So, here's my first MR story! I just adore Iggy and I've had this idea brewing for the longest time. ("wo-OH-oh, for the longest time!" I love that song.) anyways, please read and review! -♥ katklaws

Chapter One: The Separation

"I can't see!" he cried, agony ripping his heart and burning his eyes. They heard him banging against the bars of his crate and his furious cries that soon faded into broken sobs.

Max gazed sadly across the room, watching the young boy curl into a ball and sob into his arms. His baby blue eyes were wide and unfocused, staring into the darkness he'd see forever and ever...

She could not reach out and comfort him as she so wished she could. How many times had they watched creatures around them break down and give up right before their very eyes? Would this other bird-child be next?

They listened as the sobs became stifled whimpers and tiny moans. After awhile of silence and stillness, the young boy sat up and his eyes flickered slowly this way and that, seeing not but endless darkness. "I can't see," he gasped, running his hands over his pale face then over the bars and floor and walls, "There's nothing ... nothing but darkness ... "

Among the occasional jarring cry of pain or stifled whimper from fitful dreams, Max found her ears training on the boy's sobbing as he faded in and out of sleep. "I wish I could help you," she whispered, her heart aching, as well as her muscles, and bones, and brains, and everything else her tired mind could think of... "I wish I could help you all."

:-;-:

The blow was swift and punishing, well aimed for Iggy's throat. Each bleeding wound burned for all it was worth and the smothering scent of hot metal and gunpowder clung to the air. He heard Angel cry out as he fell down, down, down through the air. Though everything was unseen by him, he knew the ground would inevitably come.

The invincible Max's voice was broken and struggling for volume, Iggy could tell, "We have to scram now!" The Gasman screamed Angel's name but all the sounds were fading in and out. Iggy's quick mind pieced it together in a nanosecond; Angel's cry, Max's broken voice, the smell of gunpowder ...

Without thinking, Iggy shouted as the wing-beats rose farther and farther above his head, or maybe he was dropping farther and farther below, "Is Angel shot?!"

Then the thunder came ripping over his eardrums and Iggy used all the energy he had left to right his body and set his blond wings flapping in synch. Just in time, too, because if he hadn't, he'd have done a face plant at two hundred miles per hour. No, he fell against the side of the Erasers' van and slammed into the ground doing only twenty, maybe thirty.

The bullet wounds in his body screamed in agony and Iggy could no longer deny their persuasive ways. A cry of pain tore from his throat just as the wind was knocked right out of him.

They'd all been caught by surprise, by Erasers who didn't want to play around anymore. Erasers with guns. They'd had enough time to fly away, fly faster than their clumsy, tacked-on Eraser wings could manage, especially since Max had spread her warp speed powers over the whole flock. Well, almost the whole flock.

It took Max a moment to realize what the Gasman was screaming about but when she saw the Erasers swarming over a prone figure on the ground, she realized that one tall, blind kid of the bird mutants wasn't in her bubble of warp-speed.

Max shifted Angel in her arms, who bled freely from the bullet wound in her side, and glanced at Nudge who was barely able to keep her wings up, even with Max's assistance. Her right shoulder and arm were lopped awkwardly and blood droplets were snatched up by the wind. Fang's face was tight and pale and Max saw that he had nearly avoided a bullet, though it had clipped his shin painfully.

Half the Erasers on the ground still had their guns pointed upwards and Max's heart stopped as she realized what she had to do. Fang's eyes were cold but he could barely keep the pain in their depths under control as it too dawned upon him what must happen. The Gasman looked from Max to Fang and realized what they'd silently agreed on.

As his scream of defiance grew in his throat, it was ripped away, and all sound soon left them, for warp-speed was too fast for sound...

Iggy slumped onto the ground in defeat as he was torn at by Erasers, as Erasers tore at each other to get to him. Suddenly, a voice stabbed through their snarls. It was female, Iggy knew, but there wasn't anything warm about it.

"Step back, you blundering fools!" she snapped and they all fell quiet. Even through the blood scent, the gunpowder and the pleasant meadow-y smells all about, Iggy instantly recognized the white coat stench. It was sharp and antiseptic, but the voice! The voice struck a long forgotten memory buried in Iggy's subconscious.

"Ugh, what a failure!" the voice barked, "Get it out of my operating room." Another voice filtered in, hesitant and meek, but she sent it a scalding reprimand. "Don't question me! I might pick up on this night-vision project later but this subject is ruined. Get it out, get it out!!"

Iggy's sightless eyes widened as he recognized the woman who'd taken his vision forever. He could practically feel her sneer. "So, I see this failure is still alive. Not for long, in the condition it's in. No! Don't kill it. I've been wanting to work on this vision project for a long time, why not use an experiment whose already had experience?"

Their cruel, cold laughter hurt so bad and struck so deep, Iggy couldn't breathe. I'm going to the School again. They're going to torture my eyes again. Where's the flock? Where's the friggin' flock?! Why aren't they saving me?

:-;-:

"I hate you!" howled the Gasman, bunching his fists and pounding Max in the stomach. She winced but stood solid, taking the blows as he vented. "I hate you, I hate you, I hate you!" But the Gasman soon collapsed against her, sobbing in grief and fury. The only thing he could see was Iggy motionless on the ground, Erasers fighting to rip out his throat. "How could you leave him? How could you do that to Iggy, to one of the flock?!"

Max was on the verge of shoving him away and screaming about how much it had torn her apart as Iggy had disappeared under a swarm of hairy wolf mutants. But her arms wrapped around his shoulders, rocking him slowly as he sobbed into her shirt, "Everyone was in danger of really getting hurt, Gazzy, like dying. Nudge could hardly fly and Angel, well, you saw Angel. We're going back to get Iggy, I promise, but we had to get out of there."

The Gasman clutched her sleeve, gazing up at her with eyes bright and blue and pained, "But they don't want us, they want you and Angel. Why would Iggy still be alive if they didn't want him?"

Cold fear seeped over Max as she thought about this factor again, but she had to be strong, to be invincible for the flock. "They took him away so there is still hope. We didn't see him die, all we saw was him get put in their van."

Fang looked up finally from his perch, eyes dark and resolute, "So that means we're going back."

"Yes, we're going back to the School," Max said, her voice faltering as she said it. Despite what they'd been through, they all looked up in horror. "But first, we have to be travel fit."

Her gaze fell onto Angel, who was thankfully asleep. Her shirt had been pulled up to her ribcage and white gauze stained red wrapped around her middle several times. It had only been a flesh wound, which had bled a lot but was overall not life threatening. Nudge had given them all a scare though. Upon landing, she'd passed out and gone into shock, shivering and sweating and losing blood all at once. She was alright now, pale and shirtless, but patched up somewhat.

Nudge asked suddenly, weak and trembling, "Will Ig be there?" Max choked back her fears and nodded.

"He'd better be, or many, many Erasers will pay."