Stay with Me
We were 100 feet up before the first eraser was even in the clearing. But of course being me, life isn't that easy.
About 50 erasers were in the air waiting for us…including Omega?!
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Max's pov
No that wasn't Omega. It couldn't be because one, Omega didn't have wings and this look-a- like did and two, this guy was less perfect looking. Not that I thought Omega was hot, he was just perfect, perfect looking, not perfect. The only guy even close to perfect was Fang. And he was perfect looking too. NO! STOP IT MAX, CONCENTRATE! I mentally yelled at myself.
"So who's the new guy?" I asked with what sounded like fake, sarcastic curiosity. In all reality I did want to know because I feel that it is important to know what you're up against.
"I am the new Omega," said Omega 2.
"Um-hum," I said with a bored expression on my face. 'Angel,' I thought.
'Yes,' she thought back.
'Tell everyone but Fang to get out of here, fly two miles North and the six and a half miles Northeast. Find the closest clearing, and then wait there. Don't come back for us either,' I thought, hoping that she would listen. I didn't want any of my Flock near Omega, much less the updated Omega 2. But I knew Fang wouldn't leave me so I decided to just deal with him being there with me.
'But Maaax,' she thought.
'There are only about 40 or so, we can handle them. Now, do it!' I thought hoping she wouldn't notice how I said that there were fewer erasers than there really were.
Just then the flock, minus Fang and I, started flying North.
'Thanks Ange, can you please tell Fang to stay here then hurry up and go?' I didn't expect a response I just wanted Angel to go before the fight started.
While I was distracted with 'talking' to Angel an eraser jumped, err… ok came quickly at me, or flew as fast as his wings could carry him at me. Whatever, I'm not sure how to describe it but basically he lunged at me.
He thought I wasn't watching but I was still somewhat there so I dodged his attack and punched his shoulder, hoping to disable him from punching me with that arm. Fortunately for me his arm was flexed. Now for those of you out there who have never been punched in a flexed muscle by an angry Max, it is very painful.
The eraser fell down about 20 feet but surprisingly didn't come back at me. He went for Fang instead. That was okay by me because I know that Fang was a big boy and could take care of it himself.
I did a quick 360 making sure that all the Flock members (other than Fang and myself) had left like I told them to. That was when I noticed two things, the first being that Omega 2 was watching me. The second being that no erasers interrupted my 360.
That was because they were surrounding Fang.
Not even I can handle 50 erasers with a dog in my backpack. Shoot! I forgot to give Total to Iggy. He is in Fang's backpack. He wasn't feeling very good. Lovesick, according to Nudge. He missed Akiela, his newfound girlfriend. He met her when we were in Antarctica working to un-do global warming. Now she is staying with my mom, Dr. Martinez, so we could visit her often. Total hasn't seen her in a little over a week, so he misses her, which explains why he was being so quiet.
I sped towards the erasers that were surrounding Fang and Total. I must admit, I was more worried about Fang. The erasers didn't know that Total was in there, so they weren't trying to slice him. That meant that if Fang stayed safe and Total stayed quiet, he was safe.
I vaguely realized that Omega 2 should be helping fight; God knows he is good at it, but right now I was going to try to keep those erasers from tearing up Fang.
Omega 2 must have realized what I was going to do because he grabbed my wrist before I even thought he would be close enough to try. Man, when did he get so fast? I mentally thought. The voice must have realized that now would be a bad time to distract me because he didn't say anything. I figured I might as well kick Omega 2's butt then save Fang's very sexy butt. Wait forget I said that because I didn't. Wait what, what did I say?
Sounds easy enough right? Not so much. They had obviously made some upgrades other than just giving Omega 2 wings. For one thing when I stuck my hand in front of his face and quickly waved it, his hand shot out and grabbed my wrist. Then he snapped all the fingers on my right hand with very little effort on his part. They made a sick cracking noise as the joints broke.
'Pain is just a message,' I thought to myself, 'and I will check my messages later.'
'That is right Max; you are going to have to have to ignore a lot of messages during this fight,' my voice, or as I like to call it Jeb, said to me.
'Great, that's encouraging,' I thought with a bitter tone back to Jeb.
'Yes Max, you will get hurt in this fight, but you must keep fighting,' Jeb said with what I am sure he thought was an encouraging tone.
'Whatever.'
Just then I felt a fist connect with my jaw. It hurt, even after I tried to block out the message of pain. Ouch. That would leave a mark.
I must have spaced out when I was talking with the voice. I tried with my injured hand to distract Omega 2 with another quick wave of my hand in front of his face. Then I planned to do a roundhouse kick to his ribs. Again the 'distraction' didn't distract him; he just grabbed my calf and twisted me through the air.
'What's going on?! Jeb I thought he couldn't track fast objects?' I asked in desperation.
'He can now. They have updated him.' The voice said back.
'Why didn't you warn me?' I thought angrily.
'You wouldn't have listened maximum. You would have tried it anyways. Find his weakness. I cannot help you,' The voice said.
He was right, I would have tried anyways, but I was still ticked that he didn't tell me that Omega 2 was even stronger than the original.
At first I thought I could win but, after a few minutes of me attacking and him blocking, I began to get tired. And he noticed.
"Getting tired are we Maxie? Then just come with me and you won't get hurt." Omega 2 spoke for the first time since we started fighting.
"Nope, I can do this all day," I replied with more conviction than I felt. With that I aimed a high kick at his chin.
He caught my foot with apparent ease. As he did so he slowly twisted my ankle while holding my calf. He twisted and twisted until he heard, and I felt, my ankle pop out of place.
Hating myself for doing it I looked around for Fang to see if he noticed me getting my butt kicked.
When I saw him my heart dropped. He was fighting, but only 5 or 6 erasers were down. The rest were attacking him at the exact same time. Meaning he could only fend one off at a time. He was losing. But on the bright side, they didn't seem to be after Fang. The erasers he didn't manage to block were not tearing him to pieces like they could have been; they simply were scratching him enough to hurt him, but not kill him from blood loss. But the fact remained, he was losing.
And I needed him.
Yes I just said I needed someone's help. Not just anyone's help but Fang's help.
Just as I was making my epiphany a foot hit my chest knocking my breath away. I forced myself to take little breaths to get my lungs working again.
While I did so I folded my wings in some so that I was dropping to the ground. This way I was out of Omega 2's reach. Or so I thought.
Until he dropped with me.
"Yes Maxie, keep going down. That will just make it easier for me to kill you," Omega 2 spoke again.
With that I shot up into the sky. I didn't want Omega 2 to think he had any control at all over me.
But he did. Before I was even 10 feet about him, I felt him grab my dislocated ankle and yank down.
I hissed in pain.
He and I both knew I was going to lose if I didn't use my super speed to get out of there. But I couldn't leave, Fang was still here and he was not in the position to just up and leave.
So I did the only thing I could. I flew behind Omega 2 and pushed his wings together. That had always worked before. The eraser, or in this case person, would get there wing muscles pulled and would plummet to the ground, and then hit the ground before they could open there wings again. I had forbidden us from doing this to each other because the flock does not kill unless absolutely necessary.
But not Omega 2, of course not. Apparently he know what was supposed to happen because he came up behind me so fast I didn't even know what happened. Until my wings got a searing pain in them and I started falling.
By the time I was able to get my wings out it was too late. I was only 30 feet from the ground when I was finally able to fully extend my wings. I hit the top of the forest trees, hard. My wings were still open. They seemed to hit every branch on every tree until I couldn't fall anymore; I hit the ground. The tree branches slowed me down thankfully but it still hurt so bad that I couldn't move.
When Omega 2 landed he said, "It's a shame you have to get hurt Max; your body is so much more desirable when it isn't covered in blood and bruises. If only you were willing to come with me." As he was speaking he walked slowly towards me.
As soon as he got closer to me he kicked my ribs extremely hard. Even for a mutant kick it was hard. I know I felt at least three ribs crack. Then he rolled me on my back, well tried to. I obviously refused.
Now don't take this the wrong way but Avian hybrids bones are hallow. Otherwise we wouldn't be able to stay airborne. So they do not break easy but they do still break. So if a certain someone named Omega 2 were to fly up ten feet in the air and then drop, and just before hitting the ground (or in this case my un-injured leg) stamp his feet, our bones would break. Just like my right shin did. I heard a disgusting snap, and that snap just happened to be my leg. It took a second for the pain to hit but when it did, I screamed. Way to loud. Great, I bet the whole flock heard that and are coming back for us. That would be bad because they would defiantly get hurt if you put them up against Omega 2.
Omega 2 kicked my stomach again. I curled up into a little ball in the hopes of protecting my vital parts, head, lungs, and heart, from being damaged further. Like that would work. Omega 2 continued to kick me like I was a kicking bag that had just magically kicked him back and he wanted revenge. I bit my lip to stop myself from screaming out in pure agony.
'Max you have to fight back, don't just take this, FIGHT!' the voice yelled at me, for the first time since I can remember, it showed emotion. That emotion was anger and sadness. Ok fine, so that is two emotions but still.
I didn't bother responding. I risked opening my eyes and moving my arms out of the way to see if Fang was ok. Or if he was even still bothering to fight, or if, like me he had resorted to just trying to protect himself.
I couldn't see him. But I could hear grunts and growls coming from somewhere above me, which I took as a good thing. Then I heard the very last thing I wanted to hear right then. A low but pained moan, one that wasn't coming from me I mean.
The moan sounded like how I pictured Fang to sound but I had never heard him give any sign of pain before, so this was a first. Then I heard a shout, also in Fang's voice. It was too high up for me to understand what he said but I could guess that he was talking to me.
Then in recognition of my beat up state, Fang yelled "Max hold on," and he immediately knocked out the two remaining erasers.
Just then Omega 2 kicked my shoulder so hard that I thought I was going to pass out from the pain. I managed to stay conscious but I couldn't hold back the scream.
"Ahh, does it hurt a lot, Maxie? Well it won't hurt much longer; I am tired of beating you to a pulp. So your time here is over, goodbye," Omega 2 said in a slightly breathless voice.
I faintly heard Fang shout "NOOO!" but I couldn't be sure; I might have just been imagining it.
Then with a 'thunk' Omega 2 fell down beside me and Fang came into my peripheral vision. He kicked Omega 2 out of his way and came to his knees next to me.
"Max, we are going to find the Flock now, stay with me!" Fang said right before I started seeing black dots in my vision.
Then I passed out.
Fang's pov
I didn't think that this would be to hard because there were only 50 erasers and 6 Flock, and the Flock is way stronger than any eraser. Then the Flock flew away.
Crap! I couldn't leave with them; I was surrounded.
'Fang, stay here with Max and fight; we are all going to a clearing two miles north and six and a half miles northeast. We are going to wait there,' Angel thought to me.
'Okay, I will be here; this shouldn't take too long. We will be there soon,' I returned.
Good, Max is here with me, I can do anything for her. This will be easy. Crap! I hope Angel didn't hear that.
Then I started to do a 360 to see where Max was and how she was doing. I never finished that 360 because before I had turned even halfway around I got hit in the face by a very hairy paw.
When I focused again I saw what seemed like all the erasers surrounding me. 'Better me than Max,' I thought.
Then all the erasers attacked at the same time. 'Shit! There is no way I can fight all of these guys off at once,' ran through my mind before they were on top of me again.
But I was in for a surprise, I wasn't torn to shreads. Instead one of the flying refrigerators swung at me from behind. I felt the claws break my skin but I was braced for way more pain than one little scratch. Then all the erasers backed off at the same time.
Then they all came at me at the same time again, still I only felt one hit, but I knew that eventually even one hit would take me down if I didn't fight back. And that meant that Max would be left to fight all of these guys, I could not take the chance that Max would get hurt, at all. I really hope she is safe.
Then I lunged for the closest eraser. But before I was able to get to him all his buddy, buddy erasers came at me. The same thing happened again, only one attacked me, and they only kicked me once. Now don't get me wrong that one kick hurt but I was grateful that I wasn't getting attacked by all these at once.
At this point I decided that I was going to fight like hell and no one and no amount of pain was going to stop me.
So I started fighting. I wasn't getting very far and was getting more hurt but I kept on madly kicking and punching any inch of eraser I could get my hands on.
I had my hands on the biggest eraser's neck, the one who looked like he might be in charge. Then I felt a searing pain in the back of my leg. It felt like when the school used to inject the pain serum into us to see how much we could handle, but in a more concentrated place. I heard a very pathetic moan. It took me a moment to realize that the noise came from me.
I turned my leg slightly so that I could see what was wrong with it, and I saw a knife that was covered in blood in this very sad excuse for an eraser's hand. He was scrawny and short, and had a very sick smile on his face.
"Now that is just not fair, for you to have weapons and I didn't get to bring any," I taunted him. A look of fear crossed his face when he realized that I was talking to him.
Then I heard it. The worst sound I could ever hear. I heard Max scream out in agony, Max does not scream, ever. The sound came from below me so I looked down to see what happened to her and who did it, so that I would know who to kill.
I saw her crumpled on the ground with some blond haired guy standing over her. She was beat up, don't get me wrong, but I didn't see anything that would make her scream. Then I saw him kick her ribs and I heard a snap.
I got so pissed that I just snapped. If I thought I was fighting before, that was nothing compared to what I was doing now. Now I was in full out kick butt mode. When I get this angry, which doesn't usually happen, normally I am in better control of my emotions, you had better watch out.
Erasers started falling all around me, I didn't even remember snapping their necks or knocking them out but all I knew was that Max was getting hurt and I needed to help her.
Finally all the erasers were falling to the ground, to their death. Now I am not a cold blooded killer, but when you put the flock in danger, especially Max then I will warn you now, you will not survive. So don't try it okay? Good.
I flew to the ground as fast as I could and I saw something that ripped my heart out of my chest and put it through a meat processor. Max was lying on the ground crumpled into a helpless little ball and the blond, who I now gathered was the scumbag that she had to fight in Germany, when I wasn't there, Omega. I shuddered at the memory; it hurt to think about times when I wasn't with her.
And worse yet, I think I heard him saying "Your time is over, goodbye Maxie."
Then I was scared; I wasn't going to get there in time if he really had the power to kill her quickly. So I did the only thing I could, I tried to distract him.
"NOOOO" I shouted at the top of my very bruised lungs. I knew that he wouldn't not kill her because he pitied me, but I did hope that it would distract him enough to let me get to him.
It worked. He turned his head to the right ever so slightly. I used all of the force left in me to punch the back of his head where a pressure point is. He fell to the ground next to Max.
I kicked him out of the way so I could get to Max.
"Max, we are going to find the Flock now, stay with me!" I said, near tears. Then her whole body went limp.
Shit! I thought; she cannot die now. Not before I get to tell her how much I like her, how she is the woman who makes life on the run worth living. Or how she is the most beautiful and precious girl in the world. So I decided to tell her, just not in those words.
"Max come back, wake up! I need you! Darn it Max, wake up!" I said hoping that she could hear me. I repeated it over and over even after my mouth was so dry I couldn't even swallow properly.
Finally I saw the clearing. I landed as fast as I could and told Iggy to check her out. I didn't tell him that I was stabbed; he could take care of me later. I told him that I wasn't sure what happened only that I saw her only the ground being beaten.
I sent Nudge out to find the closest hotel; I figured that Max would be more comfortable there. When she came back I picked up Max and flew as fast as I could. We got there fairly quick considering I had a hole in my leg and was carrying Max.
Iggy took care of her major injuries.
I was so ticked off when he told me that she had four broken ribs, a broken leg and that her wings were very nearly ripped out of her back. Let's just say that that Omega 2 guy was lucky he wasn't here when I found that out.
Then Iggy took care of my leg but I hardly even noticed, I was so worried about Max.