Max leapt into the air, spread her wings, and took flight.
Her heart pounded in her chest. Whoa, she thought panickingly. Did I just...? She pumped her wings wildly, willing herself to gain altitude and disappear into the night sky. She could almost feel Fang's stare burning into her back. This was all too much; way too much for her to handle. She took deep breaths, gulping in the cool night air, forcing herself to calm down. It's going to be okay, she thought slowly. It's alright, Max. It's alri-... Tears stung her cheeks; her shoulders burned. She pushed harder, harder. Almost there, she thought grimly, staring up into the starlight.
A distant, icy sheen of glittering noctilucent clouds sparkled high above. They seemed to be veiling the end of the earth; the border between the skies and the empty blackness of outer space. Max pounded her wings, urging herself to reach higher, higher. The chilly air bit at her breath, and her teeth ached from the cold wind.
With a grunt, she turned and wheeled through the air, looking down. The distant, shimmering lights of the farmer-groves lay scattered in clumps across the dark, featureless landscape. She could see a patchwork of farmer's fields stretching out immensely below; huge, sprawling expanses of dirt and mud.
Is this what the land looked like three hundred years ago? she thought, staring down in awe. The land was totally, completely flat. It was kind of awesome, in a way.
In the distance, the horizon gleamed dully with the lights of the city. A pair of red, blinking lights slowly coasted down towards the light. An aircraft. Coming in for a landing at the city. Max wheeled again and stared at the skies above.
The stars twinkled, icy little pinpricks of sharpened light, shining at her from the ageless abyss. They lay scattered across the night, seeding the sky with their everlasting glow. One of them seemed to be moving. A satellite, Max thought. Strange technological marvel of the new age.
She wondered if Itex had satellites. Probably. Heck, they could be tracking her right now, zooming in on her with crystal lenses and relaying the data to massive supercomputers deep within their secret facilities. How many others had escaped? How many strange, half-human hybrids roamed the earth and the skies? She didn't know. She doubted that Itex even knew.
There was too much chaos in the world, she thought; way too much. And with rumors of War on the horizon, she thought, the peaceful stillness of the farm country below might not last very long.
What was Itex planning? Why the heck did they create Avians and Erasers in the first place? ...Max had a feeling she would find out very soon...
Max gasped and scanned below.
A tiny black speck, steadily growing larger, was rapidly spiraling up from the distant gravel road below. Max crossed her arms and frowned, hovering.
The speck continued to climb towards her.
What the...? Something was not right.
Why would Dominic fly up from the gravel road? Max squinted at the rapidly-approaching figure. Was it Fang?
The figure continued to spiral up. She glimpsed the dim shape of its wings, rapidly pumping, flinging its body into the air with each wingbeat.
What the... hell...?
A second figure had risen from the ground, and it was also pumping its wings. It was rising from the ground by the Warehouse.
Dominic. So what... who...? Max gulped. The first figure was rapidly, steadily approaching her, with its awkward, unsteady, straining flight.
Dominic's massive wings were visible right when he left the ground. Max watched, amazed, as Dominic ripped through the air towards the jerkily-flying figure. He hit it in midair, far below. There was a brief tussle, then the first figure fell to the ground, spiraling away like a flattened, slapped mosquito. It looked like it was dead.
Whoa... that was fast, she thought, grinning a bit. She took a deep breath, then clapped her wings to her sides and dove down towards Dominic.
That's when she saw the others.
Erasers.
Squadrons of them.
And they were swarming the Warehouse.