WHAM! Ari manages a hard kick to my kidneys that leaves me struggling to breathe. CRACK! His enormous fist swings around into my ribcage and I feel two of my ribs fracture.
How am I losing to this freak? The though crosses my mind as I block another punch, desperately glancing around for my Flock. They've all scattered, which is what I told them to do, but right now I wish Fang was here to back me up.
As I fold my wings and drop down to avoid a hairy, ham sized fist aimed at my head, a rapidly enlarging black speck gives me hope. Did Fang come back to help? Of course, if he comes back because he thinks I need his help to beat this flying dirt bag I'll pound him into the ground. But by God his backup would be nice right now.
Second later, I can make the speck out to be Nudge, clutching four bottles of something. "Max!" I hear Angel's voice in my head as I land a kick on Ari's nose.
"Angel! What are you doing here?" I think loudly at her, grabbing one of Ari's arms and yanking it up behind his back.
"Nudge had an idea!" She thinks back at me with a smile.
Ari whacks me with one of his grafted on wings and I dart away, still mad as a hornet for what he did to Fang. He put him in a hospital! A freaking HOSPITAL!
"Hey fleabag!" Nudge calls tauntingly, making Ari look up at her. "Try these on!" And with that she darts in close and dumps her four bottles on him. Then, lo and behold, right in front of my eyes the hair and feathers touched by the liquid turn platinum blonde, practically white.
Roaring with anger, Ari surges up after Nudge, only to be met with four more bottles dumped by Angel. Some of it must have gotten in his eyes, because he scream-roars and claws at them in pain.
Taking advantage of his distraction, I angle myself upwards to join Nudge and Angel. "Max, you're going to want to see this." Nudge says with a huge smile, pointing down at Ari.
Curiously, I look down at the lone pink Eraser beneath us. Wait, pink? I look again, and see that his entire body is dyed in two shades of pink; neon bright over the bleached parts and a darker shade where the bleach didn't hit. "Hair dye?" I ask, giving Nudge a look.
She nods. "I heard it stings in your eyes. Anyways, now he's like, super easy to see! And now, if you squint, he's almost the color of a pencil eraser! Isn't that neat? He's a pink Eraser! Now we'll always be able to tell which one he is. Unless he, like, dyes it back again. Do you think he'd do that?"
I tune Nudge's yammering out as Angel shows me a box. "This stuff is permanent." She says with a smile. "Nudge had these in her bag, Max. I heard her thoughts; I think she got them in New York."
"That's how she kept her streaks this long. Got it, Ange." Holding up a hand, I give them both high fives. "Excellent idea Nudge. Now let's get out of here before he figures out what we've done."
They both nod, and we zoom off into the sunset.
Fang looked at Max, asleep on a wide limb a few feet to his right. She was smiling; he wondered what she was dreaming about. "Probably nothing important." He shrugged, and went back to his blog.