I've been at the School for a year now, undergoing experiments and testsworse than you could EVER imagine. Who am I? My name's Kyle, but you cancall me Phoenix. I was kidnapped my driveway when I was 15. I have flaming redhair, pale skin, I am a full 7' tall and I have a slim build. Oh, and oneother thing…I have wings. Not your average flesh, bone and feather wingseither, mine are metal… an organic steel or something like that.It's been pretty bad, having to do all these experiments, and honestly,sometimes I don't know how I'll get through it, but then I wake up thenext morning, curse whatever greater power there is that let there be anotherday of experiments, and get back to surviving.
I made a friend, though, while I was here… I guess that's one good thing.His name's Beta. The people here have some weird obsession with Greekstuff… oh well. He told me that he was supposed to be just like Omega, oneof their better experiments, but failed to lose his soul. The Whitecoats triedto make me like Omega as well, only with wings, but they never finished theexperiments. So I'm stronger, smarter and more agile than just aboutanybody, but I still have a soul. Lucky me. Also, I have a compulsion to obeyall orders given by the higher-ups, but, thankfully, I can resist those when Ireally concentrate.
A freezing feeling brought me back out of my reverie, to where the psychoscientists were injecting me with liquid nitrogen… don't ask why 'causeI don't know. The pain started immediately, it felt like I had cold firerunning through my veins. I started fighting the freezing liquid with my own"inner" fire.
Oh yeah… forgot to mention something… I can do just about anything withfire, and I have an inner 'pillar' of fire that I draw from. And even withthat, it took a full half hour to finish vaporizing the liquid nitrogen, whichleft me feeling both violated and cold as I shivered against the near poison.But then I passed out. Smart, right? But luckily, I just woke up back in mycage.
"Great, just great," I muttered, " I need to find a way out ofhere."Beta must've heard me because he agreed, saying,
"We ALL need to get outof here, but that's kind of impossible right now."
"Nothing's impossible! Us, out of everyone, should know that."
"I know, but still, it's going to be exceedingly difficult to get out ofa place like this…"We stopped talking just as an Eraser walked in to take another experiment totheir possible doom. The two of us stayed silent for a moment, and when hewalked out, I said "I have an idea. I could melt the back of your cage soyou can get out; then you can use your power to free me and we can blow thisjoint." Yeah, yeah, Beta has a power, too. He can manipulate metal, but onlyif he's got direct contact. Big whoop.
"Not a bad idea, but there's only one problem."
"And that is-" I started to say, but was interrupted by an explosion.BOOM, we both jumped at the sound and Beta exclaimed.
"What the (censored)was that?" BOOM. " I think it might be some of those reactive substances that thewhitecoats were working…" BOOM. "on, or not…" I answer. "These arehappening…" BOOM. "too regularly to be a failed experiment."I felt for where the heat was coming from… "I can feel 6 forms near theexplosions, and judging by their body heat, they're avian hybrids." BOOM.I feel a flare of heat. "And one of them just set off another bomb, that'swhat we were hearing." I explain to Beta, moving slightly in the crampedcage.
"You don't think-" he starts to say, but I interrupt him.
"I think it's them… the Flock." Then I bellow to the rest of thehybrids here with us, "the Flock's coming, be ready to run!" Just thenthe door blew open with yet another explosion and, sure enough, the Flock wasstanding there, looking mighty livid.
Max yells, "Get these guys outta here, then let's blow the joint." Theywork fast, snapping the locks off the cages. When Fang came to my cage, hetried to break the lock off, but failed. He then called out "Ig!" and astrawberry-blond teen with very pale skin, walks over, not looking at anythingdirectly.
"All right, where's the lock?" he asks, even though he was lookingright at it.
"You're looking at it, Ig." The teen kneels down in front of my cageand starts feeling the lock. A few seconds later, he took out a lock pickingkit, selected a tool, and got to work. By the time Ig finished with my lock,what felt like a half hour later, most of the other hybrids had been freed.
"Ig, you might want to move, because it is going to get really hot, reallyfast." He moves away from me and I start collecting my fire, channeling itto my hands. Once the fire swirling around my hands was hot enough, I letloose at the ceiling with one hand, blasting fire straight up, into the sky.At the same time, I let loose at where the wall joins the floor, making thefire spiral down to the ground, creating a slide.
Max, after getting over the shock of seeing someone vaporize two giant holesin the room, yelled, "Everybody better get out of here. Those who can fly,through the hole in the ceiling and those who cannot fly, through the hole inthe wall…" and the hybrids moved to obey her immediately, me included,even though I don't take orders well. What? Anyone would have jumped at achance to escape that hellhole.
As soon as I clear the roof, I swerve towards Canada, and home. I guess Max had some questions for me, though, because next thing I knew, she was in front of me, forcing me to stop and hover there."What do you want?" I demanded.
"I haven't ever met anyone quite like you. If you joined my Flock, thenItex wouldn't stand a chance…" she told me, and, unless I was muchmistaken, I could swear I detected a little awe in her voice.
"I work alone, and besides, I have a family to check on. So, if you'llexcuse me, I've got to get going now," Max, frowning, moved out of my wayand I continued flying. I flew for a few days before I crossed the Canada/USborder.