I felt a low growl rise in my throat as I witnessed the first huge, hulking, wolf-like mutants emerge from the chopper. These weren't Flyboys, or M-Geeks, or any other mutant-metal hybrid that would give even grown men nightmares. These were the real deal -clumsy, feral, stupidly strong Erasers.

I watched, horror-struck, as the Eraser-filled helicopter landed right on top of Angel's carefully-planted strawberry fields, squishing thousands of berries into jam before they even had a chance to ripe.

That was the real problem. I knew how cranky Nudge could get if she didn't have jam with her toast.

And what's more, there were way too many Erasers, as many as eight or nine, for Fang and I to disable; even if we did happen to have our guns. I knew for a fact that Fang did not have superior marksmanship because he had never used a gun... come to think of it, neither had I. It was a serious oversight on my part. I resolved to take the Flock to the nearest gun store and teach them the basics of shooting as soon as possible. Because how stupid was it that we had to resort to physical contact with the Erasers, who clearly had the advantage in that manner? The School had given us brains. It was up to me to make the rest of the Flock use them.

So, while Fang was busy staring at the Erasers, bloodlust in his eyes (either that or he hadn't gone to the bathroom in a few days, in which case he was probably gearing up to pull a Gasman), I quickly unloaded his gun.

And I clapped myself on the back when I saw which Eraser was getting out of the helicopter first.

I stood up and smiled brightly, ignoring Fang's painful pummels to my legs. Clearing my throat, I beamed as the Erasers turned their ugly heads to look at me. I had an idea, and if I could pull this off, then we would all be able to escape without dying. And we would also maybe be able to avoid certain nasty confrontations later (like on a certain beach in Manhattan...).

"Ari!" I said brightly, smiling through the pain that Fang was causing me -was that boy biting my leg? Well, we didn't call him Fang for nothing, did we? "You brought some friends!"

The once adorable seven-year-old's genetically modified fangs appeared as he bared his teeth in a perplexed scowl. "Max."

"You look different. Fang, why does he look different?"

Fang mouthed wordlessly at me, disbelief etched all over his face. Honestly, if the situation wasn't so dire, I might have laughed at how wide his eyes were. He clearly thought I was headed straight to Loonyville. I thanked myself for unloading his gun, because I was pretty sure he was only a few seconds away from shooting me.

"I was thinking a new haircut," I said conversationally. "Buzz cut, maybe?"

Grinding his teeth, after the longest of moments, Fang gave a brief nod and I exhaled in relief. I knew he wouldn't forsake me.

"Max," Ari growled again. "Miss me?"

"I really did, Ari," I said sincerely, walking from behind the bush. "In fact, I was just talking to Fang about how I missed your daily puns when we were all back in the School together. Did you hear about the guy who got hit in the head with a can of soda?" I shot at the Eraser next to Ari. How interesting it was that we had managed to be on the run from these guys for all of our lives, and yet we didn't know any of their names? I was going to change that.

He looked so startled that he forgot to look menacing. "Uh... did he get hurt?"

I grinned. Well, the Erasers weren't known for being too bright. "Nope. He was lucky it was a soft drink," I said, waiting for a reaction.

The Eraser I had just relayed the joke to chuckled softly but cowered under the glare that Ari was giving him. Hmm... so Ari was the leader of the Erasers or something? How did their dynamic work? I was genuinely interested. See, this was the kind of stuff I wasn't interested in last time, and look how that turned out for me. "Stop laughing, Jefferson!" Ari hissed, and I made a mental note. Jefferson: the Eraser with long hair and a tiny brain. Ari turned back to me. "Surprised to see me here?"

I shrugged. "Well, pleasantly surprised. I mean, I didn't expect that you would come today, but I knew you'd come eventually. You see, you're angry, Ari. You're angry because you think that Jeb never paid any attention to you when you were a child because he was spending all his time with his prized experiments. Is that why you became an Eraser? To prove to your dad that you, too, were capable of being special?"

Clearly, Ari hadn't thought that I would know any of this. He blinked rather foolishly, looking like a fish out of water. Or, to be more exact, a wolf out of the woods. "Well..."

"And I suppose you're here to kidnap all of us and take us back to the School. But you've clearly brought backup because you've prepared for the inevitable fight that will arise if you try to take away any of my Flock. You're probably going to target Angel, since she's the youngest and you think she can't fight as well as the rest of us. Well, that's ageist, Ari, and honestly, I don't appreciate it. Plus, how much of a loser are you going to look like, walking into the School with a six-year-old girl as your only trophy from this epic fight?"

Ari faltered. "So... what do you suggest?"

I sighed. "Frankly, I'd target Fang here, since he's a biter. He'd probably fit right in with you guys -how do you think he earned that name? He's also an incredibly good fighter, so you won't look so stupid to the other Erasers and whitecoats if you manage to bring him in."

Fang shoved his middle finger into my face and I patiently removed it from my line of vision. Ari seemed to be considering my proposal. "Well..." he said again. "That does seem like a good plan..."

"I know. I come up with great plans," I said, beaming at Ari, who stared confusedly back at me. "Okay, so here's the deal," I said casually. "You take Fang, and leave with no fighting. No one gets hurt. Or... you charge at me and see what happens. I'm not kidding when I saw that it's going to make training in the School seem easy. You earn your School street cred, and daddy Jeb will love you again."

Yes, I was totally bluffing. Fang might've been a good fighter, and I might've had a couple extra years of kicking butt under my belt since everything rewound, but there was no way we could hold off almost a dozen Erasers on our own.

But Ari didn't call my bluff. "And you're okay with giving up your Flock member just like that?" he asked, sneering. "Some loyalty."

"You should talk," I countered. "You're the one who defected from your Flock by turning into an Eraser."

Ari sniffed. "I was never part of the Flock. You never included me. You always ignored me because I didn't have wings like you all."

"Uh, well, your father imprisoned us in cages for most of our formative years, so excuse me for not playing Go-Fish with you like you wanted to do. Why didn't you go to regular school, anyway? You could've had regular friends, and you wouldn't even be here right now."

Ari went pink and mumbled something about too long of a commute for my dad. I shook my head in resignation.

"Well, what's in the deal for you?" Ari asked me tightly, and I shrugged.

"Ari, Ari, Ari. You're just going to have to figure that out on your own." I turned to Jefferson. "He's not very funny anymore, is he?" Jefferson shook his head, and I sighed. "What a shame."

"Enough dawdling!" Ari snapped. "Hand over Fang."

Fair enough.

"Fang," I said casually, turning to him. "Ready to go?"

"You better have a plan," Fang muttered in my ear as he passed me, and I managed to keep a passive face as he stalked over the mushed strawberry patch towards the Erasers. As I had expected, Ari motioned for the Erasers to leave, still shooting me furtive glances of confusion mingled with interest... and was that even a hint of fear? As for Fang, he stared at me, murder clearly written all over his dark obsidian eyes. I shook my head to clear it. Obsidian? What was I, a lovestruck twelve year old? I oughta hypnotize myself into not being attracted to Fang -

And then all hell broke loose.

"You really love him, don't you?" Dylan whispered, his ice-blue eyes filled with unshed years. Clutching my tiny baby bump, I nodded, tears streaming down my own face as I realized that Phoenix would grow up without a father, without a proper life, living underground in a wasteland.

Dylan's blue eyes looked resolute. "I can bring him back to you."

I couldn't tear my eyes away from the sheet that had once been a living, breathing, animate, alive human being. But Dylan's words hit me like a sack of bricks. "You - you can?"

"Max. Max. MAX!"

With a loud grunt, I jolted awake, head throbbing as though I'd been run over by a lawn mower. Above me stood a a very concerned looking Nudge, and she moved aside as I sat up, groping the wall for support. "What -where are the others?"

"Who's Dylan?" she asked me, worriedly.

"Dylan? Who's Dylan?" I asked innocently.

"That's what I was just asking you," Nudge huffed. "You kept muttering something about Dylan, which is weird because I don't think we know anyone named that -"

"Where are the others?" I interrupted. "Iggy and Angel. Where are they?"

Nudge helped me stand up, and I leaned against her as blood rushed to my head. "Fang went to go find them. He said something about killing you, though. What was it, exactly? Oh yeah - he told me he was gonna kill you, bury you, dig you up, and then kill you again."

"Fang said all that?" I asked incredulously, grabbing onto the kitchen counter for support as the linoleum under my feet decided to try to get me to surf on it rather than stand. "Why am I so dizzy? What happened?"

Gazzy intervened. "Uh, well, you were about to sacrifice Fang to the big Eraser things, and then we threw stun bombs at them like you told us to, and... erm... I accidentally got you, too."

All's fair in love and war. "Is Fang okay?"

"Yeah, he got out of the blast radius in time, but like we said, he wants to kill you for attempting to sacrifice him to the bad guys, so..."

"And you guys did exactly what I said? You loaded the Erasers into the helicopter and sent it flying?" Thank God for auto-pilot. I didn't think a bunch of unconscious Erasers would be capable of flying helicopters.

Gazzy rolled up his sleeve to reveal a large bruise. "Their skulls are hard," he complained. "And they were super heavy."

"Well, I would've helped, but you knocked me out, Gaz," I said to him seriously. "Anyways, that's besides the point. The point is, we're all safe, and no one got hurt, so no harm done, really -"

I was cut off by the sound of the front door opening, and I raced to open it, counting birdkid heads. I counted one, two, three, and collapsed in relief. Although that might have just been the aftereffects of the stun bomb.

Fang stalked into the kitchen, pulled out a can of ravioli, and began eating, using the lid as a makeshift spoon. I looked at him. "Please don't hate me."

"You sacrificed me." he pointed out. "I get to hate you for a little while."

I grinned. "Touche."

Leaving him to enjoy his food, I turned to Iggy and Angel, the latter of whom was clutching a suspiciously familiar-looking teddy bear. "Where'd you guys end up going?" I asked them.

"Toy store," Iggy grunted. "We were flying around, thinking of where we could go that the Erasers wouldn't find us, and it was between that or a makeup place that smelled like complete... shizz. Anyways, Angel here somehow charmed the store lady to give her the bear for free."

I glanced at Angel. "Really?"

Angel turned pink. "Well... she was really nice! She probably would have given it to me anyway..."

"Yeah, Angel just 'convinced' her," Iggy said casually. "Whereas I actually had to use my brains to sneak this out of the store." He pulled out another toy from the inside pocket of his windbreaker, and Gazzy immediately gasped.

"No way! You got Beyblades?!" Gazzy ran over to the blind boy and snatched the package out of his hands.

"Hey!" I said, glaring at Iggy. "That's shoplifting!"

"Well, Angel did it first," Iggy argued, and I shrugged.

"I never said I cared, I just said that it was shoplifting. But don't do it again. Unless we need to." Turning to Angel again, I fingered the pink tutu of the bear. "Well, what are you going to name your totally-shoplifted toy?"

"I have the perfect name!" Iggy interjected from the corner where Gazzy was eagerly ripping into his new toy. "Fang told me everything, and I can honestly say that we didn't miss anything at all. In honor of possibly the most anti-climactic fight ever, I propose we name the bear Letdown."

"What?!" I said, outraged. "That's a horrible name! Angel, I propose we name the bear Fangalicious."

Fang choked slightly on his ravioli just as Angel brightened at my reasonable suggestion. "Okay, Max! Does this mean I can keep it?"

Damn those Bambi eyes. "Yeah, sure, whatever. As long as you don't pick up something else along the way -like a talking dog or something."

Angel smiled gratefully at me. "Thanks, Max!" She hugged Fangalicious tightly.

"Why didn't I get anything?" Nudge demanded of Iggy, who shrugged.

"Hey -we're getting off topic!" I said, clapping my hands. "Now, on to some more serious things. I think you're all smart enough to understand that we can't stay here any longer, because the Erasers are going to be very mad once they wake up in a helicopter halfway back to the School. The first place they're going to look for us is here, obviously. So it's good that you guys don't have that much of an emotional attachment to this place. Grab all the food, if Fang didn't eat it all yet, grab any weapons you might need, and grab any Mickey Mouse alarm clocks that may or may not have sentimental value. We don't have that much time. Any questions?"

Nudge, surprisingly, raised her hand instead of blurting her thoughts out loud, although I supposed it was just because she was mad at Iggy for not getting her anything illegally. "Yeah, um... does this mean we're going to be chased by Erasers for the rest of our lives?"

"Oh, that shouldn't be that much of a problem. We're going straight to the nearest gun vendor and getting ourselves each a piece. If we have those, we won't have to get that close to the Erasers, because it's obvious that they have the advantage when it comes to physical power. No matter how ripped you think you are from doing push ups every night," I added to Fang. "I can hear the grunting -the walls aren't that thin."

He didn't color; he just smirked. "You're welcome."

"Besides, I left a note on the dashboard of the helicopter that I think will shed a lot of light on the matter for Ari," I glanced at the Gasman. "You did stick the note to the dashboard, right?"

"Right after I farted on it," Gazzy proclaimed proudly.

"Right, then, that's settled. Any more questions?"

Fang had finished eating his food and had set the empty can on the counter. "So many." His dark eyes (see, I didn't say obsidian that time) locked on mine, and I found myself looking away to avoid blushing redder than a ripe tomato.

Nudge piped up again, diverting my attention. "Uh, how exactly did you know that Ari was seeking emotional revenge on us?"

I shrugged. "Oh, that? I have a Voice in my head that tells me what to do at all times."

Iggy snorted. "So you're schizo now?."

"No. I just happen to have a Voice in my head that tells me what's going to happen before it does," I explained. Of course, I had no idea if the Voice was going to show up in this timeline or not, but would be good to set up a precedent for when -or if -it did. "So that's why I knew that. Also... isn't it obvious? Ari felt neglected because his biological father left him-a nice, normal kid, to raise us. You'd have to be incredibly thick to miss that. I honestly feel bad for the guy." Of course, Jeb was also my biological father... something Ari was going to find out quite soon. Oh, that reminded me -I was going to have to work in a visit to Dr. M and Ella quite soon. Maybe we'd fly over them like last time.

I really needed some time to figure out what to do. A notebook and a pencil would be nice, too.

Fang shook his head. "I swear, it's like you're a completely different person or something."

"Or something," I said. "Now get your stuff and let's go."

"You're my favorite, buttercup!"

"Oh my gosh, Fangalicious makes noises!" Angel squealed. I groaned. Guess what I'd have to listen to constantly from now on.

"I love you, too!"