Nudge spoke worriedly, "We should probably bring her down." Fang nodded and I was the only one that heard him mutter "Max, why did you do this?" as we flew back towards the cliff. I frowned. Fang was definitely right with his assumption that Max had done this, but why?
When we had all landed, Fang pulled me inside the cave. I heard him set Jake down and turn to me. "Iggy, I don't know what reasons Max had for doing this, but it could very well have been Jake's fault for getting creamed. We both know it takes a lot to provoke Max." I nodded, and Fang continued. "Take care of the flock for me. I'm gonna go and see if I can find Max, and unless we're gone for more than a day, don't freak and come looking for us. And for your own sake, don't cross Jake." I heard Fang move and my hand shot out to grab his shirt. "Fang, about Jake… I don't think I can stay away from her. I think… I might be in love with her." An hour must have passed by before Fang actually responded. I heard him take a breath. "My mouth is open in shock, Ig." I heard Fang say goodbye to Angel, Nudge and Gazzy, and then his shoes skid on gravel as he took off. I sighed. "Thanks for the advice, Fnick," I muttered to myself. Then I sat down next to Gazzy. "Hey Gasser, do we have any bombs left, or do I need to make some more? I need something to do."
Chi
I don't know how long I sat on my cage, drifting in and out of sleep. Blurred memories of when Jake and the flock were still here coursed through my mind. Of course, there were a few that stood out the most. One of the more prominent ones was of all of us sitting in Jeb's office, reading magazines. It was a year before Jeb stole Max and the others away and we were all about 7-9, (Angel was one and Gazzy was two at this time), and it was one of the rare times Jeb was allowed to keep us out of our cages. I remembered that each of us had favored a different place. Max had fallen in love with a beautiful beach resort in Florida, Fang had eyed a foggy city in Seattle, Jake was amazed at all the life in the desert city of Las Vegas, I treasured an article on Times Square in New York, Nudge obsessed over the Bahamas, and because Iggy could still see, he couldn't tear himself away from the pages listing the coolest amusement parks in the world. Of course, Max asked Jeb something that all of us would never forget.
She had set her magazine down on the table, turned to Jeb with an earnest face, and said, "Jeb, will we ever get to see these places?" All of us had froze and fixed our gazes on Jeb. Shock had crossed his face for an instant, and then he smiled, that kind, understanding, fatherly smile that he was so good at. "We'll see," he'd said. "We'll see." Another memory was more recent, a few months old. It had thoroughly confused me, and I still couldn't quite get it. Jake and I had just had an insane amount of blood taken, and Jeb was trying to talk us out of our dizziness. I couldn't pinpoint how I was feeling then, because I had just lost about a pound of blood and I was literally seeing stars. I had recovered a little after a minute, and suddenly, emotions had surged through me. I had thrown myself against the bars of my crate, and screamed," Jeb! Why did you take Max and the others away from us? I miss them!" I recalled it had taken all I had in me not to burst into tears, and Jake squeezed my hand through the bars of our cages. Once again, Jeb had just smiled. But what he'd said would stick with me forever. "It's simple, sweetheart. Max's destiny is to save the world." Jeb, or course, didn't mention why we weren't included in assisting Max in her destiny. Upon relaying this to Jake, she had said, "You're right, Chi. If they're off saving the world, we should be too, right next to them. We're all a team…a flock." I knew that Jake was trying to be encouraging, but I saw right through to her half-heartedness. But her words had stuck with me, too.
I removed myself from my memories and sighed, shocked to find my throat thick with impending tears. I swallowed down the lump of clay feeling as best I could, took a deep breath, and then tried to fall asleep. I was about to drift into unconsciousness when the smallest sound jolted me awake. Creak. I straightened up, (which was difficult to do when you're stuck in a freaking cage, but I managed) and looked around at the other mutants. All of them seemed to be asleep, or at least in some form of it, and I was praying the stiller, quieter ones were merely asleep and not, well, dead. I shook the thought away and then remembered. I had a totally pimped-out eye! I moved my curtain of long black hair away from my face and focused my right eye. I nearly screamed. A tall, thin, human boy had crawled through the window at the end of the hallway.
I was dumbfounded that he had snuck in without triggering an alarm or being eaten by Erasers. Soundlessly, he slid the window shut, ran a hand through his hair, and looked around. My eye, unfortunately, couldn't see through the dark, so I couldn't see exactly what he looked like, but I could tell that he was heading towards the door that led to the large room the other mutants and I were being kept in. Was he here to rescue us? My heart soared upward, only to crash down again with the realization that this door was locked with not a key, but an electronic code. You had to be a whitecoat to get in here. Of course, the boy silently strode towards the door and tried anyways. I sighed and leaned against the back of my cage, hoping the boy would realize he couldn't get in and get the heck out of this dump. Of course, that was why I very nearly keeled over when the lock clicked with a little beep and the door swung open. As if fate had foretold it, the boy moved towards my cage door. My mouth fell open when I saw what his face looked like. Slightly Asian looking, with long, straight, dirty-blonde hair and ice-blue eyes, he was easily the most attractive person I had ever seen. He had a finger pressed to his lips. When he spoke, his voice was like nothing I had ever heard: soft, and polite and soothing. "Ok, I'm here to get you out of this place, little mutant, but you have to be very quiet-" Of course, this was too good to actually happen, and the reality check was given by a boy mutant that had had his vocal muscles removed and replaced by that of a birds. Apparently, too paranoid to trust anyone, the poor thing started squawking like a maniac, and it was so painful sounding, I knew the noise was going to give me nightmares. As if he was expecting this, the boy with blue eyes burst open my cage door with a peculiar device and pulled me out of the cage. I was too shocked, horrified, and amazed to speak. With me literally tucked under his arm, the boy kicked open the door he had opened earlier and ran down the hall he had entered from. By now, Chicken-Boy had set off all the alarms, and only I could hear the furious footsteps of whitecoats and the bloodthirsty growls of the Erasers drawing closer. I didn't quite realize exactly what was happening until two Erasers exploded out of a door at the end of the hall. They lunged for us, claws outstretched, just as the boy threw open the window.
One of the Erasers' claws raked into my thigh, and it took all of my self-control not to scream like a baby. The Erasers pulled at my legs, trying to tear me away from the boy, but he was unusually strong, and when an Eraser kicked him in the stomach, he used the momentum to hurl me halfway through the window. "You can fly, right?" He shouted trying to hold off both Erasers at once, his voice thick with blood. I clutched the windowsill, not caring how he knew that, just determined to get both of us out of here alive. I slid myself back into the hallway so that my torso wasn't dangling out the window. I was about to nod and swing a kick at the Eraser holding him back when the one clutching my leg removed his other claw from the boys arm and sunk in way deep into my left forearm. This time, I really did scream. But the pain was quickly replaced my burning fury that I had never felt before. This time, I followed through with my kick, hitting the jaw of the Eraser holding me, pleased when he let go and fell to the ground. I aimed a punch for the Eraser that had both claws around the boy's neck, but the boy wrenched a hand free and blocked it.
"Get…outta…here," he said, struggling to speak. "No!" I spat angrily, and surprised myself by shouting, "Not without you!" But the boy had already chosen me over him. He broke free of the Eraser's grasp, and this time, he pushed me all the way out the window. I free fell for a minute before I took stock of the situation and snapped my wings open. I worked them smoothly up and down until I was heading up and away at a good speed. It felt so good that I didn't realize I had left the boy behind. Fear gripped my heart and I spun around, the sudden motion hurting my wings, but I didn't care. But I was too late. The last thing I saw were Eraser claws forcefully bringing the boy to the ground. He didn't get back up. The Eraser stuck its head out the window and smiled demonically at me, its razor teeth that were much too big for its mouth gleaming yellow in the moonlight. I screamed in horror and propelled myself into the clouds. But even though I had escaped the School, I couldn't escape the terrifying truth… A human boy died in the process of saving me.
Jake
To say that I hurt all over would be an extreme understatement. Even saying that I felt like a train had just run right over me wouldn't be accurate enough. I was also shocked that I had been beaten, because I never, ever lost a fight. Sure, I had probably banged Max up a little, but she had won. I cursed under my breath and cracked open an eye. We were still in that little cliff-side cave, and I could hear the little kids wheeling around with some hawks outside. Hoping I was alone, I painstakingly eased myself to a sitting position. Super bad idea. My spine exploded into so much pain I hollered like a maniac and dropped limply back to the cave floor. Now, let me tell you something. It takes just as much or more to surprise Max as it takes to make me cry. And then, if you're lucky, maybe you'll get a single tear, but to make me bawl like I was now, you'd need the apocalypse, (See the irony there? 'Cause you know, we're all trying to save the world?). But now, I was completely defacing that Jake-doesn't-show-emotion stereotype and crying my ever-loving eyes out.
And I nearly jumped out of my skin when I felt a hand on my shoulder. I knew who it was immediately. "What, Iggy?" I muttered, my voice embarrassingly thick with tears. "Jake, stop crying," he said soothingly, his hand gently fingering a lock of my hair. "Look at me," he finished. I begrudgingly removed my hands from my face and looked into his eyes. "What…" I said, my voice shrinking to a pained whisper. Iggy leaned over me and moved the hand that wasn't clutching my hair up my neck to rest on my cheek. It felt unusually good. "Don't cry, Jake," he whispered, in a sweet, sad, voice I had never heard before. Then he leaned in even further, and just like that, I was kissing him. And as sappy and non-me as it sounds, all my pain and worries suddenly went away.
Max
If you know me well, then you'll know that guilt was not one of my common feelings. I can steal clothes, hotwire cars, break necks, and not even blink. But here I was, sitting on a tree branch, and so totally regretting kicking Jake's butt. I settled myself farther into the crook of the tree branch, enjoying how thick, dark, and concealing this forest was. I closed my eyes and tried to relax, unsuccessfully. My ears had detected swift, practically silent wing-beats overhead. I peered upwards, and my raptor vision quickly revealed Fang's dim silhouette hovering above the treetops. I somewhat regrettably crawled out of my perch and hurled myself upwards, making powerful down-strokes with my wings to get me aloft. I flew up to Fang and gave a weak smile. "Hey." Fang just looked at me, with his classic reveal-nothing expression. It drove me insane, but it was better then a look of anger or disappointment. "Why did you hurt Jake? She's pretty bent up." Fang said blatantly. I sighed, closed my eyes, and soared upwards. But he caught up to me in a matter of seconds, and continued. "You almost broke her spine, you know. You could have killed her." Guilt twisted painfully in my stomach. I had almost killed her?! My face contorted into a pained expression. And then, completely out of the blue, Fang flew up, wrapped his arms around me, and kissed my neck. "I'm not mad at you, Max. I know you had your reasons." Mmmmm. Could you ask for a better guy? Jake was right, I so didn't deserve him. Jake… My thoughts kept curving back her. Why had she been so fired up about Fang? And then it hit me, as if someone had just dumped a bowl of ice water on my head. Jake was in love with Fang.
Chi
I flew farther and farther and farther away, keeping just below the clouds. My whole mouth was incredibly sore from holding back tears of pain and horror. My arm and leg hurt like hell, and they were both dripping copious amounts of blood all over me, and that poor, kind boy was dead. Dead! And it was all my stupid fault that I hadn't grabbed him and dragged him out the window with me. I whimpered and angled my wings downwards, because even though I'd like to, I couldn't fly all night. Far off mountains quickly loomed in my advanced vision and I soared towards them. I saw a tiny plateau jutting out from a cliff, and, noticing a small cave there, I flew closer. After landing clumsily, I crawled miserably into the cave and held my face in my dirty, bloodstained hands. Dirt coated my throat and I was so thirsty I was close to licking the blood of my excruciating arm injury, but I knew I could never really bring myself to do that. It hurt more and more every minute to keep myself from crying my eyes out, but I knew that crying would make me even more dehydrated, so I held it in. I fitfully willed myself into a state of sleepiness, even though I felt like I had been electrocuted on the inside. The hard, rocky, cave floor felt like I was laying on pieces of glass. But comfort didn't matter. Because from lack of water, loss of blood, and all this trauma, I'd hopefully be dead by morning.
Ryu
I woke up strapped to an operation table. I wasn't all that surprised actually, considering I had intruded on a secret hideout of insane scientists, and succeeded in rescuing one of their most successful "experiments". But at least I had succeeded, and that black-haired girl was safe. A bit of relief washed through me remembering this, but it was painfully obvious it wouldn't last. Especially since I was probably about to become an experiment. And I highly doubted I would be able to rescue myself. I craned my neck forward and tried to hazard a guess to my surroundings. I could see all sorts of cruel-looking needles, IVs, scalpels, vials and vials of this weird greenish liquid, and for some reason, there were even light-absorbing panels. Two scientists came over to the side of my table, and I furiously gritted my teeth as they created an IV drip with the green liquid. As a clean needle was fastened to the end, I screamed in anguish. It was, no doubt, going straight into MY arm. "Hey, you psychos! What the hell is with you? Do you enjoy screwing with innocent kids' bodies?" The scientist ignored me, adjusted his rubber gloves, tightened the mask he was wearing, and motioned for a few other scientists to come over.
To add to my fury, one of them came over and gagged me while the others began swabbing my arms with alcohol. And not just one spot, but my entire arm! What where they doing to me?! I peered viciously through my overly long bangs that had fallen in my face, and seethed. There where now about ten different IVs, all filled with that green liquid, and a few where already flowing into my veins, courtesy of the assistant whack-jobs. Since I couldn't talk with the gag in my mouth, my cries of rage just came out as pitiful growling sounds. The scientists didn't even look up as they finished fastening the tenth and final IV into my arm. Then, the one that had gagged me pressed a button, and the ceiling opened up. The light of the crescent moon flooded into the dim room and instantly beamed onto the absorbing panels, which I noticed where connected to all the IVs, making them glow weirdly. Horror suddenly surged through me. Lunar power? So many IVs? What were they turning me into?!
