My bones sounded like they were cracking loudly as they healed slowly, a few years ago this would've hurt so bad that I would probably cry, and right now, I barely felt it. My "shock therapy" is really making me numb to a lot of pain, which, admittedly, is good in situations like this. I glanced at my ribs; I figured the hit was most likely a roundhouse kick to my ribs.
I dropped my gaze on a light-brown haired girl and she looked back at me. She looked thin, like supermodel thin, which gave me a tip off at the fact she was like that because of Avian DNA. She almost looked fragile. Almost being the key word. I shifted into a defensive position and waited for another lunge, hit or kick.
Our gazes met: hers in a defiant way after she realized I healed almost instantly, mine in most likely a cool dismissive "let-get-this-over-with" way. I took a chance and repeated my question to her, after all, can't be too careful about flying bird kids, "Are you Maximum Ride?" I got a nice little snarl in reply.
"Erasers don't ask questions. They attack." My collar whispered to me, oh yeah, I forgot to mention, it has a little communication device my master just installed. Fun, right?
Suddenly, I felt a rush of electricity run through my bones, and my knees buckled and I was on them on the ground. I closed my eyes and focused everything in my being to not black out but just rest for a minute.
Max looked at the Eraser. Was she knocked out? She was on her knees and barely moving.
"Way to go, Max!! How'd you fry her without me and Ig?" The Gasman excitedly asked, about to jump from his hiding place in the Oak trees to run to the semi-fried Eraser.
Max looked at the white-haired girl and guessing at what Gazzy was about to do, she put her hand up to signal not to come down.
'Aren't all the Erasers destroyed?' Max pondered. The Eraser looked barely their age, that is, hers, Fang's and Iggy's. Erasers usually appear about 30 or so and they're usually wearing creepy suits. Normally, Max would just tear a girl like this apart but she seemed so…different. So….not bloodthirsty.
Max shifted her weight on her feet and got ready for fighting, she could tell the girl was still breathing and different or not, she was an Eraser.
I opened my eyes and the light of the day poured in, dazed, I remembered what I had to do again. Groaning, I got to my feet.
"Fuck, I hate this collar" I pulled on the metal bane of my existence a bit and felt some electricity in my hand. Flicking away the extra-static electricity I looked over at the "flock leader" (I had heard the term "flock" used by my master).
It seemed like it would be easy enough to knock her off her feet from the stance she was in. Another lovely snarl. Nice. I waited for her to attack, and then I realized that she was waiting for me. Maybe getting cautious at the fact I didn't attack her outright. I began thinking of several ways to take her down if one just wasn't enough.
Then she spoke.
"Who sent you?" She demanded in a snarl. "All of the Erasers are dead."
Oh, this is going to be fun.
I went back to calculating her moves, two can play the "lets-pretend-we're-mute-and-deaf-and-have-no-idea-what-the-other-person-is-saying"game. I glanced at the tree directly behind her and decided the best way to take out a mutated bird-kid was to take out her wings. Granted I had yet to see them.
So, my plan in taking the leader out would be to ram her into a tree. Yup, dirty, simple and quick. Besides, I hate killing (for those who forgot about the traumatized rabbit, it was only one chapter ago I mentioned it). I could take out her wings and just carry her to my master. Then he could make his trophy and I'd be let off the whole slave/fighter thing.
And then the rest of the flock came to mind. This was going to be a bitch.
"Yes, well I didn't get the memo, Max dear." I began moving to the side, ready to attack and then heard something in a bush nearby and turned in time to dodge a bullet to my head, I saw something that looked like a robotic human, folding possibly robotic wings behind its back, and felt a chill down my spine.
"What…is….that?" I stared at it and it appeared to be staring back, then it rose up the gun it was shooting at me with and aimed again, wait…was the gun a part of it?
I jumped back and noticed there was more, and then I noticed that some had a wolfish demeanor and all of them had wings and were aiming attacks at me and Max. I heard Max shout instructions and saw them; the flock erupting from the trees to attack the human-cyborg-things.
Despite the whole I'm-trying-to-be-killed situation, I stared in awe as I saw the bird-kids up close. They looked beautiful, in a Christian cherub guardian sort of way.
They began to fight all of the human-cyborgs and before long I was too, in my wolf form of course.
When I'm a wolf, I feel strong and powerful. I feel almost invincible (and in my particular case this is about semi-true). I just fought what was attacking me through instinct, and best of all, it's not murder if you're a robot.
Then I noticed how the flock seemed to be outnumbered. From what I had heard about them, this normally wouldn't be a problem but something had to have been wrong because they looked like they were losing. These things were getting hit after hit with the bird kids and all my robot things were smashed to smithereens so, buzzed about fighting robots (I can't help it, it's my animalistic instinct) I just sat and howled to get their attention.
Oh I got it, shot after shot was aimed at me and I miraculously dodged each bullet, which told me either they had bad aim or were running out of ammo. I jumped and smashed wings first because it is the best way to destroy something robotic with wings.
Before I knew it most of them were destroyed and the rest gone, so I sat on my rump, licking various wounds I got in the battle. The wounds healed in no time and I was back in my human form.
"Phew, that was a good fight." I smiled toothily at the flock which most of them glowered at me, except for the blind one who looked in my general direction.
"So…Maxie, may I call you that? I like the sound of it better than Max," a little buzzed from the fight, I grinned looked at her and got a snarl in reply.
"Your dear little flock seems to be out of energy, why is that?" Yet another snarl reply
"Oh well, you see, I don't really want to do this but it's the only way for my freedom." I clapped my hands together and walked over to Max, whose wings looked a little ruffled.
"Now then, my master is going to be a bit angry at me for not fighting you so he'll most likely shock me in a few seconds." Max aimed a punch at me and I dodged and grabbed her fist just as I felt the shock therapy come.
One fried flock leader, order up! A few minutes later I shocked every single one of them except for the little black Scottie. He growled at me as I picked him up and then he spoke, snapping at me.
"Brute! Let us go! Help! Kidnap! Dognap!" I knocked him out through pinching the right nerve. It would be a long wait for the truck to carry these bird-kids and I really did not want a mutant dog shouting randomly and drawing normal people's attention.
