, ignoring the pain that the cold water caused on my hands and feet. Once I made it across, I ran for at least two more miles, then stopped when a massive tree loomed in front of me, and I was so tired that I was even panting like a real freaking dog. "Tina, we're here."

"Where?" She got up, and handed me my backpack once I stood up, too.

"For now, up in that tree." I stayed in wolf form and climbed up, digging my claws into the rough bark. "You need help getting up?" I asked once I found a nice, thick branch and morphed back into my regular, human self.

"No, but thanks." She leaped up, grabbed a branch and dug into it with the claw at the top of her wing, and it was even more awesome because it looked like a giant thumb. She kept climbing until she was right next to my branch. "Ow."

"What? Your wing?"

"Yep." She flexed the fingers gently. "It should be better by tomorrow, I would think."

I smiled and shook my head. "You know, I asked if you wanted help."

"I don't need it though." She rested her head on her backpack and was soon asleep.

A wise man once said: Psshh! Women. Pretty soon, I was fast asleep myself.

Chapter 16: Max

I've had bad dreams before, like tonight, but this one wasn't as weird as it was more like an omen of some sort. I was in the house, my moms house, and Dr. Gunther- Hagen was there. You see, he was the one who brought Dylan and said that we were supposed to have children. Anyway, I was there, and I was sporting a big time baby-belly. Fang and Dylan were even there, and we were just standing talking. "So, how's Dylan's child doing, Maximum?" Dr. GH held his hands behind his back.

Somehow, I knew that Dylan wasn't the father, and I looked at him with cold eyes. "The child isn't Dylan's. It's Fang's."

Dr. GH looked at me, an evil smile on his face. "Bad choice, Maximum." He morphed into a big, light brown Eraser with a black face and tail. He lundged right for me, and that's when I sat up in bed, breathing hard, crying, and sweating bullets.

Fang was up in two seconds. "Max! Are you okay?"

"If those kinds of nightmares usually happen, then yeah. Fine as a whistle." I rubbed the tears and sweat off of my cheeks. I looked at the clock. Three-thirty- two. In the morning, if you didn't see that it was still nighttime.

Fang rubbed my back in between my wings, where I liked it. "What happened? In the dream?"

I explained the nightmare, but left the pregnant-with-your-kid part for last. "Then?" He scratched his bare chest.

"I told him that it wasn't Dylan's child . . . but it was . . . yours." I looked at him, my heart thudding to see how he would react.

"Oh, man." Fang rubbed his eyes, then put his arm around my shoulders. "Well, I don't think that our relationship is going to go that far." He laughed when I playfully smacked him on the shoulder. I fell back onto the bed, and turned to face Fang.

He put his arm around me, and I looked into his dark eyes. "If something like that really happened, would you still . . . love me?"

"Why wouldn't I?" Fang kissed my forehead. Soon, we both fell asleep. But what if something that really was going to happen? Well, it wasn't something that I would have to worry about for a long time. Hopefully.

Chapter 17: Ari

Tina's soft breathing was really the only noise that was in the forest when I woke. I sat up, and yawned, stretching my arms and legs. Going into wolf form, I carefully and quietly climbed down the tree. Time to get breakfast. There was no town around, so that meant no food to buy or find. That meant something natural, like other animals. The only thing I was really wearing was my black jeans, especially since I wasn't going to need them. I was more than likely going to end up covered in blood if I was going to tear something up with my teeth and claws.

I morning mist made it a bit hard to catch a scent, but pretty soon, a rabbit caught my nose. On all fours, I carefully trotted along until it became the strongest. In a dip in the ground, the little animal sniffed around, nibbling on grass. A normal person would be like: Aaww! A bunny! But an Eraser in wolf form would think: Yum! Rabbit! I leapt forward and held it down with my claws. It squirmed and even tried to bite, but something as small is no match for a wolf that's almost as big as a person. I put the finishing bite down on its miniscule neck, the warm blood surging into my mouth.

Once it stopped moving, I picked it up in my jaws and ran back to the tree.

Tina wasn't there by the time I got back. We had a fire set up, but not lit. I quick set it with a lighter, threw the rabbit into the tree, and followed the trail to where she went. Back on all fours, it was much easier for me to follow her trail. A hiking trail came into view, but I decided to stay alongside. After leaping onto a rock to get a better look, Tina's scream echoed through the forest. For a second,I froze. Then, I ran with all of my might towards it.

I found her, along with three, extremely drunk teenagers. "Get away from me!" Obviously, they really wanted to do something dirty to Tina. I leaped in front of her, still on hands and feet.

One of them jumped, but most of them just stayed there laughing. I snarled and growled, defending Tina. "What the hell is that thing?" A skinny kid with brown hair started to laugh.

"Um . . . my dog . . . Anthony!" He patted my head. "Who's a good boy?"

I looked at her. Really? She just shrugged. A black kid narrowed his eyes. "Dog? That's a freakingg bear!"

A tall, red haired kid stepped forward. "Does he do any tricks?" He laughed.

"He can kick your dumb little butts." Tina crossed her arms over her chest.

"Hey, you little b-" Before he could get close, I leapt forward and barked, the fur raising on the back of my neck.

The black kid pulled out a switchblade. "C'mon girl, we just want a little fun!"

It was time for me to really scare them. I stood up, spread my wings, and spoke. "You're not getting any fun once I'm done with you." They finally ran off, the skinny, brown haired kid crying and stumbling.

"We'll, that was scary." Tina began to shake.

I went back into human form and turned around. "What happened? Are you okay?"

"Yeah, but I'm pretty sure that they wanted to . . . rape me." A single tear dripped down her cheek. "I was just going to the bathroom, and when I was done, they came up and threatened me."

Tina cried even harder, and I moved over and hugged her. "Sshh. It's gonna be okay, it's gonna be okay."

We stood there, me hugging her, her crying and shaking with fear, until Tina moved away. "We should probably get back to camp. I'm super hungry." I smiled and laughed, and she smiled, too, and we flew the rest of the way back.

Chapter 18: Max

The morning was pretty hectic. In two words: Nudge and Akila. Akila had to be taken to the vet for a pregnancy check-up, and Nudge was a completely different story. That morning after Angel, Fang, and Total took her to the vet, Nudge woke me up. "Max I don't know what's wrong with me. I just woke up, I felt fine, I looked fine, and then mostly everyone was gone. So I figured that you were the best person to talk to, since this has happened to you before-"

"Nudge, Nudge. Just tell me, very simply, what happened."

She rung her hads and bounced on her feet. "My pee is red." Uh-Oh. Her first period. "I didn't flush or anything because I was just way too scared, and I wanted you to see it."

I grogily got out of the bed and walked downstairs with her. Nudge opened the bathroom door, and I saw the toilet once I walked in. "I'm really scared Max. What does it mean?"

"You had your period. Go get that blue bag from the medican cabinet." I flushed the toilet as she did so.

Nudge came back, and handed it to me. I told her how to use the pads, and explained to her that she had to change it everyday. Once she was done, we went back into the kitchen to get breakfast ready. I looked in the fridge as Iggy walked in. "Where is everyone?"

"They took Akila to the vet to get a check-up." I grabbed the eggs, cheese, and ham, and set them on the counter-top. Iggy grabbed the pan from the bottom cabinet and started to set up everything that we would need for ham-and-cheese omlets.

"What's for breakfast?" Gazzy wobbled in, rubbing his eyes.

"Omlets." Nudge walked over and turned on the TV. Thankfully it wasn't the news, just Spongebob Squarepants. They both sat on the couch, intently staring at the screen.

"Max, I was thinking." Iggy stirred up the eggs.

"About . . . what." I cut up the ham.

"Once Akila has the puppies, what are we going to do with them?" Iggy poured the eggs into the pan and spoke in a hushed voice. "I mean, I don't know how many she's going to have, but I don't think it's going to be easy to have talking or flying puppies around. It'll be kind of hard."

"I don't really know about that." I glanced at Nudge and Gazzy. "We'll see how many pups there are, and Total and Akila can think about it, too."

"Yeah." Iggy finished up several omlets by the time everyone else got back. When they did, I REALLY didn't want to talk about it anymore.

Chapter 19: Ari

Today was our chance to at least get to the city, or the nearest town. Once I was fully dressed, we packed up our things and hit the air. I looked over at Tina while we were over some sort of ski resort. "How are your wings?"

"Good." She straitened them, gliding along the air currents. "It's starting to scab up."

We passed right over trees, mountains, and even found a road. I still remembered that I hadn't gotten to read the files yet, and I was hoping that we could stop somewhere soon so that I could. "Hey, Ari." Tina looked down at a lake. On a tall hill beside it, several kids were standing, pointing and taking pictures. Of us. Flying. Great.

"Go faster!" I beat my wings harder and harder until we were even past a lake and ended up looked over a big town, right in the middle of the valley. Tina's tail twitched with nervousness. "Man, that was close." She pursed her lips. "What if they catch us? On the pictures, I mean."

"I don't really know." I looked at her and shrugged. "More than likely, they'll end up on a Breaking News segment . . . which might lead Alicia straight to us." This was something I hadn't really thought of.

"I hope not." Tina looked at the little people and the buildings. I hadn't realized that we'd been flying for almost three straight hours until Tina asked me if we could get Mcdonald's. We dove down, and the town was a bit bigger than we thought. All kinds of cars crawled down the street, dogs barked from houses that looked way to old and dirty to be right across from a WalMart, and the occasional logging truck. Being as careful as we could, we landed right behind the restaraunt.

I looked around the corner, making sure that no one had seen us. The coast was clear, so we went inside. Ke$ha softly came from the radio, and the only person working there was a group of teenagers. I ordered my food (I had enough money, especially since Jeb set up a bank account for me), Tina got hers, and we ate it on-the-go.

In the air, after finishing the last of my burger, Tina looked ahead of her. "Ari! Look! There's the city!" Sure enough, Salt Lake City bloomed before us like a giant, silver rose garden. Her eyes lit up once we got to the airport. "That whole entire building is red! And blue!"

"You've never been here before, I take it?"

"Nope. Too busy in Russia to-" Snarls and barks came from behind us.

It only took one glance behind me to figure out who is was. Alicia and her gang. "DIVE!" I yelled. Tina followed, the ground rushed up, but I pulled up right above the street. Cars honked as we criss-crossed throught the streets, turning as many corners as possible. Tina was doing perfect, her tail angling back and forth to stay on the right path. But Alicia was, too. "Hey moron!" Alicia snapped at my ankles. I morphed into full wolf form and used my tail to get the same speed as Tina. "You miss me?"

Tina nervously looked behind and didn't see the bridge. She hit it full on with a loud clang! Diving below her, I grabbed her, and Alicia didn't see the bridge either. The Erasae tried to stop herself, but hit it and fell right into the street, knocked out. I flew, Tina's limp body still in my arms, not even daring to look back. Inside an alleyway, I landed and looked around. An old, rusted out door was wide open. I carried her in and carefully set her on the ground. "Tina." I put her backpack under her head, in human form this time. She was still breathing, thank God, but blood dripped off of her forehead and all the way down to her chin. "Tina, wake up." I began to get scared as I knelt down beside her.

I put my hand on her warm cheek. Her eyes fluttered open. She weakly smiled as she looked up at me. "Hey, A-Ari."

"Hey." I smiled back down at her. Tina raised her hand, and I held it carefully. "You're gonna be okay. Do you remember what happened?"

"I was flying in the city with you, and then I saw a bridge, and now I'm here." She sat up, carefully, and I removed my hand from her cheek. "Ow." Her hand, the one I let go of, touched her head. "Holy Tacos. That's alot of blood."

"I know." I grabbed a rag from her backpack and wiped off the remaining blood from her face, only to reveal a huge cut on her forehead. I found a giant Band Aid and put it on her head, stopping the bleeding.

She looked around. "Where are we?"

I looked around, too. It was a warehouse, with dirty, broken windows, a concrete floor, and walls that were covered in graphiti. Tina jumped up, wobbled with dizzyness, but was standing up straight when she saw what she was standing on. An upside-down star with a bright blue, globe type thing in the backround of it. "Okay, I know what the pentagram is, but what the hell is that blue thing?" Tina moved her backpack to reveal the whole entire orb.

Whispers echoed in my ears. The One Light. The One Light. "Who's there?" I nervously turned around, expecting to see someone standing behind me. "Let's go."

"Yeah, this place gives me the chills." Tina slung her bag over her shoulder, and almost fell over. "God, I'm so freakin' dizzy!"

"Yeah, I don't think you're gonna be able to fly." I grabbed her to make sure that she didn't fall over again after she spread her bat wings. "Told you."

"Well then how are we supposed to get around, all while not getting caught by Alicia?" Tina folded her wings back in again, and began to walk out of the alleyway.

"Just like everyone else in the city, I guess." I followed, hoping that people didn't recognize us from our little chase.

Chapter 20: Max

By the time we got home from our all day, for-fun-because-we-had-nothing-better-to-do-flight, everyone was passed out with exaustion in the living room. Gazzy, Angel, and the dogs were all on the couch, and Nudge and Iggy were spooning on the recliner. (I was hoping that it was something that Iggy or Nudge accidentally did in their sleep, especially since Nudge is at least two years younger than Iggy, and Iggy was in love with Ella, if we ever found her). Even before dinner, which was supposed to be something along the lines of pasta and deer steaks, they were all quiet after the movie was over.

Fang was on the computer, looking at his blog, something that he started after a long time of being chased by Ari and the School, something that would be embedded in our minds forever. Anyway, I was starting dinner when he called me over. "Um, Max? You have to come and look at this." He clicked on a message sent by one of his fans (blaknyelo), which included a video and the following message. OMG Fang, you have got to check this out! It's an epic fight from another one of those Eraser fight clubs. The two guys fighting are a red Lycan named ScarFace, and another Eraser named Ari, or something. He wins . . . well, you have to see it for youself! 3

Fang clicked on the video, which started with Ari leaping at the red wolf, roaring and snarling. Basically, they were caught in a snarling tangle of claws and teeth, like real wolves on Animal Planet. After Ari head butted the red one against the wall, he was about to deliver the finishing blow, when . . . he helped him up off the ground, instead! The red wolf weakly went through a set of doors, and Ari howled in triumpth while the other Erasers around him cheered. "Wow, he looks a lot different." Fang paused the video while Ari was standing up in wolf form, and boy was Fang right.

My half-wolf brother was alot thinner, smaller, still with a lot of muscles, human eyes and hair, and he looked a lot less threatening. I was speechless. Well, except for two sentences. "Oh, my God. Ari is alive!"

"What should we do?" Fang looked at me as I sat down.

"Find him." I ran my hands through my hair, becoming excited and nervous at the same time. "More than likely, he's somewhere around the area. The fight clubs have been showing up on the local news, so why not?"

"I don't know." Fang exited out of the video, clicking the reply button to send a message to "blaknyelo". "You know how I still don't trust him. Whether he looks better and more human, and fighting people like him, or not, we never know if he's on our side."

"Still . . . We have to at least give him a chance." I looked at Fang, worry in both of our eyes. "Ari's my brother. Any family that is related to us is good for part of the flock."

He smiled, typing a message back to the sender: OK, but one thing. Do you know what happened to him after the fight? Did he leave anywhere? Fang clicked the send button, and exited out of the page once it was done. I looked back at the kids, who were all still asleep. "Do you think we should tell them that we're planning on finding Ari and bringing him back here?"

Fang got up and stretched, walking over to where Gazzy and Angel were curled up around the dogs. "Yeah, but let's wait until they wake up. I don't want it to seem like something urgent to them."

Chapter 21: Ari

The sun was setting below the mountains by the time we got out of the alleyway and into the streets. People of all kinds surrounded us, walking home, to dinner, or back to work. Tina's ears were flat against her head, but he tail was hanging perfectly still behind her. Both of us kept our wings folded in tight, but had them ready just in case Alicia showed up. I didn't notice that Tina didn't have a sweatshirt even with her until she began shivering. "You okay?" I looked at her while we boarded a bus, sitting in the back.

"Y-Yeah, I'm f-fine!" Tina rubbed her arms.

I pulled off my sweatshirt and handed it to her. "Here. You're freezing."

"Thanks." She smiled and put it on, and I laughed when I saw how huge it was on her. "Really, Ari? You have to laugh?"

"I can't help it." I calmed down and smiled. "You look pretty cool in it, though."

Tina blushed. "Thanks." The bus stopped right in front of a hotel. Talk about irony, right?

We got off, and looked at the tall building. "Let me guess: We're gonna stay here?" Tina looked at me as she walked towards the door.

"Sure." The place was one of those hotels that was on the verge of being fancy, but also normal. Well, normal to me, anyway. A young woman at a reception desk looked at us with a happy smile on her face. "Hello. Would you like a room for tonight?"

"Umm, yeah." I'd done this kind of stuff before. "Regular, two queen beds."

"Ok." The young lady typed some stuff into the computer, and handed us the key after I payed for it. "Have a good night!"

"Finally!" Tina handed me back my sweatshirt. "It's so warm in here! And a bed instead of a tree!"

"Yeah, I feel the same way." After an elevator ride, and ten minutes of trying to find our room, we made it. The room was a lot nicer than I expected. Two big beds, a flat screen, a bathroom, an awesome view of the mountains, and a good night's sleep. Tina dropped her backpack on the ground and face planted right onto the bed. Her muffled voice made me smiled and shake my head. "Ooohh! I'm so f*****g tired! Ow, my head."

I fell into my bed too, rubbing my eyes and stretching until my stiff back cracked. I sat up and looked at Tina, who sat right in the middle of her bed, looking at the channel list. "We still have to get dinner. What do you want?"

"Not sure. Let's see what Salt Lake City has to offer." Tina got up, wobbled a bit from her head wound, and moved towards the door, looking back at me to follow.

After walking through the city and finally finding a place that was good, we made our way back with our meal, Panda Noodles. Somehow, we couldn't find a bus that would take us right back to the hotel, and it would take several hours to walk back, so there was really only one solution: the subway tunnels. I put our food in my bag, and we ran down, ancious to get the next train.

We were the only ones there, and it made both of us nervous when Tina's cat ears wouldn't stop swiveling. "How can you not hear all of that?"

"Hear what?" I looked around, making sure that we were the only one's down here, and looked back at her.

"Whining. Like an army of dogs."

"You got that right!" We spun around to see four, huge gang kids walking towards us. One of them had a knife. I sighed. Why were people messing with us? I was six foot-five, and two-hundred pounds in muscle. (On our way to get our meal, Tina even said that I kind of looked like Zak Bagans, and I only believed her after a couple of people were giving me weird looks on the street.). Anyway, the kids got even closer. "Why don't you let us borrow some money so we can go home?"

Tina glanced at me, and only two words said it: Wolf form. NOW! I morphed and snarled, raising my wings and moving closer and closer to them. They wouldn't back off, only point there knife closer to me. "You don't want to do that, man. The Girl won't like you." A train pulled up behind us, and I morphed into a human and bolted into the open doors. Tina followed, and the last thing was saw of those kids was them running away.

"Damn, that was close." Tina sat down, looking out the dark windows. The only people on the train with us were an old lady with something like a cat in the little cage next to her, a young Native American-looking girl, who was deep in a Steven King book, and some teenager with music softly blaring from his headphones. "What do you think they ment by 'The Girl'?"

I sat next to her, my heart beating with fear and adrenaline. "More than likely, Alicia. But, you just never know." The cat in the cage took one look at me, and hissed loudly, his ears flat against his head and the fur around his shoulders standing on end.

"Bad kitty!" The old lady pointed a stern finger at the feline. She looked at us. "Sorry. He doesn't really like trains."

"That's okay." Tina looked at the cat while the old lady turned to get something out of her purse. Tina mumbled something, and the cat perked its ears up.

"What?" I looked at Tina, then the cat, who turned to me. You're one of them, aren't you? The wolf guys! That's why you can understand me!

I tried to look strait ahead at a sign on the wall for some sort of movie. Tina even joined in the conversation. I'm part cat, or lion, actually, so I think that's another reason why I can understand you!

Yeah, a lot of animals from all species can talk, no matter what they are. My grandparents taught me that. The little cat licked its white paws, then glanced back at us.

And I thought it wouldn't work because I'm part wolf. Science turned me. No offense, but it just doesn't really seem all that . . . natural. You know? I took my iPod out of my bag, handing one of the earbuds to Tina, but still talking to our new little friend.

Oh, I understand. Now, a lot of kids are able to talk to me. Even my owner's grand children! They went missing at birth, and they turned up several years later, totally different. One of them, Anna, had fox ears and eyes! Her older brother, Sam, had fish fins in between his fingers and toes. Even gills!

Tina gasped. The same thing happened to us! When I was little, I was taken from my parents! Now, I have bat wings, cat ears, and a tail! Ari, here, was fitted with wolf DNA when he was only a kid. Now, he can morph whenever he feels like it! Show him, Ari!

I closed my eyes, and opened them again to reveal wolf eyes. Then, I closed them again to reveal my human eyes. And I thought the only thing I could inherit was my Dad's looks.

A muffled, hard-to-understand voice came over the loud speaker, announcing the old lady's stop had arrived. The cat blinked. Cool! Well, it was nice talking with you! The old lady left, and me and Tina were stuck on the train, again. I had the name of our stop in my head . . . before the lights in the train went out. Tina gasped and put a death grip on my arm. With my wolf eyes, I could see perfectly clearly that Tina was terrified. "Tina, Tina! What's wrong?"

The lights came back on at that moment, and I looked down to see Tina letting go of my arm. She blushed. "Sorry about that. It just scared me."

"Oh, so that's your excuse for nearly crushing my arm?" I laughed as I stood up to get off the train.

"Oh jeeze, Ari." Tina followed me in the cool, night air.

Chapter 22: Max

Everyone was thankfully awake by the time dinner was ready, and I was ready to tell them about my new discovery. I put my fork down and cleared my throat. "Umm, guys? I need to talk to you about something. Well, Fang and I do."

Iggy nearly choked on his pasta. "What?" Everyone looked at him with suprise. He sighed with relief. "Oh, I thought you were gonna say something like 'I'm pregnant'."

"No!" I smiled. "If something like that happened, I would wait until after dinner! Anyway, you know those . . . Okay, I'm just gonna get right to it."

"What is it?" Gazzy sat up, including Angel.

"Ari's alive." The whole house was completely silent. Except for the sound of everyone's mouths' gaping open.

Akila spoke up with a noodle hanging out of her mouth. "FINALLY! A human that can understand my native language!"

"Yeah, I told her about Ari." Angel patted the husky's head.

"Sooo . . . what are we gonna do?" Nudge took a drink of her milk. "Bring him back here? He could protect us from those crazy people who believe in the One Light!"

"Well, that's the only reasonable thing that we could do." Fang bit his bottom lip. "Do you guys think it's a good idea?"

The kitchen filled the sound of everyone agreeing. I looked at Fang and smiled. This was a lot easier than I thought!

We ate, talking about random stuff like Ari possibly coming back, baby names for Akila and Total's children, and what we could do to get some more info on the Doomsday Group and the One Light. After dinner was done, and we were all cleaning up when Nudge whispered something. "Max, I think I like Iggy."

"What do you mean?" I dried a bowl, then put it back on the shelf.

"Well, I know that he and Ella were together, so I understand. But then, the other night, he was having a bad dream. So, I went to go comfort him, and he pulled me down and put his arms around me." She glanced at Iggy. "And then today, he asked if I wanted to sleep on the recliner with him. And I did."

I'm not very good with giving advice on relationships, but I gave Nudge the best I could. "Then it seems that he likes you, too. We'll see. I mean, I wouldn't see it as a bad thing." I put my arm around her. "Until Ella comes back, we're gonna have to think about it. I don't really know what else to say."

Nudge hugged me. "Thanks, Max! You're just like the mom I never had." She ran into the living room, where Gazzy, Iggy, and Angel were playing with a giant box of Legos. What Nudge said was something that put happy tears in my eyes.

Chapter 23: Ari

I couldn't sleep. So many thoughts were speeding through my head. Alicia. The One Light. Find Max and the others. Keeping Tina and I out of danger. I turned on my side, looking at Tina on her bed. What was something I could do that could help me sleep? The files. I got out of bed and picked up my backpack. The biege folders were screaming my name. Read us! We're full of secrets that must be told! Using my iPod as a flashlight, I picked up Tina's first. It was at least several pages long, most of them based on what she did in the black ops, so I just read the first paragraph. Born to the Griffiths family in 1990, was put up for adoption to the Hatcherson family in 1992. The Hatchersons' later died in a car accident. Biological parents were told that she would not live long. Actual date of birth: June 17, 1990. Died in Soviet Russia over enemy territory on April 14, 2009. Biological parents had yet another child, who was taken away after birth. Second child was later named "Iggy" by his adopted family.

Holy cow. Iggy was her freaking brother! And, she was in the armed forces when she was only nineteen. And, more than likely, her real parents put her up for adoption for fear of losing her and the grief that came with it, especially since they said she wasn't going to make it. Not just that, but today was June 16. Tomorrow was her birthday, and she would be turning twenty. I had to do something special for her. I put the files back into my backpack, and noticed that Tina was talking . . . no, crying in her sleep. "No! Stay away! Stay away!" I walked over and lay down next to her, rubbing her shoulder and trying to calm her down. Once she stopped crying and was fast asleep, I looked over at the clock. One-o'clock. I whispered in her ear. "Happy birthday, Tina." Before I knew it, I was in a deep sleep, my arm around her warm body.

The next morning, I woke up in Tina's bed. The TV was on, and Tina was sitting next to me. I sat up, rubbing my eyes and scratching my chest. "Good morning." She smiled. "How did you sleep?" She blushed and focused on a small hole in her tank-top. "With me?"

I ran my hand through my hair and scratched my bare chest. I didn't want to seem like a perv. "Uhh . . . good. Sorry . . . "

"No, that's okay." She looked at the files that were spread out on my bed. "I read those last night. When you were asleep."

Oh, crap. "Yeah . . . I forgot to mention those, didn't I? I didn't want you to freak out or anything."

Tina stretched and moved up to closer to sit next to me. "That's okay. So . . . what are we gonna do today?"

"I don't know." I stood up, stretching and looking for my shirt. Once I found it, I slipped it on and looked out the window. "Hang around the city, I guess."

"Hhmm." Tina got up, and looked out the window with me. An empty warehouse on the side of one of the mountains caught her eye. "Why don't we check that out?"

"Sure." She walked back over to the bed and turned Mythbusters back on. "We don't have to leave now, do we? It's a new episode." Tina laughed and turned up the volume a little bit.

"Fine with me." I found my shoes. "I'm going to the store. If anything happens, get our stuff and go to that warehouse. I'll meet you there."

"Cool. I lov- I mean, see ya." Tina blushed and focused her eyes back onto the TV.

When I got back, I had her birthday presents hidden in my backpack: A black sweatshirt with a cute looking dragon on the front, and a fifty dollar iTunes card. Once I got back to the room, we checked out, and sadly, Tina still couldn't fly. As we stood on the street, Tina looked at the street. "I don't think a taxi could get all the way there. And we can't walk . . . But you can run." She looked at me, pleading.

"I don't know. We're in the middle of the city, you know." I scratched the back of my head, thinking, until a lady screamed from down the street. A huge pack of flying wolves sped down the street. Alicia was back. I freaked out and morphed. Tina jumped on my back, and I ran like hell. I leapt over people, over cars, the concrete scratching the pads on my feet. Adrenaline rushed through my veins as I ended up right in the middle of the street. Cars honked as I jumped over them, some of them suffered scratch marks and dents from my weight.

Alicia howled in frustration, and I looked back to see her turning around with her followers. Still, I ran, going even faster when a news helicopter hovered over the street, following us. "JESUS CHRIST!" Tina held on tighter. "They have cameras!" That was the last straw. I spread my wings, used a school bus as something to grab onto, and leapt into the air, beating my wings hard. Thump-thump-thump-thump. My heartbeat combined with the propellers of the copter and my giant wings filled my ears.

I flew until we were at the edge of the city, so I went even higher in the sky, making the highway look like a pen mark. "AAAHH!" Tina wrapped her legs around my waist. "GOD ALMIGHTY!"

"Just think of me as a . . . dragon!" I dove down towards the warehouse and landed on the roof panting so much that saliva dirpped off my fangs. I wiped it off with my sleeve. Tina got off and almost fell over with fright.

"That. Was. AWESOME!" She wiped the sweat off her forhead and leaned on me once I was in human form. "C'mon, let's check this place out."

Chapter 24: Max

A video from this morning played over and over again from the news. Even one from yesterday morning. We all sat in front of the TV, completely silent. (Gazzy, Nudge, Angel and the dogs were asleep, and I really didn't want them to see this anyway). A younger girl announced the news, live, on the street. "Yes, Karin, it happened yesterday morning and this morning. Yesterday, two people flew down the street, chased by a pack of what appeared to be humaniod wolves, who were also flying. The young man, believed to be in his mid-thirties . . . Well, I guess the video explains it all." It showed Ari and some girl with red hair, bat wings, and what appeared to be a lion's tail behind her. A light brown, female Eraser snapped at Ari's ankles, so Ari morphed into an Eraser and flew faster. The girl wasn't paying attention when she hit a bridge in front of her. Ari caught the red cat-bat-dragon-girl, and the female Eraser that was chasing her hit the bridge also. Fang snickered when the girl hit the bridge, but I gave him a look.

"Now, the next one was just from this morning, and it has the same them to it." It showed Ari in wolf form, running down the street on all four legs with the girl hanging onto his back, with an aerial view from a helicopter, or something. Then, he leapt onto a school bus, spread his wings, and flew away. "We don't know what happened to the wolf-man after that, but we are certain it is the same young man from the video before. Honestly, no-one really has an explaination, and we don't either. President Obama said that we won't try and find these wolf-people unless they pose or create a serious threat to the general public. Back to you, Karin."

Iggy changed the channel to Superjail, and turned down the volume. He he rubbed his blind eyes. "Well, we are officially screwed."

"How?" Fang stared intently at the other show.

I figured out what Iggy was talking about. "Think about it. Ari is being chased by someone or something that's obviously more powerful than him. If that huge pack of Erasers was after him and that girl, and Ari was after us, in the past, they could be a threat to everyone else."

"Another reason to be scared." Fang got up and grabbed his laptop from the kitchen table.

"How?" Iggy laughed at the show when the main guy said something utterly ridiculous, then soon had a serious look on his face.

"If those wolves are after Ari- for who knows what- they could come after us and everyone else. I'm pretty sure that wolf girl is involved with the DG and the One Light."

He pulled up the DoomDay Group's website, and showed a list of the leaders. (Most of which were dead, thanks to us). The only three remaining were Dr. Chu, some girl named Sarah White, and Alicia Parker, who was an Erasae. (Female Eraser).

"Wow. That's it?" Fang looked at the backround stories on each of the leaders. Then, he gasped. "I think we found Ari's bounty hunter. Alicia."

"Really?" Iggy moved behind the couch to looked at the screen. "Man, that does look like the girl in the video." He was right. A picture of her and some other girl downing Patron shots at a bar in New York caught my attention. Then, her in wolf form, posing for what looked like Victoria's Secret, if you know that I mean. "OOh, a real life furry!" Fang and Iggy laughed as I gave them both a nasty look.

Dr. Chu looked at the confusing files on his desk. He was suprised at how well Alicia, Sarah, and their slaves were working, but not at how hard it seemed for her to catch Ari Batchelder. The door opened, and Alicia walked in. "Hello, Dr. Chu." She held something behind her back, but he didn't really look up. "Remember what you said about me becoming the leader of this whole operation once the humans are gone, correct?" He didn't even look up, just nodded. Alicia moved slowly closer to the desk. "Sarah's been . . . taken care of." He looked up, fear in his eyes, knowing what the girl meant. Alicia had her clawed hand behind her back, and in one swift movement, she leaped on his desk, in wolf form, and threw him out of the chair. "I want to be the leader this time. You can't do nothing to stop me!" She tore out his throat with her razor sharp teeth, and watched in satisfaction as he slowly bled to death on the hardwood floor. "See you in hell." She walked out with the files and his blood still on her hands and jaws.

Chapter 25: Ari

As we walked in, I was almost scared to see furniture scattered around the empty building, even a TV. Especially since the place had a pretty low roof. Tina plopped down on a leather Lazy Boy and jumped up when a cloud of dust surrounded her. I walked over to a huge, king sized bed in the corned by a window, and fell right onto it. "Ari, take off your shirt and go into wolf mode." Tina's voice whispered behind me, and I turned around to just see her tail twitch and disappear above a huge air vent.

I did as she asked, still looking around and sniffing the air for her sweet scent. "What for?"

"To work on your sense skills." Tina giggled as her tail barely brushed the back of my neck, then vanished. "I noticed that they've kind of worn off since I met you. So, were going to work on a little bit of things."

The room went quiet again. "Because, if you don't pay full attention to your surroundings . . . " Extremely silent footsteps dropped behind me, and Tina gently wrapped her wing-thumb claws around my neck, causing me to freeze. "You're dead." She whispered right in my ear, which gave me the chills.

I turned around so see her crouched on the ground behind me, her wings just starting to fold in. I grabbed her, pressed her up against my body, and made my hand in a gun-shape. "What if your opponent has a gun?"

I released her, and she calmly walked towards the windows, and turned around. "What if your opponent . . ." Tina ran at me, full on. "Tackles you to the ground?"

I saw it coming and caught her, even though I fell on the ground. Both of us laughed, and it was even better when she started to tickle me. "What if they tickle you?" Both of us laughed as she tickled me all over my body until I started to cough and weeze. Then, while I was still in wolf form, she rubbed my furry stomach like a real dog. "Who's a good boy, huh? Who's a good boy?" Tina laughed and smiled even more when I closed my eyes, growled with happiness, and started kicking my foot in the air. When the tickling was over, Tina lay down on my chest, sighing and still laughing a bit. I wrapped my arms around her and rubbed her back.

Tina rested her head on my chest. "I love you, Ari."

I smiled and went into human form. "You too." I looked out the window and saw that the sun was beginning to set.

AAAARRRRROOOOOOOOOOOOAAAA! Tina bolted up, her cat ears swiveling towards the sound, a sound that I recognized right away. Tina got up, helping me up, too. She crawled towards the window, looked out, and ducked down, her green eyes wide with fear. "Wolves!"

"You mean Alicia wolves?" I looked out the window, then sat down next to her when I sat curious, ice-blue eyes staring at me from the trees.

"No, real wolves." Tina looked at me. I morphed and walked on all four legs towards the door, the sound of my own claws on the concrete even giving me the chills. I gently opened the door with my snout into the cool, outside air. Once I walked out, two big wolves came out of the tree line and looked right at me with cool, blue eyes.

A pure white one raised her head, still staring at me. She glanced at the light brown wolf next to her. He's very much different. More . . . human-like.

Does this make him a threat? The light brown one glared at me.

Let's find out. What is your name?

I lowered my head. Ari. The white wolf walked forward and sniffed my face.

Where are you from? I can tell that you are very young. The white wolf cocked her head to the side.

A place in the mountains. Somehow, I woke up there. Now, I'm just staying here with my . . . friend.

The brown wolf looked towards the warehouse windows. Who is this "friend"?

Her name is Tina. She's human . . . mostly. She's part lion . . . and bat.

The white wolf straightened up, nodding at her friend to do so, also. Then, she looked back at me. I am Cikuq. This is my mate, Maguyuk.

Nice to meet you. I looked back at the trees, where more wolves, at least three, appeared. Two of them were pitch black, the other being pure white, like Cikuq. They all howled in happiness, and Tina opened the door, only to close it in fear.

The two black wolves laughed, in their minds, and Cikuq glared at them. She looked back at the door. Don't worry. It's safe for you to come out.

Tina carefully opened the door and walked out. The other white wolf sniffed her hand. I'm Nigaq! Cikuq is my mom.

Tina carefully stroked her big, soft head. The two black wolves ran around, play fighting each other. Nigaq and Tina ran around too, laughing. Cikuq bowed down like a puppy, and we play fought and ran around for awhile. Then, we all just sat on the cool grass, looking up at the stars, howling and telling stories. I lay down on the grass, and Tina rested her head on my stomach. A loud howl, almost from the other side of the valley, echoed throughout the trees. All of the wolves jumped up. It was nice to meet you, Tina and Ari. May the Tatkret bless you. You're going to need it, someday. Cikuq howled in goodbye, and they all ran back towards the cover of the trees, and vanished.

Tina sat up, and so did I, going back into human form. "That was awesome!"

"I know!" I got up, and helped her up, also. "Let's get dinner. I think there might be some leftover noodles in my backpack." I ran inside to get the noodles, and decided to grab my whole backpack and put my shirt on. Tina got up onto the roof through a staircase she found. Once were were sitting up there on the roof, done eating, I told Tina to close her eyes.

"What for?"

"Just close them." I got out the sweatshirt and iTunes card. "Okay, now open them."

She gasped, a huge smile on her face. I laughed. "Happy Birthday."

She gave me a huge hug, then put it on. "Thank you so much, Ari!" Tina looked up at the stars, sighing and closing her eyes. "It's so nice out. What if we just sleep out here tonight?"

"Sure." I got up to get blankets and pillows from one of the beds downstairs . . . only to slip on something and fall flat on my back. I laughed at myself, and so did Tina. I propped myself on my elbows, still laughing, and looked at her. She came down next to me on her hands and knees, and kissed my cheek. I blushed a bit and smiled. "What was that for?"

"I don't know." Tina moved a bit closer. "Preparing you, I guess."

"For what?" In one swift movement, she grabbed the front of my shirt, pulled me in, and kissed me right on the lips. It lasted for almost five seconds, Tina even turning her head to the left a little bit. And I don't want to sound cheesy, but it was one of the greatest five seconds of my life.

She detatched from me, smiling and blushing. "That."

I smiled. Tina helped me up, both of us still super close to each other. Tina just looked up at me, blushing like hell. But this time, I wanted to give her a birthday present that both of us would never forget. I moved her hair out of her face, and kissed her. Tina was almost hesitant to kiss me back, but then she wrapped her arms around my neck, running her hand throught the hair on the back of my head, her tail swishing back and forth like a cat fighting. She even wrapped her tail around my back of my left thigh, giving me chills. We kept on kissing, even when I moved my hands down to her waist. I became dizzy, realizing that I was forgetting to breathe, so I took a breath through my nose. But hey, that was usually a good kind of dizzy.

Chapter 26: Max

I decided that finding my brother was going to be our main priority this weekend. So, on Thursday night, I spent at least twenty minutes trying to figure out which direction he went in the video. Pretty soon I figured out that he just went straight into the mountains, even into a warehouse in the forest. The part that somehow creeped me out was that every time I saw the girl on his furry back look at the camera, I saw . . . Iggy. Like they were related, or something. Even still, I wasn't going to tell them about it to get their hopes up too high. I paused the video and rubbed my eyes. It was almost ten-thirty, and everyone was in bed.

My cell phone rang, scaring the heck out of me. I picked it up, my heart beating like a drum. I looked at the name. Mom. Holy crap. I almost squealed with excitement, but didn't, thank God. I pressed the green button. "Max?" Her familiar, frantic voice came from the other end.

"Mom! It's me, Max!" I ran my hands through my hair. "Where are you?"

"My office . . . where you left your note." She sighed. "I'm so sorry. I had no idea what I was thinking when they called Jeb and I back here."

"Oh, yeah." I figured that she had seen the news, but I decided to ask anyway. "Um . . . I need to ask you something. Have you seen the news lately?"

"Yeah, about that . . . Let me just explain about this new project that we've started." Mom sighed. "We've been able to bring people back to life, including Erasers. Which means . . . Ari is alive."

I laughed silently to myself. "Yeah, I figured that part out after I watched the first video. I'm just wondering about this, but why are they trying to make them look more . . . or, I mean less, scary?"

"Well, I bet that you've figured out that if the DG succeeds- which they won't- there might not be a lot of humans left, only people as extraordinary as you, Max." Mom said. "Which means that they might have to create a new race, like what Dr. GH said. Or, repopulate. They can't have their children looking like . . . well, monsters."

The thought of Ari becoming a father . . . well, it didn't really seem right to me. Fang becoming a father . . . now that's a whole another story. Even though Ari looked old enough . . . Oh, you know(probably, ew), it would still be a huge impact on all of us. The sound of talking interrupted Mom. "Oh . . . I'm sorry, Max, but I really have to go. I love you more than anything." She hung up.

I looked outside, wondering what kind of world this was going to turn into.

Chapter 27: Ari

Whoever built this place forgot to put two beds, which meant that I was stuck with the couch. I was fine with that, especially since it was big enough and nice leather. (The only problem was the leather; it was pulling on my skin every freaking time I moved). But still, it was only until morning. Tina was on the bed, humming some sort of song, right until she started crying. Why do girls have to be so freaking emotional about everything? I thought as I sat up, looking in her direction. "Tina?"

She sniffled. "What?"

"You okay?" I sat on the couch, looking at the window where it began to rain, thunder shaking the whole building.

"Kind of." Tina sat up, rubbing her shoulders. "I just starting singing this song, and this random voice of a little girl popped into my head, saying . . . 'Mommy used to sing that to me, before she died.' It somehow reminded me of my mom." She cried even harder.

"Come here." I motioned to her as she walked over and sat down next to me. Tina rested her head on my shoulder.

"I honestly don't know why I keep hearing voices in my head since we got her. Not just from the animals, but from the . . . people who used to be here." She glanced up at me as I put my arm around her and rubbed her arm. "What do you think it is?"

"Ghosts, more than likely." I remembered when I learned about most animals having a sixth sense, letting them see ghosts and understand peoples feelings. It happened me, since I was part wolf. I wouldn't be surprised if Tina had it, too.

"Seriously, Ari?" She smiled.

"Yeah! No duh." I rubbed my eyes, too. "I guess since we're bred with feline-ish and canine-ish genes, we have the sixth sense."

Tina's eyes narrowed. "Maybe then I could talk to my mom. Figure out why she gave me up to the white coats."

"Maybe." That was something I really hadn't considered since I had been turned. I could figure out what my mom was like, not just the stuff that Jeb told me. But there were so many unanswered questions in my life right now, that I don't think I could really handle it. "I used to think that I could do the same thing, but I never wanted to try it for fear of . . . learning something that I wasn't ready for."

"Yeah." Tina sighed. "I don't have a mom, or even parents, at all, but I feel like you've been the closest person to me." She closed her eyes, another tear running down her cheek.

"I feel the same way about you." I swallowed, trying not to cry. "I never felt like Jeb was my dad. I mean, I never had any family that truely loved me like a son. He left me in that hell-hole and basically replaced me with Max. I felt like he didn't even knew that I existed." I rubbed my eyes, trying to hide the tear that ran down my cheek.

Tina stretched. "Can I . . . um . . . sleep with you?" She blushed and smiled embarrasingly, looking up at me. "I feel a lot safer when I'm closer with someone else."

"Sure." I lay down on the couch and Tina rested her head on my chest, her arms wrapped around me.

Tina closed her eyes and smiled when I put my arms around her. "It's nice to hear a heartbeat besides mine."

I closed my eyes and smiled. "Same here."

Chapter 28: Max

That night was the first night of our little mission. So far, it was only Fang and I, since the kids didn't feel safe going into the city if Ari was getting caught on almost every camera out there. Luckily, Iggy was with them, and I was sure that everyone was going to be safe. And, I was so sure that I showed Iggy where Jeb's gun safe was, just in case. He knew how to use a gun, even though he was blind. Anyway, Fang and I left that night . . . Flying while it was raining out. We had done it before . . . in a hurricane. But those were hundred-mile-hour winds, making it nearly impossible for us to hold onto each other. The storm here was just freezing rain and strong winds, still a recipe for disaster for those-who-have-feathers.

Still, Fang and I kept close, his black wings brushing mine. "WE SHOULD STOP HERE!" Fang pointed down towards an empty building. We landed on the dirt road, the water still pelting us from above. I looked up at the wooden sign above the door as Fang shoved it open. Flow's Wooden Cabinets.

He pulled me inside the building, suprisingly warm for a place with several shattered windows, holes in the roof, and a dusty dirt floor. I sighed, shivering at the cold. Fang started to pull his shirt off. I raised my eyebrows as he hung it on a board, then started un-buckling his pants. "What the hell are you doing?"

"Letting my clothes dry." He pulled down his pants, revealing his big boxers. "You should do the same if you want them to be dry in the morning."

"Umm . . ." Words couldn't really describe how awkward this was going to be. "Fine. I'm only doing it to keep myself from getting sick, mind you." We were both freezing and half-naked by the time he set up two blankets for us to sleep on.

I lay down on mine, wrapping the other half around me. Thunder shook the ground, making me jump. I turned around and looked at Fang. He was fast asleep. How does he do that? It was just so tempting to be able to share his body warmth. I couldn't help myself. I carefully picked up my blanket and moved right next to him, immediatly feeling better. I might have said this before, but it was kind of weird to be in love with someone that you've grown up with. Fang was like a brother to me, but now that's way far into the past, and even if he was, things would never be the same. He might not have left . . . No! I need to stop thinking about those kinds of things! "Max?" Fang turned around, looking at me. "You okay? You were mumbling in your sleep."

"Oh . . . yeah I'm fine." He kissed my forehead.

"Goodnight, Max." Fang turned back over.

I said goodnight, and felt like my life was completed at that moment. Even though it wasn't.

Chapter 29: Ari

I'm not sure if I would catagorize this dream as a nightmare, but it was definitly strange. Maybe even like a prohecy. Tina and I were sitting with eachother in a giant cage in some sort of place. She had her head resting against my furry chest, (I was in wolf-form) and she was obviously scared. Tears shined her cheeks, she moved closer to me everytime I made a small noise, and I wrapped my arms around her even more. "Don't worry, Tina. We're gonna be okay. I promise." I gently nudged her cheek with my snout, reassuring her.

"I know. But please, Ari. We need to get out of here." She put one hand on my cheek, and then she took her other hand, gently grabbed my huge, clawed wolf-hand, and placed it on her round, pregnant belly. "For us. For our baby." Holy cow. Tina was pregnant with my child!

And that was when I woke up. My eyes shot open, and I looked around. Yep, still in the warehouse. Still in human mode. Tina walked in, taking her long, red hair out of the ponytail shape, and rubbed her scalp. I almost sighed with relief to see that he stomach was still perfectly flat. "Good morning. Man you slept like a rock." She crouched down by her backpack as I sat up, rubbing my eyes. "Are there any leftover noodles?"

"No. We ate them all last night." Last night when we kissed. Twice, I thought as I stood up, stretched, and immediatly went into wolf form. "Don't worry. I'll find us some fish, or something."

Tina stood up and sat on the bed, turning on the TV. "Okay. Be careful."

"I will. You too." I smiled, bolted out the door, and took to the skies. I closed my eyes as the wind burbled like a stream through my feathers and fur. I dove down closer to the tree line, hoping to catch the scent of anything. And right when the smell of fish caught my nose, I carefully maneuvered to get down, all while dodging trees. Once I landed, it was right in the clearing in front of me. Two giant silver trout, conveniently sitting on the thick grass. I walked forward, and stopped when the voices of children whispered from the other side of the trees.

"I'm telling you, wolves don't eat fish!"

"They're werewolves! They could eat anyth- SSHH! I see one! Get down!" They sounded harmless enough, so I carefully stalked out on all four-legs. My plan was to just grab the fish and get back into the air, but the kids had other plans. Once I stepped where the fish was, I was lifted up into a huge suspended net. The fish slipped out, but I was stuck. Three kids, a boy, who was about twelve; a girl who was about nine, and a younger girl, who was about two.

"It worked!" The boy pulled out a Swiss army knife. The older girl grabbed the younger girl's hand. I snarled and pulled my ears flat against my head. The boy stepped forward. "Hey, calm down buddy. All I need to do is take some of your fur so I can prove that I-"

"You're not taking any of my fur!" I started to fold in my wings, getting ready if the net fell from my weight.

"He talks!" The girl's eye's widened. "C'mon, Riley. Let's just leave him alone. He's obviously scared!"

By then the net couldn't take it anymore. It tored under my weight, and I fell in a crumpled heap. And once I stood up and two legs, man was Riley scared! I roared, and the two kids ran away, screaming. Except for the little girl, who tugged on my tail when I turned around to leave. She smiled and and bounced up and down. "Doggie! Doggie!" I crouched on all four legs so that I wouldn't scare her. She carefully reached out and patted my head. "Good doggie! Take the fishies! Bye-bye!"

"Thanks." I picked them up in my jaws and flew off.

The little girl waved. "Bye-bye wolfie!" That little part made my day.

On my way up the mountain, towards the warehouse, something caught my eye: A huge, crystal clear pond with a beautiful waterfall feeding it. I would check it out later. First, I needed to get some food into me. And Tina. I landed in front of the warehouse and dropped the fish on the ground when Tina ran out. I stood up. "What's wrong?"

"One, I heard you roar. Two, there are more Erasers on the news. Not you, or Alicia, though." She picked up the fish. "Thanks for getting breakfast."

"No problem." I went back into human form and followed her inside. The TV was replaying one of the most gruesome scenes I had ever seen in my life: An Eraser getting sucked into a jet engine. The scene played over and over on the screen. The plane was moving way too fast for the wolf to fly away. It beat it's wings, but the wind was just too strong. In a blur, it was inside the engine in an explosion that rained down body parts and engine pieces.

Tina sighed and shakily crossed her arms over her chest. "When it first came on, I thought it was you." Tina walked over to an over in the corner and turned it on. "It just came on, like, half-an-hour ago. It's all over the news. Even the world. In a longer version of the video, it showed people crying."

"Oh, my God." I ran my hands through my hair and stood up. If Erasers were getting killed by airplanes, then there was no doubt in my mind that there was just a ton that were created in the past, or now, or they could all be repopulating for a new kind of Earth. There was just so many! I remember that when I was still in the Chasing-Max-And-Trying-To-Kill-Her Time, there was only about two-hundred in existence. Now, there was at least one-thousand, according to a poster at the Lycanium.

"Hey, did you know there is no bathroom in this place?" Tina let the fish fry on low, and then walked over towards a mirror. "I had to go to the bathroom outside, and it was not comfortable."

"Good thing you mentioned that, because I saw a crystal clear pond on my way back." I grabbed my shirt and pulled it on. "You want to go now? After we eat?"

"Yeah, 'cause I'm starving and in desperate need of a shower." Tina put the fish in a bag, grabbed her backpack, and we flew off. She was lucky that her head wound was fine, so she was able to take off the bandage this morning. Anyway, we headed down the mountain, gliding on the cool, air currents. Once we reached the place, I landed, Tina right behind me. The sand was cool and dry, and the first thing that Tina did was tear off her shirt, pants, shoes, socks, and run into the water.

I was about to sheild my eyes when I saw that she was at least wearing a bra and underpants, exposing her bat-wings and full tail. "You coming or what? It's not that cold!"

I pulled off my shirt, shoes, and socks. I waded in, the cold water chilling me, but giving me an energy rush, also. Tina dove right under the surface, and came back up, the water dripping off of her perfectly-shaped body. Whoah, Ari. Control yourself. She looks at least ten years younger than you. I thought as I dove under and came back up, shaking the water out of my crazy, dark hair. "Holy crap!"

"I know!" Tina waded towards the waterfall, the water going all the way up to the top of her neck. I followed her and stopped when I saw her bra sitting on a rock right below the waterfall.

"Umm . . . " I pointed towards the undergarment.

"Hey, I need to bath, okay!" Tina smiled. "Don't worry. I'll keep the girls below the water . . . if you want me to." She grabbed it, slipping it back on. "I'm gonna check out this cave under the waterfall. Want to come with?"

"Cave?" Then, I saw it. A darker area behind the falling water. "Sure. Lead the way." Tina nimbly climbed onto the rocks and disappeared under the roaring water. I clumsily followed under the water that pummeled my head and shoulders. Once I got past and saw Tina standing in a pool of glowing water. All kinds of plants surrounded her ankles, glowing with a neon blue haze. Tons of beautiful paintes of wolves, bears, birds, fish, and every other kinds of animals here covered the walls.

"Ari! Look at this!" She grabbed my hand and pulled me forward into the glowing water. I walked across it with her, the plants growing brighter with every step we took, the blue reflections dancing on the walls like flames. In front of us were thousands upon thousands of multi-colored crystals, some of them touching the water. Tina bent down on her knees and touched one of them. I sat on my knees next to her. Her green eyes glowed once she made contact with the beautiful rocks.

"Tina," I looked at her, our faces and bodies super close. "Your eyes are glowing."

She brushed some hair behind her ear. "Heh, thanks."

"No, seriously. It's like Avatar. Which isn't a bad thing . . . but it makes you look more . . . beautiful." I looked closely into her bright eyes. Tina blushed and took my hand, placing it on the crystals. An immidiate warm, happy feeling filled my body, even from the crystals. "Wow."

"Yeah . . . it's just . . . words really can't describe it." She looked into my eyes. "Huh. Your eyes are . . . blue. It makes you look . . . awesome."

I smiled. We were so close, so I gently put my fingers on her cheek, and kissed her warm, soft lips. Tina put both hands on my face and gave me all she got back. My hand was still on the crystal, so I took it off, moving both of my hands onto her upper waist. We disconnected, and she looked at me, a smile on her face. Tina stood up, and I did too. I still had my hands on her waist, so she put her hands on my chest. Tina kissed my neck and whispered in my ear: "Let's stay here for a little while longer."

Chapter 30: Max

By the time Fang and I woke up, got dressed, and took to the air, all evidence of rain was gone. The mountains were perfectly dry, the sun was out, and I was just in a good mood. High above the clouds, it was perfectly quiet. Not airplanes, no helicopters, and no Erasers: The evil kind. After about two hours, my phone rang in my pocket. I dove down below the clouds so I could get a better reception. Fang followed, as silent as a ghost. I pressed the green button. It was from the house. Nudge's frantic and crying voice came from the other side. "Max! Be careful!"

"Why?"

"It's just happened on the news! An Eraser was flying, and he got sucked into a jet engine! It's horrible!" She cried harder. I gasped an looked at Fang.

"Nudge! Calm down!" Iggy's voice interviened.

"Max, I . . . the Eraser looked like Ari! I don't know if it was him, and I'm pretty sure it wasn't, but just . . . please watch out!"

"Don't worry, sweetie. We will. I love you. Be safe." Nudge hung up before I did.

Fang looked at me, worry in his eyes. "What's wrong? Is everyone okay?"

"Yeah, it's just that on the news, they caught video of an Eraser getting sucked into a jet engine. Now, I guess we're on the lookout for both." I blinked away the tears that formed in my eyes. I didn't want to tell Fang that the Eraser on the news looked like Ari.

Fang's wings reassuringly brushed mine. "Don't worry, Max. We're gonna find him. I promise you that." He smiled, and I smiled back.

Alright, we're gonna find Ari if it kills us. Which it probably will. That's okay, though, because that's what I was sent here for: To save the world.

Chapter 31: Ari

Tina's kiss on my neck and the whisper in my ear gave me a whole new feeling. Love. That's what it was. We stayed in the cave in the bright water together. On our knees, we just sat there, kissing and holding onto each other. My arms were around her waist, holding her close to my body. Tina's arms were around my neck, and her tail was wrapped around my back, and every once-in-awhile she would twitch it, the fur on the end tickling my bare skin. Everytime she did that, I would gasp. I mean, it gave my heartbeat a new speed.

I pulled Tina in closer, and she ended up sitting on my waist. She took a deep breath as I kissed her neck. She gently ran one of her hands down my washboard belly, making me stop and giving me the chills. "You want to?" Tina whispered, resting her forhead on mine.

"I don't know. I'm not really ready." I kissed her mouth again. "Let's just stay like this, for now. Together." As cheesy as it sounds, I was serious.

"Fine with me." Tina kissed me some more, even moving her hands to rest them on my lower back. Pretty soon, I morphed out my wolf-tail and wrapped it around her back. Tina gasped. "Oohh, boy."

"What?"

"I just . . . I've never felt anything like this before." Tina pulled away and looked at me. "If I never met you, we wouldn't be here. Either fighting for our lives, or kissing each other." She smiled. "You're my perfect other half."

Tina got up, and I stood up too. She walked out of the cave, smiling. "I'll be out here if you need anything." I looked at her body, dumbstruck. Or, love drunk, if you want to put it that way. I felt lightheaded and just . . . happy. I had someone else in my life that I loved much more than family-love. I looked back at the crystals. They were glowing even brighter. So were the plants in the pool. I walked out to see Tina in the water, looking back at me. "Come here!" I jumped into the water and swam over to her. She dove under, and I saw her looking up at me and smiling. She jumped right back up. "You have to see this! It's like a painting of . . . something under here!" I went under with her, looking around the clear water.

Tina pointed down towards the ground, were several silver fish were casually gliding along. Under them was a huge painting of the Ying-Yang simbol, but instead of the black and white colors, a wolf was in the black part. His eye was the white circle. And in the white part was an eagle, and its eye was the black circle. Still holding my breathe, I looked at her, my eyes wide. Tina nodded, her eyes wide too. We both rose towards the surface and gasped for air. "Jesus Christ! How could we not see that?" I looked back down, and I could see the faint outline of the carving.

"I don't know!" Tina smiled. "It could be Native American, or something that . . . someone did. I just don't get how they could put it under water!" She started to walk out, and on her way she gently touched my stomach with her tail, giving me the chills. "We should get going."

"Y-Yeah." I followed her out. Once I stepped onto the sand and remembered when we were in the cave, the only word that came to my head was: Daamn!

We flew off back towards the warehouse, the wind automatically drying us. Once we landed and walked in, Tina lay down on the bed. "You want to nap with me?"

I looked at her and walked over when something outside of the window caught my eye: Two humaniod shapes landing in the forest farther down the mountain. "Oh, dear God. I think our little friend's back."

Tina jumped up and looked out the window. "Alicia? Again? Sonofagun!"

"I'm gonna go check it out."

"No!" Tina put her hand on my arm. "I'm coming with-"

"Stay here. I don't want to put you in too much danger anymore."

"Okay. Be careful. I love you." Tina hugged me. I kissed her forehead, went into wolf form, and left.

Chapter 32: Max

Fang and I landed in some clearing on the side of the mountain, the same mountain where the warehouse was. I didn't want to go searching all over for him; I was afraid that Fang and I would attrack some unwanted attention. We sat on a rock, the sun warming our feathers. "Where do you think he his?" Fang rubbed his neck and stretched.

"Ari? I don't know." I looked back at the warehouse, sitting on the mountain like a big, metal rock. "I don't want to go up there and find out that it's not where he's been this whole time."

Fang froze. "Did you hear that?" I noticed it too. Wingbeats. Loud and big ones.

Of course, my first instinct was to turn around and see what it was. Nothing. The sky and the treeline was clear of bad Erasers and other bird kids. "No. There's nothing out ther-" A branch crashed, a twig snapped, and a snarl ripped from the trees right behind us. Things from scary movies.

I slowly turned around to see a huge, light gray, humanoid wolf glaring at us on all four legs. Once I made eye contact with it, it stopped snarling, a look of surprise in its dark eyes. It stood up and folded in its wings. I immediatly knew who it was. "Ari?"

"Max?" Yep. That voice. It was my brother. I ran over to him and hugged him, burying my face into his fur-covered chest. In a way, it was almost comforting when he hugged me back.

"Oh, my God, Ari!" Tears streamed from my eyes, surprisingly. "You're alive!"

He looked down at me, and I noticed that he was only taller by a couple of inches. "Yeah. I mean, why wouldn't I be?" Ari smiled with his goofy grin. He morphed back into a human, and he had changed. Ari was a lot shorter, less muscle, and almost had the same characteristics as Fang: Dark hair and dark eyes. He looked a lot less scary.

"'Sup, man?" Fang walked over and gave him one of those manly-hugs. It kind of surprised me that Fang was happy that Ari was back. Especially since the last time that Ari stayed with us, Fang left. (Don't remind me how hard it was on all of us.) But now I guess it was because Fang understood that Ari's my brother. And anyone who's related to us, counts as family.

Chapter 33: Ari

Finally. I had found my sister. And I was so happy that even Fang was glad to see me. "So, are you gonna come back with us?" Max looked at me, still amazed that I was back.

"Hell yeah." I looked back at the warehouse. "Here's the thing. There's this girl . . . Tina . . . Would it be okay if she came with us?" I didn't want to leave my girlfriend.

"Why not?" Fang spread his black wings.

"Yeah!" Max spread her wings, too.

I spread my wings, and we took off.

When we made it back and went inside of the warehouse, Tina ran over and kissed me, especially since Max and Fang decided to wait outside. "Was it Alicia?" She asked as she looked out the window.

"No, it was my sister, Max." I grabbed my sweatshirt and stuffed it in my backpack, then pulled my shirt on. "And she offered for us to stay with her and her family. That includes Iggy."

Tina gasped and her face lit up. "Awesome!" She grabbed her backpack, checking the room for any stuff that she might have forgotten.

I walked out, and Tina followed. Her tail excitingly whipped back and forth, and her ears perked up. Fang looked at her. "Umm . . . not to be rude, but is that a tail?"

"Yep. The people back at the school somehow combined me with human, lion, and bat." Tina smiled.

"Bat?" Max rubbed the back of her neck, not sure what bat parts Tina had.

Tina simply stretched out her dragon-like wings, telling Max and Fang. "By the way, I'm Tina."

"Nice to meet you." Fang and Max spread their wings. Fang crouched, ready to take off. "Let's get going. The flock is gonna be really happy to see you guys."

After at least three hours of flying, we made it back to Jeb's house late in the night, a place that held good and bad memories for me. We landed on the deck, and Nudge, Angel, and Gazzy sprinted out of the back door. "ARI!" They hugged me, and I hugged them back. Iggy looked out the door and carefully ran out. Total, along with a dog that I didn't recognize, soon followed. They all hugged Max and Fang, also.

I put my arm around Tina, who was definitly a bit nervous. "Everyone, this is my . . . friend, Tina."

"Hi!" Nudge went into chatter-mode as we walked into the house. "OMG so like, we all thought Ari was dead, because his expiration date came, right? And so . . ." Tina followed Nudge into the house, nodding and talking with her.

The dog that I didn't recognize looked at me. She barked. What? I asked her as she ran into the house, followed by Total.

You can understand me, right? She looked at me with curious, ice-blue eyes.

Umm . . . yeah. I didn't really know what else to say as I set my backpack down on the ground next to the couch.

Awesome! By the way, my name's Akila. You're Ari, right?

Yep. Max's brother. Nice to meet you!

You too! Akila ran over and sat on the couch next to Iggy. It was still dark out, so the kids went to bed. The only people that were awake were, Tina, Iggy, Max, Fang, and I.

"Iggy . . ." Tina pursed her lips. "I don't really know how to say this . . . but . . . I'm your sister."

Iggy laughed. "Seriously? Is this a joke?"

I had told Max on the way here that Iggy was, in fact, related to Tina. "No joke, Iggy. There are files to prove it." Max held up the papers from my backpack.

"Oh." Iggy looked in Tina's direction. "Wow." She hugged him. Fang smiled.

"A little family reunion, huh?" Fang got up and patted Iggy's shoulder. He walked into the room where the boy's were staying, and Iggy followed. "I'm gonna have to crash for the night. See you later." He closed the door behind him.

Max got up too. "Alright. See you guys in the morning. Goodnight."

I looked at Tina. We were all alone. She moved over to the couch, smiling, and gave me a big, long kiss. I lay down, Tina kissed me again, and I moved my hands on her back, pulling her in closer. She kissed me, and I kissed her back.

After we were done making out, we just lay next to each other, talking sweet-nothings, and giving each other little kisses on the neck. Tina rested her head on my chest as I pulled the blanket up over us. "I can't believe we made it here. After all the bad things we've been through." Tina looked up at me as I stroked her long, red hair, which was out of the usual ponytail.

"I know. And we can help the rest of the flock. We could be a real family." I ran my hand through my hair. "The family that none of us really had."

"Yeah." Tina yawned. "Goodnight, Ari. Love you."

"Love you too, Tina."

Chapter 34: Max

The next morning was unspeakably hot outside. I woke up next to Angel to find both of us sweating and the bed sheets damp. I walked downstairs to find all of the boys topless while Angel followed, and Nudge and Tina wearing tank-tops. Ari, who was in wolf-form, panted as he sat on the couch with the guys, watching a re-cap on last night's hockey game. I couldn't help but laugh.

"What?" Pant-pant-pant-pant.

"I'm sorry, Ari, but you just look so funny!" I walked into the kitchen, looking for a good breakfast in the pantry. "Don't you think it would be a lot cooler without an inch of fur?"

"Yeah, but at least the panting keeps me cool." Pant-pant-pant-pant. He opened the fridge. "Dammit." Pant-pant-pant-pant.

"What?" I looked over at him, his muscles rippling as he dug through the fridge.

"All we have is Bud Light . . . " Bottles clanked. "Alright! Houston, we have a Leinenkugel's!" Pant-pant-pant-pant. He positioned the bottle in under his sharp teeth, ready to pop it open, when I grabbed it from him and put it back in the fridge.

"You are NOT drinking that." I looked at him, almost laughing. "You're only . . . " I counted the years since we last saw him. "Eight!"

"Max, I'm practically an adult. Think of it as . . . Dog years!" He laughed at his own joke. Pant-pant-pant-pant. "Besides, I've had that kind of stuff before. Please?"

"No. Just because you look like a thirty-five-year old doesn't mean that you are. You can have Pepsi instead." As Ari dug through the fridge again and grabbed a Pepsi, I kind of felt like a mom. Or maybe it was just because he was my younger brother. (Odd enough, especially since he looks at least twenty-years older than me.) Ari playfully smacked my shoulder with his long tail, and walked back into the living room, his walking almost cool because of his velociraptor-shaped legs. I almost expected to see Total or Akila walk in when I heard claws clicking on the lenoleum floor, before I realized that it was his own feet.

"It's. So. Dang. HOT!" Gazzy walked in and sat in the open fridge. Angel followed and sat next to him.

"You don't think Jeb will mind if we rack up his electricity bill?" Angel turned around and reached for a banana.

"I think he'll mind if you sit in his refridgerator all day." I grabbed some cereal when the Angel and Gazzy ran out, and in walked Fang. His muscles showed off, a bit shiny from sweat, and I have it say, it was pretty sexy. (Excuse me for my extreme girly-ness.) Fang put his hands on my waist while I poured my cereal. "What are you doing?" I smiled and whispered as he kissed my neck.

"I don't know. Heat of the moment, I guess." Fang whispered in my ear, giving me chills.

"Hey, Max-" Tina walked in and turned right around when she saw Fang and I. "Woops, nevermind. Sorry."

Fang let go of me and leaned against the countertop. "No, that's okay, Tina. What were you gonna say?"

Tina came back in. "I was thinking that we could go swimming. There's this place that Ari and I found, right by the warehouse. The water's nice and cold and there's lots of fish. I think it would be a cool idea for us to hang out there for the day. Cool off, ya know?" Her cat ears sat right up.

I hadn't really though about it, and it was a great idea. Why hadn't I thought about it before? "Perfect! Let's get everyone ready!"

Chapter 35: Ari

Tina's idea was perfect, and while we were eating our cereal, everyone was talking about it. I was excited too, so much that I practically lapped up my cereal, making everyone laugh. "Ari!" Max couldn't stop laughing. "That's so nasty!"

"No it's not. It's cereal!" I laughed again, and Max snickered, too. Once we were done eating, we grabbed our things that we would need, and flew off.

Gazzy and Angel were so pumped that they were doing barrel roles and loops. Nudge would slightly pull in her wings, let herself dive down, and then come back up. Iggy did the same thing, so I just flew alongside Max, Fang, and Tina, all while I was in wolf form. Total glided alongside me while Akila sat on my back. She didn't have wings.

The looks on everyone's faces were priceless when we reached the pond. The same pond where me and Tina found the symbol under the water, the cave full of glowing water and crystals, and where Tina and I made big time love. Once we landed in the sand, the first thing that Gazzy did was tear off his shoes and socks, and fly up to the rock cliff where the waterfall came out of. I took off my shoes and socks, staring up at him. "Hey guys! Watch this!" He dive bombed into the water, all of us staring at him. He popped back out of the water. "THAT WAS BEAST!"

"Nice one!" Tina called as she ran out into the water. Nudge carefully guided Iggy into the shore, holding his hand. Akila and Total ran along the water, snapping at the little fishes on the edge. Max, Angel, and Fang ran in, too, splashing everyone and just having an over-all good time. Tina ran over towards the waterfall, and I followed. Under the water, I went back into human form. Tina didn't need to say anything, so I just wrapped my hands around her waist and kissed her. She put her hands on my shoulders and kissed me, too.

"Let's go swim with the others!" Tina held my hand, and we leapt into the water together. We waded over towards the rest of the flock, laughing and splashing in the cool water.

Nudge screamed as two huge helicopters came up from behind the mountains. Several soldiers emerged from the trees, M-16's in their hands. "Everyone stay together!" Max held Gazzy and Angel close to her. Nudge hugged Iggy, who was standing behind Tina, her tail lashing angrily and nervously back and forth. The dogs swam over, the whites showing in their eyes, and they stood behind Fang as they got into shallower water. As usual, my first instinct was to go into wolf-form, leap onto the shore, and defend my family. That's what I did, snarling and glaring . . . right until a single shot fired and hit me right in the stomach.

Pain tore through my whole torso as I yelped in pain and collapsed, blood spraying from in between my hands as I clutched at my stomach. And I had only been with the flock for not even two days.

Chapter 36: Max

No, no, NO! This can't be happening! I stumbled over towards Ari, who was curled on his side, holding his stomach. I turned him over, prying his clawed hands away to see what we were dealing with. Blood poured out even faster. I pressed my own hands on his belly, the blood soaking my hands. "WHAT THE FR-" I was about to scream at the soldiers when I saw Tina brutally beating the one who had shot Ari.

"YOU FREAKING SONOFABRAT!" She screamed as two of them pulled pulled her away and dropped her onto the sand. "WE'RE ON YOUR SIDE! WE'RE NOT PART OF THE FREAKING DOOMSDAY GROUP!"

One of the helicopters landed on the shore not too far away. A muscular man in his late forties ran over to the soldier, who was being helped up and wiping his face. "What happened here?" He demanded, glancing at Tina, who ran over towards Ari and placed his grimacing wolf head in her lap.

"Sir, this Eraser ran up to us, and I thought he was part of the DG, so my first instinct was to shoot him, Sir." The soldier stared at the others, who were standing behind us.

Ari whined and began to cry. "Momma? Momma!"

Tina stroked his furry head, tears welling up in her eyes. "Sshh. It's gonna be okay, Ari. I promise you. Can you morph into a human?"

He scrunched his eyes. "No. Too . . . weak."

Gazzy ran up to the man. "Dude, we need to get him to a hos-" He stopped and backed away when several soldiers ran over, carrying a stretcher. The lifted him on, immediatly placing an oxygen mask on his snout, and then rolled him over to the chopper.

"You kids do know that this is restricted military area, right?" The soldiers left. The chopper that was carrying my brother rose into the air and turned around, going back over the mountain. The second helicopter landed beside us. "Come on. We're taking . . . your Eraser friend-"

"Ari." Angel stared at the chopper, fear in her eyes. I felt her pain: A year ago, that was the main type of transportion for the Erasers.

"Ari, right. We're taking him back to the base where he can get the best medical attention. You need to come with. This place is not safe for anyone." We climbed up into the chopper, helping Total and Akila up. The whole machine gave me the creeps. The metallic, oily smell; the way that this thing could turn and manuever; and the huge guns that were mounted on the side. We sat in somewhat comfy chairs as the metal beast lifted into the air.

I put my bloody arm around Tina, who was crying a bit. We all just sat in silence, staring at the ground or at the huge guns mounted on the sides of the helicopter. Angel sat holding Total, burying her face into his fur. She obviously didn't want to see the helicopter. It felt almost like an awkward silence. Finally, the man spoke up. "I'm General Mason."

"Nice to meet you." We all mumbled at different times. I glanced out the open chopper door. Snow topped mountains sped below us, the occasional tree or cave popping up every now and then. Normally, we could have gone this speed while we were flying, but since we were in "restricted military area", that wouldn't really be a safe idea.

Finally, the helicopter slowed down and lowered towards the ground. Grass shimmered, winded over from the propellers, and eventually came to a standstill. We jumped out, barefooted and still somewhat wet, and looked around us. Mountains still surrounded us, helicopters and airplanes circling their peaks. In the middle of the valley was a huge building; it was somewhat nice looking, with metal walls and huge, glass windows.

General Mason led us inside. Iggy almost slipped on the cold, lenolium floor, so Nudge became his eyes by holding his hand. Huge, muscular soldiers walked past us, staring at us like we had . . . Well, just come out of the middle of nowhere. The general led us to the hospital wing, the smell of medication and doctors passing by made me super twitchy and paranoid. Always from memories of the School. "Wait here." He pointed towards several chairs lined up against the wall. We all sat down, waiting for the news on Ari.

Chapter 37: Ari

Dr. McHenry glanced over at the Eraser with the gun-wound. The nurses worked quickly to get him ready. He angled his head towards her, fear in his deep, dark eyes. She walked over, rubbing him behind his wolf-ear as the drugs took effect, putting him into a deep sleep. His eyes slowly closed, and his head went back to angling at the ceiling. "Oh, sweetie. You're gonna be fine." As she moved over and held the knife above his belly and the gun-wound, tears welled up in her eyes.

Once the doctors drugged me, I was deep in darkness. I could hear and smell everything around me: the main surgeon asking for several different tools from the nurses, the constant beeping of the heart monitor. But I couldn't feel anything. It was like floating on the edge of the universe: You didn't-couldn't- see anything. Pretty soon, my eyes fluttered open. I was still in the operating room, and now I could feel the cloth of the bed, the bandage wrapped around my stomach.

"Ari, before we can put you in the recovery room, you need to morph back. Can you do that for me?" The doctor loomed over me. My heartbeat thrummed in my ears as I went back to my original shape. I sighed with relief as the pain edged from my body.

I glanced over at a nurse, who was cleaning the tools. She whispered to the nurse next her: "Damn. He's pretty hot." They giggled, and I couldn't help but smirk. I was in blackness again as they wheeled me out.

In the recovery room, Max, Tina, the doctor, and Iggy stood at my bedside.

"Ari!" Max squeezed my hand. "How do you feel?"

"Drouzy . . . Well, I don't really know." I glanced at Iggy, who couldn't stop smiling.

"Or, you could just be EXTREMELY high from the medication." He laughed.

The doctor wrote down some stuff on the clipboard. "Have you had any injuries worse than this?"

"Yeah. My neck got broken." I glanced at Max. I wasn't going to add in the part that she broke my neck. "The scientists who made me realigned it with a metal liquid. But I feel fine with this one. It's just a flesh wound."

Tina finished the Monty Python quote. "I've had worse." We both laughed, and I yawned, realizing how tired I was. I fell right asleep.

Chapter 38: Max

I stared at Ari while he passed out. "Is that good, or bad?" I glanced at the doctor.

"It's normal." The doctor wrote some stuff down, and began to walk out. "Someone donated blood. It's just the DNA transfusion."

"Who donated blood for Ari?" She walked out before I could get an answer.

"I did." The famliliar voice made my heart jump with joy when I looked over at the door. It was Dr. Valencia Martinez. My mom.

"Mom!" Those were the only words that came out of my mouth when I ran over and hugged her. I'm still not sure, to this day, why I asked this question. "Where's Jeb?"

"On his way. After General Mason called him, he said he would get here as fast as he could." Huh. Well, at least he showed some sympathy for his wolf-ish son.

Iggy hugged her, and Tina straightened up. "Hi!" She shook her hand. "I'm Iggy's sister."

Mom's mouth gaped open. "Wow. That's amazing!" She squeezed Iggy's shoulder. "Where's everyone else?"

"The cafeteria." Iggy's stomach growled when he mentioned the food-place.

Mom smiled. "Why don't you guys go and get something to eat?" Tina, Iggy, and I agreed, so we ran down the hallway to dinner.

It was late in the night, and I couldn't stop tossing and turning on the bed. I've had sleeping problems before, and they were usually solved with a flight with Fang that ended with a kiss and me running away from him. Fang was curled around Angel, Gazzy right next to her. Nudge was resting her head on Iggy's chest, Akila and Total curled around their feet.

I sat up, rubbing my eyes and looking out the window. Helicopters landed, and the guardposts lit up. Not a good time to try and fly. I walked down the quiet hallway towards Ari's room, where Tina had dragged the recliner by his bed, her hand in his. Tina sat up and pulled her hand from Ari's, rubbing her eyes and yawning. "Hey Max."

"Hey. You having trouble sleeping?" I glanced at Ari, who looked like he had passed out from too many shots at a party.

"Kind of. Why?" Tina picked up her iPod, looking at the time. "Holy crap. It's two-thirty!"

"Yeah, I figured that out from my own sleeping troubles." I said. Tina put the iPod back and smiled. She placed her hand back into Ari's.

"Goodnight, Max."

"'Night, Tina." Silence. Except the heart monitor and Ari's slight snoring.

A knock on the door stopped the silence, making me jump. I turned around to see Mom walk in. "Why are you up so late?"

"Don't know. I feel like the only thing I could really do right now was check on him."

Mom walked over to his bedside. She smoothed back his jet-black hair. "He used to be such a cute, little kid. But, according to the younger nurses, he's still pretty cute." Mom laughed, and so did I.

Then I realized something that she said. "Wait. How did you know what he looked like when he was little?"

Mom moved away, and we sat on the couch together by the window. "Jeb and I were great friends in college. We hung out all the time, went to football games, parties, and were in the same classes. We were almost in a relationship, but I just wasn't ready for something as serious as he wanted. Pretty soon, he met Ari's mom, they got married, Ari was born and . . . she passed away. Because of Jeb's job, there wasn't really any way to keep him around adult supervision. So, on my off days, I would go to the School and watch Ari. Really, all he was able to do was sit in one of the empty offices and play with his toy trucks, especially since he was only two, at the time.

"A couple weeks passed, and it just happened to be a very particular day for the School's history: The other scientists created the first female Eraser. I left the office to get him a candy bar from the mess hall, and he somehow managed to open the door and run freely through some of the empty hallway's without anyone seeing him. Now, the Eraser had gotten scared crapless, broke out of the surgery tank, and was running freely throughout the building, trying to find a way out. She stopped between two hallways butt naked, except for the fur covering her up, and soaking wet from the tank, not sure of where to go. Ari saw her and grabbed her tail, laughing and jumping up and down. 'Wolfy! Wolfy!'. Ari laughed and smiled.

"She turned around and snarled at him, and he fell over, flat on his butt and began to cry. I saw this all happen, I was seriously scared of her eating him. But, instead of attacking, she saw how upset she was. She picked him up and help him, comforting him. He laughed and pulled on her whiskers, but she didn't do anything, just held him and made him laugh. I ran over to him, ready to knock her out to defend Ari. When she saw him, all she did was set him on the ground and run off."

"Wow. That's pretty awesome!" But everytime I heard "first female Eraser", something clicked in my head. "Was the Eraser's name Alicia?"

"I believe so. Why?"

"Oh, my God!" My eyes widened with disbelief. "It was her! The girl who's trying to track down Ari!"

"What are you talking about?" Mom's eyebrow's furrowed. "It could have been anyone!"

"No. The girl that was chasing Ari in the news video was Alicia. She looked like the one you're talking about!" Mom's eyes widened.

"Huh. I never thought of that." Her lips pursed. "So anyway, pretty soon, the School realized that we needed someone like . . . you. Fang and Iggy weren't at the School yet, but they were going to be on there way, soon. Anyway, at a meeting, Jeb volunteered to donate one of his . . . cells. We needed a female cell, and for some reason, they all looked at me. Including Jeb. But since you weren't a test-tube baby . . ."

Mom looked at me, a little smile creeping on her face. I immediatly knew what she meant. "Oh God! Mom! Do you have to tell me that?" Geeze, talk about TMI.

"Yep. Pretty soon, you were born, Ari was born seven years later, he became an Eraser, and . . . Yeah. All-"

Angel knocked on the door, tears shining her eyes. As usual, I got up and hugged her. "What's the matter, sweetie?"

"I-I had a bad dream." I looked over at Mom, who was still on the couch.

"Well, you can come and sit with us, if you want." Angel nodded, and I sat back down, sitting Angel on my lap.

"And by the way Max, Ari might have to stay for a couple more days. The doctors are gonna have to give him a bunch more shots. Ones that he, for some reason, didn't get in the past."

"What kind of shots?" I glanced at Ari, a deep, happy growl coming from deep within his throat. More than likely it was from dreams.

"Umm . . . You really want to know?" She ran her hand through her hair.

"I guess so."

"They're for . . . Well, he does have the body of an adult . . . "

Ugh. I think I was better off without an answer to that. "Oh . . . Oh God!"

Mom laughed and looked at her watch. "Time for bed. Both of you. Goodnight."

"Goodnight."As Angel and I walked over towards to door and down the hall, I couldn't help but think that Jeb and Mom didn't just create me for . . . Science. Maybe they were something much more?

Valencia looked out at the window as Max and Angel went back to their room. She thought about the part that she didn't want to tell her daughter: Jeb and her stood by Max's incubator. "Why can't I take her out of here! She'd be much safer in the outside world! She wouldn't be put through all these tests!" Valencia looked up at Jeb-He was at least several inches taller- pleading with her deep, brown eyes. "This is our daughter, Jeb!"

"Valencia, I understand that." He put his arm around her. "But for now, she has to stay here. Grow strong and healthy. Right now, it's too dangerous for her. Erasers are already growing in numbers, and pretty soon they'll be ready to track both of you down if she goes 'missing'."

She began to cry, and he hugged her. To Valencia it was comforting, burying her face into his chest and wrapping her arms around his back, even though he was married. (The poor woman didn't know that Valencia and Jeb had created another baby. She tried not to think of it as a "secret love-child", even though that's what it seemed like.). She glanced over at the little baby, moving every once-in-awhile, her tiny wings twitching. Jeb stroked her hair. "I'll do something to get her out of here safe. I promise." He kissed her forhead, and left.

Chapter 39: Ari

The doctor looked at me, her eyes widening when I showed her my wound, which was now just a tiny scar. "Incredible. Normally it would take someone weeks to get that scar."

I pulled my shirt back on (Max's mom had grabbed some stuff from the house). "So that means I'm free to go? The flock, too?" I glanced at Max, and she pursed her lips.

"Not quite. General Mason wants to talk to you guys about something." She walked out of the room.

Max crossed her arms over her chest. "Great. Another deal with the FBI, I'm guessing?"

"Not sure." I jumped off the bed, almost falling over from dizziness. Max grabbed me.

"Easy, killer." Tina ran in, seeing that I was about to fall flat on my sorry butt.

Nudge knocked on the door. "Max, I can't find my hairbrush. Can you help me find it?"

"Sure, sweetie." She followed Nudge, and I could still hear her chattering away.

"I'm pretty sure Iggy stole it. His hair's getting long . . . "

Tina closed to door. "I want to talk to you."

"About what?" I sat on the couch. She followed.

" . . . You're freaking crazy." Tina smirked. "You morphed into a wolf right in front of the United States Army, you ran down the middle of a crouded street in Salt Lake City, and . . . You got me out of that place."

I knew what she was talking about. The Institute for Experiments. "Yep. But that's what makes me awesome. You too."

Tina blushed, one of her specialties. "And you're crazy enough to fall in love with me." She slipped her hand into mine, resting her head on my shoulder.

I knew that right now was the perfect moment to kiss her, especially since we wouldn't really have a lot of alone-time. But once I angled my head towards hers, she had grabbed the front of my shirt and pulled me in, pressing her lips onto mine. We ended up laying down on the couch, Tina under me, her arms around my back, pulling me in, and she even wrapped her legs around my waist. We kissed and kissed and kissed. I flipped over, and now Tina was on top of me. It was like her perfect lips were magnets, pulling me upward everytime she gave me a kiss that lasted for more than five seconds.

Tina moved down and kissed my neck, and even the area around my collar bone as I gently placed my hands on her arms. Everything was going great . . . until I began to growl. No, not a sexy growl. A nasty, deep, evil sounding wolf growl, deep within my throat. Tina stopped. "Ari, I think I just heard you . . . growl?"

"Uhh . . . Yeah. Sorry about that." I shrugged and smiled. "Hormones, I guess." A knock came from the door. Perfect timing. I thought as Tina jumped up, smoothing out her hair. I sat up, too, trying to look normal and not like we had been making out for ten minutes. Sadly, I kind of did, though.

Fang poked his head in. "General M. wants to see us."

"Alright." I sat up and led Tina out of the door.

Chapter 40: Max

The conference room was dead silent when Tina and Ari finally walked in. Angel read their thoughts- by the looks in her eyes- and her eyes widened to the size of dinner plates. I looked at her, almost afraid of what I might learn. What is it?

Ari and Tina had a little bit of alone time, and . . .

I looked straight ahead, and my stomach jumped. Okay, I'm not trying to be gross, but . . . was it kissing or . . . you know?

Just kissing, thank God. But Ari had a little bit of dirty thoughts going through his head.

Fang sat down on my right, his thigh resting up against mine. I needed to clear my head. General Mason holded his hands, obviously ready. "You kids have heard about the Doomsday Group, right?"

"That's pretty much why we're here." Gazzy tapped his fingers on the table.

"Well, we want to talk to you about helping us fight them. They're posing a huge threat to our whole planet," The General said, "And what I've learned from the past, you kids have done some incredible things for the good of everyone. We were thinking that you could help us get rid of them and their little One Light."

Uh-Oh. I saw where this was going. "You mean, like, go to war?"

"Yes." General Mason glanced out the window.

Tina buried her face in her hands. "Oh, God. No. No. I can't go through that again!" She began to cry. Ari put his arm around her, whispering in her ear and comforting her.

"Now, we have at least ten-thousand soldiers out there, ready to take them down. Iggy, I understand that you and Gasman are good with explosives, is that correct?"

"Yeah! We've nearly set our house on fire! Twice!" A huge grin came onto his face, but stopped when I glared at him.

"And Fang, you can go nearly invisible?"

"Totally. I love to scare Max with that kind of stuff." He smiled at me, and I couldn't help but smile back.

"Nudge, Angel, I've heard that you two are perfect with hacking computers, reading minds, and controlling people."

Nudge went into talking mode. "Oh yeah! Well, Angel can read minds and all that good stuff. But I can hack into computers, the biggest ones!"

"Okay, and Max. You've been able to fly at nearly the speed of sound, true?" He looked at me, a look of surprise on his face.

"Uhh . . . yeah." Those were the only words I could think of.

"And, Tina. You were in the Black Ops, in Soviet Russia?"

"Don't remind me." Tina stared at the table in front of her.

"And, finally, Ari. I know that you're an Eraser, and that you once worked for the School. There are Erasers like you, running around out there, somewhere."

"Yeah, and I know at least one-thousand of them are at the place where I came back. They're working to get rid of the DG, too." Ari rubbed the back of his neck like it was nothing.

The room was silent. Until General Mason cleared his throat. "Max, it's your destiny to save the world. This could be a good choice for your whole family."

I mean, it really was something to consider. The safety of the world and of my flock. I understood that it would be harder than anything, though. But we've pretty much been to hell itself and back. I looked at the others. They were nodding. "Alright. Sounds good to me."

"Good choice, Maximum. The attack will take place in one month. That's when the Doomsday Group is planning on releasing their biggest threat ever."

Chapter 41: Ari

The helicopter slowly came to life as we approached it. We were finally going home. No more nasty hospital smell. No more School-ish feeling. The only sad part was that Jeb had never come to see me. It really pissed me off, and I tried not to show my anger as the chopper lifted into the skies. We were all going back to the house, where Max's mom was going to stay with us. It was nice to have Max as the flock leader, but it felt even better to have an adult around. Like a mom. Besides, Nudge said that she makes some pretty awesome cookies.

I glanced at Total and Akila, who were fast asleep in the corner of the metal beast. Max was resting her head against Fang's shoulder. We all had a long, rough day, and we were all exausted. I was looking forward to a nice, long nap in the guest bedroom. Gazzy stared out the window at the mountains that wizzed by. I put my arm around Tina, who was about to fall asleep. "We could go this fast if we were just flying." She put her arm around my waist.

"I feel the same way. But Max's mom can't fly, so we have to use the same way that she would." I kissed her forhead, and she smiled a bit, closing her eyes.

Pretty soon, the chopper landed in the field in front of the house. Thankfully, it was almost night-time, so none of the neighbors would really see us. We looked up at the house. The lights were on.

"You didn't leave those on, did you?" I looked at Max, who was cautiously climbing the stairs up to the front porch.

"No . . . " Her eyes widened as I went into wolf form. "I'm not afraid to fight if someone's in there."

"His thoughts . . . " Angel ran around into the backyard, Fang following her, along with Gazzy.

Fang harshly whispered, "Angel! You don't know who it is! Get back here!"

"I do know who it is!" She ran over to the window when I leapt onto the deck. "It's Jeb!"

"Uh-Oh," Valencia unlocked the door. "You kids stay here! I'll handle this!"

We all stood on the deck, hearing her harsh talking, and Jeb's recognizable voice. "Jeb, you didn't even visit your son in the hospital!"

"I know, that's-"

"Oh, so you think it's okay to come here instead? You know how Ari-all of them-are going to be unhappy about this!"

"It's still my house."

"Then where have you been all this time?" I finally walked in, followed by the others.

Jeb's eyes widened when I went into human form. "Ari!" He ran over and hugged me, and I couldn't help but hug back. My dad was finally home.

Chapter 42: Max

Great. He was back. Again. Not that I was unhappy to see him, but . . . Okay, maybe I was. Jeb had caused too much trouble in he past. He didn't even visit Ari in the hospital. His own son. Ari stepped back, and I put a hand on Ari's shoulder. "Hello, Jeb."

"Max. It's good to see you."

"Yep. From who knows where?" I glared at him.

"I had to do some work. Helping the world and your brother to come back."

"My brother and your son." This wasn't going well.

"Gazzy, Angel, Nudge, why don't you guys go to bed?" Iggy led them towards the downstairs bedroom, Total and Akila following close behind. "It's getting late."

They followed, and so it was only me, Ari, Jeb, Mom, Fang, and Tina in the room. Ari crossed his arms over his muscular chest. "Why didn't you come and see me in the hospital?"

"I didn't get there in time. By the time I got back from the Station, you guys were gone."

"Station?" Fang stepped forward, but I held him back.

"Yes, it's where we do studies on the Earth." Jeb leaned against the wall. "The Doomsday Group has definitly messed up this place."

"This is too awkward." Tina ran upstairs into the bedroom. Ari walked out the door and onto the front porch. I glanced at Fang, who put his hand on my shoulder.

"Let's go to bed. I'm tired." He smiled as we walked towards the downstairs bedroom where the dogs and the others were. As I lay down, curled around Angel, with Fang curled around me, I couldn't help but think about what the rest of my life was like.

Chapter 43: Ari

I leaned up against the railing, staring into the dark valley. I didn't even move when the door re-opened and closed behind me. I knew who it was. Jeb. He stood to my left, doing the same thing. He sighed. "I want to talk to you about . . . All the mistakes I've made in the past."

"Oh, finally!" I glared at him. The way he treated me was really starting to piss me off. "After, what? All these years?"

"I'm just saying that I never chose for you to have a life like this-"

"Yeah, a life as a wolf-morphing mutant? That's one hell of a way to treat your own, God-Damned son."

I leapt onto the railing and spread my wings half-way, about to take off, when he grabbed my wrist. "You're still my son, and I still love you for that. Don't you ever forget it." He let go of me, and by the time I was in the air, tears were welling up in my eyes.

As I sat on one of the hills by the lake, I was constantly sniffling and wiping my eyes. And, I sadly remembered that horrible day clearly in my mind: The alarms roared to life as we sprinted down the hallway. Jeb held Max's hand, and she held mine. A loud snarl ripped behind me, I turned around to see a huge, jet-black Eraser running down the hallway after us. "Faster!" Jeb opened the door, and Max and I followed. "Just one more hallway, and then we'll all be safe."

My throat burned. I couldn't run anymore. I tripped and fell flat on my face. When I looked up, Jeb and Max were way down at the end of the hallway. "DADDY!" I screamed as I got up on my hands and knees. "DADDY! WAIT, DADDY!" I cried and cried. He had left me. He didn't care. All he cared about was perfect little Maximum, the winged girl. I was just the normal, plain seven-year-old that nobody even noticed.

The Eraser caught up, grabbing me by the throat. I was gonna die. Right here. He held me up at his height: seven feet. "Where's the girl? Where's Batchelder taking her?" He growled in my face, his hot, smelly breath making me choke, even though I couldn't breathe as it was. Even as I clawed at his huge, furry hand, he wouldn't let go. "Fine, then. If you won't talk, you'll just make a perfect little snack."

His huge mouth gaped open, but closed when someone spoke up behind him."Let him go, Marcus." A young woman with bright, blond hair walked with pride down the hallway. The dropped me on the ground, and I curled up in a scared, tiny ball. "Who are you?" She asked in a stern voice.

"A-Ari."

"Hhmm. Well, don't worry." She helped me up. "You're in good hands. You're safe here, Ari." Those were the last words that she said to me before I was Eraserfied.

I jumped as wingbeats broke the silence. Max landed beside me. "Hey."

"Hey." I wiped my eyes some more.

"You know . . . I'm not defending him, but I don't think Dad meant what he was saying." She squeezed my hand.

"What do you mean?" I stared out at the valley.

"Angel read his thoughts. All she could really get out of him was regret." Max took a deep breath. "Let's go back to the house. Tina . . . Well, everyone's worried about you."

"I bet Dad isn't."

"C'mon, Ari." Max looked at me, her brown eyes pleading. "Lighten up. It's not that bad. You know, he doesn't really like me either."

"I know, it's just . . . I really don't know." I grinned. Hey, I needed to be happy about this. I couldn't be upset about everything.

"C'mon. Let's get going." Max stood up, and I followed. We spread our wings, ready to take off. Once we were in the sky and back at the house, Dr. Martinez was waiting on the deck.

"You guys can have the upstairs bedroom if you want. I'll stay on the couch." She smiled and led us through the door. "Besides, I need to catch up on some Desperate Housewives episodes."

Max went into the downstairs bedroom where everyone else was. I ran upstairs to where Tina was. I didn't even bother to get undressed, I just took my shoes off and crawled into bed, right next to Tina. She turned around and faced me as I wrapped my arm around her. "Hey," Tina groggily said as she placed her hand on my cheek. "You okay?"

"Yeah, I'm fine." I closed my eyes as she put her arm around my waist.

"Goodnight. Love you."

"Love you, too."

Jeb finished the letter to Ari. He closed the door to his office and quietly ran upstairs where Ari was sleeping. After he placed the letter on the stand, he kissed his son's forhead, and left. Possibly, for good.

Chapter 44: Max

Jeb was gone. It didn't exactly surprise me that he was gone, again, but it made me a bit worried. Mom sat at the kitchen table, quietly eating breakfast along with Fang, Tina, and Gazzy. Iggy and Nudge were still asleep, and Angel was playing in the backyard, with the dogs. Ari was doing the laundry, and he let Tina borrow his Grim Reaper shirt. (It looked kind of funny on her, especially since it went all the way down to her knees, and the sleeves completely covered her hands. Either she was small, or Ari was just huge.) Anyway, everything was going perfectly normal until I heard a loud crash and Ari yelling.

"Holy fffff-" He remembered that there were still kids around, "Ffff-friends of mine!"

Me and my mom ran through the kitchen and into the laundry room . . . where my brother was lying in a pile of plaster. "What happened?" Mom helped him up, wiping dust and dirt off of his sweatshirt.

He coughed. "I don't know. I took a step back to get the softener-thingies, I tripped and created a giant hole in the wall."

I looked behind him. There was a hole, deep and dark, like a tunnel. As usual, my curiosity took over and I began to crawl through. "Max! What are you doing?"

"Figuring out where this place goes." The dust coated my face and hands as I stepped up and looked around. I gasped. It was a whole room! Underground. "You guys are not gonna believe this unless you see it for yourselves!"

After listening to scuffling, coughing, and muffled voices, Mom, Ari, and Tina crawled through the hole and onto the soft carpet. It was huge, with a king sized bed and a walk-in closet. It even had a TV, and the walls were painted. "What is this?" Tina ran into the closet. She poked her head out of the door. "We could stay here!"

"Extra room is always nice." Ari walked over, placing his hand on the bed.

Tina whispered in his ear. "Perfect for us."

"Oh. That doesn't sound like a bad idea."

"I love the idea of there being an extra bedroom, but how are you guys going to be able to get through to the rest of the house?" That was the only thing that puzzled me. They couldn't just crawl through the hole every single day; they would be dirty and tired.

"I'll take care of that." Ari went into wolf form and jumped right at the wall, crashing into it and creating a doorway. Dust flew up everywhere, but after it cleared, I saw Nudge, Iggy, Gazzy, and Fang staring at us through the door to the laundry room.

"Ummm . . ." To my surpise, Nudge was at a loss for words when Ari stood back up. "WTH?"

We walked out, and Tina and Mom explained everything to them. They were pretty thrilled.

Fang pulled me aside and kissed me. I stared at him, my heart pounding. "Oh, hello!"

"Hi." He laughed. Fang was about to lead me into the guest room when Angel burst in.

"AKILA'S WATER BROKE!" She ran back outside. How was that possible? Last time we took her to the vet, the doctor announced her as only being about one or two months into her pregnancy. I followed to see Akila laying on the ground, a painful snarl on her face. Her belly was at least the size of any pregnant dog's.

"Where's Total?" Fang looked behind the hottub and around the garden.

"He passed out under the deck." Angel pointed towards the front deck that looked over the mountains. Fang ran over, grabbed the black dog, and carried him into the house.

Mom came out, along with Ari, who immediatly morphed. He picked up Akila, carefully carrying her into the house. After he set her, carefully, on a pile of blankets and pillows, Mom placed her hand on the dogs belly. "Okay, she is at the right time, and . . . there's only one puppy!" WHT?

Ari's wolf ears perked up, and he immediatly began speaking in some sort of language that sounded a bit like Na'vi. Akila whined and growled, and it took me awhile to figure out that they were having a full-on conversation. "What?"

"She's really scared. I'm just calming her down."

"In Na'vi?" I figured that this really wasn't the time for jokes, but there was no bad thing about it.

Mom looked at me. "Max, get some towels, warm water, and scissors. Ari, you stay in here. Try and wake up Total." I did as she said, my adrenaline rushing as I ran into the bathroom.

"Max, what's going on?" Gazzy followed me into the bathroom.

Right then and there, I kind of went into Nudge-Talking-Mode. "Akila'."

Somehow, he understood me and ran back into the living room. Akila howled in agony, and my heart jumped in fear and sadness. In wolf-form, Ari comfortingly nudged and licked her cheek. I gave Mom the things, and she did everything that a normal veterinarian would do. I watched as Akila constantly pushed and holwed, the contractions rippling her belly. Total woke up. "Ooohh, myyy Goodd." He groggily walked over to his wife, basically pushed Ari out of the way, and did the same thing as Ari was doing.

Ari crawled over to me, staring intently at the husky. This almost scared me. "Ari, Earth to Ari."

He shook his head. "Huh? Oh, I was just thinking about what she was saying-"

After one final push, Akila gasped, and so did my mom, Ari, and I. A squirmy, slimy puppy slid out of Akila's you-know-what and onto the soft blankets. Mom let Akila chew-away the umbilical cord and lick the slime away from the new puppy. Tears welled up in Total and Akila's eyes as the little baby crawled over and began to suckle milk from it's mother.

I helped my mom up, and we walked out of the room to let the new family relax with each other. It didn't surprise me when tears of happiness and joy filled my eyes.

Chapter 45: Ari

As usual, we had a huge dinner that night: Fried chicken, corn bread, speghetti, and home-made cookies. It was great, and even Total joined. (Akila stayed with the new puppy.)

"Well, everyone. We all know about the little miracle that we were blessed with, so Akila and I have decided that we want you guys to name our child." Whoah. Us? "You guys have helped us through everything."

"What about Moonsong Stormchild?" Iggy joked and snickered, and I laughed when chocolate milk snorted out of his nose.

"What about Destiny?" Angel's eyes sparkled. "Or Celeste?"

"Or Monique?" Nudge always loved that name.

"What about something Inuit? Like the name for ice or stars?" Dr. Martinez took a sip of her red wine.

"Ooh! Ooh! I have a good one!" The Gasman practically jumped in his seat. "Claymore!"

"Gaz, it's a girl." Fang at least smiled at the idea. "What about something like . . . Halo?"

"Master Chief?" Max knew that Fang loved the game. "Or, since it's a female, Mistress Chief?"

"Okay, c'mon guys," Tina laughed, "I was thinking something simple . . . Mishka?"

I was the only one who hadn't spoken up. "Alice."

"Why?" Nudged asked, even though I could see that she loved it.

"Think about it. When she was born, it was like coming into a whole new world, like when Alice went through the rabbit hole and into Wonderland." I had actually had no idea on how or why I came up with this. "She's born into a Wonderland. For any normal dog, she would be put up for adoption. She has talking parents, a family who has wings, a life that most dogs might kill for." I rubbed the back of my neck. "I might know. I'm part dog, after all."

The room was completely silent. Everyone stared at me. "You know, Ari, that's not such a bad idea," Dr. Martinez said as she glanced around the table.

Everyone agreed. Both Max and Tina's eyes widened. "I like it." We all turned around to see Akila poking her head out of the doorway.

"You do?" I asked.

"Yeah. Everyone's ideas were great, no doubt about that, but . . . I like Ari's the best," Her ice blue eyes sparkled as she said this.

"Me too." Total's stub of a tail wagged.

"Yeah! She kind of looked like an Alice!" Nudge's eyebrows shot up like rockets. "Except she wasn't wearing the blue dress."

Everyone started chattering away about the new family member. It seems like you've officially become a member of the Flock, Ari. I jumped. Holy s**t. My Voice was back.

Chapter 46: Max

The vanilla colored moon shined down on me as I leaned up against the deck railing. I was just thinking about . . . everything. How we'd come from living in the E-shaped house in Arizona, Angel getting kidnapped, being chased down by the bigger, scarrier Ari, learning about our true identities, accidentally killing Ari in the New York subway tunnels, going to a school, leaving again, saving the world too many times, Ari dying for the second time in Germany, saving the world again, Dylan almost becoming a part of my life, and finally, ending up here. Only one month before the battle for Earth's safety, the biggest battle in our natural lives.

All of those things struck me like a universal brick, and I broke down in tears. If I didn't have wings, I wouldn't have a life like this. Then again, I wouldn't have a life like this: talking dogs, wolf-morphing-people, wings, and . . . Fang.

A hand touched my back, scaring me half to death. I expected it to be Fang, but instead it was Ari. "You okay, Max?" He said as he leaned against the railing to my right and comfortingly wrapped his arm around my shoulders.

"Y-Yeah." I wiped more tears from my eyes. "I've just been thinking about . . . everything. You know, what all our lives have boiled down to."

"Oh," Ari rubbed his eyes. "I just need someone to talk to right now."

This was weird. But hell, I was the older sibling, the role model. "About what?"

"I don't want to seem like I'm trying to be the flock leader,"Ari said as he ran his hand through his hair. "I kind of feel like I've been getting too much attention." He closed his eyes. "And I think my Voice is back."

Oh God. Just like i've had a Voice in my head, (I have no idea where it's been) Ari did, too. Jeb said that he was sometimes the Voice, and sometimes not. I always wondered who the Voice was when it wasn't Jeb. "Seriously?"

"Yeah. I'm just hoping that it won't haunt me for the rest of my freaking life. It just might, though." He snickered. "What a crazy life this is."

"Totally," I said as the back door opened.

"You comin' in or what?" Tina rubbed her arms. "It's freezing out here!"

"Uh, yeah." Ari walked fast, and I followed. Inside the house, Nudge was on the computer. Her eyes widened.

"Max, I think I found Fang in twenty years." A huge smile crept onto her face.

"Who?" I walked over and sat down next to her. Nudge enlarged to photo to . . . Synyster Gates. Yes, one of the guitarists from Avenged Sevenfold. And, she wasn't wrong. He did look like Fang! "Holy cow!"

"I know, right?" She closed her eyes. "I can see it now: You in love with the hottest guy from A7X." She laughed, and I couldn't help but laugh, too.

Ari and Tina went throught the kitchen and into the secret bedroom. I turned off the computer and followed Nudge upstairs, where Angel and Mom were already fast asleep. Fang carried a passed-out Gazzy into the downstairs bedroom. He winked at me and motioned towards the porch, and I figured it would be okay to go on a little night-flight together. Once the kids were asleep, though.

Chapter 47: Ari

Tina got out of bed and turned off the TV, leaving the room in near-total darkness, except for the light from the laundry room, which she also turned off. I playfully tugged on her tail as she walked over and closed the curtain that lead to the laundry room. "Whoa!" She laughed. "Trying to catch some tail?"

"Maybe I am," I said as she crawled over me and smiled as I wrapped my arms around her back. She kissed me and I kissed her back. After a little bit of neck-kisses and collar-bone-area-kisses, Tina was laying next to me, her tail swishing across the soft, bedspread. She rested her head on my bare chest, looking up at me with her green eyes as she gently rubbed my stomach.

I stared up at the ceiling. "What'cha thinkin' about?" Tina asked as I stroked her beautiful hair.

"Not sure." True.

"Hhmm. You wanna watch some Annoying Orange?" She pulled out her iTouch from her pocket.

"Heck yeah!" For some reason I always loved it. We laughed quietly at the horrible puns and such, and pretty soon we were both so tired that we really couldn't keep our eyes open. Tina simply threw the iPod onto the floor next to the bed, and she was asleep in my arms.

The room was silent except for our breathing, and also the occasional russle of the blankets from Tina's tail.

The curtains moved, and a little shape, about four feet tall, poked my shoulder, scaring the crap out of me. "Jesus Chri-" I saw it was Angel, and she was sniffling. "Angel, what's wrong?"

"I-I had a bad d-dream." She wiped her eyes. "Can I sleep with you guys?"

"Umm . . ." I looked over at Tina, who was fast asleep. "Sure, but where's Max?"

"I think she and Fang went flying after I fell asleep," She said as she crawled in between Tina and I. Pretty soon she was fast asleep, Tina's tail occasionally swishing and hitting her feet. Angel looked so sweet when she was asleep, even though she was always so sweet. It almost scared me to think that I chased her down for most of her life. The whole Flock, even. Those days were over.

Chapter 48: Max

The wind pushed back my hair and ran through my feathers as Fang and I soared over the valley. It was completely quiet except for the sound of the city: Cars, an outdoor concert, news helicopters, which we avoided, and our wingbeats. "You wanna go hang out in the city?" Fang pointed downward at the sparkling lights of Salt Lake City.

"Sure," I called back as we gently angled our wings in and landed behind a building in an alleyway. As we walked out onto the sidewalk, I kind of felt like everyone else that passed us. Normal. Fang slipped his hand into mine as we walked down the sidewalk, looking into all of the shop windows, the people, but one store really caught my eye: It was filled with paintings of random animals, furniture, Native American photos, and animal t-shirts. The sign above the door and the windows said Mother Nature's.

Fang looked at all of the wolf t-shirts. "You wanna go inside?"

"Why not?" I asked as I walked towards the door. It opened with a little bell-ring. A nice song played on the radio(Fiction by Avenged Sevenfold), and Fang and I hummed to the beautiful rythm. Fang looked at some skull rings in a glass case while I looked at the countless wolf posters on the wall. One really caught my eye: The silouette of a humanoid, winged wolf against the full moon. My heart skipped a beat. I ignored the poster and saw one that I really loved: A jet black wolf comfortingly licking a sad, white wolf. For some reason, it reminded me of Fang and I; I was the white wolf, and he was the black wolf.

"Max, you're gonna love this," Fang said as I turned around to see him holding a pair of earings shaped like eagle talons.

My mouth gaped open. They were beautiful. "Fang! Those are awesome!"

"Yeah. They had 'Max' written all over them." He smiled as he turned me around to a mirror. I slipped them into my earlobes. They totally said my name.

I took the box from his hands and looked at the price. Fifty-seven dollars. My stomach dropped. "Ohh."

"What?"

"These are . . . insanely expensive!"

"So? We have enough."

My mouth dropped open. "Fang! Thank you so much!" I hugged him hard. "I think we should get something for everyone. It wouldn't be fair if I got earings and they got nothing, ya know?"

"Oh, yeah. I saw something that I think Iggy would like." He pointed towards a a blanket with a side profile of a beautiful dragon. There were several of them, all in different colors, one of them tye-dye.

"I think they would all like that," I said as I walked over to the pile of blankets, running my hand over the soft fabric. "It's so soft."

Fang laughed and held up a t-shirt. "Do you think this is okay around the kids?" My eyes widened at the shirt, which said: When I die, I am going to haunt the %#$! out of you people. I couldn't help but laugh.

"No!" I hesitated. It was pretty funny. "Okay, just make sure they know it's a joke and something that they should NEVER repeat."

"Yes," Fang pulled down his fist. I smiled.

Once we were done, we had everything: My eagle earings, Fang's haunt shirt, the dragon blankets for Nudge, Tina, Iggy, and the dogs, a star necklace for my mom, a poster that had a grenade with wings for Gazzy, a stuffed lion for Angel, and my personal favorite: A dark blue sweatshirt for Ari that said: Help! I'm a wolf trapped in a human body! We stuffed the bags in my backpack and walked back down the street, my hand still in Fang's. A huge fountain loomed before us, so we leaned against the granite railing, staring at the water. I noticed something about Fang that almost scared me. "Umm, Fang?" I put my hand on his cheek. "Are you getting . . . facial hair?" I didn't think that he was going through puberty this early.

"Yeah. I noticed it yesterday. If I keep it nice and neat, and get a black and white striped guitar, I could pose as Synyster Gates!" He laughed, and I realized how much he looked like the guitarist. Nudge had obviously told him about it.

I giggled, and my eyes widened at how girly I was becoming. As usual, Fang put his hand on my cheek and kissed me. I placed my arms around his neck and kissed him back, and he put his hands on my back, pulling my against his muscular chest. We stood there, making out in public, the only sound in my ears being the roar from the fountain and our breathing. I rested my forhead against his, just staring into his mysterious, dark eyes.

Once I got back into bed with Angel and Nudge, a dream came to me right away: Fang and I were laying on a huge, grassy hill. It certainly looked like we had gone twenty years into the future; Fang's hair was still jet black, and spiked, but he had a bit more stubble on his chin, and tattoos covered his arms. Why does he look like him? I thought. My hand was in his, and he just looked so . . . happy. And I looked like an adult. Longer hair, and I just felt older. "Umm, Max." I looked over at him as he said this and stood up. I followed, and I put both my hands in his. He reached into his pocket, bent down on one knee and pulled out that familiar, velvet box from the movies. He opened it up to reveal a gorgeos, white diamond ring. "Maximum Ride, will you marry me?" OMG. Fang and I together? Forever?

"Hell yes." That was the right answer. Tears filled my eyes as he smiled, stood back up, and slipped the ring onto my finger, smoothed my hair from my face, and kissed me.

I woke up. It wasn't a bad dream . . . but, I almost wanted it to happen.

Chapter 49: Ari

I was somewhat relieved when Angel went back to bed with Nudge and Max, but only because she wouldn't stop kicking me in the back. I was sure that I had bruises, but that's what comes with cuteness. The morning came quickly as Total ran in. "Iggy's making SCONES!" He barked with excitement as Tina crawled out of the bed.

"Aw, sweet!" I jumped out of bed and right into the kitchen where Gazzy grabbed two and ran into the living room. I picked one up, taking a huge bite out of it. I was starving, and they were pretty damn tasty. Max walked down and grabbed one, immediatly taking a bite out of it.

"Dang, Iggy!" She said as Fang grabbed one. "These are so freaking good!"

"Heheh, thanks Max," He said as he grabbed one for himself and sat at the kitchen table.

Akila wobbled in, carrying Alice by the scruff of her little neck. The puppy's eyes were still closed, but Akila still brought her in and set her on the blanket in the corner, sitting over her daughter. I couldn't help but walk over and stare at the little baby. She looked alot like Total, but with a white underbelly, and light gray paws. "She's so cute!"

"Thanks." Akila confidentally licked her little head as Alice squealed with happiness and moved her head around.

"When do you think she'll be walking and stuff?" Gazzy asked as he sat down on the couch. I got up and grabbed the milk from the fridge and grabbed a glass from the cabinet. Dr. Martinez groggily walked in, pouring her coffee and leaning against the counter-top.

"Morning, everyone," She said as Alice squealed and whined some more. "Akila, did Alice suckle yet?"

"Last night," Akila yawned as she layed down next to Alice. "I tried feeding her some more this morning, but she just wasn't really-" She stopped as Alice crawled over and quickly latched onto one of her mother's teets.

"AAAWWW!" Nudge looked fascinated at the new family member. "That's so cute!"

Akila grinned and lay her head down. Total walked over and curled up next to her.

Tina poured some coffee for herself as I guzzled my milk and put it back in the fridge. Something came across me for no apparent reason. "I was thinking I could go hunting today."

"You mean with guns?" Gazzy asked.

"No. Raw hunting." I growled softly when I thought about deer steaks and jerky.

"Ew," Nudge widened her eyes and said this, "You mean like the kind of hunting on Animal Planet?"

"Yeah, but I like to think of myself as a one-man wolf pack."

"Nice Hangover reference," Iggy said as he plopped down on the couch with his iPod.

I thought that early in the morning would be a good time to leave, so I showered, got dressed, and was about leave when Max decided to come with. "It'll be fun. Sibling bonding," She said as I morphed into a wolf and spread my wings, ready to take off from the porch railing.

Chapter 48: Max

The mountains loomed before us as we headed for the foothills. Ari figured it would be the best place, since there were all kinds of deer trails, footprints, and at night, armies of deer ate by the road. I just watched my brother flying, his wings almost twice the size of mine. The wind was so strong that it pushed me back. "Ari! Wait!" I hovered in the air until he turned around.

"Having trouble?" He grinned, seeing how easy it was for him. "You can ride on my back. Like a dragon."

"I don't think so. I've never been on a dragon. Or seen one, at that."

"C'mon. It might feel awkward, but it's fun. Tina was on my back most of the time." He angled under me, ready to catch me once I dropped. "She crashed into a tree, and her wings were all torn up."

I struggled with the strong wind, trying to prove that I would be fine. Mother Nature won once I fell onto his furry, muscular back. He beat his wings harder to keep us both up, and was soon going at least one-hundred miles an hour over the land. I knew what it was like to fly, but when you're not using your own wing power (If you have wings), or in an airplane, it's totally different. I was a bit scared, but it was also fun, like he said. Ari even started to do a barrel roll, but I grabbed the scruff of his neck before he could even turn. "Don't you even dare."

"Alright, Ms. No-Fun-Allowed-In-America." He dropped towards a clump of trees and landed on the soft ground. I slid off his back, wobbly from not using my own wing power and from how fast he was going. Ari's nose immediatly stuck up in the air, twitching as he caught a scent. "Get up in the trees and follow me." He leapt with ease onto a branch using his long claws. I went after him, using my wings and hands to balance as we leapt from branch to branch, right until we saw a huge deer nibbling on the long grass. I sat next to my brother on the branch.

The deer was giant, and was definitly an eleven-pointer, every hunter's dream. He was gonna be Ari's prize, today. I watched Ari crouch, his tail eagerly twitching back and forth. He fell onto the deer with a loud roar, burrying his wolf-teeth into its neck. His head shook as the animal struggled to get away. It scared me. I covered my mouth, my eyes as big as the moon. Once the deer was dead, Ari licked his muzzle, looking up at me. "Max? What's wrong?"

I was scared. I didn't realize how powerful and dangerous my brother could be. Remember, Max. He who makes a beast out of himself, gets rid of the the pain of being a man. Oh, God. The Voice was back.

That month went by so fast. We some of the deer for dinner, and then we saved it. Alice began to walk, and I wasn't all that surprised to see that she was born with wings. She even got stuck in a tree one day while Ari was playing with her in the backyard. "I'm not coming down! It's too scary!" She said as Ari morphed into a wolf.

"Fine." Ari climbed the tree and onto the same branch that Alice was on. He reached for her, but she was too far. I watched as the branch wobbled under him as he tried to move closer.

Alice lost her balance, but right before she could fall Ari grabbed her by the scruff of her neck . . . with his teeth. "AAHH!" She screamed as he climbed down. "Let go of me!"

He set her on the ground and morphed back into a human, standing back up. "You're welcome."

"Thanks." Alice ran back in.

Not just that, but everyday I was reminded of the looming war. Helicopters soared over our house, along with F-16's and all kinds of other fighter jets. "Those are legal?" Tina stared out the window as a whole fleet of F-16's zoomed in the air above.

"They can," Fang said as he doodled on some paper. "It's the Air Force, you know."

Chapter 49: Ari

I couldn't believe that that battle was tomorrow. The month had gone by so fast. Too fast. Earlier, we just messed around at the house. Nudge found a camera, so she was taking pics of everyone. I took one pick where Iggy somehow managed to stick his whole entier head in my wolf-mouth. And, a video of Tina rubbing my belly, while I was in wolf form. At night, the whole flock, including Tina and I, went on a night-flight. The moon glowed around us as we performed dives, loops, and rolls. It's like we were all on sugar rushes; but it might just be the last night of our lives. Tina looked gorgeos; she let her red hair out of the ponytail, borrowed one of Nudge's fashionable shirts (A big t-shirt with a pineapple on the front, with a wide neck, letting her right shoulder to be exposed), and applied tons of make-up. I promised her that once we were done flying for the night, I would take her to the city for a little date.

We soared over the mountains as the kids cheered. It was getting a bit late, so I called Tina over. "Max, we're gonna get going!"

"Okay, Ari!" She smiled as Tina and I began to turn around. "Have fun!"

I smiled as Tina and I glided towards the city. We landed behind a movie theater, which was perfect, because we were going to see Paranormal Activity 2. It was a really cool movie, and Tina loved it, even though most of the time she had her head buried in my shoulder.

We walked down the sidewalk, Tina's hand in mine. People casually passed by us. Most of them didn't even know that the world could end tomorrow. I was going to have to fight like hell to keep Earth safe. Anyway, Tina and I, without anyone seeing, flew up to the top of a huge skyscraper, looking down at the city below. I just held her in my arms, our bodies pressed against one another as we stood by the railing. Tina's arms were around my neck, and we just stood there, kissing and saying sweet nothings.

I looked up at the moon, the occasional bird-kid passing by as a tiny, black speck. Pretty soon, none of them passed by, and so the flock had obviously gone home. "Let's get going, too, Ari. I had a great time, though." Tina smiled and disconnected from me, loosely spreading her wings. I followed as we headed back to the house.

It was completely silent, except for snoring. Max's mom had decided to crash on the couch, and she specifically said that some of the flock could have the upstairs bedroom. I started to walk up when Tina grabbed my hand and stood on the same step. "I was thinking, Ari," Tina said this as her tail constantly hit the wood railing. "Tonight could be the last night of our lives. We might not see each other again." She bit her bottom lip, then looked up at me and smiled. "Why don't we make this a night to remember forever?"

I knew what she meant, and I wanted to, also. "Hell yeah." I smiled and ran up the stairs as she followed me. Once we opened the door, I tore off my shirt and leapt onto the bed. Tina followed, immediatly kissed me and she pulled off her shirt. We flipped over, and this time I was on top of Tina. She discarded her pants as I kissed her, and I did the same. Our breathing became fast, my heart pounding like a drum. I pulled her up onto my waist in a sitting position, her arms around my neck. Everything was great about Tina: Her beautiful face, her red hair, her hour-glass body, her soft skin, and her gentle touch. I kissed her and kissed her, and Tina did the same. Protection, Ari. The Voice rang in my head.

Shut up. Leave me alone. Tina kissed my forhead over and over, taking my thoughts away from my Voice. And that was when the true love-making began.

When we were done, Tina and I just layed on the bed, a little damp with sweat, and just in love. She had her hand on my chest, looking up at me with her bright green eyes. (I thought it would be funny to start singing, or at least humming, I Just Had Sex, but I wasn't sure if she would laugh or it would ruin the moment) "I can't believe the battle's tomorrow," Tina said.

"I know." I sighed, staring at the slow-moving, wooden fan above us.

"I was thinking . . ." Tina's tail thumped on the bedspread. "If we win, which we will, what if we go back to the warehouse?"

"What for?"

"Well, this is THE flock. The origional one. I feel like we're not really . . . meant for them." She yawned. "I don't want to sound selfish, but we could go there by ourselves. You know, be away from . . . regular people. Live in peace. Maybe start a family."

I kind of saw what she meant. "I see what you mean. I kind of agree."

I glanced over at the clock. Ten-forty. "It's getting late. We have a huge day tomorrow."

Tina flipped around, and I put my arm around her damp body. Just like the old-ish days.

About two hours later, I woke up, not being able to sleep. Something wasn't right. Then, I figured it out: I was scared. The fate of the world was in our hands. I got out of bed, glancing at Tina, who was out cold. I picked up my iTouch, activating the forward facing camera. This was going to be my goodbye to everyone. I pressed record button. "Hey guys. You know, I can't really think of anything to say except for . . . goodbye, I guess. The battle is tomorrow, and I'm going up against Alicia, that crazy chick who was chasing me in the first place. Anyway, I just wanted to say 'bye. Gazzy, Angel, Nudge, Iggy, I didn't really get you know you guys, and now I regret that. Fang, good luck with Max. Even on the hunting trip she had kind of a sharp tongue." I snickered, wondering if that was a good idea to say that. "Valencia, the whole time I was here, you were like the mom I never had. Thanks." I sat down on the bed. "Max, I loved how you helped me with everything. I mean, talk about the best big sister ever! Akila, Total, I hope you guys stay safe. And Alice, I'm gonna miss you, too. Just stay out of that tree. And Tina, I love you more than anything. I've never met anyone like you. So . . . to everyone: Good luck, goodbye, and goodnight."

Chapter 50: Max

The next morning, I think we might have had a little too much fun. Why?

1) Tina woke up in Ari's shirt.

2) Fang and Iggy were spooning.

Everyone was running around, getting ready as fast as they possibly could, right while Fang and I brought out the presents. I just set them around in the living room, and everyone stopped. Gazzy picked up his. "This has my name on it!" He tore it open and pulled out the grenade poster. "COOL! Thanks so much Max! And Fang!"

"You're welcome." Everyone else sat down, picking up their own little wrapped gifts. Iggy, Tina, the dogs, and Nudge loved their blankets, which put a huge smile on my face. Ari laughed at this sweatshirt. "Awesome," He said. Angel loved her lion, but I just hoped she wouldn't get attached to it like she did to Celeste, her angel teddy bear.

Mom's mouth gaped open at the star necklace. "Max, that's beautiful! Thank you!"

"You're welcome, Mom."

I watched as Fang pulled on his haunt shirt, and everyone laughed. The news was on, and the president was giving a speech. "My fellow Americans. This impending doom on, not just our whole country, but the whole planet itself. We have the Air Force, the Armed forces getting ready to fight tonight. They are also part of a special army with soldiers unlike ever before. We can't tell you about them, but we can tell you that they have done good to the world before. I promise that they will keep us safe." Everyone in the room clapped. Tina and Ari walked into the kitchen, and I glanced at Angel. What's wrong, sweetie?

Max, you know the upstairs bedroom, right?

Yeah. What about it.

We might have to burn those bedsheets.

I looked at Mom just as the chopper landed in the field. General Mason jumped out as I walked onto the deck. "You kids ready to save Earth?"

More than that. I thought as everyone followed. "Yep. We can fly, by ourselves, to the base."

"No. You need to save your energy." He stood by the metal beast. "Hurry. DG is gonna set off the One Light in four hours."

Oh God. I stood there. Why didn't he tell us?

Everyone spread their wings; Ari went into wolf form. "WAIT! I can fight!" Alice ran out. "See?" She grabbed Ari's tail with her teeth.

"Ow! Stop it!" He spun around when Alice finally let go.

"Alice, honey," Mom walked out and picked the little dog up. "You can't go. You're too young."

"Aw, man!" Total's daughter flew into the upstairs window.

Mom came over, giving each of us hugs. I hugged her back the hardest. "I love you, Mom."

"I love you too, Max."

We glided off the roof and into the field where the helicopter sat. As we climbed in, I looked at the house. I might never see it again.

Chapter 51: Ari

The base was in a turmoil. Soldiers loaded missiles onto the choppers, checking the turrets and making sure that the blades on the helicopters were nice and greased. As we landed, I looked over at the main hanger. The doors opened to reveal a massive, airplane-like ship that took up half of the base. I stared as it crawled out, multiple people holding orange glow sticks to guide it. That was when I realized how fast the sun was setting.

The flock got out of the chopper, and General Mason directed us towards the ship. "That's the DeathBat. It's going to drop you, along with the thousands of other Erasers and mutants, off at the drop-site."

"Where are the Era-" Gazzy's eyes widened as a dark mass loomed over the mountains. "Oh."

My heart thudded in my chest. How many mutants were there in the world? The ones that were flying landed near the DeathBat, and the ones that didn't, well, they ran out of the mountains. By the time Tina, me, and the flock made it to the DeathBat, everyone was inside. The other, regular soldiers were taking the helicopters, F-16's, and other forms of transportation.

Inside, the DeathBat was just like any other bomber: Metal walls, chairs, and a room with medical equipment. I sat by the door. Tina was next to me, and I held her hand as the DeathBat lifted. Most of the mutants were around Max's age, and I even saw some of them were around my age. The age that I looked, at least.

A loud voice boomed over the loudspeakers: "Reaching drop-zone in ten minutes. Get ready, people."

I unbuckled my seat belt and watched as the metal doors opened with a loud hiss. Wind rushed through, and so did the mutants. They spread their wings and dove, Erasers roaring and kids yelling war cries. I watched as Nudge kissed Iggy before they fell, wings outstretched. "You ready?" I looked at Tina. We were the last ones.

"Roll out," Tina yelled as she ran towards the door, stretched out her wings, and fell. I soon followed.

Chapter 52: Max

Mayhem. Blood. Bullets. Screams. Roars. Explosions. Hope. Those were the only words running through my mind as we dove towards the Doomsday Groups' base. It loomed before us like death itself. Alarms in guard towers went off as the first few mutants landed on the roof and the ground below. The building was just like the Itex tower, but with the One Light on top. What is the One Light, you ask? The scariest thing I'd seen once I dove out of the DeathBat; A huge, ice-blue, glowing orb sitting in a throne of metal. It pulsed and twisted like oil in a puddle, scientists running from the kids that chased them away. I saw Ari dive and land on a dark brown Erasae. Alicia. Once I hit the roof, I kind of multi-tasked. Punching and kicking bad Erasers and mutants, all while watching Ari fight her in a tangle of fur, claws, teeth, wings, and hatred. Fang landed behind me, drop-kicking an Erasae in the stomach before she could grab my ankles.

"Thanks."

"No problem, Max."

The One Light grew to an even bigger size. A helicopter swooped by, firing a missile into a radio tower that rained down fire and shrapnel. I glanced at Ari. Alicia grabbed his face and threw him to the ground. That was it. I snatched up a metal pipe, running over, leaping over fallen soldiers. Before Alicia could deliver the final blow to his jugular, I smacked her in the head with the pipe, saying a word everytime, and everytime, she took several steps back. "Stay." Clang, yelp. "Away." Clang, yelp. "From." Clang, yelp. "My." Clang, yelp. "BROTHER!" Instead of a clang and a yelp, I shoved the metal pipe through her belly, blood spraying everywhere, even dripping out of her mouth.

She collapsed to her knees, staring up at Ari. "You stupid. You c-could have been a l-leader."

Alicia began to fall back over the side of the building. But Ari saw the fear in her eyes, and he grabbed her wrist. "I'm sorry," He whispered to her before she fell to her death.

A guy with a lion's face pounced on Ari, but he easily kicked him off. "MAX!" He screamed as he pointed towards the One Light. "Forget about me! Press the red button and kill the One Light! SAVE THE WORLD!"

I beat my wings, ran towards the blue orb, and hit the button. It was like a shockwave. Wind rushed as it exploded, and dust flew up everywhere. I was knocked off the building, but soon spread my wings and glided towards the ground, where everyone gathered around . . . Fang!

No! No! He couldn't be! Dead? Tears filled my eyes as I landed beside him. I shook his shoulders. "FANG! WAKE UP! PLEASE!"

"The medics are on there w-" I pushed away the soldier who put his hand on my shoulder.

I was going to have to try more options. I kissed him. Everyone gasped. Fang's eyes fluttered open. "Max. Are we dead?"

"No. I . . . I saved the world."

Chapter 53: Ari

Thankfully, I suffered only minor scratches and cuts. Sadly, I regained the scar that went down my right eye, but I was cool with it. It made me look kind of tough. I sat on a bed in the hallway as the nurse cleaned me up. "Alright, Ari. You're all good to go."

"Thanks," I said as I got off the table. Max walked over.

"How you feeling?" She wiped tears from her eyes. Valencia came to the army base and gave her horrible news: Ella died in the battle.

"Fine. I'm so sorry about . . . Ella," I said as I comfortingly rubbed her back.

Max all of a sudden broke down in tears, and I put her in a big hug. "She would have loved you, Ari." Max cried even harder, and I knew how hard this was on her. Tears were threatening to well up in my eyes, too.

"Max!" I looked up as a tall, blonde teenager ran down from the end of the hallway.

"Dylan!" Max looked and took a step back. "No. Leave me alone!"

"C'mon, Max!" He tried to take a step forward, but she pushed him away.

"No, Dylan. Go. You've cause WAY too much tr-"

I stepped in between them. "Whoa, buddy." He put his hands up. "You don't want to do that!"

"You threatening to fight me? I dare you."

Max moved in front of me, putting both of her hands on my stomach to try and push my away. "Knock it off! Both of you!"

"Fine. I'll leave you and your huge boyfriend to live in peace."

"Ari is NOT my boyfriend!" Max blushed as Dylan walked away. "He's my brother!"

I couldn't help but laugh. "Boyfriend? Doesn't he know about Fang?"

Max sighed. "Jesus Christ. Let's go get some dinner. I'm starving."

Chapter 54: Max

It was good to get home, a month later. Sadly, we had to stay at the base for awhile to take care of some things.

It was even better knowing that we wouldn't have to fight for Earth's safety, again. Pride filled me as Mom and the dogs ran out, greeting us with hugs. "Oh, My God, Max! You did it!"

"Thanks! Finally! No more fighting."

"Yeah! She was a pretty good fighter!" Angel skipped into the house, Total following her like . . . well, like a lapdog.

"Max," Tina looked nervous, her arms crossed over her chest. "I need to talk to you."

The others turned around. "Alone." Everyone walked back into the house.

"What is it?" Uh-Oh. Tina was looking extremely nervous and agitated.

"The nurses did some tests while they were checking me, you know. And they found out that I'm . . ." I was scared that she was gonna say something like cancer or lactose intolerant. "Umm . . . I'm pregnant."

Whoa. This really turned the tables. "Oh." I didn't exactly know what to say, even though I knew who the father was. Ari.

"And I'm just scared that Ari's gonna be mad or something."

"What? He won't be mad. I promise that he'll be happy for you!" I was totally being serious.

"Could you tell him to come out here?" Tina rubbed the back of her neck.

I ran to the back door and opened it. "Ari? Tina wants to talk to you."

Chapter 55: Ari

I got up when Max called my name. I ran over to Tina, almost tripping over. Once I righted myself, I stood, looked down at her just a tiny bit. "What is it?"

"I don't really know how to put this, but . . . I'm pregnant." Oh, my God. It was just like that dream. That's probably why the Voice was telling me to use protection. "I'm sorry." Tina ran her hand through her hair.

"No, don't be sorry." I hugged her as she began to cry. "We're gonna raise this baby right. Just like any other family. I promise."

That was a promise that was NEVER going to be forgotten.

Part 2: Seize the Day (Seven months later)

The president looked at the files spread out on the desk. He couldn't believe it. General Mason had sent in tons of soldiers, and a group-no, an army of hybrid children- had saved the world. Maximum Ride, in particular. This world was never going to be the same.

Chapter 56: Max

Ever since the battle, life was totally different: Mutant kids weren't seen as, well, mutants, so they could go out in public as they pleased without being chased down. The place where the Doomsday Group's base used to be was torn down and a school for people like us was to be built in it's place. I didn't think it was a good idea, but Iggy joked, wondering if Charles Xsavier was going to be the principal. And the biggest one: Tina, Iggy's sister and Ari's girlfriend, was pregnant with Ari's child.

I didn't exactly think like anything like that could happen, and it especially surprised me that it did. Mom even said that they made Ari look normal so that if something happened to the general population, he and other kids like us would have to repopulate. Now, he was gonna be a father. And, Tina was always having false alarms, so everyone was on high alert.

The other bad thing is that Fang is really starting to look like an adult. Synsyter Gates, in particular. I hoped it wasn't some sort of super-aging thing, or like an expiration date.

I sat on the couch, while Fang was passed out on the lazy-boy, thinking about all of this, at about ten o'clock at night. I always did things like this: Sit around when I couldn't sleep, and wait for some sort of miracle to happen. And, one did.

Tina went into the bathroom downstairs. I heard her peeing,(The house can get disturbingly quiet at night) and then I heard her gasp. She knew I was awake. "MAX!"

My heart and stomach jumped. I ran into the bathroom to see Tina holding her round belly, with one hand on the wall. "I think my water just broke!"

Oh, crap. I was no expert in midwifery. Not even a doctor, either. "Are you sure it's not a false alarm?"

"Hell no. This is for real," Tina said as I helped her into the living room and sat her down on the couch.

I ran upstairs to get my mom. I opened the door to see her already sitting up in bed. "I heard Tina. Is everything all right?"

"No. The baby's coming."

"Uh-Oh." Mom pulled on a sweatshirt and followed me downstairs.

Fang was awake, holding her hand as she breathed fast. Ari soon ran in, pulling up his pants as he did. "Oh, God. You okay?"

"No. The baby's coming, if you didn't hear my scream," Tina said as she weakly smiled, then grimaced as a contraction ripped through her body. Mom carefully moved her into their bedroom.

"Max, you know what to do." Mom positioned herself in front of Tina as I got up, and I got the usual things. Ari ran to get something, until he passed out on the floor with a loud thump.

"Whoa!" Nudge ran in, immediatly rolling Ari over as Tina began to push. "Wake up, buddy! You're not gonna want to miss this!"

She gently slapped his cheek several times; Iggy poked his head out of the door, along with everyone else. "What's going on?"

"Tina's water broke and now the baby's coming," Mom said as Tina kept on pushing. "Just stay in there. It'll make everything much easier."

He closed the door as I helped Nudge wake up Ari. "C'mon, Ari!" I yelled as Nudge ran into the kitchen, grabbed a glass of water, and dumped it all over his face.

"AAHH!" He yelled and sat up, wiping his face. "What the-"

The sound of a baby crying widened my eyes. I looked over to see Mom holding a slimy, tiny baby. "It's a girl! Congrats!" I couldn't believe it. Mom wrapped her in a towel and handed her to Tina. Fang moved away, Ari taking his place next to his new daughter.

Chapter 57: Ari

I couldn't believe it, just like Max. I was a father, now. The-my-little baby eventually stopped crying, and was moving her little head around.

I moved closer, Tina handing her to me. As I held her, a happy, warm feeling spread through my body. The baby smiled a bit, making Tina and I smile, too. It was great, except for one thing: A flashback of what happened three months ago, prior to this.

Everything was in complete detail as I remembered it. Jeb had really gone missing this time, and I figured I should go and rescue him. He was my dad, after all.

That horrible night. I remembered every single thing. I had waken up, a cold sweat all over me. Something wasn't right. Jeb said he had gone to the Station, and I even figured it out from the files that I stole from the Institute for Experiments. I jumped out of bed, got dressed, and kissed Tina's head before I left.

As I ran downstairs and was about to open the back door when Angel ran in front of me. I stared at her, dumbstruck. "Angel! What are you doing? Get back to bed!"

"I'm going with you," She said when I noticed that she was fully dressed. "I know that you're going to rescue Jeb. I can help. You know what I can do."

I knew all too well; Angel once nearly made me choke in New York. "No. Max is going to kill me if she finds out that I let you go on a mission with me." I saw her begin to squint her eyes. "Don't you even dare use your mind-tricks."

Angel stopped. "If you don't let me go with you, then I'm going to tell everyone every single thought that have been going through your head." She smirked. "Every. Single. One."

Crap. She knew me all too well. "Fine. But we're not flying," I said as I opened the back door, morphing into wolf form. "We're going to have to run. It's much safer. Have you ever ridden a horse?"

"No. Not that I can remember."

"Well then, you're gonna learn pretty fast."

As I sped through the forest on all four legs, I couldn't tell if Angel was scared, or having fun. She gasped everytime I leapt over a log, or took a sharp turn. Pretty soon, we were at the Station.

Only several of the lights were on, and the guard towers were completely empty. "Where is everyone?" I asked as Angel jumped off my back. I stood up.

"The only thoughts I can get are from some woman. Everyone else is gone." Angel gasped. "She's holding Jeb hostage!"

"Let's go." Angel got right onto my back. I spread my wings, pushing off the ground, high in the air by the time I dove through one of the open windows.

I landed on the cold lenoleum floor with several scratching noises. The place was dead silent. The smell of blood giving me chills. Please tell me we're not too late! I thought as I stood back on two legs, poking my head out of the door and looking down the hallway. Nothing. Nobody.

"Can you read Jeb's thoughts?" I asked Angel as she confidently stepped out into the hallway.

"Yeah . . . He's down this way!" She ran, and I followed, my heart pounding in my chest.

Pretty soon we came to a huge door. Angel began to push on it, without succeeding. "Hello?" Jeb's voice came from inside.

"Dad!" I pushed on the door, and it opened with a loud creak.

Inside, Jeb jumped up. "Ari!" He hugged me. "We need to get the hell out of here!" He ran out, Angel and I following.

As we reached the end of the hallway, I saw an open door, leading outside. But someone interfered with out plans. "Batchelder!" We both spun around to see a tall, blonde woman pointing a gun. It was the Director! I grabbed Angel, turned her back to the woman, and held to her close to my chest when the gun went off. I expected pain to shoot through my back. But no. Nothing. That meant . . . NO! I let go of Angel to see Jeb on the ground in a crumpled heap. Blood poured from his chest. No! This couldn't be happening! I heard the gun clicking. The Director was out of bullets. "Dammit!" She frustratingly yelled, throwing the weapon on the ground.

I ran over. Jeb weakly grabbed my shoulders. I looked at Angel. "Get out of here! Go!" She ran, spreading her wings and taking off into the night air.

"Ari,r-remember what I s-said," Jeb weased as his eyes closed one final time. He was dead. My dad was dead. Tears streamed from my eyes. I felt like the Director had ripped my heart out of my chest, dumped salt all over it, and stepped on it.

"Don't waste your time Ari." The Director glared at me.

"HE WAS MY FATHER!" I was pissed and sad at the same time. Since I was in wolf form, the fur stood on the back of my neck and shoulders.

"Your father?" She mockingly laughed. "He let the others turn you into a heartless monster. You father was a worthless piece of sh-"

That was it. I roared and pounced, grabbing her ankles with my teeth, throwing her against the wall. She fell to the ground with a satisfying smack, screaming for fear of her life. The Director tried to crawl away, but I scratched and clawed at her back until her spinal cord was exposed. Blood was everywhere, and there was going to be a lot more once I was done with her. I bit into her spine, pulling upward until I heard that satisfying snap and even louder screams.

I flipped her over, and I could see the fear and confusion in her eyes. I didn't care. I bit into her neck, the blood rushing into my mouth. Then, while she bled to death on the floor, I scratched and bit at her torso until her organs were exposed.

I stood there, staring at her lifeless body. Then, I snapped out of it. It was like I was in a coma; I wasn't thinking about what I had done. I killed . . . No, I destroyed her. I stood up, beginning to cry. I tried to run away, but instead slipped and fell over on the blood. I didn't want to move. What've I done? I crawled over, laying my head on Jeb's lifeless body. I had become a monster.

Chapter 58: Max

I could tell what Ari was thinking about, and I remembered it, too.

Angel burst in, making everyone sit up in bed. "Max!"

"Angel! Where were you?"

"Ari was going to get Jeb, and . . . The Director shot him!" She began to cry, and I hugged her.

"Who got shot?" Tina ran in, her hand on her slightly round belly. Fear for her boyfriend was in her eyes.

"Jeb. Ari just told me to go."

My heart thudded in my chest. Tears welled in my eyes, but I tried not to show it. "Let's go."

We beat our wings as hard as we could as we reached the building. The lights were on, at least some of them. "This way!" Angel dove down through an open window, and we all followed. She starting to run out of the room, but I grabbed her shoulder, and walked into the hallway. To the left, there was nothing but an open door. But to the right was the scariest scene I had ever seen in my life: Jeb's lifeless body, the Director's mauled body, And my younger brother, Ari, covered in blood. I ran over. "Ari!"

He was crying. I reached out my hand, but Fang grabbed my wrist before I could. "Don't. You don't know what he could do to you!"

"Fang! He's my brother!"

"Max?" Ari glanced at me, his brown eyes almost telling everything that happened.

"Ari-"

"No. Go away, Max," He covered his face with his blood covered arm. "I don't want you to see me like this."

I began to sob. I was on my knees in my father's puddle of blood. My dad. He never seemed like it, but . . . still. And I saw that just because Ari had the looks/thoughts/attitude of an adult, he was still a weak, little kid on the inside. I got up and walked back to the others, disbelief in their eyes.

Chapter 59: Ari

Tina sprinted over. "Oh, my God! Ari!" She put her arms around my neck. I stood up and hugged her back. "I'm so happy you're okay!" Tina put her hand on my cheek. "I'm really sorry about your dad."

"Yeah," I sighed. "That's okay."

Tina looked down at the bloody ground. "Ari, we need to get out of here." She put one of my bloody hands on her belly. "For us and the flock. For our baby." Jesus Christ! It was just like that dream I had!

"I know," I said as I glanced over at the rest of the flock, who looked like they were just about ready to crap themselves.

We flew completely silent back on the way home, Tina riding on my back. When we got back to the house, Dr. Martinez stared at me. Then, she hugged me. "Thank God you're safe, Ari!"

I took a shower, in wolf form, before going to bed; It was like those classic murder movies where the killer cleans his victim's blood off of him. That's extactly what I was doing, and I was the killer.

A knock on the door took me out of my thoughts. "What?" I asked.

"It's me Max. I just want to talk to you." Uh-Oh. I hoped she wouldn't see me naked. I figured that the glass was too foggy, but I still wrapped my tail around my waist.

"Oh." I angled my ears towards the sound of her voice.

"Umm . . . You know, I would do the same if I were you."

"What? Rip the Director to shreds?"

"No. I would get my revenge. I would still do something," Max sighed. "Fang and I got into kind of a big argument. He kept thinking that you were going back to your . . . old ways. I told him that it was just self defence."

"Yeah. I still feal like a murderer."

"I know. I've felt the same way," She said, and then I remembered what she meant: Max accidentally killed me in the New York subway tunnels. "Even though you're here, safe with us, I still really can't forgive myself. You're my little bro, after all."

That made me smile. I poked my head out from behind the shower curtain."Thanks, sis."

"No problemo." Max got up from the toilet, smiling. "I need to go to bed. Goodnight, Ari."

"'Night, Maxy."

Chapter 60: Max

Maxy. Why did that sound so familiar? No one ever called me Maxy except . . . Oh God. It snapped right into my head: When Jeb and Ari came to see me at the School, Ari would always call me Maxy instead of Maximum, since he couldn't pronounce it. I put my hands over my mouth, shocked. Had he really thought of me as a sibling before? And, how could he have remembered?

It made me just . . . so happy. Tears welled up in my eyes. "Max? Are you okay?" Gazzy looked up at me.

"Oh, yeah. I'm fine, Gaz." I tousled his hair. "C'mon. Let's go to bed."

Chapter 61: Ari

I snapped out of my thoughts.

"What should we name her?" Tina asked as everyone left the room.

I handed the baby back to her. "Hhmm," I said, looking at the baby, who was fast asleep, ready to be fed with Tina's milk when she woke up. "She kind of looks like an . . . Annalise?"

"What about . . . Annabell?"

"Perfect! What about a middle name?" Something popped in my head that I didn't exactly think about. "Larisse?"

"Where did that come from? I like it." Tina stared down and smiled at little Annabell Larisse Batchelder. Our daughter.

Life was pretty normal after that. The years sped by; Seventeen years didn't seem like a lot, but it really took a toll whenever we would visit Max and the others. (Tina and I moved back to the warehouse). Annabell had similar abilities as Tina and I, and she was an Eraser. Not like me, but she would turn into a dark-gray, humanoid lion whenever she took form. But I knew one thing. Even if the world was safe, or if we were all a bunch of mutant freaks, life was still going to be normal. In the words of Rob Thomas: Hell, maybe someday, we'll figure all this out. We'll try to put an end to all our doubt. Try to find a way to make things better now.

Epilogue: Max

Tappa-tappa-tappa. The sound of Fang on his laptop annoyed me a bit, but it gave me pride in my husband. Yep, Fang and I were married now. I couldn't believe how far we'd come: Scared, fight-for-your-life bird kids, to going in our own directions. Nudge and Iggy moved out to go to college together to study the human brain and how it worked, or something like that. (I wasn't surprised that she didn't do something like fashion, but she promised that she would do something to change the "look of tomorrow"). Ari and Tina moved out to the warehouse a couple of years after Annabell was born. Gazzy and Angel were staying with my mom in Arizona, where they were performing in air shows, going to schools to talk about pollution, and Angel was making a bit of extra cash by performing magic tricks in Pheonix. Total and Akila stayed with us, until they died of old age. It was a heartbreaking time for all of us, especially for Alice and Angel. So, Alice left and joined the SWAT to become a bomb/drug sniffing drug. So far, since she joined, she had gotten four terrorists arrested and seven crack-houses cleared out.

Fang and I stayed at the house. It seemed like a lightyear, even though it was only seventeen. We had gotten several offers from movie and TV companies, but one offer really caught our eyes: A publisher called Howe and Demoint. Fang had a laptop, and we all had a life story. He was going to work on a book about the whole flock. A biography.

I lounged on the couch, watching TV, the sound of him typing like a backround noise. Everyone looked so different over the years, but the biggest change was Fang. He really did look like Synyster Gates a little bit, but he still looked like the Fang I loved. He didn't play guitar, he wasn't in a world-famous rock band, but he had wings. It was good enough for me.

Our wedding had a bit of a twist to it. We had the classic ceremony, but in regular clothes. Why? Fang and I were going to do a stunt that was possibly the most dangerous one in our lives: Dragon-Dive. It's what Nudge had called it after watching Dragons: A Fantasy Made Real. Basically, we would fly straight into the sky, so high until it was too cold and hard to breathe. Then, we would dive straight down, holding hands and praying for dear life. Once we were close to hitting the earth, we would spread our wings at the last possible second. Then, we would fly to our honeymoon suite; A.K.A, Sundance Resort.

That's what we did. And it was great; A sign of trust and loyalty that could and would never be broken. Now, I was lounging on the couch, and Fang was typing away.

Tappa-tappa-tappa. "DONE!" Fang triumphantly threw his fists into the air.

My heart jumped with excitement as I got off the couch and ran over to the kitchen table, where he was sitting. "Fang, that's wonderful!" I put my arm around his shoulders as he saved it onto the flash-drive.

"Thanks," He yawned and stretched, cracking his knuckles. "All I have to do is bring this bad-boy to the publishers, and it will be in stores all over." He sighed, rubbing his eyes. "I can't think of a title, though."

I couldn't help but laugh. "Really? No offense, but that should be the easiest part of the book."

"Yeah. That's what I thought. I figured it would be easier to do the longer, harder part first, and then the easier part. I had a couple of ideas, but I forgot them."

I could almost feel my brain moving. An idea popped into my head. "Wings and Wolves?" I had to include the Erasers.

His face lit up, and he jumped up, hugging me. "Max, that's perfect!" He kissed my forhead. I smiled. Fang had written a book. He walked into the kitchen. "Why don't we celebrate with a bit of wine?"

I was about to agree when I remembered something that the wine might effect. "Wait, Fang." I walked over and put my hand on his shoulder. "I don't think that would be a very good idea."

"Why?"

"Well, you know how we've been kind of trying for a family?"

"Yeah . . . "His eyebrows furrowed as he said this.

Yep. You guessed it. "Well . . . " I put my hand on my stomach, the little bump almost putting happy tears in my eyes.

His face lit up. "Max! Oh, my God! That's wonderful!" He kissed me long and hard. "We're gonna have a family!"

Throughout this story that I've been telling you, I might have said a lot of stuff like, life is good, and life couldn't get any better than that. It was true, but here's another thing. We were all on an incredible journey, and that journey was going to continue. We were all on a ride. The great, wonderful, biggest, Maximum Ride.