Max walked into the room she shared with Fang, and now Alice, smiling. The sun had gone down a while ago so the room was dark. She flipped on the light quickly and found Alice asleep in her cradle snoring softly. She picked her up snuggling closer to her. Alice's eyes opened and she laughed happily. Max's smile broadened. Max had done nothing but smile whenever she was with Alice, which was almost all the time. Her small black and brown wings were now three feet across and still growing.

Max took her eyes off Alice to look around the room. The room was empty. Fang was gone with Iggy to buy more food and clothes in the nearest town. Max held Alice tighter as the windows broke in and five erasers burst through. Max's eyes widened in shock and horror at the lead eraser.

"Hey there Max" Ari said with a wicked grin.

"Ari?" she whispered softly.

"Who do you think it is?" he said before laughing loudly. Alice lip trembled as she began to cry. Max shifted to complete defense mood holding onto Alice tighter soothing her.

"How are you still alive?" Max said confused and angry. "You were supposed to be dead!"

"Yeah well you'd be surprised at what the school can develop" Ari said. "Now why don't you hand over the baby" he said motioning to Alice.

Max took a step back shielding her from his gaze. "Why?" she asked. She needed to buy time to get out. If no one has come by now then they're probably fighting so she needed to get out fast.

"I shouldn't tell you but it doesn't make a difference. You guys are the first and only recombient DNA experiments to reproduce" Ari said pointing at her. "You've thrown the white coats for a loop. So they want to study that child"

"Never" Max said with a steely edge. She bolted for the door but an eraser blocked her path. She swerved around him and escaped through the door. She ran to the kitchen and jumped out of the window spreading her wings as she jumped. She rose quickly stopping when she was staring to get cold. She checked on Alice cooing softly.

"Max!"

She spun around then relief flashed across her as the Gasman, Nudge and Jess flew to her. They each had several cuts and bruises on them confirming what she thought had happened. When she saw Seth and Angel weren't there she began to worry.

"Max what happened?" Gazzy nearly shouted.

"Ari and the Erasers tried to kidnap Alice" Max said. Gazzy and Nudge gawked at her when she mentioned Ari.

"I thought you said he was dead" Jess said frowning.

"He was but I guess the school brought him back to life" Max said looking grim. "What about you? What happened to Angel and Seth?"

Gazzy gritted his teeth as Jess looked away her eyes falling.

"When we were escaping an Eraser clipped Angel's wing. When she fell Seth caught her but the erasers jumped him and they fell into the forest. We got a message from Seth saying 'keep going we'll meet up with you later'" Nudge said worriedly.

Max closed her eye thinking hard. They had little time so she had to decide soon. Her eyes opened a plan already forming.

"Okay guys we'll go find Seth and Angel then meet up with Fang and Iggy" she said. Gazzy nodded before leading the way back to where they had lost Seth and Angel.

******

Seth ripped the cloth he tool from his shirt turning it into a bandage for Angel. She had a long scratch on her arm from the fall. They had managed to stop the bleeding but now they were lost and Angel couldn't fly with her wings still hurt.

Seth pulled the bandage tight and Angel winced. He flashed her an apologetic look then pulled her to her feet.

What do we do? Angel asked.

Find Jess and the others, Seth responded. They should have found Max and Alice by now.

Alright Angel said nodding.

They had landed in the forest outside the house. It was late fall so the trees were bare and white. They were clustered so close together that the sun didn't reach well and it was constantly dusk. Some trees still bore leaves so it wasn't completely dark but an olive green.

Seth led the way pushing his way through the trees and fallen branches. He heard a twig snap to his right and held out his arm to stop angel. He put his finger to his mouth as he walked in the direction of the sound. He stepped carefully avoiding all the branches. He pushed through a bush and looked into the clearing.

A boy about Angel's age was pacing the clearing hands behind his back. He wore a dark blue hoodie and blue jeans. His hair was spiky but tied in a ponytail in the back. The strangest thing was the fact that he had a tail and dog ears on his head. It was black and bushy like a wolves flicking to the side coming out of his waist. His ears twitched softly in their direction.

Angel reached her arm forward to get a better look and fell through the bush rolling down into the clearing. The boy spun around and stared at her. Seth skidded down next to her. The kid tensed up raising his fist to fight. Seth tensed next to Angel but she shook her head. She struggled to her feet holding up both her hand palms out.

"We're not here to fight you" she called out. "We just need to get out of here"

He relaxed slightly then walked toward her. He stopped directly in front of her. He reached out a hand and traced a finger down her cheek. He pulled his hand back and stared at it. His eyes widened in shock. He stared at Angel and she gave him a week smile.

"My…name is Wolf" he said slowly to Angel.

"I'm Angel and that's Seth" Angel said pointing them out. "Can you help us get out of the forest?"

"Yes" he said nodding.

Shade got down on all fours his hair growing to cover his face and hands his face morphing into a wolves. He almost looked like an Eraser. He flicked his tail motioning for them to follow before bounding into the forest.

Are you sure about him? Seth asked following him.

Positive she said nodding and smiling happily.

Seth stared after her in wonder. She hasn't been this happy in a long time.

What did the erasers want? Seth thought. Max, Alice, Jess! Please be safe!