Four years before The Angel Experiment


It was only on the rare occasion that Robert Drake would stay at The School past 1 AM. Usually it was for the sake of filing some additional paperwork or putting time into a particularly tricky experiment. This morning though, a good chunk of the School's staff had turned up for what was expected to be quite a show. The auditorium in C building had in fact been set up with a screen and projector with a live feed to capture the action.

The reason for all of the excitement was due to the fact that Jeb was going to stage an 'escape' with the five bird kids. All kinds of interesting things had been set up by Jeb and the rest of the psychology department to make sure that the escape seemed convincing. The Director had allowed the psychologists a rather impressive right of way with regards to what they wanted to do (she had drawn the line at the fuel dump though, much to the disappointment of the adrenalin junkies in the staff) and there was talk of everything from explosions and chases to car stunts.

Out of a natural curiosity, Robert met up with Jeb prior to the 'great escape,' to ask him a few final questions and give a few parting comments. This was, after all, the last time they would be seeing each other for at least two years.

When Robert found him, Jeb was loading several duffels full of supplies into the back of an olive-green unmarked van. "Looks convincing enough," Robert commented on approach, "Do you really need that much stuff?"

"Most of the supplies are already at the house," Jeb replied, loading one last duffel bag into the van, "I could have kept everything here, but this is designed to give the van a cramped feeling to it. Remember, we don't want this to feel comfortable for them."

"Very true. You'll really be able to handle five kids on your own for two years?"

"I'll be teaching them how to fend for themselves, remember? The longer I spend working with them, the less work I will have to do in the future."

"What about Ari?"

"Ari? He'll be staying here, at The School, until I get back. I'll of course be sending him letters and such. Two years is a stretch, but Ari's a tough kid, he'll manage. You'll look out for him, right?"

"Absolutely, and you'll look out for Max?"

"She is my daughter you know."

Robert considered debating that point again, but decided against it. Besides, he still had Angel, which reminded him.

"Hey, Jeb, no hard feelings about that thing in the Director's office a few weeks ago."

Jeb gave him an odd stare, "But of course. No hard feelings. None whatsoever."


Half an hour later, Robert was accompanying Dr. Harris back to the auditorium in C-building.

"It's going to make for one impressive show," Harris commented, "We have cameras everywhere, an Eraser team we've trained to chase them, and then when they get to the house we have monitoring equipment everywhere. We've never done a field experiment this big, so naturally we're all very excited…"

Robert didn't hear a word of it. If the scientists thought that the flock was something worth seeing, he couldn't wait to see what they thought of Angel given a few years. Her versus those Engels junk-projects would be a joke, versus Max though…he wasn't quite sure what to think about that.

Deciding to speak his mind, Robert pointed out, "I don't see what the big fuss is, Angel could take down Batchelder's flock easily."

Harris gave him a confused look, "What? Why?'

"Well, it's all theoretical I guess, I don't see a case that would make them need to fight—"

"I thought Subject Eleven is going with Dr. Batchelder?"

Robert stopped dead in his tracks. "What did you say?"

"He was down in her holding area earlier today and I heard him tell the Eraser stationed there that he was supposed to—"

He never heard what the guard was supposed to do. Robert turned and bolted back the way he came, but already he could see that he was too late. The show had begun. Already the alarms were going off inside A-building, and on the other side of the facility an enormous fireball exploded over the empty helicopter pad. He could see the olive-green van, headlights burning through the dark, already gunning down the complex's main road, a small group of Erasers keeping pace just behind.

Out of the corner of his eye, Robert caught another Eraser, leaning against a building, watching the whole performace. "You there," Robert shouted, "Stop them!"

"I've orders not to interrupt the staged escape," The Eraser muttered.

"I'm overriding those orders," Robert stated firmly, "That man stole an experiment that he was not supposed to take, a young girl with blonde hair and wings! Get her! You'll be executed if she escapes!"

The Eraser jumped to attention at that one and immediately darted after the van.

Wasting no time, Robert immediately darted back into C-building, where he could see the chase over the projector screen.

His threat had apparently been an effective motivator, the Eraser had outdistanced the back and was closing in on the van.

Robert felt a sting as he dug his fingers into his palms in suspense. Would the Eraser make it?

It did! The hybrid, in an impressive leap, flung itself through the air and caught onto the back end of the van. The audience in the auditorium gave an excited gasp. Over the projector, he could see that Jeb was swerving in hopes of shaking the Eraser off.

Then, to everyone's surprise, one of the back doors of the van opened and Max, his Max, dived out of the door, grabbing onto the Eraser's head, which snapped it's jaws at her, trying to catch the girl off-guard.

It didn't work, Max jabbed her thumb into the Eraser's right eye and the two went tumbling off of the van. They'll get her! Robert thought to himself excitedly, It's not Angel, but it's a fair trade-off against that sneaky—

But he had thought so too soon. Max quickly picked herself back up, extended her wings and lept into the air, just as the main group of Erasers was almost upon her, instead sending the whole pack tripping over their fallen comrade.

Robert watched as Max sailed back and made a successful landing on the roof of the van. The last thing he saw of her before she left camera range was her face; the definition of triumph and defiance.


"You can't just sit there, you have to do something!" Robert shouted at Anne Walker later that day, "He broke our agreement, and now he's out there with not one, but two extremely volatile combat assets which he is now training to be used against us."

"I can't do anything," Anne reasserted in an unhappy tone, "My hands are tied."

"Send Erasers after them! I sent just one, and look how effective it was!"

"You expect me to send Erasers right to their house, and then for the birdkids to remain in place, despite the knowledge that the house is compromised?"

"Don't you have contacts in the FBI? Send one of them?"

"And reveal to the United States Government that we're running criminal genetic engineering experiments within their own borders? Absolutely not."

"That can't be all."

"I'm afraid it is."

Robert bit his tongue and, with nothing else to say, whirled in place and marched out of the office, his blood boiling. If only there was a way he could get back at Jeb. There had to be a way; something he could twist, maim, destroy so that by the time Jeb got back, he'd wish that he'd left Angel alone.

"Where's my daddy?"

Robert stopped at the sound of the voice. It was a young voice, couldn't have been older than three.

He turned again. Standing in the middle of the hall, alone, with big wide eyes was Ari Batchelder. He'd only met the kid a few times before, but the fact that Ari knew of a connection between himself and Jeb could be useful. Here was his chance.

Crouching, Robert got down on the kid's level, "Your daddy went away."

"Away?"

"Yeah, far away," Robert went on, using his best talk-to-kids voice, "Far, far away from you."

He could see that the kid understood him. Maybe he wasn't as smart as Angel, but he was smart enough to get what was being told to him. "I don't want daddy to go away."

"Well, he went because he likes Max better."

Though not a psychologist, Robert could see that he was getting to the kid. The look on the poor boy's face was one of an ultimate feeling of betrayal. "No!" he shouted, tears coming to his eyes, "No! No! No! No!"

"That's why I'm here," Robert went on, "I'm here to help you make your daddy like you again."

Through the tears, Ari gave Robert a nervous and inquiring look, "And he will like you again, because together, we're going to make you better than Max."


For those of you wondering, this series will continue at least through the end of Saving the World and Other Extreme Sports, however new chapters may be a bit slow in coming out.