At first, my vision was blurred. My head was thumping from the syringe, whatever it was. But it also hurt from Shade's constant talking. If he had talked anymore, I would have probably gone insane. Then again, I didn't even know if I was insane already!
It took time, but my eyes soon adjusted to the darkness around me, and I found myself being dragged down a dark hall by two silhouettes. From the look of my wings and the rest of my plumage that was in my view, I was in a rough condition. How that happened, I had no idea. My eyes may not have adjusted enough to see the faces of my captors, but I did see a dimly lit room ahead. The door was barred, with barred walls on either side. So there was not much to see inside.
"W..where am I?" I heard a weak voice ask. I looked around, searching for who had spoken. Soon, I discovered that the voice had come from me.
"Your new home" one of the guards answered. They pulled me forward to the room, and one of them opened the door before throwing me inside. I hit the ground hard, and flipped myself over to see my captors. In the flight, I saw both of their faces. One, I did not recognize, but the other was all too familiar. I had seen it every morning I had been with Kass and his team. The wood pecker, Blade.
"You like it? I thought you might. It must be comfortable for you, right?" I glared back, gritting my beak. "You know what? You don't deserve such power. If anyone should have had it, it should have been me. But instead, it goes to some weak, lonely son of a-"
"Blade!" The wood pecker froze, his beak hanging on the start of the last word before turning. "That is enough. Leave, now." Blade looked back at me with a steeled glaze. "I said leave. Now!" Kass ordered again, obviously becoming impatient. Blade turned away, then walked away with the other guard following him. Kass watched him closely until he was gone, then turned back to me with a blank expression.
"How could you side with our enemy? We've killed so many of them!" A low chuckle came from the kestrel.
"So powerful, yet naive." He began pacing back and forth along the wall of bars. "How can you not see it already? We never left the service of our leader. And those we killed were expendable. You were the mission all along." My eyes grew with shock and surprise. Everything that had happened was all to get me with them. To earn their trust. The whole time, they had been the ones they called the enemy.
"Why do you want me?" I asked, keeping my glare with his stare.
"Are you blind? It is not you we want. The power inside you belongs to us" he explained, the final word ending in a hiss. I understood then. He wanted Shade, the creature inside me. And the old me would have given it up without hesitation. But the new me would never give up such power to a band of villains like them. So I gave him my answer with one, stern word.
"No." Kass's stare hardened, but only for a second. He seemed to accept my decision.
"Very well. We have over means of getting what we want." He turned and left without another word, being replaced by the other guard that had been with Blade. I sat there in the middle of the cell in despair. Occasionally, I'd look to the outside of it, devising a plan. And soon, it hit me. Well, more like hit Shade.
"Let me do the talking. I can get us out of this." I was hesitant at first, but it didn't take too long to see his plan.
"Go ahead."
"Hey, you there! Guard!" The guard did not turn, but he did grumble something, so I knew he could hear Shade. "What's someone like you doin in a position like this?" Now that got the guard's attention. "I mean, you look more like the leader type. Strong and authoritative. Someone who should be leading guards, not being one himself." He glanced back. I spotted a small grin. Now I knew I was getting to him.
"Ya think so? I mean, I guess I got some muscles ere and dere" he replied, rolling his shoulders around a bit. Now Shade took this as his chance.
"Then again, I guess Blade is stronger. And very bold, which a leader should be."
"Now just a minute dere! I am quite bold myself!" Our eyes rolled in amusement.
"Oh, sure you are. And I'm a pig that can fly" Shade replied with a smirk. "If you're so bold and strong, then come and show me." The guard turned, his face filled with anger. Surprisingly, our plan had worked.
"With pleasure." He pulled out the keys to the door and unlocked the cell door. With one wing, he pulled it open and stepped inside. We gave him no chance and seized the upper hand, surging forward with unimaginable speed. With one swift movement, he went flying into the bars head-first. He slid to the ground with his head upright against the bars.
"Well, that was easy" Shade stated with a hiss. We pulled the door closed and locked it. Then, he pulled them from the door. "He won't be needing these no more" he spoke, spinning them around.
"Hey. Can I have my mouth back, please?"
"Oh. Right." In a second, my beak came back under my control. I took a much-needed breath, glancing back at the cell. The guard was still unconscious. With Shade's strength, he probably killed him.
"Let's go this way" I said aloud, pointing towards the stairs Kass had gone up at the end of the hall. "I want to show that traitor what I think of him right now." Shade snickered quietly, agreeing with me. I knew he obviously wanted revenge as well. Kass and the others had betrayed us.
"Let's give em what they deserve." I took off up the stairs, catching sight of two figures at the door opposite the long cement room at the top of the stairs. Point Blank and Blade.
"You two must be quite surprised. Especially you, Woody Woodpecker. You never really saw much in me." I continued on, turning my gaze onto the eagle beside him. "And you, well you must be speechless...oh wait, you always were!" I chuckled at my little joke, earning a glare of hate. There was a pause of silence, then Blade's wings turned to steel.
"Let's take of this hopeless kid." Point Blank nodded, then drew his two weapons, firing simultaneously. I let Shade take over as soon as it happened, and he rolled us out of the way.
"Finally, someone worth my time." We lurched forward, dodging from side to side as bullets flew past. Once the distance had been closed enough, we launched ourselves at the eagle. But Blade was there first, blocking our path with the flat side of his wing. We hit it hard, falling onto our back. Blade's wing came down towards us, and we rolled to the side, barely missing it and a bullet. We stood up, ducking as Blade's other wing slashed above my head. Now, we took our chance and darted past, wrapping my wings around the back of the eagle's head. And just in time, as Blade launched his steel wing towards me, not seeing Point Blank until it was too late. The wood pecker's blade went straight through his chest, but didn't go through the whole way. It was too late to save him, and the same went for Blade as we grabbed one of Point Blank's weapons, held it to Blade's head and fired. His death was like the flash of the gun. It was sudden.
"Guess you weren't my time after all." Shade tossed the weapon to it's owner's side, into the pool of blood. Then, I opened the door and continued to trudge on. This place must have been small, cause on the other side we found Alice. We thought about charging her, but I had something better in mind. And Shade shared the idea. We went into the shadow's, and went right behind her before going back into our solid form and wrapping a wing around her beak.
"You should never have betrayed us. But, we did like you. So here's the deal: We let you live, but if we ever see you again, you're dead. Got it?" We felt her nod. "Good. Oh, but we do have to get payback for the syringe. So..." With our other wing, we slammed it against her head, knocking her out cold. "Once again, easy."
We went on through the structure until we found a door I recognized. It was the large door that led to the large hall. And in front of it was Kass and his leader, talking. It seemed we had interrupted them,as they turned to face us.
"It seems we have an unwelcome visitor. Deal with him, Kass." Kass nodded. "Yes, Lord Galon." The kestrel turned to me, covering his leader as the leader left through the door, looking completely calm. We had our most hateful stare towards the avian.
"I knew this would come. You have come a long way, boy."
"Glad you knew your death would be coming so soon, traitor." Even though Kass's face remained calm, I knew he was ready to fight. His feathers on his wings began to glow a bright purple. Without warning, he swung them forward, sending them flying towards me. We went into our shadow form, the feathers going right through us and hitting a wall behind us, leaving singe marks. We darted forward, going back to our solid form and swinging a punch at him. He dodged, grabbing it and countering with an upper-cut that sent us flying back.
"You cannot defeat me so easily, for I never taught you everything."
"How can I believe anything you taught me" I countered, clenching the ends of my wings. "For all I know, everything you have told me was a lie." I launched myself at him again, hitting him in the face this time. But it didn't catch him off guard, because as it turned out I had missed, as he had ducked and flipped himself backwards, one of his talons hitting the underneath of my beak and sending me flying back once more.
"Face it. You have lost." We looked up, but he did not see despair. No, instead he saw hope with a smirk. And in his eyes, we saw horror for the first time in them.
Lord Galon sat on his throne, watching through the circular window. He heard the door open, and he turned his chair to see a bruised Kass.
"Is it done?" The kestrel nodded and approached. "Good. Very good. Now, we can harvest the power." Galon rotated the throne once more back to the window. However, what he did not know was that this was not Kass. Once he turned again after hearing something fall, he found Kass on the ground, lifeless. And standing before the lord was us, a shade of black covering us like the shadow we were. We grabbed him by the neck and hurled him towards the window. He bounced off, lying on his side. We held his wings and pulled back until there was a snap, then held him high by the neck.
"You should never have taken me. You should never have sent Kass and the others. You should never have tried to kill me." We drew my face closer to his until all he could see was our dark red eyes. "And now, we get our revenge." Before he could reply, we tossed him out the window. He smashed through the glass, screaming as he fell. And then, it stopped with a thud. Then, we changed back to my normal form. "No one fights us and gets away with it." I turned when I heard voices in the distance.
"Time to go."
"I was thinking the same thing, buddy. Let's get out of here." I dived for the window, and took flight into the night sky, blending in as Shade took control.